We ALL owe Uncle Tom a apology. And everyone we have ever called his name in vain.

My Grand Fathers family are from Locus Grove Ga.

His Brother was named Tom Harris. He was also the spiritual teacher for that area and everyone would gather on his land in the back of the house and have "church"... They called Him Uncle TH and not Uncle Tom because of the "Bad rap" the name Uncle Tom was associated with.

I remember as a child asking Him why He didn't like being called Uncle Tom and He said because that was a "Bad Word" for black people.

*blank stare*

Now this last comment reminded Me of a certain ignorance that our people (Colored folks as they called themselves back then) seemed to still suffer from today.

I read the book Uncle Tom's Cabin. And I was moved by Uncle Toms devotion to his people and his character in that Novel. And I wondered how and where at what point did the name of that character become offensive to POCs. And all I could find was TWO issues. Ignorance and the fact that Uncle Tom was of lighter skin. But nothing else. And I even did a search for more answers today and all I found was others who questioned the reason why Blacks and POCs considered the name Uncle Tom to be a insult after all this time we have had to research this issue and READ the actual book!

Turns out that the problem is the folklore that is more powerful than the facts within our own race. Because the Phrase "Uncle Tom" is STILL considered a offensive word used by other blacks and POCs against each other.

And then I reflect back to My family back in the "Country" and the words and the image of My Uncle TH when He told me of that meaning. And I think of the amount of pain and ignorance that My own people have put each other through to such a degree that we can't even understand the importance of that book "Uncle Tom's Cabin" and it's influence on the WORLD at that time and the American people as well as blacks and POCs. THAT BOOK was one of the most POWERFUL Novels of it's time and was even noted as one of the influences that made the World view of this country's history and treatment of blacks and POCs in this country ring the alarm for protest of this country and even caused the call for Civil War. The Book it's self was outlawed in this country for a while and the image of Uncle Tom was manipulated to such a degree that even black folks and POCs who had the chance to LEARN the TRUTH about that folklore did nothing still to this day. And That Book is a very important part of our history too. And it shows that all the images of slavery during that time were not all ugly and we were not all useless and powerless even in slavery.

I remember a few college educated black folks use that word against Me in a discussion about our history that got heated over My impression of our history and their emotional instinct to find nothing good about our past. And even as I questioned had they READ the actual book Uncle Tom's Cabin and if they knew the history behind the book all they did was shut down and consider Me less than a honorable black Man in their yes.

I now relate that conflict with the same issues I have had with many of the so called educated blacks and POCs on this site and around the net who seem to have the same bigoted traits towards others who don't agree with their ignorance and emotional traits that are connected more to folklores they know very little about more than they care to find they may be Mis-educated.

I live in a city that was a focal point to the Underground Railroad and the first point of freedom for many in slavery. In a city built by both slaves and free blacks and POCs who are all on record for their contribution to this country's growth and history. Some of which is still unknown or ignored by many who claim to be educated to some degree. And many of them graduated from HBCU's without common knowledge of their own history enough to not consider our past as painful as they think and feel.

I remember being called a Uncle Tom by a black educated person for telling them that blacks fought on the side of the Confederacy and were Republicans in the south before the Civil war. And I was shocked at their ignorance as well as their consideration of being more educated enough to be right without having to do the research.

So when I read the title of this thread?

I think about how much and how little many people especially Americans know about their own history and the history of WHY race is such a big issue between so many people in this country.

And if you were to ask anyone who has a issue with racism "why" and how did it get to such a painful emotional instinct. The ONLY thing that can say is because that is what they were taught.

And then I wonder to Myself. What was My Uncle TH teaching all of them Colored Country people back int that day. And what effect did it have on the people today and how they deal with race and each other.

And why is race still such a issue to many people who never suffered the amount of racism that was penned as being racism in America.

And all I can come up with is ignorance is what ignorance does.

Here's one of the best post I have read on this subject...

http://evz-yoyo.blogspot.com/2009/08/irony-of-uncle-tom.html

The Irony of Uncle Tom.

Boy, Uncle Tom's Cabin has really gotten a bad rap.

Many Black folks cringe when the subject is brought up.
Not to say that Black folks are so literary, whether they hail from the Ivy league or the ghetto, that their taste for fiction has lead to a unanimity in distaste for the 19th century work.
Far from that. The main ingredient in their taste is the name of the book and it's connotation to kow-towing Blacks.

I can speak personally about that same feeling for it resided within me.
I've always been hesitant about the book.
As an analogy, it's as if I had never tasted honey and for the first time, I stood by a beehive in a net mask, as angry bees buzzed and attempted to sting and kill me, as a tender pulled honeycomb from deep within the bowls of the insects lair and then implored me to taste the golden sap of the bees vomitus.
Well, taste I have, and I love it.
Harriet Beecher Stowe's book is much the same.
What on the surface may appear, sound like and feel racist, is but the most sweet delicacy of thought and exposition.

I never really understood the role of Uncle Tom's Cabin on the history of the United States.
It was always included in discussions of abolitionist movements, and as a seminal piece, but the impression formed within my mind was that this novel was blaxploitation, and that it's success was, rooted in the same vein as minstrel shows, stepin fetchit, hattie mcdaniel, bill bojangles robinson and a host of other negative depictions of Blacks.
Seeing drawings from the book, or posters, they were all in a manner of Black supplication to Whites.
Uncle Tom is often pictured with a young white girl, much the same as "Uncle Remus"
And there you have it. The old, aged, supplicating, Black slave, and the golden, beautiful flower of humanity, White girl.
There is much more to the relationship, but just as a picture tells a thousand words, the words of love and love of Christ were not words told in that picture.

The folks who have damned Uncle Tom, could have chosen another character to hold forth as a champion of the novel. They could have chosen Eliza's husband George.
Light skinned from several generations of plantation rape and sexual exploitation of Black women,
George was proud, held himself in a princely manner, was intelligent, industrious, proud and willing to fight to the death in order to achieve his freedom. A man who once he got his freedom, he relocated to France with his family and earned a College education. Then returned to America with his family before heading off to Liberia to take part in the great experiment of creating a free, new and world recognized nation and home to a new generation of Black power and self-sufficiency. This man was a production of Harriet Beecher Stowe's immense faculties, and he was a model for the future coming of Frederick Douglas, W.E.B. DuBois, A. Philip Randolph, Marcus Garvey, Paul Robeson, Robert F. Williams, E.D. Nixon, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King and Huey Newton.

And yet in this, many Blacks could find fault. For his light skin would be seen as a commentary on his intelligence and worth, despite the fact that George himself states his own wish that he were "two shades darker, rather than another shade lighter". A man who was Black, suffered as a Black and was proud and loving of his Blackness. Yet in this character, Stowe did not use him to comment on in-race hierarchies. He was a man, complete and whole and an undeniable product of years of the parallel track of sexual bondage and sex trade of Black women that sat squarely and equally protected within the evils of Slavery itself. how many Blacks in the south, after 200 years of rape and sexual exploitation, did not have White blood? Was there not much debate about the "percentage" of blood that made one Black? 1/32nd Black was "Black" that's if you had a single Black great-great-great-great-grandfather... And bottom line, if your mother was "Black" it made no difference, you were a slave. Surely there were probably many children that were so white in appearance, that it would have been "unconscionable" to place them in the field among those that look obviously Black. but such occasions were rare. There are more than a handful of U.S. Presidents that have had offspring with Black mothers and it is alleged that 5 U.S. Presidents (not counting Barack Obama) were African Americans.

And so race, is the history of the United States.

I assumed that the books popularity and oblique role in abolitionism was in perhaps the anger and rage it caused within abolitionist.
I didn't understand it fully.

My curiosity has been in this way pricked and sedated over the years.
I was ok with the book, and it's legacy being so closely identified with the black struggles and sufferings during slavery.
None of us had any choice in it's history.

But reading Frederick Douglas' "My Bondage, My Freedom" he spoke in a neutral tone about Uncle Tom's Cabin." He may have praised it a bit. He did not shrink from it, nor feel offended by it. The subject matter was distasteful, but it seemed more from the subject matter itself, rather than the perspective or wounds inflicted by the piece.

And so, If Frederick Douglas, as intelligent, acute of mind, a former slave, and leader of the Black abolitionist movement, was fine with Uncle Tom's cabin, then what right have any present day Blacks to object? In fact, it would seem that the proper course would be to read the book.

And read it I did.

could a more beautiful book be written?
In the world there are in truth, two kinds of books.
Truth and Fiction.
In my experience the most powerful Truth has come from those who have survived incredible situations, such as memoirs from Treblinka, Sudan, slave narratives, shipwrecks, natural disasters, people against the odds who miraculously survived. In these stories, the only thing to be done, is to tell the tale. circumstance provides all the drama. The experience is the setting. The task, is to survive. These stories are the most powerful. Not the dramatized.

"Uncle Tom's Cabin" captures the power of such truth and tells a story built upon innumerable stores of Truth, reinterpreted and woven together, by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Her intent, her history, her family, the time, the circumstance, the reception and it's importance all play but minor roles to the overwhelming beauty and skillfulness of the prose.

All of which adds up to the inescapable conclusion that to call someone an "Uncle Tom" is so completely backwards and misbegotten to the Truth of Uncle Tom.

Even the Title, "Uncle Tom's Cabin" is a reference to a line by George Shelby, a soon to be ex-slave owner, who frees his slaves, and allows them to work for wages, free from the capriciousness of death and re-sale. He tells them to look upon the cabin of Uncle Tom and let it forever be a memorial to the man, his beauty, his immense love and faith, as well as the preciousness of freedom.

All of this must be contrasted with the reality that today, to be called an Uncle Tom is to be called less than a man..
in reality, Uncle Tom was Christ-like.
He endured his fate like Christ.
refusing to do wrong. refusing to hate, refusing to betray trust and loyalty. shielding others, being selfless, and always in the bountiful grace of his lord and savior.

Uncle Tom is surely one of the most beautiful, moral and meek martyrs there ever was or could be.
He in fact gave his life and was beaten to death for not divulging the whereabouts of two female runaway slaves.
He even told his "Masser Legree" that he knew where they were, but the regardless of what happened, he could not, would not ever betray them. and for this he was beaten to death. and with his dying breath, he forgave his attackers and prayed to God for their salvation.

And now we call "Uncle Tom's" the guys who have the exact opposite of the qualities of the original.

And Harriet Beecher Stowe, hastened the end of slavery and struck one of the mightiest, if not the mightiest blow against the entire system of slavery. A staunch abolitionist, daughter of a preacher, sister of a preacher, from a family of abolitionist. she did everything she could to lay the thing bare.

This book was the second best selling book in the United State in the 19th Century, right behind the bible. You'd be hard pressed to find any book, by any author, written at any time that was more respectful, more praising of Blacks, more condemning of slavery than Uncle Tom's Cabin.

it is truly an irony, that as we've matured in the battle against discrimination, we have trampled this holy book underfoot, and declared it a racist artifact, despite it's power, it's beauty, it's intention and the vast work that it achieved in the struggle for freedom.

And if there could be any doubt in the minds of any as to the motivation, intent, truth, morality and ethics of the author, then they should forsake the reading of the book, and read chapter forty-five (45) the last chapter. There, plain and simple, is where the truth lay for all those who have any desire to know of it, and once having read it, there should be no need for speculation, interpretation, analysis, debate or deconstruction.

The real issue now is not who is at fault for the mis education of not just the negro but of the American people?

But HOW are we going to Re educate the American populace who now suffers from the ignorance of a mis quoted history of their own past?

respect

Has the internet changed our faith or our failure to be content?

I don't think we can blame the internet. That's too easy!

I think we give the internet too much credit for what WE DO. Or should I say what people on the internet are doing that is causing a unfair social condition in people who now are using the internet.

People are blaming the internet for their own abuse of such a powerful tool. Where in fact it is masses of people who are changing their own fate by the misuse of this powerful tool.

At one point these lifestyles were more private and not available to everyone to just explore out of boredom and lust for something new and exciting. People had to make physical contact and then communicate with each other before entering these many acts of these lifestyles. And that took trust and planning and respect in whom invites them into their realm of life and lifestyle. So learning of these lifestyles were not descriptive and instructional as they have become now on the internet.

Also, the internet created the ability to abuse basic reality. So people could be whoever they choose to be and gave people the ability to hide behind images and words that in person may not reflect the reality of truth as to who and how they really are. So people on the internet changed their basic morality as to fairness and responsibility to be open and truthful as to who they are and what they are about.

And internet sites and communities became open for corruption of intent. And people started to change the way they related to others and the amount of choices they have available. And the Bootycall was invented and the dating scene changed people and the way they treated others. And people became more blinded by a reality that had too many choices and too many options to devote to any chance acquaintance they made. And greed and confusion became more of a temptation as the internet became more available to masses of new people who found it easier to chat and search for anything and anyone they stumbled upon. And drama became a new word for unstable realities and a lack of the ability to communicate and be honest.

Thus, these lifestyles began to also suffer from mass abuse of honor and trust. And THAT is what so many claim they are lacking in being able to respect these relationship based lifestyles.

And people who NOW treat the internet as a means of communication have lost the ability to communicate and relate to others all because so many people abuse this realm of communication and exploration. And it has become too easy to loose sight of what they are searching for and why.

So now we try to blame the internet for causing the corruption of masses of people who now are not able to form stable friendships and fruitful relationships when in fact each person has no idea how so many people have changed the way they live and relate to each other respectfully.

So we can't out of all fairness blame the internet because it is just a means of communication and exploration.

We have to blame ourselves for loosing our own ability to respect each other as people who deserve the same. And we have all become addicted to not just choices that the internet offers everyone, but our addiction to finding better choices at a click of a mouse. Thus we now have lost our faith in our own reality. And it has become too easy to make the wrong choices of what we desire over the possibilities that something else or someone else is just advertising a better product or promise of being just what we need. So we have now become unstable people with too many choices and too many options that are possible.

And nobody wants to take the blame for having lost their faith to the internet. Because we are just simple people with too many choices to make just ONE and stick with it long enough to respect it.

The grass is always greener on the other side of the screen.

And these lifestyles are not unstable temptations caused by too many people being able to indulge in whatever they find interesting.

We just don't want to respect that other people are addicted to the internet and what it offers. Just as we are addicted to false advertisement for the need for something we can't have.

And that is a life that is not based on what we do online but what we have truthfully offline that is worth more than a better advertisement.

That's why we have more people in the history of this country that are single and looking for someone as a life partner or people who are just looking for something better to do with their lives that they see advertised.

These lifestyles are relationship based sexual lifestyles that were made to enhance what we choose to respect. And the only thing we respect is our connection speed and greed.

 
respect

Sex is a drug that is in need of more respect than a nutt! Know the difference?

YOU CAN CHANGE WHATEVER IS WITHIN YOU!

But first you have to do more than ask questions and consider yourself doomed to what you may find around you to be failure and pain.

It's really a bit more basic. Just as the laws of attraction and the understandings who you are and what is within you to control. And until you better find ownership of your own inner being and a better control of said being? You will not be more able to defend your own self from what you FEEL to be...

Chakras are a great place to start as well as meditation.

Understanding that the energy that flows within all of us is absorbed and transmitted from 7 points in our body that are not physically seen. Chakras are where your hidden powers reside.

Find them.

Learn what they are and what they do.

Condition them by owning them first and then controlling the flow and transmission of them.

The mind is not the ONLY point that controls your emotions or desires.

But the mind is the sum of all 7 points and not the organ in your head.

Try this site and then find others to better explain these 7 points of your mind and where they are.

http://www.sacredcenters.com/chakras

Chakra Seven: Sahasrara

Thought, Universal identity, oriented to self-knowledge

This is the crown chakra that relates to consciousness as pure awareness. It is our connection to the greater world beyond, to a timeless, spaceless place of all-knowing. When developed, this chakra brings us knowledge, wisdom, understanding, spiritual connection, and bliss.

Chakra Six: Ajna

Light, Archetypal identity, oriented to self-reflection

This chakra is known as the brow chakra or third eye center. It is related to the act of seeing, both physically and intuitively. As such it opens our psychic faculties and our understanding of archetypal levels. When healthy it allows us to see clearly, in effect, letting us “see the big picture.”

Chakra Five: Vishuddha

Sound, Creative identity, oriented to self-expression

This is the chakra located in the throat and is thus related to communication and creativity. Here we experience the world symbolically through vibration, such as the vibration of sound representing language.

Chakra Four: Anahata

Air, Social identity, oriented to self-acceptance

This chakra is called the heart chakra and is the middle chakra in a system of seven. It is related to love and is the integrator of opposites in the psyche: mind and body, male and female, persona and shadow, ego and unity. A healthy fourth chakra allows us to love deeply, feel compassion, have a deep sense of peace and centeredness.

Chakra Three: Manipura

Fire, Ego identity, oriented to self-definition

This chakra is known as the power chakra, located in the solar plexus. It rules our personal power, will, and autonomy, as well as our metabolism. When healthy, this chakra brings us energy, effectiveness, spontaneity, and non-dominating power.

Chakra Two: Svadhisthana

Water, Emotional identity, oriented to self-gratification

The second chakra, located in the abdomen, lower back, and sexual organs, is related to the element water, and to emotions and sexuality. It connects us to others through feeling, desire, sensation, and movement. Ideally this chakra brings us fluidity and grace, depth of feeling, sexual fulfillment, and the ability to accept change.

Chakra One: Muladhara

Earth, Physical identity, oriented to self-preservation

Located at the base of the spine, this chakra forms our foundation. It represents the element earth, and is therefore related to our survival instincts, and to our sense of grounding and connection to our bodies and the physical plane. Ideally this chakra brings us health, prosperity, security, and dynamic presence.

...

So now, think of how easy it is to better control them and keep them healthy by meditation, exorcise and respect.

Your emotions do NOT come from your brain or any other organ other than the 7 points within your spiritual body. But more directly from the first 3 lower chakras in your body. The others are just as connected but all have different uses and powers as well.

So what I'm saying here is...

No matter how fucked up you may feel. You are alive.

Others around you may never understand what I am speaking of.

But that is no excuse for you to allow them to be blamed for your emotions and your mental health.

Start there first.

And ease up on the desire to look for pleasure to sooth your boredom.

Sex is also a drug if you do not respect the power it creates within you and the others around you.

You can not protect yourself from negative energy if you don't know what it is or what it aint.

Everything around you has both polarities.

Learn to choose more wisely.

And to treat your mind and body better and you will feel better, even when the shit hits the fan. At least you will know how better to define your own worth.

respect

Old guard vs The Next generation of adult lifestyles and the future of our history?

I have been struggling with how to civilly submit this issue in a public realm without causing even more drama between many of the lifestylers already including Myself.

But I really don't see many ways of presenting this subject in My own words. And I hope that I post a few words from a very respected Historian and Elder of the black and POC old guard realm as input enough to start some form of "hopefully civil" dialog on this subject.

First this article...

From Black Leather in Color 6 11-97

Old Guard New Guard

Copyright Viola Johnson. All rights reserved.

This text may not be reproduced or copied without written permission of the author. (I hope they don't disapprove)

The Sash season has formally ended for the year. 1997 has produced a bumper crop of title-holders of color. The S/M, Leather, Fetish world has acknowledged leatherfolk of color as a viable presence.

I got the chance to talk to two fine sash bearers when my leather family was in New Orleans. The conversation turned to what they were going to do during their title year. One responded that he wanted to reach our to more leather folk of color, but was having trouble finding them. His friend echoed the sentiment. I couldn't help but inquire as to where each of them thought they might find more new converts to our lifestyle. The answers; leather clubs, bars and conferences.

Were these two young men reaching out to "convert the saved"? I think so. Many of the organizations that are now represented in the leather/fetish family are echoing the same concerns." Where do we find our next leather generation".

As leathermen and women of color, that question may be even more important. For too many years there was a noticed absence of non-white faces on the sexually liberated horizon. Although there are many, many more of us than there have ever been before (including clubs and information exchanges that address the needs of non-white leatherfolk) there are not enough new faces being seen.

The sexually free leather adults of the 90's are a very different breed than what my generation was. When I came out into leather I was content to learn by the standards of the previous generation. Don't get me wrong, I am proud to be Old Guard. Their hands on mentoring taught me skills, history, pride and honor. But todays generation isn't playing by Old Guard rules. As a matter of fact, they are making up new rules as they go along.

20 Years ago you came out as a bottom or top under the tutoring eye of a mentor who awarded you your leather stripes. The roles were rigid and unquestioned. This generation says "I can be anything I want that feels good. Top, bottom, switch, bi-sexual, fetishist. Why pigeon hole myself. I want it all." And ALL often means things that we hadn't even thought of.

We dinosaurs, (myself included on occasion) breathe deeply, and back away shaking our heard and wishing for the good old days. When we are asked to instruct, too often our knowledge comes with the condition of "my way or the highway". The result; less and less young leathermen are asking the questions that need to be asked about safety, skills, who they are, and where they came from. Worse, they are not becoming members of the institutions that have been the foundations of the leather lifestyle.

The experiences we so jealously guarded have become main stream. The activities we only did at parties, our new generation is doing on the dance floor. Techniques once only practiced by an accomplished top are now being taught (?) in cyberspace and applied with only the knowledge that comes from books, magazines and chat rooms. There has to be some adjustment here.

The previous generation has an obligation to pass on its knowledge, or those that follow will forever be reinventing the wheel. But if we keep insisting that those who come after us do it our way or not at all we too will become fossilized in the leather version of the Tarpits.

I started this editorial off because I was worried about the next leather generation of color. Tell me readers, have the very people we seek been turned away from our clubs and contests because we are viewed as inflexible? Do those of us with knowledge and history to pass on (and that's damned near all of us with 7 or more years of experience) take our toys and go home because "We just don't understand THEM". Is it that the New Guard is right under our nose and we are too unyielding and self possessed to realize that these new kids really have some good ideas, they just need someone who will reach out and offer a little guidance.

We dinosaurs have to realize that the New Guard is Here To Stay. We better realize it soon or there is a chance that "The Scene" as we know it WON'T BE.

Copyright Viola Johnson. All rights reserved. This text may not be reproduced or copied without written permission of the author.

...

I respect this woman like I respect My mother!

I have met her and enjoyed her library and her tour of her private collection of black erotic history and her hugs!

And although I am not of the Old Guard Leather legacy, I wish to respect what I can of what it was and what it has become.

But here is the issue...

Many of the people who now claim to bare the responsibility to carry the history into the future of what many of us wish to call these lifestyles are NOT painting a very respectable image of elders and trained craftsmen and women of this type of lifestyle to many of the NEW GENERATION.

blank stare

And much of their history that has been passed on with pride is now being with held from many of us who only see the actions and attitudes of many others who treat that lifestyle as a permission to judge others and talk down to other newbies for the sake of being considered elite and even cliquish.

Now I know that some of yall will consider this a insult, but let's keep it real here.

What are you really doing to show and prove that your history is worth the respect you demand over others who don't know who your are or why you feel the need to treat everyone else as kids or pawns to be played with for your own selfish indulgence.

Who are you to think you are really impressing while so many new generations of black and POC newbies are finding the need to shun many of you for the need of their own safety and sanity within these lifestyles?

I have watched many of us newbies watch many of you fight and bicker over who should be the king or queen of a empire that is suffering at your own hands as you blame many of us for not feeling your type of respect for who we are that is not like many of you.

We all don't have to like each other, but we should respect each other more than we are being treated with the common respect for what these lifestyles should be respected as to all of us and not to a few of you who have grown older and bitter as to the image of these new generations in these lifestyles who do not respect much of anything or anyone as they enter this realm of adult lifestyles.

So I leave many of you with the quote:

Don't blame the messenger...

wicked grin

"When the message is being lost in translation and the lack of respectable examples from our elders who seem to not be concerned for the future of these lifestyles over their own personal personality conflicts with the youth."

Each one teach one is not cutting it. And if it takes a village to raise a child? Then the kinky community at large is NOT doing a very good job raising better and more respectable kinky children.

And that is a damned shame, but a reality that many of us of the next generation of kinky blacks and POCs as well as everyone else have to face with many of you who seem to be just fine with watching so many of us miss out on what this lifestyle was taught to many of you older lifestyle people.

And that's where My head is at right now.

Wondering when We will see any of you step up and do more tha bitch about who should not talk to who while you try to enjoy what many of you have left as what you had more of before you was given the so called torch of enlightenment.

respect

How much old heritage can we apply to todays new reality out of respect for what it was?

The passing of the torch to a new generation.

How much of the past is relevant to what is available to us in the future?

Our history has been paved with good intentions.


But here's something that I have been entertaining in My head about this subject as of late...

My Brother spoke of a OATH and Promise of passing on what has been given to the Elders before us about these traditions and lessons of conditioning and respect for these styles of lifestyles that many of us now find more in open view for all to find and use for our cultural needs as who we have been in the past to be where we are right now.

But what I find to be a difficult twist to have to now reflect out of respect for our reality more than the expectations of a certain ORDER and PROTOCOL that our elders have been blessed with the duty of passing on to the next generations to come.

But THIS has been the FIRST year that I have found there is now a few twist that even our elders never foresaw.

First is membership and inclusion.

NOW, we are all faced with a conflict with the options offered by our past laws respected by our elders. That conflict first becomes as simple as our new realty.

I remember having several debates and conversations with many others including many of our respectable elders who boldly stated a reality that we as of this year are faced with a exception that was never offered. That option was the understand that as long as we are black or POCs in America. We will NEVER see in OUR LIFETIME a black or POC become elected to become the FIRST black and POC president of THIS country. And I remember hearing them honestly admit that this country is NOT ready to handle that kind of new found respect for their content of character and not the color of their creed.

They said humbly that we can not feel all is lost while we have to respect that NOT IN OUR LIFETIME will our people as well as America as a whole will NOT allow that image to exist without a severe revolt from the masses who have been conditioned to not allow such a reality to become our history.

And when I think back to many of the times I have had to respect My elders faith over their fantasies of a impossible prediction.

But look at us today.

We still have a Black or POC President of this country!

But we Never have been prepared for this amount of evolution into what we now are faced with as a country as a whole.

Not just black and POCs who have been defined as too unstable of a mentality as a people to not overly abuse our new found freedom and foundation from where we have come from our American past history.

And even non black and POC type Americans are suffering from a self imposed fear of the possibilities of a reality of others knowledge of the character of people they have been raised thus far to believe blacks and POCs are able to respectfully honor as NOW full members of this countries dynamic that was never expected to EVER become this multi racial and civil.

And this is the FIRST twist in a reality that non of our elders expected was in need of being more trained and prepared to not just respect but to honor without fear of being bamboozled by the "other man" who has grown to believe that our genetic structure as a race can not be trusted with such a responsibility when we have been persecuted so severe enough to expect a back lash because we may not receive reparations for past suffering of others who have now grown out of the need to be entitled as a oppressor.

And EVERYTHING right now is too extremely different from where our elders were conditioned to respect for the need of our own protocols and previsions custom made for what our race had been defined as.

But that slight reality and change of reality as we know it now has changed EVERYTHING that was made to not belittle our people as they have become.

So while I desire to honor My elders.

I am now stuck with a NEW reality. And I as well as everyone else in this country are also suffering from a unexpected twist in fate that has not fueled our fears that were once taught to be a need for caution as to how possible for blacks and POCs to become productive partners of the American way...

So that first reality is becoming a difficult twist in fate and reality to justify some of the customs that are put in place to better prepare our people to become more respectable citizens of a country that was formed under the reality of that time in history as a reason to consider the ability for blacks and POCs to become just as much of responsible and respectable partners in this countries importances.

Now...

The next image I wish to paint is something else that has not been considered as a need to be better prepared for being more free as a character of people as a whole from many others in our past who never saw the evolution of the blacks and POCs being able to not just mix or melt into one country undivided but the ability for us to genetically become considered equal.

But we are not just free. We are overly exposed to the same new reality and freedom that everyone has not found within the WORLD WIDE WEB.

So how do we now teach a tradition that was passed down from our elders when these new blacks and POCs are faced with a freedom that has just become not just a new reality but has become a contradiction to a rule that was shamefully taught to everyone at a point in American history.

So now comes the twist.

We as older adults who have had some education offered to us by our elders of our past generations and cultures.

How ready are we to be able to deal with being able to offer JUST WHAT the younger generation may desire to learn without having to deal with your conditioning of that past protocol of crawling before we walk when these new generations are faced with a reality that has never existed before in our genetic reality as a whole.

Meaning?

If you find yourself being questioned by a younger generation that wants to better learn how to respect the beauty of what these lifestyles have to offer all of us as responsible adults, because they want to also respect their heritage and add their own style to what they already have been told is the ugly truth about what black people and POCs are capable of dealing with after all the abuse they have recorded as such.

But what about generation X,Y, and Z as well as these newly free babyboomer adults that are now finding themselves back into the populace of adluts just because they have found them selves of sound mind and body at a older age than they have been taught was possible.

So what do you offer someone who May not want to respect the structure of OLD GUARD protocols and mentalities that are out of date as a reality of what we are and what we have a options as who we are now in reality compared to what have been understood as what we can be if we are offered a fair equality as American people and now un_evolved animals and natives.

So if a young adult wishes to learn more about these traditions and cultural protocols of a different breed of human than what they have learned they are, but they don't want to respect everything they feel does not apply to their character. So all they want is a few pointers as a structure and not a all or nothing clause of what they have to be in order to be respected today as they reinvent their new dynamic as they are blessed to freely explore.

Like sex, and non emotional sexual conduct between casual partners without being shun for disrespecting the morality we have been raised with from our elders. So trying to tell them in their dynamic that they CAN NOT reinvent their own style or path without following a set of rules that were never considered the possibilities of being more free as a people than we have ever been in our American history.

So while we have been given a certain structure of conduct and morality to be our guide as blacks and POCs? We are faced with considering some of our customs taught by our elders to be out dated if not redefined due to our drastic sift in reality of whom we all are and who we are not.

So can people who have been taught a certain format that now has changed by our new reality of todays freedoms as a people?

Or are we faced with a struggle of not being as stuck as our elders of the past had no insight enough to expect a new image of who we are today as a people compared to what we had no ability to predict this amount of change.

We are not just stuck with the options that have been basic laws of reality. But we are now a bit too free to explore the amount of options that were in the past told is too much for our people to respectfully respect.

So how do you assist someone from the hip hop generation who wants to custom make a respectable lifestyle that has never been open to exploration as a whole?

Can the old guard learn from a new generation how to better live a new freedom that was never allowed to entertain?

That depends on our ability to adjust our own laws of morality as it pertains to our races of people who now are not prevented from exploring new options of a new reality.

This is NOT our grandparents lifestyle anymore.

So how can we respect our heritage without feeling that we are not the same type people as many of the people in the past have grown to respect as the way it is and who we are rather we like it or not.


That is our issue today.

And that is no easy task.

Explaining to the newer generation what they have today as better options than we have ever had in our American history.


How do we PIMP our lifestyle without offending the older generation who have deep seated issues with the use of the word PIMP as well as honor our ability to honor these lifestyles that have been examples of a little of the old with new adjustments pending.

All of this is too new to risk being too new to share a honor worth being connected to our own past.

But it is now what it is now.


We got work to do. And we may be the ones who need to learn what today is that is not what we were or were not.




respect