The drone cost $500. The man was drinking, and lives about a mile from the White House. The Secret Service has not arrested the man, and has helped to maintain his privacy.
WHAT IS THE COLOR OF THIS MYSTERY MAN?
The winner gets hard proof that racism is alive and well. The loser must enroll in a history, cultural anthropology or American studies class.
Wanna play? Results may require a Freedom Of Information Act request at your expense.
NY Times columnist Nicholas Kristof has written another article addressing police rhetoric on why they are reluctant to significant reform. The argument against police reform is difficult to make when you take one look at the sea of white officers in a city where whites are a minority.
We may someday live in a world where the make up of the city mirrors the make up of our civil servants, but it will take more protest and struggle to see lasting change. Many white friends of mine will look at this photo and not see what I see, and that’s why I argue that such reform must take place without permission or blessing from people who are part of the problem.
“What do you you think?” is a question I usually enjoy asking at the end of one of my op-eds. You’ll understand why I will instead close with Janee Woods, “…Because white people have a role in undoing racism because white people created and, for the most part, currently maintain (whether they want to or not) the racist system that benefits white people to the detriment of people of color.”
Kelvin Cochran was born to be a firefighter, any man with a first name like that is bound to deal with extreme temperatures, but Mr. Cochran has painted himself into a corner by becoming an outspoken opponent to a mostly accepted lifestyle, as this New York Times Op-Ed article reveals.
Mr. Cochran has culturally bitten off more than he can chew, asking the city of Atlanta to accept him as a local hero, African-American, AND ultra-conservative Christian, all at once. The LGBT community may have stood by the side of such an uncommon role model, had he kept his personal beliefs to himself, while at work.
Mr. Cochran allowed his religion to spill over into the vital work he does, to the detriment of his career. As Americans, we should not mourn the loss of any homophobic employer, but it is disappointing that we live in a country that has so few people of color in high ranking positions.
Diversity in the workplace allows the market to weed out bad eggs, and give young people of different backgrounds the chance to still find role models we can all look up to. Leaders of color must walk a progressive tightrope with perfection, lest they fall to the net-less public tide.
Being a conservative fire chief is status quo, being a conservative employer who is homophobic is par for the course, in a society that favors white heterosexual married males, but adding color to that combination makes for an individual who may not even get a job in Texas!
Sara Silver Chronicles is brought to you by Kwanza and Black History Month.
[To be read by a non-threatening African-American, with a plastic smile, so as not to scare away anyone]: These flimsy tokens from a White-dominated Senate do the brilliant trick of making Blacks think Whites care about their upward mobility. These supposed holidays come with no time off or extra pay, if you work during one of them; they are not REAL holidays, just like they are not REALLY sponsoring this web page! Kwanza and Black History Month: False Tokens for a False Gesture!
Today’s most important NY Times article is not about the trouble in France, or how White Senators fight a Black President like children throwing a temper tantrum in a crowded market. The article shows how difficult it is for women to be heard, and you, dear reader, should wonder how a token employee of color is treated in the workplace as well, if half our population is treated so poorly.
Sara Silver
The Sara Silver Chronicles is a series of articles written by the alter-ego of a 12 year old girl.
This Black History Minute is brought to you by Burundi. In Burundi, Africa, we strongly promote upward mobility. Where else can a political rebel become president and then a ruthless dictator, all in the course of a single decade?
In a country where jogging may get you life imprisonment, you may say to yourself, “Thank God I’m an American!” But don’t let that stop you from enjoying the best soccer political corruption can buy.
Want a slave? No problem, this is the part of the world that made African slavery cool 200 years ago! We don’t feed our children, so come and pick one up, BradGelina style, and relieve our burdens! We’ve got new bribery deals that will make Madonna rethink ALL of her adoptions! In Burundi, we make Haiti look good!
Black History Minute salutes President Pierre Nkurunziza, Burundi’s two-term president, and potential President- for-life, who has unfortunately just lost three of his loyal henchmen to the rebel forces he once rebelled against, before he became President, back when HE was a rebel ten years ago. Confused?
The NEW rebels, who used to run Burundi, were cruel and vicious, responsible for the deaths of about 300,000 people. That war ended in 2005, when a young rebel, named Pierre Nkurunziza, was elected President. After winning one of the worst civil wars in African history, he made sure the constitution allowed him to either run for two terms, run for three terms, or lead a campaign of fear and oppression persecuting all who questioned him, not like the hellish and corrupt fat cats he just removed from office!
BBC reports that last year, “Amnesty International said his ruling party was waging a “relentless campaign of intimidation” against its critics.” But what kind of rebel would kill and arrest people, after becoming President, under a fragile truce? I’m sure he’s got everything under control — very tight and authoritarian control.
Black History Minute salutes this real-life Han Solo of our generation. (Assuming Han Solo shoots Chewbacca, Luke Skywalker, his own girlfriend, Lando, the Ewoks, that fishy-looking alien with the weird eyes, releases all Stormtroopers, and declares himself Emperor, for two or three terms.)
This has been Black History Minute, we now return you back to your own American apartheid government, already in progress.
The NY Times has a new video, featuring Boniface Mwangi, a Kenyan photographer and activist, asking a question that might have given JFK a troubled moment. “Why don’t you start local, before you go international?”
Mr. Mwangi put an idealistic North Carolina student on the spot, while she was thinking about traveling to India to fight for women’s rights, “You don’t know them, they don’t know you, and [won’t] listen to you.” He questions American youth’s motives for overseas intervention, through proselytizing, NGOs and other political groups. “There are so many things in your backyard that you haven’t addressed, and you’re traveling all the way to India.”
[The following should be read with the “Battle Hymn of the Republican” in the background]:
Mr. Mwangi, there are so many White Americans who want this smart, young girl to leave the country and lose her right to vote. Don’t ruin it for the KKK, they are already on shaky ground with their closet racist, Steve Scalise, the House Majority Whip from Louisiana!
Take your intelligent and thought-provoking questions back to Kenya, Mr. Mwangi! Leave this political business to well-educated, properly groomed, White Americans, like the good people at FOXNews, to ask important questions like, “Was Obama born in Africa?” and “Is Obama Muslim?”
We have had it with people encouraging our brightest minds to solve our problems! Why don’t you go back to Kenya and let us undermine our second-class citizenry in peace? American teens already suffer from Superman Syndrome, how dare you fly over here in a plane and tell us we may not be the heroes we imagine we are! How would you like it if we flew idealistic Americans over to Africa and told YOUR citizens how to….
Uh, for Race Against Race, this is Ren signing off. What do you think?
An NYPD officer assaulted an MTA worker, and was suspended today. Our NYC Mayor may have one less person booing him tomorrow, when he attends another officer’s funeral.
The police officer’s union has been quick to criticize the mayor, will they be just as quick to analyze their own blue-blood culture, or pretend this is not indicative of a nationwide problem?
Too bad off-duty police won’t be required to wear the new body cameras. It will likely take another rash of future tragedies to patch that crack, in a reactive local government.
Race Against Race! 