Nia

Nia: To make our collective vocation the building and developing of our community in order to restore our people to their traditional greatness

Our traditional
greatness never diminished.
We survive, despite.

Ujamaa

Ujamaa: To build and maintain our own stores, shops and other businesses and to profit from them together

I don't have rambling thoughts to share today (I do have rambling thoughts...on the differences between supporting individual Black-owned businesses and building community-owned businesses in the Black community. Maybe one day I will organize my thoughts enough to share them, but today--

I just wanted to share this about a community banding together to build food and economic security in their own neighbor:

More details included in this article.

Ujima

Ujima: To build and maintain our community together and make our brothers’ and sisters’ problems our problems, and to solve them together
The Ujima celebration hosted by Nsoroma Institute at the Charles H Wright museum was powerful. From the call of the drums to the libations (with kola nut, water, spirits, and smoke--because Queen Mother believes in doing things real) to words from the youth and the elders, I was fed.

I wish I had been taking notes during Minister Dawud Muhammad's talk. He said so much that really spoke to me and that I needed to hear. He noted that "there's no picking and choosing in 'collective'" and likened "throwing up crescents, crosses, and ankhs" to divide to gang divisions. And Baba Malik Yakini shared a little of the history of Nsoroma and outlined plans to think about how to move forward the educating the youth since the closure of Nsoroma as a charter school.

Also, on today's theme, there's an editorial that suggests making a New Year's Resolution to not call the police. I've thought about this a lot recently. Of course the question becomes what do to instead. Rather than "handing off" the problem to police, committing to not calling them means that we take collective ownership of the problem and attempt to solve it. In the remote past, I called police twice: once after a really unsuccessful mugging (he got nothing; I got a strong dislike of people behind me unexpectedly touching my neck) and once for a very loud domestic dispute in an apartment above me. I've mostly convinced myself that I could just let random property crimes go (the main challenge there being that if I ever needed a police report for an insurance claim, there would be a problem), but I don't have any strategy for safety concerns. INCITE! seems to have developed the beginning of a toolkit on the "community accountability," though I haven't explored the listed resources yet. 

Kujichagulia

Kujichagulia: To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves, and speak for ourselves

Self-determination is perhaps the principle I personally hold the closest. It starts on an individual level, where I revel in my power to define who and what I am, but expands so far beyond that. I've been thinking about this one off and on for the past week:

• A Facebook friend shared a status from someone, who was so steeped in his own privilege, that he felt comfortable implying that Black people--daring to assert that Black lives matter enough that public officials should be held accountable for killing us--were somehow being distracted from the real goal. I cannot actually tell you what his real goal was, as a flash of incandescent rage promptly erased it from my consciousness. I think, however, that it had something to do with electoral politics. Kujichagulia means that we decide what our priorities are and fight for them in our own ways. 
• While Detroit is the Blackest city in the U.S., 50% of the Black population in Michigan is living under state, rather than local, control. While the emergency manager has left, the city's finances are now subject to oversight by a financial review commission. For most of the last two decades, the Detroit public school system has been run by state appointed emergency mangers and has been shrunken. There is also the EAA, a state-run district that now includes the "lowest-performing schools"--a district whose chancellor earns a $325,000 salary, where standard operations include 100 kindergarteners in a classroom, and where inexperienced teachers depend on problematic software to teach. Weep for our children, Detroit. Note that attempts to expand the EAA beyond Detroit to the rest of the state failed in the state legislature. And as we strive to live the principle of kujichagulia, recall that "Only a fool would let his enemy teach his children." Particularly since the state is upfront about rejecting any obligation to provide them a "quality" or "equitable" education, merely a "free" one.
• There are many paths forward. Part of self-determination has to be recognizing the right of everyone to find and live their own path. As Baba Malik wrote, "All resistance to oppression is healthy for the oppressed."

My disjointed thoughts...

Reflections on Umoja

Habari gani?

Two things happened to make me go deep as I reflect on the principle of the day:

1. So. Yesterday I got a text from someone I haven't heard from in a year and nine months--despite several calls, emails, and texts from me. And the last interaction came about as an extremely delayed response to an email I had sent four years prior. My immediate reaction to the text was: "What the frick-frack? Is that how they're celebrating Christmas now, with amnesty for those who decide resurface after long absences?"

I recognize that I am good at Walking Away. Gold star good. Gold medal good. Double platinum good. I am quick to say (or think) "I don't need you." And, pretty much, it's true. Grandma has a story of coming over to find toddler me climbing up on the kitchen cabinets to reach the cereal. I had a problem and I was taking care of it myself.

2. My child asked me today why I don't talk to our neighbor. I really don't talk to her. I do not so much as acknowledge her presence and I see her so infrequently these days that I'm pretty sure that she has learned that talking to me is not an option.

Umoja: To strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation and race

Maybe my lesson for this year will be how to build unity when we, and others, are imperfect. I will learn balance: loving people and giving them space to work out their own issues, while also taking care of myself and avoiding toxic situations. I will consciously work on building unity where it is difficult, recognizing that that is where it matters most.

My sincerest apologies on not providing vicarious adventures

Dear Married Friend:

I'm sorry to be such a disappointment. I know, I know. I'm single, I'm gay, I'm young(ish)--you were really hoping for a bit of vicarious excitement. Again, I'm sorry. I have no lascivious lesbian debauchery to share. In fact, instead, I'd like to vicariously live through you. Please, do indulge me.

Tell me about how it is when you want to get in a workout, maybe a yoga class or spinning and you just do. With absolutely no cajoling, someone else is just there to keep the kids for you--without even the need for you to be hovering on the edge of a cliff first.

Tell me about thinking about moving and being able to have a partner to consider with--to plan, to dream, to budget, to worry, to soothe.

Tell me about there constantly being a warm body in the bed when the temperatures drop.

Tell me about having someone whose job is it is to have your back--who signed up for that and means it.

Again, I'm sorry I can't fulfill your desire for titillation and adventures at the club. I understand there is porn that might help you with that.

Much love and respect,
Your Single Friend

p.s. If you ever want me wax poetic about freedom, answering to no one, doing it my way, paying the cost to be the boss,… I got you.

Laverne Cox is amazing

Katie Couric was interviewing both Carmen Carrera and Laverne Cox. In the first segment she had the audacity to ask Carrera about her "private parts"--after having been graciously deflected with slightly more subtle versions of that question. Then when Laverne Cox came on stage, Couric asked again about transition and got taken to school:

"The preoccupation with transition and with surgery objectifies trans people and then we don't get to really deal with lived experiences. The reality of trans people's lives is that so often we're targets of violence. We experience discrimination disproportionately to the rest of the community. Our unemployment rate is twice the national average and if you're a trans person of color, it's four times the national average. The homicide rate in the LGBT community is highest among trans women.

And when we focus on transition, we don't actually get to talk about those things."

Video available here:
http://katiecouric.com/videos/orange-is-the-new-black-laverne-cox/