Now it's "The Butler", and musings from the house on Trayvon Martin.

When will it stop? Now we are told that there is a movie called “The Butler” in the works. Really?!! “The Butler”?!! Boy leave it to Hollywood to find a formula and run that puppy into the ground. I like Forest Whitaker, the man is a fine actor, but I am begging him not to do this flick. I don’t care if my homie Lee Daniels is co-writing and directing it. I say enough of these "Magic Negro roles. This one will focus on the Reagan White House. Lawd help us. "How you doin Miss Nancy, I have your tea for you". "Thank you Eugene, Could you bring my slippers please?" "Sure Miss Nancy, do you want the white ones or the pink ones? " [Source]

I feel like throwing up.

I know who will probably love this movie, my man Juan Williams. Juan is at it again. This time he penned an article for the Wall Street Journal where he pretty much stated the obvious (and what us real black folks have been saying all along) about the tragedy that is black on black crime.

Of course Juan, in typical house fashion, has to make this about black folks not being responsible enough to point out the obvious ills and pathologies in many black communities.  

"The shooting death of Trayvon Martin in Florida has sparked national outrage, with civil rights leaders from San Francisco to Baltimore leading protests calling for a new investigation and the arrest of the shooter.

But what about all the other young black murder victims? Nationally, nearly half of all murder victims are black. And the overwhelming majority of those black people are killed by other black people. Where is the march for them?
Where is the march against the drug dealers who prey on young black people? Where is the march against bad schools, with their 50% dropout rate for black teenaged boys? Those failed schools are certainly guilty of creating the shameful 40% unemployment rate for black teens.

How about marching against the cable television shows constantly offering minstrel-show images of black youth as rappers and comedians who don't value education, dismiss the importance of marriage, and celebrate killing people, drug money and jailhouse fashion—the pants falling down because the jail guard has taken away the belt, the shoes untied because the warden removed the shoe laces, and accessories such as the drug dealer's pit bull....." blah blah blah.

Welcome to the party, Juan. Thanks for inviting your racist friends from FOX NATION to join us . Sadly, you won't get any solutions from them. Just the same old racist crap. Of course you will be pleased to know that you are not like those other Negroes, you ask the tough questions. You are courageous, Juan. You stand up to your own people. You are not afraid to call them out. *throwing up again*

Anyway, what folks like Juan Williams and other racist apologist in A-merry-ca fail to understand, is that this case isn't just about the shooting of a young black man by some out of control vigilante. It's about a system of justice-- and those charged with upholding it--- that does not treat the lives of young black men the same way that they treat others. Most intelligent people in this country (black and white) realize that if Trayvon Martin and the shooter reversed races, George Zimmerman would be eating three meals on the County right now.  

Juan has to understand that this isn't about Civil Rights Inc. rallying around yet another bad whitey cause. This is about other young black men seeing how their lives aren't valued by society as a whole, and then thinking nothing of taking the life of someone who looks like they do. They know where they are in the "pecking order", and when they take the life of someone down at the bottom of the food chain with them they know that it's not that big of a deal. Three lines in the local paper and no mention on the evening news; that's it.

"Supposedly all of this is just entertainment and intended to co-opt the stereotypes. But it only ends up perpetuating stereotypes in white minds and, worse, having young black people internalize it as an authentic image of a proud black person."

I get it , Juan. You have to be very careful about how you are perceived by white folks. *looking for a nice jigging tune*  But the people in authority in A-merry-ca should also be concerned about how they are perceived by all A-merry-cans.
Right now the police department in Sanford, Florida is in the spotlight because they are not looking very good to the rest of us.  And when some of us see what was done in the Trayvon Martin case, we know exactly what kind of signals it is sending: Young black man your life isn't worth a damn thing. And whether you are wearing a Hickey Freeman suit or a hoodie and baggy pants, it doesn't make a damn bit of difference.       


Pic courtesy of Brotherpeacemaker blog.




 







 

"Not very much"?

Folks are wondering about Flipper and his 15% tax rate declaration. "How could a man who is worth over three hundred million dollars pay a lower tax rate than say a school teacher?" Well, it happens, this is A-merry-ca.

Personally, I am not as upset about Flipper and his 15% tax rate. I understand that he is paying that on capital gains, dividend and interest income, and not on earned income. Flipper has put away a lot of money thanks to all of his investments. The speculating business has been very good to him. Making money at the expense of others is nothing new to the vultures from Wall Street, and Flipper was one of them, we all know that.

But Flipper made a statement yesterday that bothered me even more than his paltry tax contribution:

"Though it's no secret that Mitt Romney's income is made up of residual Bain investments taxed at the low rate of 15%, the candidate admitted it this morning at a campaign stop in Florence, South Carolina. “It’s probably closer to the 15 percent rate than anything,” Romney said. According to the Times, he also loses his speaking fees in the cushions of his couch. “And then I get speaker’s fees from time to time, but not very much.”

"Not very much"? Let's see, he made over $374,000.00 in speaker fees last year at a time when most A-merry-cans are struggling to make ends meet, and he says that the money he made "is not very much"? Nice.

Honestly folks, doesn't it just make you want to slap the starch right out of his shirt?

Finally Juan, I tried to warn your black ass, but you wouldn't listen. You went over to the dark side because you thought that the clowns at the news network for dummies and their minions were your friends. Well I guess they showed you.  

So now you are pushing back, and you can't understand why those folks were mean to you.

"On Tuesday's "The Five," he explained why he asked the question. When co-host Eric Bolling insisted that Gingrich's comments were about economics and not race, Williams disagreed. He said, "It's very racial and... unless i missed it, black people havent been out there demanding food stamps, or marching for food stamps." ..."I don't think [Gingrich] answered the question at all," [Source]

So now you are sticking up for black folks, Juan? Well I appreciate the effort, and I appreciate the fact that you went into the middle of that Klan Rally the republican debate (in South Carolina no less) and asked a tough question that needed to be asked.

You got your answer, and it wasn't pretty. Sorry Juan, if you are surprised at the answer you got, you just might want to start spending less time over at FOX.

Sometimes it's the little things.

A lot of you Negroes are upset with Newt for suggesting that black folks are the only ones who use food stamps and rightfully so. His statement was ignorant and misguided. And, to make matters worse, he doubled down at the republican debates by calling out Juan Williams to the delight of the red meat starved wingnut crowd.

"JUAN WILLIAMS: Speaker Gingrich, you recently said black Americans should demand jobs, not food stamps. You also said poor kids lack a strong work ethic, and proposed having them work as janitors in their schools. Can’t you see that this is viewed, at a minimum, as insulting to all Americans, but particularly to black Americans?

GINGRICH: No, I don’t see that." [Source] 

Of course he doesn't see it, because he lives in a parallel universe where ignorance and bigotry is accepted.

But here is the thing, as black folks we contribute to this crap by perpetuating these stereotypes our damn selves.

Just today I was in the train station here in Philly, when I saw the pic that goes with this post on a billboard. (I took that pic myself) Are you serious? WTF?  WDAS is the most popular radio station here in Philly. They play R&B and "classic soul". And, quite frankly, that billboard is embarrassing. Newt and his ilk would love it. The folks at Clear Channel should be ashamed for green lighting that bull s%$#.

The folks who thought of this billboard are doing to get ratings for the Steve Harvey show, and they are doing it in an ignorant way. Sorry, "We Pay Your Bills" isn't cutting it for me. Find another promotion, or find another slogan for the one you are pushing.

Finally, -and we have been down this road before- can someone please remind Beyonce Knowles where she came from? Girlfriend tends to forget every now and then.