Written by Tiffany Tubman

October 22, 2017

Instead of waiting until the next major election in 2018, we may as well have this discussion now. A few days ago, on Twitter, I engaged a Twitter friend and Melanoid Nation family member, Sylvia, in an in-depth discussion on this issue of serious consequence for Black Americans, America and the World.

This conversation took place between a scientist and an attorney (political scientist). Sylvia (@Tellall2012) is a lawyer and managing partner to her own practice in New Jersey. She is also a blogger and writer. Tiffany (@montswife16) is a molecular biologist and clinical/medical director in the healthcare industry. She is a mom, wife, and now turned advocate of ending systematic white supremacy and writer for Melanoid Nation.

For the argument sake and to have an educational dialogue, Tiffany took the position of being against Black Americans voting and Sylvia took the position that Black Americans should vote. Full disclosure: the grammar has been corrected since we are no longer bound to 140 characters to express a point. Commentary provided by Sylvia is italicized below.

TIFFANY: We (Black Americans) cannot vote if we do not have a voice. People are stealing our vote and doing nothing for our group in return.

SYLVIA: I think we need to vote for the right people, for a multitude of reasons. First, the system is broken and discriminated against us. In order to fix the system, we need people with the courage to change it. Second, voting is leverage. The only way to control people in Congress and the President is to vote. Also, we cannot just vote in Federal elections. We need to be voting for city prosecutors, mayors City Council, Governors, and state legislators in local and state elections. That is why I think voting for the right people is critical. Voting just to vote has no effect. Voting to change something is what we should be aspiring to do. Voting in elections that will have no impact on ourselves is fruitless. Also, we need to be pushing our own candidates. We cannot rely on others to tell us who we should be voting for. Neither party truly cares about our issues. They exploit our situation for politics.

TIFFANY: How do we as Blacks determine the right people? We can no longer give Black skin a pass when so many are disappointed by former President Obama and his Administration.

SYLVIA: That is the problem and mistake we made. We had no reason, given Obama’s past, to believe he would be a champion for us. We support him. Everyone in office, in my opinion, is worthless. None of them are truly aligned with us (Black Americans). For example, I want to replace the entire CBC (Congressional Black Caucus).

TIFFANY: Ok keep talking. They are old so this is becoming more and more plausible!

TIFFANY: You mentioned his (Obama’s) history. What specifically in his history did we miss?

SYLVIA: He dated only white women until he married Michelle. He had mostly white friends his entire life. He did not live or relate to his black side. He never even stated he was running on a black agenda. He never promised black people anything. He spoke vaguely about hope and change.

TIFFANY: We never stated what we expected from him either. So, going forward, how can we effectively communicate these expectations?

SYLVIA: Exactly!!!! That’s the problem and mistake we made. We had no reason, given Obama’s past, to believe he would be a champion for us. We support him. We didn’t demand anything from him either. We just accepted that he was black and must be for us. Although he sold us out constantly.

TIFFANY: Why is voting locally so important? Why can’t we just focus on the presidential election?

SYLVIA: Majority of the decisions that affect us daily are made at the local level. Our prisons are run by States. Our roads, schools, facilities Are all run by the State. We need to vote for Sheriff’s who don’t allow white supremacy infiltration. Sheriffs are local. (Translation: Know and get to know these people that we have the power to elect/re-elect and can directly facilitate creating a system of justice and ending systematic white supremacy.)

TIFFANY: How do we establish, fund and push our own candidates? This does not sound feasible or possible?

SYLVIA: I think I agree with you. The only reason we cannot is that we have been brainwashed into believing in dependency. We have always just done as we are told to do. We support who we are told to support. We do not independently make these decisions. Also, we are not unified. Our biggest problem is the dependency. I am not just referring to economic dependency either. We have been conditioned to believe that we cannot function as group with the input and assistance of white people.

TIFFANY: Then why vote? We cannot stop this exploitation. They do not care about our issues!

SYLVIA: Great question. I think it is still important because I always prefer the lessor of two evils. If we do not, vote we get another Trump who will do so much damage to us that we will be powerless to overcome. We must stop voting straight Democrat. We are the only group that votes monolithically which gives us no leverage. Our votes are taken for granted. We never have any leverage like all other groups because no one must court us to obtain our votes. (Translation: They know we will vote Democrat so they take a few pictures with some black people as a customary campaign tradition and trust we will take the bait. EXCEPT: Many of us did not vote in the 2016 Presidential Election).

TIFFANY: We never stated what we expected from him either. So, going forward, how can we effectively communicate these expectations?

SYLVIA: Exactly! Politicians only care about re-election. They do absolutely nothing worthwhile while in office. However, they cannot get elected without voters. We need to make sure that we hold them accountable or we fire them.

TIFFANY: How do we use them as voting leverage? So, do we vote as a group or do we vote randomly for either party and not be dedicated to neither Democrat or Republican?

SYLVIA: We need to vote randomly. We need both parties trying to get our votes. Republicans have just written us off because we vote robotically. I could not see myself ever voting Republican after Trump, but I am not just going to vote for a Democrat who does not align with my interests. The Republicans are even trying to court Hispanic voters but do not even care to court us (Ex: all attention on Puerto Rico and no real and substantiate focus on US Virgin Islands). That is not leverage. No one will do anything for us if we continue to be so predictable. I think the first thing we need to do is get our house in order. Uplift our communities invest in ourselves. Support black owned businesses. (Aggregate.) Unify around similar causes. Then we can start demanding things. But when they think we need them, they disrespect us. Most people take advantage of people in need.

TIFFANY: So, we have both parties court our group then vote with the winner every time? This means we would be independent and could be a swing vote?

SYLVIA: Yes.

TIFFANY: While we reorganize, should we not vote so they realize our impact? This seems the best approach and we deal with the consequences.

SYLVIA: Generally, I would say we should not vote until we reorganize. But, in the age of Trump we must vote. Trump will get so many people killed and that is not a consequence I am willing to endure. Look what they are doing to us now and we have no recourse. Therefore, I say we vote until we get Trump out of office.

TIFFANY: I respectfully disagree. We (Black Americans) have been dying at the same rates as we have for the past decades. (We, as a group, are at the same place we were at the eve of the end of the Civil War.) Blacks have not died at a higher rate under Trump. I think the White Hispanics need to switch to Democrats and vote him out of office. He is becoming more of a threat to that group because they have included themselves as white for so long. Now Trump is reminding them of their melanin/POC status. Black Americans should not vote. Yes, Black Americans are suffering and yes, we are under attack but we lack self-respect which leads to unity and group empowerment. All our efforts must be focused on the internal infrastructure now or else we continue to give them a “one more time pass”.

SYLVIA: We have. (Agrees with Tiffany). However, it has become acceptable to openly hate us. It is not just about death for me, but the ability to be openly racist and act on that racism. We have white supremacist/white nationalist terrorist doing open torch lightings, murdering their opposition, and opening fire at public gatherings. We have Jeff Sessions who is putting in place programs to target Black Americans specifically. They are rolling back police reform. Trump is targeting black athletes. He is openly targeting our Black War Heroes. That is why we must fix our own house first. We need to be investing in ourselves. For example, I noticed that we are more likely to retweet a white person condemning racism than a black person. We will request CNN before retweeting the same story from a black magazine.

TIFFANY: They count on us more than they admit fixing crap like this! We must draw the line.

SYLVIA: I am with you on drawing the line. But I want Trump gone. He is an existential threat to black people in this country.

TIFFANY: I prefer my racism overt so we do not get comfortable under the illusion of inclusion. Discomfort brings change!

SYLVIA: I was just about to say this!!! I am happy to see my enemies in the light than in the dark. But just knowing my enemy is not enough. It is what I do to fight my enemy that matters. We should not have ever gotten comfortable thinking we were included. We became complacent.

TIFFANY: Yes, yes and yes. Sticks and stones may break our bones but words will never destroy us! We must take a stand. We are at war and yes, we will lose some people. That happens in war but our children are being indoctrinated with lies at school. As parents, we must send them to school which is hurting Blacks. We must fight now so our children and grandchildren stand a chance. Voting, or in this case, not voting is a strategic mean to a better end for Black America. We are neglected and underserved.

SYLVIA: Every other group exploits the voting process. They demand things from candidates. We ask for nothing and get nothing.

TIFFANY: How do we make our demands heard?

SYLVIA: The first thing is we need to become more economically self-sufficient. Money talks, everything else is just noise. We need to invest in our own programs. We need to support each other and promote unification. (Demand more from churches and community organizations taking our money as well)! We also, need to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery. As Bob Marley would say. They have made us hate ourselves and continuously fight to be accepted. We need to instill in our children there. (This is also fueling “Black on Black” crime.)

TIFFANY: How do we emancipate ourselves from mental slavery?

SYLVIA: First, we must accept that we are brainwashed. We cannot get sensitive anymore about criticism of ourselves. We are brainwashed. People become brainwashed, they are not born that way. Some people we will not be able to save as the self-hate is so ingrained. But we need to change the imagery we see. We need to dismantle the stereotypes. We need to challenge the prejudices and encourage our children to love Their black skin. Our children watch mostly white programs on Disney, Nick, etc… they need to be watching black networks/programs too. They need to know their true history. Not this watered-down nonsense they learn in school. It is our job, us woke people, to fight for this.

We ended the discussion on this note. However, the take away lesson is simple. This is not a reason to vote:

We must stop accepting the brainwash that me must vote. We must challenge any teaching or expectation the system of white supremacy has given us. We must think critically and define conduct for our own group. That means, we take back the remote control and their free reign ability to control the outcome for our group or we will continue to have no resources and be underserved.

As Black Americans, our message must be clear. Any candidate running for office, regardless of political party or affiliation, should not ask for the Black vote unless they are stepping forward (present tense just like they do for photo opportunities) and clearly acknowledging racism in the only form we know (systematic white supremacy) as a total system structure. We need a plan of action for any politician courting our vote on what steps they can take to create a true system of justice. Racism is a form of power and we have none. We, as a group, cannot even demand an apology and get it. Protecting our group and promoting our group is not racism, it is called survival.

We must understand that we must unite with each other to break the system of white supremacy. We cannot get caught up on socioeconomic status, skin tone, or hair quality. We can longer afford to allow feminism, LBGT, and other lifestyle movements high jack our voice. In any and every issue, if we are not talking about systematic white supremacy, we are not talking about the issue.

In studying the culture of the white nationalist, I have noted an alarming pattern. Not only are they high-jacking our movements (like kneeling during the anthem), they are changing our narrative (giving other meanings to our purpose), and now trying to shame Black Americans by adding the #MAGA in any public posting depicting Black Americans fighting or behaving in a manner that dehumanizes us and justifies their mistreatment of our group.

I received this message from a Melanoid Family member today:

We must control our own narrative. In warfare, one tactic used is guerilla warfare. This is chess, not checkers. As much as we dislike the #MAGA trend, we have tools to use to get our messages out as well. Images of black love and black excellence should be high jacked so when they search #MAGA they see our best images of humanity as well. Either they will change their opinion or change the hashtag but we will control the narrative.

Stay safe and stay on code.

Ase’

Tiffany Tubman

Twitter: @montswife16

Email: TubmanFights@gmail.com

White supremacy is detrimental for Melanoid children all over the globe, especially in the racist school system

By Kenny Anthony

An East London school in the United Kingdom was placed under scrutiny over letters that were sent home regarding students between the ages of 6-7, instructing them to dress like chattel slaves to “celebrate” the UK Black History Month.

Students at St. Winefride’s Catholic School were ordered to wear “fabric heads-wraps and straw hats”. Also, the class were told to sport “dirty and worn out” garments, preferably stained with coffee or tea to make it look more “authentic”, according to the Newham Recorder.

One of the parents had this to say on the issue: “Would Jewish children be asked to re-enact the Holocaust?”

However, many suspected white supremacist parents came out to defend the letter. Samantha Peters being one of those parents, stated that the backlash and criticism was “unfair”, and gave the teachers praise for their actions.

A spokeswoman for St. Winefride’s Catholic School responded with this statement: “We deeply regret the offence caused to our pupils and school community. This letter was sent out without the approval of the school’s senior management team or governors. We have written to those who received the letter to apologize and we have also spoken to the members of staff involved and taken steps to ensure an incident like this does not happen again. We understand the importance of Black History Month and celebrate this by studying the success and achievements of black role models.”

White supremacy in UK schools is an open secret that negatively impacts Black students and Black teachers.

A survey conducted by the Nasuwt Teaching Union and the Runneymede Trust found that Black teachers in British schools are subject to deep-rooted, endemic and institutionalized racism. Two-thirds of Black teachers have admitted to being verbally abused by white students, and 79% were not paid at a level commensurate with their skills and experiences. In 2015, more than 54% of Black teachers were subject to discrimination or harassment at work because of their race or ethnicity.

In addition, students at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London (SOAS), confessed that older white academics were racist and unable to connect with the student body. The under-representation of Black people among staff at SOAS led to students feeling isolated and unable to engage with their studies & lecturers.

The Most Honorable Minister Malcolm X once stated: “Only a fool would let his enemy teach his children.”

Melanoid people worldwide should be working towards creating group home schooling to ensure that our children are being properly educated. Teachers are able to easily access and indoctrinate the minds of our future, so we have the responsibility of being one step ahead and monitoring their development.

Manhattan Judge Edward McLaughlin took it upon himself to generalize and stereotype random Black people who had nothing to do with a case he was presiding  over this week. A Harlem man named Tareek Arnold was convicted of attempted murder. And during the sentencing, for a trial that had absolutely nothing to do with race whatsoever, the Judge took it upon himself to racialize the case by stating  “black lives don’t matter to black people with guns” before sentencing him in prison for 24 to 26 years.

For McLaughlin to lump all Black people -particularly Black gun owners- together and tie them into this random unrelated case, this is the epitome of systematic white supremacy.

Throughout the history of this country, the white supremacists have always used random crimes of certain Black people to justify harming and mistreating  all Black citizens as a group.

There are thousands of Black gun owners who are not criminals. The majority of mass shootings are done by white perpetrators, yet white people are never marginalized in the media or in the courtrooms.

In true white supremacist fashion, the white supremacist media did their part to assist in the racializing of this case. The New York Post ran a story about the case using the standard racist codewords utilized by many media outlets when reporting on cases involving Black people. The New York Post’s story was entitled “Judge Rips Thug”.

If all Black people are going to be marginalized and held accountable for the actions of random Black people who happen to be criminals, then all white people should be held accountable for the actions of millions of white supremacists who have practiced the crime of racism for the last 500 years.

Freeman’s school informed him that his hair was too long, and violated the appearance codes of the private educational institution. His father Shawn has told the New York Daily News that  “it’s a form of not being culturally aware, a form of stereotyping”, and fully expects to have his son removed from his current school.

Although the school has allegedly decided to implement diversity training  by ‘reconsidering’ making changes to the hair policy next school year, Shawn Freeman refuses to allow his son to attend West End Christian School under any circumstance.

B. Clark

]]> https://www.melanoidnation.org/black-child-ordered-by-his-school-to-remove-his-locs/feed/ 194 https://www.melanoidnation.org/7-year-old-black-child-threatened-to-be-suspended-because-of-haircut/ https://www.melanoidnation.org/7-year-old-black-child-threatened-to-be-suspended-because-of-haircut/#comments Fri, 11 Mar 2016 18:25:28 +0000 http://melanoidnation.org/?p=3325 BESSEMER, AL — There was a 7-year-old Melanoid child who was considered a threat to his school…simply because of the way his hair was styled.

Little Rashad Hunter, an honor roll student at Greenwood Elementary School in Bessemer, Alabama, was facing suspension from his school because of a part in his hair.

Keisha Rembert, Rashad’s mother, told Birmingham’s WBRC FOX 6 NEWS that her son called her to tell her that he was being suspended from school. His mother had the following to say:

He was walking with his head down, when I saw him he was like teary-eyed at first because he doesn’t want to be suspended for no part in his head. I told him, ‘Don’t hold your head down…continue to make these A’s and B’s because that part is nothing.

Although the school has opted not to suspend the child, this marks another example of the many demoralizing tactics that schools will use against Black children, particularly Black boys.

B. Clark

The school known as Middletown High School, has a student body comprising of a majority white student body, but this fact didn’t seem to satisfy the white male student, who was taken into custody upon discovering a note that was written by him describing his intentions of killing Black students in the school. The note was thereafter given to the school’s resource officer, Brandon Highley.

To see images of the racist and threatening note, please view the video below.

According to Cincinnati’s WCPO, both authorities have declined to comment on the matter at hand, instead attempting to reassure both the students and their families that the situation has been properly handled and that everyone is safe.

Middletown High School isn’t the only high school in the state of Ohio to contain cases of savage scholastic racism within its walls. Last month, there was a report of similar treatment of Black students in Pickerington, OH, which is approximately two hours northeast of Middletown, which involved a young Melanoid girl receiving nasty racist taunts and epithets via social media from the white students at that particular school.

In the midst of Middletown High‘s officials and law enforcement’s joint efforts to protect the identity of the white male who threatened to kill Black students, it illustrates another example of the glaring double standard that has been established between young Black teenage boys and their white counterparts.

B. Clark

The reason for her daughter’s grief? Constant racial remarks and gestures from the school’s white students.

“Some of the students think it’s okay and think it’s funny to say the N-word, say jokes about it,” says Roni Cook, one of LaRhonda’s two daughters. Roni, who was a member of the school’s cheerleading squad, eventually quit due to her being called a “nigger” by one of the white cheerleaders.

Pickerington High School North’s white students have spotted Snapchatting themselves dressed in a KKK uniform (as seen in this story’s featured photo), and one of the white female studnets posted a picture of herself on social media in blackface with a racial slur in the photo’s caption, which can be viewed below.

In lieu of the notoriety that the school has received for allowing its white students’ racist behavior to go unchecked for an extensive period of time, officials have implemented “sensitivity training” to attempt to convince white students to ‘get along’ with the Melanoid students of the school. Here is more on the sensitivity training in the following video clip.

For more on the Cook Family’s account of being harassed and taunted by the white students, watch the video in this link.

B. Clark

With the celebration of former U.S. president George Washington’s birthday approximately a month away, a book has been released that depicts a highly disturbing narrative. The title of the book is A Birthday Cake For George Washington. In the book, readers will almost be immediately discover that the main characters in the book are Melanoid house slaves who are scrambling throughout the book to bake a cake for Washington, whose birthday is the occasion.

The featured characters are named “Hercules” (the first White House chef), his daughter Delia (who narrates the story), and a goofy little child simply named “Kitchen Boy” who follows Delia around for the duration of the story. The book was written by New York Times food writer Ramin Ganeshram, and it has already received rave reviews from organizations such as the Children’s Book Council.

The premise of the book emphasizes the featured characters’ sense of urgency to appease their slavemaster, which in this case involves them attempting to bake a cake.As it relates to the topic at hand, the question for those in Black Society should be: Are you ok with your Black children consuming literature such as A Birthday Cake For George Washington?

While much concern has been expressed over the need for more empowering Black narratives (especially for our youth), you can be sure that a solution is right around the corner.

B. Clark

In a story that’s eerily similar to Hillary Clinton’s “Whip & Nae Nae” dance to impress prospective Black voters, Ron Clark–a white man who founded the Ron Clark Academy in Atlanta–is doing a little pantomiming of his own. In the following video, he engages in a choreographed dance called the “Bet You Can’t Do It Like Me Challenge”, inspired by a popular dance.

Time has reported that within the first 14 hours of the video being posted, it had been viewed well over a million times and shared over 44,000 times via Clark’s Facebook page. As you will see from the video’s stats, those numbers have been far surpassed already.

While this story isn’t simply about dancing alone, the question must be asked: Why is the sight of seeing white educators buck dancing with our children conjure up warm and fuzzy feelings in the hearts of so many (including Melanoid people), yet the concept of African-centered schools staffed staffed with all Black educators–institutions that are guaranteed to introduce a Black child to its truest forms of history and culture while reinforcing its sense of identity without having to feel compelled to entertain them–are deemed ‘controversial’ by white supremacists and suspected white supremacists alike?

Ron Clark has been known in the past for using his Black students to entertain the masses. In 2008, students from his school appeared on several national media platforms to perform during that year’s Obama vs. McCain presidential campaign. Has Ron Clark made a name for himself by “slumming” with his Black students? Check out the video below to decide for yourself.

B. Clark

]]> https://www.melanoidnation.org/white-educator-shucks-n-jives-with-black-students/feed/ 201 https://www.melanoidnation.org/dr-frances-cress-welsing-celebrating-the-life-of-a-brilliant-mind/ https://www.melanoidnation.org/dr-frances-cress-welsing-celebrating-the-life-of-a-brilliant-mind/#comments Sat, 02 Jan 2016 22:38:04 +0000 http://melanoidnation.org/?p=3060 Before we proceed with making 2016 a productive and happy new year, it is only right that we–the family here at Melanoid Nation–would like to offer our heartfelt condolences to the family of the Late Great Dr. Frances Cress Welsing.

It was reported that her transitioning occurred earlier today (Jan. 2nd), and the news of her passing sent shockwaves throughout Black Society. Today alone, her name has received the noteworthy status of becoming a trending topic on the Internet and throughout social media. While her legacy cannot be reduced to that of a hashtag, let us realize that today we here at Melanoid Nation have not forgotten her legacy as an educator, author, speaker, and embodiment of a Black woman who truly loved her people.

Her most notable work to date–The Isis Papers: The Keys To The Colors—served as a literary guide that changed the way that we as Melanoid people have to think forever. From etymology to the symbolism found in colors and shapes, Dr. Welsing cracked the code on the innerworkings of the race in America. Her work also shed light on the evil system of racism/white supremacy, and how it is utilized to keep its foot on the necks of Melanated people worldwide.

Dr. Welsing’s work was so prolific, that it was referenced in pop culture. Whether it was referenced in comedic fashion, like the famous “pool scene from the 1992 film Boomerang“, or if it was referenced with more serious overtones, such as the opening lines delivered by Tyrese Gibson in the “intro to the 2001 film Baby Boy“, there is no denying the everlasting impact that the many years of her extensive research and work has not fallen on deaf ears.

Although she was fortunate enough to reach elder status, she remained as relevant now as she was years ago…perhaps her work is even more pivotal to the education and liberation of Melanoid people now. As one of the featured speakers in the critically acclaimed Hidden Colors series, she was reintroduced to a newer, younger audience in recent years by blessing Black Society with her wealth of knowledge that enlightened yet another wave of Black minds in this new millennium.

While everyone deals with the loss of family members in their own way, we want to let it be known that in the gloomiest of hours, the work she left behind shines brilliantly through the veil of sadness and grief. Dr. Frances Cress Welsing has joined the ranks of the ancestors, and everything she’s worked for will not be taken for granted.

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