The Veil of Acceptance and Equality

The United States has come a long way from Jim Crow Laws, Black Codes (Please click the links to learn more), and openly praised and practiced racism.  For example, all public schools are integrated, even though the best schools are zoned for only wealthy families to attend.  Let's see, what else?  It is no longer legal to discriminate against serving persons at restaurants.  Employers cannot discriminate against hiring potential employees based on race, although according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, blacks have always had the highest unemployment rates among the races.  The biggest example of America's progress is the one and only President Barack Obama, though, he is only half black...

Take a look at the chart below (Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics)

The data is pretty self explanatory.  The reddish color indicates black males.  It is alarming to know that the amount of imprisoned black males is almost triple the amount of the second highest ethnicity.  Why is this occurring?  Are black males violent, aggressive, uncivilized, barbaric, and therefore need to be locked up in order to protect the larger society?  Black males are regular people underneath the stereotypes.  Unfortunately, they get the shortest sticks handed to them from birth.  In my opinion, the treatment of blacks(especially black males) in this country is based on fear passed down through generations.  In fact, I believe that the rampant ownership of firearms in the U.S. stems from the time when blacks were emancipated, and their previous owners began to fear justice being served them.  So they manufactured and bought tons of weapons to keep angry and impoverished blacks away from them.  As the free black population began to grow, they couldn't hang enough of them to get rid of them, so they began building prisons to house them, and it continues today...

Let's be honest...many black males are in fact committing crimes, despite the fact that they are profiled whether or not they did anything wrong.  So why is this happening?  Well, what group of people were barred from owning land and earning wages for their labor in this country?  That's right!  Blacks.  We all know that the home economic environment in which one grows up sets the basis for where one starts their own livelihood, in general.  If your ancestors were not able to pass anything of real value down through generations, either because they had nothing because they were not considered persons, or because of legal discrimination, how can you expect to all of a sudden to be living decently? The answer is that you cannot, so you in turn begin to commit petty crimes to feed that rumble in your stomach, and the stomach's of your hungry family.  In your efforts to survive in a world that has been trained to see you through the eyes of Birth of A Nation (Click here to learn more), you get handcuffed and placed in prison.  And the wheels on the bus go round and round...

Many want to believe that blacks are accepted and equal in America, but is it really just a mirage?

Dealing with the long lasting effects of slavery

People get mixed emotions when the word "slavery" is heard.  Some people feel overwhelmed with sadness, others guilt, anger, despair, and a larger group of people simply wish to forget about the whole thing and refuse to think or talk about it.

Whatever feelings a person has about slavery, only one thing actually matters regardless of emotions...It happened, SLAVERY HAPPENED.  People need to deal with it, and all the other things that went along with it like segregation, Jim Crowe laws, perpetual poverty, racism, the civil rights movement (and the back lash that went along with it), the harmful stereotypes placed on blacks, and even the slander of our black president by factions such as the birther movement.

How can we heal as a people?  When I think of slavery, I get images of limp black bodies hanging by their necks from ropes tied to trees.  When I think of slavery, I think of my ancestors standing on an auction block being sold to the highest bidder, as though they were beasts of burden.  How can we heal when we know that our traditions and culture and knowledge of our tribal blood lines were stolen from us?  How can we move on to better days when we know that the true history of our people has been marred with lies and omissions, or  our achievements wrongfully claimed by other groups of hateful and jealous persons?

Today, it is politically incorrect to talk about slavery or racism, or the need for groups like the NAACP, because many want so badly to believe that these things are long gone and that to continuously bring it up is just an attempt to start racial wars or to bring back something because some people refuse to let it die.

I believe that in order for us to recognize the way we are treated in this country, the place we have been put in this society, and the way for us to pull ourselves up, we must go back and look at what it meant to be a slave.  Some may think that slavery does not matter anymore, but the effects of slavery and everything that followed emancipation and civil rights still linger in our beings.

Unfortunately, we do not live in a country that actually believes that all men are created equal. Only a small percentage are treated with perpetual respect, and the rest are treated "any kind of way" unless they band together to DEMAND their justice.  Our people have suffered enough to not have to endure situations like Emit Till,  Trayvon Martin, or Kenneth Chamberlain.  Some may say that Trayvon Martin and Kenneth Chamberlain were not deaths as a result of racism, and whether that is true or not, the lack of diligent investigation and serving of timely justice shows just how far we've come from slavery and not mattering.

Please visit the link above (Slavery Happened), if you are interested in how slavery still affects African Americans.  If you need more information, please use the Contact Us link above.

Six year old Salecia Johnson Arrested for temper tantrum at school!

SIX YEAR OLD, Salecia Johnson was handcuffed and arrested at Creekside Elementary in Baldwin, GA for having a temper tantrum.  According to the petition on Change.org, Salecia was charged with battery and suspended for the remainder of the year all without having notified the parents.  The petition goes on to state that the child was in police custody for more than an hour before the parents found out.


I understand that sometimes children can get unruly, and without having the full details regarding the incident or the child's past behavior, there was no reason or need to ever give this baby a police record. With incidents like this, it is not that the child is a "problem" child, but it is more than likely that there are pressures and environmental issues going on at home.  The correct response to a situation like this is to help the child and/or parents work through their issues, not arrest the child who is clearly acting out in reaction to familial matters.


The prison system is a way to keep blacks and other unsightly peoples out of the general population.  Giving African American Youths a police record is important to keep African Americans living in poverty.  


The cycle is vicious:  a person gets arrested/gets a record, cannot get a job or qualify for financial aid in college or get decent housing- so the person turns to crime or drugs (to escape their life), and then eventually ends up in prison.


Let's Fight to end this cycle!



Please go to Change.org and sign the petition to help the Johnson family.