So there’s a “Django” action figure being sold now; and, of course, some of my cousins are upset about it — yep, yet another reason yo hate this movie for some. The action figure isn’t actually a stocking stuffer, but I hope it doesn’t have a Kung Fu grip like G.I. Joe. Nope, no need to get Spike Lee any angrier about the movie than he already is at this point. Seriously, how much more disrespectful can they get with this thing? Oh well, it could have been worse. Yes, somebody could have had the bright idea to start selling a crack head action figure after the movie Do The Right Thing.

Oh, and speaking of “angry black men who hate white men with the audacity to make movies that illustrates what it was like for black folk back in 1853″. Did you hear what Tavis Smiley had to say about Tarantino and the movie Django Unchained? Well, like Spike Lee, he too hasn’t seen the movie nor intends to “pay to see it,” like he said in a recent interview featured on The Daily Beast. Like Lee, he too takes issue with a white movie director using his craft to bring to the big screen a film that revels in the painful but often avoided legacy of slavery. Responding to a question about his first reaction to the film, Smiley opens up the interview with the following:

Quentin Tarantino’s film, Django Unchained has as much to do with the history and culture of American descendants of African slaves as Dumbo has to do with the plight of Weimar Jewry. Spike Lee says that it disrespected his ancestors. It does not. It has nothing to do with them. It has everything to do with one white man’s fevered, second-hand vision of what it would be like to be something he probably can’t conceive. It’s like me attempting to write an intimate account of the pains of childbirth. I may have held a baby and changed a diaper, but one would doubt my authority on the subject.

Tarantino obviously knows black people, but only a white man in America could believe that this provides him with the authority to speak on the black American experience. Like 99.9999 percent of the white population, he has minimal intimacy with the culture of the descendants of American slaves. That culture, imbibed from birth by American blacks raised in black American households, involves an intimate, often subconscious acknowledgment of history, of a unique place in the American hierarchy, of a struggle against mainstream paradigms of who and what we are. These are intimacies of which whites are necessarily ignorant — they’re white. Just as I, as a male, have no intimate knowledge of birthing pains, whites have no knowledge of being black. They can gain an abstract conception, but that’s it.

Um, excuse me, I know Tarantino is white and all, but I sincerely doubt whether anyone alive today — including black folks — are able to have more than an abstract conception of what slavery was like. Yes, though many of its scars still run deep throughout the diaspora, to suggest that by virtue of one being charged with melanin comes with a certain esoteric knowledge of slavery even if we’re fifty years removed from Jim Crow. Which is funny because it’s as though being able to endure “the struggle” was woven into our cultural and biological DNA — it’s as if unlike any other race, we’re predisposed to endure any struggle. And thus, we’re exceptional or something.

Of course, Tarantino has every right to make a film on any subject he chooses, and he knows his audience well. The film has become the white literati’s preferred lens into the forbidden territory of black rage (a sort of reverse Uncle Tom’s Cabin). But when blacks discuss it as if this product of white Hollywood is a legitimate expression of our culture or our rage, we do ourselves a gross injustice; we follow the pattern of outsourcing our history and self-image to the majority; we marry ourselves into the grotesque self-images that their history has tried to stamp upon us.

Django Unchained is nothing more than one white Hollywood director’s fantasy of what black revenge would look like. It would be no more to us than another big screen cartoon if we dealt honestly and independently with our own history — a history white studios or directors would never touch. Such history puts the lie to the frames and simplifications with which Americans maintain our halo of historical innocence on matters related to race.

If we lavished similar imagination upon the history of the blacks who fought for the British during the American revolution to escape slavery, the German Coast uprising, the Prosser and Vesey rebellions, the ‘Crazy as St. Paul’ Nat Turner rebellion, the Black Seminole rebellion of 1835, the innumerable anecdotal tales of black resistance against slave-owners, perhaps we wouldn’t glom onto the work of a white director who (with his infantile insistence on his right to fling the word “nigger”) seems frightfully similar to the clueless character in Lou Reed’s infamous, “I Wanna be Black.” If we taught ourselves to regard the Civil War as “a failed war to protect and extend slavery,” and not “a war to free the slaves,” we would be less seduced by the siren song of second-hand revenge fantasy. If we debated among ourselves the virtues and vices of real old-west outlaws like the notorious Rufus Buck Gang, Cherokee Bill and Isom Dart, perhaps one white man’s notion of blacks in the old west would be less noteworthy. If we knew that black freedman populated Indian Territory and that a black lawman named Bass Reeves served as a Deputy U.S. Marshall for “Hanging Judge” Isaac Parker, we’d have a far richer, more complex view of our history than that promoted by the likes of Hollywood and Tarantino.

Yes, blacks are giving this film too much credence, but it’s our own fault. We have outsourced our history to the majority and failed to devise the means to teach our history to ourselves. In a country in which we have been historically subjugated and reviled, we accept instruction about our history and our place in it from those who subjugated and reviled us. That’s a bit insane. As long as we continue to do so, the likes of Django Unchained will rise from the level of mainstream curiosities from black-cultural dilettantes, to fake nipples mimicking the teat of cultural sustenance.

Listen: We can only imagine just what it must have been like for African slaves not just in America, but also those spread all throughout the new world; but even so, we have no earthly idea, despite the documented research, of just how bad it actually was. So what is the point to this post? That I can’t wait for Tarantino to do the sequel where Django and Madea try to bust John Brown the abolitionist, out of prison for killing white folks so everyone can be happy. Yep, let’s try to rescue a white man in the next one, since folk wanna act like he had Harriet Tubman giving lap dances in this one. as cathartic as this film isn’t for some, maybe my suggested sequel will be received with open arms only if a black guy produces, writes, and directs it. Because quite naturally, who else is there better to tell stories of the black struggle than black people, right? After all, last time I checked, black kids are still picking white dolls over black dolls; and, it ain’t like y’all Negroes supported Akeela And The Bee anyway.

So yeah, blame Tarantino for that too.

The post Slavery, Django Action Figures, & Why Tavis Smiley is Wrong appeared first on Madness & Reality.

Remember that iconic photo of Malcolm X peeking out the window while holding gun with what’s known on the streets as a banana clip? as I think of this week’s ongoing gun control debate, I’ve come to rest on that very picture probably being the biggest reason why I’m opposed o an assault weapon ban. I can provide numbers to support the argument that an assault weapon ban will do very little as a solution to America’s gun violence problem. But being a black man, that very photo says it all. Not that I’m paranoid or afraid of “the man” coming after me like they did Malcolm — nope, never that. You see, I’m reminded of the fact that at one point in this country’s history, it was against the law for anyone black to own a gun. And in so many ways, the existence of that law further enabled “certain people” when it came to terrorizing the lives of black folks in America.

Here’s a stupid conversation on gun control:

Any gun control we enact will have a limited effect. But this should not be cause for despair. Much of the recent hysteria over gun deaths is misplaced.

A lot of people have been citing a recent report, “American Gun Deaths to Exceed Traffic Fatalities by 2015.” The article shows that gun deaths in America are slowly rising, and now stand at 32,000 per year — a staggering toll. Now, 32,000 deaths per year is a lot of death, and I’d never minimize that. But what the article’s authors fail to mention is that gun murders comprise less than a third of that total — about 9,000 per year in recent years. With accidental gun deaths steady at around 500-600 per year, the bulk of those 32,000 “gun deaths” are suicides.

In fact, murder by gun has been falling steadily since the early 1990s. Some of that is due to improvements in emergency medicine, but most is a result of the overall decline in violent crime that America has enjoyed over the last two decades. The fact that overall gun deaths has risen since 2000, despite the fall in murders, suggests that increased gun suicide has accounted for more than 100% of the increase in gun deaths. Obviously, suicide is a tragedy, and I don’t want to minimize it. But people aren’t panicking over suicide, they’re panicking over murder, and gun-related murder is on the way down.

Of course, 9,000 gun deaths a year is still a lot. Still more than other rich countries, still a disgrace, still far too many! But people who have been watching the round-the-clock coverage of the Newtown massacre need to understand that “mass killings” of the Newtown type account for a very small percent of that 9,000. Most of those 9,000 gun murders are of the more mundane, but no less deadly variety — drive-by shootings, gang wars, personal quarrels, and other easily comprehensible crimes.

And if we really care about those 9,000 souls who are shot to death each year, there is an extremely effective policy that we could enact right now that would probably save many of them.

I’m talking about ending the drug war.

Now I can think of many reasons to end Americas 40-year-long failed War on Drugs; and, I’m sure we can have a debate on just that. However, since we’re all up in arms about guns since last month’s tragedy in Newtown, Connecticut. Given the many ill-formed opinions and positions posited by more than the NRA’s Wayne La Pierre. Again, in the interest of public safety, isn’t it time we treat drug use, abuse, as well as gun violence like a public health crisis much like we did with HIV/AIDS in America and abroad? No seriously, think about that for a second. Yes, think about how a necessary paradigm shift — that is, decriminalizing illicit drugs — as far as policy can produce the desired results for the greater good.

Reliable statistics on the number of drug-related murders in the United States are hard to come by. A 1994 Department of Justice report suggested that between a third and a half of U.S. homicides were drug-related, while a recent Center for Disease Control study found that the rate varied between 5% and 25% (a 2002 Bureau of Justice report splits the difference). Part of this variance is that “drug-related” murders are hard to define. There are murders committed by people on drugs, murders committed by addicts to get money for drugs, turf-war murders by drug suppliers, and murders committed by gangs whose principal source of income is drug sales.

But very few would argue that the illegal drug trade is a significant cause of murders. This is a straightforward result of America’s three-decade-long “drug war.” Legal bans on drug sales lead to a vacuum in legal regulation; instead of going to court, drug suppliers settle their disputes by shooting each other. Meanwhile, interdiction efforts raise the price of drugs by curbing supply, making local drug supply monopolies (i.e., gang turf) a rich prize to be fought over. And stuffing our overcrowded prisons full of harmless, hapless drug addicts forces us to give accelerated parole to hardened killers.

Ending the drug war would involve reducing all of these incentives to murder. Treating addicts in hospitals and rehab centers, instead of sticking them in prisons, would reduce demand for drugs, lowering the price and starving gangs of income while reducing their incentive to wage turf wars. Decriminalization would relieve pressure on our prison system, allowing us to focus on keeping violent people off the streets instead of pointlessly punishing drug users for destroying their own health. And full legalization of recreational marijuana — which is already proceeding quickly among the states, but is still foolishly opposed by the Obama administration — is an obvious first step.

In other words, yes, gun control is good. BUT don’t expect it to be a panacea for America’s gun violence problem. If we really want to save some of those 9,000 people, we need to end the self-destructive, failed drug policies that have turned us into a prison state and turned many of our cities into war zones. (source)

Now, does this sound crazy, or what? Of course to some of you it does; however, alcohol is considered a drug, yet I don’t see Mexican drug cartels murdering people by the thousands each year to be able to control the market for alcohol. Nope, you don’t hear about headless bodies being found in deserts along the southern border because of alcohol. Which is really funny because more people die annually because of alcohol than they do because of guns. So if we’re really serious about doing something about gun violence in America, why not start with drug legalization? After all, if that were to happen, what’s the worse that can happen other than a reduction in gun crimes in cities in Chicago? A city that had 506 homicides in 2012, with 80% of them being gun-related; with only 4% of the guns used being assault weapons. This makes sense in my head, but what about you?

After all, like “Nino Brown” said, “Ain’t no Uzis made up in Harlem,” which they might not be. But, it’s undeniable that more money is made by the presence of guns and drugs in our neighborhoods by the folks responsible for the task of keeping them out, than the ones engaged in the trade.

Although the overall U.S. prison population declined slightly in 2011, the federal prison population continued to rise, with rates of drug and immigration offenders that eclipse those held for violent crimes. While only 8 percent of federal prisoners were sentenced for violent crimes in 2011, almost half of federal inmates – 48 percent – were in prison for drug crimes, according to Department of Justice statistics. Another 11 percent were held for immigration offenses – one of the largest-growing segments of the prison population.

These numbers reflect the impact of the aggressive U.S. “War on Drugs,” a major contributor to the United States’ standing as the number one jailer in the world. Overall declines in U.S. prisons of 0.9 percent are attributable to state prisons, as some states have been moved by budget crises to adopt innovative reforms, and some jurisdictions have moved toward decriminalizing minor drug offenses.

But federal drug law remains draconian, with harsh mandatory minimum sentences for sometimes minor nonviolent roles in drug deals. What’s more, one of the major causes of the state prison population decrease was the 2011 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that California state prisons are cruel and unusual under the Eighth Amendment. A drastic decrease in California’s prison population has resulted from what is known as realignment, in which prisoners are moved from state prisons to county jails, where local sheriffs have greater discretion over how to deal with offenders – for better or for worse — and may send them to mental health treatment, home surveillance, or community service rather than hold them behind bars. The California shift accounts for more than half of the decrease in the U.S. prison population, and overall state spending on prisons continues to be the fastest-growing budgetary item after Medicaid. (source)

Now watch the following video and ask yourself: What would change if drugs were made legal in America?

The post Why Ending the Drug War is Good Gun Control Policy appeared first on Madness & Reality.

Oh, so you think unions are bad for business and workers. OK, here’s one reason why you’re wrong. Yep, and I’ll give it to you in one word. Are you ready? Here it goes: slavery. Yeah, marinate on that one for a few and get back to me.

But don’t tell that to Michigan’s Republican governor Rick Snyder, who in a Wednesday morning appearance on MSNBC’s Morning Joe argued that their new anti-union law was beneficial to the state. According to Snyder, the states new right-to-work law could protect and strengthen unions by encouraging them to show more value to workers. Wow! So, reducing the influence and power of labor unions to act in the best interest of the Michigan worker when it comes to protecting and securing their rights, actually turns out to be “pro-worker.”

This from Think Progress:

Snyder appeared on the show less than 12 hours after signing two separate bills allowing public and private union members to opt out of paying union dues, while benefiting from union contracts, and defended the controversial measures. He characterized the law as benefiting workers and unions become more valuable.

The answer shocked the Morning Joe crew and led MSNBC contributor Richard Wolffe to interrupt the governor in mid-answer. Even Joe Scarborough grew incredulous and the Washington Post’s Carl Bernstein sighed heavily as Snyder spoke:

SNYDER: I’ve never said that unions are bad for business. And I don’t believe this is actually anti-union. If you look at it, I believe this is pro-worker, because the way I view it is, is workers now have freedom to choose …

WOLFFE: Hang on. Hang on a second. Are you serious? Are you serious? This is not anti-unions? This actually, at its core undermines the ability for unions to organize. So you can make any argument you like, but saying it’s not …

SNYDER: Unions have to be in a position to present a good value proposition… And if they don’t provide value, people shouldn’t be forced to pay for something they don’t see any value in. So again, this should make unions more effective in terms of having to put a value proposition to workers.

SCARBOROUGH: Governor, while I made a similar argument earlier that workers shouldn’t be compelled to have to pay from their salary to a union with whom they disagree, I would not go so far as to say what you’ve just said, which is that this helps unions. I mean, it undermines unions’ ability to stay vibrant, right?

BERNSTEIN: Absolutely!

SNYDER: It really leaves it up to the union to decide and innovate as to what their value proposition is….

BERNSTEIN: Come on!

Gee, who knew?

Listen, Rick Snyder (and the GOP as a whole) firmly believes that Michigan workers (and the rest of us) were born last night. The truth is that Michigan has been ground zero for the GOP’s agenda since 2010′s midterm election. Yep, this is the same state government that produced Emergency Managers who were responsible for not only firing teachers and shutting down public schools while being on the payroll of a corporate-funded organization that promoted privatization and charter schools. This is the same state government that used yet another Emergency Manager to take away the legislative power of elected officials in a predominantly African-American city called Benton Harbor, to be able to build a luxury golf resort for the wealthy.

Snyder and company has done a lot more than this, but I’ll stop there because hopefully you get the point. A lot of what has been done by Snyder and company, comes right out of the ALEC playbook; and, it is in fact an example of how the partnership between corporations and government aren’t always pro-worker, or even pro-democracy as it should be. instead, it can be very pro-slavery.

Now watch the following to understand:

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There is something sick and perverse about George Zimmerman selling autographs to raise money for the cost of his upcoming trial. What this says about Zimmerman or willing participants of such a sordid transaction, I’m not sure. But hopefully, it doesn’t reflect the insidiously pervasive direction of larger society. The last thing we need are twisted individuals receiving stars on Hollywood Boulevard for murders in spite of how justified they may be deemed in a court of law.

Speaking of which, by now, hopefully you’ve heard about yet another senseless murder of yet another 17-year-old black male at the hands of a “responsible” law-abiding white gun owner . I wrote about my initial feelings with regard to the lack of national outrage yesterday. But ironically, as I punch keystrokes, I can hear my man Rev. Al Sharpton speaking (very loudly as always on Politics Nation) about the incident itself. Ask any black person: When it goes down, you want Al on your side.

I take some comfort in knowing that if anybody is on the case to give it the national coverage it deserves — unlike the Daniel Adkins case — it is the good brother, Rev. Al Sharpton. Let’s just say that I can sleep a little better tonight knowing that the brother is watching this one very closely.

Having said that, check out what the shooter, 45-year-old Michael Dunn’s attorney is saying:

Now, for the first time, we’re hearing Dunn’s side of the story, from his attorney Robin Lemonidis. She said, “They were blasting some rap music. And he said he rolled down his window, pulled up on the passenger side, and rolled down his window and asked, would you mind turning that down? And said it very politely.”

The attorney says the teenager in the front seat turned down the radio. But then she says her client heard the teens cussing at him, making threats. She says Dunn rolled down his window and said, “He said excuse me, are you talking to me?”

At that point, she says one of the teenagers told Dunn he was dead. “And that’s when the guy in the back seat raised the barrel of a shotgun over the rim of the window,” said Lemonidis. “At that point, he just snapped into self protection mode.”

Dunn’s attorney claims that’s when her client reached for a gun he had in the glove compartment of his car, loaded it, and fired. “Firing at the car, because they’re showing him a gun, and he can’t see their hands,” she said. “And he doesn’t know. They’re about to blast him in the face with a shotgun, as far as he knows.”

Sounds reasonable, right? I mean, if someone gets a bit upset and refuses to acquiesce my request to turn down loud aggravating hippity hop music, and points a shotgun in my direction after exchanging pleasantries (remember this?). Yes, like me, you too would feel threatened and feel the need to protect your life by using the necessary deadly force it requires, right? Because of course, everybody knows how rap music if played loudly, gives black teens super human strength known to rival that of the Hulk. There’s only one problem, however, there was no guns recovered from the car.

How’s that for being a “responsible” legal gun owner?

So yeah, as Michael Dunn’s attorney says, this case is nothing like the Trayvon Martin case. You hear that? This guy isn’t the obvious racist many perceive George Zimmerman to be. Nope, according to his attorney, he is no “vigilante,” Unlike Zimmerman, he was fearful for his life, And listening to her in the video above, if I was a white man, I’d be afraid too. Again, forget the fact that there was no gun, the fact that there was more than one scary black teen in a car with tinted windows, clearly means there had to be a gun involved somewhere — after all, the music was loud.

As a matter of fact, supposedly Dunn’s attorney also stated that police didn’t find a gun because police didn’t look hard enough. Yep, no need to even plant a gun; nope, the kids were black and the windows were tinted;yep, there had to be a gun in that car. Hell, if the cops looked hard enough, I’m sure they’d also find empty KFC fried chicken boxes,empty malt liquor bottles, and a watermelon-chitlin juice mix on the upholstery. After all, the four occupants of the SUV were all black, no? Not that it should matter; but, I’m just sayin’.

“There are no comparisons to the Trayvon Martin situation,” said Robin Lemonidis, Dunn’s attorney. “He is devastated and horrified by the death of the teen.”

Yep, he was so devastated that he drove off, and slept knowing that a black kid was dead…

Listen, I could go on and on about how this is yet another example of how the negative stereotypes of black people in general, and black males in particular often lead to grave consequences. Yes, we’ve been down this road before on numerous occasions. Instead, I’ll close by saying that other than the obvious, what’s overlooked is how the culture of violence in America facilitates a mindset that’s foreign to the concept of proper conflict resolution. After all, America has taught us that if there’s a problem with someone or something the best way to deal with it, clearly, is to kill it.

Don’t blame the NRA, folks; nope, in American culture the bad guy always wears black.

The post Attorney: Jordan Davis Killer Michael Dunn is no George Zimmerman – But is He? appeared first on Madness & Reality.

It has almost been one year since the death of Trayvon Martin at the hands of George Zimmerman. You remember that case, don’t you? You now, the black teen armed with Skittles and Ice Tea who was gunned down by an over-zealous neighborhood watch captain for wearing a hoodie and looking suspiciously black? Yeah, I’m only asking because the media hype surrounding the case has all but died down — at least to me it has. I mean, it’s not like anyone on is talking about it.

Well, no need for me to restart that debate; heck, I’m still a supporter of the now infamous “Stand Your Ground” laws across the country; and no, I’m not a card-carrying member of the NRA, nor am I one of these lunatic right-wing lunatics. Simply put, I do believe that if my life is threatened and I’m in imminent danger, I have the right to defend myself without having to retreat as the law allows. Having said that, it’s going to be hard to convince me that the law is designed to kill innocent black people. But just in case you might, check out the following story from Florida.

This via jacksonville.com:

17-Year-Old Jordan Russell Davis

Michael David Dunn will be brought from Brevard County to Jacksonville after entering a not-guilty plea to charges of murder and attempted murder in the Friday shooting death of a 17-year-old student at a Jacksonville gas station.

Dunn, 45, of Satellite Beach, waived extradition and should be en route back to Jacksonville before Thursday to face charges in the death of Jordan Russell Davis, according to Lt. Tod Goodyear, the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office spokesman.

A gun collector in Jacksonville for his son’s wedding, Dunn told police he felt “threatened” after an argument with the Wolfson High student over loud music coming from a sports-utility vehicle parked next to him at the Gate station at 8251 Southside Blvd. Davis was in the back seat when “there were words exchanged,” followed by gunfire at 7:40 p.m., said Jacksonville homicide Lt. Rob Schoonover.

“Our suspect produced a weapon and started firing into the vehicle. Our victim was shot a couple of times,” Schoonover said. “ … They were listening to the music. It was loud; they [other teens] admitted that. But I mean that is not a reason for someone to open fire on them.”

[...] Davis family members couldn’t be reached for comment. They requested that the school district and Wolfson employees not speak to the news media, according to school system spokeswoman Jill Johnson.

Dunn lives in an oceanfront townhome in Satellite Beach. He is listed on his LinkedIn web page as vice president of software development since 2004 at Dunn and Dunn Data Systems in Fort Pierce.

Schoonover said Dunn and his girlfriend were next to the red SUV containing Davis and three of his friends. Dunn’s girlfriend was inside when Dunn and Davis exchanged words. Shots were fired, leaving Davis hit and eight or nine bullet holes in the SUV, Schoonover said.

The couple drove off after Dunn told her he had “fired at these kids,” Schoonover said. They went to their hotel, then returned to Brevard County when they learned what had happened from local news.

Witnesses gave police Dunn’s license plate number, which led police to his home. Schoonover said Dunn was planning to turn himself in when he was arrested.

Oh, so another black kid gets killed in Florida by a non-black man and not n’aan black person is protesting? Nope, nobody is holding press conferences? Nobody is asking President Obama questions about the case? Hell, nobody is even calling the shooter in this case racist? Shit, where is Sean Hannity and the New Black Panther Party on this one? I mean, unlike the Zimmerman case, this sounds like a serious disregard for black life. Hell, how else can unloading a clip into the backseat of an SUV with kids be characterized if the occupants happen to be black.

But hey, maybe we can do something like a million booming system procession instead of a million hoodie march in protest of the senseless murder of Jordan Russell Davis. Not that playing music too loud is worth dying over; but, maybe it’s the only way we can gain attention and maybe even some justice. Not that this homicide was racially motivated as far as the evidence shows — which is a good thing if you ask me — but let’s hope it stays that way. Really, there’s no need for more talk of race riots in small Florida towns, or any town in America for that matter.

But hey, that’s just me. According to Dunn, Davis had a gun so he shot him to protect himself. Kind of hard to believe his story when you consider that he drove off without as much as making a report to local police. But beyond that, no gun was recovered at the scene by local law enforcement.

The post Florida Man Claims “Stand Your Ground” Defense in Death of Black Teen Over Loud Music appeared first on Madness & Reality.

Board of Directors, Pacifica Foundation:

The fact is, it’s not WHAT Tavis and West are saying that has the Black community up in arms, it’s WHY we suspect they’re saying it. After all, couldn’t they wait until AFTER the election, and AFTER we’ve made sure that we’ve protected the Black community and poor and middle-class America from corporate fascists, and THEN have this “intelligent and passionate” discussion? But of course, Tavis and West would argue that once reelected, President Obama wouldn’t have an incentive to listen. But that’s not true. Every president is concerned about his legacy, and as the first Black president that’s even more true of Obama than most. In addition, President Obama has two daughters who’ll have to live with his legacy for the rest of their lives. Thus, President Obama’s actions in office will determine whether they live their lives as American princesses, or pariahs. Certainly the highly intellectual Cornel West recognizes that fact – doesn’t he?

So what’s so important for us to discuss at this particular time that it’s worth sabotaging this election, and possibly, the future of America? After all, it’s not like we have a viable alternative to President Obama. So personally, I can’t think of a thing, and neither can many others in the Black community. The only thing we can see is a personal agenda – and then, when you put that together with Tavis Smiley’s all-consuming penchant for self-promotion, and his close ties to Walmart, Nationwide Insurance, Wells Fargo, and other corporate interests, that leaves the Black community very suspicious of these two characters. In addition, the Black community is not nearly so dense that we don’t recognize that every time these two go on one of their “poverty tours” that they have something to sell under their arm.

The post An Open Letter: Regarding the Dropping of Smiley and West appeared first on Madness & Reality.

Not to belabor a point, but let’s follow-up on what I wrote yesterday in response to Richard Mourdock’s ridiculous comment. Yes, let’s take another look at the idea that a woman becoming pregnant as a consequence of being raped needs to succumb to “God’s will,” and as such, should not be allowed to legally have an abortion. As I noted yesterday, there are many who support this Mourdock’s stated opinion; and, many are coming to his defense. That said, in an attempt to make the idea of a woman being raped all the more real, let’s meet 37-year-old, Tiana Stevens.

I came across Stevens’ story via News One. The article they did was heart wrenching, but it could not have come at a better time. I say that because as my wife and I discussed, it’s easy for people and politicians like Mourdock to discuss rape and incest without having been victimized themselves; or, without have any close and personal experience with anyone who has actually been through such a horrific experience. But, with women being sexually assaulted every 45 seconds here in the United States; and, with 1 in 15 sexual assaults resulting in pregnancy, rape is very real, folks.

So yes, let’s take a look at one woman’s story. That’s right, meet Tiara Stevens, a rape survivor and single mother to her son who also happens to be her brother. Yep, Tiara was sexually assaulted by her father repeatedly when she was 12-years-old, and gave birth to, well, her brother.

Would you really be willing to go through it?

Unfortunately for Tiara, she didn’t have that option. As she stated in the video above, she had no idea she was pregnant until the baby was born. But I have to wonder, what if she knew? What if she knew she was pregnant, would she want to willingly go through a pregnancy and deliver a child fathered by her father at 13-years-old? I think we can all agree that at that age, life is pretty much complicated as is. Why then would a young woman want to burden herself with the emotional scar of giving birth to her father’s child? Should she too in her not-yet-formed adult mind accept her circumstance as “God’s will,” and her child as a “gift” from God? As a parent, can you honestly say that it would be?

Do you really believe hat?

Tiara Stevens was raped by father when she was 12-years-old and became pregnant — yeah, God gave her the gift of a bouncing baby boy. What’s really awesome, is that she didn’t have an abortion and gave birth to her brother… eww… who quite naturally has a host of medical problems and is blind.

Having said that, I wonder how many of you “believers” are still of the opinion that a woman (or girl) conceiving a child when raped is still a “gift” from God.? I’m only asking because if this is a blessing, then maybe abortion should be illegal and not an option for women who through no fault of their own, are victimized…. oops, I meant blessed by God. I mean, am I wrong, or am I wrong? Oh well, you can watch Tiara’s full interview below. Yep, pay attention to the part where she said her father found out she was pregnant when the baby kicked while he was having sex with her.

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Word on the street is that the Chicago teachers strike has officially ended. I’m not too sure about the details, but word is that the teachers union voted to suspend the strike this afternoon, and classes will resume as early as Wednesday. I’m not sure if both sides have come to an amicable agreement, but I suppose it’s safe t say that both sides are happy. The one thing highlighted by the strike are the deplorable conditions many already disadvantaged Chicago students are forced to endure in many schools across the city.

Many make a connection between poverty and education, and suggest that for poverty, education is the panacea. In the case of Chicago especially such a notion begs the question: if school funding is directly tied to neighborhood property values, how then can we expect education to solve the conundrum that is poverty in America and how the many social ills closely tied to it are exacerbation? Having said that, it is good to know that people like Bill O’Reilly exist. At a time where many attribute much of the violence in Chicago — a byproduct of poverty — to bad parenting. It is good to know that someone like Bill can step in and clear up the debate as to what exactly is happening in Chicago. I’m not the smartest guy in the world, but I believe Bill is on to something. Forget about teacher strikes and education solving poverty in urban centers.

Clearly what has to happen as a quick fix (at least in the case of Chicago) is that more white folks need to purchase drugs like they once did. Isn’t that right, Bill O’Reilly? I mean then and only then will the violence, poverty, and the problems of shitty schools go away, right?

Heck, at least he didn’t blame the violence on bad parenting…

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So, apparently a mentally ill Black man was shot 46 times, and killed by Saginaw, Michigan police officers almost two months ago; and, we’re just now hearing about it because it was caught on tape. Thanks to CNN and the work of a concerned citizen armed with a video camera, we’re reminded of the disadvantage of being black when encountered by police.

People of color have a long history of being on the receiving end of police abuse. But then, someone got lucky 25 years ago, and captured the brutal beating of an unarmed motorists by several members of the Los Angeles police department. Luckily, that man survived his beating, and in an act of kindness after the officers were convicted, he was awarded a large sum of money for his pain. Convenient, don’t you think?

After that incident, the rapper Ice Cube wrote a song called “Who Got The Camera”, and ever since, black folks saw it fit to arm themselves with video cameras to collect evidence, just on the off-chance that they encounter the police and happen to trip and fall into a few batons, or foolishly decide to obstruct the path of bullets fired from a police officer’s firearm. You know, sorta like Oscar Grant did in Oakland back in late 2008, just before New Years Eve?

Yeah, remember the outrage that sparked, and the subsequent outcome?

Yes, if you’re black (or any other person of color) it’s always a good idea to keep a camera handy, just like my man Ice Cube said back in 1992. But who would have thought that in today’s post-racial society, that black men would still have to adhere to such a rule to avoid being shot multiple times like Milton Hall was in Saginaw, Michigan on July 1st, 2012. Oh, before I go on, allow me to mention that Hall was black, mentally ill, and homeless; pretty much on the lowest rung of society.

This from CNN.com:

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Trayvon Martin’s mother filed an insurance claim against the homeowners association of the gated community Retreat at Twin Lakes where her son was killed. She’s seeking $75,000 in compensation for the death of her son. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. Personally, I think it’s ridiculous on her part. I could be wrong, but, did Trayvon die as a result of the actions of said association? It’s just my opinion, but I believe Sabrina Fulton, by no fault of her own, is being pimped by her attorneys. Unfortunately, just like the parents of George Zimmerman who recently set up a website to raise funds for themselves. I’m quite sure that Sabrina’s decision to do this came under the advice of her attorneys.

She may be legally entitled to compensation — how so I’m not quite sure, especially since the insurance policy was not opened by the home owners association after the death of Trayvon Martin. However, I think the perception such a move casts does her cause more harm than good. In my opinion, this makes her appear no different from the money hungry Zimmerman’s who are asking the public to assist them in paying their bills. According to the website robertandgladys.com, things have changed drastically for the parents of George Zimmerman.

“My wife and I have only requested prayers thus far and we have refused to accept any donations or payments whatsoever for any purpose. However, we fully realize that the peaceful, secure life we once knew is now just a memory. Therefore, I am providing a link for those supporters who would like to leave us a personal message or contribute to our greatly increased living expenses, and our eventual relocation.”

Relocation? Excuse me, but where exactly are they going? Oh, I get it, they’re counting on their son George beating the case, and creating a situation which would force them to go into hiding just like Casey Anthony. But in the mean time, it’s like, “Can you put something on that cable bill?” Now of course Sabrina Fulton’s claim isn’t as bold as the Zimmerman’s, but given an already hostile environment brought on by race and racism as the backdrop, her claim doesn’t may be used by Zimmerman supporters to cast negative dispersion of her character.

This from the Orlando Sentinel:

Recent court filings show Trayvon Martin‘s mother, Sabrina Fulton, has filed a claim for monetary damages against an insurance company for the Retreat at Twin Lakes homeowners association in her 17-year-old son’s death.

The insurance claim was revealed in paperwork filed last week by Travelers Casualty and Surety Company of America. In those documents, the insurer seeks clarification of its responsibilities in the teen’s death and asks a federal judge to absolve Travelers of liability.

[...] About a month after the shooting, the federal filings show, Travelers issued an insurance policy to the homeowners association. “After the inception of the claims-made policy, Fulton made a claim for monetary damages …” Travelers says “… as a result of the fatal shooting of Martin.”

Travelers writes in its filing that the company “is in doubt of its rights” under the policy and “seeks a declaration of its rights and obligations with respect to the claim” made by Fulton.

The insurer has asked the court to rule that Travelers “has no duty to defend The Retreat at Twin Lakes” against Fulton’s claim. The amount of Fulton’s claim is not explicitly stated in the court filings, but the insurance company writes that the “amount in controversy exceeds the sum of $75,000.”

Benjamin Crump, an attorney for the teen’s family, said that the Martins are investigating possible claims with “all the insurance companies that might be applicable” and was seeking to determine “whatever the insurance limits were.”

“It’s our job, as lawyers, to make sure that we protect our client’s interest,” Crump said.

Meanwhile, records released by the Florida Attorney General’s office show Fulton also filed a claim with the state’s Bureau of Victim Compensation for emergency crime-victim assistance. The records show Fulton’s claim was approved March 29.

Crump said the Martin family has not completed all the paperwork needed to get the funds, but if they do, they plan to donate the money to the foundation they created in their son’s name to prevent gun violence.

I don’t know just how expensive it is to fight gun violence. But at the end of the day, this will solve nothing. That is, unless George Zimmerman is convicted of murder. And from where I’m sitting, we’re a long way away from even the start of that trial to even start talking about cashing in on money. But hey, maybe the attorneys do know better than I do. Maybe for them, it’s better to get the money than a conviction. Maybe they see a conviction as next to impossible, as I do.

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