Why I have opened the window!

Amerykah has turned a corner and we should all turn with it. I have thoughts ideas and suggestions but I also have patience and desire for us to be whole and one. I have been speaking a lot lately of the human condition and the generations of Black Americans. i will entertain any and all conversation as long as we can be respectful and grown up. Let the healing begin......

Thursday, October 30, 2008

If we don’t talk about it maybe it will just go away. Things that keep the races separated


Here is the thing about Hope…


I am a little disappointed with myself because I let my guard down. You see I got all caught up in the election and the feeling of people trying to rise above it all and work toward a more united America. But I forgot one of the first rules you learn as a black person in this country, it is that “you will always be a black person in this country.”

I will not repost Ashley Todd’s short but infamous resume’ here, if you don’t know who she is you have been living under a rock that does not get cable. I will say that it was reported today that she will be getting probation for her fraud and law breaking and that if she gets mental treatment and “stays out of trouble” her record will be expunged.


Yeah there is a ball in the pit of my stomach over this decision. Ashley committed a crime, worse she committed a hate crime, not in the sense that the law would recognize because she didn’t use any naughty words, but it was a hate crime. It seems however that now in this country that if you commit a crime against a group of people it is considered a mental illness. Not enough of a mental illness to get you a padded room, after all you aren’t dangerous right???

Let me take you back a couple of years to the infamous laugh factory incident and Michael Richards of Seinfeld fame. He used the “N” word a bunch of times against some black folks who were watching his routine. For the record, it was not the N that was so horrible about that incident, it was the talk of pitchforks and hangings and such. But I digress, that event happened a week or so before the last season of Seinfeld was set to be released on DVD. Sensing his and others money might be put in jeopardy, Richards claimed mental breakdown and took to the airwaves. In a completely unrelated story I notice that Dog the Bounty hunter got his show back….


Wikipedia (I love it) defines probation as:

Probation is the suspension of all or part of a jail sentence; the criminal who is "on probation" has been convicted of a crime, but instead of serving jail time, has been found by the Court to be amenable to probation and will be returned to the community for a period in which they will have to abide to certain conditions set forth by the Court under the supervision of a probation officer; or has served part of the sentence but has been released before its end. General conditions may include maintaining employment, abiding to a curfew, living where directed, abstaining from unlawful behavior, following the probation officer's orders, not absconding, and refraining from contact with other individuals, who may include victims of the original crime (such as a former partner in a domestic violence case), potential victims of similar crimes (such as minors when the crime involves child sexual abuse), potential witnesses, or those who have partnered with the offender in the earlier crime. In some cases the offender on probation is fitted with an electronic tag which signals his or her whereabouts to officials.

So as defined by that definition does this mean that she will not be able to speak to or stay away from black men? Sounds silly I know but no more so than forgiving and excusing this woman who defaced herself and blamed it on the social boogeyman “some black man.” Another brick in the bridge toward race relations destroyed.

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