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Dear Ferguson,

I, too, know how it feels to be downtrodden by what appears to be blatant racism.  Although in my city we as African Americans make up nearly 83% of the city’s population, there is still a blanket of divisiveness in the depths of our infrastructure that often calculates into subsequent oppression.  Because of this…I understand. I side with my people who search high and low for justice and closure during this time as the laws that had so often shackled our minds, captured our feet and stolen our freedom are debated back and forth in the court room before developing into an answer for the death of Michael Brown. I hear your pain. I feel your voice that resonates in my mind and heart like the cries of our many ancestors who lost their struggle to escape the chains of oppression.  With all of these emotions swirling around in the abyss of my soul I ask only one thing.  If the verdict does not exemplify what the Ferguson community would identify as justice for the deceased…please do not resort to violence and hostility.

Just ask anyone from my city of Detroit what happens when we ruin our own city in an angered rage against the machine.  In 1967, riots spawned in the streets of Detroit in response to  racial tension stemming from an ongoing disconnect with the black community and the mostly white police department. Structures in my city still hang on by a thread.  The same thread they were hanging on some 47 years ago after rioters tore down the city looting and burning down the community in which they lived. We have yet to heal physically, structurally or economically since our disenfranchised people acted on their dismay and took to the streets to purge the boiling blood that had lay dormant in their veins for so many years leading up to the riots. As I peek beneath the the rubble of the ruins of Detroit, I look over toward Ferguson and plead that you learn from our missteps and if the verdict does not satisfy our expectations I am hopeful that our brothers and sisters in Ferguson take action in a manner that does not cripple their city for generations as we did. No matter the verdict or outcome Ferguson a nation of supporters have your back, starting on the front lines of Detroit.  Catch ya’ on the FLIPSIDE.

Sincerley,

Detroit

A “Man of God” is what Pastor T.W. Jenkins calls himself.  Unfortunately, maybe in my own naivety, I find it rather peculiar that the pastor can refer to himself  as such.  Perhaps it is in my pure ignorance that I would believe that even though the deceased had lived a life of sin, that he too, despite his lifestyle, deserves the dignity of being laid to rest.

The pastor informed the mother of the deceased only a day prior to the sceduled service.  The pastor contends that during the wake, it was brought to his attention that the deceased man had been married to another man and he concluded that holding a service for an individual of such caliber would be “blasphemy.” Blasphemy?  So indeed, my ignorance strikes again, because for some strange reason, I thought as a “Man of God,” that a situation such as this would be inviting.  I say this because it is obvious that he condemns the lifestyle, so why not treat the funeral as an opportunity to spread the gospel to those wayward souls.  I mean he did say he was a “Man of God,” right?

Luckily, the family was able to find a new place to hold the funeral services where a soul could be properly laid to rest. The complaining congregants from New Hope Missionary Baptist Church have earned their rightful place in God’s good graces I suppose, by standing for their principles and denying the soul of one of God’s children to be laid to rest.  I’m not certain exactly how that works though, because if Pastors and churches stopped burying sinners, we better all dig our own plots in the backyard and hope someone is kind enough to roll us over in it when we take our last breath.  Catch ya’ on the FLIPSIDE!

Of course watching the video of Janay Palmer looking almost lifeless as she lay unconscious on a hotel floor brings you to the conclusion that only a savage would do this to his fiance. A savage that plays football on Sunday and sometimes Thursday and Monday.  A savage that has accolades and rushing yards up the wazoo.  All rushing yards and first downs aside, Ray Rice eventually went on to marry the woman who is obviously the victim in the video footage. Palmer even dropped charges on her fiance turned husband.  Although Rice got some charges, the main eye was on what the NFL would do to the Baltimore Ravens leading rusher.

Now Steven A. Smith spent all morning dishing jabs that some would consider offensive, while others were feeling as though the NFL’s two game suspension seemed to be a slap on the wrist. To be honest with you though, I didn’t even come here to talk about Rice. I came to talk about the dynamics between a man and a woman as a whole.

The question is to what extint does a man have to be pushed before instances of domestic violence occur? Is it ever a feasable response to strike or physically abuse a woman.  Of course not!  For some strange reason though, the fact that a violent attack occured seems to be far less important to people than rather the punishment was severe enough. The laws are the laws and sometimes criminal activity goes unchecked and even though we don’t agree with these penalties, I think we still need to look at the orgin of the issue.  The orgin of the issue is that somewhere in society there is a realm of humanity that believes there is justification for domestic abuse.  Now don’t get me wrong, ladies you too can be abusive.  At this point we’re not pointing any fingers or placing blame, but honestly my curiousity far extends the reach of why there wasn’t a stiffer punishment.  My brain can’t wrap itself around the underlying issue.

This underlying issue is that Palmer, like countless other women, withdraw charges and move forward in relationships that have proven to be physically threatening.  Most women who press charges initially, end up dropping charges or withdrawing their statements.  Is it because they feel responsible?  Or maybe society has made domestic violence a petty issue that doesn’t warrant the dignity of a woman, or man for that matter, to step away from a potentially damaging relationship?

Quite frankly, I’m not certain what the answer is, but it’s increasingly evident that so many charges against abusive partners are eventually dropped because either the victims feel as though they brought it on themselves or that it is somehow becoming the standard in relationships. So with that, Rice gets a two game suspension and a small fine.  Perhaps thats the equivalent of laying unconscious on a hotel floor.  Catch ya’ on the FLIPSIDE.

Violent crimes are up everywhere.  Some crimes are so heinous that it barely seems like reality when you hear what happend.  For that reason, I understand the apprehension of law enforcers.  But should I be so understanding?

There’s a very fine and fickle line separating the actions of police officers that are warranted and those that warrant outrage. Such is the case in Staten Island where Eric Garner died while being taken into custody by officers.  Perhaps the officers felt threatened. Maybe all four of them were threatened by Garner, who was large in stature, but  surely not large enough to handle all four officers at one time.You know what though?  Let’s just say for argument’s sake that he could have taken all four officers.  I think it was apparent that he was taken down by only one officer who broke him down into a choke hold reminiscent of classic WWF wrestlers. What the officers might, at that time refer to as resisting arrest, was undoubtedly a struggle to breathe.  After several pleas from Garner, the officer never let up.  Finally, Garner’s bod lay lifeless on the ground. How do you justify this?

Of course the color of the victim and the color of the officer stirs up already existing distatse on the tongues of many blacks who have been, or even percieved to have been the subject of such overzealous brutality.  Yes, I said brutality.   Now the divide between the black community and law enforcement grows even larger.  Our community doesn’t trust law enforcement and law enforcement doesn’t trust our community.  We have a toxic relationship.  In the end we both leave hurt.  How can we patch things up before things get even worse? Catch ya’ on the FLIPSIDE.

Far too often we hear news of murders, car jackings, and crimes that would make most CSI viewers cringe in disbelief.  Such has become the norm in our community.  The black community.  Unfortunately, our community has seemed to lose its sight of what originally was the foundation of our entire movement.  That foundation was and still needs to be unity.

Be it from years of captivity or adverse oppression, our black community has morphed into a unit that was once strong enough to march on Washington into what appears to be Wrestlemania.  What I mean by that is that it looks like a free-for-all with everyone out for themselves.  Could it be due to our years of oppression that we seem to care less about others, but only about ourselves as individuals?  Could it be that society has weilded its nightstick upon our skulls so repetively that our common sense has been spilled into the streets like the blood of Malice Green after being murdered by over zealous cops?  By all means, it can be both of those and countless other reasons, or as I like to call them…excuses.

Unfortunately, there are no excuses for murdering a child in cold blood as retaliation.  Nor is there an excuse to murder and burn the bodies of young women in trunks of cars.  When do we stop making excuses and start making examples.  The truth of the matter is that our family, our community has become so riddled with violence, drugs and often poverty, that not only the structure of family is lost but so is the phylosophy of life and living well that brought us through the Civil Rights Movement.

We look around the world and CNN suggests that there is so much unrest around the world that it almost becomes unbearable.  I have to admit that there are some terrible things going on ranging from young girls being kidnapped and commercial airlines being shot down by missles, but it’s always scarier when it’s close to home.  I sympathize whole-heartedly for the family and friends of victims of that Malaysian Airline crash, but can’t help to feel even more distraught about the vile demon here in Michigan who felt he needed to take the life of an innocent child for the disdain that he had for the young girl’s father.  Absolutely absurd and heart-breaking. The real question though, is where do we go from here? Catch ya’ on the FLIPSIDE!

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I was sitting on the couch last week enjoying my day off from the plantation and watching the mind numbing nonsense that we choose to call daytime television.  And it is then when I first caught wind of the Paula Deen infamous admission to using the N-word.  I was watching TMZ when I saw this and even though I was barely paying attention I heard enough of the segment to engage in its message. So reportedly, Deen had admitted to using the N-word and when asked if she would use it again she could not say for certain that she would not which leaves the wandering mind to believe that of course she would.

Suddenly Facebook and Twitter was overcome by ramblings of disgust.  Black people who have never heard of Paula Deen, or even watched the Food Network for that matter, declared that they could not support any longer a racist like Deen.  The Food Network reacted just as I would imagine, by stripping Dean of her show and her sponsors would follow suit soon after.  While the Deen scandal -I guess we’ll call it that – was unfolding, another story developed.  This time the story was that Deen had suggested that her employees dress like “slaves” during a wedding.  These allegations and Deen’s subsequent admission to such suggestions put her under even deeper scrutiny.  Suddenly media outlets  everywhere were teeming to the brim with headlines about Deen.  Do I think Deen is racist?  Possibly.  Do I think she was, in Wendy Williams’ words “stupid”? Certainly. Her actions have cost her a fortune and it will be hard to bounce back from the loss she’s taking now.  Unfortunately, while Deen was calling us the N-word, apparently so was the Supreme Courts.

Call it coincidence, but while our heads were turned toward the Deen debacle, the Supreme Court was actively de-bundling core aspects of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This change is going to allow states to change election laws individually without approval from Federal government.  So what does that mean to you? This means that theoretically if Texas decides that in order to vote, you must have a valid driver’s license AND a passport then it can become a voting requirement even without the approval of the Federal government.  And let’s face it, that’s going to put a lot of people outside the voting polls because they don’t fulfill the criteria.

The states affected by this change are Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, South Carolina, Texas and Virginia.  There are other counties throughout the US affected as well including Brooklyn and  Manhattan according to the New York Times. So yes, we can raise a ruckus over Paula Deen.  We can be outdone by her supposedly comedic suggestion of her employees dressing like “slaves.”  But, don’t let the antics of a Food Network personality take your attention away from who is trying to make u a slave.  Catch ya’ on the FLIPSIDE.

Jamie Foxx won an award at the MTV Movie Awards Sunday night, but he wasn’t a winner amongst the critics who scolded his tee-shirt on Twitter.  Jamie Foxx wore a tee-shirt that read KNOW JUSTICE KNOW PEACE with pictures of Trayvon Martin and the small children who were victims of the school shooting in Sandy Hook.  At first glance, I think it serves as an awareness tactic when famous celebrities wear clothing that present issues that sometimes go unnoticed until it is brought to their attention by someone in the lime-light.  Of course Trayvon Martin wasn’t a victim of a school shooting, but nevertheless he was still a victim.  Obviously, not everyone believes that this is the case.

In response to Jamie Foxx’s tee-shirt many people went to TWITTER to bash not only Jamie Foxx for wearing the shirt with Trayvon Martin and the Sandy Hook victims, but going as far as to hurl racial slurs while doing ridiculing the tee-shirt.

I understand that as humans there will always be disagreement because we are mostly independent thinkers, but to respond like this is disheartening. Responses like this beg the question of whether or not there will ever be a total acceptance of difference.  What that means is that while there are more differences among us as humans than similarity, something perhaps innate pushes us to react toward one another with such utter disrespect.  Fortunately, this type of down right hateful gibberish is not common among all in society, but it is the few that hide beneath the shield of cyberspace and social media while shooting such insults from their mouths.

I dare anyone to try to convince me that racism doesn’t exist anymore…just check your TWITTER feed.  Catch ya’ on the FLIPSIDE!

SEE THE ORIGINAL POSTING OF THESE TWEETS RIGHT HERE >> publicshaming.tumblr.com/post/48020892347/jamie-foxx-attended-the-mtv-movie-awards-on-sunday <<