Tag Archives: “Without Sanctuary”

Point of View Columns

Murder by Cop and the Lurking Demon

It seems as if the story is the same. Only the location and the names seem to change. This time it is South Carolina. This time a white policeman shoots an unarmed black man in the back and kills him. This time the demon lurks in the background. The only difference, this time there was a videotape of the entire atrocity.

When North Charleston Police Officer Michael Slager shot Walter Scott in the back eight times on a Saturday morning, he was continuing the dreadful American legacy of lethal violence against black Americans under the color of law. This incident recalls recent murders by cop in Cleveland, Ferguson and Staten Island. But it also recalls the historical tradition of black Americans being subject to lethal consequences simply because they are black Americans.

And all the while the demon lurks.

It bears repeating that since this part of the world was colonized by Europeans, Americans of African descent were always subject to a different set of laws. From the black codes to the legalization of slavery, the lives of black people in this country have always been worth less than white lives. And killing black people has resulted in little or no consequence on countless occasions.

Even after the abolition of slavery, the legally sanctioned terrorism against black Americans continued to be the sad and tragic soundtrack supporting the American narrative. One need go further than to read “Without Sanctuary – Lynching Photography in America”, by James Allen, to witness the tragic banality of evil that was a part of black life in America, as it was also a very real part of white life in America. And whether the next unlawful slaying of a black American under the color of lawful conduct takes place in Missouri or Ohio or New York or………South Carolina, history tells us that it will not be the last time.

Meanwhile, the demon lurks.

Perhaps the most appalling aspect of the death of Walter Scott is that without the video of his slaughter, Officer Slager’s lies would have been the facts that accompanied Mr. Scott to what would have been his soon to be forgotten grave. Without the chance glimpse of his barbaric acts, Officer Slager would be on duty in North Charleston, as if nothing had happen. And that raises a rather obvious question.

How many other black men and women have been slain under the color of law without a video record? And how many of these silent witnesses to their own demise are unable to claim justice because the blue web of lies and misinformation  has placed a shroud over their corpses and has shielded their killers?

Meanwhile the demon lurks.

And that demon is the slaughter of black Americans by other black Americans. According to FBI data, there were 6309 black homicide victims in the U.S. in 2011. The homicide rate for black victims was 17.51 per 100,000. The national overall homicide rate was 4.44 per 100,000. For whites, the national homicide rate was 2.64 per 100,000. And finally, 93 per cent of the killers of black Americans were black Americans.

If 6309 black people were being killed by the police every year there would be righteous indignation. But 5500 black people being killed by black people are not viewed as the public health and public morality issue that it is. The fact that the homicide rate in the black community is 8 times higher than that found in the white community is the demon lurking behind every story of a black person dying from murder by cop.

Being outraged about murder by cops and being outraged about black carnage in the black community are not mutually exclusive. No purpose is served in trying to compare atrocities. All atrocities are atrocities and all atrocities should be denounced and stopped. The orphan, the widow, the grieving parent doesn’t care whether the killer wears a uniform or sneakers. Their pain has no limits.

It is long past the time for us to walk and chew gum at the same time and confront both ddeof these horrific realities every day.

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Point of View Columns

A Phenomenon But Not Phenomenal

The Herman Cain phenomenon seems to be skidding and slipping into a morass of terminal stupidity and eternal irrelevance. The fact is that even before his current running battle with sexual harassment allegations his campaign was coming apart at the seams as his “9-9-9” fake tax policy was evaporating upon examination.

The idea that Herman Cain is some kind of representative of the best that corporate America can offer for public service was always as flimsy as cheap gossamer bought from the local 99 cents store. When finally experiencing some pressure, Mr. Cain has shown himself to be by turns arrogant, petulant, and self-absorbed and totally tone deaf – and frankly, very weak. The fact that he could have been the chief executive officer of any kind of company is a condemnation of what passes for leadership in some parts of the business community of the United States.

Before the sexual harassment tsunami hit the Cain carnival attention was focused on the flimsiness of his policy proposals and the empty bucket of ideas that he carried around while pretending that he actually had something important to say. In some bizarre way these allegations of misconduct have helped Mr. Cain as they deflected attention away from the fact that he was quoting a Japanese cartoon character (“Pokémon”) during one of the G.O.Tea Party debates and his “9-9-9” tax proposal actual comes from the Sim City computer game.

Without the sexual harassment issues Mr. Cain might be taking time to explain how he could be a paid mouthpiece for the Koch brothers for half a decade while proclaiming to be an independent businessman. He might also have to take a few moments to once again explain how he could deride government service while having served as the chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City.

While he was at it, Herman Cain might want to re-examine his claim that he is not a politician and that his political virginity makes him different from other presidential aspirants. Clearly his memory has failed him once more as he served as a senior political advisor to the Dole-Kemp presidential campaign. Further, the only reason he can form his lips to say that he is not a politician is because he lost his campaign for United States Senator in Georgia. It seems that Herman Cain is definitely a politician – it is just that he has been a failed and unelected politician.

Mr. Cain has worn his woeful ignorance of foreign affairs as a badge of honor. He dismisses the need to know about “insignificant” countries and has expressed concern about China becoming a nuclear power (someone needs to tell the pizza chieftain that he is about 45 years too late). Rather than retire with some semblance of honor and decency Mr. Cain continues to insult the intelligence of the American public – a herculean task these days that he seems to accomplish with preternatural ease.

The sexual harassment issues will make themselves known over time. Those who are prepared to dismiss them as “smears” should recall that the charges date back over a decade when Herman Cain was famous only for being a successful peddler of pizzas making it virtually impossible that these charges were politically motivated (a very necessary element for any kind of smear campaign).

Claims of “high tech lynching” are sad and offensive. Lynching has a very special and awful place in African American history. The men, women and children who were lynched over a period of century and a half in this country did not have the protective cloak of the Koch brothers and did not have the Fox News network as the their guardians. I would refer Mr. Cain and his defenders to the book “Without Sanctuary” to get an idea as to what true lynching was all about.
For someone who claims that racism is no longer an obstacle for black Americans,

Mr. Cain seems to have misplaced his big boy pants the first time he comes under serious attack. Rather than respond in some reasonable and rational fashion when the sexual misconduct allegations surfaced, Herman Cain played the race card.
We can only surmise that Mr. Cain forgot that when he decided to run for president he was playing in the big leagues and all aspects of his life are fair game, whether it is fair or not. As far as sexual misconduct charges being directed against him because he is a “strong black conservative”, Herman Cain supporters should ask Gary Hart, John Edwards, Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich whether a white skin served as useful armor when those particular slings and arrows start flying.

Just as the Sarah Palin star crashed burned and died, Mr. Cain’s time in the spotlight will come to an end as it becomes clear that the pizza emperor has no clothes and not much in the way of original thought either.

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Point of View Columns

To Live A Lie

It is probably slightly counterintuitive to discuss a book that one hasn’t read yet. But I have read the reviews of “The Warmth of Other Suns” by Isabel Wilkerson, along with an in depth article about this book in last week’s New Yorker. The subject matter, the great migration of black Americans from the South during the period of 1910-1970 is so compelling that, if only for the subject matter, the book is worthy of note.

But there is more, much more. “The Warmth of Other Suns” is not simply an historical narrative filled with facts and statistics. Rather, the book focuses on the real life stories of real people. And given that almost all Americans are descendants of immigrants, the story has to resonate in a very personal sense for so many of us regardless of ethnic heritage.

I read about the stories told in “Warmth” and I can feel the story of my grandparents and the grandparents of so many friends, classmates and colleagues. And one begins to grasp the courage, determination and perseverance of these men and women who left the awful and often bloody grasp of the South for the unknown possibility of a glimmer of opportunity in the North, Midwest and Far West regions of the United States.

Ms. Wilkerson makes it clear through her series of interviews and compilations of life stories, that fear and terror and violence were the motivating forces that drove these American immigrants elsewhere in their own country. According to statistics compiled for “Warmth” during the first three decades of the twentieth century a black American was lynched every four days. An amazing statistic because it cannot possibly be inclusive of all lynchings or beatings or other acts of terror perpetrated with virtual impunity. And these acts were typically not perpetrated by criminals and outlaws but rather, the actors were in the main upstanding and respected members of the community who considered themselves to be honorable men and women. (The authoritative book on lynching in the South, “Without Sanctuary”, is recommended on this painful subject)

“Offenses” that resulted in lynching included not only being accused of criminal acts such as stealing livestock or assaulting a white woman, impertinent language directed towards a white person or “reckless eyeballing” (looking a white person in the eye) could get a black man or woman killed. Other “offenses” included being a successful farmer or business owner or being the owner of desirable farmland and refusing a lowball offer to sell.

It was the terror of the day and the night that drove millions of black Americans from their homes to someplace else, anyplace else. More than the declining economy of the primarily rural South or the siren song of employment in the factories of the North and Midwest, fear and terror was their inspiration. A realization that injustice would be eternal in the South and the chance of living without fear of the torch or the noose in the middle of the night was enough for people to change their lives, and America, forever.

Absorbing and understanding this part of American history is important. The men and women who crowded onto trains and buses and trucks to come to Chicago and New York and Los Angeles also played a crucial role in the founding of the black middle class in this country. Speak to any African American doctor, corporate lawyer, investment banker or elected official about their lineage and long silent strains of the South can be heard.

And while absorbing this bit of history, check out the latest news reports that Haley Barbour, the Republican Governor of Mississippi has temerity to suggest that, at age 62, he is part of the “new generation” of the South that had gotten past segregation and discrimination directed against African Americans.

Amazing, because in 1964, when he was 16 years old, three civil rights works – Cheney, Schwerner and Goodman – were lynched in the “new” Mississippi. Its hard to see how you just get “past” that awful event. Amazing, because as a teenager Haley Barbour had to have been witness to federal troops having to escort James Meredith onto the campus of the University of Mississippi because of the violent threats from rioting white students. The same University of Mississippi that Barbour attended soon thereafter. How do you get “past” that?

Amazing, because to this day Mississippi is Ground Zero for the tenacious grasping of traditions of racism and racial discrimination in this country despite the progress that has taken place in this state. The pathologies experienced by the black community in Mississippi continue to this very day. How do you get “past” that?

And Governor Barbour would have us believe that this tremendous “change” has taken place because the Republican Party has taken the leadership in progressive and affirmative action in the South. And so he lives a lie and invites us to join him.

There was virtually no Republican Party in the South until the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, at which point white Democrats quit the party wholesale and moved to the Republican Party, where they have stayed ever since. They left the Democratic Party because of its support of civil rights and equal rights and human rights and it is simply a lie to suggest that the Republican Party came to life in the South for any reason other than the disgust and disappointment experienced by many white Democrats.

Haley Barbour is entitled to his opinions. He is not entitled to his own set of facts

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