Tag Archives: African American

This is Something We Do Together or It Doesn’t Get Done

Poetry, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

What we do, we do together

If one person wins a battle, then they win it, but only for themselves

But if a person claims that they have won a battle by themselves, then they are mistaken

Because they have forgotten all that have gone before them

And all who have stood beside them

And all those who will come after

We are not after another individualistic ideology

The likes of which has turned us against our own families

Put us into competition with our Friends

Set us at odds with our neighbors

Severed the ties we have to our heritage

Destroyed our relationship with the earth

and indoctrinates us to seek only the betterment of ourselves

The harms that we have risen up against

Reach deep into the fibers of our beings

Is woven through the very fabric of our society

Through Police Brutality, and Mass Incarceration

Red Lining and Bank Foreclosures

Economic Sanctions, Mandatory Minimum Sentencing Laws

Zero Tolerance in Schools, dilapidated buildings

The Denial of Financial Aid, Public Food Assistance, Medical and Mental Health Services

The School to Prison Pipeline

Outsourcing, GMO non-labeling, CEO Corporate Spending and Bailouts

That reward White Collar Crime and permit shots fired into the backs

of young blacks who are suspected of stealing a couple bottles of beer in the capital of WA State

It’s a sick state of affairs when property has more value than a person’s life

When society teaches us that we live in a vacuum

that by our bootstraps are the only we can pull ourselves out of this pit of bitter morass

We have somehow worked ourselves into

Like we chose the neighborhoods to which we were born into

We are taught that it is only by our own doing, that no one will help, that we do not deserve any one’s help and that if we can’t it is because we are lazy, dumb, genetically inferior to

and Essentially that we are all alone

When in reality, we can do nothing alone

We would not even be able to utter the word alone had someone not taught it to us

We would not know the first thing about commerce or morality if someone had not taught it to us

There would be no society, social advocacy, civilization or cities if we did things alone

We are neither impacted alone, nor will we win alone

Groups are marginalized because of their affiliation with that group

Stop & Frisk targeted people of color disproportionately

not because of their individual identities but rather because of the color of their skin

People only throw out the claim of individuality when it suits their purposes to do so

That is genocidal in nature and by its very definition

America has just been afraid to acknowledge that fact since William James Patterson wrote We Charge Genocide with the help of the Congress of Racial Equality and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1951

Read that document and you will swear to god that you were reading a news article from last weekend

Emmitt Till all over again, Sandra Bland Rekia Boyd, Tamir Rice, Trevon Martin vigilante violence and the Charleston 9, burning churches, the KKK is making a re-emergence

all to target you and us, the we because they do not see us as individuals

And anytime we run out to challenge the system of racism and white supremacy alone

they kill the one, Malcom X, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Gandhi

But every time we have stood together, and not allowed their terrorism to deter us,

Not allow their prison time, or their economic sanctions, or their political threats

of stripping people off their food assistance like the politician in Baltimore when they rose up in unison against the horrific murder of Freddy Gray

our people have achieved our victories in the struggle for justice

and it is upon their shoulders that we stand today

it is because of their efforts, their sacrifices, and investments into their futures, our presents

that we can stand here today, congregated for the cause of justice and peace

Not that negative peace, wherein we continue to permit injustices and violence

But within the positive peace of tension challenging the system on all fronts together

At times this will put demands on our time, and upon our patients

At others it will only require that we do not turn a blind eye to injustice

That we speak out, or stand on the street with our cameras out to make sure that the police are doing their damned jobs right

Sometimes it means that we will need to invest in the people and the organizations out here doing the work

But no matter what, we do this together, we do this for our people, we do this for the cause of justice

for the love of peace, for an end to war, and hatred and the violence against our people

And the world we seek to create, is not one of individuality, but rather one of community

which respects the beauty of the individuality of each and every single one of us

Treasures each in our own rights

But part of something much greater in the cycle of life

Because none of came into this world alone and of our own volition

We owe it to the rest of us to maintain our community, and to fight for what is right

!!!Black Lives Matter!!!

We will make this call reverberate throughout every institution and gathering place in America until there is no option but for it to become a reality

Resolution 31614: Zero Use of Detention for Juveniles

Prison Abolition, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The intention of Resolution 31614[1] is to help foster a healthier community and a component of this is to address the disparaging incarceration rates of people of color, in particular, African American youth. However, a change in the policy of how the City of Seattle manages abhorrent behavior will serve to be beneficial to youth of all ethnicities and backgrounds. So, before I present information that represents the evidence of Restorative Justice (RJ) as a reaction to ‘criminal’ behavior, I want to highlight the very real need for a multiplicity of efforts that I believe should function in conjunction with RJ to achieve the objectives of this resolution.

The best research that I have been through over the past four years reveals that socio-economic conditions and, access to and assistance with education directly impact the social outcomes of individuals in society. Essentially, when people are suffering from dire socio-economic conditions and/or suffer from a deficient education are huge factors, if not partial causes, that incarceration is a response to. This is why I sought to highlight programs like The Service Board (TSB)[2], Arts Corps[3], The Youth Orion Center[4], and New Horizons Youth Ministries[5] among others when I provided testimony at the Public Safety, Civil Rights, and Technology Committee” meeting September 16, because they have the potential to intercede in the lives of inner-city youth prior to their becoming involved with the criminal justice system. It is my opinion that a proactive approach is much preferable to a reactive approach and this will require a continuing effort to support organizations, which do such and to implement strategies and programs to address the other factors that lead to abhorrent behavior.

Working on issues like affordable housing, employment and job training, and education in conjunction with employing Restorative Justice programs and practices are what will be necessary to address the concerns the Seattle City Council is confronting with Resolution 31614. This analysis is shared by William Julius Wilson, the author of “When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor” (1996), wherein Wilson identifies social and economic conditions as harm causing factors that shape cultural responses to environmental constraints. These constraints affect all ethnicities, but because of the demographics of urban areas it is also the case that people of color are disproportionately affected. Nonetheless, the net result will improve conditions for all the citizens whom are marginalized within an urban area, not just people of color, but especially them. Restorative Justice by itself does not have the capacity or the aim of addressing all the factors entailed in social and economic conditions that lead to behavior labeled as ‘criminal’. However, coupling other initiatives with RJ will be proactive and seek to heal our community.

Restorative Justice has been shown to reduce the likelihood of re-offence and to decrease recidivism, as well as, improve victim satisfaction with the justice system. A report produced by the Ministry of Justice titled, “Restorative Justice in New Zealand: December 2010,”[6] wherein the structure of the program is identified and provides a summary of objective results of the implementation of RJ in their country. In particular, the report notes that “Reconvictions reduced by 27% in 2 years following restorative justice process,”[7]  which is a vast decrease.  The New Zealand Ministry of Justice released another report June 2011 titled “Reoffending Analysis for Restorative Justice Cases: 2008 and 2009,”[8] which details further findings. The 2011 report states, “The principal finding of this report is that those who had been through a restorative justice conference had a 20 percent lower reoffending rate than comparable offenders who did not receive a restorative justice conference (33.2% and 41.3% respectively).”[9] The 2010 report from the New Zealand Ministry of Justice did report that youth have a higher expected rate of offense, and that this group did show a consistent rate of re-offense. It also reported that “Offenders aged 20 – 25 years showed a large apparent drop”[10] in the rate of re-offense. So, although not all reports are favorable for RJ practices and programs, by and large it seems to be effective. These reports show dramatic and positive impacts on the criminal justice system as measured by recidivism and re-offense, which reveals that there are promising potentials for its application in the City of Seattle.

The program in New Zealand holds the victim as the primary focus in the Restorative Justice process, and the Restorative Justice: Victim, Offender, Community states, “If the victim’s needs are addressed, the process will serve the offender and the community well”[11] Earlier I alluded to victim satisfaction with the justice system the Smith Institute has conducted an in-depth analysis the effectiveness of RJ in reducing the harms to victims.[12] The Smith Institute acknowledges that those victims of crime who elect not to engage with the people who caused them harm or the victims of unsolved offense will not receive the same benefits of RJ as those who participate in the process. This is also in line with voluntary characteristic of RJ that New Zealand identifies in its Best Practice Principles; “Restorative justice processes are underpinned by voluntariness for both the victim and the offender.”

[13] The Smith Institute notes that of those who elect to participate in the RJ process “almost always indicate a high level of satisfaction with the process”[14] The Smith Institute further acknowledges that the RJ process may not be appropriate for all situations and in a small proportion of those analyzed, their condition worsened as a result of engaging with the offenders. The Smith Institute concludes that “Nonetheless, across all these studies including many kinds of offence type the conclusions are clear: when victims consent to meet their offender in an RJ conference they are usually satisfied with their experience provided that 1) the RJ meeting happens as promised and 2) the offender complies with the undertakings they made during the conference.”[15]

The Smith Institute report reveals that Restorative Justice may be more effective at decreasing the recidivism of violent crime than non-violent crime. A randomized experiment the report notes is the Canberra RISE project, which observed: “In a two-year-before, two-year-after comparison, the frequency of arrest among white people under 30 years of age who were assigned to RJ dropped by 84 per 100 offenders more than in the control group”[16] The other studies also showed decreases in recidivism, although, not as pronounced. However, in regard to property crime, the Smith Institute observed two studies that revealed increased recidivism, and five studies that revealed decreased recidivism.[17] It was the report’s conclusion that there is simply not enough evidence compiled thus far to make a determination either way as to the effectiveness on non-violent crime.

Returning to a point I made earlier about proactive measures that intercede in people’s lives prior to their entering into the criminal justice system, the Oakland Unified School District (OUSD) has been employing Restorative Justice practices since 2005, with promising results.[18] As a justification for the implementation of RJ programs and practices, the OUSD states, “Compelling evidence suggests that zero tolerance disciplinary policies and teacher/principal practices used for decades do not work to improve student behavior, school safety or academic achievement. In fact, they limit meaningful opportunity for students to learn and engage, instead increasing unstructured out-of-school time and likelihood of isolation, dropping out and being arrested.”[19] This is an analysis that the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has concurred in the article “Where Zero Tolerance Makes Zero Sense.”[20] The OUSD had at the time of the report 24 schools including elementary, middle, and high school levels. The schools reported growth and development of community that was translated into conflict resolution, intrapersonal and interpersonal skill development, emotional intelligence development, growth in empathy and understanding, and improvement in relationships with both teachers and other students.[21] In addition to that, suspensions and expulsions have decreased, reading levels have improved, attendance has improved, and graduation rates have significantly increased in comparison to schools that have not implemented RJ practices.[22] By employing RJ in the school system many of the factors that are implicated in criminal and abhorrent behavior are being addressed and they are witnessing very promising results.

Restorative Justice, as effective as it seems is also not the only program that has been used to intercede the detention of youth. For example, the 180 Program[23] was launched in 2012 in King County, which permits first and second time offenders to opt into workshops with ex-offenders who had turned their lives around. There is also the Creative Justice[24] program which fosters art based alternatives to youth incarceration in King County has just launched in 2015. Alternative programs to incarceration have real potential to shape the lives of our youth and one inspiring story comes from a former prosecuting attorney and superior court judge named, John Phillips. In the article, “I was tired of throwing kids in prison. So I built a place to help keep them out of it,”[25] Phillips speaks to the problems of mandatory minimum sentencing and how a lack of flexibility in sentencing was harmful and exacerbated the problem facing marginalized communities. He writes about the lack of services that were available for marginalized youth saying; “Very few services were provided for young people involved in criminal activity before they got in trouble. But once the trigger was pulled, all sorts of resources were directed to them — police, prosecutors, a defense attorney, the judge, the judicial system, probation officers, and of course, prison incarceration.” Phillips, with his community transformed an abandoned hospital into a school/community center for at risk and marginalized youth to help them learn vocational, educational, and life skills with a focus on community and, also provided transitional living spaces for homeless youth. “We’ve reduced recidivism 80 percent among students in the program, and the rate of our students staying out of trouble is twice that of young people exiting incarceration without the benefit of our program” Phillips reports. Even more encouraging than the statistics Phillips reports, is the observation he has of his students spirits; “When you provide young people with an encouraging environment and the opportunity to rediscover themselves, they begin to hold their heads up high and start thinking, often for the first time, about their future.”

The goal of Resolution 31614 is not only the Zero Use of Detention for Juveniles, but the creation of a more healthy community. That is what is implied by the intention of forming partnerships and making investments into community led solutions and organizations and, that is the express intent of incarceration and the now present need to transition from utilizing incarceration. The problem is unfortunately not one dimensional, but rather, a multi-factored, multi-layered set of circumstances and constraints. It will require ingenuity and creativity and a willingness to experiment with promising alternatives. A multiplicity of tactics and strategies that address the socio-economic conditions and constraints, which lead to criminal and abhorrent behaviors of individuals and groups is necessary. The programs and organizations that I have listed above are some, although, not all of the programs locally or abroad that reveal promising outcomes and as such, are viable alternatives to the incarceration of our youth. Above all, I believe it is better to be proactive than reactive, which means interceding prior to our youth encountering the criminal justice system, programs like the 180 Program, Creative Justice, and Restorative Justice being led by our community members and organizations, is a great way to begin healing our community.

[1] file:///C:/Users/Michael%20Moynihan/Desktop/Community%20Based%20Alternatives%20to%20Imprisonment/Proposed%20Amendment.pdf

[2] http://www.theserviceboard.org/

[3] http://www.artscorps.org/

[4] http://www.youthcare.org/

[5] http://nhmin.org/

[6] http://www.justice.govt.nz/policy/criminal-justice/restorative-justice/documents/restorative-justice-overview.pdf

[7] http://www.justice.govt.nz/policy/criminal-justice/restorative-justice/documents/restorative-justice-overview.pdf (p. 6)

[8] file:///C:/Users/Michael%20Moynihan/Desktop/Community%20Based%20Alternatives%20to%20Imprisonment/Reoffending%20Analysis%20for%20RJ%20Cases%202008%20and%202009.pdf

[9] file:///C:/Users/Michael%20Moynihan/Desktop/Community%20Based%20Alternatives%20to%20Imprisonment/Reoffending%20Analysis%20for%20RJ%20Cases%202008%20and%202009.pdf (p. 7)

[10] http://www.justice.govt.nz/policy/criminal-justice/restorative-justice/documents/restorative-justice-overview.pdf (p. 6)

[11] http://www.restorativejustice.org.nz/cms/RJManual/tabid/63/Default.aspx

[12] http://www.iirp.edu/pdf/RJ_full_report.pdf (p. 61)

[13] http://www.justice.govt.nz/policy/criminal-justice/restorative-justice/documents/restorative-justice-overview.pdf (p. 8)

[14] http://www.iirp.edu/pdf/RJ_full_report.pdf (p. 62)

[15] http://www.iirp.edu/pdf/RJ_full_report.pdf (p. 65)

[16] http://www.iirp.edu/pdf/RJ_full_report.pdf (p. 68)

[17] http://www.iirp.edu/pdf/RJ_full_report.pdf (p. 69)

[18] http://www.ousd.org/cms/lib07/CA01001176/Centricity/Domain/134/OUSD-RJ%20Report%20revised%20Final.pdf  (IV)

[19] http://www.ousd.org/cms/lib07/CA01001176/Centricity/Domain/134/OUSD-RJ%20Report%20revised%20Final.pdf  (IV)

[20] https://www.aclu.org/blog/where-zero-tolerance-makes-zero-sense

[21] http://www.ousd.org/cms/lib07/CA01001176/Centricity/Domain/134/OUSD-RJ%20Report%20revised%20Final.pdf  (V)

[22] http://www.ousd.org/cms/lib07/CA01001176/Centricity/Domain/134/OUSD-RJ%20Report%20revised%20Final.pdf  (VI)

[23] http://www.kingcounty.gov/Prosecutor/news/2012/june/180program.aspx

[24] http://creativejustice.4culture.org/

[25] https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/08/07/i-was-tired-of-throwing-kids-in-prison-so-i-built-a-place-to-help-keep-them-out-of-it/

We Will Have Our Victory

Poetry, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Answering the call of war we ran into the streets

Blood had spilled, the cops had killed, revenge was looking sweet

Didn’t matter who you were, or what neighborhood you from

All that mattered, was that, with this system, you were done!

The horns and the drums, fire poundin in our hearts

Raging through our veins, was an anger off the charts

Black, White, Asian, Native, Mexican, we all

Knew this racist, white supremist system had to fall

Downtown to Westlake, where all of us converged

Hands Up! Don’t Shoot! Was the war-cry that emerged

As we took over the streets, people steady flooding in

Bringing traffic to a halt, the movement had began

A fight for Human Rights, for Dignity and Life

A fight for Respect, Liberty the Right

To go to the store and to make it home alive

Cuz it’s nearly, impossible, to be Black, and to survive

The gauntlet of the school system not going to jail

a prisoner, a slave, told we can do naught but to fail

While a system of laws, written to, protect, us all

We wanted to know that cops were not above the law

Due Process, that precious 5th Amendment clause

They are neither judge nor jury, but they’re acting without pause

And while none of this is new to a people who’ve seen the worst

Daren Wilson’s, non-indictment, is what pushed us to subverse!

We will have struggle

Won’t be defeated

We will have justice

Won’t be defeated

We will have freedom

Won’t be defeated

Working Together we will have our Victory

We will have struggle

Won’t be defeated

We will have justice

Won’t be defeated

We will have freedom

Won’t be defeated

Working Together we will have our Victory

Marching through the streets, was simply not enough

Police came gassed up, turtle suits, and billy clubs

Seattle Mayor Murray, Chief O’Toole, and Bruce Harrell,

Our supposed ‘Civil Rights, City Hall Official’ failed

To recognize and respect, our Right, to assemble

To petition our government, for grievances, rendered

And instead authorized paramilitary troops

To stifle Free Speech, and Suppress the People whose

Intent was to acquire equal unbiased treatment

Guaranteed, in the 14th, Amendment achievement

In 1868, and over a hundred years later

Still waiting, hence my reason for being an Agitator

The people grew complacent, felt comfort in their ignorance

So, there was nothing left but Civil Disobedience

They disregarded us at city hall and public meetings

Labeled hooligans thugs, with anarchist leanings

Negotiation failed, and out gunned and out strategized

We recognized, to mobilize, we had to organize ourselves

If we meant to win against a system generations fixed

& that, is why, we created OA206

We will have struggle

Won’t be defeated

We will have justice

Won’t be defeated

We will have freedom

Won’t be defeated

Working Together we will have our Victory

We will have struggle

Won’t be defeated

We will have justice

Won’t be defeated

We will have freedom

Won’t be defeated

Working Together we will have our Victory

We hit the streets, we had to, people were dying

All were upset, the government was conspiring

State Sanctioned Violence, was claiming our people’s lives

Impunity ubiquitous, getting off left and right

Martin, Brown, Garner, Rice, and Boyd

Their killers walked free, everyone was annoyed

Darren Wilson made half a mil with network ABC

Adding insult to injury, we just couldn’t believe

Being Black, was not, a precondition, for anger

But in the protracted struggle, color became a hang-up

First there was a split between the Brown and the White

Which, made perfect sense given the White Supremist plight

Then Black only spaces formed, to lead the struggle

Cuz One, should, rumble for their freedom, un-muzzled

But to deny, the vital intellect and the skills

Of a person, based on race, is a practice that kills

Black people suffering from internalized oppression

A festering pestilence, ushered death from within

& From the depths of deception, character assassination

Followed the path of this nation, down to the heart of black hatred;

This is where O.A. Split, and though, now it is clear

that the spiritual harms we came with left us unprepared

to truly unify against this Totalitarian Regime

We’re healing wounds and righting wrongs, that go back centuries

We will have struggle

Won’t be defeated

We will have justice

Won’t be defeated

We will have freedom

Won’t be defeated

Working Together we will have our Victory

We will have struggle

Won’t be defeated

We will have justice

Won’t be defeated

We will have freedom

Won’t be defeated

Working Together we will have our Victory

“Letter to the Men” by Renaissance the Poet: New HipHop Song & Explanatory Essay

Ethics and Morality, Music, Rapolitic, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

How the hell is a man going to jump up and scream for Liberation and Justice, Equality and to be treated fairly, to have greater bargaining power, and to be treated like a human being; then turn around to promote Misogyny and Patriarchy which are mechanisms of Colonization and the Exploitation of the bodies and minds of women?

There is a manifest contradiction when these two opposite ends of the spectrum—justice vs. injustice—coalesce into one individual, wherein the latter completely disqualifies the former to the point that the man promotes a system of injustice instead of justice. Any ideology or societal organization principle that systematically relegates a particular group of people to a position of inferiority in a hierarchical structure, simply because of their affiliation or identity with the group is discriminatory, bigoted, and unjust to its core. Patriarchy is one of those unjust ideologies because it systematically seeks to relegate all women to positions of inferiority simply for being women. Ideologies that generalize and discriminate based on qualities beyond the will and volition of the individual is ignorant, short-sighted, and unjust.

Capability, merit, previous accomplishment, and potential future contributions are by far a more efficient and just means of distributing power and respect among and between people. Some men are promoted to positions of prestige and power, but lack the integrity, the intelligence, the character, and the communication skills necessary to perform the role they are selected for because they were selected solely on the basis of gender. This is a detrimental and foolhardy practice. Likewise, denying a position of prestige and power to a woman because the very same vital qualities that are necessary to fulfill the role are ignored for men and discounted in women, that is, they have not been considered in the cases of many women, qualities that they in fact possess. This is also a detrimental and foolhardy practice. If people were evaluated, both male and female, in terms of their capability; their merit, their previous accomplishments and their potential future contributions instead of their genders, sexes, ages, or ethnicity then the roles they are selected for would actually be fulfilled and the outcomes would be much more productive and achieved more efficiently.

A person should be judged by the contents of their character; not by their gender, sex, color, creed, or religion.

Adding Sexism to this discussion of the unjust hierarchical social structure of patriarchy, wherein the bodies of women are objectified and commodified, denying their humanity and instead attributing value to women only in sexual or monetary terms; the dehumanization of women is a glaring and unacceptable problem. It is also a dangerous and harmful combination.

Patriarchy is insidious because it has been the norm for thousands of years, and as a result the many ways it crops up could seem to many of the cisgendered men to be benign. For instance, the oldest reference to women as bitches I have found was in Homer’s “The Odyssey” from Ancient Greece. The term and the hatred of women, misogyny itself, is old, very old. Furthermore, contemporary women may be subjected to continuous unwanted sexual advances from men; men who feel entitled to do this because they are men and feel we must be macho and promiscuous to fulfill our roles as men. Patriarchy also denies women the same sexual freedoms granted to men and instead they are condemned and shamed by men and other women—who have been indoctrinated with patriarchy—for expressing themselves sexually, or dressing in a revealing manner. For thousands of years women have been thought of as being naturally ‘incompetent’ in some fields or activities, and their opinions in leadership roles have often been viewed as less credible. Women have rarely been given the same space to express their thoughts as men, regardless of how correct and astute they are and have been. Of course this denies the very real truth that women have been present and have been powerful decision makers in many of the biggest decisions that have shaped our world; the Julio-Claudian blood-line of the 12 Caesars of Rome in the era of Jesus was controlled by women; the shaping of the United States was heavily influenced by Abigail Adams, the wife of John Adams, one of the revolutionaries; Sojourner Truth the African American abolitionists; Harriet Tubman, an African American abolitionist and freedom fighter; Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the suffragist; Eleanor Roosevelt, the first chairperson of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights; Madam C.J. Walker, the first Black Woman millionaire who created a line of black hair products; the list can go on. Patriarchy also shows up when a woman justly and intelligently asserts herself and her autonomy and she is referred to as a bitch, which is an attempt to discredit her and her assertions. Patriarchy is ugly and ubiquitous and the list can go on, but the point is that patriarchy seeks to deny women their humanity and relegate them to positions of inferiority wherein they are only perceived as minor partners, partial contributors, sexual objects, and needing a man’s guidance and protection (paternalism); none of which is true.

Here are three interrelated points:

1. In a sense, culture is a living entity. It does and must evolve. To claim that subordination of women must be “be natural and correct” because “that is how it has always been” is wrong. It is a cop-out, it is recklessly conservative, it is unjust, and it is childish.

2. That a man may feel ‘entitled’ to a woman’s body is a continuation of exploitation and slavery; slavery simply being the ownership of another’s body. It is the refusal to recognize the autonomy of another. Entitlement can only emerge when one ‘feels’ they have the right to ownership over something or someone.

3. For a man to clamor for his rights and equity, and deny women similar rights and equity is a manifest contradiction to the concept of justice, equality, and world free from oppression.

Furthermore, that men are afraid of women and their inherent potential to shape our world; much the same as racism is about managing the fear of Black people coming to social, political and economic power because white people fear that the same harms they have visited on Black People will be visited upon them. This fear is driven by greed, the most fundamental components of colonialism and exploitation. It is about power, which is expressed in terms of control of the external world and, most often control of resources or other people. This fear is a plague that has led men to attempt to silence women and to hold them in bondage because of a fear of a loss of control, but this behavior is stifling our ability to develop as a people into a more mature society and culture. Since all living things must grow, this pestilent nostalgia is actually choking our culture and killing us: Reverse Racism.

I am calling on the men to be more; to do less; and to acknowledge, accept and respect the leadership of women. I am calling on the men to end our subordination of women; to end our abuse of women; and to stand up to those who continue to hate and abuse women. I am calling on the men to see and acknowledge the true value inherent in each and every woman; to treasure that value; and to disregard the antiquated valuation of women that has been instilled in us by the oppressive and colonizing culture of conquest and sexual exploitation. I am calling on the men to recognize the harm we are doing to us all by holding half of our population hostage, in bondage, attempting to silence the best within us. I am calling on the men to be Men, and in particular Black Men, to do away with this ideology of dualism and competition so that we can move forward as a people and achieve the liberation we so desperately desire.

i.Written by Renaissance the Poet

ii. Edited by Sharon Welensky & Tim Sage

___________________________________________________

Backing Track & Mix by Scott Paul Johnson

www.facebook.com/spjohnson

Written & Recorded by Renaissance the Poet

www.facebook.com/renaissancethepoet.official

___________________________________________________

Lyrics:

Verse 1

There’s a very real problem that needs to be addressed

And I hope my words offend, cause you to question your intents

As a man, a male, privileged, to live without regrets

This letter is for you, from a man who finally gets

That Oppression of women is the sickest form there is

there is nothing that epitomizes hatred more than this

Weakness, feeling the need to express dominance

Prominently, by suppressing a woman’s right to live

& to live un-assailed by male hostility

In the streets, on the job and in our families

Sexual harassment an infectious demon,

Spreading because men feel entitled to bodies bein

Perceived as property, a fallacy Contradicting we

The liberty we scream for we constantly recede

Cuz our greed makes us think we can take all that we see

We’d never tolerate being another man’s property

Chorus

Sisters, Mothers, Daughters, Aunties, Girlfriends, Wives, Friends

The Women of the World combine to be the best there is

I just can’t take the hate no more, I’m calling out the men

You have a duty to us all to be the best you can

Verse 2

Walking down the street women have to risk the cat calling

Being asked for numbers, getting groped, raped and can’t stop it

& when they Stand Their Ground, flipping around the situation

Denying a man has the Right to incur this inflammation

She is insulted, threatened and in the worst cases

Women have been killed for denying men to their faces

& if that is not entitlement then I don’t know what is

Because who has a claim to another’s life

Let alone to a smile or even her mind

If she graces you the privilege, it is a gift, not a right

And she has the Right, like us, to be left alone

On her way home, to school, work or talking on the phone

& She has the Right to associate with you or not

Without fear of reprisal or the way being blocked

It’s not for you to decide, this is her choice

Infringement is Wrong, man, so cease all the noise

Chorus

Sisters, Mothers, Daughters, Aunties, Girlfriends, Wives, Friends

The Women of the World combine to be the best there is

I just can’t take the hate no more, I’m calling out the men

You have a duty to us all to be the best you can

Verse 3

Women should be valued and cherished not disrespected

They’re Amazing, Intelligent, Partners, and they’re Finished

They do not need anything added or taken from them

There is nothing a man has that a woman needs from him

Not even semen, if that’s what you’re thinking

You can Check a sperm bank if you think that I am beefin

Paternalism a joke, they’re as capable as men

Neither need concealing nor protection, because they’re Women

They’re Human and were born with all they will ever need

Save respect and to be loved, just like you and me

And humans deserve to be treated with dignity

That means treated with equity, honor and esteem

Fail in any of these and you’ll see that she up and leaves

And finds one who can provide all the things that she needs

But I see that so many out get this wrong

& that’s why I wrote you a letter in the form of a song

Chorus

Sisters, Mothers, Daughters, Aunties, Girlfriends, Wives, Friends

The Women of the World combine to be the best there is

I just can’t take the hate no more, I’m calling out the men

You have a duty to us all to be the best you can

The Foundation is Always Stronger than the Structure that Rests Upon It: Mothers

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My life has taken many twists and turns, some good and some not so good, but no matter what has happened to or by me, the one thing in my life that has been the most constant and thus fundamental, has always been my mother, Sharran Moynihan, but I call her Ma. The most obvious contribution she has made to my life, but definitely worth and must be mentioned is that she gave life to me; she suffered through both the pregnancy and my birth and had she not, then I would not be. Even when my father, Dennis Moynihan, was living with us, he was hardly ever truly part of the family because he spent most of his time looking at the world through the bottom of a bottle. As a result, Ma had to fulfill roles of being both my mother and my father. She played sports with my brother Liam and I, rode bikes with us, and talked with us about girls. She also cooked, cleaned, walked us to school, dressed us, and everything else she believed a mother was supposed to do and be. She is also the one who disciplined my brother and me because my father did not know how to limit his physical force for juveniles.  To top it all off, she almost always held a job while she was doing all of this, and sometimes she was also in school. My mother must have a hidden cape somewhere because I swear she is Super Woman; there was never a day that either my brother or I went without food; we always had everything we needed and some of what we wanted. Most importantly, we always knew that we were loved and that home was a safe place for us. I learned more from what my mother did than what she said and through observing her what I learned was how to work no matter what my feelings about the world were at a given moment. I learned that family was the most important gift, and that translates into the family I have chosen and whom have earned my respect and trust. I learned that sometimes life throws us curve balls, but that with the willingness to meet life’s challenges, no obstacle is too daunting to overcome or circumvent. She taught me that it is okay for a man to cry, but also that I am never to submit to injustice without protest and that there is a just solution to every problem. I am my mother’s son; she bestowed the best of herself into me and by she living her life as best she could, her actions formed and informed my perception of the world and molded me into the man that I am today.

“Colonizer’s Language” a Spoken Word piece by Renaissance the Poet

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This spoken word piece contends with the concept of the Colonizer’s Language and how we use language to describe and identify ourselves. This piece unpacks some of the history of the term “nigger” and how it impacts us in the present.

NIGGER by Renaissance the Poet

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Nigger.

Negroe.

Nigga.

Black.

African-American.

Criminal.

The colonizer language that we have imbibed

as if it was a life sustaining nectar

Afraid to, wean ourselves from the poison that is killing us

because we have been fooled and are fooling ourselves into believing that it’s beneficial,

nutritional, contra-positional, infinitesimal in the scope of things

The Pros outweigh the Cons…?

con-artists in sheep’s clothing, parading the homunculus pulling the strings in our brains, weighting our steps with second guesses, misperceptions, allegories, and ill-conceptions, but in vain…

Do we strive for something better, clueless to the range of how damaging the language we use to represent ourselves is to our dignity, self-identity, intrinsically speaking, spiritually seeking, deranged! conceptions of how we came to being and who we hope to be, to become, to arrive

Nigger, as if we arrived, materialized as slaves on plantations contrived for labor

and never existed prior to raising cotton for stock profits in American pockets,

droppin to the ground exhausted, because the master forgot to water the human stock bought on the auction block for cents on the dollar

And this, is what we holler as a greeting!

excuse me…

“NIGGA,”

Cuz, I’d rather be a N I G G A, so I can get drunk and smoke weed all day

It is a natural response to an oppressive situation to assimilate and reclaim the terms of a language used to discriminate and disseminate hatred,

like the word “Gay,” was once used to describe happiness or joy in a situation, but then it

became a derogatory term laced with inflammation and incitation to repressive anger

displacing concentration on the facts at hand

that a label to the soul burns worse than skin to a brand

But the word only had power insofar as those convicted, insisted, complicit in its imposition

buckling under the weight’s transmission, did it have capacity to defame, but

Reclaiming the term robbed it of its power and now it is adorned with praise

Nigger, unfortunately is not a term that can be rephrased in such a way as to liberate its user

To reclaim is to own, and to own a nigger is to be a nigger’s master, a colonizer, and the oppressor

so,

to call oneself a nigger is to be one’s own oppressor, but moreover an overseer whipping our own asses for a master who profits from our disasters

Because a nigger is lazy, licentious, sexually promiscuous, unsound in mind and body, pretentious, unscrupulous, vile, criminally minded, guided by the basest of natures, wild, genetically inferior, paternalism required:

to own the term nigger is to ingest this image, latch it to our sinews, hang it from our bones, as our ancestors hung lynched from branches, and pass it to our lineage because the ideology is a spiritual pestilence to the masses

The antithesis of white, the foil despite the toil of life the cradle of which it all ignites: Black

More Eurocentrically politically correct; African American

But still dislocates us from our historical heritage and infests with hatred for ourselves

As we imbibe the colonizer’s language as our own

But in truth it has no meaning or value to us

Words are just symbols and signs; semiology

vestigial coverings that have nothing to do with our actual identities and reality