Showing posts with label Racist. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Racist. Show all posts

Thursday, July 10, 2014

How Can A Black Man Who Fails To Love, Respect, and Protect Black Women Call Himself A Man?

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

How Can A Black Man Who Fails To Love, Respect, and Protect Black Women Call Himself A Man?
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Cops Brutally Assault Black Women in Two Separate Incidents
The graphic videos below show two separate incidents of two cowardly White male cops brutally assaulting two unarmed Black females while obviously in a racist and chauvinistic rage. In California, on July 1 , 2014, Ms. Marlene Pinnock, a psychologically challenged great-grandmother, was savagely brutalized by an unnamed White CHP officer on the side of the 10 Freeway in Los Angeles. On May 20, 20014, in Tempe, Arizona, Black female ASU professor, Dr. Ersula Ore, was grabbed by the neck and body slammed to the ground by ASU officer Stewart Farrin.  Video footage of both incidents clearly show that they could have been easily avoided with just a little humility, common decency, and simple common sense. 
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The bottom line to both of these incidents is that both of these cops were suppose to use the least amount of force necessary to control these situations. So one very simple question has to be asked and answered to determine whether or not they used excessive force - would they have handled these situations differently if the victims involved would have been an elderly White grandmother, or one of their own relatives suffering from Alzheimer's?  I'm certain that they would have - a lot differently.  Thus, that fact alone is prima facie evidence that they used excessive force, and they treated these two Black women differently than they would have treated others under similar or the exact same circumstances. 
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With respect to the incident involving the Dr. Ersula Ore, she was simply requesting to be dealt with in a dignified manner. So all the cop had to do was say, "I apologize if you thought I was being disrespectful, ma'am. I'm only doing my job. May I see some identification, please?" But instead, his behavior seemed to say, "I don't care whether you're a professor or not. I'm a cop, so I don't have to respect you. I asked you for identification, and if you don't give it to me I'm taking you to jail." So his behavior purposely aggravated the situation, and PURPOSELY set the chain of events in motion that led to the incident witnessed below. In addition, there was a second officer on the scene, so the two of them could have easily handcuffed the professor without grabbing her by the neck and body slamming her to the ground. Both of these ladies could have sustained life-endangering injuries, and for what - traffic violations!!!?
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According to the Huffington Post:
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"The police report acknowledges that Ore was following instructions set forth by the construction signs. So what is the problem? It appears clear from the video that Ore is in no way acting oddly; it appears clear that, as she says, others are doing exactly as she is doing. It also appears clear that she is civil and communicative with the officer, if frustrated and getting increasingly so. But what she says falls within the realm of what many of us in similar circumstances might say or indeed may have said at some point in our lives. In any case her behavior does not seem in any way threatening. Especially important is that Ore even seems to warn Ferrin that he will embarrass them both if he tries to subdue her in the way he is threatening to do, as she is wearing a skirt. He ignores that warning, and what follows is clear on the video."
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Yet, the ASU authorities issued the following statement:
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CHIEF JOHN PICKENS
"ASU authorities have reviewed the circumstances surrounding the arrest and have found no evidence of inappropriate actions by the ASUPD officers involved. Should such evidence be discovered, an additional, thorough inquiry will be conducted and appropriate actions taken."
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"Because the underlying criminal charges are pending, there is not much more we can say at this time. The Maricopa County Attorney's Office has reviewed all available evidence, including the police report, witness statements, and audio and video recordings of the incident, and decided to press criminal charges of assaulting a police officer, resisting arrest, refusing to provide identification when requested to do so by an officer, and obstructing a highway or public thoroughfare."
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So at best, the attitude of both of these cops were racist, chauvinistic, and extremely immature. They were both engaged in a childish game of "King of the Hill." If instead of these women being, in one case, a Black great-grandmother with obvious psychological issues, and in the other, a Black female professor, it had been Barbara Bush, both officers would have been taken off the job immediately, viewed as a rogue cops, fired, ridiculed, and charged with assault - and no one can convince me otherwise.
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But that said, the Black community must also bare some blame for what happened to these two Black women. No, I'm not implying that the Black community is responsible for making these two cops virulent racists (and yes, in order to brutally assault these two Black women like they did, they're not only chauvinistic and cowardly racists, but more), but I am saying, unequivocally, that by not DEMANDING that Black women be respected, protected, and honored within our community, we throw the doors wide-open for these types of incidents to occur. Do you think a Black cop would even THINK of brutally assaulting a White woman in public without his life being in imminent danger?  Ask yourself, why not?
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IF YOU DON'T CARE ANYTHING ABOUT THE VERY WOMB OF YOUR CULTURE,
WHY SHOULD ANYONE ELSE?
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COP BODY SLAMS A BLACK FEMALE ASU PROFESSOR 
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WHITE COP KICKS 8 MONTH PREGNANT BLACK WOMAN IN STOMACH
(A "FORCED-ENTRY" KICK)
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To My Responsible Brothers And the Community
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I recognize that the vast majority of you out there are breaking your backs on a daily basis trying to provide a home for your families and raise your children to become intelligent, responsible, and productive individuals. But that's no longer enough. The situation in our community has gotten out of hand. While many of us were busy trying to provide for our families, a less responsible - and extremely reckless - minority in our community have abandoned their kids, or at best, set them in front of television sets, watered them twice a day like plants, and allowed them to be raised by BET. As a result, we now have a generation of young people out here (some as old as 40) who have absolutely no idea of what it means to be either Black, or responsible individuals, and these individuals are spreading dysfunction throughout the community.
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But even worse, we’re allowing them to get rich by creating what amounts to ten minute commercials that’s being disseminated all over the world conveying the message that Black people are frivolous and classless, and all that we’re interested in is getting high, abusing our women, and chasing an unearned dollar, regardless to who we have to kill to get it. 
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As a direct result of this message, many people in this country, and abroad, believe that the mores of the most dysfunctional 10 to 15% of the community represents the moral code of the entire Black community. That’s what allowed George Zimmerman to get away with brutally murdering Trayvon Martin in the FIRST DEGREE, and the brutality that we see in the videos above. It also places your child in immediate danger, because there are many ignorant people in this country who believe that killing or brutalizing a Black person, under ANY circumstances, represents good prevailing over evil - and your Black skin is prima facie evidence of the latter.
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So we can no longer tolerate this. First, we’ve got to treat these incidents like a Rosa Parks moment. We got to SEE to it that the cops involved in the videos above are brought to justice, and we should leave no stone unturned to insure the outcome - and I’m not talking about a slap on the wrist, either. These cops must go to jail! And one way to make that much more likely is for every one of us to contact out representatives and let them know in no uncertain terms that if they don’t come out aggressively against these officers that we will not only NOT support them in the next election, but we will ACTIVELY seek someone else to run in their place.
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Secondly, we must come together in the very same way to support local activists, regardless to where these kind of incidents occur in the country. There was another incident that took place in Canton, Miss. where a judge, Bill Weisenberger, moonlighting as a flea market security guard, slapped a young mentally handicapped Black man who was looking for work in the head hard enough to knock him down. And thereafter, said, "Run, nigger, run."
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It is essential that we come together as a community and come down on people like these with both feet and all the force we can muster. If we don’t, it’s only gonna get worse, because every since the election, and then re-election, of Barack Obama, the bigots have been flooding out of the closet in droves.
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Finally, I’d like to apologize to Ms. Marlene Pinnock, who this cop thought he could brutally bludgeon on a freeway in broad daylight with impunity, Dr. Ersula Ore, a professor at Arizona State University, who was also brutalized by a cop like she was a common thug, Ms. Raven Dozier, who was kicked in the stomach by a cop while eight months pregnant, and all of the other Black women who we're allowing to be abused across this country.  
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The Black community - and especially Black men - owe all of these sisters our most sincere apology, because we're ALLOWING this to happen to our women. We're allowing it to happen by being so caught up in our own personal lives that that we've dropped the ball that those who came before us fought so hard - and in many cases died - to get in hand. How can we celebrate the life of Dr. Martin Luther King while turning our backs on all of the principles that he fought for all of his life?  We've become selfish, and we've embraced an everybody-for-himself mentality in order to pursue our own private lives - private lives that many of us wouldn't have if it weren't for the sacrifices of others who fought and died to provide us with the security and comforts that we've become so selfishly engrossed. As a result, we’ve allowed things to get way out of hand. But it behooves us to start reining things back in, or eventually, the comforts and security that we now enjoy will evaporate, and we'll hear the boots at our own door . . . ask any Jew.
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The Black Woman: Our Most Valuable Asset
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I have to scratch my head when I hear young
Brothers calling our sisters bitches and hoes;
the Black woman is our most precious asset.
Sister’s are the very womb of our culture,
and if it weren’t for her, we would have
long since been relegated to the
ash heap of history.
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Sister’s have been standing by us
to help nurture us into adulthood
and reinforcing our manhood
for centuries.
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When we were helpless,
hungry, and abandoned,
SHE WAS THERE . . .
to suffer with us,
and nurture us into adulthood.
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When we were beaten down
and told that we weren’t shit
by the White man,
SHE WAS THERE . . .
to nurse our wounds,
and assure us of our value.
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When we ran the street
in a misguided attempt to seek our manhood,
SHE WAS THERE . . .
to rein us in,
and convince us that we were
more than our vision of ourselves.
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And once we gained the wisdom
to become real men,
SHE WAS THERE . . .
to defined our manhood through the image we saw reflected in her eyes.
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So "THAT BITCH," and "THAT HOE,"
is our most precious
possession . . .
 She's the ONLY thing of value we have
in this world,
and the only one who’s ever
gave a damn about us -

and she didn't have to be
taught these things -
she was BORN that way, 
and we’d be lost without her.
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So wake up, fool!
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DEDICATED TO ALL OF THE BEAUTIFUL BLACK WOMEN IN THIS WORLD WHO PUT UP WITH US SO SILENTLY, STAND BY US SO LOYALLY, AND LOVE US SO PASSIONATELY, AND UNCONDITIONALLY.
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WITH ALL MY LOVE, RESPECT, AND ADMIRATION,
Eric L.Wattree
 

THANK YOU, LADIES
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Every Black church in the country should be fixated on this issue. If yours is not, find out why, because the next victim could be your mother, daughter, sister, or even grandmother. So let's turn these racist horrors into a teaching moment. It's time for us to relearn a lesson that Frederick Douglass tried to teach us a hundred and fifty years ago:
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"Find out just what any people will quietly submit to and you have the exact measure of the injustice and wrong which will be imposed on them."
  Frederick Douglass
 
Black Man Kill by Police After Breaking Up Fight
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Rapper Assaulted By Police For Absolutely No Reason 
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Eric L. Wattree
Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.


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Saturday, July 04, 2009

Should Black People Try to Own the Rights to the Word Nigga?

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE
Should Black People Try to Own the Rights to the Word Nigga?
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While I generally refrain from the frivolous use of what has come to be called "the N-word," I only do it in deference to the sensibilities of Black people who have made the abolishment of "The N-word" (I feel silly even writing it) a major issue in their lives. Personally, I find the effort totally superficial and silly, since if you refer to "the N-word", you might as well say it. After all, it's not the word that's disparaging, it's just a word, it's the concept that it describes that's vulgar.
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If your child said, "F you, dad," are you going to give him a pass because he didn't actually say the word?  Of course not - you're going to come down on him like a ton of bricks, because you know what he meant. The same is true of "the N-word" - we can start referring to it as grapefruit, but in the final analysis, it still means nigga. So, when we say "N-Word," it's just another silly way of sublimating an issue that needs to be addressed head on.
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Thus, by trying to abolish a word - which has never been accomplished, to my knowledge, in the entire history of mankind - you only serve to give the word more power. By trying to demand that the word is never used, you're not only acknowledging a unique association with the word, but you're giving your enemies a more powerful weapon to use against you. First, your effort alone tells your enemy that it's use is painful to you, so do you think that's going to make your enemy less likely to use that weapon, or more likely? More likely, of course. When have you ever heard of an enemy refraining from use a weapon because it hurts the other side's feelings? Never! And secondly, now that you've told him that you don't like the word, you've made it even more potent as a weapon. Because now when he uses the word against you, he's not only saying to hell with you, but also, to hell with your sensibilities, and your campaign to abolish the word, so the insult is magnified.
A more constructive way of approaching this problem is to first define exactly what a nigga is, then teach your children to live above that definition. That way you turn a negative into a positive.
My definition of a nigga is any person of any race, creed, or color, who takes pride in his or her ignorance, and/or stupidity. After I had a working definition, I made sure that my kids understood that definition, then taught them to carry themselves in a way where they wouldn't associate the word with who and what they are as individuals. In short, if you're not a nigga, the word should be meaningless to you.
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I taught my son, for example, that there might come a time in his life where some racist might point at him and tell his son, "See that guy over there, that's a nigga." But while warning him that he should be prepared for such a event, I also used it as an opportunity to instruct him on why it's important for him to always strive for excellence.  I taught him that he should always carry himself in such a way where if that should happen, he should make sure that he's invested enough in himself where the racist's son will look at him, and then look back at his dad, and say, "Daddy, I want to be a nigga when I grow up." I assure you, that's what the sons of racists all over America are saying right now, after seeing the grace, dignity, and intelligence of Barack Obama - that's what's driving Rush Limbaugh, and many others, crazy.
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That's the way you fight negative aspersions - you don't put all your energy into saying don't call me names, you invest your energy into making the names they call you both remote, and irrelevant to who, and what you represent. So if a racist calls Barack Obama a nigga, he now has to prove that he's superior to our president - and if he's sittin' in a beat-up pickup truck with a pack of Marlboro's rolled up in his t-shirt sleeve, he's going to find that an extremely daunting task.
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I adopted that philosophy quite by accident early in life. The only reason that I'm sitting here with the ability to write this article today is one night, as a high school dropout, I was talking to my mother about the dreams that I had for myself in life, when my step-father - a drunk, a gambler, and philanderer - started laughing, and said, "Nigga, all you gon ever be is just another nigga standin' on the corner dealin' drugs - until you get your brains blown out."
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He did more for me with that one remark than all of the counseling and juvenile facilities combined. He was a big hulk of a guy, so at 16 I still wasn't able to kick his ass, as I truly wanted to, but with that remark he planted a seed that spawned one of the primary philosophies in my life - never let anyone else define you or your capabilities. And just as importantly, always use negativity as a slingshot to enhance who you are.
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It's a gross waste of time putting all of your energies into a campaign begging people to be nice and not call you a nigga, because it's a campaign that's dead on arrival. A much more productive use of your time and energy is in initiating a campaign against being a nigga. I mean, wouldn't your time be better served in trying to get young men to pull up their pants, straighten their caps, educate themselves, and become responsible fathers? I think it would.
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Common sense should tell you that if a person hates you, the most valuable weapon in his arsenal is what you've told him causes you the most pain. But the only way a word can cause you pain, is if you embrace it. Thus, if you're not a nigga, why do you feel that you own the rights to who can use the word?
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So, as much as I want to accommodate the sensibilities of my brothers and sisters in this matter, as a writer, words are the tools of my trade, and I have absolutely no intention of giving away any of my tools - especially one as graphically expressive as the word nigga. Because the fact is, there's a lot of niggas in this world - both Black and White. If you're a White man who's not supporting your kids, you're a nigga. If you're a forty-year-old Black man walking around in untied tennis shoes, with your cap on sideways, calling women bitches and whoes, and your kids wouldn't recognize you if they passed you on the street, you're a nigga. If you're a preacher who's pimpin' your flock, and preachin' a sermon that you're not livin', you're a nigga. If you're a politician who's putting your career ahead of the people you're suppose to be representing, you're a nigga. And finally, if you're a president or vice president who lied a nation who trusted you into a senseless war for profit, you-are-a-nigga.
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So there are far to many niggas walking around here to be talking about abolishing the word. Words are to thoughts what notes are to music. Would you have asked John Coltrane to go through his entire career without playing B flat, or a painter to never use the color blue? In the same way, by abolishing words, you also abolish a writer's ability to fully express his thoughts. How could I have related the thoughts that I just have without using the word nigga?
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And finally, here's a question directed exclusively at Black people - and please, answer it honestly. Is there any way that I could write a perfectly accurate portrait of Clarence Thomas without using the word nigga? Sure, I could manage to crank something out, but without the word nigga, an indispensable element of his character would be missing.
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Thomas sat perfectly mute through the wholesale disenfranchisement of Black voters during the 2000 Bush v. Gore debacle. He never uttered a word. Then after the 2008 election of President Barack Obama, he took the virtually unprecedented action of lobbying his colleagues to accept a case challenging the constitutional legitimacy of the first Black man to ever be elected President of the United States. There's only one word appropriate for such cultural treachery, and that word is nigga - and we all know it.
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Black people refer to Thomas as a nigga in private all the time, because in the Black vernacular the word has an entirely different meaning. So, the word does have its place - in fact, the doctrine of political correctness, along with the word's racial associations, prevent us from using it enough. Perhaps if we'd used the word nigga more liberally relative to previous acts of cultural treachery, Clarence Thomas might have avoided becoming its poster child.

Well, in any event, so much for my little excursion into the realm of raw truth. I'm sure I won't be applauded for my stance - even though I'm just as certain that many of you secretly agree with me. But as we all know, hypocrisy trumps truth in polite society, so I should have known better than to even broach the subject. But I just can't seem to smooth out those rough edges - you know, that overwhelming need to call a hat a hat. I guess it's a throwback to the street in me - but at least I'm not dealing drugs.
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And speaking of which (the irony of ironies), my son that I was telling you about, he grew up to become a federal agent with the DEA (the Drug Enforcement Administration). And while we're on the subject, I went by my mother's house one day about ten years after my step-father made the remark about my dealing drugs. Naturally, he and his friends were in the garage drinking, laughing, cursing, and gambling. When I walked through the door one of his friends said, "My man! I want to be just like you when I grow up." Then without even looking up from his cards, my step-father said, "Man, you ain't gon never grow up enough to be like him . . . you have to be born that way."
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I guess that was his way of apologizing.

Eric L. Wattree

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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