I’m Not an Atheist
Nor am I
Christian
Catholic
Baptist
Church of Christ
Pentecostal
(Insert other Christian denominations here)
Buddhist
Hindu
Jain
Muslim
Fondu
Etcetera
Etcetera
Etcetera
I'm probably Agnostic, which I've been informed is the most cowardly and faithless of all belief systems, but I conform to nothing and refuse a label because I don't really care. I hate the very limiting term "belief system."
In turn, I suppose none of the above matters.
In my observation, to be atheist simply means to believe only what can be proven factually and scientifically or otherwise obviously.
I have total respect for that.
It doesn't mean putting faith in theories, as some would misunderstand and use to call flaw to the atheist "non-existent belief" belief system. It simply means understanding what has been proven, which also means understanding that even these things can (and inevitably will) change.
It means a surgeon is given thanks for his twelve-plus years of medical school when he saves your life.
It means exploration into the unknown and (theoretically) infinite universe.
It means questioning everything on the table that is deserving of interrogation.
It means half of the reason (probably more) that human beings in first world countries have the life expectancy that they have today.
It means that thunder is a result of lightening and not a result of an angry dude throwing bolts down from the sky.
It means, before we damn and shake fingers in the faces of all atheists, we may want to thank our lucky stars they exist or we might still be chanting prayers and bleeding ourselves out of fever instead of taking antibiotics.
It means not using an uppercase A when spelling the word "atheist."
And I have total respect for that.
Prose Challenge of the Week #58
Good Afternoon, Prosers,
We hope this challenge announcement finds you well and writing!
It’s week fifty-eight of the Prose Challenge of the Week.
For the last week, you guys have been rewriting the creation story, and you all gave exactly what we wanted. Before we check out who is the deserving winner and the recipient of $100, let’s take a look at this week’s prompt:
Challenge of the Week #58: You are a victim of injustice, write a story about it. The most masterfully written piece, as voted and determined by the Prose team, will be crowned winner and receive $150. Quality beats quantity, always, but numbers make things easier for our judges, so share, share, share with friends, family, and connections. #ProseChallenge #getlit #itslit
Yes! This one is for a longer duration and for more $, so get yourself writing, now!
Now, back to the winner of week fifty-seven.
We have read all of your entries, and have come to a decision. The winner of the “creation story” challenge is @madbeyond with their piece, Out of the Blue
Congratulations! You have just won $100. We’ll be in touch with you shortly.
In the meantime, you have one week to get your write on!
Until next time, Prosers,
Prose.
A Painful Truth
For my ancestor’s sake, my expressions will be blunt.
Black history is an infinite history; it cannot be crammed into one month.
Our hands are tied. We've reached out for five hundred years.
We've endured the untimely deaths of our black brothers and sisters, behind white fear.
We faced Army tanks, we faced water hoses.
Viscous police dogs bit the face of black protesters, rearranging their noses.
They bit the breast off of black women in those 1965 marches.
Well after Blacks in America were red lined, discriminated, and stuffed into project apartments.
They say; what about a multiracial community of harmony and peace?
I say, what about the sons and daughters of Africa, who lay dead in American streets?
Or the masses of young black lives, cut short by white police?
A whole race robbed of religion, culture, and education and they laugh at how we speak.
Drugs and alcohol inserted into black communities, sucking the life out of them like a leech.
In time, environmental and material aspects spoil America’s young black minds.
Robbed of self-knowledge and self-intellect, black generations ascend into a cycle of
Black on black crime.
All apart of lucrative plan that your founding fathers designed.
To keep black families behind the crescents of section 8 housing blinds.
To prevent the father from moving in, because the government treats the mother just fine.
I would ask my young black peers to wake up, but there's no saving the blind.
A child’s eyes
Momma’s a beauty
With long auburn hair
His mammy’s hair is nappy black
Demo’s my brother
His hair is gilden
But not straight like Daddy’s and mine
Nobody speaks what
Everybody knows -
Why Demo won’t ever come back
His mammy cries and
Brushes Momma’s hair.
I’ll grow up beautiful and fine!
----------------------------
I thought of a nine-year-old girl, daughter of the plantation, and how she might react to the sale of her playmate/brother. There might be some sorrow, but she wouldn't question the order of things.
The Voice of Octavia Butler
I am a fan of Octavia Butler, the Hugo and Nebula award-winning science fiction author also the recipient of a MacArthur "Genius" Grant. She wrote at a time when Black women were not writing science fiction, both because they were Black and because they were women. She broke countless molds and created numerous memorable characters and stories. "Each story I create creates me," she said, and, as a writer, I admire her words.
I recently read "Kindred" (generally considered one of her greatest works), written in the mid-1970s. It was about a Black woman married to a White man who is transported to the antebellum South to save one of her White ancestors. It dealt with the realities of slavery, the nature of self-respect, and the difference in attitudes between the time periods. Having gobbled up many of her other works with glee, I expected to be overwhelmed by the experience. I was not. I started to question myself as to why I did not fully appreciate the work. Was it because I am not Black? Was it because, not having lived the Black Experience, I could not relate to the situation? I posted a query on the Black Science Fiction Society forum, asking for clarification. I spoke with other writers and readers who are Black to find out why I had such a huge "disconnect" with this story.
I know that part of the problem were some plot devices Butler used to make the story happen; they were not convincing to me and seemed to be there just to make something happen the way she needed it to. I felt deeply that some of the problem lay in the fact that this interracial couple never really discussed their different views of what they had gone through back in time. I was told that, while I could relate to the main character as a woman, in this more than any of Butler's other stories, it made a difference that I was not Black - there was so much unspoken that I could not know on a gut level.
While I understand how this could be true, I do not consider myself naive to the plight of Black America. I am deeply ashamed of what the White people of this country did to the Blacks they forced here against their will. I am engaged to a wonderful African-American man who has increased my knowledge of his history. I think much of the problem I had with this book came from history, specifically the time that Butler wrote "Kindred." It was a time of social upheaval. There was only so much she could "get away with" in her story before no publisher would put it out there. She, herself, was constrained by the culture at the time to not make her book too provocative, too unsettling for the White audience. And that is a shame. Science fiction, of all the genres, is the most open and forgiving about tackling social injustices in its stories. For Butler's true voice to have been silenced (in my own opinion), goes against what science fiction is all about.
Still, Butler was a pioneering voice, both for women and for the African-American community. I can only wish she could have lived longer, so we could hear more of what she had to say.
Okay, Here we Go
*deep breath in and out*
Recently race has been a huge topic everywhere in the United States. And because, like it or not, the U.S. is so influential in the world, race has become a fairly big topic world wide. One of the biggest problems however with today's "opinioned" people, is that they don't understand the difference between "prejudice" and "racism". These two words periodically go hand in hand, however they are distinctly ugly in their own right.
The difference comes down to this. Prejudice is the presumption that all people of a certain specification are . Here's an example: "All Mexicans are rapists." That is prejudice. It is ugly and it is wrong. However, it is a fair bit different then racism.
Racism is the hatred of an entire race simply because they are that race. An example: Hitler hating everybody that was not Aryan. This is an example of extreme racism, and in such cases prejudice will inevitably play a big role. The biggest difference is this. People who are racist are prejudiced. People who are prejudiced are not necessarily racist.
And now for a personal example of the differences:
I live in a predominantly white neighborhood. I tend not to have problem with people of any color being around me. I am however, wary when I see people fitting the stereotypical "gang" look. And, really, can you blame me? I was born and raised in a white neighborhood and most of what I see about black people (as a primary example) is thugs and riots protesting how terrible white people are. These portrayals are not going to make me like black people if that is all I know.
I personally want to love all all people, but that is a pursuit made difficult by all the bad news. Hence, we need more coverage of races as a whole. Not just the bad things that races do. Don't just record the blacks rioting, the Mexicans hauling drugs over the boarder, and the racist whites who hate everybody who's not white. All these things happen, but we should have equal coverage of Martin Luther King Jr, about the rich culture of Mexico (and it is really quite fantastic), and the white people who embrace the cultures of other countries.
One final thing and then I am done. America was a land of immigrants. That is what built the United States. However, that was before the U.S. was united. Now we are a country, we still except immigrants, but if you want to become American then you should be willing to accept the American culture. You need to become American, don't make America become the country you are leaving.
My great great great aunt, Mary McLeod Bethune
Mary McLeod Bethune was an important, yet overshadowed, civil rights activist. She is most famous for setting up schools for African American in Daytona Beach Florida. Afterwards, her school merged with cookman university to become Bethune-Cookman University. Mary McLeod Bethune was also an advisor for FDR himself. When I first found out that I was related to such an incredible figure, I was, and am, extremely proud. I truly hope that everyone tries to learn much more about her. I gave you just a taste of her magnificent cuisine.
Why one month?
What I don't understand is why do we need a Black History month? Before the hate begins, let me explain-shouldn't every month be Black History month? Hispanic History month? Asian History Month? Caucasian History month? Black history shouldn't be confined to just one month, we should learn about it every day, we should learn about ALL history every day. For far too long have we learned about history from the perspective of whites alone. Why? Because history is written by the oppressors. By the dominant. But that doesn't mean that there are not other sides to history. My point is, all history matters all the time. By confining Black history to just one month we unintentionally degrade it, despite its intentions to empower, because that means the rest of the year is only about white history. We have heard only about white history for centuries. Let's make every month Black History month, and by doing so finally embrace all cultures as equally important.
