Life Update #3 | CHON | Hair Grievances

Hey!

It’s Jante and I don’t really have anything to say other than a couple of things. I guess this can be a mini- Life Update #3?? I think so, mostly because nothing much has happened and I wanted to make this short.

| CHON |

I accidentally discovered the band while browsing YouTube and I listened to the track Book and I instantly fell in love with the sound (I played it on repeat like four times) and I never really found a band like them before. But, let’s be clear my music tastes do not vary at all. It’s actually pretty dead but I can say I've grown like the tiniest bit. A lot of the stuff that I liked 4 years ago ABSOLUTELY DOES NOT pertain to the taste that I have now. I mean my current Spotify playlists is a huge giant mess and I desperately need to delete songs on there that I do not like anymore, but given the fact that I have over 700 songs on one playlist that I’ve cumulated on there since 2011, I am going to need to dedicate a lot of time to doing so.

But according to my very quick Wikipedia search, they are an American band and the track I listened to is from their album Grow. I mean. I loved it. The track I mean. I have yet to actually listen to the album and develop my own opinion on it (I am currently listening to it and for me to truly decide on an album I need to listen to it beginning to end like 7 to 10 times). In all actuality, I discovered them like half an hour ago and I felt like impulsively writing a blog post and included them in it. Go figure.

| HAIR |

Yeah, that’s still a topic. I recently have been getting real annoyed with my hair only because it takes so much time to do upkeep on it. Like if it wanted to do a “twist/braid out" (I have my own method) it would take me 2 hours to just twist/braid my hair. And given the fact that I’m trying (yo but forreal) TRYING to be “healthier” and since that involves like running, my hair has not been lasting a long time sadly.

Which leaves wash n go’s as an answer right? Well, sure….if you didn’t wear a hijab. When I do just try to wash my hair and go, and I am in the unfortunate circumstance of needing to wear a hijab for some reason, I now have to somehow contain all of my hair to fit neatly underneath a scarf. That entails me braiding my hair into two very large cornrows and two braids near my hairline to contain my baby hairs, and by the time I take them out I am left with unevenly stretched hair all over the place. And it’s not a cute look.

So I’ve been looking to getting Marley/Havana twists installed in my hair hence, I don’t have to worry about the thing growing from my scalp for four weeks.  But that requires money and I ain’t got the bank account for that.

So we’re back to just dealing with my hair. My friend actually suggested I just twist my hair and I secure my ends with those tiny black rubber bands and I mean….that could work. So maybe I’ll be okay after all.

Alright. Yep. You really didn’t have to read this at all. I mean thanks for getting to this point. It’s cool. I didn’t really have anything pressing to say actually. But you know what it’s cool. Glad to have you here. Have a wonderful life man.

Sincerely,

Jante

America - Languages - ERGGGHH

Hey, it’s Jante and I got a topic to discuss. Languages.

We use it to communicate with each other so here is my point. Why in America is it such a normal and accepted thing for someone to know only one language?

Look I definitely understand that there are going to be incidents, backgrounds and just times where someone cannot afford to know a language either because it costs money to formally know a language, they don’t have family or friends who know another language to teach them, or it just isn’t a priority because there are more important things to worry about, such as food, water and shelter.

I am not ignorant to this and I’m pretty sure I’m leaving out other situations where learning a second language just isn’t even conceivable.

BUT when I take all of this into account it still leaves many of us (I included) who for too long of a time, were perfectly content with being monolingual. And I realize that me being comfortable with that was just stupid. Plain idiotic.

I come from a background where my mom and step-dad are bilingual, they speak both Swahili and English and my biological father being trilingual where he knows Swahili, Hindi and English. When I grew up, my parents didn’t really enforce Swahili onto me so of course, I didn’t end up speaking it when I got older and I still till this day am not fluent at it at all.

And I’m kinda sick of it.

And the thing is I feel like Americans are so easy to dismiss not learning a second language, because hey, other people should know English.

And the argument does have stuff to back it up. English is the fourth most commonly spoken language with over 510 million people speaking it.

However, the argument becomes flawed when you look at how many native speakers….it’s only 340 million people who actually spoke English as their native language…..which leaves over 100 million people to learn it as a second language.

It just bothers me so much that we have this nonchalance about it and this righteousness about ourselves as English speakers that we absolutely refuse to acknowledge the fact that it’s completely unfair to just assume other people should just learn the language. And it has gotten to the point that English is recognized as an official language by over 60 countries and even though English is not the native language that the populace speaks to begin with! Just so bothersome. So so bothersome.

But sure I understand that two of the major superpowers of the world (America and England) are English speakers and they do have a lot of say in trade and business so it is advantageous for others to learn English as a second language. But why as English speakers do we not feel like it is a necessity to learn another language??

For instance, in the US there is a huge Hispanic community, something that has definitely become more relevant since I moved to Houston. I mean Mexico is like right there. Why isn’t it required for the American public school education to teach Spanish from kindergarten to when they are a senior in high school?  

Like what cons are there to learning two languages? None. Absolutely none.

And the thing is, this can be done. Sure you would have to rework the entire school curriculum but I don’t think that it can’t be done. It’s feasible and it enlightens people and gives people a necessary and handy skill that they wouldn’t be able to get on their own.

But yeah, until that happens, I really do urge other people to LEARN A LANGUAGE. Specifically, a language that you have people who can practice with you but honestly any language that you are interested in will do. I mean, don’t be arrogant. 60 plus countries have listed English as an official language for a reason man. The least you can do is attempt to learn a language.

I understand, you may never be completely and utterly fluent. And that’s fine. What is important is the intent and the effort to do so.

So for me, I am making a pretty big goal for me to accomplish but I think I can do it, it’s gonna require a lot of practice but I’m really determined to do this.

•         At 28 years old, I will know and be able to communicate Spanish and Swahili adequately.
•          At 35 years old, I will have a basic understanding of Arabic.
• 
  

But that’s just my personal goal, and in the end, just don’t be an arrogant fool. Learn a language if you can.

And app I really suggest downloading is called Duolingo. Free language service that helps you learn a language by playing games and activities and “messaging” their robots in order to help with the conversational skills. I am learning so much from this and I urge everyone to use it. It can honestly jumpstart your second language journey.

I wish you all the best of luck and have a wonderful weekend.

Sincerely,

Jante

Thoughts

Courtesy of ReligionFacts

I WOULD JUST LIKE TO SAY. THE THINGS IN ITALICS ARE OPINIONS OR MY THOUGHTS ON THIS. ANYTHING ELSE I TRIED TO MAKE IT AS UNOPINIONATED AS POSSIBLE.

Hey, it’s me. I have stuff to say. Let’s do it.

I am going to try and not say anything on here to furthermore boost the flames and the tension that has arrived here. I’m trying, I promise.

I don’t want to bash anyone here, nor do I want to denounce everything that has happened. So let’s get this clear. Donald Trump is our president, not going to argue against it. The Electoral College is the system we use (I don’t necessarily agree with it) but nonetheless it is what we got and it chose him as our president elect for the next four years.

Okay, cool? I’m glad we got that settled.

Now, here comes the unpopular opinion or the one that is going to “rock the boat” if you will. I am a Muslim. This should be fairly obvious to everyone but if you aren’t aware well, yeah that’s me. A hijabi – at times – that lives here. Okay no one is shocked here. This hasn’t tipped anyone over into anger, I’m just stating facts here.

Next thing would be much more provocative but still it’s a fact. On December 7 2015 Donald Trump read a statement from his campaign that he wanted 
a “total and complete shutdown on Muslims” entering the United States. He then said “We have no choice. We have no choice.” Now when I hear this statement, I honestly cannot see any metaphors that he could have meant or anything of the fact. And I would like to make it very and supremely clear that I have family, specifically Muslim family members that live OUTSIDE the United States.

Does he mean to think that because there are Muslim terrorists that exist we shouldn’t have any Muslims enter the country?

Statistically speaking, there are roughly 106,000 jihadist militants that exist according to this CNN article. And according to the Pew Study, 23% of the world’s populations are Muslim, 1.6 billion people to be exact. And taking into account Trump doesn’t mind the Muslims living in the U.S. (3.3 million of them), that means he didn’t want a total of 1,596,700,000 Muslims to enter the country of the United States until representatives figured out what is wrong because .006625% of the Muslim populace are jihadi militants aka terrorists.

I’m sorry, but as a Muslim, that seems incredibly islamophobic. And as a whole islamophobia is not nearly as brought up as it should be in the media because it is and continues to be a huge problem. That’s not reassuring to me as a Muslim. But, it continues.

He continued to state that we have to look at mosques because there is “anger”.

 Alright now this one doesn’t seem to be islamophobic but disrespectful. I think that I can speak for the majority of Muslims and say that we don’t have anything to hide in our mosques. Especially in the mosques that I’ve been a part of, we are fairly open to people who are either interested in the religion, curious as to what exactly Muslims do, etc. So it’s just hurtful that people think that we could or would have something to hide in our mosques? I’m sorry, but I don’t even think Donald Trump has been to a mosque.

I promise you, our mosques are always open. I have NEVER been to a mosque where the door were locked during the daytime. There is no special phrase, password, greeting, gesture, nothing. You can just enter and pray and leave. So the rhetoric that we have to be watched NOW is painful. I spent much of my formative years in a mosque. I am currently a volunteer at a mosque and I taught Islamic studies. A mosque to me, has always been a safe place that is open for me if I ever needed it. It’s just sad to think that my safe place is considered a place to be full of “anger.”

Anyways, that occurred less than a year ago. And it was debated for a short while, maybe a month or so and it was over. And Trump made some revisions in his statement and he took a more “moderate” approach with it.

My thing is, after the election, I was hurt and upset and said that if you voted/were for Trump to unfollow me, unfriend me, and I don’t deal with you. Did I mean it? Probably not because I don’t have the ability to hold grudges and stay mad. I’m actually fairly bad at it. The thing is, regardless of everything else Trump has ever said ever, it just disturbs me that people who know Muslims are still okay with what he wanted to do. It spoke to me that “look I know that you are a Muslim, but I am still going to vote for him.” If I leave the country, and I come back like I did this summer, would I have not been allowed to come back? Is that something you would have been okay with?

To me that just seems like you didn’t care. And I felt devastated.

And yeah, I understand that the Muslim ban is more than likely not going to happen. It completely and utterly goes against the 1^st amendment and I know there is a checks and balance system in place. I am aware.

I am just disappointed that people were okay with voting for a man with this policy that completely violates the 1^st amendment and is discriminatory towards 23% of the global population.

So if I unfriend, unfollow, block, whatever it is I may have done, I promise you it was not because I was weak. No, that’s not the case at all. I am a strong person living in a country that has never respected me with a leader who seems like he doesn’t respect people like me from outside the country. Once I feel better, I will reach out. But I’m hurt. And I need time to recuperate and get on with my life.

 All in all, I hope he does an amazing job as president and I desperately hope he proves me wrong. That’s all I have to say.

Sincerely,

A sad, discouraged, yet hopeful

Jante

Life Update #2 | My Unrequited Love For Aziz Ansari | Lots of Critiquing

Hey! 



|    LIFE UPDATE    |

It's Jante obviously, but I have a new blog post up thanks to an uplifting of spirits and I am just feeling much happier now. I was really feeling quite awful for the past couple of months and I was feeling unmotivated and uninspired and basically every single un-prefix + positive attribute that you can think of. 

Well the basics of everything are:

 - I'm currently volunteering at a local mosque and I subbed for a class one day. I'm also in an Arabic class so I'm learning Arabic again and it's honestly such an interesting language. Maybe one day I can learn it as soon as I know Spanish and Swahili fluently. I want to aim for an age where I can be fluent in both languages so maybe 28? Yeah, 28 is a good age. And I don't think this is a hard task for me to fulfill, I've always been relatively good at languages and I know waaaaay too many bilingual, tri-lingual and multilingual people for me to only know English as a language.

- I also am finally getting a job...hopefully...that's still a work in progress.

- I got accepted into the nursing program and I finished all of my application procedures needed. I'm just waiting for my orientation meeting which will be in December. 

|  MY UNREQUITED LOVE FOR AZIZ ANSARI  |

This is mainly just me trying to live my fantasy that one day Aziz Ansari will somehow stumble across this blog post, read it, fall madly in love with me (in a totally platonic way cause Muslims before whatever-the-hell-he-is) and we become the best of friends. 

I just read (okay listened) to Modern Romance by Aziz Ansari and Eric Klinenberg narrated by him and it was just a beautiful six hours of pure joy and undiluted rapture as I listened to his nasally voice read to me his book (and also make fun of me for listening to his book). BUT IT'S OKAY cause I BOUGHT THE HARD COVER...you hear that Aziz! I BOUGHT IT SO GTFO. 

The amazing thing about this was that Aziz, managed to be quite hilarious but also provide great data, experiments and enlightening commentary in regards to social media and the pros and cons that it has on contemporary romance. In the end, I will most definitely be rereading the book again. 

|     LOTS OF CRITIQUING     |

Given the fact that I have had too much time on my hands, I have been watching way more television and films and with that I guess I kinda came across this YouTube channel called TheReelRejects and D4Darious and I guess I have just been looking at films and television shows in a different light?

I wouldn't necessarily say that I've been the most observant and greatest critic of all time but I think I have gained this ability to critically analyse and note whatever I am watching by paying more attention to how a director may set the scene, figuring out why they may shoot a scene in that way, how the set is designed and acting methodology and so on so forth. 

I have also been doing a lot of reading about the movie business and how it works and it has been really interesting. I wouldn't necessarily call this a hobby of mine nor am I interested in participating in it but rather it is something to occupy my time while I await for the next chapter of my life to pop up.

Welp, that's it and I guess I'll talk to you later. 

Sincerely,

Jante

Life Update #1 | Atlanta Review | Thank You Letter

Hey,

I have been honestly trying to make a blog post for the past few weeks I promise but I have either lost interest in the topic I wanted to discuss or lack the knowledge to do an in-depth analysis of it without leaving anything behind.

I guess I could do what I usually do in my journals and do like little bullet points to help flesh out how I’ve been doing the past couple of months. Let’s do this.

·        Contrary to popular belief, I don’t think that taking this time off from school has helped me at all. In fact, this has been an incredibly unhappy part of my life.

·        I also haven’t been working so in accordance to not going to school I’m also not working and I’m stuck at home.

·        Now with all of these three things combined, I kinda lost my feeling of self-worth which crossed into dangerous territory for me leading me to be very depressed for a period of time.

Basically, this amount of alone time for myself have not been helpful at all. I realize I like working and I like not being broke all the time.

But enough about me, I kinda want to touch a couple of things before I go.

To anyone who follows me on my other social media platform KNOWS that I love love LOVE Atlanta. I may be biased because I like Donald Glover as a person in general aka comedian, actor, rapper and now producer of my favorite fall show.

Now what I love about Atlanta is that it touches on social issues like Black-ish, HOWEVER, he lets it get weird. For instance, it touches on sensitive topics but it covers it humorously, light-heartedly and slightly off kilter which is a joy to watch.

Courtesy of FX Networks

From left to right characters Darius. (he looks really hot here I don't care...damn) Earn, and his cousin Paper Boi.

For instance in episode 5 called “Nobody Beats the Biebs”, they actually cast the character Justin Bieber as a black man which I think first off was brilliant. It made fun of Justin and continued to mock him throughout the show as a vain and arrogant adult with his shenanigans such as peeing on the wall and getting in a fight with Paper Boi. Also, the writer of this episode who is actually Donald Glover’s brother Stephen mocks the media when it comes to the nonstop coverage of this caricature who is basically the human form of an asswipe.

But they let the show get weird with other stuff such as the dialogue in between the characters, blurring the mouth of a child cussing EVEN THOUGH they have a TV-MA rating and having an entire satirical episode that portrayed itself as a talk show with its own paradoxical commercials that Donald both directed and wrote.

I would also love to give praise to Hiro Murai who directed many of the episodes here. I love how everything is directed especially this one scene where Darius and Earn go into the woods in episode 4 because everything was shot so beautifully. He also directed many of Donald aka Childish Gambino’s music videos such as “Sober”, “3005”, “Telegraph Ave”, and “Sweatpants” and the short film “Clapping For The Wrong Reasons”.

All in all, I have been unhappy for the past couple of months but I know, that Atlanta has made such a huge impact on me when I watch it, I don’t feel so unhappy anymore. Thanks, Donald.

Sincerely

Jante

Colorism | Corpus Christi | Chit Chat

Hey!

So this is Jante and I guess this is more of talky/opinion post on whatever I want today. Right now, I want to discuss colorism/natural hair/personal beliefs etc, while in between I feature pictures from my time in Corpus Christi.

And look, I already know that I’m going to get a lot of hate if I were to talk about feminism or racism because it is such a polarizing topic so colorism seems like the next best place to start. 

Colorism(n.): Prejudice or discrimination against individuals with a dark skin tone, typically among people of the same ethnic or racial group.

(Courtesy of Oxford Dictionary)

To be frank, from a very young age I always thought that light was beautiful and straight hair was beautiful and light colored eyes were beautiful. European features were ideal and I began to despise my African features including my curly hair, dark eyes, and wide nose. My brother Jameel got the long Arab nose, the sunken deep eye sockets, everything that made him look less "black" while I got all the uglier features.

Me and my sister at Pier 99

I failed to see my beauty and put that alongside me being an overweight child, with limited social skills (that I am still working on till this day), it made for an unhappy childhood and rough growth during my formative years of middle school and early high school.

I’ve realized that “natural” hair in the black community is coming back and I am very happy that many women are embracing and loving the hair that comes out of their head like yes, this is definitely progress. But I really hate that we hold ourselves back because we still want to put the European standards of beauty on the hair that grows out of our scalp.

Left to Right: Babbie (step-dad), brother, and brother

We are mainly going to be talking about colorism in the natural hair community for now. Colorism in everyday life and in the black community is just such a broad topic and I can do a series on it, I don’t know, we will see.

First, let’s say you go to YouTube to find a "natural" curly hair routine. Most of the time you would find curly hair routines on girls with curl types that range from 2c to maybe 4a. You want to learn more about curl patterns? Go here.

But no one wants to watch a video with some lady with “kinky” hair where there isn’t a definite curl pattern. Why? It’s not considered pretty. Basically, the rule of thumb to be a popular natural hair guru on YouTube is that people are going to watch your videos if you can lay your baby hairs down. If you can’t, you’re not going to make it as a huge YouTuber or natural hair care blogger in general.

Brother

My hair has a long story but I didn’t have a relaxer in my hair until I was 14 and it was mainly because I had no idea how to take care of my hair. I hated combing it out and just putting it in a ponytail and I yearned to have the ability to wear my hair down like the rest of my friends….even if I had a hijab on. (Whatever that’s a different story)

I did it and I really liked it for the next couple of weeks until I got tired of it and saw how lifeless it was. No movement, no body. It was dead and thin and it wasn't me but instead, I was faking it and in the end, I grew resentful of it and hated it. So for two years I grew it out and slowly trimmed it every month or so until all the relax hair was gone.

I was dibbledabblying with straighteners and experimenting with short hair cuts until when I was 19, I straightened my hair in Dubai and whatever happened it completely denatured my head of hair leaving only two inches of my hair from the root curly and the rest of my head pin straight. It left my hair damaged, just like it was when I relaxed my hair five years ago. In August of 2015, I cut my hair into basically a long afro that barely reached chin length when stretched out.

Anyways it’s been a little over a year and it now reaches past my collarbones. I’m happy with it now, it’s curly, it’s healthy and I am extremely satisfied with it.

Now my hair is what I would consider to be 3c to 4a curl pattern so I’m cutting it close but because I can lay my baby hairs down, I have “pretty hair.” And now add the fact that I am mixed with other things other than black and now I have this unwanted label added onto me like I’m some rare commodity.

It’s weird and honestly, when we talk about natural hair we need to stop labeling hair as “good hair” and “kinky hair”. No. ALL hair is good hair no matter how coarse, short, long or WHATEVER it is. It doesn’t need to have defined ringlets or curls for it to be beautiful. It can have no curls, no waves, just be as coiled and zigzag as it can be and just be as beautiful.

Anyways I think that’s all I have to say for now. Thanks for reading.

Mom

Sincerely,

Jante  

instagram | _abatty_

Muse Of the Moment: "Black Boyfriend" by Dave Harris

Hey! 

So I guess I'm going to do a new segment here and simply discuss music, artwork, poetry, books , photography, or simply things I like. I've been watching Button Poetry on YouTube for a couple of years now and I've gathered a bunch of spoken poetry I really love. From Fatima Asghar to Ollie Schminkey to Aziza Barnes to Patrick Roche I have taken an interest into spoken word. Some have made me cry, others have made me laugh and others have made me take a seat and think.

"Black Boyfriend" by Dave Harris gives a thought provoking take on what it means to be a black man in the world of interracial dating. It's interesting, funny and at the end of the poem it brings up a poignant statement. Honestly, I really feel like it would do the poem injustice if you don't watch the video. These words on the computer screen do not carry the same rhythm, pace, and emotion as how the poet would want it to be delivered so please watch it the link will be here.

Watch it, than come back. Please :)

For now I will post the poem here and discuss it. Pretty much it. (I transcribed it so obviously there might be some rhythm or spacing issues but I tried to make sure it was as accurate as possible.)

To the fathers of too many women I’ve dated

The day I meet you, I always straighten my tie.

I use the biggest words I know

I break out the good shoes.

So you can see them, before you can see past them

I always go in for the handshake.

See I’ve been practicing my good, strong, grip. I go in for the shake, look you in the eye like the man I always see it that

Surprised face.

That face that says

“Oh”

Says

“Oh shit.”

Says

“Oh shit, my daughter did not bring home a black guy –“

Yup!

That’s me! I’m your daughter’s first black boyfriend. Surprise!

I bet, I bet you didn’t see that one coming.

Yes indeed, you daughter is in fact “down with the brown”

I’m sorry. I guess this means you must have failed as a parent.

Or maybe it’s just a phase, let’s hope it’s just a phase.

Still

I know you tried to nip this in the bud, when you were young.

See you caught her watching Tyler Perry one time and you slapped her across the mouth!

She said, “But Dad, I was only flipping through the channels.”

To which you replied, “Becky, you better take yo ass in yo room and watch an episode of Full House, starring Bob Saget. BOB SAGET!”

Yet still,

Those thirty seconds of "Madea’s Family Reunion" must have burned a hole into her heart cause now,

I’m here

You’re worst nightmare.

You know how it goes,

“Once you go black, you never go back.”

Say it with me y’all

“ONCE YOU GO BLACK, YOU NEVER GO BACK.”

And it’s permanent.

That’s right.

It’s real

It’s real like she gonna look at Ryan Gosling and think “I wish he was darker yo, I wish he was darker!”

It’s real

It’s real like you can Google that shit on WebMD

It’s real

It’s real like if my penis was in Congress, they’d call it the majority whip

And speaking of Congress

Did you know that the first American log of interracial marriage was made in 1691?

Interracial marriage was not made legal in the United States until 1967, America

Is often lauded as being the great melting pot

For the way it brings together different races, different cultures, different differences

Do not, call this country a melting pot when nothing has melted

Do not, call this country a melting pot, forget how long it was illegal to mix.

You might never live a day in the life of this skin and I won’t ever yours

but shared experiences has value regardless

One girl taught me how to swing dance, I taught her how to dougie.

One girl taught me about Seoul food from Korea, I taught her about soul food from my kitchen.

So to all the fathers

Like you.

This

Is simply what it looks like when your children do better than you did.

Wake up.

If I am your worst nightmare you need to figure out what the fuck is wrong with your dreams.

As soon as I heard that last statement I understood that this was going to be a favorite. He won me over with the performance, the distinctive pauses in between verses and just the passion that he exuded during this entire poem. And now I have something new to appreciate since working on this blog post. I haven't noticed or appreciated a spoken poet's writing abilities until transcribing this poem. So much of it sounds like regular talking that I lost some of the purposeful emphasis and repetition that Mr. Harris put a lot of work into and is consistently show through the poem. The play on words is also a really cool feature with "Seoul" food and "soul" food. It had humor with pop culture references such as Full House and I was laughing so hard when he said Bob Saget with so much conviction. Like yes. I needed this angry man to yell at me those two words: Bob Saget! 

It's an entertaining poem, I want more from Dave Harris honestly. Maybe I can find some! Until than, I hope you liked this post and I will see you soon. 

- Jante 

i n s t a g r a m | _abatty_