Ebony: We are TRAYVON

You remember how far-right talking heads warned:

There will be riots in the streets of all major cities if George Zimmerman is found innocent of murdering Trayvon Martin. Angry black mobs will burn, loot and cause urban mayhem.

Never happened. Outside a few isolated incidents, wonton violence did not erupt in the black community. Anger? Yes. Outrage? Of course. Riots? Not this time. This time the cause and effect was more complex and introspective.

Not to compare apples and oranges -- and this point is still lost on the zombie (and predictable) right-wing talking heads -- Trayvon Martin receiving justice in our court system has no correlation to the extremely high and unacceptable black youth on black youth gun violence.

The right-wing noise machine, instead of honestly evaluating the misuse of deadly force by George Zimmerman -- the force that left an unarmed teenager dead -- employ a cheap debate tactic: change the subject from Zimmerman to urban violence.

The goal?

Have the court of public opinion declare: How can black folks raise hay about Trayvon when thousands of black young males kill other black males every single day?

The far-right miscalculation.

Mass post court decision violence did not occur for the exact same reason FOX nation cited black folks should not be outraged by Trayvon's murder. The community is just as appalled by senseless violence between Ray-Ray and Jamarcus. The community movement is about Trayvon and more. The mission is about saving our boys, brothers, and sons from gun violence.

The Martin miscarriage of justice has served as a watershed moment to re-energize the black community in the fight against root causes of gun violence: poverty, mis-education, lack of hope and opportunity and societal bias.

Ebony magazine has dedicated the September 2013 issue to Trayvon Martin and the movement to save our sons.

We are all Trayvon Martin here at The Greg Street Show!

And Ebony Magazine has dedicated it’s September issue to the slain teen and his family. You can see his mother (Sybrina Fulton), father (Tracy Martin), and older brother (Jharvis Martin) on the front, but that’s not it.

There are three additional electrifying covers that feature celebrity dads  Dwyane Wade, Boris Kodjoe, and Spike Lee with their sons.

The editors said they were inspired by the hurt that ran through the black community after the “Not Guilty” was delivered. So they have taken time in this issue to explore solutions for how to heal and move forward.

It’s time to take our community back and save our sons! source

And very predictably, the right-wing talking heads have already cried: Reverse Racism!  Go figure or not.

White Men Can't Jump – But, Boy, Can They Wince by Josh

 

Riley Cooper: In the dog house

Editor's Note: The following post was submitted by one of HGP's readers. The views expressed are the authors. As expressed previously, we here at HGP welcome all respectful views. No one has a monopoly on truth, hence, respectful dialogue is healthy.

This particular post is on the topic of Philadelphia Eagle Riley Cooper and his use of nigger. The author's perspective is that of a white man that struggles (my opinion) with the double standard applied to the word based on race. 

 

 

A criminal offense is not usually judged based on the level of emotional grievance felt by the victim(s). That is typically saved for sentencing or in civil cases – emotional distress, pain and suffering. But we as a society have long attempted to change that by attaching special classifications to crimes, so that even the initial charge takes into account a victim's mental anguish.

It is a horrendously gross thing to physically harm someone. A man assaulting another man is liable for his actions, subject to charges such as assault and battery and malicious wounding. However, if the man in question is a different race, religion or a different sexual orientation than his victim, that man, committing the same crime, may be subject to a much harsher punishment due to the “hate crime” category.

Philly crime drop and Chicago gun violence summit

Winning back Philly streets

Philadelphia Daily News: DOWN BY LAW: Big-time crime has dropped remarkably in Philly.

This is the type of news I love reporting.

The city of brotherly love is successfully winning back the streets. I hope and pray this trend becomes the new norm. The credit is given to smarter and more proactive policing.

Another novel approach to reducing crime even further: Investing in our urban talent would not drain our tax dollars.

On the contrary, we know the crime prone years are 18-29 years old, targeting this demographic for skill development and job training would save us billions of dollars in law enforcement. Second, it would create millions of new tax donors and this additional revenue would lower the tax burden on the middle and working class.

Read on:

THE STREETS of Philadelphia are less mean this year because of a major decline in crime, led by a decrease in the number of homicides.

If the pace in the second half of this year matches the first, the city will end 2013 with fewer than 70,000 Part One crimes recorded. Part One includes murder, rape, robbery, serious assaults, burglary and theft.

As you can tell by that number, Philadelphia still has a lot of crime. But going below 70,000 would be significant, bringing crime down to the lowest level in 40 years and homicides down to the lowest number since 1969.  Read more

To those FOX news leaning folks who claim blacks are only concerned about homicides when it's white on black, here's some folks rallying in Chicago to address street gun violence. They are convening in an emergency summit.

While Congress tangled over gun control legislation earlier this year after the killings in Newtown, gun violence in Chicago went on unabated, taking lives in clips of one, two and three at a time.
“I equate it to when a 747 crashes as opposed to a two-seater,” said Rep. Robin Kelly, a Democrat from Chicago. “In Chicago, every day we have mini-massacres.”

After a particularly bloody Fourth of July weekend, in which 72 people were shot, 12 of them killed, Kelly and a couple of fellow local Democratic members of Congress have convened an “emergency summit” to address the issue of gun violence facing Chicago and so many other cities across the country. The two-day “National Summit on Violence in Urban Communities,” hosted by the Congressional Black Caucus, began on Friday at the Chicago State University Convocation Center in Chicago.

Speakers and attendees from all over the city, region and country, including members of law enforcement, the clergy, politicians, community leaders, and victims of gun violence, attended. Panelists will discuss what approaches have and have not worked. And organizers hope to glean practical strategies that could be applied in Chicago and in other struggling communities. read more

The sound you are about to hear is a broken record: Once again -- not rocket science -- investment in our Urban youth is equivalent to an ounce of protection is worth a pound of cure.

• Education curriculum for the 21st century economy
• Better resourced and funded public schools
• Private sector/Public sponsored vocational and job training
• Tax credit incentives for corporate job hiring and training programs in Urban America
• Sensible (and much needed) gun control laws -- in particular closing loop holes for gun shows
• Decriminalization of drugs:  take out the profit motives for street gangs
• Urban youth activity centers
• Urban family outreach -- by Fraternities/churches

We know what works, but is the will there?

"What you have to do and the way you have to do it is incredibly simple. Whether you are willing to do it, that's another matter." - Peter F. Drucker

CNN's Don Lemon offers Black on Black tough love

It seems to some -- especially in the Twitter world -- that Don Lemon stepped in it with his tough love commentary on CNN this past weekend.

Lemon not only piggy-backed on very critical comments of the black community (crime, drugs, violence etc.) by Bill O'Reilly, he opined that O'Reilly did not go far enough.

Lemon listed five ways to fix our community:

The secret agenda of "The Party of No"

Here's the context of when President Obama took the oath of office in 2009:

Our country is in economic dire straits. The Bush recession -- worst economic crisis since the Great Depression -- threatens to tank the entire world economy. Americans are losing homes, jobs and businesses. The stock market is diving.

My Anthony Weiner problem or Weiner's weiner

Carlos Danger?

Dios Mios!....I was floored after reading the following:

Anthony Weiner, the disgraced former congressman who polls suggest is a leading candidate for mayor of New York, admitted Tuesday that he engaged in a series of sexually explicit communications with a young woman on the Internet.

The behavior allegedly occurred in 2012, more than a year after Weiner was forced to resign from Congress after admitting to similar episodes. But in a news conference that seemed a little like a public therapy session, Weiner stood with his wife, Huma Abedin, and vowed to stay in the race for mayor.

Tavis Smiley is "Weak as Kool Aid"

His agenda: self-promotion?

I say this tongue and cheek:

Tavis Smiley should hold a press conference and announced to the world -- or the three people who actually care -- that he is joining the Republican party.

My reason

Tavis embodies the spirit and personification of the GOP symbol: The elephant -- the animal that never forgets. Under the banner of the GOP, Tavis can continue his unrelenting personal, silly and petty vendetta against President Obama.

Obama: Trayvon Martin could have been me

In perhaps his most candid speech on race as president, President Obama, using the presidential bully pulpit, advocated for an agenda that promotes "avenues for success" for young African American boys.

In the aftermath of the Trayvon Martin case, he appealed to all Americans to introspectively search for their better angels on racial issues and: Judge people by the content of their character and not by the color of their skin.

I killed Trayvon Martin

Author Eddie Hatcher

I discovered this very insightful blog post via Facebook. The author bravely looks inward in an attempt to find, as a white man, how racism evolved in him.

As a black man, I am well aware that racism is the birth defect of our country (thank you Condoleezza Rice). I also see racism as a tool -- used by the ruling elite class -- to keep non-privileged white, black, brown and yellow people divided, thus, easier to control.

Trayvon's American Style Justice and The Mis-education of the Negro

With a few days to reflect and gather my thoughts, here is my reaction to jury's decision to acquit George Zimmerman for the murder of Trayvon Martin:

Shocked?

Not the least bit.

Surprised?

I was about as surprised as hearing thunder after a lightning bolt?