You Can Not Be Silent: An Open Letter to President Barack Obama...a Black Man.

By: tadv2k on 1:32 AM

Dear Mr. President,

You do not get to be silent.

Yes, you are the President of the United States and there because you had the audacity to hope. Well, you also endure the burden of history...a violence, bloody, water soaked from the hoses of Birmingham and the gnashing teeth of dogs history that is now present...again. The present is no less bloody but now the police do not turn on water hoses. They simply shoot. They shoot and they kill. You are a lawyer with a Harvard degree...surely you must be outraged by the number of Black AMERICANS who are tried and executed on American streets and sidewalks of this country you lead! I realize you have had a conversation with the young people responsible for the Black Lives Matter Movement along with Rep. John Lewis and leaders from the Civil Rights Movement but time preaching to the choir is done. Talking to people who share your views is not enough. You have the reach to bring law enforcement agencies, officials and lawmakers...people who appear indifferent to the cause of saving Black lives even...YOU can call upon these people for change. Even if the call falls on deaf ears, you can not be silent. You can not be silent when white mass murders shoot up churches, schools and movies theaters and then are taken into custody without a single scratch while Black men selling cigarettes, music or being a twelve year old playing in the park with his sister are criminalized and shot down in the street. You can not be silent.

Your hand was slapped for acknowledging a simple truth in 2012: If you had a son, he would likely look like Trayvon. We haven’t heard you personalize or claim this hurt, this confusion, this solidarity, this anger, this love for a lost child...a son of the citizens who put you in office SINCE that day. Why? Because the backlash of “you are the President for ALL Americans” scared you out of speaking up when Black Americans were being killed by police...on camera, no less. You went from “this Black life mattered” to “ALL life matters” because the demographic that now make up Trump supporters slapped your hand and said you can’t be Black, speak of your Blackness and be the President at the same time. If you feel you must, it can only be in times of humor, song, dance and satire...but never, ever, in times of crisis in a racist America. The ones who slapped your hand have slapped it over your health care program, your jobs program, or the fact that it's a day of the week...any day of the week! The people who support you need you to support us back. With every #<insert name here>, our spirit is broken just a little bit more...but those ‘little bit more’ cracks are adding up and building to an ultimate breaking point. You have grown silent on us. That was NOT the way of Martin, Malcolm or Medgar. Do you not understand that it is YOUR face as the fourth on OUR Mount Rushmore?! Martin, Malcolm and Medgar would know these names...would lead the hurt...calm the angry. YOU DO NOT GET TO BE SILENT!

Black people are being terrorized by the police in this country. We are sharing RULES and TIPS on how to act and exist in the event an police officer, an agent of protection and service, is in our presence. Law abiding citizens are more afraid of police officers than supposed terrorist so many claim are seizing any moment to kill us. We watched TWO men die today...literally watched them not exist on this planet any more. Black people are the villains in this country. That’s the narrative. That’s what the Trump people claim when they say they want to make America Great Again. We are hearing the rhetoric of George Wallace circa 1964 as the basis of a Presidential campaign...and he’s winning! Trump may not win the actual election but he is doing his part in making sure that the folks who never wanted you as President for the simple fact that you are a Black man are poked and prodded like bears in a cage. They see that there are NO CONSEQUENCES to shooting Black Americans in the streets. AND THERE ARE NO CONSEQUENCES! How is it possible that SO many people are dying at the hands of police and NO ONE is responsible for the people dying?! Essentially they are guilty of their own murder. Now, does that sound right to you? I am legitimately afraid of the police. I do not feel safe when I see them. I feel anxiety. I feel shame. I feel anger. I feel terror. And I am a college professor with absolutely NO REASON to feel any of those feelings...counting on politics of respectability to protect me but who’s to say I’m not the next Ersula Ore, the Arizona State University professor fought to the ground by campus police for jaywalking; or Professor Steven Locke of Massachusetts College of Art and Design because he “fit the description of a robbery suspect in the area” or Dr. Henry Louis Gates because there is NO way that’s his house and the police will come and place me under arrest without the benefit of actually being a law abiding citizen like MOST citizens of this country. 

Emmett Till was murdered in 1955 and the loss of that one life helped launch a movement. Here we are, sixty years later and while possessing the audacity of hope and the illusion of equality, Emmitt is STILL laying in the street for hours, bloating in the summer sun of Ferguson. Emmitt STILL can not breathe. Emmitt STILL gets pursued by white men and murdered because he is Black and is on the wrong side of the street...or town. Emmitt is STILL being lynched and accused of his own death. Emmitt is STILL laying on display so we can all see his mangled body. And you can not be silent, Mr. President.

Yes, we have broken so many barriers. We have embraced the dilemmas of integration and march with allies of all races and nationalities but our fathers and their fathers and our mothers and their mothers did not come this far for your silence. We have NEVER had a Black President and by the looks of things, it’s hard to say when we might have another...and for that reason, you can not be silent. You can not let another name flash upon our feeds and timelines for soon the regularity of that will bring about numbness and then complacency. I will not accept this America and I certainly will not accept it with your as the one we voted to speak on our behalf. I don’t care if there are only six months left. SPEAK! DO!

Ronald Reagan let hundreds of thousands Americans die of a disease he did nothing to help treat or research because he didn’t acknowledge it existed until those deaths mounted up on the lawn of the National Mall with the Names Project and the AIDS Quilt. Is that what we need to do to get you to DO SOMETHING? Do we need to show up with the accounting of the Black men and women who are SUPPOSEDLY dying by their own hand with the assistance of police and call out their names? We have a record of them all! Social media archives are littered with hashtagged cries of “my child didn’t deserve this!” The youth shouting BLACK LIVES MATTER are getting sore throats and ALL of our patience is wearing thin. There are not more marches to be had. Those days have pass. Congressional sit in plays well on CSpan but we’ve long since turned the television off. We need action! With six months left in your Presidency, I suggest you do the following:

- STATE LEADERS: Call together all the governors and the heads of law enforcement agencies and revise training protocol. It is understood that not every cop is a bad cop but it is hard to pick out the good ones among the ones using our youth for target practice.

- SHOOTER LIABILITY INSURANCE POLICY: When a person buys a car, they must obtain insurance in the event an accident damaging the car or the life of another person can be compensated. Begin an insurance plan that requires a shooter to have some form of liability coverage, including police. If your own money is going into a policy to be given to the injured party, I’m willing to bet fewer people will be injured. 

- Or toss those ideas out and come up with something that will serve as the spark we need. We need the glow of the light in a lighthouse, that stands higher than the storm itself. The clouds of despair is choking out the light of hope. You can not be silent for the one we chose to speak for us is you. If you don't, then what?

Tonight, we watched as the four years old daughter of Philandro Castile‬, say to her mother, "It's okay, Mommy. It's okay, I'm right here with you." 

Are you?

You can not be silent.

Signed,

Terésa Dowell-Vest

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But Beyonce Must Apologize... #AmericanHypocrisy

By: tadv2k on 12:57 PM

Oh...I see...BEYONCE has to apologize.

Water hoses on full blast.
Gnashing teeth of a dog's bite.
Tightening noose of a neck snapping rope.
Metal chains tearing limbs behind a speeding bumper.
Shot dead with a mistaken for taser'ish' gun.
Votes not counted until payment is made.
Grand wizard running for President.
White sheets and burning crosses terrorized more AMERICANS than al qaeda or ISIS.


But...BEYONCE has to apologize for a song that doesn't mention race or police...and for a performance that celebrated a group that fed children, empowered an entire race of people and demanded we be treated with respect.

BEYONCE has to apologize.

Meanwhile...

No apology for slavery.
No apology for the abduction of an entire region of a continent.
No apology for the rape of every woman brought, bought and sold during the slave years.
No apology the murder of millions of Africans who did not obey the rules of bondage.
No apology for the children traded away for profit.
No apology for striking human bodies until they split open in countless gashes.
No apology for the searing brand of ownership burning the flesh of PEOPLE.
No apology for the humilation of the auction block inspection and sale.

No apology for the lie of separate but equal.

No apology for the assassination of our leaders for equality and freedom.

No apology for bombing our churches or burning down our homes.

No apology for the mobs shouts and spitting on our children as they enter better equipped schools simply because they were white schools.

No apology for the state of Mississippi.

No apology for Bull Conner or George Wallace.

No apology for massive resistance.

No apology for the Ku Klux Klan.

No apology for blackface.

No apology for inventing the word 'nigger'.

And as long as there is no apology, you will never see yourself as having done anything wrong.

But BEYONCE...she must say she's sorry.

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ICYMI: The First #BlackSuperhero #TwitterChat: WHERE ARE ALL THE BLACK SUPERHERO FILMS?

By: tadv2k on 10:45 AM

Saturday night was AWESOME!! I launched my first TwitterChat and as it turns out, it was the first Black Superhero Twitter Chat to date...AND...it was AWESOME!! It's just the beginning! We are going to host these discussions on ways and means to produce and support more films, television and web series that depict ourselves heroic!


Below you will find all of the Questions from the Chat. Click on the image and you'll have access to the responses to that particular question. Let's continue the conversation until the "doing" gets done!

Thank you to Michelle A. Dowell-Vest and www.AGurlzGuide.org for promoting the Chat with their segment: #MyFavoriteHashtag!

"When obstacles are insurmountable, we to look to super human figures as hopeful, extraordinary versions of our human self. Superheroes are our partners in fantasy and give us permission to imagine ourselves able to accomplish that which seems impossible. ~ Teresa Dowell-Vest, Author, Filmmaker, Educator

This week’s edition of ‪#‎MyFavoriteHashtag‬ is not an account of this week’s Twitter happenings, but an invitation to be part of a conversation about challenging an industry fixated on a singular representation of Superheros.

Tonight, July 11th at 8:30 – 10:00 pm est, join Terésa Dowell-Vest the writer and creator of Genesis, the story of a family of Black Superheroes in a conversation about how it is time to…‪#‎RedefineHero‬"

#CITIZEN of #Earth, #CREATOR of Artsy Sh!t, #LOVE of #MyWife, and a #WORK in Progress https://t.co/nDAUi8YjJI
— Terésa Dowell-Vest (@TeresaDowelVest) March 8, 2015

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The FIRST Black Superhero Twitter Chat - Tonight at 8:30pm EST! #ReDefineHero

By: tadv2k on 10:44 AM

I'm am super excited to host my first Twitter Chat tonight!

This Twitter Chat will invite people to discuss the void of Black Superhero films in the movie industry and the implications of that absence. Please join us on Twitter tonight at 8:30pm, use the hashtag #ReDefineHero to ensure everyone's voices are heard. ALSO, we are hacking this year's Comic Con in San Diego with this chat so include #SDCC in your post so the filmmakers and VC's at the conference can hear our voices as well!

 Come back here on Monday, July 13th where we will post ALL of the questions from the chat and engagement from the participants!

#CITIZEN of #Earth, #CREATOR of Artsy Sh!t, #LOVE of #MyWife, and a #WORK in Progress https://t.co/nDAUi8YjJI
— Terésa Dowell-Vest (@TeresaDowelVest) March 8, 2015

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"Frederick Douglass Was A Blogger"

By: tadv2k on 12:02 PM

"Frederick Douglass Was A Blogger"
Lesbians Who Tech Summit 2015
San Francisco, California

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The American Griot: The Walter Fisher "Narrative Paradigm" and the African-African Storyteller

By: tadv2k on 7:26 PM

From "The African American Theatre Producer as the African American Griot"

by Terésa Dowell-Vest 

(California State University, Long Beach. Long Beach, CA, 1997)


Storytelling is perhaps one of the oldest forms of communication. Stories are told and performed for many reasons, serving many purposes, but none more important than to educate and to inform. Donald and Karyn Rybacki state in their book Communication Criticism: Approaches and Genres, "Before organized education systems, before written language, the values and rules of tribal or communal life were transmitted to children and reinforced for adults through narratives."1 This was, and still is, the primary objective of the African griot.

What Is The Griot?

A griot is a storyteller, a historian, and an educator. Senegalese griot D'jimo Kouyate describes the griot as one who offers to those willing to learn an oral history, cultural information, descriptions of social obligations, and ancestral wisdom and knowledge essential to the preservation of one's knowledge of one's African heritage.2 Walter Fisher's "Narrative Paradigm" can offer an analytical view of the art and social need for storytelling.

Walter Fisher's Narrative Paradigm

Walter Fisher, University of South Carolina Professor of Communication Arts and Science, developed a rhetorical device based on the idea that human beings are storytellers by nature. In explaining his theory, Fisher declares in his book Human Communication as Narration: Toward a Philosophy of Reason, Value and Action (1987) that "narration is a type of human interaction -- an activity, an art, a genre, or a mode of expression."3 When asked to give his definition of the term "narration," Fisher offered the following definition:

When I use the term "narration," I do not mean a fictive composition whose propositions may be true or false and have no necessary relationship to the message of that composition. By "narration," I mean symbolic actions -- words and/or deeds -- that have sequence and meaning for those who live, create, or interpret them. Narration has relevance to real as well as fictive creations, to stories of living and to stories of the imagination.4

Fisher adds that the "Narrative Paradigm" is based on two separate traditional themes of rhetoric: the argumentative, persuasive theme and the literary, aesthetic theme.5 Fisher further asserts five factors which construct the "Narrative Paradigm": nature, belief and behaviors, culture, rationality, and choice.6 Together, these premises create a model of communication arriving at two conclusions: (a) regardless of the relationship between people or the forum in which we communicate, humans communicate in narrative, and (b) humans communicate with one another for a "good reason." Fisher continues that his human communication paradigm "seeks to account for how people come to adopt stories that guide behavior."7 This is the main premise that defines the duty of the African griot and the further, how we use social media outlets today.


Nature

Walter Fisher's first premise acknowledges humans as storytellers by nature, an innate characteristic that does not have to be taught.8 He includes in this premise that humans are symbol-using animals:

Symbols are created and communicated ultimately as stories meant to give order to human experience and to induce others to dwell in them in order to establish ways of living in common, in intellectual and spiritual communities in which there is confrontation for the story that constitutes one's life. One's life is a story that participates in the stories of those who have lived, who live now, and who will live in the future."9

We live; therefore, we offer episodes of a huge, life-size story. Because we share in dialogue or various types of symbolic communicative exchanges, we are in a huge drama or play. We are the storytellers of our own stories and the stories of others.

Beliefs and Behaviors

The second premises of the model states, "Beliefs and behaviors are based on good reason." What qualifies as "good reason" is subjective and is found in different forms.10 The reason for "good reason's" subjectivity and variance in form is realized in the following statement:

A good reason is good if it is tied to a value, and a value is reasonable if it is tied to a reason. Given this view, there is no way to distinguish the merits of competing good reasons.11

Fisher's definition of a "good reason" is the most ambiguous of all his terms and definitions. Defining a "good reason" and its origin can be as confusing and inconclusive as "the chicken and the egg" argument. "Good reason" is subjective and is based on two main factors that vary with every individual: culture and rationality.

Culture

Our individual culture helps us to determine what is "good reason." Walter Fisher asserts that it is our history, biography, character, and the structure of our native language that influences what we perceive "good reason" to be.12 Narration takes place in two forms: "recounting" and "accounting for" human choice and action.13 "Recounting," Fisher stated, "takes such forms as history, biography, or autobiography. 'Accounting for' takes such forms as theoretical explanation or argument."14 "Recounting" is telling what happened; "accounting for" is telling why it happened.

"Recounting" and "accounting for" can be expressed in everyday conversation as well as poetry, prose, and drama. They make up the stories we tell ourselves and each other to establish a meaningful life.15 The stories we select to live by, however, are not randomly discovered via our imagination. All of the narrative choices we make are inherently influenced by the environment in which they are nurtured. Reasoning is dictated by our culture.

Rationality

The rationality of any story depends on whether or not it "rings true," whether it is consistent with other stories.16 Narratives and actions must pass two tests: the test of coherence and the test of fidelity.17

Fisher explains narrative rationality as "a system for determining whether or not one should accept a story, whether or not a story is trustworthy and reliable as a guide to belief and action."18 There is a test of coherence: "Does the story or action 'hang together' and exist free of contradictions?"19 There is also a test of fidelity: "Is the story or action truthful and logical?"20

Choice

The final step of the "Narrative Paradigm" states that we choose among stories to determine which ones offer us "good reasons."21 Fisher clearly acknowledges that "some stories are better than others, more coherent, more 'true' to the way people and the world are."22 Fisher concludes his thesis with the statements:

Narration is meaningful for persons in particular and in general, across communities as well as cultures, across time and place. Narrations enable us to understand our own lives in terms of narratives.23

History records no community, uncivilized or civilized, without key storymakers /storytellers, whether sanctioned by God, a "gift," heritage, power, intelligence, or election. Narration implies, however, that the "people" judge the stories that are told for and about them and that they have a rational capacity to make such judgements. To apply a narrative paradigm to communication is to hold, along with Aristotle, that "people" have a natural tendency to prefer what they perceive as the true and the just. The narrative paradigm does not deny that the "people" can be wrong. Nor does the theory behind the narrative paradigm deny the existence and desirability of genius in individuals or the capacity of "people" to formulate and adopt new stories that better account for lives or the mystery of life itself.24






1Donald Rybacki and Karyn Rybacki, Communication Criticism: Approaches and Genres (Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 1991), 107.

2D'jimo Kouyate, "The Role of the Griot" in Talk That Talk, ed. Marian E. Barnes and Linda Goss (New York: Simon and Schuster Touchstone Publishing Company, 1989), 179.

3Walter Fisher, Human Communication as Narration: Toward a Philosophy of Reason, Value, and Action (Columbia, SC: University of South Carolina Press, 1987), 62.

4Ibid., 58.

5Ibid.

6Ibid., 64.

7Ibid., 87.

8Ibid.

9Ibid., 64.

10Ibid., 63.

11Ibid., 64.

12Ibid., 107

13Ibid., 64.

14Ibid., 62.

15Ibid.

16Ibid.

17Ibid., 64.

18Ibid., 88.

19Ibid.

20Ibid.

21Ibid.

22Ibid., 64.

23Ibid., 68.

24Ibid., 65-66.

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