There's A Market For Ignorance.

There's a market for watching black people ruin their lives in front of the world. They'll televise that. They'll stream that. They'll repost that. They'll retweet that. I wonder why.

There's a market for imitating the styles created by the genius ingenuity of women of color from the ghetto. Yeah...first they'll ridicule that, so it's stigmatized and criticized by society when women of color do it originally...then eventually they'll steal that, rename that, upload that, monetize that, and possibly even end up on the cover of Forbes magazine with a watered down, gentrified version of that. But they won't pay women of color from the ghetto a dime...or even an ounce of homage for that. But shhh. No one's supposed to pick up on that. You know, women of color aren't supposed to know their worth.

There's a market for ignorance particularly when displayed by those in historically disenfranchised communities. America loves to watch black people lose...talent down the drain like dirty Flint water. They love to see it. Self-hatred is encouraged. Not only are the men applauded for glorifying toxic male traits and objectifying women, but ironically, women are too. Sex has a price tag in a dollar amount...like selfish ass men were ever going to have a problem with that concept. Not at all. That's perfect for a creep. "Keep chasing that bag baby. We'll gladly pay for it". What they won't do is grow out of immature, adolescent tendencies of assuming people, especially women, are purposed solely for their convenience and self-indulgence. Toxic masculinity thrives when a boy who reaches a man's age refuses to rid himself of childish expectations and behaviors, thus growing into depraved habits fueled by an inflated ego. It is also validated by those who encourage this mentality and/or discourage the males who purge themselves of it.

Rape culture is emblematic of a deep misconception of life and what freedom should be by the society that breeds it. Where purpose is unknown, abuse is ultimately inevitable. There becomes a market for abuse when respect is no longer expected while disrespect is the norm, and the masses don't even care to consider why. Ignorance is easy, blissful, charming and often hilarious. Fear often shows up disguised as comfortability and accessorized in familiarity. In essence, we've gotten so comfortable losing, we assume it must be winning.

They say "if it don't feel like 90's r&b then I don't want it" because it sounds cool in a caption, but often times they don't want that type of it. Something real and long-lasting takes far too much effort and patience. Ain't no shortcuts to authenticity and genuineness. That type of it doesn't comply with streaming culture's addiction to chasing the latest quick thrill. It has been replaced with heartless, detached energy, content with wasting time chasing crack-quick pleasures, never relating on a solid level or building intimacy by finding a common thought process. The vibe is completely surface, watered down and stepped on.

But shhh. Speaking an unpopular opinion that challenges us to dig deeper, be greater, and realize how critical our relative, social interdependency to one another is to our families, communities, ecosystems and planet, and how that very concept is being starved daily like a tortured prisoner of war won't get you them likes. Shit, it might even get you cancelled...in these internet streets.

Maybe we've been hoodwinked into thinking that race is THE defining social construct, when in reality racism only exists because there's a market for it. Maybe the majority (people of all colors) remaining poor, low self-esteemed crabs in the proverbial bucket, programmed to be overly critical of one another, placing clearance-level price tags on our divine gifts, feeling predisposed to doing ignorant shit that divides us and being encouraged to be proud of doing it provides that much more financial gain for the greedy, privileged, wicked, toxic, demonic, slave driving elite whose main addiction is hoarding power and avoiding any accountability for historical transgressions they continuously profit off of. I know that was a run-on sentence but that particular grammatical error just hit different.

Big pharma, private prisons, cash-hungry state governments with their corrupt judicial systems and many more parasites profit off the pain of the people. It makes perfect sense when connecting the dots that the same companies that financially gain from sickness, lack of education, criminality, violence and even death, just might purposely play an integral part in causing these horrible things to happen in our communities. What if it turns out that the oppression of the poor is not the result of a broken system, but rather an established tradition carefully designed to continue the cycle of poverty. It's not far-fetched to infer that companies who supply drugs that subside the effects of cancer might actually collaborate with food companies to distribute food containing cancer-causing agents. All it takes is a few greedy psychopaths and a boardroom.

The last few months of quarantining have reminded so many of us just how much we love gathering in crowds to party and celebrate. But what are we gathering to celebrate? Being professional time wasters? Being poor role models for the youth who depend on us to lead the way? Being people who are too lazy in our selfish bubbles to see the bigger picture? To celebrate ignoring those who paid the ultimate sacrifice so that we could have the freedom to post dumb shit through a smart phone? To feed our addiction to fame and/or just some regular, plain ass attention? What are we toasting to now? What are we dancing for now? Or is the actual forgetting of ourselves what we're celebrating? Because if so, we're trapping ourselves. We're making us vulnerable to being pimped out by those who love our styles, food, jokes, fashion, music, athleticism, academia, and every spice we bring to the table, but don't love us. We're opening the gate for the same ones who plan and plot on us never having a seat at the very table we so willingly and diligently serve.

In this capitalistic life, we don't get what we deserve. We get what we leverage through negotiation. We're empowered to win the very second we're willing to not only dream, but to hope, to have the audacity, to unite, to stop settling, to plan, to work viciously in the spirit of our ancestors, to persevere with the intent of receiving not one penny less than we are worth. Until then, we lose. And as long as we allow that, there will always be a market for it.

As always, love, peace, and hair grease.

What having COVID-19 showed me.

Standing outside a north New Jersey hospital fighting a fever while enduring chest pains on a forty degree, wet, dreary Monday morning near the American epicenter of an unprecedented global pandemic can put life in a totally new perspective. "Six feet apart, please!" being yelled by the brutish doorman repeatedly is a phrase in a tone I won't soon forget. I'd never seen tents full of people connected to a hospital before. This shit is DIFFERENT.

Of course, I'm on edge. I'd been experiencing sharp pains on the left side of my chest for a couple days and had a million thoughts running through my head as to why. The possibilities seemed endless...especially after consulting the infamous WebMD. I knew I'd be taking a risk by going to the emergency room in a climate with such a contagious virus looming, but I guess I'd rather risk it than do nothing and something catastrophic happen by the time it's too late. So I stood there shivering in the cold wondering what's next. While I waited to be checked in I noticed some things. The people around me were stumbling and staggering, coughing profusely, seeming drained of energy and stamina. I watched as wheelchair after wheelchair went into what seemed like Fort Knox...the hospital entrance. Everyone, wearing masks and gloves, seemed to be moving in slow motion. I noticed a woman in her upper 50's coughing violently while leaning up against a gate looking totally dejected. Doctors and nurses were moving frantically with solemn looks on their faces.Everyone is scared. Nobody here is safe. "Six feet apart, please!"

It was at that very moment that I contemplated the entire American healthcare system. Being the proud cynic I am, I began reevaluating the purpose and intents of big pharma. I mean, let's not sugar coat it. It's all about the almighty dollar...the Benjamins. Every transaction is rooted in shady for-profit businesses and insurance companies overcharging desperately ill citizens for meds that do not directly cure anything, dancing the greenback boogie in private while publicly selling the grand illusion that the betterment and safety of the American people come first. Lies. If that were the case then the actual test for the COVID-19 virus would be free whether a person is insured or not. But it isn't...even close. The notion that even during an economic shut down in which workers are being laid off by the thousands, 90% of people are quarantining (the other 10% are extremely disturbing), and the number of deaths due to the coronavirus is skyrocketing, an actual dollar amount has to be paid just to find out if you've got it. What about those who are homeless, between jobs or just plain broke and have no health insurance? If the goal is really to flatten the curve and save lives, shouldn't they be tested for free?

There's obviously not enough resources for the overflow of patients who are suffering. Why else would there be a line of feverish people winding around the street corner of a hospital parking lot? So, if there's a shortage of resources, who gets chosen? It's like an evil game of musical chairs being played with hospital beds and medical supplies. Once the music stops, someone's bound to be literally left in the cold.

The look of fear in the eyes of the doctor as he walked intently into the tent, protected in his all white body suit, sweating frantically as he stuttered and stammered to say my vitals and heart rate were decent and that I was "mmm-much much safer at home than in THERE (pointing toward the hospital door)" gave me all the get out of dodge vibes I needed to head out expeditiously. Wow! As loud, piercing coughs permeated the tent, I thought to myself, he really doesn't know what to do, and since I'm not totally falling apart, he really doesn't have time to care. The only option he sees is to push me out of this environment as quickly as possible after testing me (he'll bill me later), tell me to hope for the best, and to only come back if it gets unbearably worse. Talk about a really weird evaluation. This shit is DIFFERENT.

After a week of excruciating headaches, waking up in cold sweats with chills, exhaustion, nausea, unyielding fever, stiffness in my lungs, and an overall nervousness from not knowing what's truly wrong, I received a call informing me I had tested positive for COVID-19. Damn. No real, in-depth instructions or information. Just an "are you having trouble breathing? No? Well then hopefully you'll be fine waiting it out". That's it.

I thought to myself how fortunate and blessed I am to have a strong enough immune system and set of lungs to handle such an aggressive infection. I recapped how often I'd washed my hands, wiped everything in sight down with disinfectant wipes, carried hand sanitizer and obsessively whipped it out after touching any door handle and/or object. I thought about the handshakes I had avoided, the hugs I'd shied away from and all the times I'd refused to even leave home.
After all of that, I still got it.

America is a place where people take pride in our freedom to come and go as we please. Some are even entitled enough in their thinking to ignore the authorities calling for all to stay at home. But the concept that's getting lost in this defiance is that our healthcare system is not constructed to handle a nationwide crisis. It's structured to make a profit. When seeking profit, a sound business firm will do its best to avoid overhead expenses as much as possible. So spending money on things like hiring and training extra workers, building extra spaces, and manufacturing extra equipment "just in case" are not only non-priorities, but there's a concerted effort made to never do so. And that simple fact doesn't bode well for masses of people at risk to such a uniquely contagious virus the medical world is ill-prepared to tackle. The trickle down effect is bound to leave those in the economic lower class in shambles, if not for dead.

So the concept of social distancing isn't just some inconveniencing way to personally avoid getting sick. It's the most viable method of giving our healthcare system and the government it depends on to support it the time it so desperately needs to restructure itself into a form of what it should have always been since day one...a system built to prioritize lives over money. Otherwise, there will be millions more feverishly endangered patients lined up outside their local hospitals awaiting their fate enduring the same coarsely yelled phrase..."Six feet apart, please!"