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Friday, March 4, 2011 | 2:10pm
[RANT] Its Been 20 Years Since Rodney King, We Aint Learned A Damn Thing
We’ll always get beaten on camera, for the next 20 years though lets focus on learning from them.
#rodneyking #policebrutality
Time travels mega fast! Case in point…can you believe it was 20 years ago yesterday that the images of Rodney King at the other end of a night stick graced the evening news. Sure it was a beat down not unlike many over the years but it was special in two ways.
A) it sparked the Los Angeles Riots after the four police officers clearly seen beating the defenseless man silly were acquitted
and
B) Because it arguably gave rise to society’s obsession with reality TV and social networking.
Prior to that fateful day in 1991, carrying a camcorder was reserved as a tourist activity. Cellphones with video capability weren’t invented, hell who had a cellphone? The convenient little Flip cams wouldn’t come along for another 18 years. But the beating whet our appetite for sensationalism, drama playing out in real life on the evening news and when we couldn’t wait that long they invented YouTube.
What became lost in this new social revolution was the reason we were so upset in the first place. Lost was how those storefronts came to be burned and looted, how violence rung out across the city as anger and frustration from a community boiled over. I remember that day and the subsequent events and I remember being confused as to how the Justice System got it all wrong.
It launched the very cynicism that characterizes my thoughts and fuels many of my blog rants to this day. Minorities are disproportionally represented in this country. It was my “Ah Ha! Moment” that launched the same militancy that 20 years earlier made my mother a Black Panther.
The problem is black folk are conditioned to accept these disparities. Those too neophyte to read this blog would probably say “how can this be Juan. We complain all the time.” Complain, exactly. We get A’s in debate class and fail miserably in Problem Solving mathematics. Sean Bell…Dead, police equitted. Amadou Diallo…Dead, Tim Stansbury….Dead, Oscar Grant….Dead at least Abner Louima got off by just being sodomized by a night stick. How’s that for math? So the natural reaction from our people is to march and complain but when ever have we looked at prevention?
Black folks were in bondage for 300 years and couldn’t find a way out until white folks got tired of the game and “give us free.” What makes you think we’ll ever be on equal playing field now? Hispanics realize it. The Chinese and Koreans know it. Its just what Professor Phipps (Lawrence Fishburne) said to Malik (Omar Epps) in Higher Learning. When someone’s beating you on the track what do you do? RUN FASTER.
You think there’s ever been any white athletes that did HARD TIME for shooting themselves in the leg in the club or dog fighting? Hispanic athletes? Chinese? No. We do dumb shit an that’s why we get what we deserve. But instead we blame this mystical figure we’ve come to know as “The Man.” We did that stupid shit. We’re just going to need to pull down our skirt and get to work. Forget the cops. Forget the courts. You’ll never be on equal level as them in their eye so stop complaining. Get yours.
If the unrest in the Middle East has taught me anything is no obstacles is too great. Sometimes there are casualties but if there’s anything worth having sometimes sacrifice is a bi-product but when you spend too much time comfortable in your heavy 6 figure chains or your expensive cars, who wants to give that up in the name of freedom? Bondage is a mentality. We were more free in the Middle Passage then we are today. Lets change that starting now so another 2o years don’t go by and we’re still stuck in the same place.
FILED IN Editorials, Need to Know
Damn, Juan…”at least Abner Louima got off by just being sodomized by a night stick.” That’s F*cked up! LOL! ……
Sounds like you just finished watching that Farrakhan speech, LOL!
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Seriously, tho, you are right on point. Black people settled. The civil rights movement won us just that: civil rights, in the courts. We never won our human rights. We stopped short because people started settling and stopped striving…
Hell we’re in the Big House…I mean the white house now. What the hell else is there to strive for?
We can strive 4 a level playing field but that will never happen. U think this Rodney King shit just started in 1991? It was already here with us from slavery, we as Black ppl or Minorities in General yes BecKKKy u 2 r a Minority. Look at what NWA was trying 2 say with FUCK THE POLICE and Ice T, with KKKop KILLA. The media and politicians wanted 2 say KKKops r not this way these KKKoons r just making xxxcuses.Richard Pryor even spoke on it in his 1979 Concert Film live in Concert even b4 then it was documented with the Black Panthers.This has been the mentality of KKKracka Boys since Day 1 . When have u ever heard of a White boy getting his ass beat by a KKKop ….Never .White Boys get in a KKKops face and spit call him a fuck’n asshole,”Do u know who my Father is”? “In white boy voice” of course, he is the head Custodial Technician of this JR High School, he will have ur badge!! type shit.U never ever hear of 1 getting shot …..unless they are on some “U will never take me alive KKKopper”type shit. It is quite sad how far we have not come as in just descent treatment as a fucking human being. Mike Vick served mad time 4 what? Financing a dog fighting ring. If any1 saw a video beating of a dog being treated the way Rodney King or Sean Bell got done they would want the head of the person who did it, especially if they were black. My point is our life is not even worth more than a dogs life in AmeriKKKa 2 sum ppl . Now check out how in Egypt they started Revolting and how hispanics came out in Huge numbers in Arizona.Asian PPL don’t even worry about such issues at all. U will never see a Asian person get beat down nor a Jewish person get beat down by KKKops . We are so content with how we are treated, “We don’t see nothing Wrong with get’n shot with a 9″. In R.Kelly voice. It just pisses me off that we get a Blackman in the outhouse and we just have nothing 2 fight 4 now? Really? We are the Biggest hoes ameriKKKa has they use us 4 entertainment,we are modern day carKOONS i MEANT CARTOONS 2 AmeriKKKa ,can we “get buck” sometimes and stop being so scary ? Hell No!! Weeeeeeezzz free now !! Weeeeeezzzz got a colored fellow in da big house. Don’t youz starts no poblem wit dem good white folk!!
On the contrary 2NA$$TEE, there was a case in Crown Heights, Brooklyn some years back where an eldery deaf hasidic jew didnt adhear to the commands of a white police officer during a traffic stop and was manhandled pretty bad. Not Rodney King/ Abner Louima bad but, still a violation of human rights. You know what happened? THEM JEWS GOT IT POPPIN!!!!! FUCK A TRAIL, FUCK A JUDGE, FUCK A JURY!!! SAME DAY RIOT!!!! Gargbage cans were thrown at cops, fires were lit, chaos ensued!!!! Needless to say, if they were of a darker complexion, there would probaly been dead bodies in the streets instead of just one roughed up Jew.
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To Juan to totally agree with you. Those who came before us settled for welfare instead of reparations. And its too far in the game for us to renegotiate the terms, we have been played and branded. And with that brand we are classified as a race of welfare recipients regardless if you never spent a stamp at a store. And whatever we do as a whole to arise against the stereotype we will be regarded as hostility and will be met with a higher brand of hostility. We have to sneak them like they snuck us….. (is snuck a word?).
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Fight the Power, Power to the People, Free Assata, and Love Peace with Afro Grease…..
Its interesting you brought that up. Aside from Rodney King, the Crown Heights riots was the other event in my life that shaped much of my thinking. I grew up in the Heights (Carroll and Brooklyn Ave). And I witnessed first hand the Crown Heights Riots of 91.
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Quick recap: The area is, well was made of mostly black/ caribbean Americans with a concentration of Hasidic (very orthodox) Jewish minority. Many people felt they had the plice and City authorities in their pocket and could do as they please. Close down streets on the sabbath, demonstrate when they wanted, even had their own private ambulance service called the Hotzolah.
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One day while following in a private Motorcade with the Rabbi, a Hasidic Jew with no drivers licence struck and killed a young boy injuring his 7 year old cousin. The Hotzolah came and took the man to the hospital and left the kid to die on the street.
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Enough was enough and racial tensions boiled. Eventually a drunken mob went to Kingston ave where there are believed to be more Hasidic Jews than in Isreal and Killed a Jewish College Student from Austrailia. NOW THE COPS would arrive in full riot gear.
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I felt like I was a prisoner in my own neighborhood. Cops looked at ME (at the age of 12) like I was a criminal. When my militant mom expalined it all to me I was confused and dedicated much of my adult life to understanding how this could have happened and how to avoid it.
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If it were only that kid that died that day it would just be another incident. Once a Hasidic Jewish Student was killed in retaliation, it became a civil rights issue. See my point? It is what it is, we just gotta realize its that way and RUN FASTER!
Those incidents are isolated and far in between and rare. U might hear of 1 every few hundred years but KKKops killing minorities happens on a hourly basis .
Exactly, 2NA$$TEE and Mr Bad Guy! That is what I’m talking about when I said “Settling.” ….
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I wasn’t around during segregation, not that old, lol, but I have a good friend who grew up in rural Florida during segregation and moved to New York as an adult. He has been a school teacher in the city school district for over 25 years and he told me that he thinks many things were better for black people during segregation. For one thing, the education of black children was done mostly by black teachers, who CARED and worked with the parents much better. Today, 5% of the students who graduate this school district are college ready. Only 30% graduate. 90% of students are black/hispanic. Over 80% of teachers caucasians and they mostly live in the suburbs… Another point he made was that back then, you knew white people were the enemy. They made that very clear. Today, because of “civil rights” and more black people getting professional jobs, we think there is no more discrimination. Obviously, that is not the case….there is a lot more to this…..
I here you E.L., loud and clear. In college an assignment I had to debate the ills of the emancipation proclaimation and the end of segregation. I think we, as black people, would have gotten along better if we stayed segregated or the desegregation process took a little longer. I think we wouldnt deal so much with this so called freedom and false equality we have now. We today would have our own properous communities, there would be definite need for an abundance black businesses, with those two opens the door for more and better representation due to economic growth. OUR people would be educating our kids…… on a level of solidarity we would be stronger and prouder as a people for we would directly benefit from each other. Ooooooor we could have continued to fuck each other hand over fist and destroyed each other from within….. because WE ARE our worst enemy…… just a thought.
I made that statement on a post here before (Black people being our own worst enemy). This is one of the legacies of slavery: they set up a self-perpetuating system by putting in us hatred for ourselves, It may sound simplistic, but if I ain’t shit, and I’m black, then you must not be shit if you look like me. If you don’t love yourself, you can’t love others. How was this done? very scientifically: the black male slave could not protect the black woman or children. He had no control. The slave master was in control (and security is paramount to a woman in a relationship). In the plantation, the black male slave couldn’t live in the same house as the black female slave. They could only come together to procreate, but there wasn’t supposed to be a real, loving relationship. Then, the older female slaves raised the children. This system kinda goes on today, huh? guys just stopping by to see women, hitting it and keeping it moving? while grandma raises the babies? ….. everything associated with black is ugly or negative, while everything associated with white is good or positive (remember in the Malcolm X movie, when he found this out in prison?). Even black baby girls will choose to play with a white doll over a black one (Juan had a post regarding this some time back)….. Read the Willie Lynch letter or document. It’s broken down with a lot more detail and more graphic….too much for me to write here.
Once again I hear you but there once was a time, after slavery and before I’ll say the 70′s, where we didnt follow that rhetoric. And it seems to me that ended as soon as we got our “civil rights”. It seems as soon as we settled for just “civil righs”, and that era ended, our neighborhoods declined and all else was forgotten. Now if the “civil rights” era spread across an extra generation, the sacrifice and struggle would be more appreciated today and our quality of life would be more improved.
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The Willie Lynch letter or document, which may not be what its cracked up to be, is your standard divide and conquer manifesto. You can take it and apply it anywhere not just to blacks. The government does it amongst the social and economic classes today.
Agreed. I don’t think you can make a statement and put it as a blanket over everything and think it’s going to cover it…Another thing that changed the landscape in our (black/latinos in the U.S.) society was drugs, specifically crack. We used drugs and alcohol in the 40′s, 50′s and 60′s too, but when the crack epidemic hit in 80′s, things changed and you can measure its effects in this generation. They talk about “Generation X and Y” what about “Generation Crack”? I have worked as a substance abuse counselor more than 15 yrs and I work for the county’s department or social services as well. It is ridiculous, and sad. Crack has done a number on us…
Oh, I forgot to mention, the night that Rodney King got that epic beatdown, he was high on crack! and, from what I have heard, he continued to smoke crack and blew all the money he got from getting his ass whoooped…which leads to another issue: reparations…if black people got a fat check, what would most of us do with it?
Repartations?? LOL!! That shit would be very ill spent…. remember that Dave Chappele episode… something like that…
Oh, hell yeah!! Heroin then Crack, and not to mention the AIDS epidemic, was the coup de grace….as you said it has done a number on us… a number we are still recovering from..
I want 2 send a shout out 2 the usual suspects that post their opinion and thoughts on such matters of importants,from Juan who starts the post 2 Mr.Bad Guy,E.L.Diaz,and of course yourz truly 2NA$$TEE.Keep this up we might just start scaring AmeriKKKa and the FBI/CIA will be checking this site.
I’m sure they got their “Eagle Eye” on us…
Sunday morning, just woke up and seen what topic I missed out on over the weekend. Juan I was only 7 at the time when the Rodney King incident happened so I don’t remember much of that but I will say this…Not much has changed. Racism is clearly still around and I don’t think it will ever go away. I could be walking into the gas station, grocery store, or the mall holding my daughter’s hand and guess what? If there is a white female around she always reaches to protect her purse! As if I’m going to steal with my child present! C’mon Son!!! It is what it is. Sad but true…
But you know what, B.E.B.? that’s the least of our problems when it comes to racism. It’s the ones who sit in control of corporations, colleges, courtrooms, hell, classrooms, etc…the ones who run things, those are the racists I’m worried about. They make sure that “things” stay as they have been since…well since Europeans got here…Becky, at the mall, I don’t even look her way! just keep on stepping.
I hear that, those less obvious racists will hire you and keep you in the mail room making peanuts for 30 yearsor senatnce you to 100 years for a petty crime. At least I know exactly what the blatant racists are thinking.
Man, I lived in a tiny little town in South Carolina for more than three years. I can tell you some overt racism stories…My favorite: oooold white guy, two teeth in his mouth, driving an old pick up truck with the hound dog in the back, the whole stereotypical thing…slows down to about 2 miles per hour as Im walking by, eyeballing me hard…so, I’m looking back at him and he has this puzzled look on his face, so I went up to him and asked him how he’s doing…he asked me (old, southern white man voice), “what kind of nigger is you?” I guess he never seen a black person my complexion (people say I look arab/indian)…man, I cracked up at him…then I answered, (in my best white southern drawl) “Well, how many kinds of niggers is there?” His face lit up, he nodded, and went on his way…the answer: there is only one kind, regardless of skin tone: a no-good nigga! That was more than 10 yrs ago and it’s still funny.
LOL!!! CLASSIC!!!
LOl or how abot I’ll be on an enclosed train, with no where to run, and they will grab their purses…. one if I wanted the purse I would get it, your arm is not gonna stop me. Two, where would I go? Am I gonna snatch your purse and wait there next to you? LOL, the shit is hilarious…
It is funny sometimes, tho. When I was still a teenager, in NYC, walking home one night, two buildings away from my building, an old white woman coming toward me, now, I am the farthest thing from menacing-looking, lol, we don’t make eye contact or anything, she is still like 30 yards away, this lady starts screaming, terrified, walks on the street, watching me, not where she is going, almost gets hit by a car, screaming at the top of her lungs. I just laughed…if she had been hit by a car, I prolly would have gotten in some shit with the cops…
I have to say that I have only been in one situation where I can say was of racist intent. Two other friends and I went to this place called “Who’s On First” a lounge in Manhattan. As we approached the doors a second group of about five black males approached the place at the same time, so now we look as if we are all together. As we appraoch the bouncer he states, very casually, that we will have to wait for some “other people” to come on the line because the owner doesnt want a large group of “brothers” to come in at the same time. Me taking things very lightly, I can be very naive at times, responds with, “Oh we are not with them.” Then he further explains that this is too large of a group of “brothers”, yes he said “brothers” again, to enter the place at one time and we will have to break up the group into groups of three separated by “other people”…. I paused, some words were exchanged, we proceeded to leave stopping anyone we saw heading to the place to tell them not to go in beacause the bouncer at the front says that the owner “hates niggers”. We stayed there at least 10 minutes stating that….. This was my only blatant racist encounter….
Remeber the movie “Akeelah and the Bee”? There’s a part in the movie when Laurence Fishburne says a poem. The point of the poem is that black people are scared of being powerless, we’re scared of being powerful beyond measure. The more power the more responsibility. To be responsible for our own destiny and to have to practice self control and discipline scares us. A lot of black folks think that it’s more “real” to stay down and get along then it is to stand up and fight back. Fight back socially and economically. Too many of us are loving this extended state of childhood, where its somebody else’s responsibility to feed,clothe,and provide for us………
Cosign! I will never understand/agree with that whole “keeping it real” thing where a person has to act ignorant to “keep it real.” I think it was Chris Rock who said that he loves Black people, but he hates niggas, because niggas are always f*cking sh*t up for Black people!
DUDE LOOKS LIKE HE GOT MOLLY WHOPPED VICIOUS!!!!, I REMEMBER THE RODNEY KING ASS WHUPPING N WHAT CAME AFTER, LACK OF TRUST N AGRESSION AMONGST MINORITIES, MAINLY LATINO (NOT HISPANIC, HISPANIC IS A DERROGATORY WORD USED AGAINST LATINOS FRM LATINO AMERICA BY THE CONQUERING NEVER WILL BE LATINO EURO THRASH SPANIARDS) N BLACK TOWARDS AUTHORITY IS ALWAYS GOING TO EXIST CAUSE OF PROFILING N ETC, I REMEMBER THIS DIRTY CROOKED COP ALWAYS SNATCHIN DUDES UP FROM THE HOOD, BEATIN ON ‘EM N ETC, WHAT WAS WORSE IS THAT DUDE WAS A RIVAL BANGER FROM LOS ANGELES, WORKIN AS A COP IN MY TURF OF THE MISSION DISTRICT IN SAN FRAN, BUT, SINCE A LOT OF US HAD PRIORS, THEY DIDNT TAKE US SERIOUS, CAUSE WE HAD NO “CREDIBILITY”, DUDE SLIPPED ONE DAY N PUT HANDS ON THE WRONG DUDE, CAUSED HE LOOKED “AFFILIATED”, TURNED OUT DUDE WAS CLEAN N WAS THE SON OF A POLITICIAN, LMAO, LONG STORY SHORT, COP GOT BOOTED FRM THE FORCE N SENT 2 QUENTIN, WHAT HAPPENED TO OSCAR GRANT WAS NOT A SURPRISE, SINCE B.A.R.T PD’S THE DIRTIEST COP FORCE IN THE BAY, ALONG WITH THE ALAMEDA COUNTY SHERIFFS, WHEN INJUSTICE HAPPENS, THERES A WAY 2 PROTEST N IT SHOULDNT INVOLVE FUCKIN UP UR NEIGHBORHOOD N FITTING INTO THE STEREOTYPE THAT PEOPLE HAVE OF MINORITIES
Cosign too! I HATE it when people ask me if I’m “Spanish.” HELL NO! I’m not from Spain. I am also not “Hispanic” which denotes that I am from or the possession of Spain.
Yeah I hate that too. I prefer Latino but I’ve found myself recently as I discuss more demographics in my business life referring to “Spanish” as an abbreviation for “Spanish Speaking”
MAN, FUCK THAT, REAL TALK JUAN, WE’RE ALL BROTHERS N SISTERS WHO SPEAK SPANISH BUT WITH DIFFERENT FLAVOR, SPAIN MAY HAVE CONQUERED AND FUCKED US OVER, BUT WE AINT SPANISH N THOSE SNOBBY EURO TRASH SPANIARDS WILL N HAVE NVR CONSIDERED US THEIR EQUAL, MUCH LESS SPANISH, SO, FUCK THE SPANISH OR HISPANIC TITLE, WE’RE ALL LATINOS UNDER ONE FLAG!
COSIGN THAT 100% !!!!
@ E.L.Diaz
Are you Spanish, Hispanic, or Mexican? LMAO! Just teasing bro, haha! But seriously, I get your point about racism in the courtrooms, corporations, politics, etc. If the skin color is not white and the whites are in a position of power, there’s a great possibility that you will never succeed, get more time, or never be appreciated.
As the line goes, a white man’s “yes” is a blacks “maybe”…..
Chris Rock had it right! Bill Cosby had it right! But to be fair, it aint only black people in Amerikka that have underestimated or not appreciated the complexity or the strentgh of caucsians to not only survive but thrive in hostile enviornments. Most of the wolrd is brown or yellow to some degree, but alot of the power structure is white (to some degree)….alot of indeginous peoples have been losing to them for a long time. The difference is now we know alot of the history and still ingore it……I don’t even think brainwashing has the most to do with it….mostly its just us being lazy…..whatever happened to each one teach one?
Each one teach one still exists but the wrong things are being taught…. its all spend no save, all rich but no wealth, all smarts no education, its all want and desire but no desire to properly obtain.
Two very true statements, Eru420 and Mr. Bad Guy! The points you just made are some of the reasons why the Nation was so attractive to me. Obviously, because of many reasons, it’s not for everybody. And having been in it and lived that life for years, there are some things that I don’t like. I guess that is why I’m not active in it now. And may never be again. But GOD is in me…and I show it! In many different ways.
NATION, WHATEVER HAPPENED 2 KNOWLEDGE OF SELF, SELF EDUCATION N EDUCATION OF OTHERS?, TEACH THE NEXT GENERATION, TEACH ‘EM SO THEY WONT GET FUCKED OVER, LETS TEACH ‘EM SO THEY CAN B THE RIGHTEOUS LEADING THE OPEN MINDED, IN A FUCKED UP WORLD OF SELF DOUBT, SELF GENOCIDE, CORRUPTION, IGNORANCE AND BULLSHIT, LET US TEACH THE YOUNG SO THEY CAN SHED LIGHT ON THE HYPOCRICY N IGNORANCE WHICH HAS SHACKLED MINDS 4 WAY 2 LONG, INJUSTICE IS ONLY THAT IF WE JUST STAND BY N DO NOTHING!