Over the last couple of days, more stories have been generated from the Equal Justice Initiative research that I referenced HERE in part one. So I wanted to write a second post.
1.) Check out this 5 min. audio of the NPR interview with Bryan Stevenson, executive director of Equal Justice Initiative – HERE.
2.) The Atlanta Blackstar, in THIS article, points out,
“These conclusions are explored in the report, “Age of the Wolf: A Study of the Rise of Lone Wolf and Leaderless Resistance Terrorism.” The report covers 2009 to 2015, the period Obama has been in office, and finds that a terrorist incident took place or was disrupted every 34 days. The SPLC’s and other studies have indicated that since the 9/11 mass murder, more people have been killed in America by non-Islamic domestic terrorists than jihadists.
This fact should be of concern to African-Americans and other non-whites who will likely be the first targets of these racist, self-activated white extremists.”
You likely will not see this research on Fox News or your other mainstream source of news that reports only what gets ratings, strikes fear and what the government wants over the truth.
Shout out to Brian Williams.
3.) The NY Times generated a graphic showing 73 years of lynching based on the EJI’s data. You can find that HERE.
As noted in the NPR story, Montgomery, Alabama, certainly a ground-zero for civil rights issues, does not have any markers showing where various lynchings took place.
America’s history hasn’t “forgotten”, it is ignored its own history. Personally, I think this is one of the major reasons why again, African-American’s should be the biggest proponents for homeschooling their children.
Lastly, I have to say, in our internet age we can learn what we want to learn. But what’s really sad is that it was just all too easy to find photos for these two blog posts, I’m talking different photos for different incidents. Perhaps that says more than any of the other words that I’ve typed.
CSD
“To be a Negro in this country and to be relatively conscious is to be in a rage almost all the time.”
“The paradox of education is precisely this – that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated.”
I struggled with whether I should write this post, but I’ve been continuously hearing about the “barbaric and savage” actions of ISIL, came out of seeing American Sniper to some guys saying, “If they want to give their country to some kids like that, then we should kill ’em…” and some getting upset at President Obama’s comments in which he truthfully pointed out:
“Lest we get on our high horse and think this is unique to some other place, remember that during the Crusades and the Inquisition, people committed terrible deeds in the name of Christ. In our home country, slavery and Jim Crow all too often was justified in the name of Christ. … So this is not unique to one group or one religion. There is a tendency in us, a sinful tendency that can pervert and distort our faith.”
Rush Limbaugh, someone who many Christians follow and align their beliefs with rather closely said, “Jim Crow’s not around today. A thousand years ago, yeah.”
Mike Huckabee and Elisabeth Hasselbeck on Fox, two self-proclaimed Christians, seem to take issue with the president’s comments as well, because he did not condemn Islamic terrorism enough during his speech.
While that’s certainly a conversation for another time, I’m more concerned about the complete ignorance by those who many Christians follow daily. Their position is even more appalling for many African-American Christians and even those who may not profess Christ (see HERE and HERE). Sorry Rush, no “ditto” here, but Jim Crow laws were in full effect until at least 1965. While I’m an old man, that’s less than a decade before I entered into this world, and I’m not a thousand years old.
The question becomes, is Rush that ignorant or does he know that most American’s are ignorant enough not to know their own history, or a combination of the two?
Jesse Washington, seen in the photo below, was murdered in 1916. For the math impaired, that’s only 99 years ago, during the other event we all must study in school called WWI.
In a report just released yesterday by the Equal Justice Initiative, it states:
“EJI researchers documented 3959 racial terror lynchings of African Americans in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia between 1877 and 1950 – at least 700 more lynchings of black people in these states than previously reported in the most comprehensive work done on lynching to date…This was not “frontier justice” carried out by a few marginalized vigilantes or extremists. Instead, many African Americans who were never accused of any crime were tortured and murdered in front of picnicking spectators (including elected officials and prominent citizens) for bumping into a white person, or wearing their military uniforms after World War I, or not using the appropriate title when addressing a white person. People who participated in lynchings were celebrated and acted with impunity. Not a single white person was convicted of murder for lynching a black person in America during this period.” (Emphasis mine) – See HERE
Please read that last sentence again if you wonder why, as late great sports journalist Ralph Wiley wrote the book, Why Black People Tend To Shout. Ralph wrote this when we were shouting about Rodney King (and having so-called honest discussions about race and taking down barriers…remember that?)
Today, we are still shouting about Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, John Crawford and so many more.
I wrote about going to hear author James Loewen HERE. During the lecture, Loewen presented a similar picture to those below and noted a few points.
#1 – Lynchings were so common, that many were unreported because it just wasn’t news. It was just something American’s practiced. Obviously, Loewen’s statement is backed up by the research above.
#2 – Lynching in America was so common, that Americans were proud. So proud, they took their children to watch, created post cards showing the brutality (who did they send those too?) and even smiled for the camera.
#3 – Lynching, the murder of another human life, was done with no fear of the law. Obviously, when you look at the photos and see that no one covered their face with shame or shielded their kids from seeing such a, dare I say, a barbaric and savage act, done by those who I’m sure also considered it their obligation to be in church on Sunday.
That last point, is President Obama’s point. The symbol of the KKK was and is the cross. Our Savior died on a cross to redeem mankind (John 3:16-17). In the comments below, since we have many sermons by Christian ministers from 100+ years ago, I would appreciate if anyone could list where I can find some messages of those ministers speaking against them using the cross and the other acts of terrorism they perpetrated from the late 1800’s to mid-1900’s.
I’m serious, because I can find you some African-American ministers who did speak out.
Trust me, if you’re a light-shaded Christian and you’re discussing the President’s remarks with a Christian from a darker people-group, they will likely think of the above, but likely not say anything as we just know this is the cost of “doing business”.
As a father, I protect my kids from many things, but history is not one of them. The last thing I want to raise in my house are children as ignorant as the talking-heads in the media, that feed many of those I work and even go to church with each week.
Take a look at the photos.
Take a look at everything in the photos.
Perhaps the true grotesque image is not the body hanging from that tree, but the smiling face looking at you in the picture.
I’ll leave you with what I always encourage my readers to do. Ask your relatives who were alive what they thought back then, ask what they remember. This history wasn’t a thousand years ago, that history may be sitting next to you on Easter Sunday.
As the kids and I sit around and prepare to watch the final game of the season, we talked about some of the great players and remembered our trips to the NFL’s Hall of Fame exhibit.
Here’s a little photo tour for you and feel free to take your kids down memory lane and the history of the NFL as well!
CSD
True Capitalism, had the USFL not have pulled fans and athletes away and become serious competition, it might not be where it’s at today.
In my opinion, the greatest athlete of all time! Bo Knows it’s true.
It all goes back to Fritz! Too bad we wouldn’t have another black head coach for many decades later.
Did you actually think I could post something on sports without slipping in my man Dr. Harry Edwards? Come On Man!
Perhaps they both are perceived to protect their own. It has been this silence against injustice and choosing “whiteness” over proclaiming the Word of God, that perhaps Cory Booker was thinking when he made this comment below:
But since it’s MLK day, allow me to share a post I made yesterday on Facebook in response to the quote attributed to Booker:
“Today at my own church, two brothers spoke open and honestly about race and the church (and not because it’s MLK-day tomorrow). In nearly 30+ years of attending church services, I can NEVER recall any non-African-American speakers giving a message about race (note: today wasn’t the first time during a message at the church I’m currently attending, but certainly the first predominately “white” church that I’ve ever heard address the issue). I think Booker’s comments below summarize those of many, as the ears are closed to the gospel because of the racist actions seen by the eyes. In the U.S., Christianity has been used by white supremacist with complete silence from the Church, yet those in the Church will say to Muslims, “Why don’t you so-called good-Muslims speak out against terrorists if you really don’t support them?” I’m thankful that today, some steps were made by some true brothers in Christ.
Actions were made to go with the words that we say are true, but all of us struggle to live out daily before the very world we are trying to reach. There will always be something that someone can say as to why they do not want to hear the gospel. Yet our job is to just make sure we aren’t the stumbling block, because the gospel offends and convicts the heart more than enough and needs no further help from us. 1 Cor. 1:22-24 / “For indeed Jews ask for signs and Greeks search for wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block and to Gentiles foolishness, 24 but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.”
Also, mad props over to Ken Hamm at Answers In Genesis and author of One Race One Blood, as I just saw he posted this as well:
It truly reinforces Dr. King’s statement that, “History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.”
I’m glad to see more good people, and good being defined by their position in Christ and not of their own works (or any of our so-called “good works”) are becoming more fearless in proclaiming the gospel and showing the world that we’re about Christ and him crucified, not our ethnicity and our power.
When I was in my early 20s, there was one non-professional athlete that impacted my worldview like none other. The man, Dr. Harry Edwards. I was always interested in sociology and of course I loved sports, and when I learned of this field created by Dr. Edwards called Sociology of Sport, it was love at first sight. While God by His sovereign grace has me where I am today, if I could do everything over, I’d head to a school with a Sociology of Sport program to earn the academic credentials and attack the profession like Mike Tyson in the ring during his prime. I remember telling my mentor that I wanted to become the next Harry Edwards when I first went to see her about transferring into sociology and out of sports medicine. However, she knew what I would later find out, yet she didn’t crush my enthusiasm, and that was the fact that I’d never be worthy to even tie up his shoe laces, let alone fill his shoes.
Source: http://www.dailytexanonline.com; I should not have to tell you, but just in case you do not know, that’s Jim Brown (far left), Bill Russell (center) and Dr. Harry Edwards (far right)
I wish I could meet Dr. Harry Edwards. Whenever I find out that he’s done and interview somewhere, I’m on the hunt and all ears because I know I’ll become wiser after listening to this man. Now I just wish that we could hear more from him in our digital era, as it would be so much easier to have access to his knowledge. But then again, I wouldn’t be as proud as I am to have three of his great books, Sociology of Sport, The Revolt Of The Black Athlete and The Struggle That Must Be.
While we are proud of the stand the athletes like Derrick Rose, LeBron James, Reggie Bush and others are taking as they protest African-American men being gunned down in the United States by the police as if they were being caught in a Sundown Town of the 1940s, the protests are now being compared to that organized by Dr. Edwards at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. The Black Power salute by John Carlos and Tommie Smith set the bar high, created a new path, and must be something our children (especially those that play sports) never forget. My kids do not, as they have the poster right above the computer in our living room. My two oldest boys were given the John Carlos Story as Christmas gifts right after it hit shelves and when I worked with young athletes as a strength and conditioning coach, I even encouraged them to not just carry a ball, but carry a message. When you carry a message, you carry yourself with more responsibility as well. It’s a responsibility to hold tightly to the opportunity that’s been afforded to you.
I could go on and on, but that’s what made me feel encouraged about the discussion at ESPN by Jemele Hill, Chris Broussard and Stephen A. Smith. The discussion was on Athletes and Activism.
First, just the fact that one black woman and two black men can sit on a major network and discuss and frame what the black athlete is doing is quite an accomplishment. Yes I’m aware, as Smith and Broussard know first hand, that if they go too far out, the dominant-society will take them out to the woodshed. But just to at least be able to talk and teach, that’s progress and that is the kind of talk we have in our homes and at family gatherings.
Why? Because in 1968, here was the response by Brent Musburger (yes, that one), as described by David Zirin (if you don’t listen to the Edge of Sports podcast, you should) in The Nation in 2012:
“In 1968 Musburger was a restless, ambitious young sports writer looking to make his name. He found his opportunity when Smith and Carlos made their stand. Musburger didn’t see a demonstration. He saw a target.
“One gets a little tired of having the United States run down by athletes who are enjoying themselves at the expense of their country,” he wrote. Musburger then infamously called Smith and Carlos “a pair of black-skinned stormtroopers.”
Second, the athletes of our past dawned the “Scarlet P” for protester, called trouble-makers, said to have had bad-attitudes or received labels like above and were considered uppity negroes. In the case of John Carlos, he lost relationships that money could never replace. Yet, I’m hopeful that some of today’s athletes understand their power, prestige and privilege. Their brand is the trunk of the tree, and now they can have multiple branches (i.e. revenue streams) to feed that tree. So they are no longer beholden as much to the league or owner that believes if he lets him go for not being a “good boy”, that another owner won’t break the code and pick him up.
That said, I hope that athletes of today protesting are doing more than just sporting t-shirts, but I hope they are writing checks as well. I understand that a grown person can spend their cash any way they would like, but money gets movement in our Land of Milk and Honey. So if athletes can show all the bling on Cribs, I’m hoping they can put some skin in the game as well with some dollars.
Remember, C.R.E.A.M.
So we’ve come a long way and I’m happy to see my kids take a strong stance on civil right issues at the age of 25 down to the age of 8. They know whether they carry a ball or not, I expect them to carry a message, and it’s those messages that I know will out live me and provide hope for so many of my upcoming generations as I have a feeling that they will still need to put on their gloves and continue to fight for justice years from now.
So what about so-called black-on-black crime? I wish I didn’t have to address this publicly, as no other people group stones their own the way black folks do. But in our Twitter-attention span, I hope some of you will take the time to check out this podcast Tariq Nasheed (producer of documentary series Hidden Colors) outlines easy ways to refute this senseless argument, as it comes up every single time there appears to be a racially motivated incident in this country. Sadly, many of the black folks reading this now have said the same thing or let the statement be made to them uncontested.
I’m working on an essay that will expand this topic even further. But let me say now, if you are black and think you’re earning some kind of credit with the dominant-society by repeating the same old lie, I hope you’re ready for the consequences as well. You see, when we buy into yet another stereotype such as that, we are not only impacting your own destiny, but our children’s destiny as well. People of ALL SOCIETIES SIN AGAINST EACH OTHER! That’s why Christ is the answer for all! However, when have you ever heard of discussions taking place for white-on-white, Jew-on-Jew, Italian-on-Italian crime? You don’t, so does that mean these crimes do not take place? They do (please read Stephanie Cootz’s book, The Way We Never Were, for plenty of non-black “thug” and immoral statistics), and every people-group knows they take place, but they will not throw each other under the bus the way we do, those discussions take place within the community.
Secondly, in regards to justice, who dared to be considered unpatriotic asking about white-on-white terrorism after 9/11? Did anyone say, “Well, why are we having a “war on terror” and fighting other countries when we haven’t addressed all the terrorists (and violence that the US leads the world in) in this country? Are we having white-on-white terrorism discussions concerning all the mass shootings, especially amongst our most vulnerable, children in school? None of this was or is seriously discussed publicly, but we have been so quick to adopt black-on-black crime as some strange pathology.
Please, do your history homework. We don’t even know where to start because we’re raised in a system that never even mentions us, but millions of us magically appeared in this country via “immigration” and MLK in the history books. But take advantage of this medium called the internet, as so much knowledge is at our fingertips. Learn about how everything about you, from your physical attributes (e.g. Saartjie Baartman, the black penis, our musculature), your learning ability (how many of your kids have been diagnosed with ADD, ADHD, or Bipolar in school?) and our “good” and our “bad”, is considered a pathology and superhuman. Our children end up thinking the same way about themselves, as though they are dumber, more violent, hyper-sexual, another “race” of people. But Genesis 1:26 says:
Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
and Acts 17:26,
“And He has made all nations of men of one blood to dwell on all the face of the earth, ordaining fore-appointed seasons and boundaries of their dwelling.”
Therefore sorry Christians (if you’re a non-Christian and believe in evolution, you may believe in Darwin’s theory that “blacks” are a different “race” and genetically inferior, more violent, etc. and that can be refuted easily as well).
That’s why Darren Wilson’s testimony, using “superpredator words” like “Hulk Hogan” and “demon”, should have raised red-flags in the black community. Instead, it raised some white sheets, with a whole lot of black folks looking like Dave Chappelle in his Black White Supremacists skit. I know no one that automatically assumed innocent or guilt on that police officer or Mike Brown, but once that “theory” was accepted as truth and fact, Lady Justice’s blindfold had just been ripped off her head.
Today I’ve heard and read a few comments from people basically saying that the violence in Ferguson is representative of black people in general. That we all are violent, and therefore, it should be no surprise that police react to us in the way that they do. This is usually also delivered with a subtle cue that white people do not riot, and they certainly do not riot over racial issues.
Today we will debunk that lie. Rioting is no longer necessary by white society to exercise it’s social control and dominance. But historically, it has always been whites in this country that have rioted over racial issues, NOT black folks, when they felt justice was not served.
Don’t believe me? Ask your parents or grandparents! Ask what the reaction was in the neighborhood when black kids started coming to their schools and churches. I’d love to hear the responses below.
Those are just a few examples of rioting in this country, long before the ’60s race riots, Rodney King and now Ferguson. So if you hear someone yet again talking about “those people” in Ferguson, as if they are just a bunch of uncivilized savages, please share and ask, “So who do you think taught them to act in such a way?” or as my good friend would ask, “So what happened the day before?”
The answer is, the day before, parents, “good Christians”, college students, “hard-workers”, we out rioting, looting, killing, stealing and taking justice into their own hands when someone dared to move into their neighborhood, go to their schools, or break the Jim Crow color barrier.
However, one thing has remained the same, the dominant-society still escapes prosecution.
This only builds my faith in an eternal, all-knowing and all-seeing God that is also just.
For I the Lord love justice; I hate robbery and wrong; I will faithfully give them their recompense, and I will make an everlasting covenant with them.
Maybe that will be the theme for this entire weekend, I don’t know.
But another standard my dad always set was that we were going to church as a family. Not only did we go to church, but we were to be engaged in church! That meant that we were expected to bring our bible to church, (he would check up on us to see if we had read our bible at home as well), we weren’t allowed to roam the halls when we were supposed to be in another class, and oh yea, you better be paying attention.
I remember him once saying, “You haven’t even been reading your bible! Look at all of that dust on it!”
We attended a small church growing up and the door opened up right into the auditorium. I used to turn around every time the door opened and one day my dad said, “Why do you keep turning around looking at the door? Ain’t nobody coming in to see you!”
To this day, no matter the venue or event, I try to give the speaker my undivided attention out of respect for them, and not turn around to look at everything else going on inside the room.
(Okay, my dad might not say this now-a-days with the fools walking into churches and robbing them!)
So I started thinking.
Dad, have you invited your kids to go to church with you on Father’s Day?
They say that a large group of people only go to church on Mother’s Day and Christmas and/or Easter. The reason Mother’s Day is mentioned is because we as kids know how proud we make our moms when we go to church with them. So why not set the same standard for Father’s Day?
Dad’s if your kids do not care, is it because you never held church attendance very important either?
So if you go to a gospel-centered church with a pastor who doesn’t lay into men for “not stepping up” in his Father’s Day message (one of my pet-peeves, as I’ve never heard a Mother’s Day message blasting women for “not stepping up”…and there are many who do not), invite your kids to church on Father’s Day.
Let us begin creating a new day standard where our children immediately know where dad’s going to be on Sunday, and how proud and blessed we feel before God that he has been so graceful and merciful to us by giving us children that we get to raise for Him.
What a responsibility, a privilege, an honor!
So, who’s going to church with their dad tomorrow and why or why not?
Today a colleague at work was asking my son about home-school and I loved his comment about me.
He said, “Well, I know you think your dad is tough, but lets just say that he has standards.”.
I loved that comment and went on to tell him about a standard my dad had that I didn’t know about, and I’ll call it, “You can get with this, or you can get with that…”.
In my neighborhood growing up, we only had a choice of two junior high schools in our area. One was public and could have just been called Prison Prep, and the other was a small Catholic school a few blocks away. My parents chose to send me and my siblings to the Catholic school at who knows what kind of cost to the family budget.
So likely in considerable debt to give us a better life, I had the nerve to jump in the car after a day I probably got picked on for my weight and glasses (yes anti-homeschoolers, not all socialization is good socialization), and told my dad I wanted to quit school. Calm, cool and collected, I remember my dad gently explaining to me that I could do that if I wanted. My mind began to hit the dream sequence of getting a job as a batboy for a major league team, until they are ready for me to play at 18, and I’ll live at home playing baseball everyday till then (can you tell my junior high days pre-date video games?).
But dad didn’t stop there, he also told me that I must be prepared to move out because nobody that didn’t go to school was going to live in his house.
Huh, wait…what?
Just like I knew that dad was serious when he told me if I ever went to jail, he would not come get me, I knew he was serious about this as well.
Dad knew that the street had nothing to offer me. So I guess why pass-go, and just hit the street at 12 or 13, because that’s where I’m going to be any way with no high school diploma. Did my dad think that a diploma was some kind of Willy-Wonka magic ticket? No, but he did know that if I finished school, that success will set a new sort-of subconscious standard in me, keep me off the street (meaning out of crime, not necessarily homeless for my hood-impaired readers), and maybe even set me up for a “good-job” one day.
Did I quit?
Well, to this day I love setting a particular goal and trying to meet what I set. I stayed away from the street (overall except for a couple of years at best and by God’s Grace, I survived) and I guess many would say I have a “good job”.
Dads are so unlike moms and that’s a great difference. There was no soft non-offensive answer, he didn’t care if I got mad and didn’t speak to him for a while, it was just time for me to decide if I wanted to make man-decisions while I was still a boy. He let me know that I better be ready to live with my choices.
That’s not being tough, that’s setting a standard and I think that no one sets the standards for the family as properly as, the father.
Not a day goes by that I’m not relaying some lesson that I learned my dad to someone.
This weekend, I’ll share a few with you that perhaps you can relate to, heard as well, or just plain find silly.
But first, a lot of press is being made with this stat:
Americans are expected to spend about $7.4 billion less on gifts and goodies for dads this Father’s Day than they spent on moms for Mother’s Day last month, according to the National Retail Federation.
Is this really a surprise?
A mom gets dinner, an expensive purse, shoes, clothing, jewelry, spa trip, hair “did”, etc..
A dad gets tools (but you better not get her a vacuum), socks, a tie, hat, book and if all else fails, a gift card he’ll never use.
Then lets really keep it real, if you’re a single-dad, you’re lucky to see your child on Father’s Day, as something may ‘come up” in the mom’s life where your child is “unavailable” for a visit! Even if they’re old enough to visit on their own, you’ll be lucky to get a visit then either. But there’s NO WAY they would miss making it to mom’s and feeling her wrath, if they didn’t get over there for Mother’s Day.
Furious Fathering 