His Side (Fall Issue 2020)

Cloud Tribe

His Side

Fall Edition 2020

Table of Contents Finances: Savings Rate Ideaology: Humility Health: Gym Membership Masculinity: Assert Yourself Entreprneurship: Be a man of action!

Relationships: Family Lifestyle: Minimalism Combatting Racism: Say less than necessary Fashion Fundamentals Their Side Texturism Is the Future Blacc Agriculture and Husbandry: Farming While Blacc They Want to Control Us: Why They Say Black Lives Matter

Finances: Savings Rates How much you should be saving as a man

We live in a society where ⅓ of people have no savings and most people would not survive a month without a source of income. We saw the blinders off in our society with the event of the virus and now a lot of people are making resolutions to never be caught with their pants down like that again. We live in a consumer-based society where we’re encouraged to spend and it’s important that you as an individual start looking out for yourself as soon as possible and begin to squirrel away a nest egg. A lot of people throw away their 20’s for fun and good experiences, only to turn around in their 30’s and realize that so far they’ve gone nowhere in life and a single negative event could throw them into financial chaos. You’re older now and you don’t have as much energy and drive as you did in your 20’s. You don’t bounce back as quick from a night of partying and drinking. A day of work takes more out of you, you spend less time on your hobbies and side hustles and more time on social media, youtube, and Netflix. You go to bed feeling tired, anxious, and wake up feeling depressed. You can’t seem to get your energy back anymore.

This is the common trap of western society. People waste precious time not building while they still could and wind up having to break their necks trying to catch up. We’re living our 20’s in our 30’s and that’s not a good thing for a man to be doing.

10-20%: Starting out it might be difficult to save any money. The best way to do this is to pay yourself first each paycheck. Treat yourself like you are a corporation that is owed money. Even if it’s just 5% of your income, get used to automatically taking money aside and putting it somewhere you can’t easily spend it (TFSA, RRSP, IRA’s, etc). After a few weeks or months when it becomes habitual, start to increase how much you save. Once you reach the 10-20% range, congratulations, you’re now at what should be the acceptable bare minimum. If you keep this up it’ll take 5-10 paychecks to have saved one paycheck’s worth of savings, or 10-20 to save what you make in a month. Are you starting to realize now how important it is to begin this process at once?

25-33%: This is the sweet spot to be in and can be extremely difficult to get to this savings rate depending on how much you earn. You have to consider your diet, your rent, your transportation, communications, and entertainment into your monthly budget. You have to be willing to live the way few people will in order to have a lifestyle few people can have. If you need to have roommates to lower the cost of rent so be it. If you have to cut back on meeting up with friends, eat out less and cook at home more that’s the price that must be paid in order to start to save some wealth.

At 25-33% of your income, it only takes 3-4 paychecks to have saved what you earn biweekly and the money starts to pile up faster than you think. One month you think for all your efforts you didn’t even save that much but after a year you’ll laugh looking at your savings and realize how much better you sleep at night.

40+%: At this point, you’re pretty much a god, I tip my hat off to you sir. Even I have never been able to save this much money on a consistent basis. In some cases, I would go so far as to say it’s not possible to do so without living at home with your parents or owning a property with tenants that completely cover your mortgage. In just 1-2 paychecks you’ve saved what you earned and in a little more than a year, you’ll have a year’s salary worth of savings under your belt, putting you in a very favorable position for future endeavors.

Savings won’t make you rich but it’s the first step into becoming rich and in being a provider. One needs to be able to invest to grow money and to invest one needs money on the side to do so. Money doesn’t always buy happiness but it does buy security and livelihood. On your road to economic success,, you’ll have to push yourself at times harder than you ever thought were possible before and make short term sacrifices for long term rewards. Don’t lose sight of your goals, and remember the pain you feel in saving is temporary.

Ideology: Humility

Pride is not the opposite of shame, in fact, it is derived from it.

True humility is the cure to shame.

Humility is about acceptance of self. For your faults, flaws, and limits to your capabilities. Everyone wants to believe that they’re Lil Wayne and they have the work ethic where they’ve literally evolved beyond the point of requiring sleep, but this is harmful to yourself and the people around you.

It might be hard as a Black man who has had so much pride taken from you already, had so many moments where you were forced to humble yourself. The truth is depending on where your pride is drawn from it can be poisoning yourself and your community. We need people that we feel we can turn to when we’re in need and that we can build within an alliance.

We live in a self-centered world right now, more than ever before.

And while in a lot of ways this has been a good thing, but in as many ways it has done damage to humanity as a whole.

If you’re an adult you don’t need to keep trying to look cool anymore. Find your niche and your affinities and position yourself to be around other people who share your ideologies, dreams, and goals and assist them in helping theirs in return’

Health: Gym Membership Now is the time to sign up for that gym membership. It’s the beginning of the fall, and you can have the body of your dreams by next summer. Health is wealth, I truly believe that.

No amount of money can justify you living in a body that causes you suffering, be it mental or physical. If you’re young perhaps your metabolism is still nimble enough that you haven’t gotten your freshman 15. And if it’s already slowing down the good news is, all the extra weight is good for bulking up once you start hitting the gym.

I can’t count how many times I’ve heard men in their 20’s, the literal prime fitness years of their life complain about pains and aches. It’s true our society can be self-destructive especially to the youth but the fact of the matter is, it’s not normal to be having back pain in your 20’s (without being involved in a serious accident or injury). And yet lots of men I have conversations with will grumble and groan about their body aching when they’re no older than myself.

Working out has a massive amount of benefits. You become stronger, faster, have more stamina, the muscles that wrap around your bones and joints are strengthened reducing the chance of injury or developing aches and pains, and your bones from lifting heavy weights, break on a microscopic level. Which in turn reheals, strengthening even your bones.

You’re truly getting a new body from your skin to your core.

You’ll feel better during the day, and have more confidence and positivity in your life when you look in the mirror and see that bit of swollenness. Or seeing that spare tire start to diminish off of your midsection.

Weightlifting boosts your testosterone levels, slows down aging, and burns a lot of calories. Even while you’re not working out, making it easier to stay looking good and keep yourself from putting on bad weight. You develop more mitochondria, and if there’s one thing you should know about mitochondria it’s they’re the f*cking powerhouses of the cell. Your energy levels might literally double after a few weeks of working out.

When you lift weights, not only is it good at establishing a routine. It gives you a reason to get up in the morning or to keep going at the end of the day after work. It develops discipline as it requires dedication to do this continuously 3-4 days a week. And dedication is a necessary muscle in your journey to becoming the best version of yourself.

You start to see in your 20’s the results of recklessness on people’s bodies, and some of them never recover.

People develop life long conditions that can reap a tremendous amount of suffering over the rest of their lives. Set goals for yourself in running and in weightlifting, and when you hit them, revise and set new ones. Don’t let yourself stagnate in life, you’re either growing or shrinking.

Masculinity: Asset Yourself

I had this particular problem in my late teens and early 20’s.

I was way too much of a people pleaser and by extension of that I never really developed the muscle of asserting myself. I wanted other people to like me and feel comfortable around me. But I never worried about my own comforts.

This caused me to suffer in a lot of different ways, and I came to see that by not asserting myself it was a sense of disrespect if not outright violence towards myself. By not drawing a line fast enough or speaking about my needs I was literally starving myself.

It can be hard for someone to start asserting themselves in life. You feel like someone might yell at you or try to fuck you up. But the truth is most people will respect you if you speak up when you need to, and even if they don’t your wellbeing matters more than other people’s opinions of you.

It also doesn’t have to be a 0-100 level up. You can take baby steps and work on building this mental muscle overtime.

Ask for someone to move when you don’t have enough space. Ask for extra napkins or more water from your waitress when you’re parched. Ask for water at Starbucks, (they’re free but don’t be a cheapskate every day). Tell your boss/manager you feel like you have to much work to do on your own. Tell your parents/siblings or partner off when they undermine you. Ask for assistance when you’re at a store and you can’t find an item. Over time your confidence will improve and you’ll feel more comfortable asking for larger things. You don’t need to suffer, and you don’t deserve to.

Entrepreneurship: Be a man of action!

Just a raw entrepreneur mindset to have in order to be successful you need to be a man of action. It’s important to be organized and have plans as well, but when something needs to get done, as soon as you think about it you do it. Make that phone call, reply to that email. Write the paragraph. Set up that meeting, buy that book, and finish it in a week for research. You’ve gotta move, not necessarily with a sense of urgency but with a sense of purpose. Start being proactive and stop being reactive. Every day that goes by, you fall more and more behind and other more focused and ambitious people pull further and further ahead.

“You n*ggas spend too much time on captions not enough time on action.”

Relationships: Family I feel like there aren’t enough men’s topics that seriously talk about the importance of relationships and maintaining them. Especially with family, Your family is always changing, your parents are getting older and either more successful at their careers or struggling to keep up with the changing times. Your siblings are going thru challenges and issues of their own be it in professional or personal life. Their sense of community and tribalism is being formed in the subconscious of their minds. Where were the people who helped them and cared the most while they were at the toughest points in their life?

The first people you should be open to building with is family and any information or knowledge you have is meant to be shared with them to help them better their own lives, and in return, they will do the same for you.

Be careful in chasing your own success that you forget about the people you grew up with. You can’t carry them through life but you should be there to support them when they need it. Your family is all you’ve got and tends to be the only thing you have left in your final years

Lifestyle: Minimalism

Minimalism, some people see it as a hipster trend, other people see it as a beautiful new way to live your life. I see it currently as something necessary to survive the future society we’re going into. Every year inflation is taking place and what we earn means less and less. There was a time where one person could support a family on a salary from a job they got as a highschool dropout.

Buy property and furnish that house over a couple of years.

Those days are gone and only the most adaptable and frugal are going to survive and come out on top. When I talk about minimalism I don’t mean being cheap. Most possessions I have that are not clothing are expensive, I try to buy high quality and longevity. And that’s it, I buy the necessities and am careful to never indulge too long into anything. I’d love to kick my feet back and spend every cent that I earn every paycheck but I already have trouble sleeping a night even with how much that I’ve accomplished so far.

We live in a society where people try to fulfill their emptiness and insecurities with materials. Instead of dealing with psychological issues, we try to buy things to cure them. And there’s nothing wrong with being comfortable or having nice things. It’s important to be realistic and think about the future of yourself, friends, and families. It’s also important to remember nothing you own you’ll be able to take with you when you die. At best you’ll be able to give it to your kids. Everything you buy has a present and future cost. What was a dollar today, is 5 dollars ten years from now. So when you spend 100 dollars you’re really spending 500.

So invest in yourself and invest in the future. Buy and own property and have experiences that were enjoyable, enriching, and memorable. Don’t waste your time and money on things that are going to offer little value short and long term.

Combating Racism: Say Less Than Necessary

I know this sounds contradictory but hear me out. Have you noticed the more you say something the less likely you are to get it? If you ask about sex for 45 minutes you’re not more likely to get it you’re less likely. When you ask for a raise and moan about it for days or weeks you’re more likely not to get it. It becomes annoying and it makes yourself sound weak.

In a racist situation don’t allow yourself to get too emotional.

Simply state what was done, why it was unjust, and keep moving. Be curt and sharp and people will learn very quickly that you won’t hesitate to call them out. Leave an air of unpredictability and tension from how little was actually said.

That’s the second part of saying less than necessary. When people can predict what you’re going to do or say next it takes all the power out of it. By saying little you are unpredictable and people will make much larger offers and efforts in order to keep you happy or rectify the mistake.

Thirdly I’ll always say this about combating racism even though it doesn’t relate to the saying less than necessary topic. Always have yourself positioned where you can leave if things get bad. Most jobs are shitty, some are good, and a few are great. Always position yourself so that your employer doesn’t have too much power over you. Don’t let them know too much about what you do in your free time. Especially if it’s something productive. Always save money so that you don’t need to come into work to keep living, and if you’re looking for another job tell nobody of your plans. Most people will rat you out directly or indirectly to management and you might find yourself needing that new job sooner than you thought.

Ancestry & Legacy: Think about your next 4 years You’re the president. Not enough people do this but plan ahead. Seriously plan ahead. Don’t just think where am I going to be in 4 years. Write it down, detail how you’re going to accomplish this, and stick it on a wall in your room or bathroom that you will see everyday consciously or subconsciously. Your mind is an extremely powerful piece of biological ingenuity that will align yourself to accomplishing your goals if you give it ample time. By planning out where you will be, you’re more likely to come close to the lifestyle you imagined for yourself. If you are not planning to win you’re planning to fail.

Fashion Fundamentals

I know this sounds corny after all the deep heavy shit we’ve covered, but how you look and present yourself matters regardless of what your momma said bout not judging a book by it’s cover. Most people do. At least initially, you can choose to adapt to this fact or fall victim to it.

Fall is coming, which means some changes might need to be made to your wardrobe, and it’s not a bad time to clear out the old. For some men, it’s as easy as removing the lame t-shirts from their closet. For others, it might be a bit more challenging to know where to begin. Sometimes the easiest way is to simply start over. Get rid of all your old and outdated t-shirts and start from scratch with some plain colours like black, white, grey, blue. And build from that foundation.

Add a couple of toques, a scarf, new socks, and boxers to your drawer (since they always seem to magically disappear). Get your fall/winter boots now if you hurry you can still get them for a summer discount before they get pushed to the front of the store.

Texturism is the future

We live in a society where detail is becoming more valuable. In every facet of life, if you compare to items the one that has more layers, detail, intricacies, sophistication is always more valuable than the other. Be it tech, clothes, food, music, media, hair. The greater the variety and distinctiveness the more value is credited for it.

Historically, especially in North America people of African descent had laws against them to oppress their hair as a form of expression for themselves. Your hair is something you’re connected to physically and spiritually. It’s a statement to how healthy you are, and on your creativity, uniqueness, spirituality. Slaves would regularly have their hair cut off, after slavery was abolished there were laws that forced Black women to cover there hair. It’s still an issue and part of a culture that still exists to this day. People act like when it isn’t short or covered up it isn’t a professional look.

It’s important to note the massive gains that have been made for the natural hair movement, especially among our women, which is awesome. We’re starting to see a real renaissance and reclamation of our hair. Our hair when it’s healthy can do almost anything. Every other demographic has normal hair that grows straight down but ours grows out in every direction like sunbeams. It’s rare even amongst the animal kingdom to have the same or similar texture as ours, and that makes it even more special and valuable!

How we maintain and style it gives it more intrinsic and

Even when you look at futuristic movies where there are these zaney aristocratic people they have these cool sometimes alien-looking styles of makeup and hair, there something any Black person could achieve, and going into the future I definitely believe it will become the norm.

There’s this long-held standard for Black women that looser hair is more feminine and tighter/dryer hair is more masculine. Anyone should know by now that’s bullsh*t and is just one of the many oppressive tools that have been implemented into our society that’s distorted our psyche. It devalues our women and anything that devalues our women devalues us as a collective. It is a sentiment that should be challenged whenever you see it expressed as it is one of the things that destroy our current and future value. The Eurocentric standard of beauty is not the universal standard, and the effects of colonialism and slavery were never properly erased from our cultures. Our hair is something that can’t be copied, no matter what people do or try it won’t sit or grow out of their heads like our crowns do.

Nappy is happy

Blacc Agriculture, Husbandry and Hunting: Farming While Black

If we were taught to be self-sufficient from the beginning most of us would be free by the end of our 20’s. If we were taught at a young age things like how to build a house, natural energy, livestock, and crop raising yearround. Preservation of crops/meat, hunting. In a couple of years, you would have a self-sustaining property you could live in or rent out for the rest of your life.

To raise crops and livestock you’ve essentially wiped out food from your budget. So you’ve already wiped out the 2 most expensive things you have to pay for in your life (rent and food) and you could be taught this by 18 years of age.

One deer will feed 2-4 people a year if you eat it a couple of times a week and do a good job at cleaning and preserving its meat in storage.

Greenhouses allow us to grow crops year-round and it’s not even new technology, it’s been around for decades.

Beekeeping is pretty easy, it’s a fairly self-sustaining form of income or access to that sweet refined nectar we know and love called honey. All you need is a good environment and patience.

Natural energy can already be generated by wind, solar, hydro, even compost, and we have pedal energy that can be used also now year around. The technology is improving year over year.

There’s been a resurgence in interest in Black Agriculture and Husbandry. Theirs a long history of being taken advantage of as Black farmers. Even after slavery, there was Jim crow and Black farmers were consistently attacked by neighboring farmers and ignored by the government for assistance. They had to rent out land to work on and every year always owed more than what they wer eable to produce. So culturally for a long time farming was seen as slavery with extra steps. There was a mass migration of Black people out of the south once we gave up farming and sharecropping and we never returned to it since then.

If we become producers instead of consumers, we shift the power dynamic. It’s important for our health and wealth. So many of our foods are processed or filled with vaccines, hormones, steroids, pesticides. All for the sake of maximizing profits often at the expense of our health.

Getting started: Have a few plants in your window, it can be as little as a cactus or a basil plant or it can be a lush interior teeming with life. Plants also clean your air and improve the mood of people with them in their house. Look for local community gardens, you’d be surprised how much is available for free or reasonably affordable that can give you a chance to try out your green thumb. Start a group and pool your wealth in order to get a piece of land and partake in the caretaking and harvesting of all the crops on theirs.

“Farming While Black” by Leah Penniman: Talks about her struggle and fruits of her labor. How much love and happiness was being manifested in her life.

She shares farming techniques, caring for the land, how to expand, government grants, heirlooms. She speaks on forming Susu communities. Crop cycles, tools, and tech, seed keeping, and breeding (certain looks, tastes, colours). Moving to a different area for expansion/contaminated land.

There is information on raising livestock, pigs, chicken, rabbits, goats. It doesn’t take much to feed a family or a small community. She even touches on herbalism.

Returning to natural medicines instead of pharmaceutical medicine that cures the symptoms but not the problems.

In doing so and seeing what the earth is able to provide you with a little love, time and patience. Changing you to having an abundance mindset over one of scarcity. This will continue to give you benefits in other areas of your life.

She also speaks about spirituality, honoring the spirits of the land. Instead of just using the earth it’s about respecting and appreciating it for nourishing us and giving us everything we need.

Society is Darkening themselves to keep our dollars and keep us from building our own communities, and it’s working.

“They want to control us, that’s why they’re saying Black lives matter” We’re so backed into a corner the enemy is able to openly defend and still continue to win on top of us. Companies have realized that they must adapt their business to at least feign being accepting to Black people and so Ads, Tv shows, All kinds of big-name brands our voicing their support and giving donations but the truth is unless they promote Black people on a mass scale into positions of power of if they invest substantially into Black-owned businesses and infrastructure nothing is going to change. In fact, it’s just going to keep getting worse.

I’d love to be able to hold hands and say Kumbaya. But the fact is this is real life on a global scale. African Americans are poorer now than they were 50 years ago. Africa is daily being taken piece by piece in a 3-way tug of war between Europe, Asia, and the middle east. Pretty soon we won’t even have a motherland anymore.

When you see more and more companies making ads that cater to us, what they’re doing is continuing the extraction of wealth out of our communities while they continue to line the pockets of their own. They used to be afraid of representing us but now they see how valuable and easy money we are. As Black people continue to make up more of the majority of the youth they’ll continue to do this and get money hand over fist over top of us until we get serious about economics and putting ourselves first.

Cloud Tribe

His Side