AfroerotiK

Erotic provocateur, racially-influenced humanist, relentless champion for the oppressed, and facilitator for social change, Scottie Lowe is the brain child, creative genius and the blood, sweat, and tears behind AfroerotiK. Intended to be part academic, part educational, and part sensual, she, yes SHE gave birth to the website to provide people of African descent a place to escape the narrow-mined, stereotypical, limiting and oft-times degrading beliefs that abound about our sexuality. No, not all Black men are driven by lust by white flesh or to create babies and walk away. No, not all Black women are promiscuous welfare queens. And as hard as it may be to believe, no, not all gay Black men are feminine, down low, or HIV positive. Scottie is putting everything on the table to discuss, debate, and dismantle stereotypes in a healthy exchange of ideas. She hopes to provide a more holistic, informed, and enlightened discussion of Black sexuality and dreams of helping couples be more open, honest, and adventurous in their relationships.

Tuesday, January 31, 2017

#MuslimVisasMatter . . . more than Black Lives Apparently





First off, let me be 100% clear.  I know, it’s not up for question or debate, that Trump’s “Muslim ban” is racist, Islamaphobic, xenophobic, fascist, and illegal.  PERIOD!  It is nothing more than his thinly-veiled attempt to make America lily-white again, just like his custom-made, 100% cotton, picked by American slaves, 400 thread count, percale, lightly starched Klan robes.  Non-Christian Trump is, first and foremost, aligned with the sole goal of removing, oppressing, and even exterminating if he can, ALL people of color within these borders to restore it to the great racist, evil bastion it once was. 

I want America to be more tolerant, I want America to be more diplomatic, I would love for my America to be the true melting pot that it was supposedly created to be.  I will forever embrace diversity.  I will fight, resist, and protest any and every effort by this deranged lunatic in chief to make AmeriKKKa more racist again.  When the time comes, I will register as Muslim as an act of conscientious dissent against tyranny and the efforts to go back in time to segregation, Jim Crow, slavery, and the mass genocide of “others” that this country is so damn proud of. 

All that being said, I do find it a bit odd that moderate/progressive/liberal white Americans are more horrified by the thought of Muslims being banned from the country than they are the thought of white cops murdering Black people in cold blood.   For two years, we’ve seen the videotaped evidence of innocent Black men, women, and CHILDREN slaughtered in the streets like animals time and time again and the most moderate/liberal whites could muster up was some luke-warm enthusiasm.   While a few picked up signs and donned BLM t-shirts, more often than not, they deflected, defended, and denied that there could be the slightest possibility that systemic racism was at the core of the hundreds of police killings of African American citizens who were born in this country.   

But I’ll be damned if white people haven’t found their raison d’etre now.  They are shutting down airports and highways, they are boycotting companies, they are united in their #NoBan #NoWall fight.  I just have to ask where was all this empathy and compassion and activism for Black Lives?  I want all those white people who are ready to register as Muslim in defiance of Grand Wizard Trump to register as Black for a day.   I want all those white people to see our lives as worthy to fight for too. 

I’m not at all angry at white people for their enthusiastic defense of the principles that made this country the land of the free.  Their indignation is righteous for sure.  I just wish it extended to the Black citizens who lived here as well.  I just wish they didn’t feel so inclined to dismiss the plight of their Black American brothers and sisters so easily.  

1 comment:

Unknown said...

This is such a thoughtful, intelligent commentary. Maybe I can add some perspective where white folk are concerned. First, allow me a political point. In case you believe "moderate/progressive/liberal white Americans" constitute a contiguous group, they do not. They did in the past, before Bernie Sanders nudged us out of our slumber. I'm pretty sure that has changed permanently.

I am a white man that is politically left, or better, Progressive for meaningful legislation. The post-9/11 changes, including this new policy that allows police to execute black men, needs progressive action; not Democratic, appease "conservatives", never-ending classist economy bills that want to change things over decades. This is not to get any Progressives off the hook for the lack of support for BLM, but only to make the point we Progressives represent something different and we do not like what Democrats represent. Democrats, or "moderates" if you wish, are conservatives dressed in lib-suits. Okay, so set that to the side.

The BLM cause has a couple of major differences from the Muslim Ban.
BLM. I've noticed a lot of white people that are really having problems understanding the new racism in America. I think most whites believed that racism was almost gone. As it turns out, there was more racist feeling that we thought, apparently just keeping quiet. There's a lot of surprise and shock. There's a lot of disagreement. There's a lot of ambivalence and cognitive dissonance. There's a lot of denial and misplaced shame. The shame is key, and please, I'm not trying to start an argument when I say it's misplaced. Often I think it is.

I see a lot of white people that have a knee-jerk, emotional reaction to the subject. Defensiveness. I'm talking about white people who are not openly racist, but any mention of white rule and racism is taken as a personal insult. To face the truth is to admit that the white race is genetically evil. They feel, in a confused and ill-defined way, that admitting a legacy of institutional racism is admitting personal responsibility. It is logic-free; desperate/anguished. This wash of visceral, confused affect starts to give way to excuse making and scapegoating. "But cops shoot white people too"; "But the dead cops in Dallas..."; "They're the ones being racist - we don't have a miss white America!", etc etc ad infinitum. It makes no sense at all, but this is the truth. As long as they're emotionally affected with suspicion that their character is being judged, trying to explain to them that BLM is a reaction to a real problem is futile. One may as well attempt to balance a ball on the crown of a house by throwing it up there from the ground; it's going to roll off one side or the other. I've been in quite a few arguments about it. I don't know how to resolve it, but I know that it's real.

The new fascist president probably has more to do with the different reactions to BLM and Ban. Trump had no involvement in the ugliness that led up to the creation of BLM. Everybody except the furthest right half of the "conservatives" loath Trump and everything he stands for. They (we) even in our dumbed-down state, can see that Donald Trump is a goddamned fascist that values nothing but personal praise and wealth. The hate for our new Dear Leader is what moved them to action on the Ban. Dear Pussy Grabbing Child Molester designed that illegal, half-wit law. BLM hasn't benefited from being associated with Dear Criminal's Nazi legislative efforts. And that's too bad because I too would like to see more enthusiasm for BLM. To help BLM's effort would help white people too. But white people are generally dumb and it seems that being dumb is currently in vogue.