TONY PORTER ON RAISING BOYS TO BE MEN

 FROM TONY PORTER'S TED TALK: "A CALL TO MEN"


 "...Jay (5 years old)  could come to me, come to me crying. It didn't matter what she was crying about, she could get on my knee, she could snot my sleeve up, just cry, cry it out. Daddy's got you. That's all that's important.

Now Kendall on the other hand -- and like I said, he's only 15 months older than her -- he'd come to me crying, it's like as soon as I would hear him cry, a clock would go off. I would give the boy probably about 30 seconds, which means, by the time he got to me, I was already saying things like, "Why are you crying? Hold your head up. Look at me. Explain to me what's wrong. Tell me what's wrong. I can't understand you. Why are you crying?"

HERE THE TALK HEAR  http://www.ted.com/talks/tony_porter_a_call_to_men

Video: Post-Traumatic Slave Syndrome

Dr. Joy DeGruy 

P.T.S.S. is a theory that explains the etiology of many of the adaptive survival behaviors in African American communities throughout the United States and the Diaspora. It is a condition that exists as a consequence of multigenerational oppression of Africans and their descendants resulting from centuries of chattel slavery. A form of slavery which was predicated on the belief that African Americans were inherently/genetically inferior to whites. This was then followed by institutionalized racism which continues to perpetuate injury.
Thus, resulting in M.A.P.:

• M: Multigenerational trauma together with continued oppression;
• A: Absence of opportunity to heal or access the benefits available in the society; leads to
• P: Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome.

Under such circumstances these are some of the predictable patterns of behavior that tend to occur...

THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON CRACK... i mean...ON WHITENESS

"In late April and early May, African-American young people protested the killing of Freddie Gray by the Baltimore police. Those peaceful protests escalated into a local uprising against the police. This was neither random nor unprovoked: The Baltimore uprising was a response to the long-simmering upset and righteous anger about poverty, racism, civil rights violations, and abuse by the police. 

No one was killed during the Baltimore protests or subsequent uprising.



The gun battle chaos in Waco was a result of rivalries between [white], outlaw motorcycle clubs, in competition with one another for the profits from drug and gun traffic, various protection rackets, and other criminal enterprises.

[Nine people died]"

- Salon

-------------
Please notice: As often as Salon writes about race and racism, they mention "African American" or "black" in conjunction with a person's name or pronoun or as a description of a person consistently  and leave out the word "white" because "white" is assumed as "normal." 

This absence of the word "white" when talking about the criminal activities above ALLOWS white people to forget to associate the criminal activities being discussed with WHITEness.

This is how it becomes possible for a large swath of
 predominantly "white" New York police officers
to become "confused" about the fact that
we are upset about
"white" police officers
and
"white supremacy" executed by people of color
as it pertains to
the murdering unarmed black people

--so confused that police officers
pretend(?) to believe that

the shooting of two non-white officers
Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos
is truly "black" revenge for the murders of Mike Brown, Eric Garner
INSTEAD OF the deranged actions of someone
that had just shot his girlfriend
--so confused about
"white" supremacy's link to black, unarmed death by "white" cop
that they turn their backs on
the "white" mayor who is married to a black woman.
at a funeral.

(Why DO YOU people, keep making everything about race? We, the NYPD, were protesting at a funeral because DiBlasio supported blaming cops all the time, blaming those two dead cops. It's shameful. This is not about race. This is about disrespect for policemen. And by the way, it's just happenstance we turned our backs on that race-traitor DiBlasio who married a black woman. IT'S A COINCIDENCE! NOTHING MORE! <---Extreme sarcasm)

White Cops (mostly) Turn Backs On  DiBlasio At Various Locals, Including A FUNERAL

When you can fake this level of confusion and even fool yourself, it becomes obvious that "white" needs to be mentioned when describing who is doing what. And it needs to be described every single time. This country is close to 1/3 non-white now. It's time to make the transition. I have to go back and fill in "white" almost every time I write something. "White" as "normal" is so normal that it need not be mentioned has been beat into me through news, books, movies and television since I was small. It's a difficult transition.  But it's time. I'm doing it. Salon can too. So can you.

It's time to end the confusion.  It's time to burn the whole truth into our short-term and long-term memories, especially "white" memories, as far as who is doing what to whom and for what reason.



http://www.salon.com/2015/05/22/this_is_your_brain_on_whiteness_the_invisible_psychology_of_white_american_ignorance_explained/?source=newsletter

MOTHER AND DAUGHTER, SHOCKINGLY BEAUTIFUL?

All I saw were mommy and daughter on an outing at first. Then my field of vision expanded and my heart dropped. Would you call this photo art? Regardless of what category this photo falls in photo art and art in general can tell a story, create a feeling, and give impetus to a movement. Photos like this one showed a United States that had nothing to do with the land of the free and the home of the brave. 

What did you see when you first saw this photo? Depending on what you saw first, how long did it take you to see the beauty? How long did it take you to see the ugly?

Speaking of seeing ugly and beauty together in the quiet moments, during the moments of calm, when there aren't protests in Baltimore or Ferguson or when we're not watching a black woman being pounded into the ground by a huge white man, I wonder how much better the poorer black neighborhoods of this nation look in comparison to 30 or 40 years ago. 

Only some of us have made it through the Civil Rights Window into middle class. Only 70% of us made it. 

I suppose saying "70% of us made it "assumes close to 0% had made made it into the middle class and the American Dream prior to the Civil Rights Movement. Clearly, this is not true. MLK and company were college educated and middle class. So let us say that 10% were already middle class or better prior to the Civil Rights Movement. So then 60% to 65% of us passed through the small, short-lived Civil Rights Window  slammed shut by the Ronald Reagan benevolently condescending racists of the 1980s

I wonder what the absence of American Dream looks like for the descendents of the 30% that couldn't jump through the Civil Rights Window fast enough.

I wish I could show you. I wish I were a photographer so I could show you. I wish I were a photographer so I could show myself and have evidence of what we're fighting for.

BLACK FACES IN HIGH PLACES - an EXCERPT

Black elected officials have largely governed in the same way as their white counterparts, reflecting all of the racism, corruption, and policies favoring the wealthy seen throughout mainstream politics....

During Rawlings-Blake’s tenure, the city has been forced to pay $5.7 million to settle civil suits regarding police misconduct and brutality — an amount that does not include the $5.8 million Baltimore has paid to defend police who have abused the black public.

Despite the lawlessness of the Baltimore Police Department, the mayor reserved her harshest comments for those involved in the uprising, describing them as “criminals” and “thugs.” For anyone remotely aware of Rawlings-Blake’s mayoral history, her lashing out at the victims of police corruption and brutality would not have been surprising.

https://www.jacobinmag.com/2015/05/baltimore-uprising-protests-freddie-gray-black-politicians/

THE TALK: To Have Or Not To Have - That's NOT The Question

JULY 13 2013

"I was chatting just yesterday about the necessity of educating my 11-year old around race matters in an era that claims to be post-racial and among a generation indifferent to racial complexities. I was wondering whether sharing my viewpoint would unduly harm her sanguine perspective and dampen any hopes that things indeed had changed. I guess my face has been rinsed with one final splash of cold water.

She and I will need to sit and talk about the realities of race. I'll be the thief who steals from her pocket the innocence of childhood. Maybe, if we're lucky, she'll live to see what I won't see, the realized dream of a post-racial America, in her children or perhaps even her grands. Or, just maybe and even more likely, she'll be having this same talk with her young ones too."

- Jonathan C.

July 13, 2013

I still remember my parents having THE TALK with me when I was a kid.We had just moved to New York City when I was in 1st grade.

Prior to that I'd gone to kindergarten a mixed race school on a military base in Alaska. As the military had already been integrated for X years, the white people there had adjusted (somewhat?). So there had been no reason to give me THE TALK at 4 or 5 years of age.

Later, I had an impersonal section of THE TALK when we moved to segregated Texas. My parents had to explain to me why all the kids at my school were black. I say "impersonal" because we were living in a black neighborhood and I was going to a black school and the white people that hated ALL blacks were not going to be there at my school.

My parents didn't have to have THE TALK in its entirety until we moved to New York City.

I was still in first grade. I can't remember the words actually said. I just have a general recollection of being given the news that I would be going to a predominantly white school and that it wasn't going to be like Alaska. (Bussing had recently started) I was told that the white kids there weren't used to black people. I was told that they might fear me and act like they hate me because of my skin color. I was told that I shouldn't really be afraid because the kids wouldn't REALLY know what they were saying. They would just be repeating what their ignorant parents said.

"Ignorant" was a big word associated with "racism" in our house. I remember vaguely being told what to do if one of my teachers was to verbally attack me in some way. I was told to behave politely and come home and tell my father. He would take care of it.

I DO remember my reaction to THE TALK. I got the runs immediately. I was scared I was ill most of the weekend. Most of it....but I started to relax because I knew I wouldn't be forced to go to school if I was sick. I confirmed this verbally at least once. I relaxed. And relaxing was my undoing (insert bitter laughter here) I was fine come Monday morning.

At P.S. 209 everything was arranged by height. I was tall, so I wound up in the back of the line and in the back of classroom more often than not. Even if I hadn't been tall, I started at P.S. 209 in the middle of the school year, so I suppose I would have wound up in the very back desk behind Stacy and Judy anyway.

In 1970 Stacy had long brown wavy hair to the middle of her back. Judy had long thin blond hair to the middle of her back. And that's pretty much all I saw of them for the remainder of the year. They never said hello to me. Ever. They didn't talk to me at all. They made sure their hands didn't touch mine when they had to pass back papers. They made sure their mouths were pursed in distaste every time they had to do so, but I rarely ever saw their faces at all. My mother said I used to come home from school chattering at 100 miles an hour from the second I hit the door. She said she didn't realize that it was because I hadn't spoken to anyone all day...not until much, much later.

I don't know if she knows to this day that those white girls were the reason I was so very, very silent and "well behaved." That all took place in 1970. And now, in 2013, Jonathan's post about having to tell his daughter the very same things just made me burst into tears


 * * * * * * * * * * *
On July 13, 2013 we heard the Trayvon Martin Verdict: Not guilty.

On February 24, 2015, the Department of Justice decided they didn't have enough evidence for a federal hate crime prosecution.

To talk or not to talk about racism is not the question when you have dark-skinned child. The only question is how old can you let your child get? How long can you wait and still get there before another child or teacher says or does something...hateful or ignorant enough to be mistaken for hate?

"When?" That's the only question there is if you're black in U.S.A.   

WHITE TEARS OVER "QUOTAS"

Last weekend I was on a panel and a white, cis, straight, British, cambridge educated man, asked me "[S]o how do you feel about quota's and how would you feel if you got a job because of one? It was like he asked me....

I should have told him that he would probably be the best person to answer this question given his extensive personal experience on the topic [as there] is a white boy quota at every business, every school, every institution and every-fucking-where in this country, but it's so normalized that no laws or acts are needed to enforced it. White supremacy and patriarchy have been safely ingrained into the the every day details of our every day life and interactions.... "

- CECILE EMEKE
(ACKEE & SALTFISH CREATOR/DIRECTOR)

Yeah. She's right. She should have told him and let him cry. Because as she says,

"Oppressors often feel that any restriction that would placed on their power in order to reduce inequality is oppression, is seen by them as 'oppression' " (paraphrased)

Bigger photo https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiROJUmReuBj5G3JVLFASsPkUyyE7xFFq2xAS4_6znGJaEbm9vhk3QuY9PqHIaUQOPtxdsEn9SC0cAz6TbnX9DMtSe4un5gJQ411LqiprvU-qSCJI-V58pVq2HsnVTVyq_DHQ7Vzurv3dlr/s1600/White+Tears+combined.jpg

**********************



Something of which I am ashamed: 

I hid my race when I filled out my applications for college.  I didn't want anyone ("anyone" a.k.a "white people") thinking I'd been admitted due to my race. 

That sounds okay on the surface I guess. But in actuality I was tacitly agreeing that the purpose of "Affirmative Action" is inferiority rather than racism --which is not "a quota," by the way.

A "quota" results in white owners and CEOs of a business faking their interest in diversity. The quota oriented white racist might increase "the diversity" of their very white engineering business by hiring 10 black janitors and 20 mailr oom personnel when they really need 5 of each.  (And when the 10 & 20 that should be 5 & 5 don't have enough to do to stay fully awake they will be called "lazy"). 

Quota's create a lose-lose situation, as designed. 

By comparison, Affirmative Action is simply about being pro-active about seeking out people of color that are qualified to go to a certain college or qualified to apply for the central/average jobs at a  specific business in order to purposefully increase diversity. Affirmative Action results in forcing white CEOs to do things like send a request to an HBCU, asking them to send names of applicants with a 3.9 GPA or higher.

When Affirmative Action was deliberately misinterpreted again in the late 20th century by white people determined to see it fail, black people hired for certain jobs were not hold to the same standards as white people. That is, whites implemented "quotas" instead of affirmative action.

Second Wave crude example of substituting "quotas" for Affirmative Action: White managers would hire black people randomly (only high school diploma required) while holding white people to higher standard (college degree in engineering required) The black people with college degrees in engineering who went without jobs, because black people with high school diplomas took their place, were called lazy while the black people deliberately hired for a job beyond their skill set were called dumb in comparison to the white people with engineering degrees doing engineering work.

Quota's create a lose-lose situation, as designed. 



And these two examples of using quotas instead of implementing affirmative action should show you something that should have been obvious to me at 18.  Taking "proactive steps" increasing the number of black and brown folk working at a business (a.k.a.  taking "affirmative action") to increase the number of black and brown folk wouldn't be necessary if it weren't for white racism.

Affirmative Action is necessary due to white racism not black inferiority, as sold by white people determined not to own and acknowledge their own negative racial attitudes

If all the applicants with a 3.9 GPA had been hired regardless of race while compensating for defacto segregation, then affirmative action wouldn't have needed to be implemented. It wouldn't need to exist now, in 2015.

The proof in the racism pudding is the fact, even now, a white person only needs a high school diploma to earn the same amount of money that a black person with a 4 year college degree does.*

Institutionalized racism exists and the institutions are filled by dominant culture white people. White racism is the problem --not some abstract, anybody can be prejudiced problem-- The dominant culture's racism is the dominant problem.

And the denial of this is why I am ashamed of hiding my race on my college application. By erasing my racial identity on my college application I tacitly agreed that the racist belief that the reason for "Affirmative Action" is black inferiority rather than White Racism.

I expose this here because I want others to tell their children to grab with both hands anything that gives you a step up into equality or even a temporary advantage. As Emeke says, white people use and abuse their privilege every day sans an ounce of awareness -- and their demographic has the wealth to prove it.


Besides, at any given college or business it isn't necessarily to 4.0 GPA people that are the most creative or the most productive people. If that were so, there would be no reason for job interviews (for evaluating things like personality fit OR how you look like my white grandson).  If the 4.0 GPA people were always the ones to be the most inventive and productive at a job, there would be no need for extensive promotion evaluations every year; One could just look at the GPAs of people who were hired and promote them via GPA ranking if GPA was firmly linked to job performance.



Be smarter than I was at 18. Realize that the pseudo or flimsy white belief it meritocracy is a fake-out in left field. Stay on track. Get your foot in any door you can and work it. Period. And let those white folk that would cry, cry. Let them shed tears for themselves. It's their party and they can cry if they want to....for now. By 2050 or so? I hear it's gonna be a whole new ball game in good ole U.S. of A.

Read more of Cecile Emeke's blog on her interaction with the white male whining about quotas.  http://www.cecileemeke.com/blog/2015/5/8/white-boy-bullshit-quotas


(This link isn't to the sociology paper I read, but it contains the similar information on how black people need two more education levels to make the same income as white people  http://thinkprogress.org/education/2014/06/25/3452887/education-race-gap/)

.

BAD TURNING SIGNAL, CHASE, BROWN SKIN, & A CAR BACKFIRE JUSTIFIES 137 BULLETS

JURY SAID SO TODAY


Another Black, Unarmed, and Dead Post

Malissa Williams on the right with a friend

On the night of their murders in November of 2012, Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell were both homeless. At some point after Russell was pulled over for a turn signal violation, sped away. (Homeless No insurance maybe? Malissa was mentally ill, schizophrenic mentally ill and had had many contacts with the police.)

So at some point the car backfires and then some thirteen police officers fire 137 rounds into the car. Neither Malissa, who was shot 24 times, nor Russell, who was shot 23 times, was armed.

White Cleveland police Officer Michael Brelo was charged because  he  stood on the hood of the car and shot the unarmed pair 15 times just after other officers had already riddled the car with bullets. And Brelo was found not guilty today. 

I suppose 137 bullets fired, means 122 were fired before Brelo's television tough-guy cop stance on the roof of the car. I suppose that's why he was only ever charged with manslaughter. The only one charged....

And I do NOT HAVE TO suppose that this means he was never going to jail from the jump.  Reasonable doubt was packed into this case beforehand.
- - - - - - - - -

Family upset with Michael Brelo verdict, but it wasn't all Brelo's fault

http://www.cleveland.com/metro/index.ssf/2015/05/timothy_russells_family_upset.html

Timothy Russell

I'm going to have to go back and check to see how many of my people are likely dead by white cop due to being poor.

HARRIET'S UNDERGROUND RAILROAD, Myth Versus The Real Thing

"Texts give students the false impression that the Underground Railroad was a vast, formal system of escape routes, secret signs and safe houses by which fugitive slaves could travel to destinations where slavery no longer existed -- and four of the books contain maps that purport to show this system's trunk lines and branches. The American Journey has two such maps; Free Nation and Pathways and Past and Promise have one map apiece. All the maps are ludicrous. They convey much misinformation, and some of them are so detailed that they resemble diagrams of today's interstate highway system....

The notion that the Underground Railroad had routes which ran throughout the South, and which were manned by kindly Southern abolitionists, is a fiction. To the extent that the Underground Railroad operated at all, it operated in the free states of the North. It was a hazy, informal alliance of Northern abolitionists, many of them free blacks...


Readers who want some reliable information about Tubman should look at two recent books written by historians: Kate Clifford Larson's "Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero" (published in 2004 by Ballantine Books) and Jean M. Humez's Harriet Tubman: The Life and the Life Stories (published in 2003 by the University of Wisconsin Press). Larson presents a detailed, comprehensive biography of Tubman."READ MORE http://www.textbookleague.org/121tubby.htm

VIOLA DAVIS TO PLAY AMERICAN HERO HARRIET TUBMAN

Girl

Slave

Woman

Chain Breaker

Slave Free-er

People Smuggler

Savior

Spy

Hero

Suffragist
(First Wave Feminism)

Retirement Home Inventor
 (Harriet Tubman Home For The Aged)

Empathetic

Brave

Unstoppable

Viola Davis has big shoes to fill. She's going to play Harriet Tubman for HBO Films. The movie will be based on Harriet Tubman Historian Kate Clifford Larson’s book "Bound for the Promised Land."

* * * * * * *


ON THE GAP BETWEEN THE HARRIET'S RAILROAD OF TEXT BOOKS AND THE REAL THING

Texts give students the false impression that the Underground Railroad was a vast, formal system of escape routes, secret signs and safe houses by which fugitive slaves could travel to destinations where slavery no longer existed -- and four of the books contain maps that purport to show this system's trunk lines and branches. The American Journey has two such maps; Free Nation and Pathways and Past and Promise have one map apiece. All the maps are ludicrous. They convey much misinformation, and some of them are so detailed that they resemble diagrams of today's interstate highway system....


The notion that the Underground Railroad had routes which ran throughout the South, and which were manned by kindly Southern abolitionists, is a fiction. To the extent that the Underground Railroad operated at all, it operated in the free states of the North. It was a hazy, informal alliance of Northern abolitionists, many of them free blacks...


Readers who want some reliable information about Tubman should look at two recent books written by historians: Kate Clifford Larson's "Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman, Portrait of an American Hero" (published in 2004 by Ballantine Books) and Jean M. Humez's Harriet Tubman: The Life and the Life Stories (published in 2003 by the University of Wisconsin Press). Larson presents a detailed, comprehensive biography of Tubman.




READ MORE http://www.textbookleague.org/121tubby.htm

ISRAEL'S BALTIMORE: THE TEL AVIV UPRISING OVER POLICE BRUTALITY

FEELING REBLOGGY

THE U.S. IS NOT ALONE IN CONDONING POLICE BRUTALITY AGAINST MINORITIES

Regarding The Israel Race Riots on May 3 - 4 2015

The event that sparked off the wave of protest was a video of two police officers attacking an Ethiopian soldier last week in Holon. The police investigated the incident and one of the officers involved will be dismissed, but that has done little to calm the anger within the Ethiopian community over what they claim is an underlying problem of racism among the police and repeated cover-ups of complaints over police violence.

READ MORE: http://www.thejc.com/news/israel-news/135899/israel-hit-race-riots

"The race riots engulfing Tel Aviv [May 3 - 4 2015] bear some resemblance to the violence that shook the streets of Baltimore last week. In both protests saw a disenfranchised black minority’s anger over police brutality spilled on to the streets. In both cases, police reacted to this anger with more violence...


Israel is quick to show off its Ethiopian Jewish population as an example of the country’s multiculturalism and tolerance. While the country was able to airlift 60,000 Ethiopians to Israel in the 1980s and 1990s, their experience after arrival has been anything but easy. This is because Israel is crisscrossed by a multitude of racial and ethnic fault lines. From overt racism towards Palestinians to the rifts between Jews from Arab countries and those from Europe, Israel is one of the region’s most divided societies."

READ MORE: http://www.thenational.ae/opinion/comment/tel-aviv-race-riots-are-a-symptom-of-israels-deep-dysfunction

A WHITE RIOT is a QUIET RIOT (A 9 DEAD IN WACO POST)

A LESSON IN MEDIA BIAS

It's bad enough that there's barely been any coverage of the Waco White Riots featuring 9 murders as compared to Ferguson or Baltimore. It's bad enough that there haven't been any calls for an investigation into faults of white culture, an inquiry into why large groups of white people can get so violent over nothing (very nearly literally nothing in this case - no protest here).

Out of the dozens and dozens of white people arrested... 

THE  WHITE RIOT WACO ARRESTEES
What Percentage Would You Say Are Non-White?

...the one person one "news" outlets like CNN and the Daily Mail in the U.K. decide to bring forward and highlight is the black guy - a black guy who looks like something out a Black Mad Max Movie.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/20/us/texas-biker-gang-shooting-san-antonio-police-martin-lewis/

CNN devoted an entire Segment to this Martin Lewis...ummm...because he's a retired cop NOT BECAUSE he's black.

Sure....Sure we believe that. Sure we do.

ISRAEL TO AFRICANS: YOU HAVE 30 DAYS TO GET OUT

AND WE'LL PUT $3,500 IN YOUR POCKET SO WE CAN MAKE OURSELVES  LOOK HUMANE (whisper- despite the anti-black racism riots here in early May)


FEELING REBLOGGY

"Plans to push African migrants out of the Holy Land had been stirring for some time as Israel built new fences and detention centers along its southern borders. Netanyahu’s government claims it’s all about keeping black migrants safe from deadly desert crossings. But the U.N. refugee agency pushed back on that, accusing Israel of “creat[ing] fear and chaos amongst asylum seekers” and dangerously teetering on the edge of an international refugee-treaty violation.

No surprise, then, when Israel, probably fearing how anti-Africa it looked, later announced the deployment of three “mobile emergency clinics” to fight Ebola in West Africa. 

-from THE ROOT


READ MORE: http://www.theroot.com/articles/news/2015/05/why_is_israel_kicking_out_the_africans.html

MAYOR BETTY McCRAY BLACK & COP BLOCKED, Down The Road From Ferguson

KINLOCK, MO - BETTY McCRAY

A few minutes away from Ferguson in Kinloch, MO (population 300) the newly elected mayor, Betty McCray, won with 76 percent of the vote -- that is, 63 votes. "But the Board of Aldermen refused to swear her in, and now McCray can't get into city hall...She was denied entry and handed impeachment papers by the city attorney James Robinson."

 The irony is that Kinloch was one of the first African American Community in St Louis County. It could be it's just happenstance that the one blocking her entrance and giving her papers to say she's been "impeached" before she's begun is a black man (James Robinson).  Sometimes you have to do your job when you don't want to. Sometimes.

But until more facts become known we should all wonder how many parts racism to sexism there is in this particular potion of prejudice.

 The shameful lack of concern for Rekia Boyd, Miriam Carey, and other black female victims of white police officers doesn't allow me to give James the benefit of the doubt. The fact that I learned about Betty's plight through a general reference to her situation without the "brother" even bothering to mention her name or provide a link made me double down on not being able to give James the benefit of the doubt.

 CLICK HERE TO READ MORE ABOUT HOW BETTY  McCRAY WON 76% OF VOTE BEFORE BEING LOCKED OUT OF MAYORS OFFICE

The Kinloch administration is also notorious for its lack of transparency. A county judge ordered the town to stop going out of its way to limit public access to municipal court procedures. But old habits die hard. Even though James Robinson insists that Betty McCray was served with impeachment papers, he declined to make copies available for the press or to identify which members of the Board of Alderman voted to impeach McCray.

Read more at http://www.inquisitr.com/2041880/mayor-of-kinloch-gets-cop-blocked-why-was-betty-mccray-locked-out-of-city-hall/#uPMTCKlYPDh9GOmJ.99

FOR AFRICAN AMERICAN GIRLS: A CALL TO ACTION FOR EDUCATIONAL EQUITY

African American girls face significant barriers to educational attainment, including lack of access to quality educational opportunities; pervasive racial and gender stereotypes that affect the decision making of school leaders and educators; discriminatory discipline practices that disproportionately push them out of school; high rates of exposure to sexual harassment and  violence; juvenile justice system involvement; and lack of support for those who are pregnant or parenting while still in school.

In almost all states, the high school graduation rate for African American girls is significantly below that of white girls...African American girls are behind on a range of academic measures related to college readiness. These systemic educational barriers and challenges produce life-long economic obstacles, such as limited job opportunities, lower earnings, and disproportionate representation among those in poverty.

As a result, African American girls are uniquely vulnerable to a “School-to-Poverty Pathway.

READ MORE: http://www.nwlc.org/resource/unlocking-opportunity-african-american-girls-call-action-educational-equity?utm

MAYOR TYRUS BYRD BLACK AND COP ABANDONED - Down The Road From Ferguson

PARMA, MO - TYRUS BYRD

"Several residents of a tiny southeast Missouri town said Monday they don’t believe the abrupt resignations of five of six members of the police force after the longtime mayor, a white man, lost to a black woman have anything to do with racism."

READ MORE: http://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/missouri-town-grapples-with-resignations-of-key-personnel/

No, wait it's not racism. It's just a coincidence 5 out of 6 officers walked out right after the election. No, wait, the police officers walked off the job because of her character, not her skin color. What does it matter that they haven' met her yet? How DARE YOU!

And um...the white people forgot vote on election day so the election wasn't really real. We need a do-over...to keep the peace. It' s all about peace. This has nothing to do with race and racism. (<---Dear White Unconscious People, This is sarcasm, extreme sarcasm) 

6 Months Since Tamir Rice Died, and the Cop Who Killed Him Still Hasn't Been Questioned MAY 15 2015 MOJO ARTICLE

It’s Been 6 Months Since Tamir Rice Died, and the Cop Who Killed Him Still Hasn't Been Questioned

"Mother Jones has learned that the two officers involved in the shooting—Timothy Loehmann, who fired the shots, and Frank Garmback, who drove the police car—still have not been interviewed by investigators from the sheriff's department. According to an official familiar with the case, investigators have made more than one attempt to interview Loehmann and Garmback since the Cleveland Police Department handed over the case in January."

READ MUCH MORE HERE:
http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2015/05/tamir-rice-investigation-cleveland-police

QUIET RIOT, WHITE RIOT: 9 dead in Waco, Texas

"Nine people have died after a shootout between rival motorcycle gangs in Waco on Sunday, when gunfire erupted in the parking lot of a Twin Peaks restaurant in the central Texas city."

- Salon Magazine 

Funny how low key the news on this is, isn't it? No pursed mouths talking about 'It must be a cultural thing." No wringing of hands. No tears. No shouts of "THUG!" Nine people are dead after this white biker gang clash.  Where's the main stream media on this?  Where's the public outrage? 

Did 9 people die in Ferguson? Baltimore? I don't think so. And the protesters at those two locations had something real to be angry about.  

READ MORE

http://www.salon.com/2015/05/18/coverage_of_waco_biker_gang_killings_reveals_disparities_in_news_coverage/

BLACK RACIAL APOLOGY #900,000,000,001 : SAIDA GRUNDY

Background:  Boston University Professor Saida Grundy has apologized for tweets with racial content. One in particular implied,  White America shouldn't be reluctant to see "white college males as a problem population."


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A lot of people have taken to defending Saida. But I can't do it. She put herself, her colleagues, and a sizable chunk of the socially conscious on the spot. 

Think about it: How many individual tweets have we  cheered sans any context at all?

Probably dozens.



Think about this too: How many individual tweets have burned Kanye West alone?

Probably dozens.



So how could a student deciding to take individual tweets and repost them "out of context" be a surprise to Professor Saida Grundy? And this happened on a predominantly white campus like Boston University that is whiter than most, too? I ask you: How could this have been a surprise to an intelligent woman?  Wasn't Skip Gates arrested for suspicion of breaking into his own home just down the road?

I considered that tweet on white males on college campuses being the problem as poorly thought out. I could make up a 12 different contexts that fit that single tweet. And,  I originally assumed a word was left out, that she meant white, male, college "aged" men tend to be this nation's mass shooters.

Problem is people like me weren't the only ones making assumptions about what was meant.Problem is that the average know-nothing who doesn't believe

(1) race is real,
(2) racism is real and a daily occurrence
(3) that everybody has a race and a racial perspective
(4) and that everyone responds to the racial-other in ways they don't recognize

...made assumptions too (see link below)

Race is more nuanced and requires more space to EVEN talk on a single point. She appears to know this as she said in her apology:  "I deprived [these subjects] of the nuance and complexity that such subjects always deserve."

However running away from using social media, as others have suggested, is not the answer.  Social Media is a powerful tool for communicating to a wide audience. People just has to use social media properly, and use the correct medium for the correct thing.

 A comedian like Chris Rock can use Twitter because his living is made on short blurbs. Each statement tends to speak for itself. Each statement appear to make the right people mad about the right thing. Each statement is self-contained. They don't need a context other than society in the United States. That is, Chris Rock hasn't been silly enough to use Twitter like instant messenger. 

You can take things out of context anywhere. But Twitter is hardest place to make the *out of context argument* and have people believe you. Twitter is constructed in such a way that the single tweet appears to be the intent.

Spilt Milk. She has a new choice before her at this time: Go bold or go home.

I hope she chooses the latter. I hope she chooses to capitalize on this mistake and uses her infamy to expand on the points she made about "pioneers" and "white male patriarchy" in particular.















Click Here to See the I-am-white-pure-racelss-and-racism-freeInterpretation of Saida's comments

Can She Get A Witness?:I DIDN'T CELEBRATE MOTHER'S DAY THIS YEAR

CTP said, 

"I didn't celebrate mothers day this year. 

I lost custody of my beautiful daughter that I have raised alone since birth for the past five years on May 2 ,2015. 

Why? 

After leaving her father who is also my abuser going on five years now, I was trapped in a cycle of poverty and a very corrupt family court system in ___. 

I left with my daughter to move back to my native home of Chicago and I can honestly say that my daughter and I are finally stable! I am working two jobs, active in my daughters school and the community and we have a blast together as mother and daughter. I am preparing to go back to college as well to give us a better life. 

Even though my daughter is still with me physically and I am still taking care of her, losing my rights on [p]aper to my pumpkin has been devastating. 

Many think you have to be a bad mom to lose custody but you don't. And the crazy things is, there IS a way to beat this and for the truth to come out but I have no support. I am going to continue to fight to keep my daughter and I [t]ogether and here in Chicago. Being forced into poverty scares me to death. In knowing all of this, that there is Another court date next month, it's tough to celebrate being a mother when you are about to lose everything again, but now it's my baby girl too. 

And for those of you who may read this."


____________________


Two-thirds of Americans believe that domestic violence is a serious problem, yet just more than 1 in 3 have ever talked about it. Allstate Foundation Purple Purse is making it fashionable to talk about domestic violence and the financial abuse that traps women in abusive relationships. The program ignites fundraising for more than 140 national, state and local domestic violence organizations. Funds raised will support life-changing financial empowerment services to help domestic violence survivors build safer lives for themselves and their families. Allstate Foundation Purple Purse aims to break the cycle of violence in our nation – one family at a time.

Domestic violence affects one in four women in her lifetime – that’s more women than breast cancer, ovarian cancer and lung cancer combined. Most people think only of physical abuse when they consider domestic violence, yet financial abuse happens in 98% of all cases of domestic violence². Domestic violence and financial abuse often go hand-in-hand, but nearly 8 in 10 Americans have not heard about financial abuse as a form of domestic violence. The number one reason domestic violence survivors stay, leave or return to an abusive relationship is that they don’t have the financial resources to break free.

http://purplepurse.com/

TAYE MONTGOMERY: THE 10 YEAR OLD BLACK BOY MACED IN THE FACE BY COPS SPEAKS

Minneapolis cops accused of pepper-spraying 10-year-old boy in the face during protest

READ MORE HERE http://www.rawstory.com/2015/05/minneapolis-cops-accused-of-pepper-spraying-10-year-old-boy-in-the-face-during-protest/

B B King "THE BLUES HAS LOST IT'S KING" - President Obama Sings

President Obama had the following to say on the passing of American icon B.B. King:

"The blues has lost its king, and America has lost a legend.

B.B. King was born a sharecropper’s son in Mississippi, came of age in Memphis, Tennessee, and became the ambassador who brought his all-American music to his country and the world. No one worked harder than B.B. No one inspired more up-and-coming artists. No one did more to spread the gospel of the blues.

Three years ago, Michelle and I hosted a blues concert at the White House. I hadn’t expected that I’d be talked into singing a few lines of “Sweet Home Chicago” with B.B. by the end of the night, but that was the kind of effect his music had, and still does. He gets stuck in your head, he gets you moving, he gets you doing the things you probably shouldn’t do – but will always be glad you did. B.B. may be gone, but that thrill will be with us forever. And there’s going to be one killer blues session in heaven tonight." https://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2015/05/15/bb-king-blues-has-lost-its-king-and-america-has-lost-legend

Riley B King a.k.a B B King from 1972 or so

Needless to say, BB was the greatest blues icon on the planet. He kept us rocking and rolling throughout a seventy year career.

His passing has created a hole in the universe.

-Morgan Freeman



A B B King Rockumentary from 1972. Watch online

A 2012 B B King Movie Available on BluRay- B B King, Life Of Riley

Click Here: http://www.amazon.com/B-B-King-Life-Riley-Blu-ray/dp/B00IYLWSP2

DIANE NASH ON HER BIRTHDAY

Assistant to Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy John Seigenthaler recalls a phone conversation with Nash where he tried to dissuade the Nashville Freedom Riders from going to Alabama, warning of the violence ahead.

Nash replied that the Riders had signed their last wills and testaments prior to departure.

In his interview for Freedom Riders, Seigenthaler recalls, 

"She in a very quiet but strong way gave me a lecture."

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In 1961, some months after having been jailed for requesting lunch at a segregated lunch counter as one of "The Rockville 9," Diane Nash kept the freedom rides going after one the buses was burned by the KKK in Alabama...


Nash argued that it was their duty to continue. SNCC's Diane Nash played a crucial role in sustaining Freedom Rides initiated by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). From her base in Nashville, coordinated student efforts to continue the rides into Mississippi, recruited new riders, and served as a liaison between the press and the United States Department of Justice.







Nash played a key role in bringing Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. to Montgomery, AL on May 21 in support of the Riders. Tensions developed between King and SNCC members, including Nash, when King refused to participate in the Freedom Rides himself. She herself was present for the violent siege on the First Baptist Church.

----------

In 2015 she refused to participate in honoring the 50 year anniversary of the Selma because George W. Bush was present, representing the exact opposite of all we believe in. Listen to her speak here on her decision in March of 2015 and what she thinks it is going to take for us to go forward.

 READ MORE  http://mlk-kpp01.stanford.edu/index.php/encyclopedia/encyclopedia/enc_nash_diane_1938/

 READ MORE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nashville_sit-ins
READ MORE: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/freedomriders/people/diane-nash

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DIANE NASH!
77 Years Old as of 5 15 15

Nate Parker's NAT TURNER REBELLION Progect Starts Filming Soon

"August 21st, 1831, in Virginia, Nat Turner led a slave rebellion, hoping to inspire a slave uprising in the south. Several dozen whites were killed before the revolt was defeated. Turner was later captured, tried and hanged...


Nearly 184 years later, many of us are still waiting for a definitive film based on Nat Turner's historic revolt (and not necessarily a Nat Turner biopic) to be produced..."

FROM INDIE WIRE - READ MORE
http://blogs.indiewire.com/shadowandact/the-cast-for-nate-parkers-nat-turner-project-is-set-shooting-begins-in-may-lets-go-20150409

Pearlie Golden 93 years old shot to death by Cop

A 93-year-old woman who was fatally shot by a police officer outside her central Texas home was apparently upset that her nephew was trying to take away her car keys after the Texas Department of Public Safety had refused to renew her driver's license.

She was said to be brandishing a weapon.

Friends say Golden -- widely known as "Miss Sulie" -- still shopped at the grocery store and greeted friends with a jubilant "Hey, baby!"

It was the second time Officer Stem (who was fired but never indicted) had killed someone in 22 months.And he was exonerated a second time a grand jury as well.


http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2014/05/09/officer-shooting-93-year-old/8886487/

B. B. King dies at 89

TANISHA ANDERSON: Dies After Cops Slam Her To Concrete

Tanisha Anderson

"Officers came to the house after a call from a family member who thought the police could calm the bi-polar Tanisha down...

Tanisha changed her mind about the [mental] evaluation after police slapped cuffs on her. She believed she was within her rights to decide whether she went for a voluntary evaluation. But police, at this point, argued that it was up to them.

[Her brother] Joell says that after she hit her head on the concrete, and the officer placed his knee on her back, she never opened her eyes or spoke another word....

The November 13th police homicide was made official by the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner’s office announcement. The police report on the incident admits that Anderson was 'not violent.' "

READ MORE:  http://countercurrentnews.com/2015/02/tanisha-anderson-was-literally-praying-for-help/


According to the Huffington Post, "early data indicates black women account for nearly 20% of those unarmed blacks killed by officers in the past 15 years."
Tanisha Anderson was one of the 20%

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kali-nicole-gross/silence-on-black-female-victims_b_7092128.html