July 24, 2009

As the day goes on, the angrier I get


Salvidor Dali. Crucifixion or Corpus Hypercubicus.1954
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA.

This morning a white blogger whom I know and a white co-worker were upset over the President's words. I guess many white people were offended or felt embarrassed. This afternoon the President had smoothed over his words.

12 hours they were upset. You know I been upset by racism since I was four. Sixty years and when I have a tendency to forget, there is always something, someone or some incident to remind me.

There was nothing to smooth over. Apparently they didn't understand that the president qualified his statement or the difference between an adverb and a adjective. This is not Jim Crow or slavery where we always, in fear of harsh repercussions, had to make sure white folks were never slighted or even slightly offended.

Black folks are often told that we are way too sensitive. White folks should practice what they preach.

July 11, 2009

Intuition

noun
the ability to understand something immediately, without the need for conscious reasoning.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary

This is not a paranormal ability, the understanding comes from experience. From the day we are born our minds are learning, creating connections, and storing important survival knowledge. Our eye give us cues that we are getting close to an edge of a precipice, our noses tell us where there is smoke there's fire and we feel heat as we approach something hot.

We usually don't think of emotion as a sense, but we learn from our reactions to words and deeds, a way to avoid the unpleasant actions. The caustic intonation, the contortion of a face and an aggressive body movement have been learned as a source of distress.

When everyone has been hardwired, so to speak, why do some people have to be smacked in the face with an action, to believe what others have been intuitively saying?