The more I write and interact with you all here in the Asylum, the more I realize the purpose of good interactive design. As a writer, you are allowed to put certain working concepts that you are still building to the side, with blogging you have to present your present thinking in real time on a pretty consistent basis. What that means for me, being sort of a polymath, and having various interests, is that I need to expand my navigation and build many categories. Also explain in some sort of visual manner that each post is building on the last post of that topic. It is like writing a book in public. I was taught that the wise artist never shows their work until complete…that’s not going to do much for my self-evaluation later tonight…any who…In my defense, even when I know I can’t give you the quantity that you may desire, I endure to give you quality.

Much like my thinking on categorizing and building on topics, my spiritual beliefs and knowledge tend to work the same. I realize that most people reading this might believe that “GOD” or their “Higher Power” has an ego, or a personality, yet, I don’t. I believe that all is ALL. Yeah, I know that statement is about as vague as the initial proposition of a prostitute, yet I have this need to develop all my public explanations of my beliefs in simple terms. Possibly why I was drawn to Twitter in the manner that I was. In a more specific statement, my belief is that everything in existence, the complete set of all that is, even beyond what the senses of the best hearing or seeing or smelling sentient beings can know, is what I refer to as “God”. Some say the “universal mind”, yet I tend to think most people will conceptualize towards the anthropomorphic. That is, they will think of how their mind works, and ascribe the same characteristics of their inner world to that of what we are calling “Universal Mind” or “God”. Which is all the same quite possible, just not something my logic allows me to adhere to at the moment.

If I say that my conceptualization of God, which is for the most part all we can ever discuss, is a mathematical formula, then I’ll lose most of my audience’s understanding. If I say that you are a mathematical formula within the whole of a fractal based on a similar formula, then I might lose you even more. Mainly, I believe that is because most of us like to base our understanding of the human on emotive responses. We tend to think solely about the emotional aspects of the person, and not the consistent patterns that we all share – the more structured and easily enumerated elements. And yet, many of us in certain religious and philosophical communities enjoy saying things like, “Life is math, and math is life.” Of course, the minute I describe sexual and intimate scenarios with mathematical nomenclature, I get treated like the nerd in gym class. Ironically, there are mathematical formulas for the labile, or reactionary in chemistry. In fact, I’d say a precise mind, with enough of a grasp on the abstract, such as in calculus, would be able to formulate a function for pretty much all that exist.

For me, there is no separation between the spiritual and all else. It is simply a body. My particular body is a composite of billions of ’separate’ entities, and yet all serving one singular purpose, at the moment, to get me to figure out how to explain all this complex shit in a simple and even humorous manner. That means I believe that my politics are spiritual. My economics are spiritual. This shouldn’t be too difficult to grasp for those of us in the United States since our religions are embedded into both our politics and our economics regardless of conventional belief. We say that there is a separation between church and state, and yet “In God We Trust” is visibly printed on all of our bank notes and coins. Our political representatives and even our political pundits have made it a habit to say, “God Bless America”, or “God Bless the United States of America”. In my thinking, religion was actually institutionalized for such purposes. Any statements that suggests differently are nominal at best.

As I’ve hinted at earlier, all of our knowledge, even most of our beliefs are what we call a “build”. They are concepts, hypothesis, and theories, accepted theories (also referred to as facts) that have been dialectically argued, or forcibly agreed upon over the course of human existence and handed to us like a cognitive baton. Often, what we do with these ideas depends on the experiences, critical thinking skills, and ability to forge an identity or even find gain in the beliefs or theories that we have been handed. Integrity be damned, it makes all the sense in the world to me when I see people that I know are actually atheist to publicly promote Christianity in a country that wars under the banner of Christianity for political or economic gain. In the same vein, it makes all the sense in the world to me for a professed anarchist to justify why they stand up at ball games with their hands on their heart during the national anthem. As stated, I don’t separate spirituality from politics or economics, and part of spirituality is an understanding of the more reactive elements that are influenced by forces outside themselves.( I’m a complicated son of a wonderful woman, aren’t I?)

From socialization we are given our template of acceptable behaviors and in many ways our ideologies with regard to race, class, and sex. That template becomes a normalizing influence in our lives. As a person that has a record for rule-breaking and dissenting from social norms, I must admit, it is because I know and recognize the norms that cause me to be successful in rule breaking, or more importantly, effective. The same with the spiritual. There is a governing body of laws that allow the material existence that we must recognize as “the material existence”–or for those that accept the possibility of multiple dimensions, “OUR material existence”–to have order.

Although much of our existence is governed by randomness, the decisions of sentient beings with “will power” or “instincts”, or “natural selection”, there is another area of our existence that is much less protean, and even the labile can be controlled, or at least predictions of their behavior can be accurately surmised. My experiences have shown me that the same way a scientist that understands the rules or the patterns of radical elements can control for the various outcomes of that element’s reactions to other elements, so can one who understands the patterns, or most importantly, the guiding principles, of a labile personality control the behaviors, or at least create conditions that will promote the most desired outcome from such a personality.

Within that understanding comes a need for people to believe in not only a “God” that is nothing more than an all-powerful personage, but also an all caring one. Terms such as “Father” are used in many cultures to embody this idea of a power guide that only hurts as a form of “tough love”. Concomitant with that is this idea of a morally and ethically superior creature that is always right. Justifications for the reasons why good people die abound throughout cultural literature, as means to alleviate the cognitive dissonance that one might experience when considering why such an omnipotent and beneficent being would “allow” such activities to occur. As a standard of practice, those that are members of communities that profess such beliefs collectively, force upon one another absolute codes of morally dictated behaviors. Even those that simply possess the knowledge of said sorts of groups are held to often intolerable levels of human discipline. In the black community, many have mistaken simple awareness, or “consciousness”, as an invite to harshly persecute and judge. Often this is done without considering what a person’s actual ethical responsibilities and priorities lie. Ethical considerations often being relative, I have witnessed this become a very bloody sport, in deed. I am sure that someone reading the title of this post asked themselves,”How he gone say ‘God’ and ’shit’ in the same sentence…?” Sacrilege….indeed.

Much of the conflicts we observe in our day to day lives either through close proximity, with familiars, or via mass communication have their origins in a quest for control, or influence over a person or group of people. The very concept of property is simply an influential belief that one or many have a right to a piece of land. That is a very simple handling of that concept, but I hope it gives you a brief moment of reflection. We as people in a society are influenced by our socialization, our templates, to accept economic systems of behavior, often without questioning why such patterns even exist, or how they came to be. Many of my colleagues can debate ad infinitum on the ideas of Big Bang theories, and can’t explain why there are more blacks in impoverished communities percentage wise compared to their white counterparts. In analogy, I tend to wonder why people lack the curiosity or critical comprehension to question why they believe what they believe. And as I have stated more than once already, I don’t separate my politics from my spirituality. I completely understand why a person that holds opposing beliefs than those espoused by their religious body would not act out of that belief. Possibly that person has a position among those that share that belief system, and voicing a contradictory opinion, no matter how well-reasoned, might cause them financial suffering, or political defeat.

I hold this sympathetic view even more when assessing those in religious organizations in the black community, where our religious organizations hold the most sway, or influence, over the rest of the American black populace. Social considerations are also a part of my spiritual understanding, and social reactions and responses must be considered. Those that conflict with the more established organizations of belief tend to already have planned for escape, regroup, and revolution. Or least they should.

As I close, or at least break from this particular post, I am reminded of the career of Jim Jones the leader of the People’s Temple. In his younger years, he was an outcast due to class bias and he sought understanding and acceptance from the black community. We have photographs handed down to us from his early years, with his black adopted children. He would go on to form a church and with that church he would develop such an austere reputation for helping in the black community that there are also images of him being guarded by the Nation of Islam’s FOI(The militarily trained men of the Nation of Islam) while giving a lecture to the presiding congregation of “Black Muslims”. It is pretty telling of the influence that Jones had at that time, to be a white man able to speak in front of a group of people that professed a belief in the white man being the devil. Jim Jones’ reputation would become smeared as his activities in the People’s Temple became more wide spread.

His congregation’s devotion to his form of leadership allowed Jim to amass enough money to secure land in Guyana, where he and his congregation built Jonestown. Well, his congregation built it, he simply broadcasted through loud speakers how the rest of the world despised black people while the blacks were diligently working in the fields. Soon, growing weary and beginning to question their place in Jonestown, a number of members formed dissenting opinions about Jonestown. Those members would be labeled as people who begin to think for themselves within these sorts of movements are historically labeled by the “prophets” and leaders of such movements: “fearful”, “unfaithful”, and the dreaded, “hypocrite”. The families of many of the members also became suspicious and I’m sure, quite concerned about their missing relatives and a congressional delegation was subsequently formed and sent to Guyana. Reporters would be passed slips of notes from members of the People’s Temple asking for help. That help would never arrive, nor would some of that delegation make it back home.

An ambush of the delegation left five dead at the airstrip. Jones would commence to order the largest mass suicide of US citizens to date. He ordered black mothers to have their black babies and children drink cyanide-laced grape Flavor Aid. Over 900 people died that day. Close to three hundred of them were children. Jones called it a “revolutionary suicide”. A political act under the auspices of a religious order, with social ramifications that have become cultural indices.

Influence, force and power, is the spirit that guides us all and it can take many forms.
Please be careful with your portion of God…it can get ugly in here…

Popularity: 17% [?]

Dance with Owl through the sands of time…enjoy me. My loneliness awaits your comfort….
While their tongues speak that of the otherworld…my actions speak that of the underbelly…
Welcome me into the thoughts of your membership and let them be not afraid…it is only Owl says he.
Remember me through your sunlit moments as I peel of the blood of vultures in prey. We are yet not the same.
Forget not the fires that I have lit in your ivory towers. Forget not the flame I have forsaken in your attics.
My life is but the early dew, settled in a warm but muddy place.
Today, you will speak of light’s most holiest of matrimony…but tonight…you will speak of gloom and sacrifice
But it is not you that must be carried off in that decorated sarcophagus, it is that niggardly owl…that bid us all doom…
And speak he no longer..unless he be of that ancient breath…
I am the Owl that ole creed speaks lovingly of
I am the Owl the of the West born of the western East
I am the Owl of the suffering
I am the Owl of the survivor gone mute
I am the Owl of the hungry who was not fed and died
I am the Owl of the caged and tortured sons
I am the Owl of the tears dropped proudly!
I am the OWL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am the Owl that they speak…and I will return…

Popularity: 16% [?]

I don’t want to take up too much time with this discussion. I saw the timeline on twitter blazing with the hashtag 750million, and I saw the reports of Tiger Woods and his estranged wife Elin Nordegren.

According to one article that I read on People, the negotiations are “about $700 million”. According to the report here on Welsh, the couple has agreed on a settlement, and for $750 million dollars in Elin’s bank account, she will not discuss the marriage and Tiger will not be allowed to bring his women friends around the children.

Alright.

Tiger’s business is Tiger’s business, and for the record, I could really care less.

“Well, Mister Jay ‘Owl’ Farand, why did you take time out of your day to write this blog post about it?”

Well, since you asked…

My sister’s father once told me that I needed to start dating white women because I was smart, handsome, and charming…but broke. At the time, I was too intoxicated to respond rationally, and yet, even through the cloud of sensory impairment, I knew my days of chasing white women had been over. I do believe in love, and I do believe a person should love the personality more than the wrapping of that said personality. Yet, my Black Nationalist leanings have a tendency to inform even the most subtle aspects of my romantic nature. The contradiction is admitted and accepted, but, I am dedicated to my people in a very dangerous way. Most times foolish, even to me.

What I see is not just a man divorcing his wife. What I see is not just another man being financially raped by the divorce courts. What I see is more than Tiger Woods’ estate being passed to Ms. Nordegren. What I see is another fortune created by a black man being passed into the hands of a white woman. Nature may not know a color line, but society and politics do. And regardless of what many might claim about the color of money, economics in this world definitely understands racial segmentation.

Granted, Tiger Woods really hasn’t been the most nationalistic person with regards to the black community. For the most part, Black people claim Tiger Woods, Tiger Woods doesn’t claim Black People. However, race is one of those superficial items that create communal acceptance just because. Thus, just because Woods’ father was an American Black, Woods’ wealth is in the hands of a black person. At least a sizable portion.

Ultimately, this discussion will become a blanket statement disparaging interracial relations. I can’t control that. This is not a post indicting interracial relationships. As with most of my works, it is simply an observation. And as usual, there is a certain mathematical equation socially in operation that I would like to detail. Namely, as long as white women are the trophy–the status symbol–black men of means will see fit to be romantically involved with them. This is not to say that all black men involved with white woman are doing so because of the status attached to white women in this society. That is not even to say Tiger Woods did it. Yet, the implication is that wealth held by black men is often enough going into the hands of white women. The objective pattern is surely that Black men with money marry white women at a rate that absolutely establishes white women and helps to disenfranchise black women.

The media attack on black women is substantial enough to at least look at the political pronouncements that will attach themselves. Black woman are the most attacked group of peoples on earth. The destruction of the Black peoples will definitely need to see a complete and accurate destruction of the image of Black women. As long as men of any race see white women as the ideal mate and black women as the antithesis, we can most assuredly consider the future of black people comparable to that of the natives of the Americas.

I am not saying don’t date white women. I’m saying that the culture of black men with extremely large amounts of money (read that as symbols of people’s resources) married to white women at the rate it is represented in actuality will indeed create a pattern of behavior that can and will keep black women and thus black children away from necessary human resources.

Alright, I wrote it…

Popularity: 15% [?]

As most of you all know, I’m often left with a bitter taste in my mouth when people just assume that there is one monolithic way to express one’s ethnic culture. I am one of those guys that grew up in the “black” community with a mother who was an English major from a pretty prestigious college, who just happened to be able speak with a dialect different from all of his peers. With experience has come understanding, yet I see that many are affected by the same limited social and cultural paradigms that offset my life. In that need to understand better, to develop a better coping mechanism for my own childhood trauma, I ask 24 bloggers and writers from Twitter what they thought. I have the responses of 19 here today…

From @SoNeoSoulFul

In 2010, being Black means different things to different people. To white America, Barack Obama has become the great equalizer. Every version of Black America is seeing something different. One generation says “We finally made it” to another that has no idea to where we have finally arrived. Another mindset sees beautiful window dressing on a roach-infested house that is being eaten by termites. To me, the whole world has it wrong. Being Black in 2010 doesn’t mean too much more than it did in 2007.

Regardless of all the strides that have been taken, our children still have the lowest test scores. Fathers are walking away from their families because they had a baby with the wrong woman. Affirmative Action and race quotas be damned, because we’ve still got the highest unemployment rates. We have no pride in ourselves. We have become completely content with the crumbs from the master’s table. As far as the general Black mind is concerned, we already went through the Civil Rights Movement and everything is now as good as it will get. I feel like we have given up on the prospect of running the world. Our children don’t even know there WAS such a thing as a BLACK Wall Street. The details of Dr. King’s legacy have been reduced to a boulevard in town and a day off school.

I have graduated college in that time span. I have beaten another set of odds. I’m a few steps closer to where I want my life to be. I am a writer and a mentor. And I still feel like my Black skin is the first thing that defines me. I am not a woman, I’m a Black woman. When I get published, any fiction I write will be labeled “African American” regardless of how I describe it. Time hasn’t changed that, and it’s definitely not the only thing we need. Being Black in 2010, to me, means frustration and disappointment.

From @Coreman2200

What does it mean to be black in 2010.

While I find that the only Truth one obtains is fodder for the Self, I find myself rather interested in this question: What does it mean to be black neigh-47 years after the lauded and aptly named “I Have A Dream” speech? I am a “Black” Man. An honor in which I partake wholly by the will of my mother and my father. A classification that in My Truth speaks ‘only’ of my taking in of interactions with those of different pigmentation in this either really vast or infinitesimally small world that we all share, from earth to sky, from breath to breath.

What does it mean to be ‘Black’..

My life experiences place me quite disparately from the masses of my people. My thinking often puts me at odds with either the conscious or unAware of my collective. My Way has led me astray from our form and define of Truth. But my potential or his potential or her potential or Their potential are similarly and equally infinite.

So. What is it to be ‘Black’..

In frustration I’ve once defined being Black as being “not White”. We, the conscious, seek to dissolve the powerhouse and evil empire that is the White. We, the unAware, sell our culture to the White that could never emulate our passion and our Story. I feel that in my youth and often-internalized passion such a hasty judgment was made, and that it should be acknowledged, then lost. I imagine, still, that with this paragraph alone I will never be president.

Black…

I think within this question lies our greatest failing. We are still seeking some mechanism by which to classify We the People and define our boundaries – our limitations – our box… So anything that falls outside of such understanding is not of that same group. If I don’t feel inclined to hate ‘them’, then I am not ‘we’. If I don’t Swag Surf or pack an mp3 player within the range of Soulja Boy through to Talib, then I am not ‘we’. If my experience makes me atypical, if my Way leads me away from the litany of stereotypes, if my thinking is to love the grand sons and daughters of the ‘enemy’ – then I am not familiar. The question in itself asks of me to cage myself within my own prison, just to say, “Hey! I’m here, too guys! See Me.”

Where, as I see it, to be Black, or White, or Me or They, is to Be.

The saying “There’s nothing new under the Sun” strikes me as both amazing and wholly applicable here, because it is both absolutely True and False, depending on one’s thinking and their perspective. To he that looks to the past to define our future, nothing’s new. To she who teachers her sons and/or daughters to acknowledge the collectively imagined line in the sand, nothing’s different. To the one or the many that aim not to change and evolve and Grow beyond our vendettas and an eagerness to blame, nothing changes.

BUT.

To all that look to Self to define our future, everything’s new. And in every single instance of Now, and with every moment that we collectively experience under that Sun, to be Black, or any other anything, is to be absolutely and unfathomably infinite.

So. To me, being Black in 1963, 2010, or year 2323, means to be any and all that the potential of one’s Way, one’s Heart, and one’s Self will ever permit.

From @Dingane1

To be black in 2010 is to be a heir to a rich diverse and global cultural heritage that founded civilization. However as grand lineage as that is the historical reality of globalization white supremacy and the race gender capitalism caste that has been set up to maintain it as well as a measure of being our own worst enemy has derailed us from where we should be in my estimation. As a result what it means to be black has developed some characteristics that reflect such a situation.

One of them for me being the a black existence is one that is caught in a series of consecutive tug of war matches. I realize such an assertion could apply to any group however as an diasporic african in america the metaphor just seems to fit snugly. Diasporic Africans in america are pulled between individual and community;tradition/antiquity and innovation; integration and separation; monolithic wholeness and functional heterogeneity; violence and non violence; america vs africa (in terms of residence and loyalty) to name a few. All of these choices are made on a individual level and collective level whether there is a meeting about it or not. And as a result have very real tangible consequences on what black will be in the future or if blackness will even continue to exist.

From @SwagDonors

To be Black in 2010, to me, means the World is yours. Gift and curse. Keep your “nose clean”? You can be the next Obama, which only means “no ceilings”…he ain’t shit, I digress. Get dirty? They’ll put you under the under. The power Blacks have is obvious.

Pick a genre of life, they all lead to Blacks somehow. It’s time for us to realize that it’s ALL us, not all about us, IT is us. When a giant seeks to be “all it can be”,nothing can compare. The ball has BEEN in our court. Word.

A donor

From @Speciallyours

Soooo to be black in America…. so much could be said

Everything that our ancestors did in order for us to make progress has been lost.

Everything that was once a issue is now ok. Many morals have been lost, along with tradition.

We have no respect for ourselves and are feeding into the stereotype. No one is holding us back. We’re now at a point where we’re holding ourselves back.

We have so many followers in the community now and not enough leaders.

From @Born2Motivate

To be Black in 2010 means to be just as fulfilled as I am empty; just as hopeful as I am disheartened; just as elated as I am seething. How could I not be? I am Black. And this is 2010. Not 1963. I am a student, but I am not staging sit-ins; I’m simply sitting, in the midst of racism that went from signs over water fountains to fine print on low-interest shark loan mortgages. This is 2010. You know… the year after the first Black President was born. We gave birth to him, and are still going through labor pains a year later. except Worse. Now, “we have no excuse” for not achieving greatness because we have a Black man in the White House. except That exactly seven (7) miles from the White House little Black children must start school late every Fall because pipes are bursting or roofs are falling in at their schools. But that is okay. They can sit in Their classRooms with Water dripping from the ceiling. They can just use their 56-year-old textbooks as umbrellas to coVer their heads. Or they can look to their 56-year-old teacher for help, but all she’s doing Is looking down at her Watch, Watching to see if it is Time to reTire yet.

Me? I’m elated that now when little Black kids get their hair wet in the dripping, rainy schoolHouse, their little hairs curl back against their scalps because fewer mothers are chemically straightening their baby girls’ hairs. Or … wait… That was a dream I had last night. Sort of like the Dream that MLK had. Or shall I call him Dr. MLK, Jr. since that Dr. title gets dropped an awful lot. I digress. My dreams are like escapes from reality because when I wake up, I am still Black in America in 2010. I do see pieces of Dr. King’s dream coming to fruition, but for everything that glimmers in the light, there lurks a shadow. Shadows are Black, like my People, like the Night, like in that poem that Mr. Langston Hughes wrote. You know the one that my great-grand-children may never read because it’s not in anyone’s textbooks? yeah. THAT one.

I am empty because the Life that was growing inside of me has been birthed into my degrees, into my mother’s first house, into ownership, into marriage – that thing that doesn’t exist between Black People anymore {thanks, Media} – that’s where my life has gone. It has been wasted on advancing myself so that my children will know more; my life has been drained by uplifting my Sistas that want to be wives, too – but could not compete with the easy money that Daddy was making to provide a roof for Her and Baby – could not compete with those thick, heavy, metal Bars. I am empty because I am a vessel waiting on the next seed of Life to fall into my Soul, so that my Uterus may bIrth a new generation of hungry, thirsty, angry, elated, fulfilled, empty Black Babies that will know their own name, and know their grandmother’s name, and know the name that was taken away.

I am hopeful because Obama sold me a drug called “Hope for Change” in 2008, and it takes at least 5 years to wear off. I am hopeful because I am still high. I am disheartened because in order to remain hopeful, I must remain high.

What is being Black in 2010? Being Black is being Love and Love is Always, even in 2010… Love still Is. So for me, being Black in 2010 is being Love and Loved and Loving

- Always.

From @NukNoE

I wish I had more time to gave you a complete thought into how I feel about this question, but honestly, who has the correct answer¿? I feel that being black now is being black in any time period! There has always been some force that either holds back or setsback the african american community. To give this thought a bit more depth…what is considered “black” anymore¿?

We have black people who have no clue of the ancestory and those who could careless!!!

If the race as a whole would take the history of our people more serious then there would and could be a shift in their mental focus. For the most part…most “blacks” in america do not even know their american bloodline…let alone their african one!

From @Brandale2221

Black in 2010: A parable by Brandale Randolph

After doing 32 years in state prison as a political prisoner, James Johnson, was a free man. His daughter and grand daughter picked him up a few hours late but he did not complain. At 55, he was a already a great grandfather but he did not complain. As he rode home, he listened to an hour or more of songs about sex, degradation and killing on mainstream radio but he did not complain. He came home to find the two fathers of his children’s children both smoking weed and playing video games but he did not complain.
Then when none of them went to work that Monday, and his daughter and grand daughter did, he complained. They waited until the women were gone and they beat him within an inch of his life. They tossed him out of the house onto the streets for complaining.
He cried as he walked. Then, to rest he stopped outside a department store. He looked up at the window display. He saw the image of a young black man dressed in pastel tight fitting jeans and a low cut neon striped v-neck t-shirt. With tears in his eyes, he leaned back and shouted to the heavens. He picked up a brick and smashed the window…

HE was Black in 2010…

Brandale Randolph’s book Me & My Broke Nieghbor: The 7 Things I Learned About Success Just By Living Next to Him will be available in print, ebook & audiobook in late Summer 2010. Follow on twitter at @Brandale2221 or search for the Me & My Broke Neighbor fan page.

From @HollywoodHeat

If there’s one thing I’ve learned flirting with the girlfriends and women of the academic circle, its that the answer to every perspective question, is itself perspective. First note: The difference of “meaning” and “definition” and the decision of one over the other for the question’s sake. M-W uses words like “logical,” “intent,” and “language” to describe meaning and uses words/phrases like “determining,” “essential nature of,” and “distinct” to describe definition. It is crucial to recognize the impossibility of defining “Black” before entertaining the idea of its meaning to be……Definitions limit, Meanings give purpose….

“If I abuse myself daily, who can I love?” – Big K.R.I.T (rapper)

- With that said, lets shall we?-

“I was born a slave, but nature gave me a soul of a free man….” – Toussaint L’ouverture (Revolutionary)

The cause and effect of the pain of the Black individual is that of a cryovolcano on a distant moon; frozen intensity experienced only outside of the world considered “normal.” This is not to be Black, nor its meaning in 2010. What it means to be Black in 2010 is to be available, escaped from the mass physical struggle, psychological turmoil of living with and changing what is or is not “constitutional” in regards to Black affairs, and what Henry Louis Gates Jr. in the introduction of ‘America Behind The Color Line’ referred to as the “crisis of identity and representative responsibility” darted to Black’s who set out for intellectual expansion (although that phrase could easily be applied to the generation as a whole) of the last three generations. In “We’re Not Alone” by Nas, he states that “American Blacks” are the “teenagers of this world.” The validity of this statement escapes the reputation that hiphop has retained in recent years. In the next decade, the meaning of being black is to expand. The strength of black men and women will always be reliant on unity, but successfully developing varying perspectives that do not divide unity will be the ultimate goal of this generation.

For every Kenneth Chenault there will be a Gucci Mane, just as for every Freeman A. Hrabowski III there will be a Clarence Thomas. The tendency of the Black community to seek acceptance from others by disowning members of their community will prove cryptic ( in the rapidity of 21st century globalization. This disowning creates a larger disparity amongst the Black people than a “unified” voice intends. To be Black in 2010 is to be irresponsible in a traditional sense, it is to lack fear and “common” sense; of course not a literal application of the way we use those words most often. Progress of the race no longer means sacrifice for future generations. That generation breathes the polluted air of today, because the combination of inexperienced ignorance and being thrown in the water create the most organic solutions.

“I learned the game long time ago………dont ever let these suckers find out what they are trying to know” – Pill (rapper)

The transition amongst other groups of people have also begun. The current power struggle between cultures and races lies in production (of talent or those with the ability to contribute and LEAD economic systems [be it created by one's own group or another]) rather than on the frontlines with bloodshed (modern wars/conflict are mostly religious based or a result of said power struggle, not the power struggle itself). If the Black population and others have no hunger for this power, race then becomes a failed social construct. This is not the case. Black is the color of the universe, nature’s desire is endless. Black culture is adaptation. To be Black in 2010 is not to end struggle, it is to turn destined into reality.

“We always hope for the easy fix: the one simple change that will erase a problem in a stroke. But few things in life work this way. Instead, success requires making a hundred small steps go right – one after the other, no slipups, no goofs, everyone pitching in.” – Atul Gawande (Surgeon, author of The Checklist Manifesto)

“I’m messy is all” – Tommie Shelby ( Black professor of AfAm philosophy at Harvard University)

- Heat

From Jess…

“What does it mean to be Black in 2010?”

Strabismus. When eyes are not aligned with each other. Greek in origin meaning “to squint”. As the eye muscles lack strength and coordination to focus on the same points simultaneously a person suffering from strabismus often lacks depth perception, adequate peripheral vision, inability to establish or sustain power of motion or direction, and a blurred frontal focus. Directions of the deviation include exotropic meaning outward and esotropic meaning inward, there are also rarer, vertical deviations hypertropia (upward) and hypotropia (downward). To be Black in America is to be afflicted with Strabismus.

It often seems that we as a people lack the ability to see what’s in front of us, and that which we do see is distorted. Who’s holding knowledge captive? I wish I could see the key in my hand, unfortunately, my vision’s fucked. Three hundred years mentally bound; soul still humming hymns yearning for freedom, back still stinging with scars of woeful submission.

Why won’t you let me be great?

Who are we talking to? Exotropic…everyone who burdens me. Esotropic…I who have bent my back for the ease. Hypertropic…God. Hypotropic…Satan. Despite the audience we are crying out. Lost as a people. We. Can’t. See.
We can’t see ourselves. We can’t see each other. There’s a Swedish proverb that says “eyes that do not cry, cannot see,” and as I stand, Black in 2010 I just wish my people would weep.

Weep and wake up to realize these eyes we have don’t work. Take a cue from Jacosta and become blind, maybe then we could see by faith, and learn to trust. As it stands we fall prey to wanting. Something. Everything. Make it better. Somebody? Self? God?
We don’t trust. To be black in 2010 is to give in to the safe mediocrity, or to strive for better battered and wounded at having to claw out of the pack. Why are you leaving? Are you better than I am? Do you see clearer than me? What do you see that I don’t?
Envious of the vision the forerunners. Realizing not, we long ago closed our eyes.

Jessica Williams
University of Tennessee, BA
University of West Georgia, MEd Class of 2011
Delight yourself in the LORD and he will give you the desires of your heart~Psalms 37:4

From @BlackPosImage

What does it mean to be Black in 2010?

Undefinable Definition

To be Black in 2010 means to be you. To live in an individualistic mind set and to do things to your pleasure without worrying about how you may effect others. Being Black is no longer connected with unity and/or being a part of something greater than yourself. We fought together to make choices alone.

Being Black means being able to make choices in opposition. Being able to defy what was once not available to you and going above and beyond a potential threshold that has been assigned. Individually being Black in 2010 means to defy the laws that once oppressed our skin and even though the chains aren’t there we are still trying to break free.

Being Black in 2010 is fighting for a freedom we have never defined in our own words. Being Black is not definable in Webster or Wikipedia, in 2010 we have become the GREAT unknown.

Copyright 2010 Brittney Greene

Black Positive Image

From @HollaGraphics

What it means to be Black in 2010

I think being black in 2010 means the same thing it meant since the first time we were labeled black,which is STRUGGLE based on confusion. A struggle to unlearn wicked ways adopted from perverse captors. A struggle to define my legacy and establish a standard of excellence. A struggle to master me. A struggle to convince my people to let go of the kidnappers hand and quoting Willy Lynch in their actions. A struggle to be a Black Couple. That means in 2010 we STILL struggle with the one that’s our partner in the struggle. Its hard watching your Queen go out and hustle. It means being a new Father that laments, for he perceives his seeds struggles. A struggle to struggle. It means going the distance to smuggle struggle. Trying not to look like a monkey while you dance and juggle struggles. If all I am is ‘black’ in 2010 than I haven’t struggled hard enough.

In 2010 the most important concept for us to internalize, accept and project is that We Are God. Have always been and will always be. We have been rendered dormant from conditioning. The alarm is banging without a snooze button. We have been programmed into submission. The software is outdated. Its time to reboot and reactivate our original Operating System. Its 2010 which means the time for Black as described by The United States of America has past. It is time for the return of the Divine Mind.

I hope I answered the question Jay. Peace, congratulations + Power to the People.

From @NigerianLamb

What does it mean to be Black in 2010? Owl, Please Edit.

Everybody else seems to easily express their idea of what Black is. But when faced with this question I, assigned as a Black person, could not seem to easily answer it. Probably because I am always being told what Black is… Or what it should be. Rarely is Black defined by Black people. Blackness is something that is often dictated to us. Non sequitor.

Since Blackness has yet to be a determined by us, in the year 2010, I will define being Black as a constant struggle. Fighting to love, define, and accept ourselves. Resisting the urge to glorify things we have been told are to be exalted. Embracing the skin, hair, and influence that we were blessed with. Once we start to accept AND love Black on our own terms, we will truly OWN this idea of ‘being Black’.

From @zqclay

What Does It Mean To Be Black in 2010?
By Zettler Clay IV

Sitting here pondering on this question with Outkast’s E.T. blaring in the background, I am burdened by the futility of finding an answer. I wrote a piece over two years ago about what it’s like being a black man in America. I was 22.

I’m just as pensive now as I was then. I am just as weighted by my experience now as I was then. It’ll be like this until I’m the culinary delight of terrestrial worms.

How do you explain something so innate, so embedded, so….you?

The person who tells me what it’s like being Black in America is the person who has found a way to appropriate the black experience. I realize appropriation is an inevitable side effect of a capitalistic modus operandi. I also realize that appropriation breeds a vague sense of finality that I’d rather not attach to my mental.

(Besides, the definition of race as we know it is a man-made concept used to classify and stratify based on geography and genes. Technically, the black experience is the human experience, being that we came from the same source. But I digress.)

In regards to contemporary discussion, telling my story is telling the black (human) experience. Part and parcel. I’ve owned that and my story isn’t complete.

So, qui suis-je?

I’m from Atlanta (Cascade Rd.), have two scholastic degrees from Georgia State and University of Maryland (in two weeks), read a decent amount, listen to rap, listen to jazz, listens to whatever titillates, hits the scene, endeavors to know as much about my history as I can and openly engages in discussions ranging from hip-hop to Hegel to DuBois to Marx to Jesus to critical race theory.

Not to mention BET. Or Essence. Or the Black Panthers.

And I still couldn’t tell you what being black is anymore than the derelict in downtown Atlanta or D.C. who has no more than a 9th grade education and 5th grade literacy.

The black experience is a kaleidoscope of perspectives, tears, blood-stained clothes, broken promises, glass pipes, hope, education, escapism, razor blades, white powder, achievement, peer pressure, bad role models, rocks, great role models, gym shorts, baseball bats (and gloves), trumpets, church, family dinners, hugs, turnips and beets, whippings, ass whippings, straight beat-downs and brushes with death.

The black experience is a constant face-to-face with reality.

All under the umbrella of love, exilic soul searching and death (in all forms).

My story is the black experience. My experience is the human experience. Part and parcel. I’ve owned that, and my story isn’t complete.

For more Zettler Clay, please visit his site or follow him on Twitter.

From @BilalSankofa

The question asked pre supposes the answer given, and special attention must be paid to the questioner, their worldview, Knowledge of Self, Self-Concept, social awareness, spiritual insight, religious indoctrination & knowledge of the Amerikkkan/Western/Euro His-Story & an acute understanding of their place on the time table of the Amerikkkan experiment. The mere fact that such questions are still being posed in the year 2010 shows an absolute imprisonment of the minds of the questioner & answerer.

With that being said, I will not attempt to give credit to the question, but to discredit the validity of the question itself, by posing different questions in my conclusion.

Black is not a People, Black is not a color, black is not a culture, but BLACK is the ESSENCE of All People, Cultures & Colors. In 2010 just as in every other place & time of hue-mind existence; a secure & transformative innerstanding of the essence of oneself will either be the CURE or continued CONFUSION of a People, Place or Culture. To name a thing one must know its nature. To reclaim the essence of who & what Afrikan People, people of Afrikan Descent, Blacks, Colored’s, Negros & YES, The proverbial Nigga; to reclaim Our ESSENCE requires a Total Re-Afrikanization of our MINDS, BODIES & SPIRITS. To return to our Original NAMES and to begin understanding the importance & inherent power of Names and how they represent an individuals People, culture and spirit.

As Steve Biko so accurately stated, “The greatest weapon in the hands of the oppressor is the MIND of the Oppressed”

What “Black” People know of themselves is of far greater importance than what it means to be black in a particular year. We must come to know again that we are a Cosmologically, Spiritual people with a Constant Cosmological Connection to the ALL. European scientist have always understood that the hidden secret to the Afrikan & control of Afrikan people & culture lives in our SPIRIT, in our essential, innate connection to the Universe. They Know now, and have always known that we are controlled by spirit and if we are to be controlled by them then we must be controlled through misinterpretations of ourselves. As stated by one of their own Colonel Laurens van der Post in a 1954 meeting of the C. G. Jung Institute & The Psychology Club in Zurich:

“It is not we (Europeans) who are filled with Spirit and Soul, but rather the Afrikan people about us. They have so much of it that it over flows into the trees, rocks, rivers, lakes, birds, snakes & animals that surround them…they are humble parts of life and at one with it…Whatever happens to them, their lives are never lonely for lack of spirit nor do they find life wanting in meaning”

Through a systematic, political, religious & miseducational process of cultural disorientation we have been locked into a matrix of Isfet (disorder,chaos & lies). We have been misguided away from our socio-spiritual connection of Maat (Universal Order, truth, righteousness, balance, harmony, justice, reciprocity kwk…) into a global experiment of spiritless assimilation. Europeans in their quest for Our Spirituality, they have systematically and successfully, I might add; as Mwalimu K. Baruti stated: “…they (Europeans) have attempted both to become what we were/are and change us into what they were/are.” They have successfully sold this confusion through their “higher miseducational” political science channels. Nefariously stating that, “since we are all from Afrika, therefore, we are all the same and in their illogic, what belongs to us belongs to them”. While successfully miseducating us into “being afraid of & rejecting our own Afrikan Spirituality, they work diligently, spending countless amounts of time, energy, effort & resources to get “IT” for themselves. Like nature & everything in it they see spirit as a potential possession, as something to be invaded, as a wilderness awaiting their taming, as a weapon to be mastered”.

So in conclusion; I would ask each us to ask ourselvess:

What does it mean to be a free spirit trapped in a spiritless society? What does it mean to be Natural in an Artificial Reality? What does it mean to be a Communal being in a segmented, individualistic society? What does it mean to be a spiritual being in an environment that separates the Sacred from the Secular?

We are NOT Black in 2010. We are the ESSENCE of every time period. WE are the ESSENCE of what it means to be Hue-Mind-Beings; being at one with Nature & everything in it. We are NOT them & they are NOT Us. We are AFRIKAN Past, Present & Future.

Black People in 2010 and beyond: Let’s FREE OUR MINDS & SPIRITS and ALL UNIVERSAL ASSETS WILL FOLLOW.

Coach Bilal Sankofa A. Salaam

President/CEO of Ankh Services Inc.

Wow…I was really taken aback when I read this question in my email… It is entirely relevant to the dynamics of today’s social sphere, yet it’s not exactly a question I’ve ever attempted to answer myself or have sought an answer to from others. I mean I AM a Black woman, my family is Black…and every day of our lives we co-exist with other ethnicities on a basic human level. However, I suppose the unique experience of being Black in 2010 means that we are expected to subscribe to the belief that we are NOW on a level playing field with our white counterparts…I mean isn’t that the suggestion ?(sold in the main stream media at least..) The President of the United States of America is a Black man, doesn’t his status undo every atrocity suffered by Blacks…it’s all just null and void now right? Blacks have the sole responsibility of repairing all that is broken & wrong within our communities… Isn’t it the expectation? That we should recover independently from all of the detrimental contributions bestowed upon us in history. Is it too far fetched to assume that there is an implication that reparations are actually on us in 2010? Isn’t this the general consensus among Blacks AND non Blacks? You know… that all is forgiven, the past is the past and we should all be singing Kuummbaaayyahhh! Hence the idea of American being “post racial” or NOT… I digress… LOL (pardon my sarcasm)

In 2010 the playing field is far from level. For instance Blacks are STILL expected to and in many cases required to masterfully adapt and assimilate into the status quo (socially & culturally Euro centered capitalists driven ideals) without ruffling any feathers or making whites uncomfortable. The majority of Black people I know are chameleons. We are socially multi faceted…living double lives so to speak. Many of our cultural traditions (speak, attitude and appearance, norms and ideas) as they relate specifically to our ethnicity (excluding the obvious, our skin tone) are virtually undetectable outside of our comfort zones. We literally ‘role play’ as needed. We socialize ourselves differently in like and unlike company. We’ve learned that in order to compete professionally, and oftentimes academically, our interests are better served by being unlike our true most authentic and comfortable selves. On the contrary, White people are not subject to adapting to ‘our ways & norms’ or that of any other ethnic group (at least that’s what they don’t believe themselves to be doing *wink), and are hardly expected to behave other than they normally would when among non whites. Blacks are widely expected to exhibit what are perceived to be non threatening (non ethnic) practices so as to co-exist in the mainstream or status quo (aka remixed, borrowed chopped and screwed socially acceptable norms as re-defined & directed by whites…my personal definition). I suppose other non-White ethnicities may exhibit this dynamic existence as well, presumably more so among foreign born non whites. But those of us who are born of African ancestry are masters of deception on this front. We are basically burdened (from birth it seems) to dispel by practice every misconception, stereotype, or generalization negatively imposed upon us by virtue of having melanated skin… for the purpose of acquiring success/wealth/acceptance as defined by Eurocentric standards. If you think about it, Blacks that do not assimilate are characterized as being anti or negative, ignorant, angry or militant, as opposed to pro or positive, educated, and simply proud to be OURselves in 2010. Even in our entrepreneurial endeavors we tend to not support OUR own establishments as they oftentimes are characterized as NOT satisfying the status quo’s seal of approval, or at least the ideas/standards sold to us, that we have bought into…literally… unless they have been authenticated by the main stream…i.e. Hip-hop influenced popular culture…(Euro validated authenticity). I don’t want to insinuate that all Blacks in 2010 are brainwashed either because that is not the case (I mean this post is on OwlsAsylum J) …but there is an element of truth to what I’m saying that applies to the majority. If you’re not guilty of assimilating today on some level… you are indeed a minority in ways than the word generally implies…

So to me, being the cynic that I obviously am or maybe just Devil’s advocate on this topic (smile)… to discuss what it means to be Black in 2010 in its entirety, there must be some consideration of this aspect… a double life imposed upon Blacks even in this day and age. My husband says we are all basically “posers” (defined as someone who tries to fit into a profile they aren’t). Sure…He might be reaching, but is he really? Would it be a stretch to assume that President and Mrs. Obama’s success stories are heavily rooted in mastering this phenomenon? Or are we in actuality living up to the contributions of our ancestors? I mean Blacks are the originators of civilization, math, sciences, religion, technology etc…History proves that African ideas were pillaged, renamed & redefined… maybe in hindsight we are reclaiming what was taken…and not competing in Euro drag after all (see now, I’m reaching….LOL) but if that is the case, why are we STILL required to disassociate from the African part of OURselves to compete in a time when the leader of the free world is Black (mind you African…with an African name) in 2010…

From @UnkleBee

What Does It Mean To Be Black In 2010?

To be honest, when I first read this question I was a bit perplexed. I found myself struggling to decide what was significant about the year 2010, perhaps missing the point altogether. Previously, I had never associated my blackness with any sort of specific time period; maybe the here, maybe the now, but even those two spaces were ever-changing. Thus, my assessment of what my blackness meant today, might not be the same for when I evaluated on some future tomorrow. It was in this thinking that I found the answer to my question.

For me, being black in 2010 is the same as what it was for me in 1990 when I was six years old, and that’s being fluid. There’s a bit of irony, and even a little humor, in that: the only constant is being variable. I’m reminded of a quote from Bruce Lee that reads:

“Don’t get set into one form, adapt it and build your own, and let it grow, be like water. Empty your mind, be formless, shapeless — like water. Now you put water in a cup, it becomes the cup; you put water into a bottle it becomes the bottle; You put it in a teapot it becomes the teapot. Now water can flow or it can crash. Be water, my friend.”

I often feel that as a black person, specifically a black male, that I am encouraged, taught even, to adhere to an image set forth by society and my peers; this notion that there is one, true way to be black. Too white for the black kids, too black for the white kids; my upbringing in a suburban, middle to upper-class sect of white society only made my experiences with said advice that much more extreme. It was through these occurrences that I grew to find individuality in my commonality, while embracing my commonality through individuality.

Being black to me, in 2010, is a show of just how versatile and multi-dimensional I am. I was always told that black is strong, black is tough, black is deep, and so on. While I don’t disagree with any of these assessments, I still have never been a man of absolutes. I am not always strong, and I don’t think that I need to be. My strength, like many other attributes, is fleeting, changing, and adapting as the moment, in turn, changes. Sometimes my blackness is grey, sometimes white, but the variation of my hue is still cemented in the foundation of my color. Water can be as strong as a tsunami or as soft as raindrop, but it is always water, the most powerful of all the elements. I liken my blackness to that. My blackness is water.

From @WriterChanelle

On Being Black in 2010
Where do I start? There are so many different applications. A black person on welfare has had a different life experience than someone who is middle class and black. A black person from Baldwin Hills has led a very different life than the middle class black person. Each category carries with it a different frame of reference; and, that is just relating to class differences. When discussing the differences between people of differing cultural backgrounds, the issues become more stratified and emotionally charged. With the greater access into the political realm given to Blacks by the election of Barack Obama into the office of President of The United States of America, what it means to be black in 2010 has even greater complexity.

What it means to be black is difficult to state objectively because there is no common fact of Blackness. There are elements that are particular to cultures found within the Black Diaspora. There are also experiences that bond people of similar classes in the same living environments together. Some will attribute those to being black. I submit that if other races can co-opt something that a black person is doing or feeling, then it is not beholden solely to black people. Being black in 2010 is not to be poor and malnourished. It is not to be undereducated and underprivileged. It is not to be hopeful and motivated. Ultimately, being black is about finding and developing your goals in life and living to that end successfully while uplifting the next generation to do the same.

Therefore, being black in 2010 means you will feel that you may fit in everywhere and nowhere all at once. Depending on how you dress one day, you may be judged to be a certain type of black person. The same goes for how you speak, walk, spend money and eat. Being black in 2010 means being aware of all the stereotypes that surround blackness and defining yourself as an individual separate from those stereotypes, for choosing to fall in line with the stereotypes puts you in danger of being a different kind of black – the kind Chris Rock can’t stand.

Black in 2010

Being black in 2010 means simultaneously having nothing and everything at your fingertips. Knowing the world is your oyster but realizing that it can clam up on you so fast that you may lose appendages. Black is so cold; black is always hot. Being black in 2010 is just as much O.J., as it is Barack. It is remembering how far we have come & visualizing how far we have to go. Indeed, it is just as much, affirmative action, as it is, Jim Crow. It is the sum our triumphs fused with the collection of our tears. The awesome above & the awful below, it is. Being black in 2010 means to be postmodern & stuck in the past. It means to strive for the more but, at times, be perfectly content with, the less.

We are carnivores, omnivores, & vegans. We are rappers, students, & scientists. We are democrats, republicans, & independents. We are well read, misread, & yes, even illiterate. We are geniuses, and sadly, we are fools. We at winners, well, until we lose. We are in love with one another just as we are in hate. We are evolving; we are staying the same. We are joy; we are pain. We are loss; we are gain. We are misrepresented, represented, & re- presented. We are just starting, and in ways, almost finished. We are the road less travelled; we are the highly trafficked path. We are science yet, we are math. We are in a bad way yet, never better. We are one but evenly, at odds with one another. We are nowhere and we are everywhere. We are the far reach, we are the neighbors near. But, most importantly, we are HERE!

~Venus I.L.

From @DrDia

MY TRUTH from Dr. Dia…What does it mean to be Black in 2010? To be Black in 2010 is to be a living contradiction. It’s being loved and hated; envied and despised; iconic and criminal; embraced and feared; a trendsetter and biter all at the same time. Being Black in 2010 is having every opportunity at your feet, while simultaneously being “at-risk” to fail. To be Black in 2010 is to be told “you don’t understand struggle” though your entire existence has been a fight. I was an Olympic torchbearer at 16, a published author with a doctorate degree in Clinical Psychology before age 30, and my family has been in America since the 1700s, but because I’m Black in 2010, this means little to many and I’m often viewed as inferior. When I look in the mirror, I see the eyes of my ancestors who were beaten, raped, and tortured but politicians, American history, “society,” and tea baggers subliminally tell me they never existed. Being Black in 2010 for some is a gift to change the world through social justice, technology, education, science, entertainment, and any other imaginable or unimaginable phenomenon; yet because the journey is wrought with pain, being Black in 2010 is a curse to others. It’s carrying 10 generations of pain from ancestors who endured unspeakable torture and terrorism, while enduring the reverberations of this oppression since the day of conception.

Due to these contradictions, being Black in 2010 is marked by hopefulness, sadness, confusion, brilliance, anxiety, joy, and rage. Being Black in 2010 is a journey through uncharted familiar territory, while facing unique well-known situations involving the vicious cycle of freedom, Jim Crow, slavery. Like it or not, being Black in 2010 is being a reflection of Hip Hop, THE rose that grew from the concrete. It’s holding your future in the palm of your hand, while trying to break the mold and think outside of a box covered by a glass ceiling. It’s staring at the world through your rearview, never forgetting where you’ve come from, or who shed blood to put you there, while always facing forward never backwards. Being Black in 2010 is pride, shame, vision, and blindness. And as the mother of four children, three sons and one daughter, I must navigate them through this maze of contradictions while teaching the lessons and values that will direct the lives of my descendents in 2110. Being Black in 2010 is REVOLUTION!

I am Dr. Dia…Black in 2010 and the author/developer of H.Y.P.E.: Healing Young People thru Empowerment (African American Images, 2009), a Hip Hop therapy program for Black teenage and young adult males engaging in disruptive, illegal, or nonproductive behaviors. H.Y.P.E. intertwines participant experiences with being Black in America, Hip Hop culture, and Black history. Learn more about me and H.Y.P.E. at www.letsgethype.com.

Popularity: 60% [?]

There is a lot about me I can but into digital context just yet. There is a lot about my life that has to be explained in person. I am one of the 24% of people who were born below the poverty level. I fit many stats. Most of them I’ll fight about, but deep down I’m not really proud of.

But there is one stat that I am truly proud of…

I could give you the ugly side of this story, but I figure I better save that part of my biography for later…hahaha….

I could tell you how hard it was…but I don’t get paid to tell people what most couldn’t have ever accomplished….

I just want you to know that it is possible to be what you set out to be…

I just need you to know that a person that probably looks like your brother, talks like your father came from a very impossible situation…

And made the impossible look damn easy…

Cheers to all my educated black men and women out there…

Cheers to all those students in college trying to get a piece of that stat…

And peace to me…and all the children who grew up in poverty hoping for a little more than less…I love you…

Sincerely,
Owl’s Asylum, BA…Media Communications/Web Development…professional syht talker, hater for hire…

Popularity: 25% [?]

Take time out to developing your gifts and crafts.
One step at a time. One hour out of the day.
Sometimes it can be difficult to allow your mind the time necessary develop a craft, and let’s face it, many of us simply have many obligations from children, to work, to necessary elements of a social life. The discipline needed to push everything aside and build our abilities can be difficult to muster. Hobbies should by the seeds of our future craft. I say that because the desire to grow, to build will obviously and maybe not so obviously fuel our ability to find time to manage our time in a way that allows us to develop our skills. For those of us who have been blessed to spend our days involved in economic pursuits doing that which we love, the need actually becomes greater, because often obligation can kill desire. Today’s favorite past time can easily becomes tomorrow’s painful regret of a career choice.
Nothing  more than a couple of hours out your busy day will allow you to develop a more sophisticated degree of ability. The practice, practice, practice mantra is no different a key to success than it has always been. It takes plenty of time to bring yourself to a higher level of expression, but I do believe it is well worth your happiness to enhance your present skill set.

Popularity: 1% [?]