What’s up Girl,
I gotta be straight up with you. This Letter is going to be so blunt, you’re going to assume I’m crazy, even radical. All I ask of you is to not let me lose you on this one. Open your mind, and your heart. Because I have every right to be crazy and radical. I’m not gonna sit here and spit out facts and statistics to you in order to validate my point. Most of you understand America’s systematic agenda to kill us, and I wrote enough argumentative essays for this year. With that being said Queen, I know exactly how we all feel. We’re tired of being tired. So what do you when you wipe the sweat off your forehead after doing your performance of Beyoncé’s “Freedom”? What do you do after you run out of creative ways to spit “stop killing us” at local poetry slams? The March was yesterday. Everyone stopped posting #JusticeFor(insert one of a million names here) weeks ago. It wasn’t trendy anymore. Fate is unlucky again, and someone you may or may not know gets killed tomorrow. And the next day, and the next day. What are you gonna do about it? Act. The Civilian Black Woman Blueprint To End The War on Systematic Racism 1. Be The Loud Angry Black Woman : Be so damn loud at all the right people until they hear you. The first and easiest step is to harass your state government and influence who is in charge of your state by voting in local elections. It is imperative you educate yourself on who your state governor and senator is. Becoming aware of how your state government works and how to contact them is crucial. It is your opinion that puts these people in office that have the access to law enforcement changes, if you want people for your safety and have your best interests, be the loudest angry black woman at your local elections. Engagement with your local representatives bringing up the needed conversations is key. •Discuss the current policies at the police departments in your state. •The technique Derek Chauvin used to restrain George Floyd to the ground which Derek did to ultimately kill George is nowhere in police training or taught in police departments. So what is being trained in your local police departments and academies? • Derek Chauvin’s background contained 12 prior incident reports while he was employed as a police officer in Minneapolis. George Floyd is the 13th known incident and the first time mass attention and consequence has been brought. Are your local police departments’ policies for employee termination clear and absolutely no tolerance for abuse of power? What precautions are being taken to hire the right people for law enforcement? Does your state require background checks when going through the police academy? Be the Loud Angry Black women at your local board meetings. Harass everyone in charge! You don’t have to be the president to make a difference. It starts within your own community. One county and city at a time. Below are links to register to vote and further info on how to get involved in state elections. https://www.usa.gov/election-office https://www.usa.gov/register-to-vote 2. Our Gender Don’t Make Us Sweet: Sis, your issue ain’t with that girl who keeps talking about you. Your issue isn’t even with that boy playing games. Your issue is protecting yourself by any means necessary. Malcolm X said it straight up, the most unprotected person in America is the black woman. The media wants to put black people in negative light that we’re gangbangers and thugs carrying guns all the time and paint white assault rifle carrying fanatics as citizens just embracing their second amendment rights. Practice your rights by getting trained how to use a firearm and following the necessary precautions to getting licensed to handle a firearm in your state. In most states, the legal age to train and purchase a firearm is 21. The sooner we use these laws and rules against our oppressors the sooner we can put down our phones and stop watching in terror, and start retaliating. Sis, our people have too many enemies already to be against each other. American police can run up in your house if they truly wanted to, and the president has even openly threatened force with guns for protestors. Say Less Then. Below is a link for women to find firearm training in their state. https://thewellarmedwoman.com/instructors/ 3. We Don’t Want No Scrubs: We’ve all done it so don’t front now. You’re at a function and some girls or guys get into it and get to fighting, y’all start to gather around and pull out your phones, and make our disorganization as a race of people a spectacle. IT’S NOT CUTE ANYMORE. And we as black women no longer find clownery attractive. The sooner we hold each other to a higher standard the more systematic change we will see. Ignorance is our biggest hindrance right now. •Normalize education being a regular conversation, it’s not weird to be engaged in politics, because the people writing your paychecks are. If he don’t vote, help him sis. If he don’t care for voting, next caller cause he ain’t talking about nothing. •Normalize Healthy Black Relationships, healthy friendships where everybody can eat, and healthy relationships with your significant others not having each other looking stupid. Too long broken homes have been a key part of our disconnect. Not being for each other has been a disconnect. The only time you should be against someone black is when they’re betraying you by not being for black betterment. •Normalize Black people being in the room where decisions are being made: Everyone can profit off their interests one way or another. And at the end of the day doing so helps everyone. We need Black Lawyers, Doctors, Teachers, and Officers. We need Black people filling these positions to change the narrative of a system built against us. And if you have a passion you’re making a business of I’m proud of you. Make that business, market yourself and your product. We need more black owned businesses for the community by the community. And most importantly, •Normalize holding each other accountable for the BS: whether you date men, women, or both, normalize treating each other with respect. Men would never call their mother or grandmother half the names they call you. Men would never disrespect the women in their family like they do you. So don’t tolerate a man who isn’t giving you bare minimum respect. Ladies, you wouldn’t tell your brother or father to not show emotion, you wouldn’t like them participating in activities that would get them caught up. So don’t chase these men that don’t have common sense yet. We gotta worry about white people killing us and now our own too? Nah. And if all Else Fails… 4. Be the Ghetto Thug (Strategically): Show white America how much they need black dollars and cooperation. We’ve seen in Minneapolis how this community has resorted to getting ugly and they surely did shake the room. They burnt down the police department and they are harassing their governor to put Derek Chauvin in jail for murder and start making changes with their police department. When you have tried all three options and are still not having your demands met it is time to get ugly, we’ve been asking for generations for a change. We were asking with marching, we were asking with getting civil rights laws put in our system and obviously the government still thinks we’re sweet. I am all for the riots but I’m down for strategy too. March to the police departments, march to the city halls, and threaten to burn them to the ground. If your cries for help or not being met with assistance when a cop has their foot on your neck it’s time to stomp somebody out. It’s time to get physical, passive aggressiveness is our first go to and while I love it we’ve been responded to with blatant force. Sis, they’re scared of us. So give them a reason to, Get Ugly. Godspeed Sis, -Dev
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In the upcoming blogs, you will hear from me and some of the trusted voices in my life speak on matters from an African-American view to the African-American community as well the people we are connected to. DON'T WORRY, you are NOT excluded, I made sure that I prayed and got something for everyone in this series. The series is entitled, "Dear Black”. With that being said, let's jump right into the first letter for the black men.
Dear Black Man, How do I even start to address a widespread, diverse amount of people? Do I start by saying, I am sorry? Do I start by proposing a solution to modern day climate of the world concerning you? However I start speaking on the situation, it could be the difference between if I am heard or not. Let me be respectful and start by saying this: HEY BLACK MAN! I'm starting off this series with you! Why you, you ask? I'm so glad you asked! You are what seems to be the target of prosecution and violence in the recent times and current events. Whether you can take on the title of father, brother, son, mentor, teacher, impactor, whether you are a quarter, half, or three quarters black you fall into a category that some call dangerous. You have so many so many reasons to be pissed, upset, worried, anxious, so please feel what you feel! Do not allow anyone or anything make you discount what you feel and why you feel it. You are allowed to feel what you feel. I give you permission There will be times where you transition in and out of peace and mental turbulence right now and in the upcoming days.Guess what?!?! THAT IS JUST FINE! It is normal, but what is not normal is that holding in action you do every so often, let it out fam! Let me charge you to do another thing to.... CRY, it will be okay, and if anyone judges you tell them to find the closest seat in hell. There has been this hovering stigma that men, especially African-American men can not show or feel emotion. This stigma literally strips you of your freedom to feel and speak. Remember the whole freedom of speech situation? Yeah consider that gone, do the research, most conversations we have have some type of emotion in it whether we realize it or not. HELLO PASSION IS AN EMOTION! Kill that stigma! OFF WITH ITS HEAD! Too many of us are dying whether it be black on black, white on black, or the one that has been shockingly increasing, blue on black, it's happening. I'm here as a 6'3", black, 21 year old, male who has learned a few things (before you discredit me because of my credentials, hear me out):
Very humbly submitted, Dashaun Archer Good day, Kings and Queens! I hope all is well with you! I just want to take the first couple moments of this blog post to say this:
I am here for you. I support you. I am rooting for you. We have had a long week since the last time we talked. However, you know the weekly gathering is a must! Let’s jump into the blog. I hope you have been enjoying this series about and entitled Faith ! We have searched and dove into who, what , when , where, and now we will discuss the how and why of faith. By the end of this blog, you should be able to answer these two questions:
Another way you can build your faith, is reading His word! How else can you trust someone if you have never heard their word?! The Bible serves us, as well as our church, while we are studying the Bible faith comes alive! The Bible says it like this, faith comes by hearing, and by the preaching of the message of Jesus Christ (Romans 10:17). You can’t hear if you aren’t present with the church, aren’t watching YouTube clips, etc. The word of God is what we base our faith upon. One more way you can build faith, is by praying in the Holy Ghost! Jude 1:20 says we build ourselves in our most holy faith praying in the Holy Ghost. As we speak in tongues, as construction workers in the spirit. Build yourself! Why are we talking about faith so much? Because like my father says, “we are in a battle to believe” (Dr.Dwayne Whitehead). Therefore as believers, with so many things pulling us to remove our faith from Jesus we have to know the basis of what it is and how to increase your own. You also need to know you must protect your faith! The world will try to steal it with life, test, trials. But remember this, James 1:3 says , “the testing of our faith produces perseverance”. Things will come, you pray for healing for a loved one and they end up dying, you pray for a job and lose your house, etc! Whatever happens protect your faith! Faith is very important. I can't stress it enough. Guard your faith. Study faith. Show your faith. Spread your faith. I love y’all! OAN: Let’s pray next week Good day, Kings and Queens! I hope all is well with you! I just want to take the first couple moments of this blog post to say this:
I am here for you. I support you. I am rooting for you. We have had a long week since the last time we talked. However, you know the weekly gathering is a must! Let’s jump into the blog. Last week, we engaged in the who and the what of the aspect of our faith! This week we will engage two questions that I will not spend too much time on:
Habakkuh 2:4 states this, “Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by faith”. Catch that last part. “…the just shall LIVE by faith”. When you live by something, (morals, standards, rules, etc) you do not just have the right to put it down and pick it back up whenever you feel like it. For example, I have non-negotiables that I now live by. 5 simple, yet impactful statements that will carry me until the grave. Those said statements are to be considered at every single moment and intentionally pursued! Just like faith, it is not something that can be put on the shelf and dust it off like it never happened. Live by it , make it a part of your everyday routine. Many of us live by our phone screens, many of us live by many other things, but we need to keep the same energy with our faith! Peter walked on water by faith. Jesus healed the sick by faith. We need faith for everything! Which leads me to my next point! The Bible declares “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.” Proverbs 3:5-6 NKJV. We have faith in everything, I have previously stated. However the word faith can also be exchanged for the word trust! Therefore we come to the question of : Where should my faith be? Simple. IN GOD and in him alone! Our hope is only built on Jesus' name! (1st Corinthians 10:4). Our hope (faith) is in him! In him, should we have our faith! He is our rock, and the Bible says all other ground is sinking sand! All other G R O U N D! Ground, the basis on which I stand, the air which I fly, it is the thing that makes my world. Think about it, we have gravity right? The only thing that keeps us where we are is the ground on which we stand! Jesus is the solid rock! Bible declares also, “upon this rock will I build my church”. Jesus is proven multiple times to be the rock! Take your faith out of sinking sand! Friends, family, the economy, all of it! Those things that you should be trusting God with are only for Him! Faith is the reason why we have the ability to do almost all we do! Others have caused us to refrain from trusting and having faith in Him, but I’ll leave you with this simple reminder: God is no where like man.(Numbers 23:19). Good day, Kings and Queens! I hope all is well with you! I just want to take the first couple moments of this blog post to say this:
I am here for you. I support you. I am rooting for you. We have had a long week since the last time we talked. However, you know the weekly gathering is a must! Let’s jump into the blog. As we start this series entitled “Faith”, we must dive into the different accoutrements that said faith contains. In this series, we will talk about the - who, what, when, where, how, and why of faith itself! This first installment I will be teaching you what I have learned and believe to be who and what faith is. Shall we begin? Faith can be described as a couple of things. One of the main descriptions we see and hear as the definition of faith is Hebrews 11:1, which states “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things unseen”. Looking at this verse for a moment, one of the words that is important here is the word “substance”. Substance is defined as the real physical matter of which a person or thing consists and which has a tangible, solid presence. Faith is a tangible, solid presence that makes us up! It is the bridge between the unseen and our reality. It is the grounds on which the impossible is made possible! That is a biblical definition of what faith is. However, as you know, when you look up a word in a dictionary, you are more than likely going to see more than one definition. You can see verbs, nouns, adjectives, adverbs, and it all still be a singular word, just different usages. Here are some other definitions that I have heard while studying the subject of faith:
Apostles build in/with faith. Prophets prophesy out of faith. Christians pray by faith. We receive by faith. We sit in chairs, having faith it will hold us up. Quarterbacks have faith in wide receivers. Lebron James has faith in Anthony Davis to dunk, if he throws an alley-oop. There is nothing we can do without faith. Faith is the essence of the believer. It is literally impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Therefore, as believers we have to be able to identify the need. Picture a small child doing an activity for the first time, and they see their father’s reaction. The joy on his face, the pride in his walk, the excitement in his voice. As it is, with us and our heavenly Father. If faith pleases the Father, one would do whatever it takes to please Him even more. What does please Him look like? Simple. More faith. Wanna know how to increase your faith? Stay tuned, we will talk about it, I promise! The bible indicates that there are different types of faith, not just a singular domain. While studying, I identified 5 different modules of faith:
“Conviction + the act of obedience = the act of faith” - Pastor Jessica Siler I have given you the conviction. We need faith, it is essential, you cannot be a believer and not have it. Now, it is up to you to be obedient to what you have learned in this read and put your faith to work! Before the month is over, I’ll be sure to teach you how to put your faith to work! Put. It. To. Work! Kings and Queens! It has been a little minute since the last time we talked, but trust me you guys have been in the forefront of my mind the entire time. I want to start out by saying the typical normalities of a Peculiar Post blog. I am here for every single one of you, we are all doing life. Life is hard. Life is harder when doing it alone. Reach out to me, I will help in any way possible - prayer request, counsel, etc. Let me know!
Let’s get into it. Disclaimer: breathe through this, deliverance is all up in it. As the year comes to a close, and people start making their goals, resolutions, and vision boards for 2022, let’s have a conversation revolving around one word - self-abandonment. Indeed, everyone has faced this before, however, not everyone addresses it. Self-abandonment is a concept that can fall underneath the same umbrella as rejection, lack of confidence, and self-harm. “Dashaun, that’s extreme”. No, it’s not. Lemme tell you why. 2021, you have had goals and aspirations that you were setting out to do and never accomplished. Whether you are blaming the pandemic, the lack of resources, or any other excuse, the real problem is you abandoned the better you. Self-abandonment can be defined as when “one rejects, suppresses, ignores their own desires and needs, in real time”. Whether due to fear, trauma, we find ourselves in self-abandonment when we ignore what we need for ourselves. What are future demands out of us, is making us a priority. People pleasers. Those who cannot commit to themselves. You who have a fear of the future. You should be able to identify some areas you let yourself go and never came back to. Personally, I committed so many times to bettering myself to the gym and my fitness life. I face and battle self-abandonment and fear of the future. Therefore, you will catch me going and stopping my consistency, doing everything I can to ignore self improvement. What you will also find me doing is twisting myself backwards to make sure everyone else is good, and accomplishing much. All the while, I never do anything for myself. This next year, you owe it to yourself to be selfish in your ambition for your goals. Be bold, be courageous. Whatever you do, commit to YOU! We (myself included) have allowed ourselves to put us on the back burner and allow our attention to be on others. Please stop abandoning yourself. Your future needs you. I know they rejected you, but don’t let you reject you! I know they walked all over you, but don’t allow yourself to be neglected! If nobody in this natural world is there for you, at least be there for yourself! Stop being so quick to help others, and never consider yourself. It is not selfish, it is a form of self care. “Dashaun, I have so much going on” It’s simple. Learn to say no. You have said yes, yes, yes, and never and thought about how much harm you are doing to yourself when you never say no. This goes into the self harm aspect we were talking about earlier. You harm almost every aspect of your being- emotional, financial, social, physical- trying to please others and doing so much for others instead of yourself. YOU FIRST BELOVED. We care about you, and we are appreciative about all the things you do for others. However, you cannot serve us with long life, if you die while serving. You first. Good day, Kings and Queens! I hope all is well with you! I just want to take the first couple moments of this blog post to say this:
I am here for you. I support you. I am rooting for you. We have had a long week since the last time we talked. However, you know the weekly gathering is a must! Let’s jump into the blog. Now, let’s get into our last topic of the month of September. Have you ever heard of someone saying, “I have to guard my witness”? No. Well now you have, and let’s break down what that really means and how we do it. When you think of the word witness, you most likely do not think of the Bible, you most likely think of a court case or a crime of some sort. In the judicial court, you have a witness, whose main objective is to explain and talk about what they have seen, experienced, and heard happen. Same goes for those who confess the name of Jesus, as witnesses to Christ we must tell and spread our testimony of what the Lord has done for us, what we have seen Him do, and what we have heard Him do. Acts 1:8 says this, “ But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth”. This is not something we made up as we went to sound cool. This is biblical. Being a witness to and for Christ is a blessing and an honor! We should stand solid in the fact that we get to proclaim to the world what He is able to do. Being a witness is a war tactic against the enemy. The Bible states, “ Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:9). As you witness, and as you stand as such, you begin to prick the hearts of man! As you are pricking and being a witness you are lifting him up. Many of you know, the Bible talks about how to lift and He will draw (John 12:32). Witnessing, allows God to cast His rod! There is so much more we can say about being a witness, and the act of witnessing, but it won’t matter unless you know how to guard it. Witnesses lose their credibility when they conform instead of being in the world, but not of it. A couple of weeks ago, I was in my dorm, and I met someone on campus earlier who invited me to a party. They would have marijuana, alcohol, the whole 99. I needed to meet new people and make new connections, so why not go right? At that moment, I texted my spiritual father and asked for advice. He said simple words to me, “Don’t lose your witness. Guard it”. It is important that you remain a vessel that God can use, clean, pure, and holy. Your witness is attached to many lives you have not even seen yet. People are waiting on your witness (testimony), guard it. Good day, Kings and Queens! I hope all is well with you! I just want to take the first couple moments of this blog post to say this:
I am here for you. I support you. I am rooting for you. We have had a long week since the last time we talked. However, you know the weekly gathering is a must! Let’s jump into the blog. Before we get into the meat of the post, let me say this. For starters, this post will not be long at all. At most a couple paragraphs. This is because of the passing of my beloved “grandma”, former leader, and my foundational “father”, Dr. Gertrude Stacks. She has been a lot to a lot of people in short. Pray for the family, the church, and those impacted by her ministry. Rest with and in Him, Ma! We will guard what you imparted well. Let’s officially begin. Earlier this morning, while discussing some things with the Holy Spirit, he started talking to me about a familiar scripture, John 12:32. It reads, “And I, when I am lifted up from the Earth, will draw everyone to Myself”. We hear it in sermons, we even have written multiple good songs about it. But this morning, there was a revelation that I wanted to share with you. I battle condemnation with my life. It is on a day to day basis, no matter how hard I try, it finds a way to try to hinder me each time. I found myself talking to God, about why I keep falling into certain things, and why the traps are so often. Meditating, I heard Him say this to me: “Lift me, and I’ll draw everyone”. Of course my response was not too holy. I gave God, in that moment, my humanity. I was mad, I was frustrated. Why in the world is He talking to me about this churchy scripture and I need answers? Then, I sat with it more. When I “silenced my world”, as my Grandma Dr.Stacks would say, I heard him whisper something else. “Son, you are included within everyone.” Oftentimes, we seek God for so many other things (people, places, doors) and we forget that we are one of our burdens too. “You are your first intercession” Dr. Gertrude Stacks We have got to realize and recognize that God cares about us, and will draw us, just like He will for them, for which we prayed! Lift him (magnify, or to expand) over the trap, and watch him draw. Over lust, over jealousy, over perversion, over lust, LIFT HIM! Don’t force the drawing, just lift Him; He’s got it. For this week, we will be reviewing LYLSM & The Peculiar Post collab! Take a listen, take notes, and share!! If you have not done so already, subscribe to LYLSM Youtube page!! Happy viewing! Hey family! Kings and Queens! I have missed you guys so much! There have literally been moments in my life in the past couple weeks, where I just wanted to write you guys. I have been very busy, and I have so much to catch you up on! I hope all is well with you, lovely royalty, and if you guys ever need anything you know where to find me!! Let's get into it.
The last time you heard from me, we were talking about the subject of "Do it Well". That was one of the most transparent messages that engaged my history and today's context. If you have not gone back and read it, do so. It will invite the spirit of excellence, to really go into your life. Let's be honest, we all need a little bit more of excellence in our lives. I am working on it myself. In all honesty, we have to look at our selves a lot right now and self inspect what we got going on. If this pandemic has not taught you anything it is that you have to live with yourself. Good, bad, or any different you have to be able to look yourself in the mirror and be okay with what you see! Now, that does not mean you get to stop progressing, stop moving, and stop growing. What that means is, regardless of what you are doing for the sake of growth, accept where you are and loose the weight, even that burden ,if you will, to constantly keep moving. We (meaning me and you) are too hard on ourselves. We will see something and repeatedly repeat what was old, stale, and over with. Take me for example. I don't know about y'all, but I will say something, do something, on accident and get embarrassed and continue to be embarrassed about it days later. I have found that my rehearsal of my failures have led to my insecurities, and my lack of confidence. What I need you to do, what I need me to do, what WE need to do is drop and stop that . Yes leave room for growth, however make sure as you are growing, give yourself grace. My pastors have a saying where they say we have to be able to allow people to "grow in grace". This basically means that they are human, and we need to me gracious to them as we would want someone to be to us. Give yourself a break. It't not worth beating yourself up for. Drop it. I love you, now love yourself. -DLA |
Photo used under Creative Commons from lumanicious