The Goddess Professor Speaks

I've been ruminating on how QAnon, or whatever the fuck they were calling themselves back then, REALLY convinced somebody to run up in a pizza parlor to rescue some kids from a PDFile ring in 2016, and how certain folks BEEN hollering about an international PDFile cabal/ring for a LONG ass time--except the super gullible among us are convinced it's only Dems--and those doing the hollering have been labeled "conspiracy nuts," and how folks in power have long scoffed at this idea and laughed at how stupid conspiracy theorists sound for thinking this,  buuuuut... Turns out that  1) yes, an international PDFile cabal/ring DOES exist, has for a long time, likely will continue to as long as no one is held accountable for the horrendous, villainous actions,  2) the cabal includes some of the most powerful people, corporations, entities in the world ,  3) even if they did participate, there was a second class of powerful elite who still willingly hobnobbed with the PDFile p...

Phew chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiile. It's been awhile since I posted, and we "sick and tired of being sick and tired," quoth Ms. Fannie Lou Hamer . That ma n has been in office barely 9 months, and it has seemed like over a year already. D'Angelo just died. Neo-soul has lost a King. And my goddess, one of the articles about his death reminded me that Angie Stone died THIS year too. Two Neo-soul legends gone and one young man losing both his parents in the same year. And that's just this week. I could go on and on, but enough of the sadness... Shit is hard. Seems like it's getting harder day by day.  Folks literally trying to legislate away people's rights, existence, identities. Corruption and cons left, right and center. History constantly repeating itself. Realizations that the folks who most Americans point to as the worst of history--the Nazis--actually got many of their ideas from the Jim Crow era . Seems like controlling forces, who want to subjugate, cage, g...

" She's 83 " has been trending on Twitter and that's a damn shame. (As of this writing, Lady Hussey is still trending.) This relates to the racist, offensive encounter between Susan Hussey and Ngozi Fulani at an event hosted by the current Queen Consort Camilla, King Charles wife (former Duchess of Cornwall and former, former longtime side-piece). For too long, we've let age excuse shitty behavior--well, let me clarify, we've let age excuse shitty behavior from white people, even when they were WELL past an age at which they should've known better and even when we've allowed them to be called "kids" when they were in their 30s and 40s . I reject that and I call it bullshit. 1) because I have my own racist encounter as to why, and 2) no other race is allowed to use age as an excuse for being shitty or offensive. Years ago, while at a professional thing (I won't name what, but those who know me and were there know what.), a friend and I and...

It's also why they erase the ugly parts of their own histories--like 5$ Indians. In Fall 2020 (right before THE pandemic school year started), I attended a virtual session titled The Legacy of Historical Trauma: A Discussion of the Black and Native American Existence, Identity, and Moves Forward to Healing . It was SUCH an enriching, rewarding, spiritual experience for me. I listened to the panelists (most of whom are Black and Indigenous or were raised in Black/Indigenous households OR are raising Black-Indigenous relatives) speak of the intersecting identities and the double oppressions of being both Black and Indigenous and the acknowledgment of anti-Blackness handed down from our collective oppressors and often internalized and laterally expressed in Indigenous communities, really in both communities. The anti-Blackness being weaponized and stripped from Indigenous Peoples by the dominant culture, to the point that Black-Indigenous people would need to deny their Blackness in ...

Although no one asked me and I'm sure no one will, I'm gonna share my 12 cents about Will Smith smacking Chris Rock. I'll be real honest... it's complicated. My thoughts and feelings are entangled. My feelings come from my multiple identity groups in these United States and on this planet with other fallible humans. As a fallible human who works hard to process her own emotions and unlearn the habit of hitting when angry, no, it's not cool that Smith hit Rock. But as an intersectional person who analyzes the shit outta everything, it ain’t so cut and dry.  As a fallible human who knows in general that one should not choose violence as a first response, but who also acknowledges that sometimes, just sometimes , choosing violence can be the answer, well, it's still complicated. As a fan of Smith and Rock, ugh, this is hella messy. (I know my fandom has nothing to do with this and honestly, it doesn't make me dislike either of them any less. It just makes shi...

There is rarely a Fourth of July that goes by that I don't think of and/or read Douglass' "What to the slave is the Fourth of July?" I typically post it yearly as well. Last year, we were blessed with descendants of Douglass performing parts of his speech and reflecting on who they are and where we are today, as they relate to his speech. Today, I ask slightly different questions: what to the American descendants of slavery (ADOS) is the Fourth? What to any of us is the Fourth? In a year where we've seen the symbolic victory * of federal recognition for Juneteenth while simultaneously witnessing state legislatures across the country and nationally elected folks attempt to shut down any conversations on race, racism, slavery's role in the founding and growth of this country, and real American history instead of American mythology, what to ADOS does this day mean?  At a time when we've lost more than half a million (605,533 as of 11:25a on 7/5/21, accordi...

One hundred years ago today, white Tulsa citizens stormed into the Greenwood district of Tulsa and began attacking Black citizens. Like many incidents like these throughout American history, it started when a Black man was accused of doing something to a white girl/woman. I say "something," because it's still unclear what happened on the elevator where the "something" allegedly happened. One hundred years ago today, the Tulsa Massacre began. It would end only a day later ( fortunately just one day because it could’ve been much worse had it lasted longer) once the National Guard was called in, but after hundreds of Black people had been injured, thousands of Black people made homeless due to their homes be burned and destroyed, and an untold number of Black people killed. Untold numbers. Hmm. Some estimates say as high as 300 people were killed. Some records seriously lowball that number, but it's hard to do an accurate counting of the dead when their kille...

I saw an article and then watched the trailer for the upcoming film Netflix's  Concrete Cowboy , starring Lorraine Toussaint, Idris Elba, Cliff “Method Man” Smith, and Caleb McLaughlin (the sole Black kid in Netflix's  Stranger Things ). The article from The Root opens with a simple question: "When did you first learn that Black cowboys exist?" In the article, a few of the film's actors offer a few answers:  Bob Marley's " Buffalo Soldiers " (about the all Black calvary regimen of U.S. Soldiers ).  The film Posse (directed by and starring Mario Van Peebles, also related to Buffalo Soldiers ) The film Buck and the Preacher (starring the amazing and incomparable Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte) . The article also mentions the person who was my earliest memory of Black cowboys: Bass Reeves . My dad told me about Bass Reeves when I was younger. Dad loves western stuff AND actual history, and my parents always made an effort to fill in the gap of th...

A year ago today, everything stopped. Freedom of movement as we knew it ended. A year ago today, I was googling Covid-19 furiously, trying to understand what was happening, so I could then discuss it in my classes in an accurate way. Students were slowly becoming aware of what Covid-19 was, and I was trying to help them sift through the noise. Because one of our topics that semester was misinformation/disinformation/malinformation, I made sure we had frank and honest discussions about how to obtain accurate info. Discussing Covid-19 would be the second in-real-time event I used as a lesson that semester. Earlier in the Spring semester, after Kobe Bryant's death (rest his soul), I used the information cycle and misinformation as a lesson on how to know which news to trust, how to assess credibility, and confirm stories and information. A year ago today, our personal life changed with a car accident (thankfully, no one was seriously harmed) as the larger world as we knew it changed a...

In recent days, many of my white colleagues/friends have been afforded the amazing opportunity of either getting on the wasted doses vaccination lists or being considered as educators by local places offering vaccines. (Wasted dose lists are pharmacy waiting lists that you can add your name to and they will call people at the end of the day if they have doses that will go to waste if they aren't used.) I'm ELATED that so many people I know who have largely adhered to all the covid protocols and thereby been mostly locked away in their houses, have been able to secure vaccine doses OR an appointment to get one soon. I immediately considered jumping on this bandwagon, and then I reconsidered. I feared that once I, a Black woman, showed up with my work ID that suddenly higher ed faculty would not be considered educators--despite EIGHT of my white colleagues already getting the vax, as of this writing. Or that I would be questioned as being a higher ed faculty (people are often sur...

As I read " The Novel Frugality " in Vox last night, I couldn't help but think that this "new frugality due to corona" is in large part only experienced by people who have never had to struggle in their lives--apart from maybe Ramen-fueled college years. I'll be perfectly honest, my first thought was "awww, look. Wealthy folks and/or wypipo are joining the rest of the world and being less wasteful. That's cute." People who either grew up struggling or had parents who grew up struggling, and thereby maintained those struggling-life habits, and passed those habits on likely already had habits that prepared us for this. My parents grew up struggling and passed on those habits. My dad lived as a sharecropping family for a brief time as a child. (Then they got the fuck on down because they weren't dumb and no, just fucking no!) One of the most mind-blowing stories I've never forgotten from my dad was that when he was a kid, he and 3 siblin...

A friend posted this article on FB yesterday: " First Trailer for HBO's Lovecraft Country Blends Jim Crow Horrors with Supernatural Monsters ." I instantly watched the trailer, got excited, then instantly paused. I was hella excited to see Jurnee Smollett-Bell, Courtney B. Vance, and Michael K. Williams in a new show in which Jordan Peele and JJ Abrams are the producers. I had to look up Misha Green. She's badass too! She was the creator and writer for Underground and writer for some eps of one of fave shows: SOA . My excitement was on reserve after I watched the trailer because the show (taken from a book of the same name) puts black people in the Jim Crow South in peril from both racists (actual evil monsters) AND fantastical beasts (literary monsters). My first thoughts: "Damn! Wasn't racism, hatred, discrimination, terror, violence, and unpunished, state-sanctioned murder at the hands of racist people and systems monstrous enough? We gotta add movie mon...

We're all STILL reeling from multiple mass shootings in a week's time (Gilroy, CA, El Paso, TX, and Dayton, OH) and other shootings ( Wisconsin, Mississippi, Tennessee, Maryland, Virginia, Indiana, NY )  that were still tragic and horrible, but didn't make as much news because 1) low death counts and 2) we had TWO FUCKING SHOOTINGS in 24 hours--El Paso then Dayton. Even by our shitty standards, 2 in 24 hours is a bit much. When I say the Dayton breaking news alert on my phone, I thought my app was glitching. Nope. ANOTHER FUCKING SHOOTING while cops and media were still gathering info on the first one. I've tried to limit my exposure to all the non-stop news about the shootings and only took time to read articles when something truly caught my eye, like the fact that the FBI are pursuing domestic terrorism charges or the fact that Mexico is considering suing the U.S. government since some of the people killed in El Paso were Mexican nationals or this article: "...