Commentary

COMMENTARY: When they take our Black boys

NEW PITTSBURGH COURIER — Growing up in America can be a very risky business for Black males. Too many—perhaps a majority—of young Black males get mentally “scarred” from a court system that targets them for eternal struggle. It’s called the United States Penal System. It can be a very evil system designed to target Blacks and keep them under control. Why? Perhaps it is a method of keeping economic control of a population. People with criminal records normally cannot find economic success in our society. A criminal record equates to designed failure and poverty.

Published

6 years ago

July 1, 2019

Courier Editor

By Harry C. Alford & Kay DeBow

Growing up in America can be a very risky business for Black males. Too many—perhaps a majority—of young Black males get mentally “scarred” from a court system that targets them for eternal struggle. It’s called the United States Penal System. It can be a very evil system designed to target Blacks and keep them under control. Why? Perhaps it is a method of keeping economic control of a population. People with criminal records normally cannot find economic success in our society. A criminal record equates to designed failure and poverty.

As we evolve America has been improving in how it treats its minority population. President Trump has taken a leadership position in Penal Reform. This is a very big “game changer” in the social arena of our culture. We should embrace it and allow it to flourish and succeed. A prosecution process that leads to no cure or rehabilitation is perpetual hell for offenders. They are doomed to fail at rehabilitation and become “lost” in a societal “wilderness.”

A great book about this is written by Dr. Jawanza Kunjufu and is entitled “Countering the Conspiracy to Destroy Black Boys.” We highly recommend this book for all parents. It is important for Black parents to be alert to the fact that one of the components of early Black slavery was to break up the family unit. The system did this by attacking the male component of any Black family or group. The effects of this multi-century old practice still linger on in American society. In fact, not just America but wherever people of color live in a society that is majority White—Brazil, Columbia, Puerto Rico, England, Italy, wherever. Times are improving. We are getting closer to justice but still have a long way to go.

One of the best things Harry’s mother, Christine Brown Alford, ever did for him was to have him feel the evilness of segregation. She would send him to Jim Crow Louisiana to spend summer with his relatives. She wanted him to know his “roots” and to be able to compare the opportunities afforded by integration versus the “roadblocks erected in the name of segregation. They were two of the best summers a young Black boy could have. My cousins and friends were genuine people with good hearts. Despite the segregated facilities and “evil White people” who despised the appearance of us within their environment, life was good. We just had to stay away from “them”. The friendships that were made were meant to last a normal lifetime. Unbeknownst to us, many of us would not live a normal lifetime. The summers of skinny dipping, jug fishing, snake hunting, horseback riding, etc. are fond memories now—never to return.

Decades later, his parents retired and left California to return to lovely rural Bossier Parish, Louisiana. During one visit Harry sat with his cousin and asked for an update on what the “fellas” were now doing. “How is John Roy”, he asked. His reply: “He stole a car and got into a car chase with the state police. He ran the car into a tree and was killed.” Next question: “What is ‘Po (Napoleon) doing?” His reply: “Po got into a fight in a Ft. Worth bar and was shot dead.” Next question: “What about Linnell?” His reply: “Linnell tried to rob a drug store and was shot dead by the police.” One more time: “we hear Webster (world class sprinter for Southern University) was now with the Los Angeles Police Department.” His reply: “You heard about that Ramparts dirty cops’ scandal?” “Well, Webster was caught up in it. He is now sitting in the wrong side of a police cell.”

It went on and on. Ninety percent of Harry’s male Southern childhood friends had ill-fated futures waiting for them. That racist, Jim Crow society was there to catch them. It seems the big difference between them and Harry was a father looking over him demanding discipline. Without a loving father, a Black male has a slim chance for success. Without a loving male figure, a Black boy is prey for a system that is designed to catch him and scar him for life. It is a matter of economic domination. According to the Census Bureau, “The percentage of White children under 18 who live with both parents almost doubles that of Black children, according to the data. While 74.3 percent of all White children below the age of 18 live with both parents, only 38.7 percent of Black minors can say the same. A father’s absence leads to anti-social behavior.

As an example, the state of California has built more prisons in the last 30 years than colleges. Those prisons are predominantly filled with Blacks and Hispanics. It doesn’t take “rocket science” to figure this game out. Success is so hard to attain without a strong family unit. Don’t let them take your Black boys.

(Harry Alford is the co-founder, president/CEO of the National Black Chamber of Commerce ®. Kay DeBow is the co-founder, executive vice president of the Chamber.)

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This article originally appeared in the New Pittsburgh Courier.

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Remembering George Floyd

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing.

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Oakland Post

Mural showing the portrait of George Floyd in Mauerpark in Berlin. To the left of the portrait the lettering "I can't Breathe" was added, on the right side the three hashtags #GeorgeFloyd, #Icantbreathe and #Sayhisname. The mural was completed by Eme Street Art (facebook name) / Eme Free Thinker (signature) on 29 May 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)

By April Ryan
BlackPressUSA Newswire

“The president’s been very clear he has no intentions of pardoning Derek Chauvin, and it’s not a request that we’re looking at,” confirms a senior staffer at the Trump White House. That White House response results from public hope, including from a close Trump ally, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene. The timing of Greene’s hopes coincides with the Justice Department’s recent decision to end oversight of local police accused of abuse. It also falls on the fifth anniversary of the police-involved death of George Floyd on May 25th. The death sparked national and worldwide outrage and became a transitional moment politically and culturally, although the outcry for laws on police accountability failed.

The death forced then-Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to focus on deadly police force and accountability. His efforts while president to pass the George Floyd Justice in policing act failed. The death of George Floyd also put a spotlight on the Black community, forcing then-candidate Biden to choose a Black woman running mate. Kamala Harris ultimately became vice president of the United States alongside Joe Biden. Minnesota State Attorney General Keith Ellison prosecuted the cases against the officers involved in the death of Floyd. He remembers,” Trump was in office when George Floyd was killed, and I would blame Trump for creating a negative environment for police-community relations. Remember, it was him who said when the looting starts, the shooting starts, it was him who got rid of all the consent decrees that were in place by the Obama administration.”

In 2025, Police-involved civilian deaths are up by “about 100 to about 11 hundred,” according to Ellison. Ellison acknowledges that the Floyd case five years ago involved a situation in which due process was denied, and five years later, the president is currently dismissing “due process. “The Minnesota Atty General also says, “Trump is trying to attack constitutional rule, attacking congressional authority and judicial decision-making.” George Floyd was an African-American man killed by police who knocked on his neck and on his back, preventing him from breathing. During those minutes on the ground, Floyd cried out for his late mother several times. Police subdued Floyd for an alleged counterfeit $20 bill.