Black Witch

Such a spike in followers and readers! I know partly this is from the PACO event I did, which you can view the video below, it’s an hour and a half long (for younger readers, I swear twice by mistake, that is a no-no):

However, I think this is a good time to remind everyone the basics of Black Witch. Believe it or not, I get skeptical when I get spikes in followers and readers (except on Tumblr, I’m on there pretty regularly so it doesn’t surprise me). Especially when I get too many new White readers – history shows that usually for minority/people o’ pigment* (PoP), this is a bad sign of the calm before a sh*tstorm. So, let’s review:

Black Pagan blog, strictly
This blog is open to be viewed by all but that is the exact target audience. PoP but Pagan (or not Pagan)? Feel free to stick around and interact, but remember, this is mainly going to reflect upon the Black/Pagan intersection of identity. Black and Christian? You can stick around but this is not your blog to throw your weight around. White and Pagan? Really not your blog to throw your weight around, go bug Pagan Soccer Mom. None of those? Then it’s best to keep quiet unless you have a really good question that serves the blog and primary readership than it does yourself. Otherwise, use google.

Black blog
This blog is primarily for Black readers. Not a slice-of-life blog for clueless White folks who want to know the mind of the Negro…besides, it’s not like the extreme vast majority** of you guys are that interested in the more humanizing aspects of Blackness or Black people anywhere, ever. That means I’ll use lingo and references that are deep in Black culture. Feel like an outsider? Go to practically any other media form ever and you’ll be fine. This is not your space and you will be reminded of that at every twist and turn. So you can hang about but don’t get upset if you feel hanged. So that means no: “But I’m a White ally! Why won’t you be nice to White people? Not all of us are bad.” You’re partially right but you might want to raise the question to your fellow White person why they act in a way that makes everyone else see them as a walking problem, not to me.

For Black readers, I’m going to deconstruct the not-so-fun parts of our culture. Blackness shouldn’t equate: “poor, happily stupid, forever struggling, accomplishes nothing”. I participate in alternative culture so if that isn’t your vibe, get lost. I’m sure Steve Harvey and Michael Baisden don’t mind new readers. I’m not bending over backwards for a mainstream Black culture that made sure to express it didn’t like me or anyone else “too” different. Nor am I going to lowkey uphold the very false value of Whiteness as if that’s a ticket card I can redeem later to avoid greater acts of life-threatening racism. I’d like for y’all to know that don’t work. Ever. Doesn’t exist. You could play all the respectability politics and push all the internalized racism all you want, it won’t buy you out of racism’s wrath. Go ask President Obama and Wayne Brady if you don’t believe me. Blackness is dynamic and non-monolithic, go pick up a book and get over it. I’m no nicer to Black folks that seriously don’t know their own history but wanna race police.

Pagan blog
Don’t like that I’m not super pro-Abrahamic and focus a lot on “heathen” stuff? I really don’t care. This Black faith blog has no desire to project Christian ideals since, y’know, I’m not Christian. At all. Go find one if that’s what you want. They’re eeeeeeeeverywhere. Like, everywhere. I don’t mind discussing how Christian privilege works in the West or things of that nature, but there’s not going to be reams of scripture here or lack of deconstruction here. This is a Pagan blog so it is centered on the Pagan experience in and of itself, not simply how it relates to Abrahamic beliefs.

Black Feminist/womanist blog
Yeah, not interested in Afriboo nonsense or supporting sexist ideas, especially internalized racist versions of sexist ideals. So no, “All Black men are kings, all Black women are queen” crap here. It’s nice to have high self esteem but frankly, we’re not all kings and queens, just people with a dynamic history that is forever downplayed and copied. And usually folks who think within the slave/Nubian royalty dichotomy are also misogynistic (particularly misogynoir), homophobic and transphobic so I really don’t care for any of that. We’re people, even kingdoms needed more than just kings and queens to be a kingdom. Think you’ve been laid low by the matriarchy or that only certain types of women deserve protection and validation of existence while others don’t? Go onto another blog, it is possible you can find friendship in the comment section of Until I Get Married. I prefer to deconstruct male privilege and gender roles with the delicate sensitivity of a White kid on Halloween. Basically, if you think Steve Harvey is a great relationship expert and/or that cat calling is just women taking undue offensive to “complements”***, this is not the site for you.

White feminists, this ain’t much your site either. It just wouldn’t be anti-Black enough. I like Ida B. Wells, not Susan B. Anthony. And if you don’t know who Wells is but you know about Anthony, just drop out of Feminism altogether. Being racist is divisive, not being inclusive. You can’t say you fight for all of a group when you demonize the majority of it to make yourself look better.

So, that’s the basics. My website is faaaar from perfect, that is for sure, but it is important to know where this site stands. Yeah, as this site (and I) get older, some parts may change but this is pretty much the core of the website that is Black Witch. I don’t run this site so that White people, Pagan or not, can wreak havoc in the comments. I don’t run this site so that Christians – particularly homophobic and bigoted ones – can roll into the comments about how this is all devilish by their standards and why don’t I adhere to their religion’s ideas of faith…despite the fact I follow a perfectly different one. I don’t run this site so that Afriboos and “conscious” Black folks can pop up in the comments about how Black women this and Black women that or Black people this and Black people that but know extremely little about their own heritage’s history outside of Boondocks episodes, Egypt and Christianity/Islam. This site is much like other sites but still unique in its own way and I would like to retain what makes the site effective.

Ohh! I should add, albeit post-script, what to do and what not to do when writing to me. I reaaaaaaally don’t like bad questions so don’t ask for:

Spells – I don’t do pay-for-pray/paid spellwork. I don’t do spellwork for free. I actually don’t do spellwork for others. At all. Ever. This site is a witchcraft service. If you want to turn into another person, get revenge on someone or simply are too crappy a person to get a relationship on your own (not at all there) merits, use the mundane ways for those. Bothering me just mean you’ll get insulted and possibly made fun of because you should have read first or you would have known I don’t do spellwork for others.

Divination (outside of Samhain Pickers) – I don’t have a divination service either. I like to stem the flow of “can you read my palm/cards/chart/etc” so that is why I have Samhain Pickers, which is only on Halloween. That, I do for free. Any other time I announce it (keyword: announce, meaning “I tell you when”, not “You tell me when”), it will be a paid service and only because I spotted a new art toy or Storm statue and I’m not patient. Those are rare. Very rare.

And while I like to talk about race here, I don’t feel like being asked “Hey, some Black kid in a Southern state was found hanging from a tree recently, can you do divination to determine if it is a hate crime?” That’s really insulting because a) you must obviously be a White person, and one that decided to pretty much go “So, here’s a new dead Black kid, I just wondered if you would like to be super involved in it because I can’t tell if an obvious hate crime is a hate crime.” b) can’t tell that it’s an OBVIOUS HATE CRIME TO HANG BLACK FOLKS FROM TREES, especially in racially charged areas, you don’t have to be a Klansman/Klanswoman to hate minorities or most White folks would be card carrying members. Believe it or not, I actually don’t like to engage myself with this stuff when I don’t have to and it’s insulting to ask for divination when something is so clear, it’s an overwhelmingly redundant question. That’s like saying “I dunno, he has bullet holes and there’s a gun nearby and everyone heard pops and dude’s not breathing but can you do a tarot reading to see if he was shot? I mean, there’s footage the crime scene and all but I’m too lazy to do the work.” That’s being a sh*tty and super careless ally.

Poorly written letters – So here’s a fun fact: I have a degree in English, can communicate in several languages and work in libraries for a living. So you can probably guess from all that, that I don’t like getting messages or letters that look like you smeared your face across a keyboard and then pressed “send”. I can tell when poor writing deviates from having English as a second language and when poor writing deviates from poor literary skills, period. I really don’t like badly written letters because why would you want to present yourself like that to anyone in that fashion? It connotes stupidity and worthlessness. I don’t expect the king’s English but write like you understand how a keyboard works and how basic English sentence structures function. Plus, I can’t help if I don’t understand and I really don’t like to decipher what should be written so plainly. If it is a really poorly penned question, I’m going to be super snarky about it.

Bigoted (sexist, homophobic, racist, etc) questions: Dude, my site is not the training grounds for you to get life lessons of “don’t be a bigot”. Don’t like gay folks or are scared of them (never) attacking you? Take two cyanide pills, it’ll clear that fear right up. Don’t like to think of women as people but still somehow want to date them? A half cup of bleach, mixed with 1/4 cup of water and 2/3 cup vinegar should fix whatever loneliness woes you have. Ditto with racist folks, just dip your nose underwater until fully submerged and breath through said nose to help flush out brain of subvert and overt tendencies such as supporting gentrification and White washing or complaining that there is too much diversity. Same for wannabe allies. Go flex on Tumblr. If you have to wonder, “is my question bigoted?”, it probably is and you probably should keep it to yourself. Again, Black Witch is NOT a service to help the clueless in social matters. I’ll just make fun of you instead.

* Still not very partial to term “Person of Color” but “Person of Pigment” is a good working term until something better comes along
** To the major minority: Hi, Mark. How you is? I expect an e-card of a cactus done up like a Christmas tree. :3
*** “Complements” that if a gay guy gave you, you’d be ready to put holmes in a hospital.