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Friday, June 24, 2005

Earth, Moon, Zelda Zee, Mother of Civilization, and 8 other Planets


BlackMadonna_8
Originally uploaded by ALifeAllah.
Peace,
First, let me say that I was inspired to write this post due to the post
Don’t Let the Name Fool You: Misogyny in Conscious Rap by RevolutionMary

The post deals with what it termed the misogyny in conscious rap. It speaks of the validation of misogyny by conscious rappers that is made manifest when they DON’T speak out against their peers or address misogynistic situations in their circumference.

I want to put on record that I do agree with the general tone and presentation of the article. I think that it is basically a punk ass move to not speak up when one sees something that they consider wrong. Be a funkin’ man. Civil Rights, Black Power, Nationalist Movements, Religious Movements, Revolution, etc… is all rooted in not being silent and really being ‘bout it bout it’.

What I really want to focus on is that along with the misogynistic ‘trend’ in various forms of rap there is a ‘goddess’ syndrome in conscious rap also that can be just as detrimental. They make the original woman so ‘other worldly’ that she doesn’t really exist. She is some cooked up ideal. So many times it deteriorates over time and queen becomes quean.


The polar extreme of ‘whore’ on one pole and ‘virgin’ on the other pole is a classification of woman that is a staple of this society. In the religious frame work it is the Madonna (virgin) vs. Magdalene (whore). Ironically, there has been a popularization of an old idea via the best selling book,The Da Vinci Code. This idea is that Mary Magdelene was the wife of Jesus the Christ and had a child by him. This idea was first presented over 20 years ago in the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail. Also, there has always been various sects of Christianity that declared that there was nothing ‘miraculous’ about Jesus’s birth. They declared that Joseph was his biological father and that Mary was his biological mother who wasn’t a physical virgin as the term in Aramaic just meant ‘young woman’ (The crux of the matter is the translation of the word : עלמה, `almah which has been translated as young woman and as virgin). Incidentally this is the view point of the muslims of the Nation of Islam.


When one takes into account all of the above information you can see an element of woman that constantly gets written out of discourse. This is the presence of woman as mother. When I say woman I want to focus and concentrate on the Original/Indigenous woman (Black, Brown, and Yellow soil) as I cannot divorce their struggle from my own. The presentation of them in popular media isn’t just rooted in simple sexism. It is also rooted in oppression, colonization, slavery, etc.. Original women realized this when they sought to define their struggle as different from that of white women. The root of feminism is not in the unification of all women against all men. It is rooted in white women against white men and utilizing original women in the same manner that they have been historical utilized by the white power structure. This is why original women started to define their movement as Womanism vs Feminism. Even in the choice of words you can see that Womanism is a wholistic term involving mental maturity as well as physical foundation in definition. Feminism by etymology is dealing with physical gender. In listening to Womanist discourses I have seen them acknowledge that the white woman historically has been the partner of the white man in the oppression of the original woman. You can see this even in the ‘liberating’ birth control pill for which women from Puerto Rico were used as guinea pigs. Also the practice of gynecology in which the ‘father’ of gynecology utilized slave women to perfect his procedures.

The presence of ‘mother’ in popular rap has been limited to ‘baby mama’. In videos you can find it where a rapper ‘pimps out’ his ‘cute child’ in order to attract females. They hide the mother as though that child sprung from their head like Athena from Zeus’s cranium.

The mother is often perverted to either being a ‘whore’ (pushing out babies) or a virgin (she can only focus on her child and the notion that sex produced her child is pushed into the back ground).

The final type of woman that is often mentioned in popular rap is the ‘gangsta chick’ or ‘ride or die’ chick. In simpliest terms it is just giving your tightest homeboy a vagina and a downloadable chip of porn star moves. A gangster without a dick.

The reality is that any woman that you meet is most often not an extreme though there are the extremes out there. Even the extremes have human qualities and it would be interesting to see rappers take the initiative and address it. A ‘whore’ can have feelings. A ‘queen’ can be callous. Also Jesus and Allah the Father went to the prostitutes and elevated them to their fullest Equality instead of just ‘dumping on them’.

In the Nation we declare that the Earth is symbolic to the Black woman (Black, Brown, and Yellow). We also declare that the planet Earth is the home of Islam (mathematics). I can just speak on my own experience of making Earth (making her sad, happy, feel supported, angry, etc.). By observing the macro planet Earth one can get insight into the Original woman. The Earth is just not ‘one’ thing. The planet has a highest point (Mount Everest) and a lowest point (Marianas Trench) both which are approximately six miles from sea level (up and down). Six in Supreme Mathematics represents Equality. There is balance in one’s whole nature.

Listen, my own Earth has longitude, latitude and attitude. The planet Earth is 93 million miles from the Sun of Man. 9 is Born in Supreme Mathematics and 3 is Understanding. She Borns Understanding. Our mileage (relationship) reveals comprehension. That is not the result of ‘good times’ all of time. That is not the result of her being ‘docile’ all of the time. It is the result of the conditions being set up for us to have fruitful interactions regardless of the current or situation.

Mothers are sexy. Yup…I said it. They express their compassion and mercy in the care of their child. If one is keen in observing one can see how it can spread to everyone in their Cipher. Many times they aren’t the ‘naïve’ virgin. If they have a degree of Knowledge of their self they will also not be ‘all out there’. The planet Earth is approximately covered under ¾’s water. She is covered not hidden. Hills and mountains are good. Let it not be said that God is a prude There are 99+attributes to Allah and there are many environments on the planet Earth from the Arctic to Antarctic circle, from coral reefs to salt mines, from Caribbean beaches to Pacific volcanoes. That whole range is available to rock in Hip Hop to explore.

At times my Earth is a concerned mother, a B-Girl, a student, a surgical tech, a House DJ, a house wife, fresh, smart, inconsiderate, sarcastic, caring, selfish, selfless, sexy, a cook, a mami, a painter, a wife, a girlfriend, introspective, a dancer, a party goer, a homebody, an Earth.

There are more options then “Holy” and “Wicked”. There is righteous also. Original women are innovating as they move through this society and reveal their self as many things. The LEAST Hip Hop can do is reflect that. And yes, I acknowledge that there are many MCs who have taken up the challenge to present different perspectives of women and I salute them. Let’s see if more break the norm.

Peace

7 comments:

WALASIA "MJ" SHABAZZ said...

"At times my Earth is a concerned mother, a B-Girl, a student, a surgical tech, a House DJ, a house wife, fresh, smart, inconsiderate, sarcastic, caring, selfish, selfless, sexy, a cook, a mami, a painter, a wife, a girlfriend, introspective, a dancer, a party goer, a homebody, an Earth."

PEACE. I love this quote because it reminds me that we are multi-faceted, and all-encompassing, as Women. So many times in my life, both public and private, I've had so many pass judgment and say "you can't be this, 'cause you're that". Thank you for writing this, and thanks to your Earth for embodying all of those things!

- Miranda

p.s. Check the front page on Pyramids 2 Projects, you're up...mind detect mind!

Unknown said...

also check

"The Cult of the Black Virgin" by Ian Begg

Flaco Fuerte said...

PEACE GOD!
This article was off the mother f.... hook, pardon the explictive. On the real God, keeping it 120. Many peoples' mindsets are polarized because of their orientation to Christianity. Heaven and hell, good and bad, up and down....either or...you dig?I'm glad you addressed this because it's a view that many of the sisters take when they see God with a certain kind of land and they want to started throwing stones. Not understanding that Allah is seen and heard everywhere, in his mercy and glory, and that all things go have to go from knowledge to born.

PEACE!
Sha-King Cehum Allah

I Medina Peaceful Earth said...

Peace God
This was an excellent post. It shows the vast nature of the original woman and how we embody different currents at different times. This is not to say that one should be a "free agent" (having allegiance to nothing, implementing a smorgasboard of other people's cultural practices and values, living without any true standards). One should strive to be balanced by doing the knowledge to the cipher and asserting oneself accordingly. Everything is not always "black and white," one way or the other, but we are conditioned to buy in to an illusion where one must choose a side that can either totally paralyze and restrict you, or have you trying to live out some unrealistic expectation (the Superwoman myth), or one where you are "free" to present yourself (in words, ways, actions, and appearance) in any form or fashion, objectifying self and attributes. America is a one-stop shopping center for identity, and it is this multiplicity of the appearance of choices that makes the U.S. so damn homogenized. It's like standing in Time Square. "Free" to make so many choices, that you stand around, not really making a choice at all. But we know that so-called freedom without standards is chaos. So nowadays, there are so many "choices" for original women, which is peace, however, like my God stated, all of these choices has never been about truly empowering original women. It continues to feed capitalism and a consumer culture that lines the pockets of those with real doe. It is the choice without the standard which is an issue, for men and women. (Look out for his post about the "Free Agent Cultural Nation" coming soon...imajestic@blogspot.com). The Earth (the planet nor the woman) is not simple and there are many layers, complexities and currents that we live out daily. We do have choices, and we too are affected by what we do the knowledge to, so it is imperative that what we choose to implement as a part of our land and bring to our cipher is in line with the cultural and ideological perspectives that we advocate, that forward a community. I'm still breaking the chains of my conditioning, especially dealing with image, and constructs of what America says a woman should be, or the unproductive historical stifling paradigms that you so eloquently outlined. I appreciate you shedding light on that, and by presenting your Earth as a practical example of how these concepts are played out (knowledge and wisdom). Very insiteful.
Peace
I Medina Peaceful Earth
Power Born (Pittsburgh, PA)

Justice said...

Peace god, you said it all and said it well. In music the majority are always the either super holy or fully corrupted, fantastically smart or dumb as a stump, they either shoot up parties or they are scared lame stuck in the crib, bottom line we are different things at different times and have "areas of opportunity" that we can work on, it is refreshing to here it in the music and to read it as you have laid it out.
Peace

Anonymous said...

Peace!
Yes, Yes CB'S the words you manifest was very clear to the ear!

The Earth is a high state of existence for the original woman. But I don't think that the "free agent" sees the connection and is cool with being thought of as and equivical to man on some lesbian ish or so called Goddess, or just a bitch. Some of the sistas embrace that term and after further investigation into this I can't blame them because the behavior follow the definition. Gracefully, they can be reformed, reshaped, rediscovered, if they make that choice for themselves. Good grief...where the woman that truely love themselves at? Don't get me started...I will probably blog it later on www.myspace.com/born_shamir

Thanks for the light, Sun of Man!
Peace,
your Bro in Mathematics
9shamir

creatrix said...

peace...

it's always beautiful to hear a brotha speak on these issues. just had to put that out there.

peace & blessings