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NYPD and Sean Bell on My Mind

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Last night, at about 10pm, I remarked to Filthy how quiet
the block was. He responded saying that the playoffs were
on and that it isn’t unnatural for the streets to hum a bit more quietly
during that time.

I was responded with a lip smack, saying, “the kids watching
the game too?”

We were in Crown Heights. (That neighborhood is cooking like a kettle.)

At 11:31pm, I mentioned it again.

At 11:45pm the quiet was broken when I heard a woman shouting
and a man saying “Arrest me then”. Initially, I thought that he was
responding to her threats of him calling the police on her and I wrote
it off as a lovers quarrel. Then I heard the police shouting “Get the f-ck
back, all of you, get the f-ck back”.

The block was hot.

I looked out the window, and said to Filth, “Eh blood, popo has a dude out
on the ground”.

He put on his jeans and sneakers and said he would be right back.
He *Malcomed me. (more about that later). My heart started beating
incredibly fast. I couldn’t find my sandals. I threw on one of his
hoodies and a hat. There was no way I was staying in that house
not because I need to protect him, but because I needed to bear
witness to what was going on. Based on the shouting, it seemed
as if popo was a hair away from shooting someone.

I felt helpless. I felt like my legal training didn’t matter. I felt like I was 10
years old in East Oakland again. Helicopters flying, Task Force on both
ends of the block, people standing outside in their bathrobes and slippers.
I felt like I should do something. uk levitra These tablets are surely understood all over the planet drug for treating ED presented in another helpful sort. Ginseng is however not a recent discovery, but unknown viagra super store to many people in metropolitan cities. Take medical advice if you have eye diseases like anemia, cancer, high or cheap viagra price low blood pressure, irregular heart rate, unstable chest pain. A health professional diagnosesthe cause and cialis cheapest discover these guys now recommend the medication to improve the blood circulation in required area. I also knew that being reactionary would
only escalate the situation.

My mind was awash with ideas. I was reminded that I had had these
experiences before as a kid and that it had been a long time since I felt the
emotions that went with it. There is nothing like it. My hands were
shaking because I felt powerless. I thought someone was going to
start shooting, po po or the block cats, and I knew that our lives
would be changed forever. I thought about God.
I had empathy for the policemen I saw, as those men were sons,
fathers, brothers. The man who was beat and arrested
is a son, father and brother as well.

Soon eight cop cars showed up. The man was hand cuffed and placed in
a police car. Two officers had an exchange with some of the
dudes on the block.

One of the dudes said, “Ya’ll don’t care about us, about our lives.
You ain’t from the hood”.

The officers responded, “Yes, we do and I am from the hood too”.

Block dude retorted, “Out of 100 of you, 5 of you are cool,
the rest are rotten apples.”

The police got into their cars and began driving away.

I went back into the foyer and began to think about Oakland, about
violence, and about hip hop.

In the past week, I have been conducting research for a piece
on Grand Theft Auto 4. Last night in the foyer I
began thinking about how much more difficult it would be for the
young men who don’t live in the hood to play Grand Theft
Auto 4 after seeing a black man, held down on his back by a
police officer, while the officer yelling “Get the f-ck back” to on
lookers.

I began to think, “What if the police beat Black men in GTA 4”?
If the gamers like the real, and they want real, isn’t that the realest?

The fact that arguably 6 cars showed up, to arrest one man is indicative
of the level of fear, and NYPD’s mode of operation.

Didn’t I say mentioned a couple weeks ago that this was going to
be a long bloody summer?

*Malcom left Betty and the girls and went to Detroit to give
“The Ballot or the Bullet” in Detroit a couple of days after their
home was bombed in Queens. Filth and I frequently talk about
how men in The movement leave their families for The, Capital T,
movement. So when he went outside
I got “Malcolmed”. When I mentioned it to him, he knew exactly
what I was talking about showed and immediately showed
appreciation for my ability to make that connection.

Violence and the 2008 Presidential Race

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There are two stories that I have arisen in the past two days
that have me thinking about violence in the
presidential election. The first is the story related to the
above image of Michelle Obama. It was allegedly created by an
Obama supporter who is apparently completely
ignorant of the legacy slavery, lynching for African Americans.

Professor Kim wrote an informative piece on it. This quote sums
up my perspective on the the image,

Two final layers. This image flips and merges two of the most emblematic images in our tragic racial history: the black (usually) male victim suffering unjustly at the hands of white racists, and the fragile woman (historically white) being violated by brutish (black, and often imaginary) men. In a provocative 2001 book, Playing the Race Card: Melodramas of Black and White From Uncle Tom to OJ Simpson, UC Berkely professor Linda Williams argued that racial melodrama sets the terms of our debates over equality. What we may be witnessing in part, is just how poorly those terms fit our current situation.

Last thing. As I pondered the image, I thought about Sen. We are proud to offer cheap cialis to our customers all around the world. She is certified cheapest levitra slovak-republic.org in past life regression, fears and phobias, immune enhancement, sports, performance, sexual dysfunction, and return male vitality and female vigour. You can recover from the prostate cialis properien loved that diseases softly and has no side effect. One slovak-republic.org purchase cheap viagra teaspoon full of honey is sufficient to cause 50% increase in nitric oxide. Obama’s recent call for an end to the attacks on his wife. Bowling Green Daily News columnist Kathleen Parker derided his comments, along with his recent gaffe when he called a woman reporter “sweetie.” But look at that image again, and think of another historical echo. During and after slavery and Jim Crow, black women were routinely sexually violated by white men — and their husbands, fathers and other family members were powerless to defend them.

On another note, there is something about the notion of “defending them”
that strikes me as being uber patriarchal. I think I would reframe it as
“no way of seeking justice” instead.


I was also reminded of violence when I heard Hillary Clinton’s
statement that she is she is staying in the race because her
husband didn’t win California until June, and that Bobby Kennedy was
assassinated in June. On its face, it seems to be a careless comment,
but then again, Bobby was a young senator who was assassinated.
Obama is a young senator as well.
Given this countries history of violence, what does the fact that she
said this intentionally or unintentionally say about her?
Was she tired? Is the statement in exusable even if she is tired?
I immediately thought, If she is insensitive enough to say this, if she is lacking
in judgment to the extent that these words could come out of her mouth,
we are left to infer, what else is she capable of saying and doing?

Don’t get me wrong, last year,in March of 2007 I mentioned how
Obama may be great, but the prospect of him being murdered makes
his viability questionable. I now realize that this reactionary thinking
that has no place in what he is trying to accomplish for if fear was the
determining factor, MLK would have been just another Cadillac driving,
Negro preacher tauting prosperity gospel.

Hillary has apologized, but has the damage been done?
How does one view her apology?

Are you Ready to Have a Black Man President? No.

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Obama Faces Racism in West Virginia – For more funny movies, click here

The Times also reported last night on Hillary’s rationale for remaining in
the race. Patrick Healey writes,

Rebuffing associates who have suggested that she end her candidacy, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton has made it clear to her camp in recent days that she will stay in the race until June because she believes she can still be the nominee ? and, barring that, so she can depart with some final goals accomplished.

That video is priceless.

HiIllary knows the pledge of allegiances and so does John Mcain.

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Birkhold has some very interesting things to so about Hillaries manipulation
of white racism. He writes,

Hillary Clinton?s statement that ?hard-working Americans, white Americans? won?t vote for Barack Obama is quite simply an endorsement of white racism. It also clearly demonstrates what is wrong with American politics.

Because Clinton may be right to say that these folks will never vote for Obama because he?s black illustrates why Obama is needed. Since delivering his now famous race speech in Philadelphia, Obama has consistently challenged working class whites to see the cause of their problems in Washington and in offshoring, not in black people. Clinton, on the other hand, instead of challenging working class whites to rethink how they got where they are, has capitalized on their racism saying that because they won?t vote for Obama, she should get the nomination.

…… A presidential hopeful who capitalizes on white racism to get herself elected is part of the problem and is not interested in making the country a better place to live. At a time when the country needs serious change, we need leadership that will challenge us to change. Because Clinton is using our nation?s unwillingness to change to her advantage, its time we demand she sit down. If we don?t demand this, we also endorse the racism of working class whites.

Macon D, over at Stuff White People Do, also has a post up
on Hillary and Whiteness. He writes,

White Americans tend to overlook the racism of Hillary’s playing, in this instance and others, of the white race card, as well as those by her husband Bill, and by other supporters of her campaign, such as Geraldine Ferraro. White Americans commonly overlook such racism because they’ve been trained into ignoring the more general white supremacist context of contemporary American society.

Democrats are making history this year because for the first time, their nominee will be a person who is either a woman or an African American. While Obama continually downplays his racial status, nearly everyone else foregrounds it. Clinton usually downplays her gender status, and with the exception of many white feminists, who receive little attention in the corporate media, nearly everyone else downplays her gender too. These disparate treatments of Obama and Clinton have more to do with the significance of race, which in this election seems to be trumping the significance of gender.

The White Race Card?

Hillary & White Racism?

What do you think?

The woman in the video stating “I don’t think a Black Man
should be president”.

The skeletons are out apparently.

Get Back

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Thank you to everyone who filled out the survey.
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There were also some comments that I found particularly interesting.
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I am glad that you all like it here. In many ways your comments
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So, if you will excuse me. I have to go work on a podcast. *****Wink.

~m.dot

Malcolm, Martin and Personal Transformation

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Martin’s and Malcolm’s public transformation should be an
inspiration for all of us. I have spent the evening reading
Martin & Malcolm in America by James Cone, trying to
determine exactly what I would like to say on Malcolm’s birthday.

Just when I was getting tired, frustrated and ready to give up,
I came across a chapter where Cone describes Martin’s
transformation in the midst of Malcom’s death, and the ways
in which Martin was moving closer to Malcolm. Cone writes,

Equally significant was what Martin did not say. He too was
re-evaluating his presuppositions and was moving toward a
greater understanding of Malcolm, especially regarding Black
pride, separatism, and white America’s lack of commitment to
genuine Black equality. He began to urge Blacks to be proud
of their “blackness,” a word he almost never used publicly
before he turned his attention to the North. The subsequent
rise of Black Power deepened his convictions regarding the
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oppression in northern slums as “domestic colonialism“.
To the surprise of many, and perhaps even himself, he
concluded that racism was so deeply ingrained in American,
especially in the North, that “temporary segregation” was
probably the only means of overcoming powerlessness in the
Black community.

As artists, thinkers, women, men, feminists and lovers of hip hop we
we all feel the tension between the desire to go corporate and the desire
to pursue work that is related to creating social justice.

This issue is the subject of endless conversations in our lives.

For instance, last Saturday I noticed one of Filthy‘s people in a magazine.
I tore out the article and gave it to him saying “I have something for you”.

He looked at it and laughed, but soon became melancholy
and I asked why.
He mentioned something about his boy’s desire to succeed in his
career.
I responded saying “Yo, he is just trying to shine, ain’t nothing
wrong with that”.
He shot back, “Shining, is all he is trying to do”.

I was deaded because he was right. There was nothing I could
say because it was true.

That interaction left me thinking about the choices that we
make in terms of using our voices on the behalf of others who
don’t have one. How we, on a daily, struggle between the notion
of getting cake and the notion of creating justice.

This post is for those of us, who leave the corporate ranks to
pursue writing. Those of us who work as waitresses, teachers,
bus drivers during the day and make music, paint and sew at night.

This is for those of use who go to law school, and rather
than practice, we decide to to do power to the people and
organize our communities. This post is for those of use who
are torn between the corporate hustle
and the independent artist grind.

This is for those of us who are committed to transforming
a little every day.