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Photo reblogged from It's simple like a mountain is simple. with 888 notes
I’m reblogging this photo because I just read this article about how people should subscribe to HBO so GIrls will stay on the air and we will have more shows about women written by women and here is my response:
I’ve been thinking about it a lot lately and it seems like every time they say, “yay for women-helmed shows!” They mean white women. I don’t see Jez or really anyone talking about how we should all support Scandal because it’s written by a Black woman, starring a Black woman and based on a real political strategist who is also a Black woman. That’s f*cking groundbreaking.
And it is.
you mean black women are WOMEN??????????????????
Source: inspirationcocoa
Link reblogged from The Educated Field Negro with 453 notes
13-Year-Old Jada Williams persecuted over her essay on Frederick Douglass →
Jada Williams, a 13-year old student in Rochester, New York, wrote an essay comparing and contrasting her school experience in 2012 to the educational challenges described in “The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass“.
On Saturday, February 18, 2012, theFrederick Douglass Foundation of New York presented the first Spirit of Freedom award to Jada Williams, a 13-year old city of Rochester student. Miss Williams wrote an essay on her impressions of Frederick Douglass’ first autobiography the Narrative of the Life. This was part of an essay contest, but her essay was never entered. It offended her teachers so much that, after harassment from teachers and school administrators at School #3, Miss Williams was forced to leave the school.
We at the Frederick Douglass Foundation honored her because her essay actually demonstrates that she understood the autobiography, even though it might seem a bit esoteric to most 13-year olds. In her essay, she quotes part of the scene where Douglass’ slave master catches his wife teaching then slave Frederick to read. During a speech about how he would be useless as a slave if he were able to read, Mr. Auld, the slave master, castigated his wife.Miss Williams quoted Douglass quoting Mr. Auld: “If you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there will be no keeping him. It will forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master.”
Miss Williams personalized this to her own situation. She reflected on how the “white teachers” do not have enough control of the classroom to successfully teach the minority students in Rochester. While she herself is more literate than most, due to her own perseverance and diligence, she sees the fact that so many of the other “so-called ‘unteachable’” students aren’t learning to read as a form of modern-day slavery. Their illiteracy holds them back in society.
Her call to action was then in her summary: “A grand price was paid in order for us to be where we are today; but in my mind we should be a lot further, so again I encourage the white teachers to instruct and I encourage my people to not just be a student, but become a learner.”
This offended her English teacher so much that the teacher copied the essay for other teachers and for the Principal. After that, Miss Williams’ mother and father started receiving phone calls from numerous teachers, all claiming that their daughter is “angry.” Miss Williams, mostly a straight-A student, started receiving very low grades, and she was kicked out of class for laughing and threatened with in-school suspension.
There were several meetings with teachers and administrators, but all failed to answer Miss Williams’ mother’s questions. The teachers refused to show her the tests and work that she had supposedly performed so poorly on. Instead, the teachers and administrators branded her a problem.
Unable to take anymore of the persecution, they pulled her from School #3. Wanting to try another school, they were quickly informed that that school was filled and told to try “this school.” During her first day at this new school, she witnessed four fights, and other students asked her if she was put here because she fights too much.
Long story short, they took an exceptional student, with the radical idea that kids should learn to read, and put her in a school of throwaway students who are even more unmanageable than the average student in her previous school. To protect their daughter, her parents have had to remove her from school, and her mother has had to quit her job so she can take care of Miss Williams.
To date, the administrators of School #3 have refused to release her records, even though she no longer attends the school, and they have repeatedly given her mother the run around. We at theFrederick Douglass Foundation have contacted school administrators in regards to this situation and have also been told to hit the pavement.
That’s what we intend to do. If this school will sacrifice the welfare of an above-average student whose essay, that they asked her to write, they find offensive, we intend to make everyone aware of this monstrous injustice. The school has a job, and it is not doing it.
We would like as many folks as possible to call the Principal of School #3 and complain about this injustice. Her name is Miss Connie Wehner, and she can be reached at (585) 454-3525. This treatment of Jada Williams cannot stand.
What say you? Start by making the call!
Source: black-culture
Video reblogged from FYeahKellyRowland with 128 notes
KEEP IT BETWEEN US.
love this.
Source: fyeahkellyrowland
Post with 3 notes
i miss this…
haven’t posted much in recent months but i wanna change that… once i have more time to. :] i miss tumblr… half my followers probably won’t even know who i am and why they’re following me i’ve been gone from this thing for so long.
Post with 3 notes
thanks. i really appreciate it
kcnvrmnd replied to your post: i have this constant ache in my chest that i can’t get rid of, a pain i have never felt before, and tears in my eyes that are waiting to fall…
*hug* sorry about your loss :(
Post with 4 notes
i have this constant ache in my chest that i can’t get rid of, a pain i have never felt before, and tears in my eyes that are waiting to fall…
His death is still so hard to handle. I didn’t know how much I needed the presence of someone close to me until I went out with my homegirl last night and she stayed the night with me and basically all day with me. I just took her home and not even a minute after walking through the door, all of the emotions hit me. I have never felt this much emotional pain before. All I could do was send a prayer up to God for his family and others who were close with him because if I am going through it, I know they are going through it worst than me.
Photo with 3 notes
![(image by Akia)
Seeing someone hurting and losing someone they love and/or close with is one thing but to actually hear about a death of someone you know and have known for some years is entirely different.
Tuesday morning at around 11:30 AM I found out a distant friend of mine had died. As I read the text with the words “Tracy died last night” I was first shocked, then the disbelief of it all came. I dropped everything I had in my hands but my phone and immediately called the one person who knows me best, my mother. As i hear the 1st ring, then the 2nd ring, the reality of it all hits… Tracy is dead. I toss the phone on my bed and begin to cry probably the most gut-wrenching cry i have cried in years. But why did I cry so hard?
Have me and Tracy talked in the past few years? No we have not. Have I seen him in the past few years? No I have not. So why did his death cause me so much pain? I wonder all of these things. All I can do is think back to the Tracy I once knew in high school; the time when I was closest to him.
My freshman year, we didn’t speak though I had cheered for through my cheerleading squads since the 7th grade since he was a basketball and football player for the teams I cheered for. Tracy was a gifted athlete. He played both basketball and football up to his sophomore year where he began to focus all his attention to football when he made varsity.
I remember the summer before our sophomore year and he was constantly over my cousins house. That’s when I got to know Tracy for the first time. Eventually we got close and somehow, I can’t even tell you how because I kept brushing him off, but boy was he persistent (haha!) but somehow he got me liking his tall goofy self. :] It started with just a kiss on the cheek and this attraction that we had for each other lasted for a while. We never dated. He was my cousin’s best friend, I didn’t want to be the cause of there friendship to go downhill and I’m sure he had his reasons too but I digress. We “talked” for a while but it was odd because we, at that time, had only had like one phone conversation during that stage. But there was no need to; I was always over my cousin’s house who he was staying with at the time and we had more face to face conversations than anything
I smile right now as i remember him singing to me songs from Chris Brown’s first album. I would be downstairs and he would call out my name “RYAN!!” I would smirk, and walk my happy self up the stairs to my cousins room and he then proceed to turn on the stereo up high and lip-sync “Poppin.” I would just stand and look at him with that same smirk and shaking my head. Of course that’s just one of many memories I have of him. He was a fool and I loved that about him. For a while this dude had me wrapped around his finger, but did he know that? of course not! ha! I never let him know just how much I liked him because he would have taken that and ran with it, i’m sure! :]
Lately, I tend to drift off into moments where i just sit and think about what his life had become and what he could have become. His potential was too great for the reality he was living just a few days ago. He should be finishing his last year of school at Clemson right now on a football scholarship or he could have been in at least his 2nd year pro right now. He wasn’t dumb kid. He just made a really dumb decision Monday night that ended up costing his life. But luckily I have not been dwelling too much.
My mind has lately been bringing up the good memories I had long forgotten. I think about his wonderful smile and his good heart. memories like the one above, Junior prom and many others. Despite the things he had been doing, I don’t care what others may have to say about him, I know that he was a great, wonderful, amazing person. And yea he may have only shown a certain side to me, whatever we had between each other at those young ages we were :] it was genuine and to know that i will never get to see him again hurts my heart. The fact that there are no more chances of me ever speaking to him again is hard for me to handle and I truly hope that come this funeral on Tuesday, that it will be somewhat of closure for all who were close to Tracy now or once upon a time. I love you Tracy, always have, always will.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lilj88sQTQ1qa0f23o1_1280.jpg)
(image by Akia)
Seeing someone hurting and losing someone they love and/or close with is one thing but to actually hear about a death of someone you know and have known for some years is entirely different.
Tuesday morning at around 11:30 AM I found out a distant friend of mine had died. As I read the text with the words “Tracy died last night” I was first shocked, then the disbelief of it all came. I dropped everything I had in my hands but my phone and immediately called the one person who knows me best, my mother. As i hear the 1st ring, then the 2nd ring, the reality of it all hits… Tracy is dead. I toss the phone on my bed and begin to cry probably the most gut-wrenching cry i have cried in years. But why did I cry so hard?
Have me and Tracy talked in the past few years? No we have not. Have I seen him in the past few years? No I have not. So why did his death cause me so much pain? I wonder all of these things. All I can do is think back to the Tracy I once knew in high school; the time when I was closest to him.
My freshman year, we didn’t speak though I had cheered for through my cheerleading squads since the 7th grade since he was a basketball and football player for the teams I cheered for. Tracy was a gifted athlete. He played both basketball and football up to his sophomore year where he began to focus all his attention to football when he made varsity.
I remember the summer before our sophomore year and he was constantly over my cousins house. That’s when I got to know Tracy for the first time. Eventually we got close and somehow, I can’t even tell you how because I kept brushing him off, but boy was he persistent (haha!) but somehow he got me liking his tall goofy self. :] It started with just a kiss on the cheek and this attraction that we had for each other lasted for a while. We never dated. He was my cousin’s best friend, I didn’t want to be the cause of there friendship to go downhill and I’m sure he had his reasons too but I digress. We “talked” for a while but it was odd because we, at that time, had only had like one phone conversation during that stage. But there was no need to; I was always over my cousin’s house who he was staying with at the time and we had more face to face conversations than anything
I smile right now as i remember him singing to me songs from Chris Brown’s first album. I would be downstairs and he would call out my name “RYAN!!” I would smirk, and walk my happy self up the stairs to my cousins room and he then proceed to turn on the stereo up high and lip-sync “Poppin.” I would just stand and look at him with that same smirk and shaking my head. Of course that’s just one of many memories I have of him. He was a fool and I loved that about him. For a while this dude had me wrapped around his finger, but did he know that? of course not! ha! I never let him know just how much I liked him because he would have taken that and ran with it, i’m sure! :]
Lately, I tend to drift off into moments where i just sit and think about what his life had become and what he could have become. His potential was too great for the reality he was living just a few days ago. He should be finishing his last year of school at Clemson right now on a football scholarship or he could have been in at least his 2nd year pro right now. He wasn’t dumb kid. He just made a really dumb decision Monday night that ended up costing his life. But luckily I have not been dwelling too much.
My mind has lately been bringing up the good memories I had long forgotten. I think about his wonderful smile and his good heart. memories like the one above, Junior prom and many others. Despite the things he had been doing, I don’t care what others may have to say about him, I know that he was a great, wonderful, amazing person. And yea he may have only shown a certain side to me, whatever we had between each other at those young ages we were :] it was genuine and to know that i will never get to see him again hurts my heart. The fact that there are no more chances of me ever speaking to him again is hard for me to handle and I truly hope that come this funeral on Tuesday, that it will be somewhat of closure for all who were close to Tracy now or once upon a time. I love you Tracy, always have, always will.
Post with 3 notes
This past weekend, I took the 10 hour drive down to Miami to support a friend at her Father’s funeral. It was absolutely heartbreaking to see a close friend of mine and her family go through such a tragedy. I hate that they had to go through such a tragic situation and have to deal with the aftermath of it all. The moment I heard of the sad news, I was honestly in shock. I know how she is about her father and how much he meant to her and to hear about his death was heartbreaking.
As her friend, going down to support her at his funeral was… really there was no thought to it. I knew I had to go down and support her. 3 other friends of ours felt the same way. We were going to go down to support her and be there for her because we know she’s needs it. The thought “oh, i know she would do it for me” never crossed my mind. It was honestly just an automatic thing clicked in our minds that said, no matter what we gotta be there for her. She and her family have an extremely rocky road ahead of them but I know that they will alright eventually. they’re strong and will get through it, i know they will. I learned that more than anything this weekend.
Post with 4 notes
2 Destinations + 1 week = an EPIC spring break!
New Orleans to Miami… doesn’t get any better than that.
had to take a day off. 10 hrs on the road will do that to ya.
i just can’t make myself leave my bed right now. so i will resume
with my normal daily schedule tomorrow. smh
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