WTF is "acting White"???

"Oreo", "overcooked White boy", "Carlton", "sellout", and oh yes, "acting White" are the kinds of wisecracks some Black youth get insulted with if:

1) He or she doesn't speak Ebonics or said person "talks White" and speaks proper English
2) He or she likes to read books
3) He or she listens to classical music
4) He or she does not live up to what is considered "typical Black behavior" or behaves in a manner that is considered "not Black enough".

Many Black youths get derided for "acting White" if they don't "talk Black". Insults like "oreo", get launched their way. By the way "oreo" is a cookie that is "Black on the outside, White on the inside". I can relate being insulted like that. I am the Black person who has been made fun of for "acting White". I've been called "Carlton"(refers to Carlton Banks from Fresh Prince of Bel-Air), "overcooked White boy", and other insults. One girl used to scream "White boy" at me. The irony, however, is that she was a White female. This shows that this isn't just Black people doing this to other Black people. Some White people(from my personal experiences) have done this too. In fact, I have been insulted in college too. This is the irony. I'm in college and I get insulted. A White male college student had this joke to describe me:

The Student: Do you know your father?
Me: Yes
The Student: Does he live with you?
Me: Yes
The Student: Then you're White!!(usually with some laughter from him, not from me).

So apparently, because I have a father, he is still married to my mother, and he is part of my life(as well as the lives of my siblings), somehow, that is "acting White"? WTF!! Some more tidbits: I don't wear FUBU, And1, Ecko, saggy pants, my baseball cap to one side, or large gold chains. I dress preppy, sometimes I wear a suit, I like listening to classical music, NPR, I like to read alot about geography, history, and science. I do many things that are not considered "stereotypically Black". Does that mean I "act White"? Does this make me a "sellout"? Anyone who describes any Black person who loves to read books, dresses presentably, and seeks an education, as a "sellout", let me tell you this" You just called Malcolm X a sellout. You just called Dr. King a sellout. You just called Andrew Young, Tavis Smiley, Cornell West, President Obama, and alot of other extraordinary Black men "sellouts".

Here is the question: WTF is "acting White"? Is it "acting White" when a Black child is highly interested in science, history, and mathematics? Is it "acting White" when a Black child would rather play soccer or tennis instead of basketball or football? Is it "acting White" when a Black person listens to classical music even learned to play the violin? Is it "acting White" when a Black person uses words like "repugnant", "insipid" and pronounces the word "ask" properly instead of saying "axe"?

Are you going to call a Black person a "sellout" because he or she doesn't speak Ebonics? If "acting Black" means acting ignorant, wearing saggy pants, getting subpar grades in school, being a deadbeat father, not having a father, speaking in a manner that is not eloquent, and deriding other Black people for "not acting Black enough", then I don't want it. Since when has reading, listening to classical music, speaking proper English, wearing ones trousers the correct way, "acting White"? Why should it only be considered for White people to act in this manner?

Something to understand: When you cut down Black people in such a manner, especially the youth, it makes things harder for Black people who want success. To get a better idea of the high cost, think of this. The Black kid who gets beaten up for reading books and for basically "acting White", it is cutting down that person's self-esteem, making that person not want to strive harder. A Black kid is going to have it harder to begin with, but getting torn down by other Black children, and basically anyone else for "not acting Black enough" is going to make things worse. Some of these kids who could be the next "Guion Bluford", the next great Black inventor, doctor, astronaut, engineer,etc., could end up giving up and becoming just another statistic among many. It could happen, and that is disturbing. That child needs to be built up and encouraged.

NYPD officer caught using the "n" word

A week ago,it was discovered that  NYPD police officer Michael Daragjati was caught saying "I fried a nigger" after wrongly arresting two African-American men. This event transpired last April and was   After hearing more about the issue, it has now been shown that New York City has officially become a police state, and police officers can get away with anything. Lately, the "Stop and Frisk" method was used by police officers a record over 600,000 times last year. What was found is that the majority of those frisks were for "furtive movement" and "wearing clothes/disguises commonly used in committing crime". In short, for dressing a certain way and for walking a certain way, a person will get frisked. Sounds like a police state to me. The majority of these frisks are done and Black and Hispanic residents. You would think with the number of frisks done towards African-Americans and Hispanics, the crime rate among both groups would be dropping quickly. Not the case. One man, Jesus Rodriguez, commented about being frisked because he was "saying hello to someone who might be a drug dealer". So he said hello do someone who "might" be a drug dealer. He had a point when he said "frisk the drug dealer". This right here might be why many of the drug dealers aren't getting caught. The move made against Rodriguez was a coward move. This was cowardice, and an embarrassment to the police officers out there who do their job fairly and actually are effective in making a community strong.

It doesn't shock me about the racism in NYC as far as the police department is concerned. This stuff has been going on for years. It just shows what a police state can look like.Shows the levels of racism. I am at a loss for words because I have grown cynical. All I can say is that this kind of policing will not make law-abiding citizens comfortable about living in New York City. It will not make African-Americans and Hispanics in NYC trust the police. If anything, this will create a rift between the communities and the police. This cannot be effective. This isn't effective in fighting crime. The "Stop and Frisk" method would make me not want to live in a place. I don't want to be harassed by police officers either.
The police officer who was claiming that he "fried a nigger" should be imprisoned for this. Bringing up false charges and using a racial slur, claiming to have "fried" someone just proves that the idea was specifically to put a Black man in jail for no reason, other than being Black.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2011/10/17/2011-10-17_nypd_cop_michael_daragjati_taped_making_racial_slurs_about_black_man_accused_of_.html

My take on Steve Sailer's article about Black imprisonment by state.

I had a chance to surf the internet today. I came across a few articles by a blooger by the name of Steve Sailer. Personally, I disagree with his content. Most of it deals with race from a stance of "eugenices" "realism" and other stances that are pretty much racist. I look at an article about the imprisonment rate of African-Americans throughout the USA.What I found was his theory on the roots of Black violence.

There is a book by Fox Buttefield called All God's Children .  According to this book, the roots of Black violence come from the violence perpetrated by White people in the South. Sailer's rebuttal this this argument has been that Blacks in the South tend to have a fewer percentage of its population in prison that in the Mid-Atlantic states(DC to New York) and the Upper Midwest(Iowa, Wisconsin,Minnesota). Well, this is my rebuttal. It is important to note that today, most African-Americans that are moving to the South tend to be more educated and make more money, therefore, less likely to engage in criminal activity. In Wisconsin, there has been a "Black Brain Drain" from the state: http://host.madison.com/business/article_a35bd3ed-f094-50e7-b321-a8d68b4def4f.html

With the best and brightest African-Americans leaving Wisconsin for better opportunities elsewhere, this wherever those African-Americans go, they will be an asset. On the other hand, many of the African-Americans who are left behind are not as well educated, much poorer, and more likely to engage in criminal activity. Up until the 1940's, Milwaukee,WI had a relatively small Black population. More Blacks started going to Milwaukee for the factory jobs, as many African-Americans did in other major cities. Those jobs started to dry up in the 1970's and the 1980's. It is important to note that Milwaukee had a large proportion of African-Americans working in the factories, among the largest in the USA after Detroit. Once the factories closed down, the Black unemployment rate skyrocketed. Suddenly, Blacks in Milwaukee had among the the highest unemployment rates in the USA. Around the 1980's, gangs from Chicago started recruiting in Milwaukee. For Chicago gangs, Milwaukee was like virgin forests. Relatively small drug market, not much organized gang activity, unemployed African-American youths feeling hopeless. This made it all too easy to recruit people for gangs, especially the Gangster Disciples.  Criminal activity skyrocketed as well because this was the drug epidemic. The 1980's was the big turning point for Milwaukee. The Gangster Disciples also did heavy recruiting in Des Moines, Iowa. Yes, in a city that is around 10 percent African-American, the Gangster Disciples went there, to Iowa, the corn belt of all places.. Iowa in general has a Black population around 3 percent. However, being close to Illinois, where Chicago is, gangs have gone out there for untapped drug markets. With a relatively poor Black population compared to the White population, gangs started recruiting there, and people were enticed by the so-called "glamours" of gang life. The same case with Minnesota. African-Americans started moving to the Twin Cities to get away from the violence in Chicago and Detroit. However, gangs, lured by a virgin drug market, went out there too. Minneapolis went from being one the safest cities in the USA to "Murderapolis" in 1995 because gangs went out there. The reason places like Upper Midwest have the highest incarceration rates among African-Americans is due to a gangs moving to those states and committing violent crimes, recruiting more people to commit acts of violence, and there is another thing to understand: These states have a low PERCENTAGE of African-Americans. The low percentage of African-Americans(between 3-6 percent) skews the numbers a bit.

The South, on the other hand, is not attracting large numbers of African-American gang members. Although gangs exist here, this isn't a virgin drug market, especially Atlanta. Most African-Americans moving to the South are educated and more able to support themselves. This reduces the overall likelihood of criminal behavior. The South has historically been the most violent region in the USA, and that continues today. The South also has the highest percentage of Whites in incarceration. There is still alot of violence committed by African-Americans. The murder capital of the USA is in the South,   which is New Orleans. Memphis and Birmingham have issues too.

Two men in North Carolina exonerated for murder.

As I went to Yahoo! this morning, I found some interesting news. Two men from North Carolina, Kenneth Kagonyera and Robert Wilcoxson, are being freed from prison after some interesting DNA evidence. DNA evidence proved that these two men were not the ones who committed a murder an a home invasion. These two men served a decade in prison for a murder they didn't commit. Kagonyera was coerced into pleading guilty. To hear that these men were proven NOT GUILTY according to sufficient evidence tells me that there is some justice out there.

It also tells me that the justice system can also fail. Two people are doing time for murders they did not commit. Unfortunately, this kind of stuff happens. It is all too common. This is one of the reasons I do not support the death penalty. Stuff like this can happen. You have two people who were serving time for something they did not do. This isn't to say that the home invasion being committed was right. Time should have been served for that. However, DNA has done wonders and getting people exonerated for crimes they did not commit. It shows that sometimes innocent men can go to prison..What if these two men had been executed? It would have been two people going to the death chamber for crimes they didn't commit. This has also been know to happen two. Go look it up sometime on google. Of course, there are some people who feel like "So what if some innocent people get executed, that isn't worth the ones who are still behind bars". I don't feel that way.

http://news.yahoo.com/2-nc-men-walk-free-murder-exoneration-222600983.html

Troy Davis executed as of 21 September 2011.

Somehow, I knew Troy Davis was going to be executed. It is not surprising that this happened. No surprise. Maybe I'm cynical, but it just doesn't surprise me that he was executed. There still wasn't enough solid evidence to prove that he actually murdered the police officer. Still, he was found guilty and sentenced to die. Seven out of nine witnesses took back their testimonies, some admitting their stories were a lie. There is also some possibility that the police coerced them into telling those stories. Either way, it doesn't surprise me. I believe if you have been proven beyond a shadow of a doubt to be guilty of murder, you should be punished for your crime. With that said, if there isn't enough evidence to prove you did it, and you are still found guilty and you are sentenced to die, there is something wrong here.

I also find it very appropriate to mention a story I know of in Georgia. A 25 year old man, Christopher Erdman, he murdered his ex-girlfriend, Shannon Lawrence, in front of his 2 children. Lawrence was being abused by him and she left him. He was known for having very controlling behavior and being very violent. There was documented evidence of this. Still, no one did anything about him stalking her. He went and shot her and she later died. He is going to do life in prison for his crime, but he isn't going to get the death penalty for this crime. It was obvious he committed the crime. It is proven that he committed murder. However, he isn't getting life in prison. Troy Davis didn't have enough physical evidence against him, not to mention, 7 out of 9 witnesses made bogus testimonies and took them back. He was denied clemency, was denied a polygraph test to prove his innocence or guilt. What fairness is there in that. My gut feeling is that there is bias in this. Erdman, a White male, murdered a White female. Troy Davis, a Black man, was found guilty of murdering a White police officer. Sounds like a throwback to the old days. Why is it that murdering your ex-girlfriend doesn't get the death penalty for you, but allegedly murdering a police officer does? Why is it that a Black man who kills a White man is more likely to get the death penalty than a Black man who has killed a Black man? 

Troy Davis to be executed today.

If many of you have been watching the news, Troy Davis will get the death penalty. By the time I am done editing this post or publishing this post, he might be dead.

To give some background on this, this is what I found out from this situation. Troy Davis was convicted of murdering a Savannah Police officer, Mark McPhail, in 1989. He was sentenced to the death penalty. Some people say it is open and shut and he should face the death penalty. However, I found out some more information about this.

Before I go any further, I am going to give some anecdotal notes on this. I was in the International Student Retention Services office(the Global Village) at Kennesaw State University last week. A woman came and told everyone of a rally that would be going on in Atlanta for Troy Davis' life to be spared. She stated that there was no solid evidence to convict him, and that witnessed were coerced by the police into saying that Troy Davis murdered Officer Mark McPhail. I decided to do some digging.

So far, it looks as if everything that I was told was true. Nine witnesses testified against Davis. However, Seven out of nine witnesses rescinded their testimonies and some admitted to lying. The way I see it, there was no physical evidence that he committed the murder. Even some of the witnesses were not reliable. I don't know for a fact that he killed that cop. There isn't the evidence to prove it. Witnesses have taken back their statements. The physical evidence is not there. There isn't enough proof. For this reason, I don't think Troy Davis should be executed. I feel he shouldn't be executed because there isn't enough evidence to show that he murdered Officer Mark McPhail. He has also been denied many appeals for clemency. I don't know what is going on in this instance, but something tells me that if he actually did commit that murder, if there was absolute proof beyond a shadow of a doubt, he would have been executed sooner.

He has also been denied a polygraph test to prove whether or not he committed the murder. For those who don't know what a polygraph is, it is basically a lie detector test. He can't take a lie detector test. There is an intent to execute him. This shows that the justice system in the USA can have unfairness and bias.

Statistically, Black people who have murdered White people have the highest rate of execution. If it is Black people murdering Black people, that rate is lower.Here is a link: http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/death-penalty-black-and-white-who-lives-who-dies-who-decides#Black Defendants and the Race of the Victims

I feel that this statistic is rooted in history. Black people were often considered worthless by the larger society. A Black man who killed a White man during the days of Jim Crow could expect to die. Sometimes a Black man didn't even have to murder anyone. Often, mob killing, also known as lynching, could take place often for much smaller reasons. A 14 year old African-American boy, Emmett Till, was murdered for simply making a pass at a White woman. Troy Davis facing execution doesn't surprise me when one looks at the history of how things have been done in the USA.

Furthermore, to show the bias in the justice system, look at the West Memphis Three. These are three men who were convicted of murder. They made a deal that if they plead guilty, they would be let go. They are free today while Troy Davis is going to face the death penalty. All of these men are White. Troy Davis is Black. Kind of makes me not trust the justice system as much.




Sources:
http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/witnesses-back-off-testimony-555778.html
http://www.cnn.com/2011/09/20/opinion/wexler-witness-memory-davis/index.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/till/peopleevents/e_lynch.html

Non-traditional migration patterns for African-Americans.

For my Senior Seminar class, this is the task being presented to me. My task is to conduct a project involving one of the major subfields of geography. The topic of choice for me will be the Non-traditional migration patterns of Black people in the USA.

The questions to be asked are:

What are the factors in Black people moving to places outside of the traditional migration patterns?

From where are Black people moving from?

What are the pull factors?

What are the push factors?

To give a synopsis on this, this is what I have found in some of my research. Large numbers of Blacks are moving to the Southeast USA/Texas(I don't consider Texas part of the South). However, there are specific places Black people are moving to. Cities such as Atlanta, Dallas,Houston, Charlotte, Raleigh, Orlando, and other major southern cities. The places of which many African-Americans are coming from include New York, California, Michigan, Illinois, and Ohio. It is fitting to note that there is a large migration from the northern and some western states to the Southeast USA/Texas.

All things considered, there is a migration that is not receiving much attention. If one were to look at the percentage of Blacks moving to the Southeast, those states are not seeing the largest gains. Rather, it is where African-Americans have not traditionally migrated to in large numbers that are seeing the most rapid increases in their Black populations. Even more interesting, it is the states with the highest percentages of Whites that are seeing such a shift. This change in movement does not only include African-Americans. African refugees are also moving to such places.

This is just a synopsis of the project.