Saturday Night News

Abusive behavior exists in the sports arena and outside of it. Domestic violence is an epidemic and it has been part of American society for centuries. There must be awareness on this issue. There must be a change where victims have justice and the guilty are truly made accountable for their own actions. Any form of domestic violence done against any gender is wrong. Both women and men, who are the victims of domestic violence, should be encouraged, assisted, and given great support. I don’t believe that abusive behavior necessarily starts in high school. People have done abuse because of many reasons and I don’t believe that every high school should be scapegoated for CRIMINAL, immoral behavior. Some people confuse legitimate, aggressive action (like building, teaching, standing up against injustice, speaking the truth with power, etc.) with obscene, unjust abuse. Abuse is evil. Also, people have to control their anger and make the right choices. It is better to walk away, ignore ignorance, etc. than to do evil. Programs should exist in not only schools or professional athletic organizations, but in society at all. Yes, many racists are exploiting the current news as a means to falsely scapegoat black men collectively for the ills of America. Yet, domestic violence is still immoral no matter who does it. If a male does it, he is wrong. If a female does it, she is wrong. We have to be consistent in our convictions. Also, William Rhoden’s “Forty Million Dollar Slaves” is an excellent BOOK too. I recommend it. Experts have opposed the Wisconsin voter ID law for many reasons. For years, we have seen various laws (in numerous states) that seek to restrict voting rights, restrict the times in which people can vote, and they have other reactionary measures. The Supreme Court has delayed the implementation of a voting law until after the election before, because of voter confusion, and conflicting orders. The Wisconsin voter ID law restricts any veteran from voting if they only have a veteran’s administration ID card from voting. Wisconsin considers such identification unacceptable. Eddie Lee Holloway Jr. and others have difficulty voting now in Wisconsin. Therefore, the activists are right that such voter ID laws should be defeated.



It is not a secret how many Republicans like Russell Pearce think about us. He was the same person who condemned any course relating to study African American culture, Hispanic American culture, etc. involving ethnic studies in Arizona. Pearce is known to embrace xenophobic and other bigoted ideologies. Of course, he had no choice, but to resign, because for him to suggest of sterilizing women is evil and unjust. Misogyny and poor scapegoating ought to be repudiated completely. Too many people have some simplistic interpretation of poverty instead of viewing it as having complex factors. Poverty can never be fixed with a get rich quick scheme. Poverty can be solved with the structures of society changed and when other populist, revolutionary actions are instituted. It has been the super-rich that have readily experienced corporate subsidies, record TAX BREAKS, record bailouts, and other economic policies in the form of corporate welfare. Yes, some forget about the Homestead Act that gave GOVERNMENT MONEY to immigrants. They were not only given farming tools, but housing and other benefits. The New Deal was a huge government program which many benefits were to people and New Deal policies readily discriminated against African Americans, which you are very accurate to describe. Our ancestors worked in this land without pay for centuries via slavery, bondage, and injustice. So, we, as black people, should never be lectured about laziness at all. We have been very hardworking and we continue to work hard in the world. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. definitely changed by the late 1960's. He spoke in a more revolutionary voice. That is why the leadership of the NAACP criticized him, because he opposed the Vietnam War. He wanted to go and create his Poor Peoples Campaign to make sure that the poor received their rightful economic justice. It is one thing for him to protest and talk about laws being changed, but when he questioned the whole economic order and he galvanized a mass amount of people to fight for change, and then he was a threat to the establishment. Many of the misleadership class support apartheid policies, blame the victims of oppression for their own oppression, austerity, and a glamorization of materialism to put it lightly. In every generation, you will find fake leaders and real leaders. There is still a remnant of black people who are fighting the good fight. The problem is that those who are not in league with justice, in a lot of occasions, are more overtly vocal about their agenda. That is why it is easy to go with the flow, but it does take real courage to speak the truth even when the truth is unpopular.


Unjust violence must be opposed in Chicago and worldwide. I don’t know all of the details of the shooting of Denzel Ford. I can accept the truth and regardless, the family plus the friends of Denzel Ford need comfort and compassion. There is no one size fit all solution to this problem. Yes, families should be improved in America, but more than that must be done. Many communities in Chicago suffer as a product of manufacturing jobs leaving, infrastructure crumbling (via deindustrialization and austerity policies), and an unstable economic situation. Therefore, there must be a combination of us improving our communities (stronger families are needed, which is just commonsense) and the rebuilding of the infrastructure of Chicago. We see how RECORD SCHOOL closings haven’t work. Communities must institute more independent solutions where people have opportunities, jobs, and a means to be empowered. Police brutality and any form of violence in Chicago must be exposed and opposed. Macro-level and micro-level solutions must be established. I do believe that the “angry black woman” label has been used by some to degrade black women. Just because a black woman is strong, intelligent, confident, and upright, doesn’t mean that she is angry. The author of the NY Times piece can indeed fairly critique the show without using the angry black woman motif. That is my view. Shonda Rhimes is a very talented person and people have the right to agree with her or not. Also, another point is to be made. We need more fair shows about our people. Too many shows today present black people either in a negative light, objects for exploitation, or in the form of caricatures. It is very rare in our generation to see shows that presents black people in general as thoughtful, intelligent, moral, caring, sharing, and competent human beings. We need more shows that show black men and black women caring for each other, loving each other, and respecting each other. Yet, that is too taboo for some to embrace unfortunately. We need more shows like the Cosby Show, A Different World, Hangin with Mr. Cooper, Roc, Moesha, Parent Hood, etc.


We should have revolutionary thinking. One basic point of revolutionary thinking is that we should always be opposed to fascism. Progressive forces defeated Hitler, Franco, Mussolini, and other enemies of humanity. Reactionaries exploit the blatant immoral actions of ISIS and other extremists as an excuse to promote chilling dissent and promote proto-fascist policies in the West. Many reactionaries want a more theocratic society when we need democratic rights protected in the world. I have with no issue with people advocating the formation of communes and cooperatives. Cooperative institutions, community banks, and other independent solutions are necessary to express the negation of capitalism even before capitalism is utterly vanquished. Democratic governance in our communities is a great means where people (who are poor, working class, and middle class) can have great access to political and economic power. Frantz Fanon was active in supporting the Algerian revolution against the imperialist French. Women were key members of the Algerian Revolution and revolutions throughout Africa. Fanon said that he had just been to Guinea, Mali, and Senegal where African women are to be found in the marketplace in public life operating quite freely. So, the point is that the liberation of women is key to the liberation of everyone in the human race in general. Many heroic people stood up for real causes. Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglas fought against slavery. Marcus Garvey believed in black social consciousness. WEB DuBois opposed imperialism and economic injustice. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. disagreed with the Vietnam War and wanted justice for humanity. Angela Davis exposed the prison industrial complex. It is a fact that the evils of the prison industrial complex, poverty, racist violence, and economic exploitation are interrelated.



Attorney General Eric Holder has spoken words that people have heard before. There can be no change really unless Ferguson is changed in a positive, revolutionary direction. The cop who killed Michael Brown should be indicted. The police, who utilized para-militarized weapons, against innocent, peaceful protesters executed an overt injustice. Despite more than a dozen police killings in St. Louis County since he became prosecutor, McCulloch has never filed CRIMINAL charges against any of the officers. McCulloch did present four of such cases to the grand jury, but to no one’s surprise he obtained no indictments. Holder can do something. He can call for any officer involved in illegally harming Ferguson residents to be ARRESTED, tried, and convicted. He can speak in favor of ending unfair minimum sentencing laws and call for the end of the War on Drugs. He needs to call police misconduct as what it is. It is nothing more than terrorism done by the crooked police against the people. Racial bias, discrimination, and oppression have been systemic and deeply rooted in society. We see hypocrisy in this, because on the one hand, the DOJ claims to be serious of this issue, but Holder supports drone assassinations even if they are against American citizens without due process of law. People deserve true freedom (that means that Ferguson citizens are entitled to economic justice), not token measures or just talk. Evil people falsely see strength as dealing with brutality, negative agitation, slander, and hatreds. Yet, true strength is about spiritual growth, discernment, standing up against evil, continuing onward in life, and embracing love. We are all strong and we want the best for our people.


By Timothy