I’m only asking questions here.

I am legitimately curious about different things in life and how to better one’s self, but I am doing it from the perspective of someone who has internalized a lot of anger and sadness from being mistreated.

Have you ever wanted to learn and master a skill out of spite?

Did you ever have those moments where you felt foolish and learned as much as you can so you could shame others who made you feel stupid?

Should you humiliate people who have humiliated you in the past?

How do you feel about the quote “turnabout is fair play”?

How about being so knowledgeable about a subject that people are forced not to question you because you’re right?

Should someone make an effort to personally see or contact someone who has hurt you, and when you succeed or get good at something, you can just rub it in their face (metaphorically speaking, of course)?

How do you feel about the phrase “no good deed goes unpunished?” That seems to apply to me which is why I am more vocal about serious issues online than I am offline because everything is always a double standard against me no matter what like I’m not “allowed” to have an opinion on serious matters.

I’m genuinely shocked that there’s hatred toward Disney Adults. I never saw any backlash against that fandom offline.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/how-disney-adults-became-the-most-hated-group-on-the-internet?utm_source=pocket-newtab

I just read this article, and I was genuinely shocked. There were some legitimate acts of immaturity coming from people in their 20s and 30s. Not just watching or liking the movies, but getting the big weddings, memorizing various facts, or having pilgrimages to any of the Disney parks. I never saw Disney fans get made fun of online or real life, but I guess I’m not on the internet enough because I’m busy in my offline life, I study other things, and I actually touch grass. Not going to lie, I did laugh about those quotes involving millennials not having the spirit of Cinderella when you’re 30 or people trying not to “profess horniness” for Disney’s fox iteration of Robin Hood. However, I’m not surprised of the statistic how you have lots of middle-class and richer white women being in this fandom or how that fandom doesn’t care about legitimately horrible things that the company is done such as legal bullying, child exploitation, racism, cultural appropriation, plagiarism, giving some predators/sex offenders a pass, etc, but I’d be ranting all day.

Has anyone seen this cringiness from Disney adults online and real life? Am I legitimately blind to that fandom being bashed and pathologized?

As someone who was lambasted for being a fan of independent music and anime even in my adulthood, I find this amusing like it’s some indirect way of me saying “Serves you right, Disney fans!”

“Hakuna Matata Harry” Harassing Teens At A Mall! Will The Lion King Fandom Denounce This Behavior?

I found out about this story only days after I did my Swahili rant, and when I saw this video, there was no freaking way I wasn’t going to talk about it. Phillip Scott gives his commentary on some fake tough guy at a mall harassing some teens who were making a music video in the wall, so he decides to be a male Karen (is that a Darren?) to these teenagers who weren’t doing anything and he had the nerve to break the phone of a teenage girl who was filming it and had nothing to do with these other teens. This coward is old enough to be their dad, but he must have felt so manly confronting high schoolers not doing anything wrong in the mall. Of course, this happens to be a racist white guy confronting two Black teens who were making the music video, and while I don’t know the ethnicity of the bystander girl, she definitely doesn’t look Caucasian. The irony gets strong when this irritable coward who’s freaking out is wearing a “Hakuna Matata” shirt! That’s right, the Swahili phrase that means “There is no problem,” or more famously translated as “No worries” for obvious reasons, is on the shirt of some guy who clearly is having irrational worries and not following the so-called “problem-free philosophy”. I’m also glad those teens are still okay, and this Hakuna Matata Harry (whom I will be addressing under that name until I find out this devil’s name) didn’t pull off a Daniel Penny on any of them. Seriously, these white supremacists are everywhere in this country, so one definitely has to be careful. I hope those teens’ families press charges against that guy for harassing them. I doubt he would do that to adolescents who look like his kids.

Before I get into the next part of the post, I will have to preface by saying that I know not everyone who likes the movie franchise that made the phrase famous outside of East Africa is like this or thinks like him or others. What I’m about to say is going to be very harsh as I’m doing this to prove a point about this behavior and how certain people are treated. Let’s be honest here. After 1994, everybody and their mom associated that phrase with that song by Timon and Pumbaa. Let’s not kid ourselves. You all know how I feel about that phrase and how Disney had the temerity to trademark it. So this begs the question, and I’m asking this question to prove a point about something…How will The Lion King fanbase react to a situation like this?

Since that fanbase (one could argue the Disney fandom at large, too) never seems to face any accountability for anything negative that’s associated with that movie franchise, are we going to hear from The Disney Corporation, Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff, or even Jon Favreau denouncing Hakuna Matata Harry like how Black people are pressured to condemn any Black celebrity who’s accused of doing or saying something terrible? Would this situation happen if the races were reversed? I wouldn’t be surprised if this guy is a racist jackoff if he’s acting like he’s Mr. Billy Big Balls around those teenagers. This situation only feeds into my prejudices of a good portion of Lion King fans having bigoted views in seeing Black and even other non-white ethnic groups as thugs, criminals, or worthless individuals, much like how they see those hyenas in the movie. That Mickey Mouse Monopoly documentary proved me right years ago about how racist The Lion King and multiple fans of that movie are with the story of Jacqueline Maloney (a Black woman) telling a story of her female Caucasian friend concerned about her three-year-old boy assuming some Black children were just like the hyenas even though they were only playing and laughing. That’s saying nothing about learning about history I didn’t learn in school that proved me right that Mufasa was committing protagonist-centered morality the whole time with the elephant graveyard situation. It’s like if someone is dark enough, then they don’t belong in the circle of life. No, James Earl Jones, Madge Sinclair, or those in the remake aren’t carte blanche for having a bigoted narrative with those melanin shields in those movies, got it? How would you Lion King fans feel if you got the Kyrie Irving or Kanye West treatment if there was enough power to cancel Hakuna Matata Harry or your fanbase for not condemning this violator? Most of you don’t know what it’s like to be scapegoated by proxy, and you all would scream about how it’s unfair. I’ll ignore the low-hanging fruit that involves Scar’s first sentence of dialogue in the movie to respond to that attitude, so you’re ever so welcome! As someone who’s actually been racially profiled and bashed for things I like because I have a particular skin color, I have no sympathy for this man. There have been people like him who have made my life hell at different times in my life. Silence is violence! I wouldn’t be surprised if various fans, especially some of those nerdy influencers try to pretend this never happened or emphasize how they are “individuals” who don’t deserve to be profiled. Maybe you shouldn’t paint people with the same brush (especially various ethnic groups), and I wouldn’t be tempted to hold a metaphorical mirror to your collective faces. I know this is just dark satire and overexaggerating, but I’m doing this to prove a point because this fandom never gets scrutinized for anything, and I’m treating most of them the way people like me have been treated by those with the power to derogate me at best or dehumanize me at worst.

Hakuna Matata Harry, I hope you face the consequences of being a racist bully. Lion King fans, prove me wrong that you don’t support this guy or think someone like me deserves to be mistreated, harassed, or even abused, like how I had a bad habit of having to prove my humanity to you and others. I hope people do their best to protect their families and not let wicked people harass, hurt, or kill them. It’s saddening what people have to deal with or how certain people get victimized just because of their skin color as these demons see them as prey who can be inflicted without consequences.

Frustrations with the perception of Swahili from others (Mostly the Western Hemisphere)

Swahili can be a bit frustrating to learn. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoy learning it even if I struggle with some of the grammar and sentence structures which are nothing like English or Japanese. It’s not easy, but I’m doing my best in being fluent in multiple languages, especially since I have a heritage incentive to learn Swahili. However, I get annoyed with so many people with how ignorant they can be. I can only last so long and not rant given how many years worth of internalized anger in me. Oh heck, I always see clouds in every silver lining.

1: “So why don’t you learn Spanish?”

This is a big one in America. I have no issue with Spanish or anyone who speaks it. I know some words and phrases, but the way people ask it is that Swahili barely has any speakers or is impractical. Sorry, but there are 50 million speakers of Swahili and multiple countries have it as an official status. I get that Spanish is spoken in several nations and I live in a region with a sizable Latinx population, but I want to be better at other languages. I almost put up a reason being the whole “This is ‘Murica, and we speak English, ya’ll!” mentality, but that’s too easy to critique. Oh, wait. Spanish is a European language, so it doesn’t get that kind of questioning.

2: People thinking I’m going to speak it all over Africa.

If I visit most of East Africa, that could work, but that’s not going to work in the whole continent. Speaking Swahili would be counterproductive if one was in Nigeria, Egypt, or even Sierra Leone. It also annoys me how people call that language “African” like how some idiots think that people in Mexico speak “Mexican”. Swahili is an African language, but it’s mainly in one area and there are hundreds of indigenous languages in the continent. Not everyone speaks that language on the Motherland. you wouldn’t say that about European or Asian languages, so why is it cool to oversimplify everything that’s spoken in Africa?

3: People saying “Jambo” as a way to say hello.

I used to think that was the right way to greet someone, but that’s not the case. I noticed it with Duolingo and when I had my first online class with my teacher, she said that it’s one phrase you should NEVER say in the Swahili-phone parts of Africa. Don’t worry, will get to another well-known phrase you shouldn’t say in Africa later, and I think you all can guess what it is. It’s “hujambo” if you’re talking to one person or “hamjambo” if you’re talking to multiple people. Man alive, even saying “mambo” would actually be putting in more effort in speaking it and that’s a regional dialectal example! If you’re going to say hello to someone in another language, then get it right, everyone.

4: The assumption that people think I’m only using this for mission trips.

I don’t know if I’ll do a mission trip, and if I take part in one to help others, I will make sure it’s legit. No one has said it to me, but I know they’re thinking it because people are stupid to assume that the African continent is nothing but poverty. I know people directly from the continent who will definitely tell you otherwise. Yeah, because poverty never happens in America, right? Go ahead and search videos from Wode Maya, Miss Trudy or even Phillip Scott’s videos about traveling to Ethiopia, South Africa, and Kenya and you will find cities that are on par with most Western cities and some are cleaner than here in the States. I don’t think you can eat lunch while sitting in a gutter in Portland, OR (take that, hipster jerks!) like you could in Kigali, Rwanda with how clean it is, for example. Don’t believe me, look up Kigali and how clean it is like Wode Maya’s videos or even some cityscape pictures! If you think African countries are nothing but mud huts, warzones, and rampant starvation, then you’re a racist POS. Don’t gaslight me about that!

5: Some people act like Kenya and maybe Tanzania are the only places you can speak Swahili.

Are they countries where Swahili is the #1 language? Yes, and I don’t deny that. But what ticks me off is when I see people say only Kenya or only that country and Tanzania know those languages. That is insulting and even I knew they weren’t the only ones years ago. The DRC has millions of people who know the language and it has official status there like Uganda and Rwanda even if they aren’t the most-spoken languages there. It’s even used as a lingua franca in East Africa much like English or French depending on the country. Then again, a lot of people treat Africa like it’s a country in America, so I’m not surprised they would have such ignorance about as statement like that.

6: Can we please stop the bloody Lion King references in these language sites? Also, I hate that movie franchise even more with the more I learn that language.

Raise your hand if you think I wouldn’t make any potshots against everyone’s favorite 90s Disney movie for this list. PUT YOUR HAND DOWN! Before I really rip apart Disney and their fanbase, let me preface by saying not all Lion King fans are like this, so I’m not talking about specific individuals, but I have noticed this about the collective.

We get it. We know what “Simba” and “Hakuna Matata” means in English. You can use other examples in pop culture. Also, not all the names are real Swahili (I’m not talking about Scar or Ed) or mean what you think they mean. The word for king in Swahili is “Mfalme” and NOT “Mufasa”! If you know about those prequel books in the 90s which also involve the potential real name of a certain character, the word for garbage is “Takataka” and not “Taka”. Oh, and the word for want is “Kutaka” and the “Ku” changes with the pronoun, so nice try! Shenzi should be “Mshenzi” which means savage. Wow, I guess that’s how the Lion King creators and certain groups of their fans see most, if not all melanated people, but won’t admit it. I’ll even go this far to use a variation on a meme: “I want to learn Swahili because I like The Lion King!” #SaidNoOneEver! Disney and most Lion King fans have minuscule knowledge about Swahili or African cultures like how they barely know anything about Hamlet (BURN!). If they were so respectful of these cultures, they would drop the “Hakuna Matata” trademark and finally credit Solomon Linda for “The Lion Sleeps Tonight”. Oh wait, none of those things have happened. I’m sure Lion King fans would love to see African cultures or at the very least someone like me derogated and exploited. Tell me when I’m telling lies! Remember how I said my Swahili teacher talked about what not to say in that language? “Hakuna Matata” is the other big one since you will legitimately offend people because there have been too many ignorant tourists (read: white people who don’t care about the culture) saying that phrase flippantly to the locals without trying to use other Swahili phrases and people know about the trademark in multiple African countries while being righteously angry about it. It’s a shame how no one gets questioned in that fanbase when they pretend to know something or blindly obey their mouse overlord. As I get older, I’m getting weary of this massive ignorance for those that aren’t called out on it because Disney always gives them a free pass to do whenever and think whatever they want with no consequences.

Some benefits of me learning Swahili

Hamjambo! Unaendeleaje!
Mimi ni Ospreyshire.
Nimefurahi kukutana na wewe!

Some of you know I’m doing my best to learn other languages. I have been using Duolingo for over a year now, and I hired an online tutor months ago. I felt compelled to learn this given how many people speak in the world. I got a chance to use some of it when I met a Congolese person earlier this year at an off-site event involving my job. I wish I learned that language when I was younger. This language needs to be respected a lot more and it’s not because of the low-hanging fruit of a certain mouse “owning” a specific phrase everyone knows. If you’ve known me long enough, you know exactly what I’m talking about. However, I want to be positive with this post because I swear I’m not an angry person all the time on here.

1: It allows me to see roots in other languages.

I still think it’s interesting how words like “safari”, “Uhura” (Yes, the Star Trek character), and “Jenga” are originally Swahili words. I’ve noticed other words that are from English, Portuguese, and Arabic origins mixed in even though it is a Bantu-based language. Learning about some of the vocabularies, I noticed some connections to Lingala, Kinyarwanda, and Kirundi which was very fascinating.

2: There are multiple countries and communities where I can speak to them.

There are currently 5 countries where it has official status: Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda, and the DRC (this country will come up again!). That’s not even counting countries where it has minority status or at least have pockets of people who know it like Burundi, Mozambique, and Zambia, for example. Even in Comoros, their language of Comorian has multiple intelligible similarities. Interestingly enough, Burundi has more Swahili speakers than Rwanda despite not having it as an official language. Learning another language can really open up a new world.

3: I feel (somewhat) smarter learning.

I don’t want to call myself a genius and I hesitate calling myself intelligent at times, but I do feel like I’ve been gaining brainpower as I get immersed in learning Swahili. It does get difficult with the grammar system and sentence structure, but it helps me do problem-solving. My tutor said my listening skills have improved in understanding what is spoken of me even if I don’t always know the right word to respond. Yes, I’ve resorted to Swahin-glish at times with English words I said to replace words I didn’t know, but at least the tutor said I knew what I she said and saw I’m trying. I then learn new words after the fact and use them in future classes.

4: It forces me to learn cultural nuances I never thought about.

If you learn a new language, you low-key learn about the culture. This can be why certain words have specific meanings or you can’t find words that you can directly translate into English. I asked why certain words worked in certain ways, but what really threw me off were the times. East African nations operate under a different clock that revolves around the sunrise and not just an AM/PM system which really forced me to use math with timezone differences and comparing AM/PM to “Swahili time”.

5: It’s part of my culture.

Some of you know this, but I’m part Congolese which I found out via DNA test through my Mom’s side of the family. It was one of the biggest ethnic samples I got and tied with being Cameroonian as far as African ethnic groups are concerned. Yes, I have various smaller samples of West African nations, but most of the stuff from the motherland came from Central Africa. Swahili is one of 5 official languages in the DRC with millions of speakers. Many of them are multilingual since they also know either Lingala, French, Tshiluba, Kikongo, and/or regional langauges in that nation (over 200 in the DRC alone!). This gave me an incentive to find out more about the heritage I didn’t know about for most of my life. Anyone who’s African-American realizes how tough it is to find ancestry without legit documents and/or DNA tests given how those who were enslaved where metaphorically and literally programmed to forget their ethnic groups, cultural practices, and languages. It’s my way of honoring my ancestors as I learn a language they could’ve spoken back on the continent. Heck, I might have unknown relatives in the Motherland right now!

Those are some reasons why Swahili has helped me. So what do you think?

Anyways, Tutaonana Baadaye!

Another Brief Untitled Rambling Rant

I feel like I’m one of the few people who actually care about specific issues.

It’s tough for me not to think that so many people are shallow on this planet.

Why is it so tough to actually like things or want to be a part of a fandom when you have so many ignorant and toxic people around?

I still hate how people cheapen and steal from other cultures

I also still hate how I have to prove I have any intelligence or competence, especially when I’m learning new skills. No wonder I assume so many think I’m untalented.

Rot in Hell, Carolyn Bryant!

When I first heard the news, my blood boiled, and I cried because this demon got to live her life without spending a day in jail. I’m not sorry if I say harsh things on this post

Last year, you might have heard the news about how people found the search warrant for Carolyn Bryant dating back to the 50s. For those who didn’t read my posts or heard that ongoing story last year, Carolyn Bryant is the female monster (I refuse to call her a woman) responsible for the murder of Emmett Till, even though she admitted she was lying about him whistling at her or doing anything suggestive. This got attention, and people were trying to put pressure on the MS government to serve the warrant, but they never wanted to press charges. Then they found out she was living in Kentucky with her son. I don’t care what medical conditions she had, she is a white supremacist terrorist who deserved to be punished. Don’t you ever preach to me about law and order where this country allows literal child murders to get a free ride as long as the victims are Black. Oh, yeah. Are we just going to forget that Till’s death was a significant catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement decades ago? Name me one white child murdered by Black people in America, and their killers got away with everything. In the words of Katt Williams: “Don’t worry. I’ll wait.”

We can arrest elderly Nazis decades after WWII, including a 101-year old the same year they found the warrant (as they should be arrested), but they can’t arrest this hellspawn? What the hell is wrong with people and their priorities? I’m beyond sick and tired how color-coded this injustice system is. NO OTHER GROUP has ever had to deal with this in this country and worry about their killers getting off scot-free. Prof. Black Truth did a scathing and powerful video essay about her death. It’s not just these terrorists in the Magnolia State responsible for Till’s murder, but so many enablers then and now have blood on their hands because they don’t want real justice to happen.

Carolyn, may your soul be damned forevermore and I hope you beg for mercy while the demons in hell ask “Did you give Emmett any mercy?” as they torment your vile being in the abyss.

Oh, and if you think what I said was more offensive than Emmett Till dying because of a lie, then get the hell off my blog.

Rest in Peace, Emmett Till. You and your family deserve better.

No English Language Songs for a Week.

I’m giving myself a little challenge for this week. Hey, it sure beats my rants that you’re probably sick of, even if I talk about important issues. Not that too many people care what I have to say, but I’ll do something different.

For this week, I’m not going to listen to English language songs. I remembered Ian Brennan’s book How Music Dies (Or Lives), and I thought about some passages about how people in the Anglophone parts of the West don’t venture that much into listening to music outside of the English language. Maybe this could also be some indirect revenge against the people who made fun of me for being a music fan in my college years, but that’s a conversation for another day. It annoys me how close-minded and ignorant people are in general with other cultures and languages. I’m from America, so I see this firsthand about people being very monolingual and not trying to learn other languages. I’m no polyglot, but at least I’m learning and putting effort to using it in different contexts whenever I can.

Here are my guidelines:

-I will not listen to English language songs, but if one happens to play at a place where I have no control over the music, such as grocery stores, restaurants, or various businesses, then that is an exception. Even then, I’m going to do my best not to pay attention to the background music.

-I have to listen to music from three different languages at a minimum. Nice try, K-pop fans and otaku!

-If there is a multilingual song, the English lyrics must be no more than 50% of the song. For example: “Telepatia” by Kali Uchis and “Life is Like a Boat” by Rie Fu are safe to listen to.

-I have to listen to at least one song from a language I’ve never heard sung before.

-Next week, I will point out examples of songs I listened to during that time period.


Feel free to join this challenge if you want. Who knows? You might like something even if you can’t understand what’s being sung.

Phillip Scott pulls no punches about the 7 ways Black people get gaslighted

I just saw this yesterday, and this hit me like a ton of bricks. If you have over an hour, then check this out. I’ve had most of those things said to me offline and online. It’s so insidious to psychologically torture someone. I’ve had people in my age group doing that to me and various authority figures trying to get me to question myself. Even other bloggers on here attacked me using that method, and I’ve seriously debated about exposing some of those people, but it’s not the time to do so if I decide to go through with this.

How Teachers Have Been Doing the Great Resignation

It takes a unique person to work in the K-12 system as a teacher or in a faculty position. The good teachers out there deserve to be commended for their work. What gets frustrating is when students act all kinds of rude and belligerent and get rewarded for it by calling for their parents just because a teacher is daring to exercise their authority. Not only that, but those same kids regardless of ethnicity, act all big and bad unless they’re dealing with a white teacher. I’m not saying I was perfect during my childhood, but I wouldn’t even think of cussing out a teacher or threatening them. I don’t blame that teacher for quitting, so she doesn’t have to deal with this crap. I’m also glad Phillip called out the flaws of American schools while taking on both parties’ agendas on miseducating the children.