And still...silence

This past August I dropped a post on this blog remarking on how remarkably silent the Black star athletes and entertainers were behind the shooting death of Mike Brown Jr. Now that there will be no indictment of his killer, I waited in the hopes that finally someone of non-political significance would have something to say other than the usual suspects. You cowards have once again let me down.

Why does the President have to speak up on this and issues like it when that argument could have been taken up by the myriad of rich to wealthy Black and brown entertainers? Where are the eloquent ones with something to say, who can think for themselves, and are not worried about taking a financial hit? Right now the world is hearing from jack asses like Charles Barkley who thinks this about racial profiling, "sometimes it is wrong and sometimes it's right." Charles isn't smart enough to realize racial profiling is ALWAYS wrong no matter if someone gets caught red handed with weapons of mass destruction or nothing but lint in their pockets.

There's this guy I was just made aware of named Alfonzo Rachel, a Black republican who had said some truly repugnant words about Mike Brown Jr. and yet, no push back from ANYONE! Pharrell "Happy" Williams also chimed in about Mike Brown being a bully or exhibiting bully-ish behavior, forgetting for a second that Michael was just 18. Forgetting that at 18 we've all done something to cause us to hang our heads in shame. Thankfully he's walked his words back after the push back on social media, but where were his peers?

Where are the voices that can speak intelligently to this and other matters like it? Why is the Black (financially) elite so silent? Afraid of losing a check? Afraid of white people pulling their support from you and your future projects? Where is Oprah on this? Where is Tyler Perry? Where are all those actors, actresses, singers, dancers, and athletes? Why is the wide receiving corps of the St. Louis Rams football team the only ones willing to make a silent show of solidarity with the protesters?

I'm sure no one honestly expected an indictment of the murderer Darren Wilson but to say absolutely nothing is appalling on damn near ever level that the rage in me has subsided and has given way to shock. I am shocked at you cowards. Shocked and ashamed.

No Indictment, No Surprise.

Am I hurt? Absolutely. I hurt for the multitude of Black Men and Women abused, assaulted, and murdered by those that swore to protect them and I hurt for the future victims. Make no mistake, they are coming. As surely as the sun rises in the east and sets in the west, they are coming. Now that police officers all over this country know that they can kill someone that looks like me-whether I am armed or unarmed-with impunity, they can let the bullets fly with no worry of consequence. It would not surprise me either if the ranks of those now wishing to become police double if not triple over this non-indictment. Now every racist's kid, the young ones who have been brainwashed to believe that they are somehow superior to me because they have no melanin in their skin can get paid for killing those that look like me. Let that point sink in. They can get paid for killing me and see no jail time.

Do not call me American. I hereby reject the term African-American because America isn't my home anymore. Yes I live here but in truth this country doesn't recognize me as a citizen, if it did then I would be able to get justice for crimes perpetrated against me by everyone from the mugger in the park to the crooks in D.C. This country is not my home. Home is supposed to be ones sanctuary, it's supposed to be safe. I awake this morning knowing I can be killed by the hands of the law and my killer will not be punished for taking my life. That realization has eroded my feeling of safety. This country you call America is not my home, it never was. It is enemy territory and that's why I reject the term African-American.

Nothing can ease the pressure building in my chest or chase away the bile bubbling up in my throat. Nothing can soothe this headache I suffer with or the fear that is now draped over my shoulders like a James Brown cape. While I am not surprised at darren wilson not being indicted for the murder of Mike Brown, I am somewhat surprised by the insecurity and anger I feel about it. I knew the racist officer wouldn't be indicted, I think we all knew this. It's virtually impossible to indict a cop in this country for a shooting but I am considerably MORE uncomfortable around the police now than I was yesterday. They are paid to protect me from crime and criminals, but when they turn out to be the criminals there is no recourse. There is no one I can turn to and give an officers badge number to and say "this person violated my civil rights". I am, in effect, powerless. I have never liked the police and I have never, in all my years met a "good" cop. I firmly believe they are like dinosaurs, extinct. And it would take a monumental effort for someone to prove to me "good cops" even existed in the first place. No one can convince me that the murderer of Mike Brown was a "good cop" no matter what's said and how many say it. Much like I knew in my heart that the murderer of Trayvon Martin would walk free, I knew there would be no indictment but it's still so hard to swallow.

I now have NO protection when I walk the streets and because of that I feel like I am living behind enemy lines. Every little misstep or sideways glance can bring them running in my direction. If I don't "move it along" fast enough, protest some injustice, or ask a question I can be arrested. If I don't pay the fare for the subway I can end up being smashed in the face with a baton. I have been a law abiding citizen all my life. I have never broken the law but do the boys and girls in blue know that when they look at me? NO! All they see is a Black man who "fits the description" of another Black man who MAY have committed a crime. I have been fitting the description since the day I was born. Can you imagine that? Do you know what it's like to have that stigma over your head from day one? If you aren't Black or brown then you can't. If you aren't Black or brown you have no idea what I am talking about and honestly...I envy you.

I am not surprised by the outcome of the grand jury but it has told me one very important thing, that this is not my country, I am living behind enemy lines, and I need to start digging my tunnel to get the hell out of here.

A Head Scratcher

I am scratching my head as to how something like this could even be possible. The math just doesn't add up no matter how you cut it. Many white people in this country seem to wonder why many Black and brown people seem to distrust the police and the justice system in this country. To those whites who can't seem to put a finger on where that suspicion comes from, that's due in large part to them never having had a bad experience with law enforcement. When they get pulled over, only in the most extreme cases of law breaking is a white person handcuffed and hauled off to jail but usually they are issued a warning to be more careful and are allowed to go about their business. Black people aren't nearly as lucky.

In all the years of my life, every experience I have had with a police officer has been acrimonious at best. There have been times where it felt like they were baiting me to lash out and take a swing so they could slap me around, slap the cuffs on me, and throw me in jail. One night, after hanging out with friends and stopping off in a store before heading home I was approached by at least six police officers and they all had their guns drawn. When they asked for some ID from me, I looked into their eyes and didn't move a muscle. I told the lead cop where my wallet was and told him to reach in and retrieve it. I wasn't about to get shot over my wallet like Amadou Diallo was. I also wasn't going to put myself in a situation where I was going to be at the mercy of the courts and the justice system. I rarely stepped out of line as a youngster, worst thing I ever did really was jaywalk and yet it seemed like my skin color made me a prime target for police to harass me and get me to lose my mind so they could get me into the system.

I say all that to say this, crime in this country, for the most part has been on the decline. Key word there being decline. The numbers on crimes of all sorts are either dropping off the table or slowly lowering and yet the prison population has exploded. That's where the head scratching thing comes in. To a rational human being, regardless of ones skin color that just doesn't add up. How can crime be going down and yet more and more people are being arrested and thrown behind bars? What are they being arrested for? In the town of Ferguson, MO. there are three warrants for arrest per household. Think about that staggering number for a second and then add in that the police force issuing those warrants is damn near 95% white and the town of Ferguson is 70% Black. So you have white police issuing warrants left and right for who knows what on the predominantly Black population. If it's happening there, you can rest assured the same types of things are happening all over this country to Black and brown people everywhere. Think about this...

Today, there are more African-Americans in the US Justice system, either in jail, on parole, or under some form of correctional control than there were slaves. 

All this leads me to one conclusion, that in this so called post racial America, with an African-American President, racism be it industrialized or otherwise is more rampant, evil, and corrosive as ever. The numbers bear that truth out and numbers when calculated correctly, never lie.
 

I Am...Scared.

Which shirt do I wear as to not appear threatening? How tightly should I pull my belt in order to keep my jeans from looking too baggy? Which route should I take so I don't run into any trouble that could potentially get me slain? Hat or no hat?

Those are the primary questions I am asking myself far too often in the morning these days, and it shouldn't have to be that way. Yet here I am. Here I am, living in a borough, a city, a state, a country, a world where what I wear, how I wear it for my comfort, and where I travel could potentially get me killed. You think I'm over exaggerating? You think I'm hitting the panic button? Am I playing the race card perhaps? Well since my race cannot be ignored, and since studies have found that every 28 hours an unarmed Black person is murdered in this country by law enforcement, you damn right I'm hitting the panic button. If you were in my shoes, you would be too.

When I shave I have been told that I look almost twenty years younger than my actual age. I think that's coming from people with bad eyesight personally but I do look significantly younger when clean shaven. And I LIKE being clean shaven, but now I have to wonder if walking around scruffy looking is better for my health. If I looked my age, would the police leave me be if something went down and I were in the vicinity as opposed to approaching me with guns drawn because I "fit the description" while clean shaven? Which has already happened in my life.

How do I walk as to not attract any unwanted attention? I know my swag runs deep and that the bop in my step is natural, it's me and something I have a hard time curbing. Now though, I feel that maybe if I walk differently, do my best to not bop, to not appear at ease, to not be myself then maybe this man can make it home safely no matter that time of day. Speaking of that, how late is too late for me to be out and about safely without worrying about being accosted? My white friends always want me to join them at their house, a bar, or some event that's going to run well into the evening. My concerns for my safety regarding travelling home sometimes never enters their minds because they aren't Black. In their minds why wouldn't I make it home safely?

I am scared, not solely over the potential loss of my life, but for those that love and care for me, those that think I am adorable, those that consider me the smartest, bravest, and strongest man they know. What happens to them if something happens to me during an encounter with a cop that goes horribly wrong? How would they feel? Can they get justice for me? Will they be alright in the wake of my death? God, these questions can go on and on. All I hope is that I get to live out the rest of my days in relative peace and harmony while screaming at the tops of my lungs, "NO JUSTICE, NO PEACE!" and fighting injustice everywhere.

Maybe I should leave my headphones home too then.

The Ice Bucket Challenge

I was just wondering, when did ALS aka Lou Gehrig's disease hit the forefront of America's consciousness? Everywhere I look now, some other special idiot is dunking ice cold water on themselves or having it thrown on them, video taping the spectacle, and then nominating (daring) some other idiot to do the same. I bet everything in my pockets right now (a stick of gum, a loaded  Metrocard, and about twenty dollars) that more than half of these people have no CLUE what the symptoms of ALS are or how many die from the disease yearly. I bet more than half of them don't even know what ALS stands for and I bet you they don't give a shit. For the majority of them it's just something to do because everyone else is doing it, plus it makes them look like they care which is always important. Everyone from the average citizen to celebrities have done it, been nominated to do it, or are planning to do it. Hell, even Oprah recently did it.

Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis is a neurodegenerative disease that affects the nerve cells of the brain and the spinal cord. I know this because I did my homework on this disease years ago because a friend told me she was diagnosed with this killer. Yet I watch these ice bucket challenge videos and no one is stating any facts about ALS before the dunkings. It's like the facts don't matter, just dunk ice cold water on me so people think I'm a good person but I bet they don't know...

As per the ALS Association website:

• The incidence of ALS is two per 100,000 people per year. 
• More than half of the 5,600 people diagnosed yearly live more than three years. 
• People diagnosed with ALS have a life expectancy from two to five years afterwards but there are many that live with the disease for five years or more.
• It is estimated that no more than 30,000 Americans have ALS at any given time. 
• 93% of the patients in the ALS database are Caucasian.

That being said, as much as I am all for killer diseases being fought and as much as I am all for people wanting to do whatever they can to help fund the research to fight those killer diseases. What are these same people doing to fight the most dreaded disease of all, racism? Is there an ice bucket challenge for Mike Brown? For John Crawford? For Trayvon Martin? Where are the ice buckets for Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, Eric Garner and thousands of other unarmed Black men murdered by those that swore to protect and serve them? Someone come up with the challenge to do away with racial profiling, racial discrimination, mandatory minimums, or the one for putting the word justice back in the justice system. The system that jails Black people far more and for far longer than whites who commit the same crimes.

Those issues affect far more people than ALS can ever dare to on a yearly basis. While ALS can strike anyone at anytime, a person's skin color can seemingly get them shot and killed at anytime by the police for no apparent reason other than their melanin quotient. So what's more dangerous? What's more lethal? What's more insidious? ALS or being a young Black man in America? You tell me, I'll wait.

Russell Speaks...Sort Of!

Russell Simmons has blessed us with his words, whether or not they are words of wisdom is for you to decide, but he has finally opened his mouth. He actually typed the words for his Huffington Post blog entry, well, maybe he didn't type them, maybe his assistant did, but he wrote them, I think. Maybe he dictated them and someone else wrote them down, but you know what I mean. Look, when you have as much money as Russell has you don't really have to do anything for yourself ever again. Anyway, I have to say that after reading his blog entry, Russell Simmons is currently suffering from "affluenza".

I say that because it seems that Russell has forgotten where he comes from. He sounds like he's always come from money instead of hustling to get what he now currently has. He created the most iconic hip hop record label ever, the seminal Def Jam. Russell has made a lot of money off the backs of young Black kids that were routinely harassed by cops and yet he says, "Police in general get a bad rap, and the vast majority are good, loyal souls". I say prove it Russell. Show me a "good, loyal soul" that wears the shield because as a Black man, I have NEVER met one. I am at the point where I think it's harder to find a good cop than a bad one. That the kind of cops you're talking about are like unicorns, if they DO exist, they are impossible to find. Why don't you talk to Public Enemy or better yet, DMX about the good and loyal souls of most cops. I am pretty sure they'll look at you and laugh in your face.

Hip hop and the police force hate each other, I can find no other way to say it and for Russell to finally offer his take in regards to what's going on in Ferguson, MO. by riding the fucking fence is offensive to me. I tried my best to not see red when I read where Russell said, "Although we do not have all the details..." regarding Mike Brown's shooting as if we need them. Regardless of what "details" come to light, an UNARMED BLACK TEENAGER WAS SHOT AND KILLED IN BROAD DAYLIGHT! What more details would you like Russell? It wouldn't have mattered if he stole gold bullion from the Federal Reserve, he did NOT have a gun so that officer, Darren Wilson couldn't have possibly feared for his life. Isn't that the bullshit line that cops give us when they've used deadly force? Isn't "I feared for my life" what those good, loyal souls" said when they pumped more than 50 bullets into the car that Sean Bell was killed in, another unarmed Black man. Or how about Johnathan Ferrell, the college football player gunned down by Randall Kerrick, another "good, loyal soul". Ferrell was seeking help after being in a car accident and Officer Kerrick shot an unarmed Ferrell 10 TIMES!

When Russell stated towards the end of his...blog that "The community must also receive training on how to deal with the police..." I damn near threw up. What Russel fails to understand is that when someone becomes a cop, they've been HIRED to serve and protect. I didn't get HIRED to be a Black man so I don't need or require any training and neither does anyone else from the community. When you get a job, you get training, when you're born you weren't hired, you were born. I laughed out loud when I read that line. The entire thing made Russel Simmons appear seriously out of touch with those that look like him, as if he forgot where he came from, and how he made his money. He once said that Public Enemy was his favorite group, after reading what he wrote I have a really hard time believing that.

You can read for yourself what Russell said here...

Russell's Words.

Gilbert Arenas Showing His Ass Again.

You ever wonder how some people just aren't dead yet? Do you marvel at how long they've been able to stay alive when you think about just how stupid they truly are? In my fastidious mind I have often thought some people are so dumb that they need signs throughout their homes telling them to breathe in, and then breathe out. Not inhale, then exhale...that's a little too complicated for them. I put ex NBA All Star and all around dumb ass Gilbert Arenas in that category.

First off the man destroyed his career by bringing four loaded guns to work. I can't imagine what would have happened to me if I brought just one loaded gun to the office, let alone four. Gilbert's place of employment at the time was the crowded Verizon Center Arena where the then lowly Washington Wizards played. He's been the butt of gun jokes since (see what I did there?). Now it seems he's taking to self hatred like poor whites to the conservative party. He recently lambasted Rev. Al Sharpton for showing up in Ferguson, calling him a coon. Now other than a Black man calling another Black man a n*gger, calling one a coon is almost as bad if not the same.

He goes on to denigrate Sharpton further by explaining that whenever the good Reverend shows up somewhere to protest some injustice that's happened to Black people, he usually sways the jury in going "the other way", whatever that means. He also calls Al a THOT, something which I am sure Gilbert has first hand knowledge with being that he played in the NBA and all. This is just sad on so many levels but most of which is that Gilbert was too stupid to figure out that maybe he should be in Ferguson WITH Al instead of bad mouthing the one person who is on the ground and showing support to the people of that suburb so they don't feel like they are fighting this thing on their own and not going to his instagram account and publicly calling out an social activist and TV personality. You don't have to like Sharpton but trying to tear him down and minimize his effect is just what "they" want us to do.

I guess Gilbert misses the spotlight and wanted just a little bit more of it before he ignominiously rides off to the land of irrelevancy. Gilbert, fire your PR rep/firm for not stopping you from making this mistake and next time, shut the fuck up!

Read the article here.

Foot in mouth disease strikes Gilbert Arenas