Mark Anthony Neal's Blog, page 932

Devin Jolicoeur and Police Violence against Black Men in the United States

Devin Jolicoeur and Police Violence against Black Men in the United States byBertin Magloire Louis | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile)
In response to President’s Obama comments about the horrendous elementary school shootings that claimed the lives of 26 children and adults in Newtown Connecticut, MSNBC contributor Dr. Michael Eric Dyson discussed the violence that Americans usually do not discuss – the violence which claims the lives of young people across America.  On the Melissa Harris-Perry Show on MSNBC, Dyson stated the following:
“But the reality is we’ve become accustomed to believing that little black and brown kids, and poor white kids, in various spots across our landscape are due this kind of violence.  ‘We’re surprised it happened here.  “It’s not supposed to happen [in Newtown]” which means, by implication, that it’s supposed to happen there in Detroit, in Oakland, in California, in L.A. and the like.  And I think that’s the tragedy here. . .”
Dyson goes on to say:
“And then finally, what’s interesting here is that some of the authority figures who rush to help our brothers and sisters in Newtown [Connecticut], you know the police people who are seen as helpers, in those communities [of poor communities of color and poor white communities] about which we speak, much of the violence, a significant portion of that violence is executed at the behest of a state authority, whether a police person or the like, against those vulnerable people (my emphasis).  And there’s the lack of cultural empathy [for those victims].”
While the shooting rampage in Newtown was an unspeakable tragedy, Dyson rightly points out that there is a lack of empathy for the victims of violence that occurs daily in communities of color.  Furthermore, this violence is sometimes at the hands of those who are sworn to protect them: the police.
Devin Jolicoeur and Police Violence against Black Men in the United States
Police violence is one type of state violence that claims the lives of young black men, for example, in the United States.  An excellent example of this which has been lost in recent headlines is the story of my cousin, Claude Devin Jolicoeur III, or Devin as he was called by family and friends.  On December 13th, 2012, the day before the Newtown massacre, officers from the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office shot Devin five timesoutside of his home in West Palm Beach, Florida.  Devin was a 17 year old black male of Haitian descent.  Aspects of the news reports which were published about Devin’s killing follow a familiar pattern of smear and defamation of the black men who are killed by police officers like Patrick Dorismond (another black male of Haitian descent killed by the New York Police Department).   
While comparing the Dorismond and Trayvon Martin killings, Mike Amato writes that, “an obscene campaign begins to smear the dead [black] man as yet another thug who had it coming.”  This rings true in the coverage of Devin’s killing and in the actions of the Palm Beach Sheriff’s office.
A day after his death an article posted on the Palm Beach Post’s website stated that Devin had a lengthy criminal history.  Another news report from WPTV news stated that Devin and his friend, who he was talking to at the time of the killing, might be linked to the shooting of retired FHP K-9 Drake a few weeks previous (the dog belonged to a Florida Highway Patrol trooper).  Another news report stated that Devin was suspected of being part of a drug deal.  The not so subtle subtext of these reports paints a picture which suggests that Devin’s killing by Palm Beach authorities was justified, as he was just another black thug. 
Devin’s Killing: Where is the Outrage?
“ It seems to me that the kind of trauma that young people are facing, we don’t see them as victims because so often it doesn’t happen in this concentrated way. We think of them as . . . perpetrators. Every time we say “this should not have happened here” it is as though we are saying “it’s not such a big deal that it happens there.” I just want the same level of outrage." – Melissa Harris-Perry
Sunjee Louissaint, Devin’s mother, refers to him as her “greatest accomplishment.”    Sunjee and her family moved to West Palm Beach years ago because the warm weather there helps in the management of her sickle cell anemia.  Sunjee witnessed the police hold Devin down and shoot him five times in his chest and gut.  “My son was in high school and knows many kids but his "associates" [as the police and media refer to them] were just his friends since junior high school” said Sunjee.  “My son hates the taste of alcohol and was against drugs and medicines of all kinds. He hates when people smoke anything around him or being around smoke because he was a preemie and has delicate lungs. He used to get bronchitis but he grew out of it. He was an athlete. He was just sitting in front of his own home talking to his friend who was not arrested that night or at all.”
The fact that there is no outcry about Devin’s killing reflects the fact that he, and other black men who are killed by police in the United States, continue to experience life in an unequal and segregated fashion.  In other words, this case and others suggests that young black men are viewed as criminal threats and can be treated like second class citizens whose lives can be justifiably extinguished by authorities. 
As our country mourns those children and adults who were brutally killed in Newtown, Connecticut, the families of the deceased have police protection.  The phones of Devin’s family have been tapped and they are under constant surveillance by authorities since he was killed.  The families of the Newtown victims have been comforted by a nation that mourns with them.  Devin’s family receives callous comments from authorities that justifiably increase their anger and outrage. 
For example, the day after the killing outside of the home Devin grew up in, Wence Louissaint, Devin’s uncle, questioned a Palm Beach investigator about the allegation that Devin had a gun which forced the officers to shoot him.  The investigator responded “"When a gun comes out it's a deadly force encounter."  "It's not to scare. It's not to intimidate. This isn't movies. We don't shoot guns out of people's hands."  
Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon Martin’s mother, said of her son’s treatment in the media "they killed my son, now they're trying to kill his reputation."  Why does my cousin Devin have to explain himself in death?  Instead, why is there no scrutiny of the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office and their actions?  According to the Palm Beach Post, Devin’s death was “the ninth involving local law enforcement this year and the sixth involving a sheriff’s deputy.”  
As different articles that have popped since the Newtown tragedy rightly observe, the lives of the Newtown victims, the lives of young black and brown children lost to gun violence, and the lives of children killed from drone attacks in the borderlands of Pakistan and Afghanistan by the Obama administration are precious and there should be collective outrage, anger, and justice for these victims.  I am adding Claude Devin Jolicoeur III to this list of victims.  Devin’s life was precious to his mother and to his grief-stricken family and friends. 
As Melissa Harris-Perry stated eloquently during her show’s coverage of the Newtown shooting, I, too, want the “same level of outrage” about Devin’s death, more people to express anger about the circumstances which brought about his killing, and justice for Sunjee’s only child.  ***
Bertin M. Louis, Jr. is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology and Africana Studies at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville and a 2012 American Anthropological Association Leadership Fellow.  Dr. Louis studies the growth of Protestant forms of Christianity among Haitians in the Bahamas and the United States, which is featured in his forthcoming book with New York University Press: My Soul is in Haiti: Migration and Protestantism in the Haitian Diaspora of the Bahamas.  He also studies nationalism, citizenship, and statelessness in the Bahamas as they relate to Bahamians of Haitian descent.  Dr. Louis teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in Africana Studies and Cultural Anthropology and he received his PhD in 2008 from the Department of Anthropology at Washington University in Saint Louis.

"Roomieloverfriends" | Episode 9 of 9 – Season Finale

Episode 9: "A Roomielover Christmas" (Season Finale)

Haitian Creole: From Margin to Center

FranklinHumanities:
In Haiti, the failure of the school system is due to, among many other factors, the fact that the language of instruction is mostly French even though most Haitians, including most teachers, are fluent in Creole only. In this talk, MIT professor Michel DeGraff mines history and linguistics for lessons that may help improve education for all in Haiti.

Guns, Fear, & Diversity: The Great American Experiment

Guns, Fear, & Diversity: The Great American Experiment by Delma Thomas-Jackson III | special to NewBlackMan (in Exile)
In light of the most recent school shooting in Newtown Connecticut, I have come to the conclusion that the best solutions for America's woes are at this point, almost impossible to achieve. 
As usual, I find myself standing in an unusual place. My inner Otto Von Bismark, (Bismarck, was a conservative German statesman who dominated European affairs from the 1860s to his dismissal in 1890), is screaming for solutions that reflect realpolitik and pragmatism. Common sense dictates that fewer guns mean fewer gun deaths. America practically oozes UZI's. If you are legally qualified to purchase a firearm, there is no shortage of shops that will happily sell them to you. If you are legally unqualified to purchase a firearm, there is no shortage of "street vendors" that will happily sell them to you. Whether you’re a law abiding citizen or not, getting your hands on a pistol (or a .223 Bushmaster for that matter), is not hard to do in this country. Why? Easy access, Silly. You can't swing a dead cat around here without inadvertently knocking over a gun and turning the safety to off. 
According to the Washington Post, "There are 270 million guns owned by American citizens... The second-ranking country, India, a country over three times our population, has 46 million." Just to put that another way, for every 100 American citizens, almost 89 (88.8 as of 2007), of them are carrying a firearm. This stat does not mean that a lot of kids are carrying. It means a lot of private citizens are carrying and a relatively large number of them are stockpiling. 
According to the Washington Post, the 3 states with the most gun ownership are Wyoming, Alaska, and Montana – not exactly bastions of urban warfare. This is more like Davy Crockett territory. It's easy for us urban folk to forget that much of America is still wilderness and some of our fellow citizens choose to make their lives in such places. Keeping a firearm in these environments is not necessarily an empty statement to the government about 2nd Amendment rights and cold dead hands. It's a way of life. Antiquated? Arguably. Their right?  Certainly. 
In urban communities like my home town of Flint Michigan, gun violence is an all too common occurrence. I have personally been a direct victim, innocent bystander, and perpetrator of gun violence all between the ages of 12-18. Guns have always been a part of my life. My father and I occasionally go to the range. I have been playing violent video games since I was very young. I have enjoyed more action adventure movies than any other genre. While I am no longer a fan of what has been dubbed, "gangster rap", it was at one time, the soundtrack of my life. 
What do America's gun totting urbanites have in common with the gun totting citizens of Arkansas, Wyoming, and Montana (and let's not forget the gun totting suburbanites that live on the periphery of America's urbanites)? We all appreciate the role of the gun in American history and contemporary culture. Gun manufacturers produce so many guns because we the people, demand it. When we are not actually using them, we are virtually using them while wearing head gear and barking out flanking orders on our game consoles. In diverse public spaces, we walk around in perpetual fear of each other and wonder who among us will use them next. This in turn, leads many of us to go out and purchase more guns. When we are doing none of these, we are watching other people use guns on TV. As a nation, we LOVE our guns. 
And why wouldn't we? You would be hard pressed to find an American hero that didn't have a gun in their hands. Go ahead, name 10, publicly recognized, American heroes that didn't need a gun to get the job done. You can do it. But I bet you need at least 5 minutes and Google. American history IS the history of firearms. British global colonization was possible because of naval cannons and firearms. Without the gun, Native American's would have kept their territories (including Mexico), against invading Europeans. Manifest Destiny would have never been a notion. Africans would have never been kidnapped in mass. Asian markets would have never been secured. America as we know it would not exist. 
To be thankful to be an American, is to be thankful for the gun and the people who were willing to use them against fellow humans to at first conquer and then defend these territories. There is no side stepping this. If we are going to talk about moving forward, the past must be acknowledged. This now sovereign nation was built by brute force and an inability or unwillingness to recognize inalienable rights as a universal notion meant to be applied globally. 

The American experiment involved arming one group of men to conquer another group of people and take over their territory. Once land ownership was established, another group of men and women were forced here to work that land for centuries under the threat of death. As centuries of free labor sufficiently built a thriving agricultural economy, a burgeoning industrial economy became possible and attracted a whole other group of global citizens. Americas diversity was the result of the forced exodus of Native peoples (including Mexicans), the forced slavery of African peoples, and the exploitation of millions of Europeans and Asians. 
No other country is as diverse as the US. Likewise, no other country has the paranoia of a place whose diversity was built largely on exploitation, murder, and theft by both private citizens and government efforts. When people point to the gun violence statistics in other countries as proof that something is "different" and "wrong" about the US, I often point to the relative homogeneous nature of many countries that enjoy relative peace. No other place on earth has had so many types of people so quickly smashed into a relatively small space under such drastic and violent circumstances. 
As an African American who has studied closely the historical relationship between the US government and select members of the African Diaspora, I can honestly say that as long as this government is armed, I want to have the right to be armed as well. Sorry Obama, but I can't trust the feds as far as I can throw them. History has taught me to be mistrusting of the government (i.e. MLK, The Black Panther Party, Marcus Garvey, Malcolm X, etc…). It is no coincidence that many citizens for multiple reasons feel the same way. Some could argue that America is afraid of itself - that we the people are afraid of each other - that we are afraid of our own government. And when we look to our heroes for answers (both historical and contemporary), the response is always the same: when in doubt, shoot it out. 
With all of this hanging over our heads, I sometimes wonder if maybe the answer is not more laws about who can and can't own weapons. Maybe the answers aren't that easy. Maybe the answer involves a shift in culture from one of mutual fear to mutual trust and support. For better or for worse, that sort of shift cannot be regulated. 
My inner Bismarck is telling me that as long as I perceive an over-reaching, fearful government and a populace that finds great entertainment in excess violence while boasting 89 guns for every 100 citizens, I must arm myself. My inner Deepak Chopra is telling me that all the guns in the world won't heal the fear that leads us to demand so many guns and so much violence in the first place. The government can take the guns from the citizens, but it can't take their fear and love of violence from their hearts. America must commit itself to healing the divides that made America possible. Of course it must. Irony is never too far from tragedy. 
Peace and blessings to the victims of all global conflicts - from Syria to the US and everywhere in between.
*As I am finishing up, I just read that gun sales are up nationwide. Some buyers express greater concern over personal protection, while others express concern over greater government restrictions on gun ownership.*
***
Delma Thomas-Jackson is a native of Flint Michigan.  He is a social justice advocate, facilitator, and director of The Sankofa Project for Social Justice.  He is a regular lecturer at the University of Michigan-Flint and a grad student in the department of Liberal Arts. You can reach Delma on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/delma.thomasjacksonor follow him on Twitter at: @deakon111

Memo to Media: Manhood, Not Guns or Mental Illness, Should Be Central in Newtown Shooting

  Memo to Media:  Manhood, Not Guns or Mental Illness, Should Be Central in Newtown Shooting by Jackson Katz | HuffPost Media
Many of us whose work touches on the subject of masculinity and violence have long been frustrated by the failure of mainstream media -- and much of progressive media and the blogosphere as well -- to confront the gender issues at the heart of so many violent rampages like the one on December 14 in Connecticut.
My colleagues and I who do this type of work experience an unsettling dichotomy. In one part of our lives, we routinely have intense, in-depth discussions about men's emotional and relational struggles, and how the bravado about "rugged individualism" in American culture masks the deep yearning for connection that so many men feel, and how the absence or loss of that can quickly turn to pain, despair, and anger. In these discussions, we talk about violence as a gendered phenomenon: how, for example, men who batter their wives or girlfriends typically do so not because they have trigger tempers, but rather as a means to gain or maintain power and control over her, in a (misguided) attempt to get their needs met.  
We talk amongst ourselves about how so many boys and men in our society are conditioned to see violence as a solution to their problems, a resolution of their anxieties, or a means of exacting revenge against those they perceive as taking something from them. We share with each other news stories, websites and YouTube videos that demonstrate the connection between deeply ingrained cultural ideas about manhood and individual acts of violence that operationalize those ideas.
And then in the wake of repeated tragedies like Newtown, we turn on the TV and watch the same predictable conversations about guns and mental illness, with only an occasional mention that the overwhelming majority of these types of crimes are committed by men -- usually white men. Even when some brave soul dares to mention this crucial fact, it rarely prompts further discussion, as if no one wants to be called a "male-basher" for uttering the simple truth that men commit the vast majority of violence, and thus efforts to "prevent violence" -- if they're going to be more than minimally effective -- need to explore why.
Maybe the Newtown massacre will mark a turning point. Maybe the mass murder of young children will force the ideological gatekeepers in mainstream media to actually pry open the cupboards of conventional thinking for just long enough to have a thoughtful conversation about manhood in the context of our ongoing national tragedy of gun violence. 
What follows is a brief list of suggestions for how journalists, cable hosts, bloggers and others who will be writing and talking about this unbelievable tragedy can frame the discussion in the coming days and weeks.
1) Make gender -- specifically the idea that men are gendered beings -- a central part of the national conversation about rampage killings. Typical news accounts and commentaries about school shootings and rampage killings rarely mention gender. If a woman were the shooter, you can bet there would be all sorts of commentary about shifting cultural notions of femininity and how they might have contributed to her act, such as discussions in recent years about girl gang violence. That same conversation about gender should take place when a man is the perpetrator. Men are every bit as gendered as women.
The key difference is that because men represent the dominant gender, their gender is rendered invisible in the discourse about violence. So much of the commentary about school shootings, including the one at Sandy Hook Elementary, focuses on "people" who have problems, "individuals" who suffer from depression, and "shooters" whose motives remain obtuse. When opinion leaders start talking about the menwho commit these rampages, and ask questions like: "why is it almost always men who do these horrible things?" and then follow that up, we will have a much better chance of finding workable solutions to the outrageous level of violence in our society.
2) Use the "M-word." Talk about masculinity. This does not mean you need to talk about biological maleness or search for answers in new research on brain chemistry. Such inquiries have their place. But the focus needs to be sociological: individual men are products of social systems. How many more school shootings do we need before we start talking about this as a social problem, and not merely a random collection of isolated incidents? Why are nearly all of the perpetrators of these types of crimes men, and most of them white men? (A recent piece by William Hamby is a step in the right direction. )
What are the cultural narratives from which school shooters draw lessons or inspiration? This does not mean simplistic condemnations of video games or violent media -- although all cultural influences are fair game for analysis. It means looking carefully at how our culture defines manhood, how boys are socialized, and how pressure to stay in the "man box" not only constrains boys' and men's emotional and relational development, but also their range of choices when faced with life crises. Psychological factors in men's development and psyches surely need to be examined, but the best analyses see individual men's actions in a social and historical context.
3) Identify the gender subtext of the ongoing political battle over "guns rights" versus "gun control," and bring it to the surface. The current script that plays out in media after these types of horrendous killings is unproductive and full of empty clichés. Advocates of stricter gun laws call on political leaders to take action, while defenders of "gun rights" hunker down and deflect criticism, hoping to ride out yet another public relations nightmare for the firearms industry. But few commentators who opine about the gun debates seem to recognize the deeply gendered aspects of this ongoing controversy. Guns play an important emotional role in many men's lives, both as a vehicle for their relationships with their fathers and in the way they bolster some men's sense of security and power.  
It is also time to broaden the gun policy debate to a more in-depth discussion about the declining economic and cultural power of white men, and to deconstruct the gendered rhetoric of "defending liberty" and "fighting tyranny" that animates much right-wing opposition to even moderate gun control measures. If one effect of this tragedy is that journalists and others in media are able to create space for a discussion about guns that focuses on the role of guns in men's psyches and identities, and how this plays out in their political belief systems, we might have a chance to move beyond the current impasse.
4) Consult with, interview and feature in your stories the perspectives of the numerous men (and women) across the country who have worked with abusive men. Many of these people are counselors, therapists, and educators who can provide all sorts of insights about how -- and why -- men use violence. Since men who commit murder outside the home more than occasionally have a history of domestic violence, it is important to hear from the many women and men in the domestic violence field who can speak to these types of connections -- and in many cases have first-hand experience that deepen their understanding.
5) Bring experts on the air, and quote them in your stories, who can speak knowledgeably about the link between masculinity and violence. After the Jovan Belcher murder-suicide, CNN featured the work of the author Kevin Powell, who has written a lot about men's violence and the many intersections between gender and race. That was a good start. In the modern era of school shootings and rampage killings, a number of scholars have produced works that offer ways to think about the gendered subtext of these disturbing phenomena.
Examples include Rachel Kalish and Michael Kimmel's piece "Suicide by Mass Murder: Masculinity, Aggrieved Entitlement and Rampage School Shootings," Douglas Kellner's "Rage and Rampage: School Shootings and Crises of Masculinity," and a short piece that I co-wrote with Sut Jhally after Columbine, "The national conversation in the wake of Littleton is missing the mark."
There have also been many important books published over the past 15 years or so that provide great insight into issues of late 20th and 21st century American manhood, and thus provide valuable context for discussions about men's violence. They include Real Boys, by William Pollack; Raising Cane, by Michael Thompson and Dan Kindlon; New Black Man, by Mark Anthony Neal; Why Does He Do That? by Lundy Bancroft; Dude You're a Fag, by C.J. Pascoe; Guyland, By Michael Kimmel; I Don't Want to Talk About It, by Terrence Real; Violence, by James Gilligan; Guys and Guns Amok, by Douglas Kellner; On Killing, by David Grossman; and two documentary films: Hip Hop: Beyond Beats and Rhymes, by Byron Hurt; and Tough Guise, which I created and Sut Jhally directed.
6) Resist the temptation to blame this shooting or others on "mental illness," as if this answers the why and requires no further explanation. Even if some of these violent men are or were "mentally ill," the specific ways in which mental illness manifests itself are often profoundly gendered. Consult with experts who understand the gendered features of mental illness. For example, conduct interviews with mental health experts who can talk about why men, many of whom are clinically depressed, comprise the vast majority of perpetrators of murder-suicides. Why is depression in women much less likely to contribute to their committing murder than it is for men? (It is important to note that only a very small percentage of men with clinical depression commit murder, although a very high percentage of people with clinical depression who commit murder are men.)
7) Don't buy the manipulative argument that it's somehow "anti-male" to focus on questions about manhood in the wake of these ongoing tragedies. Men commit the vast majority of violence and almost all rampage killings. It's long past time that we summoned the courage as a society to look this fact squarely in the eye and then do something about it. Women in media can initiate this discussion, but men bear the ultimate responsibility for addressing the masculinity crisis at the heart of these tragedies. With little children being murdered en masse at school, for God's sake, it's time for more of them to step up, even in the face of inevitable push back from the defenders of a sick and dysfunctional status quo.
***
Jackson Katz, Ph.D., is an educator, author, filmmaker, and cultural theorist who is internationally recognized for his groundbreaking work in the field of gender violence prevention education and critical media literacy.

An Elegy for Innocence

An Elegy for Innocence   by Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou | HuffPost Religion
"It is not suppose to happen here." This phrase is uttered after every mass killing in pristine and pure suburban America. The latest casualty in American gun culture was described by the Consoler-in-Chief as a "quiet town full of good and decent people." Six and 7-year-old bodies riddled with military grade bullets fired by an assault weapon not in Baghdad or Kabul but a rather small town "that could be any town in America." 
A palpable national grieving has flooded the media with explainers and soothsayers. Former Arkansas Governor Rev. Mike Huckabee, a former GOP Presidential candidate, laid blame on the secularization of society and schools. For Huckabee the lack of God in the public square facilitates violence: "It's far more than taking prayer or bible reading out of the school ... we're asked where was God [in this tragedy] ... we've escorted [God] right out of our culture and marched him off the public square ... and then we express our surprise that a culture without him actually reflects what it has become."
Other soothsayers posit that more guns are necessary to prevent mass gun killings. "Only one policy has reduced these mass shootings and the number of casualties, and that is concealed carry permits," conservative gadfly Ann Coulter concluded on Sean Hannity's radio show. God and guns are linked to the nation's response to crisis engendered by the collective experience of violence. 
Like Sept. 11, the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre has caused certain Americans to share in the vulnerability to violence that too many Americans and global citizens live with every day. Sept. 11 gave the nation an identity crisis, once buttressed by physical safety and moral superiority. Mass terrorist acts are reserved for Arab villages where violence is supposed to happen, not on American soil. 
In like romanticism, Tucson, Aurora, Paducah, Columbine, Blacksburg and Newtown are "full of good and decent people," where such heinous acts are not supposed to happen. Such sentiment begs the question: Where is such violence supposed to happen in America? Certain Americans, already worried about their children's interactions with law enforcement and stray bullets, must now be worried about a gunman besieging their militarized schools and shooting up classrooms that will most likely fail their children.
This year alone in Chicago, Ill., more than 400 people have died from gun violence -- many victims are children and teens. Yet there is no national grieving, collective lamenting, presidential prayer, or belief that gun violence is not supposed to happen here. For these Americans, collective handwringing is absent and political will naught because gun violence is supposed to happen, there.
Before the tender bodies were identified and funeral arrangements finalized by broken parents, explainers paraded across the 24-hour stage of punditry. Experts argued that video games, single parents, Hollywood movies and gun laws (weak or strong) are the problem. Other explainers have suggested that if the nation could figure out how to detect and screen out mentally ill folks from gun ownership then the Sandy Hook Elementary of America would be safe. The much debated and now expired assault weapon's ban will take center stage. Handguns -- the most owned weapon by private citizens -- have been the No. 1 killer of certain Americans since 1969. Whereas assault weapons represent a fraction of weapons purchased by private citizens. Hence, the assault weapon's ban and other gun laws will have no impact on the gun violence in the othered places of America. 
According to the explainers, certain Americans are prone to gun violence because of their parentage and pigmentation. Stronger laws, including longer jail sentences, are the answer to their destructive selves. And the gun lobby has successfully convinced soothsayer, explainer and politician alike that these indecent Americans are the reason that decent Americans need more guns as afforded by the civic scripture -- the Constitution of the United States of America. To this end, more than 250 millions guns populate the national landscape. 
Generally speaking, gun violence remains a leading cause of death in America. Americans are 10 times more likely to die from gunshot wounds than in other industrialized countries. Moreover, instances where a private citizen in possession of a firearm has prevented a mass killing are non-existent. The proliferation of legally purchased arms serves to give the nation pause. The fact the Newtown school shooter's weapons were legally obtained by his mother -- the first victim -- should speak volumes. The belief that gun ownership is sacred and unquestionable flies in the face of reality.
Dr. David Hemenway, director of the Harvard Injury Control Research Center, has conducted a number of studies on gun usage and violence. Hemenway's findings shatter several gun lobby myths: Guns are not used millions of times each year in self-defense. On the contrary, guns are used far more often to intimidate not for self-defense. Guns are used in escalating arguments that are neither socially desirable nor legal. In the home, guns are used more often to intimidate intimates than to thwart crime. And finally Hemenway found: "Few criminals are shot by decent law abiding citizens."
Yet, a fiction of gun ownership persists -- holy and acceptable. That fiction is based on a greater fiction wrapped in our national sense of self -- the infallibility of the Founding Fathers and the Constitution as the immutable word of god. Hence, the Second Amendment of the Constitution is never questioned but defended with vigor on both sides of the aisle. The 13th Amendment -- blood-soaked as well -- testifies to the fact that the Founding Fathers were not omniscient. Rather, they were fallible creatures, courageous on some things and cowardly on others, incapable of imagining our present moment. If the Founding Fathers were wrong on something as big as slavery, they could have been wrong about "the right to bear arms." Thus, the constitution must be treated as a living document subject to enhancement and correction. 
Nevertheless, in the days to come the explainers will analyze. The soothsayers will prophesy. And the politicians will respond in kind with two impoverished options: a more militarized or less militarized society. To continue to believe in the infallibility of the Founding Fathers and the sacredness of the Second Amendment is beyond fiction, it is mauvaise foi. To holdfast to the notion that gun violence is supposed to happen in certain communities and not in others is undemocratic. Until the nation is willing lay down all of its weapons at home and aboard, the eulogies of children on the south side of Chicago and a southern Connecticut town will be elegies for innocence, if not our democracy. 
***  Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou, Editor-in-Chief of Spare Change News, has published two critically acclaimed collections of essays, 'urbansouls' (Urban Press, 2001) and 'Gods, Gays, and Guns: Essays on Religion and the Future of Democracy' (Campbell and Cannon Press, 2011). His forthcoming book, 'Riot Music: Hip Hop, Race, and the Meaning of the London Riots' (Hamilton Books, 2013) is based on his exclusive interviews in the aftermath of the London Riots 2011.  
Follow Rev. Osagyefo Uhuru Sekou on Twitter: www.twitter.com/revsekou

Why the Conversation on Gun Control has to be Now

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A Holiday Spotlight on Durham, NC on the December 17th 'Left of Black'

A Holiday Spotlight on Durham, NC on the December 17th Left of Black
Though much of mainstream corporate News is framed by the “echo chamber” of Washington politics and issues far removed from our daily lives, there are those in the industry still committed to presenting vibrant and informed views of the local worlds we are connected to.  Two such figures visit the Left of Blackstudios this week as Frank Stasio , longtime host of The State of Things on NPR affiliate WUNC-FM (91.5), and Anthony Wilson , reporter and weekend anchor on WTVD (ABC 11) join Left of Black host and Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal in studio, for a wide-ranging  conversation about the current state of on-air news journalism.
Later Neal is joined in studio by Jazz vocalist Nnenna Freelon and bassist John Brown , director of the Jazz Studies Program at Duke University, who have just released a new recording Christmas—Nnenna Freelon with the John Brown Big Band (Brown Boulevard Records). Freelon and Brown discuss the new recording, the challenges of introducing Jazz to new generations of listeners and the Durham cultural scene.
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Left of Black airs at 1:30 p.m. (EST) on Mondays on the Ustream channel: http://tinyurl.com/LeftofBlack
Viewers are invited to participate in a Twitter conversation with Neal and featured guests while the show airs using hash tags #LeftofBlack or #dukelive.  
Left of Black is recorded and produced at the John Hope Franklin Center of International and Interdisciplinary Studies at Duke University.
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It Is Time For an Examination of 'White in America'

Race Talk: It Is Time For an Examination of 'White in America' by Sharon Toomer | HuffPost BlackVoices
I watched CNN's latest installment of "Black in America." Over the course of the last four years, this series has explained and examined the experiences of Black people in America. This most recent installment aired on Sunday, and covered the subject of race identity, "colorism," (dark skin and light skin) within the Black community. The program's central question: "Who is Black in America?"
My takeaway: It is time, long overdue, for news media to explore a comprehensive examination of Whites in America.
In its race-ethnicity series "In America," CNN has examined Blacks (exhaustively), Latinos and Wall Street Journal writer Douglas A. Blackmon explored a critical facet of White America in his Pulitzer Prize-winning book In Traces of the Trade:
Producer/Director Katrina Browne tells the story of her forefathers, the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. Given the myth that the South is solely responsible for slavery, viewers will be surprised to learn that Browne's ancestors were Northerners. The film follows Browne and nine fellow family members on a remarkable journey which brings them face-to-face with the history and legacy of New England's hidden enterprise.
But mainstream news organizations, like CNN, have not done an examination of Whites in America. Instead, they have focused exclusively on almost every other race group in America. I single out CNN because it happens to be the news network to take on this topic, for its In Americaseries. That examination of race groups should be expanded to include Whites.
How do we get a comprehensive portrait of race and ethnicity matters, and all of the social, cultural, economic, political 'isms" embedded in that topic, by not examining a central group -- White Americans? I don't understand how there can be a complete story without that perspective, in its full context.
Truth is sometimes ugly, and dysfunction is messy.
Racism is ugly, and the dysfunction and chaos that comes from it makes for a messy society. Race talk is uncomfortable and inconvenient -- for some, not all. If I were not on the receiving end of racism -- and sexism -- I too might convince myself it is the problem of other peoplein this country, go on about my life, and hope the others work through, figure out their issues. That would not make me a bad person. It would make me a detached human being, in a greater society that I am a part of, contribute to and benefit from.
But race and racism are not only a thing for black, brown and those who are nonwhite to work through and figure out on their own. Race and racism includes us all. The argument, "I can't help or do anything about what happened 400 years ago," or " What else do you people want from us," is an easy out.
In the United States -- globally too -- the legacy of colonization affects all of us. First, Native Americans and then the rest of human life in this country. Some of us are beneficiaries of that system and some of us are victims. That history has messed with the soul, mind and spirit of all of us -- then and now.
There is a clear, undeniable connection to the institutional, structural, cultural, economic and social mayhem colonists imparted, and whites (generationally) are affected by that system. Ignoring or dismissing that fact does not erase it. And to honestly address, prod, probe all race issues born of colonization, an examination of White America has to happen. As a whole nation, we would be better off, not worse off, by such an examination.
I am a believer that to get to the other side, that place of collective understanding and maybe healing (my vision when it comes to race in America), we have to plow through the mud and mess -- not some of us, but all of us. And, that process has to insert a perspective that has not been fully examined. Focusing exclusively on the others, leaves out a major part of the whole.
The Process: we are in the mud and it will get worse, before it gets better.
With any social ugliness and dysfunction, the plow through the mud is harsh, caustic and downright nasty. There is fussing, cussing, finger pointing, indifference, deflection, denial, more fussing and cussing, frustration, resentment, anger, and then, more fussing and cussing. I know, because we are in the depths of it right now.
You need to look no further than any comment section on a news website or social media platform that inserts any element of race. The unfiltered comments are abrasive and damning. It is easy to dismiss those comments as the thoughts of lunatics, kooks or "racist." And, yes that element of humanity roams in search of a forum. But the comment section also contains revealing perspectives, even when those thoughts are hastily scripted or are not articulated cohesively.
Race – from either side – touches  emotion, and that is a good thing. We are working it out. We, All of us, are plowing through the mud, whether we know it or not. Still, that missing piece -- a comprehensive presentation of White America's role in this social and cultural dysfunction and chaos needs airing.
In the same breath that I criticize media for its failure to examine the whole, I am acutely aware of its power, reach and influence. It is why I believe journalists -- mainstream journalists, like CNN -- should produce and air an examination of Whites in America. Just like they have with the others in America.
It is time for an examination of 'White in America.' That would be a step in the right direction. Let's all watch that news-documentary series because it matters, it is relevant and it is an integral part of the greater discussion.
Sharon Toomer for BlackandBrownNews.com
Follow BlackAndBrownNews on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BBN_NYC

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