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!

Sticks and Stones

I received a notice from Google that this blog was going to be closed due to inactivity. I read the first and only post and I remembered why/when I created The Uppity Negro blog. At the time, I wanted to address the killing of Trayvonne Martin without inaudating the Lumberton Informer with posts that didn't directly affect my homtown. As I emotions of the tragic death of Martin filled my mind, I became a little emotional because never in a million years would I have imagined it would be open season on black males and the primary hunter would be police officers. It's been two years since I posted on this blog and I find it kismet that I post on the anniversary of the murder of Mack Charles Parker. Parker was a distant relative that lived in Lumberton but was lynched in the city of Poplarville, Mississippi after he was accused of raping a white woman. Parker was a 23 year old truck drive that was lynched on April 25, 1959 by 10 white men that were never indicted. We see all the advancements and think we've come a mighty long way but when the news is constantly reporting the modern day lynchings of black males like Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Tamir Rice, Freddy Gray and countless others, I realize we have a long way to go. It takes more than the election of the first African American president to classisfy America as post-racial.

Before going any further, I want to make it clear that I'm still blogging as the Lumberton Informer but I'm currently involved in a legal battle and in order to read the Lumberton Informer the reader must register their email address. Also, if you're interested in knowing more about Mack Charles Parker, you can check out the book Blood Juztice: The Lynching of Mack Charles Parker. It's a very interesting read. Now, let me address the title of this blog. The matter is actually addressed in tbe previous post but as a blogger of color, I get criticism from black and white people. A lot of white people are quick to try and label me as a racist because I'm unapologetically outspoken whereas a lot of black people like to label me as a sellout because I support police and vehemently oppose the hood mantra of no snitching. Let's be clear, I I witness a crime, I'm calling the police. It's time out for putting on blinders when it comes to protecting criminals. I will expose injustice in all forms. You can be wearing a hoodie or a badge. If you're breaking the law, you're not welcomed in my circle. I'm a lover of social media as well as social activism. One phrase I see a lot on social mefia is "if it's not directed, it's not respected." Most people that "know" me know I'm wired differently. I don't buy into internet thuggery. Here's my take on the phrase, I don't need your respect as long as I have your attention.

When a person decides to blog about social and/or political issues they must be prepared for attacks. I can deal with name calling even when they're made by the anonymous cowards. However, if you feel the need to resort to damaging my personal property and making threats, you've crossed the line of being a coward to being a cowardly criminal. I can deal with name calling. I think Dan Savage said it best in his open letter to Herman Cain.

"The strange irony of my life is that I've been called a faggot by niggers and been called a nigger by faggots. We need to see that we are all in the same boat, and while we stand around arguing about who is worthy, someone who considers us all to be worthless laughs all the way to the bank. Meanwhile, we step on each other, trying to gain a bit of extra footing of "success" while crushing another's soul."

Words are stones. Words have meaning. Words have life. Slurs are attacks and are tantamount to an attack, character assignation and in my opinion, slurs are the verbal equilivant to being spat on. As you can see, this blog is going to be slightly different, offering me a forum to discuss race relations in America, the recent diatribe Michael Eric Dyson wrote about Cornel West, the Spice epidemic and the New Jim Crow. I can't describe all the issues that will be discussed in this blog but I hope you join me on this journey of self-discovery.