“They’re strength and speed are still based on a world that is built on rules”
Because of the divide in the 2 party system, conservative propaganda uses the tactic of manipulating words and definitions in order to negate the experience of real people in the minds of other conservatives. I find this offensive, but more than that, it is a tactic that is effective at closing their ears and making them resistant to a reality they are not personally experiencing. This is “Hear No Evil”.
When your only experience of reality is your own perception, it’s fundamentally incomplete. We need to see through the eyes of many, not one, but most of us fall back on our own perception. We look outside of ourselves to get a complete picture. Conservative propaganda even comments on video to make a magic trick out of what “the Left” is trying to show them. This perception that the Left is trying to show them something rather than simply calling attention to a thing, the motives of this are questioned to the extent that people doubt what it is they are seeing. This is “See No Evil”.
But when you are talking about the behavior of a cult, or the behavior of any group that seeks to indoctrinate minds to a certain position or agenda to extract something from them, they will use their collective voice as a means of reinforcing that individual perception. The individual narrative is voiced loudly while using dog whistles to voice a larger opinion through subtle means, like dog whistles, designed to only be heard by those who agree. Because those who disagree haven’t said it they can effectively disregard any accusation that this is what their side is saying. This is “Speak No Evil”.
In application, this means that what you say and show them isn’t always what they hear and see because the perception of their “group” reinforces how they think as individuals. While we can dismiss this as “group think” it tends to hide itself in ways that are far more insidious and covert. It also means that many of these people are victims rather than perpetrators. And I’m risking my own “black card” to say this because we are used to seeing everyone as agents in the Matrix. We’re used to either flight or fight because our survival instincts are triggered. Thus the most real and truest conversation has to come from those with no reason to run but also no reason to fight. This is where it gets difficult.
Morpheus was right when he explained the system.
Who is this for?
This Matrix Training is primarily targeted towards those who would like to be friends and allies in this fight simply because of the key factors and variables that allow them to be “The One”. Before we move forward, I need to explain this so that we all understand why I’m focusing on allies even though this training may be very useful to black people if not already known.
Black People: I’m not excluding you from being “The One”. I’m agreeing with many of you who recognize that racism is not our job to fix. It is a thing that we must overcome, survive, and try to thrive in spite of. It is an oppressive system that triggers memories of our ancestors burning in us and stirring up passion and resolve. And we must, at all costs, continue to rebel. But it was never our duty to fix it, only to fight it.
White People: For those who represent Neo, they have a choice. The choice is to reboot the system, choosing another one, playing out the same game, repeating the same mistakes, but possibly choosing another target group to oppress. Or the choice is to destroy the system, but what does that do to everyone dependent upon it?
(The third choice is to let the system continue but use your power within the system in order to free minds and effect change within for the limited number of people you can touch with your individual power.)
As we open our third eye to this scene and light/truth starts pouring into it, I want you to notice everything. Neo, is standing tall, dressed in black, seeing through shades that are black. He’s standing on the Left. Contrary to this, the Architect of the System could have been represented in any way but the symbolism is clear. He’s an older white man, with a hairstyle and beard combination reminiscent of Colonel Sanders so he’s older but from the perspective of an era. And he’s sitting down not standing because he’s not taking a stand. This is not a system that benefits the people stuck in it. It is a system of his own design. He isn’t simply “The Man”. He is this concept collectively represented as “The Other One”. He is dressed oppositely as well. Of course from his perspective Neo is “the other One” but Neo, in a way, is also his offspring. That’s why he has a choice. It is because he inherited the system. That’s why he has powers in the system that others do not and cannot have. The Matrix is a world built on rules but Neo can change them. The Architect knows this. He knows this because he built it for Neo. He built it for every version of Neo in order to pass down the very power that Neo inherently has and can use for “whomsoever he loves”. And thus the 2 choices are revealed. Does he choose to sacrifice others or does he choose to sacrifice himself for the sake of others.
Understand, this is not a sacrifice of his life in terms of life or death, but it does have to do with his survival. Zion lives in reality. And Neo has been welcomed to live in Zion but their survival against the machines rests on a hidden agreement. Reality vs The Matrix. The Machines put humans to sleep so that while they dream the machines can use them for their power. This is power they are collectively generating that they are unaware of. They’re also unaware that their power is being taken and exploited. They’re not using their power because they have no need of it in their state of slumber. So instead of their power building and fixing things in the real world it only builds and fixes the mental construct that is the Matrix. The System of White Supremacy is a mental construct. It continues to work and function because we are feeding it our energy.
Neo is the legacy of the Architect. In a way, Neo is a version of the Architect. However, he is a much later version that, each time, comes back to the same choice he made to create the Matrix, to decide if it still serves a purpose. We see all of these different versions of Neo on the scenes all around them because not only does Neo represent thousands of people, but thousands of different points in time, each one, each point, having the same opportunity to stand up to The System and try to stop it.
Each time; however, Neo is faced with the survival of “his people” which are those who are still asleep and connected to the Matrix and the fate of Zion. The Machines cannot threaten Zion without Power. That Power is facilitated and extracted from the unaware bodies of those The System benefits. It’s literally feeding them the remains of the other humans that it devoured; of course by devour I simply mean “consume”. At this point Neo knows the truth. He knows that The Matrix uses people, is powered by people, generations of the people it grows on “plantations” to others. And he knows that the entire System is predicated upon this “Slavery”. And yet, it is hard to simply turn it off because of how dependent everyone connected to The System is. What will happen to them if all of the machines, “Life Support”, were turned off? So what if they are threatening Zion and people who live in the real world, in tribes, in villages, in far off reaches of the globe still untouched by greed and corporate capitalism? So what if they would pay people to have children mining rare earth minerals with shovels? Zion represents a small minority. The majority are those who are unconsciously represented by The System. And so the question is which side is he willing to save?
The Architect coldly tells Neo that it didn’t even have to be this way. The system could be a paradise. We could create a utopian society but at the end of the day the question is still at what cost? Liberals want more money to be spent on social programs but also take money from corporations to fight for their interests when it comes to creating policy. Conservatives decry the spending while preaching freedom but still want the ability to tell people how to live and who to love. The warfare between the two parties pulls us into a vortex of every emotion. What one side wants the other side hates. And we spend so much time fighting and being opposed to the other’s sides desires that we lose sight of The System. We have no idea what’s going on outside our bubbles of consciousness. The left bubble is conscious of some issues. The right bubble is conscious of other issues. But neither side is totally aware of the third side that both have sold out to. That third side is the corporations.
The Corporations are represented by the Machines because all they care about is profit; which is simply a measure of the energy they are able to harvest from consumers. You may see their products but you don’t really see them. They hide amongst people while spreading their influence. But outside of the plantations they are hunting down the free peoples of Earth and trying to “spread democracy”.
What’s wrong with that? While we debate about who is or isn’t a nazi, a socialist, a marxist, a communist, a pedophile, etc., we’re still talking about a system that is seeking to control native populations and absorb smaller groups of people into that System so that it, and them through it, can control them. And what was once done under the banner of skin color, now is often done under the color of one’s money. And now money speaks the economic language of superiority.
One version of Neo recalls when the Irish weren’t considered white. One version of Neo recalls when the Italians weren’t considered white. As other European groups are socially conquered and assimilated, the grievances from years of “white on white crime” in Europe are laid to rest. As a result, The Matrix reboots under the new understanding of a “whiteness” that now includes this group that was previously rejected and discriminated against.
What happens now? And so now, once that group becomes white they start to fall asleep because they’re no longer under attack for being Italians or for being Irish. Even the Asians are much more accepted now than they were. These groups were all negatively compared to “The Negro” because he, in his blackness, was how they measured the crime of not being “white”; not being “one of us” (them). And whether there was a policy or not, it didn’t matter. Other groups struggled for economic equality and they were blocked because they weren’t considered “white” or “white enough”. But over time, their acceptance is what also allowed them to fall asleep and become ignorant to how they were treated in favor of joining in with their new “white” friends and allies against “the blacks”.
Similar to “whiteness”, “blackness” was also a team that could be added or subtracted from. It could be multiplied and divided and extended, whole or in part, to other groups. However, it didn’t benefit “whiteness” to increase the number of groups that could be considered black and thus, by nature, allied against them. So if you had one drop of blackness, you were black. And the fear of actually being black should, in the minds of Racists, be a thing that would keep black numbers low because why would one want to mingle their blood or forsake their future children by giving birth to children who would automatically be disdained and discriminated against by The System? However, at times, the effects of people falling asleep to the realities of racism also made them forget that it was real enough to reinforce the fear that kept them far away from black people. And now, many people are so sleep that in their dreams racism is a thing of the past and yet the Irish and Italians are still qualified to be white because “whiteness” is still the racial establishment of White Power. So the alliance of whiteness hasn’t gone away. They just want to pretend and campaign against the notion that color is at all involved. But as long as there is such a thing as “White”, as a social construct, there will always need to be a need for “Black” to oppose it-whether the allies are qualified to call themselves black, People of Color, or simply allies.
Matrix Training 1.1
“The path of the One”
The video with the Architect concludes with him telling Neo that Zion will again be destroyed and that they have become exceedingly efficient at it. But before, when Neo said “Bullshit”, which is a response from many who challenge the existence or the intention of The System to the degree that they simply have no desire to believe that Systemic Racism exists, The Architect simply says that denial is the most predictable of all human responses. You see, Neo was awake, but he was still dreaming in the sense that his consciousness had levels of what he was able to accept as truth. Even before he was freed physically from the Matrix he was already beginning to question it. He had to follow the white rabbit before going down the rabbit hole. That in itself was a level of consciousness the system did not want. That’s why the System was starting to come after Neo before he was physically freed.
The very thing that the System hates… this “wokeness” they attack… that is the Path of the One. And they hate it because there is no statistical calculation in which they could remove empathy and love from the equation. The very love that would produce more white people is the very love that, through desegregation, could challenge White Supremacy. As much as segregation served a purpose to keep black people away from opportunities, that wasn’t the main goal and therefore there were segregated black communities that were able to thrive with the right economic push (ex: Black Wall Street). The main goal was to keep white people away from blacks. You may think that makes no sense. It would make more sense that the wall was to keep black people away from whites. But a wall works both ways. And by keeping whites away from blacks, white power was also kept away from benefiting black people. It kept connections from forming and thus empathy from forming between those connections. Even white slave owners sometimes freed their slaves because of love or empathy. Not even they were immune to this “anomaly”. But they (corporate unity representing White Supremacy) didn’t like it and so segregation helped them solidify the power they already had and the wealth they had extracted from slavery, keeping it away from black and brown communities.
And unlike the masses who sleep, the Architects are the ones who build the system, who understand economics. They kept Asians from getting loans to set up their businesses in white communities because they didn’t want their money going to the Asians. Economics is simple yet complex. In the context of the simple, money is like hot air or helium. The more of it you put into a balloon the lighter it gets relative to the air around it and the higher it can fly. All they had to do was create a system where they were bringing more money in from outside of their community than the amount of money going out. And if they could keep that “Trade Deficit” low, they would be building wealth.
This wealth wouldn’t be equally earned and therefore not equally shared across the white community. But that didn’t matter because it would benefit them more than anyone outside that bubble.
One of the things I’m asking Friends and Allies, in exchange for the information and insight and the training in how to fight the System, is to, and I thought a lot about this, please make the choice to support BWS2.0 by joining our Patreon so that I can use that money to fund economic development in the black community and help fight The System.
Matrix Training 1.2
“Friendly Fire Warning”
The difficulty of trying to bring Friends and Allies into the dojo and offer this training is that it can be hard for them to see a role for themselves and create the demand for resources like this. At the same time, to take the time and put in the energy to try and supply a demand you don’t know exists is difficult because I have no idea how many people this applies to.
Because of desegregation, it was inevitable that people designated as white and black were bound to mix. However, in this mixture, there are still a lot of segments of both populations that rarely touch and when they do it’s often like little kids afraid of contracting the dreaded “cooties”.
This is one of the manifestations of our “Fear of the Unknown”. We’re not sure how each other thinks or what each other likes or doesn’t like, including whether or not they will like us. And so before we get and have to feel the sting of rejection we respond by making ourselves scarce. But the strongest justification for this is that black people don’t know who is racist so it is easier and safer to assume all are until otherwise corrected. The problem with that is that it is fundamentally prejudicial and for many of the same reasons black people experience prejudice from whites. The more fear is on one side against the other, the more that fear has a chance to mutate into hate.
Those who focus on love and who are trying to get to a more colorblind society are on the right path and yet we have to acknowledge the fear and hate so that we can identify it, prepare for it, and get around it. Some only learn the extent of racism when they have biracial children and have to face the social issues that confront their child in the process of trying to give them the best life possible.
At this time, please refer back to our definition of “Whites” before continuing. If the "shoe doesn't fit" then nothing on this site is directed at you. However, often when people who are usually referred to as "White" to the point they are used to it and accept it as their identity, it's very possible for them to get offended when hearing "white people" being discussed. I call this "friendly fire" because by being offended you are moving into the "line of fire" and therefore taking hits meant for those who are much more deserving. Friendly fire can often derail movements and progress because we need each other to change the world but we can't even tell "White people" what we need and what the solutions are without discribing the symptoms and how "White People" fit into and feed into the underlying problem of racism, globally.
Muhammad Ali made a famous comment about snakes. It is imperative to listen with an open mind, understanding the mentality of fear this speaks to; a fear that was, especially then, well-earned. To say that Muhammad Ali was afraid of white people needs serious context. For any one white person to step inside a boxing ring with Ali in his prime, put on boxing gloves, and adhere to the rules of boxing, Ali wasn’t afraid of anyone. But this isn’t how black people knew whites to fight. They would go one-on-one in games and contests but when it was a question of survival they ganged up for the same reasons minorities create gangs; strength in numbers. That's why one of the ways you can identify racism is when it is suggested that black people shouldn't be doing something that historically white people have have also done. Because if both groups have done it then why should be spoken of within the context of race?
The argument Ali made here was so real and truthful and made so much sense to the audience that they laughed, not at him but with him. Not only did he make the same point with other countries that America, at one time, considered enemies and threats, but let me add one more for those who consider the bible to be instructive. For Sodom and Gomorrah, when Abraham (Genesis 18:24-32) negotiated to spare the entire city, this exchange exemplifies this same human sampling that we’ve been doing forever. In another video interview, Ali uses nature as examples of social segregation.
To a certain extent Ali is correct. Culture. However, what we are engaged in now, strictly speaking, is a culture war because the reality is that different animals in nature do have a culture but also have their own territory. When there is a shared territory it would only make sense for the culture within and belonging to that territory, to be shared. Black Culture in the US is also part of American culture because it is local to America. Americans pick up aspects of white culture by default because it’s dominant and expected. But Americans also have access to other cultures within these borders and that cultural exchange shows us the value of each other’s culture and each other through the presentation of that culture. And that gives us fewer reasons to fear that culture and fewer reasons to bomb it out of existence.
So this is where integration actually offers greater protection than closing the door on all and seeing all as snakes. Seeing the person on the other side of the door as a snake makes it more likely they wont get to know you either and won’t know that you’re not a snake too because whether someone is or isn’t a snake and not about nature; but nurture. But we’re reacting out of fear and that is a weakness.
When my sister recently showed me a picture of a snake on her property I told her she should get a pet mongoose. One of my uncles in Jamaica once told us about how the mongoose had driven away all or most of the snake population on the island. I sent her a video of a mongoose fighting a snake but this video shows something else.
What certain political operatives do very well is point out little facts while distorting them to their advantage. Are there bad people in the world? Yes or no? (So should you be afraid of people?) Are there bad people who are black? Yes or no? (Obviously, this is true since black people are also people). This is where those people might introduce crime statistics or question a victim in a police shooting about what their criminal history may have been. The purpose is to create a racial argument, effectively adding to the label of a color as if the “snake” is silent. While it is only because “White Supremacy” has done this that many black people, like Ali, respond in kind. But that doesn’t make it right and it makes it harder to find friends and allies to cooperate and work with us against a common threat.
So, what should you do? First, until we see that Friends and Allies are the norm instead of the exception, you should continue working mainly within your own sphere of influence. I’m going to give you tools and methods you can use to fight against The System. Some will be harder than others but some will be so super simple and easy that you will wonder why more people aren’t doing it. But do not get discouraged if you are not seen as a Friend or Ally. The goal isn’t to be worshiped or revered as a Christ figure, but the more your actions are felt, not seen, the more your actions will be appreciated.
Matrix Training 2.1
Tool: COMPLAIN
This is a super power. You may not understand how powerful this is. Again, the System is based on rules. When you point out when the rules are being broken it makes it harder for people in that specific context to break the rules. There are a lot of people who think Systemic Racism doesn’t exist because they’re being misinformed that policies are a necessary part of the equation. Policies are simply instructions that people often follow but follow less when they perceive a lack of enforcement. Just think of how we as drivers behave when we see a “speed trap” vs when we don’t. Does the existence of speed traps mean that no one speeds anymore? Or is it simply a deterrent that depends on drivers reacting to visible enforcement?
Whether or not people follow policies, behavior comes from instruction vs freedom. Human sentience means we don’t have to be told what to do at all times. However, we are educated, taught, trained, etc. These forms of influence represent nurture rather than nature. People don’t hate because of a policy. They hate because they are nutured to. Influence can come from friends and family who are all connected through other friends and other family. Through these channels of social influence, we can then say that public policy only exists to override pre-existing instructions or programming that we get from ourselves and others. So if someone is judging systemic racism by the existence of policies you can try to help them understand that systemic racism isn’t about policy but rather the behavior that creates discriminatory outcomes.
We’re going to study more about this battle over definitions because it is one of the ways that Systemic Racism hides and thus protects itself. In order to combat this covert modus operandi you have to do the opposite of what it’s trying to do. If it’s trying to hide, it is not a coincidence. It’s trying to hide and camouflage itself for a reason; for the purpose of its own survival. One of the reasons I wanted to provide this training is because I’m tired of racism. I’m older now but I actually see more of it today than I did 30 years ago. And that’s because it’s hiding when it’s around too many black people, but comes out when there is only one or two. Racists are generally cowards and I’m tired of the rest of us playing checkers against it. And for the one racist who is reading this, ready to go shoot up another grocery store, hiding behind your guns only proves that cowardice.
Friends and Allies, I want you to know that you are fighting an uphill battle but you are on the winning side. The fact that Systemic Racism is covert by nature, and therefore not running around introducing itself with name tags, is because it is afraid of being seen. It just doesn’t work the same way when it’s out in the open. KKK aren’t the same without their hoods. They cannot do the same things even if they say the same things. There is always a limit to what they can do in the light of day. But give someone nefarious the cover of darkness and their potential as a threat changes.
Not long ago, I was walking on my street, talking on the phone. One of my own neighbors called the police. Sounds crazy and unbelievable until I say it was after midnight. Still, you would think it’s a free country so people should be free to walk on the sidewalk after dark, even after midnight. When the police arrived I calmly let him know that I lived here as I was nearly right in front of my own house at the time. But the key point is that if I was doing exactly the same thing at 6pm no one would have been bothered; at least not threatened. But after midnight it was different. The cover of darkness made it so.
Systemic Racism is the same way. No one is so concerned anymore about racism in broad daylight. That’s because that kind of racism is easily punished. It still happens during business hours but when I’m talking about it happening “in the dark” this simply means it’s done in secret when no one is looking. If you were in the Matrix and you saw someone turn into an agent… that would seem like a sight that would be hard to contain. But that’s the point. People don’t see it. People cannot tell when someone has become an Agent or is acting out that role. Not seeing it is what makes it possible.
So just as one of my neighbors called the police to complain about a black man walking up and down the sidewalks at night, you too can use this power. Here is one of my favorite comedians talking about this power.
Systemic Racism is the same way. No one is so concerned anymore about racism in broad daylight. That’s because that kind of racism is easily punished. It still happens during business hours but when I’m talking about it happening “in the dark” this simply means it’s done in secret when no one is looking. If you were in the Matrix and you saw someone turn into an agent… that would seem like a sight that would be hard to contain. But that’s the point. People don’t see it. People cannot tell when someone has become an Agent or is acting out that role. Not seeing it is what makes it possible.