Lord have mercy, the Apocalypse is upon us; Snoop is on Larry King's show tonight.
These are strange times folks, strange times.
Anywhoo, I could chase racism tonight, but I won't. (h/t to Dave) I could even go on a wild -racism -goose chase, but I won't. (I swear some folks shouldn't even get a race card. They just abuse it)
Nope, there will be none of that. Tonight I am thinking about my personal experiences and how it's drawn me closer to the hopelessness of an entire generation.
Today after a little R&R, I headed up to State Road here in Philly which is where our three county prisons are located. I went to visit a young man who was recently arrested, and whose family asked me to take his case. It's always particularly depressing for me when I visit the county because of the young men that I see there, and where it takes my mind.
Today it took my mind back few weeks. Sitting in a court room while a young man-not unlike the one I just visited- was sentenced. The judge gave him a 25 year minimum, and dude just kind of shrugged and started smiling. Smiling! He kept looking around the court room and smiling at some of his people who were in the back of the room. I have seen that type of reaction from defendant's before, and usually it's just nervousness or fear. But not this time. My man honestly didn't understand the gravity of his situation.
His momma was there, and she wasn't smiling. In fact, she was crying a river. Too late.She should have been crying when the truant officers were telling her that his little ass wasn't going to school. I looked around, and, of course, there was no daddy. There never is.
I couldn't get over the look on my man's face. Twenty Five years of his life gone, and all he could do was shrug and smile like someone just told him that he flunked his driver's license test. He must have heard how Snoop beat his charges and thought that he could do likewise. Sorry young buck, you will not be on Larry King anytime soon.
But I guess when you have no life to look forward to it's easy when you are being told that you will lose twenty five years of it. The sad thing is that being in jail will probably extend his life for a longer period than most of his peers.
There are three huge jails on State Road here in Philly. And they are always full. Most of the people in there look like me but they happen to be a little younger. Most of the people in there will end up going where that young man I saw in court a few weeks back, went. And the neighborhoods they left will just replace the newly departed with others just like them.
Tomorrow is Sunday, and in those same neighborhoods all the churches will be full. Just like the buildings on State Road.
87 comments:
Wow Field! That was deeply profound!
A well written and thoughtful post that gives a glimpse of a continuously unfolding tragedy. A child alone has very little chance of finding their way.
yep straight up reality
again want to emphasise this point which reallly rankles me
malcom x assassin gets out on parole but lleonard peltier of american indian movement iis continually refused parole and is still rotting in jail
This blog post exhibits one of the reasons you are such a top notch blogger. You feel and think, empathize and rationalize. Thanks so much.
@ FN:
This is a population of people that I have deep concern for and therefore will not be putting up any smiling faces.
I appreciate all your efforts in this area FN and I encourage others to do whatever they can for the people on the inside and those now on the outside.
I made the decision to have a prisoner re-entry program (2004) when I stopped working at a prison in the very deep south (2003). I was a counselor in the CRIME SAP program, which I am sure you are familiar with.
While there I made the most of it...teaching what I could about how to stay out of the system or stay out of trouble within the system depending on the amount of time an individual was issued.
One day I met a young man of 16. He had all the bravado needed to do his "life with no hope" sentence he received at the age of 15.
Needless to say, my heart broke. I am a pretty tough personality but this was the one that made me cry. I had never looked at anyone's folder because I did not want to be biased, but I looked at his and only his.
His crime? Accessory to the fact...of murder. I went through his file and got the court documents from his trial. The child didn't know he was going with his "friend" to commit murder. He didn't even know that his friend had a gun. He thought they were going to beat the guy up.
Here's this 15 yo with a public pretender (does not apply to all) who received life with no hope and I am sure he did not have a clear understanding of the nature of the court system.
It was then I knew I had to do something to help those that were able to come out - to stay out.
I am happy to say that while I ran the program there was a 0% recidivism rate and all clients had jobs that paid decent wages.
The program was handed over to my church and while I am no longer on the board, I understand that it is doing well.
Thank you FN for reminding me what it's really all about.
Peace.
~agape2010~
Nice, FN.
Makes you put things in perspective.
Field you stuck your finger in one of my sore spots, one of my biggest frustrations. If I have a say that won't always be the case my brother. I'm trying to get my fellow Christians esp. my fellow black Christians out of their churches and their lethargy and into the hood and show the world that God does indeed care. In other words make real what we say we believe.
Point well made BTW, nearly a generation of young people without hope and churches full of folks who claim to have hope.
I feel what you are getting at. I been trying to keep it real my brother but I can't be held accountable for the rest. I am doing my best to do my part.
You helped me put my Palm Sunday in perspective.
Peace
Thanks M&M, Philosophy Prof.,and anons.
Mel, you have your work cut out for you. But if anyone can do it, I know that you can.
"I am happy to say that while I ran the program there was a 0% recidivism rate and all clients had jobs that paid decent wages.
The program was handed over to my church and while I am no longer on the board, I understand that it is doing well.
Thank you FN for reminding me what it's really all about."
Agape,that is serious FNB.
Getting ex offenders back into society in a positive way is a huge deal.
If we could cut the recidivism rate in half we would see a huge drop in crime.
FN: Great writing of course. The link to the Louisiana Parish was too believable.
You being up on the law, at what point does the ACLU or the Federales get involved? Is it only when appealing a conviction that this thing can morph to national attention/involvement?
What's the future for this embarrassment?
Filled Negro:
I had the rarest of connections with you over one thing that you said in your piece. I too notice that in my Saturday mentoring program for local Black males in a housing project THE FATHERS HAS NEVER COME TO PICK THEM UP in the 3 years that I have been assisting.
Here I am a RESIDENT BLACK FATHER, who leaves HIS FAMILY on Saturdays (Or negotiates with the wife on when I need to be back home)to go and RAISE UP the son of another Black man. I didn't "get the goods" - HE DID!!!
Shamefully some people find my words in which I attempt to demand more consciousness in the actions and loyalties among the Negro - more detestable than the actions (Non-actions) of these more favorable Black men.
[quote]Tomorrow is Sunday, and in those same neighborhoods all the churches will be full. Just like the buildings on State Road.[/quote]
I was feeling you UP UNTIL this part Filled Negro.
You attempt to assail the Christian Church. If you were a more honest broker you would see that in MANY OF THESE LEFTIST-NEGRO CHURCHES there is a lot going that AIN'T FROM JESUS!!!! A portion of their gospel singing is to showcase the SINGER not their God.
The main people who turned these places into POLITICAL machines, fighting against the RIGHT WINGERS who also turned their churches into political machines -NOW look back at the FRUIT that has come out of their churches and they are asking "What happened?".
Still let's not be fooled Filled Negro. What you saw in that PRISON is also the case in Chicago's Cook County Jail. It is evidence of the FAILURE to manage our HUMAN RESOURCES in the "Community Cultural Consciousness and Competency Development Domain".
Cook County and I am sure the jail you went to have two attributes:
BLACK FOLKS AS THE LARGEST INMATE POPULATION
BLACK FOLKS AS MOST OF THE GUARDS AND PRISON ADMINISTRATION
We have spent so much time cheering the "accomplishment" of the LATER (Portrait On The Wall Worship) while failing to put a check on the former trend.
You all tend to focus on UNJUST LAWS when you need to focus upon the "VICTIMS of Society that are now VICTIMS of the assault of this criminal"........who himself was called a "Victim Of Society".
Do you see, Filled Negro - as you leave your compound to CONSERVATIVE CHASE and stoke the emotions of the people within to LOOK OUTSIDE AT THEIR ENEMIES.........when you COME HOME to the scared ground that you now GOVERN.......this is the carnage that has transpired after you have abandoned your INTERNAL battle stations.
IF ONLY you registered the COST of your actions as such you'd make better ECONOMIC decisions with your focus.
"Tomorrow is Sunday, and in those same neighborhoods all the churches will be full. Just like the buildings on State Road."
Yep. But I don't think the churches are very full these days. Much like you, they have lost faith and see no reason to attend church.
Besides, we all know most of the preachers are looking for money anyway. They have been rippin off the community for years.
As far as brothers going to jail and prison? It's been the trend since lynching stopped. No fathers and no parenting from mothers in a poor community with no hope, religion, value on life, educational desires or aspirations, what do you expect?
@ FN:
The way I approached the issue was to 1st remember that basic needs must be met. Food, shelter, a legal and decent living wage and support system. The next issue was transportation. Not only for getting back to work, but to other places as well. So I asked and got bus passes.
After I laid down the law, I promised them one thing: If they did what I suggested they do, they would never see the inside of a cell again.
My next approach was to explain the system. My thought process was that if you can manipulate the prison system, you can certainly handle the social system.
I am making it sound far more simplistic than it was. It was difficult. A lot of late nights, counseling, cussing, going out late at night to drag somebody out of the juke joint etc. But well worth it. And I did have help and someone donated a house for their stay.
But I cannot take credit for anything I did. I was taught this by my grandmother who used to go to the prison once a week to see her "boys" until she was too old to go. It was definitely learned behavior.
So props to my late grandmother, a true Field Negro.
Now I think I will go listen to a King speech...I think "A Knock at Midnight" is apropos for what I read to night.
Peace.
~agape2010~
[quote]If we could cut the recidivism rate in half we would see a huge drop in crime.
[/quote]
IF we PUT IN PLACE A MORE "FUNCTIONAL CULTURE" upon our people we would not have as many of the FIRST OFFENSES for them to worry about RECIDIVISM!!!!
[quote] I'm trying to get my fellow Christians esp. my fellow black Christians out of their churches and their lethargy and into the hood and show the world that God does indeed care. In other words make real what we say we believe.[/quote]
Mellaneous -
I will be honest with you as I have a strong suspicion that the "Christians" that you pull out of their church will be more inclined to fight AGAINST the system more than they might be inclined to BUILD UP a set of RULES and STRUCTURE for these lost young people to fall in line with for their development.
Atlanta provides an excellent test case for what happens when 'the Devil' is no longer in City Hall and thus the Actor-vists are DISINCLINED to protest against the people that THEY PUT INTO OFFICE. They try to avoid having so much discord at the Georgia Black Caucus banquet later in the year. Have you ever tried to handle a seating chart amongst people who are pissed at each other?
It seems to me that before you pull people OUT of church - you need to take the pulpit and have them to focus their LOYALTIES upon that which is righteous rather than in line with their own political and ideological leanings.
[quote]The child didn't know he was going with his "friend" to commit murder. He didn't even know that his friend had a gun. He thought they were going to beat the guy up.[/quote]
Agape - you are hurting me badly. IF ONLY you could find a way to extend your sense of temperance and justice into the minds of young people BEFORE THEY KILL or INJURE.
There is some Black mother who's DEAD SON will never get the chance for PAROLE from his COFFIN, regardless of how many tears she sheds in his memory at the foot of his grave.
Perhaps a PROGRAM in which young males are forced to watch videos of GRIEVING BLACK MOTHERS who lay flowers in the holders built into the head stones will trigger a bit of PATTERN MATCHING that will cause them to see more of the possible outcomes of their testosterone filled scheme to garner revenge.
Teach them one phrase Agape:
"Stop the car and let me out. I WANT NO PART OF THIS, the consequences are too great, too deadly. HE is not my enemy. I won't kill him as such".
This is how easy (and how MINUTE) the infraction can be for a black man to be put in shackles in this country.
http://hatecrimewatch.blogspot.com/2009/08/black-man-goes-to-jail-for-yawning.html
Peace.
~agape2010~
12:34 AM
You knew it wouldn't be long.
Cornel Wingnut has arrived.
I'm gonna hold my fire tonight. He's just not worth it.
@ Cf:
I have mentored teens in the past. And I have stated those words.
However, when a woman gets to be a certain age...and young men get to be q certain age...the young men tend to look at her in a manner that is not befitting for me or them. I had to bow out.
That was years ago. I have found other ways to reach them. I have a for profit business that offers general business services etc. Within that, I have met a few young men that I mentor while getting them into 501c3 status. Their goals are to reach the younger boys in their community and other communities.
I have found these days young men want/need/must have successful black men to teach them how to be men and be successful at manhood.
While I don't feel that I need to be as "hands on" as I used to, I do feel that I have to pay my knowledge forward.
I do this by showing these bright young men that want to help - how to help. I do this by showing them where the money is (and how to obtain it), what the law is and how to connect themselves to decision makers.
Since I have only recently moved into your area (the ATL) I am seeing exactly what you stated within the power structure here. It is a horse of a different color.
Peace.
~agape2010~
FN:
Your story struck a chord. It was deep. You know I've been tutoring for the past few years and I took great joy in doing NCLB tutoring because I was able to serve populations that normally cannot afford a tutor. My county is only three percent Black and out of all the students I've had over the years, I've only had one Black NCLB student and he didn't finish the programme. In his household other tasks took precedence over his studies.
We've got to address our familial pathologies as obstacles to success if we are going to move on and part of that is examining our priorities. It used to be that those with education were admired and revered. Now academics are not respected and children often do not aspire to be in math or science related careers.
It all has to do with discipline at home and FOLLOW THROUGH is a real part of that. God help us all.
@ Mell:
I remember when leaving the state where I had the re-entry program; one of my biggest concerns was..."Who is going to keep this program going/running/successful?" I turned to my church.
I must admit that I thought my church to be pretty progressive. It was a church full of black people of all walks of life. It was why I joined the church. You never knew if you were going to be sitting next to a doctor or a homeless person...and all were welcome.
We would feed you at no charge and ask you to come to service but if you didn't, we would look to feed you the next time you came to us.
It was the spirit of true Christianity that led me there and makes me still proud to call it my home church.
But...I found when I asked the church to take over the program that I was fighting an uphill battle. I eventually won...based on Christ's own words...but it was a fight.
And I also had to make them realize that they live/come from the community where the church is located. We have a stake at helping this population even if they never turn their life over to God.
Our job is to love them, feed them, help them lead a normal life. We must be the Good Samaritan.
Peace.
~agape2010~
@ CF:
I don't think that the recently released offenders (all men) would say I had that much temperance. But I thank you for the compliment.
Peace.
~agape2010~
Brother Field...I see a pattern that is just plain "stoopid". Most of the times when Black youths commit crimes/murders they always have two or three other youths with them. One crime can create several felonies. our youth must have a "pat" excuse to get out of going along. During the ice age, my parents had to know your friends and it was no rolling with them if my parents had any inkling that the person was bad. My sons' excuse was that they had to go to the restroom. I also told them that the Lord gave them senses to know ahead of time what can happen. I BELEIVE most Black males are followers. If you are the leader you control your proper behavior. Visited many prisons and jails. They all look like a Tarzan movie.PS... Larry King pandering and fawning over self-centered person.It amazes me how we as a race glorify people that mean you no good. This self centered guy don't allow his children to listen to his music.
CF-"It seems to me that before you pull people OUT of church - you need to take the pulpit and have them to focus their LOYALTIES upon that which is righteous rather than in line with their own political and ideological leanings."
You are absolutely right. But you see, most preachers don't think along those spiritual lines because they basically don't have very much faith, or they are self-centered agnostics, or worst, atheists!
StillaPanther2, "Larry King pandering and fawning over self-centered person.It amazes me how we as a race glorify people that mean you no good. This self centered guy don't allow his children to listen to his music."
I agree. That's what is scary about our race today, i.e. who we consider as someone to look up to and hold up as a model. Where are we headed with these kinds of heroes? How pathetic.
Wow. I want to say more but the post is so thought-provoking that I can't say more.
[quote]I'm gonna hold my fire tonight. He's just not worth it.[/quote]
Low & Country:
Your "fire" is a pea shooter that merely irritates me when you hit my arm.
In your world you can articulate how SLAVERY is the reason for all that will transpire in Philly and elsewhere this weekend. Whereas the Christian receives cover by his belief in JESUS as his savior.........a Black person who is FAVORABLE to you only need to believe that RACISM is the cause. Thus his future sins are washed away in YOUR book. You prefer to attack a Black man who has OBSERVED you and threatens to expose you.
What you fail to see is that as you have your mind affixed to rattling old chains and making "ghost sounds" behind the curtain - you have FAILED to live up to one damning irony:
The more POWER that favorable people to you have over your communities; the more ACCOUNTABILITY they should have for the outcomes.
YET in your own bigotry and disconnectedness from reality the realization that YOU have fewer OUTSIDE FORCES standing between the implementation of your SOCIETAL THEORIES and the MEASUREMENT of the IMPACT that they have in addressing our problems is more clear to see.
In the security world there is a term called "Non-Repudiation". Those who DID SOMETHING cannot later claim that they DID NOT. The AUDIT TRAIL points right back to THEM. When it comes to the "Black Establishment" its leaders and CO-CONSPIRATORS like you who seek to DENY the INFLUENCE THAT YOU HAVE in the present outcomes. You try to play the VICTIM game for cover. This was evident in your "Victim Of Racism" list the other day.
When you feign your inferiority over the present situation of your people - the 20 year old born in 1990 rather than 1890, as if he is now right out of slavery - you only enhance my belief that you and EVERYONE WHO THINKS LIKE YOU need to be REMOVED from your ability to REPRESENT YOURSELVES as standing in the interests of our people. In truth you only PROVIDE COVER.
Some of that which YOU reduce to RACISM is in truth due to the undesirable circumstance of you being ALL ALONE - your flawed ideology left to STAND ALONE as the primary influence. In your desperation you try to INTEGRATE with America, not out of your desire to GO WHERE YOU WANT TO GO w/o racism stopping you.
INSTEAD your goal is to OUTSOURCE the obligation for your FIX upon the backs of the ENTIRE NATION. This after years of AGGREGATING POWER under the guise of "Once WE get into POWER....things will get better".
YOU NEED TO STAND ACCOUNTABLE, punk.
[quote]I have found these days young men want/need/must have successful black men to teach them how to be men and be successful at manhood.[/quote]
Agape:
I have come to the conclusion that our community needs a systematic approach to resolve this problem. As individuals - you and I can only impact people in our immediate circle. If we apply what is popularly heard in business: The best type of asset is the asset that generates WEALTH without you being present - I conclude the same is the case with a SYSTEM:
The best type of system that our people need to submit themselves to is a system of conscious development that produces benefit WITHOUT dependency upon the "Talented Tenth".
There needs to be a buy-in from everyone. Those who desire to consume the fruits of change need to be the primary forces that tend to the orchard.
@ CF:
I think the issue is problematic, in that, we have a double edged sword. I am in full agreement that we need to have an approach that starts within... however within what/whom?
Firstly, we need to make good use of what we have with the system in place. Secondly we must work within the system to change what needs changing. Thirdly, we must look to implement a strategic set of designs that allow people with "bootstraps" the ability to pull them up...while giving those without "bootstraps" some bootstraps.
The great divide in this country is strictly economic. I agree wholeheartedly that is how we must address all SYSTEMIC issues.(prisons are huge conglomerates of capitalist businesses which employ people... while housing people who commit criminal acts of behavior... thereby keeping a semblance of order... this is a SYSTEMIC issue.)
The other issues are on an individual level and all may never be addressed.
The need for those that "have" to render help to those that "have not" is personal issue that resides in people's hearts.
Poverty/Prisons/Judicial System/Capitalism/Racism/Education are all issues that are intertwined.
We cannot address one without addressing the others.
On that note I bid you farewell. I will look for your response tomorrow.
And...
Keep fighting the GOOD fight!
Peace.
~agape2010
@ CF:
One last thing...we wrote last night about one of the problems that black men face in America.... which was...they feel the need to protect themselves from each other...remember? We wrote about it either being self hatred or self preservation....
I just want to point something out to you and give you some food for thought... as well as asking for a point of clarification from YOU.
When Trapped wrote what he wrote about your arrival to the blog....why was it you could not blow it off? Why did you feel the need to take it to a higher level and write what you wrote?
The reason I ask is that it gives me more insight into what may be the same pattern of thinking of the young black man....
Could those same feelings are felt in the young black man's mind that you felt toward Trapped? And could it be that... just as you took it to another level... that is why they may also take it to another level (albeit theirs leads to violence).
And...
If we can't act civilly to one another, how can we expect to teach what we do not have?
And...
I am not giving a pass to Trapped either. I don't know either of you...I ask for the reason I stated and for another...it's the psychologist in me.
Peace.
~agape2010~
FN this post was very deep.
We are losing a generation of children and it breaks my heart.
nyc:
Yup,generations of children are being lost to the modern day plantations or death. Neither are much of a choice in life.
Stillapanther2:
The media hands are not clean in none of it either because they are guilty in planting those type of seeds that praise those blacks who do wrong as heroes and going out of their way to destroy those blacks who are heroes.
His mother weeps, but he smiles. The judge hands down 25 years, and he shrugs.
Were we law abiding types so unfortunate as to receive this young man's fate--a 25 year prison sentence--for shooting a burglar, say, and not in the act, but running away from our property, after assaulting our loved ones(and we don't live in Texas), it would spell tragedy upon tragedy.
But this young man may be smiling and shrugging, because this prison sentence is probably seen more as a homecoming, than a punishment.
If he's a gangbanger, many of his homies--those that aren't dead--will be incarcerated with him, many of which are his idols, those he respect, admire, and honor. What would be a punishment for us, may be nothing more than a meeting up with all those he hasn't seen for a time--which a prison term will soon remedy.
A few nights ago, an ex-felon, ex-gangbanger, was being interviewed on television. He belonged to a local gang, and had, for sometime, since about the age of eleven, been affiliated with the gang.
He talked proudly about how he and other gang members had gone up against rival gangs--what was called "rumbling" in my day--for the purpose of earning respect.
They used fists, knives--and guns when necessary--all for the purpose of gaining this "respect" that was so important to them.
In prison, he linked up with his gang, his homies, and even killed another inmate at the behest of a gang leader.
Prison may deprive these young men of their freedom, and the food may not be all that great, but life there isn't that much different than on the street.
There, as on the street, they've got to protect themself, and their code. There, as on the streets, unless they're on top, they do what they're told. There, as on the streets, they've got to find a way to maneuver around those in authority--the guards in prison, the cops on the beat.
Home is where the heart is.
"The great divide in this country is strictly economic. I agree wholeheartedly that is how we must address all SYSTEMIC issues.(prisons are huge conglomerates of capitalist businesses which employ people... while housing people who commit criminal acts of behavior... thereby keeping a semblance of order... this is a SYSTEMIC issue.)
The other issues are on an individual level and all may never be addressed.
The need for those that "have" to render help to those that "have not" is personal issue that resides in people's hearts"
agape2010, that s%^t was profound, and so true.
You have actualy forced the Destructive Wingnut to make some half way decent points. You deserve an award for that. Oh well, a broken clock...
"..We are losing a generation of children and it breaks my heart."
Me too.
Hold up; Christella, is that your picture on your home page? And did you say that you are 72? That must be a typo. "BLACK DON'T CRACK" fo real. :)
Black Diaspora, as usual, you write with much clarity.
M. Rigmaiden, this is why I love you. We don't agree on everything politically (Clarence Thomas, for instance), but you are a FN in my book for all the mentoring you do, and the concern and love that you have for your people.
"You are absolutely right. But you see, most preachers don't think along those spiritual lines because they basically don't have very much faith, or they are self-centered agnostics, or worst, atheists!"
A preaching atheists? Wouldn't that be a little hard to pull off?
This morning when I read the entry, my initial reaction was dismay and sadness. Dismay because it is a subject that I give a lot of thought to, that troubles me deeply,and that I feel relatively impotent to do anything about.
But as I read all the comments my feelings were slowly elevated, my mood changed to one of hope.
Everyones thoughts are so helpful and positive! How wonderful on a Sunday morning to feel that there are such good and caring people in the world, on this blog! thank you for being who and how you are! I feel blessed to have found such good folks to interact with. I only hope I can contribute same. Happy Sunday and happy and Blessed week to all!
I don't know what to say. This is very sad, but the situation FN wrote about has been happening for many generations. I move from a
"black" neighborhood, when I saw that there were too many stabbings, drugs, and gangs. I had children, and I wanted them to concentrate on their future. There should be some sort of program that explains to young men and women the choices they make in life and the consequences. I say teach because they know as well as we know, that the key not to not living foul is education. I don't put my faith in Rev. Chicken Wing that much (in Queens there are 12 churches on one block not paying school taxes-tax exempt). The men of these churches should be patrolling the streets and mentoring young men before they become teens. The music doesn't help either. In song, on BET, in movies, ghetto living is glorified, life is cheap, sex and drugs are cheap and it creates a reality that doesn't have to be. I don't understand why some of these mothers don't just leave before their children become a certain age. I do understand that in certain circumstances that's where the ancestor house (not apartment) is located and times are hard, but...Many families leave NYC with their kids because they do not want their kids growing up in that atmosphere. I don't understand why some single mothers can't foresee a possible bad future if they remain in the area. When I compare Upstate NY to NYC, there's a big difference in attitudes. Upstate New York, despite colleges and universities offering to pay for black children to attend their schools once they graduate high school for FREE, very very few participate. As a matter of fact, the high school graduation rate is something like 26%. That's very low. Those same individuals have babies and move into the ghetto neighborhoods supposedly because its cheap and the comaraderie that comes with it. It ain't that cheap. Blacks have been upstate for many generations are still segregated living on the South Side. However, there are crips and bloods in this upstate town, where the black population is not that heavy. Why didn't the church or the men of the neighborhood stop the gang infiltration, I don't know. Every day in this little upstate town, some young black kid is shot or stabbed. It doesn't make sense.
cactusrose, I co-sign 110% Thank you as well.
Trickster206, thanks for bringing it home to us and helping -some- people to realize that this is not just a big city urban problem.
. In song, on BET, in movies, ghetto living is glorified, life is cheap, sex and drugs are cheap and it creates a reality that doesn't have to be
One of the most serious ills of society.
Why didn't the church or the men of the neighborhood stop the gang infiltration?
Cause they are labeled as RACIST when they attempt this.
[quote]why was it you could not blow it off? Why did you feel the need to take it to a higher level and write what you wrote?[/quote]
Agape:
It is my view that Low & Country is a BLACK INFERIORIST.
In his attempt to EXCUSE the growing power that people who are favorable to his ideological leanings as they FAIL to produce change as they have promised he has two choices:
1) Claim that an intractable force of RACISM is the reason for the subpar results - despite his best efforts
2) ADMIT, however reluctantly, that his THEORIES DO NOT ACCURATELY MODEL THE REAL WORLD and thus he needs to CHANGE
Agape - there is NO FORCE within the Black Community who is going to look at the problems DESPITE all of the "VICTORIES" in which he and others had house parties after election night only to see that their jubilance HAS FAILED to address the promises that got them into power.
Agape - the theory is that CONSERVATIVES are throwing Blacks in jail due to racism. Yet if we look at the COOK COUNTY JAIL - we see ALL DEMOCRATS, MAJORITY BLACKS as guards and administrators. Yet the SAME DAMNED RESULTS occur.
This news if like the news to the Black Progressive-Fundamentalist that his RELIGION IS A LIE!!!! There is NO HEAVEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Think about it Agape - if they struggled to get LEFTISTS in power over all of the institutions as the FIX FOR BLACK PEOPLE. Yet when we look at the most DEMOCRATIC area in the nation (Chicagoland) and see that NOTHING HAS CHANGED BY THE RACE OR IDEOLOGY of the JAILER - it is incumbent upon the OBSERVER to strip the damned clothes off of the Emperor who CLEARLY has been running an agenda that IS NOT AS HE SAYS IT WAS.
Listen IF the present establishment order WAS FIXING THE PROBLEMS I WOULD BE THEIR STRONGEST SUPPORTER!!!!!
Instead they have POWER, they have FAILED TO DELIVER and then people are indignant that I have the audacity to call them out as sellouts and frauds!!
What do they do next? TAKE OVER THE WORLD?
FN: As a young black man who has seen off too many friends and family to the prison or to the grave, this one struck a nerve. I remember talking to my uncle, a social worker, talking to one of my knucklehead cousins after he got out of jail the second time. He asked him how it was, my cousin's response -- it was nothing, easy. My uncle knew that my cousin would probably spend the rest of his life in and out of jail, mostly in. He was right -- 20 to life, up for parole in in 2020.
Trickster206, what part of upstate NY? I've got friends in Kingston and other little towns from my days in New York. Those little run down towns are more violent many parts of the Bronx. I've seen the despair and it isn't pretty.
CF -- no offense dude but I honestly don't think you care two rips about young Black men. I'm not a nubbie, I've been on this blog for a while. And every time I see that opaque head avatar, I know I'm in for a ride. A bad one.
I've read your responses, which tend towards the unfounded tea bag brand of government responsibility, and quite frankly you don't see these articles as a chance to help us save Black Youth -- you see it as another chance to rip Democrats, liberals, community activists and the other laundry list of caricatures that Limbaugh despises.
So, Field, I'm done with my first race and now off to my next project -- saving these Black men in my own way. First step will to work with 100 Black Men who care in mentoring young men.
"CF -- no offense dude but I honestly don't think you care two rips about young Black men. I'm not a nubbie, I've been on this blog for a while. And every time I see that opaque head avatar, I know I'm in for a ride. A bad one."
))LOL(( La~Just put on your seat- belt and turn on a Jazz station. Try to keep looking out the window at all the familiar scenes. It will help the nausea from the bad ride go away.;)
"What do they do next? TAKE OVER THE WORLD?"
We can only wish.
what a joke: Wayne is a "field negro". Silver-spoon Wayne has likely never worked a day of physical labor in his sorry-assed racist life. I doubt the shithead even knows how to change the oil in his car.
Cornel Wingnut, Let me say this clearly.
We are not the same. I'm actually black. I don't pretend to disavow the truth of my existence and the realities of that truth, as you do.
More condescension. More contempt and mockery. More mischaracterization. Please don't wonder why you can't sell your visions of free market, Randian utopia to us. We don't trust you because your every presentation of an idea comes wrapped in insult, denigration and mockery. Our progressive political and economic values, our life styles, our very existences offend you and none of you means us well. We can't get by your contempt to fairly analyze your ideas.
A true black inferiorist tries to point out only the negative consequences of the black experience, and only that.
You seem to fail to realize that with all of our faults and failings, no racial group in America has made greater racial strides in the last 50 years then african-americans. For every place that has dysfunctional black leadership, I can point to a multiple of 10 that are run with professionalism and nuance.
You are the guy who thinks that Michael Jordan sucked because sometimes he missed shots.
But you don't want that argument.
You are a one-trick pony.
If it shows blacks in a negative light, your arrival is as predictable as the sun coming up.
The people who you cast your lot with, the teabaggers, xenophobes and racists that make up today's conservative movement, are quite pathetic because they believe that they are passionate, articulate, and coherent people. They are organizing themselves, contacting one-another, meeting their congresspeople, and becoming active in civic life. BUT, they are stupid and hypocritical, and totally lacking in even an inkling of self-awareness or introspection. And frankly, I find these people far more distasteful then the young black "street pirate" that you fancy yourself an expert on. Because these people have no idea that they are stupid. They rail against NAFTA and free trade, and then want unregulated markets and small government. They collect social services but would deny them to anyone else. I mean, how on earth do you reason with someone so completely devoid logic. You can't. It's a fool's errand.
At the end of the day the person that knows not that they do not know is the saddest person of all. They grope around in the dark trying to understand the world, but without even trying to do the heavy lifting that true thought requires. I pity these people. Because passion is not a substitute for intelligence or thought. It just means that you'll be played for a fool by someone smart enough to manipulate your internal inconsistencies.
What you write on this blog, and those marbles rolling around in your head that you call "ideas" are total bullshit.
You know it and I know it.
Like I said before, get a newspaper subscription, and take a poli-sci class, then we can talk shop.
Otherwise, be quiet.
Field, "A preaching atheists? Wouldn't that be a little hard to pull off?"
I can't remember exactly where I read it(I think Huff Post?), but there has been talk of Exorcism at the Vatican because they have some Cardinals and priests who don't believe in God.
So, believe it or not, there are pastors who pretend to be a followers of God who don't believe in God.
Yeah. Satan is in the Vatican and doing a lot of damage! But 'hell'...that's his job... to usurp the throne of God with disbelief(atheists), doubt(agnostics), darkness(ignorance) and despair(hopelessness).
It has been said that Satan rules the earth. It has also been said that his greatest trick is to convince humans that he doesn't exist.
BTW, you have a resident 'praying atheist' by the name of Maria on your own blog- who, by the way, hasn't explained who/what an atheist prays to- even though many have asked her. My own speculation is that she worships the same 'thing' as the 'preaching atheist' priests and cardinals do.
Field, your blog might need an exorcist to rid your blog of preaching and praying atheists!
[quote]More condescension. More contempt and mockery. More mischaracterization. [/quote]
To Low & Country
To WhiteBowieSteve
To Filled Negro
You, in your arrogance and bigotry have decided to WRAP YOUR IDEOLOGY around your BLACKNESS. Thus when you see a Black man (me) firing shots at your FRAUD - you attempt to make the case that I am firing at BLACK PEOPLE.
Please note the graphic that I made to preempt such a fraudulent exercise:
http://www.withintheblackcommunity.com/videos/BlackDomains.jpg
What you hear in my comments is CONTEMPT for your fraudulence - not your GENETIC form. If your version were so - I would go upstairs right now and beat my Black family who has the very same hue as you BUT NOT YOUR FRAUDULENT consciousness.
Anyone who is not similarly bigoted as you can see that you words bear this out.
Just like your Right-Wing counterpart who says that your protestations show you are ANTI-AMERICAN - you too seek to protect the establishment that YOU have built up from someone exposing the scars of its UNDERBELLY.
Sadly this UNDERBELLY is in the Graterford Prison (or is that Holmwood that Filled Negro visited?)
[quote]
Please don't wonder why you can't sell your visions of free market, Randian utopia to us. We don't trust you because your every presentation of an idea comes wrapped in insult, denigration and mockery.[/quote]
I don't think that you understand the GRAVITY of your statement above.
You focus on ME - who hasn't "CONVINCED" the Black community of my message!!!!!!
Why not focus on YOUR MESSAGE that our people have INJECTED hook, line and sinker to the point that your hook now is embedded in our Large Intestines of our CONSCIOUSNESS.
Do the rest of you who are reading this understand Low & Country's argument?
Like the "All White Jury" of the PAST he argues "That Nigra that stood before us FAILED TO CONVINCE US that he was innocent".
He suggests that I CHECK MYSELF if I am ever to have a person in a burning house TRUST ME as I pull a ladder to the window and promise that I won't let them fall in my secret scheme to KILL THEM.
Low & Country, in his arrogance and perversion fails to see that HE BUILD THE HOUSE that is on fire!!!! There is a stack of CODE VIOLATIONS on the door
* No fire extinguisher
* No fire escapes
* Paint Cans piled in the basement
* Anti-Street Pirate bars on the windows
Despite his INCUMBENCY he has the audacity to DEMAND JUDGMENT UPON ME.
SCREW YOU!!!
I don't blame Low & Country or Filled Negro though. They are free to do as they please.
It is the BLACK RANK AND FILE who ultimately must be faulted. They choose to GO ALONG for the ride without demanding EARNEST MONEY along the way.
People like LAC are PISSED AT ME for daring to roll back the tape to the start of the trip and have these CONFIDENCE MEN own up to that which they PROMISED US.
Instead he would rather me be happy worshiping the PICTURES ON THE WALL.
LAC - a snail doesn't like SALT UPON HIS BACK just as you don't like seeing my avatar.
[quote]
The people who you cast your lot with, the teabaggers, xenophobes and racists that make up today's conservative movement, are quite pathetic because they believe that they are passionate, articulate, and coherent people[/quote]
Please prove my SUPPORT FOR THE TEA PARTIES?
I use THEM to prove YOUR FRAUD!!!
When the "Lampblack Yellow Journalists" who PURPORT to be representing BLACK INTERESTS feature more reports on the Tea Party, Palin, Steele and Limbaugh than the ENTIRE DAMNED BLACK CAUCUS COMBINED you are a FOOL if you think that I am not going to call this out.
"What makes the Tea Party SUPERIOR to deserve this attention by the Black Community?" is what you should be asking.
CLEARLY you are not spouting per your "Black Hat" you are doing so as a "Democrat Who Is Black"!!!
[quote]You are the guy who thinks that Michael Jordan sucked because sometimes he missed shots.[/quote]
NO. I am looking at the 3 BLACK PEOPLE on the side lines who have been knocked out cold by the AI BALL that he shot.
Here is your FRAUD, Low & Country. Despite having assisted the Black Progressive Establishment into the SAME DAMNED SEATS that you used to PROTEST AGAINST for having FAILED your interests.....to-damned-day with them in these seats and YOUR INTERESTS STILL HAVING COME UP SHORT you have no tolerance for a person like ME who does not believe that THESE SEATS now have INFERIOR POWER.
YOU are the fraud who is infected with Black Inferiority per the PERSON in the seat.
[quote]If it shows blacks in a negative light, your arrival is as predictable as the sun coming up.[/quote]
You have no clue how much you sound like the White Racists who hated Ida B Wells Barnett.
When SHE dared show them that BLACK PEOPLE ARE BEING MURDERED in the midst of these White people's "Idyllic World" THEY HATED HER,figuring that she was a troublemaker.
Similarly when I show a BLACK WOMAN WHO GOT HER HEAD CUT OFF and the muted response by the usual "town criers" - you accuse ME of trying to "SHOW THE NEGATIVE IN THE BLACK COMMUNITY" as a means of shaming my people.
I believe that I am showing your FRAUDULENCE.
Your calculus has a BLACK PERSON'S VALUE being determined by HER KILLER and how much ideological and political mileage you can get out of it.
You and the RACISTS that you perpetually fight with are more JOINED AT THE HIP than you feel comfortable admitting.
Sadly in the common world that you share - the NEGRO is the one who get Kilt in a greater abundance.
You want me to pat you on the back in approval when you need a bytch slap for your antics.
Incarceration for profit. Privatize prisons, hire underpaid, poorly trained guards from economic backgrounds similar to the prison population, reduce in-prison social services to a minimum.
What I've noticed even in municipal courts (where it's very helpful to dress neatly & invest in a local lawyer who knows the judge or city attorney) is that judges become enraged by defendants who show disrepect, shrug, smile, act too tough to care.
Touche', Cornel Wingnut......
I don't want, desire or need your approval, Wingnut.
You need mine.
You want us, the majority of blacks, to think as you do, lest we become the truly subservient black, the good nigger, that you show yourself to be on a daily, fuck that, hourly basis.
It's not that your ideology is totally wrong. Some of it has merit.
But you take it to an extreme and then count on the intrinsic goodness of our enemies as justification for doing so. You basically want the entire black population that lives in this country to go backing in time to a place where we are controlled, simply because in the absence of 100% total adherence to your beliefs, your would rather we cede our own self-determination to our past oppressors because they don't call us niggers anymore.
You are weak. And a coward to boot.
I'd rather you don a Klan hood, and conspire to blow up churches. You and those who think like you are truly the enemy with our midst, having sold his soul to the devil for a few shekels, or a shout-out on "Booker Rising", because that is how useful your ideas are.
It's not black society's fault that a "street pirate" robbed you and beat your ass when you were younger.
It's not black society's fault that a more deserving black person got that job that you wanted.
It's not black society's fault that a black family moved in near you and you listened to your white neighbor use derogatory slurs toward them and you were too much of a pussy to retort.
It's not black society's fault that you like conservative ideas because you don't fully understand liberal ones.
It's not black society's fault that you can't properly cook fried chicken.
It's not black society's fault that Rocawear jeans look funny on you.
It's not black society's fault that you are black and you can't change it.
You reek. nigga.
Harriet Tubman carried a gun on the underground railroad specifically for dudes like you who wanted to run back to the plantation.
It's easy to infer that she would have shot your ass.
LAC: I have a home in Syracuse, New York. I travel back and forth. All of the Syracuse blacks are living on the South Side, with no supermarkets and tons of Cricket phone and hair accessory places. I think I told everyone the story of meeting a girl from Syracuse at the university. She emphatically told another black female not to buy her two male babies any books because she didn't want them to be too white. At 27, this black girl received her GED. They offer children who live here free education at Syracuse University (%50 thou per year) she/none of her family ever took advantage of it. Yes, she does live in the South Side, wears the Aunt Jemima scarves, etc. However, here's the sad part: last summer her aunt was arrested for shooting her common law man and a few months ago, the girl's mother was shot by her husband while in the shower. So I see the repetitiveness of those lives.
trickster
sad, but so typical.
@BTW, you have a resident 'praying atheist' by the name of Maria on your own blog- who, by the way, hasn't explained who/what an atheist prays to- even though many have asked her. My own speculation is that she worships the same 'thing' as the 'preaching atheist' priests and cardinals do.
Field, your blog might need an exorcist to rid your blog of preaching and praying atheists!
1:17 PM
listen, you stupid fuck. i once said i "prayed" that MMM' kids got out from under her radical, ignorant bullshit beliefs and could grow up normal somehow.
i used "pray" as in the sense of wish, hope, desire. there is more than a literal definition of pray.
you are an asshole who feels the need to drop these petty little attacks on me and i have ignored them. but because you won't stop and did it again in a totally inappropriate context, and i am addressing you now.
SHUT THE FUCK UP ABOUT ME. other than what i have written here that you obviously don't read until you stop on the word "atheist" you don't know shit about me and what i do or how i think. i don't need to be judged by you and i don't seek your approval. you are too stupid and narrow minded for me to trifle with anymore.
we now return you to our regularly scheduled programming...about young black boys rotting in prison.
asshole.
Two recent quotes from this blog:
Trapped in 1970 said...
"You want us, the majority of blacks, to think as you do, lest we become the truly subservient black, the good nigger, that you show yourself to be on a daily, fuck that, hourly basis"
And a second hand quote from some unamed black chick in Syracuse who emphatically told another black female "not to buy her two male babies any books because she didn't want them to be too white."
Two means to the same end. The female from Syracuse places fealty to her blackness above all else. She rejects everything outside her narrow definition of community, to the point she rejects any notion of common humanity. She jealousy guards her own and her children's ignorance by completely eliminating the consideraton of other ideas.
Likewise TSC puts racial solidarity above all else. That he does this from a pseudo-intellectual basis built on black supremecist literature makes it no less pernicious. Indeed, it is probably worse in that it is people like him who promote an ideology that would rather the underclass stay ignorant than to risk assimilation. TSC guards his ignorance by carefully selecting the facts he will use to build his reality. Anyone who challenges this reality is attacked in a desperate attempt to ignore anything that contradicts his beliefs.
Both these views keep blacks seperate from a society that has been open for more than a generation. Forty years of venting might be expected after centuries of oppression, but what now? Other groups come and join the mainstream culture and make it stronger, but blacks persist in seperatism that makes them weaker. Mainstream culture is not "white" culture; blacks have made a huge contribution to American culture. Learning from other people has suited other groups quite well; why wouldn't it be good for blacks, even if it meant being a little more "white"? Is a stunted life for millions worth a petulent rejection of the possible? Who does this continued self-segregation benefit?
Sometimes FN,
You just make my heart sad. I do wonder how someone does something against the law and not understand the ramifications.
Just sitting there thinking that he wouldn't get the long stretch. Nobody can tell me that it was his first time before a judge.
I don't get it. How do you spend time in 'the system', and ' your boys' are in ' the system', and you have a look of shock on your face. Please explain it to me.
I've never had anything harder than a parking ticket in my life; so my experience with ' the system' is nil. So, maybe someone like me would be' in shock'. I don't get why anyone who has experience with ' the system' is in shock.
I really would appreciate someone explaining it to me. Do these young men think this is a game? How can they think it's a game when they know so many others who were prison-bound?
Don't they realize that they're nothing but a commodity for the Prison Industrial Complex?
Maria,
I think you are racist...shame!
maria said...
listen, you stupid fuck. i once said i "prayed" that MMM' kids got out from under her radical, ignorant bullshit beliefs and could grow up normal somehow.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Awwww poor Macaroni, doesn't seem to take the shit she dishes out so well to other people.
Now why don't YOU STFU and go make us a pizza, LOL!!!
i don't "dish out" anything. you ARE STUPID, weak, ignorant and racist...i give it back just fine.
call me macaroni all you want--it only makes my point about you.
and i do worry about your kids. but i worry about your employees (just like the bad info you gave out as a supposed HIV counselor) more because we all know how lacking in basic knowledge i have shown you to be. not do long before your institute catches on, if you even are what you claim to be, which i highly doubt.
and how's this for another show of your intelligence. this post was "deeply profound."
duh, what other kind of profound is there, moron?
"Both these views keep blacks seperate from a society that has been open for more than a generation. Forty years of venting might be expected after centuries of oppression, but what now? Other groups come and join the mainstream culture and make it stronger.."
Anon.what exactly is "mainstream culture"? Could you explain that to me?
"Field, your blog might need an exorcist to rid your blog of preaching and praying atheists!"
But I don't believe in the devil. Although I dated this girl, once...
Low & Country:
The best thing that I can get you to do is KEEP TALKING!!! Thank you. You make my point with every post.
[quote]I don't want, desire or need your approval, Wingnut. You need mine.
You want us, the majority of blacks, to think as you do, lest we become the truly subservient black, the good nigger, that you show yourself to be on a daily, fuck that, hourly basis.[/quote]
Low & Country:
The ASCENDANCY of the forces in the area that you have focused upon: The American Political Domain - has to be greatly disheartening for you in the end.
You see with this VICTORY - your sales job upon Black America, as mis-allocated as your focus is, should be PRODUCING FRUIT....just as you had PROMISED.
Instead it serves to EXPOSE YOU and the SOLD OUT FOCUSES that you have.
* The Democratic Party is stronger than ever in our communities
* Progressive-Fundamentalism is uncontested where our people have the majority say.
DESPITE THIS FACT - if you were to watch MSNBC - no, no, no NOT Maddow, Matthews and Olbermann - but instead their "LOCKED UP" series you will see that in your perverted sense of PROGRESS - the JAILERS, WARDENS LAWMAKERS, ARE NOW BLACK!!!! But the INMATES ARE STILL BLACK!!!!
Truth be told, Low & Country - I want the MAJORITY OF BLACK PEOPLE to pursue THEIR "Permanent Interests", going where this takes them.
With you and other SOLD OUT NEGROES leading us - you have merely EMPOWERED other forces while you still hold the bed pan.
[quote]
It's not that your ideology is totally wrong. Some of it has merit. But you take it to an extreme and then count on the intrinsic goodness of our enemies as justification for doing so.[/quote]
Low & Country: In your BIGOTRY you probably don't see that YOU HAVE TAKEN UP COMPANY with our ENEMIES!!!
* Anyone who thinks that Blacks are INFERIOR is my enemy!!
* Anyone who believes that Blacks need to sit next to a White kid to learn - is my enemy
* Anyone who believes that a White man who assaulted a Black woman is worse than the Black man who CUT OFF THE HEAD OF THE BLACK WOMAN this past week BASED UPON THE PROTEST MARCHES (or lack there of) that followed each of them is MY ENEMY!!!
[QUOTE]You basically want the entire black population that lives in this country to go backing in time to a place where we are controlled, simply because in the absence of 100% total adherence to your beliefs, your would rather we cede our own self-determination to our past oppressors because they don't call us niggers anymore.[/quote]
This Negro said "SELF DETERMINATION"!!!!
Low & Country:
Do you notice the pattern of behavior that distinguishes a people who want SELF DETERMINATION versus those who are DEPENDENTS?
Self-Determinationists ask to be LEFT ALONE. Leave our MONEY alone. Let us GOVERN ourselves.
You on the other hand have a desperate need to NATIONALIZE your entitlements as a means of achieving your goal, sharing a POT OF MONEY with others. THIS IS NOT SELF-DETERMINATION!!!
Move like-minded people to an unpopulated area of Brazil and try to redeploy your resent CONSCIOUSNESS. You will then see your GROSS FLAWS.
The worst possible condition if for you to be LEFT ALL ALONE to pursue what YOU CALL "Self Determination".
[quote]You are weak. And a coward to boot.[/quote]
Thank you. You forgot "ignorant".
[quote]I'd rather you don a Klan hood, and conspire to blow up churches. You and those who think like you are truly the enemy with our midst, having sold his soul to the devil for a few shekels, or a shout-out on "Booker Rising", because that is how useful your ideas are.[/quote]
If it satisfies you at all: I USED TO SHINE THE WHITE MAN'S SHOES FOR HIM. He used to laugh at me in my apparent INFERIOR position.
Then he found out that I was making net $150 per hour as I studied the process of SHOE SHINING, made it MORE EFFICIENT and could get 15 WHITE FOLKS' shoes shined per hour.
When I left one of my tax returns out on the shoeshine stand and one of them stole it - THEY organized to KEEP other Whites from supporting me because THEY had me in the top 5% of the income strata.
[quote]Likewise TSC puts racial solidarity above all else.[/quote]
Anon:
Fear not. It is NOT Low & Country's fault.
It is the BLACK RANK AND FILE that need to stand up to him.
Just as the local drug kingpin rules via terror and intimidation, making examples out of those who stand up to him - the POWER IN NUMBERS rule remain.
His brand of "racial solidarity" equates to BLACK PEOPLE - getting favorable Progressives into POWER and then DEFENDING them despite the RESULTS that have not panned out per their promises.
[quote] That he does this from a pseudo-intellectual basis built on black supremecist literature makes it no less pernicious.[/quote]
Anon - he is not a "Black Supremacist". He is a "Black Inferiorist"
He looks at Black Unemployment and points to RACISM.
Yet favorable forces have control over all of the key INSTITUTIONS where we live and he has FAILED to leverage the HUMAN RESOURCES that are looking to participate in their own PROGRESSION as a community.
When it comes to BUILDING UP INFRASTRUCTURE BY WHICH BLACK PEOPLE CAN ORDER OURSELVES SO THAT WE WORK TO ADVANCE OUR COMMUNITY INTERESTS
or looking at the state of WHITE FOLKS and then look at where BLACK PEOPLE stand - our friend Low & Country is going to take the LOW ROAD through the swamps every time.
He and those who think like him should PUT ON TRIAL as to their long term IMPACT to our "Community Consciousness and Competency Development".
Field: "Anon.what exactly is "mainstream culture"? Could you explain that to me?"
The common sphere, "American" culture. The place everybody gets together and builds the future.
Field, "But I don't believe in the devil. Although I dated this girl, once..."
You see? You are wondering who that girl 'really' was... You never know... Might as well pay the church for an exorcism just to be safe. The way the economy is, you can probably get a discount.
And I bet exorcist fees, like donations, are tax deductible. :D
Renaldo, you a damn liar boy.
Maria, "listen, you stupid fuck. i once said i "prayed" that MMM' kids got out from under her radical, ignorant bullshit beliefs and could grow up normal somehow."
I just got back from church, praying for the soul of Maria and what do I read from Maria? Filthy words that sound very much like the girl in the movie, "The Exorcist".
Words like: "listen, you stupid fuck."..."SHUT THE FUCK UP"..."asshole".
This is a sure sign that you are possessed. You should catch the next plane to Italy and hurry to the Vatican to seek a very skilled exorcist. There is no other way for you.
darn FN!! stop, i just cant take anymore. one of my clients called me from jail, told me to tell his girl he loves her and to kiss his kids goodbye. he will be gone 5 yrs for attempted murder. my first words were why are you calling ME. damn. i am just tired FN, just so tired.
@ FN:
You warned me...I decided to try anyway...and I learned a valuable lesson.
I still say this: If a person decides to do some "giving back" to the community...they need to have something within to give.
Peace.
~agape2010~
Must have hit a nerve.
Maybe I was a little too ORGANIC for Cornel Wingnut.
Next time, 1 post per issue please.
We've gotta get that ratio down, son.
@ DuchessDee:
I know you did not write that for me but your words pulled at my heart strings. I know the depth of your feeling because I get tired as well.
I just want you to know that he called you because you were his only lifeline.
Imagine having only one lifeline... the kindness of a stranger that pulled him through.
I loudly applaud you!
Peace.
~agape2010~
Trapped in SC said...
"Must have hit a nerve."
I've got one good nerve left son, and you gettin' on it!
Seriously though man, you are a douchebag.
I have been to almost every prison in my state. No, not as an inmate but as paralegal to obtain information in defense of the state. My employer defends all correctional personnel.
SIDEBAR: Can someone inform prisoners that the court system is not an outside recreational activity and they do serious harm to legitimate case with frivolous lawsuits about injuries that occurred while in commission of the crime for which they are currently incarcerated for?
Back on track: I was once gathering information at a 24 hour SHU (Special Housing Unit) facility and a CO thought it was perfectly OK to tell me what his job was. HE SAID THAT IF IT WAS NOT FOR NIGGER FARMING, HE WOULD BE UNEMPLOYED. This came out of the mouth of a black man.
"NIGGER FARMING" better describes the welfare state, where democrats fertilize with shit and harvest votes.
Prison is more like a zoo.
"Anon.what exactly is "mainstream culture"? Could you explain that to me?"
C'mon, Field, you know..... white. Anon just wants to use codewords and dogwhistle racism to make his/her point.
I'm not sure that my post was uploaded.
Anon 4:28 I was there for the conversation, and as a postscript both young ladies are not working for the University any longer.
I just want to post up the census figures for Syracuse. Notice the number of black owned businesses.
Also, when I was looking for employment outside of the University, there are no black VPs in the offices upstate, there are no black partners in law firms or anything like that. I know what assimilation is and its not upstate.
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/36/36067.html
"I was once gathering information at a 24 hour SHU (Special Housing Unit) facility and a CO thought it was perfectly OK to tell me what his job was. HE SAID THAT IF IT WAS NOT FOR NIGGER FARMING, HE WOULD BE UNEMPLOYED. This came out of the mouth of a black man."
Just damn!
Duchess Dee, I feel you. But hang in there, and keep doing what you do.
"And I bet exorcist fees, like donations, are tax deductible. "
Well now you have my attention. :)
"The common sphere, "American" culture. The place everybody gets together and builds the future."
Oh, thank you. Although I sure hope what Gregory said isn't true, because I was starting to trust you.
Gregory said...
"Anon.what exactly is "mainstream culture"? Could you explain that to me?"
"C'mon, Field, you know..... white. Anon just wants to use codewords and dogwhistle racism to make his/her point."
Just keep shuckin' and jivin' Gregory. Can you tap dance too? If you want to stay a loser you whole life, that's your choice. do the world a favor and stop trying to drag the rest of the world down to your level.
"Both these views keep blacks seperate from a society that has been open for more than a generation. Forty years of venting might be expected after centuries of oppression, but what now? Other groups come and join the mainstream culture and make it stronger.."
"Mainstream culture"......normally, that means "White American culture". Most groups that merged into that culture have had a far easier time of it thanks to telling similarities between them and the mainstream culture they're merging with. And what are those similarities, pray tell? Well, you won't have too far to look.
It's difficult to find acceptance within the mainstream when the mainstream doesn't want you anywhere near it. It may have been a couple of generations, but when you have centuries of wrongdoing immediately preceeding it and legions of people still quietly holding beliefs from those times (and worse still, people who have their own prejudices that would neatly fit in with those times), it's hard to argue that those mere generations wipe the slate clean.
(By the way, that's a bit of a problem among White folk. It's piss easy for them to declare bygones bygones and they expect you to do it, too. When they forgive, they also FORGET. And they become quite dissappointed when Black folk forgive, but refuse to FORGET.)
As for our dear "friend" CF, he and others like him fight for acceptance within a group that has, time and again, shown that his presence was unwelcome and downright offensive, even. Only when it was advantageous for them to trot one of his kind out for public display (I'm looking at you, Mike Steele) did they willingly take one by the hand and set him down for dinner. Just as long as he did what he was told, didn't get out of his position and didn't start lusting after their women folk, he was A-OK. At least until they didn't have a use for him anymore. Poor Mikey will learn that lesson eventually.
"Don't they realize that they're nothing but a commodity for the Prison Industrial Complex?"
They don't. These are closed minds we're dealing with. Closed off to the fact that there's more to this ol' Earth than the ghetto. Closed off to most anything that may enlighten them or broaden their horizons. In some cases, it's not their fault. The heffer who won't buy her two boys any books so they "won't get too white" is one. The fact that "hood culture" enforces a strict lack of anything that can be perceived as "white" is another.
And the mainstream culture is cool with this. After all, ignorance means control over those souls and those souls are relatively powerless thanks to said ignorance. Of course, some resort to violence as a means of lashing out, but the damage is isolated, limited and self-defeating in some cases. As I've said before, most Black folk are locked within a socio-psychological form of slavery where Knowledge is denied and anyone with potential is railroaded into areas were said potential is allowed to languish until it is no longer a threat to mainstream society.
Yes, ladies and gents, mainstream culture still sees Blacks as a threat to their current existence. "Hood culture", the sheer ignorance it promotes, the Prison Industrial Complex and Black folks' own tendency for self-hatred and sabotage have essentially "quarantined" Blacks until they're either "bred out", killed off by their own hands, or replaced by another "ideal minority" that'll marginalize them into irrelevancy. Just so long as they no longer represent a threat to the White mainstream.
Inspiring words, Mack. Let's all follow you right off that cliff.
"Inspiring words, Mack. Let's all follow you right off that cliff."
You can be the first -- and the last -- to take that plunge. The discussion will go on, sans your presence.
Good day to you, sir.
Yeah FN, that's some depressing shit.
But cultures can be changed, if just one family at a time. And it is the family that's the important thing -- humans don't stand alone, and it's the breakdown of families that leaves all those kids to the gangs.
But once you get a family on the right path, then they'll be keeping their kids on that path, and the kids in turn will keep their own kids on it....
"It is not given unto you to complete the task, but neither may you remove your hand from the plow".
Greetings Fellow Toilers of the Field:
Well I was able to endure about 10 minutes of it. He look like a skinny old drunk on a bar stool. Perhaps it was that stocking cap and sunglasses. The boy, how can I say it, was dumb. I’m talking about that Larry King interview of Snoop Dogg and Son.
If Snoop Dogg is considered a respected source of fatherly advice, may God have mercy on us; for now we are truly sailing on the river Styx. But I have no doubt that those who pull the puppet strings behind Snoop- and his ilk- are not only laughing their way to the bank, but laughing at us as well. Look at those dumb asses calling themselves niggers and their women whores. Ha, those fools are killing each other too! Oh let’s make them spokespersons for the community. It’ll be a hoot!
Throughout our painful struggles, our musical contributions were genius, make no mistake about it. They uplifted, comforted, and brought much joy to our lives. But Rap is different. It’s the first time we created a music form that encouraged and applauded failure. And please, don’t give me that line that it is art. It is vile, misogynistic, anti-social, internalized racist, trash.
It destroyed a phenomenon in the world known as the great black entertainer. Oh yes it did! Gone are the fabulous black singers and great bands. The Marvin Gayes and Teddy Pendergrasses- are no more. There are no triple threats like James Brown & Michael Jackson. Well, Prince is still around. Aretha & Gladys have been shoved aside for no talent, high yellow- rump shakers. It’s all about violence, pants drooping rappers, mediocre singers, and sex.
Now if you think it’s bunk, that our vulgar culture has no negative influence on children, you’ve been punk’d. It is extremely powerful. Mr. Field’s young client is probably a victim of his home environment as well as cultural. Indeed parents are to blame here, but dammit, so are we! It really does take a village.
I must say it! I hate Rap! I hate Hip-Hop! I do! I do! I do!
Mack Lyons, "Yes, ladies and gents, mainstream culture still sees Blacks as a threat to their current existence. "Hood culture", the sheer ignorance it promotes, the Prison Industrial Complex and Black folks' own tendency for self-hatred and sabotage have essentially "quarantined" Blacks until they're either "bred out", killed off by their own hands, or replaced by another "ideal minority" that'll marginalize them into irrelevancy. Just so long as they no longer represent a threat to the White mainstream."
Good insight except you have no solution for the problem except to let it happen. You are the classic House Negro that supports the system that is killing Blacks-that CF talks about. Are you and TSC related?
Well, it's so easy to get caught up in all the "bad" news around us, that we forget to celebrate the young people who are doing the right thing. God Bless this young woman.
http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/video?id=7347358
Shuckin' and jivin', anony? How insightful, but those are also codewords. Do you have a problem with black people?
Gregory, your comment doesn't make sense. Which anon are you talking to?
"Good insight except you have no solution for the problem except to let it happen. You are the classic House Negro that supports the system that is killing Blacks-that CF talks about. Are you and TSC related?"
This marks the first time I've been called a "House Negro". And by some anonymous commenter, to boot. Most of the regulars here already know my feelings on anonymous commenters, so I won't go back into detail.
Meanwhile, you offer nothing in the way of meaningful discussion, only some half-assed comparisons to someone whom I have little knowledge of (TSC) and a man whose life mission seems to be morphing himself into some sort of ersatz Rush Limbaugh/Glenn Beck archetype, only with more pigment.
Solutions? A fundamental shift in the way Black folk currently think. Personally, I think all of the commercial rap music and television that glorifies the "hood culture" should be flushed down the toilet. Until then, all that can be done is to setup and run outreach programs that hopefully show as many young Black folk as possible that Knowledge isn't a "white" thing and that "hood" isn't how they have to live and act. Change your mindset, change your lifestyle.
So there. I'm willing to discuss solutions and actually do something about this. The only thing you can do is fume, bitch and generally act in a cowardly punk-assed fashion, knowing deep down that the only power you have is to input some letters in a keyboard and hope that they amount to something.
This was an interesting video that someone showed at a meeting was at...very inspirational!
http://www.ted.com/talks/david_logan_on_tribal_leadership.html
America has quietly re-invented slavery through it's prison system. African-American prisoners are producing huge quantities of manufactured goods for American capitalists, sometimes for just a few cents an hour, sometimes for no remuneration at all.
Take a look at this clip, it's from the brilliant BBC program Q.I. It's quite staggering what is going on in the American prison service.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8E7wgFcCefE&feature=player_embedded
Gregory said...
"Shuckin' and jivin', anony? How insightful, but those are also codewords. Do you have a problem with black people?"
No, but I have aproblem with idiots. And that's not a code word.
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