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  1. Pretenders To Blackness by Rhonda Hansome

    Wednesday, September 30, 2020

     

    I'm Back & Black!

    I'll admit it was a rough week. I'd never heard of iritis but after a minor laser procedure; I had it! 3 different antihistimines in 1 day, debilitating hay fever symptoms, I had it! 

     Kentucky AG Daniel Cameron's absurd, white supremacist white washed summary of the

     Grand Jury investigation of cops who murdered Breonna Taylor, I got it! 

    I won't call Daniel Cameron a Coon, Tom, Butter Biscuit, Bootlick, Buck Broken Self-Hating House Negro. However, I do recognize in his public life he's an obvious and too convenient

    Pretender to Blackness

    But a gaggle of imposters, Jessica Krug, Satchuel Cole and CV Vitolo Haddad, admitting to their duplicitous lives and activism, left me ranting, I can't even! Not today satan! WTF!!???

    Former Spokane Washington NAACP President 

    Rachel Dolezal
    may be the most infamous of a lying breed of white women whose "Black status" lead them to social esteem and career advancement. 
                                                                                                         Jessica Krug  
              
    Satchuel Cole                                                       CV Vitolo Haddad
                                                      

    Threatened with their lives of subterfuge being revealed, these white women admitted they're long time

               Pretenders to Blackness

    I have always been fascinated by Blacks who can/do pass into whitness. Their ability to leave anti-Black racism in the rear view mirror and the prospect of a life devoid of overt bias and racial discrimination in exchange for denying culture and DNA has always intrigued me.

    But what makes a woman born into entitlement deny her white skin to live a racial lie? I have no idea. 

    If you know, please tell me in the comments, if not tell me what you think about Pretenders To Blackness

    Rhonda Hansome is a comedian, director, actress, cartoon writer & a contributor to Politipod podcast. Follow, Like & Comment On Rhonda's Twitter, IG & FB








  2.  











    Some of my African-American friends use the phrase “Not all my skin folk are my kin folk.”  That rings so true for me as well.  Not only about skin folk; sometimes it’s about vagina folk.  Trump selecting a vagina-owner, who would roll back so much that women have fought to achieve, to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg is NOT okay.  That is NO replacement.

     

    What country can we move to where people are evolved enough to know that women are adult people who taught most of you to wipe your azz?  I ask that out of desperation.  I really want to stay here if it will return to a democracy and improve from there.

     

    It takes so long to build something good and so little to destroy it. 

     



     I know a man who did this to his son.  That's the legacy he chooses to leave.


     

    Recently, I was contacted by a woman who believed I was her teacher in the 1980s in an adult education program in Manhattan.  She sent a photo of me and two students.  It was a very skinny me and two very happy looking young women.  Part of what she wrote was: 

    You were very kind and helped us all a great deal. … Mindy it was really nice to have the opportunity to say thank you for all your help.


    For me, the timing was good.  I needed a pick-me-up, and that did it.  I so appreciated her sentiments.  I don’t even know if I was that good in the 80s; I got better with time, experience, professional development, and self-knowledge.  Nothing beats self-knowledge.

     

     

    I recently received two helpful monetary gifts.  One was from a woman I only know on-line.  I tried to talk her out of it, but she refused to hear no.  The other was from a woman who I have had a warm and cold relationship with at a former job, so it was rather shocking to me.  I was always puzzled by what went on.  The boss at that time had set a bad tone, used words like “nice” and “sincere” as bad words, and maybe I should have left years before my employment there ended.  Then he could’ve hired an insincere bitch, and the intermediate level adult students would fade away which would confirm the administration’s prejudice that those students don’t learn and have poor attendance and blah blah blah.  But if I had left, then I would not have had the next boss who really appreciated me and my work including my relationships with my students.  That person once told me, “You really care, and it shows in everything you do.”   She warmed my heart.  However, when that person left, I was f’d.  A teacher who told his students that he “doesn’t give a shit” got a really nice gift and a big party from the staff and administrators at the end of his time there.  I loved my students in general, and most loved me.  The students were a huge part of why I stayed.  There were other perks too.  Over time, some former co-workers took me out for dinner, sent me gift cards, money, and a full gift bag from Fresh Foods.  Given my needs, this most recent gift definitely beat a job party.  And it came from someone who demonstrated such mixed feelings toward me.  I’m still puzzled.  I’m also grateful.  Nothing is simple.

     

     

    On another note --- my friend, Mindy Levokove, who is also a former co-worker (a wonderful one) has a new poetry book out called Mount Eden Avenue.

     



    They have arrived and are available for purchase! Only ten bucks.

     



     

    Mindy Levokove can be found on Facebook.  If you aren’t on Facebook, you can let me know how she can contact you.  I will certainly pass that along.

     

     



    Much love to CGG-M ❤❤❤

     

     

    Mindy Matijasevic, September 27, 2020 


  3. Oy Vey

    Monday, September 21, 2020

     









    Losing John Lewis and Ruth Bader Ginsburg within a few months and shortly before the election is just horrendous.  When that special report interrupted a game show the other evening, I said “Uh-oh” and I hoped so much a certain devil’s time on Earth was over.  Then they announced that an angel died instead.

     

    My head dropped.  I know no one lives forever, and she was 87 and had survived cancer more than once, but of all the people to lose …

     

    The current presidency reminds me of a magnification of a damaging relationship I was in at one time.  Whenever I felt we needed to try to talk about and resolve the last shit that went on, another incident would take place, and another, and another.  Like with Trump, I hardly hear about the thousands of children’s lives he destroyed tearing them from their mothers and fathers and locking them up as if they were criminals.  Then losing many (I believe to trafficking), so there’s no chance for repair.  We watched him let citizens who reside in Puerto Rico suffer and die. He tossed them the cheap brand of paper towel.  He accused their president of being corrupt.  He didn’t even know he was their president. 

     

    I taught adults for over 30 years who needed to complete their basic education.  I can honestly say that unless Trump paid someone to take his high school equivalency test (like he did with his SATs), I don’t think he could pass the exam for a high school diploma.  He certainly couldn’t write a coherent essay.  Telling me how fantastic and huge and bigly something is doesn’t cut it.

     

    My grandfather served in the military for this country.  It hurts. 

     

    I am sickened by so much.  It’s not helping anyone and certainly not me. 

     

    In many ways, I have fallen into an isolating rut.  Yesterday I decided to try to do something that would help me break out of the rut.  I did something I haven’t done in way too long.  I called back a friend.

     

     

     

    Love to CGG-M ❤❤❤




    Mindy Matijasevic 9/21/2020

     

     

     

     


  4. Up, Down, Up

    Saturday, September 12, 2020


     






    If you need your spirits uplifted, this will do it (99% sure).  It's about 2 minutes.

    https://www.facebook.com/IceTheatreOfNewYork/videos/327790138350582/UzpfSTEwMDAwMDQ1NjcxMjU5ODo0NjgzODM0MjgxNjQxNzQ5/

    I watched it 4 times because it made me feel good.  I hope it does so for all of you as well.

     

    I’ve unfortunately known Trump-ish types in my life.  I think Trump should write a book he could write all on his own – The Art of the Lie.  The forward can be written by a number of candidates I know whose first language is lying.

     

    Most of you know, besides comedy material, I also write memoir and poetry.  I rarely write in rhyme, but occasionally I like to play with that.  Here’s a recent poem that does use rhyme.

     

    VOTE!

     

    We can vote

    without getting sick

    No doctor’s note

    to mail our pick

     

    Risky though …

    could end in a dump

    if we don’t show

    it’s a vote for Trump

     

    He hates women, blacks

    immigrants and Jews

    More than that

    he hates to lose

     

    When hurt people lootin’ is worse than militia shootin’

    no one’s happier than Trump and Putin

     

     

    Mindy Matijasevic

    9/2020

     

     

     

    Daily love, thoughts, and concern for CGG-M ❤❤❤

     

     


  5.  



    To My Brother and Sister Bronxites and to My Cousin Brooklynites

     

    While people are getting murdered by “peace” officers and white supremacists, our Bronx people are killing each other as are our Brooklyn people.  WTF??!!

     

    NYPD: Police respond to 3 different shootings in Brooklyn within 10 minutes of each other
     
     
    Woman says man spit on her, told her to go back to China
     
    Local leaders call for NYC to do more after weekend shooting of teen
     
    Police: 2 men attack 90-year-old woman, light her shirt on fire in Bensonhurst
     
    Police: Video shows suspect wanted in connection to slaying of Bronx transgender woman

     Police: 3 teens sought in assault, attempted robbery in the Bronx

     

    It takes a lot to change our reactions to situations, I know.  But, damn, there ARE other ways to respond to conflict besides hurting and shooting people.  Don't work for the enemy.  Trump is already doing that.  He works for Putin and allows our service men and women to be killed.

     

    Some years ago in my neighborhood, a delivery guy was attacked and had his ear cut off.  I remember talking with a neighborhood man about it.  We didn’t know each other.  He started speaking in Spanish.  I told him I don’t speak Spanish.  He immediately switched to English.  He didn’t give me a hard time like some folks do.  “Why don’t you speak Spanish?”  “I’m not Hispanic.”  “So? You look Spanish.”  “I don’t speak French or Chinese either.”  “You look Spanish. You should speak Spanish.”   He just switched to a language we both understood.  He accepted me the way I accepted him.  It felt very comfortable. 

     

    We talked about the horror that took place.  I couldn’t stand that someone was willing to cut an ear off of a person who wasn’t endangering them.  This man said to me, “When you don’t care about your own life, you don’t care about anyone else’s either.”

     

    That’s it in a nutshell.  He knew what he was talking about.  In one sentence, he expressed so much.  Police cadets and high school students need to hear and understand that.  As bad as I felt about what happened, I felt so good about our conversation.


    (I urge middle school and high school teachers to consider this independent film, PRESSURE, to show to your students. It takes place during the hip-hop/crack epidemic in Brooklyn, NY  https://www.freestyledigitalmedia.tv/film/pressure/ )  


    This summer (2020), I sometimes wondered if the Bronx and Brooklyn were in a killing competition.  I can’t stand all that’s been going on.  That energy could be put into helping and not harming.  We have enough people in this country wanting to end us.  Don’t be part of the problem.  Do something that would make your mother proud, dammit!

     

    Well, it looks like Mother Nature stepped in.  Hurricane Isaias did most of its NYC damage in the Bronx and Brooklyn.  Yes, it was time for her to kick some ass and try to whip us into shape. 

     

    Isaias tears through the Bronx and Brooklyn, downing trees and causing power outages
     
    Falling branches strike woman in head in Brooklyn
     
    City Island restaurants shut down as borough feels impact of Isaias
     
    Tracking Isaias: Trees down in the Bronx
     
    Strong winds, choppy waves hit Clason Point; ferries suspended at Soundview location

     


    And now, another issue that’s been on my mind for quite a while.  To my white/light beige sisters and brothers who don’t understand certain things, please be open to realizing that there is more to know. 

     

     


     

     



    Major love to and concern for CGG-M 💕❤💕