Truthfully Speaking

My President Is Black – In Fact, He’s Half White!

A few weeks ago, I had all plans of leaving town for
Inauguration week(end). I just knew that it would be so chaotic and I didn’t
want to get caught up in it. Sometimes, I have to shake my head at people who
think it’s cool to pass judgment on others because they choose not to be as
emotional as one would expect them to be. Many times, they inaccurately assume
that the lack of reaction is due to ignorance. They don’t stop to think that
some people really just aren’t into the pomp and circumstance of it all – but,
that’s just a sidebar.

My cousin Andrew called and told me that he and the fam
would be in my neck of the woods during inauguration and that we should stay in
town – so that changed everything. Still, I had no intentions of going out and
dealing with the madness outside. But, something happened!

My uncle called me up and told me that he had tickets for me
to go to the We Are One concert. It was my understanding that this was a free,
ticketless concert. So, I wondered whether he was pulling another one of his
stunts. But, I still did as I was told and got dressed. I put on my warmest
clothes and a hat and I got ready to brave the weather. Long story short – we got
seats at the concert somewhere close to the front and we had a blast. The
energy of the people, the sight of a million hands moving in one fluid pattern
to the song “Shout” just made me want to cry. I watched the love and I felt it.
The exhilaration of it all made me finally realize just what I was in the
middle of. I knew then, that I had to at least be outside on the actual Inauguration
day.

Between, nightly Love the Club parties, the Jay Z concert,
this club and that, I had a BALL. On the day of the concert, I was tired.
Unfortunately, I had an emergency situation that was taken care of relatively
quickly. It jump started the day for us all. Eventually, 4 of us made it out
the house and into the streets. The commute there was longer than I’d
anticipated, but we made it. We were welcomed by crowds of people (I knew then
that I should not have given up my spot at the Newseum). But again, the people
were calm, cool, and collected. Many had no clue where they needed to be (we
were in the notorious purple group). A bus blocked passage to the other side of
the street. It was pure chaos. After maneuvering for quite some time, we made a
collective decision to head back to the crib and watch via television. I’ll be
honest – I slept through most of the ceremony. I was awake for the swearing in
and I heard Aretha sing. I still haven’t heard this poem that people speak so
terribly about.

I’m not like most people who think that the color of someone’s
skin will change the crisis that we face today. I voted for Barack because I
thought he was the best candidate. Now, I want him to be the best. I don’t care
about his color or his love for his wife and kids. I just know that everyday I
look into the faces of little ones, I hope that we can get this thing together
so that they won’t struggle like many of us are and will.

Last week, it felt so great to be living in DC. If you
missed it, you really really missed it.

You Ain’t Ghetto

I almost fainted the other day when I realized that, after all these years of thinking it, "I aint e'en ghetto". Can you believe the remarkable shock that must have gone through my body? All this time, I've been out here waving my rag and talking that "hood tawk". What's worse is how I even got to recognize that I wasn't ghetto. It was such a shock to me that I decided that I needed to share it with you (please keep in mind that, because of long years of being hood, it's going to be hard for me to avoid the hood tawk):

Children Need To Play

Sometimes, I act like a child. I guess it’s my way of
remaining young. Growing up, we played many games. I guess that’s why I was
always so skinny. Between, hopscotch, basketball, and tag, we always remained
active. Today, children don’t even know how to play.

I still remember an interaction between myself and one of my
students sometime last year. Generally, when we went out for recess, the
students would ask if they could bring out a basketball, dodgeball, or
football. I banned football because of the rough nature and fights that broke
out because of the game. Then, I banned dodgeball because of the number of
incident reports I had to write. Basketball was almost banned, but I decided to
just referee it so that the students would have at least one game that wasn’t
banned.  But one day I brought the kids
outside with no balls. As soon as we got outside, a boy ran up to me and asked
if he could go inside and get a ball. I let him know that the students would
have to find a way to entertain themselves without a ball. The sad thing is
that they had no clue what to do.

It just reminded me about how different our society is
today. While we grew up playing outside as well as playing videogames, children
today basically play videogames indoors. 
They don’t know the first thing about just running around outside and
playing. So, I taught them how to play steal the bacon and a few other games
that I learned as a child.

Parents and adults in general, need to take the time to make
sure that kids get back to playing. Part of this obesity issue comes from an
obvious lack of movement. Children’s inability to “just play” helps to further explain
children’s consistent cries of boredom.

If you have a child, work on bringing back the days when
children just played. Bring back the days when the imagination ruled the lives
of children. When that happens, I think we’ll finally begin to move in the
direction of children who are more apt to think independently and dream
vividly.

The Exchange of Power

I once worked as a Junior
Development person for a Non-profit organization. Part of my function there was
to Event Plan. Perhaps, the last event that I worked on before I left, was one
aimed at getting, then, Senator Obama to come to one of our functions. Truly,
he was the function – but, whatever. Anyhow, to do this, I had to pretty much
become a stalker. But what’s interesting is not how I stalked, but who I
stalked. I had the (dis)pleasure of tracking the movements of Michele Obama.
See, at that time, she was really where the money was. She was the breadwinner
of the household and the decider of most things having to do with Senator
Obama. Now, she gets to play the role of First Wife?

 As I was thinking
about that scenario, I started to think about the conflicts that must occur
between women and men when shifts in power happen so suddenly. How does a woman
deal with that?

 For many years, I’ve
lived my life knowing that I can’t depend on a man to do it for me. And to tell
you the truth, I’ve never wanted a man to pay all my bills. I happen to like
making money and being able to call the shots for myself. But like Kanye said, “all
my independent chicks – trade it in for a husband and some kids…”that’s truly
how some women feel. There are times when I think I would be willing to – but that’s
only if the stakes weren’t too high? Let me break down what I mean.

 Mrs. Obama
graduated at the top of her class and was making a great deal of money. I can
only imagine that she is probably a very highly motivated woman who likes the
power of being a provider. What’s more interesting about it all though – was
her ability to be a mother that was very much in the lives of her children.
But, then again, as the sole supporter of the family at one point in time,
perhaps Mr. Obama took care of the household stuff. Who knows? Who cares?

 The question I have
is this, is it easy for a woman who is used to being the breadwinner of her
family, to take a role behind her man without there being some sort of issue?
There has been much talk about the First Lady getting paid. I don’t think that’s
a crazy idea – especially understanding the background of Mrs. Obama. She’s not
coming from being a trophy wife somewhere. What she’s used to is getting out
there and making money.

 I would be
interested to know how my fellow “independent” chicks think they would approach
a situation like the Obama’s. Granted, I know that there is probably nothing
better than being the President of the U.S. But, if you were head of the finances, and
decision making in your home and it suddenly switched, would you be willing to
just give that all up and wear a different hat?

Just ask me!

You don’t know me! And if you’ve never met me, you really
don’t know me. If you have already formulated an opinion of me based on
whatever fabrication someone has fed you, then you really don’t need to get to
know me. Trust me, the a-hole I am has been a long time coming. Like many
people say but don’t really mean – if you want to get to know me, ask me. I don’t
need to lie to you. There really is no purpose. At the end of the day, your
opinion of me has very little baring on my life.

I’m black, white, and gray! That’s right. I’m a liberal
conservative. I’m judgmentally carefree. At the end of the day, I do me and I
sure hope that you do you. I’m masculinely feminine. I’m a fun loving bore. I’m
a kind jerk. I’m complexly simple. I’m an honest liar. I will lie to protect
the innocent but I will tell you the truth if it really doesn’t matter. I don’t
really play favorites. I dislike everyone almost equally. I heart black people
but I hate black people. I hate white people but I like white people. I hate
that I love people.  If I like you, I
like you. If I don’t like you, I don’t like you. I care so much but I could
really care less. I’m not unique, but I am. If you don’t like me, you probably
don’t like yourself. If you like me, you probably don’t like yourself. You can’t
just put me in your pocket. I’m just not that person!

I don’t know you. I don’t know how you think, how you feel,
how you act, or even why you act that way. I don’t know who you sleep with, why
you sleep with them, or what your favorite position is. I don’t know where you
live, why you live there, or how you’re living. And, I don’t care! At the end
of the day, I want you to live your life and enjoy it. I need you to understand
that the things you do don’t affect me so, feel free to live yours.

Someone once called me judgmental. Unfortunately, she got it
wrong. While I might have an opinion on something, I never judge people. I’m
not perfect. I do things that I don’t even agree with. I am entitled to comment
in the privacy of my space about something. That doesn’t mean that I am judging
them. If I were to write a list of things that I don’t agree with – that I
abhor even, then my friends and I would all be on the list. If I was that
judgmental, my friends wouldn’t look the way they do or be who they are. If you
are a man who sleeps with me sometimes but loves women – do you. If you are a
woman that sleeps with women that loves men – do you. If you are a religious
fanatic who engages daily or often in pre-marital sex – do you. If you are a
chick who finds sex through ads online – do you. If you are a adamant Jesus
hater that calls on God once in a while – do you. If you are a husband who
sometimes cheats on his wife – do you. If you are a wife who sometimes cheats
on your husband – do you. If you are a vegan who eats meat sometimes – do you.
If you are a lesbian who wants to have a baby the way other women have babies –
do you. If you are a male chauvinist that loves a woman to dominate you in the
bed – do you. Pick your poison! Just know that, at the end of the day, the
things that people see on the outside, or the things that people tell you about
others, may simply be their perception. And those things that you see on the
outside cannot begin to define who that individual really is.