Category Archives: Piss Off the World

Black Joy is Revolutionary

Posted on by under Piss Off the World, Rants & Random Ramblings

Man! I haven’t done this in a WHILE! And not for a lack of topics to discuss, purely because I’ve been focused on a multitude of other issues in my life. Hell, it wasn’t that long ago that I decided to really rededicate myself to my writing (and by extension, this blog.) By the way, how y’all like the new URL? Make sure y’all tell your friends to come read something. Thanks!

Normally at this point, I would give y’all a rundown of what’s been going on in my corner of the universe since we last spoke. Honestly, I just don’t feel like doing it, Plus, it’s way too much to go into right now. Maybe we’ll do that another day. So let’s hop right into it, shall we?

I know you’re looking at the title of this post and the accompanying picture and probably thinking, “This dude wrote a blog about a hoodie?” Well, kinda. Maybe a little backstory will make it make sense.

So I bought the hoodie in question a few years ago. It was right after COVID really kicked the world in the teeth and we basically all lived in nothing but pajamas and loungewear. As most of us probably did at that time, I spent a lot of time scrolling social media and buying stuff I probably didn’t really need. It’s not like I was spending my disposable income on going outside and having fun, so I might as well build an impressive collection of hoodies. If you ever get bored, scroll my IG to see it.

But one night, I come across this post with this hoodie that truly spoke to me. BLACK JOY IS REVOLUTIONARY. Even the website name had a powerful message behind it (here’s the link, go support)

https://blackmensmile.shop

So I buy the hoodie and in my mind, it was the most magnificent thing. We as black people have rarely had anything to celebrate or be joyous about in the country. But somehow, some way, we still find a way to be happy. And for people that look at our history in this country, they can’t fathom why. It truly leaves some people flabbergasted that we don’t burn the whole fucking country down. And that’s not to say that we don’t have our moments of rage. Especially recently. Nor does it mean that we don’t have movements that are seen as the polar opposite of black joy.

But on a daily basis, no matter what the universe throws at us, we still find a way to be completely and utterly unbothered. There’s no better example of this than the pockets of blackness on social media. We take absolutely NOTHING serious! Any and everything can be made fun of! And that jovial spirit stands in full defiance of a country that has enslaved, brutalized, murdered, subjugated, and exploited people that look like me since the first slave ships landed on the coast of Western Africa in the late 1400s.

But I digress, we’re not here to have a conversation about Critical Race Theory. At least not today.

For the past 3+ years, this hoodie was my silent protest. I’d proudly wear it whenever and wherever. Black folks would see me out and show their approval. Some less melanated people had a less supportive reaction. But I gave not a single fuck. Thank my dad for that, I swear I hear his voice in my head every time I start talking about some black shit.

Fast forward to present day. We all see what the current administration is doing to our country. And while quite a few of us saw it coming and tried to be the opposition, the majority of the country either didn’t see what was in store (we really don’t know how) or wanted it to happen. Either way, the shit has hit the proverbial fan. Folks fucked around, and now they are finding out. And they’re becoming outraged, and rightfully so. Elected officials are employees of the people. Their job description is to serve the public, not just the wealthy elite. And don’t get me started on what that weird son of a bitch from South Africa is doing. No one voted for his Nazi saluting ass, yet he really does seem to be the guy running the country. He even sold cars to the President on the White House lawn. I tend to think I have a pretty vivid imagination, especially for a writer, but even I couldn’t have come up with a story like this.

Through their outrage over what’s occurring, the pig mentally challenged financially strapped former supporters of the current presidential administration have looked for allies in the very people that they once sought to keep oppressed. And to their credit, most black folks have opted against taking to the streets to voice their disapproval with the status quo. Some have even gone a step further and made sure to carefree they are in the face of what’s happening. Because what can really come of us taking to the streets en masse to show our disdain? In getting upset and raging against the machine? Not. A. Fucking. Thing. It’s exactly what they want. They want us to give them a reason to really bring back the pre-Civil Rights Era of this country. So by sitting this one out and showcasing our happiness in these troubled times, we are truly protesting. In this moment, our black joy is revolutionary.

See what I did there? Until next time, peace and love. And stay revolutionary.

The Revolution has Been Synthesized (I Rewrote Gil Scott-Heron. Fight me!)

Posted on by under In the Words of Another..., Piss Off the World, Poetry

Wonder why you were able to stay at home brother

Wonder why you were able to plug in, turn on and zone out

Wonder why you were able to lose yourself in the HD graphics

And to fast forward past beer commercials

Because the revolution has been synthesized

The revolution has been synthesized

The revolution was brought to you in part by HP

Over 5 nights with limited commercial interruption

The revolution was captured in pictures of Jesse Jackson

Blowing a bugle and leading the charge for equality

By Al Sharpton and Barack Obama feasting

On the hopes and dreams of Black America

The revolution has been synthesized

The revolution has been scientifically created and lab tested

Our progression was falsified, our development has been arrested

The revolution was produced in a studio in front of a live audience

Edited for content and to run in the allotted time

The revolution has been rated PG-13 to allow the children to see

So they can share the experience via Facebook and Twitter

There will be no really historic changes made

No equality gained or rights won

The marches we witnessed were just lines to see the revolution in 3D

But for those that couldn’t make it, the revolution was made for TV

The revolution has been synthesized

History

Posted on by under Piss Off the World, Poetry

History is my story, my story is our story

Not from New York, but I’m a Yankee like Joe Torre

You see, history is written by the one that won

And ain’t it funny it all involves a white man and a gun

Or a white man and some form of mass destruction and vast corruption

Whatever happened to the ones that did the suffering

And that my friends is our story

History is my story, my story is our story

I need to know my past and y’all will not ignore me

I’m the descendant of Indian chiefs and West African kings

And I’m deserving of all the respect holding those positions brings

But instead I’m harassed and treated like a second class citizen

And that my friend is how the story goes

History is my story, my story is our story

We’re the seeds of God, all this violence is real boring

Dr. King had a dream that we could live together, no matter creed or color

But the dream became the living nightmare of us warring with one another

Why does color matter, we’re all the same on the inside

We were born the same way, bleed the same color, and in the end we’re all gonna die

But the difference is the legacy we leave behind

And that is the true meaning of history

When Is This Shit Gonna End?!

Posted on by under Piss Off the World

I promise I had no plans to write about this. I actually had a somewhat thought out topic for today, but the world (and my emotions) just wouldn’t let me be great.

Before you ask: the building in the picture is Central Visual and Performing Arts High School in St. Louis, Missouri. No, I didn’t go to school there. Hell, I don’t think I know anyone that did go to school there. But the students and faculty have been on my mind all day. Why is that, you ask? Well, on Monday, October 24, 2022, a young man entered the school and opened fire. As of this morning, one student and one teacher had lost their lives.

This is the first time I’ve felt any kind of connection to those affected by a school shooting. That’s not to say I wasn’t sympathetic in the past. Quite the contrary. Hell, I’m still pissed off about what happened in Uvalde, Texas (punk ass police officers! 🤬). But this one? This one hit close to the heart. Scarface said it best; when it hits that close to home, you feel the pain in your ribs. I got the notification on my phone and just sat at my desk, damn near in tears.

Seriously though. Think about all the shit you stressed about in high school. Got your list? Good. No matter how trivial it may seem now, that list of issues meant the world to us. Now add “Active Shooter Scenario” to the end. I’m in my 40’s and am not quite sure how I’d handle being in a position to defend my life against an active shooter while at work, I can’t imagine how a teenager feels about it, let alone a smaller child. Something has to be done to better protect these kids.

Before you say it, no I’m not championing for guns to be outlawed. Far from it, because I have NO plans to give up my second amendment rights. But there has to be a happy medium between the Wild West society we currently live in and the gunless “Utopia” that some people in our government are pushing for. I don’t know what it is though. All I know is I can’t stop thinking about those kids in St. Louis that had to stop thinking about homecoming or the upcoming holidays to focus on survival.

Killer Mike Dropped Some Knowledge on Y’all Ignant Asses, But You Probably Didn’t Even Hear Him. (POTW Series)

Posted on by under General, In the Words of Another..., Piss Off the World

Good morning world! As you can see by the title of this post, I’m here to talk shit today. And hopefully, what I have to say inspires someone to do something (other than the bullshit we been doing). Now I know it’s been a minute since y’all heard from me. In all honesty, I’ve been busy putting my proverbial money where my mouth is. What does that mean exactly? Well, let’s get into it…

For those of you that faithfully read this blog whenever I decide to write in it (I appreciate ya!) or know me personally (what up kinfolk!), you know how I feel about Nipsey Hussle passing and the subsequent conversations. If you don’t, I’ll quickly recap.

For all the outrage over Nipsey’s death (whether fake or genuine), the conversations never evolved. As a community, we did the same dysfunctional ass bullshit we always do. We mourned. Then we searched for the conspiracy (no matter how convoluted). Then we sensationalized the tragedy by wanting to share actual footage of him dying! What kind of fucking savages are we?! But through all that meaningless white noise we let out into the ecosystem, one thing went painfully ignored: we lost sight of the message that Nipsey was preaching up until his last moments. That bothered me tremendously, and it still does.

That brings me to the message Mr. Mike Render (bka Killer Mike) gave us that I KNOW fell on deaf ears. His remarks came at the vigil held in Atlanta for Nipsey. If I could’ve found video of it, I would’ve included it. But maybe, just maybe, y’all need to read his words. The written word has a profound impact in some situations. Here’s hoping this is one of them.

“We have a choice. We don’t have to be nobody’s motherfucking savages. We ain’t gotta be their examples of the wrong way. We ain’t gotta be no thugs that are thrown away. We have a choice. That rag that is over your forehead or out of your left pocket is better served for wiping the sweat off your head for the work you are doing on the behalf of your community in a way that is not the murdering of Africans. You do not have to kill one another to prove your love to your neighborhood. You can uplift one another, first of all as individuals. Second of all as a small group of friends. Third of all as a neighborhood and a greater community. Your enemies don’t give a fuck what color rag you wear. They will murder you in the streets, they will leave you dead for your mama to find, and I am tired of my enemy looking like me. I am tired of my enemy looking like my cousin or my brother.”

Peace and love. Let’s take back our neighborhoods. The right way…

Transcript of Jesse Williams’ BET Humanitarian of the Year Award Acceptance Speech 

Posted on by under General, In the Words of Another..., Piss Off the World

Peace peace. Thank you, Debra. Thank you, BET. Thank you Nate Parker, Harry and Debbie Allen for participating in that. 
Before we get into it, I just want to say I brought my parents out tonight. I just want to thank them for being here, for teaching me to focus on comprehension over career, and that they make sure I learn what the schools were afraid to teach us. And also thank my amazing wife for changing my life.
Now, this award – this is not for me. This is for the real organizers all over the country – the activists, the civil rights attorneys, the struggling parents, the families, the teachers, the students that are realizing that a system built to divide and impoverish and destroy us cannot stand if we do. It’s kind of basic mathematics – the more we learn about who we are and how we got here, the more we will mobilize. 
Now, this is also in particular for the black women in particular who have spent their lifetimes dedicated to nurturing everyone before themselves. We can and will do better for you. Now, what we’ve been doing is looking at the data and we know that police somehow manage to deescalate, disarm and not kill white people everyday. So what’s going to happen is we are going to have equal rights and justice in our own country or we will restructure their function and ours.
Now… I got more y’all – yesterday would have been young Tamir Rice’s 14th birthday so I don’t want to hear anymore about how far we’ve come when paid public servants can pull a drive-by on 12 year old playing alone in the park in broad daylight, killing him on television and then going home to make a sandwich. Tell Rekia Boyd how it’s so much better than it is to live in 2012 than it is to live in 1612 or 1712. Tell that to Eric Garner. Tell that to Sandra Bland. Tell that to Dorian Hunt. 
Now the thing is, though, all of us in here getting money – that alone isn’t gonna stop this. Alright, now dedicating our lives, dedicating our lives to getting money just to give it right back for someone’s brand on our body when we spent centuries praying with brands on our bodies, and now we pray to get paid for brands on our bodies.
There has been no war that we have not fought and died on the front lines of. There has been no job we haven’t done. There is no tax they haven’t leveed against us – and we’ve paid all of them. But freedom is somehow always conditional here. “You’re free,” they keep telling us. But she would have been alive if she hadn’t acted so… free.
Now, freedom is always coming in the hereafter, but you know what, though, the hereafter is a hustle. We want it now.
And let’s get a couple things straight, just a little sidenote – the burden of the brutalized is not to comfort the bystander.That’s not our job, alright – stop with all that. If you have a critique for the resistance, for our resistance, then you better have an established record of critique of our oppression. If you have no interest, if you have no interest in equal rights for black people then do not make suggestions to those who do. Sit down.
We’ve been floating this country on credit for centuries, yo, and we’re done watching and waiting while this invention called whiteness uses and abuses us, burying black people out of sight and out of mind while extracting our culture, our dollars, our entertainment like oil – black gold, ghettoizing and demeaning our creations then stealing them, gentrifying our genius and then trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of strange fruit. The thing is though… the thing is that just because we’re magic doesn’t mean we’re not real.
Thank you

The Era of the Black Leader has Long Been Dead, Get Over It… (Part 1 of the POTW Series)

Posted on by under General, Piss Off the World

Good afternoon world! Usually I would hope this blog finds you in good health and even better spirits, but I’m pretty sure you can tell by the title that I’m looking to upset somebody. So why waste the time and energy hoping you’re happy if I plan on trying my hardest to change that? But enough about the introduction, let’s get right into why we’re here today…

This all started as a innocuous Facebook post, as most things do nowadays. The conversation was originally about Donald Sterling’s ignorant ass comments regarding Magic Johnson. If you aren’t familiar with the dumb shit that ignorant bastard let come out his mouth, check out the link..

http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/12/us/donald-sterling-interview/

As the conversation on Facebook continued, one individual blamed Magic and other celebrities for not doing more to uplift and rebuild the black community. His stance was that they owed it to us as their adoring public to lead us back to the right path, as black leaders had done in the past. Anybody that knows me knows this did nothing but incite me. I hate, no wait DESPISE, the idea that the black race needs a single leader out front to show us the way. Other races don’t have an appointed or assumed leader, why do we need one? Admittedly, there was a period in time when we needed someone to speak for us as a whole. But that time has since come to an end. And frankly, we’ll never see two gentlemen come along like those in the picture below.

6a0120a69a468c970c0167666d3e3b970b

Now, I’m not here to try and make it sound like there aren’t problems in the black community. I would be as naive as the previously mentioned gentleman if I believed that. But we can’t look to one person or a group of people to fix the problems that we face. It’s up to us to do that. And until each and every black person in this country realizes that it is their responsibility, no it’s their duty, to make sure they do their part to improve their surrounding conditions, we’ll never see any progress.

I think the problem is that we want to see grand scale changes made in our neighborhoods. There’s nothing wrong with that, but even the smallest contribution helps. We have to start somewhere. And the best place to start is at home. We have to teach our children how to be respectable members of society. We have to teach our sons how to be gentlemen. We have to teach our daughters how to be ladies. I understand that’s not going to automatically undo all the crap that our elders endured in this country over the last 400+ years, but its a place to start.

I’m not saying we don’t have to affect wholesale changes in our communities in order to get them to where they should be. We need businesses (especially black-owned businesses) to invest in our neighborhoods to revitalize them. But we can’t expect any business owner to honestly open up a location in our neighborhoods if they look like war zones. That’s where the residents come in. We have to take pride in where we live if we want entrepreneurs and CEOs to see our communities as being viable options for their businesses.

But the change has to start from within. We can’t affect or expect change if we’re doing the same things. I’m gonna get off of my soapbox for now. So until next time, peace and love…