People Killing African Albino Kids for Sick Skin Trade Activities

Deadly Skin Trade Preys on African Albinos

by Theunis Bates

Source: http://bit.ly/6KvoAr

LONDON (Nov. 23) – East Africa’s albinos have long suffered because of the color of their skin. Some are abandoned as babies by parents who regard their lack of pigment as a curse. Many more are subjected to taunts of “zeru” (Swahili for ghost) in school and on the street. But now Tanzania and Burundi’s 8,000 albinos face a more horrible threat, fueled by a macabre combination of superstition and economics.

Over the past two years — according to a new report from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies — at least 56 albinos in the two countries have been murdered, and their body parts used by witch doctors to make charms and potions. The last known killing took place on Oct. 21, when albino hunters attacked 10-year-old Gasper Elikana in northern Tanzania. A gang of men hacked the boy to death in front of his family and neighbors — who were wounded trying to protect the child — before fleeing with his severed leg.

 

Tony Karumba, AFP/Getty Images

Albino children take a break at a school for the blind in East Africa.

In the face of such brutality, thousands of albinos have gone into hiding, including 300 children being sheltered by the Red Cross at police-protected schools. “This is a great source of shame for the region,” says Isaac Mwaura, national coordinator for the Albinism Society in neighboring Kenya, and an albino himself. “These are people who lack melanin, who are vulnerable, who nature has not treated so kindly. To then attack them and deprive them of the right to live is simply barbaric.”

What sparked this outburst of targeted violence is still unclear. Some have blamed local folklore, which says albinos are endowed with mystical powers. “People think that we don’t die and many other things that aren’t true,” says Mwaura. “Albinos are seen as a cure, because they possess something out of the ordinary.”

However, Andrei Engstrand-Neacsu, one of the authors of the Red Cross report, says traditional beliefs aren’t solely to blame. He notes that the murders started in 2007, around the time of a mining and fishing boom in northern Tanzania, when many people launched new business ventures. Superstitious entrepreneurs desperate to succeed may have bought “good luck” albino trinkets from witch doctors. “This is mostly an economic activity carried out by criminals who have seized an opportunity,” he says. “They have found people sufficiently stupid to believe that by using magic potions made of albino body parts they could become rich or more powerful.”

What’s certain is that buyers — most of whom are believed to be Tanzanian — are willing to pay a high price for these horrific charms. Police have reported albino limbs being sold by witch doctors for $200, while a full “albino kit” — consisting of limbs, nose, tongue, ears and genitals – costs $75,000. That’s an astronomical sum in a country where almost 60% of the population lives on less than $1 a day, and it has led many experts to conclude that the demand for these goods comes from the upper-echelons of Tanzanian society. “Poor people cannot afford to spend so much money on a little concoction from a witch doctor,” says the Albinism Society’s Mwaura. “The buyers must be wealthy. They are not even trying to strike it rich, they’re trying to strike it richer.”

Under pressure from campaigners at home and abroad, the Tanzanian government has started to crack down on the grim trade. In January, it revoked all traditional healers’ operating licenses. (Many, however, flouted the ban and continued to trade.) In the spring, President Jakaya Kikwete ordered all adults to fill out a form and name anyone who they suspected of killing an albino. The courts have also been getting tough: So far this year, seven people have been handed the death penalty for taking part in albino murders.

Franck Alphonse, director of the Tanzania Albino Center (which cares for 79 albino children), though, argues that these recent cases have failed to unearth the true criminals who ordered the attacks. “The gangs who kill the albinos, who earn $250 for murdering an albino, have been sentenced to death,” he says. “But the sentence doesn’t touch those wealthy people who sent those criminals to murder the albino in the first place. The source of the crime is still there.”

Despite these doubts, there’s evidence that this hard-line approach is scaring off some albino hunters. The brutal killing of Gasper Elikana in October was the first reported murder in three months.

However, it’s likely that the region’s albinos will only feel truly safe when their black-skinned neighbors regard them as ordinary people and not supernatural beings. “What’s needed is education,” says Engstrand-Neacsu. “We need to make people understand what albinism really is. Ignorance is the origin of discrimination. And ignorance has ultimately led to these crimes.”

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

Lou Dobbs weighing White House run in 2012

Posted: November 23rd, 2009 08:17 PM ET

Can Lou Dobbs make the leap from the anchor desk to the Oval Office?

(CNN) – Can Lou Dobbs make the leap from the anchor desk to the Oval Office?

A radio interviewer on WTOP joked Monday about the “crazy” idea that the former CNN host could mount a White House bid in 2012 – but Dobbs wasn’t laughing. “What’s so crazy about that?” he responded in the interview broadcast on the Washington, D.C. station.

“Well, I’ll tell you this much: it’s one of the discussions that we’re having,” Dobbs said. “For the first time, I’m actually listening to some people about politics.”

Dobbs, who amicably parted ways with the network earlier this month, also told former Sen. Fred Thompson that he was definitely weighing a run.

 

“I’m going to be talking some more with some folks who want me to listen to them in the next few weeks,” Dobbs said on the 2008 Republican presidential candidate’s radio show. “I just don’t even know even what to tell you in terms of where I’m leaning, because right now I’m fortunate to have just a number of wonderful options.”

The former anchor’s strong views on illegal immigration have made him a lightning rod for criticism from Hispanic groups, and a popular figure in some conservative quarters.

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

Obama to send Additional troops to Afghanistan-’Hell No!’ Says Barbara Lee, Danny Glover, Tom Hayden & Bobby Seale

//

President Obama is set to increase troops to Afghanistan..He announced that its his intention to ‘finish the job’. He says this after winning the Noble Peace Prize..and that has left many people upset. Afghanistan is a unwinable war..

Yesterday in downtown Oakland, Congress woman Barbara Lee held a rally/ press conference where she announced that she had introduced a bill HR 3699 that would prevent additional funding for the war in Afghanistan..

She kicks lots of wisdom why we need to be out of Afghanistan.

In this show we interview Barbara Lee as well as  actor Danny Glover and assemblyman Tom Hayden and  Black Panther founder Bobby Seale. DEFUND THE WAR IN AFGHANISTAN

Here’s the archive and link to the show..

http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/56410

5 Videos to Make Your Day: Michael Franti, Jessica Celious, Def Jeff, The Poetess, Jasiri X

//

Hey World (Don’t Give Up Version) music video from the Bay Area’s Michael Franti from his new album ALL REBEL ROCKERS! The words and imagery are very moving... Gotta wonder why we don’t hear songs like this too much on our urban outlets especially since its a huge hit overseas.

This is one of my favorite artists-Jessica Celious out of Los Angeles. She’s a a dope soul artist who put out a good album called Melodies of Life. She has a lot of great songs on that joint and finally a nice video to go along with one of the album’s songs Love Crimes.. We need to pay attention to this sista and her work..

Jasiri X return with a dope video that tells the story of the connection between Afghanistan and war, leading to her intimate yet volatile relationship with the United States. Afghanistan (HerStory) is produced by Kai Roberts and directed by Paradise the Arkitech of X-Clan.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbeN0he0dAI

This is a classic joint from my homegirl the Poetess.. It was one of the first records that addressed the issue of domestic violence.. It features Poetess, Def Jam, Almighty from Body of Soul and Kool G Rap.. dope record.. Sorry the video is disabled.. its typical of these backward record companies.. One day they’ll get it.. Thats why it only has 3000 views

Since we rocked Love’s Hurt which was produced by Def Jeff, I figured lemme toss in one more video.. See if y’all recall this joint from back in the days  called ‘Black to the Future‘

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

Def Jeff

What If Rihanna Was A Man and Chris Brown Was A Cop?

//

What If Rihanna Was A Man and Chris Brown Was A Cop? The Black Community’s Hypocrisy in Response to Police Brutality Versus Domestic Violence

by Jennifer McClune

Demico Boothe

Good day Facebook folks. I am an author, public intellectual and speaker. Simply put, my mission in life is to fully educate myself on the truths of human existence with heavy emphasis on Black African & European history and teach it to my people. —– Demico Boothe

SUBJECT LINE: You are truly stupid: EMAIL: Tell all of that crap to Steve McNair stupid bitch —- Demico Boothe

What if Rihanna was a black man and Chris Brown was a white cop?

What if the pictures released to the media were of an unarmed black suspect who was beaten by a white cop, and not those of a young black female pop star who was assaulted by her young, good-looking, celebrity boyfriend?

What if instead of bite marks (often used by rapists as a form of sexual aggression and control), it was revealed that the cop used his baton in the black male suspect’s rectum?

Would there still be two sides to that story?

Even with a picture of the trauma to his face and to his body?

Would we, as black people, still be asking what this man did to provoke the cop?

Somehow I doubt it.

No one has made the connection between intimate partner violence and police brutality. But black people’s glaringly different response to both clearly illustrates how deeply entrenched our community is with sexism.

But it occurred to me to switch the gender, race and authority roles in the scenario with Chris Brown and Rihanna after my most recent altercation with a misogynistic “brother” on Facebook.

The man’s name is Demico Booth. He is an ex-felon turned writer who describes himself on his Myspace page as a “Public Intellectual, Author, Speaker, True Soldier.”  His work explores the over-incarceration of black men in the U.S. Criminal Justice System.

According to an entry on Boothe on Wikipedia, he spent nearly 13 years in federal prison during which time he wrote his first book called “Why Are So Many Black Men In Prison?”

Boothe and I had only been friends on Facebook for little more than a week when I happened to take a closer look at his Facebook page. That’s when I saw this Status Update:

Question relating to the Chris Brown & Rihanna situation: On “Cheaters”, why is it okay and seen as ‘funny’ when women, who catch their men cheating, hit them, spit on them, burn their clothes etc., but if a man even does a fraction of that to a woman he is dogged and vilified??

Yes Chris Brown was definitely wrong, but why is it no one (especially Oprah and Tyra) ever talks about the abuse that women put onto men? God knows it is all too prevalent; there is even a term for one aspect of it: Baby-Mama Drama!!!! Everyone knows that women can play some very mean games. I guess it was okay for Rihanna to hit him and snatch the car wheel and all of that madness. I see it all the time on “Cheaters” where when women catch their man cheating they hit them and spit on them and burn their clothes up etc. etc. etc. and folks just laugh about it but if a MAN does even a percentage of that he is demonized and vilified. I tell you what: Tell Rihanna to do what she did to Chris Brown in that car to a police officer and see if she doesn’t have to go to the hospital afterwards. And it would be justified in the law’s eyes. —– Demico Boothe

One must first keep in mind that when black men talk about oppression they are deliberately excluding sexism and patriarchy, even though half of all black folks are women — which means that half of all black folks are victims of sexism and patriarchy.

Another thing to keep in mind is that like all oppressors, black men apply rules to the ones they oppress that they’d never apply to themselves — or think they should be expected to adhere to if they were talking about something they actually care about, like racism against black men.

This explains why Boothe, a black man who rails against white supremacy and the capitalist prison industrial complex, can get away with saying something like:

I absolutely hate “political correctness” because all too many times it involves the denial of commonsense and agenda pushing.

Even though this sounds like it could be coming out of the mouth of a white male right-wing pundit, since he’s taking about women “getting away with things,” in the same way that whites talk about blacks “getting away with things,” it makes perfect sense coming from a black male who benefits mightily from male privilege!

The following is the response I posted to Demico Boothe’s status update. After I posted it I stated that was then going to removed him as a Facebook friend because I have zero tolerance for apologists for violence against women. He then sent me a threatening email on Facebook, the screenshot of which I’ve included with this article that calls me “stupid bitch.”

SUBJECT LINE: You are truly stupid: EMAIL: Tell all of that crap to Steve McNair stupid bitch —- Demico Boothe

This is what I posted to his Status Update that resulted in such a horribly sexist and hostile response by email to me on Facebook:

To the men, and some women (sisterhood is powerful! Please note sarcasm!), in this discussion who are trying to obscure the reality of violence against women in this culture, for which there is NO EQUAL in violence towards men (except maybe men killing other men) here are THE FACTS:

The leading cause of death for African American women ages 15 to 45 is intimate partner homicide. That means that what Chris Brown did can, and often does, lead to MURDER. That means black men like Chris Brown (because black women ARE STILL THE LEAST LIKELY to date outside of our race) are killing young black women in such high numbers that it beats out accidents and every illness you can imagine.

Demico Booth wrote: “Everyone knows that women can play some very mean games.”

Why are you stereotyping “women”? What if a white person said: “Everyone knows that BLACK PEOPLE can play some very mean games.” How RACIST would that sound? Racist stereotypes are what cops use to justify the use “excessive force” against black men, because “Everyone knows that BLACK PEOPLE can play some very mean games.” So why is it ok for you to make sexist statements stereotyping women? Black people are WOMEN TOO! And Demico, the snide sexist comments you’ve made throughout this discussion, suggesting that women are to blame for provoking men to beat them, just exposes that the question you’ve posed in your status regarding Chris Brown and Rihanna is based on your misogynistic and terrifying views about women!

Demico Booth wrote: “I guess it was okay for Rihanna to hit him and snatch the car wheel and all of that madness. …. but if a MAN does even a percentage of that he is demonized and vilified.”

We all saw the photos of Rihanna after Chris brown beat her. But you still want to twist this into a “fight,” when it was clearly a beat down of a woman by a man?

DEMONIZED AND VILIFIED? CHRIS BROWN DIDN’T SERVE A DAY IN JAIL! He’s already back on the radio and on tour! Michael Vick got more time for beating dogs than Brown did for beating a BLACK WOMAN LIKE A DOG!

Demico, even though you are trying to make this society appear to be run by and for women, the REALITY that you delusional and sexist men’s rights activists try to deny is that men’s violence against women is THE PROBLEM — and no, violence against women is not taken seriously. And men with your views (and unfortunately the women who uphold those sick views too), are the reason why so many black women are being maimed and murdered!

Demico wrote: “And we are not just talking about women who use words; Rihanna did more than just use words from what I understand of the situation.”

I’m not sure how men like you sleep at night, but I’m sure it’s just fine because membership in patriarchy does come with its privileges. One being that you can twist anything a woman does, even after seeing pictures of her BEATEN face, into an opportunity to blame the victim and people will actually consider your views and not call them what they are — dangerous and sexist!

Did you even come from a woman? Because your hatred of women is so glaring! Chris Brown bit her face! I repeat: CHRIS BROWN BIT HER FACE LIKE A RABID DOG! Demico, any man who’d try to use what he did to Rihanna as an example of women hitting men, is sicker than Brown himself!

When I hear men like you make these kinds of declarations excusing men by blaming some aspect of their violence towards women on those women, I wonder if you’ve ever even spent time inside a woman or if you sprang directly from your father’s nut sack! Real talk!

Demico wrote: “Cuzzo, women kill men every day too. I personally have two friends that were killed by women who were controlling.”

Exceptions ARE NOT THE RULE! And even sick men’s rights activists like yourself can’t twist reality and make it so!

Demico, you’re not fooling me with this status update posed as an “innocent” question, because your obvious agenda here is to promote the sick, twisted, false and dangerous idea that men, not women, are the true victims of violence in most intimate relationships. Everything you’ve posted has been riddled with comments that just expose your misogyny (i.e. hatred and bitterness towards women).

I can’t believe that even after seeing Rihanna’s face we’re still blaming the victim!

A woman whose name I won’t use wrote: “If you watch all of the 20/20 videos Rihanna denies that she did anything physical to provoke this attack. I believe her but only she and Chris know for sure and God knows.”

I responded to her:

Sister, I beg you: Do not fall for Demico’s sexist double standard of reasoning about violence against women.

His work claims to be against racism. He writes books for and about uplifting the black community. One of the issues in our community is police brutality and how unarmed black folk (often men) are hurt and killed by the police. The police ALWAYS argue that the man provoked the shooting or beating. That’s why when police brutality is caught on camera our community is relieved. Not because we doubt it was racism and police brutality. But because we know that living in a white supremacist system means that the cop not the black suspect will be given the benefit of the doubt due to his authority and race. “Two sides to every story” in cases of police brutality really means that in spite of what we know as a community about racism and our criminalization, without “proof” the cop is believed and that uppity nigger was just asking for it! So rallying behind the suspect and not the cop is a guttural response for a community plagued by centuries of white terrorism in one form or another.

But women of all colors are terrorized by men of all colors. And this too is due to centuries of an oppression known as patriarchy. However, in cases of what we term “intimate partner violence” or “domestic violence” our community generally sides with the man and not the woman.

Suddenly, in spite of what we know about violence, injustice and authority when it pertains to race, we deny when it pertains to gender and we won’t extend that knowing in defense of black women’s lives.

Suddenly we find ourselves saying a black woman provoked a man to beat her up and bite her face!

Because she MAY HAVE hit him first? Or because she ran off at the mouth?? WTF??

Even cops are asked to use only the force that is necessary to subdue a suspect that threatens him, but Demico wants us to believe that if Rihanna HIT Chris Brown she deserved to get her face beaten up AND bit?

Wow! My people, my people…..I’m truly scared for us!

Why don’t we support our women like we support our men?

I can’t believe that even after knowing the statistics on domestic violence, coupled with the reality of men’s violence in our personal lives, and the TONS of (not TWO) stories we hear about men beating and killing women, we’re letting a show like CHEATERS dictate some illusion that men are victims of abusive women! Even knowing the truth, which is right before our eyes and in our lives, how can we still deny that men, NOT WOMEN, have a problem with violence?

Our women are being maimed and murdered by men who claim to love them, and we’re allowing men like Demico to twist this reality into a men’s rights fantasy so the beat (and I do mean BEAT!) goes on!

Demico Booth spent nearly 13 years in prison. He should know better than anyone how violent men can be behind bars. He called me a “bitch” but someone no doubt made him their “bitch” in prison. You’d think that would make him more sensitive to the plight of women who are undeniably more vulnerable to both sexual and domestic violence in this society? But oh no. Who does Boothe come out swinging at with venom, name calling and stereotypes? Well, women of course! Women are always an easy target for men’s rage even black men locked up by white men and who are no doubt raped by other men.

But women are still the enemy.

Women didn’t land Boothe in prison nor did women hurt him in prison. Most men are not in prison for crimes against oppressed groups but for crimes against the oppressor classes!

Boothe invokes Steve McNiar, an isolated incident in which a star athlete was allegedly killed by his young mistress in a murder suicide. But how exactly does that represent women as a class killing men as a class? Does Boothe really think he can’t get intelligent people to believe that McNair’s mistress was some angry feminist who was trying to get back at men by killing him? We still call men beating women “domestic” or “intimate” violence even though this violence is anything but personal because it represents the historic systematic social domination of women in the home. But somehow for these bitter sexist men, a woman killing a man becomes a symbol of some matriarchal feminist conspiracy? Although most intelligent black folks would argue that the media is racist apparently for delusional misogynistic dudes like Boothe the media is involved in some matriarchal feminist conspiracy to saturate the news with outlandish stories of men terrorizing women with sexual or physical violence. And that just can’t be right! I mean, it’s not like we live in a misogynistic culture with centuries old legacies of sexually exploiting and socially oppressing women or anything. Sexism went away when Hillary ran for office just like racism went away when Barak Obama was elected so men killing women? That no longer represents anything bigger than an individual squabble with a woman who was probably asking for it anyways!

Just this year alone there were stories about men killing their families, men killing their wives and girlfriends, men killing individual women and men killing women in mass numbers.

Women are targeted by men because they are women and we live in a patriarchal culture.

Black people are targeted by white people because they are black and we live in a system of white supremacy.

In no way are men systematically targeted for murder, rape and assault by women.

That’s just a Men’s Rights Activist Fairy Tale.

Black people would see right through a white person waving one or two or three incidents of a black person targeting a white person for assault as proof that their legacy of systematic racist terrorism on us can ever equal a few incidents in which they were victimized.

Even with Boothe’s alleged concern for issues regarding the criminal justice system and the black community, look how easy it was for him to go off on a black woman and verbally assault her because she dared to challenge him?

Sexist verbal assaults against women who men feel the need to put in their place are sure signs that a man is also very capable of physical violence.

I normally don’t comment on other peoples Status Updates on Facebook even if they are offensive. The most I’ll do is say something sarcastic and keep it moving or in extreme cases remove them as a friend. But something about Boothe’s tone struck me as so dangerous and bitter towards women behind a guise of wanting to spark a real dialog that I felt compelled to challenge him. In addition none of the other women who posted in the discussion were doing that.

Here’s a comment from one of Boothe’s female Facebook friends that I’ll keep anonymous and only refer to as Femmebot #1 who co-signs his misogyny in the worst way possible. She wrote:

I must agree to everything that you have said. But as a woman a man or anyone will only do what you allow them to do. And YES we(woman) will push men to that point. But she should have been woman enough to let it go and move on and not put him out there like she did. She had to have done or said something to prevoke it. I know women!!! And men can be abused as well but they have to much pride to tell there story’s… It’s some evil people out here in this world when will it ever STOP!!!!!

Another woman who I’ll call Femmebot #2 commented:

That is so, there are two sides to every story… I know women can be very evil..we can come out swinging some heavy yet hurting words and continue until we get a reaction, but that is still not a reason for total physical abuse, black eyes, broken fingers, etc. Of course if we get hit, we are going to do what we can to protect ourselves, but ABUSE for words is WEAK!!!

Then Femmebot #1 responded to her:

@ T you are so right, But some woman don’t just talk they start swinging first and when the man don’t hit them back they keep coming toward them, and at that point what else can he do. In that case that doesn’t make him Weak he’s also protecting his self. There is two sides to every story!!!!

So no women challenging Boothe without also blaming the victim for provoking men’s violence and peddling that nonsense that there are two sides to every story even when a woman has pictures of a beaten and bitten face!

After reading Boothe’s comments it’s obvious that his grip with women is bigger than what happened between Chris Brown and Rihanna. It became clear to me that he was positioning men as the victim of women’s control so that when they do beat us up they are fighting back to reclaim their authority which seems justifiable because as Booth reminded his unquestioning audience:

“Everyone knows that women can play some very mean games.”

He continues:

“And also, women are catered to in many ways that men are not catered to in society, but no one complains about that….”

Except delusional men’s rights trolls like him of course!

There are millions of women who are actually LIVING off of child support payments from men that they never really wanted for the right reasons anyway. Just watch the “Housewives” series and see that for yourself all day everyday. Who gets the big wedding ring and Valentine’s Day gifts and the ability to financially live off of a man without societal scutiny when a man who does that is called a player or a pimp or something? So really, the double standard that women face is somewhat balanced by how men and society caters to women.

He concedes to a double standard that to some degree yes, men oppress women but look at all the perks women get? So what if we knock you around a bit! Women get cards, flowers and diamonds! So who is the real victim here? Men of course! He proclaims:

There are millions of women who are actually LIVING off of child support payments from men that they never really wanted for the right reasons anyway.

Millions of women living off child support? Really now? Motherhood is still the number one indicator of poverty for women. So what alternate universe is Mr. Boothe living in? Surely not the reality of family life in the black community which is dominated by female headed households, the majority of which I doubt receive much in form of child support from the men that abandon them. Does he really expect us to believe that all these single mothers in the black community are raising kids and living in the lap of luxury?

Now let’s another thing straight: when men claim they have the right to beat up a woman (because that’s what Chris Brown did and that’s what many misogynistic men and women with internalized sexism believe) this is not about men feeling that their safety is threatened. No, it’s about men feeling that their AUTHORITY is being threatened! In the same way that cops will use excessive force against a suspect or even racially profile and criminalize black people who won’t bow to their authority, men will beat up women if we strike them or talk back because they want to reinforce their power over us. It’s that simple. It’s not because even unarmed women pose some imminent danger to men. No, if you hear these apologists for domestic violence tell it she was asking for it by having the gall to stand up to a man to think that she could take on a man. Well, he’ll show her!

Men want permission to hit women and whether that permission is our “lip” or our “hand” they will stop at nothing to have it both ways: to have women perceived as weaker than most men but with giant mouths and smaller but dangerous hands that are a threat to them deserving of a beat down they’d give a man their own size!

This justification would never fly with most conscious black folks if a suspect was an unarmed black male and a cop beat or killed them but it does make sense if the victim is an unarmed woman against a man.

But then again, that’s how patriarchy works.

Men are invested in reading women as a threat to them physically. Our bodies are a threat if we are sexy. Our bodies are a threat if we dare to think we are strong enough to take them on. Our bodies are feared for their strength and the control and domination of our bodies are fundamental to the upholding patriarchy.

If a man feels threatened by a woman, why is it too much to ask that he walk away? Or if she hits him, why don’t we expect men to do what we asks cops to do — subdue an unarmed suspect without hurting them? No, instead we try to justify a man responding to a woman’s hit by giving her a beat down.

In the black community we’ve all heard the phrase, “FIGHTING like Ike and Tina,” even though Ike BEAT Tina. It was not a fight between equals. If Tina refused to just lay there and take it, how did that suddenly make it a fight? No, it’s still a woman defending herself against a man. It’s still male violence against a woman. But if the woman is black, we see her as a bully — overbearing, and more masculine than a white woman — so she’s ultimately deserving of a beat down by a male.

I’m convinced that the reason black women will always be more vulnerable to rape and domestic violence is because everyone, including black men, believes that we are more masculine, aggressive and dangerous than white women therefore WE CAN’T BE BEATEN ONLY FOUGHT. And WE CAN”T BE RAPED. ONLY FUCKED.

There is no shame on a black man serving time in jail in this country. But there should be shame and consequences for a man justifying in any way the beating of women. And there should be shame and consequences for calling a woman a bitch when she tries to hold him accountable to black women.

Demico Boothe went to prison for fraud. And, no doubt, like many ex-cons turned prophets before him (Eldridge Cleaver anyone?), “black consciousness” is just his latest hustle. His first fraud was against the U.S. government, which might be admirable, but we used to have a name for this game he’s now running against our people. Because if we really took the disrespect and undervaluing of black women’s lives seriously, a black man calling a sister a bitch and excusing violence against women would automatically make that “brother” an Uncle Tom in the eyes of our community

And as expected this encounter inspired a series of status updates:

Celie’s Revenge DEMANDS TO KNOW WHY most black men would NEVER try to justify the use of “excessive force” against a black man by a cop, even if the cop felt threatened, and the suspect was hurt — YET these same black men will still argue that a black woman, Rihanna, provoked Chris Brown into BEATING HER UP and BITING HER FACE?

Celie’s Revenge says that when cops use excessive force against black men, we call it an abuse of their authority, racism and the criminalization of black males. But when men beat women we JUSTIFY THE ABUSE OF THEIR AUTHORITY. She must have done something to provoke him, like talking too much. A cop shooting an unarmed suspect is wrong even

Celie’s Revenge loves how black men will swear up and down that they don’t have male privilege. Their argument being that they can’t really enjoy the fruits of being born with a penis in a patriarchy because of racism. But just let a woman challenge them on their sexism? Suddenly we are crazy, stupid, and bitches.

Celie’s Revenge says black men will deny their male privilege but will not hesitate to invoke misogynistic labels to silence women such as “bitch,” “crazy,” and “stupid” in the same way that liberal or poor whites will deny being racist, or deny benefitting from being white until they want black people to shut up. Then we are called, and treated like, niggers!

Celie’s Revenge has absolutely no problem exposing misogynistic dudes on her blog. She will name and quote them. There is too much silence and hypocrisy in The Left regarding how conscious men publicly profess to view and treat women, which are as their equals, versus how they really treat us privately if we challenge their authority and sexism!

Return to Celie Revenge

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

Video Shows BART Police officer Smashes Unarmed Man through Plate-Glass Window in Oakland

//

Sadly the city of Oakland, has yet another brazen incident in which excessive force was used to subdue and unarmed suspect. Earlier this year, the world witnessed the horrific shooting of unarmed Oscar Grant on a BART subway platform. yesterday, the city of Oakland is stunned to see a BART officer slam a man through a thick plate-glass window… The man was unarmed and can be seen walking with the officer  just before he’s smashed through a window..he is reported to be mentally disabled.

This incident comes on the heels of the Oscar Grant trial being moved to Los Angeles… Words can barely contain the anger or express the outrage.

-Davey D-

An Oakland, California-area transit police officer was captured on video forcing the head of an unruly man into a heavy-duty glass window, which shattered, during an arrest at a passenger station, authorities said.

The video, posted on YouTube, shows an unidentified Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) officer in a scuffle with a man identified by authorities as Michael Joseph Gibson, 37, of San Leandro, California.

Gibson, who appears disgruntled and gesturing while on a train at the West Oakland station, is pulled off the train by an officer, who has the man in an arm grip.

The officer forcibly walks the man toward the station wall, which is topped by large widows, and one window shatters as the officer appears to force the man against it.

The incident happened about 5:40 p.m. Saturday (8:40 p.m. ET), according to a statement from BART police Sunday. The officer sustained facial lacerations and a concussion, while Gibson suffered cuts to his hand, forearm, palm and a cut to his head. Both were treated at a hospital.

“This is a use-of-force case that we will thoroughly investigate,” BART Police Patrol Commander Daniel O. Hartwig said in the statement. “We will review all available information and video and are requesting anybody with any other video or information to please come forward.”

Once released, Gibson was booked into the Santa Rita County jail. He faces charges of battery on a police officer with injury and resisting arrest — both felonies — and public intoxication, a misdemeanor.

The officer was placed on leave due to his injuries, authorities said.

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

A Terrorist Organization Known as the KKK is Set to rally at Ole Miss Campus Before LSU Game

//

I wonder if these dimwits (the KKK)will be subjected to extra scrutiny from Homeland Security? I wonder if the local police will see them as gang and put them in the gang data base or issue an injunction..? Imagine if the word went out that the Bloods or Crips were gonna hold a rally?.. In any case lets not forget the KKK are terrorists..
-Davey D-

KKK To Rally On Ole Miss Campus Before LSU Game

http://www.sportsgrindent.com/blog/2009/11/20/kkk-to-rally-on-ole-miss-campus-before-lsu-game/

Ole Miss recently banned their band’s traditional playing of “From Dixie With Love” because people keep shouting “and the South will rise again” at the end of it which is a favored slogan of the KKK.

This has lead to a planned KKK rally on Ole Miss campus before this weekends home game against LSU in protest of the Ole Miss Chancellor Dan Jones’ decision.

“We aren’t coming there to cause problems or cause trouble,”Shane Tate, the North Mississippi great titan for the Mississippi White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan Tate said. “Trouble has already been caused by a handful at Ole Miss, including the black student body president, who wants to shape Ole Miss into yet another liberal sodomite college.”

This is just embarrassing and it disappoints me what some consider as acceptable tradition.

Here’s the other story

http://www.sportsgrindent.com/blog/2009/11/11/ole-miss-band-to-stop-from-dixie-with-love-but-north-dakota-blocks-changing-fighting-sioux-name/

The University of Mississippi’s first-year chancellor followed through on a promise and asked the band to stop playing “From Dixie With Love” because fans chant “the South will rise again” at the end of the medley.

Jones, who became chancellor in July, did not specify how long the song at Rebels games will be off limits, but he said elected student leaders can request its return if the chant stops. The tune blends the Confederate Army’s fight song, “Dixie,” with the Union Army’s “Battle Hymn of the Republic.”

“Here at the University of Mississippi, there must be no doubt that this is a warm and welcoming place for all,” Dan Jones wrote in a letter to the university community. “We cannot even appear to support those outside our community who advocate a revival of racial segregation. We cannot fail to respond.”

The band has played “From Dixie With Love” before and after athletic events for about two decades. The practice of some fans chanting “the South will rise again” started in the past five years. The university’s alumni association and coaches and some high-profile financial supporters, including Netscape founder Jim Barksdale, have said the chant should stop. But some students and fans see Jones’ move as a restriction on free speech.

However in other racial news a judge has temporarily blocked higher education officials from changing the University of North Dakota’s Fighting Sioux nickname. The judges decision has the president of North Dakota’s Board of Higher Education, Richie Smith, fearing that the order could delay the university’s efforts to join the Summit League and re-establish its football rivalry with North Dakota State University.

The dispute has its origins in the NCAA’s August 2005 declaration that the Fighting Sioux nickname and Indian head logo should be abolished.

Kinda of disgusted to even add anything else.

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

Why Rakim’s The Seventh Seal is the best Hip Hop Album of 2009

//

Why Rakim’s The Seventh Seal is the best Hip Hop Album of 2009

 By JAHI

A lot of Hip Hop albums came out in 2009. Jay Z BP3, Raekwon‘’s Cuban Links II, Gift of Gab’s Escape to Mars, to name a few, caught my ear. I’m sure you could add your favorite of 2009 so feel free to fill in the blank___.

Hip Hop is still struggling to balance itself, but still evolving and growing. There’s an overflow of commercial, mainstream, and one-sided style of Hip Hop that is only reflecting one part of the black experience. There is still a need, and desire, of everyday people, to hear music that connects with higher charkas. If you are unfamiliar with this word, look, it up.

Rakim’s album The Seventh Seal, is, in my view, the best lyricism with a message, thought provoking rhymes, and best OG status of 2009 on the mic. Oh, and still in my top 5. He’s been in my top 5 since I first heard “Check Out My Melody” in 1986. I was really waiting for the Dr. Dre, Rakim album. When I heard it wasn’t coming out, I was hoping Ra could come out because I wanted to hear where he would take it.

We forget that the pioneers and elders of our culture are still among us, and are still doing music. Why would they not be? Hip Hop is not just a young man’s game. I mean this in no disrespect. But in truth, no Rakim, then maybe not a lot of emcees who are out today. Eric B and Rakim took Hip Hop to a whole different level from “Rappers Delight” and “The Message.”

The new album, The Seventh Seal, doesn’t disappoint. Matter of fact, it really has set a standard and I hope people like KRS and Chuck D got a chance to hear this one. The production, held down by Nottz for Teamsta Entertainment, Loffey For Aaron James Music, Nick Wiz for Preserve The Art, Samuel Christian and Jay Wells, and others really give space for Rakim to really come thru clear and refreshing. It’s profanity free. No sticker on the cover. It doesn’t feel forced. It feels like any black community in the world.

Songs like “Man Above,” “Won’t Be Long,” and “Message in the Song” is like the modern day Curtis Mayfield in rhyme form. If Andre 3K would have came out this year, I probably be writing about his release, but hands down, Rakim’s the Seventh Seal is worth the whole 59.6 seconds. His lyrics are talking about what’s happening in his life, but also what is happening right now. This is what Tupac would do if he was alive. It’s like Rakim has officially taken the side that Tupac had with his more thought provoking songs like Dear Momma and Letters to my Unborn Child. Yes you may be able to dance to “Put It All to Music,” but this is really thinking people music. Adult.

This album is a reflection of the age of Hip Hop. Oh, and I got it for $10 downtown Cleveland, on the release date, and it was there, in stock. The cover, and the photos by Michael Wong really set a nice mood with the CD itself (recycled paper instead of plastic) is something everone in Hip Hop should have in their catalog. Ok. I think I’ve talked it up enough. Check out. Support good music.

Peace. JAHI

Jahi is an internationally known  Hip Hop artist, teacher and community activist  from Cleveland, Ohio 

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

Armond White: Precious is the Most damaging Film to the Black Image Since ‘Birth of a Nation’

//

Pride & Precious

You can thank media titans Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry for much of the hype surrounding Lee Daniels’ film Precious. ARMOND WHITE calls it the ‘Con Job of the Year.’

By Armond White

http://www.nypress.com/article-20554-pride-precious.html

Armond White

SHAME ON TYLER PERRY and Oprah Winfrey for signing on as air-quote executive producers of Precious. After this post-hip-hop freak show wowed Sundance last January, it now slouches toward Oscar ratification thanks to its powerful friends.Winfrey and Perry had no hand in the actual production of Precious, yet the movie must have touched some sore spot in their demagogue psyches. They’ve piggybacked their reps as black success stories hoping to camouflage Precious’ con job—even though it’s more scandalous than their own upliftment trade. Perry and Winfrey naively treat Precious’ exhibition of ghetto tragedy and female disempowerment as if it were raw truth. It helps contrast and highlight their achievements as black American paradigms—self-respect be damned.

 Let’s scrutinize their endorsement: Precious isn’t simply a strivers’ message movie; Perry and Winfrey recognize its propaganda value. The story of an overweight black teenage girl who is repeatedly raped and impregnated by her father, molested and beaten by her mother comes from a 1990s identity-politics novel by a poet named Sapphire. It piles on self pity and recrimination consistent with the air-quotes’ own oft-recounted backstories. Promoting this movie isn’t just a way for Perry and Winfrey to aggrandize themselves, it helps convert their private agendas into heavily hyped social preoccupation.

But Perry and Winfrey aren’t all that keep Precious from sinking into the ghetto of oblivion like such dull, bourgie, black-themed movies as The Great Debaters or The Pursuit of Happyness. That’s because the film’s writer-director Lee Daniels works the salacious side of the black strivers’ street. Daniels knows how to turn a racist trick. As producer of Monster’s Ball, Daniels symbolized Halle Berry’s ravishment as integration; Kevin Bacon titillated pedophilia in Daniels’ The Woodsman and Daniels’ directorial debut, Shadowboxing, hinted at interracial incest between stepmother and son Helen Mirren and Cuba Gooding Jr.

Winfrey, Perry and Daniels make an unholy triumvirate.They come together at some intersection of race exploitation and opportunism. These two media titans—plus one shrewd pathology pimp—use Precious to rework Booker T. Washington’s early 20th-century manifesto Up From Slavery into extreme drama for the new millennium: Up From Incest, Child Abuse,Teenage Pregnancy, Poverty and AIDS. Regardless of its narrative details about class and gender, Precious is an orgy of prurience. All the terrible, depressing (not uplifting) things that happen to 16year-old Precious recall that memorable All About Eve line, “Everything but the bloodhounds nipping at her rear-end.”

It starts with the opening scene of Precious’ Cinderella fantasy. Tarted up in a boa and gown, walking a red carpet light years away from her tenement reality, Precious (Gabourey Sidibe) sighs, “I wish I had a light-skinned boyfriend with nice hair.” Her ideal smacks of selfhatred—the colorism issue that Daniels exacerbates without exploring. He casts light-skinned actors as kind (schoolteacher Paula Patton, social worker Mariah Carey, nurse Lenny Kravitz and an actual Down syndrome child as Precious’ first-born) and dark-skinned actors as terrors. Sidibe herself is presented as an animal-like stereotype—she’s so obese her face seems bloated into a permanent pout.This is not the breakthrough Todd Solondz achieved in Palindromes where plus-size black actress Sharon Wilkins artfully represented the immensity of an outcast’s misunderstood humanity. Instead, Sidibe’s fancy-dressed daydream looks laughable; poorly photographed, its primary effect is pathetic.

Daniels employs the same questionable pathos as the family banquet scene at the start of Denzel Washington’s also condescending Antwone Fisher. This cheap ploy of tortured daydreaming uses black American deprivation for sentimentality. It sells materialist fantasy as a universal motivation—no wonder Perry and Winfrey like it. Precious embodies an unenlightening canard.That fantasy opening—depicting the girl’s Obama-like ascension—tantalizes thoughts of advancement and triumph. It ought to be satirical to undercut the norms she aspires to just as Palindromes’ misfit teens subverted MTV’s ideas of youth.

Perry and Winfrey may think Precious is serious, but Daniels is hoisting his freak flag. He gets off on degradation. Flashbacks to Precious’ rape contain a curious montage of grease, sweat, bacon and Vaseline. Later, he intercuts a shot of pig’s feet cooking on a stove with Precious being humped while her mother watches from a corner. Another misjudged scene recreates De Sica’s B&W Two Women—a half-camp trashing of motherhood that compounds the problem of cultural alienation. So does the film’s Ebonics credit sequence and the scene of Precious rotating amidst a bombardment of success icons—Martina Arroyo, MLK, Shirley Chisholm—to which she either relates or is ignorant.This incoherence should not pass for sociology.

Not since The Birth of a Nation has a mainstream movie demeaned the idea of black American life as much as Precious. Full of brazenly racist clichés (Precious steals and eats an entire bucket of fried chicken), it is a sociological horror show. Offering racist hysteria masquerading as social sensitivity, it’s been acclaimed on the international festival circuit that usually disdains movies about black Americans as somehow inartistic and unworthy.

The hype for Precious indicates a culture-wide willingness to accept particular ethnic stereotypes as a way of maintaining status quo film values. Excellent recent films with black themes—Next Day Air, Cadillac Records, Meet Dave, Norbit, Little Man, Akeelah and the Bee, First Sunday, The Ladykillers, Marci X, Palindromes, Mr. 3000, even back to the great Beloved (also produced by Oprah)—have been ignored by the mainstream media and serious film culture while this carnival of black degradation gets celebrated. It’s a strange combination of liberal guilt and condescension.

Birth of a Nation glorified the rise of the Ku Klux Klan as a panicky subculture’s solution to social change. Precious hyperbolizes the class misery of our nation’s left-behinds—not the post- Rapture reprobates of Christianity’s last-days theories, but the Obama-era unreachables—including Precious’ Benetton-esque assortment of remedial school classmates. One explanation is that Precious permits a cultural version of that 1960s political controversy “benign neglect”—its agreed-upon selection of the most pathetic racial images and social catastrophes helps to normalize the circumstances of poverty and abandon that will never change or be resolved.You can think: Precious is just how those people are (although Cops and the Jerry Springer and Maury Povich shows offer enough evidence that white folks live low, too).

Precious’ plot is so outrageous (although the New York Times Magazine touts it as “The Audacity of Precious,” a telling link to Obama’s memoir The Audacity of Hope) that its acclaim suggests an aftershock of all that Hurricane Katrina weeping and lamentation about America’s Others. This movie finally puts the deprivations of Katrina on the big screen—not as smug, political fingerpointing, nor the inconsequential way superliberals Brad Pitt and David Fincher shoehorned Katrina into Benjamin Button, but as sheer melodramatic terror. (Poor Precious endures the most brutal home life since Lillian Gish in the 1918 Broken Blossoms.)

Precious raises ghosts of ethnic fear and exoticism just like Birth of a Nation. Precious and her mother (Mo’Nique) share a Harlem hovel so stereotypical it could be a Klansman’s fantasy. It also suggests an outsider’s romantic view of the political wretchedness and despair associated with the blues. Critics willingly infer there’s black life essence in Precious’ anti-life tale. And the same high-dudgeon tsk-tsking of Hurricane Katrina commentators is also apparent in the movie’s praise. Pundits who bemoan the awful conditions that have not improved for America’s unfortunate are reminded that they are still on top.

This misreading of blues sensibility probably has something to do with the disconnect caused by hip-hop, where thuggishness and criminality romanticize black ghetto life. Director Daniels’ rotgut images of aggressive cruelty and low-life illiteracy aren’t far from gangster rap clichés.The spectacle warps how people perceive black American life— perhaps even replacing their instincts for compassion with fear and loathing.

Media hype helps pass this disdain down to the masses. Precious is meant to be enjoyed as a Lady Bountiful charity event. And look: Oprah,TV’s Lady Bountiful, joins the bandwagon. It continues her abusefetish and self-help nostrums (though the scene where Precious carries her baby past a “Spay and Neuter Your Pets” sign is sick).

Problem is, Perry,Winfrey and Daniels’ pityparty bait-and-switches our social priorities.

Personal pathology gets changed into a melodrama of celebrity-endorsed self-pity. The con artists behind Precious seize this Obama moment in which racial anxiety can be used to signify anything anybody can stretch it to mean. And Daniels needs this humorless condescension (Hollywood’s version of benign neglect) to obscure his lurid purposes.

Sadly, Mike Leigh’s emotionally exact and socially perceptive films (Secrets and Lies, All or Nothing, Happy Go Lucky) that answer contemporary miserablism with genuine social and spiritual insight have not penetrated Daniels,Winfrey, Perry’s consciousness—nor of the Oscarheads now championing Precious. They’ve also ignored Jonathan Demme’s moving treatment of the lingering personal and communal tragedy of slavery in Beloved. Both Leigh and Demme understand the spiritual challenges to despair and their richly detailed performances testify to that fact. Sidibe and Mo’Nique give two-note performances: dumb and innocent, crazy and evil. Monique’s do-rag doesn’t convey depths within herself, nor does Mariah Carey’s fright wig. Daniels’ cast lacks that uncanny mix of love and threat that makes Next Day Air so August Wilson- authentic.

Worse than Precious itself was the ordeal of watching it with an audience full of patronizing white folk at the New York Film Festival, then enduring its media hoodwink as a credible depiction of black American life. A scene such as the hippopotamus-like teenager climbing a K-2 incline of tenement stairs to present her newborn, incest-bred baby to her unhinged virago matriarch, might have been met howls of skeptical laughter at Harlem’s Magic Johnson theater. Black audiences would surely have seen the comedy in this ludicrous, overloaded situation, whereas too many white film habitués casually enjoy it for the sense of superiority—and relief—it allows them to feel. Some people like being conned.

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

Afghanistan (HerStory)-Hip Hop Weighs in on What is Now Obama’s War

//

Afghanistan (HerStory)

 Jasiri X comes at you once again with another stunner.. This one sheds light on the War in Afghanistan and as with past projects, its superb. Episode 26 is tells the story of the connection between Afghanistan and war, leading to her intimate yet volatile relationship with the United States. Afghanistan (HerStory) is produced by Kai Roberts and directed by Paradise the Arkitech of X-Clan.

LYRICS
Older woman cold from the hardness of life
the bloodiest of days and the harshest of night
all she knows is war like a Sargent with stripes
stinger missile point at the target and strike
she’s a pistol but never really had a main squeeze
nothing official like love that came with a ring
in fact the opposite men were abusive and dominant
boundaries they never honor it they just wanna conquer it
never hug her just hold her like hostages
so she’d bury they heads in the sand like ostriches
miss independent but she ran into a man who liked to hit women
thought he was big pimpin
and he could take her and rape her for some quick riches
this time she needed divine intervention
and she received it from another man that had a plan that was strategic
and said he preceded cause he believed in Jesus.
it was so good to hear it cause its what her spirit needed
and together they defeated broke that man to pieces cause he never had retreated
if time was like a picture she would forever freeze it
But after they victory she watched him leave quick
brokenhearted his promise he didn’t keep it
had another chick and they relationship was secret
he didn’t want her he only wanted her allegiance
seething she vowed to never let her heart take over her reason
as long as she was breathing
and got deep into religion kicked her heroin habit
her new apparel was the blackest of fabrics
and it covered her from head to toe even her eyes
like if you wanna know me you only seeing my mind
and they say time heals all wounds but they was lyin
cause guess who showed up and accused her of conspiring
to take him out both guns he was firing
her she go again another war that she fighting in
he said her religion went and made her to disciplined
heated up the heron and made her take hits with him
took away her longer drape put her in some lingerie
he said he just wanna lay pipe and he’ll be on his way
now she struggling emotions that she juggling
cause inside she felt she broke her religious covenant
but then this dude still with his other chick
he said she was so lubricated that he was sprung off it
he was loving it but then he got stuck in it
no rubber meant he got burnt now he suffering
but that meant she wasn’t hand cuffed by him
cause his other girl was getting all the punishment
she started rebuilding felt her disease healing
got back her strength her tank was refiling
then dude came back and said he was a changed cat
and anything that she wanted he could arrange that
he said him and the other girl was over
but really he went soft and he pulled out his solider
but that ain’t what he told her
the game he spit was bullsh*t she could tell by the odor
but when she said no the conversation got louder
he said she couldn’t stop him cause she didn’t have the power
it was either take the money or gunpowder
a nuclear shower she’d be easily devoured
but he was so young and her story was long
since way back in the days with Genghis khan
she never gave in she slayed men who thought they was strong
so she wasn’t shook when he claimed that he was bomb
she ’s never been afraid of the grave and beyond
so she looked him in his eye and said it’s on
It’s Her Story

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

Video of Gucci Mane Punching Out a Female Resurfaces-Was this Incident ever Resolved?

//

As many of y’all know popular Atlanta rapper Gucci Mane was sentenced to 12 months for parole violation. It comes on the eve of his highly anticipated album being released. His arrest and him testing positive for drugs has left many wondering, how and why someone who has so much going for him and has apparently overcome alot would get caught up and be dragged back into the prison system.  

Over the past few months Gucci Mane has emerged as an important voice for a generation as he’s been prominently featured on everything ranging from the BET Awards and in videos and songs with the Black Eyed Peas, Usher, 50 cent and Maria Carey to name a few. Its been reported that he’s been able to command 64k a show and has been able to get that 4 nights a week.

While Gucci Mane has been dealing with all this, whats been surfacing or resurfacing depending on how long you been follwing Gucci Mane is a video of him punching out a sister. From what I gather the tape popped up earlier this year and it shows an annoyed Gucci punching out his former rhyme partner and according to reports, former lover Mac Breezy who is featured on his debut album “Go Head”. Its pretty disturbing and later shows Mac Breezy trying to shrug it off like it was no big thing..

For some this will not come as a surprise because of Gucci’s persona and rough and rugged reputation, but  for many others its new and raises alot of  question including, how was this issue resolved  and if it wasn’t what’s the justification for all the mainstream promotion?  For example, BET gave Gucci lots of love during their recent Hip Hop Award show. He was featured in 4 performances.  It was just a few months ago that came under fire  when they featured Lil Wayne and Drake doing what many considered an inappropriate raunchy adult themed song while trotting young girls who looked like they were no older than 12 or 13 across the stage. BET back pedaled and removed the performance in later showings.

But after all the anger that was expressed, they gave prominent performance spots to Gucci Mane. How have outlets who have promoted and are riding hard for him reconciled this? Does it need to be reconciled?

I ask this because when Gucci Mane performed on the BET Awards, he was featured in a Public Service Announcement talking about how its wrong to do drugs… Perhaps he should’ve been doing one that says ‘It’s wrong to hit women’… maybe that might be the more appropriate response at a day and time where we had a gang rape of a 15-year-old girl while people stood around, watched, cheered took pictures and did not call authorities for 2 and half hours.   

This comes at a time when just yesterday it was reported that a young Bay Area woman and her infant were killed by an ex boyfriend was just let out of jail for the murder of another child 15 years earlier..

This is not to say Gucci Mane doesn’t deserve second chances or people can’t redeem themselves etc, but when you see so many artists doing the hard work of addressing and trying to eradicate these pressing issues, can’t get any love whatsoever, not even a mention one many of these outlets, one has to wonder why the constant love and upliftment of folks who did wrong and in Gucci’s case since he violated parole and has been sentenced to a year in jail, continue to do wrong..

something to ponder

Davey D

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner

Racist Tea Party Folks Attempt to get Violent with Pro-Immigrant Demonstrators.

//

Last week we reported how the Tea Party folks were gonna be organizing Anti-Immigrant rallies in 50 cities around the country. The rhetoric being used was pretty inflammatory and it was noted that people should be aware of  attacks…

Quite naturally there were counterprotests, but what was interesting is to see how the Tea Baggers have been aggressive in confronting counterprotests… This video spells it out, although the Tea Party folks have tried to flip the script and say they were the ones assaulted. 

What needs to be noted is in most marches unless you are press you stay on your side of the street or in the area designated for your protest.  In almost every demonstration I’ve been to including the weekly ones that occur during our local farmer market each Saturday where Pro-Palestinian and Pro-Isreal folks hold simultaneous vigils and rallies.. They stay on opposite sides of the street and as instructed and later enforced by local police, one doesn’t roll off to the other side and start filming, holding up signs etc.. To do so is considered an antagonistic act.

When you view the video which was put out by the Tea Party people, you see what was clearly an act of provocation. This is just the beginning folks. Things are about to get ugly.

Update: someone sent me a copy of the anti-immigrant rally in Minneapolis.. Here these racist Tea Party folks get seriously punked.. pay close attention to the speaker at this ’sparsely’ attended rally which was said to be ‘well attended’.. The speaker talks about the bigger problem of illegal immigrants..

Return to Davey D’s Hip Hop Corner