trayvon martin « Black Man Thinkin'

Regarding One Thing Missing for Black Males

Tags: Al Sharpton, black male accountability, black males in college, black males in prison, black on black homicide, Congressional Caucus on Black Men and Boys, D.C. Commission on Black Men and Boys, Einstein's Definition of Insanity, george zimmerman, illegitimacy, Jesse Jackson, million man march, naacp, racism, stand your ground, trayvon martin, Ward 8, white on white homicide

Comments: 1 Comment

Published on: August 8, 2013

Since Trayvon Martin’s death, momentum builds toward a racial “showdown” in this country, with one side outraged that a “white” man got away with “murdering” an innocent black child, while another side counters:

not white

teen-aged MMA enthusiast with ongoing school and drug problems

The first side, Side “A”, makes racism the issue, though the FBI and the Zimmerman jury said race was no factor. The month after Martin’s death, his parents formed a foundation to advocate for crime victims and their families (though the jury effectively said there was no crime), and, with the Congressional Caucus on Black Men and Boys of 2013, to challenge “Stand Your Ground” laws, though Zimmerman never invoked Florida’s version, and such laws are popular.

How did Side “A” come to create its own issues while dismissing others? In 3 acts:

ACT 1. In 1995, the Nation of Islam sponsored the “Million Man March” on Washington, D. C., to focus attention on black issues. Varying attendance estimates distracted from the event’s message, and determining what it accomplished is more problematic now than was counting heads then.

ACT 2. Nevertheless, the Million Man March inspired Washington, D. C., Congressional Representative Eleanor Holmes Norton, in 2001, to form the “D.C. Commission on Black Men and Boys” to reveal and help resolve issues that (D. C.) Black men face, such as high school dropout rates, criminal justice issues, HIV and AIDS, and marriage and family issues. The commission met many times over the next decade. However, like the Million Man March, its accomplishments are difficult to find.

Homicides, district-wide, decreased to a 50-year low 88 in 2012, but the credit belongs to local government and police. However, in D. C.’s 93% black Ward 8, unemployment averaged 22% in 2012; in 2000, it was 21%. Regarding other Ward 8 “measurables”, between 2000 and 2009:

And between 2000 and 2012:

Lastly, black illegitimacy in D. C. was 77% in 2002; in 2008, it was 79%.

While these things occurred:

D.C. Commission on Black Men and Boys of 2012

• The D.C. Commission on Black Men & Boys of 2011 featured former rival gang members and violence intervention workers, and accepted testimony from residents,

• The D.C. Commission on Black Men and Boys of January 2010 took 17 young fathers out for an afternoon of mentoring and job preparation,

• The D.C. Commission on Black Men and Boys of August 2010, responded to the particularly difficult time Black men are having in a job market that is sometimes unreceptive to them, especially in today’s unprecedented economy,

• The D.C. Commission on Black Men and Boys of 2007 discussed national efforts to support the “Jena 6,” six Jena, Louisiana high school students, all African American males, who face discriminatory treatment in the criminal justice system…

ACT 3. The Congressional Caucus on Black Men and Boys of 2013, formed after Zimmerman’s acquittal, was modeled after Norton’s D.C. Commission on Black Men and Boys. Its mission: to be a “vehicle for raising consciousness” on issues disproportionately affecting black men and youth including job training, HIV/AIDS and the breakdown of the family. Sound familiar?

So, organizations, modeled after gatherings which did not resolve issues in the last decade, which were inspired by an event that did not resolve issues in the decade before that…will resolve issues today? What is Einstein’s Definition of Insanity, again?

Meanwhile, Side “B”, seizes on black illegitimacy and family decline, the criminality of young black men, etc. They cite statistics with irrefutable implications. They identify a “grievance industry” which they believe facilitates and exploits the adverse state of black affairs, and frustrates honest race discussions. They also show little fear of the nuclear option of political discussions: being called “racist”.

Unfortunately, Side “B” mis-spends their courage. Standing up to Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson, and national NAACP official won’t influence the majority of blacks for whom those gentlemen do not speak. Side “B” needs to take its message to suffering black communities, showing the respect of direct conversation, not just the courage of broadcast monologues.

Side “B” also fumbles their facts, letting spinmeisters confuse issues and change subjects. If Side “B” says, “Blacks commit 93% of black homicides“, Side “A” counters with “Whites commit 86% of all white homicides“; that blacks, at 13% of the population, commit 52% of all U.S. homicides, including 59% of felony murders, gets lost in the noise. Should one say, “Black illegitimacy is at 73%“, another will counter, “White illegitimacy is increasing at a faster rate“…and so it goes…

Both sides miss the point: Side “A”, by putting energy into window-dressing events and off-topic efforts that do not improve the black condition; Side “B”, by being courageous with the wrong black people, and by letting objective facts become subjective banter.

The point? The black community does not hold black males accountable for their behavior.

For contributing to black illegitimacy, he appears, not before other black fathers, but before family court, while by-standers laugh:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_vcsJ5KNQQ[/youtube]

He is not taken “out back”, but taken in, to criminal courts:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQy6KNx4d-s[/youtube]

Dealing with this young black man fell to a judge because his community did not check him long before. When a man abuses a woman publicly, it is not the first time, and his behavior is no secret. People knew, and gave him a pass, because “he could ball”.

Black male misdeeds are not even privately considered by the black community; they are broadcast via social media:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gelk2eIWsPY[/youtube]

These things happen also to whites, hisanics, and asians. However, those groups do not have 3 of every 4 children born out-of-wedlock, nor does any of them, alone, commit more than half of U. S. homicides.

Black communities used to deal with their young men, handling complex issues and dispensing consequences that punished and deterred bad behavior. Now, they outsource that responsibility to schools, police, and courts. The result:

schools are less safe

Blacks fear the police

2 black males incarcerated for every 3 in college

Such is the legacy of black communities not holding black males accountable for their behavior.

While Sides “A” and “B” debate, the men of a great people lack what they need most to succeed, or even live well. It is not employment, not education, not acceptance by whites. It is accountability, to those who best understand them. Accountability, to those who can best build and correct their character. Accountability, to those who look like them. Should that return, the other issues will heal, quickly.

There are communities that manage their young men by the power of community expectations. Blacks should strive be one of them…again.

Re-trial Goes Much Like the First Trial, But Sadder

by Black Man Thinkin'

Categories: ... 'bout Politics

Tags: alicia stanley, angela corey indicted, Barack Obama, dxm, george zimmerman, Hilary Shelton, lean, naacp, nan, national action network, Sean Hannity, sybrina fulton, trayvon 100-citiy marches, trayvon martin, trayvon trademarks

Comments: 1 Comment

Published on: July 26, 2013

The basic details are not difficult:

A man saw someone he considered suspicious, called police and followed him. Eventually, he came into contact with the subject. Words were exchanged, an altercation ensued, during which the man sustained injuries. He drew a weapon and fired once. Police arrived to find the man, George Zimmerman, aged 28, bloodied and shaken, and the shooting victim, Trayvon Martin, aged 17, dead.

Police questioned Zimmerman that night, gave him a lie detector test the next day (he passed), and determined there was not probable cause for an arrest.

In the 16 months that followed: the FBI concluded race played no role in the shooting; and Florida’s governor appointed a special prosecutor who bypassed a grand jury to charge Zimmerman with 2nd-degree murder. That decision was criticized by a legal expert as potentially criminal, and special prosecutor Angela Corey was indeed later criminally indicted for falsifying the arrest warrant and complaint against Zimmerman.

At trial, prosecution witnesses supported Zimmerman’s self-defense assertions, including a black legal professor, who explained, under cross-examination, that injuries are not required before a person might legally act in self-defense.

Despite all this, people were shocked, SHOCKED, at George Zimmerman’s acquittal on July 13th.

So, those who insisted Zimmerman be tried in a court of law, despite a weak case, changed venues: the court of public opinion, bound neither by the rules of evidence, nor any need to speak truthfully. So, how is that coming along?

The day after the verdict, there were demonstrations from New York City to Los Angeles, Chicago to Oakland, Milwaukee to Miami, and elsewhere protesting Zimmerman’s acquittal.

Also on the day after the verdict, the NAACP and Al Sharpton’s National Action Network (NAN) called for the Department of Justice to file federal civil rights charges against Zimmerman. Attorney General Holder told NAN, “If we find evidence of a potential federal criminal civil rights crime, we will take appropriate action, and at every step, the facts and law will guide us forward.” One can only wonder if those facts will include the 2012 FBI report which found no evidence of racism, a hate crime, or any civil rights violation by George Zimmerman. One prosecutor is already criminally indicted for corruption in the charging of Zimmerman; could an overzealous Attorney General Eric Holder become the second?

Perhaps sensing the initiative slipping away, the NAACP’s Hilary Shelton appeared on Sean Hannity’s TV show (July 18th) to assert that Zimmerman “stalked, assaulted, and” shot Trayvon Martin to death, and to criticize Stand Your Ground laws. However:

stalked

verdict imply Martin assaulted Zimmerman

Stand Your Ground was not part of Zimmerman’ defense

President Obama’s post-verdict statement gave way to a July 19th race speech in which he said, “Trayvon Martin could have been me, 35 years ago.” Whether Obama sought to unite the nation or curry favor with the black Americans he normally ignores is hard to say. However, this is not: 2 days after the speech, a national poll showed Obama’s disapproval rating higher than George Zimmermans’s.

Then, there were the July 20th 100-City Trayvon rallies, with turnout far less than expected, though that was hard to glean from most news coverage.

Even the Congressional Black Caucus chimed in, with members expressing support for an economic boycott of Florida to protest Stand Your Ground laws, and looking to revisit gun control in the wake of Martin’s shooting. However, Congress generally cannot revise state laws, and the good ship gun control already sailed away…empty.

So, the public “re-trial” is going much the way the state trial did, and for the same reason: those arrayed against George Zimmerman have more passion than proof. However, regarding Martin, more proof emerges that may generate a different passion.

First, the Skittles and Arizona Iced Tea…actually Arizona Watermelon Fruit Juice Cocktail. Those are 2 of the 3 ingredients needed to make “lean“, a street drug, which requires the codeine in prescription cough syrup, or Dextromethorphan (DXM), available in over-the counter cough syrup like Robitussin. Martin’s Facebook page showed him seeking codeine to make more lean, before being told Robitussin’s DXM would also work. When abused, DXM can cause aggression and paranoia. Of course, all this is circumstantial until Martin’s autopsy report revealed liver anomalies, consistent with DXM abuse.

Then there is Alicia Stanley, Martin’s former stepmother who gave an interview to CNN at the beginning of the trial. She said she did it so people would know, “I exist…”

Why would that matter? Because it is she, not Sybrina Fulton, with whom Trayvon Martin lived, from age 3 until 2010. During that time, there is no evidence of the truancy, drug use, theft and other issues that prosecutors fought to keep from a jury.

To the point; it is less a matter of what Martin’s improper behavior was than when it started and, perhaps, with whom.

However, Alicia Stanley, the woman who raised Trayvon Martin, became an inconvenience: told to “get in where you fit in” at his funeral, and waited more than a year after Martin’s death before seeking the recognition some would say she has earned. By contrast, Sybrina Fulton waited less than a month before seeking to profit from trademarking “I AM TRAYVON” and “Justice for Trayvon”.

Sadly, a young black man died, shot in self-defense by a “soft” man with “a hero complex.” Unfortunately, that is not all that is sad. Trayvon Martin’s innocence began to fade in 2010, through events over which he had no control. By February 26, 2012, Martin was a troubled kid, by any measure: doing poorly in school, committing petty crimes, and a drug user who had already sustained internal organ damage and was at a 7-Eleven, procuring the ingredients for his drug of choice, jones’in’ for another high. Viewing the store security video in that light is heartbreaking:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvwhGVWAdjI[/youtube]

No matter why Martin was out that night, this tragedy might still have occurred. However, no one’s child should be out at night like that…ever. Somehow, we came to focus on Zimmerman, and lost the bubble on that.

Zimmerman Trial Shows Trayvon Martin May Not Be Only Black Fatality

by Black Man Thinkin'

Categories: ... 'bout Politics

Tags: black abortion rates, black marriage rates, black moral leadership, black net worth, black political decline, black self destructiveness, black social decline, black unemployment, failed democrat policies, george zimmerman, rachael jeantel, racist, trayvon martin

Comments: 21 Comments

Published on: June 30, 2013

George Zimmerman is guilty.

George Zimmerman is guilty of profiling Trayvon Martin while acting as a neighborhood watchman.

George Zimmerman is guilty of saying Trayvon Martin “looks black”, when asked about Martin’s ethnicity.

George Zimmerman is guilty of following Trayvon Martin, leading to a confrontation.

George Zimmerman is guilty of shooting an unarmed Trayvon Martin to death…..

And none of these things are crimes in the State of Florida, unless prosecutors can refute Zimmerman’s self-defense assertion. That appears unlikely after the trial’s first five days.

The prosecution put on: a star witness who struggles with the truth; an eyewitness who said Martin did an MMA-style “ground-and-pound” on Zimmerman, and that Zimmerman screamed for help; and a witness who photographed Zimmerman’s injuries, and heard Zimmerman claim self-defense. At some point, the prosecution might wish to start eliminating reasonable doubt, instead of creating absolute doubt that Zimmerman is guilty of anything apart from weight gain.

However, the real story of the trial is the black reaction to it, for that may signal the decline of blacks as an American political demographic. Simply put, blacks are losing political and social respect – not because of what comes upon them, but for what emerges from them, which is clearly demonstrated by the Trayvon Martin ordeal.

Blacks, who owe their political standing to overcoming race-based injustice, are showing themselves racist. From the outset, blacks called the shooting a white-on-black crime, and, apparently, many still do, though Zimmerman’s parents are Jewish (father) and Cuban (mother).

(According to Jewish tradition dating to the 2nd century, and US Census bureau policy, maternity determines a child’s race. George Zimmerman is Cuban, not white. The same tradition and policy makes Barack Obama just another white man in the White House.)

The New Black Panther Party wanted whites killed in response to Martin’s death and placed a bounty on Zimmerman. The Martin family said they did not “condone those people”…which differs from the condemnation that should have (but did not) come from them and all people of good faith.

Spike Lee tweeted what he thought was Zimmerman’s address, telling followers, “feel free to reach out and touch him”. Lee later apologized and paid the couple he put at risk. Again, blacks were silent.

Had the Ku Klux Klan advocated killing blacks or placed a bounty on anyone, or had a minor white celebrity threatened an elderly black couple, black outrage, and that of most other Americans, would have come swiftly…because such things are wrong.

The black non-reaction to these things, including ignoring and excusing racist comments from Trayvon Martin the night he died, shows that blacks, who once rose in opposition to slurs and injustices cast upon them, now sit in acceptance of their own casting slurs and committing injustices…and the nation notices this.

Trayvon Martin died during an election year, which likely prompted the incumbent president to seek connection with blacks during the re-elect campaign:
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yt_g5JPdP8Y[/youtube]

Now, blacks supporting Obama at 96% in 2008 is understandable. But, since then, world economists recognize America’s decline under Obama, and the American middle class, for which Obama claims to fight, lead the downward spiral. Yet hardest hit are America’s blacks. High unemployment, diminished net worth, a worsening racial climate, etc. make being black in America tougher under Obama.

However, instead of punishing Obama in 2012, blacks gave him 93% of their votes. Obama also got a pass for showing greater concern for issues affecting hispanic and homosexual communities than for those impacting blacks. Indeed, blacks scarcely criticize Obama, and quickly label anyone who does.

So, blacks look like an abused woman who, despite her split lip and blackened eyes, defends the guy who beats her as “good”. Thoughtful people will conclude there is no reasoning with the woman, leaving her to the insanity. They are reaching a similar conclusion about black political and social reasoning.

Non-blacks see Detroit and other cities under long-term Democrat Party rule, so financially corrupt as to have emergency managers or be in receivership. They see Chicago, where Democrat rule contributes to “open season” on blacks, despite the nation’s toughest gun laws. They see Los Angeles, where long-term Democrat control brought that city near bankruptcy with schools that graduate only 2/3 of students. They see a welfare state, begun in 1965, that has lowered black marriage rates, sent illegitimacy rates soaring, and helped blacks, though under 13% of the US population, account for 30% of US abortions.

Despite this and more, they see the self-destructive thoughtlessness of blacks continuing to vote for liberals and their policies. When they seek to engage blacks on this, they are labeled racists or sell-outs, which ends meaningful dialogue.

Blacks once boasted the “moral leader” of the nation. But now: they support a president who fails them, is disrespected abroad and is a scandal factory at home; they elect blacks to Congress who are impotent; they elect a disproportionate number of corrupt black officeholders. And blacks, who once excoriated all racists everywhere, now excuse blacks offering racist testimony in court.

If the nation sees blacks as unable or unwilling to look after black interests, then why should they seek to work with blacks on national interests?

When blacks fought injustices by being on the side of right, countless others, of all races, creeds, and colors joined them. Not because they were race issues, but because they were issues of right and wrong. For example, trafficking in men is not racist; it is wrong. Jim Crow segregation is not racist; it is wrong. Arbitrarily denying the vote is not racist; it is wrong. When blacks led such fights, pursuing what is right, they prevailed and gained political and social respect.

However, now, no black leadership pursues what is right, but rather what is “black”. It focuses on what is wanted, on laying guilt, on what others have that can be taken. Fortunately, that is not the view of all, or even most, blacks.

However, unless and until the desire for right returns as the premier aim of black political and social discussion, those who sang “We Shall Overcome” will be overcome by the perception that they are too self-centered and bigoted to be taken seriously in national debates. Political and social respect for America’s blacks is dying; all one need do is watch the Zimmerman trial, and how blacks react to it, to understand why it ebbs away.

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