fuckyeahfamousblackgirls: Phylicia Rashad’s Letter to 21-Year Old Self: Dear Phylicia,Romantic involvement distracts you and can blind you to what’s really in front of you. And what really is in front of you? You are. You don’t even know yourself yet. You think you know and you want to assert that you do, now that you’re a certain age, but you don’t. What’s in front of you is a whole world of experiences beyond your imagination. Put yourself, and your growth and development, first. There are long-term repercussions to what you’re doing now. Everything you do, every thought you have, every word you say creates a memory that you will hold in your body. It’s imprinted on you and affects you in subtle ways—ways you are not always aware of. With that in mind, be very conscious and selective.With high hopes for you,Phylicia this is lovely.

fuckyeahfamousblackgirls:

Phylicia Rashad’s Letter to 21-Year Old Self:


Dear Phylicia,

Romantic involvement distracts you and can blind you to what’s really in front of you. And what really is in front of you? You are. You don’t even know yourself yet. You think you know and you want to assert that you do, now that you’re a certain age, but you don’t. What’s in front of you is a whole world of experiences beyond your imagination. Put yourself, and your growth and development, first. There are long-term repercussions to what you’re doing now. Everything you do, every thought you have, every word you say creates a memory that you will hold in your body. It’s imprinted on you and affects you in subtle ways—ways you are not always aware of. With that in mind, be very conscious and selective.

With high hopes for you,
Phylicia


this is lovely.

(via africanessence)

herbrainsdailychurn:

Made in Africa by Stephen Marley featuring Wale and the cast of Fela.

(Source: africanessence)

This is why the Trayvon Martin slaughter and the slaughter of so many Afrikan people by the hand of white men, women, and children does not surprise me although it my sadden me. They’ve been doing this to our community for CENTURIES.

howtobeterrell:

This is a photograph from a book called ‘Without Sanctuary: Lynching Photography ins America” (pub. 2004). The photo is called ‘The lynching of Frank Embree, July 22, 1899, Fayette, MO”

By all reckoning, that makes this barely 113 years old.

There are two other matching photos to the set. The one below, and the one of him hanging, which is too upsetting to post. You can see it (along with others from much later time periods here: http://chnm.gmu.edu/courses/omalley/race/four.html)

http://golden-zephyr.tumblr.com

(via africanessence)

Chrishaun “CeCe” McDonald is a young African American transgender woman who is charged with two counts of “second degree murder” after an incident that began when she was violently assaulted because of her gender and race.  CeCe is a creative and energetic person who, before her life was so unjustly interrupted, was studying fashion at [Minneapolis Community and Technical College]. She had a stable home where she lived with and helped support four other African American youth, her family. CeCe’s family describes her as a leader, a role model, and a loyal friend. She is known as a wise, out-spoken, and welcoming person, with a cheerful disposition and a history of handling prejudice with amazing grace. Read about CeCe in her own words here. There are varied accounts of what happened on June 5, [2011,] but CeCe and the people she was with all agree on the following details. Around 12:30 am, CeCe was walking to the grocery store with some friends, all of them young, African American, and either queer or allied. As they passed a local bar, the Schooner Tavern, a group of older, white people who were standing outside the bar’s side door began hurling racist and transphobic slurs at them, without provocation…When CeCe approached the group and told them that her crew would not tolerate hate speech, one of the women said, “I’ll take you bitches on,” and then smashed her glass into CeCe’s face. She punctured CeCe’s cheek all the way through, lacerating her salivary gland. A fight ensued, during which one of the attackers, Dean Schmitz, was fatally stabbed. The only person arrested that night was CeCe.  She is now being falsely accused of murder. CeCe was briefly taken to the hospital where she received 11 stitches in her cheek. Then, while she was still suffering both physically and mentally from this traumatic incident, she was left alone in a room for three hours and then interrogated, after which she was placed into solitary confinement. She spent the next several months in jail and had to wait almost two months between her initial doctors’ visit and a much-needed follow-up appointment. During that time, her cheek swelled into an extremely painful, golfball-sized lump, making eating difficult and producing headaches and pressure on her left eye and ear. Ironically, the only gesture towards CeCe’s well-being that authorities made during her incarceration was to put her in solitary confinement “for her own protection” on two separate occasions, despite her stated desire to be housed alongside other prisoners. CeCe was bailed out on conditional release in October of 2011, but has since been returned to jail due to alleged violations of her conditions of release.

Chrishaun “CeCe” McDonald is a young African American transgender woman who is charged with two counts of “second degree murder” after an incident that began when she was violently assaulted because of her gender and race. 

CeCe is a creative and energetic person who, before her life was so unjustly interrupted, was studying fashion at [Minneapolis Community and Technical College]. She had a stable home where she lived with and helped support four other African American youth, her family. CeCe’s family describes her as a leader, a role model, and a loyal friend. She is known as a wise, out-spoken, and welcoming person, with a cheerful disposition and a history of handling prejudice with amazing grace. Read about CeCe in her own words here.

There are varied accounts of what happened on June 5, [2011,] but CeCe and the people she was with all agree on the following details. Around 12:30 am, CeCe was walking to the grocery store with some friends, all of them young, African American, and either queer or allied. As they passed a local bar, the Schooner Tavern, a group of older, white people who were standing outside the bar’s side door began hurling racist and transphobic slurs at them, without provocation…When CeCe approached the group and told them that her crew would not tolerate hate speech, one of the women said, “I’ll take you bitches on,” and then smashed her glass into CeCe’s face. She punctured CeCe’s cheek all the way through, lacerating her salivary gland. A fight ensued, during which one of the attackers, Dean Schmitz, was fatally stabbed.

The only person arrested that night was CeCe.  She is now being falsely accused of murder.

CeCe was briefly taken to the hospital where she received 11 stitches in her cheek. Then, while she was still suffering both physically and mentally from this traumatic incident, she was left alone in a room for three hours and then interrogated, after which she was placed into solitary confinement. She spent the next several months in jail and had to wait almost two months between her initial doctors’ visit and a much-needed follow-up appointment. During that time, her cheek swelled into an extremely painful, golfball-sized lump, making eating difficult and producing headaches and pressure on her left eye and ear. Ironically, the only gesture towards CeCe’s well-being that authorities made during her incarceration was to put her in solitary confinement “for her own protection” on two separate occasions, despite her stated desire to be housed alongside other prisoners. CeCe was bailed out on conditional release in October of 2011, but has since been returned to jail due to alleged violations of her conditions of release.

(Source: afrodiaspores)

afterallafterall: St. Martin The Rasta Restaurateur Meet the immigrant musician who proved that an island that imports practically everything can go local and organic By Melody Wren Local officials warned him that he wouldn’t be able to grow a thing. St. Martin is an import society, and many people believe farming in this stony earth is impossible. But Ras Bushman ignored them. He managed to turn the steep rocky hills high above his land into a lush garden. In 1999, he opened his first vegan-style restaurant: a clearing under a tree. Now the part-time Rastafarian musician runs The Ital Shack: the only organic cafe in the Dutch quarter of the island, known as St. Maarten. “People need to get more conscious that we are what we eat, and we must get more conscious of plant rights, like human rights,” said Bushman, who was born in Curacao, and whose real name is Roland Joe. “If you agree with culture, you have agriculture. If everyone could plant something — a herb tree, a plant — the whole world would be farming.” Pumpkin, corn, cabbage, broccoli, eggplant, sweet peppers, lettuce, arugula, cucumber , cassava, lime, thyme, and sorrel grow along paths carefully hewn into the treacherous hillside overlooking St. Maarten Bay. It is typical contour farming, traditional to the Pacific islands, where growing tree crops on hillsides is a very old and effective conservation practice. This was a farming experiment to “prove it can be done,” said Bushman. He explains that the Rasta way of life is generally called “Ital,” a play on “vital,” meaning a healthy life, without chemicals or packaging. We climb laboriously to the cafe at the top of the hill. “Watch the food,” Ras Bushman keeps reminding me, as we traverse our way up the zigzagged stony pathways. The climb is so steep that I have to watch every step, or risk tumbling down toward the bay. In the cafe, Bushman’s wife, Ras Liza, cooks up the daily specials: rotis, patties, lentil pea stew and Ital soup, served with fried plantain. When we’re done chatting, Bushman offers to drive me back to my hotel. I tell him I could take a taxi. He holds up a hand. “Don’t make it into a problem,” he says. He needed to stop for charcoal along the way. Cooking with natural charcoal enhances the flavors of the food. Assuming there’s a Home Depot equivalent nearby, I tag along. As we talk in his jeep, I glance up to find we’ve driven onto an isolated, heavily-treed side road. I experience a fleeting moment of panic, feeling vaguely naive that I’d been caught alone here with a virtual stranger, with no idea of where I was. The quasi-abandoned road leads to the derelict Belvedere plantation, sprinkled with ancient crumbling stone buildings. My panic evaporates once I realize I’m seeing a part of the island that tourists don’t get to see. We’re a world away from Philipsburg, with its tourists, casinos and parked cruise ships. Jaime is sitting on a lopsided kitchen chair, eating ribs and rice out of a pot on the porch of his stone home. Chickens scurry around him. He’s lived on this property for over 50 years, he says, in one of the original stone plantation houses. Bushman points to a spot where he says charcoal has been made for centuries. Branches and logs are piled high, as if in a sacred circle. Jamie makes charcoal by covering the wood with fresh earth and leaves, then burning the wood for about three days, creating natural charcoal for local barbeque joints and restaurants like The Ital Cafe. Bushman hoists a couple of huge bags of charcoal to his jeep, then returns me to my hotel as he’s promised. Bushman plays with his band, The Freedom Fighters, in some of St. Maarten’s many nightspots. But he’s equally devoted to his second career. “The richest man on earth is a farmer,” he said. The Ital Shack is open daily except Saturdays, from 7 a.m. THIS IS MY COUNTRY!! So Proud ;)

afterallafterall:

St. Martin
The Rasta Restaurateur

Meet the immigrant musician who proved that an island that imports practically everything can go local and organic

By Melody Wren

Local officials warned him that he wouldn’t be able to grow a thing. St. Martin is an import society, and many people believe farming in this stony earth is impossible.

But Ras Bushman ignored them. He managed to turn the steep rocky hills high above his land into a lush garden. In 1999, he opened his first vegan-style restaurant: a clearing under a tree. Now the part-time Rastafarian musician runs The Ital Shack: the only organic cafe in the Dutch quarter of the island, known as St. Maarten.

“People need to get more conscious that we are what we eat, and we must get more conscious of plant rights, like human rights,” said Bushman, who was born in Curacao, and whose real name is Roland Joe. “If you agree with culture, you have agriculture. If everyone could plant something — a herb tree, a plant — the whole world would be farming.”

Pumpkin, corn, cabbage, broccoli, eggplant, sweet peppers, lettuce, arugula, cucumber , cassava, lime, thyme, and sorrel grow along paths carefully hewn into the treacherous hillside overlooking St. Maarten Bay.

It is typical contour farming, traditional to the Pacific islands, where growing tree crops on hillsides is a very old and effective conservation practice.

This was a farming experiment to “prove it can be done,” said Bushman. He explains that the Rasta way of life is generally called “Ital,” a play on “vital,” meaning a healthy life, without chemicals or packaging.

We climb laboriously to the cafe at the top of the hill.

“Watch the food,” Ras Bushman keeps reminding me, as we traverse our way up the zigzagged stony pathways.

The climb is so steep that I have to watch every step, or risk tumbling down toward the bay.

In the cafe, Bushman’s wife, Ras Liza, cooks up the daily specials: rotis, patties, lentil pea stew and Ital soup, served with fried plantain.

When we’re done chatting, Bushman offers to drive me back to my hotel.

I tell him I could take a taxi.

He holds up a hand.

“Don’t make it into a problem,” he says.

He needed to stop for charcoal along the way. Cooking with natural charcoal enhances the flavors of the food. Assuming there’s a Home Depot equivalent nearby, I tag along.

As we talk in his jeep, I glance up to find we’ve driven onto an isolated, heavily-treed side road. I experience a fleeting moment of panic, feeling vaguely naive that I’d been caught alone here with a virtual stranger, with no idea of where I was.

The quasi-abandoned road leads to the derelict Belvedere plantation, sprinkled with ancient crumbling stone buildings. My panic evaporates once I realize I’m seeing a part of the island that tourists don’t get to see. We’re a world away from Philipsburg, with its tourists, casinos and parked cruise ships.

Jaime is sitting on a lopsided kitchen chair, eating ribs and rice out of a pot on the porch of his stone home. Chickens scurry around him. He’s lived on this property for over 50 years, he says, in one of the original stone plantation houses.

Bushman points to a spot where he says charcoal has been made for centuries. Branches and logs are piled high, as if in a sacred circle.

Jamie makes charcoal by covering the wood with fresh earth and leaves, then burning the wood for about three days, creating natural charcoal for local barbeque joints and restaurants like The Ital Cafe.

Bushman hoists a couple of huge bags of charcoal to his jeep, then returns me to my hotel as he’s promised.

Bushman plays with his band, The Freedom Fighters, in some of St. Maarten’s many nightspots. But he’s equally devoted to his second career. “The richest man on earth is a farmer,” he said.

The Ital Shack is open daily except Saturdays, from 7 a.m.

THIS IS MY COUNTRY!! So Proud ;)

(via tribalimmunity)

str8nochaser: geekscoutcookies: mxbuttfarts: queernonymoose: samatethecookie: rollinwithmykitties: Please help my best friend’s friend. Spread the word please.  Even if not from Chicago reblog, it may catch some attention. Please reblog if you don’t mind! My little sister posted this for her friend. This girl’s been missing for a week so far. Have friends/followers in the Chicago area. Keep a look out folks. This needs to have more than 9 notes. Reblog. Signal Boost BOOOOOOOST!

str8nochaser:

geekscoutcookies:

mxbuttfarts:

queernonymoose:

samatethecookie:

rollinwithmykitties:

Please help my best friend’s friend.

Spread the word please. 

Even if not from Chicago reblog, it may catch some attention.

Please reblog if you don’t mind! My little sister posted this for her friend. This girl’s been missing for a week so far.

Have friends/followers in the Chicago area. Keep a look out folks.

This needs to have more than 9 notes. Reblog.

Signal Boost

BOOOOOOOST!

(via blkgirlsrock)

africanessence: They Killed Another One of Us! CHICAGO, IL — Rekia Boyd, 22 is dead after being shot in the head and Antonio Cross, 39, is clueless as to why he is being charged with one count of misdemeanor aggravated assault after suffering a gunshot injury to the hand and almost having his thumb blown off by an off-duty police detective. Cross explained to WGN News the conversation he had with the detective after the shooting. “Why the f*ck did you shoot me for? Awe man I thought you had a weapon. How the f*ck did you think my phone was a weapon when I was on the phone?! Why the f*ck did you shoot me?!!!” Cross recalls the moment the detective pulled out the gun: “I turn around I see him sticking his gun out of the window.. I said “oh my God”, and I put my hand up like this (put his hand over his face to shield himself from the gunshot) I think he tried to shoot me in my face too.” Cross was talking to a friend on the phone when the shooting occurred and says that phone records will back him up (police confiscated his phone as evidence). The friend on the other end of the line confirms his story that he was talking to Cross on the phone when he suddenly heard five shots and then the call dropped.. Antonio Cross recounts watching the last moments of Rekia’s life as she lay motionless, bleeding on the sidewalk He was constantly f*cking shooting his gun. I never had a gun. He told me to sit down and shut the f*ck up.. I sat down on the pole while I looked over at that young lady’s body motionless. She moved one time and never moved again. The young lady, 22-year-old Rekia Boyd was shot in the head, she was later pronounced dead at 1:15 pm at Mount Sinai Hospital. POLICE are saying the shooting is JUSTIFIED although THEY RECOVERED NO WEAPON FROM THE SCENE. Cross and his friends were standing on the 1500 California block when an off-duty detective opened fire on the group Cross and his friends were standing on the 1500 California block corner when a detective opened fire on the crowd. The police report states totally the opposite.. According to the police, Reportedly the officer was investigating a disturbance near his home when the officer claims a man approached his car with a gun.

africanessence:

They Killed Another One of Us!

CHICAGO, IL — Rekia Boyd, 22 is dead after being shot in the head and Antonio Cross, 39, is clueless as to why he is being charged with one count of misdemeanor aggravated assault after suffering a gunshot injury to the hand and almost having his thumb blown off by an off-duty police detective.

Cross explained to WGN News the conversation he had with the detective after the shooting.

“Why the f*ck did you shoot me for? Awe man I thought you had a weapon. How the f*ck did you think my phone was a weapon when I was on the phone?! Why the f*ck did you shoot me?!!!”

Cross recalls the moment the detective pulled out the gun:

“I turn around I see him sticking his gun out of the window.. I said “oh my God”, and I put my hand up like this (put his hand over his face to shield himself from the gunshot) I think he tried to shoot me in my face too.”

Cross was talking to a friend on the phone when the shooting occurred and says that phone records will back him up (police confiscated his phone as evidence). The friend on the other end of the line confirms his story that he was talking to Cross on the phone when he suddenly heard five shots and then the call dropped..


Antonio Cross recounts watching the last moments of Rekia’s life as she lay motionless, bleeding on the sidewalk
He was constantly f*cking shooting his gun. I never had a gun. He told me to sit down and shut the f*ck up.. I sat down on the pole while I looked over at that young lady’s body motionless. She moved one time and never moved again.

The young lady, 22-year-old Rekia Boyd was shot in the head, she was later pronounced dead at 1:15 pm at Mount Sinai Hospital.

POLICE are saying the shooting is JUSTIFIED although THEY RECOVERED NO WEAPON FROM THE SCENE.


Cross and his friends were standing on the 1500 California block when an off-duty detective opened fire on the group
Cross and his friends were standing on the 1500 California block corner when a detective opened fire on the crowd. The police report states totally the opposite.. According to the police, Reportedly the officer was investigating a disturbance near his home when the officer claims a man approached his car with a gun.

18-15n-77-30w: kinks-n-curls: mynaturalsistas: SUPER HOT FIRE! LOL! Gotta luv the Big Red Fro! Yay! We’ve set one of MyNaturalSistas videos as a gif for this week! Automatic re-blog :D http://18-15n-77-30w.tumblr.com/

18-15n-77-30w:

kinks-n-curls:

mynaturalsistas:

SUPER HOT FIRE! LOL! Gotta luv the Big Red Fro!

Yay! We’ve set one of MyNaturalSistas videos as a gif for this week! Automatic re-blog :D

http://18-15n-77-30w.tumblr.com/

(via blkgirlsrock)

beardedandblack: Them lips. *_* ain’t nothing like a fine black man

beardedandblack:

Them lips. *_*

ain’t nothing like a fine black man

geigh-shagirls: besosviaashxo: Unlike the beautiful 6-year old Jonbenett Ramsey who received coverage all over the media - every tabloid, newspaper, news channel, talk show, 7-year old Aiyana Stanley was killed by a police officer during a raid while she was sleep and her murder received very little coverage. Police, searching for a murder suspect, threw a flash grenade through the window of her family’s apartment around midnight. According to Aiyana’s father, it landed on the couch, setting Aiyana on fire. A police officer’s gun then went off, and shot Aiyana in the neck. Aiyana was asleep on the living room sofa in her family’s apartment when Detroit police, searching for a homicide suspect, burst in and an officer’s gun went off, fatally striking the girl in the neck, family members said. Her father, 25-year-old Charles Jones, told The Detroit News he had just gone to bed early Sunday after covering his daughter with her favorite blanket when he heard a flash grenade followed by a gunshot. When he rushed into the living room, he said, police forced him to lie on the ground, with his face in his daughter’s blood. “I’ll never be the same. That’s my only daughter,” Jones told. We haven’t forgotten about you baby. R.I.P. Fuck the police. I couldn’t not share this information.

geigh-shagirls:

besosviaashxo:

Unlike the beautiful 6-year old Jonbenett Ramsey who received coverage all over the media - every tabloid, newspaper, news channel, talk show, 7-year old Aiyana Stanley was killed by a police officer during a raid while she was sleep and her murder received very little coverage.

Police, searching for a murder suspect, threw a flash grenade through the window of her family’s apartment around midnight. According to Aiyana’s father, it landed on the couch, setting Aiyana on fire. A police officer’s gun then went off, and shot Aiyana in the neck.

Aiyana was asleep on the living room sofa in her family’s apartment when Detroit police, searching for a homicide suspect, burst in and an officer’s gun went off, fatally striking the girl in the neck, family members said.

Her father, 25-year-old Charles Jones, told The Detroit News he had just gone to bed early Sunday after covering his daughter with her favorite blanket when he heard a flash grenade followed by a gunshot. When he rushed into the living room, he said, police forced him to lie on the ground, with his face in his daughter’s blood.

“I’ll never be the same. That’s my only daughter,” Jones told.

We haven’t forgotten about you baby. R.I.P.

Fuck the police.

I couldn’t not share this information.

(Source: fuckyeahfamousblackgirls)

addismusikainmyheart: “I would rather serve my God in the Benin way; I would rather worship him in the Benin manner; I will sing songs of praises to him in the Benin custom; Unless it can be proven to me that he does not understand the Benin language” - Oba Akenzuwa / Akenzua N’iso N’orro II (1933 - 1979 CE)

addismusikainmyheart:

“I would rather serve my God in the Benin way; I would rather worship him in the Benin manner; I will sing songs of praises to him in the Benin custom; Unless it can be proven to me that he does not understand the Benin language” - Oba Akenzuwa / Akenzua N’iso N’orro II (1933 - 1979 CE)

(via geigh-shagirls)

NIGHTNIGHT by DEDDY