NEVER BECOME SO BLACK THAT YOU FORGET YOU NEED WHITE ALLIES

Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattree

Contrary to popular belief, Black people don’t have a moral obligation to be stupid.

.

  NEVER BECOME SO BLACK THAT YOU FORGET YOU NEED WHITE ALLIES

WHITE ALLIES

I started writing when my children were toddlers for two reasons - first, I decided that we should all contribute what we do best to the community, and secondly, I began to notice that many of the people I read were being self-serving. Instead of telling Black people what they NEEDED to hear, they were so interested in their own notoriety and fame that they told the people what they WANTED to hear in order to feather their own nests. So instead of educating Black people and discussing the best way to move forward, the favorite subject of many Black intellectuals was “Who could find the most creative reasons to hate the White man?” – and that was even as they cozied up to that very same White man for book deals, professorships, and television facetime.
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I decided that didn’t help Black people at all. But then, they weren't writing to help Black people. It’s was all about capitalism – the very same thing that was responsible for Black enslavement in the first place. I used to complain to my wife about it all the time, and she had a simple solution – “Well, you do it.” She was right, and I’ve been doing it ever since.
.
If Black people are going to move forward, we can't continue to say that all of our problems are the White man’s fault. No, we shouldn’t ignore all of the atrocities that this White supremacist society has committed against Black people, but we shouldn’t dwell upon it either, because sitting in the corner with our lips poked out is not gonna get us anywhere. We must maintain the clarity of mind and objectivity to recognize that many of our problems are a result of our own dysfunction. If we fail to do that, even if every White man on the face of the Earth disappeared tomorrow, we’d still have problems.

.

We’re not so weak-minded that the White man controls our every thought and action. It’s not the White man’s fault when we leave our sisters with a house full of babies and then walk away to allow them to either sink or swim on their own; it’s not the White man’s fault that we choose to abuse drugs instead of cultivating our minds, and it’s not the White man’s fault that we think it’s manly to blow one another’s brains out on the street. That’s our fault, because we refuse to make the pursuit of knowledge the new “soul”.
.
But I found a perfect example of this kind of flawed thinking while browsing the internet in a post written by a Black Ph.D. – in EDUCATION, no less! She writes the following:

.
“‘The students, all convicted of felonies, earned associate degrees by

PRISON SCHOLARS

completing 60 credits in courses taught by Washington U. professors. They take two to four classes each semester, all for free. Course offerings this spring included Chinese Civilization, Introduction to Macroeconomics and Greek Mythology. --Excerpt.'  On the surface, this looks like two institutions are working together for the greater good of those incarcerated men. They are. On the surface . . .

.

“At the very least, these listed course offerings are a bit dubious when considering any ability to get a well paying job upon release, or using this gained *knowledge* of Chinese Civilization or Greek Mythology to open their own businesses. Of course one can hope the student convicts also got Business Management and other usable courses. What do you think?”

.

The very first thing that jumped out at me was in the good doctor’s attempt to make her point - which seems to be that the effort to educate these inmates was nothing more than window-dressing that failed to give the inmates the education needed to survive in the real world - in her restatement of the courses provided, she conveniently left out the most important course in that regard – Macroeconomics. That clearly betrayed her motive.  She was much more interested in criticizing the program than she was in relating truth and objectivity.

.

BERNIE SANDERS FIGHTING
FOR CIVIL RIGHTS DURING THE 60S

Every Black person in America (with the possible exception of Clarence Thomas and Ben Carson) know that White supremacy is real, but the good doctor took it a step further to profile and impugn the motives of  even the White folks who are TRYING to do the right thing. While that may make her look like a no-nonsense Black warrior, that only feathers her own nest among the non-thinkers among us, but it’s not in the Black community’s best interest.
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Since Black people are only 14.6% of the population, we need allies, and the good doctor’s brand of rhetoric only serves to turn potential allies off in droves.  In fact, it can be argued that Donald Trump became president the second that the sisters from Black Lives Matter went on stage and snatched the microphone from Bernie Sanders. Say what you will about their motives, but it was piss-poor judgment.

.

No one’s more pro-Black than I am, but their actions even pissed me off, so I know it turned millions of White people off. We often tend to forget that when seeking allies, image counts - and our failure to recognize that fact is undoubtedly one of our huge problems. When some of us gain the spotlight, instead of focusing on the big picture we can't seem to resist the urge to put on a performance for the public, and we invariably go overboard.

.

The Black community must always remember that we can’t out-scream the White establishment, because they control the media, and we can’t out-fight them because they control the military and police, so our only option is to out-think them, and this “educator” is not doing that.
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We can not only gain leverage by force, we can gain leverage through knowledge. In order for the powers that be to maintain power and promote their agenda they must keep the population undereducated. That presents the Black community with an excellent opportunity to level the playing field. While everyone else is being dumbed-down, we should be gorging ourselves on knowledge. As usual, our sisters are ahead of the game in recognizing that fact, but now we’ve got to get the Black man’s attention. Many Black men are so busy either struggling to make a living, or trying to be cool, that we’re completely missing the point. But these inmates have had the time to think, and they’ve become immune to the poverty pimps playing on their misery to feather their own nests.

.

BLACK WOMEN HAVE BECOME THE MOST EDUCATED GROUP IN THE UNITED STATES

"Black women are now the most educated group in US, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Between 2009 and 2010, black women earned 68 per cent of associate's degrees, 66 per cent of bachelor's degrees, 71 per cent of master's degrees and 65 per cent of all doctorate degrees awarded to black students.

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"By both race and gender, a higher percentage of black women (9.7 per cent) is enrolled in college than any other group, including Asian women (8.7 per cent), white women (7.1 per cent) and white men (6.1 per cent)."

So articles like the one referenced here, where a Black Ph.D. takes the constructive efforts of a prison and university system coming together to allow the inmates to earn college degrees, and then turning that constructive and well-meaning act into an insidious White supremacist conspiracy is destructive to the Black community. It not only promotes division and dysfunction within society as a whole, but it also represents a gross assault on simple common sense.  After all, how can educating Black prisoners possibly promote White supremacy!!!? They could have done more in that regard by just allowing them to rot in their cells.

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That’s why I went out of my way to address this issue. The Black community must start looking forward and focusing on ways to improve our condition instead wasting our time looking for every way in which the White establishment has undermined us. We already know we’ve been undermined, so we should simply take that overall knowledge and begin to address the issues that made it possible – and the simple answer to that is a lack of knowledge.

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The White man wasn’t able to enslave Black people because he could beat us up, he was able to enslave us because he had a knowledge of gunpowder that we didn’t possess. Thus, the source of our enslavement was a lack of knowledge, so the key to our liberation is to embrace the pursuit of that same knowledge as a way of life. Yet, the writer in question seems to have found a reason to criticize that pursuit.

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When I was a kid and going in and out of jail, the bulls used to laugh at my budding intellect. That was their favorite pastime, laughing at the ignorance of young Black men. I didn’t like being laughed at, so that’s what set me on my journey in pursuit of knowledge. As a result of that pursuit, I can now laugh at their dumb asses, and I often do, and with great joy.

.

The most effective way of killing a bigot without having to go to jail is to be

ACTIVISTS PROJECT OBAMA VS. TRUMP APPROVAL RATINGS

ON TOWER OF LONDON DURING TRUMP VISIT

able to clearly demonstrate that he’s intellectually inferior to you, because it’s kinda hard to call your superior a nigga. I know, because I’ve made bigots choke on the word many times.  In fact, that’s become MY favorite pastime. That’s why just the thought of Barack Obama drives Trump crazy. Every time Trump thinks of Barack, he dies a thousand deaths. So the most effective response to White supremacy is Black excellence, not sitting in the corner with our lips poked out and talking about how mean the White man is.  That doesn’t demonize the White man, that deifies him. So we should teach our children, FROM BIRTH, that adversity is our friend, because it’s a source of knowledge that makes us MORE rather than less.

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For that very reason, one of the most important lessons we must learn in life is to ALWAYS give truth and knowledge priority over ideology. While it’s not always comfortable, and it may not always make you popular, we should ALWAYS follow truth wherever it leads, and regardless to whose ox it gores. Thereafter, if truth makes you feel uncomfortable, that serves as an indication that you’re confronting an issue that needs to be addressed.

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And finally, the good doctor ended her article with a question. She asked, “Will having a degree protect them [the inmates] from the ravages of racism and its expressions?” In response, I have a question for her – does yours?

THE HOOD RAT

.

Baby,

I’m sure you know that I love you.
You’re everything I need.
You fit the bill of all my desires,
a perfect match for all of my dreams.
From the moment I first laid eyes on you,
You were everything I craved -
that luscious vision from across the tracks,
that delicate flower beyond my blade.
*
But what you ask is foreign to me.
You need something that I’m not.
You said, just tweak my nature a little bit,
and you’ll give everything you’ve got.
*
But that "tweak" you need is who I am -
it’s my essence, can’t you see?

How can you speak of loving my soul, 

but not the hood rat that is me?

*
While "hood rat" may seem trite to you,
it’s the essence of my being.
So forget about what all the other’s say,
here’s what it means to me:
*
I’ve been brutally dragged through the pits of hell,
yet, managed to survive,
well educated and fully functional,
when I came out the other side.
I scrounged the lessons taught at Harvard,
because knowledge, I found, was free.
But they’ll never obtain the lessons I’ve learned,
or the knowledge that makes me, me.
*
While the "elite" may have heard a mournful Trane,
or Miles muted in the night,
not in the context of hunger and pain,
or hopelessness, hatred, and blight.
*
So while I've lived the life of a hood rat,
I’ve reaped a knowledge that money can't buy;
a knowledge passed on to my son and daughter,
which has greatly enhanced their lives.
*
Thus, I wouldn't change a single thing in my life -
I’ve faced Hell and passed the test.
I have a PhD in adversity,
that's made me much more,
rather than less.
*
So unlike the people at Harvard and Yale, who
try to buy intellectual clout,
they only study the genius of Miles and Trane,
while I'm who they’re blowin' about.
*
So when snobs try to slur me as "just a hood rat,"
I say, "thank you," and don’t take offense.
I take great pride in surviving the travails in my life,
That’s what gives me my confidence.
*
The Ivy League degrees of those of means
are only paper compared to mine;
while they have a "receipt" for knowledge obtained,
my lessons are ETCHED within my mind.
*
I can teach philosophy to Aristotle
with the adversity that I’ve endured,
so any snob who tries to match my wit,
will come up short, and that’s for sure.
*
Snobs walk about quoting Socrates and such,
through their "education" they are prone;
but while they’re spewing the thoughts of various dead men,
I spend my time developing my own.
*
Never give the thoughts of ANY man
priority over our own;
You must collect the facts, and think for yourself,
that’s where Harvard and Yale has gone wrong.
*
Preacher, politician, potentate,
whatever their point of view,
God didn't bless them with any knowledge
that he failed to bestow on you.
*
So being seen as a hood rat has its advantages
against racists of limited wit;
I simply quietly wait for their condescension,
then show ‘em that they ain’t shit.
*
While God made birds to fly and fish to swim,
he gave man thought and that's the key.
So any man who thinks he's superior
will have to PROVE his wit to me.
*
Thus, knowledge is the key to set us free,
no matter what the people say,
and there’s nothing more formidable than
a knowledgeable hood rat, and
that’s what you’re looking upon today.
*
Yet, these are the things you want me to purge,
and spurn the life I’ve led,
but I’m sorry, my love,
as much as I love you,
the soul of a hood rat is my edge.
.
http://wattree.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-hood-rat.html

Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com

Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
.
Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does. 

Sphere: Related Content

LET US EMBRACE KNOWLEDGE OVER SWAG

Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattree

Contrary to popular belief, Black people do not have a moral obligation to be stupid.

.

LET US EMBRACE KNOWLEDGE OVER SWAG

I'm under no illusions. No one man corners the market on either knowledge, wisdom, or intellect, but I hate rap, and it’s impossible to overstate the passion that I bring to that hatred. It’s right up there with my hatred of Donald Trump and the Klan. But let me try to give you just a glimpse of just how much I hate that genre - I’d rather spend a day in jail, than a day listening to rap in the arms of Halle Berry, and I mean that.  At least in jail I could spend the day sleeping or reading a magazine and not be subjected to fingernails scraping against a blackboard of ignorance to the monotonous beat of a drum machine.
.
And I wasn't the only one of my generation who hated rap. Don Cornelius of Soul Train fame also hated it. The New York Times reported,  "While Mr. Cornelius had somewhat reluctantly but warmly embraced disco on his show, he had more misgivings about the advent of hip-hop and rap, which he thought were degrading. 'I could do it. I could be like ‘yowassup!’ But I’d look stupid,' he once told an interviewer."
.

Yeah, I know – many of our people swear by rap music, but when I was a kid, I swore by Bozo the Clown too, until I acquired the knowledge and

sophistication to outgrow him. But rap seems to have a quality about it that lulls the mind into a state of somnambulism that people tend to never outgrow - or causes them to be, as they used to say back in the day, stuck on stupid. That’s one of the reasons that we have a subculture of 40-year-old teenagers walking around in sneakers and baseball caps and still sleeping on their mommas' couches.
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Personally, I think the drone-like monotony of inane lyrics set against the backdrop of a monotonous drum machine lulls the mind to sleep. That’s why the White establishment promotes it and allow its Black purveyors to get rich by disseminating it. It helps to promote Black stupidity.
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History should have long since made it clear to us that the White establishment doesn't tolerate anything that enlightens the Black community in any way. But they love rap, because it makes Black people look like ignorant and inarticulate savages, and according to them, it tells the truth about who we are - the product of nasty bitches and hoes who don't even have sense enough to pull up our pants.   

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But I don't blame young people for this. They grew up with this assault on Black intellect in full swing, so it's normal to them. They think it's just the way of the world. I blame the older generation, who instead of taking the time to raise their kids, just fed 'em and sent them to their room to be raised by the White man and MTV. As a result, many of these kids don't even know who they are. We've let the White man inform them of who they are and what they represent - and instead of the White man telling them about their long history of creative intellect, he told them they're just a bunch of fools and idiots whose primary goal in life is to strut around in gold chains, gaudy glitter, killing one another, and slandering the very womb of their culture - their mothers, sisters, and grandmothers! - as bitches and hoes.

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  KEEP IT GANGSTA, DAWG!

I BEAR WITNESS

.

I sit, I watch,
and I grow ever more obsolete
as I bear witness.

.
I bear witness

to a once vibrant people greedily gulping down society’s hemlock. Even as they claim to be “keeping it real,“ they continue to maim, kill, and despise their own in hot pursuit of the prime directive with the passion of a sheetless klan.
.
I bear witness
to Black fists in the air in false solidarity promoted by self-serving poverty pimps as the world looks on and giggle at crooked fingers pointed elsewhere.
.
I bear witness
to the superficial attempt to ban the “N-word” while the new "un-niggas" stand around watching children killing children and fathers drugging sons, as they celebrate, lionize, and enrich those who denigrate the very womb of their culture with impunity.
.
I bear witness
to a generation of lost knowledge, cut off from its roots by Ronnie’s “Just say no” generation of crack, greed, death, and political corruption; A generation where the new N-word is pronounced “Responsibility” and the keepers of the flame completely ignore the destructive power of bitch, slut, whore, and tramp.
.
I bear witness
to the reckless disregard of the words uneducated, irresponsible, and classless. Should we not ban these words as well, or should we ban banning words altogether as we celebrate their meaning?
.
Yes, I do bear witness.
I bear witness to a new world -
a world where gross ignorance comes disguised as enlightenment, and funky sneakers look down with disdain upon the sweet smell of Florsheim; a world where saggin’ pants and gaudy glitter enable country bumpkins to masquerade as elegant, and the exquisite surrender of eloquence is the very essence of what it means to be hip.
.
Where's Langston? Where's Baldwin? Where's Oscar Brown, Jr?
We need you stormin' this beach, because . . .
.
I now bear witness
to a world where motherhood stands alone, to be “dope” renders a smile, and posterity is forced to embrace the wind for paternal sustenance; A world where the walking dead strut about rapping the wisdom of idiocy, and we praise the illiteracy of vulgar nursery rhymes as profound; a world where the mother of salvation's final gasp is compared to the pigmentation of brown paper bags.
.
Malcolm, Martin, where are you?
I once stood with a crowd.
Now seemingly alone, I'm forced to bear witness -
horrific witness . . .
to the imminent demise of our people,
.
And my heart bleeds.

******

When I was young I’ve lived the street life. During the 50s and 60s my father was the Iceberg Slim of drugs in Los Angeles - in fact, I knew Iceberg (or Rob) when he moved to Los Angeles. As a result of that background I started going in and out of jail between the ages of 12 and 19 years old multiple time. In fact, as a teenage I spent more time in jail than I did on the street.  But as an adult I've dedicated my life to steering our people in a more productive direction. I've sought to emphasize our potential for education and knowledge over stupidity. We must begin to understand that the adversity that we've endured has made us MORE rather than less, so we must use our creative intellect to make knowledge the new "soul." 
.

When I was young and going in and out of jail, the bulls used to laugh at my budding intellect. That was one of their favorite pastimes, laughing at Black ignorance. That's what sent me on my journey of intellectual development. Even as a child I recognized that Black people weren't ignorant, we were simply undereducated.
.
I soon found that I was right. Now, I can laugh at their ignorant asses, and I often do. Whenever you want to kill a bigot without going to jail, all you have to do is prove to him that he's not your intellectual equal. That'll cause him to  die a thousand deaths every time he thinks about it. Look at how fixated Trump is on Barack Obama. It's killing him that Barack Obama, that "uppity" Black man is obviously more loved, brilliant, and competent than he is. Obama has proven that he's everything that Trump has always wanted to be, and without even busting one sweat bubble. So knowledge is the best revenge, not swagger. Swagger just makes you look like a goddamn fool - and you are, if you think that swagger improves your image.
.
That's the message I want to get across to my people - and if we adjust our focus and stop being distracted by the frivolous, we have the potential to do just that. Instead of learning nursery rhymes, we should be learning math, and instead of indulging in swag, we should be developing class. Because the White man is not only dumbing down Black people in order to indulge his greed, he must also dumb-down his own people to maintain power. How are you going to get a society of highly educated and intelligent people to follow a raving idiot like Trump? You've got to dumb them down. But what they're not considering is that we have to have somebody that's smart enough to run the country - that's where Black opportunity comes in. We should be gorging ourselves on knowledge, because there's no better time than now to level the playing field.  

THE HOOD RAT

.

Baby,
I’m sure you know that I love you.
You’re everything I need.
You fit the bill of all my desires,
a perfect match for all of my dreams.
From the moment I first laid eyes on you,
You were everything I craved -
that luscious vision from across the tracks,
that delicate flower beyond my blade.
*
But what you ask is foreign to me.
You need something that I’m not.
You said, just tweak my nature a little bit,
and you’ll give everything you’ve got.
*
But that "tweak" you need is who I am -
it’s my essence, can’t you see?
How can you speak of loving my soul, but
not the hood rat that is me?
*
While "hood rat" may seem trite to you,
it’s the essence of my being.
So forget about what all the other’s say,
here’s what it means to me:
*
I’ve been brutally dragged through the pits of hell,
yet, managed to survive,
well educated and fully functional,
when I came out the other side.
I scrounged the lessons taught at Harvard,
because knowledge, I found, was free.
But they’ll never obtain the lessons I’ve learned,
or the knowledge that makes me, me.
*
While the "elite" may have heard a mournful Trane,
or Miles muted in the night,
but not in the context of hunger and pain,
or hopelessness, hatred, and blight.
*
So while I've lived the life of a hood rat,
I’ve reaped a knowledge that money can't buy;
a knowledge passed on to my son and daughter,
which has greatly enhanced their lives.
*
Thus, I wouldn't change a thing in my life -
I’ve faced Hell and passed the test.
I have a PhD in adversity,
that's made me much more,
rather than less.
*
So unlike the people at Harvard and Yale, who
try to buy intellectual clout,
they only study the genius of Miles and Trane,
while I'm who they’re blowin' about.
*
So when snobs try to slur me as "just a hood rat,"
I say, "thank you," and don’t take offense.
I take great pride in surviving the travails in my life,
That’s what gives me my confidence.
*
The Ivy League degrees of those of means
are only paper compared to mine;
while they have a "receipt" for knowledge obtained,
my lessons are ETCHED within my mind.
*
I can teach philosophy to Aristotle
with the adversity that I’ve endured,
so any snob who tries to match my wit,
will come up short, and that’s for sure.
*
Snobs walk about quoting Socrates and such,
through their "education" they are prone;
but while they’re spewing the thoughts of various dead men,
I spend my time developing my own.
*
Never give the thoughts of ANY man
priority over our own;
You must collect the facts, and think for yourself,
that’s where Harvard and Yale has gone wrong.
*
Preacher, politician, potentate,
whatever their point of view,
God didn't bless them with any knowledge
that he failed to bestow on you.
*
So being seen as a hood rat has its advantages
against racists of limited wit;
I simply quietly wait for their condescension,
then show ‘em that they ain’t shit.
*
While God made birds to fly and fish to swim,
he gave man thought and that's the key.
So any man who thinks he's superior
will have to PROVE his wit to me.
*
Thus, knowledge is the key to set us free,
no matter what the people say,
and there’s nothing more formidable than
a knowledgeable hood rat,
which you’re looking upon today.
*
Yet, these are the things you want me to purge,
and spurn the life I’ve led,
but I’m sorry, my love,
as much as I love you,
the soul of a hood rat is my edge.

,

.

The piece below is the kind of thing that I'd like to see coming from our people, where excellence in music, poetry, and the eloquence of true knowledge and sophistication takes priority over ignorance and swag.
.
I'm literally sick to death of seeing such a brilliant people being dragged down by a modern-day minstrel show. The link below is an example of music and poetry that’s been inspired by excellence and a knowledge of craft, instead of trying to get by on ignorance and swag. Rap is the music of the lazy-minded who don't want to bother to learn to play an instrument, or obtain the knowledge to write coherent poetry. All they want to do is learn to recite vulgar nursery rhymes to a drum machine. So if they're that lazy-minded by nature, what are the chances that they have any wisdom whatsoever to bestow?
.
But I shouldn’t even have to point this out, because anyone with any kind of intelligence should be able to immediately see that rap is a musical assault on the brilliance of John Coltrane to embrace the minstrel show of Stepin’ Fetchit, and poetically, it's an attempt to obliterate the eloquence of Langston Hughes and James Baldwin in an attempt to promote Mother Goose. So, anyone with any kind of  mind at all should be able to easily see that we’re moving backwards. We're allowing our children to be led and influenced by some of the most ignorant people in the Black community.
.

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HIP-HOP AND ART

,

The problem with rap and hip-hip is it's not grown peoples’ music. Grown folk's music sounds like this: 

"When she walked through the door she seemed to float on a cushion of air. Her understated beauty seeped into my soul and drench the very air.
.
"At that very precious moment, I knew life would never be the same. My new life had begun, with no more childish games.
.
"Goodbye, street-life, you're no longer home. Goodbye drugs, I'm no longer prone. Goodbye road dawgs, it was fun until the end, but the end now stands before us, with my queen who just stepped in.”
.
But hip-hop sounds like this:
.
"The bitch came through the door and my jaws hit the floor. Now other stanky hoes, I will definitely ride no mo."
.
Educated adults don't want to hear that kind of childish, swaggerin' bullshit. It constitutes vulgar nursery rhymes for people with the mentality of children - and it’s recited by people who don't know the difference between a comma and a semicolon.
.
Wake Up, my people!

.

Here's what poetry is suppose to sound like, 
not a collision between ignorance and a drum machine:

Eric L. Wattree

Http://wattree.blogspot.com

Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
.
Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does. 

Sphere: Related Content

THE 'SLANDEROUS' BILLBOARD IN THE HOOD

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

THE 'SLANDEROUS' BILLBOARD IN THE HOOD

.

Many people in the Black community are up-in-arms about the above billboard because they see it as insulting, and I can understand that.  But personally, I like it, because it speaks a truth that many of us need to hear. If I had my way we'd have billboards just like it all over the hood just to remind us of what we're doing to ourselves, and how we’re allowing ourselves to be perceived by the world. Yes, it's an ugly truth, but it's truth nevertheless, and truth is often ugly, that's why we tend to avoid it. For that reason I strongly suspect that the billboard wasn't paid for by anyone with malevolent intent. I think it was paid for by someone who genuinely cares about the community.
.
But even if it was paid for by someone trying to slander the community, I recognized when I was an angry teenager that we do ourselves a severe disservice by allowing ourselves to get all angry and upset in response to the non-physical ignorance of bigots. First, it only serves to reinforce the bigot's pleasure, and secondly, it's a waste of time and energy that could be put to far better use by focusing on what we think of ourselves, and what we can to do to improve our condition.
.
As a teenager coming up on the streets of Los Angeles, I decided to use the ignorance of bigotry to better myself. I knew bigots were gonna dig deep to try to point out the very worst things they could think of to say about me. So instead of getting angry, I simply listened, and if I thought there was even a grain of truth in what they said, I’d start working on it to erase that flaw or dysfunction from my resume.
.
By that time it had also started to dawn on me that growth wasn’t about defending myself against what bigots thought - I didn't give a damn what they thought. Personal growth was about focusing on becoming better today than I was yesterday. So from then on, when bigots talked shit or tried to insult me, I'd use their stupidity as a guide to help teach myself the things I needed to know that would allow me to stand head and shoulders above who they were.
.
Even back then, I knew that knowledge was power, and the best revenge against bigotry is to be able to clearly demonstrate to a bigot that you're his intellectual superior. It makes them die a thousand deaths. That's why bigots hate Obama so passionately, and Donald Trump can't keep Obama's name off his lips, because he's still trying to reconcile himself to the fact that Obama is his superior. It just kills Trump to know that he's intellectually inferior to a Black man. That's why I constantly tell our young people that knowledge is the best revenge.
.
Now, whenever a bigot confronts me with his pompous sense of superiority and condescension, I smile inside, because I know I'm about to bring his entire world and sense of self to an abrupt and thundering end. But first, I simply listen. I allow him to enjoy the last moments of his clueless arrogance before I make him personally, and as an individual, pay for 400 years of White oppression. I don't have to shoot 'em, or scream at 'em, or shake my fists in the air, I just crush his self-esteem, and then move on. I routinely do this one bigot at a time and with every opportunity I get.  It's my personal version of payback, and I love it.
.
The reason I know what buttons to push is because I've literally allowed bigots themselves to educate me.  People have a propensity for dealing in projection, so whenever a person tries to denigrate you, the very first things they do is start dragging out all the things they hate most about themselves and try to attribute them to you.  So if, instead of arguing you simply quietly listen to their rant, they'll not only give you a list of all of their flaws, but a litany of their most profound weaknesses. If you need proof of that just listen to Donald Trump. Every time he goes on Twitter or on television to publicly criticize someone, his criticisms invariably describe himself more accurately than they do the person he's trying to criticize. And the same is true of the GOP as a whole. If you ever want to know what the GOP is up to, you need look no further than what they're accusing the Democrats of doing. It's human nature.
.
So as a direct result of allowing myself to be educated in that regard, I haven't run across one bigot in my entire adult life (regardless of his or her station) that I couldn't drag through the mud on one brain cell, and I have the bigots themselves to thank for that, because it was they who educated me to their shortcomings - and they also forced me to fall in love with knowledge, as a simple matter of survival. So I owe bigots a tremendous debt, because they made me who I am.
.
So while I don't know who put up that billboard, when I look at it, I don't become insulted at all. My attitude is to say, you know, they've got a point there. Let's get on top of that. Because as Black people, we will never liberate ourselves by trying to out-scream the White man, and by getting angry and shaking our fists in the air we only turn it into a game. We've got to out-think the White man, and out-thinking him entails addressing our shortcomings more effectively than he addresses his.
.
As Black people, we must educate ourselves and listen instead of shooting our mouths off and telegraphing our every thought to the White establishment.  We must always seize the bottom line, and ensure that we always have facts and logic on our side.  That places us in a position to utilize the ignorance of others to our advantage, and failing to do so will only serve to reveal our weaknesses and debilitate our strengths. We must also completely ignore all titles, robes, and various accoutrements of power and prestige. They're the most powerful weapons of White supremacy. They’re used as symbols to make small men look bigger than life. Always base your assessment of any individual solely on their ability to think. If they can’t out-think you, regardless of their stature in life, they're not your equal. And finally, we must also stop struttin’, swaggerin’, and always tryin’ to prove ourselves to the White man. We only feel the need to prove ourselves to a superior, so whenever we try to impress the White man, all we're doing is reinforcing his false sense of superiority. So we should keep our mouths shut, quietly pursue growth, and always maintain a strong sense of who we are, then let the White man find out the hard way.
.
Smart White men already know the power of Black intellectual creativity. They found that out during slavery. During Reconstruction, Black men went right out of slavery into the two houses of Congress, and Frederick Douglass became one of the most sought-after intellectuals in America. That's why the White man leaves no stone unturned to keep us from realizing our intellectual potential. He keeps us distracted with frivolity, because he knows that the very same intellect that led to the creation of Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Aretha Franklin, and Ray Charles, can also create great physicists, mathematicians, and politicians, as we've already seen in Barack Obama, and we're about to see in the young Andrew Gillum.
.
Prior to coming to these realizations, when I was a kid going in and out of various juvenile institutions starting at the age of 12, the White man took great joy in telling me how ignorant I was. To this day I can still remember the joy dancing in the eyes of bigoted White adults as they smirked and took what seemed to be a gitty and perverted pleasure in watching my humiliation as a child.
.
But I ain't ignorant no more, White boy, and neither are any of my kids. Now I'm the one who smirks as I drag your ignorant ass through the mud in humiliation, and I've seen to it that my progeny will be able to continue that process. My son and daughter are the consummate professionals, my granddaughter will soon be a doctor, and she has 2 brothers and 3 cousins right behind her. So as far as I’m concerned, please, White man, keep telling me I ain't shit, because what you want me to believe is dirt, I see as soil, and the adversity that you introduced into my life has made me MORE rather than less - and your billboard is a constant reminder of that fact.

.

*

THE HOOD RAT
.
Baby,
I’m sure you know that I love you.
You’re everything I need.
You fit the bill of all my desires,
a perfect match for all of my dreams.
From the moment I first laid eyes on you,
You were everything I craved -
that luscious vision from across the tracks,
that delicate flower, beyond my blade.
*
But what you ask is foreign to me.
You need something that I’m not.
You said, just tweak my nature a little bit,
and you’ll give everything you’ve got.
*
But that "tweak" you need is who I am -
it’s my essence, can’t you see?
How can you speak of loving my soul, but
not the hood rat that is me?
*
While "hood rat" may seem trite to you,
it’s the essence of my being.
So forget about what all the other’s say,
here’s what it means to me:
*
I’ve been brutally dragged through the pits of hell,
yet, managed to survive,
well educated and fully functional,
when I came out the other side.
I scrounged the lessons taught at Harvard,
because knowledge, I found, was free.
But they’ll never obtain the lessons I’ve learned,
or the knowledge that makes me, me.
*
While the "elite" may have heard a mournful Trane,
or Miles muted in the night,
but not in the context of hunger and pain,
or hopelessness, hatred, and blight.
*
So while I've lived the life of a hood rat,
I’ve reaped a knowledge that money can't buy;
a knowledge passed on to my son and daughter,
which has greatly enhanced their lives.
*
Thus, I wouldn't change a single thing in my life -
I’ve faced Hell and passed the test.
I have a PhD in adversity,
that's made me much more,
rather than less.
*
So unlike the people at Harvard and Yale, who
try to buy intellectual clout,
they only study the genius of Miles and Trane,
while I'm who they’re blowin' about.
*
So when snobs try to slur me as "just a hood rat,"
I say, "thank you," and don’t take offense.
I take great pride in surviving the travails in my life,
That’s what gives me my confidence.
*
The Ivy League degrees of those of means
are only paper compared to mine;
while they have a "receipt" for knowledge obtained,
my knowledge is ETCHED within my mind.
*
I can teach philosophy to Aristotle
with the adversity that I’ve endured,
so any snob who tries to match my wit,
will come up short, and that’s for sure.
*
Snobs walk about quoting Socrates and such,
through their "education" they're prone;
but while they’re spewing the thoughts of various dead men,
I spend my time developing my own.
*
Never give the thoughts of ANY man
priority over our own;
You must collect the facts, and think for yourself,
that’s where Harvard and Yale have gone wrong.
*
Preacher, politician, potentate,
whatever their point of view,
God didn't bless them with any knowledge
that he didn't also bestow on you.
*
And being seen as a hood rat has its advantages
against racists of limited wit;
I simply quietly wait for their condescension,
then show ‘em that they ain’t shit.
*
While God made birds to fly and fish to swim,
he made man to think, that's the key.
So any man who claims to be superior
will have to PROVE his wit to me.
*
Because knowledge is the key to set us free,
no matter what the people say,
and there’s nothing more formidable than
a knowledgeable hood rat, and
that’s what you’re looking upon today.
*
Yet, these are the things you want me to purge,
and spurn the life I’ve led,
but I’m sorry, my love,
as much as I love you, the soul of a
hood rat is my edge.

*

*

Eric L. Wattree
http://wattree.blogspot.com/
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
.
Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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A MESSAGE FROM THE HOOD

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

A MESSAGE FROM THE HOOD

Some people take umbrage with my defining myself as a hood rat. They say that by doing so, I’m not only demeaning myself, but I’m also demeaning other Black people in the process. But people who think like that are violating one of the most important principles in life - that we should always seek to be independent thinkers. That entails being self-defining, never giving the thoughts of others priority over your own, and never allowing others to define your terms.

.

Thus, people who see the phrase "hood rat" as demeaning have been brainwashed. They no longer think for themselves. They've allowed the attitude of others to take priority over their own, and they've also allowed society to define their terms. As a result, they've embraced the belief that people with their background are somehow less than others.

.

I take pride in challenging that contention because the fact is, I grew up in the hood, so that's what makes me who I am, and since God made birds to fly, fish to swim, and man think, in order for anybody to contend that because of my background I'm somehow less than they are, they're going to have to demonstrate that to me by showing me that they can out-think me. You see, it's not enough to merely SAY, "I'm Black and I'm proud." We must put enough work into our intellectual development to say it, and mean it. Therefore, I proudly embrace the phrase hood rat as symbolic of my challenge to society to come SHOW me that I'm inferior, since it's my contention that it's society that's guilty of flawed thinking, not me.

.

A perfect example of the flaw in society's thinking can be found in the fact that attendant to the negativity that society assigns to the term "rat" is the false assumption that a rat is something nasty, and therefore, beneath man. But the fact is, man himself is the nastiest animal on Earth. While a rat may leave droppings in his environment, and one might consider that nasty, man is so prolific with his own droppings - in the ocean, in the air, in space, and within the Earth itself - that he threatens the very survival of everything on the planet. So what’s nastier, a rat, or man?

.

That illustrates why it’s so important to clean man’s droppings from our minds, and become independent thinkers. Because much of what we think of as true, is actually the corruption of truth that we’ve been taught by other men in order to promote their own self-interest.

.

So while others are scrambling among themselves in an attempt to service their corruption and greed, it presents the Black community with the perfect opportunity to spend that same time becoming independent thinkers, and reassessing the mores that we've inherited from this corrupt society. Thereafter, we should replace the meaningless pursuit of the "American Dream" (bling), with the pursuit of character, wisdom, and knowledge. Because since knowledge is power, one invariably leads to the other, and much, much more.

.

I’ve been fortunate enough to obtain a small measure of the American dream, but it was certainly not as a result of any kind of pursuit. I only stumbled upon it while on a mission to educate myself, because along with education comes skills. But also during my educational process, I found that what I was actually looking for was not so much the American dream, but happiness, and self-fulfillment. Yes, I wanted to live a comfortable life, but along with a TRUE education, you tend to develop a new definition of what that entails. And one of the things that I learned was that the American dream is only the illusion of happiness, since the mere acquisition of "things" can bring you neither happiness, nor fulfillment. True happiness and fulfillment can only be found in becoming the best that you can be. Our failure to understand that is the primary problem that we have as a nation - we're in much hotter pursuit of riches than we are of character.

.

I wasted literally all of my teenage years - those years between 12 and 19 years of age, when I should have been educating myself - running the street. I spent that time dropping out of school, going in and out of various institutions, and using any kind of drug that I could get my hands on.

.

But fortunately, I was arrested as an adult (at 19 years-old), and an insightful cop and a benevolent judge joined forces to get me to agree to go into the military (the army, I thought) in return for not being sent to prison, and the promise of expunging my record if I came out with an honorable discharge. Naturally, I eagerly agreed. But it was only later, to my complete shock and horror, did I learn that they had also managed to get the Marine Corps to ignore all of its regulations against accepting an illiterate delinquent. But once I got in there I found out why - they needed a warm body to use as a close combat dummy in order to train the "REAL MARINES."

.

But once the marines finished showing me what a gangster REALLY was, they had me take the GED, and to everybody's amazement, I did really well on it. Although I did a lot of guessing, I scored much higher than anyone expected, especially myself (I'm still convinced it was a fluke). So they sent me to the Army/Navy Academy to get an actual diploma and further my educational development (I'll be eternally grateful to them for that).

.

But fluke or not, that's where I learned a couple of very valuable lessons - you are what you think, and that knowledge is power. Instead of being called dummy, I was making a fortune writing love letters for other marines, and later I started working for my  battalion commander (who later became the commanding general of Camp Pendleton), and every word that came out of his mouth flowed from this "hood rat's" pen. I did all of his writing, including the officers' fitness reports - I was his "Radar O'Reilly."  It was the worst kept secret in the unit, that I was writing the fitness reports on my superior officers and the commander was simply reading and signing off on them. That gave me a lot of clout, a tremendous amount of clout ("Come on, Wattree! Why be so formal? There's no one around, so spare me the Captain crap. Just call me Larry.").  I used to drink Scotch at the time (I drink gin now, when my woman ain't lookin'), and between trying to squeeze information out of me, and trying to get on my good side, those officers used to keep me in Scotch. They used to come by my personal quarters at night, and every time one would come by he'd have a 5th of Scotch with him. My quarters looked like a liquor store.

.

Then one night the commander showed up in my quarters - which he had allowed me to setup in one of the back offices of the battalion library - with two documents.  One, alerting the unit that they had just been redeployed overseas, for a second time; the other, was an early discharge for me. He said, "You're outta here. Go educate yourself." I was delighted, and by that time, college was just a matter of staying awake in school, and filling in the dots.

.

During my time in the Marine Corps I had fallen in love with knowledge, and I also began to realize that since what I loved most was free, it couldn’t be denied me. And as I became increasingly more independent of thought, a couple of other things also began to come into focus. First, contrary to our national values, the only mature and productive form of competition is to compete against the person that you were the day before. And secondly, I learned that the only true road to perfect happiness and fulfillment is to dedicate your life to becoming your own hero.

.

That’s the knowledge that I would like to pass along to my brothers and sisters in the hood. Because our failure to understand those two very fundamental facts are not only the source of most of our misery, but to 99% of all of our problems in general. We rightly complain that we’re deprived of a level playing field, so why not dedicate ourselves to the acquisition of knowledge to equalize that situation? We should make knowledge the new "soul." The very same brilliance that went into making a Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Ray Charles, and Areatha Franklin, can be redirected toward Math, Science, and technology - and by the way, that's the message that people like Tavis Smiley and Cornel West should be preaching, instead of helping to elect Republicans by attacking our first Black president.

.

So yes, I’m a hood rat, and I never let myself forget it. But I’m a hood rat with the understanding that the White man's water is no wetter than our own, and his knowledge is no more knowledgeable. In addition, since every experience in life is a source of knowledge, the experience of overcoming the adversity that we’ve endured as hood rats makes us more, rather than less. It's that very knowledge that Obama is killing them with in Washington as we speak. They could probably handle him if he was dealing with them using the knowledge that he pick up at Harvard, because they went there too, but he's whipping their natural asses with a source of knowledge that they know absolutely nothing about - the knowledge he obtained trying to survive as a Black man in America. That's a knowledge that's unique to us.

.

Thus, the bottom line is this - with very few exceptions, we cannot depend on others to help us, Black or White. We're engaged in a class war, and it's everybody for themselves, so we've got to combine the unique knowledge that we've gained in the hood, with the education and wisdom that we MUST obtain thereafter, to become the masters of our own fate.  In short, KNOWLEDGE, is the key to our survival. PERIOD.

.

Think about that.

THE HOOD RAT

.
Baby,
I’m sure you know that I love you.
You’re everything I need.
You fit the bill of all my desires,
a perfect match for all of my dreams.
From the moment I first laid eyes on you,
You were everything I craved -
that luscious vision
from across the tracks,
that delicate flower,
just beyond this hood rat's blade.

*
But what you ask is foreign to me.

You need something that I’m not.

You said, just tweak my nature a little bit,

and you’ll give everything you’ve got.

*

But that "tweak" you need is who I am -

it’s my essence, can’t you see?

So how can you speak of loving my soul,

yet, not the hood rat that makes me, me?

*

While "hood rat" may seem trite to you,

it’s the very essence of my being.

So forget about what other’s say,

here’s what it means to me:

*

I’ve been brutally dragged through the pits of hell,

yet, managed to survive,

well educated, and fully functional,

when I came out the other side.

I scrounged the lessons taught at Harvard -

because knowledge, I found, was free.

But they’ll never obtain the lessons I’ve learned -

on how to deal with adversity.

*

While the "elite" may have heard a mournful Trane,

or Miles muted on a Summer night,

not in the context of hunger and pain,

or hopelessness, hatred, and blight.

*           

So while I've lived the life of a hood rat,

I’ve reaped a knowledge that money can't buy; 

a knowledge passed on to my son and daughter,

which has greatly enhanced their lives.

* 

Thus, I wouldn't change a thing in my life -

I’ve faced hell and passed the test.

I have a PhD in adversity, and

it's made me much more,
rather than less.

*

So unlike the people at Harvard and Yale,

who try to buy intellectual clout,

they only study the genius of Miles and Trane,

while I'm who they’re talkin' about.

*

So when snobs try to slur me as "just a hood rat,"

I say, "thank you," and don’t take offense.

I take great pride in surviving the pits of Hell -

That’s what gives me my confidence.

*

The Ivy League degrees of those of means

are only paper compared to mine;

they merely have a "receipt" for knowledge,

while the  knowledge I've gained 
has been ETCHED within my mind.

*

I can TEACH philosophy to Aristotle and Plato

with the adversity that I’ve endured,

and any snob who seeks to match my wit,

will come up short, and

that’s for sure.

*

Snobs walk about quoting Socrates and such,

through their "education" they are prone;

but while they’re spewing the thoughts of various dead men,

I spend my time developing my own.

*
Because we should never give the thoughts of ANY man,

living or dead, priority over our own;

collect the facts, and always, think for yourself,

that’s where
Harvard and Yale has gone wrong.
*
Preacher, politician, potentate or monk,
whatever their tale, or point of view,
God didn't give them anything,
that he failed to also give you. 

*

And being seen as a hood rat has its advantages -

especially against racists of limited wit;

I simply quietly wait for their condescension,

then show ‘em that they ain’t shit.

*

God made birds to fly, fish to swim,

and man to think,

and that's the key.

So any man who claims to be my superior
will have to PROVE his wit to me.
*
Thus, knowledge is the key to set us free -

it doesn’t matter what the people say,

and there’s nothing more formidable than

a knowledgeable hood rat, and

that’s what you’re looking upon today.

*

Yet, these are the things you want me to purge -

you want me to spurn the life I’ve led,

but I’m sorry, my love,
as much as I adore you,

the soul of a hood rat is my edge.

*

Eric L. Wattree
http://wattree.blogspot.com/
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
.
Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

Sphere: Related Content