Hunting Season.

Everyday I wake up, rub the sleep out of my eyes and read the news I am confronted with more racist and vile shit from whites directed to Blacks. If it's not the ignorant right wing tea partiers  denigrating the President, it's some frat having the temerity of celebrating MLK day with a "Black" party and then having the stupidity to document it with pics on social media outlets.

If it's not one thing, it's always something else. It's open season for Black people in this country it seems. Either it's happening more or I'm just hyper sensitive to it, whatever the case is, it's simply not safe to be a Black man today no matter what age you may be.

Case in point, a 62 year old West Virginia man shot and killed a 61 year old Black man and his 60 year old brother because, and this cracks me up (not to mention pisses me off), he thought they were breaking into a shed he thought he still owned. Now the men who were killed were again 61 and 60, they were fathers and grandfathers, husbands, friends, and brothers. The men, 60 yr old Garrick Hopkins just purchased and was inspecting a building with his brother, 61 yr old Carl Hopkins Jr. They were checking it out not sometime during the evening, in the shadows, no. These men were inspecting the new purchase at 2 pm on a Saturday afternoon.

I don't know about other 60+ yr old Black men out there but the ones I know can't break into a damn thing without some assistance by someone far younger than them. Yet 62 year old Rodney Bruce Black (funny last name here) thought that was exactly what these golden aged men were doing, breaking in. Read the article here...

Shooting in West Virginia. 

Now I can't help but think if Garrick and Carl were white, Rodney would have approached wondering if they needed any help and if he could be of assistance. Had they been white, more than likely they brothers would be alive and well today.

May they rest in peace!

There WILL be blood!

This must be a declaration of war, it has to be. How else can it be explained? How else can this be seen as. They have finally declared war and it's time for Black people and Black men in particular to stand up and see it for what it is. It's time for us to put the cowardice in the closet as we reach for our capes and guns and prepare ourselves for the coming battles. War is coming gentlemen and there will be blood!

I know, we've been fighting for our survival since setting foot on this accursed land in shackles. Brought here to be an economic benefit for white people, free labor for hundreds of years. Making them wealthier by the day while we got by on what they deemed fit to give us. Read out the Bible that slavery was God's will, and then convinced us that he was our God too. The "father" of this country, George Washington Jr. was taught to us as the man that could not tell a lie, yet the fact that he was one of the biggest owners of humans in the history of slavery was never mentioned. The bullshit Declaration of Independence was written by a man that wanted to throw off the yoke of English Imperialism, yet not only owned slaves but bedded them many times over as well. The hypocrisy is astounding. War is coming gentlemen, and there will be blood!

Today we have the likes of Trayvon Martin, Sean Bell, Michael Stewart, Eleanor Bumpers, Amadou Diallo, Anthony Baez, Johnathan Ferrell and so many more that I can't name, all unarmed and all slain by the police or those pretending to be police. The latest case, as far as I know has been Johnathan Ferrell, a college student in need of help after crashing his car. Someone panicked, called 911 and Officer Randall Kerrick showed up and shot him TEN times. According to the families lawyer who viewed the dashboard camera footage from Kerrick's car says the man eventually stood over Ferrell's already prone body, shot him four more times, and THEN handcuffed him. And yet with all of this evidence, the Grand Jury that was convened for this case failed to indict the white officer who slayed the Black man. I see that as a declaration of war, pure and simple. Read about it for yourself in the link below...

War has been declared.

War is coming gentlemen, and yes...there will be blood!

More Florida MADNESS!!!

I think it's time we cut the state of Florida loose from the main land. I mean I know it can't happen but if it could then we should. Since we can't, how about we erect a giant wall on the border that lies between Georgia, Alabama, and Florida? Wait, let me get my grandfather out of the state first.

There has been yet another shooting of an unarmed young man in Florida by another man that pursued him. Now the reason you may not have heard of this case, and why Fox news hasn't been shouting about it from the mountain tops is because the shooter is a Black man. Thirty two year old Claudius Smith pursued, shot, and killed twenty one year old Ricardo Sanes after Sanes was spotted crossing through Smith's yard.

Claudius then hoped his fence and tracked Sanes to an apartment complex where Smith claims he killed Sanes in self defense after feeling threatened. He thought the hooded Sanes may have had a weapon because his pants were sagging and his hands were in his hoodie. So this may yet be another stand your ground case and I am WAITING for Fox to pick this case up and report on it in the same vein as they did the Trayvon Martin case. I expect to hear them call Smith a hero and claim Sanes got what he deserved. Read about the case yourselves in the link below...

"Stand Your Ground" the sequel.

You tell me, should I hold me breath?

Now...about that wall...

Black on Black

It's one thing for some white right wing republicans to open their mouths and have some foul nonsense come flying out. Honestly, in this day and age don't we almost expect it? Hell, Sarah Palin just told President Obama to stop playing the race card on Martin Luther King Day. Talk about audacity, but her comments really didn't take the world by surprise and if they did, you need to come out from under that rock more often than you do.

Comments made by Rush, Hannity, and the rest of the talking fools on that sorry excuse of a news network called Fox about the President and his reign have come so fast and furious that we expect them. They really don't inspire anger or frustration anymore in me anymore. I don't know about you but I just laugh at them now. Those white folk spit their artificial vitriol because they want high ratings and they know that's the best way to get them. It's not news, it's entertainment programming for those that continue to vote republican even though voting that way has done nothing but hurt this country, but I digress.

The strangest thing in the world to me is a Black republican. They do exist and that alone is surprising, but when they say worse things about the President than the talking heads at Fox, I realize they are just trying to get a piece of that pie. It's very lucrative these days to be a Black republican, but if you want to get put on you have to do it subtly. Being over the top just makes them look stupid and desperate. Case in point: Joshua Black. This Black republican is running for a seat for the state house in Florida (yeah, I know), and had the nerve to agree with someone saying this, "I'm past impeachment. It's time to arrest and hang him high." I shit you not, read the article here...

Ladies and Gentlemen, Joshua Black.

This man threw his crazy hat into the pot with the other crazy hats and tried to outcrazy the crazy. So much so that other republicans called this man out on his craziness. Look Joshua, I can understand wanting to eat from that pie, you want to be invited on Bill Maher, Fox, and the Sunday morning talk shows to make a name for yourself. I get that, I do, but if you overdo it they won't touch you with a ten foot pole. And the voters of Florida should follow their damn lead.

Freedom for Marissa...NOW!

It's taken them WAY too long to do the right thing, but no one said the state of Florida was smart. In fact I am certain the entire country now realizes just how slow and backwards Florida really is. Case in point, when you compare George Zimmerman's case to that of Marissa Alexander's the state clearly wished to exhibit just how ass backwards it was and still is.

The world knows the case of Zimmerman by now, an armed person of color (he is half white, half Peruvian) who killed an unarmed young Black man because he was walking slowly in the rain and "looked suspicious". Thanks to that states ludicrous "stand your ground" laws it took law enforcement days to even arrest Zimmerman and when he finally was, the political right jumped to his defense. I think that had to be the first time the political right jumped to the defense of ANY person of color in this kind of situation, EVER actually. The reasons are obvious to all those that don't live in this racist country with their heads buried in the sand.

The world eventually found out about Marissa Alexander and her case. It was the case of a Black woman who had had enough of being abused by the man who swore to protect and cherish her before friends, family, and God. According to the details Marissa, a woman standing 5'2" tall did what she could to ward off yet another attack from her 245 lbs. husband by shooting a warning shot in their kitchen wall. Please note, this is a man that had previously been arrested for domestic violence against Marissa. Yes, unlike so many other women in this country that get beaten by their boyfriends, fiances, or husbands and never press charges or testify against them, Marissa did. Honestly, due to the argument of the prosecution that Marissa endangered her husband when firing the warning shot, I feel had Marissa just killed her husband that she would be free now. Though I'm sure they would have found a reason to give her life behind bars had she done that.

George Zimmerman kills a teenage Black boy and walks free. Marissa Alexander defends herself from a convicted abuser, someone she had an active restraining order against during the time of the attack, by shooting nothing but the wall in their kitchen and she gets sentenced to 20 years behind bars.

George Zimmerman has a bag of guns and can travel this country freely as if he had done nothing wrong in his life while Marissa Alexander's bond was almost revoked and she sent back to jail because she was in violation of her home detention by going on trips not authorized by the court. If she takes another unauthorized trip, Marissa will be back behind bars for a crime any woman in her right mind should have committed.

I truly think if Florida ever asks to secede from the union, we let them. EXONERATE THIS WOMAN!!! What in the world are you waiting for Florida?

Happy Birthday Dr. King.

Happy Birthday Dr. King. You know, whenever your birthday rolls around I often wonder what you would have thought of us, your people today? Would you be proud of us and the progress we've made or would you be disheartened at the fractious nature of the African American community?

You were one of the greatest orators of our time, with a warm voice coupled with impactful words and a building style, you captured the imaginations of a generation. While I may not have completely agreed with your approach in trying to obtain rights for Black and brown people, I have always respected you and the struggle you undertook. You laid the groundwork for us to build on, and despite the things you have been accused of by the Federal Bureau of Investigations, you are nothing but a hero in our eyes.

On the day where you would have seen your 85th birthday had there not been a sick and twisted man hell bent on your destruction, I want you to know that you will never be forgotten for as long as mankind continues to breathe. Thank you for your sacrifice for your people, thank you for all you've done, and may you continue to rest in eternal peace, sir.

Goodbye Amiri

Saying goodbye to you is hard, I ain't about to lie. While I've not read a lot of your work, shameful I know, I have admired you and thought of you as a member of my family and a mentor. Your outspokenness and fearlessness to tell it like it was was something that always inspired me to do the same. This goodbye is gonna suck.

So I won't say goodbye, I'll move this into one of those "see you soon" kind of things. That feels better than a goodbye so that's what I'll run with. Your passing won't have the same effect on me that Malcolm's assassination had on you, but just like his passing moved you in such profound ways, your passing will leave a large void in my life.

People should be celebrating your life and dancing outside of your house like South Africans did in front of Madiba's when he passed. Finding out about you and learning of your works should be taught in EVERY school across the land, yes even your more controversial works and opinions.

I will miss you Everett LeRoi Jones. I will miss knowing you are out there, watching us, and knowing that if we displease you that you won't hesitate to tell us about ourselves in creative yet searing ways. I will miss you Imamu Amiri Baraka but you have earned your rest. You have fought the good fight and left behind an untouchable legacy. I thank you for that in ways I cannot put into words. Rest in peace sir.