Sean Taylor, "Manchild in the Promised Land"

Around 12:30 a.m., my son, home from a stint in the Army, came in asking had I heard that Sean Taylor had been shot. "What???!!!" is all I could say as I reached for the remote and turned on the TV, frantically flipping through the channels. My head was starting to get crowded. I was just saying last Sunday, as I watched my 'Skins go 5 and 6, how I'd sure be glad when his knee healed! Now, I was hearing, "critical condition, fighting for his life, hit in the femoral artery, significant blood loss - unconscious." My head got more crowded as memories of driving up the Keys to Gulliver Prep and watching my son's team take on Sean Taylor flooded in. Don't get me wrong, Gulliver Prep was a great team. But let's be clear, anybody who ever played them knew the guy wearing #1 on that blue and white jersey was a large part of the reason why. His, was the name on the lips of every player as they practiced in the hot South Florida sun in preparation for that ride up north. Containing Sean Taylor - which of course involved bracing for the hits that were sure to come -was the goal. Watching him play this high school game, you knew you were indeed watching a Manchild headed for the Promised Land of the NFL. I listened to the news and followed the story online all day. I started writing this as I prayed they could save his young life. They could not. I couldn't understand it. After all, there's a brand spanking new state-of-the-art hospital only 10 or 15 minutes away - by car! But then again I thought, "None of us control anything really, we just think we do."

I hurt for Sean's entire family. But as I watched my own Manchild, experiencing his own kind of "six degrees of separation" moment having played football and run track against Sean Taylor and Devin Hester here in South Florida, I just ached for his mother, his grandmothers, his child's mother and her mother as well. You see Mama-love, no better or worse than a father's, is just something different altogether. The next day, I got an email from my husband with a link to another "Fear and Loathing from Kansas City" editorial by Jason Whitlock. All I'll say is his accusations about "our" self-hatred sound a whole lot like the pot calling the kettle black (forget the whole pun thing if you're thinking it - I meant exactly what I said!). He obviously doesn't make the connection that his self-hatred "...on full display for the world to see, remains untreated, undiagnosed and unrepentant." Keep using the Black community as your whipping boy if that works for you Prince Whitlock. I just wonder, where will you be when "the chicken's come home to roost?" This young man's death reveals a life way fuller than any around which the Whitlocks, Cosbys, Winfreys, McWhorters, et al of this world could ever wrap their brains. Their take on our lives mirror the attitudes of many who say rape victims or battered spouses, somehow or another, did something wrong or did not do something right and that is why whatever happened, happened. "If she hadn't been hanging around those people," "If she wasn't in that area," "If she'd been hit before, why didn't she leave?" You get what I mean.

I found this picture, posted by an obvious fan on Sean's MySpace page. I was immediately struck by the symbolism. Clad in his Redskins uniform with wings, he's depicted as the dash between birth and death. How poignant is that? During the only time in life when we have any say at all, he had his say, becoming what he'd worked hard to be. Much like Claude Brown's, Sean's journey to the final "Promised Land" was one of becoming. It proved to be an exercise in self-determination, self-discovery, revelation and transformation if we are to believe all the comments made by those who knew him best. And isn't that what life is all about? This dash between the dates, though here way too briefly, had mattered a whole lot, to a whole lot of people, in a whole lot of ways.

My Spin Control is Better Than Your Spin - Why Just Plain Truth Cannot Stand On Its Own

There are so many more takes now on what led to Jena, what happened in Jena and what will happen in Jena. Depending on who’s doing the commentary, the noose-hangers, the DA, the Jena 6, Justin Barker – hell the whole town - are either saints, sinners or somewhere in between. It all depends on the spin. Until a couple of months before the March on Jena, there was no national media coverage - network, print or radio – was even talking about what was happening in that small Louisiana town. That is, with the exception of Howard Witt, the lone American journalist whose May 2007 article in the Chicago Tribune is the reason I knew anything about the Jena story at all (THANK YOU Howard Witt!). I was so angry no one was talking about it much less doing anything about it. I read the story over the phone to my husband who was overseas at the time and said, “A school fight?? You know how this is going to turn out.” Witt’s June article led me to the Friends of Justice website and Alan Bean. As I read the comments from people in ENGLAND about the BBC documentary on the blog, I was absolutely shocked to find out that America’s shame was a bigger story “across the pond” than in her own backyard. Bean’s blog led me to the documentary. The Jena 6 had been arrested, charged as adults and five of them had been bailed out. Mychal Bell had gone to trial (on reduced charges) and been convicted by an all-white jury in virtual anonymity and here in the good ole U.S. of A., most of us were asleep at the wheel. Then, Black talk-radio got hold of the story and it blew up, culminating in that beautiful September 20th day when thousands (yes, THOUSANDS, I was there) marched on Jena for equal treatment under the law. There were national news outlets everywhere. And seven days later, Mychal Bell walked out into the sunlight after almost 10 months, most of which was spent in an adult prison facility. So you’re asking, “What does this chronology have to do with spin?” Let’s first take a look at the definition as it relates to this case. Spin (noun) - a special point of view, emphasis, or interpretation presented for the purpose of influencing opinion. Based on Jason Whitlock’s September 29th column (critical thinking requires I read him whether I agree with him or not), Alan Bean followed the definition to the letter. And not only is he absolutely right, Bean admits it. I’m a “just the facts ma’am” kind of girl - no embellishment, no framing, no spinning. I want to be able to evaluate information for myself and come to my own conclusions. But here’s the thing, were it not for Mr. Bean’s “spin,” there would’ve been no information to evaluate! No one else was writing or talking about these Black kids in that predominately white town which, as one resident pointed out early on “doesn’t have any problems with THEIR BLACKS.” No one else was writing or talking about this D.A., those excessive charges and how what was happening in Jena is happening all over America! Not Mr. Whitlock, not other Black writers like him, not affluent Blacks who hold court on “the problem with Black folks” in the bright media lights - No one!! I don’t know about you, but I prefer the opportunity to evaluate the “spin” rather than being assaulted by the internalized racism and self-hatred manifested in the shame-and-blame game played by Mr. Whitlock, et al. who continue to assist the powers that be in the divide and conquer tactics that are so counter-productive to our survival as a people. Engaging in spin control (noun) - the act or practice of attempting to manipulate the way an event is interpreted by others (after-the-fact) seems more Mr. Whitlock’s style. Do I think Alan Bean “gets” the BIG picture about racism and how it’s affected Blacks in America all these hundreds of years? No I do not. But he gets some very important parts of it and is trying to do something about it. Do I think he has a personal agenda? Absolutely! So does everyone else who’s been a public part of the Jena story. What that agenda is, remains to be seen and as my grandmother always said, “Whatever you do in the dark, will always come to light.” There is, however, one point on which Mr. Whitlock and I agree. Mr. Bean would do well not to underestimate either the gravitas or credibility of the Revs. Jackson and Sharpton. As he said in his blog, “…nobody is going to write a groundbreaking story about Jena, Louisiana simply because some white preacher told them to.” And thousands of Black people will not march nor lend the full weight of their support solely for that reason either. Oh! And why can’t just plain truth stand on its own? Because as Jack Nicholson’s character, Col. Jessep, in A Few Good Men so succinctly put it, Mr. Whitlock –“You can't handle the truth!”