Friday, April 25, 2008
Sean Bell
I tried. I tried so hard to read several newspaper articles in order to pin down the truth. That way I could remain unbiased. I dont know if the testimony summaries I read confirmed what I believed or if my vision was too clouded still. I remembered the morning that his face was on the cover of the newspaper. I remember why I cried. It was just as my conciousness was waking up. I cried for his fiance, who lost the love of her life before one of the biggest days of her life. For the rest of the family. I tried to decide what really mattered. I tried to put myself in the place of the officers, to decide what I would have done. I tried to give them the benefit of the doubt. But then I wondered, what was it that made two officers feel so much more threatened than the others that they had to pull the trigger so many more times than everyone else. I wondered if I had a gun, would I remember whether or not I pulled the trigger, emptied bullets into a human being. I wondered if I was afraid and was anouncing to a "dangerous man", how loud would I scream to make sure he knew I was an officer. My answer, loud as hell. Everyone on the block would know I was legit. No eyewitness would have a doubt. If someone was "chasing" me with a car my ass would be too busy running to shoot. And I wouldn't turn my body on autopilot, I would know what was goin on. More questions, how many crime scenes are messed over, was this one taken care of so sloppily because of its nature or is that the routine procedure. How could they not find any sort of recklessness in this case? Why aren't reasons, detailed explanations, given in cases like this? Why aren't we rioting? Why aren't I rioting? What do I do know? My heart will break the day my little brothers are pulled over by the police. Don't they see that its things like this that make us streotype, hate, and fear them. I hate them for the way the treated me once. They make me nervous with their presence. What am I to do?
Wednesday, April 16, 2008
Pat Buchanan: A Brief for Whitey
By Patrick J. Buchanan
How would he pull it off? I wondered.
How would Barack explain to his press groupies why he sat silent in a pew for 20 years as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright delivered racist rants against white America for our maligning of Fidel and Gadhafi, and inventing AIDS to infect and kill black people?
How would he justify not walking out as Wright spewed his venom about “the U.S. of K.K.K. America,” and howled, “God damn America!”
My hunch was right. Barack would turn the tables.
Yes, Barack agreed, Wright’s statements were “controversial,” and “divisive,” and “racially charged,” reflecting a “distorted view of America.”
But we must understand the man in full and the black experience out of which the Rev. Wright came: 350 years of slavery and segregation.
Barack then listed black grievances and informed us what white America must do to close the racial divide and heal the country.
The “white community,” said Barack, must start “acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination — and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past — are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds … .”
And what deeds must we perform to heal ourselves and our country?
The “white community” must invest more money in black schools and communities, enforce civil rights laws, ensure fairness in the criminal justice system and provide this generation of blacks with “ladders of opportunity” that were “unavailable” to Barack’s and the Rev. Wright’s generations.
What is wrong with Barack’s prognosis and Barack’s cure?
Only this. It is the same old con, the same old shakedown that black hustlers have been running since the Kerner Commission blamed the riots in Harlem, Watts, Newark, Detroit and a hundred other cities on, as Nixon put it, “everybody but the rioters themselves.”
Was “white racism” really responsible for those black men looting auto dealerships and liquor stories, and burning down their own communities, as Otto Kerner said — that liberal icon until the feds put him away for bribery.
Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America.
Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to.
This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:
First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.
Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.
Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the ’60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream.
Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks — with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas — to advance black applicants over white applicants.
Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individuals all over America have donated time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks.
We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude?
Barack talks about new “ladders of opportunity” for blacks.
Let him go to Altoona and Johnstown, and ask the white kids in Catholic schools how many were visited lately by Ivy League recruiters handing out scholarships for “deserving” white kids.
Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America? Is it really white America’s fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent?
Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?
As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while white criminals choose black victims 3 percent of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45 percent of the time?
Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse, that black-on-white robberies were 139 times as common in the first three years of this decade as the reverse?
We have all heard ad nauseam from the Rev. Al about Tawana Brawley, the Duke rape case and Jena. And all turned out to be hoaxes. But about the epidemic of black assaults on whites that are real, we hear nothing.
Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago.
How would he pull it off? I wondered.
How would Barack explain to his press groupies why he sat silent in a pew for 20 years as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright delivered racist rants against white America for our maligning of Fidel and Gadhafi, and inventing AIDS to infect and kill black people?
How would he justify not walking out as Wright spewed his venom about “the U.S. of K.K.K. America,” and howled, “God damn America!”
My hunch was right. Barack would turn the tables.
Yes, Barack agreed, Wright’s statements were “controversial,” and “divisive,” and “racially charged,” reflecting a “distorted view of America.”
But we must understand the man in full and the black experience out of which the Rev. Wright came: 350 years of slavery and segregation.
Barack then listed black grievances and informed us what white America must do to close the racial divide and heal the country.
The “white community,” said Barack, must start “acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination — and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past — are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds … .”
And what deeds must we perform to heal ourselves and our country?
The “white community” must invest more money in black schools and communities, enforce civil rights laws, ensure fairness in the criminal justice system and provide this generation of blacks with “ladders of opportunity” that were “unavailable” to Barack’s and the Rev. Wright’s generations.
What is wrong with Barack’s prognosis and Barack’s cure?
Only this. It is the same old con, the same old shakedown that black hustlers have been running since the Kerner Commission blamed the riots in Harlem, Watts, Newark, Detroit and a hundred other cities on, as Nixon put it, “everybody but the rioters themselves.”
Was “white racism” really responsible for those black men looting auto dealerships and liquor stories, and burning down their own communities, as Otto Kerner said — that liberal icon until the feds put him away for bribery.
Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America.
Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to.
This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:
First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.
Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.
Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the ’60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream.
Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks — with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas — to advance black applicants over white applicants.
Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individuals all over America have donated time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks.
We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude?
Barack talks about new “ladders of opportunity” for blacks.
Let him go to Altoona and Johnstown, and ask the white kids in Catholic schools how many were visited lately by Ivy League recruiters handing out scholarships for “deserving” white kids.
Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America? Is it really white America’s fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent?
Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?
As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while white criminals choose black victims 3 percent of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45 percent of the time?
Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse, that black-on-white robberies were 139 times as common in the first three years of this decade as the reverse?
We have all heard ad nauseam from the Rev. Al about Tawana Brawley, the Duke rape case and Jena. And all turned out to be hoaxes. But about the epidemic of black assaults on whites that are real, we hear nothing.
Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago.
Poor Girl from China
Since when do college students rise up to silence a fellow student who is protesting? That's a dumb question, one I won't even explore. I will explore the fat that China is dead wrong, for still investing in Sudan's government and for violating human rights in Tibet. To all who asked those who do not know much about the issues to shut up, I would ask them to never express an opinion nor vote unless fully educated on every issue. I am proud that people are beginning to protest again. No more self-policing. no more nationalism that manifests itself as blind compliance. Since when do games out weigh lives. I wish I had more of an affect in boycotting the Olympics, but I never watched the Olympics, it would not matter any way. Maybe I should by a shirt, and bitch slapp the first person to through something at me. Now that would be funny. I would tell them, "I just overstepped your human rights!"
If I Was A Rich White Man
I like to think that I am so righteous because my opinions support all of the oppressed, to think that I know all of the answers. Maybe I am right when it comes to my opinion. But today I wondered, what if I was a white man, with all of the privileges in the world. Would I still fight against oppression, easily question my own privilege, easily express disbelief against a society that has been telling me that I am perfect and I deserve all that I have all of me life? Would I try my best to maintain my position. How righteous would I be then? I have received a taste of privilege since enrolling in Duke. How have I handled that. Am I taking complete advantage of it, cause I am lucky to be here? Nope. Am I doing all that I can to create ways to help others like me get here? Nope. Am I doing all that I can to help others like me, who are already here succeed? I have not handled my privilege well. Guess I am on my way to being apart of the problem.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
All they heard was nigger, Jeremiah Wright
First, here are a few highlight from Rev. Wright’s speech, to provide the context that is once again neglected:
• The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. “God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."
• We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye.
• We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost.
• It just came to me within the past few weeks, y'all, why so many folks are hating on Barack Obama. He doesn't fit the model. He ain't white, he ain't rich, and he ain't privileged. Hillary fits the mold. Europeans fit the mold, Giuliani fits the mold. Rich white men fit the mold. Hillary never had a cab whiz past her and not pick her up because her skin was the wrong colour. Hillary never had to worry about being pulled over in her car as a black man driving in the wrong… I am sick of Negroes who just do not get it. Hillary was not a black boy raised in a single parent home, Barack was. Barack knows what it means to be a black man living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary can never know that. Hillary ain't never been called a nigger. Hillary has never had her people defined as non-persons.
I support what Rev.Wright said, the true problem is that people get upset when you burst the “myth of America”. How dangerous is it to be in a country when you cannot criticize what is going on around you; the conditions that affect your family, friends, and loved ones? Yet Obama is in a position where he has to bend over and kiss a few asses. If he hadn’t he would have handed over the race to Hilary. Thank God I’m not running for President, I find it hard to bite my tongue and smile as someone puts their hand up my ass. There is no alternative to Obama, though a lot of people don’t seem to see that he and Hilary have platforms that are identical twins. So what’s the difference besides race and gender, the fact that Hilary plays the race card while Obama ignores the sex cheap shot.
I can’t decide if I should ignore the fact that he’s a black man that will enter the white house and leave all my black ideals outside on the sidewalk. Is he going to take the country as it is or still be able to call it on its faults? I think we got our answer during that speech. I guess I really am choosing the less of two evils. Deciding whether or not to accept this election as an “apology” for racism and all of its lasting affects, cause it may be the closest thing we ever get. Or should I tell them to kiss my ass and continue to live without it. Whoever gets up there will shuffle a few things around, but my optimism ends at that. Part of me hopes that Obama will get in there and say “Sike!”
• The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing 'God Bless America.' No, no, no, God damn America, that's in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. “God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."
• We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye.
• We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost.
• It just came to me within the past few weeks, y'all, why so many folks are hating on Barack Obama. He doesn't fit the model. He ain't white, he ain't rich, and he ain't privileged. Hillary fits the mold. Europeans fit the mold, Giuliani fits the mold. Rich white men fit the mold. Hillary never had a cab whiz past her and not pick her up because her skin was the wrong colour. Hillary never had to worry about being pulled over in her car as a black man driving in the wrong… I am sick of Negroes who just do not get it. Hillary was not a black boy raised in a single parent home, Barack was. Barack knows what it means to be a black man living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary can never know that. Hillary ain't never been called a nigger. Hillary has never had her people defined as non-persons.
I support what Rev.Wright said, the true problem is that people get upset when you burst the “myth of America”. How dangerous is it to be in a country when you cannot criticize what is going on around you; the conditions that affect your family, friends, and loved ones? Yet Obama is in a position where he has to bend over and kiss a few asses. If he hadn’t he would have handed over the race to Hilary. Thank God I’m not running for President, I find it hard to bite my tongue and smile as someone puts their hand up my ass. There is no alternative to Obama, though a lot of people don’t seem to see that he and Hilary have platforms that are identical twins. So what’s the difference besides race and gender, the fact that Hilary plays the race card while Obama ignores the sex cheap shot.
I can’t decide if I should ignore the fact that he’s a black man that will enter the white house and leave all my black ideals outside on the sidewalk. Is he going to take the country as it is or still be able to call it on its faults? I think we got our answer during that speech. I guess I really am choosing the less of two evils. Deciding whether or not to accept this election as an “apology” for racism and all of its lasting affects, cause it may be the closest thing we ever get. Or should I tell them to kiss my ass and continue to live without it. Whoever gets up there will shuffle a few things around, but my optimism ends at that. Part of me hopes that Obama will get in there and say “Sike!”
Since people love to take things out of context.
"So I said to the members of the press, 'Why won't you go and look into what we are saying about the threats on Reverend Jackson's life?' Here the Jews don't like Farrakhan and so they call me 'Hitler.' Well that's a good name. Hitler was a very great man. He wasn't great for me as a Black man (See Hitler's attitude toward Blacks) but he was a great German and he rose Germany up from the ashes of her defeat by the united force of all of Europe and America after the first world war. Yet Hitler took Germany from the ashes and rose her up and made her the greatest fighting machine of the twentieth century, brothers and sisters, and even though Europe and America had deciphered the code that Hitler was using to speak to his chiefs of staff, they still had trouble defeating Hitler even after knowing his plans in advance. Now I'm not proud of Hitler's evil toward Jewish people, but that's a matter of record. He rose Germany up from nothing. Well, in a sense you could say there is a similarity in that we are rising our people up from nothing, but don't compare me with your wicked killers."
-Louis Farrakhan
-Louis Farrakhan
Sunday, March 16, 2008
BITCH
I used to hate this word. I still hate this word. I'm getting over it. I no longer want it to have power over me. To incite rage in me at it's sound. To cause me to step out of character and enter into a screaming match with random guy on Franklin Street. For this is, from Gayl Jones' Mosquito, what men call the women they cannot control. And I am uncontrollable. So call me a bitch, I'll respond, "Ya damn right and proud off it!"
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