My Son recently showed me a video of Tupac Shakur as a hologram performing on stage with Snoop Dogg. The concert was happening at a place where Tupac had never performed and clearly at a time when he was no longer alive. It is amazing what technology can do. However, I will offer a cautionary note.
I remember when Bo Derek, the star of the movie “10”, was credited with creating “corn row” braiding. I remember another time when, in a documentary on the history and origins of Jazz Music, Wynton Marsalis, finding it difficult to maintain his composure, identified a white musician who claimed that he originated jazz.
We are living in a time when the distortions of truth abound and, perhaps more alarming, the distortions of our human reality. We have accepted violence as a natural and expected function of life. We continue to normalize cruelty and dishonesty to the extent that we have to create laws or movements to protect ourselves against bullies and those who insist that they have the right to “stand their ground.”
But what is to be said about “Virtues”? Where do kindness, trustworthiness, integrity and justice stand in these times? And what values do reverence, loyalty and courtesy hold today? What are we telling our children about these qualities? Not only have we bought whole heartedly into the notion that “the emperor has clothes on”, we have begun to build expertise around the quality of the fabric and how well the clothes fit! And if anyone dare question these distortions of reality, they are branded irrelevant, lost in the past, biased, and/or irrational.
This blind following is a much greater problem than you might suspect, and it is sapping our hearts and crippling our global village. This world is full of breath taking images of nature in all of its beauty, vast space, and yet undiscovered mysteries all made up of ‘matter’ and destined to eventually decompose and transform into something different, amazing, and incredible to see… like Tupac performing alive. Yet un-alive.
Just remember it’s only a hologram!
Joy
Thank you Joy! I am reminded that this world is a pitstop before the Abha Kingdom and what we cannot see or even touch physically is even more powerful… Always has been and always will be. I really don’t mind being called old fashioned when it comes to reality!
I pray that your blog is read and digested for the pure truth that you share for all who comprehend
Great Write, I have to do my research about the phrase “The Emperor Has No Clothes”, This is my first time reading it. I wish that the Hologram wasn’t just a hologram… 2pac Back.
Thank you Dr. Dugruy! I am a 71 year old Black woman, and after ordering, and listening to your cd, “Post Traumatic Slave Syndrom”, I just had to let you know that you speak my mind! With the exception of a very few, most people I know don’t seem to recognize what has happened to us, or just don’t seem to care. It has frustrated me at times but having studied my own history (and world history) for myself I do understand. I will promote your cd anyway. Thank you again for spreading such vital information. It is needed. God loves you, and so do I.
Truly from the heart My Sister, truly from the heart. Many more years to you. Be well….
Thank you joy for your powerful and deep theory which i susspected was our truth for many years, and hearing you describe it with such detailed heart renduring strength, has encouraged me to feel more posotive about our future as a race. i live in england/manchester and i have experienced great levels of racism which has effected my desire to attempt working in white enviroments and i wonder if you could provide any advice about how best to deal with such a issue. Do you beleive that black people need their own ecconomy and fully functioning country that we can call home and if so does the govermentb have a responsibility to compensate our race. Do you beleive that equal intergration can ever be fully acheived in the future?
Dear Dr. Joy,
Thank you so much, for everything you are and everything you do.
I caught the last 15 minutes or so of your lecture on npr lastnight. http://www.radioproject.org/2011/05/breaking-the-psychological-chains-of-slavery/ I love what you said, and how you said it. I feel like you presented the facts with an appropriate amount of disdain for what has happened, yet with factualness, and some bits of humor, with hope for what can be when we all learn to understand and heal and love eachother as we were intended to do by our creator.
So I went to your website to read/learn more, and I happened upon this article about holograms and Tupak Shakur – both of which I find to be fascinating. I watched a documentary about Mr. Shakur recently, and found that he is a much deeper individual than I had seen him presented in the popular media.
Anyway, today I was eager to post a link to your show on my facebook page, and I did so, and then shortly after, I was looking at some science things, and found a short video which discusses holograms and the interconnectedness of all beings and I thought you might enjoy it. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJ-3m5W4cp4
I also posted a link to some work about what you said about how there biologically is no difference between the “races”… http://wupa.wustl.edu/record_archive/1998/10-15-98/articles/races.html
And when you spoke about people being incarcerated, to the detrement of the culture, and how the way to destroy a people is to destroy their culture, I was reminded of a very favorite person of mine, and her lecture at AAHMI 2009, which I was privileged to attend, and to create the website for the minutes/materials. http://ssw.unc.edu/jif/aahmi09/ The session I am speaking of specifically was called, “Left Behind: Children and Families in Bondage and the woman is Dr. Creasie Finney Hairston. (session notes/video available at the website). The phrase that has stuck with me the most, when she was speaking of her own personal experience, was, to the best of my memory, since for some reason the video has now been made “private” was when she said, “That is not a convict, that is my brother!”
I just wanted to thank you very much, because you have touched my life, and this subject is something I struggle with, as a person who happens to be white, and I often don’t know what to do/say or how to do/say it… but you have given me hope and I am grateful. If you have suggestions for my next course of action, please do let me know, and if not, please know that I will just be out here doing my best, and I won’t forget what you have said.
Oh, one more tiny thing – just yesterday, someone shared with me a video depicting police brutality, and so when you mentioned that book that you said people should keep in the car on the dash, I wanted to go right home and find a link and post it, but i couldn’t remember the name of the book… I guess that gives me another opportunity to listen to your talk again!!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart,
Cheryl