New Hashtag Same Shit. Are we crazy?

I'm going to be blunt.
If you talked shit about Kaepernick as I did initially but have nothing to say about the deaths of black men at the hands of taxpayer funded public servants you are a racist.  Period.  I don't care how many black friends you have.  I don't care if those black friends co-sign your unwavering loyalty to every form of law enforcement. I don't care if they allow you to call them nigga/nigger or any other conjugation present, past, future participle or derivative therein of the word "negro" that you think gives you a black pass.  I don't care how many black people you've slept with so you think you understand us.  You're a racist.  Just own it so we can all move forward with the discussion.  And in anticipation of the usual gutless, victim blaming responses, I've taken the liberty of preparing a list of answers that I'm sure any black person of any origin who's lived in this country for more than 5 years would appreciate.

1. "You're not oppressed!  Look at how much money (insert black celebrity here) makes!  I mean even the President is black!  What are you all complaining about?"

Right.  Because we all share one bank account at the Black Bank of Black America where TyQan and 'em from down the block can make direct withdrawals from the Black America Sovereign Wealth fund in which every black celeb from Oprah to LeBron to Obama makes monthly deposits to hold us all down until our welfare check arrives.  We all must have forgotten about that.  All 37,685,848 of us.

2. "I'm the real victim of racism here!  You and your Black Lives Matter terrorist thugs just want every special privilege for yourself and not have to work for anything!  Hard working black folks don't have time to go protest and block the highways to complain over nothing!"  

For the the slow....let's settle this once and for all.

Racism = systemic mistreatment.
Like a loan officer refusing to approve a mortgage in an affluent neighborhood because the applicant is melaninated (I love that word, thanks Blavity).  Or creating laws that specifically target black people.  You know, the stuff that keeps African Americans from latching on to those bootstraps you're so fond of.  The ones you've probably never had to pull yourself up by while enjoying the massive wealth and privilege that 87 (1776-1863) years of free labor and another 150 (1864-2016) of disproportionately underpaid labor brings.  Oh and let's not forget that if your a white male, you've always had the right to vote and be considered a full person, and been allowed to live wherever you choose.


Prejudice = an opinion usually held by assholes.
A non-white person that hates you, Mr./Ms. Victim of  "Reverse Racism," usually has no power to act on their opinion other than to make you feel bad.  You have the option of literally turning on your heels and go about your life as if that person never existed.  You never have to worry about losing a job because a non-white person said he/she didn't like you.  Unless, of course, you posted some racist shit on social media first...then you're on  your own.  (No, that's not PC bullshit.  It's called not being an asshole.)  As a member of the "default" class/culture, however, your low opinion of us (born out of decades of stereotypes designed to make mainstream America think we deserve discrimination) can create racism...and actually kill people.  Like #TerrenceCrutcher, #PhilandoCastile, #AltonSterling, #TamirRice, #JohnCrawfordIII, #SandraBland and #EricGarner despite the fact that murdering black people for being black is no longer legal.  (Feels like it though.)  If you want to count not being profiled, harassed, strip searched, disrespected, jailed and/or killed by the people who are charged to protect you then yes.  I want special privileges.  All of them.

Gimme.  Gimme. Gimme.

Protests are usually done by students, who don't work because they're in school and by activists who's actual job is bringing attention to cultural issues.  So they are doing their jobs by telling you they want to stop dying at the hands of crooked cops.  If they block the highway, you still get to go home.  It's an inconvenience, not a terrorist act.  Just because you're afraid when a bunch of black folks are standing together in unison doesn't mean....*sigh* never mind.

"Obey the law and you won't get shot!"

Exercising  your rights is not disobeying the law.
Calling out an officer for a bullshit traffic stop is not disobeying the law.
Talking back is not disobeying the law.
Displaying a weapon in an open carry state is not disobeying the law.
Police are also subject to the law.  (At least they're supposed to be)
It used to be illegal for people of different races to marry.
It used to be illegal for anyone other than land owning white men to vote.  The law is flawed and subject to the prejudices (see above) of the people who write and enforce it.
Summary executions are rarely warranted but it happens to black folks way more often than it should given statistical norms.  Yes nominally more white people are shot by officers but rich people pay nominally more taxes than you do too.  Smaller pot, smaller numbers, much bigger impact.


"You never protest Black on Black Crime!"

We do.  All the time.  It just doesn't affect you so you never pay attention until you try to use it to shut black people up.  And stop saying that.  If you want to really go there "White on White" crime kills far more people.  There's only one demographic that has the single gunman mass murder market locked up tight.

"If you don't like it here, LEAVE!"

We built this damned country together.  Brick by lash driven blood soaked brick.  The first man to die for American independence was a black man.  We have fought and bled for America in every war its ever waged and served in its politics before we were even considered human.  Who the hell do you think you are to tell us to leave?  You don't own America.  You never did.

I've already spoken at length about the steps that need to be taken to end this cycle and I'm not one to repeat myself.  However, this cycle of people who are supposed to be public servants disproportionately killing a segment of its employers is the definition of insanity.  Even if you couldn't care less about the people being killed, which you should if you've ever uttered the phrase All Live Matter, it's your tax dollars that are paying for the screw ups of these incompetent "officers." These settlements, which I think are patently insulting by putting a monetary value on a person's potential, are coming out of your pocket.  How about we stop spending millions of dollars in hush money to grieving families and start spending it on hiring better educated officers?  One's that might have a more complete accounting of our history and aren't so quick to pull the trigger because they've been culturally conditioned to believe that all lives really don't matter equally.  Can we do that?  Or am I the one who's crazy?

...Til Next Week.

Brexit, Black Republicans, and Faith: Just Thought You Should Know 6/24/16

I love and appreciate you Pastor, but I think you're wrong.

What do you do when your spiritual leader's politics are not congruent with your own?  This week as we mark the anniversary of the Emanuel AME Church massacre, I find myself at a special crossroads. My pastor, Rev. A.R. Bernard Sr., pastor of Christian Cultural Center in Brooklyn, NY, revealed this week that he is part of an "evangelical advisory committee" for the Republican presumptive presidential nominee, Donald J. Trump.  Pastor Bernard and 19 other evangelical leaders, including the ultraconservative former Minnesota congresswoman Michele Bachmann, met with Trump on Wednesday in New York, at his request, to discuss various matters of faith and policy before a larger meeting with over 1,000 church leaders.  While not giving his explicit endorsement (it was not required by the Trump campaign to sit on the board surprisingly) Pastor Bernard says he came away from the meeting "impressed" with Trump's sincerity and seemingly dismissed some of Trump's verbal flip flops as him being merely "inarticulate."  He appeared on several news talk shows including Roland Martin on NewsOne , Fox & Friends, and his weekly guest spot on Sirius XM  to explain his position but, and I say this respectfully, I personally find that position troubling.

Trump presents one of more uncomfortable tables for the Christian conservative movement to come to in recent politics. It’s not only his personal story that poses problems, filled as it is with unscrupulous business practices, two tumultuous divorces, and prior liberal leanings on topics like abortion. It’s his current policy portfolio, too. The two immovable pillars of Trump’s presidential campaign are opposition to undocumented immigrants and a fierce rejection of refugees from the Middle East. Those happen to be two of the occasional break points between the religious right and the Republican Party.  -- Trump's New Evangelical Advisors Neither Love Him Nor Hate Him.  They Just Want Him To Listen, Sam Stein, Huffington Post 6/22/2016

Pastor's argument on SiriusXM (unfortunately I can't post the link but it's 6/24/16 edition of "The Armstrong Williams Show" On Demand if you subscribe to XM) is that the neither the Democrats nor the Republicans have done anything for the African-American community so maybe something different is required.  Disappointingly, I heard the usual talking point trotted out to explain why Pastor Bernard, as a card carrying Republican, would be open to a candidate who has spent most of his public life living in opposition to the very values he lives by as a man of faith.

"He's not your typical Republican."

He also made the argument that evangelicals must make character compromises sometimes for candidates who do not have the sterling family record of a Barack Obama, who is still as scandal free as the day he was the elected.  To be fair, he doesn't explicitly defend Trump's most outrageous ideas, like banning Muslims from entering the United States, but he walked a fine enough line with his words to avoid outright condemning Trump for anything.  He didn't hesitate, however, to criticize Hillary Clinton for her husband's infamous "3 strikes" legislation that sent black incarceration rates soaring and on Roland Martin's show, bring up Bill Clinton's infidelity as a moral measuring stick to contrast Trump.  Both are notorious womanizers but neither of those points, in my opinion, can be tied to Mrs. Clinton since she wasn't even a politician in 1994 when 3 strikes became law and penalizing her candidacy for the sexual sins of her husband is wrong.  There are plenty of other, more legitimate criticisms, like the debacle in Beghazi during her tenure as Secretary of State, the e-mail scandal that won't go away, lying about coming under sniper fire in Yugoslavia, voting to go to war in Iraq as a Senator in 2002, and using racism in her campaign against Barack Obama in 2008. 

Look a Sniper! (Photo: Washingtonpost.com)

Neutrality is something Pastor doesn't believe in.  He likened it to being dead in the opening monologue to his radio show this week, but I'm not sure if Pastor realized not only the level of backlash he would receive, but how even granting an audience with Trump, a man who tried to openly sway the black vote earlier in this campaign by meeting with 100 black pastors and failing miserably to get their endorsement, would influence his congregation.  To reiterate, Pastor has not given Mr. Trump his endorsement but there are people who would vote for a cactus if their pastor stood next to one.  Conversely, mistrust of the church is at an all time high and while I'm sure he sits on that advisory board to preach a prophetic word to a potential president, Pastor's party affiliation (R), Trump's track record, his fellow pastors doing things like buying jets at their congregation's expense, and covering up immoral scandals, have even the most devout believers questioning the motives of their leaders.  Does that mean he shouldn't have met with Trump?  If you asked me yesterday I'd have told you he should have slammed the door in his face.  Today?  I can understand why you would want to be at the table in the unlikely event he does become President.  Being an advocate for issues specific to people of color is essential in the halls of power where we are too often forgotten about or subject to laws that are based on stereotypes, not reality.  It probably just disgusts me that it might be Trump's table in November.

Trump retweeted falsehoods like this repeatedly during the primary

Trump is loathed by most people of color and except for the few he finds useful to further his own agenda, the feeling seems mutual.  All of his African American outreach efforts up to now have come across as pandering rather than actual engagement.  Changing that was Pastor's stated goal for attending.  However, Trump's pattern of behavior suggests that not only will he ignore what these Men of God have to say but he'll use this meeting as a wink and a nod to evangelicals across the country without having to actually change anything about himself, his policies, or his politics.  For the latest examples just look to his statements about the Orlando night club shooting, where he made sure to take credit for "being right" before he offered any condolences to the victim's families.  Yesterday, he held an hour long press conference, praising the success of Brexit while touring his golf course, as a win for Britain because it mirrored his own plan for the United States.  Brexit, or British Exit, if you weren't aware, is a referendum in which the UK voted to leave the European Union.  Their decision to leave the organization after 43 years, unfortunately, was driven largely by opposition to the EU's immigration policy of accepting Syrian refugees and the short term economic pain will be excruciating for the working class Brits who voted for it.  We saw a small taste of that economic pain yesterday when the British Pound crashed post vote, instantly wiping out years of national wealth.  Long term, Britain has an even tougher road ahead as the current Prime Minister, David Cameron, immediately announced his resignation effective this October.  His successor could possibly being the bigoted former mayor of London Boris Johnson who was a leader in the campaign to leave and is literally the British version of Trump.  Also, they're now directly competing with the EU for foreign trade agreements and their young adults will now require visas to work anywhere else in Europe which will ultimately cost them even more jobs, likely sending their economy into a deep recession.  There is evidence to suggest that most voters didn't truly understand what they were even voting for as the Washington Post reported that the most Googled phrase in England yesterday was "What is the EU?"  Maybe it is  a preview of what will happen if Trump is elected. Anti-intellectualism at its finest, folks.  Are we going to allow racism to rob us of our future too?

The fact that the Donald is close enough to the Presidency that the man I look to for a spiritual perspective felt the need to grant him an audience is nauseating.  It's as if people expect Donald Trump to morph into a respectable presidential candidate when he's shown again and again and again and again exactly who he is.  It's the crux of his appeal.  I understand the desire for change.  I understand that there are millions of people angry with the direction this country is going right now.  I felt it when I pulled the lever for President Barack Obama in 2008.  More specifically, I understand that the Clinton's track record when it comes to black folks is spotty at best and the "lesser of two evils" thought process we usually use to decide is tougher than ever before.  I'm not sure what the solution is, but I know Trump's policies would be disastrous for the country economically, socially, and politically.  Starting a trade war by taxing imports, building a wall along the Mexican border, and trying to extort payments from our allies will not bring the secure manufacturing jobs of the past back to our shores.  Globalization, as the UK will find out, is something you can't turn back the clock on.  Attempting to do so, instead of preparing for the economy you actually live in, is literally cutting off your nose to spite your face.  Ironically, this is when I would listen to Pastor to see what his views were but after this week, I realize that maybe the bigotry and isolationism is exactly what the people want.  Maybe the dream of a multi-cultural society is just that.  A dream.  Maybe, I really just need to pray for God's will to be done, ensure me and my family are OK and stop placing my faith in anything or anyone other than Him. 

...Til next week.

Congress Grows a Conscience: Just Thought You Should Know 6/17/16

A filibuster for the ages

While the usual script of public figures "sending thoughts and prayers in difficult times" played out in the aftermath of the horrific murders at Pulse Nightclub in Orlando, Senators Chris Murphy (D-CT), Corey Booker (D-NJ), and other Senate Democrats made a decision we've been waiting years to see. They decided to actually do something.  Murphy led a 14+ hr filibuster,  stopping all Senate business, and refusing to give up the floor until they got a firm commitment from Republicans on gun legislation.  Murphy's state was the site of one of the most horrific shootings in American history...Sandy Hook Elementary.  That day, 20-year-old Adam Lanza, murdered 20 1st and 2nd graders, 6 teachers, and then killed himself before police could bring him to justice.  Murphy made sure to drive that point home...

Why does it matter?

While it's highly unlikely that the biggest piece of legislation Murphy was pushing for (a bill proposed by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) that would allow the attorney general to ban gun sales to suspected terrorists) would ever pass, cracks are starting to form in that impenetrable wall of "NObama" the GOP has been hiding behind since President Obama's election 7 years ago.  We're reaching a point where the no matter how many campaign dollars the NRA throws at Congress, it can no longer overshadow the rising body count.  Even the most ardent defenders of the 2nd amendment are realizing there is no reason for military grade weapons to be available to the public.  

"Gun owners who occupy the middle ground complain that they are rarely sought out or heard, yet polls show that the majority of gun owners support universal background checks and other controversial limits. President Obama is reportedly considering using his executive authority to impose new ­background-check requirements for high-volume dealers in private sales — and many gun owners may support that." -- Most gun owners support restrictions.  Why aren't their voices heard?, Michael S. Rosenwald, Washington Post, 10/09/2015

This is one of those "controversial" topics that's only controversial because of the amount of money that's been spent by lobbyists to make it that way.  Saying "gun legislation doesn't work because it doesn't cover illegal guns" is like saying the ban on murder doesn't work because Chicago is a war zone.  Really? Are we really going to buy the argument that we shouldn't save any lives because we can't save them all?  We're smarter than that.  Well, those of us who won't vote for Trump are...

What can I do about it?

It's not often you see politicians do something that doesn't involve lining their own pockets.  While I have no doubt that some anti-gun lobby(s) see this as an opportunity to further their agenda, its an agenda that makes sense to anyone, including myself, that's lost someone they love to a "bad guy with a gun."

These Senators get the Wanderer's Voice Gold Star for standing up for common sense:

Chris Murphy (D-Conn.)
Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.)
Cory Booker (D-N.J.)
Bob Menendez (D-N.J.)
Bill Nelson (D-Fla.)
Dick Durban (D-Ill.)
Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)
Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.)
Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.)
Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)
Ed Markey (D-Mass.)
Ben Cardin (D- Md.)
Barbara Mikulski (D-Md.)
Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.)
Al Franken (D-Minn.)
Amy Kobluchar (D-Minn.)
Patty Murray (D-Wash.)
Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.)
Gary Peters (D-Mich.)
Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.)
Bob Casey (D-Pa.)
Ron Wyden (D-Ore.)
Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.)
Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.)
Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.)
Mark Warner (D-Va.)
Tim Kaine (D-Va.)
Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio)
Tom Carper (D-Del.)
Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.)
Tom Udall (D-N.M.)
Martin Heinrich (D- N.M.)
Michael Bennet (D-Colo.)
Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii)
Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii)
Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.)
Jack Reed (D-R.I.)
Joe Donnelly (D-Ind.)
Angus King (I-Maine)*


If your senator isn't here, you should seriously re-consider if he or she is the right person to represent your interests in Washington or if its you they're representing at all.

...Til Next Week!

Stealing Blackness - The Absurdity of Identity Politics

Pastor Shaun King (Photo: DLHughley.com)

Pastor Shaun King is under attack today for allegedly lying about his race.  A few weeks ago Rachel Dolezal was outed for doing the same thing and the response has been predictable.  My identity is something I protect fiercely.  It's something that I have no choice but to be proud of lest I sink to the doldrums of despair about the ills of being a non-white male in the USA.  I don't take kindly to people pretending to be something they aren't for selfishly asinine reasons like getting a scholarship or record deal or just for shits and giggles.  So should we be outraged that yet another person is being "outed" for pretending to be black?

(Photo: Telegraph.co.uk)

Absolutely not.

Our country is full of people who blur the identity line when its convenient or obliterate it completely when no one is looking.  Americans have been stealing cultural ideas from each other since its inception.  Moreover, the standard for what makes one "Black", "White", "Asian", or "Native" isn't universally accepted.  In the Dominican Republic black is synonymous with Haitian, despite the fact that everyone on Hispaniola would be considered black by American standards.  In Brazil, my wife and I wouldn't be considered the same race.  The President, who's father, of course, is Kenyan, has been hammered by Black Americans for years for "not being black enough" yet when Bill Clinton was in office he was both lauded and criticized for being "too black", mostly stemming from his love of jazz.  Tiger Woods dislikes being considered black so much he made up a word to describe his ethnicity, despite the fact that he continues to live in a country that invented and still tends to define blackness by the one drop rule.  Gov. Piyush "Bobby" Jindal (R-LA), Gov. Nimrata Nikki Randhawa Haley(R-SC), Former Florida Rep. Allen West (R), Justice Clarence Thomas, Herman Cain, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Dr. Ben Carson are considered the poster children for selling out yet Eminem, Macklemore, Yellawolf, and Action Bronson are considered "real."  Cultural appropriation (aka cultural plagiarism), through its intentional obstruction of the origin of philosophical concepts,  musical styles, mathematics, and even health care further blur the lines about what belongs to who and for how long.  Humans have been doing this for as long as we've existed on this planet so why is it only certain instances of line stepping are greeted with so much scorn, vitriol, and derision? Probably because the line steppers aren't stealing,  they're helping.

She lied, but she's been down for 20 years. (Photo: Today.com)

The people who define these terms, black, white, asian, liberal, conservative, libertarian, etc, etc, usually have an agenda to push.  Cable TV "news" has devolved from a service to keep the American people informed to a vehicle to push partisan propaganda.  Its designed to stir up your emotions by playing on your fears of being irrelevant, marginalized, and forced into silence.  They use every trick in the political playbook to get your ratings and loyalty.  They create controversies that aren't there, to play on your biases, stoke your natural human fear of "the other", and keep feeding you what you want to hear until you're so addicted to the echo chamber that everything else, no matter how reasonable sounds like white noise.  The website (I refuse to give them publicity by mentioning their name here) that allegedly outed King is the same website that slandered former Georgia State Director of Rural Development Shirley Sherrod and community outreach NGO ACORN.  Despite the fact the website's allegations were proven false both times, neither ACORN nor Sherrod's career survived the fallout.  You can read about the trumped up scandals in depth here and here.

Racial Hierarchy in Brazil

The real question we should be asking them and of ourselves, is why does it matter?  If King is white...so what?  Are we so hung up on identity politics that we can't accept his help?  If King lied about his parentage maybe that says more about who's opinion we consider legitimate if he and Dolezal had to lie to be taken seriously?  Does a person have to be black to speak out about black injustice?  Does a person have to be poor to stand against poverty?  Charities wouldn't exist if that were the case.  A great man once said his dream was that his children would not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.  It's times like this that we're called to put that mantra to test.  This is where the rubber meets the road and we need to let people know that it doesn't matter what your background is, your actions and the fruit of your works define what you are.  Shaun and Rachel have clearly decided where their loyalties lie.  That makes them black to me.

[Update: It appears they've gone 3 for 3 in peddling libelous bullshit]

Sandra Bland: Say Her Name

YouTube vid of her arrest 

Here we go again.  Hours after this was shot, Sandra Bland was "found dead" in her cell.  At this point I've lost track of the people we've had to bury because of police misconduct.  Sandra Bland and her family are the newest members of the club no one wants to join.  I can hear the peanut gallery now deriding me and others for jumping to conclusions, not waiting for the facts, or being anti-police.  Then, when that predictably fails to sway our opinion, they'll bring up some obscure case of either police brutality against a white man or mention the atrocities in Chicago as if they cared about the people beyond using it as an anti black talking point.  

Shut up.  I'm tired of you.  All of you who ignore proven patterns of bias, who shove respectability politics down everyone's throat, except when it's people who aren't black acting like savages.  This vibrant woman with a family who loved her and found her voice speaking out about the very thing she ended up being a victim of (#SandySpeaks) will never be able to call her sister's names again.  There is a family that has a hole that will never heal.  Too often we forget that these aren't just statistics on a page or a talking point to be trotted out at our leisure.  Sandra Bland had a family who loved her and will miss her more than any of us who only know her story 2nd hand.  I pray they have the financial means and the legal smarts to pressure this proven racist  of a sheriff to admit what happened in detail and hold those responsible accountable.  Especially because this isn't the first time someone has committed suicide in a Waller County jail cell.  The bottom line is the Waller County Sherriff's Dept., even at this early stage of the investigation, are either incompetent or complicit in Ms. Bland's death.  It's only a light wind right now, but if answers that make sense aren't forthcoming soon, this little rural town may soon have a Hurricane Sandy of its very own.

I'm Saying Her Name.  (#SayHerName). Stand with her family and say it with me.