Hatin' on hoodies - revisited.
Commentary by Black Kos Editor Denise Oliver Velez
By now, we are all familiar with this iconic image, which for all of us symbolizes the tragic murder of Trayvon Martin, and the "hoodie" that racists have used to blame him for his death at the hands of George Zimmerman.
Other images have followed this one, especially the "hand-up don't shoot" gesture from protestors across America after the killing of Michael Brown. Or the last words of Eric Garner "I can't breathe."
And there were many that preceded it. I think back to the fists raised gesture on the podium at the 1968 Mexico Olympics, by Tommie Smith and John Carlos.
The right-wing frenzy to punish us, vilify us, blame us for our oppression has reached new, but not-surprising heights.
The latest blatantly racist absurdity is from the state of Oklahoma.
New Bill Would Make Wearing Hoodies A Crime
Oklahoma lawmakers are planning to introduce a bill this February that would make it illegal to wear hooded sweatshirts, or “hoodies,” in public, according to a report from Oklahoma’s Channel 6 News.Republican Senator Don Barrington will introduce the bill, which would make it a misdemeanor to “wear a mask, hood, or covering” either while committing a crime or in order to intentionally conceal one’s identity. If the bill is passed, offenders would be subject to a fine of $50 to $500, and up to one year in jail. The ban would not affect mask-wearers on Halloween or at masquerade parties, nor would it apply to people who wear head coverings for religious purposes.
The bill’s purpose is seemingly to deter crime. As Channel 6’s report notes, robberies caught on surveillance camera often show the perpetrator wearing a mask or hoodie to cover his or her face. With the bill’s language only prohibiting wearing hoodies while committing a crime or to intentionally hide, supporters say the ban wouldn’t negatively affect people just trying to wear a sweatshirt in day-to-day life.
Others, however, have argued that bans on hoodies — no matter the intention — only serve to exacerbate problems with racial profiling. CNN legal analyst Sunny Hostin took on the issue when an Indiana mall banned the garment in March:
“This is about the pretext of being able to stop young African-American males,” she said. “Hoodie is code for ‘thug’ in many places and I think businesses shouldn’t be in the business of telling people what to wear. The Fourteenth Amendment protects us from this.”
Hostin argued that hoodie bans are similar to previous bans on sagging pants, in that both target clothing items or styles worn predominantly by black men. Because of that, Hostin said, the bans give businesses and police officers an excuse to racially profile.
“When do we get to a place in our society where we stop doing this kind of thing?” she continued. “Where we stop targeting young black men so there is a pretext for being allowed to escort them out of a mall simply because of what they’re wearing?”
There are no words, really. If this wasn't so awful, I'd be rolling on the floor laughing my black ass off.
I'll let Key and Peele speak for me.
Happy New Year, of racist absurdities.
We will continue to fight back against them.
Get out your hoodies folks. We've got a Klanner wannabe in Congress, the new Majority Whip Steve Scalise, without his hood, but we know the deal. Heh. Crickets from the Southern Avenger buddy in the Senate, Rand Paul.
Welcome to 2015.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
News by dopper0189, Black Kos Managing Editor
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Even amid the racial turmoil of 2014, we are making progress. Slate: Why I Am Optimistic About the Future of Race Relations in America.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On race relations, President Obama is feeling optimistic.
At least, that’s how he comes across in an interview with NPR’s Steve Inskeep, who asks if “the United States is more racially divided than it was” when he took office. “No,” Obama says, “I actually think that it’s probably in its day-to-day interactions less racially divided.”
If America seems more divided, he says, it’s because we’re more aware of our racial shortcomings. “It’s understandable the polls might say, you know, that race relations have gotten worse—because when it’s in the news and you see something like Ferguson or the Garner case in New York, then it attracts attention.” And if many white Americans have a shocked response to claims of unfairness and discrimination, it’s because it’s outside their purview. “If you’d asked whites in those jurisdictions,” he said, referring to racial profiling in Illinois, ‘Do you think traffic stops were done fairly?’ the majority of whites probably would say ‘yes’ because it’s not something they experience. It’s not because of racism; it’s just that it’s not something that they see.”
It’s easy to dismiss this as undue optimism or a retreat to 2008-style post-racial thinking, especially given events in Cleveland, Ferguson, and New York, and the stark divide in how blacks and whites see law enforcement. But Obama isn’t wrong. When it comes to race relations, America is better than it’s ever been.
Demonstrators protest the shooting death of Michael Brown on Nov. 29, 2014 in Brentwood, Missouri.
Photo by Joshua Lott/Getty Images.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Let's be clear, the majority of ancient Egypt's rulers and people were not what we would today consider to be "black. But some were, and a granite monument recounts the history of Nastasen, one of Egypt’s most important monarchs. The Root: The Story of a Nubian King Etched in Stone.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
An ancient African king and his queen stand before his patron deity, offering gifts in thanks for victory in battle. The king is Nastasen, one of the last rulers of the Napatan dynasty of Nubia. His vast territory extended from its northern border with Egypt near Aswan, continuing south up the twisting course of the Nile to the vicinity of Khartoum, the modern capital of Sudan. To the Egyptians, Nubia was known as Ta-Seti, or “Land of the Bow.”
The royal couple stands in a hieratically fixed form in the presence of the supreme authority of Amun, the god of creation and guarantor of the king’s rule. Nastasen presents him with a string of beads and a long-handled bucket containing a liquid offering. Behind him stands his queen, Sakhmakh. She shakes a sistrum, or ritual rattle played to summon the goddess Isis. The queen also pours out a libation from a slender vase. Through the medium of divine adoption, order is assured in the affairs of his realm.
ore than 5 feet high and made from a single slab of granite, the engraved monument, or stele, constitutes one of the most informative documents of the late Napatan period. Below the royal images appear dozens of lines of text. Recorded in one of the last known examples of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic writing, the account sheds considerable light on the history of this important monarch. In modern reckoning, it bears the precise date of Nov. 24 during the eighth year of Nastasen’s reign and was carved in commemoration of his victory over Kambasuten, a ruler to the north who had led destructive raids against Nubian territory.
Nastasen’s line was founded by strong leaders who conquered all of Egypt during the late eighth century B.C. For about 70 years, rulers such as Taharqa commanded the entire course of the Nile down to the Mediterranean. Under the 25th, or Ethiopian, dynasty, the traditional religious and social order of ancient Egypt was restored. Shortly after the midseventh century B.C., the Nubian occupation of Egypt first faltered, then ended in retreat along the rising territory of the upper Nile. Though much of the subsequent history of the Napatan dynasty remains poorly documented, it seems that the regime remained stable through Nastasen’s own time 300 years later.
Nubian, Stele of Nastasen, circa 335-15 B.C. Granite, 1.63 m high.
STAATLICHE MUSEEN, ÄGYPTISCHES MUSEUM, BERLIN
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Black Twitter is an awesome force. The Grio: Black Twitter’s best moments of 2014.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Black Twitter is an awesome force. It has raised consciousness, caused people to lose jobs and perhaps most famously, provided endless comic relief.
But even when levity is part of Black Twitter’s arsenal, it is often used to highlight certain aspects of serious topics. Black Twitter is a perfect example of the unique creativity and intelligence of Black culture. 2014 was another banner year for Black Twitter and here are just a few of its shining moments.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hollywood loves the great man narrative, but the civil rights movement was never about top-down leadership. The New Republic: 'Selma' Ignores the Radical Grassroots Politics of the Civil Rights Movement.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For months a question mark hovered over the protests surrounding Michael Brown’s killing in Ferguson and Eric Garner’s killing in New York City: Would the spontaneous and sporadic language of protest, anger, and injury become a sustained movement for equality and justice? Although the path forward remains murky and imperiled, there can no longer be any doubt: There is a social movement for racial justice in this country with a broader base and louder voice—particularly among millennials—than at any time since the late and tragic phase of the Civil Rights movement. Into this turbulence comes a film that sounds like a biopic, feels like a history lesson, and looks very much like an allegory of the present. But what exactly are the lessons today’s movement can draw from Selma?
DuVernay opens her film with King struggling to tie an ascot—a clever metonym for his discomfort with the world of white privilege and power that he will spend the rest of the film contentiously confronting. The scene is resolutely domestic: Coretta assists and encourages him; secured in his black manhood, he goes before the great white world to do what he can for his people—give a speech. These respective gender roles largely shape the script. The women in DuVernay’s film console, lend support, explain, bear, and endure—they must be strong for their men, and for each other. But the actual strategizing, the activism in action is decidedly the provenance of King and his cadre of Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) pastors and supporters. We get a passing, glamorous glance at the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee’s (SNCC) Diane Nash as she gets out of a car, but beyond the identifying caption, nothing in the film illustrates her fiery commitment or talented militancy.
To convey women’s resistance, the film relies instead on Oprah Winfrey, who plays Annie Lee Cooper, famous for her defiance at the steps of the Selma courthouse when she punched Sheriff Jim Clark. Yet Oprah’s best scene, the one people will remember, is surely her earlier confrontation with the voter registration officer who demonstrates the racist, intimidating function of polling tests. There’s no question that many women and men did muster extraordinary resolve and dignity to try and register on their own, but the film again misses an opportunity to evoke the collective history, the activist history, and indeed, a women’s empowerment history.
In it’s rush to enshrine and reconfirm the charismatic male leadership of the movement, this film fails to honor the great female fountainheads of that movement, Septima Clark and Ella Baker, and women like Fannie Lou Hamer in the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, whose work on voter-registration and literacy, through the Citizenship Schools, were the true incubators of activism and irrigators of the Civil Rights movement. At a time when men still unthinkingly expected the women to take notes as the men talked politics at meetings, Baker, the outspoken guiding spirit of SNCC, proved an indispensable leader, instrumental at every level in the success of Freedom Summer.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Critics say the “broken windows” approach that New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton is defending is nothing but a regurgitation of the stop-and-frisk policy that targeted African-American and Hispanic men. The Root: NYPD Strategy: Be Strict on Small Crimes to Deter Major Ones; Critics Say Policy Targets Blacks.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton is defending his department’s use of the “broken windows” strategy, which, as Al-Jazeera reports, is “the practice of cracking down on minor offenses” because if they go unchecked, the argument goes, “they create visible signs of public disorder that encourage more serious crimes.”
Bratton co-authored a 4,500-word essay for City Journal backing the tactic, but critics are not convinced that it’s fair game. Reform groups are concerned that the strategy actually reinforces the racial biases in law enforcement because African-American and Hispanic people are often the targets of this kind of policing.
Joo-Hyun Kang, director of Communities United for Police Reform, emailed a statement to Bratton and the essay’s co-author, Rutgers University professor George Kelling, to communicate these concerns.
“Misdemeanor arrests that disproportionately target people of color for the lowest-level offenses have severely strained relations between local communities and the police,” Kang wrote. “These arrests have real consequences on people’s lives, including jeopardizing housing, employment, educational and immigration opportunities.”
Kang’s organization argued that the broken-windows strategy is a regurgitation of the “same old stop-and-frisk” policy that has been another point of contention for the New York City Police Department.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
First African-American Popularly Elected to Senate, Dies at 95. Slate: Edward Brooke.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Edward W. Brooke III, who made history in 1966 when he became the first African-American to be elected to the U.S. Senate by popular vote, died on Saturday of natural causes. He was 95. Brooke won a seat in the Senate by almost half a million votes in 1966 as a liberal Republican in Democratic Massachusetts. He was re-elected in 1972 and “remains the only black senator ever to have been returned to office,” notes the New York Times. Growing up in Washington, Brooke went on to serve in the Army during World War II before building a political career in Massachusetts, where he became the attorney general before winning the Senate election.
Brooke’s brand of Republican harkens back to a much less partisan Washington considering it was precisely his independence from the party line that made him one of the most popular politicians in Massachusetts. “Tall and husky, with a nimbus of closely cropped hair, he was regarded as charismatic and vigorous in a way that reminded many voters of another Massachusetts political figure: President John F. Kennedy,” writes Timothy Smith in the Washington Post.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Voices and Soul
by Justice Putnam
Black Kos Poetry Editor
I sometimes think we live on that rumored planet on the other side of the sun, where everything is the opposite of what it should be. We seem to live on a world where Cops act more like gangsters than gangsters do. A world where public service is dismissed as not being self-centered enough to make the big bucks. A world where lies and subterfuge have more currency than just doing the right thing.
It all reminded me of the illusion of negative and positive space in art; where figure-ground reversal will show a vase in the positive space and the silhouetted profile of two faces in the negative. The Danish psychologist, Edgar Rubin, used this and many other examples to...
... state as a fundamental principle: When two fields have a common border, and one is seen as figure and the other as ground, the immediate perceptual experience is characterized by a shaping effect which emerges from the common border of the fields and which operates only on one field or operates more strongly on one than on the other.
Arguments abound whether Race remains an issue in the post-Obama world; one posited, mostly by bigots and their racist apologists, is that the very fact a black man is President is example enough that America's sordid racial past has been refuted; sort of like seeing only the figure, or only the ground.
A countervailing argument might be that the sheer numbers of people of color who are stopped and killed by the police as opposed to population averages is a pretty damn good example that Race is and will continue to be an issue; that would be perceiving the ground and the figure shifting back and forth.
Maybe we really do live on that rumored planet on the other side of the sun. Maybe figure-ground reversal really does explain these tragic dynamics. Maybe it really is just how we view things.
From one angle, life may seem to be a hell hole, from another, life may seem to be simply...
Negative
Wake to find everything black
what was white, all the vice
versa—white maids on TV, black
sitcoms that star white dwarfs
cute as pearl buttons. Black Presidents,
Black Houses. White horse
candidates. All bleach burns
clothes black. Drive roads
white as you are, white songs
on the radio stolen by black bands
like secret pancake recipes, white back-up
singers, ball-players & boxers all
white as tar. Feathers on chickens
dark as everything, boiling in the pot
that called the kettle honky. Even
whites of the eye turn dark, pupils
clear & changing as a cat's.
Is this what we've wanted
& waited for? to see snow
covering everything black
as Christmas, dark pages written
white upon? All our eclipses bright,
dark stars shooting across pale
sky, glowing like ash in fire, shower
every skin. Only money keeps
green, still grows & burns like grass
under dark daylight.
-- Kevin Young
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Black Kos Editors would like to warmly welcome everyone in the community back to the Front Porch, for 2015.
In case you missed it, make sure you check out Black Kos, Year In Review, for 2014.