Another Black Man Gunned Down In The Prime Of His Life - Casey Goodman

Attorney Sean Walton comforts Tamala Payne, the mother of Casey Goodson Jr., during a protest outside the Statehouse in Columbus, Ohio, on Saturday, December 12. Goodson, 23, was killed by a sheriff's deputy earlier this month, and the shooting is now the subject of a civil rights investigation by the US Attorney's Office in Southern Ohio. The Columbus Division of Police is also investigating. Seth Herald/Reuters

Please, Google "Casey Goodman".  

 

R.I.P., Casey.

Make America Great Again.... Again

 

So, when exactly was America "great" for Black people?  Let's take a tiny little look back:

1619 -- the first Africans are brought to America, in slave ships, from the African continent.

Enslaved, indentured servants, property, until 1865.

1865 -- The 13th amendment, which formally abolished slavery in the United States, passed the Senate on April 8, 1864, and the House on January 31, 1865. On February 1, 1865, President Abraham Lincoln approved the Joint Resolution of Congress submitting the proposed amendment to the state legislatures. The necessary number of states ratified it by December 6, 1865. The 13th amendment to the United States Constitution provides that "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." 

But were Black Americans really free?

Monuments to the Civil War sprung up, far and wide. And widespread denial of everything from voting rights, to housing, to where Blacks could live within cities... and on and on.

1964 -- The Civil Rights Act of 1964 (enacted July 2, 1964) is a landmark civil rights and labor law in the United States that outlaws discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, or national origin. It prohibits unequal application of voter registration requirements, and racial segregation in schools, employment, and public accommodations.
Initially, powers given to enforce the act were weak, but these were supplemented during later years. Congress asserted its authority to legislate under several different parts of the United States Constitution, principally its power to regulate interstate commerce under Article One (section 8), its duty to guarantee all citizens equal protection of the laws under the Fourteenth Amendment, and its duty to protect voting rights under the Fifteenth Amendment. 
2020 -- Black Lives Matter protests and its movement, continued murders of Black people, mostly Black men, at the hands of primarily White police officers.

So, again, for the past 400 years,  

when exactly was America great for Black people?

We Have 4 Centuries Of History To Rewrite In Order To Correct The White-Washing Of The Past

Keystone, South Dakota, in the shadow of Mount Rushmore, President Donald Trump on Friday, July 3, 2020, railing against what he called a "merciless campaign" by his political foes to erase history by removing monuments some say are symbols of racial oppression.

"As we meet here tonight there is a growing danger that threatens every blessing our ancestors fought so hard for," Trump warned.  He added, "Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children." 

Seriously, dude? Do you really want future generations or even the current one, to continue to live with the white-washing of the United States?  400 years of slavery, denigration of indigenous peoples, that’s not enough?  Really?? 

Have you not been paying attention to the Black Lives Matter protests in May, June and July 2020?  That’s a rhetorical question, since, of course he doesn’t pay attention to anything not related to Him looking good. 

Just a reminder – Our first President George Washington was a slave owner while in office; Thomas Jefferson was also a slave owner while in office; Theodore Roosevelt believed Asians and ‘colored people’ were immoral, among other things; Abraham Lincoln freed the slaves, although committed mass murder of indigenous people. (Yes, it’s a very brief history lesson.)

And for some reason, President Donald Trump wants to remember and celebrate those events. 

He couldn’t understand why fireworks have been banned at the monument for the past two decades.

“It’s all stone.  Where’s the environmental impact?”, he told a radio host recently.

Meanwhile, the entire state of South Dakota is on high alert, firefighters, paramedics and all, just for a few hours of incredibly stupid, arrogant behavior on the part of the leader of the free world and his minions, er, faithful followers.  How does that saying from the Bible go, “Like lambs to the slaughter?” 

Yes, yes it IS pretty re-donk-ulous.

One of the problems here, and there are many, is that with this particular monument (on Indigenous land) it’s description of who our founding fathers were needs a serious edit in order to point out and call attention to the contributions of Blacks, Asians, Hispanics and Indigenous peoples.  With other much smaller statues and monuments, most can be removed and replaced with more current people or symbols that represent our current, updated, upgraded history.

That’s a long, local level, state-by-state endeavor that should happen before the end of 2020.  Otherwise, it will absolutely get swept under the rug because that’s what lazy white people do… procrastinate… among other things. 

This one quote in particular stands out as strikingly misinformed:
"Our nation is witnessing a merciless campaign to wipe out our history, defame our heroes, erase our values and indoctrinate our children."

No. No one is talking about “wiping out history”, only editing it in order to reveal the stark, ugly truth:  Slaves were introduced to America in 1620.  The history books tend to gloss over that part because, again, it’s a painful truth.

“Defaming our heroes”, well, I’m not sure how heroic it is to own slaves in a white controlled government and country. 

“Erase our value”, ugh…. This is becoming repetitive, but necessary.  Slavery, enslavement, etc.  Is that really a value you want to project, protect and own?   No need to answer right now, just maybe take several hundred years to do nothing and think about it. 

“Indoctrinate our children”, again, we’re pretty good at that.  Been doing it for 400 hundred years.  And not only with politics and daily life – what about religion?  Seems pretty tame there, right?  Think about that one for just a moment.  Regardless of which religion you subscribe to, aren’t you learning and passing along those beliefs to your children?  

*loud gasps from the crowd* 

I know. I know.  Yes, that sacrilege.  But is it?  If we’re so afraid to even talk about religion, we need to think about why that’s a bad thing.  Indoctrination is embedded into who we are in America. 

“The American Dream”, two cars in the garage, 2.5 children, a home, a wife and a dog.  A white picket fence, Formica countertops, plastic wrapped sofas… you get the idea.  It’s an antiquated, pipe dream of an idea from the post-World War II era that never included or considered Blacks, Asians, Hispanics or Indigenous people.  It was never their dream.

Right now in 2020, 20% into a new century, those old thought patterns need to change and be replaced with the here and now, reflecting the multi-cultural, multifaceted people we’ve evolved into, for future generations.

And, yes, some of those old antiquated institutions need to go as well:

The KKK, the NRA, White Supremacists, hate speech, and on and on.  (I’d actually love to hear about more groups that you feel belong on that list.)

Inclusion, not exclusion.

Free speech, not hate speech.

Progress, not perfection.

This is not about erasing any history, only correcting and editing history to reflect the facts about how those groups were actually treated by White people.

Elijah McClain

This is how it started.  Elijah was walking home from the store:

Elijah McClain walking home from the store. He's wrapped up in a heavy coat because he was very slight/slender (5'6" tall and about 140#) and, on this particular night, very cold.  He IS wearing a face covering to keep warm

At the time, Elijah worked as a massage therapist in Aurora, Colorado.  On this particular night, he'd gone to a local convenience store to pick up an ice tea for his brother.  At 10:30 PM, Mountain Time, August 19, 2019, someone called 911 to report a suspicious person, "wearing a mask and waving his hands."  

Likely, he was waving his hands to keep warm... just a hunch.  The mask, again, to keep his face warm.
His sister later told the local news station there, he, "had anemia and would sometimes get cold."  Makes sense.
Police body-cam footage of the event didn't surface until late November 2019. Why?

On the footage, Elijah can be heard asking officers about why he is being stopped. He's in a choke-hold (a carotid hold - in order to cut off blood to the brain), tells them his house is right there.  He sobs, vomits and apologizes, saying, "I just can't breathe correctly."

These were the final moments of young Elijah McClain's brief life here on Earth.

Paramedics arrive, take Elijah to the hospital.  

En route, Elijah goes into cardiac arrest and he dies three days later.  

How does a walk to a convenience store on a chilly night in August turn into the death of another Black person? How does that happen?

 And this is how we will remember our young Elijah McClain:

Mural by Thomas Detour Evans

Cancel Culture Barbie, Reagan Escudé

And here we go again. 

Straight out of Central Casting is the latest member of the Trump Show to go off the rails.

She’s young, which Trump likes.

She’s blonde, which Trump likes.

She’s pretty and perky, which Trump likes.

She’s talking out about “Cancel Culture”, which Trump also dislikes.

The mystery girl/woman?  College student, Reagan Escudé.

 

The latest victim of her rantings?  Aunt Jemima, which the latest Miss Barbie doesn’t like that it’s being pulled from shelves because, “Who doesn’t love Aunt Jemima syrup on their pancakes?”

Reagan called Nancy Green, "the picture of the American dream."
 

Yes, removing an offensive black figure used as a prop for decades for the pleasure of white people is horrible, awful, a Democratic plot to undermine our democracy.  Not sure who “our” is in this instance, but moving on.

Nancy Green (March 4, 1834 – August 30, 1923) was a storyteller, cook, activist, and the first of several African-American models hired to promote a corporate trademark as "Aunt Jemima".  Ms. Green was also a former slave, something that Ms. Escudé seems to gloss over; Reagan does mention the slave part, but only in passing, like it's not big deal at all.  (It's a HUGE deal)  Likewise with Uncle’s Ben (of Converted Rice fame), and other corporate symbols over the past several weeks. 

Is that removal enough?  NO.  Is it a starting point?  Yes, if it helps ease the pain of even 1 person, or 1 group, that’s a good thing.  But we ALL have work to do, starting with those fragile, delicate white people.  (YES, I’m one of them, and very embarrassed and ashamed right now.)

I don’t have a reference point for what’s it like to be any person of color – African, Hispanic, LatinX, Asian, Pacific Islander, any other person or group.  I can’t imagine what it must be like to wake up every single morning knowing there’s a target or your back, or your forehead.  That’s unfathomable to me.

That I am privileged because of the color of my skin alone, is frankly, mind-boggling, and not in a good way.  I have come to realize that “privilege” is not about social status, income level, belonging to an exclusive country club… it’s much more human and biological than that.

We ARE one people.  The  PEOPLE of Planet Earth. 

John Lennon (remember him?) wrote “Imagine” about 45 years ago, in the early 1970s and he knew then what the rest of us are only beginning to see now. 

“Imagine there’s no countries, it isn’t hard to do.

No need for greed or hunger, and no religion, too. 

Imagine all the people, living life in peace.”

It’s worth looking up on YouTube or iTunes.  But I digress.

(**Side Note-- Think about this. Wouldn't it be amazing to have a choir of young people, the DREAMers, singing John Lennon's "Imagine", and have it filmed for YouTube so the world could see them?  That would be cool!)

Enough IS ENOUGH.  This needs to be the revolution that The Beatles sang about, because that’s what it is going to take to get things done.

Trump won’t move an inch on anything. (He’ll likely get his ‘walking papers’ in November 2020)

Mitch McConnell, likewise, won’t budge because he knows Trump won’t move on it.  (Mitchy will likely not be the Senate Majority leader in November 2020)

And on down the ballot. 

Real police reforms will take place, union leadership or not.  Many officers won’t like the nationwide reporting system and will probably leave their jobs/careers in public safety.  Police, aside from “choke holds”, “knees on necks” and so on, they already have too much leeway as public safety officers.  Maybe reign them in some?  Probably.

I don’t know how or when things will calm down, or return to normal or “new normal”.  My crystal ball is in the shop and reading tea leaves was not a subject I studied in school.

Reagan is just the latest talking head in Trump’s wallet/bed and she’ll be a memory very soon.

The immediate issue of importance is treatment of Black people, demonized, marginalized, threatened… no one should have to go through an entire lifetime like that.  No one.

Bottom line, it’s another (feeble) attempt by white people to minimize the trials, tribulations, and hardships of Black people for the past 400 years.

It’s the reason so many statues and other monuments from the 19^th and 20^th centuries are being torn down around the world right now – Enough IS ENOUGH. 

Black Lives Matter. Period. Hard Stop.

And somehow, for some reason, all Trump cares about is how those monuments and statues are being desecrated, not that the statues are of slave owners, not that the statues are of people who defiled indigenous lands and peoples…. None of that.  Nope, it’s all about statues.

For someone as vain and delicate and obnoxious and vile as Trump is, what’s the real reason he cares about statues?  Statue envy?  Probably.  It’s like that phase we go through in our development that Dr. Freud spoke about – pee pee envy.

And he’s set to sign a proclamation, or executive action or executive order, where he takes that Sharpie and scribbles with the veracity of a 4 year old desperately trying to color within the lines.

Gotta say though, it looks more like an EKG than a signature.  Just sayin’…

BLACK   LIVES   MATTER.

--------------------------------------------

**Update**  The House of Representatives is set to pass a policing reform bill soon, as of June 25, 2020, however, that is along party lines as Republicans, largely, refuse to get on board.  (I think their constituents feel differently and will not vote them back into office during the next few election cycles.)

Likewise in the Senate with a Republican majority and Trump flunky/toadstool, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. (He’s facing an uphill battle with 2 separate contenders – 1 Democrat and 1 Republican – and he’s sweating now as the Senate will like flip to Democrat control in November 2020.)  His party’s policing reform bill largely does nothing in regards to reigning in police, which again, WILL lead to continued divides and protests around police brutality and lack of accountability.  

Check this out:

1 Black Republican Senator, Tim Scott, from South Carolina

… and many women, but NO color in the Republican party:

Kelly Loeffler, R-GA

Martha McSally, R-AZ

Marsha Blackburn, R-TN

Cindy Hyde-Smith, R-MS

Joni Ernst, R-IA

Shelley Moore Capito, R-WV

Deb Fischer, R-NE

Lisa Murkowshi, R-AK

Susan Collins, R-ME

At the same time there are 4 women of color in the Senate:

Kamala Harris, D-CA

Tammy Duckworth, D-IL

Mazie Hirono, D-HI

Catherine Cortez Masto, D-NV

So, what does this mean?  Real simple.  We can’t change the country until it looks like us, the country as a whole and the world-at-large… period.

YES, that means MORE PEOPLE OF COLOR in the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives. 

And just in case you forgot:

BLACK            LIVES              MATTER.