Sunday, March 06, 2022

REVIEW: King Richard (2021) #YetundePrice


“As we got closer to Venus’s birth, it seemed like every three or four days Oracene would go to the hospital. Finally, they said she was ready to deliver, and I took her to have Venus. As I was putting on the gown and slippers to go to the labor room, I started thinking about all the things I wanted Venus to do—to play tennis, to be educated, to be a certain kind of person. Then I thought about what that little baby was going to experience if she was going to do all that. She was going to go through all of the prejudice I had been through. She was going to be called names. She was going to be called “nigger.” I could visualize it all, and I didn’t want that for my child. Suddenly, I couldn’t bear for Venus to come into this world. Not that I didn’t love her. Of course I did. I didn’t love what she would have to go through—and if there was any way I could have stopped it, I would have. I started to yell. Pain tightened my chest and sweat poured off me like I was having a massive heart attack. My life rose up to haunt me and I couldn’t bear my child having to go through what I experienced. The nurses wanted to know what was wrong, but I couldn’t share with them what was happening inside me.”
- Richard Williams 

I generally avoid Hollywood’s “holiday” blockbusters (see: Django Unchained - Christmas 2012; American Sniper - Christmas 2014; SHAFT - July 4th, 1971) and films with predominantly black casts. The System of White Supremacy demands that black people be depicted as criminal, sexually sinister buffoons who must be governed by Whites. I was uncharacteristically excited for the “Thanksgiving” release of King Richard, a biopic detailing the origins of two of the world’s greatest tennis players and most well known Victims of White Supremacy, Venus and Serena Williams. And then, I was uncharacteristically impressed and appreciative. It’s a rare thing to sit through 2 hours of of black affection and self-respect. 

They’re no spoiler alerts here because we all know how the Williamses’ story concludes: Two gorgeous black females revolutionize and dominate women’s tennis and professional sports globally. Despite their unparalleled accomplishments, Venus and Serena continue to be brutalized by the System of White Supremacy. In fact, during a 2012 visit to Nigeria, Serena told an audience, “the greatest obstacle we had faced were those who at this stage caused racial uproar.” 

And with so much Williams domination, Racists have roared. 

King Richard is restricted to the pre-champion, adolescent days when Richard Williams, depicted by “Fresh Prince” Will Smith, and then-wife Oracene Price, portrayed by the lovely Aunjanue Ellis, invested maximum time and energy to develop their two tennis prodigies. A 10-part series may be insufficient to cover the ceaseless and trifling attacks targeting the entire Williams family from the White aristocracy of tennis. An abbreviated list of malice includes: 

  • Relentless, unfounded allegations that Richard Williams pre-determined the winner when his daughters faced each other. The two ran roughshod over the White girls of the WTA for better part of two decades and faced each other 9 times in a Grand Slam finals or the WTA Championship. Whites were certain the uncouth black dad instructed one daughter to lose on purpose. 
  • Indian Wells, March 2001. 19-year-old Serena took the crown, trouncing Kim Clijsters and a boorish crowd of thousands of unruly Whites. Spectators believed Mr. Williams “selected” Serena as the winner and made 20-year-old Venus withdraw with a sham ailment. Serena boycotted the event for over a decade, while Venus never returned. 
  • Being twice as good, paid half as much. Maria Sharapova is White, and that’s about all she has on Serena. Apparently, that’s enough. The two played 22 times. Serena won 20. Sharapova’s nabbed 36 WTA singles championships. 73 for Serena. Winning be damned, Sharapova consistently made $10 million more from endorsements per year than Serena.
  • Regularly referenced as males (or worse). In 2014, Russian Tennis Federation President Shamil Tarpischev branded the tennis icons “the Williams brothers.” Tarpishcev is a part of a White Supremacist chorus that dehumanizes black males and females. In 2001, Sid Rosenburg called the sisters “animals who should be banned from playing on the women's tennis tour.” 

White Supremacy and championships abound in the Williamses’ biographies. Although King Richard couldn’t make time for all of this, the dramatization poignantly captures the fears, horrors, vulnerability, and labor of attempting to parent black children in a System of Racism. 

The film delivers numerous bloody conflicts between Mr. Williams and a cadre of young black male criminals. They make lewd comments towards his daughters and terrorize and assault Mr. Williams. The father and coach wrote an autobiography (Black and White The Way I See It), which confirms this violence. Mr. Williams adds that he deliberately relocated Serena and Venus to a sleazy, vicious region of Compton because the “ghetto makes you tough and strong—unless it doesn’t do anything for you at all but get you killed.” 

Between episodes of black hooliganism, there’s one moment where the vulnerability of black parents is exposed at the hands of White people. Mr. Williams and his soon-to-be-famous daughters return from practice to find a White female social worker flanked by armed White enforcement officers. The film suggests a snooping black neighbor instigated this intrusion. The White officials “needed to look” at the household, and, presumably, the nefarious activities of the black inhabitants. For decades, White Women - under the guise of “child welfare,” have flexed state authority to deposit untold numbers of Serenas, Venuses and Minister Malcolm X's (and his siblings) into ghastly depositories for black children. 

Smith gives a remarkable performance, and this scene is magnificent. Mr. Williams rules his household even in the presence of a blond White Woman and badge wielding White lawmen. He and Ms. Price invite inspection of their young savants and parenting techniques. Mr. Williams brags about being “hard” on his daughters before challenging the officers to arrest the [White] “parents at them tennis matches.” See Indian Wells. 

The film offers several sly glimpses of White parents berating their tweeners for poor backhands and wide serves, or simply telling a child to lie to escape defeat. Beyond sportsmanship, audiences see Mr. Williams’ vigilant observations of tennis star Jennifer Cappriatti, who debuted in professional tennis at the age of 13. Watching the White teen sensation’s narcotics arrest swayed Williams’ approach to shaping the genesis of his daughters’ unprecedented careers. Black girls aren't allowed a “second serve” for mistakes of youth.

This 2+ hour epic provides a heap of supremely captivating moments. As Venus and Serena begin amassing one of the greatest trophy halls in history, they read the first newspaper reports of Venus’s accolades while the 1991 video of the late Rodney King being bludgeoned by Los Angeles Police Department officers distracts their parents. This scene is beautifully executed with the children facing away from the television, their jubilee undisturbed. Meanwhile, Ms. Price musters the feeble hopes of a black parent in a System of White Supremacy when she tells her husband: “At least they got them on tape this time.” 

Again, no spoilers. We know having video of King being mauled meant nothing in Semi Valley. Los Angeles was left smoldering a year later, following the April 1992 acquittal of all White officers charged for bludgeoning Mr. King. When black lives are daily, globally pulverized, it is audacious and, seemingly, foolhardy to plan for and dream of magnificent accomplishments for black girls or boys. 

The Williams parents dared to plot their children’s path to tennis royalty in the face of unchecked police terrorism escalated by the 90’s War on Drugs. The film masterfully pivots from CNN’s Bernard Shaw reporting on the piñata-bashing of King’s skull to young Venus and Serena flanking former First Lady Nancy Reagan. The White tennis crowd and Williams crew are admonished to “Just Say No” to narcotics, or they too could end up beaten and jailed like Mr. King (Dr. Martin Luther or Rodney). The scene concludes with Mr. Williams jokingly branding the Whites in attendance KKK members before releasing a round a flatulence to answer the would-be-klansmen’s offer to take control of Venus’s career. 

The former First Lady and President Ronald Reagan did take selfies with the future tennis titans. Those pics paired with the photos of Mr. Reagan authorizing the federal observation of Dr. King’s holiday could be an impressive collage. Call it the: “Proof we’re not Racist” album. 

Venus and Serena hobnobbing with White powerbrokers signaled their burgeoning star power and generational tennis acumen. And it was just as Mr. Williams planned. In spite of White Supremacy and all lesser obstacles, he and Ms. Price believed their black babies would be extraordinary. 

One thing I appreciate most about this project is being immersed in an affectionate black family. To borrow from Ta-Nehisi Coates, audiences witness “all the love poured into [Venus and Serena]. The gasoline expended, the treads worn carting [them] to [tennis matches]. The embraces, all the private jokes, customs, greetings, names, dreams, all the shared knowledge and capacity of a black family injected into” the beautiful tennis conquerors we now exalt. 

But King Richard is not Pollyanna. Ms. Price and Mr. Williams have bitter disagreements about raising their girls and life in general. The two divorced years after the events depicted in the film. However, the two attempted black parents remain flirtatious and share tender moments in front of their offspring. 

And, poignantly, the film includes all 5 girls of Mr. Williams and Ms. Price’s attempted family. Mikayla Bartholomew resurrects older sister Yetunde Price, who was "accidentally" shot to death by gang members in 2003. While discussing the film, Serena revealed, “I think I cried the whole time. Whenever she came on film, I just — personally, I just started, like — I mean, even still.” The film triumphs showing the intimacy and love that molded two legends, and Yetunde’s presence is a powerful component of this origin tale. 

Although Yetunde was 31 at the time she was killed, her death illustrates the fears and vulnerability of Ms. Price, Mr. Williams, and every attempted black parent who cannot protect their child from the omnipresent violence of White Supremacy. Mr. Williams courageously, candidly shared the fears and frailties of a black father in the section of his autobiography that details Venus’s birth. 

King Richard climaxes - there’s still 35 minutes of movie after this scene, but this is the big finish - with Mr. Williams confessing his fears as a black dad to his daughter, “Junior.” Smith gives a master performance, tearfully telling Venus she’ll be “representing every little black girl on Earth.” She and Serena will be called niggers and worse. There will be days when it seems the entire tennis stadium is brimming with White Supremacists, thirsty for the Williamses destruction… and her black father will be helpless. 

Call it a pitiful truth, but this brilliant bit of cinema and parental honesty should be replicated between non-white parents and their offspring. Lying about or minimizing the System of Racism and the power individuals classified as White wield over black lives is dangerous and a hallmark of defective parenting. Venus and Serena were prepared to dominate the WTA. Mr. Williams and Ms. Price were equally vested in readying their two prodigies for the System of White Supremacy. The morning before Venus’s first big match, her mother provides a big dose of tactile love, braiding her daughter's hair and breaking out the beads, which were a fashion staple of the adolescent Williams sisters. While pampering, Ms. Price reminds her girls that they’re just like slave-turned-abolitionist Sojourner Truth: beautiful, strong, trailblazers. 

Smith and his exceptional co-stars didn’t just win over Gus. King Richard bagged six Academy Award nominations, including one for Best Picture. In spite of this, there’s been a staunch, vocal White chorus determined to malign this project. 

In late November, Dr. Jessica Taylor whined about Mr. Williams being the source of the film’s eponymous title - as though this was yet another example of “black male privilege” and Venus and Serena getting shafted in their own biopic. I’m certain the film’s executive producers, who happened to be Serena and Venus, thoroughly enjoyed this critique of their dad.  

Just maybe.. two black daughters wanted to give their attempted black father some love? 

To put a bow on “black history month 2022,” Kim Masters of Southern California’s KCRW’s interviewed the film’s director, Reinaldo Marcus Green. For the better part of twenty minutes, Masters consistently found her way back to asking Green how much material had to be sanitized to hide from audiences the philandering, flawed, black-male-brutishness of Richard Williams.

Apparently, it’s difficult for White Women and White Men to appreciate and commend an attempted black father who not only worked to make sure his offspring were not “running with hoodlums and doing drugs,” as the Williams patriarch told the White social worker, but also believed his black girls would conquer the über White world of professional tennis, become international black powerbrokers, and bankroll Oscar-nominated Hollywood flicks showcasing their affectionate, flirtatious, constructive attempted black family.

Mr. Williams’s autobiography, which was published years before this film, gives the highest praise to Ms. Price and her essential and complimentary role in coaching their daughters. In fact, during the book promotional tour, the beastly, black Mr. Williams told BBC Radio: “Through my girls and through a lot of women that was around me, I learned that womens (sic) have some of the greatest ideas in the world. The mens (sic) just need to learn to listen to them.”

Thanks to superb black parents, Venus and Serena have our ear.

Friday, December 31, 2021

Alice Sebold's 'If They Caught You," LUCKY #BlackMisandry

 

Anthony Broadwater
“If they caught you,

long enough for me

to see that face again,

maybe I would know

your name.

I could stop calling you 'the rapist',

and start calling you John or Luke or Paul.


I want to make my hatred large and whole.

If they found you, I could take

those solid red balls and slice them

separately off, as everyone watched.

I have already planned what I would do

for a pleasurable kill, a slow, soft, ending.

First,

I would kick hard and straight with a boot,

into you, stare while you shot quick and loose,

contents a bloody pink hue.

Next,

I would slice out your tongue,

You couldn't curse, or scream.

Only a face of pain would speak

for you, your thick ignorance through.

Thirdly,”

“Should I hack away those sweet

cow eyes with the glass blades you made

me lie down on? Or should I shoot, with a gun,

close into the knee; where they say

the cap shatters immediately?

I picture you now,

your fingers rubbing sleep from

those live blind eyes, while I rise restlessly.

I need the blood of your hide

on my hands. I want to kill you

with boots and guns and glass.

I want to fuck you with knives.

Come to me, Come to me,

Come die and lie, beside me.”


They were going to turn this into a movie.

The above poem is from Alice Sebold’s 1999 “memoir,” Lucky, which purportedly details her 1981 rape by a black male while she attended Syracuse University. Sebold’s biography was recently spotlighted after convicted rapist and registered sex offender Anthony Broadwater was exonerated for this crime. He’d already served a sixteen year sentence for sodomizing a White Woman while steadfastly maintaining his innocence.

Ironically, executive producer Timothy Mucciante was working on the film adaptation of Lucky and found Sebold's account fishy. He hired a private investigator, which cemented his belief that a black male was wrongfully caged. He’s now working with Broadwater to make a documentary about his experience of White Terrorism called Unlucky.

Many White-dominated outlets have discussed this case and the destruction wreaked on Broadwater’s life. The former U.S. Marine decided against having children because of his status as a “rapist.”

But there is no analysis of Sebold’s poem, which is smack in the middle of a book that boasts a million copies sold. And they were going to turn it into a film!

This poem - and Lucky in total - represents another dynamic of White Power: Individuals classified as White are allowed to be publicly, violently angry and vengeful. Whether the 2015 Mother Emanuel AME Victims of White Terrorism or Anthony Broadwater himself, black people are obligated to forgive and reconcile with Racist Woman and Racist Man. The book publishing industry - which is dominated by White Women - would not tolerate the publication of a manuscript where Dylann Storm Roof’s Victims talked about their fantasies of violent retribution against Whites.

But Lucky sold a million copies… And was about to made into a film.

Dr. Tommy J. Curry and Melissa K. Stein visited The C.O.W.S., and both talked about the willful erasure of White Women from the scene of Racist violence against black people. Both scholars dissected how White Women like Sebold were often present for lynchings and, sometimes, like Sebold’s poem, participated in the bloody carnage.

Sebold's poem is not the product of sublime imagination or literary genius. Sebold is writing the history of her White Supremacist ancestors. Every act of torture she hopes to carry out, has been executed against black males many times over.

She kicks off the poem with the most cliche act of White barbarism, hacking away “Negro” testicles. The similarly dubious accusations of Carolyn Bryant Donham cost 14-year-old Emmett Till his genitals and his life. Countless White Men have raped White Women, non-white females, and other males. You do not hear anyone talk about castrating Harvey Weinstein or Jerry Sandusky - both White Men are convicted sexual abusers.

After proving once again that Whites are the undisputed champions of genital mutilation, Sebold hopes to slice out the black male tongue. In 1944, White Supremacists lynched Rev. Isaac Simmons “so they could steal his land.” The White Terrorists “killed him brutally – shooting him three times and cutting out his tongue.”

Sebold talks incessantly about her White virginity and innocence throughout the text. All pretense of “White fragility” is lost when it’s time to pluck out “Negro” eyeballs. Like Broadwater, Isaac Woodard was a U.S. veteran. On the February 1946 evening he received an honorable discharge, a White South Carolina police chief beat him in the face until he was permanently blind. The History Channel states that Emmett Till also had both eyes gouged out.

It’s not surprising that Sebold includes that White Syracuse University security officers, when told that her alleged “Negro” rapist was in the vicinity, “were not as much university representatives that night as they were hunters with a fresh scent.” One of the White "hunters" uses his billy club on three random black males, even though Sebold writes, "It was wrong to hassle, and perhaps physically hurt, three innocent young black men on the street."

Animals, not people, are “hunted.” And black males are never presumed innocent.

Sebold’s father explicitly brands random black males “animals” following his daughter’s alleged rape. White men rape and rob the elderly in Sebold’s Lucky. They are not dehumanized, and no one speaks gleefully about carving their carcasses in retaliation for White wrongdoing.

The only priority and lone focus of the book is to reinforce the mythology of the black male rapist, the innocence and purity of White Women, and the necessity for White violence to keep the black male penis subdued.

If Sebold was raped by a White Man (or White Woman), there is no universe where an audience would be treated to her depraved fetish to “fuck” a White man with knives. Only the culture and System of White Supremacy craves and devours literature and movies that justify extraordinary (often, extralegal) violence against black males.

The final line, where Sebold beckons Broadwater to come “die and lie” with her, suggests a familiar component of necrophilia and sexualized violence against black people - black males especially. The fact that a million mostly White readers feasted on Lucky and the presumed guilt of Broadwater for nearly a quarter century without question or interrogation is evidence of the widespread belief in the black beast rapist and the White duty to violently subdue him/“it.”

Mr. Broadwater said he never read Lucky, which, thankfully, spared him from reading about the lynching a White Woman planned for him.

Thursday, December 17, 2020

REVIEW Isabel Wilkerson's Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

For many reasons, we needed rescuing from 2020. Covid-19 disrupted all areas of people activity and life around the planet. Simultaneously, police slaughters of black people prompted global protests against the System of White Supremacy. In the midst of a U.S. presidential election, violent confrontations between enforcement officials and citizens, and an unprecedented viral scourge, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Isabel Wilkerson allegedly tossed us an elixir. 

There’s been a lot of snake oil this year. 

Wilkerson compiled decades of topnotch reporting for The New York Times – much of it addressing Racism/White Supremacy. Her 2010 publication, The Warmth of Others Suns : The Epic Story of America's Great Migration, is an eloquently written, meticulously researched narrative of 20th century black migration. I, like former President Barack Obama, caped hard for Wilkerson’s first book and was piqued by news of her latest offering. 

Alas, hopes of consecutive constructive books were quickly annihilated. Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents is dubiously poor in quality. Where The Warmth of Other Suns provides enormously detailed information and high-quality, clear writing, Caste is a mealy-mouthed presentation of sloppy metaphors that works hard not to offend White people. 

Oprah Winfrey, who’s networking with entertainment mogul Ava DuVernay to adapt this text into a documentary film, declared, “[Caste] might well save us.” Winfrey, DuVernay, and Wilkerson are all qualified and entitled to their respective views. But it’s highly doubtful Caste will help us end Racism or even get a better understanding of the problem because “this book is pointedly not about racism in itself,” writes Wilkerson. 

Some readers may logically conclude that Wilkerson’s primary objective is to get non-white people to swap the term “Racism” for her book title, “Caste.” In nearly every 2020 interview and in the text, Wilkerson explains that the term “Racism” is too limited to encompass the systemic terrorism Whites wage against black people. She submits that “caste” is more adequate to convey the omnipresent and never-ending suppression of non-white people and labors mightily to persuade readers. The term “caste” appears more than 1,000 times in the book – which does not include the title. 

In chapter six, Wilkerson dissects “The R-word,” writing that for Whites, “The word is radioactive—resented, feared, denied, lobbed back toward anyone who dares to suggest it. Resistance to the word often derails any discussion of the underlying behavior it is meant to describe, thus eroding it of meaning.” 

Wilkerson chucks “the r-word” and often identifies people classified as White as “members of the dominant caste.” Caste provides a full course of word-salad as Wilkerson describes the rape of black slaves as dominant caste enslavers being “invited to impregnate the women themselves if so inclined.” 

Pussyfooting and circumlocutious dialog that presents information in a convoluted and indirect way helps maintain the System of White Supremacy. Talking about Racism in a manner more palatable to the “dominant caste” helps maintain the System of White Supremacy. Minister Malcolm X notoriously encouraged us to “make it plain.” 

One unambiguous goal of Wilkerson’s work is to not offend White people. The book redacts the “r-word,” often deliberately shirks labeling anyone as White, and name-drops a collection of so-called well-meaning Whites. Wilkerson devotes an entire italics section to the work of Jane Elliott – an Admitted White Supremacist, and bookends the text alluding to the 2017 killing of Heather Heyer. Many reference the Charlottesville, Virginia protests that lead to Heyer’s death as an example of Trump-inspired White rage and extremist violence. 

In fact, Wilkerson and others include Heyer’s martyrdom alongside the 2015 terrorist attack of Dylnn Storm Roof. After researching and visiting the South Carolina Mother Emanuel AME congregation, Roof sat with black worshipers before slaughtering 9 people. Wilkerson omits the names of all of Roof’s victims. Readers are not told that Roof may have committed a White Supremacist political assassination, as one of his victims was State Senator Rev. Clementa Pinckney. 

Conversely, Heather Heyer, a White Woman, is named repeatedly in the text. Wilkerson describes the 2018 police shooting of Botham Jean and the 2015 police assault of Thabo Sefolosha. Like those butchered at Mother Emanuel, Jean’s murder and Sefolosha’s suffering are depicted as anonymous black victimization. The hashtag #SayHerName was created to acknowledge how black female Victims of Racism and violence are often ignored and minimized. Wilkerson continues the same pattern throughout Caste – although often applied to black males. 

One male who is named is Wilkerson’s deceased White husband, Brett Hamilton. 

In the acknowledgements, Wilkerson first makes it clear: “this book is pointedly not about racism.” Then she tells us about who inspired this project: 

“Finally, I am grateful beyond language for the love and devotion of Brett Hamilton, the kindest and most giving husband I could have wished for, a gift from the universe. Many of the observations in this book first found a voice in our deeply fulfilling conversations and in our life together. While it breaks my heart that neither he nor my parents lived to see this culmination of what we, each in our own ways, sought to transcend, I feel his cosmic embrace as I send this out to the world…” 

A C.O.W.S. listener pondered how we would respond if a black male authored a bestselling book about Racism, where he gushes about his White spouse who “transcends” race. I’ve yet to think of such an author, so I’m still pondering. 

Incidentally, months after Caste’s publication, The C.O.W.S. hosted Dr. Paul Ortiz, whose research on White terrorism against black Florida voters is referenced in the book. He celebrated Wilkerson’s writing ability, said he’s had the privilege of being a part of speaking engagements with her, and explained how he explicitly instructs his students to avoid dangerous clichés like notions of “transcending” Racism/White Supremacy. 

Dr. Ortiz said he read Caste, but skipped the acknowledgments. 

Wilkerson paints a full White circle with Heather Heyer and her spouse. The acknowledgements conclude Caste, while her book begins with this dedication: “To the memory of my parents who survived the caste system and to the memory of Brett who defied it.” Wilkerson fails to offer detail for many components of Caste. Names of black people are omitted, footnotes are absent from the body of the text, and Wilkerson refuses to offer a sentence explaining how her White hubby defied White Supremacy. Marrying a black female does not count. 

Wilkerson insists that White people are ignorant about Racism, ignores the history of sexual exploitation of black males, and offers a plethora of faulty logic. This book – and the subsequent film – is dangerous material for non-white people. Works like this deliberately promote confusion about what Racism/White Supremacy is and how it works. 

This book is so dangerous and lame I now give The Warmth of Other Suns the side eye. 

 

Mother Emanuel AME Victims: 

Reverend DePayne Middleton-Doctor 

Mrs. Cynthia Graham Hurd 

Mrs. Susie J. Jackson 

Mrs. Ethel Lee Lance 

The Honorable Reverend Clementa C. Pinckney 

Mr. Tywanza Kibwe Diop Sanders 

Reverend Daniel Lee Simmons, Sr. 

Reverend Sharonda Coleman-Singleton 

Mrs. Myra Singleton Quarles Thompson

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

The C.O.W.S. Book Club: Chris Kyle's Americian Sniper

The Context of White Supremacy has hosted a book club for a decade. We've covered a lot of material and learned a lot about White Supremacy/Racism. Back in 2014 we explored Chris Kyle's American Sniper. The bestselling book was made into a feature length film - that was released on Christmas Day 2014. This book reveals a lot about what it means to be White. Look out for the urine. Whites have done a lot to disrupt our archives, so here are all the links for the text. With armed Whites contesting masks and terrorizing black people at will across the U.S., it might be a good time to re-visit this text.

 

  1. The C.O.W.S. AMERICAN SNIPER Part I
  2. The C.O.W.S. AMERICAN SNIPER Part II
  3. The C.O.W.S. AMERICAN SNIPER Part III
  4. The C.O.W.S. AMERICAN SNIPER Part IV
  5.  The C.O.W.S. AMERICAN SNIPER Part V
  6. The C.O.W.S. AMERICAN SNIPER Part VI
  7. The C.O.W.S. AMERICAN SNIPER Part VII (Conclusion)

 

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The C.O.W.S. on YouTube: www.youtube.com/channel/UCFBssQLBhsYf3oKiES4p1zA 

Sunday, March 01, 2020

UPDATE: The C.O.W.S. Counter-Racist Yoga Retreat: Washington, D.C.



The summer of 2020 offers a bounty of exciting events. Tokyo, Japan hosts the Olympic games....

And then came the rona. 2020 has been cataclysmic, confusing, and rife with cancellations. The Summer Olympics got postponed, classrooms from kindergarten to grad school have been vacated or limited to dodging penises and swastikas on Zoom, and the yoga studios and gyms are mostly still empty. 

The U.S./Canadian border has been sealed for two months, which forced the cancellation of The C.O.W.S. Toronto Retreat scheduled for May. Lots of losses this year.

In the midst of global protests about Race Soldiers routinely suffocating black people and a novel respiratory virus that's reported to also be strangling black people (literally and economically), making time to breathe is all the more important for Victims of Racism. During our debut counter-racist retreat in Virginia, we affirmed and experienced why self-care must be a critical component of all counter-racist efforts. The System of White Supremacy is designed to drain the vitality from non-white people. It's imperative that we engage in self-maintenance, activities that replenish our life force and inspire us to make improvements and solve problems.


And it's always a good time to have healthy, delicious food!

This is why The C.O.W.S. is moving forward with plans to host the summer counter-racist yoga retreat in Washington, D.C. If Covid-19, protests against Racism, or other unforeseen 2020 catastrophes occur, we'll notify as soon as possible of changes.

We'll take adequate safety measures, including: 
  • An abundance of soap for hand washing.
  • Cleaning materials to sanitize the residence.
  • Social Distancing
If anyone has suggestions to help ensure everyone's safety, please, share. 

Originally, we planned to visit the Smithsonian and the Library of Congress. But.. the rona. It's unclear what public venues will be open come August or how interested people will be in wanting to be in a large crowd. As they say, we'll wait and see.


Even if we can't frolic  throughout the nation's capitol, we will have healthy delicious meals - like what's pictured above, calming yoga, and constructive counter-racist dialog. They might still be protesting by the time we get there.

Date: Wednesday, August 5th to Sunday, August 9th. 
Where: Washington, D.C.

There are a relatively small number of Washington locations that can adequately house a dozen people, so time is of the essence.
 
The investment for the D.C. retreat is $680. This includes:
  • All meals (Plant-based breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks. We'll enjoy the versatility and deliciousness of veggie-based cooking. No one will be hungry.)
  • Lodging
  • Morning and Evening yoga classes taught by Gus T. Renegade (200hr certified/ 85hr prenatal certified)
  • Counter-Racist Workshops
  • Cooking Workshops
  • Quality contact with like-minded Victims of Racism

This does not include:
  • Transportation
  • Travel Insurance
  • Yoga Mat

A $400 deposit is due by June 22nd. The deposit is non-refundable. The remaining $280 is due by July 19th. Payments can be submitted using PayPal (https://www.paypal.me/TheCOWS), CashApp (https://cash.app/$TheCOWS), or check/money order. Please, email Gus for mailing information.

For Parents!
There were a number of attempted parents who mailed Gus with sincere interest in attending the retreats with their offspring. However, Racism makes many things financially challenging for non-white people. To compensate, as long as there are eight paying adults signed up for the retreat, the cost for children ages 14 and under is $340. All adults and children are expected to participate in all workshops and yoga sessions during the retreat. Children must be at least 10 years of age.

Parents must submit a deposit of $170 by June 22nd to reserve a spot for your child. The remaining $170 is due by July 22nd.

Hopefully, the last half of 2020 will be astronomically better for black people, Victims of Racism. Make The C.O.W.S. Washington D.C. Counter-Racist Yoga Retreat a part of the improvement. #EatWellUseLogic

Friday, January 10, 2020

The C.O.W.S. Counter-Racist Yoga Retreat: TORONTO 🇨🇦


The Context of White Supremacy Radio Program has dedicated eleven years to broadcasting counter-racist concepts and strategies to help Replace White Supremacy With Justice. Since becoming a certified yoga instructor in 2018, Gus T. Renegade has emphasized correct eating and exercise as critical components of self-care and counter-racism. Non-white people won't/don't have the vitality needed to neutralize Racists if we're reckless with nourishing, strengthening, and replenishing our minds and bodies.

The C.O.W.S. Counter-Racist Yoga Retreats are uniquely designed to help black people (Victims of White Supremacy) detoxify and nourish ourselves while courteously exchanging views and relaxation with other non-white people. Our first two retreats, in Virginia and Florida respectively, had lots of delicious plant-based meals, yoga, and courteous dialog.

We plan to continue this event as long as it's constructive. Up next, we travel north of the U.S. border to Toronto.

Date: Thursday, May 21st to Sunday, May 24th. 
Where: Toronto, Ontario Canada

There are a number of Toronto locations that are within 40 minutes of the Toronto airport where we'll have beds for all participants, adequate bathrooms, and space for yoga. Once we have a definitive number of participants, we'll send out information with an exact address for the retreat.
 
The investment for the Toronto retreat is $660. This includes:
  • All meals (Chef Nadirah Khalifah prepared all meals for the Virginia  and Florida retreats and will be flying north to cook plant-based breakfasts, lunches and dinners)
  • Lodging
  • Morning and Evening yoga classes taught by Gus T. Renegade (200hr certified/ 85hr prenatal certified)
  • Counter-Racist Workshops
  • Quality contact with like-minded Victims of Racism
  • Gift Bag with C.O.W.S. Retreat T-Shirt and surprises.

This does not include:
  • Transportation
  • Travel Insurance
  • Yoga Mat

A $400 deposit is due by February 29th. The deposit is non-refundable. The remaining $260 is due by May 1st. Payments can be submitted using PayPal (https://www.paypal.me/TheCOWS), CashApp (https://cash.app/$TheCOWS), or check/money order. Please, email Gus for mailing information.

For Parents!
There were a number of attempted parents who mailed Gus with sincere interest in attending the retreats with their offspring. However, Racism makes many things financially challenging for non-white people. To compensate, as long as there are eight paying adults signed up for the retreat, the cost for children ages 14 and under is $330. All adults and children are expected to participate in all workshops and yoga sessions during the retreat. Children must be at least 10 years of age.

Parents must submit a deposit of $165 by February 29th to reserve a spot for your child. The remaining $165 is due by May 1st.

Hopefully, you'll consider getting ready for the summer of 2020 with a constructive, counter-racist twist. #EatWellUseLogic

Tuesday, August 13, 2019

UPDATE! The C.O.W.S. 10-Yr. Anniversary Yoga Retreat: Florida









Tentative Davenport, FL. location.
UPDATE (October 10, 2019). A number of C.O.W.S. listeners asked if there's a way to make the retreat more financially accessible. I was able to find a similar location in the Orlando area, that's substantially cheaper. I was able to lower the price by $200. Everyone who already paid the initial deposit, will have their final payment reduced accordingly.

The Context of White Supremacy welcomes 2020 in a focused, constructive and (hopefully) warm manner. The C.O.W.S. 10-Year Anniversary Yoga Retreat visits the Orlando, Florida area to promote plant-based meals, yoga and healthy counter-racist exchanges between black people.

When: Saturday, December 28th to Wednesday, Jan 1st.

We've tentatively located a residence approximately 35 minutes from the Orlando International Airport. The house has plenty of beds and bathrooms and outdoors space. There's a garage and street parking, and there seems to be no mud! 

We have space for a maximum of 12 people. The event is child friendly and welcome to children age 8 and older.

The investment for the retreat is $730. This includes:
  • All meals. Chef Nadirah Khalifah prepared all meals for the Virginia retreat and will be flying to Florida to cook plant-based breakfasts, lunches and dinners.
  • Lodging. Everyone will have a bed.
  • Morning and Evening yoga classes taught by Gus T. Renegade (200hr certified/ 85hr prenatal certified)
  • Counter-Racist Workshops
  • Quality contact with like-minded Victims of Racism
  • Yoga Blocks
  • Gift Bag with C.O.W.S. Retreat T-Shirt and Yoga Tune-Up Balls
This does not include:
  • Transportation
  • Travel Insurance
  • Yoga Mat
Workshops will include tutorials on how to prepare vegetables in a tasty, nutritious manner. Participants will work along side Chef Nadirah, to get a hands-on-experience with the production of vegan meals.

We'll also discuss the toil of attempting counter-racism during the so called-holidays. The retreat will offer a respite from the gift-buying and seasonal madness, where Victims of Racism can replenish and prepare for a new year.

A $380 deposit is due by October 24th. The deposit is non-refundable. The remaining $350 is due by December 8th. Payments can be submitted using paypal (https://www.paypal.me/TheCOWS), or check/money order. Please, email Gus for mailing information.

Hopefully, you'll consider concluding 2019 with a constructive counter-racist twist. Please, email (untiljusticeATgmailDOTcom) with questions or concerns.

Monday, February 06, 2017

Dr. Frances Cress Welsing: Donald J. Trump and The Reconstruction of White Supremacy

“I think that a critical word is reconstruction. I mean that's the word that has been used by historians and maybe misused. In other words, I look at starting with the emancipation of black people from formal enslavement - and slavery was a phase of the system of racism/white supremacy, enslavement of African people. So then the slaves were emancipated, and the slaves thought: ‘well, the shackles are off and now we're free. And we're going to be able to do whatever we need to do to maximally develop ourselves.’ And what the… emancipated African people were then faced with was a whole system of laws that were called Jim Crow laws. We can call them white supremacy laws, were set up and put in place to block Black people from really being able to move forward. And… many Black men… could be captured and put… on plantations to work even though [slavery] had come to an end. And so I say that was like the reconstruction of white supremacy.” 
Third generation physician, general and child psychiatrist, and attempted counter-racist scientist Dr. Frances Cress Welsing died on January 2, 2016. She devoted more than a half-century to healing Black people and using her extraordinary skills to educate us about the global system of racism/white supremacy. The loss of this scholar and healer is colossal, cannot be quantified. 

However, Dr. Welsing would not allow us to be discouraged. She would demand that we complete our cosmic assignment: replacing white supremacy with justice. Our appreciation for her contributions are best demonstrated by employing her teachings, demonstrating maximum Black self respect, and mimicking her indefatigable commitment to the production of justice on the planet. 

To that end, days before Dr. Welsing’s transition – and nearly two months before the first Republican primary – she proclaimed that President Barack Obama’s successor would be Donald J. Trump. Approximately six months after her death, Trump was formally recognized as the Republican presidential nominee. Her clairvoyance was not the product of “Black girl magic” or haphazard guesswork, but rather, decades spent studying white people. Dr. Welsing courageously followed logic and confidently broadcast her analysis of what racism/white supremacy is and what motivates individuals who classify themselves as white to brutalize Black people and/or support Trump. 

Dr. Welsing’s brilliance is only enhanced when juxtaposed with the historic failure of White journalists to anticipate Trump’s success. The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank declared, “Trump will lose, or I will eat this column.” Milbank swallowed his pride and his words – “newsprint and ink” – when Trump secured the necessary Republican delegates. Nate Cohn’s New York Times’ column offered many questions and few answers for how he and most others flagrantly misjudged the Trump candidacy. 
“Was Mr. Trump’s victory a black swan… an unlikely event with complex causes, some understood at the time but others overlooked, that came together in unexpected ways to produce a result that no one could have reasonably anticipated? Or did we simply underestimate Mr. Trump from the start?” 
Her seminal publication, The Isis Papers: The Keys To The Colors, explains how Dr. Welsing positioned Trump’s rise within the context of collective white behavior. 
“All major and minor behavior-energy crystallizations or behavior-units in the global white collective – no matter how simple or complex, old or new, short- or long-lived – must conform, in the final analysis, to the basic behavior-energy equation of white over non-white (or white power over non-white powerlessness). This is the necessary power or energy equation for white genetic survival.” 
Trump’s ascendancy was a predictable – necessary – creation of the 21st century global white minority. The white population’s declining percentage of the U.S. and world population, eight years of a black family occupying the White House, and a general anxiety about the declining potency of white power mandated a Trump-like figure to reconstruct white domination. Much of Dr. Welsing’s life work as well as fundamental aspects of her definition of white supremacy/racism are affirmed by Trump being a general election away from being the 45th President of the United States. 

Following President Obama’s 2012 re-election, National Public Radio (NPR) hosted a post-election assessment. David Brooks pronounced, “the Republican Party has become the receding roar, for a lot of white people who are longing for a way of life that will never come back. Every other institution, in American life, has done this… They've adapted to a world with many more Latinos, many more Asian-Americans.” Dr. Welsing diagnoses this “roar” as the central motivation for the white collective’s perpetual hostility towards the global non-white majority. She maintained that individuals who classify themselves as white practice racism (white supremacy) “for the ultimate purpose of white genetic survival and to prevent white genetic annihilation on planet Earth – a planet upon which the vast and overwhelming majority of people are classified as non-white (black, brown, red and yellow) by white skinned people, and all of the non-white people are genetically dominant (in terms of skin coloration) compared to the genetic recessive white skin people.” 

Permanent dissatisfaction with a melanin-dominant planet inspires and maintains unyielding devotion to global white rule and brutality against non-white people – especially Black people. 

In subsequent years, NPR and other outlets have reminded white people that the planet is becoming blacker. A 2014 report – released days after the shooting death of Michael Brown Jr. in Ferguson, Missouri – declared: “The future of humanity is increasingly African.” UNICEF research “estimates that by the end of this century, 40 percent of the world’s people will be African.” They project the continent’s population “will soar to more than 4 billion by 2100.” This prognosis was not met with jubilee. 

U.S. population estimates are no whiter. 

In June of this year, The Wall Street Journal warned that “White Americans no longer account for the majority in hundreds of counties across the U.S.” Donald Trump has directly addressed “the fear of a black planet” better than any other candidate. His vows to erect a wall on the Mexican border and to prohibit Muslim immigration are naked appeals to white trepidation about encroaching, dark bodies. 

Toni Monkovic theorized how Trump’s rhetoric is particularly alluring in regions where whites feel intimately menaced by non-white people. “Mr. Trump’s anti-immigration language lands with force for people who fear the browning of America. Within three or four decades, several reports have indicated, non-Hispanic whites will no longer make up a majority of the United States population.” 

During one of her final interviews, Dr. Welsing deconstructed how whites’ minority status is at the root of their group pathology and tyranny. 
“People who classify themselves as white are beginning to feel and become aware that whites are a tiny minority on the planet. And to the extent that there's any motion at all, even discussion about ‘Black Lives Matter,’ or any discussion about the absence of diversity where the person whose mindset consciously and/or subconsciously is thinking: ‘I'm white. And certain things are my right because I am white. And I can do whatever it is that I want to do to non-white people, and I can get away with it because that is my right as a white person in the system of racism/white supremacy.’ So that's their crystalized conscious and/or subconscious identity. Well, if cracks begin to appear in the system of racism/white supremacy, even cracks such as a discussion about gun control, then subconsciously the white person can start feeling like my system that has protected me, that has given me privileges above those that persons who are non-white have, it's sort of like the foundation is shifting.” 
The 2008 election of Barack Hussein Obama represents a tectonic cataclysm. 

The post-Civil War 19th century witnessed unprecedented accomplishments by formerly enslaved Black people. Ex-slaves reconstituted families, established schools and churches, and won political offices formerly restricted to White men. These feats galvanized a pogrom of white terrorism to re-shackle Black Americans. In White Rage, Carol Anderson describes how white citizens perceived “Black empowerment as a nightmare.” Former president Abraham Lincoln’s “better angels of our nature” failed to shape white conduct in the march to the 20th century. Whites like former South Carolina Governor Benjamin R. Tillman, who boasted about killing black people, were instead guided by “the threat of negro domination.” Anderson documents how the Klu Klux Klan and other White terrorist organizations slaughtered Black citizens with impunity, as “the Reconstruction era descended into nothing less than an age of violence and terror.” 

More than a century later, white Americans resurrected many of the same behavior patterns in response to the Obama presidency. Days after his 2008 victory, the Chicago Tribune recorded an eruption of white supremacist activity: 
“Barely three weeks after Americans elected their first black president amid a wave of interracial good feeling, a spasm of noose hangings, racist graffiti, vandalism and death threats is convulsing dozens of towns across the country as white extremists lash out at the new political order. More than 200 hate-related incidents, including cross-burnings, assassination betting pools and effigies of President-elect Barack Obama, have been reported so far, according to law-enforcement authorities and the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate groups. Racist web sites are boasting that their servers are crashing under the weight of exponential increases in page views. Even more ominously, America's most potent symbol of [white terrorism]—the Ku Klux Klan—has begun to reassert itself, emerging from decades of disorganization and obscurity in a spate of recent violence.” 
Anderson documents that, “In Obama’s first year in office alone, there was a 400 percent increase in death threats.” Dr. Welsing regularly referenced this historic escalation when refuting the fabricated notion of a “post-racial” society no longer dominated by white supremacy (racism). To the contrary, she decoded and highlighted the white fury targeting the Obamas – and black people at large. 

Lagging well behind Dr. Welsing, Monkovic did correctly correlate the racist displeasure with President Obama to Trump’s crusade. “Some social science research suggests that the simple fact that President Obama is black might have contributed to a sense of lost power and resentment among whites, and, of course, Mr. Trump first came to political prominence by questioning whether Mr. Obama was even a citizen.” 

Although accurate, Monkovic and most others lack the comprehensive analysis to explain Trump’s appeal within the historic and global context of white culture. In 2011, Dr. Welsing clarified how the white psyche interprets President Obama as a blemish on the White House, an affront to white power. 
“So then the next phase is a black man runs for president of the United States of America. Well, even though there was white support for his presidency, when he got into the White House and you have a Black man with his [Black] wife and his Black children and his Black mother-in-law in the White House, even the people who classify themselves as white who called themselves liberals began to think: ‘Oh my god. What have we done?’ Because just the image of the Black man being in the White House and being in charge began to set off the anxiety of if we lose power, if the power equation changes and this… in the symbolic parlance of white supremacy speech, you don't want to be ‘caught behind the eight ball.’ But President Obama being in the White House makes the white mindset that is concerned subconsciously about white genetic survival begin to feel: ‘Wait a minute. We're being caught behind the eight ball.’ And that translates into white genetic annihilation. So then we have this massive attack. We can call this the 3rd reconstruction. Meaning the reconstruction of racism/white supremacy.”
Deviating from conventional narratives of U.S. history, Dr. Welsing identifies three periods where the white collective reconstructed the power equation of white over non-white. Governor Tillman and the KKK presided over the 19th century re-assertion of white domination. During the mid 20th century, countless Black citizens dedicated and lost their lives confronting the organized system of white terrorism that governed the United States. Fannie Lou Hamer, Robert F. Williams, Assata Shakur and countless Black warriors defied and destabilized white power. Dr. Welsing describes this period as the second reconstruction of white supremacy. This era of restoration includes state-sanctioned counter-intelligence programs designed to neutralize any efforts towards Black liberation, the political rhetoric of “law and order,” which authorized any means necessary to crush Black opposition to racism, and the 1968 election of President Richard Nixon, who instituted federal policies to achieve these objectives. This historical framework informs Dr. Welsing’s theory of why the third reconstruction – white retaliation to the Obama presidency – was an obligatory, to be expected occurrence. 
“In other words, if the system moves from establishment, maintenance, expansion, refinement – refinement is the emancipation of the slaves. Refinement is changing the laws so it looks like equality. But each time you have that kind of gain it has to be thrown back because the fundamental concern is white genetic survival by any means necessary. So you have a black man becomes president. He's intelligent, articulate, brilliant. Every single qualification that is needed to lead the nation, to lead the world. But then it hits subconsciously that this means white genetic annihilation or symbolically just because a black man is supposed to be in charge. And so we have to have the third reconstruction, and that is the annihilation of his power and showing him all this talk about the budget and the debt, but the articulation that came out once he was elected where you had spokespersons on the television saying our goal objective is to… see that he fails.” 
This is the decrypted White mentality responsible for an unprecedented number of death threats targeting a U.S. president, a nagging suspicion that Barack Obama is a Kenyan native (not “American”), and the climb of Donald J. Trump. A 1980 essay on Dr. Welsing’s interpretation of Nazi Germany and the Third Reich provides a chilling context for the Trump sensation. 
“The specific fear of white genetic annihilation, while always present in the global white collective, becomes more prominent and is more frequently acted upon in times when whites have lost a war and/or when there is serious economic uncertainty. At these times the white collective feels insecure because the major props for the sense of white invincibility and for fear of white genetic survival – their guns and money – seem to have failed. Thus, after the German’s loss of World War I (which was followed by political instability, high level inflation and high level unemployment), there appeared on the scene a dynamic spokesperson, articulating the need to destroy those perceived as capable of ultimate white destruction. In the United States we are in such a period.” 
The economic and demographic upheavals at the dawn of the 21st century have inflicted a tremendous injury to a sizable population of whites. A Princeton University tandem published a stunning report chronicling “financial despair, [drug] addiction and the rise of suicide in White America.” The researchers found that the system of white supremacy is failing to accommodate the great expectations of a growing number of white people; in response, they’re abusing narcotics and/or ending their own lives. 

In addition to the surge of self-destructive behavior, these disruptions to white power are re-focusing white proclivities to violence on black bodies. Unfortunately, an ambassador of white culture, Dylann Storm Roof, targeted members of the Charleston, South Carolina Mother Emanuel A.M.E. church. Before murdering nine unarmed black worshippers in June of 2015, Roof allegedly detailed his homicidal logic in a manifesto. He conveys much of the white frustration articulated by Trump supporters. 
“To take a saying from a film, ‘I see all this stuff going on, and I don’t see anyone doing anything about it. And it pisses me off.’ To take a saying from my favorite film, ‘Even if my life is worth less than a speck of dirt, I want to use it for the good of society.’ I have no choice. I am not in the position to, alone, go into the ghetto and fight. I chose Charleston because it is most historic city in my state, and at one time had the highest ratio of blacks to Whites in the country. We have no skinheads, no real KKK, no one doing anything but talking on the internet. Well someone has to have the bravery to take it to the real world, and I guess that has to be me.” 
Roof didn’t “see anyone doing anything” to fortify white dominion. A substantial portion of Trump voters harbors an identical grievance. In “The Anti-P.C. Vote,” Thomas B. Edsall reveals, “Trump has capitalized on the visceral belief of many white voters that government-enforced diversity and other related regulations are designed ‘to bring Americans to submission’ by silencing their opposition to immigration — legal and illegal — to judicial orders putting low-income housing in the suburbs, and to government-mandated school integration, to name just a few of their least favorite things.” White rule is being impugned from the White House to the schoolhouse, and no one’s doing anything about it. 

No one, except Trump. During her final lecture at The Cress Welsing Institute of Psychiatry and Social Research on the campus of Howard University in Washington, D.C., Dr. Welsing foreshadowed why Trump would resonate with white voters. 
“Every single thing that we are concerned about, every single thing when you turn on the TV tomorrow morning that they will talk about will all be related to racism/white supremacy as a system. Donald Trump. I say meet your next president. See all kind of people from the time he started talking: ‘Oh, he's crazy... Oh, the American people won't accept...’ Donald Trump has pulled the hood off of, the sheet off of, the cover off of the system of racism/white supremacy. See he pulled it off, and he's talking with more clarity than anybody else. All the other candidates quietly, quietly are thinking about racism, but they're not talking overtly about it. But Donald Trump is talking. So like I said, Donald Trump's trump card is the race card in the system of racism/white supremacy.” 
In this climate, a dynamic spokesperson with an explicit appeal to white racial angst can become a political juggernaut. Dr. Welsing’s unparalleled comprehension of white culture allowed her to accurately forecast a presidential campaign that most found inconceivable. 

Sadly, Dr. Welsing became an ancestor before Trump’s domination of the Republican primaries, the numerous incidents of black onlookers being mauled at his rallies , and his campaign pledge to: “Make [white] America great again.” It’s doubtful she could conjure a more accurate, public illustration of her analysis of what racism and how it works.

(For footnotes, see Academia.edu