Hypocrisy in Black and White, The American Way

A couple of things are sticking in my craw today....

 One is the fact that Troy Davis is scheduled to die this evening for a crime that he may not have committed. Yesterday, the Georgia Parole Board refused to grant Davis clemency, stating there was more than enough evidence to show that Davis was the gunman and that the 7 of 9 witnesses against him who  later recanted their testimony, were apparently confused.

What it boils down to is another Black man is being lynched in Georgia. Davis is convicted of killing a white police officer. If Davis had killed a Black cop, he would probably have been sentenced to life in prison, all other things being equal.

But this is America, where equality and justice are still determined by the color of your skin. Studies continue to show that when the victim is white, 9 times out of 10, the Black defendant is given the death penalty...regardless of where the trial takes place in this country.

And believe it or not, a sitting United States Supreme Court Justice says it's okay to put an innocent man to death in America because the Constitution doesn't address the matter.

 Current  historical revisionists would have you believe, lynching is a thing of the past, doesn't happen anymore. Well, au contraire, mon frere, lynching has never been outlawed in America either. It just became not so classy to do so. Now it is done on the back roads, by drunken men in trucks who like to re-enact history, or  left up to the American justice system and police officers trained to coerce confessions to make it all seem legal and above board.  America's facade of pro life humanitarianism for all has slipped badly this week.

We're more worried about Palestinians killing Jews and vice versa than we are about what is happening inside our own borders.

No justice, there should be no peace if another innocent man dies.  However, Black America has been strangely quiet on this subject. Maybe it's because we're too busy bustin' a cap on each other to worry about another soon to be dead Black man.

Where is the outrage?  Where are the calls for justice from the Black blogosphere? Where are the Black celebrities willing speak on Troy Davis' behalf?

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Wow! Black churches have discovered there is an epidemic killing the Black community. It's call HIV/AIDS!  The headline trumpeted yesterday in the blogosphere.

So what do I do.... jump up and down, be happy, congratulate them? I've only been doing radio, TV and newspaper and magazine articles since 1984 on Blacks and AIDS.

I've lost 3 relatives and 15 friends to the disease. I don't even know how many of my friends are HIV positive, but I'll bet there are a lot of them, though.  All died in secrecy and some in isolation and fearful estrangement from their families. All of them considered themselves Christian, with many of them diligently attending Sunday services. Two were ordained ministers.

Straight Black women are the most at risk group in America today.

Am I supposed to welcome Black Churches, finally, to the last dance?  Maybe I should just  suppress my own anger and move on. Better late than never, right?  About damn time!

 Fuckin' hypocrites!

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Double WOW!

Only took LGBT equality some 60 years to the day after Blacks were allowed fully into the ranks of the military...Not because whites were suddenly become altruistic, seeing the error of their ways...The government simply needed more cannon fodder to fight the war du jour in Korea...

So on Day 2 after the government repeals that misguided policy formerly known as Don't Ask, Don't Tell...time for a reality check...

Sun still come up....check!
World still here....check!
Rain not turned radioactive...check!
Military not imploded....check!
Osama, Franco, Hitler and Mussolini still dead....check!
GOP still marching goose step over a teabag created cliff...check!
Obama still in the White House.....check!
Straight marriages still sanctified....Please!

Black Church, Black Leaders Not the Answer

Talk....talk....talk....do nothing.....get paid

A study released today by Cornell University cites statistics showing that 90% of all Black children will be fed by food stamps in this country. Food stamps is the number one signifier of poverty in America, as well as the prevalence of single parent homes.

The number of all children in America who subsist on food stamps is 49.2%. In other words, half of all American children experience poverty in their lifetimes, usually for their lifetimes.

In a decade where unemployment hovers around 10% for all people, for Blacks it is nearing 30%, with no sign of change for the better.

My hometown recently weathered a stretch of 8 killings and several woundings over a 10 day period. 6 people were shot during a drive-by in DC, occurring in the same neighborhood where the first family chose to take part in Easter worship, witnessed by a massive display of fire and manpower by the secret service who literally surrounded the church while the Obamas were there.

In New York, Easter Sunday night, several people were shot, 54 people arrested, after groups of young people apparently decided to go on rampage. Those shot were said to be innocent bystanders caught in the chaos.

The change happening in the Black community is not change for the good. Honestly, the community seems to have fallen off the cliff upon which it has been dangling for the past 40 years or so. And the calls by the so called Black leaders demanding the President do something to stop the slide are not new either. The only thing new is that this time the man being haranged is a Black man.

The problems are in fact, like a toothache. Back in the 1960s the pain was a minor pain. In the 1970s the crown cracked and cavity formed. In the 1980s and 1990s the pain has turned into an abcess and a root canal is needed. The economic situation that has devastated this country has virtually destroyed the Black community and the middle class. The problems are well past the point of talk.

Yet, Obama has bowed to pressure and has decided to hold another meeting to talk about the problems in the Black community. I guess they will also get around to the so called "Black Agenda," whatever that is.

Talking to so called Black leaders who are invested in being leaders of what has been a visibly dying community for the past four decades, is like talking to Hamid Karzai who is threatening to join the Taliban as a way of saving Afghanistan.

It's not about the community. It's about the personal payoff they get by being identified as a leader. It's about being invited to the White House for a sit down with President O to discuss the community and to maybe shoot some hoops on the converted tennis/basketball court.

The same holds true for the so called leaders of the Black Church, who are vested in the fake prosperity gospels in direct contrast to the teachings of Jesus as written in the Bible they so zealously claim to follow.

At least Karzai is honest about his corruption. He makes no secret that it's about the money for him and his, not the country or the people.

Obama would do well to go to the various ghettoes and hang out like he used to do when he was an organizer. Talk directly to the people. Find out what is lacking and from there, figure out how to fix it.

He is on the right track by reaching out to young people and to change the education system back to meaningful education.

But continuing to listen to the clueless Black church which has had its head in the sand for years ignoring the violence, ignoring the explosion of babies born to single women, ignoring the problem of young men dropping out of school unable to find work, ignoring AIDS and its toll on people, or ignoring the devastation wreaked by Black on Black homophobia when their choirs are led by not so closeted gay Black men, is a mistake.

And Black leaders in Brooks brothers suits are no different than the GOP and its virulent conservatism, heavily vested in keeping the status quo. They don't really want change, they just want to keep on, keepin' on.

It is time to move past them and to look at what is going on in the neighborhoods of America. Obama doesn't need anyone to filter it for him. He's been there, it's where he comes from. He needs to reconnect and work past the middlemen and women who have long stood in the way of real progress in the community.

Have your meetings if you must, Mr. President, but do it in the streets with the people, not the leaders with their hands out as usual.

A Passing and Stupidity in a Chocolate Nation

Gershwin’s Bess

Ann Brown, a woman that few of us ever heard sing, has died. She was 96. Ms. Brown was a black woman who was pure a pure soprano, who sang Opera and classical music during the time when Blacks were rarely allowed to perform in white theater.

She was Bess in Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess...the first one..the original one..

She predated Marian Anderson, who was the first Black woman to sing at the Metropolitan Opera. She predated Leontyne Price and Jessye Norman and Kathleen Battle.

She was born here, but left the country to live in Oslo Norway and perform in Europe because of the race prejudice at the time..

May she find peace.

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Chocolate City AIDS Epidemic

Where are the Black Churches now? AIDS has reached epidemic proportions among Blacks 40-49 in DC and nobody is saying anything about it...Why?

It is the number one health problem with Blacks and nobody is talking about it....Why?

The virus is killing men especially in DC and the mode of transmission is man to man sex...

Black women are dying in record numbers nationwide, because they are sleeping with Black men who secretly sleep with other men...

When is the Black Church, The Black Community, and Black politicians going to pull their collective heads out of their collective asses and do something....

This is not a White Man’s problem, people...This is us and it’s time we admitted that and handle our business...