Deconstructing the Tragedy/Tangle of Black Lives Matter

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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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The Wolf doesn’t think the simple explanation of same ‘ol, same ‘ol White racism (playing comfortably into victim-think and other agendas [e.g., shake the White guilt $$$ tree]) nearly gets to the bottom of a much more complex, tangled deal. In fact, that explanation is simplified bullshit!

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The situation is tragic. However, it can be explained. Whether a solution exists is less clear. A better understanding of a more complex situation than BLM currently conjures surely helps.

Herewith, hereafter, gonna break it down, sort it out, ‘splain the deal as it ain’t been ‘splained. The truth reveals a more complex dynamic at work. Indeed, a paradox afoot. (Meaning a contradiction.)

Here’s what it is, what’s going down!

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CONTENTS (Cuz we goin’ deep into this.)

Shootings by Police Factor

“HE WAS RAISING HIS HANDS IN A BLACK, THREATENING WAY!” Caption of cartoon depicting legs (only) prone on the ground, two hands above pointing a smoking gun.—Rogers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Per FBI crime statistics, of 986 persons killed by police in 2015 [nearly 1,000 per year seems a relatively consistent yearly total], 495 (50%) were White [Whites being 62% of total population], 258 (26%) Black [Blacks being 13% of total population], 172 (17%) Hispanic [roughly equivalent to Hispanic percentage of total population].

“These police shootings of civilians didn’t just start happening. This was all happening before anyone started recording it on cellphones. It’s been happening for 40 years. I know that because I’ve been around policing that long.” —Norman Garnes, Sr., 73, 30-year Black police officer, retired from NYC and Charlotte, NC police departments. (AARP The Magazine, Dec. 2016-Jan. 2017 issue, p. 45)

“You get young kids—black, white, Asian, Latino, 23 or 24 years old—you give them six months of police training, you give them all that authority, and they think they’re invincible, they’re Superman: “I’m the police. You gonna do what I said.” When you put that mentality with a community that has a history of being oppressed, that’s a combustible mix, no matter what color the officer is. —Norman Garnes, Jr., 49, Black Charlotte, NC police officer (AARP magazine, Loc. Cit.)
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Blacks Stopped, Pulled Over Factor

“That means ‘F—k with people,’ in plain English. Everything, anything that [people in target community] do—like spit on the sidewalk—lock ‘em up.”… “One black kid going to college in the city got stopped by police 100 times.”—Norman Garnes, Sr., retired Black NYC police officer (AARP The Magazine, 2016-Jan. 2017 issue, p.45), commenting on highly touted (credited with sharply reducing crime), NYC “broken windows” approach to policing.

Black folk, especially men, being arbitrarily stopped and pulled over by Whites, of late police officers, on flimsy pretext—e.g., alleged “broken taillight” (the taillight perhaps broken by the cop as he approaches the vehicle)—, sometimes being beaten and killed, is hardly new. Has happened since cars were invented… No, since slaves in America (and Black indentured servants before them) were walking, driving wagons, riding horses without a White escort… Indeed, since Black folk in America began moving anywhere on their own. The expression “DWB” (Driving While Black) is well known. It may as well be MWB—Moving While Black.

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Shaquille Wilson, who has sued Chicago and unnamed police officers. Per Chicago Sun Times (12/16/2016), “The 22- year-old had turned his life around to the degree that he was being honored by the Lawndale Christian Legal Center at the organization’s annual banquet. Wilson had completed a program called the Mac House and was working for a small construction company that put him on a clear career path. He was even being featured in a video presentation. On the night Wilson was to be featured,” however, he was stopped by Chicago police “two blocks from his home,” en route to a “Dollar General store to buy a can of spray starch.” The lawsuit says police “approached [Wilson] ‘with guns drawn, and Wilson was told to “get on his knees.” As they arrested him, one officer told the other, ‘He fits the description,’ according to the suit. Wilson was taken to the police station…, where he was never interviewed or fingerprinted. But he was placed in a police lineup with others with dark skin and dreadlocks.” Wilson was released the next morning and missed his event. Wilson told the Sun Times reporter, “I felt like I was being treated like an animal, like I didn’t have no rights because I was black.” Further, “It was to be one of the highlights in my life, and I couldn’t celebrate. Not only was I disappointed, but I disappointed the people who came to see me and paid $100 for a ticket.”

Getting stopped for no reason other than MWB is, of course, unfair. It pisses a person off. It pisses off family, friends, community when the target/victim tells the tale. Thus, there is an Attitude Factor afoot in most cop/Black encounters. A cop is likely to be met by a “what-the-fuck-is-it-this-time?!” attitude. Which escalates the situation and confirms the cop—White/Black/yellow/green, he/she, right/wrong—in a suspicion of “something” amiss. And/or, “I need to show this [yeah—niggah!] who’s boss!”

The young men in the foregoing pictures represent, arguably, but the latest example of a historically familiar, racist Ameri(kkk)an theme—stop, hassle, harass, sometimes beat and kill the Black man (and woman), because they may be up to no good, because they need to be put down, because they are Black, because they aren’t White.

This view would seem to summarize the BLM position respecting why some Black men are being shot by police.

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[Note. The second young man depicted has a name, family, had hopes and aspirations, now forever extinguished. The Wolf could have researched his name. (The reader may.) The choice is to leave him anonymous. His friends and family know who he is. He represents Every Black Young Man Needlessly Killed.]

There is a problem, however, with the BLM take. What is going on is not the same ‘ol, same ‘ol expression of White racism angry BLM protesters seem to think and claim. It surely has a racist component. However, it’s not just In the Heat of the Night, bash-a-nigger-in-the-head-for-the-hell-of-it White racism. As noted, Black cops also stop and shoot Black men. White cops now often have Black bosses. Are these Black officers, as BLM might contend, merely co-opted by the system (racist powers that be) to do the White man’s racist bidding?

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The Wolf views the situation as more complex. Definitely more complex. Blame can surely be attributed to White racism, police oppression, the odd psychopathic police officer (Black, White, or other). However, also to FEAR OF BLACKS, engendered by sizable numbers of criminal actors in predominantly Black, depressed communities (“Hoods”*), and culture therein that actively celebrates and promotes criminal, thug-gangsta, anti-social behavior and posturing. Also, in some measure to “respectable,” law-abiding Blacks and institutions that abandoned those Hoods. Also to corporations capitalizing on popularity (“swagga”) of thug-gangsta Hood culture to market product. Also to an overly permissive American society loathe to fix a measure of blame on permissiveness itself, and bad behavior.

*“Hood” will refer to mostly Black, impoverished neighborhoods. Many are within American cities and towns—e.g., South Bronx, South Side Chicago, Watts and Compton in Los Angeles, Harlem and Bed-Stuy, Brooklyn (before [mostly] White gentrification made those neighborhoods desirable and expensive). Some Hoods (in Florida, in parts of the South) are towns and hamlets. Some are suburbs of towns and cities. Typically geographically segregated (by train tracks, highways, etc.), such neighborhoods were abandoned by respectable, industrious, law-abiding, role-model Blacks, when integration permitted escape (circa 1970s). Black Hoods are typically combustible caldrons of high unemployment, substandard schools and housing, infrastructure decay, poverty, crime, violence, hopelessness, despair, drugs, gangs, and, especially, seething anger.

There are various interrelated, intertwining factors that contribute to not all, but just certain Black men being shot by police—by Black officers as well as White. For example, Blacks from middle-class communities and backgrounds (“respectable Blacks”), although frequently stopped by police, are almost never shot. Beyond the aggravation and inconvenience of being profiled and stopped, they are rarely arrested or abused.

The Wolf proposes to examine, tackle, untangle, unpack all this mess at significant length because it is complicated. There are aspects—factors!—that go to the heart of what America is at present, where we have come from, where we might be heading.

Pay attention BLM and others! Learn something!
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Ameri(kkk)an Racism Factor

Beginning with its long, shameful history of Black enslavement and genocide of native inhabitants of the continent, not only has Ameri(kkk)a been cruelly racist, but racism was deeply ingrained and embedded in Ameri(kkk)an DNA.* Efforts to dismantle Ameri(kkk)an racism in the last 60 years have been significant and ongoing. Protestation to the contrary, however, pernicious racism persists. Events, including the recent presidential election, prove it.

*As an example of how embedded (White) racism can be, including sometimes outlandish, self-defeating notions, even among even supposedly educated persons, it may be noted that prior to Japanese pilots flying all night (leaving from aircraft carriers) to commence the destructive, early morning raid on the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, that brought the United States into the Second World War (Dec. 7, 1941), it was believed by some among top U.S. military brass and planners (all White at the time [Duh-h!]) that, owing to eye shape (i.e., “slant”), Japanese pilots could not fly at night!

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In another recent, obvious example of present-day racism, heavily armed White supremacists (“alt-rightists,” whom/whatever) took over a federal bird sanctuary or some such in Oregon. [Search Bundy, nature preserve, Oregon.] They camped there for weeks while blah-blah about them surrendering peacefully went on. (While then President Obama exhibited “great patience.”) Locals debated whether they were sympathetic to the takeover or not. Ultimately, after peacefully giving up, the occupiers were acquitted at trial of all charges—guns, trespass, [treason?!]. No one was hurt. Of note, the acquittal occurred in “liberal” Portland.*

*It may be noted that at one time all Blacks were run out of the Oregon Territory. Simply killed, harassed, forced to leave. So much for the heritage/DNA of one of America’s “blue,” “liberal” states.

Had occupiers of the Oregon nature preserve been Black, while No-Drama-Obama held troops at bay “letting matters calm,” local white citizenry would have stormed the place and done what Whites have done to Black folk in America for centuries!… No effing doubt about that!

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The foregoing is really all one needs to ponder in terms of whether America is still racist, and whether White “privilege” exists.

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Yo! Obama should have ordered federal troops into the Oregon nature preserve, a la Waco, Ruby Ridge, etc., and kicked some (happened-to-be) White ass!… Same for when the Oregon occupation organizer’s father, one Clive Bundy, some years back, was joined by gun-toting White supremacists in confronting and intimidating federal agents on federal (citizen-owned!) land that he was grazing his cattle on without paying.

WTF?!

The Donald Trump campaign was about little more than himself and Make America White Again. The Wolf ain’t hardly fooled or livin’ in some dream world. Racism is alive and well!
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Black Advancement in America Factor

Embedded racism in Ameri(kkk)a notwithstanding, matters have progressed in decidedly positive fashion for a sizable segment of Blacks in America. Thanks to Black effort, initiative, courage, bloodshed, and organization, greatly aided by well-intentioned Whites (both liberal and illiberal [E.g., President Lyndon Johnson], and especially Jewish Whites [all furthering an agenda of a more open, more fair, better, freer American society]), resulting in landmark legislative changes at both federal and local levels [civil rights legislation], and also, yes, well-deserved affirmative action policies [Does anyone sincerely believe that Original Black Americans (OBAs)* are not owed some preference after 400 years of oppression?!], unprecedented doors of opportunity have opened. Black Americans in droves have marched through those doors! Boldly!

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* “Original Black Americans” (OBAs) versus immigrant African and Caribbean Blacks. Yowl readers know The Wolf draws this distinction. OBAs are those who trace ancestry back to American slavery. They contrast with Blacks who chose to come to America. (Typically because America, despite racism, offers greater opportunity than the country they left.)

African and Caribbean immigrants (e.g., Wolf paternal Jamaican forebears who emigrated in the 1920’s) surely face discrimination based on skin color. (As did southern European immigrants, especially Italians, Chinese and Japanese, and recently those from India, Pakistan, and Arab countries.) However, similar to other immigrants, they normally possess the advantage of motivation and grit that got them here, intact family, appreciation for education, strong work ethic, prideful sense of self. They lack psychic, generational family damage wrought by American slavery and “Jim Crow.” [The latter, ending only in the 1960’s, were laws enacted to subordinate OBAs following slavery.] Non-OBA Blacks typically brush racism aside as but an impediment to advance, not unlike poverty or not knowing English.

Slavery practiced in the American south (as experienced by Wolf maternal forebears in Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee [the Black ones!]) was especially cruel and (purposefully) destructive of family life and personality. Slavery in Caribbean and South American colonies was outlawed decades before American emancipation. (Circa 1830.) It was generally less destructive of family life. (E.g., there was no threat [often acted upon] of sending family members to the “Deep South”.) Slaves in Caribbean and South American nations vastly outnumbered Whites. Post emancipation, slave descendants in such places had a smoother, more rapid path to normal, productive life. By dint of superior numbers, they eventually shouldered aside former (White) masters in terms of sense of national/cultural identity, and, eventually, self-rule.

Meantime, in the United States ruthless suppression and oppression of Blacks—lynchings, illegal confiscation of property (see. E.g., John Gresham novel, Sycamore Row), burning of prospering Black neighborhoods and entire towns, race riots against Blacks in both North and South, etc.—continued well into the twentieth century, often sanctioned by Jim Crow laws. Oppression and suppression continue overtly to this day in Black Hoods and elsewhere. (E.g., a recent Missouri legislative enactment makes fighting and acting out in grade school a felony crime. This disproportionately impacts Black boys.)

This entire piece is precisely the result of an expression of racial discrimination, but not against all Blacks. Most Black shooting victims are OBAs! OBAs are more likely to be victims, less psychologically immune to racism’s harming effects.

Persons such as Barack Obama, Colin Powell, former attorney general, Eric Holder (versus successor, Loretta Lynn), not being OBAs, did not grow up experiencing cautioning words and remembrances of generations who experienced White abuse of the most overt sort. Their families do not harbor generational fear and caution respecting Whites that can induce self-doubt and stifle ambition. Scars of an OBA upbringing are visible in the anger, sometimes erupting, of, say, a Clarence Thomas. (Versus the seeming imperturbable cool of non-OBA Barack Obama.) The Wolf’s Jamaican father spoke in 1947 of one day being governor of New Jersey, which astounded his southern OBA wife. As a Ph.D. Candidate at Boston University, he walked the eight year old future Wolf around the Harvard campus, implying, “this is where you belong one day.”

[As he died unexpectedly within the year, The Wolf was more influenced by his southern mother. (Jamaican New Jersey relatives provided a useful model of fearlessness and ambition in the face of racism, but were distant.) The Wolf carries and has struggled against OBA self-doubt and hesitation he might not have had had his Jamaican father lived.

Note! If achievements and positive economic statistics of non-OBAs—those of Caribbean ancestry and, of late, truly “African” immigrants (often with African surnames, as may be noted increasingly among college and professional athletes (e.g., Okoye, Mtumbo, Ojukwu, Ajaye, Okofor, Deng, etc.)—are subtracted from the sum of Black American achievement and prosperity, the true measure of destructive effect of American slavery and its 150 year racist aftermath might clearly be seen.

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The Wolf calls for change in the term, “African-American!” It has become grossly inaccurate and misleading. The distinction Original Black American” needs to be made! This is especially so if meaningful remedial measures (including some form of [non- further-debilitating-in-the-sense-of-victimhood!] “Black reparations”) are to be forthcoming.
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Black Advancement Factor (Cont.)

In spite of persistent, ongoing resistance, including subtle and not-so-subtle racist policy (including the not inconsiderable, drip-drip-drip wear and tear of being doubted at every turn, owing merely to the indelible marker of skin pigmentation [even by Whites of lower station and ability!]), significant progress has been made. There has been a Black president and Black family in the White House the past eight years, a circumstance that could hardly have been imagined a mere 20-30 years ago.* Blacks are CEOs of major “White” institutions. (E.g., American Express, Ford Foundation, Ivy League Brown University.) Black elected officials at all levels of federal, state, and local municipal office are innumerable. Black professionals, managers, millionaires are many and unremarkable.

*Yowl readers know that while loving Barack Obama’s role model for persons of color, especially Blacks, The Wolf does not consider Barack Obama the first “Black American” president. His proud, ambitious African father and self-confident White mother in no wise conveyed often crippling generational scars harbored by the group The Wolf terms Original Black Americans. (See previous footnote.) President Obama attended private school in multicultural Hawaii. He was surely discriminated against based on color. However, he experienced nothing of the protective hesitancy and doubt as to prospects passed along generationally among OBAs. (As wife, Michelle, likely did.) The same as other discriminated against immigrant minority persons, he likely did not deeply internalize (buy into) hate and denigration directed toward him. He does not have within him the corrosive, self-defeating anger of OBA men of Black Hoods, whence victims of police shootings come. His apparent lack of anger toward Whites doubtless greatly assisted his candidacy. He was and is seen as a “nice Black man.” [Too nice to Whites in The Wolf’s view.] He is different from his OBA wife in an advantageous way.

Thought to lack the mental capacity to play the quarterback role in professional football as recently as the 1990’s, Blacks are now among top NFL quarterbacks, and are managers (and part owners) of professional teams. Where, as late as the early 1960’s, it was rare to see a Black person on television in other than a subservient, caricature role, Blacks are now not only omnipresent in movies, television, and every media/cultural venue, but own production companies, and write and direct. Interracial couples are featured in television commercials. In the press for diversity, colleges and corporations compete for Black talent. A Black with a college degree can pretty much name his or her ticket in today’s America!

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More problematic respecting the subject of Blacks being shot by police, as shall be explored, has been rapid spread throughout American culture—omnipresent in media, in suburban White as well as Black homes and environs, especially among young people—of Hood, thug-gangsta affect, attitude, dress, and posturing.

Being Black in America has never been more cool! THERE HAS NEVER BEEN A BETTER TIME IN AMERICA TO BE BLACK!
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Black Cultural Influence Factor (Introduction)

Black style and vernacular, long culturally influential in America, has never been more publicized and popular. The shaved-head look popularized by Michael Jordan, for example (adopted by such film luminaries as Bruce Willis, The Rock, Vin Diesel), is popular among countless (balding and not balding) White as well as Black males. More recently and gaining traction, dreadlocks (a Jamaican import) have become popular. [The Wolf would have snowy dreads if he had hair!] Even in corporate boardrooms White males and females acknowledge error with the (typically apt) expression born in the Hood— “my bad!”

** Likewise, “cast shade,” and, very recently, “Stay woke!

”How widespread and ingrained is Black American advance, including cultural influence in America these days? Consider the following, one of many swearing-in photos of the Trump-election congressional majority:

Teenage son of Roger Marshall, Republican representative from Kansas, tasked with holding the Bible during the swearing-in of his dad by House Speaker Paul Ryan, attempts to introduce a “dab.” Noticing the gesture, Ryan stopped to ask if the boy was about to sneeze. No, a “dab,” which neither Ryan, nor the dad, nor persons commenting in tweets seemed able to grasp. [New to The Wolf, for that matter, but (being Black) I get it!]
*Whence the dab move?… An Internet search reveals a Black American (likely hip-hop) source. It was widely popularized during a celebration by NFL Carolina Panthers (Black) quarterback, Cam Newton.*

Cam Newton dabbing.

America dabbing

*Per Wikipedia, the dab is a dance move “in which one simultaneously drops the head while raising an arm and the elbow in a gesture that has been noted to resemble sneezing.” It is often used in celebration by (OBA) athletes. It has its origins in the Atlanta hip-hop scene, but there was initially disagreement about who originated the dance. American rapper, Bow Wow, attempted to explain the origin of the dab dance, saying it derived from the cannabis dabbers community, and started long before the dance move in 2012. He was met with opposition from other rappers who took to Twitter to insult and disprove his claims. Alternately, dabbing is also the “new, explosive way to smoke marijuana.”

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Job gains, Barack Obama, other advances aside, the brightest, most influential development auguring Black progress toward full acceptance in America is what is seen every day, hours each day, on the most iconic vehicle of expression and cultural persuasion in American life—television!

Whereas in the early 1960’s, Black Americans literally and excitedly called one another to watch if a Black person was appearing on television in a non-demeaning role (non-step-n-fetch-it, non-Amos-n-Andy), diversity is now omnipresent on network and much of cable television. The model of all-American, respectable, Black, upward aspirant values pioneered by Huxtable family, which greatly advanced Black acceptance (recent Cosby self- destruction notwithstanding), is passe’. There’s the vast Oprah influence. Blacks are featured in shows created and produced by Blacks. Black American culture is often featured, and whether it appeals to Whites or not seems of little concern. Far more important (as many may not watch Black shows), virtually every television commercial features diversity. BLACKS ARE EVERYWHERE ALL THE TIME ON TELEVISION!

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Want to watch a sporting event that isn’t hockey, NASCAR, or (lately) golf? You’re going to see Blacks galore! The number one Formula One racing driver in the world* is Lewis (Carl Davidson) Hamilton, a British mixed-racial.

*A sport much bigger and more prestigious than NASCAR.

It is likely that anger and dismay over the Trump election on the part of the overwhelmingly liberal, media creative class, will ensure that Blacks, gays, trannys, every sort of diversity will be depicted front and center as “normal” in every living room in America.*

*Eg., commercials during the recent (2017) Super Bowl, perhaps seeking to counter and upbraid the effect and implications of the Trump election and his actions, could not have featured more diversity. A Ford commercial [$5 million per 30 seconds!] briefly showed a young Black male driving in Ford’s top-of-the-line GT sports car with a blonde female companion.

Indeed. The upcoming (May, 2017) segment of the mega-popular television show, The Bachelorette, will feature the very first Black lead. An attractive, chocolate-skinned 31-year-old lawyer from Dallas (daughter of a federal judge) will be courted for weeks on national TV, initially by 30 eligible men, many doubtless White.

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Nevertheless, Black men are shot by police in disproportionate numbers, under questionable circumstances. Moreover, so far as The Wolf can conclude, this is unlikely to soon stop. In fact, for reasons to be explored, the situation is likely to worsen!
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Black Advancement Great Divide Factor

When 1960’s civil rights legislation made it possible for educated, working, professional, other upward- mobile Blacks to leave lower-income, often urban, often all-Black neighborhoods in which they had been confined by racist segregation policy, they did. Blacks left behind, less educated and from more fragile family backgrounds, now lacked models of industriousness, of patient, law-abiding perseverance in the face of racial oppression. Blacks left behind increasingly existed in a different, grim reality.

In the best time ever in America for educated, upward-mobile Blacks, near half of Blacks remain in predominantly urban Hoods of substandard schools and housing, crushing unemployment, 72 percent illegitimacy rates. They are preyed upon by purveyors of liquor and tobacco, ruthless gangs pushing drugs, crime, and violence, desperate, criminally-inclined neighbors, life in general. Grinding poverty and decay fosters hopelessness and seething anger… Anger toward Whites, toward “acting White” (“Have”) Blacks who made it out, toward their lot and life in general, toward one another, toward themselves.

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The fuse to this combustible stew of despair, repeated in large and small cities and many towns and hamlets throughout America, has been lit by videos of shootings of unarmed Black men and women by members of police forces, the latter charged with aggressively occupying, monitoring, keeping a lid on these mostly Black communities via force and intimidation.
The BLM movement has arisen in response to these numerous instances of abuse, now visible to the world.
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Police Stops of “Respectable” Blacks Factor

More affluent, “respectable” Blacks, especially men, are frequently profiled, stopped, pulled over by police. So much so, many expect it. It goes with the territory of MWB (Moving While Black) in Ameri(kkk)a. The Wolf knows this because he knows many such folk. Most (all men in The Wolf’s informal survey) nod affirmatively to, “Do cops stop you for nothing?”, and, “A lot?”

Respectable Blacks often live or work not far from decaying Hoods. Because they share an identifying badge of skin color, because the scourge of gang violence and drug dealing is transportable to communities and towns far distant from Hoods, respectable Blacks get caught up in policing tasked with keeping a lid on Hood crime. However, although inconvenienced and angered by such “mistaken” stops, respectable Blacks are almost never shot. It is almost exclusively Blacks from Hoods (mostly men) who are victims of police shootings.

If sense is to be made of Black shootings, the BLM movement, the role of racism, this stark difference in outcome must be noted and understood. That a more nuanced conclusion than “Blacks are killed by racist cops” is warranted, is again dictated by the circumstance that police officers doing the shooting are no longer just White. Superiors to whom White officers involved in questionable shootings must answer are often Black.

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Police dash-cam video of one Lawrence Crosby, Ph.D. candidate, suspected of stealing his own car.

Per online 1/14/2017 Washington Post report of Cleve R. Wootson Jr., Crosby was thrown to the ground, kneed in the back, handcuffed, and arrested, after being pulled over by Evanston, IL, police on Oct. 10, 2015. This, despite protests upon exiting that it was his car, that he was “a Ph.D. candidate at Northwestern {University].”

A passing (White) female motorist had witnessed Crosby in a “hoodie,” at night, wielding a metal bar prior to entering a parked car. [Crosby was using the bar to straighten a misaligned strip.] She called 9-1-1, reporting a “Black man” breaking into a car, followed Crosby as he drove off, and relayed his movements to the dispatcher. Realizing he was being followed, Crosby acknowledged to a friend via phone that he might be deemed suspicious, and headed for the local police station. Pulled over before arriving, he was roughly handled, but not injured. Crosby was charged not with theft, but failure to comply with officer instructions and resisting arrest. He has filed a civil suit for wrongful arrest.

As in the above example (acknowledged by Crosby himself), a police stop is sometimes reasonable. Often, however, the only basis is race indicated by skin color. In this time of great opportunity, advancement, and achievement for persons of color, well-dressed, highly educated, highly paid Black managers and professionals get stopped and pulled over by police when driving, walking, jogging to and from their fine houses in upscale urban and suburban neighborhoods. Often! And by Black as well as White cops. [Perhaps less often by the former.]

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By his own admission, prior to becoming POTUS (president of the United States), Barack Obama was sometimes stopped for DWB. Stripped of security upon leaving office, driving a nice car in the upscale Washington, D.C., neighborhood in which he will reside, the onetime POTUS might on occasion be stopped for MWB. If Black, you, your daddy, uncle, mama, son, daughter, nephew, niece, grandchild have likely been pulled over for MWB. More than once. What’s going on?… Same ‘ol, same ‘ol (White) racism?

Whether admitted or no, police forces and their officers do profile Black motorists, pedestrians, joggers, particularly in and close to urban hoods. This practice results in inconveniencing, burdensome, aggravating stop/look-sees of Blacks of all backgrounds who have done nothing wrong. The practice is part of an effort to stem crime and violence emanating from (usually urban, largely Black) Hoods. As soon as a person stopped merely for MWB seems not to be suspicious, unless that person does something to (re)ignite concern, he or she is free to go.

Such practice presents as racist, and surely is. However, it also reflects an approach thought rational in achieving the desired result of keeping a lid on urban Hood crime and violence and its spread. [Not solving the problem, but keeping a lid on it.] The result is policy with racist appearance and outcome, winked at by even Black police chiefs and Black-dominated city and town leadership. For all the kumbaya public articulation of colorblind ideals, facts on the ground dictate that some individuals and institutions act in accordance with reality. Police officers and forces are such individuals and such an institution.

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Where a White police officer making a stop or pullover is concerned, there may indeed also be a measure of non-policy, same ‘ol, same ‘ol racism at work, conscious or unconscious. Some may simply want to take advantage of an opportunity to harass a Black person. Stopping a Black person in a nice car or neighborhood is an opportunity to show the (superior in station) Black person he or she isn’t all that. (Still a niggah!)

There may also be classism at work—show a person with money and education he or she isn’t all that. Could be, if an officer is Black, a bit of the latter is at work. (Envy!) For the most part, however, respectable “Have” Blacks are stopped because they are caught up in a racist policy supposition that a Black person in a car seeming too nice, or in a neighborhood that doesn’t fit the stereotype of where a Black person should be, needs checking out.

By virtue of race and skin color, respectable Blacks are saddled with the image created and projected by a sizable segment of America that looks like them—poor, possibly up to mischief! This negative image is not just prevalent where “Black” is concerned. As will be explored, it likely worsens.
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Respectable Blacks Unlikely To Be Shot Factor

The stop of depicted Ph.D. candidate, Lawrence Crosby (involving four or five police officers), ended roughly. It was humiliating. However, predictably he was not shot. For reasons that will emerge and be explored— e.g., Crosby’s protests doubtless were in articulate (King’s) English!—, respectable Blacks stopped and pulled over by police almost never get shot. They are rarely roughly handled.

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If not attended by his security detail, it is entirely possible, even probable that Barack Obama will be stopped by police. However, the same as most respectable Blacks, he will not be spread-eagled, beaten, arrested, shot. Not unless he “loses it!”—i.e., “goes ghetto” on the officer. The stop for MWB was probably a “mistake.” He will likely be smiled at, apologized to, waved on his or her way by the cop (of whatever color). Indeed, the initially stern and concerned officer will likely flip a switch and seem friendly… What’s going on?

A Black person who, by appearance, demeanor, attitude, voice, diction* and other indicia projects “respectable, law-abiding citizen,” immediately de-escalates a police stop. In particular, he allays the FEAR FACTOR that, we shall see, is key in precipitating tragedy. Normally not so angry as Hood Blacks, having, moreover, a sense of the larger picture—i.e., that being stopped is part and parcel of being Black in Ameri(kkk)a, despite having “made it” (often because one has made it)—, the respectable Black is better able to contain emotion, bear with the inconvenience, negotiate the situation to its resolution of merely driving, walking, jogging away. If completely BS and a ticket is issued, this Black person has resources, a sense of “I’ll see you in court” [if necessary]. He/she knows that matters will get ugly only if I blow my cool. Count to ten!

*“Talking White” is a familiar expression in the Black It means making one’s voice and diction more crisp, more “proper.” One speaks the King’s English. It is a helpful strategy in dealing not only with White colleagues/superiors with whom one must get along, but also police. If unable to easily switch to White speech, if unwilling to (owing to anger), tension during a police stop is greatly heightened.

An example is the 2017 Philando Castille tragedy in a Minneapolis suburb. Dark-skinned with dreadlocks, Castille was shot during a daylight traffic stop as a front seat passenger! The driver, Castille’s (Black) girlfriend, filmed and live-streamed the episode to the world as their 4-year-old daughter in the backseat (in a car seat) cried in fear. A 30-something working man of limited education, likely from a Hood, Castille had been stopped by police over 50 times in the previous two years (!!). [Most charges, all minor, were dismissed.] Licensed to carry a gun, while attempting to explain this to the (Hispanic) officer who made the stop, possibly attempting to reveal it, Castille was shot and killed. It could be that inarticulateness —failure to speak in clear, crisp English—was a contributing factor. Also fear on the part of the officer, and, yes, a measure of racism.

[Full disclosure! The Wolf does not appear sufficiently “black” to be pulled over for DWB. Does not happen. Also helps in not drawing arbitrary police interest that The Wolf is uber.* When The Wolf is pulled over, it’s because he (occasionally) commits traffic infractions, mostly speeding. Then (as one should!) The Wolf is quiet, respectful, cooperative. (Say nothing beyond answering questions. Say/do nothing to make the cop recall the incident! [If you go to court, 100 more tickets will have been written. The cop remembers nothing!]) Being a lawyer, The Wolf later (because he has time, inclination) goes to court, kicks some cop ass on the witness stand, usually gets the ticket dismissed. It is good to be a lawyer in America!]

*Word invented by The Wolf as a substitute for “old.” The Wolf is “ubering,” not aging, an uberadult, not a “senior,” “uberpa” to his grandchildren, not—ugh!—grampa, or (worse) “pop-pop.”

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[Okay. An arbitrary, profiling stop did happen once. Very likely, driving an old Ford Torino with a discolored fender needing paint had something to do with it. Bearded, deeply tanned after a Florida vacation, the future Wolf, driving up I-95 through Georgia around 10 p.m., no one else on the road, was pulled over by a cop in an unmarked car. Wasn’t speeding. Wife and young son were asleep and not visible. Cop (or whoever, as windows were dark) pulled alongside for a moment, sped up, crossed over in front, slowed to below the speed limit. When I moved over and began to pass, the cop sped up. When I exceeded the speed limit by a few mph, flashing lights came on. Was I profiled… as a possible drug runner? Very likely. Any cop can stop anyone at any time if he or she wants!
Oh. You want to know how that encounter went down? (Of course you do.)
Knowing my opened wallet would reveal a gold assistant district attorney shield, the future Wolf was cool. Annoyed, yes. However, I understood the drill, pretty much knew how things would go down.
“Wassat?”, the cop drawled. (Yes, drawled!) When I explained myself and my position, that good ‘ol boy and I became best buds! (I even allowed as how my office was engaged in extraditing a drug dealer from North Carolina—true!) The future Wolf was invited to accompany the New Best Friend on a drug bust he was heading to. Yes!… I politely declined. Said I had to get going with my family. It is damned good to belong to the brotherhood of the badge! (Any effing badge will do!) You are safe! (When and if they see it.) Even if Black.]

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The Wolf has seven younger (half) brothers, all recognizably Black. [Their dad could have been Mr. T’s brother.] The youngest is 48. Thus, decades (X 7!) of being pulled over for DWB. The Wolf’s stepfather drove nice cars and was often pulled over.

Here’s the important thing. Not one of The Wolf’s brothers or his stepfather—in the ‘50’s, 60’s, 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, ‘00’s (decades!)…—has ever been shot, beaten, even made to exit the car and “spread ‘em!” Ditto numerous cousins and uncles. Not once… Why not? Twice recently, a nephew home from college, driving his dad’s old Lexus in a White New Jersey suburb, was pulled over, then let go.

What distinguishes them from the young men depicted at the outset of this Yowl, or Philando Castille (passenger in a Minneapolis suburb), or countless other Black men stopped, pulled from cars, hassled, roughed up, beaten, sometimes shot?

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The Wolf’s stepfather and brothers grew up in predominantly White Minnesota. They frequently experienced racism. However, same as some (not all) of The Wolf’s uncles and cousins, they also knew and were friends with Whites. They are comfortable with Whites. They are not deeply angry at Whites and life in general. It helps that they were also superior athletes at their predominantly White schools, and were popular.

While annoyed at (yet again) being stopped or pulled over, such Black men do not harbor fear and seething dislike of Whites and authority that produces Attitude that escalates the situation. Could it be that apart from skin color, they don’t seem or act or talk very different from the officer, which immediately puts the officer at ease? Fact!—Many Black men speak in a deeper decibel. Couple this with the different cadence and inflexion of many men from Hoods. (Ebonics!) Add an overlay of anger and reluctance to communicate at all…

Add dreadlocks, a hoodie, and sunglasses at night, bling on fingers and around necks, pants-down-the-ass upon emerging from the vehicle…

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The Wolf asked his brother who lives in Brooklyn, works in Jersey, and often gets stopped (in his businesswoman wife’s black Audi), what happens when he is pulled over. [The wife is Palestinian. A recent police stop featured her teen nephews Ahmed and Omar in the back seat!] He says he rolls down the window, keeps both hands on the wheel, greets the officer with little expression, speaks clearly, precisely, and when spoken to, and informs the officer very carefully if, when, and what he might be reaching for. Just business as usual. Typically, he is sent on his way. Yes, it angers him.

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It surely is the case that innumerable stops of Blacks by police are unfair and motivated by racial profiling. However, if the driver (walker/jogger) presents as middle class—respectable!—in affect and demeanor (albeit angry, annoyed), is not (obviously) seething with anger, speaks a reasonable version of the King’s English, simply bears with one of Black America’s many burdens (yes, knuckles under to authority), no one is likely to be humiliated, beaten, arrested, shot. There may even be an apology.

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There are very few reports of middle class, respectable-type Blacks being shot during police stops. Black men (and women) shot while running away, with hands raised, while fumbling for wallets (not guns), seem, predominantly, to be from lower socioeconomic backgrounds—Hoods. If a Black person shot is a working person, even college educated, his/her background invariably traces back to a disadvantaged Hood. Such persons tend (understandably) to be extremely angry, perhaps defiant when stopped and reminded of second class citizenship. The cop—Black or White (the former possibly from a Hood, but now more polished, more articulate)—does not see him/herself mirrored in the Black person stopped/pulled over. [Perhaps some Black cops do. Perhaps they are resentful of, intolerant of a reminder of what they left behind.] The cop perceives someone who poses a threat! And the cop has fear. Great fear!
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Negative Black Image Factor

Familiar figure as a young man.

December, 2016, online mea culpa: A White man who had adopted a Black daughter posted, “I noticed a black man approaching a white woman sitting at a bus stop, and kept watching until I saw a little boy catch up to the man.” He realized, “despite having a black daughter, I had profiled the man as a possible threat.”

Hand-in-hand with attempting to justify slavery and subsequent decades of oppression and repression of Black America, there has always been an effort from the highest levels of Ameri(kkk)an power elites and officialdom, not only in southern states, to depict Blacks as sub-human, oversexed, lazy, and, especially, inclined to violence and criminality.* Such overt racist description in national media outlets is no longer tolerated. [Not, at least, until recently.] However, negative imagery/implication in the form of photographs/descriptions of Hood Blacks committing crime appear with regularity on the news in countless cities and towns near or having Black Hoods.

* Such blanket smearing is wholly discredited by the millions of respectable, law-abiding American Black citizens, who have been inventors, innovators, important contributors to the nation from the outset. See, e.g., critical contribution of Black female mathematicians to the NASA space program depicted in the movie, Hidden Figures. Also international tests comparing aptitude/achievement of children from countries around the world, in which children of such African tribes as the Kikuyu (Kenya), Luo (also Kenya, the tribe of President Obama’s father), and Nigeria’s Ibo (or Igbo) regularly finish on top, far above American/European kids. BEHAVIOR AND ACHIEVEMENT IS A PRODUCT OF CULTURE AND UPBRINGING, NOT RACE!
The most sensational negative imagery of Blacks (and other groups, persons, things sought to be denigrated) are instantly disseminated nationwide and worldwide via the internet. Uncensored, the internet hosts and promotes anti-Black racist propaganda to equal and exceed anything of the slave era. If one wants to find, see, hear anything negative about any group, affiliation, thought, or thing, it is instantly available and plentiful on the internet!

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Despite eight years of having under a microscope the model of a Black man and Black family of impeccable manners, mien, grooming, values, and even (non-violent) temperament, Black America is unable to shake a negative image in the (non-Black) American mind. A quick internet search reveals Barack and Michelle Obama demeaned, distorted, vilified in the most unfair and disgusting manner.

Photos exist of young Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, similar to the one (foregoing) of young Obama. How they would be interpreted is likely very different, given the negative way Blacks in America are viewed.

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If sufficient Americans deem appropriate to elect as president a man who, as “birther-in-chief,” shamelessly, baselessly impugned for years the background and integrity of a man thoroughly vetted and elected as their president by a majority of voting Americans (an act of treason in many nations of the world!), a man who has made unleashing racist, ethnic hate and xenophobia acceptable, indeed, who has made acceptable unremitting attacks on any who would oppose his assault on decency and fairness, then, obviously, ordinary Black Americans have a serious image problem that is likely to worsen, not improve, going forward.

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In his person, Barack Obama is the model of decency, non-violent, non-criminal inclination. Nevertheless, were a White person to encounter this tall Black man in an elevator or walking along a deserted street or beach, there would be immediate wariness. (Much more so than with a similar White or Asian.) Purses would be clutched more tightly. This might also be true of some Black persons encountering him. This would be especially so, if he were associated with his picture as a young dude in porkpie hat, smoking reefer.

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There are millions of advance-in-America-according-to-the-rules, God-fearing-go-to-work-everyday-and-do- what-you’re-supposed-to-do (same as most Whites and Asians) respectable Black Americans and Black families. However, notwithstanding how anyone—Blacks, well-intentioned Whites, etc.—may dearly wish to portray such an all-American image of Black Americans to or in the American mind, or wish it to be, that image, unfortunately, is not the one that immediately comes to mind to most in America—of whatever race!—in response to the question, “What is your impression of Black people?”

Rather, the many millions of law-abiding, respectable Blacks are associated, by virtue of race and skin color, with a not inconsiderable segment of (mostly Original) Black Americans perceived as poor, lazy, wastrel, freeloading, criminally inclined, and, especially, angry and prone to violence—dangerous!

Racism is at play. Racism has always fulfilled the extremely useful function of dividing and antagonizing for purposes of economic advantage and especially political gain. (The latter being closely tied to gaining economic advantage.) Thanks to the Trump campaign and election, RACISM IS LEGITIMIZED AS A NEGATIVE FILTER THROUGH WHICH BLACK AMERICANS MAY BE VIEWED.

Perhaps the silver lining is simply bringing to the surface the unfortunate truth of what still is.
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Same ‘Ol, Same ‘Ol Racism Perpetrating Negative Image Factor

Many Whites (many more than Blacks!) are poor, uneducated, on welfare, given to drug use and alcoholism, criminally inclined (some wearing suits and ties on Wall Street!), and dangerous and prone to violence. Yet, Whites in general in America are rarely viewed negatively. (Except in OBA homes, where most elders can recite instances of White unfairness, discrimination, often violence.)

Asian Americans, including East Indian Americans, are generally viewed positively and favorably. They are termed “model minority.” Save for the odd smuggling ring (bringing in undocumented Chinese and other Asians) and vestiges of Yakuza (Japanese mafia), there are, seemingly, not even thousands or hundreds of poor, uneducated, criminally inclined, violent, dangerous Asians to tar the image of racial/ethnic fellow citizens.

Nevertheless, since 9/11, if an Asian or other minority happens also to be Muslim (!!), acts of a mere few, most thousands of miles distant and wholly unrelated by nationality and citizenship, seem sufficient to cause the millions of Muslims in America, especially those who are non-White, despite generally model behavior, to be viewed suspiciously, to be profiled, to be stopped by police.
So, definitely, same ‘ol, same ‘ol anti-Black racism (by Whites, Asians, Hispanics, etc.) is actively at work promoting an image contributing to all Blacks being caught up in a noose of negative supposition and presumption.

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At the same time, it must, nevertheless, be conceded that substantial basis exists for harboring a negative image of Blacks.* It derives from the sizable (nearly one half!) segment of Blacks left behind in impoverished Hoods. The negative image emanating from this group is prevalent, dynamic, and growing!

* Mahatma Gandhi said, “The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.” Similarly, Blacks, BLM, their liberal confederates seem unable to concede that part (possibly a large part) of the problem lies with Blacks themselves. Naturally, The Wolf is BIG enough, bold enough (arrogant enough, truthful enough) to call matters where and as he finds
them. (A spade is an effing spade!) Otherwise, we cannot begin to arrive at any meaningful plans, not to mention solutions.
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Actual Basis for Negative Black Image Factor

Although only 13% of the total American population, Blacks constituted 52% of 15,696 homicides in 2015. (Roughly 8,100.) 90% of Black victims were killed by other Blacks. —FBI crime statistics

1/4/2017, Charlotte, NC. 14-year-old Anthony Frazier, son of Kannapolis (NC) Police Officer Daniel Frazier, found shot in the head in a vehicle, who died of his injuries.

Frazier was alone in the car, approx. 10 pm. According to witnesses, who described the incident as an attempted robbery, young Frazier drove the vehicle several blocks to where he was found. Police describe the suspects as “two black males in their early 20’s to early 30’s. One… wearing a gray hoodie… thin build. The second… wearing a dark-colored hoodie… also… thin build. One of them may have worn his hair in short twists.”

White America continues to own and control most media outlets and avenues of expression and perception. There is, possibly, an unrecognized, altogether natural tendency on the part of even well-intentioned Whites to preserve privilege by shading perception of non-Whites, including Blacks, ever so slightly in accordance with somewhat negative presumptions. (Latent racism.) There is surely an undisguised desire on the part of numerous powerful Whites, for racist and political reasons, to purposely portray non-Whites, especially Blacks, in a negative light. Maybe it is simply that beyond athletics and entertainment, positive Black accomplishment, the same as accomplishment of other groups (including Whites), is not of interest to news and media outlets, and commentary. It doesn’t attract eyeballs. It’s boring!

What is not boring, what captures “if-it-bleeds-it-leads” media interest (now instantly disseminated via internet and social media), is the violent and sensational. In this regard, a sizable, dynamic segment of Black America contributes substantially to negative Black American image. Indeed, an image and narrative of Black criminality and dangerousness is not without basis.

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Nearly half of Black America remains poor, under-educated, languishing in decaying, mostly urban, ghetto-like Hoods. This disadvantaged segment gives birth to more children per capita than the respectable Have segment. A staggering 72 percent of Black births (most in Hoods) are out-of-wedlock, many to single mothers who themselves are children. These children are raised mostly in single-parent, female-headed households.

Understandably, residents of neglected, crime-ridden, Black Hoods are often angry and desperate, leading to commission of violent, anti-social acts. Fact!—Although only 13 percent of the total American population (of some 330 million),* Blacks (mostly men) commit nearly 1/2 of reported crimes. Fact!—Although only 25-30 percent of the 800+ or so citizens shot and killed by police officers each year, Blacks (mostly men) commit 42 percent of killings of police officers. Fact!—An astounding, depressing, 1/3 of all Black American men will at some point do time in prison (marinating, hardening, becoming more angry and callous).**

*For comparison purposes, Americans of Hispanic descent make up approximately 17 percent of the total American population. (They outnumber Blacks and are the largest “minority.”) Asians are approximately 5-6 percent of Americans. Both groups are growing faster than Blacks. Asians have the highest household income of any American group, including Whites. Blacks and Hispanics are lowest.

**As the great majority of Blacks committing crimes hail from poor, mostly urban Hoods, it is fair to posit that over half of Black men in urban hoods are sufficiently criminally involved as to spend time in prison!

Neglected, often abused at home, Black Hood kids act out in school, sometimes violently. (And are increasingly criminalized, as police are called in to arrest them, thereby pointing them toward future, more serious anti-social behavior, and enraging and disheartening relatives and community.) Black Hoods teens, male and female, are typically (angrily) anti-police, anti-everything. (including, sadly, themselves.) Often, so are their parents. They assault one another, as well as “foreigners.” They assault older folk living among them, including parents. Many gravitate, singly, more menacingly as members of gangs, to vandalism, stealing, mugging, robbing, shooting, and other angry, anti-social acts, including killing. (“Have to get paid,” is an expression justifying mugging and robbery.) Turn on local urban news channels, and often a badass, pants-down-the-butt, dreadlocked, tatted young Black man is being led away by police, with a “Fuck y’all!” defiant scowl on his face.

Angry (with reason!), hating everyone and everything, including himself, he is, in fact, dangerous!

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In sum, far more than the positive image conveyed by Barack Obama and millions of conventional, law-abiding, highly accomplished Black Americans, owing to the badge of skin color, all Black Americans suffer the consequence of identification with a negative image offered up with regularity by those left behind in Hoods. As evidenced by the mea culpa of the White father of a Black daughter posted in the foregoing, by purses clutched more tightly by White ladies even when Blacks entering an elevator are dressed in suits, and by wariness on the part of even Blacks when groups of Black male teens approach, an until-proven-otherwise image of “possibly dangerous, possibly up to no good” attaches to even respectable Black Americans.

This negative image contributes to profiling and police stops. Moreover, owing to prominence and spread of an additional, insidious, poisonous expression from Black urban Hoods, the image problem worsens.
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Fear of Blacks Factor

Chase Coleman, an autistic ninth-grade student at Corcoran High School, quit the Syracuse West cross country team after being shoved to the ground by a [White] stranger during a race in Rochester. Rochester authorities have declined to charge the man. Coleman is shown during a Sept. 10 meet in Chittenango. (Submitted photo of [Chase’s mother] Clarise Colemen)

“It’s just devastating, this poor kid,” [Syracuse city councilor Susan] Boyle told The [Washington] Post. “There’s so many issues around this that are so troubling. That this happened, to begin with. Even if there were no race issues… this grown man jumped out of his car and shoved the kid. If you met Chase you’d probably figure out pretty quickly that he was a special-needs kid… There’s no justice. It’s just disturbing.” If race was involved, “it just kind of takes the whole thing to another level and I can’t understand why the court system doesn’t see that.” She noted that the police report marked the incident as an ‘Argument.’“

Clearly, if Chase is nonverbal it was not an argument,” Boyle said.

Boyle wrote a letter to Monroe County District Attorney’s Office demanding that they receive an explanation as to why the Rochester court system felt this crime should go unpunished.“

For an Autistic, nonverbal student to have joined a team, to be competing in organized athletic programs and acting as a part of a team and community is the kind of success we strive for,” the letter read in part. “For all of this progress to be lost due to a racist, aggressive, unprovoked attack on a disabled African-American minor with absolutely no consequences is, for lack of a stronger word, unacceptable.”

“Why are those people lined up?” The row of 12 or 15 seated men and women of different ages piqued The Wolf’s interest. The Wolf was in the sheriff’s office at the downtown courthouse of his small city to deal with a citation. (On behalf of his sister—for having an upholstered couch on the front porch of her house.) The row of people were unlike those The Wolf had been lined up with to get through security—mostly minority, some Whites in suits (likely attorneys). This row featured mostly White, suburban, non-city types. They were quietly waiting to take their place in front of a machine that would take their photo.

“They are taking photos for pistol carry permits,” the woman at the desk said calmly, smiling. “Would you like an application?”

The Wolf (fo sho!) will follow the sometimes complex trail of truth wherever it leads. None of the tip-toeing, back-and-fill, political correctness sensitivity bullshit that clouds putting a finger on what IS, what AIN’T.

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And what IS, plain and simple—the main reason some Blacks get shot by police—, is FEAR OF THE BLACK MAN AS POSSIBLY DANGEROUS! Whites, as well as White cops, fear the Black Thug. Blacks, as well as Black cops, fear the Black Thug. Thugs in Hoods fear fellow thugs!*

* E.g., google November/December 2016 media event on Chicago’s South Side, featuring newly-returned-to-city-and-old- neighborhood NBA star, Dwayne Wade, whose cousin was shot and killed while walking her child in a stroller. (762 shooting fatalities in Chicago in 2016, most of Black young men by other Black young men!) Two “gang-bangers” corralled for an interview at the event, one a teen described as a “shooter,” one in his twenties (both Black—duh!) proved afraid, unable to speak, lest their identities become known to (young Black) enemies.

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The photo and narrative atop this segment, posted online by Yahoo News in mid-December, 2016, references one Chase Coleman, a 15 year old, Black, autistic boy, who lost his way during a cross-country race. He apparently often lost his way. He was aimlessly walking in the middle of a street near the race route, wearing running shoes, maroon running shorts, a white card bearing his race number pinned to the back of his matching, maroon singlet. A “large,” 57-year-old White male stopped, exited his car, demanded the youth get off the street. Receiving no response [the boy hardly speaks], he violently shoved Chase, causing him to fall backward. [It may be noted that, although only 15, the boy is tall, and looks older than 15 in The Wolf’s view.] A (White) passerby and a (White) cyclist assisted Chase in reuniting with his distraught mother, who was looking for him, and related the events. The White motorist drove off, but his license number was taken. He claimed he was protecting his wife, who was a passenger. It transpired he had recently been involved in a theft or incident involving Black youths.

Reference has been made to a well-intentioned, liberal-type, White father of an adoptive Black daughter owning up to misgivings where a Black man is concerned. However, it gets worse.

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Depicted below is Issac Bailey, “journalist in South Carolina for two decades… most recently the primary columnist for The Sun News in Myrtle Beach… a 2014 Harvard University Nieman fellow.”


Following the 2016 shooting of Keith Scott, a Charlotte, NC, Black man waiting by his car outside a school for his son (by a Black police officer), Bailey described his personal apprehension respecting Black men as follows:

“I’ve been afraid of black men. I’ve braced myself in the presence of unknown black men, felt myself ready for a potential attack, even as all they threw my way was a head bob and a “What’s up, brother?”

“That’s why I attended the Million Man March in Washington, D.C., in 1995. I needed to immerse myself in a sea of black men gathered for a cause of uplift, so that I could alleviate dark thoughts I’d secretly harbored about men who wear dark skin—because I’ve been afraid of black men.

Because I’m a man who has feared black men, despite the gaggle of black brothers and cousins and black father and stepfather who lived in the same house I did and loved me—despite the dark skin I’ve worn since birth.

That’s why I know that the skin color of the police officer who killed Keith Lamont Scott in Charlotte in a still-disputed shooting is largely irrelevant, just as it is in most such incidents, no matter what media critics think.

It is because I’m aware of my own fear that I know that even “good” cops can kill unarmed black men, and millions of non-deplorable people can find ways to rationalize every such shooting. Because the kind of bias that is most pernicious is the subconscious kind. It can seduce us into believing that as long as we think the right thing or try to do the right thing or be the right kind of person, our actions would never be negatively influenced by racist stereotypes. [Original emphasis.]

I’m not a racist. I love people who wear dark skin like I do. I’m married to a black woman who chopped off her long dreadlocks for a short natural hair look, and I’m the father of a 14-year-old black son and a 12-year-old black daughter. I’ve studied the ugly history of race in this country to teach others. I’ve unflinchingly stood against bigotry and bias and racism in all their forms. And still, I’ve struggled with this self-knowledge. That’s why I know it isn’t something you can pray away or think away or effectively corral without deliberative, purposeful action that must become second nature.”

Whew! Is this deeply depressing, readers? Because skin color is an obvious marker, because, as will be explored, adopting thug-gangsta look and posturing is currently much in fashion…

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The Wolf recalls a television segment featuring Black professional athletes. (Charles Barkley may have been one.) They laughingly recalled an incident wherein an “elderly White lady” suddenly found herself confined with them, a trio of towering Black men, in the elevator of a fine hotel, and how she clutched her purse in fear.

[Note. Sometimes we (Black folk) capitalize on White fear of us. It is occasionally amusing to watch Whites flinch when one encounters them while walking in a group of Blacks, and someone feigns a threatening gesture. Lots of respectable Blacks do this. (The Wolf and homeys certainly did as teens.) Simultaneously, Blacks themselves are vigilant and wary at the approach of a group of Black teens, or a Black man who seems a bit “rough.”]

FEAR OF BLACK MEN, ESPECIALLY YOUNG BLACK MEN SEEMING AT ALL BOISTEROUS OR APPEARING “GHETTO,” IS PERVASIVE IN AMERICA!

Whites observed acquiring pistol carry permits do not have a threat from Whites in mind! Nor Blacks who own guns “for protection.”
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More Re Fear Factor

“A lot of [police] departments, the way they teach, they scare the officers half to death that everyone’s going to kill them. We had a rash of police deaths in the ‘80s, and we then saw all this instruction on ‘officer survival.’ The training staff, they might not even realize they’re doing it, but when you scare the officers half to death, the first thing they’re going to do is shoot. Everyone’s trying to make it a racial thing. This police officer here in Charlotte who shot [Walter] Scott wasn’t a white guy, but he grew up in this era of survival training. If you think the world’s out to kill you, the first thing you’re going to do is shoot first and ask questions later.”
—Norman Garnes, Sr., 73, 30-year Black police officer, retired from NYC and Charlotte, NC, police depts. (AARP The Magazine, Dec. 2016-Jan. 2017 issue, p. 45)

A focus on keeping a lid on crime and violence in Hoods largely explains disproportionate profiling/stopping of Black men. Police perform a job they are tasked to do. Methods (and results) may be questioned. (They should be questioned!) However, facts compel a greater degree of police interest and suspicion where Black men in Hoods are concerned. A fearful public within Hoods seeks and demands a heavy police hand!

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There are, of course, readily observable causes/reasons for the anger and violence of Black Hood denizens.*
(For the anger all Original Black Americans are entitled to feel!) However, the focus of this Yowl is the tragedy of seemingly innocent Black men (and some women) being shot by police, paradoxically during a time of unmatched Black advancement, and reasons for this that (necessarily) go beyond simple White racism.

*Poverty, neglect, growing up without fathers and supportive families, persistent racial oppression personified in an aggressive, unsympathetic, often abusive, sometimes deadly police presence, a wholly justified sense that outside forces are as much to blame as personal shortcomings,

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Before continuing, it must be noted that certain White males are also profiled, but are far less often stopped by police. Among close to 1,000 persons shot and killed by police in America each year, Whites tally over twice the number of Blacks.* White victims (mostly male), the same as many Blacks, are often homeless and mentally unstable. However, a tattooed, long-haired, “biker” type of White male is likely to be profiled as possibly involved with illicit drugs [meth labs, heroin] and criminal activity. Such are subject to stop and questioning. However, as such Whites are dispersed among a much larger geographic population, also dispersed in sprawling suburbs and off endless rural roads and byways, they are not, and cannot be subject to an aggressive, heavy police presence. As with Blacks seeming to be of or from Hoods, police are wary and fearful dealing with such White males.

*49% to 24% per 2015 FBI figures. As Whites constitute 62% of the total population, Blacks only 13%, Blacks are indeed far more likely to be shot and killed by police, in particular, Black males. (2.5 times more likely!)

Owing to the much greater number of Whites and far lower White crime rate, the likelihood of encountering a biker type is far lower. At the same time, merely being White and male, even a biker type, does not have the immediate, unfortunate association with crime and danger that attaches to being Black. (The latter the result, yes, of racial profiling, but also, in large measure, of a sizable proportion of Black population being—yes!—miscreant.)*

*Circa 1900, owing largely to association with opium dens and use, Asians (Chinese in particular) were regarded as criminally inclined. That perception has long since changed to “model minority ”

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A federal court in Grand Rapids, Michigan, ruled that police can shoot a dog while entering a home if the animal “moves or barks” in the officer’s presence.

The decision is the final step in a case brought to court by Mark and Cheryl Brown of Battle Creek, whose pit bull was killed while officers were executing a search warrant on their home in 2013.

The couple claimed that officers “unlawfully seized their property in violation of the Fourth Amendment when officers shot and killed two dogs while executing a search warrant.”

An officer testified that he shot the first dog when it appeared to move “a few inches” and lunged at him. The dog fled to the basement, where the officer shot and killed it. Court documents reveal that another officer killed the second dog after it, too, ran to the basement and barked at the officers.

Judge Eric Clay’s decision ruled that the Browns failed to provide evidence that the first dog did not lunge at police and that the second dog did not bark.*

“Given the totality of the circumstances and viewed from the perspective of an objectively reasonable officer, the dog poses an imminent threat to the officer’s safety,” the ruling reads. “The standard we set out today is that a police officer’s use of deadly force against a dog while executing a search warrant to search a home for illegal drug activity is reasonable under the Fourth Amendment when … the dog poses an imminent threat to the officer’s safety.”

*Readers may be interested to know that Hon. Eric Clay is Black. He was a classmate and acquaintance of The Wolf in law school. An OBA (his single mother [in NC] was a cleaning lady), Eric harbored anger to the extent that he was literally put on trial in the law school. [Angry following a discussion in class, approached by the (White) professor in the hall afterward, Eric shrugged him off and cursed him. The professor saw no cause to press the issue. However, another professor who observed the incident did.] Hon. Eric Clay sits on the 7th Circuit federal court of appeals, one rung below the Supreme Court.

The following lawsuit, filed in 2016 in New York City, is instructive respecting the Fear Factor motivating cops to shoot.

NYC cop, Ruben Cuesta, and the NYC police department were sued because Cuesta shot and killed “Spike,” a pit bull. As shown on a monitoring camera video, Spike sauntered onto a landing from an open apartment as Cuesta ascended stairs. Cuesta was heading to a different apartment in response to a report of a domestic dispute. Spike was not barking or growling. His tail was wagging. As Spike advances, Cuesta stops, retreats somewhat back down the stairs, then shoots the dog. As noted in the court filing, Cuesta could have tasered or pepper-sprayed the dog, rather than shoot him. OR, he could have simply walked past the friendly animal.

Spike was shot because pit bulls have a reputation for being badass and dangerous. Unless he dislikes dogs to the point of wanting to kill them (unlikely), Officer Cuesta simply panicked. (Should it be noted that Spike was all- black in color?) Similarly, Hood Blacks, especially men, have a reputation inspiring caution and fear in police. (Indeed, all races of the larger public.) This reputation, and the caution/fear it inspires, if not dissipated early on in an encounter with police (of whatever color), can get a Black person shot.

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[Is The Wolf likening Blacks who get shot to dogs? Get effing real! Here is where racism (and classism) introduces another tipping factor. No question, but in the minds of some cops (some of them Black, hailing from the very Hood streets they patrol, who know some of the actors from childhood!), the seeming Hood badasses they shoot are indeed akin to dogs. They are vermin, scum, trash the world would be better off without. Shooting such Black men (and sometimes women) does the world a favor in their view, saves the taxpayer the cost of incarceration! Much of the larger population, including not a few Blacks, would likely agree. Sadly, WORD!]
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Problematic Black Anger Factor

Many, if not most OBA’s above The Wolf’s age (gettin’ up there) dislike Whites, and with reason. Not one has not experienced multiple infuriating slights and acts of discrimination from Whites individually, and from White institutions. (Not least governing bodies from feds down to local school boards.) Many (or friends/relatives) have experienced ugly, even violent expressions of White racism.
The celebrated Black author, Toni Morrison, speaks of an incident as a small girl in Lorrain, Ohio. (The Wolf’s birthplace! Near Cleveland.) A drunken White man stumbled by accident up stairs to the apartment where her family was living, and her father violently threw the man down the stairs. Young Toni understood that her father did it to protect the family. What particularly upset her was that her father threw her tricycle after the man. She describes her father as “hating Whites.”* Her mother was the moderating influence respecting other races.

*As a small boy growing up in a rural Georgia town, Morrison’s father witnessed two Black businessmen literally snatched off the street, who were later found lynched. Malcolm X describes an attack by Whites with guns on his family’s (Lansing, Michigan) home, and his father having to meet force with force.

The Wolf notes that while Tennessee kin never experienced actual violence at the hands of Whites, there was the perception when visiting from the north as a boy, that relatives were wary of Whites. The Wolf’s mother and her siblings were cautioned whenever they left the family farm, to “dress up, and avoid trouble.” Meaning, of course, avoid anything that might arouse the negative attention and possible ire of Whites.

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To be Black in America, aware, and above the age of, say, six or seven, is to be cognizant of such a thing as “Blacks and Whites,” and to align with one’s group. (Ditto Whites in large measure.) To be Black, aware, and above the age of six in an impoverished Hood, is to not only be aware of Black/White, but to be aware that unfairness is afoot, and to be at least suspicious of Whites, if not to dislike them. By ten or twelve, having imbibed surrounding Hood mindset, one dislikes Whites (and cops). By early teens, having experienced or at least witnessed police abuses visited upon Black friends and schoolmates, likely having been followed in stores, being aware that Whites “have it better,” a Black person from the Hood typically harbors anger toward Whites.

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Black anger and resentment is surely a factor playing into how a police stop goes down. Too much anger and resentment, and, involuntarily, one may hesitate before complying. One is reluctant to knuckle under to perceived unfair, racist police authority. This hesitation, coupled with fear of Blacks on the part of the officer (of whatever race!), can result in an unpleasant, if not dire outcome.
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Problematic Hood Attitude Factor

“Where I come from, we empty the clip!”—Remark of NBA player during argument with opponent“

I don’t feel that black people are necessarily being targeted, but that the communication is off between African Americans and the NYPD—whether it be an African American officer, Caucasian officer, Hispanic officer. We put on our uniforms… and we go out with the intention of serving the community. But some people have a preconceived notion about police officers, so whenever they have an interaction with one, they automatically assume it’s gonna go one way. They get defensive, and instead of communication and allowing what’s going to transpire to happen, they just put up this wall and are like, “Well, I’m not gonna do this, and I don’t care what you say.” And then the officer has to take a stance…
—Remarks of Michelle Thomas, veteran Black NYPD detective, re “Disconnect between police and African Americans.” (Dec. 2016/Jan. 2017 issue, AARP, The Magazine, p.48.)

“Being African American, I sit there sometimes [watching controversial videos of police shootings of citizens] and I do think there might have been an injustice done. You know, I’m not blind to it. But then there are times… I don’t see the injustice. Had you just complied, the situation would never have gone as far as it went.”
—Remarks of William Thomas, veteran Black NYPD detective (husband of Michelle), loc. cit.

It has been noted that, although angered and annoyed by police stops, respectable-type (non-Hood) Blacks are unlikely to be shot, owing to compliance of the sort described. This “knuckling under” to authority (should one choose to view it this way) is made possible by a thought process on the order of, “This is unfair and a mistake. It is part of the crap a Black person endures in racist America. However, if I keep my cool, I’ll get through it, resume my [reasonably agreeable] life.” Unspoken is, “Fuck this cop and this bullshit!” [Not so different from tolerating airport TSA security inconvenience, even humiliation, except all races must endure the latter. Which helps.] Such attitude makes escalation to greater conflict unlikely.

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Not so in a confrontation between cop and Hood denizens. Beyond a Fear Factor that perhaps explains why some Black men get shot by both Black and White police officers, is likely often a problematic Attitude Factor, deriving from current (mostly urban) Hood culture. Put simply, an ethos of resistance, of not “punking out” in the face of authority, in particular, police (“pigs”), of “representing,” prompts hesitation to comply, and sometimes eruption of anger with fatal consequence. In other words, don’t disguise hate and anger. “Fuck you and all you stand for,” is an appropriate stance.* Not surprisingly, this can get someone shot.

*Of course, not all Hood denizens react to a police stop in this Doubtless, most don’t, and there are gradations. However, when the “stopped-by-the-pig” story is recounted (numerous times), it is likely to be shaded toward, “I represented, I resisted, I showed the mothahfuckah I wasn’t no punk!” Which points each listener toward resistance and defiance as the proper stance, when and if he or she gets stopped by police.
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Especially Problematic Gangsta Rap Factor

“I’m so gangsta, I’m so thug…”—Lyric from song, Hey Soul Sistah

“Here’s a little somethin’ bout a nigga like me
Never shoulda been let out the penitentiary…
Now I’m the mutha fucka that ya read about
Takin’ a life or two that’s what the hell I do
You don’t like how I’m livin well fuck you!”
—Lyrics from Gangsta Gangsta by N.W.A. (Niggaz With Attitude)

A sampling respecting women from various “rapper poets,” most Black, a couple White, many of them mega-millionaires, celebrated, feted, gushed over in music and game videos, on television, in movies.

“So we could never be a couple hun / Fuck love / All I got for hoes is hard dick and bubblegum.”—Big L
“Bitches ain’t shit but hoes and tricks / Lick on these nuts and suck the dick.”—Snoop Dogg“
Once again I gotta punch a bitch in her shit / I’m icy bitch, don’t look at my wrist / Because if you do, I might blind you bitch.”—Jasper Dolphin of Odd Future
“I know she like chocolate men / She got more niggas off than Cochran.”—Kanye West
“You ain’t no better because you don’t be fucking rappers / You only fuck with actors / You’re still getting fucked backwards”—Jay Z“
My little sister’s birthday / She’ll remember me / For a gift I had ten of my boys take her virginity.”—Bizarre
“You know me I smoke a blunt while I’m getting brain / Stick my finger in her butt while I’m getting brain/ Yeah I’m nasty bitch / What? / Lil Wayne.”—Lil Wayne“
I gotta say it; I’m the president, I run things / All these hoes tryna save a nigga cum stains.”—Lil Wayne
“Slut, you think I won’t choke no whore / Til the vocal cords don’t work in her throat no more?!”—Eminem
“Is Big L slow? / Hell no! / Bitches get fucked on the roof when I ain’t got no hotel dough.”—Big L
“My dick hard as a motherfucker / You don’t what? / Tell that shit to another sucker.”—Cam’ron
“Baby girl pull your pants up, I only want your face.”—Fredo Santana
“You ain’t gonna let me fuck you and I feel you / But you gone suck my dick, or I’ll kill you.”—Chief Keef
“It’s damn near four in the morning, ain’t shit to discuss / Til you ask which dick do you suck.”—Jadakiss
“Love a feminist bitch, oh, it get my dick hard / So no apologies for all the misogyny.”—Danny Brown


Multi-millionaire rapper and Oscar winner, Juicy J (of Three 6 Mafia, a/k/a Backyard Posse) and associate.

“Same stuff as when I was back in the hood. You know. Teach folk how to steal cars and stuff.”
—Casual remark of Juicy J on the television show, Celebrity Wife Swap, when asked what his current rap lyrics were about. [Composed, it may be noted, in Juicy J’s in-home studio in an upscale Las Vegas neighborhood.]

The irritant of sand in an oyster can prompt metamorphosis into something of beauty—a pearl! More often, irritants beget negative outcomes. Keep a heavy lid of neglect, violence, economic and police oppression on a combustible stew of poverty, anger, decay, hopelessness, and, especially, lack of responsible adult (especially male) guidance, and an ugly, unwanted, destructive dynamic is likely to result.

In the Middle East, western military presence and actions, gross under-education (E.g., memorization of Koranic verses in Madrassas… Period!), widespread unemployment among young men (preventing marriage), all under a strictly-enforced, religion-imposed lid of forbidden contact with the opposite sex (while young men are bombarded via the internet with all manner of sexual interaction and imagery), has given rise to a barbaric distortion of Islamic faith, featuring chopped-off heads and limbs, and international terrorist activity.

In American urban Hoods, absent responsible adult (male) guidance,* under a similarly oppressive lid of inferior education, lack of economic opportunity, and police repression, a similarly angry, defiant, hateful, poisonous expression has emerged. Originally more artistic “urban poetry” (begun in the 1970s), as the promise of integration and Black advancement gave way to a reality of drugs, gang violence, and hopelessness, by the 1990’s Rap-Hip-Hop spawned a baleful cousin, a warped offshoot, samplings of which open this segment—so-called
“Gangsta Rap.”

In the Wolf Yowl, Of Whupping, Fathers, The Lesson of the Bulls (a rant on the [NFL Vikings star running back] Adrian Peterson son-whipping incident), reference is made to a telling discovery in an African wildlife park. When adult elephant bulls were transferred to another park, young male elephants in rampaging groups at night attacked rhinos, injuring When the adult bulls were returned, the rampages stopped!

Gangsta Rap (GR) glorifies drugs, violence against any and all, anti-social values, and an anti-hero, anti- civil-society, brutally misogynistic, posturing thug-gangsta role model, who takes no shit from anyone, especially police, who won’t be “dissed” (disrespected) without an immediate, violent response.

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As evidenced by the lyrics at the outset, Gangsta Rap utterly lacks poetic or other redemption. It is little more than tee-heeing of pre-pubescents over poop and pee, upgraded to crude, immature, insecure, unimpeded adolescent and twenty-something rant about sex and acting macho.

To attempt to describe Gangsta Rap as “poetry,” to excuse or tolerate for a moment its assault on all that is moral and civilized, is to abdicate adult, societal responsibility to preserve the safety and well-being of itself and its citizens. To look the other way while, thanks to social media, Gangsta Rap bursts forth in all its raw, infantile ugliness from original urban Hood confines is nothing short of criminal, even suicidal.

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Youth everywhere, of course, delights in rebelling against adults, adult values, convention, the boring straightjacket of workaday life they (correctly) perceive heading their way. Youth delight in being able to hoist an in-yo-face Middle Finger to all that has gone before and seems to repress expression. MOST EVERY YOUNG (and not so young) MAN (and many women) WANTS TO AT LEAST THINK OF HIMSELF AS REBEL, OF CONSEQUENCE—AS BADASS!

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Gangsta Rap affect and posturing—scowling, threatening facial expressions, pants-down-the-ass, straight- brimmed ball cap worn askew, bling, gang-sign hand gestures, dreadlocks, cornrows (and other different, wild-and-crazy hairstyles designed to attract attention), all tucked up under a dark hoodie—while blasting rap lyrics from bedroom, car, or boom-box (lyrics mercifully indecipherable)…

It is damn near irresistible to youth, not only in Hoods, but in middle and upper-middle class neighborhoods, White youth as well as Black (and Asian, Hispanic, etc.).

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And youth in Toronto, Tokyo, Beijing, Mumbai, London, Paris, Berlin, Cape Town, and Buenos Aires!

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Gangsta Rap’s unapologetic celebration/promotion of violence, killing, misogyny, resisting police and all convention and is, fo sho, Straight Outta Compton.* It is, arguably, not only today’s preeminent national cultural expression, but America’s chief international cultural export!

*Referring to both the Los Angeles Hood (see movie, Boyz In The Hood) and recent movie chronicling rise to riches and prominence of rap group N.W.A. (Niggaz With Attitude).

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Not Branjolina, not Billary or Donald/Melania are the World’s Leading Couple of Cultural Influence. No! Easily, far and away, genuine OG (original gangsta), ex-thug-turned-music-fashion-athletics-mogul Jay-Z, and his confident, prancing (middle-class-background) wife, Beyonce’, occupy that perch.
Gangsta Rap’s posturing and message has been turbo-charged into not just American, but international culture by television, music video and video games (e.g., Grand Theft Auto, World of Warcraft, etc.), and, especially, the internet and social media. There are countless YOUTUBE videos and Facebook posts of rappers and the raw, angry, ugly lyrics of Gangsta Rap. Black and White professional athletes celebrate in thuggish ways on the court and in end zones. (Some ARE thugs!) Ditto your son, daughter, niece, nephew in the next room. All scowl angrily, twerk and flash gang signs, posture as Thug Gangsta wannabes, aspire to seem BADASS WIT SWAGGA!

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HOOD THUG-GANGSTA HAS GONE MAINSTREAM. (Straight outta Compton, indeed!) And that is a very big problem!
Gangsta Rap glorification/celebration of violence and resistance to any and all authority, to the slightest “dis[respect],” is getting not merely rappers themselves killed, amid fame and riches—R.I.P. Tupac Shakur, Biggy Smalls, etc.!—, but many thousands (mostly Black) in urban Hoods. And some Blacks stopped by cops.
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Inability/Unwillingness to “Code-switch” Factor

Some Blacks stopped by police (owing to profiling or pretext), innocent of any wrongdoing, but presenting as “ghetto,” or thug-gangsta-ish, may endanger themselves by refusing to back down, refusing to de-escalate, choosing (in accord with macho, nihilist, Gangsta-Rap dictates) to resist. Others may be endangered simply owing to the inability to easily “code-switch.”

“Code-switching” is a term of art among (Original) Black Americans for changing from “Black-speak” or “ghettoese” (a/k/a ebonics), also “ghetto acting, posturing” (e.g, thug-gangsta, a la dictates of Gangsta Rap culture), or just relaxed “ethnic” behavior around fellow Blacks (friends, relatives), to a semblance of “acting white”— proper diction, acting more “nice and proper.” As when placating a teacher at school, or a police officer who has pulled one over! OBAs habitually, easily code-switch in dealing with Whites, including White friends/neighbors.
A Black man or woman who presents as angry, defiant, possibly dangerous, who is unable or unwilling to code-switch—quickly!—to allay fear on the part of a police officer and de-escalate the situation, is in danger of being shot!

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It has been noted that middle class, respectable-type Blacks normally do not get shot. Not even close. They are almost never pulled from cars, spread-eagled, humiliated, arrested. Profiled and stopped, respectable Blacks need only confirm they are not a threat… Via quiet acquiescence, uncomplaining compliance. [Yes, they stifle anger. They submit to inconvenience and the reminder they are not first-class citizens.] “Sorry! My mistake.” “Have a nice day” from the police officer likely sees them on their way. It is akin to TSA airport security personnel, following the hassle and humiliation of shoes removed, being patted down, etc., saying with a smile, “You’re good to go!” Annoying, angering, possibly unfair, but no one gets physically injured.*

* “I effing knew I was good to go all along, idiot!” is The Wolf’s typical thought upon hearing “You’re good to go!” from a TSA agent. The Wolf’s tepid rebellion is to withhold a return smile. Having once brought charges on behalf of the FAA as a federal prosecutor, The Wolf well knows the hell that will erupt if bored airport security personnel detect the slightest indication of “a problem.” Best to bite one’s tongue, ignore the nonsense, move on. Same with police.

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The Wolf posits that rise, prominence, omnipresence of Gangsta Rap thug-posturing/appearing/acting blurs lines of the need to code-switch. Indeed, ability to code-switch. Thug-gangsta posturing/appearance is now so commonplace, that many from Hoods may not grasp that it isn’t normal, acceptable behavior. They have imbibed no ready-to-hand model of non-threatening speech, behavior, or attitude to code-switch to!

Or, if they have, they may not appreciate the dire need to “drop the act” during a police stop. Gangsta Rap’s anti-authority, middle-finger-to-the-world, act-the-badass, resist-oppression-and-hatred-from the-outer-White-(and Blacks-acting-White)-world imperative not only dictates mode of behavior, dress and attitude, but a dilemma with potential dire consequence.

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If Gangsta Rap’s model of dress, behavior, and, especially, defiant attitude is internalized, can one suddenly, abruptly “drop the act?” Not without violating the ultra-macho code integral to identity and self-image of many Black Hood youth, especially males. Can one do so without revealing oneself to be punk?

The answer is likely a resolute “NO” for some Blacks stopped and pulled over by “The Pig.” One must “represent!” One must “man up!” If so, there likely will be a tragic consequence.
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Complicity of Corporations Factor

(Notes from Thanksgiving 2016 New York Post article)
Black Friday: On ABC/ESPN, Houston played at Memphis, the latter’s school colors blue, gray and white. But Memphis wore Nike Bad Boy Black. [Emphasis added.]

On ESPN, North Carolina State-North Carolina. UNC in traditional Carolina Blue vs. a state rival? Nah. Nike Bad Boy Black. [Emphasis added.]

The line also includes smart-looking denim work shirts and basic T-shirts and knitwear all made in the U.S.A. “with swagger,” according to the brand’s website. [Emphasis added.]
—1/18/2017 Yahoo post re Jon Bon Jovi Hart n Dagger denim clothing line.

No one wants to be boring, worker-bee Everyman. All want to be akin to—you’ve seen the commercial—“The most interesting man in the world,” depicted not as a bookish man of letters, but, essentially, a Mr. Badass.

Corporations, in their bean-counting way, have not failed to take notice of the opportunity to arrest eyeballs and open wallets of the coveted global (mostly male) youth market. Business, especially Big Business (Global Business!) is… business! [Bean counters care nothing re protestations of “ruining the culture,” “destroying morality,” “endangering society.”] If enough money is involved, morality/appropriateness issues seemingly are set aside.* Yo, young people and badass and hip wannabes—from NYC to LA, in London, Paris, Mumbai, Nairobi, and Tokyo!—BUY THIS PRODUCT AND BE (at least seem) COOL, HIP, (thug-gangsta) BADASS!

*E.g., if goods can be manufactured more cheaply by child and slave labor abroad, then jobs and the fortunes and hopes of families are shipped abroad. If robots are more efficient than people, robots are chosen. Similarly, if badass posturing sells sneakers, athletic gear, cars, then, by all means, hire rap artists, use Rap-Hip-Hop, even Gangsta Rap musical background. No matter that one thereby also promotes misogyny, crudity, glorification of rape and violence.

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Not long ago, heavily-tattooed (before others were), cornrowed (before dreadlocks), blinged-out, smallish (5’10”?, 160 lbs. [making his exploits all the more impressive]), posse-of-homeys-usually-in-tow, ex-convict, out-of-the-(Hampton, VA)-projects, rebellious, practice-eschewing (“Cause it’s Practice!”), plain-spoken, handsome, badass, superior-athlete/future-NBA-Hall-of-Famer, Allen Iverson (a/k/a “AI,” a/k/a “The Answer”), was too controversial to merit television commercials. He had his own basketball shoe (for sales to Hood teens), but was thought to project too thuggish, too “ghetto” an image for the larger, mostly-White audience.

More recently, “Bad Boy” Iverson’s brand of “genuineness” and “street cred” (read badass-ness) is eagerly sought to sell product. Sensing marketing opportunity, wholly uncaring of the message conveyed and possible consequence, major corporations—Nike, Reebok, GM, Jaguar, Old Spice, Gatorade, etc.—, explicitly and/or subliminally, are advancing the message, “BUY [automobiles, athletic wear, deodorant, etc.]. BE BADASS!”*

*The Wolf is amused to suggest Buick missed its opportunity to jettison, finally, the image of “your grandpa’s car,” when it dropped Tiger Woods during his imbroglio as revealed adulterer, gambler, procurer of hookers, sex addict. [The Wolf’s Jamaican paternal grandfather always drove Buicks!] Had Buick marketers been a little farsighted, the new tag (featuring a smiling, smirking Woods [in hoodie w/ straight-brim ball cap askew]) would have been, “Be a [badass] Tiger! Drive a Buick!”

Indeed, to fanfare and considerable free media publicity, Iverson and rapper Ice-T recently announced formation of a 3-on-3, traveling, summer basketball league, to feature former NBA players.

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Doubtless to attract women, to seem BADASS, perhaps just because it is au currant, professional athletes of all colors now cultivate to some extent an Allen Iverson image. Cornrowed, dreadlocked, blinged out, they drive fancy cars and play (Rap) music loud. They strut, pose, do not avoid the occasional scuffle. (Sometimes with girlfriends/wives.) At music/dance clubs, Black (and White and Asian and Hispanic) men, who by day work in corporations wearing suits and Docker gear, model themselves after these swaggering (mostly Black) athlete heroes. They cultivate the image, “I’m a badass wit swagga, yo!”

Small wonder if, in a police stop, lines get blurred respecting who is, is not a real-deal, OG potential threat.

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It may be noted that talented, boyishly handsome, devoted father, middle-class-but-hardly-threatening Stephen Curry has wide appeal for his otherworldly skill. However, tattooed, mildly threatening, genuinely-from- the-Akron-hood Lebron (needing no last name) has much more.* (Would be even better had he served jail time!)

*Lebron (James) is called a “b-a-a-d dude.” (Meaning good, great, kicks ass.) Likewise Mike Tyson, Donald Trump, even Warren Buffet. Justin Bieber tats up, postures, hangs with Floyd Mayweather, gets in fights, aspires to be a bad dude. Everyone in the world, female as well as male, seems to want to be B-A-A-D! At least sometimes.

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Conor McGregor, current MMA (mixed martial arts) marketing sensation, is popular not just because he is White, but more because he is White AND a major trash-talking, tatted-up Badass—a White, ersatz thug-gangsta, a badass White Niggah! (Re-ignite IRA violence, Conor, and you will be truly UUGE!)

Yo! America just elected as POTUS (president of the United States) an aging caricature of White thug- gangsta! Sort of a White version of genuine former OG, Jay Z (complete with babe more likely than Beyonce to fulfill subservient requirements of the most misogynistic rap lyric [!!].) Oh, yeah!*

*All along during the campaign The Wolf said to friends and acquaintances, “What those stiffs on (the debate) stage need to do is walk over and hit Trump in the gut as hard as possible. Drop his punk ass on the floor and say, ‘Now what, Punk Mothahfuckah?!… Whachu gonna do?… Sue me?” They (respectable Blacks as well as Whites) rolled their eyes.

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Corporate America has aligned itself in promoting Gangsta Rap Badass imagery, neither grasping nor caring that presenting with such an image can get a Black man shot!
(back to TOC)

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Guns in America Factor

(January, 2017. Yale study finds gun violence to be “contagious” social epidemic.)

Gun violence is often described as an epidemic or a public health concern… It most often occurs within socially and economically disadvantaged minority urban communities, where rates of gun violence far exceed the national average. A new Yale study has established a model to predict how “contagious” the epidemic really is
.…researchers studied the probability of an individual becoming the victim of gun violence… [They] analyzed a social network of individuals arrested during an 8-year period in Chicago, Illinois—a city that has rates of gun violence more than three times the national average… found that more than 60% of all gun violence during this time period happened in “cascades”—or connected chains—through these particular social networks.
The study also determined that an individual within these social networks was at the greatest risk of being shot within a period of about 125 days after their “infector,” the person most responsible for exposing the subject to gun violence, was the subject of gun violence. These results provide evidence that gun violence is not just an epidemic, but it has specific network patterns that might provide plausible opportunities for interventions…
“If we want to drop gun violence rates in this country, we have to care about the young men with criminal records who become victims of gun violence,”… “By and large these are young men of color who have criminal records. Their lives are worth saving.”
—1/4/17 article by Bess Connolly Martell, based on JAMA Internal Medicine online study published 1/3/17

American gun culture as a factor in Black men being shot deserves mention. America is a leading world manufacturer of guns. Guns in America are plentiful, easy to acquire. As Republican-controlled state legislatures ease restrictions not only on ability to own guns (of all sorts, including deadly automatic-fire weaponry, even cannons!), but ability to frequent the public square with concealed and unconcealed guns, “Does [he/she] have a gun?” is a question that arises in interactions not just between police and citizen, but citizen and citizen. If police remotely think someone stopped has a gun, the potential for a shooting heightens greatly.

If the citizen is Black, further increase in the potential possibility of a shooting. If Black, male, and presents at all as possible thug-gangsta, turbo-charge the shooting possibility!

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A crime statistics basis for fear of Blacks has been noted. Growing up, Whites may have been intimidated by Blacks.* They may have been beat out on sports teams by Blacks.

*Regrettably, age 14 or so in LA, the future Wolf and homeys a couple times “fired up” White boys (punched them in the face) for no reason other than payback. Racism pissed us off. (And the future Wolf was middle class, with a nice house in a nice neighborhood.) The future Wolf intimidated a few White boys at his Ivy League college. And enjoyed doing so! (“Fuck Whitey” was a theme.)

Not only this, but every day on television Whites (and Blacks and others) are treated to a parade of bigger, stronger, faster human beings than have ever been seen in the history of mankind—namely college and professional football and basketball athletes. And the biggest, fastest, strongest, most intimidating of these human specimens are
Black!* If only at a subliminal level, one grasps that should one ever be confronted by one of these swift, strong behemoths, one’s only recourse would be that “great equalizer”—the Gun.

*Moreover, these athletes, often hailing from violent Hoods (where they were sometimes protected by [older] gang members and drug dealers who saw their future income potential), tend to affect thug-gangsta dress and posturing that adds to an intimidating presence. On college campuses and as professionals, OBAs among these athletes** often get into legal skirmishes involving theft, rape, assault, even (Owing to lack of discipline, envy of White students having pocket money they lack, “getting paid” behavior modeled from Hood backgrounds, immaturity, inability to handle rejection, etc.) Such behavior is now instantly publicized nationwide, reinforcing an impression that these skilled, admired, envied Black athletes can also be dangerous.

** It must be noted that the increasing number of African-surnamed Black athletes are almost never among those involved in bad behavior. Men of African/Caribbean descent shot or beaten by police—e.g., Haitian engineer-working-as-security-guard, Abner Louima in NYC—have invariably been found innocent of wrongdoing!

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[Note. This Yowl is not about a Second Amendment constitutional right to bear arms, whether or not citizens should have guns (of all sorts), or whether carrying guns in public (a la “wild, wild west”) is appropriate. Such issues do, however, have relevance as context, and are easily addressed and disposed of.*

*Whether an individual citizen can own and carry a gun for hunting and protection was not debated or considered by Constitutional framers! Why would it have been? Virtually all at the time owned and carried guns for hunting and protection. Framers would just as likely have addressed and argued over the right to eat and breathe (!!). As a logical consequence, any arguing a Constitutional guarantee of an individual citizen’s right to own and carry arms are full of shit! YA-O-O-O-WL-L-L!

Late Supreme Court Justice, Antonin Scalia, hero of the Right and supposed constitutional “originalist”—meaning he interpreted the Constitution in accordance with original intent and meaning—, was, accordingly, full of shit! What he was was a cynical manipulator and tool of conservative thought, who paved the way for the George W. Bush presidential win (thus, the disastrous Iraq incursion), and reinterpretation of the Second Amendment (District of Columbia v. Heller, 2008) to conveniently discover an individual right to bear arms. The Second Amendment, in plain, unmistakable language, regulates the right of a state’s militia to bear arms, no more! Respecting Scalia’s death (under suspicious circumstances at a remote hunting lodge yet to be revealed)… Good riddance! [Was the vaunted family man, father of nine, with a hooker?!] Scalia was a racist and menace to democracy! (And Black Americans.)

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Plainly, THERE ARE FAR TOO MANY GUNS AVAILABLE AND CIRCULATING IN AMERICA! They result in over 30,000 deaths each year. Vastly more people are killed accidentally by fellow family members than are killed protecting persons and property.*

*Apparently, a toddler shooting occurs every other week! Literally, an under-the-age-of-3 child finds and discharges a gun, injuring, even killing someone!

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Widespread gun ownership has ratcheted up police fear and itchy fingers. Widespread gun ownership, including massive gun purchase surges by Whites following each Obama win, is evidence of White fear of Blacks (as well as fear of being deprived of guns). The NRA (National Rifle Association)* is a cynical tool of corporate greed, Republican politics, and White supremacist thinking/scheming, that needs to be confronted and curbed.**

*It is a curious irony (and telling circumstance) that the NRA, as a political movement and supporter of widespread gun ownership, evolved as a result of Black assertion in the 1960’s of the right to openly bear arms for protection. Prior to the Black Panther Party taking advantage of California law to openly walk around with weapons (which, of course, scared the shit out of Whites), the NRA was a mere backwater association of hunting

** It has occurred to The Wolf that it would be only meet and right if someone were to attend an NRA convention, openly carrying an assault weapon, with speed-loader 30-round clips of extra ammunition hanging from the belt, and open fire on the participants. Jus sayin’. To echo the late, great Malcolm X, it would seem fitting chickens come home to roost. (All those pretend bad-asses scurrying and wetting themselves. Ha, ha, ha!)

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ASSAULT-STYLE WEAPONS SHOULD BE CONFISCATED FROM THE PUBLIC! OWNERSHIP OF GUNS OTHER THAN FOR LEGITIMATE HUNTING SHOULD BE SEVERELY REGULATED IN TERMS OF BACKGROUND CHECKS. NO ONE OTHER THAN POLICE AND SECURITY SHOULD BE ALLOWED TO OPENLY CARRY GUNS IN PUBLIC!

This accomplished, police officers would be less fearful in citizen encounters. Fewer Blacks, far fewer Americans would get shot.
(back to TOC)

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Societal/Black Leadership Complicity Factor

“The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong.”—Mahatma Gandhi

Likewise, a group feeling weak and oppressed (or accepting/milking an image of “oppressed” for political gain)—American Blacks!—, lacks the ability to grant the perceived oppressor—White America—any concession. E.g., a grudging “good point” to the criticism that, slavery, Jim Crow, continuing discrimination and White privilege, etc. aside, it is time to stop making excuses! It is time for respectable Black Americans (in particular Original Black Americans) to acknowledge group shortcomings—e.g., low birth rate, insufficient critique of Hood culture and behavior—, and own up to, “Past reasons/excuses aside, it is time for Black America, including Hood Black America, same as recent immigrants (!!), to buckle down to the hard day-to-day of persevering, doing what is necessary to create an image of Blacks as model minority!” (At least not as, “possibly dangerous.”)

In other words, although disgraced and now discounted, Bill Cosby was correct in criticizing pants-down-the- ass dress and posturing of today’s Black youth—from all socioeconomic strata. Where is the echo on this obvious point from Black leadership and liberal media?!

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Simultaneously, White America, especially (well-intended, but misguided) liberals and virtually all in the chattering, intellectual class, needs to check its privilege. It, along with educated Black America, needs to correct a mindset and emotional approach that finds and excuses victimhood everywhere and seeks to elevate manifestations of cultures having far less to offer to a fair, progressive world than America’s. An appropriate start would be with spoiled, stubborn, naturally selfish children (simply being the way kids are!), including college students whining for “safe space,” who require much firmer guidance and discipline, far fewer undeserved superlatives in a society given over to hyperbole. (E.g., “You’re so awesome [Johnny, Tiffany, Laquan]!” [No, you’re not!])

The Trump election is a direct reaction to such overboard nonsense. According heft to values/customs/norms of any and all cultures, many of which (e.g., Islam and its dictates) deserve critique and disavowal, does a disservice to those cultures, and especially to superior (!!) American values/customs/norms of liberty, justice and fair dealing for all who comport themselves within acceptable norms. American values/customs/norms (American ideals) ARE superior! Simple, effing fact!

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Failure to recognize that children require firmer discipline than currently received, greater tutelage from responsible adults in civility and appropriate behavior than currently received, and are not equal to responsible adults (with the same rights and responsibilities) until this is accomplished (!!), disserves children and society.

Both of these failures do a disservice to any effort at making a meaningful difference in reversing the pathology of Black Hoods. (Which contributes greatly to Black men being shot by police and by one another.)

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In the late 1990’s someone publicly questioned the vile lyrics and influence of Gangsta Rap. Tipper Gore, wife of then vice president, Al Gore, took on the Compton, California, rap group, Niggaz With Attitude (N.W.A.). She sought to censor the group and its lyrics. And she was promptly shouted down, condemned, excoriated by Black so-called leadership, with an approving echo from White liberals.

The United States in the late 1990s was not yet the wishy-washy basket of accepting-tolerating-defending- even-the-Devil’s-work-if-it-had-a-minority-or-foreign-cultural-pedigree—abruptly jerked to attention by the recent presidential election result! The last truly adult president—George H. W. Bush (the last president to actually fight in a war!)—had left the White House. An era of indiscipline and ever-greater permissiveness and toleration was ushered in by the first Boomer president and his powerful Boomer wife.*

*Making fellatio popular in middle schools as “not sex” arguably will be Bill Clinton’s most lasting

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Where Black America and matters “Black” were concerned, all criticism and tempering/tampering without approval of Black leadership was off limits. Gangsta Rap, the crude, puerile, warped branch/offspring of Rap, which in a former America, in a household run by responsible adults (confident respecting essential values underpinning decency and civility), would have been instantly and severely condemned (the authors spanked and sent to their room, their pathetic scribblings confiscated and put in the trash), went unchecked.

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Gangsta Rap did not, of course, just proceed unchecked. In a development rivaling irony of Greek tragedy, initially via hand-to-hand, amateur-produced tapes and discs, then via minor (“underground,” “renegade”) recording labels, eventually, legitimately, with special thanks to the internet “invented” by Tipper Gore’s husband, Gangsta Rap rocketed into the larger national and international sphere.

The proof of Tipper Gore’s, Black America’s, and America’s failure respecting containing the poison of Gangsta Rap is evidenced by the recent movie chronicling N.W.A.’s rise to riches and national and international fame (and acclaim), Straight Outta Compton. The proof of Rap’s overall’s preeminence as American cultural phenomenon and international export (within which is folded its ugly, twisted branch/offspring, Gangsta Rap) is the popularity and acclaim afforded the (brilliant) musical, Hamilton. YA-O-O-O-WL-L-L!
Rappers, some of whose vile lyrics are set forth at the outset of an earlier segment, were invited into and feted in the Obama White House!

WTF?!

(back to TOC)

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Permissive American Society Factor

“Would you rather I hit him, or the police?!”
—Remark of Black father disciplining son, in response to wife’s criticism he was being too harsh.

By not challenging and in no uncertain terms suppressing Gangsta Rap culture and its vile expression, parents and leaders in Hoods and the larger society have failed, causing Black men (and women and children) to die!

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This Yowl is about Black men being killed by police and reasons therefore, not about reasons blighted Black Hoods giving rise to anger and Gangsta Rap culture exist.* What is certain is that Black Hoods (and larger Black AND White middle-class society) can ill afford permissiveness currently being fostered and promoted by articulate, influential exponents of liberal (mostly) White, ultra-privileged America.

*Racism, legacy of slavery, flight of Black Haves, inferior education,

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If one listens to Black men and women from Hoods (those not killed!) reflect on how their lives went wrong (ending in anger, despair, prison), the refrain is invariably the same—NO ONE SHOWED ME ANY BETTER! In other words, there was no firm, confident hand and example guiding them to pathways of conventional success.
For example, the simple act of watching a parent get up each morning and go to work teaches not just that work is something one does—to honestly earn money for food, etc. It instructs observance of regular routine and time. (E.g., time to go to work!) Children whose parents don’t get up and go to work often begin school with no concept of time! Absent the vision of a safe comfortable future and how to achieve it, survival planning [Life in the Hood 101] reverts to law of the jungle.*

*Strong prey on the weak, literally kill, or be killed—GR culture!

[Note the irony of some who gained wealth via rapping—e.g., Snoop Dog—, and prospered giving a middle finger to decency and civility—e.g., Madonna—, now seeming to deem it necessary respecting their own children to adopt strict, conventional parental rules. As persons such as these attempt to balance proper parenting with earning via original (anti-authority) personas, they appear hypocritical, if not ridiculous. Others—e.g., former thug and drug dealer, Jay Z—, have morphed (successfully, indeed) into more traditional adult pursuit. Most folk really do want safe respectability, at least for their children.]

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Ironically, akin to youth left unchecked to their devices in urban Hoods, The Wolf’s generation—post World War Two “baby boomers”—, materially spoiled, and inspired/buttressed by the civil rights movement and opposition to a war (Vietnam) that called all values, practices, and teachings of their parents and conventional authority into question, was also able to largely indulge its prerogative in forging a “new, better” society. Which society IS better, but also ISN’T.

Forged by the highly educated, privileged, prosperous Boomer generation, today’s society is surely successful in terms of material plenty and technological advance. However, Boomers came of age successfully challenging and undermining limits. Thus, when it comes to setting limits, an entire generation lacks confidence and/or motivation to do so.

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For example, the worthy goal of endeavoring to accommodate fellow Black citizens as equals, also Black cultural differences as equivalent, has led to the supposition that all cultures and practices, including many antithetical to American democracy and individual freedom, are… At least deserving of tolerance, of respect, of a hearing. (One must not be quick to judge!)

Likewise, sexual differences should be tolerated. Also, of course, religious and other racial and cultural differences. And individual sensibilities should be guarded against being offended by slights and any and all manner of affront (e.g., so-called “micro-aggressions”), even when accidental and unintended. And bullies must be confronted. Indeed, bullying must be stamped out. (Although America seems to have wanted a bully as president!)

And there should be zero tolerance for… Everything! Such as a kindergärtner (Black) offending a girl classmate (White) by singing, “I’m too sexy for my shirt.” Or a kid (also Black) inadvertently bringing scissors or some such to elementary school, or pretending to point a gun at a fellow classmate. (Actually, just making his hand seem like a gun).

In fact, police should be brought in to arrest (literally handcuff and take away) such offenders (usually Black, usually male) in grade school! And make this a class-E felony! (Missouri.)
There must be No Cultural Appropriation! E.g., a little White girl dressing at Halloween as a Disney (East) Indian princess. As one might encounter and offend an East Indian. Or someone.

And any who might defend such, however respectfully, should be hounded into oblivion.*

*See, e.g., hullaballoo at Yale University, fall 2015, involving one professor Erika

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As for NFL team nickname, “Redskins,” that turned out to be more complex. Actual Native [First Nation?] Americans participated in the name choice, were on the team at the time, and were honored by name choice. Oops! (9 of 10 Native Americans polled said the name did not offend them.) And one cannot assail Florida State University’s mascot name—“Seminoles.” Because the Seminole tribe approves of it. Helps advertise their casinos.

And whatever else smacks, if ever so slightly, of improper behavior. Which, admittedly, is sort of a moving, evolving target. Any daring to cross any of more and more blurred and changing boundaries of (political) correctness should be consigned to a rung below Dante’s 9 rings of Hell. (Rungs? Circles? 9, 8?) And fast food workers should earn enough to be able to support a family, perhaps purchase a home… A nice home! And…

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What the America rejected by Trump supporters really wants to insist is that we do away with competition altogether! (While they, of course, have been competing quite successfully.)

Trophies should be awarded to any and all who participate—exactly the same trophy!—, even if the kid was just registered by a parent and never showed up. Because anything less could, possibly, bruise self-esteem. This means no more of (awful, ego-bruising) choosing sides for teams on the playground. (What kind of life lesson is learned in that?) Indeed, no running or horsing around on playgrounds. In fact, get rid of playgrounds and recess. If a playground exists, make sure there’s thick foam underneath the slides and climbing devices. And no see-saws!… Someone might jump off, leaving the other to [learn not to trust?]… Horrible!

And everyone should get A’s for trying because there’s nothing wrong with 90 or even 100 percent of the class making the honor roll. Everyone would feel so much better. (Would support workers at places that make the honor roll bumper stickers.) And less homework! Kids are overworked! Could be kids should be paid to be kids!

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And never, never, never, ever, ever touch a child physically, no matter what they do. (What are we?— barbarians? Our grandparents? [I know, I know. They fought that Big War, and are called the Greatest Generation… Whatever!]) Although in some cultures little girls are vaginally mutilated… Hmm! Should we confront their parents, thereby demeaning their culture?… That’s a tough one! And some Blacks seem to still administer physical punishment… Hmm! Confronting that is another tough one.

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And what about Gangsta Rap?… The lyrics that young people in Black Hoods are producing, quite understandably, are angry. (Rightfully angry!) They are, regrettably, violent and misogynistic. (Such a shame that in America we still have poor people… Poor Black people, that is. Whites can take care of themselves.)… “Cap the muthahfuckah in the ass?” Hmm.
Surely they can’t really mean what they say. (Couldn’t possibly mean what they say. People just aren’t like that.) Besides, it IS a valid expression of the circumstances they find themselves in. The lyrics speak of and to their pain. To object would be intolerant, judgmental. A form of cultural interference, even appropriation.

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A parent who fails to protect a child is remiss, blameworthy. A society that fails to protect its children fails to protect itself, and is likewise remiss, blameworthy. Protection entails not just provision of food and shelter but enabling a child to one day provide for itself and its children. Consistent, serious discipline and guidance is needed!
In such regard, America of late (all groups excepting Asians and recent immigrants [still possessed of and implementing old school values]) has failed abysmally.
Permissiveness granted Gangsta Rap and the behavior and attitude it fosters is getting Black folk killed!
(back to TOC)

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Dreadlocks Factor


Ex NFL football player, Joe Mcknight, as he appeared (sans uniform) after exiting his car during a 2016 “road rage” situation near New Orleans. The other motorist—White, male, middle-aged, with a license to carry a firearm—rolled down his front passenger window and shot McKnight three times, killing him. Initially just questioned and released, days later, following protests, the motorist was arrested and detained.

A flamboyant accoutrement of thug-gangsta affect and appearance is the Jamaican import of “dreadlocks.” A flowing, over-the-shoulders au naturel hairstyle invented or adopted by Ethiopia-revering, Rastafarian, Jamaican ganja (marijuana) smokers, Bob Marley and Reggae music brought the style to America. As The Wolf recalls, “dreads” first appeared outside Rastafarian Jamaican groups (often seriously dangerous drug gangs) and among Black Americans on Black athletes emerging from south Florida football teams. Late 1990’s University of Miami star and Indianapolis Colts NFL running back, Edgerrin James, was one of the first pro athletes to sport dreads. Now dreads complement bling, straight-brimmed ball caps worn askew, and pants down the ass to complete a desired image of bad-ass, thug-gangsta, thug-gangsta wannabe.

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Dreadlocks are appealing in that they completely flip the negative stereotype of wooly “Black” hair. They simply look good! [How cool is it to have dreads framing one’s face? Ugly dudes look cool when sporting dreads.] White boys in the suburbs make a dramatic statement of rebellion and oneness with counter culture (and Blacks) if they can somehow manage a dread hairstyle. (Then get accosted by Black political correctness [PC] “police” for “cultural appropriation.”) If The Wolf had hair, he would sport flowing, white-grey dreads.

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Ex-NFL player, Joe McKnight, depicted above, unarmed, but (very) Black with dreads, was likely, tragically, naive. By all accounts an amiable person, if he thought he could emerge from his vehicle following/during a road- rage incident, appearing as he did, and talk things out, he was naïve respecting the impact of appearing to be a badass [therefore dangerous!] Black man.

The Wolf is not at all surprised that the middle-aged White man in the other car apparently, summarily, immediately shot McKnight. (From his car with no warning, through the passenger side window as McKnight approached.) That police did not detain the man until protests (and McKnight’s high profile) dictated it, indicates they viewed the situation similarly. (I.e., McKnight posed a sufficient threat to warrant being shot.)

Should the matter go to trial, the anger inherent in a road-rage encounter, coupled with video and description of McKnight’s physical prowess as an NFL running back (with no discussion of dreads or Blackness) will likely (in The Wolf’s onetime prosecutor view) suffice to give a jury with any Whites cause not to find guilt.

Fear and McKnight’s blackness got him shot. Dreads and backdrop of Gangsta Rap culture assisted.

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Dreads seem not yet permissible in American corporate culture. However, given growing prevalence of the dreadlock look among Black professional athletes, whose images corporate America covets in selling [be-a-bad- ass!] product, they may soon be. [Certainly a way for a bold young Black would-be executive (or mailroom clerk) to make a statement.] And acting-White-in-order-to-get-ahead-Black men will eagerly embrace dreads, not just for the look, but because (most) Whites can’t do them, and they make a statement of Black pride.
For now, however, dreadlocks contribute to getting a Black man shot.
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Blacks Shot by Non-Cop Whites Factor

Florida man gets life in prison for killing teen over loud (“thug”) music.


Michael Dunn (L) raises his hands in disbelief as he looks toward his parents after guilty verdicts were announced in his trial in Jacksonville, Florida February 15, 2014. REUTERS/Bob Mack/Florida Times-Union/Pool

[Per Michael Walsh, New York Daily News] A Florida man was sentenced to life in prison without parole Friday in the killing of an African-American teenager outside a Jacksonville convenience store.
Michael Dunn, 47, of Satellite Beach, was convicted of first-degree murder for shooting Jordan Davis, 17, over the loud rap music coming out of his SUV in November 2012. [Cars were parked adjacent outside the store.]
Circuit Judge Russell Healey handed down the sentence after the prosecution declined to seek the death penalty. “Mr. Dunn, your life is effectively over,” Healey said, according to The Associated Press. “What is sad is that this case exemplifies that our society seems to have lost its way.
“Prosecutors say Dunn, a white software engineer, fired 10 shots into the Dodge Durango carrying Davis, of Marietta, Ga., and three other teens. Three bullets struck Davis.

Evidence reveals that Dunn continued to fire at the vehicle as the driver attempted to escape with his life. In the courtroom, Dunn said he drove to the convenience store that day to purchase a bottle of wine with his fiancée when he was offended by the loud hip hop. [Emphasis added.]
“He looked at his girlfriend and said, ‘I hate that thug music,’” prosecutor John Guy said. [Emphasis added.]
Dunn claims he acted in self-defense and thought he saw Davis holding a gun while they argued over the volume of the stereo.
He said he continued to shoot to make sure no one in the SUV could return fire.
The jury of 10 whites and two blacks apparently did not buy his self-defense story and reached a verdict within five hours on Oct. 1.
The decision was met with cheers from outside the courtroom.
At the sentencing, Dunn wound up apologizing to Davis’ parents and said he is “mortified” to have taken a life.

Jordan Davis, 17, fatally shot during a verbal altercation in front of a convenience store.

Protesters march on the state attorney’s office in a February 2014 photo, outraged over the murder of Jordan Davis.

Related Articles

(Baltimore, 12/22/2016.) As reported by The Washington Post and other news outlets, a 73-year-old [White] private investigator, licensed to carry a handgun, shot a 13-year-old [Black] boy in what he claims was an attempted carjacking. The teen is in critical condition after allegedly approaching the investigator’s car [with other Black teens], brandishing a realistic-looking toy gun.
The former Baltimore officer turned private investigator claims he was eating lunch in his car when the teenager opened [a car] door and displayed what appeared to be a handgun. The investigator responded by shooting him in the head, leaving him in stable but critical condition.
While police have called it an unfortunate incident, they have defended the investigator’s actions. “No matter how you paint it, they were trying to take his vehicle,” detective Donny Moses of the Baltimore PD told WBFF. “This young man put himself in a bad predicament. He actually got the worst of it. His friends ran from the scene,” he added.

It has been noted that not only Whites but Blacks from all backgrounds, not without cause, are wary and fearful of Blacks, especially Black men, especially young Black men who in appearance and behavior call to mind “possible thug.” Apparently, so fearful of young Hood Blacks are police, that 12-year-old Tamir Rice, playing with a toy gun on a playground in Cleveland, was summarily blown away by (White) cops responding to a report of a “Black man with a gun.” A Black man examining a rifle for possible purchase in a Walmart aisle, reported to 9-1-1 by a White fellow shopper and caller as “a Black man with a gun,” was shot and killed by arriving (White) cops.

All this before Donald Trump purposefully and energetically fanned embers of racial, ethnic, and class division to win election to the White House. [Note. The McKnight shooting described in previous segment occurred post-election, pre-inauguration.]
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Post Trump Election Factor


Alleged Chicago hate crime suspects, who supposedly shouted “Fuck Trump!, Fuck white people!”

Combination photo shows four people charged with felonies for the beating of a teenager with mental health issues, L-R top row: Brittany Covington, 18, Jordan Hill, 18, bottom row: Tanishia Covington, 24, and Tesfaye Cooper, 18, shown in Chicago Police Department photos released in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. January 5, 2017.
Chicago police say there was never any doubt the beating of a white man [high school friend/acquaintance of one of the above young men!] broadcast live on Facebook would be investigated as a hate crime. They say the four black suspects face hate crime charges because they were shouting racial slurs at the victim —e.g., “Fuck Trump!Fuck white people!”—and because they referred to his mental capacity.

Ever since the brutal form of slavery in America one commonly thinks of came into being (as opposed, say, to indentured servitude, to which both Blacks and Whites were subject),* maintaining a divide between Blacks and less well-off Whites has been a political priority of the wealthy (White) power elite. Allies of this imperative have been racist Whites, later Black power advocates and others having something to gain by promoting divisions.

*It is little-known that “race” as a concept is of relatively recent origin. (No older than the American republic.) Colonial America adopted slavery in its most brutal form in order to compete, economically, with cheap slave labor in European colonies of South America and the Caribbean. [Yes. Always money and greed.] Black Africans were enslaved precisely because their different appearance made them easily identifiable.  Obviously, that difference in appearance continues to be exploited.

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Every day in America for nearly two decades has been seen/heard on conservative television [chiefly multi-billionaire (White foreigner), Rupert Murdoch’s FOX News and affiliates] and talk radio [Rush Limbaugh and his ilk], now turbo-charged by social media echo chambers,* an unrelenting drumbeat promoting the message, “[Blacks, Mexicans, Muslims, assorted non-white Others] are [unfairly, aided by affirmative action and liberal elites] coming for your jobs, your women, your belongings, your manhood, your [mythical heritage of divine right, God-given] White superiority! Resist!”

*By “echo chamber” is meant seeing, hearing, reinforcing only thinking a person agrees with, now greatly enhanced by narrow internet and social media avenues of expression. [Yes, such as the Yowling Wolf blog.] So effective and pernicious is this effect, that polls reveal 67 percent of Trump voters believed the U.S. unemployment rate (at the time 4.8 percent; vs. nearly 10 percent in 2008 when President Obama came into office) increased during [Black, “Muslim,” “socialist”] Barack Obama’s tenure! One awaits the triumphant Donald Trump tweet (to huzzahs and “I told you so!” from supporters), that, “the national unemployment rate is below 5 percent!!! America was a disaster, but it’s great again!”

Never mind that White elites on Wall Street, seeking a product to accommodate unprecedented $$$ from around the world seeking a safe haven in America, invented and promoted the Holland tulip-esque, patently shaky, speculative, “mortgage credit default swaps” scam that left countless (mostly White) homeowners all over America underwater, and ordinary taxpayers holding the bag, precipitating the Great Recession of 2008.

Never mind that White venture capitalists fund largely White-inspired/manned technological advance that has replaced less-educated workers with robots. (Something for folk to think about when using ATMs, E-Z pass, self- checkout, and on and on.) Meantime, a White, power/money/elite demagogue promotes the canard of, “Your jobs have been stolen by free trade, Mexicans, and Chinese.”

Never mind that among those overseas who have indeed taken jobs in the new economy (that American workers have not been prepared for!) are Whites in places like Ireland.

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No. The relentless mantra is “threat from hordes of Browns coming in illegally, and Blacks being unfairly elevated over Whites.” Intersperse the narrative of dangerous Black thug-gangsta, featured on nightly newscasts, elevated by Gangsta Rap to prominence on every television award show, and a message of “Arm and defend yourself!” has taken hold.

Abetted, of course, by White power elite-serving, NRA-supported state legislatures (now to be joined by a White power elite-serving national government), greasing possession of a gun on the hip of every citizen, even little (White) girls. (Enticed to gun ownership and shooting ranges by alarmed parents and pretty, pink-colored small rifles! [Yes, pink guns!]) And, enacting “stand your ground” laws that say (and encourage!), “You need not retreat anywhere, if you believe you are at risk.” Which this change in law, excepting in one’s home—Castle doctrine—, turns on its head what centuries of American jurisprudence have dictated. (Namely, providing one can retreat without undue risk of harm to oneself, better to run away than kill another human being.)

YA-O-O-O-WL-L-L!

What the foregoing portends for daily citizen interaction is a dramatic rise in the potential for deadly consequence stemming from racial division, fear, mistrust. Because Whites fear Blacks (and Blacks fear Blacks), Black citizens are and will be at greater risk of being shot by gun-toting fellow citizens, as in incidents described in the previous segment. Because police fear Blacks, Blacks legally carrying guns are much more likely to be shot than counterpart Whites or Asians, but perhaps not Muslims.*

*The previously described Philando Castille shooting in suburban Minneapolis may be one such incident. Also the Black father waiting for his son to get out of school in Charlotte (shot by a Black cop). Also a Black street vendor in Baton Rouge.

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Deplorable White America (and many Black and Hispanic and female and non-deplorable Americans) reacted to loss of jobs, fear of globalism, and catering to minorities in electing a White Thug-Gangsta. However, Deplorables also perceived/sensed, correctly, that boring, conventional, law-abiding norms of behavior have been muscled aside by something threatening (and non-White)—dynamic, urban, ghetto, Gangsta Rap Culture!

The Wolf’s highly intelligent, White, Ivy League, prep-school background, college roommate (grandson of Polish immigrants) defended Black, urban youth for nearly three decades as a lawyer. He is also angry about the direction of the country, and not only voted for Trump but signaled and defended his intention to do so for months preceding the election. Simultaneously, his only child, a handsome, athletic, blonde son is tattooed, makes rap videos, and lives with and is deeply in love with a dark-brown-skinned immigrant woman. Such are the contradictory strands of present-day America.

Trump voters in some wise did not get it wrong. They are reminded of what they voted against by their children’s (rap) music. And could be, there ain’t no goin’ back! Could be they are spitting in a cultural wind that has swept the entire Globe, and is here to stay. HOOD-GANGSTA-RAP ATTITUDE/POSTURING RULES, YO!

YA-O-O-O-WL-L-L!

If so, IN TRUMP-BAITING, FEAR-MONGERING, NRA-REPUBLICAN-LEGISLATURE-GUN- OWNERSHIP-OPEN-CARRY-PROMOTING AMERI(KKK)A, RESPECTABLE (not-in-the-least thuggish) BLACKS WILL BE AT GREATER RISK OF BEING SHOT!
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Interesting Instructive (Related) Colin Kaepernick Sidelight (Or, Not Being Able to Have/Eat ALL the Cake)


Kaepernick and adoptive parents pre NFL riches, afro, cornrows, tattoos, attitude.

Multi-millionaire NFL 49ers’ quarterback, Colin Kaepernick, is a mixed-racial Black man, raised by adoptive White parents in a White suburb. He is now famous, indeed, iconic, for initiating a protest kneel when the national anthem is played before games—to signal solidarity with the BLM movement, to protest continuing racism against Blacks. One must appreciate Kaepernick’s courage and conviction in bringing national attention to these issues. As countless Whites have been infuriated by Kaepernick’s action and the kneeling protest movement he inspired, Kaepernick likely will pay a significant monetary price in future for his actions.*

*It may be noted that in 2016 NFL ratings were suddenly, alarmingly (for the NFL), significantly off.  Such was not likely owing to public concern over concussive effects of collisions of fast, strong, mostly Black men.
[It may also be noted that effects of concussion (leading over time to devastating, debilitating effects of Post-Concussion Syndrome [PCS]), are addressed only thanks to efforts of a brilliant, Black, African immigrant medical doctor (wholly a stranger to American football), to identify and expose the link between concussion and brain disease (see movie, Concussion), and heroic preservation of their brains during acts of suicide by such (Black) NFL victims of PSC as Junior Seau and David Duerson.]

No. NFL ratings were likely down because the BLM, and actions of such as Colin Kaepernick, have burst the happy bubble of identification Whites fans have long had with a game and sports heroes who are mostly Black. Add a divisive presidential campaign (largely engendered by the character and remarks of the new president!), which has burst a kumbaya imagining of emerging national racial harmony and overcoming of racial identity.

It is likely that more and more White NFL fans (the vast majority) will no longer quite so easily ignore race, and identify with the powerful, mega-physical men, who increasingly adopt dreadlocks and exhibit twerking Hood swagga. Rather, in clear-eyed (racial) fashion, they will see that these men, most of them hailing from disadvantaged Hoods, ingrained with the thinking and modality of Gangsta Rap, are not so different from the Blacks of their dark imaginings. Could be this is a major emerging concern for both the NFL and NBA?

YA-O-O-O-WL-L-L!

What draws The Wolf’s attention is not merely the boldness of Kaepernick’s action, but the seeming virulence of his anger. Socks he has worn liken police to pigs. He has made remarks to the same effect. This seems to go far beyond the mindset and emotions one might expect from one to whom so much has been given.

Kaepernick, after all, enjoys a lavish life of fine homes, fine cars, and the adulation of men and women. He was not raised in poverty and want. He is 6’4”, 225 lbs., swift, powerful, and, doubtless, same as most superior athletes these days (having had YOUTUBE highlight videos since age ten), has been feted and favored from an early age. Why, then, and all of a sudden, is he so angry? (Seemingly, much angrier than the hundreds of other privileged, professional Black athletes from more disadvantaged backgrounds who are also stopped by police.)

The Wolf suspects the cause is Kaepernick being mixed racial, having grown up in a White suburb with White parents, has never before been made to feel inferior, even at risk, on account of race.

YA-O-O-O-WL-L-L!

Doubtless, the same as other Black pro athletes driving fine cars to fine homes in fine (mostly White) neighborhoods, Kaepernick has had his share of DWB police stops. However, such, likely, has been more the case since he began sporting an afro (or cornrows). The recent publicity given to Black men killed by police may have rattled Kaepernick, alerting that he is in danger of being shot on account of race. Kaepernick is perhaps reacting more angrily than other Black professional athletes, because, unlike them, more like a White person of privilege would, he has a “WTF?!, is-my-world-turning-upside-down?!” sense of things.

In other words, suddenly, perhaps shockingly, Kaepernick has been confronted with what most of his fellow Black professional athletes have known all along. (Something Barack Obama knows.) For all the advancement, respect, power, etc. a Black man in Ameri(kkk)a may have achieved, when driving, when walking in certain places at certain times, especially with an afro, tattoos, cornrows, you are still a second class citizen!

Yo, my brothah! You still a niggah!

YA-O-O-O-WL-L-L!

Let’s get real! 6’4”, tatted-up, cornrowed or afro-d Black man in a fancy car? Then he raises a fuss, won’t readily comply with instructions?

Yo! You be lookin’ mighty badass and scary, Colin! Affecting Hood, thug-gangsta look and attitude can definitely put even a multi-millionaire Black pro athlete (or entertainer) at risk. Most brothahs from the Hood understand this. Apparently, you do not.

YA-O-O-O-WL-L-L!

It is not the truly downtrodden who are most angered by oppression and injustice and rise up in rebellion. No. That group feels too lacking in entitlement, is too occupied with day-to-day survival to muster the umbrage, energy, nerve to raise hell. It is those closest to the grail—so close they can taste, feel, luxuriate in what it is to be, say, White and privileged in America!—, who are most miffed, most surprised, most exercised and moved to protest and act, when they discover they can’t have and eat ALL the cake!

Colin Kaepernick seems one such. The notion that a cop might shoot him, for being Black… It’s infuriating!

The Wolf strongly suggests, should Colin Kaepernick find himself pulled over in Oakland or San Fran, wherever, that he quick, tone his shit and that situation down! Seriously! Relax and sign a couple autographs, dude!
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Where we at? Thoughts Going Forward

The foregoing (very) lengthy deconstructing and ‘splainin’ having gone down, The Wolf cannot immediately suggest hopeful conclusions, nor easy solutions. Indeed, with badass affectation and posturing of Gangsta Rap Hood culture going full bore, arming of citizens going full bore, and racial division and mistrust seemingly going full bore, matters—shootings of Blacks by cops and non-cop Whites (with presidential approval, some might surmise)—seem likely to worsen.

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The intent and purpose here, however, was to deconstruct, untangle, explain the tragedy underlying the Black Lives Matter movement. To demonstrate that same ‘ol, same ‘ol White racism as a causal factor is far too simple an explanation. It was not to solve the problem, nor offer ideas respecting solution.
Does a solution exist? Is there a way in which Fear of Blacks, especially Black men, can be allayed, such that they are at least unlikely to be shot in encounters with police and fellow White citizens? Can racism, finally, be exposed in its deepest, most nuanced aspects, and be further whittled away, possibly extinguished altogether? [Extremely doubtful respecting the latter!]

Is there hope for denizens of Black Hoods?

Clearly, recognizing the negative influence of Gangsta Rap Hood culture dictates of dress and behavior, and damping that down (extinguishing it!), is an obvious step. (Television award shows and corporate marketers! Are you listening?) Such does not address, however, the underlying anger and bleak outlook Gangsta Rap (and other Rap Hip Hop) gives voice to. That anger must and will find expression, and must be addressed.

That is a far more difficult proposition.

YA-O-O-O-WL-L-L!

Until the problem of nearly one half of American Blacks being oppressed, poor, angry, and hopeless, and expressing same in anti-social ways is addressed, then respectable, successful Blacks will suffer an effect of kinship by race and, especially, color.

The Wolf does have ideas and notions. [The Wolf always has ideas and notions.]

They will be set forth in Yowls to follow.
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YA-O-O-O-WL-L-L!
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