I have one, if you wanna play with someone's uterus, go get your own

I'm amazed!
I'm shocked!
Frankly, I'm just dazed and confused.
I never would have guessed people are interested in my uterus.

Everyone seems to have an opinion about how I should treat it.

The "Church" says "you gotta put a ring on it."
The anti-abortion folks say if I break it, I own it, no returns or exchanges.
The politicians only want to pay for upkeep, not for excessive mileage.
The Pink people, who used to look after my boobies, now wanna have a say in what goes on down there.

I wish these folks were as interested in my mortgage, my gas prices, my grocery bill, my 401K ROI, my local schools, my environment, my voting rights, my food and water supply, my incarcerated, homeless, unemployed, underemployed and chronically ill brothers and sisters.

Isn't there enough stuff on the planet to be concerned with other than what I do with my uterus?

From Black To Racially Ambigious...WTH?

I am a Black woman. I have always known I am Black. My family and friends know I’m Black. At times there has confusion because I’m a fair-skinned Black woman. The confusion is usually with Latin men, who speak Spanish to me and I politely respond, “no hablo espanol.” Then they take a closer look at me, smile and move on. This has happened numerous times and is a regular occurrence in certain neighborhoods and countries. It was not until I began acting a few months ago that I even considered using this misidentification to my advantage.

I began putting my acting resume together and shared it with a fellow actor. She suggested, along with my actual race, I list the other ethnicities I can also play. It took me a minute to figure out exactly what she meant. I decided to stay true to myself and list only “African-American.” I am a Black woman and I want to play roles that are either Black or not-ethnically based. Much to my chagrin, it seems Hollywood has something different in mind.

I recently saw an advertisement looking for a “racially ambiguous” woman. What in the world? Who the heck is “racially ambiguous?” It hit me like a ton of bricks, I’m racially ambiguous…at least to some people. When Black folks see me, they see a sista; when Latinos see me, they see a senorita and I know I confuse the heck out of a lot of white folks. I can’t tell you the number of times a white person has asked, “What are you?

So, I revised my resume to read, “Ethnicity: Black (can play Hispanic, Middle Eastern or North African).” Has the pendulum swung so far that we are non-racial?

I may work as multi-ethnic, bi-racial or mixed, but I won’t live that way. It took me years to get over my hang-ups about being a fair-skinned, hiyella, redbone, light-bright Black woman. I am proud to be a Black woman, and while there is probably some white, American Indian and other in my ancestry, when I look in the mirror, I know who I am and I am wonderful.

Photo: Me and Daddy on July 4, 2011

This is a repost of an article I wrote for Body and Self Image. Submit your [self image] story here: http://arkstories.com/bodyimageblog.html

How did this happen?

Last month, the DNC announced the hiring of "Greg Hinton as its first-ever Chief Diversity Officer."

Really? The Democratic Party needs a Chief Diversity Officer? Really? Does anyone else see the irony in this?

I don't get it. The Democratic Party is the party of the people...Black, brown, white, Jew, Protestant, GLBT, women, etc. Almost any and every marginalized group has been able to find some political refuge under the Democratic umbrella. This is why I'm disheartened to learn the party has hired a CDO; it shouldn't need to hire one.

I was there, 20 years ago, and it was great. Ron Brown was the first Black chairman of a major political party. Alexis Herman was there, along with a slew of men and women representing every facet, shade and angle of America. The consultants and contractors also represented different slices of the American pie. The DCCC and the Convention Committee were equally diverse.

There wasn't a need for a CDO, people understood the headquarters for a political party had to look like the people in the party.

How did Democratic leaders forget that most basic principle?

I'm sad, oh so sad.

segregation is NATURAL

segregate (v): to separate or set apart from others or from the main body or group; isolate

It is time to be really real with each other...we are more comfortable with our own kind, and it is okay. It is natural.

Look at nature, lions roam the plains with lions, wolves run in packs with other wolves and even ants build highly structured colonies with other ants. Segregation is natural. It is only in the most complex ecosystems, such as a rain forest, where multiple species co-exist, interact and depend on each other. For them, integration is natural.

As we are all homo sapiens, shouldn't it be easier for us to co-habitate?

This is where the rubber meets the road...we have to move above and beyond what is natural and comfortable for our own ever-increasingly complex ecosystem to survive and flourish. The troubling part is the breadth and depth of segregation, it permeates every part of American society and culture. For most of us it is an unconscious way of life. Consider Sunday, it the most segregated day of the week. Monday through Friday we labor side-be-side, have lunch together and my imbibe at a happy hour with each other. On Saturday, our children play soccer together, we shop, go the movies and co-mingle throughout the afternoon. But Sunday is a very different thing for most of us. Race-based denominations, congregations and conventions abound:

• The African Methodist Episcopal Church 
• St. Augustine Catholic Church, "the Mother Church of African American Catholics" 
• The National Baptist Convention, "the nation's oldest and largest African American religious convention"

This is in no way meant as an indictment of religion, faith, denominations, congregations, etc. These organizations, and their founders, were forced to segregate because of prejudice and fear in the 18th and 19th centuries, and while they are open to all, the members are still predominantly Black. And there are countless unforced examples in our lives:

• white music (country, bluegrass, metal) and Black music (R&B, hip hop, neo-soul)
• white entertainment (Everybody Loves Earl and opera) and Black entertainment (Meet the Browns and go-gos)
• white sports (hockey, lacrosse and swimming) and Black sports (basketball, football and boxing)

There are the so-call exceptions for each of these categories, you know who they are, the "blue-eyed soul brother" or the "Black diva."

Yes, yes, yes...let's just admit it, put it out in the open...we prefer being with others like us. We feel welcome, safe and empowered; we are in our comfort zones with others like us. However, consider this, "If you put yourself in a position where you have to stretch outside your comfort zone, then you are forced to expand your consciousness." ~Les Brown

How will you move beyond your comfort zone?
What one thing can you do to make your life more integrated?

They Choose US

Wow, this is a big world with 193 countries and 7 billion people speaking 6,500 languages. Think of it, immigrants from the around the world come here, the United States of America. We should be humbled, with our widely known and often discussed history of slavery, discrimination, intolerance and injustice, they still want to come here. They want to live with us; they want to be our neighbors and they want to call America home.

They come here singing "America! America! God shed his grace on thee..."
They come here thinking we are "the land of the free and the home of the brave..."
They come here accepting Lady Liberty's invitation, "Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses..."
They come here knowing with hard work and perseverance, they too can achieve the American Dream.
They come here believing in democracy, "with liberty and justice for all."

To put it quite simply, they think we are all of that and a bag of chips.
Are we? Is America living up to the hype? 

 I'm not so sure anymore:
 Most of us are aware of the Arizona law, SB 1070, which encourages racial profiling because it requires "law enforcement officers attempt to determine an individual's immigration status during a 'lawful stop, detention or arrest' when there is reasonable suspicion that the individual is an illegal immigrant..."

 In June Alabama passed HB 56, which "requires public schools to check students’ immigration status, criminalizes giving an undocumented immigrant a ride, and instructs police to check the immigration status of anyone they stop if they suspect the person of being an undocumented immigrant."

Not to mention redlining, LGBTQ discrimination, sexual harassment and pay inequities, voter fraud elimination schemes and the rise of hate crimes.

Yep, I can see why immigrants would want to come here. We're so open to people not like us.

This is how far we HAVEN'T come

Suffragists being arrested (c) 1917

Greenboro Sit-in 1963

Civil Rights marchers in 1963 (video)

Kent State student protesters 1970

UC, Davis protesters 2011 (video)

When will it end?

Capital Punishment = Revenge

The cameras are turned off and the lights are dark.

The protesters have gone back to their homes.

And the loud have gotten quiet.

Why? There are over 3,000 men and women still awaiting execution, don't they deserve a march as well?

Ponder this:

• we punish as a way to teach or train…children, spouses and animals
• we punish to inflict pain or injury…opposing teams, political parties, countries
• we punish to assert revenge…gangs, inmates

Which of these is a motive for executing anyone?

Is it a good enough motive to take a person's life?

I Am, We Are Human Beings

Our world is filled with obscure concepts we try to squeeze into neat little boxes. This often leads to frustrating and feeble attempts to define and explain those ideals and concepts, which, by their nature, are complicated and convoluted. As Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart famously said in 1964 with regard to pornography, "I know it when I see it..." it is this same sense of knowing with the notion of social justice.

"Social justice generally refers to the idea of creating a society or institution that is based on the principles of equality and solidarity, that understands and values human rights, and that recognizes the dignity of every human being."

As there have been volumes written about this concept, I will only focus on a piece of it, "recognition [sic] [of] the dignity of every human being." This is the most important part; it is the essence of social justice; it is the foundation upon which the entire idea of is built. If you do not recognize my humanity, if you do not see me as a person, if you do not realize the innate value of my humanness, then all hope for social justice is lost.

• If you saw the women of the Congo as human beings, like your mother or wife, then you could not rape them. 
• If you saw the children of Latin America as human beings, like your son or daughter, then you could not sell them into slavery. 
• If you saw the men of Sudan as human beings, like your father or brother, then you could not mutilate them. 

Let me bring this home because it is easy for us to turn a blind eye and say to ourselves that it's those people, it's happening over there or we would never allow to occur here. 

• If you saw your wife as a human being, then you could not abuse her. 
• If you saw your children as human beings, then they could not bully other children. 
• If you saw your husband as a human being, then you could not degrade him. 
• Finally, if you saw yourself as a human being, then this piece would not have been necessary. 

Social justice begins at home. We have to recognize the value of those closest to us before we can see it in others. If not, then all hope is truly lost.

National Line Dance Week (still)

Today's National Line Dance Week video is a favorite of mine. The dance's simplicity allows for creativity, while keeping in time.

 

Cupid Shuffle by Cupid

National Line Dance Week

It is National Line Dance Week!

A line dance is a choreographed dance with a repeated sequence of steps in which a group of people dance in one or more lines or rows without regard for the gender of the individuals, all facing the same direction, and executing the steps at the same time. Line dancers are not in physical contact with each other.

This week I'm sharing my favorite ones. First up is a relatively new one (at least to me) and on frequent play at parties nowadays.



The song is Wobble by V.I.C.

And yes, there really is a time to commemorate dang near everything under the sun.