I sent this to Arnold today.
A letter to Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger,
This could be your Best Last Chance, but maybe no one has pointed it out to you because they do not think the way I do.
My dear Governor. You have a crisis of conscience in front of you. The people do not believe in you anymore. We see that you are simply like your best character, the Terminator, a cold blooded programmed killer that discovers his human self. You are telling the people sir, that you are not this person that you are entirely guided by your own will.
You have seen, the world has witnessed a civil miracle, a social force in the person of Mr Stanley “Tookie” Williams. Stanley Williams is a man who has struggled with the impulse to be his worst, to be non human. He has lived for years in a place where the best way to be is to be nonhuman, like your character. He has been recognized by the highest authorities that he has regained his humanity, that he has been redeemed. People that knew you in your former life, they have told you that he is a good man. Do you not believe in your friends? Would you personally kill a man like this in your movies? Wouldn’t that be so terribly unfair? Well sir, this is real life and you have the ability to save a real human life. You can do this or you can kill Stanley Williams.
For me, I do not understand. Yes I do, Yes I do. You do not know what to do. Let me talk to you about an alternate way of seeing things. I mentioned earlier that the people do not believe that you think for yourself and here is an opportunity to demonstrate otherwise. Now you can show everyone-that you are not programmed except by your own conscience that you are not just going to kill this man even though that he has been “okayed”. This is not a decision that you will regret.
If it has not been made clear to you then let me make it clear to you now. Black people will love you for this. We will, (because we love show, we love to welcome the redeemed) rally behind you. We will at least listen, you will have earned our ear. There will be millions of people listening who didn’t listen to you before. You will have shown us that you too are human. We are a very loyal people you know, and we love our heroes. Maybe you learned this when you made your movies and we little black boys lined up to pay and see you deal with the bad guys. I spent many a Saturday in your company, sir. You remain, despite whatever your politics are and real life actions have been, my very favorite all time Action Hero. You were a Hero to many of us-I never understood why you wanted to become a Politician. Yes I do, Yes I do.
In any case Sir, here is your chance to be about the business of serving the masses. The most of us, instead of the least of us. Even those of us who do not vote, those of us who are afraid, those of us who need the most help from those of you in power. You may be on the road to becoming “The Real Peoples’ Champ”.
I wonder Sir, where your true intentions are. The role of an elected official is to represent the people, not just those who elect them or those who who support the politicians. You are in office to be a Governor, a politician for all of us, not just for the wealthy, powerful and vocal. You have a chance to be a Governor for the most of us, not who has the most money.
I wish that I knew you well enough to have this conversation with you in person, or at least on the phone. I hope that these words reach you and that you consider carefully what you will do and say. I do not want a form letter reply or some Xeroxed and stamped BS letter. I want you to tell me as my elected official, why you make whatever decision you decide to make. I am no one, and certainly your decision is between you and your God, but I still want to know why. I am so happy to hear that you have granted a hearing, but this can’t be a political move, it has to be real and sincere.
I am praying for you and for all of our souls. I am praying for Tookie. I believe in the power of prayer and spirit. I hope Sir, for all of our sakes that you are a believer in these things too. I pray that these words reach your heart and that you choose life for Mr. Williams.
Thanks so much. God Bless you,
Malcolm Hoover
East Palo Alto, CA
Tuesday, November 29, 2005
Monday, November 14, 2005
The end of White Guilt-Towards a Luv based movement
Whatever. I was at a great party this weekend, in the Oakland home of my girl-Iz Fabulous. It was a bday party for one of her housemates, but it was like the New Bohemian Power Summit up in that piece.
I am always happy to be around young people and there were plenty of young beautiful people at this party. On the front porch there was a group of about one dozen Oakland youth posted on the steps talking about hip hop. They were super goofy, all that young twenties late teen exuberance bundled up and bursting through. They were rapping and dancing some, nowhere close to the beat from the music upstairs, but they were on their own vibe totally in their own cool little Oakland world, content to entertain each other with the stuff they just made up right there. They were mostly white kids and It's not that these kids were performing, they were having fun in a way that was completely natural to them. They were dancing and rapping, two things that white kids are not supposed to do well. And they were doing it well, to death as a matter of fact. They were not aping Hip Hop, those kids were Hip Hop.
It's not new. There are plenty of "white people" in hip hop, people who love it just as much as anyone else. Everyone has their reasons, but what it made me think about is the fact that this Hip Hop, this real Hip Hop is a love based movement. I am not talking about the Hip Hop that is a festival of homicide, genocide and suicide, sexism and homophobia. (though some of that music bumps too) I am talking about the Hip Hop that reaches into your heart and turns your experiences into something vibrant and real, that other people can share and take part in. Hip Hop can be a beautiful thing and at this party I saw that Hip Hop is alive and well in the hands of the Oakland Youth.
Nobody needs to come to those kids and tell them how racism is bullshit. They know, they naturally have multi racial friendships and an ability to look at race, class and gender in ways that most of us older folk have to go to college to learn. It is these kids that Dr. King was talking about when he spoke of "content of character" They take up Social Justice issues because they see what life can be like when we put our humanity before our skin color. I am not saying that race and privilege do not play a factor, but at least we acknowledge and interrogate their influences. If those kids had been mostly Black, Spanish speaking, Filipino or Polynesian youth I would have been impressed, but I was super impressed coz they were white. I know that's fucked up, but it's true.
I've spent a lot of time with these East Bay people. The Bay Area is already a special place, full of culture, education, natural beauty, history and innovation. I love it here in the Bay, especially Oakland, because it is a city of neighborhoods, people still try to get to know each other and the feel of the city is still down to earth and grounded.
Whatever, I don't know where I was going with that strain of thought, I had to get up and teach my class...I'm writing this hours after I started, but ironically, the same story is on the radio about the guy Tion Seck from Senegal on "All Things Considered" on NPR.
I started writing this installment with the intention of talking about White Guilt. White guilt is useless and self indulgent. It is not useful for building or sustaining any kind of lasting movement. We can't go very far if our rallying cry is "Blame Whitey!" Anyone who reads this blog or knows me, understands that I do not cut white America any slack at all, I really believe that the dismantling of white privilege is going to bring us closer together as human beings. Right now, white people are taught that they need to do what it takes to preserve white privilege, because keeping white people on top is what keeps all of society in such good shape. If we do not preserve and perpetuate the social and economic status of white people, all of us will suffer. yup. There have been, there are now and hopefully always will be white folks who buck against this. All of the white people that I have in my "inner circle of friends" are people like that.
Those of us who want Peace, Freedom, Equality and Justice, we want that for everyone. As a male, I believe in and fight for the liberation of women because I think the world will be better off if women are granted all the benefits and privileges that men receive. I know that we as a human race will develop by leaps and bounds if we stop praying at the altar of the "Great White God" The allegiance of a critical mass of white people is absolutely neccessary in this process, but if we as people of color just stopped treating white people like some kind of superhumans, if we stopped teaching our kids to be intimidated by them, stopped treating their women like they are the most beautiful, stopped looking to Europe for all the answers, if we just started to trust ourselves more, we will make a lot of progress in killing that mentality.
back to my thoughts about white guilt...
that shit is just not useful. Not in the long term. We cannot come together as people from making people feel like crap. The way to build a movement with white people is to find those white people who can genuinely appreciate and enjoy the humanity of all people and to use those people to educate other white people. White people need to tell other white people about their shit. People of color can call it out all day, we are probably preaching to the choir. Anyway, I just want life to be good for all people. I don't want to replace the power of white people with some black people just because "I want my turn", everyone deserves to have the best life that they can make for themselves and their community. White supremacy, sexism, classism, all those things are holding us all back from reaching our potential as human beings.
That's really enough of a ramble for today. Peace to the Peaceful.
I am always happy to be around young people and there were plenty of young beautiful people at this party. On the front porch there was a group of about one dozen Oakland youth posted on the steps talking about hip hop. They were super goofy, all that young twenties late teen exuberance bundled up and bursting through. They were rapping and dancing some, nowhere close to the beat from the music upstairs, but they were on their own vibe totally in their own cool little Oakland world, content to entertain each other with the stuff they just made up right there. They were mostly white kids and It's not that these kids were performing, they were having fun in a way that was completely natural to them. They were dancing and rapping, two things that white kids are not supposed to do well. And they were doing it well, to death as a matter of fact. They were not aping Hip Hop, those kids were Hip Hop.
It's not new. There are plenty of "white people" in hip hop, people who love it just as much as anyone else. Everyone has their reasons, but what it made me think about is the fact that this Hip Hop, this real Hip Hop is a love based movement. I am not talking about the Hip Hop that is a festival of homicide, genocide and suicide, sexism and homophobia. (though some of that music bumps too) I am talking about the Hip Hop that reaches into your heart and turns your experiences into something vibrant and real, that other people can share and take part in. Hip Hop can be a beautiful thing and at this party I saw that Hip Hop is alive and well in the hands of the Oakland Youth.
Nobody needs to come to those kids and tell them how racism is bullshit. They know, they naturally have multi racial friendships and an ability to look at race, class and gender in ways that most of us older folk have to go to college to learn. It is these kids that Dr. King was talking about when he spoke of "content of character" They take up Social Justice issues because they see what life can be like when we put our humanity before our skin color. I am not saying that race and privilege do not play a factor, but at least we acknowledge and interrogate their influences. If those kids had been mostly Black, Spanish speaking, Filipino or Polynesian youth I would have been impressed, but I was super impressed coz they were white. I know that's fucked up, but it's true.
I've spent a lot of time with these East Bay people. The Bay Area is already a special place, full of culture, education, natural beauty, history and innovation. I love it here in the Bay, especially Oakland, because it is a city of neighborhoods, people still try to get to know each other and the feel of the city is still down to earth and grounded.
Whatever, I don't know where I was going with that strain of thought, I had to get up and teach my class...I'm writing this hours after I started, but ironically, the same story is on the radio about the guy Tion Seck from Senegal on "All Things Considered" on NPR.
I started writing this installment with the intention of talking about White Guilt. White guilt is useless and self indulgent. It is not useful for building or sustaining any kind of lasting movement. We can't go very far if our rallying cry is "Blame Whitey!" Anyone who reads this blog or knows me, understands that I do not cut white America any slack at all, I really believe that the dismantling of white privilege is going to bring us closer together as human beings. Right now, white people are taught that they need to do what it takes to preserve white privilege, because keeping white people on top is what keeps all of society in such good shape. If we do not preserve and perpetuate the social and economic status of white people, all of us will suffer. yup. There have been, there are now and hopefully always will be white folks who buck against this. All of the white people that I have in my "inner circle of friends" are people like that.
Those of us who want Peace, Freedom, Equality and Justice, we want that for everyone. As a male, I believe in and fight for the liberation of women because I think the world will be better off if women are granted all the benefits and privileges that men receive. I know that we as a human race will develop by leaps and bounds if we stop praying at the altar of the "Great White God" The allegiance of a critical mass of white people is absolutely neccessary in this process, but if we as people of color just stopped treating white people like some kind of superhumans, if we stopped teaching our kids to be intimidated by them, stopped treating their women like they are the most beautiful, stopped looking to Europe for all the answers, if we just started to trust ourselves more, we will make a lot of progress in killing that mentality.
back to my thoughts about white guilt...
that shit is just not useful. Not in the long term. We cannot come together as people from making people feel like crap. The way to build a movement with white people is to find those white people who can genuinely appreciate and enjoy the humanity of all people and to use those people to educate other white people. White people need to tell other white people about their shit. People of color can call it out all day, we are probably preaching to the choir. Anyway, I just want life to be good for all people. I don't want to replace the power of white people with some black people just because "I want my turn", everyone deserves to have the best life that they can make for themselves and their community. White supremacy, sexism, classism, all those things are holding us all back from reaching our potential as human beings.
That's really enough of a ramble for today. Peace to the Peaceful.
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Its been a long time
I shouldn't have left you....
You all know the rest.
Let me see, what do I want to share:
1. The world is expensive
2. The youth are amazing
3. Music will change the world
4. Life is what you make it
5. Honesty really is the best policy
6. It hurts but love hard anyway.
It hurts, but love hard anyway.
I was dating this woman for a while, a few months. She and I didn't work out, and I don't even really have anything to be mad about. It wasn't the right time, we are both busy, I have 2 kids...It was a lot and it hurts because we do really care for one another, but it is not going to be. This happened a while ago, but I ran into her on the street briefly and it just made me think. I may have done some things differently, but for the most part I acted the way that I thought I should have. Anyway, it didn't work, and it hurts but I love hard anyway. Be true to your heart.
Honesty
Just don't lie. You don't always have to tell the whole absolute ugly stinking truth, but you should not lie. Trust me, it's a bad habit that is really hard to break. I am used to lying a lot to get out of things, and it's just not a good policy. Better you tell the tuth now, and take waht happens then be found out later and have to deal with that. I would rather someone tell me the truth and hurt me in the short term, rather than lie to me and me find out later.
Expensive
Bills are kicking my ass. I know that bills are kicking a lot of peoples' asses so I won't sit here and complain. At least I have a job, that I am good at, I am grateful for and I enjoy, so i know that I can pay them all eventually, but right now, in the short term, it's a lot. I know too, that money just represents energy and when I find a way to better channel that energy the same way I channel my creative energy, more money will come.
I claim that right now.
Amazing Youth
I went to a show this weekend in Oakland. It was amazing. There was dancig, raaping and singing. I am happy to report that real hip hop is alive and well in Oakland, Ca . The youth have it well in hand. Big Ups to Mr. Know it All. They were at such a high level, I was totally in awe. Anyway keep your ears open for BUMP records. They are doing it movin....
Music will Change the World
Perhaps it is just me. Music alone cannot make people stop being greedy or feed the hungry or help the needy, but it can and does move the human spirit. Moving the spirit is the first step to changing society, so it is important that our music makers create music that is sincere (not neccesarily positive) and from the heart. I don't care if its corrido, rap, salsa, bhangra, or the blues-real music transcends all boundaries and touches all people.
Life is what you make it
This is hard for me to say to people who don't have the opportunities that I have been given, a good family, great education, good community support, etc. But having said that, I will also say this-I know what it is to be poor and to struggle. I have been poor and struggling and I am still broke right now. But I also know that as I lift my head and try to make the life I have for myself in my head real, somehow these opportunities to do more keep presenting themselves. I prayed a while ago that if God would just show me the way, just light up my path for me, I would walk it. I promised my maker that I would do my best to stay on target. I am trying that now, and it seems to be working.
Peace and Blessings lovedones.
-M
You all know the rest.
Let me see, what do I want to share:
1. The world is expensive
2. The youth are amazing
3. Music will change the world
4. Life is what you make it
5. Honesty really is the best policy
6. It hurts but love hard anyway.
It hurts, but love hard anyway.
I was dating this woman for a while, a few months. She and I didn't work out, and I don't even really have anything to be mad about. It wasn't the right time, we are both busy, I have 2 kids...It was a lot and it hurts because we do really care for one another, but it is not going to be. This happened a while ago, but I ran into her on the street briefly and it just made me think. I may have done some things differently, but for the most part I acted the way that I thought I should have. Anyway, it didn't work, and it hurts but I love hard anyway. Be true to your heart.
Honesty
Just don't lie. You don't always have to tell the whole absolute ugly stinking truth, but you should not lie. Trust me, it's a bad habit that is really hard to break. I am used to lying a lot to get out of things, and it's just not a good policy. Better you tell the tuth now, and take waht happens then be found out later and have to deal with that. I would rather someone tell me the truth and hurt me in the short term, rather than lie to me and me find out later.
Expensive
Bills are kicking my ass. I know that bills are kicking a lot of peoples' asses so I won't sit here and complain. At least I have a job, that I am good at, I am grateful for and I enjoy, so i know that I can pay them all eventually, but right now, in the short term, it's a lot. I know too, that money just represents energy and when I find a way to better channel that energy the same way I channel my creative energy, more money will come.
I claim that right now.
Amazing Youth
I went to a show this weekend in Oakland. It was amazing. There was dancig, raaping and singing. I am happy to report that real hip hop is alive and well in Oakland, Ca . The youth have it well in hand. Big Ups to Mr. Know it All. They were at such a high level, I was totally in awe. Anyway keep your ears open for BUMP records. They are doing it movin....
Music will Change the World
Perhaps it is just me. Music alone cannot make people stop being greedy or feed the hungry or help the needy, but it can and does move the human spirit. Moving the spirit is the first step to changing society, so it is important that our music makers create music that is sincere (not neccesarily positive) and from the heart. I don't care if its corrido, rap, salsa, bhangra, or the blues-real music transcends all boundaries and touches all people.
Life is what you make it
This is hard for me to say to people who don't have the opportunities that I have been given, a good family, great education, good community support, etc. But having said that, I will also say this-I know what it is to be poor and to struggle. I have been poor and struggling and I am still broke right now. But I also know that as I lift my head and try to make the life I have for myself in my head real, somehow these opportunities to do more keep presenting themselves. I prayed a while ago that if God would just show me the way, just light up my path for me, I would walk it. I promised my maker that I would do my best to stay on target. I am trying that now, and it seems to be working.
Peace and Blessings lovedones.
-M
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