Tuesday, June 9, 2015
Saturday, May 30, 2015
Taking the Race out of Racism
I read good article in Slate today (url below) about young people's attitudes about race and racism. The authors outlined various studies that had been conducted as well as poll results showing that young people are just as fucked up about race as we are. There is a common thread in this country that has been playing out now for a couple of decades. In my estimation, it was sometime in the 1990s that white people began the pushback on race relations. Before that time, if we brought up race, we were either killed, 1950s, 60s and half of the 70s, or laughed at, derided or ignored (the worst indignity), in the 1980s. Now we have whole segments of white society coming together like never before openly, aggressively, hypocritically and incorrectly defending racism and white supremacy. Here's the trick though, they are defending racism and white supremacy but many of them have tricked themselves into thinking they are not. This cuts across political affiliations (white liberals v. white conservatives) as well as socio-economic status. Even poor white people think that we are in the most multi-cultural, post multiracial utopiest wet dream of a 1960s hippie. They have convinced themselves that we have evolved into a meritocracy, and they are teaching this bullshit to their kids, THAT'S why they are confused.
Let me explain, I have long stated that kids are not born prejudiced and biased, its a learned trait. For every grown racist, there was an older racist there to teach them. Did anyone notice the subtle word play, I said kids are not born prejudiced and biased, they are taught that later in life. They are taught these traits by someone older who has discovered the levers of racism. These are the individuals that believe that there is this mystical playing field whereon all kids in this nation have equal opportunities to succeed and if your child doesn't measure up, oh well, maybe they just wasn't smart enough, or tough enough, or disciplined enough, or they made bad decisions, or had bad parenting. That's not their fault, that just the way it is, white kids don't succeed all the time either. That's a good sentiment, makes sense until you recognize the FACTS. Messy things those facts, they sometimes don't support your conclusions. Those flaws that you find in many children of color are the direct results of the racism and white supremacy that is practiced in this country. There is a difference between being prejudiced/biased and being racist. I'm prejudiced in that I like women and men, black or white, who can have an intelligent conversation. The quickest way to get me out of your face is to say something so stupid that I have to give you that look. You know the “look” the look you give that says “you can't honestly believe that?” My dislike of dummies is irrelevant though. I can't affect the lifepath of all the dummies in this country. That's what racism does, it takes you on a path that we didn't want to go down. We can never be on the same level playing field if you do not allow us on the field in the first place, that's not prejudice, that's racism. While you give every child in your sphere of influence a ribbon no matter where they placed in the race, you give them a false sense of superiority over those who they don't see in the race at all. Bias is felt, racism is PRACTICED. Bias is a thing, racism is an action, even when the action is unconscious.
These kids then grow up to believe stupid shit like I believe racism would disappear if we would just not focus on race. Lets take the race out of racism. That's the kind of stupid shit that a vast proportion of them believe, shockingly, white AND black. What is funny is that when they hit adulthood, the white kids get with the program, the black kids keep hoping idealistically that this utopia is just around the corner. Taking race out of racism is like taking one round out of the clip. Instead of seeing my skin color, you instead see my name, you instead see my zip code, you instead see my criminal record, you instead see my FB page, you instead see where I went to high school (it wasn't in the suburbs, in fact, from kindergarten to 12th grade graduation, I can remember NO white classmates), you instead see who I'm married to, you instead see my credit rating. All these things you can use against me, to divide you from me and ALL of these things are linked to my race. I can really care less if you don't like me, just don't hold me back because of it.
That's why race can't be separated from racism. We DO NOT live in a meritocracy and even if we did, the people judging the relative “merit” of the person is biased towards his own ethnicity at the detriment of mine. That's is effective racism. This effective racism affects me no matter what you call it. Therein lies my argument with white liberals. They also believe in this fiction that things are so much better for black people that we should stand together to protest the other ills of society. They have also joined in on the pushback on racism. They preach assimilation. I call that the “we'll let you come around us, as long as you only think the way we think and we get to police how you express yourself” school of thought. We see it all the time, which is why I don't belong to many and almost never comment in “mixed” groups/pages. As soon as I get raw, there's always one so-called liberal who takes offense that I didn't say “some” white people. Not long ago I got into a discussion on a groups page with a white woman who actually took me to task (she thought) because I didn't say “some” white women. It got to the point that the person who started the post deleted it. All because I called a white person a racist, WHO IS A FUCKIN RACIST. I'm sorry, but this struggle that we are in is more important than your feelings. If you don't have the linguistic skills to understand that if the specific label doesn't apply to you and you alone, that I must not mean ALL white people, then why do you follow me, why are we friends? We can talk about racism but we are not allowed to point out specific instances of racism for fear of being labeled a “race baiter” or my personal favorite “playing the race card.” So be it, I got race cards like a Las Vegas casino got blackjack decks. Liberals are the only people in this country that can have a discussion about racism and never TALK ABOUT RACISM. You want to talk about the effects of racism, but not its root cause. I refuse to let a white liberal or a black liberal, tell me when I should be done being aggrieved, when I have had enough recompense, when its time to forget the past and move forward. We still living in the vestiges of the past. The past still colors each and everything about this culture and you have YET to deal with that past. At least conservatives let you know that they don't feel sorry for coming out on top, hell that was the plan. Liberals apologize for being on top but you don't see them rushing for the down elevators. Yes, you're so progressive you'll let a black guy date your daughter but you're not so progressive that you'll, en masse, support even a large scale societal discussion on race and racism let along develop guidelines to address the blatant inequality that exists in this society. You are horrified by the actions of your forefathers, but you're not so mortified that you'll give any of his stolen shit back. We must never lose sight of the fact that it wasn't just conservatives whose ancestors built fortunes during slavery, there were many liberals as well. The conservatives tell you to your face like ganstas “fuck you, I ain't givin shit up.” Liberals just be quiet, feel bad about it and donate to the local food bank. Taking the race out of racism is like not recognizing the corners of a square, that does not make it a circle.
This is why today's kids don't get it, we are screaming fire but no one listening. We're being drowned out by white supremacists and the media they control as well as liberals and black apologetic intergrationalists. In the immortal words of the late Rodney King “Can't we all just get along?” Nah bruh, we want to but they don't.
Deeeeeeerops mic, and walks from stage drippin blackness.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/05/millennials_racism_and_mtv_poll_young_people_are_confused_about_bias_prejudice.html
Let me explain, I have long stated that kids are not born prejudiced and biased, its a learned trait. For every grown racist, there was an older racist there to teach them. Did anyone notice the subtle word play, I said kids are not born prejudiced and biased, they are taught that later in life. They are taught these traits by someone older who has discovered the levers of racism. These are the individuals that believe that there is this mystical playing field whereon all kids in this nation have equal opportunities to succeed and if your child doesn't measure up, oh well, maybe they just wasn't smart enough, or tough enough, or disciplined enough, or they made bad decisions, or had bad parenting. That's not their fault, that just the way it is, white kids don't succeed all the time either. That's a good sentiment, makes sense until you recognize the FACTS. Messy things those facts, they sometimes don't support your conclusions. Those flaws that you find in many children of color are the direct results of the racism and white supremacy that is practiced in this country. There is a difference between being prejudiced/biased and being racist. I'm prejudiced in that I like women and men, black or white, who can have an intelligent conversation. The quickest way to get me out of your face is to say something so stupid that I have to give you that look. You know the “look” the look you give that says “you can't honestly believe that?” My dislike of dummies is irrelevant though. I can't affect the lifepath of all the dummies in this country. That's what racism does, it takes you on a path that we didn't want to go down. We can never be on the same level playing field if you do not allow us on the field in the first place, that's not prejudice, that's racism. While you give every child in your sphere of influence a ribbon no matter where they placed in the race, you give them a false sense of superiority over those who they don't see in the race at all. Bias is felt, racism is PRACTICED. Bias is a thing, racism is an action, even when the action is unconscious.
These kids then grow up to believe stupid shit like I believe racism would disappear if we would just not focus on race. Lets take the race out of racism. That's the kind of stupid shit that a vast proportion of them believe, shockingly, white AND black. What is funny is that when they hit adulthood, the white kids get with the program, the black kids keep hoping idealistically that this utopia is just around the corner. Taking race out of racism is like taking one round out of the clip. Instead of seeing my skin color, you instead see my name, you instead see my zip code, you instead see my criminal record, you instead see my FB page, you instead see where I went to high school (it wasn't in the suburbs, in fact, from kindergarten to 12th grade graduation, I can remember NO white classmates), you instead see who I'm married to, you instead see my credit rating. All these things you can use against me, to divide you from me and ALL of these things are linked to my race. I can really care less if you don't like me, just don't hold me back because of it.
That's why race can't be separated from racism. We DO NOT live in a meritocracy and even if we did, the people judging the relative “merit” of the person is biased towards his own ethnicity at the detriment of mine. That's is effective racism. This effective racism affects me no matter what you call it. Therein lies my argument with white liberals. They also believe in this fiction that things are so much better for black people that we should stand together to protest the other ills of society. They have also joined in on the pushback on racism. They preach assimilation. I call that the “we'll let you come around us, as long as you only think the way we think and we get to police how you express yourself” school of thought. We see it all the time, which is why I don't belong to many and almost never comment in “mixed” groups/pages. As soon as I get raw, there's always one so-called liberal who takes offense that I didn't say “some” white people. Not long ago I got into a discussion on a groups page with a white woman who actually took me to task (she thought) because I didn't say “some” white women. It got to the point that the person who started the post deleted it. All because I called a white person a racist, WHO IS A FUCKIN RACIST. I'm sorry, but this struggle that we are in is more important than your feelings. If you don't have the linguistic skills to understand that if the specific label doesn't apply to you and you alone, that I must not mean ALL white people, then why do you follow me, why are we friends? We can talk about racism but we are not allowed to point out specific instances of racism for fear of being labeled a “race baiter” or my personal favorite “playing the race card.” So be it, I got race cards like a Las Vegas casino got blackjack decks. Liberals are the only people in this country that can have a discussion about racism and never TALK ABOUT RACISM. You want to talk about the effects of racism, but not its root cause. I refuse to let a white liberal or a black liberal, tell me when I should be done being aggrieved, when I have had enough recompense, when its time to forget the past and move forward. We still living in the vestiges of the past. The past still colors each and everything about this culture and you have YET to deal with that past. At least conservatives let you know that they don't feel sorry for coming out on top, hell that was the plan. Liberals apologize for being on top but you don't see them rushing for the down elevators. Yes, you're so progressive you'll let a black guy date your daughter but you're not so progressive that you'll, en masse, support even a large scale societal discussion on race and racism let along develop guidelines to address the blatant inequality that exists in this society. You are horrified by the actions of your forefathers, but you're not so mortified that you'll give any of his stolen shit back. We must never lose sight of the fact that it wasn't just conservatives whose ancestors built fortunes during slavery, there were many liberals as well. The conservatives tell you to your face like ganstas “fuck you, I ain't givin shit up.” Liberals just be quiet, feel bad about it and donate to the local food bank. Taking the race out of racism is like not recognizing the corners of a square, that does not make it a circle.
This is why today's kids don't get it, we are screaming fire but no one listening. We're being drowned out by white supremacists and the media they control as well as liberals and black apologetic intergrationalists. In the immortal words of the late Rodney King “Can't we all just get along?” Nah bruh, we want to but they don't.
Deeeeeeerops mic, and walks from stage drippin blackness.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2014/05/millennials_racism_and_mtv_poll_young_people_are_confused_about_bias_prejudice.html
G.O.A.T.
I read a really good analysis by one of my homies the other day concerning the debate over who better Jordan or James. This is along the same lines as the classic debate over who is the greatest basketball player of all time. The G.O.A.T as its known in basketball parlance. I have listened to all sides, I have heard the opinions of experts who could quote you every stat in the book about the sports going all the way back to Cousy, Havlicek and Russell. I have also heard the opinions of those whose basketball knowledge is not much older than Air Jordan Xs. Since the Jay Graves Report, link below, used concise stats to support the notion that AT THIS STAGE OF THEIR CAREERS (emphasis added and intended) LeBron is a better player than Jordan, I want to flesh out the argument and go further.
Fiddy
First, a would be debater must take into account that the phrase “greatest of all time” is subjective. It is based upon subjective factors that must be addressed. What exactly do you mean by “greatest?” What is the measuring stick? If its purely points, Kareem will probably always hold that crown as the next highest point scorers are either out of the league (Jordan, Wilt, the Mailman) or close to it (Kobe). LeBron at his position will very likely not play enough years to amass that kind of point production, additionally, he's not a gunner like Kobe is. You can't use wins as there are people in the top ten that are blessed simply by being on superior teams for long periods of their careers. There are those that use the three peat as evidence of Jordan's greatness, well the Celts reeled off 8 straight. Even the decidedly lower rung Lakes rang up one three peat. Let's see, there are the MVPs, Jordan with five, tied with Bill Russell (who also has 11 rings, one of which as a player coach NO ONE has done THAT again) but he still trails Kareem with six. I won't even go into All Star MVPs as that's all for show. I won't even go into Finals MVPs because we all know the “star” of the winning team will get that even if he has shitty performances. Olympic gold medals, who cares, there are decidedly second level players that have multiple golds.
Finally, we get to the seemingly most potent argument made by the Jordan vs. James debaters. Jordan has six rings and never lost in the Finals, Bron Bron only has two, and has lost two. That can never be a true test of greatness, as lets see, Jordan is tied for TENTH on the list with his six rings. That is six out of the FIFTEEN years he played. Bill Russell tops the damn list with 11 out of 13 years played. Not 11 out of 13 trips to the finals, that means that BR won the championship all but two years he played. For Jordan to touch him he would have to have an astonishing 13 rings. If you use that logic, Robert Horry is “better” than Jordan, LeBron and Kobe as he has seven rings. That's just one contemporary player so the argument can't be said “it was a different league then.” Stats can be used to support any type of argument from best shooter, to best rebounder but best “player” is a different argument, one that does not lend itself to stats alone.
Now that that's out of the way, lets move to the more subjective things. Greatest of all time arguments are a relatively recent thing. No one ever really compared players to each other until the advent of Jordan. Bird and Magic were seen as rivals but no one ever asked who was better as they were both cold as Artic ice water. You couldn't ask which one you would take first as you couldn't go wrong with either one. Jordan was the first mega-media athlete. If anyone remembers, you have to be at least 50, when Magic won his first title, we didn't watch it on ABC or on ESPN. We watched it on TAPE DELAY. I remember I had to beg my mother to stay up late to watch the game as it didn't start till like 10:30 pm. Games out west would be over at 12:30 in the morning back then. It worked because there was not 24 hour nationwide news source either, so unless you knew someone who lived in L.A., you didn't know the score. After the league began marketing the East coast, West coast rivalry (incidentally where the 2-3-2 Finals format came from), Hollywood v. Blue Collar Boston, people began to notice this game of basketball. Jordan built on that. Somewhere between those two eras, including the overlap, the game exploded in ad revenue, endorsement money and popularity. So an argument can be made that the NBA and marketing firms created the “Jordan is best” aura. That drove the public perception that Jordan was all that. Want further evidence, a poll done by ESPN, was released TODAY that asked who is the most popular athlete. King James 3rd, Black Momba 4th, who holds the top spot . . . wait for it, waaaaittt for it. MICHAEL DAMN JORDAN. What did Jordan average last year? Zeroes across the board. How many wins, zip. How many playoff games, zilch. The man has not played in the league in over a decade. HOW is he the most popular athlete in the world? Because of marketing and perception. You cannot be the best athlete if you're NOT A FREAKIN ATHLETE any longer. Most people who bleed Bulls red because of Jordan, are Jordan fans because the NBA made it possible for them to be Jordan fans. You saw in real time damn near every game he played except when he was playing lowly teams like Milwaukee or Kansas City (yeah they had a team at one time). You were force fed MJ on everything from television to cereal, to horrible movies, to cartoons. This illusion led (forced) you to believe that he was a basketball GOD and no one is on his level. What the public didn't see was that MJ was probably the most polarizing major athlete in sports history inside the sport. You either liked him and he liked you or you didn't. He was arrogant, petty, childish and a complete ass outside of the public eye. Don't believe me, YouTube his acceptance speech at the HOF ceremony. Studmuffins flew in a guy from his old high school basketball team that was chosen the year he was left off the varsity squad, JUST to humiliate this guy. Dude, you 50 damn years old, let that shit go. You said to people who were paying attention that “look, he made the team and I didn't, I became the best in the world, he's a mechanic or something.” You come across as vindictive and petty for no reason at all.
rucker
Now lets get to the real. There is no “greatest” player of all time. The greatest player of all time never played in the NBA. There are six, seven billion (with a B) people on this planet, statistics say that you can never say that because no one even knows who all the players are. (just like you cannot say that life only exists on Earth because we've never found life anywhere else) Every hood has a player that nobody can touch. I mean EVERY hood has that guy that fights start over picking him first for the pickup game. Every suburban gym has that white guy with Bird range, Nash handles and Nowitski footwork. I remember reading an article in Sports Illustrated I think it was, years ago about a guy that a reporter had heard about and went to see that played ball barefoot and who shot a basketball like Payton Manning threw a football. Thing is, according to the reporter, this guy NEVER missed a shot PLUS he never shot a layup, he didn't miss from the key, the wing, the elbow, he didn't even miss from halfcourt. Supposedly, this was not some Dude Perfect bullshit but within the course of an organized game. Everyone knew the guy, no one knew where he lived or what he did to feed himself. He'd just show up, kill and leave. Best player I ever saw IN LIFE was a guy named Charles Merriweather. In case anyone thinks this is a fictional person, this guy won the Indiana State High School Championship in 1979 as a quarter miler. Google it. We used to call him Iz, short for Israel. Iz's problem was not being a stellar athlete, his problem was with cocaine and sticky fingers to feed the desire. I saw this guy play in prison. The guy was 6'6” tall, ambidextrous, with a 40 inch vertical. He could go left or right, take you in the paint and abuse you or pull up and shoot over you from 30 feet with accuracy, if you like Kevin Durant, that was Iz. I'm a basketball follower not a fan, I like MJ but I'm real enough to know that if he played for New York or Boston, I probably would not have liked him as much, as I rode with the Bulls all the way back to Artis Gilmore. I know players and I can evaluate them on their relative merits as players not personalities. I agree with my guy Jay, when Jordan came out, he couldn't go left and he didn't develop a reliable jump shot until he got within sniffin range of the NBA Finals. Like my homie said, people conveniently forget that Jordan won the NCAA 'ship as a freshman but never won another even though he played for NC for two more years. That was Worth and Perkins' team, he was just a round in the mag.
I used to tell people that Mike Tyson wasn't the “baddest man on the planet.” There is some WHITE guy working in a warehouse somewhere that would beat the breaks off Mike, he just wasn't a boxer. (remember when everyone thought Kimbo Slice was all that and a bag of wavy Lays till a big fat white guy smashed his ass on national television) The point is this, if you take Jordan and swap his spot with say Julius Erving, we'd be having this argument about Doc and LeBron. To those who don't truly follow the sport, we never saw the REAL Dr. J. That guy played back in the seventies before television covered games. That guy played in front of hundreds, not millions around the world. By the time Doc got to the point where he was on the national stage he was a shadow of his former self, but still good enough to make championship runs and dunk on boys. Playing on concrete floors beneath a thin veneer of wood destroyed his knees so he couldn't jump out of the gym like he could when he was younger. That guy would have to be in the conversation for G.O.A.T. Then again, how could not talk about The Big Dipper, this cat AVERAGED 50 points and 25 rebounds a game and STILL remains to this day the only NBA player to average 30 points and 20 rebounds over the course of his career. Jordan, Bryant or James never came close to that. Additionally, this was a time when the three pointer didn't exist, take away three point baskets from today's players and the all time scoring list looks decidedly different. Then there's the Big O who you don't hear the NBA talking about due to political differences (Google it). He is important to Black History in general because when he won the Indiana High School basketball championship while at Crispus Attucks High School, it was the first time anywhere in the United States that two all black teams had met for the championship. He beat my high school Gary Roosevelt in 1955, but I digress, had to get my G.I shout out in. The Big O averaged a triple double for the whole season. No one has ever come close to that. You can argue different era all you want, yes players are faster and bigger now, but mostly they are raw talent, they don't have nearly the skillset that older players had honed by years on the neighborhood courts, four years of high school and four years of college. New age players, they can dunk, they can shoot, that's all. They play sorry defense, they don't rebound. We make a big deal if LBJ gets 5 or 6 rebounds at 6'8”, Fat Lever led his TEAM in rebounding for four seasons, he was the damn point guard at 6'3” The reason why most have careers that last less than five years is not because they can't get on the court, its because they can't be put on the court. In this era, you can't even touch a player. In the old NBA, you could be slammed to the court with such ferocity that someone should go to jail. What happened, you got up and played on. Today, its a two game suspension for anyone who would dare to touch the leagues money makers.
The long and short of is, when you talk about who the greatest of all time is, it depends on who you ask and who they saw play. I'll tell you this, before you run off parroting what you heard on ESPN or talk radio, before you listen to Stephen A. Smith, research the early NBA. Look at the guys who made it possible for Lebron or Mike or Kobe to become multi-millionaires in the first place. Then come talk to me about the best ever.
Drops mic and walks from stage, drippin blackness.
http://www.thejaygravesreport.com/
Fiddy
First, a would be debater must take into account that the phrase “greatest of all time” is subjective. It is based upon subjective factors that must be addressed. What exactly do you mean by “greatest?” What is the measuring stick? If its purely points, Kareem will probably always hold that crown as the next highest point scorers are either out of the league (Jordan, Wilt, the Mailman) or close to it (Kobe). LeBron at his position will very likely not play enough years to amass that kind of point production, additionally, he's not a gunner like Kobe is. You can't use wins as there are people in the top ten that are blessed simply by being on superior teams for long periods of their careers. There are those that use the three peat as evidence of Jordan's greatness, well the Celts reeled off 8 straight. Even the decidedly lower rung Lakes rang up one three peat. Let's see, there are the MVPs, Jordan with five, tied with Bill Russell (who also has 11 rings, one of which as a player coach NO ONE has done THAT again) but he still trails Kareem with six. I won't even go into All Star MVPs as that's all for show. I won't even go into Finals MVPs because we all know the “star” of the winning team will get that even if he has shitty performances. Olympic gold medals, who cares, there are decidedly second level players that have multiple golds.
Finally, we get to the seemingly most potent argument made by the Jordan vs. James debaters. Jordan has six rings and never lost in the Finals, Bron Bron only has two, and has lost two. That can never be a true test of greatness, as lets see, Jordan is tied for TENTH on the list with his six rings. That is six out of the FIFTEEN years he played. Bill Russell tops the damn list with 11 out of 13 years played. Not 11 out of 13 trips to the finals, that means that BR won the championship all but two years he played. For Jordan to touch him he would have to have an astonishing 13 rings. If you use that logic, Robert Horry is “better” than Jordan, LeBron and Kobe as he has seven rings. That's just one contemporary player so the argument can't be said “it was a different league then.” Stats can be used to support any type of argument from best shooter, to best rebounder but best “player” is a different argument, one that does not lend itself to stats alone.
Now that that's out of the way, lets move to the more subjective things. Greatest of all time arguments are a relatively recent thing. No one ever really compared players to each other until the advent of Jordan. Bird and Magic were seen as rivals but no one ever asked who was better as they were both cold as Artic ice water. You couldn't ask which one you would take first as you couldn't go wrong with either one. Jordan was the first mega-media athlete. If anyone remembers, you have to be at least 50, when Magic won his first title, we didn't watch it on ABC or on ESPN. We watched it on TAPE DELAY. I remember I had to beg my mother to stay up late to watch the game as it didn't start till like 10:30 pm. Games out west would be over at 12:30 in the morning back then. It worked because there was not 24 hour nationwide news source either, so unless you knew someone who lived in L.A., you didn't know the score. After the league began marketing the East coast, West coast rivalry (incidentally where the 2-3-2 Finals format came from), Hollywood v. Blue Collar Boston, people began to notice this game of basketball. Jordan built on that. Somewhere between those two eras, including the overlap, the game exploded in ad revenue, endorsement money and popularity. So an argument can be made that the NBA and marketing firms created the “Jordan is best” aura. That drove the public perception that Jordan was all that. Want further evidence, a poll done by ESPN, was released TODAY that asked who is the most popular athlete. King James 3rd, Black Momba 4th, who holds the top spot . . . wait for it, waaaaittt for it. MICHAEL DAMN JORDAN. What did Jordan average last year? Zeroes across the board. How many wins, zip. How many playoff games, zilch. The man has not played in the league in over a decade. HOW is he the most popular athlete in the world? Because of marketing and perception. You cannot be the best athlete if you're NOT A FREAKIN ATHLETE any longer. Most people who bleed Bulls red because of Jordan, are Jordan fans because the NBA made it possible for them to be Jordan fans. You saw in real time damn near every game he played except when he was playing lowly teams like Milwaukee or Kansas City (yeah they had a team at one time). You were force fed MJ on everything from television to cereal, to horrible movies, to cartoons. This illusion led (forced) you to believe that he was a basketball GOD and no one is on his level. What the public didn't see was that MJ was probably the most polarizing major athlete in sports history inside the sport. You either liked him and he liked you or you didn't. He was arrogant, petty, childish and a complete ass outside of the public eye. Don't believe me, YouTube his acceptance speech at the HOF ceremony. Studmuffins flew in a guy from his old high school basketball team that was chosen the year he was left off the varsity squad, JUST to humiliate this guy. Dude, you 50 damn years old, let that shit go. You said to people who were paying attention that “look, he made the team and I didn't, I became the best in the world, he's a mechanic or something.” You come across as vindictive and petty for no reason at all.
rucker
Now lets get to the real. There is no “greatest” player of all time. The greatest player of all time never played in the NBA. There are six, seven billion (with a B) people on this planet, statistics say that you can never say that because no one even knows who all the players are. (just like you cannot say that life only exists on Earth because we've never found life anywhere else) Every hood has a player that nobody can touch. I mean EVERY hood has that guy that fights start over picking him first for the pickup game. Every suburban gym has that white guy with Bird range, Nash handles and Nowitski footwork. I remember reading an article in Sports Illustrated I think it was, years ago about a guy that a reporter had heard about and went to see that played ball barefoot and who shot a basketball like Payton Manning threw a football. Thing is, according to the reporter, this guy NEVER missed a shot PLUS he never shot a layup, he didn't miss from the key, the wing, the elbow, he didn't even miss from halfcourt. Supposedly, this was not some Dude Perfect bullshit but within the course of an organized game. Everyone knew the guy, no one knew where he lived or what he did to feed himself. He'd just show up, kill and leave. Best player I ever saw IN LIFE was a guy named Charles Merriweather. In case anyone thinks this is a fictional person, this guy won the Indiana State High School Championship in 1979 as a quarter miler. Google it. We used to call him Iz, short for Israel. Iz's problem was not being a stellar athlete, his problem was with cocaine and sticky fingers to feed the desire. I saw this guy play in prison. The guy was 6'6” tall, ambidextrous, with a 40 inch vertical. He could go left or right, take you in the paint and abuse you or pull up and shoot over you from 30 feet with accuracy, if you like Kevin Durant, that was Iz. I'm a basketball follower not a fan, I like MJ but I'm real enough to know that if he played for New York or Boston, I probably would not have liked him as much, as I rode with the Bulls all the way back to Artis Gilmore. I know players and I can evaluate them on their relative merits as players not personalities. I agree with my guy Jay, when Jordan came out, he couldn't go left and he didn't develop a reliable jump shot until he got within sniffin range of the NBA Finals. Like my homie said, people conveniently forget that Jordan won the NCAA 'ship as a freshman but never won another even though he played for NC for two more years. That was Worth and Perkins' team, he was just a round in the mag.
I used to tell people that Mike Tyson wasn't the “baddest man on the planet.” There is some WHITE guy working in a warehouse somewhere that would beat the breaks off Mike, he just wasn't a boxer. (remember when everyone thought Kimbo Slice was all that and a bag of wavy Lays till a big fat white guy smashed his ass on national television) The point is this, if you take Jordan and swap his spot with say Julius Erving, we'd be having this argument about Doc and LeBron. To those who don't truly follow the sport, we never saw the REAL Dr. J. That guy played back in the seventies before television covered games. That guy played in front of hundreds, not millions around the world. By the time Doc got to the point where he was on the national stage he was a shadow of his former self, but still good enough to make championship runs and dunk on boys. Playing on concrete floors beneath a thin veneer of wood destroyed his knees so he couldn't jump out of the gym like he could when he was younger. That guy would have to be in the conversation for G.O.A.T. Then again, how could not talk about The Big Dipper, this cat AVERAGED 50 points and 25 rebounds a game and STILL remains to this day the only NBA player to average 30 points and 20 rebounds over the course of his career. Jordan, Bryant or James never came close to that. Additionally, this was a time when the three pointer didn't exist, take away three point baskets from today's players and the all time scoring list looks decidedly different. Then there's the Big O who you don't hear the NBA talking about due to political differences (Google it). He is important to Black History in general because when he won the Indiana High School basketball championship while at Crispus Attucks High School, it was the first time anywhere in the United States that two all black teams had met for the championship. He beat my high school Gary Roosevelt in 1955, but I digress, had to get my G.I shout out in. The Big O averaged a triple double for the whole season. No one has ever come close to that. You can argue different era all you want, yes players are faster and bigger now, but mostly they are raw talent, they don't have nearly the skillset that older players had honed by years on the neighborhood courts, four years of high school and four years of college. New age players, they can dunk, they can shoot, that's all. They play sorry defense, they don't rebound. We make a big deal if LBJ gets 5 or 6 rebounds at 6'8”, Fat Lever led his TEAM in rebounding for four seasons, he was the damn point guard at 6'3” The reason why most have careers that last less than five years is not because they can't get on the court, its because they can't be put on the court. In this era, you can't even touch a player. In the old NBA, you could be slammed to the court with such ferocity that someone should go to jail. What happened, you got up and played on. Today, its a two game suspension for anyone who would dare to touch the leagues money makers.
The long and short of is, when you talk about who the greatest of all time is, it depends on who you ask and who they saw play. I'll tell you this, before you run off parroting what you heard on ESPN or talk radio, before you listen to Stephen A. Smith, research the early NBA. Look at the guys who made it possible for Lebron or Mike or Kobe to become multi-millionaires in the first place. Then come talk to me about the best ever.
Drops mic and walks from stage, drippin blackness.
http://www.thejaygravesreport.com/
BULLY
Even though we have switched gears and other issues are currently at the forefront, there are still way too many stories in the media today about our epidemic of bullying going on both inside school as well as outside school. I have wanted to share my thoughts on this subject for months but never got around to it. What made me think about the issue was my son coming home from elementary school with a backpack full of documents, pamphlets, handouts, etc, explaining to these 1st graders what bullying was and how to stop it. Me being the parent I am, I asked my 7 year old what he got out of the presentations. It would seem that there was a school assembly where the children were given speeches by administrators as well as law enforcement about the dangers of bullying and what to do if you are a victim of bullying.
Not being one to challenge authority (cough, cou***bullshit***gh, cough), I take them at their word that they are simply trying to protect the children from a phenomenon that has gotten out of control. If you look at many school shootings, many of the perpetrators are children who have always been seen as outcasts or been bullied by the “cool kids.” So I get it, bullying bad, acceptance of others good. What distresses me is the definition of bullying and what school officials consider bullying. What used to be considered normal character building childhood events are not categorized as quasi-criminal events that are sometimes used to mark a child's future. I'm sure there is not one single one of us who at one time during their childhood was not “picked on” by someone else. In the chaotic world of conflicting loyalties that childhood is, you were “in” the group on Monday, only to be ostracized on Tuesday and re accepted on Wednesday. Therein lays the problem.
We as adults seek to interject our adult sensibilities into the normal world of children. We do this for many reasons, up to and including trying to right wrongs done to us when we were children. We remember how we felt when we were eight years old and the little girl in homeroom made everyone laugh at us because our shoes were old and dirty. We remember how everyone laughed at us during gym class when we struck out playing baseball, so now we push our children to endure sports at young ages whether they want to play or not. We as parents now demand that our children be considered as winners no matter whether they actually won the race or not. That leads to a generation of average children who cannot deal with adversity or rejection. As they age and enter puberty with all of its attached difficulties, this child now has to deal with the added burden of not being the “princess” or “king” that their parents always told them they were. This leads to built up anger and non-conformity and sometimes to violent expression.
When we were younger, we fought, played the dozens, entered into groups, fell out of favor with groups, argued and were still friends after all was said and done. Today, schools administrators and parents in their zeal to stamp out “bullying” in all its various forms rob children of the opportunity to deal with life's problems. Children today have no interpersonal mitigation skills because they haven't had to deal with it. Everything that schools today call bullying is not bullying but simply children being children, half formed adults who have no filter. These filtering techniques develop later in life when children mature. By adults mitigating each and every little perceived slight that a child may encounter keeps that kid in a protective bubble. This bubble is popped usually around middle school when there are no adults to settle disputes and the child has no defense mechanism to deal with mundane problems. We see the results of these wrong-headed policies when we see beautiful children committing suicide because ONE person told them they were ugly or the “cool kids” refused them entry in the group. We see them lash out at those perceived slights by shooting up schools because no one came to their aid like they did in elementary school.
To add insult to injury, many school systems with their zero tolerance for bullying tag so-called bullies with predator tags that follow them throughout their school career. This leads to being barred from good schools, extra harsh discipline for normal acts of defiance and in the most egregious cases criminal records. When we used to fight in school, it was usually a few punches thrown, a trip to the principal's office, notification to our parents, occasionally a suspension and shaking hands afterward. Now with the added influx of camera phones, school fights turn into entertainment for the world to see. Our timelines on FB are replete with KIDS going in hard over who sent a tweet to who. Worldstar Hip Hop has built a multimillion dollar business off the acts of children fighting in school or the streets over things that years ago would not have garnered a second thought. These videos are increasingly finding their way into the hands of law enforcement who are ready, willing and able to levy felony charges against 15 year olds fighting over who likes who or who said what to who on Twitter or Facebook. These multibillion dollar corporations bear the brunt of this problem in that they have no policy denying the posting of these types of videos. To them, the better the fight the more likes and views, the more views, the more ad-dollars generated.
We as parents need to push back at that. If you have a prohibition against nudity, its a short step to prohibit violence in any form. It would make for a much better, much safer environment for our children. We, especially UI members need to immediately flag a vid if it contains violence of any sort. What that does is force FB or Twitter to take down the offending video. Start using the rules against these culture vultures who seem to think its cute to watch children of any color fight and bloody each other for someone on the other side of the planet's enjoyment. We also need to begin to visit our children's schools en masse. Start community groups to patrol the hallways, sit in on classes, sit in the lunchrooms and through the power of vigilance and observation quell these conflicts before they start. Yes we have jobs, but many of us don't or either have the flexibility to spend a day or two in the school. The point is, it must be a community effort. Out of 100 parents there should be a way for at least five to ten individuals to divide up the week to the point that the school is always covered. If we can find the time and effort to “turn up” on the weekend, we owe it to our children to be there to protect them at school.
Drops mic and walks from stage drippin blackness
Part of the Solution or Part of the Problem
Time for a rant. Ever since Mike Brown was murdered in Ferguson, Missouri I have read post after post, blog after blog and comment after comment about what we should or shouldn't do in response. I have heard from those that suggest we march, that we pray, that we boycott businesses, that we riot, that we shoot police officers indiscriminately (WRONG ANSWER), that we call in Al or Jesse or the BPP. I have read and signed petitions for President Obama to establish a Federal agency/law designed to take the investigation of police on citizen shootings out of the hands of local police for obvious reasons.
Some of these ideas I agree with, some I think are at best useless and worse counterproductive. I do not, for example, advocate violence of any type directed towards law enforcement except in lawful self-defense or the defense of a loved one. I do not advocate asking a fool to fly into our communities on a private jet to be the “voice” or “face” of the demonstrations. I do not advocate that we gather around white police commanders to “voice” our concerns and listen to self-serving platitudes entreating us to “let the process work” or “be calm in the midst of turmoil.” You know the statements, we've all heard them before. I'm at that point where I'm almost tired of hearing the family members of those who have been wronged saying “we don't need violence, we need peace.” I just want for one time, just one time an aggrieved mother or a grief stricken father to say with conviction and force “tear this bitch up, they didn't give a fuck about my child, I don't give a fuck about they shit.” But that's my revolutionary wet dream. Plus, we are not ready for movements of that type or magnitude. We are too fragmented, although with the advent of social media we are moving in that direction.
What I am especially tired of, downright weary to the point of exasperation, is US, many of who “claim” to be conscious doing the job of the dominant culture. What you are seeing in the coverage of what I term “our issues” is the deflection tool of propaganda. For example, our issue is murder of unarmed black men by law enforcement. (Luckily we have a few on video, this also speaks to the THOUSANDS that have happened without video who we have never heard of because the officer's version of events are taken to be true without question) We must not let the conversation diverge into an argument about black on black crime. It is immaterial to discuss Ray Ray and Man Man when the question is what law enforcement is doing in our communities. See to the truly conscious, not the pretender, we know that crime across the board is DOWN in our communities. Take for example Chicago, it is undoubtedly, undeniably, absolutely true that violent crime and shootings are tragic and unnecessary. Even one brother killed by another brother is too many. What the powers that be WON'T tell you is that compared to this same month 10 years ago, 20 years ago, crime is half of what it was in some cases a third of what it once was. They will have you believe that it is due to their efforts, that because of “boots on the ground” we have stemmed the tide of violent crime. In fact, what has happened is, again largely due to social media, we have began to wake up. Its slow, but social change is NEVER overnight. We are beginning to value the very thing that outsiders will say that we don't value. There are groups that are out in the community every night talking to these brothers and sisters, assisting these brothers and sisters but you don't hear about them because its not sexy enough for mainstream media. Unfortunately we have brothers making YouTube rants assisting the dominant culture with their message that there is something wrong with you niggas. Why do you burn up your own shit? Simple answer, its not our shit. It belongs to Indians, Asians and white people. Why do you loot, because that's part of the demonstration, that comes with it. I think back to Katrina and how news organizations showed pictures of blacks taking things from stores, “look at the looting taking place.” Same storm, pictures of white people doing the same thing “look at the desperate attempts of the citizens to live through this harrowing time.” Wait, let me go look in the mirror, I'm back, I had to check and see if I really gave a fuck about what white people think of civil demonstration. What the lumpen proletariat has to figure out is the reason why ever single time we have brothers and sisters murdered the conversation MUST turn to black on black crime and why the decrease in crime is almost never covered by mainstream media. It gets down to economics. Can anyone tell me why the Ferguson and County Police Departments have Bearcats, military grade assault rifles, drones, combat helicopters and armored personnel carriers? Ferguson has a population of 21 grand give or take, 60 to 65% are US. How many murders this year? ZIP, ZILCH, ZERO. So what do you have a tank for? What are you preparing for? You know these items are needed, but the money is there due to the demonizing of black men. In comes the same companies that sell arms all over the world to sell Barney Fife hand grenades and .50 sniper rifles. This madness has gotten to the point that even veterans, WHITE VETERANS, are saying “damn, we didn't roll that heavy in Iraq.”
So yes, you feel better after your rant, but what you have become is the unwitting pawn in the status quo's battle for the hearts and minds of white America. Look these niggas are animals, we need to put down this insurrection before it spreads. We militarize our police to keep you safe from them who want your stuff without working for it. We all know the usual slurs and slanders that we have to endure, whether we gainfully working or not. Since you guys think your position with the social order is so safe, next time you with your white friends, bring up the subject of race or white supremacy. What the events in Ferguson do is keep this issue on the front pages, since the funeral of Eric Garner, what have you heard about what is happening in his case from the mainstream media? What about Trayvon Martin. What I will say is this, every night there is chaos on the streets of Ferguson, the media is there. What we need to do instead of telling people to stop what they are doing is do something concrete yourself. If you do not live in Ferguson or are related to the victims of any of these state sanctioned murders, you have no right to tell someone else how they are to express their rage, their grief or their exasperation. If you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem.
Drops mic, walks from stage drippin blackness!
Some of these ideas I agree with, some I think are at best useless and worse counterproductive. I do not, for example, advocate violence of any type directed towards law enforcement except in lawful self-defense or the defense of a loved one. I do not advocate asking a fool to fly into our communities on a private jet to be the “voice” or “face” of the demonstrations. I do not advocate that we gather around white police commanders to “voice” our concerns and listen to self-serving platitudes entreating us to “let the process work” or “be calm in the midst of turmoil.” You know the statements, we've all heard them before. I'm at that point where I'm almost tired of hearing the family members of those who have been wronged saying “we don't need violence, we need peace.” I just want for one time, just one time an aggrieved mother or a grief stricken father to say with conviction and force “tear this bitch up, they didn't give a fuck about my child, I don't give a fuck about they shit.” But that's my revolutionary wet dream. Plus, we are not ready for movements of that type or magnitude. We are too fragmented, although with the advent of social media we are moving in that direction.
What I am especially tired of, downright weary to the point of exasperation, is US, many of who “claim” to be conscious doing the job of the dominant culture. What you are seeing in the coverage of what I term “our issues” is the deflection tool of propaganda. For example, our issue is murder of unarmed black men by law enforcement. (Luckily we have a few on video, this also speaks to the THOUSANDS that have happened without video who we have never heard of because the officer's version of events are taken to be true without question) We must not let the conversation diverge into an argument about black on black crime. It is immaterial to discuss Ray Ray and Man Man when the question is what law enforcement is doing in our communities. See to the truly conscious, not the pretender, we know that crime across the board is DOWN in our communities. Take for example Chicago, it is undoubtedly, undeniably, absolutely true that violent crime and shootings are tragic and unnecessary. Even one brother killed by another brother is too many. What the powers that be WON'T tell you is that compared to this same month 10 years ago, 20 years ago, crime is half of what it was in some cases a third of what it once was. They will have you believe that it is due to their efforts, that because of “boots on the ground” we have stemmed the tide of violent crime. In fact, what has happened is, again largely due to social media, we have began to wake up. Its slow, but social change is NEVER overnight. We are beginning to value the very thing that outsiders will say that we don't value. There are groups that are out in the community every night talking to these brothers and sisters, assisting these brothers and sisters but you don't hear about them because its not sexy enough for mainstream media. Unfortunately we have brothers making YouTube rants assisting the dominant culture with their message that there is something wrong with you niggas. Why do you burn up your own shit? Simple answer, its not our shit. It belongs to Indians, Asians and white people. Why do you loot, because that's part of the demonstration, that comes with it. I think back to Katrina and how news organizations showed pictures of blacks taking things from stores, “look at the looting taking place.” Same storm, pictures of white people doing the same thing “look at the desperate attempts of the citizens to live through this harrowing time.” Wait, let me go look in the mirror, I'm back, I had to check and see if I really gave a fuck about what white people think of civil demonstration. What the lumpen proletariat has to figure out is the reason why ever single time we have brothers and sisters murdered the conversation MUST turn to black on black crime and why the decrease in crime is almost never covered by mainstream media. It gets down to economics. Can anyone tell me why the Ferguson and County Police Departments have Bearcats, military grade assault rifles, drones, combat helicopters and armored personnel carriers? Ferguson has a population of 21 grand give or take, 60 to 65% are US. How many murders this year? ZIP, ZILCH, ZERO. So what do you have a tank for? What are you preparing for? You know these items are needed, but the money is there due to the demonizing of black men. In comes the same companies that sell arms all over the world to sell Barney Fife hand grenades and .50 sniper rifles. This madness has gotten to the point that even veterans, WHITE VETERANS, are saying “damn, we didn't roll that heavy in Iraq.”
So yes, you feel better after your rant, but what you have become is the unwitting pawn in the status quo's battle for the hearts and minds of white America. Look these niggas are animals, we need to put down this insurrection before it spreads. We militarize our police to keep you safe from them who want your stuff without working for it. We all know the usual slurs and slanders that we have to endure, whether we gainfully working or not. Since you guys think your position with the social order is so safe, next time you with your white friends, bring up the subject of race or white supremacy. What the events in Ferguson do is keep this issue on the front pages, since the funeral of Eric Garner, what have you heard about what is happening in his case from the mainstream media? What about Trayvon Martin. What I will say is this, every night there is chaos on the streets of Ferguson, the media is there. What we need to do instead of telling people to stop what they are doing is do something concrete yourself. If you do not live in Ferguson or are related to the victims of any of these state sanctioned murders, you have no right to tell someone else how they are to express their rage, their grief or their exasperation. If you are not part of the solution you are part of the problem.
Drops mic, walks from stage drippin blackness!
Symptoms
I have a subject that needs breathing on. We here in Open Discussion come from a wide range of ages, socio-economic statuses, and educational as well as consciousness levels. So everyone has a particular perspective to advance and we respect them all. What makes our forum great is that here in U.I., we have the opportunity to have our ideas and points of view fact checked, evaluated and disassembled. What this practice does that other groups lack is we tend to emerge from discussion better thinkers and hopefully better actors.
With that being said, we have all been understandably upset and frustrated by the events in Ferguson as well as other places around the country. WE are finally beginning to take a stand and demand better treatment from the status quo. To keep this momentum going, we must divorce the unproductive from the productive. What I charge each of you to think about the rest of this day and comment on tomorrow, hopefully on the Urban Intellectuals page is what we can do to use these events to better our situation as a whole and not as individuals. How do we not just focus on a symptom of the problem and not the problem itself, that problem being white supremacy, economic inequality and the fact that mostly every single issue that plague black communities from coast to coast can be traced back to economics.
For me, the first thing I encourage all of to do, no matter who you are or what your particular ax to grind is, we MUST stop with this “kill the police” rhetoric. One, because most of you softies are not going to do it and if someone does you are not going to be there for the aftermath, not even in support. So that needs to stop. Just as each of us are individuals who deserve not to be lumped into a category, each police officer, white or black, are not “bad” or “rogue” cops to be executed because of the acts of another. How do you reconcile killing an officer in Philly for the acts of officers in Miami.
Secondly, we must not fall into the trap that has been set before us. We see it but we disregard it with all this talk about “the only good cop is a dead cop.” These are the people who are like hype men behind a rapper, he can't rap but he can coon around and excite the crowd. These are the people who talk that shit but are the first ones to call the police when something goes down involving themselves or their property. I'll agree, I have somewhat unconventional views when it comes to law enforcement. I actually believe that change won't come to law enforcement until the good cops start standing up to the bad cops and the powers behind them that control what they do. That's the part of the story that we miss in our anger, rage and emotionalism. Law Enforcement is a TOOL of the dominant society. They don't care how many of them are killed just as they don't care how many soldiers that they send off to fight meaningless wars come back in body bags. They are the shovels throwing black and brown, and increasingly poor white bodies, into the bottomless hole of the Prison Industrial Complex. Our problems are bigger than police/community relations.
Third, lets not be short-sighted. Instead let us be more discerning. Intellectually as well as instinctively we know that not all police officers are bad. If we take the “kill the police” stance, what about your Uncle Bobby whose been the police for 25 years. What about your cousin's husband or wife who is the police. What if someone kills them for the acts of another officer? Then again, what constitutes an officer, who exactly IS the police? Do we count the officers who work in the county jail who brutalize and kill brothers every day? What about child support enforcement officers who carry badges and have arrest powers? We also can't be hypocritical, if a black officer kills a unarmed white man, why do we not become enraged then? Why do we not march if a black officer kills an unarmed black kid?
The long and short of it is, let us use this issue to develop strategies that uplift us as a whole and not be distracted by what is, in the long run, a symptom of the problem not the problem itself.
Drops mic and walks from stage drippin blackness.
With that being said, we have all been understandably upset and frustrated by the events in Ferguson as well as other places around the country. WE are finally beginning to take a stand and demand better treatment from the status quo. To keep this momentum going, we must divorce the unproductive from the productive. What I charge each of you to think about the rest of this day and comment on tomorrow, hopefully on the Urban Intellectuals page is what we can do to use these events to better our situation as a whole and not as individuals. How do we not just focus on a symptom of the problem and not the problem itself, that problem being white supremacy, economic inequality and the fact that mostly every single issue that plague black communities from coast to coast can be traced back to economics.
For me, the first thing I encourage all of to do, no matter who you are or what your particular ax to grind is, we MUST stop with this “kill the police” rhetoric. One, because most of you softies are not going to do it and if someone does you are not going to be there for the aftermath, not even in support. So that needs to stop. Just as each of us are individuals who deserve not to be lumped into a category, each police officer, white or black, are not “bad” or “rogue” cops to be executed because of the acts of another. How do you reconcile killing an officer in Philly for the acts of officers in Miami.
Secondly, we must not fall into the trap that has been set before us. We see it but we disregard it with all this talk about “the only good cop is a dead cop.” These are the people who are like hype men behind a rapper, he can't rap but he can coon around and excite the crowd. These are the people who talk that shit but are the first ones to call the police when something goes down involving themselves or their property. I'll agree, I have somewhat unconventional views when it comes to law enforcement. I actually believe that change won't come to law enforcement until the good cops start standing up to the bad cops and the powers behind them that control what they do. That's the part of the story that we miss in our anger, rage and emotionalism. Law Enforcement is a TOOL of the dominant society. They don't care how many of them are killed just as they don't care how many soldiers that they send off to fight meaningless wars come back in body bags. They are the shovels throwing black and brown, and increasingly poor white bodies, into the bottomless hole of the Prison Industrial Complex. Our problems are bigger than police/community relations.
Third, lets not be short-sighted. Instead let us be more discerning. Intellectually as well as instinctively we know that not all police officers are bad. If we take the “kill the police” stance, what about your Uncle Bobby whose been the police for 25 years. What about your cousin's husband or wife who is the police. What if someone kills them for the acts of another officer? Then again, what constitutes an officer, who exactly IS the police? Do we count the officers who work in the county jail who brutalize and kill brothers every day? What about child support enforcement officers who carry badges and have arrest powers? We also can't be hypocritical, if a black officer kills a unarmed white man, why do we not become enraged then? Why do we not march if a black officer kills an unarmed black kid?
The long and short of it is, let us use this issue to develop strategies that uplift us as a whole and not be distracted by what is, in the long run, a symptom of the problem not the problem itself.
Drops mic and walks from stage drippin blackness.
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