Kaya Isesejah,

Before I attempt to reason this topic with you let me say this:

If I were you (which I am ever thankful that I am not), I would check my place real, REAL quick. If is clear that you feel the need to resort to this type of deplorable behaviour as you seem to have no ability to reason in a civilized fashion.

You use your Christianity and your patois here as a tool. On one hand you like to play the good Christian role and on the other you want to get yard and behave like an uncivilized, guttersnipe with people.

You have the nerve to attempt to instruct the moderators to deal with Fyahman with this kind of behaviour that you have just displayed? Wherever you got the erroneous impression that any of the moderators are here for you to instruct them on what to do and what not to do, you should get rid of it quickly. So far, the only person on this thread displaying deplorable conduct is you. If your words and your attitude are supposed to be a calling card or recommendation for Christianity then you have failed miserably.

Watch your tone. It will not be tolerated indefinitely.

Having said that, Can you really tell me that you do not understand this or are you being deliberately dishonest? Racism and white privilege functions based on appearances not on genetics or heritage. You asking Ayinde to 'prove' your heritage as ‘white' is quite ridiculous. When I walk down the street I am black. It does not matter that a part of my heritage is Portuguese and Carib and whatever else as well as African. Certainly no one would describe me as ‘that Amerindian girl', or anything else like that, nor would I want them to. The intimate circle of people who are aware of you may know your history and see you in one way, but let me tell you, I am sure that when you walk down the street alone, you are a white female to the casual observer.

Society functions based upon what you look like, what the public perceives you as, and based on these things how you may be able to go out about in society because of it IF YOU CHOOSE. That is white privilege. As I explained before, a white person does have the luxury of claiming whatever ancestry they wish, once they look white that is how they will be accepted. A black African person does not. I really do think that this issue is not that hard as it has been debated on this board many times before and others who did not understand the issue before were able to get it. You can choose not to get it if you want but I think African people are well in order to be suspicious of those WHOM THEY SEE AS WHITE if they want, given the nature of the discussions that we do engage and especially when that person often shies away from debating black issues on race, history etc

Let me place three definitions here:

evan·ge·lize
Pronunciation: i-'van-j&-"lIz
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): -lized; -liz·ing
transitive senses
1 : to preach the gospel to
2 : to convert to Christianity
intransitive senses : to preach the gospel
- evan·ge·li·za·tion /-"van-j&-l&-'zA-sh&n/ noun

pros·e·ly·tize
Pronunciation: 'prä-s(&-)l&-"tIz
Function: verb
Inflected Form(s): -tized; -tiz·ing
intransitive senses
1 : to induce someone to convert to one's faith
2 : to recruit someone to join one's party, institution, or cause
transitive senses : to recruit or convert especially to a new faith, institution, or cause
- pros·e·ly·ti·za·tion /"prä-s(&-)l&-t&-'zA-sh&n, "prä-s&-"lI-t&-/ noun
- pros·e·ly·tiz·er /'prä-s(&-)l&-"tI-z&r/ noun

witness
transitive senses
1 : to testify to : ATTEST
2 : to act as legal witness of
3 : to furnish proof of : BETOKEN
4 a : to have personal or direct cognizance of : see for oneself b : to take note of
5 : to constitute the scene or time of
intransitive senses
1 : to bear witness : TESTIFY
2 : to bear witness to one's religious convictions (opportunity to witness for Christ -- Billy Graham)

Now lets break this down here. You have stated quite clearly that you used to be a Rasta before you became a Christian, and that your intention here is to ‘witness'. How then should black people interpret this? A self-professed Christian who used to be a Rasta coming on a Rasta forum that discuses black issues, ignoring the reasoning on these black issues, and stating that her intention is to witness (note the definition above a la Billy Graham) Hmmm… people sure are free to reason on what topics interest them (you have stated that one of your major interests is witnessing on the bible etc) but surely you must be cognizant of how this can quite legitimately be seen as proselytizing. As for your using patios on this forum to communicate, come on, lets not pretend that Christians do not have a history, that many of us here are quite familiar with, of infiltrating religions, cultures etc of others, feigning interest, pretending to adopt certain mannerisms etc all in the effort to spread the ideas of their own religion. If you post on Christian forums on the net that are not focused to a Rasta audience, do you use patios there?? The very nature of Christianity is to propagate its ideas, not to learn about or accept others and leave them to their beliefs; that's just the name of that game. Informed Africans, however are really not into games.