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// emini 1 70 V t: the e Shared // By Titia Shelton Staff Writer “Been in the game for ten years making rap tunes ever since honies were wearing Sasoons.” Dr Dre’s line from "California Love” is reminiscent of the old days. I can remember when girls sported Sasoons, Lees, and Sergio Valentes and knew we had it going on. Guys wore Skids, Hammer pants. Leisure Suits and Cross Colors. Oversized clothes, backward jeans. Pumas, and Adidas with the fat laces were what everybody had to have. Haircuts like the slope, high top fade, the Gumby and processes were all that. Girls were too fly with french braids, french rolls with pearls and remember those crimps, every body had them. Jewelry like the phat “duky chains,” four-finger rings, big name plates, and the biggest hoops you could find were the latest things. Slangs like “Homeboy,” “Homegirl,” and “My word is bond” were what you heard on the streets, all day everyday. We can all remember old styles, slang and the old way of life. We say we like the new styles and freedom of the 90s, but sometimes I wish we could go back to the good ole days with less violence and more peace. Everybody remembers when fighting used to mean a fist-fight throw down on the play ground at 3:00. Everyone would be there and the two chosen ones would show up scared, but ready. They would start hitting, slap ping, punching and wrestling one another, and eventually someone would tell and an adult would run out and break it up. The two would go home with bruises, scratches, black eyes, fat lips, and most of all, hurt feelings— but never in a body bag. Why has the whole world gone from fist fights to gunfights and blood baths? Since when did packing a nine define anyone’s manhood? Anybody with half a brain can get a gun and pull the trigger. A man gets the job done when he takes care of his chil dren and works to improve the community. Let’s not forget about the sisters, who can do some pretty triflin’ stuff themselves, like slic ing somebody’s face over a man. Fighting has gotten so trivial...anytime a brother will shoot someone because he stepped on his brand new sneak ers, we know this world has gone crazy. A pair of sneakers is never worth more than a human life. Brothers and sisters, we have to wake up from this dream of what defines you as a Black person, a true man, or a true woman. The number of people you shoot does not define you as “being hard.” Being hard means surviving under the pressure of the day to day struggle of being Black in America. “Being hard” and violent will eventually lead to the disintegration of the Black race. If this madness continues, even more of the Black race will be dead or incarcerated. We no longer need the KKK because some fools have taken the idea of the white sheets and replaced them with black faces. We’ve got to realize that killing one another is not cool and that the joke is on us. Instead of spending time thinking of revenge, we could be spending time thinking of a cure for AIDS, which is killing our people, or better yet, thinking of ways to paint the White House black. We must stop sitting around in this hopeless, violent state, because now we are in Neo-slavery, slav ery of the mind and soul. We need to break loose from these chains and, like Levert said, bring back all those good ole days: the days when African-Americans looked after one another, helped each other in the time of need, and really loved one another just because we knew we were all in this together. By Tyson Kin^-Meadows Writer In the 1969-1970 edition of the Black Ink, a staff writer simply named "Brian” suggest ed that ‘‘community national ism" would be the path to an emancipated existence for African-Americans. This "com munity nationalism” called for the “control of the surrounding means of production, mass media, military forces, and the power to organize a community governmental apparatus.” Another strategy called for the / “factionatoation of one of the major political parties" partial ly achieved by splitting from the Democratic party and orga- nijsing “their won independent Black politicjJ party/’ In short, “Brianism” attempts to lay a foundation for overcoming African-American political alienation and the usage of the means of production to justify Eurocentric economic, social and cultural hegemony. Perhaps “Brianism” laid the philosophical foundations for the call for a National Black Political Organization in Gary, Indiana in 1972 (and its follow up in 1989 New Orleans) and the current call. Perhaps it Maybe some day we can go back to those days but for now everyone is singing and living the lines from the Mary J. Blige’s song , “Reminisce over the love we had.” We’ve got to spread the peace for the nine-six. also agitated the interests of scholars and entrepreneurs: in the former to publish creative treatises on Blackness, racism, racial discourse, the dilemmas associated with exemplications of manhood/womanhood by those within and outside the Civil rights Movement. “Brianism” would also establish separate political science, jour nalism, history, and business associations; and in the latter to establish African-American entertainment networks, radio stations, and create Afrocentric commercials. These things were all in hopes of controlling the means between whites and African-Americans. Where are the results of “Brianism?" Or, better put, “Have we translated this ‘suc cess’ into an emancipatory exis tence?” Foulcaultian and bell hookian marginalized and sub jugated voices scream “NO.” However, they are drowned out by African-Americans and whites who rush for a seat at the minstrel show being per formed by certain scholars, businesses, and activisb. Although African- Americans have achieved some Revolution continued on page 9 Revisiting aTheory of Revolution
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