This for You Anonymous

This is the first time I have posted something twice. I am posting this in reponse to an unprovoked attack by an anonymous visitor to Dancyscorner. Like most people he/she hides behind an avatar. Nothing wrong with that until you start hurling insults and go out your way to belittle me, the host of Dancyscorner. I post what I post because I am a big boy. I know there is no shortage of nut cases who probably beat their kids over some of the things I write.

People without coping skills.

I have written about the power of words before and I am still, to this day, in awe of what they can do in the proper order.

I have narrowed down the location of the anonymous reader but that is unimportant I do not have any intent on going beyond this form of correspondence.

But I am disturbed.

The type of cowardice displayed is equally as bad as the jealous merchant after reconstruction joining in on the lynching of a business rival. It is disturbing because there is no integrity, no face, no pride, just ethers and the monolithic injustice of our shared American history.

I also am disturbed by people who read the first paragraph of my blog and comment on it without finishing the whole post. The type of people that read the headlines in the newspaper not the articles. I actually thought about moderating my comment section but I want to expose these type of people. I knew they existed but in everyday life they will never speak out of turn at least that is my experience.

So without further ado

enjoy anonymous -this is for you.

Black History is American History. The lack of historical acknowledgement or an accurate account of the Black American experience is a regular complaint of those dedicated to racial justice in America.

The continued subtle omission of Black/American accomplishments in history books help shape a contemporary mindset- an indoctrination.

They did it all- white people that is. We blacks have always been a burden.

O.K. back to omissions

A particularly grievous omission( historical disregard) hovers around the issue of lynching; this brutal bizarre form of mob 'justice' would occur continually from the end of the Civil War to the last celebrated lynching in 1951.

The statistics are fuzzy- The Tuskeegee institute claims about 3,500 during that period- most of the lynchings recorded were documented through press clipping and postcards , there were obviously a lot more.

My grandmother has shared first hand accounts of an American world gone mad.

Before we continue ask yourself.

If I was alive then would I do something?
(To stop it)?

The Klu Klux Klan started in 1865.....thats interesting.Isn't that the same year the slaves were freed?Mr. Pike( 1st Grandmaster) did not wait one Mystikal second to set the record straight.No..... I repeat...no.... uppity niggers!

The white supremacist mindset included a belief that Black people were less than human therefore inhumane acts could be committed us. The Klan would help define those methods.The level of brutality was incomprehensible.

A lot of people will have difficulty reading this post.
Many won't even finish
Racism hits a nerve.
Especially with racists

I always wonder why white people are so quick to say."This isn't about race"or"He played the race card".

Breaking News-"We did not invent the race card".

Back to lynching.

Contrary to popular belief there was a lot of skilled slave labor. Slaves were used to build and maintain the infrastructure of the Southern United States. But who cares. They are not doing it now.

We all know the Civil War devastated the southern economy. All the, newly freed, skilled artisans who were once sources of income for their masters immediately became bonafide competitors.

The main competition was poor whites.

The frugal lifestyle of the former slave served as a catalyst for creativity and efficiency. It was easy for these survivors to create a comfortable modest lifestyle from very little. Prosperity was right around the corner all the newly freed men needed was opportunity. The ingredients for success were there.

Guaranteed in The Constitution.

Many ex-slaves began to thrive as a result of hard work and of course, humility. But the rapid success brought about jealousy from the Southern Gentleman- the once dominant Southern Planter did not enjoy the same profits he did before. It was an abomination for him to be stripped of his skilled cheap labor, but for the brutes to succesfully compete with him was unthinkable- like war with Iran

Still here? Good.

I actually got hate mail for this article.

As we climbed the social totem pole under the watchful and protective eye of Federal Troops we began to develop a little self esteem. Started to walk upright, no longer bowing our heads as we walked by a white person. Some even made direct eye contact with a white person-before abolition that could get you killed. Some former slaves even competed in international markets for tobacco and other crops during harvest charging top dollar for a superior crop. This is surely where the notion of being uppity was invented.The former Master snickering away as The French Merchant buys his ex-slave's bumper crop of Tobacco.

His face turning red.

Knuckles bone white.Gripping the Lions Head on his cane... A gentleman.

Many white southerners felt the The Federal Government had declared outright war on their sensibilities. There was a simmering effect.It was not just the Klan.There was determination to prevent the newly freed black men from ever being on equal ground with the white man.

William J Northern Governor of Georgia from 1890-1894 conducted a fact finding mission on the backroads of his state. He observed: I was amazed to find scores and hundred of men who believed the negro to be a brute, without reponsibility to God, and his slaughter nothing more than the killing of a dog.

Remember Black folks were no longer a private commodity the value of Black life cheapened considerably. Lynching became the most popular means of controlling and intimidating Black people. To deter any type of social progress but it was mainly about white supremacy. It was terrorism American style. It was a peculiar cultural phenomenon that persisted for generations undeterred by local, regional and even Federal law enforcement.

Lynchings were not restricted to the south, they occured all over the United States. Wherever they were it was an occasion.There was a self righteous pride in these mobs. Photographs were taken, post cards made to commemorate what came to be known as The Negro Bar- B- Que.

Most of us conjur images of a man hanging from a tree. Sorry- its worse.

The first recorded lynchings involved tying the victim to a tree, whipping them and then setting them on fire.

Pretty effective way to send a message to the uppity......They would usually grab an innocent upstanding citizen to send a message"We'll take their best nigger an burn em on the trash heap if they get to actin biggity"(quote in Without Sanctuary 00')The power of the lynch mob was directly related to the excitement that could be generated.

Many victims were dragged out of court after acquittal by a Judge and lynched. You could be lynched for just about anything.

Talk about race card.

There are documented lycnchings with absurd reasons like reckless eyeballing, unpopularity...unpopularity? And refusing to sell land. Regardless, the atmosphere was always carnival like . A man dressed as a clown in blackface might be running around like a gleeful imp encouraging people on the sidelines to get involved.

People would sometimes rampage through streets severing digits, limbs or genitals off the victim as they made their way kicking, screaming and pleading for mercyThe burning coal oil would await them and the mob would erupt in a frenzy as the near dead but concious man/woman was lowered into the oil.

Participants would come and clip a finger, toe somethiong as a souvenir before he was finally set afire and mercifully allowed to die.

An account of a lynching by a reporter for the Vicksburg Evening Post decribes the 1904 execution of a husband and wife. When the two negroes were captured, they were tied to trees and while their funeral pyres were being prepared the were forced to suffer the most fiendish tortures. The blacks were forced to hold out thier hands while one finger at a time was chopped off . The fingers were distributed as souvenirs. The ears of the murderers were cut off. Holbert was beaten severely his skull was fractured and one of his eyes, knocked out with a stick, hung by a shred from the socket...The most excruciating form of punishment consisted in the use of a large corkscrew in the hands of some of the mob. The instrument was bored into the woman in the arms, legs ,and body and then pulled out, the spirals tearing out big pieces of raw, quivering flesh every time it was withdrawn.

A frenzied atmosphere...in America there are a lot of frenzied atmospheres.Suffice it to say the thin fabric of order was routinely torn in many otherwise law abiding communities. Entire towns would trade in their civility and replace it with demonic, unthinkable demonstrations of hatred.Words like savage , brutal, sadistic, evil and abberant can be used to describe every report of a lynching.

Remember these were supposedly sane people. The postman, The Dentist.They were all indoctrinated to believe it was o.k.

This is The America we fail to recall in The History Books.

This is the America that kills it's own.
An old black man shared some thoughts "Kill a mule, buy another, Kill a nigger hire another...They had to have a license to kill anything but a nigger".

At least now you have to have a badge.Bridge the gap...if you can.any funny looking heirlooms in your family?

Jeremiah's Right

I was going to post about justice.

If you read my last post you know I planned on exposing some of the common practices of a deadly efficient criminal justice system, a growing system that relies on black and brown men. A system that does not give the benefit of the doubt to anyone caught in its web.

Anyone poor or black.

After watching and listening to the Rev Jeremiah Wright in front of the press club I had to stop and take note...it's not just the justice system.

It is a multi pronged pitchfork that is sharpened by the media, prosecutors and well intentioned supporters of the aforementioned.

You and me.

The peanut gallery sitting on the sidelines in blind support.

After all, they are the experts. And we trust the experts right?

We often minimize or ignore the suffering of Americans who have never enjoyed all the benefits of citizenship. We use specific statistical data to clarify our differences, point out discrepencies and to form opinions; we come to conclusions about ourselves and each other.

We come to expect a type of behavior based on statistics, encompassing a multitude of variables most of us do not even know exist to determine the next logical course of action.

Example: Black family moves next door...logical course of action?

I hope you thought bake a cake and invite them over for dinner.

I'M A REALIST SOMETIMES THAT MIGHT BE THE WRONG CHOICE BUT NOT BECAUSE THEY ARE BLACK.

The press club invited Rev Wright with one purpose...wreck Barack Obama.

He had the opportunity to fully answer the press club's anonymous queries. Most of them written with divisive language and with manipulative aplomb. I assume they were 'consensus questions' pored over and agreed upon by the journalists in the room.

"Rev Wright how do you feel about the division between the Black and white church"?

without assuming there is even a division Wright eloquently referenced the underground railroad and the role white christians played in bringing many slaves to freedom, He shared the historical role white christians played in formally educating black people when it was considered treasonous.

In fact withouth the rabid support of white christians abolition would have never happened; slavery was good for business in the north and south.

Fisk, Spellman, Morehouse and Howard.According to Wright, white christians made that happen. There is no division, no ongoing dispute. Chances are, I will not catch a beatdown in a white church.

A White Christian Church.

I could easily play to the cheap seats and drop some 'oneness under God' stuff. But we all know how quickly Christian sensibilities can be lost in the face of pride, greed, fear or lust; in the face of being human, in the face of reality.

The reality?

Division is what makes our elite class of monarchs so strong. Even the appearance of division works we do not have to actively be in conflict for the perception to take hold.

The assumption of division, so cleverly inserted into the rev Wright question, reminded of my days as a boiler room salesman.

Rhetoric

Contrary to popular opinion there are many examples of racial harmony. The assumption that we are divided is false. In many cases a good relationship is ruined by the media rhetoric. A well meaning white person who is worried about these issues starts asking their black colleagues, friends, strangers...the awkwardness takes hold.

"I didn't know you felt that way"

Division accomplished.

How does a father and son get to be President in the same twenty years?

I understand how monarchy works, I thought we were...
(I am not writing a book today)

A great example of the media's role would be the common practice of sensationalizing black crime. Last year a kid here, in Utica N.Y., recorded a sex act on his cell phone at school.

This made the evening news.

I know the kid. A typical overgrown, softspoken and apparently oversexed teenager. The young woman involved shared their enthusiasm( I know I am straddling some sort of line here ). In other words there was nothing forced or any type of sexual abuse, it simply made the digital rounds until a teacher caught wind of it.

Before I go any further I want to remind the readers over 35 if we had the same technology in our highschool days we would have a lot less people enjoying the fruits of their own 'wonder years'. They would be in mom's basement licking er' soothing ancient wounds.

So this kid gets plastered all over the paper, evening news and he is essentially a wreck. To him... his life is over. He is an accident nearing completion.

It is sad.

The girl? She enjoys legendary status among the techno-savvy thug crowd.

I will not condone his behavior or even offer an explanation. But I will tell you a white girl got caught sucking dick( yes the suckee was white too) in class and it did not even make the police blotter.

Just 'kids being kids' but the black one will have a felony and no diploma the others will quietly continue their rough journey through highschool on to college and into porn.

I do not know why I chose that example I can think of a few more that are way more appropriate. But I forgot I'm goin to Jonestown. Filth factor sells

Heres another one. 18 yr old Darnell Howard recieved six years for spitting on and hitting a cop in Sept 07'. Earlier that same year in March eight Police officers were sent to the hospital; the proud recipients of a St Patrick's day beatdown. There was a concussion and some broken bones...everyone single one of the perpetrators was aquitted. Not one went to the hospital or jail.

"Hey the guys were a little drunk ...things got outta hand... they're good guys"

I'm not mad at em' I'm a bit envious. I'm sure if any local cops read this they will be pissed at my beatdown envy but they need to remember.

I didn't do it.

Save your anger for the 'good guys' that administered the beatdown.

Yeah right.

It gets better but I have to hold onto some of this I can't show all my cards...now can I?

The thing that gets to me is the biased one sided coverage this stuff gets. The favorable and almost apologetic language when the people involved are white. I hear a lot of stuff like 'unforeseen tragedy', 'they have a lot going for them',' a bright future' 'respect for their privacy' and 'time to heal'. When they are black I hear 'sentencing date', and 'alleged alibi' and 'supposed defense strategy'.

I have seen an unprecedented( at least i never heard of three mistrials or even two) three mistrials attempts until the guy was finally convicted on hearsay!!!

The third time was the charm,

All the witnesses were totally unreliable and I honestly do not know what I would have done as a prosecutor on that one. It was tough because the guy was up to no good and the prosecution had a very weak case. The D.A. got lucky to get a conviction without that case making some sort of legal journal for bad case management with desired results.

The hapless black defense attorney did not know what hit him. All he could say was we have heard this testimony three times from this same person and now we are accepting the third version of 'truth' she has so graciously shared. If his client had money or he has a crisis of concience he could win in a higher court... easily. But I am sure he left Utica with a little less pride in our system and his place in it.

That is why they make the big bucks.

But does it always have to be at our, black peoples, expense. When will the scales of justice weigh everyone's conscience.

Drugs

Everyone uses them at pretty much equal rates but only brown and black people got to jail.

If drugs were ever decriminalized they would not have a reason to lock us up unless it was illegal to be black...believe it or not it used to be.

Back to Darnell Howard. He gets six years.

Around the time of his sentencing in early APRIL three suburban kids were awaiting sentencing for beating another kid to death with an eightball(not coke you addicts). So far one white kid got time served 2/3rd of a year, they claimed it was accidental. There we go with the benefit of the doubt thingy.

My new name for it is the 'white' race card.

Now available in black, yellow and brown...

act now you can only use it once.

Back From Nowhere

O.K. its been awhile.
I have not tapped a keyboard key in the name of blogging for almost two weeks. A lot has happened and I have remained relatively silent.
Aside from beating a Grand Jury indictment and having my freelance opportunities halved I look at the big picture and remain optimistic.
I am also torn.
Maybe I am overwhelmed by sheer multitude of wrongs I so fervently want to pontificate against.


Maybe its the local relevance that concerns me.

The backlash.

I am starting to believe in the power of the blog.
Some people I have written about do not look at me the same. I'm cool with that, everything I have written I would say in their face.
I proclaimed awhile back in a previous rant that I was through being nice.


I am.


I have nothing hanging over my head and I have a firm command of the english language.

Watch Out.

Old school tactics will not sway me.
You see, where I live there is only one African American in City Government, he is a retired cop, one of the first black cops in Utica. by all accounts a good man. They (Mayoral Administration) pulled him off the woodpile to save face with the NAACP. The thing is, he had his turn. This guy has been the recipient of favorable political appointments for 40 yrs. He always got along with the people who run this town.
He was the token.
I'm not hatin on him I would take 25,000 grand a year for part time work too.
I'm hatin on the current administration that refuses to hire a single black professional.


I'm sure they'll say we can't find one and I can say you are not looking.


His job title is laughable. Liason to the human resources recruiter for the Fire and Police Departments. He is supposed to recruit minority applicants.

He is 75 yrs old.
Does he have e-mail?
Does the city care if he recruits any minorities?
It sounds good but lets be serious. Lets be prudent- what is wrong with a young black man?

Are we so intimidating?

Do we lower the curve?

There are some people that honestly think we do.

I have been to other urban areas with sizable minority populations
and they always successfully employed qualified minority applicants. All these places have something in common.

Culture, prosperity and diversity.

What is wrong with Utica?

Until recently Utica has lacked each of the aforementioned qualities.
The new mayor has promised a new emphasis in all these areas including a new charter for the city.

Will the new Utica include all the citizens?What is wrong with a new symbol of progress?We have a few black military veterans that could use a job. We have few college grads that happen to be black and ironically chose to stick around.

But this guy?

The token?
He is an old pacifier. He kept the previous generation of frustrated black people quiet. We had one black cop for years there is only six now.

So it is safe to assume, around here, the Police arrest us and serve and protect everyone else. The only cop you can have decent conversation with is the one who comes to the bar on saturday-he's black.

Six black cops out of 173!!!!

It won't work.

It hasn't worked.

He offered these words in reference to the homogenous police department."it would be ideal to have ten or twelve black cops"

It is obvious he is out of touch.
Maybe I am asking too much, after all, black folks are less than ten percent of the population around here.
Maybe it is unrealistic to believe that the black people that have been here for generations will ever get a fair shake.
These people(black folks) are the recipients of a bad rap going back 100 yrs. I have read newspaper excerpts out of an excellent book titled ethnic utica that show in detail the colorful language used to describe the lazy and shiftless savages that supossedly made up the black community.
It reminded me of this


The imagery that the language conjurs had an effect on the people that read it. I know the power of words and images, they sustain a reality.
To white people in The Mohawk Valley the reality was: we(black uticans) were no good. That idea prevails to this day. I read the local newspaper blog section and it is the most racist inciteful garbage I have ever read in a public forum. Everyone hiding behind avatars, I shouldn't even let it piss me off but it does.
Half the problem is a lack of black journalist, a different perspective; the other half is hate.
The nature of the stacked deck never did us well in this corner of the country, but there was hope for hardworking men who could swallow their pride daily and earn a living wage as a 'good nigger'.
It is not that different today.




I worked at Clear Channel here in Utica, the only black man there.They had one of those PSA posters over the urinal in the mens room it was a picture of an orange in a bushel of apples. It read: "do you feel like you don't belong"? Hmmmmm. I wonder how long that has been up.

There are large number of native born black folks from here that have arrived. They're like the Jeffersons. They make good money, have nice houses therefore they have no big complaints. Once again I am not hatin on them unless they defend the turnkeys that let them in. Almost forgot to mention they also enjoy an elite status among the peons(including me, King Peon) that make up the black community here because there are so few who equal their success(education).

They can literally afford to look down on their brethren.
But they don't, there are too many equalizers in our community. We all go down together.

Succeed alone and fail as a group.

Remember, these are black people who would fit in nicely among everyone else in the southside of Chicago, NYC or Oakland California. But here in Utica, Black Professional is akin to an oxymoron. It is whispered in boardrooms laughed about in bars.

"I heard they spotted one at the courthouse...naw he was on trial ha ha ha".
We toil, unappreciated in the background, never one to make waves. We soldier on with quiet tenacity humbly accepting every form of rejection known to man. We cleverly maneuver around fake smiles, tasteless jokes and people who refuse to say 'good morning'.
We do all this while they lock us up for petty crimes indict us on B.S.. And let their own kids and adults out of Justice's way for (manslaughter/murder) anything and everything under the sun.

The real Mohawk Valley where a kid gets six years for spitting on and hitting a cop and the suburban kid gets a suspended sentence for his involvement in a murder.

Guess who was black.
The disparities on how crimes are reported by the press and prosecuted by the D.A. are something for another post.
My next post.
It doesn't matter. Through it all, we always remember to smile.
Well, guess what?
I am not smiling and I am looking for a job.

Some would say that is not a good combination.

It depends on the work you are looking for.

I have had some pretty good conversations in my corner of the community in the blogosphere and the real world.
Most, if not all, of my conversations revolve around transformation, alignment, unity and ultimately prosperity.

I am trying not to focus on the negatives.

It is good know there are great many people who seek out the same alignment I am writing about. The racial issues are a smokescreen and the white people of upstate new york have been bamboozled into believing the myths on a grand scale.

They are waking up-slowly.

I hope I can smile enough to get a job.

Dumb as....

America is getting dumber.

Do you need proof?

The New York Post had a transexual woman posing as a man on the frontpage as the first pregnant man.

There he/she was with his/her wife hugging him/her.

I know a few hardworking Americans, middle of the road people who have raised lawyers, own businesses, pay taxes. They saw that photo and that was enough.

"Jesus Dave can you believe that shit"?

I'll admit I sometimes hang around people who do not read books, newspapers, greeting cards, or checking account balances. None of that has anything to do carpentry, plumbing and drinking beer. I am often the only guy who has, what I consider, an accurate grasp on current events.

"So Dave what do you think of that shit"?

"Well from what I know the guy is a woman and never was a man, she took hormones and had her breasts reduced.

We argued over that point for forty minutes until I countered with indisputable proof.

"Dude I saw the interview on Oprah" On a sidenote Oprah asked when she first experienced gender issues. "I was quite a tomboy, climbing trees, playing jax...my mother commited suicide when I was twelve" I'll skip all the psycho-babble-she had to man up.

Which makes it even more baffling. Before I descend into my stupid Americans rant I have to remember, despite the pregnant woman posing as a man, we have come a long way. I have to remember when people used to sign up for military service they could simply use a thumbprint or 'x marks the spot' because they were illiterate. I have to remember reading and writing were not in the list of requirements for law enforcement. I have to remember dueling was a noble way to solve a dispute. I have to remember Jesse Helms has not been dead that long(thanks for reminding me dash). I have to remember the 3/5's rule.

Pregnant man. Yeah, the dad is Pabst Blue Ribbon.

Anything to sell papers right?

I try to keep a stiff upper lip walk the world as an observer, I rarely get involved with an assigned moral stance.

I live very simply. As long as my food does not come off of anyone's plate, I'm good.

But I cannot help being a little dissappointed I think we are starting to digress a bit. The ingredients for mass ingnorance followed by mayhem are starting to mature.

My twentysomething friends provide the best evidence.

I need to preface what I going to write with a simple disclaimer. The young clique I hang with from time to time are not dumb by any stretch of the imagination- they are distracted.

I rarely talk politics with this group but I decided what the hell.

Obviously, Obama began to dominate the conversation.

"Did you guys know Obama has six Presidents in his bloodline"?

"No, but I heard he is related to Brad Pitt"

The conversation somehow shifted to Brad Pitt and it stayed there.

We are not dumber- we have always been stupid.