If there’s anything or anyone I hate more than I do a racist, it’s got to be a black man who allows himself to be used as a weapon against his community. Seeing uncle Jim Brown, his wife, and Kanye West playing the court jesters in the White House while the very thirsty Agolf Twitler looked on approvingly was more than I could take. It made me sick to my stomach. It put me in a funky mood for the rest of the day. And then Colin Kaepernick came to the rescue… again. A palate cleanser if ever there was one.
It was announced last evening that Mr. Kaepernick had nabbed yet another prestigious award. This time the W.E.B Dubois Medal from Harvard University. This is a huge deal!
The medal is considered "Harvard's highest honor in the field of African and African American studies" and is awarded "to individuals in the United States and across the globe in recognition of their contributions to African and African American culture and the life of the mind."
Previous recipients of the honor include Muhammad Ali (2015) and Maya Angelou (2014), among others.
Kaepernick did not want his acceptance speech to be recorded but here is a transcript:
Colin gave a similarly Obama-esque speech at the ceremony for the Ambassador of Conscience Award (2018) bestowed on him by Amnesty International some months ago in the Netherlands. It got very little play back then but it’s definitely worth a read/watch.
History has proven that there has never been a period in the history of America where antiBlackness has not been an ever-present terror. Racialized oppression and dehumanization is woven into the very fabric of our nation--the effects of which can be seen in the lawful lynching of Black and brown people by the police, and the mass incarceration of Black and brown lives in the prison industrial complex. While America bills itself as the land of the free, the receipts show that theU.S. has incarcerated approximately 2.2 million people, the largest prison population in the history of humankind.
As police officers continue to terrorize Black and brown communities, abusing their power, and then hiding behind their blue wall of silence, and laws that allow for them to kill us with virtual impunity, I have realized that our love, that sometimes manifests as Black-rage, is a beautiful form of defiance against a system that seeks to suppress our humanity--A system that wants us to hate ourselves.
I remind you that love is at the root of our resistance.
Thank you, Colin Kaepernick.
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Samaria Rice Fights and Wins
Is the pool of suitable candidates for officers in the police force so shallow that police departments must continue to scrape from the bottom of the barrel?
According to news reports, Timothy Loehman was a pretty lousy employee even before he pulled the drive-by murder of 12-year-old Tamir.
“He could not follow simple directions, could not communicate clear thoughts nor recollections, and his handgun performance was dismal,” Polak wrote in 2012.
Polak recommended that Loehmann should leave the department.
“I do not believe time, nor training, will be able to change or correct the deficiencies,” Polak wrote.
He also said Loehmann lacked “maturity” to continue working for the Independence department, published reports indicate.
In 2009, Loehmann also failed an exam administered by the Maple Heights, Ohio, police department. Published reports indicate he failed to disclose that in his application to Cleveland, too.
Despite that record, the Cleveland PD hired him, gave him a gun and let him loose on an unsuspecting community. Within 26 days of getting his new job, he’d murder a child playing in a park within seconds of first setting eyes on him. A murder for which he paid absolutely no price; but his employers did fire him for lying on his resume. Fast forward four years and another police department decided that it was high time that Loehman is rescued from the unemployment line. And so they were all set to hire him, arm him, and put him in a position of authority over another community.
“He was cleared of any and all wrongdoing,” the Bellaire police chief, Richard Flanagan, told The Times Leader of Martins Ferry, Ohio, adding that it was unfair to “crucify” the officer. “It’s over and done with.”
Well, Samaria Rice was not having it. As a direct result of her activism, Loehman decided against accepting Flanagan’s very kind offer.
Brava, Ms. Rice. Brava.
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Justice for Laquan
As the boy lay dying — or already dead — the dispatcher asked a critical question, " ... and when you can, I need to, um, get some info on the victim's condition. Whatever you can, when you can, OK?" An unidentified enabler took exception to the term “victim.” He actually took the time to correct the record, “Offender,” he said. “I’m sorry,” said the dispatcher. “That’s what I meant.”
It has taken almost four years for the family of the forever 17-year-old Laquan McDonald to be able to legally refer to their child as the “victim.” Four long years for them to get the justice they deserve. Four years during which time the system strove mightily to protect his murderer while further demonizing the murdered youth. Four years since "Star 9465" fired 16 shots at a young man who seemed to be going through a mental episode and who posed absolutely no threat to him or the other complicit officers who stood around and watched while he bled to death. Four years, but finally justice as Officer Jason Van Dyke was found guilty of second-degree murder. Van Dyke joins fellow murderer Roy Oliver as the two cops whose cock & bull stories of fearing for their lives failed to impress the jurors. In less than two months, two white cops have been found guilty of murdering two black boys. Dare we hope that this is the start of something that is so long overdue? Police accountability? And that this will lead to better, more sophisticated policing in the future? Dare we hope?
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The Poem
Your National Anthem by From Clint Smith:
Today, a black man who was once a black boy
like you got down on one of his knees & laid
his helmet on the grass as his country sangits ode to the promise it never kept
& the woman in the grocery store line in front
of us is on the phone & she is telling someoneon the other line that this black man who was
once a black boy like you should be grateful
we live in a country where people aren't killedfor things like this you know she says, in some places
they would hang you for such a blatant act of disrespect
maybe he should go live there instead of here so he canappreciate what he has & then she turns around
& sees you sitting in the grocery cart surrounded
by lettuce & yogurt & frozen chicken thighs& you smile at her with your toothless gum smile
& she says that you are the cutest baby she has
ever seen & tells me how I must feel so luckyto have such a beautiful baby boy & I thank her
for her kind words even though I should not
thank her because I know that you will not alwaysbe a black boy but one day you may be a black man
& you may decide your country hasn't kept
its promise to you either & this woman or anotherlike her will forget you were ever this boy & they
will make you into something else & tell you
to be grateful for what you've been given
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A lesson in how to use White Privilege
Caught on video, a white warrior (lawyer?) uses his white privilege to rescue black man from racist cops with slave patrol mentality.
‘Nuff respect to that brother.
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The “Love List”
Just 25 days to go! If you have any spare change and you are looking around to help some Democrats over the line, here are some of our favorite people:
Stacy Abrams (Al-Gov)— Donate here!
Sharice David (KS-3) — Donate here!
Lucy McBath (GA-6) — Donate here!
Beto O’Rourke (TX-Sen) — Donate here!
Andrew Gillum (FL-Gov) — Donate here!
Chris Murphy (CT-Sen) — Donate here!
Heidi Heitkamp (ND-Sen) — Donate here!
Ben Jealous (MD- Gov) — Donate here!
Jamie Mahlberg (MN-25A) — Donate here!
Antonio Delgado (NY-19) — Donate here!
Haley Stevens ((MI-13) — Donate here!
And then there’s the group of candidates known as the NR8… the NRA’s worst enemies. Check them out and give them some cash if you can, please.
If Congress won't act to change our gun laws, then we need to elect a Congress that will. Help us raise $1 million on 1 day for eight candidates facing some of the gun lobby's biggest defenders this November.
You are welcome to add your favorites to our “Love List.”