Mitrice Richardson Still Missing After 18 Days: Are The Police Hoping She Stays "Lost"?

In what has to be one of the worst cases of neglect and CYA the authorities claim to be "baffled" as to what happened to the missing 24 year-old after they released her from booking. I'm wondering now IF she was actually released the way the police claim and what condition she was in when they did so. Sure it's all pure speculation on my part but if you get arrested for skipping out of paying a meal under $100 at a Malibu restaurant and have family and friends willing and able to help, you should not simply disappear into thin air afterwards.

Mitrice's family claims she has mental deficiencies that would have clearly manifested themselves. The restaurant owner - who's gotten a lot of negative press has gone on record to publicly trash Mitrice's mother to stem the backlash. What a way to stay classy. Not that what she did wasn't breaking the law but an $89 bill wasn't grand theft larceny. This certainly isn't going to make attending a restaurant any easier when there's often a negative connotation that certain blacks won't tip well - but that pales in comparison to this situation.

It simply doesn't make any sense for a young woman with no money or a cell phone to be wandering the streets at 130am - which is the time she was released by the cops. I'm wondering how she got to the restaurant and whether she had a purse with her to begin with. That would raise a red flag with me. Either the family is being dishonest or the police messed up in not recognizing Mitrice's diminished capacity. I can't help but think of the possible parallels between this young woman and Maia Campbell. Clearly there's more to this story than meets the eye. We'll continue to observe and hope for the best.

Here's an interview with Mitrice's dad on Issues with Jane Velez Mitchell - one of the few media outlets giving national coverage to this case by the way. Also you should note the ratings for her show have traditionally fared better than Glen Beck's. I only mention this because of what I think was the misguided black male protectionist-oriented focus on targeting him to begin with by some wanna-be Civil Rights organization. The attention may have gotten advertisers to pull out of that particular show (but not with the entire network) yet it tripled his ratings.

Mitchell's show now has a focus on what she terms the "War Against Women" and her coverage doesn't exclusively focus on white women as the sole victims of crimes and neglect unlike say Nancy Grace and 99.99% of the corporate media. This is what we need to be supporting instead of focusing on a wanna-be Limbaugh who displays a negative obsession with the president for ratings and money. Real women are being harmed, neglected and overlooked and very few have protectors.

How Black Women Stuck In the DBR Matrix Fall Down The Rabbit Hole Even Further

We don't have to stay in the Matrix.

I have a lot of sympathy for the young woman featured in this segment. This was from a Tyra Show episode on racial perception. It had the usual discriminatory attitudes and inflammatory behavior but this woman is clearly hurting and very very confused. She's adopted the negative attitudes and insecurities stemming from black men who reject women with features like hers. To add further insult to injury she believes the lie that other men would also reject her.

I was relieved that Tyra kept insisting that her experiences directly related to the men she's been dating. I'd also add that I suspect some other people in her life are also guilty of stomping on a more positive and accurate outlook that prevents her from being her best and living her fullest life. Hopefully she listened and some of that disordered thinking has been expelled.

How Black Women Went From Being ENSLAVED By White Men To Black Men In Less Than 50 Years

I present to you the letters from William Lynch slave master giving instructions how to break a person enslaved to keep them in servitude. Read it and be outraged. Then read it again and think about when blacks were emancipated but how most of those emasculated men felt the need to exert a false sense of control to regain their manhood. They couldn't compete or subdue white men so they turned their attention to black women. Some claim the letters are a fake. Even if they are the indoctrination tactics used as outlined in these letters were absolutely deployed with spectacular results. Look at the current state of the majority of blacks post Civil Rights (and even post Obama's election) and you will find a state of chaos that didn't exist as little as 100 years ago. Today so many of us are confused, bewildered, dumbstruck and resistant to change. So many are broken. We need a renewal of our minds.

For fear that our future generations may not understand the principles of breaking both of the beast together, the nigger and the horse. We understand that short range planning economics results in periodic economic chaos; so that to avoid turmoil in the economy, it requires us to have breadth and depth in long range comprehensive planning, articulating both skill sharp perceptions. We lay down the following principles for long range comprehensive economic planning. Both horse and niggers [are] no good to the economy in the wild or natural state. Both must be BROKEN and TIED together for orderly production. For orderly future, special and particular attention must be paid to the FEMALE and the YOUNGEST offspring. Both must be CROSSBRED to produce a variety and division of labor. Both must be taught to respond to a peculiar new LANGUAGE .

Psychological and physical instruction of CONTAINMENT must be created for both. We hold the six cardinal principles as truth to be self-evident, based upon following the discourse concerning the economics of breaking and tying the horse and the nigger together, all inclusive of the six principles laid down above. NOTE: Neither principle alone will suffice for good economics. All principles must be employed for orderly good of the nation. Accordingly, both a wild horse and a wild or natur[al] nigger is dangerous even if captured, for they will have the tendency to seek their customary freedom and, in doing so, might kill you in your sleep. You cannot rest. They sleep while you are awake, and are awake while you are asleep. They are DANGEROUS near the family house and it requires too much labor to watch them away from the house. Above all, you cannot get them to work in this natural state. Hence, both the horse and the nigger must be broken; that is breaking them from one form of mental life to another. KEEP THE BODY, TAKE THE MIND!

In other words, break the will to resist. Now the breaking process is the same for both the horse and the nigger, only slightly varying in degrees. But, as we said before, there is an art in long range economic planning. YOU MUST KEEP YOUR EYE AND THOUGHTS ON THE FEMALE and the OFFSPRING of the horse and the nigger. A brief discourse in offspring development will shed light on the key to sound economic principles. Pay little attention to the generation of original breaking, but CONCENTRATE ON FUTURE GENERATION . Therefore, if you break the FEMALE mother, she will BREAK the offspring in its early years of development; and when the offspring is old enough to work, she will deliver it up to you, for her normal female protective tendencies will have been lost in the original breaking process.

We see this in the out of wedlock birth rate which is currently hovering in the 80th percentile. Like then black women are being used as breeders to maintain numbers. Many have no protection for themselves or their children, but how often do you see them marching for, being angry about some injustice against, acting as a gatekeeper or bodyguard for black men? When is it ever reciprocated? In fact other black women love to attack each other when one "steps out of line" and expects to be treated like any other woman from other groups.

I was just reading messages on Twitter where one was complaining about a celebrity's divorce/child support settlement saying that the woman needed to "get a job". She just gave birth to her first child less than two months ago! The fact the woman filed during her pregnancy speaks volumes about the lack of quality in her former marriage. When this story was first reported there were a lot of black men (and joined be a few black women) who were griping that she was "getting over" and asking for too much because all she deserved was __. As if they were personally involved or even know them!

It seems that whatever racist tactics had been deployed by whites to keep a population compliant was transferred to blacks by CHOICE to use against each other. I feel the need to remind people it's 2009 and high time to let all that crap go. Since trying to have normal conversations with indoctrinated people is futile I think it's just best that those of us outside the Matrix separate ourselves instead. These dead concepts are killing people and I for one want to be part of the LIVING. I'm not interested in being part of a system of control to use my time, energy and breeding capabilities for others to exploit. I want my MIND intact, fully functioning and LEFT ALONE.

Supplemental Reading:

Womanist Musings - Black Women Should Lightenen Up? On Health, Optimism & Bias

Muslim Bushido - The Mass "Gaslighting" Of African-American Women

Lateisha Green Post-Conviction Update & Essence Interview

I have some good news to share for those interested in justice across the board. The now-convicted murderer Dwight DeLee has been sentenced 25-years to life for killing Lateisha Green. Ms. Green was a lovely trangender woman who was brutally murdered by DeLee for no reason other than her gender identity which I've discussed in this post.

While this won't bring her back at least her family can take some comfort (I hope) knowing consequences have been meted out. As someone who has experienced the murder of a beloved innocent sibling by a DBR (damaged beyond recognition) black male I wish that one chapter would be closed. If there can be no justice in this life I trust there will be some in the afterlife. See the great post that blog host Monica wrote up at Transgriot.

One other interesting development is how MESSence, er Essence magazine interviewed Lateisha's mother Roxanne Green and published it on their web portal. I think they are desperately trying to combat the negative publicity and ridicule they justifiably received after a) telling black women they were low value, desperate and should take whatever they can get by b) dating black men (not suggesting they seek out a man of caliber of any race/ethnicity) WHO FREQUENTS STRIP CLUBS. I for one was very glad my subscription had lapsed and I missed that month of debasement for I most certainly would have cancelled it after being so insulted.

Anyhoo, not to detract from this one incident of decency I still cannot in good conscience recommend any black woman who values herself to ever read MESSence again but this is one interview. You can decide for yourself about that. This is good exposure to an audience of "conservative black church-going black community" loving women though. I wonder how well they'll respond to this seeing how the strip club recommendation went over many heads.

Should Rape Be Classified As A HATE Crime?

This is something I've been working on for a while and I haven't formed all of my thoughts surrounding what an appropriate punishment for rape should be. So I'm just putting this out there. I will also say I have not experienced sexual assault directly but my life has been impacted by the effects it has had on other women in my life.

There are so many scenarios such as incest and molestation from a relative, then there's this seeming explosion of white female teachers violating their male students that seems to not be taken seriously. There's acquaintance rape and spousal rape. The flagrant abuses by Catholic priests and others with religious authority has now made headlines. Young women trying to enact boundaries in social settings in high school or college where a male will cross the line. Then there's the use of rape as a tactic during wars, coups and other military actions. We also cannot forget such tactics are also used against female service members and not by enemy combatants. There are numerous situations. Most assault survivors know their violators.

I'm not sure about all the legal ramifications involved with this, but the statute of limitations on prosecuting sexual assault should be extended at the very least. It varies from state to state but rape and incest have had a 5-year limit. Murder is still prosecutable decades later - why not various forms of rape? It is an act of violence and hatred so why shouldn't the perpetrator be held accountable? Perhaps it was reading this story of the gang rape of an 8 year old that set me on edge.

Reading these stories about crimes is difficult. As my guest-blogging time at What About Our Daughters closes out I realize what a tough gig it was. I'll be evaluating what I've learned and how it's changed me as a person and a blogger for quite some time. I do know that I much prefer to evaluate our inner workings as humans and race/ethnic identities than discussing specific criminal acts against women. Being exposed to the aftermath of depravity is sickening but it is necessary for us to know what's going on so we can respond to it.

Now there are situations where people have been falsely accused and convicted of crimes they didn't commit from circumstantial evidence. It is so difficult to get a false conviction overturned. We've also heard of cases where prisoners have been executed for capital crimes and DNA evidence proved their innocence. It's a tight rope. On the other hand there are those who are never brought to justice because as many as 60% of the survivors don't come forward to report their assaults. Also states are not processing rape kits and site lack of funding as an excuse. It's a lack of priority if you ask me. With the current stats of 1 in 6 women projected as potential assault victims (and 1 in 33 for men) this should be a priority. I bet if 1 in 6 men would be assaulted law enforcement would step in and legislation would attempt to address it. In cases where DNA evidence exists should there be term limits for prosecution? Also how has the legal precedent of 1st degree rape, 2nd, etc. been established and should they be reevaluated as well?

This article at Oregon Live gives much food for thought

In Oregon, only murder has no statute of limitation, meaning there is no time limit for prosecuting the crime. Rape has a six-year limit, although two years ago state lawmakers extended it to 25 years for prosecution of first-degree sex crimes in which DNA evidence has been collected.

But proponents of this session's bill said the 25-year statute of limitations is not enough to safeguard victims and bring those responsible to justice.

"All it does is reward a rapist who's clever enough to evade capture," said Christine Herrman, director of the Attorney General's Sexual Assault Task Force.

House Bill 3263 would eliminate the statute of limitations for four sex offenses: first-degree rape, first-degree sodomy, first-degree sexual penetration and first-degree sex abuse.

Don Rees, a Multnomah County senior prosecuting attorney, said the bill is limited to the most violent sex crimes involving physical force and the most vulnerable victims.

Representatives of the American Civil Liberties Union and the Oregon Criminal Defense Lawyers Association were careful to express support for Gillmore's victims but said they respectfully opposed the bill.

Andrea Meyer of the ACLU and Gail Meyer of the defense attorneys association said they were concerned that a defendant wouldn't get a fair trial because witnesses die and memories fade. They also expressed concern about the potential for mishandling or contamination of DNA evidence over such a lengthy time.

"You are robbing the defendant of the ability to re-create the event fairly," Gail Meyer said. She added that the statute of limitations was particularly important to be maintained for sex crimes because "innocent, law-abiding people engage in sex" and could be wrongly implicated, which is not so for other crimes.

But the committee didn't seem swayed by the opponents' concerns, and the bill has bipartisan support on the committee. Rep. Judy Stiegler, D-Bend, committee vice-chair, said she was "offended" by their logic, emphasizing that the bill deals with the most egregious of sex crimes, in which physical force or children are involved. Rep. Brent Barton, D-Clackamas, called the opponents' arguments "logically flawed," describing the bill as narrow in scope. Rep. Jefferson Smith, D-Portland, pointed out that it doesn't change a prosecutor's burden of proving a case at trial.

Nationally, 14 states have adopted similar legislation, eliminating the statute of limitations in rape cases in which a DNA profile has been obtained. Thirteen other states have eliminated the statute of limitations on the most serious sex offenses, regardless of whether DNA evidence is collected.

"It certainly a trend that's been going on for the last five years, with the mass use of DNA to solve crimes," said Kristina Korobov, director of the National Center for the Prosecution of Violence Against Women. "Certainly the impact of sex assault on a victim and their family can be as devastating as homicide."

I know there are no easy answers and this is a volatile issue for many reasons. We have to ask the tough questions and explore the options though.

Tameka Raymond's HuffPo Op-Ed on Colorism Is A Must Read

I noticed a few people were discussing this essay on various social media platforms yesterday but I just got around the reading it. Wow! The soon-to-be-ex Mrs. Usher Raymond certainly has her head on straight as far as recognizing the intra-Black racism, petty jealousies and assumptions by strangers goes. She took great pains to make a definitive argument of the larger psychological issues as well as the added attention due to her celebrity status. She laid it out and offered her own introspection of how that negativity has affected her.

We've been discussing the underlying pathologies that motivate many African-Americans here and at other forums for quite some time. I can't recall the last time I've read a thorough examination of these by another AA person who wasn't a) a blogger trying to encourage other black women to free themselves b) an academic or infotainment hustler c) a man. So I cheered that this message will likely get more attention - but unfortunately it will likely be due to the pop culture consumption of various parties and not from a concentrated effort by those trying to free their minds. Still I hope that something sticks. I've pulled some quotes which I found particularly poignant that I'd like more blacks to evaluate in detail:

I am a dark-skinned African American woman with features that reflect my ancestry. It is a fact that many African-Americans are often mixed with an array of other ethnicities (as am I), which allows for the spectrum of our features to be as distinctive and special as we are diverse. Why is it felt that the more diluted our traditionally African features become the more aesthetically acceptable we are considered?

That all-too-familiar disdain and lack of racial or ethnic pride amongst African-Americans has not been resolved. We must also be careful about not mislabeling the potential self-hate of an individual versus the choice to devalue others. This manifests itself in familiar patterns by the way some black men pursue white-skinned women and how black women who don't know each other can be at odds with one another just because. People who are engaged in adversarial interactions cannot coalesce to form networks that would elevate larger groups. So the focus remains on external aggressions (i.e the white racism argument) instead of recognizing how so many undermine each other.

Often dark-skinned women are considered mean, domineering and standoffish and it was these very labels that followed Michelle Obama during the campaign for her husband's presidency and which she has had to work tirelessly to combat. I was appalled when I heard a Black woman refer to Michelle Obama as unattractive. The conversation turned into why President Obama picked her as his mate.

This is bigger than Michelle Obama. This is the manifestation of that colorism, hueism, skin shade hatred and black on black racism that does more damage today than its historical origins. It is also specifically targeting black women, African-American women who are unabashedly black with recognizable African features. It is used to shame them and make them more compliant for abuse. Like the street harassment I discussed in yesterday's blog post. Yes, we know it was part of the "Master's Tools" to create division amongst slaves and maintain control over a much larger population who could have easily risen up and slaughtered their captors. Psychological warfare is dirty and brutal. As I've written previously SLAVERY IS OVER. There is NO EXCUSE for blacks to take this practice, magnify it by thousands, add more depravity on top of it and then say that white people started it. I also touched on that hack piece by a hack writer who attributed an anonymous quote to disparage browner-skinned black women.

As I began to delve into further research on this topic, and the more I read, I concluded that many of our people do not like what they see in the mirror. There is an adage "hurt people, hurt people". If this is true then we must examine the root of negative words and judgments that are passed on people. Perhaps we show progress in our wallets and lifestyles but not in our mind set. I nearly lost my life over something as superficial as having a flatter mid-section and trying to adapt to society's traditional definition of beauty. I truly believe that everyone has a right to delineate what they deem is attractive, but we must not confuse perceived "attractiveness" with authentic "beauty." It is important for African Americans, especially, to realize that true beauty is a spiritual element that lies deep within an individual's spirit.

I appreciated Mrs. Raymond's candor about going to such lengths to be considered attractive and acceptable. It's one thing to follow a strict regime to be healthy and at one's best. Chasing eternal youth and the appearance of external perfection is something else entirely. I thought about how Dr. Donda West, Kanye's mother lost her life while recovering from a similar surgical procedure. Despite her education, financial resources and residual celebrity - or perhaps because of it - she felt something was lacking and tried to address it externally. She also had a browner skin shade and noticeably African features. Not that plenty of other women don't choose to go to such lengths as well but I can't help but wonder would the drumbeat of disdain be less fervent if others accepted themselves as they were and encouraged others instead of tearing them down?

I also watched the documentary about Lisa Lopes (from TLC) that aired on VH-1 yesterday. Ironically she had been filming herself, friends and family for a project and it ended up being her legacy after she was killed in an auto accident. It was packaged beautifully and was very compelling. Her candor about her struggles and insights she offered gave me a different perspective. She was a flawed but brilliant woman - like so many of us. So when I see certain black women in the spotlight I observe how they are treated by others and what standards apply. It isn't pretty. Still I admire the efforts by many to live their lives on their own terms and not some self-imposed double standard of acceptable "black" behavior that is often demeaning anyway. I hope Mrs. Raymond's essay gets through to some black women who would have otherwise not heard its message of uplift.

Street Harassment Is Part Of The DBR War Against Women

Since many seem to be confused about why it is WRONG for a man to approach or speak to a woman he doesn't know in public spaces here's a primer:

Street Harassment refers to disrespect women receive daily in public spaces: streets, busses, and parks. Acts of street harassment can include lewd sexual comments and solicitations, stalking, touching and grabbing, demands to smile, cat calls, whistles, glaring, and remarks. Feminist Guide to Street Harassment

Surely you men can find other methods of meeting women in a respectful manner or getting a date. There's a huge difference between simply greeting another person as one human being to another using normal social graces and what goes on when saying hello is seen as an open invitation for sexual advances. So it's not okay to call a woman "baby" or demand that she give you her phone number or "compliment" her when you are:

a) Invading her personal space

b) Taking up her time unsolicited and usually UNWANTED

c) ASSuming that because you are male you are entitled to anything at all - even an acknowledgment

Part of my recognition of how degenerate many would-be DBR (damaged beyond repair) black males are was the insistence of some of these so-called "good" men that "talking to" a unknown female was their right and privilege. That it's a normal everyday occurrence and not a big deal. The thought that women have forced themselves to go along with this culture of intimidation is as foreign as eating meat is to a vegan.

There are numerous men who bother women in public spaces and it cuts across race, ethnicity, religion and income. This is why certain Islamic countries force women to burqas. They already blame women for being temptresses and excuse the lack of respect and discipline of men by claiming it restores equilibrium. We should all just wear potato sacks over our heads and all the vulgarities would simply end. Not! As if the male species cannot control themselves from wanting to take by force any woman (or girl) they merely look at.

I remember the year I turned twelve. It was the end of my life as I had known it. With puberty came the sudden realization that I was under siege by older boys and unknown men anytime I left the house. I used to be shocked and saddened by some of these men who would not leave me alone even after I told them I was twelve (and still a baby in my eyes). There was never any joy in it for me! There was this sense of unspoken danger. It's not as if I'd had any preparation for this and I resented not having had any advanced warning from the women in my family. There was this resigned acceptance that this one-sided violation was "what men do" instead of CHOICES being made. I quickly scrambled for anything that would offer me relief.

This is about CONTROL and HUMILIATION. It's a dirty fight and power play. Men may be dense, obstinate or insensitive but nobody is that clueless. I posit men know exactly what they are doing when they engage women (and young girls) in this manner. Some are profiling for sexual assault. Some lie in wait for the women who protest so they can hurl expletives at them. They are trying to shame and scare women back into submission. They want to be kings of the castles "again" and the easiest way to do that is a gender-based attack. As women have gained more equal footing across the board these men are using guerilla war tactics to chip away at it.

We know these incidents are not isolated or simply a mere inconvenience. They now lead to murder.

The Stop Street Harassment Project calls for women to document all situations where they witness or have endured these attacks. We MUST file police reports and be prepared to enact consequences. It's the only way this will change. Compliments are not supposed to be offensive. We should not be objectified. What we wear should have no bearing on some stranger looking at us, talking to us or touching us. We have the right to FREELY move about in public.

Resources -

Holla Back New York

Holla Back San Francisco

Street Harassment Project

Good News: Monika Hunter Found! Here's How To Help Other Runaways.

This chapter can be closed with relief. Monika returned unharmed to her grandmother's residence. Clearly there are some internal familial conflicts that need to be resolved. As is the case with most teens who run away. I was just checking the statistics and surprisingly found the average teen runaway is white from an Upper Middle Class background. 

What Ms. Hunter may not realize now is that she is very fortunate that another unforeseen incident didn't change the course of her life for the worse. Many kids run away due to abuse and violence. Others are experiencing personal conflicts. I can imagine parents and guardians would be tempted to overreact or try to clamp down the movements of a returnee. This is a situation that requires trained 3rd party counselors.

Between 1.6 and 2.8 million youth run away in a year. Our mission at the National Runaway Switchboard is to help keep America’s runaway and at-risk youth safe and off the streets. Call 1-800-RUNAWAY if you are a teenager who is thinking of running from home, if you have a friend who has run and is looking for help, or if you are a runaway ready to go home through our Home Free program. 

Home Free Program: 

You have left home. You may be tired, scared or hungry. You want to go home and work things out, but you don't have any money or any way to get home. Thousands of teens have been in your shoes. How did they get home? Through our Home Free program, done in collaboration with Greyhound Lines, Inc., more than 13,000 youth have been reunited with their families, free of charge, since the program’s inception. The first step to getting Home Free is calling 1-800-RUNAWAY.

What Happens After: 

Home Free isn't just a bus ticket home. We want you to be safe. We also want you to stay home by helping you rebuild your relationship with your family. In addition to working with you and your parents/guardians to develop a plan before you return home, we also provide you with resources in your community to help you start rebuilding your relationship. We also contact you to make sure you got home safely and to see how things are going. If necessary, we give you the names of other resources in your community to help you continue your success.

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/1800RUNAWAY

Facebook Group Page
Email: info@1800RUNAWAY.org

We Must Listen When DBRs Like George Sodini Say They Want To Harm Women!

Since this PA shooting has been all over the news yesterday I had to sift through my immediate gut reaction. Which was to panic slightly. Analyzing this is like being a criminal profiler where you have to place yourself in the mind of a depraved male. Yes, the alleged murderer was white as well as the three women who were killed.  Nine other people were seriously hurt before he turned the gun on himself. Our discussions about DBR (damaged beyond recognition) behavior has largely focused on black men because we're trying to warn as many unsuspecting black women as possible, but George Sodini was just as misogynistic on top of being racist. The only thing that separates him from these DBR bm is that his target was white women. He'd indicated he was ready to Set It Off for quite some time. There's more men like him with a list of "grievances" and more violence to come. Is anybody listening?

The corporate media wants to be swift in labeling him mentally disturbed to reassure the public (and other whites) that he was an aberration not the norm. So white people can go back to feeling safe while telling themselves they're not racist. The fact of the matter is Sodini hated women period. He specifically mentioned black male/white women pairings as the object of his derision. When you come across as angry and anti-social you're not going to attract a mate! Which is why he had problems forming romantic relationships with women. 

I highlighted a video from a dating reality tv show earlier this week. The guy featured had difficulty forming normative bonds with women as well. Only he's a millionaire so he went to a dating service. This show regularly features (mostly white) men with serious issues of objectifying women, seeking out women with little life experience so they can dominate them as well as rotating a steady roster of women to have sex with. They think they're normal - and special because they have money. They are advised to change their behavior to find lasting love but they are highly resistant to do so. Isn't insanity doing the same things repeatedly hoping for a different outcome?

Sodini also took issue with having Obama as president because he's black. Big surprise. We saw during the primary and general election the extent of discomfort whites felt at what they saw as a New World Order where they were not dominating. Remember Ashley Todd? These tea-baggers and birthers are just continuing where they left off. The fact they're given free reign by the corporate media to spew their hate and lies across all platforms also shows us how well-supported they are. Well all you whites need not worry - you're still in charge. Obama has done everything to reassure you he's "safe" other than resign. Some people can be sooo dense!!! Chill out.

Here's one really interesting entry to Sodini's blog dated December 30th of last year (which has subsequently been pulled) on the ABC web site:

While driving I radio surfed a talk show. The caller was a 30ish black man who was describing the despair in certain black communities. According to him life is cheap there because you are going to die anyway when you get old. It is the quality of life that is important, he said. If you know the past 40 years were crappy, why live another 30 crappy years then die? His point was they engage in dangerous behavior that tends to shorten the lifespans, to die now and avoid the next crappy 30 years, using my example. The host got sarcastic and ended the call instead of trying to understand his point. I put music back on. But it was an interesting, and useful point for me to hear. 

When we had these blog discussions last month about how these DBRs reveal themselves so readily how many people actually took that statement to heart? There's a big wall of resistance, excuses and denial. Well my father/brother/neighbor/cousin isn't like that I don't know what you're talking about!! I discussed how some seemingly educated, socially-mobile, seemingly normal black men have such contempt for black women and feel free to express it. So if the bougie set is like this how bad do you think the underclass is? I also focused on the abandonment issues and how women need to figure out how to choose a better mate and expand their options.  We see the aftermath of fatherless children aging to adulthood. We see how those who have been hardened also have zero value for human life. They behave in more savage and depraved ways at earlier ages than ever. Hence a situation with four boys under the age of 15 kidnapping and gang raping a young girl in Arizona. Hence Dunbar Village and other atrocities that are still to come out of these crumbling black residential areas. 

We also mentioned how increasingly more black women are displaying these DBR tendencies as well. We need to explore that in more depth. Still, women are not the majority threat! This is just the deterioration setting in across the board as the entire "black community" as it was once known collapses. We have not discussed how you can go to YouTube right now and find numerous black men - who like George Sodini - are making videos or writing blog posts talking about how they want to maim and kill black women. I'm not linking to them. Some of these sociopaths have already struck. Law enforcement is a little too lead-footed for my taste in taking these threats seriously. We need to take action. If someone had paid attention to Sodini's threats maybe the lives of the those people at the gym could have been spared. 

Let's report these would-be criminals before it's too late and make sure the police do something about it!

Continuing the Efforts At Locating Monika Hunter: The Police Are On It!

Monika is still missing but the police are actively pursuing the case in looking for her! The blog posts and updates across social media like Facebook and Twitter has helped bring much-needed attention to this case. The power of the keyboard in getting the word out shows we do have a certain amount of power to affect positive change and spur acts of justice. I got a reply from Monika's sister Renee Jennings yesterday on Twitter and this is the comment she left at the WAOD post to the readers:

Thank you everyone for your prayers and concern. I never imagined do many people would join in the effort to help find my sister and I have so much gratitude. I spoke with Detective Vessels today and he has assured me they will try to locate her. We must keep praying and reposting. Word of mouth brings kids home. I honestly believe this. Thanks again.

Let's keep sending positive thoughts and messages. 

Help Find Missing Teen Monika Hunter!!!!

Cross-posted at What About Our Daughters

15 year-old Elizabeth Monika Hunter has been staying with relatives in Capitol Heights, MD and is now missing as of midnight August 3rd. Her sister Renee Jennings sent a private email that’s been forwarded requesting help. Hopefully we can get this cross-posted at several blogs and across social media to send the word out.

Due to her age and their categorizing her as a runaway, the police said they cannot issue an Amber Alert and will only take information for a Missing Person’s report which takes 48-hours to kick in. Monika’s sister lives in NYC and isn’t able to monitor the situation locally and has asked for help from the blogosphere. 

Prince George Country police department, Palmer Park Precinct will be handling this case. It’s been assigned to Det. Vessels 301-772-4492. Case#09-215-0405. The main number at the precinct is 301-772-4901. Let’s encourage the police to make haste with looking for Monika as the area is apparently unsafe and she is new to the area, has limited to no funds and no cell phone.

Renee has left contact information as well to reach her directly. I’ll publish her email where you may request further contact info. reneejennings@rmediagroup.com. This could be your neighbor, sister, schoolmate whomever. Since only high-profile cases get immediate attention, let's make this one!

  

The Tale of Banita Jacks: Another Unsupported Black Mother Cracks & Commits Filicide

Reading about Benita Jacks I can't help but think of Andrea Yates, but the class and race implications are wholly different. Still I always had a certain amount of sympathy for Yates, who was clearly mentally ill and should not have been left alone to care for her children. Further I was always suspicious of her ex-husband for being so intentionally oblivious to the pressure his wife was under. Some may dispute that of course but I found it odd that he never noticed any signs of deterioration in his wife and thought it was okay for one woman to care for 5 small children the majority of the time. Simply being a paycheck daddy isn't enough.

In this latest case, it was an un/never married mother of 4 who claimed her children were possessed by demons and killed them. She was found guilty of murder earlier today and while I think some legal remedy applies, it should not rest solely with her. This was clearly a case of a woman on the edge left to fend for herself. She had to sue the men who'd fathered these children for child support. So the question begs: where were the daddies? Why weren't they taking care of their children? She'd had her home foreclosed on and had lost her job. Who was helping her - or was she expected to suffer in silence being the "strong black woman"? Clearly Ms. Jacks may have made some poor choices but it goes hand in hand with the choice of those "sperm donors" to use her for sex and abandon their children. It makes a volatile cocktail with deadly results.

One of the country’s leading experts on filicide, forensic psychiatrist Phillip Resnick, M.D., has developed a classification for this type of killing based on the parent’s motive.Resnick defines five types of filicide. In "altruistic" filicide a parent—almost always a mother in this category—kills her child or children as an extension of a suicide attempt. "These mothers see their children as an extension of themselves," he said. "They do not want to leave a child motherless in a ‘cruel’ world as seen through their depressed eyes."

In a second type of altruistic filicide a child is killed to end his or her real or imagined suffering. "These mothers may project their own unacceptable symptoms onto the child," he said.

In "acutely psychotic" filicide, hallucinations, epilepsy, or delirium drive a parent to kill a child. Psychiatrist evaluators will not find a "comprehensible motive" in this type of killing, Resnick said.

His third category involves "unwanted child" filicide, which includes homicides in which a parent no longer wants the child. - - American Psychiatric Association

It took more than two weeks before anyone noticed these school-age children were missing. While some may tsk tsk and make grand statements about the working or underclass I see this as a trend that will continue to emerge. If it's not about them getting shot for not accepting a date or the new boyfriend killing the child from a former relationship, a celebrity rap artist getting busted for hiding assets to short change his pregnant ex-wife, denigrating music being lifted up as "art" or the Surgeon General nominee being ridiculed for her weight, many black women and girls are going to continue being treated like the dregs of this society.

It is imperative that those who see the writing on the wall to quickly take whatever steps needed to free themselves from a low quality life. This is why propaganda organizations like Raising Him Alone and others of their ilk are so dangerous. They don't do anything to resolve the core problems and are attempting to put a cork over a dam break. We have no idea if the Obama health care plan will pass or what the state of the economy will be. We must be prepared. Everyone will not be saved but you can save yourself.

Skippy Gates The "Rosa Parks of Racial Profiling" Says Black Men Are Naturally Misogynistic

The interesting part of life is that it is not the set of circumstances that you are given that matters, but your response to them. Give the same pressures and same type of opportunities to ten people and you will get ten different reactions. The pressures and opportunities may be identical, but the responses will differ, and in that sense, by living life, you learn quite a bit about yourself. ---Susan Miller

Yeah I'm tired of Skippy by now but this dust-up has been so revealing on so many levels. Soon he may wish he'd just kept his mouth shut. Thank goodness the readers of this blog are such an intelligent group and the ones who respond usually provide a wealth of knowledge. I appreciate the challenge at keeping up with you. I think we should start our own critical thinking/social criticism school or something, but I digress. A blogger reminded me of Skippy's support of 2 Live Crew during their obscenity trial. I know viewing it from a distance without any analysis it may have appealed to the typical African-American emotional reaction of the "white man trying to take the black man down" but it was in fact one of the last ditch efforts at policing aberrent behavior.

If you recall that trial was in 1990 and it was before the onslaught of the filth to come via the gangsta rap and other perverted music with their accompanying videos that would then be played during the day when kids could watch them instead of being listed as adult content and relegated to midnight airings as they had been. It would have affected retailers being able to sell their music and would have given all record labels pause about what type of music acts they would be able to sign. I am also reminded of the fight C. Delores Tucker put up to stem the tide even while she was vilified.

I find it very telling that the RIAA, the same one that cries foul of the "illegal downloaders" actually DEFENDED them and filed a Friend of Court Brief on their behalf. This LA Times article states it was the argument between ANYTHING GOES vs. ENOUGH ALREADY. The group was acquitted but the jury's contention was their lyrics were akin to parody because that was how black people communicated. There was this rush to defend this group or dismiss their lyrics as part of the larger "black culture" of the "black community". The argument they are quintessentially black, that black women exist solely to satisfy violent sexual desires or that their lyrics are funny is part of the reason why African-Americans have lost their moral compass and will form a permanent underclass in this country.

If some still question how young boys aged 14 and under could be socialized to become rapists (like the ones in Arizona) if they hadn't had any previous mental defects then here's your answer. Yes media does ABSOLUTELY have an affect on the minds of people, particularly CHILDREN who have fewer filters in place. If you've parked your child in front of the tv as a babysitter and offer NOTHING to counterbalance the negative images consumed you are training your children to adopt a depravity mindset. Especially when that child is parked in front of the likes of BET.

• MISOGYNY is defined as: HATRED OF WOMEN AND GIRLS. No ifs, ands or buts. When I stated in an earlier post about DBR (damaged beyond recognition) behaviors prevalent in a majority population of African-American males (and many females) and how they hate AA women I got a LOT of denials. Misogyny is directed at women as a collective group. Of course there are nuances where a man might hate women of one group but be able to fawn over women of an entirely different group. Or parse it to like some while still despising others. Other variants include the Madonna/Whore complex. Honor killings, rape, violence and skin shade racism also fall under this.
  

In the Legal Response to Violence Against Women Karen J. Maschke contends "many do not bust out laughing" like Gates does while listening to 2 Live Crew and she details specific lyrics. I decided against displaying the lyrics here because they're NSFW and also they're disgusting. We have to be careful about immersing ourselves in filth when analyzing it. You might like to review the court transcripts along with this essay.

So in his defense of this (what used to be thought of as) explicit rap group, Skippy is saying ALL black men naturally HATE women. Now if we look at the actions from the general population of black men, especially African-American men from the past 45 years what has emerged is the trend of their abandonment and abuse of BLACK WOMEN. If someone can point to another ENTIRE GROUP OF WOMEN this would apply to feel free to keep looking and I'll wait for you to fall off the Earth since it's flat. There is no misinterpretation of this. Anyone who wishes to dispute this can do so at their own forum because there will be NO misdirection of this point. Now whether an individual male DECIDES to recognize it and redirect it or squash it is up to that man, but Gates wasn't offering that caveat. He was using it as an excuse to EXPLAIN AWAY THEIR DEPRAVITY.

Now to be certain there are plenty of women-hating men in the world but again we come to discuss survival and domination tactics. No group can survive without women. So it comes down to other men to police the behavior of the men in their group to maintain a workable model. There is NO such policing going on in the "black community". Not when you have the "premier" African-American scholar who's a refugee from his blackness, reveling in his 56% European heritage, married to an average white woman and crying victim when hitting the third rail of white male authority saying it's okay that these men embody every racial stereotype ever visited upon black men because it's in their nature to be that way.

I found this great essay by Kimberle Crenshaw (whom I'd like to see nominated for the Supreme Court before Obama leaves office) discussing this case. I don't agree with everything she has to say - namely the knee-jerk inclination for black women to defend black men who are working AGAINST them - but this was written more than a decade ago. Like many of us who've seen the aftermath of the depravity women must resist the urge to think of themselves by race first and gender second in these situations. It should be every woman for herself. Yes, in a very selfish looking out for one's own interests FIRST way. The antithesis of what most black women do NOW where they GIVE IT ALL AWAY FOR FREE AND GET NOTHING IN RETURN. Or worse are left to fend for themselves when THEY need help.

Thus, Gates concludes, 2 Live Crew and other rap groups are simply pushing white society's buttons to ridicule its dominant sexual images. I am deeply skeptical about the claim that the Crew was engaged--either in intent or effect--in pursuing a postmodern guerilla war against racist stereotypes. Gates argues that when one listens to 2 Live Crew the ridiculous stories and the hyperbole make the listener "bust out laughing." Apparently the fact that Gates and many other people react with laughter confirms and satisfies the Crew's objective of ridiculing the stereotypes. But the fact that the Crew are often successful in prompting laughter neither substantiates Gates's reading nor forecloses serious critique of its subordinating dimensions. Gates' use of laughter as a defensive maneuver in the attack on 2 Live Crew recalls similar strategies in defense of racist humor. Racist humor has sometimes been defended as an effort to poke fun at, or to ridicule racism. More simply, racist humor has often been excused as just joking; even racially motivated assaults are often defended as simple pranks. While it may be true that the Black community is more familiar with the cultural forms that have evolved into rap, that familiarity should not end the discussion of whether the misogyny within rap is acceptable. Moreover, we need to consider the possible relationships between sexism within our cultural practices and the problem of violence against women.

Violence against women of color is not presented as a critical issue in either the anti-racist or anti-violence discourses. The "different culture" defense may contribute to the disregard for women of color victimized by rape and violence, reinforcing the tendency within the broader community not to take intra-racial violence seriously. We must determine whether the practices and forms of expression are consistent with our fundamental interests. Although collective opposition to racist practice has been and continues to be crucially important in protecting Black interests, an empowered Black feminist sensibility would require that the terms of unity no longer reflect priorities premised upon the continued subordination of Black women.

Since I know so many take issue with a black woman criticizing a black man (hello Miss Ogyny again) I'll add some criticism from other black men. Scholar Martin Kilson refers to Gates as the master of the "Black put-down". Indeed. You are also free to research cultural critic Harold Cruse. During the trial Gates referred to 2 Live Crew as "astonishing and refreshing" and compared their works to that of Shakespeare, Ella Fitzgerald or James Joyce. They were not pushing the envelope of social discourse like Lenny Bruce or George Carlin. They were out to make money by denigrating black women.

In Master of the Dodge: A Reply to Henry Louis Gates, Martin Kilson critiques an earlier Gates' project but it seems his warning could apply to anything by which Gates endeavors or even perhaps to the man himself.

So I try to advise my progressive Black intellectual peers especially to be wary of "King Gates" strategic offerings - his fish-hooks, if at all possible. And I'd like to address this especially to the up-coming younger generation of African- American intellectuals and scholars, particularly those who seek to fashion a progressive outlook for themselves. Finally, we progressive Black intellectuals especially do indeed have to perform the scrutinizing task in regard to establishmentarian and/or conservative Black intellectuals like Henry Gates, because no one else will. Above all, we progressive Black intellectuals still have a serious Black people agenda to attend to. Namely: Protecting, advancing, and redeeming Black folks' honor, both here in the United States and elsewhere in the globe.