On the evening of Tuesday, November 24 a young couple from Virginia made their way into one of the most secure events in the country, President Obama’s state dinner for Indian Prime Minister Monmohan Singh and his wife at the White House. Like the other 300 plus invited guests, Tareq and Michaele Salahi went through multiple layers of Secret Service security, took photos with Chief of Staff Rom Emanuel and mingled with Vice President Biden and other invited guests. The problem is that the Salahi’s were not invited to the dinner. Their names were not listed on the official guest list or any other list that would have allowed them entrance into the White House. They crashed the party!
All that this couple needed to gain entrance into a state dinner at the White House was a tuxedo, traditional Indian evening wear, attitude, and white skin. When they arrived at the Secret Service check point without a printed invitation and without their names on the official guest list, they were not detained or questioned. No telephone calls were made; no further inquiries were needed; just white skin, blond hair, the expectation of admittance, and a pretty smile. Had this occurred at an airport the Salahi’s would have never made it past airport security.
Over the past week, the political world has been tuned into a highly unusual soap opera involving Republican Committee Chair Michael Steele and conservative radio jock Rush Limbaugh. After Limbaugh was publicly lambasted for stating that he wanted President Obama’s agenda to fail, Democratic leaders wisely used the moment as an opportunity to anoint the polarizing pundit as the de facto leader of the GOP. Steele, the actual leader of the party, dismissed Limbaugh as a mere “entertainer” whose show trades in “ugly” and “incendiary” remarks. Limbaugh soon fired back, telling Steele to do his job and to stop acting like a “talking head media star.”
Of course, partisan infighting is not uncommon in politics –though such public spats are typically the property of the Democrats. The difference, however, has been the party’s response. Instead of rallying around its newly appointed leader Steele, GOP honchos have either taken the side of Rush Limbaugh or remained conspicuously silent. Even Steele himself caved into Limbaugh, apologizing for his remarks and removing any lingering doubt about who the real don is. By allowing Michael Steele to be publicly undressed by a party extremist, Republicans have tacitly confirmed what many of us already knew: they haven’t changed one bit. Despite their post-November promises to rise above bitter partisanship, the GOP decided to cosign Limbaugh’s antipatriotic machinations. Instead of living up to their promise to broaden their message and appeal, Republicans have instead opted to defer to the steward of its most vile, ignorant, and bigoted constituency. Most disturbingly, they have legitimized their antidemocratic enterprise by hiring a black man, but giving him no more political muscle than the queen of England.
To be clear, I am not trying to diss Michael Steele, who I know personally and like a great deal despite our political differences. My concern is that the seductive aroma of power and prestige have diverted his attention from the harsh realities of his circumstance. Like many prominent African Americans, Steele has climbed the heights of white society under the false premise that he is being judged purely on merit rather than color. This couldn’t be further from the truth. While the Republican party is willing to use Steele’s black face to celebrate its ostensible progress, it is equally committed to reducing him to nothing more than a paper champion. Hopefully, Brother Steele will stop drinking the Kool-Aid long enough to recognize this and come back home.
Billey Joe Johnson Sr. opens the driver’s-side door of his dead son’s Silverado and begins to examine some of the leftover splatter. It clings to the dashboard, leeches out of air conditioning vents. Some of it even found a resting place on the truck’s exterior.
“There goes a hunk of meat right there,” the father said, pointing to a nickel-sized fragment of his son’s brain. “How’d it get over here?”
In the back seat, a geometry book rests next to camouflage clothing and empty boxes of buckshot. Billey Joe Johnson Jr. often woke up at 4 a.m. to hunt before heading to George County High School, where everyone knew him as the football star who would escape crushing rural poverty by running from it.
Piles of recruiting letters litter the back seat, the remnants of life as one of the most sought-after running backs in the Class of 2010. Alabama wanted Billey Joe. So did Notre Dame. And dozens of other schools. He was ready to commit to Auburn. By many accounts Billey Joe was a popular, big-dreaming, clean-living kid. So it’s no wonder his father stands in the yard next to a single-wide trailer, trying to play forensic expert. Searching – like many in this rural community – for answers about who shot his son.
Local authorities stopped Billey Joe for a traffic violation on the morning of Dec. 8, and they say the truck is simply the site of a terrible tragedy. But to the elder Johnson, it’s a crime scene.
Nearly two months later, only one fact is certain: Instead of running out of George County as a football hero, Billey Joe was buried beneath it at the age of 17.
George Obama, the half-brother of U.S. President Barack Obama, has been arrested by Kenyan police on a charge of possession of marijuana, police said Saturday.
George Obama was arrested in Kenya on a charge for possession of marijuana, according to police.
Inspector Augustine Mutembei, the officer in charge, said Obama was arrested on charges of possession of cannabis, known in Kenya as Bhang, and resisting arrest. He is scheduled to appear in court Monday, Mutembei said.
He is being held at Huruma police post in the capital of Nairobi.
Speaking from behind bars, Obama denied the allegations.
"They took me from my home," he said, "I don't know why they are charging me."
George Obama and the president barely know each other, though they have met. George Obama was one of the president's few close relatives who did not go to the inauguration in Washington last week.
In his memoir, "Dreams from My Father," Barack Obama describes meeting George as a "painful affair." Barack Obama's trip to Kenya meant meeting family he had never known.
McKenzie tracked down George Obama in August and found him at a small house in Huruma, a Nairobi slum, where he lives with his mother's extended family. His birth certificate shows that he is Barack Obama's half-brother.
The two men share a Kenyan father. In the memoir, Barack Obama struggles to reconcile with his father after he left him and his mother when he was just a child.
Barack Obama Sr. died in a car accident when George was just 6 months old. Like his half-brother, George hardly knew his father.
WASHINGTON (NNPA) - As the Black unemployment rate leaped another eight percentage points last month – from 10.6 percent to 11.4 percent, the White unemployment rate actually remained the same – at 5.4 percent, less than half the rate for Blacks. In addition to that in every economic category, from the poverty rate to housing loss African-Americans remain historically and consistently at rock bottom – a condition exacerbated by the national housing and Wall Street financial crisis that forced Congress to reluctantly pass a $700 billion bailout last week.
''We're in a weaker financial position related to the mainstream in the first place,'' said Alfred A. Edmond, Jr., editor-in-chief of BlackEnterprise.com, in an interview with the NNPA News Service. “The saying goes, 'when the rest of America gets a cold, Black America gets pneumonia.''
Edmond is just one among Black economic experts across the nation who say as America observes the economic fall out even after the congressional bailout of lending and investment agencies last week, African-Americans must establish creative ways to stay afloat.
“In every relevant economic number, Black people are worse off today than they were in 2000,” says Natioal Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial, in an interview following a Black Leadership Forum telephone conference pertaining to get out to vote efforts as well as the economic bailout. “We’ve lost ground in home ownership, we’ve lost ground in employment, we’ve lost ground in wage verses inflation, we have just lost ground economically in the last eight years.”
Morial says the bailout was not a rescue but just something to help stop the bleeding. “The ramifications of not doing it were worse than the ramification of doing it. For there not to be any credit, obviously, when it hurts big businesses, it hurts small business and it hurts the average consumer, automobile loans, personal finance loans, credit cards, that kind of thing,” said Morial. “My position would have been that we have to hold our noses and go forth.” Morial, who predicted the mortgage crisis in the spring of last year, said the bailout will not be enough for Black people and will take many months to execute.
While the fascistic, imperialistic, complacent, co-opted, cooperate-owned, self-absorbed, unsatisfactory, and uneducated Mainstream Media was fawning - relentlessly and endlessly - over the scandal of John Edwards, the realities that plague Black, Brown and Native American communities were intentionally sidelined. For three consecutive hours today, there was a painful-obsession over the discovery that John Edwards had - in an interview with ABC News - admitted to an extramarital affair with a female who once worked on his many presidential campaign bids. This phenomenon of neglecting critical Black and Brown issues for frivolous scandals is of course, not rare, or by any means a figment of imagination. The truth is that, Black pain has never been viewed upon as legitimate or equatable with White grief or suffering, and this afternoon, the actions of CNN, MSNBC and FOX News furthermore reinforce that reality. Below is a compiled list of 10 events or incidents, which have surfaced within the last 12 hrs, that in an ideal society - with an accountable and responsible press - would be perceived as worthy of coverage:
By now, most are familiar with the much publicized CNN Documentary "Black in America." A truckload of anticipation has been rallied up, in preparation for its premier on Wednesday, July 23, 2008. CNN - with as much hubris as a mega network can muster - has openly bragged of their award-winning history, and probably feel entitled to a Nobel peace prize at the launch of this - as described - "Special Report." To some, what CNN is doing is magnanimous and worthy of adulation, while to others, this 'experiment' might be a sheer opportunistic stunt, glamorized as an investigation into the "disturbing statistics" of Black Life in America. Whether one is supportive or oppositive of the motion, one thing can be amicably agreed upon: CNN is at best, ill-equipped to tender a truthful, un-embedded and solution-rendering report that exposes the malicious forms of surveillance, subjugation and devaluation that have contributed greatly to the moral decrepitude of the Black community, family and individual. CNN promises to - with the help of this expose - enlighten "all of America" to know what it fully means to be "Black in America." Unfortunately, I'm not buying it. It is with this understanding that I hope to outline why CNN is engaging in quid pro quo.
The two-part report is purported to cover every breadth and depth of the Black experience in America. The first airing is expected to focus squarely on "The Black Woman & Family." While this might seem conventional, the inquiring mind is left to wonder why CNN would engage in such risky and reprehensible conduct, as to divide a family - as was done in the age of legal enslavement - and insinuate a division between Black Male and Black Female. It is widely recorded and noted, that two-thirds of the children born into Black Homes today, are single parented. Nevertheless, it does appeal to one's sense of apprehension that "the most trusted name in news," saw no wrongdoing in assuming - through its untamable ego - that it could forego the Rebekah Levine Coley study, in which the Boston Univ. Professor points out how - more than any other ethnicity or race - Black Fathers without residency in the home, are more likely to sustain regular contact with their kids. In addition to its coded symbolism of Black disunity, "the best political team on television" was also unabashed in propagating the supremely-refuted lie (Katrina helped out), that the burdens of the Black community are "not just a black problem" but an "American problem." This facade of idiocy has, in the past, been subjected to interrogation and unveiled to be nothing other than a neo-liberal fantasy. As the Texas Cowboy once remarked, "we've heard this foolish delusion before."
While my aforementioned complaints will be perceived, by some, as a mixture of ideological differences fused with paranoia, it is noteworthy to recall that not only is CNN unreliable in matters of truth-telling, but it's reputation as a liberal enterprise has never been invalidated. When in 2000, the Dutch periodical, Trouw, reported of CIA Agents stationed in the CNN Newsroom, it was a surprise only to those who we're oblivious to the long-held belief systems of Media watchdogs. The report confirmed the appalling, stating how CNN had "employed military specialists in 'psychological operations' (psyops)." A general with the U.S. Army Information Service corroborated the account saying, "they worked as regular employees of CNN. Conceivably, they would have worked on stories during the Kosovo war. They helped in the production of news.'' The general elaborated, mentioning that the operatives had worked in close contact with CNN for at least a couple of weeks in favor of getting "to know the company and to broaden their horizons." With such a record, how ensured are we, that the international news network will be unadulterated in telling our story in its entirety -- without distortion or misrepresentation? Indeed, there is no guarantee.
In my judgment, CNN is not only a station rife with mendacity, but a corporation that has dug deeper into the well of hypocrisy than any other News network. CNN has preached sanctity and piety while simultaneously employing and endorsing - in the past and present - known misogynists and bigots. Political contributors for CNN include Alex Castellanos, who once complimented Sen. Hillary Clinton as a "White bitch" - later apologized but noted that "some women, by the way, are named that and it's accurate" and William Bennett who - following the Iowa Caucus on January 3 - pontificated that Barack Obama is acceptable to white voters because "he has taught the black community you don't have to act like Jesse Jackson; you don't have to act like Al Sharpton." Sadly enough, CNN's political contributors are only the tip of the ice berg compared to its well-paid talk show hosts, pundits and anchors.
A well known talking head on "CNN Headline News," is conservative talk/radio show host, Glenn Beck. Beck built a successful career for himself, through the traditional route of bemoaning the very thought of a world with the existence of leftists and liberals. In recent times, he has made headlines for his not only controversial view-points, but his often, vitriolic remarks. In November 2006, while interviewing the Muslim Congressman, Keith Ellison, Beck in a self-amusing tone, questioned Ellison's patriotism, and hinted at Islam being a license for terroristic sensibilities. Beck as usual, felt undaunted when he said "sir, prove to me that you are not working with our enemies. And I know you're not. I'm not accusing you of being an enemy, but that's the way I feel, and I think a lot of Americans will feel that way." Following the 'pat on the hand' remediation from CNN, Beck was of course giving a get-out-of-jail-free-card to resume his mission of lending support to fellow shock-jocks who had openly expressed their disdain for black womanhood. On May 14, 2007, at a CNN's American Morning appearance, Beck defended disgraced radio host, Don Imus and decried the "leftist witch hunt" that attempted to hold Imus's feet to the fire -- following his unremarkable comments about the beautiful Rutgers female basketball team.
Another staple at CNN is Lou Dobbs -- most famous for his invective-laden rants about Mexican immigrants and the Mexican community at large. He has built a hall of fame career, from his unique brand of cursing the ground that Mexicans walk on. His endless list of acidic commentary on Mexican immigration has garnered him the 'golden boy' status over at CNN. As the second most watched show on CNN, nothing he says can ever be deemed 'crossing the line.' Dobbs has claimed numerous "facts" that correspond with his anti-immigration stance, but many of those very facts have been dispelled and often times unraveled as fabrications. He once claimed that an "invasion of illegal aliens" was bringing "highly contagious diseases" to America, "decades after those diseases had been eradicated" here; stating that more than 7,000 new cases of leprosy had been reported in the previous three years. His made-up myth was debunked when the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that new cases of leprosy, which totaled only 398 from 2002 to 2004, had been declining in the United States since 1988.On December 4, 2007, at an appearance on Democracy Now! - the brilliant and incisive daily show - Lou Dobbs was confronted by the hosts, Amy Goodman and Juan Gonzalez, and questioned as to the regular feature of white supremacist hate groups - and its members - on "Lou Dobbs Tonight." An issue of concern was a U.S. map highlighting the seven Southwestern states that Mexico supposedly covets and calls Aztlan. The map, on May 23, 2006, was used as a prop-up on his nightly CNN show. The map's source was listed as "Council of Conservative Citizens;" a group which has in the past, described blacks as "a retrograde species of humanity." Not to be outdone by a White Supremacist group, Lou Dobbs in a discussion with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, in March 2008, responded to Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice's assessment, that America has a "birth defect" on race. His perspective was that America is the most diverse nation in the world, and so therefore, racial prejudice is a thing of the past. He remarked, "We’ve got to be able to talk about it (race) and I can guarantee you this, not asingleoneofthesecottonpic-." Upon a moment's notice of his near-utterance of the word "cotton picking," he refrained himself, and instead suggested that "ridiculous politicians" should not be the moderators "on the issue of race" but "we have to have a far better discussion than that." CNN, subsequently, in a cowardly fashion, eliminated the cotton picking element from the published transcript. CNN neither released an apology nor a statement on the issue.
It is also imperative to remind CNN that it once provided a platform, between 1982 and 1999 to a man - described by Journalist, Tavis Smiley as a "Racial Arsonist" - named Pat Buchanan. Pat Buchanan's long history of anti-Black and anti-civil rights rhetoric is long and winded. In a radio interview in 2000, Buchanan claimed baselessly that Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King was "one of the most divisive men." Buchanan, who once called Sen. Obama "exotic," in 2007, opined that the Illinois Senator is "not what you would expect from a black guy from the South Side of Chicago." Buchanan was also one of the staunchest defenders of fired shock jock, Don Imus. In a debate with Georgetown Professor, Michael Eric Dyson, Buchanan inferred that Imus was "more a victim of hatred than a perpetrator of hatred." In Buchanan's mind, the Rutgers Basketball teammates weren't victims because they got to appear on Oprah and have simultaneously become the "most famous basketball team in history." Buchanan is also widely known for antagonizing Sen. Obama's March 18, 2008 "race speech." In a column entitled, "A Brief for Whitey," Buchanan, with the authority of a fool, suggested that "no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans." To hear Buchanan tell it, the funnels of "Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs" have done more than enough to "bring the African-American community into the mainstream;" Buchanan ended, "we hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude?" Pat Buchanan is also credited for making the assertion that only white males died in the battles of Gettysburg and Normandy; with nearly 2000 African Americans accounted to have fought at the June 6, 1944, invasion of Normandy, it is inconceivable that none was made a casualty. Pat Buchanan in his latest gaffe, appeared on a political radio show to promote his latest book. With the show's slogans being, a need to "represent a philosophy that is pro-White" and "revive the White birthrate above replacement level fertility and beyond to grow the percentage of Whites in the world relative to other races,” one is prompted to wonder what CNN was thinking in the hiring of this fellow. Alas! The magic word appears: RATINGS! In light of this, the question must be raised: Is CNN attempting to cash in on the present unrest of the Black Community, or do they have a sincere interest in being harbingers of solutions to the many problems that inflict terror upon Black folks?
In the course of this article, I have attempted to cast my burden upon the waters of suspicion. In the fight for administering the vaccination that deracinates those ailments which have incessantly plagued the Black Community, I'm not convinced that CNN is a contender. If at all any News Network is replete with such competence, PBS would most assuredly lead the pack. Taking that into consideration, I humbly suggest that the politics of sheer-opportunism must be radically denounced and furthermore repudiated. CNN cannot - and is not prepared to - save Black America.
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Will Smith, the closest thing to a sure bet in Hollywood these days, flew to the top of the worldwide box office with his critically mauled superhero saga "Hancock," distributor Columbia Pictures said on Sunday.
The comedy-drama, in which Smith plays a drunken crime-fighter with an image problem, sold an estimated $185 million worth of tickets, the Sony Corp-owned studio said.
Moviegoers in the United States and Canada contributed $107.3 million in the six days since the film opened on Tuesday evening, and the film racked up an additional $78 million in 50 territories. Columbia said the film opened at No. 1 in 47 of those 50 markets, including Britain, Germany, Australia, Brazil and South Korea.
The North American tally includes sales of $66 million for the U.S. Independence Day holiday weekend, beginning Friday. "Hancock" ranks as Smith's eighth-consecutive chart-topper, and his 12th overall, Columbia said.
"Audiences love Will Smith and the characters he plays," said Rory Bruer, Columbia's president of domestic theatrical distribution. "People want to share in the things he's doing."
Smith, 39, a one-time rapper famed for his gung-ho performances, ventures into darker territory with "Hancock." His slovenly character's messy crime-busting efforts cause more problems than they solve, and he enlists a public relations man, played by Jason Bateman, to help restore his reputation among the displeased citizenry of Los Angeles.
Critics were intrigued by the basic premise, but were vexed by a dramatic sub-plot involving Charlize Theron, who plays Bateman's wife. Peter Berg ("The Kingdom") directed the $150 million film, which was notably brief at just over 90 minutes.
Smith has ruled the July 4 holiday weekend five times, beginning with 1996's "Independence Day," the biggest movie of his career. Adjusted for ticket-price inflation, the "Hancock" opening ranks at No. 3 among those offerings, according to tracking firm Box Office Mojo.
As a 19-year-old college student, she was raped at gunpoint and beaten beyond recognition during a night shift working at a Payless ShoeSource. “I blanked out and had an out-of-body experience, like I was hovering above seeing this horrible thing happen to someone else—not me,” says Gabrielle, who got through the trauma partly because of an episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show she had seen days before on victims of violent crimes.
After her ordeal, she immediately turned to UCLA’s Rape Treatment Center. “It gave me my life back,” she says. “My dignity and self-esteem were gone and they helped me find them again.
That’s why I now lobby for state legislatures across the country to help raise funds and awareness for rape crisis centers, and I speak to college girls about what happened to me. My goal is to never hear the words ‘me too’ from someone after I say ‘I was raped.’ ”
Michelle Obama is referred to as a "Baby Mama" by Fox News. The black community is outraged over this statement and considers it to be an insult. This is not the first time that Fox has insulted the black community. It has allowed Bill O'Reilly, one of it's most prominent talk show hosts, to refer to actually lynching Michelle Obama. Additionally, it has paid many African American commentators to say degrading things about the black community.
Michelle Obama and Barack Obama haven't responded to the statements, but many in the black community are concerned about the racism terrorism used by Fox News in this election.
A black female news reporter in South Carolina was attacked by a group of whites in what some are calling a racially-motivated incident. The black reporter was covering a murder and some members of a white family began yelling racial slurs. One of the members of the family came across the street and punched the black woman in the head.
by Dr. Boyce Watkins www.BoyceWatkins.com www.YourBlackWorld.com
In the writing of my book, “What if George Bush Were a Black Man?”, I spent a great deal of time talking about my experience growing up in Kentucky. Kentucky is nothing like the unfair stereotypes presented by Hollywood: images of hillbillies in straw hats, running moonshine on horseback with no shoes. However, when given a chance to defy stereotypes and prove that it has moved beyond its commitment to racism, the state usually fails with flying colors.
This week, Senator Barack Obama was pummeled in Kentucky by Senator Hillary Clinton. While voting against Obama is no proof of racism, the truth is that many voters admitted that they voted against Obama because he was black. Even Hillary knows this, as she continues to brag about how she has support among “hard working whites without a college degree.” Kentuckians do work hard, many of them are white and the state is one of the worst in the country when it comes to education. So, these must be Hillary Clinton’s kind of people.
Race still matters in Kentucky, a fact that throws itself in my face every time I return to my home state to give a speech. The last speech I gave at The University of Kentucky led to my not getting a handshake from the mayor, nor many other dignitaries who’d greeted me so graciously when I arrived. It wasn’t because I said anything radical: I simply noted (quite precisely I must admit) that the campus stated in 1990 that it would dramatically increase the presence of black faculty, and as of 2005, they’d had a net increase of 1. Not 1%, just 1. I wanted to tell the university that killing the messenger, while fitting with tradition, would be counter productive. Rather, they should kick themselves for not having the personal responsibility to keep their commitments.
I stated what much of Kentucky already understands: there is an equilibrium in which black people are second class citizens in Kentucky and when this equilibrium is violated, people get upset. There is an expectation of weakness, fear and silence among the black community in Kentucky, and my violation of the “Good negro behavior protocol” led to a backlash from those who “don’t want your kind round here”.
I love my state, but that is why I must be honest in my assessment.
I grew up in the school system in Kentucky, one that destroys the dreams of black children by the boat load, tossing them into classes for the learning disabled at dramatic rates and killing their dreams of going to college. I recall confronting the counselor of my god daughter, who tried to explain to me why “college isn’t for everyone”, while the kids at the suburban schools with equal intelligence are sent to the next level. What was most sad was that the counselor was black.
I went to college at The University of Kentucky, a campus that continues to make excuses for not hiring black faculty, yet is always able to somehow find the next great black basketball player. I once saw two pictures in the law school: one of the faculty, one of the janitorial staff. One of the pictures was 100% white, the other, 100% black.
I still have family in Kentucky, where black people truly know their place. The Kentucky Derby is not an event for everyone to celebrate at the track: it’s the day where most black people either clean up the horse crap or barbecue in their mama’s backyard.
People don’t get upset about the way things are in Kentucky, they are trained to accept it. High powered whites are the jockeys, and people of color are the horses. Any black person accepted into higher circles must be socially neutered in order to gain admission. No radical negroes are allowed in the country club.
Muhammad Ali was treated so poorly in the state of Kentucky that he refused to return for years. 12 years ago, when a black female student was attacked at The University of Kentucky in a racially-motivated incident, she claimed that campus administrators asked her to remain quiet because the basketball team had made it to the Final Four. You know, the whole bad publicity thing.
What is most ironic that I spent most of my time in Louisville and Lexington, two of the most socially-progressive cities in the state. It sort of goes down hill from there.
I had a mentor at The University of Kentucky, Tommy Whittler, the only black professor they’d tenured in the entire business school in their 130 year history. Tommy, and others, gave me good honest advice. They said, “Boyce, if you’re ever going to advance in this world, you have GOT to leave Kentucky.”
So, I left Kentucky and I advanced. I left that state for the same reasons that Senator Barack Obama never campaigned there in the first place. Now, I come home and everyone is afraid of me. That includes some of the black people, who may get upset that my honesty on racial equality is going to “get them into trouble.” It doesn’t matter if my words are true, it only matters that they are traumatic. But call me crazy, I still love my home state. That is why I want it to be cured of the disease of racism.
One thing I can say about the state of Kentucky is that the people are fundamentally good. The “country boy” who refuses to vote for a black presidential candidate is also the guy who will fix your car for free and allow his kids to play at your house. He cheers for the black guys on the University of Kentucky basketball team, even though he never thought about going to college. Ultimately, he represents the great paradox of Kentucky that creates racial inequality. Both the whites and the blacks are victims of this sickness.
I love my home state, and I would love to move back. But when I come home and see the same old oppression, I want to run for the airport. When I wrote my book about Kentucky and spoke of growing up there, I wrote from a position of intense pain.
The bluegrass state is beautiful, but it almost stole my dreams. Kentucky continues to be a dream killer for African Americans.
Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Finance Professor at Syracuse University and author of “What if George Bush were a Black Man?” He does regular commentary in national media, including CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS and ESPN. For more information, please visit www.BoyceWatkins.com.
By Christopher C. Cooper Chicago, IL cooper@sxu.edu
The acquittals of the three New York City Policeman who killed unarmed Sean Bell further damages the psyche and perception of the justice system by people of color. There was blatant disregard by Judge Cooperman, the Bell trial's presiding judge, of the compelling evidence of recklessness. His verdict represents the highest level of judicial abuse. Sadly, his verdict is consistent with outrageous, decision-making by judges throughout America when people-of-color are victims. On the Civil side, it is the power of judges to prevent people of-color, victimized by the police, from ever getting their civil lawsuits against police before a jury. Judges nix a jury by routinely dismissing cases via what is called Summary Judgment. It is a judge deciding that allegations of a black man or woman are Not credible enough to go to a jury.
On the criminal side, police officers can opt out of having a jury, they choose a judge instead. These bench trials as they are called, have long represented the way in which police officers who have killed and maimed without legal justification have avoided criminal convictions and prison. The shooting death of an elderly, wheel chair bound grandmother, Eleanor Bumpers, by a New York City Policeman and the officer's acquittal before a New York judge is among the most shocking examples of judicial abuse. The verdict in the Bell case joins a litany of cases from all over the United States that shows one set of judicial decision making for whites and another for people-of –color. One only consider the past and ongoing abuse by the many members of the judiciary in Chicago by their not addressing torture of black men by the infamous Chicago Police Officer John Burge and his criminal gang.
It does not matter that two of the officers who killed Sean Bell are black. The larger issue is that police officers of any color, in jurisdictions throughout the United States are given a blank check to abuse people of color. Prosecutors routinely look the other way and if they prosecute, they throw the fight (a real possibility of what happened in the Bell case). Most judges shirk their duty to be fair and impartial, especially when they dismiss cases by people of color against the police via Summary Judgment; having, inappropriately used their (judges) personal perceptions to decide that there is not an issue of genuine, material fact.
The National Black Police Association (NBPA), compromised of police officers, has every right to Monday morning quarterback any police situation. It is the knowledge of police practices of the association's members that enables The National Black Police Association to speak credibly and directly about the verdict in the Bell case. Any seasoned big city police officer is able to see the recklessness of the officers who killed Bell. We (members of the NBPA) know that the firing of more than fifty bullets on a crowded New York City Street at Sean Bell endangered bystanders and a whole host of people who live in the densely populated section of Jamaica, Queens.
Big City cops (many of whom are NBPA members) need to know a whole lot about fire discipline. This is a phenomenon of knowing your target and sight alignment of target to the weapon. As important, when justified to shoot, our sound judgment enables us to dispense with shooting our guns because to do so would be Recklessness (a crime) because of a large volume of people and structures. Unfortunately, the New York City Police Department, like most of the country's big city police departments is plagued by ranks of men lacking in adequate weapon's use training. Training that they could have obtained in the military. The end result, Big City Police Departments are depositories for men whose cowardice causes them to avoid military service and in the place of military service they become paid bullies in many of the nation's police departments. No wonder we see these men inappropriately wearing dark sunglasses and dressed like a commando in front of our local church or cruising our neighborhoods. Problematic is that America's black neighborhoods to many young men in police ranks are places of adventure for playing out their action fantasies. One would think that pre-employment psychological examinations would weed out the battery of cowardice men who flock to police departments seeking employment.
The lack of knowledge of police work by Judge Cooperman coupled with prosecutors who knew nothing about police work enabled the acquittal verdict of the officers who killed Sean Bell.
There cannot be a successful prosecution of police officers for use of deadly force incidents as long as there is continuance of the pervasive ignorance in judicial and prosecutorial ranks of the dynamics of police culture and police practices. We live in a society in which there is a nonsensical and inaccurate perception of police work by most laypeople. By example, non-scientific, baseless notion that all (verses some) police officers live a life of danger and have a job that no one else wants, perpetuates and encourages police violence against civilians. Strangely many laypeople fail to realize that many police officers do payrol1, shuttle politicians and inventory property, etc.
Provided that lay people possess a false perception of police officers constantly dodging bullets, then people in Chicago, by example, will say little to nothing about the recent, in progress, inappropriate militarization attempts of Chicago Police Department. Nor will most lay people, including Judge Cooperman and prosecutors ever have the courage or knowledge to criticize wrongful police behavior.
Since "911" in particular, police officers have been placed on pedestal that they don't deserve. In this sort of environment, to convict a police officer of harming a civilian is said to be unpatriotic. The NBPA holds that realism should replace euphoria and fiction. Hence, police officers should be required not only to use fire discipline and judgment on Park Avenue, but as well on the urban streets of Jamaica, Queens or Englewood in Chicago.
The crime of Recklessness is so easy to identify and prove. Judge Cooperman's verdict emboldens the justification that black people have to distrust judges. Who can people-of-color turn to--to stop abuse by prosecutors and judges? The Sean Bell verdict shows people-of-color that a stop to the misery of judicial abuse in the United States will not stop anytime soon.
Sen. Barack Obama has called for a national discussion on race in America, and one of the folks who sure didn't hold back when asked was Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. This was sent to YourBlackWorld from someone simply named "Robert". But we found the piece compelling and wanted to share it with our readers.
In a discussion with the editorial board of the Washington Times on Thursday, Rice called racism a "birth defect" of America, and said that black Americans have loved the nation even when it didn't love us.
The Times reported:
"Black Americans were a founding population," she said. "Africans and Europeans came here and founded! this co untry together - Europeans by choice and Africans in chains. That's not a very pretty reality of our founding." "As a result, Miss Rice told editors and reporters at The Washington Times, "descendants of slaves did not get much of a head start, and I think you continue to see some of the effects of that."
"That particular birth defect makes it hard for us to confront it, hard for us to talk about it, and hard for us to realize that it has continuing relevance for who we are today," she said. Rice later said: "America doesn't have an easy time dealing with race," Miss Rice said, adding that members of her family have "endured terrible humiliations." "What I would like understood as a black American is that black Americans loved and had faith in this country even when this country didn't love and have faith in them - and that's our legacy," she said.
Wow, was all I could say to that.
What was even more stunning was the relative lack of coverage on this issue. I was told CNN's "The Situation Room" did a piece on her comments Friday. But when I surfed the Net to see follow-up stories in other papers, it has pretty much been ignored, except for some briefs. Why would the mainstream media be so dismissive of Rice's comments? Imagine if Rev. Al Sharpton or Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. said such a thing. Do you think they would have gotten ripped?
The fact of the matter is that Rice was right on the money with her comments, and should be commended. She spoke honestly and openly about the issue, and deserves credit for speaking the truth.
I just wish my colleagues in the media would do a better job at advancing the issue of race in America and our sordid history.
We went bonkers about the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, but when Rice, the nation's chief diplomat, spoke truthfully, it barely made a ripple.
Romans 8v28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.*
