Rebirth

I'm going to start just sharing how I feel on here.

On Facebook, I posted a note about how I felt like I wasn't black.
It's about a month or so later and I can definitely say I'm feeling it now.

   Living in Chicago has been a new experience for me.  New but at the same time very familiar.  I grew up in the South Suburbs, got into my fair share of trouble, hung out with the "wrong" people, but lived a decent life.  I witnessed the police bein on bull with some of my friends, experienced them being of no help to me when I needed it, got followed in stores, all that good stuff and never argued with the fact that I was black.
   For some reason going to college changed everything.  Prior to college I had a lot more white friends...I don't think I hardly made any in college.  There was definite segregation.  Being involved in the black community and watching it transform, I began to separate myself from everyone.  I didn't want to be "black" anymore.
   Now when I say that, I don't mean it in the sense that I was ashamed of my race, or where I came from, or that I wanted to change anything at all about who I am/was.  I just didn't want to be herded into a group or be generalized.  I get upset when people talk about women as though we're all the same too, and that's how I felt.  We're all individuals and I couldn't bring myself to carry the same concerns or to be focused on the same trends as everyone else unless I believed in them or cared for them.  But everything was becoming the same.  Black people were trapping themselves in a place where there was so much diversity and knowledge to be gained.  I still struggle with it but....I've definitely grown to appreciate all the differences within black culture and outside of our culture...and also not speak as though I don't understand because I do understand.  We are all different, come from different places and ave different struggles.
At the end of the day I am black.
Black Lives Matter
There are a lot of black people that don't do ish.
There are lot of geniuses in the black community.
There are a lot of people that look at being black as a problem...
I didn't want to be black because we were becoming the problem.
But I'm proud to be black because how I represent myself....although small in comparison to the larger community have the potential to change it.

(Here's my post from Facebook)

Honestly...

With everything that is going on, I'm going to finally address this...

I don't feel black.

Everyday I see #Blacklivesmatter and yes they do and yes they should but...
I don't even know how to define black culture.
Aside from naturally looking different, our music, and maybe some of our homecookin...I don't know what else it is
Maybe because I grew up with white friends
Listened to "white people" music
And only knew about being black from school.
I didn't really watch TV...
Pretty much only heard the music that was played on the radio.
But I didn't see color.
I still don't.
I see people and people with issues.
People who discriminate and are racist, angry, ignorant, selfish, impatient, misinformed, misguided, and need help.
White people.
Black people.
All people.
Most issues being faced today require and effect all people.
I'm sorry but I do not have faith that the black population will come together and make their situation...our situation...better.
Are they able to? Yes.
Black people, whenever there is community, are capable of transgressing as history has shown.
But history has also shown us how often that that has occurred.
The blame can't be entirely on everybody else because
meanwhile, with blacks lacking consistent unification...
those Jim Crow laws have undergone transformation and are lowkey running this entire nation.
It's more than police brutality
Ya'll think this stuff just started happening
Folks die everyday.
The media has been and is still controlling what you see...
Most folks out here are motivated by rage and anger because of it
Why not just be motivated by the right to be free?
To be a human being?
To breathe.
I can't breathe by having to identify as black on everything...but maybe that's just me.
I don't know enough about my heritage to comfortably claim anything.
I'm still learning.
While doing that I'm fighting for what I feel is right and speaking against what I feel is wrong, but last I checked right and wrong wasn't divided racially.
Ya know...I think I'm Native American actually and African American secondly, but I was born in Germany so I could even argue that as my nationality.
What really does any of it mean?
It's just an easy way for someone else to define me...
even though who raised us and where we grew up more accurately display who we're going to be.

Honestly though...
I'm sorry
this is just stuff I needed to get off my chest....
this is stuff that I believe.
I feel lost.
Stuck in the midst of all this chaos.
But it's not new to me.
I just don't understand why,
if we want to be treated equal,
that we don't remove the adjectives
and just be people.

     

I just be writin.....

Chapter 1

I was in the fifth grade when I realized I was different. I was able to look at things and recognize what bothered me about people. If my vocabulary were more extensive at that age, words and phrases like materialistic, self-centered, ignorant, and misguided would have ran through my mind. But instead words like stupid and hoes filled my mouth.

Ignorance and intelligence are birthed at an early age, sometimes simultaneously.

The Cost of Education

We spend a lot of our time on this earth not knowing things. We live in order to seek out and find answers. Where we find those answers however, differ from person to person. It is very easy to worsen your situation by looking for answers in the wrong places. You begin justifying yourself as opposed to seeking justification. We as people come up with a million reasons as to why we do certain things or as to why things are the way that they are. Even though in reality, gaining knowledge and knowing the real reasons behind these things is much more cost efficient.

It's free to educate yourself. But people consistently choose to wrap their minds around the physical cost of education rather than how readily accessible it already is, with or without the money. People allow cost to deter them from being determined. We should be so determined to gain knowledge that we will do whatever it takes to obtain it. Schools are not the only place to learn and I don't think that school is for everybody. However, in order to succeed in the way that society defines, a school education necessary. Now, that doesn't mean that you can't be successful without school. You can change the world without ever going to school.

The things we experience in life and the situations we're placed in teach lessons, lessons that can't be taught in school. I see myself as intelligent not because I got good grades in school and not because I have a degree, but because I've learned from my mistakes and have grown as a person. With knowledge comes growth. It's impossible to learn and there not be growth in some fashion. We get older, we get wiser, and our overall capacity for knowledge is heightened. Nobody can take away your ability to educate yourself. We innately manufacture excuses as to why we do not excel when really there are none valid. Think about it. We're created to interact with each other and our environment. As soon as we're born we respond to our surroundings, we adapt, and we learn. If an infant, fresh out of the womb has the ability to educate his or herself, then what's stopping you?

Don't let society discourage you. Money doesn't matter, otherwise we would have been born with it. You have everything you need to get whatever you need. The only question you must pose is what don't you know, what do you want to know, what do you need to know, and what do you want to do with that knowledge? Do you want to be happy or do you want to be wealthy?

Living in Denial

We take the moments we have for granted and choose not to grab from them. To take away the things that drew us to them seems like a waste, when if we could place ourselves in the same shoes we were in when we were in those situations... things would be different.  In those places we have the want to remain but hate to admit it in the present day because it reminds us of our flaws, reminds us of our pain, reinforces our reality, the mundane day to day.  We're afraid to challenge ourselves and show our faith.  Afraid to be alone, we're afraid of leaving those we're with because it may make us seem selfish when really you're doing everyone a favor by just being honest.  You insult, place blame, point fingers, and call others out of their name because you're stuck.  You messed up.  You have to live with fact that you chose to eff yourself by denying yourself and lying to yourself about what it is you really wanted and still think about a good chunk of the time.  And it hurts for me to see you feel this way, it hurts that you choose to inflict this pain when cure has been given.  You're free.  But you choose not to be and psychologically place yourself in a box consumed by your thoughts.  I just want you to step out of that.  I can deal with the disgrace and lies you tell people because despite the mask you wear I see the real face.  Underneath the facade I see you about to suffocate, you're literally killing yourself.  You're letting your life waste away...but that's what happens when you let all your tomorrows remind you of your yesterdays, instead of doing what's best for you and living for today.

Socratic Irony

Reality is...we know less than we think we do, do less than we need to do, and feel as though no one else can tell us what we ought to do.  The reality in that is that we spend most of our lives trying to figure out who we were made to be and what we were made to do....all in all not really knowing ourselves as well as we think we do.  

Reality is...we're not supposed to be comfortable.  Each time we start to feel comfortable physically our bodies change and forcibly place us in situations of discomfort.  Learning to walk and subsequently fall.  The agonizing pain of teething.  The psychological challenges of puberty.  All things are necessary parts of growth.

That's why there's an eeriness to placidity.  When things are completely still, with no disruption, and no movement....sounds like death.  Even in our sleep we move because reality is we have to.

There's growth in education, whether you're the teacher or the student.  We're created to be both...but reality is...we don't know how...and we're the reason why we don't.

Questions

Would we all look the same if we never learned to tame our NATURAL ways? 
Maybe not the same but similar, surrounded by faces that look FAMILIAR.
If we were hunters and gatherers for all of our lives, would no one fall victim to the super-sized….would we all be HEALTHY? 
If we never created money would we all be WEALTHY? 
If no languages were created, how then would things be communicated?
If there were no schools would we all be fools? 
If we had no names wouldn’t we all be the same? 
And wouldn’t that make sense? 
BORN in iniquity yet EQUAL cuz we’re shaped in his image

Sexy Brown Eyes

He's a nice guy...sexy brown eyes...and I realized he's eyeing me constantly.  I must be out my mind, on a trip, while he slowly licks his lips.  I think about the song "I dip, you dip, we dip," but then we strip and then we both be naked - nude - standing side by side but acting prude.  We both know what we could do or be doing, we're both thinkin' "Me and you <3" and...the many ways to put it in....slow motion not fast, but romantically exotic; feelin' higher than the weedhead who lives and breathes the chronic. " Isn't it ironic, don't you think?" that we met this way when just the other other day, I began to say, "It's over, I give up! My life, I can no longer live it up!"  But that's what's up, cuz you...you came through and made me do what and now it's me and you, my new boo =).  The only one that makes me scream, makes me cream, and that is only in my dreams.  I'm thinkin' one day you'll get in between my sheets, not talkin' paper, I'm a lyrical love raper, never let my love taper.  Taking advantage of it, handle of it...but not sure if you can manage it, don't damage it.  My heart is weak.  You leave me with no words to speak call me a little geek.  Cuz I study you baby, your mind and what you do baby, just basically all of you lately you got me goin' too crazy because your body's bangin', got my bottom jaw a hangin', and I know you keeps it swangin', and you make me feel like sangin', but NOT like the Snickers guy.  I'm not even gonna lie, you my caramel, nuts, and nougat; hunger only you can satisify.  I tell them other dudes don't try cuz like Talib Kweli, I need you just to get by.  Just start this ish off, step to me, and say hi =D!!!!! *waves and smiles*

4.24.13 - 12:21am

When I write I aim to capture the ears of the deaf and the eyes of the blind, to change a life one word at a time...if this world were mine I would rewrite history in a way that speaks uniquely to each and every individual mind.  But in a way of which they understand that I'm only here trying to help guide them, to help arrive them at a place not by mistake, but a place where they can realize that they're the authors of their own fate.  They just need to seek knowledge or find someone who's willing to translate.  Create conjunctions out of malfunctions and make sentences out of senselessness to write a novel about perfection and all of its censorship.  Not masking our errors or deciding what's fair or disguising the things that provide our most obvious perceptions.  Redirection is key and I just hope that one day I may prescribe you with the right lens to correct your astigmatisms and speak so loudly that people's ears ring...and the only thing they hear becomes their pulses's rhythm.  Then...with the right timing, I hope that one day I may change the entire world with my writing.

June 26th - Poem #1

I feel like I'm procrastinating when it comes to my progression.  The assignment that God has dealt me is just something I don't wanna turn in and I'm contemplating failing life's lessons.  It's crazy cuz it's not that I lack the knowledge or ability to get things done - it's just that my mind is encamped by my negligent wants to have fun- to turn up some - to let loose for a night but...it's never just one.  I'm gifted but I'm tempted by the pleasant taste of emptiness.  Not feeling too full to me is better than to be fed because when I'm fed there's no more reason for me to want things so I'm prolonging the process and pushing back my purpose while trying to persuade people to continually progress.  I'm a hypocrite.  Blocking myself from my betterment and the only interfering element is me.  I'm destined to succeed but right now successful is not a place I wanna be.  But the day is coming and it will only begin by me deciding to live out the life that God has already signed, sealed, and delivered to me through my writing.