Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver-Velez
As the 24 hour news cycle moves on, leaving Waffle House domestic terrorist Travis Reinking out of the headlines — I applaud The Root, and Felice León for this take on the white men who commit murder and fall quickly off the radar.
Her video was a follow-up to VSB’s Damon Young’s read on the issue:
A few months ago, during a conversation on Facebook about one of the many mass shootings committed by a white man (I forget which one), the homie Sai Grundy wrote that (paraphrasing) one of the byproducts of the criminalization of blackness is that white people are often able to elude suspicion by virtue of their whiteness. While we capture all of the attention, they sneak on by.
The most prominent recent example of this I can think of is Stephen Paddock, the (white) man who killed 58 people in Las Vegas. Imagine how invisible to everyone you must be—and how aware of your invisibility you must be—to somehow be able to collect 23 rifles in a hotel room in one of the busiest and most densely populated places in the world. He amassed a freakin’ arsenal and was able to do so without anyone stopping to ask him a question or inspect his room.
Anyway, the more we learn about Travis Reinking—the man who allegedly mowed down four people at a Tennessee Waffle House—the harder it is to imagine any of this happening if he had happened to be black.
When I think of invisible men — I immediately jump mentally to Ralph Ellison, and his seminal work, Invisible Man.
This white invisibility is of course another benefit of privilege and a different kind of erasure. “White” does not equal criminal, carries no stigma, is normative, and non-threatening in the lexicon of the majority.
Take these white men .
Back when they were busted, some of the most thorough coverage came from The Guardian. Their selected victims — Black, African, Somali, Muslim, immigrants — do not meet the ratings level for extended national outrage.
Reading the Guardian story — I shuddered. I also wondered (already knowing the answer) that if they had succeeded would their names and crime soon be forgotten —like the Sikh Temple massacre committed by white supremacist Neo-Nazi Wade Michael Page?
Three Kansas men convicted over mass 'slaughter' plot targeting Muslims
Three members of a Kansas militia with a hatred of Muslim immigrants have been found guilty of plotting to blow up a mosque and apartment complex that housed Somali refugees in order to “wake people up”.
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A federal jury in Wichita convicted Patrick Stein, Gavin Wright and Curtis Allen on charges of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction and conspiracy against civil rights.
In phone conversations and meetings in the city of Liberal, authorities said, the accused referred to Muslims as “cockroaches” and denigrated Somali women.
They schemed to destroy the complex in Garden City, a place with 27,000 inhabitants about 210 miles west of Wichita that was once held up as a beacon for ethnic diversity in the rural midwest because of an influx of immigrants working at a meat-packing plant.
“Their ultimate goal was to wake people up and to slaughter every man, woman and child in the building,” the assistant US attorney Anthony Mattivi said in his closing argument in federal court in Wichita on Tuesday.
Authorities said the bombing was to have been timed for the day after the election because the conspirators feared that an attack before the vote would boost turnout for Trump’s Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton.
“We cannot let Hillary back into the White House,” Stein allegedly said in text messages to an undercover agent. “If she was to be elected, it would be very soon after the election, ‘game on.’”
Meanwhile, James Shaw Jr. continues to raise funds for the victims of the Waffle House Shootings — Taurean C. Sanderlin, Joe Perez, Akilah DaSilva and DeEbony Groves.
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News round up by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
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The study, which looked at more than 1,000 top executives at large and mid-sized U.S. public companies found that white male managers on average experienced a "lower sense of identity with their company" after the appointment of a female and/or racial minority CEO.
Researchers found that white male executives working under a female and/or racial minority were also less likely to provide help to fellow colleagues, with an especially negative effect on help provided to minority status colleagues.
Michigan Ross professor Jim Westphal called the responses his research team received from participants "unfortunate."
He warned that the tendency of white male executives to avoid helping female and racial minority colleagues could "harm the career prospects" of workers who are already under-represented in leadership roles.
"Our study identifies an important mechanism by which such appointments may, counterintuitively, harm the career prospects of other female and racial minority managers by reducing the amount of help that they receive from their white male colleagues," Westphal said in a statement.
He also said the lack of support shared between colleagues in the office could reflect poorly on the CEO as a result.
Women and people of color are already more likely to be promoted to high leadership levels within companies during times of crisis, a phenomenon known as the "glass cliff." If they are unable to lead their companies out of a crisis, they are quickly replaced by white men, according to a 2014 study on the phenomenon.
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A step-by-step guide to use the Department of Education’s latest data release to uncover and address racial disparities in your district. Color Lines: Here's How to Find Out How Racist Your Kids' School Is
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I remember being suspended for “insubordination” in sixth grade. I thought my teacher just didn’t like me. I didn’t know I was experiencing something much deeper and more problematic. It wasn’t just one bad teacher. The entire school district was four times more likely to suspend students who looked like me—Black boys—than our White peers. And while I didn’t have the information I needed to make sense of my situation then, we now have all the tools we need to fight back.
This week, the United States Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights Data Collection released new data on racial disparities and other forms of discrimination in virtually every school and school district in America, from pre-K through 12th grade. Collected every two years, the data shows which groups of students each school suspends each year, who gets referred to police, who gets arrested at school and who gets access to high quality teachers and advanced courses. This is an invaluable resource for students, parents and educators to dismantle the school to prison pipelineand address systemic injustices in our nation’s schools. Here’s how you use it to combat racism in your school:
1. Find your school or district. Go to the site and look up the most recent data available for your school or district. Right now, that’s data from the 2015-16 school year.
2. Pull up your school’s profile. When you click on your school, it will pull up a profile that shows basic information about the students and teachers in the school. There are several links on the right side where you can find data on school discipline, access to gifted and advanced classes, and other issues.
3. Find the school discipline report. One of the most important parts of the site is the school discipline report, which can be accessed via a link on the right side of the page. This is where you can find out if Black students and kids from other marginalized groups are more likely to be suspended, expelled or referred to police. You can also see who is most likely to be arrested at school by clicking on the school related arrests link.
4. Be prepared for opposition. When you present the district data showing Black students are more likely to be disciplined, you will inevitably find people who try to say that it’s because Black students misbehave more. This is an untrue, racist belief. Be prepared to shut them down with facts. For example, research shows Black and White students are sent to the principal’s office at similar rates and that they commit serious offenses, like bringing weapons or drugs to school, at similar rates, too. And when Black students misbehave, they are punished more severely than White students who commit the same offenses.
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Kenyan authorities have banned Wanuri Kahiu’s “Rafiki” (Friend), an LGBT love story which will have its world premiere in Cannes’ Un Certain Regard next month. Kahiu announced the decision Friday morning, saying she was “incredibly disappointed” during an appearance on the “Morning Express” wake-up show on Kenyan network KTN.
“Unfortunately, our film has been censored in Kenya, because it deals with matters that are uncomfortable for the Kenya Film Classification Board,” she said. “But I truly believe that an adult Kenyan audience is mature and discerning enough to be able to watch this film and have their own conversation.”
She added, “[‘Rafiki’ is] a reflection of society, and we need to be having conversations about what is happening in our society. But unfortunately, because the film has been banned, we’ll be unable to have these conversations.”
The film is the story of two teenage girls who develop a romance that’s opposed by their families and community. It was adapted from the short story “Jambula Tree,” by Uganda’s Monica Arac de Nyeko, which was awarded the prestigious Caine Prize for African Writing in 2007.
In a copy of the film board’s ruling obtained by Variety, CEO Ezekiel Mutua noted “with great concern” the movie’s depiction of “homosexual practices that run counter to the laws and the culture of Kenyan people.”
He added, “It is our considered view that the moral of the story in this film is to legitimize lesbianism in Kenya contrary to the law and the Board’s content classification guidelines.”
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At 12:30 p.m. on Wednesday, shortly before a matinee of “Once on This Island,” one of the Broadway musical’s featured players was taking a walk outside as part of his warm up. He was turning heads.
Not because he’s a theater star. It was just unusual to see a goat on 50th Street.
His name is Sparky, and he is typically on stage with chickens, discarded trash, several tons of sand — oh, and singing and dancing performers, too.
At the Circle in the Square Theater, the set for “Once On This Island” — which tells a legend of star-crossed love transcending class lines in the Caribbean — is a character itself.
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It seems appropriate that the Rev. Dr. James Hal Cone, radical Christian, father of Black Liberation Theology, soldier against white supremacy, renowned author, and longtime academic around the American phenomenon of lynching, would die in the same week that the national lynching memorial opened in Montgomery, Ala.
It is a divine nod to a job well done.
Cone, the Bill & Judith Moyers Distinguished Professor of Systematic Theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York, died on Saturday. He was 79 years old.
Cone is the founder of Black Liberation Theology, which linked the gospel of Christ to people of color in a white supremacist construct.
Many prominent activists, academics, scholars and theologians took to social media to mourn Dr. Cones’ passing:
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Voices and Soul
by
Justice Putnam
Black Kos Poetry Editor
I will never know what it is to be black, I have an idea, but I’ll never know, really. But if asked what I would tell my children and grandchildren who are black? Well, first I’d say, “black is beautiful.”
What shall I tell my children who are black
Of what it means to be a captive in this dark skin
What shall I tell my dear one, fruit of my womb,
Of how beautiful they are when everywhere they turn
They are faced with abhorrence of everything that is black.
Villains are black with black hearts.
A black cow gives no milk. A black hen lays no eggs.
Bad news comes bordered in black, black is evil
And evil is black and devils' food is black…
What shall I tell my dear ones raised in a white world
A place where white has been made to represent
All that is good and pure and fine and decent.
Where clouds are white, and dolls, and heaven
Surely is a white, white place with angels
Robed in white, and cotton candy and ice cream
and milk and ruffled Sunday dresses
And dream houses and long sleek cadillacs
And angel's food is white…all, all…white.
What can I say therefore, when my child
Comes home in tears because a playmate
Has called him black, big lipped, flatnosed
and nappy headed? What will he think
When I dry his tears and whisper, "Yes, that's true.
But no less beautiful and dear."
How shall I lift up his head, get him to square
His shoulders, look his adversaries in the eye,
Confident of the knowledge of his worth,
Serene under his sable skin and proud of his own beauty?
What can I do to give him strength
That he may come through life's adversities
As a whole human being unwarped and human in a world
Of biased laws and inhuman practices, that he might
Survive. And survive he must! For who knows?
Perhaps this black child here bears the genius
To discover the cure for…Cancer
Or to chart the course for exploration of the universe.
So, he must survive for the good of all humanity.
He must and will survive.
I have drunk deeply of late from the foundation
Of my black culture, sat at the knee and learned
From Mother Africa, discovered the truth of my heritage,
The truth, so often obscured and omitted.
And I find I have much to say to my black children.
I will lift up their heads in proud blackness
With the story of their fathers and their fathers
Fathers. And I shall take them into a way back time
of Kings and Queens who ruled the Nile,
And measured the stars and discovered the
Laws of mathematics. Upon whose backs have been built
The wealth of continents. I will tell him
This and more. And his heritage shall be his weapon
And his armor; will make him strong enough to win
Any battle he may face. And since this story is
Often obscured, I must sacrifice to find it
For my children, even as I sacrificed to feed,
Clothe and shelter them. So this I will do for them
If I love them. None will do it for me.
I must find the truth of heritage for myself
And pass it on to them. In years to come I believe
Because I have armed them with the truth, my children
And my children's children will venerate me.
For it is the truth that will make us free!
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