INCARCERATED WRONGS
(Courtesy of attorney Michael Harper)
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When it comes to Blackfolk, our humanity is rarely honored whether we are behind bars, spittin’ bars or passing the Bar. Our humanity has always been disrespected, especially for those of us who are incarcerated. Recently, reports surfaced that an incarcerated brother, Lason Butler, was literally eaten alive by rats. How in the absolute hell? This comes just months after another incarcerated brother in Fulton County, GA. was reportedly eaten alive by bedbugs. This is absolutely unacceptable. Who is losing their job and/or facing criminal charges over this? Making matters worse, when you look at US crime statistics, the folk committing the most crimes are not us, even though we’re the ones being over-policed, over-arrested, overcharged and over-sentenced when compared to whites arrested for similar offenses. Plus, stats show that Blackfolk have the highest percentage of wrongly convicted people behind bars. So, like the greatest hip-hop group in history (Public Enemy) said in the greatest hip-hop song in history (“Black Steel in the Hour of Chaos”) about our incarcerated kin, “Along with the time they served, decency was deserved.” But what’s happening now is beyond indecent.
SEPARATE & UNEQUAL
(Jeenah Moon/Pool Photo via AP)
The “big news” from this week’s Trump trial is that this spoiled, entitled, narcissistic man-child is acting spoiled, entitled and narcissistic. Okay; no real surprise. What’s also not surprising is the lack of accountability the “insurrectionist-in-chief” is facing for his courtroom antics. According to reports, Trump has been defiantly and belligerently “verbally sparring” with the judge. And for those who don’t know, “verbally sparring” is a term used to describe whitefolk who are guilty of contempt, being all the way out of order and doing things that would have gotten one of us thrown under the jail. Because y’all know, if we even look at the judge cross-eyed we’re held in contempt. But not Trump. He’s in the courtroom shooting personal jabs at state Judge Arthur Engoron, whom Trump accused of being biased against him, and New York Attorney General Letitia James, whom Trump called a “political hack.” “This is the opposite of fraud,” the former reality TV star declared before referring to James, saying, “The fraud is her.” And the same judge who would have thrown the book, the kitchen sink and a few hot combs at any of us meekly told Trump’s attorney while Trump was trumpin’, “I beseech you to control him if you can. If you can’t, I will.” Sure, you will.
VOUCHER CRAZY
(Courtesy State Rep. Ron Reynolds)
A recent survey said the majority of Texans support vouchers, even though countless progressive democratic reps from Texas’ biggest urban cities and numerous conservative reps from the state’s smallest rural towns all stand against them… as has been shown by their collaboration to continuously defeat Gov. Greg Abbott’s efforts to make vouchers the law of the land. Still, these so-called surveys say the majority of Blackfolk in Texas support vouchers. That’s suspect to me because all across America, Blackfolk (and er’body else) are saying just the opposite. The numbers in Texas, however, may be accurate. And if they are, we may have just gotten played. Look at Blackfolks’ support for vouchers before TEA took over HISD and you’ll see, we were in line with our people across the country. I may be crazy, but the havoc, dysfunction, distrust and chaos brought on by the undemocratic overthrow of HISD may have pushed Blackfolk over to the side of vouchers in an effort to seek educational relief from Mike Miles’ purposeful mayhem. Abbott’s efforts were defeated again recently. But you best believe the mayhem will continue.
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