Pick & Choose Our Battles???

Greetings to all.  Glad you all are back with me for another bit of my own two cents on stuff in culture, society and the world as a whole.  If this is your first time checking me out, I do need to advise you that the views on my blog are just that: mine.  A lot of my views can be considered controversial but that's also the beauty of it.  This blog has to promote healthy discussions and the occasional debates.  With all that said, I welcome my first time visitors, and let's get started.

With the heartbreaking and tragic events that occurred in Ferguson, MO over the past couple of weeks, tensions are still at unsettling, powder keg levels.  This past Monday was the official home going of Michael Brown Jr.  At the Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church, family, friends, celebrities, civil rights leaders, and other delegates packed the church to say their goodbyes to this fallen young man who has served as a martyr of sorts to bring about the change in how the United States handles race relations with police officers. With the Rev. Al Sharpton speaking to the congregation, he called for a change of action for the police and how they are to treat the people they are sworn to protect and serve.

This is a sobering image of Michael Brown Sr. looking over the plaque of his son (and there's even a more gripping image of Mr. Brown screaming in anguish and heartbreak over the loss) and the question is now: "Where do we go from here?"

This leads me into what is really upsetting me at the moment.  A good friend of mine brought up a great point recently.  We have protested and rallied and had demonstrations over this whole ordeal.  Although it's to be commended and absolutely warranted that our voice gets heard over this matter, where are the rallies and marches and demonstrations for everyone else that murdered by...us???  Although Brown Jr. has become a lightning rod for police brutality and race relations, nobody did much of anything on the harrowing weekend that over eighty people in Chicago were senselessy murdered.  If there were any demonstrations on this matter, media did very little to capture and garner attention to it.  Let me get this straight: we are quick to protest and do rallies for injustices like why happened to Michael Brown, Sean Bell, and Trayvon Martin, but what happened we do it our each other?  We will get the cell phones out and start recording and post/share them on social media.  When the shocking video emerged of an elderly woman getting slammed on the ground brutally by the police to where the back of her head was deeply lacerated, you saw plenty of people recording and nobody doing anything.  If that's enough, there were no rallies or anybody speaking out against that situation.  What about this situation: the case of the unarmed white young man getting gunned down at a 7-11 by...a Black police officer (gasp!).  Twenty-year-old Dillon Taylor was unarmed and gunned down by Sgt. Darin Sweetin in Utah, and there was little to no media coverage surrounding it.  due to the Brown coverage.

If there was a demonstration for the family of Dillon Taylor, would we have marched with those people on behalf of the family that lost their son, brother, nephew, etc. much like Brown and others like him, or would we have just sat back, shook our heads, said to ourselves 'That's so sad", and went on about our business?  The issue has to stop being race, and more along the real enemy: THE POLICE.  As I mentioned in my first social commentary blog, there are some genuine police officers that are taking it very badly.  Their reputations are shattered and trust has been diminished substantially if there was any to begin with.  However, to those officers that will arrest us and how the  jury of our "peers" will convict us: guilty by association or, in this case, your profession.  Sorry, that's how it goes.  Now, YOU'RE being generalized in a way like you haven't been in many years.

Wrong is wrong.  Injustice is injustice.  We will never get anywhere as a community if we limit ourselves to just police brutality.  Take to the streets about stuff like education more regularly and other social issues concerning us.  Furthermore, if we really also would like to show our strength, let's help out other cultures and races as well, especially when there's a bigger enemy.  We have a lot of Facebook movements and Twitter/hashtag (#) movements.  Let's stop only limiting ourselves to police madness and just as much to our other issues as well.

Until next time folks.  Hold your heads and stay empowered.

Black Jesus: Coonery, Blasphemy, or Honesty??

Great afternoon, folks.  Pleasure to see you're riding with me still.  Don't worry, the heat will get turned up this week with a very interesting subject.  However, before I start, I must quickly address the chaos in Ferguson, MO this week.  This has been a week of peaceful protests turned into virtual guerrilla warfare.  From accusations and even video of bottles and intimidation practices by the police, it's becoming more and more obvious just how sad and frustrating the whole situation is.  Last week, I played the ever controversial anti-police anthem "F*** The Police" by seminal hip-hop group N.W.A.  Was I out of line?  After this week's events, with their intimidating actions, threats, and even coming up with all these different stories making Michael Brown as this troublesome young man, and the officer that shot him a pillar of the Ferguson community, that song really comes in handy right about now.  According to USA Today, last night was the first calm evening in Ferguson since the entire tragedy occurred.  Will it be the last?  Likely not.  it may even get worse than it is already.  Right now all we can do is pray for justice for this poor family that was subjected to a clearly racially-inspired murder of their son.  BTW, a Rest In Peace shout to Kajieme Powell, thanks again to the police.

Now, on to this week's subject at hand.  It's been two weeks since the much-anticipated debut of Black Jesus, the highly controversial live action comedy created by Boondocks founder, Aaron McGruder.  Unless you've been somewhat under a rock, you've seen the trailer that was floating around prior to the premier.  The backlash has been met with all kinds of outrageous responses, and most from the Christian community.  First, let me present to you the trailer and you can see what the fuss is all about.






Now with that being shown, naturally a lot of people have been up in arms, giving the show terms like "sacrilegious", "blasphemous", disrespectful", and every other negative term under the sun.  There have protests and people claiming they would boycott the show's sponsors if they air the show. There are some points that now need to get brought up.

First of all, people, last I checked, this is still America.  This country may be very screwed up and have people like the police shoot unarmed civilians at will, but this is still America.  What that means is we all live by freedoms of speech, religion, press, assembly, equal rights, and...the freedom of expression.  If you don't like the show or what it stands for, turn it off.  Simple isn't it.

Secondly, if you conservative Christians will get your heads out of Heaven (or your asses) for a second, you might see a point to what he's presenting.  In the first two episodes, this guy (shouts to Gerald "Slink" Johnson, who portrays Black Jesus) walks around Compton to spread love and encouragement.  The people around him, who presumably would be his "disciples", all are asking him for some of the dumbest things imaginable.  Whether it's money for weed, money for a lottery ticket, or other bits of foolishness, he's actually saddened by them asking him for such petty things.  Of course there are people like Lloyd (a homeless guy played by veteran actor/comedian John Witherspoon) and Vic (a property manager for an apartment complex) that don't believe he's really "Jesus" unless he shows them "miracles".  Tell me that doesn't sound like stuff we (no matter the race, but because this is Black Jesus, I'll say us Blacks) do quite regular, including the holier-than-thou ones (you cats aren't exempted either).  I'm a Christian myself and I know I've done or asked for some of the same stuff on quite a regular basis.  At least this show displays some heart if you can look past the vulgarities.  Maybe these same critics can look at the method to the madness instead of just the face value of it.

Third, while you're doing all of these protests and boycotts, I don't hear a whole lot about a lot of these other "reality" shows getting protested and boycotted.  I'm not saying there aren't the occasional protest, but none have had the backlash of Black Jesus.  There was a time where the show Preachers Of L.A. was getting protested because how the show made these preachers look like celebs by them having extravagant and flashy lifestyles (it's always seemingly these conservative ones that do the most complaining and hating).  Because this is my blog and I can soapbox if I want to, I will say this. As long as they're not putting these earthly possessions above God and helping to spread love, they're doing nothing wrong.  Yes there are some those preachers and ministers who won't speak anywhere unless you can afford them multi-thousand dollars and they'll get dealt with in God's time.  Otherwise, please shut your mouths and worry about your own front door.  Now I will get back to my point.  The abundance of shows like Love & Hip-Hop, Basketball Wives, and Real Houswives of...any of those cities present the worst aspect of a community's race, gender, and culture all the time and quite frequently, however people still watch them and they have tremendous followings.  There was also a protest of an upcoming "reality" show detailing Black Greek sororities.  Amazingly, some of these same people that like to protest and complain will NOT miss an episode of these shows that I just mentioned, but will protest a show that's actually a satire.  That's real brilliant.

Whatever your taste, it's just that, YOURS.  If there are things and shows that don't agree with you and your philosophy on things, just don't watch them.  Simple isn't it?  Nobody, I repeat NOBODY, will ever tell me what to watch or what not to watch as a grown man and it's insulting to those that actually just want to laugh a little in the midst of all the turmoil and pain going on.  Your humor isn't the same as Dick, Mary, and Will, and vice versa.  That's what makes us different, and that should be okay in theory at least.  Black Jesus is a humorous, albeit quite crass in language, comedy that is aimed to make us look at how Jesus (the actual one) would be if He were to go through a lot of these ghettos and poor communities.  Aaron McGruder has had a way of making us Blacks in particular look at ourselves in the mirror, only in humorous ways.  This is no exception.  Furthermore, if you're worried about the impact it would have on your children, this airs after prime time hours, plus it's rated Mature Audiences, so the network is covered.  The rest is up to you as a parent.  Don't blame Aaron, Cartoon Network, Viacom or anyone else for that matter.

I told you guys and gals this would be somewhat hot and highly discussed, but that's the beauty of conversation.  If you feel differently, please by all means, get at me.  However, if you want to "unfriend" me because of my own personal views, you better do so now because it may only get hotter as the week's go along (plus you're showing me how idiotic you really are if you're willing to "unfriend" me because my viewpoint is different than yours).  In any case, take care until next week.  Be sure to check for my hip-hop blog and my wrestling blog as well.  Peace and love!

Nation Under Siege

What's going on world!  This is BK and normally you know me as the hip-hop connoisseur and wrestling guru.  However, there's also a more serious side of me as well and this is the start of another weekly blog series entitled "What's On My Mind."  Anyone that really knows me is aware of the fact tat I have a LOT on my mind concerning different things.  Just to forewarn you, some of my views could be considered controversial and I may even lose some "family" and "friends", but if that's the case, then I didn't deserve you in the first place.  Otherwise, these topics are meant to provoke and cause HEALTHY conversations and even debates if need be.  I'll still be posting my weekly hip-hop and weekly wrestling views, but now you can add this as well.  Now with all that being said, let's begin with this initial blog.

This has been a very volatile and tragic week.  Aside from the very, very unfortunate passing of comedic genius and icon Robin Williams, the nation got hit in the face again with a jolt of reality concerning police.  While still trying to recover from the senseless death of Eric Garner (thanks to the NYPD), we now got hit with another crippling blow with the uncalled for execution of eighteen-year-old college prospect Michael Brown. Michael Brown was walking along a street in his small hometown of Ferguson, MO when he had an encounter with police officer Darren Wilson.  What followed was hideous and atrocious.  While unarmed and defenseless, Brown was gunned down in broad daylight.  The accusation: a POSSIBLE suspect in a nearby robbery that ended up being proven that it was unrelated and Brown was "walking down the middle of the street blocking traffic", according to police chief Thomas Jackson.  The most pitiful excuse I've heard...since the whole Eric Garner ordeal, and that was recent.

Tired, angry, and full of confusion, the residents of Ferguson protested the police department and demanded answers.  Instead all the community got were more questions and little to no information.  What followed was simple and pure madness.  Soon the protests turned into looting and rioting.  It was the community's way of an answer to the injustice that was being presented to them for the shooting of an unarmed Black kid.  While it didn't resemble anything like the Watts Riots of 1965 or the L.A. Riots of 1992, the unrest was becoming more and more apparent.  The small city of Ferguson started to look like a city under siege, with militarization in place.  From riot control devices to tear gas being used and even armored tanks and vehicles, it was clear the community had reached a new level and that the city was on the verge of Anarchy-like conditions.

Who can blame these people for how they're feeling?  It's becoming more and more obvious there's a hunt on for our people.  Young Black men and women have been murdered by the people that are sworn to protect and serve us.  While I'm not at all discounting my Latino and Hispanic brothers and sisters and their issues with the police, I haven't seen nearly as many have fatal encounters with police departments as I've seen my Black people.  Now we all know the media is known for making us look like idiots and buffoons, much less criminals and thugs (we've known that for many, many years) so it's very possible that my Hispanic and Latino communities could be just as target but the media may not be showing any examples.  At this point in time, now it's an issue of 'who do you trust?' I myself have had experiences with the police where I wasn't even acting suspicious.  However, that doesn't matter whatsoever.

The sad part is there are some truly upstanding police officers, and black eyes get put on them automatically because of these power-hungry, racist bullies that mess everything up for them.  To those officers, you guys and girls need to stand up and not tolerate these types of actions that make you all look bad.  To hell with "defending your code".  If not, you'll instead be the ones of being guilty by association if retaliation occurs from these families and friends of the ones that have been killed by your colleagues actions.  This is not a threat or anything of that nature, but be aware that stuff like this does not go unpunished.

While protests are good ways of showing the police what we will and won't tolerate, what are they REALLY doing?  Is anybody being held accountable and actions getting followed through with? You can't change racial and prejudiced attitudes.  All you can do is defend yourselves against them, get educated on your rights, and by all means let your local police department know that, should there be any injustice or things of this nature, their actions will not be tolerated or excused.  I don't condone rioting or providing civil unrest, but I can completely understand their rage and hatred towards their police department.  We've seen other unfortunate cases such as Jordan Davis, Trayvon Martin, Jonathon Ferrell, Sean Bell, Oscar Grant and Amadou Diallo where police (or those that THOUGHT they were authority figures) mercilessly gunned down and were unarmed.  When will this mess end??

In 1988, N.W.A. put the police departments of America on blast with the anthemic "F**k The Police", which became a source of gasoline on an already flaming fire within the Black community concerning especially the LAPD.  Some at the time criticized them for being so vicious on wax concerning the police, however once the Rodney King-inspired L.A. riots happened, these same people were singing different tunes.  With the inexcusable killings of these and others, many are blaring the song out of their windows in rebellious, and slightly nihilistic, fashion.  It wasn't just a ghetto, inner-city cry, but it became a nationwide epidemic of police brutality and injustice.  Now, times are almost identical with how police treated our parents and grandparents in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Let's also not forget about the vengeful and sadistic "Cop Killer" by Ice-T and his metal group Body Count. There needs to be an answer to all of this madness.

That's all for now.  Trust me I could go on and on about this, and honestly my first topic wasn't quite as heavy as this, but was still a serious matter nonetheless that I may touch on next week.  Until then, here are a couple of cuts that exemplify today's conditions with the police.  To my residents of Ferguson, hold your heads and stay strong!

Note: these cuts are very explicit but guess what??  Who cares!