Xen's Mixed Bag

3:18:21 PM EST
Feeling Ecstatic
Hearing the silence

Today would be my birth Mom, Edie's birthday. She died Jan. 3, 1997. I will celebrate her here by including her in a performance that i will do tomorrow.  the debut of my 'one woman' show.  I have features my work at several venues over the year howver, this is the first time i get to perform for an hour. 

"Poetry As Art" will be the theme. i will have the oppurtunity share my work, introduce my  deceased friend Blossom Flowers Burns work  and show off pictures of my family to a captive audience. It is a dream come true and my mom would have loved it.

Just as i am typing this, my brother, the former Honorable Mayor calls and informs me he will go to China for a month. He will represent the country and our family for a joint enterprise with the Chinese, the first of it's kind.  They will produce a show with wonderful stars that will be filmed and presented all over the world. He said his new website will be availabe soon and will be ready to share with you soon.

His wildest dreams have come true as well as mine. I tell him today is mom's birthday. He is surprised and tears spring to my eyes as i realise the joy she would feel if she were here to see us fulfill long held dreams.

Just a few weeks ago, i felt the same way as my child fulfilled a dream of hers. I wonder how many of us have watched Sesame Street and sang along with the theme song , "...will u tell me how to get , how to get to Sesame Street?"

Nikki loved Big Bird and the other characters and she and her brothers loved to watch and learn with with them while growing up.  Nikki shared the experience with her daughter as well, so it was a dream come true when as part of her career activites she was able to visit Sesame Street.

She called me from the set that day to say she finally fulfilled a goal and got to Sesame Street. I was thrilled for her. She said she met several of her heros and also got to take a pic with one of them that welcomed her to their home. Here are the picture she promised me. 

Wow, dreams really do come true. Happy Birthday, Mommy. 

 

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2:49:48 PM EST
Feeling Chillin'

I aged since i last wrote in my blog. Feb 8, was my birthday and i am happy to be healthy and surrounded by love. For my birthday , i wish for peace and love for everyone. Oh if it could be that easy. But noooo....check this letter i got in my e-mail on my birthday.

Xenia, I though you might be able to help me on this... Lately I have been receiving mail from ultra rightist Christians.... who again have fallen for zionist ploys claiming that all civilizations were the result of the existence of the "white" race!!  So, I asked them:  what about the Ancient Egypt (considering that I am an Egyptian and know a little about the issue).... Imagine what the answer was:  I was told that the Egyptians were white... at least the Pharaohs!!!  The "slaves" were the ones who were black!!!!!!  I was sent the stupidest article as support to their claims.... an article which makes many claims but doesn't even have one footnote.... an article written about Egyptology and questioning the race of the Egyptians.... and the guy writing it is neither an Egyptologist, an archeologist or an anthropologist!  The article claims that non-whites either could never develop a civilization or developed it under the ruler ship of whites!!!  This is such crap....  I don't know if I should even bother to reply to them....  But I must say, I am ticked off by their belief (without any supportive credible documentation and in defiance of the world of Egyptology, archeology and anthropology!)....  The best part is that these people get their information from non than the South African whites who are asking for help against discrimination and annihilation of the white race!!!  These South Africans happen to be Jewish believers in Yahweh and firm ardent supporters of Israel.   What do you think??   Best wishes, Cherifa   My response:   Hello Cherifa, First let me thank you for all the wonderfully informative posts you have shared with us so often. Your personal posts are passionate and informative and the world is a better place for people like you, Tosca, Doris, Andy and most others on this list.   White supremacist are liars. they have done all they could for centuries to steal, hide, omit, and obliterate all traces of information regarding people of color.  I personally do not believe in the concept of race and I wish to preface my statements with that idea disclosed.   The proof of who the Egyptian Pharaohs were was preserved for us in the tombs of the Pharaohs, Cherifa. But really, I digress and promise to come back to this statement.   Let me quote from a review of Martin Bernal's 'Black Athena'   http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0813512778/103-2991287-7527852  by Basil Davidson, an honorary fellow of the School of Oriental and African Studies  http://www.lrb.co.uk/contribhome.php?get=davi03   Davidson wrote this about how Egypt, as part of Africa, was left out of world history: "But isn't Egypt, other issues apart, quite simply a part of Africa? That, it seems, is a merely geographical irrelevance. The civilization of Paranoiac Egypt, arising sometime around 3500 B. C. and continuing at least until the Roman dispositions, has been esplanade to us as evolving neither in more or less total isolation from Africa or as a product of West Asian stimulus. On this deeply held view, the land of ancient Egypt appears to have detached itself from the delta of the Nile, some five and a half thousand years ago, and sailed off into the Mediterranean on a course veering broadly towards the coasts of Syria. And there it apparently remained, floating somewhere in the seas of Levant, until Arab conquerors hauled it back to where it had once belonged. Now what is one to make of this unlikely view of the case, coming as it has from veritable seats of learning? Does its strength derive from a long tradition of research and exploration? Is it what Europeans have always thought to be true? Have the records of ancient times been found to support it? As Martin Bernal has now most amply shown in his 'Black Athena,' the remarkable book about which I am chiefly writing here, the answer to such questions is plainly and unequivocally in the negative. That the ancient Egyptians were Black (again, in any variant you may prefer) - or, as i myself think it is more useful to say, were African - is a belief which has been denied in Europe since about 1830, not before. it is a denial, in short, that belongs to the rise of modern European imperialism, and has to be explained in terms of the "new racism" because it followed and further expanded the older racism which peaked around Europe after the African slave trade had reached it's high point of "takeoff" in about 1630."   Indeed, John Henrik Clarke, historian, scholar, teacher,  http://www.library.cornell.edu/africana/clarke/   Expounding on Davidsons statement said, " ...we must also understand the consequences of the second rise of Europe and it's recovery from the Middle Ages. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, Europe not only began to colonize most of the world, but also instituted a systematic colonization of information about the world."   The Ghanaian historian, Joseph B. Danquah, in his introduction to the book, United West Africa at the Bar of the Family of Nations, by Ladipo Solanke, published in 1927 wrote, "   "By the time Alexander the Great was sweeping the civilized world with conquest after conquest from Chaeronia to Gaza, from Babylon to Cabul; by the time the first Aryan conquerors were learning the rudiments of war and government at the feet of the philosopher Aristotle; and by the time Athens was laying down the foundations of European civilization, the earliest and greatest Ethiopian culture had already flourished and dominated the civilized world for over four centuries and a half. Imperial Ethiopia had conquered Egypt and founded the XXVth Dynasty, and for a century and a half the central seat of civilization in the known world was held by the ancestors of the modern Negro, maintaining and defending it against the Assyrian and Persian Empires of the East. Thus, at the time when Ethiopia was leading the civilized world in culture and conquest, East was East, but West was not, and the first European (Grecian) Olympiad was yet to be held. Rome was nowhere to be seen on the map, and sixteen centuries were to pass before Charlemagne would rule in Europe and Egbert became first King of England. Even then, history was to drag on for another seven hundred weary years, before Roman Catholic Europe could see fit to end the Great Schism, soon to be followed by the disturbing news of the discovery of America and the fateful rebirth of the youngest of world civilizations."     Cheikh Anta Diop, African historian http://www.nbufront.org/html/MastersMuseums/JHClarke/Contemporaries/CheikhAntaDiop.html in his book 'Prehistory-Race and History: Origin of Humanity and Racial Differentiation  

"The general problem confronting African history is this: how to recognize effectively, through meaningful research, all of the fragments of the past into a single ancient epoch, a common origin which will reestablish African continuity. … If the ancients were not victims of a mirage, it should be easy enough to draw upon another series of arguments and proofs for the union of the history of Ethiopian and Egyptian societies with the rest of Africa. Thus combined, these histories would lead to a properly patterned past in which it would be seen that (ancient) Ghana rose in the interior (West Africa) of the continent at the moment of Egyptian decline, just as the Western European empires were born with the decline of Rome."

Diop continues, "Roman history is Greek as well as Roman, and both the Greek and the Roman histories are Egyptian because the entire Mediterranean was civilized Egypt; and Egypt in turn borrowed from other parts of Africa, especially Ethiopia.

Africa came into the Mediterranean world mainly through Greece, which had been under African influence. The first Greek invasion of Africa was peaceful and scholarly. This invasion brought in Herodotus. Egypt had lost its independence over a century before his visit. This was the beginning of the period of foreign domination over Egypt that would last, in different forms, for two thousand years."

Diop writes, "The Ethiopians say that the Egyptians were one of their colonies which was brought into Egypt by the deity Osiris. The Greek writer Herodotus repeatedly referred to the Egyptians as being dark-skinned people with woolly hair. "They," he says, "have the same tint of skin which approaches that of the Ethiopians." The opinion of the ancient writers on the Egyptians is more or less summed up by Gaston Maspero (1846–1916) when he says, "By the almost unanimous testimony of ancient historians, they [the Egyptians] belong to an African race which first settled in Ethiopia on the Middle Nile: following the course of the river they gradually reached the sea."

"The Greek writer, Herodotus, may be mistaken," Cheikh Anta Diop tells us, "when he reports the customs of a people. But one must grant that he was at least capable of recognizing the skin color of the inhabitants of countries he visited." His descriptions of the Egyptians were the descriptions of a Black people."

The above Cherifa represents is just a glimpse into the vast information which can be used to refute such uninformed supremacist propaganda. I could also take you into the work of
Richard Leaky http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/rleakey.html and Donald Johanson

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/homs/djohanson.html

Anthropologist who have made discoveries of the oldest known humans in the Cradle of Civilization, Africa.

Donald Johanson in his in depth interview regarding the origins of man in Africa, discusses his discovery of Lucy, the genetic mother of mankind. 
For real proof look at the genetic table of races represented in the tomb of Ramses III (twelfth century BC). there it shows that the Egyptians perceived themselves as Blacks. In fact, the Egyptian artist does not hesitate to represent the genetic type of the Egyptian as a typical Black, a Nubian.  Karl Lepsius, a white scholar from Germany who made this discovery , was surprised and wrote: "Where we expected to see an 'Egyptian' we are presented with an authentic Negro."

This ruins all of the tendentious studies of ideologists and demonstrates that the Egyptians did not establish any ethnic difference between themselves and other Africans; they belonged to the same ethnic universe. 

I could go on and on but the sad thing is a lot of the white supremacist refuse to research or to think out of the box. Many of them know the truth and do all they can to refute it to no avail, others are simply repeating things they have been taught to say. I can only say when I hear something from them I consider the source and very seldom try to argue or debate them. I strongly believe in the statement that if you argue with a fool, you become one.

Always,
Xennia
www.onedropblack.com

All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident. - Arthur Schopenhauer

 

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1:21:30 PM EST
Feeling Hopeful

To do something is not always easy...it requires action. How does one act to help ease a problem no one wishes to admit exists? Often things occur in our everyday lives that make us uncomfortable ( a sexist or racist joke, a religious put down, a snide remark) but due to time, or perhaps our political correctness, we ignore or overlook the event. Some of us become immune , others of us become embittered and some of us may internalize and become depressed.

I see this state in America today. I know that with the few people i interact with now on a daily bases we struggle to share the things on our minds. We really talk less and less openly about the serious things that effect our daily lives. People with different views are not appreciated more and more and all are encouraged to view others with suspicion and distrust.

Today it was reported that a general in the USA Marines says it is fun to shoot people...this is what i read...

At a panel discussion in San Diego Tuesday, a top Marine general tells an audience that, among other things, it is "fun to shoot some people."

The comment, made by Lt. Gen. James Mattis, came in reference to fighting insurgents in Iraq. He went on to say, "Actually, its a lot of fun to fight. You know, it's a hell of a hoot. I like brawling."

"You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for 5 years because they didn't wear a veil," Mattis continued. "You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them."

http://www.prisonplanet.com/articles/february2005/030205funtoshoot.htm

 

This is proof of the insesnitivity and racism of the feelings of our government from the top. This dehumanizing of people and trivilizing them to kill is what permeates our culture. In order to kill with impunity it is known that one must dehumanize the prey.

There are many men in the USA that physically abuse their partners. Should the Marines kill them, also? In the internet chatrooms there are many chatters that identify themselves as members of various units of the military. The refer to the iraqi people as 'sand niggers'. They say they want to kill all of them. They call them derogatory names like 'muzzies'. They lump all the people together and blame the iraqi people for 9/11. Of course, not ALL military are like this but there are enough that are to make it okay to discuss in open as we see with the above activity.

Today, i will call my representatives to tell them my displeasure of the statement the General made in San Diego. I will send his message to my pals and friends. I will talk loudly about this with my friend when i go my doctors office for a visit. I will email NBC and tell them of my displeasure, too. I will tell them if America has to go to the dogs...let it be like the one in the picture above and not like the one represented by America's ugly Marine General.

Admitted, my actions are small...but they are ...something.

What will U do?

 

 

 

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4:11:25 PM EST
Feeling Quiet
Hearing Reasons

It has been awhile since i have blogged. I have been in a quandray about what i would say or how i would say it. I was concerned about what would happen with what i would say about the things i feel strongly about. I wondered if there was a need or if i was 'taking things a little too far...particularly about this 'racism ' thing'.

i decided to get off my complacent butt, so to speak and put my activities where my mouth was and  to this end one of the things i did was to drive onto the political chatroom internet highway.  I aquired a screenname (politicaljunkie4u) and kept my id and plunged headfirst into the the often informative, sometimes hostile internet communitiy. Yes, there is such a thing. Most of you know by now the sense of anonomonity the pc can add to a person and it can grant freedoms of speech one may not otherwise enjoy. There i have discovered, all over again, that racism is alive and well in our world. It is rampant and it hurts us all.

Today, is the 13th anniversity of my son, Michael Aaron Tuckers death ( Jan.31,1992). Before Michael dead he begged me many times to 'do something' about the things that i knew were wrong in the world. In 1998 i began sharing my poetry with the public. They seemed to enjoy my work. Many are buying and commenting on my book "One Drop: To Be the Color Black. They are saying it is stimulating converstion and causing people to think and heal through their interactions.

Michael's Ukranian god Mom, Marisa, surprised me this year with this picture she has just found again of him and her. They took this picture one year when they were visiting the top of the Empire State Building in NYC. They could see the twin towers from there. They loved each other a great deal. Mike called his godmom , auntie and they would get stares when they would be out in public alone sometimes. Both of them enjoyed  the conversations their relationship often engendered from complete strangers and the teaching they could do about the love they had for one another. Why, Marisa knew Michael before he was born, for goodness sake.

To that end, on this anniversary of the memory of my son, i rededicate this space to the discussion and the exposure of the racism that must be erradicated as soon as possible from our world. My family and my friends, i present to you from my desire to promote love and understanding above and beyond skin color. My daughter, Lawana and my brother Rahnjeet have cautioned me and have real fear of the reprecussions that the exposure of myself and my loved ones may entail. I do not take their fears lightly. The KKK and the like are real and dangerous. They play for keeps. I have seen first hand what they and others can do.

I will never give up or forget or move on from the work i see needs to be done to help to heal our world of it's racist problems. I will 'do something' as my Michael wished and continue to be vocal as much as possible about the ugliness and evil racism that contiues to be perpetuated. Join me on my site...let's chat about it...take the talking feather....www.onedropblack.com

R.I.P. Michael....mommy loves u

 

 

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12:49:08 PM EDT
Feeling Happy
Hearing Olympics on TV

Last night i had to decide...watch cousin George Gittoes on VH1or watch my baby Nikki, on Bet...decisions , decisons...

Perhaps u saw them, too. George Gittoes had the premier showing of his documentary "Soundtrack To War". George, an artist and indy journalist from Australia and i, are related through our gypsy grandfather George Gittoes. George risked his life to make a meaningful documentary about the troops and the things they thought and listened to as they fought this pretend war. Some of Georges outtakes from this doc were used by Michael Moore in his new film Farenheit 9/11.

Nikki worked with Alicia for AK's BET "How I Am Living" show. She works real hard at keeping AK's locks looking natural and easy to do. Nikki comes up with unique and innovative hair styles almost by the hour. She researches for period and cultural books and magazines to keep her work new and current. Nikki sets hair trends and has a following of her own. Some of her oldest friends know she is also a fabulous singer and writer . Go,Nikki,  go.

My cousins George Gittoes and his beautiful daughter Naomi went to NYC last month and met with my daughter, Nikki. See them in NYC...gosh, they look sooooo much alike....lol...family will tell...

i have spent numbing hours lately online in political chatrooms railing about the coming election. I am holding my breath that this time the election for President of the United States will be fair and above board. i will vote...i hope u vote too.

 

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11:36:49 AM EDT
Feeling Chillin'
Hearing Happy People by  R. Kelly

Einstein's theory: "All modern people are the conglomeration of so many mixtures that no pure race remains...it is impossiblefor any individual to trace every drop of blood in his constitution...After we go back a few generations, our ancestors increase so prodigiously that is practically impossible to determine exactly the various elements which constitute our being."

i have so much to be thankful for....so it is difficult for me to be prejudiced as u can see...i have a family that represents all the nations and i, like many  people, have friends from many different cultures ...

i present my children

these pictures show me, my son Derek, holding his son, Blair Alexander and my daughter, Nikki in California Nov. 2003...

2) Derek  Sean  (Dey Dey) and my daughter-in-law Ramilia

3) Nicole Lynette (Nikki)

4) Nikki and my granddaughter, Stephanie Shakara

5) Lawana Marie (LuLu)

6) my son -in -law, Robert (Bob) and my grandson, Nicolas

7) Spencer Jerome and his girl Tallia

8) Gary  Paul ( new grandson Jalen Joshua, no pic...yet)

9) Michael Aaron ( Mike) and I at his 18th birthday (now deceased)

You can comment on these pages and about these photos...will you? What do you think? Will you take a moment and post your comments? Click the link below. Thanks

 

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9:18:54 AM EDT
Feeling Ecstatic
Hearing C-Spann TV

Gary, our youngest son and his wife Shelia have blessed us with a beautiful baby boy. His name is Jalen Joshua Long, he was born April 20 and was 6 lbs. 7 ozs. and was 19 inches long. Both baby and mom are fine. No picture of him yet. I will post as soon as i get one. Thank you so much Gary and Shelia.

How wonderful it is to be blessed with grandchildren. someone once said...if i had known how much fun it was to have grandchildren, i would have had them first...yeah, i agree.

This was a great opportunity to show off my grandchildren. Stephanie Shakara Cole, 14 years old, living in Virginia, Nicholas Brown, 12 years old, California, and Blair Alexander Tucker, 4 years old, California. They are the reason i published my book. They are proof of the fact that there is no such thing as race. There are all colors in all families and they are beautiful.

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6:41:08 PM EDT
Feeling Happy
Hearing You don't know my name...alicia keys

Wow, what fun we had in Jamaica...i didn't wish to return home. When i did i didn't wish to tell all...wanted to keep it to myself. This is the view i woke up to each morning out of bedroom window of the wonderful condo Nikki and I shared at the Half Moon Resort in Montigo Bay, Jamaica, West Indies.

Alicia did have time for me and she told me she liked my book and would recommend it on her site. I was thrilled and enjoyed her concert so much. Alicia was gracious and flew her family and friends to Jamaica to celebrate her birthday instead of having a party with the stars. She is humble and talented. A rare combination indeed. I am grateful my daughter Nikki allowed me to join her. She and Alicia and friends spoiled me rotten.

So many things have happened since i posted last. However our children are still in Iraq. It is becoming more and more dangerous for our troops and now for us here in the USA.

The election is pending and the candidate i backed fell due to the Money God. Al Sharpton has excepted money from right -wing demi-gods and it has derailed his  progress. I liked him because he spoke truth to power. He owed no one favors ...but now that has been proven wrong. He will owe Bush's henchmen and that is not good.Perhaps he will still get a chance to address the Democratic Election  during its convention. That is really all i hoped for in the end.

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3:01:46 PM EST
Feeling Ecstatic

it's been a while since i have written and i am going to Jamaica, West Indies with my girls...nikki and alicia ( not really, she will be too busy to even know i am there and that is fine)...and others...so it will be a litttle longer before i get down to doing what i should on this thing

i'll write when i return...as for predicitions 

i wish to caution wesley clark...i had bad feelings when i read something about him...i had a sensation that something regarding his health or someone or something may be trying to hurt him...be careful...

i predict i will have a fantastic time in jamaica and that it will add the needed spice to my next book homecoming....wow

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12:03:25 PM EST
Feeling Quiet
Hearing you don't know my name...alicia keys

 

Happy New Year

i am so happy to enter a new year with good health and lots of family and friends...it is time for predictions...for me in order to see if my predictions are right i usually state predictions i made in the past ...check this poem i wrote in March before 9/11...my friends said it was so dark...what do u think? go to this website ...www.poetsonlinearchive-war or try this link

http://web.njit.edu/~ronkowit/poetsonline/arch_war.htm , this is interesting when you compare it to the news of today...check out the Guardian Unlimited for today January 1, 2004...check out the article "Digital Warfare System Adapted for Iraq"...i scare myself sometimes...http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-3575585,00.html

 

 

 

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