Road to Recovery

What a wild and long weekend I had! Chock-full of random stuff. I feel like I've been absent from blogging for far too long. There is so much to report, I don't even know where to begin. Firstly, I must oblige by thanking the core group of people who read my blog semi-regularly. I started blogging not because I wanted 30 or more comments on my page, but because, it is a way for me to just write when I hit a creative writing snag. I was told by a writing professor that the best way to get through writer's block is to write. Initially, I would just write in your standard private journal, but in going back and reading some of the things I wrote, some of the people and sets of circumstances I encountered, I would snicker... actually wanting to share some of my dirty laundry. I tried blogging a couple of times in the past, but wussed out, dismantling the blogs before I even began. This time, I saw this online blogging project through to fruition, and while my goal is not to be the most popular blogger- and I am thrilled that people have actually discovered it and have left their feedback- I have stumbled upon this great community of like-minds, and you all have been gracious enough to show interest in the trials, travails, and tribulations known as my life. Thanks. I love your blogs in return. Humanity Critic, Brother Omi, Amadeo, Ms. World, Piranha, et. al. keep rocking nations. I noticed a couple of inquiries about the necklace I'm wearing in the picture below... that is my favorite necklace. I wear it a lot and I get a lot of compliments on it. It's unusual and the metal is heavy. Unfortunately, due to the oppressively hot and humid weather, I haven't been wearing it as much, lately. I wore it once during a particularly hot day, and the metal was on fire, it got sooo hot. It burned my sensitive skin. ouch! But it is my favorite. As for the CDs. The Esthero and Lizz Wright CDs were well worth the wait! 10 thumbs up! After a long hiatus, Esthero came back, blasting fellow artists with track one, We R in Need of A Musical Revolution, with lyrics such as I'm so sick and tired of the shit on the radio and MTV, they only play the same thing no matter where I go I see Ashanti in the video I want some thing more And We are in need of a musical ReVoLuTioN! (we're so tired of the same old) We are in need of some spiritual evolution (we're so tired of the same old, same old) And I'm calling all creators in the movement It's time to offer a solution to the dilution of what we love And the greats would be so disappointed 'Cause we've sold our souls for what we don't own anymore... And Tell me why.... A grown man can RAPE a little girl but we STILL hear his SHIT on the radio A grown-ass man can videotape a little girl but we still see his mug up on our video screens? These lyrics were looong overdue, and I'm glad that Esthero had the sack to challenge the abyss of mediocrity music has fallen in. I blast that song as often as I can. As for Lizz Wright's Dreaming Wide Awake, impeccable. She sings a lot of classics. Her voice is just so rich and beautiful. A wonderful amalgamation of Tracey Chapman-esque folk and Cassandra Wilson-like jazz. I love it! My CD wishlist is just endless, There are so many more I'm dying to order. Now, on to some serious bidness... So, Cat came down Thursday for a long weekend, she left this past Sunday and is now living large in Paris for the duration of the month. (lucky beytch! Game... Blouses... Cat you win the Fabulous award for this week). Anyway, as usual, we had a blast. The museum I work at hosted what's called a Brew Fest downtown. 12 breweries from around New England were there. Catering was provided by a local brewery-restaurant. It was a success! So many drunks (I mean people), turned out for it. Cat had like 20 damn beers! She was pissed. Oh well, at least she got her 20 dollars worth. She drank for the both of us... unfortunately, I was on "schmoozing duty" and we aren't supposed to indulge in epicurean delights, while we're on duty. Never you mind, I made up for it after I got off. I felt this sudden urge to catch up with Cat. tee-hee. Umm, I'm about to touch upon a subject I've been wanting to address for some time. It may ruffle some feathers, but I really don't care at this point. I've noticed that whenever White men get shitfaced, they get bold... and start wanting to indulge their fetishistic "brown sugar" fantasies. They spy one or two faces belonging to black women, and they start trying to grab, grope, and cop feels. This has been my social reality, sometimes, when I go out., and this has been Cat's experience, in many social settings. At the Brewfest, some George Costanza look alike kept on hovering around, he just wouldn't take a fucking hike. When he first came round, Cat, one of my co-workers who is Puerto Rican/Cuban/Black, and I were standing around near one of the tents. This guy moseys on over, stumbling a bit, and blatantly stared at my right breast in an impertinent manner. In doing so, he noticed that I was wearing a name tag, and scoffed at the fact that I worked for the event. He then proceeded to ogle Cat, cornering her with ridiculous, drunken diatribe. We decided to leave him where he stood, and went in search of some ham, for Cat. (Um, to be so skinny Cat suuure can knock 'em back and eat enough for an army). We squeezed by a lot of drunk, sweaty bodies... the shirts of yuppies sticking to their bodies. We spied the ham line. Pushing my way through the crowd, I felt a hand plant itself firmly on my arm... stopping me in my tracks. I turned around and saw a face, as red as a beet, staring back at me, smiling arrogantly, as he slurred and held on tight to my arm, "Hey, how's it goin' where you goin' " I angrily yanked away from him, and kept on moving. Having made my way to where Cat was standing, I saw George Costanza standing near her, yet again, staring in all his perverted glory, at her, as she ignored him, and devoured her ham slices. I angrily glowered at him. He then asked, "Who's driving? I hope YOU are" I told him, "No one's driving SIR, because I live down here." and he said, "Oh, you do??? Do YOU live down here too?" he asked Cat. She lied via a nod. He then proceeded to watch her mouth, intently, lasciviously, as she ate a slice of ham... much to my disgust. Cat didn't notice at first, because she was drunk. But when she realized what he was up to, we both walked off, irritated and disgusted. Those black women "in the know" understand why this is off putting to us. We put up with so much shit. We hear so much about the plight of the Black man, or the plight of women in general (mostly white women), but the shit we put up with isn't really talked about. I mean, we talk about it amongst ourselves. It was noted in a documentary on VH-1 entitled, "Race O Rama: In Race We Lust" (part of a week long series from the guys who wrote Ego Trip's Big Book Of Racism) that there are more single Asian men and Black women than anybody else. It's because it's such a taboo to date us. Men who belong to the majority can lust after us, treat us disrespectfully, and hope to festishize us. They feel emboldened enough to grab us in crowded spaces, because they feel entitled, but we aren't dateable?!... Unless they are trying to festishize us by proclaiming, "I loooove Black women" every chance they get, and then not being able to deal when they do decide to date us, punking out and finding some lame excuse to bow out... (in my and Cat's experiences anyway) Unbelieveable. Perhaps it's because we don't measure up to their hoochie, ass shaker expectations? I don't know. I try/tried to be open, because you see, I date people not for their race, but because of their personalities. But alas, to no avail. The experiences I've had and the disrespect I've encountered has turned me off. I once dated a guy briefly, who had the unmitigated gall to tell me that he only liked it when "Black women dressed skanky." I told him that was racist, that he was perpetuating a sexual stereotype, and to get the fuck out. This year, my nightmarish dating experiences have left me feeling cautious. I hate to be this way in 2005, but ignorant M.F.s have forced this bitter symphony. Cat and I talked about this ad nauseum during her visit, as we swapped Brewfest stories, revisiting some of the shit that happened there, as well as other aspects of our lives. All I have left to say on this matter is this... it is NOT okay for any man, of any race to uninvitingly grab, grope, or put his hands on me. Here's a word of advice. Stop watching 50 cent and Lil John videos before you get the piss smacked outta you. I think therein lies the problem. Those that belong to the majority watch these videos, and think Black women are these hyper-sexual beasts, dying to get gang-banged. Stop the insanity, PLEASE. Don't play yourselves. I hung out with this girl about a year 1/2 ago, I stopped talking to her for a myriad of reasons, one of them being that she went out of her way to perpetuate every stereotype associated with being a Black woman. She spilled out of ill-fitting clothes, she spoke in a breathy manner, she was just nasty in every way. She was attractive... very dark-skinned, and I feel in some ways, insecure. Needless to say, once we were in a club/bar whatever... and she was grinding nastily with some smarmy White man, and then had the audacity to ask me to get behind him, so that we could "sandwich him." I politely flipped her and him the bird. She attracted looks of disgust, from man and woman. These two Black guys stared on, disappointingly shaking their heads... as this sister played the role of the Hottentot Venus. Needless to say, I was embarrassed, and I left her there, grinding, weave sticking in strands with the sheen of sweat that covered her face, alone. I felt bad and came back, to discover that dude had her flattened up against a window outside, trying to make-out with her, as she turned her head left and right, smiling gleefully the whole time... I finally told him to take a hike. I was so disappointed... just like the guy in the Bob Marley tee who shook his head shamefully, right before I hit him up for a piece of gum before storming out. Later on that night, I asked her why she did that. Her excuse was that she was getting revenge on the Black guys there, dancing with all of the white girls. That excuse was unacceptable to me because A)she's engaged in a (weird, masochistic-like) relationship with a white "rasta" wannabe, so it shouldnt've mattered, and B) So- the-fuck-what?? She liked being the "cultural anomaly" in a sea of white, male faces, and she showed off. She was phony, she had no self-esteem, and she generated negative attention to herself, and to those of us who were around her. Another sequence of events found she, Cat and I sitting at a nearby bar, some time ago, during a block party where I lived. Some bikers came up to our table... one of them started talking about how "hung" he was, and said that he had "Jungle Fever" He also told Hottentot Venus how he spotted her from waaaay off... because you see... they like 'em dark... you know the old adage about the berry. Not to mention, like I said, she liked to dress as if she should have been leaning on the hood of some random's car. Needless to say, I suggested we bounce after the "Jungle Fever" comment. Right after he went to the ATM machine across the way, to get money so that he could "buy us drinks." See, we put up with this kind of shit, and this was one of the primary reasons why I couldn't socialize with a young black woman, who insisted on playing up "that role" we try so hard to overcome. She needn't have done that, she doesn't need to do that, because she's bright and attractive enough, without it. (sighs and steps off the soapbox) On a light note, a really attractive Black man, around my age, with dreadlocks (they were wrapped up) dropped off some food last Tuesday from a nearby catering facility, for a meeting at my job. As I turned to call the Director's exec assistant to let her know the food had arrived for his meeting... the man said, "You look very cultured." And it made my day. See, this is what I like about Black men, sometimes when you're in the right frame of mind to do so, you find something positive about a woman and you expound on that. Providing the right compliment. You have your moments, but a lot of the times, you come correct. To that dreadlocked guy, thanks for not equating me to some cheap floozy you saw, shaking her ass fervently on a Nelly video. Thanks for realizing that I do not want to be grabbed and groped just because the women on the Big Pimpin' video didn't mind being treated that way. Thanks for realizing that Black women want to be respected too. This gives me hope. And I am waiting until I bump into a like individual. Maybe I should move to Virginia or Baltimore or some place like that... tee hee.

4 comments

emeralda said...

ahhhh, soooo good to have you back blogging, really, !!!! i came to your blog several times just to see whether there was sth new and i am so happy to hear your news. funny, eh, i don t even get why i actually do think it is interesting. haha.

okay, thanks for writing the stuff about GUYS.
while i was reading it i suddenly realized that it might be not a white black green carree thing but simply a matter of narrow minds. here in berlin the arabic lookalikes, the turks and africans usually get at WHITE women in exact the same manner which you just decribed about the white men.

maybe it is that the bondaries or gaps between races are still so huge in reality (despite all the talking of mulitculturism and stuff) that the males of the one side usually do not have access to the women of the other side and therefore dare to treat them like shit. no turkish guy would treat a turkish women like these icky bastards who really just want to put their little penis inside whatever hole they can find in a european white woman... you get what i am saying it is so fucking disgusting.

out of curiosity i took last year a erotic telephone line job (which i quit after one week because i realized that it ain t my thing at all) and there this mentality is very explicit to be encountered: the guys, because their threshold goes down BECAUSE of the distance they feel (which might be as well the case with distances in terms of nationalities or races) just loose all respect and let their animal get right at you.they think they can get away with that....(and we really should show them that this is not the case!)

as you know i am kind of attracted to afro whatever lookalikes which always kind of disturbed me because i would like to think of myself as a independent, person loving (yeah, i want an interesting cool individual rather than a stereotype of course!) piranha. but i kind of accepted that inclination by now just as something that is there about my character that conditioned me that way. but i am looking for individuals and like with David now I was lucky (or unlucky) enough to find my personal inclination AND my need for a good individual in personal union in one guy.


anyways. it is too sad that many africans i know here, for example, really can t see the person behind me but only the woman. the potential useful white european woman.

i think we all dont want to be treated like that. and i think it is because the white european culture is still somewhat in its(dying) phase of momentum that black women probably feel even more like that than the average white woman. it s a mess and we need a lot of conscience effort to work on that.

what i always heavily regret is when i encounter the type of girls you described, who is selling herself as a stereotype. and when i encounter people whose only answer to racism and hardship they encounter is counterracism and revenge. i don t think that this is the right way. i think of nelson mandela (who has his flaws too, but hell ya, whateva!!!!) and his wife and the different roads they took and i would go for his way. although i have some sort of understanding for hers.....

fucking until we all have the same colour? nah. boring. i really LIKE the differences and it is perfectly normal, i think, when people want to FEEL your hair because they have never felt it before. we need to get to know what we don t know. but with respect and love. dontcha think so....

ok enough blablabbing here. love your bloggerid very much coffey!!!!!!!!!!

p

emeralda said...

ps
as for the videos....it s not only bad for black women and how you are perceived in the public BECAUSE of that, but it s also bad for young little whiteys who think they have to be like those chicks and they never can be. and isn t it strange that the black women in the videos almost always are light skinned? it s setting up a new ideal (hell i wish you could see those chicks here who go to the solarium to get tanned too often!) that will, again, confine women in their individuality.
but its happening to guys too....just with different measures. but it s fucked up anyways. fuck

Unknown said...

its tragic. it really is

first off, there have been stereotypes of black women for centuries. it is not only perpetuated in the U.S. but abroad as well (arabs are the worst)

but instead of trying to fix these problems, we actually REINFORCE these stereotypes.

NO ONE will respect our women until we RESPECT and PROTECT them ourselves...

i will post something on this very soon

TiffJ said...

Ms World:
It's ridiculous. When people are drunk, they say and do things they don't have the courage or guts to do sober.

Piranha:
Thank you so much for the warm welcome back! I love when you offer your feedback on my blog.
Unfortunately, women in general can't cut a break... but black women have been hyper-sexualized for decades. If you look at the social roles of Black women and White women, comparatively, Black women tend to be catergorized in two major categories... Mammy or Harlot. Now it seems that those categories have been updated to Angry and Big Assed Hoochie. Read "Arn't I a Woman: Female Slaves in the Plantation South" by Deborah Gray White as one source of reference... there are far better ones.
Unfortunately, Black men with clout perpetuate these stereotypes via the rap videos and such. yadda yadda yadda.
Anyway, maybe I should write a blog entry on this as well
Bro. Omi... You are so right!
Thanks for the feedback!