The Anti-Bullying campaign

Yesterday I ran across an article on TakiMag. The title was basicallt "In Defense of Bullying". I decided to perouse the article and try and ruminate over it. I thought "In Defense of Bullying"? Are you kidding? I would never be in defense of bullying. I won't lie. I looked at it with a very personal mindset. I take it personal for many reasons. I will get into detail later. I will agree that some people have lied about being raped. Yes, there are radical feminists as oppose to moderate feminists who just want things to be better. On that note, this article talked about the anti-bullying campaign being just a fad and some kind of crap shoot.

I am going to give my take on this. The Anti-Bullying campaign, at least in my view, in not some crap shoot to me. I am not annoyed by it at all. Is it some device to turn children into "weaklings"? Not really. Turning children into "weaklings" would be something like the school administrators punishing bullying victims for even "daring" to defend themselves. I am not saying "don't defend yourself". I'm saying bullying should be stopped in its tracks. I see it from a personal perspective for this reason:

I was bullied as a child. I remember middle school like it was the back of my own hand. I was the smallest kid in the class. I was the bookworm. I was the only Black kid in my homeroom(and maybe one of about 3 Black kids in my classes through the day except in gym class). I stood out alot in so many ways. I can remember specific things that happened to me in school. Sure, some eighth grade girls would try to make the bullies stop. What happened after they went onto high school?  I remember when I was in a classroom, and two boys kicked the crutches from underneath me. Even after going to the principal's office, these boys got away with it somehow. Other things that happened to me included alot of harassment, some of it physical, including getting nearly poisoned by one kid, getting put in a garbage can, and rocks being thrown at me during gym class.

 When demographics started to change and I went to high school, some of the bullying took on more different nature. In middle school it was mainly White kids who were bullying me. In high school, there are more Black kids who were bullies. I remember one morning being jumped by three Black students in the hallway. I never knew why they did that at that moment. All I know is that I had to fight three students, all of them bigger than me.  Some of the students(some Black, some White) would makes jokes about the fact that I wasn't "Black enough". Apparently, speaking with proper grammer, not dressing like a hood rat, and being 'nerdy" and being a Black kid could get you called names like "Carlton". I still remember a few kids who threatened to "lynch" me. Why they would never try this with some of the other Black students, it is beyond me. Or did they? I don't know what went on with every kid. I had an element of reclusiveness to me. Sure, there were kids I talked to and had friendly terms with, but I never did much socializing outside of school, and much of the time, I wasn't listening to the stuff that went on in school. I pretty much existed in my own world, even when I did extracurricular activities. How did other kids get bullied? What happened to them?

Bullying has been a problem for many years. It is only now that people are addressing it. Only now, when people are committing suicide, is when the anti-bullying campaign is coming in? Or were kids committing suicide beforehand? Maybe there are just things we haven't been made aware of. Maybe the anti-bullying campaign should have come in sooner. I have no problem with this campaign. I think it should have been done sooner.

One thing to look at is the effects of bullying. All I have to do is look at some people I know who got bullied. My little sister was harrassed by Black girls for "not being Black enough". It did a number on her self-esteem. Bullying did a number on me. I went from a naive 6th grader to a morose, angry, spiteful adolescent. For some kids, bullying made them stronger because of what they had to go through. For some other kids, bullying took a toll and them. Some kids turned into bullies themselves, further continuing a hateful cycle.

There is one glitch I should mention. The anti-bullying campaign has its wonderful intentions. There is one problem: A bully is usually a bully for a reason. If a bully has been told "quit bullying", he or she might have been told that before. Or, that bully may have not been caught yet.

Bullying is a disturbing phenomenon that has been going on for as long as school children have been going to school. It shouldn't go on at all. A child should be able to go to school and feel safe and wanted. I find no defense in bullying. I see it as repugnant behavior that should be dealt with harshly. Yes, if a kid has to defend himself in school, then he'she should not be punished for it. He/She should not have to deal with bullies in the first place.

Jerome Isaac and Laurence Lovette Jr. Disturbing in so many ways.

Sunday through Tuesday I have been finding more disturbing things going on. An elderly woman was set on fire and burned to death by 47 year-old Jerome Isaac. 73 year-old Delores Gillespie was burned to death by this man in an elevator. He basically picked her as a victim and stalked her. Sick and disturbing. Today I find that a UNC student, Eve Carson, was murdered in 2008. She asked this man to pray with her and then he murdered her later on. The good thing is that her killer, Laurence Lovette Jr., will do life in prison for murder. However, I am finding some more disturbing things going on. When I noticed the man who burned an elderly woman alive, I was seeing an African-American male. The first thing that popped into my head was "SBPDL is going to have a field day with this". For those who don't know what SBPDL is, that is StuffBlackPeopleDon'tLike. Basically, it is a blog dedicated to showing every bad thing that Black people do. What is more surprising about this blog is that as much as it leans towards Stormfront views and racial surpremacy views, it seems like it is ordinary people who run this blog. I have basically made rebuttals to whatever they have had to say. My mission was to show those persons that there are also decent Black people who do not do harm. The more I see what they post, the more I see it is pretty much a hate site. Stormfront doesn't scare me as much because I KNOW for a fact that it's ran by Neo-Nazi skinheads and little Hitlers. This website is basically ran by paleo-conservatives who behave as "lone wolves". I found out not only did the murder of a UNC student make it on the blog, so did burning of an elderly woman.

I get upset because there are people like Jerome Isaac and Laurence Lovette Jr. who do such disturbing things. I am calling these miscreants out over the internet. Jerome Isaac, who are you to pour gasoline over someone and set them on fire? Jerome Isaac, that woman did nothing to you. So she owed you $2,000. So what? That is no excuse for what you did. It is apparent that you, Jerome Isaac, value money over people, to the point of murder. Laurence Lovette Jr, who were you to go and take someone's life away? That person was of no harm to you, and you take that person's life away. For crying out loud, Eve Carson asked you to pray with her. If anyone were to ask me to pray with them, I would be very happy deep down inside.

And to the families of Delores Gillespie and Eve Carson, my prayers go out to you. I am very sorry for your loss. I know that it must have been severe to lose a family member, someone you loved. How much, I don't know. All I know is that you lost someone you loved and my heart and prayers go out to you.

And to SBPDL, this is MY rebuttal. You claim that Black people have no concept of sympathy and that we Black people have no understanding of long term consequences and lack emotional control. Well, I could say the same about many White people out there, especially college students who drink alot or get involved in riotous behavior often involving college sports events, such as those that have occurred at Michigan State University, University of Minnesota, and UCLA. Jerome Isaac and Laurence Lovette Jr did what they did because they don't give a ****. Your basically idea is that you want to push is that ALL Black people are unsafe to be around and that they are programmed to kill White people. That is a wrong assumption. You say that there are alot of unreported Black on White killings. You could say the same thing about alot of unreported White on Black killings. You really DON'T know what goes on. People of all races and ethnicities committed wanton acts of violence because they don't care. They probably do understand the long term consequences, but really don't care. The Neo-Nazis in Russian who beheaded a Dagestani man, they didn't care what the long term consequences were. They were ready for blood and violence. It didn't matter to them. It boils down to being responsible for yourself and making sure you are doing what is the responsible thing to do for yourself and the people in your community.

I am also aware that crime is a major problem in the Black community. Black on Black crime is very common. This is part of why young Black men get murdered more than anyone else in the USA. If White people are not safe around Blacks, then Blacks are not safe around Blacks either, as Blacks get murdered by Blacks more than anyone else in the USA. It is a problem that needs to be tackled from the inside. Jerome Isaac did what he did because he didn't care about anything but money. He was ruthless and cruel. An elderly African-American woman died at his hands, further perpertuating to the problem of Black on Black crime. There is also a disturbing trend of Black on White murders, Eve Carson, a White female, was murdered by Laurence Lovette Jr, and African-American male. Why he did what he did, I don't know.

What I feel is this: Both of those men took lives away knowing it was wrong. Black on Black and Black on White violence. At the end of the day, what really matters is someone died. Not race so much, but the fact that two people felt it was fit to murder someone. When you kill someone, regardless of what race that person is, a life is taken away. I am also aware that many people will take Eve Carson's death as an example of "the Black villain going after the White female" case. My last thoughts are that this is disturbing, and yet, not surprising. Human beings have murdered one another for ages, and have done other horrible things towards one another. Whether or not the recent news will be used as some sort of propaganda, well, it's already being used.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/12/19/jerome-isaac-charged-with_n_1158522.html
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-504083_162-57345647-504083/nc-man-found-guilty-in-unc-student-eve-carsons-murder-sentenced-to-life/

The Adventures of Tintin:A review of the history

On 21 December 2011,The Adventures of Tintin will premiere in theatres.

I don't know if I will be watching this film. All I know is that it involves pirates and sunken treasure. That said, there is a more serious side to this. The Tintin I grew up with look like this:
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4668268860759158229

The aformentioned video is the Tintin I was familiar with. It was the story of two adventure men, one of them a young, idealistic man  and the other a slightly grumpy old man. Both are doing the things I want to do: Going all of the world and traveling, having all kinds of adventures. Nothing about this cartoon would have led me to suspect that Tintin was a very disturbing comic when it originated. Then again, I was around 9 or 10 years old when I saw this as a cartoon, so I was highly naive.

The origins of Tintin did not start in some studio in the 1990's. It was a comic book series started in 1929, with a Belgian artist named Georges Remi(aka Hergé). The first comic of Les Adventures de Tintin to be released was Tintin in the Land of the Soviets.
 


        

According to some scholars of cultural literacy, the first comic book did not portray a factual image of the Bolshevik Revolution. I didn't know what to feel as I know from history that Marxism has not done much good in the long term perspectives for the former Soviet Union. Is it a comic book or a factual portrayal of world events? Caricature, or accurate description? I've never read the comic(or any of them), so I wouldn't know.


The next comic released was Tintin of the Congo. This one made me upset. It is a throwback to the days of Blackface, Little Black Sambo, and other caricatures of people of African descent. I guess being Black, I am going to feel offended by this. The biggest reason is because it doesn't represent Black people, but rather, a caricature portraying Black people(and specifically the native population in the Congo) as generally child-like, lazy, and stupid. Look at the artwork on it. The cartoons portray Blacks as more simian than human. I shouldn't be surprised by this. This was 1930, and racist stereotypes were all too common in the entertainment industry, and this includes cartoons. Also, elements of colonialism were involved too. Belgium was ruling the Belgian Congo(now the nations of Burundi, Rwanda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo) at that time and there were very "paternalistic" portrayals of Blacks, stemming from the colonial era. Hergé said that he wasn't trying to be intentionally racist, but rather he was being patronizing.

In 2007, the Commission for Racial Equality called for the Tintin comic books to be removed from bookstores in the UK after David Enfield and his wife, an African woman, and their two children saw it in a Borders.
          

Like many interesting shows, some, like Tintin, have a less than stellar beginning. One the one hand, there are people who are in favor of freedom of speech and expression, who feel there is nothing wrong with it. On the other hand, there are those who don't want things like that on the shelves, citing that it is indeed a throwback to more racist times. My view is this. I am very aware of racial stereotypes and of what some people would think of me, a Black man, and might act accordingly to their thought processes. In some cases, this can be a bad thing. It would not do my self-esteem any justice to constantly see images of myself as savage, child-like or other stereotypes that do not represent me as a person. On the other hand, the Tintin I grew up with bears no resemblance to Tintin of the Congo. Personally, I don't know what to feel about the movie because the movie itself could be innocent enough. The cartoon I saw in the 1990's was innocent enough. It was the comics of the 1930's that are controversial. Hergé died in 1983, so I don't think he would benefit from anyone buying his stuff. The cartoon I grew up with was different from, and this movie might be as well. Whatever turns out, it gives you something to think about.

Made In God's Image:

I have the dubious opportunity to perouse the musings of a website called StuffBlackPeopleDon'tLike on blogger. It was pertaining to a blog entry about water cannons being used against Black people during a riot in Staten Island,NY. I also happen to run across an anonymous comments regarding Jim Crow. This anonymous commenter basically said:

"A society based on Christian values and racial inequality will accept that some blacks are unable to succeed for biological reasons and will respond by tailoring its culture, social institutions, and economy around dealing with that unpleasant fact"

 Now why would something like that come up? This is 2011, not 1963. Well, this was a website dedicated to pointing out every bad thing Black people do, so it shouldn't surprise me. Being a Black American who is living in the 2010's era, who was born in the 1980's, I don't think Jim Crow was a good thing. I can go to school anywhere I want. I can eat anywhere I want, and further more, this quote I just described is also a fallacy when you look at it.

Here is why. This quote: "A society based on Christian values and racial inequality will accept that some blacks are unable to succeed for biological reasons and will respond by tailoring its culture, social institutions, and economy around dealing with that unpleasant fact" fails to mention something. When looked upon from a Christian perspective, this is what is taught: We are all equal in God's eyes because we are all create in his image. Here is some scripture to help with that.

Galatians Chapter 3, verse 28: “There is no difference between Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.”

Genesis Chapeter 1, verse 27: "God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them".

Not equal? Well, according to God the Father, we are made in  his image, therefore, we are all equal and we are his children. Racism and bigotry are basically forms of vanity and hate, which Jesus teaches against,

Why many Black people are afraid to "snitch"

I won't hold back. There are immense issues in the African-American community regarding violent crime. Yes, this is a pertinent issue. This has been a problem for a long time. Black men have been murdering one another for a long time. It is no wonder that among young males, African-American males have the highest death rate. The #1 cause is not AIDS, heart disease, or drugs. The #1 cause is MURDER. This is all according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, who got the statistics from the Center of Disease Control, Bureau of Justice, and the US Census.

Link to statistics: http://www.kff.org/minorityhealth/upload/7541.pdf

http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2010-06-25/news/bs-md-stop-snitching-sentence-20100625_1_snitching-skinny-suge-videos

Young African-American men are getting killed more than anyone else at the hands of other African-American men. I am speaking in terms of blue collar crime. I'll get to white collar crime in another entry. With so much Black on Black violence, one should expect more to be done to ameliorate this problem. This doesn't always work like that. There aren't enough people telling what they know. One would thinkg that the communities with the worst crime would want to "snitch" the most. In fact, violent crime goes on partially BECAUSE no one would be the informant. People are afraid to tell what they know. People are afraid to "snitch".

The rerm "Stop Snitchin" was coined by a rapper named Tangg da Juice in 1999. In 2004, a "Stop Snitchin" campaign was launched in Baltimore with a DVD by Rodney Bethea titled "Stop Snitching! was circulated. In some of the footage there are drug dealers threatening "snitches" with violence. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that Baltimore had a murder rate very close to 44 murders per 100,000 residents( 276 murders total in 2004). It probably isn't surprising that Baltimore has had such a problem with violence.





Knowing all of this, why don't more Black people snitch? I could think of a few reasons:

1) Confusion of Loyalty. There are many Black people in the USA who don't to send another Black man to prison, even if that Black person did something to him or her. The mentality could possibly come from the feelingt hat sending another Black man to prison would ruin a fellow Black man's life. well, isn't this the same fellow Black man who is terrorizing you? This "fellow Black man" could not care less about you or your life. The reason is because of the mentality of "I'm getting mine and screw you". It is a nihilist mentality. Why shouldn't you snitch? You would be doing other African-Americans a favor by getting that miscreant off of the streets and behind bars. Black people are the ones who need to snitch the most. It is Black people who are more likely to be murdered than anyone else. Let the criminal rot in prison. Yes, a slim majority of the prison population in African-American. Snitching still needs to be done. If you really want to look at it from a perspective of "race", think of it this way: That Black man who has just killed another Black man has done this to his "fellow Black man". That Black man who just killed another Black man doesn't care about his "fellow Black man". He doesn't care about his fellow man of any race or ethnicity. He doesn't care about anyone. If that person did care, he wouldn't have committed murder.
2)Fear of Retribution. Direct quote from Retired FBI James Bernazzani: "The community won't cooperate because I'm not gonna finger you as that violent felon because if I know you're on the streets in 5 days, guess who the next victim is....ME, and I don't want that".

Watch this clip from The History Channel's Gangland, specifically the 7:01-7:14 segment: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Edpjcz8Jz-I

The fear of retribution is understandable. Criminals will often kill people who "snitch".  Criminals will often do what they want when everyone is scared. One person being an informant is one step in the right direction, but if that person stands alone, yes, death might be very imminent. However, if the whole community stands together and let criminals know "we won't take anymore of your mess", then it will be more effective. People are often afraid to snitch because they stand alone. Dr. king wasn't afraid to stand alone as a man. He also attracted followers. He attracted people to be a part of his movement. However, a "snitch" acts alone because few will stand by him or her. He/she gets called an "Uncle Tom' for it at best and gets killed at the worst. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. died a gallant death, as a hero, with so many people who loved him. A "snitch" usually dies alone and forgotten. No streets named for a snitch, no holiday named for a "snitch", just forgotten, but not before getting called "House Negro". He doesn't get a grand funeral like Dr King did. He dies in an alley. No Nobel Peace Prize, barely a thank you. A "snitch" gets chased away, becoming more afraid of his or her community. The "snitch" needs to be a leader, leader people out of the morass of horrors, such as a high murder rate.

Anger Dies Hard: I won't mince words. Many African-Americans do not trust the police, at least not to the same degree that White Americans do. With stuff such as racial profiling, historical abuse from the police, the distrust isn't surprising. Distrust and anger, even with more Black police officers than in the past, are still there. There are many who will not cooperate with the police because of this. However, the only way to combat crime in your community is to cooperate with the police. If the police will not do their jobs correctly, then form neighborhood groups to flush out any criminal that is harming your community. It's a do or die situation. Not all police officers are corrupt and not all of them are out to hurt you. If the police cooperate on their end and help to keep your community safe, that will help you. If the police do nothing, and/or are doing corrupt things, get involved politically. Take to the streets with protests, form neighborhood forces to keep the community safe. Do something. Flush the criminals out.

African-American neighborhoods have a bad reputation in these times as being violent. That must end by flushing out any criminals who live in the community. The fear of retribution from "snitching" needs to end. The fear of being called "Uncle Tom" for "snitching" needs to end. That "Stop Snitching" stuff is a load of crap and it is a detriment for African-Americans, or anyone. It is going to have to start with 'snitching". It is a question of "die a snitch" or "live in fear".