The Random Thoughts of Madame Ubuntu

<<<TO THE CLASS OF 2012 >>>

This is for @evet965 and @smartblackman who asked me to elaborate after I said "Everybody Hates Chris" is a genius show.

First I'd like to say that I did not watch this show when it was 1st out. Seemed corny and they kept switching the nights so it was hard to keep up. Watching it now , I see it just fell victim to what most good Black shows do, network sabotage. Especially when there's a black father.. American TV HATES that.

Anyway, that's not what this is about, it's about why I think it's great.

1. The writing is really good. It's a good blend of realism and silly fanstastical situations. It highlights the things in everyday life that we kind of take for granted in a funny and creative way.

2. It tells a story you don't normally see. The black nerd or average kid from the hood. It's not something that's overly scary or overly silly, it's just real. Especially when looking at the family and how you engage your neighborhood as a young person.

3. In US media we are used to the story of the white person entering into a Black hostile environment but never the reverse. Everybody Hates Chris shows that reverse which is both unique, but also very familiar for some of us. Especially the white liberal teacher, if you're black in a white college, you've definitely experienced that.

4. It captures that shift in Black neighborhoods when they started to change because of crack in a very subtle but real way. As someone who was a young child during the crack era, it's hard to see that was just a moment, most of us assume our neighborhoods always looked like this. 

5. It makes interesting social and political commentary in a very real, yet fun way. It tells truths you haven't really seen in TV before esp post 90s.

Let's be  honest, most Black TV 2000 and beyond has been plain terrible or nonexistent. This definitely was the best of the time (wish I wouldve known) and def up there for the top of all time. 

The case of Trayvon Martin has swept through the world as masses of people have called for justice in protest and legal defense support. Thousands of people have dawned hoodies, taking pictures and posting them to popular social networking sites to show solidarity for the slain teenager. 

So why has this resonated with so many people in so many different places? Does it have anything to do with so many of our black children lost to violence? In Baltimore City, we know of this too well. According to the Baltimore City Health Youth Violence Report: "On average, 27 youth aged 0 to 17 were victims of homicide, 82 youth aged 0 to 17 were victims of a non-fatal shooting, and 30 youth aged 0 to 17 were arrested and convicted oradjudicated delinquent for murder or attempted murder each year from 2002 to 2007. Thenumber of homicide victims ranged from 13 to 35 per year; and the number of non-fatalshooting victims ranged from 74 to 101." That makes up almost a third of violent crimes in Baltimore City. "The juvenile homicide rate (less than 18 years of age) in Baltimore City for the years 2002 to 2006, was almost five times higher than the Maryland rate, and over eight times higher than the national rate for comparable periods of time (Figure 3)." 97% of these cases were children of African descent. 

Is it because his known killer still walks the streets? According to a 2008 Baltimore Sun analysis of FBI and Baltimore City crime statistics, only 45% of murder cases were solved.. Baltimore City having the 2nd success lowest rate in the country. In a place, affectionately known as "Smalltimore" why are these rates so dismal?

Is it because the lack of perceived value for the lives of Black children? One of my peer mediation students at Northwestern expressed (shortly before the Trayvon Martin case) "You can get more time selling drugs than for murdering somebody. That just sends the message that you can keep doing it, and get away with it" Hearing that broke my heart, because I couldn't tell him it wasn't true. There are huge sting operations to shut down weed sale operations, but seemingly little to no effort to seek justice on behalf of our slain men, women and children. All I could think about was hearing an employee of the mayor's office say to me leisurely at a meeting one day (I'm paraphrasing) "This might sound messed up, but when I hear about a 15 yr old getting shot around here [park heights], it's not the bad, because they were probably caught up in some bad stuff, & would be in jail anyway, that's 1 last person the state has to take care of." I was absolutely floored.. especially because this is someone that is in a position of power over/for the young people of Baltimore City. This person seeks no value in a child's life, if s/he is caught up in "bad stuff". I told this story to someone else and they said this is a common ideology in City Hall, and these are the people committed to making this city safer?

And the question is asked, for whom? Is "making the City safer" code language for killing and incarcerating more and more Black children? Is your life's value determined by what neighborhood you live in? or the grades you get? or the way you dress? or the way you talk? or how many parents are in your home? I look around at our society, and the way we handle things, and the answer seems to be yes.

I see youth as the reflection of a society. They are truly our offspring as they exhibit patterns and behaviors that we have modeled and encouraged. What does this say about us, when the youth of our city, our finding themselves being both victims and perpetrators of violence at an alarming rate? What does it say, when a student from Liberia, leaves a nation, where a war was happening in her life time, to come to a country that she deems "unsafe" and "less free" than her home, because here you always have to "watch your back".

What does it mean with the people who are supposed to be protecting our children? are the ones harming them?

Forty-eight percent of the youth violence victims & perpetrators had contact with CPS for allegations of abuse or neglect. 

So what happens when the system isn't working? Seventy-three percent of the youth victims and perpetrators of violence had history of referral to the DJS. Fifty-five percent of the study population was placed under DJSsupervision at some point prior to the shooting, death, or crime.  

Some would look at this data and say, "the young man working for the Mayor's office was right". For it seems that those youth that are victims and perpetrators of violence, are those that have gotten in trouble anyway. 

I look at this data and think, the system that claims to save, protect and rehabilitate, is obviously not working. I often ask myself, is it supposed to work? Or maybe it is working, but for a different agenda.

My job isn't to dwell on that however but to add to the conversation of what does work and what is healthy for our communities.

We have to acknowledge that we have a culture of quick solutions and violence and move towards a culture of peace and restorative practices.

On an interpersonal level. We have to be more mindful of what we digest, mentally, physically and spiritually. We already know that much of the media we watch has an adverse effect on how we view ourselves and others. From cartoons, to news, to music videos, American media is drenched with violence. Black people make up the majority of both the victims and perpetrators of violence in movies, though a very small portion of actors as a whole. These images don't necessarily make you want to commit violence, but it does normalize it.  What does normalizing something like violence do?  Does it make us pull out our cell phones and start recording a fight as we yell "worldstar worldstar"? Does it make us less willing to do something about it because it's "apart of life"? What happens when you grow up in and socialized in this reality? What happens when real life mimics the screen? 

What does it do for our sense of community? Studies have suggested that the more media a person consumes, their perception of crime and violence statistics are much higher than they actually are and makes us more fearful. Fear is not a component of a health community and a strong sense of community is extremely important in reducing violence and crime, especially with young people. That goes for the household as well. A strong sense of family, love and support is necessary for the development of happy and healthy children.

What else is controllable in the home? What we eat and drink has an effect on our mental health and how we relate to one another. High sugar and fat diets, especially coupled chemical imbalances caused by lead exposure, have also proven to contribute to violent behavior. Too many of were raised in front of a screen.. be it television, computer or cell phone. What does this mean for how we relate to one another?

What does this mean when images of Black people are usually limited and criminal? What does it mean for law enforcement and for those outside the community who have power over it? Do they allow media driven stereotypes and fears to dictate their actions? Was Trayvon Martin considered a thug because his attire reflected a "thug uniform" paraded on television?

It's time to talk to one another again. Time to break down the superficial barriers that separate us. We have to stop allowing these separations to justify injustice.

We have a culture of violence. Look at the history of the US. How was it started? Who benefited and who suffered? How have we used war?  We have a culture of violence that violence from “good” people is justified and “bad” people are demonized. Well not many people identify with being “bad” and every action can be justified. We have to cure our culture of violence. We need to learn how to not solve our problems with violence, between one another and between nations. 

The hypocrisy is confusing to young people. 

So I was asked by @SekouSkyy if I thought social networks help stuff or something like that and I refused to answer. Mostly because I was on my way to sleep, partially because I don't like have deep conversations on twitter and somewhat because I refuse to think about it. 

As someone who has been rallying, educating, advocating, petitioning, raising awareness, fundraising and all that for at least the last 10-11 years of my life, I know it's really difficult to get people to care about anything of any real substance, and even more difficult to get them to move towards action. At the same time I'm well aware of people that make fighting for justice, equality, freedom whatever apart of their everyday life. They risk their lives and sanity for the betterment of a world that hardly understands them for causes that seem like there's no winning. 

So as this person what's my initial reaction? Yes, finally, people are seeing something needs to be done, look at all the people wanting to do something!  But then I'm like? B*** YOU WASN'T WIF ME WHEN I WAS MARCHIN WIF THEM! 

J/k but that sentiment resonates with non fair weather activists that's fighting and doing everyday? Why? Because they know the lack of support that happens usually, they know how quickly people stop caring and they know how much the system will throw crumbs to shut the masses up & they do, continuously. For me, activism isn't a competition and activists need to chill with their ego.

At the same time, my dear fair weathers, love you, thanks for changing your status, facebook picture, retweeting that thing, reblogging that picture and signing that petition BUT understand that's about all you doing, humble yourself as well. People have got so caught up in building awareness, we've forgotten that awareness is a tool to produce effective action. SIGNING A PETITION IS NOT ACTION! Especially in 2012 when anything trending long enough can get enough signatures and especially when it's not a state sponsored petition that will actually result in something. This doesn't mean don't do it, it means know what you're doing and understand what actually needs to be done & evaluate what tools are effective and why.

So social networks? That's the point right? Social networks are a wonderful tool for organizing and building awareness. It allows you to get a message out to many people with very little effort. Key word tool it is not the movement, you are not an activist because your timeline is filled with "progressive" stuff.

When 1st joining Twitter, I decided not to tweet anything of that nature, because talking about something, certainly tweeting about something, gives you the same satisfaction of actually DOing it and I actually have to be about that life.

The other issue, is issue fatigue, information comes so quickly and so readily, we use all of our energy for one thing and something falls shorts or the world seems a lot more crazy than what it actually is so we disengage completely. Or what happens is issues that have a real impact on people's lives, becomes nothing more than a few images, maybe videos, & statements for our entertainment, as we lose true sensitivity. So something crazy happens right in front of it, and instead of doing something, we pull out our phones and record it so we can build "awareness".

Another thing, the problem stops existing when it stops trending. Social networks and the media helped us donate to Haiti and to earthquake relief but 1. most aid did NOT go to the people 2. people are still suffering, where are you that cared so much before? Simply, something is "won" a lot of money raised, a lot of people showed up at a rally or someone is arrested or set free.. but we stop looking to see the effects. 

Lastly, social networking builds the illusion that an issue is raised simply because individuals raised their voices. There's a lot of work that happens to make something an "issue". There's also gatekeepers.. like change.org does not accept every petition. Of course those that write articles and whatnot. For black movements, these gatekeeper are often not people of color and certainly not poor people. 

I need those that REALLY care.. that really do.. to really study movements and tactics. You have to ask yourself: How and why is this effective? What is the result? Is this result a good one? Who has been fighting for this for years? How can I continue to help? What role do I play in problem? And when someone asks you to explore these questions, don't respond with: BUT I'M DOIN SOMETHIN? WHAT IS YOU DOIN!? ALL YOU DOIN IS COMPLAININ!

Now back to the non fairweathers... they got a point, telling people what they not doing because you know more work needs to be done is counterproductive. Instead explore for yourself what more needs to be done and encourage folks in that direction. Because of the fairweathers, a few actually stick around and they need molding not scolding.

So I find myself exhausted with this. I wanted to end this with proposed solutions but I'll leave that up to yall to ask "so what we supposed to do then!?" But know, I dont talk to egos, and I don't answer questions that you don't care the answer to. I don't waste my time on divisive behavior, it's all about building over here.

White Man's Burden