CIVIL UNREST

There are those that would have you forget that this country was founded on civil unrest and violence. There are those  that would have you believe that the events leading to this country’s  Revolutionary War were inane and non-violent in nature when in fact the opposite is true.  Digs and all kinds of  shade have been thrown at the protesters in Baltimore, Ferguson, NYC,  Oakland, and elsewhere aided and abetted by the media. Invoking the imagery of the “thug”  to describe ALL protesters and to diminish the serious problems that are the underlying causes of so much civil unrest in this country right now.

SONS OF LIBERTY

Early in the summer of 1765 in Boston,  a number of shopkeepers and artisans who called themselves The Loyal Nine, started preparing for taking action against the Stamp Act. These weren’t the leading men of Boston, but instead workers and tradesmen. The Stamp Act was passed by the British Parliament in 1765 and resulted in taxes being levied on any piece of paper that was used by the American Colonists. Newspapers, Shipping Papers, contracts, any legal documents, licenses and even playing cards were subject to this tax. The money was earmarked for troops that were stationed in the Appalachian Mountains. The colonists were upset by the idea that up till that point taxes were used to promote commerce and in this instance they were being used to raise monies for purposes that the colonists had no say so about and the precedent of taxes being created outside of the colonies for various reasons was seen as a road they did not wish to go down.

This group which is by some fondly remembered as the “original patriots” engaged in various acts of civil disobedience and violence.

In August of 1765 they hung an effigy of Andrew Oliver – Commissioner of Stamps with a boot sticking out of it with a devil. A symbolic reference to the Earl of Bute. When the local sheriffs were ordered to remove this display they declined to do so as crowds had gathered and later that evening would commence to throwing stones at Oliver’s house while the occupants were still in there. Eventually they would set fire to and ransack the house through the rest of the night. Included in that evenings activities were beheading the effigy and setting that on fire also.

In an ongoing show of Civil defiance of the Stamp Act – newspapers even after the law went into effect refused to obtain the “stamp” and pay the tax associated with it.

Somehow with all the events and actions of the Sons of Liberty being well documented – it has somehow been overlooked in the rush to brand the current protesters as unruly mobs of thugs. The actual history of the founding of this country actually would encompass behavior that would  fall into that same category.

CINCINNATI RIOTS OF 1829

Between 1820 and 1829 the African American population in Cincinnati grew from 700 to over 2,000 causing great concern and fear  for the white, middle-class residents who they felt were
creating a hazard in their city :

“The rapid increase of our black population, is of itself a great evil, night walkers, lewd persons, and those who lounge around without any visible means of support,”

These residents actually petitioned local officials to remove the black citizens citing their poor living conditions were a “fire hazard”.  In the midst of this in 1826 a group of white men formed the OCS – Ohio Chapter of the American Colonization Society whose sole purpose was to spread misleading and defamatory propaganda claiming that blacks were a threat to society.

Sound familiar?

These lovely citizens also took it upon themselves to petition the local government to enforce a  “Black Code“. Enacted  originally in 1807 – this “code” required black residents to pay a $500 bond  which would serve as proof of their “respectability”.

In June of 1826 – notices were sent out to black residents that they had 30 days to secure the bond or be forced to leave the city.  Black residents already seeing the writing on the wall were already preparing to leave the city to re-establish their community elsewhere. While their original plans looked to secure property in rural Ohio to found their own city  things didn’t work out that way. in 1829 two representatives from the black community were sent to Canada to survey land for relocation and starting a new settlement. While they were away the local paper issued an ultimatum for the black residents to vacate the city immediately. A request for an extension of time was met with growing hostility of the local  white residents against the black citizens. From August 15th to August 22nd of that year mobs of whites attacked black homes and businesses. The police offered no protection from these mobs and the mayor refused to call an end to the violence.

– Charles P Wright Museum of African American History

ELIJAH P. LOVEJOY

A minister and resident of St. Louis MO, Elijah Parish Lovejoy was a very vocal abolitionist who used his pulpit as well as his newspaper to express his views against slavery and on abolition.  His printing press was destroyed  no less than three times by angry mobs who disagreed with his views on slavery and his abolitionist stance. After the  third time he moved to Illinois to continue his work there and set up his paper The Alton Observer to continue to express his abolitionist views. In 1837 his warehouse was attacked by a mob wielding guns – gun fire broke out and Mr. Lovejoy was killed in a hail of bullets.

White on White crime – who knew?

MEMPHIS UPRISING 1866

The evening of April 30th 1866 found four police officers walking down Causey Street encountering several blacks who they proceeded to force off the sidewalk. During this encounter one of the blacks fell and one of the officers stumbled over him.  This led to the officers drawing their weapons and proceeding to pistol whip the blacks there. The confrontation resulted in a stalemate and both parties withdrew. The next day another confrontation took place when several blacks were arrested on South street for being “boisterous and noisy”. This confrontation between some black soldiers and police resulted in one officer being shot in the finger and another officer being shot and later dying from his wounds.  The police withdrew initially but would soon return with reinforcements. They then proceeded to fire on a  completely unrelated crowd of blacks – shooting men women and children.

The city recorder – John C. Creighton, arrived at the corner of Vance and Causey Streets and told the white mob which had assembled there that they should arm  themselves and kill every Negro and drive them out of the city. That night Blacks were hunted down and assaulted, robbed and or shot by police, firemen, and any white citizen who chose to join in. Blacks houses were searched under false pretenses, and then set on fire. All met with little or no resistance by blacks.

On May 2nd a posse comprised of police and citizens would again commence to indiscriminate attacks on blacks in South Memphis. Men women and children were shot down without mercy and no quarter given.  Blacks were trapped in their homes that were set on fire by these mobs. Some were forced and or thrown into buildings and homes that had been set on fire. As the attacks usually occurred at night, many were shot in their beds. This mayhem continued till May 4th and probably stopped as most blacks by then had taken off to hide in the country.

The mayor of Memphis at the time:  The Hon. John Park – was excused for his lack of intervention and not actively trying to stop the riots by friends who claimed “he was too intoxicated at the time to realize what was going on”.

None of those who participated in these acts of incredible violence and mayhem have ever been charged even though their identities were well known.

SO WHO ARE THE REAL THUGS?

Again sound familiar? Why  this term is being  thrown around so cavalierly? Do people not know the history?

There are way too many examples of this throughout this countries history. Wrapped into the selective amnesia of a certain segment of this country is the convenient forgetfulness of the violence that they perpetrated upon anyone who got in the way of their Manifest Destiny.  They would brand people as thugs and forget the  Boston Tea Party – where material goods namely Tea were thrown overboard in a show of deviance against The Stamp Act and included the likes of

There are those  that would have you conveniently forget. The mainstream media has led the charge in branding those who protest against the inhumane treatment and conditions they are forced to live in as looters, thugs, miscreants and of no account and unimportant.

BALTIMORE AND BEYOND

There are many who want to say well that happened back then and it has no bearing on anything taking place right now.

Then  you have Ferguson, and Baltimore, Freddie Gray, Eric Garner, Darrien Hunt, Rekia Boyd, Miriam Carey, Michael Brown, Victor White III, Walter Scott, Sean Bell, Amadou Diallo, Kathryn Johnston, Eleanor Bumpurs, John Crawford III, Oscar Grant, Aiyana Jones, Johnathan Ferrell, Kenneth Chamberlain Sr., Andy Lopez

And to all the countless others who’s names we don’t know-their families and supporters…

So who tell me again, who are the REAL thugs…??

Stay Woke People….know your history…

Here is a good place to start:

Riots In The United States

Originally posted at The Good Black Woman

You ever notice that people nowadays seem to overreact every time something happens. As soon as someone does something either shocking, aggressive, or overly compassionate, we want to throw our arms up and throw a flag like we are at a football game. Many of us do it quite often. It is almost as hilarious as it is sad. Yet, we continue to overreact to situations that present themselves.

I guess it is part of our human nature. Or whatever.

This is exactly what happened with Richard Sherman this past Sunday. After deflecting a pass that could have spelled the Seahawk’s doom, we all could have figured that he was pretty charged up. Plus, he IS a football player that likes to talk the talk and walk the walk. So, when it came to the post-game interview with Erin Andrews, he was quite emotional. He was so emotional that many people out there start throwing their penalty flags at Sherman.

Interesting.

I truly understand where this is all coming from. We all know that we live in a society that is petrified of the “big angry Black man”. Or, we always set ourselves up for failure by assigning the responsibility of worldwide representation of Black people on every Black person’s shoulders. Since we continue to play this “Black people represent all” mentality, I will assist everyone in handling their Richard Sherman problems. In fact, I have a step-by-step process to make sure that we make the most of the situation.

1) Realize that he is a man with a big mouth: Some of are acting as if Richard Sherman isn’t loquacious on AND off the field. Do we not remember how he served Skip Bayless his proverbial lunch in the form of expression and debate? He doesn’t back down from anyone. So, can we be surprised?

3.) Realize that Richard Sherman is bigger than football: As we all heard, he is a Stanford graduate that made it out of Compton. In all actuality, he is bigger than that. Richard Sherman is a man that represents his family and his people. He has his own foundation to prove it.

5.) Realize that you can always ignore him: I’m not explaining this one. You all know how to ignore people.
Therefore, there are a few ways to approach the “Richard Sherman Problem” that many of us are having in our lives. Yes, he is one of the kings of trash talk. That is a given. However, please realize that he is bigger than what many of you all make him out to be. My whole thing has always been this: if you want to tell the story, tell the whole story.

And after you tell the story, keep everything in perspective. Love it or hate it, at least take the time to understand it.

[Originally posted at Chocolate Covered Lies]

The recent mug shot of your favorite ‘whatever happened to’ rapper Soldier Boy Tellum is currently being displayed across web browsers all across the world.

In it, he looks slightly nauseated But I’m Rich By-otch! with just a hint of Oh, Shit! confusion. And since being picked up last night in GA with a shit load of drugs, guns and stacks of cash he has good reason to.

Maybe he is puzzled at his current state of denainment, after all, imagine how inconvenient it must be for the 21 year old multimillionaire to be locked up? D’Andre Way would have been released into parental custody for this same feat only three short years ago and now he’s just gonna sit, like an average Knee-Grow would, waiting to ‘make bail’.

Having his Lamborghini, diamond encrusted jewels, Black Card and entourage removed from him has to be stressful.

Maybe he’s trying to walk in the big shoes of rapper, TI, who is fresh home from jail and making his way around the freestyle circuit. All the major Hip Hop players are talking about how TI’s time away has made his skill sharper and his delivery reminiscent of his early career days.

Accolades.

Notoriety can’t be purchased these days, no, in order for one to please the fans, one must ‘be real’ and ‘do real things’ including riding around in car full of goons with drugs and cash.

Seems silly when our beloved neighborhood assholes do it, but what about a man who does have a BLACK CARD and the money to back up that unlimited line of credit.