Born to shine [Song]

Uploaded by edward spencer
BORN TO SHINE
By Carol Addison

Never knew what a fool I was until I met you
Never knew I'd give my heart and you would be untrue
The whole world told me I was wrong to be with you
But my Mama told me, I would never fall
I was born to shine.

Ever since I was a child, they tried to keep me down
Every thing that I did, it was oh so wrong
Let me tell you something, I'm going do what I wanna do
'Cause my Mama told me, I would never fall
I was born to shine.

Shine, baby, shine, let them see where you're going to
Shine, baby, shine, let them follow you
Shine on!

Move on, move on up, is what I'm here to do
I am going to shine ------through and through
I don't care what you say, I'll shine all over you
'Cause my Mama told me, I will never fall
I was born to shine.

Ever since I was a child they tried to keep me down
Every thing I did, it was oh so wrong
Let me tell you something, I'm going do what I wanna do
'Cause my mama told me, child, you'll never fall
I was born to shine.

Shine, baby, shine, let them see where you're going to
Shine, baby, shine, let them follow you
Shine on!
Shine, baby, shine, let them follow you
Shine on!
Shine, baby, shine, let them follow you
Yeah, shine on, shine on...

Source: The lyrics posted on this blog are often transcribed directly from performances. Although it is my intention to faithfully transcribe I do not get all the words and I have a knack for hearing the wrong thing. Please feel free to correct me or to fill in the words that I miss by dropping me a message via e-mail. I'd be forever grateful. Thanks in advance! ..............................................................................................................................


A Note From The Gull

Thank you, Carol Addison! Blessings to all the people who urge and assist our children to shine.

"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation
Blessed be my beautiful people
Blessed be the day of our awakening
Blessed is my country
Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare

Le Blanchiment, Or, Who Taught You To Hate Yourself?

In a previous post, when I was discussing whitewashing a culture or the culture of whitewashing, I did not make particular reference to physical interventions that come as close to achieving phenotypic plasticity as technology allows at this time. Of course, it was at the back of my mind. Most of us can think of at least one person of colour who has engaged in skin bleaching, hair straightening, and modification by surgery of some facial or bodily features. When I am treated to arguments about why these "fixes" are required, I must confess that I have had scant compassion for the persons behind the voices. I tend to forget that they are also victims and have instead viewed them as active perpetuators of racial discrimination.

I am focusing on the taming of blackness in this post but the industry is just one of many which exist to manipulate human beings struggling to come to terms with inherited societal biases or, if you like, congenital wounds to the psyche. Malcolm X, as someone bound to attempt to repair the self esteem of his people, had even less patience with this determination to alter by whatever means available, the physical characteristics of blackness. In one of his famous speeches featured below, he confronts his black audience with the question, "Who taught you to hate yourself?"

  WHO TAUGHT YOU TO HATE YOURSELF? | Uploaded by mrholtshistory

I searched for other explorations of this problem and I found the following videos on the Internet. What they all have in common is an exposition of the woundedness of people who have been taught to disparage themselves and others because of skin colour.

BLACK OR WHITE: SOMETHING TO THINK ABOUT. | Uploaded by PhotoEditor69
  CNN STUDY: WHITE AND BLACK CHILDREN BIASED TOWARD LIGHTER SKIN. Read the full CNN Commissioned Doll Study Results
    101 EAST: A WHITER SHADE OF PALE. | Uploaded by AlJazeeraEnglish
    WHY ARE INDIANS OBSESSED WITH FAIRNESS? | Uploaded by ndtv
    SKIN BLEACHING EPIDEMIC IN JAMAICA: SHORT DOCUMENTARY. | Uploaded by WickedHype1
  BLEACHING EPIDEMIC IN JAMAICA. | Uploaded by TasmanianAngel3000
  JAMAICA, BLEACHING CREAM, BROWN SKIN BETTER JOB. | Uploaded by richkid639

And recognising today, as human beings of conscience have always, that all men are made equal, what is it that prevents us from throwing off the biases which we know to be unfounded? What causes many of us to cling to the comfortable discomfort of subjugation? In that previous post, I asked in my comment, with the naivete of the armchair social engineer, why is it that a society cannot make a decision to dissipate its poisons? If it has been calculated that the body takes one hour to dissipate one unit of alcohol, has any social scientist studied how long it will take to dissipate self-hatred?

Can it happen over the course of one year, over one generation or three or did the Iroquois already answer this question? If, according to their Seventh Generation Principle, the effects of our actions today will affect humanity even as far as the seventh generation, we are in for a long wait, and that is assuming that we are have already begun to make sincere and intelligent efforts to change our future for the better. 

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"Patria est communis omnium parens" - Our native land is the common parent of us all. Keep it beautiful, make it even more so.

Blessed is all of creation 

Blessed be my beautiful people 

Blessed be the day of our awakening 

Blessed is my country 

Blessed are her patient hills.

Mweh ka allay!
Guanaguanare