Hours before he was to perform and possibly receive awards for his talents, the rapper T.I. was arrested for trying to purchase two machine guns. The entertainer was set up by his personal bodyguard who he had sent to retrieve the guns. Here unfortunately is another example where life is trying to imitate art. You see T.I.’s specialty is rap music that glorifies the drug lifestyle and even has its own label, “trap musik”. For those unfamiliar in the black community a trap can be a drug house, house of prostitution, or some other place of nighttime activity. A drug dealer, pimp, or player is said to be checking traps in the same sense that a hunter or trapper checks their traps for game or prey.
The entertainer, whose real name is Clifford Harris, was arrested Saturday just hours before he was scheduled to perform at the BET Hip Hop Awards.
Harris, 27, was arrested in a federal sting after his bodyguard-turned-informant delivered three machine guns and two silencers to the hip-hop star, according to a Justice Department statement.
Authorities said they found three more firearms in the car in which Harris drove to pick up the machine guns and silencers, "including one loaded gun tucked between the driver's seat where Harris had been sitting and the center console."
At his home, authorities found six other guns, five of them loaded, in his bedroom closet.[1]
According to court records, Mr. Harris is a convicted felon and therefore cannot possess firearms. We in the black community are constantly being given signs of the destruction that this music and its purveyors have wrought on our communities and yet time and again we ignore its destructive effects. We continue to allow BET and the other media outlets to glorify these clowns for our children’s edification. We have had these clowns kill folks, we’ve had them denigrate our women, and they have continued to dare our communities to stop them. We continue to kowtow to these hoodlums and allow their poison to infiltrate our homes and the minds of our children. I just wonder what it is going to take for us as a community to stand up and say enough is enough.
This man was about to receive awards for promoting drugs and that lifestyle and then to top it off he is trying to purchase machine guns and silencers. I’m sure they were for going hunting with Dick Cheney. These are not common weapons that you just have lying around the house for personal protection; these weapons are designed to do maximum damage to humans. Our children are being fed a steady diet of this garbage by BET, I’m sure this man’s CD sales are about to go through the roof. What are the lessons that our sons and our daughters are being taught by this episode? Where is the uplifting in this?
I know that there will be those who claim it was a setup, another poor blackman being targeted for extinction by the white power structure, the same white power structure that created him and marketed his “trap musik”. How can we continue to be so foolish to believe that money will insulate us from the real America? This man had to know that he was on everybody’s radar and yet he still tried this foolish mess. But, it was the thug life that he had to be true to, had to keep it real. How much longer are we going to continue to glamorize this nonsense? Does anyone wonder why are communities are war zones when the role models are living like this? We have only ourselves to blame, we allowed this to come into our neighborhoods and into our homes. We created this monster and now it is turning on us and destroying us.
What happened to the outcry after Don Imus, it has quietly faded into the usual drone of forgetfulness. The stupor that so easily envelops our communities and our lives, which has us unwilling or incapable of mounting any sustained effort against anything. Have we become so complacent to the struggles of life that we no longer have the will or the strength to stand for what is right and what is good? The flood of negative images continues to flow unabated through our communities, being driven by greed and the self destructive mentality of some who would rather glorify violence to make money at the expense of our youth and our communities.
It is time for us to say no more to the people who reward those who are destroying our communities. We must no longer allow others to define for us who the role models for our children will be. We must demand an end to the negative and begin to elevate the positive images of our people. We can no longer wait on those who exploit us to have a change of heart; it must come from within us. We must cast off the shackles that no longer bind our feet and hands, but now bind our minds, our spirits, and our imaginations. Have our dreams and the dreams of our forefathers been reduced to petty crime, drug dealing, and senseless violence directed at each other? And are we going to sit idly by while the aspirations of a people are being high-jacked by the greedy executives and their willing black minstrels? I pray to God not.
[1] http://www.cnn.com/2007/SHOWBIZ/Music/10/15/rapperti.court/index.html
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Another Hip-Hop Role Model
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
College Is No Sanctuary From The Violence
Unfortunately for our young men not even following the rules, staying out of trouble, and going to school is enough. Taylor Bradford was such a young man by all accounts, he was a good athlete, a good student, and came from a good two-parent home. Mr. Bradford had the world in front of him and seemed prepared to make the most of it. Regrettably, he will never have that chance you see Mr. Bradford was murdered on the campus of Memphis University. The sad part is that a vibrant and bright young light has been extinguished. What makes it truly tragic is that it wasn’t done by racism or police, no it was done by other young black men.
(NewsChannel 5) MEMPHIS, Tenn. - A former Antioch High School football player was fatally shot on the University of Memphis campus in what police believe was a targeted attack.
Taylor Bradford, 21, apparently was shot near a university housing complex about 9:45 p.m. Sunday and then crashed a car he was driving into a tree a short distance away on campus.
Bradford was a young man who had every opportunity in front of him. Growing up in a loving and strict household Taylor learned the values he needed to be successful in life. He was well on his way until Sunday night.[1]
It seems that there was a rumor floating around campus that young Mr. Bradford had recently won a few thousand dollars at a local casino. His good fortune was short-lived; his winnings had made him a target for robbery and murder. I would be saddened if this were an isolated incident, but it isn’t we read daily of how some of our most promising young people are cut down and no one says a word. There is a moment of silence and some candlelight vigil and yet the carnage continues.
We teach our young people to go to school, to study hard, and to go to college in an effort to overcome the violence of the streets. We tell them, if they do these things they can escape the hardships that surround them and yet when they do we are unable to protect them from those harsh realities. Is there no safe place for our children? Why can’t we protect them? We hold rallies for nooses, but everyday our children are killed right in front of us. Though he was undeserving of the jail sentence he received atleast Mychal Bell would have been alive by the racism he faced. Mr. Bradford will not receive the same fate; his life was cut short by a different type of racism. The most insidious kind of racism is the kind that pits one young black man against another for a few dollars.
The 21-year-old student, Devin Jefferson, was arrested Monday night and charged with first-degree murder in the perpetration, Sgt. Vince Higgins said.
The Memphis men, who were charged earlier Monday and are not students at the university, were identified as DaeShawn Tate, 21; Victor Trezevant, 21; and Courtney Washington, 22. All three were in police custody. None had an attorney Monday.
"He was targeted because there was some information that was out there and they believed he had some cash," said Memphis Police Director Larry Godwin.[2]
Yes this is racism alright; it is practiced daily in our communities where our youth despise each other so much they are willing to kill one another over nothing. Racism of the type where the value of a black life is counted less, not only by police and politicians, but also by the very black men who continually take them. How can we expect others to value what we take so cheaply? There has been a pattern developing over the last generation, a pattern of violence and envy. A pattern of where if your shoes are better than mine, I kill you; if your rims are shiner than mine, I kill you.
There was an incident here in Missouri a few days ago, a young black man was chased through the park by another young black man and killed for what reason no one knows. If these were white men killing our young black men at this pace we would have marches and demonstrations and telethons, but because it is other black men doing the killing there is silence.
The hypocrisy must stop. Does it really matter who is killing our kids, our brothers, our sons? The response has to be the same, there has to be swift condemnation and action. No longer can we afford to turn a blind eye to the carnage that is becoming our cities. This is not just the drug dealers and thugs killing each other they are killing our best and our brightest. They are killing our mothers, grandmothers, and fathers. No one is safe from this violence. If we can’t protect our families, who can we protect?
The time has come when we must stop relying on an indifferent government and police to protect our loved ones. The Panthers not only protected our communities from external threats, but the internal ones as well. Who are we protecting?
Tammy Harless has been the Bradfords neighbor for 14 years and saw first hand the man Taylor Bradford was becoming.
"He was so sweet. He was respectable. He never raised his voice to anybody or got smart. He always was, ‘Yes, ma'am.' Like I said, the parents raised both those boys up very, very well," said Harless.[3]
[1] http://www.newschannel5.com/global/story.asp?s=7154429
[2] http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=3055586
[3] http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=7154429
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Who Blesses The Fatherless Child?
Them thats not shall lose
So the Bible said and it still is news
Billie Holiday/Arthur Herzog Jr.
I recently read a piece that said 70% of black children are living with single-mothers. [1] This is outrageous and even more outrageous is the lack of discussion in the black community that it gets. Let me give you some statistics before I go on:
* Children from fatherless homes are five times more likely to be poor, and ten times more likely to be extremely poor.
* Seventy percent of juveniles in reform school and long term prison inmates come from fatherless homes.
* Children from fatherless homes are twice as likely to be high school drop outs.
* Fatherless children have more emotional and behavioral problems.
* Girls from fatherless homes are three times as likely to be unwed teenage mothers. Adolescents in mother-only families are more likely to be sexually active, and daughters are more likely to become single-parent mothers.
* Boys from fatherless homes have a higher incidence of unemployment, incarceration, and noninvolvement with their own children.
* Ninety percent of all homeless and runaway children are from fatherless homes.
* Seventy-one percent of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes.
* Seventy-five percent of all adolescent patients in chemical abuse centers come from fatherless homes.
* Eighty percent of rapists come from fatherless homes.
These statistics are horrific and should be frightening to all of us. This is not an essay to denigrate or in any way to belittle the single mothers in our community nor is this an essay to espouse any religious viewpoint. This isn’t about morality or social norms; it is about the self-destruction taking place in our communities. The numbers don’t lie, as more and more of our children are being raised in the single mother environment it is proving detrimental to us as a people and as a nation.
Why is it that whenever this subject is breached we bristle at its fundamental conclusions and become defensive, wanting to change the subject. Until we come to grips with this as a people, even if we do overcome all of the external pressures coming against us, we will still remain entrenched in poverty and violence. Our communities are broken, because so many of our homes are broken. As the number of single mother households has increased so has the degradation of our neighborhoods, schools, and social fiber. Do the math; there is a correlation in the rise in crime, the level of violence, and the gang mentality and the rise in single mother households. Are we to conclude that these results are from happenstance? It is this attitude of denial that has allowed this epidemic to go unchecked.
This is not a slam at women. The last time I checked making babies required both a male and a female under natural conditions. There are those who claim that the importance of the father in the home is overstated, I completely disagree and believe the research bears me out. In 13 studies conducted on children from single mother homes, 11 of the studies reported negative results. It is difficult to discuss an issue this personal, but the consequences of these decisions affect us all.
We must begin to demonstrate to our children the benefits of waiting to have children. We must convince our young men and women that it is in their best interest as well as in the interest of their future children to wait. We need to show them the consequences of not waiting and how it will negatively impact their lives. We must begin to stress the importance of education and personal responsibility in the growth of their lives. We cannot expect others to do what we are not willing to do for ourselves. There is a host of issues that our children face that are external, but in the end these won’t matter if we continue to send them out into the world unprepared for the world that awaits them. We must stop teaching about how the world should be and start preparing them for the world that is.
The raising of children requires both a man and a woman involved in the child’s life. I don’t care how many women I have been with, I don’t know what it takes to be a woman. I may know what I like about women, but I don’t know what it is to be a woman. I could not raise my daughter to be a complete woman because I don’t know, not because I don’t want to. We cannot continue to keep this circle of unwed mothers, children in poverty, and angry young men unbroken. Somehow we have to break the cycle or racism will be the least of our worries.
[1] http://www.fatherabsence.com/article3.html Read more!
Thursday, August 9, 2007
How Do We Fix This
Over the past few weeks there has been story after story of murder and violence in the blogosphere and in the MSM. It seems like everywhere you turn there is another story more horrendous than the last one. I can’t even do any political stories because of all the murder and mayhem going on in my community. I for one am sick and tired of it. But unlike many of my brothers and sisters, I can no longer just sit back and complain about it. For some reason we Black folks do a lot of complaining, but very little action.
Even though arrests have been made in the Newark case[1], it will only be a matter of a few days before the next atrocity grabs the headlines. This story isn’t about who is at fault, because God knows there is enough blame to go around. Playing the blame game has not resulted in one less murder, so let’s try something different. Let’s look at the problem, let’s define it in a way we can all agree on, and then let’s come up with some solutions that we all can take and implement. It is unfortunate that in order to get attention I will eventually have to post this on some white progressive blogs, but I am willing to do whatever it takes.
I will try to frame the problem as I see it and hopefully with feedback from all concerned citizens regardless of their race or gender, we can come to define the enemy. Unless we know what we are fighting, we have no chance of defeating it. The killings in Newark are not isolated incidents, but a growing pattern of lawlessness that has been brewing in our communities for years. Ask any “old school” person in the neighborhood and they will tell you that the level and the gruesomeness of the violence is at a place they have never seen before. How have we allowed things to get so bad?
The problem as I see it is we have groups of angry young blackmen who are unemployed and many who are uneducated wandering our communities with guns that have been too easy to acquire. These youngmen, many of whom are selling drugs have created an atmosphere of fear and terror. They have no hesitancy to use these guns not only on themselves, but anyone who would stand in their way. There does not appear to be any code of honor, in that everyone is a target. These youngmen appear not to value their lives or the lives of others.
Feeding this problem is a mass media that promotes violence in movies, games and videos. We are being bombarded by this prison, gangster mentality that life has no value. There is this get them before they get you attitude. There is this street code that rewards violence and punishes those who would obey the law; hence no snitchin. These gangs are hiding behind the mask of racism, that by reporting a crime you are turning another young blackman over to the white majority regardless of what he has done. You have these stars in videos and on cds promoting this gangster lifestyle of slinging dope and killing folks. Today’s youth are unable to distinguish the hype from reality.
Many of these youngmen are being raised without fathers. Many of their mothers are either too busy or too tired to supervise their behavior. I know in my city that late at night there are groups of youngmen and women roaming the streets, some no more than 12 or 13. These children do not have enough opportunities to better their lot in life and many have given up. How sad it must be to know that your life is over at 13 or 14, no wonder there is such rage. There appears to be an I don’t give a f**k attitude towards everything that is not gangster related.
Many of our youngwomen have now taken to imitating the youngmen, not only in their dress but behavior as well. I guess if as a girl the best you can hope for is to be a bitch or a hoe, it’s better to be one of the guys. Some of these youngwomen have demonstrated just as much fury and brutality as the youngmen.
Now at this point I would like to hear if anyone has anything else to add to the problem. Again, I hope we can frame the problem without playing the blame game. Let’s just define the problem first. The question is why is there so much violence in our communities? What is the cause?
[1] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/09/AR2007080900417.html?hpid=topnews
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