kill bills
Y’all KNOW They talking ‘bout “reparations” in California?
A 9-member task force of eight Appropriately-African-American folks and a single Japanese-American crafting a hefty 1,000-page document, that is clearly intended to fail at its task.
Everybody knows that nobody wants to give Black people money.
Not even Black people.
“Opportunities”, “resources”, “programs”, “several seats”, -ships (scholar and fellow), “titles”, and “tasks” – are freely given - but money, whether earned or awarded, is almost immediately placed on the altar of “BILLS”. It has been my Black ass Experience in America™ that the cultural expression of adult personhood is dependent on your ability to pay ‘these BILLS’. A common response to “How you doing?”, is routinely matched with, “just trying to pay these BILLS”. Friendships are built and demolished on the mantle of SPLIT-THE-BILL, while Black femme desirability is directly tied to SHE-PAY-HER-OWN-BILLS.
Destiny Child’s first number one single, “Bills, Bills, Bills”, famously cautioned that, if “I don’t think you do, then you and me are through”. All this gets me to wondering: if the average circulation rate of the dollar in The Black Community® is 6 hours*, compared to 21 days in the White Community®, and Corporations Are (White) People, and Black people were capital for over 400 years…
is it ever my money?
It’s GROSS how we’re caught up in the NET.
For 182 days, five Black femme artists, along with One patron, attempted to prioritize $125 a month as payment to ourselves><community><ancestors. Out of the six, four were able to match the goal. Everybody got back what they put in, plus $125. I can’t quite cipher how I was able to cobble $750, other than some kind of willful juju. I fully intended to grow my fiscal kombucha mother, imagining it as a culture that would serve a healthy biome, but for the grace of BILLS go I.
Another round of 182 days begins in January (2024), and the stakes are now raised to $150 per month. at the time of this posting, there are three artists and two patrons committed to Phase II. Perhaps we can raise the completion rate above 66% – BILLS on the backburner, and “fish don’t fry in the kitchen, beans don’t burn on the grill”.
Maybe, just maybe, we’ll communicate directly about our successes and slip-ups, instead of prioritizing updates via social media posts, email correspondenceS, and those stubborn DMs left on read. But mostly I’m hopeful that we’ll each get a taste of that willful juju and cash kombucha for a healthy gut…
REGISTER FOR PHASE II (January - June 2024) UNTIL 01/30/2024