How "perfect" must we be for this shit to end???

UPDATE WITH OLD NEWS:  Seems the weak-assed, "manly-men" of the Seattle PD get-off on beating girls:

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As perfect as perfect can be...

H/T to Rippa for this shit:



Wonder how many white families have to "instruct" their kids to meekly stand fast, control themselves and not say shit to cops - except, "Yes sir," "No sir," "Three bags full sir" - just to be treated with dignity and respect.  How many white families have to go through that, "If you're stopped by a policeman, put both hands on the wheel, make no sudden movements and be polite" primer? And we wonder, what's up with OUR children? 

They don't respect US because, since Dr. King walked this earth, we have not been, and still are not "responsible for what we know to be true about our existence in this country" (a favorite and true Baldwinism) - and they know it.  They look to us to protect them but see - every day, in every way - how we can't.  And we, conscious of our own ineptitude, more often than not, blame - THEM! - for not being "perfect."

I have to admit that I'm as guilty as the next Black parent who - "gets" - that anything less might get them hurt - or worse.  Feeling ever powerless (particularly here, in the belly of the beast) in our "post-racial" nation, I have to keep telling my sons they have to be "perfect," or deal with the consequences (both financial and judicial) that the White Supremacist Capitalist Patriarchy generously doles out without blinking - leaving a trail that will follow them for the rest of their lives.

It's 20-damn-10, there's a society-identified Black man in the Big House ("fulfillment" of Dr. King's dream my ass!) AND a Black Attorney General - and still, the beat goes on...

Shoulda, woulda, coulda ...

**UPDATE** - I didn't watch it in real-time (just couldn't stomach it) but, you can go here for the video:  President Obama: 'We will make BP pay':

"He presented himself Tuesday night as presidential, conveying empathy for the economic hardship facing fishermen and hoteliers on the Gulf Coast and taking the approach of a chief executive by getting tough on BP while making sure the company remains on the hook to pay for the spill." (emphasis mine)

Just had to pull this out of the piece.  White folk - too funny and predictable! (See last graph below)

~#~

I've really been trying not to write jack about the Changeling, but when I read this the other day:  Obama to POLITICO: Some in Congress hypocritical on spill , I just had to shake my damned head - in print  - for a minute.

This "Nero" - after first, veritably "fiddling" while the oil spewed - is now doubling down on visits and media appearances using the spectre of Shrub's, Katrina "fly-over" to make himself look all involved and caring, mainly because he and his, knew full well how perfectly that'd play with the "faithful."  Just peruse the blogosphere and you'll see what I mean.  I know you've heard them:

"Look at how many times he's been down here!"
(You mean, since the handlers told him, "You better get the hell out in front of this thing!?)
Well, at least he's been down here a lot - not like Black-people-hatin'-George Bush!"
(I guess a Black-people-hoodwinkin'-Obama is way better, but I digress.)

As evidenced by this now, old-as-Methusaleh, disingenuous, finger-pointing, adolescent bluster - looks like he needs to brush-up on his hoodwinkin' skills:

“I think it’s fair to say, if six months ago, before this spill had happened, I had gone up to Congress and I had said we need to crack down a lot harder on oil companies and we need to spend more money on technology to respond in case of a catastrophic spill, there are folks up there, who will not be named, who would have said this is classic, big- government overregulation and wasteful spending.” (emphasis mine)

What?  Is he, 12??"  

I think it's fair to say - he SHOULDA "gone up to Congress" - regardless of what WOULDA been said.  He COULDA marched right on over there in his Big Boy pants and said exactly that six months ago - IF, that was indeed, his stand.  Me?  I didn't think it ever was.  Especially with all the masters to whom he has to answer (neither the commoners in NOLA, nor the country, for that matter - are among them).  How could I? The real question is, how could anyone - after this?

"Folks up there, who will not be named???"  Please - grow the hell up!

Fate, God, the gods/goddesses, Mother Earth -  whoever -  has a funny and timely way of jacking people the hell up right?  Not only did this rig blow up 20 days later, it turns out his handlers had him up there strutting around on March 31, naked as a jaybird according to this - Obama overlooked key points in giving OK to offshore drilling!  And th-e-en, THIS hoodwinkin' nonsense happened:  Feds Approve New Gulf Oil Well Off Louisiana. 

Man! He's looking more and more like this guy every day - bend him like you want him! {smdh}

As to accusations that he is not showing enough passion in fighting the oil spill, the president blamed the media.

“You know, what I think I get frustrated with sometimes, as do, I suspect, other members of my team, is that the media specifically is demanding things that the public aren’t demanding,” the president said.  (emphasis mine)  

So-o-o-o, you do this?



"Like you don't KNOW whose ass to kick!" (she said, suckin' her teeth.)

And now we've got to listen to HIS ass tonight, yet again - but from the Oval Office this time.  I heard on NPR today, he'd seem more "presidential" if he spoke to the American people during this time of tragedy from there, rather than on morning shows or on the ground.  White folk sure tickle me with all their faux, copied from England, pomp-and-circumstance.  The emperor has no clothes folks.  Does it matter from where we see his behind?

In a "Baldwin" state of mind...

I've begun so many drafts that I've just left sitting and I've decided to get them finished.  While I try to stay current with all the other shit going on, I'll slip them in 'til I'm done.  This little doohickey at the beginning of a post (or intermingled with a current one) indicates something that's been "simmering" and I've finally gotten - "around to it."  :-)

But for now, some Baldwin.  Because when I ponder just how far we've not come, he reminds me - that I'm not the damned crazy one ...

Serves you right....

From Politico:

Rep. Joe Sestak has defeated five-term Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter in their state's Democratic Senate primary, according to the AP. Specter's loss marks the end of a 30-year career in the Senate, most of which he spent as a Republican before switching parties in April 2009.

I don't know if this is the result of some shit the Democrats have been cooking up for later or what, but it was time for him to go.  Christ, 30 years!!  Methinks it's way past time to discuss term limits.

A Question...

If a descendant of people who emigrated to America (becoming immigrants from some other country to native-born Americans) says, "And how many of 'em are you gonna let in?"  regarding those of Mexican descent crossing the borders of America - what would you think of that person?

"This Is How We Do It" - The Misappropriation of a culture

Perusing Salon.com, I came upon, "American Idol" recap: Crystal Bowersox saves by Mary T. Kelly and damn if that Montell Jordan title didn't just pop into my head!  Here's a little of it:

Alicia Keys, a woman who could make believers out of the most cynical among us, was the mentor for the week. Talk about a god in the music industry. This woman has earned 12 Grammy awards and sold over 30 million records. However, Keys' gentle and compassionate guidance wasn't miraculous enough for most of the contestants, and. quite frankly, Crystal Bowersox and Lee Dewyze would have done as well without her feedback...(emphasis mine)

...Crystal Bowersox sang "People Get Ready" -- without any kind of instrument! I was so excited. I've been waiting weeks for Crystal to go solo. Alicia, like so many, named Crystal one of her favorites.

Crystal's rendition of the song had the angels and saints singing from the rooftops of heaven. People were rolling around in the aisles, throwing up their hands and speaking in tongues. Forget about goose bumps! I had been filled with the Holy Spirit and was jumping up and down in my humble living room screaming, "Praise the Lord, Praise the Lord, Alleluia, Alleluia!"  (emphasis mine)

We-l-l, this excellent, 1994 interview with Curtis Mayfield in the UK's Independent, described Mayfield's obviously enduring, mid-60s hit, "People Get Ready," this way:

That decade was barely halfway gone when he began to expose a third facet of his work - and perhaps the most important. With 'People Get Ready' in 1964 he had revived the coded messages of the old negro spirituals to imply support for the civil- rights movement. (emphasis mine)

While young Crystal certainly S-A-N-G that song (she reminds me a little of Joss Stone), both she and Ms. Kelly seemed to only have gotten the "religion" part that definitely influenced Mayfield's penning of the song - but nothing else. It always seems that when white privilege and cultural difference collide, the result, more often than not, is a huge amount of co-option for financial gain and revisionism. Hell, ask Chinua Achebe about "It takes a Village to raise a child, " or even George Lopez about flat-bottomed tacos! But I digress.

I was around eight or nine years old when this song came out.  It was important to us - as a people - which is why, even today, I still feel and prefer The Impressions version whenever someone else sings this, and many other back-in-the-day songs.  It harkens back to a social consciousness and cultural bond that sadly, seems  particularly lost on this generation of young, Black folk:



During "Elvis Week" on Idol, Ms. Bowersox got rave reviews for her rendition of, "Saved."  Yes - Elvis did record "Saved" - but HE covered it.  It was originally written and produced by Jerry Lieber and  Mike Stoller for a Black female vocalist from Chicago - the inimitable, LaVern Baker.  But somehow, with no props to Baker at all - it's an "Elvis Presley" song. 

Well, in honor of LaVern Baker, here's how "Saved" made its way to American Idol (my sister, Cinie - musical archivist extraordinaire and former Chicagoan that she is - probably has this Baker 45 in her collection!) :









Young Crystal did pay an homage of sorts to both Gospel music and Blues saying, "That's really where my roots are."  I get wanting to claim those roots as her own - after having lived in Chicago for some time and being influenced by its great, Black music scene - but what happened to those, born-and-raised-on-an-Ohio-farm-playing-the-harmonica-and-guitar-since-she-was-seven "roots" from whence she came?  Is it just me feeling that we still can't have shit of our own??  Hell, I never signed on for that whole "melting pot" thing - I prefer the "tossed salad" analogy, where everybody brings their own distinct flavors to the bowl that we enjoy together.  But that's just me.

Don't get it twisted, my issue is NOT that there aren't any commonalities among all of us in the experiences expressed by "Saved."  But my issue IS, the mis-education about, and the slow-but-sure diminishing of, OUR musical "roots" by first attacking it (the same things they're saying about Rap, are the same things they said about R&B back in the day), and then co-opting it for financial gain while slowly whitewashing Black folk completely out of the picture.

Even though I think this "girl-child" (as my Grandmama used to say) has an amazing voice, my soul can't help but feel a different kind of Jill Scott wince at the continued cultural genocide of a people who, among all the ethnicities in this country, were forced to surrender - everything about themselves that made them themselves - just so white America could build a culture of their own (not to mention plenty of this country's stately edifices) on their backs .

The strange career of patriarchy and race in the "belly of the beast"

This horrific, Good Friday night news story - Authorities: Mother Kills Two Children, Then Self  (watch video at link) - just jacked me the hell up from under myself. Nothing I'm dealing with compares to this tragedy.

So unsettling on its face, I couldn't tune it out.  And once I heard the details (such as they were), I just could not add, yet another "swirling of thoughts" to the already too-numerous ones floating around in my head.  My only choice?  Spew forth, and hopefully the drip will lead to a trickle, and then maybe a deluge - clearing my head of all the shit I've been seeing, hearing and feeling that just doesn't make sense.

It's been three weeks since this happened and I've heard nothing else about it in the local media.  I'm thinking it's because, as the officer so nonchalantly said in the video, "I can tell you that on the surface, it looks like a murder-suicide." 

First, I went off on a disgusted, "Damn!  More collateral damage from the Nobel-Peace-Prize-winning Changeling's war."  And then, for reasons on which I can't quite put my finger, I got two very disturbing thoughts in succession which I said aloud:

1) "I sure hope there's going to be more investigation, because something in that milk ain't clean."
2) "I bet this is a Black family."

My eldest asked me, "What makes you think that, Mom?  The news didn't say that."  All I could say was, "Just seems so open-and-shut."   

And it did.  And it bothered me all night long. 

The next day, I got a call from this lively, Panamanian woman I'd met, at what passed for a dialogue on race relations (that's another "interesting" story I'll probably get around to telling) a month or so ago at a local community college.  Our conversation turned to the deaths and I repeated my hope that there'd be further investigation.  A divorced Army wife and long-time San Antonio resident, she looked at me and asked, "Was she Black?

Unnerved (because I'd been thinking the same thing), I said, "I'm not sure, but I'm going to try and find out."

Then she said, "You know they don't care nothin' about Black people killing each other down here."  (I thought to myself, "Or anywhere else for that matter.")

We talked for awhile about how the Changeling's war was producing collateral damage both abroad and at-home, with families torn asunder by stress due to falling-outs about money, or infidelity - and of course, the plethora of difficulties should they not come home in one piece either mentally or physically.

I told her I was going to see if there was anything more online and that I'd try to find out if the family was, in fact, Black.  I told her I'd let her know, and hung up. 

Then, I found this even more distressing and confusing, Holy Saturday story which accompanies the photo above - Threat preceded apparent double-murder suicide:

Richard Griffin sensed danger.

In the midst of a divorce, the U.S. Army soldier stationed at Fort Hood in Killeen talked early Friday to his estranged wife, who was living in far West Bexar County with their two school-age sons.

In that conversation, Sheena Griffin threatened to kill herself and their children.

Richard Griffin, who filed for divorce March 1 and was scheduled to soon deploy to Afghanistan, quickly called local authorities and asked them to check on his family. He was worried, he told them.

When sheriff’s deputies arrived, they found the two-story home in the 12000 block of Gable Oaks engulfed in heavy smoke.

Inside, in the children’s upstairs bedroom, firefighters made a grisly discovery: The two boys, ages 8 and 9, were dead from gunshot wounds and lying together on a twin bed, their 36-year-old mother on the floor, also dead.

“On the surface, it looks like a double-murder suicide,” Bexar County Deputy Chief Dale Bennett said, adding that a handgun was found at the scene.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Jose Trevino said authorities were called to the home shortly before 7 a.m. It wasn’t their first time to that residence, he said, as deputies had gone to the home several times in the past because of marital disputes.

Authorities said the fire started downstairs and caused $75,000 in damages. They believe gasoline was used to start the fire. As investigators combed through the home and collected evidence, an Army chaplain escorted the distraught Richard Griffin to San Antonio.  (more at the link)

According to my source, the Griffin family was indeed, Black.

I don't know the man, I don't know his wife and I certainly don't know their marital situation.  But, taking the stories together (all three of them), everything about this screams, "ASK MORE DAMN QUESTIONS!"

1. First of all:  "in the midst of divorce," "U.S. Army soldier stationed at Fort Hood in Killeen" and "...about to deploy to Afghanistan" are all issues with which most military families contend at one time or another, but particularly now.  That he'd just filed for divorce on March 1st while on pre-deployment duty and living in Killeen, coupled with that Coldwell Banker sign already on the lawn - seems strange.
2. The husband spoke to his wife sometime before 7 a.m. .  They had a conversation - that only he heard and knew about -  during which she threatened to take, not only her life, but the kids' as well.  Strange.
3. "Sensing danger," he hangs up and calls local cops to do a welfare check at his home and they high-tail it over there - arriving some time around 7 a.m. (according to the video).  Not so strange that they immediately went.  Welfare check requests are common when a spouse is deployed.  And if nothing else, Texas IS a place that takes their "patriots" seriously.  But, when the cops arrived, the house was engulfed  - in SMOKE.  They couldn't get in and had to wait for the firefighters (according to the video) who found the bodies - kids on a twin bed and the mother on the floor.  How long had this "fire" been burning??  They got there around 7 a.m. - when kids are getting up and out for school by 8 a.m., How come nobody saw the "fire" before then?  According to another television station's report in which the wife has already been blamed for starting the fire:  "The blaze was contained to the downstairs area of the home. Officials said the fire appeared to have been purposely set in numerous places on the first floor. More than $75,000 in damage were done to the home."  $75,000 in damage - downstairs!  Real estate values here are way more realistic than most places in the country.  And if that figure is even close - that's a whole lot of damage for this house - in such a short period of time (remember he spoke to her before 7 a.m. and the cops immediately responded somewhere around 7 a.m.).  Strange  
4. According to the video, the next door neighbor heard "screaming/really loud yelling" coming from the house that woke her up just minutes before the cops arrived.  But she wasn't aware the house NEXT DOOR was on fire??  They all died from single, gunshot wounds and none had suffered any burns as a result of the fire according to my source.  Who was doing the yelling?  And if she heard it "just minutes" before the cops arrived, how come she heard - not one gunshot?  As close as the homes are to one another - not a single person reported that they'd heard any gunshots.  Strange.

Fort Hood's approximately a 2-3 hour drive away, so I'm not saying the husband was there to do this.  Besides, he's got an alibi for his whereabouts during the time the bodies were discovered (unless of course, he was there in the wee hours of the morning and left (What?  It could happen!).  All I'm saying is, I'm just not convinced - without more details and investigation - that the wife did this (and no, it's not because I think Black folk don't do that kind of shit.  I must admit though - "When We Were Colored?" - I did think that way).

It bothers me that the "double murder-suicide" ruling was just accepted by the media with no apparent, substantive questions asked.  It bothers me that there seems to be no one following up on this story.  The funerals have been held (hope an autopsy was done) and it's like it never happened.  It bothers me that we've heard nothing about any continuing investigation.  And yes, it bothers me - that they were Black - and no one seems to care.

They took this man's word for everything.  Who speaks for the wife?  In patriarchal institutions, like the military and the police particularly, there's an inherent value in the words of men over women's.  Not just in Texas, but all over!

Two cases immediately jumped into my head (yeah it's crowded up there) after mulling this over - mainly because I was living in Texas and then Florida during both.  The first, was that of Darlie Routier in Rowlett, TX back in 1996.  She sits on death row, accused and convicted of stabbing her 5 and 6 year-old sons to death.  Her husband and baby were asleep upstairs and she and the two older boys had fallen asleep watching TV downstairs.  In early 2008, the Texas Court of Appeals reversed a 2007 ruling denying DNA testing of hair and blood evidence collected in 1996 which her attorneys believe, will prove her story that an intruder stabbed her, and killed her sons (there were three fingerprints found not belonging to anyone in the family or any of the scene investigators). 

This case is especially interesting because it involves new Dallas D.A., Craig Watkins (about whom I've written, here and here), a young man I respect immensely for his dogged determination in freeing (as of 2008) 17 men who were wrongly accused - based on - DNA evidence.  He inherited Routier's case and, based on the afore-linked piece about the reversal, he seems to believe that they've got the right person even though Darlie supporters disagree (I hope he wasn't just regurgitating the "company line" because he was new on the scene).  The show American Justice covered the case and it is available on You Tube in five parts, entitled, "Mother on Death Row."

The other, was the 1997 murder of Sheila Bellush in Sarasota, FL at the hands of hit-man, Joey Del Toro - paid for by her millionaire husband, Allen Blackthorne of San Antonio.  After having stalked her since their 1987 divorce - and through her new marriage to Jamie Bellush  into which quadruplets were born - he had her killed.  Her body was found by one of the daughters she shared with Blackthorne - with her two year-old quadruplets toddling around in her blood.  Sound like a "Murder By The Book" story?  It was.  Author, Ann Rule chronicled the horrific story in her book, "Every Breath You Take" in 2001.  It took THREE YEARS before he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

 As for the Griffins - yes, there was a history of marital discord.  The cops admit they'd been there before - on many occasions.  That, in itself is disturbing.  Domestic violence cases, the majority of which are reported by women, are rarely taken very seriously by the police.  I met a woman in January, who'd been arrested for domestic violence (another around-to-it draft).  She was so distraught at finding out her husband had long been cheating that she was uncontrollable when the cops arrived and they took her in.  She had no family here and was worried out of her mind about what would happen to her two kids because she was in jail. 

Women have a hard row to hoe when dealing with the rampant sexism and misogyny in patriarchal institutions.  And women of color have it even worse.