SEVEN THINGS MY BLACK BOY WILL NOT BE EXPECTED TO BE/DO

 

RAMPANT  RACIAL SEGREGATION IN THE  USA

Since Yahoo Parenting launched on October 23, 2014 the editors and writers have posted nearly 600 stories on the site.


They chose this article – originally published on October 27, 2014 – as a highlight of the pieces that offer trusted advice, inspire provocative conversations, and hopefully add a little fun to your life,

 Even In the days after the Michael Brown shooting in the USA, I wrote an essay titled “I Hope My Son Stays White,” detailing my fears about what might happen to my biracial three-year-old son if he grows up to have dark skin.

The upshot: America, to its shame, is still a place where black males are feared, and I don’t want that fear to turn itself on my son in a way that leads to his arrest or death.

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I published the piece on Ebony.com, and the reactions from black readers ranged from “sad but true” to allegations that I myself was engaging in the very racism and colourism that I was decrying.

But buried among these was a comment from a white reader who accused me of “sucking up to black folk” and then went on to list the supposed advantages of being black in America. (Apparently, according to this reader, my son will have an unearned fast track to a career as an air traffic controller. Um, okay?)

STORY: NFL Star Jason Witten on Life as a Dad and His (Growing) Family

I can’t help but think that, if the essay had been published in an outlet with a larger white readership, many more commenters would have chimed in to deny the continued existence of racism.

In my experience, white people (and straight people, and male people, and Christian people — all groups of which I’m a member) tend to dismiss the notion that we’re privileged.

It’s an uncomfortable thing to acknowledge that you’re the recipient of unfair benefits, especially when those benefits are often nearly invisible to those who receive them.

But when you’re a parent, those privileges stop being invisible. It’s the reason why male congressmen with daughters are more likely to support women’s issues. It’s the reason why Ohio Sen. Rob Portman suddenly declared his support for same-sex marriage after his son came out as gay. And it’s the reason why, everywhere I look, I see hassles that my son will have to face that I don’t. Here’s a partial list of things I can take for granted, but which will likely be problematic for my son:

1. I Can Walk Through a Store Without Being Followed
To take one high-profile instance, Macy’s and the city of New York recently settled with actor Robert Brown, who was handcuffed, humiliated, and accused of committing credit card fraud after buying an expensive watch at the store.
I never have to worry about this happening to me.

2. I Can Succeed Without It Being Attributed to My Race
When my wife, who is black, received her acceptance letter from Boston College, a peer told her she must have gotten in due to affirmative action, effectively ruining the experience of receiving the letter.
When I succeed, people assume I’ve earned it.

3. I Learned About My Ancestors’ History in School
I can tell you all about Louis XIV, Socrates, and the Magna Carta, but I always wondered when we would finally learn about African history (beyond Pharaohs and pyramids). The subject never came up.

4. I Can Lose My Temper in Traffic
Once, an acquaintance who got into a confrontation while driving told me how scared she was of the other driver, describing him as a “big black guy.” When I get heated, no one attributes it to my race.

5. I Can Loiter in Wealthy Neighborhoods
No one has ever called the cops on me to report a “suspicious person.” My wife can’t say the same.

6. I Can Complain About Racism
When I point out that black people are incarcerated at alarming rates, or largely forced to send their children to underperforming schools, or face systemic discrimination when searching for jobs and housing, no one accuses me of “playing the race card.”

7. I Can Count on Being Met on My Own Terms
If I’m being treated poorly, I don’t stop and think about whether it’s due to my race. But unless we somehow make a giant leap forward, my son will always have to wonder.

Recently, I became a father for the second time. My daughter, only three months old, will grow up to face many of the same challenges as my son, on top of the extra ones that come with being a woman: the struggle for equal pay, the catcalling, the constant threat of sexual assault.

I don’t want to give my children a complex about all of this, but I can’t wish these problems away, either. I can’t eliminate all the unfair hurdles that exist in the world. I can only do my best to raise kids who are able to jump over them.

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FORMER LIBYAN LEADER MUAMMAR GHADAFFI'S LAST SPEECH [translated by Pearl FM]

Posted here on 31st December, 2014.

GHADAFFI'S LAST SPEECH

A man who did everything he could for Africans, but still the African Union stood by and watched him die from the comfort of their offices.

(Translated by Pearl FM)

"For 40 years, or was it longer, I can’t remember, I did all I could to give people houses, hospitals, schools, and when they were hungry, I gave them food, I even made Benghazi into farmland from the desert, I stood up to attacks from that cowboy Reagan, when he killed my adopted orphaned daughter, he was trying to kill me, instead he killed that poor innocent child. 

 Then I helped my brothers and sisters from Africa with money for the African Union.  I did all I could to help People understand the concept of real democracy, where people’s committees ran our country, but that was never enough, as some told me, even people who had 10 room homes, new suits and furniture, were never satisfied, as selfish as they were they wanted more, and they told Americans and other visitors, they needed “democracy” and "freedom”, never realizing it was a cut throat system. 


 Where the biggest dog eats the rest, [b]but they were enchanted with those words, never realizing that in America, there was no free medicine, no free hospitals, no free housing, no free education and no free food, except when people had to beg or go to long lines to get soup.  

 No, no matter what I did, it was never enough for some, but for others, they knew I was the son of Gamal Abdel Nasser [the  former president of Egypt]. The  only true Arab and Muslim leader we’ve had since Salah’ a’ Deen, when he claimed the Suez Canal for his people.  As  I claimed Libya, for my people, it was his footsteps I tried to follow, to keep my people free from colonial domination—from thieves who would steal from us. 

 Now, I am under attack by the biggest force in military history, my little African son, Obama wants to kill me, to take away the freedom of our country, to take away our free housing, our free medicine, our free education, our free food, and replace it with American style thievery, called “capitalism,” but all of us in the Third World know what that means, it means corporations run the countries, run the world, and the people suffer, so, there is no alternative for me, I must make my stand, and if Allah wishes, I shall die by following his path, the path that has made our country rich with farmland, with food and health, and even allowed us to help our African and Arab brothers and sisters to work here with us, in the Libyan Jammohouriyah.

 I do not wish to die, but if it comes to that, to save this land, my people, all the thousands who are all my children, then so be it.

Let this testament be my voice to the world, that I stood up to crusader attacks of NATO, stood up to cruelty, stood up to betrayal, stood up to the West and its colonialist ambitions, and that I stood with my African brothers, my true Arab and Muslim brothers, as a beacon of light, when others were building castles, I lived in a modest house, and in a tent, I never forgot my youth in Sirte, I did not spend our national treasury foolishly, and like Salah’a’deen, our great Muslim leader, who rescued Jerusalem for Islam, I took little for myself…

In the West, some have called me “mad,” “crazy,” but they know the truth but continue to lie, they know that our land is independent and free, not in the colonial grip, that my vision, my path, is, and has been clear and for my people and that I will fight to my last breath to keep us free, may Allah almighty help us to remain faithful and free!"

TANZANIAN PRIEST ARRESTED ON CHARGES OF PROSTITUTION

From  "The CITIZEN", TANZANIA.

By Mkinga Mkinga and Agencies

Posted  Monday, December 15  2014 at  09:12

In Summary

• The priest was arrested on Friday after detectives posed as 16-year-old girls and advertised their services on a website known for trading in prostitution
  Dar es Salaam. A Catholic Church priest from Bukoba Diocese assigned to an east Mesa church in the United States is among five suspects arrested by police in an operation that targeted suspects of prostitution involving under-age girls.
  He was arrested on Friday after Mesa police detectives posed as 16-year-old girls and advertised their services on a website known for trading in prostitution.
  A statement released by the police said, men were supposed to come to a Mesa motel at a predetermined time to meet with prostitutes for sex.
  Reached for comment yesterday, Bukoba Diocese Bishop Desderius Rwoma admitted to have received reports of the arrest of Fr Solomon Bandiho. He said, the priest was in the US for doctoral studies.
  However, Bishop Rwoma desisted from commenting on the issue pending confirmation of the incident. “I can confirm to have heard about the arrest but I cannot comment further because we are yet to check and establish what actually happened,” he told The Citizen over the phone.
  According to Mesa police, when the men agreed to have sex with the supposed prostitutes, even after being told they were 16, police arrested them on suspicion of child prostitution.
  Detective Steve Berry, a Mesa police spokesman noted that the suspects include Fr Bandiho, 49, who is listed on the Holy Cross Catholic Church’s website as the east Mesa church’s parochial administrator.
  The other four suspects were identified by police as Mr Eric Mohren, 34; Mr Christopher Sherman, 48; Mr Jose Flores Nunez, 31 and Mr Santiago Robles, 26.
  “When you have people who are willing to prey upon our juveniles, those are some of the worse people in our society,” Berry said.
  He said someone who is willing to have sex with a 16-year-old might be willing to victimize even younger children.
  Rob DeFrancesco, a spokesman for the diocese, said the diocese learned about Fr Bandiho’s arrest on Friday afternoon. Bandiho’s faculties as a priest have been removed, meaning that he is barred from public ministry, he said. Other priests will be available at Holy Cross to say Mass and perform other ministerial duties.
  Source: Citizen, 15 December 2014