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

    

The Silence is Overwhelming!

I am ashamed of you.

I am ashamed of all of you that have made your money, bought your nice house, took care of your mother and family, and then turned your back on us. I am ashamed of you today. You, who drive around in a car most can't even pronounce the name of, wearing your custom made tailored suits and dresses, who live in a zip code and tax bracket high enough to make noses bleed. Those of you who get richer when we buy your music, see your movies, buy your jerseys, go to your concerts or your games, you have made an enemy out of me for I will no longer do any of these things.

I won't be going to your movies Denzel, Kevin Hart, O'Shea Jackson, Taye Diggs, Terence Howard, Morris Chestnut, Sanaa Lathan, Halle Berry, Morgan Freeman, Michael Ealy, Samuel L. Jackson, Anthony Mackie, Forrest Whitaker, Queen Latifah, Will Smith.

I won't be buying anymore of your music or seeing you in concert Jay-Z, Beyonce, Jamie Foxx, Nas, Drake, Patti, Anita, Mary J., India Arie, Prince, Usher, Babyface, Alicia, Mos Def, 50, Kanye.

I won't be seeing you do your thing on the court Carmelo Anthony, Kevin Durant, Kobe Bryant, Dwayne Wade, Ray Allen, Kevin Garnet, and the rest of your league of silent cowards.

Your silence is deafening...and I am ashamed of you.

Where are you T.D. Jakes? Where are you and your Nation, Minister Farrakhan? Your silence is profound Tavis Smiley! Michael Eric Dyson! Cornell West! Where is PUBLIC ENEMY? James Brown would curse you all to your name. Sammy Davis Jr. and Tupac would do the same. Everyone is quick with a negative word about him but at least Rev. Al Sharpton is in Ferguson, Missouri, doing whatever he possibly can. Where are you Spike? Where are you Dave Chapelle? Where are you Bill Cosby? Where are you Chris Rock?

For you to be silent while the police continue to kill unarmed Black men is horrifying to me. You, who have made money off of Black people supporting and championing you, your silence Tyler Perry disgusts me.

We need to see more than a tweet, more than an instagram picture, more than a damn facebook post. How do you all not see this? SPEAK UP! SAY SOMETHING!

I am ashamed of every last one of you, those named and unnamed.

You have made an enemy out of me this day, for life.

What Will It Take?

I wasn't sure about blogging on this and honestly I'm still not. I need to vent though. I need to get this shit off my chest and what better place to do it than on my blog? I'm scared ya'll. Scared and frustrated truthfully because we seem to be living in the days where police seem to have NO problems killing UNARMED Black men. They are either gunning us down in broad daylight or using illegal choke holds and choking us to death. And yet, there hasn't been a single thing said from any athlete, musician, actor, producer, so called civil rights advocate, or religious leader that I have heard of. If something HAS been said I must have missed it.

Instead it seems to be business as usual and that's what scares me. The majority of us are still asleep at the wheel or we are condemning those in Ferguson, MO. for rioting. I do not condone nor do I condemn the rioting of those that are engaged in that brand of civil unrest over the senseless murder of Michael Brown, but I do understand it. What I do not understand is why the same thing isn't happening in Cincinnati where John Crawford was gunned down inside a Walmart when carrying nothing more than a BB gun in an Open Carry state. Or here in NYC over the choking death of Eric Garner? People should be losing their minds and they aren't. That's both frustrating and frightening to me. We are now so complacent that the unjustified murder of three Black men, four if you now add Ezell Ford, gunned down by police while lying prone on his stomach in Los Angeles, doesn't move us to unify, organize, and mobilize to demand better treatment for our communities and justice for the fallen.

What is it going to take for us as a people to stand up and shout, "NO MORE!" Who or how many must die at one time for us to say enough is enough? That is what scares me because Black men, it is open season on us and while I know some who will tear down the walls of heaven should something happen to me, would anyone join them or would they be too busy living their own lives, happy it was me and not them, "There but for the grace of god..."

It took the deaths of 3,000+ civilians for airports to change their policy of stricter boarding practices. What is it going to take for us as a people to do the same? Right now in this country every Black man should be an angry Black man and that anger should move us to fight, if not physically then financially. Boycott stores, keep your money in your pockets, only buy what you need, forget what you want. That anger should move us to fight politically, run for a city council seat, a judgeship, or even local sheriff. We need to see more of us when times get harder than they usually are for us. That anger should move us to hold our entertainers and athletes and scholars feet to the fire, to make them speak up and speak out instead of being Michael Jordan-like silent. That anger should drive us to demand more from the church. Instead of worrying about where your soul  is going once you die, trying saving the lives of the people still living. The church was one of the many backbones of the Civil Rights movements, where is it at today? Praying for those that are killing us? That anger should be what makes us stand up as men and say "NO MORE!" instead of waiting for the next batch of murdered Black children to come across our headlines because the next one could be yours.

America Is Not For Black People