I was recently in a "just between us chickens" session in which the subject of how "The Media" portrays a bad image of the Black community. In that particular case of "Dekalb County GA".
When I get drawn into these sessions I try my best to take a passive role at the beginning of the conversation so that the people are inclined to speak as they would if no one was around to check them.
From this conversation I understood that for many Black people the narrative of "Dekalb County - the Mission Accomplished Zone - where favorable Blacks are in control" should be understood as a place of OPPRESSION by banks, police and the media which are prevented it from expanding to its natural place. All of their comments followed that meme.
When I did chime in I asked the group of Black (Progressives) - "Why don't you look at Dekalb as the place where your favored policies and culture is now in place and yet you show some sort of concern that - despite all of your efforts and the promises along the way.......you are unhappy with the results that have been garnered?"
The dead man found at 3 am last night was not found in Dekalb County. This was in the heart of the City of Atlanta.
Who Was Donald Lee Hollowell?
Donald Lee Hollowell was a famous civil rights attorney in Atlanta.
From Wikipedia
Although in Kansas, Hollowell did not encounter the racist Jim Crow laws of the South, he faced blatant racism and discrimination while serving in the U.S. Army during World War II. Hollowell recounted that “army officials relegated him to eating in the kitchen, sleeping in quarters adjacent to prisoners, and patronizing Jim Crow canteens.” Hollowell’s experiences with racial segregation and discrimination and his involvement with the Southern Negro Youth Congress after the war inspired him to pursue the study of law to help in the fight for social justice.[1] In 1947, Hollowell graduated magna cum laude from Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee, and he earned his law degree from Loyola University Chicago School of Law in 1951Question For My People:
- It is clear that you are sensitive to the image that (White) people have and project about Black people
- It is clear that you hold certain "Civil Rights Heroes" dear because of the work that they have done to advance the interests of the Black community.
- Atlanta has renamed many of its streets after these heroes
- It is clear that you are willing to admit that there is a problem among a portion of our young people
We were told that the changing of the street signs would motivate the people within to look up with PRIDE that "They" are now represented in the monuments rather than the image of their oppressors that adorn the side of "Stone Mountain".
Yet it is also true that there is a higher than average chance that a Black person in Atlanta will be murdered on these primary thoroughfares today than is the case on the streets of the suburban places where people who are most threatening to you live.
Is this normal to you?
From The Article:
Homicide detectives Friday were investigating the fatal shooting of a man found dead in the middle of a northwest Atlanta street.
A motorist discovered the victim around 3:30 a.m. Friday in the 700 block of Cedar Avenue near Donald Lee Hollowell Parkway and called 911.
According to Atlanta police dispatchers, the motorist reported that he heard several gunshots before finding the body in the roadway.
“At this point, we have yet to locate anybody who actually witnessed the shooting, so we’re still puzzled as to what actually occurred, but it is early in the investigation,” Atlanta police Lt. Paul Guerrucci told Channel 2 Action News.
Police have not released the identity of the victim, who appeared to be in his 30s.
Police are also investigating a second shooting that was reported about 15 minutes earlier about two miles away on Martin Luther King Jr. Drive.
In that shooting, a man was shot in the shoulder outside a convenience store. According to dispatchers, the 50-year-old victim was alert and conscious when taken to Grady
No comments:
Post a Comment