Make Him Useful

Men are like tigers, can't tame 'em, let 'em run wild

Then, shoot him and make a coat

Does Sex Sell?

Below is the transcript of a conversation I had over Facebook with a random person.

Random Person: sex sell! apparently there are only a few ppl who actually care about lyrical content and replay value

Me: Sex does not sell. That was true in the 90's but the target audience has been desensitized to it over the recent years. An artist must have a certain charisma, voice, and spectacle about themselves. She has it...Missy had it...Lil Kim had it. And the highest selling rappers over the past decade have been LYRICAL artists...Eminem, Outkast, Kanye, and Ludacris. Although they are not considered CONSCIOUS they can be classified as lyrical. So, that's all a misconception.

RP: nice speech, great presentation. but where do u get your facts from?

Sex dosent sell, only in the 90's huh? but erytime nikki is on stage she comes out in a stripper outfit, fluorescent wig and butt pads...

ME: I'm happy to see that you're impressed by my common damn sense. And it's a shame that contesting a widely accepted belief with FACTS would render my argument invalid. To rephrase what I said earlier...sex is not the ONLY thing that sells. To me, she's selling many things like MANY other artists (an image and a personality). But when you argue that sex sells, don't forget to add RACISM, MISOGYNY, and EUROCENTRISM > the ingredients to a successful career.

ME: So, what are you disagreeing with. I said sex is not the ONLY thing that sells. All of the things you mentioned always plays into the roles of misogyny and eurocentrism. And "she can't be black and not have a rump on her" >racism. (especially since blacks aren't the main consumers of this).

RP: i hope u dont major in marketing

RP: n dont u just love how ppl twist take bits n pieces of truth to suit their arguement....lol @ "she can't be black and not have a rump on her" >racism

rihanna sells way more musik to a broader audience and she dosent have ass implants.

ME: ut she also bleaches her skin to sell>>>racism/eurocentrism. All of them arent gonna do the same things or feed into the same. but they all follow a certain recipe. Imma leave this convo where it is since folk aint understanding.

RP: @ayanna u ever been out of the the US?
b4 u speak on racism you how mayn thousands of ppl in europe and asia want to look, dress and talk black. i've lived in these places and i can tell u 1st hand it aint what u think it is. the points that you are making are the exception not the rule.

ME: So you mean to tell me that you have been out of the country and still have a narrow-minded view of art? So travelling didnt mean much. especially since you speak on europeans and asians who come over here and to Caribbean places and turn black culture into a commodity...and racism doesn't exist...and you're in the "service" which has many implications in itself...let me stop. American service type thinking (You've been defeated but you still win..Iraq, Libya)...I'm done. I lose, you win. ....over Nicki Minaj smdfgdh

A COLLEGE EDUKATION IS SORT OF POINTLESS BECAUSE YOU DON'T GET TO USE IT IN A WORLD OF IDIOTS.

...An inexhaustible wealth of misery.

While watching a segment on 60 Minutes entitled "Business Adventures", I am whole heartedly disappointed in the power that the Congo has that they choose to abuse. This place is RICH, I mean DROWNING, in resources. While it is estimated that the Congo only produces 1% of the world's gold, we must mind the fact that there is no true established system to trace gold back to the place of origin (P.S., that's B.S.).

What really baffles me is the fact that only $500 worth of gold was sold WITHIN Congo (last year) -far less than the 75 million dollars worth of the product that was sold to outside countries to fund a war. The war path is stained by the blood of the innocent. And we can adorn ourselves with the misery, courtesy of walmart -the largest retailer of gold in the WORLD.

I don't intend to make blame the corporations for acquiring wealth by any means. While I think companies' continued commercialization of misery is sickening, we are just as equally responsible. After all, who do they sell it to? ...An inexhaustible wealth of misery.

Environmental Racism

For history class, I've been instructed to research an environmental issue and to write a 20 page summary of my findings. Appropriately, I've chosen to study Environmental Racism which has now evolved into Environmental Injustice. One reason for the evolution of the title, as I've found, is because the mass dumping of toxic waste is no longer limited to predominantly black communities. Studies actually suggest that the mass dumping of toxic waste became prevalent in "lower" SES communities of which white people are a part of. Thus, there is not much of a race issue as their is a class issue.

For the paper, I'm debating whether to focus on the following topics:

1) The evolution of Environmental Racism to Environmental Injustice

2) The argument that Environmental Racism exists

3)Environmental Racism with a focus on Warren County, North Carolina

I am leaning toward the first point.