Ujamaa: Cooperative Economics

There's no deep comic book connection to this. Just go and support a Black owned comic shop more than once in a while. Support a independent Black creator and their intellectual property. Support Black podcasts with more than like or subscription. Spend some money. Marvel, DC, and Image gets more than enough. Lastly, support who supports you. If you believe in the product or the people behind the product, then financially back them. Its that simple. Of all the principles, this one here is the most neglected and one of the most necessary. We need our money to circulate longer than six hours in the community. It is yours and my responsiblity to do that. End of Story. -Richard J Wright

Ujima: Collective Work and Responsibility

It is day 3 of Kwanzaa and today's principle is called Ujima. Ujima means to build and maintain our community together ande make our brother's and sister's problems our problems and to solve them together. According to the bible, Cain asked God if he was his brother's keeper. Of course he would ask this rhetorical question after murdering him. It is the first recorded instance where this particular question is asked. Am I my brother's keeper? This thought is deep. The principle itself is asking us to take ownership of our brother's and sister's problem. Strange enough, the Black Panther run by John Ridley puts this principle to the test. Several times throughout the run, T'Challa calls on Shuri to help him. She helps and at times reluctantly does so. There is no question as to whether Shuri loves T'Challa. It does not matter if she disagrees with him. She ALWAYS helps him.

The dynamic of them being blood siblings is interesting. They have a playful banter with one another and they are down for one another regardless of the situation. They may dislike what one another is doing but they remain loyal to one another. Honestly, all of us can learn from them. When they have an issue, they help one another. I think their relationship is present but not always in the hearts of their fans. I took a deeper notice recently after watching Black Panther Wakanda Forever for a second time. While T'Challa was not in the movie. I could see Shuri carrying him in her heart. As she explained to her mother in the movie concerning the heart shaped herb, she did not care about the throne or the Black Panther. She was trying to save her brother.

It is no secret that relationships between Black people are stressed. There is a lot of finger pointing but not enough self examination which is why the good Lord gave us 3 fingers pointing right back at ourselves when we try to accuse one another of anything. We all should ask the question. What can I do to make my brother and sister life better? We are to be concerned with the problems we face and take on the responsibility of solving them together. At some point we need to build our community and that only happens when we reach out and work together; that is a start. Will it be easy? Nope. Yet, the rewards are unity and peace with one another. We need this principle to be a priority in our community because too many people have gotten way too comfortable in their dysfunction which nowadays gets idiotically called "peace" There is no peace without my brother or sister, just ask Shuri. -Richard J Wright

Kujichagulia: Self Determination

Day 2 of Kwanzaa is called Kujichagulia or self determination. Simply put it means "to define and name ourselves, as well as to create and speak for ourselves". If there is one principle that the Black comic book community should embrace and wholly be about it; it is this one. The history of comics is well established and in that establishment, Black people were not depicted in a positive light. Early efforts to show Black people in positive lights came directly from Black people. It is a fargone conclusion that iconography has been the most important tool in the forwarding of white supremacy. To give people a perception of another people give them permission to see them a certain way. The most important movie that showed this was the film Birth of a Nation by D.W. Griffith. This movie helped reinforce and create the culture that allowed open hostility towards Black people by white people.

Our people have endevoured to create and push back against the propaganda. All Negro Comics #1 was one such effort. This book was created in 1947 and only existed to publish one book. This book was successful in establishing a blueprint for positive Black images in comic books. The company All Negro Comics, Inc. was not able to continue publishing their book due to distributors not selling the company the paper to print their book. As devestating as that was, it simply identified the enemies of our people's progress. Time and time again others would try and some would say they failed but the only failure is quitting.

Our people have always desired self determination. Our issue has been only of contentment. We have been content with characters created by Marvel and DC. These characters historically are treasured because our people have always enjoyed comics and heroes in comics. At times we have criticized both companies for not utilizing their Black characters enough. We on the other hand have not supported original creations from various Black voices. We know the importance of original creations but we can be slow to support those creations due to lack of resources and skill level regarding art and story telling. It is not enough that we embrace a historical product. It is not enough that we embrace "mainstream characters". It is not enough to wish or lament self determination. Truthfully speaking, the biggest superpower we all have is the power to choose. Whether we admit it or not we make choices that either embrace status quo or embrace change that may be considered radical. All because we choose ourselves. It is great to read and enjoy what you love, however our love must be greater for the artists and writers of our stories. We must champion self determination because it is empowerment at its core. We can appreciate legacy characters but we are limited in doing so because we all have to recognize the fact that these creations are the result of companies wanting to exploit established intellectual properties. In short, they seek a fast buck without the hard work of creating something new and comprehensive. Our desire should be to embrace original creations because they reflect our struggle to be seen and taken seriously.

I enjoy many characters from the Marvel and DC. I read their stories and enjoy who they are but I also realize that many of them come from a lens that do not reflect the African American experience in its totality. It does not make them less perse but consciously one cannot help but to see the stereotypes and tropes that permeate through a white writer's thoughts. However, when we encounter creations that come from the Black experience and written by Black people who live that "experience", one can discern the nuances of Black life. It gives life to the thought our elder William H. Foster so graciously expressed in his book titled "Looking for a Face like Mine". We not only are looking for that face, we should be looking for the hands who can create that face too. Embrace self determination and support Black creators with more than words but with your money.

-Richard J Wright

Umoja: The Principle of Unity

Habari gani? How's it going? Or like we say in Houston, "Whut it do?" Either way, it is day one of Kwanzaa. Umoja, the principle means to strive for and to maintain unity in the family, community, nation, and race. Needless to say, Umoja in the Black community today is a tall order. However, it is supposed to be because all the other principles of Kwanzaa are not meaningful, much less obtainable without unity. The standard is set with the whole of the people in mind. This Kwanzaa, I am not going write about the wrongs or warts in the Black community. Instead, I will simply reference comicbooks by which the blog is intended to be about. Unity is an interesting thing in that, often times people come together as a result of war, not peace. In otherwords, folks like to fight before they unite. Whatever gets them to the table and talk I guess. Black Panther written by John Ridley comes to mind. This comic is not my favorite comic book at all. However, I do like Ridley's writings in other books like I am Batman, and GCPD The Blue Wall.

However, Ridley's writing of Black Panther has been very questionable. Now, I am not here to dis or whine about how bad it is, and it is. (LOL) Yet, I want write about an interesting turn of events that took place in issue 12 of the run. It seems as though T'Challa the Black Panther has been brooding about the meaning of life. He is depressed. He was in mourning until he wasn't. He almost took a nihilist mindset. He is lost. We have seen him descend into a deep abyss of self pity. There is an interesting thought when it comes to people regarding hitting rock bottom. When you see people going down, you can try to talk them out of it or shake them out of it. However, they cannot hear you or anything until they reached the bottom. It is when they hit the bottom that rescue and redemption can take place. T'Challa has finally hit rock bottom. What got him there? Seeing his best friend who he thought was dead, alive. Yeah,that might shake a boot up. In the midst of this run, T'Challa has made his share of enemies and alienated others.

So, now that he is alone. He is destined, forced, compelled or what ever adjective you want to assign to this dumpster fire; to seek out those who he had conflict with to stop his best friend from doing the very thing that he asked him to do. Well. Maybe not exactly but the nuance of it all make its within a madman's capacity to understand the mission. So now T'Challa is ready for war but first he has to come clean with everyone in order to go into battle. After all, he is asking everyone who he fought and lied to; to join in his quest. Yeah, like I said early, (not good). He convinces them all to stand with him and clean up his mess. I appreciate the effort Ridley put into this to make it a glorious call to arms. It just isn't. The effort is there but it fails to fire on all cylinders. Our Maybach is in actuality in a "1919 get out and push" machine. This new found unity that T'Challa is cleaving to, is a result of poor management. It mirrors Black unity today because all of the outrage and outcry from the past few years has simply lined the pockets in intersectionality alphabet personnel and his made Black people at large more jaded than ever before in the history of America. Key words like "on code" and "stay woke" do nothing for the bottom line. Yeah nigga, its that bad now. So when the T'Challas of the left and right try their dear best to marshal the forces they themselves have abused like T'Challa has done, niggas is like "whatever, nigga" There isn't nothing else better to do. So keep in mind that as the Black Panther limps to its final issue, remember everyone is a bridge. You never know when you are going to need to cross them. Do not be like certain folks in the community who play the blame game when things do not go their way. You ignore and shun the bridges, do not cry when the bridge is out, indefinitely. Today is Umoja. Let us strive, let us pray, let us seek, let us remember what unity truly is. Otherwise, it will remain fleeting idea in the minds of dreamers and seen in bad comic book runs. -Richard J. Wright

Ninjas or Niggas? Same Difference.

Here we go again. Once again the "lack" of diversity rears its hypocritical head in the form of a new take on the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. One of my brothers from the Blerd podcast BHND, hit me up to show me the latest shenanigans. Of course, I am easily amused. Im just trying to understand what the hail IDW is thinking? Black cats love the turtles. You do not need to turn them into Black kids. This whole thought that we are starving for the diversity is straight up ridiculous. We don't need it like that. I know several cats that enjoyed The Last Ronin and I can tell you none of us was sitting around thinking I wish they was Black. Now, I understand that some think this is cool. To each his own. I aint buying it. While I do not think it is disrespectful. I find it to be very much unnecessary. I saw cats getting hyped and I was just like. "I guess". So what are my thoughts? I decided to pull this letter from reddit. Its a pitch the GOAT Dwayne McDuffie made to Marvel. I think it is fitting. After all, Ninjas. Niggas. Same difference.

-Richard J Wright