favoured child

To be completely honest, I don’t know exactly what this is. I mean, it’s a podcast episode, but the precise genre? Unclear. So when it comes to describing it, the only thing I can say for sure is that I like it.

It basically began as a sermon (did I mention that I’m starting a church?** 👀), that became the beginning of an ongoing conversation I hope to keep having with whosoever will.

** That bit about “did I mention that I’m starting a church” is obviously a joke — I’m well aware that I haven’t mentioned it. And it’s absolutely true.

Drapetomanic Ministry is a real thing I am really starting and that I really hope you’ll support in whatever way makes the most sense to you.

So check out this episode of drapetomanic behavior and then, as the spirit leads…

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White men have no imagination and they have done the best they can.

WE DESERVE AND CAN DO BETTER.

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Apparently this hiforrest person is an evangelical… entertainer? I don’t know. A “friend” sent a video of very earnest individual legitimately shooting their shot in this “open verse challenge” and as soon as I saw hiforrest, I felt something I hadn’t felt in a while and I realized — I have a type.

Not for attraction but for getting traction out of rage, because I was yesterday years old when I realized that high on the list of what inspires me is a watching a mediocre white man move with the audacity only a mediocre white man can have.

Anyway, this was a fun little challenge for me — took about 1/2 an hour to write and about an hour to record, not too shabby, if I do say so myself.

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What does it say

about what he must think

the future is going to be

when…

the ballroom he wants

is not for good things to flaunt

it’s to protect him

from enemies, so many enemies

not of us, but of him

and it’s clear he considers us

closer to them

when the outer reaches

of who he sees as mattering lives

is ballroom-size

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I’m just a storyteller considering a character in a story I’m trying to make sense of.

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Jamal didn’t give it to us and Jamal can’t take it away.

This video, my work and my platform are for Black women and those who love Black women.

If that aint you - this aint for you. And so while your presence, comments, questions, suggestions are allowed - everything is allowed - they are not needed, they are not wanted and not welcome.

Proceed accordingly.

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I entered the exvangelical space sick of evangelical megachurch passholes and I’m exiting sick of exvangelical missionaries.

If the arguments you’re having now are the same ones you’ve been having since 2016 — why?

The frustration I’m feeling/raging against is a big part of what inspired good people — the game I created to provoke good folks into having conversations that slip underneath the labels. You should get it.

janicelagata.com/goodpeople

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Well… a picture is (allegedly) worth a thousand words, so I guess it makes sense that this lil 45 second video has me sorting through multiple thousands of them to try and explain what I’ve been going through. And how I’ve been getting through. And who I’ve been seeing through. (And damn! That’s a bar.) Ultimately, I’m just… weary. Not at all of well-doing, but very much so of all the commentary from the well-actually commentators who have literally made it their business (their actual factual job) to spend their lives talking about how other people are living theirs.

We are being distracted to and from death.

I this theory… if you wouldn’t do what you’re doing if less than 10… wait - let’s make this biblical and say 12. If you wouldn’t do what you’re doing if only 12 (or less) people consistently supported you - you’re doing it for the capitalism AND THAT IS ABSOLUTELY FINE, but be for real and be honest. First, foremost and especially with yourself. Because there are a lot of people cosplaying as aspiring world changers right now — pretending they’re doing what they’re doing because they really want things to be different, but every time they get the chance, as soon as they get it, they do things the old way. They softball the questions and soften the language, they try to find middle ground with election deniers and PDF hiders, they give air to and circulate hateful rhetoric under the guise of “commenting” on it, they talk about what Trump’s probably gonna do next, then shrug their shoulders and keep talking, talking, talking - because they don’t want to be revolutionary, they just want to be on the record.

I don’t believe anything is true because it’s in the bible, I believe a lot of things are in the bible because they are true. Life AND death are in the power of the tongue. Both. All the time. So all that talk you’re talking — what is it bringing to life? And what is it putting to death?

I’ve got other stuff I have to get done today, so I’m not gonna get all the way on my soapbox, but I will say: Likes and follows are the crypto-currency of social capitalism. Woe to you content creators who are unprepared in all ways for the day when the internet goes dark. Who aren’t gonna know who you are, what to feed your ego or how to measure your worth when there are no likes to be counted.

And who are gonna find yourselves stranded with people who don’t share your worldview because you got so caught up in getting as many people as possible to like you, that you never got around to getting connected with the people like you. Because that’s what this time is about. I’m sure of it. We’re supposed to be strengthening our root systems. Moving closer to our core, away from the surface.

And that’s what good people is all about. Getting to the core, traveling away from the surface. Because a lot of y’all are bullshitting and wasting time. Purposely having the same arguments today that you’ve been having FOR YEARS and claiming that it’s purposeful. It’s not. There’s no purpose… well, no good purpose in arguing with anyone about whether or not Christians can be Democrats. You might as well argue about whether or not the earth is round. In fact, I’d rather speak with and spend time with a flat-earther because — who cares? What is this obsession we have with making sure everyone agrees on stuff that has zero effect on day-to-day life? Just let it be. If you don’t believe Christians can be Democrats, bless your heart. And stay away from me. Because you’re an idiot and I don’t need or want you on my team. In fact, the only thing I would ever want less than you on my team, is for me to be on your team. Because it’s just labels. And at this point, all the sticky is gone, so it’s just tiny sheets we use to paper over all the truth that’s just underneath. And just underneath is exactly where good people lives.

good people

the name of the game and the only folks who can play

good people take turns placing choice cards into 2 worlds. // Each choice shifts the balance, as neither world ever gets more than one ahead. // Along the way, action cards, disrupt things, shifting ideas, resources, and alliances. // When the worlds are complete, all good people decide which world they want to live in and why.

I make games, y’all! And this is the first one I’m sharing. So get over to janicelagata.com/goodpeople now, so later, you can reminisce about you were one of the first to recognize its worth when it first came out.

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For more on why I'm rooting for everybody Black AND fully expecting Sinners to be disrespected by the Academy Awards, check out the Substack post...

Why Sinners Is Going To Lose

janicelagata.substack.com

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I’m so sick of circular political conversations and the journalists, podcasters, content creators who keep them a’spinning. Are we really this dumb? And by “we” I’m speaking as a standard issue American, but when it comes to us… ain’t no we.

I love us. And I just want us to be free of all this.

Free of the burden of everybody else.

Let ‘em fight. And let them have it. The label of Christian, of Progressive, of Democrat, of whatever non-Black people are clinging to keep from:

* having to plainly state their personal beliefs

* losing the plausibility of not knowing exactly what kind of people they value the opinions of.

For a long time, I thought people were lost in the sauce, but now… I think they like it. They like being in a melting pot of liberal thought, to be seen marinating near the more flavorful - being softened, but still fundamentally the same.

Still fundamentally dedicated to the lie: A good god sometimes needs good people to do evil things to accomplish his good and perfect will.

Still willing to just look the other way as long as the level of noise being made by the harmed doesn’t become too noticeable to not say something about. Like the hum of a refrigerator, there’s a dull roar of dehumanization that accompanies the practice of capitalism. And non-Black people have NEVER not been overlooking some extra level being dished out on us.

And that’s why this current time is very confusing for them. Those people’s president has ushered in a new level of equality — he loves and is loyal to no one. He sees every average American as equally unimportant and expendable. And so now average American’s have taken to the streets because average people being bothered and brutalized by government employees is just beyond the pale. Meanwhile, Black people been over it. And the perception is that we’re “sitting this one out” and not as engaged as before, but the truth is we’re just unimpressed. The Non-Blacks are DOWN BAD. Struggling. And this is our baseline. Not one Black person I know has stopped or stepped down on any of the justice/spiritual/SOUL work they were doing before White Jesus took the wheel.

But so far, we are doing a really good job of not letting non-Black emergencies affect our urgency. And I love that for us, because ain’t no we. I want those people and their president to have the world that they want. Truly. I just don’t want to be part of it and don’t want any part of it. And there’s no good future that requires us to compromise — the old world is over. There’s no upcoming election that will be a big enough reset button. Whatever’s next, needs to be new. Instead of trying to find middle ground between Black lives mattering and the white supremashit need to murder — how about we just start envisioning, talking about and working towards a future apart from each other?

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