One Mississippi, Two Mississippi

It amazes me how quickly people come to the defense of the police and blame the victim when a police shooting occurs. How can it be that a pair of police officers race up to within 5 feet of a 12 year old boy holding a toy gun and within seconds shoot him dead from the vehicle even before it skids to a complete stop? They then stand around for four minutes while the child lays there dying without administering any type of assistance. When the little boy’s sister rushes to his aid, one of the officers tackles and handcuffs her and she is forced to sit in the back seat of the police car to watch her brother die. Oh and did I mention all of this was caught on video? The county prosecutor in the case not only finds them free of negligence but he blatantly stacks the deck against an indictment and then recommends that the grand jury in fact, not indict the cops. And still there are those who continually blame the victim or others for these officer’s actions. These people have no compassion and are incapable of empathizing. They cannot put themselves in or even imagine their children in the same situation because they simply do not view young Black boys as they do themselves. So they blame the victim.

• He shouldn’t have been playing with a toy gun in the park.
• He was big for his age so they mistook him for an adult.
• Where was his mother, why did she buy him the realistic looking toy gun? Why didn’t she raise him to not act like a thug?
• Where was his father? With the assumption that because he’s Black his father couldn’t possibly be involved in his life.
• He should have simply complied with the officer’s orders (my personal favorite, especially considering the time frame).
• What do you expect the police to do in those neighborhoods? Full of crime and infested with gang activity?
• The officer feared for his life. (see above)

 RIDICULOUS!

These excuses and assumptions are all based on the fact that this child was Black. PERIOD! You cannot convince me that had the police been in a White suburban neighborhood and gotten the call of a White child playing with a possible toy gun in the park they would have rushed in, pulled up right next to him and shot him dead. Absolutely not. They would have taken time to properly assess the situation and choose the least lethal way to handle. Hostage negotiators, a psychiatrist and the kid’s Priest would have been called in to assist. But because of where he was and who he was, he was assumed to be just another hood thug to be terminated…and literally left to die. They did not see a 6^th grader in the park playing with a toy…they didn’t take the time.

So the prosecutor says the video shows Tamir reaching for the gun in his waistband. That’s not what I saw. What I saw was a kid who saw the police rushing in and attempted to motion to the gun to maybe let them know it was a toy and not real. Or maybe he was trying to drop it. Maybe he thought, I don’t know “I’m 12 years old, perhaps these well-armed adult officers are here to protect me”. He never got the chance to explain. The prosecutor says he was big for his age. WTF?? So what! Being big and Black is justification for killing? These two officers rushed in there and shot him with the car still rolling before you could count to two. I bet they couldn’t even give an accurate description of him. So if the police are as innocent as the prosecutor suggest why did they lie on the initial report? They originally said he was sitting on the bench with a group of kids. That they gave him several commands to drop the gun and he pointed it at them so they shot him…again, the video. None of that shit happened. So when the video comes out they change their story and use the old they “feared for their lives” defense. But the prosecutor saw nothing wrong with this. Or nothing negligent about the fact that they left this child on the ground bleeding to death until an FBI agent who just happened to be in the area came along and administered aid. Yeah, nothing wrong with that at all.

But what do expect, this is the same incompetent police department who upon hearing a car backfire mistook it for gunshots and chased down the car killing the two occupants inside. True story http://abcnews.go.com/US/verdict-reach-trial-cleveland-police-officer-accused-2012/story?id=31252998  and  http://nypost.com/2015/05/23/cleveland-cop-acquitted-after-killing-two-in-137-shot-barrage/   At the end of the chase after over 137 bullets had been fired, an officer stood on the hood of the car and fired into the windshield and additional 15 TIMES killing the two unarmed occupants… he was acquitted. The judge in the non-jury case said it was not possible to determine whether the 137 shots fired by the other officers or the 15 by the hood cop killed the victims… I can’t make this shit up folks. When someone says to you in response to Black Lives Matter that All Lives Matter this is proof positive that it does not. But don’t bother arguing, they just don’t get it.

Having a police presence shouldn’t mean that we have to constantly watch our backs or walk on egg shells for fear of spooking or terrifying some overly hypersensitive cop. Police should not have nervous hair trigger reflexes ready to shoot first and ask questions never. The responding officers in the Tamir Rice case were obviously grossly incompetent, but poorly trained racist cops should not be armed with a license to kill. They drastically and unnecessarily escalated the situation and ultimately should be held responsible for the death of Tamir Rice. So too should the county prosecutor who failed miserably at his job and denied the community an opportunity to use the justice system to determine whether or not the police officers were justified in their actions. But they won’t and the 12 year old child will continually be blamed for his own death. Gotta love it, justice in America.

Childish Behavior

You know I’ve got to stop reading stories on the internet and then reading the comments section. I read the story and watched the video of the young girl in class who after refusing to give up her cell phone and demands that she leave class was assaulted by a police officer…yes assaulted. Some of the comments in the articles were cringe worthy. Not only did these police apologist condone the behavior of this officer, this young girl was called an animal, a thug and a sassy black bitch who got what she deserved. The reaction was the same last summer at the pool party in Texas where cops were called in and another young Black girl was assaulted by a police officer. This is exactly what the Black Lives Matter movement is all about and it proves what they’ve been saying all along, there is a total disrespect and disregard for Black lives. When these situations arise the person of color is viewed as somewhat less than human and deserving of the treatment received. The point of the movement is not to say that Black lives have more value than others but simply that Black Lives Matter Too.

I know some will say it’s not about color but let’s be honest, the situation would have been handled differently at a school involving white students. If blonde haired, blue-eyed Becky had refused to give up her phone and leave the classroom the police would not have been called in. Instead, the school psychologist would have been contacted to discuss with Becky her compliance phobias and her fear of authority. There then would have been a round table discussion including the other students to air their grievances after which there would have been tears shed and hugs all around. Becky certainly would not have been tossed around like a rag doll and then cuffed, arrested and charged. And by the way since when is it a crime to simply speak up when you see a police officer dragging a girl around the room as was the case of the second student arrested.

Was the girl wrong? Yes. I’m not condoning her behavior but my point is the cop completely overreacted. Teens didn't start rebelling against authority in 2015, this was going on when I was in high school (insert preferred age joke here). We had kids disrupt the class and some may have refused to leave but we didn't have a police officer twice their size come in and flip them out of their desk and toss them across the room. Yes she resisted but the type of resistance she exuded did not merit that kind of force. She wasn't being violent and not one person in that room was in physical danger. Her crime was sending a text. His response was totally unacceptable. He got angry and lost his cool because he didn’t know how to handle an unruly teenager.

To be clear I’m not saying all police officers are bad. However, you will have to deal with non-compliant people when you are a cop. The good ones will use the appropriate amount of force based on the situation. Part of his job was to get this high school student, this child to comply with his orders with minimal disruption to the class and without anyone getting hurt.  Well not only was the girl hurt physically but I suggest you view the video again and look at the faces of the students as he’s attacking her. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3T5yVBz5j4 Some hid their face or attempted to look away but all except the second girl arrested remained silent. The mental damage and trauma inflicted on these children forced to witness the violent acts of this police officer thug may be irreparable.

Fallen

I cried the day Michael Jackson died. Of course I didn’t know him personally but I knew him through his music. I grew up with him. We went through puberty together, high school and for me college. I felt a kinship as if he was in fact my real life brother. So when he died I felt a loss like a really close relative had passed and I mourned. I feel the same way about Bill Cosby. I didn’t think of him as just “America’s Dad” I knew him long before Cliff Huxtable existed. I remember I Spy and how proud African-Americans were to welcome a positive Black character into their homes weekly. As a kid I listened to his comedy albums over and over again until I knew the routines by heart. I remember Fat Albert & the Cosby Kids and The Bill Cosby Show. I remember it all, so the news of the sexual allegations hit hard and I quite honestly refused to believe any of it. It just couldn’t be true of the Bill Cosby I knew.

But that’s exactly the problem. Because we allow ourselves to develop this distant yet personal kinship with celebrities, we think we know them. We take them into our homes through music, television and movies and we create a persona of who we think they are or more importantly who we want them to be, when in fact we don’t know them at all. Actors are just that, performers who create characters. Fictional characters who may be based on real life or real life events but fictional just the same. America’s Dad was never any more real than Santa Claus yet we have no problem separating fat & jolly from real life. I suggest we need to do that with Mr. Cosby. I don’t know if he did it or not but I refuse to defend him because quite simply I don’t know him. I never really knew Bill Cosby despite the character I had allowed my mind to manufacture, so I refuse to support him any further.

However, whether the allegations are true or not it shouldn’t devalue the characters Bill Cosby created. It is not for me to forgive or condemn the man for what he’s accused. I continue to hold a kinship to those characters and I’m happy to do so. Perhaps I’m wrong but it shouldn’t diminish the charities and scholarships he created or any of his philanthropy. But I’m sure it will. Yes he’s a hypocrite, he’s talked down to the African-American community on many occasions and it’s become increasingly evident that he has done horrible things that have hurt countless people. What he’s accused of is unconscionable and absolutely unforgivable and no one should apologize or speak for the man. Even Whoopee Goldberg has finally within drawn her support after hanging in there even after he admitted in released court documents that he had given drugs to women in order to have sex with them.  But I gotta be honest, it would give me more comfort to go back to dismissing the allegations as lies and embrace the Bill Cosby character I knew and loved. The one I created. I won’t support him and I hope this post doesn’t come off as some Cosby apologist but serial rapist or not, I just can’t bring myself to let his arrogance diminish the memories or the love I have for the characters he created.

Identity Crisis, A Tale Of Two Women

Rachel Dolezal, the president of the Spokane, Washington, chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and also a professor of Africana studies, was revealed to be in fact a White woman although for years she has presented herself and identified as Black. Ok maybe the right wing conservatives are right and we have gotten to a post-racial America. I mean White people are now passing for Black? WTF! Seriously, so many questions. Apparently she was outed as White by her White parents who pretty much described her as a complete loon. And before we all attack the parents and question their motives ask yourself how you would react if you found out your daughter had rejected her ancestry and lineage and decided to pass for white. She’s lied for years and denied her parents, you know the ones that adopted four Black children and raised them? That’s right mom and dad of whom she has made numerous disparaging remarks have adopted Black children.

I know a lot of you are saying “so what, she has done a lot of good work for her NAACP chapter. She should be lauded for her accomplishments and her dedication.” Granted, but couldn’t she have done the same thing as a White woman? Wouldn’t you have more respect for her as a White woman with a heart for social justice and without the façade of a struggle? An interview she gave was recently released. In it she said her Black grandfather fought back and hit a white cop and had to leave town with her then 5 year old father in the middle of the night or they would have been killed. She also said her Black father was an officer in the Marines who was almost killed three times by his White soldiers. Don’t know about you but dumb shit like this leads me to question the authenticity of her work. Her accomplishments may have been many but reaching them under the guise of a struggling Black woman is questionable and at the least extremely deceitful.

So she permed her hair developed Black affectations and reinvented herself in blackface. Oh, did I mention this was after she sued Howard University for reverse racial discrimination. Yep, 14 years ago Rachel Dolezal then known as Rachel Moore, the white lady from Montana, sued Howard University claiming she was denied a teaching assistant position based on race. To be clear based on the fact that she was denied the position as a White woman. She also claimed her artwork was removed from a student exhibition in favor of African-American students. But to be fair this was before she identified as Black so maybe we should cut her some slack. So let’s recap. Before she became a sister down with the struggle she was a put upon White woman being hated on by the Blacks. But after she herself became Black she recounted on many occasions the discrimination she faced as an African-American woman, with mile high dookey braids, in the largely white community of Spokane…loon doesn’t do her justice. I guess her race just comes and goes dependent on the benefits afforded to her.

Here’s the deal being Black is not something that you can just put on and take off. It’s not a fad. And to be clear, misappropriation of Black culture is nothing new but this is some new level shit. This woman has publically called out Iggy Azalea the White female rapper from Australia for attempting to be down and for her insulting racial affectations. She said as a Black woman she was insulted…except you’re not a Black woman you nut ball. She attacked White people who became involved in the Black Lives Matter movement saying that because they’re White they would not be able to understand the perspective of Black people and their plight in this country for equality. Talk about projection.

I don’t know, maybe she felt bad about the Howard lawsuit or felt some kinship to her Black adoptive siblings. But how do you look at her work authentically when she claimed to look at situations through the eyes of a member of an affected racial group when in fact she wasn't? There are several Whites around the country who lead chapters of the NAACP and there always have been. In fact the NAACP was started by White people but none faked being Black. The organization has a rich history of a racially diverse leadership, both at the local and national levels. To be clear just because you have shared the Black experience (whatever the hell that means) does not make you Black. You want to work for causes go right ahead but “you ain’t got to lie Craig”. Her deception was unnecessary and insulting.

No Soup For You

So now I have to worry while my partner and I are sitting in a movie theater or out having dinner that some nut case will creep up and shoot me in the back of the head because they think it’s legal. Sound crazy? Well some despicable low life attorney in Orange County, California is attempting to do just that with the “Sodomite Suppression Act." This guy, from Orange County, is attempting to get enough signatures for a ballot measure to legalize this hate crime with legislation that states “any person willingly engaging in sexual activity with someone of the same gender should be shot in the head”. I know, right? Well to be fair, he does say that other "convenient" methods of murder would be acceptable as well. It sounds so silly it’s almost funny…almost. So think about this, some stranger wants to make it a law to legally murder me, your friend. He wants to be able to legitimately put a bullet in my brain and if you are not as disgusted and upset as I am perhaps, well you figure it out. This guy’s not just thinking about how he'd like to shoot people in the head, he's promoting the idea as actual law. And I know what you’re thinking, “there’s no way this will ever become a law” and you’re probably right but that’s not the point and it doesn’t take away from the fact that this guy and others like him think that it should. Just imagine if someone was promoting the idea of killing all Chinese people, all left-handed people or all people who have an outie navel. This nut ball should be arrested and convicted for promoting genocide.

No, it won’t become a law but they’ve already begun conditioning people with things like the Religious Freedom Restoration Act in Indiana. This law would allow businesses to legally use religion as a means to deny services. And believe me I am completely aware that there are those among my friends who don’t necessarily disagree and find justification in allowing this form of discrimination. Those who say people should not be forced to go against their religious beliefs. But what if I belong to a religion which states that those who have a second toe bigger than their first are inherently immoral and allowing them to marry would be an abomination. So here you come strolling (not sure if that’s the correct term considering that toe of yours) into my bakery and you expect me to bake a cake for your deviant ass. Uh no, ain’t gonna happen take your irregular digit out of here, we don’t serve your kind. As ridiculous as that may sound that’s exactly what this type of legislation does. Seriously, can someone point out the biblical passage which states thou shalt not serve the Gays because I must have missed that one in Sunday school. And as an aside no self-respecting Gay couple is going to have some greasy ass pizza joint cater their wedding. Their Gay cards would be revoked before they hung up the phone. 

Then there are those of you who say just take your business elsewhere. Fine but I shouldn’t have to worry when I walk into my local burger joint whether or not I’m going to be denied a burger with cheese hold the tomato, based on some fundamentalist nut ball theology and then have to search until I find an accepting one. If you open your business to the public, you must serve the public. All the public. You're not allowed to slice and dice and pick and choose the portion you find acceptable and not serve those you find icky. And stop with the stupid analogies. No, if an African-American owns a print shop you cannot be forced to print an offensive sign for the KKK. What you can be forced to do is to produce the same product for everyone who comes into your business. That’s not discrimination because you’re not printing hate speech signs for others and then refusing to do the same for the KKK. It’s simply not the same as refusing to make somebody a cake or a pizza just because they're Gay. You can restrict your product not your customers and if you feel your religious beliefs are being trounced maybe you should open up a private bakery, perhaps in your church hall. And by the way just because you’re baking a damn cake doesn’t mean you’re participating in the wedding. Nobody sent your dumb ass an invitation, drop off the cake and keep it pushing.

Let’s not forget folks that religious misinterpretation has been used for centuries as a tool to subjugate and rule over others. Check these out, Ephesians 6:5-6 and Titus 2:9-10. White supremacy in the south had its curse of Ham roots in southern Baptist and Protestant churches where Jim Crow laws used the Bible as justification for their racist segregationist ideology. Today just replace interracial marriage with Gay marriage in any anti same sex marriage conversation, tie it up in a big pretty religious bow of intolerance, and you sound just like George Wallace in front of a schoolhouse circa 1963 Alabama. And for those who believe in its absolute literal interpretation just remember the Bible was written by people who were confused and baffled as to where the sun went at night. Take the Bible for when it was written and by whom. Anyone who would propose killing in the name of God is absolutely wrong. That’s not God that’s man.