Today’s cable news carried the headlines about Virginia Democratic Governor Ralph Northam. Northam is the 73rd Governor of Virginia, being elected in January 2018. He attended Eastern Virginia Medical School. He is a physician by occupation having served as an United States Army medical officer from 1984 to 1992. Northam completed pediatric residency at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas, and did a child neurology fellowship at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D. C. and John Hopkins Hospital. Since 1992, Northam had been a pediatric neurologist at Children’s Hospital of the King’s Daughters in Norfolk, VA.
On February 1, 2019, a photo from Northam’s medical school yearbook’s page was released. It shows an image of a person alleged to be Northham in blackface standing next to a person dressed in the hood and robe of the Ku Klux Klan. A spokesman for Eastern Virginia Medical School confirmed that the image appeared in its 1984 yearbook.
I watched his press conference and could address Governor Northam’s excuses and inconsistencies, but there is something that weighs on me more. That something is why would a medical school allow such an environment? There is a presumptive thought that anyone who wants to practice medicine respects human lives regardless of skin color. Apparently, Eastern Virginia Medical School did not instill respect for all humans in their curriculum. Read the rest of this entry
I did not watch the Apprentice. In fact, until campaigning in 2016, I barely ever heard the name Donald Trump. I saw him on television touting the “Birther” claims and thought of it as a circus. Barack Obama could have been born in a plane flying over Germany. His mom was still a natural born U.S. Citizen which according to federal law, makes him a United States citizen. In other words, I paid little attention to that nonsense.
Yes, I heard that he owned some casinos and hotels. Not being a New Yorker, I had not heard of Trump Tower until 2016. Back around1998, I knew that Trump attempted to team with Jessie Ventura who was then governor of the State of Minnesota, and that he was considering a run for the presidency. I didn’t pay that much attention.
With the recent news about Omarosa, I didn’t pay it much attention at first. I can’t keep up with the names of the people who have gone through the revolving door of Trump’s administration. What did peek my interest however, were Trump’s recent tweets about Omarosa.
Yes, I find his arrogant and condescending name-calling as signs of immaturity, insecurity, inadequacy, and completely unprofessional. There are people who find Trump’s name calling of Omarosa as an offense to all women. I don’t disagree. What I do see however, is something that goes much deeper. It goes into Trump’s attitude about citizens. Here’s an analogy …
Let’s imagine that parents did not support Trump for president. Their interests in parenting, whether it be custody issues, education, health, nutrition, capture and prosecution of child sex abusers, are all packed under the one category of “parental rights”. Trump wants to try to win parents over to support him. Read the rest of this entry
“least racist” means “racist” but not as racist as others you know.
Just a moment ago, I heard the news play Donald Trump’s statement where he said he’s the “least racist person …” Mr. Trump, “least racist” means you are “racist” but by your own comparisons, you think others are more racist than yourself. Other than the Supreme Court of the United States, you hold the highest power in the land. Racism is defined as person who shows or feels bigotry or prejudice against people of other races, because they believe their particular race is superior to others.
Give such people power and authority over the lives of others, and we have systemic, institutionalized racism.
Mr. Trump, being “least racist” is unacceptable. You represent a country of people of all races, all genders, all economic statuses. You represent the healthy and the sick; the educated and poorly educated; people of all ages; people in rural and urban communities. You represent this nation, and your representation is not making America great. In fact, it has impugned us to the world. If you think that returning America to the days before the Civil War, or to the days of Jim Crow is making it great, then you might want to remember that it was those very things that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. challenged. This country made promises and wrote privileges in its constitution. There is no room for racism. We’ve come too far to turn back now. Read the rest of this entry
I heard how he disrespected women, but I’m not a woman.
I heard how he disrespected Black Americans, but I’m not Black.
I heard him disparage those of Mexican descent, but I’m not of Mexican descent.
I heard him disparage Muslims, but I’m not Muslim.
I saw him mock a disabled person, but I’m not disabled.
My only concern was jobs.
The same thing is happening on the internet. There is a group of White Supremacists that do not want people of different races to associate and support each other online.
Josh Joseph went to visit his good friends Darren and Hayli Frank in Spring, Texas, just north of Houston, for the 4th of July weekend. He never expected that he was going to be offending anyone in the neighborhood by doing so. For the record, Josh is black, and his friends are white. They were celebrating the holiday out in their front yard, and one of their neighbors likely saw their black guest. When they woke up the next morning, the Franks’ $50,000 truck was covered in racist vulgarities that the vandals had spray-painted.
The Franks live in a pretty nice neighborhood. They never thought that they would be the victims of a hate crime, especially not in their area. But, as people are finding out, racism is everywhere, including places you’d least expect to find it. Even though the Franks lived in a decent area overall, Texas…
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What a busy week this has been.
The Supreme Court of the United States has made marriage equality the law of the land. Within hours of the decision, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a statement directly challenging the decision for instigating a battle over “religious liberty.”
I wonder how he feels about heterosexual couples who co-habitate together outside of marriage, or has he erased the word “fornication” from his Bible? Marriage equality is not about sex. It’s about same-gender spouses having the same rights as heterosexual couples as beneficiaries and heirs. As Judge Judy often says on her program to heterosexual couples who live together outside of marriage, there is no law for the courts to divide property and order one party to pay bills “because you decided to play house without being married.” Read the rest of this entry
Friends of Padre Steve’s World
I have been amazed over the past couple of days following the terrorist attack committed by Dylann Roof on the pastor and parishioners of Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church. What has amazed me is the number of prominent Republican politicians, including a number running for president who are in full denial mode about the motivation of this young man. Not only that, anyone now asserting the truth that this was a racially motivated terrorist attack committed by a White Supremacist who evidently wrote a manifesto on a White Supremacist website, who told his victims “You rape our women and you’re taking over our country. And you have to go.” He confessed to the killings and even said that he almost didn’t go through with them because the people were so nice to him.
Even so prominent Republicans, Jeb Bush, Lindsey Graham, Mike Huckabee, Rick Perry…
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This is a very detailed story from someone whose boots were on the ground.
A protest in Cleveland, Ohio, after police officer Michael Brelo was acquitted for the shooting deaths of Timothy Russell and Malissa Williams. | Ricky Rhodes, Getty Image
On any given day, in any police department in the nation, 15 percent of officers will do the right thing no matter what is happening. Fifteen percent of officers will abuse their authority at every opportunity. The remaining 70 percent could go either way depending on whom they are working with.
That’s a theory from my friend K.L. Williams, who has trained thousands of officers around the country in use of force. Based on what I experienced as a black man serving in the St. Louis Police Department for five years, I agree with him. I worked with men and women who became cops for all the right reasons — they really wanted to help make their communities better. And I…
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A premeditated mass murder of civilians is happening in America. Its victims include the mentally ill, the disabled, the homeless, infants, children, and minorities. The majority of its victims are Black males.
While some victims of the American Holocaust are killed by civilians claiming self-defense, the majority are killed by deputized law enforcement. There are some prejudiced citizens who conclude that certain people are up to no good. They call the police who shoot to kill first before asking questions. Using color and claim of official right, there are no consequences for their actions.
The Eastern European Nazi driven Holocaust of the 1940’s was based on a racist ideology that regarded Jews as “parasitic vermin” worthy only of eradication. America too has an ideology that some people are burdens on society or allowing them to live creates burdens on society. For Hitler and other leaders of the Nazi movement, there was no human individuality. They believed that membership in the human race was a racially defined collective group. Read the rest of this entry
We’ve seen it over and over again. When law enforcement releases information to the media, written autopsy reports are included, but never autopsy photos. We get the drawings of a body showing wounds, but not actual photos. At trial is where the autopsy photos are shown to the jury. When those trials are live-streamed, the public seldom sees the autopsy photos because they are not nice. Medical examiners explain the autopsy. The photos are not left to the opinions of lay people.
That however, did not stop a blogger from not only obtaining autopsy photos, but also giving her opinion about what they show and challenging the mother of the dead teen to prove her wrong.
The video on the link for WCTV reports that they reached out to the blogger, but have not received a response. I urge you to watch the video. It includes an interview with Kendrick’s mom. Jackie Johnston, Kendrick’s mom, told WCTV that she blocked the person with the blog on Twitter after constant harassment, and doesn’t know why the person is attacking her family. Maybe Blackbutterfly7 can tell her why.
17-year old Kendrick Johnson was found dead on January 11, 2013, in the Lowndes High School gymnasium in the State of Georgia. His body was rolled up in a gym mat. A preliminary investigation and autopsy concluded that the death was accidental. Johnson’s family had a private pathologist conduct another autopsy which concluded that Kendrick died from blunt force trauma. Most people first hearing about the case, and seeing the photos of the gym and the mats, realized that Kendrick’s body could not “fall” into a tightly rolled up gym mat that was closely placed beside other gym mats.
WCTV reports:
“Valdosta, GA – On January 14th 2013, three days after Kendrick Johnson was found inside a rolled up gym mat at Lowndes High School, the Georgia Bureau of Investigations did an autopsy on the teen’s body. Jackie Johnson says last Thursday, those autopsy reports showed up on the website Re-News it, a blog that anonymously posts evidence and theories on national stories, what else they found, came as a shock.”
It’s only anonymous to those who have not been harassed and threatened by the cyber-extortionist cult. The blogger is Vicki Pate, sometimes spelled “Viki Pate” and on Twitter, now spelled “Vickie Pate.”
Pate got the autopsy photos and claimed that attorney Benjamin Crump lied about the independent autopsy. She is associated with others who publicly announce their mission against the Black Grievance Industry, which they refer to as the “BGI.” Read the rest of this entry
Very detailed and well written. Thanks so much for keeping us informed.
If you read nothing else this week, please make sure to read this.
Lavell Ford (blue shirt, center), Ezell Ford’s brother, stands among community residents calling for Justice.
LAPD Newton Division’s “Gang Enforcement Detail” Officers Sharlton K. Wampler and Antonio Villegas are the cops responsible for shooting Ezell Ford to death in South Los Angeles last month, according to a press release from the Los Angeles Police Department. The release of the names comes a full two weeks after the two cops shot and killed the unarmed 25 year-old in his own neighborhood as he laid on the ground on August 11, even as he complied with the officers’ demands. Much like Darren Wilson – the Ferguson cop who murdered Michael Brown (another unarmed young Black man gunned down by cops in his own neighborhood) – Wampler and Villegas were likely given the chance to flee and go into hiding. Also like Wilson, both officers are now on paid vacation.
A picture of an LAPD “gang enforcement”detail.
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Hat tip to Glenn Robinson for tweeting out the article.
The article on The Root hit me hard;
Reject the “He was a good kid” or “He was a criminal” narrative and lift up the “Black lives matter” narrative. Those who knew him say Brown was a good kid. But that’s not why his death is tragic. His death isn’t tragic because he was on his way to college the following week. His death is tragic because he was a human being and his life mattered. The good-kid narrative might provoke some sympathy, but what it really does is support the lie that as a rule black people, black men in particular, have a norm of violence or criminal behavior. The good-kid narrative says that this kid didn’t deserve to die because his goodness was an exception to the rule. This is wrong. This kid didn’t deserve to die, period. Similarly, reject the “He was a criminal” narrative surrounding the convenience store robbery because even if Brown did steal some cigars and have a scuffle with the shopkeeper, that is still not a justification for his killing. All black lives matter, not just the ones we deem to be “good.”
It caused me to think back about why, during the George Zimmerman case, I did not debate nor defend against accusations that Trayvon was a “thug.” Here we are again with Michael Brown, and there are folks trying to posture Michael as deserving of death because he was not a “good kid. “
The quote above explains what I have not been able to put in words. In essence, those arguments for justification convey that there are good Blacks who deserve to live, and bad Blacks whose lives should be cut-short. That standard is defined by people through racially bigoted eyes that are never satisfied. If they cannot find anything to use to criticize the victim, or when their attempts are proven false, they attack the family, and even attack extended families. Read the rest of this entry
Most of you who read this will know the experiences I am about to share with you as some of you reading have also been victimized by this individual. I am not sure exactly when the subject person started harassing others, but my point of reference starts with the George Zimmerman Trial.
I’m referring to the individual as my accuser. It never occurred to me that by exercising my right to freedom of speech, that a series of events would lead to being threatened, stalked, harassed, defamed, and eventually led to court. But, this is what happened and it happened as a result of my advocacy for Trayvon Martin.
During the Zimmerman trial, I became familiar with an individual over social media. I had blocked several of his twitter and Facebook accounts due to the racist comments, racist memes and threats of violence. As time went on and the verdict was announced, and in protesting the verdict, the subject harasser stepped up the memes. They were more disturbing as if this was his method of a victory parade essentially rubbing salt in the wounds.
But that was expected. I mean when you look at the blatant racism in his memes, in his tweets and on his Facebook pages, who would not expect anything different. His postings make it that he a person who believes in white supremacy ideology. Read the rest of this entry
On August 29, 2014, I wrote that when searching for a copy of the $40 million lawsuit filed against the Ferguson, MO police department, that I discovered other lawsuits that name various Ferguson police officers as defendants. In that post, I also wrote that the U.S. Department of Justice has a division to receive and investigate complaints against law enforcement who violate civil rights under color and claim of official right. Considering that some citizens of Ferguson stated that no private attorney was willing to go against Ferguson, it was my opinion that their only option was to file complaints with the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division.
Today, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder held a press conference announcing that the Department of Justice has opened an investigation into the Ferguson police department. The video is below. Please note that he says the investigation includes if the Ferguson police department has violated the constitution and/or federal law. Those are two different things under the DOJ. Read the rest of this entry
Aug 30
This gallery contains 9 photos.
Originally posted on QBG_Tilted Tiara:
For days now, I have been without words, speechless. It isn’t that I have been without thought, it is simply I have not had the heart to write the words. More and more I find myself truly at odds with my own innate desire to believe in the goodness…
Thanks for providing the video.
St. Paul police violently arrest a black man for sitting on bench, waiting for his children (VIDEO)
Aug 28, 2014 10:38am PDT by Jen Hayden
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From the Twin Cities Daily Planet:
The video, shot by the man’s cellphone, shows his interaction with officers as he attempts to pick up his children from New Horizon Academy in downtown St. Paul. As the officers force the man to put his hands behind his back, he drops his phone and the video goes black, but the audio continues and we hear the man crying for help and proclaiming that his kids are watching. Both officers in the video are white.
“Why do I have to let you know who I am?” the man tells the first female officer at the beginning of the video. “I don’t have to let you know who I am if I haven’t broken any laws.”
More…
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Photo by http://www.zastavki.com/
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We Hold These Truths To Be Self-Evident 