Camp Taz

          Adults, this one is for you.  I KNOW that you like to claim that ONLY minors are addicted to social media and the attention it garners.  BUUUUUTTTTTT, quick question boomers, Gen X'ers & older millennials... why are soooooooo many of you more concerned about your "online persona" and platforms than you are the reality of the world to date? Think that I am exaggerating? Take a walk over the TikTik and peruse those streets.  Visit YouTube and see how the neighborhoods compare.  YOU are losing your minds and souls for followers, endorsements, and CLOUT.  Clout has become the new drug of the century.  It is far more addictive than anything I have seen in ages and its dealer is one's own ego.      Relationships have been sacrificed for this fix.  Jobs have been abandoned for a "hit".  Children have become neglected roommates in exchange for a greater amount of...wait for it...CLOUT.  Many pay t...

      Since the verdict of the R. Kelly trial became public, there has been a disheartening amount of people defending wanting to continue to listen to his music and tossing fault onto others.  Granted, I am a FIRM believer that those that covered for him and knew about what he was doing should be brought to justice as well.  With that being said, bringing up Elvis Presley and other [now deceased celebrities] is UNNECESSARY!!!!! We ALL know that there were [and are] others that are predators, but that is NOT an excuse for the egregious behavior of Robert Kelly.  Additionally, why all of a sudden must we separate the art from the artist NOW? Any other time we are fervently reminded that an artist's art is an extension of them...it is a part of who they are...it is their "baby".  Yet, when it comes to the music of this particular ABUSER, people can't seem to leave it alone and are willing to turn a blind eye to his actions over DECADES.     ...

      It pains me to watch the current climate of [online] activism after witnessing the past year.  Within the last 12 months, most activists have explained in detail of previous movements have been infiltrated and dismantled.  From J. Edgar Hoover and Robert Kennedy sending misleading "wiretaps" to Coretta Scott King trying to distance her from her husband to William O'Neal setting up Fred Hampton after the FBI deemed him a threat.  How many times must we allow ourselves to be setback due to [either] ego, fear, or lack of faith in leadership?       What I find the MOST frustrating about the current climate is that [social media] activists are negating their own strides at this moment.  They are falling prey to those that proclaim to have NEVER been a part of the "cause" yet are always lurking in the shadows, waiting and willing to enact pure havoc.  Rumors, gossip, and utter hate are clouding the pathway to equity and justice...

           As long as I have existed on this 3rd rock from the sun, it has only been in recent times that I have [personally] heard so many United States citizens refer to themselves as patriots.  These "die-hard" lovers of democracy, freedom, and holiness also appear to be perpetrators of propaganda, branding, and sheer hypocrisy.  These people claim that they love living in the "greatest country on earth" while not realizing that they do have not even a mustard seed of knowledge of its history, laws, or how its government works.  Patriots within this cesspool of a country have no idea that there is NO national language or religion.  As they [consistently] brag about their Polish/German/Etc. grandparents coming here void of English; they scream at current immigrants for not being fluent in the language.  Additionally, these same crazed super-citizens want to force bastardized Christianity down the throats of everyone that THEY deem...

     Last night, I sat and watched as an unapologetic racist colonizer delivered an obvious fauxpology that was sopped up and accepted by a minute number of BIPOC individuals.  It was extremely troubling to me that people that were NOT at the core of who he targeted with his hate, disdain, and sheer ignorance were so quick to validate his Oscar adjacent performative fauxpology.   Today, I am still left thinking why is it so easy for the pain and disrespect of black women to be so quickly overlooked and the guilty colonizer is always so easily and readily forgiven.  If this individual would have made disparaging comments about black men or an Indigenous woman or an Asian woman...you get where I am going here... this gay white man would NOT have been so readily forgiven and his comments would not be placed on the shoulders of a woman of color.        Yes, that is correct, he is being forgiven as a woman of color is being vilified...

           Too often within the black community, we are left being demonized by our own people who have decided to wear the persona of the oppressor.  These individuals believe that they are exempt from the actions, thoughts, and hate that is given by said oppressors due to their consistent pandering. But are they? NEVER.  Let us use the ever-lasting case study that is Candice Owens.  Here is a woman that proudly proclaimed that racism does NOT exist within the confines of the United States but utilized the NAACP to sue racists that harassed her and she is currently seeking an apology from the head of a publishing firm due to...you guessed it...racism.  Now let us be clear, the company that was gracious enough to publish her latest exhibit of internalized racism did not d anything racist.  What are they guilty of? Apologizing for accidentally promoting the racist rhetoric of Mrs. Owens with their client base.     I did not...

         The Line 3 pipeline expansion is posing more issues than many within the general public truly recognize.  Most take note of the implications to the environment, most notably the water supply within the area, but very few are taking note of the danger to Native women.  A bit lost? Not sure of what I am getting at?  Walk with me down this road for a short spell.  Have you noticed the areas that most Native women go missing or endure sexual assault? No?      Any time there is construction near Native communities, there is an influx of MMIW (missing and murdered indigenous women).  Line 3 is NO exception.  The decades of hyper-sexualizing Native women and their culture have resulted in male colonizers feeling entitled to their persons coupled with a void sense of consequence.        At this time, the vast majority of people working to protect the lands that are being invaded by the intrus...