Due to being stalked by mother’s ex-husband, I have decided to move my blog to a different address which I will not disclose here.
All content will remain unaltered but no new posts will be added. I have a lot of memories here after almost three years. I view this as a space where I can express myself and let people know what I think whether they judge or not. I have viewed it as my space, my place in a great big crowded world and I really don’t appreciate having to move, as if I am being forced out, but…
I apologize to those who are following this but I make no apologies for making an attempt to ensure my own safety and well being.
If you are currently following, sincerely wish to continue to hear from me at my new blog address, you may contact me at ms.queenly at yahoo.com, OR post a comment, if you prefer.
evermore,
Queen
Due to being stalked by my mother’s ex-husband, I am considering moving and privatizing/deleting this blog.
I know this will be an inconvenience not only to me but to everyone who follows my posts. I appreciate you but this is a choice I may have to make since this stalker is subscribed to my blog and stalking me and my family in every way he can. There is no way I can block my blog from his visitations. I don’t like feeling like I have to rearrange my life because of his behavior and harassment but I do not want this person in my life at all.
Should I decide to move and delete or move and privatize this blog, I will ask that you send me an e-mail and I will give you the new blog address if I see that you are currently subscribed.
Evermore,
Queen of Queens
To J. Sparks: You are a speck of dirt to me. Stop stalking me. Do not look for me on Facebook. Do not visit the city I live in. Do not continue to contact me through this blog. NO attention from you is welcomed.
March 28, 2012I don’t care who knows. I do not like you and do not want to contacted by you. You are a stalker. If you contact me again, I will report you to the police.
That is all.
In high school, you hear all your teachers and all the so-called grown folks talking about getting prepared for the “the real world”, for “real life”.
But what is the “real world”?
I recently got my first “real” job since graduating from college in 2010. I like the work, it makes me feel confident because its something I feel can do. However, its alarming and infuriating how similar high school is to my job.
Same bullshittery dealing with many coworkers and managers that you get from condescending teachers, immature brats trying to impress, and bullies. I never believed it when I saw it in movies, but “the real world”(TM) is very much like high school.
College was the greater world of high school. So work is like the greater, greater world of high school I guess. That’s if you manage to get a job.
The “real world” is not even “the real world”. I feel like a cog among cogs in a great big clock sitting in some rich person’s living for decoration.
Sometimes I’m jealous of people who work well in these constructed environments and make it look easy; I wish I had their propensity for “accepting things the way they are” and learning how to operate within the system.
But most of the time, I just think its sad. I see how society is. However, that doesn’t stop me from seeing how things could be, should be, ought to be, or whatever, and always being in the frame of mind wanting, needing, and trying to be a catalyst for change by my very presence.
Looking back on all the “on how things are [in “the real world”(TM)]” advice from school, I can see why society keeps rolling the way it does, under the guise of order, routine, and systemic process. We’re taught from day one exactly how to operate like good little cogs.
smdh,
Taviante Queens
Skin Pigment Wars Pt. I: on my experiences, writing style, and characters [via MsQ @ tumblr]
March 4, 2012In my stories, I have never written a character who is my skin color or lighter. All of my characters range from several shades browner than me to dark ebony-brown shades in skin tone.
Growing up in Atlanta of the Deep South, I was surrounded by Black people all the time and lived in working class/poor Black neighborhoods, so most of the direct interactions I had with white people up until I went to college came from analyzing television, reading and learning about their treachery in history class, from warnings I got from my family, and through lived experience with the system/society in general.
I appreciated and saw the beauty and glory of darker brownness in many of it’s manifestations through the people around me. These darker browns are the default Black and the default humyn being in my mind, even as I am aware that many people around the world have been brainwashed/socialized/browbeaten into believing that white is the default humyn being. Even as I was aware that we live in a world that tries to destroy and denigrate the spirits, minds, potential and bodies of darker brown Black folks.
My sister and mom (and my brother—RIP) are all darker than me and my uncles are too (aunts, not that much), which is why I was only part aware that I wasn’t the same tone as them. I never thought I was different from other Black people or should be treated differently. Additionally, my sister and I are twins so until she started calling me “white” when we were little, I didn’t realize there was any big fucking difference honestly.
Growing up, I wanted to see more fantastical stories with darker brown/dark-skinned people in them as three dimensional main characters and heroes, the people I thought I looked like, so I began writing them.
People around my skin tone or lighter just don’t occur to me. In my imagination, there’s medium brown and there’s a spectrum of darker than medium brown, there’s white people/peachy white people, and generally other people of color and the various skin tones that they appear in according to my observations.
Like that time they gave Three Six Mafia and Terence Howard awards for Hustle & Flow. (I’m still bitter because I was forced to watch this movie, so this will most likely always be my prime example.)
Or when they gave Hallie Berry that award for Monsters Ball.
Or when they gave Nikki Minaj a BET Award.
Or Denzel Washington for Training Day??? Or something like that.
Or when they awarded/nominated(??) Nelly for “Country Grammar”.
Or giving Adele, a white British woman, 6 Grammys for adopting a Black art form. (She’s got talent but I don’t know about no 6 Grammys.)
I feel like these “prestigious award-giving committees” that are televised every year are just a bunch of white people, sitting around laughing at Black people and making a mockery out of the most talented, well-known members of our communities and their careers.
The white-dominated industry decides what roles we get and in what movies. They have these images and ideas and impressions of what they think Black/African American life is like, what roles suit us–in their minds, it’s usually stereotyped, side characters, urban, abusive, and full of illegality. Because, of course, they think we should get Grammys for acting in and making music for a movie that glorifies going to jail, prostitution, abuse, exploitation and misogyny of [Black] women, violence, patriarchy, and drug trafficking.
They get to decide what we get awards for. It seems like it’s rare that Black folks get awards from these people that revolve around anything original or actually unique.
We don’t get awards for anything that they don’t intend us to get awards for.
Evermore,
Taviante Queens
This past summer in Fresno was pretty hot, even for someone like me. I come from a place of heat +++ humidity. It’s like a baking kind of heat here, like being in an oven. No me gusta.
~Queen
