Dept. of Good Damn Advice

[kaffy_r]

 With a Hat Tip to supergee  ...

... who pointed out this excellent and rightly angry piece by Mia McKenzie, talking about what you shouldn't get distracted by when a black teenager is murdered. Damn. Why does this even have to be written? And why do we - and I include me in the sorry list - have to be reminded? 

Comments

[eaweek.livejournal.com]

Great article; thanks for sharing!

[kaffy_r]

You're welcome; it's just a sin that it needed to be written.

[eaweek.livejournal.com]

Her eloquent righteous indignation fairly leaps of the screen. Definitely a "Hell, yeah!" piece.

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Damn good article. I've been reading Daily KOS and keeping track and it is amazing how many people keep forgetting what the issue is about. And all this talk of rioting and looting...horseshit. The issue is a dead black teenager who was slated to be in college TWO DAYS AFTER HIS DEATH and how the very same police who killed him, protected the murderer and used THEIR COVERUP as an excuse to open fire, gas and treat people peacefully protesting (and anyone who got in their way, officials, clergy and reporters) like they were less than human. This is about out of control police forces acting like they are above the law they swore to uphold and are actually savaging the citizenry they were supposed to protect. Like an unarmed black teenager who was mere steps away from his grandmother's residence.

To make this even cuter? They are trying to claim that Michael Brown 'robbed a convenience store'. The only thing I see convenient here is a shit-poor excuse for unloading a full magazine of a weapon into a defenseless kid who made the mistake of being black.

/steps off of soapbox

Sorry, I just...can't EVEN.
*Hugs you*

[wendymr.livejournal.com]

*applauds*

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

It just needed to be said. The police everywhere are getting out of control and this is just one terrible example. It should never have gotten this far.

Hell, four dead young black men in less than two and a half weeks - and it should never have gotten even as far as ONE. This is insanity! I did not know we had reverted to the 60's, but the 'let's step backward' trend is only getting uglier and the police are a force to be feared, not turned to when one is in need. That is just...unacceptable in my book.

*Squishes you, too*

[eaweek.livejournal.com]

Sing it!

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

*Headdesk* Got a littel excited, didn't I? *Hands*

[kaffy_r]

. You said it well. This is the kind of articulate anger that people need to shout to the ceilings and above, because until the powers that be hear it from us, they will be apt to do the wrong thing, and be the wrong kind of leaders.

And dear lord, we have to admit to ourselves that we live in a country drenched in racism, that we're part of it, and that unless we fight it in ourselves and in others, we are complicit in too much evil.

Thank you for writing this, my dear

[a-phoenixdragon.livejournal.com]

Thank you for bringing us the article. This particular issue is a hot button with me. I just...there is so much I want to scream about. Even as we DO scream about it, our political system is so screwed, it is opposing itself. And things like this just highlight that. We need a total overhaul in our governmental systems. I'm just hoping I can still say that without getting in trouble...meh.

*hugs you*

[dameruth.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it makes me so frustrated to see all the derailment going on in the news and in discussion fora. Thanks for the link!

[kaffy_r]

It's such a great piece; concise and to the point, and more importantly, refusing to let readers remember that point.

[flowsoffire.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much for sharing this article… These things need to be said.

a tweet suggesting Black people can dress better to avoid being murdered by the authorities

I just… the fact that a thought like this can even occur is deeply tragic. (And from what I understand, it came from a member of the community.)

News coverage—I kept waiting for this to come up on the French news lately. It finally did yesterday, for all of two minutes (war commemorations took all the room, to be fair, but this is happening right now) and the basic of it was "after days of disturbances/rioting, calm is finally returning to Ferguson with a Black person named at the head of the police…". I wondered if we were following the same events o.O

[kaffy_r]

Well, I'm glad that it made it to European news outlets, but I'm sad that the coverage was so focused on all the things that aren't important. (Although the Missouri highway patrol chief who has taken over police duties with his department, removing the St. Louis County police, is a black officer who actually grew up in Ferguson, so that is sort of germane.)

Mind you, I'm not surprised that coverage of First World War commemorations were big in France; that war took a generation of your young men, and mind; I'm Canadian and Canada has been covering the commemorations, because so many young Canadian men served over there, including my grandfather. And so many of them died over there.

[flowsoffire.livejournal.com]

Yes, commemorations are very important—it was just bad timing. Oh well… :/