Maybe.
Maybe my grandfather, a classically trained concert pianist, couldn't get work in his profession of choice because he 'didn't work hard enough." Maybe my father's father could only get work as a piano tuner, even though he was a master musician. Maybe my other grandfather, a trained chef, never owned a restaurant of his own because he "lacked discipline." Maybe my Mom's dad never made it out of the back of the house because he didn't have the 'entrepreneurial spirit."

Dear White Friends,

I call you friends with no cynicism. Historically, the majority of my friends have always been white. This is circumstantial. When you are the only Black kid in your school, the only Black man at your job, when you've broken as many "First Black To (fill in the blank) barriers as I have, statistically speaking you're going to be surrounded by white people.

One of my best friends caught Covid-19 in March of last year.

He is young (40ish), enjoyed sparkling health, a vibrant mind (he's one of the few people who can trash me at word games), and a robust immune system. In his words contracting the coronavirus was the closest he'd ever come to death.

He survived. But he's what has come to be known as a Covid Long Hauler. He describes this a "a living hell; same guy, same mind, but imprisoned in a body that is attacking itself."

This morning I resigned from the Education Committee of @bcbrooklyn.

I am resigning in protest to their decision to hold an in-person convention in Brooklyn NY this summer, over my stringent objections, and suggestions for virtual contingency plans. In 2019 I was asked to be part of the inaugural Education Committee for BCB. This request came after complaints of the woeful lack of diversity in their education., both in subject matter and presenters.

That's Not Who We Are: Yea, It Is.

If you've ever seen faces amid random patterns: in clouds, on brick walls, or marble countertops, then you have experienced pareidolia. /1 This is a measurable physiological phenomena were the ability to recognize patterns is organized into subconscious self-protection measures.

Scientists believe this to be an evolutionary holdover from a time when humans were prey.

Black Lives Matter: The Democracy Edition

If you've been paying attention to the presidential elections, by now two things are indisputable:

1. Black communities in Atlanta, Detroit, and Philadelphia are in large part, responsible for a Biden/Harris victory,* and 2. In the modern era, the effort to suppress the Black vote has rarely been as blatant.

From closing polling locations in Black neighborhoods to refusing to certify votes in majority Black counties, all pretense has been set aside.

It's clear at this point the almighty Facebook AI has crawled my content and come to the conclusion that I am gay, queer, and possibly trans.

As a cishet male I could not be more flattered. Given the toxicity which permeates concepts of masculinity, the AI must conclude that only members of the LGBTQ+ community could could possibly care about issues that impact them.

I am proud of my adjacency.

Tomorrow We Gon Talk.

Yesterday the world celebrated as if we'd ended WW2. We danced, sang, cried, laughed. We screamed and howled, unclenched our jaws and unslumped our shoulders for the first time in four years.

Last night we slept. Today we'll brunch. Tomorrow y'all are gonna consider just how close we came. Because Biden's win isn’t a spectacular victory:

It is a very narrowly avoided catastrophe.

Liberal Fuckshit: Why We're Not Doing This Again.

There are two types of people who voted for 45*:
People who want to kill people who look like me, and people who are okay with that.

The goddamned knife isn't out of our backs and pundits want us to console our oppressors? We don't even get ONE DAY to feel good about stopping fascism.

Get ALL the fuck outta here.

We've been holding our breath, watching violence escalate and rhetoric become policy. So let'e be clear about this:

We get to celebrate.

2020 Show runner: Ok, whatcha got?

Writers: Get this; we start off the year by…impeaching the president!

Show runner: So that's the theme of the season?

Writers: No, it's a red herring. While he's being impeached he finds out about a deadly virus spreading around the globe. Show runner: So he fights the virus and saves the day?

Writers: No, just the opposite. He figures it will hurt Black and Brown people in mostly democratic states worst, so he does…NOTHING!

Show runner: Won't that ruin the economy?

Writers: YES!

Let's talk about this.

See that spike in democratic voter registrations? It can be DIRECTLY LINKED to BLM protests.

No one has fought harder, more consistently for FREEDOM in this country than Black people. That moral arc of the universe MLK talked about?

https://twitter.com/AriBerman/status/1324712900976615424

It bends because WE FUCKING BEND IT.

Black metropolitan areas Detroit, ATL, and Philadelphia are SAVING DEMOCRACY.

Which will give us the first Black WOMAN VP.

Four years ago yesterday, I woke up believing this country was ready to elect its first woman president. I challenged anyone who'd listen not just to defeat her opponent, but to defeat the conditions that gave him rise.

I admit: I underestimated the depth of US misogyny. The current administration wasted no time slathering insults on political injuries. In the past four years, the breathless whispers through clutched pearls of "that's not who we are" can be matched only by the wails in the past 24 hours of "I thought we were better than this."

The Fight isn't new.

It's been going on for centuries. You may be new to The Fight, so you need to know:

The Fight isn't about you.
You are part of a larger story. Yes, you have a role to play.

You are a steward. As previous generations fought to make your world better, so it's incumbent on you to do what you can for those who pick up The Fight when we are gone.

Yes, you will be impacted by The Fight, win or lose. Your life matters.

A few words on defeating fascism:

The last time the United States was as divided as they are now was over the abolition of slavery. We couldn't agree on some very basic human rights, so we went to war. Over 600,000 Americans were killed, more than in WW1 and WW2 combined. /1

https://twitter.com/kurteichenwald/status/1322594733894569984

When the North won, they knew they couldn't impose punitive damages on the South, because the United States was still an agrarian society, and so economically dependent on the South.

I apologize.

In 2016 I voted for HRC. Admittedly I was not her biggest fan. The difference in qualifications between her and her opponent however, was staggering.

On one hand, a former senator and Secretary of State, on the other: A failed reality TV show host, a wannabe, clown, a racist, a sexual predator, an ignoramous quite possibly compromised by a hostile foreign power.

HRC wasn’t perfect; no one is. But compared to 45*? C’mon.

I knew the racists were coming out in force for 45*.

Top 10 NEW Rules For "The Cookout"

There's great historical significance and rich cultural backstory for how the simple act of eating outdoors, colloquially called "The Cookout" became a quorum for Blackness in the US.

Wanna know more? Cool, google it. #BlackHistoryMonth An invitation to The Cookout equals instant validation into Black society. Representing more than just casual acceptance, an invite to The Cookout is an unstated baptism into Blackness; the culinary equivalent of being handed a Black Card.

This was a decade ago.

Before the cancer scare. Before the liquor brand. Before the writing. Before the public speaking.

Before @Twitter was a thing. @Twitter If I could go back in time and tell this asshole what his life would be like now, he's not smart enough to believe me.

Just like I'm not smart enough to believe a future version of me, if he showed up and told me what my life will be like a decade from now.

As a person of color in this country, everywhere I go I’m forced to consider if people around me wish me harm, or are okay with my being harmed.

So every time I find out people I know and love are okay with people who are okay with this, it’s a kick in the gut. /1 Complicity with complicity is complicity.

Last year I was profoundly hurt to hear a friend declare their intent to avoid conversing with their relatives about their continued support of an administration which is actively seeking to harm brown people.

Misogynoir.

Whew.

Two days ago I talked about #whitesupremacy. Yesterday I talked about #patriarchy.

Combine those two toxins and you get misogynoir, the vile poison suffered by women of color, and more specifically, black women. Yesterday I joked and told a friend the amount of rum it would take for me to discuss #misogynoir would put me in a coma. I wish that was funny. I don’t want to write about this sober. I’m not qualified to discuss this with nuance and deftness.

Also, I am out of rum.

I just finished a stint in @Twitter jail for "hate speech" (I quoted Jay-Z's song "The Ballad of OJ & used the N word instead of some euphemism like ni99a).

Whoever is in charge of "hate speech" at @Twitter is more dedicated to silencing black folk than actual hate speech. @Twitter In any case.

Recently I gave a brief, incomplete primer on white supremacy. Any time I discuss racism, I’m obligated to confront my own internal biases, and check my own internalized #misogyny.

Why is blackface so offensive?

For hundreds of years in the US, all manner of fuckery has been used to justify the Atlantic Slave trade, and the subsequent treatment of people of African descent.

https://twitter.com/thedailybeast/status/1088602383557505024

From the bible to debunked sciences to gross caricature, one common theme ran through all justifications:

They're not actually people.

Once you've absolved yourself of any moral responsibility towards another human being, you can literally do anything to them, and it's okay.