To Snitch or Not to Snitch, and the community's role

To Snitch or Not to Snitch - And the role of the community

I know you have heard it all before - "stop snitching", "don't rat", et cetera, et cetera. Many people don't believe in the justice system, and especially the face of the justice system (cops). Now, in particular communites (especially, black, latin communities) there have been a long-standing demise of the relationship between the police, and the communities that they are supposed to 'protect & serve'. Many stories of police brutality, and corruption are almost synonomous with police behaviour; and of course, the ultimate blow to the relationship between police and black/latino communities was the videotaped beating of Rodney King: that solidfied the disdain and distrust that many have of police.

So with that history, being circulated and passed on through oral & written tradition, and with popular music vocalizing the notions of 'stop snitching' - what are we supposed to do in the face of an injustice? If we don't 'snitch' (hypothetically speaking), then what do we do when we know of, or have seen, an injustice committed in our community? Do we turn a blind eye?

Could you turn a blind eye if you were attached to the situation (i.e. someone you knew was victimized)?

I guess what I'm trying to say is that if you don't wanna 'snitch' then you need to go to the members in the community who can rectify the situation.

For example:
In Arizona, a young teenage girl was violently raped; many in the community knew who was responsible. However, there was/is a disdain for cooperating with the law. So what happened? Several members in the community went to the people responsible for the rape, and basically told them to turn themselves in to the authorities ... and surprisingly, the rapists obligied.

What I get out of this interesting story is that the community has decided to police and regulate behavior (sort of what the Black Panther party was 'ideally' supposed to accomplish).

Ergo, if we choose not to 'snitch' then, when something goes awry, the community has to step up to the plate and exercise justice.

What do y'all think??

Chicken Noodle Soup ... a sad state of affairs

Some random thoughts on the current state of Hip-Hop ....

Seems like the current state of Hip-Hop is bleek - I'm sorry to say. I honestly thought that maybe Hip-Hop was making a move towards a positive direction; led by Chicago's Lupe Fiasco, who brought actual lyrical content to his songs -- in comparison to the current shit on the airwaves.

However, despite the solid album and maybe a combination of the album being leaked on the Internet several months earlier, only 80,000 people have purchased the album.
Thus, the 'movement' I had wished is dormant - absent of a solid, legitimate figurhead -- beaten for the public's desire for 'Chicken Noodle Soup', and songs of that nature.

Where to begin, if 'Chicken Noodle Soup' is New York's attempt to try & regain the crown in hip-hop, then the 5 borough's are in some serious trouble. No one likes a biter -- East, West, South Coast it doesn't matter. Emulating what is popular WILL not restore the East back to prominence. The South has brought the 'fun' back to hip-hop with basically, creating songs about dances. The East doesn't or shouldn't mimic the same formula. The 'Chicken Noodle Soup' song/dance just looks like NYC's desperate appeal for attention, but it is catchy though ..... and let it rain

--
P.S. I anticipate some 'hate' but come with some legitimate arguments please.

Collateral Hating

A thought in the arts of Hating ....

Now, hating is nothing new - its a part of daily life, as people say and/or do certain things to try to undermine and/or impede your progress; growing up in a major city, i've grown to accept that.

When the hate is directed to me, I can handle it - dish it back, package it properly right back to the sender. However, this new 'hate by association' thing is perplexing.

An ex-girl of a colleague of mines is deciding (against better judgment) to spread hate on him, and myself to people that are in our circle. Now, go ahead girl, do your thing and hate on your ex-man that may have done a, b, and c, to you (or, what you perceive), but don't include me; that is wreckless hating (new word) and can have some adverse consequences - kind of like pain medication.

I'm sure 'Collateral Hating' is a common occurrence, but what it should do the victims involved (i.e. being ME) is that it should propel the energy in one's self to over-achieve above the hater's limited expectations of you. Yes, I could get mad, angry, and spew about it, but i'd rather manifest that energy into trying to triumphant the feat that the hater thinks I can't do.

Also, it is comforting to know that most haters are not a 'stand-up' species; rather in the face of adversity or confrontation they swelter ... saying "Nah, I didn't say that, she said that", hmmm, that reminds of some type of species ... on all fours though ...

Peace Haters

--
Lemme know what y'all think ... peace.

Women, and their self-fulfulling prophecy of misery Pt. 1

I am not really one to be writing about relationships and crap, but I figured I will give it a try.

Quick run-down:
Boy knows girl for several years; they kept in touch but sporadically. Girl felt like Boy was just going after her goodies; which was kinda true, but over time - boy matured and girl felt that level of maturity, so girl and boy start talking. However, Girl has broken up with her ex 6-8 months) before girl reconnects with boy. Girl likes Boy, vice versa. Girl thinks and professes that boy is great, ideal, and really likes Boy (also thinks that Boy is a great communicator, compromiser, and intelligent) - thus, girl initiates a date. On date both have a good time, enjoy each others company, date ends with a kiss. However, girl is overwhelmed with feelings of joy/bliss, but is conflicted with her ex (mind you, who cheated and disrespected her). Thus, girl panics and freaks out (which I dont understand). Ignores Boy for several weeks and ignores his phone calls. Finally, Girl sees the errs in her ways, and contacts Boy and says that she is sorry for her actions, but Boy is upset that girl would treat her this way ... sorry for the 'quick run-down'

Now, besides knowing that naturally, women are generally screwed; as is, they have no idea of knowing what they want in life and/or a man. Why can't women acknowledge and respect when they have a good thing in their life. If girl felt this way, knowing that boy is understanding and is a good communicator, girl should have told boy her feelings - NOT ignore boy like a chicken head (or insert appropriate regional word). That is my qualm. Every action is a reciprocal equal or greater action, and though Boy wishes Girl good luck, i'm sure Boy wishes her some equal/greater treatment as she showed to him, by some other boy ... ya dig??

Lemme know what y'all think (women: sorry for the generalizations, but you know what it is already!!).

Celebrities and fascination w/ Black Novelty

Angelina started it (maybe with good, pure intentions) when she decided to adopt a baby from Nambia in Africa. At the time I thought, ok, based on her history of working with the U.N. and other agencies that work with the poor and developing nations, maybe her actions are genuine and she really does care about the state of affairs in Africa.

However, now Madonna has gone out and done the same thing, with allegations that she may have used her celebrity power to obtain the baby illegal. Now that may be true, or not, its irrelevant really, but when did Madonna become such a 'humanitarian'? Several years ago, this broad was slutting her way to the top of the pop charts (and at her old age, she continues to do so). My fear is that Madonna adopted the black child because with everything that is Hollywood, this whole ideal of celebrities 'saving' those who are less fortunate has become trendy. It is the new 'it' thing. And Madonna is the 1st celebrity to FOLLOW in the noble footsteps of Angelina.

The worse thing that made me cringe was when I heard that broad Britney Spears thinking that she might do the same thing.

Black/African PEOPLE are not novelties. I guess my point is, that celebrities should only adopt if they honestly, and genuinely are adopting because they care about the well-being of the child that they adopt - celebrities should not adopt because it may improve their public image/perception (so they can sell more units).

If you want a novelty, find it on eBay, stay the f*** out of Africa.

Guy in the bottom picture is the father of the adopted baby.

Tip What?

TIP WHAT?
The cultural norm of tipping

This is just a funny story that I thought I would share:

The other day I was with my sister and my nephew in a popular Chinese buffet restaurant; the food was mediocre (what else can one expect at a buffet?), but the selection was vast in quantity. A perky waitress brought us to our seats and asked us if we had any additional orders (i.e. beverages, alcohol, etc.). We place a couple of orders and then proceeded to attack the buffet table to feed our appetite.

Now, to the extent of what the waitress performed, which was pretty much just cleaning the table of dishes that were dirty, a debate ensued whether what the appropriate tip should be for the waitress. I was baffled, because the question in my head was if there should be a tip at all.

Now, I’m not one that is really in favour of tipping; I don’t feel that it is rational to ‘tip’ someone for the job function’s that they are supposed to perform. Especially, in a buffet environment where the waitress does half of the duties than a waitress at a regular restaurant. Tipping has seemed to evolve into a cultural norm, but it is a cultural norm that I wish not to subscribe too. Now, don’t get me wrong, I have tipped in the past, but I’m strongly against the notion of deriving a mathematical percentage formula to determine how much one should tip (i.e. 10% of the order). That is foolishness. Tipping should only be done if you feel that the waitress went beyond her specific job duties: lets say, by providing excellent repertoire or customer service. Don’t just tip someone for performing their basic job duties.

Tipping has become expected and is embedded into our cultural, so much so, that has almost become a cultural norm – waitresses expect to be tipped no matter how much/well they perform their duties. Another factor is that because tipping is a cultural norm; any deviation from such actions will make one ostracised - stigmatized as ‘cheap’, ‘mean’ or ‘petty’.

In summation, I still contributed to a tip (much to my dismay) because I felt a desire to conform, rather than be true to thyself ….

Think about that.

--
d_dot_b

What do we own?

What do we own?

A simple question with a not-so simple answer. I was trying to think
of what we actually own; what we as black people can call 'our own'.
My immediate focus was BET, Black Entertainment Television, then I
realised it was bought out by Viacom. Still concentrating on
entertainment, I gathered that as musicians we own our masters to our
songs. However, upon further research, only a handful of artists
actually own their music. Classic nostalgic artists such as Michael
Jackson and Chaka Khan are still fighting with their respective labels
to own their music.

I subsequently thought about the financial industry, but to no finding
of any black ownership. It’s rare to find a convenience store that is
black owned, or a gas station, franchised grocery stores, or
restaurant. Furthermore, if there is a black-owned restaurant, it
will only sell food that we can relate too. In theory that is
acceptable, however why can't we sell to others? Meaning instead of
the Asian selling us our food & clothing, we should sell the Asian his
food & clothing. Our businesses are to niche; not utilising a full
spectrum approach. As a people we need to be concerned of business
ownership that sells to a wide-range of folk.

Furthermore, not only concentrating on entertainment, but also media, financial, amongst others. Only when we start owning a bigger piece of the pie, then we can demand how the pie is baked.

Think about that …

--
DesieB

Stymie180 Archive - 2002: Bring in the Homies

Stymie180.com 2002: This is from an article that I wrote in 2002; its a bit out of date, but the context is still relevant, check it out and see if it makes sense to you:

Lately its struck me just how low people will sink for cash. At a time when Hiphop is at the peak of its popularity, when you can't switch on the TV without hearing a rapper trying to sell you a shirt / a watch / a drink, when you can't walk down the street without passing someone who's followed their advice and is now driving that car, whilst drinking that drink, and rocking that shirt and shoes, its become plain how much Hiphop is being prostituted.

Stating the obvious? Maybe. But something has to be said. When LL Cool J would rather spend more time shooting FUBU ads that proclaim him as the G.O.A.T. and less time working on an album that proves it, something's wrong. When Busta Rhymes would rather throw a Mountain Dew at you, than a dope track, something's wrong.

Don't get me wrong - I understand they're taking advantage of their popularity to strike out and get that dollar while its good for getting. I also understand that this is not the first, and certainly won't be the last time that Hiphop goes through a cycle of unbelievable popularity with the youth (hands up who has an MC Hammer doll?)

But first and foremost these people have risen to popularity through the hard work of the people who bought their music. What do I mean? Let me break it down for you... where were corporate America and the rest of the world, when LL was "saying the kind of rhymes that make emcees wish that I'd die"? Where were they when Busta and the Leaders were telling us of their "Case Of The PTA"? They weren't around then, simply because Hiphop wasn't popular... there was no money to be made... and therefore in those early years, it was me and the millions of other "REAL" Hiphop fans who put a roof over the heads of LL's kids, who bought that one raggedy piece of gold around Busta's neck.

Where am I going with this? I'll tell ya... I'm pissed off with being taken for granted by artists who owe their success to their REAL fans, yet desert them at the drop of a dime. I'm tired of being told that this latest piece of shit that they've decided to throw onto wax is the best record they've ever done, when in fact it's little more than a studio out-take.

I'm pissed off with an artist blowing up, and before you even have time to cop an album, he's talking about bringing through his homies and THEIR album, despite the fact that it often sounds that they've just walked in off the street, and never even LOOKED at a microphone before. Some might say, this is admirable - one blows up, and then brings his team through to share his success. Bullshit. Check out Ja-Rule as the newest example of this trend - he's about to bring through his crew, who will sell simply on the back of his name. Now are you telling me that he's isn't gonna make a load of cash on the publishing of his crew's record? Shit, if I stood beside Ja-Rule for long enough, I could get a fucking deal too. There's no love here at all, its all about getting that cash while your name's in the frame...

But that's POP music, you might say. That's what commercial Hiphop has become, you might say. I totally agree. But even when Hiphop was selling commercially before, it was always different from the run-of-the-mill pop music that normally infested the charts. Now, its EMBRACING it. The major players in Hiphop are selling it's soul to line their own pockets, and its a fucking disgrace. But there IS something we can do... you can rest assured that Hiphop will fall out of favour with the mainstream sooner or later. And when it does, and when all these fakes come running back, telling you to cop their new "grimey" album, that takes it back to the streets, and is the best thing they've ever done...

Don't be a sucka - vote with your wallet... vote Hiphop.

PEACE

No, I don't Have any weed

Has this ever happened to you
Several times while I was at University, in the mall, walking down the street, minding my own god damn business - people would approach me to ask if I got that 'sticky-icky'. You know, that chronic, cheeba, herb, dro, hi-grade, gunja, and whatever other terminology is out there for weed.

I guess my attire labels me as a certain type: you know, that young black hip-hop male who probably has no education or job, so naturally he must be involved in 'pushing' some kind of illegal drugs (of course, to afford his flossed-out name brand attire). So I guess I just fit a stereotype, thus I should accept all of its parameters .... I think not. One should only change behaviour or style because of their own intuition - not society.
So in the future if I am asked for any 'hi-grade', depending on the race of the questioner (even if black), I will respond with an equal or greater level of ignorance.

Yes, I know 'two wrongs don't make a right', but if someone slaps me, and I turn around and stomp them f--- out, then they are less likely (deterred) to ask that type of question to a dude like me.

Get High Mofo's....

--
DesieB

BET on Mute

Random thoughts:
at the gym the other day, trying to get my work-out on. So, I am on the exercise machine and I am watching various mute channels on the multiple TV's that are overhead of these machines. On one TV, a rerun of CSI Miami was intriguing, another TV had CNN with the daily fear-fuelled news, but what caught my eyes was the TV showing some hip-hop music video on BET. No all of these TV's were muted; no sound emitting - which is an important fact in all of this. The particular music video on BET was your derivative content for the average hip-hop song; ice-flashing, booty shaking, hood themed, and of course the new crave -- the obligatory regional dance. This one in particular was the 'snap dance'.

What was shocking was that with no sound emitting from the tube, to attempt to correlate meaning to the visual mess in the music video, the music video seemed almost comical -- even amusing. Without sound, the people gyrating, and jumping around looked so funny, and even asinine. I guess sound, at least attempts to give the viewer a sense of meaning to what is going on in the video -- and even in the presence of sound, most music videos on BET look ridiculous. So imagine, how when other cultures view BET who do not understand the language or culture .... they must be laughing and having a good time watching the perception of black culture.

Thus, try watching BET with no sound ... get the popcorn out.

Can we really be mad at BET for this? I don't know .....

Peace,

DesieB

--