Sean Bell
April 25, 2008
Like many of you, I am outraged that the three detectives were acquitted of killing Sean Bell. Sean was 23 the night he was set to be married the next day and though he was unarmed, the cops thought him dangerous enough to deserve being killed. And Sean wasn’t just killed, he was shot 50 times. It is crap like this that make me upset as to why Black people fear and distrust the police.
I know there will be rallies held in New York to protest this miscarriage of justice and if you are in the area, you should go. After the marches though, Bell’s story like Amadou Diallo and others will be filed in the Black consciousness as the continuing saga of injustice that has plagued Black folk since we were kidnapped from Africa. Surely this is worth Black folk being bitter right?
Bell was killed at a strip club and the undercover detectives were there to investigate if there was prostitution going on. Prostitution is wrong I get it. But quite frankly, how in the world do you investigate prostitution? I mean you tell me that these detectives couldn’t have set up a camera and watch the footage from the precinct? Aren’t there enough unsolved murders in the hood that could be a better use of these detectives’s time? And while I don’t have a J.D., how is it these detectives were not brought before a jury?
I try to imagine the hell I would raise if one of my people suffered a death like Sean Bell. The fact is that while I never knew Sean, he is my brother and your brother too. Our prayers go out to Bell’s family and friends as they and we try to sort out this injustice.
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
The Future of the Civil Rights Movement
April 9, 2008
Our good friend and true SuperSpade Jill Tubman from Jack and Jill Politics put up this awesome piece about the future of the Civil Rights Movement and how technology figures into the equation. I have posted the piece in its entirety and it is a must read.
Monday, April 07, 2008
Civil Rights Groups Wither - New Ones Taking Their Place
This Washington Post story Civil Rights Groups Seeing Gradual End of Their Era ends with this sentence though I’d like to start my response with it. It quotes E. Ethelbert Miller:
“What would happen if W.E.B. Du Bois or Marcus Garvey had a laptop?” Du Bois helped found the NAACP in 1909, and Garvey, a rival, started a back-to-Africa movement around the same time.
We are the answer to that question. In the vacuum of black leadership 40 years after Martin Luther King’s death, it’s his spiritual grandchildren that are carrying his mission forward now and not the civil rights groups he might have recognized. From the WaPo piece (emphasis mine):
In New York, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), which helped shape the movement’s philosophy after adopting Mohandas K. Gandhi’s doctrine of nonviolent protest, is scarcely known outside Manhattan. CORE conceded that it now has about 10 percent of the 150,000 members it listed in the 1960s.
What Obama’s win really means
January 5, 2008
Now let’s assume Obama wins the nomination and shoot, goes on to be the next President. What do you think would happen to the civil rights–donor–industrial complex? I am not sure but I think along the way, it will be increasingly difficult for Black “leaders” that came out early for other candidates to 1) go negative against Obama like Andrew Young, who claimed that Bill is blacker than Obama and 2) making the transition to supporting Obama if and when he wins the nomination. My hope is that Obama’s candidacy will bring young folks out the shadows and fill in leadership vacuums by doing real work. Read more
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and firefighters
December 19, 2007
Michigan’s native son Mitt Romney falsely claimed that he watched his father, former
Not that I am surprised but when I think about the currency that King holds in the American psyche, I am trying to figure out if we need a new claim to truly honoring the civil rights movement…like working on civil rights!!! Lest Romney stand alone, I am specifically skeptical of people like Andrew Young and Jesse Jackson who can honestly say they have marched with MLK and have reaped (and sold unfortunately) an inordinate amount moral authority as a result. Read more
How the myth of individualism is destroying the Black community
November 14, 2007
Cross-posted at the Brave New Films Blog.
A majority of black Americans blame individual failings — not racial prejudice — for the lack of economic progress by lower-income African Americans, according to a survey released Tuesday — a significant change in attitudes from the early 1990s.
This sentence lead off an LA Times piece on class division in the Black community today. These results are not unique to Black people in this country, but they represent a dangerous trend of ignorance, selfishness, and a lack of empathy that does not paint a bright picture of the future. According to this, the "it takes a village…" proverb must be nearing obselescence.
Obama challenges the new AG on the Jena 6
October 19, 2007
Cross-posted from the Brave New Films Blog.
Courtesy of Too Sense.
Barack Obama is saving face since he didn't show up in Jena. He wrote this letter to AG nominee Michale Mukaskey. Here's an excerpt:
In recent months, our nation's attention has been focused on the racial strife in Jena, Louisiana, and the disparate treatment of six African American youths. As Attorney General, will you commit the investigative resources of the Civil Rights Division to ensuring the fair treatment and execution of the law in cases such as the Jena 6, as well as the recent acquittal by an all-white jury of eight prison guards accused of killing a young black male at a juvenile detention center in Florida?
I am happy that Obama is showing some character here. It is called the Department of Justice, so he is calling for Justice to be served to everyone everywhere. I want to see more, concrete Civil Rights-related statements like this from Obama.
One Love. One II.
Free the Jena 6!!!
August 21, 2007
I typically don’t listen to talk radio outside of NPR, but thankfully I came across the Michael Baisden show today and he was focusing on the
Black bloggers have been on top of this from Jack and Jill, Too Sense, Afrospear, and many others. Nevertheless, if you don’t know about the
In a small still mostly segregated section of rural Louisiana, an all-white jury heard a series of white witnesses called by a white prosecutor testify in a courtroom overseen by a white judge in a trial about a fight at the local high school where a white student who had been making racial taunts was hit by Black students.
Martin Luther King Jr. and Vietnam
May 27, 2007
I am sending a huge and shout out to Jack and Jill Politics for featuring a video by Martin Luther King and his opposition to the war in
Stay up fam,
Brandon Q.
Should States Apologize for Slavery?
March 27, 2007
TIME Magazine asks this question. What do you think?
The Movement for Our Times
March 23, 2007
I saw this cartoon in a Christian Science Monitor article and I wanted to know what issue you think our generation should tackle. Have we seen an issue (or set of issues) whose reach is long enough to be a call for our generation? I would hate to have been one of those people who just sat around during the Civil Rights Movement because I was too selfish or otherwise not engaged. But is it possible we are doing that right now?
To be sure, we should take stock to make sure that history will not look back on us and have our silence be recorded in the face of mass injustice. What is your vision and barriers do you think exist to communicating this vision?
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