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https://www.gofundme.com/katgoestoschool

Before my stroke I had the biggest dreams. I was going to have my own non-for-profit for at risk girls that offered counseling services, sexual education, and college prep. My life was a path of success and giving and I was on the cusp of beginning it. 

That all changed on December 21st of 2014. After my stroke I was left with a brain that permanently bled, vision impairments, and a speech deficiency. On top of that my depression and anxiety issues were magnified 10 fold. 

Somehow, through sheer determination, I was able to push through my physical and metal therapy and make what my doctor called a “ miraculous and surprising recovery.” With set limits and guidelines, a speech therapist, and a nifty pair of glasses for my double vision. I was given the ok to return to school for the spring semester. 

However during this semester I suffered several relapses and was forced to use my financial aid for my medical bills in order to continue treatment. This left me indebted to my universities housing department with no way to pay them back. 

Its been a year and I am still struggling with my stroke issues, but I am able to live a somewhat normal life and i think that now more than ever, with my disabilities, I need to complete my education. So I am asking all of my follower and beyond to share this and spread and donate to my gofundme to help me return to school. 

Help me achieve my dreams and become a beacon for young girl both disabled and disadvantaged.

I know I am asking a lot but know that each and every donation is going to be put towards my future and towards my education. 

If you cannot donate please share, boost and spread so that others may see this and be inspired to give aid. 

https://www.gofundme.com/katgoestoschool

Before my stroke I had the biggest dreams. I was going to have my own non-for-profit for at risk girls that offered counseling services, sexual education, and college prep. My life was a path of success and giving and I was on the cusp of beginning it. 

That all changed on December 21st of 2014. After my stroke I was left with a brain that permanently bled, vision impairments, and a speech deficiency. On top of that my depression and anxiety issues were magnified 10 fold. 

Somehow, through sheer determination, I was able to push through my physical and metal therapy and make what my doctor called a “ miraculous and surprising recovery.” With set limits and guidelines, a speech therapist, and a nifty pair of glasses for my double vision. I was given the ok to return to school for the spring semester. 

However during this semester I suffered several relapses and was forced to use my financial aid for my medical bills in order to continue treatment. This left me indebted to my universities housing department with no way to pay them back. 

Its been a year and I am still struggling with my stroke issues, but I am able to live a somewhat normal life and i think that now more than ever, with my disabilities, I need to complete my education. So I am asking all of my follower and beyond to share this and spread and donate to my gofundme to help me return to school. 

Help me achieve my dreams and become a beacon for young girl both disabled and disadvantaged.

I know I am asking a lot but know that each and every donation is going to be put towards my future and towards my education. 

If you cannot donate please share, boost and spread so that others may see this and be inspired to give aid. 

Bless the women who wrote this review, cause I predicted this and have a feeling barbershop 3 will do the same, using victim blaming, respectability politics, to address inner city, intra racial crime in Black neighborhoods or the derailing “Black on Black crime”. Not only that the film ain’t nothing but misogynoir in how it positions Black women.

As a comedy it fails. As a hot take on “black-on-black crime” it fails. As a version of Lysistrata it fails. As a film it fails. Chi-Raq is one long hotep sermon on how intraracial crime is our real problem. How black folks are doing white supremacy’s work by killing each other. How cops won’t respect us if we don’t respect ourselves. And how the real power that women have is in our vaginas because if we just withhold sex all would be right in the world. It’s full-on hotep, straight from the pages of the Third Eye Woke section of Twitter.

I get it. It’s satire. But Lee wants us to take it seriously, which is why he led a march after the film. It’s why in every recent interview he hit us with the “but what about ‘black-on-black’ crime” detraction. It’s why he’s repeatedly said this film will save lives. How am I supposed to take this seriously when Lee uses the original names from Lysistrata for his main characters and gangs? I’m pretty sure Chicago is short on brothers named Cyclopes or Dolmedes. I’m not well-versed on Chicago gangs, but I’m pretty sure there’s no Spartans and Trojans riding through the streets throwing up their sets.

Then there’s Lee’s problem with women. He has always had a problem creating female characters. Always. In Chi-Raq the women are nothing more than their vaginas. “No peace, no pussy!” they chant. The only power they have is between their thighs. Women only exist for the pleasure and control of men. Guess what, though? Women enjoy sex. We love it! Why should women have to deprive ourselves of sexual fulfillment to cajole grown ass men? Not to mention the idea of black women withholding sex completely ignores the real life violence black women face at the hands of black men. So while the women are withholding sex to end gang-related violence, who is fighting for violence and sexual assault against black women? Yeah. It’s quiet on that front.

The women of Chi-Raq have no identities of their own. No aspirations or goals. No jobs. No wants or needs. Literally all we see them doing is existing for men and to service men. They’re the ride or dies who foolishly believe their vaginas can end a war. Sure Lysistrata had the same premise of using a sex strike to end the Peloponnesian War. But a closer look at the play shows that the women had concerns about gender-based issues. The major difference is the women in Lysistrata detested how men saw them as only sexual objects and how their opinions went unheard. They wanted more than just the war to end, they wanted to be treated with respect. Chi-Raq’s women never suggest they have their own demands or desires.

I’m not sure why men don’t find this offensive too. The idea that women can control men’s actions through their vaginas implies men are nothing but mindless animals controlled by their penises.

The oversimplification of the causes of violence in Chicago is another blind spot for Lee. There are moments of speaking truth to power like when Miss Hellen (Angela Bassett) speaks on the comparison in how America responds to white Sandy Hook victims vs. countless black children who are victims of violence every day. There’s also Father Corridan who delivers a sermon that mentions how our kids are on the school-to-prison pipeline. Those moments are awesome but they don’t tell anyone who reads books anything we don’t already know. Those moments are overshadowed by the pervasive message that “black-on-black crime” is a symptom of ego. It does very little handling of the real causes of violence like poverty, discriminating housing practices, criminalization of black boys and girls, mass incarceration and several other issues that date back to Jim Crow. After the Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, Rekia Boyd and Trayvon Martin shoutouts we’re back to the “but what about ‘black-on-black’ crime” message.

Let’s say I could toss aside my feminist gaze and critic’s lens to just enjoy the film as pure entertainment. It still sucks. For God’s sake the entire movie is in rhyme. As in you have to sit through a musical of sorts listening to characters rhyme what’s supposed to be serious dialogue on violence. What was funny to others was corny to me. You know when somebody says something at a stuffy panel or at the work happy-hour that isn’t really funny but because it’s supposed to be funny and you don’t want to hurt the person’s feelings so people just laugh anyway? That’s what the comedy throughout the film is like. I genuinely laughed maybe twice. You know who didn’t laugh not once? Al Sharpton. I know because I sat right behind him.

Never forget.

to

Brazilian organization puts racists’ tweets on billboards near their homes