"The State of the Black Union"
Commentary by Black Kos Editor JoanMar
The President's State of the Union address to the nation was a thing of beauty.
Barack Obama was doing what he does best and we loved almost every minute of it.
Despite the pride and pleasure we took in seeing him at the podium, we recognized that the President's State of the Union speech did not address the most pressing issue affecting the black community. The fact that we are under siege, that we are being terrorized, that a war is being waged against black mothers and fathers, that the black man has become even more of an endangered species.
After I had whooped, hollered, and hi-fived about his
iconic retort, after the dust had settled, I
sought out a transcript of the speech. It was still a beautiful speech, but I couldn't help feeling profoundly disappointed. The issue that has been occupying my thoughts and the thoughts of concerned people all over this country only merited two short sentences, and even then it came with a false equivalence.
We may have different takes on the events of Ferguson and New York. But surely we can understand a father who fears his son can’t walk home without being harassed. Surely we can understand the wife who won’t rest until the police officer she married walks through the front door at the end of his shift.
The lives of police officers matter. We care that their loved ones worry about their safety. But there's a huge distinction between an officer dying in the line of duty, and the wanton disregard for life shown by people who are paid by our tax dollars to serve and protect us. When an officer is harmed while on duty, if the perpetrators make it out alive, society knows that they will pay for their transgressions. That is is how a criminal justice system works; a crime is committed and the guilty gets punished. Somehow the process gets all twisted when it's the other way around. When "Fergusons" happen, the victims become the thugs, and the murderers become the heroes. You know that Mr. President. I know you do.
As I read through the transcript, I noticed that the president was telling the world how we (the US) conduct ourselves and thus how we expect them to follow our lead. I couldn't help but feel that we had some beams in our eyes that we should attend to before we go lecturing others.
For example, those quotes you see below, shouldn't they really be directed at our law enforcement officers?
Making sure we match our power with diplomacy, and use force wisely.
Second, we are demonstrating the power of American strength and diplomacy. We’re upholding the principle that bigger nations can’t bully the small
Kristiana Coignard had a history of mental health issues, including bipolar disorder and depressing. Three grown adult men armed with guns fired four shots at this teenage girl.
"On Thursday, 17-year-old Kristiana Coignard was shot dead by three police officers in the lobby of the Longview Police Department. Coignard arrived at the station around 6:30 p.m. and asked to talk to an officer. Police say the girl was “brandishing a weapon” before she was shot four times."
The weapon is said to be a knife.
As Americans, we respect human dignity, even when we’re threatened
Darren Wilson fired multiple shots at a fleeing, unarmed youngster, chose to kill him and then left his body in the street for over 4 hours.
As Americans, we have a profound commitment to justice
Darren Wilson will not be charged. Nobody has been charged for some of the most vile and egregious acts of inhumanity we have seen over the past year.
I want our actions to tell every child, in every neighborhood: your life matters, and we are as committed to improving your life chances as we are for our own kids.
I don't expect that the president could have given the speech shown below. He is the president of all of these united states, after all. But upon reflection, it just feels as if there was a party and we were on the outside looking in.
The current state of Black America is anything but just. For Black people in the U.S., the shadow of crisis has not passed.
The State of the Black Union produced by the Black Youth Project
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News by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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The former “senior black correspondent” for The Daily Show is bringing a fresh perspective to late-night television. The Root: Larry Wilmore’s The Nightly Show Is the Black Talk Show We’ve Been Waiting For.
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Last week, Larry Wilmore—host of Comedy Central’s new late-night gig The Nightly Show—began his monologue with this: “Man, all of the good bad-race stuff happened already. Seriously. There’s none left. We’re done.”
But anyone who’s been paying attention to the fast-changing news cycle these days knows that Wilmore’s razor-sharp comedic timing couldn’t have come at a better time.
For those who only know him as The Daily Show’s “senior black correspondent,” Wilmore has been deep in the entertainment game for a while, having served as a writer for In Living Color and having helped create The Bernie Mac Show along with the Eddie Murphy-produced animated series The PJs. Wilmore was all set to serve as showrunner for ABC’s hit series Black-ish when he was named as Stephen Colbert’s replacement after Colbert decided to quit The Colbert Report to accept the job as David Letterman’s replacement over at CBS.
Initially, the show—which is structured around Wilmore’s opening monologue and then segues into a four-person panel—was going to be called The Minority Report, but that idea had to be scrapped when Fox decided to develop a show based on the 2002 Tom Cruise movie of the same name. But even with the name change, Wilmore has made it clear where he’s coming from.
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Hopefully she'll get a pardon. ColorLines: Marissa Alexander Released; Now on House Arrest.
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After serving three years in jail, 34-year-old Marissa Alexander went home yesterday and is now on house arrest. A judge denied the prosecutor’s request for an additional two-year sentence in the case of the Florida mother who in 2010, and nine days after giving birth, fired a gun near her abusive husband and allegedly his children. Alexander subsequently used Florida’s “stand your ground” law as her defense. No one was injured but a jury, MSNBC reports, convicted her in 12 minutes. Alexander was initially sentenced to Florida’s minimum, 20 years, and could’ve faced 60 years in prison. The outcome for Alexander, an African-American woman, provided a stark contrast to that of George Zimmerman, a white Hispanic male, who in a 2013 trial also used the “stand your ground” law in, ultimately, a successful defense in the killing of unarmed 17-year-old African-American, Trayvon Martin. Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law, passed in 2005, has been widely criticized for excusing vigilantiism and uneven application but it remains on the books.
Alexander read a prepared statement as she left the Duval County courthouse yesterday. It said in part:
“Today, after the sentence given by Judge Daniel, my family and I will be able to move on with our lives. Although the journey has been long and there’s been many difficult moments, I could not have arrived here, where I am today, without the thoughts, many thoughts and many prayers of so many people who voiced their support and encouragement. Words can never express my gratitude for those who stood beside me, including my children and family. I am also grateful that Judge Daniel approached this case with such care and diligence.”
Alexander’s estranged husband, Rico Gray, according to First Coast News, “said he is happy that the case is over and that everyone can move forward — especially the children. [He] is happy that she has finally accepted responsibility [but] has concerns about whether she is really remorseful.”
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Racial profiling at it "finest..." The Grio: Video: Seattle police arrest elderly veteran for ‘walking while black’.
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70-year-old Air Force veteran was walking down the street using a golf club as a cane, as he did every day, when a Seattle police officer pulled over and yelled at him to drop the club.
The entire incident which happened on July 9, 2014 was captured by Officer Cynthia Whitlatch’s dash cam and recently acquired by The Stranger.
Whitlatch remains behind her car and shouts 17 times for William Wingate to drop the club, claiming “it is a weapon.” At one point, Whitlatch claims Wingate swung the club at her and hit a stop sign, though the dash cam did not record that happening.
“You just swung that golf club at me,” Whitlatch yells in the recording.
“No, I did not!” exclaims Wingate.
“Right back there,” Whitlatch says back. “It was on audio and video tape.”
When Whitlatch called for backup, Officer Chris Coles arrived. He approached Wingate, calling him “sir,” and asked for the club, which Wingate handed over. The officers then handcuffed him and arrested him; he was booked into jail on charges of harassment and obstruction.
Watch the incident starting at 1:40
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It's nice to see powerful entities practice self reflection. The New Republic: The New Republic's Legacy on Race.
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Legacies are never simple; they create victims as well as beneficiaries. The more substantial the legacy, the more heated the disputes are over who has title of ownership, who gets to enjoy an inheritance, and who is left out in the cold.
One of the most dangerous ways to treat a legacy is to bask in past achievements and revel in riches earned by others without awareness that they came with costs. This shallow legacy-enjoyment is evident in the cheaper sort of nationalism, which glories in a country’s conquests without thought as to the suffering entailed.
The phrase “legacy of racism” encapsulates in a few words a large reality: Bigotries can have complex, ongoing ramifications. Few, if any, longstanding institutions have been historically free of racism. Given the pervasiveness of racism in the past, the struggle to understand this legacy and figure out how to overcome it remains a political and institutional imperative.
Over the last few months, following The New Republic’s centenary anniversary and a staff shake-up, a perceived legacy of racism in the magazine has been the topic of intense arguments, mostly carried out online. In the wake of the debate, vexing questions demand answers: How do we reconcile the magazine’s liberalism, the ideology that animated the Civil Rights revolution, with the fact that many black readers have long seen—and still see—the magazine as inimical and at times outright hostile to their concerns? How could a magazine that published so much excellent on-the-ground reporting on the unforgivable sins visited upon black America by white America—lynchings, legal frame-ups, political disenfranchisement, and more—also give credence to toxic and damaging racial theorizing? And why has The New Republic had only a handful of black editorial staff members in its 100 years?
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