Does our focus, discussion & anger change if the Killer of 7 year old Jazmin Barnes is a Black Man?

Eric Black Jr

Last night I got an alert that said an arrest was made in the brutal killing of 7-year-old Jazmin Barnes… She was a Black girl riding in a car with her mom who went on a coffee run.

The initial stories that came out was a white man in an unprovoked attack came over and shot Jazmin killing her and then shot her mom. The Barnes killing set off a nationwide manhunt, with offers up to 100k for the arrest of the killer…

Now here’s where things get a little sticky… Over the past few nights, there’s been a huge discussion about the R Kelly documentary, with many of his defenders stating that our collective obsession with Kelly was taking attention away from Barnes killing.

‘Why are we focus on R Kelly who we all knew was a disgusting individual when we have the killer of Jazmin Barnes still at large??’

Now, if we believe the police reports which state that Eric Barnes Jr (pictured above) confessed that he was the driver and another Black man by the name of Larry W did the shooting in a case of mistaken identity, is the impact and horror of Jazmin’s death lessened? Would a 100k dollars have been offered if we knew Eric Black was the man being accused of killing Jazmin? IN another report the police say the mother saw a white man running for cover and thought he was the shooter..

If its a Black man behind the killing of Jazmin does it change the discussion? Was the R Kelly documentary really a distraction or an enhancement as to why we must talk about the harm that is often visited on Black girls and women? Was our concern about a little Black girl being killed or was she just an excuse go to express anger and go HAM on white oppression?

From the looks of things, it seems like, with some folks, Jazmin Barnes killing was being used the same way Trump and white racist used the killing of Kate Steinle at the hands of an undocumented man named Jose Garcia Zarate to stir up anti-immigrant hate and to push for us to build a wall… There was never a concern about Steinle being killed.

So again, was our concern about Jazmin an innocent Black girl being killed or was she just an excuse to push forth a variety of agendas with the protection of Black girls being priority number one?

Black or white, an innocent Black girl is dead. Eric Black Jr and Larry W, R Kelly or a racist white man who caused a nationwide hunt, does it matter? All three, in theory, have caused unthinkable harm to Black girls and women.. Does it matter who the killer is? Do we still hold the same anger? Are we still demanding the killer be arrested and hung? After all, an innocent 7-year-old Black girl is dead. And if we look at this from a wider lens lots of 7-year-old Black girls are also being harmed and mistreated at homes and at institutions they wind up being forced into.

One of the refrains put forth by detractors of the R Kelly documentary is that we should put race first. We need to prioritize our struggle. ‘Focus on the white killer of Jazmin Barnes’ is what they said… What happens if the killer/killers are Black? What’s our focus moving forward? Do we start to have those painful discussions about Black men harming exploiting, pimping etc Black girls? How do we hold those folks involved in that cycyle accountable?


Thoughts on Robert Griffin III (RG3) being called a ‘Cornball Brother’ by ESPN’s Rob Parker

Robert Griffith III

Robert Griffin III

An interesting conversation went down on ESPN’s ‘First Take‘ the other day around Robert Griffin III (RG3) and how he identifies with race and him being Black. Sports writer and panelist Rob Parker raised the question whether or not RG3 was a brother or a ‘cornball brother‘.

Parker took issue with the way RG3 answered some questions about race in a recent USA Today interview.

‘For me, you don’t ever want to be defined by the color of your skin’.. ‘You want to be defined by your work ethic, the person that you are, your character, your personality. That’s what I’ve tried to go out and do….I am an African-American in America. That will never change. But I don’t have to be defined by that.’

In response to those quotes Parker asserted;  “Well, he’s black, he kind of does his thing. But he’s not really down with the cause, he’s not one of us….He’s kind of black. But he’s not really the guy you’d really want to hang out with because he’s off to do something else.”

When questioned as to what he meant by saying RG3 is not one of us, Parker noted that because the rookie quarterback has a white fiance and that there were rumors he might be a Republican his Blackness needed to be called into question.

When asked about his braided hair style, which often times has led to Black people being denied employment, Parker responded; ‘That’s different…wearing braids, you’re a brother’. But he didn’t move off his initial point that RG3 might be a cornball brother

Needless to say this conversation caused a lot of outrage especially among those who read RG3’s USA Today remarks and concluded that it was admirable he appeared to be trying to rise above the minefields that often occur when it comes to discussions about race. Parker’s cohorts Stephen A Smith and Skip Bayless attempted to rein him in and ESPN issued a statement saying Parker’s remarks were inappropriate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O2G5GwnQMmE

Now on the surface all this can be seen as some BS with Parker arguably making controversial remarks as a way to get attention and boost ratings. After all, this is the same Parker who once wrote that baseball Hall of Famer Hank Aaron was a coward for not showing up to see Barry Bonds break his home run record.

Michael Jordan

Michael Jordan

With all that’s going on in the world why should we be concerned about such discussions?  On the other hand, there’s a lot to consider especially when it comes to the types of demands we have long put on athletes to be better role models and to speak out. It wasn’t too long ago that many of us decried athletes like Michael Jordan for playing it safe by remaining silent or taking apolitical stances on important issues that seemed to downplayed his Blackness.

Many got upset with Jordan when he refused to speak out about all the Black inner city youth killing each other over his high-priced basketball shoes. He was famously quoted as saying ‘Republicans buy sneakers too usually at full retail’, when asked to address the issue.

Jordan further enraged people when he refused to weigh in on two racially charged elections in which former Charlotte Mayor Harvey Gantt, an African-American, challenged long time far right conservative Senator Jesse Helms for his US Senate seat. A lot of attention was on Gantt who stood a good chance at becoming the second or third African-American win a Senate seat.

Gantt sought an endorsement from Jordan who refused.. He played it safe and many accused him of not being ‘down for the cause’. It wasn’t until Jordan met Helms and the Senator dismissively looked him up and down and called him ‘Fred’ that Jordan began to rethink his position. For those who don’t know calling a black man Fred was a long-standing ‘joke’ Helms had when dealing with African-Americans. He’d call them Fred no matter what their name was, because Fred was the generic name for  ‘the Help‘. Jordan reflected on that incident after Helms died and admitted there was more to life than making money.. You can read about that encounter HERE.

All this is not to suggest that RG3 would ever be like Jordan. Perhaps RG3 is the type of guy who will proudly step up and support worthwhile candidates and speak out on issues of importance. He also may be conservative whose opinions stand in stark opposition of the ones held by the majority of Black folks. Time will tell if RG3 is ‘down for the cause’..

Rob Parker

Rob Parker

This leads to the next point..’What cause was panelist Rob Parker expecting RG3 to be down so he could avoid being classified as a cornball brother?

Did he want him to talk a certain way? Often times some Black folks who speak in a certain tone or are too articulate are accused of not being Black and acting white.

Did Parker want him to dress a certain way? Go to a particular church? Have a Black girlfriend?

Did Parker want RG3 speaking out about the recent killing of Jordan Davis, a teen shot to death by a white man in Florida who felt his music was too loud?

Or did he want RG3 to be ‘down for the cause‘ by weighing in on the controversy surrounding the firing of KTBS whether reporter Rhonda Lee?   She was fired for responding to a racist Facebook comment where a viewer told her to get rid of her natural hair and wear a wig. Was this a cause for RG3 to be down for?

Would RG3 be less of a cornball brother if he said he was a fan of Chicago rapper Chief Keef and could kick the lyrics to all his controversial violent themed songs?  Would that be an indication that he’s down for the cause?

black-power-pinParker said he was just being honest and reflecting what folks say on street corners and in the barbershop. Perhaps..The irony is that in many of those barber shops, RG3 may carry himself in a way that they deem satisfactory, while calling Parker’s Blackness into question. For example, some might say Parker is a cornball brother for sitting on a panel, cheesing at white owned ESPN, a Disney company vs showcasing his talents on Black owned TV1.

Some might say Parker is a ‘cornball brother’ because he doesn’t speak out about the prison industrial complex or bring attention to the plight of political prisoners, like; Mumia Abu-JamalHerman BellDr. Mutulu Shakur or Romaine “Chip” Fitzgerald or Ed Poindexter to name a few.

Perhaps he’s a cornball for not speaking out about the plight of unions and how Black folks in Detroit, a city he once worked in, will be disproportionately hurt by recently passed anti-union right to work bill.

Some might call him a cornball for publicly blasting RG3 vs sitting him down and talking to him behind the scenes about his politics and ways in which he engages Black culture. Parker’s public condemnation of another Black man for something so personal is the type of behavior we often advise youngsters to avoid for fear of it leading to unnecessary beefs and violent confrontations. How is it ‘being down for the cause’ to call someone out like that? Was he trying to shame Mr Griffith into a particular way of being? Should RG3 upon hearing these remarks dump his girlfriend?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFY2kJ96jNY

We could go on and on playing ‘I’m Blacker than thou games’ pointing out where and how someone falls short of some mythical mark. Someone can always claim they are ‘Blacker’. Perhaps we should be more concerned with the types of causes RG3 gets behind.. In short lets choose substance over style. It may have been a bit more instructive if Parker had noted that the folks in the barbershop were looking for RG3 to come hang out at the local youth centers, or speak out on some recent occurrence impacting Black folks who live in DC and the surrounding DMV. Even better would be if Parker himself could’ve invited the star quarterback to join him and others to an activity or be a part of cause that would enrich the community. To simply suggest he’s a cornball brother is in the words of James Brown, is talking loud and saying nothing.

written by Davey D

Trayvon Martin Tribute: Mos Def, Dead Prez & MikeFlo “Made You Die”

M-1 of dead prez always represents for the people

Mos Def and dead prez come together to do a song that pays tribute to Trayvon.. We had a great convo with M1 the other day about this.. He reminded us that Florida is also home to the Uhuru Movement an oragnization that helped shape and mold him.He said the spirit of resistance in the Sunshine State is strong and should not be overlooked or underplayed.. Here’s what they did..

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jz8-lEof–I

Here’s What’s Driving the Racial Hysteria this Country is Facing…Dr Francis Cress Welsing Explains the Psychology Behind White Supremacy

Dr Francis Cress Welsing

Wanna know why we have this intense racially charged reaction to President Barack Obama being in the White House?  It’s not because people may disagree with his policies. That’s understandable and fair game, but when you have a 400% increase in threats and this over the top maligning of his character mired in racial stereotypes, there’s something else going on. Perhaps we can find some answers rooted in what psychologist Francis Cress Welsing talks about in with her Race and Color Confrontation Theory.

Cress Welsing states white supremacy is a system is practiced by the global white minority, on both conscious and unconscious levels, to ensure their genetic survival by any means necessary. According to Cress Welsing, this system attacks people of color, particularly people of African descent, in the nine major areas of people’s activity: economics, education, entertainment, labor, law, politics, religion, sex and war. Cress Welsing believes that it is imperative that people of color, especially people of African descent, understand how the system of white supremacy works in order to dismantle it and bring true justice to planet Earth.

Below are clips from an appearance that Welsing made on the film Donahue show where she breaks all this down.. You can read her works in the Isis Papers and The Keys to the Colors..

After you watch the Phil Donahue excerpts you can scroll down and watch the historic debate between Francis Cress Welsing and Dr William Shockley

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntJw6Red6k8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezk6DzLldBI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mxVCg3i2C6A&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fWePnfLBgj4&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zWvxVbsI8rg&feature=related

Francis Cress Welsing vs Dr William Shockley

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O01PUOxE5Wk&feature=related

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Skin-Lightening Cream is Making a Comeback-Do We Really Hate Our Dark Skin?

I’m not sure if this is a resurgence from a bygone era or something thats always been around in some shape or form. But it looks like skin-lightening cream is making a comeback. Its obviously big business in India if Vaseline is making a special product for folks in that country. But even here at home we heard stories about prominent figures like Beyonce lightening their skin. We seen magazines frequently do this.. Of course we all know about Sammy Sosa and before him Michael Jackson.

Is being Black really that bad? Along with the skin-lightening do we bring with it an attitude that sees someone dark as inferior? Does this mean folks are gonna stop going out and getting tans? Next thing you know folks are gonna start straightening their hair and speaking with funny aristocratic accents to try and distance themselves from their roots… What a strange world we live in..

-Davey D-

Vaseline launches skin-whitening Facebook app for India

NEW DELHI (AFP) – Skincare group Vaseline has introduced a skin-lightening application for Facebook in India, enabling users to make their faces whiter in their profile pictures.

The download is designed to promote Vaseline’s range of skin-lightening creams for men, a huge and fast-growing market driven by fashion and a cultural preference for fairer skin.

The widget promises to “Transform Your Face On Facebook With Vaseline Men” in a campaign fronted by Bollywood actor Shahid Kapur, who is depicted with his face divided into dark and fair halves.

“We started campaign advertising (for the application) from the second week of June and the response has been pretty phenomenal,” Pankaj Parihar from global advertising firm Omnicom, which designed the campaign, told AFP.

Indian cosmetics giant Emami launched the first skin-whitening cream for men in 2005, called “Fair and Handsome” and advertised by Bollywood superstar Shahrukh Khan. It came 27 years after the first cream for women.

Baseball star Sammy Sosa Reminded us a couple of years ago there are many who can't stand to be dark-skinned

Since then a half dozen foreign brands have piled into the male market, including Garnier, L’Oreal and Nivea, which promote the seemingly magical lightening qualities of their products in ubiquitous advertising.

In 2009, a poll of nearly 12,000 people by online dating site Shaadi.com, revealed that skin tone was considered the most important criteria when choosing a partner in three northern Indian states.

“More and more, there’s an anxiety in the mind of men about having fair skin,” sociology professor T. K. Oommen at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi told AFP.

“Indians believe that if you have fair skin you belong to the higher caste, the Brahmins,” he added, explaining that a succession of light-skinned colonisers in India reinforced the association of fairness with power.

“The Aryans, who came from central Asia, in addition to the Portuguese, the French and the British colonisers ruled over the country and probably contributed to this negative perception of dark-skin.”

original article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100713/tc_afp/lifestyleindiainternetfacebookvaseline

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Jasiri X Drops New Song & Banging Video-What if the Tea Party Were Black?

Jasiri X has released a video called “What if the Tea Party was Black?” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtH7vH4yRcY

The Hip Hop artist says that he got the idea when Paradise,a member of the pro-black rap group X-Clan, forwarded him a copy of Wise’s article. “I saw the article and I liked the concept,” says the rapper. So Jasiri hit the studio with producer Cynik Lethal while Paradise grabbed his video camera and they went on their mission to defeat the Right Wing propaganda machine.

What If the Tea Party Were Black?

by Tim Wise

http://www.alternet.org/story/146616/what_if_the_tea_party_were_black?page=entire

Let’s play a game, shall we? The name of the game is called “Imagine.” The way it’s played is simple: we’ll envision recent happenings in the news, but then change them up a bit. Instead of envisioning white people as the main actors in the scenes we’ll conjure – the ones who are driving the action – we’ll envision black folks or other people of color instead. The object of the game is to imagine the public reaction to the events or incidents, if the main actors were of color, rather than white. Whoever gains the most insight into the workings of race in America, at the end of the game, wins

So let’s begin.

Imagine that hundreds of black protesters were to descend upon Washington DC and Northern Virginia, just a few miles from the Capitol and White House, armed with AK-47s, assorted handguns, and ammunition. And imagine that some of these protesters —the black protesters — spoke of the need for political revolution, and possibly even armed conflict in the event that laws they didn’t like were enforced by the government? Would these protesters — these black protesters with guns — be seen as brave defenders of the Second Amendment, or would they be viewed by most whites as a danger to the republic? What if they were Arab-Americans? Because, after all, that’s what happened recently when white gun enthusiasts descended upon the nation’s capital, arms in hand, and verbally announced their readiness to make war on the country’s political leaders if the need arose.

Imagine that white members of Congress, while walking to work, were surrounded by thousands of angry black people, one of whom proceeded to spit on one of those congressmen for not voting the way the black demonstrators desired. Would the protesters be seen as merely patriotic Americans voicing their opinions, or as an angry, potentially violent, and even insurrectionary mob? After all, this is what white Tea Party protesters did recently in Washington.

Imagine that a rap artist were to say, in reference to a white president: “He’s a piece of shit and I told him to suck on my machine gun.” Because that’s what rocker Ted Nugent said recently about President Obama.

Imagine that a prominent mainstream black political commentator had long employed an overt bigot as Executive Director of his organization, and that this bigot regularly participated in black separatist conferences, and once assaulted a white person while calling them by a racial slur. When that prominent black commentator and his sister — who also works for the organization — defended the bigot as a good guy who was misunderstood and “going through a tough time in his life” would anyone accept their excuse-making? Would that commentator still have a place on a mainstream network? Because that’s what happened in the real world, when Pat Buchanan employed as Executive Director of his group, America’s Cause, a blatant racist who did all these things, or at least their white equivalents: attending white separatist conferences and attacking a black woman while calling her the n-word.

Imagine that a black radio host were to suggest that the only way to get promoted in the administration of a white president is by “hating black people,” or that a prominent white person had only endorsed a white presidential candidate as an act of racial bonding, or blamed a white president for a fight on a school bus in which a black kid was jumped by two white kids, or said that he wouldn’t want to kill all conservatives, but rather, would like to leave just enough—“living fossils” as he called them—“so we will never forget what these people stood for.” After all, these are things that Rush Limbaugh has said, about Barack Obama’s administration, Colin Powell’s endorsement of Barack Obama, a fight on a school bus in Belleville, Illinois in which two black kids beat up a white kid, and about liberals, generally.

Imagine that a black pastor, formerly a member of the U.S. military, were to declare, as part of his opposition to a white president’s policies, that he was ready to “suit up, get my gun, go to Washington, and do what they trained me to do.” This is, after all, what Pastor Stan Craig said recently at a Tea Party rally in Greenville, South Carolina.

Imagine a black radio talk show host gleefully predicting a revolution by people of color if the government continues to be dominated by the rich white men who have been “destroying” the country, or if said radio personality were to call Christians or Jews non-humans, or say that when it came to conservatives, the best solution would be to “hang ‘em high.” And what would happen to any congressional representative who praised that commentator for “speaking common sense” and likened his hate talk to “American values?” After all, those are among the things said by radio host and best-selling author Michael Savage, predicting white revolution in the face of multiculturalism, or said by Savage about Muslims and liberals, respectively. And it was Congressman Culbertson, from Texas, who praised Savage in that way, despite his hateful rhetoric.

Imagine a black political commentator suggesting that the only thing the guy who flew his plane into the Austin, Texas IRS building did wrong was not blowing up Fox News instead. This is, after all, what Anne Coulter said about Tim McVeigh, when she noted that his only mistake was not blowing up the New York Times.

Imagine that a popular black liberal website posted comments about the daughter of a white president, calling her “typical redneck trash,” or a “whore” whose mother entertains her by “making monkey sounds.” After all that’s comparable to what conservatives posted about Malia Obama on freerepublic.com last year, when they referred to her as “ghetto trash.”

Imagine that black protesters at a large political rally were walking around with signs calling for the lynching of their congressional enemies. Because that’s what white conservatives did last year, in reference to Democratic party leaders in Congress.

In other words, imagine that even one-third of the anger and vitriol currently being hurled at President Obama, by folks who are almost exclusively white, were being aimed, instead, at a white president, by people of color. How many whites viewing the anger, the hatred, the contempt for that white president would then wax eloquent about free speech, and the glories of democracy? And how many would be calling for further crackdowns on thuggish behavior, and investigations into the radical agendas of those same people of color?

To ask any of these questions is to answer them. Protest is only seen as fundamentally American when those who have long had the luxury of seeing themselves as prototypically American engage in it. When the dangerous and dark “other” does so, however, it isn’t viewed as normal or natural, let alone patriotic. Which is why Rush Limbaugh could say, this past week, that the Tea Parties are the first time since the Civil War that ordinary, common Americans stood up for their rights: a statement that erases the normalcy and “American-ness” of blacks in the civil rights struggle, not to mention women in the fight for suffrage and equality, working people in the fight for better working conditions, and LGBT folks as they struggle to be treated as full and equal human beings.

And this, my friends, is what white privilege is all about. The ability to threaten others, to engage in violent and incendiary rhetoric without consequence, to be viewed as patriotic and normal no matter what you do, and never to be feared and despised as people of color would be, if they tried to get away with half the shit we do, on a daily basis.

Game Over.

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Why Is the Media So Obsessed With Horrifying Images of African-American Mothers?

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Why Is the Media So Obsessed With Horrifying Images of African-American Mothers?

By Melissa Harris-Lacewell, The Nation.

With Michelle Obama in the White House, I expected a resurgence of the Claire Huxtable stereotype. Instead, hideous depictions of abusive, irresponsible black moms are everywhere.

http://www.alternet.org/media/144190/why_is_the_media_so_obsessed_with_horrifying_images_of_african-american_mothers_/?page=entire

Bad black mothers are everywhere these days.

With Michelle Obama in the White House, consciously and conspicuously serving as mom-in-chief, I expected (even somewhat dreaded) a resurgence of Claire Huxtable images of black motherhood: effortless glamor, professional success, measured wit, firm guidance, loving partnership, and the calm reassurance that American women can, in fact, have it all.

Instead the news is currently dominated by horrifying images of African American mothers.

Most ubiquitous is the near universally celebrated performance of Mo’Nique in the new film Precious. Critically and popularly acclaimed Precious is the film adaption of the novel Push. It is the story of an illiterate, obese, dark-skinned, teenager who is pregnant, for the second time, with her rapist father’s child. (Think The Color Purple in a 1980s inner-city rather than 1930s rural Georgia)

At the core of the film is Precious’ unimaginably brutal mother. She is an unredeemed monster who brutalizes her daughter verbally, emotionally, physically and sexually. This mother pimps both her daughter and the government. Stealing her daughter’s childhood and her welfare payments.

The mother of 5 year old Shaniya Davis

Just as Precious was opening to national audiences a real-life corollary emerged in the news cycle, when 5-year-old Shaniya Davis was found dead along a roadside in North Carolina. Her mother, a 25-year-old woman with a history of drug abuse, has been arrested on charges of child trafficking. The charges allege that this mother offered her 5-year-old daughter for sex with adult men.

Yet another black mother made headlines in the past week, when U.S. soldier, Alexis Hutchinson, refused to report for deployment to Afghanistan. Hutchinson is a single mother of an infant, and was unable to find suitable care for her son before she was deployed. She had initially turned to her own mother who found it impossible to care for the child because of prior caregiver commitments. Stuck without reasonable accommodations, Hutchinson chose not to deploy. Hutchinson’s son was temporally placed in foster care. She faces charges and possible jail time.

These stories are a reminder, that for African American women, reproduction has never been an entirely private matter.

Nobel Laureate, Toni Morrison, chose the stories of enslaved black mothers to depict the most horrifying effects of American slavery. In her novel, Beloved, Morrison reveals the unimaginable pain some black mothers experienced because their children were profitable for their enslavers. Enslaved black women did not birth children; they produced units for sale, measurable in labor contributions. Despite the patrilineal norm that governed free society, enslaved mothers were forced to pass along their enslaved status to their infants; ensuring intergenerational chattel bondage was the first inheritance black mothers gave to black children in America.

Alexis Hutchinson

As free citizens black women’s reproduction was no longer directly tied to profits. In this new context, black mothers became the object of fierce eugenics efforts. Black women, depicted as sexually insatiable breeders, are adaptive for a slave holding society but not for the new context of freedom. Black women’s assumed lasciviousness and rampant reproduction became threatening. In Killing the Black Body, law professor, Dorothy Roberts, explains how the state employed involuntary sterilization, pressure to submit to long-term birth control, and restriction of state benefits for large families as a means to control black women’s reproduction.

At the turn of the century many public reformers held African American women particularly accountable for the “degenerative conditions” of the race. Black women were blamed for being insufficient housekeepers, inattentive mothers, and poor educators of their children. Because women were supposed to maintain society’s moral order, any claim about rampant disorder was a burden laid specifically at women’s feet.

In a 1904 pamphlet “Experiences of the Race problem. By a Southern White Woman” the author claims of black women, “They are the greatest menace possible to the moral life of any community where they live. And they are evidently the chief instruments of the degradation of the men of their own race. When a man’s mother, wife, and daughters are all immoral women, there is no room in his fallen nature for the aspirations of honor and virtue…I cannot imagine such a creation as a virtuous black woman.”

Decades later, Daniel Patrick Moynihan’s 1965 report “The Negro Family: The Case for National Action” designated black mothers as the principal cause of a culture of pathology, which kept black people from achieving equality. Moynihan’s research predated the 1964 Civil Rights Act, but instead of identifying the structural barriers facing African American communities, he reported the assumed deviance of Negro families.

This deviance was clear and obvious, he opined, because black families were led by women who seemed to have the primary decision making roles in households. Moynihan’s conclusions granted permission to two generations of conservative policy makers to imagine poor, black women as domineering household managers whose unfeminine insistence on control both emasculated their potential male partners and destroyed their children’s future opportunities. The Moynihan report encouraged the state not to view black mother as women doing the best they could in tough circumstances, but instead to blame them as unrelenting cheats who unfairly demand assistance from the system.

Black mothers were again blamed as the central cause of social and economic decline in the early 1990s, when news stories and popular films about “crack babies” became dominant. Crack babies were the living, squealing, suffering evidence of pathological black motherhood and American citizens were going to have to pay the bill for the children of these bad mothers.

Susan Douglass and Meredith Michaels, authors of The Mommy Myth explain that media created the “crack baby” phenomenon as a part of a broader history that understands black motherhood as inherently pathological. They write: “It turned out there was no convincing evidence that use of crack actually causes abnormal babies, even though the media insisted this was so…media coverage of crack babies serves as a powerful cautionary tale about the inherent fitness of poor or lower class African American women to be mothers at all.”

This ugly history and its policy ramifications are the backdrop against which these three contemporary black mother stories must be viewed.

Undoubtedly Mo’Nique has given an amazing performance in Precious. But the critical and popular embrace of this depiction of a monstrous black mother has potentially important, and troubling, political meaning. In a country with tens of thousands of missing and exploited children, it is not accidental that the abuse and murder of Shaniya Davis captured the American media cycle just as Precious opened. The sickening acts of Shaniya’s mother become the story that underlines and makes tangible, believable, and credible the jaw-dropping horror of Mo’Nique’s character.

And here too is Alexis Hutchinson. As a volunteer soldier in wartime, she ought to embody the very core of American citizen sacrifice. Instead she is a bad black mother. Implied in the her story is the damning idea that Hutchinson has committed the very worse infraction against her child and her country. Hutchinson has failed to marry a responsible, present, bread-winning man who would free her of the need to labor outside the home. Hutchinson does not stay on the home front clutching her weeping young child as her man goes off to war. Instead, she struggles to find a safe place for him while she heads off to battle. Her motherhood is not idyllic, it is problematic. Like so many other black mothers her parenting is presented as disruptive to her duties as a citizen.

It is worth noting that Sarah Palin’s big public comeback is situated right in the middle of this news cycle full of “bad black mothers.” Palin’s own eye-brow raising reproductive choices and parenting outcomes have been deemed off-limits after her skirmish with late night TV comedians. Embodied in Palin, white motherhood still represents a renewal of the American dream; black motherhood represents its downfall.

Each of these stories, situated in a long tradition of pathologizing black motherhood, serves a purpose. Each encourages Americans to see black motherhood as a distortion of true motherhood ideals. Its effect is troublesome for all mothers of all races who must navigate complex personal, familial, social, and political circumstances.

Melissa Harris-Lacewell, an associate professor of politics and African-American studies at Princeton University, is completing her latest book, Sister Citizen: A Text for Colored Girls Who’ve Considered Politics When Being Strong Isn’t Enough.

X-Clan Urges People to Boycott World Trade Movie

BOYCOTT THIS MOVIE!!! EMAIL THIS TO YOUR ENTIRE LIST:

9-11areialview

It’s so natural for Hollywood to assume that every Hero is a White man.

by DJ Paradise Gray

Hollywood has always changed facts and edited history. From Charlton Heston
as Moses and Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra. They are only continuing their
tradition of White-washing our history. If they were able to portray Imhotep
(The Mummy and The Mummy Returns who was one of the greatest black Heroes of
all times and Jesus Christ as white without a single peep from our
community, why should this even matter to them in the least?

Situations like this will continue and we as Black people (or whatever you
want to consider yourself) will deserve what we get, unless we are willing
to stand up against tyranny and white supremacy.

Demand that this movie be taken out of theatures. Boycott this movie like
they attempted to boycott “Barbershop” show some community outrage like they
did for the poster of 50’s Get Rich Or Die trying. Cause the national media
to pick up this story.

Do something for a change. (Yes I’m talking to you!).

Paradise Gray
http://www.myspace.com/paradisegray
(Please forward to everyone on your email list, as the national press has
not or will not pick up this story)

Full story in The New Pittsburgh Courier
http://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/articlelive/articles/35730/1/World-Trade-Center-omits-Black-soldier/WTC-movies-unsung-hero.html

‘World Trade Center‘ omits Black Soldier

Following disasters of historically epic proportions like the attack on the
World Trade Center, there are bound to be countless tales of self-sacrifice,
heroism and triumph. Some stories, like those told in the movies Flight 93
and Oliver Stone’s World Trade Center, premiering Aug. 9, are made into
blockbusters for the world to see. Others are either whispered quietly among
family and friends or confined to the memories and souls of those who refuse
to speak of them.

Such is the tale of United States Marine Corps Sgt. Jason L. Thomas–in
spite of the fact that his story and the one told in World Trade Center are
one in the same.

THE STORY

The morning of Sept. 11, 2001 began like any other for Jason L. Thomas. A
student at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice of City University of
New York, he heard about the attack after taking his daughter to his
mother’s house in Queens so he could attend classes.

At the time I was saying to myself, That’s an attack. My mother looked at it
as if it was an accident, but one of the first things that came to my mind
was, They got us, he said.

Immediately after that, I just got in high gear. I had my uniform in my car,
my C-Bag. We just moved into a house, so I had a lot of my personal
equipment in my vehicle. I ran out to my car, got my uniform, got dressed
and shot to the city.

After a delay in Queens, which Thomas credits for keeping him away from the
collapse of the South Tower, he attached himself to a police convoy and made
it to the site within moments of the fall of the North Tower.

Approaching one of the towers, all I see is one at the time, I see the
building come crashing down. It just comes straight down. I park my vehicle
and I remember this cloud of smoke and ash just enveloped where I was. I
stuck my head down in my shirt and scooted behind my car and got on my
knees, but it engulfed the area. So I got up and I just ran in the direction
towards Ground Zero.

At Ground Zero, Thomas immediately began to help by fighting fires,
establishing triage sites to help the injured and assisting with the overall
evacuation. While his primary focus was devoted to the emergency, he
couldn’t help being affected by what had become of his city.

I know this beautiful city, and now here it is, it’s just rubble, he said.
There are fire engines on fire, and you don’t see that everyday–you don’t
see cars and ambulances on fire. I was just trying to take it in.

After hours of firefighting, assisting survivors and in some cases, praying
over the dead, Thomas ran into another marine, Staff Sgt. Dave Karnes.
Thomas presented a plan for a search and rescue mission of the area and he
and Karnes tried to enlist other soldiers on site to help. When they were
told the mission was too dangerous, they decided to go by themselves.

I found a couple guys, but it wasn’t enough, to them, to start a search and
rescue, he said. I remember myself and staff Sgt. Karnes saying, We’re going
to start the search and rescue with or without you, because someone needs
us.

THE MOVIE

The World Trade Center movie tells the story of the rescues of New York Port
Authority police officers John McLoughlin and Will Jimeno from Ground Zero,
as well as that of the men who rescued them. In real life, the officers were
rescued by sergeants Karnes and Thomas. In the film, however, they were
rescued by Karnes and PFC Dave Thomas; a composite character, played by
William Mapother, a white actor, who is meant to represent Thomas.

World Trade Center producer Michael Shamberg said that they knew about Sgt.
Thomas’s role in the rescue, but were unable to find him when creating the
film. He said producers didn’t discover Thomas was a Black man until after
they had started the movie. He also said that in spite of the fact that the
film was co-written by McLoughlin and Jimeno was consulted for authenticity,
no one ever asked them for a physical description of the man who helped save
their lives.

Frankly, we goofed–we learned when we were filming that he was an
African-American, said Shamberg. We would change it if we could. I actually
called him and apologized, and he said he didn’t mind. He was very gracious
about it.

Shamberg also apologized for another African-American officer, Bruce
Reynolds, who was also portrayed as white in the movie.

Thomas, meanwhile, didn’t learn the film was about his story until he saw
the unmistakable image of two marines peering into a whole at Ground Zero
during a commercial for the movie. He said that while he wasn’t angry about
how the film turned out, he does wish it could have been more realistic.

Full story in The New Pittsburgh Courier
http://newpittsburghcourieronline.com/articlelive/articles/35730/1/World-Trade-Center-omits-Black-soldier/WTC-movies-unsung-hero.html

———————————————————————————————–
Paradise Gray
Honorary Chairman, Pittsburgh LOC
National Political Hip-hop Convention
Grand Arkitech Of The BlackWatch Movement
Minister Of Arts And Sciences Millions More Movement
Director Of Almost Home Youth Ministries
One Hood
Http://www.myspace.com/paradisegray

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