What Ebony Magazine Failed To Ask: "What Did The Black Community Do The Last Time Ebony Depicted This Type Of Terror Upon Black Folks"?

"What angers me is when a child comes to me and says, Father, pray for me because I'm afraid to go to school. I'm afraid that I'm going to get shot.  I am sleeping under my bed because I am afraid of getting shot in my house".
Quote from "Ebony Magazine - August 2010 edition - "Stop Killing Our Dream"

If there was ever a "Time To Kill" moment in Black America in which an attorney had to convince a bigoted jury by first making them relate to something that they were otherwise unwilling to connect with because of their present entrenchment - I have never seen it before.

Please afford me the opportunity to play the Jake Tyler Brigance character that is echoing the statement of terror quoted above as I add the closing statement before I take my seat:

Now Imagine If This Terror Was Caused By White Supremacists?  What Would You Do In Response To It?


While these were indeed the words of a White man, Father Pfleger of Chicago and Jeremiah Wright fame - he was not talking about the terror rained down from White Supremacists upon this Black youth who told of his fear.  Instead he was talking about being terrorized by a threat that is INTERNAL to the Black community.

How The Ebony Magazine Article Misses The Mark

With the archives of Ebony Magazine now on line via the "Google Books" project they have access to enough reference material to present to the reader today the facts of how the Black community reacted to a state of terror that was cast upon it.  When those who came before us got "sick and tired of being sick and tired" they:

• Identified WHO was attacking them
• Demanded that their Civil Rights be protected just as this is guaranteed with all other Americans
• They sought to toss out the government agents that were in power yet who allowed this terror to be cast upon the Black community
• They protested against these government institutions until they responded as expected
• They lobbied to put into place in the key institutions of power those people who "cared about Black people and had our best interests in mind" 
• They worked to destroy the cultural practices and unchecked behavior that generated the mindset which was causing those people who killed Black people

Why is it that Ebony Magazine avoided setting up this model of what worked in the past and then later explained away why this is not an effective strategy to deal with today's terror?

Instead the evidence appears that those who are in control over the institutions under which this carnage against Black people is occurring get to keep their jobs, suffer no particular demands for correction and are the one's who are asked to lead the rally forward regarding how to correct this massive problem.

Did I miss something?

The Low Bar Of Satisfaction Of The "Inside Trader"

From the article in Ebony:

Sometimes Jackson's group is successful, as in the case of Kevin, a 16-year-old former member of the Traveling Vice Lords, a sect of the gang.  "Pastor Phil is like a dad to me," says Kevin.  "He gives me tutoring and jobs so that I can stay off t street".

Please do not misunderstand my point.  I fully support all of the programs that are listed in the article that are working to do interventions.  I participate in such a program.

My fundamental question which is an attempt to get beyond the checklist effect which appears to appease the masses that MUCH is being done is to ask "Is It Working?  Is what you are doing comprehensive enough? Does it have an enduring effect?  Is it being perpetuated?   What is your proof?".

Unlike many who I debate against I do not have a terminal case where there is nothing that those who I am critical of can do to cross my goal line because I keep moving it.   I realize that if "they lose", "I lose".

However, I refuse to go along with something simply because it is popularly agreed upon.  In as much as there is an intention to pat each other on the back the group of "inside traders" agree to find the glimmer of hope instead of making note of the sea of despair.  I am not a fatalistic person by any means.  I am merely NOT willing to look past the obvious without demanding a more accurate and above board analysis of the situation at hand.

I have concluded from my own community service interactions over time that while my time investment is valuable and should continue - it will never replace the inculcation that takes place within the homes and the communities which these young people receive the majority of their mental imprinting about the world.   An outsider will only ever be a supplement.  And yes there is no way for me or anyone else to become an "insider" as hard as we might want to care more about our "skin folk" when the care is more than what the "proximate adults" in their lives will to do their part.  Even one of the young people in the story makes the case that the adults in his community need to hear the messages that the youth intervention people provide to the youth.

I feel no compulsion to tell ANYONE how "my ideas would produce any better results"!!    This is only an attempt to run the tired old debate tactic for the sake of debate of "putting your adversaries on trial" so that the ideas that YOU gained power by selling us upon don't have to take the witness stand.

The Chickens Need To Come Home To Roost, Departing From Their External War On Behalf Of Their External Partners

In the wake of this noted crisis in every place where our people live in high concentrations AND where there is poverty this problem with violence exists.  Some argue that poverty begets violence.  Thus they pursue their perpetual income redistribution via government fiat strategy as they proclaim that upon attaining "Social Justice" WE will stop killing each other.  Good luck.

I maintain that a HUMAN RESOURCE that is made to suffer from the benign neglect of proper management from the adult forces that have been charged with regulating the eco-system within which this developing mind is allowed to roam then from this dysfunction will come:

• The lack of marketable skills which expresses itself as POVERTY as he is unable to express skills that attract adequate money in the transaction his way
• The VIOLENCE that is so often correlated with illicit commerce or an unchecked lack of civility that is allowed to fester in the interactions of the people
• The EDUCATION of the minds which unfortunately falls outside of the domain of knowledge and practices that the people need to retain their desired standard of living

My will to accept the seriousness of the Black Establishment Machine that dominates these places is dashed as I make note of what motivates them into action most passionately.  In as much as they are willing to prioritize external threats that are ideological and partisan over these noted problems that occur on their watch it is clear that they are less than serious in erecting a human resource management dogma that is proportionately focused upon that which poses the greatest proportional harm to our people.

I hear clear plans by which these "The Least of These" people can be dusted off and made to stand on their feet for the PURPOSES OF joining in on the battle against the threat that caused all of this dysfunction that was carried forth from our "Slave Past" and which infects us today. 

Sadly such a person will not ever come to the mindset that what they are seeing as a result of the failure to mold and manage that human who was born within the past few decades.

I Have No Intention Of Working Hard To Change The Minds Of Bigots

The combination of SUCCESS at what the confidence men had asked us to do and the continued problems that exist which their previous prescriptions had promised to correct should, in and of itself, cause those who are interested in effective solutions to begin to ask questions.   For me - all of this proves that indeed the group was successful in receiving what they had functionally worked for.  

Only those among them who are seriously committed to obtaining that which they were sold upon will begin to ask questions and demand change.  The worst agreement to commit one's self to is the third party agreement. This is where you are sold on the notion that in helping an external entity to be successful then YOU will have your interests satisfied as well.  Over time, however, you began to assume that THEIR interests are YOUR interests.  This is mostly because you see others emotionally excited over the victories of this external entity and you mistakenly believe that your own interests are advanced by inductive happiness.   

I challenge Ebony Magazine and the other Black Establishment Press & Bloggers operatives to SEPARATE yourselves from the highly agendized movement.  Your are no longer needed to broadcast their version of events.  Your JOB is to appraise how the Black Community's Best Interests have been served as we take their prescription.  

Who among you is the Black Community's "Food And Drug Administration"?