Tell Me Why We Should Erase This History

I’m not sorry for putting these pictures of Emmett Till on here. Some of you may not have heard of this situation, especially my non-American audiences. Keep in mind Emmett was only FOURTEEN when those white supremacists slaughtered him all because of Carolyn Bryant’s lie. They mobbed him, profusely beat him up, shot above his ear, thrown in the Tallahatchie River, and there was a cotton gin fan blade anchoring his corpse. His body was found by two boys who were busy fishing in the river and found his body. I want you to gaze at his disfigured body knowing that information. If you think that it’s okay to erase the history of slavery, racism, abuse, and white supremacist terrorism or God forbid you think Emmett Till deserved it, then unfollow me right now because I don’t need people like you around here. I get that I’ve been talking about Emmett Till a lot lately once the 1955 warrant resurfaced in that Mississippi courthouse, but I need to do my best to spread what information whether in the past or present. It sickens me how you have politicians and special interest groups who want to erase this uncomfortable history of America where innocent blood was shed. Not to get too theological on you, but the shedding of innocent blood pollutes the land (Psalms 106:38). Emmett Till wasn’t the only one, but he was the one that got enough attention to kickstart the Civil Rights Movement. Does anyone want to tell me that this is a blameless country or God’s country? Only a devil would do something like this and it’s infuriating how people like Carolyn got away with it. Let me ask you a question. When was the last time in America when a white boy was lynched because of a Black woman lying on him and Black men slaughtered that aforementioned boy? Exactly. If that isn’t proof positive of the racially-coded double standards in this nation, I don’t know what is. If that hypothetical situation did happen, it would be all over the news and the Black assailants would be executed on site. Stop preaching to me to be positive all the time when there are catacombs for closets here. There are too many people excusing evil acts like these.

Do you (or should you) separate the artist from the art?

I’ve been thinking about this recently after conversing with some bloggers on WordPress. Without going into too much detail, I had some dialogue where I mentioned how some creators have done bad things that have been documented. Two different bloggers in separate conversations told me that they separate the art from the artist like how the creation is independent of the actions of the creator(s). They were both civil in their discussions even when we talked about heavy things.

For me, I can’t separate the two.

Whenever I hear something true about a creator or company doing bad things, I distance myself from the creation. The biggest one for me in recent memory was Rurouni Kenshin. That is an anime series that I enjoyed when I was in middle school and high school. I thought the action was great, had strong dramatic elements, and the Trust & Betrayal OVA was one of the best prequels ever. Just a couple of years ago, it call came crashing down when creator Nobuhiro Watsuki was caught with child porn in his house. Not only that, but all he had to do was pay a 200k Yen fine (roughly $1848 USD in current currency terms), got no jail time, and his Kenshin: Hokkaido Arc got to continue after being on hiatus with the news about this crime. When I heard about Watsuki being found dead to rights for his unspeakable crimes, I washed my hands of anything involving that manga-ka monster. I could name other examples of things I stopped liking because of controversies proven true, and you know what some of them are.

On the flipside, I wonder how selective people are when they talk about separating art from the artists. If someone wants to stop listening to Chris Brown because of him beating Rihanna, would they have to stop listening to anything from Phil Spector who straight up MURDERED his girlfriend? Trust me, you won’t be looking at “Let It Be” by The Beatles the same again (he engineered that song). If people don’t want anything to do with Bill Cosby, then would they have to stop watching anything from Roman Polanski who was found guilty (yet fled the country) of drugging and raping a minor? Also, you know he’s still making movies and won awards long after the fact? That’s what I can’t stand about so many people in their hypocrisy.

For me, I can’t stand it when people give others a free pass when they do horrible things that others wouldn’t get away with it. Not going to lie, it does hurt when I have to stop liking something because of their actions or if there are unfortunate implications that I don’t want to subject myself to. Someone’s creation whether it’s music, art, film, TV, etc. is connected to the creators in my humble opinion.

Now let’s talk. Do you separate the art from the artists? Why or why not?

The College Cheating Saga Continues! American and UK-based college/university students pay Kenyans to write their essays. (or, If entitled racist jerks insist Africans have low IQs, then why are they paying them to write essays for them?)

I found out about this story and all I can say is WOW! JUST, WOW!

In addition to the drama going on with Lori Laughlin and company in court with all of this college cheating going on, apparently there was a trend of college students in America and the United Kingdom at large where students have been caught paying Kenyans dirt cheap to write their papers for them. It’s not just undergrads, even graduate and PhD level students have gotten these Kenyans to write full-on theses and dissertations. Apparently, there are essay factories down in that country where these writers work twelve hour shifts while getting paid slave wages to write papers for the Americans and the UK. The latter has a brutal sense of irony when you consider that Kenya was a former British colony. Just saying.

You see, I went to a four year private university to get my Bachelor’s Degree. I got in on my own merits and did everything I could while working two campus jobs and I still graduated on time. I’ll let you in on a little secret during my tenure there. There were students who would fake their way in classes like reading only Cliff Notes or online summaries in the English/Literature courses I took without reading the full books, admitting to cheating in tests in classes I didn’t take with them, and those same people graduated while some are making more money than me. Well pardon me for being an honest student. I’m sorry to have a little thing called integrity to not steal, cheat, or plagiarize compared to those who claimed to have higher IQs than me.

So if I want to expose myself to plagiarized works involving Africa, I can either read some of these paid essays or watch The Lion King. SHOTS FIRED!!!

Seriously, shame on all of those students for plagiarizing their works and shame on that essay factory owner for being a part of this scandal. You wonder why I hate it when people steal and copy from others without crediting people? I bet you money these plagiarists are from far far richer families than mine (okay, I’ve been middle-class for a good portion of my life), and got away with it for years now, and have well-paying careers. Inexcusable! If honesty, integrity, and hard work were merited as much as the media lies to us, then I’d be a millionaire by now.

The video is property of African Diaspora News Channel. That’s more credit than these thieving douchebags will ever give for these paid-for essays.

Since when did appreciating originality make me the bad guy?

Before I begin my little opinion piece, I set aside some time as I deal with this gigantic cold front all over the Midwest. At the time of this article, the high where I’m from is -18 Fahrenheit which is insane. This coldness is more on par with Siberia, Antarctica, and the top of Mt. Everest than the part of America where I’m from. If you’re dealing with this, then please stay warm and take care of yourselves.

Okay, now onto the subject at hand.

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I’ve been wanting to make an article like this for a long time now. The thing is I appreciate whenever people create some truly unique things. Whether it’s music, film, art, literature, or other subjects, I really like it whenever people craft things that no one else has thought of before. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against adaptations on principle, building off other works while acknowledging inspiration, or even parodies/satires when done right.

What does grind my gears is whenever I hear people say things such as “Oh, everybody rips off things”.

In my opinions, I find that to be intellectually insulting and just lazy thinking.

At the risk of sounding arrogant, I do try to be as original as I can be with my various works such as my spoken word projects, poems, reviews, music, books, and other things I create. One of the biggest compliments you could give me is telling me that no one else sounds like me, writes like me, or that I’m an innovator in whatever I try. Yes, I’m certainly influenced by others, so I’m not going to lie to you, but I want to be unique in my creative endeavors. There’s one quote from Oscar Wilde that I like a bit too much: “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery that mediocrity can pay to greatness.” I truly believe that some people aren’t even trying and just follow the leader in music, film, books, etc which I find to be quite slothful.

So why does this make me the bad guy for wanting originality to still be a quality worth desiring?

Seriously, I’ve been made fun of for mentioning how I like more original content as others dismiss my tastes for whatever reason. Possibly it’s insecurity on their part, but I could be wrong.

Over the years, I’ve been realizing how many things have been stolen whether it’s movies, art, video games, or something as extreme as cultural appropriation. You have artwork from Benin and Senegal that’s in European museums without those country’s permission. There’s an obelisk in Ethiopia known as the Obelisk of Axum which was stolen by Italy and a certain leaning tower bears similarities to it. For those who’ve checked out some of my film and anime reviews, I’ve mentioned a few examples. Yes, one of them involves this nefarious lion named Claw from Kimba the White Lion as seen in the featured image who predates a certain other villain let alone other characters in some popular movie by 44 years (or 29 if you only count the anime), yet Tezuka Productions never got credited to this day for that series. If you got triggered by that picture, well…that says more about you than it does about me. Besides that, I get tired of people even resorting to scripture by saying “There’s nothing new under the sun”. I know it’s in Ecclesiastes, but did those same people miss “Thou shall not steal”? Sorry to mention theology in this post, but I needed to use that example to prove a point.

With all these rampant remakes, clones, and frauds going on, it’s really tough for me to cling on to a bunch of media. It’s no wonder I try to make my own stories, music, blogs, and other things. Does me appreciating the innovative make me pretentious? Do I see others as peons for only liking whatever the mainstream spoon-feeds them? I hope it’s not the case for the former, and I certainly don’t want to think that way about the latter.

The image of Claw is from The New Adventures of Kimba the White Lion and is property of Tezuka Productions.

What a soft sentencing, but I’m not surprised.

I literally just found out about this news story from Anchorage, AK, and I was so angered by what I saw/heard, that I just have to talk about it.

You’ve got this demon named Justin Schneider who kidnapped a woman, choked her out, and masturbated over her incapacitated body. You would think that he’d be serving decades in jail, right? Right? RIGHT?!

Oh, wait. That never happened despite all the incriminating evidence.

Schneider’s punishment for his heinous crime is a 2 year sentence with one year suspended? Why? Because apparently his time under house arrest with an ankle tacker was enough to shorten that sentence, so he got to be with his wife and kids. Also, he DOESN’T have to register as a sex offender since they didn’t count his act of masturbation as sexual assault on his victim.

So is this guy divorced? I’m sure any woman with a modicum of intelligence and dignity would leave him. Just saying.

Okay, where are the feminists and the #MeToo crowd on this one? Hold on…all I hear is the symphony of crickets, wind, and tumbleweed about this particular issue. You’re all hypocrites and activists of convenience here.

As Phil from The Advise Show mentioned in the video, Black people don’t have that kind of treatment whenever they commit similar or even lesser crimes than this degenerate. Don’t even give me that “rich privilege” crap here. Schneider was working as a traffic controller at an airport, so I doubt he’d be making Bill Cosby money with that job. I’m sick of all this hypocrisy about sex crimes let alone how certain people get treated by the justice system. If you treat everyone equally when they do these heinous acts, then good on you and you’re a rarity in this world. If not, then shame on you for having selective outrage on who is accused of these vices. For those of you who are in the Anchorage area who happened to read my post: vote this judge out! We can’t have people in the legal and judicial system giving carte blanche to violent criminals just because of their skin color. Come on, do you really think someone who’s Black, Latino, Middle-Eastern, or any non-Caucasian ethnic group would get the same treatment if they did the exact thing as Schneider? If you think so, then you’re way too delusional. I’m just calling it as it is here. I wish there was fairness in the justice system, but I guess it’s too much to ask.

This video is courtesy of The Advise Show

Thoughts on the New Year

Here’s a quick blog post.

I want to thank anyone who’s checked out the Ospreyshire blog over the past year. Granted, this is still a small blog, but it’s great that anyone would want to bother checking out my content.

This was a big year for me in different ways. I had many ups and downs in my creative and personal life. One ongoing goal is producing weekly content with my Katauta 52 Project which has been stressful trying to fit this in between work, but I’ve been doing my best to get a video every Wednesday.

I also had a huge spike in stats because I now have over 1000 views on this blog. That’s incredible and I certainly don’t deserve it. I also got into making other blogs like C. M. B. Bell Fiction for my stories and Iridium Eye where I’ve been posting film reviews of lesser-known works.

I hope to make some more katauta videos, but I also want to make some more tracks. Who knows what will happen?

What things do you like about the Ospreyshire blog?

Anything I can improve upon with my poetry and avant-garde music?

What content would you like to see that would fin in this blog?

Thank you,

-Curtis