Black Friday 2013 - Not for the Highlight Reel of Human Civilization

Cell phone picture of a Black Friday fight in a Wal-Mart store.

As an American raised to treat others with civility and respect it's frankly embarrassing to see some of the stories posted on foreign Websites like this one on BBC.com offering a  stunning list of different accounts of crowd violence that took place in stores across the nation on Black Friday.

Friday November 29th was definitely NOT a "leader of the free world" type of moment.

Amateur cell phone photos, like the one at left taken inside a Wal-Mart, or this video from the NBC10 News Philadelphia Website of a woman using a taser on another woman during a fight in the Franklin Mills Mall in Pennsylvania are all over the Web.

Honestly, what sale item or markdown is worth going into Macy's with 15,000 other people?

While adult individuals in this country are responsible for their own actions (morally, ethically and legally) some measure of blame has to be laid at the feet of mainstream media and the large advertisers blanketing the Internet, television, radio, newspaper, outdoor billboards and social media with this flood of Black Friday commercial marketing to consumers that's reinforced by the news for weeks.

For 24 hours a day the television new media in particular helps whip people into this irrational frenzy, then sit back and marvel at the violence, crowding and chaos that results. Even if this is a consumer economy, shouldn't there be some basic levels of order in place to ensure the public safety?

Maybe I'm getting more fussy as I age but some of the young children I saw on news clips and pictures who were out in these stores past 11:30pm had no business being up that late; or even SEEING adults act that way in public. Witnessing that kind of behavior cannot be healthy for the emotional development of children; it's certainly not going to help make them grow up to be better adults.

Speaking of responsible adults, on a more positive note The Root.com reports on a CBS New York story about some Brooklyn parents and community leaders who are rallying to take a more proactive stance against the Knockout Game; a demented activity trend among some New York City kids that's been in the media quite a bit lately.

When shoppers start to riot over cheap stuff, or kids consider walking up and punching an innocent 78 year-old woman in the head as happened in East New York recently as something fun to do - it's time for politicians on the local, state and Federal level to step it up and act in the public interest.

If Congress can spend time voting to repeal the Affordable Care Act over 43 times, or bringing legislation to the floor of the House that would grant an unborn fetus Constitutional rights, they can certainly do something to force retailers and advertisers to take more responsibility for crowd control measures. Rather than just promote their sales, open their doors then expect the tax payer to just foot the bill for local police to come restore order when things go south.  

We're a better country than that; or at least we should expect to be.

Limbaugh Calls Pope Francis' Efforts to Address Inequality 'Marxist'

Sign in front of a Catholic Church in Hamilton, NJ recently

When I logged onto MediaMatters.org this morning and read that GOP ideological figurehead Rush Limbaugh's latest sanctimonious pronunciation on Wednesday was to label Pope Francis a 'Marxist' because of his efforts to shift the focus of the Catholic Church to issues related to global inequality, it got me thinking.

Limbaugh loves to portray himself as some sort of uber-American super patriot who loves his country more than life itself and is constantly accusing President Obama of trampling on the Constitution.  

For such a die-hard Constitutional purist, Limbaugh seems to struggle with the fact that the words of the Declaration of Independence read in part: "We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that amongst these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

Like others within the higher ranks of the Republican party, Limbaugh slavishly adheres to the morally-distorted Ayn Rand-ian philosophy that he and everyone else who looks, thinks and votes like him are just a little more equal than everyone else. But now the Pope is a Marxist? I guess Limbaugh is never one to let self-contradiction stand in the way of his ideology.
 
Regardless, mixing political ideology with religious beliefs under any circumstance can lead one into rather tricky territory. When the Framers of the Constitution insisted on a separation of church and state as part of the basic governmental frame work for this nation, they did it for a pretty good reason.

Forgive the quality of the photo pictured above, but I snapped it with my iPhone while waiting at a red light on the way into work recently; whether put there by a priest or someone else associated with the church I think the words on the sign, "Give God what is right, not what is left" speak to what I'm saying.

The sign sits outside a large Catholic church just off Route 33 near the Five Points intersection in Hamilton, New Jersey. The church serves a fairly conservative and comfortable middle class suburban populace that tends to skew mostly white and older; many of whom left the city of Trenton years ago as quality of life (and the tax base) in the NJ State Capitol declined in the wake the departure of industries like glass and steel manufacturing which provided good-paying jobs to people of all backgrounds for decades.

For example, The Roebling Steel Mill in Trenton produced the steel cables for the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco as well as the George Washington Bridge in New York; the massive devices that traversed back and forth spinning spools of steel wire together for the suspension cables of the Brooklyn Bridge were built in Trenton as well. The famous engineer Washington Roebling credited with the completion of the Brooklyn Bridge attended school in Trenton and died there in 1926.

The cockpits for the P-51 Mustang fighter plane (which helped turn the tide of World War II for the Allies) were also manufactured in Trenton. But like many of the manufacturing centers in the Northeastern United States, the slow decline in the 1950's that followed a drop in wartime production and the demand for raw materials left cities like Trenton decimated when thousands of jobs were lost.

Many of those people (off all backgrounds and races) left the cities for better jobs and safer communities with better schools - and the tax bases that could support those kinds of things. Those are the reasons many of the people in Hamilton, some of whom are the offspring of people who left cities like Trenton, New York and Philadelphia, left the cities. As someone who leases apartments for a living, I can tell you that sometimes people leave with regrets; and unpleasant memories of the circumstances that made them leave.

To me there's a sense of bitterness and resentment in the words of that sign pictured above. In my opinion a sign like that has no business in front of a church. To me religion should be something that unites, not divides.

When Pope Francis takes on the monumental task of trying to modernize the Vatican and bring the direction of the Catholic Church in line with the larger concerns facing the majority of average people across the globe, to me he's trying to be a unifying presence.

When a man like Limbaugh, filled with anger as he so often is, haphazardly labels the Pope's efforts as Marxism, or a church puts up a sign that suggests God is aligned with a particular political ideology - they are missing the message. And worse, actively promoting division in a world that cries out for a more unified vision of humanity.

For some, such truths are not so self-evident.     

Happy Thanksgivukkah!

"Thanksgivukkah" poster created by Dana Gitell

Americans have a special fondness in our hearts for Thanksgiving, a holiday that traditionally centers around family, friends and of course food. Most of us have a deep personal connection to it as it also resonates in our memories of Thanksgivings past, reminding us of those near and dear to us who are no longer with us.

It kicks off the holiday season and makes us excited about the upcoming gatherings, parties, time with family and friends, the approach of a new year; and of course music. Personally I officially start listening to Christmas music tomorrow.

But it's origins and interesting evolution offer some really fascinating insights into our collective culture and national identity.

Thanksgiving was first declared an official Federal holiday by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863 in the midst of the Civil War, but the actual tradition of a day of observance for giving thanks in this nation stretches as far back as far as 1607 in what was then known as the Commonwealth of Virginia.

What many of us learned in school as the "First Thanksgiving" was actually a three day celebration of a successful Autumn harvest  attended by 93 members of the Wampanoag tribe and 53 settlers that took place in 1621 on the Plymouth Plantation.

The fact that this holiday was essentially a multi-cultural gathering is important in the context of a nation composed of many different ethnicities, religious backgrounds and nationalities. Unlike the other major holidays, Thanksgiving stretches across boundaries and links us together in gratitude and a love of good food. In that sense I think it's the quintessential American holiday.

This year it's particularly special. Not only does it fall on the 5th Thursday of the month (it's normally the 4th) but because of the calendar it happens to coincide with the first day and second evening of the celebration of Hanukkah, (or Chanukah as it's also spelled); the "Festival of Lights and Feast of Dedication" observed for eight nights and days - one of the most important Jewish holidays of the year.

It's extremely rare that the two holidays coincide on the calendar like this. According to an October 2nd article by Jonah Lowenfeld in the Jewish Journal the next time Thanksgiving and Hanukkah take place on the 5th Thursday of the month will be 77,000 years from now; while the next time both holidays take place on the 4th Thursday of November will be sundown November 27, 2070.

Boston-based marketer Dana Gitell is credited with coming up with the clever mashup term of both holidays called "Thanksgivukkah" and she also created the great ethnic twist on the painting "American Gothic" shown above.

Yesterday on the Brian Lehrer Show there was an interesting segment where Brian asked Jewish listeners to call in with personal memories of their Hanukkah experiences growing up. You can listen to it here, click on "Hanukkah, American Style" it's not too long. I was personally stuck by a guy who called in and talked about growing up in a neighborhood where there were very few Jewish families and he was always affected by going to his grandmother's apartment in Brooklyn and seeing many windows with Menorah candles lighting up the windows and the sense of cultural connection he felt.

As an African-American who grew up in suburbs where there were very few black people, I really identified with that; but that's another blog...

But let's also remember there also many Americans who don't celebrate Thanksgiving at all. Some people don't like how the holiday has become so commercialized. Many Vegans oppose the holiday on moral grounds because it promotes the killing of turkeys and consumption of meat and some people simply don't feel like being bothered with it.

If that's you there's an interesting article on the WNYC.org Website by Julie Whitaker and Caitlin Thompson titled, "WNYC's Alterna-Guide to Thanksgivukkah" which lists some interesting and fun things to do on this day off.

Unfortunately for employees of K-Mart stores that's NOT an option today as the heartless president/CEO of Sears/K-Mart Edwin Lampert decided that K-Mart stores nationwide will be opening at 6am and stay open 41 hours straight through the shopping chaos of Black Friday.

The decision has generated a huge media backlash across the country as people express sympathy for the thousands of K-Mart employees who not only make just above minimum wage, but will not be paid overtime or have time to spend Thanksgiving with their families or friends.

We all KNOW where the C-level executive types of the Sears Holding Corporation and K-Mart will be - sitting on their asses at home with their families eating turkey, arguing politics with the resident "drunk uncle", watching football and waiting for the company's Black Friday revenue numbers to come in.

No one is going to argue against the company making a fair profit but staying open all day on Thanksgiving is just wrong. And I think it's ultimately going to do a lot of damage to their brand as there have been calls for people to boycott the store. Personally I could get behind binding Congressional legislation that no store can be open for more than six hours on Thanksgiving Day; but I'm not holding my breath waiting for Speaker John Boehner and his dysfunctional GOP House majority to do anything about it.

Anyway that's it for now. Thanks a lot for taking time to come check out my blog; I check my Google stats and I really appreciate it. I've got to go work out before I get ready to head down to Philadelphia to this afternoon to my Uncle's house for dinner. It's not going to be a "Rocky" workout or anything but least I'll feel a little less guilty about that 2nd plate of tasty goodness, multiple trips to the desert table and the leftovers I bring home to do it all again tomorrow (aww yeahhh....) but after all we are a nation of consumers; I'm just trying to do my part to be a good American. Happy Thanksgivukkah!

Bus Stop! NYC Corrections Officer's Bogus Bus Fleet Breakdown Coverup Exposed

Inmate transport buses like these were idled by COBA 

This story could have come straight out of a spec script left on the table of the 'Law & Order" writer's room.

Back on December 3rd, 2011 New York City Department of Corrections officers Kevin Gilkes, 48 of Brooklyn and Louis Pinto, Jr. 30 of Hicksville, NY claimed a then 20 year-old inmate being held at Rikers Island on robbery charges named Dapree Peterson suddenly came towards them in an "aggressive manner".

An official report filed by the two officers claims they were both forced to maneuver the inmate to the ground and subdue him for their own safety. Only problem with that is the videotape of the incident showing Gilkes slamming Peterson into a wall and then beating him while Pinto stands there watching. 

Peterson filed charges against Gilkes and Pinto and was scheduled to appear in court to testify against both officers in the Bronx Supreme Court last Monday November 18th. But in a monumental coincidence of mysterious mechanical problems on a mass scale, the Department of Corrections claimed it's fleet of 33 buses (yes, the whole fleet) normally used to transport prisoners between Rikers Island and the courts on a daily basis were ordered taken out of service after an impromptu and excessively detailed inspection of each bus conducted by (drum roll please) members of the Corrections Officer's Benevolent Association, according to a scathing op-ed in the New York Post.

It gets better.

The New York media is feasting on the fact that it turns out it was actually an intentional slowdown sanctioned by Norman Seabrook, head of the Corrections Officers Benevolent Association designed to prevent a single prisoner, the same Dapree Peterson, from going to the Bronx Supreme Court to testify against the prison guards who were not only caught on videotape beating him, but then lied about it and tried to cover it up in an official report.

According to the New York Times the slowdown lasted through Tuesday the 19th and left hundreds of cases backed up because the inmates scheduled to appear couldn't be transported to court. It's so absurd Mayor Bloomberg has threatened a $1 million a day penalty to be levied against COBA if it engages in another union lackey stunt like that again; which is straight out of the Boss Tweed playbook.

In today's NY Daily News, Barbara Ross reports the city is suing both guards for falsifying an  official report and Gilkes could face time for misdemeanor assault for beating Peterson; can't wait for Ole' Gilkey to meet up with some short-tempered Dept of Corrections guard on the end of a double-shift if he ends up serving time. But most likely he won't. Convicting a Rikers Island DOC guard for beating a black inmate is like fining race car drivers for going over 55mph on a Formula One track. 

Anyway we'll see. The officer's trial is set to continue on December 5th. If the media heats up enough and the crowd demands a sacrifice the city will be serving someone up. At least we can expect a couple of interesting press conferences from Norman Seabrook and maybe a few good NY Post covers.

It's not just the blatant absurdity of this case that's so shocking, it's the gall of the corrections officers and their union (COBA) for thinking they could simply stage a massive shutdown in the media capital of the World to prevent an inmate from testifying in open court against an officer who is on videotape beating the crap out of him while another just watches.

To say nothing of systematically preventing scores of other inmates from accessing one of the most fundamental Constitutional rights; the right to a fair trial. It reeks of something deeper in the criminal justice system.

The publication of books like, 'The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness' author Michelle Alexander's groundbreaking analysis of the systematic mass incarceration of African-Americans, published in 2010, or Wall Street Journal reporter Douglas A. Blackmon's Pultizer-Prize winning 2008, 'Slavery By Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans From the Civil War to World War Two' a stunning examination of the intentional manipulation of local and state laws used to keep thousands of African-Americans in a forced labor system in south, have offered incredible insight into the incredibly dysfunctional nature of the US judicial system.

Blackmon's book was also made into a PBS documentary and I have to tell you it was not easy to watch. The stories and accounts were heart-rendering of course, but it was more than that. To look at evidence of how the same United States that defends Democracy and freedom around the world operates a prison system that internationally incarcerates people of color on a mass scale and condemns them to unspeakable conditions for profit really helped me gain some perspective on the country I call home; where I began my K - 12th grade mornings saying the Pledge of Allegiance.

While I consider these books must-reads for all Americans regardless of race, religion or background the thing is you don't have to dive into these meticulously researched books to see evidence of a justice system that is at odds with the very fabric of the Constitution.

As we see from the deplorable actions by the Corrections Officer's Benevolent Association and their leader Norman Seabrook, it's right here in front of us happening everyday. Just remember this story the next time you hear about an inmate choking himself to death in his cell or falling down a flight of stairs. The spirit of Jim Crow lives on Rikers Island.

Massing on Maidan: Ukrainians Stage Protests After President Yanukovych Ditches EU Deal

Ukrainian protesters in Kiev on Sunday - Photo by Reuters

Over 100,000 Ukrainian citizens assembled in European Square and Independence Square in the capital of Kiev on Sunday to protest president Viktor Yanukovych's decision to back out of signing a highly-anticipated deal with the European Union.

At first glance that might not seem like the kind of story deserving more attention from mainstream American media than it did, but I think it does.

In this day and age when the power structure of wealth and political influence are increasingly controlled by a smaller and smaller percentage of the overall global population, I think the protests have a common link with the Occupy Wall Street protest movement. They signify a deeper unrest that's not confined to any one nation. 

The specific reasons that sparked the Ukrainian protests might be different, but we're still looking at an important indicator of the frustration felt by ordinary people across the globe over the gap between rich and poor; which is as high as it's been in decades and growing. And a sense of disconnect between the will of ordinary citizens and the actions of the political parties that claim to represent them. Our current House of Representatives being a prime example.

100,000 people showing up on Maidan to express their political views on the direction of their nation must also be viewed in light of the recent uprisings that took place across the Mid-East during the 'Arab Spring'.

From the Ukrainian perspective, as reported by the BBC, the protests in Ukraine raise the specter of the Orange Revolution protests back in 2004 when thousands took to the streets to protest the widely contested election of current president Yanukovych which many considered to have been rigged.

The current protests erupted after Yanukovych announced last week (on what many Ukrainians are now calling "Black Thursday") that Ukraine would not sign an association agreement with the European Union at the end of this month as many had expected. The treaty would have brought this Eastern European nation, a former part of the Soviet Union that was first annexed by the USSR in 1939 before finally regaining full independence in 1991, closer to the economic alliance of Western European nations.

While many clearly hoped it would mean a well-needed boost for Ukrainian businesses and possible access to Western credit markets to help Ukraine's struggling economy and increase employment, there was also a simple desire by many to step out of the shadow of Russia's sphere of influence. But it was not to be.

Russian president Vladamir Putin has staunchly opposed Ukraine aligning itself with the EU. According to an article in The Economist,  Russia imposed sanctions on Ukraine as far back as August in an effort to put pressure on Yanukovych to scuttle talks with the EU and instead join the Kremlin-friendly Customs Union; an economic bloc created by Russia in 2010 which sought to counter the EU with a group of former Soviet states; it includes Kazakhstan and Belarus.

Putin's pressure simply proved too much. With Ukrainian trade shackled by as much as 25% because of Russia's sanctions, Yanukovych shelved the EU deal, angering a Ukrainian populace eager to bring itself closer to it's Western European neighbors.

It's not surprising, after all remember when Putin shut off natural gas supplies (which flow through Ukraine) to Western Europe at the height of winter back in January 2009? And remember the Russian Navy's Black Sea Fleet is headquartered on the coastal Ukrainian city of Sevastopol under a long term lease agreement - so it's not like Russia was just going to sit back and watch Ukraine join the EU (and potentially NATO?) and do nothing. In the mindset of many Russians, Ukraine is still part of it's territory even though the USSR dissolved back in 1991.   

From the American perspective the ongoing realignment of which nations wield power and influence on global affairs is changing the idea of what being a 'Superpower' means. Especially since the second invasion of Iraq under former president George W. Bush and the subsequent backlash against the idea of the United States role as 'global policeman'.

Examples abound. French forces intervening in Mali to drive back Islamic extremists. China investing billions in African nations to help secure sources for oil and other natural resources for export to satisfy their nation's growing energy needs. And of course, there's Russia playing a much more active role in global foreign policy and flexing it's muscle and excerting its influence in situations like Libya and Syria; and obviously in the Ukraine.

Personally I disagree with many foreign policy experts/pundits and politicians who subscribe to the script that former president Ronald Reagan 'ended the Cold War' when the Berlin Wall came down under former Soviet leader Gorbachev.

Sure America's military-industrial complex succeeded in essentially bankrupting the former Soviet Union by spending an enormous proportion of the US budget on defense spending; but the stuggle to excert global influence between Russia and the West continues as evidenced by Putin's efforts to prevent the Ukraine from aligning with the EU and keep it within the sphere of Russian influence.

Caught in the middle are millions of Ukrainians, only 15% of whom support an alignment with the Moscow-based Customs Union. Ukrainians have fought long and hard for their independence from the Russian and Austro-Hungarian Empires in the 19th century, then from the Soviets and the Nazis in the 20th century; and now it seems from a 21st century Russia eager to reaffirm it's grip on this nation of almost 45 million people who speak 18 different languages.

At a time when it seems an independent nation like Ukraine, who's people thirst for Democracy and fair elections, would merit more vocal support from the West, Americans are pretty quiet. Exhausted from Bush's war in Iraq (which was never actually about independence) and from the protracted conflict in Afghanistan; whose leaders sadly seem content to coexist with a complex mix of Islamic extremists and tribal warlords running it's rural interior and rampant political corruption running the cities. 

With Russia and China both backing Assad in Syria, we seem hesitant to confront Putin over his grip on Ukraine and upset whatever kind of peace we hope can be reached in a Syrian nation still involved in a brutal civil war; the outrage over his use of chemical weapons seems to have faded from the mainstream media spotlight.

The ills of the world can't all be laid on Putin's doorstep, but the world has learned he deals with opposition much the same way Stalin did; by criminalizing anyone who opposes him, outlawing opposition political parties and sentencing anyone with the temerity to disagree with him to long prison sentences.

Or worse, as in Russian opposition leader and ex-military pilot Nikolai Savinov who was murdered under 'mysterious circumstances' last week. The Ukrainians who are still out on Maidan right now protesting understand that. And in the wake of the 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination last week we're reminded that there was a time when the US might have understood that too.

But right now it seems America will just watch. The paralyzing political morass in Washington has seen to that. Who will step up and speak on behalf of Ukraine? The thousands of people gathered out in the squares seems to be the answer for now.

The words of the Ukrainian anthem read, "Shche ne vmerla Ukrayina, i slava, i volya" which translates to "Ukraine's glory has not yet perished, nor her freedom".

Let's hope the West's commitment to Democracy and free and fair elections hasn't perished either. 

Lessons from World War II Bringing Sight to the Blind In the 21st Century

A patient thanks Dr. Geoff Tabin for her sight.

As a student of history, for me war is one of the most fascinating subjects to read about, reflect upon and study.

To study war is to bear witness to mankind at his best in terms of characteristics like bravery and the willingness to sacrifice; or in terms of the mastery of technology and new innovations. But it is also mankind at his worst in terms of sheer savagery and almost incalculable destruction and loss.

If you look at the conflicts raging across parts of the globe right now as you read this, it seems too often we seem to forget the costly lessons paid for by the suffering and dying of so many. But war has also yielded some innovations that are in the end, beneficial to mankind. Things that can ease suffering and save lives.

Case in point: the ophthalmologists Dr. Geoff Tabin and Dr. Sanduk Ruit, co-founders of an amazing global charitable effort called The Himalayan Cataract Project.

The other night I watched a fascinating report by ITV's John Irvine on the NBC Nightly News Website about the project's global effort to offer fast, low-cost cataract surgery to return sight to people in Third World nations blinded as a result of malnutrition, sub-standard water supplies and lack of medical care; all too familiar symptoms of the global scourge of poverty. 

While Irvine's ITV report specifically covered Dr. Tabin's vision-restoring surgery in the Uttar Pradesh region of rural India, the project also flies teams into impoverished areas all over Asia and Africa. It's a quick 5-minute surgery to remove the cataract from the eye and replace it with an artificial lens; a lens with origins rooted in the skies over Europe in World War II.

As Irvine revealed, the technique was originally conceived by a British ophthalmologist who treated RAF fighter pilots who had pieces of glass from the canopies of Spitfire fighter planes lodged in their eyes after explosions in or around the cockpit. The British doctor discovered that the glass stuck in the pilot's eye did not get infected as the eye did not reject the material - so the lens used by Dr. Tabin to save the vision of impoverished people around the world is the very same material used in the cockpits of British Spitfire fighter planes from World War II.

Just imagine that, the miracle of people regaining their eyesight from a lesson learned from a tool of destruction in a war that ended sixty eight years ago. Wars have taught us many such lessons.
   
The Civil War taught generations of surgeons, medical personnel and teachers techniques on treating traumatic injuries as well as triage techniques to get the wounded from the battlefield to the hospital faster with a better chance of survival and recovery. Consider that the next time you see an ambulance racing by; the modern concept of a specialized means to rapidly transport an injured or sick person to a hospital is a direct result of tragic lessons learned by the Army in the Civil War.

Or consider the African-American surgeon and researcher Dr. Charles Richard Drew who's pioneering work in developing blood transfusion techniques enabled the large-scale storage of blood banks in the early 1940's is credited with saving the lives of thousands of soldiers in World War II; today about 85 millions units of red blood cells are transfused a year.

Please don't get me wrong, I'm no hawk running around waving the war flag or anything. But just as I think it's our collective duty to respect and honor the veterans who sacrifice for our country, it's equally critical to understand why we fought, where we fought, how we fought and most importantly WHY we fought.

Otherwise the horrific lessons learned from places like Shiloh, or the the Battle of the Marne or the Battle of Okinawa might be forgotten. Considering the amount of time kids in schools today spend on standardized testing I wonder if young students know the names of those places or what happened there. Like many others including John Lennon, I imagine a world where one day war will be a thing of the past, but for that to happen we must understand the past; and reflect on the lessons it teaches us today.

Watching the reactions of those who've had their eye sight restored, it's fair to say the efforts of Dr. Geoffrey Tabin, Dr. Sanduk Ruit and their medical teams demonstrate that at least some of those lessons will not be forgotten; and the sacrifice of those who lost their lives in war, while tragic, was not totally in vain.

Warsan Ismail's Twitter Posts Spark Nationwide Discussion on "Norskrasisme" in Norway

Norwegian Tweeter Warsan Ismail

The immediacy, power and reach of Twitter, and its ability to migrate beyond the boundaries of social media to impact global mainstream media with just 140 characters has been seen and felt many times.

There was IT consultant Sohaib Athar who unknowingly became the first person to (publicly) report on the US raid on Osama Bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan on April 29, 2012 when he heard a noise outside his window, looked out and tweeted: "Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1am (is a rare event),".

According to a CNN article by Doug Gross, on Saturday the day before the raid, Athar had 751 followers; by Monday two days later he had 32,000 and had cemented his place in history. There were (and still are) myriad examples of people on the ground in Egypt, Libya, Syria and other hot spots around the globe using Twitter to report on uprisings and conflicts as they unfold.

But yesterday there was a really interesting article on the BBC Website about a Norwegian student of Somali origin named Warsan Ismail who's tweets about the kinds of racism and intolerance her family faces every day in Norway have exploded into a nationwide conversation on race, culture and immigration. As the BBC article by Cordelia Hebblethwaite revealed, Ismail posted a series of tweets describing various incidents (including one where a neighbor set his two dogs on her mother) using the hashtag #norskrasisme which translates to Norwegian racism, and very quickly other Norwegians began using the same hashtag to post similar stories.

To date there have been thousands of tweets in this evolving and revealing conversation and Ismail has been interviewed on Norwegian television and in newspapers. To me there's something fascinating, brilliant and powerful about this. By simply telling her story (in a 140 characters at a time no less) she has tapped into a nationwide need for Norwegians to begin having an open and frank discussion about an issue that many in Norway don't like to openly discuss.

Just last week the Independent reported on efforts by Marine Le Pen of France's National Front and Geert Wilders of the Dutch Freedom Party, the leaders of their countries respective right wing political parties, to form a cooperative voting bloc in the European Parliament.

These are just two of the many nationalistic right wing political movements in Europe that are becoming increasingly mainstream largely in response to frustration over lingering high unemployment, stagnant wages and resentment over the immigration of growing numbers of people from Asia, Africa and the Middle East seeking better jobs in Europe - or fleeing violence or political persecution in their own countries.

These parties, usually occupying the fringes of mainstream political movements, typically gain traction and popularity during times of economic downturns when they tailor their message to capitalize on frustration and find ways to entwine their brand with the struggles of the larger populace.  (Tea Party anyone?)

For example in the United States in the 1920's in the wake of a sluggish post-World War I economy fueled by global recession, membership in the Ku Klux Klan exploded, reaching an all-time high of between 4 and 7 million members nationwide; including US Senators, Congressmen, judges and police from all over the country.

Cultural diversity is not new here in the United States and we still collectively struggle with open and frank discussions about race and immigration. I can't help but wonder how things might have been different in the United States in the 1920's if there was some kind of platform like Twitter for people to engage in more open discussions across the perceived boundaries that kept society so segmented.  

What's positive about Warsan Ismail's tweets sparking discussion in Norway is that it's been a catalyst for people of different races and religions and from all sides of the issue to begin to talk openly about the shifting dynamics of race, identity and nationality in a nation for whom cultural diversity is relatively new. And that's a start.

Fallout Follows the Debacle on 34th Street; New York City Retailers Face Heat for Profiling Shoppers

Actor Rob Brown, detained for buying a watch

As a tax-paying, law-abiding African-American man who has been stopped and questioned in Manhattan in the past by members of the NYPD on two different occasions for doing absolutely nothing wrong I know the feeling of hurt, humiliation and outrage for being singled out by members of law enforcement simply because of the color of my skin.

So on the same day that news media headlines around the globe are reporting on the posthumous pardoning of the Scottsboro Boys by the Alabama state legislature in an effort to right one of the most notorious travesties of justice in modern history,  I was personally pleased to hear the news on The Brian Lehrer Show this morning that the city of New York is ratcheting up pressure on 17 local retailers to provide more transparency on their anti-theft procedures and policies in response to the growing media coverage surrounding details from a highly publicized incident of blatant racial profiling at Macy's that's set off a frenzy of national media coverage.

On October 25th actor Rob Brown filed a lawsuit against Macy's following an incident back in June when he was stopped and questioned by plain clothes police in Macy's after he used his own credit card to purchase a $1,300 watch as a present for his mother. Brown stars on HBO's acclaimed series "Treme" (he plays character Delmond Lambreaux) and not only was he handcuffed and detained for over an hour by Macy's, but he has since claimed the police and store security also mocked and insulted him before finally releasing him after determining that the credit card he used to buy the watch was his and the purchase was valid.

Seriously, this is 2013 people, does Macy's have some sort of unofficial price limit on purchases black customers can make before they're assumed to be stealing? Is shopping while black a crime?

Bear in mind this incident didn't take place inside any old Macy's in some mall out in the suburbs; this took place in the Macy's massive flagship store in Herald Square on 34th street in Manhattan. You've seen the holiday classic "Miracle on 34th Steet" right? Yeah, THAT Macy's. Ho-ho-ho indeed.

And what about Barney's? According to the Christian Science Monitor on October 21st a 19 year-old college student named Trayvon Christian filed suit against both Barney's and the NYPD after undercover police stopped him outside the store after he bought a $350 Ferragamo belt with his debit card. Police claimed he couldn't afford it and hustled him off to the 19th Precinct in Manhattan and held him there for two hours; despite the fact that he showed them his identification card, debit card and receipt for the belt.

In the recent wake of demands for changes in the NYPD's "Stop & Frisk" policy, the city of NewYork is stepping up to take a stand. As reported on the Business Page of the NBC News Website on Wednesday:
"The NYC Commission on Human Rights has sent letters to 17 retailers — including Macy's and Barneys — requesting the following information: loss prevention policies; procedures for approaching and detaining individuals suspected of theft; records regarding all individuals accused of theft in the past two years; and what, if any presence, NYPD officers have in the retail locations.
The stores are: Century 21, Loehmann's, Sephora, Target, Bloomingdale's, Bergdorf Goodman, Banana Republic, Old Navy, Sears, Lord & Taylor, Neiman Marcus, The Gap, CVS, Saks Fifth Avenue, Barneys, Macy's, Bath & Body Works/Limited Brands/Victoria's Secret."

While members of the African-American community nationwide have been complaining about being followed around in stores for years, it's an important step for the city which could arguably lay claim to being the shopping capital of America. In the same ways civil rights groups, concerned citizens of all backgrounds, community activists, lawyers, legal scholars, educators and local politicians came together to bring pressure on the NYPD to halt Stop & Frisk - those same forces are bringing the media spotlight to bear on retailers for treating shoppers differently because of their race.

With the biggest shopping season of the year getting underway, maybe some of the retailers (and the undercover NYPD officers working security for them) listed above will rethink the policy of assuming certain people are guilty because of the way they look. We'll see, Stop & Frisk incidents by the NYPD are down 80% in recent months.

Oh one final note of interest. The other week a man called into The Brian Lehrer Show while this same topic was was being discussed. He claimed that in addition to anti-theft measures, retailers also intentionally aggressively profile because it's an easy way for them to 'double-dip'. If someone is nabbed for stealing, whether they actually did steal or not, the caller claims stores often report the merchandise stolen or damaged to their insurance companies, collect on the loss or theft - then put the 'stolen' merchandise right back on the shelf and sell it.

Who's to say? I've written many times over the past few years in this blog that the deeper insidious nature of bigotry and prejudice is that people get so reactionary and emotional over perceived differences that it becomes easy to manipulate people's behavior for financial gain without them knowing about it. Remember bankers, lawmakers, business owners and real estate companies didn't  just cooperate and collude to carefully segregate American neighborhoods out of fear and by perpetuating a litany of racial stereotypes (not just about blacks either); they did it because it was profitable. 

It's a bit late for me to get into that tonight (that's a different blog) but there is extensive scholarly research on the subject, for example take a glance at the titles of some of the discussion panels from this one day conference titled "Cities, Towns and Suburbs" held at The Center for Race and Ethnicity at Rutgers back in March. Or for a little more contemporary perspective check out this article on some of the realities of home ownership from Forbes.com written by Emory University tax law professor Dorothy Brown.

I think I'll do my holiday shopping on Amazon this year.

The Dow is Up, But Donations Are Down for Philadelphia Area Families

Volunteers for the UAC Thanksgiving Basket Program

It was fantastic weather in Philadelphia over the weekend, after dinner with friends in nearby Rockledge on Saturday night I headed to the Eagles Washington game at the Linc on Sunday afternoon.

While the 24-16 Washington loss (despite a heroic 4th quarter rally) was admittedly disappointing, a post-game stop at Tony Luke's for what is arguably THE best cheese steak in Philly did make me feel a little better; (sorry Gino's and Pat's).

To observe the massive glass towers that now define the growing downtown Philly skyline as well as the new football and baseball stadiums and the new Wells Fargo Center indoor arena, the City of Brotherly love exudes an air of prosperity that's at odds with some of the financial realities facing this city of over 1.5 million people and the nation as well.

In light of the record highs reached by the Dow and the S&P 500 on Monday that were so widely trumpeted by mainstream media, one might assume the country has finally turned the corner from the effects of the Great Recession of 2008 that proved so devastating to lower and middle class Americans and entered a new phase of recovery. Unfortunately that's not true for everyone.

That was painfully evident to me on Sunday as we drove from Rockledge down through some fairly depressed looking neighborhood areas of North Philly to get to Lincoln Financial field for the Eagles game. But the signs aren't restricted to any one neighborhood.

Yesterday on NBC 10 News (Philadelphia) a local minister was interviewed to call for donations from the public for the annual Thanksgiving Basket Program, a cooperative effort between the city's Urban Affairs Coalition and Brown's Shoprite to provide Thanksgiving meal baskets to more than 6,000 Philadelphia families living in poverty. Unfortunately the Department of Community & Economic development is no longer funding this holiday program, so the UAC needs to close a $5,000 budget shortfall to purchase turkeys for the meal baskets.  

I was surprised to learn from the minister interviewed on NBC 10 that Philadelphia currently has the nation's 2nd highest rate of poverty at 28% for large cities. Think about that number. 28% of a population of over 1.5 million live in poverty. This is at a time when Republicans in Washington are slashing funding for Food Stamps from the latest version of the Farm Bill and as the UAC Website notes, 3 of every 10 people in Philadelphia are eligible for Food Stamps but not all receive them.

Unemployment remains stubbornly high nationwide despite steady monthly job gains, and wages for the working and middle class remain stagnant and virtually unchanged since the 1970's when you factor in cost of living adjustments and inflation. You have to scratch your head when you consider that corporate profits are at an all-time high and the Dow and S&P 500 are breaking new territory.

Just today MSNBC's Now with Alex Wagner had a segment about McDonald's subsidizing it's corporate profits by paying it's workers poverty wages (52% of fast food workers must live on public assistance or Food Stamps).

What's really happening in this country when Congress slashes funding for Food Stamps but allows McDonald's to make US taxpayers fork out a staggering $1.5 billion in yearly government benefits to subsidize the low wages it pays it's workforce? As Alex Wagner reported, the six heirs to the massive Wal-Mart fortune collectively have more net worth than the entire bottom 40% of the United States.

Have you heard about the growing controversy surrounding Wal-Mart setting out plastic bins inside their stores for their own employees to donate food to OTHER Wal-Mart employees in need? Seriously? Wal-Mart spends an estimated $7 billion a year to buy back it's own stock in order to increase shareholder profits, but they can't increase wages for it's employees? Talk about welfare queens, put a crown on McDonald's and Wal-Mart.

I'm no news editor but it seems like the real story about wage inequality in the United States, stagnant compensation and pay and record corporate profits without significant hiring gains ought to be receiving the same kinds of headlines as the Dow trading at over 16,000. At least we can put the trickle-down theory to bed.

While affecting broader changes in corporate responsibility and wage fairness issues will require more sustained efforts by all Americans, at the least you can visit the Urban Affairs Coalition Website and kick in a few bucks to help a Philadelphia area family celebrate Thanksgiving Day with a nice meal.

Renisha Marie McBride, 19 - Another Innocent American Executed for Having Dark Skin?

Victim Renisha McBride

 Has the increasing level racial polarization in this nation so negatively warped the perception of all people of color that it's become essentially OK to simply shoot and kill an unarmed, innocent American person simply because their skin is dark and your afraid of them?

Consider the tragic case of 19-year old Renisha Marie McBride of Detroit, a recent (2012) graduate of Southfield High School. In the early morning hours of November 2nd Ms McBride, allegedly intoxicated at the time, crashed her vehicle into a parked car in the mostly-white Dearborn Heights suburbs just outside the city of Detroit.

Witnesses say she wandered around the neighborhood in a haze before apparently trying to seek help at the home of 54 year old Theodore Wafer, while the facts of what happend aren't clear, Wafer pulled out a shotgun and shot McBride in the face at point blank range killing her instantly.

Was he standing his ground? Did he think she was trying to break into his house? What was going on in his mind? It was the middle of the night after all. I'm not the only person asking those questions, because it's starting to look like a terrifying pattern; innocent black person shot and killed, no charges filed, no one arrested until the story comes under the glare of the media.

That seemed to be the case in Florida with the Trayon Martin case, after all his shooter George Zimmerman wasn't even arrested or charged with a crime the night of Martin's murder and as the entire world knows he walked out of court a free man.

Last month it was Jonathan Ferrell, a 24-year old former Florida A&M student-athlete who crashed his car in Charlotte, North Carolina then went to the home of a woman and knocked on the door for help - she opened the door saw he was black, slammed the door and called 911 in a panicked 17-minute call in which she fretted for her life.

When the members of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police arrived on the scene Ferrell, thinking they were responding to the scene of his accident, ran towards them. They responded by tasering him before 27 year-old Officer Randall Kerrick shot Ferrell ten times killing him.

According to the New York Times Wafer is to be arraigned on 2nd degree murder charges today but who's to say what the result of a trial will be once he lawyers up? The wheels of justice in this nation don't seem to place much value on the life of innocent people of color these days.

I'm going down to Philadelphia for the weekend to have dinner with friends Saturday night then go to the Eagles-Redksins game at the Linc on Sunday (believe me, if MY car breaks down, I'm breaking out my AAA card and calling a tow truck....) but I'll be interested to see the reaction of the mainstream media to this case over the next couple of days because you know what?

The sad truth is that if an intoxicated 19 year-old white girl crashed her car then showed up on my front door step in the middle of the night and I (a 6' 7" African-American man) shot her in the face and killed her, not only would I have been arrested immediately; I'd never walk out of prison again.

What's going on in the mindset of some people in this country? The Pledge of Allegiance I used to repeat each day in elementary school ended with "One nation under God...." but where justice for innocent victims of color is concerned, we seem to be two very disctinct nations; both seperate and unequal.

Richard Cohen's 'Gag Reflex' Comment Makes Many Want to Vomit

Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen

I was checking e-mails tonight and saw this new petition on CREDO Action calling for people to sign a letter to the Washington Post demanding they apologize for an op-ed suggesting 'interracial marriage makes normal people want to throw up.'

Just last week in my post-New York Mayoral election blog post entitled "Colored by Fear" I talked about the segment of people in New York and around the country who are made uncomfortable by the sight of New York Mayor-elect Bill De Blasio, his African-American wife Chirlane McCray and their two interracial children. Is Washington Post columnist and resident foot-in-mouth specialist Richard Cohen a part of that segment?

Yesterday in his regular weekly op-ed in the Post ('Christie's Tea Party Problem') Cohen opined that NJ Governor Chris Christie will never win over Tea Party loyalists and the 'severely' conservative faction of the party to win the 2016 GOP presidential nominee because (drum roll please); he's not conservative enough. Cohen based this analysis on a non-scientific quick-snapshot he took of the state of Iowa's likely caucus voters, the same caucus that selected Rick Santorum last time around.

While many across the media spectrum are rightly incensed by his 'gag reflex comment in the 2nd sentence of the 7th paragraph of his op-ed, I personally found the first sentence almost equally offensive and indicative of deep denial or a disturbing lack of understanding. You can and frankly probably should read the whole piece on the Washington Post Website but here's the paragraph causing such a stir:

"Today’s GOP is not racist, as Harry Belafonte alleged about the tea party, but it is deeply troubled — about the expansion of government, about immigration, about secularism, about the mainstreaming of what used to be the avant-garde. People with conventional views must repress a gag reflex when considering the mayor-elect of New York — a white man married to a black woman and with two biracial children. (Should I mention that Bill de Blasio’s wife, Chirlane McCray, used to be a lesbian?) This family represents the cultural changes that have enveloped parts — but not all — of America. To cultural conservatives, this doesn’t look like their country at all."

Now I don't know Cohen personally or anything, I don't know what makes him tick. The cynic in me suspects he knows exactly what he's doing when he writes something homophobic or laced with bigotry as he has on so many occasions before; perhaps he derives a sense of self satisfaction by pushing people's buttons and being blatantly politically incorrect.

Maybe he just wants to drive traffic to the Post's Website, after all the editorial staff did sign off on it; it's not like Cohen crept into the WP's offices late the night before and snuck the op-ed in there or anything. But if he honestly believes that what he calls 'conventional people' are sickened by interracial families he doesn't make me want to gag; he just strikes me as a sad, frightened, bitter old man who shut his mind up tight a long time ago against the change happening all around him.

Cohen doesn't seem to grasp that De Blasio and his family are the future of this country; instead Cohen sees the new Mayor of New York and his beautiful family as something to fear. All I can do is shake my head and close with a link to Matt Connolly's spot-on piece on the Mother Jones Website entitled "Richard Cohen's 10 Worst Moments Counted Down" - if you're not familiar with Cohen his offensive 'gag reflex' comment isn't his first time on the dance floor.

Unfortunately he seems to be a guy with all the wrong moves.   

Logan's Run: The Media Table is Turned on 60 Minutes

60 Minutes correspondent Lara Logan

It's been a tough couple weeks for 60 Minutes, CBS News and correspondent Lara Logan following a controversial report sharply critical of the Obama administration's response to the attack on the US embassy in Benghazi on September 11, 2102.

There's been a flood of media coverage of this confusing but still-evolving drama but if you want to get caught up on the essentials quickly reporter Doug Stanglin of USA Today penned a pretty concise summary on November 8th if you haven't followed the whole story.

What caught my attention was a revealing interview this morning on the Brian Lehrer Show on WNYC with Eric Boehlert, Senior Fellow of Media Matters for America who was pretty tough on Logan for her somewhat tepid on-air apology on Sunday night; click the link above to hear the Boehlert interview or see Logan's apology.

As a longtime watcher of 60 Minutes I'm certainly familiar with Logan's reporting and she's certainly been given more than her fair share of choice international story assignments for the nation's most watched news program. Back in 2011 she was the unfortunate victim of a violent sexual assault in Egypt's Tahrir Square while covering the massive uprisings on the day former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's government collapsed.

As far as television news journalists go, she's pretty intense. But for someone for whom objectivity and facts are so essential (it is 60 Minutes after all...) I was surprised to learn just how far right leaning her political views seem to be in a clip that was played during the Brian Lehrer interview this morning - give it a listen for yourself.



Media Matters for America has been all over this story, and were the first to publicly demand an explanation from Logan and CBS News for a high-profile report taking the Obama administration to task for it's handling of the Benghazi incident based largely on an interview with Dylan Davies, the security expert who told Logan and CBS that he was present during the attack on the embassy compound and even fought off attackers where four Americans lost their lives.

His (and Logan's?) credibility was shattered when the Washington Post reported that Davies had offered contradictory sworn testimony to the FBI and the security company that hired him about where he actually was during the Benghazi attack (in a beach-side villa...) lending many to speculate about his real motives.

Oh and 60 Minutes apparently failed to mention the fact that Davies was also promoting a new book about the night of the Benghazi attack he wrote under a pseudonym titled Embassy House. Who published it? CBS subsidiary Simon & Schuster. Ouch. S&S pulled that puppy off the shelves faster than you can say retraction.

And what about Lara Logan's credibility? Does the cool blue-eyed blond facade of the South African-born journalist conceal someone with decidedly conservative political views? If she worked for Fox News it wouldn't be an issue, in fact it would be a prerequisite for the job. But she works for a news program that built a reputation over the years on reputable journalism, exposing of facts and relentless reporting based on a search for the truth.

Republican attempts to fan the flames of the Benghazi story to attack the president have been ongoing for months and if it ends up that Logan pursued this story with an eye towards legitimizing baseless claims of a non-existent cover-up by the Obama administration and the state department to discredit the likely 2016 Democratic presidential nominee, it will be a sad day for 60 Minutes and a tarnish on the polished veneer of Logan's rising star.

Don't expect CBS to pull a Dan Rather on Logan and serve her up to placate the more centrist and left leaning media outlets calling her out for this massive error in judgement; the nation's "most watched network" has way too much invested in her and the demo she appeals to. If this media debacle teaches us anything, as Media Matters argues, it's that CBS is terrified of pissing off the right wing media but not the left.

Let's not forget that broadcasting the story with Davies as the main source would completely tarnish ongoing GOP efforts to fan the flames of their imaginary "Benghazi-gate" - fuel that the right desperately needs to use against Billary in 2016.

Remember the Republican outrage and media storm from the mere discussion of the broadcasting of the Hillary Clinton bio-epic that sent both CNN and NBC packing with their tails between their legs? To soothe the ruffled feathers of the right wing media establishment, both networks shelved that story as fast as Simon & Schuster threw Dylan Davies' Embassy House book back into the box.

And call me crazy but condsidering Hillary Clinton is the defacto odds-on favorite to win the popualr vote for the 2016 presidential race (meaning she would be the first female president and leader of the free world); one would think the American populace, regardless of party affiliation, would be interested in learning some more about her life; even if it was from a made-for-TV movie. Not the GOP; they saw it (as they do most things it seems) as a threat.

Liberal media bias? Riiiight....

The Stars & Bars on People's Cars

The other week in my November 6th blog about the post-election day results, I briefly touched on the fact that Americans as a whole are getting tired of the climate of fear intolerance and hate created by the Tea Party in this nation as a direct result of President Obama being elected in 2008. 

I wanted to share a couple personal observations about how I see the extremist right-wing media message crafted by the current president of Fox News Channels and former Nixon, Reagan and Bush media consultant Roger Ailes (with the blessing of Rupert Murdoch) filters down through the various conservative media pundits (Rush Limbaugh, Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck etc.) and ends up on everyday Main Street.

 

If you look closely at the back window of the pickup truck in the photo pictured above, you'll see some anti-Obama stickers and a "McCain-Palin '08" sticker just above a NASCAR sticker professing the pickup driver's support for Dale Earnhardt, Jr.'s #8 race car.

I took this photo with my iPhone while I was stopped at a traffic light at the intersection of Quakerbridge Road and Route 33 on Thursday morning August 29th of this year on my way into work in Hamilton, NJ. While I respect the Constitution and everyone's right to free speech, I couldn't help but be curious about the kind of person who would be driving around with stickers like that prominently displayed on their vehicle.

My guess is he or she would probably be listening to Rush Limbaugh or some other conservative talk radio host whipping their audience into a frenzy of anger with the usual assortment of distorted facts, outright lies and tired cliches about the President and other "liberals". What's interesting about this truck is the 9/11 memorial painted onto the back of the truck on the left side. That struck me as somewhat contradictory. 

I lived in Manhattan on September 11th, 2001 and one thing about that horrific tragedy was how it unified most Americans; for a time anyway. The attack was perpetrated by a group of extremist jihadists who'd been indoctrinated with a radical Islamic mindset which essentially encouraged them to murder innocent people in the name of their religion. 

Unlike the quirky fictional television cable news host Will McAvoy (brilliantly played by Jeff Daniels and written by Aaron Sorkin), I don't think the Tea Party is the "American Taliban", but I do think the almost religious fervor they inspire amongst their ranks almost always ends up being expressed in a manner that is negative, fearful, obstructionist, intolerant and angry. 

Remember that long summer 4 years ago when red-faced Tea Partiers packed into Congressional town hall meetings across the nation and angrily shouted-down politicians trying to communicate with their constituents about the Affordable Health Care Act?

Who can forget Congressman Joe Wilson of South Carolina yelling out "You LIE!" to the President of the United States during a State of the Union address on September 9, 2009? That kind of rage ends up filtering down to individuals across the country and some of them see it as an endorsement of much worse kinds of hatred and bigotry. Let's be frank, the Tea Party has basically made it OK to be a bigot in America again.

  

The other week on my way to work I was stopped at a traffic light preparing to turn left onto Route 29 near the border of Trenton, NJ and I notice this large pickup truck in front of me. 

It was one of those trucks with the full extended cab and I could see this older white couple seated inside talking as they waited for the light to turn. There was a small Confederate flag sticker on the back left bumper that left me with a queasy kind of feeling.

It wasn't like some of those pickups you see on the road now and then with the full actual Confederate flag filling the back window of the pick behind a gun rack, but this one was small enough not to attract too much attention, but large enough to be seen none the less. With the atmosphere created by the Tea Party it's hard to discern what the person who puts that Confederate flag on their vehicle actually thinks and means by openly displaying it - especially when you see it here in New Jersey. 

Are they racist? That's the very first thing that popped into my mind as an African-American driver when I saw that flag on the pickup the other day. Something about the flag just disturbs me because of the legacy of what it represents - a terrible war that killed more than 500,000 Americans and a vanquished foe who went to war for the right to keep black people enslaved in a state-sponsored system of enforced human bondage.

Controversy and fallout from the Confederate flag flying over state capitols (including South Carolina and Georgia) continues to this day. As reported by David Slade and Jeff Hartsell in the Charleston Post and Courier in August of this year, South Carolina removed the Stars & Bars from atop the state Capitol building but placed it on a memorial on the grounds; which the NACCP and others are still fighting to remove.   

Just like the Swastika the Stars and Bars should be banned in my opinion but here we are 148 YEARS after General Lee surrendered at Appomattox and people of all races are still actively engaged in attempts to remove that symbol of division, death and human bondage. It's not fair for me to judge someone I don't personally know who puts a Confederate flag on their vehicle, but I can't help but wonder what's really going on deep inside their heart when they do.

Going Incognito: The Complex Case of NFL Player Jonathan Martin

Jonathan Martin's Stanford Univ media photo

Ever since the unusual story of Miami Dolphins offensive lineman Jonathan Martin broke, the eagerness of the media to report the truth about his abrupt departure from the team last week has only obscured what is actually the complex merger of a truly unfortunate set of circumstances.

The bottom line is this case has much more to do with the behavioral issues and troubled past of Richie Incognito, the suspended offensive lineman with an extremely troubled past accused of bullying Martin, than they do with Martin himself.

The facts in this still evolving case have been clouded by a range of stereotypical assumptions about body type, demeanor, intelligence and race; and they offer a rare glimpse of the difficulties faced by large African-American males who play football at the Division-I and professional level.

I was fortunate enough to have earned a full athletic scholarship to play Division-I college football at Penn State University from 1987 - 1992 and I went on to play for two and a half years in the National Football League; so my perspective on this story differs from much of what has already been reported in the media.

According to NPR sports correspondent Mike Pesca, who spoke about the shifting media coverage of the Martin story earlier this evening with host Brooke Gladstone on NPR's ''On The Media" program, a lot of the confusion about the story stems from the Miami Sun Sentinel initially reporting that Martin's October 28th departure from the team had to do with his own "emotional" issues. It was only days ago that media reports about Martin being unable to cope with the routine hazing of rookies which is a normal part of the NFL culture, was part of the cause of his leaving the team.

A couple days ago I heard a television commentator on ESPN News and more than one sports radio analyst recycling the oft-repeated reports of Martin being too "soft" a player who was in need of some "toughening up" by fellow Miami Dolphin teammate Richie Incognito; and who was allegedly ordered to do so by Dolphins head coach Joe Philbin. Before we get into Incognito let's look at that accusation of being too "soft" for a moment.

First off, what does that even mean?

What's unfortunate here is that widely held myths and assumptions about black athletic prowess and aggressiveness still tend to permeate the media and the broader American culture. Many fans, casual observers of the game and members of the media who've never actually played football on the college or professional level (or spent any significant time with the players who do) tend to confuse the intense physical nature of this full contact sport, the body type and appearance of players who train much of the year to prepare for it, and the calculated, carefully packaged media product broadcast on ESPN, NBC, CBS or ABC with WHO the players actually are as people. 

The game of football is replete with 'experts' who analyze the game for a living and really don't know all that much more than any average person who takes the time to sit down and read up on the players, statistics, strategies, rules and tendencies of the game. A lot of football analysis is opinionated speculation meant to fill air time that's often rendered meaningless at the first snap of the ball. So when these experts and media pundits sniffing after the story repeated the idea that Martin somehow washed out or caved to the pressure because he was "soft", did they really know what they were talking about? Consider the stats.

According to Pro Football Weekly, Jonathan Martin was a standout offensive lineman who started 11 of 13 games as a sophomore in 2009 at left tackle (one of the most complex and difficult positions to play in football) and successfully protected the blind side of eventual first-round NFL draft choice quarterback Andrew Luck on an offensive line that helped rack up a school-record 2,837 rushing yards and allowed a conference low of seven total sacks all season.

Over the next two seasons in 2010-2011 Martin started all 26 games at left tackle; in 2010 the team compiled a 12-1 record and went 8-1 in PAC 12 Conference play and finished the season ranked 4th in the nation. In his senior year at  Standford in 2011 (where he studied classics) the team compiled an 11-2 record (8-1 PAC 12) - he stood 6 foot 5 & 3/8 inches and weighed 307 pounds. 

As Martin's lawyer, noted attorney David Cornwell observed in a statement dismissing accusations questioning Martin's toughness; Martin was a standout starter on two of former Standford head coach Jim Harbaugh's teams known for their brand of "smash mouth" football. He was selected as the 42nd overall pick in the 2012 NFL draft by the Miami Dolphins; where he started 12 games at right tackle.

Now, what part of that sounds "soft" to you? You simply don't start that many games on a team that good without being tough. Too often, where black players are concerned, the medias focus on larger than life standout NFL players who are as quotable as they are skilled on the field tends to skew the image the public has of the demeanor of all NFL players.

Take recently retired Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, or Hall of Fame linebacker Lawrence Taylor. The endless video clips and reels of players like that pacing the sidelines yelling at people, firing up teammates or talking smack to opponents are like a marketer's wet dream for the NFL, the networks that pay billions of dollars for the right to broadcast professional football and the companies that pay millions to associate their brands with the League.

Their off-field incidents and dramas only increase their fascination factor with the media and the public. As I've repeated so often in this blog, there are so many different socio-economic backgrounds, beliefs, opinions and family histories within the wider spectrum of the African-American community. Different skin shades, hair styles, religious or political beliefs, food, dating, car or music preferences; but the media still holds a certain fascination with black male athletes who fit comfortably into the mold of an ideal stereotype that fits the preconceived notions many Americans seem comfortable with.

 The media loves a popular black athlete who's "street" enough to be "authentic", who can communicate well with just the right mix of Ebonics in his accent. Part of the complexity of the Jonathan Martin story is that the media really doesn't know what box to put him in. Look at his college media photo above.

He's a bright, well adjusted kid who attended a prestigious prep school in Los Angeles, scored a 1,400 on his SAT's and boasts an impressive family pedigree by any standard. According to Martin's Wikipedia entry, his father Gus is a professor of criminal justice who graduated from Harvard, his mother Jane is a corporate lawyer for Toyota who also graduated from Harvard. No less than NINE of his relatives graduated from Harvard including his grandfather and maternal great grandfather.

That kind of intelligence, demeanor and upbringing packaged into the 6'5" 317 pound frame of a professional football player leaves some people confused; depending on the kind of atmosphere created by the coaching staff and the players in the locker room, Jonathan Martin could in fact be intimidating to some players. I believe it is this cultural difference which is at the root of this most unusual story; there were certainly few if any other players with his kind of background in that Miami Dolphins locker room.

As a 6'7" former professional football player, I can say from my own personal experience that many people, teammates, coaches, strangers could be very confused when they met me. The football part made sense to them as an African-American guy my physical size, but when I spoke very often I could detect a sense of confusion.

Both my parents were college-educated professionals (unlike many of my teammates in college) and I was raised in the middle-upper class suburbs of Bethesda, Maryland. There was never any Ebonics being used in my house growing up, I enunciate each word, have a substantial vocabulary and speak clearly and without any traceable accent; that certainly doesn't make me better than anyone else, it's just the way I was raised and who I am. When I told some of my college teammates that I liked to read in my spare time or argue about politics; I often got funny looks.

My point is, I understand Jonathan Martin better than most of the media pundits and experts talking about him do. People tend to project all these internally held perceptions onto large black athletes in America and when they see or hear things from them that doesn't fit into what they PERCEIVE, they sometimes get confused.

Take Rosey Grier for instance. He graduated from my Alma Mater Penn State in 1955 years before I was even born, and he played college and professional football as well; and much better than I did too by the way. At the height of his fame in the late 60's early 70's when he publicly talked about being really into knitting and macrame as hobbies; that totally baffled a lot of people. Some even thought it made him "soft" despite his being a member of the Ram's "Fearsome Foursome" or being recognized as one of the top college student-athletes of all time. Knitting didn't fit in with the way many people perceived him.

It's this perception problem that's at the heart of this debacle in Miami; and it has everything to do with race and how African-Americans are perceived in this country. That's why Jonathan Martin left the Dolphins on October 28th. Not because he was scared, but because the man is far too intelligent to simply remain in an abusive work environment where his own teammates treated him like that.

Many of the media pundits have it wrong. This isn't an NFL problem (but it will be spun that way), it's a symptom or rather a result of a much deeper problem rooted in American society. That's why most of the media got this wrong, the real reason is too much for them to take on; it's much easier to just say that Jonathan Martin was"soft" than to acknowledge that race has clouded this distorted coverage from the beginning.

Really confronting the racial angle in this case would have required some of these sports reporters and pundits to roll up their sleeves and stare something ugly and uncomfortable in the eye, but as we all know no one succeeds like Americans in squirming away from engaging in genuine dialog about topics that make us uncomfortable - especially race.

I want to conclude by saying it's been very insightful to observe the strange arc of the media coverage surrounding this case. For days, members of the media and even some his own teammates were casting blame on the victim Jonathan Martin. But as more details about his ex-teammate Richie Incognito's violent and troubled past begins to emerge; it begs the question, why weren't the Miami Dolphins and the media focusing their attention and speculation on him in the first place?

Richie Incognito is a like a walking time bomb that keeps going off wherever he ends up; but he keeps showing up somewhere on another team. Passed around like a Catholic priest who can't stop molesting children; so rather than really deal with his behavior, they blame the victims and ship him off to another parish. Incognito has been kicked off at least five different college and pro football teams for ostensibly the exact same behavior; how did the Miami media miss that?

It really doesn't matter now, Jonathan Martin has left Miami and retained expert counsel in the form of David Cornwell, one of the most highly regarded sports attorneys in the country. If the media was reluctant to get to the real cause in this case, this man will. The NFL has hired top defense lawyer Ted Wells to head an investigation into the Dolphins role in this case. Expect to see head coach Joe Philbin of the Dolphins resign or be fired very soon. I watched a clip of him in a press conference talking about this case the other day and he seemed woefully uninformed and didn't seem to really grasp the seriousness of the case. Plus it's clear he has absolutely no control over his own locker room if he even jokingly suggested sticking a maniac like Richie Incognito on Martin to "toughen him up" as alleged.

As for Richie you judge for yourself, earlier this evening Bill Pennington of the New York Times penned the most revealing and disturbing portrait of this disturbed borderline psychopath I've yet to see. Read it for yourself, the real truth of this story is in the facts. Facts much of the Miami media seemed to miss.