this blog is especially for Miss Nina Richie and all the other T.I. supporters in the world…

***Diva steps onto her soapbox…okay, let’s be real…Diva gets lifted and placed onto her soapbox***

**clearing my throat** thank you ladies and gentlemen for taking time out of your busy day and finding time to procrastinate with me…now while this is going to be about nina and my baby daddy T.I. it goes beyond him and his recent arrest. for those of you that don’t stay up to date on celebrity happenings T.I. was arrested over the weekend for attempting to buy illegal firearms and upon search of his home an arsenal was found. this dude was ready to go to war! how was he caught? his bodyguard, yes someone he paid to keep him safe, SNITCHED…homeboy wore a wire and everything!

so there are two issues i would like to discuss before getting to the fact that as a man of color in a high profile position T.I. should have been smarter…

T.I. born Clifford Harris was born a poor man. he had no silver spoon in his mouth and made some unwise decisions before becoming the King of The South in the Hip Hop World. he made decisions that i’m sure we know a lot of people have made. when he was a teenager T.I. sold drugs. when he, like many other young men growing up in similar environments, didn’t see any other options he chose to survive by selling poison in the streets. i’m sure he spent many hours on corners wishing that this Hip Hop thing would come to fruition for him. its the story of so many lost ones living in urban america. in 1998, when he was 18, T.I. got arrested and went on to do time in prison for his drug selling. we all know there are usually two ways for someone to stop selling…they get locked up or they get killed…not much of a retirement plan if you ask me.

when he got out T.I., along with his uncle, i believe started a construction company. this is around the time he got his record deal. a black man on parole with a record deal that started a legal business…sounds like he did some growing up. i remember the first article i read about him…i think it was in Vibe and it talked about his construction company. he would hire ex-cons to work for him. he said something to the extent that he realized that even after you paid your debt to society you were often left with fewer options than you began with. nobody wants to hire a felon which is why recidivism rates are so high. if you can’t get a job you go back to hustling. he was giving people jobs. smart young man.

let’s stop for a minute and talk about when someone is released from prison. they have been “rehabilitated” right? their debt is paid and they should be able to be productive, law abiding citizens, shouldn’t they? hmmm, let’s think about this. first, they are labeled by our society. a stigma follows these men and women for the rest of their lives. its on every job application they will ever fill out. have you ever been convicted of a felony? if yes, please explain. not only have they been labeled but they have lost the right to vote. oh, they continue to pay taxes but they no longer are given any say in how their communities and nation is governed. here’s the next part that kind of brings us back to T.I….it has to do with this thing called the American Constitution…see, there’s something in there called the SECOND AMMENDMENT…for those of you unfamiliar with which ammendment is which that would be the right to bear arms. in other words even after you have completed your sentence, even if you weren’t in prison because of weapons you can never legally own a firearm.

T.I. is collector. he collects art and apparently he collected guns. now i’m not into guns but i know people who are. sheesh, isn’t the NRA all about people having the right to collect and use their guns? there is no proof that T.I. was doing anything but collecting the guns. its not as if the only guns he had were the type often seen thrown away after a drive by or something. the guns found in this man’s home were high end and military quality weapons. some people collect swords, he likes guns. he had no choice but to collect them “illegaly” since he lost the right to bear arms when he commited a crime as a teenager.

in no way am i saying that T.I. is a completely innocent man. he has violated parole and is known to be quick tempered. i’m just saying that i don’t think he was planning to start a war with the weapons they found.

now let’s talk about the bodyguard for a minute….was lil kim’s case that long ago that people forgot the STOP SNITCHING campaign. i work with young people and the idea of snitching is a scary thing for them. i help them understand the difference between snitching and keeping people safe. now, had T.I. been planning an attack on someone or some community with his firearms i would have no issue with the bodyguard informing the authorities because it would be for the best of the community/person at risk and for T.I. himself, yet that was not the case. T.I. sent this dude to pick up guns that were either being added to his collection or were to be used by the security team. this man got caught and ratted on T.I. i have no respect for someone that snitches just for their own benefit. if he was uncomfortable with the assignment he should not have accepted it. it wasn’t until he was caught that he had an issue with what he was asked to do.

i’d like to hear other peoples thoughts on this…so please share…

til next time…besos babe!

the other night the Diva was watching IFC and what comes on but R. Kelly’s In the Closet operetta. when the songs first came out i was definitely part of society waiting for him to bless us with another chapter. i got hooked on learning what would happen next. therefore i was excited to watch all of the current chapters together in a movie format. i have to say that i wasn’t disappointed. there was all type of drama and laughter found within the hour and a half operetta.

unfortunately, when it ended i was angry. no, i wasn’t angry about the to be continued that popped up on the screen. i remember interviews with R. Kelly when he said he hoped it could go on forever. i was angry because i feel as if he continiued to perpetuate the myth that AIDS is a gay man’s disease and is only passed to women by men on the DL.

now i can be completely wrong. maybe the package that was had by the character of chuck wasn’t AIDS. but having a conversation with my best friend we both felt that it was insinuated that the character had AIDS. in the year 2007, some 26 years after the first reported case of HIV in the US how can someone in a position of power make a suggestion that in the midst of all of the people cheating and acting the fool in this melodrama it has to be the gay man that brings AIDS to the table.

i’m not saying that it isn’t a problem in the LGBTQ community. what i’m saying is that it is a problem in all communities. especially in latino and black communities. black and latina women are the ones contracting the disease at alarming rates in NYC. no, that is not because all of our men are on the DL. i’m sure some of them are but the reality is that AIDS doesn’t know a sexual preference or in reality a color.

AIDS knows ignorance. if in this day and age when we have exposure to so many different types of education we can’t learn to protect ourselves then if AIDS doesn’t kill us something else will. the easiest way to stop AIDS is to communicate with our partners. go out and get tested. and most importantly when you decide to have sex use a condom! condoms are not 100% but they’re a lot safer than using nothing at all.

til next time…besos babe!