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| Jive Time Big Time Comedian Invited Off Stage for Using Derogatory Language Before you read about Eddie Griffin, the Comedian (Malcolm and Eddie, etc.) let me confess something. I did it. When de young folks started cussing and abusing language on stage, the big finger was pointing at me. When tings got wild and loose in performance, bellies hanging out, tight pants, crotch grabbing, breast showing, I opened that door. And couldn't shut it after I did it. And if I could shut it, wouldn't have made any difference, I didn't have de key. Albeit, it was naive and I was still young enough for it to be innocent, but it wasn't right. And I knew better. I wasn't raised like that - - Did Maude Miller who sent me to church and Sunday school expect that. Did Evelyn LaRue Pittman, Woodlands High School chorus director teach us that? Did Jitu Weusi and Hannibal Afrik who sparked my political and cultural consciousness encourage that? Did John Harmon, or Brother Kanya on 125th and Lenox? The saddest part of this is that when I finally regained my sanity, the damage had already been done. In my defense, I only acted crazy like that in night clubs and on college stages. But I wasn't by myself. Stupidity is contagious and when options for making money are narrow, we are inclined to do stupid things. What did I do? On a college stage, I opened my shirt and cussed in the middle of singing a popular slow song. And de girls screamed. That's all, folks
Errol Louis Thursday, September 6th 2007, 4:00 AM -
Source - Thursday -
I nearly fell out my chair laughing when I read about comedian Eddie Griffin getting bounced offstage for using the N-word at Black Enterprise's annual Golf and Tennis Challenge at Miami's Tony Doral resort. An unexpected punch line came when "We at Black Enterprise will not allow our culture to go backwards," said The crowd went wild. Good riddance. You'd have to be living under a rock not to know that a large and growing number of black and white professionals - lawyers and business executives, teachers and journalists, politicians and government workers - are building a national movement to push back against those who want to casually denigrate black folk in public for cheap laughs. He must not have heard that Alpha Phi Alpha, the nation's oldest and largest black fraternity, last month began urging its campus affiliates not to hire deejays who play the music of artists who fling the N-word around. Maybe Perhaps he missed the news about the NAACP's recent ceremonial funeral for the N-word at its annual meeting in Any way you look at it, Twista, a foulmouthed rapper, recently got dropped from a lucrative McDonald's summer promotional campaign like a hot French fry following public complaints. Following the lead of music moguls like Russell Simmons, platinum-plus hip-hop artists Chamillionaire and Master P have announced their future albums will be free of the N-word. Chamillionaire says his change of heart came when he was performing onstage for mostly white audiences and saw them shouting out the racial slur along with him. And in a hopeful sign, the promoters of Sean Kingston, a young hip-hop phenom from Teachers everywhere should take advantage of this rare, ideal moment to hold classroom discussions of how and why social progress happens. It's important to teach kids that persistent protest and responsible leaders can work wonders, and that what everyone takes for granted can be changed for the better. There will be many more Eddie Griffins out there, unwilling to absorb this simple lesson. The joke's on them.
"I just saw the video on the news, and I think this is absolutely crazy, three policemen immobilizing a crying child over a table and handcuffing her hands behind her back, and at the moment when she was arrested she was sitting on a chair - she was already scared and wasn't doing anything anymore, I definitely think they could and should have treated her in a less traumatizing way."
POSTED: 8:15 am EDT April 23, 2005
ST. PETERSBURG, Florida (AP) -- Police officers committed an error of judgment when they handcuffed an unruly kindergartner at school in March but did not violate policy, the department's chief said Thursday. Chief Chuck Harmon said the two officers who handcuffed the 5-year-old girl were reprimanded for minor errors in handling the situation, which gained worldwide attention when a videotape of the confrontation was released to broadcasters. But Harmon said the officers were not punished for shackling the child, who had torn up a classroom and hit an assistant principal before the officers arrived. Still, Harmon said, the officers should have done more investigation, explored ways to defuse the situation and allowed school officials to take the lead in handling it. "This child needed some intervention, but I don't think it was by law enforcement," Harmon said, calling the handcuffing "premature." The video of the March 14 confrontation prompted criticism of the police and school system, and charges of racism that brought the Rev. Jesse Jackson to town to meet with school officials. The girl is black, and the police officers are white. Harmon said Thursday that the report found no evidence of racism by the officers. A video camera captured images of the girl tearing papers off a bulletin board, climbing on a table and punching the assistant principal before police were called. Then the tape shows the child appearing to calm down before officers approach, pin her arms behind her back and put on handcuffs as she screamed, "No!" and began to cry. The girl was put in the back of a police car and had her feet restrained after she tried to kick out the window. She was released later without charges. The girl's mother, Inga Akins, sold her story exclusively to a tabloid TV show, and her attorneys have notified the city that she plans to sue. A working phone number for Akins could not be located Thursday, and she could not be reached for comment. A call to her Stuart attorneys was not immediately returned. Harmon said the incident prompted a policy change that will prohibit handcuffing children younger than 8 without a supervising officer being called to the scene. But officers need to retain the option of handcuffing children in "extreme situations," such as when a weapon is involved, he said. Tricia Hoffler, an attorney for the girl and her mother, said she was disappointed that the officers were not more severely punished but was encouraged that the police department has reviewed its policies regarding handcuffing children. Hoffler added that she's planning to file a suit. "Our client will never be the same," she said
From Rad Geeks People's Daily: Do Google search By the way, this is not the first time this has happened (read below)
Check back soon or send some commentary for discussion or for thinking. No need to reply online. Just respond through your work. Tragedy in the Sudan 7/7/05The Sudan is a country in Africa. It plays one of the most important roles in the thousands of years of African history, and in the future strength of the African continent. Many other nations outside of Africa, have played a part in the current confusion and present destruction that is occurring in the Sudan. But, no matter who is the cause, the suffering is unimaginable, the cry for help, heart retching. I made a decision not to link to certain photos that were sent to me because they depicted the visual extremes that hunger has driven our people to do. If you should ever see them, these photos will at first repulse you, then they will make you cry, and then the anger will swell in your soul. One photo is of a child apparently so close to death, that while crawling to a food drop-off point, the child was being stalked by a vulture. Study the situations around the world where hunger is as epidemic as a.i.d.s. and then heed the call to organize and to create action for the sake of children.
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