Nik Nicholson's Blog, page 11

The Pledge of Allegiance

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I remember being in awe of this child who didn’t stand for the pledge. I’ve always been super curious and slightly in love with different ways of being. Until he got different coloring sheets, before Christmas break. Then he had to join another class for every classmate’s birthday.  We never celebrated his.  Now I know it isn’t because he was born during summer, like me.  He sat in the nurses office during Valentines Day, St. Patrick’s Day, Halloween or any other school wide celebration. This kind of made parties a little painful. It would break my heart watching him collect his things… It almost felt like a punishment.  Then a teacher in my family explained it was because of his religion.





As a kid, I’m like what kind of god doesn’t let kids have cupcakes? I mean, I’m cool with a god flooding the earth to kill people… but no cupcakes, no masks on Halloween, no walking the streets with all your friends knocking on strangers’ doors and getting candy? I felt his god had to be an evil monster.

Halloween on base… those were some of the most memorable moments of my young life.  Sitting on the floor after walking the entire military base, it seemed, sorting through our candy.

No birthday parties?  No cake of your own with your name on it?  Where you get to pick your piece and eat as much as you want and then take it home?  No opportunities to have everyone sing to you? (I’m a Leo) This no birthday thing seemed like torture.





I swore then, I’d never be a Witness. Now I see how religion is dividing us, lying to us and failing to teach us to fulfill our most basic responsibility, to look out for each other.  Which means doing the right thing for us all. A millionaire wouldn’t take million dollar bonuses and lay off hourly workers, if their heart was in the right place. If they considered all the families affected by their decision.  We’ve moved away from what’s spiritually right to what’s legal.  Everything legal isn’t fair.


This is why the Bible says the spiritual man can not be judged, but can make judgments about all things.  Spiritual laws are above what is legal and they are easier to follow because they are written on our soul.




If religion did it’s job, we’d learn to follow our spirits. Which sometimes means doing what we’re led to do whether it be within or outside of the law. Doing what our inner knowing tells us.  Religion seems to be against God, most of them teach us to follow dead patriarchs in all of their human limitations, hatred and inhuman moral codes.  Instead of listening and heeding a living God, who is still speaking.  Religion teaches us to do what’s right or else we are going to hell.  Instead of doing what’s right because we are created in the image of God and knowing the full weight of our power. I came for you because I am not waiting on someone else to save you. We are all here to save each other.





Religion is, robbing us of an opportunity to develop a moral compass not rooted in fear. I only tell the truth, help, volunteer, pay tithes so I won’t be shamed, feel guilty and ultimately go to hell. Religion, not God, is keeping us from celebrating our lives by teaching us to live for death and the after life rewards. Religion is teaching us superiority over others… If I read one more post about someone being favored by God, or how favor isn’t fair. Not favor, LIFE is not fair. Sometimes you are up and sometimes you are down.





Anyway, I said all this because a friend’s post was discussing The Pledge of Allegiance. Which just by name sounds scary… What am I pledging allegiance to again?… AND because I’m considering making cupcakes.  Every day I wake up is a holiday… Anyone want to call and sing to me?








#LifeGoals #9PlanetsNoneNamedHeaven #PerishingWithCupCakes #SingToMe #GodIsNotPunishingYouOrME #HowCanGodBeJustAndPickFavorites #AreYouListeningToYourself


#TheBibleSaysGodHadOtherSons


#HaveYouReadTheBible


#IcouldGoOn

Filed under: Even Deities Evolve, Self Reflection, Spiritual/ Religious Tagged: condemnation, faith, god, hell, inspiration, Love, prayer, religion, Spiritual Evolution, Spiritual Growth, Spiritual Journey, spirituality

Elders On Obama

Tonight, I began watching 102 year old Alice Parker, seeing herself during the Harlem Renaissance as  a young dancer.  My heart was heavy. I’m trying to escape my  thoughts.

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Yesterday we officially entered a war with Syria, by bombing their airfields.  More than 460,000 people have already been killed in their civil war.  It doesn’t even look like there is anything left to bomb by pictures.  This, after Russia warned us not to intervene in Russia.

My heart has been heavy. My father taught me about cycles.  100 years ago, America entered the first world war.  So, in a hundred years we still haven’t learned enough to settle our differences without killing each other.  We are still no better than people who thought the world was flat. We’ve got all this technology and we are poisoning babies in their homes.  We are dedicating energy to making chemical weapons instead of curing all of the cancers, aids and autism which seems to be on the rise.

I am heartbroken.  People often ask me if I’ve seen different shows.  I started to follow some on Netflix.  Before this I didn’t see a television for months at a time.  Real life politics has enough twists and turns.  I don’t need to watch death and destruction for entertainment.  Mourning all the people forced to fight, fighting without knowing exactly why, all the secrets of my own government we are still held accountable for internationally and the people dying who look just like me.  They are still doing mass rapes in Darfur, there’s the Israeli and Palestinian conflict… A civil war in Syria.

I was watching Scandal recently, and was upset to see the treatment they gave to the Mike Brown and Ferguson issue.  Mainly, because Judy Smith, the real life Olivia Pope came here to handle other black people outraged by police brutality.  There were so many issues, Mike Brown was just the tipping point.  I couldn’t even finish the episode.

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Scene from Scandals version of Michael Brown’s murder.

I had gone to see Judy Smith give a talk a few months after Ferguson.  People asked her, as a black woman how she felt and she… Said she couldn’t comment on it because she was involved.  Soooo… My heart is heavy.  Every time something bad happens that involves a person with money I wonder if she is the person they call to get out of consequences.  Caitlyn Jenner as her former self hit and killed a woman in California.  The news demonized the murdered woman’s family.  It hadn’t even been two months, I think, and it was as if it didn’t happen.  Everyone was celebrating Caitlyn’s coming out.  She was getting an award for being a woman.  It was crazy.

I mean the best fiction writing happens on the local and national news. Seriously.  We are lied to or not given all the information.  Not having enough of information makes it seem like other countries are just wild, when it’s us…

We’re still looking out for our best interest economically.  I don’t know when we will start operating in spirit and stop treating people like dollars.  I’m on a tangent, but the term “human capital” objectifies and dehumanizes us all.  Anyway, I choose to read international news or independent news to get a full picture of our place in the world and conflicts… Our place, being America.  I don’t like news programs, I prefer reading what’s going on.  I don’t trust people to tell me anything these days, I need to see everything for myself.

Sooo… I went seeking a distraction to focus my energy somewhere else.  I needed to get out of my head. I was on a downward spiral, as you can see.  Alice Parker was a beautiful distraction. I love my elders. I loved seeing her come to life as she sings along with “soundies” they are called, from the Harlem Renaissance.

I also love that people took the time to write her, send her cards, flowers and balloons.  She was humbled by all the love.  Which moved me immensely. My great grandmother once told me that as you age, you become invisible.  People treat you as responsibility rather than someone they love.  I try to always be in awareness of this when I’m encountering my elders. I rub their heads. I talk with them bout what’s going on in their life, not just about their health.

Some elders get conditioned to sharing their health for attention and to get some compassion.  So I listen.  Then I ask about other things.  My grandmother use to call me and tell me what she ate and whatever information she had.  That’s how I learned everybody’s business.  She was always home when not at work.  Her own life was pretty routine.  So when she’d run out of routine things, she’d tell me all the happenings. LOL!!!

Who’s pregnant, who’s getting a divorce, who got kicked out, who got promoted, who got a new car and who got fired.  She loved to talk about what people were wearing.  What color their dresses and hats were.

I  don’t think my grandmother was a gossip, I honestly believe she didn’t really have anyone to process with.  When my grandmother talked she spoke nothing but FACTS.  I couldn’t even get her to give an opinion. She’d just stop talking.  If pushed she’d get off the phone.  I don’t know why I liked messing with her.

She taught me not to judge.  She taught me that people are all different and beautiful in their differences.  She also taught me when you acknowledge and celebrate difference you free a person to live their purpose.  I’ll have to write about her and that last lesson one day.

In between keeping me updated on family, she taught me how to cook. I grew up on the West Coast, so I couldn’t learn in her kitchen.   As an adult, raised on take-out and the highest in fine dining, because of my dad’s position, I didn’t really know how to cook.  Well, I cooked Mexican food, being from Vegas, it was my thing.

I didn’t actually start cooking Soul food until I moved to Atlanta, Georgia.  I’d never heard of sweet tea, only tea sweetened.  I learned to cook an amazing pot of beans.  So good, my mom asks me to make them for her and my dad compares it to his own mother’s cooking.  I learned to make a spaghetti sauce from scratch with chopped bell pepper, celery, tomatoes and all the onions, chile.  People ask for it all the time… I plan to make some later today.

My mother’s mother, Shirley taught me to handle tragedy…  By phone, on speaker phone in my kitchen while I followed her strict instructions, she helped me become a better woman.  So I love hearing from my elders.  I once read this African quote, that said… Every time an elder transitions it’s like a library of rare books is burned to the ground.

In my thoughts, reading about Alice Parker, because I didn’t initially catch her name I let the videos play.  All of them about the Harlem Renaissance, Parker and the Savoy.  Until another video followed with Mrs. Parker talking about Obama.

By then I was reading history, so I had to come back to my Youtube screen.  Mrs. Parker wasn’t alone, there were other elders all of them in their nineties. I loved hearing them speak.  The video was recorded in 2008, they were in their 90’s.  They’d lived through the Civil Rights movement, Jim Crow, Black codes, lynching, people being forced to work before there was a minimum wage.

Black people could be pulled out of their own fields or home and forced to work in a white person’s home, for pennies, literally.  So it was amazing to hear how they felt about going from sitting in the back of the bus, walking miles through hostile rural eras to and from work, having the police also be open klan, segregation and arriving at the possibility of a black president. Obama hadn’t won his first term yet.  Hearing their thoughts were sobering.

My grandmother, Shirley, died the year after Obama was elected.  It was her dream.  She never thought he could win, she’d seen so many things in her life.  The burning of black churches, lynchings, beatings and the killing of children.  All done by people who called themselves Christian.

She’d seen the Black Panther Party fall.  Before that, King, JFK and Malcolm X killed.  She was afraid for Obama’s life while he was running.  Sometimes she’d get lost in her concern.  To bring her back, I’d tease her and say, “I know how much you love John McCain.”  To which she would say “Tuh!” the official black woman “get on call.” LOL!!  I’d tease her until she got irritated and present.  Then she’d say out loud, “he better be careful.”

For a moment, I imagined how powerless a person must feel to have leaders fighting for them assassinated by their own government.  In my life time, I’ve learned the Kings won a case in 1999.  http://www.globalresearch.ca/court-decision-u-s-government-agencies-found-guilty-in-martin-luther-kings-assassination/5320024  During that time period in the 1960’s more Kings would be killed.

In my life time, one of Malcolm X’s daughters attempted to assassinate Louis Farrakhan.  As a result, we learned that the government killed him too.

I read in the last few days, that CIA and FBI agents were infiltrating Black Lives Matter.  I won’t get on the media slander of a group of people just saying stop killing us and treat us fair. I keep hearing people say, why don’t black people get their selves together… There are so many external sources fighting to keep us down.

Back to my elders in this video.  I loved the grandmother at the end.  I loved her singing. It reminded me of being in church with the mothers.  Her singing is stirring like African drumming.  I watched it on repeat several times.

My heart was heavy because so many people had such high expectations for Obama, and he turned out to be another president.  He did an amazing job facing the challenges he inherited.  I loved when he said Trayvon Martin could have been his own son.  At the same time, I felt abandoned by him.  Some days I would blame the system, some days I would say I don’t know what he has to face and other days I wondered if I expected too much.

Some days I would blame the system.  That first term, I never expected him to start walking around the White house with his wave cap on.  Obama had to use a wave cap.  Even though he is biracial, them waves though… I wondered weird things, like how long was he up before that forehead print left so he could meet the press.

I also realized, being black in America and working different kinds of jobs you can’t be yourself. I thought about all the times I was passionate about something.  Shit, Black Lives Matter came to my job and did a die in.  The drumming, them chanting stirred my spirit.  I wanted to join them on the floor.  I felt all kinds of on the wrong side of things.  But I had bills to pay.  I couldn’t stop adulting in that moment.

I also felt guilty.  There was a lot going on personally when Mike Brown was killed.  It was like there were two different worlds.  There were the people protesting.  Then there were the legal maneuvers our elders were engaged in.  Where I saw none of the protesters.  I fluctuated between feeling like I wasn’t there enough and trying to be in my own life.  We did eventually get a citizen’s oversight board. https://www.stlouis-mo.gov/government/departments/public-safety/civilian-oversight-board/index.cfm

Some days, I would hear people coming for Obama.  I’d think, I don’t know what he has to face.  I never talked about my job at home.  Whenever someone asks me how is work, I would say nothing really changes.  Meanwhile, it was the most racist experience I’d ever had.  I couldn’t quit.  It paid well. I had recently moved to a city where it’s about who you know, more than what you know.  I liked the freedom of my job.

I also felt like it was the pulse of the city.  I meet tons of cool people. I wouldn’t know half the artists I love without this job.  Not to mention, I’ve had 9-5’s where I carried a lot of responsibility. It’s nice not taking work home or having folks call me about anything.

But it was hard being watched more than white coworkers. It was hard being hired for less and having to fight for that less while the other woman was offered more.  Which especially ticked me off because she lived at home an didn’t have any real responsibilities.

I’d go through periods of applying for other places, but I was tired.  Shit, it’s hard as fuck being black.  The emotional work alone… All the battles you have to sidestep to stay employed.  I’m not allowed to have feelings.  My coworkers can come in and say, hey I’m hungover or I’m having a bad hair day and everyone babies them.

I am quiet because I just witness someone being raped (which I don’t tell them) I’m still being friendly, just absent and working mindlessly.  I’m told I need to smile more. I’m told I need to adjust my attitude.  White people can literally yell at others and me.  If I am just quiet it is treated with greater importance.  I’m like shoe shine Jimmy in this mutha fucka.  And I can’t see this changing.

There are different expectations for black workers.  I have to always be moving, working… They tell me to walk with a purpose.  Meanwhile, my white coworkers go stand in the back for 45 minutes without any interference. I mean, I’ve had people talk to me on the toilet through the bathroom door.

Knowing what I deal with, and I’m not running a country… I know Obama’s shuck and jive game has to be real.  I hoped in his second term he would wild out. I wanted him to come out and support Black Lives Matter. I wanted him to walk on the front lines.  Honestly, he still could.

I wanted him to move for a global change of how people of color are treated.  I wanted him to do some of the things Bernie would later propose.  I wanted to be saved from all the persecution we receive just for being black.  That’s a lot to put on anyone.

Anytime you wait on someone else, or expect someone else to speak for you, you’ve already abandoned yourself.  Then Obama drank that water in Flint and said it was fine.  Which shot his integrity for me.  I mean, just last week, Flint’s water system was being replaced.  It wasn’t fine.  I don’t believe he actually drank their water.

Filed under: Elders, Research, Self Reflection, Uncategorized Tagged: #TBT, african american history, Alice Parker, black history, black woman, Black Women, Dance, early 1900's, Elders, Flappers, Harlem, Harlem Renaissance, inspiration, Jazz age, Obama, Research, savoy, Syrian War, Throw Back Thursdays, World War III, WW3

Dance Is Story In Motion!

I love dance… You can feel the energy in the video.. I love to see a whole room move.

Claudia Moss

Greetings loves!

In February, I had the pleasure of savoring an Afro-Brazilian dance performance, one performed by the only professional folk dance company in all of Brazil. That is rather difficult to imagine. My goodness, there must be hundreds of thousands of Afro-Brazilians who are talented enough to perform in and organize folk dance companies, but finances and opportunity, no doubt, play a significant, unseen part in keeping such dancers and companies to an army of one.

I am elated that I was in the right place at the right time to attend a performance of “Bahia.” The evening was quintessential pageantry: the grace and beauty of the dancers, the raw talent and stamina of the drummers and singers, the costumes, the women’s mesmerizing topless performance and the dancing that brought the audience face to face with the cast at the production’s end.

Considering I could not film the gala…

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Filed under: Uncategorized

African American, Black American, Negrito, Negro, Indigenous What?

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Mixed race European, would be considered Black by today’s standards

I was writing a long response on a video, Youtube suggested, to people arguing about whether black people were Jewish, Native American, Native Mexican (this is redundant Mexico is a country on the continent of America, like Canada).

Some people were debating, “why do blacks want to be everything but African?” I’d argue, why can’t we be everything, including Africans? Others were saying, different perspectives were hustles to call us Africans and keep us from knowing our true selves.  Will social constructs tell us who we are?  Will knowing our exact history change our current situation? Maybe it will be a mental shift.  Maybe the identity many currently have limits their thinking and possibilities. I do know seeing reflections of myself in college on “A Different World” made me want to attend a Historically Black College.  The Black college experience made me aware of how we buy into false narratives.

The actual Youtube video was a series of clips to prove the Atlantic Slave Trade never happened. I don’t know what the hell is wrong with people, the Atlanta Slave Trade is well documented, it happened.  Then again, there are people trying to prove the Holocaust didn’t happen.  However, they aren’t Jewish people.  HEY BLACK PEOPLE!!!! Black people were actually enslaved. Black people were transported on the violently, stormy Atlantic… Many of them died.  Some of them chose death and jumped overboard.  Please don’t deny their existence by trying to disprove this historical fact.

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Native American Indians posing for a picture.

About black people being indigenous to the Americas… everyone was right except the people saying the Atlantic Slave Trade was part of this larger conspiracy to rob black people of their history. Global History is our history.[image error]

First, all the land on Earth was connected. This was called a Pangaea or Pangea. The first spelling, I consider correct, but depending on the site and researcher it changes so I wanted to share both spellings.

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I recognize that our education system dances around the fact of the PANGAEA for religious reasons, so I’m going to share how black people covered all the land on Earth.  We are the indigenous everything.

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Kushite Asiactics

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This man is indigenous to Australia.

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Original Filipinos

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This is different variations of Buddha statues over thousands of years. Buddha is/was Black.

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Indigenous Manchurian with her children

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Manchurian woman in the city.

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Indigenous Hawaiians weaving mats

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Ancient Statue from Cambodia

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Filipino woman with child

Malietoa Tanumafili King of Samoa

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Malieto Tanumafili King of Samoa

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Modern day Black Native American

Over dinner, I recently asked a biologist who studies human DNA, migration patterns, the history of man and so on… And it was the first time I learned that Neanderthals are a completely different species.  We didn’t evolve from Neanderthals, they existed simultaneously and eventually were extinct. I don’t care to get into all of that, but you are welcome to use Google.

Everyone is from the Pangaea with the oldest traces of human life being found on the continent of Africa.  That means all humans, every single one of us originated from Africa until they find an older body on some other part of Earth.  White people are younger than black people.  There was a time when white people did not exist and all the human life on Earth was Black people.  We spread out and over time the earth shifts.  Black people are all over the earth.  See how that works?  Black skinned people are then Indigenous Americans, Indigenous Filipinos, Indigenous Mexicans and Indigenous Europeans… Whaaaaat?

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Black European

Othello was written before the slave trade, he was a Moor from modern day Syria. Skin tone was not a dividing factor until slavery became skin based.  Slavery is not new to America or Earth, but skin based systemic oppression of brown people all over the globe created by slavery is unique.

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Sculpture of Black European man.

Now that I’ve shared that, there were black Europeans who held slaves. There were initially Native Americans, whites(I’m not clear how these whites became slaves or where they came from. Because they spoke the language of the Europeans who enslaved them.) and African slaves. Native Americans died from the diseases Europeans brought, refused to reproduce in captivity and died from heat exhaustion.  White slaves ran away and blended into society at large.

Also, some blacks arrived, like European whites as indentured servants. Indentured servitude was extremely expensive for wealthy landowners and lucrative for educated middle class Europeans who couldn’t afford to relocate in what they believed was the promise land.  There were laws and contracts protecting indentured servants.  As a result, indentured servants had to be given large parcels of land, tools, animals to work the land, materials to build a home and enough food to survive until their first successful harvest. As a result, indentured servitude ended and chattel slavery flourished.  Because there were black Europeans who were rich and well established, as well as some black Europeans who came as indentured servants, some blacks held slaves.  In my research, I could not find any enslaved blacks who came to own slaves outside of buying their own family members.

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Painting of a Black European Woman with her children.

I should also note, I was NOT doing research on enslaved people. I was doing research to establish a setting for my historical fiction, Descendants of Hagar.  My main character Madelyn “Linny” Remington was born around 1894. I wanted to get an understanding of her time period and who the people were walking the Earth. I wanted to know their family histories, motivations, fears why they moved North or stayed in the South, where lynching was a regular occurrence.

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Painting of Black European woman.

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Painting of Black Dutchman holding a government office.

I accidentally found the answer to, “who were the blacks who held slaves in America?”  Enslaved people didn’t buy their freedom or become free and then buy other enslaved people, unless they were buying relatives.  There are very few situations very early on when slavery became skin based where white slave holders acknowledged their children and freed them.  These situations overlapped with already existing blacks who were never enslaved living in a hostile America needing to reproduce and in some communities their goal was to breed out their dark skin.  I learned about three communities who practices this in North Carolina, Kentucky and one other state I can’t recall.

Initially people identified with their culture/nation over their skin. Research the early 1900’s and you will see how the Irish and Germans were treated.  They were white skinned, but were portrayed as monkeys in ads.  Which is why you have groups in North Carolina who bought lighter slaves to try and weed out their dark skin. When slavery ended, there were already groups of light skinned blacks who had been tutored at home and were wealthy, where did they come from? These were combinations of a lot of different things.  Black Europeans marrying white Europeans, Black Europeans marrying female white slaves, African Blacks and European Blacks marrying Native Americans, Black Native Americans marrying Creoles, victims and products of generational rape light skinned Blacks and so on.

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The first “Colored” sorority in America. They were the daughters of Colored Aristocracy. To be an AKA they had to pass the Paper Bag Test, meaning they needed to be lighter than a paper bag.

Slavery by skin contributed to colorism in the American black community, there is evidence to argue it created colorism globally. Wealthy, established, educated and well traveled blacks were called “The 400” here in America. This is lost for two reasons.  First, whites don’t acknowledge that their are different classes of blacks throughout American history.  This is further supported, by exclusive, elitist and established black societies who wanted to fight negative propaganda of the lazy, dumb, happy, always hungry, dancing, promiscuous and self destructive negro.

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Mary Church Terrel

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Creole Black Woman

Established black societies controlled the narratives created which is why there was always a bit of a war between W.E.B. Dubois and Marcus Garvey.  There was the war between being Negro and being Colored.  Colored people were black people who felt they were just darker whites.  The lighter a black person was the better he was perceived.  Lightening creams, hair pressing and perms appealed to this idea.  Also, blacks were assigned to jobs based on their skin tones even within their own community.

[image error]Men, were allowed to be dark if they had wealth, accomplishments and/or notoriety.  Dark men usually married light so their children would not be ostracized from the established light skinned black society.  This is how we come to view the origins of our first sororities and fraternities.  Many people argue, my aunt was in this sorority while discounting her background.  Sometimes black children were dark but they came from old money and had the right connections.

There was a dual identity occurring at the turn of the century.  Some were identifying as Colored while others, Negro.  Negro was a race unto itself.  It had great music, food a rich heritage.  It was the basis for so many black people from all over the diaspora finding commonality.  Jamaicans, Trinidadians, Panamanian and American black Sharecroppers.  While Colored people achieved their best by becoming lighter and not necessarily self sufficient.  Negro was a race unto itself, with nappy hair, black features and who deserved to be seen as equals without integrating with whites or imitating white culture.  Negroes focused on pooling resources to buy land, own businesses, grow their own food and protect their families.

During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s free from enslavement light skin, white looking blacks started to be welcomed into The 400’s close knit society.  The 400 needed lighter skinned blacks to marry into their society, to maintain their skin. Otherwise, they were hostile towards newly freed dark skin and uneducated black people. Later, they would be called the The Talented Tenth. They would then be compromised of newly educated blacks, European black families and the acknowledged children created from the rape and breeding of slaves. However, they still harbored many of the old sentiments. Like, the refined and educated would lead the masses of blacks. Literally 90% of all black people were still in the south on plantations in the early 1900’s. Again, this is how they arrived at the name “The Talented 10th” or “The talented 10%.”

[image error]W.E.B. Dubois is known for coining the term Talented Tenth, but it was more of a known term.  He is just the person who wrote it down and outlined a definition for it.  Like we have slang terms now, that will become obsolete over time, but when written in literature may find a new purpose or give context to our era.

I must also add, Africans didn’t just sell other Africans, they sold black Jews running from persecution who entered Africa from the Middle East. Native Africans felt imposed upon, went to war with and eventually conquered the Black Jews. Victors of wars regularly enslaved the tribes they conquered.  Black Jews became slaves to Native Africans.  Because white people don’t acknowledge cultural or language differences and write American history, it is said, Africans sold Africans.  Africans sold conquered tribes AND Black Jews.

Eventually, many African tribes became vulnerable and were themselves captured by whites and enslaved.  So it is true, that black people in America are descendants of Black Hebrews, Black Europeans, Africans and Native Americans (who were also a form of Black people).

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Black Jews are still practicing the original Hebrew religion in Sudan and parts of Asia. We have to remember, that white people came after black people. We have to remember that all the land on earth was connected at one time. So that would mean, all the people on earth were black at one time, again, for the people in the cheap seats. So this whole argument of whether blacks were indigenous or brought here by slavery is confusing because there is a bit of truth in all that is being debated.  Everyone is African and Blacks are indigenous to every place on earth. You’re welcome.

 

Filed under: Daughter of Zion, Descendants of Hagar, politics, Research Tagged: african american, african american aristocracy, african american history, afro american history, are black people indigenous americans, are black people native americans, artist nik, artistnik, black american, black aristocracy, black europeans, black fraternities, black hebrews, black history, black jews, black moors, black people before slavery, black slaveholders, black sororities, colored, colorism, coloured, dark skin, enslaved, HBCU, Historically black colleges and universities, history of black people, indians, indigenous, indigenous people, israelites, light skin, moors, native americans, Negro, New Negro, nik nicholson, pangaea, pangea, paper bag test, paperbag test, racism, slavery, systematic racism, systemic racism, talented 10th, talented tenth, where do black people come from, who are black people

United States Secretary of Education: Bety DeVos. forgot about segregation or didn’t learn it in private school

I’m not clear about whether Trump and Devos attended the same boarding school, where they paid top dollar not to learn American history.  Or where actual facts were irrelevant and life is as …

Source: United States Secretary of Education: Bety DeVos. forgot about segregation or didn’t learn it in private school

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United States Secretary of Education: Bety DeVos. forgot about segregation or didn’t learn it in private school

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White high school students yelling at a single black female student integrating their school.

I’m not clear about whether Trump and Devos attended the same boarding school, where they paid top dollar not to learn American history.  Or where actual facts were irrelevant and life is as you imagine it. #AlternativeFacts101 First, Trump said he would help “the blacks” who are at the worst point they’ve ever been in American history. I’m thinking he slept through slavery. I mean, was he out learning how to play golf while black people were being hosed down and beaten?  He was alive during The Civil Rights movement.

Now, DeVoss calls Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU’s), pioneers of choice.  She goes on to say that because black students were not getting the proper attention at other institutions black people started their own institutions. I’m not sure if she was rewriting history and giving alternative facts.  I’m not sure if she was being divisive because she is a supporter of privatizing education and segregated black colleges fit that narrative? *head tilt*

On the other hand, I think it’s sad, she didn’t know, was never taught or can’t remember that HBCU’s were created because black people were outlawed from being educated in existing white institutions.  Brown vs. The Board of Education was a bench mark case that integrated schools forever.  Still, I am always looking for the light at the end of the tunnel… Or being the light.  So…This is a great opportunity to have a national conversation on what HBCU’s are and to remind people why they exist.

First, I don’t think DeVos’s ignorance is unique. Many white people are surprised when I tell them ALL (because the following article said some) black colleges were established because blacks were not allowed to be taught in already existing white schools. I usually emphasize “Historically.” Black colleges no longer teach an all-black student body, because blacks are no longer outlawed from learning in established institutions.  If it were ever illegal for a white person to attend an HBCU, do you know who made that law? White people.

White people harassing white woman for taking her child to her own school that was recently integrated. They wanted her to refuse to send her child to school with black people.

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September 4, 1957, Little Rock, Arkansas. Angry protesters (composed of parents, teachers and other high school students) surround Elizabeth Eckford, one of the “Little Rock 9.”

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Whites were among the founders, financial supporters and in many cases the first teachers of black institutions.  Moreover, Affirmative Action works both ways; white students could attend an HBCU for a minimal amount to completely free, because they would be minorities on campus

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I know, I know… DeVos should not be serving as the Secretary of Education.  Still, I am grateful for this opportunity to have a national conversation about what an HBCU is and to explore, shit, teach and learn fucking American history.  I find it interesting some days and extremely heartbreaking on others, that white people have edited the history being taught so well… They’ve made black people appear to be the racist for creating learning institutions while being legally alienated from white schools.  Why is it, only black people realize HBCU’s were established in response to segregation?  I am often discouraged when I hear someone say black colleges are reverse racism. It makes me feel hopeless.  I mean, if you don’t know basic facts that happened in our parents’ lifetime, well… now, grandparents for some… how will we ever get anywhere as a country.

DeVos, saying that HBCU’s are great choices… and forgetting or altogether not knowing… Wait, let me see how old she is. Well she was born in 1958 schools were still being integrated in 1963.  Police were still attacking blacks with dogs, Billy clubs, gun butts, water hoses and cattle prods for trying to integrate. So she actually was a live when Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy and Malcolm X were

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Whites protesting school integration.

killed. I’m not sure how she is so unaware. I wasn’t alive during that time but I was taught about people being hosed down.  My parents talk to me about the brave black children who went to all white schools.

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Education Secretary-designate Betsy DeVos testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 17, 2017, at her confirmation hearing before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

There were movies about their homes being bombed, bricks being thrown through their windows.  Mostly, I remembered hearing how they were spit on, people walked on the back of their shoes and threw things at them.  I saw the black and white footage every year, of adults and children screaming racial slurs and obscenities at the backs of black children.  As a child, I understood how much heart it must of taken because I couldn’t imagine living in all that hatred.

Are private institutions lacking? (Shots fired!) Just kidding. Most students attending private and/or boarding schools are not being taught history lessons that might compel them to see the people their parents are oppressing as human.  Most private institutions deprive its students of diversity, by isolating them in a community of children from families with similar means.  Or with children of parents who are willing to sacrifice because they value the networking that happens in these schools. Which is another way people are separated by class.  Not only don’t you see people in a different economic classes as human, you don’t ever have an opportunity to interact with them and build relationships that will inform your life and choices. *Sigh*

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Ruby Bridges being escorted by detectives out of school for her safety.

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Such a small child carried a heavy weight. She suffered so much verbal and physical abuse. My heart is and full of gratitude for her sacrifice. Love

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White people harassing a white woman and her child. The white woman, is taking her daughter to her own school that was recently integrated. They wanted her to refuse to send her child to school with black people.

Bonus. Covenant contracts ended in the late 1980’s early 1990’s.  Covenant contracts were created by white people to keep their neighborhoods white. Even though segregation and unfair housing practices were illegal.  White people began socially regulating their neighborhoods by adding conditions which were allowed by financial institutions.

Filed under: politics Tagged: affirmative action, african american, Betsy DeVos, black, black affluence, black america, black american, black codes, black colleges, black university, Brown vs. Board of Education, civil rights movement, colored, desegregation, Donald Trump, education, Elizabeth Eckford, Elizabeth Ekord, HBCU, HBCU presidents, Historically black colleges and universities, integration, jim crow, Negro, protest, racial, racism, Ruby Bridges, segregation, systemic racism, Trump Administration, United States Secretary of Education

I’ve Always Preferred Painful Truths Over Comfortable Lies

Never thought I’d say it, but I am grateful Trump won. I have always preferred a painful truth over a comfortable lie. I believed Black people accomplished more as a race.   I believe America was more progressive as a multicultural nation. I never thought I’d be someone’s “one Black friend.” I never took account of the races of my friends. For some reason, I’ve always had a diverse group of friends that reflected the community where I lived. We were bound by common interests more than race, education or economic class.

Now I’m noticing,  times I’ve been the Black friend who was used to keep my white friends from recognizing, accepting and dealing with their racism.  Stupidly, I probably denied they could be racist.  Mostly because I attended a Black college and was initially ostracized.  I found Black people were more connected when we were fewer in number and divided where we were in concentrated numbers.   It was an awakening that made me reach a lot of inaccurate conclusions.  One of them being, we had grown beyond identifying with our skin.





I never thought we needed a Black space. I knew women needed safe spaces.  Especially because in Black spaces patriarchy was the norm.  Because of this, I have been praying not to be angry with all the women Democrats who voted for Hilary Clinton, simply because she had a vagina and they wanted to make history, during the primaries. Bernie Sanders was the better candidate. Clinton and established Democrats stole that election from Bernie Sanders.  I was hurt but all the protesting didn’t change anything and Bernie Sanders conceded.  I focused on beating Trump struggling with whether I should vote for Clinton or Jill Stein.  I was frustrated with Stein after I read where she said she supported Trump over Clinton.  Bernie Sanders never hit below the belt, he stuck to the policies, Clinton’s voting track record and his plans for the country.  I ended up voting for Clinton because after research I realized what a serious threat Trump was.  Still, Clinton didn’t win and we are all paying for it now.







This is also my struggle with feminism. On top of it’s heroes, like Susan B. Anthony being racist, feminism is sometimes a fight for a matriarchy more than it’s about equality.  Hilary Clinton would have been a comfortable lie though I do believe she would be a better president than Trump.






Over the past few days, I’ve made peace with this truth I can only change myself. Honestly, because I am doing all that I know and can afford in my community I’m actually not as devastated. I see how I change things. I see how things are changing. I see the love and commitment of other people.  Being involved in my community gives me peace in the face of the challenges.







I thank Kayla M. Reed for calling us together and finding a space immediately after the election results were final.  I thank her for loving us. I thank her for her vulnerability. I thank her for unwavering honesty. I think it is greater for someone to say I am hurting, tired, frustrated and overwhelmed, but I’m still here. Than it is for them to pretend they are invincible. She teaches us we can be all of ourselves and still be powerful.  She teaches us all we can be powerful.  This is important, because in the past, if something happened to a leader the struggle ended.  When we are all leaders, we just keep pushing.







I thank Kayla for pointing out how we do organizing in our own lives and how she supports different approaches by not tearing down other organizations. I love Kayla for being her beautiful, funny, confident, powerful and empowering self. I love her a little bit more every time I see her.


Ashe’ Ashe’







Yesterday, in a Black space, I was reminded I am powerful. I was reminded I wasn’t alone. I was reminded I wasn’t imagining racism. I let so many people go on learning of Trump’s win, it was nice to find people who understood the big picture. I was embraced in a community of people who are changing the world. I am grateful for this affirmation of my power and for this show of power. I am thankful for our resilience. I am hopeful, motivated and clear.




I am researching for the release of my next poetry book on faith, culture and identity. “Even Deities Evolve, When Me and God were Atheist.” I have so much to tell you and share. Keep me lifted in your meditations and prayers as I sort through all this research. I am overwhelmed by our history. I am overwhelmed by the amount of lies we’ve been told and how well they’ve been weaved to support each other. I am overwhelmed by my responsibility to speak truth to power. (That last line felt dramatic, but it’s real.)







I love yall. I love your strength. I love your adaptability to face truth, accept truth and apply it. I love your rhythm, your laughter, your resilience, your spiritual commitment to be connected, to be love, to be loving. I love your vulnerability. I am praying for our freedom from fear. I am praying for more action. I am praying more of you will stop waiting to be saved and figure out how you can save yourself, how we can save ourselves as a collective of talents, wisdom, spiritual gifts and skills.







I want to thank all those who put their bodies on the line for us. Thank you for your nights in jail. Thank you for your courage in the face of so much adversity. Not just from other races of people who don’t understand our struggle but from your own families, partners, friends and co-workers who are also Black. I thank God for you. I am praying for your spiritual strength. I am standing with you in all the ways I can and know how.







For everyone who is reading this, whatever your race may be, you don’t have to be on the front lines, you can help change the world however you are gifted to do it. We can’t all afford to go to jail. We can’t all afford to miss work. We don’t all have money to donate to every cause that is worthy. But we can cook a meal. We can pick people up from jail. We can lend our space for meetings. We make sure people get to meetings by driving them. We can make sure people make it to work before and after meetings, who don’t have cars. We can make calls on people’s behalf. We can hold people who are heart broken and depressed. We can feed our front line warriors spiritually by affirming them.







Know, no one expects one person to do all things but we will be successful when each of us do as much as we can. We have to pace ourselves. It won’t happen over night. This is a long term commitment. Commit to yourself first, so you can set healthy boundaries. Then commit to doing whatever you can to change the boundaries we are facing. We are most powerful when we all show up however we can. One of us does the accounting. Another does the art. Another does the painting. Another does the planning. Another uses their law degree to defend us. The doctors among us treat those who don’t have health insurance among us. The pastors among us remind us of our spirituality. The singers, drummers, dancers, chanters and criers pay homage to our ancestors, invoke and ignite our courage, our connection…







We are the ones we have been waiting for. Bring your gifts, your power and live your purpose in love and light.





WE ARE ALL POWERFUL! WE ARE ALL LIGHT! TOGETHER ALL THINGS ARE POSSIBLE!

Filed under: politics, random, Self Reflection, Spiritual/ Religious Tagged: #BlackWoman, 2016 election, a writing life, AA, action, activism, african american, african american history, African People, ancestors, artist, author, Bernie Sanders, black lives matter, black people, black space, black struggle, black woman, Black Women, blm, brick city, civil rights, Clinton, Election 2016, empowering, equality, Even Deities Evolve, faith, feminism, ferguson, focus, hilary clinton, inspiration, kayla reed, Love, meditation, Missouri, motivation, nik nicholson, organization, organizing, patriarchy, people of color, POC, political activism, prayer, privilege, Research, revolution, safe spaces, spirituality, st. louis, strategic planning, Trump, vote 2016

SEEDFUL ART AGING GRANTS

Aroha Philanthropies launched “Seeding Artful Aging,” a new initiative and national grant opportunity, in Spring 2016.

As a subset of the broader field of creative aging, artful aging programs inspire and enable older adults to learn, make and share the arts in ways that are novel, complex and socially engaging. Successful artful aging programs are led by teaching artists whose creative process and understanding of older adults bring joy, connection, improved health and well-being, and a renewed sense of purpose to older adults in community and residential settings.

The initiative is designed to support the development and expansion of successful artful aging programs, document their effectiveness and share that information broadly.

Through this initiative, Aroha aims to:

Demonstrate the power and impact of artful aging programs to a broad national audience.
Encourage arts and cultural organizations to develop participatory arts education programs for older adults.
Encourage organizations that serve older adults to develop arts education programming.
Disseminate program implementation models.

Fifteen nonprofit organizations were selected to participate in this demonstration project through a two-part application process. These organizations represent a broad array of communities to demonstrate the impact of the programs in a wide variety of situations. Selection of organizations balanced urban/rural communities, small/large organizations, culturally specific communities and geographic locations across the United States.

Grant awards range from $15,000 to $50,000 for programming to begin on or after January 1st, 2017 and be completed by November 30th, 2017. Grants may be renewed for a second year, dependent on first year program evaluation outcomes. Potential total grants to each organization thus may range from $30,000 to $100,000 over the period of the initiative. Each award must not exceed 20% of the organization’s total expense budget.

Organizations selected to participate will receive an array of additional benefits and services. For details, see the Initiative Components page.

Filed under: Grant Tagged: 2017, aging, art, development, grants, inspiration, learning, support

Acquisitions/Commissioning Editor (ELT Publishing) – 11282

RedNova Learning is a new publishing enterprise related to the world-renowned Macmillan Education Group, and is based in Miami, FL. We develop and publish English Language Teaching (ELT) materials for all age ranges, preschool to young adult. Our products encompass a range of print and pioneering digital formats.

RedNova Learning Inc., part of Macmillan Education, continues to grow. We are looking for a motivated Commissioning Editor to join our English Language Teaching (ELT) team based in Palmetto Bay, near Miami, FL, working on titles for K-12 markets where English is taught as a foreign language.

You will commission and develop ELT materials (print and digital) as required in the publishing program. This involves identifying, commissioning, and briefing appropriate authors and editors for the American English K-12 markets, mainly in Latin America and East Asia. You will work closely with a wide range of team colleagues including editorial and production staff working on print and digital components as well as sales and marketing staff to ensure that titles meet market requirements and are delivered on time and to budget.

Experience, skills, and qualifications:

Essential:

* EFL teaching experience at K-12 level, ideally in Latin America or East Asia, and a recognized TEFL qualification

* Strong editorial project leadership and content development experience in ELT publishing

* Excellent command of the English language

* An ability to work to tight deadlines

* A positive attitude and commitment to the aims of the company

* A knowledge of and an interest in Latin American or East Asian culture and education

Springer Nature is a leading global research, educational and professional publisher, home to an array of respected and trusted brands providing quality content through a range of innovative products and services.

Springer Nature is the world’s largest academic book publisher, publisher of the world’s highest impact journals and a pioneer in the field of open research. The company numbers almost 13,000 staff in over 50 countries and has a turnover of approximately EUR 1.5 billion. Springer Nature was formed in 2015 through the merger of Nature Publishing Group, Palgrave Macmillan, Macmillan Education and Springer Science+Business Media.

We offer a comprehensive benefits package that includes:

– Medical, Dental and Vision

– Life and AD&D

– 401(k)

– Flexible Spending Accounts

– Transit Accounts

– Salary is Open

– Full Time

Visit our website at http://www.rednovalearning.com.

RedNova Learning is part of Springer Nature. Springer Nature is an Equal Opportunity Employer that complies with the laws and regulations set forth in the following EEO Is The Law Poster:

http://www.dol.gov/ofccp/regs/compliance/posters/pdf/eeopost.pdf

To apply for this position, please use the following URL:

https://ars2.equest.com/?response_id=e7360bc411a84e707d1d7f886c6594ca

Filed under: Employment in Publishing Tagged: art, benefits, editing, editor, employer, employment, full time, health insurance, hired, hiring, job, job hunt, job seeking, publishing, publishing business, publishing company, publishing house, salary, work, writer

Book Designer- Timber House Press

Job Title: Book Designer

Job Number: 16642

Department: Art Department

Supervisor: Creative Director

FSLA Status: Exempt

Job Class: Full-time position

Work Hours: 8:30–5 Monday–Friday

Location: Portland, Oregon

Essential Duties and Responsibilities:

• Design, lay out, and produce book interiors, including: design and market research; book design, type specifications, and layout; page revisions and text corrections; and preparing books for delivery to the printer.

• Research, design, and produce book covers and jackets.

• Prepare and present your own work at critiques and design meetings.

• Productively encourage, receive, and synthesize criticism of your work, and the work of your team, from a variety of stakeholders, both locally and from our parent companies in New York and Massachusetts.

• Manage freelance designers for cover design, interior design, layout and production.

• Build and maintain a pool of freelance designers, illustrators, and photographers.

• Manage art and illustration programs, including budgets, illustration development, and commissioning and managing freelance illustrators.

• Research art, typography, illustrators, photographers, and designers.

• Collaborate with editors, designers, marketing and production staff throughout the book development and creation process.

• Other tasks as required.

Education/Skill Requirements:

• At least 3 years of professional experience in book design and production, including the ability to prepare electronic files for press

• Demonstrated skills and experience in the design, structuring, layout, and production of professionally printed, bound, and manufactured books.

• Proven skills in Adobe Creative Suite applications—expert level in InDesign and Acrobat, high proficiency in Illustrator, and a working understanding of Photoshop and Bridge. Fluency in MS Excel and Word also preferred.

• Extensive experience working with typography and typesetting in a publishing environment.

• Strong verbal and written communication skills.

• Our books are written, read, and depended upon by experts in their fields. As such, our work requires an unfailing dedication to accuracy and procedure—and all of the checklists, style guides, and quality assurance checks that such rigor demands.

• An interest in plants, gardening, and/or natural sciences is recommended, but not required.

Physical Demands:

• Must have close visual acuity

• Cannot be color blind

• Must be able to stand, bend, lift, and stoop

• Must be able to lift and carry up to 25 pounds

• Must be able to sit or stand in one location for extended periods of time

Timber Press is a publisher located in Portland, Oregon. Our mission is to share the wonders of the natural world by publishing books from experts in the fields of gardening, horticulture, and natural history. Grow with us!

The Timber Press art department builds beautiful, essential books for gardeners, landscape professionals, scientists, foragers, hikers, and plant lovers. We invite the reader to explore the natural world, whether in the garden, in the wild, or in the pages of a well-designed book.

About The Company:

We are seeking a curious, hard-working, and thoughtful book designer to join our art department. The ideal candidate will be a courteous collaborator who is also able to work independently, set goals, and meet deadlines; self-motivated and reliable, yet able to ask for help when needed; calm and productive under pressure; and able to manage multiple projects with shifting deadlines and priorities.

To apply, please send a cover letter, resume, your annual salary requirements, and work samples to artdeptjobs@timberpress.com

Work samples may be submitted as a PDF of less than 10 MB, or as a link to an online portfolio.

We cannot personally respond to each inquiry. However, you will receive an auto-generated email reply to let you know that your application has been received.

Applications will be accepted until the close of business on 14 November, 2016.

Please, no phone calls.

Filed under: Employment in Publishing Tagged: 401k, artist, benefits, book designer, employment, health insurance, job, job seeking, looking for work, publishing, publishing business, publishing company, publishing house, publishing house opportunity, publishing opportunity, publishing team, work