Letter To Anonymous

By Rafael Solece

Recently I have taken a lot of flack from people about my anger with this whole Disney Black Princess foolishness. And at first it was all good. I knew when I first composed the blog that it might rub some people all wrong. After all Disney is very American and Mom's apple Pie. SO I knew it would be like verbally attaching the President or spitting on the Flag, Naturally people would get upset. But I didn't expect to be assaulted so viciously because of my personal feelings. After all it is my opinion that Disney has misrepresented this whole first black Princess. But yesterday a comment that I received on my blog really took me aback. I was quite upset about it, simply because the person really tried to make it seem that I was inferior and misinformed.

The Comment: Did you even see the movie/ she's not a princess in the beginning AND she's not the daughter of the mayor of New Orleans. Stay off soapboxes because you don't seem to know what you're talking about.

Let me say this first of all this is going to be a very interesting post. That whole comment really pissed me off. Because home girl, home boy, old man, who the fuck ever really doesn't know who I am. Bitch I am Rafael Solece and this is my blog and I can stand on any soap box I wish. So allow me to pull my soap box out now, stand on top of it, and commence to reading you your rights Mr. Anonymous.

Look people maybe my rant early last month was a tad bit over zealous, and might I add I was a little angry. So I had not done all of my research I just came home and wrote an angry mans blog. But honestly, research or not my rant was not without merit. Disney's is still in my opinion not doing their complete best by us.

Now to Anonymous; let me say first of all that no to answer your question: NO, I haven't seen the movie! It has not yet been released and won't be till tomorrow November 25th, Funny thing is Disney hasn't even been promoting the damn Film as much as they promote all their other animated movies. However I have read a leaked copy of the script, the press release, the story line on the web and I have watched several of the promos for it as well as listened to the critiques of the movie. So I am quite aware of the story.

Disney's The Princess and the Frog is set in the backdrop of the early 1920's during the Jazz age. This is I am sure so that Disney could use the era as a muse for their musical arrangement. (Smart on their part but still a mess.) Tiana Disney's would be Princess and Heroine of the film is a maid/waitress/mammy who lives and works in New Orleans French Quarter. (No she does not start off as a princess, but honestly that is a load of bull. Most of Disney's other Princess's all started out as Princess's, but I digress) Tiana is supposedly a hard working girl trying to stake her claim in the world and she is working the night that she meets, said prince turned into a frog. She is dressed up in the ball gown of the woman that she works for; looking very much like a princess and the frog mistakes her for a princess and asks her for a kiss. So Tiana obliges him. When she does, she turns into a frog too. Because she IS NOT a princess and the curse is passed on to her. She spends the better part of the movie as a frog; trying to find a way to be turned back into a human being, not to mention helping the said Prince solve his own problem and saving his ass. When he should be sweeping her off her feet. That ain't a Fairytale Disney that is life as we know it. (There are so many racial nuances to this movie that make it wrong on so many levels. Yet you people are so hurt that I am even speaking about Disney in such a bad light that you refuse to see it. Wake up, and get off me for speaking my mind)

So there is the story of the Princess and the Frog.

Now as for Mr. Anonymous: as to your prognosis you are so right to say that TIana isn't the daughter of the Mayor of New Orleans. When I made that statement, I wasn't trying to state facts I was angry and being sarcastic. I am really going to need you to learn to recognize the symptoms of sarcasm Mr. Anonymous. These are skills you will need to have to better asses when people are demeaning you or certain situations. (I am demeaning you now. See this is called sarcasm. loll)

But honestly senior Anonymous I have every right to stand on said soap box today or any other day. Disney is pulling stunts with this whole princess thing. It is true Princess Tiana does not start out in the movie as a Princess ( which is kind of ass backwards considering in the true storey fairytale The Frog Prince the actual person who breaks his spell is a true Princess) So at what point does Tiana become a Princess, and actually break the spell? The setting of said Fairytale is during the 1920's, here in America, where we haven't been a part of a Monarchy since we broke away from the British in the 1800's. The setting for this movie is not long ago in some far off kingdom. What Monarchy existed during the 1920's and what black man was king during that time period? Is she also in an interracial relationship? From what I understand most countries no longer had kings and/or queens at that time; well maybe they did but as figure heads only!

What really disturbs me about this whole Disney black Princess situation is that nobody is even paying attention to Disney's blatant disregard for African America roots and/or heritage. They act as if we didn't exist until the 1920's. When clearly we had Kingdoms and African Folk Lore/Fairytalee that themselves Parallel Grimes Tales. Honestly problem with Disney has nothing to do with what they are trying to achieve. My issue is with the amount of effort and or thought that they put into their First Black Princess. It seems to me half hearted, and it really does tap dance on my last nerve that they are basically getting away with it because we as black people are so starved for something positive that resembles us just a little bit in Mainstream American Media.

I say if you're going to do it, do it right or not at all. Thank you, and Good evening This Morning.

Check That Boo!

Lesson Learned is a Blessing Turned

By Rafael Solece

Music has power. It has the ability to take you to places in your imagination, in your memory, in yourself that you thought you could never go. It has the unique ability of being able to restore and recall memories, or emotions that you thought were long gone. Most of it has the power to break you down or build up. There have been many song s throughout the course of my life that have had some significant to my life at some point. Directly mirroring the anger, pain, sadness that I was feeling at that time in my life; and it was that music that brought me through whatever it was that I was going through.

When my grandmother died it was that song "Mama" by Boys-II-Men. When I was a teenage pining over love it was Brandy "Sitting Up in My Room". When I was experiencing my first heart break/break up it was Jagged Edge "He Can't Love You" Through my first secrete crush it was Patti Labelle's "If Only You Knew." When I was falling for my first love it was Luther "If Only for One Night" and through my first major grown up Relationship it was "SuperStar" Luther again.

I am sure we all can go through the memory banks of our mind and think of songs that sang volumes to us at certain points in our lives. I definitely know that I can; as you can see. But there are some songs that echo so much wisdom that they get us through so much more in love, because the lyrics in them just don't speak to pain, hurt, love, loss. But instead it speaks to almost every aspect of life, or at least speaks volumes to what is going on in this season of your life. That song for me right now in my life and has been for the last two years has been a cut by Alicia Keys the queen of the Keys as I have dubbed her. The song "Lesson Learned" It started out as my break up song when I was trying to leave my Ex. But it quickly became the mantra for all that I had been through in my life. For everything that I had learned, and experienced during my growth as a child; adolescent, teenager, adult, Man of God! I call it my spiritual Song. I have several spiritual Heart songs but this one, this one brings me through. So I listen to it quite often.

True this song has a very deep and sentimental value for me, because it really has been my fight song through so many moments in my life for the last 2 years. But the song itself resonates on so many levels about the lessons of life. About how the things that we go through are nothing but test, and those test are God's teaching methods in this here classroom, that we call life. As I am sitting here writing this and it is playing in my ear buds, and as the tears are welling up in my eyes, I am thinking of my own story how this, it's lyrics were a blessing to me, and still is on so many level's. One of my favorite lines of this song is in the bridge.

"Life perfect , ain't perfect if you don't know what the struggles for; Falling down ain't falling down if you don't cry when you hit the floor; it's called the past cause I'm getting pass and I ain't nothing like I was before: you ought to see me now: yes I was burn but I call it a lesson learned." Alicia Keys

It is the most power verse in the whole song. Yes we go through thing s but if life was all roses and butter cups; how much of a life would it be? What kind of person would you be? You need mountains, you need hills. You need valleys. You need the things that happen to you in life because they are the things that mold the makeup of you. And those things make up the story that will inevitably give you wisdom, give you courage, and give you strength to be able to deal with anything that may come your way. Because you got through the things that came before. But the journey of your life you must understand is not really for or about you. It really is about your story true! But it is your story, your valley's, your hills, your mountains, your struggles, your triumphs, your successes, and your failures; it is all of these things that will be used by The Most High to bless, encourage, save someone else.

Our trials, tribulations, our successes, our struggles, our getting over, are our stories, those stories are our testimonies, and our testimonies are blessings to someone else going through something in their life. The things that we go through in life are hard, and yes they are meant to teach us things. To teach us how to survive, how to love, how to be humble, how to be patient, how to pray… But as much as our struggles are for us, they are more for others. Sometimes The Most High takes you through things so that your story can encourage and strengthen someone else. Or sometimes simply to let someone going through something know that they are not the only person going through.

I mean honestly think about the last time you were going through a situation, and you were down and hurt and discouraged. Don't you remember God sending you someone to you to help you through? They didn't hand you a way out, but they handed you their story and they were going through a hard time to, a situation like yours; maybe even worst. But they had a smile on their face and they were persevering. Or they had come through it and they were telling how they came through. Hell, maybe they were just telling someone else how they had come through. But you were listening intently maybe unintentionally. But they're story encouraged you on. You remembered their disposition. You remembered their joy. You remembered that they were surviving,

You would be surprised at how many times you've actually been going through something and God has used it to affect someone else's change, and struggle. That time you were telling your story to a close friend and that friend told your same story to another friend going through a similar situation and because you shared your story unknowingly someone else found the strength to preserver, to survive, to fight, to win, and to achieve. You don't know that because of you someone decided to go to rehab, to go back to school. To change careers. You don't know who is watching you and who took strength from your struggle and it made them strong.

Our lessons Learned are just that; our lessons learned but they are blessings for someone else. They words of encouragement. Pats on the back. Love letters to someone's soul. Remember that what god brings you through it is your gift of love to bring someone else over. Embrace life, and learn your lessons with humility. Remember that your Learned are someone else's Blessing Turned.