The Insanity of it All

NiteLifer meets Jason Johnson

You know what fellow students, I am down here in N’awlinsfor the National Association of Black Journalists (NABJ) convention and it has been an eye opening and educational experience.  I have thoroughly enjoyed myself and learned quite a bit.

One thing I learned, sadly, is that despite being in Office for 200+ days, the Trump administration still can’t get even the easiest of lay ups right!  I attended a panel discussion last night on the troubling trend of police involved murders of innocent Black men.  On the initial panel was, and the focus was on, the mother of Philando Castile and the aunt of Alton Sterling.  Moderated by Ed Gordon, the emotional stories of these women of courage was brought home and made real by the stories these women detailed to the gathered audience of journalists from around the country.  Young or older, new to reporting or seasoned veterans of this craft, all were mesmerized by the reality of what happened to the two young men whose lives were taken so unnecessarily at the hands of people who had a badge and chose to take a life as the initial course of action.  Philando Castile’s mother was particularly engaging as she pointed out that the officer who shot her son, AFTER being informed by Castile that he had a permit to own and carry his gun, did so several times while an unarmed woman and child were in the car.  A collective chill went through all our spines when we grasped the gravity of that deadly encounter as well as the aftermath that happened following the murder that was captured on camera and broadcast live via social media by Castile’s girlfriend.  Then we all listened in horror as Alton Sterling’s aunt told us how the police department came to her sister’s house and let her watch the full unedited video of the murder of Mr. Sterling and how since then the protests and demonstrations have resulted in further injustices by other police departments here in the “great state of Louisiana”.  And this is important to note because following these heart wrenching firsthand accounts of  how easily loved ones were taken from their families by the police, the follow up panel was joined by the invited whirlwind of foolishness that is Omarosa (whatever her last name is these days).

Make no mistake, the room was filled and abuzz because we were also there to see what Miss Omarosa was there to say in defense of the administration she works for. To be clear her job is really just to give her Massa, President Donald J Trump, some cover to say his cabinet and administration is diverse.  Ed Gordon started the initial panel by explaining that he has attended other events where Omarosa was on the dais to take the slings and arrows for her employer.  He commended her beforehand for her bravery and cautioned the crowd not to fall victim to the urge to act out.  When “Miss Thang” arrived she did so to little fanfare and to be honest, she initially seemed ready to participate.  However, that quickly, no, immediately changed after she recounted her story of losing her father and brother to street violence and tried to frame HER story as in some way akin to what not only the two ladies had been through and are still dealing with.  The crowd turned and turned on her verbally when she tried to hijack the panel and commiserate along with them. 

Protesting Omarosa's shenanigans

When Gordon calmed the crowd and told her he would not allow things to turn into a mess, the reality TV celebrity that she is, came out.  It was a total train wreck after that.  Acting every bit the petulant child that her Massa Trump is when he does not get HIS way, Omarosa stood up and confronted Gordon face to face to attempt a power play move on the stage.  I can only imagine what was going through the minds of the other panelist on stage.  The night before I had met with Dr.Jason Johnson to ask what his plan was to confront her and he assured me that he himself would not be drawn into a staged show with her so that others could “watch monkeys fling shit at each other”.  I admired his resolve at that moment but know that while things were unfolding in front of all of us in that ballroom, he could not have been anything but disappointed.  I was uncomfortable with the way Ed Gordon allowed her to pivot from the what he was trying to get her to speak on which was, “what is your role in this administration and how can you, or are you even trying to, work some kind of influence with President Trump to do SOMETHING, to deal with this national crisis”.  Again she pivoted and tried to turn the discussion back towards herself and her own story.  She became so irate that she sat down and pulled out her (probably unsecured) smartphone to replay what Gordon had asked her to show that she wasn’t “here for this”.

Look, others have and will report on and detail how all of that 15 minutes of madness went down, but what I would like us to keep focused on is, what those two women and others like them have to say about how their families have been torn apart by the disturbing trend of cops getting away with murdering Black men and women without repercussions.  But what strikes me most is that Omarosa could easily have said to the gathering, “the administration is working hard to make changes in how we engage law enforcement practices across the country and will continue to facilitate changes.  Despite the ill fated attempt to make light of a serious issue by the President recently, we are seriously committed to ensuring that all American citizens are treated fairly and equitably by law enforcement”.  But as is the administration’s collective way of doing things, she didn’t even attempt to apologize, engage with or work with those who were there to try and help understand what our country has become.  At some point someone needs to remind her and her boss/ Massa, Dear Leader, “Bitch you work FOR us, you are now an employee of the taxpaying citizens of the United States of America!”

Today we learned of the crazy events that took place on the campus of the University of Virginia.  What has been the response from President Donald J Trump?  A tweet!  A tweet that said, “we ALL must be united & condemn all that hate stands for.  Let’s come together as one!”  Later in remarks made about the violence that resulted in one death, Trump said, “this egregious display of hatred, bigotry and violence on many sides, many sides.”

Let THAT sink in on you for a little while, then take the totality of both events for what they are.

Why Black Lives Matter MATTERS

White America, White REPUBLICAN America, you are totally missing the point of what the real BLM movement is about. Let's change some words here and perspective here and see how you'd feel. What if instead of the alarming amount of Black people who have been killed ON CAMERA by police and those ACTING as cops, there was the same amount of say DOGS murdered this way?  Certain groups in America would be up in arms and totally blowing up. Michael Vick financed and owned dog fighting businesses. He personally killed losing dogs and kept those fighting dogs in inhumane conditions. People across the country held rallies, called for his arrest, protested at his trials, petitioned for him to never be allowed to play football again, sent him death threats!  Ray Rice had a fight with his then fiancé and hit her and knocked her out in an elevator in Atlantic city while both were drunk. And even though they both admitted culpability in the incident and moved on to still get married and sought counseling and he accepted full responsibility for what happened, he's been blackballed from the NFL and probably will never play the game again.

After those situations no one ever said "animal rights groups get too much attention" or "domestic abuse is a sexist organization that is seeking to divide the country". You know why?  Because Black people standing up and saying ANYTHING that makes White America nervous is viewed as a threat to the peace. Black Lives Matter is not a call to arms and is not a racist movement, the KKK is. Black people are trying to say "stop killing us as if we are less than dogs, as if we mean less than any woman who has ever been abused by her spouse, we deserve better". Those who have attacked police are just as wrong as those of you who think BLM is a racist movement. If all of YOUR nieces and nephews, sons and daughters, siblings and cousins were being shot when they were walking home from the store, standing on a corner, driving home from work, traveling to a new home, sitting in church praying, attending a party, or sitting in their homes watching TV, I bet YOU'D be screaming My Family's Lives Matter and begging people to pay attention that no matter what you and your family do, they SEEM to be targets and don't know where to go to feel and be safe!  No one would accuse YOU of being racist even if you said, "until you stop killing (fill in YOUR family's name) we (fill in your family's name) will stop patronizing your stores and banks and spending money". What they would say is, "that family man is doing all he can in a non-violent way, to draw attention to what is happening to his family. God bless him. 

Stop being afraid of the BLM movement and stop the call for ALL Lives Matter as a counter. We KNOW all lives matter, we just want to be counted IN the "all" and stop seeing our loved ones and those that look like us show up in more cellphone videos dying at the hands of those we WANT to serve and protect us; along WITH the "all".

The Fault Isn't In Our Stars

Happy New Year fellow students.
At the start of 2016 there is unfinished business of 2015 that we need to explore.  Of all of the "scandals" and outrages of the past year, there seems to be just one that won't die out and it is the oldest of them all and the one that is the most "personal" and intimate.  After the ridiculousness of Rachel Dolezal, the revelation of Charlie Sheen, the shame of this Donald Trump candidacy, over indulgence of the media for Bruce Jenner's self aggrandizing and the other beyond silly social media/ entertainment stories; the one that just won't die is the sad tale of Bill Cosby's issues.
The fact that this is a national story is not surprising; after-all, the Cosby show was a television phenomenon.  It helped NBC to unprecedented ratings, it launched a successful spin-off, lasted eight highly rated seasons, and started the careers and resurrected careers for people who starred on the show.  But what it did that was more impressive and important than all of that?  It re-established the functional nuclear family sitcom.  And it did that while showing that Black people, just as our White counterparts, can have 2 parent homes where both parents work and have successful professional careers and lovingly take care of their children while honoring the parents they learned from themselves.  This fact cannot be overemphasized enough; it is important to the social fabric of where we are today as a nation.  Before that show, Black family life on television was defined by what was shown on The Jeffersons.  Now the Jeffersons was not a bad show, but it was based on certain stereotypes of the times and the main character was more of a caricature than a realistic portrayal for most professional Black men. There are plenty of White people to this day, that only think of George Jefferson when they think of a Black businessman and Herman Cain did nothing to dispel that impression, (Mr. Nine, nine, nine).  Heck, some even only think of Fred Sanford when it comes to Black professionals on television.  And let us also not forget that not only did this show show us how easy and normal it was to be a "normal" Black family, it taught us values, emphasized education, focused on love and respect for others, all while making us laugh and smile.
But even before THAT show Dr. Cosby won accolades and awards for his groundbreaking Saturday morning cartoon, Fat Albert & the Cosby Kids, and his clean cut, family based stand up comedy routines and albums.  Since the early sixties, Dr Cosby has been America's "favorite" Negro.  He stood front and center during the Civil Rights era, he used his fame and fortune to further the cause of education on all levels and was honored as he gave his name, his fame, and his money to small historically Black colleges and universities and major universities as well.  And yes, he sold us a lot, a LOT of Jell-o pudding.
Now, I am not offering all of this background to plead Dr. Cosby's case, nor to proclaim his innocence of these allegations and current charges.  I just want to clarify his history for folks who are now so quick to swear they know what happened between Dr. Cosby and all of his accusers.  Actually I am more disappointed than I am convinced, either way.  Whether he did do these things or whether he did not, the one thing that cannot be denied is that Bill Cosby has always been an advocate for all people, Black people, and education.  There is no denying his influence on society, no whitewashing of the record of the amounts of money he and his wife gave to those schools who are now quick to rescind his honorary degrees.  In fact, what is a concern is if these schools are taking away his honorariums, are they also writing refund checks to William and Camille Cosby?  Do they, do WE have a right to take a moral high-ground on the current state of affairs?  Yeah, I kinda think we all do.  I think we have every right to be outraged and upset.  But we also have a right to be skeptical and curious.  What we don't have a right to do is discount who the man is and all that he's done.  I mean, I get it, the jokes about what happened are funny and some of the memes are clever.  But the time has come to just move on now.

If you disliked Cosby coming to your town and preaching to you about how you are not raising your kids, or taking an active role in how they speak, what they watch on TV, or making sure that they go to school, then you are probably kind of happy that he is now in the center of this shit storm.  But all of you who are still debating his guilt or innocence have laughed at or side eyed the man and his works over the decades.  And if he IS guilty of doing these things, he should be punished by the law for what he did.  It just bothers me that so many that either directly or indirectly benefited from his pioneering efforts on their behalf, are still beating this horse that is dragging him to the gallows; so to speak.  People like Larry Wilmore, who seems to base at least one Nightly Show per week on attacking Dr. Cosby.  He is making this as personal as Gloria Allred and it is bothersome.  Other so called "leaders" of our community understandably find themselves in a tough spot, whether to defend this man, or jump on the bandwagon and push him off the cliff.  But why?  Why is this such a hard choice?  Whether they believe him or believe IN him, they should all, each and every one, stand by the man they know and the work he's done.  It is not uncommon in this country for any Black man, especially a prominent one, to be character assassinated by the media, White America and the public in general.  What is unusual though is for Black America to be so quick to help them take down one who has dedicated his life to trying to help us.  There was more support for OJ Simpson during and after his trials then for Bill Cosby.  Conversely by all accounts, once OJ achieved HIS level of Hollywood fame, all but forgot about the Black America who would come to his defense when he was on trial for MURDER.
And while I am talking about OJ, allow me this, even though he was not THE star of any movie or TV show, he was in any number of movies and shows.  You have not heard of nor seen where networks or stations have refused to air HIS acting projects.  Cable networks like TVLand, TV One, Centric and others have pulled The Cosby show from their rotation.  Does this punish Dr. Cosby?  Yeah, in a way, in a small financial way.  But it really punishes the Phylicia Rashad's, Malcolm Jamal Warner's, Keisha Knight Pullium's and other members of the cast who still get residual checks from the show being in syndication.

Look, at the end of the day, what Dr. Cosby is accused of is reprehensible, disgusting and sad.  If he did these things to these women, then whatever comes his way is deserved.  But when we sit around and day after day see videos of Black men and boys being murdered by White cops who are then (in some cases) absolved of all wrong doing; why are we so quick to believe a case or cases, where there is absolutely zero evidence of any wrongdoing?  Why are we as the people who have enjoyed being entertained and benefited from 50 years of advocacy by this man, so fast to want to see him found guilty?  Sure, Bill Cosby should have gotten off the stage about 10 years ago.  Maybe he should not have launched his own personal campaign to try to force us to take a hard look at our own children and how we are raising them.  Maybe that got under your skin in a way you can't understand.  But whatever it is, can we all please stop ignoring all of the things he DID DO, in favor of what you are being told to believe?