Butch Berry's World

What I don't like about this cartoon is that it once again does exactly what Eric Holder talked about.

It zeroes in on that 1/10th of a percent of Racists that the vast majority of us will never come into contact with...the KKK...and it fails to address how racism has SPLINTERED and is now doled out by practically EVERYBODY in America--not just white folks.

What continues to separate me from "American Blacks" and their anger over "racism"...is the bitterness I have about my 30+ years experience as a Black Woman in this country.

The overwhelming majority of "racism" I experienced was doled out by other blacks. I'll never forget a very light skinned woman at the NAACP saying that I was too "dark" to be the Receptionist--the girl at the FRONT DESK at NAACP had to be light. Or a myriad of other "racist" experiences that were inflicted BY BLACK FOLK on other Blacks (especially inflicted on little black-skinned girls) all around me.

I won't joust the rest of you from your Comfort Zones as you point the finger at Whitey and tell yourself that Whitey's the Devil and we're all such wonderful saints in Africa and Harlem.

Though I would love to cheer on Butch Berry, this cartoon does absolutely nothing to address MY PAIN.

I find the cartoon so 1960's and so IRRELEVANT in really talking about the monster that racism has become. (And as a side note to Berry, as we acknowledge that the American Indians are nearly extinct---are you, Berry, making any NEW Indian babies or just whining about the one thing that you and US AFRICANS have in common...our LOSER past?).

Honestly. Is the White Man REALLY the devil?

Just the fact that intellectual Blacks don't have the courage to explore the "core" of racism...Colorism...makes this whole cartoon seem HYPOCRITICAL and pandering.

I mean, what's the difference between WHITEY and the BET network? MANY AFRICANS living in this country after 1980 will testify that "MOST" of their experiences with "color & race" come at the hands of other blacks. And especially if you are female.

When will Black and Indian men draw cartoons about that? Because it's LONG OVERDUE.

It seems to me as if Butch, Holder and you are speaking of the same thing. There wouldn't exsist in the African American psyche a deep seated divide among us if it weren't for Caucasian slave owners/business men. The divide between us began 460 years ago. It began when Caucasian slave owners raped African American women that they thought of as property. This produced children who were of lighter complexion. Although slaves, these children were favored. In fact, it was the intent of slvae owners to keep their slaves in line by instituting the 'divide and conquer' theory. Create hostility between light and darker hued slaves. This indoctrination was so deep-seated that it thrives today. However, before you can treat a symptom, you have to diagnose the problem. The problem has not been treated and it is shoved up under the rug time and time again because people are uncomfortable with hearing the truth. I grew up in a family where lighter skin was considered better than my skin color...a deep brown. But my mother raised me to love the skin I was in regardless of what anybody else thought. Psychologically, slavery and all attitudes as a result of it, is very present in us. Eric Holder told the truth. Apparently we, as African Americans are cowards, too, according to you. When reparations are given to the descendents of African American slaves, Americans should be called out for their cowardly behavior.

Tracey said:

Apparently we, as African Americans are cowards, too, according to you.



Kola says:

YES, definitely...and so are the Colonized Black people in Africa, and African immigrants, who I also addressed.

One thing AAs need to realize is that you are not the ONLY Black People on earth...and these "mental illnesses" effect Black people GLOBALLY. Especially since the rest of the Black world COPIES whatever they see AAs do. 15 years ago--we had no WIGS & WEAVES in most of Africa. But now with Music Videos and AA movies---the gift keeps on giving. And the Black British are even worse than AAs when it comes to Colorism...the South Africans are PITIFUL in their self-hate. In my country, SUDAN...the Nubians have become outright n****stock trash; a total disgrace. And if you ever want to meet SATAN and find out just how "Black" he is, just go to "North Sudan" or visit the BLOOD-THIRSTY "Brown Brother" Arabs and what their Non-Black cultures taught them about Blackness.

INSIDIOUS EVIL and hatefulness that has roots much deeper than just Europe, my loves.

You can't beat Egypt, Ethiopia and Somalia for full-on violent hatred of genetic "Blacks". The so called "Ethnic Somalis/Ethiopians" (ethnic meaning mixed) will support genocide of Authentic Blacks and will swear to you that "pure" Black people GROW TAILS, naturally steal and naturally stink...quicker than a visiting White woman can blush.

Caucasian people have done what we ALLOWED them to do...what SOME OF US (Black Arabs) "wanted" them to do for our own GREED and hatefulness. I don't know how we always leave that out of the equation (sp).

It just so happens that I LIVE here in the USA, but I've been everywhere Tracey and it's Blacks EVERYWHERE---they inflict pain on each other like nobody's business and if we're going to discuss racism in 2009, I am more interested in OUR PSYCHOLOGICAL REACTION and our INTRA-Racial ABUSE than I am in pointing fingers at White people. Because honestly---I don't care what White People think about us. I don't value White People's opinions; their Eurocentrism. To me, they are "neighbors", sometimes "beloved friends"--not family. NO ONE is "family" with us but us from the Bloodberry (the black blood=black skin/the Proof hair). We are the "tima", resulting the family. And what I care about is Blacks and our relationshiop with each other FAR MORE than anything else. So that is where any discussion of "racism" begins for me is with US and how we treat one another.

As well, at the end of the day in the United States of America, the person most likely to save me from being "spit on" for having Nappy hair or invite me to a social event when I'm too dark to be flaunted by a Negro is a WHITE Person.

And that needs to change.

SO PLEASE DON'T FORGET...that when little Black children are being ridiculed about their blackness by Black folks (or learn that they're ugly from watching BET), it doesn't matter WHO or HOW those racist beliefs started.

The ABUSER is the ABUSER--he doesn't get off the hook just because his original teacher was a WHITE plantation owner 500 years ago.

And as an African woman, I can tell you some stories about how AFRICAN PEOPLE abused, mutilated, humiliated and SOLD each other---thus making the White invasion/Eurocentrism possible in the first place. The MINDSET came long before the Whites arrived in Africa.

No one fights harder against WHITE SUPREMACIST CULTURE than I do....but the problem of "racism" goes far beyond White people and historical Whiteness. In Africa, we had our own system of hate.

At the root of it is "ancient sexism" and "ancient Bling-bling" and "ancient Black Greed" and what we did to each other and continue to do to each other, because guess what--we are not morally superior either.

When it comes to "race", "royalty" and "Blood Rules", I would say that AFRICANS have more in common with "Europeans" than we do with Black Americans. We have not experienced slavery and "self-erasure" to the degree that Black Americans have. We have our real names, languages and cultural ties--we also take color VERY SERIOUSLY, because like the European and the Chinese, we know what Blood and Power is--we have something to protect and we don't celebrate "bastardization" so readily. So I can't claim that the White people are "devils" and the Africans "angels".

It's just...one of them got to the gun first.

The other one ended up a slave.

In my heart of hearts---I can not claim that I TRUST or feel any more ACCEPTED or secure around my own Black American Brother than I do White Men. In many ways, the White American Male is more sympathetic and has less stereotypes about me than Black men do. That's a tragedy and it's also fact.

'I'll never forget a very light skinned woman at the NAACP saying that I was too "dark" to be the Receptionist--the girl at the FRONT DESK at NAACP had to be light' - Geez Kola that's shocking.

I hear your misgivings about Butch's cartoon message. In his defence though, I think for him to make sense (within the constraints of his platform) he must reflect the very average sense of African Americans. That's the language African Americans know and speak. To resonate with his average audience, he should reflect them. In a one liner and cartoon-platform, I doubt he could get your kind of message across in a manner that is humorous. In fact I doubt your message needs any humnor. What I suspect is that it can only be presented at a level that would require volumes of text and years of series of lectures including a number of therapy sessions. Butch may be the guy with a water pistol while your message requires a B52. But maybe I am wrong - I am not a genre theorist. Nonetheless, your message is more important.

Butch Berry's World seems to be a very lonely and scary place. Here's my thoughts on the "Hoods" from "The Backodebus." All is not good in the "Hood", because a sheet only hides one's color. What one says reflects what is in his heart, but this evil could also be in a "Brother." Too ashamed of what gifts God gave him; it's a burden without the strength to fight and move on. It's a shame so deep, he must kid himself to forget... he's wrong and still alone. In summary, I see Butch Berry's world under the sheet. I think he's reflecting what could be in his heart? It's just as wrong as "Dead Monkey" yet not quite as funny.

And I appreciate that your message is a lot more rounded than the last time! I appreciate that you do not crudely other AAs the way I once felt you did, but now speak as part of a family with members suffering from varied degrees of a similar disease. I love that growing honesty.

And of course because I am gay, I'd see you? I think.

This is an interesting and very pointed cartoon. @ Kola Boof: As always, you make very interesting points. I usually don't comment, but I just have one question: Why do you appear to be so angry with African Americans? Of course, there are issues of colorism, but it is only a reflection of deep-seated self-hatred. And where did this self-loathing come from? I'll tell you, it comes from centuries of cultural domination. This is not to say that we should hate "Whitey" as you have said so provocatively. And BTW, I haven't seen anyone referring to "Whitey" on this site, at least not recently(prior to your comment, of course). It is sad that when Africans come to this country, they tend to find more in common with Whites, as you say, than they do their own people.

C. I think you can ask a similar to American black gay men and women (in America and elsewhere) who may find that they are relatively better received by 'Whitey' and not threatened to death by the average black man or woman. It is not Kola's fault that she feels her life is at risk among African Americans and other Africans. It is the fault of the perpetrator period. And you cant deny her the right to voice that out, by simply finding offense at her expression of her own experience and truth. What is equally sad is the reverse: that some Africans do not find a welcoming home among African Americans and vice-versa. Personally, I have never had that kind of experience, but I must hear her. And like I said before, I think Kola has found a much better tone for her rage and which is a lot more inclusive. The problem is bigger than you or African American. Grow up.

And nhlanhla, what about you being GAY?

If you're happy, I'm happy. But what does YOUR SEXUALITY have to do with me?

AND NO...I don't think you'd SEE ME, nhlanlah.

In fact, the cynical assumptions in your question proved just how IGNORANT and BLIND some Gay People can be.

I don't care about you or anyone being "gay". There's nothing wrong with that in my eyes.

But don't think that with the "naked eye" you can ASSIGN sexuality or your MACHINATIONS about sexuality, because you are not GOD or apparently a SCIENTIST.

Your assassination of my sexuality and of my motherhood becomes yet another example of people's ABUSE and "mistaken judgment" towards me, and even being a "GAY MAN", you fail to recognize this.

What I would like to ask GAY & LESBIANS, TRANSGENDERS, ETC....is when will you create a category for HERMAHPRODITES?

And in particular, Type T True Hermaphrodites, people born with BOTH sexes (usually with one exised at birth). Maybe your INTELLECTUALISM might exceed ARROGANCE if GAY & LESBIAN TRANSGENDERS factored in EVERYBODY's truth and reality instead of ASSUMING your 2-cent Cabaret bitchery equals actual knowledge.

If you want to know who I am and how I came to be and what I'm about, then read my autobiography. Hidden in the details are the "details" my darling. And when it comes to HONESTY...I wrote the book on HONESTY, that would be me. But far be it from me to expect that a "GAY MAN" can read sexual ennui any better than a homophobic straight one. I mean, assumptions go with ass right? And 2 Babies came out of my ass--so what really is it that you "SEE" darling?

What I would hope is that you, a GAY MAN, not join in trying to ABUSE my reality based on your perceptions of sex and your sexual privilage--because I don't take abuse.

If you want to love me, then just DO IT. Don't try to define me--let me show you who I am. That's EXACTLY what I do with Gay & Lesbian people--I just love them for who they are and through experience, I discover who they are by their own definitions.

No one can be close to me without giving me the same respect.

nhlanhla: Far be it from me to try to deny anyone their first amendment right to free speech, as you are now attempting to do to me. But free speech is a two-way street. At least it was the last time I checked, and I am just as free as the next person to air my thoughts. IMHO, this is all divisive and distracting. Kola's rage, although PERHAPS expressed in a "better tone" as you say, is still just that! RAGE. Misdirected RAGE, at that! Of course colorism is painful, just as homophobia, and weightism and other forms of discrimination are. But to compare it to being brutally lynched, shackled or gunned down just because of your race (for centuries, no matter what your shade is) is like comparing the color lilac to deep, dark purple. One is only a slight shade of the other. You know what? I hope that Kola never really has to put her theory of White benovolence to the test in a dark alley somewhere. And by the way, I am fully grown, thank you very much.

C asked:

Kola, why do you appear to be so angry with African Americans?



Kola says:

Why would any mother be happy to watch her children committ suicide and psychological cannibalism against each other?

And why are African-Americans that my "anger" is actually my LOVE for you?

Why is it rocket science that an African woman would want to see Black Americans exist "AS THEMSELVES", in their own unique image? More than "angry"--I am disappointed in ALL African people.

You think being "abused and oppressed" by Fellow blacks is more understandable and forgivable than being abused and oppressed by White People? No--it's WORSE!

And you really think who's "AT FAULT" matters and that WHITE PEOPLE are going to Wake UP and make things all better for us? They kicked the crap out of us and now you expect them to be the ones to put us back together????

And "nhlanhla",

I would advise you to read the TWO DECADES of books I've written before you claim what I have and have not stated and to whom. My books almost completely deal with "AFRICAN" self-hatred and self-destruction. Not AAs. But on this board, almost everyone here is AA and on THIS board that is who gets addressed.

NO ONE has crucified White People MORE than I have and done it IN PRINT. I address the whole world, thank you very much.

You keep excusing COPY-CAT behavior by millions of Blacks by obsessing over who's "AT FAULT".

That's not going to help us in the least.

You think WHITE PEOPLE are GOD and we don't have a mind of our own?

EVERYBODY KNOWS HOW AND WHY Blacks started believing they're inferior---

But after 1,000 years (I am counting Arab Muslim enslavment), we haven't LEARNED to do better and you think that's OK???? You think we're supposed to blindly live by White Eurocentrism and just BLAME IT ON THE WHITES for all eternity????

You're saying that because of "ALMIGHTY WHITE MAN", I don't have control over my own spirit---therefore I'm not responsible for how I treat you?

All my life I've heard Black Americans dish out criticism on a daily basis---criticizing Whites; criticizing Africans---yet you can't take criticism yourselves.

You actually believe that you're MORALLY SUPERIOR, you don't "fart" and that your rampant ugliness and self-destructiveness is forever "WHITE PEOPLE'S FAULT". Of course, White People being "GOD" in your mind---you believe that any discussion on "Race" begins and ends with THEM. They are the GOLD STANDARD of everything for you.

But let me tell you something--"The SLAVE is the DEVIL, too"---

The VICTIM is also responsible, because it's the slave/victim who accepts slavery in the first place. And being a VICTIM doesn't give us "carte blanche" to continuously victimize and cannibalize our own...or even to remain a Victim.

I most definitely acknowledge that WHITE EUROPEANS engineered our self-hate and our self-delusions....but why shouldn't they?

SOMEBODY has to be on top and somebody has to be on the bottom.

The WHITES beat the crap out of the American Indians and the AFRICANS. Part of their VICTORY is having us lick their boots.

Are Black People actually waiting for WHITES to give up their victory and proclaim AUTHENTIC blackness as the Crowning Glory of humanity?

I don't think WP WILL EVER freely relinquish their status--we're going to have to dismantle White Supremacy; not them.

We have to do what for so long...we've been afraid to do.

Excuse me, "C"

When in the hell did "KOLA" ever speak of "White benevolence"?

Please don't be delusional and please don't write lies about me.

And "Colorism" is the ROOT ACTIVATOR of ALL RACISM whether it be lynching or anything else.

How are you going to fight RACISM without first defeating "colorism"?

Every day I receive letters from all over this country...mostly letters come from BLACK AMERICAN teenagers and Black Women. And let me tell you something--the average DAILY experience of Black people and "prejudice" is an INTERNAL SOCIAL one--not a confrontation with racist Whites.

How any Black person with any "integrity" can claim to discuss RACISM yet ignore our SUPPORT for Colorism is beyond stupid. They're both the same thing, C.

Kola, you may not have used the word "benevolence" when referring to Whites, but you sure implied it. Overall, it is just your approach to the subject, and your timing. Also, your insistence on injecting this into any discussion of AMERICAN racism against African Americans is questionable. You, Ms. Kola, refuse to see how damaging your ravings are. There are many internecine biases that plague the Black people of the world. No one denies that. But that is a separate issue from White Supremacy!! Don't you realize that you give comfort to white racists with your diatribes? Dude! Give it a rest, already!

Ha ha ha Kola. You completely got the wrong end of the stick. That was a question mainly for myself, not you? ha ha ha. Come on breathe

C...

Did you even read ERIC HOLDER'S SPEECH?

And if Whites were COMFORTED by me they'd be promoting me, not suppressing and smearing me. You obviously have not bothered to read the things I've said and continue to say TO WHITES; TO THEIR FACES.

But notice how you're doing exactly what ERIC HOLDER spoke about. You only want to discuss "racism" to the extent that we use it to attack Whites. But what about YOUR cowardice in discussing 2009 racism? 'Cause this is not 1966. Racism has MORPHED and "splintered". Yes, Whites STARTED it.

nhlanhla,

I love you, King.

I love you, too, C.

My anger with OUR FOLK is that I just want them remember who the real enemy is and stop killing and abusing each other.

You guys think I'm crazy, but I think we need a revolution just to strengthen and reaffirm ourselves. I don't see us winning until we do that.

By no means I wanted to allude to your sexuality. Only once and months ago I toyed with you about you being a lesbian, and you took quite light heartedly. But today, no I did not do that. Come one sis. ha ha ha. That is crazy.

I see your point of having addressed mainly AA on this platform before, because its mainy AAs here. But I liked it that today you addresed the rest of us including American Indians. I think that approach invites a more open reception to your rage. But also can I ask you to please stop shouting. It confusses me completely. Otherwise, I have not read your books, so I could not know this was not an AA specific topic for you. Pardon me and my ignorant ass! Otherwise, I am truly ashamed of some of our behaviours and I know that it is what will always keep us at the bottom of all piles. That is if we dont change. In that I am hopeful. Otherwise, I think you must take a trip back home for a while. I am building a house for my mother in Zululand and I know you'd be happy you did. You can find my contacts through my name. Bless you and Butch Berry and of course C. This girl is crazy! lol

Oh and I am NOT a scientist. I think I am an economist who knows how and wants to be human.

nhlanhla, I never shout.

That's why hate the internet; people really don't understand how gentle I am.

Also, I'm not allowed to leave the United States. I guess you haven't read much about me, but I'm on the Suspected Terrorist list (not that anybody at the State Department really believes I'm a terrorist) and they took away my passport.

That's an interesting way of dealing with suspected terrorists. To trap them in. Maybe things would change for the better for you with Michelle Obama as president. I'd write a personal letter to her. If only they knew the truth about your appreciation of the country. But that's what fear does, it makes you kill your own friends and sometimes family. That's shit.