Friday, April 13, 2018
Just Being Can Be a Problem
From VerySmartBrothas -
How to Make White People Uncomfortable
By Damon Young
https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/50-ways-to-make-white-people-uncomfortable-1825188582?utm_source=theroot_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2018-04-12
How to Make White People Uncomfortable
By Damon Young
https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/50-ways-to-make-white-people-uncomfortable-1825188582?utm_source=theroot_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2018-04-12
Thursday, April 12, 2018
Wednesday, April 11, 2018
Tuesday, April 10, 2018
Black Genius on Full Display
An excerpt from the Root -
Atlanta, Donald Glover and the Invisibility of Black Genius
By Michael Harriot
However, like the previously mentioned pieces of art, it will likely never be hailed for its genius because it is too black. But Atlanta’s blackness alone doesn’t preclude its value being perceived by the masses. There is another noticeable element that Glover subtly infuses into the show that might make it immune to white applause:
Atlanta doesn’t give a fuck.
The show’s subversive personality doesn’t even try to accommodate white sensibilities. It is not unapologetically black, because it seems to be unaware that an apology is even necessary. It is “I don’t give a damn if they’re watching” black. It is dripping with wet-lemon-pepper-wings seasoning, the hilarity of Caucasian puppy love and indifference to white eyes. Even the title of the “Sportin’ Waves” episode seems unaware that there exists a whole world outside of blackness.
https://www.theroot.com/atlanta-donald-glover-and-the-invisibility-of-black-ge-1825116384?utm_source=theroot_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2018-04-10
Strange Fruit - Lynchings in America
An excerpt from VerySmartBrothas -
Dear White People: If a Memorial Dedicated to Lynchings of Black People Makes You Uncomfortable, Good
By Panama Jackson
What stood out most about the story on 60 Minutes were the pictures of lynched black people, often with several (up to as many as 15,000) people standing around watching the execution of illegal justice for “crimes” committed by black Americans.
In many of the communities, the lynchings were public spectacles, outings for the entire family to attend, dressed in their Sunday best, with callous articles written that read as if the public torture and deaths of black people were just what one did on a warm afternoon in September. As is often the case with American history, oftentimes it was.
Watching that story pissed me off. No more than usual, but it still pissed me off—though not for the reason you might think.
What truly pissed me off was that I knew for a fact that CBS would receive complaints that it had had the nerve to show the pictures of bodies hanging from rope as a public spectacle. I know that white people HATE seeing their fucked-up-ness. They hate it. They think none of it is necessary to see. To many, the story can be told without the pictorial proof of hate.
https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/dear-white-people-if-a-memorial-dedicated-to-lynchings-1825117175
Dear White People: If a Memorial Dedicated to Lynchings of Black People Makes You Uncomfortable, Good
By Panama Jackson
What stood out most about the story on 60 Minutes were the pictures of lynched black people, often with several (up to as many as 15,000) people standing around watching the execution of illegal justice for “crimes” committed by black Americans.
In many of the communities, the lynchings were public spectacles, outings for the entire family to attend, dressed in their Sunday best, with callous articles written that read as if the public torture and deaths of black people were just what one did on a warm afternoon in September. As is often the case with American history, oftentimes it was.
Watching that story pissed me off. No more than usual, but it still pissed me off—though not for the reason you might think.
What truly pissed me off was that I knew for a fact that CBS would receive complaints that it had had the nerve to show the pictures of bodies hanging from rope as a public spectacle. I know that white people HATE seeing their fucked-up-ness. They hate it. They think none of it is necessary to see. To many, the story can be told without the pictorial proof of hate.
https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/dear-white-people-if-a-memorial-dedicated-to-lynchings-1825117175
How About "Congratulations?"
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/fox-5-dc-anchors-black-student-20-colleges_us_5acbdf40e4b07a3485e78869Check out @FoxNews anchors call a young black man, Michael Brown, “obnoxious” for applying to and getting accepted with full scholarships to 20 colleges.— Bishop Talbert Swan (@TalbertSwan) April 5, 2018
Either we’re “lazy” and need to “work hard,” or we’re “obnoxious” when we excel for working hard.#Racist#SitDownAndShutUp pic.twitter.com/QWGPVVcdpD
Monday, April 9, 2018
Sunday, April 8, 2018
Making Money Online
From StumbleUpon -
35 Creative Ways to Make Money Online
By Sophie Miura
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/29NJjj/:jPcV8Ttc:l19_EslK/www.mydomaine.com/make-money-online
35 Creative Ways to Make Money Online
By Sophie Miura
http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/29NJjj/:jPcV8Ttc:l19_EslK/www.mydomaine.com/make-money-online
Evictions in America
An excerpt from the New York Times -
In 83 Million Eviction Records, a Sweeping and Intimate New Look at Housing in America
By EMILY BADGER and QUOCTRUNG BUI
RICHMOND, Va. — Before the first hearings on the morning docket, the line starts to clog the lobby of the John Marshall Courthouse. No cellphones are allowed inside, but many of the people who’ve been summoned don’t learn that until they arrive. “Put it in your car,” the sheriff’s deputies suggest at the metal detector. That advice is no help to renters who have come by bus. To make it inside, some tuck their phones in the bushes nearby.
This courthouse handles every eviction in Richmond, a city with one of the highest eviction rates in the country, according to new data covering dozens of states and compiled by a team led by the Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond.
Two years ago, Mr. Desmond turned eviction into a national topic of conversation with “Evicted,” a book that chronicled how poor families who lost their homes in Milwaukee sank ever deeper into poverty. It became a favorite among civic groups and on college campuses, some here in Richmond. Bill Gates and former President Obama named it among the best books they had read in 2017, and it was awarded a Pulitzer Prize.
But for all the attention the problem began to draw, even Mr. Desmond could not say how widespread it was. Surveys of renters have tried to gauge displacement, but there is no government data tracking all eviction cases in America. Now that Mr. Desmond has been mining court records across the country to build a database of millions of evictions, it’s clear even in his incomplete national picture that they are more rampant in many places than what he saw in Milwaukee.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/04/07/upshot/millions-of-eviction-records-a-sweeping-new-look-at-housing-in-america.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top-stories
In 83 Million Eviction Records, a Sweeping and Intimate New Look at Housing in America
By EMILY BADGER and QUOCTRUNG BUI
RICHMOND, Va. — Before the first hearings on the morning docket, the line starts to clog the lobby of the John Marshall Courthouse. No cellphones are allowed inside, but many of the people who’ve been summoned don’t learn that until they arrive. “Put it in your car,” the sheriff’s deputies suggest at the metal detector. That advice is no help to renters who have come by bus. To make it inside, some tuck their phones in the bushes nearby.
This courthouse handles every eviction in Richmond, a city with one of the highest eviction rates in the country, according to new data covering dozens of states and compiled by a team led by the Princeton sociologist Matthew Desmond.
Two years ago, Mr. Desmond turned eviction into a national topic of conversation with “Evicted,” a book that chronicled how poor families who lost their homes in Milwaukee sank ever deeper into poverty. It became a favorite among civic groups and on college campuses, some here in Richmond. Bill Gates and former President Obama named it among the best books they had read in 2017, and it was awarded a Pulitzer Prize.
But for all the attention the problem began to draw, even Mr. Desmond could not say how widespread it was. Surveys of renters have tried to gauge displacement, but there is no government data tracking all eviction cases in America. Now that Mr. Desmond has been mining court records across the country to build a database of millions of evictions, it’s clear even in his incomplete national picture that they are more rampant in many places than what he saw in Milwaukee.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/04/07/upshot/millions-of-eviction-records-a-sweeping-new-look-at-housing-in-america.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiosam&stream=top-stories
Federally Funded Ghettos
An excerpt from the New York Times -
America’s Federally Financed Ghettos
By The Editorial Board
Ben Carson, the secretary of housing and urban development, showed utter contempt for his agency’s core mission last month when he proposed deleting the phrase “free from discrimination” from the HUD mission statement. Yet Mr. Carson is not the first housing secretary to betray the landmark Fair Housing Act of 1968 — which turns 50 years old this week — by failing to enforce policies designed to prevent states and cities from using federal dollars to perpetuate segregation.
By its actions and failure to act, HUD has prolonged segregation in housing since the 1960s under both Democratic and Republican administrations. The courts have repeatedly chastised the agency for allowing cities to confine families to federally financed ghettos that offer little or no access to jobs, transportation or viable schools. The lawsuits, filed by individuals and fair housing groups, have forced the agency to adopt rules and policies that have been crucial in advancing the goals of the Fair Housing Act.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/07/opinion/sunday/americas-federally-financed-ghettos.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share
America’s Federally Financed Ghettos
By The Editorial Board
Ben Carson, the secretary of housing and urban development, showed utter contempt for his agency’s core mission last month when he proposed deleting the phrase “free from discrimination” from the HUD mission statement. Yet Mr. Carson is not the first housing secretary to betray the landmark Fair Housing Act of 1968 — which turns 50 years old this week — by failing to enforce policies designed to prevent states and cities from using federal dollars to perpetuate segregation.
By its actions and failure to act, HUD has prolonged segregation in housing since the 1960s under both Democratic and Republican administrations. The courts have repeatedly chastised the agency for allowing cities to confine families to federally financed ghettos that offer little or no access to jobs, transportation or viable schools. The lawsuits, filed by individuals and fair housing groups, have forced the agency to adopt rules and policies that have been crucial in advancing the goals of the Fair Housing Act.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/07/opinion/sunday/americas-federally-financed-ghettos.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share
White House Scandals
https://hlsrv.vidible.tv/prod/5ac528c0d900854392e201cb/2018-04-04/hls/playlist_v2.m3u8?PR=E&S=yApqXxNWdU2L8oZhxDxCoCDw4PbEkJiRgXT7RXbHG3UtfnlW20z1UEm5sKoWbKCq
Summer Camp Letters - Priceless
From the Huffington Post -
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Childhood Letters Are Way Too Real For People Who Hated Summer Camp
“Please come and take me back to New York, away from this hell hole.”
By Hilary Hanson
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lin-manuel-miranda-letters-from-camp_us_5ac8f2fbe4b07a3485e52f30
Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Childhood Letters Are Way Too Real For People Who Hated Summer Camp
“Please come and take me back to New York, away from this hell hole.”
By Hilary Hanson
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/lin-manuel-miranda-letters-from-camp_us_5ac8f2fbe4b07a3485e52f30
Saturday, April 7, 2018
White Saviors
Living With Regrets
Following the death of @ReggieBullock35's transgender sister Mia Henderson, he has pledged to take a stand for Transgender awareness and acceptance. He met with representatives of @GLAAD & @AthleteAlly & hosted a Pride Night to show his support for the LGBTQ community. pic.twitter.com/cOOsFbuYtl— Detroit Pistons (@DetroitPistons) March 31, 2018
Friday, April 6, 2018
HBCU vs PWI
An excerpt from VerySmartBrothas -
Black-ish Explores the Decision Between Attending an HBCU or a PWI That So Many of Us Had to Make
By Panama Jackson
Now, back then, despite wanting to go to Michigan, I didn’t realize that by deciding to go to Morehouse, I was making the best and probably most significant decision of my life. But since graduating, I absolutely feel that way.
While I suppose I don’t really know what I missed, I can’t imagine that my college experience could have been any better than it was at an HBCU, Morehouse in particular. While life lessons and lasting friendships are probably common to most college experiences, the celebration of and validation of blackness is something I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have gotten at Michigan—a fine school, no doubt, but totally different.
I walked out of Morehouse more confident in who I was than I ever had been, with an unshakable pride and belief in myself and the awesomeness that comes along with blackness. I’m glad I chose Morehouse over any “better” school, even the ones that are ranked higher and deemed better by black and nonblack people alike.
https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/black-ish-explores-the-decision-between-attending-an-hb-1824991042?utm_source=theroot_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2018-04-05
Black-ish Explores the Decision Between Attending an HBCU or a PWI That So Many of Us Had to Make
By Panama Jackson
Now, back then, despite wanting to go to Michigan, I didn’t realize that by deciding to go to Morehouse, I was making the best and probably most significant decision of my life. But since graduating, I absolutely feel that way.
While I suppose I don’t really know what I missed, I can’t imagine that my college experience could have been any better than it was at an HBCU, Morehouse in particular. While life lessons and lasting friendships are probably common to most college experiences, the celebration of and validation of blackness is something I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have gotten at Michigan—a fine school, no doubt, but totally different.
I walked out of Morehouse more confident in who I was than I ever had been, with an unshakable pride and belief in myself and the awesomeness that comes along with blackness. I’m glad I chose Morehouse over any “better” school, even the ones that are ranked higher and deemed better by black and nonblack people alike.
https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/black-ish-explores-the-decision-between-attending-an-hb-1824991042?utm_source=theroot_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2018-04-05
Thursday, April 5, 2018
There Must Be Blood
An excerpt from the Root -
The Whitewashing of Martin Luther King Jr.
By Michael Harriot
Abraham Lincoln was disliked by many Americans when he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. John F. Kennedy only had a 58 percent approval rating when he was killed in 1963. People even lined the streets to hurl insults at the man called Jesus of Nazareth as he carried the cross on which he would eventually be crucified—which brings us to the most important ingredient in the making of a martyr:
There must be blood.
This week, America will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the most famous and beloved civil rights leader in the nation’s history. Lost in the remembrance of the death of our nation’s most heralded warrior for social justice is the fact that—at the time of his death—King was a man in exile.
Contrary to popular belief, when King died, he was not an icon of freedom and equality. In fact, most of the country disliked him. Sadly, on April 4, 1968, a bullet splattered bits of Martin Luther King Jr.’s brains and blood across the balcony of Memphis, Tenn.’s Lorraine Motel.
Then, and only then, was white America ready to make him a hero.
https://www.theroot.com/from-most-hated-to-american-hero-the-whitewashing-of-m-1824258876?utm_source=theroot_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2018-04-04
The Whitewashing of Martin Luther King Jr.
By Michael Harriot
Abraham Lincoln was disliked by many Americans when he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. John F. Kennedy only had a 58 percent approval rating when he was killed in 1963. People even lined the streets to hurl insults at the man called Jesus of Nazareth as he carried the cross on which he would eventually be crucified—which brings us to the most important ingredient in the making of a martyr:
There must be blood.
This week, America will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the most famous and beloved civil rights leader in the nation’s history. Lost in the remembrance of the death of our nation’s most heralded warrior for social justice is the fact that—at the time of his death—King was a man in exile.
Contrary to popular belief, when King died, he was not an icon of freedom and equality. In fact, most of the country disliked him. Sadly, on April 4, 1968, a bullet splattered bits of Martin Luther King Jr.’s brains and blood across the balcony of Memphis, Tenn.’s Lorraine Motel.
Then, and only then, was white America ready to make him a hero.
https://www.theroot.com/from-most-hated-to-american-hero-the-whitewashing-of-m-1824258876?utm_source=theroot_newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=2018-04-04
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
Standing Tall
An excerpt from the Undefeated -
The reign of Lew Alcindor in the age of revolt
When black collegians debated boycotting the Olympics in 1968, he emerged as the most prominent face on campus
BY JOHNNY SMITH
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is known as one of the greatest basketball players in history. During his 20-year professional career with the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers, he appeared in 19 All-Star Games, won six championships and collected six MVP awards. In retirement, he has become a prominent cultural commentator and writer, a leading voice on the intersection between sports and politics. Recently, he published a memoir about his collegiate career at UCLA, Coach Wooden and Me: Our 50-Year Friendship On and Off the Court.
Fifty years ago he was the most dominant college basketball player America had ever seen. Between 1967 and 1969, he led UCLA to three consecutive national titles and an 88-2 record. Yet, his legacy transcends the game; in the age of Black Power, he redefined the political role of black college athletes. In 1968, when black collegians debated boycotting the Olympics, Lew Alcindor, as he was then still known, emerged as the most prominent face in the revolt on campus.
Why did Alcindor refuse to play in the Olympics? To answer that question we have to return to Harlem, New York, in July 1964, the first of many long, hot summers.
https://theundefeated.com/features/lew-alcindor-kareem-abdul-jabbar-ucla-boycot-1968-olympics/
The reign of Lew Alcindor in the age of revolt
When black collegians debated boycotting the Olympics in 1968, he emerged as the most prominent face on campus
BY JOHNNY SMITH
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is known as one of the greatest basketball players in history. During his 20-year professional career with the Milwaukee Bucks and Los Angeles Lakers, he appeared in 19 All-Star Games, won six championships and collected six MVP awards. In retirement, he has become a prominent cultural commentator and writer, a leading voice on the intersection between sports and politics. Recently, he published a memoir about his collegiate career at UCLA, Coach Wooden and Me: Our 50-Year Friendship On and Off the Court.
Fifty years ago he was the most dominant college basketball player America had ever seen. Between 1967 and 1969, he led UCLA to three consecutive national titles and an 88-2 record. Yet, his legacy transcends the game; in the age of Black Power, he redefined the political role of black college athletes. In 1968, when black collegians debated boycotting the Olympics, Lew Alcindor, as he was then still known, emerged as the most prominent face in the revolt on campus.
Why did Alcindor refuse to play in the Olympics? To answer that question we have to return to Harlem, New York, in July 1964, the first of many long, hot summers.
https://theundefeated.com/features/lew-alcindor-kareem-abdul-jabbar-ucla-boycot-1968-olympics/
Imagine If He Was Black
An excerpt from the NY Times -
Ethan Couch, ‘Affluenza Teen’ Who Killed 4 While Driving Drunk, Is Freed
By DANIEL VICTOR
Ethan Couch, whose trial for killing four people while driving drunk sparked widespread conversations about the privilege of being raised wealthy, was released from a Texas jail on Monday after nearly two years.
Mr. Couch, 20, became known as the “affluenza teen” after a psychologist suggested during his trial that growing up with money might have left him with psychological afflictions, too rich to tell right from wrong. He attracted further attention when he and his mother, Tonya Couch, fled to Mexico in an effort to evade possible jail time.
He served his 720-day sentence in a jail in Tarrant County, and was freed about a week before his 21st birthday.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/02/us/ethan-couch-affluenza-jail.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share
Ethan Couch, ‘Affluenza Teen’ Who Killed 4 While Driving Drunk, Is Freed
By DANIEL VICTOR
Ethan Couch, whose trial for killing four people while driving drunk sparked widespread conversations about the privilege of being raised wealthy, was released from a Texas jail on Monday after nearly two years.
Mr. Couch, 20, became known as the “affluenza teen” after a psychologist suggested during his trial that growing up with money might have left him with psychological afflictions, too rich to tell right from wrong. He attracted further attention when he and his mother, Tonya Couch, fled to Mexico in an effort to evade possible jail time.
He served his 720-day sentence in a jail in Tarrant County, and was freed about a week before his 21st birthday.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/02/us/ethan-couch-affluenza-jail.html?smprod=nytcore-ipad&smid=nytcore-ipad-share
Monday, April 2, 2018
Killing His Character
An excerpt from the Huffington Post -
Killing Him While He’s Dead, A Eulogy For Stephon Clark
By Imam Omar Suleiman
The victim is somehow always made out to be the aggressor. Because if you cast enough aspersions on his character, create enough doubt about the circumstances of his murder and maintain an omnipresence of criminal identity, then maybe Stephon was asking for it. Maybe he’s not worth fighting for.
Many will, in fact, say that, though he didn’t deserve to be shot at 20 times, we also shouldn’t feel too bad.
Because if you distort his reputation enough, then you can discredit his status as a victim, and disregard his status as a human being.
The same media that humanizes domestic white terrorists like Dylann Roof and Mark Anthony Conditt deliberately vilifies black victims like Alton and Stephon.
And I, for one, don’t think it’s unreasonable to demand that black victims be treated with at least the same amount of dignity as white terrorists.
It’s not Stephon’s record or reputation that needs to be brought into question, it’s the way we police in this country that needs to be on trial.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-suleiman-stephon-clark_us_5abf90f1e4b055e50acdf47c
Killing Him While He’s Dead, A Eulogy For Stephon Clark
By Imam Omar Suleiman
The victim is somehow always made out to be the aggressor. Because if you cast enough aspersions on his character, create enough doubt about the circumstances of his murder and maintain an omnipresence of criminal identity, then maybe Stephon was asking for it. Maybe he’s not worth fighting for.
Many will, in fact, say that, though he didn’t deserve to be shot at 20 times, we also shouldn’t feel too bad.
Because if you distort his reputation enough, then you can discredit his status as a victim, and disregard his status as a human being.
The same media that humanizes domestic white terrorists like Dylann Roof and Mark Anthony Conditt deliberately vilifies black victims like Alton and Stephon.
And I, for one, don’t think it’s unreasonable to demand that black victims be treated with at least the same amount of dignity as white terrorists.
It’s not Stephon’s record or reputation that needs to be brought into question, it’s the way we police in this country that needs to be on trial.
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/opinion-suleiman-stephon-clark_us_5abf90f1e4b055e50acdf47c
Sunday, April 1, 2018
Rethinking Car Rentals
From Apple -
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/turo-better-than-car-rental/id555063314?mt=8&uo=4&at=10l6UR
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/turo-better-than-car-rental/id555063314?mt=8&uo=4&at=10l6UR
Saturday, March 31, 2018
Will They Get Away With Murder Too?
An excerpt from the Sacramento Bee -
Here's another result of the Stephon Clark autopsy – cops can't investigate cops
BY MARCOS BRETÓN
An independent autopsy commissioned by a lawyer may seem like a publicity stunt to those who seemingly have no problem with an unarmed man being gunned down by Sacramento Police. The autopsy, revealed Friday, found that Stephon Clark was shot repeatedly in the back on March 18. Beyond that is this undeniable truth:
The Coroner of Sacramento County, the District Attorney of Sacramento County, Sacramento Police, Sacramento Sheriffs – the entire local law enforcement community – had it coming. Here was a lawyer for one family who refused to wait six months, eight months, a year, 14 months or longer until they, the local authorities, released "official" findings after a fatal police shooting.
Putting aside technical debates over the methodology of Clark's autopsy, performed by Bennet Omalu, the former chief medical examiner for San Joaquin County, the explosive findings made public at a Friday news conference conveyed a clear statement to local law enforcement authorities: We don't trust you.
If Sacramento is a microcosm of a national dispute over whether law enforcement officials essentially can investigate their own, then officials here give weight to the conclusion, no, they can't. They have truly earned the heat they are catching right now.
For years, fatal shootings committed by local law enforcement followed a familiar pattern: An African American man is killed, there is public outrage, the official investigations drag on for months if not longer, everybody waits for everybody else's report to be completed, and the findings become public long after the original incident.
Some people think, not unreasonably, that this is deliberate. They speculate: The length of time in releasing official reports is so all the players can get their stories straight. At least, that's how it looks to a skeptical public.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/marcos-breton/article207513614.html#emlnl=Afternoon_Newsletter#storylink=cpy
Here's another result of the Stephon Clark autopsy – cops can't investigate cops
BY MARCOS BRETÓN
An independent autopsy commissioned by a lawyer may seem like a publicity stunt to those who seemingly have no problem with an unarmed man being gunned down by Sacramento Police. The autopsy, revealed Friday, found that Stephon Clark was shot repeatedly in the back on March 18. Beyond that is this undeniable truth:
The Coroner of Sacramento County, the District Attorney of Sacramento County, Sacramento Police, Sacramento Sheriffs – the entire local law enforcement community – had it coming. Here was a lawyer for one family who refused to wait six months, eight months, a year, 14 months or longer until they, the local authorities, released "official" findings after a fatal police shooting.
Putting aside technical debates over the methodology of Clark's autopsy, performed by Bennet Omalu, the former chief medical examiner for San Joaquin County, the explosive findings made public at a Friday news conference conveyed a clear statement to local law enforcement authorities: We don't trust you.
If Sacramento is a microcosm of a national dispute over whether law enforcement officials essentially can investigate their own, then officials here give weight to the conclusion, no, they can't. They have truly earned the heat they are catching right now.
For years, fatal shootings committed by local law enforcement followed a familiar pattern: An African American man is killed, there is public outrage, the official investigations drag on for months if not longer, everybody waits for everybody else's report to be completed, and the findings become public long after the original incident.
Some people think, not unreasonably, that this is deliberate. They speculate: The length of time in releasing official reports is so all the players can get their stories straight. At least, that's how it looks to a skeptical public.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/news-columns-blogs/marcos-breton/article207513614.html#emlnl=Afternoon_Newsletter#storylink=cpy
Too Good to Cherry Pick
From VerySmartBrothas -
Is It a Coincidence That Today’s Most Outspoken Black Male Athletes Are Married to Black Women? (Hint: Nah)
By Damon Young
https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/is-it-a-coincidence-that-todays-most-outspoken-black-ma-1824084782
Is It a Coincidence That Today’s Most Outspoken Black Male Athletes Are Married to Black Women? (Hint: Nah)
By Damon Young
https://verysmartbrothas.theroot.com/is-it-a-coincidence-that-todays-most-outspoken-black-ma-1824084782
UnFair Housing
An excerpt from the Atlantic -
The Unfulfilled Promise of Fair Housing
Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of an integrated America was about creating a more equal society, but to many white homeowners, it was a threat.
By ABDALLAH FAYYAD
“Kill him,” a white mob chanted as Martin Luther King Jr. marched across Marquette Park in the late summer of 1966. King had recently moved to Chicago, and on that August afternoon, he joined a Chicago Freedom Movement march to demand that realtors not discriminate against black residents seeking to live in white neighborhoods. But a group of white counter-protesters grew violent and started hurling rocks, bottles, and bricks at the demonstrators, eventually striking King in the head. “I’ve been in many demonstrations all across the South, but I can say that I have never seen—even in Mississippi and Alabama—mobs as hostile and as hate-filled as I’ve seen here in Chicago,” he said, shining light on a problem that white Northern liberals had ignored and let fester for far too long: de facto segregation.
Up until the civil-rights era, segregation was largely reinforced, if not promoted, by federal and local governments. In the 1930s, for example, the Federal Housing Administration incentivized developers to build suburbs for whites only, and the Public Works Administration built separate and unequal housing projects. After a series of Supreme Court cases deemed segregation unconstitutional in the 1940s and ‘50s, American neighborhoods continued to segregate without legal recognition, in a system known as “de facto.” And like de jure segregation—when the government legally engineered ghettos into existence—de facto segregation continues to exacerbate wealth and racial inequality today.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/03/the-unfulfilled-promise-of-fair-housing/557009/
The Unfulfilled Promise of Fair Housing
Martin Luther King Jr.’s dream of an integrated America was about creating a more equal society, but to many white homeowners, it was a threat.
By ABDALLAH FAYYAD
“Kill him,” a white mob chanted as Martin Luther King Jr. marched across Marquette Park in the late summer of 1966. King had recently moved to Chicago, and on that August afternoon, he joined a Chicago Freedom Movement march to demand that realtors not discriminate against black residents seeking to live in white neighborhoods. But a group of white counter-protesters grew violent and started hurling rocks, bottles, and bricks at the demonstrators, eventually striking King in the head. “I’ve been in many demonstrations all across the South, but I can say that I have never seen—even in Mississippi and Alabama—mobs as hostile and as hate-filled as I’ve seen here in Chicago,” he said, shining light on a problem that white Northern liberals had ignored and let fester for far too long: de facto segregation.
Up until the civil-rights era, segregation was largely reinforced, if not promoted, by federal and local governments. In the 1930s, for example, the Federal Housing Administration incentivized developers to build suburbs for whites only, and the Public Works Administration built separate and unequal housing projects. After a series of Supreme Court cases deemed segregation unconstitutional in the 1940s and ‘50s, American neighborhoods continued to segregate without legal recognition, in a system known as “de facto.” And like de jure segregation—when the government legally engineered ghettos into existence—de facto segregation continues to exacerbate wealth and racial inequality today.
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2018/03/the-unfulfilled-promise-of-fair-housing/557009/
20 of 20 Said Yes
An excerpt from CNN -
He applied to 20 of the best colleges and got a full ride to all of them
By Isabella Gomez and Christina Zdanowicz
Micheal Brown stared at the acceptance letter in front of him: It said yes.
So did the next one. And the one after that.
The 17-year-old from Houston applied to 20 of the best universities in the US. He was admitted to every single one with a full ride and $260,000 in additional scholarship offers.
"It's something I'm proud of because I see my hard work paying off, determination paying off, sacrifices paying off," the student told CNN.
Of those 20, he listed his top eight choices as: Harvard, Princeton, Northwestern, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, Georgetown and Vanderbilt.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/30/health/teen-college-20-acceptances-trnd/index.html
He applied to 20 of the best colleges and got a full ride to all of them
By Isabella Gomez and Christina Zdanowicz
Micheal Brown stared at the acceptance letter in front of him: It said yes.
So did the next one. And the one after that.
The 17-year-old from Houston applied to 20 of the best universities in the US. He was admitted to every single one with a full ride and $260,000 in additional scholarship offers.
"It's something I'm proud of because I see my hard work paying off, determination paying off, sacrifices paying off," the student told CNN.
Of those 20, he listed his top eight choices as: Harvard, Princeton, Northwestern, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Stanford, Georgetown and Vanderbilt.
https://www.cnn.com/2018/03/30/health/teen-college-20-acceptances-trnd/index.html
Friday, March 30, 2018
Words Matter
An excerpt form the Sacramento Bee -
Stephon Clark 'deserved it,' nurse wrote on Facebook. Now she's no longer working for Kaiser.
BY CATHIE ANDERSON
Kaiser Permanente has parted ways with a nurse whose Facebook comments about Stephon Clark, the unarmed black man killed by Sacramento police on March 18, incited a social media firestorm after an activist put them in the spotlight.
The comment: “Yeah but he was running from the police jumping over fences and breaking in peoples houses… why run??!!! He deserved it for being stupid.”
Activist Christina Arechiga told The Sacramento Bee earlier this week that she was so disgusted by the statement from a woman named Faith Linthicum that she went to her Facebook profile to learn more about her. Many such comments come from people outside the region, Arechiga said, and she wanted to know whether this one did as well.
She said she was shocked to discover that not only did Linthicum live in the Sacramento region but she also worked as a nurse in labor and delivery at Kaiser Permanente’s Roseville Medical Center. People of color were unwittingly entrusting their infants to this woman, Arechiga said, and their insurance dollars were paying her salary.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/article207364464.html#emlnl=Breaking_Newsletter#storylink=cpy
Stephon Clark 'deserved it,' nurse wrote on Facebook. Now she's no longer working for Kaiser.
BY CATHIE ANDERSON
Kaiser Permanente has parted ways with a nurse whose Facebook comments about Stephon Clark, the unarmed black man killed by Sacramento police on March 18, incited a social media firestorm after an activist put them in the spotlight.
The comment: “Yeah but he was running from the police jumping over fences and breaking in peoples houses… why run??!!! He deserved it for being stupid.”
Activist Christina Arechiga told The Sacramento Bee earlier this week that she was so disgusted by the statement from a woman named Faith Linthicum that she went to her Facebook profile to learn more about her. Many such comments come from people outside the region, Arechiga said, and she wanted to know whether this one did as well.
She said she was shocked to discover that not only did Linthicum live in the Sacramento region but she also worked as a nurse in labor and delivery at Kaiser Permanente’s Roseville Medical Center. People of color were unwittingly entrusting their infants to this woman, Arechiga said, and their insurance dollars were paying her salary.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/health-and-medicine/article207364464.html#emlnl=Breaking_Newsletter#storylink=cpy
Police Killed 264 in 2018
From the Washington Post -
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/police-shootings-2018/?stream=top-stories&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiospm&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=.680c5b490545
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2018/national/police-shootings-2018/?stream=top-stories&utm_campaign=newsletter_axiospm&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_term=.680c5b490545
Catholic Colleges Excel at Basketball
From the NY Times -
Why Catholic Colleges Excel at Basketball
By MARC TRACYMARCH 30, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/30/sports/catholic-basketball-final-four.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
Why Catholic Colleges Excel at Basketball
By MARC TRACYMARCH 30, 2018
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/30/sports/catholic-basketball-final-four.html?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=second-column-region®ion=top-news&WT.nav=top-news
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