We ended 2007 in cruise control, but we can’t say the same for 2008. I couldn’t go on New Year’s blogcation without leaving you with two last mentions of Black women in the media spotlight. The first is Tamron Hall, an MSNBC anchor who was “moderating” a discussion about the “Barack the Magic Negro” song. The Black Snob awarded Tamron Monday, “The Award for Most Patience With A Crazy Person” Women on the Web has a description:
MSNBC’s anchor Tamron Hall weighed in on the controversial song, “Barack the Magic Negro,” saying she wouldn’t find it funny if someone called her “Tamron Hall the Magic Negro Anchor Lady.” The anchor was hosting a segment discussing RNC chairman candidate Chip Saltsman’s Christmas greeting this year that contained a CD with the song “Barack the Magic Negro.” Hall listened to Kate Obenshain, vice president of Young America’s Foundation, defend the song, calling it “a parody.” Then Hall, an African American, interjected, saying there is nothing “funny or amusing” about it. She later told Obenshain, “You’re not going to win a lot of people over calling them ‘Magic Negros.’” wowowow
Cynthia McKinney’s Voyage
Our second “noteable” is Cynthia McKinney. Of all the places I expected Cynthia McKinney to pop up next is on a boat trying to outrun the Israeli Navy.
WHAT in the world? Now I have to give it to her, that’s either dedication or run of the mill crazy, but TRUST Jesse and AL would never be on a boat trying to outrun anything except bad weather.
Y’all rest up, 2009 looks like its goign to be a doozy.
I read on Dallas South Blog last night that Mychal Bell had been arrested for shoplifting, then this morning I read that he had shot himself in the chest. UPDATE: CNN is saying he shot himself in the shoulder.
Mychal Bell was cleaning a gun when it accidentally discharged, shooting him in the shoulder, his attorney, Carol Powell-Lexing, told CNN. He had surgery Monday night at a hospital in Monroe, Louisiana, and has not yet been able to talk, she said. CNN.com
His lawyer is saying it was an accidental shooting WHILE HE WAS CLEANING HIS GUN.
Sandra Rose is calling it a suicide attempt:
A misguided youth who found himself in the national spotlight as a kind of poster boy for teen justice, is in trouble again.
Mychal Bell was the ringleader for the so-called ‘Jena 6′, a gang of black toughs out of Jena, Louisiana who some thought were unjustly incarcerated for beating another boy within an inch of his life.
Police say Bell shot himself in the chest yesterday after getting caught shoplifting on Christmas eve.Doctors who treated bell say the wound is not life-threatening. Bell had surgery last night to remove the bullet.
According to Bell’s lawyer, the shooting was accidental and occurred when the 18-year-old was cleaning his gun. The lawyer didn’t say why a convicted felon was handling a gun Sandra Rose
I am leaning towards cry for help as opposed to suicide attempt because the wound was to the shoulder and not the head. Maybe he did shoot himself while cleaning his gun, but I am trying to figure out why you would point a loaded gun at your chest while cleaning it. But then again Plexico pointed a loaded gun at his leg while clubbing.
Shawn P WIlliams from the Dallas South Blog, soon to be Dallas South Media was lamenting the fact that people will use Bell’s latest string of trouble to somehow detract from the what Shawn and other bloggers did in the Jena 6 case.
This continues a sad story that has followed one of the biggest civil rights actions in recent memory. Money squabbles and run ins with the law give more ammunition to those who questioned the protests -and the vigorous defense of the Jena 6- in the first place. It’s another example of how our follow through on civil rights issues is sorely lacking.
I will repeate what I told him here.
Actually Shawn it is not sad. It is a learning lesson. The people were marching for the 8th amendment not individuals, but it is common in our community to mistake battles over a principle with battles for a personality. This is why plaintiffs were carefully vetted during the civil rights movement before Houston and Marshall and company would take up their case. They never wanted individual failings to get in the way of the overall cause.
The civil rights issue was addressed. Civil Rights isn’t social work. You saved them from an attempted murder charge. You did your duty.
Everybody isn’t ready for the bright glare of national media attention. Few people are, let alone a troubled teen who was already in the “system” before all of this started.
Again, I will repeat, the Constitution applies to good actors, but it most certainly applies to bad actors. Therefore you don’t have to minimize people’s bad acts in order to demand their rights under the Constitution. Where a lot of people went wrong was in trying to turn the Jena 6 into choir boys which they never were. The issue should never have been of their innocence or diminishing the severity of what they did to their classmate, but about the fact that even if they WERE guilty of a bad act, they were still entitled to the protections against cruel and unusual punishment.
Same thing with Genarlow Wilson, he’s no choir boy. He’s a predator, but even predators are entitled to the protections of the Constitution. If you believed Bell’s Constitutional rights were violated, then you were right to march, the fact that he appears to be a habitual offender doesn’t change that. Chalk all this up to a learning lesson. In addition, its almost 2009, y’all got to let 2007 rest. It was a great thing, but keep moving.
“They’re chicks that run their mouths to other parts of the city,” Allen said. “They cause a lot of violence.” Boston Globe
Maria Cramer of the Boston Globe wrote an article called “Girl Power,” that is about how the Boston School District is holding school assemblies where girls are being taught that the spiraling violence in Boston’s streets is THEIR FAULT! Its not the fault of the young men who are engaging in all of the bloodshed, but the girls. Police can’t stop it. The city can’t stop it. The adults in the school district can’t figure it out, so the school district, along with a Clergyman ripped a page right out of Genesis and decided to Blame “females” for all that ails the world. So what if they are only 14 and 15.
OMG. I’ve said this about dozen times on this blog that young Black girls are held to a ridiculous high level of responsibility for all that goes wrong in the world. I most recently wrote about this last week in In Search of the Perfect Black Girl Victim: Dymond Milburn.
On numerous occasions both men and women have basically said that if Black girls didn’t do X, Y, Z, then none of these horrible things would have happened. Well in the Boston Public School district they are rolling a program that does exactly THAT. It is basically teaching young Black and Brown girls that they and other girls are responsible for boys engaging in violence. So lets see. If you are sexually assaulted, you were too fast. If you are disrespected, you were wearing the wrong clothes. If you get harassed while walking down the street, you shouldn’t have taken that route, and now, if boys beat the heck out of each other, it is because you were a “set up chick.”
WOW. Just WOW! I would love for there to be a program teaching young men that THEY are responsible for their actions. That they, as human beings, have the power of free will. That while their judgment is impaired until around age 25, there are severe consequences for their actions. But no, as always, its young girls who are forced to carry the weight of the world on their shoulders in addition to teaching them at an extremely young age that OTHER women an girls are untrustworthy conniving “set up chicks”. Um and who do you think came up with THAT phrase?
During school assemblies, the girls are told to realize that fights among themselves, spats with their boyfriends, even idle gossip or a dirty look can spark a chain reaction that leads to bloodshed. The campaign asks young women to acknowledge the part they play in a culture of violence. It is a marked shift from the traditional calls for peace that usually ask young men to put down their guns.
High school boys “won’t listen to their parents or their teachers,” said Michael Hennessey, the assistant chief of the Boston School Police. “It’s the girls who have a shortcut to the way these kids will react, and it’s a very important thing for them to know and a lot of them don’t realize it.”…..
As part of this program in Boston schools, there is a role play:
The play is the most dramatic tool of the campaign. Two young actresses, who are coalition employees, play high school students and best friends named Rochelle and Patricia.
The plot is simple: Rochelle has a violent fight with her boyfriend, an apparent drug dealer who slaps her after she spends his money on clothes[where is the Girl Power?]; Patricia, furious over the abuse, vows to have her man, a rival of Rochelle’s boyfriend, seek vengeance[so its wrong for a man to defend a woman who is getting the crap beaten out of her? or was it wrong for Rocelle to talk to a friend about being abused> is the message to keep your mouth shut if you're getting beaten up?]. In the last scene, Patricia’s boyfriend is calling his friends.
The performance stops there, but the outcome is tragically predictable – someone will be shot. The story is fictional, culled from different tales TenPoint coalition employees have heard from teenagers they see regularly. To many of the 200 teenage girls who saw it recently at the Community Academy of Science and Health in Hyde Park, it was like watching everyday life unfold in their auditorium.
“Females do have a lot of say. . . . A lot of the drama that happens on the street is over a female,” said Samantha Allen, a 17-year-old senior with short brown hair that sloped over her forehead.
Allen said there is a name for girls who, either wittingly or unwittingly, initiate conflicts through their boyfriends, brothers, or male friends. They’re called “set-up chicks,” she said. Boston Globe.com
But the role play involves a battered teenage girl reaching out to a friend because she is getting beaten up and as a result of speaking out about her victimization, SHE’S responsible because someone shoots her abusive boyfriend???? WTH? I am surprised that this reporter didn’t challenge the people who crafted this program. It isn’t surprising that a preacher started a program blaming girls for all that ails the world after all, he likely believes that its Eve’s fault for biting that apple in the Garden of Eden. I think their hearts are in the right place, but this is a cop out. You say what?
If they are going to teach this message, they ought to at least make sure every staffer responsible has read Jody Miller’s Getting Played one of many studies about violence against teenage girls. Blaming the victim is worse than doing nothing at all.
The Washington Post has been a series called Woman’s World: The Struggle for Equality Around the Globe. Its really good and includes video and other interactive tools. Such as this report about the changing role of women in Rwanda following the genocide there:
Here, women are not only driving the economy — working on construction sites, in factories and as truck and taxi drivers — they are also filling the ranks of government.
Women hold a third of all cabinet positions, including foreign minister, education minister, Supreme Court chief and police commissioner general. And Rwanda’s parliament last month became the first in the world where women claim the majority — 56 percent, including the speaker’s chair.
One result is that Rwanda has banished archaic patriarchal laws that are still enforced in many African societies, such as those that prevent women from inheriting land. The legislature has passed bills aimed at ending domestic violence and child abuse, while a committee is now combing through the legal code to purge it of discriminatory laws. Washington Post
While the series does focus a great deal on the developing world, it is comprehensive in that it also covers stories about conditions for women in affluent countries such as discriminaiton against working mothers in Germany:More videos and links below the fold Continue reading →
Eartha Kitt, who rose from the Southern cotton fields to captivate audiences around the world with sultry performances as a singer, dancer and actress, died on Thursday at the age of 81.Kitt died of colon cancer for which she was recently treated at Columbia Presbyterian Hospital in New York, said Andrew Freedman, a long-time friend and publicist.The cancer was detected about two years ago and treated but recurred after a period of remission.”She came back strongly. She had been performing until two months ago,” Freedman told Reuters by telephone from Los Angles. “We had dates booked through 2009.”Slinky, sensuous and cat-like, Kitt described herself as a “sex kitten” and used her seductive purr to charm audiences across the world. Reuters
ABC.com
But the obits also took note of her involvement in political controversy. Most famous, or infamous, was the tongue-lashing she delivered to President Lyndon Johnson’s wife, Lady Bird, at a White House luncheon in 1968. The topic was the then-raging Vietnam War. Kitt, according to some accounts, caused the first lady to cry when she said, “You send the best of the country off to be shot and maimed. No wonder the kids rebel and take pot.”
Kitt paid a steep price for her caustic remarks. She lost bookings and had to rely on her popularity in Europe to find work. Her time in purgatory ended when President Jimmy Carter extended an invitation to the White House in 1978.
Well you know its the holidays when those special family-only ring tones start going off in the middle of the day. I hope you are rocking out to some Johnny Mathis with your family and are reading this the day AFTER Christmas and not on Christmas day.
Well its Christmas Eve and I have just learned that our Christmas Eve Gumbo Fest is supposed to start a few hours earlier than I anticipated. Yes, I failed to read the detailed instructions from this year’s Christmas host.
For those who have been with us for over a year, you know that in my family, the adults pull names and we play “Secret Santa” on Christmas morning. This year it is being called the Christmas Angel because the person in charge doesn’t do the Santa thing anymore. Something about Satan, paganism, consumerism, so on and so forth.
In any case, its an elaborate enterprise trying to guess who pulled your name. The wrapping paper used to give a few of us away (I used to use newspaper and scotch tape- I’m cheap). Every year we set a gift amount limit and one of us supervises the name pulling and wish list distribution. The gifts themselves are inconsequential because we end up buying each other stuff we would have gotten for ourselves anyway, its more of a symbolic thing, but the tradition is fun. Here is a portion of my list verbatim:
1. Battery Charger w/spare battery for a Palm Treo 800w 4. Snow Globes [I collect them] 6.Some writeable DVD’s 8. body creme from bath and body works/ victorias secret. I like the Jasmine Cherry Blossum, but surprise me – 10. Ikea Fado table lamp (14.99) Knnubbig table lamp in white -11. A REAL food processor, not the chopper with a single blade, but shredding slicing etc. -12. Black gloves ( I like fleece)
We’re big on holiday traditions. We eat gumbo on Christmas Eve. Let me correct that. IF my Mama cooks it, we eat gumbo. If one of my sisters cooks it… well its a crap shoot. I am just glad they gave up trying to make their roux from scratch and started buying their roux in a jar. Oops the secrets out.
I think they finally gave up trying to make their own roux when one of them set the oven on fire because she wanted to brown the flour without using oil. Did y’all know flour is extremely combustible? Well after they went through their oven-browned roux phase, they finally got hip to the jar. Luckily I learned how to make my own roux before all this store-bought foolishness began. For those of you who have no idea what the heck I am talking about, skip this paragraph and move on. It’s a Texas-Louisiana thing, you wouldn’t understand. Just like Zumos Party Time Sausage.
So what’s in store for moi? Well this year our festivities are hosted by someone who I like to call “Martika Stewart”, like Martha, just more organized. We actually received a schedule weeks ago and dad gummit, she’s gonna make us stick to it! Per our Christmas Newsletter
HOLIDAY EVENTS
Christmas Eve
6 p.m. – Gumbo Fest, Stocking Decorating{This is new- yes we still do Christmas Stockings}, Christmas Taboo and Christmas Idol
Christmas Day
8 a.m. – Secret Santa Gift Exchange
2 p.m. – Christmas Dinner
6 p.m. – Ice Skating or Bowling{What? No after Christmas trip to the movies this year?BOO!}
She then goes on with a laundry list of instructions about the gift exchange and a bunch of other stuff I completely forgot about so now I have to run out to Wal-mart to get some stocking stuffers I forgot about. OOPs! I would re-post the entire thing, but I will share this final note from our Christmas host.
If you have any dietary restrictions, please let forward to the Christmas Angel as soon as possible. I will do my best to accommodate. {Oops I gave up refined sugar and flour two weeks ago. I guess I’ll just starve -Y’all pray for me}
Wrapping supplies will be provided.
Moaning and groaning about the Christmas Activities WILL NOT be tolerated. This behavior will result in 1 demerit as a warning and a lump of coal in your stocking if the whining persists.{Well maybe she won’t read this blog before Christmas }
Y’all have a Merry Christmas. Enjoy your family and friends. I know I will.
I went into this over at Michelle Obama Watch, but I thought I would drop a line over here as well. Don’t you just “love” liberal “progressives”? They’re bringing 1850 back! Yes folks, the Huffington Post has an obsession with referring to Sasha Obama as “sassy.” They are a repeat offender despite the fact that their readership has pointed out repeatedly that referring to a child as “sassy” is pejorative, they keep referring to Sasha as “sassy.”
Is the only way they can view a confident, ourgoing little girl is through the lense of “sassiness?” Why not call her “Lil Sapphire” and get it over with. You can read the rest over at MOW. I thought we shut down chicanery and foolishness last Friday, but folks are determined to keep me blogging right up through Christmas Eve.
We’ve covered the phenomenon in the Black community that prevents many Black folks from believing that it is possible for a young African American pre-teen or teenage girl from being a victim of statutory rape , sexual assault, or any other crime. As WAOD reader Black Achievement once said “We love our sons, and raise our daughters… WITH CONTEMPT”
Remember the 11 year old gang raped by 21 men and boys? Folks said she should have known better or that an 11 year old knew what she was doing with men as old as 40-years old.
“Five years? Ten years? That’s ridiculous,” said LaToya Bell, 22, sitting on a porch with four others who nodded in agreement. “They (are) getting time for nothing. That girl, she knew what she was doing.”LaToya Bell, 22 speaking about the gang rape of an 11-year old by up to 20 men and boys.
We all know what happened to the 17 year old girl ( THE ONE NO ONE WANTS TO MENTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) in the Genarlow Wilson case:
No matter how much (two glasses of Cognac) the 17-year-old may have had to drink, no matter how much she may have flirted with those boys, she did not consent to having sex with all of them, one right after the other. Yet it never occurred to the “smart” and “spiritual” Genarlow to say, “Stop it. We should not be doing this.” No. Genarlow watched, waited and gladly took his turn. When they were through raping her, Genarlow helped his friends drag the comatose victim to the bathroom. They opened the door, pushed her in, watched as she fell to the floor and closed the door. I guess she wasn’t much fun anymore. SOURCE
She couldn’t be a victim because she should not have gone to that room with those boys. She should not have consumed any booze so therefore she can’t claim victim status when GENARLOW WILSON and his five buddies brutalize her body while she is unconscious. She ends up in the dust bin of history and he gets an award from the NAACP and gets to go on the Tyra Show.
Remember that huge FIRESTORM of public outrages once it was revealed that NBA “star” Karl Malone impregnated a 13-year old Black girl when he was a sophomore in college? NO? You don’t remember the loud chorus of outrage ( other than on this blog). I don’t remember any either.
Oh yes, and the teen girl in the R. Kelly case who was too fast et. etc. etc.
I think that only God knows what happen.And what does it matter what happened anyway.Its not like R.Kelly forced the girl to have sex and I am so sick of people giving young woman the freedom to do what they want and blame the man for their inpurities. That girl knew exactly what she was doing!Furthermore, not only Kelly should’ve been on trial, but her aunt and mother should be too. Why is a girl that young at R. Kellys home in the first place???It’s neglegence on the parents part as well.So don’t blame Kelly for taking a
Any case involving a young African American girl first requires a throughout examination to determine whether or not she was at fault before we can bestow “victim” status. She can be as young as 12 or 11 yet still held responsible for the actions of fully grown people.
Young Black boys however can act a dadgum fool and “the community” will mobilize. They can be notorious gang members, crack dealers, rapists, idiot millionaire athletes who run dog fighting operations in their back yard, stupid rap artist felons who purchase machine guns. Doesn’t matter, they’re getting a march and a NAACP press conference. Typically this is because these young Black girls are victimized by members of the Black community and the boys the community rallies around tend to be victims of “DA MAN.”
SO what happens when a young Black girl, is allegedly victimized by “DA MAN”? Well the same thing that always happens, she has to prove her worthiness to be considered a “victim”, if she doesn’t pass the test, OH Well!
Last week we posted the filing of a lawsuit which alleges that a 12 year old African American girl in Galveston, TX, Dymond Milburn, was outside her own home, in her own yard, when, ACCORDING TO THE COMPLAINT, three white officers in plain clothes jumped from a van and attempted to drag her away. The city’s response is that it was perfectly APPROPRIATE for them to enter her parent’s property and gang tackle her because she “was wearing tight shorts.”
We don’t know what happened that night, these are all allegations, but seeing as how this 12 year old was charged with assaulting three grown men, we know that the officers are at least conceding this- a 12-year old was in a physical fight with three grown men, in her own yard at night. SO why then is this child being put through the perfect Black victim analysis? SHE WAS IN HER OWN YARD!!
Why are people looking up her MySpace page pointing out she’s saying she’s 17 years-old? IRRELEVANT! They still got into a fight at night with a 12 year -old in her own yard. They still said their actions were appropriate because she was wearing tight shorts… while in HER OWN YARD!.
So I don’t care what SHE DID on MySpace, something ain’t right down in Galveston, TX if tight shorts is cause to attempt to arrest Black girls.
Just a few weeks ago, the readers of this blog had to raise HEY_ELL to get the Durham Police Department to bother to look for a 12-year-old Black girl who was 8-month’s pregnant. 24 Hours after folks started contacting City Hall MIRACULOUSLY a police cruiser picked her up, not hiding in an abandoned building, but walking out in the open on a city street. She didn’t get amber alerts of press conferences, or even a blurb on the local news. She was missing for a week and they weren’t bothering to look for her because she was a run-away. In other words, if she and her unborn child were in danger, it was her own fault.
This is just part of a sickening pattern where we automatically foist responsibility for controlling the WORLD on the shoulders of Black girls.
If she’s attacked, then why was she in the wrong place at the wrong time? If’ she’s violated, then why was she acting so fast? If she has a legitimate grievance, then the grievance gets marginalized because she didn’t engage in subsequent acts consistent with that of a puritan. I don’t care what they look like or what choices have been foisted upon them, THEY’RE CHILDREN!!
The Dymond Milburn case seems to have touched a nerve with all of you. WAOD reader and one of my most loyal tipsters, Lorraine has some additional information on the case.
Just a few more links on the Dymond Milburn case. Outrageous! Lorraine
Don’t look for the NAACP to come running. Miss Milburn’s attorney is the same Anthony Giffin who took the ACLU KKK civil rights case. The NAACP ousted him.
FYI according to the Agitator, her criminal RE-trial is scheduled for February. Click here to read the actual complaint in the Federal lawsuit. This one is goign to be a doozy.
Not the least bit surprised. So a 12 year old girl, in her own yard who goes outside to flip the breaker box after the lights go out at some gets tackled by three White PLAIN CLOTHES officers, gagged and punched in the fact screams “DADDY!” and Daddy comes running. Turns out the three would be kidnappers were Galveston police officers who thought the girl was a prostitute because she was “wearing tight shorts.” They were looking for WHITE prostitutes who were supposed to be hanging around in an area TWO BLOCKS AWAY!
Dymond Milburn, from Galveston, Texas, was grabbed by three plain-clothed police officers out the front of her house and told, “You’re a prostitute. You’re coming with me”, according to the lawsuit.After struggling with the men and screaming, “Daddy, Daddy, Daddy”, the girl had her mouth covered and was struck in the face and throat, leaving her with black eyes and throat and ear drum injuries, her lawyer said.
The officers had been called to the area in relation to three white prostitutes nearby.
Dymond’s house was two blocks from the area the policemen were told to go to, and, as an African American 12-year-old girl, she did not fit the physical description of the suspects.
However, the officers reportedly believed she was a prostitute because of the “tight shorts” she was wearing.Three weeks later, police went to Dymond’s school and arrested her for assaulting a public servant. Her father was also arrested. SOURCE
Here is the officers’ version of the incident from their lawyer. Try not to laugh:
Both the daughter and the father were arrested for assaulting a peace officer. “The father basically attacked police officers as they were trying to take the daughter into custody after she ran off.”
Also, “The city has investigated the matter and found that the conduct of the police officers was appropriate under the circumstances,” Helfand says. “It’s unfortunate that sometimes police officers have to use force against people who are using force against them. And the evidence will show that both these folks violated the law and forcefully resisted arrest.”Houston Press
Lets take a gander at the “Resisting Arrest” portion of the Texas Penal Code shall we?
§ 38.03. RESISTING ARREST, SEARCH, OR TRANSPORTATION.
(a) A person commits an offense if he intentionally prevents or
obstructs a person he knows is a peace officer or a person acting in
a peace officer's presence and at his direction from effecting an
arrest, search, or transportation of the actor or another by using
force against the peace officer or another.
(b) It is no defense to prosecution under this section that
the arrest or search was unlawful.
(c) Except as provided in Subsection (d), an offense under
this section is a Class A misdemeanor.
(d) An offense under this section is a felony of the third
degree if the actor uses a deadly weapon to resist the arrest or
search. Texas Penal Code
In another lifetime, I had a client who got hammered with evading, even though he didn’t know a peace officer was looking for him.
We don’t know what happened that night. These facts are the ones laid out in the lawsuit. However, the city’s response that “they thought she was a prostitute because she was wearing tight shorts” is laughable.
So let this be a lesson to you, please don’t let your daughters wear anything that might appear too tight in Galveston, TX, they might find themselves dragged into a van by Galveston PD. Hat Tip to WAOD reader Sharon, who sent this in.
-Y’all pray for me}
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