For better or worse

For better or worse I believe that there is more to our existence than just survival. I believe that the essence of life is more than obligations and a time-clocked existence. This belief fuels my unwillingness to accept the status quo. I desire more for my life than servitude to a heartless state. A state that has broken its promise long before my rebellion. My rebellion is emboldened by its continued hypocrisy. So, I choose to stand in opposition to conformity. Conformity that only normalizes oppression and sanctions the belief that this is all there can be. No, there can be more and we deserve more. So let us fight for a new world or struggled to continuously to change this one. Let's Get Free!

The Post-Racial Myth

It is alluring at times to embrace the idea of post-racial. We desperately desire to allow for its tenets to provide simplicity where complexity was once commonplace. The myth of a post-racial society allows for a do over. It allows for us to divorce ourselves from a troubled history and ignore its implications on present day politics. Sadly, when we embrace the myth of post-racial we allow for the legacy of white supremacy to continually plague our democratic institutions. So, in the midst of these changing times we must resist the embrace of post-racial. We must remain vigilant in our witness to the reality that the persistence of the color line still seeks to paint portraits of certain populations in America in harsh tones. Our blindness to color is nothing to be applauded because it simply allows for the normalcy of whiteness to remain unchallenged.

Black Targets

Black Bodies remain targets. America still cannot understand that which it has been socialized to fear. So, it is this harsh reality that sets the backdrop for the systemic brutalization of precious black bodies. So, as countless precious souls leave this earth in the midst of questionable gun smoke we are forced to rationalize hoping it was a mistake. However, our mistake is believing that post-racial rhetoric can overshadow a history where to embody blackness was an unforgivable crime. And that the remnants of this legacy can be cleaned with the sterilizing bleach of good intentions.The truth of our condition must be made bare if we our to ever be free. So, as these crimes against humanity continue I ask brothers and sisters to emerge from the doldrums of complacency and take their rightful place at the table of revolution. The time is now! The only thing we have to lose is our chains! Let's Get Free!

Lebron or Kobe

It is crazy how eager we are to engage in debates about Kobe and Lebron but are strangely silent on issues of real importance. As college students are smothered under the weight of oppressive student debt silence lingers. As the American government seems content on moving to war with Iran our collective attention is turned towards the trivial. This is not to say that I do not engage in conversations of triviality. I will argue about whose better Lebron or Kobe, Kobe but I am partial to Lebron for hours on end. No, the issue is how this becomes the only thing we seem legitimately passionate about. Not systemic oppression or the vicious truth that the American dream is becoming less achievable by the day or that millions are suffering at the hands of our foreign policies that are fashioned by war profiteers who are intent on global domination. It is these realities that should compel us to converse for hours on end. It is these issues that should occupy our Facebook walls. Sadly, it is only when we are willing to engage in debates, about strategies in regards to dealing with oppression and injustice, with the fervor that we argue about our favorite players that change will be possible. Let's Get Free!

Resistance!

It is time! The time for resistance is at hand? We can no longer allow for fear to cripple our conscious and for the threat of estrangement from the norm to silence our voices. The social contract that each American has signed has been ignored by elites who seek to ignore and desecrate the responsibility that society owes the individual. Affordable Housing, Decent Schooling and Health care are not simply the privileges of the rich but are necessities that all Americans should enjoy. So it is time to resist the heartless direction the country is heading in. We must fight to alter the course of a country that has seemingly lost its way. Somewhere along the line we forgot the strength of a nation is exemplified in the prosperity of its people. America has degenerated into a place that is prosperous for a few and miserable for many. The time for resistance and the challenging of these brutal truths is at hand. Let us forge a new path rooted in love and a desire to see all prosper.

Class Warfare

We must resist the illusion that class warfare is being perpetrated by a government that is fighting on behalf of the poor. The government is a tool of elites that is killing the middle class and creating a perpetual underclass while the riches of the wealthiest remain untouched. Those who rest on the ground floor of America where dreams of hard work and eventual success quiet the rumblings that something is not right about our society must wake up. The system is not rooted in fairness, and for most humble beginnings will re-emerge in humble endings if society is not forced to live up to its historical promises. So the poor must recognize that warfare is being waged and they are the victims of policies rooted in a desire to refashion America into a state where the haves continue to enjoy prosperity while the poor suffer with only the illusion of future wealth to distill their frustration. We must wake up!

Give Peace a Chance!

Those who believe that the idea of peace is nothing more than an unrealistic notion embraced by liberals and hippies ignore its ability to heal and transform the world. Our world is being torn apart by a corrupt ideology rooted in the belief that violence solves problems. That enemies and opponents of our perspectives can be destroyed through literal violence or violent rhetoric. The time is now for advocates of peace to challenge the culture of war that threatens to continue to sow the seeds of violence into the fertile soil of democracy. We must peacefully resist attempts by the powerful to use violence to subdue the world for its imperialistic purposes. Peace must be the weapon for those who believe that change is not only essential but necessary if our world is to be rescued from the violent path that we are currently on.

Man Up!

It is time for men to recognize collectively they ways in which they have dropped the ball. The seemingly unwillingness of men to understand manhood in any empowering way has created a environment where men advocate for the privilege of manhood without proper sacrifices. This truth has give way to an environment and culture that affirms men’s narcissisms and allows men to actually act like boys. We must begin to redefine manhood apart from selfishness and domination. Manhood must begin to be connected with responsibility, integrity and pride in order to rebuild communities that are searching for men but yet are stuck with boys pretending to be ready for the mantle of manhood that covet but cannot fulfill. Our communities will continue to be missing a vital component essential to its health until men begin to learn what it really means to be a man.

New Alternatives

The American political system is broken. The two party system no longer incorporates progressive ideals into the political discourse. The country is moving further to the right and those who long for an egalitarian society are left with a democratic party that is weak an unwilling or unable to clearly articulate a vision that appeals to the disenfranchised. What this means is that for those who feel that their voice is neglected by the two party system they must begin to advocate for a new party. Politics as usual will continually leave those who classify themselves as disenfranchised frustrated and forced to compromise with a political establishment that views their concerns as not necessary to their political success. The time is now to begin the process of creating a legitimate political alternative to the foolishness of the Republican and Democratic Party.