Moral Compass

Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are not the moral compass of the African-American community. They get media attention because people are sure to tune in to listen to them.

NEWSFLASH: BLACK PEOPLE CAN THINK FOR THEMSELVES AND ARE NOT BRAINLESS CHATTLE!


WTF?

Is George Bush the moral compass of white america? Or is it Don Imus? Does Osama express how all Muslims feel?

It makes as much sense as thinking that all black people thought OJ was innocent?

UGH.

This is why we are stuck in this tug of war still. This is how you know how far we still have to go.

Mercy!

I must discuss Imus

Can you imagine being on a team and working hard all season and making it to the finals? All the work, sacrifice, and sweat. All the dedication to your studies and your team. All the pride at seeing women from different backgrounds, with differing dreams come together and work hard to achieve what most people will never achieve.

And then to have some has-been, shock-jock, who makes his living by being foul and offensive demean and dismiss every bit of that phenomenal achievement by dismissing you all as 'nappy-headed hoes'.

I am sure there are many who would quickly say that this is being blown out of proportion; that people are too sensitive these days. Many people think that race relations is no longer an issue in 2007. Well, here is yet another reality check. Surely, we really have not progressed at all. The tension is there, just barely beneath the surface--on a good day.

To some, the uproar shows how far race relations have come, said John Bunzel, senior research fellow at the Hoover Institution and an expert in civil rights and race relations.

"The outrage is a sign that people ... understand that language can hurt and, as each generation passes along to another, this kind of prejudice diminishes," he said.

Bunzel cited as evidence of improved race relations the uproar which followed comedian Michael Richards use of racial slurs and the support for Sen. Obama in his bid for the Democratic Party's presidential nomination.

Michael Dawson, a political science professor at The University of Chicago, disputed that view of race relations. His findings show most blacks think racial equality will not be achieved in the United States during their lifetimes, while most whites think it has been achieved or will be soon.

If this weren't such a sad state of affairs it might be funny. Don't get me wrong. I do not see racism everywhere I turn. It is not how I am wired. However I feel about people, race is not apart of it. However, I am not blind, and it is impossible for me to move through this world wrapped in beautiful skin that requires no tan without knowing, in my bones, when I am facing ugliness such as Don Imus'.

What is the big deal?

Who does not understand the power of words? Long after a physical wound has healed, the pain and echo of vicious words remain.

When I look at the young lady, who I believe is the Captain of the Rutgers' team, I see a beautiful, intelligent, articulate young woman who is only limited by her own fears. I see ebony skin, full lip. I see beauty. Not some homogenized version of beauty that is nearly absent of any racial identity. I see an African-American Woman; I recognize beauty in her. I would not paint her as a whore (hoe, ho). I do not see nappy hair as being a bad thing, but her hair is relaxed (straightened of it's natural curl). (As an aside, I wear dreadlocks. I am nappy headed. My hair is now better than 3/4 of the way down my back--the longest at the small of my back. I think my locks are gorgeous and sexy. Clearly, not every one's idea of beauty, but I walk in a ray of God's light that I believe is just for me.)

This is not just a 'black' issue. It is a feminist issue as well. Why is it OK to call these young ladies 'hoes/hos'? What gives anyone the right to demean them on the basis of their looks? On the basis of their sex. Did anyone call Kobe Bryant a nappy headed ho? Magic Johnson? But something about a black woman achieving, succeeding pulls venom out of people, and immediately she is painted with the brush of a whore. Condoleeza Rice is a great example. This brilliant woman has achieved tremendous and unparalleled success. Why paint her as G.W.'s concubine? To demean and disrespect. To erode her success and her self-respect.

I hope that eventually the Rutgers' team can chalk this up as a lesson learned, and march on with their heads held high. This is not for them to carry. This is for the likes of Don Imus to carry and clean up within themselves. Too many people think that it is OK for them to say exactly what is on their minds. Too bad they fed on ignorance and intolerance.

It has only just begun

This morning, after a long night at work, I started my car and while waiting for it to warm up (you have to do that in these inhumane climates), I noticed this bumper sticker on the truck in front of me.

No,don't blink. Your eyes are not deceiving you, it says Coulter '08.

Instant headache.


This is the earliest candidates have ever begun campaigning. It's already tiresome with Hilary and Barack both claiming that they will run clean races, while their 'people' are sling everything but the kitchen sink.


Could you imagine the stink Ann Coulter would add to this already festering mess?

Oh, goodness, in the words of ABB, it smells like bullshit!

I don't know what I was expecting. It's politics as usual.


peace.

A memorial service for Sudanese Lost Boy, Majok Thiik Madut

This is such a sad story. Majok Thiik Madut was shot and killed while waiting for a bus on a street corner in Cleveland. Madut was one of The Lost Boys.

In 1987, a civil war drove an estimated twenty thousand young boys from their families and villages in Southern Sudan. Most no more than six or seven years old, they fled to Ethiopia to escape death or induction into slavery and the northern army. They walked a thousand miles through lion and crocodile country, eating mud to stave off thirst and starvation. Wandering for years, half of them died before reaching the Kenyan refugee camp, Kakuma. The survivors of this tragic exodus became known to the world as the “Lost Boys of Sudan.”

Yes, He survived war, wild animals, thirst, and has come thousands of miles from what he knew of home, just to be shot down on a street corner. Some random, senseless horror visited upon someone just trying to find their way in the world.

He made it out of Darfur.

I worry about the people of the Darfur Region.

I wonder what is it that I can do.

I was proud to know that there were young men here in Cleveland making a way for themselves. Having a 'good life', a 'better life'.

Bitter pill knowing that he was less safe in our city than he was in Darfur.

Telling it like it is

OK, here is the synopsis of the story as I currently understand it.

Mom was ill and left her daughter in the care of a Deacon from her church. The
daughter finally let her mother know that the Deacon began molesting
her at the age of seven and continued molesting her for four years. Mom went to
the Pastor. Pastor said let me handle this, and that he'd keep Deacon away from
other children. As time goes by, Mom sees that Pastor has not kept his word so
she goes to the police.

Got that.

Where do I begin?

Well, the Deacon is a piece of crap child rapist. The Pastor is enabling the Deacon by giving him free reign of the church.

But, the Mom is really the most puzzling piece.

Let me try to work this out.

Your baby came to you and told you that she had been violated by someone you trusted and rather than get her to the doctor, call the police, and get her some counseling; you go to the Pastor?!?

Is there a jail under the church? An electric chair?

When you get to Pastor, you buy his song and dance and don't go any further.

You trusted the Pastor to resolve internally within the church what was a criminal issue?

You brushed aside the trauma your daughter had endured for four years in deference to what your Pastor said he would do.

I wonder if she dared to ask if any other children had been molested at the church? I wonder if she even thought she should do anything further? Sought reliable counsel?

It is not until you see that the Deacon can get to other children that you decide you should go to the police about the matter.

WHAT?!?!

Please!

Oh, really now. The well-being of your child took a back seat to the reputation of the Church, Pastor and Deacon.

I wonder how long she went back to church after she talked to Pastor.

Did she tithe?

Did she sit and offer her prayers and follow the leadership of this Pastor while looking at her baby EVERYDAY?

How could she still see this man as her spiritual leader?

Did she subject her baby to returning to that church to see her molester every week?

The way I see it, this woman was more concerned for the other children than she was her own.

Why not go straight to the police? She could have dropped by to give Pastor a heads up after the fact, if she thought it appropriate.

What is wrong with our people being brainwashed by these churches?

Where is the public outrage?

I want to know why the African-American community is not protesting at this church the same way they would protest at a school if you substituted Principal and Teacher, for Pastor and Deacon, and if they were white.

No, really. I have to tell it like it is.

You know there would be so much outrage if this were a white molester.

Deacon has been indicted, but what about Pastor?

And what the hell about Mom? Oh, really, I want a minute of her time.

I have something to put on her mind.

Imagine you are that 11 year old child. You have had to process for yourself what is inappropriate behavior from an adult.

You finally get the courage to tell your mother that someone you are supposed to trust really is not a good man.

Imagine being eleven and trying to find words for the unspeakable.

Most of you would not know this so I will share from my personal experience, molesters frighten their victims into silence with several different 'tools', some of the more common: they threaten to hurt the child or someone the child loves, they tell the child that no one will believe them, they convince the child victim that it is happening because of the child's actions, and/or they make the child feel guilty because the child may feel some pleasure at their stimulation and there again blaming the victim.

So, at eleven after enduring four years of abuse you get the courage to tell even though you are terrified that you will be called a liar, blamed, or are afraid that it's your fault. You tell even though you are afraid that he will kill you or someone you love.

Bravo to that baby for, apparently, having more sense than any of the adults around her.

And, after mustering up your courage what happens. Mom goes to church tells Pastor and says it's all taken care of.

But it isn't.

Mom is still at church and Deacon is moving around, business as usual.

Mom did not go to the police for you.

Mom went to the police because Pastor did not do what he said and keep Deacon from the other children.

How many other mothers from that church will talk to their children, girls AND boys, and try to find out if their children have also been molested?

I wish I could talk to that baby the way I wish someone would have talked to me.

I wish I could hug her and reassure her that she did not deserve this. She did not cause this. It is not her fault.

I wish I could make this go away for all young girls.

I wish we lived in a society that valued young African-American girls.

African-American women period.

I wish people would get away from the secretive bullshit that blames the victim for telling.

I wish people did not value the reputations of men and churches above the lives of children.

I wish we lived in a society where we could all just tell it like it is.

I wish we could all speak our truths, even to power, like that eleven year old did.

I wish I could let her know how proud I am of her for having the courage to tell the truth even though she was terrified to do so.

I wish I could let her know that she is an example for others who may be going through the same thing.

I wish I could let her know that by being brave and breaking her silence she will encourage others to do the same.

Lord, bless her for being able to say it. Lord, keep her and always help her find her way.

So, to encourage us all to speak our truth to power, I offer the lyrics to Tracy Chapman's Tell It Like It Is

"Tell It Like It Is"

Say it, say it, say it, tell it like it is
Say it, say it, say it, tell it like it is
What breaks your heart
What keeps you awake at night
What makes you want to breakdown and cry
But say you’ll never turn your back
Say you’ll never harden to the world
Say you’ll never try to still the rhythms in your breast
Say you’ll never look at the evil among us and try to forget
Say you’ll tell it like it is

Say it say it say it so everyone can hear
Say it say it say it tell it like it is
What breaks your heart
What keeps you awake at night
How your anger and grief
Make you want to cry out
And tell it like it is
But say you’ll never close your eyes
Or pretend that it’s a rosy world
Say you’ll never try to paint
What is rotten with a sugarcoat
Say you’ll talk about the horrors you’ve seen and the torment you know
And tell it like it is

Say it say it say it
So no one can forget
Say it say it say it tell it like it is
What breaks your heart
What keeps you awake at night
What makes you want to break the ties that silence and bind
And tell it like it is
Say you’ll never cover your ears and close your mouth
And live in a silent world
Say you’ll only run as far or as fast as you need to be secure
Say that then you’ll tell the truth
When a lie could cross your lips
And tell it like it is

Say it, say it, say it - say it, say it, say it
Say it, say it, say it - say it, say it, say it
Say it, say it, say it - say it, say it, say it
Say it, say it, say it - say it, say it, say it