Shem Hotep ("I go in peace").
Description of Cause and Effect
Cause and Effect is a fallacy that has the following general form:
1. A and B regularly occur together.
2. Therefore A is the cause of B.
I thought this was the most appropriate time for ALL OF US to
re-read, remember and NEVER FORGET, the speech given by Willie
Lynch a slave owner who over 300 years ago devised a plan to help
keep Black people divided...
The Cause
Gentlemen:
I greet you here on the bank of the James River in the year of our
lord, one thousand seven hundred and twelve. First, I shall thank
you, the gentlemen of the of the colony of Virginia, for bringing
me here. I am here to help you solve some of your problems with
slaves. Your invitation reached me in my modest plantation in the
West Indies where I have experimented with some of the newest and
still the oldest method for control of slaves. Ancient Rome would
envy us if my program is implemented. As our boat sailed south on
the James River, named for our illustrious KING JAMES, whose BIBLE
we CHERISH, I saw enough to know that our problem is not unique.
While Rome used cords or wood as crosses for standing human bodies
along the old highways in great numbers, you are here using the
tree and the rope on occasion.
I caught the whiff of a dead slave hanging from a tree a couple of
miles back. You are losing valuable stock by hangings, you are
having uprisings, slaves are running away, your crops are sometimes
left in the fields too long for maximum profit, you suffer
occasional fires, your animals are killed, Gentleman,...You know
what your problems are; I do not need to elaborate. I am not here
to enumerate your problems; I am here to introduce you to a method
of solving them.
In my bag, I have a fool proof method for controlling your slaves.
I guarantee every one of you that if installed it will control the
slaves for at least three hundred years. My method is simple, any
member of your family or any OVERSEER can use it.
I have outlined a number of differences among the slaves, and I
take these differences and make them bigger. I use FEAR, DISTRUST,
and ENVY for control purposes. These methods have worked on my
modest plantation in the West Indies, and it will work throughout
the SOUTH. Take this simple little list of differences and think
about them. On the top of my list is "AGE" but it is only there
because it starts with an "A"; The second is” COLOR" or shade;
there is INTELLIGENCE, SIZE, SEX, SIZE OF PLANTATION, ATTITUDE of
owner, whether the slaves live in the valley, on a hill, east or
west, north, south, have fine or coarse hair, or is tall or short.
Now that you have a list of differences, I shall give you an
outline of action- but before that, I shall assure you that
DISTRUST IS STRONGER THAN TRUST, AND ENVY IS STRONGER THAN
ADULATION, RESPECT OR ADMIRATION.
The black slave, after receiving this indoctrination, shall carry
on and will become self-refueling and self-generating for hundreds
of years, maybe thousands. Don't forget you must pitch the old black VS. The young black males and the young black male against the old black male. You must use the dark skinned slaves VS. The light skin slaves. You must use the female VS the male, and the male VS, the female. You must always
have your servants and OVERSEERS distrust all blacks, but it is
necessary that your slaves trust and depend on us.
Gentlemen, these kits are your keys to control, use them. Never
miss an opportunity. My plan is guaranteed, and the good thing
about this plan is that if used intensely for one year the slave
will remain perpetually distrustful.
-WILLIAM LYNCH-1772
The letter above is one of the major problems of the
African-American race today. And with this knowledge we as a race
can and will over come. So with this letter still in your mind I
ask that you enlighten someone else and send this letter to as many
brothers and sisters. We as a race must start somewhere in learning
our problems what better place than the document that started the
destruction of our MOST POWERFUL RACE!!!
The Effect
!. The Conspiracy To Destroy Black Women:
The fact that Black women catch more than their share of hell is
not up for debate. Many writers have dealt with the many and
profound hardships faced by Black women. Agree or not, each of
them contributed something of value to be used to improve the
harmful conditions plaguing too many, if not all,
Black women. Now comes an extremely powerful eye opening addition
that is solely dedicated to the obtainment of self-determination
for Black women. There a deliberate and ongoing effort to instill
confusion, self-doubt, fear, and eventually self-hatred into the
minds and hearts of Black women, beginning in childhood. Every
facet of American society has a role in this conspiracy
(educational system, entertainment industry, religious
organizations, corporate sector, and government). The conspiracy mandates that Black women never realize their personal nor collective strengths because such a realization leads to self-determination, which is a threat to the patriarchal White power structure. No issued faced by Black women
exists in isolation; AIDS, physical and sexual abuse, relationship
issues, self-image, incarceration, and religious subjugation are
all interconnected and forms a devastating reality for Black women.
WE MUST also examines the role that Black men and white women play in the conspiracy.
The guilt/innocence factors as relates to Black men, and how Black
women can impact the behavior of Black men is examined. We must
take a hard, inside, no-nonsense look at how these issues impact
Black women and provides reality-based strategies, many given by
Black women's organizations, that are intended to bring about the
right for Black women to create a life-enhancing reality for
themselves, their families, and their communities.
What puzzles many persons is the reality of living in a
contemporary society that is rich in medical knowledge that was
unheard of 30 or 40 years ago. The logic is that if the African
American women of 30 or 40 years ago were dying very young it would
be understood, but many of those women gave birth to five or more
children and worked under intense labor conditions and are alive
today, while women who have just begun to live are dying so fast.
Elderly African American women are often amazed by the large number
of younger women developing fibroid tumors, cervical cancer, breast
cancer, and that are having difficulties either becoming pregnant
or during pregnancy.
There is a great deal of pressure on Sisters to do two things, both
of which are at extremes: Develop the perfect physique, and eat
what they want, when they want it, and in the amounts they want it.
I believe that this results in many African American women doing
physical harm to themselves via excess exercise and dieting to
extremes, on the one hand, and over eating on the other.
It is all too common for many Sisters to eat a meal consisting of
rice, three or more servings of meat, another serving of pasta,
such as macaroni, and only one serving of a vegetable, a
sugar-filled beverage, and a generous dessert. It may be safe to
say that many of our Sisters are, literally, eating themselves to
death.
Many factors contribute to poor health conditions among African
American women. The invisible stressor of white supremacy, economic
stressors (despite some degree of progress, women are still grossly
underpaid when compared to men, and African American women in both
professional and blue collar careers often run into the glass
ceiling), consuming too much high sugar, high calorie, fatty foods,
smoking, unsafe sexual practices, and the stress that can come with
being a sole provider are some of the factors impacting the
physical, emotional, psychological, and spiritual well-being of
African American women.
While African American women should utilize every element of the
medical community, their health ultimately lies in their own hands.
Sisters must know that America doesn't invest in African American
well-being; Black women must claim this for themselves. Also, good
health should be viewed as mandatory in African American
communities.
Self discipline is an obvious must if African American women are to
actually take charge of obtaining and maintaining good health.
Pressured to conform to superficial Madison Avenue created beauty
standards while simultaneously being pressured to eat even when
they're not hungry, African American women must examine how they
view them-selves and must learn to question the forces which
at-tempt, often successfully, to mold them into some corporations
image of today's latest woman. Love of self must be exhibited in
one's health habits; Black women must love themselves to 'life' and
to 'health.'
Poor health among Black women is a part of the conspiracy to
destroy Black women, but African American women will not be
vanquished. They will help one another to learn to do better; they
will help one another to identify and checkmate the harmful media
influences; African American women will reaffirm the beauty of
their blackness, thus erasing Caucasian beauty standards that have
been instilled into Black minds; they will save them-selves. They
will move from a place of dying strangely to living healthy.
African American women will not be vanquished.
2. Do Black Women Hate Black Men? By A. L. Reynolds.
Though the debate has raged, in some form or another, ever since
Miss Anne first beckoned Willie from the fields with her fluttering
fan, recently when some "brother" emails me a message saying
something like, if you want to know why Black men date White women,
I offer three words: PEACE OF MIND.
Since then, a man identifying himself as Black in a relationship
with a Korean woman wrote in, "Black females have attitudes, it's
always 'me, me, me!' Not all but majority. Asian/White females seem
to do more for you and they don't have so much attitude and drama."
His partner chimed in, "I'm a Korean/White female and I think the
reason why Black guys are more into my race or mixed girls is
[because] Black girls are always talking about, "he gotta have a
car, money, and blah, blah, blah."
Sounds like a lot of fan waving and hit say dumped in the faces of
Black women, the latest slap in a long series of slaps. (The
de-thronging of Vanessa Williams. Black women have been asked
accede there queenly beauty and bodies, though desired, violated
and politicized, to be lesser than that of others. Black women been
asked to bear children and see them sold, or abandoned by their
fathers. Take on the world to defend the children and men, a small
percentage of whom make it point to show, in return, only contempt.
Black women have learned what to love, what is beautiful and what
is sexy through the images of love presented to them. And, as I
first wrote in a piece five years ago but which is still true,
there are scarce images of Blacks together as lovers, and of Black
women as the pretty love interest in films and television shows.
When a Black woman is made the love interest, say in a film like
"Monster's Ball," it is always twisted. In this film, her White
lover was/is an open racist who, even though it unknown to her,
participated in the execution of her husband. The story line, which
renders Black men as hopeless, uses the legacy of racism in an
unconvincing manner to belittle its impact, and historical and
present-day consequences. Considering the nonstop media onslaught
that trumpets "White is Beautiful," Black people are doing well to
still appreciate and love each other.
There are other and related factors too, such as the incidence of
more Blacks growing up in White majority communities where young
Black males, as part of established media culture of desirability,
are pursued by females of other races. But Black girls, relatively
absent from that media culture of desirability—unless you count
music video babes—are often frustrated in the dating game. I
sometimes look with disbelief at friends and family who have only
surrounded their children with White folks and then are dismayed
that their sons bring home a White girl. Well, who did they expect
to come home? Serena Williams?
Dr. Grace Cornish, the psychologist and author of "10 Good Choices
That Empower Black Women's Lives," will tell anyone willing to
listen the same.
"It's a cop out on the part of a Black man to blame Black women for
his choices," Cornish says. "If they have a preference, that's one
thing. But then to downgrade your whole race of women is the most
ridiculous thing on the face of the earth. I don't think these men
have a problem with Black women. I think they have problem with
being Black themselves and they take it out on Black women.
"Definitely, a lot of Black men struggle to reach a certain level
and they never feel they have reached the level of their White
counterparts," Cornish says. "They feel they need a White woman as
part of that lifestyle. These are the ones who actually have a
backlash against Black women. They have not dealt with their own
internal anger. Instead they see the opposite sex within their own
race as the problem."
Cornish, who says she has seen how talk shows love to hype this
issue, agrees that many Black women show anger and impatience but
says that it is not a trait unique to us. "Our rites of passage are
different,' she says.”We're told to be careful, to watch ourselves.
We work so hard and we give away so many pieces of ourselves. We're
tired and sometimes that tiredness is short of patience.
"The difference I find is that White Women are born with this air,
this programming of entitlement," she adds. With us, we're always
told you have to be twice as good to be considered half as good."
3. Why do we hate Black Women so much?
We hate black women. We hate black women so much that when someone
kills a black woman it barely makes the local news, never mind the
national news. We hate black women so much that if a black woman
goes missing, we never look for them. (They’re called “Amber
Alerts” and “Megan’s Law” and not “Lakeesha Alerts” or “Shanita’s
Law” for a reason.) In fact, the only time we ever look for black
women is when we’re casting for strippers, baby mammas, hoes,
bitches, cockteasing gold-diggers,
magical-negro-enabler-for-their-white-friends, attitude-filled
caricatures. And even then, that black woman had better not be too
“dark” or too “thick” or her big black butt won’t be working too
much.
We hate black women so much that we refuse to even get outraged
over the fact that 50% of all new AIDS cases in America are among
Black women. We hate black women so much that when they get
pregnant, we blame them, as if they all made withdrawals from the
local sperm bank. We hate black women so much that we rationalize
slurs like “bitch” and “ho” at almost every opportunity. We hate
black women so much that when it comes to beauty standards, the
feminist movements, women’s rights and health, we still subjugate
Black Women to the perspectives and paradigms of White Women and
gay white men (and to an increasing degree Hispanic Women)… Yep, we
truly hate black women.
Now, when I say “we,” of course I mean White America—the only black
women they seem to even acknowledge are: Oprah, Condoleeza Rice,
Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys, Star Jones, Whoopi Goldberg, Maya
Angelou, and Robin Quivers (Howard Stern’s sidekick). But when I
say “we” I also mean the hip-hop community, Black men and Black
America at large. Whether we like it or not, WE may well be among
the biggest Black Women haters of all.
Just look at our actions:
We’re the ones who ignore/defend the misogyny in our own
communities. We’re the ones who’ve been covering up the endless
domestic abuse and the man-sharing/random sex partners for
generations. (I wouldn’t be surprised if our hatred of black women
has factored into the AIDS epidemic. After all, it’s just Black
Women catching it, so who cares about increasing treatment and
changing behavior, right?) We’re the ones who accept leaving black
women alone to raise the kids that we helped them create. We’re the
ones who defend treating black women like products and sex objects
in the videos and on the street corners of our communities. We’re
the ones who defend interracial relationships as being the product
of black women driving black men to women outside the community.
We’re the ones who chase all the standards of womanhood that the
larger society says we should.
I think we accept and defend the misogyny in hip-hop because, on
one level or another, we believe that black women (at least most of
‘em) deserve it. It’s just understood that when emcees talk about
bitches and hoes, they’re talking about Black women as bitches and
hoes. That’s why you don’t hear much outrage from mainstream
women’s groups like N.O.W., Independent Women’s forum, etc. because
they know this misogyny isn’t implicitly directed at white
women—except maybe if Eminem says it. And of course, he’s proven
that he’s not above calling black women bitches and niggers every
now and then. (In fact, looking back, I think the main reason so
many of us forgave Eminem’s “black bitches/niggers” was because
Eminem was only saying what most of us already think about Black
Women.) And we accept the institutionalization of pimping because,
it’s inherently built on degrading and commoditizing Black women;
and of course, black women deserve what they get… right?
There’s so much hatred of black women, not only in America, but
also in countless other countries around the world. You see it in
the double standards for access to healthcare, representation in
government and businesses, etc.… But mostly you see it in the way
we treat Black women and in the way we allow others to treat and
portray Black women. When you put all this together, the answer is
simple: America, Black America and Hip-hop included simply hates
Black Women.
And personally, I’m sick and tired of waiting for white folks to
stop it or to solve it. (As they’ve proven time and time again,
they don’t do anything for black folks unless they can control it
or profit from it, or unless they feel like they don’t have a
choice.)
Nope… My goal for 2005 and beyond is to finally get answers to two questions:
(1) When are we as a community going to acknowledge this hatred?
(2) What are we as individuals and as communities going to do to
stop this hatred?
4. The Man Shortage for Sisters is all too real – And it’s killing
Our Communities.
All these years, sisters have been right. There really is a man shortage.
I knew something was up, just judging by the shortage of brothers
in the pews at church. But I thought it had more to do with our
preferences for sleeping in or watching the game.
Based on the 2000 Census, though, we brothers really are
outnumbered by black women, inside and outside of church. And it
has nothing to do with games.
Overall, the census indicates that there are more than 18.1 million
black females in the U.S., compared to nearly 16.5 million black
males. Specifically among those who are 18 and over, the sisters
outnumber us about 12.7 million to 10.9 million.
Some brothers undoubtedly will assume this is their chance to add
more names and numbers to their Palm Pilots for late-night booty
calls. Truth is, all of us –- the players included –- should
probably be a bit more somber and cautious about the population
imbalance between black men and black women. Experts are suggesting
that the reasons why the sisters outnumber us aren’t anything to
cheer about.
According to an article written by Jonathan Tilove and published
recently in many of the New house papers, violence, crime and
disease are some of the key factors stripping black communities of
men. Worse still, the article concluded that the shortage of black
men is hitting major cities with high concentrations of black folk
particularly hard.
In Philadelphia, for example, black men are outnumbered by black
women by 37 percent. That means that for every 100,000 black men in
the City of Brotherly Love, there are 137,000 black women. In New
York, for every 100,000 black men, there are 136,000 black women.
In Chicago, my hometown, for every 100,000 brothers, there are
132,000 sisters. In Chocolate City -– Washington, D.C. for those of
you uninitiated to the funk -– for every 100,000 brothers, there
are 129,000.
Yes, brothers, that means there are a whole lot of black women
without dates. But before salivating, let’s remember that also
means there are probably a lot of black boys without men in their
lives to show them how real men behave. That’s a lot of black girls
without daddies to teach them what real love is and how a woman is
supposed to be treated by her man.
Looking at it like that, merely entering new names and numbers in
those Blackberries for future hook-ups seems almost trivial.
Brothers, I’m not suggesting that we black men who are single and
eligible can’t enjoy the dating life. I’m just saying that we also
must do something more: We must see what these numbers tell us
about the challenges facing our communities and make some decisions
about what we can do to bring a bit more balance to them.
Tilove’s article quotes 2002 Census figures which indicate that
while black women outnumber black men by 26 percent, white women
only outnumber white men by 8 percent. If we were looking at those
kinds of numbers, I’d be one of the first ones telling the players
to just play on.
But we’re looking at a crisis that points to serious problems. If
we’re not being shot and killed, we’re being locked up. If we’re
not being locked up, we’re dying prematurely due to stress or
HIV/AIDS or diabetes or heart disease or prostate cancer.
I agree with the experts who argue that it is inherently more
stressful being black in the U.S. than it is to be white. But
brothers, there are ways to offset the pressures.
Slow down on the super-sized meals with all that red meat and fat
and excess sugar. Exercise several times a week. Get enough sleep.
Lay off the smokes, and cut back on the brews and shots.
Take time to just go and chill. Cue up some jazz, funk, classical
or gospel music in the mp3 player, and take long walks in the
evenings or early mornings. Or pop some Miles, Victor Wooten or
Jill Scott in the CD player and take a leisurely drive.
Let’s try to live healthy, functional lives. Avoid violence and
people who are prone to it. Step away from shady activities that
keep us out in the streets and in harm’s way. And by all means,
brothers, no high-risk, indiscriminate sex with multiple partners.
For the sake of our communities, our women, our children and our
futures, we’ve got to defy these statistics. We must begin
surviving and thriving.
5. Preparing Your Daughter for the Black Male Shortage
Theories suggest that the Black population in America suffers a
lack of Black men, better described in the circle of single Black
females as a shortage of good Black men. To address the theory
directly, there is no real shortage of Black men, just a shortage
of the marrying kind as defined by today's woman.
Black men are born everyday just like Black women. The problem is
Black men are tied up in the justice system or considered
unemployable to corporate America, thus lessening their mainstream
worth. Also contributing to this suggested shortage is the fact
that Black men have been labeled as deadbeat fathers so Black women
now come to expect a datable man to someday become unfaithful.
The crisis is reaction to an action. Black men end up leaving their
families or neglecting their responsibilities more often because is
has come to be expected of them.
So, what do you tell your daughter at age 13 about finding a good
man? How does a mother, or father, define a good Black man in
today's society?
Tell your daughter that there is hope. There are many Black men
willing to support their families and care for their woman,
however, this willingness has become dependant on a woman's
expectation and definition of a man.
If a woman is looking for an educated man, there are many, but
according to recent college enrollment stats, not as many as
college educated women. However, educated does not necessarily mean
good. If the woman is looking for a man with certain physical
features, there are many of them also: Black men come in all shapes
and sizes, but looks are deceiving.
If a woman is looking for a man who has the Bling, drives the Benz,
or walks in Stacy's, there are thousands of them also, but
substance soon fades. So depending on what a woman defines as a man
would determine whether or not she would find a man for whatever
purpose she needs him.
If a woman is seeking a lifetime of love and marriage, then she
must understand what a man expects in a woman and what she has to
give in return. She cannot allow mainstream stereotypes to dictate
what she considers a man to be.
Many women turn down what they consider "geeky" men because he is
not cool enough or has the rap and gangster style. When they base
their choices on this type character, they will usually end up
choosing from the dog-pile. If a woman is chaste enough, however,
to get interested in a man who has character based on values, then
she has a better chance of finding love.
A woman can find a man if she knows what she needs. If she does not
know, then she will never find that man. Parents must explain to
their children that character defines a person, not what they wear,
drive, or the titles behind their names. Furthermore, if a parent
lives this life before their children, this is what that child will
grow to expect.
6. Prison Industrial Complex?
What is the Prison Industrial Complex?
Almost two million people are currently locked up in the immense
network of U.S. prisons and jails. More than 70 percent of the
imprisoned populations are people of color. It is rarely
acknowledged that the fastest growing groups of prisoners are black
women and that Native American prisoners are the largest group per
capita. Approximately five million people -- including those on
probation and parole -- are directly under the surveillance of the
criminal justice system.
Three decades ago, the imprisoned population was approximately
one-eighth its current size. While women still constitute a
relatively small percentage of people behind bars, today the number
of incarcerated women in California alone is almost twice what the
nationwide women's prison population was in 1970. According to
Elliott Currie, "[t]he prison has become a looming presence in our
society to an extent unparalleled in our history -- or that of any
other industrial democracy. Short of major wars, mass incarceration
has been the most thoroughly implemented government social program
of our time."
To deliver up bodies destined for profitable punishment, the
political economy of prisons relies on racialized assumptions of
criminality -- such as images of black welfare mothers reproducing
criminal children -- and on racist practices in arrest, conviction,
and sentencing patterns. Colored bodies constitute the main human
raw material in this vast experiment to disappear the major social
problems of our time. Once the aura of magic is stripped away from
the imprisonment solution, what is revealed is racism, class bias,
and the parasitic seduction of capitalist profit. The prison
industrial system materially and morally impoverishes its
inhabitants and devours the social wealth needed to address the
very problems that have led to spiraling numbers of prisoners.
As prisons take up more and more space on the social landscape,
other government programs that have previously sought to respond to
social needs -- such as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families --
are being squeezed out of existence. The deterioration of public
education, including prioritizing discipline and security over
learning in public schools located in poor communities, is directly
related to the prison "solution."
Facts and Figures at a Glance
African Americans represent 12.7% of the US population, 15% of US
drug users (72% of
All users are white), 36.8% of those arrested for a drug-related
crime, 48.2% of
American adults in state, and federal prisons and local jails and
42.5% of prisoners
Under sentence of death.
African American women (with an incarceration rate of 205 per
100,000) are more
Than three times as likely as Latinas (60 per 100,000) and six
times more likely than white
Women (34 per 100,000) to face imprisonment.
The United States imprisons African American men at a rate four
times greater than the
Rate of incarceration for Black men in South Africa.
In 1986, before mandatory minimums for crack offenses went into
effect, the average
Sentence for an African American convicted of a drug-related crime
involving crack
Was 11% higher than for whites? In 1990, four years after the
implementation of harsher
Federal drug laws, the average increased to 49%.
Due to felony convictions, 1.46 million African American men out of
a total voting
Population of 10.4 million have lost their right to vote.
One in three black men between the ages of 20 and 29 live under some form of
Correctional supervision or control.
African American children (7.0%) were nearly nine times more likely to have an
Incarcerated parent in prison than white children (0.8%).
Similarly, Latino children
(2.6%) were three times as likely as white children to have a
parent in prison.
