Innocence Lost

Rape is an ugly word, Rapist an even uglier person. To be accused of raping someone is one of the most heinous crimes to be accused of. The damage to someone’s reputation and credibility is mind boggling. What’s even worse is someone watching it happen and doing nothing. I know by now you have heard about the young men who were attending a party at Hofstra University last month that were charged with raping a woman while there
http://www.newsday.com/long-island/nassau/cops-hofstra-student-s-rape-was-planned-by-group-1.1449126 It turns out these young men were tried in the media before even stepping in front of a judge. I have to admit I was thinking to myself at the time "Please don't let them be black ”. I could hear the pundits, talking heads and the internet ablaze with derogatory, degrading and downright racist rhetoric. I was Alternately happy and saddened when it was confirmed that the young lady lied on the Young men. http://gothamist.com/2009/09/18/details_about_hofstra_students_fake.php
Much like the Duke Lacrosse case http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2007/04/11/national/a113721D83.DTL&hw=duke&sn=012&sc=466

I was happy that these young men did not commit this horrible act, but saddened that this young woman, who obviously has self esteem issues would let herself be put in this type of compromising behavior. Then I was angry at these young men that they felt this would be alright to basically run a train on a woman and have the audacity to film it (granted it was the filming that actually proved the sex was consensual) It is still an ugly incident on the part of all parties involved. I was at first in favor of having this young woman charged with reporting a false crime, being that these young men’s faces and names were plastered all over newspapers, the internet and TV. I think this woman really needs help and can only hope that she finds it. I brought up that story to talk about an incident that just happened last week a 15 year old was apparently raped and beaten for 2 ½ hours out side of a high school homecoming dance http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/28/california.rape.investigation/index.html
According to police reports as many as 10 people were involved in the actual rape and beating. while as many as 20 more watched as this young woman was brutally assaulted.What does this say about a person, that would stand there and watch this happen and do nothing.

One of the victim’s friends Kamie Baker blamed school district officials for not doing enough to protect her school -- and her friend. She said none of the four officers who were at the homecoming dance was patrolling the school premises even though there were a dozen young men hanging out just a few feet from the gym entrance. She says school officials chose not to take any action "I looked outside of the gym and I saw 12 to 15 guys, sitting there, with no IDs," Baker said at the hearing. "The officers -- not only did they not check the IDs of those students or men sitting outside of our campus, but the security officers who are employed here did no ... checking either. The assistant principal looked outside and actually saw those men, and did nothing about it." What does this say about our ability to protect our children when the people hired to do just that can’t or won’t protect them. I will not rush to judgment on this case, but whoever did this to that young girl needs to be put in prison where they can see how it feels to be raped and brutally beaten for a few hours. Fake rape accusations make it harder for real victims to report sexual assaults. The problem is that both women are not through being victimized, by the system, family ,friends both schools and the memories they will have to live with for the rest of their lives.

A hero ain't nothing but a sandwich

I was watching a video the other day of rapper Chamillionare talking about the time he met Michael Jordan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUlIa3pt0o8. .He found out the hero and the man he worshipped, were two different people. Which is usually the case. We tend to worship people based on perception, rather than any real knowledge of their personality. I have read stories for years about Michael Jordan being arrogant and self centered.That is what probably made him the greatest player ever. That is not an excuse to act like an ass. When you think of a hero, who do you think of? What makes someone heroic? Think about this, some people say their heroes are Martin Luther King, Jesse Jackson, even Muhammed Ali. Now MLK was a great leader and the things he did for us as a people can never be underestimated, but according to rumor he was a womanizer. Does that make him any less heroic? Does it matter? Jesse Jackson had child out of wedlock, does that diminish Operation Push, The Rainbow Coalition or the fact that he was the first African American to win a presidential primary. No it doesn’t diminish anything it just means he’s a flawed individual. Muhammed Ali was a known womanizer does that take away from his greatness in the ring? Of course not.

The point I’m making is that we put too much stock in peoples public persona, cultivated images and their exploits on the playing field. We need to stop the hero worship of athletes and entertainers. It’s fine to admire someone for their abilities, but understand they are human just like us. They make mistakes just like us and most of them don’t deserve “Hero Worship”. The problem is, a lot of our kids don’t have realistic expectations.They look to sports and entertainment to show them the way. Not enough kids know who Dr Ben Carson is http://www.achievement.org/autodoc/page/car1bio-1 or even Dr Vivian Thomas
http://www.medicalarchives.jhmi.edu/vthomas.htm . I’m not saying you have to idolize Doctors or surgeons, but understand there are other alternatives than being Lil Wayne or Kobe Bryant. Two talented individuals but hardly the role models you need to emulate. The closest person I have to a hero is Joe F Smith my grandfather .The patriarch of the Smith family. He and my grandmother have been married 63 years and still talk to each other like newlyweds. My grandfather was not a rich man moneywise, but he is rich in character, integrity and honesty. My grandfather taught me about family ,hardwork and sacrifice. Life lessons that being young and hardheaded I didn’t heed until I was older.I am eternaly grateful for my grandfather.he taught me how to be a man. The best thing anyone can do is to take the life lessons that your elders teach you and use them to become a better person. Stop Hero worshipping celebrities. In the Immortal words of Chuck D “Most of my hero’s don’t appear on no stamp”. I’ll take it a step further a hero ain’t nothing but a sandwich.

Rush ,Racism and The Rooney Rule

So Rush Limbaugh was dropped from the group trying to buy the ST Louis Rams. http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4559454. I really don’t have a problem with it. I mean if he had the money to invest, why not let him invest? Granted Limbaugh has made many outrageous statements and racially insensitive remarks. In 2003, he was forced to resign from ESPN's Sunday NFL Countdown after saying of Philadelphia's Donovan McNabb: "I think what we've had here is a little social concern in the NFL. The media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well." He has also been quoted as saying “. I mean, let’s face it; we didn’t have slavery in this country for over 100 years because it was a bad thing. Quite the opposite: slavery built the South. I’m not saying we should bring it back; I’m just saying it had its merits. For one thing, the streets were safer after dark.” and “Look, let me put it to you this way: the NFL all too often looks like a game between the Bloods and the Crips without any weapons. There, I said it”There you have it the comedy stylings of Rush Limbaugh.

I say if this racist wants to own a team, let him. I don’t have a problem with it at all It’s not like the majority of the NFL owners don’t agree with him. On the contrary they probably do. Think about this, if it was not for The Rooney Rule http://national-football-league-nfl.suite101.com/article.cfm/what_is_the_rooney_rule The NFL would still be using the good old boy network and hiring and firing the same coaches all over again. None of whom were black. They all probably think like him, they just won’t say it for obvious PR reasons. I mean Marge Schott owned a professional sports team http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1355/is_n17_v83/ai_13459219/ .
She was an outright racist and she only got suspended for 1 yr. I just think it’s hypocritical for all these athletes to now be concerned about who is trying to buy a franchise, when they haven’t even done the homework on their own team owners. How many of them give money and support racist organizations in government and the media? I do admire all those that spoke out about Rush, but don’t just pick and choose what you feel is the hot button issue of the day.

I said before I don’t have a problem with Rush wanting to own a team. What I do have a problem with, is him thinking there would be no backlash. Dave Checketts should have known that Roger Goodell was not going to just let that happen without some type of
misgivings or input from Jesse, Al http://sports.espn.go.com/nfl/news/story?id=4553445
And company. My problem now is with that fact that Rush wants to blame the Obama administration for him not getting to own a franchise. I was going to give him a pass on this nonsense, but he went and did what serial racists do, he blamed someone else. I say the Rams have a few more problems that they need to discuss that are more important than who actually owns them. I mean they are 0-5 Rush could have perked up morale by naming them the St Louis Porch Monkeys or how about the Jiggaboos. Rush wants to blame Obama for him getting dropped from the group. He did say he hoped Obama would fail, I guess he likes failures. I mean with the Rams record, he should be in good company.

When I B on the Mic

“Hip Hop they sat out in the dark, they used to do it out in the park” With this famous refrain we learned “how it all started way back when”. So what happened? I mean I love To see where Hip Hop has gone from the projects to Park Place, but where is the soul? I was on a hip hop website just today and there was an article about a semi famous rapper named Saigon who was cosigning 50 cents ‘gangsta” “he’s a goon, he’s in the streets”. When did being “in the streets” become a prerequisite for being a dope MC? What happened to MC’s trying to uplift the masses? I know I’m a hater or I’m just old and out of touch lol. That may be true, but all these rappers letting their ‘guns bust” and “laying bodies down” are basically caricatures and roles that they play .The problem is you have kids who try to emulate this nonsense and prove they can “bust a cap” at somebody http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2009/0511091cred1.html
Now this idiot may have ruined his life trying to be a thug.

Don’t get me wrong I am all for freedom of speech and freedom of expression. The problem is how to counteract the ignorance with intelligence. You can go to Youtube or World Star Hip Hop and see an array of, I’ll loosely call them “MC’s” bragging about how gully they are. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o8Svo7ceIr4 or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKLs6MTf14g . The problem is a song like this
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BOtFcuDtOLU will not get any airplay because it goes against the grain. I’m not saying every song has to be “Fight the Power”. I’m all for party records. I actually have to give props to Soulja Boy tell em, he’s following his own lane and not trying to follow any other formula. My problem is strictly with the studio killers. Right now if you’re a millionaire why are you talking about shooting and robbing? I know I know “I’m just speaking on the harsh realities of my existence” I am so tired of that BS line. Why not try and change that reality? I just want to see people with skills, show they have skills leave all the gun talk to people that really live that life.

I know plenty of street cats and former street cats.They laugh at these studio gangsters that perpetuate the ignorance in Hip Hop now. It seems like the thing to do is name yourself after a semi famous or infamous bad guy i.e. 50 Cent , Freeway Rick Ross, Noriega to name a few. They take the name and persona of said bad guy and use it to push their agenda of being Super Killer Thug . Now in the 70’s when you had Blaxploitation flicks all the heroes were pimps and gangsters. The difference in those movies was that the enemy was always the establishment, from The Mack to Superfly. They were always fighting the system and trying to get out of the game. Now the game is to act like a buffoon and talk about how many black men you can kill. How many guns you bust? Maybe it’s just nostalgia on my part ,or lack of any real lyrical skills from the “goons” that populate the culture, but I want to see MC’s really be MC’s and spit a hot 16 once in awhile without gun talk. In the words of Jay Z “It’s only so long fake thugs can pretend” I’m gonna leave you with one of the best to ever do it . Peace and Love people

Things Done Changed

You know today I had a blog all ready to talk about Derrion Albert. The 16 year old honor student, who was brutally beaten last week and died from his injuries. I was ready to talk about the stupidity and lack of guidance in the lives of the young “men” that attacked and killed him. I was going to discuss the cause and affect of this type of ghetto mentality. I was all set to place the blame on everything from BET to Hip Hop music for their portrayal of black men in society. I had to take a long look in the mirror and place the blame where it belongs, squarely on our shoulders. Yes we are to blame for these incidents. As much as I want to disagree with Bill Cosby's comments on the black community, Dr Huxatble is on point.

Had this incident been racial, The NAACP, Al Sharpton and a host of others would be up in arms. Right now everyone is talking about it and saying what a tragedy it is. The problem is, it happens all the time. Nationally, homicide is the leading cause of death for black young men ages 10-24, and the second leading cause of death for black women ages 15-24. While African Americans comprise 13.5% of the U.S. Population, 43% of all murder victims in 2007 were African American, 93.1% of whom were killed were African Americans. http://www.hhscenter.org/
We are killing ourselves; we need to take responsibility for our actions. I want to see all the black organizations and so called black leaders take a stand against that. Right now we are our own worst enemies. When does it stop, when do we begin to take back our neighborhoods? We are going to mourn this young man as we should. What about all the others that have been lost to senseless violence.

The blame should be placed with us; the problem is what do we do to correct the situation. I remember when I was young our neighbors could chastise us even spank us if we did wrong.Nowadays you will end up getting into an altercation with someone for trying to correct their child. In the words of The Notorious B.I.G “Things done changed”. I’m not going to blame it only on single parent households, the lack of black role models, Reaganomics or any of the other myriad of excuses we want to use. The problem is us and until we change us and our attitudes as a people, there will always be another Derrion Albert. I do send my condolences to the Albert family as no parent should have to bury their child. We have to wake up and do something about the destruction of our people, our communities. No jokes today, peace and love people.