The question was posed to me publicly on Facebook as to why aren’t there any magazines that feature a specific slice of the Black community in the field of beauty.
My basic answer was that we need to stop bitchin’ and moaning about how the so called mainstream media and power structures do not acknowledge what we have as far as talent and creative resources in our community.
For many who believe that the only way to go is to sit around and what for that phone call that might never come, they need to pool their talents and abilities together to form their own network of interests and deal direct with the people who will patronize that network and that my friend is us!
But many of “us” do not support anything Black because the either feel that the product is inferior as it can’t be as good as the offering from the mainstream (Oh how I simply hate saying that word!) outlets and the fact that we simply just won’t support each other out of the deeply ingrained emotions of jealousy and self hate.
We are no doubt still affected greatly by the effects of slavery on our minds, those who are the descendents of the slave-master simply dislike intensely when we speak on it because for us to come out of this mindset will break their very profitable hold on us as we spend a tremendous amount of money on the foolishness that they happily provide to us.
While I can’t quote the exact amount of projected money this year that Blacks in America spend with the so called mainstream corporations, I recently read somewhere that we are very close to having a trillion dollars in our collective pockets to spend freely and guess who is licking their chops to get in our pockets?
Isn’t it funny that as despised as we are that the money in our pockets is highly desired by those who do not want to be our neighbors but want the pleasure of living good with our money in their pockets?
Well if you really wanted to make a change in this sinking and slow burning country that I often refer to as Amerikkka, then you need to keep your money out of the pockets of those who want nothing for you but a total subservience to them and who think nothing of you except that you are a primate who cannot make a move without them.
We still haven’t learned yet after Trayvon Martin was murdered when afterward so many companies stepped forward to support George Zimmerman with donations that let us know where they were coming from to take the worst kid of slap in the face as a people. Yes, Trayvon was the face of the countless thousands of young Black men murdered at every turn that never get the media coverage that Trayvon’s tragedy received. So to make such a symbolic gesture to fill the pockets of that out of control maniac George Zimmerman told us where they stand with our community.
Yet almost immediately right after we supported these companies with our hard earned dollars as they knew we would.
Me? I haven’t stepped foot in a WalMart ever since except to use the restroom and for some unknown reason my thick and powerful stream of urine hit every wall in the bathroom stall except the toilet bowl! I guess I was feeling kind of dizzy that day, after the George Zimmerman donations I’ve been feeling that way when I use the WalMart restrooms, maybe it’s something in the air.
On a more serious note we’ve got to understand that no one is going to encourage us to get our own as a community unless we go for it ourselves. It doesn’t have to start with a huge undertaking as all we have to do is to start with the simple things like diverting our money spent with our purchases on proprietors that support and give back to our community. Everyone else does this so why not us? What I am speaking about is not supporting those two faced companies who ACT as though they have our best interests at hand while failing and falling short once we check their track record with us, but holding them to task and to the last letter of their word and publicly exposing them for any slights executed.
We need to communicate with each other on a higher more intense level to educate those of us who haven’t a clue as to what is really transpiring with the flow of money in and out of our community.
Too many of us are more interested in watching the great distraction and brainwashing buffoonery of “The Housewives Of Atlanta” and other brain draining tools of mass hypnosis similar to those while not even knowing what’s going on in their own backyard! I mean, when was the last time many of us attended a community meeting to represent your interest where you live? For those of us who haven’t how do you know if there isn’t a Super Highway planned to run right through your backyard in ten years? Most of the time in the Black community we don’t even have a clue what is going on as others who don’t live with us and don’t look like us are pulling the strings in the destiny of our neighborhoods. THIS NEEDS TO STOP!
So in essence our problem is bigger than “asking” for more coverage of our beauty in the world of fashion and beauty because if the truth be told while many doors will be closed in our faces in THAT field, they WILL always have a slot for our women to shake their asses as bitches, hoes and and an easy piece of pussy in the adult movie industry that chews ’em up and spits them out like rotten meat!
So we’ve got to make immediate change or face the consequences of remaining stagnant waiting for someone to do for us what we can do for ourselves right now. We’ve just got to focus our spending and live cleaner than we do to save the money that we spend on these poisons and wayward activities that profit our enemy in the form of liquor, cigarettes, drugs, crime and prostitution to name a few. We kill ourselves spending our money to get these substances in our system out of the frustration of trying to mentally escape the sad reality that we find ourselves in where we live just the same way we end up in jail/prison for the last two endeavors.
Can’t you see that our lack of unity is a huge cash cow for those who will never give up their profitable oppression over us until we take our lives back?
Look, if you don’t believe me, look over your life and tell me WHEN was it that those who hate you for the color of your skin EVER tried to stop you from getting drunk, beating your woman, partying your life away, spending your money on prostitutes or becoming a pay for play type of woman?
You never had to deal with any of them trying to stop you from living an immoral life right?
But as soon as you attempt to gather together in peace, respect and unity to iron out the problems in your communities without his approval, here he comes to sniff around and snoop to find out what’s going on because our unity as a people is unacceptable to him but as long as we stay divided with the crabs in a barrel mentality, he is just fine with that!
So swim today against the grain and reach out to your Brothers and Sisters to educate, support, align and love them to pull them closer to you in order to share the knowledge that you have to make them better as the entire Black community will benefit in the end.
Back in the days of segregation we had no other choice BUT to pool our resources together and make use of our skills for ourselves and I must say that we did quite well for ourselves with the successful financial infrastructures completely run by us until integration came along and sucked away the best and most talented of us away for the benefit of another. So never think of the excuse that we cannot make it on our own because we can!
We have mastered every area of expertise and every field of endeavor in the world today but the moment that many of those same scholars hear this kind of dialogue they become afraid because for some reason they feel that their master’s dollars spend better than those possessed by you and I.
So let us come together to build our own, we have the money but not the mental capital and confidence that is oh so necessary to be utilized as the glue to hold the structure of a new future for our people together.
Either we do it now on our own free will or we do it later when we have no choice after getting sick and tired of being shut out of someone else’s party and good fortune off of the money in our pockets that we so easily give to them!
The choice is yours, as you can see, I’m not afraid to speak what others know is the truth but too cowardly to voice and publicly project. Get some damn balls and let’s do this!.
Peace& Righteous Love Always,
Your Forward Thinking Brother,
LanceScurv
407.590.0755
