The Sable Verity

Originally posted July 12 2008:   It is an uncomfortable sense of déjà vu; seven years ago I sat down in the middle of the night at my aging PC, to write about a police shooting I had witnessed in my neighborhood, Rainier Beach.  At the time I was just weeks away from delivering my youngest child, and the violence I had seen that day forever changed me.  I wrote the first words that came to mind:

It is a rare thing to know you are seeing a man living out his last moments.

The man shot and killed by police, a youngish looking Black man, had just minutes before, brutally attacked a group of people while high on drugs; including children.  I still remember vividly the image of a police officer carrying a child from the duplex, her dark brown legs dangling limply over his arms.  It was heart breaking.

I also wrote about the reaction of by-standers at the time.  I happened to be walking home from the library, but many others, who were passing by in their cars, pulled over and got out, watching the events unfold.  I said then:

Things became quiet as the calm arrived before the storm. I stood and watched my people, my brothers and sisters who were responding to the crowd as a time for bonding. I was shocked to see those who were watching the same thing we were, take time to talk about hair, babies, upcoming events and social gatherings, recent deaths and births, divorces and marriages. My husband and I stood in a sea of faces, none of whom we knew, but all felt like family — the aunt who knows everyone’s business, the cousin you never see, and too many of our beautiful babies, all standing around, connecting.

I felt the need to point this out at the time because I was struck and disturbed by how un-effected people seemed to be by what was happening just a few hundred feet away, and how some had claimed the police shot the man “in cold blood”, even after he ran out, shooting at police for all to see.

Fast forward, and here I sit.  I still do all my grocery shopping in Rainier Beach…still use the cleaners too.  But I no longer live in Rainier Beach.  I’ve graduated to a handy lap-top, and my youngest child has since passed away.  Many things have changed in seven years.

But some things have stayed the same.  Senseless violence and death in Rainer Beach seems to be one of them.

I was shocked and sickened yesterday when, in one of my many trips to both daily papers online, I heard about the senseless assault of James Paroline, an RB resident who was attacked while tending to the garden in the traffic circle by his home.  Paroline had set up traffic cones to prevent drivers from running over his hose; this act led to a few altercations, and culminated in him being punched in the face by a twenty-something Black male; Paroline hit the concrete so hard, his scull was crushed- an image that the Seattle PI displayed for all, and which led me back to my computer with these words again in my head:

It is a rare thing to know you are seeing a man living out his last moments.

 

This photo has been purposely altered to dim the image, out of respect for the memory of the victim

That image of Mr. Paroline, lying helpless in the middle of the street, assaulted my senses, nearly making me ill.  The blood.  The caved-in skull.  The limpness of his body.  There was a man living his last moments.  Taking his last free breaths, and for what?  A few traffic cones in the street?  I have seen a lot in my life.  But this…

I am aware that there are some reports that Paroline was a difficult neighbor, while others say the man simply cared about where he lived, and tried to do his part in many ways, one of which was the traffic garden.  Difficult neighbor or not, he didn’t deserve to be punched in the face by a complete stranger.  He didn’t deserve to die just hours later at Harborview Hospital.

I find myself focused on the same issue that I was seven years ago; we as a people, and as a community have a problem.  Seven years ago, a few accused me of portraying Black people as uncaring and flippant, even indignant at what they saw that day.

I suppose I may be accused of those same things today, but a man has lost his life, and another, when caught, will spend most of the rest of his in prison, and for what?  For what?  We should all demand to know the answer to that.  It had nothing to do with traffic cones in the street.

Rainier Beach is a beautiful place.  There are families that have lived there for generations who embody the true essence of community. There are plenty of young adults who live there, that care about it, that are neighborly, that don’t get into trouble.

But then of course, there are many who do not.  They have no respect for themselves or anyone else, and not enough is provided to keep them on track; there can be no solutions to a problem if the problem is left undefined.  If we don’t like it, then what are we prepared to do about it, and when are we going to do it?  I can’t keep track of the number of homicides involving Black youth over the past nine months in the south end and in south east Seattle.  How many more makeshift memorials are we going to have to lay flowers at?

My perception of RB can’t be pawned off on the media’s often disproportionate reporting; I lived in Rainer Beach.  I spent years listening to gun fire all night, waking in the morning to hear accounts from neighbors, watched the fights in the street between young Black men and young Black women, endured the teen-agers and twenty-something’s pushing everyone else out from under the metro bus shelter in order to carry out a quick drug deal, or smoke some marijuana with friends, the police on the other side of the block, or not around at all.  I remember all to well my seven year old coming in crying, because another seven year old threatened to shoot her, because she wouldn’t give him her toy; he told her he was going to get the gun in his house and ran off.  She remained petrified after that.  I passed by the funeral home on Rainier and Henderson, in the heart of “the Beach” every day on my way to work and saw the Black mothers crying for their dead children, while in a jai cell, another young Black man sat awaiting his fate.

The decision to leave Rainier Beach was made solely because of the visible dominating culture; I wanted to get out before it began having a negative impact on my children.  For all of those children you see in RB “hanging out”, there are dozens more whose parents are keeping them in the house, and this is exactly why.  Because someone can walk up to you, who feels they have the right to assault you, or take your life, and do just that.  Rainier Beach has its bullies; anyone who has ever lived there knows that.

The sidewalks have been improved.  A new school is being built.  Spiffy new housing units have gone up, a stone’s throw from light rail, but some things have remained the same.

Another person is dead, and another, will likely be on his way to prison for killing him, unless of course he is justifiably shot by the police first. 

****

I want everyone to know that the photo used in this article, was not used lightly.  When I first happened upon it while checking the local news, it had a profoundly painful impact on me.  I sent an email to the newspaper, asking them to post a warning to readers, so that they could make an informed decision about whether or not they wanted to see it, and I received a gracious reply.  When I first saw the photo, one of my many instincts, was to make a copy, because I knew that it wouldn’t be up for long, because of how graphic it is.  I know that if I saw the need to send a note to the paper, thousands of others did as well; not long after it first went up, it was gone, replaced by a blood stained sidewalk in stead.

I took time to think about whether or not I was going to use it or not, but as you can see, ultimately I decided it’s inclusion was important, vital even. 

Peace,

Sable Verity

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/370578_rainierbeach12.html

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/jamieson/370576_robert12xx.html

Passing this on from the Legal Theory Blog:

Here is the abstract:

Scholars describe the one-drop rule - the idea that any African ancestry makes a person black - as the American regime of race. While accounts of when the rule emerged vary widely, ranging from the 1660s to the 1920s, most legal scholars have assumed that once established, the rule created a bright line that people were bound to follow. This Article reconstructs the one-drop rule’s meaning and purpose from 1600 to 1860, setting it within the context of racial migration, the continual process by which people of African descent assimilated into white communities. Read more »

BREAKING NEWS: IT WAS THE N-WORD http://sableverity.wordpress.com/2008/07/17/jackson-calls-obama-the-n-word-according-to-fox-news/

See also: http://sableverity.wordpress.com/2008/07/11/jesse-jackson-is-the-problem-not-the-solution/

There are many reasons to be angry and disapointed with Jesse Jackson today.

First of all he went on Fox Fake News, as if it practices respectable news reporting; as if it’s never displayed out and out racism towards Obama, his wife and their daughters.  Strike number 1.

Secondly, he spoke about the presumptive Democratic nominee as if he had committed some moral crime, which he hadn’t, and which displayed just how much of a bitter man Jesse Jackson is.

Thirdly, he, a man with the title, Reverend before his name, said he wanted to castrate Obama.  Further, the image and violence associated with castration and Black men has…historic significance.  That Jesse would invoke it was hsocking to me.  He might as well have said he wanted Obama tarred and feathered.  It was ugly, it was vulgar; 3rd strike.

Fourth, and most important to me at this juncture; he forced many of us, who otherwise would never do such a thing, to watch at least a few minutes of that muther&*%$#er Bill O’Rielly, who already has a special ring in hell awaiting his arrival, to find out just exactly what it was he said about Obama.

Fifth, and what many of us didn’t catch, is that the Rev said something so out-of-pocket about Barack, that FOX “wouldnt” air it….yet.  Oh I know what Bill said, but please, trust me when I say I do not believe for one hot second that they won’t, eventually, play the rest of the tape.

If they weren’t going to, at some juncture, Bill would have never drawn attention to the fact that there was more tape to be seen.

Bill made a big deal out of this unseen clip.  And so, I’ve been asking myself, just what else could he have said?

My first thought, was “house nigga” or “house negro”.  If you are not familiar with this term, click here and here for the breakdown.  If he said either of those things, it wouldn’t bode well for Jesse in the Black community, because folks are going to reject that term, or any association with Obama.  All and all, he’s liked.  And well, folks at Fox news would have a field day with that.

But I don’t think that’s it, because of the fact that it’s something they actually chose, for ratings not for tact, not to air at this point.

After having giving it a bit more thought and talked it over with some folks, we’ve settled on “Uncle Tom”.

Uncle Tom is a term used by black people to try to convince other black people that working, education, living well, and setting a good example for their children is selling out.

Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t see how Obama’s call to all absentee fathers can comprise “talking down to black people.” Jackson seems to assume the challenge to be involved with one’s children is somehow uniquely unfair or unreasonable to black fathers. Which is, I submit, the same as saying that he assumes black fathers (a) are uniquely incapable of being involved with their children, or (b) should for some reason (because black children don’t need or don’t deserve fathers?) be given a pass on being fathers to the children they create.

Let me tell you something. We have our struggles and everything, we have things, as people of color, that are outside of our control, when you look at social stratification and institutionalized-isms, but there is also an accountability piece that is key.

What good does it do to run around and “blame” the white man? What good does it do to run around and blaim disproportionality for my woes, or my sista’s woes?
I know that racism exists. I know that the condition of Black people today, just like the condition of Native people today, is because of what White people did in the past. I can see that direct line, that strong thread, every day. But if I know that, then shouldn’t that make me smarter? If I know what I am up against, shouldn’t I have a greater chance of being able to make something of myself?

I stand by that.  When we as a people are more aware of the issues we face, collectively and individually, we are then able to deal with those issues and move into a better space.

I’ve said all of that to say, that based on what we know Jesse said already, and based on what Obama said in his father’s day speech which irked Jesse so much, I would almost bet a paycheck that he called him an Uncle Tom.

Which leads me to my last conclusion; Jesse Jackson is a part of the problem, not a part of the solution.  His personally internalized racism was there for everyone to see, and boy was it revealing.

The days of hiding dirty laundry need to end.  I know quite a few Black folks, many, many of which come from Jesse’s era, that believe that talking openly about problems in the Black community, is selling out that comunity, or talking down to that community; lecturing that community, even if you’re Black and apart of the community.

I experienced that fully when I worked for the NAACP and I saw how the “old guard” would rather die than clean its house of problems.  It didn’t want to take out the trash, because it didn’t want folks to know it had garbage in the first place.  It led to the downfall of the organization.

We can’t solve these social problems unless we talk about them, and implement real solutions, and I believe that is what Barack is trying to do, among other things.

When we boil that away, we have to remember that the comments that Jesse made didn’t have anything to do with Obama “talking down” to Black people.

Jesse took Obama’s Father’s day comments personally.  He is, after all, an absent father.  He did, after all, step out of his marriage, and then tried hard to get out of his responsibility as a father to that child.

And we already know that Jesse is jealous of Obama.  We know that, despite what he claims, he has not embraced this man, nor what he has accomplished, because Jesse wasn’t able to accomplish it himself.  When Jesse ran for President, is was revolutionary.  When Obama ran for President, it was simply the natural next step.  Obama has accomplished more for racial understanding in 5 years, than Jesse has accomplished in his entire career.  That must come as quite a blow.  I think Jesse sees Obama as nothing more than a snot nozed punk kid with an Ivy league education who thinks he knows it all, but to Jesse, doesn’t know shit, because “he wasn’t there”, during the civil right movement.

That Jessee would even fix his mouth to say that what Obama said equated to “talking down” to anyone, he took his mask off right in that moment, and I’ll surely never see him the same again, because as it stands, Jesse Jackson is a part of the problem.

Dr. Boyce Watkins, who I respect, has another theory on this:

http://news.aol.com/elections/story/_a/jackson-sorry-for-crude-obama-remarks/20080709195109990001?icid=100214839×1205342451x1200264205

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25611808/

http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/07/09/jesse.jackson.comment/index.html

http://sableverity.wordpress.com/2008/07/09/jesse-jackson-slams-obama-on-fox-news/

http://sableverity.wordpress.com/2008/07/09/why-jesse-jackson-wants-to-castrate-barack-obama/

http://sableverity.wordpress.com/2008/07/09/developing-jesse-jackson-jr-rips-the-hell-out-of-rev-jesse-jackson/

http://www.hollywoodgrind.com/jesse-jackson-open-mic-records-barack-obama-bash-on-fox/

I am jealous of Barack Obama

Alright, I am pretty sure that this is a first.  Keep in mind that the Jr. Jackson is a co-chair of Obama’s campaign, so he really didn’t have a choice:

From CNN:

“I thoroughly reject and repudiate his ugly rhetoric”.

Whatever the Rev. Jesse Jackson Sr. said in a live microphone on Fox News, it was really, really bad, and none other than his own son seems to know it.

“I’m deeply outraged and disappointed in Reverend Jackson’s reckless statements about Senator Barack Obama. His divisive and demeaning comments about the presumptive Democratic nominee — and I believe the next president of the United States — contradict his inspiring and courageous career,” wrote Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.), an Obama campaign co-chairman, in a statement sent out after word began spreading that his father had said something crude and deeply offensive.

The bold-faced text was his own. “Instead of tearing others down, Barack Obama wants to build the country up and bring people together so that we can move forward, together — as one nation. The remarks like those uttered on Fox by Reverend Jackson do not advance the campaign’s cause of building a more perfect Union.”

I don’t want to hear it.  Do not send me any emails or comments telling me how sick I am, or how I speak ill of the dead.  I’m just passing the message along.

In death, the sins of folks can be forgotten, white-washed and otherwise covered up.  After days of hearing and reading nothing but praise about the late Helmes, I was interested in the article that was sent my way by Lisa Duggan of the Nation Magazine:

Did he plan it? Did he struggle on life support until after the midnight hour, timing his last breath? Or had he been dead for days, his associates keeping the body on ice for the holiday announcement? Jesse Helms, dead on the Fourth of July.

Helms would have appreciated the symbolism, confirming his own mythic identity as a Proud American, but Helms’s other legacy as a big fat bigot is well established. From his racist tirades on the radio and television in North Carolina during the 1950s and ’60s to his vicious homophobic rants of the 1980s and 90s, he left a highly quotable record of hate.

 On the civil rights movement: “ ’Candy’ is hardly the word for either the topless swimsuit or the Civil Rights Bill. In our judgment, neither has a place in America–unless we have completely lost our sense of morality.”

and

“The Negro cannot count forever on the kind of restraint that’s thus far left him free to clog the streets, disrupt traffic, and interfere with other men’s rights.”

On sexual politics and public health: “The government should spend less money on people with AIDS because they got sick as a result of deliberate, disgusting, revolting conduct.”

In death it’s easy to dismiss Jesse Helms as a colorful buffoon or a relic of the bad old days of segregation and sexism, but that doesn’t do Helms’s bigotry justice.

Jesse Helms was an important bigot. He didn’t just fume and huff. He used the language of cultural politics–called “morality” or “values” or just “freedom”–to shrink the state, reduce the social wage, enhance the interests of ruthless corporate profit mongering and promote US military interventions around the world. He’s the poster boy for how cultural politics works, not as an arena separated from the “real” political economy but as the site of the language and emotion through which people live politics and economics everyday.

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20080721/duggan