Showing posts with label racerelations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label racerelations. Show all posts

Sunday, June 21, 2015

Civil Rights Violations in the Brockton School District Pt. 3



In March The Fact She3t covered a case in which students, parents, and community members voiced their concerns over Brockton High School's disciplinary actions, particularly students of color. In the piece "Brockon's School-to-Prison Pipeline", we mentioned a set of parents testifying before the school committee about the violations of their children's rights. One of those parents, Michael Dockery, has penned a letter to the US Department of Justice in hopes that justice for his son will be served.

In the three part series The Fact She3t will publish segments of the letter. Mr. Dockery's hope is that with sharing these stories of his son and others he can "make a difference for these young kids. Too many families and kids have been hurt by these people's actions," because, "the more adults and kids that know about these issues the better." (You can read the other segments here)

***

While conducting my research to put this letter together some powerful and serious points were made to me. It helped change and made certain things clear to me, so I’m going to share a few.

My son said something powerful to me, he said:

“Dad, in school they taught us about the Boston Tea Party, the American Revolutionary War against the British for taxation without representation, the wars against the Indians, Whisky Rebellion, Mexican-American War, Spanish- American War, and Civil War with the North against the South, etc, but when it comes to civil rights for blacks and other minority we have, to petition, sit in, march and act civil. 
Dad it does not make sense from all the stuff I have learned in school about the country’s history involving wars, the blacks are the only ones that have done protests in an educated and civil way. My friends and I gotten all the signatures on the petitions for Mr. Daponte treating the black students unfairly, and the other petition for changing the demerit system but nothing is being done by the people whom you told me work for the taxpayers. A lot of my friends in school think we should follow what they taught us in our history class and start a war to crush and destroy all the people who don’t want to be fair or do their job, but I tell them what you tell me Dad “sometimes two wrongs don’t make a right” some of the kids understand but it’s not fair”.

The superintendent likes to refer to a certain black leader in Brockton, when it comes to racial issues as if he speaks for all the minorities and blacks in Brockton, so therefore my wife and I along with several other black and minority parents that have some major concerns met with this black organization leader. This leader invited a university professor to speak with the parents regarding their concerns and give up recommendations and solutions regarding the matter. During the meeting the University Professor stated “Black kids are more prone to be more violent and he has the statistics to prove it”, that made me upset, because that was said out of ignorance and he’s a teacher and he could influence a lot of people the wrong way, therefore I commenced to asked him a series of questions he has yet to answer.

A. Professor you were a kid once were you violent, he answered no. 
B. My wife, I and several other parents also answered no to the same question. 
C. I also asked him, could education and access to resources, socio-economic environments, mental illness, religion or cultural beliefs play a part in violence not only with blacks but also whites? He did not answer.
D. Professor don't you think the whites people from England or Ireland or Greece, Norway, Iceland, France, South America, Spain, Russia, Parts of china, Africa, Australia, Eastern Europe have violence in their race or country.
E. What about the whites who can’t get along with other whites inter-culturally, ethnically or within sects, that come to America to escape the violence and poverty from their country do you think they believe in your statistics.
F. Professor did you know that most of the Criminal and Civil laws on the books in the U.S.A. are geared towards white on white crimes. He did not respond.
G. Do you know that some blacks pay more taxes than whites?. He didn’t answer.

I was very upset that a black university professor was promoting such destructive teaching without understanding human nature or acquiring the proper skills, my question to myself was where did he learn this behavior from and how many uneducated young minds and people has he sold this nonsense too.

Negative reinforcement and vilification….I just want to say it’s not just the current administrators that have misguided superiority complex when it comes to dealing with and punishing minority students. After meeting with several parents and students from the past who currently have siblings in the Brockton School System, they also had issues with the former superintendent of school Mr. Malone who had a history of not meeting with black or minority parents that tried to voice their concerns to him. Many parents found him to be condescending and aloft. He was in charge of the Brockton school system when the young middle school student got frame by the school principal for assault and battery and was inform of the incident during the whole ordeal for the parents. It was to most of the parents, surprise, that the former governor elected him to be Massachusetts secretary of education, which only reinforces his misguided and small minded thinking towards the equal treatment of all students.

I had a parent that I met with on several occasion regarding these student’s matter told me an interesting story about her growing up. She said “When I was young girl, my family moved into a real nice neighborhood, we had a nice home and a good family structure. My father and mother and we kids would try to be nice to all our neighbors, but they weren’t nice to us. We would wave hi to the adults and try to play with the kids, but they wouldn’t acknowledge us. While other whites moved into the neighborhood we would run over to meet them and brought food or cake over, as a kid I found that very strange, I thought something was wrong with me or my family, my parents shelter us from it a little bit but it was clear to see.

Now as an adult and having my own kids, I feel like those same rude and simple people adult and kids that shun my family because were black, are the same people that are now in the school system punishing our kids because they can’t relate to our kids culturally or socially. I’m very frighten for the future because as a kid I saw the bad behavior those kid’s parents were teaching their kids and now that those kids are grown they’re teaching our kids and destroying and oppressing our children future giving them unnecessary mental stress and criminal records. This is very scary for any person kids or grandkids of any color or creed, just imaging the separating barrier in education and opportunity some these people simple thinking are creating in our society”.

It’s Ironic, during the Marathon Bombing April 2013, it was school vacation week for public schools, my wife and I took our kids to Germany and Poland to see some of the those countries history and culture, part of our visits involved going to the Nazi Concentration and Work Camps, it was a very dishearten experience to see what the wrong mental story someone tell themselves and society around them can cause. The pain and destruction of a vibrant people, the Jews, rich in history, art, business, science and culture was brought down by the Nazi and their sympathizers. Our kids learned while we were there the only way the Nazis were stopped during their rampage was based on the fact that a lot of intelligent people understood that what Hitler was doing was detrimental to more than just the Jews but an entire world. Now my young son and our family is seeing and dealing with how racial bias bigotry can cause pain, hardship in students and families. My son a young black man has to be re-encouraged to respect self, and understand that the black race and culture is a strong one, one that is rich in art, culture, history, sports, entertainment, business innovators, business leaders, inventors, peace makers, Government leaders, fought for voting rights, March on Washington, The Million Man March, Civil Rights, etc. Also he must never give up the fight because once he finds the right allies in his fight for what’s right he will be successful in the end.

A family member of mine who served in the Vietnam War stated, “it’s amazing how the Vietcong would try to exploit the racial differences between the white and black Americans by getting on the loudspeaker and stating “ Soul Brother come have fun with us don’t fight the white man’s war that don’t like or respect you”. No one fell for it, we stood together as Americans, because we knew any weakness or inadequate thinking in our squads could get us all killed, and now present day my young relative is getting inadequate treatment. Who would do such a thing to kids? I don’t know of any one black or white who can go to a military base and says he want to serve inadequately on base because I was treated inadequately in school, so why are these people allowing it. To further drive home the point, I don’t know of any black person who can go to the IRS and say that they want to pay inadequate taxes because they are black and the IRS would allow it, so therefore why are we accepting inadequate services for our kids and our hard-earned tax dollars”.


Now it’s obvious that there are two sets of victims here in my letter, the first are the ethnic students in the Brockton school system who have to live by someone else’s limitations, but the biggest victims are the school administrators and the people who allow them to do the things they do and walk around with a superiority and privileged attitude. Somewhere in their lives someone taught them the wrong things, back up by a false story that got, reinforce somehow the wrong way, which creates a false reality. Now these people are the clueless victims trapped by a false mental story they keep repeating to themselves. Is it superior to?

1. Have a law degree and not follow the law.
2. Pick on kids, when their job is serve and protect them.
3. To treat parents and kids a certain way based on their skin color.
4. To see wrong being done to kids and not report it.
5. To judge someone without knowing anything about them.
6. To falsified documents against a kid or anyone.
7. To collect a paycheck and don’t do the job or the services that is required for that paycheck.
8. To think you’re superior to a person who has accomplished more than you because you are white.
9. To have people pay into a tax system collectively, but not provide proper service and representation based on a person's race.
10. To have a co-worker who is a cop, show up to court because you refused to court to answer questions and the person that shows up for you doesn’t know if you’re a man or a women, or don’t know who you are.
11. To have a Clerk Magistrate, who know young kids are being railroaded but allow it because the kids are black.
12. To not know your job description or respect it.
13. To want thousands of kids to follow a demerit system when the adults around them can’t follow the law or their job description.
14. For despite all the hundred different cultures, races, languages and people around them and education available to them, they have chosen to stay close minded in their own small world.

Once these people wake up from this false trance and reality realizing the stories they have been telling themselves are not true then they might start fully seeing and enjoying life with all the beautiful people around them participating, learning and growing , really seeing the fuller potential America, Massachusetts, and Brockton has to offer.

In Conclusion, I have withheld all the kids’ names whose incidents I have mentioned out of respect for them and their privacy. I see them all as talented kids who just need help and guidance like we all did when we were young. On the other hand I have mentioned all the public government workers who continue to collect a paycheck but have done nothing to deserve it. The incident with my son happened seven months ago, ask those government employees how many paychecks have they gotten since then. Superintendent Kathleen Smith, House Kevin Deponte, Principal Sharon Wolder, School Committee Member Tom Minicheillo, City Councilor Dennis Denapoli, State Senator Tom Kennedy, and the mayor of Brockton, have been notified multiple times by email, letters or in person regarding my son and the other kids issues I found. Most of these people thought they were looking down on me not knowing who I am or what I’m about, failing to realize they are the ones being viewed from a microscope. These people are acting like carpenter ants, destroying the core and the future of Brockton. As I mentioned these public workers, I finally realize those people can’t talk about or discuss race, because those were the type of people that once were young and their parents wouldn’t let them play or interact with other kids from different races socially when they were young just like what the lady mentioned to me during my research, and now they’re working for the government destroying young kid’s life they can’t relate too. The Brockton Public School System is great system with kids and parents excelling at many levels, just imaging how much greater it would be without these people in charge or around.

My goal is by the start of the next election cycle get a grass root organization going to get rid of these people, so all the diverse culture of Brockton can shine. It pains me to talk about race or judge some one based on their skin color, because that’s not how I was brought up, but these people are doing that with all the information I have found out. I have been around plenty of great people therefore I know when I dealing with people who don’t care about others. I have friends from all over the world, and the great thing about America is anyone can meet and enjoy and wide variety of different cultures from around the world all in one single country. The smart people know when different people get together and share ideas that’s an explosion of innovation, and growth happens, I want that for all kids,and that is my focus for writing this letter. Hopefully the right person will read this and share it so we can all make our city, state and country a better place. From meeting with and talking to different parents and kids from all over the state with the help of Toni Saunder of the Associated Advocacy Center, we have found out this is a nationwide problem that needs to be address, therefore I am forwarding this letter and encouraging every person who is caring or know of a kid that got mistreated to pass this letter around, so we all could be more aware and change for a more inclusive and also have a better future. I don’t know who takes their job or their role seriously therefore I’m sending it out to multiple Federal and State Agency and Community and National Leaders.

Sign
Michael Dockery

CC:

Department of Education- Civil Rights
U.S. Department of Justice- Civil Rights
FBI Federal Office - Civil Rights
Office of Attorney General, Massachusetts - Civil Rights
Massachusetts-D.E.S.E
Et al

This followed the first and second parts of the letter. Please share the letter to bring more attention to the problems addressed in it.

This was written by Michael Dockery, 617-212-8141, Sales@summitsell.com
Arranged by E. Rey

Saturday, June 20, 2015

Civil Rights Violations in the Brockton School District Pt. 2



In March The Fact She3t covered a case in which students, parents, and community members voiced their concerns over Brockton High School's disciplinary actions, particularly students of color. In the piece "Brockon's School-to-Prison Pipeline", we mentioned a set of parents testifying before the school committee about the violations of their children's rights. One of those parents, Michael Dockery, has penned a letter to the US Department of Justice in hopes that justice for his son will be served.

In the three part series The Fact She3t will publish segments of the letter. Mr. Dockery's hope is that with sharing these stories of his son and others he can "make a difference for these young kids. Too many families and kids have been hurt by these people's actions," because, "the more adults and kids that know about these issues the better." (You can read the other segments here)

***

Story Two


Two students were fighting, and when the teacher that was in the class lost control of the situation she ran into a corner and started screaming for help. A black student, who was 14 years old at the time of the incident, happened to be in the outside locker area at the time. He heard her screaming and ran in the room to assist her. Once the situation had calmed down and everyone went home, the parent of the student that was helping the teacher break the fight up received a call from the school principal stating that their son would be suspended indefinitely. The principal, the classroom teacher, and the school police conspired together to change the story of how the incident happened and filed two charges against the young kid, assault and battery and assault and battery with dangerous weapon criminal charges against the young kid. The parents protested because there were 11 witness statements from teachers and students that stated their son was the one helping the inexperienced teacher break up the fight.

A. Although the parents pleaded with the school administrators the school still took the 14 year old kid to juvenile court. The parents told the Plymouth County Clerk Magistrate about the incident and the witness statements but the Clerk refused to enter it into evidence, refused to record the court session, and chastised the child and his parent for not being responsible citizens and put the child on one year probation.

B. After 18 days without schooling and being at home the kid was let back into school, but only with an adult supervised escort to go between his classes and the bathroom.

C. This was the first issue this young kid ever had within the school, He was known as a good kid and very responsible. The actions of the school principal, teacher, school police and clerk magistrate violated his due process rights, federal, and state laws and also the basic school handbook policy.

D. The family is still very upset because they had to take their mortgage money to defend their son when all these charges were not true, and they feared losing their son and their home.

E. Within the same school and the same school year their son witnessed several white kids fighting and the most those students received for fighting were two to three days in house school suspension.

Story Three


This school year 2014-2015, in Brockton High, several ethnic kids were accused of taking things from a locker area. The school administrator claimed to have told the parents of all the kids that were accused that their kids were caught on video taking properties that didn’t belong to them. Consequently, they were thrown out of the school and criminal charges were also filed for theft and trespassing. One of the parents, distraught and scared for her child and his education, allowed the school police and the Brockton police to enter her house without a search warrant to show that her son did not take anything and on the guise that her son would be let back in the school from the indefinite suspension if nothing was found, but the school administrator and the school police deceived her. They still didn’t allow the child to continue his education at Brockton high.

A. All three of the young men were kicked out of Brockton High without proper due process or being found guilty of anything.

B. All three kids were sent to an alternative school, where they were too advanced for the curriculum, so one of the kid stays home depressed and take classes from home.

C. Several of the kids tried to transfer to other schools in the town, but the way the Brockton School Administrator wrote up the paperwork basically made it seem as if these kids had a criminal record, they were not admitted to the other public schools. Not only that Brockton Public School controls all the public school in the district, so the only true choice any of the kids or the parents had was by the Brockton Public School System.

D. One mother has spent over $6,000 to defend her son in court so he doesn’t get a criminal record. Every time she goes to court she has to pay her lawyer and the Brockton Public School and the Police have yet to bring the video tape to court, and the Clerk Magistrate allow them to continue although the mother and her attorney keep asking for the tape and justice.

Story Four


There was a top athlete, a young black man 16 years old at the time, that played football for Brockton High. He's about 6”4 280 lbs., could have easily played for a Division 1 or 2 college football team. This young man had poor study habits, but always did good on his tests. He needed some tutoring and good study skills to make him stay focused, but one of his teachers and the school administrators convinced him and his parents that he would be better off going to the Champion Alternative school for six months to get his focus together then he could come back to Brockton High with a fresh start. On his junior year he tried to return to Brockton High because he was a good student and athlete, and hardly been in any trouble except for homework, he was told by the school administrator “Brockton High School is not a revolving door school, once you make your choice you have to live with it”. This young man and his parents were upset but they dealt with it.

One day while at the Alternative School his nose started to bleed because the room was too hot, so he asks the teacher could he go to the window so he could get some clean air she said yes in front of witnesses, so he stood in front of the window. The school principal walked by the class and saw him standing by the window and started yelling at him, without know the facts. The teacher didn’t say anything to the principal, although she was the one that gave permission. So the young man tried to explain the situation to the principal, who thought the kid was talking back and questioning his authority, suspended the kid for 1 day. The one day then turned to 10 days suspension, after the 10 days an unfair due process hearing was made. The young man was kicked out of the Brockton School System entirely. Since the Brockton Public School System controlled all the school in the district, the school administrators and the principal made it so he could not go to any school within the district, and put things in his school record, so that he would be labeled as a bad kid.

A. This young man had good grades and did well on the MCAS, but could not go to any other school because the principal did everything in his power to railroad the kid. Since Brockton Public School controls all the public school in the district the young man had to leave the district and go live with his extended family in Boston to insure that he graduated from high school.

B. This young man claimed he has seen school administrators from both Champion alternative charter School and the Brockton public School allowing and giving breaks to white kids who have been caught selling drugs or using drugs, multiple opportunities to return back to the high school once the administrators see fit, but overly pursue and punish the Cape Verdeans, Haitians and Black kids.

C. This young man is still bothered by the actions of the adults at the schools, but his grades and his behavior didn’t have anything to do with the excessive mistreatment he encountered, and he offered friends and old teachers from both schools as proof.

Story Five


This school year 2014-2015, at Brockton High School, two white students were playing a card game in school. One of the students got mad at the other one and they started fighting. One of the white students grabbed and put the other kid in a headlock and choked him out until the other student passed out, they had to break the fight up and revived the other kid. The white student which choked out the other kid was only given 5 days in house suspension.
A. Based on the equal protection under the law that student should have been charged with a crime as the other ethnic students, or worse attempted murder.

B. The school administrators overlooked the critical factor that the other student could have suffered brain damage or a seizure.

Story Six


Twitter Beef… Several young ladies in the high school were having disagreements amongst each other. Normally when a school administrator finds out about an issue with students regarding a Facebook or Twitter bullying, especially when it involves minorities, all the students involved are either suspended or given demerits, but in one particular instance, although a certain twitter argument revolved around some black students, the school administrator did not punish anyone in the incident. Upon investigating the matter he found out it was a young white female that instigated the whole issue of bullying and name calling.

Story Seven


This school year 2014-2015, at Brockton High School, over 1,000 students at Brockton High School signed a petition stating that the Demerit system was unfair. They said it targets minorities or sometimes applied subjectively by the teachers and administrator to certain students that they do not like. This petition was taken to the principal, superintendent of schools and the school committee, but none of the government workers who are paid to administer the students have made any positive efforts to resolve the underlying unfairness in the student’s complaints. Out of frustrations the students rallied and staged a walkout that was reported by the local newspaper. The school committee has yet to resolve the issues in the demerit system.

Story Eight


Two Kids were fighting one black the other white the whole incident was witnessed by teacher and students. Upon talking to the students and teachers, witness statements were made, all the witnesses stated the black student was doing his work and the white student keep on bullying and provoking the other student and the white kid was the one that hit the other student first. Both parents were called into school after the suspension of the students. Upon school suspension reinstatement, the black student was asked to sign a contract stating that if he got into any more fights within the school year he would be automatically kicked out of Brockton high and put into an alternative school, the white kid was not given that same contract at all. The parent of the ethnic student refused to sign the unfair contract because it was the white kid that started the whole incident and the parent thought the contract was racially unjust.

Story Nine


This school year 2014-2015, a brother and a sister who are black students at Brockton High were arguing amongst themselves regarding home chores, a school administrator didn’t like the fact that they were having a discussion on school grounds and suspended the brother and gave the sister demerits. The brother and sister thought the punishment was excessive because they have seen the white kids do worst things and receive no demerits or punishments for their actions.

Story Ten


This school year 2014-2015, at Brockton High School, another case involved an ethnic mother that has a daughter with a disability. She was transferred to a lower class because she had one complaint against her. The same student has the ability to do advanced math, but yet she was sent to a lower class which is frustrating to the mother and her daughter. The daughter is questioning why she’s being punished so severely for one outburst when the other white students have outburst on a weekly or monthly basis.

Story Eleven


This school year 2014-2015, A Brockton High Peer Mediator who just happens to be black was resolving a dispute in school with two other students who happened to be black. The kids could not resolve their differences, so they got into a fight. The peer mediator was in the middle trying to break up the fight, when the hall teacher intervened, all three students were suspended from school although the other two student told the administrator that the peer mediator was only involved because he was trying to break up the fight.

Story Twelve


Many Peer Mediators and students have told me that they try their best to resolve students' issues with each other before it gets out of hand, or before the administration finds out about it, because the people in charge don’t really care about the ethnic students and they are quick to suspend them. The Peers Mediators further state that “most of us kids come from single parent households or two hardworking parent households and once we get suspended it messes up our school work and we have to play catchup. But not only that, some kids will miss two of their meals from not being in school each day, therefore they do their best to resolve their issues while the white kids gets away with worse things.”

Story Thirteen


This school year 2014-2015, at Brockton High School, the last case involved a young black male who is a junior and works after school at a part-time job. He said before his last period in school he rushes to his locker to get his uniform to get ready for his job. Sometimes he is one or two minutes late to his last class of the day, but he explained to the teacher and the administrator the reason why he is late sometimes because he has to run all the way from one side of the Brockton High building to the other side, then grab his uniform in the process. Not only is that better for him to grab his work uniform ahead of time instead of after school because if he misses the bus he will be over an hour late to work, he also needs the job to help his mother pay the bills. The student said instead of the teacher or the administrator understanding his situation, they keep adding on demerits to his school record, while other kids who have done worse things or come to class late get a pass for their bad behavior.

This followed the first part of the letter and will be followed by the final part of the letter. Please share the letter to bring more attention to the problems addressed in it.

This was written by Michael Dockery, 617-212-8141, Sales@summitsell.com
Arranged by E. Rey

Friday, June 19, 2015

Civil Rights Violations in the Brockton School District


In March The Fact She3t covered a case in which students, parents, and community members voiced their concerns over Brockton High School's disciplinary actions, particularly students of color. In the piece "Brockon's School-to-Prison Pipeline", we mentioned a set of parents testifying before the school committee about the violations of their children's rights. One of those parents, Michael Dockery, has penned a letter to the US Department of Justice in hopes that justice for his son will be served. 

In the three part series The Fact She3t will publish segments of the letter. Mr. Dockery's hope is that with sharing these stories of his son and others he can "make a difference for these young kids. Too many families and kids have been hurt by these people's actions," because, "the more adults and kids that know about these issues the better."

***

U.S. Department of Justice
Civil Rights Division
950 Pennsylanvania Avenue, N.W.
Office of the Assistant Attorney General, Main
Washington, D.C. 20530

Re: Civil Rights Violations in the Brockton School District

Dear Correspondents,

I wish I was writing this letter to celebrate the great strides we have made as a nation, to unite all the great races and cultures of the world which have merged in the USA to make it one of the best countries on the planet. Hundreds of millions of people are co-mingling, sharing ideas, celebrating accomplishments not only of themselves but that of family, friends and country enjoying the benefits of being in a great country. Unfortunately it’s the opposite insight that has caused me to pen this letter.

I’m writing on behalf of my son and some of the ethnic students in the Brockton Public School System, whose Civil Rights have been violated in the worse way, by school administrators. These administrators, who happen to be white, think for some irrational reason they can believe the false story they tell themselves that they are superior and entitled to punish and disrupt minority students, by practicing racial bigotry and bias. The 17,000 plus student population has 80% ethnic students, but is controlled by 90% white administrators. These people which are Public Servants, who are paid to serve, protect and administer to the under age kids and future generations of our city, state and country, keep showing a destructive pattern of punishing these ethnic students. These public servants who receive government money to serve these students, lack the basic understanding of Federal and State Laws, don’t respect the law, don’t respect their job description, don’t understand human nature, thick with hypocrisy, don’t understand economics, lack diversity, social, interpersonal and cultural skills. Now with all those deficiencies and limitations these people own, they are putting their deficiencies and limitations on our kids by punishing them with harsh treatment and criminal records without proper due process, while letting the white kids get away with more disruptive behavior and are more lenient with them. These administrator’s hypocrisy and destructive behavior first came to light to me when my son had an incident in school near the end of November, 2014 when he was 15 years old. I notified the School Housemaster, Principal, Superintendent, the Mayor of Brockton, my City Councilor, the Brockton School Committee Members, and the State Senator

Some of these people even claimed to have law degrees. Without knowing anything about us or who we are as individuals, they treated my son and me so horribly, disregarding his rights, and it made me think, who else they have done this too. The arrogance and total disregard of the laws of the United States from these people when it comes to human and civil rights are shocking. The total disregard for Federal and State Laws which ensures all students are entitled to an education, free of discrimination, regardless of their background, and also disregard in following their job descriptions, and the school handbook which are derived from the Federal and state laws in unfathomable. These administrators have violated my son’s civil right and a right to due process. 

They have punished my son five separate times for the same incident without due process, claimed they have school video camera footage and witness statements of the incident and have yet to show it. They had a court case in which they filed charges against my son, and put him on 6 months’ probation. 

To explain what is really going on in the Brockton school system I will give some detail describing a few tragedies that have happened to my son and other ethnic parents and their kids at the hands of these school administrators, Brockton school police and the Plymouth County clerk magistrate in the juvenile court. The detailed report of the incident regarding my son was sent to the superintendent and everyone that I mentioned earlier in the interest of time I will make my son's story brief.

Story One

My son's incident in brief….

He was on his way to his school locker one morning, when he bumped into a young lady by accident, and he apologized to her, but yet she continued to hit him, then scratching him on the chest. Finally after the third time in her attacking him, she calmed down after someone yelled out that a hall teacher was close by. When the school called me they told me a whole other story and although the school police and the school nurse took pictures of the scratch on my son chest and claimed to have seen the video, they wrote up an entirely different report. Once I saw a whole bunch of inconsistencies, and very little fact finding, I started to question their judgment and experience as administrators. The more I questioned their mishandling of the incident the more they would punish my son. 

First they transferred him out of the class he had with the girl, second they gave him three days suspension after the matter and the hearing was closed, third they filed criminal charges for assault and battery and assault and battery with a dangerous weapon four days after the matter and that hearing was closed, fourth kicked him out the nursing program which had nothing to do with the incident, fifth transferred him to a whole other section of the school with different teachers and classes. All these punishments were done over a course of a month without any proper due process or acknowledgment of any rights whatsoever, plus all the indirect consequences of those punishments. 

The school police officer Julie Myshrall, that filed the charges against my son made up an entirely different story and trapped herself leaving out key facts and a video tape she claimed she saw. An internal affairs report was made on her for mis-carrying her duty to serve and report her correct findings. My son also told me and my wife that the school administrator that was overseeing this whole incident has a history of punishing the black kids more severely especially the Black Americans, Haitians and Cape Verdeans, than he does the white students, and everyone knows it. My son upon his return from his three days suspension, without due process, started a petition ( exb. 1) which states that Kevin Daponte mistreats ethnic students more harshly, was passed around. Upon passing the petition around the demand to sign it was so overwhelming that the school principal, Ms. Wolder, got a hold of the petition information then she stopped the petition drive. 

Within less than three hours over a 130 students and teachers signed the petition. 

As a taxpayer I was very upset. I couldn’t believe what my son was proving. This person was actually getting tax dollars in the form of a paycheck to practice racial discrimination and oppression on students. I was shocked so I set out to notify all the public officials and public servants that had direct control and had proper chain of command of these people, but nothing was done to resolve the situation. Finally I contacted the newspaper, the Brockton Enterprise, then I started to get some results. I also contacted the Board of Education Federal Office in Boston, and the Federal Office in Washington DC, but the Brockton school officials did not take those federal offices seriously or my kid rights seriously.

Once I contacted the newspaper and exposed these public servants, a series of meeting took place between me, my wife, School superintendent Kathleen Smith, Tom Minichiello Jr. School Committee chair, Brockton Principal Ms. Wolder, Bishop Teixeira a community organizer, and several of the Brockton school system support staff.

A. In several executive meetings with these people in front of witnesses both Superintendent Kathleen Smith and Principal Ms. Sharon Wolder admitted that they saw the videotaped evidence of my son, and that “the video was blurry and dark so they couldn’t make out who was who or what really happened”.

B. Tom Minichiello, Kathleen Smith, and Sharon Wolder were also shown the Petition with the over 130 student’s and teacher’s signatures regarding a racist administrator and also were informed about all the disparaging reports I had gathered from the community forums with the help of Toni Saunders of the Associated Advocacy Center regarding discrimination toward minority students.

C. Kathleen Smith told the Brockton Enterprise and the Boston Globe, that they have met with the Dockery Family for over 8 hours but we don’t understand what else they can do for us. Also Kathleen Smith and Ms. Wolder keep repeatedly parroting, telling the Brockton Enterprise (January 5th 2015), Boston Globe (April 5th 2015), Cable TV, and school Committee meetings they have put in place a policy to follow the new rule called Chapter 222, which finds different ways of punishing kids instead of suspending them.

Here are the biggest issues these people clearly missed:

1. Superintendent Kathleen Smith and Tom Minichiello claimed to have law degrees, but doesn’t understand what they are saying is a clear violation of what the laws are about or their job description.

2. They punished a young kid five separate times without due process and now they’re claiming the video was blurry??

3. There are no triple jeopardy laws in the America, but they punished a kid five separate times for the same event.

4. It’s very frustrating that Kathleen Smith who claims to have a law degree doesn’t understanding she put her foot in her mouth by stating she has met with the Dockery Family for 8 hours to resolve this issue and they are not happy. Based on Ms. Smith's legal degree she should have known or at least been aware that everyone is entitled to due process, you can’t punish someone on a video that is clearly blurry, punishing a student multiple times, and refusing to show the family the video that she claimed she saw.

5. Although Kathleen Smith, Sharon Wolder keep mentioning chapter 222, I have personally found four minority kids that school administrator drag through the court system unnecessarily and some given more suspensions to compare to their white counterparts. I was looking everywhere trying to find a white kid to prove my theory wrong, but all I heard from witnesses was that school administrators offer these white kids extra resources and breaks to get on the right track.

6. Ms. Wolder who is also black disappointed me and my wife because so many blacks from the past and throughout history have marched, got hanged from trees, got milk poured all over them so that others can shine but now she has her time to shine and right a lot of wrongs, she uses this opportunity to further punish a young black student.

7. Although Mr. Minichiello, Kathleen Smith, and Sharon Wolder, were all given a copy of the petition regarding discrimination of the ethnic students, mentioned to them about the Federal law on civil rights, education law and how Mr. Daponte is practicing racial mistreatment, Ms. Kathleen Smith said directly to everyone in the room “Mr. DaPonte is a valued team member and he’s not going anywhere”.

8. I have asked Tom Minichiello via email and in person several times, “you work for a law firm, what if over a 130 co-workers signed a petition stating a certain co-worker was practicing racial discrimination or sexual harassment , would that person still have a job? And if that person still had a job what is that saying about your character?”. He has yet to answer my question.

9. These administrators fail to realize every student they put in the court system or suspend unwisely leaves a paper trail. All the negative traps they’re setting for the kids, to give them criminal records or excessive punishment will only serve to trap and expose themselves and their own failures. Any smart person has to do is come into the school district and run an internal audit to see how many minority student got punished and who did the punishing.
To end this section about my son, this is a kid that volunteers his time to feed senior citizens and clean local parks and many other charity events with the different groups he belongs too. He has been to over 14 different countries including China, Morocco, France, etc, a once proud kid who would smile and share stories went he would see President Obama, and Secretary of State John Kerry in the countries we have been to on the news. Now he’s questioning the laws and the honesty of some people, this is not something he or my family is use too.

This will be followed by the second and final part of the letter. Please share the letter to bring more attention to the problems addressed in it. (Read Part 2 here)

This was written by Michael Dockery, 617-212-8141, Sales@summitsell.com
Arranged by E. Rey

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

The Way Wampanoags Saw Thanksgiving

Massasoit smoking a peace pipe with
Governor John Carver in Plymouth 1621.
Source: Wikipedia

In the spirit of due diligence and fact checking I thought it best to check out where Thanksgiving stems from. As for many things in this country's history I learned the bubble gum version of events in school and had to dig deeper to find the truth whether it be reaffirming or dark and drastically different. I really started thinking about Thanksgiving differently when I was in high school and learned of the Trail of Tears. If Americans were so fond of our Indigenous tribes and nations then the government wouldn't have marched them in the dead of winter half way across the country and covered them with small pox infested blankets. That really changed my thinking, and while Hip Hop is marred by the likes of Young Thug it was a Nas verse that further drove my speculation of this fairytale-esque Thanksgiving Dinner.
The Indians saved the Pilgrim
And in return the Pilgrim killed em
They call it Thanksgiving, I call your holiday hellday
Cause I'm from poverty, neglected by the wealthy
Now this month is Native American Appreciation Month and it seems as though the voice of the Indigenous people are growing louder. There have been many instances where Indigenous people are making gains. The continued fight to change the Washington Racial Slurs NFL team landed a recent victory in having the team lose its trademark. Seattle, Washington this year decided that Columbus and his notorious record of genocide was celebrated for far too long and changed the day to Indigenous Peoples Day. First Nation leaders in Canada have had to resort to dangerous confrontations to stand in the path of extracting tar sands and fighting the advances of company's that will further harm the environment. Finally it was the indigenous people who, being somewhat the guardians of mother earth and perhaps the few people who on what it seems a religious level protect the environment, led the largest climate protest in American history, over 400,000 strong, down the streets of New York City this year. So with the voice of the Indigenous people of America ringing louder we turn to a 2012 interview with Ramona Peters, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe’s Tribal Historic Preservation Officer and Indian Country Today Media Network on what really occurred when the pilgrims had their thanksgiving.

We know what we’re taught in mainstream media and in schools is made up. What’s the Wampanoag version of what happened?


Yeah, it was made up. It was Abraham Lincoln who used the theme of Pilgrims and Indians eating happily together. He was trying to calm things down during the Civil War when people were divided. It was like a nice unity story.

So it was a political thing?


Yes, it was public relations. It’s kind of genius, in a way, to get people to sit down and eat dinner together. Families were divided during the Civil War.

So what really happened?


We made a treaty. The leader of our nation at the time—Yellow Feather Oasmeequin [Massasoit] made a treaty with (John) Carver [the first governor of the colony]. They elected an official while they were still on the boat. They had their charter. They were still under the jurisdiction of the king [of England]—at least that’s what they told us. So they couldn’t make a treaty for a boatload of people so they made a treaty between two nations—England and the Wampanoag Nation.

What did the treaty say?


It basically said we’d let them be there and we would protect them against any enemies and they would protect us from any of ours. [The 2011 Native American copy coin commemorates the 1621 treaty between the Wampanoag tribe and the Pilgrims of Plymouth colony.] It was basically an I’ll watch your back, you watch mine’ agreement. Later on we collaborated on jurisdictions and creating a system so that we could live together.

What’s the Mashpee version of the 1621 meal?


You’ve probably heard the story of how Squanto assisted in their planting of corn? So this was their first successful harvest and they were celebrating that harvest and planning a day of their own thanksgiving. And it’s kind of like what some of the Arab nations do when they celebrate by shooting guns in the air. So this is what was going on over there at Plymouth. They were shooting guns and canons as a celebration, which alerted us because we didn’t know who they were shooting at. So Massasoit gathered up some 90 warriors and showed up at Plymouth prepared to engage, if that was what was happening, if they were taking any of our people. They didn’t know. It was a fact-finding mission.

When they arrived it was explained through a translator that they were celebrating the harvest, so we decided to stay and make sure that was true, because we’d seen in the other landings—[Captain John] Smith, even the Vikings had been here—so we wanted to make sure so we decided to camp nearby for a few days. During those few days, the men went out to hunt and gather food—deer, ducks, geese, and fish. There are 90 men here and at the time I think there are only 23 survivors of that boat, the Mayflower, so you can imagine the fear. You have armed Natives who are camping nearby. They [the colonists] were always vulnerable to the new land, new creatures, even the trees—there were no such trees in England at that time. People forget they had just landed here and this coastline looked very different from what it looks like now. And their culture—new foods, they were afraid to eat a lot of things. So they were very vulnerable and we did protect them, not just support them, we protected them. You can see throughout their journals that they were always nervous and, unfortunately, when they were nervous they were very aggressive.

So the Pilgrims didn’t invite the Wampanoags to sit down and eat turkey and drink some beer?


[laughs] Ah, no. Well, let’s put it this way. People did eat together [but not in what is portrayed as “the first Thanksgiving]. It was our homeland and our territory and we walked all through their villages all the time. The differences in how they behaved, how they ate, how they prepared things was a lot for both cultures to work with each other. But in those days, it was sort of like today when you go out on a boat in the open sea and you see another boat and everyone is waving and very friendly—it’s because they’re vulnerable and need to rely on each other if something happens. In those days, the English really needed to rely on us and, yes, they were polite as best they could be, but they regarded us as savages nonetheless.

So you did eat together sometimes, but not at the legendary Thanksgiving meal?


No. We were there for days. And this is another thing: We give thanks more than once a year in formal ceremony for different season, for the green corn thanksgiving, for the arrival of certain fish species, whales, the first snow, our new year in May—there are so many ceremonies and I think most cultures have similar traditions. It’s not a foreign concept and I think human beings who recognize greater spirit then they would have to say thank you in some formal way.

Wednesday, September 10, 2014

The Post 9/11 America


The following was written by: Neha Rayamajhi

Seven years ago years ago I would have never imagined myself being anxious about a date. I would have never imagined having to mentally and emotionally remind myself to remain calm and careful just because it is September the 11th.

The people killed in the incident thirteen years ago were not related to me. The killers responsible for these murders are not related to me. The political groups that have continuously abused this tragedy as a propaganda tool are not associated with me. The religion that is wrongly and continuously accused for all this is not mine. And neither is the land where this happened. Nor the people who witnessed that moment from a closer distance; geographically, politically and personally.

September 11th 2001, I was a little girl in Nepal almost twelve, almost eight –thousand miles away, almost oblivious to the disaster taking place inside the television blasting loud, surrounded by grownups in my grandfather’s house. All I understood was that some “evil men” had murdered innocent people in America. But then “evil men” were murdering innocent people everywhere, everyday, including my own country where Maoist insurgency had started taking a very violent toil. The unfamiliar face of an angry white man on the television told us to take a moment of silence in respect to the lives lost. And we did, that day for the people of America and the next day for the people of other countries mourning their and our own similar tragedies.


Seven years ago the same day as I sat in a classroom in my new American college, I was startled by subtle stares I received whenever the professor mentioned those”evil terrorists.” The class was full of American students who hadn't quite had the time to learn about my background, or the geography of Asia it seemed, but the stares made me uncomfortable. They were not hateful, at least not all of them, but they made me feel uncomfortable. I did not understand the connection.

“But you do look like an Arab.” Clarified one of my classmates much later. And I still did not see the connection.

The years following that have been different. Different in a sense that I have now become accustomed to the stereotypes and homogenization of Muslims, Hindus, Sikhs, and of Arabs, Afghans, (South) Asians; and to the realization that in a post 9/11 era our status as immigrants from the continent has morphed from being “the other” to the “dangerous other.”

Irrespective of our diverse cultural, historical and geographical backgrounds, we have now been lumped into a single category. And to some extent it makes sense, considering the shared experiences of being welcomed with offensive names, remarks about our “barbaric” religions, “smelly curry,” funny accents and such. As well as the expectations that come with the myth of a model minority. The high expectations from us to be able to tolerate racism and xenophobia, while silently and submissively making profits for the boardrooms and classrooms seem to bond us together. We are a single category. And the last seven years have been different because I am no longer concerned about disassociating myself with this category, or any other group(s) I am generalized into.

I am however, still concerned about the fact that those subtle stares still make me as uncomfortable as before. I am still frustrated about the fact that “the others” in this society are unconsciously or otherwise, held responsible for harmful acts that we have nothing to do with. I am still angry about the fact that I find myself, and my kin, having to explain or apologize on behalf of murderers (or suspected murders) just because they possibly sound or look like us. It is ironic that immigrants and people of color continue to sacrifice for nations yet in any time of tragedy they continue to be the sacrificial lamb.

Things have changed since I was twelve. I can no longer look at 9/11 as an outsider. Official immigration policies, unofficial attitudes of people, stares I still get since my first September in America, the heated arguments with my cohorts, micro aggressions on social media sites, news of family and friends getting harassed online or in public spaces everything reminds me that I can no longer distance myself from the attack on America in September of 2011. And at the same time, all these things simultaneously remind me that I am an outsider as if I should be apologetic about my otherness.

All seven years of being here, I have had to remind myself to be calm and careful around this date. This year is no different.

Tomorrow another angry white man in the television will tell me to take a moment of silence for the lives lost this day on this land thirteen years ago. And I will take that moment, with all my sincere respect for them, but also for the millions of others who have lost their lives in Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and other nations, because of this day thirteen years ago. May all of them rest in peace.

This reflection was written by Neha Rayamajhi you can follow her on twitter @NehaRaySays
Find a list of her contributions in the "About Us" section 

Friday, August 22, 2014

The Motherless Children in The Other America



     During times this nation deals with racial anxiety and protest people often ask what Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. would say. It can be seen that 50 years after the civil rights movement, things have not changed, when it comes to oppression of the average minority in America. So there is no need to wonder, but to go to his speech “The Other America” following the Watts riots when he spoke at Stanford University April 14th, 1967. I thought it best to include his words within my commentary amidst the ongoing protests in Ferguson and nationwide.
 I want to discuss the race problem tonight and I want to discuss it very honestly. I still believe that freedom is the bonus you receive for telling the truth. Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. And I do not see how we will ever solve the turbulent problem of race confronting our nation until there is an honest confrontation with it and a willing search for the truth and a willingness to admit the truth when we discover it…
     Richie Havens in 1969 opened up Woodstock, his last song was a rendition of an old spiritual “Motherless Child” and “Freedom”. I can’t help but get chills when I hear some of the verses of the song. “Sometimes I feel like a motherless child, a long way from my home.” When I hear this I can’t help but hear the sorrow of the black man and woman in America. It seems as though the African American is just like that motherless child, a nation-less child, a long way in time and distance from the African continent. Now it’s been over 150 years since the signing of the emancipation proclamation that dismantled the owning of slaves in America. However, it seems as though African Americans have never truly been able to escape the plantation. Whether it was sharecropping, Jim Crow, and now Mass Incarceration. The trials of the black man do not diminish but simply transform from one form of institutional oppression to another.
There are two Americas. One America is beautiful for situation. In this America, millions of people have the milk of prosperity and the honey of equality flowing before them. This America is the habitat of millions of people who have food and material necessities for their bodies, culture and education for their minds, freedom and human dignity for their spirits. In this America children grow up in the sunlight of opportunity.
     Now it has been some time since the shooting death of Mike Brown but the wounds are still fresh, and it looks as though a movement may be starting out of Ferguson. It is clear that race is still a very big issue in America, which ties in the issue of police brutality and police militarization because while people may say this is more than a color thing. You cannot overlook the fact that many of these problems such as police brutality and militarization first happen in the black community and then bubble up to the broader range of the poor class, and middle class. One has to do their history. There is no such thing as a bunch of vigilantes like that of Cliven Bundy if it were African American. In 1985 police bombed an entire neighborhood in West Philadelphia combating a radical group called MOVE.

     Police brutality hasn't changed from the end slavery, from Rodney King, to Eric Garner and Mike Brown. As long as the color of one's skin can still cause a women to clutch her purse a little tighter, or a police officer to shoot an unarmed 18 year old college bound child 6 times, twice in the head. This country will remain mentally chained to the skeleton of slavery.

     If CNN anchors can openly suggest using water cannons on peaceful protesters in 2014, the nation is still chained.

     If peaceful protesters of men, women, and children, are met with police in military dress, armored vehicles, dogs, tear gas, and arrests, this nation is still chained.

     When reporters are being arrested and tear gassed for documenting the situation in Ferguson, this nation is still chained.

     When city officials and state senators are being tear gassed for standing in solidarity with peaceful protestors, this nation is still chained.

     When amnesty international has to observe the events passing in Ferguson, this nation is still chained.

     When John Lewis and Jesse Jackson are still marching for the same problems 50 years after the March on Washington, this nation is still chained.

     It seems as though every time an unarmed black child is shot down in the streets there is a cry from the nation of minorities and oppressed and sympathizers, some discussion and discourse on the matter, and then another unarmed black child is shot down in the streets. There needs to be more discussion on what it means to be a black man in society because it stretches across cultural differences among minorities and oft times a precursor to how the rest of the nation will be treated. The Occupy Wall Street movement in some respects did not start until middle class white America felt financial burdens minority communities have been facing for decades.

But there is another America. This other America has a daily ugliness about it that transforms the buoyancy of hope into the fatigue of despair. In this other America, thousands and thousands of people, men in particular walk the streets in search for jobs that do not exist. In this other America, millions of people are forced to live in vermin-filled, distressing housing conditions where they do not have the privilege of having wall-to-wall carpeting, but all too often, they end up with wall-to-wall rats and roaches. Almost forty percent of the Negro families of America live in sub-standard housing conditions…Probably the most critical problem in the other America is the economic problem. There are so many other people in the other America who can never make ends meet because their incomes are far too low if they have incomes, and their jobs are so devoid of quality….

     Now Michael Brown’s parents have laid him to rest. Protests are still happening in Ferguson and around the country for Mike Brown and all the Mike Browns across the nation. Just after Brown was shot, another young black man was gunned down in St. Louis not too far from Ferguson. Here in the Boston area you cannot go on without remembering the name of Burrell Anthony Ramsey White who was gunned down during a routine traffic stop by BPD in 2012 and still does not have a headstone on his grave. In California people have taken the streets to protest for the shooting death of unarmed Ezell Ford, who suffered from mental illness, by LAPD. How about the shooting death of John Crawford in an Ohio Wal-Mart for holding a toy gun. Eric Garner was choked to death by NYPD for allegedly selling loose cigarettes leaving behind 5 children. The constant question asked by these communities facing such harsh police brutality is who is policing the police? Some in Ferguson are referring to the protests as a “Negro Spring” because there needs to be a drastic change in lawmakers and policies in the area. There are various petitions circulating at the moment like one to make sure officers wear cameras in order to record disputes. The Dream Defenders have kicked off a Hands Up Don't Shoot campaign for policy change and continuing the dialogue regarding police brutality. The hope is that justice can be served in the case of Mike Brown. Concern with the man prosecuting police officer Darrel Wilson is of serious concern seeing that the prosecutor’s father was a cop killed by an African American on duty. As Eric Holder has visited Ferguson and the Department of Justice is monitoring the case America and the world will see if justice is served to Mike Brown.
Somewhere we must come to see that human progress never rolls in on the wheels of inevitability, it comes through the tireless efforts and the persistent work of dedicated individuals who are willing to be co-workers with God and without this hard work time itself becomes an ally of the primitive forces of social stagnation. And so we must always help time and realize that the time is always right to do right.

You can find this piece featured in the LA Progressive

Written by: E. Rey

Thursday, August 14, 2014

4 AM Prayers for Ferguson

Vigil at the spot where Michael Brown was killed,
Sunday evening, in Ferguson, Mo.
The Associated Press

The following reflection was written by: Neha Rayamajhi

I was woken up too early today with thoughts of people in Ferguson, Missouri. With a heavy heart I reached out to the closest person I had for comfort. That failed miserably and with a heavier heart I logged on to my social sites I guess looking for some sense of solidarity.

Ice bucket challenge. Few news on Palestine. A lot of grief for a Hollywood actor. And couple of other national and international, both relevant and not so much news.

Whatever I could find on Ferguson was far too few and seemed to be a non-issue for the majority of my non-black folks on social media.

Don’t get me wrong.

My heart still hurts for Gaza. For the Nigerian girls who are still missing. For victims of recent landslides in my own country Nepal. For the maybe “legal” but definitely unfair deportations. For Robin Williams and the society that triggers mental and social illnesses...

This morning though, I also hurt a little too hard for Mike Brown from Missouri, and the Mike Browns from all across America who were made to leave too early.

No I am not saying that this is a pick and choose issue. In the words of brilliant Katina Parker,
“People dying unnecessarily, under any circumstances is worthy of compassion- and- ACTION.”
What I am disheartened about is the lack of compassion and action against atrocities committed by the police against people of color, and especially black folks in this country.

To me this apathy is more than just hypocritical. First because in most instances of injustice, I have seen African-Americans stand in solidarity with the oppressed peoples. Second, I have always seen organizers and activists, across races, borrowing strategies and styles of resistance from the said community. Liberal, radical, progressive- no matter what label, most academics outside the political right fill our book shelves and arguments with the likes of Angela Davis, Audre Lorde, Maya Angelou, James Baldwin, and more whenever convenient. And among the younger generation I find myself and many others being educated and inspired every day by thinkers and doers like Kim Katrin Milan and Janet Mock, or my very own Cherrell Brown and Ed Whitfield, and so many others in other many spaces.

Most of the time our fights against oppressions are fueled by aspects and examples of African American resilience and revolutionaries yet when it comes to being in solidarity with the African-American struggles, the majority of the world stays silent.

In fact, generally, when it comes to issues of race people remain silent.

Peace corps returns who travel all the way to over-exploited nations to “help” black women and children rarely make trips to the next city to help communities who lose their children to racist institutions. Missionaries who send money and services to countries like mine to “save” brown savages rarely send support down couple of streets across their churches to communities infested by racist cops. Liberal white activists who want to wear Keffiyeh as a symbol of unity with the Palestinians (even if it is bought from institutions that sponsor Zionist propaganda) rarely want to reflect on the skin they wear that could possibly also perpetuate white supremacy and privileges responsible for genocides. Students in liberal arts colleges who write thesis and “think pieces” on refugee struggles and dictatorship in foreign lands rarely think about instances like Ferguson and the breach of democracy taking place right now right here. Or so it seems.

And I wonder if this lack of concern apart from racism is also a result of guilt. The topic of race is controversial because it requires the dominant group, even in progressive spaces, to reflect on their own actions and maybe even take responsibility. It is easier instead, to focus on battles away from homes. It is more comfortable to wage a war against Kony in Uganda, to sustain and be part of narratives that make you feel heroic without having to address the villain in you and/or your loved ones.

Or maybe people are still waiting for “credible” news reports. As if people on the ground in Ferguson with tweets and videos of lived experiences that come along tear gases and men in uniform are somehow less credible than corporations who come to us with selective news.

Reports on destruction caused by racism, no matter how frequent, do not get covered by American institutions as much as they should. Yet the same institutions love reminding the people here and around the world, how we as brown and black people of the “third world” are responsible for each other’s murders. Both of these representation trends are rooted in values of white supremacy that refuse to value any lives other than their own because their very survival is based on making profits off these deaths. Racism and imperialism are not separate, or extinct like many love to claim.

On the other hand for us, people of color, and specially immigrants, anti-blackness is a real issue and the most relevant reason for this disengagement. But there is also the socialization of silence and fear. We are taught from our early years in the new country that we as the “others” do not have the right to complain about the U.S. That critiquing is a luxury reserved for the “real Americans” only- and I am not talking about the indigenous people of this land. You see, with our accents, addressing the weaknesses of this country gets translated to hate and comes with consequences. But it is important for us as a community to remember and remind each other that resisting is also a form of love. What often gets dismissed as rants and redundant complaints are sometimes honest concerns for the country that has given us a lot in its own ways.

Yes I agree that some injustices are more urgent and closer to us than others. That there are similar news I should be aware of but I am not. That not everybody can be equally invested in all these issues and in the same way.

But, explain to me why some people are incapable of mourning over dead bodies in their own backyards. Why is it that some news of deaths are national losses yet others are just expected to be lost?

Honestly, I don’t know where I am going with all this. It is 4 am. My heart is heavy, and I am looking for some comfort.

This reflection was written by Neha Rayamajhi you can follow her on twitter @NehaRaySays
Find a list of her contributions in the "About Us" section

Friday, April 4, 2014

Speaking of Black Folk


Source
I have no doubt that you’ve heard, at some time in your life, something like this: “Black people don’t do, say or think X,” where X is anything that can be done, said or thought. Claims of this form are made by many different people, and they’re so common in conversations by, about, and among Black folk, that they’re usually taken as Gospel. “Black people don’t skydive,” or, “Black people don’t listen to death metal,” or “Black people (all of them) believe God exists, and that church attendance is necessary for the good life.” Granted, you might not have heard these specific statements, but you no doubt, get my drift: when talking about the race—individual Black people taken collectively—there is a tendency of some (maybe most) speakers to generalize, universalize, stereotype and essentialize. (And yes, I did just the same thing in that sentence. But bear with me).

We all know how these conversations and comments sound, and even what they’re meant to describe. But do we really believe them? Do we take them “with a grain of salt”? Do we think such statements actually say something true, or point to something real, about the world and, specifically, the (Black) people in it? Whether you do or not, I want to suggest that when it comes to Black folk—whom I love and appreciate—we ought to be careful when engaging this conversation; specifically, the conversation about who is “really” or “authentically” Black.

“Come on son. Chill,” you might say. “It’s not that serious. I think we all know which statements about Black people are meant to be taken literally, figuratively, loosely or offensively.” Perhaps. I don’t doubt it. But it’s a curious thing, then—isn’t it?—that so many of us Black folk understand these nuances, yet harmful narratives and stereotypes persist and proliferate.[1] Growing up as a young Black student, for example, if you’re considered a nerd—because you read regularly, speak articulately, and earn good grades—that means you’re “acting white.” Really? But there’s a rich tradition of Black academic and scholastic achievement!

Why would one Black student tell another reading widely and speaking articulately is “acting white”? Are literacy and articulacy the sole property of white people? Are they all smart, well-read, and articulate? Are intelligence and critical thinking skills attainable only by white folk? And what does it say about Black folk “generally” when this insult is addressed by young Black students to other young Black students who want to learn, and strengthen their intellects? It turns out, wanting to read challenging texts, excel in math and science, and write clear prose, means you’re not really or authentically Black—you’re a sellout. The psychological damage of such messages—which one hopes are on the wane—requires no further comment.

Black people don’t play violin.” Why not? According to whom? Perhaps in one’s personal experience, one has never encountered a Black violinist. That’s fair enough. But to assume that no Black person plays the violin is a gratuitous claim—really, a non-sequitur. And even if it was empirically verifiable—hypothetically-speaking—that not a single Black person plays the violin, would that mean, then, that this is merely something Black people don’t do (because of lack of interest, or they haven’t received the requisite training, etc.)? Or, would this signify a skill of which Black folk are inherently incapable of attaining? There is a difference.

Please do not miss my point here. It is not that Black folk have actually declared, “Black people don’t play violin,” or, “Black people don’t skydive”—though it’s plausible you’ve heard a Black person state something similar. The point here is that Black people are not a monolith. There exist myriad things Black folk do and don’t do, say and don’t say, think and don’t think. We are not a universally-agreed group who cheer on the same sports teams, read the same novels, watch the same shows on television (some of us watch little to no television at all!), listen to the same music and so on. That’s just not who we are!—if I might be permitted, for that brief moment, to speak for all of us. Moment over.

And here it should be remembered—in all this talk by Black folk about Black folk—that Blackness is not circumscribed to Black folk in America. “Black” signifies certain histories and cultural experiences in the U.S., sure. Read more expansively, however, it encompasses a diaspora, which includes the cultures and traditions of the range of African-descended folk, from Haitians to Jamaicans to Nigerians and so on.[2]

According to a 2009 social research poll, most Black people (in America) are religious. Note, however, that not all of us are religious, or have been. Atheism and agnositicism are respectable positions one can hold regarding the question of God (and there are several others). Moreover, although non-believers (generally considered) constitute a (growing) minority, some Black people do identify as atheists and agnostics—whether or not Black believers agree, or understand why.

Similarly, some Black folk are—though we liberals, Democrats and leftists wonder why—conservative or Republican. In fact, some Black folk identify politically as Democrat, but hold social views scarcely distinguishable from conservatives! Go figure! Black people are complicated, and there are one-million-and-one views out there up for debate. We are truly a motely crew.

This can go on and on. The notion, however, is this: when thinking about, and especially discussing, Black folk, it is imperative to mind the dissent, diversity, and differences that obtain (and always have) in our community. Ours is, and should ever remain, a cultural (or racial) democracy. Of course, we are united in our shared interests, histories, and cultures, but we are different as well. We are young and old; LGBTQI and heterosexual; believers and non-believers; Democrats and Republicans; Capitalists and Socialists; American, Jamaican, Haitian, Nigerian, etc.; upper-middle class, working class and underclass; and so on. These nuances matter. And, for the most part (forgive my idealism), this is a beautiful thing.

Thus, in our conversations about us, we should never pass over this beautiful diversity in silence. There exists no warrant to police Blackness whereby some of us claim that only certain Black folk are “really” or “authentically” Black. Our depth and breadth as a people transcend such myopic provincialism and stale essentialism.

As Audre Lorde reminds us:

It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences. Our Dead Behind Us: Poems


 *And check out Black Public Media's Black Folk Don't series on YouTube.

Notes:

[1] I do not mean that these, “harmful narratives and stereotypes persist and proliferate,” exclusively because we Black folk advance them. Nothing could be further from the truth. However, to be sure, all (many) of us have probably perpetuated—or indifferently abided—harmful stereotypes about Black folk at some point in our lives.

[2] The African diaspora is extremely vast. For more information, see http://www2.coloradocollege.edu/Dept/HY/HY243Ruiz/Research/diaspora.html. I thank E. Rey for apprising me of this omission in an earlier draft of this piece.

You can follow the writer on twitter @__nolan_ 

Monday, July 22, 2013

Getting #JusticeForTrayvon

Source

"Today is a defining moment for the status of my father’s dream. Whatever the Zimmerman verdict is... in the words of my father, we must conduct ourselves on the higher plane of dignity and discipline. Trayvon Martin will forever remain in the annals of history next to Medgar Evers and Emmett Till as symbols for the fight for equal justice for all." 
-Dr. Bernice King
As a young Black man in America the night George Zimmerman walked out of court a free man, I was reminded once again what kind of conditions people of color face in this country. Obama was quoted on Friday, “Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago,” since actions speak louder than words I would hope the president and the first African American Attorney General, Eric Holder, continue the federal investigation and charge Zimmerman for the tragic crime he committed.

Many people want to be colorblind, or say 'if George was black' and 'if Trayvon was white' and whatever else. At the end of the day you put it like this. A child was walking on the street. Yes he might have smoked weed in the past, maybe he enjoyed stupid things like gold teeth. What 17-year old doesn't do stupid things or questionable things in their teenage years. This same child was approached by a man that had a criminal past, which somehow was continually exonerated partly in thanks to his father who was a judge. This child was followed by a man who seemingly took the law into his own hands. This boy carrying skittles and an Arizona was approached by a man armed with a gun. Whatever scuffle may or may not have ensued this man decided that he would be the sole judge, jury, and persecutor, and take the life of a child. Whether Trayvon was White American, or Latino, or Asian, he was a child that had his life taken. Taken by a man who played a god and decided when that child's life would end.

Let us remind ourselves that Trayvon Martin was an African American child in the state of Florida. Let us not flatter ourselves as Americans and think that somehow within the last 50 years we were able to accomplish the eradication of racism and reconciliation of 400 years of minority oppression. ESPECIALLY in the south. One can look to the stories of slaves used as alligator bait in the state, the countless pictures and paintings are hard to refute the dark past. This is the state Trayvon was supposed to by tried fairly in. This case further troubled me as I have a lot of family in Florida. My cousins in high school aren't safe to walk the streets at night when any vigilante can shoot them dead in the name of self defense and stand their ground. Prosecutors like Angela Corey that are soft on murderers like George Zimmerman let to go free. And hard on mothers like Marissa Alexander (20 years jail), should be fired. Nonetheless, The Trayvon case has passed, the verdict dealt. What has happened, happened, the past cannot be changed. What cannot happen though is stagnation in our present time. There cannot be the twiddling of thumbs or the watching of Love and Hip Hop and other mindless media outlets.

Dream Defenders occupying #TakeOverFL
The time is now more than ever. Organizations such as the Dream Defenders headed by Phillip Agnew in Florida have been occupying the state capitol in Florida since July 16th and demand legislative change from Governor Rick Scott. The law they demand is the Trayvon Martin Act and a petition for it can be signed here. Martin Luther King Jr. once said "An injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Even beyond the color lines these Stand Your Ground laws and statutes provide the scary opening for countless law backed executions. There should never be a law supported by the government that allows for the murder of another human being even if said murderer had the ability to flee the scene. We as citizens of these United States of America cannot stand and watch the murders of children and others so barbarically. The time is now. On Saturday, vigils around the nation were held in honor of Trayvon Martin. In NYC Sybrina Fulton, Trayvon's mom, was met by the Rev. Al Sharpton, stars Jay-Z and Beyonce, and a massive crowd. She was quoted: