For the past three months, this blog has been following the horrific crime at Dunbar Village in West Palm Beach, FL. We’ve recited the horrific facts, the apathetic reaction from neighbors, the incompetence of the West Palm Beach city commissioners, the shady dealings of the Executive Director of the WPD Housing Authority, the narcissism of Mayor Lois Franklin, and the Immoral Indifference of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, the National Organization of Women, the SCLC, the NAACP(at least they called us back), NAN, and Rainbow Push. Even the Governor of Florida, Charlie Crist REFUSES to issue a public statement. All we have ever asked for was a PUBLIC Acknowledgment of this crime by these folks. A high school intern could have typed one up. THEY ALL KNOW ABOUT DUNBAR VILLAGE but are silent.
We had to put the smack down on XXLmag.com when one of their “writers’ referred to the Dunbar Village victim as “some hooker down in Florida.” Symphony from Essential Presence has been right there in the thick of things. We’ve gone from bloggers to video producers. Symphony’s video even made the local news in West Palm Beach.
Along the way, we’ve grieved together.We’ve talked about Delso Bush, the police chief of West Palm Beach saying $1000 was more than enough of an award for information about the Dunbar Village crime despite the fact that six gang rapists are running around. We’ve chronicled the hemming and hawing over providing $100,000 for security when the City of West Palm Beach spent $164 Mission on an office building and $40 MILLION on a tourist promenade. West Palm Beach herded a bunch of single Black women into a hell hole and left them there to die. THEY ARE STILL THERE!
We’ve done interview after interview. Essence magazine even did a special report on both Dunbar Village and Megan Williams.
SO tell me why when Moya, working with Fallon, went on the Michael Baisden show on Tuesday and talked about Dunbar Village. YET AGAIN, folks didn’t know about it? I just can’t comprehend that we know more about atrocities in other countries than we know abotu what is happening in our own backyard and so even though I’ve been blogging about Dunbar Village for THREE MONTHS, I’ll keep blogging away because the world needs to know.
So wear red on Wednesday. Tell two people about Dunbar Village and Megan Williams. Tell them about Angela Dawson, the mother whose home was firebombed because she asked drug dealers to stop dealing in front of her house. She burned alive inside with five of her children. My regulars remember the story of the 11 year old girl who was gang raped by AT LEAST 20 MEN and BOYS while adults in the house stood by and did NOTHING.
When I say Defund the War on Black Women! I mean it.
Fallon and Moya have been working tirelessly on organizing Wednesday’s campaign. Here is more from Fallon’s blog, Document the Silence:
Join us and stand up to violence against women!
Be bold, be brave, be red.Wear red on October 31, 2007. Take a picture or video of yourself and friends wearing red. Send it to: beboldbered@gmail.com. We’ll post it!
Take Your Red to the Streets! Know of a location where violence occurred against a woman of color? Have a public location where you feel women of color are often ignored? Make violence against women of color visible by decorating the space in red. Be sure to send us pictures and or video of your display!
Rally! Gather your friends, family, and community to rally. Check out the Document the Silence website for the litany we’re asking participants to read together on October 31st. Be sure to send us pictures and/or video of the event! You could even gather where you created a display!
If you are a blogger, consider blogging about violence against women on October 31, 2007. If you are a reader, please take about ten minutes today and ball these folks out for not covering these stories of violence against Black women. Iggy the dog has gotten more coverage.
In addition, clown Governor Charlie Crist for sending lame emails and having folks call us while refusing to issue any public statement on this case a la “Help us catchthe remaining six gang rapists.” Or “I know. I care. I’m concerned.”
FLORIDA GOVERNOR Charlie Crist Office of the Governor The Capital Tallahassee, Florida 32399-0001 (850) 222-7920 and (850) 488-7146 Fax: (850) 907-1267 and (850) 487-0801 Web Site: http://www.flgov.com/ Email: Internet Contact Form
Let’s not forget Mayor Lois “I’ve Had My Eye on Dunbar Village Frankel.
Mayor of West Palm Beach Lois Frankel 200 2nd Street West Palm Beach, Florida 33401 Phone: 561.822.1400 lfrankel@wpb.org
Join Us in South Carolina to Confront the Silence on Dunbar Village
If you are interested in taking the campaign to raise awareness about Dunbar Village from the screens to the streets, join the What About Our Daughters? Action Center. Some folks apparently require public shaming to get them to do the right thing. We are more than happy to oblige them.
Read more about our South Carolina road trip in January. Why SC? Because the Black folks in SC will be some of the most powerful Black folks ont he face of the planet next January when they cast their votes in the presidential primary. They may very well decide who the next President will be. They need to know that these candidate KNOW about Dunbar Village, but refuse to speak out.
On Sunday on the way to brunch ( y’all touch and agree that these gingerbread pancakes don’t get me to backsliding.. not to mention that I recently discovered migas) I digress. So anyways I was on my way to brunch on Sunday blowing by all the hip hop radio stations when I had to go back because for about 5 seconds I thought I was listening to Whitney Houston. Not “The Greatest Love of All” Whitney, but maybe “The Preacher’s Wife” version of Whitney. At this point I will take any version of Whitney to get away from all of this horse whining that is assaulting my ears on the airwaves. Vibrato is nice, on occasion, not for the entire song.
Well anyway even a curmudgeon like myself had to bop my head a couple of times to this song and it gave me a serious case of “guy on the brain,” but by the end of the song I recognized the voice as Alicia Keyes singing her single “No One” Notice in the video how she is basically fully clothed. She isn’t talking about some man doing her wrong. Oh this reminds me of the olden days when listening to the radio didn’t sound like Black men and women were at war with each other.
Y’all remember Boyz II Men from back in the day? New Edition ( before we knew Bobby was crazy) Even *cough* Michael Jackson*cough*. Remember pre-crack Whitney, pre-breakdown Mariah, post “Good Times” Janet and Anita Baker? Who are the top African American female acts today? If they can manage to make it into the rotation what are they singing about?
I went on over to Billboard to see which Black women have the top singles out right now. Well if you count Rihanna and her duet with Ne-yo and Alicia Keyes that makes two. Guess who is number 1? Well none other than Mr. 17 year old “Superman Dat Ho’,” Souljah Boy. Click here for ONE definition of the phrase “Superman Dat ho’” Keyshia Cole brings up the rear of the top 20 with her song about leaving a man alone. Rihanna is talking about hating that she loves you. The only one with a song that doesn’t sound like we are at war is Alicia Keyes’. So in the name of love, peace, and hair grease I had to share this one with my readers.
Warning: Before you listen to this song, you should know that it is the type that will run repeatedly in your head over and over again. Don’t say I didn’t tell you. If you close your eyes when it first comes on I swear she sounds like Whitney Houston when she doesn’t feel like singing.
Y’all know our stance has consistently been to point out the fact that folks have completely tossed aside the two girls in the Genarlow Wilson case. We have always maintained that the 8th Amendment argument was a legitimate one, but making that argument didn’t necessitate trying to minimize what happened in that hotel room that night. Let’s not forget that the 17 year old ( I guess she’s 19 or 20) girl has maintained throughout that she was gang raped and the snippet of video played on cable news corroborates that she was A) Drunk or B) completely passed out.
So explain to me WHY Wilson is being portrayed as a conquering hero? Well Essence magazine has an interview with Wilson up on their site. I hope this isn’t the complete interview. The interview is supposed to appear in their January issue.
ESSENCE: I hear the tape from the party is hard to watch. What were you all thinking? WILSON: Yeah, at the time we were just living in the moment. We didn’t know that what we were doing was breaking the law. We were just being teenagers.
Um my how times have changed because back in the olden days we knew that 15 would get you 20. Lots of folks have said the 15 year old “consented”. I remind you that 15 year olds cant consent to getting a spray on tan or their ears pierced, therefore, she could not have consented to having sex with up to six boys while they basically made her into a porn star.
ESSENCE:Share your thoughts on the case and well-wishes for Genarlow below.
Essence, what about thoughts and well wishes for the two girls in the case? What about the 17 year old? Where was the outrage that the girls in the case received death threats or that the 15 year old’s own Mama wouldn’t stand up for her own child against exploitation.
When we were all growing up we did stupid stuff thank goodness we didn’t have YouTube and celebrity sex tapes. Our mistakes are merely memories. Today teenager’s mistakes are memorialized on video for all eternity.
I wish Genarlow Wilson well. I hope he leads a productive life, but let’s not deify him by basically calling him Jesus.
I hope Essence, a women’s magazine asked about the two girls in this case and how this case turned their lives upside down as well.
Why is it that all of our conquering heroes these days appear to be young black men going into or out of jail? Jena 6, T.I., Genarlow Wilson, OJ ( just kidding)? In the words of one of my favorite sites… “Something in the milk ain’t clean.”
I was contacted by Paul Porter from Industry Ears about a month ago about how Atlantic Records tried to get Keke Palmer of the “Akeelah and the Bee” to rerecord Adina Howard’s “Freak Like Me”. I did not post about this at the time because I suggested that Paul offer Keke’s story to one of the major Black entertainment blogs such as Concrete Loop, Sandra Rose, Bossip or Crunk& Disorderly. I specifically told Paul to contact Natasha over at Young Black & Fabulous because I can remember several times when Natasha has said nice things about Keke’s red carpet pics. So I held off writing about it so they could shop it around as a web exclusive to one of the blogs that can get as many hits as I get in an entire day, in one hour. The story has now been posted on so I am assuming they didn’t take my advice so I am free to post about it here. I want you to read this letter Paul sent me from Keke and her mother, Sharon and then y’all know moi will have some candid reflections to offer. I hope Paul forwards this post to Keke.
Here is a letter that was forwarded to me on October 4, 2007.
Oct 4th, 2007
Hello, my name is Keke Palmer, I am 14 years old, and I played Akeelah, in the movie, Akeelah and the Bee. Please read my letter.
My mother and I are writing this letter together, so we will start from the beginning…………….
I signed a record deal with Atlantic Records in March of 2006. From the very beginning their A&R representative tried to get me to record inappropriate music, and my parents and I resisted. We became tired of fighting the negative images that the label kept trying to force on me, and started looking for a management company that could deal with the situation. We settled on DAS Entertainment, a management company out of New York, they also represent John Legend, and we love his positive music. Well, the label fought them too! Kept telling them that Keke is “urban”, and should be singing urban music. My parents got me in touch with Mr. Edmonds( Babyface) and he and I worked really well together and came up with a good commercial R&B song, but when it came time to pay for the song the label said no, he was “too expensive”.
The Senior A&R rep, Mike
Caren, was the main antagonist, he kept on saying , ” Keke is urban”, so as long as we refused to record the raunchy tracks that he sent us, he refused to pay for the good clean music we brought him, at one point even stopped Keke from recording by not paying for studio time. Unfortunately, management was ineffective dealing with the label, they kept on telling them as well, ” we will not promote her unless she records urban music”. This statement confused us, because I am an African American young lady from the south side of Chicago . I grew up listening to Brandy, Aaliyah and TLC, so it was not like I was recording rock music! I was recording good music, with great beats, with good positive lyrics, my music is what all kids want to hear no matter where they live. I was blessed to worked with some of the top producers in the business, some cut their price down so that the label would not have an excuse not to pay for the songs.
The only thing my parents and management could figure out was that the subject matters that I chose to sing about were not as, ” urban ” and they would have preferred. I am only 14 years old, and when I signed my deal I was only 12 years old, what did they think I would be singing about? Anyway, they kept their word and did very little to promote my cd. They refuse to provide us with a marketing report, management kept asking and on Sept 14th we received the report, 4 days before my cd release date of Sept 18th.
Needless to say, it was not a good report, there was absolutely no plans to pay for a national announcement to tell kids that my cd was even being released! They kept their word and did not promote me, because I refused to go ” urban”, and sing words that disrespect me and other young girls. My parents tried to promote the release in Chicago( our hometown), they called the press on their own, and managed to get me on some morning shows, but that was only in Chicago. My debut cd that I worked so hard on sold 1,325 copies, the label supposedly shipped 69,000 copies. I was in a Disney Channel movie called, JUMP IN, that over 8 million household tuned in to watch it’s debut, also the soundtrack to that moviedebut at#5 on Billboard. Iwas the only artist to have 2 songs on that soundtrack. TheAkeelah DVD sold 1.2 million copies and on that DVD I have a music video, so my audience, kids from 8-15 know who I am. I also sung the end title credit to the block-buster movie NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM, which grossed over 270 million, my voice is the first voice you hear coming out of the movie. Fox tried to get Atlantic to go half on a music video for Keke, but Atlantic declined stating, “that song is NOT “Keke’s image” so we will not pay, of course they regretted that after the movie grossed so much! This was way back in February, 2007, this was a forshadowing of events to come!
Yesterday, my mother, Sharon,received a call from an employee of Atlantic Records, a confidential call off the record. The caller told my mother that the president of the label is so disappointed with low sales that she may pull Keke’s cd off the shelf. The caller was so upset by this statement that she wanted my parents to know what was being said behind closed doors. I am so disappointed that the label refused to promote me , and now they are blaming me for poor sales! I thought that Congress was working to make the labels promote positive music, well my music is positive , but the label will not spend a dime to promote it because I refused to sing raunchy lyrics, and I dare to call myself Pop/R&B and not urban / Hip-Hop. I am only a kid, my parents would kill me if I sang stuff like that, would they want their daughters to sing negative music? They knew my age when they signed me, they came to me after seeing Akeelah and the Bee, and begged me to sign, so why did they not think that I could really be like Akeelah a good girl?
In closing, we are asking your advise, should we just let it go, accept the fact that this label will not promote this album. Or should we try to get the message out on our own. I want to try to get the message out because I worked extremely hard on this music and it is good, and the early reviews online are good. I think the kids would like it if they knew that it was out. My parents are so tired of fighting the label. We are not rich and to launch our own promotions may cost a lot of money , so my parents don’t want us to go broke trying to push a cd that the label should be pushing, we go broke to break the album, and the label just becomes richer.
My mother read an article online about you two, so we decided to write you a letter in hopes you could help guide. If nothing else, thank you for reading our letter.
Keke & Sharon Palmer
Keke and Sharon, please read this well-known fable:
A young man on a spiritual journey makes a trek to the top of a mountain. Upon reaching his goal, he heard a rustle at his feet, and looking down, he saw a snake. Before he could move, the snake spoke: “I am about to die,” said the snake. “It is too cold for me up here and I am freezing. There is no food and I am starving. Put me under your shirt and take me down to the valley.” “No,” said the youth. “I am forewarned. I know your kind. You are a rattlesnake. If I pick you up, you will bite, and your bite will kill me.” “Not so,” said the snake. “I will treat you differently. If you do this for me, you will be special. I will not harm you.” The youth resisted awhile, but this was a very persuasive snake with beautiful markings. At last the youth tucked it under his shirt and carried it down to the valley. There he laid it gently on the grass. Suddenly the snake coiled, rattled and leapt, biting him on the leg. “But you promised—” cried the poor youth. “You knew what I was when you picked me up,” said the snake as it slithered away. SOURCE
Keke, have a seat and let moi break some terrible news to ya’. Keke, the record industry is full of VIPERS also known as snakes. Now their poisonous nature should have been evident when they tried to turn you out and have a 13 year old sing “ let me lay it on the line I got a little freakiness inside,” but in case there was any doubt, moi is tellin’ you now. So you have what some folks like to call a Dilemma.
I am sure that part of the reason you are telling your story after the album’s release is so that folks will know it is out there, and hopefully they will go buy it. However, you and I both know that you at most are making $1 for very album you sell. That means the other $10-12 is going to the pit of Vipers in the Entertainment Industrial Complex. So if folks rush out to purchase your CD, Atlantic Record’s reward for trying to “turn you out” at 13 years old would be to have them make a bundle on your album sales.
Well here at What About Our Daughters? our motto is “Stop Funding Foolishness!” ( get the shirt already). This blog does not promote fattening the pockets of attempted musical child pornographers. So I can’t tell my readers “Y’all make sure to go cop Keke’s album to show her our support!”. This isn’t advice, but quite frankly, this album tanking might be the best thing that ever happened to you. You ought to be thanking the Universe for letting you see who you are dealing with NOW as opposed to later.
You have achieved tremendous success without Atlantic Records. If the record tanks then maybe they will release you so that you can be free to start your own record label and get your own distribution . Own your own music. If your previous works have done as well as you say then you KNOW you can do better than 1,300 records.
Keke, you are very lucky because you have been born into the Golden Age of the Internet. You don’t need Atlantic Records to promote your work. You can do it yourself. Thousands of independent artists are doing that same thing right now and they are making money in many cases making more money than a lot of household names. If you want to learn how they do it, you ought to go to the SXSW Music festival. Not a lot of Black artists there, but a TON of artists from around the world who are touring, selling, and promoting independently. They don’t have a lot of money either.
So no, I am not going to help you be successful within the system of slithering simpletons. I want you to own your own music, determine your own destiny, and when you go platinum on I-tunes on your next project, print out a copy of the report, frame it and have it couriered to the head of Atlantic Records and say “THIS is why your industry is DYING!”
I am glad that you are telling this story. Because of your success, you are in a unique position to buffer yourself from recriminations from the record label, however, you are also in unique position to show young African American girls that they can be entrepreneurial and produce and distribute their own work without having to put up with foolishness of becoming an indentured servant to some morally bankrupt record label ( I know that is redundant y’all). I’m about to go take a class on how to work with Sonar/Cake Walk so I can start producing music in response to Levell Crump’s “Ignorance Personified Tour”. You’re 14. I’m 31. If I can learn to do it, I know you can. I am also working on my first screenplay called “Get Those Church Folk Off My Lawn: The Debra Lee Story.”
So Keke hold your head up, have your Mama drive you to the public library and check out a book on how to start your own record label, how to produce your own music, and how to put together your own tour. (Okay, y’all can probably afford Barnes and Noble). Its not as easy as having Atlantic do all of this for you, but if you take off, you do it on your own terms and you get to keep the money. Then when you own your own stuff, I will be more than happy to promote your work.
So I won’t tell folks to run out and buy your album. I will however call the head of Atlantic Records a traitor to her gender and a multimedia-crack dealer. I’d call her the Devil, but another female entertainment executive has exclusive rights to the WAOD “DEVIL” designation.
I look forward to the day that you are a mogulette just like Mary Kate and Ashley. Just don’t become anorexic or a druggie. Maybe Raven is a better example.
In other words. Move on. Success is the absolute best revenge and you be sure to remember WAOD when Forbes has you listed as one of the richest entertainers.
Let that marinate! *goes to sit on the WAOD steps and watch the comments fly by*
I see folks FINALLY got my memo about STOP FUNDING FOOLISHNESS! ( Get the T-shirt already). I have ALWAYS maintained that folks have the right to say whatever foolishness they want to. I just don’t want to pay for it. POWER SPEAKS TO POWER. Money is power.
I was actually going to post on the Sunday evening, but folks are blowing up my mailbox with it so I figured I had better get it up here for y’all.
Politicians in New York are urging the Comptroller to withdraw $84 Million dollars that the state pension fund has invested in Universal Music and it’s parent company Vivendi. OUCH! They are so not playing with folks. SOURCE
You can do the same thing in your state. Almost EVERY if not ALL states have a public pension or retirement plan and by legislative, executive, administrative or action by the board of directors of the plan, they can set a policy to DIVEST from particular countries or companies. In Texas, we recently divested from Sudan.
You don’t have to go to Washington, DC, you can go to your state representative and state senator. Ask them to stop sending BILLIONS of dollars to the Misogyny Industrial Complex. They can ignore folks holding placards, but having the largest institutional investors heading for the hills? That should be a concern.
For too long we’ve focused on individual artists. Boycotted records and songs. It is time to go after the BIG money and that resides with the corporate overlords. That means divesting from the Entertainment Industrial Complex and targeting advertisers of radio, television, and print. You saw what we did with THAT SHOW and XXLmag.com in less than a DAY. It really is not as hard as they want you to believe. We CAN Defund the War on Black Women.
And YES, I noticed it took the N-word to make this happen and the state of New York appears to have been content to purchase Universal stock while it was engaged in the War on Black Women, but this is a potentially powerful object lesson for all of us.
Take time next week to call up your local state representative (their staff actually) and ask them about the likelihood of getting the same type of action in your state.
Again, you can say what you want, I just don’t want to pay for it.
Folks Keep asking why Black women get targeted by this industry in this manner… BECAUSE WE LET THEM. Everybody KNOWS that there are certain groups in this country that you do not mess with under any circumstances. There are certain words you do not use. Poor Halle Berry had to BEG Jay Leno and NBC to edit out her appearance when she made a joke about a picture of a “Jewish cousin” yet DL Hughley was all up on Jay’s couch insulting and demeaning Black women and his publicist is promoting his comments by using his Rutgers attack in advertising for his show.
But Black folks just sit back and let folks sell us down river over and over again and we do absolutely nothing.
We’re going to be busy in 2008. It is time to put out some burning crosses folks are placing on the lawns of Black women. It is time to DEFUND THE WAR ON BLACK WOMEN! If you won’t do it for yourself, do it for your daughters.
SOUTH CAROLINA ROAD TRIP – MLK Weekend 2008
Earlier this week I asked how many of you are REALLY TICKED OFF at all of these “leaders” who have completely ignored Dunbar Village, a crime against humanity right here in the United States of America. Not just Dunbar Village, but how many of you have heard of Angela Dawson?
Come January, the Black folks in South Carolina may very well be the most powerful Black people on planet earth. They will be deciding basically who will be the Democratic Candidate for president. If Obama doesn’t win SC, its basically over. Same for Edwards. Hillary can survive a loss, but if Edwards or Obama manage to win, they can make it a real battle as opposed to a coronation.
Well, on Thursday, January 17, 2008 there is a CBC-sponsored debate scheduled in Myrtle Beach, SC:
The Congressional Black Caucus Institue will host in Myrtle Beach the Democratic Presidential Primary Debate to be held on Thursday, January 17 2008 at The Palace Theatre. Ticketing plans is under review and details will be relased soon. For further information regarding this event please visit the Congressional Black Caucus website for details www.cbcimyrtlebeachdebate.com
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The eyes of the Black political universe will be on Myrtle Beach, SC and I say we ought to try to direct those EYEBALLS to the fact that not a single one of the Democratic candidates for president has said a single WORD about Dunbar Village. ALL of them know about it.
On August 7,2007, we called Senator Obama’s Washington office. I was cut off by the staffer, told the Senator already knew abotu Dunbar Village and would be issuing a statement. I asked “When can we expect one so I can put it on my site?” she said, “Two Hours.” Almost three months later, Obama is still SILENT!
Hillary’s staff at the Senate Office didn’t know about it ( the campaign did), but said that they would ” Make the Senator aware of it.” Three monts later. Clinton is still SILENT even though ESSENCE did a huge special report on Dunbar Village in the same magazine as a huge interview with Hillary Clinton. I gues her staffers only read the pages with her pictures on them.
And who can forget John Edward’s campaign response to hearing about Dunbar Village… they sent us fund raising emails in response to our calls about these poor Black folks down in West Palm Beach, FL.
I’ve created a Google Group to act as the What About Our Daughters? Action Center. If you are interested in going to SC to basically shame these people into speaking out about this horrible crime, come on over and join the group and work on organizing. This Immoral Indifference is absolutely ridiculous and apparently asking nicely won’t work. We’re going to have to print up T-shirts with 3 inch letters that scream “HILLARY CLINTON DOESN’T CARE ABOUT BLACK WOMEN AND CHILDREN”,”OBAMA DOESN’T CARE ABOUT BLACK WOMEN AND CHILDRN!”, and “JOHN EDWARDS DOESN’T CARE ABOUT BLACK WOMEN AND CHILDREN” when all these folks had to do was ger a high school intern to type up a two page statement saying “We know. We Care and We’re Concerned”.
Um no it is not. yes there was the actual crime and the criminal justice system is working its way out despite the fact that only 4 suspects out of ten attackers are in custody and the Chief Delsa Bush, thinks that the $1,000 reward is suffiencient to gain additional information. Folks offer larger rewards for the return of their pets, but the brutal rape and torture of a Black woman… $1,000. The Mayor is hiding out. the Housing Authority still doesn’t know who is living there, the city commissioners are fighting like cats and dogs and balking at paying for additional security, and the residents are still terrified to speak out. Oh yeah, the Governor of Florida has not made a single public statement about Dunbar Village and he’s got six janjaweed running around his state.
The folks unfortunate enough to live in Dunbar Village are not just residents of West Palm Beach, they are citizens of both Florida and the United States of America and they were left to rot and die, cordoned off on one side of town and left without police protection while criminals preyed on them. It isn’t just Dunbar Village, West Palm Beach was home to a series of rapes committed against Black women and girls back to back within a one mile radius. A few weeks after Dunbar Village, a 15 year old Black girl was raped in broad daylight and who can forget Magonia Park, right down the street from Dunbar Village less than a month later where a group of Black teens attacked a 42 year-old Black women OUTSIDE and a 14 year-old allegedly raped her at gunpoint while his friends shouted “Hurry Up! Me next!”
West Palm Beach truly is Dysfunction Junction and folks need to speak about this from the outside because the women who live there are scared to.
“In Germany, they came first for the Communists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist;
And then they came for the trade unionists, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist;And then they came for the Jews, And I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew;And then . . . they came for me . . . And by that time there was no one left to speak up.”Martin Niemöller
IF we don’t speak up for them, who is going to be left to speak up for us?
Well this looks promising. Perhaps he won’t follow the path of the Jena 6 and start wilding out now that he is free:
Wilson offered a word of caution to young people. “A few minutes of fun can be a lifetime,” he said. “There’s not going to be anymore parties for me for a while.” SOURCE
Well said. David Banner did you hear that? He doesn’t sound like he is blaming anybody… yet.
Jesse Jackson, Baby Daddy Delux, is already serving the Koolaid and engaging in hyperbole comparing Genarlow Wilson to Jesus Christ:
“We thank You for his parents, who would not surrender in the face of tyranny,” Jackson said. “Now its morning time, and we feel a sense of joy that it’s morning time. We’ve endured the crucifixion, and now we see the stone is rolling away.” SOURCE
Really Jesse Really? Overkill? Well one poster over at the AJC pointed out the lunacy of this comparison:
A 17 year old gets a 15 year old drunk and high. With a pack of buddies (one of whom has impregnated a 12 year old) he participates in an orgy while being videotaped. This is your Jesus figure?SOURCE
Georgia’s State Supreme Court has ruled that Genarlow Wilson’s 10-year sentence for having consensual oral sex when he was a teenager is “cruel and unusual punishment” and ordered him freed. SOURCE
Chief Justice Leah Ward Sears wrote in the majority opinion that the changes in the law “represent a seismic shift in the legislature’s view of the gravity of oral sex between two willing teenage participants.”
Sears wrote that the severe punishment makes “no measurable contribution to acceptable goals of punishment” and that Wilson’s crime did not rise to the “level of adults who prey on children.” SOURCE
While I agree that the antiquated state law was written in language that shouldn’t include teens having consensual sex, I had little sympathy for Wilson’s case. What his supporters don’t tell you is that Wilson was offered the same plea deal as the other boys at the party who also had consensual sex with the underage teen. His co-defendants took the deal but Wilson refused – preferring to take on the mostly white and very racist Georgia judicial system.
While he languished in jail – for making more than one poor decision – his co-defendants did their little time and were released. The thing to remember is that a law was broken whether it’s a fair law or not. Wilson’s attorney should have explained that the law won’t change overnight and she should have urged him to accept the plea deal. Sometimes people make bad decisions on their own and they have to suffer the consequences.
The following is a message from SheCodes. I read it during our podcast on Obama, Donnie McClurkin, and Ed Ofari Hutchinson:
At the end of the day, all of the maladies in the black community are rooted in damaged belief systems, and the immoral choices that are the natural result of those beliefs. Blacks have caught hell from the immoral choices of the white establishment. Blacks are adding gasoline to our own hell by making immoral choices in response to our situation. It really does not matter how many protests black people make, or how many programs that we implement. No political revolution is going to knit the hearts of black people together, and no book, mantra, club, can re-form the nucleus of the black family.
What Black America needs is a revolution of the heart. A change in the prevailing thinking of blacks. A change in the prevailing thinking of whites.
The real purpose of the Christian church is to assist those who seek that revolution of the heart. The church was never intended to become a social club for the so-called ‘righteous’. It is to provide a clear pathway for those who are on a journey seeking the Truth, and to protect those who are on ALL LEVELS of that journey.
Jesus spent most of His time with social outcasts. Unlike some Christians today, He showed tremendous love to prostitutes, tax collectors, and Samaritans. Jesus said, ‘I did not come for those who are well, but for those who are sick’. The problem is, we all think that we are the healthy ones, and everyone else is sick. The reality is, we are all sick. We believe sick things about ourselves, and each other. We behave in sick ways toward each other.
There is a HUGE difference between the ecumenical Church (otherwise known as the ‘Body of Christ’) and the organized church (who are those who physically meet up and sing praises together on Sunday). The ecumenical church consists of those people who have made a profound decision to embrace the unconditional love of God, and to transform their belief systems and behaviors to mirror the creative, loving power of God. You can belong to one church without belonging to the other.
That being said, there is no organization that gives more to the poor, cares more for the sick, feeds more of the hungry, and clothes more of the naked, than the organized Christian church. The church mans thousands of half-way houses, shelters, and homes and asks for nothing in return. I have never seen one homosexual turned away at a soup kitchen. I was there in the 1990’s when the black church took in thousands of gay men who were suffering and dying from AIDS, when their own physicians refused to touch them. I was there and saw black grandmothers who couldn’t even say the word ‘homosexual’ out loud — pray for and hold dying men in their arms and love them into eating the food they personally prepared for them. I now see these same black, praying grandmothers being demonized and reviled by the same people who they helped to raise.
Love is a TWO WAY STREET.
I apologize to anyone who has been harmed by the organized church. We are all broken vessels, needing to further the grace and mercy of our Creator. SHECODES
Shecodes is the more diplomatic and mature version of moi.
The podcast is now up
Winner of the “Quote of the Night” Award: Johnny
“Attorneymom it is not your job to reprimand them. You are no one’s Holy Ghost”-Johnny from the Black Women’s Roundtable October 25, 2007.
Attorneymom(86:10) and BlackSeaGoat(89:04) ALMOST won, but they were disqualified for interrupting my poignant closing commentary.
If you had to wait on the phone to get in and gave up then I’m sorry, but everyone that hung in there got to speak at the end all mics were live and anyone still on the line could have gotten in.
Great show. I was worried y’all would cut up, but for the most part folks behaved although I had to impose the mute button on Attorneymom and BlackSeaGoat.
Our Topic was Obama, Earl Ofari Hutchinson, and Barack Obama.
“Tip was feeding this man’s family. We don’t do it like that, dog. We don’t talk to them boys. However it went down, we sit down [and do the jail time,] where I’m from. Dude, you don’t tell it. You hope the people you holding down is man enough to hold your people down. [The bodyguard] wasn’t a convicted felon, my dude. He could have held [Tip] down. We gotta start making the environment in our neighborhoods not conducive to snitching. How I’m doing this song, I’mma make it uncomfortable for snitches.” Manchild Levell Crump a.k.a David Banner talking about the arrest of rapper T.I.
Now why is David Banner saying this mess? Well because this one-hit-wonder has been has a new single out called “Free T.I.P.”:
In the song, Banner warns: “You ain’t have to run to the feds, we don’t do it like that. … But I got a remedy for these snitches at the crib, you can never come home, I know where you live.” SOURCE
Now 50 Cent has come about as close as anybody in the Hip Hop Industrial Complex to saying “You are in jail because you did something stupid and you ought to accept the consequences”:
“If he gets 10 years, that ain’t bad,” 50 added, assessing T.I.’s charges and the evidence the feds have claimed to have against him. “If the security person is already telling, it’s obvious that’s their witness. They got tapes, they got all this. … [If it was me,] I would have to tell the people I did it and sit down for a minute. Nobody wants to hear that you have to stay 10 years nowhere. It’s not a good thing, period. It’s unfortunate, but he got himself in that space. … I don’t know the real facts. Maybe he didn’t do it; let’s keep our fingers crossed.” SOURCE
Even rampant misogynist and teen abuser Akon basically puts the fault ultimately on T.I. for getting himself in that situation ( of course he hem haws over him being set up)
“It’s obvious he was set up,” he said. “But sometimes when you’re in a position of that stature and you’re that big … you just don’t allow that energy around you. You have to have people around you to let you know or avoid that energy. Even if he was a [gun] collector, naturally, you get a license to collect. That’s just common sense. … At that stage where he’s at, he don’t need to protect himself. You hire legitimate law enforcement, or you hire people who are licensed to carry [guns]. Surround them around you and you’ll be safe. You get to a certain point where they say, ‘You can take the kid out the ghetto, but you can never take the ghetto out the kid,’ ” Akon continued. “T.I. was experiencing that for a minute.” SOURCE
So the only one spouting absolute total foolishness is the ever opportunistic snap dragon, Manchild Levell Crump aka David Banner.
You know it is a cold day in Hades when I have to cosign 50 Cent. Manchild Crump a.k.a David Banner is a fraud. This is a college educated man who knows exactly what he is doing and that is what makes his behavior so sociopathic. He knows better and he has enough sense to understand the carnage he is promoting and nurturing. He can’t hide behind the whole ” I didn’t have an opportunity” excuse. He is doing this on purpose and this is all calculated.
You see David Banner or Manchild Levell Crump is a a modern day slave auctioneer and he is selling Black America down river so that he can get paid. He isn’t railing against the system, he is part of the system and is marching his own people to their own doom. Well guess what Manchild Crump, when you get through doing “The System’s” dirty work, THE SYSTEM will get rid of you too.
When Black on Black crime is ridiculously out of control. Folks are firebombing and killing entire Black families. People’s homes are being ransacked and set ablaze. Folks are refusing to help the police hunt down murderers and rapists, this ig’nant money grubbing traitor is trying to promote his next album by saying we need to continue to foster a culture where African Americans refuse to cooperate with police to solve crimes committed against other Black people. This isn’t ignorance personified, this is evil personified.
Let’s speak plainy shall we.. David Banner wants to promote firebombing your house with your children in it so they can burn to death in their bedrooms. David Banner wants to destroy us, our children, our communities, our legacies so that he can purchase more overly-tight-ill-fitting-suits to wear when he goes back in front of Congress to tell us about his pain and depression. So don’t tell me any foolishness about poverty, society and THE SYSTEM. This man has been given every privilege, and he is using that privilege to destroy us all.
Manchild Crump’s parents must be so very very proud. His university should demand that he return his diploma. I wonder what Michael Eric Dyson, Hip Hop’s Prognostitute-in-Chief has to say about this?
Jesus.Just. Just. Just. TAKETHEWHEEL!
What say you? ( This commentor at Bossip had an interesting way to deal with David Banner/ Manchild Crump)
I have a news feed that picks up posts and articles on Dunbar Village. About two days ago, one of my feeds led me to a breathtaking discussion on a blog called Ruminations of a Racial Realist. Many of the comments were amazing articulations of many of the concerns I have about the African American community’s response OR LACK OF RESPONSE to the Dunbar Village horror. If we don’t speak out on this, who will be left to speak out once they come for us? I’ve already posted on the Eight Stages of Genocide and the Five Stages of Grief related to Dunbar Village, but when I was reading this comment I thought A) She’s been reading my blog and B) this is really good! This comment is from Kadijah on the post “Why We Must Resist Assimilation” over at Ruminations of A Racial Realist ( I got permission to repost it):
the entire Black community has “foibles” [abw is being generous and polite by using this word] that need to be called out and addressed class by class.
The only difference [and it is a critical one in terms of setting priorities for the “call-out”] is that in general, the Black middle class is not running around beating, carjacking, raping, and killing people. We are also not generating the people among us that are engaged in these activities. This is why I keep bringing up underclass violent crime in these discussions. Our lives are in danger!!! And right now, it’s not the Klan that is the greatest immediate threat to your life and that of your family.
Lately, I’ve been thinking about what steps I can take to increase my own and my loved ones’ safety. I hope as many of us as possible will pull the rose petals off our glasses and start taking steps to protect ourselves from some of our brethren.
Change Agent was also being generous in referring to what’s going on as “jungle culture.” It’s gone way beyond that: We are 1.5 steps away from Rwanda. It’s getting closer; I can feel it. Can you? Our lives are in grave danger.
This is what I’ve been contemplating lately: Not only has the nature of poverty changed over the years, but the nature of crime among us has also changed. We desperately need to change our priorities to meet this new threat. This means that we have to change our discourse away from our knee-jerk excuse-making if we want to save our lives. I submit to you that our focus on external circumstances will be the death of us if we don’t change course. And soon…Rwanda is right around the corner. Let me explain why I’m saying this:
Black people have always been poor, but before now we always had dignity. No matter how poor we were, we still lived our lives with self-respect.
For example my parents, etc. grew up in tenements—nobody urinated in the hallways as has become a common practice in the housing projects that were built to replace these tenements. Whenever I hear people talking about our external enemies, my mind often drifts back to the question: How does fill-in-the-blank-external issue explain people urinating on the floors of their own hallways? Something other than poverty has people pissing in their own hallways. We need to rethink our analysis of this situation.
The nature of the crimes we commit has changed also. We’ve learned how to commit crimes against humanity. Even worse, we’ve also developed a critical mass of Black people that are comfortable and accepting of these crimes [as long as they aren’t committed against them]. This is extremely dangerous. This gets back to the clients’ bragging and cell phone videos that I mentioned above. I wasn’t all that shocked at the clients; I was shocked that there’s an accepting audience of Blacks that enjoys watching this stuff.
This mindset is more common than most of us realize. And it’s not just limited to the Black underclass. The same excuse that I heard from the clients who molested their girlfriends’ daughters [”she was already having sex”] is the same justification that I’ve heard from middle-class Blacks regarding the R. Kelly child molestation case. [”You can tell from the video that this girl is experienced.” As if this makes it okay.]I’ve gotten into arguments with other middle-class Black women about this. I’ve even heard that people have set this video to music. Just imagine—there are Black people out there shaking their rumps to the backdrop of an underage Black girl being molested.
This attitude is what genocide is made of.
I’m only mentioning class here to emphasize that this depraved mindset is not limited to the underclass. The violent underclass acts this stuff out, and many of the rest of us condone it by making excuses.
[On that note, why is Dr. William H. Cosby still being received in respectable circles? Yes, I believe in the presumption of innocence etc. However, anybody with his type of scandal shouldn’t be invited to speak to anybody about anything. This is another example of moral squalor and devaluing women. As I suggested above, it would be equally appropriate to have R. Kelly talk to our young people. But, I digress from my main point…]
Brace yourself for the rest of this; it’s beyond sickening. Why do I say we’re 1.5 steps from Rwanda? One case and our lack of response to it: the Dunbar Village gang rape case. Broad outline of this incident: Dunbar Village is a housing project in West Palm Beach Florida. A few months back (I think in June), 10 Black teenage males invaded an apartment that a Haitian woman and her 12 year old son lived in. These individuals spent approximately 3 hours gang-raping the woman and beating her son. As their finale, they forced this woman at gunpoint to perform oral sex on her own son. They then poured cleaning fluids over the two and into the boy’s eyes (temporarily blinding him). Apparently, they intended to set the two on fire, but couldn’t find a lighter.
Despite screams echoing through paper-thin walls, not a single neighbor lifted a finger to dial 911 during this marathon atrocity. And, if the quotes from the local papers are accurate, the neighbors are still rather blase about all of this. The mother and son had to walk themselves to the nearest hospital after the attack.
This attitude is what genocide is made of. These are the sorts of crimes I previously only read about happening in death camps. Your life is in grave danger.
In addition, none of our national leaders or organizations have responded to this situation. Just Google this story and the blogs covering it. You’ll be amazed. I think part of our lack of response stems from the fact that this atrocity doesn’t fit into our habitual paradigm of “Let’s rally around the young Black men who are under attack from the slavemaster.”
We need to change this paradigm to accomodate taking steps to protect ourselves from some of our brethren. Another part of our lack of response stems from the fact that Black women’s lives are considered to have no value at this point. We’ve had about 25 years of hip-hop marketing the hatred & denigration of Black women. Marketing matters, and plays a part in influencing people. If it didn’t, companies wouldn’t spend huge sums of money on advertising.
When I hear Michael Eric Dyson spin his fast-talk excuses, I wonder what would happen to him if he was tossed into prison among the very people he ardently defends: he would probably be raped.SOURCE
Y’all should head over and read the entire discussion, the comments over there are really good. This is why I love blogs!
