Amarion Allen, 11-years-old, stands in front of a police line shortly before shots were fired in a police-officer involved shooting in Ferguson, Missouri August 9, 2015. Two people were shot in the midst of a late-night confrontation between riot police and protesters, after a day of peaceful events commemorating the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a white officer one year ago. REUTERS/Rick Wilking TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY - RTX1NPTC

The 8YJ conversation about Ferguson

Dakarai:
I don’t know if I can be surprised about anything involving the police and race in 2014. This entire Mike Brown thing feels to be more about media coverage than the actual incident that happened and how people reacted to it. As with everything now, before we get into the nuts and bolts of what actually happens. People wanted to instinctively react like this was a reality TV show, and once again make their evaluations based entirely on how they view the world.

Drew:
I agree,it almost seems scripted. Look at how they made the announcement, it was the LeBron announcement all over again only this time I totally understood the looting and anger. They played the community of Ferguson like a fiddle but I don’t know if even they expected the response they got. They were shutting down bridges and Shit in other states.

I pray that prosecutor has life insurance and a fast car.

Dakarai:
HA! I didn’t have to be the one who brought Lebron into this which is amazing. This is such a clusterfuck from the idea of having an announcement to timing it for 9pm at night letting everyone have a day to be properly riled up and lose belief in the legal system. In all things like this everyone becomes a qualified arm chair attorney and can’t wait to throw in their own legal opinion on what they should or shouldn’t have done. They had 100 days to prepare for the response, I think at some point the media and everyone got the narrative that they wanted. All the cameras were pointed at the violent protesters no one really cares about the peaceful silent demonstration. That doesn’t drive ratings doesn’t play to everyone’s preconceived notion of an impending race war. (A crucial tea party talking point).

Drew:
It was so interesting flipping between NBC and FOX. NBC showed fires being put out and the aftermath whereas Fox kept blasting on about how this wasn’t MLKs dream and “the animals” out there causing corruption. Fox is the biggest troll of life, this was XMas come early for them. I’m torn for several reasons because this topic is not as cut and dry as race…to call this a race war or race related is dismissive to the gravity of what we have going on here. Start with the community, the kid was obviously abrasive to some degree that warranted the officers aggression (though the officer admittedly went too far). Then you look at how close this situation was to the Trayvvon incident. Then theres the angle of police protocol, the witnesses, the reaction of our own family and friends. This one situation shed so much light on that city as a whole; why was all of this “new” information about how racist this town was swept under the rug? Sure we can say black and white…thats easy. But America needs to look at itself and ask themselves it their process broken.

Thats what I took from it at least…..Still, I wonder what Ja Rule is thinking about this right now. I need that interview to happen.

Dakarai:
Systemic bigotry makes this story so predictable we all saw this decision coming and it was more resignation than surprise by a lot us. Seemed like a Law and Order episode: we knew the beats of the story before we got to see how it ended. Another thing that’s so awful about this is that there are people you think are intelligent being intentionally obtuse just so it can support their point of why this was the correct decision or why it was a horrible crime. There’s a bottom line that exists in this that’s undeniable though. Mike Brown like Trayvon Martin carried no weapon. While MIke may have been guilty of something else, Trayvon’s crime was not being submissive enough. That is especially true for black men, when you’re perception is that you’re dangerous no matter how you try to differentiate yourself. You may even hear the old “We don’t mean you we mean them, you’re not like them”. The perception exists and all they’re telling you is that they’re aware of your difference. Kanye once had a lyric, “As long as I’m in Polo smiling they think they got me”, and they do. Their real crime was not being submissive. It seems like that’s what they want to beat into you, at the same time they judge you for rebelling against that subconscious need.

We are allowed to say that this is different than the Trayvon Martin and Gardner cases right?

Drew:
Absolutely. I call it the Obama effect: everyone thought that once Obama got elected the “race war” would be over. My god he’s half black half white…its like Tarantino was behind the whole thing. Problem is it didn’t go down quite the way anyone thought it would. I think a lot of people who voted for him did so because he was nonthreatening and wasn’t Al Sharpton and the like. He wasn’t screaming out black power, he was intelligent, soft spoken and thought out. So when they elected him I feel like they thought they were doing the black community a solid. “We gave u a black president, what else do u want?” Which brings me to why I call this new age “blackishness”, if u will, the Obama effect because now theres a separation of sorts. Before we were all black and feared. Now they say ok, be this to be accepted or we treat u like shit. So speak politely, don’t adhere to base human nature in times of crisis and for gods sake don’t remind me of the past. He backfired on us and Ferguson is a grim reminder of what happens when you’re not appropriate black. I’m simple, perhaps even naive and if I am I accept that. I think we all have prejudice as well as we all make assumptions based on stereotype. But at the end of the day we are all human. “Picture me being scared of a man who breaths the same air as me”- Biggie. Why is that only applicable to Western townships staring down the police with guns and not to those rioting in Ferguson right now? I don’t know if I am for these riots but in the words of Jay Electronica “I ain glad at em, but I ain mad at em”.

Have we met our rapper quote quota or nah? Cause I can do this all day.
Which actually is another point that should be addressed: America cant claim ignorance to this shit. Its in rap songs. Their kids are memorizing the lyrics to the tragedies that take place. People know. But I digress.

Dakarai:
This existed way before Obama. He’s just in office now so any race related issues he gets all the emoji eyes pointed directly at him. Cliff Huxtable wasn’t even the first this goes back further and further before civil rights, before the civil war, before the middle passage. I just think that while a culture of wanting black men to be submissive is invariably going to lead to rebellion. Think about you at work, you know you can’t be you, you can’t be as snarky as you want, you better smile.

There’s no such thing as a resting bitch face for a black man. That’s called a threat.

Music is entertainment though. I’ve never really gotten this argument. People’s inability to separate a criminal act from the entertainment that is propagating it. Why are gangster movies never in the cross hairs as much as hip hop is? On this stance I have to go conservative because at some point personal responsibility has to be paramount because the only other recourse is censorship and no one wants that. And Migos bust be allowed to continue.

Drew:
Migos writes the songs the whole world sings my friends. Its funny because I have 3 versions of myself: With the Bahamians I’m “Hey, whatchu sayin Keeng?!”, with the ex-pats I’m “Chad, Dylan, how was lunch? I trust it was to your liking”, then I get in a chat with you guys or talk to people who know me and I’m a combination of the 2. Why is that not ok though? Why cant I have my accent and be intelligent and yet quote Young Thug sometimes? Cause i truly don’t get tired. And only black people have this duality to them or else it can legit result in failure in life. Unless you’re irish….no one understands them but they make scotch so…

Did we make Colt 45 or was that given to us?
Is that super racist that I said that?

Dakarai:
In reverse. Yes that was super racist, no we didn’t make Colt 45. Kevin Gates says I don’t get tired not Young Thug. The best way to figure that out is I don’t get tired is a full sentence, you’d never be able to understand a full sentence from Young Thug. Other races and religions of people have this duality, ours is just one that can lead to us being perceived as threatening. I’m sure any muslim person who’s observed praying can relate. That’s the “choice” you’re offered. Don’t call Chad or Dylan “Keeng” though, that makes you sound submissive too. There is a certain sense of culpability by the people who are consuming this news so gleefully. There was pain on the face of the parents and when I saw that I wasn’t thinking about racial discrimination. I was thinking that a family just lost a son. Each side has become so ridiculous that the memes have already been circulated but you probably knew them without anyone saying something.

Why don’t they protest black on black crime?

Why didn’t they shoot those mass shooters?

But they killed Micheal and Trayvon

Riots? Don’t white people riot all the time when their team wins a championship?

Oh that one from WEB DUbious I’ve seen that like tons of places.

Supremely wrong and inaccurate smh

12 shots

12

Drew:
Ya but thats the internet. At some point we have to separate internet from reality. Remember the cheerios “controversy” on youtube? Cheerios wasn’t aware that youtube is the mecca of trolls and totally thought they were revolutionaries by still airing the commercial with the mixed raced couple and the mixed kid. Trolls will troll. What more so concerns me were the comments on Facebook and how people don’t know they’re being diet racist. I’ve seen so many white people on my wall call the rioters “animals” and “thugs” that its insane. Even amongst ignorant Bahamians who say “well he had it coming” and “look at the size of him i would have shot him too”. See heres the problem, we play too much. When some shit happens to a dog or a white woman white people get together quick and have that fundraiser or bake sale and raise appropriate polite hell.

Us?

We clown each other, talk shit and crab bucket ourselves into forgetting what happened. Let Rhianna release an album next week Thursday or let Kendall Kardashian have a nip slip.

Curtains

We’re right back to being what they want us to be. We’re so easily distracted its embarrassing.

We just remembered Trayvon when Brown happened.
Remember when Rodney King wasn’t a Joke? I don’t.
If we don’t take this shit seriously we cant expect America to. There is merit to what Gulianni said about black on black violence being the problem. There is merit to all the arguments about the black community and how they coexist in the states. But there is hardcore, simple, in your face facts that an unarmed kid got shot 6 times in the street. We have to focus on the original sin.

Dakarai:
Sorry was watching the Jurassic World trailer 100 times in a row.

Drew:
ikr
Dude is coming up.
I think the new dinosaur is gonna look like Condaleeza Rice

Dakarai:
These are the same people who post countless pictures of pitbulls telling us how they aren’t inherently dangerous. Black men though once it’s dark at night it’s ok to think in absolutes then. I think trying to separate what happens online from what we see in the physical world is dangerous, because unlike entertainment, these are everyday citizens spouting hatreds and beliefs. Speaking of Bahamians in this whole process can we all agree to just fucking not when it comes to “Oh I’m so thankful I live in this little beautiful island”? That’s a lack of understanding of statistics to think that there is such a great disparity between what happens there and what happens here. I’ve witnessed the xenophobia people spout about Haitians and our own immigration laws. We know how the police in this country conduct interviews, but we’d laugh at those stories and say, “Oh that’s cool though they’re fighting crime and those niggas deserve it”.

And that aside some of these niggas are fucking real ass criminals. I think I’m just saying we have to be able to at least attempt to tell the difference. I don’t know, shit, just try it.

Drew:
Ya I’ve seen a lot of patriotism by default today. I guess when its black on black its ok but when a white man does it its a problem. Remember when that shit happened in Blair and the Long Island guy died defending his home? Niggas was mad that they canceled trick or treating in the area. Like actually salty. Do you know the level of ignorance, dare I say apathy, that reaction carries? Its Blair, they get robbed and shot and killed all the time at xmas…I don’t know how they were celebrating halloween before this given the crime rate. But the minute they did cancel it, justifiably so, the outcry was “them white people don’t want us in their neighborhood”. This is where Rush Limbaugh wins. This is when the Gulianni and Fox news clicker becomes accurate. Its only so much we can defend ourselves before the ignorant amongst us totally contradicts what we try to achieve. Listen I’m proud to be a Bahamian but I’m not happy being one a lot of times. Its amazing how we all claim to get along, Bahamian and American, but the minute one race does something to another it stirs and opens old wounds. The prejudices inside us rise to the top like bacon fat on water.

If I ride on Renaldo right now and put 2 bullets in his leg no one would blink. If a white ex-pat does the same thing its racism.
Its not fair from both sides of the coin.
And honestly….I doubt this is ever gonna significantly change unless this old guard dies out.
Our kids will have to change this shit.

Its all on kaizen now.

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