Table of Contents

There are 19 chapters in this issue

About BlackCommentator.com

Cover Story - Zimmerman: The Question of Self-Defense and the Hunting of Black Folks - The African World - By Bill Fletcher, Jr. - BC Editorial Board

Wheel of Justice - BC Political Cartoon By Chuck Siler

Quote to Ponder: "Concerning non-violence: it is criminal to teach a man not to defend himself when he is the constant victim of brutal attacks." - Malcolm X (El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz)

From Outrage to Action: Organizing Out of Black Trauma - A View from the Battlefield By Jamala Rogers, BC Editorial Board

Flee Florida - The Other Side of the Tracks - By Perry Redd - BC Columnist

Trayvon Martin - The Verdict: The US Empire is Always Morally Right! - Represent Our Resistance - By Dr. Lenore J. Daniels, PhD - BC Editorial Board

George Zimmerman Has a Home in Colorado - Sharp n’ Blunt - By Desi Cortez - BC Columnist

Matthew Shepard and Trayvon Martin: Bigotry Knows No Boundaries – Inclusion - By The Reverend Irene Monroe - BC Editorial Board

Confrontation - Art By Jim Alexander Photography, Atlanta GA

Should Jobless Black Youth Apply for EU Membership? - Left Margin - By Carl Bloice - BC Editorial Board

Senate GOP: Masters of Blockade to Stop Worker Progress - Solidarity America - By John Funiciello - BC Columnist

Redux: “Workers of the world unite…” - By Dr. Carlos E. Russell, PhD - BC Guest Commentator

The Hoodie Threat - Political Cartoon By Mark Hurwitt

Loving African People - Worrill’s World - By Dr. Conrad W. Worrill, PhD - BC Columnist

Predator Drones, Trayvon Martin, and Obama’s Hypocrisy - Keeping it Real - By Larry Pinkney - BC Editorial Board

Murdering Trayvon Martin Twice - Political Cartoon By Carlos Latuff, Rio de Janeiro Brazil

The Ultimate Spy - Political Cartoon By Eric Garcia, Chicago IL

Happy 95th Birthday, Comrade Mandela! - Political Cartoon By Zapiro, South Africa

This is an eBook version of BlackCommentator.com - An independent weekly internet magazine dedicated to the movement for economic justice, social justice and peace.

BC Provides commentary, analysis and investigations on issues affecting African Americans and the African world.

BC was established April 5, 2002 and is published weekly on Thursday.

This is Issue 525 which was published Jul 18, 2013.

Executive Editor: David A. Love, JD - Managing Editor: Nancy Littlefield, MBA - Publisher: Peter Gamble

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board

Members of the BC Editorial Board represent African Americans and the African world. They are dedicated activists, thinkers and writers. The BC Editorial Board includes the following in alphabetical order by last name:

Lola Adesioye, Carl Bloice, Julian Bond, Rose Brewer PhD, Horace Campbell PhD, Imani Countess, Lenore Jean Daniels PhD, Bill Fletcher Jr., James Jennings PhD, Badili Jones, Martin Kilson PhD, Sharon Kyle JD, David A. Love JD, Julianne Malveaux PhD, Manning Marable PhD, Syreeta McFadden, The Reverend Irene Monroe, Leith Mullings PhD, Jacqui Patterson, Larry Pinkney, Steven Pitts PhD, Barbara Ransby PhD, Jamala Rogers, Ethel Long-Scott, Amy V.Simmons, William L. (Bill) Strickland, Chuck Turner, Nathaniel Turner, Ron Walters PhD, Emira Woods, Jeanne Woods JD.

Jul 18, 2013 - Issue 525

I could not help myself. I kept listening to the pundits, both the night before and the morning of the verdict.

I need to say that I do not respect the decision of the jury any more than the jury that acquitted the killers of Emmitt Till should have had their decision respected. I realize that some lawyers need to say that they will respect the decision, but let us be clear that the decision was not only wrong but was a travesty.

The other piece that has been repeatedly argued is that this was a case of self-defense and that the jury had to let Zimmerman off. So, just to get this straight, an unarmed, 17-year-old young man is approached by an adult who is carrying a hand gun. Who should feel threatened?

We do not know what actually transpired in the moments prior to the murder of Martin but every and any Black person in the USA knows the fury that is felt when we are harassed by whites and when our guilt is presumed. Whether this happens as a result of being profiled by the police or stopped in a department store, we know and feel the humiliation. We all know the anger that rises in us, and may literally rise in our throats in the form of bile. We know the impulse to strike out, whether verbally or physically, when we are the recipient of a major or minor form of racial aggression.

Whether Trayvon Martin hit Zimmerman first or not is actually irrelevant. That is the point that the jury ignored, and the TV commentators are walking around. What is relevant is that Martin had every right to be where he was and Zimmerman actually had no right to be infringing on Martin’s space, journey and rights.

Thus, when we hear this rubbish about self-defense we have to ask ourselves some powerful and pointed questions. For instance, if a black person is being approached by an angry white person, do they have the right to shoot and kill that angry white person because we have hundreds of years of experiences with what angry white people can do to Black people? Is that the implication of “Stand Your Ground?” I would guess not.

A friend reminded me this morning about the case of Marissa Alexander from Florida who fired a warning shot to hold off her alleged abusive husband. She tried to invoke the Stand Your Ground law only to be told that it did not apply. The jury convicted her and she was subject to mandatory sentencing, receiving 20 years.

Anyone who tries to suggest that the Zimmerman jury carefully and objectively weighed the evidence and could do nothing more than convict is living in a dream. The fact that this outrageous law can be applied arbitrarily and that the fundamental question of why an armed adult was approaching an unarmed 17-year-old (after having been told by the police to stop following him) were not together the deciding factors in this case, demonstrating the depth of the injustice we have witnessed.

I received the news when I was getting ready to eat. I was prepared, intellectually, for a not-guilty verdict. I was not ready in my gut.

As a radical, I am quite aware of the injustices that regularly and historically have happened to people of color and to the poor. I am aware of how the system regularly justifies the murder of black people. Yet, I am nothing but sickened. And listening to the so-called defense attorneys gloat over their victory and place the blame for Trayvon Martin’s death on Trayvon is actually more than I can take.

This verdict is a verdict in favor of white fear. We should all be clear about that. This is a verdict that says white people have every right to fear any and every black person and, if the law permits it, to act upon such fear. I do not care whether Zimmerman is part Latino, he acted as a white man and that is certainly how he will be remembered. Zimmerman looked at Trayvon through the eyes of a white man and assumed danger when no danger existed.

I heard the attorneys asked what would have happened had the roles been reversed and one of the defense attorneys suggested that this would never have gone to trial and that this trial was manufactured by civil rights advocates. Well, I will give you a very different answer. Were an African American to shoot and kill a white youth who s/he believed was a threat, there is little question but that such a person would be found guilty of something, assuming that they were not first lynched. The right of self-defense is not a right that Black people have ever had respected by white authorities, but when it is whites, or people acting as white, who claim self-defense against Blacks, any use of force is considered acceptable because, after all, Black people are scary people.

Once again, we are reminded that there are zones that we cannot safely enter.

The Zimmerman acquittal should remind us that what we are experiencing at this moment in history is a 21st century version of the dispossession and disenfranchisement that African Americans have received, beginning in the late 19th century. It is not just the Zimmerman case. It is the attack on affirmative action along with the voter suppression efforts and the weakening of the Voting Rights Act. In the late 19th century, the Southern ruling elite was desperately afraid of Black power and the potential for the Black and white poor to unite. Today, the political Right shares similar fears. They also fear the future. They fear the change in the demographics of the USA. They wish to turn back the clock and paralyze the movements for social justice that have been percolating in this country.

The Zimmerman acquittal, and the nonsensical efforts by pundits to justify it, is only part of a larger picture of what we should truly understand as an attempt at Jim Crow 2.0

We cannot let it happen and I know that we won’t.

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member and Columnist, Bill Fletcher, Jr., is a Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies, the immediate past president of TransAfricaForum, and the author of “They’re Bankrupting Us” - And Twenty Other Myths about Unions. He is also the co-author of Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and a New Path toward Social Justice, which examines the crisis of organized labor in the USA. Other Bill Fletcher, Jr. writing can be found at billfletcherjr.com. Click here to contact Mr. Fletcher.

Jul 18, 2013 -Issue 525

BlackCommentator.com artist/cartoonist Charles E. "Chuck" Siler's works feature a variety of themes ranging from New Orleans' lively and unique jazz scene to its lively and equally unique political scene. He uses his art and political cartoons to comment on life's complexities, warts and beauty marks.

His creations include fine watercolors and acrylics and pen and ink cartoons. His cartoons are featured on a regular basis in The Louisiana Weekly.

A Katrina evacuee, Siler has spoken on New Orleans history across the USA at universities and culural events.

Click here to contact Mr. Siler

Jul 18, 2013 - Issue 525

More about Malcolm X (El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz)

Jul 18, 2013 - Issue 525

Grown men cried. Mothers held sons closer to their bosoms. Masses of people across racial, class and religious backgrounds took to the streets. Our communities have heard similar verdicts like that in the Trayvon Martin case. This case was different.

There’s nothing new about an unarmed young black teen being killed by white law enforcement or a wanna-be cop. What was different is that the charges of George Zimmerman only came as a result of mass national pressure which meant that we had a vested interest in the outcome. We desperately wanted to hear the validation of our worth. What was different is that Zimmerman quickly rose to be the darling of the right-wing, gun-toters. It was a battle between progressive and reactionary forces and we were out-organized. This doesn’t have to be the end of the story.

The acquittal was a punch to the gut of a people already punch drunk from myriad other assaults:

Like the government sequestration that has disproportionately impacted African Americans

Like the strike down of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act

Like affirmative action taking a hit from the High Court

Like our kids being pushed out of schools into the prison industrial complex

Like disproportionate high unemployment

Like…and the list goes on.

Every time a black person goes into a courtroom, we know it’s a crap shoot. In Florida, the odds of black folks getting justice are quite long.

Florida, historically, had a larger per capita percentage of Klu Klux Klan lynchings of black folks than any other state in the country. Central Florida, where Sanford is located, is still home to less active white hoodies as well as neo-Nazi groups. Murders and assaults of blacks by whites have often gone unprosecuted. The home of Seminole County’s first NAACP branch president was firebombed in 1951 by the KKK. Harry Moore and his wife, Harriette, were killed. Even baseball great, Jackie Robinson, was run out Sanford back in 1946. Police/KKK terror was and is used to maintain the status quo of white supremacy in Sanford.

The jury of five whites and one juror of unknown racial identity came out of the social and cultural traditions of Seminole County. Their deliberations were informed by life in Sanford. The jurors were also under the pressure by their community to unconditionally protect the gun rights of white citizens. We even saw the investigating police turn on the prosecution in the trial in support of Zimmerman. The Zimmerman verdict told us the blacks don’t have the right to self-defense when a non-black is involved.

Our communities may not have all the tools and skills to address the Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome, as characterized by Dr. Joy DeGruy, but we know how to organize. Black communities experience internalized oppression, self-destruction and learned helplessness, along with the propensity for anger and violence that DeGruy classifies as PTSS. The inability to break through the bubble of trauma prohibits us from seeing our own humanity. Confined to the treadmill of trauma, we ready ourselves for the next possible attack and re-traumatization. This is no way to live - to thrive as families or as communities.

It is time for activists and organizers to ramp up their efforts into realistic strategic actions. We now have a generation of new and young activists who believe organizing is only mobilizing a bunch of people to a location, usually using social media. I often hear young people say “we got all these people out but nothing changed.” Then they get demoralized because they thought mobilization was the end game and not the means to an end.

For black folks, we must accelerate the serious education of black boys about the land mines facing them in this country. The black community cannot be perceived by our youth as acting the same as racist white folks towards them. The village needs to be honest about its complicity with the social, academic, spiritual and physical destruction of black boys and start advocating for the respect and protection of our own children.

For anti-racist white organizers, the methodical process of going into white spaces/communities to challenge white privilege and racism is critical. Nobody said it was going to be easy but because there have not been sustained efforts, white supremacy and its many manifestations have expanded and become more entrenched.

For the broader movement, there are two areas that we can focus on for some degree of transformation:

One is changing or at least weakening “Stand Your Ground” laws in the 31 states where the law exists. White people who kill black people in these states are 354% more likely to be cleared of murder says the Urban Institute’s Justice Policy Center. This issue must be addressed.

Two is that we need to build a movement that brings substantive changes to the judicial system, starting on the municipal level and including more accountability at the police department level. Most of our urban centers are subject to unabated terror by cops ranging from racial profiling to the use of deadly force.

I live in the city where Dred Scott challenged his slave status for years and was unrelenting in pursuit of freedom for his family until the courts finally granted it twelve years later. To me, that’s a beautiful and inspiring example of struggle. Yet, it seems like the words of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Taney have permeated the minds and spirits of the city and ultimately the country: Blacks have no rights that whites are bound to respect.

Unless our inertia takes us back to the days in this country where people of color and women had no rights, the imperative is clear. We must unite the masses of people to rise up and provide a strategic plan for organizing our communities to victories.

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member and Columnist, Jamala Rogers, founder and Chair Emeritus of the Organization for Black Struggle in St. Louis. She is an organizer, trainer and speaker. She is the author of The Best of the Way I See It – A Chronicle of Struggle. Click here to contact Ms. Rogers.

Jul 18, 2013 - Issue 525

Whether or not you’re among the surprised, facts on the ground are abundantly clear that the state of Florida is intentionally hostile - at the least - to the American Black man. Women are targets in Florida too. I am wholly convinced that no good thing can come to the Negro in the Sunshine State.

Year after year, the ghosts of racism past keep appearing. What used to be terrorism against Black Americans is now legalized genocide. The trial verdict in the case of George Zimmerman is among the latest. When a zealous Neighborhood Watchman packing a gun can be acquitted of murdering an unarmed boy - a Black boy, no less - your eyes can’t, in the words of Zora Neal Hurston, “keep watching God.”

You can pray all day and all night, and have been since the days of Ponce de Leon, but the devilish idelogy of white supremacy still thrives. The courts protect the acts of these demons. It is high time to do something different. A mass exodus from the very place Americans treasure is in order for the Black man in America. God won’t mind…

We just witnessed a horrendous injustice in the killing of Trayvon Martin. Protectors of America’s sordid history of racial violence beat the drum of Zimmerman’s right to stand his ground. He followed the 17-year-old Martin because he “looked suspicious,” which always amounts to “he was Black and shouldn’t be around here.” We know the stories of injustice, whether in the criminal courts or on the streets. When will Black Floridians say, “enough is enough?”

I recall the pictures of Negroes lynched in and around the place where Hurston grew up, Eatonville. I always grew up thinking Florida was one big Disneyworld…until the reality TV show “Cops” came out. Every second segment showed a Black being arrested, especially in Broward County. I knew something wasn’t all Mickey Mousey in Florida.

Hurston’s family moved to Eatonville, Florida, one of the first all-black towns to be incorporated in the United States, when she was three. Hurston said she always felt that Eatonville was “home” to her and sometimes claimed it as her birthplace. Her father later became mayor of the town, which Hurston would glorify in her stories as a place where Blacks could live as they desired, independent of white society. Her eyes were definitely watching God, and apparently, God’s eyes were indeed watching them!

But while we’re watching God, white America is killing us. George Zimmerman gets acquitted and walks the streets today for killing Trayvon Martin, but do you remember what happened to the Florida A&M band members who hazed and killed Robert Champion? Prosecution and jail, jail, jail! No one had to wait to prosecute those students, contrary to the case with Zimmerman. All of those young people were Black! Champion was found to have been beaten to death by his fellow band members on Nov. 19, 2011 in a hazing ritual called Crossing Bus C in the parking lot of an Orlando hotel where the band was staying.

The investigation initially accused 10 band members in Champion’s death, adding the other two - Henry Nesbitt, 26, and Darryl Cearnel, 25. The hazing charge is a third-degree felony, while manslaughter is a second-degree felony, punishable by up to 15 years in prison.

I think back to the case of Lionel Tate. He was and is the youngest American citizen ever sentenced to life imprisonment without possibility of parole. Tate is Black. In January 2001, when Tate was 14, he was convicted of first-degree murder for the 1999 battering death of 6-year-old Tiffany Eunick in Broward County, Florida. He didn’t mean to kill the little girl he was playing with, but contrast that to the juror who justified acquitting George Zimmerman. She said she believes Zimmerman’s “heart was in the right place” the night he shot Martin; he just didn’t use “good judgment” in confronting the Florida teen. And, no “race wasn’t a factor.”

“Use good judgment?” He’s a grown man! Since when does not using good judgment exempt you from the law? Oh, when you’re a white American.

Marissa Alexander had never been arrested before she fired a bullet at a wall one day in 2010 to scare off her chronically abusive husband when she felt he was threatening her. Nobody got hurt, but a Tampa, Florida judge was bound by state law to sentence her to 20 years in prison. Alexander is Black. Funny how that happens…

She had claimed self-defense, tried to invoke Florida’s “stand your ground” law and rejected plea deals that could have gotten her a much shorter sentence. A jury found her guilty as charged: aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Because she fired a gun while committing a felony, Florida’s mandatory-minimum gun law dictated the 20-year sentence.

Just look at Florida’s vicious attempts to excise the rights of Black Americans: Federal judges struck down a Photo ID requirement in 2012. In 2007, Florida moved to restore voting rights to convicted felons. In March 2011, however, Republican Governor Rick Scott reversed the 2007 reforms, making Florida the state with the most punitive law in terms of disenfranchising citizens with past felony convictions.

The attack on Blacks in Florida is the snapshot for the rest of the country. Blacks are not fighting back; voting and economic boycott are the surest means, short of picking up a brick, to preserve your existence as Americans. If you don’t carry out the non-violent actions, then simply flee Florida for survival.

BlackCommentator.com Columnist, Perry Redd, longtime activist & organizer, is the Executive Director of the workers rights advocacy, Sincere Seven, and author of the soon-to-be-released on-line book, “As A Condition of Your Freedom”. He is also the host of the internet-based talk radio show, Socially Speaking in Washington, DC. Click here to contact Mr. Redd.

Jul 18, 2013 - Issue 525

The boy with the bag of Skittles in his hands is guilty again.

It would seem that carrying a bag of Skittles or a cell phone can get you killed here in the land of the free and brave. But that would not be an accurate description of what happens in the US. It is not just any 17-year-old child holding a bag of Skittles who is murdered by a full-grown man with a gun, claiming self-defense.

There are plenty of young men and old men walking about on the streets with attire announcing their affiliation with one form of anti-Black, anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant ideology or another. And many of them carry more than bags of Skittles!

It is a “free country,” too, for men, peculiar, but white, who can kidnap young girls and teens, hold them captive for years, with neighbors not recalling seeing anything unusual. What is unusual about the gathering of skinheads or the occasional revelations about kidnappers and sadists, peculiar, but neighborly?

Americans are trained to be on the look out for the unusual.

Trayvon Martin was unusual! Martin was a Black boy whose color showed up quite well and unmistakably Black in a predominately white neighborhood.

Martin’s historical grandparents, parents, siblings, aunts and uncles, those who argued for the right to feed, educate, and defend their community against the “civic-minded” like George Zimmerman and the judicial apparatus anywhere in the US, were, for the most part, executed or incarcerated to ensure that such an ideology of self-defense among this population would be forever effectively killed.

The Zimmermans of the free world have once again defended themselves before pesky “I am a Man” and “Black is Beautiful” propaganda take hold of the nation’s political, social, and cultural spheres.

We are passed that now! The old days are the new days!

In “Open Season on Black Boys After A Verdict Like This” (The Guardian, July 14, 2013), columnist Gary Younge is right to argue that white men can chase Black boys and murder them without fear of “justice,” since “justice” acquits the hunter.

Who screamed? Who was stronger? Who called whom what and when and why are all details to warm the heart of a cable news producer with 24 hours to fill? Strip them all away and the truth remains that Martin’s heart would still be beating if Zimmerman had not chased him down and shot him.

When confronted by the unusual, white America, in fear for its own existence, will always see the need to defend itself - Skittles or no Skittles!

Black Americans can never be “innocent” in the way white Americans are “innocent,” so long as the US Empire’s first deployment in its war against terrorism is fear. White Americans will respond in accordance to the nation’s uneasy relations with its Black citizens.

While many Americans feign ignorance of history and others “look to the future,” there remains in the unusual, those millions kidnapped and tortured, those ships, loaded inhumanely, with the captives chained and the sadist and business-minded free to produce goods and wealth, those enslaved, toilers on the landscape by day and terrified girls and women by the nighty excursions of fathers and sons and any male determined to establish the civility of his own immorality.

How do you attempt to forget and erase forever those charred bodies at the picnics on a Sunday afternoon after church services?

How does one defend themselves against those who, when setting their gaze on a Black child, woman or man, sees this history, but contrarily identifies with immorality?

For the verdict is - that the US Empire is always morally right, even when immorality stares them in the face!

“That’s the rub!”

Zimmerman has the gun and what does he see?

You cannot legislate morality and what laws are in place about killing, even the unarmed, children, are justified on grounds of self-defense. Go to any village in Iraq or in Afghanistan and ask its residents to recall the nightly visits by American troops, righteously hunting for the unusual to protect the innocent.

An “acquittal” is the US Empire’s standard response to any charge of immorality regarding its domestic and foreign policies.

We see what those in the centrifuge of fear cannot see. We should pity them but for the loss of our and others’ children.

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member and Columnist, Lenore Jean Daniels, PhD, has a Doctorate in Modern American Literature/Cultural Theory. Click here to contact Dr. Daniels.

Jul 18, 2013 - Issue 525

With the conclusion of the Trayvon Martin public lynching, George Zimmerman has little reason to go into hiding; he has no reason to exile himself all the way to his mother’s South American homeland of Peru. No, instead I’d suggest he need go no further than small town America.

George, come to Colorado!

There’re small towns all across the state where George will be “hailed as an hero,” treated as a “victimized” man who was needlessly, needlessly I say, dragged through the judicial process reserved for criminals, when as we all know due to the all-White jury member B-37 he was a good guy, “with a good heart” just trying to help - who ended up the victim of a dead Black “Boy...”

George, pack up the wife and brother and move to Greely, Walsenburg, Gunnison, Montrose, the little towns I could list across Colorado are endless, where the population will willingly welcome and embrace you. And does that not speak volumes about those populations thatcondone George’s actions?

If not Colorado, move to Idaho, North Dakota, Montana - these states have a minimal Afro-American populations, meaning George has less to fear. Oddly, or perhaps predictably, the disgust, rage and anger does not exist there.

Why not?

I can’t imagine there’re White people in these towns and even entire states who’re so very angry and frustrated that they’d like to settle the score with George Zimmerman.

And therein lies the tragic proof... The prevailing Caucasian perspective hasn’t really changed over the last millennium. Blacks are “guilty until proven innocent,” and along with that comes the more cynical - “the only good nigger is a dead nigger.”

The United States is not “United.” There exists no “one nation under God, indivisible with liberty n’ justice for all” except in the small minds of angry, hostile White folks. For it is this portion of the Yankee stew, Conservative White people, who’ve concocted this make-believe fairy tale of a land where race is irrelevant and meaningless in all relevant aspects of life.

The only problem in this tall-tale is that virtually no Black people, nor Brown, Red n’ Yellow Americans believe it.

Matter of fact, the only racists left in the US-of-A are Blacks, for it is us who simply can’t get over it and move on, and accept that the Republican TEA Party card-carrier is colorblind.

Yes, it is in small town USA, out West, that George will find an entire small town’s population who can disregard the facts: George was a frustrated wannabe cop, perhaps a alcoholic, who’d been rejected by police forces because he wasn’t up to snuff, he didn’t have the right stuff. George had assaulted a police officer and beat his woman. He’d taken months and months of barbarian training, and then the question of George being on steroids. He’d call 911 dozens and dozens and dozens of times to report suspicious men in his neighborhood - all Black.

The murder scene was contaminated by disinterested cops who wanted to have a beer with George, not place him under arrest. The state of Florida had to be forced to charge and arrest a man who killed a boy. The prosecution team was, at best, mediocre and one could say, as millions are, their half-assed arguments lacked depth, drama and details and reflected the fact that the state was going about their task of charging George in a begrudging, reluctant manner.

See, in small-town, lily-white America, none of that matters. Now understand, it doesn’t matter in urban Yuppie enclaves where Whites are strategically/economically isolated n’ insulated from the riff-raff - but Blacks are free to wander about and one may sneak-up on you. That won’t happen in parts of Utah and Nevada.

There was a Black Mandingo buck wandering the gated community minus his “papers” and therefore, just as it was in 1956, 1939, 1922, 1905, and1891. Any White man has the authority/audacity to ask “What you doing around here boy?” That’s the historical way it use to be, the “desired way.” White folks would like to still have it. And I’d submit, there are millions of White folks across this divided land who’d love to go back to yesteryear when they could tell you “Boy! don’t you dare look me in the eye, and don’t you dare look at my women, matter-of-fact, get off of the walkway when I approach, and scurry your way home, on the back of the bus to the other-side of the tracks, over in Coontown!

Before the sun sets on your Black ass!

I’m sure there’re Mormon towns all across Utah and Nevada who will provide this hero, George Zimmerman with a home, car and job, because here the facts don’t matter.

Now what does “matter” is this Black President said “if I had a son, he’d look like Treyvon” for in their paranoid eyes, he’s the chief stirring up all savages. What is deemed relevant - Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson were on the Sanford Florida scene because in the minds of most White people, Blacks are mindless, childlike creatures who are ruled by our emotions and we can be brought to the verge of violence by men like Jackson and Sharpton.

These are the FOX News facts that fuel the contempt, the hostility White America harbors for Blacks. Those were the facts of the case you could hear Rush, Hannity and all the good ol’ boys amplifying on the AM hate radio airwaves over the last year n’ a half, because that’s all that matters to most of White America.

George Zimmerman, go West young man, go West!

BlackCommentator.com Columnist, Desi Cortez, was hatched in the heart of Dixie, circa 1961, at the dawning of the age of Aquarius, the by-product of four dynamic individuals, Raised in South-Central LA, the 213, at age 14 transplanted to the base of the Rockies, Denver. Still a Mile-Hi. Sat at the feet of scholars for many, many moons, emerging with a desire and direction… if not a sheep-skin. "Meandered thru life; gone a-lot places, done a-lot of things, raised a man-cub into a good, strong man, produced a beautiful baby-girl with my lover/woman/soul-mate… aired my mind on the airwaves and wrote some stuff along the way." Click here to contact Mr. Cortez.

Jul 18, 2013 -Issue 525

The nation is once again divided along the fault line of race. In a perceived 2013 post-racial society, however, William Faulkner’s prophetic quote “the past is never dead. It’s not even past” of the last century has come back to haunt us in this century.

Faulkner’s quote haunts us because of the recent verdict of the George Zimmerman trial.

The story, as you well know by now, of how George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer in a Florida community, was acquitted of all charges - murder and manslaughter - related to Trayvon Martin. Zimmerman’s actions resulted in the fatal shooting of Martin, a 17-year-old unarmed black teenager. Martin was perceived to be a suspect because he was wearing the signature piece of clothing that some associate with violent young black males - a hoodie. And he was not only wearing it but also “walking while black” in a gated community.

With no one of African descent - male or female - serving on the jury, the nation, sadly, once again, has shown to be neither colorblind nor post-racial. And the notion that an all-female, non-black jury would render a fairer outcome than an all-male, non-black jury assumes racial bias is gender-specific.

Just as racial bias isn’t gender-specific, it is also not race-specific. Zimmerman is of a mix ethnic descent (mother’s Peruvian, and father’s Jewish) who identifies as Hispanic.

The question many are still asking, however, even after the verdict, is whether Zimmerman was motivated by racism because he, too, is a person of color - therefore, was Zimmerman racially profiling Trayvon?

Racial, gender, gender-expression, and the all the other biases float freely through society - landing on all. Just because you’re a person of color or a member of an oppressed group doesn’t mean you don’t buy into stereotypes and racial and cultural attitudes. These themes inform our judgments and actions toward others as well as your own group. (Case in point: Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.)

As a matter-of-fact, the bombardment of stereotypes has proven to have both subtle and unintended consequences toward people of different races, ethnicities, sexual orientation, class and religions, to name just a few. It’s not just regular people who succumb. Geraldo Rivera, a renowned Latino, stated that Trayvon wearing a hoodie was “as much responsible” for his death as Zimmerman’s pistol. Of course, Rivera later recanted.

A young man has become the symbol of the horrific result of such stereotyping, and is fast becoming the symbol for a movement. Just as Matthew Shepard’s death galvanized a nation, Trayvon Martin’s death is doing the same.

In 1998, both James Byrd Jr., and Matthew Shepard were victims of bias-motivated crimes. Byrd, an African American was murdered by three white supremacists who chained him to the back of their pick-up truck at his ankles and dragged along a three mile asphalt road until he was dismembered. Shepard was tortured, tethered to a fence and left to die because he was gay.

The Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Hate Crimes Prevention Act, also known as the Matthew Shepard Act, was passed. The measure expanded the federal hate-crimes law to include crimes motivated by a victim’s actual or perceived race, gender, gender identity, and sexual orientation, to name just a few.

With Florida’s stand your ground and self-defense laws permitting Zimmerman to walk without charges, the Shepard-Byrd statute not only reminds us of how bias-motivated crimes link gays and blacks together but that it’s the best hope for Trayvon Martin and his family seeking justice.

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member and Columnist, the Rev. Irene Monroe, is a religion columnist, theologian, and public speaker. She is the Coordinator of the African-American Roundtable of the Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies in Religion and Ministry (CLGS) at the Pacific School of Religion. A native of Brooklyn, Rev. Monroe is a graduate from Wellesley College and Union Theological Seminary at Columbia University, and served as a pastor at an African-American church before coming to Harvard Divinity School for her doctorate as a Ford Fellow. She was recently named to MSNBC’s list of 10 Black Women You Should Know. Reverend Monroe is the author of Let Your Light Shine Like a Rainbow Always: Meditations on Bible Prayers for Not’So’Everyday Moments. As an African-American feminist theologian, she speaks for a sector of society that is frequently invisible. Her website is irenemonroe.com. Click here to contact the Rev. Monroe.

Jul 18, 2013 - Issue 525

Jim Alexander Photography

JimAlexanderPhotography.com

Confrontation - Tupelo, Mississippi 1978

(one photograph in the "Struggle" series)

Artist Statement

I shot this photograph at a rally protesting the KKK during Thanksgiving weekend in Tupelo Ms. in 1978.While we were protesting the klansmen having a press conference at the jail, a young lady told me and another brother that the klan was having a rally at the post office. The brother I was with said he was going to go cuss them out, so I said I'm going with you to take your picture. He cussed and I photographed.

All photographs are signed and numbered in editions of 100

Iris Giclee prints are made on Epson printers with Epson archival papers and inks.

Silver Gelatin photographs are hand produced on archival fiber based papers.

For purchasing, publishing rights, exhibits or other information please contact Jim Alexander Photography directly via his Website.

Represented by BlackCommentator.com

What is a Giclee?

A Giclee (pronounced Zhee-Clay) is a very high end digitally produced archival quality print. Giclees are printed on archival substrates, such as Arches Cold Press watercolor papers, Somerset watercolor papers or specially prepared canvases, with archival, light fast inks, at a very high resolution. Depending on the medium of the original work, giclees are printed on paper or canvas. Watercolor paintings render very well on the watercolor papers, and oil paintings printed as canvas giclees have the rich tonal quality of original oil paintings. Canvas giclees are also coated with a special finishing media to protect the surface. Canvas giclees are stretched and framed as one would display an original oil painting. Watercolor giclees are typically framed behind glass, as one would do with an original watercolor painting.

BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

Jim Alexander has spent over forty years refining his art of documentary photography. A photojournalist, teacher, activist, entrepreneur and media consultant, Mr. Alexander has been on the scene -- at festivals, concerts, cultural events, rallies, demonstrations, meetings and marches, photographing events that guided the course of history.

Jul 18, 2013 - Issue 525

The BBC said joblessness in Europe is reflected in “shocking numbers.” President Francois Hollande spoke of his commitment “to end youth joblessness.” And, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has made it a campaign issue in the run-up to her country’s national elections in September.

“We must not allow there to be a lost generation,” said Merkel ahead of the July 3 summit she convened on the problem. The meeting drew 28 European leaders or their representatives. Youth unemployment, she added, is “perhaps the most pressing problem facing Europe at the present time.... It is highly regrettable that parts of the economic elite assume so little responsibility for the deplorable situation.”

While the summit was underway at the Berlin chancellery, union members from across the continent waved banners reading: “Stop talking, act now.”

“Merkel has spent most of the eurozone crisis insisting over-indebted states cut public spending,” Michelle Martin wrote in The Independent (UK) July 5. “Now, just ahead of her re-election bid in September, she is trying to rebrand herself as savior of Europe's jobless as well as its public finances.”

Merkel’s main challenger in the upcoming German elections, Social Democrat (SPD) Peer Steinbruck, said, “This economic crisis is turning into a political crisis, which is threatening social stability in these countries, and Germany cannot remain indifferent.” The euro zone jobless rate was reported to be 12.1 percent in May, up from 12.0 percent in April. The youth unemployment rate was 23.8 percent. An estimated 3.5 million women and men under 25 years old are unemployed. In Spain and Greece the youth unemployment rate nears 50 percent.

The aid package approved by the European governments is allocated for the next two years and is part of a program that promises to guarantee every worker under 25 years old new employment, further education, or training within four months of becoming unemployed.

Not everybody on the continent thinks the $7.8 billion so far allocated by the European Union governments under Merkel’s prodding is enough to have the needed impact. One participant called it “drop in the bucket.”

“We believe that in the next two years, about €20 [$25.5] to €21 billion are needed urgently,” said Steinbruck.

I hate to be cynical here but there is a lamentable irony in all this. The youth jobless rates in various rich European countries reach levels that have existed in many African American communities in the U.S. for decades, and suddenly there’s a continental summit do something and pledges to take major action to end the scourge.

It didn’t really get much media attention but the African-American unemployment rate for June came in at 13.7 percent - up from 13.5 percent in May. It’s been over 13 percent for the past couple of years.

According to the National Women’s Law Center, the unemployment rate for African-American women is higher today than it was when the current economic crisis began. Currently, it stands at 12 percent, compared with 11.8 percent in June 2009 and 7.1 percent in December 2007.

And even fewer analysts and commentators took note that for young African Americans (16–19 years old) unemployment was 43.6 percent in June – up from 42.6 percent in May. For black female teens, unemployment stood at 35.3 percent – down from 37.8 percent in May. For young black males, however, the jobless rate rose to 52.9 percent – up from 48.5 percent in May. It was 39 percent in December 2007.

On PBS, business writer Paul Solman commented June 28, “What you might call ‘full employment,’ then, would seem to be about 4 percent. Young African-Americans have an unemployment rate more than ten times as high.”

“The current completely dysfunctional Congress has no plan for any jobs let alone summer jobs,” Lauren Victoria Burke, managing editor of Politic365.com, blogged at Crew 42 last week. “In 2010, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-CA) was the Chair of the Black Caucus, she and CBC vice-chair Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO) bugged everyone on the issue of summer jobs for youth. They were joined by Reps. John Lewis (D-GA) and Bobby Rush and many others. After two summers of inactivity by Congress and the White House on the issue of summer jobs, the rate hit 43.6% last month, the highest of the year.”

African Americans ages 18-29 face an unemployment rate of 23.7 percent. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, the jobless rate peaked at 25.4 percent.

Economist, Paul Krugman, notes that, far from “improving,” the economy remains in “a low-grade depression.” Referring to that statement, radio commentator and former commissioner of the Texas Department of Agriculture, Jim Hightower, said, “Of course, that thermometer zooms to high-grade if you’re among the millions of Americans who’re jobless, working for low wages, or able to get only part-time, temporary employment. Yes, the unemployment rate has ticked down – but not because of any jump in job creation. Rather, the dismal lack of hiring has become so discouraging that many people simply give up the hunt, which magically removes them from the ranks of the unemployed.”

“Most congress critters clearly don’t care about America’s middle-class jobs depression,” wrote Hightower. “The White House cares, but doesn’t treat it as the crisis it is, so nothing happens. The only jobs push we’ve had is the stop-gap effort by the Federal Reserve to pump enough money into the economy to keep unemployment from worsening.”

“But rather than push harder, Ben Bernanke, head of the central bank, recently sounded retreat,” continued Hightower. “He, too, uses the faulty unemployment statistic as a crutch to claim ‘improvement’ – the jobless rate, he says, could drop to seven percent next year, so the Fed’s stimulus will no longer be needed.”

“That’s shameful,” wrote Hightower. “Even if that was the true rate, seven percent equals 11 million unemployed Americans and many millions more who’d still be underemployed. From Bernanke to Congress, all government officials who shrug their shoulders and give up on helping that many Americans should themselves be made jobless.”

Terrance Heath, blogger & web producer at Campaign for America’s Future said recently, “As the recession continues, conservative economic policies have only made things worse for African Americans in terms of employment. Deficit-and sequester-driven spending cuts have led to layoff and job losses in the public sector. African Americans are disproportionately represented in the public sector workforce, and thus disproportionately impacted by public sector cuts.”

Heath went on to note that about one in five African Americans work in the public sector, and “With manufacturing jobs in decline, public sector jobs became an alternate path to the middle class for many African-Americans. Now the Black middle class is threatened by the loss of those jobs, too.”

The Europeans are planning another summit on youth unemployment in the fall.

Meanwhile, there are no high level meetings on the problem slated in our country. No matter what the motives of the individual European leaders or the wisdom or reach of their prescription for dealing with the prospects for the jobless, at least there is recognition on that side of the pond of the seriousness of the situation and the likely consequences of leaving it unaddressed. We should be so fortune as to have youth joblessness as a campaign issue here.

“Left to its own devices, the American economy is eroding the American job. Hours decline, dragging take-home pay down with them,” American Prospect editor-at-large Harold Meyerson wrote in the Washington Post last week. “The identity of the boss becomes mystified, much to the boss’s advantage. A government commitment to full employment, backed up by the public investment required to create it, would bolster not just the quantity but also the quality of our jobs. Republicans are dead set against that, however, and most Democrats appear to have abandoned the fight. So much for the American job.”

Marking July 4, Richard Eskow of the Campaign for America’s Future wrote, “Today the headlines cheered the latest unemployment figures as if they were some sort of victory, not the continuation of a human tragedy for millions of Americans. Apparently our political leaders don’t want to talk about their suffering, perhaps because they’re not willing to expend ‘political capital’ by trying to help them. And our journalistic class, by and large, hasn’t bothered to understand what’s happening in our country.”

Eskow added, “So millions of Americans have joined the ranks of the long-term unemployed – and the long-term forgotten.”

Jamelle Bouie, a staff writer at The American Prospect said, “The simple fact is that there are no economic constraints to solving mass unemployment. For Washington, however, it’s just not a priority.”

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member and Columnist Carl Bloice is a writer in San Francisco, a member of the National Coordinating Committee of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism and formerly worked for a healthcare union. Bloice is one of the moderators of Portside. Other Carl Bloice writing can be found at leftmargin.wordpress.com. Click here to contact Mr. Bloice.

Jul 18, 2013 - Issue 525

With the U.S. economy crumbling at their feet, Republicans in the U.S. Senate every day find new ways to prevent any move to support working women and men in their attempts to improve their lives and, by that, improve the economy of the entire nation.

The GOP has been busy in the Senate slowing or halting any effort to help the working class and the middle class out of the depression they are in, whether that depression is economic or emotional. Whether it’s the food stamp program, education, housing, health care, or any of myriad other issues and programs that they want to curtail or even stamp out, they have lots of help from the House of Representatives, where their fellow Republicans rule.

House Republicans have taken the lead over the Senate GOP, when it comes to cutting and slashing social programs, while all the time seeking to further cut money coming into the U.S. treasury, by cutting the taxes, meager as they are, of the rich and of Corporate America. They never stop championing their masters and benefactors.

There is discussion among the top politicians about the condition of the stock market and the corporations that are listed there, but there is not much discussion, let alone debate, about the condition of workers and those who have yet to find jobs in a tottering economy. The working class and the middle class are on their own, as far as they are concerned. After all, we are told, there are so many jobs that are going begging for workers to fill them. We aren’t told how unemployed workers from one part of the country are going to save enough money to get to those jobs, maintain their families back home, and pay living expenses where the jobs are. Some of those jobs require education, licenses, or certification, all of which may take a few or a half-dozen years to meet the requirements.

Also, we’re told, now that the nation’s unemployment rate has “improved” that there are only three or four applicants for each available job, rather than the four or five applicants a few years ago, when things were a little worse than they are now. So, why is the Right Wing of American politics on the attack against workers? It is not clear, but this is evident by their nasty moves in several states, to cut unemployment benefits, either for long-term unemployed or by those who are newly unemployed. Nothing like kicking workers and their families when they are down, through no fault of their own.

Workers are beginning to see the light, starting at the very bottom of the wage scale. There are stirrings of low-wage workers in retailing, such as Walmart, and in the fast-food “industry,” in places like McDonald’s, Burger King, and Wendy’s. All of the workers in those places are not teenagers saving to buy a better phone or a car. They are adults (mostly minorities in the cities) and they have families that they cannot support on the minimum wage, or even $10 or even $15 an hour.

They have conducted one-day strikes and picketed their workplaces and held rallies, demanding higher pay and benefits. Much of this has happened spontaneously over the past few years, with some help from a union, or two. It has gone largely unnoticed by most Americans, but the realization that workers have to organize themselves is growing and they are supported by a growing number of Americans, especially those in the union movement who know the value of working under a fairly negotiated contract.

One thing that has surprised so many picketing and striking workers and some observers is that so many of the striking workers were taken back after the job action without missing a beat. A small number have even seen some improvement in their working conditions, but the idea that they have not generally been punished is a victory, of sorts. They have engaged in concerted activity (in concert, that is, with their fellow workers), as is encouraged in the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), the law going back some 70 years that was intended to protect workers in their efforts to form unions.

The idea that solidarity will give them strength against the overwhelming power of their bosses and Corporate America is growing in the minds of some of the most vulnerable and low-paid workers in the country. They are almost spontaneously forming the idea that solidarity among workers is a good thing. It’s not a great leap of understanding from that, to forming a union, and that’s what the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), formed to protect workers’ rights under the NLRA, was all about.

The NLRB continues to be under attack by the political right, in this era, as it has for decades and the opposition consists mostly of Republicans, backed by Corporate America and its billions of dollars that are used every day to weaken the workers’ position in society and in the economy. And their attacks destroy the ability of workers to organize themselves into unions for protection of the common good. The latter is something that the nation’s founders talked about, but the common good never seemed to extend to the people on the bottom rungs of the economic ladder. That’s why we have unions and that’s why unions traditionally have taken this matter of the common good into their own hands. It is a small beginning, but it is the people, themselves, who are pursuing the common good.

And that’s why the powerful have been so hell-bent on destroying the ability of the NLRB to see to it that workers have an agency of government that protects their interests. The ability of the board has been weakened over time by a number of schemes, not the least of which is the appointment of board members who have no interest in the well being of the working class. Now, however, the Republicans have taken a different tack: they have withheld confirmation of appointments to the board, thus keeping it from having the required quorum of three members, especially since President Obama would be likely to appoint people who tend to care about the common good.

Obama has nominated five persons, three Democrats and two Republicans, but, as has been the case for years, those nominations have stalled. As of early this month, the president was considering recess appointments, but the Senate GOP has pulled another trick. They claim that keeping a few of their members in Washington during recess will keep Obama from making any “recess” appointments, since, they claim, the Senate is not really in recess. It remains to be seen whether that ploy will work.

Unions and other worker support groups have created a “give us five” campaign, aimed at the Senate Republicans, demanding that they give Obama’s nominations an up or down vote. At the same time, the groups are demanding that, if the Republicans do not allow an up or down vote on nominations, that Democrats change the Senate rules (they are the majority, after all) to allow a vote to come to the floor.

The NLRB is the one agency of the federal government that protects private sector worker rights on the job, union or non-union. Corporations and right wingers, led by the likes of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce have tried for years to destroy the NLRB’s effectiveness, even though, at its best (in its early years), it was not a match for the power of Corporate America. One of the more revealing comments about the Republican and corporate attitude about the board and, by extension, about the rights of workers, was by Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.): “The NLRB as inoperable could be considered progress.”

He and others, in Congress and the corporate world, have tried to make the board inoperable for decades and, right now, they nearly have put it in that condition. The campaign of workers and unions might work and either the Senate Republicans or Democrats might make a move that will break the impasse. It’s true that this is only one of the impasses in our beleaguered political and economic system, but it is one that affects some 80 million private sector workers. That’s a lot of families who depend on some semblance of fairness in the workplace. The NLRB should be the instrument of that fairness, but it can’t do its job until it gains some respect from politicians who detest workers and the board that (sometimes) defends them. They won’t even give it enough members for a quorum.

This is one instance in which the institution of organized labor, the unions big and small, can learn something from those who are paid a pittance and who have nothing...fast food workers. Yet, they gathered together in front of industrial hamburger and chicken joints and made their demands and, even without protection of a union or the government, they didn’t suffer the mass firings that might have been expected.

A little solidarity among workers, in general, is in order. There are federal buildings and NLRB offices in every state. When enough workers begin to mass in front of those buildings and in front of politicians’ offices, the politicians will begin to pay attention. They may even take action. Under the right circumstances, agreements can be reached between labor and capital, with or without the NLRB.

BlackCommentator.com Columnist, John Funiciello, is a long-time former newspaper reporter and labor organizer, who lives in the Mohawk Valley of New York State. In addition to labor work, he is organizing family farmers as they struggle to stay on the land under enormous pressure from factory food producers and land developers. Click here to contact Mr. Funiciello.

Jul 18, 2013 - Issue 525

When Lawrence Peter Berra – “Yogi” to the world - made his now legendary malapropos “It is like déjà vu all over again,” his remark caused much mirth but did not miss its mark. Yogi’s comment was on target. The Yankees had indeed seen it before.

Today, given the unrelenting and unwavering onslaught being waged on the “working class” and the rapid erosion of worker’s “rights, benefits and privileges” – all won through struggles and sacrifices - coupled with the astronomical expansion of the personal wealth of the proponents of a so-called “free market system”, one is almost certain that we have been here before.

In my judgment, for workers caught in this new “globalizing” and expanding economic vortex, it may well be just that; a reminder that “La luta continua.” This time, however, the call for solidarity among workers is but an echo of a now muted and distant bell. If that echo somehow penetrates the surmounting barriers of fear and trepidation and is really heard and heeded, it will not be limited to the old and unfulfilled cry of “workers of the world unite you have nothing loose but your chains”. It could challenge and change the growing and all consuming disparity between those who have and want more and those who have little or none and want some.

Having in the past, at the cost of so many lives and pain, unshackled their chains and, though hobbled, steadfastly strove in small steps towards economic parity, it is difficult to conceive that they will now retreat from the battlefield. This is especially true, I would argue, in a time when respect for their labor and their dignity as human beings are so blatantly being disregarded. They are now, it seems to me, being asked and sometimes forced to replace the economic irons around their ankles and their necks through give backs and curtailment of future revenues, other earned benefits, and privileges.

Across the Atlantic, thousands of Spanish and Greek workers have already taken to the streets, challenging fiscal policies proposed by those who seek to regain and retain economic hegemony, only to be forced to retreat by the organized collective power of the newest version of the old capitalists.

Using the moralistic guise of “saving the nation,” the current crop of policy makers hypocritically suggest that the proposals they are attempting to institute are but “painful economic reforms” necessary to reduce the national deficit and safeguard the future of the nation.

Painful to whom? I ask. That, for me, is the real question! What is occurring is obviously not painful to board members of interlocking international corporations who, respecting no geographical boundaries, are in cahoots with influential members of government whose end game, like theirs, is not the welfare of the workers and their families but the size of the profit margin to be accrued by their investors at the end of the quarter.

To accomplish their aims, they are hell-bent on an international “jihad” to reduce the size of governments by eliminating what they label as “unaffordable” cost-consuming programs. Tragically, as to be expected, these “austerity” measures are being attempted at the expense of those whose labor built the nation. These are the people who are feeling the pain and will continue to do so in the absence of an enlightened alliance between workers and progressive entrepreneurs.

Those who, for a brief moment and at personal risk, commandeered the streets, have been men and women who feeling the pain of the so called necessary reforms and were expressing their unwillingness to be sacrificial lambs on the altar of greed and avarice erected by contemporary economic policy makers. Unfortunately for those who took to the streets and those who may share my view, and who may be forced to take to the streets, the size of the wallets of those who are presently in the throes of cementing and expanding their control over the resources of the planet are not shy about using their wealth or any other means to accomplish their ends and are presently doing so.

Equally unfortunate, perhaps even more so, is the sad reality that there are too many “learned” and “influential” people who cannot see or are perhaps purposefully ignoring the signs now looming over our not too distant horizons. There are many, in academia and the media, for example, who, arguably seduced by the stealth or the wealth of the advocates of unbridled “globalization” and “privatization,” are extolling, albeit in a choral of minor tones, the alleged need for “painful economic reform.”

Unlike those who, for whatever reason, choose not to see, those who are leading the charge against the middle class, the working poor and the poor, as has been their historical wont, are unflinchingly using every means at their disposal to obtain their ends.

Yes, we are indeed living in a different era than when the first cry for the “workers of the world” to unite was first echoed. There have been substantive improvements in the lives of the workers and conditions in the working place. That there is a need for a rational and humane reassessment of the existing labor - employer relationship within our contemporary societies is undeniable, but to suggest, as some have, that national economic austerity programs, coupled with a moral philosophy that suggests that it is up to the individual human being, fortified primarily with his or her resiliency and the charitable behavior of the rich, is the route to be taken is ludicrous. It is conceivable, perhaps idealistically, that were it not for the force of the “darker side” of our humanity we would, by now, have internalized the realization that “no man is an island” and we are “social animals” and not “supermen and women.” The role of government in our lives is a sine qua non for our fruitful and future existence.

Yogi Berra was accurate. It’s déjà vu all over again. We have been there, and done that. Let us not resurrect and propel the pain of yesterday into tomorrow. Let us, collectively, change the present course.

BlackCommentator.com Guest Commentator Dr. Carlos E. Russell, PhD, is Professor Emeritus C.U.N.Y. - Brooklyn College. In the sixties, he served as an Associate Editor of the Liberator magazine. As such, he was one of the first to interview Malcolm X after he left the Nation. He is best remembered as the founder of Black Solidarity Day in New York in 1969 and as the Chair of the Black Caucus of the Conference on New Politics in 1967. In addition, he was a consultant to Dr.Martin Luther King Jr. during the planning for the Poor Peoples March. Excerpts of his participation can be seen in Citizen King and Eyes on the Prize (PBS Mini Series Boxed Set). Born in the Republic of Panama he has served as that country’s representative to the U.N and the O.A.S. with the rank of Ambassador. He has also served as the nightly host of “Thinking it Through” a talk show that was aired on WLIB in New York. He is a playwright and poet as well. Contact Dr. Russell.

Jul 18, 2013 -Issue 525

Mark Hurwitt is an Illustrator, Cartoonist, Designer, Writer and Teacher residing in Brooklyn New York

His website is HurwittGraphics.com

Click here to contact Mark

Jul 18, 2013 - Issue 525

The word love is probably one of the most used and overworked words in the English language. According to most European definitions, love is “a feeling of strong personal attachment induced by sympathetic understanding or by ties of kinship.” And of course we are most familiar with the usage of the word love in connection with, “tender and passionate affection for one of the opposite sex.”

From time to time we also hear the word love used as an expression and articulation of one’s love for African people as a race.

It is without question that segments of the worldwide African Community have lost all sense of moral and ethical relationships with other African people. This is demonstrated day in and day out by the increased number of African people participating in their own genocide - killing each other, mentally and physically abusing each other, stealing from each other, being dishonest with each other, and the list goes on and on and on. This is why the Reparations Movement is so important in the process of repairing the damages inflicted upon us.

I can truly say I love African people no matter how frustrated I get with the negative behavior of so many of our people.

I love African people because I understand that the creative force of the universe has endowed us to make the great contributions we have made and continue to make to the world.

A simple inspection of the ancient Nile Valley civilizations of Kemet (Egypt) should cause African people to love each other. Ancient Kemet and the Kemetic people (African people) were the creators of mathematics, science, art, architecture, writing, governance, astronomy, medicine, and so much more.

The ancient Kemetic people produced wisdom that was written down in their language called Medew Netcher / Divine Speech (our classical African language) or what the Europeans call hieroglyphs.

We can examine this ancient Kemetic wisdom in The Husia, which gives us insight into how our great ancestors viewed life, death, human relations, marriage, parenting, use of power, God, family, and standard of moral and ethical conduct.

Reading The Husia brings out all my love for African people in a most profound and spiritual way.

Listen to the words translated in The Husia:

“Do not terrorize people for if you do, God will punish you accordingly. If anyone lives by such means, God will take bread from his or her mouth. If one says I shall be right by such means, she will eventually have to say my means have entrapped me.”

This passage continues:

“If one says I will rob another, he will end up being robbed himself. The plans of men and women do not always come to pass for in the end it is the will of God which prevails. Therefore, one should live in peace with others and give gifts which another would take from them through fear.”

These words written 4,000 to 5,000 years ago and their wisdom should cause all African people to once again love each other for the greater good of our race.

Our love for each other and the wisdom of our ancestors, should give us the inspiration and motivation, to re-dedicate ourselves to the continued struggle for the liberation of Africa people worldwide.

We have a responsibility and duty to the Creator who gives us all life, power, and health, by building institutions and giving back that which has been given to us through the creative force of the universe. This responsibility and duty should inspire us to work harder in the Reparations Movement.

I love African people because I know we have the capacity to return to the concept of Maat (truth, justice, balance, divine order, righteousness, reciprocity, and love), and by doing so, restore Maat to its rightful place in our lives. Once Maat is restored, we can do as the Creator has done by giving life, power, and health. By restoring Maat, we restore ourselves, thus giving us all the necessary ingredients to win reparations.

Only through love can we survive the white supremacy genocidal onslaught. I love African people and I urge all African people to love each other!

BlackCommentator.com Columnist, Conrad W. Worrill, PhD, is the National Chairman Emeritus of the National Black United Front (NBUF). Click here to contact Dr. Worrill.

Jul 18, 2013 - Issue 525

“Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.”

-Martin Luther King, Jr.

“There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people.”

-Howard Zinn

Perhaps a deeper meaning of the horrific tragedy, in the death ofTrayvon Martin, is that it poignantly reflects the gung-ho predatordrone mentality of a society steeped in incessant hypocrisy, mutuallyrecriminating stereotypes, and fear – a society manipulated by a lying,prying, spying, war mongering U.S. government, and an utterly patheticand irresponsible corporate-stream ‘news’ media.

A bit of the souls of all everyday ordinary Black, White, Brown, Red,and Yellow people of goodwill, irrespective of political beliefs orideologies, was severely wounded on that fateful day when young TrayvonMartin met his death. Yet, we cannot and must not separate the covertand overt murderous atrocities being committed in our names by the U.S.corporate-owned Obama government [in Libya (north Africa), Somalia(east Africa), Afghanistan, Pakistan, Palestine, Syria, Yemen, andBahrain, etc.] from the macho ‘get off my planet by sundown’ mindsetthat permeates much of this nation. How many more thousands, abroad andat home, will have to die before we internalize Howard Zinn’s wordsthat, “There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killinginnocent people.” What will it take to understand the urgency andinter-connectedness of this?

It is all too easy to be manipulated into misdirecting rage andfrustration against one programmed individual, when in fact, it is thishypocritical, unjust, and corrupt corporate-owned political system(currently led by drone man Barack Obama and his Democratic andRepublican cohorts) that is responsible for the perpetuation of massivephysical and/or psychological violence at home and abroad. This is veryimportant to remember. Racism and/or economic exploitation cannot beeffectively struggled against or eradicated by utilizing more racismand/or economic exploitation. By the same token, no so-called ‘war onterrorism’ can be effectively or genuinely waged by utilizing moreterrorism.

Some Questions to Consider

How can we expect to have an egalitarian and just society when our ownpolitical so-called ‘leaders’ (in conjunction with the corporate-streammedia) overwhelmingly give the mixed message that, for example, holdingand torturing people in Guantanamo (and covertly elsewhere) isperfectly acceptable? How can we seriously expect to have aviolence-free society at home while simultaneously and regularlyengaging in wholesale murder by blowing children, women, and men tobits in Africa, the ‘Middle East,’ and elsewhere on this planet? Howcan we expect persons in this society to respect the right to personalprivacy of one another when the Obama/Biden regime, and its politicalminions, spy upon many millions of ordinary citizens inside the U.S.,and many millions more of ordinary citizens in other nations throughoutthe world? How can we claim to genuinely respect the right to “life,liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” while simultaneously acquiescingto Barack Obama’s self appointed ‘kill (extrajudicial murder) list’which targets both U.S. citizens as well as non-U.S. citizens anywherein the world? How can we claim to believe in freedom, justice and‘democracy’ and yet accept the existence of Barack Obama and hiscohorts’ NDAA provision of indefinite detention without due process inthis nation? How can we seriously claim to be a free and democraticnation when we have, in very large measure, relinquished ourconstitutional liberties for the tyranny of a velvet-gloved de factopolice state, all in the fallacious name of preserving the freedomsthat we no longer actually have?

The Terrorism of the Power Elite & the Role of the Corporate-Stream Media

The corporate / military power elite, in essence, owns the U.S.Government, including the executive, legislative, and judicial branches.

As any serious political scientist should have known, thesmooth-talking Barack Obama was, in reality, already bought and paidfor by the corporate / military power elite before ever being installedas U.S. president and stepping foot into the White House. This isbecause it is the political system itself is controlled by therelatively tiny power elite. Thus, none of what Obama has done (eithercovertly or overtly) to hurt and eviscerate struggling everydayordinary Black, White, Brown, Red, and Yellow people nationally andglobally should come as a surprise. As the saying goes: “America islike a melting pot. The people on the bottom get burned and the scumfloats to the top.” Notwithstanding the veneer of a ‘democratic’process in this nation, the fact is that as long as this U.S. politicalsystem is owned and controlled by this avaricious corporate / militarypower elite, the “scum” (no matter what his or her pigmentation mightbe) will “float to the top.”

The U.S. power elite is quite adroit at waging political, economic, andsocial terror against ordinary people, all in the fake name ofsupposedly fighting terror. It’s a very old trick. Yet, even old trickslose their effectiveness once a critical mass of people come to realizethat they are being hoodwinked and bamboozled.

To expect the U.S. corporate-stream media to present honest andin-depth critical analysis and information is akin to expecting a giantCobra snake to roll over and purr like a kitten at being touched by agentle human hand. In other words, the corporate-stream media is deadly.

The role of the corporate-stream media, particularly television, radio,newspapers, and magazines is that of being the mouth piece / propagandaarm for the corporate / military U.S. power elite, and it makes nodifference whatsoever whether it is a fox Democrat or a wolf Republicanin the White House. The ongoing role of the corporate-stream media isto constantly perpetuate the power elite’s systemic status quo bypropagating its narrative. The corporate-stream media regularly lies toeveryday people by omitting extremely important facts, details, andevents and/or by outright distorting or falsifying such information.

Increasingly, the U.S. corporate-stream media utilizes what I refer toas the ‘Novocaine trap.’ In other words, it seeks to numb people’sability to critically think and analyze - by utilizing sensationalism,no substance ‘news’ coverage, and/or pure mindless gossip and subtlecorporate advertising. Instead of presenting critical and in-depthanalysis, the corporate-stream media promotes gossip and entertainmentwhich it passes off to the public as supposed ‘news.’ The role of thecorporate-stream media is all about keeping people numb and controlledby shaping public opinion, not seriously and honestly informing it. Asa result of this, everyday people who rely solely on thecorporate-stream media for their ‘news and information’ are keptdivided, distracted, misinformed, and/or woefully uninformed.

What We Must Do

In order to effectively address and eradicate a problem, said problem must first be recognized for precisely what it is.

The fundamental problem afflicting everyday ordinary people,irrespective to our color, is a corrupt corporate-owned politicalsystem on steroids that is bent on keeping all of us politically,economically and socially enslaved, divided, and powerless.

It is we ourselves who must be our own everyday people’s media. Thecorporate-stream media, and even some of those who pass themselves offas being ‘alternative’ media, are in fact systemic gatekeepers. It isimperative that we recognize and reject their poison and think forourselves and reclaim our humanity.

We must consciously de-program ourselves politically, psychologically,and emotionally from this insidious corporate-owned political system.Moreover, we must be critical thinkers – which means analyzing,researching, and thinking for ourselves! Malcolm X [el-Hajj Malikel-Shabazz] correctly noted that, “When you see that you have problemsall you have to do is to examine the historic method used all over theworld by others who have problems similar to yours, and once you seehow they got theirs straight, then you know how to get yours straight.”In other words, we are a part of the everyday ordinary Black, White,Brown, Red, and Yellow human family throughout our precious MotherEarth, and our “problems” in this nation affects not only us but therest of the human family. As we collectively and creatively liberateourselves from this insanity here in this nation we are in effect alsoaiding people around the world.

Remember: this struggle is not about color. It is about collectivelyregaining our sanity, our dignity, and our humanity as free humanbeings. We will, for a certainty, from time to time have genuinedifferences of opinion or perspective with one another for we are notrobots – but let us learn (and quickly) – to bridge our differenceswith the understanding that we have the important common goal offreeing ourselves and each other together – from this rotten, filthy,smothering political system that enslaves us all.

We can have a better, more just, and humane nation and world – but onlyif We the People create it together. We must do this for ourselves,each other, and Mother Earth!

Each one, reach one. Each one, teach one. Onward, then, my sisters and brothers. Onward...!

BlackCommentator.com Editorial Board member and Columnist, Larry Pinkney, is a veteran of the Black Panther Party, the former Minister of Interior of the Republic of New Africa, a former political prisoner and the only American to have successfully self-authored his civil / political rights case to the United Nations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. In connection with his political organizing activities in opposition to voter suppression, etc., Pinkney was interviewed in 1988 on the nationally televised PBS News Hour, formerly known as The MacNeil / Lehrer News Hour. For more about Larry Pinkney see the book, Saying No to Power: Autobiography of a 20th Century Activist and Thinker, by William Mandel [Introduction by Howard Zinn]. (Click here to read excerpts from the book.) Click here to view Larry’s interview of October 26, 2012. Click here to contact Mr. Pinkney.

Jul 18, 2013 -Issue 525

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Carlos Latuff, a cartoonist, artist and activist based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Latuff has spent the last 15 plus years crafting a style that can best be described as “populist cartooning.” He has touched on issues like Apartheid in South Africa, the plight of Native Americans in the US and the oppression of Tibetans in China.

But perhaps his most controversial series to date is “We are all Palestinians,” in which he compares the actions taken by the Israeli government towards Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip directly to the Nazi’s treatment of Jews.

Click here to contact Mr. Latuff

Jul 18, 2013 -Issue 525

BlackCommentator.com cartoonist/artist Eric Garcia produces "historically based, politically charged criticism, with the goal of creating dialogue about contemporary issues”. That’s how Garcia describes his artwork. A versatile artist working in an assortment of media, from paintings, to hand-printed posters, to sculpture installations, Garcia’s art has a common goal of educating and challenging. Click here to contact brother Eric. His website is southvalleyart.com.

Jul 18, 2013 - Issue 525

This is an animated image - Click here to view the animation

Jonathan Shapiro is a South African cartoonist, famous as Zapiro, whose work appears in numerous South African publications and has been exhibited internationally on many occasions.

Licensing & Syndication Rights

Zapiro is always keen that his cartoons are published as widely as possible. There are many circumstances where the use of Zapiro cartoons can help you get your message across or increase the sales of your publication. For example:

- syndication for regular use in a newspaper or magazine

- on websites and other promotional materials

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- in printed and online collections of cartoons either by Zapiro or by cartoonists in general.

Whatever your use please only use Zapiro's cartoons for your own website, publication or presentation once you've got his prior consent — they are both his livelihood and his copyright.

Normally permission will be granted quite readily provided that your use doesn't conflict with or misrepresent the message in the cartoon. Sometimes there will be a fee for using the cartoon(s) — particularly for commercial or quasi-commercial purposes.

For further information about licensing Zapiro's cartoons please click here to make a Licensing Enquiry.