I’m always thinking about creating. My future starts when I wake up every morning… Every day I find something creative to do with my life. - Miles Davis

Photo courtesy of New York Times

Wear all black on Monday for the injustice verdict in the Sean Bell case Please pass this on to anyone who can receive a text.

I received this text message numerous times throughout the course of the weekend and again I ask “Is wearing all black the new activism”. Has wearing all black taken the place of such notable activism as the Montgomery Bus Boycott. I remember back when the Jena 6 movement was thriving and we were all wearing black as a means to show the masses our “black solidarity”. I participated and heard many say that they felt good walking into their corporate offices and seeing other people of color representing the injustice that was being served in Jena. But does our action stop there, does what we wear really signify that an injustice has been done?

So today I woke up and threw on my black shirt and my black Chuck Taylor sneakers in memory of the brother Sean Bell. I walked into my classroom and unlike that glorious Jena day, barely any people of color were wearing all black. What does wearing all black mean anyway; do the people who we want to see our solidarity even know that we are wearing this color to represent the fact that a brother was murdered by the NYPD. That yet again the NYPD walked out of a court of law not guilty of all charges. My own Constitutional Law professor had no idea who Sean Bell was and that this verdict had drastically affected the lives of many people. He was unaware that many young brothers and sisters had taken to the streets and were seeking Justice for the loss of yet another young talented black man. He definitely had no idea why one of his students had on black today; all he wanted to know was if I was familiar with the material that will be on his exam next week.

I checked through my usual news media outlets hoping that I would see something in the headlines about the injustice the Bell family was served this past Friday. Instead, I was inundated with news of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright and the Democrat Primary’s, but there was no sign of any measures that would be taken towards the Bell family finding JUSTICE. And why should their be, a brother is dead and we all go back to our regularly scheduled lives. More concerned with celebrity gossip than the fact that black men can be killed in this country and their murderers receive absolutely no punishment.

The NY Times had a brief article about this issue however, and it largely dealt with the few people who were outraged by the verdict and were protesting in Harlem yesterday. One of the brothers on the bull horn asked “why aren’t more people out here”. The days of marching and blocking traffic for a day or two didn’t work then and they will continue not to work now. All the police do is re-direct the traffic and the protest becomes more of a nuisance than a movement that affects change. So what my generation has come up with as a means of fighting injustice is wearing all black; then we are really fighting institutionalized racism and brutality, we’ll show em!

Wrong, we need a strategic effort on a variety of fronts to fight the injustices that are facing our people. I refuse to believe that we are as lazy as the Civil Rights Guard of Leadership paints us. No we are not lazy at all, we are the internet generation; the text message generation. All of that to say we have the fastest and often most effective modes of communication to get messages across to our peers and move in a organized manner. We have to fight these different injustices on many different fronts. The Judge who rendered the verdict; we have to find out if he was elected or appointed; if elected we make sure that those who are eligible to vote in that district show up in record numbers to relieve him of his position.

Let’s take it back to the boycott days since the loss of revenue is the only thing that makes politicians and businessmen understand that we are angry about something and are seeking some type of remedy. This shouldn’t be hard to do because we are spawning into a recession anyway and people are already strapped for cash. We need to find out exactly what businesses that if we stopped patronizing would affect Michael Bloomberg the fastest. Once those major businesses are affected they will call up their high powered friends ad say “hey we have to do something about this’ its affecting my pocket”! You see when when we start to use our creativity and organize our efforts we begin to fall upon the ears who really create change in our cities. Maybe then the NYPD will stop believing that it is perfectly fine and legal to kill young black men. But if all we are doing is wearing black; trust me the courts, the politicians, the police and definitely the law are not hearing our voices.

We need to tap into the resources in our communities who have the know how and ability to propose legislation for stricter monitoring practices over the police departments who brutalize communities of color. All cops are not the scum who murder and harass people of color so we need to reach out to those who are fed up with their colleagues behavior and off the record find out what we can do to upset their internal situation that will help us make the changes we wish to see. I could write on for days about different measures that we could take however my one voice will not create this change. Our collective voice will not change these scenarios but our collective voices coupled with our strategic collective actions will create this change. In memory of Sean Bell and all of the other forgotten fallen soldiers; please let’s Make It Happen!

ps. I will be at the Black and Male In America Conference the weekend of June 15 - 17 in Brooklyn, NY. I think we all need to be there!

February 28, 2008

Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint. Isaiah 40: 28-31

Everything is subject to its own interpretation! I read the first line this morning in the new international version, and then I grabbed my bible which is the King James version and the difference in word usage gave me a different perspective. Neither is right or wrong but I found it interesting how the Word is so often subject to the interpretation of the interpreter. So from today’s word I felt like the page was talking to me, like someone was hipping me to some new information. Hast thou not known — Have we not heard that our God and creator is amazing, that he doesn’t dwell in worldly problems for he fainteth not. He created this world, I felt like it was someone whispering in my ear and enlightening me to the best kept secret. Then it spoke directly to me and how i feel when I’m DOWN AND OUT. He gives us power, the strength to battle whatever obstacles present themselves. Even when we are at our weakest point, it is then that we are truly being strong. Think about a weight set, you see how strong you are when you pile more weight on. When we pile more stress on, it is then when we push ourselves to the max to achieve, that strength that we let out, that power, it is innate within us because at those moments we are channeling the God within us.

Even the youths shall faint and be weary! That is us, that is the young generation. The young shall utterly fall, is that not what is going on in our communities right now? People have fallen, we are filled with despair because we give to much power to objects and things that cause unhappiness rather than the Lord and finding peace and happiness within ourselves. But those who wait upon the Lord, those who channel the God within, he will renew our strength and we will be as fly as fly can be. No pun intended, but we shall mount up with wings as eagles and soar, be at peace, be plentiful because we walk with the Lord. All this walking with the Lord talk, what does it mean. I don’t know, I am not the Judge, thats your mission, thats our mission. My mother always says there is more than one way to the KINGDOM of HEAVEN. Maybe some of the routes we are thinking are correct are in fact not, that’s why its important that we go now and try to build this relationship with the Lord and move forward and prosper. I hope I am articulating my thoughts because I am not speaking of conventional ways, the Lord has blessed in us creativity and innovativeness. If he has given us such talents and gifts, why not use those same talents to understand him and the relationship that we can have with him. Peace and Grace be unto you!

Anticipate the good so that you may enjoy it!