Skimming over news reports this morning, I couldn’t help but click the CNN video of Charles Barkley telling some very uncomfortable truths about what goes on in black communities, and how some events can contribute to strained relationships with police.

Charles first goes into racial profiling, and then comments on Mike Brown,  then the Eric Garner case. He’s not calling the chokehold police gave Garner murder, and is giving the cops the benefit of the doubt, saying that they might have used “excessive force” but they didn’t set out to murder him. I disagree. Chokeholds are forbidden for the exact reasons Garner died…because they kill people. If you deliberately use an tactic forbidden by your organization for the precise reason someone died, then I think an argument can be made that they murdered this man without premeditation, otherwise known as second-degree murder (thankyouverymuch, Investigation Discovery).

However, at the end of the conversation, Barkley brings up an uncomfortable truth–“the black community has a lot of crooks.” And if you form your lips or poise your fingers to argue, don’t bother. There’s a culture in the black community’s lower classes called “getting over,” at least that’s what they called it when I was growing up. “Getting over” was viewed as almost a “fight the power” action, where you rob, steal, and cheat to “get over” on ‘The Man.’ It’s seen as some type of rebellion against a system that poor folks deem unfair and unjust to them. A more extreme example is one of the members of the Black Panthers announcing that he would rape as many white women as he could *cough* you know, to get back at the white devil. “Getting over” is often celebrated and earns you a certain level of respect in the hood. The mentality of “getting over” has lead to a certain level of acceptance of criminality in the hood, which often leads to constant targeting by local police in order to prevent utter chaos and anarchy.

And if you think I’m just full of it, read this Eldridge Cleaver…

”I became a rapist. To refine my technique and modus operandi, I started out by practicing on black girls in the ghetto — in the black ghetto where dark and vicious deeds appear not as aberrations or deviations from the norm, but as part of the sufficiency of the Evil of the day — and when I considered myself smooth enough, I crossed the tracks and sought out white prey. I did this consciously, deliberately, willfully, methodically — though looking back I see that I was in a frantic, wild and completely abandoned frame of mind.

”Rape was an insurrectionary act. It delighted me that I was defying and trampling upon the white man’s law, upon his system of values, and that I was defiling his women — and this point, I believe, was the most satisfying to me because I was very resentful over the historical fact of how the white man has used the black woman. I felt I was getting revenge.”

How sweet. This sociopath practiced rape on black girls (not women, girls). Who was he getting revenge for when he defiled his “own?”  As usual, black girls and women are seen as sacrificial lambs or human collateral damage. What a load of bullshit.

Let’s not be naive. Imagine a week in the South Side of Chicago in which the police decided not to show up. Would you walk those streets? Would you patronize a business? Would you let your kids play in the park? Yeah; I thought so. I shudder to think about black girls and women in that scenario. It’s the stuff horror films are made of.

Racism aside (because this author will never deny it doesn’t exist), unless and until the black community acknowledges that they are not helpless babies who trip and fall into all their problems, and we continue to infantalize black boys and raise our girls to be mules and single mothers, nothing is ever going to change. There will be another Mike Brown. Another Eric Garner. And so on, and so on, and so on….

And after you done looking at that, take a look at this…

[Text]

Are you ready to have these types of conversations?
I don’t think most of you are there yet. Some of us are, but most aren’t. I can tell by the level of defensiveness and emotional knee-jerk reactions we get whenever we discuss certain issues.
It tells me that black women are hurting but still unwilling to challenge the mental programming they have received for generations. They are trained to see “white supremacy” in everything that counters their cultural programming, even if the concept can serve to reverse the damage of that programming.
But we’re still going to have these conversations, whether you like it or not. We know we may lose page likes but that is not why we do this, anyway. We do this to increase the critical thinking skills among black women to a level necessary for them to improve their own lives.
That includes conversations on selective reproduction.
____________________
BW Think Tank in all her glorious wisdom writes:
“NOPE, and when you try to talk to them about BREEDING FOR VOLUME they start talking bout genocide and eugenics. SMDH. For black women, (I only deal directly with BW) motherhood is the biggest issue because it is the single greatest indicator of POVERTY.
So much of what they are protesting about in Ferguson has to do with black women RECKLESSLY having children they cannot afford and CANNOT PROTECT. Mike Brown’s mother was 16 years old when she had him. He was raised by his GRANDMOTHER, while both his parents went on with their lives.
NOBODY is talking about how THAT impacts the chances of something like this happening to black children.
Black women are “fighting for their sons’ – AFTER THE FACT. They should be fighting for them BEFORE they have them under precarious circumstances by bum ass dudes. BW do more damage to their own children’s lives in the choices they make BEFORE they are born, than any white police force does, after it. NOBODY wants to talk about THIS side of the game. And any woman who does is cast the side eye.
This is about CLASS more than anything else. Black people have NO infrastructure, so they become reliant on the very system that oppresses them, to protect them and they are surprised when their kids end up dead. What other role would their children serve when they birth them with no PURPOSE and no PLAN in a capitalistic society?
All one must do is study NATURE. There are NO useless organisms in nature. Each ecosystem has organisms that in SOME way, benefit that system. Those that don’t are RE-PURPOSED, FED OFF OF and eventually die out. Breeding in high numbers with no infrastructure, no building, no production and no plan means your progeny will be designated as the SYSTEM sees fit. We keep arguing with this rather that studying it and then acting accordingly.
I only have one child. Why? Because I KNEW that it was beyond my capacity to SUCCESSFULLY rear more than one human being given the reality of my circumstances. PERIOD. And no amount of love for a man or loyalty to the race was going to make me “UN-KNOW” what I already knew.
Think about animals that are bred in high numbers. Pigs. Cows. Goats. Chickens. These animals are BRED TO DIE and be fed off of for their meat, skin, and byproducts. No consideration is given to their living conditions, except those that will increase the bottom line.
But when animals are bred for niche purposes, then the ART and SCIENCE of breeding is used. Quality is key and careful consideration is given to make sure that only the BEST, most desirable traits are created in each birth. Those animals are NOT consumed. they are protected and valued and coveted for their genes and beauty. And they are not shot down like rabid dogs in the streets.
Breeding for Volume = the Sacrifice/Slaughter.
Breeding for Pedigree= Quality and Specialty
And that has EVERYTHING to do with CLASS.
Those who don’t get it end up on the back of the train talking bout ‘race’.
SMDH.”