Spring 2019 Part 3

Geometry


The world and the Universe is filled with geometry. From architecture to science, geometry is a branch of mathematics that is glorious and exciting. To understand shapes, three dimensional images, and the idea of pi is to comprehend geometric dimensions. When we were children, we understood simplistic shapes from rectangles to rhombus. Later on, we learned about complex formulas, cones, and equations as a way for us to detail the diverse nature of geometry. For thousands of years, human beings have utilize this aspect of mathematics to build structures, to study the stars, and to devise formulas in deducing how reality is shaped fully. Comprehending the beauty of geometry can be realized by understanding the formulas of shapes. The area of a square is the Base  X Height. The area of a circle is Pi X Radius (squared). The circumference of a circle is 2 X Pi X Radius. The area of a triangle is the (Base X Height) divided by 2. The volume of a three dimensional rectangle is Length X Weight X Height. The volume of a pyramid is 1/3 X Length * Width * Height. A squared + B squared = C squared is the formula of a right triangle. It is also called the Pythagorean Theorem. The surface area formula of a Isosceles Triangular prism is bh + 2ls + lb. B stands for base, L stands for length, and S stands for the side of the isosceles triangular prism. The volume of the isosceles triangular prism is 1/2 (bh)l. The area of a cube is 6 X A (squared). The volume of a cube is A (cubed). Geometry deals with shapes and with sine, cosine, and tangent. These concepts are found in right angle triangles. In all right triangles, you have the opposite, hypotenuse, and adjacent. The opposite is the opposite area of the angle in question. The adjacent part is adjacent to the angle and the hypotenuse is the longest line of the right triangle. So, sin (angle) is mean you have opposite/hypotenuse. Cos (angle) is mean you have adjacent/hypotenuse. Tan (angle) is when you have opposite/adjacent. When you study buildings, research in the oceans, or work in math, geometry is extremely common place.

In everyday life, geometry is common in our world. For example, when you see graphics on computers or on HD-TV, it has geometry. When you witness patterns of homes, cars, and various inventions, geometry is part of their functions. Studying shape, size, the properties of space, and relative size is necessary in any generation. Lengths, areas, and volumes are elements of mathematical science. There are more formal aspects of geometry like points, lines, planes, surfaces, angles, and curves. Then, you have more advanced aspects of math like topology, metric, and manifolds. From four dimensional shapes to planes, mathematics is a powerful aspect of human living.

History

Geometry has a very long history. It was first recorded in ancient Mesopotamia and ancient Egypt by the 2nd millennium B.C. Back then, early geometry was made up of empirically discovered principles. These principles dealt with lengths, angles, areas, and volumes. Scholars used these concepts to develop skills in surveying, construction, astronomy, and other fields. The earliest known texts on geometry are the Egyptian Rhind Papyrus (2000–1800 B.C.), Moscow Papyrus (c. 1890 B.C.), the Babylonian clay tablets such as Plimpton 322 (1900 B.C.). For example, the Moscow Papyrus gives a formula for calculating the volume of a truncated pyramid, or frustum. Later clay tablets (350–50 B.C.) demonstrate that Babylonian astronomers implemented trapezoid procedures for computing Jupiter's position and motion within time-velocity space. These geometric procedures anticipated the Oxford Calculators, including the mean speed theorem, by 14 centuries. South of Egypt the ancient Nubians established a system of geometry including early versions of sun clocks.  The Greek mathematician Thales of Miletus by the 7th century B.C. used geometry to solve problems such as calculating the height of pyramids and the distance of ships from the shore. He is credited with the first use of deductive reasoning applies to geometry by deriving four collarieis to Thales's Theorem.

Pythagoras created the Pythagorean School, which is credited with the first proof of the Pythagorean Theorem. Yet, the statement of the theorem has a long history. Eudoxus (408- ca. 365 B.C.) developed the method of exhaustion, which allowed the problem of incommensurable magnitudes, which enabled subsequent geometers to make significant advances. Around 300 B.C., geometry was revolutionized by Euclid, whose Elements. Elements is seen as one of the most successful and influential textbooks of all time. Elements introduced mathematical rigor through the axiomatic method and is the earliest example of the format still used in mathematics today, that of definition, axiom, theorem, and proof. Although most of the contents of the Elements were already known, Euclid arranged them into a single, coherent logical framework. The Elements was known to all educated people in the West until the middle of the 20th century and its contents are still taught in geometry classes today.  Archimedes (c. 287–212 B.C.) of Syracuse used the method of exhaustion to calculate the area under the arc of a parabola with the summation of an infinite series, and gave remarkably accurate approximations of Pi. He also studied the spiral bearing his name and obtained formulas for the volumes of surfaces of revolution.

Indian mathematicians worked in geometry too. The Satapatha Brahmana (3rd century B.C.) contained rules for ritual geometric constructions that are similar to the Sulba Sutras. According to (Hayashi 2005, p. 363), the Śulba Sūtras contain "the earliest extant verbal expression of the Pythagorean Theorem in the world, although it had already been known to the Old Babylonians." They contain lists of Pythagorean triples, which are particular cases of Diophantine equations. In the Bakhshali manuscript, there is a handful of geometric problems (including problems about volumes of irregular solids). The Bakhshali manuscript also "employs a decimal place value system with a dot for zero." Aryabhata's Aryabhatiya (499) includes the computation of areas and volumes. Brahmagupta wrote his astronomical work Brāhma Sphuṭa Siddhānta in 628. Chapter 12, containing 66 Sanskrit verses, was divided into two sections: "basic operations" (including cube roots, fractions, ratio and proportion, and barter) and "practical mathematics" (including mixture, mathematical series, plane figures, stacking bricks, sawing of timber, and piling of grain).

By the Middle Ages, medieval Islamic scholars contributed heavily to geometry. They were involved in algebraic geometry. Al-Mahani (b. 853) conceived the idea of reducing geometrical problems such as duplicating the cube to problems in algebra. Thābit ibn Qurra (known as Thebit in Latin) (836–901) dealt with arithmetic operations applied to ratios of geometrical quantities, and contributed to the development of analytic geometry. Omar Khayyám (1048–1131) found geometric solutions to cubic equations. The theorems of Ibn al-Haytham (Alhazen), Omar Khayyam and Nasir al-Din al-Tusi on quadrilaterals, including the Lambert quadrilateral and Saccheri quadrilateral, were early results in hyperbolic geometry, and along with their alternative postulates, such as Playfair's axiom, these works had a considerable influence on the development of non-Euclidean geometry among later European geometers, including Witelo (c. 1230–c. 1314), Gersonides (1288–1344), Alfonso, John Wallis, and Giovanni Girolamo Saccheri.

By the early 17th century, there was the creation of analytic geometry with coordinates and equations made by Rene Descartes and Pierre de Fermat. This helped to develop calculus in the future. Modern geometry was advanced by Bernhard Riemann and Henri Poincare.

Types of Geometry

Euclidean geometry is geometry in its classic sense. It is taught in schools worldwide. It deals with points, lines, planes, angles, triangles, congruence, similarity, solid figures, circles, and anlaytic geometry. Computer science and crystallography including other forms of mathematics uses this geometry. Differential geometry involved calculus and linear algebra. It works in physics too including general relativity. Topology is the field concerned with the properties of geometric objects that are unchanged by continuous mappings. In practice, this often means dealing with large-scale properties of spaces, such as connectedness and compactness. Convex geometry investigates convex shapes in the Euclidean space and its more abstract analogues, often using techniques of real analysis. It has close connections to convex analysis, optimization and functional analysis and important applications in number theory. Algebraic geometry studies geometry through the use of multivariate polynomials and other algebraic techniques. It has applications in many areas, including cryptography and string theory. Discrete geometry is concerned mainly with questions of relative position of simple geometric objects, such as points, lines and circles. It shares many methods and principles with combinatorics. Computational geometry deals with algorithms and their implementations for manipulating geometrical objects. Although being a young area of geometry, it has many applications in computer vision, image processing, computer-aided design, medical imaging, etc.

Examples of Geometry

Geometry deals with measurement. One point is easy to witness. When you have 2 points like Point A and Point B connected to each other via a straight line, then it forms a line. 2 lines can form an angle when they met at a vertex. The endpoints of the line segment just means the 2 points of the line. The line segments form many angles. Geometry also have planes where line segments, rays, and endpoints including points can establish themselves on. Line segments can intersect, run parallel, or never cross each other at all. Line segments can extend infinitely in opposite directions as well. Protractors measure angles. It can go from 0 to 180 degrees in their measurements. Any right angle has 90 degree. An acute angle has less than 90 degrees and an obtuse angle has more than 90 degrees. A circle has 360 degrees in total. With angles in geometry, equations are common place. For example, one problem may want someone to solve an equation of 9x +194 = 7x +182 to find the angle. That equation would be 2x =-12 and then the final answer would be x=-6. Then -6 would be substituted for x to get 140 degrees. There are complementary and supplementary angles. Complementary angles have two angles whose sum is 90 degrees. Supplementary angles are two angles whose sum is 180 degrees. Vertical angles are angles that intersect at one point. Equations can exist for complementary and supplementary angles. For example, if one angle LOM is 2x+46 and another angle of MON is 3x-6, then you can solve for the supplementary angles dealing with x. There is 2x+46 + 3x -6 = 90. Then, you can solve for x. That would be 5x+ 40 = 90 X would be x = 10. So, the angle MON would be 24 degrees. There are angles, parallel lines, and transversals that deal with everyday life. Shapes in geometry include: circles, triangles, rectangles, rhombus, squares, trapezoid, pentagons, hexagons, parallelograms, octagons, heptagon, etc. Three dimensional shapes include cones, cubes, cylinders, dodecahedron, icosahedron, sphere, cuboid, hexagonal pyramid, octahedron, etc.

Popular Culture Part 19

Today, we witness a new year of 2019. We see new people and many of the same problems that we have known about for years. These problems have existed for thousands of years, but many in this new generation have the grit, strength, and determination to confront them. We are opposed to injustice and now it is time to make further commentaries about popular culture. One common myth is that Hollywood is very progressive through the ages and has shown a wide spectrum of enlightenment since its inception. We know that to be false. Back in the day, many Hollywood films and other films promoted in the mainstream culture were filled with racial stereotypes, sexism, xenophobia, and other forms of bigotry. Birth of A Nation demonized black people and slandered the black experience. During World War II, racist cartoons mocked black people and Japanese people constantly. Even early Disney cartoons had anti-black imagery. So, no one can be naïve about the truth. Now, we see movements like Black Lives Matter and MeToo legitimately promoting causes that further represent the best of humanity. Today, Hollywood is dominated by corporate interests made up of mostly white men. These interests have links to the military industrial complex which is why many books document how the CIA and the Pentagon consult directors working on movie projects. This is the same military industrial complex complicit in war crimes like Operation Phoenix plus controversial projects like MK-Ultra decades ago.

We have a new generation of musicians, actors, actresses, and other people advancing the same conformist agenda of popular culture. One example is how many in the liberal establishment are praising Cardi B, because she is talking about the government shutdown. It is only right to expose not only far right extremists (which should be exposed. Trump, Limbaugh, Lahren, Coulter, and the rest of them are wrong on a host of issues and I don’t honor their views at all), but some of the liberal establishment too. The liberal establishment is different from progressives in that the liberal establishment (whose members are found in the Bilderberg, the Trilateral Commission, the CFR. For example, the Ford Foundation funds many of these groups. During the 1950's and the 1960’s, the CIA covertly infiltrated student groups worldwide) is dominated by corporate, foundation backing in order to achieve reform in the capitalist system not revolutionary change. One well known member of the liberal establishment is Michael Rapaport. Michael Rapaport is known for disrespecting Kenya Moore, Janet Jackson, and other black women in vulgar, sexist, and racist terms. He disrespected Spike Lee as well on the issue of gentrification. He is a fraud. Another liberal establishment deceiver is Amy Suskind. She claims to be a liberal but once wanted Sarah Palin to run against Barack Obama in 2012. She no longer supports Black Lives Matter, because Black Lives Matter leaders believe in Palestinian liberation and oppose Israeli occupation. She once made a statement that many said implied that neo-Nazi rallies started under Trump, which is false. She voted for John McCain for President when McCain voted against civil rights laws for black people.

I have to expose two more people as well. One person is Tucker Carlon. He has been exposed for making other racist comments. One comment is that he said that the white man created civilization. We know that to be a lie since the first people on Earth are people of black African descent. Also, people of every color made great civilizations (i.e. ancient Nubia, Ghana, Nok, the Shang dynasty, etc.). He also called women primitive, which is another lie. Every woman that I know or are friends with are very intelligent people. He compared Iraqis to "monkeys" which is straight up racist. Yet, Tucker Carlson isn't fired from FOX News since FOX News cares more for profit than human decency. Also, a racist woman named YesJulz is another culture vulture. She has made racist remarks about black people, especially against black women. She has slandered Scottie Bean and Civil Brand when both of these black women created their own platforms by their own merit. Some people say that we have to ignore these racists. I disagree, because many of our people are being brainwashed by these ingrates (who benefit from our culture, but want to mock black people. A sellout named Murda Mook is defending YesJulz). Therefore, we have to set a tone and make a stand that no one is allowed to disrespect black women or any black person period. That is what we are to do. I don't play any games when it comes to my community. We have to keep our eyes on the prize (which is freedom and justice).

Cardi B is the same person who called black women “cockroaches.” She has called black people the n word with the –a at the end. The n word is a despicable word. Also, she has videos and songs glamorizing violent gangs and the exploitation of women, especially black women. She is no role model. This has nothing to do with embracing respectability politics. It has to do with integrity. If Trump is to be exposed for his racism and he should be exposed, then Cardi B should be called out for her agenda too. Many in that industry care for degradation (one well know method that the powers that be used to try to distract the public is to advance the War on Drugs) instead of social enlightenment. Another disgraceful person is 6ix9ine who calls black people the n word with the –a at the end and has done violence and other abhorrent acts. He pled guilty for exploiting a child in a sexual act making him a totally sick person. He is prison now. One person linked with him is Kifano Jordan. People who are fraudulent must be exposed.   

New updates exist all of the time. Prince William is now the President of the British Film Academy (BAFTA). He has influence in the movie industry. Actors Elijah Wood and Corey Feldman have exposed how pedophiles are found all over Hollywood. The occult has been glamorized by Hollywood for decades. “Strange Angle” is a show about Jack Parsons. Parsons is the man who was involved in creating rocket fuel, and Parsons was a fan of Aleister Crowley. He joined Thelema and promoted rituals involving the occult. Numerous films have Arthurian themes as well. The actor Johnny Depp had acted in many occult themed films like The Nine Gates, From Hell, Into the Woods, etc. Much of the music industry has been inspired by extremists like Aleister Crowley (who wanted to people to “Do What Thou Wilt.” Ironically, many of these same musicians forget that Crowley hated democracy, called a Jewish person anti-Semitic slurs, and he was a misogynist who called women “moral inferiors.” The Beatles, the Rolling Stones, and others praised Crowley).

There is no question that the love of money is the root of all evil since people have used money to degrade themselves in America, in Europe, and in Dubai. The massive materialism, the greed, and the exploitation of human beings contributed to the Great Recession of the early 21st century too. No good fruit comes from a rotten tree and the corporate industry is rotten by its fruits. People realize this. That is why we have to stand on our views of promoting goodness and righteousness. Tomi Lahren is known for her far right politics and her disgraceful support of Donald Trump too. Donald Trump deserves nothing more than impeachment or resignation. Trump has ruined many things in America, promoted racism, mocked human beings, and is a habitual liar. Dealing with Hollywood and popular culture in general doesn’t relate to excessive censorship, theocracy, or scapegoating everyone in Hollywood for every evil in the world. It is about promoting accountability, advancing social movements for progressive change, believing in democracy, and using our voices to advance truth. In this work, I won’t hold back my views. I stand on my principles. That is why we must continue to be aware of these things and advocate for real freedom and justice.

If Beale Street Could Talk

One of the most talked about and one of the greatest films of the 21st century is "If Beale Street Could Talk." It includes great actors and great actresses who perform in a movie about the African American experience during the 1970’s. Barry Jenkins wrote and directed the film. It is based on the novel of the same name by James Baldwin. Many people falsely assumed that James Baldwin reduced his revolutionary views by the time of his passing. That is false. Back in the 1950's, he temporarily rejected socialistic views, but he later became more revolutionary decades later. By the 1970’s, he became even more progressive on economic issues. By the early 1970’s, he broke with liberalism and became a socialist. In No Name in the Street, from 1972, he wrote that the American oil interests don’t care about human life. In the same book, he wrote the following words: “…Huey believes, and I do, too, in the necessity of establishing a form of socialism in this country...The necessity for a form of socialism is based on the observation that the world's present economic arrangements doom most of the world to misery; that the way of life dictated by these arrangements is both sterile and immoral; and, finally, that there is no hope for peace in the world so long as these arrangements obtain…” Now, the movie was released on December 14, 2018 in America and previously on September 9, 2018 (at the Toronto International Film Festival). The cast included Kiki Layne, Stephan James, Regina King, Colman Domingo, Teyonah Parris, Michael Beach, Dave France, Diego Luna, Pedro Pascal, Ed Skrien, and Brian Tyree Henry.  The film is about a young African American woman who supports her family and fights to try to clear the name of her lover. Her lover was wrongly charged with a crime. She wants to do this before the birth of her child.

The movie combines the themes of hope and pain, of triumph and tragedy, and resiliency plus hope. It is a very emotional film with excellent acting. The characters detail the lives of Clementine Rivers and Alonzo Hunt. They are played by Kiki Layne and Stephan James respectively. Clementine or Tish Rivers narrates much of the movie. They were friends throughout their lives and develop a romantic relationship as time goes on. They live in Harlem, NYC during the 1970’s. This was when deindustrialization and massive economic changes come into New York City (along with the social and political movement growing in America). The film showed New York City landlords who refused to rent apartments to black people. They or the couple find a warehouse and convert it into an apartment. Levy is the Jewish landlord and rent to them at a low rate since he loves seeing couples in love, regardless of race. Clementine is harassed and assaulted by a man and then Alonzo pushes the man out of the store to defend Clementine. The police wanted to arrest Alonzo, but the woman who runs the grocery defends him. Alonzo is later arrested for being accused of raping a woman. There is no evidence for the rape, but Officer Bell wants the case to go forward. The victim is Victoria Rogers.

Clementine talks with Alonzo while he is in jail.  “I hope that nobody has ever had to look at anybody they love through glass,” laments Tish. Tish speaks to the plight of the black poor (as cited by Baldwin) in the following terms as Tish asserts: “Though the death took many forms, though people died early in many different ways, the death itself was very simple and the cause was simple, too: as simple as a plague: the kids had been told that they weren’t worth s___ and everything they saw around them proved it. They struggled, they struggled, but they fell, like flies, and they congregated on the garbage heaps of their lives, like flies.” Clementine is pregnant with a child. Most people are supportive of the pregnancy except Mrs. Hunt. Mrs. Hunt (or Alonzo’s mother) views the child and Clementine as being damned which caused Frank or Alonzo’s father to hit Mrs. Hunt. Sharon is played by Regina King. Sharon is the mother of Tish. Both families of Tish and Alonzo steal money from their employers in order to post bail for Alonzo. Sharon tries to convince Victoria to recant her story while she is in Puerto Rico. Victoria Rogers refuses to do so. Later, Alonzo accepts a plea deal instead of a long prison sentence. Years later, Clementine, and her son Alonzo Jr., come to jail as they wait for Alonzo’s release. The movie isn’t meant to harbor respectability politics. It is meant to emotionally outline the reality of many poor and working class black Americans during that era. The film has been critically acclaimed. The film won the best Independent Film for the African American Film Critics Association award. Regina King won the Best Supporting Actress award for the African American Film Critics Association and for the Golden Globe Awards. It has won many other awards too.

 

The Illuminati ball

There was the recent New Year’s Eve’s “Illuminati Ball.” This ball was inspired by the similar Rothschild-inspired ball decades ago. This recent New Year’s Eve ball deals with mock sacrifice, occult rituals, and glamorizing debauchery. This event took place on December 31st, 2018, and it had over 800 guests. This was the similar masked ball held by Baroness de Rothschild in 1972. This December 2018 ball had rituals, fake human sacrifices, and people wearing animal masks. The animal masks are similar to the scenes from Eyes Wide Shut where masked guests witnessed performances that deal with erotic, sexual rituals. This ball took place in The Weylin in Brooklyn, New York City. People in the Illuminati ball selected a mask from the Masking Room and then led to the Doomed Ballroom. They were welcomed by “Baron de Rothschild” or the Pig King. The Pig King stands in a circle of cloaked women. This performance was inspired by the orgy scenes in Eye Wide Shut. With the Pig King was his pregnant wife or the “Baroness de Rothschild” at which point gives birth to a bizarre creature. The pregnant Baroness gives birth to a pig in a gimp mask. The New Year’s Eve ball had rituals and initiations in many rooms and floors. They showed the themes of wealth, love, basic needs, fame, and respect. Some rituals use water like a mock-baptism too. Many people were blindfolded. One character named Kamadhenu or the cow goddess had four maidens walking around as guests milked them and tasted their milk. The New Years’ Eve ball also has a mock or fake cannibalism event. The event has a cake surrounding a person. The Illuminati Ball has their own logo. The rapper Prodigy was once at these balls to perform. Ironically, Prodigy wrote about the Illuminati in his music in criticizing the elites.

The Illuminati Ball says that there aren’t the real Illuminati, there are no sex parties, they don’t worship Satan, and they just want to promote nature and positivity. The ball is filled with paganism and occult imagery. Symbols of the occult like the yellow inverted star looking like the logo of the Order of the Eastern Star (or the women’s version of Freemasonry) and other sigils. The website has a weird Commandment which is similar to the views of the Georgia Guidestones (which advocates for massive population control, etc.). The Georgia Guidestones are found in Georgia and was created by Herbert Hinie Kersten. Cynthia von Buhler created the event. She is an artist and made children’s books. Her paintings have butterfly imagery on them. She is part of a band named the Women of Sodom. The ball is like the UNICEF Masked Ball (with masked people, rituals, and the like). The Illuminati Ball isn’t some quaint thing. It is about promoting the occult philosophies in public view. It is about allowing people to glamorize the myth of paganism as Nature isn’t divine and I rather worship the Creator than the creations of the Universe.

Gillette Commercial

There has been much debate about the Gillette commercial, so I decided to see it for myself. Many sexists hate the commercial since they view it as attacking men and any form of masculinity. These are the same people who slander single mothers and believe in massive xenophobic rhetoric. So, I take nothing from them as serious. Therefore, here are my thoughts after looking at the commercial for myself. As a black man, I didn’t feel any offense by the commercial. The commercial didn’t make me feel like it was demonizing every single man. It was inspiring men to hold other men (who abuse people) accountable. It even showed great men who did the right thing in stopping violence and inspiring children. The commercial was about presenting the truth that the best in men doesn’t relate to harassment, abuse, rape, or mistreatment. It relates to upliftment, standing up for justice, and having great character. It exposed bullying as evil and unwarranted. Not to mention that it basically praised men who are doing the right thing while recognizing that we must end the epidemic of abuse and harassment of fellow human beings. The Gillette commercial was one of the most inspirational commercial of 2019. You can criticize corporate controversies involving Procter & Gamble (P&G), which owns Gillette, but the contents of this commercial is very powerful plus legitimate. Toxic masculinity is evil and should be gone while positive masculinity should be advanced.

 

Surviving R Kelly

There can be no mention about what is going on in popular culture without mentioning information about the documentary Surviving R. Kelly which was shown in Lifetime. It has been debated, loved, and hated. Now, the truth is known by a wide spectrum of people. The overall point of the documentary is criticizing R. Kelly's abuse of girls and women by showing the stories of the victims. Most people on Earth agree that R. Kelly is a terrible person who exploited the lives of so many girls and women including the great singer Aaliyah. There is no excuse for a grown man to try to marry a teenage girl. There is no excuse for a grown man to have sex with underage girls period. Therefore, the Surviving R. Kelly documentary did a great service to paint a light on the epidemic of the sexual abuse of black girls and black women (which some unfortunately ignore or minimize). We can’t ignore it. Statistics, stories, and other documentation document this epidemic. For example, more than four in ten black women experience physical violence. A 2015 Violence Policy Center study finds that Black women were two and a half times more likely to be murdered by men than their White counterparts. More than nine in ten Black female victims knew their killers. More than 20 percent of Black women are raped during their lifetimes—a higher share than among women overall. Black girls aged 18-19 were four times more likely to be imprisoned than White girls. Girls and women of color are the fastest growing populations in American prisons. About 60% of Black girls experience sexual abuse by age 18. According to a 2014 study, about 22% of Black women reported being raped and 41% experienced other forms of sexual violence. Therefore, we know the truth. We have to protect the lives of girls and women. The lives of black girls and black women always matter.

Malcolm X was right that black women are the most disrespected, unprotected women on Earth. As black people and as human beings period, we are obligated to protect black girls and black women. For anyone to try to minimize this epidemic shows their disrespect and treason to humanity. Now, other people including sexists and Hoteps (like Tariq Nasheed and The Black Authority. Tariq Nasheed called black people dumb in an interview with the sellout Jesse Lee Peterson. Also, Tariq promotes books on macking while refusing to repudiate his past music as the character of T-Flex degrading women. Tariq also promoted misogynistic views about especially black women) have exploited the legitimate criticism of anti-black men stereotypes (and the real double standards in society involving race and class) as an excuse for them to promote the #First Them movement. Tariq Nasheed (on video) has fetishized women overseas and called them the curse words too. He is on tape saying that single women shouldn’t have reparations. That's ludicrous and wrong. This liar Tariq said that once he never said anything about primping or he is a pimp. Yet, in an interview with Michael Moore years ago, Tariq Nasheed admitted that he wrote a book on pimping and said that he is a pimp (he wrote a book called “The Art of Gold Digging"). So, he’s a liar. The truth is that the fight for justice isn’t about First Them.

All people, who do rape or sexual crimes, ought to be brought to justice regardless of their race or sex. So, The FirstThem movement is about minimizing the value of black lives while only targeting white perpetrators first (when all perpetrators of sexual assault should be punished regardless of color ASAP). Tariq Nasheed’s disrespect of the black woman Pearl Jr. (even wanting to punch her if he was in a relationship with her. He said to her “I would beat the s__ out of you.” He’s a coward and his views can go to perdition) in an interview shows how fake he is. We can agree that many white folks receive a slap on a wrist for sex crimes (which his wrong and racist) while maintaining the view that black people deserve to be safe from rape or abuse at the same time. Instead of #First Them, it should be #Hold All Abusers Accountable. Also, there are extremists who want R Kelly to be the face of black men. That is wrong too as the vast majority of black men aren’t rapists, but rape is a serious problem in the black community. Rape should be addressed not sugarcoated. We shouldn’t judge all black people negatively by the actions of the few, and we should make sure that the victims of rape are respected as well.  It is important to note that rape victims exist among every background. Many black men and black women are victims of rape or sexual abuse. It is important to give black women and black men victims of sexual abuse the full opportunities to allow their voices to be heard. Surviving R. Kelly was created by Dream Hampton (who worked in the hip hop industry and is an activist on many issues).

We must be clear in our agenda. We both realize the epidemic of sexual abuse in the world while recognizing that the majority of black women and the majority of black men are not sexual predators or violent. Far too often, some folks will legitimately expose black sexual criminals, but minimize or ignore the brutality of white criminals (which disrespects all victims of rape since all criminals regardless of color should be equally punished. One example is that the sex predator Les Moonvies received $20 million from CBS after he harmed women. He wants to donate it to the #Metoo movement, but Les isn't prosecuted and even his wife Julie Chen hypocritically supports him. The pedophile Stephen Collins has never received justice either). R. Kelly is a symbol of not only the imperfections of society, but the guilt of the bystanders and facilitators of his crimes. R. Kelly isn’t the only one guilty. Those who knew and did nothing to stop him, those who funded him and did nothing about his actions, and those who saw the other way are just as guilty as R. Kelly (and they should experience accountability too). It is important to expose hypocrites who once joined up in R. Kelly in music or business actions during this decade and now they are distancing themselves from him like Lady Gaga and others.

During the 1990’s and early 2000’s, tons of people knew about how R. Kelly got down, but minimized it or ignored it shamefully (because the victims were black people). Not to mention that mainstream society and the international system of racism seeks to destroy black men and black women. That is proven by history. Many of those who have destroyed black lives via rape and abuse include both non-black and black individuals. So, we understand the evil of rape, and we recognize the duty of us to support the victims of rape. Additionally, we must combat the system of racism that seeks to slander black people collectively. Part of ending racism is to stop rape completely. R. Kelly needs to experience justice via prison time just like every other abuser. Recently, R. Kelly is being charged with sexual crimes. He cried in an interview with Gayle King. His tears are nothing compared to the pain of his victims. We owe it to the victims of R. Kelly’s abuse to stand up for them 100 percent. Also, this fight for justice is making known the stories about the brutal murder of Tamla Horsford and other innocent black people too. Building a strong, safe black community is our aim.

 

Tripple Redd's Topanga

A lot of the new music today is different than music from five years ago. Trippie Redd’s Topanga has much symbolism and it is found in its music video. Like many videos of this generation, there is nothing secret about it. It is overt. Trippie Redd is part of the mumble rappers. These rappers are different from hip hop artists from previous generations.  Many mumble rappers have sincere creative music that talks about issues. Other mumble rappers just do it for the money and have no respect for the integrity of the music of hip hop. Some rap about pills and nihilism. Symbolism is found in the music videos of Lil Uzi Vert and Young Thug. Trippie Reid said that he is eccentric and an individualist. Back in 2017, Redd showed a song called TR666. He tattooed his hand with TR666 (with the All Seeing Eye on it). 666 is found in the Book of Revelation as the number of the Beast (i.e. the Antichrist). Also, 666 in occult circles is a reference as a sun symbol.  TR stands for Trippie Redd. Redd denies that 666 that he uses relates to the Antichrist, but the view of 6 protons, six neutrons, and 6 electrons and then he says that it’s a description about black people. 6 protons, 6 electrons, and 6 neutrons are found in Carbon-12. Carbon 12 is one of the five elements of human DNA. Carbon-12 is the more abundant of the two stable isotopes of the element carbon, accounting for 98.93 percent of carbon. Carbon-12 exists in all living human life. Therefore, the rapper Trippie Reid is referring to his 666 as a number of a man.

Carbon is necessary for the development of DNA and living organisms. Redd has the inverted crosses (with the words of Demons at Play) as tattoos as well. An inverted cross has been used as a symbol of Satanism. He wore a shirt saying “Take me to hell, tell me it’s heaven” with a woman hugging the devil on the shirt. Even the album cover called Life is a Trip has symbolism and famous people on it like Freemason Benjamin Franklin. Trippie Redd’s song Topanga samples the 2006 gospel song It Ain’t Over by Maurette Brown Clark. The original gospel song has lyrics praising God. His song Topanga talked about him owning guns since he was a younger person and calling women outside of their names. The music video is directed by fashion photographer Kenneth Cappello.

The video have horned animal skulls and Redd holding 2 snakes. Later, there is a scene of an inverted pentagram with candles and he’s surrounded by two women. Candles like this are used in ceremonial magic. These things are used in witchcraft too. Redd starts levitating in the video with robbed followers. Stories and myths of levitation are common among the occult world. There is one illustration from the 1681 book Saducismus Triumphatus showing a child levitating due to witchcraft. One disgraceful part of the video is when a young woman takes acid. Then, the person convulses and holding a snake. The end of the video has people wearing candles on their heads. This is in reference to Saint Lucy Day, which is a Catholic holiday. Redd’s followers have drawn on eyes being forcibly blind. The wreath of candles is thrown to the grown. There is no question that the director of this video wanted to show slick symbolism and advance occultism. Many of these musicians are pawns to advance the agenda of big corporations in order to strife real social change.

Green Book

The movie Green Book has been experiencing massive controversies. It has been legitimately critiqued by people involved in the real life story of the musician Dr. Don Shirley. It is no secret that many Hollywood films distort the essence of the stories of black life for years and decades. The Green Book film is filled with so much fiction that the family of Dr. Don Shirley had to come out to make people apologize for it. More people are speaking up to advance the truth that black narratives shouldn’t be sugarcoated to suit the interests of mainstream society. Dr. Donald Shirley was a world famous African American classical and jazz pianist. He was a composer too. Back in 1962, he came to a concert tour from New York City to the Deep South in 1962. He wanted a driver. So, his driver was the racist Italian American nightclub bouncer Tony Lip. The film was wrong to portray Lip as some black ally who showed Dr. Shirley what an African American man should be. That is not only disrespectful, but racist to assume that African American men must be monolithic in order to be black. Dr. Shirley’s brother Maurice Shirley Sr., his sister in law Mrs. Patricia Shirley, and his niece Mrs. Karole L. Shirley-Kimble defended his character. Green Book advances the overtly stereotypical “white savior” archetype.

Dr. Shirley’s niece says: “There was no due diligence done to afford my family and my deceased uncle the respect of properly representing him, his legacy, his worth and the excellence in which he operated and the excellence in which he lived. It’s once again a depiction of a white man’s version of a Black man’s life. My uncle was an incredibly proud man and an incredibly accomplished man, as are the majority of people in my family. And to depict him as less than, and to depict him and take away from him and make the story about a hero of a white man for this incredibly accomplished Black man is insulting, at best.”

The film portrayed Dr. Shirley as being raised by a single mother when he was born in a two parent household. His father was Pastor Edwin Shirley Sr. and his mother was Mrs. Stella Shirley (a school teacher). Dr. Shirley had four siblings. Their names were Calvin, Lucille, Edwin Jr, Donald, and Maurice. His mother died when he was nine years old. His father raised them or his children. Many of them were physicians. Dr. Donald Shirley was close to his family until his passing in 2013. He never panhandled for money. He has shown musical talent since he was 2. He lived in an upper middle class background in Pensacola, Florida. Dr. Shirley was never an alcoholic. The movie falsely assumed that Tony Lip introduced Dr. Shirley to the music of Little Richard, Aretha Franklin, R&B, or soul. Dr. Shirley knew all types of music. According to Karole, the Black community was, “…the center of his world…he pulled from African proverbs and spirituals…he was a Black man…”

He loved his Blackness. He was friends with Lionel Hampton, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Leontyne Price, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr, Paul Robeson, William Warfield, Harry Belafonte, etc. Dr. Shirley and his mother never panhandled for money. Dr. Shirley rode in black limousines not a green Cadillac. Also, Dr. Shirley didn’t like Tony. According to Mr. Maurice Shirley, "there was no friendship relationship between Donald and Tony…in fact, Donald could not stand him. He fired Tony.” The falsehoods in the film must be known since we have to show the truth that Jim Crow apartheid was not some game. The movie uses stereotypes against African Americans. In reality, Dr. Shirley earned doctorates in Music, Psychology, and Liturgical Arts. He was fluent in eight languages and was a great painter. The film falsely showed Tony as some white hero who made Dr. Shirley connect with his roots. The truth is that Dr. Shirley loved his roots and knew that he was a black man. He supported the Civil Rights Movement too. The real life story of Dr. Shirley shown in film in the correct manner would inspire people much more than the fantasy of a film that we have in Green Book. The racist mythology and ideology that a white man must rule and control all non-white peoples have been shown in films (and this racist lie promotes colonialism instead of human liberation). Dr. Wilmer Leon has made excellent points about the falsehoods found in the Green Book too. At the end of the day, unapologetic Blackness have the right to be truthfully shown in film or in any other medium.

The Economists's 2019 cover

The Economist magazine recently showed a special edition that predicts trends for the future. The Economist is an establishment owned magazine. It is partly owned by the Rothschild banking family of England and its editor in chief John Micklethwait has visited the Bilderberg Conference many times. The Economist showed the views of the elite and their agenda in plain view. The cover has tons of symbolism on it. Back in 1988, the Economist called for a world currency called the Phoenix, which is found in occult teachings. The bird in that cover stands on a pile of burning national currencies. The World in 2019 cover from the Economist has imagery too. The article deals with a new Congress, Brexit, elections in various nations (like in India, Indonesia, Nigeria, and across Europe), and other issues. It features information about space travel, etc. The cover is the 33rd edition. The cover has Leonardo da Vinci to mark the 500th year anniversary of his death. The writing is featured backward since da Vinci wrote in mirror writing, so his words looked backwards. Many people theorize that da Vinci had occult leanings. The Vitruvian Man on the cover of the magazine was da Vinci’s famous sketch. It was meant to represent the ‘perfect man.’ The image deals with human proportions. In the occult, it represents the microcosm or the human body as the reflection of the whole universe or the macrocosm. This is about the hermetic principle of “As Above, So Below.” Da Vinci based his views on the works of the Roman architect Vitruvius. The image has the squaring of the circle which is a concept found in Freemasonry. Freemasons praise Vitruvius as an inspiration in their dogma.

In fact, Freemason Dr. James Anderson’s first Book of Constitution (1723) uses the Five Orders of Greco-Roman designs which come from the Roman architect Vitruvius. In Masonry, the square is the body and the circle is the soul. Therefore, Freemasonry wants to harmonize the two worlds of the material world and the spiritual world in order to form the “perfected man.” The perfected man is one secret goal of the occult also. The godhood of humanity is promoted blatantly by pagans and New Agers. The logo of Freemasonry the square and compass too. The Economist shows the 2019 with night vision goggles and other objects. There is a baseball, a smartphone, and a leaf of cannabis. These images are funded by drug companies, big tech, and entertainment. The image has a double helix tattoo representing DNA. We know of DNA modification too. His heart has the tattoo of #Metoo. The #metoo movement has legitimately exposed many criminals and sick people while many big corporate powerful people have been exposed (in doing crimes against innocent people). It has a scale with 5 people versus 4 representing the Supreme Court being more conservative. The image has the face of Trump measured. The magazine has Putin, and the Four Horsemen. It has a stork with a barcode in a basket referencing to possibly designer babies. Therefore, the cover of The World in 2019 represents the occult symbolism and the views of the establishment. It looks at the world and pictures what could happen in the future. It wants humans to reach its full potential under the establishment direction and control. The ultimate question is to follow the elite or not. The answer is we shouldn’t follow the agenda of the elites, but the agenda of truth and of the common people. 

US


The 2019 American horror film Us deals with many issues and inspired debate plus curiosity. It was written and directed by Jordan Peele. Peele was involved in Get Out. The film of Us is different than Get Out. The film stars Lupita Nyong’o, Winston Duke, Shahadi Wright Joseph, Evan Alex, Elisabeth Moss, and Tim Heidecker. The plot is that the movie shows a black family confronted by their doppelgangers. The movie is very popular and has sold over $174 million worldwide. The movie places itself in 1986. Back then, the young Adelaide Thomas finds a doppelganger of her at a funhouse. She was in a vacation with her parents. In the current day, Adelaide is an adult with her own family in Santa Cruz. Her husband is Gabe Wilson, and they have children. Adelaide has flashbacks of the previous incident, but Gabe wants his wife to ignore those concerns. They vacation at the beach. Later, Jason saw a man dripping with blood from his hands.  The four doppelgangers come to the family’s house in trying to attack them. Adelaide’s double is named Red, who is the leader. The doubles handcuff Adelaide to a table. The family escapes on Gabe’s boat. Gabe Wilson and his family killed the Tyler doubles. Millions of doubles exist, and they say that the U.S. government created them in order to control the public. Yet, the experiment failed, and they or the Tethered were abandoned underground. In the end, the family leaves town. Adelaide thinks back to the night she first met Red in the funhouse, revealing that she is, in fact, one of the Tethered, and had taken Adelaide's place in the surface world; Jason watches her apprehensively and puts his mask back on. As the family drives off, helicopters survey the Tethered joining hands together across the United States. Many people have given different interpretations of the film. Some go back to science fiction, race, and class (in the scene of people trying to find the “American Dream”).

Us is more complex than Get Out, which is a more overt film. Us deals with the issues of class, privilege, race, and the issues of the government combined into one. The reality is that the ultimate enemy is not ourselves. We aren’t our worst enemy. The true enemy is the system of racism and oppression that is global. In the film, the character Red said that they are too “Americans,” but black folks haven’t been treated as true equals in American history. The movie has characters struggling with assimilation into American society where black people globally have been the victims of mental abuse, physical abuse, and racial discrimination. Folks, who are black, shouldn’t ignore their Blackness for the sake of being one with the establishment. Peele is a very smart person to place so many messages in this historic movie. The movie makes us aware that we must always reject the notion that the oppressed are the enemy. The oppressed are the victims of the true enemy.

 BlacKkKlansman

BlacKkKlansman is a 2018 movie directed by Spike Lee and written by Charlie Wachtel, David Rabinowitz, Kevin Willmott, and Spike Lee. It is based on the 2016 memoir called BlacKkKlansman, which was written by Ron Stallworth. The film stars John David Washington as Stallworth. The film is about a black undercover cop posing as a Klansperson in order to stop a local Klan group. Adam Driver, Laura Harrier, and Topher Grace star in the movie too. It is set in Colorado Springs. The film deals with the life of Ron Stallworth. He was the first black officer of the Colorado Springs Police Department. Co-workers called him racial slurs. He wants to be transferred to do undercover work. He is assigned to infiltrate a local rally where civil rights leader Kwame Ture gives a speech. At the rally, Stallworth meets Patrice Dumas, president of the black student union at Colorado College. While she takes Ture to his hotel, Patrice is stopped by patrolman Andy Landers, a racist officer in Stallworth's precinct, who threatens Ture and gropes Patrice. After the rally, Stallworth is reassigned to the intelligence division. After reading about a local division of the Ku Klux Klan in the newspaper, he calls posing as white and speaks with Walter Breachway, the president of the Colorado Springs chapter. Stallworth recruits his Jewish coworker, Flip Zimmerman, to act as him to meet the Klan members. Zimmerman meets Walter, the more reckless Felix Kendrickson, and Ivanhoe, who cryptically refers to an upcoming attack. Stallworth talks with Grand Wizard David Duke of Louisiana. Zimmerman takes a polygraph test under oath. Stallworth begins dating Patrice, but does not tell her that he is a police officer. After passing information to the Army CID about active duty members, he learns from an FBI agent that two members are personnel stationed at NORAD. Duke visits Colorado Springs for Stallworth's induction into the Klan. Over the real Stallworth's protests, he is assigned to a protection detail for Duke. 

Once Zimmerman is initiated, masquerading as Stallworth, Felix's wife Connie leaves the ceremony to place a bomb at a civil rights rally. Stallworth realizes her intentions and alerts local police officers. When Connie notices a heavy police presence at the rally, she puts Felix's backup plan into action and plants the bomb at Patrice's house, leaving it under her car when it will not fit into the mailbox. Stallworth tackles her as she tries to flee, but uniformed officers detain and beat him despite his protests that he is working undercover. Connie is arrested. While celebrating the closed case that night, Stallworth wears a hidden microphone and tricks a drunken Landers into bragging about his assault on Patrice. Landers is arrested.  Police Chief Bridges congratulates the team for their success, but he orders them to end their investigation and destroy the records. Stallworth receives a call from Duke, and he reveals to Duke that he is black before hanging up. While Patrice and Stallworth discuss their future, they are interrupted by a knock on the door. Through the window, they see a flaming cross on a hillside surrounded by Klan members. Detective Philip Zimmerman is played by Adam Drive. Patrice Dumas is played by Laura Harrier.

Corrie Hawkins plays Kwame Ture. The film ends with footage from the 2017 Unite the Right Rally in Charlottesville, Virginia and President Trump's statement afterwards, followed by a shot of an upside-down American Flag fading into black and white. The movie has been shown worldwide. In real life, the identity of Stallworth’s partner is unknown. The actual events take place in 1979. While the first third of the film is relatively accurate, the KKK's bomb plot is inspired by a different case of a real bombing by the KKK. The bombing in the film was a plot device to add dramatic tension. The real chapter that Stallworth and his partner infiltrated was of concern due to some of its members having high-ranking military positions. As a result of the investigation, four members of the US military were reassigned, with Stallworth joking that they were "sent to the North Pole." Another controversy is the filmmaker Boots Riley criticizing the film because of its political views. Riley said that the film was masterfully created, but he felt that Spike Lee omitted much of the real story. Riley wanted to emphasize that the police in many instances are instruments of oppression against black America. Also, Riley said that Stallworth worked for COINTELPRO to stop black revolutionary movements. He feels that Spike Lee wants to picture the cops as heroes. 

Spike Lee responded in an interview with The Times on August 24, stating that while his films "have been very critical of the police ... I'm never going to say that all police are corrupt, that all police hate people of color.” The truth is that Riley never said that all police are corrupt (or all of them hate people of color). He did say that the police institution in many instances are systematically involved in oppressing members of the black communities for centuries in America. Spike Lee’s BlackKklansman promotes an inclusionary vision. Also, the film attempts to juxtapose Black Power with “white power.” This is incorrect, because Black Power is about independence, love of African liberation, and ownership. White power is about xenophobia, subjugation of non-whites, and racist ideologies. The white savior motif is not just found in this film, but it is common in other movies throughout the ages. Obviously, racism is a nefarious system that causes a minority to benefit at the expense of the black collective. Change isn’t about loosening our chains to make oppression more malleable. Real change is about to promote uncompromising Blackness in our lives (in public and in private). Many people are oppressed worldwide, but black people are the most hated people among all of the human family. That reality must be realized if real change is to occur.

Sorry to Bother You

“Sorry to Bother You” is a very historic film. It described a diversity of issues from criticizing capitalism overtly to questioning the conformity of some many people who seek employment. The movie was directed by Boots Riley. It has actors and actresses by the names of: Lakeith Stanfield, Tessa Stanfield, Tessa Thompson, Jermaine Fowler, Omari Hardwick, Terry Crews, Patton Oswalt, David Cross, Danny Glover, Steven Yeun, and Armie Hammer. The movie is about a black telemarketer. He uses a stereotypical “white” accent to try to succeed at his job. He becomes part of the corporate world and must decide to either join his activists’ friends to organize labor or accept being a puppet for corporate power. The major actor in the film is named Cassius Green (he is played by Lakeith Stanfield).  His telemarketing job is called Regal/View. At first, he has difficulty in dealing with customers. An older co-worker wants his to use a “white” voice. Cash soon excels at his job. Squeeze is another co-worker. He is played by Steven Yeun. Squeeze creates a union. He wants to recruit Cash, Detroit (or Cash’s girlfriend), and their friend Sal. Cash participates in a protest. He thinks that he will soon get fired. Later, he is just promoted to an elite Power Caller position. Cash later finds out that RegalView is corrupt. 

The business sells arms secretly and uses unpaid human labor from the corporation Worry Free. Cash has doubts about his occupation. His life changes. He buys a car and pays off his uncle’s home. Yet, he and Detroit have a deteriorated relationship. Cash doesn’t work in the union anyone. One protester hits him with a can of soda when Cash crosses the union’s picket union. He becomes an internet meme. Cash goes into a party by the Worry Free CEO Steve Lift. Cash snorts a powered substance. He sees a half-horse, half-human hybrid asking for help. Cash knew that the corporation of Lift makes hybrids. Cash refuses a $100 million offer to become an equisapien and act as a false revolutionary figure to keep the employees in line. Cash tries to stop Worry Free. He fails. Cash apologizes to Squeeze, Sal, and Detroit, and joins the union in a final stand against Regal View.

Cash uses a security code from the equisapiens video to break into Lift's home. He goes to the picket line, where the police start a riot and knock him out. The equisapiens overpower the police and free Cash. Detroit and Cash reconcile and move back into his uncle's garage, but Cash starts to grow horse nostrils. Fully transformed, he leads a mob of equisapiens to Lift's house and breaks down the door. Riley wanted to discuss about telemarketing and other political issues. Riley wants to criticize capitalism too. He also wanted Armie Hammer’s character of Steve Lift to be representative of new capitalism (that is the same exploitation of capitalism but with a smiling face attached to it). The film mixes political satire and humor. Of course, there are racial aspects to the film. Ib real life, some black people lust after corporate power and white acceptance so much that they submit to their own black dehumanization. The movie shows a non-black person of color as the activist. Squeeze is slick. He issues pronouncements, but wants a seat at the corporate table. He also goes and flirts with Detroit behind Cassius Green’s back. Detroit’s character talks about Africa. The irony of the film is that Cassius Green has more independent thinking and more freedom before having his corporate job than afterwards.  In essence, every character in the move is filled with contradictions. Green is the one who goes about the wrong way to seek freedom. Freedom is not just an individual affair. Black collective freedom is a necessity. The movie is a warning to any person that our Blackness shouldn’t be up for self. Black humanity should be free within the confines of independence, integrity, and truth.

The 2019 Oscars

The 91st Academy Awards existed on February 24, 2019 at Dolby Theatre. That location is at Hollywood, Los Angeles, California. It honored many of the most well-known films of 2018. It made history as many diverse human beings won many awards. There was the red carpet event. 24 categories are in the Oscars. It was hosted by the American Broadcasting Company (ABC). The producers of the event are Donna Gigliotti and Glenn Weiss (who was also the serving director). The film Green Book won three awards including Best Picture and Best Supporting Actor for Mahershala Ali’s portrayal of Don Shirley. The film Bohemian Rhapsody had won four awards. They included Best Actor which was won by Rami Malek’s portrayal of Freddie Mercury. Roma won three awards. Black Panther won three awards. Roma Director Alfonso Cuaron won Best Director. He was the first Mexican person to win Best Foreign Language Film. Olivia Colman won Best Actress for portraying Annie, Queen of Great Britain in “The Favourite.” With a U.S. viewership of 29.6 million, it marked a 12% increase over the 2018 ceremony. Peter Farrelly won Best Original Screenplay. Regina King won Best Supporting Actress for the film “If Beale Street Could Talk.” Regina King worked hard for decades and this was her first Academy Award. She is one of the greatest actresses of all time. Spike Lee won Best Adapted Screenplay co-winner. This was his first Academy Award too. Peter Ramsey won Best Animated Feature Film co-winner along with Bob Persichetti. Ruth E. Carter (from the HBCU of Hampton University) won Best Costume Design. The Academy Award show tried to be as diverse as possible. The movie “BlacKkKlansman” won Best Adapted Screenplay. Spider-Man: Into the SpiderVerse also won Best Animated Feature Film. That award is a milestone since it showed the power of the art of animated films.

The Oscars had many developments. The red carpet had actors and actresses plus hosts being creative with their outfits. Cicely Tyson was there wearing a black dress. Angela Bassett wore a gorgeous pink dress. People like Gemma Chan and Linda Cardellini wore gowns too. Glenn Close and Melissa McCarthy wrote elegant clothing too. Billy Porter wore his clothing too. Spike Lee wore clothes that paid tribute to Prince. He has a purple suit, gold Jordan sneakers (that he commissioned himself), and a custom diamond necklace. Awkwafina wore creative clothing as well. Many actresses wore pink. Other actresses wore capes like Maya Rudolph, Olivia Colman, and Glenn Close. The Oscars dealt with political issues.

The actress Yalitza Aparicio was part of the movie named Roma. She has been praised because of her fashion style and acting talent. She was once a preschool teacher from a small town in Mexico. She is a young indigenous Mexican woman who overcame adversity to achieve her own success by her own merit. She spoke honestly about how far we have to go in promoting an industry at Hollywood that represents true diversity and inclusion. The more inclusion and diversity that develop in any society, the better that society grows. Aparicio became the first indigenous woman to appear on the cover of Vogue México. She has been a victim of classism and racism. Yet, we have to be clear to defeat classism and racism once and for all. She is thankful of being an Oaxacan Native American indigenous woman. Yalitza Aparicio has shown dignity and class in her life. Queen and Adam Lambert opened up the 2019 Oscars. The Oscars didn’t have a single major host. They had multiple people presenting awards.

Nike debuted a moving Serena Williams commercial at the Oscar. The commercial was about promoting empowerment of girls and women in inspiring them to achieve their goals regardless. Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper performed “Shallow.” The performance was so intimate that both later denied any romantic affair going on. New milestones existed from the 2019 Oscars. Ruth E. Carter and Hannah Beachler won best costume and best production design for the movie of Black Panther. They became the second and third black women ever to win a non-acting Oscar, and the first to win in more than 30 years. (Their predecessor, Irene Cara, won in 1984 for writing the “Flashdance” song). Roma is the first Mexican film to win the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film. Mahershala Ali became the first black actor to repeat a win in the same category. Bao director Domee Shi became the first woman of color to win the Oscar for Best Animated Short. Spike Lee won his first competitive Oscar for Best Adapted Screen play of the movie BlacKKlansman. That film was about cops who go undercover as fake Klan members in order to stop the Klan in that part of the country. Rami Malek was the first Arabic American to win the Oscar for Best Actor for his role of Freddie Mercury in the film Bohemian Rhapsody. Malek is of Egyptian descent. Spike Lee called for people to vote against Trump at the Oscars. Trump lied and accused Spike Lee of being racist. Spike Lee in fact promoted love and hate, so he wasn’t promoting racism. The Oscars in 2019 was one in the history books.

The 2019 Grammys

The 61st Annual Grammy Awards came out on February 10, 2019 at Staples Center in Los Angeles. The ceremonies took place at Staples Center in Los Angeles, California. It was hosted by Alicia Keys. The winners recorded songs from October 1, 2017 to September 30, 2018. Dolly Parton was honored as the MusiCares Person of the Year two days prior to the Grammy Awards on February 8, 2019. Kendrick Lamar received the most nominations category with eight. Childish Gambino and Kacey Musgraves tied for the most wins of the night with four each. Many people performed. The performers include: Camila Cabello, Ricky Martin, Miley Cyrus, and Shawn Mendes. Janelle Monae, Post Malone, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Katy Perry, H.E.R., Cardi B, Alicia Keys, Diana Ross, Lady Gaga, Travis Scott, Jennifer Lopez, Smokey Robinson, Ne-Yo, etc.

The Grammys showed the diversity of music genres as Alicia Keys hosted the entire show. Childish Gambino's "This is America" was celebrated. Cardi B. won best rap album. It's the sign of the times when the Grammy rewards Cardi B (who slandered black women) and Childish Gambino (who made vulgar comments and allow non-black women call him racial slurs and he joked about rape). Musgraves, Janelle Monae, and Cardi B performed music at the Grammys too. There were tributes to both the late Aretha Franklin and Dolly Parton. A lot of talented women were at the Grammys. Alicia Keys is a living legend in her own right and she performed at the ceremonies with two pianos at once. The director of the Grammys in 2019 was Louis J. Horvitz. He has directed every Grammy telecast since 2010. H.E.R., Beyonce, Jay Z, Ella Mai, and other artists won Grammys too. It had controversy too. One was Jennifer Lopez headlining a tribute to Motown.  Jenifer Lopez was defended by the singer Smokey Robinson. Robinson was wrong to make the claim that those who disagreed with Lopez headlining the tribute were racists, unintelligent, and wanted to turn back the clock.

The truth is that there are perfectly qualified women to show a tribute to Motown like Fantasia, Ledisi, Toni Braxton, Jill Scott, Monica, Brandy, and other singers. The criticism has nothing to do with bigotry as Robinson is mistaken about. It has to do with a known history of cultural appropriation where black cultural stables in our time are being sugarcoated to benefit corporate power instead of the common people. Motown isn't meant for one group of people. It's meant for every music lover worldwide. Yet, black people invented Motown and the black cultural contributions to music must always be respected and honored. Jennifer Lopez once say the N word with a at the end in a song and talked about the All Lives Matter propaganda in a tweet. Part of being real is cultivating a future where future black people can have strong foundation and create things for the future. Motown is a black stable of music and beauty.

Positive News in the World

In life, we know of the problems in the world. Some folks believe in the myth that everything is bad and that is not true. There are many unsung stories about heroes who are making miraculous accomplishments in our time in early 2019. Here are some of the positive news that we should honor in our daily lives. Recently, Queen Anunay and Kishia Glemencia rose through the ranks of D.C. Fire Departments to be fire chiefs. They have broken down barriers and made history during this time. Almost three decades of hard work, they are now leaders of their department. They are the third and fourth women to hold the position of Battalion in the 135 years old the department’s history. Anunay is now 45 and Clemencia is now 44. They were selected out of 44 candidates. “They will create a path for all of our young, female firefighters that shows them, ‘Oh, I can do that. That’s within my reach.’ ” D.C. Fire Chief Gregory M. Dean said. “They’re pioneers.” Both women are heroes and great black women. Also, we see that the Southern Illinois University Carbondale and the Illinois Institute of Technology have partnered with the Kapor Center to create the Illinois SMASH Academy. This academy is a five week, all expenses paid STEM summer camp for high school students from underrepresented groups in Chicago and Southern Illinois. The Kapor Center is based in Oakland, California. It wants more people to deal with society’s opportunities. They wanted a more diverse, inclusive, and better equipped workforce involving tech.

SMASH academies are found in California, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Michigan. According to the center’s data, every SMASH student graduates high school and 91 percent earn a college degree within five years, 31 percentage points higher than the national rate. The new program will accept 35 ninth graders from Chicago and 35 from Southern Illinois for the first year of the academy, which will be held at the Illinois Institute of Technology. Students can join summer camp for three years until they graduate from high school. Kids will study math, biology, chemistry, and engineering. They will also have SAT and ACT test prep, so they can prepare for college. “These are future leaders,” said Meera Komarraju, interim provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs at Southern Illinois University Carbondale. “Even one kid, if they are able to pursue their dreams, for their family and the part of society they live in, this can have a big ripple effect.” Meera is completely right as children deserve the opportunities to excel massively at STEM fields. Gov. Newsom has appointed Pediatrician, Dr. Nadine Burke Harris as California’s First-Ever Surgeon General. NJ Assemblywoman Angela McKnight and Financial Blogger Tiffany Aliche created a bill to Teach Middle Schoolers Money Management. Professor Farah Jasmine Griffin is to Chair Columbia University’s Newly-Created African American and African Diaspora Studies Department.

Conclusion

Nothing will be the same again in 2019. With advances in technology, human beings have easier access to the truth than ever before. New challenges from climate change to racial oppression are among us. Also, we witness dedicated people who are forthright in opposing any injustice in the world. Popular culture is a billion dollar business with influence worldwide. Human beings from every continent and nation either witness it or learn about it from various sources. The top one percent obviously controls the majority of mainstream corporations and film production companies. This is key to note, because movies don’t exist by happenstance. They are formulated via years of planning, production, directing, cast formulation, script development, economic investments, and other components. These corporations dictate the costs of the budgets of the film and the wages for the cast members. Many of the directors and producers are influenced by the military industrial complex to advance the agenda of the establishment. I am not just typing these words out. Authors like Tricia Jenkins and Simon Willmetts published books in 2016 that document how the Pentagon influences many movies. The book entitled, National Security Cinema has information that proves how the U.S. government uses script rewrites on some of the most popular films of our age like the James Bond series, the Transformers franchise, and movies from the Marvel plus DC cinematic universe. There are internal NSA emails that show that the producers of the film Enemy of the State were invited on multiple tours of the NSA headquarters.

They allowed producers to film aerial footage of Fort Meade or the headquarters of the NSA. Jerry Bruckheimer in a 1998 interview said that he changed the script at the request of the NSA to make it seem like the evil actions were done by one NSA official not the agency in general. Now, we know that the NSA has been caught in massive warrantless wiretapping and other bad actions. Tom Secker and Matthew Alfrod’s book entitled, “National Security Cinema: The Shocking New Evidence of Government Control in Hollywood” makes the facts clear that the Pentagon/DoD/NSA network have influence in Hollywood spanning long years.

Recently, Monique and Steve Harvey had an honest, spirited debate about the industry and black people. Monique said to Steve Harvey that real change is not easy and sacrifice is required to establish liberation for black people. Steve Harvey responded that we (as black people) must act in a certain way and play the game in order to see freedom. Monique made the greatest point in the debate in saying that our integrity is worth more than money. Money is never infallible. The love of money is the root of all evil, so our value as black people is never defined by money. Our value is inborn and it is priceless. Throughout history , black heroes used courage, sacrifice, protests, boycotts, self-defense, and other actions in getting real social change. Money is a tool that can be used for good or evil. Money isn't a god. Steve Harvey said that he doesn't care about slavery, he disrespected Flint victims, and he once talked with Trump in the White House. Steve Harvey defended the white racist Paula Dean. Harvey never apologized for those mistakes, but he is trying to insist that Monique tap dance and compromise to an industry that historically exploited black genius plus black talent for profit. Steve Harvey was very disrespectful in the interview with Monique too. Steve Harvey would never talk to a white actress or actor like he spoke to Monique. Monique has been criticized by Oprah Winfrey (who said to Barbara Walters that she wanted to be white when she was young), and Lee Daniels (who disrespected black women in his welfare office comment), and others. So, I agree with Monique than Steve Harvey. Also, helping the poor isn't about individual pursuits alone. Helping the poor deals with changing the whole structure of the system wherefore living wages, housing, education, and other blessings are available to the poor, so the poor can leave poverty. That's real talk. Therefore, I believe in INTEGRITY OVER MATERIALISM.

It is not complicated to say that African Americans are owed reparations. We are owed reparations period. The good news is that this call for reparations has increased mightily. Other groups of people have reparations and we, as black Americans, are calling for our legitimate reparations too. Our ancestors were forced in this land without pay and treated with abuse and other unspeakable acts of tyranny for centuries. In 2019, we ask for just compensation whether anyone likes it or not. One of the silliest arguments people use in opposing reparations is that since they didn't live during that time, so they shouldn't pay for the reparations of others. Back during the 1980's, my parents paid their taxes for numerous Japanese Americans in terms of getting them their rightful reparations. My parents had nothing to do with the Japanese Americans experiencing internment camps, but they paid their money via taxes to be used in giving many Japanese Americans their legitimate reparations. Jewish people received reparations for generations. Many people; who paid money for their rightful reparations, had nothing to do with the Holocaust, but money was used to give Jewish people their reparations (that they ought to receive). The truth is that reparations for African Americans are just. Just because some people, who will pay for them had no role in the Maafa, doesn't mean that payment should be excused. Many folks' ancestors were slave-owners.

Also, many people today benefit via privilege from the systematic oppression against African Americans. African Americans' ancestors were stripped from our original homeland, forced to work in America without pay under tyranny, suffered Jim Crow, experienced the prison industrial complex, etc. Yet, black Americans haven't received just compensation. We pay our tax dollars to fix oil spills, but we aren't responsible for them. We are the first generation in history where a widespread, serious conversation about reparations for black Americans are in existence among Presidential candidates in this 2020 election season. Reparations deal with more than about a check. It is about ending the structures of racial oppression and developing a system of justice.

Now, it is our jobs to show the truth and to fight for our freedom. Our ancestors suffered much worse than us literally, and now it is the time to stand up for democracy, for mutual honor, and for integrity. No one should have to experience police brutality, split families, racial profiling, or any form of unfair discrimination at all. That is why we must always be on the right side of history. Not to mention that we should invest more in independent media as this form of media has been on the front-lines of advancing true justice. The Dream is real and we want it to be fulfilled in our world. 

By Timothy