Rapping

Peace.

I was at a friend’s home a few months ago. She was recuperating from surgery and I was helping her around the house. Her husband came in as I was getting ready to leave and during the day, at some point I had taken off my headwraap because I was doing something that was kind of messy and made my head sweat. I realized abruptly that I didn’t have it on. The husband’s response was. “What difference does it make? I already saw your head.” I was confused at his statement. Then I realized he didn’t know who and what I am. He thought I was a Mooz-lum. SMH. I explained it to him why I wore the wrap but he started glazing over. What I think he understood from subsequent conversations with his wife is not all Earths wrap their heads like I do mine.

I am the type of Earth that wraps my head. At all times. It may not be a 100% full on head wrap but there is something on my head even if it’s a Pentecostal doily. I do this for many reasons… My NGE affiliation and mostly because I am a Black woman who is descended from slaves.

As a Black person living in this wilderness we don’t have a lot that we can point to as our own Culture-wise. I am a descendant of former slaves. My great grandparents were former slaves (yeah it’s that close). Slavery erased our African Culture and replaced it with what the devil intended to be a secondary sub standard Culture. But there are a few things that some of us hold on to like… soul food, declaring who is family, watchnight services (if I was going to go to a church for fun it would be for watchnight), Juneteenth, broom jumping and headwraps.

Some of y’all may be unaware of the FACT that most slaves were not allowed to wear their heads uncovered. Why? I have no idea. That’s not written in the books. Thatrule applied to women and men. Men wore hats/turbans and women kerchiefs. If they got some extra unneeded fabric they would create tignons. Slave woman might have readily accepted this practice because is resonated with them because similar practices happened in Africa. IDK. I do know my grandmother who was born in 1908 would not leave the house without something on her head. And she wasn’t Earth.

Here is a PBS excerpt from this site… http://www.pbs.org/wnet/slavery/experience/gender/feature6.html

“

Originally the head-wrap, or turban, was worn by both enslaved men and women. In time, however, it became almost exclusively a female accessory. In the photograph above, the women wear head-wraps, while the men wear hats.

For their white European masters, the slaves' head-wraps were signs of poverty and subordination. Accounts of clothing distribution show that masters sometimes allotted extra handkerchiefs to their female slaves, ostensibly to be used as head coverings. In fact, in certain areas of the South, legislation appeared that required black women to wear their hair bound up in this manner.

The head-wrap, however, was more than a badge of enslavement imposed on female slaves by their owners. Embellishment of the head and hair was a central component of dress in various parts of Africa, particularly in West Africa. From the time European fabrics were made available to them, African women wore head-wraps similar to those worn by their enslaved counterparts in America. For these women, the wrap, which varied in form from region to region, signified communal identity. At the same time, the particular appearance of an individual head-wrap was an expression of personal identity.

In America, the head-wrap was a utilitarian item, which kept the slave's hair protected from the elements in which she worked and helped to curb the spread of lice. Yet, as in Africa, the head-wrap also created community -- as an item shared by female slaves -- and individuality, as a thing unique to the wearer. Cassandra Stancil, enslaved in her youth, insisted that she never asked another woman how to tie her head-scarf. "I always figured I could do it," she said, "I could try and experiment and if not get that, get something that I liked."

The head-wrap was an object of oppression from one vantage point. But from the other, the perspective of the slave community, it was a vehicle of empowerment and a memento of freedom.”

Need more references? Read these.
http://char.txa.cornell.edu/Griebel.htm

http://kemetic-dreams.tumblr.com/post/81144159017/head-wraps-have-served-as-a-head-cover-for

http://www.frenchcreoles.com/ArtTheater/tignon/origins%20of%20tignon.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tignon


I’m funny about my wrap too. It’s a wrap or a tignon. It is NOT a “head rag” or a rag of any sort. When someone does say that, they get told off, possibly cursed out. It always kills he how folks want to help you liberate yourself as if you don’t know you have choices. I make a daily conscious choice to express myself through wrapping. I encourage your questions. But not your assumptions.

When I was planning my wedding, a Muslim friend of mine asked me what the significance of the broom jumping ceremony was; she’d never heard of it. Once I explained it to her, she asked me why I was recreating something so painful. I explained that I as a descendant of slaves have absolutely NOTHING to be ashamed of. My people did nothing wrong. I am proud to be descended from a surviving, striving, remarkable, ingenious people. We bring the flavor to the otherwise dry white toast of this wilderness. And I will forever cling to traditions that WE brought and developed in this country.

Peace

Today's Supreme Mathematics: Equality

Peace.

Today's degree in 1-36 Build about liking the devil because he gives you nothing. This degree often reminds me of how grimy the devil is. T.H.E.M. wrote these degrees in the 1930's. During that era, atrocious things were happening to Original people in this wilderness. Lynchings, internment camps, rampant poverty and inequality on a level that we cannot understand today. I can completely Understand the upside to loving the devil because he gives you nothing. Because there are things that the devil gave back then.


Like this...


And this...


This...


Also this....


This too....


Women and children watched...


Wouldn't have been my children...

So for a certain age of people... when they say they like for the devil yo give them nothing I get it. If the devil ain't giving them hell then they are doing okay. But that attitude is ONLY acceptable for the very old.. 75+.

If you find yourself in a different bracket, You need to adjust. I am not young. I grew up in a time where integration was normal. I went to mixed schools until college. And my grad school class had 4 Black people out of 90 in it. And I bare witness that the devil still ain't shit. But I don't have the luxury to say, "As long as they aren't bothering me...." Nope. And neither do you.

The 9:14 says that we shouldn't love the devil no matter how long... And that is the damn truth. him/devil will ALWAYS remind you that they are devils. Doesn't matter the venue. Keep that in mind when he jokes, "What do you call a Black judge, a Black doctor and a Black millionaire?" When he imposes all manner of sanctions on your Black ass. Ask Trayvon Martin, Michael Dunn and Jonathon Ferrell.

These devils out here still doing their thing. Never forget....



Peace

Destroy Him in 1 Day....

Peace.

The latter portion of 38:40 says, “...Destroy him in 1 day without falling victim to the devil’s civilization..." Let me tell you this if you were uncertain. I. HATE. DEVILS. Case closed. But the thing that people don’t often recognize that just because I hate them doesn’t mean I can’t work with them. And I can hate, without it holding sway over me. That bullshit about hate and holding grudges means that another residing in your head is pure bullshit. I hate getting sick. That means I take steps to avoid getting sick. And no one says that hating being sick is too harsh.

Don’t let folks try to tell you what to think! Stop giving away your Power!

In this Wilderness, devils hold dominion. There is very little that an Original person can do in this country without the devil’s influence. I would dare say the thought processes of Original people are COMPLETELY influenced by the devil’s ideologies and indoctrination. It would take a wondering in the desert to kill said influence. But haven’t we been wandering? More on that in a minute….

If you want to get a job, you must deal with devils. If you want to get an education, you must deal with devils. If you want to live somewhere, you must deal with devils. If you want to buy a car, you must deal with devils. And so on and so on and so on. There is no avoiding them. The 3rd and 4th degree of the 1-10 shows that in this wilderness Original people make up 15% of the population. Now… the 1-10 was written in 1933 so the numbers are different now. But we don’t outnumber them… at all. Yes we may be having more babies, but do those babies make it reasonably to adulthood? There are more of them than us.

Look at the people who make laws…. How many Black people are in congress? According to the internet, 43. There are more than 500 in the house and Senate combined. Who many original governors are there? 2. Out of 50 states. Guess what? Original people Must deal with the devil. There is no current reality where Original people can still live in the USA and write off the devil. So we must learn how to coexist. You can live in a Black neighborhood, you can go to a Black school, you can work in a Black hair salon, selling oils/sneakers/etc or a Black funeral home, you can buy a car from a Black dealership but eventually….. You Will Have To go see the white man about something. Does your money have Black people on it? Take that stank “revolutionary” attitude with you into white ciphers and you will be stopped in your tracks.

So how it possible to destroy them in 1 day??? The day you realize that even though your body get rented to the devil for various and sundry activities, your mind is 100% yours. Just because I work with the devil doesn’t mean I have accepted the okeydoke. I go to work, do my job, collect my money and come home. This does not mean that I accept them. I know how to work with them to get what I need for my own personal comfort. But I have rejected them from my mental Cipher.

I said that we as a people in this country have been wandering. We have. Since we were released from slavery, we have been trying to figure out our place in this wilderness. And I am not mad at former slaves for needing to do that. It took generations to break proud African slaves and transform them into subservient slaves. It should take time adjust their minds back to the proud warriors we once were. Black folks were literally scared shitless of the devil. It takes a minute to shake that off. Every generation is stronger than the previous… or should be. Today there is no excuse for old fuckery. Just as Moses had to walk the Jews through the desert for a generation to kill the yearning and attachment to Egypt so we have to do the same thing (I’m curious to why it’s taking so long but so be it).

After this nice long build, my point is this…. Just because you have to live in Yacub’s world manifest, doesn’t mean that it has to live in you. Destroy that shit. Kill it dead. But learn how to interact with the devil peaceably. And you will be a much happier person.


Peace.

The Revolution Will Not Be Televised
You will not be able to stay home, brother.
You will not be able to plug in, turn on and cop out.
You will not be able to lose yourself on skag and skip,
Skip out for beer during commercials,
Because the revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be televised.
The revolution will not be brought to you by Xerox
In 4 parts without commercial interruptions.
The revolution will not show you pictures of Nixon
blowing a bugle and leading a charge by John
Mitchell, General Abrams and Spiro Agnew to eat
hog maws confiscated from a Harlem sanctuary.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be brought to you by the
Schaefer Award Theatre and will not star Natalie
Woods and Steve McQueen or Bullwinkle and Julia.
The revolution will not give your mouth sex appeal.
The revolution will not get rid of the nubs.
The revolution will not make you look five pounds
thinner, because the revolution will not be televised, Brother.

There will be no pictures of you and Willie May
pushing that shopping cart down the block on the dead run,
or trying to slide that color television into a stolen ambulance.
NBC will not be able predict the winner at 8:32
or report from 29 districts.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of pigs shooting down
brothers in the instant replay.
There will be no pictures of Whitney Young being
run out of Harlem on a rail with a brand new process.
There will be no slow motion or still life of Roy
Wilkens strolling through Watts in a Red, Black and
Green liberation jumpsuit that he had been saving
For just the proper occasion.

Green Acres, The Beverly Hillbillies, and Hooterville
Junction will no longer be so damned relevant, and
women will not care if Dick finally gets down with
Jane on Search for Tomorrow because Black people
will be in the street looking for a brighter day.
The revolution will not be televised.

There will be no highlights on the eleven o'clock
news and no pictures of hairy armed women
liberationists and Jackie Onassis blowing her nose.
The theme song will not be written by Jim Webb,
Francis Scott Key, nor sung by Glen Campbell, Tom
Jones, Johnny Cash, Englebert Humperdink, or the Rare Earth.
The revolution will not be televised.

The revolution will not be right back after a message
bbout a white tornado, white lightning, or white people.
You will not have to worry about a dove in your
bedroom, a tiger in your tank, or the giant in your toilet bowl.
The revolution will not go better with Coke.
The revolution will not fight the germs that may cause bad breath.
The revolution will put you in the driver's seat.

The revolution will not be televised, will not be televised,
will not be televised, will not be televised.
The revolution will be no re-run brothers;
The revolution will be live.

Gil Scott-Heron