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.

Black Mirror: Just Though You Should Know 7/22/16

 

Based on a true story...

 

Sorry for the late post.  I almost didn't write anything this week because I don't like sounding like a broken record. However, the spectacle we saw at the Republican National Convention in Cleveland only reinforces what most of us who are not swooning over Donald Trump's unconfirmed net worth (release your taxes, Donald) have been saying since he started his campaign. His leadership style is more in line with a dictator than a president.  He is a narcissist, whose first second and last concern is his own profitability and notoriety. Why else would you as a husband allow your wife to be embarrassed the way she was on the podium?  Though if we're being honest, his acceptance speech had even more falsehoods than hers did.  So there's that.

The real reason that I put fingers to keys this week, though, is this guy...

Sheriff David Clarke...oh wait...!

Whoops!  Sorry folks, wrong photo!

This guy...

Milwaukee County Sheriff David A. Clarke Jr. (Photo: wkow.com)

Watching his last two public appearances, an interview on CNN in which he tried to intimidate Don Lemon and his speech at the Republican National Convention (link) left me wondering, what happened to this man to make him hate himself so much that he uses his position as an elected Democrat (yes he's a registered Democrat) to reinforce willful blindness to the suffering of his own people?  Rather than write him off as a sell-out Uncle Tom, which I'm reluctant to do since I've long advocated the idea that it's black people that define blackness and not the other way around, I thought I'd highlight some of the things that might motivate someone to turn his back on his people.  

Notoriety:

There's an old saying that a dog biting a man isn't news but a man biting a dog is.  African Americans are surprisingly very socially conservative.  Even as a 1st generation West Indian American, I see that most of them believe in the family values, limited government, and personal liberty Republicans constantly drone on about as if they invented them.  Who wouldn't want the freedom to not be stopped, frisked, and questioned because of what you're wearing or the neighborhood you're walking in?  The divide between us and the GOP is that they seem to think only their base is entitled to these rights.  Naturally, that doesn't sit well with us.  So when one of us jumps ship, he/she goes from being just another "plantation" dweller (isn't that such a nonracist way of opening dialogue?) to being "smart", "a truth teller", and "one of the good ones."  Suddenly, you're special.  Acceptance from a group that's long told you your entire existence is "less than human" and whose approval you've been culturally conditioned to seek is powerful.  It's not just African Americans either.  Former Louisiana Governor and failed Republican Presidential Candidate Bobby Jindal and current South Carolina Republican Governor Nikki Haley have benefited politically and financially from "assimilation" even if it meant throwing their own culture under the bus.  Obviously, not every non-white Republican subscribes to this mindset.  Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) and Former Secretary of State Colin Powell walk in conservatism and self-awareness without compromising their heritage though now it seems the more extreme your views are, the more spotlight you receive.    

Spotlight:

Speaking of the spotlight,  would anyone outside of Wisconsin have heard of Sheriff Clarke if he was towing the Democratic party line?  How about Jesse Lee Peterson?  Omorosa Manigult if you never watched "The Apprentice?"  Stacy Dash if offbeat comedies and late-night B-movies aren't your thing?  How about Trump spokeswoman and failed congressional candidate Katrina Pierson? Being a willing surrogate for racist propaganda can earn you a lot of money. Each of the aforementioned "conservatives" has a warm seat waiting for them on any Fox News show, anytime they want it.   There's a lot of financial security in being able to rationalize racist viewpoints and obviously, the degree to which some people's consciences are eased is directly proportional the number of zeros in their paychecks.  Perhaps some of them fear a return to poverty more than they love themselves.  

Cultural Conditioning: 

There are a few unwritten rules about being black in the United States if you want to thrive (by unwritten I mean no longer codified in law).  The first is that if you want to succeed you have to work twice as hard as everyone else.  Your blackness is already seen as 2 strikes against you so excellence is the only way to even have a chance at success.  If you're average, you're already dead in the water.  The second is that unless you're good at a sport or other form of entertainment, good diction aka "talking white" will get you much further than "talking black."  For you non-Americans/Canadians that means speaking any form of ghetto slang English will usually bar you from getting a job that pays a real living wage.  Third is that you must know history.  "History" being European history or world history from a European perspective.  You must know basics like America was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492 despite the fact that he found a native population that had been thriving and repelling European attempts at colonization since at least 1000 AD.  You must know that America gained its independence from Britain through the cunning tactics of George Washington without help from anyone else.  Especially not a Native American/black guy named Crispus Attucks who was the first American to die in the Revolutionary War.  You must also know that the only role African Americans played in the building of our country was carrying the terrible burden of slavery that they couldn't free themselves from so white men fought the Civil War to free them.  There were never any attempts by the slaves to free themselves and after the war was over, blacks were free to do as they wished with full rights as equal citizens granted immediately.  In all seriousness, with these socially accepted "rules" in place it's not hard to imagine a black person being inherently ashamed of who they are and seeing assimilation into "white" culture as a step up. It's ingrained into our "education" from day one.

Men like Sheriff Clarke are always a hard pill to swallow for those of us that want to see us thrive, connect, and put this racial crap behind us.  Instead of using his position as a vehicle of change, he uses his blackness and his badge as a shield for racists.  There are other police chiefs that are being fired for standing up for their communities but he selfishly chooses to join the chorus of criticism of a people that have historically never been given a fair shake.  He, and people like him are respectability politics taken to an extreme.  They are a cruel twist on the old saying "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em."  Like Kevin Durant, however, instead of being hailed as a hero for joining a winning team, you've only proven that you're not built for the fight and would rather take the easy path to victory.  I hope the perks of being a Republican shill are enough of a comfort to you at night, Sheriff Clarke, and that you never take your uniform off because we both know the first thing everyone sees when you take it off.  Oh?  You don't know what everyone else sees?  Ask Senator Tim Scott.  He'll fill you in.

 

...Til Next Week.

That Ain't Love...

 

Gavin Long expressing admiration for Micah Johnson, days before he would imitate his crimes (Photo: Heavy.com)

After watching videos posted by the Gavin Long and reading the "manifesto" of Micah Johnson I'm convinced that the only things they had in common were a crushing sense of isolation and exposure to training that allowed them to carry out their murders. Initially, I thought this might be a case of fellow veterans not getting the mental help they needed before they went off the rails but the more I see what they've written, what they've said, and the lives they led I see a pattern of selfishness. Shooting those officers wasn't about black liberation. Their actions are no different than Dylan Roof who wrapped himself up in the American flag, called himself a patriot, then proceeded to murder 9 people in a bible study. Or Anders Breivik who murdered 77 people, 69 of them children, in the name of protecting his country. Or Nidal Hassan, the Army Major who murdered his own troops supposedly in defense of Islam. These people aren't heroes willing to do "what's necessary." They're arrogant narcissists who think they and they alone are willing to do what others will not. It never occurs to these murderers whether who their targeting is actually responsible for their grievances or the hypocrisy of taking defenseless, often unsuspecting lives in defense of whatever crackpot ideology they believe in. In the end, they're nothing more than perpetually selfish children who think their view of the world is the only one that matters and they're willing to kill to prove it.  Can you think of a better definition of a narcissist?

Montrell Jackson's last social media post before being killed by Gavin Long. (Photo: Abc7.com)

Despite what certain media outlets are peddling, Johnson and Long don't represent Black Lives Matter, they don't represent any black men I have the honor of calling friend, and they damned sure don't represent me. Real martyrs sacrifice themselves to save the lives of other people not set off a political bomb that accomplishes nothing but increase scrutiny on an already overpoliced people.  They've helped no one.  They've done nothing but given the media yet another reason to deflect, blame, dismiss and even justify heavy-handed police tactics against black people.  As my favorite group Little Brother would say...if this is love, I don't want to see hate.

How to end #Blacklivesmatter: Just Thought You Should Know 7/15/16

2016 has gotten off to a really shitty start.  I say "start" loosely since we're in middle of July but the shitstorm of fail we've been going through feels like its not quite done with us yet.  As far as bad weeks go, its hard to top the week Prince died but with another terror attack in France, an attempted military coup in one of the largest countries in NATO, and cops in Dallas being killed by snipers, this week tried its damnedest to take the crown.  Don't get me wrong, there were some positive stories too but when the lowest point in the week isn't the deaths of more than 100 people innocently celebrating a national holiday in France, even the New Day would be hard pressed to find a silver lining.  This week I thought I'd examine just where Black Lives Matter is going as a movement and what would it take for it to abate.   

#Blacklivesmatter

There have been a lot of accusations thrown around by both sides of this debate.  Black Lives Matter has been called a "terrorist" group by numerous media outlets that I won't give the dignity of being mentioned here and likewise Black Lives Matter and their supporters have launched that same charge at our nation's police officers.  As always, the truth lies somewhere in the middle and no one has tried to step in and ratchet down the rhetoric because they're too busy trying to use the moment to push an agenda or get ratings.  If we're being honest, officers tend to get a overzealous when dealing with black people, no matter our social class.  They're less patient, less likely give us the benefit of the doubt, and much more quick to use force on us to gain compliance...and those are the good ones.  There are many departments that blatantly racially profile, harass, and brutalize African Americans.  These are facts.  Conversely, If the police force (en mass since we've been dealing in broad brushes all week) were really a terrorist organization on the level of the KKK, there would be a lot more dead black bodies in the streets.  Most of the egregious police misconduct we see on television are against poor blacks in poor black neighborhoods, where violent crime tends to be higher.  Naturally, officers who've never lived in the area and probably have never been exposed to this type of environment, are on edge.  They don't know the people, culture, mindset, nor do the people make it easy.  Granted, the modern police force started off as an organization of slave catchers and I already mentioned how officers tend to mistreat black people so the attitude is historically justified.  However, all that being said, "fuck the police" isn't helpful to anyone either.  Most officers do their jobs well and are not putting on the uniform every day with the sole intention to harass and murder black people.  Ticket quotas combined with decades of cultural conditioning are probably more responsible than a bunch of individual "rogue" racists in uniform for the current broken state of the relationship.  Most of them, like their civilian counterparts, don't even realize they're racists.  But even with all that on the table, I firmly believe this problem is solvable.  We need the police.  Their function in society is vital, which is why it is imperative that their applicant screening process, psych evaluations, and accountability steps must be impeccable.  But they can't do it alone.  Policing at its best is a joint effort between officers and the people they protect.  The cops can't arrest the people making our neighborhoods unsafe if they don't know who these people are.  Without reliable intelligence, law enforcement is forced to operate blindly with disastrous results.  There are several accepted aspects of police/community culture that must change for real reconciliation to happen.

Silence really does speak volumes.

Break the Blue Wall of Silence

As a veteran of the Army Reserve, I understand brotherhood.  I understand the power of instantly understanding what your fellow soldiers have been through to get where they are and to be instantly understood.  You want to protect your brothers (and sisters) against unfair treatment.  However, this practice has often stood as a shield for people who's racial biases, bully mentality, and misogynistic attitudes should disqualify them from wearing the uniform.  Too many of these "officers" use the law as a tool to harass, intimidate, and humiliate whoever they wish and until recently, their fellow officers remained silent about it.  We've already seen cracks starting to show in the wake of the deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile. Good cops are finally fed up and starting to speak out against their prejudiced and corrupt colleagues.  In addition to the high profile cases of racial discrimination, we've also seen far too many cases of sexual abuse from officers.

Victims included unsuspecting motorists, schoolchildren ordered to raise their shirts in a supposed search for drugs, police interns taken advantage of, women with legal troubles who succumbed to performing sex acts for promised help, and prison inmates forced to have sex with guards.
The AP's findings, coupled with other research and interviews with experts, suggest that sexual misconduct is among the most prevalent type of complaint against law officers. Phil Stinson, a researcher at Bowling Green State University, analyzed news articles between 2005 and 2011 and found 6,724 arrests involving more than 5,500 officers. Sex-related cases were the third-most common, behind violence and profit-motivated crimes. Cato Institute reports released in 2009 and 2010 found sex misconduct the No. 2 complaint against officers, behind excessive force.
Cases from across the country in just the past year demonstrate how such incidents can occur, and the devastation they leave behind. -- Matt Sedensky and Nomaan Merchant, 11/1/15, Associated Press: Hundreds of officers lose licenses over sex misconduct

The police are the only public service that gives its employees the power to end another person's life if they deem it necessary.  Doesn't it make sense that the people they hire should be as free of prejudice as possible?  Do good cops want these maniacs representing them? Are these really the best candidates we can find?  If so, that's a bigger indictment on our culture than any North Korean propaganda film. 

When 'keeping it real...' is suicide.

"No Snitchin'" must end.

I lost a man I considered my brother to the bullets of a crazed drug addict on November 25, 2001 .  We came from a rough neighborhood and when you live in rough neighborhoods, meeting friends with spotless criminal records is hard.  As a matter of fact, when your neighborhood is over policed, schools are poor, and employment options are few, having a criminal record isn't as big a knock on your character.  It's expected.  It's what whether you go locked up for jay walking or got lock up for murder that matters.  Living in isolation isn't an option if you want to live a semi normal life so you talk to people, even if they've been to jail or sell drugs.  I was lucky enough to have gotten out of that environment through some extraordinary sacrifices by my mother but my God-brother couldn't so he had to deal with who he had to deal with.  Unfortunately, that post Thanksgiving Sunday night, my 18 year old God-Brother was walking home from his new job and decided to chat with one such individual.  Not long after, they were approached by a man wanting to buy drugs. My God Brother's friend was a known dealer so this wasn't out of the ordinary.  During the course of the sale, the addict decided he didn't want to pay for his purchase and produced a revolver.  My God brother ended up on his back and choking to death on his own blood at the bottom of dirty basement stairs, shot in the chest 5 times, while both the dealer and the killer fled the scene.  Both were eventually caught about a week later and the addict was charged with murder, his 3rd felony strike.  The drug dealer, in jail on an unrelated charge, was the prosecution's "star" witness as the only other person who knew what happened that night.  I attended the trial, determined to get the truth of why my friend was dead.  When the drug dealer finally testified, it wasn't his description of the last moments of my brother's life that hurt the most.  It was the during the defense's cross examination that we found out that the drug deal had committed an armed robbery 3 weeks before and the local PD failed to arrests him.  Had he been caught, none of this would have happened.  I initially blamed the police for not doing their jobs, for neglecting yet another young black man's death.  But I know the kind of people who live in the neighborhood we grew up in.  I know because its the same attitude I had as a teenager.  Too many instances of disrespect and outright abuse between us for anyone to say anything to the police.  Even if that meant an armed robber remained free.  The only thing that accomplished was another member of our family being robbed of his future.  Sometimes, the first step to rebuilding a relationship is taking a leap of faith.  We know which officers have no interest in engaging us as a community and which do.  Use those connections and return the respect you're given by making the officers who actually care look good so they can become the people in charge of setting the tone for community relations.  We can weed out the bad cops the same way customers weed out bad employees, build a record of complaints so long they can't deny the pattern of misconduct.  Keep filming, keep exposing them, and keep them from getting another job.  Fighting fire with fire only proves them "right" and costs more black lives.

"Broken Windows" was used in post invasion Iraq with disastrous results (Photo: Wired.com)

Broken Windows Policing/Stop and Frisk/Ticket Quotas Must be Abolished
For folks who are screaming at their screens right now asking about Chicago and why I'm not speaking as vehemently about the black deaths instead of bashing the police?  Simple.  Gang members and criminals didn't take an oath to uphold the law and represent the highest ideals of our judicial system.  It's a false equivalence.  A straw man argument.  It should go without saying that the police should be held to a higher standard as taxpayer funded peacekeepers.  Honestly, anyone who doesn't think that's fair should ask themselves if they'd like to be treated the way the people of Baghdad were treated during the American occupation because that's exactly what "broken windows" policing and "stop and frisk" are.  In theory, broken window focuses on aggressively enforcing petty crime to deter more serious ones, restoring trust, reducing fear, and increasing pride in a community.  It was initially successful in Iraq but that was because Iraqis knew that the local police were backed up by the heavily armed American military.  Eventually, that fear gave way to rage as civilians refused to talk to Iraqi police or American MPs, allowing Al-Qaeda to kill at will.  Since our departure, crime and terrorism are worse than ever in Baghdad.  In New York City, which credited the practice for it's dramatic drop in crime during the 90s, it's become another excuse to use already low income people as source of municipal revenue.  The proof is the dramatic reduction in tickets written during the NYPD "protest" against Mayor DeBlasio last summer.  There was no corresponding rise in criminal activity during the down period inadvertently proving most of the officers have become little more than uniformed backdoor tax collectors.  Stop and Frisk compounds the issue by treating innocent young men of color as criminals regardless of actual guilt or innocence.  You cannot build a trusted network of neighborhood intelligence when you don't make the distinction between civilian and criminal.  Now, just as in Baghdad, police all over the country are being targeted in retaliation for years of abuse.  Good cops are paying the price for years of ineffective leadership, stat padding arrests, and racial profiling.

Where does it end?

It ends with the end of racism.  We got a glimpse of what that America would look like in the weeks after 9/11.  I can't remember any other time in my lifetime that we were all Americans.  No hyphens.  We're not where we were before the 60s but we clearly have a long way to go.  I used to believe that as the older generation died out, they would take their prejudices with them.  Unfortunately, we're seeing the same old battles play out among people my age who didn't live through the civil rights movement, proving poisonous ideas are just as hereditary as eye color.  We shouldn't be surprised though.  Racism didn't die out with the end of the Civil War, either World War, nor the Civil Rights movement.  We've seen small steps though, taken after each generation, slowly repealing explicit legalized racism and with the legal restrictions on education and housing lifted, more African Americans than ever are rising into positions of leadership.  We must remember though, that these leaders are still forced to work within a system that constrains how quickly they can effect that change and how entrenched the social barriers are to that change.  It's like trying to chip away at a glacier with an ice pick.  Killing cops won't help.  Ignoring police misconduct won't help.  But don't just take my word for it...ask the US Department of Justice, who've made the same recommendations I've just spent the last few paragraphs blathering about.

Resource Guide for Enhancing Community Relationships and Protecting Privacy and Constitutional Rights

After-Action Assessment of the Police Response to the August 2014 Demonstrations in Ferguson, Missouri

Community-Based Approaches to Prevention: A Report on the 2014 National Summit on Preventing Multiple Casualty Violence 


...Til Next Week!