A BELATED BIRTHDAY WISH TO DR JOE MEDICINE CROW

Feeling Rebloggy

Happy Birthday to Dr. Joe Medicine Crow, the last living Plains Indian War Chief and World War II veteran. He turned 102 years old on Tuesday (10 27 2015)

Chief Dr Joe Medicine Crow at 102
He's been here for Little Big Horn, WWII, and the War in Iraq
That seems like 10 lifetimes to me

Born October 27, 1913 near Lodge Grass, Montana, Dr. Joseph Medicine Crow is the last living person with a direct oral history from a participant of the Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876.His grandfather, White Man Runs Him was a scout with General Custer and died in 1925 when Medicine Crow was 11 years old. Dr. Medicine Crow’s grandparents lived before the United States Government sent Indians to a reservation in 1884. 

 from The Greatest Generation Foundation

http://www.tggf.org/

JOE MEDICINE CROW TALKS PRIDE
AND SURVIVING WHITE PEOPLE TO YOUTH "We're still here." 

                                                   Video from 2009-ish? Not Sure

READ MORE ABOUT THIS MANS ACHIEVEMENTS
AND SEE AWESOME-ER PICTURES. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=1103846679649672&set=a.100544109979939.1131.100000730507591&type=3&theater


READ MORE ABOUT HIS BAD@SSEDNESS HERE
- HIS PATH TO BECOMING A CHIEF
- I can't vouch for the language or the imagery OR the website.
However,  I was glad to learn more about him.
At your own risk--->  http://www.badassoftheweek.com/medicinecrow.html

Halloween, White Folks, Black Face, and The Black Twitter Detective Agency

In America, it has been clearly established that blackface is something that’s at best in bad taste and at worst an act of unflinching racism. So, by participating in the act, people are admitting that they don’t care who they offend or what symbols of oppression they perpetuate. Which is why Halloween is one of the most frustrating holidays for black Americans.

David Dennis

When white liberals and people of color who are a little too understanding finally take "bad taste" off  the table, maybe the hard-core, overtly racist, mostly white idiots will be shamed into hiding their racism on Halloween just like they do at the office, church, or any other place that might wind up being diversely populated.



Or maybe not.

I swear, the majority of people don't begin to understand a thing until it hits their wallet.

So how do we make black face at Halloween hit the wallet? Oh wait. I know. Take photos. Find out where they work. Then you ask the company they work for what kind of business they run when they hire low-lifes like the person in the photo you just e-mailed them.

Black Twitter has proven this effective again and again and again.

So if you find yourself confronted by black face, smile, introduce yourself, and get their names when they introduce themselves back. Then get that cell phone camera out and feed the photo to the Black Twitter Investigating Agency.

Bing. Bang. Boom.  A percentage of the time there will be no more job.

This doesn't have to be 100% effective for the word to spread through the cowardly, anti-black racist population. I tend to think that a 25% effectiveness rate --no more than 33%-- will put the dumb@$$es off black face for good.

Give it a shot. If it doesn't work? We'll try something else next year. 

http://fusion.net/story/222096/nicki-minaj-drake-halloween-costume-florida-students/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=socialshare&utm_content=desktop+top 

FIRED AFTER NIYA KENNY VIDEO - Officer Ben Fields

Ben Fields

"An attorney for the South Carolina officer fired for slamming a student to the ground and tossing her several feet says his client's actions were "justified and lawful."

Video of the arrest sparked widespread outrage and questions about what role police should play in schools.

Richland County Sheriff Leon Lott suspended Deputy Ben Fields after the incident, and fired him Wednesday."

CNN

http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/28/us/south-carolina-school-arrest-videos/

HERO
NIYA KENNY

Previous Story: WHEN A TEACHER CALLS AN OFFICER INTO THE CLASSROOM
Apparently "refusing to participate" is refusing to give up a cell phone and leave the classroom.

The ability to call a Resource Officer for such nonsense is ridiculous. The teacher needs to be reprimanded as well. 


But the "Resource Officer" has been fired, which is right and correct. (You can tell that this was done reluctantly if you watch the right  newscast. Protest and exposure WORKED this time.)




Apparently "Resource Officers" were put into schools after Columbine. There supposed to be there for safety of the children from other children and adults with guns and such. If you wouldn't call 911, apparently you shouldn't call the "Resource Officer" either.

Niya Kenny can actually sing a different song, than most of us. She can sing, "I fought the law and I won" and it'll be true.

One video is below. Multiple are available at this linkhttp://www.cnn.com/2015/10/28/us/south-carolina-school-arrest-videos/

WHEN A TEACHER CALLS AN OFFICER INTO THE CLASSROOM

BECAUSE OF YOUR CHILD,
YOU NEED TO GET IN THAT @$$
IF THAT CHILD DID NOT 
TAKE A SWING AT THAT TEACHER

BECAUSE THAT TEACHER IS THE MAIN PROBLEM
* * * * *

Apparently, there's this new thing in school since I was a kid.  There's a person called a "Resource Officer" running around loose in schools now. And apparently the "Resource Officer" comes when the teacher thinks he or she needs physical assistance in the classroom.


In the link below, within the cell phone video, there are images of this "Resource Officer" throwing this black girl around. All you can really see is her legs flying in the air. Niya Kenny, a classmate, took the video while loudly protesting this girls abuse. And she was arrested for her trouble.

Hero 
Niya Kenny of Spring Valley High School in South Carolina

And all this came to pass because a teacher said this girl "wasn’t participating in class, [and] when the teacher asked her to leave but she refused."


My first question was what does this "not participating" mean? And why would a teacher be able to call a "Resource Officer" to handle that? Has this teacher, a black male, missed what's been happening black people in the news?



But the thing I'm stuck on is a teacher being able to call anybody at all because of "not participating," much less anybody called an "officer."

What is "not participating?

Is it a refusal to answer questions?

Is it a refusal to speak when spoken to?

What the heck is "not participating?" 


Whatever it is, it doesn't sound "officer" worthy.  And I'm supposed to think the conservatives aren't stone crazy when they talk about teachers being able to carry guns in school to protect students (ala Sandy Hook)?  I'd sooner have the entire student body strapped.


So was the teacher's maneuver meant to communicate  'how dare you defy me in THE SLIGHTEST WAY?'  It kinda sounds like it, doesn't it?  "Not participating" I hope this teacher is not Ben Carson's psychological twin. I hope the teacher has a better story than what we've heard so far.  And maybe he does. Then again, maybe the Resource Officer is the only one that's extra stupid.    

However what makes this story even more interesting is the following comment a woman made on "Resource Officers" in general:

"I had to take a school here in Richardson TX to task for sending an officer to escort my daughter out of class.

The teacher, a 25 year old, 6'4 white guy decided he should call the resource officer to remove my daughter from class instead of simply writing her up for her cell phone going off in class (while it was on the charging station he provided against district policy).

My daughter called me as she was being escorted out and I had the pleasure of hearing the white officer curse my 13 year old daughter out. The reason the teacher did this, he didn't want a confrontation to start in his class so he called the officer.

I have witnessed teachers call resource officers for stupid things like this in at least 3 states I have lived in . The reality is that officers are only to be called in for things such as fights or criminal offenses. Teachers know this, principles know this, and the districts know. We were able to get the officer removed from resources duty, but parents I encourage you to read the district policies and stay on their asses. They are gunning for black girls, more so than black boys!"

 ~RD

If this woman is correct, then the cowardly teachers and the Resource Officers, both, are abusing their power.


"Stay Woke" as they say. Keep your eyes open and aimed at your child's school. Do the "Resource Officers" work at your child's school? How many? What kind of incidents have they been called to the classroom for? I'd find out if I were you.

http://www.clutchmagonline.com/2015/10/student-arrested-after-standing-up-for-classmate-assaulted-at-spring-valley-high-school/

TO BE POOR IN THE UNITED STATES

IS TO HAVE A TARGET PAINTED ON YOUR BACK

In March, the Southern Poverty Law Center filed a federal lawsuit accusing Judicial Correction Services (a private for profit "probation company) and the city of Clanton, Alabama of operating an illegal racketeering scheme to extort money from poor residents.
JCS offers municipal courts its services at no cost to them. People who can’t pay traffic tickets and other minor fines in a lump sum are placed on what is known as “pay-only probation,” and judges assign JCS to collect payments. The company profits from fees it charges – typically $40 a month – to people making payments, prolonging their ordeal and making it more difficult to pay off their debt. Company officials often threaten people with jail to secure payment, and many defendants end up behind bars.

I'm scared to death of ever being poor in this country. Somewhere near 45% will tell the poor it's their own fault that they are poor, then take a shot at hitting the bulls-eye themselves just like JCS did.

How did a for profit probation system ever sound good to anybody? It never even crossed my mind that such a thing could exist.

I hope the SPLC gets the city itself on the hook for some large fines too. The federal government should let them pay over time for a $4000 monthly fee.  

https://www.splcenter.org/news/2015/10/19/splc-private-probation-company%E2%80%99s-decision-leave-alabama-welcome-news-indigent

FINALLY, JUDGE DISMISSES ALL WHITE JURY FOR NOT BEING REPRESENTATIVE

Feeling Rebloggy

"Unhappy with the number of potential black jurors called to his court last week, Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Olu Stevens halted a drug trial and dismissed the entire jury panel, asking for a new group to be sent up.

“The concern is that the panel is not representative of the community,” said Stevens, who brought in a new group of jurors despite objections from both the defense and prosecutor.

And this wasn’t the first time Stevens, who is black, has dismissed a jury because he felt it was lacking enough minorities. Now the state Supreme Court is going to determine whether the judge is abusing his power."

from WDRB.com &

earhustle411.com 

KEEP YOUR EYES OPEN
Google "Judge Olu Stevens" once a month or so

Read Morehttp://www.wdrb.com/story/30308688/louisville-judge-questioned-for-dismissing-juries-based-on-lack-of-minorities

GROWING UP FIASCO

Since I heard the song "Bad Bitch," I've been thinking Lupe Fiasco might one day grow into being worth of the identity, "Black Male Feminist"

On my own, I couldn't quite put my finger on exactly how at least a piece of what he was singing was the same-ole, same-ole victim blaming while some of what he was saying seemed quite right.

The writer of the article below hits the nail on the head in such a way that you can see how very much alike racism and sexism are in addition to the things that Lupe gets right.

The song is about getting and giving respect and self respect.If you don't feel like listening to the video, here is a core lyric of the song -

"Bitch bad. Woman good. Lady better."

The writer below describes the difference between what Lupe thinks he's singing about and what he's actually singing about.

"I want respect. Hell, I command respect. But I don’t want to return to respectability politics. The distinction is important. Respectability politics might seem better in the short run, but in the long run they aren’t best.

We can place a high value on receiving and giving respect in our interpersonal interactions, without falling into the trap of  believing that changing our behaviors will have the power to transform a system that actively works against us......we [can't] lose sight of those who have more power to change things than we do.

Men have some power.  They are not hapless victims of less-than-thoughtful mothers and confused, non-self-respecting schoolgirls. As corporations go, male rappers are Davids fighting Goliaths. But at least David saw himself as having a stake in the fight.

Clearly, so does Lupe."

- Crunk Feminist Collective

You can read more of the article below. In the meantime, know that I expect more out of Lupe Fiasco one day.

I have a feeling there will be stumbles and disappointments. But he's thinking, He feels things for black women that don't strictly involve how they reflect on and are accessories to black men. The song feels like concern for black women for black women's sake. I might turn out to be wrong. But I feel like he's thinking and feeling at once, like he's capable of making an effort that will empower us all.

We need a lot more black men like him...I hope.

Yes, I expect more out of him one day.  I only see a hint of something. But I expect Frederick Douglass type thinking. I expect W.E.B. DuBois type thinking.  I expect he will be worthy of the identity "Black Male Feminist" too when he finishes growing. 

READ MORE ON THE CONTRADICTION OF LOVING HIP HOP and LUPE'S GROWTH http://www.crunkfeministcollective.com/2012/06/27/thoughts-on-lupes-bitch-bad/

THE 30 YEAR LONG LYNCHING OF GLENN FORD

Feeling Rebloggy

"Glenn Ford’s case is nothing special and, at the same time, is very special...because it involves racism so egregious that even the white legal system has conceded it."


"Here are the gory details of this real-life horror story.

In 1983, the 34-year-old Mr. Ford, from Shreveport, La., was framed by a white detective for the murder of a white man. In 1984, he was prosecuted by a white assistant district attorney and found guilty by an all-white jury. In 1988, he was sentenced by a white judge to death in the electric chair. Oh, by the way, there was no physical evidence connecting him to the crime. No murder weapon was ever found. And another man confessed. Despite that, Mr. Ford spent 30 years on death row in a 5 x 7-foot cell for 23 of 24 hours every single day in the notorious Louisiana State Prison, better known as Angola."

Philidelphia Tribune

READ MORE:  http://www.phillytrib.com/commentary/glenn-ford-was-lynched-by-america-s-racist-criminal-injustice/article_a551d54f-d884-57c8-ba8a-5c86103ba511.html

An old photo from the **Too Little, Too Late Files**  More on the forgiveness request  http://blackchickrocked.blogspot.com/2015/04/white-racial-apology-101000005-glenn.html


* * * * *

A Black Chick A Little Rocked Post from earlier this year on When did they know? When should they have known it?

Read More: http://blackchickrocked.blogspot.com/2015/03/op-ed-retraction-of-glenn-fords-death.html

WHITE MAN THAT SHOT AT BLACK TEENS FOR LOUD MUSIC AND GETS LIFE SENTENCE

WITHOUT PAROLE


I do hope we've seen the last of Michael Dunn.

"The Florida man convicted of first-degree murder for shooting a teenager to death over loud music was sentenced to life without parole Friday. Michael Dunn, 47, was convicted of killing Jordan Davis, 17, in November 2012 after he shot into a SUV of four teenagers 10 times when an argument broke out over loud music coming from the teens' vehicle. Dunn was sentenced to an additional 90 years in prison for three attempted murder convictions and another 15 years for firing into an occupied vehicle.

Jordan Davis
Dunn's Murder Victim

Read More and
Listen to the judge sentence himhttp://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/michael-dunn-sentenced-life-without-parole-loud-music-killing-n228191


This might be the first good racial news we've heard out of Florida in a while

LATE TO THE TABLE COSBY CO-STAR SAYS BILL COSBY IS GUILTY

Malcolm Jamal Warner has not committed to saying anything about Cosby one way or the other. He's simply stated that he is sad about the legacy of "The Cosby Show" as are the rest of us. But Joseph C. Phillips (his character married Denise Huxtable on the show) has some personal information that has led him to believe that Bill Cosby is definitely guilty.

(The story below should also dispel the rumor that says there were only "hoes" running around in hotels late at night looking for a sugar-daddy hook up who started lying about rape when they didn't hit the payday they wanted...which conveniently forgets the rich women attacked)http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/malcolm-jamal-warner-talks-bill-cosby-scandal-bad-situation-2015910

Joseph C. Phillips: ‘Cosby Show’ Co-Star Says ‘Of Course Bill Cosby Is Guilty’

In the article below, Joseph C Phillips talks about his man-crush on Cosby and his ultra-slow realization that Bill  Cosby is a rapist.

I'm glad he's seen the light. But I'm not surprised it took him so long.

I used to be a huge fan of Phillips. No. Let me tell the truth. I used to have a major crush on this man. I can't tell you how happy I was to see him show up as Lisa Bonet's husband on "The Cosby Show" after the movie "Strictly Business"

Then, reality came along and ruined everything.

A few years after "The Cosby Show" went off the air, I read a few sections of an autobiographical book that Phillips wrote while waiting around inside a local bookstore.

Joseph C Phillips
Back In The Day

At the time of the reading, I might have been in denial that I am a feminist, likely identifying with the ideals without saying ever saying f-word out loud about myself.  (Pssst! There are strong and persistent forces in the black community that say feminism is white and that joining it, traitorous when we black women started it without naming it.)

So, like Toni Morrison, I didn't want to belong to anything that alienates black women, whether those black women be knowledgeable or un-knowledgeable in general. But I eventually had to back track on that.

I don't like making up my mind about faith, theories, principles, or ideals based on who else believes in them. A faith, theory, principle or ideal should live or die inside my soul based on it's own merits.

You do you. I'll do me.  These words shall be forever engraved on the inside of my skull

The thing that crushed the crush was Phillips own words. In his book, he appeared to feel sorry for himself  because he was unable to be fully happy about a new high point in his career --possibly the success of the movie "Strictly Business"--  because he did not feel able to choose a woman with which to go to an awards ceremony. Via a carefully word paragraph or two, he clearly communicated that if he had chosen one woman to go with him the revolving door to his bedroom would have stopped spinning.

Translation: There were at least two women who thought they are the only woman in my life or close to becoming the only woman in life. Their possessiveness (not my lies) ruined things for me. Deception in romantic relationships is normal.

Then, he went on to describe what ladylike behavior should be like now that he's raising his daughters. The statement that was absolutely the last straw for me was when he said something like 'Women shouldn't be so _______ (<---insert angry black woman synonym here) when they can get whatever they want by just smiling a certain way.'

Translation: Patriarchy is my best friend.

I closed his book on that statement.  I probably re-embraced the f-word that same day or the next.

So, it's no surprise to me that Phillips took so long to decide about Cosby, even though Phillips comes right and says in this interview that he knew his idol has been lying, "cheating," and scheming on his "Queen" Camille for years. Phillips even said it was "common knowledge" during the filming of "The Cosby Show" that Cosby routinely cheated on Camille.
Okay.

I too live in a glass house and  know not to throw stones. I do.  And cheating is not rape. However, you can silently withdraw your worship of a cheat and a liar for the sake of cheating and lying, can't you?  More than that, how does a black man hold another black man in high esteem as an upstanding "race man," as an uplifter of the race, when that black man is dogging a black woman (whether she tacitly agrees to the lying and cheating or not.)
Oh  yeah, I forgot. Phillips felt cheated he couldn't be honest enough to take a woman to an awards show without letting some other woman know he was also with someone else (in the heyday of AIDS?)  His idol being a cheat that practically lived at the Playboy Mansion was no biggie. 

Still, how did an *idol worship,* that should have been flimsy or non-existent, stand in the way of accepting layer after layer after layer of truth as testified to by more than 4 dozen women, some of them black. 

Joseph C Phillips says that the spell that was his idol worship of Cosby wasn't completely broken until a woman that he knows, who also knows Cosby, told him of her own rape by Bill Cosby. Phillips said that the woman ended her story with "Do you believe me?"

I felt devastated by this woman's story, told third hand because I had to wonder if I would have believed her IF it had been JUST her, alone, making the accusation, back in the 1990s?

I'm not sure I would have. All indications are I might not have since I think I had more than one chance to believe Cosby was a rapist and didn't.

I'd heard about more than one rape accusation prior to Hannibal Burress's stand up routine going viral.  I can't trust a ten-plus year old memory, but I swore that I read an accusation that involved Camille Cosby walking in and walking out when Bill Cosby was seducing --I thought at the time-- a short-haired, black woman some years back. I think the woman made claims about spiked tea. It was only in the main stream news for a minute, so I can't quite remember because I didn't believe her.

I didn't want to believe her. I pushed her accusations out of my head and now I can't get them back.

And I must have decided not to pay attention to the Andrea Constand case as well. Because I do remember the case, even her name. I just didn't follow it. I didn't want to know.So many of us are guilty of some of the same heinous things, I guess. We want to hold onto our heroes.

But the thing that's different about stars like Joseph Phillips (and Phylicia Rashad?) is that they knew Bill Cosby was not Cliff Huxtable. According to Phillips, all the adults knew that Cosby was dogging at least one black woman, Camille. And they knew he'd been doing it for multiple decades.

Months before we heard Cosby's own words in a deposition, Phylicia Rashad gave one of the most reluctant defenses of a co-worker and friend that I have ever heard. Ever. If I hadn't been sure Cosby was guilty before Rashad's defense of him, I certainly would have been afterward.

In some ways, I feel sorry for those who owe Cosby so much.  But I still cannot reconcile how those that weren't children during the filming of "The Cosby Show" stood by Bill Cosby for so long when they knew about the gap between his public persona and his real identity.  

As for the rest of us?  I understand how some of us came to be stuck on stupid.

I understand our being dedicated to Cliff Huxtable, our favorite reincarnation of the Jello Pudding man, the actor and television show creator that broke the cycle of  black families being shown as one thing, over and over and over again on television and in the movies, always being shown as in-the-hood, suffering, and struggling.

I understand. I get that. I felt that. I felt the loss of the fictional Cliff Huxtable too.

But at the end of last year, after 24 women came forward, the fictional Cliff Huxtable was still more important than our real sisters.  After 40 women came forward by mid 2015, some people still believed in Cliff Huxtable over real women, some of them black women. Some people didn't believe the raped women even after they read Bill Cosby's own words.

What does that say about what women are worth in this society?

I know that I've been taught to ignore women and especially black women my entire life if a black man's reputation is at stake. If they get as bold as R. Kelly, I don't have a problem breaking away from my training.  But with people like Cosby, apparently, I'm still a little slow.  But not as slow as Phillips. And I don't think Phylicia Rashad was slow at all. I think in the back of her mind she knew

She didn't completely abandon women, black women in particular, but in the end she covered her own hiney. Yet, I must admit that I do not envy her. I don't. I hope I'd have done better. But I'm not sure I would have. It has to be hard as h*ll to bite the hand the fed you no matter what kind of monster that hand turned out to be attached to in the end.

Situations like this are the reason I try to continue to study and learn from other womanists and feminists.

This has to be a low point in black history. In the black community, Bill Cosby was allowed to rape women because things like the legacy of the Cosby show was deemed more important than women, including black women. 
Similarly, in the white community Jerry Sandusky was allowed to rape children because white people, mostly white men thought football was more important than the children. And...ummn...it was just college football too. 

We have to get better at ejecting the wolves from our midsts.  The womanists, feminists, and their allies are likely going to have to take the lead. I don't see the protectors of the Chris Browns, Ray Rices, and die hardests of the Bill Cosby defenders stepping up to the plate any time soon.

Do you?


Joseph C Phillips, of "The Cosby Show" talks about running into an old female friend that was mentored by Bill Cosby. 

http://hollywoodlife.com/2015/07/16/joseph-c-phillips-bill-cosby-guilty-show-essay/

CAN WE STOP PRETENDING BEN CARSON IS RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT?

Feeling Rebloggy

There was a time when running for president was actually a money-losing venture.

In fact, over the last 30 or so years, most presidential candidates (including some who actually won) ended up with tremendous debts after the campaign. Being in the red during and after a campaign was so common that paying off a former opponent’s campaign debt was seen as a benevolent form of political stunting. (Thanks, Obama!) But all of that has changed since Citizens United in 2010. Thanks to super PACs and enforcement mechanisms flimsier than tissue paper, running for president can now become a ridiculous money grab if you’re willing to put in the time.

The Root

http://www.theroot.com/articles/politics/2015/10/can_we_stop_pretending_that_ben_carson_is_running_for_president.html?wpisrc=topstories

5 to 6 BLACK CHURCH FIRES SET BY ARSONISTS NEAR FERGUSON

Feeling Rebloggy

This most recent wave of church fires are taking place in North St. Louis, near Ferguson, where racial tensions have been particularly high since the August 2014 shooting of Michael Brown. The department of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms is investigating the arsons.

On October 8th, the first fire was set at the Bethel Non-Denominational Church. Between October 10th and October 14th, three more churches were burned — New Northside Missionary Baptist Church, St. Augustine Catholic Church, and the New Testament Church of Christ. In the early hours of Saturday morning, another fire was set at the New Life Missionary Baptist Church. All 5 churches are within three miles of each other."

~U.S. UNCUT
via Latina Feminista

READ MORE AT U.S. UNCUThttp://usuncut.com/black-lives-matter/black-churches-burning-ferguson-area/


READ MORE AT ABC NEWShttp://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/fires-st-louis-area-churches-investigation-34580334

THE TRUMP CARD OF RACE CARDS

MERITOCRACY 

Damonsplaining is an old-ish story.But the thing that irritated me is this story is that it got reduced down in the mainstream news to "interrupting a black woman to explain diversity to her" when that was beside the point.

Damon was explaining to Effie Brown why diversity was not currently present or even very necessary via the use of the often-thrown, ultimate white race card called "Meritocracy."

BACKGROUND FIRST: Matt Damon said, "...when you’re talking about diversity, you do it in the casting of the film, not the casting of the show.” [Effie] Brown cocked her head to the side, clearly (and rightfully) offended, saying, “whew, wow, ok,” as she waited for Damon to complete his thought.

Damon went on to further chide her, saying, “do you want the best director?” ....Damon indicated that while he appreciated her “flagging diversity,” ultimately he felt that decision should be based “entirely on merit, leaving all other factors out of it.” 

 

Yeah, Damon apologized later.


Yeah, I haven't heard it.


Yeah, maybe I'll listen to it when Damon's hiring and firing on "Project Green Light"for HBO has people behind the camera and in front of the camera looking like these United States.







I find it hard to imagine that there are too many black people who haven't had this conversation with a white person, especially if many of us should have had the audacity to suggest that a space is too white, then follow up by asking,

"Why aren't there any people of color" doing X "in here?"

In case you've never put yourself in the situation of asking where the black and brown folk are, let me inform you that Matt Damon's answer is what you'll get from white folk word-for-word. And if you take a time machine back to any decade of your choosing beyond slavery, and ask where the black and brown achievers are in any given situation, this same damonsplaining of the happenstance of white superiority via merit is what you'll get.

Feeling Rebloggy

"The myth of meritocracy is one of the foundational and erroneous ideals of white supremacy.

Whether we are speaking about increasing racial access to education or jobs, the term merit is thrown around as though it exists in opposition to diversity. This happens when employers claim that they would like to hire a person of color for a position, but that they simply cannot find any qualified people of color for the position....

But meritocracy is a myth. The United States was not built on a system of meritocracy. It was built on a system of denied access. Let us not forget that a whole race of people was legal barred from learning to read in this country until 1865. Now we are dismantling public education through..."

~Alternet

READ MORE:
http://www.alternet.org/culture/matt-damons-staggering-meritocracy-lie-what-his-project-greenlight-blow-effie-brown-really

DEFENDERS OF BILL COSBY: I'M STILL HERE AFTER THEY CAME FOR ME

Link to Part 1 - I'll be here when they come for me

Can I step into my wide ranging feelings about black female unprotectedness for a minute?

But before I do that. Let me say that I hope Ebony Magazine has some content to go with this cover.
More than that, I hope some of that content compares Anita Hill's treatment to Beverly Johnson's and allows that to show just how little black women are valued by a sizable portion black community.

"If you give a woman -- or a man, for that matter -- without his or her knowledge a drug and then have sex with that person without consent, that's rape," Obama said Wednesday at a White House press conference.

I'm so grateful our black president and a handful of black men on my social media pages stood up to be counted as against drugging-and-raping on behalf of their daughters AND especially on behalf of their sons.


The hope I have for us to be united as a people was dimming until the very, VERY few, proud, and brave black people stood up for the women Cosby admitted to drugging...so as to have sex with them, taking away consent -a.k.a "rape."  


I was beginning to think fake unity was going to overtake and engulf any true unity we might attain.


After watching so many black people
stand firmly behind Ray Rice's bullsh**,
while actually using the very same words
to defend the Rice knock out video
that white folks used
to defend the Eric Garner choke out video,I had to realize that self-serving hypocrisy
is as colorless and gender-less as self-hatred.
 


ON A SIDE NOTE:
JAMES BROWN ON RAY RICE AND HEALTHY, RESPECTFUL MANHOOD


How does a black person with any sense of dignity at all ever utter the words, "Cosby wasn't found guilty in a court of law, therefore he's not guilty," AFTER -

Trayvon Martin

Rekia Boyd

Eric Garner

Mike Brown

 How does that leave the self-respecting black person's mouth, much less a black woman's? How?


Cosby drugging women so as to have sex with them, a.k.a rape, is a bitter pill to swallow. I know it is because I swallowed it myself.  And I knew I had to swallow that bitterness even as I knew I wasn't going to have much company.

In the black community, black women and what happens to them matters much, much less than the material success of a black man. I'd estimate that a very small fraction of black men and less than half of black women stood up for...

Anita Hill

Rhianna

Janay Palmer

or 

Beverly Johnson

 

...after they were attacked.


So few black people said "boo" after Rekia Boyd's murderer was set free that some black folk don't recognize Boyd's name to this day -- much less her murderer's name. And the few that did say "boo" about Rekia on my social media pages? They were nearly all black women.

To add insult to injury, immediately following the damn-near-no-protest for Rekia Boyd there was a protest you could see from outer space for Freddie Gray.  This is one of the many reasons why #SayHerName became so necessary a supplement to the black female created #BlackLivesMatter.
Sandra Bland might have been the most public beneficiary of #SayHerName attention.  So there has been some good news on the black woman front this year. But the overwhelming trend in the black news shows that black women and what happens to them matters much less than the material success of a black man. So much less.

Even black children are worth practically nothing compared to keeping an example of shining black,  male, success up on a pedestal. I couldn't believe it when I heard ESPN commentators defending a black football player who was on video talking casually about DAMAGING his bandaged son (who is also in the video) after having a previous child abuse charge laid on him.

 

All of this is why "Bill Cosby was set up" claims should have been expected.   However, I am still trying to figure out how Cosby was "only" cheating on his "Queen," is okay for some folk.

This is the other excuse: The sex was consensual with all of them -- not a few of them, not most of them, all of them. Therefore he's not a rapist. Cosby is just somebody who repeatedly cheated on his "Queen" at Hef's place and any other place he might be able to drop a Quaalude into a drink unobserved. 

Those unaware of black female history think defense of white womanhood would have stopped Cosby from getting away with raping so many white women (as they pretend light-skinned women also accusing Cosby don't exist). Well I got news for you. Ida B Wells found out that white womanhood isn't worth THAT much.

Be in awe. Mark this year down in history.
 Large numbers of black men are pretending to
NOT SEE light-skinned women.
They only see white female accusers of Bill Cosby.
Must be a new strain of colorblindness.

At the turn of the 19th century, defense of white womanhood was trotted out as a beard for white greed so that foreign investors wouldn't be put off by the animalistic behavior of the white south. That is, when 300, 400 or 500 hundred black people, mostly black men, were being lynched per year at the turn of the 19th century, only 1/3 of the black men lynched were ever even accused of rape according to Ida B Wells (Author of the First Anti-Lynching campaign)  Also, according to Ida B Wells, half of that 1/3 accused of rape were likely in interracial relationships.


The other 2/3rds that were lynched were killed because they had some property or business a white man wanted. Other times the lynchings took place for the pure, white, male pleasure of extracting a feeling of power over something as trivial as a black man "mouthing off."


In other words, white women weren't valued highly enough in 1800s and 1900s to justify very much lynching on their behalf. They were only valued enough to cover up lynching. And white women sure weren't valued enough in the 1960s, 70s, 80s etc. to fuel a rape conspiracy against a black actor (not a black president) that stretches over an entire country, over several decades, over more than one ethnicity -- most of the women no darker than his extra, extra pale wife, Camille.

Pssst! Am I the only to notice that Tiger and Bill have the same taste in women? 

More important than anything else is the fact that white women weren't valued enough for the white men making millions off  "I-Spy," Bill Cosby Stand-up, "Fat Albert," and "The Cosby Show" to turn his dollar-sign green @$$ over the police.

Sexism plays a huge role in white men covering for black Bill too.   

Slut-shaming was 100% successful inside and out of the Playboy Mansion heyday of the 1960s and 1970s. Hef and Cosby hung out there regularly.  There existed in the cultural consciousness of the mid-20th century "the girls that do" (have sex outside of marriage) and "the girls that don't" (have sex out of marriage). That were actually multiple sayings based on "the girls that do" versus "the girls that don't."  Virginity was like a prize that a "good girl" was supposed to hold onto for her husband. As for the ~girls that did~ in 1960s and 70s? They were seen as getting what they deserve if they were out late, having the audacity to have a drink--even rape. (Watch a 1970s Jaime Lee Curtis slasher movie if you really want to see how expendable "the girls that do" were)


 

In the 1980s, men were still arguing about whether date-rape was even a real thing.  In many men's eyes, if a woman agreed to go on a date with a man and then let herself be alone with him, she was assumed to want sex -- even if he ripped her clothes and knocked her around a bit as rough foreplay while she screamed "No!"

 Slut-Shaming-On-Steroids having been allowed to pass as "normal" American culture is also one of the reasons why Cosby, and any other man with access to a microphone, could tell rape jokes with impunity not so long ago. 

Back in good ole days of "Spanish Fly" a man could get away with rape, call it "let the drinker beware," then laugh it off with his buddies  later.

 

Some black folk have tried to say, "Times were different back then. It wasn't considered 'rape' back then. People just didn't know any better."  

Well guess what?

White people try to say the very same garbage about slavery.

And I say, "Immorality being popular doesn't make that immorality not exist. People who were born two decades, five decades, or twenty decades before you are not simple-minded children to be excused no matter what heinous act they commited because they didn't know any better. Anybody over the age of 5 knows when they are hurting someone else. Those that don't are called 'sociopaths' whether born in 1650, 1750, 1850, or 1950. So I'm not letting white people get away with calling their grown, slave beating ancestors 'children who didn't know any better back in the old days.' And I'm not letting people get away with calling their women-raping-men 'children who didn't know any better back in the old days' either, not even if those men are black."   

Like anybody else though, I truly hope we can separate Cliff Huxtable from Bill Cosby and enjoy the Cosbys again.  I loved the Cosbys like they were real.  I might remember the personalities of the characters better than some co-workers I've left behind at jobs that I had in my teens.  The Cosby Show managed to become a part of Americana. And I think they deserve to stay a part of our cultural history despite the despicable things that have come to light about the lead actor.

I hope, one day, we can all forget Bill Cosby and remember Cliff Huxtable. I think I'd feel that way even if The Cosby Show wasn't the First Black Family of television. Maybe not. But I think would. I suppose I'll never be sure of that.


I've felt heartbroken over having to give up the Cosbys. I haven't even tried to watch an episode since this story broke.  But I think I might have IF Cosby's face hadn't become symbolic of misogynoir in my head. 

Bill Cosby, the actor, is upsetting me a lot less than the protectors of Bill Cosby at this point. Bill Cosby is what he is.  It's unlikely he's going to trial or to jail. I've come to accept that after all this time. But I have to have more hope going forward for the black community than that.  I can't just the black community is what it is, full of way too much misogynoir, and keep it moving.

The defenders of Bill Cosby being so numerous, mean my sisters and I aren't safe, not even from other sisters, because the black male predators among us are now being held as sacred in the black community -- in ways they were not a century ago.

And think about this for a minute or ten:  Cosby is being protected for very much the same reasons that Ben Affleck protected his slave owning ancestor, isn't he? White folk don't want to disrupt the hero worship with the truth and we don't either 
Cosby is an actor.


I keep telling myself that's all Cosby is. He's just an actor. As I recall his pontificating about the inferiority of black teenagers who embarrass the entire race for having low hanging pants, I also recall that he failed 10th grade then joined the Navy, getting an equivalency degree or some such thing, later. He went on to get a solid education, but as Ben Carson has repeatedly proved, even brain surgeons can be idiots about the humanity of other human beings.

And what is a person that rapes women but someone who does not count the humanity of a woman as worth as much as his own?

Cosby had already told us that there are whole classes of black folk he doesn't count as equal to him.  And while I do understand that every respectability politician doesn't have to be a rapist, a respectability politician has already told you that this humanity over here is worth more than that humanity over there. In my mind, it's just a shorter leap from respectability politics to rapist.


I hope that Ebony covers all the rape accusations but pays special attention to how Beverly Johnson and other women of color have been stomped and/or ignored in favor of a man that has been known FOR AGES --by those calling their women "Queens,"  claiming   to be "all about strengthening the black family"-- to be cheating on his wife Camille multiple times a day, who has admitted to drugging women with a drug that can remove consent, which can be used to "rape."

Some people are worried about dragging black business in the street. To this I say, "HAH!!!!"  AND...

"I wish I would give a damn about people who don't give good gawd damn about  about protecting mothers, sisters, or daughters should that mother, sister, daughter or 'Queen'  have the misfortune to trust the wrong fatherly type of 'brotha' early in the morning, at noon, or late at night when that fatherly brotha offers them something to drink.

 I'm not going to be silent anytime, anywhere for those say "Queen" then routinely go about throwing me and mine under the bus.  I have tire tracks up and down my back and across my forehead. I'm done. 



Dear Rapists Who Don't Consider Themselves Such,


Your days are numbered.

Your raping days are numbered

Your covering for your rapist pals are numbered

The black men that actually deserve to be called  black MEN are slowly standing up to be counted, leaving some of you out in the little boy wanna-be-rapist cold.


The black men that actually deserve to be called black MEN are going to claim "Silence Is Violence" as their mantra too. 

* * * * *
Those who would say "Well Nobody's Perfect!!!" please save that nonsense for the next time a black man is beaten bloody by a white man.


Those who would say, "What about Stephen [white guy actor] who's a pedophile?" I say, "What about him?" Bleach your skin and move into whiteness if you wanna worry about how he is or is not being dragged and how much danger you're in. I'm not thinking about the white pedophile accusations because I already know those living comfortably inside white supremacy are out to get me.

What I'm worried about now are the black people who will drive a knife into my back, through my body, and out of my chest if I dare to step off the Queen pedestal by having a drink late at night with someone black and male and not related to me then dare to accuse that black man of rape just because that black man raped me.  (It is beyond me how anybody can ask why 2/3rds(?) of these women didn't come forward sooner. They are being cut to pieces at time when Cosby isn't on top anymore.)

On Forgiveness:  I believe anybody can be forgiven anything ...even if I can't do it all the time myself. (Pedophiles and rapists are two examples.) Sometimes I can only pray for the willingness to be forgiving.  So I can say in all seriousness that I hope Bill Cosby finds peace AFTER he comes clean about what he's done (a.k.a. repentance), but not one second before then --same as I feel about certain white folks and white-supremacy-guzzling-wanna-be-s.

* * * * *

One day, black people are going to stand up for black women just like they do for black men. From what I'm reading, we've been a lot closer to this being the case immediately after slavery than now. But I hope the editors at "Ebony" magazine have just taken one little baby step back in the right direction.

.
.
.
.
.
An interview with Ebony Editor on the Controversial Cover