The Immigrant Series!

The story that needs to be told:

Taxi drivers come from everywhere and have so many different stories. they come from different regions, countries, cities and villages. Different religions, ethnicities, races and tribes. Different circumstances. Talking to them reveals the different push factors that cause people to migrate. Looking at this very focused group of [mostly] men is a window into human movement within the global village. Globalization is defined as the increased movement of ideas, goods, people and capital across international borders. Push factors are what cause people to leave their country of origin and pull factors are what attracts people to go to a certain country. The most powerful of both of these is economically based. Most people who are leaving are escaping poverty and looking for greener pastures in the form of jobs elsewhere. Especially from Africa, other push factors include, religious, political or ethnic persecution. Before they come, many immigrants have certain perceptions of what their new life in America holds for them. An American dominated/centric popular culture propagated around the world through television, music and, more recently, the Internet sometimes isn't the reality. Aspiring to the pseudo-glamorous life of what they see, some have very high expectations of this land of opportunity. The purpose of this project is to delve into what happens when the rubber meets the road. Do those expectations and dreams about America match up with what the actual experience and reality is? The most popular immigrant narrative in America is that of the uneducated, poverty stricken, desolate and nuisance of an individual who is here using up tax-payer dollars. Although it may be true that some immigrants come from extreme poverty and were not afforded an education, that is not the entire story. Ngozi Chimamanda refers to the danger of a single story. Telling a single story leaves out the other stories that are part of the whole story. The unfortunate thing about story telling or, in the case of negative portrayals with sinister purposes, the propagation of propaganda is that it always has an agenda. Now don’t tune into the negative connotation of the word “agenda” - take it to mean the message serves a purpose to justify a certain belief or policy. There is an agenda for the one sided story of immigration, but with this project I too have an agenda. My agenda is to show that what we often hear about the immigrant is true, but it is incomplete. You will meet individuals who came from very abject circumstances, but others who were attracted more by pull factors like better wages and access to education than fleeing famine or war. No matter what it is that brought them to America, no matter what their expectations were, better or worse, I want to see whether or not America has proven to be the land of opportunity. The opportunities they came here for as well as the ones that revealed themselves as an unintended consequence of being here. The point being made is that even though there is more money to be made here and there is relatively better access to education and health care, perhaps life is still a struggle. The myth of the land of opportunity is that the said opportunities are inaccessible for recent immigrants who do not have the networks, connections and wealth that were built over decades ago... Much more to come in this conversation :) Support and follow along for updates on IndieGoGo and TWITTER To find out more or provide information email immiseries@gmail.com Thank you <3

FLIRT!!!

I was just talking to a friend the other day and somehow we ended up getting on the topic of flirtation/infidelity [as there is more of a causative vs. correlative relationship between the two]. Most of the conversations we have are one conversation broken into about a thousand mini topics that just seem to burst out of each other like phantasmagorical fireworks where one goes up bright and colorful and just as those embers descend and seem to fade out another bursts out of what seemed like it was over. I think it might be safe to say that we both have attention deficit disorder, but haven’t had it diagnosed and therefore have not been medicated. The reason we wouldn’t get medicated is because we are well aware of the medication of “deviance”, which debatably ADD as well as ADHD are not, and the role the pharmaceutical industry is playing in keeping the masses drugged up while the corporations have their way with us. Sort of like that sleezy guy at the bar who slips one of those date rape drugs into the drink he offered to buy you not necessarily so he can take advantage of you, but more so to score a little cash so his boy can approach you in your more relaxed mind state, hit it off with you and somehow you wake up in the back of an alley with a broken bra strap, missing your bank card and drivers license with absolutely no recollection of what happened. Nine months later you’re delivering a baby you know were it not for being scared $h!+L355 to NOT have because of conservative pro-life commercials and wondering how all this happened. Tracking back you recall that night at the bar and join a counseling group where you meet more people like yourself and realize you are not alone. Talking about, “see what had happened was...” A group moment of clarity happens and now you all are marching down some busy street in New York with many other self-proclaimed feminists half naked to prove a point. One you seem to have missed altogether.

But I digress....

On flirtation, don’t we do it all? Sometimes we are actively and consciously doing it to achieve whatever personal agenda, whilst other times we might be falsely accused of it by a bystander or someone who merely wishes to be on the receiving end of it. Those that are very good at it are usually those we would readily label as being confident. Most times people who look good are well within their rights to do it. Although, it is quite a spectacle to behold those that aren’t so easy on the eyes dive headfirst, almost blindly, into it. Flirtation is a lot of fun as even dipping my toes into it tickles me. It makes me more aware of my powers and sometimes I’m even surprised by my own strength. Weirdly enough though, it mostly makes me feel weird - perhaps an insecurity I need to deal with. But this is not about me....[anymore, until i decide it is again]

What I was saying to my friend is that too much flirtation to me is a sign of moderate to high levels of insecurity. Flirting to me is a reminder that I have a certain power and effect on people. My gender paired with a combination of intellectual, emotional, spiritual and physical attributes doused down with a lot of wit give me a certain effect on people. I am well aware of these characteristics within myself even without some dude gushing over how both funny and smart, AND cute and sexy I am. I use my mirrors at home folks. When I flirt it’s really just a mere flexing of what I already know I am/have [mostly AM though]. When I actively pursue flirting it most times, the FEW times, to me, feels like I am just making a fool of myself. I haven’t quite figured out how to bat my regular length eyelashes no matter how much volumizing mascara I put on and, as I probably will not be wearing any falsies until my wedding day, might never learn. I wear my hair short most of the time and even when i have braids or a weave the pony tail is my style of choice. I therefore do not have loose strands that get windswept into my face and I can therefore tuck behind my ear seductively. As for the pout, not only are my lips incredibly thin, but flexing and protruding them feels altogether silly and awkward - especially going by the results other people in their pictures yield.

When it comes to flirting, if i could send my mind out there to do it’s thing, that would be easier, but my body language is that uncompromising friend who refuses to dress up when you know it’ll be easier to get into the ladies-free-before-9 joint if you all wore your freakum dresses. It can’t be bothered. Perhaps as confident as I am i am a little bit shy.

People who are constantly on the prowl and flirting to me are trying to reassure themselves through the validation that comes from that much attention from the opposite sex. They can never be satisfied with looking in the mirror and liking what they see, so they flirt and must always be the life of the party so to speak. Flirting with Tom, Dick and Harry, or with Jill, Jane and [insert name] reminds them that yes what they saw in the mirror after primping and priming for an hour minimum is in fact desirable. Otherwise without flirting they are walking around wondering if people do think they are hot and sexy and appreciating the results of their efforts.

As unappealing as too much of this is amongst singles, flirting is even more troubling (oh yes - “troubling”) when people are in a relationship. When a guy is in a relationship that people for the most part know he is in, although that is irrelevant, but still insists on being the resident casa nova I think it really shows his insecurity. This is worse when the girl absolutely adores him. The only reason a guy with a good girl flirts uncontrollably because there is something in the relationship that makes him wonder if he still has it and he feels an internal pressure to always prove that he is in deed still hot and quite a catch. Do all that when you are single I say.

Stop it. The best practice is to let people be impressed with you versus you bending over backwards to impress them because what might happen is you look dumb and come of very posy and pretentious.

That’s my piece for now. A.D.D. kicking in...



@afropolitaine :)

Hollywood Bad Habits: Shark Night

So i saw the previews for yet another weekend getaway turned bad movie where once again there are sharks in some lake and once again some young people out there doing their thing when stuff turns bad very fast. It's called Shark Night - makes you wanna go see it innit?! Usually those movies don't have Black people in them since Black people don't do things like go out on lakes and water ski (*?!) - or do they?! Anywhooo...seeing this Black guy struck me as an interesting change to the mundane, overdone and straight up played out movie theme. But it was all ruined entirely too quickly with what seems to be the modus operandi of all these teeny bopper scary movies. The Black guy is the one who dies first. Like in the previews there wasn't even an attempt to hide the fact that the only Black cast member was killed off first. I'm sure there are other Black people in the movie, but going from the previews and the apparent predictability, who will be in the usual token roles of by standers dancing at some party, rapping, dressed in baggy clothes, having the hook up to something, excited about some chicken, athlete etc et cetera...


Don't get me wrong i'm not surprised nor am i even disappointed anymore. Disappointment follows high expectancy - which i have very low ones of Hollywood anyway. I don't expect this to shake Hollywood out of stagnancy and creative doldrums, or to become a spokesperson for race in the industry and how we are supposed to have come so far given the century we are in and the unveiling of the Martin Luther King monument down the street. I don't even care about the fact that there was only 1 Black person featured in the previews of that movie because there certainly are bigger issues of race that need to be addressed in this country. I'm just another blogger, of which there are too many, on a rant about racial inequality in the media. But then i think again that in this day and age ( i won't dare say Post-Racial America), things like this should not even be going on. Not only do we have to do better, we SHOULD be doing better. There is a certain intentionality that has to go into undoing the damage of too long a time of systematic racism. That intentionality is lacking because there is no pressure for it.

It has gotten entirely too easy to do nothing at all and continue with bad habits. Hollywood, you are what you repeatedly do. Stop it. It's not cute.

To be honest, I obviously haven't watched it because it's not out, but I really don't need to. My criticism is based of what I already know about those types of movies and the preview itself. Even if I do see it i'm pretty sure i will have the same criticism.



Bye

ImmiSeries The Introduction 10/26 by afropolitaine | Blog Talk Radio

ImmiSeries The Introduction 10/26 by afropolitaine | Blog Talk Radio

The Irony of the "Arab" Spring

I'm sitting here watching Current and Countdown with Keith Olbermann is on. I used to love watching him on MSNBC leading up to Obama's campaign and for a while after B.O. became POTUS I would rush home and get such a rush watching his show. He and Rachel Maddow.

So it's interesting to see him on a different channel with possibly a little more liberty to express his frustrations especially in the sometimes uncontrolled way I came to love.

Anywhooo he's talking to a reporter from Democracy Now! who was at an Occupy Wall Street (henceforth referred to as #occupywallstreet) protest. What I see in the footage featured of police turning on the crowd with batons, pepperspray and altogether unnecessary force given the mostly non-violent nature of the movement really had me wondering.....

----->> has the "Arab" Spring reached America's shores?

What stands out to me is the fact that labeling would have had us here in America thinking that only young disenfranchised Arab/Muslim youth living in countries with leaders labeled dictators/miscreants/violators would be the ones to get up and protest because they had had enough. No - it turns out that we as humans or humanity have a lot more in common than we think. To me #occupywallstreet and all the #occupy movements are reflective of a changing world order. One that is tired of capitalism, not in totality, and it's ills. The unintended consequences you could say. It's funny how the home, champion, crusader for capitalism, The United States of America, should be going through what it is NOW! Oppression is oppression. We might go and fight wars in the name of "Freedom", but perhaps a definition or redefining to such an intangible concept should be found. Freedom is not an absolute! It is relative. Relative because it is subject to an individual's desires and ambitions which are all also subject to culture, politics and so much more. ---> INTERSECTIONALITY!

Letting other people or powers define what our oppression is allows for them to shape our experience and be blind to the freedoms we DO have. Outsiders who are not aware of the context within which the said oppression is happening and are oblivious to the interlocking systems of oppression [they themselves are a part of].

Funny how one power will tell another [sovereign] that it is oppressing its people and fight an entire war that drains its economy spending hundreds of millions of dollars for 10 straight years. That said power, in having drained it's reserves, now borrows and is indebted to a "communist" super power (<---possible blog post for another day lest I digress). The "communist" super power has long been accused by the one power of oppressing its people. Recognizing the irony is mind blowing. A highly enlightening experience which ironically... Anywhoo.... The "Arab" spring was the beginning of what Karl Marx, in The Communist Manifesto, referred to in saying:

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.
Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes.

It really, to me and hopefully, eventually if not already, to you, marked the beginning of the/a Proletarian Revolution. Despite what the liberal and/or conservative media would have you believe, we as working class citizens of ANY country have a lot more to be worried about or in common than what is of actual consequence in our differences. Propagation of propaganda distracts us from the core of what we should be focused on and is right before our eyes.

For some reason the story of Jack and the Beanstalk keeps coming to mind. Of course I haven't read the story in a long time and the connection or metaphor I am recognizing might be off, but bear with me for the sake of my point. Perhaps read the story or refer to a summary.

I shant make the connection for you, but perhaps as a mental exercise in becoming more aware of yourself and why the Arab Spring and #occupywallstreet matter for YOU today the connection will make itself.

The Arab Spring even gives credit to some of the more positive and unifying aspects of Capitalism technology and innovation (you see it's not a zero sum opposition to Capitalism, but the parts that should be done away with). Technology like Apple products, other smartphones and social media made it possible the the movement to happen the way it did. In closing and in homage to the late great Mac-Daddy Steve Jobs, I leave you with his words:

"[Y]ou can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something -- your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life."

http://www.focusfeatures.com/video/rungano_nyoni

http://www.focusfeatures.com/video/rungano_nyoni

responding to misinformation

btw I wrote this in response to someone who had responded to Tavis Smiley and Cornel West’s criticism of Barack Obama and how he hasn’t invited them to the White House. That in and of itself needed a lot longer response so i responded to a response. The person said something about the Obama administration charging people 35K for a campaign fundraising event. Which was false! I felt a COMPULSION to respond, my fingers got the typing and voila…!

La Reponse:

The campaign fundraising event that was held for Obama in New York with an admission fee of $35,800 has nothing to do with the administration itself, unless Anna Wintour and Harvey Weinstein were appointed and I missed that. Everyone who attended did so out of free will because to them both the Obama campaign and the DNC are worthy causes. Also because they HAVE the money to do so. As it is their OWN money and their free will, what exactly is the problem? If people would stop to look and listen/read the details instead of reacting to mere headlines they would either have better responses here or remain silent. Does it not get tiring being mad at Obama for both the few mistakes that he [humanly and given the restrictions of the political system within which he is operating] has made and twisting anything he is associated with into what to me is becoming straight up #hateration? Comparing Martin Luther King and Barack Obama and what one would have done is silly. Different times, different environments, different everything – Black men yes! One thing I do know is that Martin Luther King would have been proud of Barack Obama and wherever he disagreed it certainly would have been expressed in the most constructive, self-reflective, informed and respective way. In closing, “Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness.”