I saw this poem on another board, check it out. . .

. . .It's called:

My Brothers

*Written by Haki Madhubuti (formerly Don L. Lee)*


*snip* *snip* *snip *snip* *snip*

Please note: I removed the poem because some of the males here took it as a diss against INTERRACIAL RELATIONSHIPS (and we surely don't wanna do THAT) and not in the spirit it was meant. I didn't realize the mindset here at the time. Oops, my bad & my apologies.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Fabulous,

is there are similar poem written for black women?? if so, please post it. This seems to be an open diss to Interracial relationships. I wonder if black women are being held to the same standard by this poet.

I don't know if there's a similar poem for black women or not. I simply came across THIS ONE and decided to share. As far as I'm concerned the brother wrote from his OWN perspective [which he's entited to], & more power to him.

Why don't YOU write a poem for black women so you can call it even steven.

quote:

Originally posted by Fabulous:
I don't know if there's a similar poem for black women or not. I simply came across THIS ONE and decided to share. As far as I'm concerned the brother wrote from his OWN perspective [which he's entited to], & more power to him.

Why don't YOU write a poem for black women so you can call it even steven.

unfortunately, i'm not poetic

heck I'll take a stab at it...

My Sistahs,

I saw you the other day at the grocery store
And wondered what you thought about
When you cut your eye through me

Then the thought occured
What would it take to get you to see me?
What's your favorite flavor of black?
Do you love all flavors?
Do you love me... as a black man?

I imagined a white woman clinging to me
All of a sudden, now
You can vividly describe the color of my eyes
oh my, I'm not invisible after all

Once upon a time a persons character
was it's name
and it's name
was it's identity
So Alica Keys put it right when she said
"You don't know my name"

And we can't even have a decent dialogue
To establish acquaintance
We don't even share a custom or culture
We are strangers
-----------------------------------

{just stirring the pot}
peace and love

This message has been edited. Last edited by: HeruStar,

THAT TYPE OF HONESTY IS BELOW MY PAYGRADE.

quote:

Originally posted by HeruStar:
heck I'll take a stab at it...

My Sistahs,

I saw you the other day at the grocery store
And wondered what you thought about
When you cut your eye through me

Then the thought occured
What would it take to get you to see me?
What's your favorite flavor of black?
Do you love all flavors?
Do you love me... as a black man?

I imagined a white woman clinging to me
All of a sudden, now
You can vividly describe the color of my eyes
oh my, I'm not invisible after all

Once upon a time a persons character
was it's name
and it's name
was it's identity
So Alica Keys put it right when she said
"You don't know my name"

And we can't even have a decent dialogue
To establish acquaintance
We don't even share a custom or culture
We are strangers
-----------------------------------

{just stirring the pot}
peace and love

Not bad at all.

quote:

My Sistahs,

I saw you the other day at the grocery store
And wondered what you thought about
When you cut your eye through me

Then the thought occured
What would it take to get you to see me?
What's your favorite flavor of black?
Do you love all flavors?
Do you love me... as a black man?

I imagined a white woman clinging to me
All of a sudden, now
You can vividly describe the color of my eyes
oh my, I'm not invisible after all

Once upon a time a persons character
was it's name
and it's name
was it's identity
So Alica Keys put it right when she said
"You don't know my name"

And we can't even have a decent dialogue
To establish acquaintance
We don't even share a custom or culture
We are strangers
-----------------------------------

And this ^ folks is called: EVEN STEVEN.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Fabulous,

This one is called: Kneegrows

I saw a poem [written by a black man] that I liked
so I sat down at the computer and began to type

I made a point to say the poem was not meant as a slam
but some took it as a diss against interracial relationships - (puke) & DAMN!!!!!!!

Instead of taking it in the spirit it was meant
"lets find a way to disparage black women," became their intent. . .

I couldn't believe it, but that's how it goes. . .

when you don't consider the negative vibe of kneegrows.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Fabulous,

Since you people obviously couldn't relate to the brother's words, I will remove the original poem. As I said, it wasn't intended as a "finger pointing" moment. . .

But I won't allow y'all to turn something that moved me, into another opportunity to diss black women.

Carry on peeps. . .

With y'all "Black women are scum, interracial relationships are where it's at," selves.

Why remove the poem just because people question or have a problem with it? Man, Fab, if the rest of the world could do it like that, things would be... well, I started to say "easy, smooth sailing," etc., but it wouldn't necessarily be beneficial. Repost the thing! I wanna read it!

quote:

Why remove the poem just because people question or have a problem with it?

Fab: Why? Because the males here have taken what I thought was a beautiful sentiment and turned it into an ugly tit-for-tat "bash black women" type of thing.

I won't allow that nasty, self hating vibe anywhere NEAR the brother's poem [the author of the original poem].

quote:

Vox wrote:

Man, Fab, if the rest of the world could do it like that, things would be... well, I started to say "easy, smooth sailing," etc., but it wouldn't necessarily be beneficial. Repost the thing! I wanna read it!

The rest of the world will be fine. I'm sure everyone has a "I'm taking my ball & go home" moment every once in a while--well, this is mine.

There's enough negativity going around by self haters that I do not see the benefit in contributing any more.

Vox, my dear brother, that poem has been sitting here for almost 4 days. . .& considering the negative response, I'd say you haven't missed a thang.

Honestly, I thought the poem was a nice tribute, but oops, my bad.

quote:

Originally posted by HeruStar:
heck I'll take a stab at it...

My Sistahs,

I saw you the other day at the grocery store
And wondered what you thought about
When you cut your eye through me

Then the thought occured
What would it take to get you to see me?
What's your favorite flavor of black?
Do you love all flavors?
Do you love me... as a black man?

I imagined a white woman clinging to me
All of a sudden, now
You can vividly describe the color of my eyes
oh my, I'm not invisible after all

Once upon a time a persons character
was it's name
and it's name
was it's identity
So Alica Keys put it right when she said
"You don't know my name"

And we can't even have a decent dialogue
To establish acquaintance
We don't even share a custom or culture
We are strangers
-----------------------------------

{just stirring the pot}
peace and love

now that's poetic.

quote:

Originally posted by HeruStar:
heck I'll take a stab at it...

My Sistahs,

I saw you the other day at the grocery store
And wondered what you thought about
When you cut your eye through me

Then the thought occured
What would it take to get you to see me?
What's your favorite flavor of black?
Do you love all flavors?
Do you love me... as a black man?

I imagined a white woman clinging to me
All of a sudden, now
You can vividly describe the color of my eyes
oh my, I'm not invisible after all

Once upon a time a persons character
was it's name
and it's name
was it's identity
So Alica Keys put it right when she said
"You don't know my name"

And we can't even have a decent dialogue
To establish acquaintance
We don't even share a custom or culture
We are strangers
-----------------------------------

{just stirring the pot}
peace and love



radioRaheem wrote: now that's poetic.

Yayyyyyyyyyy [Fab jumping up & down]

[clapping]



You go guys! [BIG SMILE]

The sentiment: "black sistahs ain't nothing but STRANGERS to us anyway. humph! How dare that brother imply anything negative about interracial relationships??? Please!

Black women are strangers to us, did I stutter? and if folks say anything that even RESEMBLES a diss against our precious interracial relationships, us black males gonna put 'em ALL in deys place. dats rit.

Dis is how it go, folks: black sistahs [the strangers]

Interracial relationships -

Ya better ask somebody."

Fab: Sigh & smh

quote:

Originally posted by Fabulous:
Since you people obviously couldn't relate to the brother's words, I will remove the original poem. As I said, it wasn't intended as a "finger pointing" moment. . .

But I won't allow y'all to turn something that moved me, into another opportunity to diss black women.

Carry on peeps. . .

With y'all "Black women are scum, interracial relationships are where it's at," selves.

First, I don't think you should have deleted the poem. This is the internet and debated ideas should be free and open to all opinions. Please repost


i think the problem is that there are too many people overly concerned about what dating choices that a black man makes, yet, at the same time, not any opinions directed at dating/love choices black women make. It seemed like the original poem was first telling brothers that they [the poet] wasn't trying to tell brother what to do, followed by the very common theme of remember what color of womb you passed thru.

I'm a big fan of fairest. Where's the balance?? [I believe that's what I asked for] Are black women being held to task for their thug loving choices?? esp. those that are like the two stories I posted previously, 1. a black woman stealing a lawyer's ID so she can sex a murderer in prison 2. Sinita Mesa and JJ tragic story in which she was a Morgan State grad that dated a drug dealer for 4.5 years...a story that ended in her death and the facts of her assisting the transport and sale of illegal drugs, her and her friends switching cars so that he can hide from police, renting out a 'stash house' garage for drug money and drugs, and moving him into her parents house after a judge released him from prison??? Why did she make that dating choice??

If the poet feel that black men owe blk women dates/love, fine. Do blk women owe the brothers anything?? If the poet is against Interracial union/dating, fine...but what equal alternatives are there for brothers that women like [certified dime/ 10 out of 10 on the hottest scale, according to a classmate of hers I know from her days at Morgan] Sinita Mesa turned down so she can focus on JJ?? If the poet feels that blk men are destroying the community, that's fine for him to believe that or whatever...But isn't it a two way street?? Do black women make bad choices that 'destroy' the community?? Just looking for balance...that's all. thanks

radioraheem, I didn't read ALL of your commmentary. . .AND I really don't have time to entertain any of your thoughts. I "get" where you're coming from . . .

However, I DID start this thread, so I will say this much:

My intent was not to slammed ANYONE, I interpreted the poem in the spirit it was meant.

For the record, this is an African American message board, therefore, *in my case* ... I will continue to post from a PRO BLACK perspective and if you don't like it - do what you tell OTHERS to do - "DON'T READ MY POSTS."

In the meantime, I will look around for MORE poems to post that will insult & disparage black woman. Ize DO want y'all to feel comfortable.

smh.

This is the vibe I get:

"LETS BE FAIR Y'ALL AND DISPARAGE BLACK WOMEN. . .AND LETS DO THIS BECAUSE A BLACK MALE POETIC APPEARED TO BE DISSING INTERRACIAL RELATIONSHIPS"

******************

Yayyyyyyyyyy [Fab jumping up & down]

[clapping]

You go guys! [BIG SMILE]

The sentiment: "black sistahs ain't nothing but STRANGERS to us anyway. humph! How dare that brother imply anything negative about interracial relationships??? Please!

Black women are strangers to us, did I stutter? and if folks say anything that even RESEMBLES a diss against our precious interracial relationships, us black males gonna put 'em ALL in deys place. dats rit.

Dis is how it go, folks: black sistahs [the strangers]

Interracial relationships: [and don't you dare try to diss 'em]

Ya better ask somebody."

Fab: Sigh & smh

my brothers

my brothers i will not tell you
who to love or not love
i will only say to you
that
Black women have not been
loved enough.

i will say to you
that
we are at war & that
Black men in america are
being removed from the
earth
like loose sand in a wind storm
and that the women Black are
three to each of us.



no
my brothers i will not tell you
who to love or not love
but
i will make you aware of our
self hating and hurting ways.
make you aware of whose bellies
you dropped from.
i will glue your ears to those images
you reflect which are not being
loved.

Also, since someone came up with such a beautiful tribute to black woman, let's keep it going.

If anyone else [racists included] has a poem that will diss & disparage black women [the strangers], please post them here.

Here's one:

Black woman, black woman go away
black woman black woman, did you hear what I say?

black woman black woman a stranger you ARE. . .
black woman black woman away from you I run far.

Black woman black woman, yeah we be talkin' to you
interracial relationships, THAT's what we do.

black wm black wm, you're nothing but waste material...
so. just. disappear.

you are nothing but a stranger, black wm.

While I'm not a proponent of interracial relationships, I'd like to know whether the author wished to assert that all brothers who date interracially "self hate & hurt".

What was disparaging about Haki's poem or Heru's?

quote:

Originally posted by ddouble:
While not a proponent of interracial relationships, I'd like to know whether the author wished to assert that all brothers who date interracially "self hate & hurt".

Why don't you ASK him? It goes without saying there's a form of self hate within the black community, however, kneegrows like yourself can only see the negative in that poem . . .and not take it in the spirit it was meant - as positive re-enforcement [of LOVE] for black woman.

Note: Also, some people are so damn boring & with no originality, I mean, they have to jump on the band wagon, otherwise, folks forget they're even around. smh