Category: Classic Contemplations

Hate Valentine’s Day ‘Cause You Analyze TOO Damn Much???

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source: dumbpeopleannoyme.blogspot.com

This Valentine’s Day, I think rather than focusing on the things that can make love between the races/cultures different, we should focus on some universal questions that we should all be asking ourselves when we’re evaluating either our relationships this V-Day and celebrating/lamenting our love (lost), or figuring out exactly how to prevent our lack of a significant other cloud our judgment to the point where perhaps we end up doing something we regret.

But really, what is love? Let’s pretend that Valentine’s Day isn’t some bastardized commercially driven holiday. Let’s pretend it’s really all about love. At what point in your life, in your relationships development do you think that you’ve actually attained the kind of love that on some level we all hold up as the standard of perfection? Should it be based on things like extreme actions that you’d be willing to (more…)

I Only Date White Girls, but I Would TOTALLY Sleep With You

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Source: blogs.indiewire.com

“I don’t date black girls”. Good to know, I think, as I close my eyes. So I can roll them without him knowing. No need to actually make this tipsy conversation outside of the bar any more awkward than it needs to be. After all, I know exactly what’s coming next, and considering I met this guy all of thirty minutes ago when he asked me for a light, and while we’ve politely chatted about the recent smoking room ban in bars and strip joints, we haven’t gotten to anything so deep and meaningful as a name exchange. Oh, yeah, and my boyfriend is just inside, which he’s well aware of. Since, just after part one of our 30 minute smoking-alarmist discussion, he asked me if I was dating the black guy, who just so happens to be the only black dude, and the only other black person, in the bar. And who also happens to be on the other side of the room from where I’d been standing with my boyfriend while carrying on some vapid conversation on music or some crap that I usually lose interest in after about 35 seconds. Oh yeah, and did I mention that the black dude is a complete stranger I hadn’t even noticed, let alone spoken a (more…)

Shake Off Your Crab Bucket Mentality

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Source: http://www.consciouscommunity-reno.org

There is a well known phenomenon with crabs. If you catch one, and put it in a bucket or barrel, it can easily escape and will. But once there are 2 or more crabs, you can throw that lid away…because no matter how close any one crab gets to escaping, its fellow prisoners will always do their Stockholm Syndrome-inspired duty and play no-nonsense warden, keeping your prisoner in the bucket for you. Today, I was thinking about this “crabs in a bucket” situation. Since I have never personally caught crabs myself, I began to ponder ways in which this whole thing could be one giant misunderstanding. I mean, it’s not like these little insect-like creatures have higher-level reasoning capabilities, right? Maybe they aren’t trying to keep their fellow prisoners captive along with them…MAYBE they are just trying to pull themselves UP, not thinking things through to the end. I even began conducting mini-experiments in my head of exactly how I could test this theory. I could try putting some type of net or something at the top of the barrel and see if the crabs try to latch on to it and pull themselves up. Or I could use a dummy crab attached to a cord, and when one of the other crabs latch on, I could keep pulling the dummy out, and see if the other crab rides to freedom. And then I found this video, and I knew I was playing myself. (more…)

Slam Sundays: Regression to the Mean

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Source: http://www.thbook.org

Hey y’all,

So, I think I’ve come up with a MAJOR way to help race relations in North America. In research, Regression To The Mean means that eventually, the more tests you do, you’ll find your results will tend to be closer to average than to any extreme. After you’ve read this post, and watched the videos, I’ll explain how this concept could help society, as a whole.

Spoken Word, for me, is the only true way of bringing written words to life. The words, alone, are animated and embodied by the poet, and the experience is the same as being sucked solely through (more…)

Being Black is Not a Choice

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Meanimated1I wrote this story almost a decade ago. With all of the discussions and commentary that I’ve gotten lately, I thought it would be a great time to just present you with a little personal story. I hope you enjoy it. 

I was 16 before I truly learned that being black wasn’t a conscious decision one could make, that it wasn’t about a way of life, but that it is a part of who you are no matter what else you do. There were only 5 other black children in my grade school, although race was never an issue. At least not at school. Of course there were those times when my race was most definitely an issue, times when I would walk into a store and the clerk would stare me down as I looked through the aisles at the toys and candy for sale. Yes, I had had times where a clerk would accuse me of trying to steal, for no other reason than because I was black. One of my best friends in grade school was told I was not allowed to come over to her house, or she to mine, because I was black. My grandparents had next door neighbours who used the word nigger rather frequently. But I always thought they were only a few ignorant people still stuck in the 1800s (more…)

8 Year Old Boy Dies After Hanging Himself

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Julianni Plascencia death
Julianni’s father Ronnie cradles his son in hospital

While loading my net home page, I usually glance over whatever news appears in the headlines (on msn.com). I’m pretty anti-news as far as things go, so usually I only come by what’s happening in the world incidentally or through word of mouth. Yesterday, I came across the story of 8 year old Julianni Plascencia, who died this past weekend. For a full account of the story, check out this link. As a summary for those who don’t have time to read through all the articles, this 8 year old child told his brother earlier that day that he was going to hang himself. His brother, not taking him seriously, still told him he shouldn’t joke about such things. Their mother had run out to the store, leaving the elder brother in charge. (more…)

Grown Ass Baby Syndrome

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I am ashamed to say I am a member of the “me me me” generation. In all fairness, it’s not our fault. Between fallacious promises like “if you get a college education you’ll be living large”, to our parents trying to provide us a life and opportunities they weren’t afforded (often at the cost of teaching us independence, discipline, and/or the diligence to put our asses to the grind and do what needs to be done to succeed – because, quite frankly, few people work quite that hard when they don’t feel any need to), my generation has gotten a raw deal in the field of learning how to be grown ass men/women. (more…)

All I Can Be Is Just Me

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Ever get tired of being yourself? I mean, like the essence of you…who you are, what defines you. Have you ever looked at people who have qualities you’ll just never possess and think “damn he/she is so lucky man! What I wouldn’t give to be them for just a day”? And I don’t mean silly little things like having a smaller nose, slimmer hips, bigger muscles, etc. etc. I mean those deep down things, like admiring those who are confident, or sensitive, or compassionate, or understanding and whatever else.

Back in the days, I had a very serious anger management problem (ok, so my anger shows its ugly little head in rant for from time to time lol). Back in those days, I used to (more…)

Why Do I Do What I Do?

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Today I had a conversation with a friend. It’s not that the convo was particularly original, given my brand of open honesty when it comes to just about everything. Nor was it particularly insightful. I didn’t solve one damned problem in my life, I didn’t get one answer…and boy, have I ever been searching for answers to some pretty meaningful questions. But, for some reason, as I said goodbye and walked toward my house, I realized that something within me had changed. My thoughts didn’t become linear..quite frankly, they never have been. In fact, I think I would die of boredom if my mind wasn’t consistently deluged with seemingly inconsistent and inconsequential facts and thoughts and ideas that needed to be (more…)

So-Called Baby Brain

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I am SOOO glad I don’t have kids, just for the fact that I don’t ever wanna be one of the women that
enjoys things like that lol

Yes…that is a quote said by ME lol. And don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I don’t EVER want to have children and a family of my own, or that I hate children or..I don’t know, whatever other negative connotation you could have possibly gotten from that comment. Ok, lets pause for 10 seconds, and I’ll give you a brief background so you’ll get where I’m coming from…

1. I don’t have that many female friends, on account of the fact that I find most women I encounter to be (more…)