Flashback: Black People Need To Get A Fucking Grip...OK?

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August 27, 2007

I've been sitting and spinning on my ire for several weeks now, but enough is enough....

Here are the Reader's Digest versions....

Genarlow Wilson - A young black man currently serving a 10 year sentence in Georgia for aggravated child molestation. Why? Because when he was 17 he allowed a 15 year old girl to suck his dick. Even though the blowjob was consensual, 15 was below the age of consent therefore made the act a felon with a mandatory 10 year sentence. Since then, the Georgia legislature has changed the law making it a misdemeanor under those circumstances. But lo and behold, they didn't make the change retroactive and so Genarlow continued to serve his original sentence and would still have to register as a sex offender when he got out. After already serving 2 years of his sentence, a Superior Court in Geogia reduced his sentence to a misdemeanor, gave him time served and order that his name not be added to the sex offender list. The State Attorney General, however, sees this as a grave miscarriage of justice and is appealing the decision which leaves Genarlow still cooling his heels in prison until the appeal is decided.

The Jena 6 - Six black teenagers from Jena, Louisiana are currently being charged with second degree attempted murder. Why? Because they beat up a white kid at a high school they all attended in a town where nooses were hung at this self same school and school property is designated as "white only". The noose incident was written off as a innocent prank by school administration. The rest of this circumstances surrounding this case are even more convoluted and can be located at "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jena_6" among other places. I suggest you take a look at it you're at all interested.

Now...what do these two cases have in common, other than the facts that they take place in the south and involve black people?


THE BLACK COMMUNITY AT LARGE ISN'T TALKING ABOUT THEM, HELL THEY MIGHT NOT EVEN KNOW!!!!

And yet....


The "Black Community" has deemed it necessary to come to the defense of Michael Vick. A man who, as of this morning, admitted to funding and participating in the training, exploiting, and execution of several dogs.

My question is...WHY? Why is it that when it comes to Black celebrities, the black community will bend over backwards to come up with excuses for bad behavior? What Vick did is not only ILLEGAL, it's shows a lack of character. It shows a lack of human decency. Now some of you yahoos can bitch and moan about how we don't know how involved he was in all of this, but the bottom line is that he was involved and condoned these acts which shows a want of feeling on his part. But nobody wants to bring that up. All we're hearing is that this was just another attempt to bring a good black man down. Alright, what makes him so good? The fact that he's successful and makes/made a lot of money? Are the Black Elite determined by the content of their bank accounts as opposed to the content of their character? Is it somehow feasible that self-appointed Al "Somebody please cut this process out of my hair" Sharpton should fly all the way out to L.A to make sure that justice is done in the Paris Hilton case, but no one from the black community calls Vick on his shit?

My boyfriend made an interesting observation. If a child, who may or may not know better, kills an animal (bird, dog, cat, whatever) it is seen as potential serial killer behavior, shrinks are called in, parents freak out, the whole nine yards. And yet here we have a grown man who DEFINITELY knew better, and all we can say is "please don't take away his endorsement deals"?! WHAT THE FUCK???!! Yeah, a man capable of that kind of inhumanity is EXACTLY who I want to inspire my children.

Of course this is also a community that watched Mayor Marion Barry smoke crack on national television, leave office, go to jail....and then re-elected him. A crackhead.

Or better yet, where was all this support of the black dogfighter back in 2005 when LeShon Johnson, a running back for the Arizona Cardinals got sentenced to 5 years? Could it be that the black community didn't care because he was a nothing player on a nothing team?

Is the black community really that weak and superficial? Are we really willing to jump on a ridiculous band wagon to support a rich man who admits to participating in horrible acts and ignore our youth are who are currently staring down the barrels of serious miscarriages of justice that could result in their futures being taken away?