i celebrities final

In this installment, we explore the global phenomenon of modern police brutality, and note its origins in the media.










We as a 'wired' society know that this authoritarian brutality exists on almost every continent of our precious planet. What we don't know as a society are the factors that contribute to these events. One such issue is media representation and underrepresentation. Typically, Americans receive their national and international information via televised news. So do many other 'developed' nations. What stories are being told? From whose perspective? At what cost?

One of the most crucial, televised conflicts in modern human history is that between Israel and Palestine. Israel being a Jewish state, and Palestine an Arab state. Here are the media's negative views of both nations (Arab and Israeli respectively):







Now, the most negative Israeli media I could find was a collection of UN documents. Pretty clandestine material, not publicized to any great degree. On the other hand, we have decades worth of negative Arab imagery, at present actively vilified. Which lends itself to behavior like this as U.S. soldiers 'police' Arab nations:





The same dynamic plays out for anyone vilified well enough:














The news outlets have access to information not privy to the public, but outlets answer to the federal government. Where does the power lie to change these views? What keeps change from surfacing?

"Each news outlet, whether its FOX News or MSNBC has resorted to preaching to its own choir as opposed to objectively presenting the news. Meanwhile, ethnic media sites have also penetrated the marketplace, offering yet another alternative to the mainstream news. While this has resulted in a more diverse media landscape, especially for minority communities who have for years felt underrepresented and largely ignored by the mainstream media, it comes at a cost.

That cost: Collectively we are not coming to the table with an established set of facts. Based upon the outlets we frequent, we are getting divergent information, and there is a growing uncertainty on whether there is an objective truth anymore. The other cost: We are quickly devolving into various tribes as opposed to one electorate.

You could argue those tribes have always existed. And you would be right. But my point is that the current state of American journalism is furthering that gap as oppose to shrinking it."

"There's no doubt that polarization matters,” said David Wilson, a political psychologist. “The problem with the news media is it all depends on your perspective.”-- Devona Walker @theloop21.com


Which brings this expose to a close on one truth: Citizens are being led to separate conclusions by the media. Which brings us to one question, the same question: why? The answer: to force consent.

In none of the police brutality videos does anyone say "no" to them, even though they know what is happening is illegal. Somehow, the people find a way to submit. How can all these different people around the world be influenced to consent to being beaten? How can all of these different people around the world don a uniform be influenced to beat, maim, torture, and kill? Programming:




Remain Villains--

Reflect on my Eternal

These feelings, emotions - hard to describe it/
And me, I'm a scribe and/
This thing is primal, tribal, insightful/
Cuz you as cute as Fieval, delightful, likeable/
A-Alike for life, it's fun to be just like you/
I love your dark skin and hair - and how your smile lights you/
From every different angle/
Our souls are tangled, never to be pulled apart, estranged, mangled/
Your voice in my ear is like the clanging of bangles/
To the touch: soft-hot, like hell birthed an angel/
But heaven works within you, how could I contain you?/
The distance between us - gets pretty painful/
But the sun shines behind you like a pretty rainfall/
There ain't enough words to say all/
Pictures to display all/
Poems to explain all/
Near you, I stay awed/
Audiences say, "Awww..."
My love eternal, who I would slay for/
You're a flower...a river...a rainbow/

Here Comes Everybody (4th book)

I do not like this book at this preliminary juncture. Perhaps I am being too stand-offish. I should say first that I commend Clay Shirky for documenting the effect current technology has on the generation gap and the new society birthed from said effect. However, there is so much societal history that is not accounted for in Shirky's book. The class stratification in the Americas and the consequent differences in access to information, these are the important caveats that work against the urgency of Shirky's argument that the changes in society stem from the changes in communication. Not including history in "changes in society" defeats itself as history tends to repeat itself, regardless of technological advances. Hopefully reading on will change my feelings about the book. We will see.

-- Literary Villainy..

Everyday Hero..

More than anything, a hero needs to overcome some impossible odds to meet their greatness. The everyday hero I chose can be visited on about any day at 512 w. 143rd st. in Harlem. He is the co-founder of The Brotherhood component of The Brotherhood-SisterSol nonprofit organization. His name is Khary, my brothers and I call him 'K'.

Khary Lazarre White is a Harlem entrepreneur and philanthropist. However, his biggest and arguably most important title is as CEO of Brotherhood-SisterSol, an organization he started 15 years ago while still at Brown University.

The non-profit program, which provides a holistic wrap-around service (social, educational, employment etc) for at-risk youth in Harlem, has an impressive success rate - 95 percent of its students are college graduates or working full time. To date, nearly 500 students have gone through the program. It's this statistic, helping to empower an astonishing number of young men and women of color to overcome impossible odds, that makes Khary a hero. Elevated to everyday status by continuing his work in the neighborhood he lives in, a buoyant solution moving with purpose in an ocean of problems.

-- Of course a hero is the precursor to my villainy..

One Pen To Rule Them All

Cut you with what I got, off the top like a barber/
Black History like Malcolm, you George Washington Carver/
Cause for alarm like I traded arms with DARPA/
Multiple arms: Doc Ock v. Peter Parker/
You knew from the start that you ain't want no parts of/
These mystical arts, lyrical darts to the heart son/
The origin of tough, like Chuck Norris' father/
Big bang, small package; snub-nosed revolver/
Orangutang thunderstorm, Gorilla Monsoon/
Wrote this with a pen I found up in Mount Doom/
Hot as friction with the writtens - 'you'll find that it's quite cool'/
I'm dismissing your admissions to lyrically fly schools/
While my curriculum is killing 'em, homicide haikus/
Your pedagogy is sloppy, you best to copy my cues/
Ram3 - hit by a bus, he might bruise/
A gangstas gangsta - like the girl in a gang that fights dudes/

Avatar and Humanity

One can view the film Avatar by James Cameron as commentary on environmental issues. Such a view only scratches the surface. The environmental issues in real-life are staggering in not only their stupidity, but also in their evolution. The environmental issue is based upon the economic issue which is based upon the fundamentally flawed source of all these symptomatic concerns: the ideal of human progression. It's the empirical history of human society that permeates Avatar, the kind of society that allows Christopher Columbus to 'discover' and destroy the Taino and Arawak nations and be celebrated. The society we live in now is built upon the ideologies of men and women bent on subjugating 'the other'. This is the core of the film for me. In regards to its effect on environmentalism, minimal, since Pandora is nowhere near real. However, it may shine some light on some of the mining situations around the world, but even those have class and race issue at their core.

-- Villainy..

In.Fluence vrs. 3

Flow never the same twice - I alternate live/
Schitzophrenic spitter - I alternate lives/
American Terrorist, when I terrorize/
Sounds like Uptown Saturday Night 1-9-7-9/
That's me, globe traveler grew up latchkey/
Real recognized real, and you looking mechanized/
Like Cycloptic fiber optics in Megatron's eyes/
Gangster Nerd, I cast the die with equivalent sides/
Which means I always win, which means I never die/
Ferris Bueller of rap - I don't slack, I scheme through it/
If getting free was a movie - this was the theme music/
Soundtrack to 'Why not sell Ki's"/
How not to be a Square Enix and roll with LC's/
Watching my Little Brother spit and record an LP/
What's real? What's The Matrix - you tell me/
I just write Psyence Fiction, U-N-K-L-E/