Cowardly NY Times Plays Coy and Clueless in Cleveland, TX Torture Case
Wednesday, March 30, 2011 at 10:46PM The Blogmother I have intentionally NOT written more about the Cleveland, TX torture case involving the repeated brutalization of an 11 year old child with the implied consent of many of the Black residents who live there. There are many reasons why I have not blogged this case the way I blogged Dunbar Village, the most important is that now that I know better, I should do better.
And so I waited until the knee jerk commentary and clamoring from the initial shock of the case died down, somewhat, because I knew the second wave would arrive and it would be more insidious than the first. Dunbar Village was three years of being in constant shock and the depravity of men.... AND WOMEN, I refuse to not learn from history in this case.
As many of you know, the most high profile reaction to news about this case were 1) “worries” about “racial tensions” between White men and Black men 2) “worries” about the White men once again locking up Black men in jail and 3) the New York Times’ failure to use appropriate standards in its initial reporting of the case in order to protect the accused (all Black men).
Now the New York Times is back for a second bite of the apple and it is a massive display in cowardice and intentionally MISSING THE POINT.
In the original article covering this case, The Times asked no questions about the damaged decision making of the accused rapists and chose to instead attempt to “explain away” the alleged bad acts of 18 Black male suspects by focussing on the “behavior” of their child victim. Because apparently the NY Times believes we’ve reached a point where molestation victims aren’t “molested” unless they adhere to certain “behavioral” constraints.
The reason why the NY Times chose to place responsibility for being tortured on the torture victim is because the NY Times is absolutely TERRIFIED of asking the obvious.
- Is there something about the BLACKNESS of the 18 (now 19) accused rapists that can explain how so many men and boys, from so many generations and backgrounds and classes could have found themselves involved in the same criminal enterprise?
- Is there something about the BLACKNESS of the 19 accused rapists that would cause the community to speak out in defense of torturing a little girl for months by large numbers of the men and boys in their community?
- Is there something about the BLACKNESS of the 19 accused suspects that would cause them to believe that they could torture a child, videotape it, place it on YOUTUBE and FACEBOOK and not incur any negative consequences from within their BLACK community?
- Is there something about THE BLACKNESS of the suspects that decreased the likelihood that others would intervene in the repeated torture of a child by a large percentage of the men and boys who live there?
I'm not talking about genetic predispositions, all groups have their own unique forms of misogyny, I'm talking about certain cultural phonomenons that explains why so many participated, so many looked away, and so many defended the actions of so many men in their community.
I don’t know the answer, but dad gummit, shouldn’t someone be asking the questions? Questions about race, power and class that have nothing to do with our myopic obsession with the perpetual battle between Black men and White men, while ignoring the violent oppression of many Black women and girls within the Black community.
But you won’t find these questions being asked in the New York Time’s followup piece about the Cleveland torture case. Instead we get a nonsensical article combing through the psyche’s of the girl’s father while doing absolutely NO INSPECTION of the deranged thinking of Cleveland’s Black residents. They HINT at the elephant in the room:
What begins to emerge is the nightmarish ordeal of a young girl over two and a half months involving an eclectic group of young men, some with criminal records, who shared a powerful neighborhood bond. NY TIMES
They looked like they were headed in the right direction... and then they copped out. They don’t have the courage to kick over too many rocks.
I know that the girl’s father is a Mexican immigrant, who was injured at work and is struggling to provide for his family. I know the girl’s mother is also struggling with her health, but continues to attempt to work, but what from the Black community of Cleveland about its actions and omissions in this case? CRICKETS!
We get statements of DELUSION from a local “pastor”:
It wasn’t that anyone was asleep,” said the Rev. Travis Hulett Jr., the pastor of the New Bethel Missionary Baptist Church, which anchors the Precinct 20 neighborhood where most of the defendants live. “You can be awake and see things and still not do anything.”
After almost a month of investigatory inquiry, all we get is some simpering gibberish about The Devil:
Bertha Cleveland, an aunt of Mr. Cruse, said her nephew went to church regularly, held down a job at McDonald’s and had told her he intended to go to college. “Our younger generation is running rampant,” she said. “The devil is in full control.”
The Devil? How convenient to be able to blame “The Devil” for Cleveland Texas’ very special brand of Black misogyny.
- If the New York Times had been courageous, they would have inquired into whether there are certain “rituals” within certain quarters of Black communities throughout this country that involve large numbers of Black men and boys gathering together to “bond” over torturing pre-teen girls and mentally disabled adult women..
- If the New York Times had any courage, they would have asked “How common are these torture rituals?”
- If the New York Times had any courage, they would have asked “ whether the women and girls who live in these deranged communities face systematic threat from these torture rituals?”
- If the New York Times had any courage they would be willing to discuss RACE in terms other than the oppression of 19 suspected rapists by “The (White) System.”
And why does the NY Times need to have the courage to ask those questions? Because if such “rituals” exist in Black communities, which group of women and girls do you think are being brutalized most often in this way?
That would be Black women and girls. The unwillingness to these questions is a refusal to acknowledge the suffering of the women who have to live under the tyranny of “bonding through torture rituals.”
And its not like the NY Times had to go to Cleveland, TX to discover this “ritual.” They could have opened a freaking book.
Like say, Nathan McCall's Makes Me Wanna Holler: A Young Black Man in America
I knew what a train was. It was when a bunch of guys got together and jammed the same girl. The white boys called it gang banging. Page 44
About twenty to thrity guys milled about, talking trash, smoking cigarettes, ,passing the wine bottle, and awaiting their turn. P44
Once we got the idea, we knew it was something we had to try. P44
It was viewed as a social thing among hangign partners, like passing a joint. P44
I think most girls gave in when trains were sprung on them because they went into shock. They were so utterly unprepared for anything that wild that it freaked them out. By the time they realized that they’d been set up, they were stripped naked, lying on a bed or in the back seat of a car , with a crowd of crazed-looking dudes hovering around. p45
That trained marked our coming together as a gang. It certified us as a group of hanging partners who would do anything and everything together.
The book is incredibly graphic and goes into detail about how they stalked incredibly young Black girls and bonded over torturing them.
If the Times didn’t have time to read Makes Me Wanna Holler, they could have opened Jody Miller’Getting Played: African American Girls, Urban Inequality, and Gendered Violence
Youth described a continuum of sexual aggressions, from pressuring and coercing girls into unwanted set to brutal gang rapes. While the former were much more common experiences for young women, nearly one-half of the young men ran trains on girls, and it appeared part and parcel of the “coming of age” experiences of many urban young men.Page 149
She goes into detail on page 134. Quoting Karen Franklin:
Although young men may experience temporary powerlessness due to their age, and more long term powerlessness due to their economic class and/or race, they still maintain relative superiority due to their sex. Group rape is a method of demonstrating this male power over individuals with less social power. Getting Played page 135
The New York Times could have reviewed this video from a recent TED conference where this speaker details what happens when a group of Black men and boys carry out this “bonding through torturing” ritual on a developmentally disabled girl.
But instead, we get “The Devil made them do it.” Really? That’s the best you can do New York Times? The Devil? Why not the Easter Bunny or Santa Clause too? You’ve had three weeks and all that your investigating has come up with is Satan?
While dozens of articles have been written about “racial tensions” in East Texas, I have yet to see an article in the Houston Chronicle or the New York Times worrying about the safety of women and girls in a community that thinks is perfectly permissible for 20-30 of its men to gather around a small girl and torture her repeatedly for months. Where are the articles about Black women and girls being in serious peril in Cleveland, TX ... after all, the community apparently thinks molesting children is A-okay.
Though the victim in this case is Hispanic, she shares many characteristics with the young Black girls studied at length by Jody Miller. She’s poor. She’s Brown. She’s “at risk,” she has less power than the men and boys who gathered on multiple occasions to lynch her. Yes, I said lynched. Instead of torturing her by hanging her from a tree, they threw her on filthy couches.
This little girl was lynched because she was weak and vulnerable and those who preyed upon her knew she was unimportant to anyone. They knew that they would face no consequences for their actions because her life has no value to them or the community which should be policing their behavior, setting boundaries for behavior, and enforcing basic tenants of human decency. In fact, many of them viewed this group torture as a normal “rite of passage.” So normal, they videotaped the debauchery and distributed it on the internet.
Black people don’t have a monopoly on misogyny or gang rape, but what is GLARINGLY obvious from this ridiculous coverage is that the NY Times decided to err on the side of protecting predatory Black men instead of exploring certain deranged cultural traditions in certain Black communities that pose serious risks to Black women and girls. And CLEARLY there is a cultural cancer in Cleveland based on the public statements and expressions by so many of its residents.
We’re slowly learning the Who, What, When and Wheres involving this case, it would be nice if the New York Times would be courageous enough to ask WHY. And stop asking the girl and her family WHY. Start asking the Black folks in Cleveland why?
And no, “The Devil made them do it” is NOT a sufficient answer.
And with that, I'm off to participate in Script Frenzy. I will see you in May. You can continue to keep up with updates about this story with other readers on our Facebook Fan Page.
TO LEARN MORE, READ:
Getting Played: African American Girls, Urban Inequality, and Gendered Violence
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Reader Comments (28)
Wow. You broke it down like no other. Ever since the New York Times reported on this case, I've been ambivalent about having its app on my phone and its online subscription. It's usually one of the better quality papers out there. But now, with this (along with charging people for non-newspaper subscriptions)..... Its reporting on this story is disappointing and has disappointed me (and likely some other readers too). Might ditch New York Times altogether. SMH.
Already had Jody Miller's book on my goodreads list, and just added Nathan McCall's book to the list, so thanks for the heads up.
Good luck with everything next month.
Gina, quite simply: you are my hero. Thank you.
Really good post. Makes me shudder to think that ANYONE of any race, ethnicity, nationality, or gender would defend these animals.
There is nothing bad that could happen to them that make up for what they've done to this child. Her life has been ruined.
I hate to say it, but when I heard about 7 Black men being shot by police in Miami, I didn't blink. That's probably wrong of me, but I'm just sick and tired of the over protection of Black men and how they are not held accountable for bad behavior, no matter how henious.
Blogmother notes:
In the original article covering this case, The Times asked no questions about the damaged decision making of the accused rapists and chose to instead attempt to “explain away” the alleged bad acts of 18 Black male suspects by focussing on the “behavior” of their child victim. Because apparently the NY Times believes we’ve reached a point where molestation victims aren’t “molested” unless they adhere to certain “behavioral” constraints.
The reason why the NY Times chose to place responsibility for being tortured on the torture victim is because the NY Times is absolutely TERRIFIED of asking the obvious.
My reply:
I see evidence of this perspective in the NYT article as well, where the parents spoke of her "sneaking out of the house," which only provides more evidence for the deranged supporters to argue that "she wanted it."
Why no discussion of how or why she was manipulated into "sneaking out?" Was it because she was vulnerable, ie., her family poor, her parents sick, perhaps even illegal? Did it start off with one or two of the men being the first to target and groom her for rape? Did they do so by taking advantage of her vulnerability, ie., offering to get her nice things, or to take her out for something to eat, or to just talk to her and lend her emotional support because of her circumstances? Had they told her they would get her things she needed for herself or her family, then once they got her under their control, threatened her? Once they began threatening her, they had her ready for rape. That is probably when she began "sneaking out of the house."
I agree, Blogmother, a distinct lack of nuance about how situations like these arise, how girls become vulnerable.
@Gina
The NYT's cowardice sadly doesn't shock me. The newspaper is run by guys who think only straight White conservative Christian men can commit crimes. Anyone who doesn't fit that profile is just a "victim of society" instead of someone who CHOOSES to commit evil. So, of course, NYT is going to blame the real victim in the Cleveland case, the 11-year old girl.
The NYT can be added to the usual suspects (Al Sharpton, NAACP, CBC, BET, etc.) who want to blame Black criminals' actions on everyone BUT the criminals. This contributes to a "Stop Snitching" mindset that only benefits the rapists, killers, thieves and drug dealers in Black areas. Any Black person who points out this disgusting status quo can expect being branded a sellout or worse. See the responses to columnist Gregory Kane denouncing the silence over victims of the "Stop Snitching" insanity:
http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2011/03/heres-why-you-never-heard-about-carnell-dawson-or-quartrina-johnson
Still, we can't afford to be silent, but MUST keep speaking out. Otherwise, we can expect even more Clevelands and Dunbar Villages in the future.
Once I learned that this young lady had been tortured for months, I thought about all of those programs I'd seen on television about the trafficking of young white girls in the UK, the trafficking of young white girls here in the states, the trafficking of South East Asian women into the massage parlors here in the U.S., all of these programs were talking about sex trafficking. Accept for a black woman from Africa, all of the programs I have seen about the trafficking of Latinas and Black women and girls have been for the purpose of domestic work, and they Latina's they show are always white, and I've never seen a story about trafficked black women from the states. Yet, this young lady's story sounds like she was trafficked within her little location, for the purpose of sexual exploitation, and there has been not a peep, that I have noticed, from mainstream media about this issue. I wonder if investigators and mainstream reports asked if their was money involved, as in one of the guys being paid to pimp this child out.
Lib,
Black women are trafficked for sex work within the U.S. and from third world African countries. Please, see the documentary Very Young Girls, which explains is detail how African-American girls are groomed to be sex workers as young as 11 years-old in the U.S. Also, there are tons of articles from reputable, journalistic sources about how black women and girls are trafficked. Please, read them. If you're a long time reader of this blog, there's no excuse for your lack of knowledge on this subject. However, it's never too late to learn.
Gina, your article was on point as usual. Mainstream media only cares about racism when it involves minority-on-minority crime. I would've said black-on-black crime, but the victim is Hispanic. If these rapist had made the mistake on assaulting a white girl or women for that matter, the mainstream media would've pulled out every stereotype to demonize the young men involved without batting an eyelash. They wouldn't be beating around the bush about how the way their culture socialized them may have played a role in their decision to gang rape an 11 year-old girl. We may have even gotten the chance to read a journalistic piece about many boys and men in the hood have a propensity for running trains on unsuspecting girls and women. But none of these things are happening because the media cares more about being politically correct instead of advocating for a young, defenseless who has been brutally attacked and scared for the rest of her life.
Ever since you started covering the Dunbar Village incident, I've been hearing more and more about these "trains" involving black men from all educational and economic levels. I want to hear from the black men, who frequent this forum, what they've heard from their acquaintances, friends, family members, etc. about such incidents and how frequent they are. I want to see the same type of honesty exhibited by Mr. Porter exhibited by the men who frequent this blog. I want to see some of y'all tell on their brothers. And no, I'm not joking. I really want to know what is going on!
Tony Porter talked about the "man box," and how it makes men more likely to commit violence against women. However, Mr. Porter was talking mostly in general terms. He was lumping black men into the same pot as all men. True, all men are capable of violence against women. However, in my experience, I've found that men from minority groups and certain foreign ethnic groups have a strong sense of hyper-masculinity that makes them more likely devalue women and to commit horrible acts against women (i.e. Congo rapes, Serbian rapes, Dunbar Village, Cleveland, TX, etc.). Their communities are also overly invested in upholding their hyper-masculinity, so they don't speak up when these atrocities are committed, which is why most of the women in Cleveland, TX and the folks in Dunbar Village unabashedly supported the rapists. Mr. Porter failed to acknowledge some very real, unique dynamics that occur in the black community in the U.S. and abroad that make it possible for such acts to happen. I appreciate Tony Porter's work, and I was happy to see a man getting involved in the community. I was also pleased with his honesty. It takes a lot of guts to admit that at age 12, when you knew right from wrong, that you turned a blind eye (and even tried to play like you raped the girl) when a defenseless, mentally-disabled girl was being gang raped.
@APA Tony Porter is engaged in REVISIONIST history. I don't believe his version of the events involving the disabled girl one bit. I think he participated in the rape of the girl, but isn't man enough to admit it. Much like people calling a gang rape "running a train." They don't want to label what they did in a pejorative manner.
Sad to say the NYT is never going to speak up.
Why?
Because ALL MEN this planet over BOND through torture rituals.
It's so deeply embedded in the male psyche.
To me, I took the article to mean “men who work at the NYT will never be too hard on their fellow brethren because after men bond over a little misogyny every now and then.”
And the fact that a woman received byline credit is so typical. Women shaming other women is a sure fire way to circle the wagons when misogyny needs protecting.
Gina, I can't say whether he was lying. However, I can say that he was being way too soft with his analysis of why men, particularly black men, participate in such acts. The fact that he did nothing when the girl was being raped did leave a bad taste in my mouth.
@divalive
I've never called a woman a sexist slur much less "bonded" with other men through a gang rape.
The subhuman Cleveland rapists deserve the harshest punishment , but they don't represent all men on the planet. That's as bigoted as saying the video vixens on BET represent all Black women.
Save your ammo for the REAL misogynists who deserve it.
Great post! The follow-up article was a complete flop. I love how they went into great detail to describe the victim's behavior right before the crime, but failed to go into detail about any of the defendants and their past criminal acts.
The New York Times doesn't want to examine the race question because it's afraid of the backlash. Plain and simple. They will instead rely on a few token preachers and some religious-based quote to sum up the thoughts and feelings of black folk.
William Jelani Cobb wrote about this case and the practice he termed "Gender Jim Crow" for The Nation this week that may be of interest::
http://www.thenation.com/article/159550/cleveland-texas-and-gender-jim-crow
YOURE RIGHT!! about 'if the girl was white, she'd have a reality show' about how precious she is and how SAD she was hurt, but not jusT ANY WHITE, it would have to be a BLONDE WHITE GIRL ONLY --ive seen TOO MANY of these types of t v shows-----the NEW YORK TYMES is just a liberal rag today anyway..and not balanced between liberal and conservative (not all conservatives are racist, and not all liberals are 'not racist)
Gina, your analysis of this situation is absolutely SPOT ON. All the "why" questions that should have been asked have not been asked. And if you ask those "why" questions, then you see the pattern of behavior, and why it keeps being repeated. Look at this other gang rape of an 11 year old that's just hit the news from the Moreno Valley in California?! 11 years old. And at least one of the perpetrators (his picture was shown in the article I read) is black. No safety, no protection - that's what it's down to now.
This quote says it all to me:
Although young men may experience temporary powerlessness due to their age, and more long term powerlessness due to their economic class and/or race, they still maintain relative superiority due to their sex. Group rape is a method of demonstrating this male power over individuals with less social power. Getting Played page 135.
We are allowing the well publicized feelings of powerlessness that black men feel become a license for them to do evil. The problem with The Times and almost all media to day is that it deals in absolutes - black vs. white; republican vs. democrat, etc. There is no gray. There is no context. The people they have in the victim catagory can never be the villans. That is why they can not fully analyze black on black crime issues and are even less equipped to cover conflicts and gender issues and the danger some black male cultures pose to black women.
APA is right on point when they mention the documentary "Very Young Girls." It really opened my eyes about the trafficking of young black girls in the USA. Many of these girls are just like the girl in Cleveland TX, young, vulnerable, parents either ill or absent.
A few years ago A&E had a program about a retired NYC detective who was helping find runaways. The first case was a young black girl who went missing around Christmas. It turned out the girl had been trafficked. These girls are targeted, many of them are "at risk: poor with no parents, not popular, maybe smart but doesn't know how to get from point A to point B. The gangs see them, so they get their girlfriends who still might be in middle school or girls in high school to "befriend" these girls, take them to McDonald's, then take them to clubs, talk to them, find out about them. The gangs use the vulnerabilities of the girls to reel them in. One particular girl said a "friend" told her she was going to a barbecue, but instead she was taken to an abandoned building, locked in a room and forced to have sex with multiple men.
Thank you for posting this. The whole discussion has been dropped by the mainstream media, and of course they never did (and never will) discuss it from this angle.
The very fact that the NYT can speak of the rapists as being "drawn in" to the crime is disturbing. This is a violent crime of a large group of men, who then brag about it. The notion that rapists are "drawn in" instead of the instigators of the crime is disturbing. When American Servicemen in Okinawa raped a school girl in 1995 the NYT would never have suggested that the criminals were drawn in.
At one level I would like to see this without race. I would like to see this as a large group of men gang-raping a child. However, Ihave to seriously wonder if the NYT would ever frame it in that way if there was not fear of feeding race stereotypes. Still, My first reaction to the NYT article was that it was part of a mass attempt to smear Texas generally and Cleveland specifically. Once the notion is inculcated that this is a largely black area, the actions of the NYT can be seen as base racism to protray black people as a bunch of defenders of rapist, forcing a re-reading of "To Kill A Mockingbird" where we assume the assuced is guilty.
This is an insideous form of racism. Ritzy Northerners may be able to afford to be politically correct if this is the real situation. However if being non-racist is reconstued to tolerating criminal behavior and allowing black men to violently attack others, the system becomes a sure feed for segregation and the like. When expecting black people to follow the same rules and regulations as others is turned into discrimination against them, the patience of those who are falsely accused of discrmination will eventually break and a backlash will occur.
On the other hand, rape and other violent crimes are not the sole domain of black males. Many whites also inculcate the negative effects of gangster rap and the like, while there are many upstanding and respectable blacks. The Houston Chronicle at least shows that there are those in the community who see the rapist as the criminals. The same came out in Detroit with the sickening case of the man who had chained up and forced into sex a girl. He went on his shooting spree against a police station because he was about to be taken to court. The story was shocking and disturbing, but it was covered in part because with all of Detroit's problems, forcing minors into sex still cases an outrage. Still, ever since Mayor Archer's response to rape of school girls was knocking down abandoned houses around schools, Detroit has seemed to avouid asking the tough question of what causes there to be males who are willing to act their sex desires out forcibly on minors. There are some in the government and police department who have gone after the strip clubs, but there has been far too much linience for strip-club owners who have employed minors. These men (who are probably mostly white) should be sent to prison. Detroit should risk civil-rights violation suits to prove it really will not stand the sexual exploitation of minors.
This is, by far, without a doubt, the single best thing I have seen written about this case. Thank you for giving women everywhere a voice.
@ Eva. - Sigh. I'm not surprised at the "friend" luring that child in. So many of those young girls are simply looking for communality and emotional intimacy that isn't offered at home and become victimized by predators. For any young woman/older woman (but especially any young black women in dangerous neighborhoods or vulnerable family environments), please read "The Gift of Fear" by Gavin De Becker. If you are not being taught survival strategies by your elders, this book is a great entry level to the sorts of guards and internal awareness mechanisms that women should be honing.
My philosophy: Every bit of increased knowledge may one day lead to decreased suffering. The result of increased knowledge may mean that in ten thousand years us people will rarely hurt each other any more.
Thanks for increasing our knowledge.
Blogmother thank you for the additonal information, I have not been on your site for some time because I was angry and sick about those bastards behavior. I had to leave and find a place within myself to become forcus and calm.
Everyone,
Since we're talking about how misogynistic culture contributes to the acceptance of rape, I thought this breaking news would be of interest:
"In Upcoming Memoir, Actress Ashley Judd Slams Hip Hop as Promoting ‘Rape Culture’"
http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/hollywoodland/2011/04/11/in-upcoming-memoir-actress-ashley-judd-slams-hip-hop-as-promoting-rape-culture/
This direct quote from Judd is spot on:
Along with other performers, YouthAIDS was supported by rap and hip-hop artists like Snoop Dogg and P. Diddy to spread the message…um, who? Those names were a red flag.
“As far as I’m concerned, most rap and hip-hop music — with it’s rape culture and insanely abusive lyrics and depictions of girls and women as ‘ho’s’ — is the contemporary soundtrack of misogyny.
“I believe that the social construction of gender — the cultural beliefs and practices that divide the sexes and institutionalize and normalize the unequal treatment of girls and women, privilege the interests of boys and men, and, most nefariously, incessantly sexualize girls and women — is the root cause of poverty and suffering around the world.”
My question is will Judd's Hollywood "friends" stand by her speaking the truth about modern rap music or will she be thrown under the bus for the sake of political correctness?
Call me cynical, but I think the latter is likely to happen to Ms. Judd. Just ask Bill Cosby.
@Fred
Ms. Judd's apology has already been issued! So, I guess we have our answer.
well done on such horrible but real topic. i spent some nights discussing this with my husband. it sad to see woman victimized .. i think to my childhood and how fortune i was to escape similar type scenarios but only because of these two factors : 1. a mother who taught me from birth i was better than anything on this earth ; so what men did with just any girl would not do for me 2. a mother who had the benefit and luxury to stay at home with me and so she was always watching and waiting ...but if one of those was not my fate.. what if she had to work like so many other women and was so tired and beaten down from the economics of life she didnt have the strength to tell me how to be a woman and protect me so i lived to be that woman she dreamed...
keep up the good work in elevating this discussions to the surface...
Hey Gina,It is so late but I'm writing to let you know that I wrote a post about Charles T.Epps and his recent sexist nasty rant about girls at Jersey City schools.I got my own little blog on tumblr.I'm not great at writing but I gave it a shot.If you're interested you can read it.I'm @ http://we-thrive.tumblr.com/ If you're way too busy don't even worry about it.But I did want to let you know that you and many other people have encouraged me to step up to the plate and I want to thank you for doing so.I hope I just hope I can get better at this writing thing over time.
To the author, there are people who do try to bring up the issue of the negativity WITHIN the black community. It is just that, when they speak up, WE in the community routinely dismiss them as "sell-outs."
There is a refusal to admit to the inwardly directed prejudice that makes black people biased against, and contemptuous of, the black condition, other blacks & other dark skinned people. This anti-black prejudice plays a big role in many negative lines of behavior within the black community. In some, it can get so bad that the person can turn on other blacks "completely" like some attack dog. Such people can almost actually be called "self-hating."
There is no official name for being biased against your own community and condition but there needs to be.
This anti-black attitude when combined with sexism can lead to a very nasty attitude towards females of color.