JAM Aiwuyor Black Artist Spotlight, Race Ethnicity & Culture

India Arie Honors Black History Trailblazers in New Album

My girl is back!

Four-time GRAMMY® winning artist/songwriter India Arie released her eighth studio album WORTHY on Friday, February 15, 2019.

This is her first full-length in five years.

Along with the inspiring “What If” honoring iconic trailblazers including Dr. Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks, is the Caribbean-tinged “That Magic,” a current Top Ten R&B hit with a video featuring award-winning actor Lyriq Bent and cameo from Reggae Superstar Gramps Morgan. Other songs on the album drawing praise include “Hour Of Love,” “Steady Love,” “We Are,” “Coulda, Shoulda, Woulda” and the title track “Worthy.”

Says India about the new album: “My favorite definition of the word ‘worthy’ is deserving of regard and respect. The songs on this album implicitly or explicitly carry the message and the energy of the word.  I set out with the title even before I had the song, which is unusual for me, but I wanted to remind people that even though the world ordains that you have to ‘do’ or ‘be’ something to be ‘worthy,’ that’s not true. 

There is nothing special we have to do or be, we all are worthy once we arrive at that realization.  A person who feels empowered in that way is a much more powerful force in this world.” 

India Arie’s willingness early on to challenge preconceived notions of beauty and sexuality coupled with her courage to defy broad racial and gender categorizations have helped empower current culturally-conscious movements.

Her upcoming North American WORTHY TOUR kicks off April 30 at the Florida Theatre in Jacksonville, with marquee cities announced so far including Atlanta, New Orleans, Austin, Detroit, Boston, and New York City.

After more than 10 million albums sold and 10 world tours, including with icon Stevie Wonder, India Arie is recognized as a global difference maker.

Among her accomplishments; five Top Ten albums, 22 GRAMMY nominations, numerous NAACP Image Awards, BET Awards, MTV Awards, and command performances for three US Presidents. She has met with the Dalai Lama, touring the National Civil Rights Museum with him in Memphis.

Inducted into the 2009 Georgia Music Hall of Fame, India has joined Oprah Winfrey on multiple projects, a featured ‘Change Makers and Wisdom Teachers’ on Winfrey’s OWN Network and shared with Oprah her trademark blend of performance/spiritual teaching via SongVersation.

-Join my mailing list-

JAM Aiwuyor Commentary, Race Ethnicity & Culture

The Convenience of Forgetting

The-Democratic-Platform

In May of 2014, I published a piece about my family’s escape from sharecropping. I was surprised to learn that so many people didn’t know that sharecropping was slavery rebooted. The title of this article was Dismantling Collective Amnesia. It received a tremendous amount of feedback from writers and historians alike. I was applauded for both sharing and remembering the story. Still, it wasn’t as if I had a choice. Such transgenerational survival stories do not afford the convenience of forgetting.

Fast forward to April 2015. It was revealed that Ben Affleck participated in Henry Louis Gates, Jr.’s well known PBS series, “Finding Your Roots.” However, when one of his ancestors (Benjamin Cole) was discovered to be a former slave owner, he requested that Benjamin Cole be completely erased from his family history. This ancestor (that Affleck shares his first name with) would not be included in Affleck’s “Finding Your Roots” episode. This was in order to avoid being associated with his ancestor’s past. Supposedly, Gates’ team allowed this erasure to occur.

This created a firestorm, in which Gates, a renowned African American Studies historian, faced criticism. It is unknown as to how much pressure was placed on the team to exclude this pivotal component of Affleck’s family history. But one thing is certain. Affleck represents America’s denial problem. His initial refusal to include the full truth of his family’s history aligns perfectly with America’s current trajectory of denial and erasure. It’s the same premise as “all this racism with no racists.” All this oppression with no oppressors. Affleck may have been trying to deter attention from someone he was ashamed of, however he contributed to the historical denial of oppression mounted on people of African descent; as if slavery were a figment of Black imagination, and slave owners are simply fictional characters that exist only in our minds.

It’s the same travesty as schools in Texas and Massachusetts seeking to rewrite history books to make slavery appear less brutal. It’s the same as publishers seeking to detract “nigger” from Mark Twain’s books to make him appear less racist. It’s the same as the years of denial that Thomas Jefferson was a slave owning rapist.

Furthermore, Affleck’s ability to dodge this history is a brilliant display of his own racially tiered privilege. Black Americans do not have the privilege of dodging history and the pains of slavery simply because it makes us uncomfortable. Black Americans do not have the privilege of making special requests to disconnect us from being the descendant of enslaved people. So much of the U.S. Black experience is systematically connected to slavery and the imagery of servitude. There is no escaping this, no matter how factually incorrect many of these depictions may be.

The truth is many people of African descent were enslaved in the Americas. The truth is there were enslavers that made this industry possible. Affleck’s ancestor was one of them. His attempt to disconnect himself, is an attempt to erase this truth, thereby erasing the truth about how racial oppression operates and who is behind it.

Ignoring these truths is not a viable solution. Acknowledgement and discomfort is necessary in order to dismantle institutional oppression. Though Affleck is a well known liberal, his denial is representative of many white liberals and conservatives alike who seek to dodge history in order to quell discomfort and personal responsibility towards acknowledging and dismantling systematic privilege.

Current day systems of oppression thrive on the lives of marginalized groups. For example, the current struggle for living wages among America’s working class is closely linked to strategies from chattel slavery for maximizing labor and increasing profit with low wage expenses.

The plantation didn’t just produce the commodities that fueled the broader economy, it also generated innovative business practices that would come to typify modern management. As some of the most heavily capitalized enterprises in antebellum America, plantations offered early examples of time-motion studies and regimentation through clocks and bells. Seeking ever-greater efficiencies in cotton picking, slaveholders reorganized their fields, regimented the workday, and implemented a system of vertical reporting that made overseers into managers answerable to those above for the labor of those below.

The perverse reality of a capitalized labor force led to new accounting methods that incorporated (human) property depreciation in the bottom line as slaves aged, as well as new actuarial techniques to indemnify slaveholders from loss or damage to the men and women they owned. Property rights in human beings also created a lengthy set of judicial opinions that would influence the broader sanctity of private property in U.S. law. – Sven Beckert and Seth Rockman (How Slavery Led To Modern Capitalism)

In order to break these systems apart, there has to be a truthful discussion about what happened, who was responsible, and how it can be rectified. There must be a sincere attempt at truth and reconciliation.

This was Affleck’s opportunity to show his enslaving ancestor as an example of the ills of America’s past. Then show himself as a person working to rectify these ills. Instead he chose to ignore the issue altogether. For that, he reinforces a hard truth about America. Denial is chosen over healing. Erasure is chosen over accountability. Consequently, marginalized and systematically oppressed communities continue to be blamed for their own oppression, and history is laid to the wayside.

JamAllen2-nb-smallJessica Ann Mitchell is a writer, social justice advocate and the founder of Our Legaci. Learn more about her work at JessicaAnnMitchell.com.

To reach JAM, email OurLegaci@gmail.com.
Follow Jessica @TweetingJAM.
Follow OurLegaci at Facebook.com/OurLegaci.

JAM Aiwuyor Commentary

All My Life I Had To Fight

About four years ago I was having a discussion with a friend about his new web show. He wanted to focus on topics concerning the Black community. I told him we should discuss domestic violence. To which he responded, “That’s not an issue. A sista would never let somebody beat her!” I stood there in disbelief, that a grown man with a family could actually believe such a thing. But there we were, standing outside with me trying my best to convince him that many Black women were getting physically abused everyday and it had nothing to do with us “letting” something happen.

Fast forward to earlier this year when Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was seen on video dragging his then girlfriend’s body on the floor of an elevator. Excuses ensued. What happened that night? The theories went as followed:

She was drunk and he was taking her back to their room.

They were both fighting.

Maybe he beat her up.

We don’t know what happened, so “let’s not judge.”

While watching him kick and drag her limp body, there were many presumptions about what happened. The main one always circled around “her involvement.” Not long after, Janay Palmer and Ray Rice married. Then, came the press conference. The couple sat along side each other with Ray trying to undo the PR disaster, while Janay was forced to apologize for “her role.”

Months later, with the football season starting, the full video of the assault has been released. It showed that he spat on her, punched her in the face multiple times, kicked her and dragged her. Now that the public has a wider view of the assault, the excuses are:

They were both fighting.

Maybe he beat her up.

We don’t know all of what happened, so “let’s not judge.”

She provoked him.

She started it.

She still married him.

She doesn’t care, why should we?

She must be a gold digger.

The excuses are almost the same even though we’ve seen the footage. We saw what happened to her. We saw how it happened. Yet, there is still somehow this belief that it “didn’t really happen like that.”

The same thing happened in 2007, when preacher Juanita Bynum was choked and stomped in an Atlanta parking lot. The excuse then was, “She didn’t let him be the man.” This was a woman that had advocated for women to have sex with their husbands, even if they didn’t feel like it. If anyone was a trumpet of patriarchy, she was. Still, the very community she preached within ignored the violence and conjured up ways to blame her for being physically abused.

This leads me back to the discussion I had with my friend. Perhaps, he didn’t see domestic violence in our community because he didn’t want to. Perhaps he didn’t believe it for the same reasons the people defending Ray Rice don’t. They don’t want to believe it because it would mean that Black women can no longer be the blame for “violence” against us. That’s scary because then people would have to be held accountable, Black men included. That’s something our community continues to grapple with. How do we end violence against Black women without further criminalizing Black men in an atmosphere that is hostile to Blackness?

That’s why at this moment there are some people worried about Rice’s career. Where will he work? How will he live? Will he ever be able to get a job again?

Yet, we should be worried about Janay Rice. Will she be okay? Will he take his anger out on her…again? Is she safe? Where will she go? Does she have family members that will support her instead of tell her to “stand by his side?”

There is a difference between criminalizing and protecting. Criminalizing is when a person or group of people are unjustly deemed as inherently criminal. Protecting is when there are consequences for harming a person or group of people unjustly. Protection is a mechanism of prevention. When a man kicks a woman and punches her in the face and he loses his job or goes to jail for it, that’s called Protection. We’re letting members of society know that for the safety of everyone, this will not be tolerated.

For many battered women, there is no where else to go. They often endure mental abuse that prevents further access to care and freedom. This belief that she somehow “provoked him” or “he just snapped” is why so many women are battered and die under those circumstances. It’s just an excuse, another trope of denial in order to circumvent accountability.

This did happen. This is happening.

Still, it is no surprise that Janay Rice partially blames herself. This often happens to battered women. As a well meaning survival mechanism, at times they defend the abuser, taking on the blame for themselves as a way to avoid facing the reality of what’s really happening.

Often times when there are debates about sexism in the Black community, male counterparts often ask, “What privileges do Black men have?” In case you’re still wondering, this is what Black male privilege looks like. It’s the privilege to withhold accountability in cases of sexual and physical abuse against Black women, and still have members of the community vehemently defend their right to do so. Abusers will have people rally on their behalf, including their own victims.

The same thing happens to sexual abuse victims. People go through oratory gymnastics to blame molestation, rape and sexual abuse on the women and girls that were abused. We’ll hear things like:

She was a fast girl.

Why was she over there if she didn’t want it?

She knew what she was doing.

Why didn’t she say anything, if she didn’t like it?

This shower of condemnation of the survivor and excuses for the perpetrator happen time and time again in the case of sexual abuse against Black women.

However, it would be dangerous to believe that sexism, patriarchy, and abuse exist as vacuums in Black communities. They are an overall societal problem, prompted up my mainstream culture. The key issue with the Black community is, because mainstream culture already demonizes Blackness, the Black community fears that by outing abusers, they are adding to the demonization of their community. This has become a dangerously error-prone survival mechanism. Instead there should be an understanding that outing abusers (no matter who they are) is a way of strengthening the overall health of communities.

In Alice Walker’s The Color Purple, many Black women related to the now famous words:

 All my life I had to fight. I had to fight my brothers. I had to fight my cousins and my uncles. A girl child ain’t safe in a family of men. But I never thought I’d have to fight in my own house. I loves Harpo. God knows I do. But I’ll kill him dead before I let him beat me.

Country wide protests were launched against the movie by Black men and women stating that it would make our community look bad and that it demonized Black men. When on the contrary, it shed light on key issues like incest, child molestation, sexual abuse, patriarchy and domestic violence. These are the issues, we often refuse to seriously address as a community. There was nothing unreal about it. It was just the ugly painful truth for many generations of women. It for this reason that The Color Purple has since become a classic, with many scenes viewers can recite word-for-word.

Indeed, all our lives we’ve had to fight and it will only end when our community rejects its abusers. I’ve had close friends and family members that faced the world with broken souls after being sexually/physically abused and blamed for it. We have to make the decision. Will we protect abusers or not? Will we take a stand against violence or not?

In the case of Janay Rice, the three minute visual of Ray Rice beating her has created more public awareness. Though this is a sad situation, the good thing about public cases like this is that more and more people are publicly condemning this behavior. These condemnations are added boosts needed to sway public discourse around this topic. This issue isn’t solely about one couple or one woman. It’s about the strengthening of our community as a whole. Otherwise, it will crumble within.

Spread The Word. Share This Post!

IMG_0054-ZF-7906-35913-1-001-006Jessica Ann Mitchell is the founder of OurLegaci.com & BlackBloggersConnect.com. To reach JAM, email her at OurLegaci@gmail.com. Follow Jessica @TweetingJAM.

Follow OurLegaci at Facebook.com/OurLegaci.

JAM Aiwuyor Commentary, Race Ethnicity & Culture

We Stand On The Edge Of The World And Dance

Geoffrey And Carmen Our Legaci
Geoffrey Holder and Carmen de Lavallade – Library of Congress – Carl Van Vechten Collection – Photo Enhancement by OurLegaci

While riding the tides of turmoil, Black identity can seem overwhelming. We are cloaked in a wondrous mystic that the world both consumes and rejects. Yet, still a dancing spirit overrides hopelessness. The inner joy of elder generations that proclaimed, “The world didn’t give it, the world can’t take it away,” resounds more than ever.

I’ve felt this throughout my childhood.

During summer break, my mother made me read books to keep my mind sharp. History books and short stories were among my favorites. There was one book in particular called, Eyewitness Negro History. My eyes widened as I read about revolts, the Great Migration and anything Zora wrote.

Church also played a crucial role in crafting the vividness of black identity.

Before church service, the elders would sing old negro spirituals, the kind you don’t hear anymore. The really old ones. Though I hated going to church so early, I secretly loved this part. “We Are Climbing Jacob’s Ladder”, “He’s A Lily In The Valley”, “You Don’t Know What The Lawd Tole’ Me”, “Come On In the Room” and “I Know I’ve Been Changed.”

On some songs, before every verse an elder sings the first few lines and then everyone joins in. You won’t find this on television. It isn’t for entertainment or show, it was just what we did.

Even then, I saw that we danced on the edge of the world.

I loved it all. It made me feel eternal. Connected. It was history. It was spirit. It was us. It was Blackness. There was no “proper” talk or no code switching.

“Jesus is my docta’ and he writes out alla my ‘scriptions.”

“The angels in heaven done signed my name.”

I was listening to a lively spiritual people.

Yet, this inner force was more than religion.

It was jazz, funk, soul, theater, poetry, story, dance and all the moving energies.

It was all the stories I read, watching them play out in my generation. It was Zora singing again. It was Carmen and Geoffrey. It was Maya’s Still I Rise.

It was everyone in the Gypsy Song performance.

It was my father’s Uncle Trouble.

It was the fact that people still cooked rabbit, coon and corn puddin. And it was Mother Burrell showing me how to do the  Suzie Q, they way she did it in Harlem.

It was the defiance of erasure, the boldness to live fiercely and joyously in spite of being marginalized and appropriated.

It was Langston‘s words :

They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,
But I laugh,
And eat well,
And grow strong.

Tomorrow,
I’ll be at the table
When company comes.
Nobody’ll dare
Say to me,
“Eat in the kitchen,"
Then.

It was us still building for tomorrow. But until then, we stand on the edge of the world and dance.

Spread The Word. Share This Post!

 

IMG_0054-ZF-7906-35913-1-001-006Jessica Ann Mitchell is the founder of OurLegaci.com & BlackBloggersConnect.com. To reach JAM, email her at OurLegaci@gmail.com. Follow Jessica @TweetingJAM.

Follow OurLegaci at Facebook.com/OurLegaci.

 

 

JAM Aiwuyor Commentary, Race Ethnicity & Culture

How Innocent People Are Wrongfully Convicted

Wrongfully-Convicted-Of-Murder

“There is nothing funny about a Black man going to prison for something he didn’t do.” My excitement about watching the movie Life was quickly shut down when my mother stated those words. As a 14-year-old, I hadn’t looked at it that way before. Life, starring Eddie Murphy and Martin Lawrence, was a hit comedy about the antics of two Black men in Mississippi serving life in prison after being wrongfully convicted of murder. She refused to watch it.

The truthful sting of my mother’s response was fully warranted. Being wrongfully convicted of murder happens far more often than people think and can happen to anybody but especially to African Americans. And indeed, there is nothing funny about it.

Even as far back as 1996, the book “Convicted But Innocent: Wrongful Conviction and Public Policy” estimated that there was an output of at least 10,000 wrongful convictions a year. The abstract states, “Even if the American criminal justice system proved 99.5 percent accurate, it would still generate more than 10,000 wrongful convictions a year and these would reflect only serious index crimes.”

More recently the Innocence Project highlighted that studies find,”between 2.3% and 5% of all prisoners in the U.S. are innocent (for context, if just 1% of all prisoners are innocent, that would mean that more than 20,000 innocent people are in prison).”

According to a 2012 report by the National Registry of Exonerations about 2,000 people have been exonerated for wrongful convictions since 1989. Still, this number is in the least bit comforting. As the report notes:

…even 2,000 exonerations over 23 years is a tiny number in a country with 2.3 million people in prisons and jails. If that were the extent of the problem we would be encouraged by these numbers. But it’s not. These cases merely point to a much larger number of tragedies that we do not know about.

So how does this happen?

The Innocence Project lists the leading causes of false convictions as eye-witness misidentification, false confessions, improper forensic evidence and informants. One would think that these components would only lead to rightful convictions but each is severely flawed. For example, in 73% of convictions overturned with DNA, prosecutors used eye-witness accounts. But in many of these accounts there was “cross racial identification,” a known issue because studies show that it’s harder for witnesses to remember the facial details of people from other races.

False confessions are flawed due to pressures to accept plea deals and other coercion tactics. Informants are problematic sources because they are often offered plea deals and dropped charges in exchange for their testimony.

Dateline NBC recently featured a story about Eric Glisson, a man that was wrongfully convicted of murder and served over 17 years in prison. There was no physical evidence, only the words of one “eye-witness” and two other allegedly coerced witnesses. One of these witnesses recanted her testimony stating that she only testified due to police pressure of being threatened with jail time. It took 17 years, but Glisson and his co-defendants were finally freed. A total of five Black and Latino people (four men and one woman) had been in prison for almost two decades for a crime they didn’t commit.

Then there’s the story of The Central Park Five, who were recently awarded $40 million dollars after enduring 7-13 years in prison for a 1989 rape. In 2002, they were exonerated after a confession from the real perpetrator and DNA evidence proved their innocence. In another case, Jonathan Fleming was recently released after spending 24 years in prison for a Brooklyn, NY murder that was committed while he was in Florida.

There are many more stories like these that have yet to be concluded.

I recently learned of a case that hits closer to home. Jean Pierre DeVaughn is the older brother of a friend that I attended college with. Accused of murder-for-hire in the 2005 death of his cousin’s husband, Devaughn has maintained his innocence. He was convicted in 2011 and sentenced to life in prison with an additional 25 years. Having no prior record, he was offered a plea deal but refused to take it, wanting to fully clear his name.

His case is fraught with a series of issues. Devaughn endured an intense interrogation by police, during which a chair was thrown at him, he was taunted and his requests for a lawyer were denied. Additionally, there is no physical evidence linking him to the crime.

According to his defense attorney, a key witness in the first trial testified under the false pretense that Devaughn had accused him of being the murderer. Additionally, racial bias may have tainted jury selection leading to three African Americans being excluded from the jury.

In 2009, Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Sr. endorsed a letter written to the Fulton County District Attorney Office on Devaughn’s behalf. He is now represented by Janice L. Mathis, lawyer, activist and Vice President of the Rainbow PUSH Coalition Atlanta chapter.

Some may think it a bit presumptuous to believe that Devaughn is innocent, but history has shown us not to ignore pleas for a second look at trials that were once proclaimed to be “open and shut” cases. For now Devaughn waits in a Georgia prison for another chance to prove his freedom. The Supreme Court of Georgia will soon review his case.

Perhaps the most disturbing fact about these cases is this could happen to anyone and exonerations are rare occurrences. Many wrongful convictions include death row prisoners, which is all the more reason to support efforts to end the death penalty.

As an article from Scientific American highlighted, “Since 1973 144 death-sentenced defendants have been exonerated in the U.S. But Gross says that the analysis indicates that at least 340 people would have been put to death unjustly in that same time period.”

According to the Innocence Project, there have been only 316 post-conviction DNA exonorees, with 198 being African Americans. This is a daunting number considering African Americans only make up 13% of the US population. The numbers indicate that there is an overwhelming rate of bias concerning death sentencing for African Americans. Additionally, it’s hard to have many cases reviewed due to destroyed or lost evidence.

Something is devastatingly wrong here in the land of the “free,” especially considering the influence of corporate profits from the prison industrial complex. This is a real life horror story.

There is a perception that criminal convictions among African American youth are inherently just. But the fact is, many convictions stem from not having proper representation, not knowing the full scope of their rights when questioned by the police, being denied their rights and racially biased sentencing. An overwhelming amount of exonorees are Black men and women because an overwhelming amount of this demographic are wrongfully convicted or given harsher sentencing than their counterparts (sometimes even according to skin tone).

What can you do to prevent this from happening?

For now, it’s important to support initiatives like the Innocence Project and the Center on Wrongful Convictions that are doing the work to assist as many wrongfully convicted prisoners as possible. Push for your local jurisdiction to include preventative measures like recorded interrogations, proper and long-term preservation of forensic evidence, and advocating for eye-witness identification reform. 

Please do not republish this article without specific, written permission from Jessica Ann Mitchell.

IMG_0054-ZF-7906-35913-1-001-006Jessica Ann Mitchell is the founder of OurLegaci.com & BlackBloggersConnect.com. To reach JAM, email her at OurLegaci@gmail.com. Follow Jessica @TweetingJAM.

Follow OurLegaci at Facebook.com/OurLegaci.

JAM Aiwuyor Commentary, Race Ethnicity & Culture

Dismantling Collective Amnesia

ChoppingCotton-GroupGA
Library of Congress 1941 – Chopping cotton on rented land near White Plains, Greene County, Ga.

When I was a little girl my grandmother told me about how my family came to Augusta, GA. Her parents were sharecroppers in Warrenton, GA. At the time, it was illegal to quit and you could be killed for doing so. The klan was alive and well. But my great grand parents, Flossie and George had a plan. In the middle of the night Flossie packed up the children and fled in a buggy. My grandmother was about 4 years old at the time of the escape. Afterwards, the overseer came knocking on the door asking, “Where are they?” George gave a convincing response declaring, “My wife left me and took the children.” He later quietly escaped, reuniting with his family in Augusta to build a new life for themselves.

This was my first personal Black history lesson.

They escaped a few decades before Martin Luther King Jr. discovered there were people living in Albany, GA that had never seen a dollar bill. Hangings were real, escaping was necessary, money was scarce.

Flossie and George are not people from an imaginary story.

I remember sitting on Flossie’s lap in her rocking chair. Sometimes she would chew her snuff and spit into an old can. She’d say in defiance, ” I chew my snuff and he don’t like it. But I chews it anyway.” At five years old I’d smile at her mischief…my first lesson in feminism.

Meanwhile, George would check my mouth for missing teeth. He’d then demand that my parents and the toothfairy, “Give this baby her money! Make sure they give you your money!” I’d smile at his concern…my first lesson on economics.

Anyone that reads Ta-Nehisi Coates’ masterpiece on  The Atlantic will realize that it goes beyond the traditional conversation about reparations. It’s a beautifully woven story that works towards dismantling collective amnesia.

Conversations about reparations, entitlements, and the public welfare are often scoffed over and quickly dubbed as unfounded, unrealistic and unnecessary. Then rhetoric such as Paul Ryan’s, “culture of laziness” and Rick Santorum‘s “I don’t want to make black blah people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money,” is quickly inserted as an effort to switch focus from the root causes of poverty in America.

Again and again we meet in battle the advocates of collective amnesia, that seek to not only ignore history but also change it.

Us descendants of the unpaid, indebted labor force are often told the past is irrelevant. Our attempts at coherent discourse are subdued as the world flashes before us and we see the hand writing on the wall. We’re told that remembering is “divisive”, this history is “non-existent”, and that most all “nobody owes us anything.”

It’s not really about owing. It’s about fixing and creating a country that is no longer mired in disparity or profitable through disenfranchisement. Recognizing that many of the current policies towards wages, education, healthcare, and housing are guided by a historically racist, classist, sexist discriminatory framework.

For me, that’s the most important aspect of Ta-Nehisi Coates’ piece…remembering and using this memory to guide us towards a more just nation.

This is why I’ll never forget the escape of Flossie and George.

– Join My Mailing List – 

Jessica Ann Mitchell Aiwuyor is publisher and multicultural communications specialist. To reach JAM, email her at JAMAiwuyor@gmail.com or visit JAMAiwuyor.com.

Follow her on Facebook at Facebook.com/JAMAiwuyor.

JAM Aiwuyor Commentary, Race Ethnicity & Culture, Uncategorized

Why Black Children Can’t Trust The Police

KaliefBrowder
This is Kalief Browder. Thanks to the NYPD, three years of his life are gone forever.

[Article updated on August 12, 2014]

It’s something I wish I didn’t have to say. One of the first things we teach children is to respect authority. Listen to your elders. Go ask a grown up. When there’s trouble, dial 911. But, what do you say when the people they are trained to look up to as protectors, too often end up being aggressors. I realize that millions of police officers across the country put their lives on the line every day. Their jobs are hard. It’s not easy. Yet, no one can deny the heartbreaking reoccurring reality of innocent Black youth being killed, neglected or abused by police officers and other people in positions of authority.

I often wonder how to truthfully explain police interaction to children. I image it would go like this:

1) If you’re ever in a car accident, don’t run towards the police for help. They might shoot you. RIP Jonathan Ferrell

2) If you are ever being unlawfully arrested or detained, forget your rights. Don’t speak up for yourself. Even with your hands behind your head, they might shoot you. RIP Oscar Grant

3) Try not to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, like at home when police raid it. Try to disappear into thin air. But, whatever you do, don’t be seen. By standing in the hallway, you might get shot. RIP Aiyana Jones

4) If you’re ever with an adult that is in trouble with the law, you may not be recognized as the child that you are. In fact, you may have to carry a sign with you specifically for traffic stops. They can read, “I’m a child, please don’t bash in the window next to my head,” or  “Please don’t shoot at the van that I’m in.” Ask Oriana Ferrell’s children.

5)  If you’re ever walking home and you’re stalked by a (non uniformed) neighborhood watchman, don’t try to defend yourself. Or else they’ll feel threatened and have the legally upheld right to shoot you. RIP Trayvon Martin

6) Never. Never. Never Walk home at night (or day). They will think you’re a criminal and accuse you of any crime they see fit . You might go to jail for 3 years, only to be released without any explanation. Ask Kalief Browder.

7) If you ever get lost or missing. Don’t expect them to come looking for you immediately unless you’re blonde haired and blue eyed. Just find your own way home. Ask Amir Jennings, Phylicia Barnes and countless others. RIP Latisha Frazier.

8) If you’re ever abducted and forced into sex slavery, don’t expect to be rescued. If they happen to see you, you  will not be taken to the hospital. You will be arrested for prostitution… even if you’re 13 years old (the average entry age for sex trafficking victims).

9) If you’re ever acting up at school, don’t worry about what your mother will do when you get home. You might not even go home. Jail could be your next destination, even if you’re 6 years old. – Ask Salecia Johnson.

Updates

10) If you’re ever in a car accident, don’t knock on someone’s door for help. You might get shot and labeled a criminal. RIP Renisha McBride

11) If you’re walking down the street…Nevermind. Don’t walk down the street. Don’t breathe. Don’t do anything “normal” because—> you might get shot, even with your hands raised. RIP Mike Brown

12) If you’re ever in Walmart, don’t hold a toy gun. They won’t asking any questions, even though there shouldn’t be a need to. The police will just shoot you down and come up with an excuse later. RIP John Crawford III

The list could go on and on. Though it may seem outlandish, everyone of these circumstances are a part of the everyday realities Black youth face in America. The ever present fear of Blackness robs Black children of the opportunity to have their adolescence and innocence recognized. Even as children, they’re both feared and criminalized. Though the police should be protecting them, historically racist irrational beliefs presume that Black children aren’t in fact children. This breeds serious child endangering consequences like false imprisonment, abandonment and death. Too often police officers believe their job is to protect the public from Black children and not the other way around. It’s sad to say. But right now, Black children can’t trust the police. And why should they?

JAM Aiwuyor Black Artist Spotlight

Abandonment In A Storm

Abandonment In A Storm
 By Vivian Dixon Sober

I lay in bed in a deep sleep well into the night, or early morning after midnight.  Suddenly awakened by a moving force starting inches below my belly button but creeping toward my esophagus slamming my air canal shut tightly like steel doors that couldn’t be opened.  My legs ached and I knew death had come for me.   “Let me take you to the hospital,”  daughter asked softly.”  She had come to spend the night with me, slept in the same bed with me; awoke simultaneously with me.  Knowing I’d never make it to the hospital, I said call 911.  I will save her from the realization of my death.  I ran outside to die as I did not want to die in the house.   Looking up, I thought, I can’t believe I died this way.  
I awoke confused.  It seemed like I was looking through a screen.  Drugged heavily I didn’t know it was me.  I breathe by machine.  With tubes down my throat and hands tied down–a mental hospital it had to be.  I spoke in complete sentences, though—I do believe.  Intensive care they call it. I see people staring at me.  I recognize one of them; why is my husband forcing me to watch science fiction it is not my scene.  I’d rather read my obituary as painful as it will be. 
Off the machine.  Peering in the mirror, I see the whites of my eyes; blood-red–no white at all.   I have no conception of time.  Where is my mind? 
Husband said, “He was there as a friend,” after, which, he abandoned me—emotionally–off with his kids and the child I, myself, bore but not before his kids knew their worth—they had drained the breath out of me.  I was hurt and lonely, but I could see the backstabbing users ’didn’t give a hoot about me.  They left me for dead and wouldn’t help me, instead, they including their father persecuted me.  All I wanted was a sparkling house, which I was too sick to achieve—those 3 kids lied on me, rejected me and 2 gave my mother-child dance to someone else at their graduation who did not help, did not support, or even take them there. 
I was good enough to raise his neglected kids; he destroyed the relationship I had built with them.  Now he has to protect them from me–the woman who raised them,  and  they stood  as four against me and watched as their father ranted and raved and called me names.  He put his kids before me.  The end I should have seen 
I hope you can see why I was in need.  With lack of oxygen to my brain, I wasn’t the same, but I prayed and I prayed and soon an angel came; two years or more he listened to me.  I needed him so desperately.  He rescued me and taught me many lessons I shall never forget.  I was down on my back looking up.   He talked me sensibly though this storm and helped me put fear behind, made me realize that I am alive and so is my mind, “Don’t believe what they say it’s not true. It will hinder you.” 
My mind in no shape for work, I went back to school, first angel is patient with wisdom backstabbing users will never receive as they are too busy trying to get rid of me–a negative experience, indeed, with positive results. People need people and sad to say, angel helped me up, and I don’t feel the same. 
Husband abandoned me in my time of need—with his thankless kids I, myself,  raised—good time wasted.  A pack of ingrates; I feel raped.  No one stopped to help those kids. Their family was too busy helping others and avoiding them as it was for too painful for them to grip–so you abandon your sister’s kids, and what happened to all of their friends?  Why did they run as though the kids had a gun?  I stepped up to the plate and accepted them with grace.  No one can raise them better than me.  My heart began to bleed, and now they can’t accept me. 
I hate my heart. I want one of steel, and then I can be cold and calculating  just like them.  Husband says he doesn’t feel the same—what am I suppose to say?  I’ve seen his play–close your eyes and you can’t see how you have humiliated me with your vicious scheme; watching TV and ignoring me emotionally. 
He left me when I was afraid to live. Yelled and screamed about everything I did and challenged my confidence in front of his three kids—which will end!  
I  was there for him in his time of need. I raised three kids and could have left him in the street.  He would be dead,  if I did to him, what he did to me. 
Thank you God for blessing me.  I’m up now and it’s a brand new day. I am up and well on my way. I don’t care if they stare at me.  I didn’t die.   I am Victorious in God’s eyes.  So when they stare at me, they see an eye full.  I’m what you call getting an eyeful. Their stares become glares, and who cares?   
I don’t need them to understand me.  They are not of my sort.  They abandoned me, and I found love in a special place.  Now!  I must identify I am a prisoner of my own deceits, and I will not obey because prison is not for me.  I will only be me.  That’s all I can be. 
Peering through the rearview, I see I was carried through my deluge.
I have come a long way, and must say, angels come in many ways.  Sometimes I wonder am I living life or is life living me for I am guided you see.   But angels can be people too. I know this to be true.  Human angels never kick you when you are down; they help you to get up when you want to drown, and they absolutely will not let you sit down 
Abandonment in a Storm something  I thought was the worst thing that ever happened to me turned out to be a blessing in disguise–’cause through it all–I want you to know; I saw you, I felt you; I know you; and I thank you.  I didn’t die.  I am Victorious in God’s eyes.
I see the light and choose to be an angel whom the truth sets free
Another Beginning
 
Vivian Dixon Sober
All rights Reserved
 
This is an editorial and black love speaking.
 

Visit Vivian’s blog at
http://victoriouswomen.wordpress.com

JAM Aiwuyor Healthy

The Rebellious Vegetarian

The Rebellious Vegetarian

“if You Re-Bel With A Cause, You won’t be a Rebel Without a Cause” – Last Chance Charlie

‘Eat organic’; ‘Free Range & Cage Free’; ‘Grass fed – no steroids’; ‘wild caught – no nets – on lines‘. 

‘Cramped enclosures‘; ‘de-beaked and abused’; ‘over-farmed &; over-fished’; ‘outbreaks of disease’; ‘Tyson and Monsanto’.

Am I the only one that is getting a little weary of all the Preaching and the Guilt that pervades the Medias’ coverage of, ‘Food – Its Evils and Horrors’. 

That might as well be the Headlines.

Or why do they say things like, “Caught in the dastardly clutches of President Bar-Sinister, Food is the hapless victim in the battle of Good vs. Evil”…

… if what they really mean is “Bi-Partisanship, Cooperation, Compromise and Consensus”?

When they’re not making you feel Guilty, you are made to feel Un-Educated. I’ve heard people with advanced degrees say, “I have a PhD and I couldn’t even figure it out”, about normal everyday things.

That’s the real conspiracy, make everyone dependent on Them.

That is why you hear words like, “We Know that You are having a Difficult time adjusting to this change in Dietary Life-Style, which is why We are providing You with Prepared [pre-selected, pre-tasted, pre-tested, pre-demographed, pre-TradeMarked, pre-packaged and pre-sented] meals for your… entire Week/entire Month/entire Year/entire… Life

It is the same thing when I go grocery shopping. The media and mainly my wife, have me so paranoid and programmed, that I find myself doing the same things that I used to think only ‘fanatics’ do: 

Freak out over the news – Go to the library and read every book about it – Throw out all the meat in the freezer – Eat corn on the cob without butter – Map out a route of at least 5 different stores and 2 of those are Farmers markets – Tell Everyone that they Did and Do. 

So My resolution to reclaim my sanity, for the remainder of this year and into the next, and for ever long this lasts, is to stop listening and start enjoying. 

I have heard enough to make up my own mind and I agree with the things I agree with. I’ll reserve judgment on other things as the information becomes clearer, but that doesn’t mean I’ll be careless and overindulgent. Give me some credit for good sense.

But if I have to eat ‘wood chips’, I’ll eat them the way I want to eat them – with roasted red peppers, garlic and goat cheese – thank you very much.

It doesn’t cost more either with all the money we save annually buying our beans, rice and cereal in bulk – I’m talking 50lb bags.

Fresh local fruits and vegetables on par with major chain prices. The only things I pay a little bit extra for are ‘accoutrements’ like:

Mango salsa and powder, eggplant and garlic spread, feta with herbs, cumin seeds, Jamaican Curry powder and apple-wood smoked, salt and pepper.

I love to eat and I need to be happy about what I’m eating; and I am happiest when I can be creative.

So if you don’t mind, I’d like shaved Pecans, sliced Strawberries and Bosc Pears with my Pan-Seared Wild Alaskan Salmon salad: 

A skinless fillet, 

Marinated in a blend of extra virgin olive oil, fresh rosemary, basil, oregano, garlic, cracked pepper and sea salt, 

The garlic and herbs chopped and mixed together, blended with the olive oil, salt and pepper,

Rub into the flesh side only,

Let sit for 20 – 30 minutes in the refrigerator,

 Then place flesh side down in a hot nonstick pan for 45 – 60 seconds, 

 Until you get a nice golden brown searing and caramelizing of the fresh garlic and herbs; 

 Turn over and cook for another 90 seconds and remove. 

Cooked to perfection, the flesh flaky and moist, it is ready to be served on a tossed bed of mixed greens and spinach, mixed with Feta, red and yellow peppers, broccoli, cucumber, sliced cherry tomatoes and baby carrots, red onion, cilantro and avocado, then garnished with shaved Pecans, sliced Strawberries and Bosc Pears.

As an alternative to either a Raspberry Vinaigrette or Light Poppy-seed dressing, try a tablespoon or two, of Mango Salsa from Trader Joes.

I think I feel a cookbook coming on.

 Copyright ©2010 Anthony Hall