Hey NY Times: Your Hoods Are Showing!

The New York Times has a real problem with black people. It all started in August of 2014, during the murder of Mike Brown. They did a huge story on Mike Brown's life, which appeared in their Sunday paper, the day before his funeral. In this article, in their attempt to "humanize" him, they further vilified him by referring to him as "no angel", which inferred that whatever he had done during his life was somehow justification for his death. No compassion, no empathy, and no thought of his parents' grief and the black community's grief of his senseless and violent death.

Less than a month later, in their attempt to cover the meteoric rise of actress, Viola Davis, and her success in headlining her hit television show, How to Get Away With Murder, they remarked that she wasn't "classically beautiful." What does that mean? Well, I have a few ideas! To me, it means that because she is dark skin, has full lips, isn't anorexic, and doesn't appeal to the European standards of beauty, well she isn't classically beautiful.

I think their latest slight is probably the most outrageous. As we all are aware, Serena Williams is the best to ever do it in her sport, tennis. Twenty-one championships, six grand slams, and the most victories of any woman in her field. Instead of focusing on her extreme athleticism, her grace on the tennis court, and her overall good, scandal free character, they printed an article focusing on her masculine her body was, and why her opponents did not want their bodies to look like hers. They implied that due to her muscular frame, that she was less of a woman. We all can read, and I am sure that if her skin was of a lighter hue, their commentary would have been more flattering.

Their timing is impeccable though. This headline and story came on yesterday, the day that the Confederate flag came down in South Carolina. Although its supporters say that it represents heritage and history, it was placed in that space as a direct, and retaliatory response to the Civil Rights Movement. It is ironic that on the day that it finally comes down, that the New York Times, decides to be on the wrong side of history and to print such an inflammatory article.

In living in this black skin in Amerikkka, there is always one step forward toward progress, and two backward toward protecting white privilege and supremacy, and our mainstream media has the patent on keeping it going.

Most people want to blame Fox News, but there are plenty of other online, radio, television, and print mediums with their coded language.

So New York Times, the black community sees your racist tendencies. Maybe as an olive branch, either you can hire more black journalists, take some racial sensitivity training, and print retractions when you make these blaring and offensive errors. That is, if black lives matter to you!


Until next time.....

It's Time to Eat Some Humble Pie!

When the allegations first came to light regarding Bill Cosby, folks lost their collective minds. How dare folks accuse America's favorite tv dad of raping women. He can get any woman he wants! (Like rape has ever been about getting women or sex!). You called the women golddiggers (At this time, only one has received monetary compensation, and only after she brought a 2005 civil suit against him, after a 2004 attack).

Over 47 women have come forward and still, you'll caped for him, acted just like he was your granddaddy, uncle, or someone you knew personally. The majority of the women were white, and there was no way a black man would get away with raping a white woman in 1960 America at the height of the Civil Rights Movement (insert eyeroll here).

When black victims starting coming to light, you still didn't believe it. Even though Bill Cosby hasn't done anything for the black community in ages. He tried to shame you into submission during his 2004 campaign of "pull up your pants and speak correct English" (Ironically, this is the same year that he raped his last known victim).

In fact, it was this moralizing campaign that prompted a judge to unseal the contents of the 2005 civil trial. Ironic isn't? Bill was telling us how to live, while raping women, and this moralizing is what is now the cause of his downfall.

Jill Scott was a true person of character as she took to her Twitter, and publicly apologized for supporting Cosby in his lewd behavior. I want to see apologies from Camille Cosby, Phylicia Rasha, Malcolm Jamal Warner, Keisha Knight Pulliam, and comedian, Faizon Love. Each took to social media and regular media and publicly ridiculed and slut shamed the women who they felt were out to destroy Cosby's legacy.

Some of the rest of you regular every day folks did the same. Where are your apologies with these latest revelations? Will you be as aggressive with your apologies, as you were your support of Cosby and in slut shaming these women? I think that I know my answer to this question!

If this Cosby saga teaches us anything, is that we hero worship people too much. Black folks look for heroes in the most undeserving areas, men don't really care about the very women who support, open their legs to, and take care of, and the need to be right is more important than humility.


Until next time....

Bristol Palin: Hypocrite or Decision Maker?

Let me preface what I am about to write with, I despite everything Palin. They are rude, lewd, and crude, so this blog post is not an "I Support the Palins campaign." But I do support a woman's choice to make reproductive decisions without shame and slander.

Bristol Palin has taken heat recently because she made the choice to have her second out of wedlock child. Now she embarked on an abstinence tour, where she was paid 250K per appearance. Let me just say she was wrong for using her bigoted platform to shame other young people into making a decision about their sex lives, while she was have sex herself. Just as she made the choice to make her own reproductive and sexual choices, she should have afforded the same opportunity for decision making to other young people.

But the slander and ridicule that she is receiving for making a decision to have a child, is dead wrong. Christian Conservatives are blasting her, so are other women, in fact they are probably the most vicious.

We are society that likes to see people fall from grace. Hey, I have to admit that I do too when they are especially pompous and self-righteous (ie. Josh Duggar), but what I don't like to see our women being shamed about their sexual and reproductive choices. Are we going to place Bristol's baby daddy under that same microscope of scorn and shame? If not, we need to leave her alone as well.

Is she a hypocrite? Most certainly for shaming other young people to abstain from sex when she wasn't. But her choosing to have a child is not only personal, but should not be the subject of internet fodder.

Until next time....

Black Churches Are Burning, But Whatever!

There have been eight church fires in the two weeks since the Charleston massacre, but there has been radio silence in mainstream media. In fact, the only reason why we know anything is due to the diligence of activists via Twitter.

When the Quiktrip burned in Ferguson after Mike Brown's murder, or when CVS burned in Baltimore after Freddie Gray's murder, many of you flocked to social media to express your outrage. How dare those black savages destroy property. which was the response every low key racist, who is not really a racist because they have black friends or employ black people (insert eyeroll here). Even new blacks (those black people who don't really think that they are black, or black when it is convenient) had scorn for the blacks who made the race "look bad." Mainstream media circled like vultures. They filmed as the buildings burning in the background, and salivated at the ratings opportunity that was afforded to their respective networks, but I haven't heard a peep from any of these groups about the eight black church fires.

Even the federal government is trying to duck and cover. Oh yes, they have already blamed three on either faulty wiring and/or acts of God (Now mind you, many of these churches are hundreds of years old, and have survived up until this point, so I am sure their wiring is fine, and I honestly don't believe God would destroy his own house, but that's just my warped sense of thinking).

It is quite interesting that these fires started happening just as there was a national push and outcry to ban the Confederate flag, but I am sure this has nothing to do with that right? If you believe that, I have a bridge in New Jersey to sell you (unobstructed by Chris Christie of course).

Even prominent church pastors are silent. Donnie McClurkin and T.D. Jakes did not shy away from giving their thoughts on gay marriage, but radio silence on white supremacists burning the house of the Lord I guess is perfectly fine in their eyes. Creflo Dollar can beg via social media for his $65 million dollar jet, but I haven't heard a peep from him, about the very foundation that provides for his pimp, I mean pastoral lifestyle!

One thing is for certain, the nation is getting a front row seat to what happens when white supremacy and privilege are challenged. I think we know how this story will end!


Until next time....

NBC: You Are A Day Late, and A Dollar Short!

Most are beaming with glee, after Donald Trump was released from his partnership with NBC in terms of his Miss USA Pageant shows and The Celebrity Apprentice. Folks tweeted, and posted on Facebook, their joy, after Trump (which is true to form) made racially insensitive comments toward Latinos and immigration.

But my question is, why now? What is the back story? What or how much did Trump cost NBC for them to make this decision? I say that NBC is a day late, and a dollar short.

Just look at Donald Trump's Twitter feed. He is always saying something racist or sexist. In fact, Trump is the prime leader who started the "Birther" Movement. You know those hacks, who insisted that President Obama was not born in this country, and wanted to see the long form version of his birth certificate (I still to this day, am wondering what a long form birth certificate is, seeing as how I have seen the original and copies of mine, and the information is the same, but okay!).

He is made much of his fortune exploiting African Americans on that cesspool of a show, The Celebrity Apprentice. Remember, the more we argued, fought, and cursed each other out, the higher his ratings were, the more money he took to the bank, and he absolved himself by donating in the name of the winner's favorite charity (insert eyeroll here).

All the while, sometimes while the show was airing and he was exploiting us, saying vile and disgusting things about President Obama, which only a card carrying member of the Klu Klux Klan would utter.

Remember, we have been here before people...can you say Donald Sterling? The Clippers knew for years about his poor treatment of players, his racist remarks, but not until his mistress caught him in a recording for the world to hear, and sponsors started dropping like flies, did the Clippers take action.

So the question for me is, what is NBC's end game? Is this to boost their network ratings, by appearing to take a stand on racist behavior? Did sponsors threaten to pull out? Something occurred that the general public is not privy to, because Donald Trump has been racist, and we have over six years worth of tweets and screenshots to prove it!


Until next time....

It's Just A Flag, Until It's Not

I remember the first time that I was called a nigger. It was third grade and by a classmate (who shall remain nameless), because I had angered him. I didn't even understand what the word meant. We didn't use that type of language in my household, but I went home and told my grandmother, and I received an early education into racism, and its products.

I have been watching the debates over the Confederate flag and just shaking my head at how clueless we have become when it comes to the feelings of our fellow man, and how we want to wave a magic wand and make racism go away.

Is the Confederate flag racist, or is it just a flag? Well, the Confederate flag was the official flag of the Confederacy, which wanted to secede from the Union. They wanted to protect states' rights. These rights were the right to own slaves. Slaves were property, and a source of free labor. Having to pay people for labor, cut into their overall profit margins, and good old Southerners were not having that.

President Lincoln, or the "great emancipator" as he is called, wanted to keep his union in tact. He used slavery as a bargaining chip. Freeing slaves was never about humanity or loving black people, it was about crippling the Confederacy financially, so they would have no other choice but to rejoin the union. The Confederacy of course that it was their God given right to own slaves, so of course they fought back, hence the Civil War.

If you are not convinced yet, of the Confederate flag and its racist origins, then why does the KKK, Dylan Roof, and every major hate group use it as its flag of record?

When individuals scream "heritage", this heritage is one built upon slavery and the oppression of black people. If you are okay with that, this is a matter between you, and your God.

If you want to place it on your car, your home, buy Confederate memorabilia, I say be proud in your racist ideologies.

But this flag has no place in government spaces, ie, the capitol building in Columbia, S.C. One of the most heartbreaking things for me as an American citizen, is to know that Rev. Pinkney's body had roll past that disgusting flag, during his funeral service,

Did you know that the flag was placed in the S. C. capitol building in 1962, as a direct response to the rise of the  Civil Rights Movement? But it's not racist right?

I prefer people who are honest about race, so if the Confederate flag is part of your heritage as you claim, this tells me everything that I need to know about you, and how you feel about me as a black man, and a fellow citizen of this country.

Until next time....

What Charleston Teaches Us About White Privilege

I remember attending prayer service on Wednesday nights with my late grandmother. She always referred to it as "prayer meeting." And sure enough, there were quite a few fervent prayers, singing, scripture, and some powerful testimonies. In other words, it was a condensed version of Sunday service.

In addition to being a condensed version of the Sunday service, prayer meeting also had a condensed crowd, usually comprised of church officials (pastor, deacons, mothers), the unemployed and retirees (because they held service so long (forgive me Jesus!), and those who just wanted a midweek spiritual pick me up!

Imagine my shock and horror, when I found out via Twitter (Because mainstream media is not worth a damn in delivering news) about the tragedy in Charleston, SC, where Dylan Storm Roof opened fire on a group of attendees (this is after he worshiped with them for an hour), killing nine.

This case as brutal and horrific as it is, it teaches us everything about white privilege and the state of race relations in this country (Go ahead and stop reading now, roll your eyes for good measure, label me a racist, feel better?). Now read on, so you can become educated on this very real thing, called "white privilege."

White privilege is before you are even positively identified, the media falls over themselves trying to diagnose your psychosis, and talk about how quiet and sweet you were as a young child (Remember Trayvon Martin and Michael Brown were horrible students and thugs from minute one, after their deaths, even though they were the victims).

White privilege is the police arresting you (while you are armed), but not before supplying you with a bulletproof vest and no handcuffs). This man viciously murdered nine people, is armed, and still police fall over themselves to protect him (ie, the bulletproof vest). I still don't know why he wasn't handcuffed.

White privilege is being arrested for drug possession in March, and your parents purchasing a gun for you in April (This is what Dylan's parents did for him).

White privilege is brutally murdering nine people, and the media refusing to label you as a "terrorist". Remember the Boston Marathon bombers murdered less, and they were labeled as terrorists.

White privilege is alluding the police for over 12 hours after you have brutally murdered nine people. (You can't tell me that in over 12 hours and after crossing over another state, that the florist is the only person who recognized him!) He is a scrawny white boy with a Beatles' era haircut. I don't run across many of those on a daily basis!

White privilege is your roommate knowing about your plans for your alleged crime for over six months, and not only wanting to be roommates with you, but deciding to keep quiet, and remains free at the same time. (Name one black person who can have knowledge of a crime, the media reports this knowledge, and that individual is walking around free....I rest my case).

White privilege is being a mass murderer and nobody blaming your parents or questioning their parental abilities (even though they bought you the gun used in the crime). Remember people have said all kinds of hateful and disgusting things about Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown's mothers!

White privilege is brandishing a real gun, and cops take you alive. (Tamir Rice was playing with a toy gun, and murdered in just two seconds).

White privilege is having the Confederate flag hanging on all of your government buildings in 2015. This is the case in our neighboring state of South Carolina, and nobody questions it.

Still believe white privilege is imagined? I have just given you several concrete, factual examples that it does indeed exist.

The question now becomes, what are we going to do about it?


Until next time.....