The Way We Move; A Message to Black People

There is a lot to be said lately about the way Black folks are moving. Historically we are known to move to the beat of a particular person or organization's drum. Right now, that's not the case. Black people are just moving in unison under the direction of no one special person or group and I am lovin' it!

How are we moving?

Black people are not engaging in mass protests or street rebellions, of which previously we've been the face or at least on the front line of danger. We're letting other people take the risk and do the work. We're tired of not being heard and being taken for granted. So, we've stayed home and no specific person is telling us to do that. We're just moving on cue, almost by silent instinct.

Black folks successfully boycotted Target. No particular person told us to boycott Target, it just spread throughout the community that we were not shopping at Target and that's what we did. We didn't shop at Target.

Target tried to use Jamal Bryant to reign us back in. That didn't work so Jay Z rose to the task of leading "his people" astray. Shame on him and anyone else who supports tearing down any steps of unity or progress being made by Black people. His moves, seemingly made entirely in his interest, not that of the community at large, justify why his invitation to the cookout is in jeopardy. He seems motivated at lining his pockets at the expense of the community. Again, shame on him.

Black people, keep boycotting Target and anyone else you think disrespectful or undeserving of our dollars. 

Enter, the Asian community, another target of boycott by the Black community as we collectively embrace supporting Black owned businesses. Again, the boycott cannot be stopped because it is an unspoken directive commanded by no one person in particular. It's just the way we are moving. 

Keep moving Black people, keep moving...

The response to the Converse/Nike klan imagery controversy was swift and decisive. I expect that they, too, will see a decline in sales, certainly from the Black community.

Another sign that we're moving in unison without specific direction, is the overwhelming response to the release of Melania Trump's documentary earlier this year, Melania. Black folks received the message to go to Netflix and re-watch the 2020 release of Michelle Obama's six-year-old biographical documentary, 

Becoming, during the opening weekend of Melania. We heeded the assignment and smashed the ratings.

Becoming enjoyed an astronomical 13,300% surge with more than 480,000 views globally (330,270 US) and a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 93%. Melania's cinematic project reportedly sold an estimated 600,000 theater tickets and received a Rotten Tomatoes rating of 5%. It didn't matter that we'd previously seen Becoming. Absent instruction from any one person, Black people heard the assignment and responded accordingly. No matter how symbolic, the mission was accomplished.

What is significant about this new way that Black folks are moving? 

As stated, typically, the Black community moves at the direction of a person or an organization. We are the only community coerced or bullied into having a "leader", someone not always chosen by us, but designated to represent or speak for us.

Typically, Black leaders are easily identifiable and ripe for manipulation or control by powers not operating in the best interest of our community. Leaders who do not comply or who cannot be controlled, will be taken out physically, financially, have their credibility killed, or their reputation smeared. By any means necessary, an unmanageable or uncooperative leader in the Black community will be destroyed or discredited.

Conversely, compliant leaders are publicly rewarded with empty promises of powerless, but very visible, golden carrots or shiny goose eggs, intended not only to sway or impress the recipient, but more importantly, the Black community, enticing Black folks to "behave", yearn for, and sell one another out for, the same "reward".

Significant of late, is that we are moving in such a way that there is no easily identified leader of our community. That's unusual and likely off putting for those who watch and study us as they grapple with new ways to infiltrate, derail, manage, or manipulate us as a community. Still, Black folks are seen as an archenemy, as maverick "property", and they want their "property" back. You too, white women...

Black folks and the way we move will forever remain under staunch surveillance by those looking to oppress or exploit our community. That which opens the door for us to prosper and move successfully, independent of control, approval, or manipulation external to our community, will be compromised or destroyed.

Again, I am loving the way we move.

We are moving in quiet unison, and we need to keep moving this way. While you may read this and say, "yes, those are victories, but they are small and insignificant". Do understand the power of first acknowledging even our small moves as victories and then, be propelled by the cumulative effect of our small victories to realign your thinking to imagine the possibility of our collective moves to impact our thinking, our spirit, how we see ourselves, and ultimately, our understanding of the power of moving in unison rendering us less vulnerable for attack, be it from within or outside our community. 

Celebrate small victories to empower us, to keep the dream and momentum alive, to be reminded of the Way We Were to Inspire the Way We Move...

Midterm elections are today. Move in unison Black people. Get to the polls and Vote!  

Cynically Hopeful

Having lost my Mother to breast cancer almost 40 years ago (1987) at the tender age of 26, she was only 45, and still there being no cure despite zillions of dollars being raised, I am numb to wearing pink and joining the annual October breast cancer frenzy. Please don't invite me. I am admittedly a cynic who believes that in a capitalistic society, there is little incentive for a cure as there is less money, fewer capital gains, in a cure...

No matter, breast cancer is real and Black Women are reportedly disproportionately affected. Recently, I even lost a Black male friend to breast cancer. Like it or not, the disease is real and poses a serious threat to our community. 

Be it October or any other month, please be proactive and be sure to get your annual mammogram. Request an accompanying ultrasound if you have a history. Ultrasounds seem automatic in some other countries. While in Panama a few years back, I paid a whopping $40 for a mammogram with an ultrasound. I did not request the ultrasound, it was standard procedure notwithstanding one's history. Good luck even seeing the doctor for $40 in the US. Yes, I'm a cynic... 

Between annual mammograms, actively conduct self exams. Be assertive with your doctors. Educate yourself and be knowledgeable about your condition, or detection thereof. Don't shy away from getting second, or even third opinions. Be open to exploring non-traditional approaches. Tell your doctor to treat you medically as s/he would treat their own Mom. We know that we are seen in the medical field as less human, and more dispensible. 

Unapologetically advocate for you and your loved ones. If she is too tired or overwhelmed, do it for her. If not you, who? Daughters, be prepared to do a role reversal. Mom will thank you later.

Most important, be a source of support to all women dealing with the reality of the disease. I have a very dear friend on this journey right now... Loan your Sis a shoulder, be her sounding board, allow her tears to flow, catch them and then build her up because despite there still being no cure, there have been advances in treatment and survival is not as elusive as it was in 1987. I am a hopeful cynic...

Breast cancer awareness is important year round. Be aware and take care of you from October thru September!

Miss Higgi Says 

Edited repost: October 25, 2023

Vote Black People, Vote!

The video, click here or see below, showing an elderly Democratic female voter in Georgia explaining why she voted for Senator Jon Ossoff, a white male candidate, and not Keisha Bottoms, the Black female gubernatorial candidate. They, like her, are both Democrats. She voted for the white male republican gubernatorial candidate who vows that he will "govern like trump" and be trump's "favorite governor"... 

This woman's sentiments, even thise not verbally expressed, demonstrate why Black folks, especially Black women, are disengaged from these protests and all other acts of political disruption being led by people who claim they are just outraged and demand change. They don't want change. They are very comfortable with status quo, betting on what and who they know even to their detriment. 

Not only do they know the white man, even when he is donald trump, they also know that they're not trying to help Black women specifically, succeed or achieve, certainly not before them, to include our white woman "allies". 

Black women are to ride the bus, not drive the bus. She is meant to be seen in the rear-view mirror...

I will never forget in law school reading about the white women feminists who were so upset that their white brother was going to give the Black man the right to vote before her. They said horrible things about my brother which only confirmed for me why I am not, and have never been, a feminist. I knew that I wasn't a feminist before that day in Constitution Law, but why I am not a feminist was confirmed after reading the words of those feminists.

These people will not overwhelmingly vote for a Black woman and many are probably not going to vote for a Muslim man either no matter what they say and do publicly. Keisha Bottoms, Angie Nixon, and Abdul El-Sayed are not shoo-ins for their elections and they should be. Vote, Black People, Vote!

Even the establisment, old guard, Democrats are still angry that Mamdani won in New York City against their wishes. He did not kiss the ring. He and Angie Nixon are Democrats who won tough primaries, as per the will of the people, but still deserved party support evaded them, financially and otherwise. The extreme right slept on the possibility of Barack Obama but they are awake now. They're angry and they vote. Enter, donald trump...

White women will agree with everything these candidates say, know that a vote for him or her is in her best interest, get on TV or social media and say all the right things in support of the candidate, but she will get in that booth and vote for the person who she will later complain oppresses her. Remember, she birthed, raised, and sleeps with said person. He is familiar to her. He is her. She will continue to vote for and be complicit in his oppression of her, as she promises to show up as our sister in the struggle...

The first time I saw this play out first-hand was when I moved to Virginia in the late 80s and campaigned for Doug Wilder, the first Black governor of Virginia. We knew when we went home on election night who had won on the ticket from the lieutenant governor down. What we did not know was who had won the gubernatorial seat. 

What that said to me, essentially as a neophyte in politics, was that Democrats went in that booth, they didn't vote for the republican candidate or go against their party, but they didn't vote for the Black guy either. It was quite a telling lesson to learn for a young person just actively getting involved in politics but the lesson never left me. 

When we went to Governor Wilder's inauguration in Richmond, I remember that some people were so upset that he'd won and/or that Black folks were so happy and celebrating the victory, some of them actually came to the hotel we stayed at and cut tires on cars. That was 1989, this is 2026...

This is America y'all. It always has been and it always will be, which explains the tolerance of donald trump, he is white and he is male. No matter how incompetent, corrupt, or grotesque, they know him. He is in their tribe. Many will protect and excuse him even when he brings harm to them and the rest of the tribe...

Don't stay home relying on other folks to do it for or with you, get out there and Vote, Black People, Vote! Your vote is powerful and it matters which is why some folks will stop at nothing to diminish or deny your right to exercise it. 

12 Days until midterm elections. Vote early and take someone with you! 

~ Miss Higgi Says 

The video: https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1DNUrpLkQo/

She's Not A Lawyer

 

trump's new press secretary has gotten caught with her pants down in her claim that she is an attorney. As she has not passed the bar, she is not an attorney, not even in China as she has also presumably claimed.

When I was a student at Howard University, I had a brilliant professor. She holds four impressive degrees including a JD. She has it all. So when I failed the bar the first time I was devastated and of course, I sought her out for comfort. That's the beauty of attending an HBCU, the ties are strong, always available, and never broken, they are for life! So, of course I reached out for encouragement. 

I had failed only by a few points which made it just that much more devastating because I've got to do this shit all over again for maybe three points, I don't remember exactly, but it was miniscule. 

So, when I called my brilliant professor, I couldn't believe my ears when she told me that she, too, had failed it the first time. After processing the shock of her admission, I felt less ashamed, and less critical of myself. I appreciated her being forthright and felt consoled knowing that I was in good company. 

My professor went on to tell me the only person who never passes the bar is the person who stops taking it. She told me to take it again. I heeded her advice, took the bar exam again, and rode that horse right across the finish line to victory. 

Failing the bar, however, was a humbling experience because it is so very public. Everyone who goes to law school is thought to be "smart", if for no other reason, because you got in. It doesn't help that law school culture feeds this stereotype. 

Wallowing in embarrassment and self-pity, one can easily lose sight of the significant accomplishment of having survived law school and forget that you are smart and capable. Now you have to contend with everyone knowing you did not pass the bar, your law shool professors and colleagues, your family, friends, and all too happy enemies, and anyone else who wants or needs to know. Membership in the bar is public information and all too easy to access which makes it even more bizarre that this woman would not be forthcoming about not passing.

I never did pass the Pennsylvania Bar, however, which was the one I really wanted. Taking the bar is an exhausting experience. You have to really want to do it. I guess I didn't really want to do it...

Sometimes I admonish myself in self-talk that until I actively engage in the practice of law, I shouldn't allow me to call myself an attorney, figuratively because literally, of course, I'm an attorney and have the bar number to prove it. I beat myself up because I truly believe that not practicing is a disservice to my community, not to mention to myself because I'm still paying for this shit. But my community needs people like me to vigorously practice law and I know that. 

This chick, however, makes me wear my Esquire badge even more boldly. Yes, I'm an attorney, practicing or not, I completed law school, passed that stupid ass bar exam, and I should not take those successes lightly.

It's amazing to me that so many people who have never taken a bar and who probably couldn't pass a bar if their life depended on it, sit in judgment of those who don't pass. That some of us respond, internalizing not passing as a failure that somehow negates or discounts that they've just completed three rigorous years of law school, which is no easy task, is sadly, also amazing. Block out the noise, which is probably mostly in your head, stand tall, and pat yourself on the back for a job well done, and take the exam again! 

I was so impressed to read in Michelle Obama's book that she had not passed the bar the first time (Becoming, p. 154). I had to read it again. With that admission, I was even more sold that our forever First Lady, is a strong and confident Black Woman. Society has taught lawyers, no matter our success, to not talk about not passing the bar. 

Passing the first time has ridiculously been equated to some status of honor. Law schools use first try passage results as a marketing tool. Lay people, who again, have never sat for a bar exam, will sometimes ask the question too, as if an attorney who had to take the bar more than once is somehow less competent or less qualified. Make that make sense...

The bar exam, as with most standardized tests, in no way predicts one's ability to apply the skill and perform the profession. The tests are often criticized for being culturally biased and some folks have been trained to test well. These exams were implemented as barriers to keep certain others out of said professions. The bar exam is intended to keep the practice of law white and male. Blacks nor women were welcome. 

trump's press secretary got ensnared in the net cast by men like him, her brethren, if you will. 

Until she passes the bar, according to the rules of her tribe, she cannot call herself an attorney. She simply holds the title of JD, which, by the way, is a very impressive title and degree that opens many doors affording one several distinctions of credibility. Deserved or not, one is stereotypically assumed to have a capacity for intellectual and mental stamina and the ability to think quickly, logically and critically in many subjects, even beyond the study of law. It's actually quite fascinating to witness.

Folks also get stuck on which law school did one attend, as if that matters. It's just another ridiculous qualifier that, at the end of the day, is less relevant than believed. You're a lawyer! Nobody much cares where you went to law school when you win their case. 

If you didn't pass the bar, take it again and again until you conquer that last hurdle in the game of becoming a lawyer but don't hold yourself out as an attorney unless and until you pass the bar.

This woman does not appear to be the sharpest knife in the drawer and she took one of the hardest bars. The California bar exam ain't no joke, ask kim kardashian who might consider attending law school first since passage credentials are not for sale, no matter the bidder. I digress... 

trump's new press secretary omitted a truth that is too easily discoverable, which makes her obviously incompetent, even at lying. So far, she's just another "dumb blonde" who will fit right in with the trump administration.

~ Miss Higgi Says 

Happy 10th Anniversary NMAAHC!

It's 10 years y'all. I was there for opening day. Were you? I saw so many people I knew. We showed up and showed off in honor of us! It was a fantastic day! People were very happy, excited, bursting with energy, joy and pride, Black Pride. Ungawa! ✊🏾

This rogue administration is trying to erase us and our history, which we know can never happen. We're not going anywhere, nor will our history be erased, distorted, or rewritten. We will tell our story. Poke your chest out far and tell our story loudly and proudly. Tell it far and wide and every chance you get. 

Make a donation or get a membership. Support the Museum! 

Be sure to get to DC and visit our beautiful building before they destroy it. She is the swan of the Smithsonians. 

Miss Higgi Says, thank you Mr. Bunch. Enjoy your retirement. Job Well Done!!! You made us proud! 

✊🏾❤️🖤💚✊🏾

¡Mississippi Goddamn!

 

Photo Source Unknown 

Mississippi is STILL Mississippi...

Emmett Till's murder trial took place on September 19, 1955. After 67 minutes, the all white jury delivered a "not guilty" verdict on September 23, 1955. 

Protected by double jeopardy, defendants roy bryant and j.w. milam openly confessed to the brutal murder of the teenage boy, four months later in a January 1956 interview with Look magazine. 

Ironically, or maybe not, seventy-one years later, in the same state, and almost to the day of acquittal for Emmett's murderers, on September 21, 2026, in keeping with tradition, a presumably all white grand jury declined to indict anyone in the seemingly deliberate death of Nolan Wells. 

Despite issuing 132 subpoenas and hearing 43 witnesses, the grand jury concluded that there was insufficient evidence of criminal wrongdoing, racial motivation, or foul play and found the physical evidence consistent with drowning, in absolute contradiction of initial reports ruling out a diagnosis of death by drowning by TWO pathologists.

How many of those 43 witnesses lied in this matter as did carolyn bryant, the unscrupulous, untruthful "victim" in the Till trial? Same state. Same mindset. 

Mississippi is STILL Mississippi...

The DA's office delivered news of failure to indict to the Wells family via text message on the evening just before making a public statement. The audacity! They are cold and heartless beings which is why I have no doubt that releasing the news so close to the anniversary of the Till acquittal was intentional and deliberate...

There is no statute of limitation on murder. May the Wells family ultimately finds peace and the Black community ultimately find justice in Mississippi and the rest of the United States...

🙏🏿  Emmett Till, 14

🙏🏿  Nolan Wells, 18

!Mississippi Goddamn!

Say their names:

🙏🏿  Medgar Evers 
🙏🏿  Fannie Lou Hamer
🫶🏿  James Meredith 
🙏🏿  James Chaney
🙏🏿  Andrew Goodman
🙏🏿  Michael Schwerner

Real Talk: When Does America See Herself?

Given her present state of dysfunction and absolute turmoil, I honestly do not know how America goes through this and does not stop to do some real serious introspection of herself and her "why". Really I don't...

As much as we claim to hate donald trump, and trust me I do, he has mostly exposed flaws that have been historically accepted and tolerated in a system that is, and has been, broken for a very long time. 

donald trump exposed, exploited, and took full advantage of America's most vulnerable weaknesses. He exposed and took full advantage of America's innate opposition and undeniable aversion to goodwill and humanity, as is proven by her history. Who didn't understand the meaning of "making America great again"? Of course, you knew. We all knew...

This country was built on racism. It is at her very core and freely flows in her DNA. 

Racism is as American as baseball, apple pie, and The Star Spangled Banner (Higgi-Ism). Believe it!

Racism trumps all for America, pun intended. White People will endure and suffer the worst of deprivation. As long as that suffering is in the interest, in name of, and supportive of racism, anti-Black racism specifically. She will spite herself to uphold racism, it doesn't matter. trump understood that and took advantage of it. 

Racism is a mental health disorder... 

The republicans have effectively been consumed by the beast(s) they fed. They energized their base by feeding them flames of hate, racism, homophobia, and xenophobia for years. Their party has now been consumed. They are no more... 

The Democrats sat back pretending that still we are in days of decorum and civility where statesmanship matters and dignity  has some value. They pride themselves on taking the lone traveled high road, traversed by only them. The repugs' aren't up there as they could give a damn! The Dems allowed the republicans to play with fire as though it wasn't a dangerous game and no one would ever truly get burned. They proceeded as though the beasts being fed were harmless pet [issues]. 

So here we are, the whole damn country is being consumed by distractions of the beasts, multiple fires are ablaze, and everyone put in place to save and protect the nation, is sitting on the sidelines, scatching their heads and other parts, pretending not to know how to contain the beast or put the fire out...

Again, how does America go through this and never stop to assess what the f*** is wrong with her? When does she ask herself why so many Americans were so willingly drawn to this level of hate and corruption? What is to be said about those who so easily caved, didn't resist, or who rationalized away America's return to the worst of her sins? 

How does America not examine her own pathologies that she has assigned to others so to avoid seeing herself? 

For America to see humanity in her victims, Black Americans specifically, it requires that she see the inhumanity in herself (Higgi-Ism). She will never be ready to do that and will therefore maintain her tolerance of those hell bent on distorting, erasing, or rewriting her story and that of her victims, no matter the cost.

It speaks volumes that America could not ward off an internal attack effectively rendering her destroyed from within. It is proof that she was never a super power but perhaps instead, a super bully with no real bite to even protect herself. The lies we will tell ourselves...

They say that there's nothing they can do about maga and the likes of donald trump. Trust me, if donald trump was a Black man or even a white female, they would have stopped this s*** a long time ago. He is the epitome of deplorable in every deplorable sense of the word, but he is white, he is male, and he will, therefore, be tolerated...

White people, including white women, will always tolerate and protect the white male. The white woman gives birth to the white male, she's married to him, he's her daddy. She's not going to turn her back on him no matter how bizarre, morally and/or emotionally bankrupt, no matter how corrupt. donald trump is all of that and more, but he is white, he is male, and so he is...

Every person who supported, enabled, and dare I say, who voted for or cheered him on, should be held accountable. At a minimum, they must never be forgiven or allowed to forget...

We stand where we are in 2026 because America has never reconciled or acknowledged her past. Unless and until she does that, in a way such that she is brutally honest with at least herself, we will remain or be here again in the future, if in fact, there is a future left for America to be had. Certainly, she will never be the same. Be that good or bad, how does America not examine herself? 🤷🏾

~ Miss Higgi Really Wants to Know... 

Photo Source: Unknown 
Content: Converse Print Ad

Anti-Black Racism is Profitable

Photo Source: Unknown

Here we go again... 

Anti-Black racism is alive and well and must be damn profitable.

How many people sat around a marketing table and thought long and hard that an image requiring little imagination to visualize a white klan hood and dangling feet of a lynch victim was an appropriate image to use for advertisement or sale of anything, especially a product widely marketed to and consumed by Black folks? 

How many Black voices were seated at that table or have they all been fired because diversity no longer matters? 

Who thought it an appropriate ad at any time, but especially at a time when Black folks are turning up as strange fruit hanging from trees across the nation? All who, by the way, are deemed suicides requiring no further investigation. Case closed. 

For the record, Black folks don't engage in the klan's favorite activity. Black folks are not lynching ourselves. Lynching, call it by its name...

Who thought this an appropriate ad? 

The company has since pulled this Converse ad but why was it ever released? 

In case you didn't know, Nike owns Converse. 

I don't know the numbers, but I'm going to very comfortably guess that very large segments of the consumer group for both brands are Black people globally. 

When I first saw the ad, my immediate thought was, this can't be real. I had to Google it to be sure. By that time Nike/Converse had cleansed the internet of all visual proof of the ad. Fortunately, social media had already captured and shared it. It will not just go away. 

Kamala Harris, a Black female candidate for president of the United States, organized an entire political campaign strategy centering Converse sneakers; 'Chucks and Pearls' was her slogan, undoubtedly boosting sales. Has she released a statement about this? 

Let us not forget just a few years back when Black people rewarded Nike with our loyalty spending our dollars on their products over other brands because of their very public business decision to support Colin Kaepernick who, at the time, was being blackballed for taking a knee in the interest of the Black community and protection of hard-won civil rights. 

While other folks were burning or discarding their Nikes, Black folks were buying Nikes in significant numbers. Giving the appearance of standing with Colin, therefore the Black community, proved quite lucrative for the company. They made billions playing Black folks then, and they're 'Just Doing It' again now. Of course, they're "sorry"...

The Congressional Black Caucus is meeting this weekend. Will this matter be discussed? Will they release a statement? 

There is no wonder about what would or will be the response of this present administration whose rhetoric and policies have served to incite heightened anti-Black racism. We can expect that any statement from them would be a celebratory high five. 

I remember as a kid, my first pair of name brand sneakers was Converse. My mother had five children, all who wanted a pair of Converse sneaks. Of course, she couldn't afford them. I remember going to the knock-off section in sporting goods stores to buy "slightly irregular" sneaks at deeply discounted prices. That's how more than a few of us got our Chucks in the 70s. They were the hot sneak that all the kids just had to have. 

This is not the first time Nike has swam in the dirty pond of racially charged water. They swim not alone, however. Numerous retailers can be cited that have blatantly insulted the Black community, pulled the ad, offered an apology along with a scholarship, or gave some Black person a prominent and highly visible job with no real power to appease the community, only to turn around and do it all over again (i.e. H&M, Dove, Prada, Gucci, and more recently despite an ongoing and highly effective boycott, Target). 

It is estimated that between 70 and 72% of the National Basketball Association (NBA) players are Black. These highly influential players drive huge sales margins for whatever products they simply mention or wear, much less endorse or brand. 

Nike is a main supplier of apparel for the NBA. Prominent players such as Michael Jordan and LeBron James have shoe lines with Nike. Have they released a statement?

Nike is a major supplier of apparel throughout the NBA and likely other sports. Has NBA leadership released a statement? 

How about the Black players? Have they released a statement, threatened a boycott, or are they being obediently quiet as they just dribble?

It must be profitable to insult the Black community, offer the obligatory oops', realize profits, extend a "heartfelt" apology, until they 'just do it' again. 

Obviously, there is no accountability or real consequence for offending Black consumers, who like Black lives, just don't matter...

Again, who thought this an appropriate print ad, now or even during the infamous postcard days of jim crow? 

Anti-Black racism is alive and well and seemingly remains pretty damn profitable.

Corporate Response:

On September 18, 2026, Converse issued a formal statement apologizing for the material, telling media outlets: 

"We're sorry. We understand why this image is deeply upsetting and recognize that we got this wrong. We removed it from our channels and are working to remove it everywhere it appeared. This should not have happened, and we will do better."

(Source Google AI)

~ Miss Higgi Says,

#apologynotaccepted

What To The American Worker Means Labor Day?

There's something hypocritical about celebrating labor here in the United States. Our government and the 1% has never valued or respected the American worker upon whose back they earn their wealth and whatever level of productivity realized in the US.

America is a nation built on free or cheap labor. From the days of back breaking chattel slavery, to creation of American unions, which historically discriminated against Black workers denying them union membership, therefore the ability to work and feed their families, to the forced labor of children, exploitation of the workforce has always been the name of the game in the US.

Capitalism, also the name of the American game, depends on cheap or free labor. It also depends upon division of the masses between the classes and the races. The 1% lives to manipulate each these factors.

Recently, donald trump declared that American workers have too many holidays and should work more, as he golfs on more days than we can count.

We have a legislature that earns a healthy salary for working six months or less per calendar year for which they receive full healthcare benefits that they regularly vote to deny American workers. They are a body that never fails to grant themselves frequent raises while simultaneously voting to freeze the federal minimum wage at $7.25 since 2009, well below a living wage in the year 2026.

The American government further disrespects the American worker by repeatedly moving the goal post for the age of retirement presumably because American workers are not dying fast enough, surviving to reap the benefits of their investment reducing the government's ability to take risks with their money. Fifty used to be the retirement age. The government now thinks that 70 is closer to the appropriate age for the American worker to retire and collect our money they hoarded in the name of social security.

The same government has decided that not before 59 1/2, is the American worker capable of making decisions about what to do with the money they were forced to put in a 401K instead of the 1% employer providing a guaranteed pension.

I could go on but the point is clear. America could give a damn about the American worker. So it's kind of ridiculous for workers to celebrate the hypocrisy of Labor Day, a day the government gives American workers while exploiting them on the remaining 364 days of the year.

Labor Day simply marks the beginning of the end of a season. I hope your summer was good!

They Removed the Mask and Walked Away

A Facebook friend, Rodney Barnes, is The Mastermind behind this AI image which so accurately depicts the fallacy behind the facade of DEI. 

The way these corporations and other organizations walked away from DEI, so quickly, absent resistance, little to no pushback, tells you that their gestures were performative and the ability to stop pretending spelled R-E-L-I-E-F. They were getting paid megabucks to pretend so they tolerated the performance. Many performed well...

Their leadership teams and the make up of their rank and file told their true story. Why are all the Black Children in the Cafeteria Sitting Together? Why are all the secretaries and low level employees not white and all too often, the least paid no matter their position? We conveniently pretend to not know the answer to these questions...

Although DEI has become the buzz word for Black people or people of color, what most people did not know was that more white people were holding DEI positions than Black folks, and getting paid handsomely to do so.

So, when this administration decided to destroy all that is DEI, they displaced more white employees from that line of work than other folks. Maybe they did know the impact of their actions and saw this injury to some white folks as a utilitarian deed, minor casualties to be absorbed by some in the interest of the greater good to make America great again. 🤷🏾

Companies avoided backlash and public scrutiny by being performative in their commitment to DEI and making public declarations of said commitment that their private actions did not support.

It was probably killing them that they had to put up the pretense. So, when they were given permission to walk away, that's what most of them did. Without a fight, they picked up their toys, snatched off their masks, and simply walked away happy to have to pretend or perform no more...

The Times In Which We Live...

Yesterday I saw a young Black girl in the store with an older white woman. She was about 11 or 12 years old. Something about her or maybe my heightened awareness of recent incidents of harm being done to unsuspecting Black folks, made me want to ask lil' Sis, if she was okay. I hope my eyes conveyed my concern such that she knew I was a safe harbor if she needed it. 

I'm not paranoid, or even racist, as some will deflect, but these are the times in which we are living. Two white folks were recently convicted for brutally abusing several Black children they adopted. Lynchings are on the rise. We are to believe that a young Black wrestler killed himself by rolling himself in a wrestling mat. Let us not forget Tamla Horsford, the 40-year-old Black mother of five athletic sons living in an all white community, found dead in the backyard after a sleepover with white soccer moms. 

The stories of abuse or death of unsuspecting Black boys by their white "friends" is off the chain. Even white folks on social media are warning Black folks to be more careful and not so trusting in white spaces. I hear them...

I have said it for a long time now, and I will continue to say it, if white people knew the true depth of barbarity in their history, instead of spreading a narrative that they should clutch their pearls and fear Black folks, they would wonder why we're not afraid of them. 👀 

Be careful folks. We must be careful about the situations in which we put ourselves, certainly our children. How many of you hold inside or come home from work or some other integrated situation complaining about some negative experience you had with a white person, overtly or passively? What makes you then think that somehow our children can navigate that? Without the proper tools, they cannot... 

We are not protecting them when we don't talk to them about racism and discrimination, past or present. We do them no favor when we don't teach them to recognize the red flags, instead, we harm them. We harm, not protect them, by not passing down stories, not telling them their history (the good to fortify them, the bad to prepare them), not sharing our personal experiences, not instilling in them the skill of discernment to be on alert at all times. 

There's a way to do that without exchanging their innocence of youth for a constant state of fear or paranoia or making them feel tense or on guard at all times but rather, alert and aware of the signs to notice when things are out of sorts. They will know to err on the side of caution and not second guess their intuition telling themselves that something's wrong with them when it is not. Teach them to assess their surroundings to know good and bad people in their proximity. Teach them to identify good folks, both Black and white, who can be trusted to help in these situations. 

Have you all seen the social media posts where non-Black parents are teaching their children that if they're in a situation that doesn't feel safe, to find a Black woman to protect them. 👀 Sidebar: Black folks are feeling some kinda' way about this for a bunch of valid reasons. Again, however, it's not paranoia, it's survival. 

Is this fair? Are these pleasant conversations to have with our Black children? No, but they are necessary conversations that can be a matter of life or death. More importantly, it is responsible parenting...

We are hearing too many stories from far too many Black families left with no resolve, no justice, therefore, no peace, after an inexplicable and sudden death or missing of a loved one. May each family so affected, find justice and peace... 

~ Miss Higgi Prays 🙏🏿

Meet Joan Trumpauer, A White Woman Who Traded Her Privilege to Stand in Her Truth

We've all at least pondered what we would have done had we lived when America was "great". Well, here we are.

We are reliving a continuation of the worst of America's history. These are the times one promotes in chants to "Make America Great Again". This is the "great" they want to return to?

Meet Joan Trumpauer. She was a real one. She is a white woman who traded her privilege to stand in her truth. She put her life on the line for what she believed. Are you a Joan?

We need more Joans at this time. History does not allow that you just look the other way, pretending it's not that bad or that it's not really happening. History does not allow you to be ignorant or silent...

So, what are you going to do? I challenge us all to channel our innermost Joan and get to work. White folks, especially you "liberals", white women in particular, I need you to be the ally you say you are. 👀 Roll up your sleeves...

Pass on Joan's story to educate and inspire others.  Story Source: Informatify Facebook page 

She was a white Southern girl descended from slave owners — raised by a mother who believed in segregation. At nineteen, she threw all of that away, and it landed her on death row. And that was only the beginning of what she was willing to lose...

Her name was Joan Trumpauer, and she grew up in Arlington, Virginia, on the comfortable side of every line the segregated South had drawn.

Her family had once owned slaves in Georgia. Her mother was a staunch segregationist. Everything about Joan's world was arranged to reward her for looking away — to keep her safe, protected, and silent inside a system built for people who looked like her. The path in front of her was the easy one: finish school, marry well, live quietly, never make trouble.

But Joan couldn't stop seeing what that comfort was built on. Raised in the church, she kept colliding with the unbearable contradiction between what she'd been taught about justice and the injustice she watched every day. And at some point she made a decision that would cost her nearly everything: she would no longer stand on the comfortable side of it.

In 1961, at nineteen, she joined the Freedom Riders.

Their idea sounded almost mundane. Black and white Americans would ride interstate buses together and use the same waiting rooms and counters, regardless of race. No weapons, no threats — just a refusal to obey laws built on inequality.

In 1961, that refusal could get you killed. Freedom Riders were beaten in broad daylight, buses firebombed, mobs waiting at stations with chains and clubs.

Joan knew all of it. She boarded the bus anyway.

When she reached Jackson, Mississippi, she was arrested almost immediately. And then she was offered the easy way out that would follow her for years: pay the fine, leave Mississippi, go home, forget the whole thing.

She refused.

So they sent her to Parchman Farm — the Mississippi State Penitentiary, a place designed not merely to punish people but to break them. And here is a detail that tells you everything about what she endured: because Parchman had no women's wing, nineteen-year-old Joan was held in a cell on death row, crammed in with seventeen other women.

She spent about two months there. The heat was suffocating. The guards leaned on psychological cruelty as much as physical confinement, subjecting the women to invasive, degrading "examinations" designed purely to show they could do anything they wanted. They were making clear, Joan said, that they had total power — and probably would use it.

And through all of it, the guards reminded her of the one thing they thought she'd forgotten: she was white. Unlike the Black prisoners beside her, she could leave anytime — she only had to say she was sorry.

She never did.

Most people, after Parchman, would have gone home. Joan went deeper.

She dropped out of Duke and enrolled at Tougaloo College in Jackson — the first white student at the historically Black school. Her reasoning was pure, defiant logic: if whites would riot over Black students integrating white colleges, what would they do about a white student integrating a Black one? At Tougaloo she worked alongside Medgar Evers, met Martin Luther King Jr., roomed with the writer Anne Moody, and became the first white member of the Delta Sigma Theta sorority.

Her family couldn't understand it. Threatening letters arrived. And to the segregationists of Mississippi, her real crime was never simply breaking their laws — it was choosing empathy over the privilege she'd been handed at birth.

Then came May 28, 1963 — and the moment that would put her face in history books.

Joan was one of roughly fourteen activists who staged a sit-in at the whites-only lunch counter of the Woolworth's in downtown Jackson. Anne Moody was there. So was professor John Salter, and chaplain Ed King. They sat down. They ordered food. That was all.

What followed became one of the most violent sit-ins of the entire Civil Rights Movement. A mob surrounded them and, for nearly three hours, unleashed everything it had. A Black student, Memphis Norman, was dragged to the floor and beaten by a former policeman. Salter was burned with cigarettes and hit with brass knuckles. The crowd screamed "communist" and worse, and a man pointed straight at Joan and called her a "race traitor." They poured ketchup, mustard, sugar, and spray paint over the activists' heads, spat on them, and punched them.

The police stood nearby and watched. No one stepped in.

And a photographer named Fred Blackwell captured it — three people at a lunch counter, dripping with condiments, ringed by faces contorted with hate, refusing to move. The picture went around the world. It became one of the defining images of the movement, because it showed something no argument could: that sometimes the bravest thing a person can do is simply refuse to get up.

The danger only escalated. Three weeks after Woolworth's, Medgar Evers was murdered in his own driveway. The next year, Joan briefed a young activist named Michael Schwerner on how to survive as a white organizer in Mississippi — one day before Schwerner was kidnapped and murdered alongside Andrew Goodman and James Chaney.

And one night in 1964, on a dark road near Canton, the Ku Klux Klan surrounded the car Joan was riding in and beat the driver. They escaped. She later learned the Klan had meant to kill her that night — and when they failed, they murdered three other activists instead.

She kept going anyway. She helped organize the March on Washington. She was arrested again and again — taking part, over the years, in dozens of sit-ins and demonstrations. She never stopped showing up.

Eventually Joan Trumpauer Mulholland became a teacher, spending decades in the classroom before founding a foundation to teach young people about the movement. Now in her eighties, she still speaks to students across America. And when they ask where she found the courage, her answer is disarmingly plain: she never thought of herself as especially brave. She simply knew what was right — and once you truly know a thing is right, she says, pretending you don't becomes impossible.

She summed up her whole life in a single sentence, back in 1963: "I'm trying to help America become what it says it is."

She wasn't forced into any of it. She was never denied a single right she risked her life to win for others. She could have lived a comfortable, quiet life and lost nothing.

Instead, at nineteen, she crossed the line she'd been warned her whole life never to cross. And she never crossed back.

Her story leaves a question for the rest of us. When we see injustice in our own time — and it costs something to say so — which side of the line are we standing on? Had you ever heard of Joan Trumpauer Mulholland before today? Tell us below, and share her name forward. The quiet ones who refuse to look away deserve to be remembered too.

Source: Informatify (Facebook)

                          She earned it!

The Dearly Departed

America woke this morning to news that senator lindsey graham died. Speculation is rampant that mitch mcConnell is at least brain dead, but no confirmation has been made. Good Sunday Morning...

A friend said, mostly because of her job, that she refrains from making jubilant posts on social media following incidents of death or harm to others. I understand, and given normal circumstances, I would agree.

I must say, however, that we are not living in normal times. We are living in a time and place of absolute chaos and incivility. Our usual defenders are not fighting for us, not our legal system, our media outlets, our legislators. No one! The American people have been left to our own devices. 

Enter, social media where We The People gather to vent...

This nation is being led by the worst of the worst. Cancer left untreated festers, grows, and metastasizes over time. Untreated cancer left to consume America has adversely affected us all.

Taking the high road, being kind and gracious and civil in the face of such incivility has not served us well. Do we need to stoop to the lows where others dwell? No, not necessarily. If ever, however, there was a time to respond in kind, it is now.

If, in fact, some of the comments seem venomous or mean spirited, it is because the deceased earned such responses.

One is due in death the same level of decorum, respect, civility, and compassion by which they lived and afforded others during their lifetime. The inevitable incident of death does not make a horrible person a better person. They are simply a dead person who was horrible and who most folks, including their family, will remember accordingly. There will be no fake tears or other usual acts of mourning.

If you live a horrible life, that's how people will remember you. What is new, however, is that moreso now, people are prone to express how they truly feel about the 'dearly departed' in the immediate. We have been conditioned to not speak ill of the dead.

These departed others, however, are not friends or family members who, although we didn't particularly care for, we still might owe some degree of respect. These are politicians and other public figures, people who were in positions of power who brought us harm. People who probably wielded their power irresponsibly and deliberately in ways to negatively affect our lives. They will be gone but the impact of the pain and suffering they caused will long endure. So, if public response to their demise is less than civil, they earned it. They are not our neighbor, friend, or loved one.

Justice scalia was the first public figure I recall being brutally scorned post death seemingly even before his eyes were closed. He was a horrible person, as was lindsey, as was mitch, as was rush, as is elon, as is trump (the celebration will be massive and global - we will experience world peace for as long as the celebration lasts, earning him posthumously, his shamelessly desired Nobel Prize 🤷🏾).

The list of potential candidates for the list of public figures of ill repute, is infinite. It encompasses more names than I could ever cite. The difference is that previously we waited for history to judge these people. In these times, however, there is no need to wait for history. History is being written about them in real time, even during their life.

They were/are horrible, horrible people. May they have an eternal reunion in hell...

FN: If these people were your loved or special ones and you ignored, excused, condoned, or remained silent as they committed their damning deeds, you were complicit in your silence. You were quiet and unbothered then, please be quiet and unbothered now. Refrain from lashing at others not sensitive to your time of sorrow. Speak not, as you spoke not when your 'dearly departed' was still here unapologetically causing grief and wreaking havoc upon the others of us...

~ Miss Higgi Says

America 250

 

Merriam-Webster defines independence as, “the state of being free from the control, influence, or support of others. It is the ability to make your own decisions, govern yourself, and take care of your own needs”. It encompasses personal independence, political independence, and independence of mind.

Independence Day, also known as the 4^th of July, is an American holiday commemorating America gaining independence from Great Britain in 1776. Today marks 250 years of that independence. Tones of freedom ring loudly in the celebration of the holiday.

Freedom is the foundation of The Declaration of Independence, the historic document commemorating the day asserting that all people have natural rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Thomas Jefferson writes this celebrated document as he enslaves Black people, impregnating a minor Sally Hemings. The hypocrisy…

Enter Frederick Douglass...  

On July 5, 1852, Mr. Douglass, a self-emancipated Black man through escape from slavery, is invited by the Rochester Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society, to offer an address in honor of America’s Independence Day. Per usual, he rose to the occasion in grand style and delivered one of his most memorable and powerful speeches, “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?”, wherein he challenged the hypocrisy of a nation espousing liberty and freedom as core values while enslaving Black people.

Although not aware of Mr. Douglass’ speech for most of my life, as it was not taught in American schools, the hypocrisy he so eloquently described has always been rooted in my soul. Always, I have felt conflicted about this holiday of “independence” that America goes all out for. It has simply always been paid time off to spend with family and friends. I, too, questioned what exactly we were celebrating? Freedom? Independence? Whose freedom? Whose independence? Aren’t we still having the same conversations in 2026 that Mr. Douglass raised for debate in the 1800s, the humanity and citizenship of Black Americans? So, tell me again, what are we celebrating?

Celebrating Independence Day has always been a challenge for me and, I think, many Black Americans. Cause for celebration of the holiday this year, however, is heightened in that it marks 250 years of America’s freedom, the self-proclaimed global example and blueprint of democracy to be revered and modeled by all. I remember questioning all the hoopla even as a teen in 1976, the exaggerated celebration felt hypocritical.

This milestone celebration of 250 years, however, is different.

 In 1976 all the stops were pulled out for the bicentennial. The nation excitedly prepared for this celebration, months, if not years, in advance of the actual day. There were military parades, profound speeches were prepared and delivered, a commemorative coin was coined, extraordinary fireworks and grand community celebrations were had. We were inundated with everything red, white, and blue.

This year, the mood is very different. I am even further removed from there being a holiday such that, when I walked into my gym last week, I asked, what’s up with the red, white, and blue? Seriously, I am totally checked out. The lack of national excitement or enthusiasm for celebration of the 250^th year of America’s independence allows one to be checked out.

Collectively, We The People are a functionally depressed nation, going through the motions, tolerating or managing what feels like the worst of times, certainly not a time of celebration. Each day we awake to another day of WTF did he do while we slept.  Many are fleeing the country or considering it. It’s exhausting…

Didn’t we resolve this in 2020? How did we get here again? America MUST examine herself and seriously ponder the consideration of answers to that question. I digress...

The nation is under siege from within. Instead of being internationally celebrated for 250 years of model democracy, freedom, and independence, the US is being ridiculed and shunned for slipping into a place of darkness in pursuit of recreating the ugliest and gravest of her original sins. She wants her property back. You too, white women…

The white house, turned cheap, gawdy gold, has been turned into a circus and junk yard combined as one. The reflecting pool is now a cesspool filled with algae. Foreign leaders are being kidnapped and brought to the US to be tried for crimes against their nation, as crimes and corruption is being actively and openly practiced by “leaders”, themselves convicted, at the very helm of this nation. The hypocrisy…

Innocent fisherman and children in school are being bombed just because…   

Americans are losing basic freedoms we have come to take for granted. While we were preoccupied and distracted with interpretation and adherence to the 2^nd Amendment right to bear arms, our 1^st Amendment rights to free speech, free press, right to assemble, right to privacy, and such, were being dismantled. Education, healthcare, and welfare systems are being demolished. People who failed to vote or who voted in the interest of harm to others but not to themselves, are 'finding out' as harm knocks on their door…

We The People, are truly unrepresented. So, tell me again, what are we celebrating?   

A friend summed it up this morning with his Facebook post, “It feels weird to celebrate our independence, when it’s pretty clear we’re losing it”.  Some of us have never truly had it…      

Merriam-Webster defines subjugation as the act of bringing people, a territory, or a group under    complete control and forced submission. It involves one dominant party taking away the freedoms, sovereignty, or rights of another, often through conquest, oppressive rule, or systemic power imbalances.

We are at a crossroad folks. Which way will we turn?

 

Miss Higgi Says, Happy Subjugation Day? 🤷🏾