This song encapsulates my overall day to day vibe. Listening to this song let’s me be thankful of the highs I have now by way of the personal lows I had to overcome. And in the process I rediscovered myself, gaining knowledge that enhanced my inner being. I came out a better man and individual. I want to dedicate this song to my two beautiful toddler girls, because you truly have inspired me, for helping me find my smile again!
Lyrics by Michael “D’Angelo” Archer
I found my smile again You helped me find my smile again I found my smile again You helped me find my smile again
I don’t know what it is that you’re doing All I know is baby, that you’re shonuff doin’ it good And you look at me, and my hear just starts the moving I haven’t felt like this in a while Girl, I wanna thank you for helping me find my smile
I found my smile again You helped me find my smile again I found my smile again You helped me find my smile again
My smile, hello hello smile, I haven’t seen you in a while Your love, girl your love, you make me feel like I’m on a cloud And since I laid eyes on you, my spirit’s been brand new And I wanna thank you child, oh, helping me find my smile
I found my smile again You helped me find my smile again I found my smile again You helped me find my smile again
I found my smile again You helped me find my smile again I found my smile again You helped me find my smile again You helped me find my smile again
Honey baby got me smilin’ Honey baby got me smilin’ Honey baby got me smilin’
money-a current medium of exchange in the form of coins and banknotes; coins and banknotes collectively.
currency-a system of money in general use in a particular country
This subject has been on my mind for a considerable amount of time, and I’ve been doing some major reflection in general because of it. Pretty much everything that we do or connected with in this society is attached to money, or currency.
If you don’t have MONEY, you don’t have anything.
You won’t live a decent life.
You won’t amount to anything.
YOU DO NOT MATTER!
That’s a true fact if you choose to live and be involved in this MATRIX, this THREE-DIMENSIONAL ILLUSION. I have heard a many of people, especially BLACK FOLKS, make statements such as:
“Of course money is not real” to make it seem as if they know the obvious trying to make you feel stupid but they don’t truly understand the game that’s being played…
…or my personal favorite, “It takes money to make money.” Very true…if you play by the rules of this MATRIX.
We give value, or we give life, to DEAD PAPER! Paper that is manufactured from a TREE, a living organism, that was KILLED so we can thrive within this ILLUSION, to play this manufactured GAME OF LIFE that we’re trapped in!
(Don’t me wrong, some of us gifted individuals may use DEAD PAPER to create masterpieces of literature and poetry, visual arts, etc. Thus, that creativity brings BACK LIFE in a different form/expression. There can be BALANCE within the action of CREATIVITY by producing LIFE from DEATH.)
Whether you use DEAD PRESIDENTS, debit cards, or Rush cards, the concept of MONEY is nevertheless a DEAD IDEOLOGY! Even the idea of building credit by getting intodebt (through home ownership, credit cards, auto loans, school loans, etc.) is the biggest CON GAME ever to be taken seriously in the HISTORY OF HUMANITY!
We are so bought into this ILLUSION.When are going to LET GO?
How is it possible that the U.S. federal government can bail out crooked banks like Wells Fargo and Bank of America with billions and billions of dollars, and the supposedly US National Debt is $19.5 trillion dollars at the moment…and counting? Where did that money come from? So the government can just PRINT money from out its ASSHOLE, divvy it out where they see fit and all is HONKY-DOREY, huh?
I call BULLSHIT!
Why can’t they print money to end poverty? To create a quality education system for everyone? To raise minimum wages to a reasonable living standards? To pay off its own debt?
“Hey Mr. President, I’m waiting for an answer…”
The more I think about the actuality of the situation, the more pissed off I become, and quite honestly, a little distraught with the madness. Because the sad reality (and it’s truly sad from my perspective) of this entire dilemma is that we validate this ENTIRE FACADE EVERY DAY ! Everything that we need to survive, want to secure a tolerable existence, desire to fulfill our life’s purpose requires that we participate in the MAKE BELIEVE system of MONEY. We validate the system unconsciously…
…whether we’re CONSCIOUS or not, on any level!
As I type this post for publication, which requires an Internet service to reach the multitudes which entails the NEED for MONEY, my actions validate the SYSTEM. So what’s the DAMN point?
Again, we are so bought into this ILLUSION! When are we going to LET GO?
When have you ever needed MONEY to start a REVOLUTION? To make REAL CHANGE?
Having our BLACK businesses is nice and dandy.
But what are building toward? Are we a cohesive unit? Do we have the same goals in mind?
Or are we going into business for self, as individuals? To make MONEY, just to add more duckies to the bank account to play with, sticking with this ILLUSION, the status quo?
Building within this SYSTEM is NOT sustainable for us in the long run. Another reason that the SYSTEM of MONEY still reigns supreme is due the HIDDEN AGENDA of promoting a unified, multicultural nation which DOES NOT EXIST. It serves as a medium between those that DO NOT have similar goals, similar mindsets and to be honest, similar MELANIN CONTENT. So in essence, that DEAD PAPER personifies a DEAD RELATIONSHIP outside the exchange of CURRENCY on a metaphysical level.
At some point BLACKS as a whole must graduate back to a BARTER SYSTEM , the exchange of services and goods instead of currency, the most solid economical relationship you can have.
One that is also RESPECTFUL to Mother Nature as well.
If we are of ONE MIND and ONE SPIRIT, it is achievable! There would be not issue of TRUST when it came to maintaining the ECONOMICAL VITALITY of the community. The goals for EVERYONE would be the same.
First, we must let go of the ILLUSION of MONEY and get back to the REAL!
Originally posted on ThyBlackman.com (click link on original link)
I had read a story about a 6 year old black girl in Chicago that was arrested for “allegedly” stealing a piece of candy off a teacher’s desk by a racist security guard.
The girl’s mother told the Daily News that the school treated her daughter very harshly like other black kids are treated at the school.
The racist guard said, ‘I’m teaching her a f?—?-g lesson. She took a piece of candy and I handcuffed her under the stairs”
My first thought was why is there no protocols to prevent incidents like this. I know why because the main protocol they like to use on black kids, particularly black boys is called systemic racism that makes them harm our kids in very irreparable ways.
Second, these black parents that deliberately throw their kids to these evil savages wanna get all mad and shit when their kids get harmed by them and wanna blame them solely for harming their child.
Third, I noticed many black parents are coming up with all sorts of excuses as to why they can’t even fathom taking up the responsibility of educating their own children when they say things like
1) I gotta work today
2) It’s too hard
3) It’s too stressful
4) I don’t have the time nor energy to do that and all these other weak pathetic excuses that they can come up with.
For me personally, these black parents that put their kids in harm’s way by sending them to these bigots are ALSO to blame for their kids being harmed by them because they actually chose to send their kids to these racist paternalistic baby sitting services to be harmed.
When I hear stories like the 6 year old girl arrested or boy suspended for having an afro, it makes me angry not only at the bigot controlled school system, but also at the parents that agreed to put their kids in harm’s way.
And then these black parentswill also blame the school system for destroying their son’s future by putting him in jail without taking accountability for their own actions of setting their child up for his own extermination by the prison system which disgusts me.
One of the worst mistakes that we ever did during the 20th century was actually putting our kids in the hands of our historical enemy. Even Malcolm X said it best, “Only a fool would allow the enemy to teach their children” and that statement is so true, especially in today’s society.
Nowadays, there are however more black parents taking up the responsibility of educating their own kids because black parents are and should be their child’s first teacher because nobody can truly understand their child like they can.
The Conclusion – If you want to boost your child’s self-esteem and empower them, homeschool them and keep them out of the toxically racist public school system.
Originally posted on ThyBlackman.com (Click link for original article)
Suffering then is not something that happens to us in such a way that we have no control over it. Suffering is not something that we must endure in order to be worthwhile. In fact, it is our own controllable reaction to experiences which determines how those experiences will affect us. Man’s responses to his experiences are based on his view of those experiences. If a painful experience is viewed as a step in his inevitable suffering plight, he passively submits to the pain and expenses it in all the intensity of its agony. If the same painful experience is viewed as an obstacle for man’s mastery, man actively confronts the pain and seeks to overcome it. If he accepts the pain as the natural signal of a need for some type of change of either a physical or metaphysical form, then the person knows that something must and can be done.” Dr Naim Akbar The Community of Self page 59.
No one escapes the vicissitudes of life, the pain and suffering, the peaks and valleys of life the things William Shakespeare called “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune.” No one is immune or exempt from experiences that knock the wind out of us, that throw us for a loop or knock us down. There is no avoidance or escape from what some call failure because failure is part of the success process. Life is such that each one of us must experience setbacks, obstacles, defeats and disappointment to go along with and counter balance the successes, triumphs, exhilarations and joys of living.
I tell folks the only people with no problems we know of, are in the cemetery. Problems, challenges, setbacks and disappointment are all part of the life experience. We cannot evade them. So if you are going through something be glad, be thankful; it means you are still alive. Life is such that challenges are an integral aspect of our existence.
So if this is true and it is, then we should not be overly concerned about problems. We have to see beyond the obstacles, challenges and pain and focus on our goals, focus on our dreams and aspirations and how we can bring them into being, how we can manifest them on this plane. I am not suggesting we ignore problems. We must acknowledge them but don’t become overwhelmed or use our imagination to awfulize the challenge, problem or situation by blowing it our of proportion and making it seem worse than it really is.
They say within every problem lies the seed of its resolution. So we need to look at the problem not as an end or a roadblock but as a bridge to where we want to go be or do. Many of our problems we bring on ourselves or we contribute to. Challenges are a way for us to look at ourselves, take inventory of our strengths, talents and goals and decide whether we want to give up and give out or do we find a way or make a way out of no way.
We come from creative people, genii who mapped and charted the stars, were the first to navigate rivers and oceans, the first to drain swamps, irrigate land, built pyramids that modern man still doesn’t know how they did it. Our ancestors solved problems of survival and asked the profoundest questions about human existence and came to some deep conclusions. Western philosophy is based loosely on what our ancestors discovered.
Our African ancestorswere the first philosophers, the first metaphysicians, their knowledge and discoveries laid the foundation for all science, philosophy and ethics. This creativity, this intuition, this awesomeness is in our DNA. We just have to remember, meaning to rejoin ourselves with this ancient wisdom and potential. The same DIVINITY and INFINITE INTELLIGENCE that was available to our ancestors is accessible to us right here right now! We just have to tap into it. We have to know and realize we can tap into it at any time at any place and it will come to us and offer ways to overcome, endure and transcend any situation.
Our ancestors who were brought to these shores were faced with horrific challenges, degradation and unfathomable abuse. But they found ways to overcome and stand tall. When you are having difficulties get centered and calm your breathing, then allow the peace within you to take over. Peace and sobriety are our real essence. Remember you have the power to define your situation, you can use your imagination to see a different you, a different response to whatever you are going through. Do not try to tell INFINITE INTELLIGENCE how to resolve your situation, listen to the still small voice within you and trust it has your best interests even if what you hear seems impractical. Learn to think beyond your own mental limitations, to expand what you think is possible. The UNIVERSE is on our side, we are part of it and it is part of us so it wants the best for us at all times.
As I said problems are opportunities for us to see what we are made of, how resourceful, resilient and awesome we really are. Many of these issues we’ve brought on ourselves due to foolishness, our egos run amuck or the inevitable consequences of faulty thinking and actions. We have to learn to take ownership for our flawed thinking, recognize this is our responsibility and work to alter those thoughts and decisions that took us down the slippery slope.
You are not being punished by your idea of god or your theology. Some of this is the result of our own erroneous thoughts and actions. Some things are beyond our control, the only response is to control yourself by reframing how you perceive and react to what is going on. While we may not have any control over the situation we can control how we respond, how we react, how and what we think about it. We have power and agency in all situations whether we can change the situation or not.
I once saw a bumper sticker that read, “Help Stamp Out Global Whining“. I chuckled when I saw it but actually there is a message in it. We have the ability to choose whether we whine about our lives, our circumstances and situations or we man and woman up and respond in a mature fashion. We can choose to give up, wallow in self-pity and helplessness or we can choose to solve or resolve the challenges in our lives.
If the situation is chronic we can make or find a way to make it bearable without resorting to negative thoughts, maladaptive behaviors or harmful addictions. We can transcend our challenges in a healthy manner, be in it but not of it; not allow it to get the best of us. Someone once said, “Circumstances don’t make a person, they reveal him or her.” Your are not defined by your troubles. You are greater than anything that is bothering you. Stop whining and choose to be resilient. Look at the situation, determine to figure out how to resolve the issues, be persistent and patient until you achieve your breakthrough.
I listened to a YouTube video recently and there was something mentioned that sparked my curiosity, reminding of a thought I had awhile ago. It was stated that basically the Earth is a living organism just like any other living organism that breathes, moves, produce and reproduce, and consumes.
That is a fact.
There is no way we would survive if it were not so.
I remember mentioning in a previous post (it may have been this one LOL) that our bodies, specifically BLACK-MELANATED BODIES, are a microcosm of the universe as a whole. If you want to understand the universe with its seemingly infinite DARKNESS and innumerable BLACK HOLES, need not look any further than your own HUE-MAN body.
The answers lies within. That statement rings true on so many levels.
Nevertheless, the same can be applied to the Earth itself. But we are steadily killing her. And by we, really I’m talking about Massa, the elite, the-powers-that-be, THE UNNATURAL!
The UNNATURAL: most of your supposedly friendly brethren who lack pure MELANIN.
We’ve been hood, nooked, and crooked into believing that their way is NATURAL! Just so we can secure a comfortable, easy way of living. Slowly being put to sleep, calcifying that pineal gland, the THIRD EYE. To accomplish this feat, they’re stealing her lifeline, her MELANIN, her spiritual connection to the rest of the universe…
CRUDE OIL! IT’S BLACK, UNTAMPERED, PURE BLOOD SUPPLY!
And through a purification process (or denaturing process) they change it to gasoline/petroleum. Now, it’s ultimately WASTE to the Earth, but a necessary need to us civilized folks. Just like vampires,the life is being sucked out of the planet to survive and perpetuate the MADNESS (THE MATRIX!) On a cellular scale, relative to Mother Earth, it can be observed through the exploitation of the ITS MOST NATURAL PEOPLE, the MELANATED majority. And the abuse is a never-ending cycle of DEATH AND DESTRUCTION. This cycle (or Merry-Go-Round) we’re riding on is infected by a deadly virus that we must rid ourselves of immediately or we will soon fall by the wayside.
The Earth is fighting back with a vengeance, though.
Through global warming and natural weather disasters (*those that are not manufactured by the elite) the Earth is trying to rid itself of the virus, very similar to our body’s immune system.
It’s getting rid of everything that is UNNATURAL to its system.
These are truly the END TIMES.
We have to get our bodies (our temples) in order physically and spiritually. The time for playing games are over. The warning shots have been fired and made clear. If we don’t have your temples in tune with MOTHER NATURE, in connection with the LIFE SOURCE (THE SUN!) and the Creator of the universe, we will perish. Like the Good Book says, “you shall perish for a lack of knowledge.” The knowledge is available to those who seek the TRUTH. We have to properly apply the knowledge for the betterment and advancement of what’s REAL.
I have a request: Take a step back and examine yourselves, BLACK MAN/BLACK WOMAN! I mean really examine your life.
Examine the life you have been living and ask yourself if it feels NATURAL to you. Here are some introspective questions you should ask yourself:
Physically, has your life been NATURAL to you?
Professionally and economically, has your life been NATURAL for you?
Spiritually, has your life been NATURAL WITHIN YOU?
Are you connected to what’s REAL in this universe?
Who has benefited from the life you are currently living? Is it you, the people you serve, or both?
Are the people you serving conducive to your ultimate well-being? Are YOU yourself conducive to you own well-being?
Is there balance overall?
These are some basic, standard questions for any BLACK-MELANATED individual who wants to get back in CONNECTION with their TRUE SELVES. You have to be able to answer them openly and honestly.
“There are [Blacks] who are willing to worship the pyramids of 4,000 years ago but will not build pyramids in the present so their children may see what they left behind as well. We have a leadership who rallies the people to look at past glories but leave their children neglected; who will make great analytical and oratorical dissertations on the inadequacies of Eurocentric education and yet will not contribute one penny of their money or their time to the construction of their own schools.” Dr. Amos Wilson, Afrikan Centered Consciousness versus the New World Order.
Montoya Smith, host of the Atlanta talk show, Mental Dialogue, asked: Can we rebuild Black Wall Street? “No, really,” he added, recognizing the depth of his question and assuring folks he was not kidding or just being rhetorical.
So, what was Black Wall Street? Most of what I have learned about it was obtained from a book by John Sibley Butler titled, Entrepreneurship and Self-Help Among Black Americans, A Reconsideration of Race and Economics, which contains an exhaustive section on Tulsa, Oklahoma’s history and a detailed account of what took place in its Greenwood District. Some of the information below comes from Dr. Butler’s book. I also learned from face to face conversations with six of the survivors of the Tulsa Riot.
Black Wall Street was burned to the ground in 1921 by a White mob. The Greenwood District, located in the northern section of Tulsa, Oklahoma, was once called “Negro Wall Street,” and “Little Africa.” It was home to hundreds of Black owned businesses and sat on valuable land desired by White oil speculators, who even tried to buy parcels of that land from Blacks for ten cents on the dollar immediately following the Tulsa riot. Fortunately and wisely, Blacks refused to sell.
Despite hundreds of Black lives lost in the riot and all of Greenwood’s businesses destroyed, the story of that economic enclave during the ensuing seventeen years was one of triumph over tragedy. By 1923, as a result of Blacks pooling their money to capitalize new enterprises, the Black business district was even larger than before, and Greenwood was completely restored by Black people by 1938. Ultimately, urban renewal and integration, which allowed Blacks to shop at non-Black stores, led to the demise of “Black Wall Street.”
To Amos Wilson’s point, Greenwood was a pyramid built by Blacks in the early 1900’s. Instead of looking back and merely reveling in the successes if Mound Bayou, Mississippi, and other enclaves that came before them, Black people in Greenwood built upon those legacies. Thus, my answer to the question posed by Montoya Smith, “Can we rebuild Black Wall Street?” was and is an emphatic and unequivocal, “YES!”
My answer to that question is based on the fact that we have done it before under far worse circumstances than we are under today. But as I listened to the other guest on Montoya’s show, Mr. Jay West, entrepreneur and President of the Lithonia Small Business and Merchants Association located on the outskirts of Atlanta, Georgia, I became even more convinced.
Immediately impressed by Mr. West and the work his group is doing in a city that is approximately 85% Black, I sought him out to learn more. Jay West understands and promotes local business support. “I do 95% of my shopping right here in Lithonia,” West said, “because I know that one dollar spent here has the multiplier effect of three dollars, as our businesses support one another.”
West is absolutely correct, and the Lithonia merchants association will benefit collectively and individually from circulating their dollars; they will grow their businesses and create more jobs. This nascent organization can be the model from which new Black Wall Streets can be rebuilt across this nation; it is on track to encourage more entrepreneurship and demonstrate the power of a cohesive, mutually supportive, self-directed, and economically empowered network of conscious business owners and consumers who are committed to growth and sustainability.
True partnerships between educated consumers and business professionals in Black economic enclaves comprise the basis for real power in the marketplace, i.e. collective purchasing programs and affinity groups, revolving loan funds, business equity funds, and financial leverage to stimulate future growth. Lithonia is in that space right now, and there is plenty of room for more cities and segments within those cities to do the same.
To draw the discussion closer to home in Atlanta, “Can Sweet Auburn be sweet again?” John Wesley Dobbs called it the “richest Negro street in the world.” Suffering its own riot in 1906 that left 25 Black men dead, Sweet Auburn can also be rebuilt, and with leaders like Jay West and others in Atlanta, I am confident that pyramid will be built.
Originally posted on ABS (click link for original article)”
At only 26-years-old, Freddie Figgers is the CEO of a $2.2 million Florida telecommunications company.
According to a 2014 study by Insight Research Corp, telecommunications services revenue worldwide will grow from $2.1 trillion in 2014 to $2.4 trillion in 2019.
This great news means there is money to be made in this industry. However, African-Americans are not the ones making it.
Figgers Communication hopes to change that.
In addition to being a successful business mogul, Figgers is an inventor, patent holder for four inventions and a software designer who strives for perfection.
The 26-year-old even achieved all of this without finishing college.
This real-life Tony Stark (Marvel’s Iron Man) spoke to Atlanta Black Star about his tremendous foray into the tech industry and how he plans to inspire others.
As a young Black man, Figgers has always had a passion for technology. At the early age of 9, that passion began to flourish when his father purchased a used 1989 computer from a Goodwill thrift store.
He didn’t know then that the old computer would be the keystone to his tech empire.
“I broke the computer down several times to get it back working,” he said. “[By the sixth time] I finally got it back together and now it runs Windows XP.”
However, his life was a not a straight path. Figgers was abandoned by a dumpster as a newborn by his birth mother. It took 16 years to get rid of a rash he developed from being abandoned.
Within 13 days, he was matched with an adoptive family who taught him how to become a great man in the face of unforeseen tragedy.
The kindness of his adopted parents changed Figgers and made him appreciative of the life he has today, he said.
“My parents were strict,” he recalled. ” ‘Don’t go anywhere’ [they instructed]. I really appreciate it because it turned me into who I am today.”
Figgers added, “It’s amazing that you can meet people like that, and till this day, I have never met my biological parents. I have never had the interest.”
In the early 2000s, 12-year-old Figgers became part of a program called Net Quincy, based in his hometown of Quincy, Florida.
This program was a public-private partnership to provide telecommunications and internet service to residents in the small town.
People in the town heard about his computer repair prowess, and he landed a part-time job as a computer technician.
He worked with them for several years accumulating more hours under his belt.
“A lot of them felt envious of a child trying to compete with them,” Figgers explained. “I was just a 14-, 15- year- old kid. I [wasn’t] trying to take [their] job!”
At 16, Figgers realized he could make more money working for himself. So he left the Net Quincy program to start his own repair company, operating out of a backyard shed. Local residents brought in their damaged personal computers and laptops, and he repaired 50-60 computers a week on average.
This was just the beginning.
Figgers created a cloud database back in 2005 — before cloud computing was mainstream — that digitized and stored clients’ records.
“After I saw the computer market, I wanted to see what makes these computers share resources … That was the networking aspect … I was going around to local car dealerships, law firms and realtors, [helping them] move from physical [record keeping] to a cloud-based solution. I was doing this at 15 in 2005.”
He created and maintained nine web servers at that time.
Even though the young man had the talent for networking and computer repair, software was his true passion. He said his financial backing came from software he designed for clients.
All of his technical wizardry was self-taught, and his parents gave him the tools to carry out his dreams.
Figgers has designed banking security applications, a remote patient monitoring system for senior citizens, and countless other software programs for an array of clients.
In his interview with ABS, Figgers revealed that he dropped out of college around 2009 after being presented with an opportunity to design a program for $65,000.
“The school thing wasn’t for me,” he explained.
He made the software program, earned the money and went off to create his telecommunications empire.
This was the breaking or making point in his life because he had his share of doubters.
“I was told no my whole life. The only person who believed in me was my father. No one believes you until they see a check. And that’s the story of my life … If you believe in something go for it.”
He said the government and Federal Communications Commission discouraged him from trying to acquire cell towers. It took Figgers three years to put up his first tower. In 2010, he purchased his first cell phone tower at the affordable price of $400,000. And when the tower malfunctioned, he ground it out by going back to software design to earn enough money to repair it.
Today, the entrepreneur has 18 towers in Florida with plans to acquire more.
His company designs and manufactures telecommunication handsets, provides cellular, mobile broadband, home phone and international calling and wireless internet.
Figgers Communication also provides wireless 4G LTE without a yearly contract.
The inventor and entrepreneur has also created a cell phone that prevents texting and driving with the aim to stop vehicular homicides.
The Community Capital Investment Group (CCIG) is a new association that is committed to building Black wealth and autonomy separate from the current power structure. CCIG is looking for willing members who are dedicated to adhering to a healthy lifestyle, both physical and spiritual, and are able to contribute their time, knowledge, and various skill sets to building a society that is conducive to Blacks’ advancement.
First meeting will take place in the Atlanta area in September 2016; more details will be determined soon. If you are interested in joining CCIG or need any more information, please call the founder Mr. Babbs at (256)452-2965.
Let me know through the comment section if you are interested as well. Thanks!
Also, anyone with Facebook or Twitter ? I would be most thankful if you post this announcement on your page/feed.
Here you go and now you know… Source: Reptilians And The Council Of 13 : In5D Esoteric, Metaphysical, and Spiritual Database by Stewart A. Swerdlow excerpts from Blue Blood, True Blood: Confl…
Expressions from the writer formerly known as The Melanin Man 