NUBIAN KNIGHTS NETWORK: Mos Def and Dr. Cornell West on HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher

QUOTATIONS OF "BLACK"

"Whenever I use BLACK it relates to some history of Africans in that particular place. It’s the idea of the color BLACK as a metaphor, or as a representation of African-Americans. It’s the notion of BLACK- BLACKNESS - and all its other meanings in relation to the history of race..."

- Fred Wilson

"Most of my fortitude to continue doing the work comes from the moral outrage I feel about the injustices that Black people endure disproportionately daily."

- N. Abdul-Wakil

"In the end, what matters is not skin shade but pan-African consciousness. Loving your complexion, your nose, lips, hair length and texture, no matter what the politics or trends decide, and simply be. That's the problem with us (African folks). We're still learning how to love ourselves. So used to glorifying others and putting others first..."

- Dredlocks Tree

Saturday, October 17, 2009

Mos Def and Dr. Cornell West on
HBO's Real Time with Bill Maher

You know... I agree with some of the things that Mos Def said on this particular Real Time with Bill Maher show. I'm in total alignment with him when he said (summary paraphrase) "I'm from the projects. I know DANGER.... someone from the projects ain't worried about that boogeyman shit." I definitely feel that way and further, everytime I get on a New York City Transit train I wanna scream when I hear the message "...protect yourself. If you see suspicious activity on the train or platform edge, do not keep it to yourself". I mean YO, IT'S A FUCKING JOKE THAT 8 FREAKIN' YEARS LATER (ALMOST A DECADE NOW) WE ARE STILL ON WITH THIS BROKEN RECORD (PROPAGANDA OF FEAR MESSAGES) BY SAYING THIS SHIT! I think people are capable of articulating if there's a potential danger without having a propaganda message reminder constantly. And then it end with NOT "...have a nice day" BUT "...have a SAFE day". Like Mos Def said, if someone is going to get you, then they're going to get you. Ain't no one going to make no damn video tape of what they're going to do to you. Now I'm not proposing that there aren't real threats out there, but at the same time I'm a Black man living under a FUCKING potential and very real siege everyday. It is more likely that I'll have a run in with a white racist police officer and possibly shot and killed than in my honest opinion, then a blown up building or other activity by terrorists. The NYPD as Mos Def said are hired terrorists of the state.

As much as I LOVE most of Bill Maher's views he's totally off base by saying in the very beginning of this clip that racist police officers (that Mos Def was alluding to without having to say it) and terrorists are apples and oranges. Terrorism is terrorism, and the scale in which they happen doesn't minimize who it is happening to. But Bill is a white man and his reality is always going to be different than that of a African peoples living in Amerikkka. It's really just that simply.

And as Mos Def so aptly mentioned, we NEVER question what terrorists motivations are. I've always said that 9/11 didn't just happen out of thin air. What did the United States do COVERTLY to FUCK with another nation to the point hat they'd plan and pitch a large scale terror attack on the U.S. - And this is the discussion that never happens.

And, oh yeah, THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE HAS GOT TO GO!!