Revival

Hello everyone!

It's the former president of Fahari checking in. I rediscovered our blog and want to revive it for the new year with much more content. In the meantime check out my personal blog here .

Long Live Fahari!

Pick Your Poison

Check out our "Pick Your Poison" issue:

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Tell 'Em Why You Mad

Check out our "Tell 'Em Why You Mad" issue:

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Check Out Our "Call It A Renaissance" Issue!!

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Check out our "In [Blank]'s Name, ... Or Not?" Issue!!

Open publication - Free publishing - More april may 2011

Check out our Eargasm Issue!!

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A Stroll Through My iPod

Jada Young, Historian

What would I do without my iPod? It keeps me in my own personal zone while walking to class; it works as my own personal force-field when I don’t want to sit near anyone while at Hasbrouck and it lets me bask in my amazing musical taste. So I want to introduce you guys to the wonder that is my iPod. My baby is an 8 Gig, touch-screen iPod, when you look at it, you might think it’s just like any other iPod in the world, but mine is special: by virtue of it beingmine! Even though the time now is 11:50pm, my iPod claims that it is currently 8:59pm. I’m just too lazy to fix the time. It’s been that way for a few weeks now. Going through the “Artists” section, I have everyone from Aerosmith to Bette Midler, to Kanye West, to Lauryn Hill, to Willow Smith.

I would consider myself to have very eclectic taste in music. But, my iPod is not only limited to music, as it were. My baby also contains John Lennon interviews as well as Malcolm X, Winston Churchill, Mother Theresa, and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. speeches. It also contains slam poetry from a very amazing, talented, Joshua Brandon Bennett. I won’t sit here and lie and make it seem as if everything in my iPod is socially conscious, because it definitely is not. One of the most played music files on both my iPod and my iTunes is “Stu’s Song” from The
Hangover. I’m also a Nicki Minaj, Drake and Beyonce glutton. Sometimes after all the thinking that I have to do as a college student and as a human being, the excess thoughts need to be neutralized by some booty shaking, sexually explicit music.

For the rest of this article and more of this issue visit our Issuu Page

Interesting article on race via The Black Agenda Report

A government and society that is ever ready to restrict the freedoms of Black folks now offers “freedom” from Blackness. This census and social “opt-out” for the progeny of interracial couples allows them to hope to be considered “as something entirely separate, different and apart from” what Curtis Mayfield called the “dark deep well.” The Black “baggage” can be left behind.



The Multiracial Sheep is the White Supremacist Fox

by Jared A. Ball, Ph.D.

“More people born to interracial couples are happily accepting the racial placebo of ‘multiracial’ and multiple racial choices as official census categorization.”

Let’s be very clear from the outset. Multiracial categorization is an aggressive defense of white supremacy. Multiracial census categorization, particularly in the era of what some are calling the first Black and multiracial president, is, pun-intended, the bulked up steroid-induced version of the old sports aphorism that “the best defense is a good offense.” By aggressively encouraging younger generations to identify officially as multiracial the national desire to disappear worsening racial divides gets further juice by offering folks a chance to both adopt the illusion of the “post-racial” and to seemingly categorize themselves away from, if not out of, oppression. The beautiful dialectic traditionally developed in this country’s form of white supremacy was its built-in inability to be white and forced inclusion into Black which has made Black America, if even to a fault, among the most diverse, open and accepting communities in the world. It also increased the potential that that community would become more threatening to white domination which has led to the centuries-long development of neocolonial-styled light-skin privilege as a mechanism of siphoning off some of the more willing participants in an escape from blackness.

This continues and now in the form of official racial category. No longer, as a recent USA Today story suggests, will younger people be forced or even encouraged to see themselves as light-skinned extensions of Curtis Mayfield’s “dark deep well,” but as something entirely separate, different and apart from. Younger generations are being encouraged in far greater percentages to accept forms of, what some academics call, hyperdescent, or degrees of identity up the so-called racial caste scale.

“Black America is, if even to a fault, among the most diverse, open and accepting communities in the world.”

As we have previously described, there is a general delusion happening where the material conditions of Black people are worseningwhile assumptions of progress among Black people are increasing. Similarly, we have also recently discussed, that there is right now are-inscription of America’s racial slavery caste system forcibly locking Black Americans into permanent recessions and entombment at the bottom rungs of the nation’s social or colonial pyramid. So it seems equally alarming that more people born to interracial couples are happily accepting the racial placebo of “multiracial” and multiple racial choices as official census categorization.

As the 2010 census is disseminated nationally this month it brings with it all the old baggage of the enterprise, that is, it is used to mask gross inequality in distribution of national wealth, the locked-down gerrymandered political districts designed to assure that this fraudulent “two-party” system remains safely intact, and the sweeping under the rug of stolen prisoners who when caught up in an equally unjust system of mass incarceration are disappeared into distant regions and used to bolster the economic and electoral strength of their captors communities while not, of course, being able themselves to access any of the benefit they help to create by their incarceration.

National offerings of mobility in racial category, combined with a president whose multiracial background is used more to blunt discussions of racial inequality than to make them known and addressed, will further allow white supremacy to go unchecked and, therefore, to become more invisible and ultimately powerful. Self-identification is, of course, personal and ultimately up to the individual. But racial categorization is decidedly political and, therefore, means a responsibility that goes beyond any one person’s private choice. The history and current structure of race in this country and its impact materially on Black people who don’t have the immaterial option to be categorized out of their blackness nor the material option of avoiding that category’s real-life meaning in this society demands that we who are offered the devil’s hand up reject it and remain happily categorized with the those in our families whoare our family and who are not able to escape the ravages of being fixed to the racial floor.

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When the Revolution Comes!!!

Professor Thompson played this song in class last week in class. Gil Scott Heron is the greatest along with the other Last Poets. Since then i filled my mp3 player with all my last poets songs. So when you see me walking around campus with earphones on you know what i'm listening to.

According to the Last Poets "When the revolution comes afros gone be trying to straighten their heads and straightened heads gone be tryin to wear afros," so we are in the midst of a revolution. Many may not believe this but shit is going down everywhere but we just don't see it on mainstream media.

What i'm going to try and do here is give yall readers real news that you aren't going to hear on CNN,FOX, etc.

Sankofa of a Failed White Man

By Justin Hubbell, Contributing Writer

"I used to want to change the world. Now I just want to leave the room with a little dignity."
-Lotus Weinstock

Aint that the truth? I'll be god damned if doing the right thing isn't the hardest game I've ever played. When I say "doing the right thing," I'm not talking about being kind to people, because there are plenty of people who believe they're doing their civic duty by being nice all the time. What a load of garbage.

Being nice. Not hurting anyone. No yelling. Politeness. Nice.
If you can't hold up to these standards, then smoke enough pot to make it happen.

At the end of the day, you get to hazily raise your fist and croon, "hey man I'm doing my part."

If this isn't enough, then try going to three or four events, or if you're really radical, then try joining a group on campus. Yeah.
If all else fails, find Jesus and save yourself.
Or if you're not into religion, find Obama and save yourself.
I digress. When I began college, I wanted "to do the right thing." I joined the NAACP. Like many people who want "to do the right thing," I was completely oblivious. My brow was in a perpetual state of corrugation. I couldn't comprehend why we never discussed any issue apart from the African American community.

Well. There's actually quite a difference between "colored people" and "people of color." Go figure. I jumped ship when the opportunity presented itself and joined The Fahari-Libertad.

This is where I waged war against Whitey. Slightly more educated, I went to work at drawing satirical attacks against the WASP society. Too dangerous, the comics were censored. The result was a monstrosity, a self-explaining, self-deprecating pile of badly rendered horse shit.

Am I not an artist? Am I not "to do the right thing"? How dare they castrate my work! I jumped ship again. In fact I got a chartered flight this time. I made my own group. I'll add that at this point, I was even more educated.

"Whites Against Racism." Hell yeah. Fucking radical, man. Eat that shit.
It was my idea. I was the president.
And in all seriousness, what a great name.

The beauty of "Whites Against Racism" was that you knew exactly who was supposed to join and why. But, of course, a group like that can't operate unless everyone is comfortable, so we became "Students Against Racism."

Woof.

That wasn't my decision. That was the collective decision. The majority. I'm going to go off on another tangent and say that if you decide to ever become a leader, then own the title and lead. Leaders are vital to communities, and groups. The power of a leader is that if the group catches hell, you can blame everything on one person. The leader is held accountable, and the people behind the group get off the hook. If you're not a good leader, however, then none of your efforts will matter.

I wasn't a good enough leader, so I allowed the group to become a democracy. Long story short, it wasn't even a democracy so much as a group therapy session. And to make a shorter story shorter, it wasn't group therapy so much as an exclusive soap box hand-out. When it was your time to speak in that group, you spoke. And if it wasn't, then fuck it. And some people didn't get time, and other people didn't want time, and everyone who wandered in the room promptly left.

The most we ever accomplished was a showing of a film. Unless of course you count the time we went to an anti-racism workshop to collect our official "I-went-to-the-anti-racism-workshop" certificate. This semester, I threw in my towel, and the group caved in on itself. I told you it was my idea, after all. Every time I see an ex-member, I tremble with my White Guilt™. How could I? I was "doing the right thing," and I quit.

Here's another quote for you:
"You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain."
-Harvey Dent from The Dark Knight

The fact of the matter is that you can't "do the right thing" and live comfortably. The people I know who are actually doing the right thing are some of the most reckless, masochistic people I know. Not a single one of them goes to SUNY New Paltz by the way. If they accomplish something, then they wipe the sweat from their brows and get back to work. No certificates, no plaques, no "give yourself a hand." These people throw themselves at their work.

I can't do that. I don't have the energy. I'm definitely too horny. And when I'm dead, I better have gotten my rectangular piece of wood with brass accessory. I want that plaque. I know now what I have to do, in order to do the right thing. I can't do it yet, not in college.

I'm too comfortable in college. I'm going to need some money though. Fuck.

Nothing is Harder than Thug Love

by Ruben Sanchez, Contributor

So I was on the train the other day bumping my iPod, making sure I didn’t get robbed for all my fly gear and all when I hear these two dudes in the train talking about Lupe Fiasco. So I turn down my earphones because I figure this is going to be an interesting conversation and it actually ended up being pretty ridiculous! Now this may not be the most direct quote but it went something like “Lupe is a faggot b. He don’t be up in the clubs, he don’t be rappin’ ‘bout bitches, none of these dumb bitches b. He don’t rap ‘bout nuthin that I’m interested in so what am I listening for? He just sounds like fag. Weezy, Jeezy, Jigga! Those are my niggaz, real niggaz…they ain’t about that gay shit that Lupe is on, they talk about that real shit.” Now I don’t know what the dude meant when he said “real” but I’m assuming we had very different definitions of the word.

Then I got to thinking, don’t these rappers do some gay ass, questionable shit themselves? Rappers are constantly participating in activities that can be easily perceived as gay and not even realize it. I’m just saying, when everyone was walking around with their pants hanging off their asses and grabbing their crotch all the time, it was considered a pretty “hood” or “thugged out” thing to do. Having your pants so far below the waist level is just giving people a lot to look at and if Hip-Hop is so homophobic, it may need to take a look in the mirror and look at how homoerotic it can be.

You would think with some of the shit that goes down in Hip-Hop, rappers would be moving away from such a homophobic culture and be embracing the culture of homosexuals. In fact, maybe it already is making that move! Maybe hip-hop artists don’t have any room in their lyrics for it, but their behavior is a different case.

Let’s take one of the most revolutionary artists of our time as an example…T-PAIN! In an online interview with School of Hip Hop (SOHH), T-Pain gives SOHH a rundown of the 5 women he would and would not have sex with. In his list of the 5 women that he would not sleep with, Kim Kardashian was on the list because “not too many people can go after Ray J” of course referring to the infamous sex tape of Kim Kardashian and Ray-J. T-Pain continued to profess his admiration for Ray-J by saying things like “he has a huge meat man…the man is packing…he has length on him…he’s got a foot on him.” You would think that T-Pain would show more discretion than that when being recorded and knowing full well that millions of people are going to see the video but maybe he knew full well what he was doing. Now this statement can obviously be perceived as a “homo” thing to say but T-Pain, being the genius that we all know, has managed to band aid the situation by saying “much respect Ray…man to man, no homo.” Apparently everyone who commented on the video missed the no homo part and called him gay repeatedly. Maybe the Hip-Hop world isn’t ready to hear one man compliment another man on their manhood.

As some of you may be aware of and it seems to be the consensus of the Hip-Hop world at this current point and time that Lil’ Wayne aka Weezy is the greatest rapper alive. Yes, I know, I was shocked too to hear this too. In fact, I am still in disbelief! Lil’ Wayne seems to have taken on his maverick persona and taken on the challenge of defeating homophobia as well. When pictures were released of Wayne kissing his “daddy” aka Birdman on the lips many, people were appalled and quite disturbed for the Hip-Hop world. Now some of you might be thinking “Ruben, I think I know where you’re heading with this, don’t you think you’re going too far? That was just some thug love they showed each other right?” Well first we would have to define “thug love.” If you mean closeted homosexual behavior of men who think they’re hard or actually are the hard and “gangsta,” then sure, it was thug love! I think Lil’ Wayne and Birdman were the perfect couple to go against the grain, considering their reputation. I mean, the fact is that Lil’ Wayne calls Birdman, a man who is not related to Wayne by blood, his “daddy.” Birdman even has a tattoo of Wayne on his chest, now that can be perceived as gay but Wayne ignored the haters and recorded a song called “Stuntin’ Like My Daddy.” This is why he is the greatest rapper alive people! Wayne just seems to prove over and over how original he is in music, persona, and sexuality.

Now for one of my favorite rappers, DMX was one of those who decided to let their pants sag their pants and always wore either a wifebeater or no shirt at all! He would invest more into underwear than he would actual clothing. Now if you don’t really remember, DMX’s public persona was this thugged out, rough, rugged, and intimidating individual in the rap game but no one thought, “Man! DMX sure does like showing off his ass and his body a lot, that’s gay as hell!” In DMX’s song “What’s My Name,” he raps “SUCK MY DICK! And while you niggas that’s been to jail before know it’s about to get thick!” Now is it me or does that seem like aside from the blatant “SUCK MY DICK!” and then follow by talking about inmates and saying “it’s about to get thick” sound like a gay thing to say? Talk about going against the grain! But DMX’s image comes from a place much deeper – prison culture. In prison, it is damn near necessary for a man to maintain their reputation and position and that means being tough, threatening, and physical with people. Prison deprives an individual of their sexual needs and in order to satisfy those needs, inmates turn to what is closest to them to fulfill those needs – other inmates. So it really isn’t all that surprising to hear something like this from DMX, especially after that video he did with Sisqo, it was a wrap after that!

It’s pretty obvious that it is hypocritical of Hip-Hop to be homophobic because of the homoerotic behavior that can be seen in Hip-Hop culture. Homoerotic images of Hip-Hop artist can be seen in your Hip-Hop magazines, album covers, pretty much anything that has a rapper posing for a camera with his shirt off flexing his muscles. Artists strive to maintain the most masculine image possible which charges their homophobia, but their actions parallel what they fear.

F@CK THE REVOLUTION - ALL "4" NOTHING

By: Vixon "V-Jay" John, President

I thought things were going to change, but it’s the same song, played on a different instrument. I would call myself an activist (notice, I didn’t use the word “label”). I feel when I talk about making moves on campus or creating unity to the “leaders,” the message falls on deaf ears. What’s the point of saying that we all need to come together and unite, then when it actually comes to making it happen, nobody wants to respond?

After the drastic budget cuts that effected mainly the organizations of color during Spring ’07 and hearing everyone complain and argue about its injustice, I’ve been preaching about how all of these groups need to come together and increase communication. Being proactive about these issues are more important than waiting for something to happen. This is when my idea for SAPC (Student Association for People of Color) came to life. Wanting to counter the SUNY New Paltz Student Association, my idea was for SAPC to become the underlying hub for all the organizations of color to increase communication and finally promote the unity that we need. Seeing that I didn’t want this coalition to be recognized by the Student Association, it was supposed to act as a general understanding for all these groups that it’s time to get our shit together.

To make a long story short, I got one other person to help me out (thanks Wonder Woman) and we did make some leeway by being recognized at Black Solidarity Day, at a few programs and by only one organization (Much love to AWA!). But, when it came to us having meetings and actually getting down to work (which wasn’t hard work) however, NOBODY would show up for our meetings or participate to help achieve our goals of unity. There were times a few people came out (the highest number being nine), but for the most part, people preached the same hymns of “we gotta come together” and “it’s time to get things done.” Safe to say, these same people didn’t come to another meeting. What happened to the passion that these so called “activists” had when shit was hitting the fan? I thought that by creating SAPC, there would finally be something for all of us to use to come together instead of working separately. Guess I was wrong.

On this campus, we have so many resources of information and connections with organizations outside of the campus to start a real revolution; a revolution of progress. Whichever cause we believe in, there is an organization on campus that supports that cause and helps to make a difference. This whole revolution thing is not impossible, it’s just people don’t want to commit the work necessary in making it happen. We all seem to be traveling in different circles, but never merging (like those van diagrams you use to do in elementary school). This could be due to our egos getting in the way or the disparity between those who are too involved and those who hardly involved at all. Every program I go to, the same “activists” come out and the same ol’ song of unity is sung, but now, it’s time to stop preaching to the choir, but to start teaching the choir how to preach. It’s these hypocrites that make me feel that my journey of getting into activism and fighting for change was all for nothing.
I was talking to an old activist friend that I haven’t seen in a while and I explained to her about how the real activists that are left on campus are doing everything and there is only a few people showing interest in carrying on the activist legacy New Paltz is known for. It was so good to talk to someone who actually understood where I was coming from. I realized that I’ve been so active for these past couple of years that I haven’t given a chance for other people to step up and take over. I’ve been trying to hold onto the torch for so long, but I need to start handing it off to the upcoming revolutionaries, whom will have to go through the same trials and tribulations that I went through. I can only hope and pray that this new age of activists coming up in this school (wherever they are) don’t get into activism and suffer the same fate I have.

But in the end, I guess you were right, Florest…