Iziz!

I thank all of de Is for the reasoning and WORDSOUNDS on the issue. It is truly enlightening to see InI rastas reasoning about such an issue. There is so much that I want to say please bear with me. I lived in DC in the 1989 and I was apalled at the colorism that the Ethiopians displayed. I interacted with them primarily in Adam's Morgan at their restaurants even though there were many who managed and operated 7/11 stores that I frequented. I inquired about a job at one of their restaurants and I could not believe at how prejudice they were in their response to me. They served Ethiopian-Jamaican food and only hired those black women who were light skin even though Ethiopia is primarily Oromo country and they are the dark skin majority!

I went on to live in Oakland, California where the Ethiopians own a lot of businesses and I was treated fairly well by the dark ones who lived in the black section of North Oakland and had businesses there. However, when I entered with my light skin friend they claimed that she looked like one of THEM and proceeded to try and speak to talk to her in French...( I attended a French Canadian primary school and I understand French very well (at college level) and they spoke very Broken French at best!) The young woman that I was with who was treated as one of them was the daughter of well known Black panther party members. Her parents were famous and she was used to the treatment even though the Party never addressed the color issue, it was strong and alive because only light skin women like Angela Davis, Elaine Brown were promoted to the high ranks (that's a related story).

Coincidently, in the part of Oakland that is closer to Berkeley, the lighter Ethiopians have restaurants and businesses freqquented by well to do folks and the ones on the other side who look darker (nd where me and my panther baby gurl friend ate) were placed closer to the black community and to the Eritrean immigrants and those were Definitely darker in hue and in hair texture. The Eritreans claimed their independence in the early 1990s and the Afro centric African Americans seemed upset and predicted the downfall of the state of Eritrea. I had so much hope for them because they looked black like some of my relatives, they were humble and they were not as well off as the Ethioians. Their businesses were humble to say the least!

In Philadelphia, we had the blessing of interacting with the black Ethiopians the ones with tightly curled hair Afros or bushes and stereotypically black features. They ran fleets of taxi cabs and they were humble and carried themselves as such. I felt a kinship with them since my father had been a taxi cab driver too who slaved away in New York City and he looked like one of them. They befriended my kingman and seemed welcoming of our Rastafarian lifestyle. This was a big difference from the treatment by the Ethiopians in DC and in Oakland!

This was a preface to some of my experiences with HIM's people and the color issue. The fact is that when black and white folks mix and enter into interracial romantic or sexual relationships black folks pay the price. For example during the OJ trials and afterwards, there was a serious backlash against black people. I felt it at UPenn where white women were pushing the agenda of black savagery and pathology. In fact, since I refused to go along and put all black people or black men in that category of violent beast I was excommunicated alienated and scapegoated. I was surprised when black women were jumping on the bandwaggon even though these same women would never support a Sista who had experienced violence of men from various races!!! A Nyabinghi Rasta woman tried to convince me that OJ was guilty because she wanted to show solidarity with her white sisters. I wanted to know why it was relevant!!! I did not care because I am very much aware of how the establishment pushes blond white women on the players because they have money and fame. These same women have no care for the likes of me who they see as being NOTHING! I am also apalled at black folks who insist on adopting light skin black children like Lionel Richie and his wife who adopted a white child when there are millions of needy black kids. (that was just an asise but this issue is very big too and examplifies well the problem of color amongst black folks).

The recent cases of Michael Jackson and Kobi Bryant are other examples of the color issue and the premium put on white female sexuality. In other words "you touch a white woman or female...you pay the price" And unfortunately the entire black race is held accountable for the mistakes or self hatred of a few. In fact, why is it that throughout these entire events and all of the hoopla no one talks about they history of black and white intimate relations? What about the violence committed against black folks by white that have gone unpublicized since slave times. White folks who violate black people do not get any time. They get patted on the back for a job well done.

I have heard Rastas who talk about the beauty of mixed race children as if they are prettier than black ones!!! Let's face it, the fact that the 12 tribes with their spiritual leader Bob Marley had money and control Reggae Music with the backing of institutions such as the Coptic Church is a big part of the issue as to why black continues to be downpress especially amongst Rastas.

I was very inspired by the Bobos with their chosen leader Prince Emmanuel because I felt that this was a move in the right direction and it would be great to see if they have any of these kinds of problems in their midst.

I thank all who have said POSITIVE sounds about the issue that will Uplift black folks especially those who choose to do the right thing and love each other or their own kinds. I once saw a documentary about Southern Ethiopians. They were Black folks with stereotypically black features and skin tones and hair textures. However these beautiful people felt a need to distort their physic with instruments so that they would be unattractive to slave traders. The tradition of distortion of the body had begun around the period of the slave trade and folks were forced to develop these practices so that they would discourage their capture and subsequent enslavement!!!

We need to discontinue our mental practices that continue to downpress us. The fact is that there are over 300 THOUSAND mixed race marriages and they have not helped the problems of racism that black folks suffer from an iota. In fact, they have helped to justify a benign and insideous kind of racism that blames blacks for their conditions. I feel that one cannot make it in certain spheres in BABYWRONG if one is not intimate with others from non-black races. In academia for example, the only successful black women that I have ever met were always in interracial relationships. This pattern of relating was so disturbing to me that I talked about it with some peers who told me that powerful black professors told them to date white or non-black men!!! This was seen as the black woman's willingness to go along with the flow and to play the game! At what cost??? Michael Jackson has done all of that and distorted his physical appearance and he still faces TIME and so does Lil' Kim and countless others who played the game. Bill Cosby payed the price with when his only son was killed by a KKKlan neo nazi even though he had had an affair (played the game) with a white woman and may have even produced a child with her. He played the game and married a near white woman with whom he had 6 children yet NBC would not open the door to let him become an owner. He continues to play the game by bashing poor and working class black women who choose to name their children African names.

We need some prayers about this because INI are suffering as a result. I remember entering these Nyabinghi Rasta ones gates and seeing a Budweiser poster with pictures of African Kings and Queens from the past. I was about to tell the Dawta that I recognized one of the Kings who had been represented by a picture of an old teacher at my school in NYC she cut me off and said that she thought that the woman depicted as Nefertiti was too light skin. I in fact wanted to tell her that Nefertiti was probably light and that Nefertari had been the darker hue. Anyway, this went on and became a big problem because I am forever punished for commenting that I was not trying to have light skin friends because I thought that her comments to me at her home and subsequents comments that she made about interracial marriages indicated that she supported black sovereignty. But I was to go on and feel the wrath of other Rastas who went to great lenghts to demonstrate their love of light skin blacks or even mixed race folks!!! This is one reason why I need to go be amongst strong black folks who are not affraid to speak the truth!

The truth is that Ikael Tafari needs to step down and let black folks lead black folks back home. He needs to do the right thing. There are countless of white social scientists and medical persons who kkkapitalize on black folks' culture, life and problems. There are many of us black rastas waiting in the wings to be trained but we are outkkkast and rejected to make space for white ones or near white looking ones or even others from non-black races. This is the fundamental issue, black folks can lead themselves if given the chance and opportunity but it never comes. I am waiting for the revolution that will set this situation straight once and for all. I believe that we can get along once we are all speaking the truth. White folks and their cousins know and are aware of the problems that they have caused and created but they don't want any discussion about it nor do they want us to disagree so they silence us in various ways. The white ones will always be chosen to hold leadership roles because they have had access more so than the darker ones. Everyone favors them. I worked with a White dread woman who was so incompetent at the job but the black folks Adored her and the white folks protected her at all cost and the black dread women were ostricized and scapegoated. This has also been my experience with light skin dread women who take on the femme fatale role or tragic mulatta persona and the men and women swoon around them and protect them at all costs. They are seen as a prize in a sea of hopelessness and that sickens me to no ends. When a Rasta lost her baby in a fire a few years ago she told the newsreporter that she felt that the Ethiopian church should come to the area. I did not understand what she meant. But upon deeper introspesction, I realize that she wanted to be put on a pedestal as a lighter skin dread and the Ethiopian church would certainly bring her that position. I have been around those folks from that church and they do not promote black pride. They promote the same sickening views and behaviors that all of babywrong church establishments do and we should banish them from our midst. I respect HIM and the Empress's position within the church but I am not certain that this church would preach unity amongst Rastas...

I keep dreaming and hoping for a better way for truth to shine once and for all.

Blessed peace and hope.