With the climate of the world, we are running on high emotions, fear, and anger because of police brutality, violence, and low frequency. I had the privilege to go to my hometown this past weekend to check out Mr. David Banner and The God Box lecture. Not only did I check out the lecture but my husband and I had a chance to be part of history at the Strand Theatre. We had a chance to Buy Black through shopping with the beautiful Black Businesses who were vending. You all know how I feel about "The People" having their businesses, making money, building generations, and recycling money within our community. I had a huge smile on my face while entering the building.

I was kind of surprised but not surprised that this event was not sold out because many people are not ready to receive the knowledge, some people had to work, some people just didn't want to come, and some people probably was frightened because of the content and context of Blacks in America and the honest and raw truth. Despite other folks feelings, my husband and I drove from Providence to Boston because we are community leaders, activists, married, and a family unit that will birth and bring folks Black babies into this world. We are seeking and appliers of knowledge and the knowledge we have received about the Blacks in Boston, Blacks in America, and Blacks Globally was definitely on point. I do a lot of researching and studying on historical and present day Black folks and honestly, time haven't changed but history remains and it is getting uglier by the day. Hence, why The God Box lecture is needed and why this event was pertinent especially during this time when Police Brutality is high, social engineering is revered up, and why Black Lives never mattered because we as the people have been conditioned since the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade by the oppressors.

Being a Brown Girl From Boston, Mattapan to be exact; I was taught to know my history and study people and the conditioning of my people from an early age. I have always been taught that history will repeat itself because systems are in place for the programming. I always go back to when one of my favorite teachers and mentor from high school, Ms. Bailey in which she taught my Sociology class. (hence why I am probably a Social Worker, Social Scientist, and Life Coach) She told me to read this book entitled: "The Death of an American Jewish Community: A Tragedy of Good Intentions" by Hillel Levine and in this book it discussed my neighbor of Mattapan being once a predominately Jewish community until the "Great  Migration" which caused "White Flight and the creation of suburbs" which we are now seeing once again in Boston with gentrification and the Whites are redeveloping areas that people of color lived, causing more income inequality, segregation within the City of Boston which is causing Black folks to live out because of the unaffordable to live within the Boston city limits.

Wealth Inequality within the City of Boston. African America families wealth in the City of Boston is $8 compare to White Families in Boston which is $247,500.

Back to the God Box lecture...
Many of these topics were discussed because I felt that I did my due diligence as Tayla Andre and Sabir Bey stated numerous of times during the event. Tayla, Sabir, and the young sister who name escape my memory did a thorough job discussion the history of Blacks in Boston, nationwide, and globally. I appreciate hearing that we should know the laws, study, and not take things at face value. We should also go beyond knowledge itself, we should be out in the communities being on the front line and helping the voiceless and "powerless" dismantle the policies and procedures that are outdated and unjust. We need to build that Black Wall Street that was once was in Tulsa, OK and Durham, NC. We definitely need to participate in group economics, buy Black, mentor our youth, gain wisdom from the elders and involved them in community affairs, build our own schools, hospitals, and other needed community things versus relying on the government to provide these things to us which are normally hand me downs, filled with chemicals, lies, and toxicity anyways.

I have been checking out David Banner's lectures and interviews online because I truly wanted to see the evolution on this brother. I appreciate The God Box lectures because it isn't a "Come to Jesus Meeting" so please leave your religious beliefs, things your Pastor, Deacon, Imam or whoever your religious leaders says. The God Box lectures is not about making you feel good about your religion or having folks be lullaby-ed by rhetoric, lies, and a feel good message. The God Box helps liberate your mind, provoke some though, provoke you to study, and expand your mindset to think beyond a surface level. David Banner spoke truth to power like many other conscious Black speakers, lecturers, and common folks do every day. David Banner just has a bigger platform and the money to back him. I just want to be transparent about that. Most things he says is honest and things I have heard growing up with my family being from the South as well. I appreciate hearing it coming from a reformed (lol) rapper who previously took a page from the Iceberg Slim's books.

My tweet from  Twitter on Being A God!

When David Banner hit that stage, he went all the way in. He told us, to take our photos now and cut our phones off. I appreciate that because we are always plugged in and often miss messages because we are trying to get the video to post for the folks to gloat about being in the presence of David Banner, helping others to tap into the knowledge of self, or for our own personal propaganda. I appreciate being present because I was mindful, received the knowledge, and applied the knowledge. One hard truth that David Banner spoke about was being a Black person in America. He was gutsy by saying that Blacks don't like being Black. Whoa!!!!! I had to sit all the way back in my seat and ponder on this strong, aggressive statement because it was bold, in your face, and his truth. He stated that we have been socially engineered to hate ourselves, our image, our holistic selves because of the things we do to self, calling ourselves "niggas",  the way we assimilate into the dominant society and treat one another. It was a hard, ugly truth because as people of culture, we do a lot of manipulation to self and our culture to assimilative despite being treated less than an animal. Many people treat their animals better than they treat Black people. We also allow this to constantly happen to ourselves as well because we call ourselves "niggas" "hoes" and "bitches" versus "Gods" "Queens" and "Kings". There are an unlimited amount of words in the dictionary but we choose to call and answer to these derogatory words rather than using positive, uplifting and moving words. David Banner went ahead and explain The God Box and proved that we are all Gods and went to the Bible and pulled out about six scriptures in which God who can be "She" "He" or "It" stated that we all are Gods. My favorite scriptures he quoted: Psalms 82:6: "I have said, ‘You are gods, All of you are sons of the Most High."

I am not going to give any more away about the God Box lecture because it is very powerful and I suggest that all my people and Brown Girl Tribe should go and attend the lecture. I don't care what color, creed, nationality, religion, ethnicity, or whatever you claim, just go with an open-mind, and open-heart. The information and delivery that David Banner presents it in are raw, emotionally, but it makes you want to do your due diligence by reading, studying, helping your community and do more for yourself and the people. Also, apply the five solutions he provides:

1. Studying and Learning
2. Practicing Group Economics
3. Education
4. Nation Building through Ownership
5. Accountability and Responsibility of Ourselves and Others

In conclusion, make sure you support people doing real things out there. Support your local folks, support folks who are in your community, support people who are doing positive work. Make sure you pre-order The God Box which is David Banner's upcoming album! Also, I want to give David Banner a special shout out because he took the time to take photos with my husband and I and spoke knowledge to us. Anytime, someone takes the time to speak pure love and knowledge to you, thank them because that creates community, a spark of vision and it shows that humanity hasn't died off yet lol. Speak life to someone just because we all need that spark, love, and knowledge.

Remember, you are not niggas, you are Gods. Don't ever allow that word to enter into your sacred space.

The social inequality of Bostonians

This sign was hung throughout the City of Boston during the 1800s by the Boston Vigilance Committees informing Black People of communication with police officers and watchmen.

Thank you for reading the blog post! I truly appreciate you all! Make sure you comment, support, and share the blog post!

Peace, Love, and FLYness,
Drea
Brown Girl From Boston