The Charleston, S.C. Shootings: When Man Becomes the Lower Animal.

One of the major fascinations I have for the Animal Planet TV channel is the constant insight it gives into the natures of the various species of animals in the jungle. One such knowledge is the strange fact that animals have no hatred for each other. As vicious as they are, carnivorous animals will never kill another animal except strictly for food. Unless it’s starving therefore, a lion or tiger will simply look on, with no interest, while a goat, deer or some other animal strolls by.

It’s however strange and quite confounding that it’s “a different kettle of fish” with human beings, the so-called higher animals. In addition to the natural law, Man will often also have to be compelled by several man-made laws before agreeing to live together in the same neighborhood. Yet, in spite of these applicable laws, there is no guarantee of amicability in the compelled desegregation. Filled with a nature that is lacking in love, kindness and decency, most humans are conceived, born and raised with such hateful orientations that will make monsters green with envy. Unlike the lower animals, offspring of humans must be taken through various forms of refinement in terms of trainings in etiquette, educational institutions and occupational codes and ethics. Sadly however, some of them will still escape through cracks in the refinement system and end up as dregs, thieves, psychopaths, rapists, perverts, and murderers.

One such example among the many society misfits is the man who went into a church in Charleston, South Carolina yesterday and proceeded on a shooting spree. He ended up fatally shooting 9 persons, including the pastor. Their only crime was that they were black.

It's tempting to describe the cold-blooded murderer as a dysfunctional character, one of the lowest in human species. But that will be too charitable. So, he is better described as a deranged animal of the worst kind. Except that even an animal of his type is not fit to live in a jungle.

Matters Arising from the South Carolina Shooting.

Yes, it has happened again! The shooting by a white police officer of a black victim. This time, the unfortunate incident took place in South Carolina. Although this is not a new incident, there are some issues, ironies and lessons to be learned from it.

The major issue arising from this matter is the need for a retraining of police officers across the nation. They all need to stop seeing a section of the people they are serving as enemies. Currently, officers are trained with a war-zone mentality. And to worsen the situation, a lot of white police officers harbor stereotypical views about black folks. Sadly, they allow this myopic views to affect their judgements in the performance of official duties.

The main irony in this case is the fact that both men, Slager, 33, and Scott, 55, were U.S. Coast Guard veterans. Slager was said to have a history of excessive force while Scott had some child support issues and traffic violations. Neither of the two however had a record of violence.

Both cop and victim have mothers who care a lot about them. While the victim’s mother has already forgiven the killer cop, the latter’s mother is prayerful, “I just have to let it be and hope God takes care of everybody involved — not only my family but the Scott family because I know they're grieving just like I'm grieving, so I want them to know that…"

This is yet, an awfully terrible incident. One therefore can only hope that going forward, our police officers will learn to be very careful as they perform their very sensitive duties to the members of the public. There just has to be an enough of these sad, unfortunate incidents.

Hollywood’s Blacks: Servants, Slaves, Ghetto Moms and Thugs. By Deneen Borrelli.

While working with two black co-workers a few years ago, the topic of black history came up and we decided to challenge each other. Although they were a few years away from graduating from college, I realized they had limited knowledge about the achievements of historically important black Americans.

I was surprised they did not know the answer to questions such as, “Who was the first black female millionaire?" and "Who was Benjamin Banneker?” I was shocked at the answers I received.

After thinking about this I realized their lack of knowledge was certainly not related to intellect but was a result of our culture, where the achievements of historically important blacks are absent.

If you asked them about the latest hip-hop stars, athletes or movie stars, they probably could give brief biographies of several of them. Yet, they were unaware of black Americans who not only prospered in their chosen fields, but helped shape the course of American history.

Movies like The Help, The Butler, Precious, 12 Years a Slave, and Training Day all had black people as central characters. All won some type of award or nomination and/or had actors that were recognized with awards. Sounds good outwardly, right? If you take a second glance, you will notice all of these movies promoted stereotypes of black people.

Unfortunately, it appears a large majority of our awards are presented to blacks when we play roles where we are servants, slaves, ghetto moms, or thugs. The sad part is that many of these actors have been in other movies that have been just as good, yet they went unrecognized when they didn't "fit the description.”

Films and television programs, along with R&B artists and hip-hop stars who are way too numerous to list, all contribute to the negative black stereotypes.

My thoughts? Despite Hollywood's overwhelming Democrat support, which is supposed to be sensitive to our community, Hollywood is more comfortable when we (black people) are in our place.

I can hear the pro-Hollywood crowd now… “But these pictures and others are only reflections of what has happened or what is currently going on in our communities.” True, but so were many other positive black people who are rarely mentioned.

Why not make a major motion picture about George Washington Carver, who was both a brilliant scientist and a man of God? Or Charles Drew, who made amazing medical discoveries with blood plasma that led to the invention of the blood bank? Something uplifting that the black community could look up to as a model of progression.

In the end, we have to ask ourselves: If Black History Month, and black history overall, was truly honored in our schools, homes and our communities, our standards in what we call black entertainment wouldn't be allowed. We as a people would demand better and because money talks above all else in Hollywood, we would get what we asked for.

As long as we demand, and often times accept, lower standards and stereotypical entertainment, then lower standards are what we will get.

And if black Americans refuse to recognize that one of the greatest threats to continued stereotypes in entertainment are elite-minded liberals who claim to be our friends, we will keep getting the short end of the stick.

It's time to honor the memory of those who made Black History Month possible and start telling the true story.

Hollywood, we have enough movies that glorify the ghost of our past. Let's take a chance on introducing movies that highlight the accomplishments that black Americans have made in our country's history.

Maybe then we will inspire more of our people to greater things when they realize how great black history in America really is.

FBI Investigates KKK Members That Killed Black Couples in 1946.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2955711/FBI-investigates-KKK-suspects-lynching-black-men-alive.html

Click on the above link to read the news story.

Once in a while, I meditate over what it must have been like for black people to live in the Jim Crow era of the United States. I especially wonder what kind of a harrowing experience every black person must have had in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia and other evil, blood-dotted places. Those were places where being black meant having a death sentence hang over a person’s head for no reason other than having a wrong skin color. What a horrifying life!

On the other hand, I imagined what a privileged, “wonderful” life it must have been for white folks in those sad days. All a white person needed to feel superior to “all those blacks” was merely his or her skin color. Back then, it didn’t matter how smart, educated or great a black person was, he or she would still be considered inferior by the most stupid, derelict of all human species who merely happened to be created white.

As for the sick, cowardly members of the KKK, they could easily be placed on the same pedestal with the lunatics and animals in ISIS and other Islamic terrorists of the 21^st Century. Many of the KKK members must have died by now. Nevertheless, I wish it was possible to know the fates of their miserable souls while in transit in the Cosmic Plane. From the point of view of Metaphysics, one can only contemplate what horror, sadness and bundles of regrets that each of those rotten souls must be going through “ad infinitum”! And for those of them who would have since re-incarnated, it can never be anything less than hell on earth for them in one form or the other. At least, this is what the Law of Karma is all about.

The Hues and Cries Over Oscar Snub of Selma.

"I guess we’re not free at last.

Ha! That’s the quote right there...

“Guess we’re not free at last, not free at last,

we’re not — according to the Academy — free at last!” - Spike Lee (In response to the question "What did you think of the Oscar voters’ snub of Selma director Ava DuVernay and star David Oyelowo?”)

I’m still trying to understand what all the hues and cries are all about in regard to the Oscar voters’ snub of the movie, Selma. Where is the surprise? In a 2012 survey, the Los Angeles Times found out that the “Academy” was 94% white, overwhelmingly male and with a median age of 62. The problem now therefore is this: with about 7,000 members, and no mandatory retirement, diversity among the Oscar-voters is going to take a very long time to manifest.

Let’s face it. This is America. The same good, old America. Everything in God’s own country always have something to do with race. It’s only worse in certain socio-economic sectors of the nation. And one of those sectors is the movie industry. That’s where an individual makes bundles of money by pretending to be someone else. As for the product of each endeavor though, considerations for rewards are based more on race than the actual creativity invested.

In the world of make-believe, whenever a movie is produced or directed by a black person, it’s automatically at the mercy of the cynical, nose-thumbing mainstream media that is dominated and controlled by the whites. The first objective of a majority of media “reviewers” is to promptly brand the artistic work a “black movie”. And this is done with a red, hot iron. With this negative branding as a foundation, the “black movie” will now be subjected to every bit of ignorance the “reviewers” can muster. Ask Tyler Perry.

Therefore, whatever the white-male-dominated Oscars’ voters come up with will merely be a follow-up to the earlier “hatchet man job” of the mainstream media. That’s how it’s been done and that’s how it will be done for a long time. Those Oscar-voting guys are especially allergic to any movie that is historically-rich and those that celebrate anything positive about the black cultures. Otherwise, movies such as Malcolm X, Red Tails, Hurricane, Akeelah and the Bee and several others would have picked up several Oscars.

It’s however “a different kettle of fish” where a movie is based on the holocaust or “mainstream” American history. No matter how silly it appears, such a movie will have all the “reviewers” and Oscar voters falling all over themselves in adoration. The same goes for any movie produced or directed by Clint Eastwood, Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and a host of other “anointed guys” of Hollywood. The club is not only elitist but also controlled by white men. Therefore, what better way to prevent the director of Selma from rubbing shoulders with these elites in Hollywood than to deprive her of an Oscar nod? If only Ms. DuVernay was white, a man and possibly named Spielberg or Eastwood, Selma would have been drowned in Oscar nominations.

There is one major consolation though. Selma will remain a great movie.

To The Memory of George Stinney Jr.

George Stinney Jr was the youngest person ever executed in South Carolina, in 1944. Due to his small body frame, they had to make the poor 14-year-old boy sit on top of a phone book before he could properly fit into the electric chair. It must have been a gory sight. And the agony suffered by the child could only be imagined. The execution however, has since been found to be wrong. In a December 7, 2014 ruling, a South Carolina state judge vacated Stinney's conviction in the deaths of two young girls, clearing his name.



He is shown here above in this undated file photo provided by the South Carolina Department of Archives and History. The cold-blooded murder of this child under legal coloration was just one of the many cases of injustice that were perpetrated by some Americans against people of color, and that include the Blacks, the Native Americans, the Hispanics, the Japanese and others. These acts of evil came under descriptions of racism, prejudice and stereotype.

It’s been many years ago and the perpetrators of those heinous crimes against humanity have since been long dead and gone. There is however a spiritual law of Karma. It has no statutory limitations. And there is definitely life after death. Therefore, any wonder why this great nation is plagued with too many strange physical afflictions and mysterious omens that are not even seen in Third world nations.

Between the Lives of Eric Garner and a Cat.

This is surely not the best of times to be a cop, especially a white cop, in the United States of America. The whole nation is still reeling from the shock and the ensuing riots arising from the shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed young black man, by a white cop in Ferguson. And now, this killing of Eric Garner, another unarmed black man in New York!

As a daily, heavily-armed law enforcement officer, the use of a deadly force will always be my last resort. One can therefore wonder why any cop will readily resort to the use of a deadly force at the slightest threat to their ego or feeling instead of life. By the way, whatever happens to the use of Tasers or cap stun? Must cops always go for the kill over every incident without first assessing the supposed threats? And, in the case of Eric Garner, when it became apparent that the hapless man was choking for breath, why did the cops not bother to apply a CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation)?

It was not long ago that a Brooklyn man was hunted down until he was arrested by the police for kicking a cat. The invectives and racist comments that were directed at the guy was extremely intense. In a bid to appease those people as they cried and condemned the man, the Brooklyn district attorney hurriedly proceeded with plans to prosecute the cat-kicking guy for animal cruelty. The message of that incident to the world at large was simply this: In the United States, the life of a cat is sacrosanct, something you don’t want to mess with.

Since that incident though, two black men and a 12-year-old black kid have been murdered in cold blood by police officers who did not exercise due diligence while performing their duties. Sadly, the affected cops have since been declared blameless by the grand juries set up to look into the two separate incidents. The cops and members of the two separate grand juries may be beating their chests proudly for jobs well-done. But unwittingly, they have sent a combined message to the outside world that: In God’s own country, the life of a black man is worthless, not even worth a dime when compared to the life of a cat.

http://youtu.be/g-xHqf1BVE4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Equals Rights & Justice.

Jamaican Reggae star, Peter Tosh released the album, Equal Rights in 1977, in protest against the then apartheid regime in South Africa. If only he knew that the song would still be relevant in 2014 America...

Everyone is crying out for peace, yes

None is crying out for justice

Everyone is crying out for peace, yes

None is crying out for justice

 I don't want no peace...

I need equal rights and justice

I need equal rights and justice

I need equal rights and justice

Got to get it, equal rights and justice...

[embed]http://youtu.be/iqeOTg2a-l8[/embed]

10 Survival Tips for Young Black Folks in the United States.

In the wake of the ridiculous verdict of the St. Louis County grand jury on the cold-blooded shooting of Michael Brown, here are ten survival tips for young black folks to consider:

1. Stay away as far as possible from any city or town that has no favorable racial diversity in its law enforcement agency.


2. If you’re already stuck in such a city or town, avoid driving in the evening as much as possible.


3. Don’t go driving about with your car loaded with black friends. It’s a sure invitation to racial profiling at the hands of white cops.


4. If you get pulled over by a white cop, make sure to place your two hands calmly on the steering wheel as he or she approaches the car. And put a “zipper” on your lips!


5. When the cop asks for your driver’s license, registration and insurance, gently inform him or her when you’re about to reach for the required documents.


6. Make sure to say “Yes sir/ma’am” or “No sir/ma’am” to any question asked.


7. It’s DUMB to swear, curse or argue with anyone that has a gun. If you disagree with a cited violation or traffic ticket, keep your feeling to yourself. You can always go to court later to argue it out.


8. Please NOTE that cops are humans too. They have prejudices, frustrations, miserable lives and anger management issues just like other mortals.


9. Yes, this is a land of freedom and liberty. But if you rely on that slogan to confront an armed cop (legitimately or not) you may be doing so at your own peril.


10. And, lest I forget, there can never be any change in this God’s own country unless you and I make it a duty to always go VOTE at every election!

These are times that call for common sense. It’s better to appear stupid and be alive than to “show off” and end up six feet below!

Eyewitness to the Murder of Michael Brown.

Dorian Johnson (shown below) was a friend of Michael Brown, the 18-year-old who was fatally shot by a police officer in Fergusson, Missouri last Saturday.



On the fateful day, according to Johnson, the two young men were taking a stroll when the police officer pulled over to yell at the duo to leave the road and “get the f—k on the sidewalk”.



The young men’s explanation that their destination, the home of the victim’s grandmother (shown above) was not far, failed to impress the officer who got out of his patrol car to grab Michael Brown. He wanted to drag the young man into the car. When he finally extricated himself from the officer’s strong-arm hold, Brown was said to have broken into a run.

On seeing this, the officer pulled out his gun and began to shoot the young man. At a point, said Johnson, Michael Brown stopped to raise-up his hands before pleading that “I don’t have a gun, stop shooting!”

Again, the police officer was not impressed. Now face-to-face with the victim, he began to shoot at Brown. The officer fired several more shots even as the victim crumbled to the ground and curled into a fetal position.

The silly excuse of the affected police department was that the victim tried to force himself into the officer’s car. So far, this is the worst excuse ever given for the wrongful shooting of an unarmed African American victim. Why so? No African American man will ever attempt to voluntarily step into a police patrol car.

 

 

William S. Scarborough - Too Much Ahead of His Time.

William S. Scarborough was born a slave in Georgia, but went on to become one of the nation’s leading scholars in Greek and Latin literature.

In fact, many consider Scarborough to be the first African-American classical scholar. Born in February 16, 1852, in Macon, Georgia, Scarborough’s father was a freed slave but his mother was still enslaved, thus he inherited her status. Although educating slaves was against the law, Scarborough was secretly taught how to read and write in the classical languages.

He later went on to serve as an apprentice shoemaker, and then worked as a secretary at a well-known Black association because of his studies. Scarborough attended college at Atlanta University before heading to Oberlin where he graduated with honors in 1875.

The following year, he returned to Macon to teach the classical languages at his former high school. Despite his gifts, many were against Scarborough teaching at the school. At the time, both Black and White figures in society believed that the liberal arts were wasted on Black people. Booker T. Washington and other prominent Blacks thought that vocational education was more beneficial to Blacks than learning the classics.

Arsonists set the school where Scarborough worked on fire, and Macon officials allowed it to burn to the ground. After that, Scarborough moved to South Carolina where he encountered even worse treatment and eventually returned to Oberlin.

There, he obtained his Master’s and became a professor at Wilberforce University, then one of the premiere Black colleges. Scarborough published a popular college textbook titled First Lessons In Greek and in 1881, he married Sarah Bierce, a white principal he met while working at the school in Macon.

Scarborough was one of the first Black members to join national academic groups, including the American Philological Association (APA), and was the very first to join the Modern Languages Association (MLA). The MLA has since created a first-book prize bearing Scarborough’s name. While prestigious academic bodies recognized Scarborough, he was constantly bombarded by racism and suffered financially because of it. One of Scarborough’s lowest moments occurred during an APA meeting in Baltimore in 1909.

Archaeologist Francis W. Kelsey rescinded Scarborough’s invitation because the hotel where the event was held would not serve dinner if the Black professor were present. Scarborough remained at Wilberforce until he was appointed to serve in the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he worked until his death in 1926.

What are the Conditions of Your Eyes?

A young couple moves into a new neighborhood.

The next morning, while eating breakfast, the young woman sees her neighbor hanging some newly-washed clothes in the open yard.

"Those clothes are not clean", she said. "Doesn't she know how to wash clothes?"

Her husband looked on, but remained silent.

It was always like this each time the neighbor comes out into the yard to hang her clothes. The young woman would make the same comments to her husband.

About one month later, the woman was surprised to see some nice, clean clothes hanging on the line in the yard.

"Look..." she told her husband. "Our neighbor has finally learned to wash clothes properly..."

The husband looked at her, shook his head and said.

"I got up early this morning to clean our windows."

"So..." the woman was stunned."The problem was with our dirty windows...and not the clothes?"

And so it is with life ... what we see while observing other people depends on the condition of our eyes---are they pure or tainted with prejudice and stereotypes?

The Color of Music.

In Nigeria and many parts of Africa, people fall in love with good music, irrespective of the language, color or the nationality of the musicians or singers. It is indeed common to walk into the home of a music lover in Nigeria and see an array of CDs, tapes and, for those who still have them, "albums" of assorted music genres from indigenous Nigerian music to R&B, Soul, Reggae, Country, Jazz, Classical and Rock. Some Nigerians even listen to Hard rock and the Metallica!

When you tune to any Nigerian radio station, one moment, a Soul music will come blaring at you while, the next moment, a Country music will start to play to your delight. Over there, once you are a music lover, that is it! Back in those days...and I am talking about 20 years or more...I could vividly remember a lot of friends, neighbors and colleagues whose stereos would blast, day and night, mostly the songs of Don Williams, Kenny Rogers, Dolly Patton and those of the other Country musicians. 

The Nigerian music scene has always been a showcase for the popular phrase that music is an international language with no form of barriers. I thought that was the belief all over the global community until I got to the United States and discovered, to my chagrin, that music did (and does) have language and color barriers among a whole lot of people.

During the apartheid regime in South Africa, according to one White South African I once met, the music of Mariam Makeba, Hugh Masekela and certain other Black musicians were officially banned on radio and other media. This however did not stop many White South Africans, including some of them who were most notorious in their  supports for the evil practice, from listening to these same "Black music" in the privacy of their homes.

That is the effect music has on the psyche of people the world over with the exception of America!


A couple of years ago, as a believer in "music while you work", I was at work listening to a series of downloaded music on my desktop computer when a colleague walked into the office.

"Don't tell me you're listening to that kind of music..." he asked indignantly. "...that's a Redneck music!..."

What he referred to as a "Redneck" music was "In the Misty Moonlight", a classical duet recorded among others such as "Dear John" and "Together Again" in the 1960s by Skeeter Davis and Bobby Bare. These were beautiful love songs that I grew up listening to and, so were such a huge part of my childhood that they never fail to evoke certain sense of nostalgia in me each time I listen to them. Incidentally, while in high school in the 1970s, a classmate of mine brought a tape containing some of these songs to school that we all enjoyed listening to. But to my ignorant colleague, all he could hear or see in the song was some racial issue!

Some minutes later, I was listening to "I can't stop loving you" by Ray Charles when another colleague, of a different race, walked into the office.

"Jesus!..." he exclaimed in disgust. "Are you turning this place into an extension of Soul Train?"

Ironically, this was the same fool who, about an hour earlier, had paid me huge compliments for listening to some "good, old Country songs."

This time though, I had to educate him. I told him he had been so blinded by racial prejudice that he did not know "I can't stop loving you" by Ray Charles was under the Country genre of music.

All over the world, music is an international medium of expression with no barriers of color, race or language. But in America, interest in music is divided into race, color, language and everything else anyone with a sense of racial bigotry can think of. The only exception to the rule consists of very few individuals who dare to appreciate whatever they consider to be good music without any narrow recourse to the racial backgrounds of the musicians.