AN OPEN LETTER TO TYRA BANKS: A "MAMMY" MINDSET IS NOT AN ATTRACTIVE LOOK, EVEN FOR A SUPERMODEL

Tyra, My Sister, it pains me to say this because I do admire your successful reinvention from model to businesswoman. I do respect your efforts in developing a summer camp for young women. And I’ve no doubt that your “heart” is in the “right” place advancing causes close to it.

But I must say, Ms. Tyra, that after watching many a show where you claim to shed light on one of the most relevant, tragic, culturally entrenched and on-going transgressions of the country –- racism-white supremacy –- I have come to believe that you need to –- and I say this respectfully -– catwalk yourself across amerikkka in search of education and true historical perspective on this issue.

In gushing –- oops, I mean “interviewing” –- presidential candidate John Edwards, you posed one of the most ridiculous and inaccurate questions I’ve heard a white candidate asked: “What is it like to be THE MINORITY in the presidential campaign? I mean, with a Black and a woman, you are the minority. What’s that like?”

Tyra, Tyra, Tyra. . .

I hate to say this, but with that one statement, you just added “fuel to the fire” for all those for whom the term “supermodel” is synonymous with “superstupid.”

With that one statement, you just “outed” yourself as being so totally ignorant of --or maybe it would be more truthful to say that you are more than willing to defiantly ignore, for the sake of the comfort level of your white audience:

• HISTORY AND INSTITUTIONAL WHITE PRIVILEGE. Tyra, how could one EVER –- especially knowing the history of this country –- equate a white male (or even a white female) in this presidential race as having “minority” status?

Leaving aside the numbers for a moment, just in terms of the white skin privilege supported by history, cultural norms, and institutional power, how could you EVER make that statement?

Did you mean that:

• JUST BECAUSE FOR ONCE IN THE HISTORY OF THIS COUNTRY there is a white woman and an Afrikan Descendant man who are polling equally strong or stronger numbers;

• JUST BECAUSE FOR ONCE IN THE HISTORY OF THIS COUNTRY someone other than a white man might have a statistically relevant shot at the Oval Office;

• JUST BECAUSE FOR ONCE IN 400 YEARS a white man in ONE political party might actually have to WORK at “earning” the votes of Afrikan Descendant people with more than just empty, watered down promises. . .

. . . that this white man is actually DISADVANTAGED because he cannot automatically rely AS MUCH on HIS unearned white -- and white male -- privilege?

Tyra, say it ain’t so!!

With that one statement, you -– yes, YOU, Tyra! -- “outed” yourself as being so totally willing to ignore historical truth and basic logic to protect your white viewers from the fact that:

• MATHMATICALLY, THERE IS NO WAY THAT: ONE white man is a “minority” in a race where there are TWO ADDITIONAL white men participating in the same party, in addition to ONE Afrikan Descendant man and ONE white woman.

Tyra, even with the “new” math, in a race of THREE men competing for the top spot on the Democratic ticket –- TWO of them WHITE men -- AND FOUR of those FIVE Democratic candidates being WHITE (the three white men and Hilary, a white woman) –- it looks like the white candidates and the white men who are candidates are clearly in the majority.

So tell me once again, Tyra, by what logic have you anointed John Edwards the “minority” candidate?

A “Mammy” mindset is not an attractive look, Tyra, even on a (former) supermodel.

And I don’t mean to dis –- even though by your comment, you dissed Afrikan Descendants and all those generations who lived (and continue to live) in a white supremacist system -- but Tyra, I truly believe you know better than that.

And not that you asked, but here is one piece of unsolicited advice that I hope will help in keeping you from making such unfortunate and inaccurate statements in the future: in your "down" time, please spend more of it immersing yourself in learning about the true history of this country, because you have proven that, in the many ways in which it counts the most, your education and understanding are truly -- and sadly -- lacking.

And ignorance is not an attractive look even when you dress it up in high fashion.

Moving Forward!

Adar

BLACK WEALTH LOST IN BLOOD. . .

I saw a young Black man the other day. All dressed in white, handsome face under a white Kufi, surrounded by smooth white fabric on all sides.

In a casket.

I sat and watched his face for what seemed like a long time, waiting for him to wake up, trying not to hear the stifled sobs around me.

I saw his peers, young people with faces bright with promise and shadowed by grief.

I saw Elders there, too, with faces of resignation and I could almost hear them thinking “Oh My God, yet another one, why did we lose another one, what did he ever do? How is it that our wealth – our future – is being stolen, lost in the bloodbaths that are daily occurrences in Baltimore? How did it come to this?”

I stared at him, knowing that there was a young woman somewhere who is now a widow, even before she had the opportunity to meet the young man who would have grown into her husband, father to her children. Generations were killed by that gunman’s bullet. Generations – children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren – passed into never being when that young man took his last breath.

Killed standing at the bus stop, just trying to get home.

And it would seem shocking if the storyline were not so familiar.

And I can see the headlines once – IF – the killer is caught, the rush to excuse actions by invoking the tired tales of a childhood gone wrong. I can hear the spin on Black talk radio about giving the killer another chance because, after all, what good would it do to put away another young Black man, would it bring the victim back? Because “. . .two wrongs won’t make a right”, especially in a criminal INjustice system that is so weighted AGAINST Afrikan descendants.

We so guard our communities from the whiff of white supremacy that sometimes we even knowingly and willingly hide killers in our own midst.

Guess we feel that it’s alright if the only people they are killing are their own: us Black folk.

And we pay for that mindset by offering up our young Black people as sacrificial lambs to the Black killing machines among us, down-payments on the price owed for keeping them out of “the system.” Handing over our wealth – our Elders, our children, our futures, our communities – to those who do not value them and willfully and gleefully destroy their own: US.

Why do we give them that allegiance while they take the best from among us? And why do we save our outrage for white people, then, who are “only” doing the same thing?

As I kept waiting for that young man to open his eyes, to give us back the promise of his future, the following refrain kept playing again and again over the speakers: "Lord, make me more than I am. Make me over again.”

If only the killer had another chance to make another choice. If only that innocent young man had not been robbed of his chance to live.

If only we as a community had the guts to stop shielding killers who rob us of our joy, our promise, our youth-wealth, just because they are Black. In shielding them we have made a bargain with the Devil which robs of us our Futures as A People.

Lord, truly make us more than we are.

And help us to stop colluding in our own genocide and to make the investment in keeping our young Wealth alive and safe.

Moving Forward!

Adar

MAKE EVOLUTIONS, NOT RESOLUTIONS. . .

Okay, we are now 13 days into the New Year, and by now, Resolutions are probably being broken or have an additional shelf-life of about a half a month --and maybe a couple weeks longer for the over-achievers among us (smile).

So I am asking you. . .are there areas of your life -- areas in YOU -- that you want to change and grow this year? Well, My Friends and Family, consider the concepts of committing to EVOLUTIONS instead of RESOLUTIONS.

A friend of mine, Khepra the Evolutionary, wrote the following and it makes perfect sense to me.

Read it and let me know what you think. . .


Consider New Year's EVOLUTIONS and not New Year's Resolutions


Greetings All!!!

A question a friend of mine asked me about my "resolutions" for the upcoming "New Year" inspired me to write and share this.


Consider committing to what New Year's Evolutions will assist you in getting closer to the person you need to be and/or destined to be in 2008 B.C.E. and beyond. Don't try to use "resolutions" to resolve the challenges/problems that you may have had in 2007 or years prior by making New Year's Resolutions.

Commit to creating personal evolutions that will have permanency for as long as you live on this planet.

Stop considering yourself a problem child that has issues that need to be resolved before you can begin being the best person you can be today.

Commit to being the person that embodies and demonstrates the activities needed for you to be who you need to be and/or are meant to be.

Instead of making a New Year's Resolution to lose weight (been there, done that) commit to a New Year's Evolution of evolving to being that person that embodies and demonstrates the activity of getting physical exercise as often as possible. Or commit to evolving to being the person that embodies and demonstrates the activity of eating healthier.

That way your Evolution to who you are becoming can begin with immediacy and have sustained permanence.

For example, you can go to the mall and park way in the back away from the entrance of the store(s)/mall. Or when taking public transportation, get off one stop further than the nearest stop to your house or wherever you are going.
Or exit at the furthest exit on the subway. Or even taking the dreaded stairs instead of the escalator(smile).

Whatever you choose, you can immediately begin your New Year's Evolution right where you are with just a slight alteration to what you are already doing instead of promises to yourself and grand plans written out to figure out how and when to begin (been there too).

Don't just talk about it.!!!!

Don't just write about it!!!!

Be about it!!!

When embodying and demonstrating these activities, you are immediately producing tangible evidence of your New Year's Evolution that you can actually chart/record and reflect on throughout the year, not to mention throughout your life. This evolution can continue as long as you live to whatever limit you choose if you decide to choose a limit at all.


Of course you can begin your personal evolution anytime you want.

Using the philosophy of Evolution through Fusion, you can take the annually reoccurring celestial cycle of the star Sirius's (A.K.A Spdt, the Dog Star etc.) heliacal rising reaching its peak point at approximately midnight December 31. Fuse that with a strong deliberate willful intent in committing to your personal evolution and you have the ability to harness Astronomical momentum going into 2008 B.C.E. for Evolutionary results.


Who do you commit to being in 2008 B.C.E. and beyond?????

What will be your New Year's Evolution??????

Sovereignty for Success
Khepra the Evolutionary


And there you have it (Thanks, Khepra!).

Who will you commit to EVOLVING into in 2008? What will your projectory of growth be?

Too many times we focus our attention on all that needs to change around us while ignoring our own growth. I'm suggesting that in 2008 we take the time to focus some of that passion on our own Evolution.

We will be all the better for it. And so will our families, our communities, and our world.

Let me know about your Evolution(s) for 2008! I want to hear from you. . .

Meanwhile, affirming Peace to you and yours and looking forward to Evolving Together. . .

Moving Forward!

Adar