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.

Showing posts with label Black culture. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Black culture. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

A Dead End



The system of white supremacy has crippled and crushed the Black community.  We are living in the end times.  Not in terms of some mythological savior coming back and sweeping up all the good Christians to go to heaven but we have now reached the end of hope, the end of advancement, the end of the struggle towards freedom, education, and enlightenment as a people. 

White people, with their racist agendas and their control of the legislative and educational systems have created a nation of Black people who are tragically educationally handicapped.   It’s been a multi-pronged, very intentional process that has been in place for four decades or more.  Kudos to them, their foresight, their dedication to keeping Black people stupid.  I give “them,” those with true power, those pulling the strings behind the scenes have restructured the educational system to the point of annihilation, all the credit in the world.  Along with the music industry, the illuminati or whomever pulls the read strings in this country have handicapped Black people to the point we wallow in stupidity and celebrate it. 

Black students no longer learn.  They don’t develop academically.   They regurgitate meaningless information and fill in circles with #2 pencils on tests but they don’t learn to reason, use logic, they don’t hone their discernment skills.  They repeat what they hear in soundbites.  They don’t read, explore, or research, they tweet.  They don’t watch the news, they don’t expand their consciousness beyond their dismal ghetto mentality reality.  And ghetto mentality has now metastasized into every socio-economic strata; it’s no longer a designation of income but of a mentality of stagnation, stupidity, and conformity.  If someone says it, “it’s the gospel truth” as long as the majority agree with it. 

The media has shaped our consciousness.  We don’t know Black history.  We don’t have a historical context to understand nor do we have the skills to understand how things connect to one another and create outcomes and consequences.  The educational system has done a great job in making sure the Black people only think linearly and don’t have the ability to question what they are told, read (if they read at all), complex concepts are foreign to Black people now.   The educational standards are dramatically and drastically lower.  What is an A in today’s public school system wouldn’t even be a C in the educational system of my day.  What passed for an A in my day wouldn’t have been a C a half a century earlier.  Students don’t do homework, don’t do projects, they don’t read books.  They don’t play musical instruments, they don’t create art, they don’t do anything but play video games and watch TV.  We rely on technology to the point of stupidity.  We wouldn’t know how to survive without wifi and we are quite proud of that.  Our educations are one dimensional.

Kudos to the elite whites who saw the potential dangers of integrating the educational system.  Sure, some white students have slipped through the cracks, a decent percentage of white students have been educationally handicapped by the lowered standards of the public school system but they have whiteness on their side.  When they graduate from college, they are more likely to get a job.  Hell, they don’t even have to graduate from college.  White men with a criminal record are more likely to get a job than a Black man with a degree.  You can rest assured that the rich white students, the ones in private schools and in public schools where there is hardly a black face in the student body are getting the best education possible.  You can bet your bottom dollar that what white students in affluent neighborhoods are learning in the fourth and fifth grades Black students aren’t “learning” at all.  They might not be taking advantage of that education.  They might be letting their privilege and the fallacy of white supremacy convince them that they don’t have to learn but KNOW that they are being taught things that Black students who graduate have never been expose to. 

“But they are learning European education.  They are learning the white man’s history,” you say.  Well, at least they are learning that.  Black students aren’t learning anything.  They aren’t learning European history or Black history.  It’s your job as a parent to teach them their history but you aren’t teaching your children anything.  Largely because you weren’t taught anything.  And here’s the rub.  Tell a Black student that they are the best of the best, tell them that they are on the honor roll and that they smart when they have been under and mis-educated and you will have an adult who believes that they know everything, that they don’t have to read or learn or research or study in life.  Combine that with the cheating, “get over” mentality that consumes Black people and you have a league of idiots who are going to wallow in mediocrity and dysfunction. 

Saturday, March 14, 2015

I AM Worthy



Deeply ingrained in the psyche of slaves was the belief, the unshakeable BELIEF that Black people were meant to suffer.  They grew to believe, shackled under the oppressive physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual chains of slavery, that their life was intended to be painful, that they had to sacrifice, that there were destined to accept second, third, and fourth best.  Slaves were beaten, raped, held captive, tortured, and worked like animals and told that their rewards would only come when they accepted white Jesus and got to heaven.  And with no hope for wealth and affluence, with no hope of dignity or justice, they held on to the notion that their pain would end when they were washed by the blood of their lily-white savior once they got to the pearly gates. 

White people, not only just slave owners but all white people, had no such debilitating belief beat into them.  They believed, just as they do now, that the world is their oyster, that they can do and say anything without repercussions.  They have never known the concept of pain and suffering being intrinsic to their identity.  Sure, they have known pain, but it’s not tied to their identity, it’s not because of their whiteness.  They believe that they are the best, that they deserve the best, that they don’t have to do a damn thing to deserve the best, that they are entitled to their hearts’ desires simply ‘cuz. 

Black people today, in 2015, still largely believe that we must suffer, that pain is part and parcel of our identity.  The messages passed down, the lessons taught to us from our parents and grandparents who brutally beat us, who silenced us, who stifled our creativity, who tried their best to protect us from disappointment and injustice, is that we have to be long-suffering, that we have to settle, that we are inherently undeserving of fairness, wealth, respect, and just plain ole happiness because of our skin color.  We are conditioned to believe that we have to accept second best, that we must swallow our anger, we must not offend the white man, that we aren’t worthy of luxury or wealth, joy; we overwhelmingly belief that we are undeserving of something as basic as love. 

Some of us in the last few decades have broken the chains, we have changed our beliefs and we are beginning to believe, deep down in our souls, that we are deserving of wealth and abundance, that we are not inherently unworthy creatures like our forefathers and mothers were forced to believe.  Regrettably, we have also acquired a gross materialism and capitalistic narcissism, a replication of the pathologies of the greed and the obliviousness of white people who think the universe owes them, that they are deserving for no other reason than having breath in their lungs.  I’m working diligently on changing my own core beliefs, I’m determined to see myself as worthy of the best that life has to offer.  The psychological chains of slavery are still not broken, they are heavy and burdensome and suffocating.  Most of us still are imprisoned by the chains that we are only as good as the crumbs that have been thrown to us, that we will only know peace and joy when we die.  WE MUST CHANGE OUR CORE BELIEFS.  We must FEEL worthy deep down in our hearts and souls.  We must start to believe that we are inherently deserving of wonderful things, of success and peace and abundant and over-flowing blessings. 

And so it is. 

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Your Blue Eyes Ain’t Like Mine





I need to talk to white people for a minute.  I’m here to say that you have been fooled into a false sense of superiority.  Black people have been trying to emulate your looks since we were enslaved on the plantation.  We spend countless hours, dollars, and tears trying to alter ourselves, changing the way we are supposed to look in order to look more like you.   You think that we should think, act, and look like you in order to be considered attractive.  It seems you have established yourself as the standard of beauty and everyone else is supposed to bend, meld, and conform to what you look like in order to be considered attractive.  I’m here to tell you that I’m not a slave.  I’m free from the mental chains that tell me that your features, traits, and aesthetics are better than mine.  I’m not obsessed, intrigued, or captivated by the beauty standards of white people. 

I don’t covet or crave your flowing, straight hair; I simply don’t think it’s more attractive than my own.  I love my nappy, wooly, African hair.  I don’t have to have bouncy, shiny curls in order to feel beautiful and you can rest assured that  I have less than zero need to sew someone else’s hair in my head to try to emulate what grows out of your head.  I adore the hair that God has graced me with and I don’t think it’s bad, unmanageable, or ugly.   Long hair is more attractive on women, or so you say.  I say I can rock my hair short and feel confident, beautiful, and unapologetically Black.  No, my hair is not the color of the sun, it’s the color of the dark night sky, the color of the vast and infinite universe.  I think my hair is beautiful in its natural state that is nothing like yours.  It defies gravity.  Your hair can’t do that.  I don’t need to dye, lighten, or change my hair color to feel more attractive.  My black hair, my BLACK hair is gorgeous, just the way it is. 

I don’t have to alter my appearance to try to look like you because I’m comfortable in the skin I’m in.  Your light eyes are nice, for you, but I much prefer my own deep, dark soulful eyes.   I will never buy colored contacts because I think that your blue or green eyes are more attractive.   I don’t want or need to have children who are beige, I don’t want to see their hazel eyes reflected in mine because I honor and love the Black Africans who came before me, whose blood courses through my veins, not the slave masters who raped my ancestors.  If you know nothing else in life, if there is one thing you can be assured of when you take your last breath on this earth, you can know without question that I will never try to lighten my skin to look more like you.  My melanated, brown skin is perfection in my eyes.  My full lips and wide nose may be ugly to you, you may be repulsed by my thick facial features.  That’s okay with me.  I don’t think your thin lips and pointy noses are attractive.  If I pick up a magazine or turn on the TV, the media would have me believe that I’m obese if I’m over a size 6.  That’s fine . . . for you.  For me . . . not so much.  I’m blessed with a big, round ass and thick thighs and I that fits me just fine. 

You see, there shouldn’t be just one standard of beauty in this diverse, colorful world.  So while most Black people are trying to look like you, while they feel that they are more attractive the less African they look, I’m not burdened with that unhealthy and debilitating belief.  I can celebrate myself, my features, and my own inherent African beauty and be confident and secure.  I can hold my shoulders back and my head high.  I LOVE the skin I’m in. 
Copyright 2015 AfroerotiK