A black man from Dallas, Texas, who represents the Black Men for Bernie organization, ventured up to Detroit, Michigan to speak with voters, who were predominantly African-American, economically disenfranchised and democrats.
Most of the people he spoke to were planning on voting for Hillary Clinton, even though they knew almost nothing about her politics or that the Clintons past policies went against the interests of the African-American community.
Like her “Super Predator theory ” speech she used to advocate for harsher laws on crime that disproportionately effected black people.
Locking blacks up in for profit prisons for mostly nonviolent drug offenses, that most white people would get a slap on the wrist for or be given court ordered rehab.
Neither did they know about the
Clintons welfare reform policy, their mass incarceration bills or the Trade deal Bill Clinton did with China or his NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement) bill, that took away many of the manufacturing jobs in Detroit and brought them to China and Mexico.
Transforming Detroit from one of the most successful predominantly African-American cities, to one of the poorest in the nation.
He educated them on Bernie Sanders’ history of risking his life and going to jail to fight for civil rights alongside many civil rights freedom fighters, including Martin Luther King Jr.
And his current fight for social justice, which includes police brutality and systematic racism.
He informed them on Bernie Sanders battles with Washington’s political elites to get tax funded healthcare and college education for all tax paying Americans, two things most poor and economically disenfranchised blacks can’t afford.
To no one’s surprised, most people changed their vote from Hillary Clinton to Bernie Sanders.
If the question is the Oregon standoff proof of a racial double standard in America? Then the answer is undoubtedly yes!
Some people may call me a race baiter or a reverse racist for making such a statement, which in my opinion is the equivalent of calling a woman sexist for calling out sexism at the workplace or calling a homosexual person,
anti-heterosexual because they make a stand against homophobia, but the proof is in the pudding. We live in a system of white supremacy, which is not to say we live in Nazi Germany, Colonial Africa, Apartheid South Africa or even the 1960’s United States , but it is to say if you are black you are more likely to profiled by the police, Miseducated by the school system , not be properly represented by your politicans and be sentenced to harsher and longer times in the justice system than whites for the same crime, etc. The truth is we live in a straight white male dominated society , and even though things have improved, there still are many things that need to be improved to give Martin Luther King his dream.
HERE ARE THE 5 DOUBLE STANDARDS AMERICA HAS WHEN IT COMES TO RACE :
#1.
Despite electing its first African-American President, America has devolved so much when it comes to race relations that last year the United Nations had to call us out on our racial inequality.
Noureddine Amir the Vice Chairman of the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination , on the 85th session,
Amir stated :
“The excessive use of force by law enforcement officials against racial and ethnic minorities is an ongoing issue of concern and particularly in light of the shooting of Michael Brown. This is not an isolated event and illustrates a bigger problem in the United States, such as racial bias among law enforcement officials, the lack of proper implementation of rules and regulations governing the use of force, and the inadequacy of training and law enforcement officials.”
#2.
MORE OFTEN THAN NOT, AFRICAN-AMERICANS ARE GIVEN HARSHER SENTENCES FOR THE EXACT SAME CRIME THAN THEIR WHITE AMERICAN COUNTERPARTS.
In a Newsone.com article titled: “Blacks Receive 60% Longer Sentences For Same Crimes” written four years ago by Casey Gane-McCalla.
Casey Writes:
“According to M. Marit Rehavi of the University of British Columbia and Sonja B. Starr, who teaches criminal law at the University of Michigan Law School, the racial disparities can be explained “in a single prosecutorial decision: whether to file a charge carrying a mandatory minimum sentence….Black men were on average more than twice as likely to face a mandatory minimum charge as white men were, holding arrest offense as well as age and location constant.” Prosecutors are about twice as likely to impose mandatory minimums on black defendants as on white defendants.”
#3.
THERE ARE TWO JUSTICE SYSTEMS IN AMERICA, ONE FOR WHITES AND ANOTHER FOR BLACKS :
You can stand your ground in America, but not if you’re black. Case in point : George Zimmerman, who is a crazed sociopath who has built an unimpressive resume, which includes stalking and killing high school kid Trayvon Martin like a wild animal on February 26, 2012.
He has also been arrested about six times for assault and various other violent crimes, Yet Zimmerman was treated as the victim by the local Florida D.A and police Department , who were reluctant to even charge Zimmerman with a crime and only did so after national outrage. And when the case did go the trial, the prosecutor and Zimmerman’ s defense attorney seemed to be working in tandem to get Zimmerman a not guilty verdict, rather than the state attorney high lighting Zimmerman’s criminal background or the fact the he disobeyed the orders of the police dispatcher to stop following Trayvon Martin, which in itself would of prevented the murder from happening. To no one’s surprised George Zimmerman was not convicted of the murder of Trayvon Martin.
On the other hand the African-American woman Marissa Alexander was found guilty of aggravated assault in Florida, on May 2012 in less than twelve minutes, because on August 1, 2010 she fired a warning shot at her abusive husband ,after he attacked her and threatened to kill her. Rico Gray the estranged husband of Alexander even comfirmed Alexander accounts in a sworn deposition.
She was sentenced to 20 years in prison, even though she was a law abiding citizen with no criminal record.
#4.
POLICE OVERREACT TO BLACK PEOPLE ACCUSED OF CRIMES FAR MORE THAN THEY DO WHITE PEOPLE ACCUSED OF THE SAME CRIMES:
For example: the black people protesting the police killing of Mike Brown in Ferguson, Missouri in late 2014 or the young African-Americans protesting the killing of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, in early 2015 were greeted by tanks and police officers armed like special forces troops in Afghanistan and Iraq. Despite no one being killed by the protesters.
That same year in Waco Texas texas on May 17, 2015, a deadly gang war broke out between mostly white biker gangs, the Bandidos and Cossacks. 9 people were murdered and 18 people were injured, but no tanks were called in, like Ferguson and Baltimore and no one was called a “thug”, a word some mainstream media network used to describe the Baltimore and Ferguson protestors.
#5. OREGON STANDOFF VS. THE M.O.V.E BOMBING :
The truth is if the Ammon Bundy led anti-government militia people in Oregon , who have associates charged with terrorism, were Muslim or African-American , they would be dead by now. There would be no standoff for Blacks or Arabs who took over a federal building and federal land, using armed force.
In fact the last time I can remember a black separatist group having a standoff, it was the MOVE organization in 1985, which is a Philadelphia based, self-proclaimed black Liberation group, and they were fire bombed when the Philadelphia police Department dropped a bomb they received from the FBI on the MOVE building, 11 African-American children, women and men died from the bombing, plus several dozens buildings would catch fire from the bombing, leaving several dozen other disenfranchised minorities and other poor people homeless.
Patrice Lumumba was born to father Francois Tolenga Otetshima and mother Julienne Wamato Lomendja, in Onalua in the Katakokombe region of the Kasai province of the Belgium Congo.
He was raised in a Catholic family, but was educated at a protestant primary school and a Catholic missionary school, and eventually the government’s post office training school. Lumumba spoke five languages, which included French, Swahili, Lingala, Tetela and Tshiluba.
Lumumba would work as postal clerk and traveling beer salesman in Leopoldville and Stanleyville now (Kinshasa and Kisangani).
In 1955, Lumumba would go on to become regional head of the Cercles of Stanleyville and joined the Liberal Party of Belgium.
He would be arrested on embezzlement charges, during a three week study tour in Belgium. His two-year sentence was commuted to one year, after it was confirmed by a Belgian lawyer, that Lumumba had returned the funds.
After his release, Lumumba would help fund the political party, Mouvement National Congolais (MNC) in 1958.
On October 1959, as leader of the organization, Lumumba would be arrested, charged with inciting an anti-colonial riot in Stanleyville, (thirty people were killed in the riot).
He was sentenced to 69 months in prison. The start of the trial on January 18, 1960 was the first day of the round-table conference in Brussels to finalize the future of the Congo.
The MNC won a majority in the December local elections in the Congo, despite Lumumba being in prison.
As a result of pressure from delegates, who were upset over Lumumba’s trial, he was released and allowed to attend the Brussels Conference.
The Conference would culminate on the 27th of January, with declaration of Congolese independence set for june 30, 1960. National elections would be held from may 11-25 1960. Lumumba and the MNC won the election and right to form a government.
Patrice Lumumba’s Congo Independence speech on June 30th 1960:
“For this independence of the Congo, even as it is celebrated today with Belgium, a friendly country with whom we deal as equal to equal, no Congolese worthy of the name will ever be able to forget that it was by fighting that it has been won, a day-to-day fight, an ardent and idealistic fight, a fight in which we were spared neither privation nor suffering, and for which we gave our strength and our blood. We are proud of this struggle, of tears, of fire, and of blood, to the depths of our being, for it was a noble and just struggle, and indispensable to put an end to the humiliating slavery which was imposed upon us by force.”
In September the president dismissed Prime minister Lumumba from government.
In retaliation Lumumba declared the newly appointed Prime Minister deposed and he won a vote of confidence from the Congolese senate.
On September 14 a coup d’etat organized by Colonial Joseph Mobutu deposed Lumumba.
Lumumba would be placed under house arrest at the Prime Minister’s residence, with United Nations troops positioned outside the house. Nonetheless he was able to be smuggled out of the Prime Minister’s residence, where he escaped to Stanleyville, where he planned to set up his new government and army.
On December 1, 1960 Lumumba would be captured in Port Francqui, by troops loyal to Mobutu. Mobutu claimed Lumumba would be tried for inciting the army to rebellion and other crimes.
The United Nations secretary General Dag Hammarskjold made an appeal to the Congo government, asking for Lumumba to be given his due process.
The Soviet Union denounced Hammarskjold and western powers as being responsible for the coup d’etat that deposed Lumumba and his eventually arrest.
On January 17, 1961 Lumumba was forcibly restrained on a flight to Elizabethville, now (Lubumbashi) , once he arrived at Elizabethville, Lumumba would be brutally beaten, tortured and eventually executed by a firing squad.
WATCH THIS SHORT NEWS VIDEO FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THE U.S BACKED ASSASSINATION OF PATRICE LUMUMBA :
Jewell Jones made history this November, when the 20 year old African-American college student from the University of Michigan- Dearborn became the youngest person to become a member of the Inkster, City Council.
Despite only being 20 years old, Jones has over a decade of experience, helping to improve his community.
Jones stated: ” My parents would drag me around to different things in the community. I was very involved in my church. Serving the people in this capacity has always been pretty natural for me.”
The last few years, Jones has become more political, he helped in the political campaigns for Michigan State senator David Knezek (D) and Inkster’s Mayor Hilliard Hampton.
Besides being a fulltime college student and helping in political campaigns, Jones somehow finds the time to also get involved with several on campus organizations, which includes the Army ROTC, Black Student Union and Student Veterans Association.
Jones plans to graduate in 2017.
Senator Knezek told Huffpost: “We need more Jewells on politics across the country. We need more young people who won’t simply settle for sitting on the sidelines complaining about how others are running things.”
As a member of the city council, Jones objectives are to improve public safety, foster economic growth and improve the city’s park and recreational services.
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