The Cross-Over

Barack Obama gave a speech over the weekend that got a little press. In that speech he made a statement that I could not agree with more. "Somehow, somewhere along the way, faith stopped being used to bring us together and faith started being used to drive us apart. Faith got hijacked, partly because of the so-called leaders of the Christian Right, all too eager to exploit what divides us. At every opportunity, they've told evangelical Christians that Democrats disrespect their values and dislike their church, while suggesting to the rest of the country that religious Americans care only about issues like abortion and gay marriage, school prayer and intelligent design. There was even a time when the Christian Coalition determined that its number one legislative priority was tax cuts for the rich. I don't know what Bible they're reading, but it doesn't jibe with my version."

That's a heck of a statement. Taking the politics of Democrat and Republican out of the equation and the statement is still on point. However, when those so-call leaders speak to their flock, you began to see how some people vote against their own true interests. I'm talking about poor whites who vote Republican, barely educated enough to hold a decent job, but so-called knowledgeable on social issues. Here is Faux excuse me Fox and the skinny wench Ann Coulter commenting on Barack's statement, http://www.crooksandliars.com/Media/Play/18782/1/H&C-Coulter-Obama.wmv/

So I was discussing a recent criminal case with an African American attorney with almost 20 years of trial experience. He had just gotten out of a trial where, he was able to wiggle his client out of only one of the three charges he faced. This attorney shared with me the fact that in his years of practice, he had yet to have a jury where a black male jurist held out and forced a hung jury. We got on the subject because one of the jurors in his trial was a young brotha with dookie braids similar to that of the defendant. (What an observation...)

In our discussion the attorney stated that black men are weak in situations where they have to stand up and express their convictions. (For a moment I thought he was referring to some of us at the law school...oops...I didn't say that) He then went on to dissect juries he's had in the past. He indicated that black women will hold firm on their convictions and will often take a position and hold it not budging at all, or they will challenge the other jurors to convince them other wise. He indicated that white men, have a whole nother attitude bout things, and will not budge period. He seemed to indicate that educated white women in his opinion tend to hold firm on an issue as well. But black men, will cave in in a heartbeat. I tried to challenge the brotha on his views by arguing that, maybe we (black dudes) don't want to live up to the expected stereotype, that being confrontational among other things, and therefore are more willing to compromise more so. He wasn't hearing none of that and I was not necessarily disagreeing with him either. His position simply was that black men serving on juries are weak. In most cases when he is deciding between a black male or a black woman, he is booting the brotha off the jury cause if you are counting on one of the two to find in your favor based on convictions alone (we aint talking bout proof and evidence), you can forget it, a black male can't do it. Interesting, are we that weak?

I do know that we black men sometimes feel a great deal of pressure in trying to to blend in around others and not be that hostile brotha that we are so often portrayed to be. I don't know if that is right or wrong. We all know folk who when they get around other folk, don't act themselves. Hell....I am sure I am guilty of (ok...ok...fine..I've done it too.) Whether it's directly changing ones normal demeanor, or reducing the bass in our voice when talking. Are we not keeping it real when we do this? I dunno? I do know that black women are more easily accepted socially and professionally than brothas. Yes, I said it, and you know its true. And often times, ya'll can be your normal you just cause, just cause they like you anyway. Ya'll know who they is, I need not go there. Next time you are out, and see a group of folk with one brotha in the group or one sista in the group check'em out. I'm not making this up. Anyway, I've forgotten my point. Either way I don't think the momentary cross-overs is wrong. Soo...

The War on Drugs is just about as much bullshit as the War on Terror is. I say that for various reasons, most of which I dont feel like discussing, but how is it that the country we bombed into submission and brought democracy to is producing poppy (poppy+other ish = HEROIN) at an all time high. "In 2006, Afghanistan accounted for 92 percent of global illicit opium production." Got Dayuum!!! Seems to me, since we kind of control that country, last I checked, we still got troops there, you know War on Terror, we could like drop a few bombs on the poppy fields, but that's too much like right aint it. In fact, "The area under opium poppy cultivation in the country has also expanded, from nearly 257,000 acres in 2005 to more than 407,000 acres in 2006 — an increase of about 59 percent." WTF? But seriously though, our country installed the government there and we can't stop poppy production. That's some bull ish. War on Drugs my azz. Just read the first sentence in the article, "Afghanistan produced dramatically more opium in 2006, increasing its yield by nearly 50 percent from a year earlier and pushing global opium production to a new record high, a U.N. report said Tuesday." And we have been there since when??? I guess that's why I love my country so... You read the article, http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070625/ap_on_re_eu/un_drug_report;_ylt=AvcgQQ5rkYMSPi2bO0akUVPMWM0F