Family Dynamics and our CQ [Cultural Quotient]?

Prom Night, 1993

 

     Anyone who has read my writings, listened to my interviews or personally interacted with me knows that I often talk about my upbringing. More specifically, I talk about my Ole Earth [Mother] being a Social Psychologist and how that experience helped shape part of my identity. The older I became the more I realized how uncommon it was to hear, "study their family dynamics" as a teenager when I shared with her my interest in a girl. I was a teenager and had no idea what studying family dynamics meant or how it was done. There wasn't a road map. It took years of experience, and the development of my executive brain function, to begin understanding this. Prior to this, I looked at a girl as an individual without studying how her ideas, interactions, behaviors, influences and relationships with her family helped shape her identity. Yes, I would casually recognize when she didn't have a relationship with her father, the kind of diet she had, what her family's social economic status was, what her interests were, and her comfort level with intimacy. I didn't try to unpack all of that and took it on face value. I remember my parents prompting me to 'think deeper' about the girls that I was interested in by sharing commentary about their family, asking questions that revealed their family dynamics, and directly engaging them when they visited our home. I wasn't really interested in that. Like with my own upbringing, I simply took her upbringing for granted and didn't look too far beyond her as an individual. As I grew beyond my teenage years and entered college, I really began to recognize the impact of our family dynamics. 

    I am a middle child of seven children. My home environment was a hodge podge of social commentary, musical instruments, board games, family meals, outings, sports, community engagement, and a Pan-African flag. I grew up around African artifacts, books like a DSM-III-R [Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders], Baldwin's The Fire Next Time, and Khalil Gibran's Spirits Rebellious. We watched films like Dolemite, Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song, Shaka Zulu, The Spook Who Sat by The Door and had family discussions afterwards. My family used The Book of Questions like a party game, which enabled my parents to see and respond to ideas that my siblings and I were entertaining and bringing into our household. My Ole Earth would literally take those of us who were closest in age "people watching", where we go to a public space such as a mall or a park just to observe, analyze, and comment on people. She was sharping our critical observation and deductive reason skills. Looking back, it feels like I grew up in a kind of laboratory. However, it wasn't some sterile, cold, all-white LED lit environment. It was a culturally rich courageous space where ideas about our identity and the world were constantly examined, tested and studied. It was not perfect, it was productive. These were just some of the influences within my immediate home environment that I am still learning to process and unpack. As I began to study my genealogy, other layers of my family dynamics began to reveal themselves, giving me an even deeper understanding of who I am. In this process, I've also come to realize that many people are not intentional about studying family dynamics. I wasn't intentional like that, even though I had all kinds of resources available to me. 

"Without knowing how some of our life experiences anchor our identity, it is difficult to understand their psychological, social, physical, and financial impact     in, on, and around our lives."   

   Our family dynamics help shape who we are, for better or for worst. It's the forces that define our family. These forces are the role that we play in our family, the rules that we learn to live by, our boundaries, how we communicate, and the way that power is defined and distributed. I've met dark-skinned Black men who truly believe that they don't see color, yet they only date Caucasian women with blond hair and blue eyes. What in their family dynamics and their experiences helped inform that decision? I've also known women who held their happiness hostage because they struggled with the Intimacy vs Isolation idea of "Will I be loved, or will I be alone?" What in their family dynamics and their experiences helped inform that decision?

     One of my biggest challenges has been in the area of EQ or Emotional Intelligence. Many years into adulthood I realized that I never learned how to use words to identify and communicate my emotions. Sounds wild huh? Well, many males don't. Why else do you think women share the same story that, "He shuts me out and doesn't talk to me." Many of us never learned how. Literally! We never learned to recognize and express what we are feeling is called disappointment and not anger, anxious and not fear, frustration and not rage. All we really learn is happy and mad, and as males we are not allowed to be sad... or too happy. Even in the household where I grew up in with an emotionally intelligent Ole Dad who never apologized or hide his face when he cried, I still never learned how to identify and communicate with words how I feel. Whenever he and my Ole Earth had a conflict, he would simply turn around and walk out. Not out of our family's life, out of the house. Once he calmed down, he would return later on. He would not stand there and communicate how he felt, especially to a woman who had the wisdom of The Oracle from The Matrix and a Richard Pryor sense of humor. When my Ole Dad would return after cooling off, and if my Ole Earth was in the wrong, she would never apologize or acknowledge that in front of the family. She would simply show him she was apologetic by offering him a casual hug, a light-hearted kiss, and joking conversation. My Ole Dad never immediately engaged or embraced this and it always took him time to recalibrate his system and get back to a sense of peace. That's what I learned. Because I've never been married, when I walked off, a woman may never have a conversation with me again if I felt that strongly about the conflict. Sometimes this was appropriate and saved me a life of misery. Most of the time my reaction was bullsh*t. It was my inability to communicate how I felt and not having a deeper commitment to working things out. My inability to communicate was expressed as indifference and an unwillingness to further engage. Some males express this inability to communicate in different ways, and it's usually expressed through sex and/or violence; with their d*cks and/or fists. Me saying, "f*ck it" by walking off is a variation of males saying "I'mma f*ck you/f*ck somebody else" and/or "I'mma f*ck you/f*ck somebody else up." All of these expressions are rooted in not identifying what we are feeling, learning the words to communicate this, and being positively received when we actually do. 

   When I realized this and began doing the work to learn how to effectively communicate, I also began to see that some women have never been with men like this. I've been in relationships with women who I did not know how to effectively communicate with. I've also been in relationships with women who simply did not know how to effectively communicate with me. One time it took me three days to write and send a text message to a woman expressing how I felt about a conflict that we had. In the past, I would have been a ghost; leaving her with our memories as context clues to figure out what happened between us. This was different and I was in a different space. I was intentional about communicating and vulnerable enough to trust her with my feelings. I proudly sent that text message only to receive an almost auto-reply text that felt like I was Frankie Williams in Piper's Pit. For some dudes, they would have used that experience as an excuse to never be vulnerable again. Not me. I looked at it for what it was, that love is an inner and outer journey that can be painful, also promising, and always insightful. While that experience hurt, it did not discourage me to give up on love. In fact, I got engaged sometime after that to the love of my life. 

   Most of us are familiar with IQ which represents our Intelligence Quotient. It is a standardized test that measures our cognitive abilities or how smart we are. EQ is our Emotional Quotient, which measures how we understand and manage our emotions. CQ is our Cultural Quotient. CQ is our ability to understand and navigate diverse cultural environments and interact with people from various cultural backgrounds. It is an intelligence that is cognitive and emotional. While our CQ can be measured using standard questionnaires, the real test of our cultural intelligence is evident in our life. When we look at the results of how we live, that is how we are graded. Every day you can see social media content of someone doing something that shows that they don't have a clue how to navigate diverse cultural environments and interact with people from various cultural backgrounds. Whether that is a Facebook post from someone denigrating people that they want financial support from or a video of a racist being chased off for showing up at a Black Awards Show with a sign saying, "Black Parents Are Failures." Studying our family dynamics and the family dynamics of others helps improve our CQ. It enables us to better understand ourselves, the culture we were raised in, how to navigate diverse cultural environments and interact with people from various cultural backgrounds. 

    Without question, there existed a culture in our household. Regardless of what we choose to call ourselves, be it Christian, Muslim, Moor, Five Percenters, Black, etc., there were cultural influences that defined our family and how we view family today. Those influences were/are the role that we play in our family, the rules that we learned to live by, our boundaries, how we communicate, and the way that power was/is defined and distributed in those relationships. When we lack CQ, this cultural tone-deafness or lack of awareness is evident in our people activities, especially in our relationships. That includes those of us who live the culture of the Five Percent and how we relate to one another. As men within the Five Percent, it's important to ask ourselves how do we 'cee' the Moon in our Universal Flag that the number 7 is superimposed over. In what ways can superimposition obstruct one's view? What wisdom does this Moon symbolize, as it relates to the life of a woman without children? What role does our EQ play in processing and unpacking questions like this? Simply looking at our 'universal flag' has implications for our how we view our 'universal family'. There is a psychological, social, and financial impact of not realizing that we are looking at these celestial bodies, the Sun, Moon and the Stars, from the vantage point of our terrestrial home; the Earth. Because we are clearly witnessing these objects and their relationships from our planet, how does this inform and define the family dynamics in our home? What role does our IQ play in all of this? When we learn that "the Earth belongs to the Original Man?" in the first lesson in our 1-14, does 'belong' mean ownership (The Earth is the possession of the Original Man), membership (The Earth is a part of the Original Man), or both? How are these perspectives demonstrated within our language, our lessons, and our customs? In what ways can these perspectives positively or negatively influence the gender roles that we play, the rules that we live by, our boundaries, how we communicate, and the way that power [control] is defined and distributed in our relationships? How do these and other questions ultimately affect our Five Percenter CQ? 

     It's important to understand that the family we were born into is a training ground for our relationships and the family that we choose or don't choose to create. This foundational experience that we were born into informs and influences the experiences that we choose or don't choose to have today. We may be aware of some of those experiences and how they affect(ed) us. There are other experiences that we've had, and we don't know how they affect(ed) us. Sometimes we may need a therapist to help recall, process, and unpack these experiences. All of the time it's up to us to do something about it to improve our personal quality of life, and the quality of our relationships. This also requires a level of courage, to be vulnerable enough, to grow.

Peace,

Saladin, #AtlantisBuild

Intellectual Property: How Protected Are We?

**This original article appears in the Culture Is Free publication HERE**

     It is an actual fact that the United States is the most "litigious society" in the world. Litigious means 'prone to engage in legal maneuvers or lawsuits.' Our disagreement with that statement does not change that actual fact nor does it prepare us to do something about it. This actual fact is especially important to understand in this digital age of content harvesting, online marketplace expansion, blockchain technology, cryptocurrency, and a 552.17% increase in NFT trademark submissions between August 2021 and January 2022. In my article The Content Era: 2022 is the Year of Creatives and Entrepreneurs I explained, "we are now in a Content Era. Streaming services are in global competition over it, Podcasters and Bloggers need it to survive every week and it's like that Frank Lucas [American Gangster] blue magic to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and YouTube users. For THAT Economy to sustain itself Content must be consistently harvested from Creatives and Entrepreneurs who are sometimes trafficked through digital internet rings..." Content is another name for intellectual property [IP] or legal assets; the basis of this article. 

     During the COVID-19 shutdown, many people took advantage of that time to learn new things and develop new skills. I've known folks who completed Herbology courses, Music Engineering programs, and apprenticeships in different industries. While I had already studied the subject, I invested my time in learning how to file provisional patents, utility patents, and trademarks. One of the things that I immediately learned is the small number of patent and trademark lawyers, especially black lawyers, in this specialized area and the increasing demand for their services. By learning this skill I became more proficient in this specialized field of law. Even more proficient than lawyers who worked in other areas of law. My reasoning for learning this skill was to ultimately provide this service to folks who had no knowledge and/or capital to file a trademark or patent; which costs about $400 to trademark something and about $18,000 to patent an idea. In addition to the various projects that I was already involved in, and my peripheral research, this investment began my direct experience with securing legal assets or intellectual property.  None of this article is based upon a casual Google search, a Wikipedia scan, or hearsay from folks on YouTube talking about what they have never done and do not own. 

     Before we go any further let me first define what a legal asset or intellectual property is. A legal asset is defined as “real or personal property that has value.” Intellectual property [IP] refers to “valuable assets that we legally own such as inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; symbols, names, and images.” The value or worth of a legal asset or intellectual property is inherent. Meaning, that it is essential or built in its creation. It is not an asset because someone acknowledges or likes it or not. It is an asset because its nature is valuable. It is sort of like when we say the Black folks are divine. Our value is not because someone acknowledges or likes it or not. We are divine, or an asset, because our nature is valuable. When we create inventions; literary and artistic works; designs; symbols, names, and images they are also valuable. 

     If you have been following the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, in response to the United States sanctions on Russia, Russia has stripped away legal asset/intellectual property rights from U.S. companies doing business in Russia, along with foreign companies from 23 other “unfriendly” territories. According to the high-profile trademark attorney Josh Gerben, “companies like McDonald's and Starbucks that have left Russia to protest its invasion of Ukraine can do little when Russian businesses steal their trademarks. In fact, trademark applications were filed in Russia this week that bore a striking resemblance to marks belonging to Ikea, Instagram (FB), McDonald's, and Starbucks. These companies can't immediately fight back because challenges for unauthorized use are largely limited to Russian courts.” For those of us who have carelessly looked at legal assets/intellectual property as insignificant and unimportant, this political power move by Russia to shift the global economic landscape should make us reconsider our stance on the value of legal assets/intellectual property. When we do recognize this value, the questions we need to ask ourselves are what can we do to legally protect ourselves and our assets in a litigious society? Do we have health and dental insurance? Do we own property? Do we have a Last Will and Testament? Do we own any patents or trademarks? Do we have any life insurance policies? Do we have a marriage license? These and various other legal protections are just some things to seriously think about, especially for our families and future generations. 

CONFIDENTIALITY

     With this knowledge of legal assets/intellectual property, I was able to successfully file a provisional and utility patent for a unique fuel cell technology. Before my business partner and I even discuss this patent with companies we ensure that a three-year NDA [Non-Disclosure Agreement] is signed and notarized first. Because of our invention's inherent value, an NDA is a standard legal document that is used to protect the value and confidentiality of legal assets/intellectual property before you discuss them. This is the reason why we should not openly discuss specific matters related to a trademark filing, a patent, or any legal assets/intellectual property in the public domain. It compromises the security of those legal assets/intellectual property.

     When the Washington [now "Commanders"] football organization sought to rename their team they never had public discussions about the potential name of the team. In fact, they went as far as filing the original trademark in a foreign country whose trademark databases are difficult to search online. Months later the organization then filed an application with the United States Patent and Trademark Office [USPTO]. Knowing that this trademark information would be publicly available and published with the USPTO, their filing was protected because the trademark application was based upon the earlier filing date in the foreign country. See, once a trademark is filed, there is a 30-day window to oppose/challenge its registration after the USPTO publishes the application for opposition. Following the above method of filing in a foreign jurisdiction is a workaround to limit the public's capacity to oppose a registration. If Lebron James has received legal guidance from a patent and trademark law firm then I am sure that he used this method before it was recently announced that he filed 4 new USPTO trademarks in the names of LEBRON JAMES, LEBRON, KING JAMES and CHOSEN1 related to the metaverse. Understanding this, when people openly discuss the specifics of a legal asset/intellectual property in a public forum it only informs the public of two more facts related to our litigious society: 

1.) Those people do not actually understand or own any digital assets/intellectual property. 

2.) Those people are legally vulnerable, and a liability to others, because of their ignorance of law and tech illiteracy. 

3.) Those people are actively promoting "IP Squatting" where someone other than the original owner(s) can acquire that legal asset/intellectual property and sell it back for a profit.

     I was once involved in confidential discussions regarding a unique legal asset/intellectual property that I personally secured in order to transfer ownership to a collective body of people. While I did not have those who participated in these confidential discussions sign an NDA, I did emphasize the importance of privacy and requested that they not share the specific details of those confidential discussions in the public domain. A short time after, I was disappointed to learn that some of the participants were sharing those specifics, and misinformation regarding this unique legal asset/intellectual property, in the public domain. While I did cover a great deal of legal territory using a power-point presentation that included an extensive FAQ segment, it was unfortunate to learn that some of those who participated in those discussions did not understand the importance of confidentiality or simply did not care. Either way, lacking that carelessness is a liability in an expanding litigious society. So I ask again, what can we do to legally protect ourselves and our assets in a litigious society? Do we have health and dental insurance? Do we own property? Do we have a Last Will and Testament? Do we own any patents or trademarks? Do we have any life insurance policies? Do we have a marriage license? These and various other legal protections are just some things to seriously think about, especially for our families and future generations. 

     This society is drastically changing with the exponential growth of technology. Those changes are not favorable for those of us who have little to no control over any legal assets/intellectual property. As black people, we cannot allow those changes to happen around us. As a Five Percenter, with our Allah Youth Center's 99-year lease quickly approaching, the gentrification of Harlem, the constant threat of our property being taken through eminent domain, no permanent location to hold our monthly gatherings, no legal control of our Universal Flag in the public domain, and no economic blueprint in an expanding litigious society, there are serious confidential discussions we need to have regarding protecting and preserving our cultural legacy. If we don't get it together we will be talking about these days, like our nation elders reminisce about the old days, with no visible evidence that these days ever even existed. Except for a street sign, of course, to mark what once was.

Peace,

Saladin 

Keys to Successful Community Building

#NiagaraFalls Mayor Robert Restaino, Myself, City Administration Anthony Restaino

 

     On Monday, April 4th I sat down with the Mayor and City Administrator of Niagara Falls to secure a permit for a Nature of Things documentary project that I am working on and to discuss other items regarding moving our municipality forward. Allah, the founder of our nation of the Five Percent was not anti-government. In fact, he successfully worked with Mayor John Lindsay's NYC Administration to help shape the policies that positively impacted the youth in his Harlem community. It was through his efforts that city government made various projects, programs, and initiatives available to support these at-risk youth and their families. As I share often, this is what was most impressionable to me about the work of Allah and his Five Percent. I grew up watching my parents and other adults work within my community and provide opportunities for neighborhood youth so I always recognized the value of such work, and benefitted from it myself.

     Over the years of doing community outreach and youth advocacy I have experienced a lot. There have been many frustrations, times I have felt disappointed and methods I have learned to be successful in these undertakings. In terms of youth advocacy, I built this online course for those who want to learn effective ways to reach/teach the youth. You can check out my Atlantis School For Gifted Youngsters Youth Outreach Development Course HERE.

     On Tuesday April 4th I recorded this LIVE expounding upon various things that I have learned about community building. I was inspired to share it because I noticed some of my social media contacts expressing their frustrations and disappointments about getting people involved in community work. You can check out this recording below:

Peace,

Saladin

NEW RELEASE: "Skin Like Coffee"

 

Skin Like Coffee is a Quanaah Publishing release by first-time author Maya Arrington, Illustrated by Taylor Faith Leeper and Edited by D. Scott. According to Arrington, "Coffee comes in so many wonderful shades of color, just like we do! Whether your skin is silky smooth like dark chocolate, warm and bright like cream, or anything in between, Skin Like Coffee helps us learn that while everyone is different, we all are beautiful! It also highlights that a strong relationship between parent and child can validate the importance of self-love!" 

ORDER HERE

Your investment in our literature goes directly to support the projects, programs and initiatives of the Atlantis School For Gifted Youngsters. Thank You!

Peace,

Saladin

How do we honor our "Infinite Potential"?

Photo Credit: Samar Hamilton

In this 74th Episode of Atlantis Build Talk Radio I discuss honoring the infinite potential within us, especially when it comes to the youth. Also, please SUPPORT and SHARE my Atlantis School For Gifted Youngsters Renovation Project. I am renovating a property to establish a cultural enrichment early childhood learning center and after school program:

LINK: WEBSITE 
PayPal: atlantisbuild@gmail.com
CashApp: $SaladinAllah

 

Atlantis Build Talk Radio · Episode 74 -Honoring our Infinite Potential

NEW RELEASE: "A Legacy of Giants"

A Legacy of Giants is a series of contemplations on the culture of the Five Percent Nation as seen through my eyes. From topics that explore the digital age and social media impact upon Five Percent culture to the tradition and political science of the Universal Flag, this is a treatise on the visionary progress and global expansion of our unique way of life.

My twenty-third book via Quanaah Publishing, A Legacy of Giants was written to honor and build upon the benefaction of those Five Percenters, past and present, who have made and are making a positive contribution to this world and all of its human family members.

ORDER HERE

Your investment in our literature goes directly to support the projects, programs and initiatives of the Atlantis School For Gifted Youngsters. Thank You!

Peace,

Saladin

Goddess Mathematics... and a whole vibe

     For some time now there has been an idea floating around dudes who say that the black woman is God, or who call women a Goddess, are emasculated simps pandering for sex. There is also the idea that women who call themselves a Goddess are maneaters; disappearing Delilahs who throw yoni egg-like smoke bombs after snatching a man's soul. Actually, those are just some of the colorful images that I envision when I hear the Goddess mythos. If you ask some folks, this mythos has created more destruction within our family units than the crack era. Why? Well let's examine it.

       If God is truly omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent how can you add to that? What is there to know beyond being all-knowing? What power exists beyond all-power? What can be present beyond that which is all-present? The word Goddess implies that there is a knowing, power and presence beyond the all-knowing, all-power and all-present capacity of God. It suggests that there exists a "feminine" domain of all-knowing, all-power and all-presence that a Goddess uniquely inhabits. While you would be hard pressed to find this seemingly contradictive idea reconciled within our classical and indigenous societies, there is a place for it within Greek Mythology, along without many other ideas..., among the Twelve Olympians. For example, this idea of an actual God not being truly omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent is illustrated by Hades being a limited God who rules the underworld, Athena as a limited Goddess who rules wisdom and warfare and the limited God Poseidon ruling the water. Zeus, the so-called king of Gods and ruler of Mount Olympus, is also limited in his power; a monster [Typhon], child of Gaea, was capable of puttin' hands on him. So when I see and hear so-called Gods [or Goddesses] simultaneously claiming omniscience and ignorance, omnipotence and flaws, righteousness and debauchery I know exactly where these contradictions come from.

Mythology is the story of our Social Psychology

    When you study the psychodrama within Greek Mythology and struggles between the Twelve Olympians, with titans, monsters and humanity, it becomes clear that their idea of omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence is not the same as we taught it within our classical and indigenous societies. Even when the Greeks defined a deity as such, there always existed some Achilles' heel. Even though Greek philosophers saw and studied glimpses of omniscience, omnipotence and omnipresence from the Khemetians [Egyptians], under their own Grecian power they never evolved the capacity to arrive at our conclusions or conceptualize a Monotheistic view of the world on their own. What this shows is Greek society, and their western society progeny, were not and have not been invested in the same self-knowledge pursuit as our ancestors. Their pursuits have been primarily colonial, imperial and material. Mostly external, segregative and limited in scope. This is why their history, and the history of their western progeny, is traditionally written as a bloody timeline of war, violence and conquests. Study the history of any European society and America. The most significant events that tell the psychodramatic story of that nation are dates of warfare, conquest and destruction. That timeline not only defines the overarching mythos of that nation but it also defines the collective psychology of its people. While there are many great things to learn about Greek Mythology and its society, its illustrations of deity is one of the most dysfunctional mythos we have ever learned.  

     It is important that I briefly expounded upon this because many of us have unknowingly adopted Grecian and other Eurocentric mythos without critically examining them. Without this scrutiny, many of us have just superimposed Five Percent, Khemetic, Moorish, Christian, Hebrew, Muslim, Yoruba and other ideas over the top of Grecian and other Eurocentric principles and values that we fundamentally embrace. Outwardly we may wear the clothes, speak the language, eat the foods and even choose partners that appear to represent the black/brown culture we claim, yet inwardly we are not that person. As a Five Percenter, this is why some of us could make misogynist-toned statements like, "women can't rise above equality" or "a woman don't have a mind" as if we are measuring one another vertically... Sadly, this is also why some Five Percenters have jumped on the Kevin Samuels bandwagon, faithfully "liking" and repurposing his rhetoric as if their knowledge degree in the Student Enrollment now reads, "Who is the Original High Value Man?" 

     As men and women we are congruent and complimentary, not conflicting and competitive. A woman represents our equality, and equality has two words in it; equal and quality. When you are of equal quality this means that you are "of the same nature [value]." That is not a vertical assessment of a woman's relationship to a man, it is a parallel or even assessment. By nature we are one and our oneness is necessary to create life and the future of humanity. What is greater than that essential bond? Think about the mindset of a woman who believes that she is more or less than that shared essence. Think about the mindset of a man who believes that he is more or less than that shared essence. Consider how a "battle of the sexes" perspective negatively influences our sense of self-worth and shapes the psychodrama in our relationships, families and community. 

     When women refer to themselves as a Goddess I have always wondered what they actually mean and why their body cast archetype is rarely expressed as Hottentot Venus or women with a Lizzo WHR [waist-hip ratio]. They seem to be based upon Gal Godot... You would also think that a Goddess uniquely does something that a female, woman, grandmother, auntie, mother, wife, daughter, Queen and the Earth cannot do. The word "Goddess" is an honorific title prefixing a woman's quality/characteristic. It is used to represent the deification or divine expression of qualities that females, women, grandmothers, aunties, mothers, wives, daughters, Queens and the Earth already possess. In other words, there is no Goddess in and of herself. It must be a divine expression of some quality or characteristic; such as a Goddess of Wisdom, a Goddess of Motherhood, a Goddess of the Hunt, a Goddess of Death and etc. More often than not, the everyday woman uses the word "Goddess" cosmetically and absent of any real substantive function or qualities, especially on social media. And yes, the same can be said about Gods. Many of us know an ignorant a** dude named Knowledge, a foolish Wise or a criminologist named Power. In both instances some of these lofty titles just sound and look good yet lack any real expression of divine qualities and characteristics.       

     Within our Five Percent language and worldview there is no word or concept of Goddess. We recognize the divinity of women without the need to Grecianize her. For years there have been some Five Percenters, men and women, who have strived to campaign for its acceptance. Some have even tried to canonize a sarcastic comment that Allah once made when he said a young sister was a Goddess because she was more of a God than the young brothers who were around him. Some folks took that literally. However, this Goddess push among small pockets of people has never gained any real traction within the Five Percent Nation. Those advocates either find themselves on the fringes of the Five Percent quietly keeping these sentiments to themselves or boldly sharing these acultural ideas online. 

A throne on a "dais"; an elevated 

platform where important people sit

   As Five Percenters we have various words and concepts that divinely express what females, women, grandmothers, aunties, mothers, wives, daughters, Queens and the Earth already are. Historically, yes "his"-storically, some men have misogynistically sought to destroy divine expressions of women. Some women have taken on the same crusade and promote misandry. There are those who are very deliberate and calculated about this and some who are simply blind, deaf and dumb to how divisive these ideas are. Whether deliberate or ignorant, none of these separatist outlooks are in the best interest of our people and the human family as a whole. If someone chooses to call themselves a God or Goddess, my perspective is, "show and prove it." Not to me personally, show and prove it IN, not to, the world. Don't tell us that you are the God this or the Goddess that. Do something with these so-called divine expressions -which does not include posting shallow videos/images/quotes online. If we are who we say that we are, that would truly be a benefit to our families, communities and environment.           

Peace,

Saladin

NEW BOOK RELEASE: The Incarcerated Sevens' Resource Manual

***NEW BOOK RELEASE***

THE INCARCERATED SEVENS’ RESOURCE MANUAL VOL 1 is designed to provide incarcerated Five Percenters or their loved ones with accurate information to legally challenge a "Security Threat Group" [STG] designation or policy within the DOC [Department Of Corrections] and courts of law. This book contains a list of 85 cases filed by incarcerated citizens of the Five Percent Nation, a detailed summary of the origin and evolution of the current theological oppression campaign that began against Five Percenter from 1965 to the present and a copy of the Authors Pro Se legal brief.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Professor Born Supreme became a Certificated Paralegal/Legal Assistant through the Blackstone Career Institute Paralegal Correspondence Program in June 2021. That knowledge as a Paralegal equipped him to competently compile this Resource Manual using Five Percent language for our culture.    

You can purchase THE INCARCERATED SEVENS’ RESOURCE MANUAL VOL 1 HERE

Are Supreme Mathematics and Supreme Alphabet Related?

 

In this 73rd Episode of Atlantis Build Talk Radio I discuss the science of our Supreme Mathematics and its relationship to our Supreme Alphabet.

Atlantis Build Talk Radio · Episode 73 -Are The Supreme Mathematics & Supreme Alphabet Related?

Also, please SUPPORT and SHARE my Atlantis School For Gifted Youngsters Renovation Project. I am renovating a property to establish a cultural enrichment early childhood learning center and after school program:

DONATION LINK HERE

PayPal: atlantisbuild@gmail.com

CashApp: $SaladinAllah

StoryTime Animation: Love You That Much

 

To promote literacy and literature, StoryTime is a Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center program and Atlantis School For Gifted Youngsters produced series that highlights children's books that are inspiring, empowering and educational.

Today's book is titled "Love You That Much" Written by Momma Bandy.

The views, opinions and words expressed in this book are those of the Author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Niagara Falls Underground Railroad Heritage Center or Atlantis School For Gifted Youngsters.

Please SUPPORT and SHARE my Atlantis School Renovation Project. I am renovating a property to establish a cultural enrichment early childhood learning and after school program:

Website: Atlantis School Renovation Project

PayPal: atlantisbuild@gmail.com

CashApp: $SaladinAllah

Peace,

Saladin

SUPPORT THE ATLANTIS SCHOOL

Thank You everyone who checked out the Spectrum News story about our Atlantis School For Gifted Youngsters HERE! If you are interested in supporting our project you can email me at atlantisbuild@gmail.com in regards to items you would like to donate. You can make any financial contributions below:

Donation Website

PayPal Donation

CashApp: $SaladinAllah

Peace,

Saladin

Falls To Be Illuminated Red, Black and Green For Juneteenth

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 17, 2021

Contact: Saladin Allah

Email: atlantisbuild@gmail.com

    On Saturday June 19th, 2021 in honor of the U.S. Senate passage of the Juneteenth National Independence Act, the Atlantis School For Gifted Youngsters in collaboration with Canada's Niagara Parks and Niagara Falls Illumination Board will be lighting up the Falls in honor of Juneteenth, which is also known as Emancipation Day.

   At 9pm, 10pm and 11pm EST the Falls will be illuminated red, black and green in the colors of the Black Liberation flag; the Pan-African flag for black people across the diaspora and in Africa. The above Atlantis School For Gifted Youngsters animation episode "What is Juneteenth?" will also be shared on the Niagara Parks website/social media which teaches the history and significance of this federal holiday.

   This collaborative effort between the Atlantis School For Gifted Youngsters, Canada's Niagara Parks and Niagara Falls Illumination Board to honor Juneteenth is in its the second year and speaks to the cross-border commitment to raise awareness about the plight of people of African descent and our cultural visibility in the U.S. and Canada.

Please take a moment to CHECK OUT, SUPPORT and SHARE WITH YOUR NETWORKS the Atlantis School Renovation Project. 

Are We Trolling OR Teaching?

     In my last article What Is A Poor Righteous Teacher? I shared some insight on the etymology of the word "poor", its use in the 1800s until now and how it has been misinterpreted by some Five Percenters as evidenced by their quality of life. There are many Five Percenters who understood and appreciated that article because they do not represent that segment of our population. They desire more for us as a Nation and that is also evidenced by their quality of life. However, there were those who felt that my article was inaccurate and an unfair assessment of the poverty mindset among some Five Percenters. From their perspective I painted the Five Percent with a broad brushstroke which contributes to the negative narratives about us. That does not accurately reflect the content of my article or any of my contributions to this society. While genuine peer review and accountability is always important with our work, it is also important to offer practical solutions to what we see as problematic. Sitting back talking or just repeating what someone else said is not enough. We must have something to share, something we built that actually works. So lets build about that work and what works.

     For two decades I have consistently worked to be one of the many positive representations of the Five Percent. This work, from my youth initiatives, articles, books and animation series to being a Humans Rights Commissioner and Educator in my city, has literally served as evidence to help win court cases for incarcerated Five Percenters fighting to prove our cultural legitimacy. I am very proud of this and the various other ways that people have benefitted from these contributions. Among the different niches that Five Percenters have, we are not all a-alike. While there are some Five Percenters who represent the best of what we teach, there are others who behave like they don't agree with Dumar Wa'de's statement that We Are Not A Gang. You can see by how they live and a simple glance at their social media will have you confused about what they actually represent. Their social media is usually a hodgepodge of vulgar memes, trolling, throwback pictures of Five Percenter pioneers, Henny toasts, wannabe IG model flicks wearing our Universal Flag and video clips of questionable Eighty-Fiver behavior. These are the same folks who long to be professionally recognized as a credible source of Five Percent culture. The irony is, I am actually one of the most qualified people to teach them yet they usually don't want to learn who is causing all of this to professionally happen... Most times I am outright embarrassed by what I see and often find myself in awkward positions striving to diplomatically explain to outside onlookers that, "all of us [Five Percenters] are at different stages in our growth and development. Regardless what knowledge you think we have, some of us are evolving as civilized people, some of us are not and will not evolve as civilized people. That choice is entirely up to us." I receive so many emails, inboxes and DMs from people inquiring about our culture via the out-of-pocket behavior they see that I actually saved a standard response for folks to save time responding. Yeah, it is that serious.

     See, when we gain knowledge of self it is not like we start off with a blank slate and everything we have thought, said or done prior to that simply disappears. It does not work that way. In this journey we are not simply learning things. We also unlearn things that are not good for our growth and development. Well, we are supposed to unlearn things. We all experience this, even if we claim to be born into the Five Percent Nation. Living within this wilderness of North America we are all exposed to what others think, say and do. Some of that exposure is corrupting and contradicts our culture. All of us have to deal with this reality and none of us are exempt from it. How committed and consistent we are to deal with that corruption and those contradictions is entirely up to us. It is apparent, at least to me, that some of us have a much harder time with civilization than others.

     Over the years of having knowledge of self, the biggest challenge that I see among many of my fellow Five Percenters is how to connect What We Teach TO What We Will Achieve. Now some Five Percenters would argue that "What We Teach and What We Will Achieve" is not an authentic plus degree. Regardless if we think this or not, it is not debatable that there is a huge disparity between what folks say they teach and what they are actually achieving. There is no shortage of content you can find on social media of people sharing longwinded posts about Today's Mathematics or pictures with captions pontificating about what we teach and how it should/shouldn't be taught. However, there is a severe lacking of the same content that practically shows what we are actually achieving with these teachings. There is "some" content yet not nearly as much content as adults taking group pictures and talking. When I started sharing YouTube videos well over a decade ago and writing articles, my consistent focus has always been to demonstrate how I am actually using what we teach to positively impact my family and community in a practical way. My social media presence is based upon the same premise and over the years that focus has expanded beyond my family and community to include my city, other cities, states and countries. This is the reason that the national and international press contact me in regards to content related to our Nation of the Five Percent, why I currently have five books in a Curatorial Activism archive at the British Library and how I've had the professional opportunities to work with actors such as Morgan Freeman, Samuel L. Jackson and others. I have done and do all of this as a proud, public Five Percenter who literally comes in the name of Saladin Allah. I am not a Five Percenter at a Parliament but Marco the security guard the rest of the month. For whatever reason, some folks just don't like that I am in this kind of public position. When they are not playing a lazy game of Poison The Well, they are clumsily trying to discredit anything that they see me do while deliberately ignoring the things that are clearly of credit even to their own families. 

"Own It" -Drake

     

     As a public Five Percenter, my experience is not all Sun, Moon and Stars. I deal with bullsh*t just like everybody else, sometimes more than you could imagine. I have experienced dudes calling my home hundreds of times in a day. Yeah, I said hundreds. I have received snapshots of dudes gossiping about me in sausage party group chats. I have gotten pop-up trolled by lurkers who never even liked a post about my children. Dudes have circulated sloppy snippets of my content offline to try and discredit me. I have also been publicly/privately threatened with violence online and etc. None of these experiences involved women. Not one. While I have had some limited experience with girls harassing me when I was a teenager, never in my life did I ever expect to experience this kind of behavior from 30-50 year old dudes. Never! Allah was in his mid thirties and early forties when he was teaching youth in the streets of Harlem and I could not imagine him behaving like this. That dysfunctional behavior has nothing to do with Five Percent culture or "building." It has everything to do with what I see as a mental health and/or a substance abuse problem or folks who have become institutionalized; something that I am very well acquainted with because my Ole Earth [Mother] was a social psychologist by profession. No healthy, heterosexual, working family man would be that fixated on another man and behave like this. 

     Some would probably ask, "Saladin why do you even care?" Well as I mentioned earlier, we are all exposed to what others think, say and do while living in this wilderness of North America. So it does affect us, even if it is just a distraction seeing or hearing about it. In order to maintain a positive mental health state and sense of homeostasis we have to develop effective ways to neutralize and manage this exposure. After words, sometimes that exposure has the exact opposite effect; like the time someone posted a screenshot of my Atlantis School For Gifted Youngsters Page to denigrate my work and I instantly received new followers, messages of support and donations to my Atlantis School Renovation Project.

     When it comes to our stability, it is important not to minimize or gloss over the impact this COVID-19 pandemic is actually having on our individual and collective mental health, including those who claim to be "woke" or have knowledge of self. In fact, it is my assessment that this pandemic will born a mental health epidemic that will undoubtedly impact our Five Percent Nation. As Five Percenters, attending virtual parliaments, posting videos about Supreme Mathematics and taking pictures wearing our Universal Flag is not an effective mental health plan. Based upon some of our behavior, some of us need serious professional help and there is nothing wrong with that. We all need help in some capacity. What IS wrong is using social media and/or substance abuse to try and self-medicate. 

     A decade ago, in 2011, I published the book Explorations of God/Earth Mental Health that offers insight on what we have begun to see, particularly among some Five Percenters, and how we can address this. Following the recent tragic deaths of my father and brother on the same day, hours apart, under two entirely different circumstances, I took the initiative to get therapy for the first time in my life. I never experienced anything tragic like this before in my life and I wanted to be proactive in putting resources in place that can support me through my grieving process. Access to a safe-space that enables me to unpack and process my thoughts and feelings about this tragedy and trauma with an objective black therapist, not just talking to my physical/universal family, has been very therapeutic for me. I would definitely encourage others to do the same to help unpack and process tragedy and trauma; especially those black/brown males who never talk about being molested as children and/or who have experienced sexual violence while they were incarcerated. I am fortunate to have never experienced this and can only imagine how difficult it must be for those who quietly carry around this question about their manhood and sexuality. I would also encourage Five Percenters to explore becoming a therapist if they are interested in that field. We need more of our own people creating these culturally competent safe-spaces to support our positive mental health. Lastly, we need more people showing evidence of our Five Percent teachings with actual achievements, not just being trolls. 

Peace,

Saladin