CLARENCE PAGE- ALWAYS LET THEM SEE YOU SMILING

NEGRO PLEASE



                                      CLARENCE PAGE



Clarence Page

I am proud to live in a country that has made as much racial progress as this one has in the past half-century. We still can do more.


I was pleased when I became a father to be able to prune the list of certain taboo places —swimming pools, amusement parks, department stores and, in the South, water fountains, restrooms, etc. — to which African-Americans could not go because we were "colored."

I could wait until my son became a teenager to give him the talk about how to behave if he was confronted by police or street thugs. After the George Zimmerman case, I added "neighborhood watch volunteers" to the list.

Zimmerman, the son of a white father and Hispanic mother, was charged with shooting Trayvon Martin, an unarmed black 17-year-old, who was walking back to his family's home following a nocturnal snack run. Zimmerman's acquittal on July 13 exposed one of the deepest racial divides we've seen since the acquittal of O.J. Simpson in the 1990s — but with the racial roles reversed.

You see that divide in a Pew Research Center poll that finds blacks were more than twice as likely as whites (56 percent versus 20 percent) to say they followed the Zimmerman trial news "very closely."

Our racial knowledge is based on personal experience — and all of our experiences are very different. A quote from author Tom Wolfe that I used after Simpson's trial comes to mind: If a conservative is a liberal who has been mugged, "A liberal is a conservative who has been arrested."

Yet even Angela Corey, one of Zimmerman's prosecutors, said, "This case has never been about race." But if it had not been for the incendiary racial angle, the pleas by Martin's family to reopen the case after Zimmerman's initial release might well have gone unanswered.

Considering how central personal experiences are to this political issue, I thought President Barack Obama showed courage by stepping into what he called "a lot of pain around what happened here."

He spoke of his own personal experiences and suspicions of profiling before he rose to fame — walking into stores, hearing the locks click on car doors — and he added, "I don't want to exaggerate this, but those sets of experiences inform how the African-American community interprets what happened one night in Florida. And it's inescapable for people to bring those experiences to bear."

Speaking for many other African-Americans, the president made a stinging attack at "stand your ground" laws with a comparison that set the conservative Twitter-sphere abuzz. He said: "I just ask people to consider if Trayvon Martin was of age and armed, could he have stood his ground on that sidewalk? And do we actually think that he would have been justified in shooting Mr. Zimmerman, who had followed him in a car because he felt threatened?"

"If the answer to that question is at least ambiguous," Obama said, "it seems to me that we might want to examine those kinds of laws."

By shifting his focus from the Trayvon tragedy to the issue of scaling back laws like Florida's stand your ground law, Obama shifted to an issue about which government can and should take action.

Stand your ground laws in more than 20 states are a type of self-defense law that strips away any requirement to step back, evade or retreat from a threatening situation before opening fire.

Although Zimmerman did not invoke Florida's law in his defense, the jury that acquitted him received instructions that borrowed language from the statute. If "he was attacked in any place where he had a right to be," the instructions said, "he had no duty to retreat and had the right to stand his ground and meet force with force."

In the five years after the passage of Florida's law in 2005, the average annual number of "justifiable homicide" cases by civilians tripled, compared to the five previous years. No one can say how much the stand your ground law might have been responsible in the Zimmerman case, but as dangerous as profiling can be, we don't need laws that make the practice even more lethal.

Obama didn't have to speak out on what many view as a local tragedy. But compared with other presidents who have wrestled with race, he speaks from a unique experience.

Clarence Page, a member of the Tribune's editorial board, blogs at chicagotribune.com/pagespage.

cpage@tribune.com

No, being president is a easy role to play because it is by choice.  Doing what is right when it come to walking in the path of God is hard.  Any time we choose men laws over his it only leads to self denial of thinking you doing what is right and his will. He never once stood up for us as a race.  He has shown more support for people of the same sex verbal and in written letters, which goes against what was written in the Bible.  So who is he following?  He has taken a stand and shown his support for the Mexicans and every other race of people accept our race.  When it comes to us, we get, he's not the black president, but the president of the country.  During his terms in office I have never seen him surrounded in any photo where there are more blacks than there were whites, he had our support.

How many amusement parks, department stores, hospitals, hotels, restaurants, banks, fortune 500 companies do we own?  THINKING OUT LOUD!

Bishop T. D. Jakes Talks About Race, Religion And Trayvon Martin

JUST ANOTHER SOUND BITE



                   Bishop T. D. Jakes           Getty Image

Bishop T.D. Jakes Talks About Race, Religion And Trayvon Martin At NABJ Convention
The Orlando Sentinel  |  By JEFF KUNERTH
Posted: 08/02/2013 3:34 am EDT


Bishop T.D. Jakes, senior pastor of The Potter's House mega-church in Dallas, participated in Thursday's program at the National Association of Black Journalists' convention in Kissimmee. Afterward, in an exclusive interview with Orlando Sentinel religion and minority affairs reporter Jeff Kunerth, Jakes spoke about race, religion and politics, and where they intersect.

Q: What does the reaction to the George Zimmerman verdict tell you about race relations in America?

A: What it really shows us is there is still a great deal of work to be done in the criminal-justice system to embrace and protect all American citizens. It also shows us how important it is that we have diversity of selection of juries to make sure we have incorporated a true representation of diversity that exists within the American community.

Q: What do you think of the 'stand your ground' law?

A: I think the Trayvon Martin case showed us there may be some situations in which the verbiage and the language restricts us from responding to our highest sense of morality. I would hope all of us would use it as an opportunity to examine all the various laws to broaden them for circumstances we didn't anticipate when we developed the law.

Q: Do you think that law should be changed or repealed?

A: I'm bothered by the fact the jurors said they felt restricted by the description of the law. I don't want any jurors to be restricted from their sense of right and wrong by the description of any law.

Q: What direction do you think we're headed in? Are we coming together or drifting apart racially?

A: I think the conversations we are having, painful as they are, are healthy. We have a propensity to avoid the elephants in the middle of the room, or simplify the tragedies and adversity. But we should not be derelict in our responsibility to have those tough conversations. I think we have lost our ability not to talk but to listen.

Q: What role does religion, and the church, play in these discussions?

A: As long as the churches themselves are not as integrated as they should be, that insulation that exists when you only worship with people who look like you, vote like you and think like you affects your sensibilities on what that other person is experiencing. I think the church has a huge opportunity to be a conduit of reconciliation, but you can't reconcile the country until you can reconcile your own pews.

Q: Why do we have so few multiracial churches?

A: It's not just about racism when it comes to Sunday worship. It's about cultural expressions, about dress styles, about your sensibility of hierarchy, structure and order. As long as we neutralize each other to the point we would negate the fact that we have these distinctions, then what passes for integration in churches will be one culture dominating another culture within the institution of religion. Integration is at its best when you allow me to be me, and I allow you to be you and we choose of our own volition to walk together.

Q: What do you say to those who say pastors should stay out of politics?

A: There are certainly just causes where there ought to be separations between church and state. But if the church is the salt of the earth, I would hate to think that we would be sprinkled everywhere but at the top of our government.


(c)2013 The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, Fla.)

Visit The Orlando Sentinel (Orlando, Fla.) at http://www.OrlandoSentinel.com

 

 

                                                    Tracy Martin         Sybrina Fulton

 

 

The entire world watched  as they have for decades of the raping of our mothers, daughters, wives, and sisters. The lynching, hangings, beatings of our fathers, sons, brothers and our women, every kind of cruelty that you could imagine the work of the devil committing.  They say a picture is worth a thousand words no matter how good the sound bite is or who the speaker may be can compare.  We don't want or need their diversity nor their integration.  We simply want our own and to be left alone.  Some of us said it then and some of us or still saying it now, but no one seem to be listening.  I guess you and I are just THINKING OUT LOUD this fall from E'SDROP PUBLISHING hosted By E. L. PLEASANT

PETITIONING DENNIS WALCOTT

THE LESSONS ARE STILL BEING TAUGHT, WHEN WILL WE LEARN?

Petitioning Dennis Walcott
NYC Chancellor Dennis Walcott: Help Us Terminate Principal Minerva Zanca of Pan American International High School


Petition by
BK Nation
 
Two teachers that were preparing for tenure this year were denied and subsequently fired by a principal that referred to them as “having big lips” and “nappy hair.” John Flanagan, a Spanish Language teacher, and Heather Hightower, an ESL-Science teacher, were the targets of these remarks by Minerva Zanca, principal of Pan American International High School in Elmhurst, Queens, New York.

These two teachers, as well as tenured Theatre teacher Lisa-Erika James, have filed a discrimination claim against Principal Minerva Zanca within the Department of Education—Office of Equal Opportunity—for poor performance ratings and undue budget cuts that they feel were racially motivated.

Assistant Principal Anthony Riccardo, who is also filing a harassment claim against Ms. Zanca, uncovered these comments in a written statement that discloses, in vivid detail, the targeting of these three teachers over the course of the 2012-2013 school year. In Post-Observation Conferences with Mr. Riccardo, Zanca states that Ms. Hightower “looked like a gorilla in a sweater with nappy hair” and asked, “Did you see his big lips quivering?” in reference to Mr. Flanagan.

"It is not only important to have high standards for our public school teachers,” says Kevin Powell, President of BK Nation. “But we must also support the good ones, like these teachers, who are completely dedicated to their young people. I find it unacceptable that a principal can engage in this kind of conduct without any repercussions. We are not going to stop until due justice and process is served here. We are calling on the school district and the DOE to review this matter thoroughly, to deal with the facts fairly, and to make it clear that racial bias and mistreatment of teachers in any form is not tolerated in New York City.

The New York City Department of Education’s Chancellor's Regulation A830 is a strict antidiscrimination policy that protects its employees from discrimination based on
race/color/ethnicity/gender and sexual orientation. The three teachers feel their Civil Rights have been violated and in return are pursuing their complaint in the hopes of getting their jobs back. Ms. James is asking that Ms. Zanca be held fully accountable in compliance with the Chancellor’s Regulations. Ms. James states “It is deeply disappointing that Ms. Zanca has made such hurtful racial epithets and is allowed to run a school where many of the children are of Afro-Latino descent.” There are currently no African American teachers left at the school.

The lessons are still being taught, when will we learn that they don't want us around?  We are still going to their schools and using their curriculum to teach our children's nothing about us as a great people.  One man's dream that lead us here and where is here?  No where!  Let's talk about it or THINKING OUT LOUD this fall from E'SDROP PUBLISHING and Hosted By E. L. PLEASANT

Adam Jones: Banana thrown his way at AT&T Park

THERE'S MORE THAN ONE IN EVERY CROWD!


                                         ADAM JONES

Adam Jones: Banana thrown his way at AT&T Park

 

By David Brown –Big League Stew

Just last week, a statue of Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese in Brooklyn was vandalized with racist slurs and Hitler references. It was another reminder — like we needed one — that "post-racial America" is a fairytale until further notice.

A statue, made of stone, is bad enough. But Adam Jones of the Baltimore Orioles is a person, and what happened to him at AT&T Park on Sunday was just as unacceptable. Jones, who is black, said somebody threw a "banana towards my direction" in the ninth inning of Baltimore's 10-2 victory against the San Francisco Giants.

Bananas have been used, time immemorial, in racist depictions of blacks as being subhuman. In 2011, a white fan threw a banana peel at NHL player Wayne Simmonds, who is black, during a game in London, Ont. Canada.

Worse than graffiti, what happened to Simmonds and Jones is tantamount to being spat upon, with an added insult of racism. In 2013, such behavior cannot be tolerated.

Jones expressed his feelings on Twitter, using (understandably) NSFW language:

I want to thank whatever [slapd---] threw that banana towards my direction in CF in the last inning. Way to show ur class u jackass.

In a way, Jones is being kind by using a (NSFW) slang term used to describe a dunce who doesn't quite know what he or she is doing. After sending his tweet, Jones fielded replies from more ignorant fans defending the banana thrower. As a result, Jones says:

Good chance this means I get off social media soon

That would be a shame. Nobody deserves to be taunted with racism, especially not Jones, who — with the occasional exception — engages fans on Twitter and in real life in a consistently friendly way. He's not perfect, but Major League Baseball needs more guys like Jones on social media, not fewer.

Update: The Giants say, via the San Francisco Chronicle, that they're reviewing surveillance video.

Hopefully, between ballpark security cameras and any live witnesses, the Giants can figure out who threw the banana and ban him from games. He or she should be — and needs to be — embarrassed. And Adam Jones is owed an apology.

THINKING OUT LOUD, No one really paved the way as they would like for you to believe.  We have never been nothing to them but entertainment and what they can't do, it upsets them to the point of showing how ignorant they are. They hate you even more if that's possible and then make up excuses why you are able to perform like that, "It's because that's the way they were bred."  "I didn't mean that."  We were playing the sport long before they came along but we had to play with them and this is the price we pay, so what's a few banana tossed our way?  THINKING OUT LOUD THIS FALL!

Missouri Fair clown draws criticism for Obama mask

LAUGH NOW CRY LATER

 

This photo provided by Jameson Hsieh shows a clown wearing a mask intended to look like President Obama at the Missouri State Fair. The announcer asked the crowd if anyone wanted to see “Obama run down by a bull,” according to a spectator. “So then everybody screamed. ... They just went wild,” said Perry Beam, who attended the rodeo at the State Fair in Sedalia on Saturday Aug. 10, 2013. State Fair officials apologized calling the display inappropriate and disrespectful. (AP Photo/Jameson Hsieh)

MARIA SUDEKUM 11 hours ago

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A clown wearing a President Barack Obama mask appeared at a Missouri State Fair rodeo this weekend and the announcer asked the enthusiastic spectators if they wanted to see "Obama run down by a bull."

The antics led the state's second highest-ranking official, Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, to denounce the performance in a tweet Sunday. He said it was "disrespectful" to the president.

"We are better than this," the Republican tweeted.

State Fair officials said the show in Sedalia was "inappropriate" and "does not reflect the opinions or standards" of the fair. "We strive to be a family friendly event and regret that Saturday's rodeo badly missed that mark," they said in a statement Sunday.

It wasn't clear if any action will be taken against the performers.

Perry Beam, who was among the spectators, said "everybody screamed" and "just went wild" as the announcer talked about having the bull run down the clown with the Obama mask.

"It was at that point I began to feel a sense of fear. It was that level of enthusiasm," Beam, a 48-year-old musician from Higginsville, said Sunday, referring to the reaction from the crowd that filled the fair's grandstand.

He said another clown ran up to the one wearing the Obama mask, pretended to tickle him and played with the lips on the mask. About 15 minutes into the performance, the masked clown had to leave after a bull got too close, Beam said.

Beam was at the rodeo with his wife and a student they were hosting from Taiwan. He said they were having a good time until the end of the rodeo.

"It was the usual until the very end at bull riding," he said. "As they were bringing the bulls into the chute and prepping them ... they bring out what looks like a dummy. The announcer says 'Here's our Obama dummy, or our dummy of Obama.

"They mentioned the president's name, I don't know, 100 times. It was sickening," Beam said. "It was feeling like some kind of Klan rally you'd see on TV."

Officials with the Missouri Rodeo Cowboy Association, the organization that coordinated the rodeo, did not return phone calls seeking comment Sunday.

After Beam and his family returned home, he posted a photo of the clown in the Obama mask on his Facebook page. The photo and the posting were then promoted online by a blog, Showmeprogress.com, which elicited a huge response Sunday on Twitter.

Scott Holste, spokesman for Missouri's Democratic Gov. Jay Nixon, said Sunday in an email that Nixon "agrees that the performance was disrespectful and offensive, and does not reflect the values of Missourians or the State Fair."

Beam, who grew up attending the State Fair and attends the fair just about every year, said he has never seen anything like the Obama mask display, which he felt was inappropriate for a state-sanctioned event that receives state funding.

"This isn't the Republican Missouri State Fair," Beam said. "It was cruel. It was disturbing. I'm still sick to my stomach over it. ... I'm standing here with a mixed-race family. My wife's from Taiwan, and so was the student (his family was hosting). I've never seen anything so blatantly racist in my life.

"If an old country boy picks up on something like that, imagine what a person of color would think."



 

Many would think this is funny, and many want even care one way or the other because they didn’t vote for him and some of them that have, would say he has been a disappointment.  Yet at the end of the day, he’s just a man doing a job that many didn’t want and the rest not even qualified to sit at the same table.  As one black man to another it should matter deeply because when they disrespected President Obama it was a mark against us all as a race and as a nation that clearly proves to the world beyond that we will always remain divided because of their hatred and ignorance.  Jesus preached, “Love one another as you love yourself”, Martin claimed to have had a dream of what could be accomplished if we loved each other and both were killed because of their vision.  Today in 2013 after more than 500 years of slavery past and present we still haven’t found away to the mountain top and never will. We have the power to love and to hate.  THINKING OUT LOUD THIS FALL



 



NY YOU CAN'T FRISK THIS

KEEP YOU HAND OUT OF MY POCKETS

From the Associated Press:

The New York Police Department deliberately violated the civil rights of tens of thousands of New Yorkers with its contentious stop-and-frisk policy, and an independent monitor is needed to oversee major changes, a federal judge ruled Monday in a stinging rebuke for what the mayor and police commissioner have defended as a life-saving, crime-fighting tool.

U.S. District Court Judge Shira Scheindlin said she was not putting an end to the policy, but rather was reforming it. She did not give many specifics on how that would work but instead named an independent monitor who would develop reforms to policies, training, supervision, monitoring and discipline. She also ordered that officers test out body-worn cameras in the police precinct where most stops occurred.

"The city's highest officials have turned a blind eye to the evidence that officers are conducting stops in a racially discriminatory manner," she wrote. "In their zeal to defend a policy that they believe to be effective, they have willfully ignored overwhelming proof that the policy of targeting `the right people' is racially discriminatory."

For years, police brass had been warned that officers were violating rights, but they nevertheless maintained and escalated "policies and practices that predictably resulted in even more widespread Fourth Amendment violations," Scheindlin wrote in a lengthy opinion.

She also cited violations of the Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable search and seizure.

"Far too many people in New York City have been deprived of this basic freedom far too often," she said. "The NYPD's practice of making stops that lack individualized reasonable suspicion has been so pervasive and persistent as to become not only a part of the NYPD's standard operating procedure, but a fact of daily life in some New York City neighborhoods."


Four men sued the department in 2004, saying they were unfairly targeted because of they were minorities. Scheindlin issued her ruling after a 10-week bench trial, which included testimony from NYPD brass and a dozen people - 11 men and one woman - who said they were wrongly stopped because of their race.

She found that nine of the 19 stops discussed at the trial were unconstitutional, and an additional five stops included wrongful frisking.

Stop and frisk is a constitutional police tactic, but Scheindlin concluded that the plaintiffs had "readily established that the NYPD implements its policies regarding stop and frisk in a manner that intentionally discriminates based on race."

There have been about 5 million stops during the past decade, mostly black and Hispanic men. The judge said she determined at least 200,000 stops were made without reasonable suspicion, the necessary legal benchmark, lower than the standard of probable cause needed to justify an arrest.

The class-action lawsuit was the largest and most broad legal action against the policy at the nation's biggest police department, and it may have an effect on how other police departments make street stops, legal experts said.

Lawmakers have also sought to create an independent monitor and make it easier for people to sue the department if they feel their civil rights were violated. Those bills are awaiting an override vote after the mayor vetoed the legislation.

The court monitor would examine stop and frisk specifically and could compel changes. The inspector general envisioned in the legislation would look at other issues but could only make recommendations.

The city had no immediate response to the ruling, but officials planned an early afternoon news conference to discuss it.

City lawyers had argued the department does a good job policing itself with an internal affairs bureau, a civilian complaint board and quality assurance divisions.

The judge rejected their arguments. "The city and its highest officials believe that blacks and Hispanics should be stopped at the same rate as their proportion of the local criminal suspect population," she wrote. "But this reasoning is flawed because the stopped population is overwhelmingly innocent - not criminal."

Scheindlin appointed Peter L. Zimroth, the city's former lead attorney and previously a chief assistant district attorney, as the monitor. In both roles, Zimroth worked closely with the NYPD, the judge said. He did not respond to a call seeking comment.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, the nonprofit group that represented the plaintiffs, said in a statement: "Today is a victory for all New Yorkers. After more than 5 million stops conducted under the current administration, hundreds of thousands of them illegal and discriminatory, the NYPD has finally been held accountable. It is time for the city to stop denying the problem and work with the community to fix it."

Police stops in New York City have soared some 600 percent over the past decade since Mayor Michael Bloomberg took office. New York's finest stopped and interrogated people 684,330 times in 2011, according to The Wall Street Journal. 92 percent of those stopped were males, and 87 percent of those stopped were black or Hispanic.

They are the most ignorant and arrogant race of people on the planet, yet they know right from wrong, they just don’t think we do or would notice when our right are being violated.  Well, after all, they are the one’s that said we have rights and the one’s that wrote them, therefore I guess they can break them any time they damn well please.  Which is what they have being do as if nothing has change, so what do you think, is it still racial profiling or clear and simple old fashion hate crimes being committed?  HERE ON THINKING OUT LOUD THIS FALL

"TYRONE PIERSON," STOOD HIS GROUND

A COWARD WAY OUT

ZIMMERMAN'S ATTORNEY

JULIUS JEROME JACOBS

 

Zimmerman's attorney announced after the trail that if George Zimmerman had been black they would have never gone to trail.  Guess what, he was right.

Tyrone Pierson, Teen Who Shot Man, Won't Face Homicide Charges Under 'Stand Your Ground'
The Huffington Post  |  By Andres Jauregui   
Posted: 08/08/2013 11:41 am EDT  |  Updated: 08/09/2013 9:15 am EDT


Julius Jacobs (above) was shot and killed July 5, but his shooter won't face homicide charges under Florida's 'Stand Your Ground' self-defense law.
A Florida teen who killed a man during a confrontation last month will not face homicide charges under the state's controversial "Stand Your Ground" law.

In a release Tuesday, prosecutors said that Tyrone Pierson, 17, was justified in using deadly force on Julius Jerome Jacobs.

Witnesses told police that Jacobs, a 40-year-old community choir director, came after Pierson and two other teens with a large stick following an argument over alleged speeding July 5. According to authorities, Pierson shot Jacobs in the head, killing him.

Under Florida law, it is illegal for minors under 18 to possess a concealed firearm, other than an unloaded one in their home, but "Stand Your Ground" "qualifies [Pierson] for immunity from any homicide charges even though he illegally possessed the gun as a minor without a concealed carry permit," Think Progress noted.

Pierson will face two counts of unlawful possession of a weapon, and an additional charge of evidence tampering, because he initially lied about the location of the gun, prosecutors said.

The Ocala Star Banner reported that Pierson's friends, who were with him during the altercation that led to Jacobs' death, avoided conflict by running away.

Although the paper noted that Pierson fired a shot while fleeing, he had no duty to retreat because of the "Stand Your Ground" law.

"Stand Your Ground" has been heavily criticized in the wake of the Trayvon Martin shooting. Scrutiny of the law intensified after neighborhood watch coordinator George Zimmerman was found not guilty in the death of the unarmed teenager.

Last week, Florida lawmakers agreed to hold hearings on the controversial self-defense law this fall.

Although the move was initially perceived to be a major concession to protesters by Florida conservatives, the appointment of Rep. Matt Gaetz, a staunch backer of the law, to oversee the hearings tempered expectations.

Gaetz told the Tampa Bay Times that he's looking forward to the hearings so that he can offer a "full-throated defense of the law."

"I don't support changing one damn comma of the 'Stand Your Ground' law," Gaetz told the newspaper on Friday. "It would be reactionary and dangerous to make Floridians less safe to pacify uninformed protesters."

Does it strike you as unfair when the so called victims are the one who has the advantage of having a weapon that can kill from a distance and yet they are the one's claiming self defense and the one who initiated the conflict?  Just to think how many people were murdered and the value of a person life today in the eye's of men who write our laws.

Tyrone Pierson could had ran like his friend chose to do.  What was Tyrone doing walking around with a gun in the first place?  It was justified using deadly force when it comes to killing another black on black.  Do you think for a second that the out come would have been the same if he had killed a white man?  The whole world know that the possession of having the gun and discharging it would have gotten him life.

Something to think about returning this fall from E'SDROP PUBLISHING THINKING OUT LOUD Hosted By E. L. PLEASANT