Ferguson, MO???

Black folks have been a target of white hate since the end of the civil war and slavery. I guess its hard giving up free labor and the ideology that makes Black folks lesser human beings and not entitled to the same rights as whites. Even though we have been free about 150 years we are still being plotted against.

We Black folks are good at sitting back and taking injustice and prejudice quietly. Like the great migration north and west. It was a quiet movement against the caste system established in the Jim Crow south to keep Black folks down and suffering. We did what any other people would do who wants freedom. We left the south. Over the years, we have had to endure various injustices and political plans against us. But now in Ferguson, Mo., Black folks have taken to the streets to protest and riot because of the murder of Mike Brown who was unarmed and shot while his hands were in the air.

Ferguson is a suburb of St Louis, Mo., and St Louis is the headquarters of the Council of Conservative Citizens (CCC). This organization is like the so-called respectable “citizens’ councils” formed in the 1950’s and 1960s to fight integration and maintain the southern way of life. This organization boasts as one of its founders the segregationist Lester Maddox, ex-governor of Georgia. In 1998, the media exposed prominent congressional republicans for their affiliation with this organization. For example, Mississippi Senator Trent Lott, who was Majority Leader, was forced to resign over his affiliation with the CCC. Over the years, the CCC had friends in high places like former senator John Ashcroft of Missouri who fought desegregation of St Louis schools. The CCC openly celebrated when President George W. Bush appointed Ashcroft as U.S. Attorney General with the newsletter headlines “Our Ship Has Come In.” So, can you imagine the decades of the influence of this organization in the state of Missouri. Is this why Ferguson police force of 52 officers and only 3 are Black when the population is two-thirds Black.

Thank God, the Black citizens of Ferguson are not being quiet!!

 

 

Police and Young Black men …

A Pittsburgh man shot multiple times at a traffic stop demands justice.

excerpt from theroot.com

On Nov. 11, 2012, just before 10 p.m., Leon Ford Jr. looked in his rear-view mirror and saw flashing lights.

Ford pulled to the side of the road. Almost everything that happened next — whether Ford should have been stopped, what happened when Pittsburgh police officers approached Ford’s car, what Ford and the three officers said and did, even the order of events — is disputed.

But this much is not: Ford, 19 at the time of the incident and unarmed, was shot multiple times and left paralyzed below his waist and now faces up to 20 years in prison. He has been charged with aggravated assault along with two counts of reckless endangerment and traffic violations, including running a stop sign and reckless driving.

The amazing and most inhumane part of this story is what happened once he was in the hospital.  His family was not allowed to see him.  He had more than one surgery was listed as critical and this mother was not given common decency to hold her son’s hand.  For all she knew he was dying.  How would you feel if you thought you son was dying but they wouldn’t let you see him?

Now, a year later listen to his parents and his attorney, Benjamin Crump, are speaking to journalist Jeff Johnson about the incident that night, the life Ford had before the shooting and what his future holds.

Zimmerman Again!!

Well, George Zimmerman is in the news again.  This is a violent man to those who he perceives as weak like a woman, old man  or a child.  But, when it comes to a real man or someone with authority he becomes passive.  Hmm, let’s see Zimmerman had to take anger-management classes in 2005. Had a fight with his wife who left to stay with her family the night before Trayvon Martin was murdered by Zimmerman.  Then, after his acquittal, he has a fight with his wife that gets violent and now his new girlfriend, baby mama, has called the police because he put a gun in her face.  Zimmerman seems to still have anger-management problems.  There is no doubt in my mind he took his anger out on Trayvon Martin that night.  He hunted Trayvon down to have a violent confrontation is what I believe.  What do you believe.

It Is What It Is …The morning after the verdict.

As a Black female who is blessed with grandchildren, I feel numb hearing the verdict in the Trayvon Martin case.  My granddaughter woke me up to tell me the verdict – GEORGE ZIMMERMAN – NOT GUILTY.  The jury was made up of 6 women.  I wondered why all women.  Were they all white women?  Are white women afraid of Black male teenagers?  And, one would say, being a southern state, racism is a prerequisite for being white from the south.  Yes, I said it!!  I believe the south is still  racist!   I’m glad there were demonstrations and national out-cry over the verdict.  Maybe we should boy-cot Florida!

Are we shocked as Black folks, NO.  Injustice is part of the American experience for us.  The plots and deliberate actions to further hinder our success as a people are too numerous to mention in this blog.

American society through their legislation has systematically broken our homes apart and now large numbers of our men are in prisons, removed from the community and from the family. Now this verdict gives the ok to kill our un-armed  17 year old sons and get away with it.

I guess it is what it is…. Being Black in America!!  SMH! Where is our Black leaders and what are they doing to address this injustice?

Black Males and Gun Violence

Charleston Heston

I couldn’t resist the Charleston Heston quote, “… you can have my gun when you pry it from my cold, dead hands.” 

Below are statistics on Black Males and gun violence as reported by government agencies and experts. 

Young African-American males have the most elevated homicide victimization rate of any race or gender group. Homicides involving firearms have been the leading cause of death for African-American males ages 15 to 19 since 1969.⁵

The number of youth who report that they carry weapons is significant. In 1997, 14 percent, or 1 in 7 male juveniles, reported carrying a gun outside the home in the previous 30-day period.⁹ In the inner city, the problem is more severe. One study involving 800 inner-city high school students reported that 22 percent said they carried weapons.¹⁰ An even greater number of convicted juvenile offenders reported carrying guns — 88 percent, according to another study.¹¹

Firearms are readily available on the illegal gun market, and those who are most likely to possess guns are drug sellers and gang members — overwhelmingly young and male.¹² More than two-thirds of the respondents in one study of urban arrestees stated that the primary reason for owning and carrying a weapon is self-protection — a small number also reported using the weapon for drug trafficking or other illegal activities. Among arrestees overall, 23 percent of those who owned a gun said they had used one to commit a crime. Among juvenile drug sellers who owned a firearm, 42 percent reported using a gun in a crime; among gang members, 50 percent reported using a gun.

The drug market is a major contributor to the Nation’s homicide rate. Indeed, the peak in homicides during the mid-1980’s was directly related to the saturation of urban areas with the crack cocaine drug trade. Methamphetamine — more powerful, more addictive, and easier to produce than crack cocaine — is becoming a major drug of choice in urban, suburban, and rural communities. If the methamphetamine trade results in drug wars on the same scale as those of the 1980’s, it is possible that homicide rates will begin to climb once more, as drug dealers are among those most likely to carry weapons.²¹

Long-term solutions to address the problem of gun violence must include a comprehensive approach to reducing the number of youth involved in gangs.