WANT TO HELP BLACKS? DO THIS!

The simplest of actions, can make the greatest difference.
4.19.2015

Please allow me to bloviate about one night, a while back. Maybe 8-10 years or so.

5 Black guys enter a bar. Sounds like the beginning of a joke.

Well, it was many bars. And it wasn't regular Black dudes. It was us. SU heads. College buddies. The type of guys to buy bottles everywhere we went and not finish them.

I visited Ferguson Missouri in November of 2014, right after the riots.
This is Michael Brown's memorial. I had an eye-opening time

On this particular night, we club-hopped till about 4AM. Our last stop was this place I'd never been to before. It was on the second floor of what seemed like an office building in an area of NYC some people call, "Hell's Kitchen." Back in the day when the name became popular, the kitchens there really looked like hell. No longer. Now, it's a pretty expensive area of Manhattan.

When we got off the elevator, everybody around us became instantly South Korean. The house music was booming. Seems like our Black Buppy crew had crashed a South Korean birthday party for some rich IT guy. After a while there, I came to realize that this was a coworker of one of my buddies.

I was surprised at the amount of interaction from the folks there. Strangers where offering me drinks, the women were friendly, people started crowding around as if we were celebrities. I didn't know what the excitement was all about. My stupid caveman ass grew up in projects thinking that Asians don't like Blacks. 

Everybody seemed to be talking in different languages around me. But then a nice young lady stepped in front of me and asked me a question that helped me realize the context of

the environment. She asked me in English...

"WHAT CAN WE DO TO HELP BLACK PEOPLE IN AMERICA RISE?" she asked.

Even drunk I found that question to be Einstein-deep. she wasn't condescending. She wasn't

like, "would you like some change, Broke Nigga?" I couldn't begin to get offended at such an

My college buddies from SU. Somehow we all find time
to wear suits and act a fool

honest question. This woman was sincere. And it all made sense to me after I thought about it. 

See, to  her, we were the right people to ask. Obviously young, successful Black men, who treated the town like it was ours. At least, that was our presentation. I gave her an answer, something along the lines of: "well, we just need people like you to stay around fighting for what's right."

Crappola. 

This woman asked me a specific question, and I gave her crappola. I gave her crappola, because I wasn't prepared for the question. But now, I'm a little bit older and wiser, and I am prepared. 

See, I've thought about that night a lot. Been many places since then. And I have a much wiser answer now. But first, let me define the question.

What does it mean to "help" Black people? To make this an easy exercise, we will leave the definition of "who's Black?" for another blog post. But assuming that I'm Black, along with most of the people I grew up with, what do we need most?  Is it economic equality? Is is a stoppage of police harassment? Is it more fair job opportunities? Better school admissions?  

I'm seriously into simplicity and if left up to me, I would want a simple answer. And it's not the AVERAGE answer. It's not crappola. I'd like a do-over please.

First, I'll cover what seems like the obvious answers:

I got to review some of the damages done to the Ferguson, Missouri community.

VOTING

I could've said, "hey girl, vote for the candidates that will help our cause!"

Vote democrat (or republican). Vote for this candidate that actually likes Black people. Or support this politician in this endeavor that helps us. I could've said this. If I would've said this, I wouldn't be wrong. Voting IS really really important. And it can be very effective if you vote CONSISTENTLY over TIME. 

But it does take time. 

America's legislative process is a slow-moving one. Ideally, my answer to this young lady won't take decades for results. 

MARCHING

"Hey lady, I'm meeting with Al Sharpton tomorrow. Come with me so I can introduce you two!"

I'm a fan of marching. But peaceful and meaningful marches take a great deal of dedication. Once again, a long term plan. Marching tends to make people some people mad, first. Don't get me wrong, prolonged, difficult marches are very effective. But I believe there's something easier and more meaningful for the faint of heart. 

HIRING

"Give us all good jobs, lady, like you have. Everything else will take care of itself," I coulda said. And i would not have been too off. Most minorities are just looking for a stable way to raise their family. The same thing everybody else wants. But this may be unrealistic. Very few people have the power to "greenlight" a hire independently.

CHARITY

"Well you can start helping us, by taking care of my tab tonight, rich girl." Many Black guys use this tactic. Many don't. Some call it panhandling. It's just not my style and I'm not even a republican. So I'll stop here with this.

My answer?

ATTENDING JURY DUTY

Ferguson, MO. They had al types of artists who put up work, to cover
businesses and calm the masses. This was pre-emptive cover.

The American justice system is the last place in america where racism is widely accepted. Everyday, violations against the Constitution and morality are committed in the justice system, falsely naming public safety as the culprit. I, myself, have felt victimized by the justice system. And I'm talking about mostly the judiciary of the states.

Most state judges have been in place for many many years. They are seriously subject to old fool syndrome. They can be the last to change for the better with regard to racism, sexism, etc... My experience has been that state judges, generally, feel like poor people have nothing better to do than to go through their system. But there is one aspect of the justice system that is supposed to remain sanitized from the environment of the system in general. And that's the jury system. 

I'll never forget being told, in law school, that the jury system is what keeps the justice system in America from being a system of oppression. This is due to it being the only part of government that involves your unelected and unappointed peers. Your true peers. This is a very important part of due process that you receive before the government exercises its power upon you for any reason.

In other words, the government cannot take away one's property, life or liberty, without the participation of fellow citizens. But fellow citizens must participate, in order for these rights to have meaning.

In our American justice system, one finds that poor people, generally don't feel the obligation to participate. Especially poor people. The ones who are most affected by non-participation due to their lack of funding for their defense. Not to say that public defenders aren't good at defending. The evidence proves to the contrary. Public defenders are very skilled, on the average. They spend more time in court than most attorneys. But they are usually overworked, spread thin, and just don't have the resources to defend a client wholistically. 

The Missouri National Guard showed up for the party. I found them
to be largely impotent. They showed up in the evenings

What we need in America most, are good jurors. 

Most people remember the Trayvonn Martin case where neighborhood watchdog George Zimmerman was acquitted. They remember the Eric Garner case where a Grand Jury refused to indict a cop who choked a man to death in broad daylight in front of citizens. These juries aren't questioned, because their judgments are part of how our constitution works. Their deliberations are confidential and, for the most part, final. The people that generally do represent those that participate in juries, are not a good sampling of our population. We need new jurors. People that represent America, really.

This is a pic from New York. It speaks for itself. 

People don't trust law enforcement anymore.

The people that usually show up for jury duty, are the types (at least in Florida) who would consider a teenager in a hoodie, a threat to one's life. They, in Staten Island, NY, would consider a man who sold cigarettes on the street like Eric Garner, a criminal that needed to be taken down forcefully.

These days, there is little to no middle class. There are just rich and working class people. And when you ask working class people if they would take time to serve on a jury, they generally don't have time for that. Even though it really doesn't take much. 

That's sad. That's horrible. Because most people in jail, are poor. Most people on death row are poor. And it's not because poor people are more guilty.

The truth is that capitalism teaches us to hate working class people. Working class people are taught to blame themselves for being working class people, which is neither shameful, immoral, nor mostly within their power. 

So they subconsciously believe that they deserve unequal treatment. but they don't. Only we can change that. by going to jury duty.

Nobody can fight for anybody's rights without freedom.