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Showing posts with label Racism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Racism. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 27, 2012

My thoughts on Hate-Crimes!!!

When are we as a people going to stop hurting & killing one another, for things that we've not done wrong?!!! When are we going to stop hurting one another, over things which we have no control over?!!! Why must a person be oppressed, just because of the color of their skin, the family they born into, what ethnic group they belong to, or the part of the world that they come from? Have we really become that savage & barbaric, that we have to treat one another like we're predator & prey, in the animal-kingdom? Have we really devalued the preciousness of the Humanity of others, to this great extent, that they don't even have the right to live, because of genetic features that Allah has chosen to create them with, without their consent?!!!

These are all questions that I've been thinking about, during the past two weeks, concerning the recent deaths, more accurately, the murders, of Trayvon Martin, of Orlando, Fl & Shaima Alawadi, of El Cajon, Ca. These people were the obvious victims of blatant xenophobic bias & discrimination. Yet, little to nothing is being substantially done about either case. Imean, take Trayvon Martin's murderer, George Zimmerman, for example: His killer hasn't even been arrested, or even brought in for questioning yet-He's allowed to walk around, as free as a bird, while he's directly responsible for the death of a Human being, without any valid cause.

And, in the case of Shaima Alawadi, there was a note left near her body, which stated "Go back home", indicating that not only was she brutally murdered by someone that she new personally, or was familiar with, but, this person had targeted her, exclusively because she was not an American citizen at birth.
We have truly sunk so low as a society: Human-life, like all life, is priceless; however, we've wrongly placed a price-tag on it, and whoever we deem as not as Humanly valuable as others are labelled as expendable. But, who in the hell gave us the right, or justification, to decide whose life is more or most valuable? We must, as a Human family, as a global society, as a people, really reevaluate what our core-values are. And, honestly, values without morals, are like flames without heat. And, morals without divine-direction are like a volcanoes which are dormant.

Sometimes, I wonder what type of world am I going to leave behind for any children that I may have. More accurately, I don't even want to raise children, in a world, where they can be hunted down like they're in-season, like they're a duck or whale, just because they are Muslim, or Black, or from a major-city, from an urbanized neighborhood. It's truly depressing that we have our following generations, whom will succeed us in this Mundane-Life, have to inherit this. This world, that we're leaving behind to them, is full of our innumerable fuck-ups & errors. We've destroyed whole civilizations of people, national-infrastructures, indigenous ways of life, the air-quality, the environment generally, the natural habitats of wild-life, etc.

What we have evolved into, spiritually, mentally, and socially, are monsters, and this is not what Allah, our Creator, has placed us into existence for. He didn’t make us to inhabit the Earth to destroy it, and consequently destroy ourselves in the process. He didn’t make us to wage war upon one another, just because of skin color, ethnicity, social, or political status. He didn’t make us to be of those whom are strong to prey upon the weak, just as the wolf preys upon the lamb. It's like all of us have turned into the real-life versions of Anakin Skywalker, in Episode 3, when he officially turned to the Darkside, and began to manifest his insatiable thirst for bloodshed & destruction. But, instead of the title being "Revenge of the Sith", it's "Revenge of Savagery". When is our real-life Episode 6 going to come out? Instead of "Return of the Jedi", we need our episode to be named "Return of Humanity".

Sunday, January 22, 2012

My thoughts on `Asabiyyyah (Bias):



Author’s note:`Asabiyyah, in the Arabic-Language, represents an unwarranted bias, either for or against someone, generally based upon things which a person has no control over (like family-ties, ethnicity, national-origin, gender, etc.). There are also other manifestations of `Asabiyyah as well (like cultural, religious, inter-religious or social discrimination, etc.). This new poem that I’ve written will be based mostly upon the ethnic & cultural & inter-religious manifestations of `Asabiyyah.

Wishful-Thinking:

What if…
…my skin had no color, that Muslims viewed me exclusively as their true brother?
…people looked past my blackness, and saw only my heart, not my outer cover?

What if…
…people never gave me a dirty-look, for coming into a Mosque in Jeans and a Graphic-Tee?
…people could just let me be alone, leave me be to practice my Islam, as a man who is free?

What if…
…I were not deemed a Muslim social-outcast, just because I don’t look like a desert Sheik?
…why must I forfeit all that I am, as a Black man, just to conform & wear a robe and sheet?

What if…
…people judged me only by my actions, instead of just my physical, mortal shell?
…they did not deem me as “Un-Islamic”, because of what I wear, headed for hell?

What if…
…people just saw me, as opposed to my natural, genetic topography?
…the Muslims did not care whether I was Sunni, Sufi, Shi`i, or Salafi?

What if…
…people respected & appreciated my differences that Allah granted me, instead of curse them?
…people did not label me as the “bad-guy”, for defending myself, against blatant, harsh racism?

What if…
…we were just unified as one, putting ethnicity, color, culture, dress & pride aside?

If “What if” were a reality…
...then, this world of ours would be such a peaceful, and awesome place to reside!!!

Gareth Bryant/2012

Friday, November 25, 2011

What “Change” has there really been in America?!!!

Since we are approaching the last official year of the 1st. presidential term of Barack Obama, one has to honestly reflect upon how his presidency has affected this country & the world. We cannot just get caught up in the nostalgia of “He’s the first Black President, woo hoo!!!”. We must critically think about what policies that he’s supported & carried out as the Chief Executive of the United States, during his nearly four-year tenure of what could potentially be his only term as the leader of the “Free-World”.

No, it’s not time to break out the worn out Obama hats, shirts, bumper stickers, etc. labelled “Yes, We Can”, or “Change We Can Believe In”. It is truly time for reflection as to whether the U.S. is truly a better country since this man’s been a President. For this reflection, I’ll be taking the liberty of mentioning several happenings throughout the current tenure of this U.S. President & I’ll let you decide has “Change” that this man had promised for this country truly come.

Hate crimes:
Dec. 10th, 2010:
A twenty-seven year old Black man, by the name of Frederick Jermaine Carter, was found hanging to a tree, in Greenwood, Miss. The Obama administration has yet to even acknowledge the event taking place, and there was no mention of a Federal investigation of this case (ironically enough, Greenwood is a mere 10 miles away from Money, Miss., where Emmett Till, a 14-year-old Black youth, was tortured and murdered by racist whites, exactly 50 years after the Emmet Til tragedy)-This case was just swept under the rug, by Leflore County Sheriff Ricky Banks, along with the county coroner, declaring Carter’s death a “Suicide”, as a result of him having a history of “Mental-Illness”.

Now, for you & I, who possess basic-intelligence, here’s some serious questions for us to sincerely ask ourselves: When is the last time that a legitimately mentally-ill person used a tree to assist them in a “Suicide”?!!! (Never); when is the the last time that Black man used a tree to assist him in a “Suicide”?!!! (Never!!!); also, how is the man going to “hang himself”, when he was found tied/bounded to the actual tree that he “hanged himself” from?!!! (Impossible!!!).

Now, just by virtue of the fact that there’s a Black man in the White House is justification enough to have had this case world-wide news; however, sadly, it was just another important issue that was kept under cover, for fear that people would truly realize that having a Black man as a President doesn’t secure shit for Black people, those who came out in droves to vote for this man, really believing that he was their savior-If a White man, or any group of Non-Black individuals would’ve done the same to one of them, this case would’ve been treated the same exact way, especially if they weren’t of any type of known, significant status in our society.


The economy:
It’s not that the Federal bailouts given to the Wall Street titans were bad enough, but to add insult-to-injury, they’ve grown more wealthy & powerful during the Obama years, thus far-According to a report, by Zachary Goldfarb, of the Washington Post:
  • Wall Street firms — independent companies and the securities-trading arms of banks — are doing even better. They earned more in the first 2 1/2 years of the Obama administration than they did during the eight years of the George W. Bush administration, industry data show. [...]
  • The largest banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo, earned $34 billion in profit in the first half of the year, nearly matching what they earned in the same period in 2007 and more than in the same period of any other year.
  • Securities firms — the trading arms of big banks and hundreds of other independent firms — have fared even better. They’ve generated at least $83 billion in profit during the past 2 1/2 years, compared with $77 billion during the entire Bush administration, according to data from the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association.
#Enough said!!!

International relations:
As recent as this year, Anwar Al-Awlaki, a Muslim, as well as a U.S.-citizen, was violently blown to bits, by a CIA-controlled drone-missile attack in Yemen. What still puzzles me, till this very day, is the simple fact that none of the actual charges of “terrorist-activity” against this man was even established, until after he conveniently out of the country, relocated to Yemen, even though he was continually probed by the Feds for at least 5 years before he even left the U.S. to spend the rest of his life in Yemen-Ironically the charges that he had actually gotten arrested for & then released while in the U.S. had absolutely nothing to do with “terrorist-activity”. This is something really difficult to wrap my head around: Anwar Al-Awlaki was accused of being the chief recruitment figure for Al-Qaeda in America, yet you wait until the man leaves the U.S. to go to Yemen to do something about it?!!! What sense does this all make?!!! (None).

He was denied his right as a Human being & a U.S.-citizen to have his day in court/any court, via due-process, even though his historical counterpart, Oliver North, the most corrupt U.S. Military official on record, who aided known terrorist-groups, by supplying them with money gins, in exchanges for drugs to be smuggled into the U.S. during the 1980′s, infamously known as the Iran-Contra Affair, did more than Al-Awlaki was even accused of. Yet, North was eventually acquitted of all 16 counts of Federal felonies thrown at him, received an official Presidential-Pardon, and retired with full rank & pension as a Lt. Colonel of the U.S. Marines (check out my article on www.garethbryant.wordpress.com titled, “If Anwar Al-Awlaki were Oliver North, he’d still be alive & chillin’” for more info. about the Iran-Contra Affair). Then, there’s Somalia, the mythical land of African Al-Qaeda & pirates, even though, unlike the Taliban, Saddam, and Qaddafi, As-Shabab have not been ousted (check out my article on my blog, www.garethbryant.wordpress.com titled, “Somalia [The Anatomy of a Tragedy]” to find out why).

These are just a few of the countless examples of how the mythos of Barack Obama has continually become a political epic-fail, and has been able to keep the American people deaf, dumb & blind. It’s very obvious to me, and should be just as obvious to you all, that Obama being a President, the first Black President, or what ever posthumous title that you’d wish to refer to him by, has not changed any of the business-as-usual policies well-established in this nation.

In short, “Ain’t shit change, except da number after da dot, on da Range (Rover).”
(Notorious B.I.G. voice)

#I’m just sayin’!!!