Castrating Cosby

I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted anything but I’ve been busy dealing with a lawsuit that’s attempting to take away my first amendment rights. Although I’m dealing with a lot, I’m still keeping my eye on the things going on. What compelled me to return to my Uppity Negro blog was the November cover of Ebony. I don’t know if I’m reading too much into the cover art but it bothered me. I’m amazed that Bill Cosby is being convicted in the court of public opinion without ever going to court. Seemingly, everyone is jumping on board; even Ebony. Over the years, Ebony was a black publication that was used to uplift the African-American community. I’m not sure if this recent cover story was just part of the movement to vilify Cosby or an attempt by the editors at Ebony to increase readership.

Here’s a statement that was released in response to the Ebony cover.

“This was not an easy decision but I believe with everything that our collective healing is tied to baring truths, confronting selves, and dismantling crutches. We aim to uplift. However, sometimes before you rise up, you break down. We invite each of you, mixed feelings and all to READ this issue. Ebony has a 70 year old history and you’d be surprised to know how tame this cover is in many aspects-especially when compared with some of what the magazine has addressed in the past. We won’t stop being maverick because it makes some uncomfortable. The times are calling. Too much is at stake. Informed debate is healthy and we need more of it.”

Now, I don’t really have a problem with the story but my problem is with the cover art. The fact that Ebony chose to have a picture of the cast of the Cosby Show featured with a bullet shot and shattered glass is problematic; especially during this anti-gun and #BlackLivesMatter movement. As I said earlier, I could have analyzed the cover too much, trying to place too inference on the symbolism of the cover. As a matter of fact, it’s possible that it’s not a bullet hole but just a shatter photo of what is meant to represent the perfect black family. Unfortunately, the cover is a reminder of the violence and unforgiveness that’s all too prevalent within our community. Month after month, women were coming out of the woodwork to tell the world about their encounter with Bill Cosby but no formal charges were filed and I’ve been waiting to hear about a civil case. If they want to destroy Cosby, they should go after the man but not the show many of us enjoyed throughout the 80’s and 90’s. I think it was an attempt to symbolize the shattering of a picturesque family that happened to be African-American but I just think it was a poor decision. I don’t know what happened between Cosby and all those women but I will always remember the Cosby Show like this because that image is still unshattered in my mind.

Independence Day: Freedom NOT to Celebrate YOUR Holiday

Every year, the celebration of Independence Day is filled with meat on the grill, gathering of friends/family and shooting fireworks but I will not join in the celebration. How can I celebrate liberty with bondage — economic bondage, educational bondage and political bondage all around me? Years ago, I read a speech by Fredrick Douglass that opened my eyes about the celebration taking place on the fourth of July . Born a slave, social reformer Frederick Douglass was asked to deliver an oration at an Independence Day gathering at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, N.Y., in 1852. "What, to the American slave," he asked the crowd, "is your Fourth of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy — a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour."

The 4th of July, Independence Day, celebrating America's freedom. But the question is have blacks ever really been free in America? On July 4,1776 blacks were still slaves being sold in auctions all over America. Now let's fast forward to a more modern time; the era right before the Civil Rights Movement. Blacks wete under another form of bondage; Jim Crow. Jim Crow laws came into effect with separate water fountains, schools, swimming pools, going in the back doors to movies and resturants. Just over 40 years ago, Jim Crow laws were in effect all over the South. Now it wasn't much better in the North. There was just as much racism in the North but it was without a Southern accent and Confederate flags. Today, there's the New Jim Crow. Instead of laws, policies, politicians and judges weild their authority to disenfranchise blacks in society. Discrimination exist in all walks of life: jobs, sports, housing, election, arrets, etc. We've been taught that America is the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave but nothing could be further from the truth. Looking at the events taking place in this country, it's hard to tell if it's 1963 or 2015. Almost every week, there's another story about a black life being taken by a police ofgicers. Black people are still getting murdered by avts of terror while at their place of worship and black churches are being burned down in record numbers but it's mot getting media attention. In Baltimore, there was a week of non-stop coverage after a CVS was burned in protest after several officers allegedly killed a man in police custody but the attack on black lives and black churches is not deemed newsworthy. Independence Day is a celebration that recognizes a time in history when whites received independence from England but when will blacks receive independence from White America?

No Comparison

I was just scrolling through Facebook and noticed this photo that one of my social media friends had shared. I'm not sure if it was the photo or the caption that caught my attention. Attached to the ppst was the following: "Hey Ferguson. Hey Baltimore. This is South Carolina. This is how we do it. We are family. No riots. No looting. Nobody acting like animals. No Obama. No Sharpton. We don't need Obama's politicizing attitude. We don't need Sharpton's divisive presence. Both of you STAY AWAY!"

Even in the midst of tragedy, the seeds of hate are being spread. When I saw this, it reminded me of a similar post I viewed shortly after two police officers were killed here in Mississippi. There was a meme showing how calm things were here in comparison to what hapoened in Baltimore. During the funeral of one of the slain officers, Officer Tate, the minister asked "where was Al Sharpton? Didn't this black life matter?" Many people, especially those in the law enforcement community, ran with that misplaced question. When Officers Deen and Tate were murdered, the accused killers were apprehended before the bodies of the officers made it to the crime lab. In Baltimore, there were riots because the community knew James Gray died while in police custody and they were fearful that justice would not be served. So, to compare the calm, organized processions, honoring slain officers after their memorial service is like comparing apples to oranges. Another inequitable comparison is to show the masses praying for the nine victims killed in South Carolina and use that moment to ridicule tne activities that took place in Ferguson and Baltimore. There's no comparison. The situations are totally different.

After the death of the police officers in Mississippi and the death of the nine victims in South Carolina, there's a reference to Al Sharpton and his presumed divisiveness. Apparently, this is an effort at revisionist storytelling. Let's get some facts. When Al Sharpton got involved in the Trayvone Martin case, Martin had been dead for weeks. Trayvone Martin was killed on February 26. The Stanford Police Department ruled the death as justifiable homicide and Gerorge Zimmerman was released after giving his statement to the police. Meanwhile, the family of Trayvone Martin were trying to get access to the evidence, the 911 call and surveillance footage but they were denied access. On Ma4ch 20, Al Sharpton became involved in the case, garnered national attention and eventually got a trial. So, to label Sharpton as divisive is a mischaracterization.

Let's be clear, there's a long history of bigotry and hatred in America and every time there's a story in the mecia, involving black people, that hatred manages to bubble to the surface. Everytime something tragic hapoens in this county, we look for a response from the President. Why are their fragments in this society that do not want to hear from the President? Is it the color of his skin? The incidents in Ferguson, Baltimore and Charleston cannot be compared because they're not the same. Just moments ago, the judge said that the family of Dylann Roof are victims. No sir. The families of those nine people killed by an act of domestic terrorism are victims. Jon Stewart summed it all up on last night's episode of The Daily Show. "In South Carolina, the roads that black people drive on are named after Confederate generals who fought to prevent blacks from having freedom...The Confederate flag flies over South Carolina and the white guy is the one who feels this country has been taken from him."

For We Wrestle Not...

I was watching Anderson Cooper and the program was interrupted with news of a shooting at a church in Charleston, SC. Shortly afterwards, it was revealed that nine lives, including the life of the Pastor and State Legislator, Clementa C. Pinckney, had been tragically cut short by an act of terrorism. The place of this massacre was "Mother" Emanuel AME Church, founded in 1816 and is the oldest black church in the American South. During Wendesday night bible study, allegeded gunman Dylan Roof, entered a place of worship, a place of peace, a place of serenity offering solace among the beauty of stained glass windows and shot nine congregants in the House of the Lord. Emanuel AME survived slave revolts, banning of all black congregations and fire only to fall prey to modern day terrorism. But those of us familiar with history know that black churches have always been the target of thugs and terrorists.

In September of 1963, four little girls, Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, Carole Robertson and Cynthia Diane Wesley, were murdered when their church was bombed on a Sunday morning shortly after Sunday school was dismissed. Much like the nine killed in Charlotte, the girls were at a place of worship, learning more about the One tbat so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son. In the midst of worshipping God, a seed of hate manifested itself. Amazingly, the eulogy delivered by Dr. Martin Luther King at the funeral of tne little girls in Birmingham are still poignant today.

"And yet they died nobly. They are the martyred heroines of a holy crusade for freedom and human dignity. And so this afternoon in a real sense they have something to say to each of us in their death. They have something to say to every minister of the gospel who has remained silent behind the safe security of stained-glass windows. They have something to say to every politician who has fed his constituents with the stale bread of hatred and the spoiled meat of racism. They have something to say to a federal government that has compromised with the undemocratic practices of southern Dixiecrats and the blatant hypocrisy of right-wing northern Republicans. They have something to say to every Negro who has passively accepted the evil system of segregation and who has stood on the sidelines in a mighty struggle for justice. They say to each of us, black and white alike, that we must substitute courage for caution. They say to us that we must be concerned not merely about who murdered them, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers. Their death says to us that we must work passionately and unrelentingly for the realization of the American dream."

Dylan Roof has been taken into police custody and I can help but wonder when will they start his defense based on mental illness or being deranged. Unlike the many black men who's blood was spilled in the streets for allegedly stealing cigars, selling cigarettes, owing child support, carrying a knife or playing with a toy gun in the park, Roof will sit in a jail cell, have the opportunity to present a case before a judge and jury; an opportunity Mike Brown, Eric Garner, Freddy Gray, Walter Scott, Tamir Rice and countless others didn't get. This country allows seeds of hate to be planted every time a black person is killed, every time the current president speak or whenever the police are called out for their abuse of power. Time and time again, people like Roof are being taught at home, in school, by the police that black lives don't matter and this act of terrorism is the product of what he learned. This country is focused on Isis but ignore the terrorists that are growing up in their homes. What happened today is nothing more than an act of terrorism but Roof will never be categorized as a thug. News outlets won't bring in guest that will delve into the semantics of white crime. Instead, it will be swept under the rug, and calls to take back our country will serve as a battle hymn because any attacks on Roof will be turned into a pseudo they want to take our guns movement. Wake up America, your true colors are showing.

The Origins of Memorial Day: Know Your History

Earlier today, I noticed several people sharing the following story:

KNOW YOUR HISTORY: Memorial Day was started by former slaves on May, 1, 1865 in Charleston, SC to honor 257 dead Union Soldiers who had been buried in a mass grave in a Confederate prison camp. They dug up the bodies and worked for 2 weeks to give them a proper burial as gratitude for fighting for their freedom. They then held a parade of 10,000 people led by 2,800 Black children where they marched, sang and celebrated.

I never heard of this before and since most of our history was hidden, I wanted to know if this was true. So, I contacted one of the smartest people I know that happens to work in the history department of a Wisconsin University. Thankfully, she was able to steer me in the right direction.

After some research I discovered that in May 1865, free blacks in Charleston reburied dead Union prisoners of war and held a cemetery dedication ceremony but it is undetermined that this event is the origin of Memorial Day. The custom of holding observances (including the laying of flowers on burial sites) to remember and honor those who gave their lives in military service goes back many hundreds, if not thousands, of years. In the United States, that custom has long since been formalized in the creation of Memorial Day (formerly known as Decoration Day), a federal holiday observed on the last Monday in May to remember the men and women who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. Traditionally, every year the President of the United States (or, in his absence, another high-ranking government official) visits Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day to honor all those Americans who have died in military service to their country by participating in a symbolic wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns.

In a formal sense, the modern Memorial Day originated with an order issued in 1868 by Maj. Gen.John A. Logan, the commander in chief of the Grand Army of the Republic, for the annual decoration of war graves:

Three years after the Civil War ended, on May 5, 1868, the head of an organization of Union veterans — the Grand Army of the Republic (GAR) — established Decoration Day as a time for the nation to decorate the graves of the war dead with flowers. Maj. Gen. John A. Logan declared that Decoration Day should be observed on May 30. It is believed that date was chosen because flowers would be in bloom all over the country.

The first large observance was held that year at Arlington National Cemetery, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The ceremonies centered around the mourning-draped veranda of the Arlington mansion, once the home of Gen. Robert E. Lee. Various Washington officials, including Gen. and Mrs. Ulysses S. Grant, presided over the ceremonies. After speeches, children from the Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Orphan Home and members of the GAR made their way through the cemetery, strewing flowers on both Union and Confederate graves, reciting prayers and singing hymns.

Regardless of when Decoration Day (or Memorial Day) may have been officially established, though, debate continues to this day regarding exactly when and where the first observance of this nature was held in the United States. In May 1966 the city of Waterloo, New York, was designated as the "Birthplace of Memorial Day" via a Congressional resolutions and presidential proclamation commemorating a patriotic observance held in that town one hundred years earlier:

The story of Memorial Day begins in the summer of 1865, when a prominent local druggist, Henry C. Welles, mentioned to some of his friends at a social gathering that while praising the living veterans of the Civil War it would be well to remember the patriotic dead by placing flowers on their graves. Nothing resulted from this suggestion until he advanced the idea again the following spring to General John B. Murray. Murray, a civil war hero and intensely patriotic, supported the idea wholeheartedly and marshalled veterans' support. Plans were developed for a more complete celebration by a local citizens' committee headed by Welles and Murray.

On May 5, 1866, the Village was decorated with flags at half mast, draped with evergreens and mourning black. Veterans, civic societies and residents, led by General Murray, marched to the strains of martial music to the three village cemeteries. There impressive ceremonies were held and soldiers' graves decorated. One year later, on May 5, 1867, the ceremonies were repeated. In 1868, Waterloo joined with other communities in holding their observance on May 30th, in accordance with General Logan's orders. It has been held annually ever since.

The "First Decoration Day," as this event came to be recognized in some circles in the North, involved an estimated ten thousand people, most of them black former slaves. During April, twenty-eight black men from one of the local churches built a suitable enclosure for the burial ground at the Race Course. In some ten days, they constructed a fence ten feet high, enclosing the burial ground, and landscaped the graves into neat rows. The wooden fence was whitewashed and an archway was built over the gate to the enclosure. On the arch, painted in black letters, the workmen inscribed "Martyrs of the Race Course."

At nine o'clock in the morning on May 1, the procession to this special cemetery began as three thousand black schoolchildren (newly enrolled in freedmen's schools) marched around the Race Course, each with an armload of roses and singing "John Brown's Body." The children were followed by three hundred black women representing the Patriotic Association, a group organized to distribute clothing and other goods among the freedpeople. The women carried baskets of flowers, wreaths, and crosses to the burial ground. The Mutual Aid Society, a benevolent association of black men, next marched in cadence around the track and into the cemetery, followed by large crowds of white and black citizens.

The official dedication ceremony was conducted by the ministers of all the black churches in Charleston. With prayer, the reading of biblical passages, and the singing of spirituals, black Charlestonians gave birth to an American tradition. In so doing, they declared the meaning of the war in the most public way possible — by their labor, their words, their songs, and their solemn parade of roses, lilacs, and marching feet on the old planters' Race Course.

After the dedication, the crowds gathered at the Race Course grandstand to hear some thirty speeches by Union officers, local black ministers, and abolitionist missionaries. Picnics ensued around the grounds, and in the afternoon, a full brigade of Union infantry, including Colored Troops, marched in double column around the martyrs' graves and held a drill on the infield of the Race Course. The war was over, and Memorial Day had been founded by African Americans in a ritual of remembrance and consecration. Although contemporaneous accounts from the Charleston Daily Courier describe and document the 1865 ceremony that took place there, and the event was one the earliest known observances similar to what we would now recognize as Memorial Day, whether it was truly the first such ceremony, and what influence it might have had on later observances, are still matters of contention. Professor Blight termed it "the first Memorial Day" because it predated most of the other contenders, but he noted he has no evidence that it led to General Logan’s call for a national holiday in 1868: "I'm much more interested in the meaning that’s being conveyed in that incredible ritual than who's first," he said. Well, I hope that clears up any questions about the Birthplace of Memorial Day. I pray that you have a safe, enjoyable celebration honoring those who died for the freedoms we enjoy today.

Justice for Freddy Gray: Remember???

Today, I watched three hours of news coverage about Baltimore. The various news outlets were very detailed when reporting about the clean up process, businesses trying to recover and reports from an unidentified prisioner that claimed Freddy Gray was trying to hurt himself while in the police van and he obviously is a credible witness with x-ray vision because he allegedly witnessed this despite being separated by a solid metal partition. Over a week ago, Freddy Gray died from a severed spinal column while in custody of the Baltimore Police Department. The day Gray was being laid to rest, residents began to lash out because of their frustration. Almost immediately, the news shifted from the death of Freddy Gray to what many news outlets referred to as riots.

I was watching the news as they reported about the riots; the social unrest of those living in Baltimore. There was no denying that some businesses were destroyed and looting was taking place but there was no backstory. In order to find out what happened prior to the social unrest, we had to look to bloggers, social activists and other non - conventional methods of obtaining information to find out what happened. While watching CNN, MSNBC and FOX, there were no reports about the black baby dolls hanging from trees, the alleged calling of black demonstrators, who peacefully gathered for six days, niggers and referring to white protesters as nigger lovers. Almost every reporter focused on getting the person they were interviewing to condemn the violence. Also, there were false reports that members of the Bloods and Crips called a truce to attack police officers.

With each report, more attention was diverted away from the death of Freddy Gray and focused on the police in riot gear, the buildings that were burned and the clean up efforts. For the past two days, all attention has been focused on the mother that attacked her son when she spotted him throwing rocks at police officers. Again, the conversation was not about Freddy Gray but had people chiming in on the mother's action, with groups debating if her actions were justified or not. All of this reporting from Baltimore focused on everything except the death of Freddy Gray. As we look at the events unfold before our eyes, we become engaged in other discussions without realizing we're being lead astray with stories of mass distraction. Once the mother retuens home from her press tour, the debris is bagged, the broken glass replaced and the fires extinguished, we realize that stores can be rebuilt, broken glass can be replaced but Freddy Gray remains in a grave and we don't have any definitive answers regarding the events that caused him to suffer a severed spinal column while in police custody. Watching the news, it seems that broken glass is more important than broken spines. While we're getting distracted, there are six police officers on paid administrative leave and we don't know there names. The question that's still on my mind is why does the destruction of property garner more outrage and media coverage than the destruction of a h6man life?

1443: Moor(s) Than a Year to Remember

I reside in one of those Southern states that celebrate Confederate Memorial Day on the last Monday in April; evidence that racism still has deep Southern roots. Why are there celebrations honoring the Confederacy? I have some white friends tnat tried to explain that it's part of their heritage while I tried to explain to them that it represents hate. Needless to say, we never could agree that the Confederacy represents a heritage of hate. I guess I will never understand why it's embraced but I know what it represents. Does Germany have a Nazi Remembrance Day on their calendar? I seriously doubt it. Only in America will certain state be allowed to honor terrorists. Since I can't change the fact that this day is considered a holiday in my state, I can use this day to provide some insight on the evolution of the Uppity Negro.

It is ironic that what started as a religious Crusade ended up in the enslavement of a continent. The cruel and inhuman Atlantic slave trade was a culmination of religious, political and social developments in Western Europe and North Africa. The literature on this subject is vast and has been extensively analyzed both from European and African perspectives. Here we look at it through the prism of Muslim history, examining how the slave trade was influenced by events in North Africa and how it influenced Muslim societies in West Africa.

It is not commonly appreciated that the first target of slavery in West Africa were the Moors (the Portuguese and the Spanish referred to all Muslims regardless of racial differences as Moors). A description of the first raids has come down to us through the writings of the Portuguese writer Azurara. In 1443, an expedition was financed and organized explicitly to capture more Muslims. The Maghrib was in an advanced state of political disintegration and the presence of these predatory ships was hardly noticed in the palaces of the Emirs, busy plotting against each other. In 1443, the Moors fought for their freedom so the could return to their homes. Essentially, this was the year the Uppity Negro was born.

Not to be associated with the stereotypical “FOR SALE” Uppity Negro a.k.a. “bourgeois” or the punk*** social brokers a.k.a. “political pimps”. The Uppity Negro is A FEARLESS black person who by social definition is “not in their place”. UNAPOLOGETIC. VAINGLORIOUS. MULTIFARIOUS. JUST. AUDACIOUS. A black person who knows his or her American legacy, his or her actualized social status, and his or her social and emotional plights with still the identical high regard to self as an equally entitled American due the same privileges, attitudes, concessions, and respectability of THE ENTITLED. Conscious of his or her impressive yet awkward esteemed existence throughout the evolution of America’s prescription to annihilate, denigrate, ignore, placate, satirize, extort, ostracize, and water-down the institution of the Uppity Negro; immune to The Entitled’s reverse psychological guilt of the legacy. Conscious of the debt owed by the country to the legacy. Equally conscious of the debt owed by blacks to blacks. APPRECIATIVE of the expensive price paid by ancestral Uppity Negroes for the presumed entitlement claimed. ADAMANT. Never whining, never begging. DEMANDING. NEVER ASHAMED. COCKY (rightfully). COMMITTED with imperial passion to define “their place” as equal (if not BETTER.)

People admit and defend a meaning that was created to destabilize them for nearly 600 years (ago) and counting rather that destabilize the perpetuated meaning. It didn’t mean a bourgeois slave in 1442/1443. It meant a resister to the system in 1442/1443 when the first slaves were taken to Portugal and fought to get back home. It always meant the adage, “You think you are too good”. During slavery it meant the question in intimidation, (Oh, you think) "You’re too good to pick that cotton?" During Reconstruction it meant, “Oh, you’re too good to buy from me or work for me?” So they, racist, jealous Whites burned our businesses, burned our communities, hung our men, and we defeated and scared again by this new thing, Jim Crow, went to work for them again. We started to buy from them only and teach each other we were worthless and needed them to survive. For decades during Jim Crow it meant, “Oh, you’re too good to walk through the back door” or “You’re too good to give me your land?” Then we found our fathers or grandfathers hanging from a tree. Our people with dignity were called UPPITY. Then one time, they taunted and terrorized with words, “you’re too good to sit in the back of the bus?” to a nice little fed-up lady. She in turn got UPPITY, talked back, and remained seated.

Being an Uppity Negro does not mean bourgeois. It does not mean a person who has left the community behind or has forgotten where they came from. It has never meant that. Black people picked up those ideas in slavery because they were actually jealous of the UPPITY NEGRO slave/captive that had the courage to fight back or run away. Courage was a characteristic to covet and at the same time be afraid of because it was treason to bestow it on the plantation. Courage is still a very dangerous characteristic to bestow in seeking liberation on our modern day plantations (our communities, our churches, our jobs, our families). That is why we “whisper” about injustice instead of speak out. Uppity Negroes didn’t whisper on the plantation. They walked tall.

I've never been one to "know my place." I can't recall a time in my life where I fit in; maybe it was the blood of the Moors pulsating through my veins, crying out for change. I've always used my God given talents in an attempt to help others. In the vein of DuBois, I humbly embrace the recognition as one of the "talented tenth" in an effort to obtain enough status to effectively bring about change. As I embrace this new challenge, it is my desire to use my gift and other redeemable smattering of talents that I have been blessed with to be able to make uncomfortable those things that need to be unsettled, provide a salve to those things that need to be saved and to unashamedly embrace my hertiage. I hope you join me on this continuing journey of discovery. Peace and Blessings!