SUNDAY Q&A;Unmasking Jesse Jackson
Geoff Metcalf interviews ‘Shakedown’ author Ken Timmerman
Posted: March 31, 2002
1:00 am Eastern

By Geoff Metcalf
© 2008 WorldNetDaily.com

Editor’s note: Over the last 30 years, Jesse Jackson has managed to declare himself – with the help of the mainstream media – the most prominent leader of black Americans. Recently mired in a scandalous extramarital affair, questions about Jackson’s financial transactions and credentials now have made their way to the light of day. Author Kenneth Timmerman explores those questions in his new book, “Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson.” Using groundbreaking interviews by the author and documents just released by the government, Timmerman portrays Jackson as a master manipulator of the public. WND writer and talk-show host Geoff Metcalf recently interviewed Timmerman about many of the facts he uncovers in “Shakedown.”

Metcalf’s daily streaming radio show can be heard on TalkNetDaily weekdays from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Eastern time.

Q: “Shakedown” is an amazing piece of work. You so clearly demonstrate that Jesse Jackson is a ubiquitous and chronic liar about big things, little things, anything.

A: He is a compulsive liar – a bit like Clinton.

Q: He actually makes Clinton look like a second stringer, and he is a world-class liar. The audacity of Jesse is epic. There is so much to cover that this is difficult, which is why people have to buy this book. Let’s start with Jackson’s academic achievements, or lack thereof.

A: He went to the University of Illinois for one year in 1959-1960. He wanted to play quarterback and claims the coach on the team said, “You can’t play quarterback because you’re black.” Obviously, an early encounter with racism, right?

Q: So who did play quarterback, since Jesse didn’t?

A: I went back and checked that, and guess what: There was a black quarterback for the University of Illinois that year, and his name wasn’t Jesse Jackson.

Q: Did he earn the title “The Reverend”?

A: I don’t think so, and many of the black preachers I interviewed for “Shakedown” don’t believe so either. I describe a two- to three-year process for earning that title. Jesse Jackson got himself ordained two months after Martin Luther King was shot. It was essentially a political ordination, a shotgun ordination. He did not go through the long procedure. He was not licensed to preach, as far as I could determine. I went to the church where he was ordained. He did not go through this two-year process. He never submitted himself to the authority of the church. He has never had a church himself, and he has been accountable to no one.

Q: Did he ever get a degree?

A: He did not. He flunked out of the Chicago Theological Seminary after less than a year. But the good news, I guess, is he was finally awarded an honorary doctorate from that same theological seminary more than 30 years later.

Q: And by the way, who was board of that institution?

A: (laughing) I was getting there. In the year 2000, he was finally given that degree after “Junior” – Jesse Junior, the congressman – was put on the board of the seminary.

Q: I’m sure that was just an interesting coincidence.

A: Yes.

Q: I know you are getting a lot of questions regarding the epiphany, to some people, that Jesse Jackson’s actions during the assassination of Martin Luther King were not exactly the way Jesse tells the story.

A: It is a pretty extraordinary story. The liberal media has been complicit with Jackson for all of these years since 1968. When they think of Jesse Jackson, most people think of the story he has told and the spin that he has put on it.

Q: If you tell the lie long enough and consistently enough, it eventually becomes accepted as fact.

A: That’s right. And that is the way it has become. The first time Ron Daniels was on with me, he tried to claim that Jesse Jackson had in fact cradled Martin Luther King in his arms, and that is the lie.

Q: Was Rev. Abernathy lying?

A: No, Abernathy told the truth, and it is because of Abernathy that we know the truth.

Q: And what is the truth?

A: Jesse Jackson was not up on the balcony. They even tried to show the picture of Jesse Jackson up on the balcony with Martin Luther King. That picture was taken the day before. It was a publicity shot.

Q: As are most of the things that Jesse gets involved in.

A: That’s right. He goes there for the cameras, and you are going to hear that in this story. He was not up on the balcony with Martin Luther King. He was down in the parking lot talking to a bunch of musicians – Ben Branch and others. When the shots rang out, he fled and hid behind the swimming pool area and reappeared 20-30 minutes later when the television cameras arrived on the scene. That’s when Jesse Jackson told other Southern Christian Leadership Conference staffers, “Don’t you talk to the press whatever you do.”

Q: That’s my job!

A: Yes, that’s my job. Nobody had given him that job. He took that job. Call it “entrepreneurial instinct” if you wish, but on the spot he realized that he had an opportunity to spin the events to create his own persona and create a possibility for him to become a leader in the black movement. He had no prospects at that point.

Q: We know there were pictures all over the place of Jesse with blood on his shirt. Given that Jesse was in the parking lot when Dr. King was shot, where did that come from?

A: The next morning, he flew to Chicago and went on the NBC “Today Show.” In the meantime, he had hired a public relations agent. So here is a guy who is in such grief from Martin Luther King’s assassination that he comes back to Chicago and has the presence of mind to have himself taken from interview to interview in a chauffeur-driven car with a P.R. agent. The P.R. agent takes him to the NBC “Today” show, he appears in a shirt that he claims is smeared with Dr. Martin Luther King’s blood and he says on national television, “He died in my arms” – an absolute, patent lie.

Q: What I don’t understand is why Abernathy and those who were there didn’t jump up and scream, “Slow down! That ain’t the way it went down.”

A: That’s a legitimate question, and I don’t have a clear answer for it. All I can tell you, from what I understood, is Abernathy was too much of a gentleman and did not want to confront …

Q: He paid a price for that.

A: He did. But he did not want to confront Jackson openly. He felt it would divide the leadership of the civil-rights movement at that time. He let Jesse do his thing up in Chicago, figuring, I suppose, that it wouldn’t harm what Abernathy was doing down in Atlanta.

Q: And Abernathy assumed, obviously incorrectly, that he was going to get a piece of the action anyway.

A: Abernathy did assume the mantle of Dr. Martin Luther King’s leadership. He became the new leader of the SCLC, but he didn’t have the charisma and he didn’t have the following that King did.

Q: I want you to explain to our readers how Jesse stuck it to Abernathy with that Black Expo scam.

A: Actually, that’s a really important story that I tell in “Shakedown.” People in Chicago who were around in the late ‘60s and early ‘70s know the story. I tell you, I sure didn’t.

Q: It was news to me, too, and this wasn’t a mere or simple bureaucratic oversight. There were some very specific Machiavellian legal things that had to be structured and implemented. Please explain the Black Expo scandal, and be sure to mention Angela Parker.

A: Angela Parker was a black reporter from the Chicago Tribune who discovered the rot in the state of Denmark, if you wish. Angela Parker did the research and discovered that Jesse Jackson was fiddling with the money from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference Operation Breadbasket. This was after Martin Luther King was shot.

Q: And he was creating corporate shields to isolate things, too.

A: That’s correct, and he did that with his half brother Noah Robinson, of whom I will say more. Angela Parker went down to Atlanta and presented all the evidence to Rev. Abernathy. Abernathy is floored – he just can’t believe it. He comes up to Chicago to the Marriott Hotel at the airport and hauls Jesse Jackson – invokes him – in front of the entire board of the SCLC. Jackson responds with his typical street-hustler reaction. He brings his gang-member friends, and they all come with these big picket signs to meet Rev. Ralph David Abernathy.

Q: With the “Blackstone Rangers”?

A: Yes. And the picket signs read, “Don’t get messy with Jesse.” It was as if he was going to go meet a white lynch gang. He’s going to meet Abernathy, OK. Abernathy presents the evidence in front of him, eventually, and tells Jackson, basically, “You have been embezzling funds from the organization.”

Q: But he didn’t even fire him?

A: No. He suspended him for 60 days. Jackson slams the door and rages out, and within a week, he says, “If they’re going to suspend me, I’m going to leave.” Then he sets up his own organization called Operation PUSH. In the meantime – and this is extremely important because it shows what Jackson does when he is challenged, especially by people within the black community – he singles out at the next weekly meeting of his organization, in front of hundreds of people (some people say thousands of people), Angela Parker, who comes as a reporter to cover the event. He points his finger at her and says, “This woman has been destroying black leadership.” And, of course, she is black. She gets hooted and howled out of the meeting. When she goes back home, she has to have bodyguards because people are picketing her house. She has to change houses. Jackson really unleashed a movement of hate against this woman. And what she did was her job as a reporter.

Q: It is what Jackson does against any opponent. The first thing he does is call them a racist, but he couldn’t exactly call Angela a racist.

A: No. So he said this woman is trying to destroy black leadership. He sicked the dogs on her – there is really no other way of saying it. This is the kind of story I try to tell in “Shakedown.” I think it is so important to know that side of Jesse Jackson the liberal media doesn’t want you to hear.

Q: The other thing that is important is the almost symbiotic relationship he had with criminals – the street gangs.

A: They were criminals. In one of the interviews he did with me for the book, he claimed he was just trying to rehabilitate the street gang members.

Q: Wait a minute, in that Black Expo flap, his deal with the gangs was, “Don’t hassle us and I’ll give you a piece of the action.”

A: That’s right, and in fact, they came and shook him down. Jesse thought he was in bed with the street gangs and that they were willing to go along with him. They wanted a third cut! The funniest story was told to me by one of Jesse Jackson’s friends, Hermene Hartman. She said the treasurer, Cirilo McSween – this wonderful man from Panama, who had been a track star but is short in stature – had been stripped naked and taken out into the alleyway as the gangs were trying to get the money out of Jackson. Taking Cirilo McSween out in the alleyway and stripping him buck-naked is probably what made Jackson turn over the money.

Q: One of things I found fascinating was when you hear the lies over and over again – even though you know they are lies – a certain amount of it almost insinuates its way into your subconscious. For example, the fiction about him being a poor little black boy coming up the tough way. How difficult was his youth? I mean, he was middle-class, wasn’t he?

A: Yes, he was solidly middle-class. His parents were solidly middle-class. His biological father, Noah Robinson – the same name as Jesse’s half brother – was a wealthy black businessman in Greenville, S.C. His adopted father, Charles Jackson, who was very proud, was a World War II veteran and a postal worker. He was very proud of providing for his family. They never wanted for anything. In the ‘50s, they had a telephone in their house when, in America at large, that was not terribly common, and in a black community it was a sign of being a solid middle-class citizen.

Q: I was delighted to see you included a previous interview subject of mine, T.J. Rodgers. I really liked him, and you mention him in the book when Jesse tried to shake T.J. down. T.J. told me the board originally said, “Don’t make waves; go along to get along.” But T.J. got ticked off.

A: Yes, he did. Originally, he was going to adopt the “under-the-desk” reaction, which the board had wanted him to do. Then he listened to Jackson coming into work the next morning on talk radio saying what he considered to be outrageous things. He got into his office and said, “Forget this!” He closes everything off, cancels his appointments, calls some people, does some research, puts together an opinion-editorial and then challenges Jesse Jackson to a debate. He said, “Let’s talk about the facts. You’re accusing us of racial discrimination. We have 35 percent minorities in our company and throughout the Silicon Valley. You say we should have 37 percent. What do you know, my friend? Let’s talk about this.”

Q: Actually, Rodgers said he made a standing offer to Jackson: “You send me the resumes of qualified black candidates, and I’ve got more jobs than people to fill them. I’ll hire them.” And he said he still hadn’t heard from Jesse.

A: You are absolutely right. He said, “Please send me those young people who have been through science or tech studying computer sciences. I’ll hire them in a heartbeat.” But that is not what Jesse Jackson is into. One of the myths of Jesse Jackson is that he’s there to help the black community. Jesse Jackson is not doing things to help the black community. What I discovered doing “Shakedown” is that Jesse Jackson is there to help himself first. It’s called “Me-first Jackson” in Chicago. Then he helps his family – beer distributorships for his sons. Then he helps his close entourage, the black-elite friends. And these are a dozen, two dozen people around him who have become hundred-million dollar millionaires.

Q: Before we rip anymore leaves off the onion, please tell our readers who Noah Robinson and Jeff Fort are.

A: Noah Robinson, Jesse Jackson’s half brother, graduated from Wharton School of Business in 1969. He had a promising career ahead of him. Jesse Jackson said, “No, brother, come with me in Chicago. I want you to be my partner.” He brought Noah Robinson into Operation Breadbasket. They subsequently went into business in the Breadbasket Commercial Association and into Operation PUSH as well. Jesse then introduces Noah Robinson to Jeff Fort, who was the head of Blackstone Rangers. This was the biggest – and at the time, the most violent – street gang in Chicago, subsequently convicted of killing more than 200 people. Jeff Fort and Jesse Jackson are closely tied. Noah Robinson gets involved in the gang, he gets lots of business, he becomes a businessman in Chicago – partly with the gangs, partly with Jesse Jackson. He gets lots of contracts with the city government that Jesse helps him get through these minority set-aside programs.

Q: Mayor Daley didn’t like Jackson.

A: No, not at that point. At one point, Noah Robinson boasts they are going to be like the Rockefellers. Jesse is going to do the politics, and Noah is going to do the business side of the family. They are going to be a big family in Chicago. Over the years, Noah goes bad. Jeff Fort certainly goes bad and gets put in prison.

Q: Whenever you kill a couple of hundred people, eventually folks will start to frown on that.

A: He got caught. That was the problem. Even Jesse couldn’t keep him out of jail. Jeff Fort eventually gets put in jail for life in ‘86 in a plot where he took $2.5 million from Libya. He was going to blow up U.S. government installations on behalf of Col. Gadhafi (of Libya). Eventually, Noah is arrested in ‘88 and convicted of murder-for-hire, drug trafficking and racketeering while Jesse Jackson is running for president. The curious thing about this that I found in researching this book is nobody asked Jesse Jackson the question. Here he is, a candidate for president of the United States, while his half brother, business partner and close associate is arrested and indicted for murder-for-hire and all these other things.

Q: Why, the inimitable malfeasance on the part of the media not to pop that! If it were a Kennedy or Donald Trump, they would excoriate him in the press.

A: It was 1988. What if it had been George Bush, the father, or Dan Quayle, who gets his National Guard records taken out? Here you have another candidate, Jesse Jackson – a Democrat, a left-wing extremist – and his half brother gang member goes up for murder-for-hire, and nobody asked the questions.

Q: It is beyond amazing. Let’s talk a little about his personal finances, because WorldNetDaily reprinted your segment about the blind trust on his home. Who fronts the money for that?

A: I couldn’t find out. I pulled all the records.

Q: Well, you could find out if Jesse and his wife would agree to permit it.

A: That is absolutely correct. You have to ask them, and they have to agree to it. The house was bought in 1970. They didn’t buy the house; it was bought for them. Today, it’s a million-dollar house in an exclusive enclave in the south side of Chicago. It is not middle-class; it is upper-middle class. It’s not a gated community, but I can tell you it’s set off from the badlands in a very serious way. It was put in a blind trust. To this day, nobody knows who actually put up the money to buy that house for them. In the same way, when Jackson bought a house – a three-story, 15-room mansion in Washington, D.C., from Howard University in a sweetheart deal – nobody could tell, according to the documents I pulled, who paid the mortgage, the refinancing and all the rest. It wasn’t Jackson. Somebody was always picking up his bills.

Q: I reread your book, because, frankly, despite the fact that Jesse is a dirt bag, you have to give him points for the very cool way he has been able to, and continues to, finesse that corporate blackmail to this day.

A: (laughing) You are absolutely right. I have seen him in action. I went to some of his conferences, and I’ve read reports of other conferences.

Q: I mean, T.J. Rodgers is in the minority.

A: Oh, absolutely! Most corporate CEOs have given in. Look, according to Jesse Jackson, Bill Gates is going to host his conference in the Silicon Valley this year.

Q: Once upon a time, corporate executives would tremble if “60 Minutes” showed up on their doorstep. That’s chump change now; don’t let Jesse show up, because he’s going to get his hand deep in their pockets.

A: And it’s big money. When Viacom was trying to – and they did successfully – merge with CBS but wasn’t sure it would be able to, Jackson originally was filing papers with the FCC to block the merger, like he did with so many other corporations. You’re talking about mergers in the range of $50 billion to $100 billion – huge deals requiring federal approval. And in these federal approvals, you have the possibility for interest groups such as Jackson’s Rainbow/PUSH or Citizenship Education Fund to say that they object and to give reasons for their objections.

Q: And let’s be clear here, they don’t object because of any effort to help the poor, downtrodden ghetto resident. They object so that they will be bought off with a piece of the action.

A: Let the readers judge. What happened in this particular case with Viacom, and in so many others, is Jackson and his groups objected. The companies went nuts and sought to have “negotiations” with Jackson. They wound up paying off huge sums of money – hundreds of thousand dollars – to Jackson and his groups. And guess what? All of a sudden, those objections disappear.

Q: And from the corporate standpoint, it is cheaper than being involved in a 10-year lawsuit where lawyers are eating up billable hours.

A: You better believe it. I’ve had a number of CEOs come to me and say paying Jesse Jackson $400,000 or $500,000 was the price of doing business. By the way, I think that shareholders have something to say to corporate leaders who do that.

Q: This is extortion. Jackson doesn’t use a gun, but he might as well. But from the corporate side, the CEO’s responsibility is to maintain the value of the stock.

A: The CEO’s responsibility is not to let himself be extorted and not to pay an inordinate high price for the extortion.

Q: If they can pay Jesse $500,000 to buy him off instead of $5 million to lawyers …

A: And that is exactly the calculation that many of these CEOs have made. I think the record is pretty clear. I tried to lay it out in “Shakedown” so people could see it and judge for themselves. Look at the facts, look at the documents. I present quite a bit of that.

Q: I’ve got to ask you this, because Jesse Jackson has had a tough year. Between Bill O’Reilly badgering him incessantly and now your book, is Jesse at the end of the road?

A: I wouldn’t count him out. He’s a politician first and foremost, and politicians have a way of coming back.

Q: It is fascinating that his followers still buy into this stuff, though.

A: He still has very faithful followers, but the question is, will the liberal media continue to support him? Wait and see – so far they are. No. 2, will the corporate CEOs continue to pay him off? That seems to be diminishing somewhat. And No. 3, and most importantly, I think, will the black community continue to stay silent about him? I wrote this book because black pastors came to me and said, “You’ve got to write this book. We can’t do it. We can’t talk out against him.” So I tried to give voice to them in my book. Now, I hope that would give them courage and let more leaders of the black community come forward and speak their mind about Jesse Jackson.

“Shakedown: Exposing the Real Jesse Jackson” is available at the WorldNetDaily store.

Visit Geoff Metcalf’s archive for previous “Sunday Q&A;” interviews.

Jesse Jackson has always been a fraud preying upon African-American “victimization”—treating African-Americans as “victims” who need Jesse Jackson to speak for them.  At the same time, people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton have played up white “guilt” to BLACKMAIL the lily white left, AND political establishment, into funding them. In other words, Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton DEPEND upon African-Americans being kept “victims”, and upon THEMSELVES being recognized as spokesmen for these victims, for their own (Jesse Jackson’s, et. al.) power, influence and MONEY.  Jesse Jackson has long BLACKMAILED corporations, and others, to contribute money to his oranizations as essentially “protection” money (give me money and I won’t go after you—using my media friends).

Am I saying anything everyone does not know.  Of course not.  The emperor has no clothes.  But the MEDIA has been BLACKMAINED (willingly, for the most part), like the others, to let people like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton get away with it.  To say the media in this country has no courage, where Jesse Jackson is concerned, is an understatement.

It has always been true that Barack Obama represents a THREAT to the Jesse Jackson’s and Al Sharpton’s of the country.  If he succeeds, their position as self-appointed spokespersons for African-Americans disappears.

Well, Jesse Jackson has made all of this even more obvious, although the mainstream media is circling the wagons to TRY to protect him.  Jesse Jackson exposed his real bitterness to an open mike, in what the mainstream media insists on calling a “private” conversation (Dog, the Bounty Hunger, would have KILLED for this kind of understanding of his own “private” conversation which the media quoted over and over again, to destroy his new career as a TV figure).  Jesse Jackson did not only accuse Barack Obama of “talking down” to black people (in his “lectures” on fatherhood and faith based programs).  Jackson is ON TAPE saying that he wants to cut off Barack Obama’s n…s (testicles).

Now the mainstream media is DOWNPLAYING what Jackson actually SAID (you can hardly find out from the story from the “anti-American despicable Associated Press”—always use the complete, official name in the first reference—now featured on AOL).  In context, what Jackson actually said is WORSE than I have indicated here.  Rather, the mainstream media is focusing on JACKSON’S “explanation” and “apology”—allowing Jackson to get away with saying he does not “remember” what he said, and that is not “important” in comparison to the “real issues” upon which Obama a he agree.  Consider whether the media with let Christian Right religious figures like James Dobson get away with that!!!!!

Nope.  Jackson is a complete and utter hypocrite and fraud.  This does not “reveal” that.  It merely confirms it.  Jackson had become part of the Obama campaign simply to protect his own POWER and influence—NOT because he believes in Obama.  You just don’t say this kind of thing, in “private” or not, about someone who you LIKE.  The Jackson/media attempt to spin it any other way merely compounds the magnitude of the hypcrisy/dishonesty going on here.

Barack Obama and Jesse Jackson do have something in common.  Their public face has NOTHING to do with who either of them really is.  Obama revealed that in San Francisco, and in his continuing willingness to say ANYTHING—even if it contradicts what he said or did YESTERDAY—to gain more POWER.

Now a real cynic (I am guilty as charged, although I don’t think that even Obama is quite THIS good at manipulation, manipulaltive as I think he is) might suggest that Obama arranged all of this (without Jackson’s knowledge) to make OBAMA look GOOD. Does it help or hurt Obama to reveal what Jackson really thinks about him?  Hard to say, but there is at least a reasonable case that the voters that Obama NEEDS would prefer to believe that Obama is separate from all of those “old” black “leaders”—a “post-racial” figure.  How anyone could believe that, after Obama’s TWENTY YEAR association with Reverend Wright—who is at least as bad as Jesse Jackson, and maybe worse, is beyond me.  But just as the media is willing to go with Jackson’s “explanatioin”, rather than concentrate of the TAPE of what he actually SAD, the media is constantly willing to go with what Obama SAYS today, as if the world were freshly minted and new as of yesterday.

As I have said repeatedly, we (as a society) deserve what we get. If Jackson’s “credibility” (as either a black “leader” or political figure) survives this, then we deserve it.  If the totally unqualified, and equally (to Jesse Jackson) nothing more than a manufactured, public facade candidate named Barack Obama becomes President of the Untied States, we deserve the consequences of that as well.

As I have said before, my HOPE is that conservatives will be there to pick up the pieces.  The reason I can’t actually VOTE for Barack Obama is that I am not sure the country will SURVIVE (as we know it) an Obama Presidency for there to be any pieces to pick up.

Sam and tats are 2 white people with too much time on their hands. These are 2 prime examples of white people that hate, and I mean hate black people. These 2 f**kers will definately commit suicide or take a shot at assassinating Obama. What the media and authorities needs to do is start keeping an eye on these asses before Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton or Barack Obama end up with an attempt on their lives. Tats says “He can’t vote for Obama because he thinks the country will not survive.” That’s a lie! He really can’t vote for a man that is by they way half white because the other half is black. If you are not 100% white to these racist assholes you are considered the minority to them. Bottom line is don’t buy that “shakedown” book because it written by a white person trying to divide us. That bastard could have spent more time writing a book about the Clintons or this dumb f**ker that is the president right now but instead he picked THE REV. JESSIE JACKSON. Yes i did call him The Rev. Just because he didn’t become a reverend the way your white ass wanted him to doesn’t make him any less of a reverend to the Black community. Sure he has his faults and what he said about THE MIGHTY Barack Obama was wrong but I’ll bet if you put a mic in front of your face how many times would we hear your white ass call us n***rs????
You couple of KKK men are a disgrace to every race not just your own. You have shown your true colors and they are as long as everything is white… it’s alright! But sorry to say assholes a new day is coming. The new President is black BITCHES!!!

I read over what was written by the second poster, and as much as I support Obama I agree with some of his views on Jesse Jackson. But first I have to say that I respect what Jesse Jackson used to be about. He was right there marching w/ Dr. King and when nobody else stepped up in King’s absence at least he tried.  Where Jesse went wrong is when he started to exploit our short comings by defending the things we as a people did that didn’t deserve a defense.  Every time he “defends” us he ends up labeling us more as victims rather than the survivors that we are.  We are not children, and we must have leaders who hold us responsible for our actions instead of offering explanations and excuses without solutions. What Jesse said about Obama is another example of he defends the obvious negligent behavior of our people rather than offer solutions to a problem that has been plaguing our community for years. Its time to start accepting that the only people who can heal the problems in the black community are the members of the black community themselves.  That’s what Obama is preaching in his speeches. He’s not “talking down” as Jesse insinuated.  He is preaching personal responsibility to oneself and the children they are creating.  Thats’s not talking down Mr. Jackson, That’s talking sense.

MsMoni, I have to disagree with you somewhat. The single parenting can be handled by our community but that can only be handled by these single mothers dropping a child every chance they get. But as far as racism that is clearly out of our control. There is nothing that we can do to curb that it has to start from the people that are discriminating against us (white people in power). This is why it will never be contained. To me in a since Obama is talking down to black fathers that are being forced into fatherhood when clearly it is the mother that is having the baby. The message should be stop dropping unwanted children or this will continue until the end of time. Every one knows that 99% of sexual encounters are for fun so these women should realize that and take care of it accordingly. Yes by all means the man should wear a condom but if the don’t it should now be her responsibility to handle it. There is no reason to have children that men don’t want. I don’t want to hear that the woman could do it by herself because she can never be the father that a man can be just like he can never be the mother. It really is up to the female to curb single parent homes. They have the power.

I agree 100% with Ms Moni!!! Our civil rights leaders dropped the ball when they started to excuse our wrong doings and not advocating rsponsibility. I understand that Jesse Jackson is from a different era in time where he witnessed real raw racism at its best. I know that during his rise in popularity black people really were being victimised. But todays racism is not the same fight of the 40’s, 50’s, and 60’s. Todays racism is more psychological than anything else. We are now being victimised by our own thoughts, fears, insecurities, immaturity, and irresponsibilities. Change has to start with us…...from the inside out.

POLITIX, We are being victimized by our own thoughts? So the next time that I am pulled over for nothing by a white cop it’s not really happening, I just think it’s happening right? When I fear a court system that puts black men in jail for up to 6 times as long for the same crime as a white man its not happening its psycological right? Change has to come from within us but to excuse the white man for all that he has done and is continuing to do to hold a black man down is really irresponsible. Why are so many blacks trying to PRETEND that we have overcome when we still are overcoming? You too are still a n***r when you aren’t in their face. REMEMBER THAT.

Above - You don’t even realize that you’re being victimized by your own thoughts right now. Your hatred, hostility, and need for vengeance has gotten you so distracted from the bigger picture that you would rather argue all day, everyday than to try and see value in anything other than a hostile takeover. Some things will definitely take longer than others to resolve, but in the meantime I’m in favor of changing my thinking and allowing myself to see past the tip of my nose. You’ve chosen to stay in a box, chasing your tail moaning about racial injustices and inequalities. Don’t be upset with me for understanding and taking responsibility for the things that are within my control right now. I challenge you, for once….to stop sitting on the sidelines criticizing and to actually join the discussion and offer a valid solution yourself.

As I thought you would do, you didn’t answer ANY of the questions that I asked. That is typical of a person that is trying to fit in with white people. When a person states facts people like you want to say that we are hating and have a need for vengeance. That is so far from the truth that it is sad that you would say something like that but you are trying to fit in so you have to say what those people would want you to say. I have a need for equality, that’s all. Join us, the people that want equal rights. You are too busy in your little want to be white box that you don’t want to acknowledge the things that probably happen to some of your own family members or best friends. I am not upset with you at all some blacks feel once white people start treating them with a little respect that they have overcome. They have suckered you in and you have fell for it and choose to talk down to other black people. I on the other hand have also made it but choose to fight for my brothers and sisters so they can get treated on equal ground as any other person. For you to say that I am looking for a HOSTILE TAKEOVER proves my point that you are a yes person. Nobody said anything about a hostile takeover but that is what whites and want to be whites will say when we start talking about being on equal ground. Here is a solution why don’t people like you do the Michael Jackson paint yourself white and finish your process of becoming white and let the real blacks fight for EQUAL RIGHTS. By the way read my first post to you and please answer the questions. I’d like to see what you would do in those situations.

I hear what Above is saying, and I agree with Politix. But let me make one thing clear, I never said that I believe racism doesn’t exist because it does and it is very real. However my acknowledgment of racism doesn’t erase the fact that many of the ills of the black community are things that we in the community can fix.  We can control the amount of fatherless children that we have in our community. We can combat the incarceration rates of our young men and women.

In reference to what Above said about women. You can’t blame the current situation of single parenting on one sex more than you can on the other.  It takes two people to create a child and both should be responsible for the care of that child.  Fathers play a monumental role in a child’s life and if men aren’t doing their jobs as fathers then they should be called to their attention. Likewise, women need to be educated and more responsible when sleeping with men because any man you sleep with could be the potential father of your children.

You see for so long we’ve spent our energies on highlighting the issues of our community, fighting for the rights to be recognized, that our leaders forgot to offer us solutions to the problems that they were so diligently trying to get recognized.  We as a people are not dumb, we should not be pacified when we are acting recklessly and irresponsible. Is racism the cause of some of our problems? Yes. It may be the cause but we have to make solutions for ourselves. Its time to stop hiding behind our history and step out and do something about our future. Barack is beginning to do that. In doing that we have to be aware of what we have done wrong so that we can try to do right.  It’s not going to happen over night, but change is possible.  We don’t need rhetoric from our “leaders” like Jesse and Mr. Sharpton who continue to tell us that the world has victimized us.  We know that, now what are we going to do about it?

MsMoni, you are partially right. It does take 2 to make a baby but it takes 1 (the woman) to make the decision 3 different lives and in our community there are too many woman that are left with that decision making the wrong decision. No person man or woman should be forced into parenthood. Now I am not talking about the situations that 2 people agree to have a baby I am talking all the cheating, booty calls, and one night stands that result into babys. When a woman knows what the relationship is about it should be her responsibility more than a mans to protect herself from pregnancy because she is the one that can get pregnant and knows that kid will not have a legitimate father. Until this is understood this cycle will continue. The woman have the power in this situation and NEED to start making better decisions. That is what I am saying.

I agree with that, but when you let the man off the hook because he doesn’t carry the burden of the child as much as the woman the cycle will continue as well.  Its a two part problem and personal responsibility is key to the solution.  Once we realize that we all have a part in the problem then we can begin to heal. there’s no question that women end up with most of the responsibility, but at what point do we fault the men who partake in these booty calls and cheating? It goes both ways. I feel where you’re coming from we just have different perspectives on the same problem.

I don’t call it letting someone off the hook. If 1 person makes a decision to do something BY THEMSELVES then let them deal with the consequences BY THEMSELVES. I think sooner or later they will find out the hard way that they are making the wrong decision. I hear people say that the child will suffer but if I send a woman a weekly check the child will still suffer because the child needs that father. Things like this should go into these womens decision not just being selfish and ruining her life, the childs life and causing pain to any man that really cares. Once again I will say when both people decide to have a baby and the man walks away these guys are not the ones that I am trying to defend. The people that can turn this around are the people with the power and in this case you and I both know who it is…

Above - I challenged you to offer something other than critisim and just like I thought YOU COULDN’T! But to answer your questions…you nor anyone else has to wait until their racially profiled or discriminated against to fight against it. Make education top priority for your family, become politically active, get involved and elect community officals who support your cause….re-invest in yourself and your community. I know that isn’t the black and white answer that you want, but change takes time and you have to start somewhere. You claim that you’re looking for equality but you fail to realize that the many opportunities for equality are within your reach. It’s up to you to go get it because no one is gonna give it to you, especially not the white man.

Politix, your challenge wasn’t a challenge that is why I didn’t respond to it. What does education have to do with racial profiling? Nothing… You can be the smartest black person in the world and they will still find a way to make you a second class citizen in this country. You tend to believe every black person can be a Condelezza Rice but she is one of the extremely fortunate. You tend to believe that there are many opportunities for blacks that there are for whites but that is a myth that the white man has you believing. It is harder to do anything as a black person than it is for a white.  Yes, there are things that you have mentioned that can be done but a lot of those things are for middle class people like re-investing in ourselves. I am lucky enough to have been able to do that but what about most of the black communities that can’t and just have to take the racial profiling, take being passed up for jobs and promotions just because of our color. Trust me, I know because I have been on both sides of this fence that is why I can’t look down on my people like some of the rest of us do. Here is a question, How would you feel if you were pulled over and the cop saw that you had on a nice suit and he asked you if you were coming from court? Maybe these things don’t happen to you but I am trying to tell you THEY ARE STILL HAPPENING.

Above I feel where you’re coming from. I’m original from a city in the midwest that is 85% segregated. I’m well aware of racial profiling, and the stigma that goes along with it.  But I made a decision early on in life that I wasn’t going to let that predetermine my path in life.  Granted I had parents who instilled those values in me, but that’s still no excuse for a lot of what goes on in the black community.  We let music videos decide our financial decisions, and let the television raise our children.  What we need is like politix said is to invest in ourselves, by educating ourselves and our children.
I’m also confused about the type of women you are talking about.  There is a small minority of women who make “decisions” on their own and end up pregnant.  Whether or not the man wants that child is mute when that child enters this world.  We don’t always get to pick our circumstances sometimes we need to get over ourselves in the best interest of the lives they participated in bringing into this world. So when these men are sleeping with these women it would behoove them to use protection. I’m understand your point but again I must stress that this is a two way street.

MsMoni, If you want to call it a 2 way street you can but lets both call it like it is. The female side of the street has 4 lanes and the male side has 1. So yes it is a 2 way street but it clearly isn’t fair. You say that there is a small minority of women that are making decisions like this by themselves. I BEG to differ on that point. Are you telling me that most pregnancies are wanted? Maybe this type of thing doesn’t go on in the midwest but in the east, OMG, this is like an everyday occurance. You probably had the option to not let racial profiling predetermine your life but what about the black MEN that don’t. You are a female so cops tend to be easier on females. Actually you brought something up that we have in common we both had BOTH our parents. I can tell by reading your post that it helped you become the woman that you are. In a way that backs up my point that both parents are needed. One thing that you said is “Weather or not the man wants the child is a mute point. That thinking is why these children don’t have a father because the value of the father’s choice clearly isn’t important. These woman are going to “Do it by themselves” and that just doesn’t work the majority of the time. You see when women try to force men into fatherhood it backfires and the child suffers. Another thing that you said is that where you are from is 85% segregated that is probably why this type of thing doesn’t happen around you. But in the hood sorry to tell you the trapping mentallity is the way for these women. They are the ones that need the education. One more thing that I must address is that you said “we don’t always get to pick our circumstances”. But in the case we are talking about these women DO get to pick their circumstances. So yes it is a 2 way street but it is mainly run one way. there is always construction going on the mans side lol!!!

Point well taken Above However I must set a few things straight. 
#1 I agree with you there are women who “trap” men into getting them pregnant. I don’t agree with it and I personally think its irresponsible.  But I know plenty of men (by the way I currently live in the south) who continue having sex with these women when they know that she may be trying to trap them.  So when these men become fathers I have little sympathy for them.  Yes women have the power to control who they sleep with but so do men, and if they don’t want unwanted children they simply need to be more careful, just as a woman should.  Condoms are relatively cheap these days, yet many of these men refuse to use them and then they feel like they are being “forced” into fatherhood when the woman or women they’ve been sleeping with end up pregnant.
#2 Make no mistake I’ve been stopped for being black on a friday night. It’s frustrating so I sympathize with the plight of many people who have to endure this harassment on a daily basis. Granted I am not a black man nor will I ever know what it is to be one. However I know too many men who despite the odds, have decided to do something with their lives. That may not be possible for everyone but that doesn’t mean that we should accept the current situations as is.  People like you who are educated and well adjusted should be working with our young men giving them the chance to make it that others did not have.
#3 I will be the first to admit that I wasn’t brought up in the hood but that doesn’t mean I don’t know about the hood.  I know the cancerous mentalities of some women who scheme and plot to get pregnant. But I also know the the malignant thinking that plagues the men in the hood.  That same mentality that makes them think its Ok to sleep with numerous amounts of women and father 5 and 6 kids is part of the reason so many women believe they can do it on their own.  Is it right? No.  Like I said we both have different views about the same problem, I appreciate your perspective and I hope you appreciate mine.

Yes, I certainly do appreciate your perspective.

Above - You just don’t know enough to actually accept the challenge. So UNTIL you can offer an alternative solution to what I’ve suggested…I will just dismiss you as being the angry, immature, self-fulfilled prophit, who’s fears and insecurities have gotten the best of him.

MsMoni…it’s women like you who need to be raising our kids. I totally agree with your points of views.

Politix, I will just dismiss you as thinking you are better than us, wanting to be white, and too stupid to know that you are a n***r to all of the white people that you suck up too.

Above- I honestly agree with most of everything you have said. Black people will run to catch any crumb that they drop and then praise it like it is cake. I have been raised (in my two parent household) to always remember that you are a Nigger when you are not around. I know this is true and I really wish more blacks could understand it. Growing up, I attended a mostly white elementary school. Most of my friends were white and we all got along as children. I didnt see the difference in me with my cornrows and Becky with her blonde pig tails. But as I got older and we all became more influenced by the world around us, all of my white friends began to seperate themselves. This is when I first began to see that America breeds racism. Instead of always teaching our children to treat everyone as equal, I believe we should teach them to help out our own first. That is what everyone else like the jews, arabs and whites have been taught for generations. Black people are the only dummies that will tell ourselves that we are one big happy mixed world when everyone else is plotting to be on top. That is the real reason we are behind in things. And to the talk of women vs men, I believe that women are the key to changing our situation. Men have a powerful appetite for the sweetness we have between our legs. They dress fly for it, take you out to fancy restaurants for it and sometimes will even kill for it. Thats why when women begin to raise the bar as for when sex is approriate, men will raise to the occasion. Many times women will know a man is a dog and they will still give it up to him. They will sleep with him on the first date or before they even know his last name. This sets the stage for how you will be respected from then on. If we demand that we only date men with a decent job, without babies in the street, with decent conversation, with a heart to commit, that values marriage, is not in and out of jail, doesnt get high all day, etc, then the men will have no choice but to step their games up. The men will not just be celebant…they will began to be more responsible. But as long as women accept the men as they are, there will be no change. Women, respect yourselves and then the men will respect you!

PS I am a happily married young woman, who has never had a problem getting a good man!

I agree with a lot of what you said me. I do believe that women learning their own worth is key to breaking the vicious cycle that so many of our black families are in.  However I still think that the same evolution has to occur with men simultaneously. Too many of our black men believe the myth that black women are difficult, and look outside their race because Becky will do what Kiesha won’t.  I think if women start doing what you suggest, and men start valuing themselves, and realize that being a male whore is no different than being a female whore then we will start to get the desired change we are looking for. But I agree 100% about teaching women to know the power of who they are, what they have, and to know that you don’t have to settle for anything less than what you deserve.  But men need to know the same. Too many men are willing to say anything to any woman to get what they want.  Too many men have no standards when concerning the substance of the people who they are sleeping with.  Too many men base the value of a woman on aesthetic features.  I’m not saying physical beauty isn’t important but it should not be the only reason you’re interested in a person.

MsMoni, What you fail to understand is that it is the nature of the man to hunt dowm sex (I know people don’t want to believe that) You can’t change nature but the women have changed. I remember the day when I would wake up as a young adult (18) and wonder if I was going to get with a woman. Now roughly 10 years later I can go out and have the pick of the litter and this is coming from an average looking man by my own account. So imagine how many panties are being thrown at the “good looking guys”. You are still trying to make this a 2 way street when the men are walking on the sidewalk and the women have the whole street. Part of the men looking outside the race is becuse we don’t want to be duped into being a father and half the time these women don’t even know who the father of that child is. This is prevelent inn our race more than any other. Me is, right this change thing starts with the women and the man will have no choice to follow. As long as there are ho’s men will sleep with them. It’s in our nature. Just like you say too many men will say anything they want to get at a woman, which is true, too many women will spread their legs to get a bill paid, their hair did, or a paycheck from being pregnant. Then alot of them are wondering why they end up being the other woman, nobody wants them or they end up alone. Thats because nobody wants them and all their kids. I had a female aquaintence that said to me on 2 different occasions that her daughter is going to have the body to be in music videos. Yes she is black. Man this is the type of shit that our women are looking forward too. How sad is that. MsMoni I hear what you are saying about the men but this starts and ends up with WOMEN CHANGING.

I hear you but as much as I plead my case the only thing I can really do is lead by example. I’m 22yrs old and I make sure that all the young girls I’ve worked with and my female family members understand that being a woman is not a right, its a responsibility.  All I can do is teach what I know in hopes that they don’t turn into the women you’ve mentioned above. That’s all I can do, that’s all we can do change one person at a time. Maybe one day fatherless children, and unqualified Mothers will be a thing of the past. Until then all we can do is what we can do.

MsMoni you sound like a woman that is MUCH older than 22. Your parents have done an amazing job raising you. I wish men would focus on woman of your calibar. You clearly do our race proud and you are totally right this thing will have to get done one person at a time.

Above- Let me find out that you are on here looking for a date! lol

Aww me, don’t get jealous. lol! I feel the same way abot you too. You 2 are BOTH the kind of woman that is rare in our race. Sorry that I didn’t mention you.

I love you above! peace…I gotta go to work tomorrow.

Lol thanks I appreciate that! We need more men like you Above, I’m proud that we had a debate w/o name calling it makes me feel like despite our setbacks we have made much progress!

Appears Jesse HiJackson and Obama may have something in common; both born out of wedlock?
* * *

Barack Obama is illigitimate, Andy Martin book, New York news conference, July 14, 2008, Obama knowingly and persistently lied, Obama birth certificate, is Obama elligible to be president?
July 14, 2008 ·

Is Obama elligible to be president?
Was Obama born in Kenya or Hawaii?
Is the birth certificate supplied by the Obama camp valid? Apparently not!

Andy Martin has a new book out and a news conference in New York, today, July 14, 2008. Andy states in his new book that Obama is illigitimate and that Obama has been lying to the American people. Here are some exerpts from Andy Martin’s blog:

“(NEW YORK)(July 14, 2008)Legendary Chicago Internet columnist and Obama author Andy Martin will hold a New York news conference Monday, July 14th to drop the first of several bombs on the Obama campaign: Obama is illegitimate and his parents were never married.”

“”Obama knew we were working the ‘illegitimate’ story, and we were preparing a series of news conferences in conjunction with my book Obama: The Man Behind The Mask,” Martin will state. “The Obama campaign also knew we were planning a lawsuit over his illegitimate birth. So they tried to use Obama’s wife to do damage control. It was one of the most cowardly gestures in American political history.”

“Barack Obama, Senior, and Anne Dunham never married. Obama knows this fact. This is also why he keeps his white grandmother a virtual prisoner; she knows too, and she won’t lie.

“Through the past several decades Obama has pretended he ‘didn’t know’ the facts about his illegitimate birth. He thought he could get away with the big lie. And he almost did get away with it. But we kept digging. And we are still digging. We have more to come.”

Ok white boy, Obama lied (if he did) about his birth. That f**ker that is the president now lied about weapons of mass distruction in Iraq. Whats more important??? See you white people are so afraid that you are starting to spend your lives stopping inevitability. BARACK OBAMA WILL BE THE PRESIDENT and there is nothing your racist ass can do about it. Were you “digging” when all the white presidents were about to be in office? Suck a d*ck Frank. So what if his parents weren’t married does that make him any less qualified than if they were married. That language mangling Bush’s parents were married and look how dumb that f**ker turned out. Dig all you want dig until you have a heart attack that way you can just fall into the grave your racist ass just dug.

WTF? Do you also know that John McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone( he was born on a military base)? Is anyone contesting his legal status? No! You know why? because if they weren’t legal citizens they would have been out of the race a long long time ago. Please find something to do with your time other than making up lies that you can’t back up.  By the way if this so called press conference was held on the 14th it would be front page news. Its the 16th and I haven’t heard anything.  Sounds like bull to me…

Wow- you guys really spew a lot of hate.

I just want to know if OB is honest, is that asking too much?

Tuesday, July 15, 2008
Author Andy Martin Dropping Bombs On Obama Campaign

Barack Obama panics: Andy Martin’s book forces Obama to admit he is illegitimate

(NEW YORK) Legendary Chicago Internet columnist and Obama author Andy Martin held a New York news conference Monday, July 14th to drop the first of several bombs on the Obama campaign: Obama is illegitimate and his parents were never married.

For the past four years one man has made Obama miserable: Chicago writer Andy Martin. Martin’s accurate original article is cited as the source of later rumors concerning Obama’s Islamic family roots. Martin has relentlessly and accurately investigated Barack Obama’s lies.

“Obama knew we were working the ‘illegitimate’ story, and we were preparing a series of news conferences in conjunction with my book Obama: The Man Behind The Mask,” Martin will state. “The Obama campaign also knew we were planning a lawsuit over his illegitimate birth. So they tried to use Obama’s wife to do damage control. It was one of the most cowardly gestures in American political history.

Jesse Jackson does not have to perform surgery. Obama is a ‘girly man’ who used his wife to ooze out the truth about his lies and his parents’ lies. What kind of a commander-in-chief would the cowardly Obama be? Who would follow a leader into battle that was afraid to admit his parents were not married?

Barack Obama, Sr. and Anne Dunham never married. Obama knows this fact. This is also why he keeps his white grandmother a virtual prisoner; she knows too, and she won’t lie.

Through the past several decades Obama has pretended he ‘didn’t know’ the facts about his illegitimate birth. He thought he could get away with the big lie. And he almost did get away with it. But we kept digging. And we are still digging. We have more to come.

We plan two weeks of news conferences and other Obama-related disclosures, all timed to coincide with release of my book. The book was mailed to some Washington media last Friday, and Monday afternoon it will be delivered in Midtown to Fox News, MSNBC and others. Demand for review copies has been so heavy we have already had to reorder. We expect the first truckload of Obama books to reach the warehouse early next week, depending on production schedules at the printer.

The release of my book and attendant publicity has prompted Obama to panic. My book is the literary equivalent of a bone-jarring tackle in football, causing the ball carrier to fumble. Obama has been forced to drop the pretense his parents were married. It is time he told us the truth. His parents were never married, he knew his parents were never married; he repeatedly lied about his lack of knowledge concerning his parents’ non-marriage. He should admit that is why he keeps his white grandmother virtually imprisoned and away from any media contact. He should beg the American people for forgiveness. Otherwise, his campaign is [toast].

If Obama had simply told the truth, the matter would probably be forgiven. But he repeatedly lies and pretends he ‘doesn’t know.’ The cover-up is always worse than the crime. Jesse knows the truth. That is why Jackson has contempt for Obama.

I criticized Obama for running a bogus campaign ad saying he grew up with a ‘strong family and strong values.’ The whole commercial was a lie. His father was a rake who never married his mother, and his mother showed abysmally poor judgment in being impregnated by a married man. Hardly a ‘strong family’ and certainly not ‘strong values.’ Quite the contrary. Shameful values is more like it.

His mother was promiscuous and had a child out of wedlock, in 1961, when that was still scandalous behavior. Is this Obama’s idea of ‘family values?’ Obviously, he has been deceiving the American people and hoping his advertising lies could overcome the truth. He has failed. My book is only the first step in our organized effort to deconstruct the mirage Obama created for the Democratic Party, and is now trying to re-create for the American people. Ironically, we’re running a better and more focused campaign against Obama than John McCain is.

“We will have more to say about Obama later in the week,” Martin stated.

Wanting to know if someone is honest is vastly different than spreading false information and trying to mask it as truth. Have you ever heard of libel? look it up! But this will be my last response to you.  There’s no sense in wasting my time and energy debating someone who has a baseless claim.

You just want to know if Obama is honest. We all know that Bush was lying about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Where was Frank at when that happened? All of a sudden honesty didn’t matter. Because he is half black now you want to check his honesty. How hateful is that. If the best thing you have on Obama is the fact that his parents weren’t married then he is in good shape. Frank I would like to hear more about your investigations of other presidential front runners. Since you are “looking for honesty”. You must have dug on other candidates haven’t you? Show us that you aren’t the racist we know you are. Are you saying that because two people aren’t married the family can’t be strong? Let me tell your dumb white ass something I have been with my woman for 20 years and we have 2 beautiful children that everyone says are the best behaved children in the world would the fact that we are or are not married change that? Everyone lies dumb ass, I am sure if we looked at your racist background we would find out some shit about you too. You are making a mockery of your whole race get over it dumb ass.

Above - You can call me whatever you want. Because at the end of the day it’s what I think of myself that will ultimately detrmine the choices that I make and where I end up in life. So I don’t mind if u think that I’m better or if whitey thinks that I’m a n***r.

The fact still remains that the police will continue to be able to get away with brutalizing and harrassing us because we don’t have equal competant representation. We need to breed our own black lawyers (who are better than good), our own cops, and politicians. The majority of us are not educated enough to know how to legally fight for our rights and win. Our self-pitty has distracted us to the point where we have become defenseless punching bags because of our bottom of the barrel social and economic status. Things will never change until EDUCATION BECOMES A TOP PRIORITY IN BLACK HOMES….and that’s a fact.

Politix, I don’t think you are better I actually think you are worse. You, for some reason, think you are better. You continue to say that we are so uneducated that is why we are pulled over by the police. Do uneducated white people get harrassed by police?  No. So for that reason education isn’t needed. Don’t get me wrong everyone should further their education as far as they can but lack of education is no reason for minorities to have to deal with racist cops. I am not thinking whitey thinks you are a n***r, I’m telling you he is calling you one behind your back. So you can bafoon and black face around for them all you want just TRY remembering that you are black.

Above - Education is the begining. If we have more educated un-selfish black people in law enforcement and in our judicial system we could even out the playing field some what. We’re targets because we have no representation. Our miseducation has all but eliminated a checks and balance system when it comes to blacks, law enforcement, and the judicial system. I’m a firm advocate of raising the bar and raising our standards as a whole. It’s unfortunate that you interpret that as me thinking that I’m better.

Politix, Education is a start, but a bigger part is law enforcement, especially the police being held accountable for their racist acts. Just this weekend in the state that I live in the state police had their so-called seatbelt checks going on and coming off the highway so a few of us rode up and down the highway and it was quite obvious they were targeting the exits and entrances that minorities use. No education is going to stop things like this accountability is the only thing that is going to stop this. One person complaining isn’t going to stop this. The complainer will just be targeted. About Blacks being in law enforcement too many of them “turn white” once they get in so that isn’t the answer. I am a believer of raising the bar as a whole too but I will never forget what’s happening to my people, I will never forget being asked by an officer “Am I coming from court” because I had a suit on. Even an educated man goes through these things too. Education is a start but those cops being held accountable is a stopper. One other thing that they do is on a ticket that they give they will mark the race white, even though you aren’t, to make it look like they are pulling over whites too. Once again no education can stop that either.

Above - I can somewhat agree with your last statement. However, in my opinion education still has to be made a priority in black homes. I do beleive that our lack of education puts us at a disadvantage across the board. Racism is a multi-layered issue that will require many solutions.

Politix, I fully agree with your last statement but all I am saying is that nobody should be racially profiled reguardless of race, education, clothing or anything else and when we are we all should be upset. Not just you, not just me, all of us. I don’t care if a guy has pants below his ass, (NOT THAT I DO THAT) it doesn’t give cops a reason to act the way they do. Don’t get me wrong some of the problems in our community are because of us but police officers multiply those problems by getting us on simple things that they would never get a white person on. BTW when I mentioned about cops purposely stating in the race column that people are white instead of their real race. I have proof, I am not making that up. Not saying that you didn’t believe me but for those that want to challenge it. Personally, I am happy that you have found success just don’t forget the ones that haven’t…

Oh my goodness!! These are inildecbre, I absolutely love so many of them! The ones under the dock/pier are my favorite, but the rest s are stunning as well. The couple must be thrilled with them <3 It’s definitely one of my favorite engagement shoots from you (although it’s hard to play favorites! The locations are all so photogenic and with such great texture, and the lighting is as always gorgeous!