Category Archives: Cultural

MIA! Nice Negro Outrage Re Not-Nice Negro Outrageousness

(The State of Black America as 2024 Begins. Observations, Commentary.)

Contents for this post:

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Pants Down the Ass vs Achieving The American Dream

[Note! Yowl completed this post during spring 2020 coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic dislocation. In various aspects it assumes/presumes pre-pandemic, near full-employment. Conditions hopefully will return to same or similar. If not, observations and solution posed still hold. However, under changed, more difficult circumstances.]


Pants Down the Ass
versus
Achieving the American Dream

(Solution to the challenge of enabling pursuit of the American Dream by ANGRY urban Black youth [UBY] and their families)

(A Wolf Yowl)

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Of OBAs and NOBAs (A Wolf Yowl)

A Divide among American Blacks needing recognition

Copyright Yowling Wolf 2019 / All rights reserved

Dedicated to…

The few Africans present at the very dawn of New World exploration, and the few who in that early time willingly set sail to the Americas to seek their fortune…

But, especially, to the millions unwillingly herded onto ships as so much cattle, brought to the New World long ago shackled, stacked as cordwood, countless numbers perishing and cast anonymously into the sea, many by their own volition, so bleak and awful was their plight.

Who, along with their descendants, suffered hundreds of years of untold suffering and hardship and indignity as slaves.

And after that shameful stain on America were freed to be the downtrodden and despised in the land of hope and promise for others.

Yet endured.

And to their millions of descendants who continue to endure. Continue reading

Deconstructing the Tragedy/Tangle of Black Lives Matter

Introduction

(Same ‘ol, same ‘ol racism is not the whole story. It’s much more complex. Ironically, ascendant culture of a group left behind puts that group and others at risk.)

Joshua Beal. 25 year old shot and killed by an off-duty (White) Chicago police officer, 11/5/2016.

19-year-old shot and killed by Chicago police during foot pursuit in West Englewood neighborhood, 11/23/2016.

Black Lives Matter Flag flying on Northwestern University campus in Evanston, IL, just north of Chicago.

1/5/2016. Northwestern University in a Chicago suburb announces two weeks of “student-organized, administration-backed programs” addressing Black Lives Matter. In Chicago, in 2016 there were over 4,000 shootings. Most were of young Black men in poor Black areas. 762 shootings were fatal. Only a few shootings were by police. The great majority were by young Black men. Per Don Babwin (Associated Press, Minneapolis Star Tribune), this was an increase over 2015 of over 1,100 shootings, nearly 300 deaths, more than Los Angeles and NYC combined. The bulk of homicides “were in five of the city’s poorest [Black] neighborhoods on the South and West sides [5 of 22 Chicago police districts], where violent street gangs are most active.”

Young Black males in the United States (14-19) are 21 times more likely to be killed by a police officer than White males of comparable age.
—ProPublica analysis of federally collected data on fatal police shootings, 2010-2012

Although 62 percent of the American population (of some 330 million), whites were only 49 percent of fatal police shootings in the period Jan. 1, 2015 to July 11, 2016. Although only 13 percent of the population, blacks constituted 24 percent of fatal police shootings in the same time period. (2.5x more likely to be shot and killed.) In that time period young black and white men(18-29) were shot and killed in roughly equal numbers—175 vs. 172. Of these, 24 black men were unarmed, 18 whites. Given vastly unequal overall population numbers, young black men were much more likely to be shot and killed by police. Although just 6 percent of the overall population, black men constituted 40 percent of fatal police shootings of unarmed persons during the period. 13 percent of blacks shot during the period were unarmed, versus 7 percent of whites.
—Wesley Lowery article, Washington Post, July 11, 2016

Of 45 police officer-involved shootings in Oakland, CA, 2004-2008, 37 were black, none white. 1/3 of shootings resulted in fatalities. Although no weapons were found in 40 percent of cases, no officers were charged.
—Oakland NAACP reportage

After wallet and cell phone were taken at gunpoint by a young black man he noticed loitering outside his apartment building, [studious-appearing, Wolf notes] Jerry Ford, Jr., University of Houston grad Student and leader in local Black Lives Matter movement, is “suddenly all for police patrolling, protecting his neighborhood.” —September, 2016 news report

They only kill us because of our skin color and our race.”—Ashley Beasley, young Philadelphia woman re police, 9/22/2016

12/12/2016: Two police officers were shot during a highway traffic stop in Georgia Monday night, officials said, the third such incident in two weeks. (22 year old [Black] suspect held.)

“How cheap is black life in these United States of America? This is why the Black Lives Matter movement is so necessary. It will remain so until black lives do, in fact, matter.”—December, 2016, remarks of Black Washington Post reporter, Eugene Robinson, following hung South Carolina jury (11 Whites, 1 Black) in the trial of White police officer, Michael Slager. Following a [broken taillight] stop of Black motorist, Walter Scott, Slager, as evidenced in a video taken by a bystander, calmly from a distance of 8 feet, shot the 50 year old “pudgy” motorist five times in the back, once in the buttock, as he “slowly” ran away, killing him. Slager then dropped his gun by the body to bolster his story that they struggled over it, and he “feared for his life.”

“There’s too much violence in the black community.”… “If you want to deal with this on the black side, you’ve got to teach your children to be respectful to the police, and you’ve got to teach your children that the real danger to them is not the police; the real danger to them, 99 out of 100 times, 9,900 out of 10,000 times, are other black kids who are going to kill them. That’s the way they’re gonna die.”—Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani on Face The Nation, summer 2016.

[Note. FBI statistics show the Black-on-Black murder rate (since 2014) to be approximately 90 percent. White-on-White murder rate for the same period is 82 percent.]

Rodney King, Trayvon Martin, Philando Castille (Black male passenger shot by Hispanic police officer in Minneapolis suburb)… Black male Tulsa motorist shot by White female officer while walking away w/ hands up, Black man selling items on street in Baton Rouge shot by White male officer, Black woman motorist in Texas shot by White male officer, Black motorist in Charlotte, NC (waiting for child at school) shot by Black male officer, ex NFL player Joe McKnight shot by White male in road rage situation, etc. etc.

“Deconstruct” means break it down, sort it out. (So as, hopefully, to better understand.)

After many, many months of pondering, reading, hearing little more insightful than “cops are killing young Black men because they are racist and we all need to self-examine, blah, blah blah,” The Wolf proposes in characteristic fashion to bring rationality, originality, experience, knowledge, research, and unique insight to bear on the tangle of emotions, the as yet unexplained (to anyone’s satisfaction) tragic dynamic giving rise to the Black Lives Matter movement (BLM). I.e., cops (male, female, Black, White, Latino, Asian) shooting Blacks, some unarmed, some walking or running away, having hands up, seeming in no wise deserving of being shot.

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WUSS FACTOR IN FAILED (AMERICAN) LEADERSHIP —9/11 DEBACLE AND DISASTROUS AFTERMATH

YA-O-O-O-W-L!

WUSS FACTOR IN FAILED (AMERICAN) LEADERSHIP
—9/11 DEBACLE AND DISASTROUS AFTERMATH

In leaders of nations, as well as families, honesty, fairness, wisdom, forthright brave, correct thinking is to be hoped for as plans are laid, decisions made, action commenced. Insofar as leaders are insecure, fearful, incompetent (the latter a factor in uncertainty and fear), in varying degrees plans, decisions, and actions fall short of ideal.

The topic of this Yowl is grievous outcome when those in positions of highest leadership—president and leadership of the United States—fall short in wisdom, honesty, particularly courage and bravery. 9/11 and its aftermath are the focus. The point made is that incompetence coupled with “wuss” is a formula for disaster in times of crisis.

It may be noted that courage and bravery is never mere reaction, however bold, bad-ass, admirable reaction may be or appear to be. Mere reaction—instinctive fight/flight—is the mode of beasts, not brave, courageous behavior.* Bravery and courage occurs only when there is awareness of danger, threat, one’s fear, and that fear is suppressed.

What transpires when fear cannot be overcome, when one lacks courage, bravery, and competence, when, in sum, one is a bumbling wuss, is explored in this Yowl.

When the leader and leadership group of the modern Free World are bumbling wusses, consequences are dire.

Hang with The Yowling Wolf! Continue reading

ALPHA AMERICAN WOMENHOOD—A PROBLEMATIC MISS SCARLETT ASPECT

YA-O-O-O-W-L!
ALPHA AMERICAN WOMENHOOD—A PROBLEMATIC MISS SCARLETT ASPECT

“Check your privilege” is a phrase afoot today on some college campuses. It is directed at white males in particular. It is used to remind such men that they likely benefited from favorable experiences, perceptions, assumptions, presumptions growing up, which they are not fully cognizant of, and to which they have not given proper consideration. Moreover, they continue to benefit from same. It is meant to check and cow such (privileged) persons, lest they, in speech or action, suggest that others, less advantaged, are not only inferior, but at fault for this inferiority.

Recent psychological studies support this premise.*

This Yowl suggests that “check your privilege” might also be directed at an alpha class of American women—specifically Caucasian, well educated, professional-type, below the age of fifty, and, typically, not unattractive. Such women tend to exercise (fiercely), they are ambitious, they are all about self advancement and “leaning in.”** They are privileged and self assured. They are destined to be American leaders and influence arbiters.

Not that women should not be ambitious and take advantage of all opportunities. The Yowling Wolf is a feminist who wholeheartedly believes in advancement of women. His two grown, achieving daughters are proof.

However, attitude, belief, outlook count for much. This is particularly so when attitude, belief, and outlook is reflected in American leadership, and is problematic.

The Wolf has discerned a curious attitude/belief/outlook on the part of some, if not many, possibly even most of the women in question. It bespeaks an unrealistic, arrogant, even fantastic sense of entitlement. Ominously, it is redolent of an American brand of female entitlement, arrogance, imperiousness, and surreal behavior, evident in a particularly dark, unsavory chapter of the American past.

It is The Yowling Wolf’s view that unnoted, unexamined, unchecked, given the power and influence such women will wield, this attitude/belief/outlook has possible negative implications for American relations abroad and race relations at home. (History shows that the two are not unrelated.)

Manifestly, imperious arrogance and fantasy in domestic and foreign policy and planning cannot be a positive.

As is said, “from small acorns do large oak trees grow.”

The attitude/belief/outlook detected, examined, brought to light in this Yowl may be termed and characterized as a “Miss Scarlett” aspect. The contention is that a Miss Scarlett aspect is alive and well in an influential group of American women, and this augurs problematic going forward.

Hang with The Wolf! Continue reading