we all lose when the family feuds.

Part 1.

What’s better than one billionaire? Two. Especially when they from the same hue as you. Y’all stop me when I stop telling the truth.

We can go some places without each other. Together, we can move mountains. Together we are strong. Excuse me, we are pretty strong individually. Together We Are Powerful. Together, we are The Dream Team in 1992 and The Redeem Team in 2008. We are Shaq&Kobe and MJ&Pippen and Lebron&Wade and Serena&Venus and Missy&Timbo and Michelle&Barack and Jay&Beyoncé and Andre3k&BigBoi and BunB&PimpC and Eric B&Rakim and Pam&Gina and Ava&Kerry. All.

We witnessed what happened with Shaq and Kobe. Powerful together. Won three championships back-to-back-to-back. Before, Shaq was making playoffs, however nothing major. Breaking backboards. Strong. Kobe after Shaq, dropped 81 points, 9 straight games of 40+ points. Strong. But didn’t win. We are strong people by ourselves, Black people. We are powerful together.

*peep Shaq carrying Kobe while Kobe’s foot is in a brace.

It is time to live by the same codes. It is time to posses the same rage against systems and privilege. It is time to start building. We ALL NEED to want the same for all Black people: Growth. Empowerment. Wealth. Liberty. Now we do not have to walk down the same street to get to the same place. Repeat. We do not have to walk down the same street to get to the same place. There are many different directions to the same address. We, however, must want and desire the same trophy. We must want the betterment for all of our people.

Malcolm and Martin both cared and died for their people. They did not walk down the same street. They disagreed on many things. They agreed on the main task. They both were heading to the same place.

*picture above. front left to right: Bill Russell. Muhammad Ali. Jim Brown. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Black men. It is only 6% of us in amerikkka. You ARE YOUR BROTHER’S KEEPER. Like GMoney said in New Jack City, “WE ALL WE GOT!”. Now hear me out. We are not that far removed from slavery. I understand that. We were trained to hate each other. We were trained to see each other as threats. As rivals. We had to fight each other to live. Literally. Remember in Django when those two buff men were fighting in front of Jamie and one guy used a hammer to bang the other guy’s head? That was a reality. This is a new day, like Nina Simone said. We have to stop seeing Black men as competition. We cannot mug and size up and challenge every Black person we see just because they are Black. We are survivors. We must survive. We cannot afford to be afraid of our own people. We cannot afford to fight our own people. We must transfer that animosity and bravery and boldness towards systems and corporations that are working day and night to dismantle us.

We must give our brothers and sisters the benefit is the doubt. What do Black men say when we see each other on the streets? “What’s up brotha” “Stay up brotha” What do we call Black women? Sistas. It’s in us.

I understand we are playing from behind. I ain’t one of them Black dudes who are blind and naïve to our reality. When the race started (our birthdays), we did not have track shoes on. We were born with cement shoes. We had to somehow get free of those constraints and try to catch up and then win. And here we are today. Life’s a game but it’s not fair, but we are on the same team. If not the same team, the same conference. Same division. We must push each other forward until we’re all ahead. We must unify. We must lift. We must support. We must build. We must love.
We will start winning. And we all know, they don’t wanna see us winning.

Schools. Jobs. Positions at jobs. Car dealerships. Fashion. Emoji’s. Slavery. Hollywood. Redlining in neighborhoods. Treatment from banks. Loans/interest rates. Media portrayal. Politics. Just-Us system. Ownership. just Focus.

Our history has been rough. But here we are. We must do our research. Our history did not start with slavery. We cannot let school textbooks brainwash us and our children. We were kings and queens. Don’t let media turn you away from rocking your gold chains and rings. It’s in your blood. Rock your chains with a tux. Stunt that gold Fossil watch. Do a quick search on the King himself, Mansa Musa.

Civilization originated in Afrika. That’s not an unpopular opinion. Facts. We must embrace our blood. Our heritage. Our culture. I seen this on instagram and am just gonna post it instead of making my own version of it.

We must embrace our culture.

Light nigga. Dark nigga. Faux nigga. Real nigga. Rich nigga. Poor nigga. House nigga. Field nigga. Still nigga. No matter where you go, you’re you before they know what’s in your wallet. Before they know what religion you belong to. Before they know your political views. Before they know what car you’re in. You can be rich. J.Cole. Michael Jackson. Beyoncé. Tyra. Serena. LeBron. Lil Kim. Kendrick. Jerrod. Tasha. Henok. Yoel. Brittnei. One thing that was determined before any of that, was the fact that you were born Black. Embrace it.

Black people, we have to stop murdering our sisters and brothers. You choose the weapon. Guns. Words. Gender privilege. Fists. Drugs. There is history of FBI/CIA bringing trains of guns over in hoods and leaving. “It’s nasty when you set us up. Roll the dice then bet us up. You overnight the big rifles, then tell Fox to be scared of us,” Kendrick said in XXX. The world don’t like us is that not clear? Let’s move on. Selling (and the influence of doing) crack, cocaine, heroin, xans, percocets and other deadly drugs is murder. We focus on guns which is a quick death. I know we gotta make loot, y’all. CREAM get the money. Pac said “’I made a G today.’ But you made it in a sleazy way. Selling crack to all these kids. ‘I gotta get paid.’ Well hey. That’s the way it is,” in Changes. I am desperately asking you to seek other ways. In fact, invest. The money you made from selling drugs, flip. Read books and listen to educated Black people on ways to double triple quadruple your money. Let your money make money. Get your money and get out the game. All those Jordan’s and Nikes and adidas you copped, check the value on them. All free advertisement and nothing in return huh? All that product placement for a corporation that does nothing for your community systemically. So you want to bring up LeBron and Durant? How Nike has made them millions? Well they have made Nike billions. But when Lavar Ball creates his own shoe line, we laugh and disown the man. There is NOTHING wrong with critique. EVERYTHING is wrong with disowning, not supporting good motives, not enforcing your own and in return lifting up businesses and building wealth for people who don’t care at all about you. That is a problem. I am not saying what “they” say is illegal, is wrong. I’m fasho not saying that. All these years, “they” said weed is illegal and wrong. Now we’re in jail for selling weed years ago and “they” are free and getting rich because it’s legal. I’m saying stop killing people who look like you for money. That’s it. Certain drugs are attributing to that. amerikkka created crack. We know that by now. It was a strategic plan to disrupt our future. It worked in many ways.

Stop selling our houses and stores and buildings and neighborhoods for low prices then moving to cities where people are afraid of us. They’re gonna move us all out then sell our neighborhood for higher prices. We must spend our money with Black people. It may sound overtly racist. I know how it may seem. It’s not. It’s economics. It’s a plan. How they kicked us out of our cities is racist. Y’all criticize that. Black people IS Oakland. Now Black people can’t afford to live in Oakland. Black people can’t feel safe in the country they built. You go to Oakland, Richmond, Brooklyn, Compton, Flint, Detroit and see liquor stores and gun stores on every other block. Get upset at that. We’ve been handed tools for self destruction. Now we must work together to be powerful to tear that down. Boyz N The Hood told us this two decades ago.

We must buy clothes that Black people crafted. Art from Black artists. @d_rawz @arttwerk. @tycheriee Listen to music from Black outlets. Nails done from Black owned nail shops. Hair from Black owned beauty supply stores. Food from Black owned restaurants. Weed from Black dealers. Need clothes? Holla at my dude Henok @blackdisporaclothing. Barbershop? The Cutz next to Chabot College and Jack in the Box. Gabe owns it. Dessert? @cakesbythepoundba. Black model? @_desireedavis. Black hip hop? @_solob @yngbreeze @yung_frazier_. They are out there. Black designer/creative? My sister Britt. She doesn’t have social media so ask. Black food? (people wasn’t to soften it and say comfort food) Pican or Brown Sugar Kitchen in Oakland. Lillie Mae‘s in San Jose. Just Potato Salad in Hayward. Skin care? Boldenusa.com. or @nectarandmoon. Lawyers? BlackWomenLawyersAssociationOfNorthernCalifornia. Or BWLNC.com. God? Say no more. He’s Black.

Finally, brothers, this is the easiest feat of all. We must accept, support, ride for and ENCOURAGE our sisters. It is the 4th quarter and we do not have time to continue disrespecting and dragging Black women. We do not have the luxury of division that WE can control. Katherine Johnson (Taraji P.Henson in Hidden Figures) was a human calculator, she did all the dividing we needed to last us a lifetime. Black women have standards. They do not have time for high school games and passive agressive little boy mentalities. They hold no punches. None. They will NOT submit to a boy. They have no issue being led by a man. But are you a man or a boy with a car and a nice paying job? If you think something is wrong with them, check yourself. You want to wear your fro and nappy curls? Guess what? So does she. You don’t understand how important hair is to everyone. You don’t understand how not accepting the hair she was BORN with is so hurtful and detrimental to her confidence. You don’t understand the amount of time and maintenance she must do JUST to make a ponytail or a bun. She can’t just get a hair tie and make a ponytail. Accept her hair. And better yet, ENCOURAGE HER TO ROCK HER HAIR IN IT’S NATUTAL FORM. Not just when it’s long and down her back. Encourage her if she has a cut like Halle. Or Lupita Nyung’o. Encourage her to be herself. If she want to rock a weave, let her rock that weave. Let Black women be comfortable in their skin how you are comfortable in yours. Stop working for the man. Understand that their skin is just like your mother’s. Understand that when you have a baby girl, her skin and hair and lips and body will be similar to the woman you’re disrespecting on social media. Remember, the sister you’re trying to play for a fool for retweets, is going to be your biggest cheerleader when the cops beat you like Rodney King or try to make you into a hashtag. J.Cole isn’t going to make a song for you, bruh. But she will be in front of cameras making sure your name is not forgotten.

That woman you asked for her number and she declined so you called her a b*tch, is the same woman who is willing to fight for you, help you get through that math class, inspire you, preserve your weak ego and masculinity. Also, “and we need more encouragement from our men. Like Black men need to be rooting for us to go to school, to get the job. And to stop saying our ‘attitude’ is what’s our down fall,” is what Tasha said. They have been on the frontline of every movement that has been for us. They have provided us emotional, spiritual, sexual, mental, and financial support since forever. Black women have, at times, single handedly pushed this country forward so they fasho have lifted Black people. And no matter how much we THINK we have done to help, the greatest responsibility and concern for Black men is to protect and support Black women. I will not use any contractions. I will not use any puns or metaphors. I will say it again plainly. The single greatest commitment of a Black man is to protect, support, lift, and help build up Black women.

Women, generally speaking, live longer than men. The wealth that that man has accumulated over his life will go to his wife and kids. We, the Black community, cannot afford to see that wealth venture off elsewhere. Period. Other communities understand that but don’t have to verbalize it or put it in writing. We do. A man that doesn’t take care of his family can’t be rich. This does not mean marry a woman and deal with her if she mistreats you just because of her skin color. This means Black women have done more for your culture and bloodline historically than you have. This means Black women deserves some respeck on their name and existence. This means your community and character is under attack so plan for the future. This is chess it ain’t checkers.

Build a family and support cast that will empathize with your struggles. A Black man is strong by himself. A Black woman is strong by herself. A Black man and Black woman are powerful together.

Stick to code.

*Notice how we can do all of this without mentioning any other race the whole time. We can make moves without dogging or even mentioning other races. It is possible. Nobody wins when the family feuds.

*Listen to Changes by 2pac. Family Feud by Jay Z. Nu Afrika by CyHi The Prynce. Formation by Beyoncé. I Am Not My Hair by India.Aire.