Page 6 • May 4 - May 10, 2015 • Insight News
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COMMENTARY The Star Tribune has it out for Black folks Nobody Asked Me
By Fred Easter Nobody asked me, but, Jeffrey Hassan’s opinion piece on the Star Tribune’s questionable opinions is well written and on point. The Strib (Star Tribune) is doing with pen and ink what America’s police forces are doing with pistols and bullets, which is to say skipping lightly around facts to shoot brothers and sisters in the back and kneel on their
necks. As Brother Hassan points out, the concept of “potential impropriety or wrongdoing” is laughable. It is designed to construct a word salad that Republican half-truth mongers can build on and run with. I am loath to call out white led organizations that are “focused” on the “gap problem.” I consider them to be on my side and harbor hope for their success. Nevertheless, organizations such as Generation Next, the Greater Twin Cities United Way and AchieveMpls to name a few, could be accused of unimpeachably managed, well funded, “potential, long term ineffectiveness” I will not be holding my breath until the Strib questions
If you’re interested in looking at a place where that “gap” is being effectively attacked, take a stroll down Lake Street to MTS Minnesota Transitions Charter School. their abilities and focus. Enough of that. To say more would be “piling on” Brother Hassan’s well-constructed rebuttal.
Now, if you’re interested in looking at a place where that “gap” is being effectively attacked, take a stroll down Lake Street to MTS Minnesota
Transitions Charter School. I met a friend there last week and was very impressed. Here is a school with about 220 high school students in an urban charter school that is getting great things out of their students. There is a JROTC (Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps) program in the school – the only such in the metro and one of only a few in the state – that’s achieving success. It serves nearly 25 percent of the student body. Larry Ronglien is the principal there. Neil Heatherington heads JROTC. They are building leaders. One such example is Devon Killebrew (no relation to Harmon Killebrew). Young Devon is a cadet 1st lieutenant. He is
African-American. He has been Cadet of the Month twice and Cadet of the Year last year as a sophomore. He is the company commander and the odds on favorite to be named Cadet of the Year again in this, his junior year. Though I found it hard to believe, as he toured me around the facility, young Devon is actually on the autism spectrum. America should be proud of this young man. We all should be pleased and thankful that Devon found his way to MTS where such a great fit was possible. Devon cares deeply about, and is proud of the Corps and the school. That is immediately obvious in any conversation with him. I can’t wait to see what he accomplishes in his senior year.
Mr. President, your silence is deafening Commentary by Harry Colbert, Jr. Mr. President, where are you? I know that must seem like a silly question because I can turn on any cable news channel and I can see you and know your whereabouts as you’re talking about the issue of the moment. I’ve seen you talking about the Israeli/Palestine conflict. I’ve seen you talking about your transportation bill. I’ve seen you talking about affordable college funding programs. I saw you joking around with The Ohio State University football team. Just this past weekend I saw you yucking it up at the White House Correspondents Dinner. I even got to see your angry alter-ego, Luther. But you know where I didn’t see you? I didn’t see you in Staten
Island after Eric Garner was choked to death. I didn’t see you in Ohio when John Crawford, III was gunned down in Wal Mart for having the gall to pick up a toy gun that was inside the store. I didn’t see you in Ferguson when Mike Brown was gunned down in the middle of the street and he didn’t even have a toy gun. He had nothing. Ferguson burned … and burned yet again when it was announced that Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson would not be tried for his murderous act. But curiously, you were absent in Ferguson. You had another chance to be seen in Ohio when young Tamir Rice, just 12-years-old, was shot point blank without question for holding a toy gun (side note: men of color, please stay away from toys – as the warnings say, “objects may be hazardous to health”), but you
chose to stay distant. In South Carolina, when former member of the U.S. Coast Guard, Walter Scott was shown to have been defenselessly gunned down, you had the perfect opportunity to make your presence known, as in that case there was enough video evidence that an officer was finally charged for the murder of an unarmed black man. You are the Commander and Chief. This was a former military man. You could have stepped up then and made the historic speech all of us in this country have been waiting on for nearly seven years. With each one of these horrific deaths, people seem to have chosen sides. Blacks, who have been subjected to brutality and harassment took one side (and call me biased here, but I think we are justified in our anger) and whites, who have lived most of their lives with the comfort of knowing police in a
far different light, have sided with police and the now familiar script of, “the officer was in fear of his life and ‘neutralized the threat.’” Now Baltimore is burning … and it’s partially your fault. Yes, Mr. President, I lay blame at your feet. I lay blame at your feet because when it comes to race relations in this country you offered hope with no substance. You have let us down. And when I say us, I’m not just talking about black people, I’m talking about the American people. I remember the night you were elected. I’ll never forget it. I was sitting in front of my television watching the results and interacting with people on social media. Tears were falling from my eyes. I was seeing a tectonic shift in America. I was proud to be an AfricanAmerican and I was proud to be an American. But my pride
soon turned to fear when a very prophetic person commented on social media that things were about to get worse for blacks in America (who would have thought that things could get any worse). Aside from the radical white hate groups – whose numbers are on the rise since your election – many other whites (with prejudices that countless humans have regardless of ethnicity) began to fear that their America was gone. There was a feeling that they were becoming the minority (and having been a minority in this country for going on 45 years now, trust me, that’s not a position you want to be in). So there is deep fear among whites. I get it. There’s fear on all sides and fear has boiled over into anger. We are on the precipice of an all-out racial war and you are remarkably absent. Remember when your
campaign was in jeopardy because of good ‘ol Pastor Jeremiah Wright? Remember how remarkably at that moment you knew you had to address the elephant in the room – race in America? Well guess what, that was all fine and good as Candidate Obama, but you are the nation’s leader and we need you to seriously address the issue of race as President Obama. And I’m not talking about no damn Beer Summit either. Remember when President George W. Bush failed to get to New Orleans? Remember how vilified he was? Hell … that was only five days. You’ve let years go by without addressing the key issue of your presidency. We need to have a serious discussion on race and you must lead it. Every president leaves a legacy. The question, Mr. President is, what is yours?
A crisis and an opportunity to lead We are at another critical junction in American History. The recent death of Freddie Gray, along with those of Walter Scott, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin and Minnesota’s own Terrence Franklin are stark reminders of America’s century’s long struggle of valuing Black lives. This is not a new issue; it is as old as our country itself. It is not an issue that will be solved without struggle, unbelievable and frankly unfair sacrifice on the part of Black folks and more deaths at the hands of the justice system. If we are honest with ourselves, Gray’s death is not the last unjust death that will occur at
the hands of our justice system. Gray and his grieving family are but a part of a pattern that will continue unabated unless new tactics and a new approach to leadership are approached from within the community. The African American Caucus is not asking for the greater community to hear the pain, fear and anguish of a community under attack. That should be expected by American citizens who claim to value the lives and contributions of their fellow citizens. For citizens who subscribe to the inalienable rights of all Americans to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” it
should be obvious that the broken spine and crushed voice box of Gray are of far greater concern to achieving the American Dream than the hurt, devastated and outraged responses of an affected community expressing themselves in a manner that has occurred countless times throughout American history. Riots are nothing new in America. One need only pick up a history book, or Google American riots and a long list of civil unrest will appear, reflecting people expressing themselves when they are terrified of the future ahead of them. In general, those faces in
those past riots have not been Black and brown faces, but they do reflect that America does not always deal with her issues fairly or expeditiously. This is not to excuse such behavior, nor is it to demonize any particular group, but it does point to a symptom of real fear in a community that has had to deal with countless Emmett Tills every generation. We are not requesting this statement to be published in the Star Tribune or Pioneer Press, because this needs to be an internal discussion within our community. Nor is the African American Caucus seeking to lead on this issue,
because leaders do exist in Minnesota that have consistently stepped up to injustice. They will again. What the African American Caucus is asking is that leadership within the Black community turn inward to deal with these issues. We are asking that the disagreements be put aside to deal with the coming storm of a blatant disregard for Black life. We agree that the Caucus itself has, in the past, allowed itself to be bogged down by countless internal battles and disagreements with leadership in the community. We are learning and have taken guidance from feedback received from the
community. Now is the time to organize, to work together, to realize that while we may disagree on an approach, our hearts are in the right place and that ultimately we want to see a community at peace and free to live in peace; not because of the benevolence of America, but because our leaders support one another and make that dream a reality. The Caucus will support its leaders and community and contribute in any way that we can. Hold us accountable.
Police
Rekia Boyd’s murder because the prosecutor deliberately filed lesser, inappropriate charges. “The repetitive nature of this, the fact that this is chronic…. Chronic experiences of racial discrimination, and I’d include
vicarious discrimination, can influence mental and physical health outcomes,” says Amani Nuru-Jeter, associate professor of public health at University of California-Berkeley and researcher on racial health
disparities. “I’m not saying it’s the same as post-traumatic stress disorder, but we do some similarities in how people cognitively respond.” Other depressive or schizophrenic symptoms (such as paranoia or emotional numbness) can emerge, as well as physical health problems such as cardiovascular disease. On an individual level, racism in general has gradual, but potentially lifeshortening effects on the mind and body. These effects can be even more acute for those who make their Blackness the most important part of their self-identity, and/or those who internalize the racism against them. “We found that it’s associated with ‘cellular aging,’” Nuru-Jeter says, referring to a body of public health research to which she has contributed. “We used a measure called telomeres, which are biological indicators of the age of the cells in our bodies and indicate premature biological aging.” On a communal level, being under the threat of police violence backed by the authority of the local, state, and sometimes national government, is enough of a burden on its own. When this oppression stretches from the mundane to the life threatening – such as the discriminatory fines up and the National Guard deployment in Ferguson after Officer Darren Wilson was not indicted – it is easy for Black communities to fall into a sense of
hopelessness. The more a community feels bound by the same identity (be it racial, socioeconomic, or otherwise), the more deeply the effects of chronic racial discrimination are felt. “There’s also collective racial identity. There’s [an academic field] called social capital…and in that, there’s a concept called bonded social capital,” Nuru-Jeter explains. “Identity can increase solidarity. For example, what we saw in Ferguson was an outcry of, ‘We’re tired of being treated like this, we’re raising our voice to say Black lives do matter to us.’” There’s also the matter of images. Some media outlets have routinely reported on the victim’s past crimes and encounters with the justice system, and used either an old mugshot or image of the victim dead or dying to accompany their coverage of the deceased. One Change.org petition specifically asked the Washington Post to stop using victim mugshots in covering police violence. After some outcry on social media, CNN began to air a blurred version of the footage of Walter Scott’s killing, as captured by bystander, Feidin Santana. Nuru-Jeter points to neuroscience research involving FMRI scans (which map both brain activity and structure) that show how images or films can create a vicarious experience for the viewers. “Some of these studies show that the same parts of
the brain light up compared to when people have their own experience. I’m extrapolating here, but the suggestion is [there],” she says, especially for people who see themselves and their loved ones represented in the victims on TV. As police killings continue to be a hot topic in the news – and as police departments continue to use lethal force in their interactions with civilians – it is likely that media coverage of this violence will continue. Nuru-Jeter highlights two ways to protect one’s self and loved ones from the mental toll of these tragedies. First, having strong racial identity can be a buffer, if it is experienced in a proud way. By focusing on Black pride, and drawing strength from the positive aspects of the Black American experience, individuals and communities can balance out the painful parts. Finally, supportive people and systems are key for overall wellbeing. “What happens when we see a constant message of devalued Black life in society? One way people can cope with this is to share the experience, and not hold it in,” she says. “Even if you’re not getting individual support, simply being a member of a group [as in protest] can help. ‘There’s strength in numbers’ counts as a cliché, but I think the evidence is there to support that.”
From 1 to Officer Dante Servin in Chicago, found not guilty for
Hollies Winston African American Caucus