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Since I started my homeless outreach project I have been blown away by the numbers of people who deal with homelessness. Moreover I have been bothered by the fact the all the places in place to help, really don’t offer that much help, but they get the funding. What has bothered me the most is OUR (BLACK FOLKS) "I don’t care it aint me" attitude towards homelessness.
Here in Los Angeles there are about 98 thousand homeless people. Blacks make up about 9% of the population here in LA County, but we make up 51% of the homeless population. This really bothers me. At first I just thought the numbers we wrong. But I am very sad to report that the numbers are dead on. In fact I happen to think they are higher then 51%.
Many in the Black community blame this high number on education, lack of services and we wont even begin to talk about "the man" I will never say that we as a people are behind the 8 ball no ~ pun intended~ but I do remember a time when we cared for one another. I remember when we looked out for one another regardless of if we were related or not. We were a community and we cared for one another. This just doesn’t seem to be the case any more. I am in no way saying it doesn’t happen, however I am saying that see us walk by our own to help others. Churches have to be the worst when it comes to helping our community. "We can only help our members" I had one pastor of church in Venice tell me I couldn’t use his kitchen to cook meals for homeless people because I wasn’t a member of the church. I didn’t want to bring homeless people to the church I simply wanted to use the kitchen. it wasn’t like I was a stranger to the church. I grew up in this church until the current pastor took over. More then 80% of the membership left after he became pastor. After he told me that the kitchen was for members only I asked him this. "When you collect offerings, does the envelope and collection plate say members only? Or will you take everyone's money?" He then told me to leave.
When do we stop caring for each other? How can we heal our community? How do we repair all the damage that isn’t being address in our community. Homelessness being one of them? I don’t want to hear answers about what "the man" is doing because frankly that just doesn’t fly with me. I am not saying that there aren’t things that are in our way, what I am saying is what can we do or what are we doing to make things better?
Take a look at this video a friend of mine shot down on skid row in Los Angeles.
www.youtube.com/watch
Here in Los Angeles there are about 98 thousand homeless people. Blacks make up about 9% of the population here in LA County, but we make up 51% of the homeless population. This really bothers me. At first I just thought the numbers we wrong. But I am very sad to report that the numbers are dead on. In fact I happen to think they are higher then 51%.
Many in the Black community blame this high number on education, lack of services and we wont even begin to talk about "the man" I will never say that we as a people are behind the 8 ball no ~ pun intended~ but I do remember a time when we cared for one another. I remember when we looked out for one another regardless of if we were related or not. We were a community and we cared for one another. This just doesn’t seem to be the case any more. I am in no way saying it doesn’t happen, however I am saying that see us walk by our own to help others. Churches have to be the worst when it comes to helping our community. "We can only help our members" I had one pastor of church in Venice tell me I couldn’t use his kitchen to cook meals for homeless people because I wasn’t a member of the church. I didn’t want to bring homeless people to the church I simply wanted to use the kitchen. it wasn’t like I was a stranger to the church. I grew up in this church until the current pastor took over. More then 80% of the membership left after he became pastor. After he told me that the kitchen was for members only I asked him this. "When you collect offerings, does the envelope and collection plate say members only? Or will you take everyone's money?" He then told me to leave.
When do we stop caring for each other? How can we heal our community? How do we repair all the damage that isn’t being address in our community. Homelessness being one of them? I don’t want to hear answers about what "the man" is doing because frankly that just doesn’t fly with me. I am not saying that there aren’t things that are in our way, what I am saying is what can we do or what are we doing to make things better?
Take a look at this video a friend of mine shot down on skid row in Los Angeles.
www.youtube.com/watch
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Unsu...
it's called integration. - the great distraction and retardant.
racism, brainwashing, mixed with integration is the recipe that caused and prolonged this disaster.
this is what we is happening to us.
the culmination of the mixing of the two evils, the latter (integration) being an evil because we hold very little power to protect our interests. the last thing we need to do is dispersed into separate communities
the black "haves" deserting the black "have nots" - due to brainwashing - shame, fear, and laziness- on the middle class's part.
shame - of one's own people and their condition - it reminds many of us successful blacks of our humble beginnings and where we came from
fear - of too many blacks rising and "taking us out", in this competitive antagonistic white world, if we help too many of our own
laziness - just don't feel like dealing with and helping others
we choose to condemn the poor (easy to do) than pluck the ones that want to be helped, and expose them to more options (harder, but neccessary, to do)
you see, the brainwashing never stopped- and overt racism was converted into more intense subversive racism.
the brainwashing is the machine behind "the man's" tactics, and it is beating us - the "messages" repeated in every medium possible, day and night, to enforce and "remind us" of the negative lies when we have even the slightest inclination to mentally challenge the lies.
that is the slippery eel that we cannot put our hands around - no one can pin it down, no one can "see" the brainwashing, making it a challenge to convince others that is actually happening.
this well-oiled machine that is operating against us, at 100% duty cycle, working in the background is constantly penetrating our subconscious minds - as long as you say that's what it is, you will have a healthy handful of blacks who will "see it" differently, and refute it.
why we have lost our will to succeed and self-actualize? because we are fighting this silent brainwashing war, where the perpetrators are underground, hidden, behind the remote controls pressing the message buttons. no one can see these hidden perpetrators physically, all you see are the blacks who suffer. - that is the visible, physical manifestation of the subliminal racism.
it is a very clever tactic that works. - because we really do not understand how our enemy thinks and behaves. if we did, we would purely fight, and at best, not participate, in the slander campaign against our people
"lack of" money for education is not the root problem. you don't need crispy new physics labs to learn that F=ma. What you need is the knowledge and the confidence and will to succeed and learn. - whether you are in a building that's falling apart or in a new facility. The space and confidence to learn and apply the knowledge will supply the strength to build a stronger building for tomorrow's children.
we have to get over it, change the perceptions we've been conditioned to believing for over 400 hundred years, and beat this mental trap.
it all starts with the mind - anything is possible. there is no such thing as good or bad. when we free our minds we will overcome the debilitating slander that too many of us have unfortunately internalized
slander - is rooted in falsehoods. we have fallen for the falsehoods - these must be unlearned
"The mind must always stay calm. When the mind cannot be moved, there is no longer good or bad, there just is.
When there just is, you have the power to form and shape."
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Unsu...
Thanks for this reply, but we need to move past blaming others. I grew up with two great parents in a great city in a great area. My father is black and I dont for one second believe that I am brainwashed nor is my mother.
While I fully understand what you have said and some of it I agree with and the rest of it I just think is an excuse. -
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I think it has more to do with consumer society in general, and we slave-descended American blacks, being squarely embedded in that society without the resources or cultural heritage advantages that other ethnic groups have, get the worst of it.
We live in a culture where people are seen as just another commodity to be used up and discarded after we've gotten what we want out of them, (and even more bizarre, now we have the modular PERSONALITY, where people shed whole IDENTITIES when they've ceased to be useful -- sheesh!)
Where does this leave us, a people whose sense of identity in this country has always been problematic?
As far as blaming others goes, well, I do tend to think that most cultural problems are systemic and not a matter of individual choices, as most people's vision is prescribed by the environment they're born into, one way or another. But that's just my particular bias, I'm willing to entertain other ideas.
But I don't get all that anti-integration stuff. It just seems archaic and irrelevant in this day and age. Sure, it might have been a good thing if the mass of black Americans were born into close knit folk communities, but the fact is that the end of the Civil War marked not only the end of slavery, but the end of agrarianism and the birth of the Industrial age, which more or less destroyed the folk community as a lifestyle. I don't see how a return to that sort of thing is possible in todays world. -
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Unsu...
take a look at majority black communiteies like Stone Mountain and Decatur, GA (where my fiance's family lives), Prince George county in Maryland, and Country Club hills in Chicago south suburbs, Houston TX, and various communities in the south and you will see shining examples of how tightly knit middle and upper-middle class black communities flourish.
If we mock these communities, in how they support each other, and work together to build and sustain their communities - That is when we will flourish as a race in this country.
As long as we are dispersed and integrated into the sea of vultures nippin at our feelings self-worth, that will not happen.
My most precious memories are when I was growing up in Gary Indiana. I felt loved and appreciated. Race did not matter because we all loved each other. We did not see race. We saw people for who they are. There was no stereotypes attached to anyone. We knew each other intimately.
Once I started living among whites and other races, I experienced some of the most egregiously vile antagonistic ridicule, and racial smearing campaigns I have ever known. The world outside of black america is cruel. very cruel. it's too bad too.
that type of mental stress of not feeling quite welcome in a white suburb, or your people being talked about like animals week in and week out, is a very stressful environment to grow up in. i dont wish it on anyone.
its already hard living in america, and not feeling welcome to a larger extent, let alone on your own damn street.
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Unsu...
Yogilyn
I never said that there arent people and places thay stillhave the spirit of taking care of the black community. I never once said this and do not appreciate you acting like I am mocking anyone.
I am saying that our community as a whole do not suport one another. That isnt mocking you or anyone. It's just the facts. I can call myself a child and God and turn right around and hate and preach things that imply hate. We are in this world together and we ALL need to learn how to deal with one another. But since both my parents arent black I guess you would excuse me from your black perfect world. I grew up in Santa Monica. My Ma's family is the oldest black family here in Santa Monica. First blacks to own property here. I love my family ALL OF THEM.
You not feeling welcome has nothing to do with white people IT'S YOU. You not feeling that you cant live near whites because they will in some way harm you IS YOUR THINKING. Dont give white people power they dont have. It only defeats YOU and no one else. I have family in those communites you speak of and our people are suffering there just as they are any place else.
You see I am a child of the most high King and I can come and go and live any place I want. I know who I am and NOTHING or ANYONE can take that away from me.
You are a BEAUTIFUL STRONG BLACK WOMAN, dont limit or lower youself to the levels of the people you are trying so hard to get away from. Be the light that God indended for you to be.
Blessings -
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Unsu...
if its only about "me", then it is only about "you" too - based on your angry feelings and response towards my comments.
The truth is that no one lives in a bubble, we all feed off of each others energies. It does sometimes hurt (or sting a bit) when people try to make you feel unwelcomed or uncomfortable in a group.
being hurt or annoyed, however, does not mean that you have internalized a person's beliefs about you. It means that you recognize that they have a problem with themselves. Their own feelings of self-hatred. Their reactions to their beliefs however could possibly put you in an disadvantaged position. so be on the lookout.
I concern myself (as we all do) with how others think to the extent that it directly or indirectly involves me, my family, my peers, and our agendas. Pass that, what other people think or believe I could care less, and it is their own business.
Only when a person tries to act out their feelings or beliefs in a negative way towards me, and disturb my peace, is when I have a problem with them.
Analyzing your winning or losing position in the game does not mean that you have internalized victory of defeat. It is merely your position, not a testament to who you are.
You must be aware of your position to make the best possible moves to win the game.
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Unsu...
if you think that whites don't see your face and automatically hate you JUST BECAUSE, then you are fooling yourself!!
it has nothing to do with money. it has nothing to do with capitalism. none of that.
it is simply having a nasty attitude towards a group of people, and enforcing their will against that group.
that's it.
dont try to cover up savagery with a fancy economics lesson.
think like the enemy thinks. and you will beat them, and set yourself free. -
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Unsu...
You have issues and they are YOUR issues. Donttry to put them off on all whites. IT"S YOU. PERIOD. I have never said, nor will I ever say that there arent many problems that black people face DAILY. I live in this skin too, but you can be part of the fixing it or the side that only makes it far worse for all of us. From what I have seen from YOUR EVIL, NARROW way of thinking, YOU make it harder for all blacks.
Stop giving whites power they wont ever have UNLESS you give it to them.
The problem YOU have with whites is YOURS and just to let you know miss "I AM ALL BLACK AND GOOD AND CANT BE TOUCHED" you got some white in your butt too. You arer just as bad as any white person who runs around preaching hate for blacks.
I asked when did we stop caring for each other and all you have done was blame things on white people. WAKE UP. Whites dont have this magic power that you made up in YOUR mind. Thats the facts. You go live in your black world with perfect communities and maybe one day DISNEY will make a fairytail about it. YOU MAKE RACE relations WORSE then many whites. So you go live in your made up world where everyone loves you and welcomes you.
YOU took my question and made it about RACE and what white people are doing. You avoided the question and blamed it on others. -
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Unsu...
Cut the bullshit kengikat. - the narrow minded act, the ethnocentric argument - MAYBE YOU JUST LIKE TO PONTIFICATE ABOUT BULLSHIT. I ABBREVIATE THE BULLSHIT WITH A HEAVY DOSE OF REALITY. MAYBE YOU DON'T LIKE THAT. WELL, ITS OBVIOUS YOU DON'T.
you know damn well what i am talking about.
my views are based on my experiences, my father's experiences, and the experiences of the black men in my life who I care deeply about, and all black men in general.
you are attacking me... maybe because what i say deeply resonates with you.
why don't you attack the white men in your lifetime who have challenged your manhood with the same vigor that you have attacked me.
i bet a million dollars that you have experienced racism, and chose to keep all of that aggression bottled inside - and unleash it on your own people who speak the truth.
use that aggression to defend yourself and not to attack your own people. i am on your side
WHY ARE YOU SO ANGRY AT MY STATEMENTS? WHAT IS REALLY GOING ON? I WONDER.
if you don't like what i have to say, state your reasons and leave the personal attacks out of it.
i never came at you personal. so why you got so many "YOUs" in your heated responses towards my statements?
that's not cool
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Unsu...
i am not blaming anyone.
i am simply stating the facts.
the obstacles we face everyday while trying to succeed.
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While I respect your question and admire your essay, I believe the question is wrong. A better question would be "How Should I Share?" We've been taught/conditioned that our society is competitive. That perspective is devisive and a necessary setup for the typical "divide and conquer" strategy. When we look at our community as collaborative we recognize that it takes a village indeed. Even though I ideally care about everyone, experience has shown that everyone doesn't care about me. My efforts in caring about others are cancelled out if I or they feel we must compete with each other. We sabotage our synergy when we worry about The Joneses. But let's not be foolish and suffer classic burnout by giving and giving without being replenished. There are the givers and there are the takers. You might know them as producers and consumers. Both groups can teach us valuable lessons. But if you want to relax on your piece of the rock, keep a keen eye on the takers. Like the astronomical bodies called black holes, they consume all matter and energy. They share nothing. Not even light.
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there is much here to ponder on,but a more broader picture would be that black people in this country are traumatized from the brutality of our past and fear of ourselves.in the time i've been on this planet,it appears to me that we are lacking love and respect for ourselves and one another.television,is in my view definitely to blame for it endless programing of young and impressionable minds,and our un-ending consumerism without any regard for what one does and how it impacts on your world.of the many encounters that i do have i find black people hate on each other more than any one group i've ever experienced,its probably left over mentality from slavery days,as well as the days of segregation.the civil rights movement was not that long ago,we so forget.
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