The Iroquois Confederacy, in part, established the
political system in the United States. Its main contributions included
"legislative decorum", a "commerce clause" in the U.S. Constitution and
the "art of compromise". These political and legal concepts were
unknown in England. Kemet was also a major contributor to this country's political system
On March 10th the mothers of Trayvon Martin and Jordan Davis were in Florida's state capital, Tallahassee, to demand the repeal of the
state's "Stand Your Ground" law while Florida's legislators, on the
other hand, intend to expand it. The political strategy of Black
legislators, in Florida, is unknown Watch out for payoffs.
Unfortunately, these mothers are ignoring "living" history.
The paradigm for struggle against Florida's "Stand Your Ground" law can
be found in the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955 to the detriment of Rosa
Parks and for the benefit of Black America. The object was Alabama's
segregated law on intrastate travel.
The goal was
to bring Alabama down to its financial knees. It is very difficult to
"bargain" with a white supremacist while he or she is standing on his or
her feet. "Bargaining" by enslaved Africans was impermissible. Whites
are still accustomed to bargaining unilaterally, with Blacks. "Plea
bargaining" is an illusion.
In order for the
mothers of racially-motivated victims, like Trayvon Martin and Jordan
Davis, to achieve their objectives, they must first establish a
"bargaining table". A demand, according to Frederick Douglass, must be
placed on the bargaining table. "Power concedes nothing without a
demand. It never did and it never will". The mothers of Trayvon Martin
and Jordan Davis must not be viewed as half-stepping in bringing white
supremacists to the bargaining table.
There is an
irreconcilable conflict in this First Amendment right to petition the
government for a redress of grievances. A buffer has been placed
between their demand on American capitalism and the monetary appetite of
their representatives. Their chief representatives head the Wall
Street Initiative and the Madison Avenue Initiative. Revs. Jesse
Jackson and Al Sharpton have already raised the white flag. White
supremacists will never finance our liberation.
Speaking of a demand, neither Rev. Jackson nor Rev. Sharpton has made a
demand on any of Florida's three branches of government. The first law
of a slave is racial accommodationism and racial harmony. Racial
justice is foreign to slaves. For a slave, this includes not making a
demand on the slave master. Frederick Douglass is out. Sambo is in.
The not guilty verdict in the trial of George Zimmerman has sparked lots of different responses across the country.
Most progressive people are disappointed that a jury of six females did
not find Zimmerman guilty of murdering unarmed teenager Trayvon Martin.
These liberal, progressives feel that Zimmerman deserves to be in prison
for murder. They can clearly see that Zimmerman racially profiled
Martin, stalked him, then killed him based on the fact that he was
black. White AmeriKKKa has a way of racializing crime and violence as
something that black people do. Zimmerman was inclined to think that
because Martin was black and wearing a hoodie, he was up to no good- an obvious case of racial profiling.
The conservative right wing whites in AmeriKKKa are saying that the
murder of Martin was not based on race. They are also foolish enough to
think that racism no longer exits in AmeriKKKa because of the election
of Barak Obama. The lie that they tell says that we now live in a post
racial society and that African Americans have equal opportunity based on the idea
that a black man is president. They also speak often about black on
black violence. They always seem to say black on black violence is a
worst issue than white vigilantes like George Zimmerman. They use this
as an excuse to avoid paying attention to extreme people like Zimmerman.
They talk as if black people are too stupid to fight for change on more
than one front.
The idea that black people are not upset about black on black violence
is completely false. There are plenty of well established black
organizations that are doing their best to combat black on black
violence. The Nation Of Islam, The National Action Network, The
Universal Zulu Nation, The New Black Panther Party, Life Camp, The
Peoples Organization For Progress, Man Up! and many others have all been
making a concerted effort to do away with black on black violence for
years. The mainstream media will not report the positive activities of
these organizations because a positive story involving black people is
unheard of. The corporate media prefers to show images of black men with
their hands cuffed behind their backs doing the "perp-walk." Besides, loud talking, angry black people are not preferred in AmeriKKKa despite what they are saying.
The New York Times however has printed an article about black people
making a positive change. The article focuses on New York based Man Up Inc. and the
effort they are making to end gun violence in Brooklyn. This is one of
the first times a grassroots organization that was developed in the
African American community got some positive press. The article, written
by Jim Dwyer reads as follows:
No Shootings or Killings for 363 Days, but the Fight Is Far From Over
In the storefront window on Van Siclen Avenue, an electronic sign shows a
running total of how long it has been since the last shooting took
place in an area of roughly 20 square blocks in East New York, Brooklyn.
As of Thursday afternoon, the sign read:
363 Days No Shootings No Killings.
This week one year ago, a neighborhood development organization, Man
Up!, began to send people into the streets to figure out where the
violence was going next so they could hit the pause button. Mediate.
Listen. Talk.
Some workers in the project had been street criminals themselves; others
had been victims of violent crime, losing partners and children to it.
“You get tired of going to people’s funeral that you grew up with, or
their kids’ funerals, from gun violence in the street,” a member of the
group, Athena Collins, 43, said. The father of her five children was
murdered.
At twilight on Wednesday,
a boy biking through the grounds of the Boulevard Houses, a city
housing project, saw five people from Man Up!, easy to spot by their
T-shirts and the ID cards dangling from their necks.
“Hotep!” the boy hollered.
“Hotep,” replied Kenneth Watson, one of the group. It is an Egyptian
word meaning peace, Mr. Watson explained. When Man Up! connected with
young people — especially boys — it encouraged them to think and speak
with pride in ancient African principles adapted to Brooklyn 2013.
The boy, De-Ron Jones-Gibbs, 14, said workers from Man Up! had come to
his classroom months ago at J.H.S. 166 George Gershwin. “All the bad
students would go in that one classroom,” De-Ron said.
Was he a bad student?
He giggled and nodded. “They’re brothers, mentors,” he said, adding that
they pushed him to avoid fights “and to go straight home after school.”
The founder of Man Up!, Andre T. Mitchell, said the group was trained in
public health approaches developed first in Chicago by the Cure
Violence Initiative. The creator of the initiative, Gary Slutkin, an
epidemiologist, advocated fighting violence as if it were an epidemic,
so that it was essential to interrupt its spread — just as a contagious
disease is contained or prevented.
“People think the violence is just about gangs, but it’s not really,”
Mr. Mitchell said. “The majority are interpersonal disputes: ‘Why you
looking at me?’ ‘No, why you looking at me?’ Our job is to get them
before they reach for the gun.”
Man Up! is paid for mainly by the Young Men’s Initiative, a cluster of
city programs intended to help young black and Latino men who were most
likely to fall behind and to be victims of crime or involved in it.
Those programs are heavily supported by the private philanthropy of
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and the Open Society Foundation.
The area targeted by Man Up! is bounded by Linden Boulevard, Ashford
Street, and Pennsylvania and Cozine Avenues, which includes three
projects and three schools, and about 20,000 people, Mr. Mitchell said.
The streets felt relaxed. “It’s more productive out here since they
came,” Craig Pruitt, 16, said, pausing from a playground basketball
game. “You don’t have to worry about the violence.”
Asked Thursday about Man Up!, officials in the Police Department did not reply.
Mr. Mitchell said that safe streets required a strong police presence,
but that the community had a primary role in keeping the peace.
“Everybody is responsible,” he said.
The authority of the Man Up! workers is “based on trust,” Mr. Watson
said. “That people don’t see us as police officers. We don’t share any
information with the police. Our job is to stop the shooting and
killing. Minimize it.”
As a younger man, Mr. Mitchell said, he sold drugs, then went to prison for a manslaughter that he said he was not involved in.
A salesman in his drug business, Tislam Milliner, went to prison for an
armed robbery. He is now known as the rapper Tiz and has the job with
Man Up! of talking to people in the hospital after they have been shot.
“If they say, ‘I never seen you in my life,’ I’m going to tell you who I
am,” Mr. Milliner said. “I’m who you are. I was once what you are.”
In the days before the group began, there were three homicides in the Man Up! zone, Mr. Mitchell said.
Were they tempting fate by talking about 363 days without shootings?
“If we happen to not make it, then we just work on our next year,” Mr.
Milliner said. “Once you start believing that just because you made a
year, we done solved this whole big problem, you’re a fool.”
It has been a while since I wrote anything. I have been busy trying to get my life in order. I applied for a masters in science at CW Post. I got into the program to become a Licensed Mental Health Counselor. My focus will be relationship counseling. I have also been actively pursuing a better job, one that will look great on a resume and put money in my pocket that feels great. So that is a little update on my life. Now to get to the writing. This article may completely change how you view me. I realize that and accept it. So here goes...
The last week America has been in an uproar, especially the African-American community. The case of the State of Florida v. George Zimmerman has caused a lot of stress and division. As I look on my Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter I realize that many of the people I care for have vastly different views on this case. Some people feel it was a case on race and others feel it was self-defense. I have even read that the case should not have been tried because George Zimmerman followed the law to the letter. Everyone has an opinion and it seems everyone has become a lawyer.
To be honest I did not follow the case as closely as many people. I could not. I did not have the heart to do so. My heart was twisted in so many directions regarding this case. I am the mother of an African-American and Hispanic son. My child is only two but, I always fear for his future. As a black mother you do not just have to worry about your child getting good grades, going off to college and living the American dream. You have to worry about so much more. I wonder how he will fare being raised in a single parent home. Most times children raised in single parent homes face more struggles in lives. I worry if he will engage in nefarious activities and end up in prison. I worry if he will have a child before marriage. I do not believe many mothers from the paler ethnic groups have these same fears while raising their son.
marriage or contract an STD. I worry if he will be bullied. I worry what his sexual orientation will be. I gave him a name that was gender and ethnically ambiguous so that it will make it easier for him to get a job. The Zimmerman case now has me worried if he is walking down the street on a cold night in a decent neighborhood witha hoodie on, will someone mistake him for a criminal, attack, and shoot him?
Another issue that weighed on my mind is the racial climate of the south. As many of my readers know I went to law school last year in Louisiana. I found out in under a year, that it was not the place for me. The racial tension in the south is thick. I honestly find that both African-American and Caucasian-Americans hold prejudicial stereotypes against one another. I am a woman of mixed race which I found out is only something northerners care about. In the south if your skin is dark your black, that's it. You better know your place and stay in it. So when I read people's statements that this is not a race issue, I recall my own experiences, and I know that is entirely untrue. I also find it laughable that while Zimmerman clearly looks Hispanic, he identifies with being Caucasian. I also see that the whole brown bag test holds true down there. I have had to be in Sanford, Florida many times in my life. I am just glad to only have been passing through that very dark place. I also recall the comments of "Juror B37" She already had her mind made up about how she felt about the young black male walking through a white neighborhood. Her comments came off as Trayvon got what he deserved. I am not sure that is true based off the evidence that was presented. We honestly do not know what actually occurred that night and can only speculate on what led to Trayvon's final moments.
The way Mark O' Mara argued Zimmerman's case was beyond great. I honestly do not see how Zimmerman could have been convicted. He totally threw out the using "Stand Your Ground" as his defense and went with self-defense. The State did a poor job with everything. The Jury selection process showed they did not use any of their nullification powers. The Jury was of six people and a majority Caucasian females. I do not see how that equates to the jury of a Hispanic male in his late 20's peers. They presented evidence in a lackluster manner and did not even ask the real stirring and important questions of the witnesses. A lot of people have apparently enrolled in their nearest law schools in the last month. They think they know how the verdict should have been decided. I feel unless you have sat through 40 hours of 3-7 different actual law classes, and taken a 5 hour exams for said courses for at least a semester, you should really take a seat. Mark O' Mara argued the law in a fashion that Florida State should be proud of. Clearly the gazillion hours he spent in their law libraries and on LexisNexis and WestLaw paid off. I personally find Zimmerman to be a total douche, but I do believe that in this case the law prevailed. I do truly hope that the Martin family can find justice in a civil court or that Attorney General Eric Holder will take a bit more action than confiscating Zimmerman's gun.
Please enjoy this song about ending gun Violence Directed By Kraze of Industry Muscle and Performed by Melly Mel a Rapper from Long Island, NY.......
Well this me signing of.... Remember all isn't fair in love and war!
A police sergeant in Florida will have to find a new job, after he brought Trayvon Martin shooting targets to a target practice shooting session. The targets were identifable as Martin because of the inclusion of a hoodie, a bag of skittles, and an Arizona drink.
Fellow cops found Sgt. Ron King with the questionable targets and discovered that he intended to use them in his firearm training. They reportedly told King "they didn't think it was appropriate," called their Police Chief, who in turn called internal affairs.
"We want to apologize to the community and the family of Trayvon Martin and don't feel that this is tolerable or acceptable in any level. It's something that we'd never want the Port Authority to be involved in and we truly apologize to the families for the pain that they even had to hear about something like this and had to relive their son's death again," said Cape Canaveral Port Authority CEO, John Walsh.
The incident comes about two months before the high-profile second-degree murder trial of George Zimmerman.
On February 26, our son Trayvon Martin was shot and killed as he walked to a family member's home from a convenience store where he had just bought some candy. He was only 17 years-old.
Trayvon's killer, George Zimmerman, admitted to police that he shot Trayvon in the chest. Zimmerman, the community's self appointed "neighborhood watch leader," called the police to report a suspicious person when he saw Travyon, a young black man, walking from the store. But Zimmerman still hasn't been charged for murdering our son.
Trayvon was our hero. At the age 9, Trayvon pulled his father from a burning kitchen, saving his life. He loved sports and horseback riding. At only 17 he had a bright future ahead of him with dreams of attending college and becoming an aviation mechanic. Now that’s all gone.
When Zimmerman reported Trayvon to the police, they told him not to confront him. But he did anyway. All we know about what happened next is that our 17 year-old son, who was completely unarmed, was shot and killed.
It's been nearly two weeks and the Sanford Police have refused to arrest George Zimmerman. In their public statements, they even go so far as to stand up for the killer - saying he's "a college grad" who took a class in criminal justice.
Please join us in calling on Norman Wolfinger, Florida's 18th District State's Attorney, to investigate my son's murder and prosecute George Zimmerman for the shooting and killing of Trayvon Martin.
Tragically, a black male teenager killed by a gunshot is hardly news in America. So, it was perhaps no surprise that the killing of Trayvon Martin, a 17-year-old, shot at a close-range by George Zimmerman, a crime-watch volunteer in a gated community in north Orlando, attracted little initial attention. No one was arrested. Police briefly questioned Mr. Zimmerman, 28, who said he fired his Kel-Tec, 9 mm semi-automatic in self-defence, fearing for his life. The dead boy’s father identified his son – who had gone to a 7-Eleven store to buy a can of iced tea and a bag of Skittles – from a police photograph with blood coming from his mouth. Police ordered drug tests on the victim, not the shooter. Case closed. Homicide, usually by gunfire, is the highest cause of death among male African-American teens. Add in suicide and accidental shootings and the rate rockets to more than seven times the level of whites, for whom car wrecks pose the gravest danger. Except, in this case, too many things didn’t add up. Perhaps instead of self-defense, this was a vigilante killing, tinged with racism and covered up – or at least ignored – by a police department with a previous record of cutting slack to certain shooters – in a once mostly-white community transformed by foreclosures and stress into a minority-majority neighbourhood. Seems Mr. Zimmerman told the 911 dispatcher that he was tracking a black teen “up to no good, or he’s on drugs or something.” At some point just after dusk on Feb. 26, the crime-watch volunteer got out of his SUV. There was a struggle between the 70-kilogram teenager and the 120-kilogram Mr. Zimmerman. Nearby, a 13-year-old walking his dog said heard screams for help that suddenly went silent at the moment of gunshot. Just what happened in the last moments of Trayvon Martin’s life may never been known. The B+ high school student from Miami had wanted a career in aviation. But he was also serving a 5-day suspension from school for chronic tardiness and was visiting his father in Sanford. Mr. Zimmerman was something of a law-enforcement wannabe and zealous, or perhaps just dedicated, in his crime-watch role. In more than 45 calls to 911 dispatchers in just over a year, he had asked for police backup or reported ‘suspicious’ person. He had a Florida permit to carry a concealed weapon. On the night the teenager died, Mr. Zimmerman ignored the 911 dispatcher’s caution that he didn’t need to follow the boy. “He just disregards their instructions, and he goes like a loose cannon with a gun and shoots this kid in cold blood,” claims Benjamin Crump, one of the lawyers now representing the Martin family. Sanford police say they are satisfied with Mr. Zimmerman’s self-defence version of events. Florida has a “stand your ground” law which allows deadly force to be used even in public, rather than requiring citizens to back away from a confrontation. “I hold law enforcement officers in the highest regard as I hope to one day become one,” Mr. Zimmerman once wrote on an application form, although he was once arrested for assault on a police officer. That charge was dropped. As the odd circumstances surrounding the death spread, outrage grew. More than 1,000 people attended the teen’s funeral. More than 250,000 have signed an online petition demanding a better investigation. Mr. Zimmerman has gone into hiding. His father, Robert, issued a statement insisting “at no time did George follow or confront Mr. Martin” and refuting allegations that race played a role. “The media portrayal of George as a racist could not be further from the truth,” adding his son was Hispanic and “would be the last to discriminate for any reason whatsoever.” Meanwhile, Sanford police – who belatedly released the 911 tapes that cast doubt on their initial conclusion of simple self-defense – have said they would welcome outside help. “It’s an open book,” said Police Chief Bill Lee Jr., adding the swirl of media attention is “the craziest damn thing I’ve ever seen, and it’s sad.” The next likely step, the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Justice Department, are watching the case and may take it on. In one tearful interview, Sybrina Fulton, the dead boy’s mother, said: “My son didn’t do anything … he was walking home from the store. Why would the neighbourhood watch guy have a weapon? It’s just crazy. You are supposed to watch the neighbourhood, not take the law into your own hands.”
