When I was driving back from Houston to Baton Rouge listening to Big K.R.I.T's "Sookie", I had a couple of thoughts that I'll try to recapture for this blog.
"From the land of the Klun Klux with no mask..."
The South is a monster of an entirely different level. I love southern hospitality and the culture of the south and I believe that there are a lot of genuinely good people in this South and Southwest, yet there are times when I believe that the region and those who make the decisions for us believe as if its an entirely separate planet from everywhere else. It has been that way since the 13 original colonies and the Louisiana Purchase. The Civil War, Reconstruction/Jim Crow Antebellum & the Civil Rights movement only exacerbated this as fact. This is one of the only places that you can find outside of a post industrial (we don't use the term Third World in here) country that has such a huge disparity between those who are the landed elites and in charge of businesses and those who are impoverished.
And you can see it in Jackson, Mississippi, in New Orleans and Baton Rouge, in Houston and in Beaumont where in these areas employ tons of workers for their oil refineries, chemical plants, and coastal casinos yet these employees make enough to barely live over the poverty line. This is the region in America that incarcerates the most African American and Latino men in the country while offering some of the most substandard living and educational opportunities for the poor. The north is not perfect; not by a long shot. Yet, the south lives in a bubble in a sense that is is reinforced by tradition, religion and big business and promotes substandard education & housing, mass incarceration, and the monetary interest of corporations over the lives of citizens as everyday business as usual.
"They call it suicide 'cause its just another Black male..."
2) People don't even care when you talk about Black males going to prison. Some people look at it as if its so cliché. You hear that someone has been killed and the news only approaches the story as crime and safety, not as if someone's friend/son/daughter/mother/father/uncle/aunt was taken away. And when you talk about torture and mistreatment in men's and women's prisons throughout the country, you damn near draw a deaf ear. The death of Andre Jones in a Mississippi prison is a perfect example of the lack of concern for the well being of that our society has for men and women who are incarcerated. Which is why it's so important that the hunger strike happening now at Pelican Bay Prison in California succeed and receive as much attention for those who care about systemic change. It isn't about whether those whom may have been convicted, but about our society offering humane treatment for the least of the.
3) I know what I want in a relationship. I want someone who has a lot of the same passions as I. I want someone who'll put me on to new things and new places and help me grow. Some who can support my passion and I can support their passions as if they are interchangeable. I don't know what I have now and I don't know how to get that. I just don't see it because...
4) I don't know what I want in a relationship. I don't even know who I am (in the evolving and growing sense. Not in the amnesia sense). Right now, I'm in a situation where there's a barrier because of bad communication. Some times, I don't even know what the fuck to talk about with my gf because we don't have any of the same interest. I probably hate most of the movies, music, and books that she likes and she doesn't have an interest in any of mine. For instance, I think she really thought I wasn't a Christian because I talked about how the Quran had almost all of the same stories as the KJV of the Bible. My philosophy on life is so contrary and diametrically opposed to her's that I'm just amazed that she likes me.
Which is odd, because I like her. I like getting poetry and being challenged to be great. The things that I do that are insignificant, are seen as huge compliments and attributes and I enjoy that. I like the fact that we don't see eye to eye on anything but she places a value judgement on what I like/don't like. I think that in looking and learning, I'm still learning about myself and learning what I like and want. But its so hard to figure out how do you get from wanting something and thinking that it is a good fit to knowing its a good fit to being ultimately happy comfortable where you are.
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