“23 Ways You Could Be Killed If You Are Black In America” (2016) is a video about extrajudicial killings in the US. It features Alicia Keys, Beyonce, Bono and others.
The video is embedded above, the words are below:
“23 ways you could be killed if you are Black in America.
Alicia Keys & We Are Here Movement standing up and speaking out.
- Alicia Keys: Failing to signal a lane change (Sandra Bland).
- Beyonce: Riding in your girlfriend’s car with a child in the back (Philando Castile).
- Chris Rock: Running to the bathroom in your own apartment (Ramarley Graham).
- Pink: Selling cigarettes outside of a corner store (Eric Garner).
- Talib Kweli: Riding a commuter train (Oscar Grant).
- Janelle Monae: Walking home with a friend (Gregg Gunn).
- Chance: Making eye contact (Freddie Gray).
- Taraji P. Henson: Selling CDs outside of a supermarket (Alton Sterling).
- Pharrell: Wearing a hoodie (Trayvon Martin).
- Common: Walking away from police (Mario Woods).
- Queen Latifah: Walking towards police (Laquan McDonald).
- Kevin Hart: Missing a front licence plate (Samuel Dubose).
- Rosario Dawson: Holding a fake gun in a park in Ohio (Tamir Rice).
- Swizz Beatz: Driving with a broken brake light (Walter L. Scott).
- Lenny Kravitz: Sitting in your car before your bachelor party (Sean Bell).
- Zoe Kravitz: Walking up the stairwell of your apartment building (Akai Gurley).
- Asap Rocky: Calling for help after an accident (Renisha McBride).
- Jada Pinkett Smith: Holding a fake gun in Virginia (India M. Beaty).
- Bono: On the way to Bible study (Cynthia Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lance, Rev. Depayne Middleton-Doctor, Hon. Rev. Clementa Pinckney, Tywanza Sanders, Rev. Daniel Simmons Sr, Rev. Sharonda Singleton, Myra Thompson).
- Jennifer Hudson: Holding a fake gun in Walmart (John Crawford III)
- Van Jones: Laughing (Rekia Boyd).
- Tracee Ellis Ross: Holding a wallet (Amadou Diallo).
- Adam Levine: For attending a birthday party (Jamar Clark).
In other words, just for being Black in America and…
Maxwell: doing absolutely nothing.
These everyday actions can be seen as…
Rihanna: not servile enough.
Alicia Keys: Go to weareheremovement.com to tell President Obama and Congress that the time is for change is now. We demand radical transformation to heal the long history of systemic racism so that all Americans have the equal right to live and to pursue happiness.”
The We Are Here Movement was founded by Alicia Keys with a million dollars of her own money. It supports causes like ending mass incarceration, helping refugees, and pushing for education for girls in poor countries. It has a petition in favour of the Sentencing Reform Act now before Congress.
Alicia Keys:
“As we enter the homestretch of Obama’s presidency, now is the time to come to terms with the inequities our fellow Americans have suffered throughout our history and make it right.”
President Obama visited Dallas, Texas where five police officers were killed last week – but not Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where Alton Sterling was killed by police, nor Falcon Heights, Minnesota, where Philando Castile was killed by police. Just as if Obama “doesn’t care about Black people”.
– Abagond, 2016.
See also:
- Langston Hughes: Kids Who Die
- Barack Obama
- mass incarceration
- posts about celebrities featured in the video:
- Know them by their tweets?
- Alicia Keys
- Beyonce
- Maxwell
- Rosario Dawson
- Taraji P. Henson – Empire
- Pharrell – New Black
- Jennifer Hudson – If This Isn’t Love
- Janelle Monae – Tightrope
- Talib Kweli – Brown Skin Lady
- Jada Pinkett Smith – Oscars So White
- Chris Rock – the N-word
- Bono – One
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Reblogged this on Art by Rob Goldstein and commented:
21 unarmed Black people known to be killed by US police so far in 2016.
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I have been commenting on this on several sites. This just looks contrived to me.
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“Obama doesn’t care about Black people.” – Abagond
This is quite true. Howevet, it’s just too darn unfortunate that the average Black American fail to look pass his charming persona to realize this glaring fact.
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I laughed at the part about Tell President Obama and Congress. Yeah, Right! (Sucks teeth)!
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“President Obama visited Dallas, Texas where five police officers were killed last week – but not Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where Alton Sterling was killed by police, nor Falcon Heights, Minnesota, where Philando Castile was killed by police. Just as if Obama “doesn’t care about Black people”.”
He cares about officer Lorne Ahrens one of the Dallas dead and, likely, a white supremacist!
(http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jesse-benn/slain-dallas-cop-mightve_b_10953276.html)
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@gro jo: Wow, thanks for the link interesting.
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Thank you for posting this.
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Blacks as Targets
(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4oCL99mrRk)
https://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/wp/2013/04/15/target-practice-with-trayvon-martin/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/memphis-police-snapchat-emoji-suspended_us_57833cfbe4b0c590f7e9ee71
Is it Paul Mooney who said nothing has changed but the weather?
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#24 Playing your music too loud while at a gas station with friends. (Jordan Davis)
http://www.ajc.com/news/news/florida-teen-killed-in-dispute-over-loud-music/nTGZ8/
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@Mary Burrell…“his just looks contrived to me.”
I’m 100% with you Mary. The day Philando Castile died a week ago, I saw and posted the original, very poignant, SILENT video which I prefer, because it spoke volumes ALL ON ITS OWN — no other, “famous” faces required. Here’s the link to it:
(https://youtu.be/vzyKMhHFPw4)
As I watched the names and faces of those murdered along with their “crimes” move across the screen, that’s all I could, and continue to be able to do after watching those two young men murdered by police.
I’m certain they believe that adding their faces and spoken words to the mix will attract more attention to these killings that have been going on right under their noses for some time now — and it probably will. But, where were their faces and voices BEFORE now? Seems it took Jesse Wiliams’ BET speech to make them think it was safe to come out of the closet as “activists” now — please! I’d have respected them more if they’d all gotten together and produced something from their own hearts, minds and souls. Maybe then I’d not see this one as so a day late and a dollar short and I might could take their “activism” a little more seriously.
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@ Deb @ Mary
Of these celebrities, I checked the Twitter feed of Beyonce and Pharrell 13 days after Michael Brown was killed. They both said very the same thing as Raven-Symone and Hillary Clinton: nothing.
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They forgot one being a black Police Officer in New York Chasing after a car Thief! So much for Cop Lives Matter, I guess that only if you are a white cop!
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/white-officer-kills-black-mistaking-criminal-article-1.372647
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@ Deb @ Mary
Even though most of these celebrities are singers, only one appeared at the #JusticeForFlint concert: Janelle Monae.
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@ Deb
The celebrity video has over a half million views, the other one less than 3,000, even though both are on the same YouTube channel.
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Surprise! Celebrities don’t really care about the plight of common black folks. Come on, this is age old stuff here isn’t it?
I saw that post on Twitter and thought: man here are some awesome excuses I could use to KILL a brother if need be.
They are normalizing our murder. The Purge Election year will be one to watch. They aren’t subtle, as DOAN has said.
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To be fair, Beyonce (net worth $265 million) did raise $82,000 for Flint.
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Which is like someone who owns a house worth $265,000 raising $82 for Flint.
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@Abagond…Keep making my point, my Brother. That they’re getting involved now is, for me, merely a “better late than never (but some of y’all ain’t foolin’ nobody)” thing. As evidenced by both your comments to me and my little sister-daughter-friend, Mary above, critically thinking, inquiring minds have to ask, “What’s motivating them — now (after all this time)? Could it be shame? Opportunism? Having been complicit and/or conflicted? Fear? Who the hell knows?! But, if you’re saying you understand what’s going on, or want to be an ally, IMHO — it would behoove us to pay a-damned-ttention instead of swooning or being impressed they put their faces and voices on somebody else’s very, visceral reaction to the murders (though I’m sure Ms. King ain’t turnin’ down the benefits of having written and portrayed something deeply meaningful, as well as getting these “stars” to sign on, coopt it and blow it the hell up (yes, Deb the cynic is alive and well)!
“To be fair, Beyonce (net worth $265 million) did raise $82,000 for Flint.
You were being sarcastic — right? She could’ve written a check from her personal account for, at a minimum, 5 times the amount she raised and never even felt it. {smmfh}
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@Abagond — You hit post right before I did!
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@Abagond…“The celebrity video has over a half million views, the other one less than 3,000, even though both are on the same YouTube channel.
Speaking of speaking volumes, about them — and us.
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@ Deb
Right, for her it is trifling. Which tells me that her sudden concern for Black people is not coming from her heart but from somewhere else.
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@ Deb
Right, five times that would still be non-heroic.
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God, I hate all this holier than thou talk. How much did any of you contribute to Flint? How many of you organized anything to fight what’s going on? Why should celebrities be held to a higher standard than you or the politicians you elected based on the whole “change and hope” farce?
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@Abagond&Deb: I was on another social media site and I simply stated that I guess since brother Jesse Williams made his speech I guess the others felt the need to get on the bandwagon. But up until now many of these celebrities have been quiet. The Black community is in a crisis, we don’t need this to be something that’s fashionable and the hip thing to do. That’s why I can’t take these celebrities serious. Even Beyoncé’s Formation may or may not have been a moment to celebrate Black people during Black history month or just a gimmick to promote her new album and concert tour. She’s a savvy business woman it’s hard to tell which. This video just doesn’t ring true to me.
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Cooper: Standing in front of a hotel building in Mississippi (James Craig Anderson)
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Being a little girl sleeping on the couch: 6 year old Aiyanna Jones police burst in her grandmother’s apartment in Detroit guns blazing. Rest in peace little angel.
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@Mary Burrell
Well they did mix up the chruch massacre and maybe a couple random fate accidents with the police intervention killings. That does take the credibility out.
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Not a Beyonce fan but she and the camel did give $1 mil to BLM. Still just a drop in the bucket esp when you combine both their net worths but it’s definitely an improvement from $82K. Supposedly they bailed out protestors last year. . .
It’s difficult to make judgment calls on this basis for black celebrities. Many of them give anonymously (probably to prevent the impression they are doing it just for the attention and to keep the fake charities away and to not seem as though they are covertly influencing politics/politicians) so it’s not like we would know if they are heavily funding certain causes or meeting with government or community leaders unless it is intentionally publicized.
I also wouldn’t put much stock on social media accounts. 9 times out of 10 the posts are written by assistants or reps – not by the person themselves. I certainly hope if something really disturbed celebrities, they’d be doing something in the real world and not think “gee, I need to post my opinion on twitter and make this all about me.”
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It is sad to see that America are not progressing towards a better equality for all. When it is started that it is a land of freedom for all but it seemed that only certain race received that treatment. More needs to be done to address this issue before any other tragic loss.
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Which is like someone who owns a house worth $265,000 raising $82 for Flint.
Brilliant point. I don’t think people realize just how little celebrities give to causes they claim they care about. It seems a lot compare to how much the average person can give, but to them it is throwing out a few pennies.
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@Origin
‘the possibility that it could be a Memphis police officer blew me away”. Bwahaha… I find it hard to believe that black police chiefs are unaware of the racism routinely demonstrated by the officers under their command. They came up through the system.
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@Abagond…“Which tells me that her sudden concern for Black people is not coming from her heart but from somewhere else.”
My thoughts exactly. IMHO, there’s nothing even remotely “heroic” going on with most of our current crop of “celebrities.” Unlike those of the era of Mr. Harry Belafonte, who was “boots on the ground” in the struggle when I was growing up, their focus seems less about the struggle and more about “look at me, look at me!” Contrarily though, Jesse Williams seems to understand that — lending his celebrity to further the cause while ALSO having his boots on the ground with Black Lives Matter is imperative:
http://www.democracynow.org/2014/10/13/actor_jesse_williams_joins_ferguson_october
Bi-i-i-i-g difference from what I’ve seen from his peers who jumped on that video.
@Mary Burrell…“Even Beyoncé’s Formation may or may not have been a moment to celebrate Black people during Black history month or a gimmick to promote her new album and concert tour.”
I choose door #2.
@JMac…“Not a Beyonce fan but she and the camel did give $1 mil to BLM…Many of them give anonymously (probably to prevent the impression they are doing it just for the attention and to keep the fake charities away and to not seem as though they are covertly influencing politics/politicians) so it’s not like we would know if they are heavily funding certain causes or meeting with government or community leaders unless it is intentionally publicized.”
Okay, I’m ROFLBAO right now cuz I call him “Joe Camel” myself (for those of you not as old as dirt like me — Joe Camel was the face of Camel cigarettes in all of the advertising back in the day. Not sure if he’s still on the pack since cigarette ads have ben banished)!!!
Look, they can do whatever they want with their money, just don’t be frontin’ like you give two shits if all you’re gonna do is throw around a couple dolla’ bills while you jump onto somebody else’s succinct expression of what’s going on. And I seriously doubt they’re even aware how to use their cash like white folk do, to covertly influence politics/politicians short of having the Changeling — “feelin’ like a pimp nigga, go and brush your shoulders off” — a sentiment he happily obliged after taking their check. {SMDH}.
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@grojo…“God, I hate all this holier than thou talk. How much did any of you contribute to Flint? How many of you organized anything to fight what’s going on?”
I’d intended to ignore your “holier than thou” straw man argument, but on second thought, I won’t. Since my money is wa-a-a-y shorter than that of these celebrities, I couldn’t contribute any dolla’ bills to Flint. However, since you asked — besides the fact that I not long ago came back from a Black Lives Matter rally downtown at Marion Square in Charleston tonight, I’ve done quite a bit of organizing to fight what’s been going on in our Black lives long before the events indicated in that video Abagond posted.
Because I understood the fact that, without legislative changes, we could sing and march all we wanted but not a damned thing would change, I, along with only five other people (to include two local lawyers, another newspaper person and his girlfriend and my husband), formed a committee to investigate how to bring a Citizen’s Review Board (CRB) to our South Florida community. I used my position as a weekly, newspaper columnist to inform, encourage and support the community who’d had enough of the police violence without any accountability and once the lawyers had drawn up the amendment, we all worked tirelessly, trying to get enough signatures on a petition to get it on the ballot — and we did. We were all in City Hall, watching as the votes came in and when it passed that election day, we celebrated, madly. We’d changed a city’s charter by amendment, amid all kinds of white opposition from the city government, as well as from its affluent, white citizens (the most offensive being, “We don’t need a Citizen’s Review Board — that’s for those people on that part of town”).
Since before the Mother Emmanuel massacre, I’ve been working with a coalition to include Black Lives Matter Charleston, trying to bring my prior experience with the formation of the Florida CRB to fruition here at home. Hard work, still trying. My biggest challenge so far, is being seen as an outsider in my own hometown because I’ve been gone for 40 years. It keeps my head and life spinning — but that’s okay, because it’s imperative to me that we not only have agency in our own liberation here, we need to know and feel the satisfaction of getting it done.
As to your, “Why should celebrities be held to a higher standard than you or the politicians you elected based on the whole “change and hope” farce?”
The answer is the simple and oft-repeated, “To whom much is given, much is required.” And just so you know, I had absolutely nothing to do with the selection of the Changeling and his whole “change and hope” farce. I voted for Cynthia McKinney.
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Everyone isn’t as well educated on the issues as most of the readers of Abagond. I find it commendable that these black celebrities have lent their voice and image to raising awareness of this issue. Their celebrity allows them to reach folks in power or folks that have no means to connect to the net on a regular basis.
It’s also worth noting that those black celebrities who espouse, within their public persona, to be docile and sell-outs are often, in private, making huge contributions to the welfare and education of our people…around the world.
I think it’s time to respect “doing” and save the labels and judgements for the true enemies of freedom. Freedom means FREE, not free according to your standards-of-the-week.
And, since someone rightfully mentioned the (murdered, assassinated? or executed) Dallas cop who “may” have had leanings or may have even belonged to a white supremacist group, it’s worth mentioning that he died in the line of duty while shielding a black woman from gunfire, He took the bullet, and died.
RESPECT..!!
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@nomad…“Bwahaha… I find it hard to believe that black police chiefs are unaware of the racism routinely demonstrated by the officers under their command. They came up through the system.”
Hey ‘Mad! Hope all is well, Brother. You are absolutely right, there’s NO WAY they can be unaware! But, like those celebrities who’ve been allowed to sniff the “inner sanctum” of white supremacy and believe they’ve “arrived, those Black police chiefs (and some of the officers) understand what they can and cannot say and/or do — in order to stay there. {smdh}
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So a few questions for everyone. While 21 unarmed blacks killed by police so far this year is horrific (not sure if this includes blacks who had guns on them, but hadn’t drawn them yet, as in two of the most recent shootings), how do you compare those with the thousands of additional blacks killed in cities like Chicago, Baltimore and St. Louis in the last couple of years as a result of the “Ferguson effect” and Black Lives Matter movement (are they worthy of a post of their own)? Why is it that blacks are killed by police (as a percentage of people killed by police) much less than at the rate at which they perpetrate violent crimes? Why is it that non-white police officers are many times more likely to shoot someone than white officers? Given that we are cataloguing the ways a black can be killed in America, what is the ratio of blacks killed by cops to the ratio of blacks killed by non-cop blacks (from all the media, it would seem like the former must be much more numerous)?
I have had a bit of a change of heart about BLM. Although, I think the movement, and the needless violence and destruction it has spawned (literally thousands of additional blacks killed because of the movement), is a tragedy, it is definitely helping to elect Donald Trump. It’s like DT and BLM feed off each other now. Hope BLM will not let the repeated radical Islamic terror attacks around the globe slow their momentum. DT needs BLM to be as active as possible between now and election day (I’m only half-joking here).
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Biff
Can you expand on the following “Not sure if this includes blacks who had guns on them but hadn’t drawn them yet as in the two most recent shootings”
In particular, the part where you state “they hadn’t drawn them yet “. I may be reading this wrong but it sounds like you are saying that if they were carrying weapons, they were prevented from having the opportunity to use them with intent. Whereas I had understood that in at least one of these rrcent cases , the individual declared he had a gun he was licensed to use
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@ biff
I grabbed this answer to your “broken record” questions from the internet because your questions have been repeatedly answered here and elsewhere. You can find those answers yourself.
Here’s a new internet (copied and pasted here) answer:
“The killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile last week brought the issue of police brutality into sharp focus once again. Disturbing cell phone videos showed the nation just how readily cops will execute innocent people.
Sterling was killed in front of a Baton Rouge convenience store while he was selling CDs with the permission of the store owner. He was shot at point blank range by two cops as they pinned him to the ground and held down his arms.
Days later, a video was streamed live on Facebook showing Castile bleeding to death in the passenger seat of a car just after being shot four times by a Minnesota cop. Castile had done nothing more than reach for his wallet after the cop had asked him for identification.
1,208 people were killed by cops in 2015, and 1,111 were killed in 2014—an average of three people a day. That was a 44 percent increase from 2013, where 763 people were killed by cops.
624 people have been killed by cops so far in 2016, putting us on track for another year where more than 1,000 lives will be taken by those sworn to protect and serve.
In America, the odds of being killed by a cop are far greater than in other parts of the world. 14 people were killed by cops in Canada in 2014, and only one person was killed by a cop in the United Kingdom. No one was killed by cops in Germany in 2013-2014.
China, which is known for its heavy-handed state tactics, recorded 12 killings by law enforcement in 2014. This means that law enforcement in the US killed 92 times more people than a country with nearly 1.4 billion people.
If anyone wants to talk about “American exceptionalism,” police killings must surely be near the top of the list.
To put things into further perspective, in America one is more likely to be killed by a cop than several rather scary things—from lightning to venomous snakes to amusement park rides.
Politicians and mainstream media talking heads constantly tell us to be afraid of terrorists, so they can justify the numerous military escapades around the world and build the surveillance/police state at home.
But in fact, you are 53 times more likely to be killed by a cop than a terrorist attack.
Parrish Miller goes on to list nine other things that are less likely to kill you in America than a police officer.
1.You’re 1.8 times more likely to be killed by a cop than by the heat.
2.You’re 20 times more likely to be killed by a cop than by a bee, wasp, or hornet.
3.You’re 24 times more likely to be killed by a cop than by lightning.
4.You’re 41 times more likely to be killed by a cop than by a dog.
5.You’re 53 times more likely to be killed by a cop than by a terrorist attack.
6.You’re 166 times more likely to be killed by a cop than by a spider.
7.You’re 166 times more likely to be killed by a cop than by fireworks.
8.You’re 193 times more likely to be killed by a cop than by a venomous snake.
9.You’re 264 times more likely to be killed by a cop than by an amusement park ride.
10.You’re 387 times more likely to be killed by a cop than by a shark, bear, or alligator.
As we go about our lives in the “land of the free,” remember that uniformed soldiers of the State—enforcing such affronts to freedom as the War on Drugs—are more dangerous than other fears that may occupy our minds.
However, violence is not the answer to this fear. Just remember to always video record police encounters, and remember the fact that you have the 5th Amendment right to remain silent. You do not have to answer questions that cops routinely ask in the attempt to get you to confess to a crime.”
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Hi Deb.
Yeah. I think most black cops
are complicit. Just like the ones on trial in Baltimore. I am reminded of the black cop in ‘Boyz n the Hood’.
Congratulations on the success of your activism. That’s great!
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Deb,
Thank you for taking the time to respond to my provocation. We will have to agree to disagree on this issue.
I applaud your activism, but I reject your claim that “celebrities” owe anybody something because, ” To whom much is given, much is required.” Besides liking and buying their products, what have you “given” them?
Their talents they got from nature and chance, their wealth from hard work and luck. Why would anyone expect beyoncé, who started her career, at the ripe old age of seven, to be some kind of political genius, able and willing to lead the masses to the promise land is beyond me. beyoncé’s path to success applies to most of the “celebrities”.
The fact that people look to them for some kind of lead, shows how deep the political rot is. The Civil Rights movement wasn’t led by “celebrities”.
Neither Flint nor the flooding of New Orleans in 2005 were charity cases calling for donations, but political attacks on vulnerable communities that required political responses. What happened after these events? Not much, why is that?
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@blakksage
“Obama doesn’t care about Black people.” – Abagond
“This is quite true. Howevet, it’s just too darn unfortunate that the average Black American fail to look pass his charming persona to realize this glaring fact.”
Right you are. Few people understand that he is in essence anti-black, something I gleaned during his first year in office. I called him a Manchurian candidate and a Trojan horse. I’m glad to see Paul Street use the term ‘anti-black’ to describe him in today’s Counterpunch.
“A second dirty little secret about candidate Obama was that he was a stealth agent of anti-Black U.S. societal racism. ”
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/07/15/dirty-obama-secrets-from-warsaw-to-dallas-and-baton-rouge/
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needless to say, that’s worse than not caring.
then again, it does need saying.
i was being ironic when i said needless. otherwise i wouldn’t have felt the need to add it to my preceding comment.
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@ biff
Why were White people so upset about Watergate? Nixon was one of their own. Besides, White people rob each other all the time. As a percentage of all the robberies done in 1972 it was minuscule. Talk about selective outrage!
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@Biff
” Why is it that blacks are killed by police (as a percentage of people killed by police) much less than at the rate at which they perpetrate violent crimes?”—Totally agree with your question here. Why is it that whites are killed by police much less than at the rate at which they perpetrate violent crime? One would really think they would be killed much more.
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@ biff
The 21 are those who were unarmed. It does not include, for example, Alton Sterling or Philando Castile.
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What the F**K Pink and Bono doing in there ?
I swear to god you can’t keep white people out of anything. Another thing I’ve noticed is that there are too many white people on these marches. I don’t want to see one white face.
If white people want to help then you work in your own communities, you challenge your white mum, father, family, friends and work mates when they come with their racism, yeah you TAKE THEM HITS that you will take.
Don’t come over to march with black people, then at the end, they go back to their side of town (White Privilege) and black people go back to theirs (White Supremacy).
But celebrities have a heavy influence over a large number of people. So, by simply making this video and showing their support, they’re already going to affect the actions of many who otherwise, might not have made a move on their own.
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@gro jo: I am a member of Dallas Faces Race: Table discussions and seminar speakers about how we can come together in the city. I just joined since the tragedy of the police officer shootings.
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Hey Biff, were you on vacation or in jail?
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@nomad…“Yeah. I think most black cops are complicit. Just like the ones on trial in Baltimore.”
Here as well. A mere 23 days after I’d move back, a young Black man was murdered by a Black cop in what used to be called Bayside Manor projects (it is now called “Bridgeview Apartments” though they are still projects right now (guess it makes the gentrifiers feel better about living around them, until they can push the poor Black folk out, take them over completely and then turn them into condos or high-end housing with a “bridge view,” something I can see happening down the road, since it’s already slowly happening to another set of projects on the other side of downtown which also sits near a bridge). Here’s a link about it:
http://www.charlestoncitypaper.com/charleston/gaps-remain-in-the-denzel-curnell-suicide-narrative/Content?oid=4957874
But this cop never even went on trial. Immediately the white mayor and police chief (and later the solicitor) not only decided, but held a press conference announcing that the young man had committed suicide. They’d not even begun the SLED (South Carolina Law Enforcement Division) investigation which is required, SOP in police-involved shootings here. The Charleston PD began investigating themselves unimpeded, and quickly reported to the chief and mayor that it’d been an apparent suicide based solely on the officer’s account — despite the disappeared three minutes of surveillance video and conflicting eyewitness accounts.
Oh, and here’s a kick for you! The lawyer who took the family’s case pro bono? He’s representing Michael Slager, the cop who shot Walter Scott in the back. Go figure.
Thanx for the good link from Paul Street.
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@nomad…“Congratulations on the success of your activism. That’s great!”
Thanx, Brother. Often it feels like one step forward, two steps back, but I’m just trying to do what I can.
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@Deb
You’re welcome. And more power to you.
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@gro jo…“Thank you for taking the time to respond to my provocation. We will have to agree to disagree on this issue.”
Your welcome and sure we can! Everybody’s got a right to their opinions, no?
“I applaud your activism, but I reject your claim that “celebrities” owe anybody something because, ” To whom much is given, much is required.” Besides liking and buying their products, what have you “given” them?
Their talents they got from nature and chance, their wealth from hard work and luck. Why would anyone expect beyoncé, who started her career, at the ripe old age of seven, to be some kind of political genius, able and willing to lead the masses to the promise land is beyond me. beyoncé’s path to success applies to most of the “celebrities”.
Thanx. As I told nomad above I’m just trying to do what I can. I never said they “owed” anybody anything. Though I’m eight years in, to a serious “crisis of faith” (a lapsed Baptist, Catholic, Baptist who no longer believes in organized religion), if I do remember correctly, that little ditty came from Luke 12:48 of the white man’s bible — so my reference was not to what I/WE give them, but to that with which they were/are “blessed” by a power greater than all of us (just because I don’t believe in organized religion, I’m not arrogant enough yet to assume that there’s not a power greater than us — whatever you want call it!).
Full disclosure, I don’t expect much from Beyoncé for a list of reasons I won’t bother going into here (but Abagond and Mary have hit on a few!) — particularly that whole “political genius” thing. Now that’s not to say that she can’t ever change if she ever chose to really begin to critically think about “from whence she came” and how that fits into the world going on around her AND how she could use her celebrity to help change it.
“The fact that people look to them for some kind of lead, shows how deep the political rot is. The Civil Rights movement wasn’t lead by “celebrities”.
Now we can definitely agree on that first part! However, while celebrities didn’t lead the Civil Rights Movement, they certainly understood “from whence they came” and believed in the struggle enough to have their boots on the ground AND used their celebrity to help change the conditions of our Black lives (think Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Harry Belafonte for starters).
“Neither Flint nor the flooding of New Orleans in 2005 were charity cases calling for donations, but political attacks on vulnerable communities that required political responses. What happened after these events? Not much, why is that?”
Again — we agree on the first part! 😀 I even partially agree that not much of anything good in the political realm happened and you know as well as I do why that was (Hell Ray Nagin’s still in jail for getting’ his hand caught in the proverbial cookie jar!). But, I went to New Orleans after Katrina, volunteering with Habitat for Humanity to help clean up and build new homes for two weeks in 2006 (I was 10 years younger then, so I could hold my own with the younguns from AmeriCorps on our crew!) — and I saw plenty amazing things happening as folk from all over came in droves to do what they could to help the very vulnerable, Lower 9th Ward. That has to count for something right?
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@biff
“I have had a bit of a change of heart about BLM. Although, I think the movement, and the needless violence and destruction it has spawned (literally thousands of additional blacks killed because of the movement)“
Source?
(Or have you just been “dropping acid” again?)
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@nomad…“You’re welcome. And more power to you.”
To us, Brother — to us, because we’re gonna need it if things keep going the way they are now. The mighty shoulders upon which we, Black folk stand, never shuddered as they ushered us into this place. I think we owe them — whatever we can do in any way to uphold and advance that legacy. Just my two cents.
Peace…
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Arfofem:
From the wsj a couple months back: “homicides increased 9% in the largest 63 cities in the first quarter of 2016… According to the Major Cities Chiefs Association survey. Those increases come on top of last year’s 17% rise in homicides in the 56 biggest U.S. cities, with 10 heavily black cities showing murder spikes above 60%”. Crime rates had been steadily declining previously. Of course liberal media is desperately trying to bury these facts…
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As always biff makes a claim and redirects it using stats.
@Biff
To simplify, where are the stats showing that BLM is the cause of that rise in death?
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” I never said they “owed” anybody anything. Though I’m eight years in, to a serious “crisis of faith” (a lapsed Baptist, Catholic, Baptist who no longer believes in organized religion), if I do remember correctly, that little ditty came from Luke 12:48 of the white man’s bible — so my reference was not to what I/WE give them, but to that with which they were/are “blessed” by a power greater than all of us (just because I don’t believe in organized religion, I’m not arrogant enough yet to assume that there’s not a power greater than us — whatever you want call it!).”
I didn’t get your biblical reference since I swore off the stuff at the age of twelve. I think that this video is a step in the right direction. Let’s not forget that they will encounter a lot of hostility for it. Not everybody can make the same commitment to a cause.
“Now we can definitely agree on that first part! However, while celebrities didn’t lead the Civil Rights Movement, they certainly understood “from whence they came” and believed in the struggle enough to have their boots on the ground AND used their celebrity to help change the conditions of our Black lives (think Ossie Davis, Ruby Dee, Harry Belafonte for starters).”
That’s a nice list, but is it exhaustive? I don’t recall seeing Joe Louis, Louis Armstrong, etc. associated with marches, sit-downs and other activities. They may have contributed privately. The point I was trying to make was that participation should be left to the conscience of the individual. Why? Because they will have to pay a price for joining. The life of Paul Robeson attest to that fact.
“Again — we agree on the first part! 😀 I even partially agree that not much of anything good in the political realm happened and you know as well as I do why that was (Hell Ray Nagin’s still in jail for getting’ his hand caught in the proverbial cookie jar!).”
Nagin was a less slick version of Obama. The sad part was the fact that he was reelected after Katrina.
“But, I went to New Orleans after Katrina, volunteering with Habitat for Humanity to help clean up and build new homes for two weeks in 2006 (I was 10 years younger then, so I could hold my own with the younguns from AmeriCorps on our crew!) — and I saw plenty amazing things happening as folk from all over came in droves to do what they could to help the very vulnerable, Lower 9th Ward. That has to count for something right?”
In my opinion, that’s precisely what’s wrong. All this humanitarian stuff is all well and good, but it leaves all the structures that control the lives of lower 9th Ward residents unchanged.
One of the justifications for the police running riot in Black neighborhoods is the “War on Drugs”, yet, how many black politicians have the guts to demand decriminalization or legalization of drugs? It was clear from its inception, that this “war on drugs” was a euphemism for mass incarceration of Blacks. With the current heroin epidemy, affecting mostly whites, the drug laws might be ripe for reform, since it’s unlikely that whites will be treated as blacks are.
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@biff
Sharina is right. How are your homicide stats tied to non-violent Black Lives Matter activists and activities?
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@ biff
I did a post on the Ferguson Effect:
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Are my eyes failing me, or did Biff post a series of questions – became unresponsive, disappeared and then ran off like a skurred troll???
C’mon Biff… Randy Up like a Randy Realist and face us like the man you pretend to be!
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@Fan…
ROFL @ ” like the man you pretend to be!”
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Fan:
Unfortunately, I don’t have as much time as I used to, and I’ve given up the idea that a little reason could change hearts and minds here…
Yes, it’s technically possible that the massive spike in black homicides (which didn’t seem to affect white people too much) that occurred right after Ferguson was purely coincidental and that quotes such as these (from the latest WSJ article) are totally false:
“..the evidence is not looking good for those who dismiss the Ferguson effect, from the president on down. That group once included Richard Rosenfeld, a criminologist at the University of Missouri, St. Louis, who was an early and influential critic. Mr. Rosenfeld has changed his mind after taking a closer look at the worsening crime statistics. “The only explanation that gets the timing right is a version of the Ferguson effect,” he told the Guardian recently. “These aren’t flukes or blips, this is a real increase.”
“In my 19 years in law enforcement, I haven’t seen this kind of hatred towards the police,” a Chicago cop who works on the tough South Side tells me. “People want to fight you. ‘F— the police. We don’t have to listen,’ they say.” A police officer in Los Angeles reports: “Several years ago I could use a reasonable and justified amount of force and not be cursed and jeered at. Now our officers are getting surrounded every time they put handcuffs on someone.” Resistance to arrest is up, cops across the country say, and officers are getting injured.”
and here’s a nugget from the LA Times:
“The likeliest reason for the crime surge is what I and others call the Ferguson effect: Officers are backing off proactive policing, and criminals are emboldened. Since the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., in August 2014, the Black Lives Matter protest movement has routinely labeled cops murderers and bigots. Activists and politicians denounce pedestrian stops and public-order enforcement as racist. Arrests in urban neighborhoods have become dangerously fraught, with bystanders cursing at officers, throwing things at them, and sometimes interfering with their lawful authority. Cops worry that if they have to use force against a resisting suspect, an incomplete cellphone video that fails to convey the suspect’s resistance will put their careers in jeopardy.”
I know you guys won’t believe that your actions have consequences, because it would mean you (including abagond, who seemed to publicly rejoice in random white cops getting shot and killed) have blood on your hands (if you run the numbers of increased dead, it is literally thousands) because of what you are inciting…
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Biff,
Do you ever use a discerning eye when you read the WSJ and the LA times or any mainstream media? Even if much of what they say is based on some facts, it is almost always going to put a spin on it that is beneficial to certain interest groups and not to others.
We can expect that most mainstream media, whether left of centre or right of centre, to be pro-police to some extent. Even Obama’s action to support the slain Dallas officers but not the ones slain by police shows his bias (or the bias he feels he is required to display to satisfy the relevant interest groups).
Do you think that being put in police custody just for DWB or SWB is just a delusion? If what you say is “the truth”, then you must feel there is something terribly delusional about the people imagining all these phenomena.
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@Biff
The “crime spike” is an exaggeration. The number of people the police kill, both armed and unarmed, has remained consistent.
So while the Ferguson effect is described as the police retreating from the communities they patrol that is just not the case. If anything police patrols are doubling up.
The spime came about in how the police manipulate the crime figures. In L.A. the police for a few years were deliberately miss classifying felony crimes down to misdemeanors to show that crime was dropping so that they could continue to qualify for federal funds. This was happening across the country. Once this was exposed and the crime stats were readjusted this resulted in a crime “spike”.
What is true is the police aren’t particularly welcomed in the neighborhoods they patrol. That’s because their presence their comes off as an occupation.
( https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1091769824226781&id=102752146461892 )
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*The spike came about
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@biff
Try working harder.
Quotes without links or credible print sources are a flabby form of documentation. You have to know that.
The “Ferguson Effect” is the opposite of what you have stated; in other words it is Orwellian Doublespeak. Pure Propaganda—and people in your demographic are the main targets for these spurious falsehoods. Black people who endure police occupation on a daily basis know better.
In reality, the police and their allies (“liberal” media, corporations and all levels of government) have doubled down on their support for militaristic occupations of Black neighborhoods. They have not slowed the pace of
lynchingkilling Black people and they could care less about what Black people think.◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎◎
You have still failed to prove one of your initial assertions:
“…thousands of additional blacks killed in cities like Chicago, Baltimore and St. Louis in the last couple of years as a result of the “Ferguson effect” and Black Lives Matter movement”
Social and economic stressors (e.g. up to 50% unemployment, closed schools and recreation centers, etc.) are at the center of homicide spikes in cities like Chicago and Baltimore. Disinvestment leads to anger and alienation, which leads to lashing out—–usually at those people closest to you. That is the real reason White people kill White people and Black people kill Black people. Proximity.
So biff, how have the non-violent actions of Black Lives Matter protestors resulted in “thousands of additional Black… [people]”? From my perspective, the police and their allies are largely responsible for high levels of murder and mayhem on the streets of America. Peaceful protest groups, not at all.
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@biff
Why in the world are you defending the police? US police kill over a thousand people a year and yet rarely get sent to prison. That is hideous.
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If it’s any consolation Biff, white people are getting shot by police as well. Were you on vacation bliff?
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@Fan
Thank you for your long and detailed rebuttal to the White Supremacist garbage talk that “biff” specializes in on this forum.
Do you have a link or links to your stats? I would love to see them in their entirety.
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@ Afrofem
Seeing Biff again with his bogus questions/charges UNMOTIVATED me from doing any work that might benefit his agenda. I purposely did not include the link in the generic answer I copied and pasted (from another internet site) above.
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@Fan
Understood. You left a vital clue and I found the article. Thanks.
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I see biff has emerged from the sewer to raise his ugly head and spew his lunacy. Biff snake back to your sewage drain.💩
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@ Afrofem
I had a feeling you’d find it! 🙂
@ Mary Burrell
I think there’s a lot of – fake – things happening right now!
Too bad Biff (the snake) is not fake!
If the powers that be have their way, Biff will soon be joined by a legion of non-fake slimy racist things coming out of the sewer.
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@Fan: Donald Trump and his legion of color aroused devotees are proof of those slimy things coming out the sewer.
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@ the hip hop records guy
What you said times a trillion! I’m almost through my second reading of the autobiography of Malcom X and he speaks about that very topic! (let me preach to the choir here, folks) The March on Washington which was at the beginning geared up to be one of the strongest protests in the history of black Americans got watered down to little more than a fad event after the liberal minded whites got wind of it. We are seeing the same thing here with Black lives matter.
The sad part is, awakened black folks have the answers to our problems. We know what needs to be done, we have ideas that could very well put black people today on the fast track to success but the mainstream paints us as extremists. Racists, the people who “keep racism alive” it’s pathetic I say!
No, I do not want whites interfering with black marches. Does that mean I want whites to twiddle their thumbs and do nothing? No! Like you said hip hop, they could do way better by going to their OWN people and talking to them about these issues. Flag racism, educate the less educated. What do they do instead? Sign up to show what a good person they are by marching with blacks.
That’s how I know they aren’t to be trusted.
They are worried about their own image rather than the suffering of Blacks. That’s why when around other racist whites they do nothing. They say nothing. The only time the liberal minded white “anti-racist” if there is such a thing acts in a way that signals that they aren’t okay with white supremacy is when a “minority” is in earshot. Disgusting!
Whites won’t listen to blacks. Whites only listen to whites and that’s why it’s so important that they talk to their own kind about these things! Not March with us! We can walk just fine by ourselves! Thank you!
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@Jony
True. I always say I don’t want black people to hate white people. I just want us to stop loving them and when we hate racism as much as we love white people, things will get done.
And I’m not even talking about rented negro’s (As abagond says)
There are many supposedly conscious black people, black people who are in the Nation Of Islam, black people who write about racism but are as sick as hell with white supremacist thinking.
My father who is African (Nigerian) Pro black. He spoke to me about racism from a very young age, always stood his ground, fought for racial equality in the UK in the 70’s and 80’s.
We got on plane in 2005 going to Papua New Guinea. There was a black person who was pilot……….People just looked
And he told me his first thought was “Can this black guy fly this plane ?”
Now of course when he thought about it and he realised that the brother was more than likely the safest and best pilot in the whole place.
He would have had to have been to get the gig. Can you imagine him in flying school ?
You know they tested him and tested him and he must have aced every test thrown at him and even though he’s a qualified pilot you know he’s more than likely the most watched and scrutinized and assessed pilot there is.
But that’s not point.
He went there (As did most in the plane) and if he can think that after all the books he’s read, after all the demonstrations he has been on, all the speeches he has given, then imagine what’s it like for most non black people (and black people) who haven’t done as much soul searching ?
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@ hip hop records
True words! It’s a crying shame. White supremacy has done a very thorough job of brainwashing the black masses. It’s inconceivable!
That is why I would almost say hate is more productive in this fight for equality than any kind of pandering to the emotions of white folks.
If whites truly cared about our struggle (they don’t) then they would be able to see the logic in this point of view. A damn shame about how our African brains have been vaporized by Eurocentric thinking.
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@ TheHipHopRecords & jony
Black and white relations in the U.S. mirror a rather nasty domestic violence situation. We’re still taking those hits, all the while thinking that whites will change, someday…
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