Guest Post: Roger Ebert Wanted His Cake and Ate It Too

by Lavern Merriweather

Famed movie critic Roger Ebert, the surviving half of beloved movie critic duo Siskel and Ebert, has passed recently and I for one certainly won’t be shedding any tears about it.

That may sound terrible but let me plead my case. First off, the guy was an arrogant, snobby, and was an exceedingly bigoted blowhard who – like many whites that like to imagine themselves above racism – was many times just as guilty as the ones that he acted so high and mighty with. Here are a few examples of why even though I appreciated the lively debates, I wasn’t that big of a fan of either him or his partner Gene Siskel.

He was very vocal in his dislike about the popular 90’s ‘hood’ movies that Hollyweird was so fascinated with making by saying that it would be refreshing to see more ‘positive’ depictions of Negroes. Oh really? Is THAT why he spent most of his career praising the vile and disgusting Klan celebrating film from D.W. Griffith “Birth of a Nation”?

This is also the same asshole who praised the 90’s film directed by Kevin Costner “Dances with Wolves” for finally showing Native Americans as fully developed fleshed out characters and not just stereotypes that were actually played by Native actors, not just white people in semi brown face [funny how he doesn’t bring up the fact that the two leads are still white though].

Then this prick turns right around and continues to gush over the countless John Wayne films from the 40’s, 50’s and 60’s that made Native people look so damn bad in the first place. These films were very hateful and negative in their portrayals of Native Americans. Yet, he loves those films and “Dances”, even though one is positive and the others are negative as hell. Okay, pick a fucking personality, Sybil!

I have said it before and I will say it again, you can’t have it both ways. Either you are grateful that these people of color are finally getting their due, or you were perfectly fine with the shitty images we have had of American Indians for many years now. It can’t be both, just like he can’t act like he was so little Mr. down with the darkies while he behaves in the same racist and condescending way as other white male critics.

When the Oscar winning hit “Driving Miss Daisy” starring Morgan Freeman and Jessica Tandy came out, damn near every white critic in describing Miss Tandy’s character used as least 20 adjectives for her. Yet, when it came to Mr. Freeman he was labeled as nothing more than the, and I quote, ‘black chauffer’. Roger Ebert did the same thing as all the other white males. He reduced Mr. Freeman and his character in the film to little more than a servant.

He also thought very highly of any film that followed the same blueprint as that shitfest “The Help”. Keep in mind, this is the same mother heffa that was married for many years to a black woman. Still, he had the absolute gall to question as to whether or not a black female actress could ever dare set aside her prejudices long enough to kiss a white actor. Really?

One time this hypocritical little shit actually had the nerve to suggest that the reason why there were few love scenes between white male actors and black females is because the black woman in that equation would have a hang up about interracial romance. Granted, he was playing devil’s advocate, but come the fuck on! You are married to a black woman yourself, and you have the ball balls to speculate that the ONLY reason you don’t see white males on screen hooking up with black women is because they have a problem!

Maybe somebody should have asked this cuntbag’s wife if she has any problems with kissing a white man and see his reaction seeing how he would even broach the subject in that way, and God forbid, he ever believe that a white male movie star would be less than objective about doing a love scene with a woman of color. There has been an attempt for the past 23 years to do an American re-make of the French indie hit “Diva” and there only snafu has been that all the white actors they approached said no. Yet, according to a dumbass like Ebert, it just has to be because black women are so unwilling to step out of their comfort zone. Good thing he found the exception to marry his ass huh?!

Another thing that pissant once said that really rubbed me the wrong way was when he was reviewing the disastrous Kim Basinger film “I Dreamed of Africa”. While I appreciated him broaching the issue of the lack of African people being represented, he preceded the comment by saying he wasn’t trying to be ‘politically correct. Asking why there is such an utter lack of representation in a land of the people who actually live there isn’t being politically correct, shithead. It’s a valid fucking question that should have been asked! But he seems to think it’s about following some code that white people have been forced into by those whiny Negroes.

Speaking of whining, I thought it was hilarious that Ebert could lament about the fact that heroes and villains in most Hollywood films are racially coded and how he will never see in his lifetime a bad guy of color. Has this asswipe ever even seen many of the movies that the rest of us have, because if he has, he sure as hell wouldn’t be making such a straight up false, bellyaching flat out bullshit observation. Right, because you just never see white heroes or good guys like in those politically correct movies I guess.

On top of that, Ebert like many of his colleagues was very harsh in his critiques of the films with black actors in the leads. I saw some of the movies they seem to hate so much, and some of them really weren’t that bad. It has to be because of the actors and not the film itself. Jack Black, Adam Sandler, Owen Wilson, Ben Stiller, along with countless other white big names A-listers have made more than their fair share of stinkers. But I have yet to hear them even take half of the criticism that black actors get like the white movie reviewers who complain endlessly about the 70’s ‘blaxplotation’ movies, but see very little wrong with monstrosities like Stepin Fetchit, Rochester or Butterfly McQueen. All of those bitches couldn’t stand Will Smith until he played a gay man and a supposedly former slave. It’s ok if he’s a subservient or the ultimate white male’s idea of a weak man, but he – without fail – can’t be the lead or the hero. OH HELL NO!

There is an expression from black folk going around lately that I think described the late Mr. Ebert to a tee and that is hipster racist. So while Brotha may say RIP I say FUCK ROGER EBERT.

Guest Post: Our Own Worst Enemy

by Lavern Merriweather

A lot of times, I really don’t get black people. We always say one thing, then do the complete and utter opposite. We complain about how white people are. Yet, we then turn right around and indulge in the same behavior. If we can’t stand the way they act most of the time, then we shouldn’t keep emulating similar patterns.

For example, many black folks will whine about how white people like to monolith us, but we do the same thing our damn selves. Memo to the high minded Negro crowd, if you hate hip-hop and rap so damn much then STOP using it as a precursor to describe the life of every single black person walking, stupid asses! Not every fucking black person listens to Tupac.

While I’m on the subject, can black people for once please finally let sleeping damn dogs die? It’s one thing to quote Brother Malcolm and MLK because their words held a tremendous amount of truth and wisdom and can be used as blueprints to live one’s life for the better. But let’s still keep things in their right perspective.

Both of those men have long since passed on. So let’s quit all the damn speculating on what they would say ‘if’ they were alive today. Well, guess what? They ain’t! So, not only is the ruminating pointless, it smacks of desperation.

Now, while I’m on that topic why is it that black folks will piss and moan incessantly that the supposed black leaders aren’t doing enough yet continue to elect white males into office? Aren’t the white people in charge are leaders as well? So, they should be held just as accountable for their lack of service too. Fat chance!

I have never seen black people give the same crap to white politicians that they do black ones even when they are attempting to be so holier than. I can’t even begin to count the times that the same high and mighty black folks who are quick to attack black people in power for their distorted morals will defend to the death any boozing, womanizing, sleazy, crackhead, cheating, lying white person.

Don’t get me started on black folks in California who voted in Ah-nuld despite the fact that he was a groping slimeball. And big shock was he was also very ill equipped to handle the job of running one of the largest states in America. He was an actor, dummies, not a political force! Like that old saying goes, “You get what you pay for.”

The goes triple for the haters of big time black preachers like Eddie Long. Correct me if I’m wrong but aren’t there a shitload of black people in the Catholic Church and didn’t some of their hard-earned pennies go toward paying off the millions to the many disgruntled families of abused minors that the church looked the other way years for. Yet, expecting black people to target a white run organization like the Catholic Church is like believing that I can sprout wings and soar like an eagle. By that, I mean most black comedians who seem to be perpetually stuck in a time warp circa any era before 1925, especially the stupid cackling morons and purveyors of coonery such as those on the Doug Banks, Rickey Smiley and Tom Joyner shows respectively.

Recently a member of the Smiley show brought up that grumpy old man Clint Eastwood had fathered 8 kids by 7 different women. Then a loudmouth idiot on the show named Ebony remarked that Eastwood ‘must’ be black. Excuse me? First off, it’s one thing for asshole white people to support the stereotype that only black men have multiple babies by multiple women, but when stupid ass black people agree with that bullshit it makes it even worse.

Interesting how black women never notice the black women like Halle Berry and Mel B from the Spice Girls who have children out of wedlock by different men but getting back to stupid black shock jocks.

It’s as if these people have some genetic deficiency that makes them incapable of talking shit about white celebrities like many black comedians. You must not break the sacrilege ever! Just kidding, but I find nothing funny whatsoever about the way a lot of black comedians, particularly jizzwad Paul Mooney, are. This is a Negro who goes on every talk show within a five foot radius and bitches to no end about how racist this country is. Then this dumbass turns right around and selectively targets other black people on his stand-up shows. And I have seen many of them. So, I know where of I speak. If you are that pissed, then why are you attacking the VERY people you pretend to defend?

That brings me to the blogs run by black women on the internet, the same ones who claim to be so outraged about the deaths of young black males like Trayvon Martin, Amadou Diallo, Oscar Grant, etc. You could have fooled me! Please. They say that, yet never miss one opportunity to vilify and demonize black men exclusively under the disguise of fighting the good fight for all women of color. B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T!

If that is truly the case, then why is it they happily ignore any story that doesn’t involve a black man. For instance the murder of Peruvian woman Stephanie Flores by Joraan Vandersloot, who is also the main suspect is the disappearance of missing American Natalie Holloway. How about the case of Bruce Redman, a former producer for the show “Survivor”, who is the only suspect in the murder of his Mexican wife? None have been rushing to yack about Harvard medical student Annie Lee who was said to have been killed by her lab partner, a white male. But let there be a story about a black male celebrity they can crucify and they are right there.

These are the same heffas that join many white people in the media in their never ending bash OJ chorus. I rarely hear them spending that much effort to continue attention on the black men that they pretend to care about so much just like they rarely pillory white males or criticize white people in the media for being so blatantly racist and hypocritical.

They also like many whites will use ANY lame ass excuse to bring up OJ even when it doesn’t have shit to do with what they are bitching about. The sad part is that they certainly aren’t the only black people who do it. You can’t have it both ways, black people. Tearing each other down while hating on white people for the same exact thing makes no damn sense.

That’s another thing about black women’s blogs. They will whine like crazy about ‘Becky’ and how ‘Becky’ is not down for us. Yet, whenever little miss Becky is telling them what they want to hear, then they are madly in love with her. And that’s precisely when some snotty, huffy, white female is criticizing black males like self-righteous hypocrite Ashley Judd.

Some black women were all over her with praise when she called herself going after rappers for promoting a ‘rape culture’. Bitch please! She works for one of the most sexist industries on the planet, and she has the absolute gall to say something about rappers all with the loving approval of black women. Probably the same ones who hate misogyny sooooooo much yet supported that dirty, old pig Bill Clinton. However, any time I bring up that little factoid, black women on the blogs get very defensive and deny that they ever defended him. So, what was it some phantom black folks from the planet Negronis?

The point is don’t keep whining about the ways of white folks if you insist on following in their foot- steps. When what should have been a feel good story about former radio announcer Ted Williams who fell on hard times due to drugs came out black people couldn’t wait to be on the attack. Most were saying that he wasn’t the only homeless person, and why was he getting so much attention. Well, no duh! He’s not the only homeless person ,asshole! What the hell was this man supposed to do, reject what was probably a once in a lifetime chance to get back on his feet because some jealous hating Negroes feel the need to be crabs in the barrel at every fucking turn?

Funny how those same people never do a damn thing themselves to help another black person. I wonder if any of the haters have ever actually gotten off their ass and volunteered in a shelter or helped anyone besides themselves. Doubtful. It’s much easier to hate on one another than get off your ass and do something productive for a change like the black women who bitch like bitches about overnight internet sensation Antoine Dodson. He is a young man from the projects who rescued his sister from an attempted rape despite looking like a stiff breeze would blow him over. The black female hate brigade was in full effect when Mr. Dodson was able to capitalize on his heroic act after an autotune version of his angry TV rant went viral.

Two things they fail to mention while screeching like angry birds: First, he was the one who saved a family member from a traumatic event. And second, because of the internet video, he acquired enough money to help her and his family move to a better neighborhood. Of course, that bit of information doesn’t register while they are squawking. Nor do they mention how many times they, themselves, have worked a rape crisis counseling center in a poor black area. Maybe that’s because like every other time, black people who complain and vilify other black folks don’t do much besides flap their gums. They sure as hell can’t ever be consistent. That’s for damn sure.

Guest Post: Tokens & Accessories

by Lavern Merriweather

Every time – and I do mean every time I see a white singer with a black choir doing back-up vocals behind them, I cringe. Not because I think that the performance will suck or that the chorus of black voices won’t be up to snuff. No, I get disgusted because it’s such hackneyed, clichéd bullshit like the one black boy way at the back in a John Hughes movie. And while I’m on the subject can I please get into what an obnoxious pandering asshole he was?

I was watching a show with commentator and former Rolling Stone writer Toure who questioned why there were no black people in his films. Well, I say who gives a shit? The guy sucked as a director and more so as a human being. Also, there were black folks in his films, but they were represented in the most stupid, insulting, insipid way imaginable. Need I go there with that whack ass scene of black teens in “Ferris Buehler”? Didn’t think so.

Then, there was the crapfest starring CSI’s Elisabeth Shue called “Adventures in Babysitting”. The black people in that mess were either extra ‘cool’ darkies that knew how to especially get down all while showing the hapless blonde white girl and her charges how to actually step out of their comfort zones old school style. Okay, where is a damn barf bag when you truly need it?

They were just one gang of thugs that the plucky white kids from the suburbs have to stand up to in order to save their necks[rubs temples extra hard]. I guess that just proves that if we aren’t into music or sports then we just have to be up to no good a.k.a. criminal activity. He might as well had a neon sign above the black people’s heads saying ‘only qualified to be entertainers, athletes or hoodlums’, or in the case of your average awards show the back drop prop for some white artist that really needs to prove their soulful side.

Funny how none of the black entertainers require anything even remotely like that. Oh right! We are just naturally gifted with soul. White people, however, must have our aide. It’s similar to the magic Negro stereotype Hollyweird parades around when it feels the desire to once again paint the past with a rose colored brush and break both arms patting each other on the back by saying “See? Some of us were not that bad” despite the fact that many of those same people stood idly by and did absolutely nothing to put an end to the sadistic brutality of their brethren.

But why should we still be mad? After all, we should appreciate the chance to sing behind a famous white crooner or be pandered to in the worst way possible. It has a black face in it, and that’s good enough. Not for those of us who have the displeasure of actually sitting through their shitty ass films.

I can’t say that have ever watched one time when there is a white person with a group of black people behind them. What gets me even more than that is the whole token in the background designed to show some semblance of diversity from a white person so that they can feel better about themselves. It’s always the same “See? At least I got one of you in the shot or in the room” crap.

Case in point an episode of insufferable blowhard hag Roseanne where she had moms from old TV shows on having a gabfest. Now, apart from how excruciatingly obnoxious and painfully unfunny it was, having an elderly Barbara Billingsley remark that she would kiss a chick for a lot of money was beyond deplorable. Having former “Lost in Space” star Jane Wyatt embarrass herself by coming off as a bitter old whiner was the fact that Isabelle Sanford star of CBS’ classic hit “The Jeffersons” was there also.

My problem with that was that she was only there for show. She didn’t say anything, was kept firmly in the back and wasn’t acknowledged by either Roseanne or anybody else. She might as well have not even been there for all the good her presence served, which is why I think the term token was created in the first place. It’s just so a white person can say, “Hey, one of you was here so shut the fuck up stupid darkies, and quit complaining.” It sure as shit isn’t because white people have some strike of conscience and actually want to include a black person, especially not when it comes to TV.

I have always said from day one after seeing an episode of David E. Kelley’s dreck ABC show “The Practice” that Lisa Gay Hamilton could have been replaced by a mannequin and nobody would know the difference. So, I guess Lisa Nicole Carson on his FOX hit “Ally McBeal” was supposed to be step up even though she came across more as a prostitute than a lawyer. Mind you, she was not an object of desire, just some ho you bang in the backseat, then pay to get rid of them and hope they are at that same corner the next time you stroll past. Sounds harsh, I know. But that is usually how black people are viewed by TV executives, creators and producers, particularly creators.

Remember that this is the very same David Kelley who made came up with that shit pile from FOX called “Boston Public”, a program which I can’t spend enough time expressing my complete and utter disdain for, least of all reasons was that stupid, offensive, asinine little so-called ode to the all- black girl singing trio The Supremes. It seemed like that asshole couldn’t let one nonsense opportunity pass to have the three black females doing some singing act. Even on the show “Glee” the white teachers don’t hop up in front of everybody to belt out a tune all the time. And the white female teachers on “Boston Public” damn sure never showed their pipes by doing a song number.

What makes it even more idiotic is that one of the women in his little singing act was actually bi-racial. Your guess is as good as mine as to why any of those females would subject themselves to something so blatantly racist and pandering especially top notch actress Loretta Devine. Seriously homegirl, just what the fuck were you thinking? But I guess it’s like one commenter on Brotha stated when talking about superstar actor Samuel L. Jackson even calling him racist director Quentin Tarantino’s ‘ace boon coon’. A line that had me rolling. I couldn’t have said it better. problem with that is that far too many black folks in Holly-white have no issue sacrificing their dignity for a paycheck.

I get that these people have to eat, but selling your soul just to make a name for yourself doesn’t sound like a very promising way to make a living to me at all. It’s like my boy Robert Townsend once said, There is always work at the post office.” And even if there’s not, there has to be some occupation out there that’s more rewarding than being a monkey to a white person’s organ grinder. Leave the leashes and dancing to the real monkeys on the sidewalk.

R.I.P. Malcolm Shabazz

Sighs! I found out yesterday that Malcolm Shabazz, the grandson of  Malcolm X, was murdered in Mexico City. News reports say that he was a victim of a violent robbery. He was reportedly robbed, shot and thrown off the roof.

I honestly don’t know what to say about this. I’m still speechless. We all knew the brotha had it rough growing up. Still, he was an activist following in this footsteps of his late grandfather. He was a man who struggled with so much. Yet, he still kept going not just for himself but for others.

Talking Points Memo (TPM) gives some details as to what happened as to who Malcolm Shabazz was:

Malcolm Shabazz, the grandson of the late civil rights leader Malcolm X, has died while in Mexico. The news first broke when a family friend named Terrie Williams announced his death on Facebook and Twitter. TPM has independently confirmed his death through another source with close knowledge of the situation. According to an associate, Shabazz was beaten during a robbery Wednesday night in Mexico City.

Like his namesake, Shabazz, who was 28, was actively engaged in politics. Juan Ruiz, a member of the California-based labor organization Rumec, told TPM Shabazz was in Mexico City with one of the group’s leaders, Miguel Suarez who had been deported from the United States last month.

“He’s a supporter of our organization” said Ruiz. “He went to Mexico to meet with Miguel.”

A posting made Wednesday evening on Rumec’s Facebook page said Shabazz was in Mexico City with Suarez and wanted to share their story with local media.

Multiple members of Shabazz’s family did not respond to a request for comment from TPM. Officials with the State Department would not confirm Shabazz’s death.

“We are aware of the death of a U.S. citizen in Mexico City. We have been in contact with family members, and at their request we have no further comment at this time,” a State Department spokesperson said in response to an inquiry about Shabazz.

According to Ruiz, Shabazz died after being beaten during a robbery. Though Ruiz is currently in the United States, he said he had been in communication with Suarez who was with Shabazz at the time of his death.

“He was murdered. He was in Mexico City and I believe they attempted to rob him and he didnt allow it, so they beat him to death and he died on his way to the hospital,” said Ruiz. “This is all I can confirm, everything else is under investigation for the meantime.”

Shabazz had a troubled youth. He moved between France, California, and New York with his mother, Qubilah. In 1995, Qubilah was charged with planning to kill Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan with her boyfriend, who was an FBI informant. She was allegedly motivated by a belief Farrakhan was involved in Malcolm X’s 1965 assassination. The charges were subsequently dropped with support from Farrakhan and Qubilah agreeing to undergo psychiatric and substance-abuse treatment. In a 2010 interview with this reporter, Qubilah said she did discuss killing Farrakhan with her boyfriend, but “it was a joke.”

In 1997, when he was 12-years-old, Shabazz was living with his grandmother, Betty Shabazz when there was a fire in her home. Betty subsequently died as a result of injuries sustained in the blaze. Shabazz plead guilty to setting the fire and was sentenced to 18 months in a juvenile facility with possible extensions. During his trial, Shabazz was described in psychiatric testimony as a paranoid schizophrenic with psychotic episodes.

Shabazz was released after four years. In an interview with the New York Times he admitted to setting the fire and said he did so because he wanted to be sent back to live with Qubilah. In a 2011 conversation with the Amsterdam News, Shabazz would not discuss the fire that killed his grandmother and implied he was not responsible.

“I was coerced,” said Shabazz, who added that he was working on a book about his life.

After being released from juvenile detention, Shabazz became involved with the Bloods street gang. In 2002, he was arrested for allegedly robbing a man after a party. Shabazz was convicted of attempted robbery and spent several years in prison.

In 2011, Shabazz told the Amsterdam News he was working on a book. He also said he believed his family was being persecuted “by select businessman and government officials.”

“I’ve been a target my entire life. My family is targeted,” he said.

Last month, the Iranian state-owned news outlet Press TV published a lengthy statement attributed to Shabazz in which he claimed he was being harassed by the FBI and police in upstate New York due to time he spent in Syria and his attempts to travel to Iran. Shabazz had appeared on Iranian television in April 2012. In the statement published by Press TV, Shabazz accused multiple U.S. government agencies of having “set the climate for my grandfather’s assassination, and made my family a long-suffering casualty of COINTELPRO, and other anti-Black repression programs.”

Part of me is still in disbelief that he was a victim of a horrific robbery. Part of me believes that there is more to his assassination. With someone like Malcolm Shabazz who carries the legacy of his family, particularly of his grandfather, it’s hard to be believe that some violent thugs just wanted his cash.You wonder if there weren’t other forces behind his murder. You even wonder if that’s what really happened.

However, the possibility that Shabazz was indeed robbed and killed is still open. Mexico City is a violent place due to its drug war.  Shabazz could have been a casualty of that war.

Whatever the case, Shabazz was murdered. Let us take the time to reflect on the life of this young man, a man who despite his troubled past was still a soldier to the very end. Rest in Peace and freedom, Brother Malcolm.

Notable Links: 5-10/13

American Slavery

White Americans bought at least 455,000 black slaves in the Transatlantic slave trade, mostly in the 1700s, mostly from West Africa. They also had some Native American slaves.

What does this racist video have to do with recycling water?

Oh hellll no. Racist video alert. This one doesn’t come from dumbass frat dudes or a ditzy college gal. This one comes courtesy of the City of Los Angeles Department of Public Works: City Of LA Department Of Public Works Under Fire For Producing Controversial Video Mocking Asians.

The video, shot at the Japanese Garden at the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in Van Nuys, shows a guy in yellowface dressed as a geisha, doing the usual tired-ass Asian accent mockery. This is all somehow supposed to teach viewers about using recycled water — and is paid for by taxpayer money. Yeah. Watch…

Malcolm Shabazz, Grandson of Malcolm X, Killed in Mexico

The Amsterdam News has learned, and the U.S. Embasy has confirmed, that Malcolm Shabazz – son of Malcolm X, was killed on early Thursday morning, May 9, 2013. He died from injuries sustained after he was thrown off a building as he was being robbed in Tijuana.

“I’m confirming, per US Embassy, on bhalf of family, the tragic death of Malcolm Shabazz, grandson of Malcolm X.Statement frm family 2 come,” wrote close friend of the Shabazz family Terrie M. Williams on twitter.

What Terrorism Means To Me, A Native American

The general public doesn’t like to see pictures from the past. Pictures of the American holocaust, the massacres, the mass graves, the slavery and the lynch mobs. But the pictures exist and the fact that they do shows us part of the true history. This happened to many, many American citizens ancestors. This country was built on terrorism that they never will own up to and/or make reparations for. And then they have the audacity to think one has to leave here and go to another country to become “radicalized.”

Please. Don’t Let It Be One of Us

If you are a member of a marginalized community, at some point a crime, or a ludicrous action will become public or go wildly viral and the first thought that will go through your head is, “please don’t let it be one of us.” We will follow up on the story, find out that it is indeed one of us, shake our heads and think about how the action of one individual will come to reflect upon us. If you are privileged, you have never had this experience.

How the Music Industry Monopoly Really Works

The truth is that big business controls the types of music and artists that get exposure and become popular. The record industry is a $14 billion dollar business. The five major record labels; Sony, Universal, BMG, EMI and Time Warner dominate 85% of the market when it comes to sales of Compact Discs. Leaving only 15% for the hundreds of independent record labels and thousands of artists out there. And when indies get too big or an artist starts making noise these major companies usually pick up the artist or label. This way they control the artist/label, get a percentage of the sales and keep competition to a minimum.

Examining White Supremacy and Heroism: When Both White and Black People Value White Lives More

From Uncle Tom’s Cabin to Gone with the Wind to The Help to The Butler to the evening news, most whites can only see us as only subservient to their needs, nursemaids to their well being, necessary for their superiority, or dangerous to their acquisition of property. The more selfless for their own benefit we appear, the more they believe things are just the way they’re supposed to be. They don’t allow us the complexity of a full human life; they would rather that our lives remain in the margins, expressed only in the most distorted and inaccurate of extremes.

Media Assumes Best of Police and Worst of Low-Income Neighbors in Cleveland Kidnapping

The harrowing story of three Cleveland women—Amanda Berry, Gina DeJesus and Michelle Knight—held captive by Ariel Castro for a decade seems to reach new levels of horror with each emerging detail. But one of the most disturbing developments of all—that Cleveland police potentially ignored repeated calls from Castro’s neighbors about violence against women at and around his home—was quickly buried and dismissed after police vehemently denied the allegations.

Editorial: It’s time to face up to the problem of sexual abuse in the white community

by Joseph Harker

Every day across Britain, it seems, there’s a new and horrific revelation of sexual abuse: last week we had the guilty plea of veteran TV presenter Stuart Hall, who confessed to 14 cases of indecent assault against 13 girls, the youngest only nine years old.

Days earlier the possible scale of child abuse in north Wales children’s homes was revealed. We now know there were 140 allegations of historical abuse between 1963 and 1992. A total of 84 suspected offenders have been named, and it’s claimed the abuse took place across 18 children’s homes.

But after the shock has subsided and we have time to reflect on these revolting crimes, the main question in most reasonable people’s minds must surely be: what is it about white people that makes them do this?

Jimmy Savile is alleged to have abused 300 young people, and in his case and in north Wales, the abuse could not have happened without a wide range of co-conspirators either grooming children or ensuring the truth never got out. Hardly a week goes by without another white man being arrested in connection with sexual abuse.

I’m beginning to feel sorry for whites. I have many white friends and I know most of them are wholly opposed to sexual abuse. But they must be worried that their whole community is getting a bad name. I can imagine that, every day, with each unfolding case, they must be hiding their face behind their hands, pleading: “Please, God, don’t let it be a white person this time.”

And with so many senior community figures implicated, many of us are starting to wonder what will happen to the next generation of whites. How will today’s young whites learn that abuse is wrong when their role models are so tarnished?

First, though, we need to find out what’s causing the problem. Is it something to do with white people’s culture? Is it something to do with their loss of empire, and their new role in the world, as a diminished state desperately clinging to its glorious past? Do they seek to impose their last vestiges of power on the most vulnerable in society?

Or is it that, having spent so much of their history waging wars against each other, they cannot cope with the relative peace of the last half-century, and their frustration at not fighting is taken out on the weakest? I may have no evidence for this, but that’s not going to stop me putting it out there as a cause.

Or maybe it’s their religion? Child abuse in the priesthood has, of course, also been tolerated for decades, allowed to continue unpunished through a conspiracy of silence among the church hierarchy.

And despite the recent falls in attendance, Christianity still dominates European culture. And the Bible, which many whites still look to, has such verses as: “Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol [hell].” (Proverbs 23:13-14) It hardly fits with white society’s claims to care for children. And even those who don’t believe, such as Richard Dawkins, a senior cleric in the atheist community, have sought to downplay the gravity of child abuse, believing it’s no worse than religion itself. As he wrote: “Horrible as sexual abuse no doubt was, the damage was arguably less than the long-term psychological damage inflicted by bringing the child up Catholic in the first place.” Of course, what we really need now is for brave white community leaders to come out and distance themselves from the abusers.

Maybe, say, the new head of the Equality and Human Rights Commission should come out and admit the issue is “racial and cultural” and that she fears that “in those communities there were people who knew what was going on and didn’t say anything, either because they’re frightened or they’re so separated from the rest of the communities”. Or a white cabinet member could say: “There is a small minority of white men who believe that young children are fair game. And we have to be prepared to say that. You can only start solving a problem if you acknowledge it first.” Or the head of a leading children’s charity could say: “There is very troubling evidence that whites are overwhelmingly represented in the prosecutions for such offences.” Yet none of this has happened. And this saddens me. Because until we hear those brave voices speaking out against abuse, what are we meant to think?

I urge white people to break this conspiracy of silence. Call on your leaders to show leadership. To show us all that you’re not like the people who dominate the news headlines. That you really do care about protecting children.

You may think all the above is ridiculous; that I’m stirring ethnic tensions on an issue that is clearly about individuals and small groups of people and has nothing to do with race or religion. And that by making this spurious case I’m ignoring the core issue, which is that children, many of them in vulnerable situations, were terrorised and physically harmed by opportunistic men who were able to get away with their crimes for years. You’d be right.

But all of the above arguments were made within various parts of our print and broadcast media when similarly small numbers of Muslim men were revealed to be grooming young girls for sex. If you think the claims about white people are wrong, then so is the stereotyping of Britain’s Muslims, and the widespread questioning of their culture and their religion, because of the perverted actions of a few.

Since the “black crime shock” tabloid stories of the 1980s, editors have known that stoking fears about misunderstood minorities is good for sales. If you object to this article, then you should understand how it feels to be a Muslim reading similar pieces pandering to Islamophobia day after day – and you should object to those too.

Editorial: Why the Hunt For Assata Shakur Matters

by Joseph Lowndes

The FBI’s recent announcement that it has placed former Black Panther and escaped prisoner Assata Shakur at the top of its Most Wanted list and the doubling of the reward for her capture by the State of New Jersey is a development that progressives should not ignore. This newly intensified effort to put Shakur back in prison matters for a number of reasons.

First, by elevating this 40-year-old case to top priority, Obama’s Justice Department is actively memorializing the struggle for black freedom of that era, but in a way that offers us a criminalized, even militarized interpretation of it. How we understand the past has bearing on our political present, and making Shakur, a symbol of black militancy of the 1960s and ’70s, into a high-level national security threat serves to criminalize the greatest movement for democracy in the 20th century. What’s more, fashioning this morality tale erases the central role of the FBI’s COINTELPRO in her controversial case, a willed forgetting of the well-documented framings, murders, and false imprisonments aimed at the black liberation movement and others of that era, as opposed to a clear-eyed assessment of the disputed facts on the ground.

Second, the legal and rhetorical framework of terrorism being used in this case strengthens the U.S. state’s ongoing and intensifying campaign to threaten, harass and detain not only Muslims and Arabs, but antiwar, and green activists. Shakur was given the designation of “domestic terrorist” under the Patriot Act in 2005, and a glance at mainstream news stories on the Shakur case right now shows the casual interchangeability of the terms “militant” and “terrorist,” turning the domestic racial conflicts into an open war by the United States against oppressed groups inside its borders. The authority of federal agencies to wield military power against U.S. citizens, which has become more common under the Obama Administration already, is deepened by turning Shakur into a symbol of demonic power. Such militarization also reflects the full realization of a carceral state that has enormously expanded in the last two decades, imprisoning more people than any country in the world, both per capita and in absolute numbers, with vast over-representation by black and brown people.

Third, further connecting the domestic and international, the placement of Assata Shakur on the FBI’s Most Wanted list is a way for the Obama Administration to test the resolve of Cuba in the twilight of the Castro regime, to see how much power it can now wield there through both engagements and threats. As an AP story on the Shakur case thought it worthwhile to note, “This week, the State Department said it has no plans to remove Cuba from a list of state sponsors of terrorism that also includes Iran, Syria and Sudan.” This is a move that reverberates throughout the western hemisphere given recent U.S. activity in Bolivia, Honduras, and most recently the U.S.’s refusal to recognize the electoral victory of socialist president Nicolas Maduro victory in Venezuela.

The renewed state interest in Assata Shakur is not an anachronism, nor mere score-settling from a prior conflict. It goes to the heart of a set of interrelated issues that should be of deep concern to anyone concerned with civil liberties, political freedom, U.S. empire, and the future of racial justice. We should be asking Attorney General Eric Holder why $2 million is being put up in a 40 year-old case. State Police Superintendent Col. Rick Fuentes said at a news conference Thursday that the case was “an open wound” for troopers in New Jersey and around the country. Yet the FBI’s full-scale assault on the social movements of the 1960s and 1970s remains an open wound for the nation itself. A truthful accounting of state repression in that era is required if we want to heal it, not making Shakur into a scapegoat.

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