I am sorry to hear about Wendy Bell losing her job, I really am. I, like quite a few Black folks, ripped her on twitter for her clueless remarks about Black on Black crime after the horrific mass murder near Pittsburgh, recently. But still, I certainly didn’t want her to get fired for her post.Trust me, I am not one to try and silence people for openly giving their thoughts about race and other touchy subjects. If we don’t talk and express ourselves openly, we will never solve our problems when it comes to matters of race.
The thing is though, one should at least try to educate themselves about the subject and try to understand the sensitivities of the group they feel the need to pontificate about before they start writing or talking.
Ms. Bell had every right as a citizen to express her displeasure at the horrific killings in her city, but writing as if this could only happen in poor Black neighborhoods was misguided. The fact is that affluent young White men kill people in droves as well, and her five children are more likely to be murdered by other young White children than they are those poor “fatherless” boys from the hood that she posted about.
Ironically, at least for me, the lines in her blog post that was most troubling didn’t really have anything to do with her writing about the actual killings.
“She also praised a Black restaurant worker, observing that he went about his work “with a rhythm and a step that gushed positivity,” which also drew criticism. “
Yeah that line about the Black restaurant worker’s “rhythm” was mind blowing. You would think that a woman who talks to the public for a living would not be so clueless as to use such an obvious stereotypical word to describe the Magic Negro in her post.
I am sure that this was a teachable moment for Ms. Bell. She probably regrets her post now for obvious reasons.
Still, if I were her I wouldn’t worry too much. I mean if Mark Fuhrman can land on his feet over at FOX VIEWS, I am sure that the sky is the limit for her.
Finally, speaking of Black on Black crime, I see that Ray Lewis has weighed in on the subject as well. Ray is Black.
“I’m trying to figure out why no one is paying attention to Black men killing Black men,” Lewis said.
…Why do we always find ourselves half the victims,” the 40 year old said. “Why do we always find ourselves half the victims, and now we have the separation once again that we’re being victimized because of one bad White cop, two bad White cops, three bad White cops, killing a young Black brother. But every day we have Black-on-Black crime, killing each other? Police in Chicago reported 677 shootings this year. Last year, it was 359. The March murder rate rose by 29 percent, but we’re not rioting in the streets [when] Black on Black killing each other,….”
First of all, Ray Lewis lecturing us about Black on Black crime is like Hannibal Lecter lecturing us about the evils of cannibalism.
Psst, Ray Ray, maybe you forgot about that little incident in Atlanta a few years back. As far as I can tell Jacinth Baker and Richard Lollar are both Black. Oh, and we never found that white suit you were wearing. You know, the one with the victim’s blood stains on it. But I digress.
The thing is, Ray Lewis is not the messenger that should be delivering this message. It’s a message, by the way, that I am personally sick of hearing.
For the record, most of us care about Black on Black killings, and some of us are out here every day trying to do something about it. Just because we choose to address the unnecessary killings of young Black men by those in authority does not mean that we are not as equally outraged when young Black men kill each other. We don’t need Ray Ray getting on his high horse and preaching to the rest of us about what highlighting injustice when we see it.
He should get on his knees every day and thank the folks who fought against injustice in this country so that one day he could live a life where he earned millions playing a game he loves. There was a time in the not too distance past when his Black ass couldn’t set foot on an NFL field.
“I’m just asking this one simple thing: When will we appreciate who we are? When will our skin color start paying attention to our own skin color? “I’m trying to figure out how in the month of march there’s more murders in Chicago then there are then there are days in the month. Forty-five murders in the month of [March] in Chicago.”’
Glad you are paying attention, Ray. Here is hoping that you will do more than preach, and that you will start trying to contribute to finding a solution.
*Pic from news.yahoo.com
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