What About Our Daughters

Hi Gina,

I would love to donate to get that reporter...

Thanks for the updates, Gina. I emailed Susan Wendel at the Palm Beach Post right around the original start date for the trial (I think it was May 6). Laura B., the original prosecutor left the State Attorney's office because she is jockeying for a judgeship in Florida.

Do you think that may be a reason that the trial has been delayed?

I also had no idea POindexter copped a plea. I know Taylor's agreement was vacated. I'm supposed to be at an event during the week of August 18th. However, should that change, I would be interested in going down to WPB. I'm not a journalist though...

In all and total honesty...I'd be down to donate too.

I'm not trying to be weird, but how does hiring a journalist help the victims?

If we're trying to raise awareness among ourselves that's one thing, but that's not the same as helping that particular family/community.

I mean, if we are going to raise money anyway, might it be better spent on something that specifically aids them?

@anna, I realize you may be new to this story, but there is a victim's assistance fund and many readers have contributed to that fund. You can go to any Wachovia and ask to donate to the Dunbar Village Victims Assistance Fund.

It is a separate issue regarding whether the story will be told.

Some of have theability to contribute to both.

I will have to check to se if that fund still is operational. Its been almost 2 years

Wow.

@ gem -- I know there are victims funds, but when you said "help", I wasn't sure what you meant: helping the victims, or helping to spread the word about the trial.

I think of mobilizing a group of people like getting a big gun that only shoots once: money, attention and interest are potent, but finite resources.

I read the earlier posts you made on the subject, and what struck me (and why I kept reading) was your continued emphasis on how so-called Black leadership fails to advocate for Black women and girls. And in other posts (Essence) about how mainstream media fails them too. And how we need new leadership and (maybe) our own media infrastructure.

I know the big picture is made of little pictures, so I'm not saying that it's unimportant to have a journalist there: journalists will already be there. It's one of the more sordid crimes in recent Fl. history.

What I'm saying is I don't know what the target is: the trial isn't being suppressed and its outcome can not be altered by any outside effort. This issue has hit the blogs -- we're reading about it here.

Words/vision definitely have the ability to raise resources (especially yours, that's why I keep reading!) but these resources are finite. And raising the issue among -ourselves- doesn't necessarily help those people who sparked our concern. We may or may not be advancing our own agendas either. Could our actions leverage those resources to replace leadership, build a media infrastructure, or develop strategies on how to do so? Can they more directly help this family?

I mean, are we using a big gun on a small target? I wonder sometimes (not about this blog, but in general) if lately, we're so used to not being in a position to make a big impact, that we overlook these opportunities when they come up.

whoops: anna = anna(tertiary#anna). Different computer, my apologies.

Okay anna, I've offered two concrete steps people can take. They aren't the only ones. For example readers like BlkSeaGoat organized his very own public demonstration with no assistance from me.

Propose your concrete step. Like everyone else.

The thing about a hiring a freelance journalist is, you can bet this won't be on Court TV, or reported too much in the main stream press...and there is a need to know what's what.

It is a separate issue regarding whether the story will be told.

Exactly

I would like to donate to the Freelance Journalist. I don't have a lot to donate but am willing to do what I can.

I will donate also.

I'm sorry for the late post, but as an example, one of the things you have mentioned here was that Essence is really damaging for Black women/girls, so then a concrete step would be to address the most prominent bloggers and writers to see if a new magazine could be formed.

Another thing mentioned (this isn't my idea, but I'm repeating it, I believe the blogger was Miriam?) is that there are a lot of really amazing bloggers out there, but there's not a centralized source of information where people could go to read all of this work. So an idea would be to have a codex, of the bloggers and their most important posts. Or maybe they could be asked to address a particular issue. And this could be assembled online (like on a wiki.) Then there would be a collection of great thoughts and minds in one place.

Also, when I reread my posts, I think I gave off the wrong tone: I'm in no way trying to denigrate anything that you are doing. I think this blog and your work is amazing. I'm not saying you have to do more, just that you're capable of more than you realize.

I'm saying that you have a broad base, and there's a lot of power in that. And not only do you have a thriving readership, you have direct access to an entire squadron of other bloggers. These people are some of the most motivated, influential and prominent voices out there AND you can command their attention. So you have access to a force and a force multiplier. Few people have that access, and I hope it's not a bad thing to point out how valuable access is when trying to amass power. And I really hope that it’s not bad to point out how strong group power can be, when aimed at a precise target.

You have already identified targets, just through this blog. Things like: why don't we have the Ebony alert instead of the Amber alert? Why is Essence now just Messence? Why is the loudest voice in Black leadership so opposed to the concerns of Black women?

These are amazing questions that you raised in your blog. But unlike most people, you have, through your influence and access, the ability to drive home the point. You've identified big targets...and you've got the big gun. I’m not trying to be disrespectful by pointing that out – it’s just the truth that you have this ability, regardless of how or if you choose to use it.

I actually already do work in my own community, and so leveraging individual and group power is often on my mind. But I don't have a lot of access and resources, so my overall influence is small, and I've adjusted my goals to accommodate my power. I did put up a warrior women's post after your suggestion (I even started a blog to do it) and I can still hear crickets. I'd love to kill dragons, but I'm only at dragonflies right now.

I'm not trying to tell you that you're not doing enough, which is what I think I sounded like earlier, and for that, I apologize. Rather, sometimes it's easy to hang on to the small goals, when we really could hit the big ones. My point about the Dunbar case was that using the access of BWB to get a reporter down there didn’t seem to align with the concerns you had for either Dunbar village, or Black women and girls in general. There’s no way these boys aren’t going to jail, and it’s already been pointed out how Black leadership failed them. And unless the reporter will use the trial to incite people to donate more to the victims, the only true beneficiaries are your readers. But these people already know the story, so what do they ultimately gain? If you have the opportunity to address this powerful group of writers, why not set them to a powerful task?

I’m not saying you shouldn’t have done it if it’s what you really want (I don’t have the right to say that to anyone). But it’s not easy to mobilize people twice, or even to sustain their interest. And so by setting the people at BWB or the readers to a small task, there’s a chance the big tasks you've identified won’t get done. My reason for even mentioning it was because I think we sometimes don’t realize how powerful we are. Your ability to mobilize people is huge. And the people you can mobilize are powerful. It just seemed like you’ve got the cat chasing dying mice, and I wondered if you knew that you don’t even have a housecat -- you’ve got a lion. You personally. So even if I gave a list of ideas, it'd be so much wasted bandwidth, because I don't have a following. You do.

I definitely appreciate your work and efforts, and have a lot of respect for what you do and want to do. I think that wasn’t apparent before, and I wholeheartedly apologize. I also think that I have exhausted your patience on this issue, so these will be my final words on this general topic.

Again, thanks.

And once again, my response to you is this... there is NOTHING stopping you from being your own lion, but we all would prefer to have someone else do the heavy lifting.

I actually disagree with you completely about the Dunbar Village case. There will not be a ton of media present. There will be local media yes, but we don't live in West Palm Beach. Readers have been following this case for 2 years, I don't think its far fetched to say "Hey! We want to know what happens in this case." You assume that the defendant will go to jail. As someone well acquainted with a court house, you NEVER make assumptions about a jury verdict until its read.

I have an intense AVERSION to people volunteering me for sacrificial lamb duty. Been there. Done that. You think I don't know what we're capable of?

In addition, I don't recall meeting you at Blogging While Brown this weekend? Where were you? If find it interesting that you are attempting to critique the agenda of an event you weren't present at?

How do you mobilize people you don't even know? There is value in relationship building for the sake of building a relationship. You don't begin a new friendship with your hand held out saying do this for me.

Before I had a "following," I did not have a following. So if you don't' have a following, my question is why not?

Wow, I vaguely remembering hearing this story some time ago but I haven't heard anything else about it so I completely forgot about it until now. This is realy sad and I am angered by the slow progress being made here. I can't even imagine the emotional damage this has left on this woman and her child.