Africa Speaks Reasoning Forum

hey all.
i jus wanted to say that i've done some soul searching since i started on this board and i've realised that i actually know very little about HIM and why he is so important to the beliefs. It's for this reason that i have begun to wonder why it is that i want to follow the faith.

after my soul searching i've realised why exactly this is...i think it's because i really do love the culture of Africa and the people that come from it. The peoples are so relaxed and chilled ya knw? I've been to Kenya many times and have many friends there. What i like out there is that time has no meaning and they're the nicest people i've ever met in my life. Out there i met a rasta and we cotched and reasoned about the typical 'not allowed to be rasta if your white' topics and general stuff like that and i really felt alive when i was talkin to him so i thought that id follow his line of play and experience the beliefs of rasta. I've followed this for about a year now and i really have learned a lot of things about myself and other people too.

HOWEVER, never have i really discovered much about HIM. It's for this reason that i've been thinking that if im learning things about myself from the culture of africa and am not really thinkin about the beliefs, should i be rasta?!
I think this is the case for many white rastas because we have never felt what its like to be oppressed and discriminated against. In my opinion, we are following rasta because we are confusing the beliefs with the culture, yuh dig what im sayin?
In all honesty, it's taken a lot for me to actually admit this and i think that this might be the cause for other white rastas to be following rasta. maybe ask yourself..."how much do i actually know about HIM?!" and whether you are a true follower or jus in it for the culture?
i hope this has been of interest to people rather than babble! I still hold strong views against the oppression of blacks and all of the cultural beliefs that you can put into everyday llife, but im verging out of the religious side right now. In my opinion, you can still hold these beliefs and be a good person.
Anyway, time is ticking and i got to be off. have yourselves a good day,
love,
JamyZ

Hey jaymz good for you and for your honesty. For Iself, it definitely started out as a vibe, the deep spiritual vibe of Bob and the nyabinghi rhythm, but over the years it has deepened as I really began focusing on learning about His Majesty and reading into history, mystery, and prophecy. What I advise is doing the same for yourself. The resources on this site are SO great...dig in! Then we can reason more.  'Beliefs'...'Culture'...these are tricky words. You are correct that the One Love teachment is Inivershal, and is at the heart of every spiritual teaching...JAH is one, you know, but that it is another thing to look 'through the spectacles of Africa' and begin to see that sighting up Rasta involves a particular kind of engagement with Afrika, with Judeo/Christian tradition, and most of all with your Self of heart and mind entwined. I felt called when I was 19 years old, and now I'm 46, and there have been some amazing turns and mystic twists...I just let the call carry me forward, to the life and words of Selassie I, the Bible, the bedrock of Afrikan teachings, a growing overstanding of just what it might signify in this here time to be a white person and have the cojones to say I a Rasta and live that out in my like according to these overstandings. It sure is no weakheart new age mush:got to have some of that soul-rebel you know?
Approaching these things with a spirit of humility and soul searching is the way to go, so you have already begun...
ps please soul search further on the race matter, and maybe consider som of the things I said in that first response to you...I'm not trying to come on as any kind of 'expert' or elder to you or nothing.
It's a Love thing.
rootsie

Greetings,

InI give thanks for your honesty.  Its a lot more then most will admit.  Here are a few points Id like to make, however.  

1)Let us examine the definition of Culture:

Culture: The system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members of society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning.

My question would be, if culture is something intrinsic to ones daily experiences, and those of his/her ancestors transmitted generation to generation, how do Europeans (who receive white skin privilege and benefit from a racist European global system/order) relate to a culture which was NOT taught them from their ancestors, nor passed down generation to generation?  How do take on a culture without EXPERIENCING the very things, which have formed the culture they wish to adopt?  

2) RasTafari was born out of RESISTANCE to racist Europeans.  I humbly ask: How can a white Rasta really FEEL (he who feels it KNOWS it) Afrikan/Rasta culture when they do not experience the daily experiences or ancestral experience born out of RESISTANCE to Europeans?  
Let me make this point very CLEAR:  I overstand that white rastas can SYMPATHISE with the Afrikan Experience, but how in the world can they possibly FEEL/EXPERIENCE it?  How?  

Therefore, it makes some wonder if there is not some GROSS misunderstanding on the part of white rastas.  In our experience, many confuse HIPPY-ism with Rastafari.  The two couldnt be more UNLIKE each other.  Also, in our experience, and those of our Ancestors, white rastas (and people in general) like to come into our Afrikan village and try to REDEFINE it to us!  This is a historical pattern.  Therefore, any HUMBLE and conscious white rasta should realize and overstand our SUSPICIONS.

Im reminded of Malcom X words in regards to white people of good will and sincere hearts who wished to help or join Black People.  He said they could work in LIASON with us, but that they would be best suited to teach THEIR OWN, as ultimately and NATURALLY, only a Black Man can really teach a next Black Man about manhood.

Also, how does one adopt RasTafari yet not overstand or pay homage to RAS TAFARI HIMSELF?   Thats like being a Christian and not recognizing the KRST (Christ), right? I also would like to take this a bit deeper.  As Ive been posting recently, RASTA was here before the physical manifestation of Haile Selassie.  Either way, RASTA is fundamentally AFRIKAN.  


I think it is very difficult for non-Afrikans to overstand the difference between CULTURE and Beleifs in regards to a movement which is born out of resistance to their very own culture.

Last point: Rastafari does not BELEIVE in our culture/spiritual system, as belief leaves too much room for doubt.  For example:  I could be walking down the street and BELEIVE I saw my friend...but do I KNOW for sure? No.  Thats why Rastas say we KNOW, we dont believe.

RAspectfully,

ROOTS

Greetings Rootswoman,

Are you saying here that a Japanese can't talk to a South African about life? I mean, we all are born, grow, multiple, die.  We all eat, drink, sleep, have phisiological necessities, fears, emotions...

Aren't we really that different?

Is life really thar different in the different places of the world? Everywhere there's day and night, summer and winter, everywhere animals, plants...

The same air connects all life...

Are we that different?

If I got you wrong please correct me.

Life is life everywhere and perception of life, of universal truth, of righteousness, of laws of nature is the same everywhere and is open to every honest and genuine person who wants to authentify his knowledge into wisdom with the own life experience,

Respect,

Mandingo.

greetings sistren Roots,

I take your many valid points and hear them well...

I see how "Rasta" has taken many forms outside it's origins...with many false followers...an fake wannabe's ...and clearly many who do not fully understanding the real reason why there are here in the first place...but here they are..because for whatever reasons beyond our own limited comprehensions...the mighty Spirit of Rasta that has called...and is speaking...can you not hear the voice in the winds?...that calls to it's children through a DIFFERENT door???

Can I also say...what a beautiful place to indeed be...and to start the process OF understanding and appreciating WHAT Rasta is, it's history, and how it has evolved in today's world.

sistren...let me ask you....would you prefer that all the white people leave the movement??...let it ONLY be for Africans and Africans only?...would you then feel that all would be right and restored?...and what about other cultures that are not African...but are not European such as Latinio, Asian etc...do you feel the same way about them too?...

truly...whites cannot touch the trail of tears...
not even with a finger!

but wouldn't you have us break free from the shackles of our own IGNORANCE?..is not Rasta a ways and a means to serve a higher purpose? ..albeit through it's history and origins for it's rightful people and then beyond??...do you not feel that things evolve?

look how many white people are coming into higher ralizations and  understrandings THROUGH RASTA!...and of the HISTORY OF BLACK PEOPLE'S SUFFERATIONS!...THROUGH RASTA...you are rewriting the story as it actually happened historically...
AND WE ARE LISTENING!!!

my sistren...dear sistren...we are ready and willing to stand firm and build along side of you...respecting African Roots and Culture...we fight the very system YOU fight...but because of our skin color and what THAT represents...and IT"S legacy ...
we are now judged on the basis of our skin!...you seem to dismiss any valid contributions that whites may have to offer to Rasta....sometimes I might be honest Roots...it even seems that you no want ANY white people hangin around...

if I may share...a very deep and loving thought from the heart and soul of forIver living giving love of Father James Jah Lightning...that bredda IanI so graciously and lovingly share to all the good people on this board:

                            The Whole World

" De whole world a Jah CREATION! So den, Jah does not favour any one part a de earth... because He created the WHOLE earth. For it be written, 'De earth a de Law an de fullness der of'... ab ALL dat dwell in it... an ZION abideth'! So, ANY wer on de earth will do. Anywhere! A no be Africa alone. If it be Africa alone Jah created, den every one a be pack up over der. No man... no favorite. Look here now... if only Africa all I an I was to go... why Him mek Jamaica?... or England?... or America? A de WHOLE earth a fe RASTA!! An Jah mek man in Him own image... an man come in all different skin colour, an different hair colour, an different eye colour... no? Yes man!! So ALL a dem a de image a de Creator. A so it go. Brother an Sister. Give thanks. A de four wings a de earth (pointing in each direction)... anywhere on de earth will do! Anywhere you a livity... anywhere you live by righteousness, a dat be Heaven! Yes man! De Rastaman... I appreciate him dat a praise Africa. I appreciate it! But, I no get dat der fullness from Jah dat say everyone gonna bail out an jus go over a Africa. I say, anyWHERE on de earth will do... for de earth is I Law an de Fullness der of! All a de sed earth, so anywhere you wan... a to LIVE! For you hav Life to Live! A de Father, a Him a de earth you know. So I will Live it! An if who wan to go... I wouldn't say dem not to... but who wan to stay... Babylon cannah stop you again! NO!! Enemy cannah overtrow!!"  


bless be ALL the good people who come to seek a higher level of being through the living life and love of RASTA!!l

ROOTSWOMAN one more time your words are so POWERFUL!

I's funny how white so called 'rastas' (like most whites in general) live in this Utopian world where they believe people of this world are the same and equal. They say we are all brothers and sisters, One love and the rest... But if they were sincere with themselves they will SEE that people in this world are not treated EQUALLY and the reality of this world is based on prejudice, racism, oppression of Blacks by the whites who control ALL, rule ALL, subjugate ALL and destroy ALL!
Conscious AFRIKANS/ Black Rastafarians KNOW this harsh Reality very well! We are the LAST of the last, the bottom in every hemisphere, in every country of this world, reduced to beg, our dignity (our humanity) long gone...

White so called  'rastas' do not want to face REALITY and Responsibility. They keep fantasizing about a world where all is pink and blue. Surely these are the colors they see from their privileged/high tower. But for us Blacks/ oppressed people at the bottom of the tower life is gray, ENEQUAL, harsh, terrible. Sure we all breathe, eat but for us Africans life is ENEQUAL, terrible!

They do not comprehend Rastafari, they just emulate Rastafari by pure fantasy, fashion, or trickery.. White and Rastafari imo do not match, cannot be linked. White 'rastas' fight against NOTHING, they are not struggling for our liberation certainly not with action! Jaymz is the perfect example of why they want to rallyRastafarism. Because they fantasize about our culture, our people, our skin, our lips or whatever. Do not Join us for trifle reason but for our SURVIVAL and DIGNITY! Show us how much you care about the Black Race, our cause, show us how you are true RASTAFARIANS by fighting the oppressors!! True Rastaman/Rastawomen do not waste their time defending whether or not they should be accepted as 'Rastaman /Rastawomen' because of their race. They only come with words and testimonies of ACTION and PLANS of Struggle experiences of crushing BABYLON that's all!

But how whites (rastas) will be willing to fight when they are so privileged? How will they be willing to destroy something they conformably live in and refuse to see? Do not mock our Cause by your idleness white people (rastas). Crush Babylon now YOU HAVE THE POWER form the HIGH tower where you are and where the oppressors also dwells! If you do not, indeed you are deceivers, imposters.

Jah Almighty is TRUTH, POWER and STRENGTH!!

Siskelani-

sistren Kelani...let me ask you...do you also feel that there is absolutely NO place for a white man/woman to enter into the gates of Rasta?..albeit through a different door?

do you not feel that through reasoning and Ivine process that one can come to understand (though not directly) the trod of African peoples...even though not insperiancing to the depth and scope?

...and thus be more 'effective' in working TOGETHER to break down the barriers of ignorance...and change the systems???

how does one break down the barriers of ignorance if not to 'start' right where one is at?? (albeit in a place of ignorance and unawares)

people do not change in a blink of an eye...there is a 'process' of transformation that must be undertaken..

but fist one must be 'willing' to see..

I see many who come...avail themselves to a willingness..
otherwise why them here?

their truth will surely be seen for what it is...for RASTA will 'check' them truths!

I agree sis...the scope of one's livities are quite unequal on the scales of justice...yes..it is a DISGRACE!...but be mindful how you throw dem stones ..lest you stone the very ones who are working to achieve a new way...a new day

are YOU willing to look through another lenz and see that not all white folk are your enemy?..not all white folk are ignorant of the black struggle?

are you willing to see that not all white people live in this Uetopia white tower that you so enthusiastically throw around?

are you willing to see that some of us fight the same system??

are YOU willing to hold YOUR own 'stuff' up to the light and check it??

what are YOU doing in your OWN livity to HELP forward the cause besides sight what the white rasta are NOT doing to contribute anything worthy of contributing??

are you even willing to consider that some of us ARE DOING and WORKING TOGETHER WITH  some our black bredren and sistren in the fields to help CHANGE the whitewashment thinking and bust down dem barriers??

who are you to point such a finger?

you are so quick to condemn

I do agree that many youthful whites come to this board AND to RASTA quite unaware of the reality of LIFE that many black and oppressed bredren and sistren LIVE day to day

but far be it a better place for them to BE so that they can in reality SEE who they are...thank JAH for RASTA show dem the WAY!!

for how else can they transform their thinking unless they avail themselves to walk through the gates of the black man and woman..to hear to see dem struggles, and learn and grow
from LISTENING

many have just embarked on their journey

TRUST in the power of divine intervention Kelani

of the power to work through our own ignorances

to transform the mind through exposing one to the realities of the the black man's livity

can I tell you...many whites REFUSE to even LOOK
they don't even want to SEE...let alone change how they think!

those that come avail themselves at least to LOOK and start the process of transforamation

can you not see the process that IS taking place??

to them that seek...let them find knowledge and learn and grow from ALL things...lest they keep unaware and ignorant inside the thick walls of this white tower that you speak...
where white is unto white and black is unto black..NO MAN!!!...re-read Father James Jah Lightning sis Kelani

what do think of him words???

fireball love

warriorPrincess I appreciate your reponse. I have to go to work now (it's currently 7:20am Texas time) but I will come back later on during the day with a lengthy response to you. All (or most) of the points in your post addressed to me will be analyzed and replied.

blessings sisKelani )))...please note that I come from a place of deep rootical love...and extend as much to thee

I have walked through many fires to get here

it is not an easy road...but trod I and you and we must

let us look at ourselves...reason...and grow to the fullness of our depths...

I hold out much respect to you...I hope in return..you will offer the same

bless

Greetings Ras Mandingo.

Do not go by my opinions/words bredren. LOOK AT THE HISTORICAL PATTERN of how Europeans have dealt with Afrika from the day they crawled out of the Caucas Mountains!  We as chidren of JAH, all share similarities, yes.  But bredren, OUR NATURES (generally speaking) couldnt be as different then day and night.  Look at historical patterns.  Therein lies the answers to your questions.  And yes, I stand by the FACT that ONLY Black People can uplift/teach BLACK PEOPLE.  This does not mean NO ONE else can contribute to our learning, but as Garvey did teach us, let us learn to sight the world from behind the spectacles of ETHIOPIA.  This means that we must learn to sight the world, ourselves and JAH through the PERSPECTIVE OF AFRIKA, which can only truly be taught to us BY OUR OWN.

AFRIKA FOR THE AFRIKAN.

ROOTS

Greetings Warrior-Princess,

Permit me to quote your words here and respond:

my sistren...dear sistren...we are ready and willing to stand firm and build along side of you...respecting African Roots and Culture...we fight the very system YOU fight...but because of our skin color and what THAT represents...and IT"S legacy ...
we are now judged on the basis of our skin!...you seem to dismiss any valid contributions that whites may have to offer to Rasta....sometimes I might be honest Roots...it even seems that you no want ANY white people hangin around...

No sistah, you are not being judged by the color of your skin.  That racist phenomenon belongs strictly to your people.  Like brothah Malcom X did say, when we call the white man a devil, we are speaking of one particular individual, but addressing the COLLECTIVE DEEDS of a people/nation.  We are looking at HISTORICAL PATTERN and PRESENT DAY REALITIES.  We are looking at the fact that this EUROPEAN SYSTEM benefits its people with another racist phenomenon called WHITE SKIN PRIVILEDGE.

Also, and forgive my bluntness, your accusations are rather typical of white rastas when in the face of AFRIKAN TRUTH/FIYAH. The first thing to come out their mouths are accusations of us being too militant, and oh so angry.  The first to cry REVERSE RACISM, and pout because we are NATURALLY suspicious of a people who have PROVED BEYOND THE SHADOW OF A DOUBT (as a collective) that the destruction of AFRIKANS is their priority.  This is not our opinion but our EXPERIENCE, both ancestral and present day.  Again, it is due to your not EXPERIENCING this, that you would accuse me of not wanting white people hanging around.  Not once have I uttered such a thing.  I have merely pointed out HISTORICAL FACT and voiced the COLLECTIVE AFRIKAN EXPERIENCE.  If that TRUTH is too emiotionally difficult for ones and ones to accept, I cannot bear that responsibility, as I will NEVER APOLOGIZE for speaking TRUTH.  

Did I not clearly say that we feel that the BEST position for white rastas to take is the same one Malcom X suggested?  That they are to WORK IN LIASON with us.  How did you read that and interpret we dont want whites hanging around.

One thing I will make CLEAR right here and right now.  Any white rastas MUST be able to STAND IN THE FIYAH OF AFRIKAN TRUTH.  This is an INNITIATION of sorts.  If you can stand in this FIYAH and not get burned, well give thanks.  But if EMOTIONAL REACTION based on WHITE GUILT comes out, we would just assume that our FIYAH is PURIFYING the RACIST POISON lodged deep within peoples SUBCONSCIOUS.  If you are going to enter our village, do so humbly.  Dont be so quick to emotionally react with accusations of us not wanting you around.  OVERSTAND that we will ALWAYS speak upon our REALITY and EXPERIENCES.  IF these make you (or other white rastas) uncomfortable, then we would respectfully suggest that entering an AFRIKAN VILLAGE is perhaps not for you.

RasTafari is not about singing Cant we all just get along.  Or Kumbaya.  It is not about wearing Tie-dye T-shirts with a spliff hanging out our mouths.  Remember His Majestys words:

UNTIL THAT DAY (when all men under the sun have equal rights and justice) WE AFRIKANS WILL FIGHT FOR WE FIND IT NECESSARY AS WE ARE CONFIDENT IN THE VICTORY OF GOOD OVER EVIL.  That day has not yet come.  So prepare yourself for Afrikan Rastas CONTINUING THE FIGHT, without concluding that we hate you or dont want you around.

ONE AFRIKAN LOVE

ROOTS

bless UP Roots!!  Yes...I sight with the truth wherever I hear it...and I have no arguments with what you say...NOT ONE!
and do indeed acknowledge it as TRUTH well SPOKEN

but I would like to elaborate in more depth some of the reasonings behind my feelings

I must do so later when I have more time to elaborate

I sis DO come humbly..yes...to the African village to seek truth and teachment from a nation of peoples that has revealed TRUE spiritual WISDOM and LIGHT...yes, I come humbly, and with deep respect...but I come sis, not on my knees

let the FIYAH burn away all that is false

may we break bread soon and reason more

fireball love

WHITE PRIVILEGE SHAPES THE U.S.

Robert Jensen
Department of Journalism
University of Texas
Austin, TX 78712
work: (512) 471-1990
rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu

copyright Robert William Jensen 1998
first appeared in the Baltimore Sun, July 19, 1998
by Robert Jensen

Here's what white privilege sounds like:

I am sitting in my University of Texas office, talking to a very bright and very conservative white student about affirmative action in college admissions, which he opposes and I support.
The student says he wants a level playing field with no unearned advantages for anyone. I ask him whether he thinks that in the United States being white has advantages. Have either of us, I ask, ever benefited from being white in a world run mostly by white people? Yes, he concedes, there is something real and tangible we could call white privilege.
So, if we live in a world of white privilege--unearned white privilege--how does that affect your notion of a level playing field? I ask.

He paused for a moment and said, "That really doesn't matter."

That statement, I suggested to him, reveals the ultimate white privilege: the privilege to acknowledge you have unearned privilege but ignore what it means.

That exchange led me to rethink the way I talk about race and racism with students. It drove home to me the importance of confronting the dirty secret that we white people carry around with us everyday: In a world of white privilege, some of what we have is unearned. I think much of both the fear and anger that comes up around discussions of affirmative action has its roots in that secret. So these days, my goal is to talk openly and honestly about white supremacy and white privilege.

White privilege, like any social phenomenon, is complex. In a white supremacist culture, all white people have privilege, whether or not they are overtly racist themselves. There are general patterns, but such privilege plays out differently depending on context and other aspects of one's identity (in my case, being male gives me other kinds of privilege). Rather than try to tell others how white privilege has played out in their lives, I talk about how it has affected me.

I am as white as white gets in this country. I am of northern European heritage and I was raised in North Dakota, one of the whitest states in the country. I grew up in a virtually all-white world surrounded by racism, both personal and institutional. Because I didn't live near a reservation, I didn't even have exposure to the state's only numerically significant non-white population, American Indians.

I have struggled to resist that racist training and the ongoing racism of my culture. I like to think I have changed, even though I routinely trip over the lingering effects of that internalized racism and the institutional racism around me. But no matter how much I "fix" myself, one thing never changes--I walk through the world with white privilege.

What does that mean? Perhaps most importantly, when I seek admission to a university, apply for a job, or hunt for an apartment, I don't look threatening. Almost all of the people evaluating me for those things look like me--they are white. They see in me a reflection of themselves, and in a racist world that is an advantage. I smile. I am white. I am one of them. I am not dangerous. Even when I voice critical opinions, I am cut some slack. After all, I'm white.

My flaws also are more easily forgiven because I am white. Some complain that affirmative action has meant the university is saddled with mediocre minority professors. I have no doubt there are minority faculty who are mediocre, though I don't know very many. As Henry Louis Gates Jr. once pointed out, if affirmative action policies were in place for the next hundred years, it's possible that at the end of that time the university could have as many mediocre minority professors as it has mediocre white professors. That isn't meant as an insult to anyone, but is a simple observation that white privilege has meant that scores of second-rate white professors have slid through the system because their flaws were overlooked out of solidarity based on race, as well as on gender, class and ideology.

Some people resist the assertions that the United States is still a bitterly racist society and that the racism has real effects on real people. But white folks have long cut other white folks a break. I know, because I am one of them.
I am not a genius--as I like to say, I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer. I have been teaching full-time for six years, and I've published a reasonable amount of scholarship. Some of it is the unexceptional stuff one churns out to get tenure, and some of it, I would argue, actually is worth reading. I work hard, and I like to think that I'm a fairly decent teacher.

Every once in awhile, I leave my office at the end of the day feeling like I really accomplished something. When I cash my paycheck, I don't feel guilty.

But, all that said, I know I did not get where I am by merit alone. I benefited from, among other things, white privilege. That doesn't mean that I don't deserve my job, or that if I weren't white I would never have gotten the job. It means simply that all through my life, I have soaked up benefits for being white. I grew up in fertile farm country taken by force from non-white indigenous people. I was educated in a well-funded, virtually all-white public school system in which I learned that white people like me made this country great.

There I also was taught a variety of skills, including how to take standardized tests written by and for white people.
All my life I have been hired for jobs by white people. I was accepted for graduate school by white people. And I was hired for a teaching position at the predominantly white University of Texas, which had a white president, in a college headed by a white dean and in a department with a white chairman that at the time had one non-white tenured professor.

There certainly is individual variation in experience. Some white people have had it easier than me, probably because they came from wealthy families that gave them even more privilege. Some white people have had it tougher than me because they came from poorer families. White women face discrimination I will never know. But, in the end, white people all have drawn on white privilege somewhere in their lives.

Like anyone, I have overcome certain hardships in my life. I have worked hard to get where I am, and I work hard to stay there. But to feel good about myself and my work, I do not have to believe that "merit," as defined by white people in a white country, alone got me here. I can acknowledge that in addition to all that hard work, I got a significant boost from white privilege, which continues to protect me every day of my life from certain hardships.

At one time in my life, I would not have been able to say that, because I needed to believe that my success in life was due solely to my individual talent and effort. I saw myself as the heroic American, the rugged individualist. I was so deeply seduced by the culture's mythology that I couldn't see the fear that was binding me to those myths. Like all white Americans, I was living with the fear that maybe I didn't really deserve my success, that maybe luck and privilege had more to do with it than brains and hard work. I was afraid I wasn't heroic or rugged, that I wasn't special.

I let go of some of that fear when I realized that, indeed, I wasn't special, but that I was still me. What I do well, I still can take pride in, even when I know that the rules under which I work in are stacked in my benefit. I believe that until we let go of the fiction that people have complete control over their fate--that we can will ourselves to be anything we choose--then we will live with that fear. Yes, we should all dream big and pursue our dreams and not let anyone or anything stop us. But we all are the product both of what we will ourselves to be and what the society in which we live lets us be.

White privilege is not something I get to decide whether or not I want to keep. Every time I walk into a store at the same time as a black man and the security guard follows him and leaves me alone to shop, I am benefiting from white privilege. There is not space here to list all the ways in which white privilege plays out in our daily lives, but it is clear that I will carry this privilege with me until the day white supremacy is erased from this society.

Frankly, I don't think I will live to see that day; I am realistic about the scope of the task. However, I continue to have hope, to believe in the creative power of human beings to engage the world honestly and act morally. A first step for white people, I think, is to not be afraid to admit that we have benefited from white privilege. It doesn't mean we are frauds who have no claim to our success. It means we face a choice about what we do with our success.

Jensen is a professor in the Department of Journalism in the University of Texas at Austin. He can be reached at rjensen@uts.cc.utexas.edu.


http://uts.cc.utexas.edu/%7Erjensen/freelance/whiteprivilege.htm

k i dont no if im only speaking for myself hear but 2 years ago i didnt even know about rasta then i heard about so so i did some reaserch into it and i first learned about the beliefsthen when i decided to become a rasta i learned the culture like the red green and gold and dreadlocks and ganja (even though those are all sort of tied down with beleifs) so i could b able to let people know that i was a rasta. and whenever people ask me well y did you become a rasta i still to this day tell them bcuz i beleive wat it teaches

and someday i actually want to live in africa bcuz i just love all the diversity and different landscapes and the traditional tribes so y do u say africa is for africans r u saying white people aren't allowed, are you saying that just bcuz i was born white and you were born black that i shouldn't b allowed to experience going to a place that not only rastafarians believe is the cradle of humanity but science also prooves it, to me that sounds a bit racist but mabey im crazy.

and i think ive said this b4 but i dont think n e 1 has read it but it makes no sense that rastafarians want to rid the world of racism but we can't even stop fighting amongst ourselves here on this webpage so mabey im wrong mabey all white rastas just want to pose as rastas but if that's the case then its still a stereotype bcuz im not like that bcuz everyday i try to live my life learning about other cultures and accepting them and whenever i have a chance to try to speak out on another cultures behave i do it even if i get made fun of or get my ass kiked it's happened plenty atime b4 ok thats all i have to say now

Greetings,

Permit I to quote your words and respond:

so y do u say africa is for africans r u saying white people aren't allowed, are you saying that just bcuz i was born white and you were born black that i shouldn't b allowed to experience going to a place that not only rastafarians believe is the cradle of humanity but science also prooves it, to me that sounds a bit racist but mabey im crazy.

Excuse me, but as a so-called rasta you must have somehow missed the Teachings of the Honorable Marcus Mosiah Garvey who is the CORNER STONE of Rastafari!  He was the one to shout to the world AFRIKA FOR THE AFRIKAN, AT HOME AND ABROAD.  Are you calling him a racist as well?  What about the MANY MANY reggae songs that also sing those words?  Are they racist too?  Well, if that is your (MIS)interpretation, then perhaps you would be more comfortable with hippies?

This is why we AFRIKAN (and ORIGINAL) RASTAS get offended at such nonsense from a people who want the goodies (good vibes, ganga, one love bizzness) of Rastafari but RUN from the TRUE EXPERIENCE (resistance to european supremacy), which as Europeans, they can never feel.

When His Majesty tells the WORLD that WE AFRIKANS WILL CONTINUE TO FIGHT until there are equal rights and justice for all men under the sun, is he racist too?

ROOTS

well tell me this wat do you understand the qoute to mean do u understand it to mean africa is were the africans deserve to b or do you understand it as no whites allowed see where i was confused i just did not understand the qoute completely bcuz it was just those 4 words and i have only been a rasta for a short time and have not heard all these speeches and qoutes so i apologize for n e stupidity on my behalf and i would like to thank you  4 explaining it to me

but i dont understand how n e 1 could possibly take the last qoute u rote as racism all it sez is that africans want to fight untill all men r equal how can that possibly b missinterpreted as racist unless its by some 1 who is a bigget and doesnt want to get crowded in on there cushy white world.

c i tried to make it clear that i was not just a rasta for the "goodies" i beileve completely in destroying european opression and i no that this is nowhere close but i have one of those gifts of the holy spirits i forget what it is called but it means u r good at placing urself in someone elses shoes now i know this is far form actually experiencing black suffering but i would alo like to point out that europeans discriminate amongst themselves im scottish (actually im a bunch of different things im even part somali but that was such a long time ago it has been lost in my families bloodline) and they've been opresed by the english for close to a thousand years and scotland is still trying to seperate to this day, now not on the same level as africans and dont get me wrong im not comparing the 2 but i'm just trying to point out that europeans do know what oppresion feels like and i do want to "CONTINUE TO FIGHT until there are equal rights and justice for all men under the sun"

well sorry about the misunderstandin agen and im sorry also if its hard to understand my writing but i have so much thoughts and things i want to say going threw my mind its hard for me to get them all out and i am sure i am still forgeting some

Greetings,

racism can express itself in an almost endless variety of ways. What rasta does to white people (myslef included) is force us into a position where for the first time in our lives we are forced to confront things we have taken for granted, the colour of our skin, our 'culture', and the status that these things give us in relation to the vast bulk of the worlds population.

Any time that a person is forced to confront something important that they have never thought about before some pain is likely to result. Change frequently involves a little suffering. I stress a little, because it is small scale compard to the s***t that most of the worlds population has to eat on a daily basis.

And when you have finally arrived at this new place when your intellect starts to grasp the enormity of the evil that is going on every day, and finally start to comprehend how most of the world looks at white people, horror of horrors black people still wont 'accept' you. Fancy that....

In order to overstand why this may be the case I would ask my fellow caucasian friends to conduct a little though experiment. Hunt back through your own ancestral history to find a time when your own people were being hammered from pillar to post by some oppressor. For myself it was the english, who did a fine line in persecution for quite a while there. Allow yourself to fully feel the fury that can only come from being constantly hounded and downpressed. Now comes the good bit. Instead of it being some vague historical set of events that you have to connect to, imagine that all of this is happening to you RIGHT NOW.

And that is the problem, I for one have absolutely no idea what is like to be constantly shafted by everything and everyone around me simply because of the way that I look. With a bit of luck I never will. I can intellectually understand it, but feel it? No way. So I dont pretend to. I can sympathise (although i detest the term sympathiser), ocassionally help, and offer support, but the bottom line is that due to historical circumstance the hand that is delivering the injustice is the same color as mine. There is no getting around this.

So... the next thing people are likely to say is that "I can't help being born the colour that I am". True enough. But then again neither can black people, and if you think that being born into a state of priveledge, and then subsequently being treated with suspicion by some black people is hard, I would simply ask that you consider being incarnated into a black skin must be like. So, while you cannot help being born into a white skin, you can sure as hell do what you can (and more) to be conciously aware of what your skin colour means, all of the time. I imagine that black people have to do this, and it is about time that we did to.

Which brings me at last to the strange ways that we white people can be racist, including my personal favorite, guilt based reverse racism. Now the reverse I am talking about here is not the cliched "black people are being mean about me being white" thing. Instead I am talking about the desperate need that some people have to be accepted by black people, actually not just accepted, but loved. All that I can say is get over it. You could be the very incarnation of compassion, wisdom, and love, and still not everyone is going to 'like' you. heaven forbid, they may even argue a little with you. if this happens try and remember the following advice. Stay calm, relax, dont let it get you down. And most of all, think before you respond. The lives that black people lead are different to yours. Their lives FEEL different to live, and we can NEVER really know that is to experience. We (generally) share a language, institutions, and infrastructure, but the rest is different, so dont be surprised if your good intentions come in for some stick, it is not like people like us have exactly covered our reputation in glory. We have much to live down, and the only way to do this is by example. If you are hurt by the reactions that you get, meditate upon why you so desperately needed to be accepted. This is no club, it is a way of life, and you dont need anyones permission to practice it.

I am, by the way, not advocating being ashamed of who and what we are. White people have managed to contribute much to the world, the trouble is that have collectively fallen in love with power, and with new things, and have forgotten our own roots. But it is important to know just what it means to everyone else that you are white, and that these suspicions are born of lives that have been lived under centuries of some of our ancestors behaving like pigs. It will take generations to allay these fears, not a few well meaning e-mails.

Love and life
paul

p.s. Rootswoman, I appreciate the poetry of what you wrote, but my ancestors never 'crawled' for anyone or anything. Many of them may have been muderous racist bastards, but whatever else you can say about them they were, and are, a proud bunch. Just ask the English about how good the folk of Erin are at crawling.....

really, white people can be rastas? I thought that is a black privelege/heritage and godilocks is not al loud is the bear's cabin.

interesting. i will explorer the doctrin further.

by god man, you talk as if black people are blameless the eyes of Jah as a nation or individuals. remember what wesley snipes said. in a russian rulet, always bet on black, well heres one. it takes both colours to play the game and the game has been afoot my friend.

now, the black gene is as empiralistic and as Ka Kniving as the white, red or yellow gene.

for the obvious, rastas should be more inclusive of other cultures, picking the ripe and discarding the rot. Unless you are a RaCiSt ofcourse.

shame on you.

pkello r u directing that at me?

Greetings,

I appreciate your response.  Thank you.  To answer your question about what Afrika for the Afrikan means, well, it is rather self-explanatory, isnt it?  No need to intellectualize it, or look for any special hidden meaning, right?  Afrika for the Afrikan. Simple.

Raspectfully,

ROOTS

Thank you Paul for your words.  In regards to the term crawling out of caves, this was used metaphorically, not pointing fingers at anyone in particular.  Even Europeans depict themselves (cavemen) as such.  Im speaking about the barbaric man that crawled out of the Caucus Mountains while the Afrikan and First World Nations were already living in High Culture/Civilizations.

If it doesnt apply to you or yours, let it fly, seen?

1LUV

ROOTS

Greetings Okello,

I would like to address the following comment:

by god man, you talk as if black people are blameless the eyes of Jah as a nation or individuals. remember what wesley snipes said. in a russian rulet, always bet on black, well heres one. it takes both colours to play the game and the game has been afoot my friend. now, the black gene is as empiralistic and as Ka Kniving as the white, red or yellow gene. for the obvious, rastas should be more inclusive of other cultures, picking the ripe and discarding the rot. Unless you are a RaCiSt ofcourse.  
shame on you.


It goes without saying.  Afrikan People have and do wrong.  No one is suggesting that we are FREE of sin.  Having said that,  no man on the face of this earth has left a bloodier trail everywhere he has set foot like the western man. None have committed genocides and global crime like the western man.  If we were to weight the deeds of nations on the Celestial Scales of Justice, the western mans wicked deeds would absolutely outweigh any other.

Afrikan people, in the face of this HELL weve been living in (a white mans heaven is a Black Mans hell), have remained the most FORGIVING PEOPLE ON THE FACE OF THIS EARTH.  While whipped and raped, sold and killed, we suckled his children at our breast.  We still extend overstanding and love.  We still allow them into our communities and movements.  So all this talk of us being racist is not only grossly incorrect, but absolutely impossible.  Why?  Ill tell you:

Because in order to be RACIST you must belong to the collective which finds itself in the economical and political position of power to institutionalize racism.  We do not find ourselves in such a position.  Instead we REACT to racism.

Big difference.

ROOTS

i wasnt searching for a hidden meaning or nothin its just the first time i saw it thats wat i took it to mean.

 
Greetings Rootswoman ,

Finally a chance to respond...and clarify some of the sentiments behind the words...

First off sis, let me say, that it was a little disappointing to hear that out of everything I discussed, the ONLY thing noted that you deemed worthy to pick out of the whole discussion,
was the sense of  "guilt based reversed discrimination"...  
"accusations".."white priviledge" and flippin the script withthat I "said" you no want white people hangin around...instead of that I said,  it "seems"..which is "implied.".. not "statement"..

Firstly, let me tell you some things about myself...briefly please..

I am not a Rastafarian woman...though truly, Rastafari has opened its gates to me, and calls to I Spirit in many conscious ways, and certainly..."he who KNOWS it..DOES FEEL it!!)))...yes YES!..I break bread with several enlightning individuals who respect me for who I am, what I bring to the table...and graciously offer their assistance with innasightful conscious reasonings, guidance, wisdom, and knowledge, within the realms of spiritual growth and personal development ..they..are helping me to "see"..and Rasta is a door that has opened, that I have chosen to walk through to enhance and further my spiritual education...I am learning much about history and culture through many things at this time...it is an unfolding processs. I find I am welcome in some Rasta courts of reasonings, to find deep council, and realizations into the essence of truth, and of what life means within that essence of that truth ..I am grateful for such kindred spirits who avail themselves to help me to GROW and SEE...Adupe!

Now Sistren Roots...when I first came to this board a short while back...and started to read some of YOUR posts in particular...I was astounded by the depth and scope and amazing ability you had to relate historical information with such clarity, insight, and knowledge...truly sis...not only was I quite impressed with your far reaching tentacles of knowledge...but also rather enjoyed learning and growing from reading all the plethora of informative info...but after awhile, I began to notice something..and that was your ATTITUDE
and how you tended to USE your vast wealth of information, knowledge, and intellect, to drive home your personal insperiances, opinions..and historical facts.. indeed..highly informative...but what then was your purpose when you come with this "us" against "them" mentality pon the board... what then becomes your great insightful intellectual knowledge if it seeks to destroy and become a sword of great divisivness and separation...so then it make me question Roots..what are YOUR motivations?...and what is your purpose?..for I do think many could speak and reason with you without such hostility....when I read your responses..it be like you want to go at it...fight with ones and ones verbally...you higher....dem lower...point against point.. really sis...I had expected more from a sistren of substance...where is thy spirit?..thy FRUIT of thy spirit??

Now I know you have many supporters here who hail you as the great wize ROOTS...and I can tell you...that much of that admiration IS indeed most well DESERVED...for truly, though you can only speak for YOURSELF..I know you give "voice"
to MANY who sight and concurr with you...and appreciate all your hard efforts for also helping them to overstand their roots, culture, and heritage on a deeper level...and I must tell you Roots... I ALSO sight many things AS wELL from you..  though from a different lenz...but when that attitude come out..or what you call FIYAH...notice how the walls of DEFENSE go up ...and not just from me...you willing to check dis??

Hear me well...I have absolutley not one qualm to bicker with you over the state of racism within our country and around the globe...truth is truth...fact is fact..and there it is..
one doesn't have to look very far to see ignorance..and the state of things THIS day... I acknowledge it...
and WORK HARD to be a mover of positive change..

might I also say...that some of the white comments on this thread and around the board are enough to make one stick their fingers down their throat and PUKE...and I sight highly on many occasions with the sentiments of the  offended Idrens..that DO make the many points of reasoning...the thing is...how and how we do it... so that it bears FRUIT!.. I check myself quickly before I go rush to judge...because I am a respector of "divine process"...and know there are reasons and seasons for being where one is at... and just because one's don't get it...at least they are here...TRYING to get it...at least most are it seems...so who will show dem the way??...lest they turn away??..what then is the purpose served if it does nothing for the betterment of the KINGDOM??

...and so this love of mine that I extend to cover such things...is not all that pink and fluff "one love" stuff...no...
it is for REAL...this is my FIYAH the kind that comes from the FATHER from me to you and you to me because we are all from HIM...part and particle of the WHOLE..

which by the way...

what did you think of Father Jah Lightnings Words?

fireball love Roots!

Greetings,

The first that comes to mind is an Afrikan proverb:

"I pointed the Universe/Kosmos for you, but all you saw was my fingertip"...

I would like to say that no matter how InI may sight gross contradictions, patronizing words dressed up with "respect", InI appreciaLOVE all perspectives.

Secondly, I do not post to be recognized as "the Great" anything. My sharing is not with the intention to be applauded, stroked, or agreed with. Anyone who has TRULY overstood my words would KNOW this.  I share what InI sight as Truth and what has been handed down from InI Ancestors.  As a RastaWoman on a RASTA BOARD, InI will share TRUTH without apology IRREGARDLESS of whom it may offends or displease. Seen?

Your perceptions of my words as being about "us" against "them" is grossly warped.  But such is your divine right.  See it as you will. And I can respect that. However, that is far from the intentions of my words.  The "us" against "them" has never been reflective of the Afrikan Nature, historically and collectively speaking. Nor in my words. I spoke clearly about working in LIASON with us.  So, as they say "if the cap fit wear it"...sis, I gracefully reject and return that "cap" to you as I wear a the Crown of MA'AT (Truth, Justice, Wisdom, Balance).

If you sight my words as being divisive ones, then you'd have to accuse the Honorable Marcus Garvey (cornerstone of RasTafari) of the same.  His Imperial Majesty Haile Selassie, father of Pan Afrikanism would be judged "gilty" as well.  So would Malcom X, and many of our Revolutionary WARRIORS.

I do not seek yours, or anyone else's approval sista.  I have spoken the meditations of my heart, which I ask only JAH to find acceptable, seen?  Our Ancestors speak through us, and if you, as a non-rasta woman, and a non Afrikan woman find that "dissapointing"...so be it.  I'm in the bizzness of UPLIFTING AFRIKAN PEOPLE, wether white folx or anyone else approves or not.  And I'm relentless, in the Spirit of Queen Nyabingi, Yaa Asantewaa, Nzinga and Queen Nanny!

Truth is an offence, but never ever a sin.

No apologies.

In saying that, I would like to ask you the following:

What REALLY "dissapointed" or offended you in my words, as I invite you to read them again and point out to me WHERE i have promoted hatred of anyone.  Meditate pon that sis, and mek I know what REALLY bothered you.

I was clear about speaking on the HISTORICAL COLLECTIVE PATTERNS OF BABYLON (european supremacy) and its PRESENT AFFECT OF AFRIKAN PEOPLE, in relation to your post.


I also made sure to share a very insightful post on white skin priviledge written by a white man.  This all relates to your original post, but somehow, and understandebly so...you missed that part, as I suppose only a people who are DIRECTLY and GENERATIONALLY AFFECTED by this European Global Racist ORder (babylon) can really have the EYES TO SEE and the EARS TO HEAR that nothing in my words calls to "hate whitey".  The only seperation I've spoken of is that which the european has caused among InI, as they do not OVERSTAND (to its fullest) OUR CULTURE AND "beleifs" as your original post asks.


ROOTS

Warriorprincess first let me apologize for not answering to your post earlier. I got caught up with work and did not have time to come back on the board until now.

Many on this board, I do believe ROOTSWOMAN included appreciated your comments on this topic, I certainly do. For it is important for us to learn as much about you (white people) as it is for you to learn as much about us (Black people) to the sake of understanding and progress. Warriorprincess you must understand where we are coming from based on the enormous amount of injustice, mischief your people have done and STILL do to us! When Conscious AFRICANS and Rastafarian Bethren and Sistren delivered from MENTAL slavery actually see the truth about who is their real ENEMY and SEE that the Enemy purposely do so to DESTROY US. It really hard for us to not distrust them and even DETESTS them! Realize our Pain, our Humiliation of being trapped in alien lands here (the Caribbean, US, Europe) where we were tortured, raped and utilized. And today where we are STILL not socially and economically recognized how HARD we try. We are being  brainwashed, mocked and bamboozled! HOW WOULD YOU FEEL IF IT WAS DONE TO YOU AND YOUR PEOPLE? Have you lost your roots, your Identity, your lands, your NAME, your Dignity? Are they still ruthlessly denied from you? And any chances of real UNIFICATION and ELEVATION with your people is systematically contrived and Ruined? Now most of our Blacks Brothers and Sisters lost hope, they are lost in Babylon working for the Enemy who benefit by dividing us and continue to destroy all of us.

RASTAFARI came out of AFRICANS! For the relief, REVIVAL, Hope of AFRICANS, to appease our torment, to give us Direction, PRIDE, to Hail and Unite the Black Race! It came from the Toil, the teachings and Wisdom of the Great WARRIOR, LEADER, PROPHET and BLACK Nationalist MARCUS MOSIAH GARVEY reinforced by the Magnificence and LOVE of JAH HAILE SELAISSIE I, the FATHER of CREATION! They come from the Beautiful ALKEBULAN! THEY ARE AFRIKANS, RASTAFARI Past and Present, our Humanity, AFRIKANS! None can experience RASTAFARI -I believe- BETTER than Africans because Rastafari is about the essence of being African. It comes form within the African essence! How can a privileged one comprehend, transcend the truth of Rastafarim bred out the Babylonien Superiority EDUCATION and prerogatives, when one never has to fight, overcome anything? Despite all the reasoning, the awareness I say white people still cannot FEEL, express RASTAFARISM in its purity. What are the African ROOTS in the Caucasian? What runs through their vain other than curiosity and a mere empathy? Surely it is not PAIN compare to us. Whites and people of Mongoloid andr Semite descent will never comprehend and excel in Rastafarim because their inherent nature is NOT BLACK/AFRICAN indispensable/source, I say truth of RASTAFARI! Consider me racist if you want. I will find it IRONIC, because Blacks have never expressed racism with the same INTENSITTY and RAGE as the Semite or the Caucasian. No! They have not and if they do they have been taught and tricked to. Racism, intolerance, HATRED by Africans has always benefited to the oppressor and in rare case TO THE OPPRESOR anyway! Check the ongoing Genocide (since 1996) in the Great Lakes Region between the supra-rich Natural CONGO DRC (MY COUNTRY where I was born) and Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. Who benefit from the war, the Massacres, the Genocides? Who sell us weapons in credit? Who benefit form this cheap and unfair trade of Diamonds, OIL and all  of our other valuable resources to get weapons? Not US, not our lost Africans Brothers and Sisters but the WEST/ BABYLON! They benefit from the thousands of thousands of death of our people and the destabilization our HOME AFRICA so we will NEVER organize, so we will NEVER keep our young/ brave men and women ALIVE and get a hold of our own NATURAL RESSOURCES become Independent and regain our POWER!

So conscious Blacks, true Rastafarians/AFRICANS are careful to NOT be RACIST. Haters we are not. We only reacting to your trickery, mischief and selfishness! We WILL protect ourselves, our culture, our essence no matter what! RASTAFARISM is OURS! Our unique tool of SURVIVAL sent by HAILE SALAISSE I JAH ALMIGHTY.  You white people who say you care, do not stand idle with futile justifications. You should get over our distrust because it will REMAIN, as long as there are INJUSTICE, RACISM and CRIMES against our people! Convince us you comprehend our Pain by removing it! You MUST fight Babylon EVIL mentality, institutions, Mis-Education if you really mean to change our plight in this world. You are  Impostors if you do not!

Warrirorprincess I want to believe you are one of the very few Caucasian who mean good. So go on change the most Ignorant and Arrogant Caucasians you can because you have the POWER you evolve around them, you are one of them. They surely will pay more Attention to you and TRUST you than us! Teach them TOLERANCE, RESPECT and COMPASSION for all the HUMAN RACE. Like me TALK, TALK until you cannot, out of breath. LEAD by your examples and always Remain firm under any circumstances be it scorn, EVIL or threat! GO TO AFRICA help BLACK Brothers and Sisters THERE, they are the ones who need HELP, HEALING the MOST... When we will SEE you and more of your kind doing this, only then we will believe you! We don't need your empathy if it is only hanging around us, remain idle by JUST learning (copy) our ways and history..

Let's crush Babylon NOW. HAILE SELAISSE I JAH ALMIGHTY is the LEADER. Strength and POWER is with H.I.M. For only the Courageous, the SINCERE and the Righteous shall rest in ZION! No one else!

SisKelani-

Greetings All

Afrika for Afrikans, those at home and those abroad.

I sight this term as meaning that the resources of Afrika must be controlled by Afrikans for the primary benefit of Afrika. Imperialistric/colonial parasites who have sucked Afrika wealth must be put out and our land and resources reclaimed. This involves evicting de beers and reclaiming our land in Zimbabwe and other places. Putting out those farmers who still have the audacity to still be there. Europeans controls Europe, Americans control America and Afrikans must control Afrika.

White Supremacy controls the movements of this material world and black people have felt the brunt of this force.  White supremacy is inbedded in blacks and whites alike just like Gender Discrimination is inbedded in both males and females.

Whites have difficulties unstanding the full extent of white supremacy the same way that males have a hard time understanding the full extent of gender discrimination.

A lot of people want to ignore racial issues and think that people could just unite and love one another just so. Nah, it can't happen so

Black/white issues are important in the whole process of spiritual development. On higher levels of spirituality, race and gender takes on less of a meaning (in a personal sense) because one would have  would have already transcended that. But until that time comes when poeple are less ignorant of how white supremacy and gender supremacy benefits them, they will be able to do no better than patronising attitudes that we all come across in day to day interaction.

In spite of the damage that has been wrought on this world by the renk force of white supremacy, i don't hate white  people.
And i don't dismiss all of them either. It's not them i'm against, it's the ignorance and superiority complexes that are perpetuated by the vast majority that i'm against. Everyone has their own divine role to play.
Technology is concentrated in the hands of whites, many of which are american, and as a result the msot views that we coe across on the WWW are western/american views. And this has affected the content and quality of a lot of Rastafari sites. Marcus Garvey, Lumumba, Nkrumah, Walter Rodney, Jomo Kenyatta are being whitewashed from Rastafari. We are seeing hordes of dreadlocked/ganja smoking /reggae listening/Selassie,one love chanting/individuals wearing marley t-shirts who are trapped by the bible  and who continously lean pon their own misundestandings and insecurities. While this is part of the learning/evolution process, it must not be the hallmark of Rastafari, it is not the legacy that we must leave. A ot of so called rastafarians i have come across perpetuate a lot of the brainwashing and myths (that have been often ingrained in their consciouness) of the same colonial forces that they claim to be against. I have met few few few few people who i would call rastafarians. But of  course people are free to call themselves what ever they want.
Afrikan people and non-Afrikan people must both examine themselves and retrospect on the forces that make tham what they are. Why do i act this way? why am i so hostile/arrogant/defensive etc when a certian topic is raised.

Ii consider my blackness not to be a badge of serviliy but rather a banner for uncompromsiign revolutionary activity. Let the reasonings continue with the aim of higher self development.

Aluta Continua
Ras Tyehimba

Greetings All,

"Europeans controls Europe, Americans control America and Afrikans must control Afrika."
Give thanks.

This statement a quite true... however...
when one knows history ones knows that the people of the world are a migrated people. Some will-fully, some need-fully and some force-fully. The reason I mention this is because when I hear "Americans", I get a bit uncomfortable.
I know the history of "america"... all of the americas...
and the people that are "american"... are the same people that colonized Africa. And primarily, though not exclusively, for the same purpose...
exploitation of natural resources.
Everyone that knows history should know that people been exploiting people and resources of others for a very long time.
And it is the mentality that allows this activity to continue that MUST be changed.
No one people have the right to overcome and destroy another!

Just ask the people... the few that a left... in the americas whose ancestors were there when the europeans arrived.
Or the people who's ancestors were forced there in slavery.

IanI cannot change the past... but the present and the future are ours!

Truth-full education is the ONLY way ones and ones will ever be able to change the mentality!
While IanI firmy say "Africa for Africans!"...
IanI also say..."America for Native Americans!"...
and... "Australia for Native 'Aborigini'...
and... "Palistine for Palistinians"...
and so forth and so on.
What do IanI mean by all a this?

I mean that as Ones and Ones become more and more AWARE...
the issue of 'human rights' becomes the essential issue.
And the teachment of the true history is essential for each and every one upon the planet to know and overstand the VITAL importance of...
HUMAN RIGHTS!
Where each and every one a we come to the overstanding that everyone has them right to them LIFE!
It is an upliftment of the Consciousness of everyone.

Nobody gonna be able to 'kick out' all a the colonizers in all a the places them a gone to in the hundreds a years them been doing it. Whether it be the Arabs in the North African continent... or the europeans in the "americas"... and so forth.
But...
IanI DO HAVE the ability and opportunity to UPLIFT we CONSCIOUSNESS and WORK towards a world where people RESPECT and APPRECIATE one another... and appreciate the earth we been given to share and protect.

But unless IanI are willing to learn the TRUTH and SEE it FULLY...
to change the mentality...
to WORK towards the upliftment...
nothing no never gonna change. Native 'american' gonna be kept down and stay disrespected... Native Australian gonna be abused and degraded... Amazonian tribes gonna be uprooted and put to death... Tibetans gonna be ruthlessly kept in subjugation by the Chinese...
and Africans are gonna be exploited and decimated.

And ALL people, in ALL places and ALL races have this obligation.
Anyone and everyone...
IanI Rastafari no overlook nor ignore anyone in them struggle for EQUALITY...
or in them struggle to LEARN the TRUTH!

BIG UP...
Ones and Ones!
IanI a learn to LIVE LOVE!
FORWARD...

ONE LOVE/HEART/MIND
IanI Rastafari
Guidance and protection  

Blessed SABAtical Vibrations to the Collective,

InI give MUCH thanks for the word sound and powah expressed by Idrens Sis Kelani, Ras Tyehimba and IanI!

How good and pleasant to know that there are some who sight and accept TRUTH as it is presented and for what it is, without offence or replies laced with obvious patronizing tones.

AFRIKA FOR THE AFRIKAN AT HOME AND ABROAD!!!!!!!!!

RASTAFARIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ROOTS

It is understandable that some Whites who are making an effort want to be seen as different from the rest. But people are not supposed to take this at face value. Such Whites should not expect automatic acceptance because of efforts. There are too many, WAY TOO MANY, Africans who are making a genuine effort to help themselves and others without recognition and without looking to be accepted by any one group.

There are Africans even on this board that are very enlightened but in their wisdom they will not try to ridicule people who are relentless in their effort to keep the African aspect of our work alive. If it were not for the efforts of many who work to keep the African focus alive, some of us will not be able to make time to address the other concerns (spiritual or otherwise).

Some whites really do feel sickened by the conduct of other whites when they see them continually come here asking silly questions and making derogatory statements. However SOME whites just stay on the side and observe the poor conduct of other whites, while they keep their focus on trying to correct the legitimate attitudes of Africans.

What would give some, who are simply making an effort, the feeling they can understand the depth of the legitimate distrust many Africans have for whites?

Why would some expect others to suddenly accept them as different solely by their word? Making an effort is not equal to change. And no one is obligated to believe someone at his or her word. We would have to wait for a new history of improvement before these attitudes can change.

Are Africans suddenly to stop legitimately generalizing because a few are making an effort? If some know they are different in the face of widespread racism then they should not be offended by a generalization, which is still legitimate. They should understand that for many Africans the struggle is a day-to-day affair where any error in judgement about white attitudes can cost them their lives. It is safer for many Africans to maintain the distrust and not dismiss the lessons of History.

Inside of many Whites who are making an effort is still the desire to tear down yet another African and many times the very Africans they would have 'learned' from. The same as most males who continually struggle to accept that a woman has all the rights she can perceive. The nuances of racism and male domination do not go away because one is making an effort.

Making an effort is part of a journey and not the destination.

Ones should take the time to reach the destination so they can truly understand the real distrust of many better-informed Africans.

AMEN!!!!!

A royal bow due unto you Brothah Ayinde for bringing forth PURE pearls of wisdom! Muzik to my ears!

ASHE!

ROOTS     ;D

"I pointed the Universe/Kosmos for you, but all you saw was my fingertip"...

yes)))))...such is the process of refining...often getting caught up in the tip of one's finger...and loosing sight of the Universe....forgive I...

I sis stand corrected...and am listening to ALL these valid points brought forth from Roots, Kelani, Tyehimba, IanI, and Ayinde...with whom I have a great deal of respect..and listen well when such truth is spoken..

Roots - To you specifically,

I have tried to express some things from the heart...and if it has taken on a patronizing tone I aplologize...it is, and was not, my intentions to bump heads with you...and yet...pon reflecting deeper...I know that I have..

I have come to the African village for almost a decade now...seeking much truth and wisdom... it has not been an easy road....many was the time it got so difficult that I simply wanted to turn back...but THAT was never an option...for the very essence of who I am is found here, amongst the people I have come to know and love )))))..yes essence...the meaning of life...

my kneejerk reaction I suppose is typical...and many points were made worth considering...i am indeed a person willing to check my OWN attitude and hold IT up to the light...for I recognize that sometimes though sometimes hard... is the only way that one can move forwards and get to the other side

...so I stand in the midst of fiyah and submit to yet another burn....youch!

I did indeed read the piece about white priviledge written by di white man...he nailed many points worth noting and was honest and open in admitting and acknowleding many of the things we whites take for granted...I suppose it is particularly noteworthy to think on these things, as I deal with non-whites, hopefully it will help me to overstand the reasons behind the "attitude" that I might misconstrue into something else.

I hope that you too read the piece about Rastafari and the "Whole World" written by father James..the thing that got to me Roots about what he say..was HOW he say IT... he be blacker than coal and go through as much, if not more, challenging insperiances in dealing with life...and he still have such a compassion to extend such abundant LOVE...he totally blow me away with that kind of LOVE..drop all my defenses to da floor and BRING ME TO MY KNEES...seen??...I feel welcome in his courts...this kind of love move mountains...yes??...what do you think?...do you think it is naive to be like this??

I appreciate all the comments....and will continue to reflect on these shared points reasonings...

fireball love

Why do you choose to use Father James as an example of a GOOD African?
Next thing you would be telling Roots that she should try to be like Martin Luther King or racist Mahatma Ghandi. Have you ever noticed that this falls in line with the White Superiority Modus Operandi? They choose the most broken African who was either extremely ignorant of History or suffered from an extreme case of inferiority to 'set up' as an example for Blacks.

sis Rose..I beg to differ...perhaps you havn't gone to IanI's site under Rasta Guidance...NO??...or perhaps you read...but do not SEE nor HEAR...LOVE strikes the chords of LOVE and reverberates strongly WHEREVER heard..and I HEAR IT!!  I brought up Father Jah Lightning...not because I think he is some "good African" ..NO...but because he is a BEAUTIFUL BEING OF LIGHT, who carries a deep message of spiritual wisdom within his words..He embodied the very nature and essence of LOVE through his life, through his livity...and though he has since passed...he STILL breathes LIFE through his powerful wordsoundz!!

no sis...I don't "set-up" nothing ...but rather LIFT UP Father James Jah Lightning!

>>>ignorant?...I hardly think so

You cannot lean on one African to tell another African how they should be. This is another divide and rule tactic. There are many ways to show love, one of the ways is to tell people when they are out of place. I feel Roots can choose her own role models and do not need a white person to point that out to her she seems very aware of African History. You may think that Africans may seem a bit thin-skinned reacting to what may seem like nothing to you, but that is the problem, it is nothing to you. You are in a black movement and no right thinking African wants a white person to suggest a role model for them. Don’t you think Africans on this board can make that choice for themselves?

         The Whole World

" De whole world a Jah CREATION! So den, Jah does not favour any one part a de earth... because He created the WHOLE earth. For it be written, 'De earth a de Law an de fullness der of'... ab ALL dat dwell in it... an ZION abideth'! So, ANY wer on de earth will do. Anywhere! A no be Africa alone. If it be Africa alone Jah created, den every one a be pack up over der. No man... no favorite. Look here now... if only Africa all I an I was to go... why Him mek Jamaica?... or England?... or America? A de WHOLE earth a fe RASTA!! An Jah mek man in Him own image... an man come in all different skin colour, an different hair colour, an different eye colour... no? Yes man!! So ALL a dem a de image a de Creator. A so it go. Brother an Sister. Give thanks. A de four wings a de earth (pointing in each direction)... anywhere on de earth will do! Anywhere you a livity... anywhere you live by righteousness, a dat be Heaven! Yes man! De Rastaman... I appreciate him dat a praise Africa. I appreciate it! But, I no get dat der fullness from Jah dat say everyone gonna bail out an jus go over a Africa. I say, anyWHERE on de earth will do... for de earth is I Law an de Fullness der of! All a de sed earth, so anywhere you wan... a to LIVE! For you hav Life to Live! A de Father, a Him a de earth you know. So I will Live it! An if who wan to go... I wouldn't say dem not to... but who wan to stay... Babylon cannah stop you again! NO!! Enemy cannah overtrow!!"                          
Father James Jah Lightning

this message is for everyone....de four wings a de earth...  

for me ...for you...for anyone

Look at you now trying to bring quotes from an African to me. Do not use that one African as a whip. You are NOW discovering this in an African movement and many before him said that and were suppressed and killed by Whites. What makes you feel that Africans don’t know about one love?  You seem to want to dictate how all Africans must deal with you. That is why most of us reserve our love for people who truly respects us.
Continue and let’s see how many newly discovered African quotes you could pelt at this African.

The lessons learnt during one’s struggles through life are often times forgotten, when the need to always be in control or to control others, takes precedence over all things that are important to one’s own self development. Talking straight is the most effective way of dialoguing in order to get the required results. The most powerful and effective way to make amends with someone a person may have offended is to apologize genuinely. This of course can only be done by first examining one’s self. Correct action (right attitude) and verbally.

True love and compassion for others is to begin first with respect. MOTIVES should be questioned before extracting written or spoken words from other people’s experiences and using it to quote to another. For every one new thing learnt in life is exactly that, one more new thing, not EVERYTHING, and one ought to always remind oneself of this and not get carried away with the illusion that they know all. Humility is the beginning of wisdom.

Very few White people if any at all, regardless of their love/compassion (their own concept of course) have the ability to honestly admit to having any sign of being a racist in themselves. HISTORIES carries the proof of this and try as you may, HISTORY can never be erased. All the more reason a white person should question their motive/s when relating to or with an African person or peoples. White people should first accept the fact that they are white and I do not mean the kind of acceptance that was developed from a SUPERIOR AVANTAGE POINT OF VIEW! Learn accept and understand the White race first.

From one white woman to another, Warrior Princess, you have a lot to learn.

I believe beings become intrinsically attached to fundamental components of past physical manifestations; particularly those that have occured most recently. Perhaps you and other Blond Rastas are simply intrigued by the culture; however, it could be that you were African Rasta your last time around. You may have chosen this challenge to bridge the gap between race and culture. Yours is a noble endeavor.

Namaste - Be with us all - Rastafari

yes...I will not argue with that...it is why I am here...to learn..
to hold my stuff up to the light..and grow from ALL things

there is so much to learn...and I will be the first to admit...I have a long way to go

your words and sentiments are well heard, and come from a place of wisdom indeed...I hear you sis...and reflect deeply
pon thy heart

it is not my intentions to come on to this board and tell anyone how to be....far from it

just frustrated sometimes

I know that MY attitude contributed much to the downward spiral of this reasoning...and I no feel good about creating such a negative vibe

something so beautiful as the words of James to be taken with such insult is something I never dreamed...perhaps I am blind to my own ignorance...hmmmm

Rose...I do not wish to bump heads nor get into some verbal sparring with you..

I am TRULY touched buy the words and life of James...and have been taking in his teachments and love them..instead of people reading dem words I am being criticized for how I am using them...so I will refrain...and rather sight the reaction to my actions.. reflect...

to IanI...if you should read this...please forgive I bredda ...
I in no way ever wanted to see the loving lightful words of James to come to such a low level...so If I have used Him precious words improperly...I humbly offer my apologies)))))

Greetings,

Let me begin by inviting everyone to sit round this here fiyah, as I pass an nice earthen cup of Ital tea to the “congregation”.  I ask you to join I in this I-ditation.  

In response to warrior princess, I’ll begin again with 2 proverbs, in the ancestral tradition of our wise Afrikan Elders/Ancestors:

1) “When a man says yes, his chi (personal god) says yes also.” (African Proverb)

Meaning, that a humble heart receives much.  InI apprecialove your wordsound.  However, as the “god” in you accepts truth (both bitter an sweet), faith without works is fruitless.  Time reveals all.

2) “No one tests the depth of a river with both feet” (Ashanti Proverb)

Meaning, as “black hearted” or “down with Black Folx” as some may profess to be, this Afrikan “ocean” is DEEP, “DARK” (in its Divine sense; both positive/negative) and full of FIYAH, and ANCESTRAL SPIRIT/FORCE.  Trod easy, humbly and respectfully sistah.

In regards to the words by the bredren that you’ve asked me several times to read, I have and will respond.  InI give thanks for di wordsound.  A good sentiment:



However, historically, culturally, spiritually, and biblically speaking, though the ENTIRE EARTH is the dwelling of man and should be respected, the Eurasian mountains, or the most northern parts of Europe is just…well…not really “our cup of tea”, yuh dig?  Agriculturally speaking, it brings forth little to no resources fit for the genius and glory of Afrikan High Culture/Civilation.  

For InI, as Children of the SUN/SON, our “fig tree” is in InI Holy Land, Mother of ALL Creation: ETHIOPIA (this includes all of Africa, India, the so-called Middle East, Brazil, the Caribbean, South America, even Asia, the entire First World Nations).  Whomsevah wan choose Europe…and parts of  the Euro-Asian plains…let dem have it! LOL

Biblically speaking, NO - JAH will not spare the entire earth/people.  As the Natural Laws are Divinely set forth by the Great Master Designer of the Universe.  Nothin' can stop  di time…  

Permit I to quote from Dr Ishakamusa Barashango’s book: “God, the Bible and The Black Man’s Destiny”:

“The Bible, in the Book of Revelations, graphically depicts in symbolic pageantry, the Spirit of the Black Messiah, leading the armies of Afrikan People against the European colonial powers and oppressive forces.  These forces were called God and Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, who were immediate ancestors of the Caucasian race.

In the 38th and 39th chapters of the Book of Ezequiel, God clearly sets forth His inense hatred for Gog, Magog and their descendants who are decribed as a people who come from their home in the far receses of the NORTH…in the latter days, into the land that is brought back from the sword and is gatherede out of many people”, prophetic language for the European so-called “discovery of America.”

Who are God and Magog?

“The sons of Japhet, Gomer and Magog and Madai and Javan and Tubal and Meshesh and Tiras…” Genesis 10:2

All scholars agree on the fact that Japhet was the father of the Caucasian race (Europeans).  The statement “the land that is brought back from the sword and gathered out of many people” is symbolic of the Untied States of America. In this country today, the inhabitants are made up of virtually every nation under the sun.

“Out of the north parts,” the New English Translation renders this passage “From your home in the far recesses of the north”.  The Revised Standard Version says, “uttermost parts of the north.”  Now as we look at the map of the world, where are the “uttermost parts of the north”? Europe, Russia, Scandinavia, etc… A close examination of the history reveals that America is merely an extension of Europe.  Therefore, both of them together will fight in an effort of maintaining the oppressive, colonial, genocidal powers they unlawfully exercise on African and Asian People.

And how thoroughly shall God’s Judgement be carried out against the wicked?

“For yet a little while and the wicked shall not be.  Yea thou shall dillignetly consider his place and it shall not be; but the meek shall inherit the earth and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace…But the wicked shall perish and the enemy of the Lord shall be as fat as the lambs.  They shall consume into smoke; shall they consume away.” Psalms 37: 10, 11, 20

“But unto you that fear (respect) shall the Sun of Righteousness arise with healing in his wings…”

The “Sun of Righteousness shall arise” – In Ancient Ethiopia, the emblem of the sovereign power was a SUN DISK with wings, symbolizing the sun, traveling across the sky.  This prophecy of the Black Messiah likens him unto the sun indicating the live-giving power of this spirit and teachings throughout the ages.  “With “healing on his wings” – A warm, tropical climate is conductive to good health, abundant provisions and happy creativity (thus healing).  According to many scientists today, this planet is becoming increasingly warmer and moving toward and even, tropical temperature.  Thank God that everything is beginning to move on time.


After the Lord has led His armies to a complete victory over the beast (for we are confident in the victory of good over evil, His Imperial Majesty), the earth shall then once again return to its natural state; For it is written:

Then I will give you the rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.  And your threshing shall reach unto the vintage, and the vintage shall reach unto the sowing time, and ye shall eat your bread to the full and dwell in YOUR LAND SAFELY.  And I will give peace in the land, and ye shall lie down, and none shall make you afraid; and I will rid evil beasts out of the land, neither shall the sword go through your land.  And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. And five of you shall chase an hundred, and a hundred of you shall put then thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.” Leviticus 26: 4-8

These are the promises of God to the Black Man.  So my brothers and sisters, even the Godhead spoke many years ago . Let us, the people of God, make a black nation in the image of Black Unity and Love – The original and most natural state of things.  This is the message of our God.  The message of Black Power.  Thus we see that God don’t love ugly.  As it began in the East, so shall it end in the East, and there shall be Peace, Power, Love and Perfection above all Creation – At Last”


So, as nice as the father’s words are, he can have the North (Europe).  So can anyone else who sight the world from “rose colored glasses” rather then from the “Spectacles of Ethiopia”, for how can I sing King Alpha’s song in a strange land?

AFRIKA FOR THE AFRIKAN – AT HOME AND ABROAD

http://halerasta.com/Html/Images/sticker13.jpg


ROOTS

Unfair discrimination is de cause of plenty a suffering in this world. Africans have been suffering unfair discrimination for centuries and many Africans have developed unique survival strategies to cope with the pressures of daily living. It is disrespectful when persons that are not experiencing the daily pain of Africans come to this village and attempt to tell Africans how they should conduct their struggle against racism. Gender discrimination has many similarities to racial discrimination.

European societies have encouraged unfair discrimination against females for centuries. As a boy growing up I remember my parents giving me lots more freedom to go places and make my own decisions than my sisters. At the time I was glad to be given privileges over my sisters and considered it to be a right that goes with being male. I did not consider these privileges as examples of unfair discrimination. As I look around the world at this present time I see many females being unfairly discriminated against with society trying to force them to accept submissive roles. As a male I can understand and support the struggles of women but I can never lead this struggle because I do not experience the daily gender discrimination that females endure. In my view it is far more important for me to keep looking at my daily conduct to ensure that my actions do not promote unfair discrimination against women rather than for me to keep asking women to accept me as part of their struggle or for me to attempt to lead this struggle.

to late, rasta and rastafari spread thruout tha whole planet!! ::)

sistren Roots...I recieve thy cup of nourishing Ital tea and sip slowly...the herbs help soothe this dry and parched throat and bring healing

these words shared and spoken reveal great power...and when I say power I mean from there content.  I am begining to see and recognize the importance of overstanding history..foir it reveal mightily some insight into the happenings of today

...the scales continue to fall as new light reveals itself

I will return to the bible with new eyes to see...as in the past I always had difficulty connecting the Old Testement...as it was not quite revealed in that way...if ye know what I mean...smile...

Roots...Iya know there is much inside this white vessel of mine
that has yet to reveal all the hidden unseen depths of this livity..and there is good as well as the ugly...yesterday,  revealed the ugly..but from all that...today...reveals the good..I know that this fiyah was ultimately a good thing..for it brings I to new levels of awareness, that otherwise may not have been seen..lest I submit my everything to the purifying of this fiyah...and like the magnificent phoenix that arise from ashes of iniquity/impurity..I too, arise with new wings to fly higher..stronger to reach the highest of my high.. the only way I will ever be able to realize the essence of my real TRUTH..once again..I see how essential to check one's own Self and really LOOK at it in the pursuit of higher development..for I truly am sis...willing to see))))

Fiyah can be cleaninsing and purifying..if one ALLOWS it to be utilized in such a way...and though I do not like it when I stand in the midst of it..(cause it hurts and is painful)..I know that true healing awaits the vessel that submits to this purification process..yesterday something needed to go...cleared outta the way...I do not think I would of advanced forward otherwise...and therefore can give thanks..knowing that ALL things work together for the good..

If I am to be an effective warrior in this go around of life...I must know which battles are the ones to fight...and develope the inna skills to know HOW to fight the injustices with wisdom, integrity, honesty, and noble character...and sister...it is not you...I wish to fight ))))))))...for you have much to offer in the ways of wisdom, insight, and knowledge to help light the way..

Pon deeper refelection...I think part of my kneejerk reaction was this very thing...I wanted to come to you...but felt I wouldn't be recieved...that my skin would be the barrier..but today I see it wasn't the skin...it was my attitude that became the barrier...funny thing how we project our stuff onto others..yes??...smile

Sistren Roots..I have much to learn...and now know that though my heart is there...my Insperiances can never touch the full scope and depth of that ocean..

I respectfully realize the journey that unfolds is one I must tread carefully..openly...mindfully.. as new insights await MY awareness...

I hope that we can share in more of this healing tea Roots...it do so nourish thy soul and quench such a thirst...and di vibe is of mutual respect is lifted UP as we each trod this spiritual journey as sistrens...wombman...working on different ends of the spectrum, to in the end join together as Universally One.

and yes...I do so enjoy looking through dem rose colored glasses...and DO indeed wish de WHOLE WORLD could sight the enlightened reasonings of blessed Father James...Iya recognize it isn't so...there is still much work needed to be done..

I wonder what we will see in this generation

thank you for opening thy gate...I wash my feet before I enter through this door

fireball love

Humility is good but groveling is of no use to anyone. It is ones strengths that will serve us all but sometimes the ongoing desire to respond/or put on public shows can reduce one's self to a pitiful being.  It is better sometimes to reflect and leave well alone. Silence is 'sometimes' golden.

In any Black movement if Africans are assertive it does not mean that they desire White Slaves (at least I don't).

Blessed Love on this lovely RA-day (SUNday)

I give thanks once again for the reasonings brought forth Warrior Princess.  Glad to know you enjoyed the tea... it was brewed with nuff nourishing love.  Glad you also overstood the FIYAH in the context it was given.  You're right, it IS a SOUL-PURIFIYAH!  

I will adress and respond to some comments:



You are experiencing, by proxy, what InI refer to as a SANKOFIC journey through the Book of Time (OURstory).  The SANKOFA bird is a symbol brought to us by our Ancestors from Ghana.  He is looking backwards while flying forward.  Meaning that to better move into the future, one must retreive from the past/source.  This is why InI study HIS-story and OUR-story.

Also, to better fight your enemy, you gotta know him first.  Thus the importance of overstanding both historical points of views, the LIES vs. the TRUTH.



Yes, I do know what you mean.  Though not one to swear by european MISinterpretations of the bible, if one knows how to look, one will innevitably find TRUTH, though our Ancient Texts are in their original FULNESS.  Y'shua the KRST came to FULFILL the "Laws of Moses" (which were in turn taught to Moses in the Temples of Kemet by his own Ancestors which taught the Laws thousands of years before him, through TEHUTI, the Original Law Giver).  The Beta Israel (original Ethiopian "Jews") also follow the Old Testament.  The New Testament wasn't part of Y'shua's teachings.  They belong to Paul, as though many think themselves "christian", they are in fact PAUL-ians! LOL




True.  Out of the mud grows the Lotus Flower.  After the forest is cleared by fire, new life comes forth.  Just as the "Sphinx" symbolizes rising from one's lower nature to our Higher Nature.  As Life is our University, there is much to learn while on this physical experience/journey.  To thyne own self be true, right?




What a revelation deeper reflection can be!  I'm glad you took the time to think about the question I posed you earlier, about what REALLY bothered you in my wordsound as I never promoted division, rather, I suggested LIASON.  Yes, it is true, and part of the transcending process from lower nature to Higher One...we begin to REAL-EYEZ when we are projecting our own "sins" (sin meaning: to miss the mark) upon another.  The "knee jerk" reaction is not only predictable (and yes, typical) but has a divine purpose in and of itself, for those "reactions" are symbolic of further cleansing to be done.  So we give thanks for those natural "warnings", as long as they become recognized and rectified.  I'm glad you realized it wasn't my character but my words/truth which prompted more "cleansing", as I began my post to you the other day saying that this was NOT about your skin color. As a Queen Mother of 3 youths, and a long time Pan Afrikan Activist, InI have learned to recognize those "tamtrums/reactions", that are a natural reaction to a mind going through its natural cleansing/learning process.  Its all part of this University called LIFE!

Each One Teach/Reach One.



Yes I.  As you know, sometimes the most cleansing "teas" are bitter and almost unbearable.  A rose has many thorns.  The west has a term: "The Dialectical Laws of Opposites" which they learned from the Kemetic (Afrikan) Ancestors, though we didn't sight them as OPPOSITES, rather 2 natural forces which dance in HARMONY to the beat of Eternal Kosmic Rythm.  However, I don't believe that Father Jame's words hold any type of prophetic power.  Not that they aren't lovely sentiments, they are culturally, biblically and naturally incorrect, or innaplicable to the Afrikan Collective, as InI do not sight Europe as our home.  Yet, it is true, all of Jah Creation is a blessing and to be honored, InI sight First World Nations as our "HOME", where the earth is bountiful and the Sun People have a natural godly disposition.

Looking through "rose colored glasses" may be comfortable for some, just as ignorance can be blissful to others.  It completely unprepares one for the SHOCKING REALITY of TRUTH.  RasTafari and the Afrikan Experience has no room for "rose colored" sight, as it is destructive to the collective.  The only spectacles worth wearing, by ancestral duty and honor, are those of Ethiopia.  

Again, InI give thanks for the INNER-standing.  May it bring forth good fruit.

ROOTS

Greetings to all,

This is I first contribution on this forum and was quite mesmerized by the ilaful reasonings. On Rastafari Speaks this very topic/concern has been addressed many times with several of the poster here giving their perspectives. But I see the same ignorance/knee jerk reaction is still prevalent regardless of the illuminating responses by esteemed Afrikans.

Sistah Warrior the I has forgotten that the invitation to the village still stands but you must first wash the dirt off of your feet then enter in. You have to be able to feel this love Sis like that given to a child even when you are reprimanding him/her. Akwaaba with Love and your ovastanding, seen!

Blessed heart of Love to those with the patience and persistence to eliminate all misconceptions of those who claim to grasp the Essence of this livity. One Rastafari Black Love!

Dear Rootswoman! Blessed Love.
Love is as you know NOT about 'rose colored glasses',
surely it is the ONLY TRUTH.
I trod through history mystery and prophecy tells me
nothing 'incorrect' or biblically inconsistent
in Brother James's words. Is Inivershal LOVE
inapplicable to the African collective really?
How can this be? When Africa is the root?
In Rastafari revelation I read the end of history.
New Wine. Surely it is not rose-colored glasses
to see through to the end
which is just the beginning?
History is necessity. What you do here with your incredible mind
and seeking heart brings light to many.
But forgive I I foresee a day when the time of learning is over,
when we don't need to learn anymore but instead DISCOVER
moment by moment and over and over,
that we ARE CREATION UNFOLDING.
And we can live in a world we know we all deserve. That we create.

To see New Heaven and New Earth
we must BE New Heaven and New Earth.

LOVE AND RASPECT EVERY SINGLE TIME SIS!
rootsie

Greetings sistah Rootsie,



How are his words "biblically correct" when the bible itself tells us that JAH's judgement will directly DESTROY the "NORTH"?  That JAH despises Gog and Magog, which are the descendants of Japhet, who's homeland IS THE NORTH?  

ANd aside from biblical prophecies, the Natural Laws (Karma) cannot be stopped.  So no, I do not sight his words as biblically correct as far as that is concerned.  Like I said, they are lovely "feel good" sentiments, but until there is JUSTICE, there will be no love.

Also, "as it was in the beginning, so shall it be in the end" - The western world wasn't around then...nor will it be in the end.  Unjust? perhaps...but that would have to be taken up with JAH wouldn't it?

To answer the question about Universal love being applicable to Afrikans, I suggest HISTORY can clearly answer that question, for did/do we not continue to extend love to a BEAST which continues to OPPRESS us?  Did we not suckle his children at our breast, while he whipped, raped and killed our own?  Do we go around killin white folx for the HELL visited upon us.  NO!  Are we not the most FORGIVING PEOPLE ON THE FACE OF THIS EARTH?

That question merits no answer, as ACTIONS speak louder then words.

ALways with love,

ROOTS

Greetings brothah Ayinde,

I agree, groveling is unecessary, though I didn't sight any such behavior.  And I also agree that "silence is golden", though I must admit that this principle is rather inapplicable on a "REASONING forum" isn't it?  :)  I mean if we all follow that rule, no need for this board, right?

1LUV

ROOTS

Royal Afrikan Greetings sistah-Empress Iyahbingi!

I'm simply overjoyed at di I's presence here! Welcome!

ROOTS

whites cannot feel the pain of being black however close to every day at school i face pain of discimintation just for being a rasta but i know im trying to help and make my difference but then when i come on to the message board the pain just gets worse with all these discussions on whites cannot relly be rastas bcuz they cannot experience the pain of being black and that just makes me wonder if its all for nothing being critisized by my clasmates and friends is 1 thing that doesnt get 2 me but wat does get to me is coming here and not being sure of myself n e more second guessing myself wondering if there right bcuz if other rastas fell this way theres noone left 4 me to turn to, other websites use to reenforce my thoughts that rasta was for all colors this site just makes me think otherwise, like earthcultureroots.com or yahoo groups message boards how can ideas all be so different on this board compared to every other piece of evidence ive seen so far (o ya and i was interupted from typing this letter to be told about five minutes ago that a gud family frend wa just given 3 months to live so sorry if my thoughts arn't all 2gether)

Greetings Rootswoman,

and give thanks, for your kind words, and the cup of tea! Is it not strange how the offering of  virtual hospitality has managed to change the spirit of the reasoning.

And apologies for what, in retrospect, was a bit of an over-reaction to a throw away line that you used to make a point. There is nothing quite like advising others to be calm in the face of criticism, and then completely failing to do so myself. Hypocrisy is, alas, still an occasional friend of mine.....

And may I ask a quick question while I have your attention?
I have been intrigued by the wordsound MAAT (or is it MA'AT)that you use fairly often. I have heard it defined as truth, or even as living truthfuly, but have the impression that it is a deep concept that eludes simple definition. Can you possibly point me in the direction of some good overstandings of the word?

Thanks

love and life
paul

l

You see c-spot_rasta DOUBT, whining is not the SPIRIT of a TRUE RASTAMAN, an AFRIKAN WARRIOR, a KING-MAN! How can you claim to be Rastafarian if you are not capable to go through AFRIKAN FIYAH without suspicion Calm and CERTITUDE of who you are, who YOU ARE FIGHTING. You whites who like to call yourselves 'rastas' reinforce my belief that indeed you are Imposters, pure Imitators. If you knew WHAT RASTAFARI IS what SYSTEM, which EVIL RASTAFARI fights you would not be posting on this board or saying ANYWHERE that you have Doubt about Rastafari ..

You experience now how it feels like to be judge by the color of your skin, to be judge by false presumptions, to be judge by only hypocrisy. RESIST AFRIKAN FIYAH and LEARN from it if you claim or want to be a RASTA-KING. The other message boards you visit teach you NOTHING about REALITY! MULTI-CULTURE, "One Love" between people of different race is a MYTH if there is no JUSTICE for All in this world! "One Love/ ALL Brothers and Sisters" rhetoric is a Subtle propaganda to DESTROY the TRUTH, the ESSENCE of RASTAFARI, which is FIERCE Resistance to the Oppressive and RACIST BABYLONIAN System, Order and wicked Culture mostly EUROPEAN...today.

If you fall for the LIE of "ONE LOVE" indeed you are an impostor thus, RASTAFARI is not for you. A true RASTA-KING is not Skeptic, Pessimist nor Beggar but He/She is a POSITIVE POLITICAL and SPIRITUAL CONSCIOUS WARRIOR, HIGHLY EDUCATED about BABYLON his-STORY and ESPECIALLY about OUR REAL-STORY, the GREAT Legacy and Achievements of OUR FOREFATHERS.. the Great AFRIKANS KINGS! He/ She is PROUD and SECURE in ITS BELIEFS!

Strengthen yourself and become WISE  c-spot_rasta, for the sake of RASTAFARI you claim to belong...

SisKelani-

On another note. Sorry about your family member. At this time he/ she also needs you STRONG physically and SPIRITUALLY!!

Give thanks Roots, I guess I couldn't resist getting into the mix of things that I am passionate about.

Let I say to cspotrasta that you being discriminated against in your class is no means tantamount to the undeserving crime that was committed against I Black family/ancestors or to I Rastafari family, especially in the early days. We still face the same albeit in more subtle and institutionalized methods.

It really irks I to see ones whom have not taken the time to fully ovastand the ROOTS of this trod come into the midst of us whining and comparing their insignificant trials as downpression comparable to what I people face. It is not going to fly and our compassion is always with the oppressed peoples of the world but you will get over your classmates I am sure.

Sister +Rootsie+, I think the Afrikan collective are quite wary of any caucasian that comes using the word Discover, especially in place of learning. The Afrikan still has a lot to learn but we will claim no discoveries as what we need to know is already set down by the ancestors for our benefit and edification and no one will tell us when to stop learning. It has been only 150yrs past since you should know what happened to us. The deprogramming hasn't gotten to it's full potential yet so the learning process MUST itinue! There is nothing to discover as we know all that claim that they found this or that was really robbing, plundering, raping and murdering and assuming that they were pioneers. They even have the Discovery Channel to perpetuate this lie. When will they learn to write the full truth in their his-tory books. When will they write that they came and saw and took?! When? It is late and I would really like to have a good sleep so let I stop for the time being before I have nightmares of Rastafari being "discovered" by Sir John Hawkins and presented to the savages that become the integral part of his slave triangle. One Rastafari Livity. One Black Love.

Greetings SisKelani,

I read your post after I made my contribution, only to sight that you have addressed some of the very things I felt compelled to speak to myself. Well I guess that happens when like minds are vibing on the same Afrikan spirit. It is truly a Black thing, eh? Blessed Love.

Blessed. Every topic is a topic. But the reasoning must be something else. Truth be and Africa speak even now about who we are. However, I and see the growth of Rastafari where the China is a RAs, The Japanese is a Ras, The Indian is a Ras, The Arab is a Ras, The Caucasion is a Ras.

I think that it is the spread of the reggae music which has cause this wide spread. I am not sure if the music convery the Ivine of Rastas, but one thing I know is that it hase of
led to the expansion of Rasta Dread and fashion.

I now have no other reason but to accept ones and ones who have joined up either through the front or back gate.
We know that Blacks Rastas percieve Caucasion Rastas differently and Caucasion perceive Black Rastas differently.

This difference or these differences has not been analyzed to see whether it underscore or overscore the movement of Jah people. I welcome Black Rastas all the time and the Black experience is one of the most unique on the face of the Eearth. I am sure Europeans and Western Rastas do and have studies these experiences in a historical perspective.

Being a Caucasion Rastas can have its benefit. Caucasion Rastas can bring their influence, energy to the movement positively. They can help in economic development and rebuilding of places in Africa. I know that is time that Black Rastas start accepting Caucasion Rastas . And it would best if they could do so without any form of dis-respect to them joining the movement.

I know that Black Rastas possess powers handed down by the ancient elders and perhaps Caucasion may lack harnessing such powers if they are not for real. I have Black Rastas who reject and do not salute me when they see I. It is so that they in some way think that it is impossible for ones and ones to trod where they have trod.

I and I know too that there is no direct rejection of Rases here at Rastafarispeaks.com. Rather I and I must see the message being said and try to overs it. I have to ask I self, do I truly overstand the Black experience and if I do what would it make of I. Now I do have to ask also, do I overstand the white experience and if I do what would that make of I.

All I know that there is something about Rasta movement that cause everyone to gravitate to and feel bless. It is that I and I is responding when I vibrate with Idrens and Idrens here.
So big to all Rases.

RasIene.

My DEAR AFRIKAN QUEEN welcome to the Rastafarispeaks.com! I am honored and PLEASED you addressed I!

YES indeed, your NOBLE and Positive Spirit embrace mine,  the whole BLACK Family! We are ONE QUEEN in HAILE SELAISSE I. H.I.M runs through our Veins, guide InI to LIBERATION each to One! Let's never forget our worthy QUEST QUEEN, let's never surrender to LIES but Always struggle to RE-GAIN InI POWER, JUSTICE, KNOWLEDGE and STRENGTH to SAVE the HUMAN RACE!

JAH RASTAFARI!!!

SisKelani-

RasIene let me refute your argument of 'One LOVE' here and I am sure other Astute KING-MEN and QUEEN-WOMEN on this board will do the same in a more OUTSTANDING way..

First let me remind you again that the Essence of RASTAFARI is of AFRIKAN Kulture, Myths and AFRIKAN Spirituality. The Nyabinghi chants, the CON-GO drumming, the aspirations, the objectives, H.I.M are AFRIKANS! Be objective and consider if a Mongoloid, a Semite or a Caucasian can truly aspire Repatriation to MAMA-AFRIKA, an ALIEN CONTINENT. Or will he/she BE WILLING to sustain the AFRIKAN TRADITIONS in its ROOTEST form without diluting them for the sake of preserving a bit of him/herself TRUE essence? RASTAFARI being UN-NATURAL to his/her ESSENCE, Beliefs and Traditions how this so called 'rata' man or woman will practice and experience RASTAFARI only but in its 'Superficial' form.

For us AfriKans/ BLACKS RASTAFARI is INNATE. AFRIKANS/ BLACKS need only to OPEN their Divine eyes, chase away Mental Slavery to KNOW, SEE and FEEL RASTAFARI in its PUREST and POWERFUL form. RASTAFARI then flow NATURALLY in I GUIDE and SAVE us through HELL, the tribulation we happen to experience EVERYDAY! Other people also have their own suffering and pain. The Tibetans, the Kurds, , the Iraqis, Palestinians, the Native-TRUE-AMERICAINS, the Serbs, the Irish, the Chechnyans etc.. Most of them came with a way to cope with their misery through drawing Strength in their TRADITIONS. And these Traditions suit them because it was sent by their OWN Ancestors who experience the same Downpression.

Since BLACKS/ AFRIKANS practice and adopted the Beliefs, Traditions of other WE REGRESSED. Since we were FORCED to live under the Domination and RAPE of the Caucasian and the Semite WE REGRESSED! Today that we are 'physically' free IT IS OUR DUTY as AFRIKANS to CLAIM our TRADITIONS, our REAL-STORY back, worship our own GOD and Hail our own HEROS.  So it should be the case for the Mongoloid, the Caucasian and the Semite. Is it in their Interest to claim OUR Kulture, Beliefs and Customs? This only undermines them as a people! Look at HIS-STORY. Which makes me say indeed Semite, Caucasoid and Mongoloid who call themselves 'rastas' are naïve or worse Hypocrites to not overstand REALITY! Do they not see INJUSTICE, ENEQUALITY, the UNFAIR Socio-Political system, ways which dominated this world? Do they not SEE the "ONE LOVE" rhetoric is Utopia, hypocrisy?

Our DESTINY IS to Uplift and Preservation of one's family, one's People and one's Race. Are they Uplifting, and Preserving their Family and People if they embrace RASTAFARI? NO it can't be RASTAFARI is not about preserving SELFISHNESS, IGNORANCE, COLONIALISM, ARROGANCE, IMPERIALISM, VIOLENCE and GREED mentalities/ways of most of the Caucasian and Semite.  The truth is these so called 'rastas' have no ideas what RASTAFARI is. They rally RASTAFARI for the FUN of it, for its original and superficial attributes (Reggae, Ganja, reading and quoting Utopian and good sounding 'Unity and Love' Proverbs from the  BOOKS of  King James). They did not rally RASTAFARI to preserve AFRIKAN ROOTS and KULTURE, to LIBERATE the AFRIKANS people Worldwide . They did not rally RASTAFARI to venerate and REPLICATE the achievements and teachings of the GREAT AFRIKAN Prophets, Sages and Warriors MARCUS  GARVEY, Patrice LUMUMBA, HANNIBAL, ASSATA SEKUR, YAA ASANTEWA, Carter G. WOODSON, IMHOTEP, MENELEK II,  Théophile Obenga, SHAKA ZULU,  Runoko RASHIDI, WEB DU BOIS, AMINA, CANDACE, MALCOM X, NEHANDA HUEY NEWTON, NZINGHA,  CHEIKH ANTA DIOP and so many more...  Nah! They are not into that.

BLACKS will liberate themselves we don't need them to  FREE ourselves!  Check HIS-TORY. Each time they came close to us,  they DESTROYED us! We will not let ourselves be persecuted and enslaved AGAIN. BLACK NATIONALISM is SELF-PERSERVATION! RASTAFARI is for AFRIKANS at home and ABROAD! The Great MARCUS GARVEY said it himself " BE AS PROUD OF YOUR RACE TODAY AS YOUR FATHERS WERE IN DAYS OF YORE." So I advice the Caucasian, the Mongoloid and the Semite to do the same. Be proud of your OWN Fathers and Nations because AFRIKA IS FOR THE AFRIKANS at home and abroad, so RASTAFARI!

TRUE RASTAFARIANS are not afraid of criticism and antipathy they ONLY strife for RREEDOM and JUSTICE for their PEOPLE who happen to be THE MOST OPPRESSED in this world until HAILE SELAISSE I ALMIGHTY come back at last to 'CLEAN' CREATION!

SisKelani-

 

There is one Universal (of one truth) that underlies all creation, so in essence 'One Love' is not a bad thing. However when ' One Love' becomes a smokescreen to ignore history and to take shortcuts along the journey of self development, it becomes necessary for individuals who see it to speak out against this dangerous pattern. When the 'one love' rhetoric upholds the status qou and ignores the injustice and discrimination that Afrikans face on a day to day basis, it becomes necessary to speak up and shatter the illusions.

I have no doubts that there will be white folks who have good intentions, but that doesn't make their inbedded often unconscious manifestations of White Supremacy non existent.
As the saying goes, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. It's not easy to overcome a legacy/habit that has reigned supreme for hundreds of years and that has wreaked havoc across the globe. And that is the reality with regards to this WhiteSupremacist/Male Dominated world that we dwell in.



Furthermore what influence does a Caucasian Rasta bring to Rastafari? is it the same influence that he is bequeathed with in the normal world because of his color?

To Rootswoman:

I said groveling is unnecessary and although you and I do not sight many things the same way I respect your right to your opinion and to sight my statement anyway you choose. I however, deliberately made a general statement more so for the benefit of other (future) readers who MIGHT interpret it that way.

Also, my quote was "silence is 'sometimes' golden" and it was deliberately put that way (with sometimes in between) to signal pause and reflection. I quite deliberately chose NOT TO PUT "silence is golden", as you erroneously quoted me, for the very reason that this is a forum that is supposed to be about reasoning.

Taking timeout to reflect and check emotions is a necessary part of REASONING isn't it? All sides in reasonings could benefit from this.

Love people,
    I think it best not to get into debates about bible interpretation! We could go on and on debating what 'north' means! Is it literal or metaphorical blah blah blah...If Rastafari fulfilled the Revelation isn't it done? Can InI choose to say 'it is finished', even against the evidence, and Live ZION now? This is a sincere question I have for my bredren and sistren? How else to manifest it if we don't live the reality of it?
The I's here know I do not suggest that we whitewash history and stop talking about it:that's not what I mean. I mean that there are the tangles of history and then there is the overarching TRUTH of INITY.
Yes sis ROOTS my black Idrens are the Most forgiving ones I have EVER seen: truly a wonder to me. I have been a guest in places where I say to myself, 'If I were black I wouldn't let me in here, to share this treasure and this beauty.' Truly Afrikan people have been an example to the world in this. And yes I do believe in the utter necessity of forgiveness, particularly self-forgiveness, but it's a process, and we can't skip steps. Using ONE LOVE teachment to STOP the conversation we are having here is ABOMINATION! Not LOVE at all.
Dear Sis Iyabinghi when I speak of 'the end of learning' it is hard to say what I mean. It's a thing that has come to me lately that I do not quite overstand even as I say it, being such an intense learner myself. And you are right about 'discovery' being the WRONG word. Re-membering? Un-covering? Embracing the UNKNOWN? Coming to know? What I am trying to get at here is that InI are entering a NEW TIME here, and maybe learning and learning and learning is not the way of it-when the TRUTH is an indwelling principle, what need is there for learning? New things enter, but maybe not through learning, rather through receiving? Forgive I am making it muddier rather than clearer I fear.
Dealing with paradox and allowing complexity is a thing that takes some getting used to!
One Love,
rootsie

LoveFull Ites I's!
I am a bit slow in responding to this reasoning, I have been reading and Iditating on it...
I would like to reply to one of the first reasonings on the thread by the Iloved Rootswoman...the I brings foward some crucial points.
The first point being defining culture, I find the I's definition very accurate...
"Culture: The system of shared beliefs, values, customs, behaviors, and artifacts that the members of society use to cope with their world and with one another, and that are transmitted from generation to generation through learning."
Within this definition I sight there is an intrinsic design, I feel that there is also many aspects to this in which a ones culture is formed, like culture from heritage, faith, skin color, nationality, sex, music, profession, and this could go on and on, I look at all these things having their own mini culture, contributing to the persons whole culture. I find the key word is "shared", which says that there is giving and recieving, thus a choice in if ones want to share or partake in this belief, value, custom or behavior. Also within all the aspects that make a persons whole culture I sight that not one persons whole culture is exactly the same as the next, even though many aspects (heritage, faith, skin color, nationality, sex, music, profession, etc..) may be identical.
Yes they are transmitted, and usually at a young age at that, but as one grows and learns, what has been transmitted may also be no longer recieved as it is deemed as false.
The second point the I bring foward "How can a white Rasta really FEEL (he who feels it KNOWS it) Afrikan/Rasta culture when they do not experience the daily experiences or ancestral experience born out of RESISTANCE to Europeans? " We cant feel the experience of being black, never! But I do feel in searching and checking Iself that Rasta gave birth within I a resistance to white culture, though not the same path, RESISTANCE, resistance still. In being true to Iself there is no proverbial fence I walk, I cant, I wont...as Him say till such time, WAR...and within the war there is a side ones choose, and I choose resistance to all the benefits white gives I,  How could I accept something that is false and an illusion if I am being true to Iself. And I know the privlege is there regardless,  a sign the war is not over. Resistance Still.  Still I know what I see and feel in this battle toward Truth and Right is miniscule in the price paid by InI Black Bredren and Sistren, I COULD NEVER COMPARE AND AM NOT TRYING TO, words cant express the intenseness of this, but still the questions are put out there, and I am answering as through I experience.
Ancestral experience, no I dont feel it in terms of black and white, but oppresion by supremacy to an extent yes, no comparison I am trying to make, just being real and I cant deny what some of I ancestors went through (gypies in europe) and also through sighting that in I family history, I sight also how very crucial it is for ones to know their history, but also acknowledge and RASpect it, as in I family its like pulling teeth so to speak to get them to talk about our family history, they just come to america and get homogenized, not embrassing the family history, but sweeping it under a rug, like a dirty secret, buying into the feeling of inferiority, and so called "curing it"  with false placed white superiority. Which in turn affects other cultures, which I see as an ongoing debate...ones say we dont want to hear about your little oppresion, but in the end doesnt it just fuel the bigger white supremacy problem? This I am still iditating on, and like all things apprecialove more input...
...Daily experience of resistance to white, in a different way yes. Does the I sight resistance to this is,  as a choice for all, black and white?  Although whites are the ones who started this Ism?
Yes I do overstand and apprecialove the I's suspicion naturally, history does speak for its self. And if there was no suspicion I personally would be totally blinded.
"Im reminded of Malcom X words in regards to white people of good will and sincere hearts who wished to help or join Black People. He said they could work in LIASON with us, but that they would be best suited to teach THEIR OWN, as ultimately and NATURALLY, only a Black Man can really teach a next Black Man about manhood." Truth I agree.
"Also, how does one adopt RasTafari yet not overstand or pay homage to RAS TAFARI HIMSELF? "
Right on! Rasta from Iration...Itinual Ises! And on the Iritual this is how I first come to sight Rasta, through the Divinity of HIM, which leads I down this road of knowing Iself. Which started with I rejecting the religiousity aspect of culture that was transmitted to I as a youth, once again a belief, not a truth.
"I think it is very difficult for non-Afrikans to overstand the difference between CULTURE and Beleifs in regards to a movement which is born out of resistance to their very own culture. " Maybe yes difficult, but not impossible, in truth and right there is only one goal, and that is that within itself, truth and right....I resist also white culture. Because that culture is just that, a be-lie-f, not a truth.
"Thats why Rastas say we KNOW, we dont believe."
Blessed True Word Sound Power!
Much Love and RASpect Queen!
I-sis

thats not what i was trying to say i was saying that i was mad at the fact that i was doubting myself ,i was mad at the fact that i was not sure of myself and i was giving the reason that i was not sure, the fact that the people who new nothing of what they were talking about were saying the exact things as people who do know what they are talking about, that if even other rastas were against me what cud i do. Secondly i was not comparing what discrimination i faced with the discrimination of africans i ws however comparing it to the individual, i was not saying that my classmates making fun of me was like hundreds of years of opression, i have not been whipped bcuz i was a rasta just as a slave would b whipped for being black, but i also am sure most people on this message board have either mabey you've been assualted or abused but the majority of you when it comes down to the individual pain you have felt personally the majority is probably verbal discrimination wich is what i was comparing to

siskelani all i ask is for reasurance from other rastas i cannot b told that white rastas dont belong in rasta and then the reason you give is bcuz we are not confident, how can we be confident when u r telling us we dont belong if we r to crush racist babylon u r corect 1 luv is bullsh*t but unity is not we must recognize each others differences and also accept and know that rasta is 4 all who will accept Jah not to prejudge the whites and make us outcasts give me reaasurance and i will do more than my part i need to find a rasta community around me but i will still try 2 act alone

c-spot...your posts say you are a white canadian 9th grade youth...The fact that you are able to attend school is a blessing..Use the time wisely to obtain knowledge...Do you know about HIS MAJESTY..Have you checked the command of HIM regarding education?There are many excellent recommendations all over the place on this board regarding books to gain OVERstanding... Stop following fashion and worrying about who is trying to "fight you down" realize RASTAFARI LIVITY IS SERIOUS BUSINESS..MANY WHITE PEOPLE ARE HEARING THE CALL FEW CAN HANDLE THE PRESSURE

"Dear Sis Iyabinghi when I speak of 'the end of learning' it is hard to say what I mean."

Sis Rootsie, you have to say what you mean and mean what you say at all times. It maintains your credibility. Feel I?

"It's a thing that has come to me lately that I do not quite overstand even as I say it, being such an intense learner myself."

You must first have the fullness of the thought before it can be effectively given a word sound.

"And you are right about 'discovery' being the WRONG word. Re-membering? Un-covering? Embracing the UNKNOWN? Coming to know?"

I just chalk it up to learning and learning and more learning. The wellspring of I ancestors wisdom and knowledge is wide and deep. Check the size of Afrika the numerous tribes and villages and towns and countries. Not to mention the 400yrs of interruption and miseducation. It is our duty as Afrikans to bridge this great divide.

"What I am trying to get at here is that InI are entering a NEW TIME here, and maybe learning and learning and learning is not the way of it-when the TRUTH is an indwelling principle, what need is there for learning?"

Nothing is NEW under the sun Sis and even this 'NEW TIME' will become the past. Yuh see me?

"New things enter, but maybe not through learning, rather through receiving?"

It is always better to give than to receive. In the ancient wisdom of I ancestor and the Truth of Ma'at I will give this to you: "Sweeter is the water of one who has given than the wine of one who has received."

"Forgive I am making it muddier rather than clearer I fear."

As Rootswoman always say, "out of the mud comes the lotus." And the jewel lies in the heart of the lotus. Never fear there is always room for clarity.

"Dealing with paradox and allowing complexity is a thing that takes some getting used to!"

The Sankofa bird presents a paradox by it flying in one direction while looking the opposite way but the message and sybolism is unmistakably simple.

Bless up yuhself Sistah Rootsie an' no worry yuhself cause this Rastafari livity yah well simple but the trod/road can be very rocky. ONE BLACK LOVE!


Siskelani, give thanks for such a Royal Afrikan spirit of Akwaaba to I. It is always a pleasure to be in the middle of the Afrikan village/circle. Rastafari guidance.

Give thanks Sis Iyahbinghi for spirit of LOVE and compassion.
Giving and receiving are one in truth, for giver and receiver are One.
When I read ancient wisdom I see it comes to the same conclusion as modern physics...Creation is ever-unfolding.
Nothing new under the sun? Another paradox, for in truth every moment is new, and yet leads us back back to the changeless and eternal SOURCE.
I see Rasta as the 'mystic twist' both back to the garden and forward to Zion, which are one in identity.
ZION is a LIVED REALITY. if one is willing.
I am not as confused as I sounded in that last post, and the words were failing me because words do that in the face of eternal truth.
Also because I was bending over backward to be kind, because the only way for healing is to keep this conversation going, and if we cannot do this here, who can? ROOTS sister is right, it's about works now. And this is a work right here.
I said it unsuccessfully before, so I try again here, because that's how humans do:  I and I got to see our way through this miasma of  'history' and its rotten fruits to the garden we were all created to be singin in TOGETHER. And the voice of Rastafari, of ONE LOVE and ONE UNITY is what calls us here.
Ones and ones sneer at LOVE to their own harm. Most of what us human think of as 'love' is fear, and not love at all.  Living LOVE is not for weakhearts or jokers. Sometimes its is the fire that purifies, and sometimes it is the gentlest wind...sometimes it come in the voice of ones like JAH LIGHTNIN, speaking with the force of all the living earth, lighting up all the dark places. Prophecy. Reality.
Sis I know I am not saying anything the I does not already know.
I feel the I's great spirit and intelligence. Give thanks for all kindness!
rootsie

thank you kristine
ur words give me confidence and yes i have researched H.I.M alot and have printed most articles i have found and i have a copy of the kebra negast but that is as far as as much literature that i havei do no places where to get them on the internet i always forget and get sidetracked about somthing else though like when i first joined this message board it was to learn about things like that but then all this black white arguments started up and that sidetract me but now with this new confidence i can pick up where i left off. (all this fightingabout white rastas was more of a step back for me in gaining knowledge.)

So much injustice is due to white supremacy and western Brainwhashing why denying that? Why refusing to confront grim Reality for what it is. Ducking one's head in the sand will not save the problem but make it WORSE. Rastafari is about Resistance to OPPRESSION, to Unequal DOMINATION to RACISM. It's  about lifting one's Spirit to the Divine Realm of JAH Ma'at  TRUTH, STRENGTH and JUSTICE. White 'Rastarians' should not ignore the problem of RACISM source of  the AFRIKAN DOWNPRESSION. Their cowardice and naivety must cease for the sake of the collective SUCCESS of the RASTAFARIAN STRUGGLE.  

"You must first have the fullness of the thought before it can be effectively given a word sound."  
                                     ~
yes

Greetings in the name of the Almighty to ALL who respond on this thread with truth, wisdom, respect, and love)))))))))))

Iya listen, learn, and grow....smile

much fruit is ripening on the tree... when it is fully ripened I will pick it...and share it's sweetness with ALL of thee))))))

each blessed one of you fertilize I soil

give thanks

Haile Sistah Rootsie,

Bless, love and Rastafari guidance ever, seen.

Love reign Supreme always and that is the true way of Rasta but when it is rewarded with unkindness it stretches the limits of ones patience. So sometime the warrioress vibes have to rise up in I'n'I to get the point across. Even in resistance to external dangers we still do so with a blessed heart of Love.

Big yuhself still, I feel your eternal and divine Love. Again ONE BLACK LOVE!

ok n e cowardness and naivety i had (if n e) ill cease it starting NOW

i promise