e h T y t ee mil M Fa
FAHARI-LIBERTAD The Family
Fa-ha-ri: (noun)
President Brittany Askew
Dignity, respect, a good reputation. Derived from the language of KiSwahili.
Dr. Karanja K. Carroll, Faculty Advisor
Euclyn Williams, Student Advisor
Li-ber-tad: (noun) Spanish for FREEDOM!
Editor-In-Chief Jada Young Vice president/ Historian Makeba Hall-Wilson
The Fahari-Libertad is committed to printing the political, social, and economic views and concerns regarding people of color here at SUNY New Paltz. It is published in the spirit of cultural unity as well as bringing about the spiritual unification of all people. The main goal of the Fahari-Libertad is to enrich and educate all with knowledge and enlightenment. We accept anyone who is truly committed to these goals to work with us.
Mission To seek knowledge, truth and unity with pride
Kamoy Joseph, Staff Writer
Eryka Morales, Staff Writer
Josette Ramnani, Staff Writer
Contact Us The Fahari-Libertad SUNY New Paltz Student Union Building, Rm. 323 New Paltz, NY 12561 Email: faharilibertad@gmail.com Facebook: Fahari Libertad Magazine Blog: faharilibertad.blogspot.com
Layout Editor Malissa Williams Cover Design Lamar Mack Josette Ramnani Nicole Rivera Eryka Morales Staff Writers Kamoy Joseph DaShawn Wilson Jay Herrera Jordan Taylor Luana Kay Horry Manuel Tejada Cait O’Connor Guest Writers/ Onitaset Kumat Contributors Jasmine Celeste Cepeda Jay Espy Ileana Garcia V Saki Rizwana Alumni Contributors Regina “Reggy” Rivers Shatera Gurganious Student Advisor Euclyn Williams Faculty Advisor Dr. Karanja K. Carroll
Twitter: @Fahari_Libertad
Nicole Rivera, Staff Writer
Jay Herrera, Staff Writer
Jordan Taylor, Staff Writer
Copies of the Fahari-Libertad can be found in the SUB, the MLK Center, the Black Studies Dept., The Lecture Center, and the Fahari Office (SUB 323), along with various residence halls. The Fahari-Libertad is currently seeking staff writers, copy editors and photo editors. A major/minor in Journalism/English is NOT a requirement. Please inquire via email at faharilibertad@gmail.com.
52 FAHARI
LIBERTAD 1
FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK Hello Everyone, Welcome to the fall 2012 semester. Congrats to all my fellow seniors because we have made it this far! Now we just have to stay motivated and keep our heads in the game until May 2013. This is my first semester as President of the Fahari-Libertad Magazine and I am really excited. I hope you all are ready for what we have in store for you. Our theme for this issue has to do with the end of the world and the presidential campaign that is happening right now. Therefore, we chose the name Apoliticalypse which combines the words politics and apocalypse. It has been said that the end of the world is “supposed” to happen on December 21, 2012. I mean how many people really believe this? Personally, I would like to graduate from New Paltz first before the world ends. There have been so many conspiracy theories and movies that have been created as to why and how the world will end. Since December is almost near the whole phenomenon of the end of the world is a hot topic right now. This issue gives people the opportunity to express their feelings about the end of the world as well as whether they agree or disagree with the different theories. Also, another major topic is whether Obama will serve another term or will we have a new president that will try to “fix” what is going on in America. After reading this issue, I hope that you really evaluate and think about what side you’re on. Who are you voting for? I hope everyone has been following the election but if not please educate yourself about the different parties before election day on November 6th. This honestly is a very important election that will have a major impact on our future. I hope you all enjoy reading this issue. We also have a new column called #Don’tJudgeMe that we hope will increase your love for Fahari. See you next issue and happy reading!
e h T et ily e M am F
Brittany S. Askew President, Fahari-Libertad
2 FAHARI
LIBERTAD 51
FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK
FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF’S DESK Hey there Fahari Fam, I hope you’re all well and are enjoying a successful semester. If this is the first issue of the Fahari-Libertad that you’re picking up, welcome! We chose to theme this, our first issue of the semester, around politics (based on the 2012 presidential election) and the “apocalypse” because of the 2012 end of the world myth, hence the hard-to-pronounce Apoliticalypse. The theme is important because nothing in this society, in this world, really, is apolitical (absent of politics). Everything is defined by the politics that created or influences it. That includes religion, schooling, employment, identity, etc. The apocalypse, on the other hand is a plague that humanity cannot seem to escape. In my lifetime alone, I can readily recall four times in which this hysteria became the buzz of society. The Y2K millennium bug, the supposed planetary alignment that was to occur that same year, 6/6/06 (the rise of the anti-Christ) and now, the 2012 end of the Mayan calendar— and I’m only 21. For me, these end of the world myths are ridiculous; they are nothing more than the product of a disconnection from the spiritual energy that makes up the Universe. What you’ll find in this issue is varying perspectives on the theme; you’ll find the spiritual collaboration of poetry, prose, pictures and art of diverse degrees. More importantly you will find love. You will find the love of the group that makes up this eboard, and the staff and guest writers; love is what we all need as we transition into this time plagued by the projection of fear mongering, and election-bred conflicts. Enjoy yourself some Fahari! Always with love, Jada Young Editor-in-Chief, Fahari-Libertad
50 FAHARI
LIBERTAD 3
e h T t e e M y l i Fam
A[political]ypse INSIDE THIS ISSUE 6 7 9 10 14 20 22 22 24 28 29 30 31 31 32 32
There is No End. There’s Just a Re-cycle Wake the F&%k Up? Romney Type Politics Impending Calamity To Vote Or Not To Vote? A Democrat Is Nothing But a Dixie-Crat Minority Report Obama’s Campaign Recipe for Change, Romney-Ryan Recipe for Disaster #DontJudgeMe What Would You Do If the World Was Ending? Review of the Film Armageddon 2012 Movie Review The Knowing The Day After Tomorrow Nothing Really Happened in The Happening Lock Down– Season 1, Episode 3 review
Brittany Askew, President
Jada Young, Editor-In-Chief
Makeba Hall-Wilson, Vice President/ Historian
What The #@$%? 34 35 36 37 39
Words of Advice What Is Black Solidarity Day? Envied Fashions The Allegory of the Train Tracks The Ups and Downs of Camouflage
Poetry 42 43 44 45 46 46 47 4 FAHARI
Politics She’ll Echo in the Wind All Eyes On Me Sonnet Soneto Condenatoria el Fascismo My Land Untitled Sonnet
Malissa Williams, Layout Editor
Lamar Mack, Cover Editor
DaShawn Wilson, Public Relations
Tanique Williams, Public Relations
LIBERTAD 49
End of the world is plainly seen to me as a joke; but behind every joke is there a reality? Do we sit here and ponder if this world is really going to end? And if it was, what would we do? Who would we want to be? Where would you want to be in life? Some may say, “I haven’t achieved my beyond; there can never be an end!” Or get straight educational say, “…the Mayans were killed before they were able to complete the damn calendar! “ Many may use religion to be their strength and put faith in them Secretly praying for another day We can get political about this and just say, “…fuck! Romney looks like the worlds end!” We can sit here and just count how fucked up the world is or count our blessings. Enjoy each day and fuck it, live a couple of “YOLO’s” Or let’s get inspirational with this shit. If poverty is high And living the rags to riches, have become a dream. Education is suffering, How can we survive in this deficient and much overpriced, educational system? Let’s keep putting guns in our little boys’ hands, And make more room for prison cells. We can give into the media, We can search for answers in all types of books, Listen to our intuitions And feed off our mother nature Listening to her messages from universe, We can get political blame Obama or Romney We can fight and bicker Or we can say “shut the fuck with this shit already!” Either way it’s the choice of yours Or is it?
Brittany Askew, President
Jada Young, Editor-In-Chief
Makeba Hall-Wilson, Vice President/ Historian
By Nicole Janine
48 FAHARI
LIBERTAD 5
There is No End,
There’s Just a Re-Cycle
By Jada Young, Editor-in-Chief. During the second semester of my fresh(wo)man year at SUNY New Paltz, I wrote a paper for my Comp 2 class about the use of religion to “predict” and then create what is understood as “the end of the world.” In my research on the topic, I learned that the belief that the end of the world is inevitable is known as Apocalypticism. Further, not only does this belief claim that the world will end, but it will end soon, perhaps even in the lifetime of the believer. Toward this end, people act and live accordingly: they begin to stock up on non-perishable food items and secure a location for themselves and their families in case crazy, end-of-the-world doom does in fact go down. People even begin to have little to no regard for the lives of other people around them because they are too busy worrying about protecting themselves; violence also tends to ensue during times of this kind of hysteria. When I wrote that paper (three years ago), I thought that it was a “natural” thing to happen. You know, I figured that it was “human nature” for people to believe that the end of the world was inevitable and that the hysteria was a natural outgrowth of that belief. Now that I am older and wiser, I understand that this belief/hysteria is
6 FAHARI
neither “human” nor it is natural for me (and most other people) to adopt. You see, this belief is the direct product of a system of belief that is grounded in a disconnection from the spiritual makeup of the universe. Everything in the universe is spirit, and as a spirit it is directly connected to the divinity of the universe. When you do not have a thought system that espouses those beliefs, your disconnection to the divine spirit allows you to adopt pessimistic beliefs about the nature of the world and of the universe. A lack of spiritual connection leads one to see the world/ universe as solely material, and by it being solely material it is limited in its existence and is thereby fleeting, When you recognize that materiality only serves to house the spiritual being, you will have less fear of the doom and gloom that society would like for us to adopt about the end of the world. Also, when you recognize that time is not in fact linear, that the “starting point” and the “ending point” are only locations on the circle of existence, then you will fear less the idea that the “end is near” because it is not. All “ends” allow for a new beginning. So, please, have no fear about the end of days, because there is no end, there’s just a re-cycle.
}
Untitled Sonnet By Roger Whitson I am just a one-horse philosopher. Who will listen to me, best to listen
to the wind, to rain, or chirp of the wren, or whatever other sound you prefer. Poetry may not be your cup of tea
& you may say I should keep my poems in family Bible & not show'em.
But on that point I would never agree.
Although poetry & philosophy, may be different as water & oil, may be different as leisure & toil, may be as different as you & me, I am myself & have the right to be and I will never be anyone's foil.
A Poem By V
I beg to differ in the "similar" ways We look, we act, but more these days I suspect the difference is in your voice It is the vomit of a cavebeast, therefore my choice To be less than what you expect me to be Adds up to more than you're willing to see.
LIBERTAD 47
{
There is No End, Soneto Condenatoria el Fascismo By Roger Whitson
Wake the F&%k Up? Luana Kay Horry, Guest Writer
By Jada Young, Editor-in-Chief.
Dum Dee dum dee dum! hear fascism's drum! Dum dee dum dee dum! where does it come from? Fascism comes from racism and hate. Fascism merges business and state. Fascism smashes unionized labor. Fascism makes folk spy on their neighbor. Fascism views venerate violence And uses fear and murder to silence Any and every dissenting voice. Fascism takes away a woman's choice. Fascists know how to re-write history. Fascism embodies misogyny. Fascism denies that rape is a crime. Fascism germinates in shit and slime.
Let’s leave it up to Samuel L. Jackson to make us laugh hysterically about something that is nothing close to a joke. A video that hit the web in the later weeks of September titled, “Wake the Fuck Up” starring Jackson, is a political mimic of his reading of an adult bedtime story called, “Go the Fuck to Sleep”. The youngest member of the typical white American family goes around her home warning her negligent family members to vote- with a little bit of help from her friend, Sam Jack.
My Land
By Shatera Gurganious, Editor-in-Chief 2010-2012
You ask me to leave my land You tell me that it is not mine I don’t need pieces of paper to tell me where I can grow my food How dare you come in and tell me that I don’t belong? Oh how history loves to repeat itself Not too long ago, you came in and told me I was not human That I belonged on your land My only purpose was to serve you
Not too long ago, you came onto my land and told me that it was yours How dare you come and trespass on our land? Kick us off and tell us we are worthless? What have I done to deserve this? Without my land, where will I go? How will I be able to feed my family? You lie and tell me this is for my own good, That my people need you here
Whether he’s popping out from behind the television or in someone’s bedroom, Samuel Jackson delivers the message that it is time to really pay attention to the issues of this election, to take it seriously, and to specifically think critically about how it affects each age group collectively. The “out of touch millionaire” aka Mitt Romney is on the attack of the youth, the parents, and the grandparents. He won’t provide a safety net. Mitt Romney doesn’t care about civil rights. He’ll snatch John’s financial aid. Susie won’t get that abortion nor the contraceptives because he plans to dismantle Planned Parenthood (why are these young girls even worried about that sort of thing? I don’t want to know neither). The old folks aren’t safe because Medicare is out of the question. And Obama? Oh, he sent troops to Bin Laden and is fighting for student loans. That’s it?! It is a traditional political tactic where fingers are pointed but there has to be a line drawn. After pointing all the fingers, after all the blame is placed, then what? It’s only implied that Obama disagrees with Romney, but how does anyone really know if all that’s heard is bad Romney news? The video was four minutes long… two should have covered the positives of voting for the opposing side of Romney.
This video, and many other arguments about the 2012 race, puts forth the idea that voting for Barack Obama this time around will be like voting for the lesser evil. The complaints against Obama include things like: he can’t get anything done or that he’s too communal. This is much easier to swallow than Romney who clearly has an agenda… a white, rich agenda that excludes anyone of lesser value in his eyes. Barack Obama on the other hand has a lot planned for America. Whether he can carry these plans out or not pretty obviously leans more towards ‘no’ due to lack of time. However, he has a plan: corporate taxes instead of individual tax, reduction of immigrant deportation instead of depriving them of work, and making environmental issues a federal concern instead of leaving it up to the states. The list goes on and on. Educate yourself about it before someone asks you, “Why Obama?” and you respond with “Because, Romney blah blah blah…” without the added “…and Obama will blah blah blah.” The video is cute and it will get people to think about actually waking up and voting. But when voting, please keep in mind that yes, Romney is what most consider a bad guy. But what makes Barack Obama a good guy? Is he even what you consider a “good” president or is your vote based on him being not as “bad” as Mitt Romney? Of course voting for the lesser evil, or the next best thing, is the popular and easy move to make. To answer these questions of good and bad and to be an effective voter, you must side by side analyze both of the candidates’ agendas and decide what each will do for you. This video is trying to get the awareness out about the bad, but leaves out the real important part: WHAT is Obama going to DO for YOU?
No, what we need is our land back
**Visit stopafricalandgrab.com for further information**
46 FAHARI
LIBERTAD 7
Fifteen Issues This Election is Not About by Bill Quigley (Referred by Karanja Keita Carroll, Ph.D.)
Neither candidate is interested in stopping the use of the death penalty for federal or state crimes.
Neither candidate is interested in eliminating or reducing the 5,113 US nuclear warheads.
Neither candidate is campaigning to close Guantanamo prison.
Neither candidate has called for arresting and prosecuting high ranking people on Wall Street for the subprime mortgage catastrophe.
Neither candidate is interested in holding anyone in the Bush administration accountable for the torture committed by US personnel against prisoners in Guantanamo or in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Neither candidate is interested in stopping the use of drones to assassinate people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia.
Neither candidate is against warrantless surveillance, indefinite detention, or racial profiling in fighting “terrorism.”
Neither candidate is interested in fighting for a living wage. In fact neither are really committed beyond lip service to raising the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour – which, if it kept pace with inflation since the 1960s should be about $10 an hour.
Neither candidate was interested in arresting Osama bin Laden and having him tried in court.
Neither candidate will declare they refuse to bomb Iran.
Neither candidate is refusing to take huge campaign contributions from people and organizations.
Neither candidate proposes any significant specific steps to reverse global warming.
Neither candidate is talking about the over 2 million people in jails and prisons in the US.
Neither candidate proposes to create public jobs so everyone who wants to work can.
Neither candidate opposes the nuclear power industry. In fact, both support expansion.
8 FAHARI
Sonnet By Roger Whitson It was very late sometime in the wee Hours, I heard wind astir in the grasses And rustling through the sycamore trees When the night wind made its haunting passes Into the hillside trees troubling its leaves And the wind whistled around a full moon And around the eves, the wind seemed to grieve And I told myself that day would break soon And I heard the clock tick that marked the time And the past intermingled with the now And the full moon was shining like a dime And the wind made dirges in the trees' boughs And I told myself not to be afraid But my agitation was not allayed.
Untitled
Her lungs were invaded with the cigarette smoke, as if one more puff would truly put her at ease. Its stench invaded the frigid air, without any common gratitude for anyone. She had a smug smirk painted on; Cheap red lipstick smudged across her tainted cheeks. Back then, the wind used to invade her. It used to rush through her thick brown curls, her laughter was like: candy-coated rain drops. It was sweet, unique, and so very rare. But time seems to have slipped through, straight through her finger tips, like isolated beach sand. And even her most cherished memories became hard to maintain. By Ileana Garcia
LIBERTAD 45
“Romney Type Politics”/ All Eyes on Me
By Reggy, Alumna Contributor
They got all eyes on me, every little thing I do and say, just gets taken out of line anyway. And though I’m suffering, I just stick to my priorities, praying that my enemies, lay off of me. I’ve made some mistakes like they have, even though they’re all not the same Some get looked over, swept under the dirt, but let it be me and it shatters my name. I feel like I’m trying too hard, but they’re scolding it’s not enough. It’s funny how they think they know me, I be laughing when they try to tell me I’m watching you watching me, don’t know why you Got all eyes on me, every little thing I do and say, just gets taken out of line anyway And though I’m suffering, I just stick to my priorities, praying that my enemies back up off me. Woke up to this breaking point and nobody knows; just waiting for me to react. Feeling high, felling low, should I stay, should I go? Now I see who never had my back! You have no one to turn to as they try to burn you, Not giving into revelries, so why should that concern you? They don’t care about my struggle, they just see me as a bother, But while they claim to be low key, I see that they Got all eyes on me, every little thing I do and say just gets taken out of line anyway And though I’m suffering, I just stick to my priorities, praying that my enemies just let me be. It’s funny how they think that they know when they don’t I try to keep it subtle but these petty demons won’t Working on my last nerve, watching, waiting for the hurt Filling me with uncertainty I don’t deserve. It’s funny how they think they can see right through me, Hoping that I die from their negativity, But I’m not gonna curse you, can’t wish the worse for you, that’s just not in me. Got all eyes on me every little thing I do and say, just gets taken out of line anyway Though I’m suffering, I just stick to my priorities praying that my enemies leave peacefully…
44 FAHARI
Running for political office is never easy. Candidates are always under intense scrutiny, constantly trying to win the popularity prize (sometimes at the expense of their constituents). Presidential elections are no different. In fact, they’re probably worse; steeped more in drama that’s televised across the nation (in the case of more powerful countries such as the US, the world!) than running for let’s say, Mayor or Governor. One of the areas where transparency is important (as if there is an area that doesn’t need transparency when you’re running to take control of one of the most powerful nations in the world) is finance. A candidate’s financial decisions and standing says a great deal about them. The Obama’s talk quite a bit about how they’ve only recently finished paying back their student loans. This not only makes students with overwhelming loans connect to Barack and Michelle (see how I call them by their first names), but it also gives us a sense of this particular family not being part of the .000001% (exaggeration intended). The Romney’s, on the other hand, are a different story. Mitt Romney has fought the tradition of candidates revealing tax information for a number of years to show their financial standing. In fact, it was Mitt’s father, George Romney, who set this standard back in 1967 by revealing 12 years worth of tax records at once (because seeing tax returns for a year or two can paint a fuzzy picture). It’s interesting that Mitt has fought this so hard. He’s even won, to a certain extent. Thus far, Romney has revealed only a few years worth of tax returns that are questionable, not giving voters a clear picture of where he stands financially.
By Saki Rizwana, President 2009-2010, Alumni Contributor
Romney is also reported to have bank accounts and investments in Switzerland, the Bahamas and Cayman Islands, places where tax laws are non-existent. Isn’t this what shady CEO’s in corrupt corporations do when they want to hide the money they’re stealing from the company? Romney’s financial situation has the word “SUSPICIOUS” written all over it. Vanity Fair has an excellent article about Romney’s financial situation. It’s a bit long so let me give you some key points:
1. Romney reported that he received $2 million from Bain and Co. in June
2. Bain and Co. has at least 138 funds in the Cayman Islands. Romney has interest in at least 12 of these, worth as much as $30 million!
3. In 2010 and 2011, the Romney’s paid $6.2 million in federal taxes, a measly 14.59% of his $42.5 million dollar income.
4. 14.59% is significantly less than what the average middleclass worker pays. He is approximately worth $250 million dollars (I’d say more since he won’t disclose how much money he’s stashed away overseas. These are astounding numbers! Mitt gets that money! That’s for sure. Even with all of this money, Mitt is hard-pressed to pay for type used in campaign t-shirts sold on his site (for $30 each, I might add). The type in question is called Wisdom, designed by James T. Edmondson and gotten from a site called
Continued on Page 11 LIBERTAD 9
Impending Calamity By Manuel Tejada, Guest Writer
From the sovereign debt crisis
facilities, which can lead to
of Southern Europe or the
unforeseen circumstances.
She’ll Echo in the Wind If the end of the world is coming, it's coming like a swift blow to the back of the head.
banking crisis of all of the European Union, to escalating
On another global hand, we are
tensions between the Arab
witnessing economic straits
world and the western world,
almost unsolvable. Between
You want the world to end
to global political uprisings of
Spain and Greece, 22-25% are
you wait for it,
China to Chile, the shifting of
the average unemployment
like your favorite show.
our global sphere towards a
rates, with pensions, social
vision of calamity seems ever
services, public sector jobs
truer. Just a couple of weeks
being cut on dire levels, from
in job growth. In the United
ago, on September 27th, the
the two latter countries to
States, the unemployment rate
We kept on living
Prime Minister of Israel
Portugal and Italy. The
stand at a pitiful 8.1%, and
clinging to life like a
announced at the United
International Monetary Fund,
most likely higher looking at
Nations General Assembly to
European Central Bank, and
part-time workers or
establish a red line on Iran's
the European Commission are
underemployed, discouraged
nuclear program. He had asked
aiming at billions of dollars in
workers or people not actively
President Obama to adhere by
spending cuts in return for
searching for work, with long-
this 'red line' beforehand.
'bailout' aid to those Southern
term unemployment at record
European countries.
levels. Unfortunately with little
This red line, if passed, would
And here I thought life just begun.
The world died a long time ago.
half-dead deer.
Is this what I allow? Bliss in my ignorance. Envious of a child’s innocence. Wishing my pen can do more… What am I waiting for? To be buried deep? To hear our children weep? Our promises we never keep! Our sins we begin got reap. I’m comfortable not knowing. Okay with how the world’s going. Content with how it’s spinning.
We're just waiting for someone to put us out of our misery. She'll outlive us all, she'll echo in the wind. Just like man to think he can end the world with his cold, callous, cruelty.
short-term focus on job
All because I’m neither losing nor winning. Comfortable in my discomfort. Whispering, “It can only get worse.” Running away from any obligation. Won’t participate in any conversation.
allow Iran to possess high-
Such measures has contributed
creation, unattractive
If you want to know the answer
grade uranium, allowable for
to widespread hunger in Spain
investment climate, and lower
stop looking for it.
nuclear weaponry, or nuclear
for instance, and skyrocketing
reported GDP growth of
She'll whisper it in your ear
power. Iran says it is for
unemployment, especially
1.3% , our sputtering economy
peaceful purposes, many agree,
when more than 50% of youth
will either have to rely on
Israel tells another tale. The
within Spain are without work.
money-driven presidential
main threat lies in if and when
Such cuts have also led to the
election, possible automatic
that red line is passed will
increase in the debt to GDP
cuts of 1.3 trillion dollars in
signify the potential of a
ratio (Growth Domestic
government spending and cuts
military strike on Iran's nuclear
Product), with little investment
to programs in January, or the
10 FAHARI
Mr. Jackson’s “Earth Song” plays aloud.
when it's not so filled with the echoes of regret.
By Josette Ramnani
Leading towards a reformation. No need for a transformation. I lie. I deny. My fears fog what I know is right. But all I can do is write. By Luana LIBERTAD 43
Politics
resistance of the people to garner greater pressure.
Politricks Tricks of the mind They trick us to eat the swine The colonized think soul food is fine dine the baby’s momma cryin’ the baby cryin’ the baby’s father’s lyin’ to get ahead tryin’ to survive in a country that would rather he be dead caged in a box with yellows, blacks, and reds show em the word Kemet they think it’s a fashion store, with no credit Show em the name Pedro Albizu Campos They like, was he the catcher, on the Reds? politics politricks of the nation investing more in wars and less in education the white house filled with white folks except for the president and the janitors who clean the president’s desk a woman with no degree and no self respect but the president is black! And so is the crisis Who woulda thought that in 2012 we’d still be living like this The money is still green Created by white hands and white minds distributed by white men financed by black crimes They tell us not to see everything in black and white
42 FAHARI
That’s why they got you reading 50 shades of grey In black and white What a shame Politics Politricks of the soul Religion freezes the world It’s said best by J. Cole It’s too cold So what’s it gonna take to crack this code? There more Black men in prison now than were sold I’m watching history unfold Mistakes repeated and secrets untold Pyramids created by people in death row Politics.
By Jay Espy
Alongside Islamophobic sentiments such as the Innocence of Muslims film causing rebellion from North Africa to Southeast Asia, we are seeing resistance in Spain and Greece, with demonstrators or "los indignados" in Spain occupying their congress. In Chicago, teachers went on strike to fulfill a better contract and
Continued from Page 9 Lost Type. Lost Type is a type co-op that allows people access to well-designed typefaces at “pay-what-youwant” rates, generally for personal use. Each typeface comes with a End-User License Agreement that states what the limits are for the use of the particular type. Edmondson, in the EULA for Wisdom Script, clearly states that users need to contact the designer for permission to use the typeface commercially. Romney’s well-typeset t-shirts had no such license. This is theft of intellectual property.
demand greater quality education for their students. In Montreal, university students were victorious in their eight month long strike, seeing proposed tuition hikes freeze along with other progressive policies implemented. We are seeing resistance to stop and frisk policies in New York City, and against police abuse across the country from Anaheim to Newburgh. In Texas, environmental activists are blockading Keystone XL, an oil pipeline built from Canada to the Gulf Coast, that has already destroyed foliage, and people's homes. In
While it may seem silly to some, not paying established type designers for their work, especially when the money made from their work is significant, takes away the designer’s ability to make a living for what they do. This shows very simply Romney’s disregard for working with quality designers. Admittedly, we’re a small group but that does not diminish the work we do and our need to make a living from that work. The Obama campaign has gained much fame in the design community for teaming up with Hoefler & Frere-Jones, a highly regarded type foundry based in NYC. Edmondson has brought the issue to the Romney campaign and the designs using the typeface have been taken down from the campaign site. Now, let’s see if Edmondson is retroactively paid for the tchotchkes that have been sold so far.
America Latina, the rise of independent progressive leadership in South America and even Central America has shown the ongoing political resistance towards the imposition of foreign political-economic policies, as seen in decades before. These global uprisings are
If I was thinking of ever voting for Romney (which, I wasn’t), this certainly hasn’t made a convert out of me. Romney’s type politics is enough to deter me from voting (duh I’m biased!). For others, the financial factors should suffice. Do we really want a president that has more money than most of the readers of this article put together (times a few thousand, actually)?
happening. In gaining consciousness, teaching others, and fighting back, these are the means to prevent a global political-economic apocalypse.
LIBERTAD 11
This article was republished in Hartford Web Publishing.
“Since I was twenty-one in 1889, I have in theory followed the voting plan strongly advocated by Sidney Lens in The Nation of August 4, i.e., voting for a third party even when its chances were hopeless, if the main parties were unsatisfactory; or, in absence of a third choice, voting for the lesser of two evils. My action, however, had to be limited by the candidates' attitude toward Negroes. Of my adult life, I have spent twenty-three years living and teaching in the South, where my voting choice was not asked. I was disfranchised by law or administration. In the North I lived in all thirty-two years, covering eight Presidential elections. In 1912 I wanted to support Theodore Roosevelt, but his Bull Moose convention dodged the Negro problem and I tried to help elect Wilson as a liberal Southerner. Under Wilson came the worst attempt at Jim Crow legislation and discrimination in civil service that we had experienced since the Civil War. In 1916 I took Hughes as the lesser of two evils. He promised Negroes nothing and kept his word. In 1920, I supported Harding because of his promise to liberate Haiti. In 1924, I voted for La Follette, although I knew he could not be elected. In 1928, Negroes faced absolute dilemma. Neither Hoover nor Smith wanted the Negro vote and both publicly insulted us. I voted for Norman Thomas and the Socialists, although the Socialists had attempted to Jim Crow Negro members in the South. In 1932 I voted for Franklin Roosevelt, since Hoover was unthinkable and Roosevelt's attitude toward workers most realistic. I was again in the South from 1934 until 1944. Technically I could vote, but the election in which I could vote was a farce. The real election was the 12 FAHARI
White Primary. Retired "for age" in 1944, I returned to the North and found a party to my liking. In 1948, I voted the Progressive ticket for Henry Wallace and in 1952 for Vincent Hallinan. In 1956, I shall not go to the polls. I have not registered. I believe that democracy has so far disappeared in the United States that no "two evils" exist. There is but one evil party with two names, and it will be elected despite all I can do or say. There is no third party. On the Presidential ballot in a few states (seventeen in 1952), a "Socialist" Party will appear. Few will hear its appeal because it will have almost no opportunity to take part in the campaign and explain its platform. If a voter organizes or advocates a real third-party movement, he may be accused of seeking to overthrow this government by "force and violence." Anything he advocates Referred by Karanja Keita Car roll, Ph.D. and by way of significant reform will Faisal Awadallah, Staff Writer be called "Communist" and will of
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On October 20, 1956, W. E. B. Du Bois delivers this eloquent indictment of US politics while explaining to Nation readers why he won't vote in the upcoming Presidential election. Du Bois condemns both Democrats and Republicans for their indifferent positions on the influence of corporate wealth, racial inequality, arms proliferation and unaffordable health care.
Poetry
Why I Won’t Vote
necessity be Communist in the sense that it must advocate such things as government ownership of the means of production; government in business; the limitation of private profit; social medicine, government housing and federal aid to education; the total abolition of race bias; and the welfare state. These things are on every Communist program; these things are the aim of socialism. Any American who advocates them today, no matter how sincerely, stands in danger of losing his job, surrendering his social status and perhaps landing in jail. The witnesses against him may be liars or insane or criminals. These witnesses need give no proof for their charges and may not even be known or appear in person. They may be in the pay of the United States Government. A.D.A.'s and "Liberals" are not third parties; they seek to act as tails to kites. But since the kites are self-propelled and radar-controlled, tails are quite superfluous and rather silly. The present Administration is carrying on the greatest preparation for war in the history of mankind.
LIBERTAD 41
Continued from Page 39 will always be great. I learned how to do a correct push up by kissing the ground and till' this day I still do, with every lift thinking about how much I will always love this country, thinking about how I will always have this bond, thinking about how at one point in my life I wanted, more than anything, to fight for this country. That pledge that so many of us recited daily in school, the brave eagle, “Manifest Destiny,” maybe it is all just a way to romanticize being an American, maybe it is all propaganda, and what if it is? Every country has its myths, its lies, its history, we're not perfect. Patriotism is a feeling that comes regardless of the bad things. It's the fact that we're here, the fact that “We made
Stevenson promises to maintain or increase this effort. The weight of our taxation is unbearable and rests it in America.” It gets me choked up mainly and deliberately on the poor. This Administration is dominated and directed by wealth sometimes. There is no other place I would and for the accumulation of wealth. It runs smoothly ever want to live. I can't say I would die for like a well-organized industry and should do so because industry runs it for the benefit of industry. Corporate my country anymore, only because I want to wealth profits as never before in history. We turn over live to see it sour. I want to live to see my the national resources to private profit and have few country elect a Latino President (it's going funds left for education, health or housing. Our crime, especially juvenile crime, is increasing. Its increase is to happen)! I want to live to see the DREAM perfectly logical; for a generation we have been Act passed (it's going to happen)! I want to teaching our youth to kill, destroy, steal and rape in war; what can we expect in peace? We let men take live to celebrate another fourth of July. As wealth which is not theirs; if the seizure is "legal" we Hamilton Fish once said, “If our country is call it high profits and the worth dying for in time of war let us resolve profiteers help decide what is legal. If the theft is "illegal" the that it is truly worth living for in time of thief can fight it out in court, peace.” Loyalty, duty, respect, self-less with excellent chances to win if by W.E.B. Dubois he receives the accolade of the service, honor, integrity, personal courage, I right newspapers. Gambling in Referred by Karanja Keita Car roll, Ph.D. and don't need to serve to feel these things, I just Faisal Awadallah, Staff Writer home, church and on the stock have to be American. market is increasing and all prices are rising. It costs three times his salary to elect a We've done so many amazing things Senator and many millions to elect a President. This money comes from the very corporations which today in this country. Some facts are not myths: are the government. This in a real democracy would be America is beautiful. enough to turn the party responsible out of power. Yet this we cannot do.
Negroes hope to muster 400,000 votes in 1956. Where will they cast them? What have the Republicans done to enforce the education decision of the Supreme Court? What they advertised as fair employment was exactly nothing, and Nixon was just the man to explain it. What has the Administration done to rescue Negro workers, the most impoverished group in the nation, half of whom receive less than half the median wage of the nation, while the nation sends billions abroad to protect oil investments and help employ slave labor in the Union of South Africa and the Rhodesias? Very well, and will the party of Talmadge, Eastland and Ellender do better than the Republicans if the Negroes return them to office?
Poetry
Why I Won’t Vote
The "other" party has surrendered all party differences in foreign affairs, and foreign affairs are our most important affairs today and take most of our taxes. Even in domestic affairs how does Stevenson differ from Eisenhower? He uses better English than Dulles, thank God! He has a sly humor, where Eisenhower has none. Beyond this Stevenson stands on the race question in the South not far from where his godfather Adlai stood sixty-three years ago, which reconciles him to the South. He has no clear policy on war or preparation for war; on water and flood control; on reduction of taxation; on the welfare state. He wavers on civil rights and his party blocked civil rights in the Senate until Douglas of Illinois admitted that the
40 FAHARI
Democratic Senate would and could stop even the right of Senators to vote. Douglas had a right to complain. Three million voters sent him to the Senate to speak for them. His voice was drowned and his vote nullified by Eastland, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who was elected by 151,000 voters. This is the democracy in the United States which we peddle abroad.
I have no advice for others in this election. Are you voting Democratic? Well and good; all I ask is why? Are you voting for Eisenhower and his smooth team of bright ghost writers? Again, why? Will your helpless vote either way support or restore democracy to America?
Is the refusal to vote in this phony election a counsel of despair? No, it is dogged hope. It is hope that if twenty-five million voters refrain from voting in 1956 because of their own accord and not because of a sly wink from Khrushchev, this might make the American people ask how much longer this dumb farce can proceed without even a whimper of protest. Yet if we protest, off the nation goes to Russia and China. Fifty-five American ministers and philanthropists are asking the Soviet Union "to face manfully the doubts and promptings of their conscience." Cannot these dogooders face their own consciences? Can they not see that American culture is rotting away: our honesty, our
Continued on Page 21 LIBERTAD 13
To Vote Or Not to Vote? By Josette Ramnani, Staff Writer
14 FAHARI
At this point, whether you vote or not doesn't even matter. At least not to me. All the commercials with celebrities telling me to go vote is enough to make me just stay home and it is also a very real possibility for most of us I'm sure. Tuesday rolls around, you get out of class, make a quick stop at home and, Oh shit! It's 9 p.m. The day goes by, your vote is void, and you don't feel a thing. You can stay home and watch the election coverage, or just wait until Wednesday when nobody will shut up about it. There's lots of reasons not to vote, the usual list goes something like this: I don't have time, the Board of Elections fucked up my registration, I don't know my polling place, both of the candidates suck, the system is rigged, my vote doesn't matter anyway, and if I vote in this election I am implying I consent to the system, and I'm responsible for all the fucked up shit that's about to go down in the next four years. Or maybe some people use the oh-so-credible, “the world's going to end anyway” excuse. That's all well and good, I totally get it. There are few things more annoying than an election cycle. I can understand how it can seem like a hassle. Still, as annoying as those “vote or suffer the wrath of Lucifer” commercials are, the one thing that bothers me more is when real people debate the merits of not voting. Ugh! I get it: the world has gone to shit and there's nothing we can do about it. And yet, if I find myself at home on Tuesday afternoon with no ballot cast I will be pretty disappointed in myself. I could justify abstaining to myself, I'm sure. And yet after working on a campaign, I don't think I could avoid feeling guilty. The only thing more annoying than watching an election cycle, is actually participating in it. It is more exhausting than annoying, though agitation is not
The Ups and Downs of Camouflage (excerpt) A Short (True) Story by Jasmine Celeste Cepeda
I ran and ran, thinking my feet would
I gave up on my dream to go to West
sooner or later detach themselves from my
Point. The drive had left me so easily. It was
body so I could finally breathe. I only wish
like clicking next to a song that you didn't
that happened!
want to hear. I wanted a new song, a new
Roped together all I could say to myself was Jasmine don't fall, Jasmine don't fall! I fell. I fell and then all the girls had to stop
addiction. The last day wearing my uniform I walked to school. Four miles.
and they screamed, Tony screamed behind
I walked four miles to school so I
us, "JASMINE GET UP! COME ON! Two
could remember every moment of that day, of
more miles."
that feeling. I didn't realize it, but I was really
I'm strong, I thought, I'm strong. When we finished I cried. I cried because I wanted water, but mostly because I did it, we did it.
going to miss being in JROTC. For all three years I'd been a Patriot Cadet, I never excepted the "Thank you for serving" compliments, but that day I did. I even stopped by a classroom of Privates to
What it meant to be a team, what it
give a “motivational speech.” My pride was at
meant to conquer the world, what it meant
a climax, fortunately its intensity has never
to be a cadet, I felt it all in that moment.
fallen. The colors of the flag are still my
On the bus ride home I cried some more. Three years and I wanted to quit.
favorite. There
are
some
things,
mostly
Three years of Hoo-rahs and I wanted to
emotions, yeah, emotions, that I don't think
stop.
will ever leave me. Those three years were
What would my coach say, my captain? Disappointment.
great to me. America has been great to me. It Continued on Page 40 LIBERTAD 39
Continued from Page 37
Supremacy originated in . . .;” “Ronald Reagan did . . .;” “Christopher Columbus did not . . .;” “The Bible actually …” All while their Brothers and Sisters are on train tracks and the train is incoming. This practice, that many of us do, is similar to, after seeing someone fall into a train’s path, explaining to them that carbonite steel has a useful durability compared against copper, that so many voltages move subway cars, that Japan’s system has this amount of efficiency and such– meanwhile the train is coming. Sometimes, the person on the podium, explaining the presence and even particulars of the tracks are on tracks too. Then the train comes and kills a good many of us because everyone, podiumperson included is standing on tracks. See, not too many of us know where the tracks are–or aren’t. And honestly–that’s fine. When my cousin shoved me back–I did not know that I was in the road. In America, there’s usually a parking lane that you can safely walk into–not so where I was in London. My cousin didn’t tell me “Hey, you’re in the road.” She doesn’t tell me, “White Supremacy is a global system of . . ..” She pulls me out. This is what the African Blood Siblings uniquely does. If you remember the allegory of the headless chicken, or if you ever saw how farm animals are killed, you’ll know that death still comes to those who do not expect it. So I know that farm animals are not there to live prosperously, and anyone can tell that African people are not dependent on non-Africans to live prosperously either. But if you do not know–that’s alright. What you need to do is gain independence. ‘Cause independence is good–and independence is off the tracks whether you know dependence is on the tracks or not. So the African Blood Siblings Community Center is the only physical entity off the tracks. That means, become friendly with the donate button and the contact forms. That’s the African Blood Sibling’s way of shoving you out of harm’s way.
For more information, visit africanbloodsiblings.wordpress.com
38 FAHARI
The Ups and Downs of vote Camouflage (excerpt) uncommon. You for someone who claims to at least spend all day calling angry people, knocking on doors half expecting someone to come out with a shot gun. It takes a lot to run a campaign. I'm not talking presidential, I'm talking local. Running a successful local campaign requires many, many sweaty volunteers, rich supporters, a dedicated team who works well into the night, and possibly the sacrifice of a baby lamb. It's a far from perfect process, and no we don't always get the best candidates. But, here's the thing: elections happen more than once every four years. There are primaries where the people choose the most viable candidate. But because we don't tend to vote in primaries, it's usually the candidate with the most money who wins and goes on to the general. So having shitty candidates is hardly an excuse, at least on the local level.
A Short (True) Story by Jasmine Celeste Cepeda
I don't delude myself into thinking my vote will suddenly end the drug war, dissolve the prison-industrial complex, or cancel “Honey Boo Boo.” I don't know if my vote has anything real to do with so and so's election. That being said, I'm not going to beat myself up if the person I vote for decides to defund a vital program or passes some secretive, scary law that takes away basic civil liberties (plus we already have a law like that, no need to be alarmed!) If my vote didn't matter, that ain't my fault! And if it did matter and I cast a
minimally represent my interests, and instead caves to the pressures of lobbyists and politics, how is that my fault? Would me not voting make this person any less likely to do so? Fuck thatwould the alternative candidate be any less likely to fuck me over? Probably not. Yes, I'm voting for the “lesser of two evils” but one evil wants to hinder my ability to access Planned Parenthood. And what does not voting do? Does it tell the government that you disapprove of its existence? Does it tell anybody anything? Does it stop the system from functioning? No, it just makes it that much more ineffective and elitist. The less voters, the less responsibility the government has to the people, at least in terms of this system. Does it prevent a candidate from winning? Does it truly make you any less complicit in the system? I'm going to vote, and I don't think it means that I am naïve or delusional, or a proponent of American democracy, or American anything for that matter. All it means is that I recognize that voting, as strange as it sounds, is a privilege that not everyone gets access to and that my ancestors have not always had access to. All it means is that I have not completely abandoned the idea of participation. If it doesn't count for anything, no harm no foul, that's one more vote in a useless system, all I sacrifice is an hour tops. And if it does, well then perhaps I will tip the scale away from a crazy, corrupt politician. Maybe that other candidate won't be too much different, but my guess is if one's cutting Medicare, reproductive health, and taxes for the wealthy, the other one won't be. And if this election does usher in the end of the world, well, then you can all blame me.
LIBERTAD 15
Is Senior Advisor Valerie J arrett the One The Allegory of Who the Train Tracks Keeps Barack From Dealing with Black Issues? By Onitaset Kumat, Guest Writer
By Dr. Boyce Watkins (Referred Karanja Keita Carroll, Ph.D.)
Listen Siblings, I come in peace, takes whatever she can get. This article previously KultureKritic.com.
appeared
in
“Valerie seems more hell-bent on killing a critique than actually addressing it with constructive effort.”
Some have said that the Republican Party has been the primary obstructionist that keeps President Barack Obama from dealing with African American issues. Even those who acknowledge that the president hasn’t said a word about black suffering are quick to find whatever excuse they can for inaction on the part of the White House. Rather than earning the black vote by presenting a healthy track record of effort on behalf of the black community, black people are simply being told to “keep the faith” (note the religious reference) and to “have Barack’s back,” (note the hood slang reference). It’s as if we’re being told to “stop snitching” on the White House, while Obama Administration officials sit back and laugh at how stupid we are for not asking for anything in return for unprecedented political loyalty. We get one speech after another with Obama Administration officials reminding us of how many civil rights leaders died to give us the right to vote, and why they all wanted us to take the best political option they choose to give us. But what they don’t tell us is that when you vote for a politician and ask him for nothing, you are worse off than if you’d abstained and held your vote for ransom. A woman choosing between a man who beats her and a man who neglects her can always say “I’m not dating either one of you fools until you learn to act right.” That woman will ALWAYS get more respect than the desperate woman with low self-esteem who
16 FAHARI
“Some say that Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett has done all she can to keep the president from dealing with African Americans directly.” Unfortunately, style and symbolism don’t pay the bills: Black Americans have seen their economic condition worsen, while whites have watched their conditions improve. When the recession is over, black unemployment will probably not even get down to the levels that whites are complaining about right now. Almost nothing has been done to alleviate the mass incarceration epidemic and the President has hardly addressed all of the dead black teenagers in the killing fields of his home city of Chicago. If those were white gay kids in the suburbs, billions of dollars would have already been allocated to help resolve the problem. A recent New York Times article seems to imply that the bottleneck on getting to the heart of African American issues is not the Republican Party or the president himself. Instead, some say that Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett has done all she can to keep the president from dealing with African Americans directly, and instead has been working through Al Sharpton, an unwavering Obama surrogate, who admitted in a 60 Minutes interview that he would never criticize the president, even if he isn’t doing his job effectively. Sharpton’s political motto may as well be, “Yes, things are horrible for black people, and the Democrats aren’t going to do a damn thing about it, but I really need you to keep voting for my boss.” Jarrett has been called an elitist by some, and doesn’t have a strong track record on fighting for poor blacks. For example, many noted that the president and Valerie came home for the expensive wedding of Valerie’s Harvard-educated daughter and
said nothing about the black boys being killed right down the street on the South Side of Chicago. Shortly thereafter, however, the president hopped on a jet to console the victims of the Batman shooting in Colorado….after all, their lives are more important. “They are getting unprecedented support from black Americans and they cannot treat this support as a political welfare check that doesn’t have to be repaid.” Part of the massive disagreement I had with Rev. Sharpton (we no longer speak and I don’t expect that to change any time soon) had to do with Valerie, who seems more hell-bent on killing a critique than actually addressing it with constructive effort. My goal was to get to the bottom of the reason that the president was not meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus, which is apparently a question that black people are not allowed to ask. Before May 2011, President Obama had only met with the CBC two times in two years, which is inexcusable, especially during the worst black economic crisis in 30 years. But then again, why should he do anything for black people? They’ve got over 90% of the black vote, and many African Americans will support the Obama Administration on faith and not much else. The “inconvenient truth” for both Jarrett and Obama is that they are getting unprecedented support from black Americans and they cannot treat this support as a political welfare check that doesn’t have to be repaid. It is nothing less than their complete obligation to return this support with effort of their own. If they took half the energy they spend begging us to vote in November and actually applied this to solving problems, our community would be much better off. (Notice how they love to fight for voting rights to get black people to
“By knowing one reaches belief. By doing one gains conviction. When you know, dare.” — African Proverb (KMT) A lot of us are like Trayvon Martin, enjoying our lives unaware that danger lurks around the corner with its own story. Then by the time we recognize the monsters, everything ends for us. So what must those who recognize the danger do? This is easier expressed in an allegory. What do you tell someone who wakes up on train tracks? This metaphor is answered with the African Blood Siblings Community Centers. In modern society, it is easy to die. Many of us have ‘near-death’ accounts. Two of mine are instructive, though I have plenty. In the later event, I was in a shopping district in London. Unfamiliar with streets that didn’t have parking lanes, I looked the wrong way and stepped forward. Quickly, my cousin put her arm in front of me and shoved me back. Before I could tell why she pushed me, a big red bus zoomed by where I was. I would have been splattered had she not acted. I’m grateful to this day. In an earlier event, I was in Brooklyn. For some reason my blind spot didn’t register the oncoming jeep. But I walked forward and a car zoomed by where I intended to be. I then jumped back and looked at the classmate accompanying me. He was smiling. He actually wished to see me die in a horrible accident. Not coincidentally, this same classmate would join a gang and conduct petty robberies in our communities. Of course, I have not since followed his career. These examples instruct what the purpose of African activism should be. Metaphorically speaking, every African person in non-African societies is born on a series of train tracks. For instance, every young African man is liable to be hit by the train of Imprisonment and Felony Charges; every African woman, the train of rape and single motherhood; every African child the train of self-hatred, White Supremacy and untapped potential. Every African person is liable to be hit by a plethora of trains. So some Brothers and Sisters, with this insight, decide to get on podiums and tell us that we’re standing on train tracks. Some go further and tell us the makeup of these train tracks. “White Continued on Page 38 LIBERTAD 37
Is Senior Advisor Valerie J arrett the One Who
Keeps Barack From Dealing with Black Issues? By Dr. Boyce Watkins (Referred Karanja Keita Carroll, Ph.D.) Envied Fashions the polls, but seem to forget that we exist after they’ve been elected). Those who feel that President Obama is being held to a higher standard than President Bush are absolutely correct: Bush didn’t get 90% of our vote, so he didn’t owe us much of anything. Barack Obama DOES owe us something, the same way he owed (and paid) a debt to his gay and Hispanic constituents, who threatened to withdraw their support if the administration didn’t get in line with their agenda (please take notes: Politicians only respond to credible threats, not political groupies). When advocating for African American issues defines a person to be inherently anti-Obama, we’ve got a serious problem in which our observations may not be consistent with reality. We can no longer live in a world where anyone who asks President Obama to do something is defined to be an enemy of the administration, and Valerie Jarrett knows this. Any effort by Valerie Jarrett, Al Sharpton or anyone else to suppress black voices who request action from the White House is as un-American as the oppressive regimes that they seek to dismantle around the world. We too have the right to speak freely about the issues that matter to our community and no one has a right to sleep on the job. “The Obama Administration seemed to only clean up the mess in white neighborhoods.” An excerpt of the New York Times article (below) features a back-and -forth between Jarrett and Prof. Cornel West. Dr. West seems to feel that Valerie was the one who started the whole nonsense of invalidating the entire poverty critique by reducing Cornel to a bitter man who was mad that he didn’t get inauguration tickets. Even if that were the
36 FAHARI
case, it doesn’t change one fundamental fact: Black poverty and unemployment are worse than they have been in decades, in large part because Valerie and Barack were busy fighting for gay rights instead of embracing any form of targeted economic policy. Bush did create the economic mess we’re in, but the Obama Administration seemed to only clean up the mess in white neighborhoods. It’s hard to show up and ask for support for work you didn’t do. Anyone who disagrees is encouraged to tell me where I am wrong. Here’s a snippet from the New York Times: “Ms. Jarrett was similarly ‘livid,’ one former White House official said, with members of the Congressional Black Caucus who accused the president of paying insufficient attention to the particular economic woes of blacks. When the writer and academic Cornel West joined in, calling Mr. Obama the ‘black mascot of Wall Street,’ Ms. Jarrett’s response was ‘ruthless,’ Dr. West said. “He recalled a phone call in which she dismissed his criticism as sour grapes for not receiving a ticket to the inauguration, and said he later heard from friends that she was putting out the word that ‘one, I was crazy, and two, I was un-American.’
“’It was a matter of letting me know that I was, in her view, way out of line and that I needed to get in line,’ he said in an interview. ‘I conveyed to her: ‘I’m not that kind of Negro. I’m a Jesus-loving black man who tells the truth, in the White House, in the crack house or in any other house.’ She got real quiet. It was clear that she was not used to being spoken to that way.’”
“By going after West, you are trading in an authentic leader who loves you for a more popular and powerful leader who has ignored you.“
Those who feel compelled to attack Cornel West, a scholar who has been one of the most consistent and relentless fighters for the black community over the last 25 years, might want to think about what they are doing. By going after West for asking Obama to address the statistically-documented issues of extreme (and worsening) poverty and mass incarceration, you are trading in an authentic leader who loves you for a more popular and powerful leader who has ignored you. This is nothing less than the slave mentality, which leans on validation from white Americans as symbolic evidence of our own self-worth. Black people don’t just love Barack Obama for being a great man….they love him because white people have crowned him to be our king.
If President Obama loves us, he has an obligation to show us, not to the exclusion of everything else on his plate, but to the point where the White House remembers that black people are Americans too. Those who want Barack to succeed as an authentic African American hero are encouraged to push him to higher standards, no less than the way we should push our sons to overcome racism and still do their best. Barack Obama is not just the president of black America, but he must be reminded that black people are part of America too. In other words, it’s time to stop making excuses.
LIBERTAD 17
What Is Black Solidarity Day? By Dr. Margaret Wade-Lewis, former chair of the Department of Black Studies
by BAR editor and senior columnist
difference between Michelle Obama
Barack Obama and the rest of the
Margaret Kimberley
and Ann Romney’s speeches was in
Democrats want to express at this
the quality of delivery and fashion
juncture in history.
(Referred by Karanja Keita Carroll,
sense. Apparently there is still
Ph.D.)
“Michelle Obama extolled
nothing like a beautiful woman in
the virtues of some strange and
the right dress to make otherwise “The only difference between Michelle Obama and Ann Romney’s
intelligent
The
lose
amorphous
their
Democratic
politics and quasi-fascist doctrines. Michelle Obama extolled the virtues
demonstration of marketing at its
of some strange and amorphous
worst, that is to say, at its greatest
quality which she described as “the
level of effectiveness. It was also an
American spirit.” This spirit isn’t good
awful celebration of white washed
for very much because apparently it
history,
inspired teachers in a bankrupt school
Convention
dubious
was
assertions
and
district to work without pay.
Orwellian levels of propaganda. The foolishness
best
example
masquerading
so
stunning
and
made
such
a
substance was the overwrought
wonderful impression, someone might
reaction to first lady Michelle
have asked what can possibly be good
Obama’s speech. She gave what has
about working without pay. That is
become a traditional address asking
called slavery and it is nothing that
voters to support the candidate
should be seen in a positive light.
because his wife tells funny stories
Teachers in a bankrupt school district
about him which will make voters
ought to stop working and fight
determined to vote for the good
against the forces which would take
husband/dad/one time poor student
money away from public education.
who loves his country. The only
But that is not the language that
18 FAHARI
the United States is the greatest country in the world, and that it is considered great in large part because of the violence it perpetrates against people in the rest of the planet. The first lady was introduced by a woman who has four children in the active duty military. That choice spoke volumes about the Democrats and their awful and ultimately successful
If Mrs. Obama hadn’t looked
of as
she
Instead we heard about how Barack Obama and the first
a
National
which
described as ‘the American spirit.’”
lady made the case for retrograde
recent
quality
common sense.
speeches was in the quality of delivery and fashion sense.”
people
Black Solidarity Day is an Afrikan-American holiday which was created in Brooklyn in 1969 by Dr. Carlos Russell. The concept comes from the play "Day of Absence," by Douglass Turner Ward. In the play, all of the Afrikan-American residents of a town disappear for one day (without announcing their plans of doing so). In their absence, the town experiences chaos, since Afrikan-Americans contribute millions to the economy, perform so many essential jobs in the workforce and bring so much personality, warmth and art to the texture of the town.
plan to out maneuver the Republicans as the party of proud imperialists. It was difficult to keep track of how many speakers boasted of the assassination of Osama bin Laden. His name came up so often that if his ghost had appeared at the podium it would not have been shocking. The Democrats were not content to pound their chests over the extra judicial killing of a onetime American ally,
Dr. Russell and the other organizers of Black Solidarity Day selected the first Monday in November for the annual observance of the real Afrikan-American day of absence because that Monday is the day before Election Day. It is a holiday when all of our people are called to come together in unity, absenting themselves from participation in their regular activities in the American society. In the early years, Black Solidarity Day was a day of marches, rallies and political speeches. In subsequent years, Afrikan-Americans have continued the Solidarity March as a major feature. They then spend the remainder of the day assessing their collective priorities, political and economic power, voting strategies, and plans for the future. In the process, they are able to remind themselves and others of their potential for political and economic power through solidarity.
but the Mom-In-Chief, as she called
LIBERTAD 35
herself told Americans that at least
It was all so very sad to
one blinded Iraq vets is so proud of
behold. Black Americans, once the
his actions that he doesn’t really
most
mind
Michaell
country, are so ecstatic that Barack
Always stay humble. Never lose the spirit of unity, community, love, respect, tolerance,
Obama said that one of these
and Michelle Obama live in the
inclusion, acceptance, and positivity. Those are words I live by, and I advise my brothers and
“wounded warriors” told her, “I’d
family quarters of the white house
sisters to never lose sight of yourself, others, and the moments of clarity that shape you. Moments
give my eyes 100 times again to have
that they didn’t mind being left off
never to be ignored, but regarded with humility, and criticism. Transforming who you were to
the chance to do what I have done
the
and what I can still do.” It isn’t clear
officials spoke, but for the second
what that really means, but the effect
convention in a row, there was not
is to make the listener happy that
one black person deemed worthy of
some other poor slob lost his
being among the “real people”
eyesight is some far away part of the
speaking in prime time that the
world. We ought to be horrified by
Democrats endlessly brag about.
Words of Advice By Manuel Tejada, Guest Writer
what you are now, letting the tenets of a positive life, helpfulness, assistance, and understanding mold every aspect of yourself for years to come. Withhold patience, and when you lose yourself in pain, anguish, turmoil, take them as shapers and find your way back. Life is a struggle, no doubt about that. Know yourself, learn from others, observe, listen, and then speak. Speak knowledge of experience, words which have built one's thoughts, and never lose
being
maimed.
progressive
stage.
group
Some
black
that at least one blinded
experiences yet to have been fulfilled. Your time will come, work on it, let it come, and if not,
Iraq vets is so proud of
fight for it.
his
Others' times come first. Privilege, power, inherited through melanin differences, built on
actions
doesn’t
the backs of those that used to have everything, who have been stripped to nothing.
question yourself and them. With support gained through humility, generosity, genuineness,
touch of someone all are external, all effect the spirit, the mind, consciously, or sub-consciously. The external always shapes the internal, and the internal always shapes the external. That is all for now.
war and our country’s role in advancing war at such an alarming rate. We should be horrified about what our country has done to Iraqis and about the suffering of Americans sent to do the dirty work. Instead we are told not to worry so much because the wounded are keeping a stiff upper lip when they talk to Mrs. Obama.
34 FAHARI
people
went
podium
to
their
nothing is to be lost.
Just as music, the wind, the sound of birds, the touch of rain, the breath of coolness, the
The age-old dilemma is alive
and
well
between
black
Americans and the Obamas. Getting the support of white people generally means distancing oneself from black people. For the first time in their history,
black
Americans
have
consciously and directly advocated being ignored. “He can’t win if he does anything for us,” many people will
astutely
observe,
but
the
conclusion is anything but astute.
mind
Black Americans have made the worst political deal in world history and now have nothing to show for it but a black woman in a lovely dress getting applause. The Democrats definitely won the propaganda war between the two conventions but that
Look for community, friendship, and respect others as long as respect is given back. If not,
yourself, always surpass yourself, others will look upon with great humility, and respect.
really
he
Ordinary white
world to be changed, and an initiative to be taken.
People only witness the external, never the internal. Only you face yourself, never give in to
that
being maimed.”
Know your history, dynamics of power, money, and color. That is a struggle to be dealt with, a
Fearlessness will prevail. Fear only kills. Fearlessness is powerful.
elected
Chief told Americans
Achieve full spirituality, love, passion, and education. All will take time, years of learning,
Fear only inhibits, limits the mind, the experiences. Confidence grows with patience, observation.
the
“The Mom-In-
focus on what is right.
Deceive the enemy, trust and be honest with everyone else.
in
near the stage.
to
the
proclaim
pride
in
being
autoworkers
or
their
thanks for the Affordable Care Act saving their life, or for Planned Parenthood or for a government which scoops up all of their children into the killing machine. Some of them
told
viewers
how
Mitt
Romney’s Bain Capital stole their jobs. Surely there are black people who lost their jobs because of Bain,
doesn’t mean that black people won anything. We won the right to subjugate ourselves for the second time for a still dubious reason. The self-abnegation
and
happy
willingness to take a back seat for the sake of the happiness engendered by Obama’s presence as POTUS is very shameful and hopefully not to be repeated again. If the reaction to Obama would take place with any other black president, let us hope that Obama is not just the first black president, but the last one as well.
but they were not allowed anywhere
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“A Democrat Is Nothing but a Dixie-crat” By Jada Young, Editor-in-Chief By DaShawn Wilson, Staff Writer Don’t underestimate the power of your
began to dangle “favors” over the heads of
vote. In 1964, Malcolm X gave a sharp
Black people in exchange for our votes and
critique of Black voters who vote in block for the Democratic Party. That was 48 years ago, almost half a century ago. Now in 2012, approximately 90% of Black people in the United States still vote faithfully for the Democratic Party. We are the only racial group who votes in such an extreme block in that way. What happens when groups of people vote in a big block like Black people do for the Democratic Party? Well, since the party does not have any fear of losing its Black constituents, it has no pressing reason to uphold any legislation or political pushes in favor of Black people. Because of that, we are, as Malcolm said, “political chumps.” We are used, abused, and easily ignored by the Democratic Party until it is time for another presidential election. It wasn’t always like that. At one point Black people voted in high numbers for the Republican Party, “the party of Lincoln.” Since Lincoln was revered as being the man who “freed the slaves,” Black people at one point voted in favor of the Republicans. As time progressed and as
our loyalty. We gave it to them, willingly because of people like Lyndon Johnson and John F Kennedy who pushed civil rights bills and give speeches that seemed to be in favor of us. Black votes swung fiercely in favor of the Democratic Party and hasn’t budged at all. Our votes are important
INSERT FOUR LETTER EXPLETIVE OF YOUR CHOICE
because white votes always split between the Democrats and Republicans. Since their votes
are
often
split,
elections
and
politicians often need the votes of statistical minorities to sway elections.
Black people began to vote in higher
Currently, the Black unemployment rate is
numbers than before, the Democratic Party
at 15%. That means 15% of Black people
20 FAHARI
WHAT THE #@$%?!
LIBERTAD 33
“A Democrat IsNothing Nothing but a Dixie-crat” Really Happened in The Happening By DaShawn Wilson, Staff Writer
In 2008, M. Night Shyamalan co-produced and directed, The Happening. This horror thriller film follows a man (Mark Wahlberg), his wife (Zooey Deschanel), his best friend (John Leguizamo), and his friend's daughter as they try to escape from an inexplicable disaster. In the beginning of the film, you see people kill themselves; people are stabbing themselves and jumping off of buildings. It was initially believed to be a bioterrorist attack using an airborne neurotoxin. Its three months later and they are all living back in Philly. Everything is back to normal. The wife is doing a pregnancy test and finds out that she is, indeed, having a baby. Elliot is ecstatic and hugs her. On the TV is a scientist warning that the event was like a red tide; this is the first sign that the planet is rejecting
humans as pests. The host says that if it were true, it would be happening in other places. They cut to the gardens at the Jardins du Louvre in Paris, France. Suddenly there is a distant scream. One guy starts to repeat his words about a bike, everyone stands still. THE END. In the beginning the movie was amazing! I sat in the movie theater at the edge of my seat trying to figure out why these people are killing themselves. However, when they announced that cause of all this hysteria was due to plants I was flabbergasted. I couldn’t believe that I wasted $13.50 to see a movie about deadly plants.
32 FAHARI
only
US
direction until they need to sell us their next
population) are unemployed. The national
candidate? Not one of these people have
unemployment rate is at 7%, the “lowest” it’s
had our interests on the table and not one
been in 3+ years. The unemployment rate of
of
Black people is twice that of the national
responsibility for our votes.
make
up
13%
of
the
them will
until we began to take
average and not one Democratic leader, senator, Supreme Court judge or president
If we, America’s minoritized (that is Black,
has done anything substantial to change
Latino, Asian and Native Americans), create
that reality. Meanwhile, the comparatively
our own political party, blocked our vote in
measly national unemployment rate of the
our party and voted in favor of our own
US is the buzz of all of the government
interests and experiences, we would see
officials and media pundits and is truly a
change really happen in our communities.
deciding factor in the outcome of the 2012
That, coupled with us beginning to control
Presidential Election.
our own communities and our own schools,
Tell me, why do we continue to support the Democratic
Party
in
such
substantial
would make our lives and our positions in the world very different.
numbers when they don’t even look in our
Lock Down– Season 1, Episode 3 Review/ In “Lock down”, it basically portrayed two stories about a new inmate and an old inmate in the series’ prison. The two inmates played different roles and held different positions in the institution. In the episode it was stated that the prison was separated into three categories. The first category was the predators which were the inmates that had the most time and status in the incarcerated institution. The second category was the prey and these inmates were usually the inmates that had been recently incarcerated. The third category was the CEO security guards which basically tried their best to keep the predators and the prey separate. Most of the prisoners in the jail were convicted of violent crimes. A quarter of the inmates were sexual offenders and 30% were killers. The prison had three floors called “tiers” that held
(who
By Jay Herrera, Staff Writer
two hundred and fifty inmates. The prisoners in the episode are framed to be violent criminals who have aggravated and killed innocent people. Many of the prisoners are commonly known as sexual predators that assault cellmates and inmates. By the end of the episode the audience gains an understanding of how the prison system works and can only feel empathy for the inmates. In the episode, the prison runs special reformation programs, and tries to reform most of the inmates however; the lifestyle in prison is not picture perfect. This episode didn’t really focus on politics of race or gender but if focused on them I am sure controversy would be visible. The producers aim was to let the audience know that every crime has consequences and the punishment is bigger behind bars.
Continued from Page 13 human sympathy; our literature, save what we import from abroad? Our only "review" of literature has wisely dropped "literature" from its name. Our manners are gone and the one thing we want is to be rich – to show off. Success is measured by income. University education is for income, not culture, and is partially supported by private industry. We are not training poets or musicians, but atomic engineers. Business is built on successful lying called advertising. We want money in vast amount, no matter how we get it. So we have it, and what then? Is the answer the election of 1956? We can make a sick man President and set him to a job which would strain a man in robust health. So he dies, and what do we get to lead us? With Stevenson and Nixon, with Eisenhower and
Eastland, we remain in the same mess. I will be no party to it and that will make little difference. You will take large part and bravely march to the polls, and that also will make no difference. Stop running Russia and giving Chinese advice when we cannot rule ourselves decently. Stop yelling about a democracy we do not have. Democracy is dead in the United States. Yet there is still nothing to replace real democracy. Drop the chains, then, that bind our brains. Drive the money-changers from the seats of the Cabinet and the halls of Congress. Call back some faint spirit of Jefferson and Lincoln, and when again we can hold a fair election on real issues, let's vote, and not till then. Is this impossible? Then democracy in America is impossible.
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Minority Report By Jada Young, Editor-in-Chief Too often, the word minority is used to describe people of color in the United States. Logically, the usage of the word “minority” does make sense. People of color do in fact make up a statistical minority in the US population. Of the 300 million people in the United States, 63% of them are white, 13% are Black, 16% are Latino, 5% are Asian and about 1% is Native American (United States Census Bureau). Clearly in viewing those stats, we are “the minority;” even combined, we only make up about 35% of the US population compared to the 63% of white people!
Obama’s Campaign Recipe For Change, Romney-Ryan Recipe for Disaster By Cait O’Connor, Guest Writer
The apocalypse that has been predicted to hit our planet this December 21, 2012, had been ridiculed by many as a marketing scheme, a public By Brittany Askew, President scare, a way of coercing the general population into However, the use of the word minority is deeply believing an end is near, and, it can be argued, a problematic. It’s problematic for a number of reasons. For ploy by some born-again fanatics to force the one, it is misleading. While white/Anglo/European peoples make up the majority of this country, according to Jayne people to repent and surrender to a ‘higher power’. Dirt of Clutch Magazine, they are only about 5% of the However, Americans alone face a more realistic world’s population (though in fairness, I have read other and dire apocalypse that has the possibility to not figures that state that they make up between 8% and 10% only destroy our world as we know it, but our of the world’s population), making up a real minority in the liberty, freedom, and our daily lives. This world. catastrophe is not a natural disaster or the coming Another reason the word minority is problematic of a prophet, but is seemingly the exact opposite--I is because it is a political designation. While many, who use am talking about the election of Republican Party the word, use it in context of demographics, the word has candidate, Mitt Romney. a deeper political undertone to it. The word only makes sense in the context of a society that has an ingrained inequality. If a group were not minoritized in a given society, would it even matter if they were a “minority?” No, I don’t think so. The word only has a place to describe a certain group, if said group is not treated equally. Stated another way, the word minority implies that you are minute, that you are almost irrelevant to the larger scheme of things. None of these implications are positive, and all of them serve to maintain the status quo of an inherently racist and oppressive society. While I cannot and do not intend to tell anyone what to do in their everyday lives or speech patterns, I hope you all take into account the implications of what you say. Simply, think before you speak. Words have more weight than many give them credit for.
*title inspired by Fahari’s former president Faisal Awadallah ** for more information on any of the sources listed in this or any other article within the magazine, email faharilibertad@gmail.com
22 FAHARI
While our current president has worked to put an end to both the ongoing wars on terror that we are engaged in as well as our fighting our nation’s injustices here at home, Romney has, in very subtle ways, announced his plans for several domestic battles--the war on women, the war on the middle-class, a war on our civil rights as American people. The Republican agenda has created a twofaced facade that claims to ‘love women’...or so said Ann Romney, the prospective first lady, at the Republican National Convention this September. How, though, can a campaign that claims to ‘love women’ be so prepared to practically insert itself in the female reproductive system and boss it around? Might I add, Ann’s whole ‘I love you, women’ tirade was a pretty shoddy attempt at getting the female vote, considering Republicans on the ballot have nothing to offer women but continued oppression and infringement of rights. What right do they have to take these actions?
The Knowing
The Day After Tomorrow
By Eryka Morales, Staff Writer The Knowing is another sci-fi disaster film except this one was with Nicolas Cage. In a nutshell, it was about a girl who put a paper filled with numbers in a time capsule and when the school opened the time capsule 50 years later, a boy received it and that boy turned out to be Nicolas Cage’s son. The numbers predicted every major disaster in the past 50 years and that is where the mystery begins. Most can say that it was basically about the world ending and aliens taking two kids while everyone else is screwed. I basically felt the same way. The movie used global warming and a change in the sun’s rays as the reason for the end of the world. Can they really be so far off though? Global warming is an actual phenomenon that many say is actually occurring right now. Plus, our ozone layer is completely worn out by all the crap we’ve put into the atmosphere. Who’s to say that everything won’t just be roasted by the sun because of our depleted ozone layer? The movie was too dramatic for me because Nicolas Cage, as an actor is extremely dramatic about everything. He had ‘soap opera’ reactions to everything that happened in the movie. Other than that, the film wasn’t too bad but I can’t tell if it would’ve been better with or without the whole alien aspect to it. They looked like pedophiles standing outside the kid’s house and creeping up to him in a car. The aliens ended up taking two children, a girl and a boy, from all over Earth up into space with them to another planet. The aliens were the salvation to the human race in this movie, taking a girl and a boy so that the human species can continue. In other disaster movies you see the aliens being the cause for the end of the world, but interestingly, in The Knowing they were the good guys. I found it interesting when they just took a boy and a girl from all over the world. It reminded me of Noah’s Ark since they had a male and female from every species on the ark. For the humans in the film, aliens were the “salvation”, just as Noah was Earth’s savior. It was also interesting to see that when the girl and boy landed on the other planet there was a tree, bringing back the whole Adam and Ave with the apple in the tree concept. Maybe I just thought about it too much but I think religion was also a part of the movie. Will aliens save us or be the end of the human race? Or do aliens even exist? You can answer that yourself. If anyone is interested in the whole alien aspect of things, you should definitely watch The Fourth Kind. Now, that movie was creepy and it might get you thinking about that even more.
By Kamoy Joseph, Staff Writer Produced by Roland Emmerich, Mark Gordon Written by Roland Emmerich, Jeffrey Nachmanoff Starring Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Emmy Rossum
My Stars:
Okay, so we all know about End of the World movies and this one is another of those Global Warming motion pictures. The story of course goes deeper with a little love story, the struggle between father and son, and who is the true hero in the end. It basically follows the events of people’s lives of the day when the weather got a little crazy and killed off half of the entire world’s population. I cannot tell you how to survive in the end, there wasn’t enough Black or Latino people in this film. My thought is they are in Mexico; the only safe place to be; apparently not even the mother land AFRICA is safe. This is the first time in an end of the world story where Africa seems to be the beginning again, even back to the Noah and the Arc tale. What is entertaining about the film? Well Jake Gyllenhaal is not a bad sight to see but also rising question in your head about your last days is a great conversation starter after the movie is done. Overall, the topic is already overdone, a star was already lost, but the use of weather being a threat to the end of the world and some nerdy guys saving it saved the movie with two stars.
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By Cait O’Connor, Guest Writer
By Brittany Askew, President
The movie 2012 is a science fiction disaster film that came out in 2009. The movie shows all the catastrophic events that would happen if the world actually did end. Throughout the movie, the lives of different families were followed, and we got to see firsthand how different people would respond to the drastic situation. Basically, in the movie the concept of survival of the fittest is demonstrated because evidently in the end only the strong survive. However, the film does give some insight as to what geologists should be looking out for as clues concerning possible catastrophic events.
Honestly, I am not sure how much I believe this movie. Some of the events were pretty bizarre for me. The main characters in the film should not have survived and should have been killed multiple times but somehow they made it to the end. The only reason why the main characters survived in the film is because they possessed a “special skill”. Basically this movie is saying that you will only survive the end of the world if: you own a limo, you know a crazy radio host, you know how to fly a plane, you know where the “arks” are, you know someone who is rich or are rich and/or if you know someone that can sneak you on to an “ark”. When you think about all this, who really has access to all these things? In actuality, there would only be a small number
30 FAHARI
of people who would even make it to the arks because first off who even knows if “arks” actually exist. In the movie there were a few arks and about a million people survived but in real life there probably wouldn’t even be enough people to fill one ark. This movie makes you feel like there is no hope in even surviving the end of the world.
From this movie I took away two things. One thing that I learned is not to move to California before December 21st because I will die first since there is a huge fault line running through it. If you know someone that lives in California tell them to move as soon as possible. The second thing that I learned is that Africa is the place to be. According to the movie after all the catastrophic events of December 21st Africa was the only continent left after everything flooded. As a result, the arks set course to take all the survivors to Africa. This is relevant to the whole notion of returning back to your roots and not forgetting where you came from. I find this to be so ironic because we all have originated from Africa so it is pretty interesting how we would end up back in the motherland. Overall, I thought the movie was interesting to watch but it just wasn’t realistic to me in terms of survival.
Where does it say anywhere that the patriarchal system is allowed to decide on a woman’s choices? Are we, as Americans, prepared to let this happen? As a nation, we need to see this as a reality...this is what will happen if this man and his counterpart, Paul Ryan, are elected. This does not only affect American women, but men as well. The politicization of women’s reproductive rights is going to mean less available birth control, less chance to choose the right to an abortion. Pregnancy, especially at young ages when it is not planned or necessarily wanted at the time, is nerve-wracking for both partners, no matter what their gender. It means a whole lifestyle change. Young people shouldn’t have to worry about that, but starting with Mitt Romney and his agenda, they will have to be more than worried.
Romney’s prospective election into the oval office will not only have an effect on reproductive rights, but the success of the American people, too. At the RNC, speakers continually talked about Mitt Romney’s “success” as a self-made man, a businessman,
and a politician. Shouldn’t his off-shore bank accounts and his refusal to reveal his tax returns (which would allow Americans to see him as a legitimate businessman) speak volumes enough? He is prepared to use money for any means necessary to further himself and the elite class. The key phrase of these speeches was, ‘don’t mess with Mitt Romney’s successes.’ As college students, if we aren’t to interfere with the success of a man who has made millions of dollars sending other people’s jobs overseas, why should we let him mess with ours? He has said, “People should get all the education they can afford”. Yes, in retrospect, this is smart, and to be able to afford a good education is nice and wonderful, but for some Americans, affording an education, especially at the collegiate level, is an impossibility and is sometimes rare due to financial struggles that are not uncommon.
Why should we take advice concerning our own ‘American dream’ from a man who has cheated his way to his millions? Who is he to dictate OUR success? The American population needs more educated people, and there are plenty of people out there who deserve to have an education, even though they may not be able to pay for it. As Michelle Obama said at the Democratic National Convention, “When it comes to giving our kids the education they deserve, Barack knows that, like me and like so many of you, he never could have attended college without financial aid. And that’s why Barack has fought so hard to increase student aid and keep interest rates down, because he wants every young person to fulfill their promise and be able to attend college without a mountain of debt.” For our current president, it’s not about whether or not you can afford college. That shouldn’t determine whether or not you are
Continued on Page 24 LIBERTAD 23
Continued from Page 23 going to contribute to society and get yourself an education. He knows this because he lived it. For Mitt Romney, these personal issues that so many Americans face are political tools. Mitt Romney believes that unless you have money like the Romneys do, you cannot have success. This is another element of the Romney-Ryan political apocalypse...the idea that less wealthy Americans do not deserve to be educated simply because they do not have the personal fortune to do so. Finally, when he was the governor of Massachusetts,
he was famous for making MA the first state in the country to legalize same-sex marriage. Suddenly, though, now that he is a presidential candidate, he does not condone same-sex marriage on a national scale. Does anyone else see something wrong with this? How is it okay in one state but not okay in all fifty of them? Do you see a pattern here? Mitt Romney is outright guilty of exploiting the American people. Promising jobs, but not an education--unless you can fully afford one. Promising marriage equality for same-sex couples, but only if you happen to be his constituent within the borders of
a specific state. Promising to oust the doctrines of “Obamacare” and come up with a better idea, while at the same time willingly intruding upon women’s reproductive rights and their right to make the crucial decisions that should be left to women alone. He aims to please whoever he can; get the vote wherever he can, and say whatever he can because he’s desperate. We are his political instruments, and he turns our personal American civil issues into points of political interest to further his campaign and garnish support by whatever means possible. If you’re registered to vote, exercise that right to the fullest extent.
The Only Thing Worse Than the End of the World Whether it happens or not, regardless of what anyone on this god forsaken planet says, the end of the world is not the worst possible thing that could happen to humanity. Some of you might think I am crazy for saying this while others might be guessing that I am talking about a Romney presidency or a Nicki Minaj and Justin Beiber collaborative album. There might be some of you who just don’t give a damn what I have to say, and some of you who are just reading this because you know me personally and expect me to say something ridiculous and controversial. Well let’s just get all that out of the way now. I
24 FAHARI
The day of the suppose demise of the earth is my twenty birthday. At least I made it to see twenty is all I am happy for. If the world was ending I would go sky diving. If the world was ending I would go to church and beg forgiveness for my sins. If the world was ending I would roll a joint and watch as oblivion takes me. If the world was ending I would want to spend time with everyone I love and care about.
Review of the Film
Armageddon By Jada Young, Editor-in-Chief My mother loves to watch Sci-Fi and Horror films, so I grew up watching them too. One movie that I used to see often was the film Armageddon (featuring the recently transitioned Michael Clarke Duncan, rest in power!). While I would say that I did enjoy the movie, it scared the life out of me. It scared me so much that I would stay awake late at night worrying that an asteroid would crash into the earth while
By Jordan M. Taylor
am not crazy (not by New Paltz standards anyway), and I am not talking about the music industry metaphorically committing suicide as a cry for help. I am just simply going to explain to you what the one thing worse than the end of the world is, in my opinion. In reading this, you will find yourselves completely unable to refute my argument, resulting in your eyes turning into Nutella (some of you might be celebrating, I honestly don’t see what’s so great about the stuff, but I digress). The only thing that is worse than the end of the world is EVERYONE TALKING ABOUT THE END OF THE WORLD. SHUTUP! I
I was sleeping. I was 8 at the time. In a nutshell, the movie is about an asteroid that is heading toward earth and the fate of the world is left in the hands of NASA and this team of misfit drillers. The idea of NASA and the US president is that they can drill a massive hole into the asteroid and have a nuclear bomb implanted to destroy the asteroid. What ends up happening is that Jack, (Bruce Willis/the main character) ends up dying on the asteroid because the detonation of the nuclear weapon needs a human to achieve. Stripping the film away from the end of the world plot, I think the story that is told, and the lesson that is learned is an important one. In fact, the implication that is left with the audience is that one person can have an effect on the rest of the world. You are never insignificant because you are only one person, so you should always do what you can with what you have to make sure the lives of other people is a beautiful one.
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What Would You Do If the World Was Ending? By Nicole Rivera and Makeba Hall-Wilson, Staff Writers This end of the world theory is something that has been running around for years. When does it end? When will we find the answers? Or is it time to give up? I don’t know, I just think it is something to think about from time to time. The thought helps me get what my goals are onto paper a bit better. It also, brings my faith back into God time to time and gives me a new perspective in life. Everyone has their own opinion on the topic and of course we found them out. Here is what the campus thinks about this lovely occurring theory (anonymously of course). So the world is ending? That’s news to me. We've had predictions in the past and have they happened? Not that I know. I’m just going to ignore that and keep moving normally. If the world was ending I would tell people how I feel. If the world was ending I would fuck until the end came ;) If the world was ending I'd watch Netflix with the people I love. If the world was ending I would spend my last moments with my loved ones. If the world was ending I would quit school. If the world was ending I would try to finish my bucket list before it ends. If the world was ending I would spend money like crazy. If the world was ending I would tell all my friends and family I love them. The world might not come to an end due to the Mayan calendar, but due to politics. It could end ... not in 2012, but slowly over time. I really don't think this December 2012 end of the world thing will happen...but just in case it does I'm getting a whole bunch of partying done! If the world was ending today I would die without a purpose. There is no end of the world, I haven’t seen it yet. If it ends, it ends; there is not much I can do about it. I loved, I educated, I lived, and it shall be over.
MEAN IT. Like seriously though, stay with me. I have been hearing about this end of the world business for YEARS. Now at first I entertained the idea simply because it was fun to talk about. I even bet my friend in high school that if the world did not end in three years (this was back in 2009 for my social science brethren who cannot do math, I Googled it) that he could pee on my face! Don’t judge me, my reasoning was that if the world ended we would all be dead anyway, and if it didn’t he would forget after three years. Unfortunately this past summer he asked me if he was allowed to record the event for his own personal records. Don’t cry for me, I will face my punishment like a man, I deserve it. So do all of you! I got so sick of the number 2012 by the year 2010! I hate the number. I hate it! I feared I was Mayan Calendar going to die of a tumor last New Year’s because I knew I would be hearing and seeing the number everywhere for 366 days! You know how every radio station in the country only has five songs in their whole collection so they have to overplay each of them until your radio cuts itself? Well that’s what this is like. The year 2012 has been blasted into all of our psyches for years, to the point where I have to fight back the tears whenever I write the date on papers! I hate this year so much! I hate it!
You have no idea how much I want it to be 2013. Even the whole debate about how the world is not actually going to end and we are just entering the Age of Aquarius ticks me off (even though that does sound pretty cool, and I get to play the song from the end of 40 year old virgin in my head whenever its mentioned…let the sunshine…err…anyway back to the article). Last remarks…please stop talking about the end of the world. Just writing about how much I hate the idea is making me want to see a therapist. There are so much more important and real issues and happenings going on today in the world to discuss that spending any more time discussing the Mayan prophecy is parallel to taking a dump on the human experience. Use your minds to confront the real problems in life that we can actually do something about! For example, I watched this video playlist of how the curvature Nicki Minaj’s plastic booty and the rhythm of how she shakes it in her music videos is a demon ritual used by the Illuminati to solidify their positions as irrefutable rulers of the New World Order. Now that’s some serious shit.
If the world was ending I would go sky diving 28 FAHARI
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What Would You Do If the World Was Ending? By Nicole Rivera and Makeba Hall-Wilson, Staff Writers This end of the world theory is something that has been running around for years. When does it end? When will we find the answers? Or is it time to give up? I don’t know, I just think it is something to think about from time to time. The thought helps me get what my goals are onto paper a bit better. It also, brings my faith back into God time to time and gives me a new perspective in life. Everyone has their own opinion on the topic and of course we found them out. Here is what the campus thinks about this lovely occurring theory (anonymously of course). So the world is ending? That’s news to me. We've had predictions in the past and have they happened? Not that I know. I’m just going to ignore that and keep moving normally. If the world was ending I would tell people how I feel. If the world was ending I would fuck until the end came ;) If the world was ending I'd watch Netflix with the people I love. If the world was ending I would spend my last moments with my loved ones. If the world was ending I would quit school. If the world was ending I would try to finish my bucket list before it ends. If the world was ending I would spend money like crazy. If the world was ending I would tell all my friends and family I love them. The world might not come to an end due to the Mayan calendar, but due to politics. It could end ... not in 2012, but slowly over time. I really don't think this December 2012 end of the world thing will happen...but just in case it does I'm getting a whole bunch of partying done! If the world was ending today I would die without a purpose. There is no end of the world, I haven’t seen it yet. If it ends, it ends; there is not much I can do about it. I loved, I educated, I lived, and it shall be over.
MEAN IT. Like seriously though, stay with me. I have been hearing about this end of the world business for YEARS. Now at first I entertained the idea simply because it was fun to talk about. I even bet my friend in high school that if the world did not end in three years (this was back in 2009 for my social science brethren who cannot do math, I Googled it) that he could pee on my face! Don’t judge me, my reasoning was that if the world ended we would all be dead anyway, and if it didn’t he would forget after three years. Unfortunately this past summer he asked me if he was allowed to record the event for his own personal records. Don’t cry for me, I will face my punishment like a man, I deserve it. So do all of you! I got so sick of the number 2012 by the year 2010! I hate the number. I hate it! I feared I was Mayan Calendar going to die of a tumor last New Year’s because I knew I would be hearing and seeing the number everywhere for 366 days! You know how every radio station in the country only has five songs in their whole collection so they have to overplay each of them until your radio cuts itself? Well that’s what this is like. The year 2012 has been blasted into all of our psyches for years, to the point where I have to fight back the tears whenever I write the date on papers! I hate this year so much! I hate it!
You have no idea how much I want it to be 2013. Even the whole debate about how the world is not actually going to end and we are just entering the Age of Aquarius ticks me off (even though that does sound pretty cool, and I get to play the song from the end of 40 year old virgin in my head whenever its mentioned…let the sunshine…err…anyway back to the article). Last remarks…please stop talking about the end of the world. Just writing about how much I hate the idea is making me want to see a therapist. There are so much more important and real issues and happenings going on today in the world to discuss that spending any more time discussing the Mayan prophecy is parallel to taking a dump on the human experience. Use your minds to confront the real problems in life that we can actually do something about! For example, I watched this video playlist of how the curvature Nicki Minaj’s plastic booty and the rhythm of how she shakes it in her music videos is a demon ritual used by the Illuminati to solidify their positions as irrefutable rulers of the New World Order. Now that’s some serious shit.
If the world was ending I would go sky diving 28 FAHARI
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Continued from Page 23 going to contribute to society and get yourself an education. He knows this because he lived it. For Mitt Romney, these personal issues that so many Americans face are political tools. Mitt Romney believes that unless you have money like the Romneys do, you cannot have success. This is another element of the Romney-Ryan political apocalypse...the idea that less wealthy Americans do not deserve to be educated simply because they do not have the personal fortune to do so. Finally, when he was the governor of Massachusetts,
he was famous for making MA the first state in the country to legalize same-sex marriage. Suddenly, though, now that he is a presidential candidate, he does not condone same-sex marriage on a national scale. Does anyone else see something wrong with this? How is it okay in one state but not okay in all fifty of them? Do you see a pattern here? Mitt Romney is outright guilty of exploiting the American people. Promising jobs, but not an education--unless you can fully afford one. Promising marriage equality for same-sex couples, but only if you happen to be his constituent within the borders of
a specific state. Promising to oust the doctrines of “Obamacare” and come up with a better idea, while at the same time willingly intruding upon women’s reproductive rights and their right to make the crucial decisions that should be left to women alone. He aims to please whoever he can; get the vote wherever he can, and say whatever he can because he’s desperate. We are his political instruments, and he turns our personal American civil issues into points of political interest to further his campaign and garnish support by whatever means possible. If you’re registered to vote, exercise that right to the fullest extent.
The Only Thing Worse Than the End of the World Whether it happens or not, regardless of what anyone on this god forsaken planet says, the end of the world is not the worst possible thing that could happen to humanity. Some of you might think I am crazy for saying this while others might be guessing that I am talking about a Romney presidency or a Nicki Minaj and Justin Beiber collaborative album. There might be some of you who just don’t give a damn what I have to say, and some of you who are just reading this because you know me personally and expect me to say something ridiculous and controversial. Well let’s just get all that out of the way now. I
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The day of the suppose demise of the earth is my twenty birthday. At least I made it to see twenty is all I am happy for. If the world was ending I would go sky diving. If the world was ending I would go to church and beg forgiveness for my sins. If the world was ending I would roll a joint and watch as oblivion takes me. If the world was ending I would want to spend time with everyone I love and care about.
Review of the Film
Armageddon By Jada Young, Editor-in-Chief My mother loves to watch Sci-Fi and Horror films, so I grew up watching them too. One movie that I used to see often was the film Armageddon (featuring the recently transitioned Michael Clarke Duncan, rest in power!). While I would say that I did enjoy the movie, it scared the life out of me. It scared me so much that I would stay awake late at night worrying that an asteroid would crash into the earth while
By Jordan M. Taylor
am not crazy (not by New Paltz standards anyway), and I am not talking about the music industry metaphorically committing suicide as a cry for help. I am just simply going to explain to you what the one thing worse than the end of the world is, in my opinion. In reading this, you will find yourselves completely unable to refute my argument, resulting in your eyes turning into Nutella (some of you might be celebrating, I honestly don’t see what’s so great about the stuff, but I digress). The only thing that is worse than the end of the world is EVERYONE TALKING ABOUT THE END OF THE WORLD. SHUTUP! I
I was sleeping. I was 8 at the time. In a nutshell, the movie is about an asteroid that is heading toward earth and the fate of the world is left in the hands of NASA and this team of misfit drillers. The idea of NASA and the US president is that they can drill a massive hole into the asteroid and have a nuclear bomb implanted to destroy the asteroid. What ends up happening is that Jack, (Bruce Willis/the main character) ends up dying on the asteroid because the detonation of the nuclear weapon needs a human to achieve. Stripping the film away from the end of the world plot, I think the story that is told, and the lesson that is learned is an important one. In fact, the implication that is left with the audience is that one person can have an effect on the rest of the world. You are never insignificant because you are only one person, so you should always do what you can with what you have to make sure the lives of other people is a beautiful one.
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By Cait O’Connor, Guest Writer
By Brittany Askew, President
The movie 2012 is a science fiction disaster film that came out in 2009. The movie shows all the catastrophic events that would happen if the world actually did end. Throughout the movie, the lives of different families were followed, and we got to see firsthand how different people would respond to the drastic situation. Basically, in the movie the concept of survival of the fittest is demonstrated because evidently in the end only the strong survive. However, the film does give some insight as to what geologists should be looking out for as clues concerning possible catastrophic events.
Honestly, I am not sure how much I believe this movie. Some of the events were pretty bizarre for me. The main characters in the film should not have survived and should have been killed multiple times but somehow they made it to the end. The only reason why the main characters survived in the film is because they possessed a “special skill”. Basically this movie is saying that you will only survive the end of the world if: you own a limo, you know a crazy radio host, you know how to fly a plane, you know where the “arks” are, you know someone who is rich or are rich and/or if you know someone that can sneak you on to an “ark”. When you think about all this, who really has access to all these things? In actuality, there would only be a small number
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of people who would even make it to the arks because first off who even knows if “arks” actually exist. In the movie there were a few arks and about a million people survived but in real life there probably wouldn’t even be enough people to fill one ark. This movie makes you feel like there is no hope in even surviving the end of the world.
From this movie I took away two things. One thing that I learned is not to move to California before December 21st because I will die first since there is a huge fault line running through it. If you know someone that lives in California tell them to move as soon as possible. The second thing that I learned is that Africa is the place to be. According to the movie after all the catastrophic events of December 21st Africa was the only continent left after everything flooded. As a result, the arks set course to take all the survivors to Africa. This is relevant to the whole notion of returning back to your roots and not forgetting where you came from. I find this to be so ironic because we all have originated from Africa so it is pretty interesting how we would end up back in the motherland. Overall, I thought the movie was interesting to watch but it just wasn’t realistic to me in terms of survival.
Where does it say anywhere that the patriarchal system is allowed to decide on a woman’s choices? Are we, as Americans, prepared to let this happen? As a nation, we need to see this as a reality...this is what will happen if this man and his counterpart, Paul Ryan, are elected. This does not only affect American women, but men as well. The politicization of women’s reproductive rights is going to mean less available birth control, less chance to choose the right to an abortion. Pregnancy, especially at young ages when it is not planned or necessarily wanted at the time, is nerve-wracking for both partners, no matter what their gender. It means a whole lifestyle change. Young people shouldn’t have to worry about that, but starting with Mitt Romney and his agenda, they will have to be more than worried.
Romney’s prospective election into the oval office will not only have an effect on reproductive rights, but the success of the American people, too. At the RNC, speakers continually talked about Mitt Romney’s “success” as a self-made man, a businessman,
and a politician. Shouldn’t his off-shore bank accounts and his refusal to reveal his tax returns (which would allow Americans to see him as a legitimate businessman) speak volumes enough? He is prepared to use money for any means necessary to further himself and the elite class. The key phrase of these speeches was, ‘don’t mess with Mitt Romney’s successes.’ As college students, if we aren’t to interfere with the success of a man who has made millions of dollars sending other people’s jobs overseas, why should we let him mess with ours? He has said, “People should get all the education they can afford”. Yes, in retrospect, this is smart, and to be able to afford a good education is nice and wonderful, but for some Americans, affording an education, especially at the collegiate level, is an impossibility and is sometimes rare due to financial struggles that are not uncommon.
Why should we take advice concerning our own ‘American dream’ from a man who has cheated his way to his millions? Who is he to dictate OUR success? The American population needs more educated people, and there are plenty of people out there who deserve to have an education, even though they may not be able to pay for it. As Michelle Obama said at the Democratic National Convention, “When it comes to giving our kids the education they deserve, Barack knows that, like me and like so many of you, he never could have attended college without financial aid. And that’s why Barack has fought so hard to increase student aid and keep interest rates down, because he wants every young person to fulfill their promise and be able to attend college without a mountain of debt.” For our current president, it’s not about whether or not you can afford college. That shouldn’t determine whether or not you are
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Minority Report By Jada Young, Editor-in-Chief Too often, the word minority is used to describe people of color in the United States. Logically, the usage of the word “minority” does make sense. People of color do in fact make up a statistical minority in the US population. Of the 300 million people in the United States, 63% of them are white, 13% are Black, 16% are Latino, 5% are Asian and about 1% is Native American (United States Census Bureau). Clearly in viewing those stats, we are “the minority;” even combined, we only make up about 35% of the US population compared to the 63% of white people!
Obama’s Campaign Recipe For Change, Romney-Ryan Recipe for Disaster By Cait O’Connor, Guest Writer
The apocalypse that has been predicted to hit our planet this December 21, 2012, had been ridiculed by many as a marketing scheme, a public By Brittany Askew, President scare, a way of coercing the general population into However, the use of the word minority is deeply believing an end is near, and, it can be argued, a problematic. It’s problematic for a number of reasons. For ploy by some born-again fanatics to force the one, it is misleading. While white/Anglo/European peoples make up the majority of this country, according to Jayne people to repent and surrender to a ‘higher power’. Dirt of Clutch Magazine, they are only about 5% of the However, Americans alone face a more realistic world’s population (though in fairness, I have read other and dire apocalypse that has the possibility to not figures that state that they make up between 8% and 10% only destroy our world as we know it, but our of the world’s population), making up a real minority in the liberty, freedom, and our daily lives. This world. catastrophe is not a natural disaster or the coming Another reason the word minority is problematic of a prophet, but is seemingly the exact opposite--I is because it is a political designation. While many, who use am talking about the election of Republican Party the word, use it in context of demographics, the word has candidate, Mitt Romney. a deeper political undertone to it. The word only makes sense in the context of a society that has an ingrained inequality. If a group were not minoritized in a given society, would it even matter if they were a “minority?” No, I don’t think so. The word only has a place to describe a certain group, if said group is not treated equally. Stated another way, the word minority implies that you are minute, that you are almost irrelevant to the larger scheme of things. None of these implications are positive, and all of them serve to maintain the status quo of an inherently racist and oppressive society. While I cannot and do not intend to tell anyone what to do in their everyday lives or speech patterns, I hope you all take into account the implications of what you say. Simply, think before you speak. Words have more weight than many give them credit for.
*title inspired by Fahari’s former president Faisal Awadallah ** for more information on any of the sources listed in this or any other article within the magazine, email faharilibertad@gmail.com
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While our current president has worked to put an end to both the ongoing wars on terror that we are engaged in as well as our fighting our nation’s injustices here at home, Romney has, in very subtle ways, announced his plans for several domestic battles--the war on women, the war on the middle-class, a war on our civil rights as American people. The Republican agenda has created a twofaced facade that claims to ‘love women’...or so said Ann Romney, the prospective first lady, at the Republican National Convention this September. How, though, can a campaign that claims to ‘love women’ be so prepared to practically insert itself in the female reproductive system and boss it around? Might I add, Ann’s whole ‘I love you, women’ tirade was a pretty shoddy attempt at getting the female vote, considering Republicans on the ballot have nothing to offer women but continued oppression and infringement of rights. What right do they have to take these actions?
The Knowing
The Day After Tomorrow
By Eryka Morales, Staff Writer The Knowing is another sci-fi disaster film except this one was with Nicolas Cage. In a nutshell, it was about a girl who put a paper filled with numbers in a time capsule and when the school opened the time capsule 50 years later, a boy received it and that boy turned out to be Nicolas Cage’s son. The numbers predicted every major disaster in the past 50 years and that is where the mystery begins. Most can say that it was basically about the world ending and aliens taking two kids while everyone else is screwed. I basically felt the same way. The movie used global warming and a change in the sun’s rays as the reason for the end of the world. Can they really be so far off though? Global warming is an actual phenomenon that many say is actually occurring right now. Plus, our ozone layer is completely worn out by all the crap we’ve put into the atmosphere. Who’s to say that everything won’t just be roasted by the sun because of our depleted ozone layer? The movie was too dramatic for me because Nicolas Cage, as an actor is extremely dramatic about everything. He had ‘soap opera’ reactions to everything that happened in the movie. Other than that, the film wasn’t too bad but I can’t tell if it would’ve been better with or without the whole alien aspect to it. They looked like pedophiles standing outside the kid’s house and creeping up to him in a car. The aliens ended up taking two children, a girl and a boy, from all over Earth up into space with them to another planet. The aliens were the salvation to the human race in this movie, taking a girl and a boy so that the human species can continue. In other disaster movies you see the aliens being the cause for the end of the world, but interestingly, in The Knowing they were the good guys. I found it interesting when they just took a boy and a girl from all over the world. It reminded me of Noah’s Ark since they had a male and female from every species on the ark. For the humans in the film, aliens were the “salvation”, just as Noah was Earth’s savior. It was also interesting to see that when the girl and boy landed on the other planet there was a tree, bringing back the whole Adam and Ave with the apple in the tree concept. Maybe I just thought about it too much but I think religion was also a part of the movie. Will aliens save us or be the end of the human race? Or do aliens even exist? You can answer that yourself. If anyone is interested in the whole alien aspect of things, you should definitely watch The Fourth Kind. Now, that movie was creepy and it might get you thinking about that even more.
By Kamoy Joseph, Staff Writer Produced by Roland Emmerich, Mark Gordon Written by Roland Emmerich, Jeffrey Nachmanoff Starring Dennis Quaid, Jake Gyllenhaal, Emmy Rossum
My Stars:
Okay, so we all know about End of the World movies and this one is another of those Global Warming motion pictures. The story of course goes deeper with a little love story, the struggle between father and son, and who is the true hero in the end. It basically follows the events of people’s lives of the day when the weather got a little crazy and killed off half of the entire world’s population. I cannot tell you how to survive in the end, there wasn’t enough Black or Latino people in this film. My thought is they are in Mexico; the only safe place to be; apparently not even the mother land AFRICA is safe. This is the first time in an end of the world story where Africa seems to be the beginning again, even back to the Noah and the Arc tale. What is entertaining about the film? Well Jake Gyllenhaal is not a bad sight to see but also rising question in your head about your last days is a great conversation starter after the movie is done. Overall, the topic is already overdone, a star was already lost, but the use of weather being a threat to the end of the world and some nerdy guys saving it saved the movie with two stars.
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“A Democrat IsNothing Nothing but a Dixie-crat” Really Happened in The Happening By DaShawn Wilson, Staff Writer
In 2008, M. Night Shyamalan co-produced and directed, The Happening. This horror thriller film follows a man (Mark Wahlberg), his wife (Zooey Deschanel), his best friend (John Leguizamo), and his friend's daughter as they try to escape from an inexplicable disaster. In the beginning of the film, you see people kill themselves; people are stabbing themselves and jumping off of buildings. It was initially believed to be a bioterrorist attack using an airborne neurotoxin. Its three months later and they are all living back in Philly. Everything is back to normal. The wife is doing a pregnancy test and finds out that she is, indeed, having a baby. Elliot is ecstatic and hugs her. On the TV is a scientist warning that the event was like a red tide; this is the first sign that the planet is rejecting
humans as pests. The host says that if it were true, it would be happening in other places. They cut to the gardens at the Jardins du Louvre in Paris, France. Suddenly there is a distant scream. One guy starts to repeat his words about a bike, everyone stands still. THE END. In the beginning the movie was amazing! I sat in the movie theater at the edge of my seat trying to figure out why these people are killing themselves. However, when they announced that cause of all this hysteria was due to plants I was flabbergasted. I couldn’t believe that I wasted $13.50 to see a movie about deadly plants.
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only
US
direction until they need to sell us their next
population) are unemployed. The national
candidate? Not one of these people have
unemployment rate is at 7%, the “lowest” it’s
had our interests on the table and not one
been in 3+ years. The unemployment rate of
of
Black people is twice that of the national
responsibility for our votes.
make
up
13%
of
the
them will
until we began to take
average and not one Democratic leader, senator, Supreme Court judge or president
If we, America’s minoritized (that is Black,
has done anything substantial to change
Latino, Asian and Native Americans), create
that reality. Meanwhile, the comparatively
our own political party, blocked our vote in
measly national unemployment rate of the
our party and voted in favor of our own
US is the buzz of all of the government
interests and experiences, we would see
officials and media pundits and is truly a
change really happen in our communities.
deciding factor in the outcome of the 2012
That, coupled with us beginning to control
Presidential Election.
our own communities and our own schools,
Tell me, why do we continue to support the Democratic
Party
in
such
substantial
would make our lives and our positions in the world very different.
numbers when they don’t even look in our
Lock Down– Season 1, Episode 3 Review/ In “Lock down”, it basically portrayed two stories about a new inmate and an old inmate in the series’ prison. The two inmates played different roles and held different positions in the institution. In the episode it was stated that the prison was separated into three categories. The first category was the predators which were the inmates that had the most time and status in the incarcerated institution. The second category was the prey and these inmates were usually the inmates that had been recently incarcerated. The third category was the CEO security guards which basically tried their best to keep the predators and the prey separate. Most of the prisoners in the jail were convicted of violent crimes. A quarter of the inmates were sexual offenders and 30% were killers. The prison had three floors called “tiers” that held
(who
By Jay Herrera, Staff Writer
two hundred and fifty inmates. The prisoners in the episode are framed to be violent criminals who have aggravated and killed innocent people. Many of the prisoners are commonly known as sexual predators that assault cellmates and inmates. By the end of the episode the audience gains an understanding of how the prison system works and can only feel empathy for the inmates. In the episode, the prison runs special reformation programs, and tries to reform most of the inmates however; the lifestyle in prison is not picture perfect. This episode didn’t really focus on politics of race or gender but if focused on them I am sure controversy would be visible. The producers aim was to let the audience know that every crime has consequences and the punishment is bigger behind bars.
Continued from Page 13 human sympathy; our literature, save what we import from abroad? Our only "review" of literature has wisely dropped "literature" from its name. Our manners are gone and the one thing we want is to be rich – to show off. Success is measured by income. University education is for income, not culture, and is partially supported by private industry. We are not training poets or musicians, but atomic engineers. Business is built on successful lying called advertising. We want money in vast amount, no matter how we get it. So we have it, and what then? Is the answer the election of 1956? We can make a sick man President and set him to a job which would strain a man in robust health. So he dies, and what do we get to lead us? With Stevenson and Nixon, with Eisenhower and
Eastland, we remain in the same mess. I will be no party to it and that will make little difference. You will take large part and bravely march to the polls, and that also will make no difference. Stop running Russia and giving Chinese advice when we cannot rule ourselves decently. Stop yelling about a democracy we do not have. Democracy is dead in the United States. Yet there is still nothing to replace real democracy. Drop the chains, then, that bind our brains. Drive the money-changers from the seats of the Cabinet and the halls of Congress. Call back some faint spirit of Jefferson and Lincoln, and when again we can hold a fair election on real issues, let's vote, and not till then. Is this impossible? Then democracy in America is impossible.
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“A Democrat Is Nothing but a Dixie-crat” By Jada Young, Editor-in-Chief By DaShawn Wilson, Staff Writer Don’t underestimate the power of your
began to dangle “favors” over the heads of
vote. In 1964, Malcolm X gave a sharp
Black people in exchange for our votes and
critique of Black voters who vote in block for the Democratic Party. That was 48 years ago, almost half a century ago. Now in 2012, approximately 90% of Black people in the United States still vote faithfully for the Democratic Party. We are the only racial group who votes in such an extreme block in that way. What happens when groups of people vote in a big block like Black people do for the Democratic Party? Well, since the party does not have any fear of losing its Black constituents, it has no pressing reason to uphold any legislation or political pushes in favor of Black people. Because of that, we are, as Malcolm said, “political chumps.” We are used, abused, and easily ignored by the Democratic Party until it is time for another presidential election. It wasn’t always like that. At one point Black people voted in high numbers for the Republican Party, “the party of Lincoln.” Since Lincoln was revered as being the man who “freed the slaves,” Black people at one point voted in favor of the Republicans. As time progressed and as
our loyalty. We gave it to them, willingly because of people like Lyndon Johnson and John F Kennedy who pushed civil rights bills and give speeches that seemed to be in favor of us. Black votes swung fiercely in favor of the Democratic Party and hasn’t budged at all. Our votes are important
INSERT FOUR LETTER EXPLETIVE OF YOUR CHOICE
because white votes always split between the Democrats and Republicans. Since their votes
are
often
split,
elections
and
politicians often need the votes of statistical minorities to sway elections.
Black people began to vote in higher
Currently, the Black unemployment rate is
numbers than before, the Democratic Party
at 15%. That means 15% of Black people
20 FAHARI
WHAT THE #@$%?!
LIBERTAD 33
herself told Americans that at least
It was all so very sad to
one blinded Iraq vets is so proud of
behold. Black Americans, once the
his actions that he doesn’t really
most
mind
Michaell
country, are so ecstatic that Barack
Always stay humble. Never lose the spirit of unity, community, love, respect, tolerance,
Obama said that one of these
and Michelle Obama live in the
inclusion, acceptance, and positivity. Those are words I live by, and I advise my brothers and
“wounded warriors” told her, “I’d
family quarters of the white house
sisters to never lose sight of yourself, others, and the moments of clarity that shape you. Moments
give my eyes 100 times again to have
that they didn’t mind being left off
never to be ignored, but regarded with humility, and criticism. Transforming who you were to
the chance to do what I have done
the
and what I can still do.” It isn’t clear
officials spoke, but for the second
what that really means, but the effect
convention in a row, there was not
is to make the listener happy that
one black person deemed worthy of
some other poor slob lost his
being among the “real people”
eyesight is some far away part of the
speaking in prime time that the
world. We ought to be horrified by
Democrats endlessly brag about.
Words of Advice By Manuel Tejada, Guest Writer
what you are now, letting the tenets of a positive life, helpfulness, assistance, and understanding mold every aspect of yourself for years to come. Withhold patience, and when you lose yourself in pain, anguish, turmoil, take them as shapers and find your way back. Life is a struggle, no doubt about that. Know yourself, learn from others, observe, listen, and then speak. Speak knowledge of experience, words which have built one's thoughts, and never lose
being
maimed.
progressive
stage.
group
Some
black
that at least one blinded
experiences yet to have been fulfilled. Your time will come, work on it, let it come, and if not,
Iraq vets is so proud of
fight for it.
his
Others' times come first. Privilege, power, inherited through melanin differences, built on
actions
doesn’t
the backs of those that used to have everything, who have been stripped to nothing.
question yourself and them. With support gained through humility, generosity, genuineness,
touch of someone all are external, all effect the spirit, the mind, consciously, or sub-consciously. The external always shapes the internal, and the internal always shapes the external. That is all for now.
war and our country’s role in advancing war at such an alarming rate. We should be horrified about what our country has done to Iraqis and about the suffering of Americans sent to do the dirty work. Instead we are told not to worry so much because the wounded are keeping a stiff upper lip when they talk to Mrs. Obama.
34 FAHARI
people
went
podium
to
their
nothing is to be lost.
Just as music, the wind, the sound of birds, the touch of rain, the breath of coolness, the
The age-old dilemma is alive
and
well
between
black
Americans and the Obamas. Getting the support of white people generally means distancing oneself from black people. For the first time in their history,
black
Americans
have
consciously and directly advocated being ignored. “He can’t win if he does anything for us,” many people will
astutely
observe,
but
the
conclusion is anything but astute.
mind
Black Americans have made the worst political deal in world history and now have nothing to show for it but a black woman in a lovely dress getting applause. The Democrats definitely won the propaganda war between the two conventions but that
Look for community, friendship, and respect others as long as respect is given back. If not,
yourself, always surpass yourself, others will look upon with great humility, and respect.
really
he
Ordinary white
world to be changed, and an initiative to be taken.
People only witness the external, never the internal. Only you face yourself, never give in to
that
being maimed.”
Know your history, dynamics of power, money, and color. That is a struggle to be dealt with, a
Fearlessness will prevail. Fear only kills. Fearlessness is powerful.
elected
Chief told Americans
Achieve full spirituality, love, passion, and education. All will take time, years of learning,
Fear only inhibits, limits the mind, the experiences. Confidence grows with patience, observation.
the
“The Mom-In-
focus on what is right.
Deceive the enemy, trust and be honest with everyone else.
in
near the stage.
to
the
proclaim
pride
in
being
autoworkers
or
their
thanks for the Affordable Care Act saving their life, or for Planned Parenthood or for a government which scoops up all of their children into the killing machine. Some of them
told
viewers
how
Mitt
Romney’s Bain Capital stole their jobs. Surely there are black people who lost their jobs because of Bain,
doesn’t mean that black people won anything. We won the right to subjugate ourselves for the second time for a still dubious reason. The self-abnegation
and
happy
willingness to take a back seat for the sake of the happiness engendered by Obama’s presence as POTUS is very shameful and hopefully not to be repeated again. If the reaction to Obama would take place with any other black president, let us hope that Obama is not just the first black president, but the last one as well.
but they were not allowed anywhere
LIBERTAD 19
What Is Black Solidarity Day? By Dr. Margaret Wade-Lewis, former chair of the Department of Black Studies
by BAR editor and senior columnist
difference between Michelle Obama
Barack Obama and the rest of the
Margaret Kimberley
and Ann Romney’s speeches was in
Democrats want to express at this
the quality of delivery and fashion
juncture in history.
(Referred by Karanja Keita Carroll,
sense. Apparently there is still
Ph.D.)
“Michelle Obama extolled
nothing like a beautiful woman in
the virtues of some strange and
the right dress to make otherwise “The only difference between Michelle Obama and Ann Romney’s
intelligent
The
lose
amorphous
their
Democratic
politics and quasi-fascist doctrines. Michelle Obama extolled the virtues
demonstration of marketing at its
of some strange and amorphous
worst, that is to say, at its greatest
quality which she described as “the
level of effectiveness. It was also an
American spirit.” This spirit isn’t good
awful celebration of white washed
for very much because apparently it
history,
inspired teachers in a bankrupt school
Convention
dubious
was
assertions
and
district to work without pay.
Orwellian levels of propaganda. The foolishness
best
example
masquerading
so
stunning
and
made
such
a
substance was the overwrought
wonderful impression, someone might
reaction to first lady Michelle
have asked what can possibly be good
Obama’s speech. She gave what has
about working without pay. That is
become a traditional address asking
called slavery and it is nothing that
voters to support the candidate
should be seen in a positive light.
because his wife tells funny stories
Teachers in a bankrupt school district
about him which will make voters
ought to stop working and fight
determined to vote for the good
against the forces which would take
husband/dad/one time poor student
money away from public education.
who loves his country. The only
But that is not the language that
18 FAHARI
the United States is the greatest country in the world, and that it is considered great in large part because of the violence it perpetrates against people in the rest of the planet. The first lady was introduced by a woman who has four children in the active duty military. That choice spoke volumes about the Democrats and their awful and ultimately successful
If Mrs. Obama hadn’t looked
of as
she
Instead we heard about how Barack Obama and the first
a
National
which
described as ‘the American spirit.’”
lady made the case for retrograde
recent
quality
common sense.
speeches was in the quality of delivery and fashion sense.”
people
Black Solidarity Day is an Afrikan-American holiday which was created in Brooklyn in 1969 by Dr. Carlos Russell. The concept comes from the play "Day of Absence," by Douglass Turner Ward. In the play, all of the Afrikan-American residents of a town disappear for one day (without announcing their plans of doing so). In their absence, the town experiences chaos, since Afrikan-Americans contribute millions to the economy, perform so many essential jobs in the workforce and bring so much personality, warmth and art to the texture of the town.
plan to out maneuver the Republicans as the party of proud imperialists. It was difficult to keep track of how many speakers boasted of the assassination of Osama bin Laden. His name came up so often that if his ghost had appeared at the podium it would not have been shocking. The Democrats were not content to pound their chests over the extra judicial killing of a onetime American ally,
Dr. Russell and the other organizers of Black Solidarity Day selected the first Monday in November for the annual observance of the real Afrikan-American day of absence because that Monday is the day before Election Day. It is a holiday when all of our people are called to come together in unity, absenting themselves from participation in their regular activities in the American society. In the early years, Black Solidarity Day was a day of marches, rallies and political speeches. In subsequent years, Afrikan-Americans have continued the Solidarity March as a major feature. They then spend the remainder of the day assessing their collective priorities, political and economic power, voting strategies, and plans for the future. In the process, they are able to remind themselves and others of their potential for political and economic power through solidarity.
but the Mom-In-Chief, as she called
LIBERTAD 35
Is Senior Advisor Valerie J arrett the One Who
Keeps Barack From Dealing with Black Issues? By Dr. Boyce Watkins (Referred Karanja Keita Carroll, Ph.D.) Envied Fashions the polls, but seem to forget that we exist after they’ve been elected). Those who feel that President Obama is being held to a higher standard than President Bush are absolutely correct: Bush didn’t get 90% of our vote, so he didn’t owe us much of anything. Barack Obama DOES owe us something, the same way he owed (and paid) a debt to his gay and Hispanic constituents, who threatened to withdraw their support if the administration didn’t get in line with their agenda (please take notes: Politicians only respond to credible threats, not political groupies). When advocating for African American issues defines a person to be inherently anti-Obama, we’ve got a serious problem in which our observations may not be consistent with reality. We can no longer live in a world where anyone who asks President Obama to do something is defined to be an enemy of the administration, and Valerie Jarrett knows this. Any effort by Valerie Jarrett, Al Sharpton or anyone else to suppress black voices who request action from the White House is as un-American as the oppressive regimes that they seek to dismantle around the world. We too have the right to speak freely about the issues that matter to our community and no one has a right to sleep on the job. “The Obama Administration seemed to only clean up the mess in white neighborhoods.” An excerpt of the New York Times article (below) features a back-and -forth between Jarrett and Prof. Cornel West. Dr. West seems to feel that Valerie was the one who started the whole nonsense of invalidating the entire poverty critique by reducing Cornel to a bitter man who was mad that he didn’t get inauguration tickets. Even if that were the
36 FAHARI
case, it doesn’t change one fundamental fact: Black poverty and unemployment are worse than they have been in decades, in large part because Valerie and Barack were busy fighting for gay rights instead of embracing any form of targeted economic policy. Bush did create the economic mess we’re in, but the Obama Administration seemed to only clean up the mess in white neighborhoods. It’s hard to show up and ask for support for work you didn’t do. Anyone who disagrees is encouraged to tell me where I am wrong. Here’s a snippet from the New York Times: “Ms. Jarrett was similarly ‘livid,’ one former White House official said, with members of the Congressional Black Caucus who accused the president of paying insufficient attention to the particular economic woes of blacks. When the writer and academic Cornel West joined in, calling Mr. Obama the ‘black mascot of Wall Street,’ Ms. Jarrett’s response was ‘ruthless,’ Dr. West said. “He recalled a phone call in which she dismissed his criticism as sour grapes for not receiving a ticket to the inauguration, and said he later heard from friends that she was putting out the word that ‘one, I was crazy, and two, I was un-American.’
“’It was a matter of letting me know that I was, in her view, way out of line and that I needed to get in line,’ he said in an interview. ‘I conveyed to her: ‘I’m not that kind of Negro. I’m a Jesus-loving black man who tells the truth, in the White House, in the crack house or in any other house.’ She got real quiet. It was clear that she was not used to being spoken to that way.’”
“By going after West, you are trading in an authentic leader who loves you for a more popular and powerful leader who has ignored you.“
Those who feel compelled to attack Cornel West, a scholar who has been one of the most consistent and relentless fighters for the black community over the last 25 years, might want to think about what they are doing. By going after West for asking Obama to address the statistically-documented issues of extreme (and worsening) poverty and mass incarceration, you are trading in an authentic leader who loves you for a more popular and powerful leader who has ignored you. This is nothing less than the slave mentality, which leans on validation from white Americans as symbolic evidence of our own self-worth. Black people don’t just love Barack Obama for being a great man….they love him because white people have crowned him to be our king.
If President Obama loves us, he has an obligation to show us, not to the exclusion of everything else on his plate, but to the point where the White House remembers that black people are Americans too. Those who want Barack to succeed as an authentic African American hero are encouraged to push him to higher standards, no less than the way we should push our sons to overcome racism and still do their best. Barack Obama is not just the president of black America, but he must be reminded that black people are part of America too. In other words, it’s time to stop making excuses.
LIBERTAD 17
Is Senior Advisor Valerie J arrett the One The Allegory of Who the Train Tracks Keeps Barack From Dealing with Black Issues? By Onitaset Kumat, Guest Writer
By Dr. Boyce Watkins (Referred Karanja Keita Carroll, Ph.D.)
Listen Siblings, I come in peace, takes whatever she can get. This article previously KultureKritic.com.
appeared
in
“Valerie seems more hell-bent on killing a critique than actually addressing it with constructive effort.”
Some have said that the Republican Party has been the primary obstructionist that keeps President Barack Obama from dealing with African American issues. Even those who acknowledge that the president hasn’t said a word about black suffering are quick to find whatever excuse they can for inaction on the part of the White House. Rather than earning the black vote by presenting a healthy track record of effort on behalf of the black community, black people are simply being told to “keep the faith” (note the religious reference) and to “have Barack’s back,” (note the hood slang reference). It’s as if we’re being told to “stop snitching” on the White House, while Obama Administration officials sit back and laugh at how stupid we are for not asking for anything in return for unprecedented political loyalty. We get one speech after another with Obama Administration officials reminding us of how many civil rights leaders died to give us the right to vote, and why they all wanted us to take the best political option they choose to give us. But what they don’t tell us is that when you vote for a politician and ask him for nothing, you are worse off than if you’d abstained and held your vote for ransom. A woman choosing between a man who beats her and a man who neglects her can always say “I’m not dating either one of you fools until you learn to act right.” That woman will ALWAYS get more respect than the desperate woman with low self-esteem who
16 FAHARI
“Some say that Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett has done all she can to keep the president from dealing with African Americans directly.” Unfortunately, style and symbolism don’t pay the bills: Black Americans have seen their economic condition worsen, while whites have watched their conditions improve. When the recession is over, black unemployment will probably not even get down to the levels that whites are complaining about right now. Almost nothing has been done to alleviate the mass incarceration epidemic and the President has hardly addressed all of the dead black teenagers in the killing fields of his home city of Chicago. If those were white gay kids in the suburbs, billions of dollars would have already been allocated to help resolve the problem. A recent New York Times article seems to imply that the bottleneck on getting to the heart of African American issues is not the Republican Party or the president himself. Instead, some say that Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett has done all she can to keep the president from dealing with African Americans directly, and instead has been working through Al Sharpton, an unwavering Obama surrogate, who admitted in a 60 Minutes interview that he would never criticize the president, even if he isn’t doing his job effectively. Sharpton’s political motto may as well be, “Yes, things are horrible for black people, and the Democrats aren’t going to do a damn thing about it, but I really need you to keep voting for my boss.” Jarrett has been called an elitist by some, and doesn’t have a strong track record on fighting for poor blacks. For example, many noted that the president and Valerie came home for the expensive wedding of Valerie’s Harvard-educated daughter and
said nothing about the black boys being killed right down the street on the South Side of Chicago. Shortly thereafter, however, the president hopped on a jet to console the victims of the Batman shooting in Colorado….after all, their lives are more important. “They are getting unprecedented support from black Americans and they cannot treat this support as a political welfare check that doesn’t have to be repaid.” Part of the massive disagreement I had with Rev. Sharpton (we no longer speak and I don’t expect that to change any time soon) had to do with Valerie, who seems more hell-bent on killing a critique than actually addressing it with constructive effort. My goal was to get to the bottom of the reason that the president was not meeting with the Congressional Black Caucus, which is apparently a question that black people are not allowed to ask. Before May 2011, President Obama had only met with the CBC two times in two years, which is inexcusable, especially during the worst black economic crisis in 30 years. But then again, why should he do anything for black people? They’ve got over 90% of the black vote, and many African Americans will support the Obama Administration on faith and not much else. The “inconvenient truth” for both Jarrett and Obama is that they are getting unprecedented support from black Americans and they cannot treat this support as a political welfare check that doesn’t have to be repaid. It is nothing less than their complete obligation to return this support with effort of their own. If they took half the energy they spend begging us to vote in November and actually applied this to solving problems, our community would be much better off. (Notice how they love to fight for voting rights to get black people to
“By knowing one reaches belief. By doing one gains conviction. When you know, dare.” — African Proverb (KMT) A lot of us are like Trayvon Martin, enjoying our lives unaware that danger lurks around the corner with its own story. Then by the time we recognize the monsters, everything ends for us. So what must those who recognize the danger do? This is easier expressed in an allegory. What do you tell someone who wakes up on train tracks? This metaphor is answered with the African Blood Siblings Community Centers. In modern society, it is easy to die. Many of us have ‘near-death’ accounts. Two of mine are instructive, though I have plenty. In the later event, I was in a shopping district in London. Unfamiliar with streets that didn’t have parking lanes, I looked the wrong way and stepped forward. Quickly, my cousin put her arm in front of me and shoved me back. Before I could tell why she pushed me, a big red bus zoomed by where I was. I would have been splattered had she not acted. I’m grateful to this day. In an earlier event, I was in Brooklyn. For some reason my blind spot didn’t register the oncoming jeep. But I walked forward and a car zoomed by where I intended to be. I then jumped back and looked at the classmate accompanying me. He was smiling. He actually wished to see me die in a horrible accident. Not coincidentally, this same classmate would join a gang and conduct petty robberies in our communities. Of course, I have not since followed his career. These examples instruct what the purpose of African activism should be. Metaphorically speaking, every African person in non-African societies is born on a series of train tracks. For instance, every young African man is liable to be hit by the train of Imprisonment and Felony Charges; every African woman, the train of rape and single motherhood; every African child the train of self-hatred, White Supremacy and untapped potential. Every African person is liable to be hit by a plethora of trains. So some Brothers and Sisters, with this insight, decide to get on podiums and tell us that we’re standing on train tracks. Some go further and tell us the makeup of these train tracks. “White Continued on Page 38 LIBERTAD 37
Continued from Page 37
Supremacy originated in . . .;” “Ronald Reagan did . . .;” “Christopher Columbus did not . . .;” “The Bible actually …” All while their Brothers and Sisters are on train tracks and the train is incoming. This practice, that many of us do, is similar to, after seeing someone fall into a train’s path, explaining to them that carbonite steel has a useful durability compared against copper, that so many voltages move subway cars, that Japan’s system has this amount of efficiency and such– meanwhile the train is coming. Sometimes, the person on the podium, explaining the presence and even particulars of the tracks are on tracks too. Then the train comes and kills a good many of us because everyone, podiumperson included is standing on tracks. See, not too many of us know where the tracks are–or aren’t. And honestly–that’s fine. When my cousin shoved me back–I did not know that I was in the road. In America, there’s usually a parking lane that you can safely walk into–not so where I was in London. My cousin didn’t tell me “Hey, you’re in the road.” She doesn’t tell me, “White Supremacy is a global system of . . ..” She pulls me out. This is what the African Blood Siblings uniquely does. If you remember the allegory of the headless chicken, or if you ever saw how farm animals are killed, you’ll know that death still comes to those who do not expect it. So I know that farm animals are not there to live prosperously, and anyone can tell that African people are not dependent on non-Africans to live prosperously either. But if you do not know–that’s alright. What you need to do is gain independence. ‘Cause independence is good–and independence is off the tracks whether you know dependence is on the tracks or not. So the African Blood Siblings Community Center is the only physical entity off the tracks. That means, become friendly with the donate button and the contact forms. That’s the African Blood Sibling’s way of shoving you out of harm’s way.
For more information, visit africanbloodsiblings.wordpress.com
38 FAHARI
The Ups and Downs of vote Camouflage (excerpt) uncommon. You for someone who claims to at least spend all day calling angry people, knocking on doors half expecting someone to come out with a shot gun. It takes a lot to run a campaign. I'm not talking presidential, I'm talking local. Running a successful local campaign requires many, many sweaty volunteers, rich supporters, a dedicated team who works well into the night, and possibly the sacrifice of a baby lamb. It's a far from perfect process, and no we don't always get the best candidates. But, here's the thing: elections happen more than once every four years. There are primaries where the people choose the most viable candidate. But because we don't tend to vote in primaries, it's usually the candidate with the most money who wins and goes on to the general. So having shitty candidates is hardly an excuse, at least on the local level.
A Short (True) Story by Jasmine Celeste Cepeda
I don't delude myself into thinking my vote will suddenly end the drug war, dissolve the prison-industrial complex, or cancel “Honey Boo Boo.” I don't know if my vote has anything real to do with so and so's election. That being said, I'm not going to beat myself up if the person I vote for decides to defund a vital program or passes some secretive, scary law that takes away basic civil liberties (plus we already have a law like that, no need to be alarmed!) If my vote didn't matter, that ain't my fault! And if it did matter and I cast a
minimally represent my interests, and instead caves to the pressures of lobbyists and politics, how is that my fault? Would me not voting make this person any less likely to do so? Fuck thatwould the alternative candidate be any less likely to fuck me over? Probably not. Yes, I'm voting for the “lesser of two evils” but one evil wants to hinder my ability to access Planned Parenthood. And what does not voting do? Does it tell the government that you disapprove of its existence? Does it tell anybody anything? Does it stop the system from functioning? No, it just makes it that much more ineffective and elitist. The less voters, the less responsibility the government has to the people, at least in terms of this system. Does it prevent a candidate from winning? Does it truly make you any less complicit in the system? I'm going to vote, and I don't think it means that I am naïve or delusional, or a proponent of American democracy, or American anything for that matter. All it means is that I recognize that voting, as strange as it sounds, is a privilege that not everyone gets access to and that my ancestors have not always had access to. All it means is that I have not completely abandoned the idea of participation. If it doesn't count for anything, no harm no foul, that's one more vote in a useless system, all I sacrifice is an hour tops. And if it does, well then perhaps I will tip the scale away from a crazy, corrupt politician. Maybe that other candidate won't be too much different, but my guess is if one's cutting Medicare, reproductive health, and taxes for the wealthy, the other one won't be. And if this election does usher in the end of the world, well, then you can all blame me.
LIBERTAD 15
To Vote Or Not to Vote? By Josette Ramnani, Staff Writer
14 FAHARI
At this point, whether you vote or not doesn't even matter. At least not to me. All the commercials with celebrities telling me to go vote is enough to make me just stay home and it is also a very real possibility for most of us I'm sure. Tuesday rolls around, you get out of class, make a quick stop at home and, Oh shit! It's 9 p.m. The day goes by, your vote is void, and you don't feel a thing. You can stay home and watch the election coverage, or just wait until Wednesday when nobody will shut up about it. There's lots of reasons not to vote, the usual list goes something like this: I don't have time, the Board of Elections fucked up my registration, I don't know my polling place, both of the candidates suck, the system is rigged, my vote doesn't matter anyway, and if I vote in this election I am implying I consent to the system, and I'm responsible for all the fucked up shit that's about to go down in the next four years. Or maybe some people use the oh-so-credible, “the world's going to end anyway” excuse. That's all well and good, I totally get it. There are few things more annoying than an election cycle. I can understand how it can seem like a hassle. Still, as annoying as those “vote or suffer the wrath of Lucifer” commercials are, the one thing that bothers me more is when real people debate the merits of not voting. Ugh! I get it: the world has gone to shit and there's nothing we can do about it. And yet, if I find myself at home on Tuesday afternoon with no ballot cast I will be pretty disappointed in myself. I could justify abstaining to myself, I'm sure. And yet after working on a campaign, I don't think I could avoid feeling guilty. The only thing more annoying than watching an election cycle, is actually participating in it. It is more exhausting than annoying, though agitation is not
The Ups and Downs of Camouflage (excerpt) A Short (True) Story by Jasmine Celeste Cepeda
I ran and ran, thinking my feet would
I gave up on my dream to go to West
sooner or later detach themselves from my
Point. The drive had left me so easily. It was
body so I could finally breathe. I only wish
like clicking next to a song that you didn't
that happened!
want to hear. I wanted a new song, a new
Roped together all I could say to myself was Jasmine don't fall, Jasmine don't fall! I fell. I fell and then all the girls had to stop
addiction. The last day wearing my uniform I walked to school. Four miles.
and they screamed, Tony screamed behind
I walked four miles to school so I
us, "JASMINE GET UP! COME ON! Two
could remember every moment of that day, of
more miles."
that feeling. I didn't realize it, but I was really
I'm strong, I thought, I'm strong. When we finished I cried. I cried because I wanted water, but mostly because I did it, we did it.
going to miss being in JROTC. For all three years I'd been a Patriot Cadet, I never excepted the "Thank you for serving" compliments, but that day I did. I even stopped by a classroom of Privates to
What it meant to be a team, what it
give a “motivational speech.” My pride was at
meant to conquer the world, what it meant
a climax, fortunately its intensity has never
to be a cadet, I felt it all in that moment.
fallen. The colors of the flag are still my
On the bus ride home I cried some more. Three years and I wanted to quit.
favorite. There
are
some
things,
mostly
Three years of Hoo-rahs and I wanted to
emotions, yeah, emotions, that I don't think
stop.
will ever leave me. Those three years were
What would my coach say, my captain? Disappointment.
great to me. America has been great to me. It Continued on Page 40 LIBERTAD 39
Continued from Page 39 will always be great. I learned how to do a correct push up by kissing the ground and till' this day I still do, with every lift thinking about how much I will always love this country, thinking about how I will always have this bond, thinking about how at one point in my life I wanted, more than anything, to fight for this country. That pledge that so many of us recited daily in school, the brave eagle, “Manifest Destiny,” maybe it is all just a way to romanticize being an American, maybe it is all propaganda, and what if it is? Every country has its myths, its lies, its history, we're not perfect. Patriotism is a feeling that comes regardless of the bad things. It's the fact that we're here, the fact that “We made
Stevenson promises to maintain or increase this effort. The weight of our taxation is unbearable and rests it in America.” It gets me choked up mainly and deliberately on the poor. This Administration is dominated and directed by wealth sometimes. There is no other place I would and for the accumulation of wealth. It runs smoothly ever want to live. I can't say I would die for like a well-organized industry and should do so because industry runs it for the benefit of industry. Corporate my country anymore, only because I want to wealth profits as never before in history. We turn over live to see it sour. I want to live to see my the national resources to private profit and have few country elect a Latino President (it's going funds left for education, health or housing. Our crime, especially juvenile crime, is increasing. Its increase is to happen)! I want to live to see the DREAM perfectly logical; for a generation we have been Act passed (it's going to happen)! I want to teaching our youth to kill, destroy, steal and rape in war; what can we expect in peace? We let men take live to celebrate another fourth of July. As wealth which is not theirs; if the seizure is "legal" we Hamilton Fish once said, “If our country is call it high profits and the worth dying for in time of war let us resolve profiteers help decide what is legal. If the theft is "illegal" the that it is truly worth living for in time of thief can fight it out in court, peace.” Loyalty, duty, respect, self-less with excellent chances to win if by W.E.B. Dubois he receives the accolade of the service, honor, integrity, personal courage, I right newspapers. Gambling in Referred by Karanja Keita Car roll, Ph.D. and don't need to serve to feel these things, I just Faisal Awadallah, Staff Writer home, church and on the stock have to be American. market is increasing and all prices are rising. It costs three times his salary to elect a We've done so many amazing things Senator and many millions to elect a President. This money comes from the very corporations which today in this country. Some facts are not myths: are the government. This in a real democracy would be America is beautiful. enough to turn the party responsible out of power. Yet this we cannot do.
Negroes hope to muster 400,000 votes in 1956. Where will they cast them? What have the Republicans done to enforce the education decision of the Supreme Court? What they advertised as fair employment was exactly nothing, and Nixon was just the man to explain it. What has the Administration done to rescue Negro workers, the most impoverished group in the nation, half of whom receive less than half the median wage of the nation, while the nation sends billions abroad to protect oil investments and help employ slave labor in the Union of South Africa and the Rhodesias? Very well, and will the party of Talmadge, Eastland and Ellender do better than the Republicans if the Negroes return them to office?
Poetry
Why I Won’t Vote
The "other" party has surrendered all party differences in foreign affairs, and foreign affairs are our most important affairs today and take most of our taxes. Even in domestic affairs how does Stevenson differ from Eisenhower? He uses better English than Dulles, thank God! He has a sly humor, where Eisenhower has none. Beyond this Stevenson stands on the race question in the South not far from where his godfather Adlai stood sixty-three years ago, which reconciles him to the South. He has no clear policy on war or preparation for war; on water and flood control; on reduction of taxation; on the welfare state. He wavers on civil rights and his party blocked civil rights in the Senate until Douglas of Illinois admitted that the
40 FAHARI
Democratic Senate would and could stop even the right of Senators to vote. Douglas had a right to complain. Three million voters sent him to the Senate to speak for them. His voice was drowned and his vote nullified by Eastland, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, who was elected by 151,000 voters. This is the democracy in the United States which we peddle abroad.
I have no advice for others in this election. Are you voting Democratic? Well and good; all I ask is why? Are you voting for Eisenhower and his smooth team of bright ghost writers? Again, why? Will your helpless vote either way support or restore democracy to America?
Is the refusal to vote in this phony election a counsel of despair? No, it is dogged hope. It is hope that if twenty-five million voters refrain from voting in 1956 because of their own accord and not because of a sly wink from Khrushchev, this might make the American people ask how much longer this dumb farce can proceed without even a whimper of protest. Yet if we protest, off the nation goes to Russia and China. Fifty-five American ministers and philanthropists are asking the Soviet Union "to face manfully the doubts and promptings of their conscience." Cannot these dogooders face their own consciences? Can they not see that American culture is rotting away: our honesty, our
Continued on Page 21 LIBERTAD 13
This article was republished in Hartford Web Publishing.
“Since I was twenty-one in 1889, I have in theory followed the voting plan strongly advocated by Sidney Lens in The Nation of August 4, i.e., voting for a third party even when its chances were hopeless, if the main parties were unsatisfactory; or, in absence of a third choice, voting for the lesser of two evils. My action, however, had to be limited by the candidates' attitude toward Negroes. Of my adult life, I have spent twenty-three years living and teaching in the South, where my voting choice was not asked. I was disfranchised by law or administration. In the North I lived in all thirty-two years, covering eight Presidential elections. In 1912 I wanted to support Theodore Roosevelt, but his Bull Moose convention dodged the Negro problem and I tried to help elect Wilson as a liberal Southerner. Under Wilson came the worst attempt at Jim Crow legislation and discrimination in civil service that we had experienced since the Civil War. In 1916 I took Hughes as the lesser of two evils. He promised Negroes nothing and kept his word. In 1920, I supported Harding because of his promise to liberate Haiti. In 1924, I voted for La Follette, although I knew he could not be elected. In 1928, Negroes faced absolute dilemma. Neither Hoover nor Smith wanted the Negro vote and both publicly insulted us. I voted for Norman Thomas and the Socialists, although the Socialists had attempted to Jim Crow Negro members in the South. In 1932 I voted for Franklin Roosevelt, since Hoover was unthinkable and Roosevelt's attitude toward workers most realistic. I was again in the South from 1934 until 1944. Technically I could vote, but the election in which I could vote was a farce. The real election was the 12 FAHARI
White Primary. Retired "for age" in 1944, I returned to the North and found a party to my liking. In 1948, I voted the Progressive ticket for Henry Wallace and in 1952 for Vincent Hallinan. In 1956, I shall not go to the polls. I have not registered. I believe that democracy has so far disappeared in the United States that no "two evils" exist. There is but one evil party with two names, and it will be elected despite all I can do or say. There is no third party. On the Presidential ballot in a few states (seventeen in 1952), a "Socialist" Party will appear. Few will hear its appeal because it will have almost no opportunity to take part in the campaign and explain its platform. If a voter organizes or advocates a real third-party movement, he may be accused of seeking to overthrow this government by "force and violence." Anything he advocates Referred by Karanja Keita Car roll, Ph.D. and by way of significant reform will Faisal Awadallah, Staff Writer be called "Communist" and will of
{}
On October 20, 1956, W. E. B. Du Bois delivers this eloquent indictment of US politics while explaining to Nation readers why he won't vote in the upcoming Presidential election. Du Bois condemns both Democrats and Republicans for their indifferent positions on the influence of corporate wealth, racial inequality, arms proliferation and unaffordable health care.
Poetry
Why I Won’t Vote
necessity be Communist in the sense that it must advocate such things as government ownership of the means of production; government in business; the limitation of private profit; social medicine, government housing and federal aid to education; the total abolition of race bias; and the welfare state. These things are on every Communist program; these things are the aim of socialism. Any American who advocates them today, no matter how sincerely, stands in danger of losing his job, surrendering his social status and perhaps landing in jail. The witnesses against him may be liars or insane or criminals. These witnesses need give no proof for their charges and may not even be known or appear in person. They may be in the pay of the United States Government. A.D.A.'s and "Liberals" are not third parties; they seek to act as tails to kites. But since the kites are self-propelled and radar-controlled, tails are quite superfluous and rather silly. The present Administration is carrying on the greatest preparation for war in the history of mankind.
LIBERTAD 41
Politics
resistance of the people to garner greater pressure.
Politricks Tricks of the mind They trick us to eat the swine The colonized think soul food is fine dine the baby’s momma cryin’ the baby cryin’ the baby’s father’s lyin’ to get ahead tryin’ to survive in a country that would rather he be dead caged in a box with yellows, blacks, and reds show em the word Kemet they think it’s a fashion store, with no credit Show em the name Pedro Albizu Campos They like, was he the catcher, on the Reds? politics politricks of the nation investing more in wars and less in education the white house filled with white folks except for the president and the janitors who clean the president’s desk a woman with no degree and no self respect but the president is black! And so is the crisis Who woulda thought that in 2012 we’d still be living like this The money is still green Created by white hands and white minds distributed by white men financed by black crimes They tell us not to see everything in black and white
42 FAHARI
That’s why they got you reading 50 shades of grey In black and white What a shame Politics Politricks of the soul Religion freezes the world It’s said best by J. Cole It’s too cold So what’s it gonna take to crack this code? There more Black men in prison now than were sold I’m watching history unfold Mistakes repeated and secrets untold Pyramids created by people in death row Politics.
By Jay Espy
Alongside Islamophobic sentiments such as the Innocence of Muslims film causing rebellion from North Africa to Southeast Asia, we are seeing resistance in Spain and Greece, with demonstrators or "los indignados" in Spain occupying their congress. In Chicago, teachers went on strike to fulfill a better contract and
Continued from Page 9 Lost Type. Lost Type is a type co-op that allows people access to well-designed typefaces at “pay-what-youwant” rates, generally for personal use. Each typeface comes with a End-User License Agreement that states what the limits are for the use of the particular type. Edmondson, in the EULA for Wisdom Script, clearly states that users need to contact the designer for permission to use the typeface commercially. Romney’s well-typeset t-shirts had no such license. This is theft of intellectual property.
demand greater quality education for their students. In Montreal, university students were victorious in their eight month long strike, seeing proposed tuition hikes freeze along with other progressive policies implemented. We are seeing resistance to stop and frisk policies in New York City, and against police abuse across the country from Anaheim to Newburgh. In Texas, environmental activists are blockading Keystone XL, an oil pipeline built from Canada to the Gulf Coast, that has already destroyed foliage, and people's homes. In
While it may seem silly to some, not paying established type designers for their work, especially when the money made from their work is significant, takes away the designer’s ability to make a living for what they do. This shows very simply Romney’s disregard for working with quality designers. Admittedly, we’re a small group but that does not diminish the work we do and our need to make a living from that work. The Obama campaign has gained much fame in the design community for teaming up with Hoefler & Frere-Jones, a highly regarded type foundry based in NYC. Edmondson has brought the issue to the Romney campaign and the designs using the typeface have been taken down from the campaign site. Now, let’s see if Edmondson is retroactively paid for the tchotchkes that have been sold so far.
America Latina, the rise of independent progressive leadership in South America and even Central America has shown the ongoing political resistance towards the imposition of foreign political-economic policies, as seen in decades before. These global uprisings are
If I was thinking of ever voting for Romney (which, I wasn’t), this certainly hasn’t made a convert out of me. Romney’s type politics is enough to deter me from voting (duh I’m biased!). For others, the financial factors should suffice. Do we really want a president that has more money than most of the readers of this article put together (times a few thousand, actually)?
happening. In gaining consciousness, teaching others, and fighting back, these are the means to prevent a global political-economic apocalypse.
LIBERTAD 11
Impending Calamity By Manuel Tejada, Guest Writer
From the sovereign debt crisis
facilities, which can lead to
of Southern Europe or the
unforeseen circumstances.
She’ll Echo in the Wind If the end of the world is coming, it's coming like a swift blow to the back of the head.
banking crisis of all of the European Union, to escalating
On another global hand, we are
tensions between the Arab
witnessing economic straits
world and the western world,
almost unsolvable. Between
You want the world to end
to global political uprisings of
Spain and Greece, 22-25% are
you wait for it,
China to Chile, the shifting of
the average unemployment
like your favorite show.
our global sphere towards a
rates, with pensions, social
vision of calamity seems ever
services, public sector jobs
truer. Just a couple of weeks
being cut on dire levels, from
in job growth. In the United
ago, on September 27th, the
the two latter countries to
States, the unemployment rate
We kept on living
Prime Minister of Israel
Portugal and Italy. The
stand at a pitiful 8.1%, and
clinging to life like a
announced at the United
International Monetary Fund,
most likely higher looking at
Nations General Assembly to
European Central Bank, and
part-time workers or
establish a red line on Iran's
the European Commission are
underemployed, discouraged
nuclear program. He had asked
aiming at billions of dollars in
workers or people not actively
President Obama to adhere by
spending cuts in return for
searching for work, with long-
this 'red line' beforehand.
'bailout' aid to those Southern
term unemployment at record
European countries.
levels. Unfortunately with little
This red line, if passed, would
And here I thought life just begun.
The world died a long time ago.
half-dead deer.
Is this what I allow? Bliss in my ignorance. Envious of a child’s innocence. Wishing my pen can do more… What am I waiting for? To be buried deep? To hear our children weep? Our promises we never keep! Our sins we begin got reap. I’m comfortable not knowing. Okay with how the world’s going. Content with how it’s spinning.
We're just waiting for someone to put us out of our misery. She'll outlive us all, she'll echo in the wind. Just like man to think he can end the world with his cold, callous, cruelty.
short-term focus on job
All because I’m neither losing nor winning. Comfortable in my discomfort. Whispering, “It can only get worse.” Running away from any obligation. Won’t participate in any conversation.
allow Iran to possess high-
Such measures has contributed
creation, unattractive
If you want to know the answer
grade uranium, allowable for
to widespread hunger in Spain
investment climate, and lower
stop looking for it.
nuclear weaponry, or nuclear
for instance, and skyrocketing
reported GDP growth of
She'll whisper it in your ear
power. Iran says it is for
unemployment, especially
1.3% , our sputtering economy
peaceful purposes, many agree,
when more than 50% of youth
will either have to rely on
Israel tells another tale. The
within Spain are without work.
money-driven presidential
main threat lies in if and when
Such cuts have also led to the
election, possible automatic
that red line is passed will
increase in the debt to GDP
cuts of 1.3 trillion dollars in
signify the potential of a
ratio (Growth Domestic
government spending and cuts
military strike on Iran's nuclear
Product), with little investment
to programs in January, or the
10 FAHARI
Mr. Jackson’s “Earth Song” plays aloud.
when it's not so filled with the echoes of regret.
By Josette Ramnani
Leading towards a reformation. No need for a transformation. I lie. I deny. My fears fog what I know is right. But all I can do is write. By Luana LIBERTAD 43
“Romney Type Politics”/ All Eyes on Me
By Reggy, Alumna Contributor
They got all eyes on me, every little thing I do and say, just gets taken out of line anyway. And though I’m suffering, I just stick to my priorities, praying that my enemies, lay off of me. I’ve made some mistakes like they have, even though they’re all not the same Some get looked over, swept under the dirt, but let it be me and it shatters my name. I feel like I’m trying too hard, but they’re scolding it’s not enough. It’s funny how they think they know me, I be laughing when they try to tell me I’m watching you watching me, don’t know why you Got all eyes on me, every little thing I do and say, just gets taken out of line anyway And though I’m suffering, I just stick to my priorities, praying that my enemies back up off me. Woke up to this breaking point and nobody knows; just waiting for me to react. Feeling high, felling low, should I stay, should I go? Now I see who never had my back! You have no one to turn to as they try to burn you, Not giving into revelries, so why should that concern you? They don’t care about my struggle, they just see me as a bother, But while they claim to be low key, I see that they Got all eyes on me, every little thing I do and say just gets taken out of line anyway And though I’m suffering, I just stick to my priorities, praying that my enemies just let me be. It’s funny how they think that they know when they don’t I try to keep it subtle but these petty demons won’t Working on my last nerve, watching, waiting for the hurt Filling me with uncertainty I don’t deserve. It’s funny how they think they can see right through me, Hoping that I die from their negativity, But I’m not gonna curse you, can’t wish the worse for you, that’s just not in me. Got all eyes on me every little thing I do and say, just gets taken out of line anyway Though I’m suffering, I just stick to my priorities praying that my enemies leave peacefully…
44 FAHARI
Running for political office is never easy. Candidates are always under intense scrutiny, constantly trying to win the popularity prize (sometimes at the expense of their constituents). Presidential elections are no different. In fact, they’re probably worse; steeped more in drama that’s televised across the nation (in the case of more powerful countries such as the US, the world!) than running for let’s say, Mayor or Governor. One of the areas where transparency is important (as if there is an area that doesn’t need transparency when you’re running to take control of one of the most powerful nations in the world) is finance. A candidate’s financial decisions and standing says a great deal about them. The Obama’s talk quite a bit about how they’ve only recently finished paying back their student loans. This not only makes students with overwhelming loans connect to Barack and Michelle (see how I call them by their first names), but it also gives us a sense of this particular family not being part of the .000001% (exaggeration intended). The Romney’s, on the other hand, are a different story. Mitt Romney has fought the tradition of candidates revealing tax information for a number of years to show their financial standing. In fact, it was Mitt’s father, George Romney, who set this standard back in 1967 by revealing 12 years worth of tax records at once (because seeing tax returns for a year or two can paint a fuzzy picture). It’s interesting that Mitt has fought this so hard. He’s even won, to a certain extent. Thus far, Romney has revealed only a few years worth of tax returns that are questionable, not giving voters a clear picture of where he stands financially.
By Saki Rizwana, President 2009-2010, Alumni Contributor
Romney is also reported to have bank accounts and investments in Switzerland, the Bahamas and Cayman Islands, places where tax laws are non-existent. Isn’t this what shady CEO’s in corrupt corporations do when they want to hide the money they’re stealing from the company? Romney’s financial situation has the word “SUSPICIOUS” written all over it. Vanity Fair has an excellent article about Romney’s financial situation. It’s a bit long so let me give you some key points:
1. Romney reported that he received $2 million from Bain and Co. in June
2. Bain and Co. has at least 138 funds in the Cayman Islands. Romney has interest in at least 12 of these, worth as much as $30 million!
3. In 2010 and 2011, the Romney’s paid $6.2 million in federal taxes, a measly 14.59% of his $42.5 million dollar income.
4. 14.59% is significantly less than what the average middleclass worker pays. He is approximately worth $250 million dollars (I’d say more since he won’t disclose how much money he’s stashed away overseas. These are astounding numbers! Mitt gets that money! That’s for sure. Even with all of this money, Mitt is hard-pressed to pay for type used in campaign t-shirts sold on his site (for $30 each, I might add). The type in question is called Wisdom, designed by James T. Edmondson and gotten from a site called
Continued on Page 11 LIBERTAD 9
Fifteen Issues This Election is Not About by Bill Quigley (Referred by Karanja Keita Carroll, Ph.D.)
Neither candidate is interested in stopping the use of the death penalty for federal or state crimes.
Neither candidate is interested in eliminating or reducing the 5,113 US nuclear warheads.
Neither candidate is campaigning to close Guantanamo prison.
Neither candidate has called for arresting and prosecuting high ranking people on Wall Street for the subprime mortgage catastrophe.
Neither candidate is interested in holding anyone in the Bush administration accountable for the torture committed by US personnel against prisoners in Guantanamo or in Iraq or Afghanistan.
Neither candidate is interested in stopping the use of drones to assassinate people in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen or Somalia.
Neither candidate is against warrantless surveillance, indefinite detention, or racial profiling in fighting “terrorism.”
Neither candidate is interested in fighting for a living wage. In fact neither are really committed beyond lip service to raising the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour – which, if it kept pace with inflation since the 1960s should be about $10 an hour.
Neither candidate was interested in arresting Osama bin Laden and having him tried in court.
Neither candidate will declare they refuse to bomb Iran.
Neither candidate is refusing to take huge campaign contributions from people and organizations.
Neither candidate proposes any significant specific steps to reverse global warming.
Neither candidate is talking about the over 2 million people in jails and prisons in the US.
Neither candidate proposes to create public jobs so everyone who wants to work can.
Neither candidate opposes the nuclear power industry. In fact, both support expansion.
8 FAHARI
Sonnet By Roger Whitson It was very late sometime in the wee Hours, I heard wind astir in the grasses And rustling through the sycamore trees When the night wind made its haunting passes Into the hillside trees troubling its leaves And the wind whistled around a full moon And around the eves, the wind seemed to grieve And I told myself that day would break soon And I heard the clock tick that marked the time And the past intermingled with the now And the full moon was shining like a dime And the wind made dirges in the trees' boughs And I told myself not to be afraid But my agitation was not allayed.
Untitled
Her lungs were invaded with the cigarette smoke, as if one more puff would truly put her at ease. Its stench invaded the frigid air, without any common gratitude for anyone. She had a smug smirk painted on; Cheap red lipstick smudged across her tainted cheeks. Back then, the wind used to invade her. It used to rush through her thick brown curls, her laughter was like: candy-coated rain drops. It was sweet, unique, and so very rare. But time seems to have slipped through, straight through her finger tips, like isolated beach sand. And even her most cherished memories became hard to maintain. By Ileana Garcia
LIBERTAD 45
{
There is No End, Soneto Condenatoria el Fascismo By Roger Whitson
Wake the F&%k Up? Luana Kay Horry, Guest Writer
By Jada Young, Editor-in-Chief.
Dum Dee dum dee dum! hear fascism's drum! Dum dee dum dee dum! where does it come from? Fascism comes from racism and hate. Fascism merges business and state. Fascism smashes unionized labor. Fascism makes folk spy on their neighbor. Fascism views venerate violence And uses fear and murder to silence Any and every dissenting voice. Fascism takes away a woman's choice. Fascists know how to re-write history. Fascism embodies misogyny. Fascism denies that rape is a crime. Fascism germinates in shit and slime.
Let’s leave it up to Samuel L. Jackson to make us laugh hysterically about something that is nothing close to a joke. A video that hit the web in the later weeks of September titled, “Wake the Fuck Up” starring Jackson, is a political mimic of his reading of an adult bedtime story called, “Go the Fuck to Sleep”. The youngest member of the typical white American family goes around her home warning her negligent family members to vote- with a little bit of help from her friend, Sam Jack.
My Land
By Shatera Gurganious, Editor-in-Chief 2010-2012
You ask me to leave my land You tell me that it is not mine I don’t need pieces of paper to tell me where I can grow my food How dare you come in and tell me that I don’t belong? Oh how history loves to repeat itself Not too long ago, you came in and told me I was not human That I belonged on your land My only purpose was to serve you
Not too long ago, you came onto my land and told me that it was yours How dare you come and trespass on our land? Kick us off and tell us we are worthless? What have I done to deserve this? Without my land, where will I go? How will I be able to feed my family? You lie and tell me this is for my own good, That my people need you here
Whether he’s popping out from behind the television or in someone’s bedroom, Samuel Jackson delivers the message that it is time to really pay attention to the issues of this election, to take it seriously, and to specifically think critically about how it affects each age group collectively. The “out of touch millionaire” aka Mitt Romney is on the attack of the youth, the parents, and the grandparents. He won’t provide a safety net. Mitt Romney doesn’t care about civil rights. He’ll snatch John’s financial aid. Susie won’t get that abortion nor the contraceptives because he plans to dismantle Planned Parenthood (why are these young girls even worried about that sort of thing? I don’t want to know neither). The old folks aren’t safe because Medicare is out of the question. And Obama? Oh, he sent troops to Bin Laden and is fighting for student loans. That’s it?! It is a traditional political tactic where fingers are pointed but there has to be a line drawn. After pointing all the fingers, after all the blame is placed, then what? It’s only implied that Obama disagrees with Romney, but how does anyone really know if all that’s heard is bad Romney news? The video was four minutes long… two should have covered the positives of voting for the opposing side of Romney.
This video, and many other arguments about the 2012 race, puts forth the idea that voting for Barack Obama this time around will be like voting for the lesser evil. The complaints against Obama include things like: he can’t get anything done or that he’s too communal. This is much easier to swallow than Romney who clearly has an agenda… a white, rich agenda that excludes anyone of lesser value in his eyes. Barack Obama on the other hand has a lot planned for America. Whether he can carry these plans out or not pretty obviously leans more towards ‘no’ due to lack of time. However, he has a plan: corporate taxes instead of individual tax, reduction of immigrant deportation instead of depriving them of work, and making environmental issues a federal concern instead of leaving it up to the states. The list goes on and on. Educate yourself about it before someone asks you, “Why Obama?” and you respond with “Because, Romney blah blah blah…” without the added “…and Obama will blah blah blah.” The video is cute and it will get people to think about actually waking up and voting. But when voting, please keep in mind that yes, Romney is what most consider a bad guy. But what makes Barack Obama a good guy? Is he even what you consider a “good” president or is your vote based on him being not as “bad” as Mitt Romney? Of course voting for the lesser evil, or the next best thing, is the popular and easy move to make. To answer these questions of good and bad and to be an effective voter, you must side by side analyze both of the candidates’ agendas and decide what each will do for you. This video is trying to get the awareness out about the bad, but leaves out the real important part: WHAT is Obama going to DO for YOU?
No, what we need is our land back
**Visit stopafricalandgrab.com for further information**
46 FAHARI
LIBERTAD 7
There is No End,
There’s Just a Re-Cycle
By Jada Young, Editor-in-Chief. During the second semester of my fresh(wo)man year at SUNY New Paltz, I wrote a paper for my Comp 2 class about the use of religion to “predict” and then create what is understood as “the end of the world.” In my research on the topic, I learned that the belief that the end of the world is inevitable is known as Apocalypticism. Further, not only does this belief claim that the world will end, but it will end soon, perhaps even in the lifetime of the believer. Toward this end, people act and live accordingly: they begin to stock up on non-perishable food items and secure a location for themselves and their families in case crazy, end-of-the-world doom does in fact go down. People even begin to have little to no regard for the lives of other people around them because they are too busy worrying about protecting themselves; violence also tends to ensue during times of this kind of hysteria. When I wrote that paper (three years ago), I thought that it was a “natural” thing to happen. You know, I figured that it was “human nature” for people to believe that the end of the world was inevitable and that the hysteria was a natural outgrowth of that belief. Now that I am older and wiser, I understand that this belief/hysteria is
6 FAHARI
neither “human” nor it is natural for me (and most other people) to adopt. You see, this belief is the direct product of a system of belief that is grounded in a disconnection from the spiritual makeup of the universe. Everything in the universe is spirit, and as a spirit it is directly connected to the divinity of the universe. When you do not have a thought system that espouses those beliefs, your disconnection to the divine spirit allows you to adopt pessimistic beliefs about the nature of the world and of the universe. A lack of spiritual connection leads one to see the world/ universe as solely material, and by it being solely material it is limited in its existence and is thereby fleeting, When you recognize that materiality only serves to house the spiritual being, you will have less fear of the doom and gloom that society would like for us to adopt about the end of the world. Also, when you recognize that time is not in fact linear, that the “starting point” and the “ending point” are only locations on the circle of existence, then you will fear less the idea that the “end is near” because it is not. All “ends” allow for a new beginning. So, please, have no fear about the end of days, because there is no end, there’s just a re-cycle.
}
Untitled Sonnet By Roger Whitson I am just a one-horse philosopher. Who will listen to me, best to listen
to the wind, to rain, or chirp of the wren, or whatever other sound you prefer. Poetry may not be your cup of tea
& you may say I should keep my poems in family Bible & not show'em.
But on that point I would never agree.
Although poetry & philosophy, may be different as water & oil, may be different as leisure & toil, may be as different as you & me, I am myself & have the right to be and I will never be anyone's foil.
A Poem By V
I beg to differ in the "similar" ways We look, we act, but more these days I suspect the difference is in your voice It is the vomit of a cavebeast, therefore my choice To be less than what you expect me to be Adds up to more than you're willing to see.
LIBERTAD 47
End of the world is plainly seen to me as a joke; but behind every joke is there a reality? Do we sit here and ponder if this world is really going to end? And if it was, what would we do? Who would we want to be? Where would you want to be in life? Some may say, “I haven’t achieved my beyond; there can never be an end!” Or get straight educational say, “…the Mayans were killed before they were able to complete the damn calendar! “ Many may use religion to be their strength and put faith in them Secretly praying for another day We can get political about this and just say, “…fuck! Romney looks like the worlds end!” We can sit here and just count how fucked up the world is or count our blessings. Enjoy each day and fuck it, live a couple of “YOLO’s” Or let’s get inspirational with this shit. If poverty is high And living the rags to riches, have become a dream. Education is suffering, How can we survive in this deficient and much overpriced, educational system? Let’s keep putting guns in our little boys’ hands, And make more room for prison cells. We can give into the media, We can search for answers in all types of books, Listen to our intuitions And feed off our mother nature Listening to her messages from universe, We can get political blame Obama or Romney We can fight and bicker Or we can say “shut the fuck with this shit already!” Either way it’s the choice of yours Or is it?
Brittany Askew, President
Jada Young, Editor-In-Chief
Makeba Hall-Wilson, Vice President/ Historian
By Nicole Janine
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e h T t e e M y l i Fam
A[political]ypse INSIDE THIS ISSUE 6 7 9 10 14 20 22 22 24 28 29 30 31 31 32 32
There is No End. There’s Just a Re-cycle Wake the F&%k Up? Romney Type Politics Impending Calamity To Vote Or Not To Vote? A Democrat Is Nothing But a Dixie-Crat Minority Report Obama’s Campaign Recipe for Change, Romney-Ryan Recipe for Disaster #DontJudgeMe What Would You Do If the World Was Ending? Review of the Film Armageddon 2012 Movie Review The Knowing The Day After Tomorrow Nothing Really Happened in The Happening Lock Down– Season 1, Episode 3 review
Brittany Askew, President
Jada Young, Editor-In-Chief
Makeba Hall-Wilson, Vice President/ Historian
What The #@$%? 34 35 36 37 39
Words of Advice What Is Black Solidarity Day? Envied Fashions The Allegory of the Train Tracks The Ups and Downs of Camouflage
Poetry 42 43 44 45 46 46 47 4 FAHARI
Politics She’ll Echo in the Wind All Eyes On Me Sonnet Soneto Condenatoria el Fascismo My Land Untitled Sonnet
Malissa Williams, Layout Editor
Lamar Mack, Cover Editor
DaShawn Wilson, Public Relations
Tanique Williams, Public Relations
LIBERTAD 49
FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK
FROM THE EDITOR-IN-CHIEF’S DESK Hey there Fahari Fam, I hope you’re all well and are enjoying a successful semester. If this is the first issue of the Fahari-Libertad that you’re picking up, welcome! We chose to theme this, our first issue of the semester, around politics (based on the 2012 presidential election) and the “apocalypse” because of the 2012 end of the world myth, hence the hard-to-pronounce Apoliticalypse. The theme is important because nothing in this society, in this world, really, is apolitical (absent of politics). Everything is defined by the politics that created or influences it. That includes religion, schooling, employment, identity, etc. The apocalypse, on the other hand is a plague that humanity cannot seem to escape. In my lifetime alone, I can readily recall four times in which this hysteria became the buzz of society. The Y2K millennium bug, the supposed planetary alignment that was to occur that same year, 6/6/06 (the rise of the anti-Christ) and now, the 2012 end of the Mayan calendar— and I’m only 21. For me, these end of the world myths are ridiculous; they are nothing more than the product of a disconnection from the spiritual energy that makes up the Universe. What you’ll find in this issue is varying perspectives on the theme; you’ll find the spiritual collaboration of poetry, prose, pictures and art of diverse degrees. More importantly you will find love. You will find the love of the group that makes up this eboard, and the staff and guest writers; love is what we all need as we transition into this time plagued by the projection of fear mongering, and election-bred conflicts. Enjoy yourself some Fahari! Always with love, Jada Young Editor-in-Chief, Fahari-Libertad
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FROM THE PRESIDENT’S DESK Hello Everyone, Welcome to the fall 2012 semester. Congrats to all my fellow seniors because we have made it this far! Now we just have to stay motivated and keep our heads in the game until May 2013. This is my first semester as President of the Fahari-Libertad Magazine and I am really excited. I hope you all are ready for what we have in store for you. Our theme for this issue has to do with the end of the world and the presidential campaign that is happening right now. Therefore, we chose the name Apoliticalypse which combines the words politics and apocalypse. It has been said that the end of the world is “supposed” to happen on December 21, 2012. I mean how many people really believe this? Personally, I would like to graduate from New Paltz first before the world ends. There have been so many conspiracy theories and movies that have been created as to why and how the world will end. Since December is almost near the whole phenomenon of the end of the world is a hot topic right now. This issue gives people the opportunity to express their feelings about the end of the world as well as whether they agree or disagree with the different theories. Also, another major topic is whether Obama will serve another term or will we have a new president that will try to “fix” what is going on in America. After reading this issue, I hope that you really evaluate and think about what side you’re on. Who are you voting for? I hope everyone has been following the election but if not please educate yourself about the different parties before election day on November 6th. This honestly is a very important election that will have a major impact on our future. I hope you all enjoy reading this issue. We also have a new column called #Don’tJudgeMe that we hope will increase your love for Fahari. See you next issue and happy reading!
e h T et ily e M am F
Brittany S. Askew President, Fahari-Libertad
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e h T y t ee mil M Fa
FAHARI-LIBERTAD The Family
Fa-ha-ri: (noun)
President Brittany Askew
Dignity, respect, a good reputation. Derived from the language of KiSwahili.
Dr. Karanja K. Carroll, Faculty Advisor
Euclyn Williams, Student Advisor
Li-ber-tad: (noun) Spanish for FREEDOM!
Editor-In-Chief Jada Young Vice president/ Historian Makeba Hall-Wilson
The Fahari-Libertad is committed to printing the political, social, and economic views and concerns regarding people of color here at SUNY New Paltz. It is published in the spirit of cultural unity as well as bringing about the spiritual unification of all people. The main goal of the Fahari-Libertad is to enrich and educate all with knowledge and enlightenment. We accept anyone who is truly committed to these goals to work with us.
Mission To seek knowledge, truth and unity with pride
Kamoy Joseph, Staff Writer
Eryka Morales, Staff Writer
Josette Ramnani, Staff Writer
Contact Us The Fahari-Libertad SUNY New Paltz Student Union Building, Rm. 323 New Paltz, NY 12561 Email: faharilibertad@gmail.com Facebook: Fahari Libertad Magazine Blog: faharilibertad.blogspot.com
Layout Editor Malissa Williams Cover Design Lamar Mack Josette Ramnani Nicole Rivera Eryka Morales Staff Writers Kamoy Joseph DaShawn Wilson Jay Herrera Jordan Taylor Luana Kay Horry Manuel Tejada Cait O’Connor Guest Writers/ Onitaset Kumat Contributors Jasmine Celeste Cepeda Jay Espy Ileana Garcia V Saki Rizwana Alumni Contributors Regina “Reggy” Rivers Shatera Gurganious Student Advisor Euclyn Williams Faculty Advisor Dr. Karanja K. Carroll
Twitter: @Fahari_Libertad
Nicole Rivera, Staff Writer
Jay Herrera, Staff Writer
Jordan Taylor, Staff Writer
Copies of the Fahari-Libertad can be found in the SUB, the MLK Center, the Black Studies Dept., The Lecture Center, and the Fahari Office (SUB 323), along with various residence halls. The Fahari-Libertad is currently seeking staff writers, copy editors and photo editors. A major/minor in Journalism/English is NOT a requirement. Please inquire via email at faharilibertad@gmail.com.
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