Daily Kos - Hey America! Can You Please Stop Killing Our (Usually) Innocent Black Male Children Now

7/16/13
Daily Kos: Hey America! Can you please stop killing our (usually) innocent Black male children now?
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SUN DEC 02, 2012 A T 05:00 PM PST
Hey America! Can you please stop killing our (usually) innocent Black male children now?
shanikka
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DI DIARY ARY RE RECOM COMM ME ENDE NDED D BY BY
RE RECOM COMM ME ENDE NDED D BY BY SHANI SHANIKKA KKA
Rush Limbaugh Still Harping on "Niggas" in Trayvon Martin Case by ProgLegs 7/7 New 14 Recs OH SNAP! The Smackdown Will Commence Shortly by mdmslle 100/100 New
244 Recs
* New Day * Who and What Makes You Laugh? by mallyroyal 228/228 New 52 Recs Yeah and about that "Black on Black" Crime Thing... by Vyan 21/21 New 22 Recs
Jordan Russell Davis, Another Statistic
I'm now at the place where I am 100% comfortable saying that it is yet again open season on Black people, especially young Black men, in America. With Jordan Davis' murder last week, I fell off the psychic precipice I was hovering on increasingly in the face of more and more of these types of deaths of innocent Black people this past few years. The precipice of hoping and praying and wanting so much to believe despite the evidence that America was not heading backwards at an accelerated pace in this country where the value of Black people, Black lives, is concerned. All while celebrating the nation's first Black president, no less. I'm not sure that any rational Black person can conclude differently at this point. I understand why Jordan Davis' own mother and father feel so compelled to quash any idea that their son's murder was a hate crime or about race (for reasons not too hard to imagine since, of course, in America the minute Black people start complaining about racism being a big problem the majority of white people of all political stripes start tuning out. Makes sense when you know
"It's Not White Guilt. It's Empathy," I told the man who bought me a drink. by David Harris Gershon 87/87 New 202 Recs Ta-Nehisi Coates is a harsh must-read today by BruinKid 120/120 New 99 Recs I thought I was angry when he killed Trayvon by snpsmom 72/72 New 133 Recs *New Day* This Week In American Indian News: Reparations, Remains, Unforced Errors, and More by Aji 234/234 New 72 Recs
www.dailykos.com/story/2012/12/02/1166032/-Hey-America-Can-you-please-stop-killing-our-usually-innocent-Black-male-children-now
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Born Suspect - The Zimmerman Verdict Through a Black Man's Eyes by TheQuis 157/157 New 271 Recs Oakland Rising! All Out for Trayvon and against Police Violence. by jpmassar 75/75 New 88 Recs
that around 81% of whites the last time someone checked don't believe that racism's a big problem at all even though none of them actually have to live with racism's potentially-deadly consequences for their children). But their denial doesn't change the reality of the situation, when another innocent young Black boy is shot dead for no rational reason at all yet its not even something that is all that surprising:
He doesnt make it. He doesnt take another breath. He doesnt get to finish high school. He doesnt get to go to his prom. He doesnt get to experience his first day on a college campus. He doesnt get to marry the love of his life. He doesnt get to have children. He doesnt get to grow old. He doesnt get to die in peace. Stereotypes of a black male, truly Trayvon Martin as his parents saw him understood. Sorry Biggie, this time it aint all good. Jordan Davis died when he got to the hospital. He was just 17. Shot by a man who didnt like his loud music and who said that someone in Jordans SUV pointed a gun at him, so he felt threatened. No gun was ever found, except for the one that took Jordans life. . . . Truth be told, when Trayvon Martin died, we knew it would happen again. We rallied. We marched. We protested. We signed petitions. We put our hoodies up. But in the back of our minds we knew that it would happen again. There is no comparison between the deaths of any seventeen year old, as every life is sacred and the families deserve to have their own periods of mourning. So dont confuse this with thinking that I am comparing the two, but something is happening in this country that has to come to an end. We dont want the fear that some have of young black men to be a disease our country cannot cure.
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I'm not so sanguine as Jordan Davis' parents. I know that a person doesn't have to consciously think or shout Klansman epithets to hate, fear and distrust Black people, deep down. Indeed, when it comes to young Black men, most people don't have any conscious thought of hating or fearing them. Yet they do. And I know why, as does anyone morally honest.
The black male. A demographic. A sociological construct. A media caricature. A crime statistic. Aside from rage or lust, he is seldom seen as an emotionally embodied person.
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It is inarguable to anyone honest that racism is America's original sin, and hatred and fear of Black people part of our national heritage, even though we are long past the point where most Americans are consciously aware of these sentiments within themselves most of the time. (And most Americans, white and Black, do have these feeligns deep within; see any book written by any Black psychologist including Franz Fanon or Kenneth and Mamie Clark, or even a non-psychology text like Carter G. Woodson's Miseducation of the Negro for further details.) It is that part of our culture that allows whites like Michael Dunn (and those people of color also infected by the culture's teaching us all about the defects and worthlessness inherent in Black people) to feel entitled to approach a group of young Black men they don't know in a public place and demand that they accomodate their Timothy Stansbury, dead on a rooftop. wishes as it relates to their car stereo volume. It is that part of the culture that then allows men like Michael Dunn to believe he should pull out a gun and start shooting. (After they get into the fully-expected argument and the boys likely exercised their God-given right as free Americans to tell Mr. "I'm Willing to Bet Money that Mofo was Drunk as a Skunk and That's Why He Didn't Stay and Call 911" Dunn to fuck off and die.) With just a few extra shots as the children tried to flee in their car, just in case the message about who really had the power in the interaction wasn't clear in their minds. If folks want to talk about reckless disregard for human life you can't get more on point than a white man's offense with too-loud music (and what my gut says was not just "backtalk" something that every parent of every teenager knows that teens do but Lord Have Mercy Black backtalk, which is not necessarily polite to rude white people, but so what?) leading to eight shots being fired into a vehicle with four children in it, none of whom had any weapon of
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any kind in their possession.
You would think that reasonable people wouldn't have anything left to talk about, other than the possible sentence Mr. Dunn will receive, given that. But, as this is America, that thought would be wrong. Indeed, that thought has even been wrong right here at Daily Kos. To be fair, most here have been outraged and know that there is no excuse or justification of any kind for Jordan Davis' death. But not all. There have been a few insistent arguments about "rude" kids and "loud music" in the diary threads about Jordan Davis, at various levels of haughtiness. It is reading those insistent whinges about "noise" and "rudeness" and "disrespect" all over something as petty as loud music, combined with the offensive yet quite-serious questions asking how Jordan Davis and his friends verbally responded to the white man who got all in their perfectly legal business in a public place as if that somehow matters, that has led to this diary. When even so-called liberal Kossack friends, always at-the-ready to champion their own claimed lack of racist feelings and thoughts, still engage in obfuscation and irrelevancy and Oscar Grant, hogtied but still a threat deflection rather than weeping inside first and foremost when stories like that of Jordan Davis' death are posted, it is clear to me exactly how pernicious the unconscious disregard of the humanity of the young Black man, and the disregard of the infinite value of that humanity, really is here in America. As long as that is the case, where even the well-intentioned get distracted and deflected from the only facts that truly matter, America will keep killing our children. It is not that hard to find their stories, the stories of the male, Black, young, unarmed and dead. Really, it's not. Especially the dead Black man children. Our culture has taught us not to see them, Black men in general and young Black men in particular, as people equally deserving of life. Well, I want you to see them. I want you to instead of thinking about them, feel them. Know them. The photos in this diary are just a few of the unarmed young Black men (or Black people armed with something that didn't justify shooting them dead, like a wallet), who have lost their lives to law enforcement and vigilantes enslaved by a narrative of who they might be rather than who they actually were. Just like the 29 young Black people (28 men, one young woman) killed in just the first half of 2012. Most after Trayvon Martin was murdered and his name thrust into our collective consciousness.
Darius Simmons, the gun thief (not)
I want you to look at their youth, their sometimes baby faces. I want you to feel, not just detachedly think, about how old they were when they were ripped from this earth not because they were deserving of death, but instead because someone not like them whether by race or class assumed differently in the heat of a momentwhich, considering how few apologies the Black community has received over any of their deaths, this culture clearly says is most important. So, look at them. See them.
Do you think this shit is new? It isn't new. As Randolph Evans, shot dead at the age of 15 in 1976 just chillin' with other 9th graders when he was approached unprovoked by the cop that killed him could have told you. As Nathaniel Gaines, Jr., killed at the age of 25 standing on a subway platform doing absolutely nothing could have told you. It wasn't even new 40 years ago Clifford Glover was shot in the back and his life done at the age of 10 for no reason at all by a plainclothes cop who shouted racist epithets at him and later celebrated with his fellow white police officers "protecting us from the animals who roam the streets".
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We have been psychologically viewing them as animals, Black men but especially young Black men, for decades. The myth of the scary angry black beast predates not only the 21st century, but the 20th; it certainly has existed ever since Reconstruction. That myth for at least the last 100+ years has taught us that Black men are violent, sexually rapacious, out of control predators. Especially where "vulnerable white people" (even those with guns and law enforcement authority) are concerned. Even when they are children, like Emmett Till was when he was murdered at the age of 13, this
Devin Brown-13 Year Old 'Animal'
has been the cultural narrative. But even after we supposedly got over all that with the Civil Rights movement and "equality" and "post racialism" and all that jazz, the psychological reduction of Black men into animals who need to be put down if they show any sign of anything but docility in the minds of the larger white population (and frankly, in too much of the Black population especially that part that wears a badge), still continues largely unabated. For example, does anyone remember what the public response was to five innocent Black and Latino boys were coerced into confessing a brutal crime they did not, in fact, commit? What were they called again? Oh yes: "Animals." "Feral Beasts" And their alleged behavior described in equally animalistic terms, over and over again: "Wilding". And then when, of course, the truth came out (as it almost inevitably does, just usually after the cameras have gone home and the majority of white Americans have stopped caring) Stephon Watts, one autistic tantrum too many about the innocence or harmlessness of the beast under discussion? The folks with the power to have protected them from years in prison to this day STILL can't apologize for being wrong and try to make it right. They don't have the stones to just pray for mercy on their own souls for their racial assumptions and their raciallyenhanced rage, and pledge to do better. They are still doubling down about why it was perfectly OK and why they should not be held accountable for all the theft of these boys youth for a depraved crime they did not commit. But if you think about it, why should they when the culture itself embraces the way that those who falsely judged thought, at the time? The dehumanization evinced in connection with the lynching of Emmett Till and the later treatment of the Central Park Jogger case defendants when it comes to assumptions about the deviant propensities of young Black (and in the Central Park case, one Latino) men continues to this very day. With the same old same old results, almost always. If anyone gets punished at all, it's a slap on the wrist. And to replace their dead sons? OUR dead sons? Just money. If that. Maybe. The best evidence of that? That our innocent children still are getting killed, over and over again, for doing nothing more than being. It's 2012 and Black boys when they are in each other's company doing absolutely nothing are still being reduced to "Black youth mobs" that we all need to run inside and lock our doors against in order to save ourselves from their murderous ways. Either that, or shoot them dead.
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Ramarly Graham, the last time his father ever saw him.
Of course, the actual facts about Black men, and young Black men, and crime, are one of those inconvenient truths.
Some facts that most of the readers of this diary probably don't know.
Given the imperviousness of the stereotype of young Black criminality to any rational analysis of data, and stories warning America that flash mobs of violent urban Black youth (wilding youth, anyone?) are descending upon them, you'd think that there were tens of thousands of young Black men murdering people every day. You'd be wrong. In fact, although there are nearly 6.5 million young Black males between the age of 10 and 29 that lived in the United States in 2011 (see Excel spreadsheet at Table 1), there were exactly 4,149 arrests for murders and nonnegligent homicides allegedly committed by any of them. (See Table 43 of the FBI Crime Statistics, located at this link here) It definitely was the majority of murders; whites were arrested and charged with only 4,000 murders and non-negligent homicides in that same period. When it came to teenagers, the Ramarly Graham, Half-brother to Criminals situation was just as bad. Twere exactly 351 of the 1.753 million Black males between the ages of 15 and 19 arrested for (NOT convicted, and that's an important distinction) for murder in 2011. That was 58 more than the number of white boys arrested for murder in the same age cohort. This huge disparity of 58 kids is clearly irrefutable evidence of the failure in moral character of young Black men that fully explains why cops and others are so trigger happy fearful of their lives the second they encounter a young Black man barely old enough to be out of diapers. Especially since there were 44,000 young Black teenagers who were arrested for robbery, burglary and aggravated assault, just like 51,340 of their white counterparts (assuming no overlapping charges; to wit, a single perpetrator being charged with more than one crime). Even if one assumes a 1-1 match between crimes charged and arrests (i.e. each child arrested was charged with only one crime), we get 359,765 out of 1.753 million Black male youth arrested for something in 2011. 20.5% of all Black kids under the age of 18.
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Leaving 79.5% of Black male youth in that same group not arrested for anything at all. 4 out of 5. [The statistics for Black folk over the age of 18 are similar except even more of them are innocent of anything, so I am not going to list them here. That's why I linked to the table, above; so folks can check for themselves that I'm telling the truth.] One day, someone will explain to me why it continues to be perfectly OK in liberal and conservative circles alike to prejudge 80% of a population on what is, at best, the conduct of 20%. (No explanation has yet been offered, although it is a question I've raised even in friendly territory like here at Daily Kos many times before.) Then, perhaps that same person can also explain to me why, when the vast majority of the crimes that 20.5% cohort (again, assuming only 1 unique crime charged per unique kid arrested) are accused of involve property, not harm to people, so many young Black men should just accept they must live with the constant threat of a summary death sentence.) [Yeah, but.......isn't that still a statistically significant difference, given that only 6.7% of white youth were arrested in 2011? Sure, I'll give you that. But now take into account the inarguable fact that Black youth are subject to constant surveillance thanks to the police state that our society has chosen to make Black urban neighborhoods, including through policies like stop and frisk which in 2011 detained more Black men than the number that actually live in the City of New York despite all evidence being that it was the white detainees who were more likely to be up to no good when they were detained. And then ask yourself what these disparate arrest numbers might look like if white male youth were kept under similar surveillance Kendrec McDade, unarmed alleged laptop thief to that suffered through by young Black men all their lives. And then factor in that no matter how you slice it, there is a reason why despite nearly 3/4 million white criminal boys in the same age cohort (738,427, to be precise vis a vis the 365K Black males I referenced above who every one is so afraid of) there is a difference in outcomes that is accountable to only one thing: race and anti-Black racism. After all, we haven't had to read about any of these white "hooligans" getting killed by law enforcement or vigilantes every damned week these days, have we? NOBODY is trigger happy about THEM or excuses away their deaths based upon stereotypes of young white criminals as a group.] I am certainly not the first person to have mentioned that there is a direct connection between the resilient racist lie of rampant Black criminality and the premature deaths of innocent young Black men, like Trayvon Martin and now Jordan Davis. Indeed, one of my favorite Kossack authors has said it more eloquently than I can. Yet even when the truth is told, and it has been told before I told it or Chauncey de la Vega told it, it is ignored. Or deflected. It's really Black folks who are attacking whites, and nobody ever says anything about it (even though Patrick Dorismond Just Said No - and died anti-Black hate crimes continue to far outstrip every other category recorded by the FBI in this country) As do white offenders. It is ignored because if the truth is not ignored, it would turn the entire culture upside down because there would be nowhere left to hide the racism that allows the murder of Black innocents to continue (frankly, given this year's death toll, continue is too weak a word; it is increasing.) An accident, that discussions of Black criminality are reflexive-defense number one when an innocent Black young person is killed? I think not. It's not an accident because the culture itself trains the majority how it should respond, and what it should feel. Most Americans, especially the white ones, have been trained like Pavlov's dogs at this point: all you have to do is push the right buttons, visually and rhetorically, and suddenly a lost young promising life is reduced to actual or potential yard waste: thug, hoodlum, gangbanger. Trash, to be thrown out. It may have been by the likes of law enforcement or it may have been by trigger-happy racists, but its still NBD. Even when (thankfully) increasing numbers of people are becoming educated about the myth of Black criminality being just that, the cultural imperative demands that we not rest until we find some reason other than race to explain when an innocent dies. (As if any superficial explanation can excuse away the reality that when an innocent young Black man's life has been taken unnecessarily by a knee-jerk reaction on the part of a white person to objectively reasonable behavior, almost always at least some racial thinking was in the mix somewhere.) Maybe this is
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why when the "Blacks shouldn't commit so much crime" argument gets no play or is unsuccessful in quelling the legitimate outrage, the very next thing that the most obvious racists do when confronted with what would otherwise be an obvious slaughter of a human being for reasons due to behavior that is innocuous or which suggests that the slaughteree was actually himself afraid and trying to flee is to start harping on "why it is being ignored" that Black young men are killing other Black men. Forget for a moment the obvious question (Dear racist white person who raises this stupid-ass argument: if Black-on-Black crime is being ignored, how come you know all about it although you probably haven't actually talked to a Black person for more than 30 seconds or been in a neighborhood where Black-on-Black crime happens for more than 10 minutes EVER?) The important question is this: how on earth is this relevant to the discussion of a Black man dying at the hands of someone who isn't Black too often and why this is a serious problem??? The fact that some stupid Black people kill other Black people within their own neighborhoods over real or perceived grievances with each other says absolutely nothing about whether strangers, usually white but not always, have good reason to conclude that they don't have to judiciously exercise deadly force as a last, not first, resort when it comes to their interactions with unarmed young Black man, too often Black children. Two wrongs simply do not make a right. The cultural normativity of the drive towards excuse making whenever a Jordan or a Trayvon or another is killed can make you gag, I swear 'fore God. If it doesn't collapse you in tears first.
Wendell Allen, dead from opening his front door
It should surprise no one that in a majority culture that seems driven as the first, not the last, order of business to assume there must have been SOME fault in a dead Black boy to justify his murder, his execution, his death, these stories of innocent dead Black youth are becoming more not lesscommon. Why wouldn't it be so, when the first order of business is to find a flaw, a defect, a deviance no matter how irrelevant to the circumstances of the child's death to render him less "deserving" of grief, of mourning, of life itself? Thus, we routinely see the systematic and automatic (whether or not conscious) and obvious to anyone who isn't trying to excuse things away defiling of the memory of the dead, everyone not wanting to believe that people not obviously racist nonetheless are more than happy to shoot Black youth in the street trying as hard as humanly possible after the fact to find something, anything, to justify the otherwise unjustifiable. Over and over again we see a damned-near-immediate investigation of the decedent and the decedent's family and friends instead of the otherwise-normal priority on investigating the perpetrator of the homicide. And, if less than choir boy status is found in the victim or suspected in anyone connected to the dead Black child, you can guarantee that it will get leaked or disclosed to the media so that the public (yes, including so called liberals like those here at Daily Kos) to demonize the victim and thus render his loss in the minds of the viewing public less than catastrophic. Time and time again, this posthumous character assassination quickly reduces the victims to mere suspects as usual in the court of public opinion:
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Trayvon Martin (17 years old): "He'd been suspended from school! For graffiti! AND weed!" Patrick Dorismond (26 years old): "He used to beat people up!" (Even though he was more law abiding than the cop trying to entrap him into buying marijuana when he was killed) Oscar Grant (23 years old): "I bet you didn't know that a few years ago he ran from us! He wouldn't stop! With a loaded gun he wasn't actually pointing it at us!" Sean Bell: (20 years old):"He was drunk!" "And he shot a drug dealer! " (Well, maybe not......) Kendrec McDade (19 years old): "But his friend stole a laptop some other day he admitted it!" (Even though juvenile court proceedings are supposed to be sealed from public dissemination.) Wendell Allen (20 years old): "Drug dealer! And he didn't pay his fines-more than once! Ramarley Graham (18 years old): "Look at his brothers; they're criminals!!" Chavis Carter (21 years old): "He's a known dope dealer! We SWEAR!" Darius Simmons (13 years old): "OK maybe we shouldn't have left his dead body on the street while we interrogated his mother for 2 hours locked in a squad car, but his brother is a truant!" (Shot while taking out the trash in front of his mother by an elderly "gun enthusiast" neighborincluding in the back as the child tried to get away.) It took them a few days longer in the case of Jordan Davis, but it has already started there, too: "Look who he hangs out with! His friend in the car stole stereo speakers! He has a record!"
Chavis Carter, winner of the Expert Marksman Award
When they can't find some character flaw in the victim or his family to tarnish the victim's memory and garner sympathy for their death-dealing ways, those who kill our children with impunity when triggered by unconscious racial fear and stereotype too often just stretch the bounds of credulity in telling their stories. They, to put it bluntly, simply make shit up. Clearly, they are betting the odds that their playing fast and loose with the truth will never catch up with them; they are counting on the seductive power inherent in our culture's belief in the certainty of Black male criminality to sway hearts and minds into letting them get away without punishment (which normally happens unless there are heroic fights to prove his worth and goodness by those who loved the decedent and could actually see him instead of fear or hate him. Otherwise why would they do it? Clifford Glover (10 years old): He screamed "Fuck you - you're not taking me!" And "He had a gun!" (While walking down the street with his father, who the cop says managed to take the never-recovered gun and hide it while his son was being killed right in front of him.) Devin Brown (13 years old): He was driving a stolen carbackwards "right at" the policeman (who shot into the car from the side) Kendrec McDade (19 years old): He had a gun cause that other guy said so! (Shot while running away; bonus points to the Latino who did his part to set the death wheels in motion by lying his ass off, lies for which he will face no legal consequence.)
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Stephon Watts (15 years old): He had a (butter) knife! He was out of control! (Even though 10 times before, cops somehow managed to control him when called to respond to tantrums triggered by his Asperger's) Kenneth Banks (36 years old, not like that makes it any better) "He must have swallowed the crack he was selling!" (Killed on his bicycle while fleeing a cop who ended the interaction with a well-placed walkie-talkie toss to the back of Kenneth's head.) Timothy Stansbury: (19 years old): "He had a gun!" (Shot as soon as he emerged onto the roof of his brownstone from inside while the cops were looking for someone else) Darius Simmons : (13 years old) "You must have stolen my guns from me!"(Shot in front of his mother in his own front yard) Dante Price (22 years old): "He tried to run us over although his car was going the other way and he was slumped over the wheel from being shot first!" (shot 17 times by rent-a-cops while he was going to do what all the pundits and politicians lamenting the "absent Black father" say young Black men never dotake care of his own kids.) Chavis Carter: "He told this random guy that nobody knows from the neighborhood but we were able to find that he'd kill himself before going to jail again--even though he was expecting his first child." And, as these stories make clear, when all else fails there is one usually bold-ass lie that is almost guaranteed to shift the majority's scrutiny away from the curious fact that these stories just keep coming up over and over again: "I thought he had a gun!" Curiously, folks never manage to actually find a gun 99 times out of 100, even though you can't walk out your front door in America without tripping over one and, to hear it told, young Black men are killing each other in the ghetto by the billions with them every day so clearly they all have one. (In those extremely rare cases they do find a gun, it turns out to have had absolutely no relationship to the decedent, or was not readily accessible or usable by the victim.) They do it, the lying, because the know they are likely to be believed. And when there is no refuge in that type of storytelling? Well, then, "he looked suspicious" or "he ran away from us" or "he looked like some other guy who committed a crime" becomes the order of the day. It's the same old story. He had a gun (even if we can't find it). He was going to kill me (even if he was running away from you.) He was a threat (even if hogtied like an animal on his stomach.) He had "unusual strength" (whatever that means). "He was coming right at me." (even when running away from you, or slumped behind the wheel of a car because you'd shot him). And especially "I thought he had a Amadou Diallo, before he pulled his wallet gun", the often-completely-untrue excuse in the racist dog whistle bucket that has proven its staying power for at least the last 100 years. As Trayvon Martin or Jordan Davis or Amadou Diallo or Timothy Stansbury or Kendrec McDade or Dante Price or Clifford Glover or many, many others could confirm. If they weren't all stone cold dead. Adding insult to already treacherous injury, these days with the proliferation of public sources of private image those who might otherwise just fall back on excuses and lies like those discussed above now have another option to bolster their insistence that when young unarmed Black youth are killed, its really not that big of a deal because the victim hastened his own demise. These days, these excuse hounds can (and routinely do) scour the internet for photographs that are then used as visual "evidence" that the dead young man wasn't really that good a personso is it really that much of a loss that they are dead now? Many of these photographic selections rather curious consistency: they all seem to fit racist stereotypes of what a 'thug' or 'criminal' or 'animal' or 'gangsta' must look like. Ergo, the dead young person "must have been" one of those terrible things. (As folks claimed in Trayvon's case and in Mark Duggan's case, for example, although looking at the actual images someone not already predisposed to find a criminal Black man wouldn't actually assume one existed.) And once images of the decedent that 'fit' the racist stereotype are found anywhere any other equally legitimate image of the dead young man is rejected out hand. Accompanied with full-throated whining about "slanting things" when their preferred images aren't the ones actually used all the time when discussing the possible injustice of their death instead of images chosen by those who actually could see the human being that was once inside that now-dead young man. As Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote, in response to those kvetching about the world focusing on the images of Trayvon Martin as something other than a grille-wearing (not), bird-throwing Negro Thug:
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Trayvon Martin, 9 days before his death, with the baby sister he loved
One meme which we've encountered in the comments section here and other places, is this notion that the media is using old pictures to deceptively paint Trayvon Martin as a child. I can't date every picture that's out there. But we do have pictures of Trayvon Martin nine days before he was killed, out celebrating his mother's birthday. Mother's Day. The one above is one you might select to reflect your message that Martin was, indeed, a child. This message is actually true. I guess you could accuse Martin's parents of sinisterly selecting a photo which reflects well on their son. But what you can't really accuse them of is intentionally trying to deceive you by lowering the kids age. . . . In this business, it is always best to speak to the purveyors of such arguments, in their native tongue. To wit: I'm sorry that Trayvon Martin's actual appearance obstructs your inalienable right to scandalize children. That you are forced into cartwheels, and rendered ridiculous, all in the laudable quest to justify bias is the true tragedy, one which pales when compared to an actual death. If I have in any way, contributed to your travails, I hope that some day you will be wise enough, or simply human enough, to forgive.
This constant desperate exercise by those in the majority (and those not in the majority who think too much like them) to excuse away the inexcusable when another Trayvon or Jordan or Sean or Stephon dies would be laughable. Except that it works. Indeed, it works so well that whites who are guilty as hell of something they know is wrong or criminal too often just make shit up about innocent Black men, knowing deep down in their hearts that our culture believes so firmly in the dangerousness, the criminality and the worthlessness of young Black men that they will be believed almost unquestioningly. It was evident in the Rosewood massacre which ended the lives of a Black community and many of its residents, because of a white woman's willingness to blame a non-existent Black male beast rather than just admit she was skanking on her husband with a (white) lout who had just beat the bejesus out of her. Ruby Bates and Victoria Price, the white women who falsely accused the Scottsboro Boys knew it; and had it not been for herculean efforts, all of those young
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men would have been strung up by the lynch mobs before trial long before facing the executioner that most were condemned to before ultimately being freed by the Supreme Court. Charles Stuart knew it and almost got to celebrate it working, having murdered his wife and then blaming it on a Black man, when after Boston police first hounded every Black man in the city under the age of 80 a completely innocent Black man was arrested. Susan Smith knew it, when she drowned her own children so she could take up again with a man she was obsessed with and blamed a strange Black man who carjacked her. Ashley Todd, the "B" Girl, certainly knew it, when she and the local communications director for the McCain campaign deliberately exploited the already difficult racial tensions in that part of Pennsylvania in an effort to incide racial anger against Barack Obama and his supporters. Over and over again. Yet it continues.
Mark Duggan wasn't seen either - except as a 'gangsta' who must have had a gun - even when he did not
It even arguably has spread beyond our shores, the default cultural assumptions about the criminality of young Black men, and the white western cultural pattern of killing of unarmed young black men and then going full flat out to demonize the dead young man and falsely turn the blame back on them for their own deaths. Given all this, is it now any real surprise than instead of the cops justifying murder by stereotype when it comes to young Black men, we now have random citizens like Michael Dunn, George Zimmerman and John Henry Spooner (the killers of Jordan Davis, Trayvon Martin and Darius Simmons respectively) behaving in the same shoot-first-and-worry-about-theconsequences-of-innocent-life-later way and making the same kind of excuses after the factall within the past year?) I cannot speak in the voice of young Black men, because although I am the mother of a young Black man, and the grandmother of a young Black man (and the daughter of what was once a young Black man). Since I've never even been a young Black man, it resonates for me when they speak in their own voice, especially the new hip-hop voice that old farts like me really struggle with sometimes but want desperately to understand. With the rise of the internet, the deaths of their contemporaries like Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis and others now come more easily to their attention. As does the usual response from the white majority, which I've chronicled in detail above. So they know what people think of them, know what they are saying about them collectively, with no regard for who they are as individuals any greater than the regard shown for those like them who are dead for no good reason.
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The young Black male love of my life, and the young black male love of his, whose death I've feared every day since he became a manchild old enough to go somewhere alone.
You think they don't notice? They do. They notice that it's too often sympathy or empathy for the murderer, or his family and what they must be going through if the murderer is arrested. They definitely notice almost ever goes to prison, and that many aren't even arrested (especially not if it's a cop.) until public shaming or public rage initiated by the Black family or the Black community that loved and lost the child leaves America no choice (perhaps because of fear of riots, especially at this point.) They notice that even when the perpetrator does get arrested, all sorts of folks are out rallying support for them. They definitely notice when in their virulence, folks who need to believe that "putting down thugs" is a necessary, good thing are willing to donate hundreds of thousands of dollars to someone who has killed one of them when you have to bust your ass to raise a dime from those same folks to send one of them to college). They notice that when one of them dies except at the hands of another person like them, the killer usually is not convicted or if he is, it's of a slap-on-the-wrist charge that makes clear how little punishment America feels is due for killing them. They notice that there are millions of comments posted all over their playpen--social media when yet another one of them is killed like this repeatedly making so-called reasonable rationalizations about the event at best and spewing virulent, hateful, gleeful racist filth about their character and the character of Black people generally at worst. Think that I am overstating this case? Time spent reading the comments posted online whenever there is another Trayvon Martin, Jordan Davis, Amadou Diallo or Sean Bell new story can confirm this truth for anyone. There are millions of them. Maybe billions at this point; its simply too hard to keep up with. The foul, filthy hatred they reflect, the kind that over and over again keeps bringing up thugs and black on black crime and every other fucking excuse to dehumanize the black victim whether directly by just plain ole stereotype shit swingingis vomit inducing. And they notice that too few of those with the most power to say "Enough with your Sean Bell, 50 shots unmarried racist shit!" don't care enough to throw down on their behalf and publicly get as angry and hurt as they feel. Well, Black youth have always talked back. And they are talking back more and more over stories like this; telling their stories and their feelings. In the same online way that those who hate them so much have polluted the 'Net with each time another one of their stories is posted. I'm not sure America, the nation full of cowards when it comes to race that it is, really wants to know what some of them have to say:
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This shouldn't surprise anyone.
This shouldn't either.
The anger, despair, rage and lack of hope reflected in these two Facebook posts I just randomly encountered when researching this diary is the rational end game of being the object of pity, hate, fear and dismissal based upon one's race as reflected in our society's ongoing willingness to shoot someone like you dead at any time for no reason at all that makes any sense to anyone who isn't operating under the default rule about the scariness and dangerousness of young Black men. This is the thinking that comes from the soul murdering that is taking place against our community's young men, even when they are lucky enough not to be the next Jordan Davis. Or Trayvon Martin. Or any of the other young men whose pictures fill this diary. what this society has to look forward to. Is it what America wants? Folks model what they see, and what most Americans have seen (and therefore been taught, even if never taught in those precise words) since Reconstruction is that the lives of Black people, especially Black male children have no value to this society . That message is broadcast loud and clear, to everyone. However covert and unconscious that message is sent. If you think the targets of that societal message, don't hear it loud and clear each and every time one of their own dies without serious punishment, and with a plethora of excuses and minimalizations, you are wrong. And that is why I feel that our Black male children are being murdered by degrees every time another Jordan Davis, or Trayvon Martin, or Ramarly Graham happens. Murdered on the inside, at the spirit level, even as their bodies live on and pray that they are not the next one to literally die. For more than 100 years, psychologists have discussed that for Black people in America, living with and living through stereotyping, racist thoughts and discriminatory behavior, day in and day out is traumatic and damages our mental health. Now, if that is the finding with adults, you know that it also exists with the children. Our children have repeatedly shown self-hatred long before they are grown, absorbing readily this culture's messages about their inferiority. The results of Kenneth and Mamie Clark's "doll study" have been replicated less than 5 years ago, proving that our children still like sponges get the message: they are not worthy. They are bad. They are lesser. As Franz Fanon wrote long ago when talking about the deleterious impact of colonialism on the mental health of Black people, in The Wretched of the Earth "The opppressed will always believe the worst about themselves." Deaths like that of Jordan or Trayvon therefore are not seen as just an isolated horrible event, when it comes to their impact on the psyche of young Black men. Those deaths instead reinforce the message that Black boys have learned at the knee, whether covertly through institutionally racist cultural messages or overtly, as terrified mothers and fathers give them "The Talk" in a desperate effort to save their lives, merely being good and following all the rules isn't enough to accomplish the end of keeping you alive. You will always be at risk, no matter what you do. And if you think that young Black boys don't know that, and that it does not take a horrific depressive toll upon them, you are wrong:
[T]he color of a Negros skin makes him easily recognizable, makes him suspect, converts him into a defenseless target. So wrote Richard Wright in Black Boy, a story that, although written in the context of growing up in the miasma of 1920s racism, isnt all that different from the world today.
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Think about it. Despite everything weve gained, and all of the formal advances that our forefathers fought so hard to grasp, many arms of the blatant racism that choked our race and held us under the yoke of slavery still exist. The most important thing is that we simply cannot escape the irrational fear and suspicion that so much of this country (and indeed, the world) has for us. Despite the fact that it was our race that was hunted and bought and sold like animals by them; despite the fact that we had to remain vigilant of even whistling or spitting in the wrong place, lest we be lynched; despite the fact that for most of our races history in this country, and under the right flimsy legal excuses today, we could be killed with impunity like dogs; it has always been the other people here who clutch their purses and lock their doors when we pass. . . But such is the life of the Black male in these here United States. Being a Black boy you are Dante Price - Parenting While Black taught that the key to success is to live so inoffensively and so quietly that perhaps the world will forget and forgive the loudness of your skin color. Little Black boys are taught to white wash everything, because we know that we can never white wash our skin. The restrictions are enormous. We know we cant run in some areas lest we look suspicious, but we know that we also cant walk too slow or loiter. We cant come off as too threatening around white women lest the police be called on us. While we watch other kids play in unfettered bliss, we know that we are drilled with military discipline. And it makes sense, given that we are born of a mother (this country) that does not want us (although she needs us) and besieges us every day from our birth. We are drilled like soldiers because thats what life is for us a war against the other that is Blackness and the skin that a good number of White folks fear and a smaller (but still significant) number openly hate. We are taught to live under a silly system of rules because thats how we survive, and thats how weve always survived. And were better at survival than anyone. . . But what happens when you follow all the rules? When you are as inoffensive as possible and polite and do your best to not fit some stereotype? What happens when folks like me get on elevators in nice suits with nice jobs and white women STILL clutch their purses around us? How do we act when a good portion of this country still holds the President, one of the most innocuous and inoffensive people on this planet, in suspicion simply on account of his Blackness and otherness? What hope do the rest of us have to live without knowing we are always being watched and are always one loose cannon away from being blown off the face of this planet with not even a trial to show for it?
When you take away a child's hope, eventually you take away the spark that keeps a child looking to the future and striving for it. No matter what you tell a child, if their circumstances show that there is no hope even when they've done everything right, it should surprise no one if they too begin to live for today because there is no safety they can personally control today. Every time another one of their peers die for no reason at all and they get to read and hear either all the overtly racist things justifying it or the unconsciously racist things trying to excuse it away, they are being soul murdered on the inside. Because they know, not being stupid, that each and every single day that this society doesn't do whatever it takes to scrub itself once and for all of the poisonous rule of false anti-Black stereotypes that lead to the never-ending parade of innocent dead black male bodies is another day that might be their last.
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One of the many young Black men experiencing their murdering of his soul in response to Jordan Davis being murdered with a capital M.
Why did I write this long ass diary, I know some of you are saying. I wrote it, a 20 hour labor of research, out of love. These dead boys were some mother's son. Some father's son. They were loved. Loved like Ramarly Graham, his father shown above giving his son a final kiss in his coffin. Loved like Trayvon Martin, whose parents have steadfastly fought to have their son's murder seen as more than just "excusable." Loved like Sean Bell, just hours from marrying his love and the mother of his children.
The Kendrec McDade that the cop who shot him over a laptop didn't see, with his baby brother
Some of them were big brothers, or little brothers. Some of them are even fathers. Trying to keep their dignity as men in the face of the absent Black male myth that study after study after study has shown to be myth. (And, for the record, Black people are not immune to parroting this racist falsehood about our young Black men and their children any more than whites indeed, the President of the United States himself parrots it. But remember those books I mentioned, above?) They had hopes and dreams. Others' dreams were vested in them and others' hopes also lived through them. Each had something to offer; a talent, a promising future, athletic skill, even just a smile that lit up a room. All that is gone now. Gone for no acceptable reason at all.
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Another of my personal young Black male reasons for living, my grandson. When he gets older I will live in fear every day for him, too.
There is only one real way to stop it and that is to make some noise. Noise like those who turned up their radios for Jordan Davis. Noise like this diary. Keeping them in the forefront helps up the currently-pitiful odds that nobody else's young Black male child ever has to die at the trigger of conscious or unconscious knee-jerk racist fear ever again, like Jordan did. And Trayvon did. And Amadou did. And Ramarly did. As Clifford did. And Sean did. Like Kendrec did. And Chavis did. And Devin and Darius. And all the many other many dead black male youth whose names and images I have not included in this diary did. But this one diary won't do the trick. Unarmed Black young men under the age of 30 will stop dying from all these "unfortunate circumstances" only when this nation collectively embraces a far-less psychotic understanding of young Black men grounded in the truth, not the racist myths that have sustained white supremacy in America for hundreds of years. The truth that the overwhelming majority of young Black men (and the even larger majority of Black men in general) are law abiding, peaceful, wonderful men. When the message is clear and unsullied in a nation's collective voice that these children are valued and loved and can expect that the white majority will neither demonize them in death nor excuse away the perpetrators upon them, but will instead hold individual perpetrators and this society's institutional racism as a whole accountable without any excuses, it will likely stop. And that's why (speaking for myself but I suspect I'm not alone), I don't really want to hear it any more, how sorry folks are about another Black child's death if this country can't make this happen and happen now. I don't want to hear how sad it is. How terrible it is. And although I am a lawyer and I believe in the law, I don't want to hear how "justice will be served" in the end, either. I really don't. Justice is nothing more than what we've been calling for for decades now, with no end in sight. What is justice when all a mother wants is to hold her dead child but cannot anymore, just because some trigger happy white person (or person of color just as infected with the same unconscious anti-Black racism; see above) could not control himself long enough to see a child instead of a fearsome animal? Long enough to make a rational decision that valued the life of that child as much it deserved to be valued and protected given the actual circumstances, not the fantasy circumstances that they fear so much? All I want is true justice: our country ensuring that our manchildren can stop being murdered inside because of the never-ending parade of their cohorts being murdered for no reason that makes any bloody sense OTHER than the racism that doesn't let us see them as human beings whose deaths should not routinely be excused away.
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Will he be the next one?
UPDATE: I was worried this would happen, and of course it did. I overlooked another child, this one comparatively nearby since he was killed right here in my own Northern California back yard: Jeremiah Chass (age 16.) Dead, beaten and peppersprayed and then shot to death in his own home by the police his (white) parents had called to help calm him during a psychiatric break. H/T to Makahali Overdrive for honoring him. I want to make sure we all honor him too.
Jeremiah Chass, RIP
ORIGINALLY POSTED TO DAILY KOS ON SUN DEC 02, 2012 AT 05:00 PM PST. ALSO REPUBLISHED BY BARRIERS AND BRIDGES, BLACK KOS COMMUNITY, AND WHITE PRIVILEGE WORKING GROUP. Amadou diallo Chavis Carter Clifford Glover Dante Price Darius Simmons Devin Brown Jeremiah Chass Jordan Davis Kendrec McDade Mark Duggan Nathanial Gaines Open Season on Black Youth Oscar Grant Patrick Dorismond Racism Ramarly Graham Sean Bell Stephon Watts Timothy Stansbury Trayvon Martin Wendell Allen
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Tip Jar (316+ / 0-) As I noted in the diary, this has been going on for decades. There are many stories that are not included in this diary (since I am willing to bet that at least one person will try and say that all things considered it could be a lot more dead.) However, the phenomena this diary chronicles has gone on a lot more this year 2012. Most of the young men I wrote about above, most of them were killed this year. That's not a good sign of things to come. Malcolm X once said, when talking about our the hypocrisy of our country's willingness to blame the victims of its racism or claim that others are far worse than we are, No m ore days like those, as a line in the sand. This diary is mine. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 12:04:39 PM PST
I am so, so,so sorry for this holocaust (59+ / 0-) of young black males perpetrated by the hideous racism of the Caucasian race. The grief and loss of those left behind must be equaled only by their rage and frustration. It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything. ~~Joseph Stalin by SeaTurtle on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:07:41 PM PST
As Long as this Diary Is (69+ / 0-) One equally long could have been written doing nothing more than quoting the voices of these dead children's peers. I hope people really see them, and hear them, and take the time that I did during this labor of love to process what all this is doing to the hearts and minds and souls of young Black men--those that are still alive, that is. Thank you for feeling. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:13:32 PM PST [ Parent ]
shanikka, actually, I am sitting here crying (46+ / 0-) the insane injustice of this is mindbogglng..... and the feeling of helplessness to protect them... I just cannot imagine being a young black man's parent and fearing every move he makes might be his last..... It makes me so furious that black families have to live with these fears and I cannot be to imagine what it must be like inside the mind and heart of young black men. Thank you for your labor of love. It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything. ~~Joseph Stalin by SeaTurtle on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:19:12 PM PST [ Parent ]
I Am Sharing Heart and Tears With You (40+ / 0-) I cried more than once researching and writing this piece. I don't want any of us to have to cry anymore.
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by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:21:47 PM PST [ Parent ]
The truth is that black male youth themselves are (19+ / 0-) causing the change we so desperately need. There are so many beautiful young black men in our society today, and their acts of love and kindness are numerous and diverse. Every time we encounter a black manchild who fits all the stereotypes, but smashes them in an instant with an act of caring, a soft voice, a warm smile, is an individual blow against racism. Where your acculturated mind flashes stereotype, but your human reaction is "he's just a child" as soon as he opens his mouth. Thank you for putting the murderous racism endured by young black men under a spotlight. That's where the racism battle trenches are. These kids deserve our support as much as ever, our voices and our bodies. They certainly deserve our acknowledgment for the fight they are in, and our gratitude for their courageous struggle. "Force is as pitiless to the man who possesses it, or thinks he does, as it is to its victims; the second it crushes, the first it intoxicates. Simone Weil by chuco35 on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:18:11 PM PST [ Parent ]
Thank you. (7+ / 0-) You made me stop and listen and think and feel. Not just trivially, but deeply. A remarkable piece. I will not forget this and I will no longer stand idly by as white peers dismiss yet another murder with "yeah, but..." starts with voices like yours. Thank you. "It's a Christmas Miracle!" (SNL, 9/15/2012) by pswiderski on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 07:20:49 AM PST [ Parent ] Change
White aunts & mothers of young black men (34+ / 0-) have to live with these same fears, too, SeaTurtle. For the nephews and sons we love more than life itself. Thank you, shannika, for your incredible labor of love. For expressing so passionately the terror, horror, shock & outrage that consume us all. Ho'oponopono. To make things right; restore harmony; heal. by earicicle on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:25:26 PM PST [ Parent ]
Yeah. Me too. (21+ / 0-) And I'm ashamed, no, deeply disgusted and tormented, that shanikka felt the need to write this. Ashamed for all of us, as Kossacks, Americans, humans, whatever. Children casually murdered to jeers. I'm throwing up. Fuck you, I put on pants yesterday. by MBNYC on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:16:20 PM PST [ Parent ]
Your words and the pictures (11+ / 0-) have gone right through me, talking to the mother in me that is not but could have been the mother of a young black male. This is long but at every paragraph and every picture there is something that called my attention.
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This had better stop. I'm sorry to say I remember some of these young men's murders, but very far from all. All I can say is that I felt horror at each one. Republicans want to make government small enough to fit in your vagina.. by ramara on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:07:55 PM PST [ Parent ]
Tears rolled down my cheeks, too. (9+ / 0-) As the anger swelled in my heart. We have to rest control out of the hands of the right wing. Too many states/towns are under their hatriotic control. It's difficult to be happy knowing so many suffer. We must unite. by War on Error on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:44:52 PM PST [ Parent ]
boy, that is worthy of repeating, WoE (6+ / 0-) hatriotic control It says it all. It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything. ~~Joseph Stalin by SeaTurtle on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:07:10 PM PST [ Parent ]
Friends (6+ / 0-) That's another uncounted result-- what it must feel like for these kids' friends and classmates. It's not just the utter injustice, but the pervasive fear. Who could imagine that young men would again have to be warned by their mothers, "Don't say anything white people might take wrong-- and some might take anything wrong." 2012. by alixpippin on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:36:16 PM PST [ Parent ]
I don't want to detract from (4+ / 0-) this diary or the sentiment of your comment, but I'm a bit troubled by the phrase "racism of the Caucasian race". "Okay, until next time. Keep sending me your questions, and I will make fun of you... I mean, answer them." - Strong Bad by AaronInSanDiego on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:35:48 PM PST [ Parent ]
yep, i called him out on this (1+ / 1-) and the diarists supporters all HR'ed my comments. Its blatant racism but it has the support of many people here... very disturbing to me. I'm a bit shocked that people would defend that comment. To you, I'm an atheist. To God, I'm the loyal opposition. Woody Allen by soros on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:04:49 PM PST [ Parent ]
I don't agree with you. (3+ / 0-)
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and I won't defend your comments either. "Okay, until next time. Keep sending me your questions, and I will make fun of you... I mean, answer them." - Strong Bad by AaronInSanDiego on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:06:26 PM PST [ Parent ]
I accept your point, (1+ / 0-) but I would never HR it because I just disagree with it... which a LOT of people have been doing with my comments in this diary. I'm very disturbed by the level of intolerance tonight, i've had had 3 or 4 comments hidden within minutes. I've never seen anything like it for the longest time that I've been here on Kos. To you, I'm an atheist. To God, I'm the loyal opposition. Woody Allen by soros on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:34:51 PM PST [ Parent ]
try talking about Israel and Gaza (and question) (2+ / 0-) say anything remotely construable as pro Israeli even on a small point of understanding, even if you bend over backwards to explain or even are only questioning a nuance of interpretation of action...all along saying that civillian deaths, building settlements, occupation is terrible...commments disappear. Very often, ...only stark agreement with every small point counts, otherwise it is black and white and you are the enemy it seems. question: is HR the same as hiding a comment? If not, how can you tell if you are HR'd? I can't tell really if my comments are hidden unless I go to my comments and they are gone, seemingly. IS there another way? by jplanner on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 06:59:45 AM PST [ Parent ]
so agree. I think the feelings have been there (1+ / 0-) the whole time we see these murders now because gun laws let people's distrust, hate and racism come forward to action. Just imagining that without access to guns and laws protecting shooting people, racists wanting to act would have to just walk away...certainly not confront or pursue conflict. Civillians, in the case of Stand your Ground Laws like in FL, should not have the right to "decide" when they are threatened or not...their "feelings" very often are tainted we see with predudice. They are not qualified to decide who is threatening or not. These laws must be struck down ASAP. If someone feels threatened they need to retreat...they need to leave. WHite people need to constantly be aware of, raise to conciousness, and confront their inner predudices that society imbeds in us. Feelings are not always facts. I am aware I have to do this myself, sadly. wish it were not the case. by jplanner on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 06:53:03 AM PST [ Parent ]
right, JP..... guns make the ALL THE difference (1+ / 0-) I wonder what happened in the era of ROPES? It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything. ~~Joseph
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Stalin
by SeaTurtle on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 07:17:10 AM PST [ Parent ]
Certainly not. you misunderstand me (2+ / 0-) but I do see my mistake in not FIRST explaining that I agree with the diarist and the discussion about the horrible problem many or most WHite people have. You have therefore assumed I was saying guns were the only problem. I was ADDING the one small thing I did not see discussed since it was mentioned that we are seeing more of these shootings RECENTLY, laid on top of the underlying overall problem. Because all the other was already discussed. Just because I anyone addresses ONE narrow issue does not mean I/people disagree with all the other stuff or the one issue they mention. YOu judge me wrong. And say it very harshly. Throwing those kind of accusations around when it's not clear is not helpful. I was speaking narrowly Not addressing what was already addressed... at the bigger sucky issue that the lives of Black people especially young Black men do not seem to matter that much to at least Some white people...and that many perhaps mostWHite people have a deep sometimes unconcious bias or even hatred that devalues Black lives. You are hurting so anything I post if it is not perfect willl likely land wrong. Some of the loves of my life are Black men and Black boys. I fear for them. I hate what is so and what is inside us. Despite your understandable hurt I don't appreaciate your sarcasm/judgement and what you said to me is pretty low in it's assumptions I'll go now. by jplanner on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 07:35:14 AM PST [ Parent ]
Thank you for demanding justice for all those who (80+ / 0-) know about and all those whose names we will never know - and for those we know will come in the future. If you're in a coalition and you're comfortable, you know it's not a broad enough coalition" Bernice Johnson Reagon by Denise Oliver Velez on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:10:15 PM PST
These are Our Sons, Sis (41+ / 0-) And our grandsons, and our nephews and our children. They deserve nothing more than to be seen, and to be protected. And yes, they deserve justice. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:14:23 PM PST [ Parent ]
I'm still in a state of rage (58+ / 0-) about comments indicating it was Jordan's fault for being in a car with loud music, or Trayvon's fault for wearing a hoodie, or Oscar's fault for being in the BART station ...or ...or...or... so sick of the bullshit. If you're in a coalition and you're comfortable, you know it's not a broad enough coalition" Bernice Johnson Reagon by Denise Oliver Velez on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:28:19 PM PST [ Parent ]
Or Jeremiah Chass, who took (20+ / 0-)
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some mushrooms and whose parents tried calling for psych help and got the police instead against their wishes... "Counsel woven into the fabric of real life is wisdom" - Walter Benjamin by mahakali overdrive on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:41:40 PM PST [ Parent ]
the only sense I can make of defensive reactions (13+ / 0-) like the ones you mention, Denise, is that by 'blaming the victim' a person's whole world view is protected. It seems to me that their whole house of cards would fall down if they admitted that white racism was creating these horrific crimes. You know what I have been doing out of anger for a while now? Whenever anyone asks me for whatever reason any question relating to my race or skin color, I respond defiantly: "I am a person of color. I refuse to be categorized as 'white' because I personally have never seen a 'white person.' Rather I am a somewhat taupey beige person on a spectrum of color from dark brown to very light beige." My own personal protest. Thank you for your diary and your challenge to us 'beige folks.' It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything. ~~Joseph Stalin by SeaTurtle on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:47:52 PM PST [ Parent ]
You and Me Both (25+ / 0-) And we have our first ignorant comment here now (what about the black people who kill other black people) so I'm just going to go have a smoke and cool off. And reflect about how it is so damned ingrained in so many white folks and they are too stupid to even know it let alone understand how fundamentally sick that reaction to a diary like this is! by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:58:37 PM PST [ Parent ]
I think your reaction was brilliant, shanikka, (15+ / 0-) their comment is just hanging out there stark naked for others to see, demonstrating your very point about racism. You could give that poster all the explanations in the world, but they don't have the mind and heart to understand any of them. And yes, that reaction is fundamentally sick. It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything. ~~Joseph Stalin by SeaTurtle on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:08:32 PM PST [ Parent ]
It's hidden now. Might be better, yes, (8+ / 0-) to have it hanging out there, but hide-rating is also a way of expressing strong disapproval of the comment. I'm seeking to organize DKos members in SE Michigan--roughly, from the Ohio line at Lake Erie NE to Port Huron, W to Flint and back S from there. If you'd like to join our new group, Motor City Kossacks (working title), please Kosmail me. by peregrine kate on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:29:44 PM PST [ Parent ]
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I could un-hide-rate it if people think (3+ / 0-) visibility is better. But I'm beyond that. I'm really so tired of the TeaBaggers, and teh batshit crazy. My inclination with knuckledraggers and bedwetters is to alternatively belittle and ignore them at all times, and squelch them when possible, as backward elements that have nothing of value to contribute. Shirley Chisholm was right. Our Republic is in deep trouble. by Big River Bandido on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:35:29 PM PST [ Parent ]
This Guy (10+ / 0-) Isn't a teabagger, but a Kossack in good standing who has been here a long time. Which should tell folks something. And we need to acknowledge that. I do wish his comment wasn't hidden, but do understand why folks felt they needed to HR it. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:57:37 PM PST [ Parent ]
Sorry for jumping the gun (5+ / 0-) but it looks like plenty others have piled on at the same time. Probably for the better, only TUs will be able to view the comment. But yes, it's instructive that the poster is a Kossack in good standing...it's my impression that as Democrats and Kossacks co-opt former Republicans and conservatives who can no longer stand teh crazy, they are the ones who are co-opting us. Shirley Chisholm was right. Our Republic is in deep trouble. by Big River Bandido on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:09:45 PM PST [ Parent ]
Wow! I write this knowing it will probably be HR'd (1+ / 0-) I have never heard such convoluted rationale for HR'ing someone who presents a different view, all the while accepting the apology of a White Person who speaks for all white racists. I am more concerned that you allow such a person to comment, but won't allow the comment of someone who does not wish to be counted as a Racist. Who do I fear the most, someone who speaks for all white racists or someone who wishes not to be branded racist and refuses to allow the head of white racists speak for them? I am assuming this person is high up in the ranks of White Racists or they couldn't apologize for all of them. "If you tell the truth, you won't have to remember anything", Mark Twain by Cruzankenny on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 06:42:33 AM PST [ Parent ]
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I read the offending the comment. (4+ / 0) That poster called another poster a racist. While the poster's original comments could have been phrased better, the point cannot be missed that a great number of black youth who have been shot and killed under questionable circumstances has been at the hand of law enforcement officers who just so happened to be white -- thus the point of this diary. What I find interesting is anyone taking offense over use of the term racist if they are not one themselves. by smoothnmellow on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 09:56:24 AM PST [ Parent ]
I have no issue with the fact there are racists (1+ / 0-) everywhere and did not read the comment where someone called someone else a racist. I can imagine that would be a bitter pill to swallow, but they don't go away because they are HR'd and I had hoped this forum at least would see the positive side of engaging in a dialog with someone they consider racist, unless they were trolling.. What upset me the most was the woman who apologized for all the "white racists" in the world. You cannot apologize for someone else and you certainly cannot apologize for racists unless you are one yourself or had something to do with molding someone into racism. That kind of knee-jerk reaction is right along with "some of my best friends are" and chills my soul. I don't want some liberal white throwing their self on the sword of racism, I want them to confront it and stop it whenever it happens, even at Grampa's house during Thanksgiving. "If you tell the truth, you won't have to remember anything", Mark Twain by Cruzankenny on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 10:55:03 AM PST [ Parent ]
PK, it is better hidden if the community (5+ / 0-) decides it deserves to be hidden. Because the other side of this is that the back and forth on this ridiculous comment DERAILS a very, very important topic. Hidden is best, imo, so that the real dialogue can continue, imo. It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything. ~~Joseph Stalin by SeaTurtle on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:56:12 PM PST [ Parent ]
Thank you both, shanikka and DOV for your diaries (8+ / 0-) today. I do not understand why people cannot see how our country and world can
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progress.
get better if they would just quit being willfully ignorant and quit trying to stop I am an old white hippie and it is so obvious where we are going and must go to be a just world that I do not understand why they are trying to prevent it. It will happen, they are only slowing progress; they cannot prevent it. But, meanwhile, young men must be imprisoned and/or die? I love my President Obama. I have been saying for months that the obvious fact of so many of these young men being in prison is wrong on the face of it is one of the most important things President Obama should address if we are to be a just society. My heart is hurting for these boys. Is their illogical racism so important to them that kids have to die? They must be monsters. by howabout on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:54:27 PM PST [ Parent ]
I hate those too (3+ / 0-) Sometimes i think the person does not think it is the victims fault overall. Perhaps sometimes they do but i suspect that some don't get how they share comes across Just as if they did make it the victim's fault...as if he deserved it. Some of them may not get that they are empathisizig with the murderer, crawling into his shoes, rather than a dead kid just because they ...in their possible middle aged (white?) dislike for loud music being forced on them in public as well as disrespectful young people...they identify more with the circumstances and feelings of the killer more than the victim. They think of themselves being annoyed and confrontational in the same situation as the killer, maybe they have even felt that way before in a similar situation. It takes more effort for them to empathise with the victim, and, chiliingly, they don't seem to bother. AND THEN we see how blind these posters are being. In the least, also, lazy in empathy. So innapropriate to vent about small issue of teens and (yes, dispectful) loud music in the SETTING OF ONE BEING MURDERED> It is outrageous to empathise with the killer in anyway when we are talking about the fact that SOME KID IS DEAD. It really devalues the dead. As the diarist says, our society does not value the lives of young Black men as human beings. That is what thes posters are showing. It is dispicable to use a discussion of the loss of a young life as a chance to vent at young people' s loud music. At the very least, pretty thick headed/non empathetic. Comes across as defending a killer if you mean that or not. Definetely shows how little you are valuing the life of a young Black Man thus proving the thesis of the diarist in the first place. by jplanner on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 07:21:36 AM PST [ Parent ]
I thought about the way Trayvon was portrayed (2+ / 0-) (smoking marijuana, horrors!) and thought about my older daughter. I have no doubt that people could be found who witnessed "bad" behavior on her part (certainly smoking marijuana was witnessed by many, all of them doing it with her!). But it is unlikely that would ever happen because she's a white, Jewish young woman from a white, Jewish middle-class family. She's assumed to be good. While young black men are assumed to be bad. This prejudice is endemic in people with authority, like police, even when those people are black themselves. (the famous case from my area of the totally unjustified killing of a young black man, for example: http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/... ) I think about my nephew -- he's black and when he was a teenager, living at home with his white family in Chevy Chase, MD, he apparently was routinely stopped by police, while walking down his own street! Obviously he was up to no good, being black in a white neighborhood. And this is the perfect test of
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the theory about the white or authority view of young black men -- would my daughter (or a white male of the same age) be stopped for walking down our street? Highly unlikely. But her cousin, from a family with more money (and prestige) than us committed the crime of having dark skin, and for that crime, he was subjected to police intervention. We're not perfect, but they're nuts! -- Barney Frank by Tamar on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 06:45:29 PM PST [ Parent ]
didn't see your piece, Dee (6+ / 0-) but i will go look for it and read. "From single strands of light we build our webs." ~kj by kj in missouri on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:50:52 PM PST [ Parent ]
Can we please stop shooting one another? (17+ / 0-) I weep, I weep, for a society that tolerates this and I am angry for a "punditocracy" that equates a recently defined personal right to bear arms definition of the Second Amendment with talking about the tragedies it creates. "What is a Snooki?"--Me. equalitym aine.org by commonmass on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:13:58 PM PST
I get praticularly POed at the ... (1+ / 0-) ...RKBA members that call owning a gun a 'civil right' We Glory in war, in the shedding of human blood. What fools we are. by delver rootnose on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:31:04 PM PST [ Parent ]
Hard to believe, I know (6+ / 0-) Contrary to what most on this web site think, the world does not end at the Hudson River and then start up again at Interstate 5. Here in Flyover Country, long guns sometimes provide food. by Utahrd on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:42:57 PM PST [ Parent ]
sometimes... (4+ / 0-) ....only sometimes. I wasn't refering to 'long guns'. It was in convesations about concealed carry. I would give a shit about concealed carry if there were only hunting rifles and shotguns available to the public. We Glory in war, in the shedding of human blood. What fools we are. by delver rootnose on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:50:51 PM PST [ Parent ]
Contrary to what some people believe, (3+ / 0-) Here in Maine I actually own a gun. I keep it in my camp up East. I do not keep it in my car, I do not keep it in my boat. And I don't point it at people. In fact, I haven't fired it in YEARS. "What is a Snooki?"--Me. equalitym aine.org by commonmass on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:09:02 PM PST [ Parent ]
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So why keep it? (1+ / 0-) You're lucky it hasn't been stolen if you've kept it stashed and unused for years. But I do believe you own a gun -- Maine and all. "Force is as pitiless to the man who possesses it, or thinks he does, as it is to its victims; the second it crushes, the first it intoxicates. Simone Weil by chuco35 on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:26:08 PM PST [ Parent ]
Where it is, it would be very difficult to steal. (1+ / 0-) You would have to have the intent to have a seaworthy boat and then travel to an island to find it. "What is a Snooki?"--Me. equalitym aine.org by commonmass on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 10:27:10 PM PST [ Parent ]
"...the right of the people... (1+ / 0-) to keep and bear arms..." Huh, says it right there in the Amendment. Meantime, stop highjacking the diary. by PavePusher on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:26:42 PM PST [ Parent ]
the text reads.... (0+ / 0-) ... A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed You keep forgetting the first part. And this diary is first about racism then about gun violence. But I guess any criticism of the RKBA crowd is a diary hijack except in RKBA diaries where it is ground for HRing. We Glory in war, in the shedding of human blood. What fools we are. by delver rootnose on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 04:36:00 AM PST [ Parent ]
The "first part" is in no way... (0+ / 0-) a limiting condition, either grammatically, historically or through caase law. And it was an attempt to highjack the diary, as the diary was in no way about 'gun control'. by PavePusher on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 05:44:00 AM PST [ Parent ]
yea lets argue... (0+ / 0-) ...semantics as people die. I'm done with you. We Glory in war, in the shedding of human blood. What fools we are. by delver rootnose on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 07:05:43 AM PST [ Parent ]
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Let's hope so. n/t (0+ / 0-) by PavePusher on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 08:41:00 PM PST [ Parent ]
And to add... (0+ / 0-) ...while it is a right to call it a 'civil right' and conflate the ownership of guns, which has never been imperiled in this country with the civil rights the African American community, and many others have fought and died for and still are fighting for is reprehensible in my opinion. We Glory in war, in the shedding of human blood. What fools we are. by delver rootnose on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 04:46:36 AM PST [ Parent ]
Calling a civil right a civil right.... (0+ / 0-) is "reprehensible"? Interesting. You should do a diary about that. by PavePusher on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 05:44:53 AM PST [ Parent ]
when someone says... (0+ / 0-) ...'civil rights' Im sure the first thing that comes to mind is the poor aggrieved gun owners of the US. We Glory in war, in the shedding of human blood. What fools we are. by delver rootnose on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 07:09:02 AM PST [ Parent ]
All forms of bigotry are equal. (0+ / 0-) Equally vile, that is. by PavePusher on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 08:40:32 PM PST [ Parent ]
lets start with the police (24+ / 0-) Post-9-11 everywhere, and nearly forever in Los Angeles, the shoot-first and question later has resulted in the near-constant police sponsored death toll. The '60s BPP wasn't wrong. 1) legalize weed - remove some of the cause for young men to be carrying guns. 2) end stop-n-frisk. Yo, Bloomberg - you listening? Didn't think so. 3) restore the 4th and 5th Amendments. Phuck the Patriot Act, it's welfare for the Security Contractors. CETA for cops. 4) change the job description for most urban black males from "convicted felon" and/or "recently deceased" to something meaningful for those young black men, and the families they should be raising. by 43north on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:46:39 PM PST [ Parent ]
good points all, tx. 43 (5+ / 0-) It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything. ~~Joseph Stalin by SeaTurtle on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:26:42 PM PST
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[ Parent ]
Speaking of cops--here's their "out-" (0+ / 0-) Shameful.(1+ / 0-) this is pretty sadhttp://en.wikipedia.org/.... ResponseAs this case is the latest in a lineage of high-profile cases, such as DeShaney v. Winnebago County, in which lawsuits against governmental entities for failure to prevent harm to an individual were dismissed, it has also been used by gun rights advocates in the United States to add additional weight to the self-defense argument for private gun ownership. [1] The National Organization for Women has argued the Supreme Court's decision reduced the utility of restraining orders and "effectively gives law enforcement a green light to ignore restraining orders."[3] "If it were up to me, I'd take away the guns."--Cheryl Wheeler by lyvwyr101 on Thu Dec 06, 2012 at 07:42:05 AM PST [ Parent ]
This is a disgrace--as well. (0+ / 0-) Shameful.(1+ / 0-) http://en.wikipedia.org/.... ResponseAs this case is the latest in a lineage of high-profile cases, such as DeShaney v. Winnebago County, in which lawsuits against governmental entities for failure to prevent harm to an individual were dismissed, it has also been used by gun rights advocates in the United States to add additional weight to the self-defense argument for private gun ownership. [1] The National Organization for Women has argued the Supreme Court's decision reduced the utility of restraining orders and "effectively gives law enforcement a green light to ignore restraining orders."[3] "If it were up to me, I'd take away the guns."--Cheryl Wheeler by lyvwyr101 on Thu Dec 06, 2012 at 07:37:04 AM PST [ Parent ]
Brilliant and heartbreaking, Sis (27+ / 0-) It's past time for it to stop. Your essay and Sis Dee's of today both hit at the same isdue in different ways, becsuse what I see as the biggest cause of the murder of young Black men is the racism Dee talks about. Organ donors save lives! A donor's kidney gave me my life back on 02/18/11; he lives on in me. Please talk with your family about your wish to donate. Why are war casualty counts "American troops" and "others" but never "human beings"? by Kitsap River on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:14:35 PM PST
Unbelievably moving diary, shanikka! (31+ / 0-) And unbelievably, incandescently, incensing! Thank you for this amazing labor of love and anger. And YES, this open season on OUR MAN CHILDREN (THEY ARE ALL OF OURS) HAS TO STOP NOW!! It's *Gandhi*, not Ghandi by poco on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:14:48 PM PST
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My thanks (24+ / 0-)
for this wrenching writing, on the same day as Denise Oliver Velez's. I'm printing both out for long slow reading, and even longer grief. I'll never be the same as I was this morning before reading both. by Warped on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:18:15 PM PST
The worst of days. (39+ / 0-) The thing that has disturbed me the most about Jordan's murder was what you said here " To be fair, most here have been outraged and know that there is no excuse or justification of any kind for Jordan Davis' death. But not all. There have been a few insistent arguments about "rude" kids and "loud music" in the diary threads about Jordan Davis, at various levels of haughtiness. It is reading those insistent whinges about "noise" and "rudeness" and "disrespect" all over something as petty as loud music, combined with the offensive yet quite-serious questions asking how Jordan Davis and his friends verbally responded to the white man who got all in their perfectly legal business in a public place as if that somehow matters, That has been the galling thing about those 'arguments'. The people making them don't see what they're saying as coming from a place of privilege. by Morgan Sheridan on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:19:45 PM PST
asdf... (18+ / 0-) OMG. Did this really happen? I've been offline most of the day. Honestly, the racism I've seen seeping out of the so-called 'progressive' side these past four years has appalled me more than any of the blatant stuff we've come to expect from the Usual Suspects. It really has me despairing of this place in particular. There is NO excuse. Ho'oponopono. To make things right; restore harmony; heal. by earicicle on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:31:21 PM PST [ Parent ]
there are a number of those kind of (19+ / 0-) comments in this diary http://www.dailykos.com/... If you're in a coalition and you're comfortable, you know it's not a broad enough coalition" Bernice Johnson Reagon by Denise Oliver Velez on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:50:25 PM PST [ Parent ]
Unbelievable. I didn't read down the thread. (9+ / 0-) Just the diary, initially. Amazing and disgusting to see that here. Truly disgusting. by joanbrooker on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:00:10 PM PST [ Parent ]
asdf... (9+ / 0-) I don't think I can bear to read today. There has been some difficult family news. Came online to pass a little time...HA! Did read, tip & rec your diary, however. Amazing, as usual. Will ck it out tomorrow. If I can manage it. Right now, must eat...just realized I haven't done so since breakfast! Ho'oponopono. To make things right; restore harmony; heal. by earicicle on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:15:49 PM PST
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[ Parent ]
I Am Sorry to Hear (6+ / 0-) Hope things sort with your family. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:33:41 PM PST [ Parent ]
asdf... (5+ / 0-) Thank you, shanikka. God willing, just a bad scare. Would welcome any tips on getting one's dad to follow doctors' & daughters' medical advice. He's mighty stubborn! Ho'oponopono. To make things right; restore harmony; heal. by earicicle on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 01:04:05 AM PST [ Parent ]
take care of yourself - hugs n/t (6+ / 0-) If you're in a coalition and you're comfortable, you know it's not a broad enough coalition" Bernice Johnson Reagon by Denise Oliver Velez on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 01:09:51 AM PST [ Parent ]
I'm Working on that one Daily Myself (5+ / 0-) Not just with my own dad, but now my husband's (on the other side of the world) too! Maybe between us we can figure this one out. Good luck and take care! by shanikka on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 04:55:01 AM PST [ Parent ]
Take care of yourself, ear. Hugs. (6+ / 0-) I'm seeking to organize DKos members in SE Michigan--roughly, from the Ohio line at Lake Erie NE to Port Huron, W to Flint and back S from there. If you'd like to join our new group, Motor City Kossacks (working title), please Kosmail me. by peregrine kate on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:38:06 PM PST [ Parent ]
asdf... (7+ / 0-) I'm fine; see my note above to shanikka. Stubborn genes all around in this family. Who knew? Hugs back atcha. xoxo, ear Ho'oponopono. To make things right; restore harmony; heal. by earicicle on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 01:07:05 AM PST [ Parent ]
O Lord! (8+ / 0-) I looked. I read as much as I could take without responding. And then I finally couldn't take it any more: http://www.dailykos.com/... Would it be wrong if I just posted a beautiful gospel song whenever I stumble across this poster again? I genuinely worry about her soul.
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Ho'oponopono. To make things right; restore harmony; heal. by earicicle on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 01:00:41 AM PST [ Parent ]
thanks. she echos (11+ / 0-) what I had the misfortune to read in comments sections strung across the internet. I doubt she will "get it" at this time. We discussed Jordan's murder in my class this week. We looked at "comments" sections. My students (most of whom are white) were aghast. Their response was "how the hell can anyone not see this is about racism?" As one student said "I've been blasting music since I was a kid - I'm a metal freak, and I sure don't have to worry about getting shot for it- but my whiteness is a shield" If you're in a coalition and you're comfortable, you know it's not a broad enough coalition" Bernice Johnson Reagon by Denise Oliver Velez on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 01:08:50 AM PST [ Parent ]
oh no. (1+ / 0-) parented up and read as much as i could before it felt like a piece of my chest imploded in pain. nothing should shock me, why do comments on this blog continue to shock me? do not have the internal strength to be a mother of a child of color. i would simply explode. "From single strands of light we build our webs." ~kj by kj in missouri on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 08:28:45 PM PST [ Parent ]
It doesn't matter (12+ / 0-) Let's say some kids were loud and acting like jerks (I know, I know, this has never happened in the history of the world with white kids). What kind of pinhead thinks the response should be to shoot them? Who brings up bad manners in the context of some horrible person shooting up a car full of kids? It would be like saying a mosquito bite justified amputating someone's arm. by Cardinal Fang on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:25:18 PM PST [ Parent ]
A Person (10+ / 0-) Who doesn't see kids at all, but thugs. Gangstas. Animals. Not children. Otherwise, as you rightfully note, it would never happen. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:46:42 PM PST [ Parent ]
My question is, what reaction did he expect when (4+ / 0-) he confronted these kids? He was in a convenience store and was going to be leaving soon; so it's not like asking your neighbor to turn down their music. There is something very strange about the whole scenario, from beginning to end. Here's a man sitting in his car at a parking lot of a convenience store. His passenger would have been out in minutes and he felt it necessary to tell them to turn the music down. It doesn't matter what the race of the boys in the car are, you're going to get
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her peers.
some attitude back if you make it so someone has to lose face in front of his or Either this man is the most dumb and naive person to have grown as old as he is or he was picking a fight. Period There is no other outcome possible. "If you tell the truth, you won't have to remember anything", Mark Twain by Cruzankenny on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 07:16:26 AM PST [ Parent ]
. (34+ / 0-)
Justice 4 Alan Blueford by jpmassar on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:20:27 PM PST
Powerful diary, Shanikka. (35+ / 0-) Thank you for remembering all of those young black men. Thanks. too. for articulating the fear that all mothers of black boys fear. For those who question Sis Denise piece today, they should come over here for the answer. Thanks again. 866- OUR- VOTE!!(866- 687- 8683) Lyndon Johnson: The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men. by JoanMar on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:20:41 PM PST
I Am Getting Home Late (26+ / 0-) And am finishing reading Denise's piece. I still marvel at how folks can question the fundamental truth of what she said, what she says, when it comes to racism and how it must be scrubbed out affirmatively from the souls of those who are in the majority, even and especially the souls of our friends. If this piece perhaps makes it clearer, the fundamental truth of what she wrote, then I'm happy. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:26:12 PM PST [ Parent ]
I don't know how you managed to get (10+ / 0-) through writing this, Shanikka. I cannot finish it. My heart starts beating like drum at each name. I think of their mothers and of their fears and it gets to be just too much. You are a strong woman. 866- OUR- VOTE!!(866- 687- 8683) Lyndon Johnson: The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men. by JoanMar on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:29:11 PM PST [ Parent ]
It Took Me 16 Hours (19+ / 0-) Of research and writing, starting on Thursday morning. And it would have been 3 times that long had I included all the many dead at the hands of the police or trigger-happy private citizens where the victims were not all that "innocent" yet the circumstances also made clear they could have been arrested and punished quite easily, an and that they didn't have to die, either. I excluded them not because I thought that their deaths aren't just as worthy
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of examination but because it would have been too easy ammunition for those who I knew would read this diary looking for any possible way to deflect away from the ugly truth of the message contained within it: this country doesn't value our lives. Or our children's lives. But no, it definitely wasn't easy. I had to stop more times than you know just to have a good cry. (I also called my son, several times, just to hear his voice; I know he thinks his mother has lost her mind.) But I had to finish it. When I read about Jordan Davis, it really was my soul falling off the precipice and I knew that the soul horror might consume me from the inside if I didn't get it out. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:01:51 PM PST [ Parent ]
(((((Shanikka))))) (9+ / 0-) We cry together. 866- OUR- VOTE!!(866- 687- 8683) Lyndon Johnson: The vote is the most powerful instrument ever devised by man for breaking down injustice and destroying the terrible walls which imprison men because they are different from other men. by JoanMar on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:08:14 PM PST [ Parent ]
I'm glad you did finish although it's so hard to (6+ / 0-) read. This evil will not stop being acceptable unless it's called out and named for what it is. You are a brave soul. {{{{{{shanikka}}}}} Comfort the afflicted. Afflict the comfortable. by FindingMyVoice on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 08:13:01 AM PST [ Parent ]
I appreciate your 16 hours. (4+ / 0-) Well done indeed. by smoothnmellow on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 10:36:04 AM PST [ Parent ]
The pain is deep (27+ / 0-) I'm a white woman. Having said that, my mother is Portuguese and when she first met my dad's grandparents in Iowa in the late 40's, the first thing my great grandmother asked my dad was what race my mom was. My mom was tan dammit - that's all it took in Iowa in those days. It's pittance compared to what black folks have had to suffer, but she experienced a little bit of racism and raised me differently. I have called people on the carpet when they make a racist comment about anyone of color be they Latino, black, etc. I hurt and cry when another young black man is murdered. I hate it that the majority of missing children that are publicized are white. I hate it when television shows only show bizarre behavior and its focus is mainly on black people. Example: Hardcore Pawn. I've sent them emails telling them I won't watch the show because of what they are propagating by stereotype. I read the diaries from the Dkos black community, rec and tip them. Since Obama was elected, the racists are rising to the surface more and more. There are good folks out there and we need to know more about how to fight the fight with you. by BeadLady on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:21:05 PM PST
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Step #1 (27+ / 0-)
Read Denise's piece from earlier today. Then keep self-examining, keep encouraging others to self-examine, and most fundamentally speaking up. It's a lifetime labor of love and commitment that all of us have to undertake. But if the faces of the young people who are the casualties of it don't inspire folks to keep on keeping on the fight, even when it hurts, or is enraging or seems futile, as it does me every day, I'm not sure what else can. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:28:30 PM PST [ Parent ]
slow-motion genocide (17+ / 0-) You're so right, when I read about Jordan, I couldn't believe there was another Trayvon in the very same state within a year. And though the value to society of the perpetrators isn't really an issue, to me the worst thing is that promising young black men were killed by fat white gun-crazy losers. I haven't read about a case where the killer was anything like a responsible member of society. So it's not just the families, but the whole world that suffers from these losses. Even if the killers were executed, that wouldn't bring back the lost human potential. I thought we didn't need to sing 'Strange Fruit' any longer. I was wrong... by richardvjohnson on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:21:32 PM PST
But as this Diary Makes Clear (19+ / 0-) It is not just Florida. It's everywhere. Illinois. New York. Lousiana. California. Many this year alone. No matter who they were killed by, knowing that they are the wages of the sin of our national racism is something that should urge us all on to "No more death. Not because of racism. No more." by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:30:21 PM PST [ Parent ]
where do we go? (1+ / 0-) Thanks, Shanikka. I'm at a loss for what to do to prevent the next one. There will be one if we don't do something, but I don't know what to do...take away the guns, they'll still find ways to kill, I just don't know. by richardvjohnson on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 11:04:07 PM PST [ Parent ]
shame. (1+ / 0-) loaded concept; but at this moment, i can't think of anything more apt. willful (because in 2012, it is willful) ignorance of the continuing tsunami of racism calls for nothing but shame. "From single strands of light we build our webs." ~kj by kj in missouri on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 08:45:49 PM PST [ Parent ]
it's gotten bigger, even (0+ / 0-) And now, with greater awareness of the risks to young black women as well...I'm not African-American myself but I have two black sisters and three black nieces and my best friend is black. My best friend has lost two sisters to murder and one nephew very recently. I can't see a small black child on the street anymore without fearing they may never have a chance to grow up. Yes, we could demonstrate for Trayvon, and I hope people are planning to demonstrate for Jordan. But the problem of widespread unnecessary violent death for young black people goes beyond just racist white bigots
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with guns. If that was the whole problem I would say put angry old white people in concentration camps, they probably deserve it ;) But that would put only a small dent in the death rate. Is it that we've given folks so little to live for that they don't value life enough? If that's the problem, socioeconomic reforms might help. Happy people don't kill other people or themselves, do they? by richardvjohnson on Tue Dec 04, 2012 at 11:45:01 AM PST [ Parent ]
okay shanikka, second night reading, (0+ / 0-) this will take at least three or four evenings to complete. please know that however long it takes, every word of every comment will be read. i have to know where 'we' are with this, right now, this week on dKos in America. "From single strands of light we build our webs." ~kj by kj in missouri on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 08:49:05 PM PST [ Parent ]
Whew. All I can say is that this is one of the (23+ / 0-) most powerful testaments to the truth that I have ever seen written here. I call it a testament because calling it a diary doesn't do it justice. by Sixty Something on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:21:46 PM PST
here, here, SS! (8+ / 0-) It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything. ~~Joseph Stalin by SeaTurtle on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:50:45 PM PST [ Parent ]
Thank you for yoiur insightful diary. (11+ / 0-) I know what you mean white people tune out when something racial happens, after all typically it is not happening to them. I am white (and once edited an NAACP newsletter) I fought in a war to protect ALL rights not the ones just for whites. As long as angry white men are the demographic of the republican party none of us has equality. Our money system is not what we have been led to believe. The creation of money has been "privatized," or taken over by private money lenders. Thomas Jefferson called them bold and bankrupt adventurers just pretending to have money. webofdebt by arealniceguy on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:22:26 PM PST
We Have No Idea (9+ / 0-) Whether the men who killed these young people are Democrats or Republicans. Frankly, it's irrelevant. As long as we don't see that it is our CULTURE that has killed them, and that this culture's messages don't give one whit about political party and infect us all, it won't change and our children will keep dying. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:39:35 PM PST [ Parent ]
Operative word was "angry", I think (6+ / 0-) I agree that D or R is irrelevant, but I don't think that was the point of arealniceguy's comment -- or at least that's not the way I read it.
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I think he was aiming for the fact that there's a booming industry in this country designed to generate political power by keeping a sizable portion of the populace angry and fearful, and to a large extent aiming that anger and fear at anyone visibly "other". Unfortunately, since the target demographic for the incitement is mostly white men, the target demographic for the anger and fear is mostly people with darker skin. As long as powerful people can get more power by stoking those flames, we'll be hard pressed to change the ugly facts. And more kids will die. I wish I could think of a less horrifying way to end this comment, but maybe that's the point. There isn't one, until we all manage to learn to live with each other civilly. And those of us who are white men have (as a group) by far the most work to do. Thank you, shanikka, for your profoundly moving post. If words have power to change things (and I believe they must, or we're left with only violence), yours have helped us to move in the right direction today. "Do it in the name of Heaven; you can justify it in the end..." - Dennis Lambert & Brian Potter by pragmaticidealist on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:53:46 PM PST [ Parent ]
What racist are doing is perpetuating violence. (1+ / 0-) How can they believe that is a good thing? Especially when it is our kids. But it is changing and will change in the right direction, only way to slow. by howabout on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:23:44 PM PST [ Parent ]
Is it, Though? (2+ / 0-) After all, the majority of these deaths of innocent young Black men are from 2012. It is happening more, not less, frequently, than it has happened in a very very long time. I do still pray every day you are right, though. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:03:20 PM PST [ Parent ]
I am afraid you are right. (2+ / 0-) But I have believed for almost 60 years that things are getting better. It is hard to accept that my optimism is unwarranted. Damn. by howabout on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:10:21 PM PST [ Parent ]
Are you ald enough to have been a hippie? (4+ / 0-) I remember thinking that by 1970 we would all be equal and right would prevail. Jeez, I can't believe that I still think that it is just around the corner. by howabout on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:20:01 PM PST [ Parent ]
I'm Over 50 (6+ / 0-) And truthfully I wanted to be a hippie, but was too young for the heyday of it and there is no way my parents would have put up
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with it even if I hadn't been! by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:49:07 PM PST [ Parent ]
I think we are moving in the right direction (3+ / 0-) I'm a firm believer in Dr. King's long arc bending toward justice. On the other hand, I'm also a realist, and I know that frightened, angry people only get more so when they feel threatened. If indeed history is bending away from these small, xenophobic people and their "my people vs. all the rest of you" mentality, then they are sure to feel that bending, and to (rightly) interpret the slow approach of a more just world as a threat to their world view and way of life. They will react badly to this, and will lash out in inappropriate and, all too often, violent ways. Though I recognize the horror of it, I think the recent upswing in overt racism in America is a sign that things are getting better in fundamental ways. Racism is becoming less ingrained in our increasingly multicultural society, so the racists have to shout it out more loudly; they can't just assume that everyone else sees what they see. So they become more vocal, and more demonstrative, in response to their slowly growing marginalization. I may be wrong, and whether I am or not doesn't change the imperative to speak and act against the violence and the mindset that produces it. But I think - I hope - I'm right. Somehow, it's easier to bear evil if you know its days are numbered. "Do it in the name of Heaven; you can justify it in the end..." - Dennis Lambert & Brian Potter by pragmaticidealist on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 09:57:29 PM PST [ Parent ]
Believe Me (4+ / 0-) While I am more pessimistic, I still hope that you are right. by shanikka on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 04:56:50 AM PST [ Parent ]
This may have several explanations (0+ / 0-) A general rise in violence or sampling error. After all recent examples have more links. It's take a careful study to address whether there is a real increase Hay hombres que luchan un dia, y son buenos Hay otros que luchan un ao, y son mejores Hay quienes luchan muchos aos, y son muy buenos. Pero hay los que luchan toda la vida. Esos son los imprescendibles. by Mindful Nature on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 09:03:07 PM PST [ Parent ]
Unfortunately (14+ / 0-) Until the walking cesspools who believe that "Not Being White" is an offense punishable by death, this sort of thing doesn't appear to be on its way to ceasing anytime soon. "Being Black" is not a crime. Generic Black Man is not a criminal. Unless Generic Black Man turns into Violent Criminal, there's no reason whatsoever to even think of shooting him. The people who commit these atrocities make me sick. It should be appalling to the entire country that this diary can even be written, and have so many cases to cite.
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Truly stomach-churning. Me on Twitter
by HamptonRoadsProgressive on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:22:50 PM PST
my ex-husband said: you slow down for white folks (20+ / 0-) crossing the street, but not for black folks. I said: "I slow down for old folks who move slow, but not for young folks, who are just showing off." And in that part of Newark, NJ at that time, the only white folks were old-timers. But it made me think what the young black folks saw me do. I decided then 25 years ago to make an effort everyday to show respect and courtesy to young, unknown people of color. On the street, in the bus, after school, when theywalked across my mental lawn. I decided to look them in the eye and say "please" if I was asking them to be quiet in church. To call to the driver to hold the bus. To tell them why I wish they would wear a belt. Don't get me wrong-- I am intentional in doing this with white kids, too, but I learned it first from my (Latino) ex's comment that -- I thought-- read my motivation so totally wrong. White grownups, I beg you, ask yourself what you are doing to give every black boy a chance to grow up. I for one have been richly rewarded by turning my back on fear and embracing respect. It's not a fake orgasm; it's a real yawn. by sayitaintso on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:26:53 PM PST
yes. (8+ / 0-) it is one of the blessings of age to model kindness, courtesy, respect and compassion to our fellow/sister beings and youth. that's been a practice of mine. no masks. i can't express here how intently this is a part of my daily life. the milli-second surprise/pleasure/astonishment is its own sweet response. i just have no words for this. it's what is necessary. and it's up to me. "From single strands of light we build our webs." ~kj by kj in missouri on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:49:25 PM PST [ Parent ]
Regarding young folks who are "showing off", (11+ / 0-) you never really know. Someone could have a mild disability that's not visible to the causal observer. They could have walked a long way and have a muscle that hurts. We don't always know why someone isn't walking quickly across the street. Once, when I still looked young, I had a pair of shoes that were slippery and I fell down in the middle of the sidewalk. On the way home, I crossed the street really slowly and a driver yelled at me. You never know. Anyway, it doesn't really matter. You're in the car and the other person is a pedestrian. You just have to take your ego out of it and not even wonder why they're walking quickly or slowly. by FourthOfJulyAsburyPark on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:23:34 PM PST [ Parent ]
When I'm out walking my big oaf of a dog (0+ / 0-) I greet everyone now old & young of ever color and that is because my dog, Rusty yodels a greeting to everyone he passes.
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And I have to explain that he isn't growling, he's saying "hi" "He loves everybody," I say. Which is true. And many stop to pet him which he loves. Neatly dressed, baggy pants, boom boxes, or school books, he doesn't care. We live right across from a high school. And it's great to have younger people of all colors interact with us, many would not usually stop to talk to an older white lady. Also important to watch the police. Now they did arrest a young black man not to long ago who was my neighbor. They had good reason to arrest him, but just the same, I went next door and got another neighbor. We stood off to the side and watched the whole thing. In this case, I will say the police were careful not to hurt him even tho he was fighting, but you never know. Best to keep an eye on the police. The penalty for resisting arrest should not be death. WE NEVER FORGET Our Labor Martyrs: a project to honor the men, women and children who lost their lives in Freedom's Cause. For Nov: Lives lost trying to earn a living. by JayRaye on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 03:30:32 PM PST [ Parent ]
As an armed civilian... (27+ / 0-) ...I believe that starting an argument, while armed, has the potential to become manslaughter or murder. I have carry permits valid in dozens of states, and I've been armed wherever it's legal for me to carry for over seven years. During that time, I have held myself to a strict standard of behavior: avoid all confrontations at almost any cost. No other driver has seen my middle finger, or heard an angry horn, in all those years. When an angry right-winger got severe "road" rage over the politics espoused on my bumler last spring, my only goal was to leave without further provoking him. For George Zimmerman to follow a young man around, while armed, and then leave his vehicle to confront him was murder. For this other a$$hole to drive over and confront a carload of anyone, knowing that his gun might be used if the argument he was starting went wrong, was murder. "She's petite, extrem ely beautiful, and heavily armed." -1995 Michael Moore documentary Canadian Bacon by Tom Seaview on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:28:48 PM PST
This Diary (29+ / 0-) Is not just about George Zimmerman or Michael Dunn. They are just the logical end game of what I've noted has been the systematic willingness to murder Black boys as young as 10 years old for decades. It's also not about guns. It's about seeing Black people, Black young men, as human beings. As the children most are. If guns didn't exist, this country would just find some other way to kill them, I am convinced. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:41:43 PM PST [ Parent ]
Good point, we still have media (6+ / 0-) despite more positive images of African Americans, still has a construct of Black Males no different than what the despicable D.W. Griffith did in his odious film, The Birth Of A Nation. And the media likes to downplay the racism or refuses to call it out, unless they can't wiggle out of it. One does not simply walk into Mordor! One invites a gas driller in, and ones land becomes Mordor. Chris From Balloon Juice by Mr Stagger Lee on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:55:22 PM PST [ Parent ]
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Griffith was effectively blind to his flaws (0+ / 0-) He wasn't consciously racist, but he was so steeped in "Southern white culture" that he couldn't see through it or past it or around it in any direction. He wanted to do a Civil War epic, he wanted it to have a "Cavalry to the rescue" climax (he had already become fixated on that kind of climax and would use it ad nauseam for the rest of his career), and he didn't know how much he didn't know. He should have known better, but he didn't. If it's Not your body, Then it's Not your choice And it's None of your damn business! by TheOtherMaven on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 11:51:40 PM PST [ Parent ]
It's the dehumanization Black people (18+ / 0-) especially young Black males of color, that allows things like New York's egregious "Stop and Frisk" practice to continue without nary a peep from the larger White population in this country. It doesn't even cross their (White peoples') minds how terrorizingand traumatizing it is for this to happen over and over and over again to people. Because young men of color, especially if they are Black, are not fully human. They are first and foremost thugs or prethugs. If "elitist" just means "not the dumbest motherfucker in the room", I'll be an elitist! - David Rees from "Get Your War On". by Oaktown Girl on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:55:42 PM PST [ Parent ]
Problem is (5+ / 0-) for the last 400 years or so, this society has made a concerted effort, generation after generation, to drive home the notion that we are something less than human... both scientifically and theologically... and unfortunately 50 some odd years of overt civil rights struggle has barely scratched the surface of undoing this evil...after centuries of slave codes and a century and a half of black codes, of stereotypes and shameful disenfranchisement this is the most entrenched evil in this society and left to it's own devices, it will result in society's being destroyed Fear doesn't just breed incomprehension. It also breeds a spiteful, resentful hate of anyone and everyone who is in any way different from you. by awesumtenor on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 12:09:44 AM PST [ Parent ]
The sad truth is that many who carry firearms (9+ / 0-) are not as responsible as you and carry a weapon to compensate for some sort of personal problem, real or imagined. If there is no accountability for those who authorized torture, we can no longer say that we are a nation of laws, not men. by MikePhoenix on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:47:12 PM PST [ Parent ]
you'd be surprised (6+ / 0-) There are tens of millions of concealed carry permit holders in the USA. The vast majority of us have no need to compensate for anything, and this is reflected in the incredibly tiny numbers of us who commit violent crimes.
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"She's petite, extrem ely beautiful, and heavily armed." -1995 Michael Moore documentary Canadian Bacon by Tom Seaview on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:01:47 PM PST [ Parent ]
I wonder why those law abiding gun permit whites (2+ / 0-) don't stand up to point out the crimes of thier irresponsible fellow gun toters. Their silence only adds to the gravity of the crimes. by drmah on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:15:31 PM PST [ Parent ]
Saying it? Not enough. (7+ / 0-) It's not enough to say: Arrest and Convict Zimmerman and Dunn. Same goes for the "shoot first, as questions later" Cops. WAY more young black men killed by police than by some white civilian with a handgun. So saying there must be justice? You STILL fail the litmus test. You MUST say: End licensed concealed carry. End handgun possession. Impeach Scalia. Burn down the NRA. Revoke the Second Amendment. Well that's a good start - but you're still not a liberal, as you own/ed a gun. So what gives a "gun permit whites" street cred? Go live in the projects, be seen by everyone, including members of your own race, as a likely felon, dealer, rapist, and gangbanger. Then come back and say: "I live the life, I understand." Until then? YOU are still white, still can go home, still can do what you want and not BE a black man in America.
THAT much I understand. THAT much I agree with. Changing reality for 99% of black men in America is more important than condemning some murderer like Zimmerman and Dunn. Let soon-to-be Ex-Congressman Alan West of Florida get pulled over, smacked around, and threatened with death by some Florida cop... and see how fast the GOP can have a come-to-Jesus moment. DWGOPB might be a one-time offense. by 43north on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:08:28 PM PST [ Parent ]
I didn't know there was a Liberal Litmus test! (1+ / 0-) Where do you go to get equipment to take this test? "If you tell the truth, you won't have to remember anything", Mark Twain by Cruzankenny on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 07:42:25 AM PST [ Parent ]
I agree that most are law-abiding, but many aren't (1+ / 0-) and those that aren't are responsible for an incredible amount of suffering. And I think drmah make a very good point which I would be interested in hearing you respond to. If there is no accountability for those who authorized torture, we can no longer say that we are a nation of laws, not men. by MikePhoenix on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:46:32 PM PST [ Parent ]
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The answer is: many do (0+ / 0-) I wonder why those law abiding gun permit whites don't stand up to point out the crimes of thier irresponsible fellow gun toters. You can see it happening, even right here in this diary. some don't, but that could be said about law abiding gun permit holders of every race. best not to tar milions of people based on our assumptions about them Happy just to be alive by exlrrp on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 04:16:13 AM PST [ Parent ]
This Diary is not About Guns (6+ / 0-) And definitely not about "responsible gun ownership." I believe our American culture is such that just as many of these young men would be dead, that's how little it values them as human beings, even if there gun laws like there are in most civilzed societies sharply restricting private gun ownership. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:05:04 PM PST [ Parent ]
yup. how many Emmett Till's (6+ / 0-) have we had? You are well aware of my stance on guns - since for me the whole gun thang is about restricting black folks from being armed for self-defense, but black men get dragged to death behind trucks, and beaten by po-lice on video tape, and stopped and frisked (and jailed and murdered) for walking while black. Their crime - wrong skin color. Period.
If you're in a coalition and you're comfortable, you know it's not a broad enough coalition" Bernice Johnson Reagon by Denise Oliver Velez on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 01:23:47 AM PST [ Parent ]
This. As a black female gun owner, I concur. (6+ / 0-) I proudly own guns because I legally can and I know "they" don't want me to. But you're right, they'd find a way, were it not for guns, to kill our boys and men. For the record, I am not a member of Courtesy Kos. Just so you know. Don't be stupid. It's election season. My patience is short. by mdmslle on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 02:25:41 AM PST [ Parent ]
A very moving painfully difficult diary to read (14+ / 0-) Wow Perhaps the MOST HEART RENDERING diary I have encountered here, and believe me there are many contenders. I wish I could PDF this diary with the pics and all and send it to folks I know who need to see this. It would be easy also to dave on my hard drive. I weep in anguish at all the senseless loss of life. What makes this diary even more difficult is the recent sad news of the NFL player from KC Chiefs. What to make of all this?
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by wuod kwatch on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:31:17 PM PST
We need to do something about this. Now. (20+ / 0-) More people have to learn to see past their prejudices and ginned up fears. I wish there were easy answers. There aren't. My heart goes out to the families of these innocent kids and to anyone who has to live in fear for themselves or their loved ones as a result of their deaths. My new book Obam a's Am erica: A Transform ativ e Vision of Our National Identity (Potomac Books, 2012) is out! by Ian Reifowitz on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:33:21 PM PST
best diary I've read in a while (9+ / 0-) ...and in a place with a great number of good diaries. Thank you for this. tweeted, fb'd, tumblr'd by sexgenderbody on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:34:18 PM PST
what women and black men have in common... (7+ / 0-) fear. Women are born and raised to be fearful of being raped at any given moment, during any point of the day. We are so used to the fear, we don't even recognize it. We don't notice the way it effects our decision making about where we park our cars, where we live, if we leave our windows open in our home, etc. We just except it as our lot in life. Young black men, live with that same but elevated fear (their fear is of death). But they live under the same pressures. And no one cares. Is it because they are not white males? Is it because they are not asian males? Why do young, black men and women (of all ages, ethnicities, religious beliefs) live in fear of other men turning them into crime statistic? When in the world will the second class status be removed and our lives be viewed as just important as that of the non-black male? And honestly, aren't there more of us than them? How come we allow them to have all the control? Earth: Mostly harmless ~ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (revised entry) by yawnimawke on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:35:06 PM PST
With all Due Respect (22+ / 0-) The deflection onto "women" instead of dealing full frontal with the issues this diary discusses is a defense mechanism. Unconscious, but a defense mechanism nonetheless. I say this being a woman myself. While analogy is an important device for developing empathy, in our country too often the process of analogy becomes a defensive shield, instead of a pathway to deeper understanding. In this case, while I too want women's equality, my desire that the wholesale killing of young Black men cease is a separate issue for discussion. It is critical that it be separate. What is happening with women is not reflective of the same disease that is killing Black manchildren in America. There is more than enough opportunity to discuss it separately. For now, I see this diary as a sacred space in which these children are given the honor and importance they are due. As this country says that children matter above all. Hopefully you can hear what I'm trying to say. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:46:36 PM PST [ Parent ]
I do. I see a direct correlation between the two (2+ / 0-)
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but will wait for another diary at another time. In the meantime, as a women, I am full of rage that any man would think it is okay to steal a son's life because of some ill perceived threat. And I know if the roles were reversed, the full weight of law enforcement and the judicial system would be brought upon each of these young men which is insidious as well. The whole thing disgusts me and I really believe that we have the solution in our numbers. Earth: Mostly harmless ~ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (revised entry) by yawnimawke on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:37:39 PM PST [ Parent ]
re: your 1st paragraph, i notice. (4+ / 0-) as i am sure every black youth notices. "From single strands of light we build our webs." ~kj by kj in missouri on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:02:34 PM PST [ Parent ]
choked off the rest of the sentence... (5+ / 0-) i am SURE every black youth notices their surroundings. every. single. second. except the brief moments when they get to be kids. when they forget, for a second, they are seen as targets, not beings. "From single strands of light we build our webs." ~kj by kj in missouri on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:20:29 PM PST [ Parent ]
its hopeless (1+ / 0-) all we'll get out of this is: 'where was the outrage when a black person killed a white kid in the news last week' ? and : 'where is the outrage when black kids are killing other black kids in greater numbers' ? It's hard to defend a perceived scoundrel that isn't a member of your tribe to your own tribe, when you were indoctrinated to believe that said scoundrel is to blame for all of society's ills. They will make examples of the most specious evidence and justify not caring one way or another. It's human nature - it can't be fixed. by cauznfx on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:35:23 PM PST
I Disagree (19+ / 0-) Fundamentally with your belief that it cannot be fixed. Yes it can. See Denise's diary on Racism (and the many many many others that have been written here) if you really want to know how. And yes, it might indeed mean telling some members of your tribe that you don't want to be around their insanity anymore. I really don't care. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:47:51 PM PST [ Parent ]
this. (8+ / 0-) And yes, it might indeed mean telling some members of your tribe that you don't want to be around their insanity anymore. I really don't care.
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"From single strands of light we build our webs." ~kj by kj in missouri on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:03:40 PM PST [ Parent ]
dunno (5+ / 0-) I haven't read Denise's diaries on here but I have read enough diaries on Racism to know that much of the Left also has blinders on when it comes to Racism. Tribalism is as old as humankind. It is human nature. Sure, you can tell your tribe that you don't want to be around their insanity anymore, but then there is a question of how much influence your tribe has in society. The larger and more dominant a tribe is in society, the more difficult it is make such a dent in the indoctrination that goes on in said tribal culture. If you are a member of a tribal majority, there won't be enough of those like you to matter. Your dissent will be noble but insignificant. I come from the Malcolm X school of thought, rather than the Martin Luther King school of thought on this issue. People credit Martin Luther King with changing minds on the racial conflict between blacks & whites. But did he really? Sure, some white people felt were ashamed when they saw their own kind turning dogs and fire hoses on peacefully marching black people. But was that REALLY the catalyst for the passage of the Civil Rights Act? What they saw going on TV was very MILD compared to what they've already seen their own kind doing in their on backyards and neighborhoods - the violent killings, lynchings and the 'negro barbecues' where they passed burnt negro fingers among their kids and loved trading pictures of tortured blacks on postal cards. It was happening in right in their backyards and if they weren't out & out racists, most of them knew what they were doing was wrong & unconstitutional but still consented to it for so long by doing NOTHING because it was beneficial to their own tribe. So let's not pretend most of the 'majority' were surprised or ashamed by seeing actions of their own 'tribe' they saw on TV. The greater catalyst for the signing of the Civil Rights Act was FEAR. Fear of what? Fear of black people bringing the race riots into their own backyard. Fear of an existential threat to society - rebellious black people. Fear of slave uprisal. People ignore how at the same time MLK marched peacefully, there were race riots going on in other cities and other black leaders like Malcolm X calling for escalated violence if their calls for the tribal majority to acknowledge their constitutional rights went unanswered. That was the backdrop that MLK worked his magic in to convince just enough of the tribal majority to turn against their own tribe and tell them to stop being so damned unconstitutional. If that backdrop didn't exist, I don't think MLK would have had much success. As you know - history doesn't like to talk about this backdrop much, because it is a terrible and shameful history and our history books are a form of tribal majority indoctrination, where much truth is whitewashed out. Popular history likes MLK because he was the peaceful black guy that spoke to whites & didn't call for violence against a single white person. This missing backdrop is evident in the perspectives regarding racial conflicts among many on the Left, and even here on DailyKos, but that shouldn't be surprising because we all are forming our own perspectives on race from the same historically incomplete & biased sources that were written by the tribal majority. by cauznfx on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:49:14 PM PST [ Parent ]
You Should Read Denise's Diary (and Diaries) (5+ / 0-) She is one of the voices that I always learn from, always. Her history and her
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activism are an inspiration, and her fearlessness in writing something I can only hope to aspire to someday. As far as the Malcolm X school of thought, I don't think I've made much of a secret of what I feel and believe, which is that he was right. I revere Dr. King, and always will, but the prescriptions for our people that resulted from his approach have not resulted in the promised land for our people and, in many ways, for too many of our people, we are collectively worse off. I especially agree with you about the passage of the Civil Rights Act, coming as it did right on the heels of Malcolm's seminal speech The Ballot of the Bullet. I don't know if you ever read the diary I wrote about him here, several years ago now, but my thinking is much more articulated there. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:11:14 PM PST [ Parent ]
thanks for the heads up (5+ / 0-) I will take some time to read the diaries mentioned. Glad we're on the same page. Yes, Malcolm X was spot on with The Ballot or the Bullet speech. I still re-read it occassionially, as it is still very relevant today and helps me properly re-align a lot of my views on race and politics. Every time I read it, I realize something new. I won't say what King did was all for naught. What King did was the prescription for the era - Dr. King was the Good Cop to Malcolm X's Bad Cop. That's exactly how I see it - a national Good Cop/Bad Cop negotiation with the white majority. But yeah, too many people fail to understand that MLK was about the past and negotiating for white people. His prescription expired when the Civil Rights Act passed. Malcolm X, on the other hand, was talking for black people about the future - how to deal with white majority tribalism & be self-sufficient :) by cauznfx on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:31:25 PM PST [ Parent ]
Whenever I hear anyone talk about how our history (0+ / 0-) books don't teach this or don't teach that, I think maybe we should pass a law insisting that all American History teachers should be African-American. Mine was and we learned many of the things everyone tells me they didn't learn. (note to the literal minded: I know we can't really make all American History teacher African American.) by FourthOfJulyAsburyPark on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 09:09:46 PM PST [ Parent ]
Malcolm X and MLK were both needed (1+ / 0-) Like a carrot and a stick. Like good cop-bad cop. That quote about GDP by Robert Kennedy by erichiro on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 12:23:30 AM PST [ Parent ]
While I too tend to be from the Malcolm X (4+ / 0-) School of thought and agree emphatically with this comment, having come from my own black nationalist past, what you are concluding doesn't follow. I agree that much of what MLK accomplished was due to the comparative backdrop of much less desire able outcomes for the majority. I couldn't agree more. But your initial comment seemed to suggest that there's nothing we can do about the genocide of black boys and men because...tribalism and human nature.
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Surely you can see that your sentiments are contradictory. The diary is an amazing tribute. But even shanikka posted a couple of Facebook comments posted by endangered young black men encouraging or espousing a "much less desirable outcome" for the majority with respect to this genocide. Like you I'm not totally sure the desireable solution can be effective exclusive of a less desirable backdrop. I applaud Deo's diary encouraging people to live it, to do something. I think that has to be the primary action. And I happen to think it can be more effective against an undesirable alternative. But you seem to say:(or rather you do say), it's pointless. I disagree. But more over I think you disagree with your own self. For the record, I am not a member of Courtesy Kos. Just so you know. Don't be stupid. It's election season. My patience is short. by mdmslle on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 02:44:10 AM PST [ Parent ]
I Think There is always (5+ / 0-) An inherent tension in how folks think about these things. I know it is in me, to be sure. I was horrified when I read those facebook posts; not just because I felt "Well now there's a way to guarantee your own funeral" but because deep down I understood the sense of futility that leads someone (especially a young male in this country) to just say "fuck it; this country won't protect me I'll protect myself by any means necessary." I feel the same way about Malcolm and Dr. King until I realize that philosophically particularly in their later works closer to the end of their respective lives, they really weren't all that far apart no matter what American propaganda says. I do agree thought that a salient difference between the two is who they were speaking to and who they expected solutions to come from, primarily. One looked more within our community, than without it. I think the culture decided that the latter was the safer course, and discouraged the former. I think our salvation as a people in this land ultimately requires that we do a little bit more of the former (developing solutions out of self-love that are not grounded in stereotypes that assume we are defective, rather than still largely oppressed) even while never giving up hope about the more external solutions as well. If that makes sense (and it might not; it's only 5AM here LOL). by shanikka on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 05:04:10 AM PST [ Parent ]
Yeah, you are right. And BTW thanks for that (3+ / 0-) amazing and powerful diary. I have hotlisted it. Shared it and I want to thank you for your work on it, difficult as it must have been to do. Anyway, yes toward the end of their lives King and Malik El-Shabazz were closer philosophically than in earlier times. My point with the commenter was that in one comment he literally said it's hopeless to try to change this. Then in the next he talked about how MLK/X- good cop/bad cop actually forced change. To me, those two sentiments are incongruous. As far as the kids who expressed frustration, you know what, I think sometimes people can actually feel that they are willing to die. Lord knows none of us would be here today had no a whole hell of a lot of people decided, quite deliberately, to risk their lives for equality. Literally. I think those messages of frustration actually are deeper than what they appear on the surface. They may not be "just" expressions of frustration. How would what they are saying differ from someone who is saying, "I'm willing to die but I will not be a slave. I will not live as less than a human." What is the difference in expression. Surely these boys know that what they are saying, if they actually lived it out, could mean their death. But they live under the cloud of death everyday anyway, don't they? Perhaps these are attitudes that are needed. Live free or die. Or die with dignity (since
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you suspect you're going to die anyway). Or go down fighting. Or any other similar expression. Like you, I am not a black man. So I cannot know first hand the frustration and anger and sense of resignation or fight that they feel. But I will say, I understand it and wouldn't question it at all. They really are fighting for their lives. For the record, I am not a member of Courtesy Kos. Just so you know. Don't be stupid. It's election season. My patience is short. by mdmslle on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 10:44:33 AM PST [ Parent ]
I find this a vastly oversimplified (0+ / 0-) And cynical view. History is filled with examples of people in large numbers doing things because it is the right think to do. Hay hombres que luchan un dia, y son buenos Hay otros que luchan un ao, y son mejores Hay quienes luchan muchos aos, y son muy buenos. Pero hay los que luchan toda la vida. Esos son los imprescendibles. by Mindful Nature on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 09:00:22 PM PST [ Parent ]
If you think it's hopeless, (1+ / 0-) what harm does it do you to keep quiet, and let those who haven't given up do their best? What good does your comment do? "Okay, until next time. Keep sending me your questions, and I will make fun of you... I mean, answer them." - Strong Bad by AaronInSanDiego on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:49:11 PM PST [ Parent ]
For some perspective (11+ / 0-) i dug out this table which shows murder victims by age and gender from 2000 to 2008 Of 3,682 murder victims between 17 and 24, 2,510 victims were black. That is a demographic group making up roughly 10% of the US population is the victim of over two thirds of all murders. (Of these 3,682 murder victims, 522 were women). These stories shamikka brings are just the tip of the iceberg of a national crisis Hay hombres que luchan un dia, y son buenos Hay otros que luchan un ao, y son mejores Hay quienes luchan muchos aos, y son muy buenos. Pero hay los que luchan toda la vida. Esos son los imprescendibles. by Mindful Nature on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:35:56 PM PST
play the devils advocate for once... (1+ / 0-) ...you'll find yourself thinking: 'but how many of those black victims were killed by blacks?' and whether you have facts or not, you'll stop caring. by cauznfx on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:46:38 PM PST [ Parent ]
Why should anyone ever stop caring? nt (3+ / 0-) by FourthOfJulyAsburyPark on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:35:10 PM PST [ Parent ]
I think cauznfx is suggesting (1+ / 0-)
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or echoing shanikka's point that that is too often how the animalizing narrative works: by talking about black on black violence, there's a kind of animalizing at work that provides cover for those who don't care to justify not caring. (that is that the Devil's advocate would use that to rationalize a shrug) It's still people who are victims of people on people violence. Hay hombres que luchan un dia, y son buenos Hay otros que luchan un ao, y son mejores Hay quienes luchan muchos aos, y son muy buenos. Pero hay los que luchan toda la vida. Esos son los imprescendibles. by Mindful Nature on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:45:36 PM PST [ Parent ]
Thanks for the explanation. (1+ / 0-) I misunderstood it. by FourthOfJulyAsburyPark on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:30:46 PM PST [ Parent ]
that's presuming (2+ / 0-) I understood it correctly! :) Hay hombres que luchan un dia, y son buenos Hay otros que luchan un ao, y son mejores Hay quienes luchan muchos aos, y son muy buenos. Pero hay los que luchan toda la vida. Esos son los imprescendibles. by Mindful Nature on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 09:18:57 PM PST [ Parent ]
Wow... just wow... (14+ / 0-) That was by far the most moving, heart-wrenching, inspiring diary I have ever found here at DK. Thank you. I am a white woman with a 17-almost-18 year old son... and I live in Jacksonville, FL where Jordan Davis lived, and died. I am ashamed of my community, my, state, my country - where young men of color are routinely murdered and then demonized. I wept as I read your words. My son, right now, is out with friends ... were I a black mother I would hold my breath in fear until he returned home safely. That is just so totally, completely, unconscionably wrong. Your diary, along with others, should inspire us all to step up and take action to demand justice and turn this evil tide... thank you for rattling the saber. by KayeB in Florida on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:36:54 PM PST
How anybody could call themselves liberal or (24+ / 0-) progressive and suggest that rudeness or playing music too loud is even a mitigating factor in turning a firearm on a group of kids is beyond me. I wish you had linked the comments you referred to that suggested anything so asinine. Indeed, the only question should be does the gunslinging clown who killed Jordan Davis ever get to walk free again in this lifetime? I strongly lean to "no" as the correct answer. If there is no accountability for those who authorized torture, we can no longer say that we are a nation of laws, not men. by MikePhoenix on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:37:04 PM PST
I Did Not Link Comments (18+ / 0-) Because that is not necessary. They were made, and those who made them know who they are. Now they know what their unthinking reactions, truly reflective of the white privilege that allows all the deaths I've chronicled here to happen, led to -- this hopefully teaching moment.
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I hope it teaches them, but I don't need to make their identities public to the entire site to do that. Because they are not alone in their thinking here, I would bet my house on it. They are just the ones that spoke up. There are almost certainly 100x more who didn't. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:50:49 PM PST [ Parent ]
Thank you. (21+ / 0-) One of my girl friends cried when she found out she was having a boy. This was several years ago. I, being white, didn't get it--after all, she and her husband had tried for years to become parents--wasn't their dream coming true? She had to explain to me how she would live in fear for his life. Her young man is a teen-ager now--a senior in high school, a year younger than my son. He is brilliant and a wonderful guy. He is a gift to so many people by his care for young children and wants to go into teaching. And my friend still talks about her fear that it won't happen. There has been a young man in their neighborhood who has been shot. My son has never had a friend who has been shot. So very wrong. So very, very wrong. Peace, Hope, Faith, Love by mapamp on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:37:41 PM PST
I remember breathing a huge sigh of relief when (12+ / 0-) I found out 19 years ago that I was having a girl. Of course, being a black female has its issues (ask Susan Rice), but usually, getting shot isn't one of them. "If ye were blind, you would be without sin. But you say 'you see'; therefore, your sin remains" Quoted from that despised Socialist Jesus Christ. by Carlo408 on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:49:41 PM PST [ Parent ]
I Was Terrified (21+ / 0-) When I found out I was having a boy. I wanted only girls. I was frightened, because I knew the task of raising him would be twice as hard in this world, particularly given that no matter how white and Jewish my former husband and his father was, he would still be just another young Black man, someday. My son is 26 now. I meant what I wrote above - every day, I live in fear that one day my phone will ring, and he will be gone. Every single day. My grandson is only 4, and thus for now safe, but there will come a time when that will change and I will be doubly so. Just thinking about it too much cuts my breath off in my lungs sometimes to be honest. Which is a reason I wrote this diary. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:53:19 PM PST [ Parent ]
Thank you for this, shanikka (6+ / 0-) Thank you for explaining so clearly how it is to be the mother of a Black son. by Cardinal Fang on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:49:44 PM PST [ Parent ]
oh, god (10+ / 0-) She had to explain to me how she would live in fear for his life.
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I didn't get it. I've known this was going on but I didn't, I didn't really get it until I read this. I'm crying now and I can barely type this. by Batya the Toon on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:11:41 PM PST [ Parent ]
Is this what I've been missing (11+ / 0-) Just started following black kos community at the recommendation of a front page diary this is potent and would have been a shame to miss I consider myself well educated but see that I have a lot of learning to do...thanks for this "you may say I'm a dreamer, but I'm not the only one" by SMucci on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:38:44 PM PST
I wish to honor 16 year old Jeremiah Chass (45+ / 0-)
This young, black school valedictorian was murdered by law enforcement a few years ago after his parents called 911 to seek help due to a passing mental instability. He was unarmed aside from a small pen knife and was shot repeatedly by Sebastopol, CA police in front of his entire family. Jeremiah was a popular, loved young man who had no trouble with the law, who was vegan and who meditated daily. AA people represent less than 1% of this cities' population. He was a 16-year old student. He was shot seven times by two officers. They were acquited. One officer has seven prior offenses in his (closed) record. This may not have ever seen the light of day. He died at the hands of two grown police officers who were not used to seeing African-Americans very often outside of movies, apparently. The death was a stone cold tragedy. "Counsel woven into the fabric of real life is wisdom" - Walter Benjamin by mahakali overdrive on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:38:44 PM PST
He was a friend of those (24+ / 0-) I knew well. He had been in my own home at one point, although I hadn't been home. Do you know what that feels like? I can't speak of it. I lack words. "Counsel woven into the fabric of real life is wisdom" - Walter Benjamin by mahakali overdrive on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:44:47 PM PST [ Parent ]
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((((my mo)))) (5+ / 0-) This comment is dedicated to my mellow Adept2U and his Uncle Marcus by mallyroyal on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 08:23:04 AM PST [ Parent ]
Can you imagine? (2+ / 0-) I'll tell you more sometime about this privately. Beautiful young man, wasn't he? Seriously, I hear he was a sweetie pie. Sixteen. Fucking sixteen. Did you read the article below as to what happened? Do you know how much attention would have been paid to this if this wasn't in one of the deepest Blue and most liberal parts of the Country? Sadly, even there, it still happened. I didn't even post some of the others, and there were others. Ryan George was another one who broke my heart. I'll tell you about that privately as well. He wasn't shot, but he died of medical neglect. Click the <3 to join us on the Black Kos front porch to review news & views written from a black pov - everyone is welcome. by mahakali overdrive on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 09:33:59 PM PST [ Parent ]
I remember this incident (16+ / 0-) and I'm nominating the comment to Top Comments to honor him and this tremendously sad diary. Steven by Steveningen on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:49:14 PM PST [ Parent ]
Thank you very, very much (16+ / 0-) I should link to the reports, but honestly, they weren't thorough, and out of respect for his family and their lawsuit and their pain, all those who knew anything really tried to avoid inflaming the situation by correcting the official record. I understand he was just a lovely human being all around. What a loss. I will say one thing: I do believe the cop who killed him did so because he racially profiled Jeremiah. The community was horrified. It was one of the most Progressive communities in the Nation! This whole diary gives me chills. (((((((Steveningen))))))))) "Counsel woven into the fabric of real life is wisdom" - Walter Benjamin by mahakali overdrive on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:56:38 PM PST [ Parent ]
Oh I am So Sorry (21+ / 0-) I missed his story. I did. And he didn't deserve that from me. Or any of us. Thank you so much for telling his story. I will go up and add it. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:02:20 PM PST [ Parent ]
This whole diary, it's the same story (16+ / 0-) again and again and again :(
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It breaks my damned heart. You know? I can't even think about it sometimes. People say racism isn't important and isn't real? Then why are so many of the kids getting shot by white people black? There's a pattern, and every single white person has a massive responsibility to look up and address it with one another until the pattern is not a pattern anymore. And within this pattern, well, these are just individual lives we're talking about. It's the same old shit. The same old shit. "Counsel woven into the fabric of real life is wisdom" - Walter Benjamin by mahakali overdrive on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:05:00 PM PST [ Parent ]
Shanikka, here's a link to a decent story (12+ / 0-) about his life and what happened, with a few little flubs: http://www.metroactive.com/... It's the least spun one I've found. It's basically correct. The parents didn't want it to be discussed to much. You can see the racial dynamic discussed in the story there a bit more. And the community response (this happened in a VERY Progressive but very white community, which changed things up a bit -- still, cops got off). "Counsel woven into the fabric of real life is wisdom" - Walter Benjamin by mahakali overdrive on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:07:55 PM PST [ Parent ]
you don't have to be black to conclude this (18+ / 0-) I'm not sure that any rational Black person can conclude differently at this point.
"I'm sculpting now. Landscapes mostly." ~ Yogi Bear by eXtina on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:38:53 PM PST
nope (0+ / 0-) you sure don't. Just need the eyes you were born with. Hay hombres que luchan un dia, y son buenos Hay otros que luchan un ao, y son mejores Hay quienes luchan muchos aos, y son muy buenos. Pero hay los que luchan toda la vida. Esos son los imprescendibles. by Mindful Nature on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 07:35:53 PM PST [ Parent ]
Reading this (17+ / 0-) diary, I can only think of one thing: lynching. Same shit, different decade. Different century maybe. It's got to stop. Thank you for writing this, as hard to read as it was for me. by freedapeople on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:42:54 PM PST
that's exactly right, fp, 'LYNCHING' (2+ / 0-) It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything. ~~Joseph Stalin by SeaTurtle on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:34:55 PM PST [ Parent ]
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Heartfelt. Thanks for this. (3+ / 0-)
"There's a lot to be said for making people laugh. Did you know that that's all some people have? It isn't much, but it's better than nothing in this cockeyed caravan." --Joel McCrea as "Sully," in "Sullivan's Travels." by Wildthumb on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:44:33 PM PST
I refuse the unearned blame you are handing out. (2+ / 0-) I lost my friend Baby D this weekend. He was a 45 year old black man who ran a car washing business on the street. His altar is growing daily with candles and stuffed animals and signs because he was a remarkable person and loved. Baby D was killed by a young black man who was a drug dealer. It was a totally senseless death. I miss him every morning. I am crying every time I pass his door. I loved him. Everyone did. I am white. I killed no one. I oppressed no one. I worked for civil rights from the time I was 7 and had a "little brown girl experience." I am 69. Maybe your diary helps you and others who are reading it. Your diary adds to my pain. I did not need it this particular weekend that is for sure. I used to be Snow White. And then I drifted. - Mae West by CherryTheTart on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:46:13 PM PST
I am almost certain that the black man who killed (9+ / 0-) your friend will not escape prison and, depending on where you live, lethal injection. The same, unfortunately, can't be said in the cases in this diary. That is the big difference. The murders are always a shame, but the injustice that follows these murders is worse. That's the difference. No one life is more precious than another. It's a shame that I have to watch a special show in TV1 to find out about black children and adults who are missing. Remember the fury behind Jon Benet Ramsey? Beth Holloway? Peterson? Smart? When was the last time the media widely publicized a missing black woman? You think they don't exist? Think again. To make matters worse, its okay for a missing white kid's parents to make a fortune off of their children's murders, like Beth Holloway or the guy who hosts that show I can't recall. If Trayvon Martin's parents did that, you would be calling them golddiggers. Hell, i've read people accusing them of being after money now. "If ye were blind, you would be without sin. But you say 'you see'; therefore, your sin remains" Quoted from that despised Socialist Jesus Christ. by Carlo408 on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:54:21 PM PST [ Parent ]
I am in mourning for a murdered friend (1+ / 0-) . . . who in a fairer world would have been a CEO. Go preach at somebody else. I used to be Snow White. And then I drifted. - Mae West by CherryTheTart on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:02:40 PM PST [ Parent ]
Fair Enough (10+ / 0-) But I hope that when your grief isn't clouding your ability to hear what this diary is saying, you will realize how wrong your dismissiveness and defensiveness in response to this diary was. I didn't know your friend, obviously--but I do know Black men and I can't see clear to any of them reacting as you did, not even one that was your friend. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:41:23 PM PST [ Parent ]
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This diary is not about you. (22+ / 0-) Perhaps in your vulnerable state you shouldn't read things that add to your sense of pain and loss. You have my deepest sympathy, but I can't understand why you would want to comment on a diary like this in such a dismissive and defensive manner. There's nothing said here that diminishes you or the friend you lost to senseless violence. by miserychick on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:58:15 PM PST [ Parent ]
I am an American. (2+ / 0-) I have killed no one. I refuse to be blamed for racism in America as though I were the agent of it. I am most particularly not killing black people. I protest being addressed as though I am participating in racial murders by virtue of living in America and existing in myself. I used to be Snow White. And then I drifted. - Mae West by CherryTheTart on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:11:29 PM PST [ Parent ]
Sorry about your friend. (11+ / 0-) That is truly tragic also. I am so sorry for you. I cannot imagine this pain you must be feeling. I didn't take this diary as blaming me for racism. I just think she is describing what she feels is a tragic situation and wants people to see black boys/young men/men as people, like everyone else, not as criminals first and people second. You are both grieving the same thing, murder of an innocent. This is very, very sad. by rosarugosa on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:24:21 PM PST [ Parent ]
I agree. We are mourning the innocent oppressed. (1+ / 0-) I do not blame the drug dealer. I do not blame anyone. Life is not fair. And then you die. I used to be Snow White. And then I drifted. - Mae West by CherryTheTart on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:31:21 PM PST [ Parent ]
I Don't Blame Any of us for Racism (10+ / 0-) Since of course we are all born into this racist culture and learn its overt and unspoken lessons very well. All of us, no matter what race. I do blame us, however, when we do not work on ridding ourselves of it. Something that is not accomplished by having black friends or singing Kumbaya, but being vigilant and soul-searching and morally honest about our own role in perpetuating racism and institutionalized racism each and every day. For the rest of our lives. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:11:27 PM PST [ Parent ]
amen (3+ / 0-) Comfort the afflicted. Afflict the comfortable. by FindingMyVoice on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 08:27:52 AM PST [ Parent ]
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You are not honoring your friend's memory (3+ / 0-) He would likely be quite hurt at the way you're using his tragic death to deny the existence of institutionalized racism in America. There's clearly something about this diary that's hitting a very raw nerve for you. I'm certainly not without sympathy for the sad loss of your dear friend and the pain it has caused you. However, you are looking at the beautiful faces above and seeing nothing but your own reflection. It's a reaction of pure vanity and although I don't know you, based on your history I suspect you're better than this. Step back and think about what it really is about the truths that are spoken here that upset you so and try to use this opportunity to learn and grow. by miserychick on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:06:38 PM PST [ Parent ]
Exactly right! (0+ / 0-) I'm frankly stunned at the rank hypocrisy in saying "One day, someone will explain to me why it continues to be perfectly OK in liberal and conservative circles alike to prejudge 80% of a population on what is, at best, the conduct of 20%" WHILE BLAMING ALL WHITE AMERICANS FOR THE VILE ACTIONS AND STATEMENTS OF A VOCAL MINORITY OF THEM. To the diary author: I AM NOT your enemy. I DO NOT hate you. I DO NOT approve of those who do. I DO NOT support their violence or their hatred. I'm not perfect, but I do my best to treat all human beings the best way that I can. Can you please stop accusing me now? And I'm not "privileged" or "entitled" or "powerful" either. Most of us aren't. Just because most powerful people are white males that doesn't mean that most white males are powerful people. Quite the opposite, in fact, they don't call them "the 1%" for nothing. Here's a news flash for you: The 1% LOVES when race or gender or sexuality or religion or any other thing divides the 99% and turns them on each other instead of looking at who's really fucking the world over. It keeps the heat off of them. You want me to stop distrusting you, how about you extend me the same courtesy? I'm on your side. We're all in the same frying pan. But as long as we cannot unite, we cannot ever work together to stop the real perpetrators of injustice and inequality. "Is there anybody listening? Is there anyone who sees what's going on? Read between the lines, criticize the words they're selling. Think for yourself, and feel the walls become sand beneath your feet." --Geoff Tate, Queensryche by DarthMeow504 on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 11:24:15 PM PST [ Parent ]
suggest strongly that you read more (13+ / 0-) about what white privilege is. Your response is very defensive. Perhaps you should also look into achieved status vs. ascribed status. One has the possibility of changing social class in this society - class is achieved. Rarely (unless "passing") can one change the ascribed status of "race". So, for example, a wealthy, upper middle class black person is still the target of "driving while black". If you're in a coalition and you're comfortable, you know it's not a broad enough coalition" Bernice Johnson Reagon by Denise Oliver Velez on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 12:30:36 AM PST [ Parent ]
I'm Sorry You're So Offended (11+ / 0-) Not sure why you'd even write 1/2 of what you did (Did I say whites were "the enemy?" Did I say that only whites were to blame? I most certainly did
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not--feel free to quote me if you disagree) but it's not surprising; it evinces the same unthinking defensiveness that undergirds white supremacy in America. As far as you conditioning your trust of "me" (I presume you mean Black people, since I'm not a Black male and that's what this diary is about) on anything you first justify why you had any rational basis to distrust us AT ALL. I have 400+ years of American history to justify mistrust and hatred of whites if I chose to think like that (which I most certainly do not.) Including at least 35 years since I became enlightened of events in my own personal life. What do you got to justify your privileged assumption that someone has to prove anything to you as a condition of you giving another human being respect? I personally agree with you about the 99% vs. 1%. But that is not what is killing the young men I wrote about, economics. What is killing them is racism. We will unite when folks like you stop behaving as if you have the right to decide what is most important and stop getting your panties in a knot when someone challenges your white privileged way of viewing problems in the world. by shanikka on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 05:11:55 AM PST [ Parent ]
Racism IS economic (1+ / 0-) You clearly don't get it. Let me reiterate. WE ARE ON THE SAME SIDE. Understand? The division between us is imaginary and in fact deliberate misinformation sown for the insidious purpose of keeping the people divided amongst themselves instead of focused on the true enemy. Remember "divide and conquer"? It's still being done. Skin color is a meaningless division. Sexual preference is a meaningless division. Many of the other things that divide our nation are artificial and deliberately created to sow infighting among the masses and deflect attention from the real issues. I DON'T CARE what skin color a murder victim was, or what color their killer was. I am AGAINST the murderer and FOR the victim, period. I always have been. I want this scumbag nailed to the wall for what he did. Because I'm against murderers and for innocent people. Period. The racial frame is garbage and MUST be discarded for progress. It's as meaningless and nonsensical as saying "a brown haired man was killed by a man with red hair". The difference is, this artificial division between brown skin and pink skin has hundreds of years of propaganda and myth supporting it. Race is a lie. It's a deliberate lie, perpetrated by the powerful to divide those without power and keep them fighting and hating and distrusting one another instead of the powerful. That's the reason we're culturally trained to even notice a difference and base imaginary groups around them. It serves the purpose of the rich and powerful that are screwing us ALL. This diary is laden with racial prejudice. It presumes I am a member of a privileged group when I'm not, it presumes I have power when I don't, it presumes I possesses a status that I don't. It presumes I hold feelings about people with brown skin that I don't. It casts brown skinned people vs pinkish skinned people as "us" vs "you" and asking "you" to stop killing "us". NO ONE HERE IS KILLING ANYBODY! How hard is that to understand? Do you have the first clue how insulting the very question is? I'm not killing anyone, I'm not hurting anyone, and I'm not hating anyone. Period. At all. Stop accusing me of it! Stop declaring me your enemy! A murdering scumbag who may or may not have been motivated by racial mythology killed an innocent person in an act of unprovoked murder. THAT is the fact of the issue. It's not a group that I belong to attacking a group that you belong to. There are no groups. I'm
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not any different than you are. We're in the SAME group to the extent that one exists. We're both citizens of the sociopolitical construct called the United States. That's it. Everything else is a lie. When you look at a fellow citizen, a fellow progressive, who was born with pinkish skin, and think they're a "them" that's against "you", you're buying into the myth. You're viewing me with distrust, accusation, and yes prejudice. You prejudge me as different than you, you prejudge me as against you by nature. It's not true! WE ARE THE SAME. WE ARE ON THE SAME SIDE. Open your eyes. As long as we buy into these myths that divide us, we cannot act in unison. We squander our attention and efforts in self-defeating infighting. And that's exactly how the 1% wants it. The myth of "black" vs "white" was deliberately created and instilled to first justify and support the institution of slavery, which allowed rich and powerful landowners to operate their agriculture businesses with free labor. It was perpetuated to create an underclass for the lower class "white" people to look down on and hate and blame for all manner of ills both real and imagined. After all, it's hard to focus on the real oppressor when you're busy resenting your fellow victim. It also served to create an illusion of solidarity between the majority of the lower class who could claim "white status" in common with the rich ownership class, and the illusion that the interests of the rich ownership class were those of the "white" lower class. They never have been and never will be, but as long as they can keep poor "whites" thinking they're in an "us" group with their oppressors and their fellow oppressed are an other, "them" group, then it serves the interests of the oppressors. Just the same, the myth of "white privilege" keeps members of the oppressed class with brown skin thinking their fellow oppressed with pinkish skin have something they don't that needs to be taken away in the name of equality. Oh no, my scraps might be bigger than your scraps! Except they might not be. And no matter what, we're still the dogs at the feet of the masters fighting for the fallen scraps from the feast going on above our heads. Stop growling at me, my fellow dog, and fight WITH me against the rich psychopathic leeches keeping us ALL on their leash! "Is there anybody listening? Is there anyone who sees what's going on? Read between the lines, criticize the words they're selling. Think for yourself, and feel the walls become sand beneath your feet." --Geoff Tate, Queensryche by DarthMeow504 on Tue Dec 04, 2012 at 03:08:22 PM PST [ Parent ]
Your defensiveness is disturbing. (3+ / 0-) I don't consider myself an animal, yet the MSM constantly colors the world's perception of people who look like me and I happen to look like as such. And with that, I know who I am and what applies to me and what doesn't. Simply put, if it doesn't apply to you, it's not about you. However to continue to ignore the institutionalization of racism -- particularly as it pertains to Black people is why we as a society will continue to devolve. by smoothnmellow on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 11:20:25 AM PST [ Parent ]
And this diary is not about you. (1+ / 0-) So why you would presume that this diary is somehow blaming you is a wild extrapolation. I think that your grief is really clouding your judgment of this thread, because it's not about the same things. by smoothnmellow on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 11:15:03 AM PST [ Parent ]
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We Collectively Have Earned it, as a Country (22+ / 0-) But I really could care less than you "reject" your own personal responsibility for the culture that allows these men to die. I am very sorry about your friend. But I wonder, if he were still here, if he himself wouldn't say how self-centered your thinking is right now. He wouldn't be more worried about the fact that he (like most murder victims) died at the hands of someone of his own race than on the never-ending litany of Black children who are killed. Indeed, given his age I'm saying it's odds on he would have applauded this diary, since of course he had to live with this phenomena, all his life too. And the deep seated fear and sadness it causes in Black men, even the most homebody, conservative Black men. I'm sorry you didn't need this pain. But maybe between that pain and the pain of losing your friend, you'll learn something you need to learn and grow. I pray you will. And that your friend rests in peace. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:06:14 PM PST [ Parent ]
I do not shoulder unearned guilt. (0+ / 0-) You are using a hunting metaphor as in "open season." Who do you visualize as the "hunters." Me. White people? All of America? Bad and insulting metaphor. I used to be Snow White. And then I drifted. - Mae West by CherryTheTart on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:25:05 PM PST [ Parent ]
You are missing the point she is making. (9+ / 0-) She is being honest with the reader and the statistics bear out what she is saying. She is saying to the reader please recognize that these people are people and something is wrong if so many people are dying like this. Don't take it so personally. She is not saying that it is your fault. by rosarugosa on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:33:13 PM PST [ Parent ]
You Know (16+ / 0-) I just realized that this isn't the first time you've reacted so defensively to a diary someone has written about institutionalized racism in America. Your grief is obviously a unique factor in your responses today, and again I am truly sorry that you lost a friend (BTW, you keep mentioning that "he could have been a CEO" which feels really uncomfortable to read--why is this so significant to you? Do you think that it said anything about his value as a human being more than if he was a blue collar laborer, as most Black men are? I certainly don't and I didn't even know him). I'm sorry you don't see how you are not honoring the memory of your Black male friend reacting so defensively and angrily as you are here. He too had to live with the fears and terrors I've described, I've no doubt in my mind. And I wonder what he would have said to you had he lived to see or hear (assuming you shared this type of thing with him) your reaction to the type of news that is chronicled in this diary. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:46:42 PM PST [ Parent ]
Cherry, it's been "open season" (10+ / 0-) for centuries. There was a time killing a black man was no matter to anyone off the plantation. Your money, do what you wish with it. Other groups have enjoyed this phenomenon over the years. Irish, Italians, Mexicans, Chinese. All but the black man rose above that chattel property status. For Native Americans? A bounty was paid for their
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deaths. Much could be said about today's young black man being the new Native, hunted-down and killed. For a brief moment in history, the Black Panther Party and the Deacons for Defense and Justice sought to make legitimate the rights of African-Americans to be equally armed, as white America. That the forces who preyed-upon peaceable black citizens should, regardless of color of law, be fearful for violating the right of peaceful co-existence. That a black community would imbue physical and legislative fear into those who would prey-upon it, equal to any white community. Those days ended in 1968, when the Government passed the Gun Control Act of 1968, and saw to the disarming of a number of black citizens, and citizen groups. It's been "open season" for a very long time. My sincere sorrow for your friend Baby D's death. by 43north on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:37:41 PM PST [ Parent ]
It was my sister's job to water the flowers. (7+ / 0-) She did not do it, the flowers are dying. I will water the flowers, not out of guilt, but because I want the flowers to live. by howabout on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:55:20 PM PST [ Parent ]
I think that in times of mourning, it is very hard (2+ / 0-) to be giving, and is normal to be self-centered. The loss is very great for everyone who experiences loss of loved ones. You are right, shanikka, that this is a terrible thing that has gone on for far too long in our country. But, it is always horrible to lose a family member, especially a child, no matter the color of the person. This has been going on for a long time and is frightening and sad and horrible. Your diary is a good one. by rosarugosa on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:30:02 PM PST [ Parent ]
Oh Shanikka, why do you make me look (15+ / 0-) At these faces? Remind me of my worst fears that I try not to even acknowledge? Today my daughter had a really good talk with her not-cousin, my godson, about their perspectives on meeting their birth families. He is bright, sensitive and insightful, and has been a great support to my girl recently. They're both in middle school, and although they've been friends since infancy this is the start of a more mature way of relating. He is no longer the cute little boy I carried on my hip...he's 5'9". 180 pounds. Faster than greased lightning ( when we had trouble finding an open restroom this summer in Central Park, his moms sent him on an urgent sprint mission and he was back before he left :). And, by the way, black. And that last item endangers his life in this crazy, cruel nation. We cut the hoods off his hoodies last spring. But there's going to be loud music and sass...he's a boy child. Some days I can't bear that I live in a society in which he is at risk of violence from folks who see only the color of his skin. Parent. Entrepreneur. Cancer patient. Moose tracker. by PhoenixRising on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:48:01 PM PST
Such needless, heedless slaughter. (10+ / 0-) I knew this diary was coming, and all I could bring myself to do was skim it.
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With every photo of yet another young Black mother's son, Wings has been sitting here asking me, "Who's that?" Until he realized what the common theme was. Heartbreaking, soul-crushing . . . and utterly enraging. Authentic Native American silverwork, jewelry, photography, and other art here. by Aji on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:48:53 PM PST
This is so powerful, shanikka and so (13+ / 0-) gut wrenching to read each biography. So much lost, not only for their families, but for us -- their potential and what they might have become. And you're right, 'sorry' and the like just doesn't do it. Each of us needs to speak out for justice -- each and everyone of us. by joanbrooker on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:50:03 PM PST
Moving and sad. Thank you shanikka. (8+ / 0-) by FourthOfJulyAsburyPark on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:51:57 PM PST
Horrible (4+ / 0-) This is such an unnecessary tragedy. This horrible stand your ground law must be repealed. All it does is give bigots license to kill anyone they don't like. How many innocent children do we have to lose before people wake up and demand action? I am so saddened by this horrible tragedy. People will always remember how you made them feel. by imeanit on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:57:00 PM PST
Most of these Deaths (9+ / 0-) Had nothing to do with "stand your ground" laws. Stand your ground laws just make it more overt, perhaps, that the culture has made a value calculus and decided which lives matter, and which don't, when it comes to young Black men. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:18:17 PM PST [ Parent ]
wow (10+ / 0-) one of, if not the, greatest DKos diaries I've ever seen or read Shout golden shouts! by itsbenj on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:57:47 PM PST
As a white woman, I can not know what (4+ / 0-) it's like to live with such a horrifying risk. But I know this--if my son was black, I would not live in this country. I would do my research, find the nation with the least racial violence, and get the hell out. I know that would be cowardly. I know it would amount to letting the racists win. But I could not live with that fear. All of you who do have my everlasting respect. "The Democrats are the lesser evil and that has to count for something. Good and evil aren't binary states. All of us are both good and evil. Being less evil is the trajectory of morality." --SC by tb92 on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:00:13 PM PST
I don't see why black couples.... (1+ / 0-) ...seeing how the world is against them, ever decide to have children at all. It seems that, unless their mixed race, they fall into a downward spiral in this country. C o g i t oE r g oD e m
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by Carbon on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:00:26 PM PST
For the same reason persecuted people (8+ / 0-) have always had to not lie down and die. by Batya the Toon on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:15:40 PM PST [ Parent ]
Thank you, Shanikka (16+ / 0-) I hope you don't mind, I'm tweeting this as I'm reading it. It will take me a while to read.But I wanted to thank you, say hi and tell you how much I appreciate your writing. by allie123 on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:01:16 PM PST
Thank you for your diary /n/t (6+ / 0-) Tweet Us by 123idaho on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:03:03 PM PST
My heart is breaking (5+ / 0-) I'll never have to deal with any of this but my heart is breaking for you. I worried about my son when he was a teenager - they do stupid things. But I never worried he would be shot to death for no reason. I can't imagine the agony of that. I will carry this diary with me for a long time - thank you for your honesty . by RadGal70 on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:03:49 PM PST
I am disgusted (7+ / 0-) As a white woman and mother I am disgusted that anyone could think it is okay to kill our children. These assholes with guns need to be stopped. No mother or father should lose a child to a racist, hateful bastard. by Linda S on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:04:38 PM PST
Thank you for diarying so eloquently (7+ / 0-) When I read the stories about this latest crime, I was horrified. Who cares about loud music? If it's not in front of your house, drive away. If the boys in the car had had a gun, it would have been their right, no, in 2nd-amendmentloving-America? Or do only white men have a right to self-defense? Either way, the shooter instigated the confrontation that led to murder. As the mother of a mixed-race child, I'm almost grateful my son doesn't look black. But my nephew does. And I fear for him, even though he's only 5 years old! Change has to come. The civil rights, gay rights and women's movements, designed to allow others to reach for power previously grasped only by white men, have made a real difference, and the outlines of 21st century America have emerged. -- Paul West of LA Times by LiberalLady on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:05:56 PM PST
tears (7+ / 0-)
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Bruce Springsteen - American Skin (41 Shots) (L...
by nicejoest on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:07:58 PM PST
Reading your diary reminds me (3+ / 0-) of how sad I've been this last year when we read this essay in my classes that we have current events to back Brent Staples' thesis: "Black Men and Public Space" I'm so sorry for that, but I hope my students can at least leave my class more aware and hopefully transformed. by Maple Jenny on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:09:51 PM PST
Shanikka, great diary. This is very tragic. (6+ / 0-) Very tragic. Good job writing about it and please don't think that everyone doesn't care. Some people do care. Like me. by rosarugosa on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:10:44 PM PST
What beautiful faceswhat losses to humanity. (13+ / 0-) What a tragedy for us all. I feel helpless.
Is it true? Is it kind? Is it necessary? . . . and respect the dignity of every human being. by Wee Mama on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:14:40 PM PST
This also reminds me of a friend's story (8+ / 0-) About traveling from the South to visit his brother in NY. On the way, he was pulled over my cops several times. He'd done nothing wrong, was never issued a ticket -- he was just driving a nice car. Then we he got to NY, and went to the intersection at 96 & Broadway to meet his brother, suddenly, he found himself surrounding my four cop cars. The cops emerged, guns drawn. My friend thought his life was over. The cops? They were looking for a robbery suspect that fit his description. What thief do you know would stand in the middle of an intersection, advertising himself? The cops checked my friend's ID, and sent him on his way. It could have been different. If he'd reached for his wallet, he might have been shot. What a horrible experience. Black men should be paid reparations for the last 500 years of harrassment alone!!!!!!!!!!!! Okay, I'm pissed. The civil rights, gay rights and women's movements, designed to allow others to reach for power previously grasped only by white men, have made a real difference, and the outlines of 21st century America have emerged. -- Paul West of LA Times by LiberalLady on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:15:05 PM PST
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Excellent thanks (2+ / 0-)
(R's) take those tired memes and shove 'em, Denise Velez Oliver, 11/7/2012. by a2nite on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:21:02 PM PST
Piercing (11+ / 0-) Thank you for this howl of grief and outrage. And for the photograph of your son holding your grandson, which brings me to tears again just thinking about it as I write. And for all the faces and the reminders of who they were, individually. And for the reminder that we can't give in to hopelessness or helplessness, that there is something we can do, to proclaim: The truth that the overwhelming majority of young Black men (and the even larger majority of Black men in general) are law abiding, peaceful, wonderful men. When the message is clear and unsullied in a nation's collective voice that these children are valued and loved and can expect that the white majority will neither demonize them in death nor excuse away the perpetrators upon them, but will instead hold individual perpetrators and this society's institutional racism as a whole accountable without any excuses, it will likely stop.
"Diversity is, in action, the sometimes painful awareness that other people, other races, other voices, other habits of mind have as much integrity of being, as much claim on the world as you do." William Chase by Maine Islander on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:21:11 PM PST
I Debated for a Long Time (10+ / 0-) Including their photos, but then I realized that they are the reason this subject doesn't just make me sad and angry, but literally unable to breathe sometimes, and that it was important I let folks know that this subject is not just about "others" to me. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:50:33 PM PST [ Parent ]
I think you made the right choice. (6+ / 0-) Though to say "right" in any way in connection with the subject of your diary seems inappropriate somehow. These beautiful, tender-faced young men. Beloved by their families, enjoyed by their friends, encouraged by their communities--and now gone, for no good reason, no real reason at all. Except, as you say, the deeply-ingrained aspect of American racism that makes the life of a young black man worth little. I completely agree with your thesis, shanikka, that the culture as a whole fosters an attitude of hatred and fear toward black men, and seeks to dehumanize them at every turn. We should all be mindful of these fine young men and the loss their murders represent. Seeing their faces brings it home powerfully. Every pointless death diminishes us, especially when there is no justice for those who have been killed. But for those who live with daily, direct awareness of that reality, for themselves or for those they love, it is an intolerable burden. Long past, LONG past time for it to be enough. I'm seeking to organize DKos members in SE Michigan--roughly, from the Ohio line at Lake Erie NE to Port Huron, W to Flint and back S from there. If you'd like to join our new group, Motor City Kossacks (working title), please Kosmail me. by peregrine kate on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:03:40 PM PST [ Parent ]
Putting a face on it is important. (4+ / 0-) It makes the diary more difficult to read, emotionally, but it should be difficult
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to read. It drives home the feeling that a real life was extinguished, not an abstraction. That people lost individuals about whom they truly loved and cared. It makes it urgent. by FourthOfJulyAsburyPark on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:47:57 PM PST [ Parent ]
Killing the flower of our youth (9+ / 0-) We still have such a long way to go. Shirley Chisholm was right. Our Republic is in deep trouble. by Big River Bandido on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:23:00 PM PST
I agree, stop killing them (1+ / 0-) What practical steps do you think would help to accomplish this? Do you think the gangsta image promoted in popular music contributes to the stereotype of young black men as violent street gang criminals ? The Fierce Urgency of Later by Faroutman on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:23:13 PM PST
As Noted in this Diary (13+ / 0-) This has been going on for decades. Long before any such thing as "gangsta music" existed. These stereotypes predate the 20th century. So, no I don't think "gangsta music" has anything to do with it. I think that racists use "gangsta music" as an excuse to think and believe what they (like all of us) have learned over hundreds of years of culture: Black people, Black men, are beasts. Violent. Subhuman. Not worth caring about. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:52:19 PM PST [ Parent ]
I respect your opinion (0+ / 0-) But I have to disagree somewhat, to the extent that the music and the videos cross cultures and are effective in saturating the mass consciousness. And they definitely reinforce a negative stereotype. I think they may reinforce already vague stereotypes held by people who have no direct contact or exposure to the real lives of real people different than their own. That does not negate your point that racism of this type has deep roots from long ago. The Fierce Urgency of Later by Faroutman on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:04:16 PM PST [ Parent ]
I also noted in the descriptions of the (1+ / 0-) young men who were killed that nearly all were killed by police officers and most avoided prosecution by being shielded by the color of law. How do we stop that? The Fierce Urgency of Later by Faroutman on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:29:04 PM PST [ Parent ]
Sending More than a Handful to Prison (7+ / 0-) And calling out as shameful those who come to their defense and make excuses for them might be a good start.
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by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:15:05 PM PST [ Parent ]
Agreed. (1+ / 0-) The Fierce Urgency of Later by Faroutman on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:28:33 PM PST [ Parent ]
"Gangsta" image. Riiiiight. (7+ / 0-) Because Billie Holiday's gardenia was like a magical talisman that warded off lynchings in the negro community. If rappers would just pull up their pants and stop making angry faces, we will all be saved! Brilliant. eyeroll. "It's not enough to acknowledge privilege. You have to resist." -soothsayer by GenXangster on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 05:38:24 AM PST [ Parent ]
I have a dear friend in D.C. (12+ / 0-) Her name's Maria. She a former journalist, African-American, now works for one of the more kick-ass prog orgs, a lovely woman and a delight to be around. Not least because she's way smarter than me or most people, frankly. She also has two boys, pre-teens, great kids. After the Trayvon murder, she was so scared for her boys that she launched a petition on Change that ultimately got over half a million signatures. No mother should have to go through that kind of fear, ever. Not her, not you, no one. It is heartbreaking. Dehumanizing. Nor should you have to deal with the commentary you describe, not here. Ever. If there is anything at all I could do, say, organize, write, you name it, to help change this, please, ask. I'll do it. Fuck you, I put on pants yesterday. by MBNYC on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:28:03 PM PST
After Trayvon's and Jordan's killings (10+ / 0-) I posted on Facebook that we have to lock up our male children in our homes just to keep them safe. The streets are brutal, even in the places where they should be protected. That stand your ground law is a license to murder innocent people. It has got to go! Nice job, Sister Shanikka. But going through this roster of the dead is too depressing. Time to take an ativan and pray for peace and sanity, especially for our children and young adults. - 7.38, - 5.23 I President Obama! by CocoaLove on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:28:26 PM PST
We now have an African American at the helm. (1+ / 0-) It does (or should) make a difference. If not, then who do we blame? by Mike Taylor on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:32:21 PM PST
Why Should it Make a Difference? (6+ / 0-) I'm curious what your thinking is behind this, so can you elaborate? by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:58:55 PM PST
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[ Parent ]
There has been lots of debate about (0+ / 0-) the effectiveness of the bully-pulpit. That aside, IMHO (and from the outside looking in) an AA president would have to be pretty disconnected to not at least mention some of the tragedies stemming from the racial injustices of US courts/law enforcement, which by default contribute to (i.e. allow) tragedies of racial injustices to continue within the US general population. This might be a stretch, but set up commission (i.e. similar to the debt commission) dealing with racial injustices of US courts/law enforcement systems. They have to be lined out first, before we can start dealing with whats been allowed to go on within the general population (with few if any repercussions). He could at least talk about it. To fix these kinds of problems, we have to have a leader of some kind. A leader in the form of a president wouldnt be the worst choice. by Mike Taylor on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:37:13 PM PST [ Parent ]
He Did, Once (11+ / 0-) I do recall vividly the day that President Obama spoke about Trayvon Martin. I also recall how vilified he was in the press for it. I also recall it as being the first time that I personally saw evidence that President Obama was very angry. Even as he was also very sad and resigned.
He does have the bully pulpit and I do wish he would talk about this, especially now that he no longer has to worry about possibly alienating votes. But I also believe that the President subscribes to some of the same myths about Black manhood himself, given some of his public statements (not a surprise; there's no magic wall that shields Black folks from absorbing the horrific cultural messages about our own people) and, thus, this may also be a reason he hasn't, and won't. As far as commissions go, respectfully I'm not interested. When it comes to racial issues, they have proven singularly useless and sometimes outright harmful. I'm interested in seeing some folks do serious time in prison and in seeing the friends and families of those doing the murdering and those making excuses for the murdering stand up and say "ENOUGH" and make it stick. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:20:02 PM PST [ Parent ]
We can't risk him being vilified in the press, (0+ / 0-) the same press that is controlled by the same establishment that continues to allow (and sometime condone) tragedies of racial injustice. We should understand that an establishment-controlled press is naturally going to vilify anyone who challenges the establishment. How many great presidents have been vilified in the press? If the threat of being vilified in the press works, the establishment wins, by silencing its opposition (and the truth). Is not wanting the president to be vilified in the press worth allowing the truth to be silenced? by Mike Taylor on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:40:35 PM PST [ Parent ]
yeah, Mike but the establishment (3+ / 0-) is trying hard to hold the rudder fast and not let the AA at the helm steer the ship of state, ya know what I mean? I trust that you have noticed how Obama has been treated since being in office? Have you ever seen in your lifetime or know about in history books, the seething hatred aimed at him as President or the utter disrespect shown towards him as President even in the Congressional chambers?
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Your comment is rather chilling. It does (or should) make a difference . If not, then who do we blame? Either you have not being paying attention to how he has been treated or have not understood what has been going on. It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything. ~~Joseph Stalin by SeaTurtle on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:02:00 PM PST [ Parent ]
I have seen the hatred before - twice - but (1+ / 0-) not the same level of utter disrespect and contempt. If it's Not your body, Then it's Not your choice And it's None of your damn business! by TheOtherMaven on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 12:14:56 AM PST [ Parent ]
Dear shannika, my heart aches... (11+ / 0-) ... for these children and for their families. Thank you for this profoundly powerful diary. by Joy of Fishes on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:32:22 PM PST
The Worst Legacy of Racisim: (7+ / 0-) The subjugation of black men to the white racist will and the death that follows. There are over 2 million human beings in Americas prisons, no more salvery, but we still deal with this very negative consequence of our history. Owning another human being was the accepted policy of this country. It is long overdue that we discuss all the facets of racism and change things for all the good of all our people, but especially for young black men who are so vulnerable to the loss of their lives. We can not let backward white men run things any more; they have had their day. We must all step up to do what needs to be done, such as electing Obama and keep with the needed changes for a long time to come by fighting for the right to have jobs, health care, and laws that help all of us sustain our lives. Point Acorn by Boston Beans on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:54:46 PM PST
Tearing up as I read the names (1+ / 0-) of these young men, most of them not even the thirty years of age. Lets call these killings what they really are: Holocaust, a genocide against Black men. by rem123 on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:01:20 PM PST
so tragic, so unnecessary... (1+ / 0-) heartbreaking by Pandoras Box on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:03:15 PM PST
Africa Hope (4+ / 0-) A young lady I taught a few years back was shot in Over the Rhine (Cincinnati) Such a loss for her grandmother who tried to provide a home.
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I'm just here for the Mojo!
by Gator on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:07:51 PM PST
Amazing diary (2+ / 0-) It's like some police officers are using their uniform as anew brand of the KKK. It is sad that there are even laws on the book now, passed by republicans, that make it perfectly legal to kill someone, if you just feel threatened. The race relations in this country has diminished since President Obama was first elected. It is not his fault but the fault of the tea party republicans who spread wild conspiracy theories that go unchecked by the mainstream media. by thatpj on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:14:49 PM PST
Police Officers (8+ / 0-) Did not kill Trayvon Martin, Darius Simmons or Jordan Davis. So while certainly this phenomena is most often seen with regard to racist police overreaction, these three deaths -- all this year--at the hands of white civilians whose political affiliation we don't know (and which is frankly irrelevant) is food for thought as well. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:31:57 PM PST [ Parent ]
I am petrified (18+ / 0-) As a white man with two African-American sons I am terrified of what they face today and will face when they become grown men and move into the world on their own. I am trying to prepare them, I have several black friends and co-workers who help me with things to say, but I have never LIVED what they are going to face. I fear they do not believe what some people are going to think about them and do not believe that they are sometimes in more danger from the police than they are from other violence. www.dailykos.com is America's Blog of Record by WI Deadhead on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:24:51 PM PST
My Son Didn't Believe it Either (21+ / 0-) 1/2 of him still doesn't. I think it's because no one from his inner circle of friends has been killed yet, to be honest. The number of versions of "The Talk" I've had with him over his 26 year lifetime is legion, but he's mouthy and is definitely smart and a believer in his "rights." Helping him understand how asserting his rights might well put him in the ground someday has been a huge part of our relationship since he became a teenager. Part of this is because his father is white and comes from privilege--and acts like it at times. Sons model their fathers. This is usually a good thing, but when a white father is not particularly careful, their children might indvertently end up more at risk. I'd recommend however painful actually discussing with your sons that thanks to racism, there are things that you do, that they should be able to do, that they simply can't and that it is critical for them to understand that while it isn't right, you are trying to protect them because you love them so. Have other Black men in their lives talk to them, too. My son, having two extremely welleducated parents, was raised confident in his abilities and skils -- and his rights. But eventually (especially as he now is a father himself) he listened, and acquiesced to what we were saying to him in ways that were hard for him from age 13-18 or so. I can't help you with the really hard part though - your heart breaking after it's all said and done and you've taught them and realize that you should have never had to. Keep at it. Keep loving them and keeping them safe. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:38:27 PM PST [ Parent ]
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{{{shanikka}}} (14+ / 0-) Your son and little grandson are so beautiful...and so are you. I know this wasn't easy for you to write. This poem reminds me of you... Arundhati Roy Quote: "To love, to be loved....."
Arundhati Roy Quote: "To love, to be loved....."
I know you have "never looked away", nor have you "forgotten". by Annalize5 on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:17:27 PM PST [ Parent ]
Thank You (9+ / 0-) I think they are beautiful, but admittedly I am biased. I carried one close to my heart for 9 months, and feel that the other passed indirectly by it as well. Yet I think all the young men whose pictures and stories underlie this diary were beautiful. They deserved to be seen, not just thought about. Thank you for the lovely, heart balm of the poem. Once I used to be a poet; my talents in that medium are no longer what it used to be and I remain sad about that. But I still love poetry and that someone would respond to my diary by sharing a poem leaves me feeling very honored. Thank you. by shanikka on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 05:18:06 AM PST [ Parent ]
Yes, they were. (1+ / 0-) Yet I think all the young men whose pictures and stories underlie this diary were beautiful. They deserved to be seen, not just thought about. I read your entire diary. The sadness and sense of helplessness it evoked by just reading your accounting of these tragedies was beyond anything that I would be able to describe with ordinary words. But you've spoken the language of the deep soul, of deep calling to deep and many heard and cried and mourned with you. I suppose the saddest thing for me was your needing to use the past tense, "were", to speak of these children. by Annalize5 on Tue Dec 04, 2012 at 01:50:32 PM PST [ Parent ]
thank you (12+ / 0-) there are so many things that threaten our children - this particular danger leaves me feeling helpless and angry.
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we went to a haunted house in rural Wisconsin and had an interesting experience. There were signs saying that no weapons are allowed and everyone will be wanded. My oldest just happened (!) to notice that we were the only ones wanded. He was angry and I told him to get used to it and always stay in control. "It is not fair but it is the way it is. Do not ever give authority a reason to escalate. If it escalates you will always lose." www.dailykos.com is America's Blog of Record by WI Deadhead on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:43:13 PM PST [ Parent ]
I cannot fathom the kind of blind hatred a (2+ / 0-) racist who would murder a child or unarmed, innocent person must be consumed with...how can the color of a person's skin be any justification for that kind of depraved evil? Why is it that so many people in this country are so ethically and morally stunted that they cannot recognize what an evil thing the murders of these young men are? I am sick and tired of hearing people make excuses for this kind of shit. by tonyahky on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:29:00 PM PST
This is heartbreaking. (3+ / 0-) Thanks for this diary, it is beautifully written and necessary. I pray it changes some hearts and minds. My first year as a high school teacher, I had a conversation with some of my students about discrimination and stereotyping. The three students, all black male sophmores, spoke of example after example of racism and stereotyping... a few of the ones that stuck with me are "white people cross the street so they don't have to walk past us" and "when I'm in the mall, white women hold their purses closer because they see me as a thief and a thug when they don't even know me". These were three of the sweetest, kindest, smartest students I've ever taught, and it breaks my heart that they are treated that way... for me the most disturbing part of the conversation was that it was simply routine to them -- a part of life. by sparkysmom on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:35:30 PM PST
There is a death cult at large in America. (5+ / 0-) I'm not going CT, but seriously, as long as we don't do something about the glut of guns in our communities, this blood orgy will continue. And don't get me started on the police and and their "tactics" regarding mentally ill people. It's a direct result of the militarization of law enforcement. "Let us never forget that doing the impossible is the history of this nation....It's how we are as Americans...It's how this country was built"- Michelle Obama by blueoregon on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:40:06 PM PST
Thank you for this work of love, shanikka (6+ / 0-) This just has to stop. When I first read that our police were being trained at Blackwater/Xe facilities and overseas in Isreal, I shuddered. You are correct, rascism is America's worst sin. It's difficult to be happy knowing so many suffer. We must unite. by War on Error on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:43:17 PM PST
crap, WoE, I didn't know that (4+ / 0-) When I first read that our police were being trained at
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Blackwater/Xe facilities and overseas in Isreal, I shuddered.
It is enough that the people know there was an election. The people who cast the votes decide nothing. The people who count the votes decide everything. ~~Joseph Stalin by SeaTurtle on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:23:27 PM PST [ Parent ]
Thank you so much for writing this. (6+ / 0-) -1.63/ -1.49 "Speaking truth to power" (with snark of course)! by dopper0189 on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:50:25 PM PST
What a great diary. (5+ / 0-) it is a huge mountain to overcome. I hope by the end of my lifetime this will no longer exist. Thanks for chipping away at this mountain. by shopkeeper on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:58:40 PM PST
I am speechless (6+ / 0-) I knew so much of this, but seeing it all together is stunning. by CA Nana on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:08:22 PM PST
I will not stop being outraged by the (5+ / 0-) murder and abuse of African Americans in our society. I can't. I know it happens, but I can never get used to it or accept it. Each wrong is individual, fresh, raw. "The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now do you begin to understand me?" ~Orwell, "1984" by Lily O Lady on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:10:41 PM PST
The picture of the young man crying (11+ / 0-) broke my heart most of all. I am appalled, horrified that racism in our culture has become much more overt. It is NOT okay! I am speechless with sorrow over the deaths of these children. And angry because I feel so powerless to change what is happening. by also mom of 5 on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:14:22 PM PST
It Broke My Heart, Too (9+ / 0-) It still does. To see him reduced, so utterly, in grief to his knees. The image resonated for me not just because it caught the vulnerability of this youth, but because it symbolized without meaning to what I also believe is going on in the hearts and minds of young Black men today--yes, even in the hearts and minds of the "thugs" and the "gangstas" and all those we would throw away. It is the only logical reaction to being overwhelmed and so misunderstood. You are not powerless. Merely telling their stories is a start to doing something to change it. by shanikka on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:36:28 PM PST [ Parent ]
Being a teen isn't a crime (5+ / 0-) When my three boys were teens, they could be pretty obnoxious. They would have responded snarkily to anyone who came up to their car and complained about anything. They would have sneered at him and very likely cussed at him.
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I doubt they would have been shot, however. They were white, and no matter how obnoxious they were (they did grow out of it, as most teens do if they're allowed to grow up), no one was likely to think that he could get away with shooting them. If these guys -carrying guns- are so darned "scared" for their lives, why wouldn't they walk away? Call 911? Because they're not scared. They're on the hunt. They want to make trouble. They want to have an excuse to shoot their cool gun and feel all manly. And apparently the state of Florida thinks these guys getting a pistol hard-on is more important than these teens' lives, because I bet both these murderers will get off. Because black teens have to be perfect to be 'non-criminal." And even being perfect doesn't protect them, as honor students have been gunned down too. Good diary. Sorry it had to be stated. But being a teen is not a crime. Being a black teen doesn't make you prey for some guy's lust for gun power. by alixpippin on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:34:20 PM PST
and even the "perfect" ones (2+ / 0-) can be treated like criminals, because the h8ers don't know their background and their loving nature--all they see is skin color "Politics is like driving. To go backward put it in R. To go forward put it in D." Four More Years! How sweet it is!!! by TrueBlueMajority on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 08:21:11 AM PST [ Parent ]
Check out thr Southern Anti-Racism Network (3+ / 0-) (SARN) at PPSARN@aol.com I preach the church without Christ, where the lame don't walk, the blind don't see and what's dead stays that way! Hazel Motes in "Wise Blood" by chalatenango on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:35:31 PM PST
shanikka (9+ / 0-) This is a stunning piece, a devastating piece, and an important piece. It deserves to be published in a widely read magazine. I think you should submit it to several magazines and see if they will publish it. Maybe Atlantic, or MoJo, or New York Times Magazine, or The New Yorker. Seriously, I strongly urge you to get some professional editing, and try. Some day, an article like this will be the seminal piece, like Rachel Carson's The Silent Spring, or Michael Harrington's The Other America, that will come to us at just the right time, in just the right way, and make the sweeping, life-changing difference; the time, the place may just be now. And your piece has the potential to be that important. Please, please consider doing this. It really is that important. by cat on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:40:26 PM PST
I love it. (1+ / 0-) The other day I saw a new study, done over in california. It's a study on youth crime. Homicide, down by 26%. In a single year, from 2010 to 2011. One fucking year, youth homicide dropped by more than a quarter! Compare the level of youth homicide to the levels of the 1990's, and it's down by a soul-stunning 77%. No typo, that's down by more than three quarters. So what changed? They took away the criminality from pot. Mary jane is no longer a jail sentence. Getting caught with the wacky weed is no longer grounds for the courts to firebomb your future. Lots of the stories mentioned had pot as part of the mix - in california the bong
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is not going to act as an ingredient for a shit sandwich life. Kids in california won't feel like the cops can drop a tiny baggie on them and nuke their families into prison visiting hours. There won't be a marijuana black market that provokes emotions of "Do Or Die" protective actions from kids. Shanikka said: Unarmed Black young men under the age of 30 will stop dying from all these "unfortunate circumstances" only when this nation collectively embraces a far-less psychotic understanding of young Black men grounded in the truth, not the racist myths that have sustained white supremacy in America for hundreds of years. The truth that the overwhelming majority of young Black men (and the even larger majority of Black men in general) are law abiding, peaceful, wonderful men. It's coming, Shanikka. I agree, folks have had a psycho understanding, but the results of what is going on in Cali will be making it a lot harder for folks to fall into those untrue perceptions. Arrests for felonies, down 17% in one year, down 58% from the 90's Arrests for rape, down 10% in one year, down 71% from the 90's Arrests for property crime, 16% for the single year but down 70% from the 90's. And of course the drug arrests are halved in the single year, halved from the 90's too. From the conclusion section of the study: The only two factors definitively associated with (or, at least, positively accompanying) the dramatic decline in youth arrests are the relaxing of marijuana possession laws and the improvement in economic well-being among young people in the states poorest neighborhoods. Cost savings resulting from the decrease in youth crime could be reinvested into enhanced education and employment opportunities for Californias young people to build on these trends. http://www.cjcj.org/... It's changing the way the culture is formed. Take away the drug war culture and so many other things lose support system. And then people stop dying, and start living. by JayFromPA on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 08:52:41 PM PST
sleep well (4+ / 0-) and thank you for pouring out of vein here. i will need to begin with Dee's diary and then read yours again. and then the comments. tomorrow morning when fresh. again, thank you for pouring out a vein. it was a massive gesture that will massively ripple and wave. "From single strands of light we build our webs." ~kj by kj in missouri on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 09:10:21 PM PST
Thank You for this "long ass diary". Well worth (3+ / 0-) the read. Changing society takes all of us. It took the nomination of a certain presidential candidate in 2008 and his victory to really open my eyes to the racism. Folks who I would have never suspected, began saying and emailing horrible things. I call it out. Every single time. And this latest incident in FL, that sob needs the death penalty IMO. That was the cold blooded killing of a child. Period. if a habitat is flooded, the improvement for target fishes increases by an infinite percentage...because a habitat suitability index that is even a tiny fraction of 1 is still infinitely higher than zero, which is the suitability of dry land to fishes.
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by mrsgoo on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 10:04:11 PM PST
I see them (3+ / 0-) I worry about them. I can't come close to understanding what it's like to be them. Since Trayvon I have wanted to hug every single young black man I've seen, to tell them how sorry I am that they go through life with this terrible burden. Every day, everywhere they go, it is a part of who they are, how they are perceived in the eyes of the world. What does that do to a person? Thank you for the huge amount of time you spent on this diary. It is excellent, and so important. "The answer to violence is even more democracy. Even more humanity." Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg by poe on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 11:45:11 PM PST
Thank you for (11+ / 0-) this tragic but necessary dairy. Such beautiful young men lost because they were black. My heart and head hurt from reading it. I raised two boys who are white and that was scary and fraught with danger enough as a mother. How tragic to have to teach your male child to fear and curb their spirit because they are not white and are in constant danger at all times from their own society. I do not understand why violent racism both institutional and on a individual level is getting so overt and so tolerated in our country. It's so ugly, cruel and inhuman. We seem to be losing ground and becoming more inhuman, cruel and violent with no end in sight. Any gains we have made over my lifetime seem to be gone. Violence that is deeply systemic and handed down from generation to generation. It's getting worse and people of good spirit no matter where they live what region or cultural ties they have need to stop excusing this shit. This violence does not keep anyone safe or protect anyone it's a evil that only grows if it's tolerated or excused. Makes me so sad and mad that as a country we seem to be unable to see other people's humanity and their right to live. Life is cheap I have heard people say or we're a violent culture. Ask me we reap what we sow and it's a intolerable harvest of arrogance, cruelty, hate, racism, and violence that is systemic. What are we as a society that we hold guns and violence as a sacred right and regard human life taken as the price we pay for the right to kill other humans we feel are threatening, or not people worthy of the right to live. Very moving and motivating as there really is nothing that can excuse this. I don't have much hope right now as our society has carefully taught us how to hate and be very afraid of our fellow humans, especially if they are black male and young. Thanks to you and Denise for teaching and for helping those of us like me who have no idea what the reality of not being white is like. A very good tribute to these young men who are killed all because of rampant violent racism, fear and hate. It is all our shame we allow it by our acceptance of our violent culture and our own fears, ignorance and intolerance. 'What's so funny about peace love and understanding?' by shaharazade on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 11:55:16 PM PST
Let me get this straight... (1+ / 0-) A violent, belligerent man in Florida unloads his weapon into a car full of innocent people, and this is somehow my fault? Because I happen to have a similar skin color to his? Really? Do you have the first clue how hypocritical it is to say that black people shouldn't be prejudged as a group for the actions of a fraction of them, while prejudging all white people as your enemy? Let me make this clear: I AM NOT your enemy. I don't know this vile murderer, I never met him, and I am not responsible for his reprehensible actions which I condemn without reservation. I make no claim of kinship to him or his. There is no "us" to which he and I both belong. We share a certain physical
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characteristic due to a pigmentation gene in common. That's it. My hair is brown, am I suddenly in a unified group of brown-haired people? Why is the color of my skin any more significant than the color of my hair? Why am I lumped in with this guy? What did I ever do to you? How do you even presume to know me to make accusations? Prejudice is bullshit no matter who does it to whom. And you've sadly proven that black folks are no more immune to it than white ones. You want prejudice to go away, start by dismissing your own. Start by not presuming all white people are your enemy. Stop thinking it's "you" against "us" when there is no separation. We're all "us". White people are not a unified force aligned together against black people. We're a collection of individuals, just like everyone else. And you can't judge an individual without knowing that individual. You can't claim you know me just by the color of my skin. You don't. And I don't know you. You might not realize it, but we're on the same side. I'm against innocent people being murdered, just like you are. I don't care about the color of the people involved whether they be the victim or the perpetrator, though. I stand against the murderer and with the victim, regardless. Maybe if you (and far too many others, I'm afraid) stopped looking at things like this in terms of "black" vs "white" and "them" (the color you're not) vs "us" (the color you are), maybe we could all see it as it truly is, us (the nonmurderers and non-murder-advocates) vs the murderers and apologists for murderers. That's the fight we really need to have. And it's one we can go a long way towards winning if we're not too busy fighting amongst ourselves. "Is there anybody listening? Is there anyone who sees what's going on? Read between the lines, criticize the words they're selling. Think for yourself, and feel the walls become sand beneath your feet." --Geoff Tate, Queensryche by DarthMeow504 on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 12:07:37 AM PST
stop with the "I am not your enemy" stuff (10+ / 0-) you clearly know nothing about Shanikka, nor apparently have you read her she's been here at DKos far longer than most of us. This omnibus piece in no way targets white people as the enemy. What it does deal with quite clearly is the deadly consequences of racism in our society If you're in a coalition and you're comfortable, you know it's not a broad enough coalition" Bernice Johnson Reagon by Denise Oliver Velez on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 02:04:28 AM PST [ Parent ]
The reverse racism deflection (6+ / 0-) seems pretty popular. There is nothing so ridiculous that some philosopher has not said it. -- Cicero by tytalus on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 06:20:10 AM PST [ Parent ]
This ! (1+ / 0-) Denise Oliver Velez and Shanikka are both correct. People need to wake up that there is no safe place for our black male youths. The clock is moving backwards. What are the people of America prepared to do about it? I call it out. I shine spotlights on the ugliness, I joined the SPLC. Shame that not all feel the same. It is We the People's real problem. This outrage of racism cannot continue. Spitting on John Lewis was a sure sign that the hands of time were ticking backwards. Please support Shanikka in her effort to call out the real downfall of America. We the People have to make a difference and the Change.....Just do it ! Be part of helping us build a veteran community online. United Veterans of Am erica by Vetwife on Tue Dec 04, 2012 at 06:40:08 AM PST
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[ Parent ]
I think you misread ... (5+ / 0-) ...her point and intent. We Glory in war, in the shedding of human blood. What fools we are. by delver rootnose on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 04:40:37 AM PST [ Parent ]
I Responded to (3+ / 0-) A shorter version of this, above. So please scroll up and read it. Thanks. by shanikka on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 05:20:12 AM PST [ Parent ]
This is not an introspective (0+ / 0-) diary so any arguments calling for an inward look at issues affecting black deaths rates will be treated as racism and with impunity. The deadly consequences of racism are being erased with an alarming efficiency by self-hate and somehow the two have managed to have nothing to do with each other. At least for the purposes of this diary.
Who ya gonna shoot wit dat homie, you'd rather blast an original instead of a phony, true macaroni, you don't even know me, and why does your gun say n****z only? by mim5677 on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 08:28:15 AM PST [ Parent ]
If I may I have a few answers that may help (0+ / 0-) There is, I beleive, a wide gulf between saying that a social system has certain characteristics and laying blame for those characteristics at the feet of every member. For example American society has extremes of wealth and poverty, but I don't think any one of us can be held blameworthy unless we are actively contributing to it if you are a rapcious banker, sure, but if you are an anthropology professor making your way in the world you probably work against this system you were born into and are not to blame for it, even as you recognize what and how it is So it is also with race. As a white man, I understand and recognize the nature of the culture and society I was born into and can condemn and change it where I can but it is not my fault. Thus I would recognize that you are part of this system and try to change it. Recognize that the condemnation of the society does not imply condemnation of all those who make it up. If they work to perpetuate it, sure, but not for merely being in it. So, unless a diary or comment uses language that expressly identifies all members of a group as singled out for blame, don't read into it what isn't there. Here I know too well that there are a lot of racists in our society of the violent unthinking kind. I understand we also have institutions, mores, memes, and habits of mind we have inherited that were created by racists or more racists societies that came before. We are swimming in it. But one can point out that water is wet without blaming the fish. If you are a fish. Recognize the truth of the facts but do not clutch defensiveness so tightly. Read the stories, recognize the injustice and then ask. "Ok now. So. How do I change this?" I hope that helps and doesn't make it worse Hay hombres que luchan un dia, y son buenos Hay otros que luchan un ao, y son mejores Hay quienes luchan muchos aos, y son muy buenos. Pero hay los que luchan toda la vida. Esos son los imprescendibles. by Mindful Nature on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 07:58:35 PM PST [ Parent ]
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This is an impressively long diary (2+ / 0-)
Thank you for doing all this research and writing this diary. You narrative makes it abundantly clear that racism still exists and it leads to lots of innocent kids getting murdered. Shameful shit. That quote about GDP by Robert Kennedy by erichiro on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 12:16:18 AM PST
Part of the white-black gap in crime (4+ / 0-) is due to the drug war. We need to stop the racist drug war and legalize ALL drugs, not just marijuana. That quote about GDP by Robert Kennedy by erichiro on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 12:25:35 AM PST
High five on that one! (3+ / 0-) I rather resemble that comment. Oh, and I'm black, too. I'm no single issue voter, no sir. lol ;-P Legalize it! Now back to the program... "It's not enough to acknowledge privilege. You have to resist." -soothsayer by GenXangster on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 05:44:38 AM PST [ Parent ]
"The staggering number.... (4+ / 0-) of black people killed by police is increasing." - Kali Akuno.
More at The Real News The Malcolm X Grassroots Movement published a report in July of this year that details 120 killings of Black people by police or security guards and people who appointed themselves as law enforcers. The killings occurred in the first six months of 2012. You can link to the report here: Report on the Extrajudicial Killing of Black People "In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies but the silence of our friends" -Martin Luther King Jr by blue denim on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 12:37:32 AM PST
Damn. (1+ / 0-) That is all. by inallmyyears on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 04:07:54 AM PST
What did we do? (2+ / 0-)
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Why do people hate black people so much? by freshman22 on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 04:22:05 AM PST
Every time I see something like this... (3+ / 0-) ...I think, "If I were a black person, I would be constantly cycling between despair and rage." Seriously, I so greatly admire folks who manage to maintain their optimism, their faith in human nature, and their hope. I want to say to them: I promise you that I will do everything in my power to make sure this loathesome attitude, and its horrifying consequences, dies and disappears forever from this earth. by 14All on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 04:32:03 AM PST
Maybe The Right People Aren't The Victims (4+ / 0-) Seems that part of the problem is the lack of outrage by those who are most able and should be expected to take this fight public. The author is a lawyer as is my brother, Commisioner of Human Rights for the state of NY. I suspect, though, he's not too concerned about this, though he inhabits what I supect is a sinecure designed for the minority member of the amdinistration. He is not outraged, but simply sees this as an issue to be mediated, if that. He has no kids, is married to a white woman and the during the last fit of this genocidal shit, a little over a decade ago, when, in one instance, NJ State Troopers shot up four college kids on the turnpike, his comment to me was: " I was stopped and I was speeding." He had no concern for the notion that these kids had been singled out for execution. He also objected to our mother's obit in the Amsterdam as culturally appropriate and saw to it that she did not have one there. The stop and frisk laws in NYC exist in a city with many powerful, monied African-Americans. How's that possible? is it because Bloomberg needs no donors and is beholden to none? I think that they don't think it's a problem they need react to. Their children are not being decimated. They don't live in communities where stop and frisk and the programs that literally sweep up people in their pajamas for not having ID, even when they go to take out the garbage, are deployed. In short, they don't care, believing that they and theirs are safe and, really, that they have become part of the ruling class, though they'd be loath to put it in just those terms. Maybe, just maybe, outrage will grow when a few kids of or some prominent African-Americans, themselves, become victims. We are being sold out by people who are convinced that a race conscious response, which identifies it as absolute evil, to racism is part of the problem and not the solution. Ironically, these are the same people that were in the 1st generation to benefit from race conscious remedies to racism, all of whom would eagerly line up to berate Clarence Thomas. It boggles the mind. We are in deep shit because those that should be on the vanguard; developing solutions based on the notion that we are in crisis, are sitting on talk shows gleefully discussing the esoteric aspects of racism when what is needed is direct action; boycotts, strikes, marching till the soles are worn out. Rev Al can't come. He's got a daily show and those ridiculous ads to do (Voter ID? Done!). I mean, Obama almost guaranteed there would be no march on Washington by taking Al in and getting him to declare he would never criticize him. In much the same, calculated way that Republicans geared up to undermine the African-American vote, Obama geared up to mute criticism from, and I smile at the irony, the legitimate left. Professor West was made superfluous and he ain't marchin' either. Obama needed to do more than state the obvious ("If I had a son, he'd look like Trayvon." No shit, Bro! Of course, he might also have looked like Abdulrahman al-Awlaki, but that's another execution tale for another day), when prompted, as an afterthought. But who's called him on it? If this is endemic and epidemic, shouldn't the president have something to say, goddamn it? Where will the resistance, and that's what's needed, just like in occupied France, come from? The model requires someone out front with the gravitas to be heard. The parents of these kids don't have that. That's why Jordan Davis' mother surrendered the field almost immediately. She wasn't up for this. She diffused it. She saw what happened to Trayvon Martin's parents and to their son's memory. Not only the souls of the young African-American men are being
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beat down by these repeated, tacitly sanctioned executions. It's been going on for decades but the time is now. by battchief on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 06:20:40 AM PST
Wow. What a way to spend a (3+ / 0-) Sunday afternoon! Don't know how you do it Shanikka. And I'm not talking as much about the labor of love that is the diary itself as I am about the patient (tedious?) task of defending, deflecting, demystifying, etc. in the comments--surely you knew what you were wading into (I haven't bothered with the HR'd comments, just the ones that are still visible.) That said: I'm wondering if it would be helpful to make the case for "black-onblack" crimes being of an entirely different species from these hate/feartriggered killings. I say that only because that is just one of the deflection mechanisms used to direct attention away from the issue. If you can say: Yep. Black on black crime is an issue. But it's a separate issue because the mechanisms and circumstances underlying that problem are not the same as those leading to the slaughter of innocents by others. Then maybe at least that's one less "excuse" people would have for NOT addressing this particular issue. ('Course the conclusion any reality-based observer will eventually come to is that this slaughter of innocents, having preceded and contributed substantially, in myriad ways, to that pesky problem of "black on black"-crime, is very much related--perhaps even in a causal way--to the self-hate, nihilism, desperation, etc. that is often involved in "black-on-black" crime....). But you see what I'm saying? Treat them as separate issues because the mechanisms behind them are different. The argument about the causal relationship between them can be made later. by grumpelstillchen on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 06:47:48 AM PST
I am sorry. I can not read this post. (6+ / 0-) I skimmed it and took a quick look at the pictures. It's too painful. I don't know how you managed to write it. look for my eSci diary series Thursday evening. by FishOutofWater on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 06:51:36 AM PST
Breathtaking Diary. (7+ / 0-) But allow me to add this to it: I am native American---I am one of the indigenous people to this soil: And-- I---am---not---white. It amazes me that people really believe that on this soil---white is the predominate skin color---and that white is the "right" skin color. I love the presumption that this is a white country. Is it? Because white people were able to board a ship and travel to these shores---and murder those already here---this makes this country a white country? Pa--thetic. Because these people were able to travel by ship---- and butcher the indigenous people who lived here---for whom this country is their native soil----that----makes this country a white country? Pitiful. Absolutely pitiful. And they are still butchering.
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"If it were up to me, I'd take away the guns."--Cheryl Wheeler by lyvwyr101 on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 07:00:03 AM PST
Black men are watched more. (0+ / 0-) That is a fact. They are also perpetrators and victims of violent crime at a significantly higher rate than other groups. That is a fact. Society has systematically denied Black men the right to defend themselves properly. This is also a fact. These cases you bring up are rare, and as a whole far less pernicious than the everyday humiliation of Black men by law enforcement, public officials and educators. by Pete Cortez on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 07:09:55 AM PST
Please Go Up to the Diary (4+ / 0-) They are also perpetrators and victims of violent crime at a significantly higher rate than other groups I wrote about this specifically in the diary. Did you read that part? Given this comment, it seems that the answer is categorically "No." So would you please do so? It might help you. by shanikka on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 07:34:11 AM PST [ Parent ]
I may be missing something. (0+ / 0-) But I believe you addressed the absolute numbers, not the rate. And rate is the figure that matters here; your diary, after all, is a discussion into the undue, unflattering and unhelpful attention given to Black men. by Pete Cortez on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 07:39:16 AM PST [ Parent ]
Fair Enough (7+ / 0-) Now address for me why the rate is "the figure that matters" and the other one is not. Please be sure to address the figures that I quoted prominently: (a) that 80% of young Black males (assuming generously that only 1 criminal charge accrues to each person arrested; surely you would concede that if that were not the case, the percentage of innocent Black youth would be even higher?) and (b) 6.7% of young white males are also arrested (assuming similarly about that 1-1 ratio thing) yet I don't see any of the 93% of innocent white boys getting their heads blown off because of assumptions collectively made about them. The "rate" is clearly more important to you than the individuals who did not deserve to die, when it comes to the phenomena of executed Black males I've diaried about here. I believe I know why, and I believe you have no clue why. But I admit I could be wrong about that, since I'm basing it on a phenomena I've seen many many times before. So please, do me a favor: whether in comments or ideally in your own diary (since this is not a subject for brief discussion IMO) discuss this at length, this idea that the "rate" of arrests is "the figure that matters here." As opposed to what I actually wrote about. And, when you're done with that, please address the question I posed in the diary, to wit: Why is, too often, the first order of business when diaries of this type are written to demonize young Black men across the board? (Since of course, talking about the " "rate of criminality" of Black men in response to a diary about Black men almost all of whom died while committing NO crime, was indeed your first order of business.) Looking forward to what is hopefully a diary in which you spell it out clearly for me.
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by shanikka on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 07:59:43 AM PST [ Parent ]
this kid HATED cops: (7+ / 0-)
one of his favorite songs was:
N.W.A FUCK DA POLICE
he (and his upper middle class, noncriminal, collegebound friends) played it at top volume whenever he saw one, or passed a police station in his car. sure did. that same kid hated shopkeepers for much the same reasons as he did cops. that kid wasn't very fond of lots of "authoritative" figures, as it happens. weird, huh? I didn't know how else to respond to this (DEEPLY personal) topic. I'm not trying to make light... thank you ((((shanikka)))) This comment is dedicated to my mellow Adept2U and his Uncle Marcus by mallyroyal on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 07:22:13 AM PST
I Have Never Met You (7+ / 0-) But when I think about the young brothers who inspire me, you are always on that list, Mally. You teach me. As I am sure you can imagine for a mother of a young brother, we struggle to hear and listen since it's very very hard to get of "Mom" mode, whether it's the terrified mom mode or the "get your shit together Mom mode" or the "I'm so proud of you because you are the sun that shines in my sky Mom mode." But you I can hear. Always. Even when sometimes we throw down rhetorically, I want you to know that you are a gift that I am grateful for. And I hear you. And value you. Always. Maybe it's because you are not only gifted and handsome to boot, you are not a youngblood I had to diaper (/grin) by shanikka on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 07:51:37 AM PST [ Parent ]
heh. well I rate you highly shanikka. very. (8+ / 0-) ESPECIALLY when we throw down. that's real life lol it sounds like convos in my very own family. there are a lot of women who've been associated with Black Kos who make me think of my mom, for different reasons. your frankness, straight shooter-style talk and your righteous anger remind me of her. not to mention that steel trap of a mind. I cherish you, shanikka. I hope and wish that the site as a whole does as
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well.
This comment is dedicated to my mellow Adept2U and his Uncle Marcus by mallyroyal on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 07:59:16 AM PST [ Parent ]
We Feel the Same About Each Other (6+ / 0-) Then - and I'm glad! by shanikka on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 08:01:03 AM PST [ Parent ]
I am overwhelmed with grief from (4+ / 0-) reading this diary. I cannot fully imagine what you went through in creating it. "So, please stay where you are. Don't move and don't panic. Don't take off your shoes! Jobs is on the way." by wader on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 07:36:20 AM PST
3ChicsPolitico - Protesting The Killing of Trayvon (2+ / 0-) This video evoked so much emotion and became a front page post on the Leatherman blog. The images tell the story of what folks were feeling. I teared up while making the video. The pain and grief is still fresh. http://www.youtube.com/... by Justice58 on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 09:05:55 AM PST
Any mother who has lost a son knows uncomforting.. (2+ / 0-) ...grief, as I do, but the day in day out fear of losing your son, that I can't begin to imagine. I can feel the heart break, feel tinges of awareness and concern when my black nephews visit, but I can't truly imagine what it's like. When my nephews are not visiting I'm not filled with fear for them when they go out and play at night with their friends, like their mother is. A young black college student, Ron Settles, murdered by Signal Hill, Ca police in 1981 is one I will never forget. The police said he was speeding and then he died while in custody. The police claimed said it was a suicide but of course the autopsy confirmed everyone's assumptions that it was a a choke-hold. no officer was ever brought to trial. Ron Settles' smiling face in his football jersey is burned into my mind, he deserves to be remembered, and I pray for his family still. Thanks, very important diary. Let all Bush tax cuts expire and , bring on the Sequestration cuts to defense. by kck on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 09:07:32 AM PST
Thank you (1+ / 0-) You rocked this diary! It's a whole lot of truth-telling! by Justice58 on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 09:48:37 AM PST
We're not born racists, we learn and are taught (3+ / 0-) racism. I learned about racism early on through my love of tropical fish. There was an aquarium next to the public park in my small midwestern town where I grew up.
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One day I visited the aquarium, which was about a mile walk from my house. The windows were broken, and the interior had glass tanks with their sides shattered and water all over the floor. The owners, who had always been kind and helpful to me, were black. I still remember my shock and dismay at how they had been treated. Then I started noticing things like "Fellowship Sunday" in our Methodist church. That was the only day of the year there was a black person in the church. There was a fine classical musician who was black who played a lonely solo, sitting by herself and playing her instrument in front of the altar. Every year of my childhood, it was the same lone woman playing in the same lonely spot in the church, the yearly exception to the all-white congregation. We are taught to be racists in many small ways like these. This painful diary highlights the tragic consequences of our failure to have true social justice in America. It breaks my heart that our country hasn't evolved beyond racial prejudice and racial hatreds and suspicions. Human salvation lies in the hands of the creatively maladjusted. -- Martin Luther King, Jr., by 4Freedom on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 10:21:14 AM PST
Tipped and Rec'd for this alone: (3+ / 0-) Makes sense when you know that around 81% of whites the last time someone checked don't believe that racism's a big problem at all even though none of them actually have to live with racism's potentiallydeadly consequences for their children.
by smoothnmellow on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 11:28:28 AM PST
Thank you, shannika (2+ / 0-) Thank you for this diary that exhorts the community to remember their humanity and prize the lives of these beautiful lost children and the many more like them that deserve to have lives free of the terrible truth that too many people have labeled them unworthy. On a more personal note, thank you for years of teaching through your diaries of comments. I have learned so much from reading your words, and they always make me think and think hard about the way I see the world. -9.25, -7.64 by Raine Hawking on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 11:53:32 AM PST
Thank you, shanikka n/t (2+ / 0-) by Chitown Kev on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 01:11:20 PM PST
I am very, very late to this extremely important (4+ / 0-) and heartbreaking diary. I am appalled that people have chosen to highjack this diary for their own personal bullshit. The murder of these young men of color is an enormous pox on our society. We all bear responsibility for trying to bring an end to it. All of this crap about the kids playing music and gun ownership is ridiculous. If there could be a reasoned, honest discussion about the rot that lies at the heart of our society that allows this to go on, we might, just might, begin to find the beginning to a solution to end this horror. Shame on every person who highjacked this diary with their racist/other bullshit. Hint: if you weren't honoring these victims and thinking of ways to stop this madness and you brought any other thing into this diary then you should hang your lousy heads. Thank you, Shanikka, for telling their stories and honoring them in this way. "Southern nights have you ever felt a southern night?" Allen Toussaint ~~Remember the Gulf of Mexico~~
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by rubyr on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 03:48:53 PM PST
Sorry I missed this, at least until (2+ / 0-) I stumbled across it through the hiddens, with soros' incredible run of trolling. Oddly, this dovetails with a thought I had while watching Toure and S.E. Cupp on The Cycle talking about gun violence a day or two back, and hearing the crap S.E. was spouting, and it suddenly came to me that 'gun rights' was strongly tied into white privilege and the all-encompassing institutional racism on display in the American 'justice' system. Donate to the Okiciyap Food Pantry by Dr Erich Bloodaxe RN on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 06:40:44 PM PST
This is so important (2+ / 0-) When you take away a child's hope, eventually you take away the spark that keeps a child looking to the future and striving for it. No matter what you tell a child, if their circumstances show that there is no hope even when they've done everything right, it should surprise no one if they too begin to live for today because there is no safety they can personally control today. Every time another one of their peers die for no reason at all and they get to read and hear either all the overtly racist things justifying it or the unconsciously racist things trying to excuse it away, they are being soul murdered on the inside. Because they know, not being stupid, that each and every single day that this society doesn't do whatever it takes to scrub itself once and for all of the poisonous rule of false anti-Black stereotypes that lead to the never-ending parade of innocent dead black male bodies is another day that might be their last. So many of my students walked in that psychological smog, the result of the culture's psychological pollution perpetrated in so many ways overtly and covertly. I had high school students tell me they didn't expect to live past 25. And they made their choices accordingly. Aside from people doing what they can in their individual spheres of influence and community work, I don't have a solution. I believe it is within all of our individual sphere of influence to join with others in lobbying our government to strike down "Stand Your Ground" laws, to protect people who do not carry guns from people who do. I wish it would be a federal crime for an armed person to shoot an unarmed person, even if it's the police that do so. The act should trigger a vigorous investigation and it should only not be a crime of murder if there are exceptional -- really exceptional circumstances. Just as "hate crime" became its own legislation, I think protecting those of us who are unarmed from the armed needs to be its own legislation. Because this culture seems to have difficulty proving a crime is a hate crime. A white person can point to a black co-worker or friend or two and claim that because they have a bit of interaction with that person, they aren't racist. Also, when the concentration is on "hate crime", it's immediately framed in the hate context that brings on the stereotype language regarding the victim's "provocation of their own death". Hate is white on black, or straight on gay, etc. "Armed on un-armed", that's a lens that should be made stronger too. It adds to the conversation in an interesting way. I think it's much harder for people to defend the armed against the un-armed than it is, sadly, for people to defend a "white man threatened by a young black man". I'm talking about those people mentioned in the diary who resort to stereotype images and language in defense of the killer. This diary is so sad and this tragedy of young men dying so horrendously hurts my heart. May we be a strong enough community in this country to cure this psychotic part of our culture. Ev eryone's a crim inal unless you got the m oney, honey. Ev eryone's a crim inal now. by MillieNeon on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 07:25:22 PM PST
I'll be stone cold honest, shanikka... (4+ / 0-)
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This diary was in the back of my mind ALL day. It's something which I think of a lot, in general. There was a time when I was documenting racial profiling for the ACLU, so it's a long-time concern of mine, even as a white woman (although I don't much identify myself as white, the rest of the world is very insistent on this). And I'll be honest: I think this diary moved me more than any other diary in memory on the DK. I think it was beautifully written, important, real, soulful, and the right way to cut to the point without proselytizing or anything. It is, in otherwords, a magnum opus for this site and has stayed with me today and will probably stir in my mind fitfully for a while. As I worked with a young black male college sophomore today, tutoring him, this diary was coming in and out of focus as we worked although it remained invisible and unmentioned. At times, I thought of him in the predicaments of any of these young men, and I shook my head inside, and I felt sad, and then disgusted, and then angry. I kept smiling and working with the boy all the whole without doing what I wanted to do, which was to say, "Today, I can't stop thinking about how you might as well be walking around with a target on your back or a statistic hanging over your head, child! If I were you, I wouldn't have the guts to get out of bed every day. You are a hero when you wake up in the morning, each morning, in those dirty-ass sweats and that slogan shirt you're wearing. Please don't die young. Please don't. And also, I am sorry that people who look like me kill people like you and get away with it. Buddy, those aren't my people. Buddy, I want you to graduate with a 4.0 and go out there, and make a name for yourself, and I want you to never see anyone look sideways at you in a car, a market, or on the street at night." Instead, I smiled and helped him with his prepositions. But my mind was a swirl. The boy was smiling and a bit tired. I'm lucky my head wasn't made of glass. He would have thought I was crazy. And maybe I am crazy: this world makes me crazy. I am TIRED of this shit. Why do we do this to children, any children, especially black children (and where I live, also often to Latino children)? It doesn't matter why. There's no excuse. We need to stop it. Period. Click the <3 to join us on the Black Kos front porch to review news & views written from a black pov - everyone is welcome. by mahakali overdrive on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 10:48:26 PM PST
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7/16/13

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SUN DEC 02, 2012 A T 05:00 PM PST

DI DIARY ARY RE RECOM COMM ME ENDE NDED D BY BY

RE RECOM COMM ME ENDE NDED D BY BY SHANI SHANIKKA KKA

SHANI SHANIKKA'S KKA'S T TAGS AGS

First Nations News & Views (207)

SHANI SHANIKKA'S KKA'S BL BLOGROL OGROLL L

Sorry, but www.facebook.com is blocked on this

Darius Simmons, the gun thief (not)

Devin Brown-13 Year Old 'Animal'

Wendell Allen, dead from opening his front door

Chavis Carter, winner of the Expert Marksman Award

This shouldn't surprise anyone.

This shouldn't either.

Will he be the next one?

Jeremiah Chass, RIP

FROM THE WEB

Do These 7 Things and You'll Get Alzheimer's

The Secret to Becoming a Healthier Mom

Surprising Abraham Lincoln Descendants Discovered

I don't agree with you. (3+ / 0-)

by SeaTurtle on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 07:17:10 AM PST [ Parent ]

Or Jeremiah Chass, who took (20+ / 0-)

by HamptonRoadsProgressive on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:22:50 PM PST

by wuod kwatch on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 05:31:17 PM PST

I do. I see a direct correlation between the two (2+ / 0-)

I think cauznfx is suggesting (1+ / 0-)

I wish to honor 16 year old Jeremiah Chass (45+ / 0-)

by Carbon on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:00:26 PM PST

tears (7+ / 0-)

Bruce Springsteen - American Skin (41 Shots) (L...

by nicejoest on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 06:07:58 PM PST

by Gator on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 07:07:51 PM PST

Arundhati Roy Quote: "To love, to be loved....."

by mrsgoo on Sun Dec 02, 2012 at 10:04:11 PM PST

What did we do? (2+ / 0-)

this kid HATED cops: (7+ / 0-)

one of his favorite songs was:

N.W.A FUCK DA POLICE

by smoothnmellow on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 11:28:28 AM PST

by rubyr on Mon Dec 03, 2012 at 03:48:53 PM PST

I'll be stone cold honest, shanikka... (4+ / 0-)

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