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Books by Marvin X
Love and War: Poems /
In the Crazy House Called America /
Woman: Man's Best Friend /
Beyond Religion Toward Spirituality
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Partner Violence and Spirituality
By
Marvin X
"I beat her because
she loved me."—
mx
Any semblance of partner or domestic
violence is antithetical to spirituality. No person who
beats another can claim spiritual consciousness, rather
they should claim animal consciousness. And no matter
what any scripture says, I say domestic violence or
partner violence must be outlawed totally and
absolutely, no matter where it exists anywhere on the
planet earth, simply because it does no good whatsoever,
and ultimately drains the sand out the hour glass of
love and respect between human beings.
It has a traumatic effect on the mate
and children, thus it must be avoided at all cost. To
beat another human being is the height of savagery and
men, in particular, must rise above savagery and step up
to their divinity.
I speak as one who was such a savage
and it was all to no avail. In the end, the sand was
indeed drained out of the hour glass of love and
respect. I subjected my family to great pain, literally,
and suffering, and many times it was due to my altered
state of mind, i.e., drugs and alcohol. Too much
domestic and partner violence is initiated when one or
both partners are in an altered state of mind, so we
must be advised to check yourself before you wreck
yourself.
You know the ritual: even before the first
drink someone is angry, then the drink, then another and
another until the wrong word is said and its on. But the
alcohol was the devil who forced up old issues that were
supposedly resolved, old pain, wounds, treachery, sexual
improprieties, money, anything, even jealousy between
mates, or some other evil thought or suggestion due to
the altered state of mind. Yes, loose lip sink ships,
and we can be very loose with the devil juice or some
other drug that diminishes any possibility of anger
management.
Before we know, what started out as a
beautiful evening turns into a nightmare: blood is
flowing, bones broken, police in the house, somebody
goes to jail, another goes to the hospital or morgue,
children are taken to child protective services. The
mental damage is irreparable.
I wrote a play (In the Name of Love)
about my madness which my ex-wife and daughter came to
see. After the play my daughter asked me why did I need
to tell all that stuff about how I beat her mother. I
told her it was for the healing of myself and the
community.
Years later I gave a reading and my
ex-wife was there. A poet requested I read the poem
about domestic violence (Confession of An Ex-wife
Beater, see Dr. Julia Hare's How to Find A BWM, chapter,
The Violent Male) that was in the play. At first I
resisted because the poem had been in the play that my
wife and daughter had seen, and since my ex had come to
the reading to support me, I certainly didn't want to
upset her. But the poet insisted I read the poem, so I
did. And it did indeed upset my ex--when we got to her
house, she claimed she'd never heard the poem before. I
couldn't convince her that she had, and furthermore, she
said I had never apologized for beating her, so I
apologized, and of course it ruined our evening since
her suppressed memory was jolted. But some healing
occurred so I thank the poet for forcing me to read the
poem, Lamont Steptoe.
We can't imagine what we do to each
others psyche with partner violence, let alone what it
does to us physically. And things go from bad to worse,
so if we don't' get started we won't need to stop.
I suggest therapy at the first sign
of physical violence because it is possible to save
relationships with therapy before police or relatives
intervene.
Dr. Nathan Hare suggests couples need
not break up due to violence, but I say it is
unacceptable and must not occur for one moment because
things go from bad to worse, and certainly, people
professing spiritual consciousness must be above
physical abuse, although emotional and verbal abuse is
just as bad.
We are a people in need of much
healing before we can come together, far too many times
we come together and don't know a damn thing about each
other, then all hell breaks loose, we discover we're in
the house with a monster, a devil, a beast. Then we have
babies by the monster, the beast. And it's possible
we're both monsters, neither one can claim a clean bill
of health.
But let us renounce violence at the
outset, then proceed to process the emotional issues,
since we know we come together far from a state of
divinity and have much healing work to do before we can
claim spirituality. posted 29 June 2006
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Marvin X has given permission to
Harvard University to publish his poem "For El Haji
Rasul Taifa" from Love and War: Poems by Marvin X
(1995). The poem will appear in The Encyclopedia of
Islam in America Volume II, Greenwood Press, edited
by Dr. Jocelyne Cesari of Harvard's Islam in the West
Program. Mr. X is co-editor of the forthcoming anthology
Muslim American Literature, University of
Arkansas Press, edited by Dr. Mojah Khaf. He is also in
the forthcoming Muslim American Drama, Temple
University.
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Greenback Planet: How the Dollar Conquered
the World and Threatened Civilization as We Know It
By H. W. Brands
In Greenback Planet, acclaimed historian H. W. Brands charts the dollar's astonishing rise to become the world's principal currency. Telling the story with the verve of a novelist, he recounts key episodes in U.S. monetary history, from the Civil War debate over fiat money (greenbacks) to the recent worldwide financial crisis. Brands explores the dollar's changing relations to gold and silver and to other currencies and cogently explains how America's economic might made the dollar the fundamental standard of value in world finance. He vividly describes the 1869 Black Friday attempt to corner the gold market, banker J. P. Morgan's bailout of the U.S. treasury, the creation of the Federal Reserve, and President Franklin Roosevelt's handling of the bank panic of 1933. Brands shows how lessons learned (and not learned) in the Great Depression have influenced subsequent U.S. monetary policy, and how the dollar's dominance helped transform economies in countries ranging from Germany and Japan after World War II to Russia and China today. He concludes with a sobering dissection of the 2008 world financial debacle, which exposed the power--and the enormous risks--of the dollar's worldwide reign. The Economy |
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Sex at the Margins
Migration, Labour Markets and the Rescue Industry
By Laura María Agustín
This book explodes several myths: that selling sex is completely different from any other kind of work, that migrants who sell sex are passive victims and that the multitude of people out to save them are without self-interest. Laura Agustín makes a passionate case against these stereotypes, arguing that the label 'trafficked' does not accurately describe migrants' lives and that the 'rescue industry' serves to disempower them. Based on extensive research amongst both migrants who sell sex and social helpers, Sex at the Margins provides a radically different analysis. Frequently, says Agustin, migrants make rational choices to travel and work in the sex industry, and although they are treated like a marginalised group they form part of the dynamic global economy. Both powerful and controversial, this book is essential reading for all those who want to understand the increasingly important relationship between sex markets, migration and the desire for social justice. "Sex at the Margins rips apart distinctions between migrants, service work and sexual labour and reveals the utter complexity of the contemporary sex industry. This book is set to be a trailblazer in the study of sexuality."—Lisa Adkins, University of London |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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Negro Digest /
Black World
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
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The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
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Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
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January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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update 29 July 2008
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