Rippling Effect

 

  Thurston’s Thoughts

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Oh My!

Rippling Effect

Diversity, equity, and inclusion is defined as policies and programs that promote the representation and participation of different groups of individuals. DEI encompasses people of different ages, races, ethnicities, abilities, disabilities, genders, religions, cultures and sexual orientations. Its rejection is a concept reducing human characteristics to a monolithic selection ignoring the multiplicity comprising all social and human spectrums. DEI is a concept in practice which reflect a universal reality of existence, a unification of complimentary elements configuring the whole.

Think in terms of cells, organs, DNA, thoughts, knowledge, weather, and so forth which function as a singular element contributing to an aggregate system in circuits of dependency, interaction, and stimulation. Even these elements are formed by a combination of smaller elements. So theoretically speaking, all existence is an expanded elemental representation participating in the combination of smaller definitive factors or parts interwoven into the composition. Therefore, DEI is a logical and rational function of existence creating a rippling effect of diverse presentations and configurations in a sequence of domino effects.

As a mathematical principle, the sum of the components cannot exceed its total. Considering DEI as the sum total of humanity, omitting any portion would diminish the totality and any collaborative value. An equation consist of a conclusion and the criteria used to calculate that conclusion. The reversal of an equation is usually the way to verify the equation by logic and objectivity. However, when both are conversely applied they produce fundamentally flawed conclusions of subjectivity. Commonly misunderstood applications of DEI is often reduced to race and racism narrowing its meaning and purpose from the endeavor of addressing discrimination.

So, the formulative equivalence and objective is a recipe of DEI diminishing discrimination producing impartiality of opportunity by access. To pursue or support exclusion exposes the equation to a defective process. It violates the humanistic and societal paradigms of life similar to some periodic table of elements like hydrogen being disregarded as a key contribution fundamental to structure, form, or composition. The broken circuit of reasoning and emotional subjectivity can then only be justified to destabilize or deconstruct efforts to eliminate discrimination. Discarding segments of society prevents social stability except by coercion and exploitation promoting greater divisiveness by omission.

Suppression and history applies the how of exclusion to the aligned objective of discrimination surrendering a cautionary tale. A profound fragility dependent on discrimination by any repressive means necessary to maintain power, control, and a socio-economic advantage creates a vacuum. The parameters of access or representation must be restricted accordingly lessening contributions while increasing the incentive and resentment ripe for dissidence of greater proportions to remove the barriers to autonomy. It essentially isolates the ideology of exclusion to a peninsula of antagonism imprisoning its practitioners.

So, DEI is an antidotal self-fulfilling prophecy of progression increasing contributions while lessening confrontation. Any policies of exclusion and exploitation of today creates the conflicts and crusaders of tomorrow. Again, by definition everyone belongs to multiple categories of DEI calling into question its dominant preoccupation with race while not opposed to other segments of DEI. Truth be told there are NOT MANY business entities, universities, or banking empires who DO NOT have many racial blemishes which directly benefited their injustice. For most DEI is an annuity escrow account for previous contributions of venture capital whose payment has been withheld especially regarding race. 

This racial application is the reason DEI is generally considered division by racial marginalization, bias policy, and prejudicial practice historically proven but contemporarily denied. But DEI would become obsolete by lack of its necessity and use much like antiquated hand signals to indicate vehicle turning direction. Consequently, from a historical perch of observation DEI is a detection system to correct discrimination and not a mechanism creating it. A surplus of delusion, cajolery, and deception to conceal the imbedded hierarchy of discrimination and social injustice is inherent as primary ingredients in the subsidy of anti-DEI rhetoric and systemic practices.

As far as anti-white discrimination based on the Fifth Amendment of equal protection under the law, where were and are these defenders when its violations were and are against Blacks. DEI is a remedy to the “unequal protection” under the law systemically practiced not only by exclusion but also racism, suppression, and  exploitation. This poses the question of when did “unequal protection” under the law for Blacks stop? DEI actually assures a meritocracy by addressing the arbitrary blinders of discrimination. Since overt racial discrimination was practiced, should not the remedy target the violation.

If exclusion by racism created the disadvantage then inclusion through racial access would logically relieve it. Seemingly, each according to their disadvantage by historical exclusion whether racial or not. But why is race always the deal breaker? Surely it is ridiculous to pay a person who has not worked the wages of those who did. So, DEI is not discriminative to those who haven’t suffered under discrimination to receive or prevent the “wages” of those who did. It is compensatory behavior and not punitive but corrective policy.

It is reciprocity for the restitution of advantages garnered by discrimination. The concept is universally accepted and practiced except when race is the point of contention. By definition and appearance this is the racial discrimination which currently justifies the need for DEI by the continued racial exclusion from social restitution. It is society’s debt which only requires sharing access to the rewards and opportunities plundered by discrimination. A meager accommodation to address the imbalances of equal protection under the Fifth Amendment whose marginalization created the disparities addressed by DEI.

It does not diminish opportunity, instead it expands access and the resulting contributions. Only a narcissistic psychopathic mentality would deem a socially level playing field as an inequality to them after benefitting from their inequality to others. Thus, the perceived social equality threat remains the elementary objection, not DEI. So, to the periodic table of fear and ignorance we can add diversity, equity, and inclusion. Oh my!

P.S. Things in the rearview mirror may be closer than they appear, but so is discrimination.

 

Democratic Apartheid

Affirmative Action

Democratic Apartheid

Apartheid is generally defined as a policy or system of segregation or discrimination of a supposedly “minority” or “inferior” group based on race. Apartheid more deeply explored is actually the principles and ideologies architected for exploitation and abuses securing power, control, and narcissistic stature. Still, what are the doctrines of apartheid when the barriers are just as impenetrable as they are sustained by other ideologies camouflaging the intent by the method or justification? The ends often are justification for the means and the elasticity of morality allowing humanitarian abuses.

Although the brutally violent assaults on ethnicity are now usually the last resort, the subtle initiates of its replacements achieve the same results. It is not only a period in African history ending in 1994 but an act throughout American history expressed as an affirmative action of policy, society, and practice reflecting the subjugated delineation of a people to be dominated without violation of the perpetrator’s consciousness, religion, or morality. It requires a declassification of others humanity below the pedestal of a self-aggrandizing self-image of superiority or larceny of opportunity and resources.

This counterfeit social status is a construct of a narrative so propagandized to replicate the delusion as an entitlement associated with a biased concession by oppressive division. It prognosticates the separation of opportunity or rights enjoyed above those rendered. This very act of identity isolation is an allocation of humanity subsidizing the restrictions and tolerance metered out to maintain dominance by exclusion. The racially rationalized advantage of apartheid to the benefactors is now a discrimination against them when it is no longer the modus operandi of societal norms.

So, in essence any measures taken to offset the ill-gotten advantage is unfair to their continued abuses. Consequently, theoretically speaking by this logic any exclusion of a group based on expanded access or a “set aside” for another group is unfair despite the historical context or remedies sought thereof. Therefore, would not military service be such a “set aside” of unfairness to those who did not serve? There are many such “set asides’ such as job seniority, union membership, family legacy, senior citizens, adulthood, and virtually every societal absolution fits the exclusionary definition.

The only difference is not the act of recognition but the criteria of selection based upon a determinate such as the word “race” which makes it unfair. In the context of “race” it is not selective but corrective. If one child eats all the cake from the other child, would it not be fair to the child who has consumed more than their fair share to be curtailed from excluding the other’s consumption as a measure of DEI? The concept of DEI has its faults but not as many as the history or policies it seeks to remedy. Actions to perpetuate  social, economic, and political underclasses appeases a serenity of privilege but agitates the capitulation to injustice.

Injustice by coercion eventually is unsustainable and does not invite tranquility of society but instead sustainable resentment to subjugation. Ethnicity, gender, economics, and opportunity are measures of segregation restricting fairness but in all distorted fairness is promoted as having no disadvantage beyond the advantages not received. There are those hindered by the oppressions which others cavalierly dismiss as non-existent or discontinued. However, the advantage survives the gap created from its presence. The ideological virus of segregationist policies and practices infects the ascension of humanity by stifling contributions as an affirmative action to promoting confirmation of its unfair privilege.

The accusation goes from woke to radical left to Christian conservative values instead of subjective strongarming of ideologies beneficial to a biased agenda. So, affirmative is a conformation. Action is an activity taken. Democratic is a consensus. Apartheid is an abomination of humanity’s sovereignty. Combined they are a confirmation of activities agreed upon to execute an abomination against the sovereignty of a segment of humanity. When the moral check is due from the feast of oppression, the bloated diner cannot skip out on the bill or complain about its payment for a meal they consumed and thoroughly enjoyed.

It is not unreasonable and certainly expected that the provider is entitled to be compensated for the services they provided. There is no dispensation of self-determined nonpayment to avoid settlement or criminal culpability. By the way, it is also customary and expected that a tip accompany the payment. Absent reparations surely affirmative action, DEI, or other corrective measures to discrimination are a smaller domestic cost or social escrow than the billions sent abroad for foreign wars. What about an affirmative action towards funding the domestic war on the historical racial exploitations of America’s democratic apartheid of biblical proportions?

 

Dark History Bright Future Anthem of Evolution- Table of Contents

 

Dark History, Bright Future-Anthem of Evolution by Thurston K. Atlas

Dark History Bright Future   Anthem of Evolution 

  Introduction to Thurston’s Thoughts

 

A-  The Historical View                                               Part B-  Interpretation                      

A- Theory of Critical Race 20                       B- Distorted History  35                       

A- Absolute Certainty  50                              B- Most CeArtainly Did 62                     

A- To Tell the Truth 71                                  B- Pulling the Curtain 93.                    

A- Overdrawn Account 107                         B- The Big Payback 125                         

A- Twisted Reality 147                                  B- Madness to the Method 168         

A- Happy Emancipation  185                      B- Regifting Freedom Again  197      

A- Disturbing Display 220                          B- Hustling Backwards  237                

A- No N-word Allowed 259                         B- Speak no Evil, Do no Harm 270.   

A- Tactical Protest 293                                  B- Power to the Purpose 312.               

 Don’t Say It if We Don’t Mean It  346

 Hard Hat and a Lunch Pail  434

 Mindlessly Tethered  576

 Conclusion 587

 Appendix  601

 

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Dark History Bright Future Anthem of Evolution- Introduction

Dark History, Bright Future-Anthem of Evolution by Thurston K. Atlas

Dark History Bright Future  Anthem of Evolution

Introduction 

Every so often, there is a seismic shift in circumstances brought about by a demand for change. Those who benefit most from change position themselves to capitalize upon that change. They then endeavor to maintain their advantage to sustain their benefit. But, the same is even more true for those adhering to the existing circumstances anticipating changes unfavorable to their concerns. It is the short-sighted cycle of selfish accumulation and consolidation without considering long-term implications or progress.

In an ironic twist, this hedonistic short-sightedness, selfish exploitation, and immediate gratification usually initiate the resulting demand for change. Figuratively milking the cow dry. The cycle feeds upon itself, continuing to circulate cleverly disguised with different variances of the same dynamic and sequence of results benefiting the usual suspects. Therefore, we must change the operational dynamics to alter the cycle and change the outcome.

The current process is constructed whereby there is no scenario where we, as Black people, collectively win. The odds are partly because our effort to shape the dynamic lacks definition and unity while facing staunch opposition. Speaking to power is vastly different from having authority. Speaking to power is more or less a formal complaint, while authority only exists to the extent it is recognized or exercised.

The objective is well defined in these terms on what shapes the narrative or dynamic. It is having power and speaking with authority. We need our power recognized to configure methods asserting authority to regulate our desired outcome. Primarily, the plight of our race is what is understood must not only be spoken but, to a more significant degree, demonstrated. The demonstration is not in organized protest or rioting but psychology and sociology. Let us systematically break down our constraints with brutal honesty, good, bad, or indifferent.

We must navigate a progressive path to acknowledge our power despite the history of slavery and any arising inferiority insinuations. The historical narrative has predominately focused on the dredges of slavery while ignoring or embezzling Black people’s achievements and contributions before, during, and after slavery. That narrative propagates inferiority to fill the void created by deception furthering the ignorance of white superiority and their insistence on Black subservience.

We should take an analytical approach to detect, identify, isolate, infiltrate, and dismantle our challenges regarding racism. So before any other considerations, it must first be determined what is the objective. Next, what are the strengths and vulnerabilities of the challenge? Then, how can the challenge be divided and overcome? Followed by what portion of the challenge must be prioritized and focused upon for maximum or strategic neutralization? Then finally, what will be installed in its place, and how will it be implemented to further achieve our objective?

The process will then come full circle, returning to the initial intent and evaluating it from its beginning to the acquisition of our objective. The subsequent actions are the steps needed to create any power-wielding authority or influence quantified by practical results. So, the starting point is to build power they cannot ignore. The goal in building it is a strong horizontal foundation. That is the strategic phase, but there is also the practical logistics of having the unity, personnel, and preparedness to accomplish the task.

Any movement starts in silence and thought, building a presence where the efforts cannot be snuffed out in its development or execution. Consequently, preparation creates resistance to collapse,  countering an anticipated condition or a predictable response based on contingency and method of implementation. A lesser power can withstand a more significant power when properly positioned to diminish the options and possibilities of opposition. Any concepts deployed must be applied using psychology and translated into sociological, political, and economic strategies.

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Dark History Bright Future Anthem of Evolution- Book Description

Dark History Bright Future  Anthem of Evolution

Book Description 

Thurston presents a candid examination of the sociology of racism, modern social systems, primitive rituals, and religious manipulations cloaked in conformities of ignorance. This is a casual forensic inquiry of history, methodologies, ideologies, and consequences of racism, religion, and economics to formulate narratives leading to our modern challenges of divisiveness and conflict. The sanctity of ignorance must be individually and intellectually dissected for suggestive solutions and future perspectives to identify historical traps of distraction, dehumanization, and deceit.

The book’s goal is to stir discovery, self-evaluation, discussion, and the rejection of counter-productive ideologies, behaviors, and conformities designed for subjugation. Among the evaluations are suggestions for solutions understanding the context of time, genetic migration, economic motives, political influence, military conquest, spiritual corruption, and psychological captivity.

 Not surprisingly, these transcend race to maintain exploitation through servitude as essential to a ruling class heavily reliant upon etymological illiteracy. This anthem of evolution is a call to shed the mental shackles of forbidden curiosities and rational impossibilities. Dare to explore your beliefs as the iceberg of deception melts under factual scrutiny. This must have book is an expansive journey into the tip of this deception and ignorance binding us. Free your mind, un-shield your eyes, and hear clearly this resounding message.

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Dark History Bright Future Anthem of Evolution- “African American”

Dark History, Bright Future-Anthem of Evolution by Thurston K. Atlas

Dark History Bright Future  Anthem of Evolution

Excerpts regarding the term “African  American” 

Page 176

Otherwise, there is a distinction such as African American or minority, not of lesser numbers, but as disadvantaged. Never just American. The Olympics is the only time we are simply American. No other race or nationality are referenced by a land many of them never visited and ties dating back over four hundred years. They at least have a country instead of just a continent of origin. However, many have populated this country to have the interim title removed from their designation, simply being called Americans.

Undoubtedly, the ability to Americanize one’s image for easier assimilation diverts attention from themselves, especially by ostracizing others, particularly Black people. Those who arrived by immigration now bemoan immigrants while concealing apparent hints of their immigrant origins.  White and light complexion immigrants easily assimilate into the white culture or middle class and are excluded from adverse comparisons and discrimination. Once incorporated, they quickly develop no allowances for a diversity of perspectives or cultures not rejected by their new identity and cultural spectacles.

Their culture is surrendered in exchange for a new identity welcoming them to the Americanized white subgroup. Not having their identity stolen but surrendered, they fail to see the damage and trauma caused by never feeling or escaping the prolonged ostracization our people have faced. Regarding the “African American” plight, they don’t know the half of it. The sting of the whip or the noose around the neck of it. They instead become members of the system by white association. The system and the integration become indistinguishable.

People are molded to be inflexible and dismissive, while systems are designed rigidly but fickle. Taking the country back for conservative values is maintaining the violation of church and state for religious values to mandate legislative foundations supplementing sociological biases. These customary biases and identities are preferred as normal behavior well entrenched, while any deviation is abnormal or fearfully anticipated. The imbalance that produces their comfort disregards the aggrieved party’s demand for consideration, essentially minimizing and dismissing claims with indignant outrage.

The way it has been is prone to narcissistic impositions by rejecting the evolution of intolerance and discontent to instead embracing inclusion. The majority inclination has shifted from the majority ideology of controlling minority populations. Yet, the now racist minority ideology resists the changing times seeking to rule the majority. The ignorance of the past attempts to paralyze the present and remains opposed and fearful of future possibilities and expectations. Redefining the constructs of society, self-identity, and equality is deemed a threat.

Marginalized society is no longer happy with whatever scraps procured, instead wanting whatever possibilities and considerations advantaged white’s receives. Wanting equilibrium of opportunity and social treatment impartially available and applied. The contempt and discontent are prevalent and pervasive on many levels regarding a biased irrelevant and suppressive application or standard.

However, a stark difference exists, whether it is gender inequality, pay inequality, religious discrimination, educational gaps, healthcare deficiencies, lifestyle orientation, and many others, not just racial profiling and social injustices. Moreover, many deep traumas have been directed towards all subgroups not representative of the dominant controlling group despite being members of other dominant subgroups such as educated, male, or the double whammy, Black and female. Every subgroup has a learned behavior with defining expectations and benefits and is subjected to judgment from other subgroups’ prejudices.

However, the problem arises when it minimizes or infringes on another subgroup to be defined by the standards beneficial to the dominant subgroup. Thus preferences are common to all humans or specific taxon, but the exercise of dominance and privilege where none exist based upon a manipulated interpretation or advantage violates humanity. Continued practice of this violation is not a deterrent for change, it invites it by unfairness. On the contrary, it dictates perseverance because to concede is to assure the imbalance of identity, perspective, and privilege continues.

Page 389

I have a theory, maybe a wacky theory but follow me. Suppose we travel back far enough to the origin of life in Africa. Wouldn’t that make everyone walking the earth African and all Americans African American? Suppose all bi-racial people claim their presumably socially dominant racial identity instead of the lowest relegation of their racial identity. Wouldn’t that make them white if they so choose?

Sort of the reverse one-drop rule where one drop of white blood would make you white or whatever race contributed to your identity. If Canaan was made Black by Noah to curse his father, Ham, then can’t all Blacks claim to be White being descendants of the pure seed of Ham directly from Noah or Canaan when he was white? What about as a descendant of Adam? Genealogy allows for claims of many variations of race or identity.

Furthermore, if people can choose to be non-binary, a singular person can identify as plural, and anyone can be white then why can’t Blacks claim to be any race, even white or no race, as a matter of self-identity, even for government purposes? Why not if it is based on self-identification or ancient history? So what is African American? Is it a color, a lineage, or a classification that secretly segregates us as a distinction other than American?

Look at any government form; under white, it does not have any distinction outside the collective family of white, none indicating origins or lineage. Maybe, everyone’s identity should be an x on forms to eliminate race as a consideration. Makes me wonder if race or gender is even needed since it is questionable what benefits the distinction brings. Arguably, it is more used for discrimination. This could indicate that some re-evaluating needs to occur when these terms have or should have no bearing on determinations or qualifications. But let’s go to the deep waters.

Case in point, to some the greatest President of all times, 45, who claims the confederate heritage and an all-American persona grandfather and grandmother was born in Kallstadt. But he claims white, not German or European. It goes unquestioned and is acceptable because, quietly, most designations of white fall in the immigrant category of impersonating a legacy of American heritage.

My grandmothers and grandfathers were born in Mississippi and Georgia, but I need to claim African American. Their parents and grandparents were born in America. It is a sly segregationist distinction where Black and brown people are further diluted as people of color. These distinctions are misleading, ambiguous, or flat-out lies. We are relegated to a continent or hemisphere, while other races belong to a country, province, city, or culture.

Whites can be of any nationality to claim white. All dark complexion people are not directly from Africa, although all humanity is from Africa, so how far back are we going? If that make all Americans African American by ancestry, whereas a naturalized African would be what? African Americans too, regardless of color. If born in Africa and naturalized in America, that seems to make you African American more than Black. But what that would make you is knowing your natural heritage, which we cannot claim. Still, their struggle is not removed from ours, our reference point is simply different.

Therefore African American signifies unknown origins and lost heritage. How many claim America as their homeland and heritage to take back America? But their roots don’t go back as far as ours in America? They will claim the country but not the atrocities. That would make America ours before it was theirs by way of their immigrant legacy. We have been the N-word, coons, coloreds, negroes, blacks, people of color, and African Americans in the ever-shifting saga of our assigned identity. I claim Black with pride just as others claim their distinction, even confederate, but they refuse to claim squatter.

Black is a legacy American whose ancestors were subjected to slavery, reminding me of my obligation to not defile their sacrifices and tribulations. The analogy is often inconsistent when attempting to retrofit an identity or association. By that metric, is there such thing as Confederate American or Immigrant American according to their heritage and ancestry? Most whites are of immigrant origins compared to descendants of slaves, but they also arrived on a boat, most after us. African American is furthering an insidious distinction that undermines the concept of equality. Minority applies to everyone from Black people to gender, disability, religion, and soon-to-be white in approximately thirty years.

Race is a delusion of numbers and classifications by disproportionate criteria. The technical distinctions defy logic while casually applied. By designation, the census and office of OMB consider African Americans to be anyone whose ancestors’ origins are traced back to the lower regions of Africa, below the northern portion or sub-Saharan. I would imagine even indirectly from another land. So realistically, African American is a polite way to say slave descendant. Everyone else on the globe can be considered white, even if from Africa.

By definition, it is firmly consistent a dark complexion person or so-called Black from the northern part of Africa is white by geography. So with the geographical origins set by that criteria, how does anyone else become classified as African American if not by color? The spectrum of color variations in all lands further extracts light complexion appeal as the overwhelming and overriding criteria simulating whiteness but not by geography. So by geographical designation as evidence, it reveals in general not where they hijacked us from but a dark skin aversion.

By the same curiosity, what slave trade or immigration globally have others undergone in four hundred and fifty years? Does it reflect their geographical origins for direct comparison to ours during the same period? That changes many things in the world, but many it doesn’t change. Globally connect the systems, ideological cultivations, and echoing beliefs throughout that time for an accurate portrait of comparison. From origin to evolution, follow the continuity of repetition over time. The repetition of time cast its shadow as truth without breath possessing only time with more assumed than spoken.

Page 399

This brings it back full circle to the descendant from slavery labeling disguised as African American. Maybe they need to know to exclude us rather than ensure we are included. White includes every light complexion nationality without further distinction whereby they are incorporated by deceptive but established means regardless of time or history in America. Skin tone grants automatic membership and privileges from day one. This is also true for other darker complexion nationalities so long as they are not Black.

Page 401

It would then seem culture not colorism is at play. It also confirms white is more of a social status of inclusion not a race. With African American meaning the descendant of slaves and white meaning everyone else, including descendants of slave owners, it also denotes us not being accepted as belonging on or from this land. White exclaim they need to take their country back, but it was inhabited when they arrived, but no mention of returning it and definitely not vacating it. But, we are welcome to return by boat to Africa when we have been here before almost everyone saying we don’t belong.

Relocated by slavery, our designation is the closest estimation of commonality, Africa, even if over four hundred years ago or more. But, African American also denotes being of unknown origins or lineage from a miscellaneous bin of humanity. It gets confusing because white is miscellaneously composed and defined only by what has not been included, Black people, ignoring genealogy. African American is an oxymoron. Africans suggest we don’t belong here, and American likewise suggest we don’t belong there. Yet, we are tolerated in America as orphans with no specific nationality or ancestral identity.

Dark History Bright Future Anthem of Evolution- Preface

 

Dark History, Bright Future-Anthem of Evolution by Thurston K. Atlas Dark History Bright Future  Anthem of Evolution

Preface

Thurston K. Atlas started a blog entitled “When Playtime is Over” to express his point of view on relevant topics and present an alternative voice. Thurston K. Atlas’s diverse life experiences and challenges provide a basis for his perspective he felt compelled to express. The author hopes that the perspectives and ideologies offered are used for motivation, contemplation, and progression. Thurston K. Atlas’ primary objective is to generate introspective thought, facilitate candid conversation, and arouse free-thinking perspectives.

This book is presented in a series of observations and commentary of perspectives intended to editorialize and illustrate the surface ramifications of underlying racial principles and ideologies. It further explores and challenges some long-accepted fundamental socializations and the consequences of adhering to these thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors. The goal is conveying a deeper understanding. Part A is the conventional or historical perspective, while Part B is a companion article offering a more specific interpretation applying causation and intent, hopefully leading to awareness and solutions.

The articles in Part A illustrate factual experiences, while Part B stirs the sediment of its implementation and impact. The psychological and sociological dynamics causing and promoting racial discrimination also produce many other biases affecting various socially marginalized subgroups targeted by discriminatory treatment. These dynamics transcend racism and geography, but many of the solutions are similar since many of the root causes are comparable.

The primary goal is for you to include these ideas and considerations in your family and subgroup discussions, making the exchange a philosophical family affair. Finally, part C is a series of questions intended to encourage conversation to preemptively address issues clarifying possible actions, responses, and perspectives applied to real-world situations. Whatever your perspective, it should be factually and logically defensible but certainly withstand debate.

The discussion within the Black family is crucial as a rite of passage, survival, and recognition to avoid the distractions and traps that deplete our aspirations and progression. We must place the narrative in our hands, emancipated from the residue of slavery and focused on future prosperity. It is only a generation away if the proper approaches are applied. Applying enhanced knowledge, altered perception, and practical actions for those sufficiently determined and disciplined are the treasures that will summon fortune, astutely changing the Black condition.

The advantages of aggressive pursuit are undeniable, while the complacency of the past is inadequate. The absence of change prolongs assured damages, while the sluggishness of progress stalls optimism and is insufficient to execute solutions. We are all familiar with the old methods the same old results. Time to change the channel to visually, emotionally, and intellectually recalibrate our psychology, sociology, and methodology.

Hopefully, we will reconsider what we validate and from what we seek validation. We must visualize our objectives directing our actions toward achieving them. So, welcome to when playtime is over, where our goal is to stimulate thought and conversation, not to convert your perspective. Any persuasion is solely at your discretion and deliberation. So, let the discussions and transformations begin.

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The Dreamer’s Dream

Delayed Delivery

The Dreamer’s Dream

Dr. King’s “I have a Dream” speech spoke of hope at daybreak after a long night of captivity. He spoke of the crippling continuation of segregation and discrimination even 100 years later. He spoke of us as an island isolated from prosperity by public policy and racist sentiment. He spoke of cashing a check issued on a promissory note. His civil rights speech questioned the inalienable rights, liberty, and pursuit of happiness promised to all but yet not delivered to us. He spoke of the urgency of the times, police brutality, ghetto conditions only varying in the size of the ghetto, voting rights denied, and the indifference to injustice provoking an interdependent fate of destruction.

However, he did not speak of becoming docile and we should not let the interpretation of his words convert us into doormats for those who say his words were those of passivity. He was emphatic about there can be no rest or contentment until we are recognized and treated equally as first class citizens.  He did indeed speak of a color blind society but have we achieved it yet? If not, many interpretations and assertions regarding his speech are still delinquent in their realization. As such, the racial utopia of his dream is a society we are working towards but still have a considerable ways to go.

The unrelenting echoes of his voice ring loud and true as if he is giving that speech today. Many of the conditions he spoke of still exist as challenges of today. Sure, apologist, revisionist, and the treasonous historically ignorant point to gains amounting to meatless bones of patronization comparative to other segments of society. He also warned us of contentment fatiguing us to complacency. It is also true that our complacency has now led to our conditions just as much as the forces against us have. Patience is a virtue only when it is not used as a crutch propping up alibis of inaction and deficits of fortitude.

Where is our bus boycott or march on power mentality insisting our demands are met? We whimper in celebrations of causes which allude us disguised as a tribute to the man himself. They are separate. Celebrate the man but the fight for the cause, his cause which has always been our cause is still waging far from over and constantly under siege. Any factual revelation of discrimination is labeled anti-American, anti-white, divisive, and well, racist. It absolutely is exactly that if judged by the metric of Jim Crow and those who would hold themselves to a delusional entitlement of superiority.

But that was the point of his speech. He was, and I am also very clear to state it is not a reference to all white people or people of any “color” who do not hold racist sentiments. Much like in home room when they call names at roll call. If it is not your name, you don’t answer because they are not talking to you. Same for acts of racism not committed by you. Counter claims of racism because we assert our humanity may just have to be the price of doing business and should not deter us from our appointed duty. This counter claim of racism from pointing out the elephant in society amounts to playing the dozens and you can’t play with me in a way I don’t play.

Label it as you may but it does not change the nature of the historical accuracies by the whining “white victimization” petition when social change or accountability hounds your privileged fragility of a fractured identity. The reimbursement of our claims are met with entitlements of moral bankruptcy or written off as an uncollectable debt of justice. But, why? A large part is the psychology of assimilation where we must shun any association or resemblance to those of us still stereotypically marginalized based on our indoctrination of them as memories of inferiority. Our Judas approach to denounce them to appease others and pacify ourselves maintains our separation and our collective ostracization.

It is an adoption of an ideology mimicking an identity conditioned upon us similar to the squabble between house and field personnel. An immigrational surrender of our identity to gain acceptance. Dr. King spoke of governors, some now are freshly minted immigrants I might add, as vicious racist whose lips are dripping with, well their hypocrisy of racism or the eradication of it. Frankly speaking, presidential candidates can be included as well until their ethnicity is challenge as not “white” and then they cry racism which they say does not exist.

However, I would bet white is what they self-identify as on an application when it suits them. This code switching is a form of discriminatory privilege many fail to admit but routinely use such as the term minority or person of color. These minor practices do not obscure the awareness and denial of much more significant normalities and fluctuating definitions of unnecessary labels. They protest the restrictions of racism and subjugated labels only when directly applied to them. Why would it exist for them but not for us when we have a documented archive of its existence for us? They can ban books but history, memories, and truth is a much different story. 

So, August 28, 1963, was the date of Dr. King’s historic speech and more than 60 years later the runway is still not clear for equality to land. Advocates of freedom are not voting for something. We are voting against our forever intertwined destruction. Our collective survival. This is especially true for Blacks, the enemy of those who opposes our interest is a friend not to us but to our interest. Assimilation surrenders an identity which many believe was taken from us centuries ago, but as Dr. King said this is a beginning and not an end.

Our salvation will be our dignity, content of character, and fortitude persevering as our sword to tremble the sentiments of injustice from the ideological delusion of Stone Mountain in Georgia to whatever rock of ideology racist hide behind or under. We have tried a soul force of faith more appropriate for that time. It has proven that the beggars tool benefits only time. So, don’t discredit Dr. King’s dream turning it into a nightmare by our empty talk and celebration. Celebrate his life and legacy sure, but don’t succumb to the relaxation of a partial achievement. Dr. King warned us of this with his words and life 

Nevertheless, his legacy is best celebrated by the actions of people who embody his calls to arms by being about it instead of talking about it. Standing on the ideological business about it. To not be deceived about his dream we must learn about the Dreamer and his speech from his words beyond the sensationalism of a few of the more famous verses. It will inspire you to a greater appreciation for his significance as a sociopolitical force so dangerous he had to be silenced. READ the speech to consume the magnitude of its message so it can never be silenced. Please, don’t sleep on the Dreamer’s message. Humanity has no color only where racism has no place. Hopefully one day we’ll have a Happy MLK Jr Day which is not a dream but a reality!

Thurston K Atlas

Creating a Buzz

Africa’s Incarcerated Liberation

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  Thurston’s Thoughts

Economic Captivity

Africa’s Incarcerated Liberation

Africa’s Incarcerated Liberation is provisional freedom under imposed conditions of autocratic approval. The context of current African events, post-transatlantic slave history, and historical geopolitical atrocities of ideologies long ago presumed abolished still flourishes. Attempts to hide its presence and purpose only expose the ideology’s modus operandi aligned with its prime objective.

So, any glare of scrutiny reveals the deformity of imposed arrangements that accomplish the same result but by far more insidiously disguised methods. The circumference of a circle is the radius of all it encompasses. An ideology’s radius is not full circle because, as various methods may have run their course, the philosophy rotates around its axis tethered to its origin.

Therefore, the ideology has only completed a cycle along its radius. The contemporary cosmetic makeover of exploitation and oppression are inheritances of racism. The liberation from imperialism, colonialism, and captivity is once again substituted with delusions of inclusion, blatant exploitation, and indiscriminate subjugation.

The names and locations remain the same while the method and degree of severity are metered to the level of tolerance, vulnerability, or coercively incentivized leverage. The political and economic arm-twisting extortion is an autonomy and resource shakedown of rippling proportions and stagnation.

Many may suspect this is a reference to their location and circumstances. However true that may be, this is a reference to where, for many of us, the larceny all began in Sub-Saharan Africa. Yet, there is no need to regurgitate centuries of slavery’s atrocities. History is often viewed as the past and negligently absent of the radius of current events.

So, let’s focus on global diplomacy, specifically between 1884 and 1960, dictating the current events. This modern enslavement ideology incognito manifesto is either captivity by economic dependency or suffocation by debilitating sanctions. It is not a ghost or a vile resurrection but, despite denials, a sinister sequel for all to see.

The historical colonialist ideology and ominous expression are evident in the many intrusions currently occurring in Africa. These violations are globally and intentionally omitted and reduced by political propaganda, instigated instability, and guided distractions.

Still, nonetheless, briefly suspending the subjectivity of our reality to assess recent rumblings in Africa objectively reveals the supremacy ideology’s naked encroachment. It is a political, economic, and sociological macrocosm of the historical microcosmic racist replication in practice.

These are global incursions from decisions made not so long ago significantly contributing to global and regional conflicts and abuses of today. These incursions are not ancient history or geriatric grievances but modern-day dilemmas and devastation vindicated by antiquated reasonings. The despicable resumes, characters, and motivations of these social architects and their intent are generally unquestioned but not always known.

The current supposedly diplomatic process reflects the lack of diplomacy in its original purpose. This diplomacy of extortion and extraction has endured time and alteration. The current arrangement generates and sustains insatiable foreign interest, stifling African countries and the whole continent. Obviously, fairness is not considered good diplomacy.

Africa’s stipend from the benefits and development of their resources and wealth accumulation are geo-politically regulated as a domino effect of chattel slavery in practice and ideology adjusted for modern times. So, moving swiftly through history, the foundational premise for current consideration is the present geopolitical disorder in Africa.

The current cycle of historical revelations in Africa is inherited from atrocities committed primarily in the 1900s and well within the range of two generations. The precursor was established in about 1883, including Otto Von Bismarck of Prussia and Germany, “the butcher of the Congo” King Leopold II of Belgium, and The Berlin Conference.

They are the ignition for both world wars, the formation of NATO and the UN, Apartheid, and the current model of economic mugging of the Sub-Saharan African continent. It is characterized by developmental strangulation, pilfering fiscal policies, and embezzlement of political sovereignty. This mugging causes and regulates the stagnation of African progress, infrastructure, and self-determination.

This imperialist coalition and mentality of racist geopolitical directives are internationally and openly tolerated. So, by the strict definitions and mechanisms of superiority psychosis, crimes against humanity, and economic asphyxiation, we can properly establish the lingering geopolitical impact creating the present economic and sociological conditions in Africa and beyond.

Conditions of instability and intentional manipulation orchestrate the question to fit the answer. Instability is the smokescreen offering few options. But does the instability cause the need, or is it created to justify it? Ask yourself, whose objectives are realized? The imbalance reveals the answer as an exploitive business and social blueprint.

These flagrant violations are blatantly displayed strutting across the global stage. These fundamental global observations of current world events mirror many of history’s rogue ideologies. The principles of liberation are only remotely reflected in contemporary political and fiscal dealings with countries in Africa. Examine the practice and principle for the method and mandate.

A brief overview of the policies causing the destabilization of the Sahel region can only be by predisposed social and fiscal design. The coincidental subsidies siphoned reveal a shameful narrative of malicious oppression and subversion. This sabotage cultivates a fertile cycle of social hardship, resource depletion, and wealth heist.

What is the accumulated wealth depletion? Under the promises and cloak of democracy, international assistance, regional development, and security support, the price is no longer worth it. Often, the ulterior motives of exploitation are concealed by smiling faces, glad hands, and righteous postures. The economic three-card monte game slithers as a vicious predator amidst a vulnerable reliance of little resort.

Subsequently, history repeats itself as expectations have again proven to be a fleeting friend and dependency a fatal flaw. The geopolitical coalitions formulated then are still definitively shaping the global landscape. So, let’s explore recent history and present implications to analyze the objectives, methods, and consequences critically.

The vast and tangled web of this foundational diagram is the Berlin Conference or Congo Conference in 1884. It established territorial boundaries, regulated the orderly post-colonialization of Africa, and expulsion of fiscal and political autonomy. This is, by all accounts, allegedly post-chattel slavery.

Otto Von Bismarck, who was the seminal inspiration for Adolf Hitler, assembled the conference. Hitler aspired to return Germany to the greatness it possessed under Bismarck and in rebuke to the crippling Treaty of Versailles. Bismarck believed in blood and iron diplomacy as coercive persuasion for German unification and expansion by conquest, as later did Hitler.

Hitler’s racist inclinations and hatred were significantly honed by the twisted Aryan sentiments of Sir William Jones, Joseph Arthur de Gobineau, and Johann Gottlieb Fichte under Bismarck’s shadow. A direct ideological lineage can be connected from them to Germany’s role in both world wars. Bismarck’s temperature was conquered by all means, similar to the Doctrine of Discovery and several Papal Bull decrees of the Church.

The following century plus of global racism and predatory arrangements were influenced accordingly, especially in the southern hemisphere. European imperialism and Aryan proclivities and immoralities of global parasitic psychosis were disguised and deployed once again. History obscures the significance of Bismarck’s ravage on Africa by bolstering his value to Germany and Europe fostered by a cooperative effort to divvy up and occupy Africa.

The Berlin Conference (1884-1885) hosted by Bismarck at the request of Portugal was mostly to referee trade routes and territorial rights of European intruders pursuing imperialistic conquest in Africa. Next, enter Leopold II, who was appointed ruler of this region, ushering in a revitalized level of brutality and exploitation, including genocide, mutilation, and abduction to compel slave labor.

Leopold killed over ten million Africans as well as the dismemberment of children. Remember, this is not over four hundred years ago but a little over one hundred years ago in the early 1900’s. Ironically, a change in geopolitical appetite ended Leopold’s reign of terror in Africa.

The next period in Europe witnessed a scavenging instability the conference sought to rectify. During the 1910s, the feeding frenzy of ambition and consolidation led to WWI (1914-1918). The conclusion of WWI resulted in Germany being liable and gutted by penalty and debt.

This debilitating condition created the perfect political storm for the rise of the Third Reich, ultimately leading to WWII (1939-1945) and the 1938 Time Magazine Man of the Year’s campaign of anarchy. Diplomatically, the combustive period of the 1910s to 1960 experienced global unrest and unabated conquest.

The incidents of sanctioned consolidation blossomed with the Treaty of Versailles (1919), the Monroe Doctrine (1923), the United Nations (1945), Apartheid (1948), NATO (1949), and many more alliances to consolidate global dominance and control by asserting their dogmatic ideology. It is regulated by power, greed, and imperialistic arrogance. 

The lingering ideologies span the preceding beliefs and prevailing interpretations, postulations, and fabrications of Jones, de Gobineau, and Fichte’s entitlements of imperialistic excuses and misconceptions. Consequently, a post-WWII reality exposing the freedom and democracy protecting hooligans reveals the continuation of the same ideology supplanted by a revised explanation.

The global application is directed primarily at former colonies of colonialism, territories of conquest, and long-suffering lands of predatory exploitation despite their so-called liberation. Even after independence, the global colonizers continued to maintain authority and undue influence, similar to Jim Crow.

The ideology is the enslaver, while the act is the blunt instrument of submission such as force, debt, under-development, geopolitics, and many others to subvert liberation. Liberation is mainly granted to a degree of fading adherence or Africa’s inability to wiggle out from under manufactured obstructions and challenges. Liberation has proven elusive and transactional, although dated for reference.

Mali (1960 France), Niger (1960 France), South Africa (1994 Nationalist Party, 1961 Britain), Libya (1951 Britain) Chad (1961 France), Burkina Faso (1960 France), Ghana (1957 Britain), Guinea (1958 France, 1973 Portugal), Senegal (1960 France), Nigeria (1960 Britain), Namibia (1990 South African Apartheid), and Botswana (1966 Britain).

Unfortunately, there are many more countries in Africa and globally whose presumed liberation is reasonably recent or ignored. Furthermore, this formula is applied unilaterally against those not protected by the coalition of power and privilege.

The trajectory of favor produces drastically different narratives. Therefore, some countries’ liberation and sovereignty are embraced while others are summarily dismissed according to the whims of power. But often and coincidentally, by a spectrum of melanin and lineage.

Without the blessings of power, liberation is granted but conditionally recognized. Therefore, the spin cycle of covert oppression is overtly perpetuated, and violations are disregarded not according to statute but to status. Still, many of Africa’s “liberations” between the fifties and the nineties reveal many such arbitrary emancipations.

That is only twenty-nine to seventy-two years ago. Although relatively modern, it’s been plenty of time for liberation to take hold. So, a current analysis substantiates that the de facto bondages, abuses, and exploitations are deliberately continued. Many African countries are currently members of ECOWAS under French patronage.

This voluntary arrangement is enforced by multi-national troops and NATO as international police serving as the foreign interest protecting muscle. The crux of the problem betrays a voluntary arrangement because why is military force threatened if a sovereign liberated nation wants to withdraw?

Are disrupting food, restricting airspace, isolating by embargo, and imposing electricity sanctions a diplomatic response? A humanitarian response? A Geneva Convention response? Likewise, where is the international outrage? Why does French interest supersede Niger’s best interest in Niger?

Apparently, the swindling of African resources is far more welcomed in France than the African. Why do America and others unflinchingly support France in this mugging of Africa? But, heaven forbid a foreign government would interfere with American or French sovereignty. 

Yet, by comparison, European countries and others are conversely supported with billions in aid and weapons. Their sovereignty and liberty are almost unilaterally supported. So, the global defenders of justice, democracy, and liberation must deem these African countries’ autonomy or arrangements differently from Europeans.

The aid, unconditional support, enabling of abuses, selective enforcement of rights, and wavering fairness overwhelmingly indicate a distinct pattern. Many African nations’ plights are interchangeable, while France’s pattern and reputation is as a devoted offender by plunder, oppression, and history.

The specifics are unconscionable but obviously not inconceivable. France is grandfathered into power as a courtesy of their history and geopolitical maneuverings more than their current military prowess. They are a permanent member of the UN Security Council for this reason. 

They are core obstructionist to sanctions unfavorable to their aligned axis of abuses. As a result, France enjoys certain immunities as a curtsey to a global political façade strung out dependent on resources extracted from Africa. Africa literally keeps the lights on in France and contributes significantly to France’s wealth and prestige.

Therefore, France’s stature is mostly a bloated facade of nostalgic political romanticism and self-aggrandizing hypocrisy. As a pseudo-former slave trader craving Africa’s resources more than the chattel of old in an evolving world where African natural resources are so vital to many, France is unscrupulous.

So-called diplomacy and manipulated desperation are the briefcases for being triple-crossed into coerced seductions and reluctant solicitations as the preferred negotiating manner. But, the lurking method is brute force if disruption threatens foreign ulterior motives.

In particular, France, as a former colonizer, becomes the ECOWAS country’s current overseer, straw-bossing these African estate’s prosperity. The problem has become the improbable solution, except the improbable solution has always been the problem. The international hooligans and their transgressions must be judged by today’s standards when their incriminations are now being committed.

These are by fact, history, and current occurrences executed under autocratic rules and an exploitive ideology dressed a little better and more refined. A staunch unity of humanity, race, religion, decency, and consciousness must reject these exploitations and abuses conducted in any name, nationalism, anger, religion, or ignorance.

What is done to the least of us in the name of most of us takes no courage, just an advantage of power and a depraved mentality. But, dare we expand ourselves from our peepholes and illuminate the undeniable shackles of oppression still panoramically hobbling Africa and others? It is an insult to everyone’s humanity and integrity except for those whose self-identifying sadistic palette requires atrocities.

In which case, Bon Appetit, because atrocities abound. By our resolute and vehement condemnation, all must denounce any appetite for subjugation under any banner claiming any level of fairness, justice, integrity, or humanity. Should not inhumanity be inhumanity despite who commits it? 

Many African Nation’s recent declarations of sovereignty are, in reality, liberation from an ideology whose captivity, abuses, and destruction has spanned hundreds of years. So, despite mainstream national and international media disinterest in African geopolitics and exploitation, we must summon the courage to look, listen, investigate, and analyze the facts.

We must express outrage and categorically condemn these breaches of fundamental sovereignty and humanity. They are destined to invite more direct and collateral damage than actual benefit if not stopped. Consider it far less courage than the courage needed to struggle for economic survival, defend political sovereignty, or declare humanity under multi-national threat.

By what legitimate means does the divine right of life absent oppression not extend to all? Genocide by sanctions, pseudo-diplomacy, or briefcase is no different than by brutality except the method but not the consequence or culpability.

So, like many others, the African must continue to summon the nobility of spirit and identity, which is the foundation of courage. The courage to not self-sabotage, submit to adversity, or enticing hallucinations of empty promises of progress. To take courage in hand and chest to stand resolute in unity and not to repeat the actions of tribalism and feuding that led to our ancestral division and enslavement.

Africa must protect Africa as primarily a solidarity of common purpose, not a separation by differences. Standing unified with your neighbors, although you may have internal disputes to be settled amongst yourself. Africans must not rise up against Africans, period, especially for France. 

The legendary Nigerian must stand with its legacy of pride intact, remembering that last time, it didn’t stop until it was everyone. ECOWAS is what you do if you choose to, but AFRICAN is WHO you are. Be extremely careful of the tool of enslavement using you against you while the puppet master pulls the strings. European commanders used Africans to commit atrocities against other Africans for the misguided benefit of the conquerors.

History only repeats itself where it was not learned the previous time. Now ECOWAS is poised to sanction and threaten an attack on other Africans for the insult of France? After all, has France not committed an insult against Africa? Whose insult is greater, liberation or exploitation?

America recently has experienced a series of labor disputes and strikes to force negotiations for better labor conditions. Is this not also a labor dispute to demand negotiations according to profit and contributions? Why would war, military force, or starvation be the counteroffer to a legitimate labor concern?

If a laborer cannot withdraw their time, exertions, or resources for inadequate compensation, are they liberated? Undoubtedly, the democratic world can applaud and support such an inalienable right and rebellion against tyranny inspired by America’s revolution from British oppression centuries ago.

Seemingly, the African/French arrangement is past its cycle, and the rubber must finally hit the road. It is time for African liberation to display the essence and substance of principle and prosperity with the same terms, conditions, and respect as everyone else. Our actions must negotiate our appraisal and our compromise, not obstruct our autonomy.

Unity of purpose is awakened in Alkebulan to end it where it began. France and the bandits that incite Africa’s oppression and instability must encounter Africa’s unified self-reliance and resistance. Presented as a boulder to broker the best probabilities by collective bargaining of resources. The usual cycle of redistribution by war disguised as a fathom threat, political necessity, or humanitarian purpose of last resort must be avoided.

War reallocates wealth, wealth encourages deprivation, deprivation breeds poverty, poverty attracts subjugation, and subjugation erects justification, which triggers mutual resentment. This cycle causes a reset to protect fiscal, political, and ideological advantages, leading to conflict and resistance opposing change to maintain control and promote stagnation.

These spin cycles of socio-economic agendas transcend national accountability and bootstrapping it to the top. Their imposition generates pretexts by historical controls of coalitions and manipulations. The problem can’t become the answer, while the answer becomes the question, allowing liability and obligation to switch polarities.

The bait and switch follows a prescribed pattern of deceit. When the hidden sponsor of chaos is the savior from that chaos, it insulates the sponsor to prolong the chaos. The deception is a savior’s hologram easily manipulated.

Notwithstanding the previous “liberations,” the ECOWAS is the Economic Community of West African States with fifteen members. It is an economic trade council fostering self-sufficiency through member cooperation, which some members also threaten war and destruction on other members seeking autonomy from France.

The ECOWAS states official languages are French, English, and Portuguese. It is ironic how language reveals past conquests and lingering influences or, more precisely, ideological exposures. African economic stability and development rest on eliminating these influences fiscally and ideologically. 

The African must collectively regulate legacy resources such as gold as other nations do oil, as a true coalition of interests intertwined for African development and prosperity. Any great reward at a future time requires current sacrifice. However, curving time to future prosperity must be geared towards a future time of anticipation and innovation. 

Uranium, Lithium, Cobalt, and other resources are essential for the projected future. But they are also the currency and social exchange for immediate self-sufficiency and development. Unity aligned with strategic coalitions to accelerate facilitating development can be leveraged simply by AFRICA’S protection of its resources.

That is now what the marauders seek. The key is figuring out how to keep from being slapped down in the reinvestment of African capital concentrated comprehensively to produce the industry and infrastructure by tactical economic and political calculation.

The invigoration of African progress is society motivation, investment stimulation, and prosperity accumulation. The difference is these African contributions cost less sacrifice than the arrangement with France, which benefits very few Africans. Besides, any African reinvestment venture swells the African pot for African harvest.

France’s current portfolio, resume, and policy regarding the ECOWAS nations in the year 2023 demonstrate strains of colonialist treachery. What does France provide for what it receives? The gold, uranium, and other resources alone are not enough. France also requires the use of French currency, the French central bank, a military presence, their language, culture, educational indoctrination, and defacing of self-identity.

To strip people of their identity is to assign one to them. Economically suppressing a people by deprivation, scarcity, or regulation of necessities solidifies the population’s dependency. The nation’s dependency is achieved by debt and underdevelopment concealed as hope. Therefore, the misconception of assistance is the trap of dependency multiplied by fifteen countries and an entire region.

There has been some progress and benefit, but the arrangement now has been rejected. The routine plight of the ECOWAS nations striving to grasp the prize always held just out of reach along with the fruits of their wealth generation is over. Some ECOWAS nations are among the poorest nations in the world. This poverty exists despite the richness of natural resources, which repeatedly and disproportionately do not benefit them.

By the way, the United States has a military base in Niger and an unconditional full diplomatic support for France. With France, the United States, and others present in Niger for years now, why has terrorist not been neutralized? If terrorists are causing the instability, would increasing the stability depend on decreasing the terrorists? So, the continuing instability justifies the foreign presence.

Likewise, by extenuation, are the terrorists serving a purpose? Without them, another reason for occupation must be contrived. Nevertheless, the web still spirals. The cloak of global domination and power has proven to be too irresistible and problematic a garment to shed. So it continues. Consequently, the chaos of conquest continues unabated but not undetectable.

Evidently, other major global players of dysfunctional concealments, such as the IMF, World Bank, United Nations, and NATO, provide cover, proving justice must truly be blind. Accomplices are the World Courts of Human Rights, economic councils, international courts, and many others by selective outrage, hollow authority, or cowardly apathy. 

Apparently, by observation, their mission statements are selectively applied, willfully ignored, or, worst, illicitly complicit. Authority absolved cannot overlook, facilitate, concede, or commit the very violations they were created to adjudicate, oppose, penalize, or eliminate, even if they don’t enforce them.

They are not part of the solution but protectors of the problem, which now includes them. These co-collaborators weld fiscal, governmental, judicial, or humanitarian malfeasance to administer buddy passes, winks, and nods of acquiescence. These co-collaborators ignore violations or facilitate abuses as guardians shielding the violators and their interests.

IMF’s purpose is monetary stabilization of currencies, growth, and prosperity. Still, it fosters debt and allows policies contrary to its purpose. The World Bank fights poverty through development and capital investment but is plagued by favoritism and curious transactions.

The UN has disappointed miserably in its purpose of international peace and security by forsaking human rights and humanitarian compassion while seemingly oblivious to economic, ethnic, and sovereign violations. International law and fairness are decimated by the collusion of powerful security council nations and some others’ partiality preventing unilateral accountability, sanctions, or actions of remedy by a singular vote of obstruction.

Too often, NATO is the antithesis of crisis management by fostering instability, crisis, and exploitation. Their force is the puppet master’s shield and sword protecting fraudulent interests based on illegitimate geopolitical agendas. Many other international organizations are paper tigers with hollow authority or little fortitude, but must their voice or outrage also be hollow?

The answer is apparently very hollow and discretionary, depending on who the offender or victim may be. This moral corruption discredits and sabotages the integrity of the process and intent by selective enforcement and colonial alliances of imperialistic mentalities. France, Britain, and the United States have stirred the pot of oppression for centuries. 

Not to isolate them from other foreign marauders like Portugal, Spain, Germany, and Belgium by misdeeds but only by current power to orchestrate massive instability, predatory obstructions, and authoritarian directives. ECOWAS nations yield fifty percent of their gold to France’s central bank for the privilege of being exploited by the mandatory use of the French Franc.

Now imagine all these international organizations being unaware of France’s bevy of violations. What can be the only logical answer? Even the clear-cut declarations of the Geneva Convention violations are ignored without a whimper of international outrage. I wonder if the loophole is only if war is declared or not.

To further the discrepancy, a different response and reasoning is applied for the same circumstances committed by a different group. For example, Niger’s coup was against its leader. Still, France swole up offended by a liberated country they have no legitimate proxy over. Yet, rebuking France’s colonialist residue is considered an assault on France.

War is inhumane, but exploitation and inhumanity are a declaration of or an invitation to war, which eventually results in conflict and resistance as the only options. However, a staunch back with courage intact can be the only answer if it is the only solution. The imperialistic exploitation of supremacy ideologies of the early twentieth century cycles out as its grip of global ignorance wanes.

So, consider the impact on France’s fiscal stability, the Olympic Games in France in 2024, the denouncing of colonialist proclivities of greed and exploitation, or the default futility of a piranha-like feeding frenzy of aggression defending the indefensible. France must decide since they left Africa no other choice, but now France’s choices are limited to African decisions.

This is an economic and moral dilemma for France and their dependency on exploiting resources and a fifty percent gold tariff on the ECOWAS. It is time to renegotiate the terms, diplomatically, of course. Ultimately, French etiquette must prevail unconditionally, yielding to African political sovereignty, fiscal resuscitation, and wealth retention.

Otherwise, the emerging projection is a global conflict and regional instability to maintain a century-old imperialistic Bismarck ideology of a world structure and perspective that no longer can exist or should exist. The time has certainly come to weigh the consequences. Time is not in a bottle of old but urgently upon us. Now, the answer to this has become the question.

In whose name can France be defended? Not even Bismarck’s name. Please make no mistake about it, Africa’s incarcerated liberation continues the racist colonialist ideology rooted not only in history but right before our eyes. It is crystal clear for those who would only take a glancing look.

 Are these the kind of policies or actions, regardless of the ethnicity of the victim, we can condone to protect the economic exploitation of a sizable portion of a continent and humanity? This geopolitical slavery is not from long ago or unknown, so all that remains is liberation in practice and observance. 

Liberation is not transactional as a reflection of fiscal, political, or cultural surrender but a declaration of humanity. History will bear witness to us as it has stood against those before us. We must recognize the unilateral sovereignty and humanity of others to ensure ours. The passion is in the persuasion and not the perspective.

It undoubtedly should not be punishment for daring to better African nations with African resources. Everyone else not oppressed is allowed, and now so will Africa, not by permission but by declaration. Today, a clash of history, ethnicity, religion, or ideology must not devolve into a default response of destruction or display of power but cooperation and compromise of persuasion.

The world is trembling from the addiction to inhumanity and exploitation that must address the compulsions of ignorant ideologies promoting inhumane directives. Otherwise, resentment, rebuke, and rebellion are inevitable. Any apprentice of power must know, eventually, that the dignity of rebellion swells the courage to rise up, transcending fear and control.

The courage to resist instead of cowering in the safety of servitude and exploitation is intrinsic when pushed to the brink. We should all be afraid of what or who we will become if we are indifferent to the plight of others either by our hand, on our behalf, or in our view. But equally important, who are they made to become by us? Life and dignity of life must be mutually maintained.

The world is quick and definitive to stand with others. Perhaps it is time for the radius of concern to encompass the African. If not, don’t cry about who does or when ties are severed. That cycle is over. A new cycle has begun. Now, who dares stand with Africa and Justice against atrocities of geopolitical extortion? I do, do you?

 

 

 

Playing your game baby

Tilted Playing Field

In the course of consensual indulgences for mutual benefit, sometimes the balance between expectations and consideration requires a renegotiation by duress if not otherwise forthcoming. For example, suppose you provide a service, and there is an insufficient acknowledgment of the value of that service. In that case, your contribution is dismissed as incidental or unnecessary to the successes or is interchangeable. The “commodity” is the foundation of a product or service.

However, devoid of the benefit of unobstructed advancement on merit, it resonates as capricious gratitude being allowed to partake in the process, not the benefit. This dampens ambition by despair due to lack of opportunity. By evaluating contributions, ambition rises above participation, breaching the levee of limitations for more meaningful recognition and reward for contributing to others’ achievements.

Imagine the “commodity” is human labor and specialized talents or skills honed and proven to be the foundation of the product or service provided, which otherwise could not be offered with the same quality. So the “commodity” and the capital are codependent, with the capital possessing the majority of the power, decision making, and designations. With the missing ingredient being capital or seed money to sustain the liquidity of the operation’s existence, talent is dependent. It is a consensual understanding for a mutual benefit until the arrangement has progressed beyond the original terms or either becomes no longer necessary.

The original terms being firmly at the discretion of the capital providers refusing to mitigate the conditions leaves two options. Express dissatisfaction while bemoaning for change and patiently waiting for redress or removing yourself and your contribution from the scenario. Patiently bemoaning at least provides participation while disassociation invites replacement.

To better understand the options, if the “commodity” is disrupted and irreplaceable, the capital would be more amenable to the changes to preserve their interest and investment. But, on the other hand, if disassociation of talent is tendered, a viable option would have to be available. Perhaps made available by your ingenuity having everything except the capital, but what if you had a succession plan, the resolve, and the capital. Then what?

The enterprising spirit undertaken to create the situation you decided to separate from is the calculated risk needed. It is the same spirit that can propel your ambitions forward. Why can’t you do for yourself what you were doing for someone else? Uncertainty? Of what? Like Heavy D and the Boys rapped, “We got our own thang.” Get up and do your thang.

You can witness a movement, be part of a movement, start a movement, or be the movement. The movement is to increase the residual benefits of actions already undertaken by doing them somewhere else or leveraging the prospect of doing so elsewhere. So, quit pump faking when you can take your shot. Deliver unto yourself what you request in vain and wait indefinitely to be provided. The inducement has been profoundly provoked and repeatedly aggravated. To remain is a choice.

This applies to any situation you may find yourself confronted with, but I have something specific in mind. Everything is irrational when first proposed if the possibility is foreign or uncomfortable, but not to the fearless visionary and cold calculator. Sports are a melding of many facets of life and bonding. It also generates billions of dollars on the collegiate and pro levels, not to mention merchandise and gambling implications.

According to the US Department of Education, there are 107 HBCU’s operating in the United States. Those with D1 athletic programs in football and basketball can upset collegiate athletics by a swing in the “commodity” they attract. For example, the flamboyant visionary mind of Coach Prime with the brazen audacity to think we can compete with the big boys first by recruitment and then by performance has proven the premise.

With the advent of NIL’s and the transfer portals, the landscape of HBCUs resources, valuations, and academic outreach can multiply with two changes. The ability to accommodate the expansion and attract the “commodity.” The “commodity” or student-athletes have an opportunity to affect social justice simply by where they choose to play sports.

If enough talent commits, national recognition and championships will follow the talent. What Black talent provides to most of the largest universities in the country, some with racist and slavery participating histories, they can provide to the institutions created as a refuge combating Black people exclusion from education.   

Furthermore, an accurate portrayal of history would undoubtedly be encouraged and transparency less problematic, not to mention the cultural affirmation. The insidious and exploitive undertones enjoyed by non-HBCUs can be converted to create a legacy of athletics, academics, and resources. Essentially, an irrepressible movement. Black Lives Matter should mean that Black Talent Matters and where that talent is displayed. NIL especially makes this lucrative for individual athletes and HBCUs. 

The resources, sponsorships, amenities, media coverage, merchandise, fame, and more will be flooded upon the athletes of current pioneers like Coach Prime, Rampaging Eddie George, and others who establish this transformative opportunity. The legendary Coach Eddie Robinson comes to mind, among others, as a keeper of the aspiration until the circumstance were ripe as they are now. Time has taken its place and this space and time are unprecedented. However, if some would not support or respect the freedom of choice now prevalent in collegiate sports, we could fill that void by creating solutions to satisfy our needs. 

The rallying cry would certainly be answered by former pros, HOF players, volunteers, business leaders, businesses, academics, and celebrities to pridefully coach and mentor HBCU talent. The response and support can revitalize the surrounding businesses, community, and campuses with the talent concentrated. Entertainment and concerts could be incorporated to generate additional revenue sharing and venue fees. Fundraisers similar to Farm Aid, Telethons, and We are the World can be organized to benefit HBCUs directly. Consider if a musician made a smash fire song and donated the proceeds to HBCUs or if many artists did the same. What about a tour?

There is no limit to the possibilities of concerts, Versus type events such as sponsored by Tim and Beatz, or live streaming prospects. The fashion and culture statement popularizing HBCU gear would leave no doubt about what culture we promote. Make HBCU apparel as popular as Timberland boots or other designer items so coveted and supported by Blacks. The elevation of aspirations requires that we make the fashion instead of just wearing it, becoming producers instead of just consumers. The impact would be directed towards achieving the goal we so willingly protest for but are unwilling to support using our economic muscle. 

The resulting entrepreneurial initiative and investment would ensure a vibrant microcosm of prosperity similar to Black Wallstreet, providing allowances for student subsidies, facility improvements, and overall Black condition. I propose making Juneteenth a fundraising event for HBCUs, giving the date meaning and producing practical gains instead of the current masquerade.

Celebrating Juneteenth by stimulating the economy for all and purchasing t-shirts adds zero meaning or purpose to this hollow holiday. Why not gather resources instead of spending them? Why not embrace a resolution to harvest measurable progress towards real Black freedom? The masses of ordinary people possess the power when moving in unison as a concentrated initiative. 

Supporting HBCUs would expand academic growth, producing more representation in politics, medicine, business, and investments. If the programs are not offered, create them. If they exist, improve them to rival the best offered anywhere. Internships would supplement the educational value with practical guidance and experience.

Talent is the innovation and equalizer when appropriately focused. Self-awareness is knowing where the self ends and being aware of circumstances beyond yourself having an impact on a grand scale. It is not about you but the future of us. Talent and how it is utilized tilts the playing field like nothing else. Look at Nike. The representation of talent is what they really sell. 

Talent can create ownership and distribution percentages shared across the HBCU spectrum to schools other than the D1 participants to dominate the other divisions or benefit from the D1 capital successes. So why is inclusion in someone else’s prosperity more important at the exclusion of your own because they have finally accepted your talent or revenue for their benefit?

To build the social justice sought, protesting in the streets has its limitations. Protest in the pockets, balance sheets, fiscal projections, and boardrooms provides quantitative incentives and deterrents. In addition, HBCUs would be open to whoever chose to enroll there, fully embracing all contributions as valuable to its success.

Those who benefited can tithe a percentage of their prosperity. The investment generating returns, loosely structured, similar to a student loan or donation, would secure the opportunity for those who follow. The Fab Five shook college basketball to its core. Phi Slama Jama 82 to 84 and Georgetown Hoyas from 84 to 91 frightened the NCAA basketball world.

Consider Larry Bird went to Indiana State and singlehandedly put them on the map and himself on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Nothing before or since, just the power of one player. The point is they will find you. Imagine the possibilities at an HBCU with the top talents of today consolidated. We can make Black History and establish legacies at this pivotal moment of change. Think like a boss and become the movement that shapes the future with generational reverberations. 

Likewise, pro football is especially vulnerable. Are you ready for some NFL football, the conversation that is? Let’s talk about creating an Equity Football League, a league where fairness is the standard, not the comparison. Fairness is a standard, while equality is a comparison.

A standard is easier to assess and apply being static, while a comparison is fluid by nature and subject to the changing criteria of evaluation. Impartiality should be oblivious to considerations deprived of fairness and exclude incidental irrelevancies. The Brian Flores lawsuit has pulled back the curtain on what many persons associated with the NFL already knew to be true, ownership bias exists.

 

To further extend the conversation to the pros, there seems to be an ongoing devaluation of Black’s contribution beyond the “commodity” phase proven by lack of head coaching, management, and ownership representation. The new league ownership could be constituted as a Corp, LLC, Social Club Membership, a service contract and exotic Reit, or hybrid player/public owned with revenue sharing.

Maybe owned and distributed through blockchain or subscription. Games can be played at HBCU stadiums with HBCU bands as paid entertainment or other celebrity entertainment. The players acquired from the college pipeline and free agent NFL players. Coaching and management from the excluded ranks of the NFL and college. 

It is nearly impossible to envision Black ownership in the NFL, likewise a fair percentage of Black management and head coaches where nary an eyebrow is raised either way. However, we don’t have another fifty or sixty years to wait. The Black quarterback has largely silenced the conversation of qualification and opportunity, but ownership still eludes Blacks.

It was once taboo to even imagine a Black quarterback, but now it is common. The Black NFL players and coaches directly contribute to the head coach’s success, only not to be rewarded for their contribution to that success with head coaching opportunities. Compensated but not represented in terms of a fair opportunity at the pinnacle. The compensation is not proportionate with the revenue generated because ownership is forbidden.

Suppose a Black owner was initiated in the NFL. Perhaps the top talent’s gravitation would prefer them as a destination even at a discount but assured by the talent accumulated to dominate the Superbowl and create a dynasty. Not only would it disrupt the league, owner’s valuations, and the gambling industry, it would force the NFL adaptation to remain competitive.

Being refused ownership, the alternative would be to start your own league, draining them of the talent pool they take for granted. With the entertainment value depleted, the revenue would soon follow with waning interest. Then, at the absolute best, a prosperous alternative league would emerge or a merger expanding the NFL to include the Black ownership and players.

With seventy percent of the NFL players of color, what would the NFL value be to compete with a league that gained a sizable percentage of that talent? The NFL would have to pay extreme premiums to retain the talent, further enriching the athletes depleting their monopoly, needing the “commodity” to survive financially, and increasing the number of professional players to fill the void. The goal is to create fairness, ownership participation, and redistribution of wealth, not segregation. 

There is precedent for Blacks creating their own equity and entities to rival any others using leverage and intelligence. Reginald F. Lewis was as respected as any American businessman of the highest degree.  His ownership and entrepreneurial initiative were demonstrated and achieved during a more tumultuous and discriminatory time than now becoming one of the richest Black men in modern America during the 1980s. He was the first Black American to build a billion-dollar company, TLC Beatrice International Holdings Inc. 

Furthermore, there are sports examples where alternative Black enterprises and individuals leveraged talent, intelligence, and dignity to retort exclusion. The Negro League produced teams comparable and superior to MLB and an influx of talent, including Jackie Robinson. The Harlem Globetrotters is another example, including the likes of Wilt Chamberlain. The Living Legend Jim Brown rebuked ownership in his prime to dispel any misconception they controlled his dignity.

We can assemble those with the capital to circumvent the NFL ownership structure by collective endeavor and creative financing. The diversity of this effort would ensure its success. Suppose Black billionaires such as Robert Johnson of BET fame, Robert F. Smith of the investment world, media giants Byron Allen and Oprah Winfrey, Shawn Carter and Beyonce, Rihanna, and Tyler Perry invested capital and knowledge.

Furthermore, if Magic Johnson, Daymond John, Serena Williams, and an endless rollcall of billionaires and millionaires not conflicted by race contributed capital. All recognizing a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity bringing a degree of accomplishment, venture capital, public money, and expertise to the table. They represent a diversity of industries able to mobilize their influence and forte in addition to capital. 

Be advised that the burden is not theirs but ours. Black leadership does not relieve us of our responsibility as a grassroots movement complementing them. We cannot rely on others, despite their color, to deliver us without our exertion as a base of engaged solidarity. There is strength in numbers, especially when resolute in objective. This is our duty to be unyielding and unified.

No contribution is too small. The sixties protest was successful for one reason, solidarity of spirit and purpose. We must be willing to risk confrontation of interest to achieve an objective. Fairness is a form of respect and likewise is assured by earning it or taking it. Anything given stands to be taken away by the giver. Thus, the creation of formidable industries demands respect and discourages opposition.    

Any creation of industries as outlets for talent and opportunities fairly distributed rejecting status quo biases provides economic empowerment and social redress. The fourteen plus percent of the Black population is significant enough to send a shiver through the economic landscape.

Utilizing our 1.6 trillion purchasing power no longer scattered promotes social justice and fairness using the language of money. Merchandising, supply chains, cable, and television rights through Black venders would diversify the benefit to Black prosperity and education. So, enter the fray with dollars in hand and resolve on display.

Once done, the challenge to their product, revenue stream, tax base, and lease obligations would humble their restrictions allowing fairness by necessity with their capital no longer needed. But unfortunately, the ongoing impulse to endure unfavorable conditions negates the possibilities of new horizons for those who are visionary and bold.

If they are so fond of a tilted playing field, then accommodate them with a tilted field but in our favor this time. I am sure there will be no hard feelings in a free market society of the fittest. The winds of change are blowing strongly. We should not resist but set our sails with the wind.

Their arrogant taunt and empty promises are if you don’t like it, what can you do about it but complain? That is where they made a colossal miscalculation if our courage to create an alternative league surpasses the frustration of exclusion from their club’s hierarchy. A King rose out of an unlikely challenge when David slew the giant Goliath. The mighty can be brought to heel with a well-placed blow.

The NFL has a very shortsighted vision of their business model or an overwhelming concession to prejudice and exclusion, dismissing the value of fairness to the “commodity.” There are many Goliaths to be slain. Track and field is another area of concentration that HBCUs could benefit from significantly. The rise of or rather suppression of women’s sports by lack of funding is also a social and economic opportunity for women to capitalize while also elevating their craft. 

The spirit of education, ownership, and self-determination manifested the HBCU to counter the exclusion from educational pursuits with no choices before that weren’t rampant with discrimination. By our ancestor’s power and tenacity, HBCUs were founded in the mid-1800s, with the first being Cheyney University of Pennsylvania in 1837.

Knowing the Black struggle, sufferings, and sacrifices to produce the higher learning institutions of the HBCU makes them our original Alma Mater. Therefore, HBCUs are our Alma Mater by vision, if not by attendance. 

We have always been welcome at our own thang, our HBCUs when no other would accept us. Remember that when it is time to pledge your services. Talent consolidation leads to comprehensive self-determination by revenue generation. Given the Black athletic talent and revenue generated, why do HBCUs struggle for sustainability or resources if not forsaken by the very people it was created to empower. The shameful allegiance to and exploitation by these other institutions of Black talent robs HBCUs.

If you want to protest something, protest that, by choosing who cultivated your future before you knew you had one. That is a practical step toward social justice, education, and economic viability using supply, demand, and exclusivity. It is not racial. It is business. It is not segregation. It is self-determination. It is our new business model for redistributing the wealth earned from our labor and talent. Same for the entertainment and music industries.

If the business model resembles what has been historically used against us, I can assure you that it is coincidental and sanctioned by comparison. Otherwise, they should not practice it. So consider it playing their game, their rules, but to our benefit this time. In addition, a tax-deductible donation would direct resources to HBCUs from taxes you would pay otherwise to the IRS.

There is no need to beg for fairness when you can provide yourself justice. Give your product or service the value you have provided theirs, and it will attract resources and customers, especially if marketed correctly, providing residual value to the patrons in addition to yourself. They pay to see the “commodity,” not the owners.

If you build it, they will come but more importantly, make sure you come because we already have our own thang and the talent to stock it. We are not commodities to be traded on the open market or paraded at a combine for white owners to choose from, like a slave auction to enrich themselves by our labor. Support our thang.

Start at the roots, HBCU. Let’s support Black ownership, wealth creation, and HBCUs with Black talent and resources. Talent is our leverage and venture capital to use wisely. Remember, there is no need to beg. But, there is a need to do. Now, what team are you playing for, the beggars or the doers?

Thurston K. Atlas 

Creating A Buzz