R.I.P. Rekia Boyd

I am sure that Rekia Boyd never imagined that being in a neighborhood park would end her life.  Being in the wrong place at the wrong time is how some will rationalize this tragedy but it underscores the fact that she was shot by someone who is supposed to be a trained "to serve and protect".

There is still more to be discovered in this case and yet I fear that because this has been deemed a police justified shooting little will be revealed or done to discover why this young woman lost her life at the hands of a trained police officer. The Chicago police department is saying that the off-duty officer ( I can't find his name anywhere) shot Rekia Boyd in the head when he fired (from inside his vehicle) on a male that he believed was holding a weapon.  What?

Police officers are treated as above reproach because they are considered trustworthy and honorable because there is supposed to be a moral code that they abide by.  This is America and Black people unfortunately know better than most that there are police officers that have no morals and who definitely don't think that that code should include us.  Police department cover-ups are an unfortunate norm in America's history especially when race is a factor.

My condolences go out to Rekia Boyd's family.  I do hope that there is an in-depth investigation to discover why this young woman lost her life.  

We have to continue speaking out against these travesties of injustice because the truth needs to prevail.

The Benefit of the Doubt?

Giving "the benefit of the doubt" is an expression that I have no use for as a Black person living under the racist conditioning of this world.  It is dead as far as I am concerned right along with the expression "I'll trust you until you give me a reason not to".  These expressions and many like them are dangerous and do not apply to life for Black people in America or even around the world when dealing with white people and racism.  When it comes to racism, expressions like these serve the purpose of creating a delusional reality for white people and a false sense of safety for Black people.

Black people can't afford the "benefit of the doubt".  It is costing us too much.  Allowing these mindsets to permeate our consciousness deludes us into believing that we DON'T live in a society that will not hesitate in trying to eliminate us physically, mentally and emotionally.  There is no real trust, safety or benefit for non-white people in an oppressive white supremacist society.

We can't allow our desire and right to live in a racially unbiased world lull us into believing that it is ever really possible to do that in a world that is structurally biased against us. White people/White Identified People that like to say that we can't or shouldn't judge them by the actions of too many when they go around judging Black people by the actions of a few can shut the hell up and get back to me when they get harassed, maligned or assaulted on a daily basis just for breathing.  

America has a racism problem.  Black people can't trust a world that insists on perpetuating the lie that we are the reason racism continues to exist.  Be mindful that no matter how "good" we are in this world, as Black people, our lives will not be better until society as a whole denounces sick people and racist practices that exist purposefully to ensure that we don't.

Never be silent and always watch your back.

The American Education System and Racism

As parents we have to worry about so much when it comes to raising our children to become good people and productive parts of society.  Part of that pursuit means ensuring that they are well educated and allowed to engage every aspect of potential in life.  But when you have to deal with people like Marilyn Bart inside the classroom trying to systematically destroy that when their defenses are down, within an environment that is supposed to be safe, you can't help but wonder if it's worth subjecting them to it at all.

A veteran Fairfax County high school teacher has been accused of using racially insensitive language by telling a student to read a Langston Hughes poem in a "blacker" style. 

"She told me, 'Blacker, Jordan. C'mon, blacker. I thought you were black,'" Shumate told the Post. The 14-year-old student claimed that when he refused to continue reading the poem, the teacher read it herself, apparently to demonstrate the style of speaking she meant. 

"She sounded like a maid on the 1960s," Shumate told the Post, saying he asked the teacher if she thought all black people spoke that way. “She read the poem like a slave, basically.”

He said he was reprimanded for talking out of turn and was told to sit down.Shumate told his mother, Nicole Cober Page, about the incident on Tuesday, the Post said. 

I will say that I am not the mother for these type of shenanigans.  I have no patience or desire to give adults the benefit of the doubt when they are in a position to damage my child.  I am the parent that will write an email to the teacher with a cc: the principal and I expect to get any issue addressed in a timely manner.  Some parents think that they are creating a problem for their child (which the corrupt are hoping for) but I feel that it is the exact opposite.  We are our children's best advocate. Paper trails are amazing tools.


The teacher taunted this student in order to get him to do what she wanted.  She wanted him to "do it blacker".  As if the speech used in that poem was not indicative of the time period, region and education level rather than racial identity.  When white folks keep perpetuating the lie that only Black people during this time period spoke in this manner they continue their lying white fairytale. 


Because our children are disproportionately taught by white teachers (which really needs to change) it that means that any of them can be exposed to racially charged language, behaviors and actions by those teachers if they are inclined to use them.  This is the kind of crap that parents of Black children have to guard against everyday and there is a direct correlation between that bias and our children succeeding academically.


These types of people can make our children hate school because their environment is littered with trash disguised as teachers.  So to the Marilyn Bart's out there I would be very careful when you request for a Black person to behave in the manner of your stereotyped mind because you won't get to pick and choose which stereotype they choose to engage!

Cause and Consequence: Trayvon Martin's Death

It's been three weeks since Trayvon Martin was murdered and his parents have yet to see the man responsible arrested.  The 911 tapes have been released and they show that Trayvon was targeted and that he was not killed in self-defense.  This was a hate crime.  This young man did not have a chance against this person that was intent on ending his life.  He was walking back from the store after buying a bag of candy and an iced tea.

Black men have been propagandized to be the most feared in the world but they are definitely not the most dangerous. Why?  Because a society that is conditioned to go out of it's way to allow white males/white-identified males to grow up in a world that will justify and condone their horrific actions makes white males the most dangerous and all non-white people are at risk.

When the white supremacist power structure spends centuries making sure that the world believes you to be a threat to personal safety (from birth) then you create a world that is capable of anything to ensure your elimination.  Trayvon Martin is one of many Black children that have died due to racially motivated assaults.  

Black parents have a very real problem on their hands.  Black children are not safe because their lives are not valued.  We can continue to believe that it's "that child" and "it won't be my child" but we will do so risking our children's lives in the process.  It could have been any of our children!  Teenagers wear hoodies all of the time (male and female) so it could have easily been my daughter in Trayvon's position.  This a civil rights, child welfare and personal safety issue.  

When white males are allowed to write and enforce laws that disproportionately ensure that they will be allowed to do anything that they please with impunity then we have created society's most dangerous individual.  White males consumed with the white supremacist power structure are the ones that pose a threat to all of us and cause the most harm.  To be silent is to be complicit.  Sign the petition.

Trayvon Martin did not deserve to die but George Zimmerman deserves to be punished.

   

Taking the High Road???

The problem with the expression "taking the high road" is the fact that more often than not the person taking the low road is conditioned to expecting that person to automatically do it.  This is the common response that many of us have probably heard being thrown out at us as a solution when we have been subjected to racism.  The years of stress that I have suffered from this doozy kept me angry.

BlacknBougie has a post today discussing racism, our society and the tragic Trayvon Martin case.  She gives her own examples of  "taking the high road" to combat racist behavior which as you read further subjects her to only allowing her complete frustration to be aired in private.  The racist gets to go on their way unaffected and without any sort of repercussions for what they have done.

We are always expected to breathe and hold it in.  It being the words or actions that would call a racist out for who and what they are.  For far too many white people being called a racist is now seen as worse than having racism inflicted on you.  When a racist is called out on their racism they will more often than not try to present themselves as the injured.   Forget the person that is subjected to the racist words, actions or behaviors.  They are insignificant compared to the racists' offense of being labeled a racist.

I just can't with stupid people anymore.  That is what a racist is-- a stupid person.  I exceeded my "high road" quota a long time ago.  I will call them on it.  Period.

Another Black Male Accountability Fail

In modern usage a scapegoat may be a child, employee, peer, ethnic or religious group, or country singled out for unmerited negative treatment or blame. (wikipedia)

I am sick and tired of hearing people defend completely indefensible actions.  When other Black men use terms like scapegoat to absolve other men of destructive and irresponsible behavior we get a two-fer in the Black Male Accountability problem.

Too Short (on intelligence) continues his "It wasn't my fault" and "I am a victim of the system" rounds with yet another interview.  Explaining that if it wasn't for "the man" making the money so good on degradation towards his own community then he and others wouldn't have done those type of albums.

I wanted to do a whole album of positive Too Short songs, just to keep that balance. I had made a verbal deal with Barry Weiss, where he was like, “Right now would be the perfect time, you should do like the raunchiest Too Short album ever – the album cover, the songs, just do a dirty f***in’ Too Short album.” This is the executive running the company advising me to put out an entire album of just cursing and sex.

And I noticed that at a certain point in Hip Hop the major labels stopped signing and promoting the positive artists, the ones that was just really positive. Positive images were hard to get out there. So I’m just saying that at some point it wasn’t that Hip Hop changed on its own, it had a little push. I’m a real conspiracy theorist, and I just feel like there had to be a gathering of the major labels and somebody had to say like, “Look, we gotta keep this positive shit off the airwaves and let this booty-shaking shit take over. It’s time.” And after that it’s like the floodgates just opened with sex and violence.

Negro Please.  It just happened?  "The Man" made him do it?  Too Short and the others like him are NOT victims.  They are the predatory perpetrators that have continued to plague the black community destroying it from the inside!  I am a proponent of being accountable and responsible for your actions.  Too Short and those that support him apparently don't feel the same.

Psst.  By the way.  Slavery is over.

A Federal Jude Didn't Get The Memo That America Is Post-Racial.

America is a racist country due to despicable people like Chief Justice Richard Cebull and America grows increasingly weaker because of it.

Most want to believe that we live in an evolved an forward thinking country that prides itself on leaders that will and can do what is best for all of its citizens.  But we don't.  Because America's racist foundation has not been demolished and that racist foundation allows for men like Chief Justice Cebull (See-Bull) to be in an appointed position (by G.W. Bush) of power to shaping the lives of the citizens in this country.

This Federally Appointed Official has decided that it is both appropriate and harmless to send a racist email (as long as it remained private) denigrating not only President Obama but his mother as well.  He admits that he realized the email was racist and that people would be offended by it but he offers their textbook apology response with the expected caveat of not being a racist just because he sent a racist email and that he was just expressing his anti-Obama sentiment.

The judge acknowledged that the content of the email was racist, but said he does not consider himself racist. He said the email was intended to be a private communication.

"It was not intended by me in any way to become public," Cebull said. "I apologize to anybody who is offended by it, and I can obviously understand why people would be offended."

He admitted that he read the email and intended to send it to his friends.

"The only reason I can explain it to you is I am not a fan of our president, but this goes beyond not being a fan," Cebull said. "I didn't send it as racist, although that's what it is. I sent it out because it's anti-Obama."

For those that want to believe that there is a difference between a racist from Buqwuat, USA and a racist sitting the judicial bench it would probably be hard to imagine that Cebull would express such a racist sentiment.  I mean as a Chief Justice "the believers" would think that he could express his disagreement with the Obama Administration policies or his position on other issues is an intelligent, articulate and non-racist manner.  The believers underestimate the intrinsic nature of a racist.  They can't help themselves!

"I have never considered myself that way," Cebull said. "All I can emphasize is I've treated people in my courtroom all these years fairly. I don't think I've ever demonstrated racism. Nobody has ever even implied it."

Riiight.  We are supposed to believe that the email was the absolute first time that he has ever demonstrated racism and of course racism never ever influenced his decisions in the court room.  I am thinking that a judicial review needs to be done.  Well lookee here HE is asking for one.  Let's just hope that the ones doing the review weren't on his email list.

Post-racial was a media label that was attached to America's story after President Obama's election.  That label is nothing more than a soundbite that was amplified via the media and in no way implies that this country isn't racist or that it is not infested with racists throughout our Executive, Legislative and Judicial bodies of government. President Obama is the first non-white president in an independent country that has existed for over two hundred years.  Enough Said.