TODAY IS: BUY BLACK FRIDAY

Written By: Elsie Law - Dec• 09•11

PLEASE PASS THIS ON! (EACH ONE TEACH ONE OR TWO!) THIS IS PHASE ONE ON HOW WE CAN HELP TO STRENGTHEN & EMPOWER OUR COMMUNITY:
The 2008 not guilty verdict in the Sean Bell case evoked outrage, emotion, and debate. It is not an anomaly that the police officers involved in the Sean Bell slaying were acquitted of all charges on all counts in State Supreme Court. I could run out of ink printing the names of people who have been victimized by the inaptly named justice system.

The American justice system has been especially terroristic towards the African American community. Many community members can cite historic and personal accounts to prove this. Therefore, it would be foolhardy (at the least) to turn to a system that has methodically oppressed us, and request that they free us. We can only free ourselves through extreme discipline and intelligent planning.

As a community we have been too compliant with leaders who organize ineffective, delayed reactions. The only strategy that can save us in this last hour is one that calls for a collective code of conduct that will be conducive to improving the conditions of our community, and shifting the paradigm of how we are treated by outside entities. The first step of this code of conduct should be based on economics.

The old adage of “money talks,” still reigns true in the new millennium. Any political scientist worth his or her library card will tell you that: “Economic powerlessness equals political powerlessness,” and conversely “economic power equals political power.” This means that if we continue to allow our wealth to be extracted from our community, we will remain impotent.

The power of the collective “Black Dollar” is often discussed. However, that power has been left unchanneled. Today is the day to change that. A one-time boycott is not going to bring long-term change and respect to our community. Our community has launched boycotts before. Our success and ascension will be based on what we consistently do. For this reason, we should initiate “BUY BLACK FRIDAYS.”

BUY BLACK FRIDAYS is a small step towards our community acquiring power via controlling our economics. Every Friday, people who acknowledge the injustice and oppression that the African American community has been consistently subjected to should do one of the following:

Option #1: Spend $0 on Friday
Option #2: Spend no more than $10 on Friday
Option #3: Only Shop at Black Businesses on Friday
[PLEASE NOTE THAT THE ABOVE OPTIONS CAN & SHOULD BE EXERCISED ON A DAILY BASIS. However, we can all at the very least focus on Fridays. This way we can take a collective stand and build our collective discipline. Please remember that this is only Phase 1!].

To the people who are tempted to label “BUY BLACK FRIDAYS” as racist, I say this: In the big scheme of things, this is about right & wrong, justice & injustice. The African American community is a strong, proud community that has endured the brunt of America’s iron fist. We must stop the pounding. I feel that any fair-minded individual will concur, and join in.

ANY business that is privileged to enjoy the support of the African American community MUST return that support.

I thank you in advance for your effort and dedication.

-Elsie Law AKA Starface

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Quote Of The Day

Written By: Elsie Law - Dec• 09•11

“Others are always watching, and sometimes the only God others will see out herein this world is the God they see in you; so be the light that brightens the way for others who may follow your path.” -Taraji Henson (From, “Black Woman Redefined”)

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Throwback Post: “Social Junk” vs. “Social Dynamite”

Written By: Elsie Law - Dec• 05•11

In his book, “Lockdown America,” Christian Parenti analyzes a criminologist’s breakdown of “Social Junk” vs. “Social Dynamite,” and how it relates to social control.

“Years ago criminologist Steven Spritzer described the cast-off populations produced by capitalism as either ‘social junk’ or ‘social dynamite.’ A rather blunt and painful nomenclature to be sure, but Spritzer makes useful distinctions. These different segments of the ‘surplus population’ require uniquely tailored strategies of social control.

‘Social junk’ are those whose spirits and minds are shattered; they are the deinstitutionalized mentally ill, alcoholics, drug addicts, and cast-off impoverished seniors; the lonely, beaten drifters with no expectations of a future and little will to fight. This population- the collateral damage of unchecked market economics- is managed through spatial and social containment. They must be driven away from beaches, malls, and tony shopping areas of resort towns, financial districts, and the pleasure zones of theme park cities. They are, as Mathiesen put it, ‘sand in the machine.’ They pose an ontological threat to market social relations but they rarely coalesce into an organized political threat.

The other segment of the surplus population- ‘social dynamite’- are those who pose an actual or potential political challenge. They are that population which threatens to explode: the impoverished low-wage working class and unemployed youth who have fallen bellow the statistical radar, but whose spirits are not broken and whose expectations for a decent life and social inclusion are dangerously alive and well. They are the class that suffers from ‘relative deprivation.’ Their poverty is made all the more unjust because it is experienced in contrast to the spectacle of opulence and the myths of social mobility and opportunity. This is the class from which the Black Panthers and the Young Lords arose in the sixties and from which sprang the gangs of the 1980s. In the 1930s this same class provided the brawn for the Communist Party-organized Unemployed Councils that forcibly sttoped evictions in New York’s Lower East Side.

Thus social dynamite is a threat to the class and racial hierarchies upon which the private enterprise system depends. This group can not simply be swept aside. Controlling them requires both a defensive policy of containment and an aggressive policy of direct attack and active destabilization. They are contained and crushed, confined to the ghetto, demoralized and pilloried in warehouse public schools, demonized by a lurid media, sent to prison, and at times dispatched by lethal injection or police bullets. This is the class- or more accurately the caste, because they are increasingly people of color- which must be constantly undermined, divided, intimidated, attacked, discredited, and ultimately keep in check with what Fanon called the ‘language of naked force.'” -From, “Lockdown America” By: Christian Parenti

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Quote Of The Day

Written By: Elsie Law - Dec• 05•11

“If you don’t define yourself for yourself, then you will be crushed into others fantasies of you, and eaten alive.” -Audre Lorde

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TODAY IS: BUY BLACK FRIDAY

Written By: Elsie Law - Dec• 02•11

PLEASE PASS THIS ON! (EACH ONE TEACH ONE OR TWO!) THIS IS PHASE ONE ON HOW WE CAN HELP TO STRENGTHEN & EMPOWER OUR COMMUNITY:
The 2008 not guilty verdict in the Sean Bell case evoked outrage, emotion, and debate. It is not an anomaly that the police officers involved in the Sean Bell slaying were acquitted of all charges on all counts in State Supreme Court. I could run out of ink printing the names of people who have been victimized by the inaptly named justice system.

The American justice system has been especially terroristic towards the African American community. Many community members can cite historic and personal accounts to prove this. Therefore, it would be foolhardy (at the least) to turn to a system that has methodically oppressed us, and request that they free us. We can only free ourselves through extreme discipline and intelligent planning.

As a community we have been too compliant with leaders who organize ineffective, delayed reactions. The only strategy that can save us in this last hour is one that calls for a collective code of conduct that will be conducive to improving the conditions of our community, and shifting the paradigm of how we are treated by outside entities. The first step of this code of conduct should be based on economics.

The old adage of “money talks,” still reigns true in the new millennium. Any political scientist worth his or her library card will tell you that: “Economic powerlessness equals political powerlessness,” and conversely “economic power equals political power.” This means that if we continue to allow our wealth to be extracted from our community, we will remain impotent.

The power of the collective “Black Dollar” is often discussed. However, that power has been left unchanneled. Today is the day to change that. A one-time boycott is not going to bring long-term change and respect to our community. Our community has launched boycotts before. Our success and ascension will be based on what we consistently do. For this reason, we should initiate “BUY BLACK FRIDAYS.”

BUY BLACK FRIDAYS is a small step towards our community acquiring power via controlling our economics. Every Friday, people who acknowledge the injustice and oppression that the African American community has been consistently subjected to should do one of the following:

Option #1: Spend $0 on Friday
Option #2: Spend no more than $10 on Friday
Option #3: Only Shop at Black Businesses on Friday
[PLEASE NOTE THAT THE ABOVE OPTIONS CAN & SHOULD BE EXERCISED ON A DAILY BASIS. However, we can all at the very least focus on Fridays. This way we can take a collective stand and build our collective discipline. Please remember that this is only Phase 1!].

To the people who are tempted to label “BUY BLACK FRIDAYS” as racist, I say this: In the big scheme of things, this is about right & wrong, justice & injustice. The African American community is a strong, proud community that has endured the brunt of America’s iron fist. We must stop the pounding. I feel that any fair-minded individual will concur, and join in.

ANY business that is privileged to enjoy the support of the African American community MUST return that support.

I thank you in advance for your effort and dedication.

-Elsie Law AKA Starface

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Quote Of The Day

Written By: Elsie Law - Dec• 02•11

“Whatever else Black Americans may be, we have defined the past. It is our experience with capture, enslavement, emancipation, segregation, and redemption that will celebrate this living and save our souls. We will define the future. It is our willingness to forgive that both perplexes and confronts those who think they can braid their hair, or drop their pants and know something about the splendor of being who we are…Sure, they will take [Marvin] Gaye’s anguish and make a commercial out of it for Radio Shack just like they took ‘So You Want A Revolution’ to tell you to buy Nikes. But we’re still here, still laughing, still loving, still deciding what looks good and what sounds right. We’re still hugging ourselves, still making joyful noise. Still finding a way to be human and humane. It is not, after all, the blackness that has caused our loss of vision, making us turn and turn in this tunnel of despair; it is the blackness that is showing us a way out.” -Nikki Giovanni

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The Fly Or Die Commerce Report: Maybach Is Going Out Of Business

Written By: Elsie Law - Dec• 01•11

The $350,000 to $1.4 million-priced Maybach “super-luxury” vehicle will no longer be sold. The Daimler Motor Company, which is also the producer of Mercedes-Benz vehicles, introduced the Maybach to the market in 2002. In its almost decade of existence, the Maybach has failed to turn a profit every year.

The lac of profit has been attributed to the inferiority of the product. CNN states the following about the Maybach brand: “It was a remarkably cynical effort by Daimler to use the halo of its Mercedes-Benz brand to justify prices of $350,000 to $1.4 million for an inferior automobile wrapped in a glitzy package. Maybach strived for a prestige that it tried to ground on price alone. The wealthy figured it out in a hurry and stayed away in droves. Appearances to the contrary sometimes notwithstanding, the top 0.0001% didn’t accumulate all that money being stupid.”

In lieu of the Maybach, Daimler plans to introduce three new versions of the Mercedes S-Class in 2013.

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Quote Of The Day

Written By: Elsie Law - Dec• 01•11

“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. He who looks outside dreams. He who looks inside awakens.” -C.G. Jung

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Can A Person Be Biologically Addicted To Drama?

Written By: Elsie Law - Nov• 30•11

In her book, “Black Woman Redefined,” author Sophia A. Nelson, describes what she calls a “cortisol rich environment.” She states that this is an environment that creates high stress emotionally and physically. As a result of these “high stress” surroundings, a person’s body that is subjected to these types of environments will release stress hormones.

According to Nelson, the routine release of stress hormones, can create a harmful biological and emotional cycle. In, “Black Woman Redefined,” she states:

“When we are traumatized emotionally and for sustained periods of time, the body washes itself with cortisol to prepare for a ‘fight or flight’ response. However, our bodies are not good at self-regulation and can go into overdrive. After a while the adrenal glands stop producing enough of certain hormones. More disturbing is that people…will usually continue to seek out high-stress environments (such as unhealthy relationships or high-drama friendships) that feed the stress hormones- it’s like a drug addiction.”

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Quote Of The Day

Written By: Elsie Law - Nov• 30•11

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.” -Mark Twain

[SIDEBAR: Welcome. Allow me to re-introduce myself; old blog, new address. Welcome, once again, to The Legal Eagles Newsletter Blog. Thanks for joining me at my new domain name. Come back often, I’ll try my best to keep you informed. Lots of Love, Elsie “Starface” Law]

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