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[primeetime]

Haven’t posted in a while, but I wanted to share this talk by Warren Buffett. I think it’s highly worth listening to. 

[primeetime]

On Lebron James

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.“ A simple but eloquent phrase by Dr. King that describes the importance of facing, fighting and ultimately eliminating the injustices that hound mankind's steps. Lebron James tweeted this quote about a year and a half ago. A couple of days ago, however, when given an opportunity to join his actions with his words, Lebron James demurred. Choosing instead to overlook human rights violations by China in Hong Kong.

LeBron's critics were quick to pounce, pointing out not just the large gulf between LeBron's words and his actions, but also the fact that LeBron had entered the political arena previously when there was little sacrifice to be made. From their perspective, Lebron James is only a social rights activist when things are convenient. As soon as things become inconvenient, however, LeBron's activism disappears. Their argument is a straightforward but sharp one. LeBron James is merely an opportunist. He chooses money when it suits his interests and activism when he has nothing to sacrifice. Far from being the best of us, he is, in fact, one of the worst. An egotistical witches brew of hypocrisy, superficiality and selfishness.  I understand the logic, but I fundamentally disagree with it.

Is LeBron's lack of moral courage in this specific instance disappointing? Yes. But does it rise to the level of me trying to tear him down? No. You want to know why?  "Moral courage" Robert Kennedy once said, "Is a rarer commodity than bravery in battle or great intelligence. Yet it is the one essential, vital quality for those who seek to change a world that yields most painfully to change.”With a globe that is overpolluted with the noxious smog of injustice isn't it paradoxical that so many people would be outraged at LeBron for not taking a moral stand. The disappointing truth is that people care more about LeBron's moral failings than actually alleviating injustice. There is a certain level of satisfaction that people get when discovering that a person of supposed principles is found wanting because it confirms deep down what we knew to be true; that they are really no better than we are.

So what's the solution to this problematic aspect of human nature. It's simple. To demand moral excellence of our fellow human beings, on the one hand,  but to also understand that human beings are inherently flawed and prone to coming up short on the other. It is actually quite ironic that so many people are using Dr. King quotes to criticize LeBron. Clearly, they never read Dr. King's sermon the "Transformed Nonconformist."

In the sermon, Dr. King starts off by calling his readers to moral excellence and molders of society writing, "We are called to be people of conviction, not conformity; of moral nobility not social respectability" and quoting the famous poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow to remind us that, "In this world a man must either be an anvil or hammer." After this initial section on moral excellence, however, Dr. King changed gears to dedicate some words to remind us that love and compassion were necessary character traits of individuals who are trying to change the world. Dr. King's ultimate goal was to create a world with less injustice, not to tear his fellow human beings down about their lack of moral courage.

In this section, Dr. King writes, "Only through an inner spiritual transformation do we gain the strength to fight vigorously the evils of the world in a humble and loving spirit...and this very transformation saves [us] from speaking irresponsible words that estrange without reconciling and from making hasty judgments that are blind to the necessity of social progress." We have a country that deeply loves the powerful and eloquent calls to moral excellence that Dr. King is famous for but, at the same time, we have completely ignored his reminder to have a loving spirit. The outrage and backlash of Lebron James' comments is just the latest example of this. But if your goal, like my goal, is to create a better society then I'm going to ask you for a favor. To stop and think about the end result of all this outrage.

As I write this climate change, rising sea levels and changing weather patterns threaten to fundamentally reshape the way human beings function on this planet. Asylum seekers fleeing their ravaged countries are having their families ripped apart on our Southern border. And an African-American Woman who was only playing video games in her house was shot dead by the people who were supposed to be protecting her. The wealth inequality gap is rapidly growing, the cost of higher education is closing off opportunities for social advancement and rising healthcare costs threaten to bring our economy to its knees. And that's just in America! In Hong Kong, citizens protest for more democratic freedoms and in mainland China ethnic Uighur Muslims are being sent to internment camps because of their religion. In India, Women have to protest and fight for the criminalization of rape and in Catalonia, Spain the streets burn as talk of independence wafts throughout the air. If there was ever a time to remember Dr. King's reminder to develop a loving spirit the time is now. The world has too many problems to waste time focused on anything other than solving them.

Which brings us back to Lebron. Should we be outraged? No. Should we be disappointed? Yes. Should we express our disappointment and call on him to be better? Yes. But, and more importantly, we should hold ourselves to the same standard that we hold LeBron to.

[primeetime]

Negro Mother - Langston Hughes

Children, I come back today To tell you a story of the long dark way That I had to climb, that I had to know In order that the race might live and grow. Look at my face - dark as the night -   Yet shining like the sun with love's true light. I am the dark girl who crossed the red sea Carrying in my body the seed of the free. I am the woman who worked in the field Bringing the cotton and the corn to yield. I am the one who labored as a slave, Beaten and mistreated for the work that I gave -   Children sold away from me, I'm husband sold, too. No safety, no love, no respect was I due. Three hundred years in the deepest South: But God put a song and a prayer in my mouth. God put a dream like steel in my soul. Now, through my children, I'm reaching the goal. Now, through my children, young and free, I realized the blessing deed to me. I couldn't read then. I couldn't write. I had nothing, back there in the night. Sometimes, the valley was filled with tears, But I kept trudging on through the lonely years. Sometimes, the road was hot with the sun, But I had to keep on till my work was done: I had to keep on! No stopping for me -   I was the seed of the coming Free. I nourished the dream that nothing could smother Deep in my breast - the Negro mother. I had only hope then, but now through you, Dark ones of today, my dreams must come true: All you dark children in the world out there, Remember my sweat, my pain, my despair. Remember my years, heavy with sorrow -   And make of those years a torch for tomorrow. Make of my pass a road to the light Out of the darkness, the ignorance, the night. Lift high my banner out of the dust. Stand like free men supporting my trust. Believe in the right, let none push you back. Remember the whip and the slaver's track. Remember how the strong in struggle and strife Still bar you the way, and deny you life -   But march ever forward, breaking down bars. Look ever upward at the sun and the stars. Oh, my dark children, may my dreams and my prayers Impel you forever up the great stairs -   For I will be with you till no white brother Dares keep down the children of the Negro Mother. 

[primeetime]

If you have the time, I recommend watching Dennis Rodman’s 30 for 30 “For Better or For Worse.” I’m pretty tired right now, but I wouldn’t be surprised if I decide to delve deeper into his story. After watching the movie I have one simple burning question. Was the life that Dennis Rodman lived inevitable? Rodman’s upbringing, to put it mildly, was harrowing. No Father and a Mother who didn’t know how to express love. Thus Dennis spends his who life trying to fill the whole that his childhood created. And yet. And yet! We must still hold Dennis Rodman accountable for his decisions and actions. He chose not to be involved in his kids' lives. No one else. He chose to go onto CNN drunk, no one else. He chose to create this whole persona of himself. No one else.

At the same time, however, it’d be delusional to conclude that Dennis Rodman’s environment did not shape him. Where would Dennis Rodman be if his Father never walked out of his life? Where would Dennis Rodman be if his mother would have expressed love? Where would Dennis Rodman be if he had even just one person in his life who unconditionally loved him in his life? The famous writer Victor Hugo writes that, “If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but the one who causes the darkness.”

So which one is it? Was Rodman’s life inevitable or is his life merely the consequence of his own personal bad decisions. Was there ever a chance for Dennis Rodman’s life not to end documentary fades slowly to black? Personally I believe that the question itself is a false choice. The only time this kind of discussion/debate comes up is when we try to assign blame for a tragic life. Let’s take a step back. Instead of debating why some lives turn out to be tragic, why don’t we discuss what a human being needs to become a well-conditioned, well-functioning member of society? “It is easier” Frederick Douglass reminds us, “to build strong children than to repair broken men.”

If the goal is to “build strong children,” then it would seem obvious that the environment that a child grows up in is deeply integral to the life that child ultimately lives. Does that mean children growing up in harrowing and despairing circumstances are doomed to live a fundamentally tragic life? No, of course not. But it does mean that, one of the major goals of society should be to alleviate these despairing circumstances if it can.

“The test of a first-rate intelligence” F. Scott Fitzgerald writes, “Is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” Writing on the same duality Dr. King concludes that “Life at its best is a creative synthesis of opposites in fruitful harmony” and that “Truth is found neither in the thesis nor the antithesis, but in an emergent synthesis between that reconciles the two.” If the goal is to build “strong children, if the goal is to produce strong men and women, if the goal is to produce well-functioning adults then no society can justifiably overlook, except at the danger of its own destruction, what Victor Hugo calls “dark” places.

And yet. And yet! If you ever find yourself in one of these “dark situations” all is not lost. Time and time again, we’ve seen that the human spirit is capable of doing extraordinary things. “Powerful living always involves such victories over one’s soul and one’s circumstance. Our refusal to stop, our “courage to be,” our determination to go on “in spite of,” reveals the divine image within us. The man who has made this discovery knows that no burden can blow his hope away. He can stand anything that can happen to him.”

[primeetime]

Absolutely fascinating that the same story can play out year after year. If you are a longterm Redskins’ fan you know this is the truth. Because it happened with RG3 and it happened with Donovan McNabb.

[primeetime]

This is the interview I was referring to in my previous post. 

[primeetime]

On all the New Posts

I’ve added some posts that I’ve made throughout the past year and a half. Seeing how this is more for me than everyone else, eventually, I’ll probably try to get all my posts together in the same place. I just feel like in terms of evaluating my writing and improving it’s a necessary step. Before I compiled all these posts I really felt like I don’t write much, then I went through and copy and paste any long facebook posts that I made in the last year and a half and much to my amazement I write a lot more than I expected.

Getting down to brass tacks, I am deeply dissatisfied with my writing. Writing is such a personal experience and the only real relationships I have are with my favorite authors — James Baldwin, Martin King, Ta-Nehisi Coates, etc. So when I write I inevitably compare my writing to the only writing I know, thus the feelings of disappointment. It’s not a disappointment that’s going to stop me from writing, but rather a disappointment that fuels me to work harder.

One interesting aspect of this mindset is my mental approach to compliments on my writing. In the actual interaction, I’ll say thank you, but in my mind, I’m kind of rolling my eyes because I know just how much further I have to go. I’m reminded of a funny clip I saw on youtube the other day. I’ll link it above. But basically, it is a post-pre-season practice for the Saints football team and the head coach Jim Mora is explaining just how much better the other team is. “Not close,” Mora says, shaking his head repeatedly “Not close between that football team and ours.” That’s how I feel about my writing. Not close. I feel like I could work hard at it for another 5+ years and it still wouldn’t be close so that’s precisely what I intend to do. I’m reminded of the line at the end of Baldwin’s essay Autobiographical Notes, “I consider that I have many responsibilities, but none greater than this: to last, as Hemingway says, and get my work done. I want to be an honest man and a good writer.”

““In the time of your life — live!” That time is short and it doesn’t return again. It is slipping away while I write this and while you read it, and the monosyllable of the clock is Loss, loss, loss, unless you devote your heart to its opposition.”

[primeetime]

On Pablo Neruda

Crazy all the things you don't know. Just yesterday I started reading poems by a Poet named Pablo Neruda. Apparently he was considered one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, but I never heard his named mentioned once while I was in school. Check out this absolutely beautiful poem by him entitled Die Slowly.

He who becomes the slave of habit, who follows the same routes every day, who never changes pace, who does not risk and change the color of his clothes, who does not speak and does not experience, dies slowly.

He or she who shuns passion, who prefers black on white, dotting ones "it’s" rather than a bundle of emotions, the kind that make your eyes glimmer, that turn a yawn into a smile, that make the heart pound in the face of mistakes and feelings, dies slowly.

He or she who does not turn things topsy-turvy, who is unhappy at work, who does not risk certainty for uncertainty, to thus follow a dream, those who do not forego sound advice at least once in their lives, die slowly.

He who does not travel, who does not read, who does not listen to music, who does not find grace in himself, she who does not find grace in herself, dies slowly.

He who slowly destroys his own self-esteem, who does not allow himself to be helped, who spends days on end complaining about his own bad luck, about the rain that never stops, dies slowly.

He or she who abandon a project before starting it, who fail to ask questions on subjects he doesn't know, he or she who don't reply when they are asked something they do know, die slowly.

Let's try and avoid death in small doses, reminding oneself that being alive requires an effort far greater than the simple fact of breathing.

Only a burning patience will lead to the attainment of a splendid happiness.

[primeetime]

I started following politics and daily events as an attempt to find solutions to the problems of the world. My initial gropings, however, left much to be desired. Political analysis can be divided into two broad categories. In one category, are individuals who put the party of the country. These are the individuals, who attack there political opponents for doing one thing, and then praise there political allies for doing the same exact thing. In the other category are the people who call it straight. They llive by Abraham Lincoln's edict of, "Stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he is right and part with him when he goes wrong." Charles Krauthammer was one of the first tv analysts that I saw do that. I didn't agree with everything he said and wrote, but his willingness to call it straight drew me to him and made him one of the first analysis that I'd followed. The news that he has only weeks to live his a truly bitter pill to swallow.

"I believe that the pursuit of truth and right ideas through honest debate and rigorous argument is a noble undertaking. I am grateful to have played a small role in the conversations that have helped guide this extraordinary nation’s destiny.

I leave this life with no regrets. It was a wonderful life — full and complete with the great loves and great endeavors that make it worth living. I am sad to leave, but I leave with the knowledge that I lived the life that I intended."

Well wishes Charles. Your commitment to authenticity untill the end is truly inspiring.”

[primeetime]

I've had the same thoughts for a while now. "A healthy press would take these anecdotes of “can do” spirit and ask bigger questions, like why are these people forced into such absurd hardship? Who benefits from skyrocketing college costs? Why does the public transit in this person’s city not have subsidies for the poor? Why aren’t employers forced to offer time off for catastrophic accidents? But time and again, the media mindlessly tells the bootstrap human interest story, never questioning the underlying system at work."

[primeetime]

On Being Black

Being Black is a beautiful thing. These last several years I’ve laughed with Langston Hughes, dreamed with Dr. King, debated with Malcolm X and intellectually wrestled with James Baldwin. I’ve become invisible with Ralph Ellison, analyzed with W.E.B. DuBois and confronted Ta-Nehisin Coates. I’ve seen mercy personified by Bryan Stevenson, become awe-inspired by The Audacity of Hope and journeyed through the 50s and 60s with Taylor Branch. The love, the compassion, the joy, the camaraderie and the striving “in spite of” that I have read about have come to define the core of who I am.

But being Black in a White world is a very different reality. While the vast majority of my interactions are pleasant and give the impression that distinctions in terms of race are superficial, I constantly, and likely will always, experience events that will bring me back to the harsh reality that people will come to conclusions about who I am as a person based on an aspect of me I can’t control.

Going into a store and having security show up when I browse through a clothing rack is a normal experience. Deciding to take the campus offered transport to my apartment instead of walking because I’ve been stopped by the NYPD is a decision that I had to make. Becoming friends with security guards just in case I misplace or forget my wallet and I don’t want to be mistaken for someone else is a decision I made. Having my Dad implore me to wear my school ID on my waist “just in case” is a conversation that I had. And, having people constantly assume the worst regarding my character, who I am and the intentions behind my actions is a reality I’ve had to live with.

The harrowing conclusion that I’ve come to, based both on my constant analysis of race in America and my personal life experiences has impressed upon me is that the biggest challenge in race relations are not bigoted racists who believe blacks are inherently inferior or a conservative Supreme Court, but rather well-meaning a good intentioned individuals who insist on jumping to conclusions before they alternatives.

Dr. King in his sermon, ‘A Tough Mind and a Tender Heart wrote, “Soft-mindedness os pie pf the basic causes of race prejudice. The tong-minded person always examines the facts before he reaches conclusions; in short, he post-judges. The tender-minded person reaches conclusions before [they] have examined the first fact; in short [they] prejudge and are prejudiced.” Recently I have posted about a Black teenager who was shot merely because he knocked on a neighbor’s door after he missed the school bus and did not have a phone. I have also recently posted about a Black daycare owner who was babysitting two white children and had the police called on him.

The frightening reality is that the people who did these things aren’t bad individuals, or mean individuals, or even racist individuals. Rather they are individuals who insist on jumping to conclusions, assuming the worst about individuals and being 100% convinced of the certainty of their reasoning. I’ll let my non-black facebook friends in on a secret. The stories that make the news are only the tip of the iceberg. What I just wrote about above is a ubiquitous experience for all Black people.

If you’ve read this far I want to say I’m deeply thankful, but I have to ask one more favor. The next time you faced the with uncertainty regarding a person’s actions, don’t assume the worst. Instead perhaps give the benefit of the doubt and investigate before you decide to act your conclusions. “Each time a man stands up for an ideal, or acts to improve the lot of others, or strikes out against injustice, he sends forth a tiny ripple of hope, and crossing each other from a million different centers of energy and daring those ripples build a current which can sweep down the mightiest walls of oppression and resistance.”

[primeetime]

Voting in the 21st Century

The problem with voting is that its fundamental purpose is a negation. You don't vote for something as much as you vote against something. Take this election. Democrats and Liberals are fired up, not to enact laws that they desire but to stop Republicans and Conservatives. The Tea Party movement that started in 2010 was in reaction to the first 2 years of the Obama administration and Democrat majorities in the House and Senate. While there's nothing wrong with this on its face, problems arise when politicians overpromise and dupe voters into believing that their vote is more powerful than it actually is. Genuine progress in America is very slow.

Our political founders wanted it that way. In the 18th century, they were more concerned about Government Tyranny, then solving problems. But it is worth it, if merely for a little while, to step outside the dogma of America having the "Best Constitution" and consider the fact that our current political math has created intransigent problems. The cost of Health Care and Higher Education continue to increase with no end in site. Climate change threatens the future of the planet and economic inequality is reaching new heights. There are areas in our country that have not seen a functional working economy for multiple generations and, as the U.N. most recent study on poverty has pointed out, 18.5 million Americans live in extreme poverty.

At the turn of the 20th Century, W.E.B. DuBois wrote these prescient words, "The problem of the twentieth century is the problem of the color line." As Americans, our perception is acutely attuned to see that as Black vs. White, but DuBois was actually speaking from a global perspective. Life at the beginning of the Twentieth Century was rife with discrimination. Anti-Semitism was already bubbling in Germany. Colonial governments, exploiting peoples race created hierarchical groups of citizens to grant immigrants from Mother countries special rights. The slave trade in the Congo was at full tilt. By the end of the 20th Century, the world had changed irrevocably.

While it is still early to tell, the problem of the Twentieth Century might just end up being can Democratic Governments, with checks and balances to prevent Tyranny, truly solve problems. Voting is a civic duty, but if you're like me and you truly want to see genuine and positive change in the world, then there is reason to despair because voting is less about solving problems, and more about stopping the "other guys" from taking the country in a disastrous direction.

[primeetime]

Northern Liberals and Southern Dixiecrats

Gonna show my nerd side slightly, but if anyone ever wanted to understand how the Democratic party pre Civil RIghts managed to have both Racist Southerners and African-American voters read this...

"The paradoxes of race made it possible for controlled racial conflict between the South and national party to benefit both sides. At the Democratic Convention of 1940, the national Democrats helped gain Franklin Roosevelt’s first easy Negro vote simply by inviting a Negro Minister to deliver a prayer. During this invocation, Senator “Cotton Ed” Smith stalked out of the convention to a hero’s welcome at home in South Carolina, where he delighted crowds with lightheartedly hateful speeches denouncing the Northerners for inviting a “thick-lipped, blue-gummed, nappy-headed Senegambian” to pray before the party of John C. Calhoun. Now, twenty years later, national Democrats could hope that two Kennedy phone calls about the King case might deliver the Negro vote in the North. At the same time, governors Vandiver and Patterson, by acting resolutely on the anti-Negro side, not only enhanced their own political al popularity but also, paradoxically, helped convince white Southerners that it was still safe to vote the traditional Democratic ticket for President."

[primeetime]

Seeing how it's MLK's birthday it's fitting for me to recommend a speech. I really like this speech because in it, he gets to leave behind the repetitive day-to-day arguments about racism in America and verbalize his view for the future of the world as a whole. As tumultuous as 1964 was in America, it was even more tumultuous around the world. I'll quote some of my favorite parts of the speech but I do recommend listening to it, if you have the time. He knew when he wrote this speech that future generations would listen to it so he and his team went all out. Easily one of his best.

'All over the world, like a fever, the freedom movement is spreading in the widest liberation in history. The great masses of people are determined to end the exploitation of their races and land. They are awake and moving toward their goal like a tidal wave. You can hear them rumbling in every village street, on the docks, in the houses, among the students, in the churches, and at political meetings. Historic movement was for several centuries that of the nations and societies of Western Europe out into the rest of the world in “conquest” of various sorts. That period, the era of colonialism, is at an end. East is meeting West. The earth is being redistributed. Yes, we are “shifting our basic outlooks”.'

"Some years ago a famous novelist died. Among his papers was found a list of suggested story plots for future stories, the most prominently underscored being this one: “A widely separated family inherits a house in which they have to live together.” This is the great new problem of mankind. We have inherited a big house, a great “world house” in which we have to live together – black and white, Easterners and Westerners, Gentiles and Jews, Catholics and Protestants, Moslem and Hindu, a family unduly separated in ideas, culture, and interests who, because we can never again live without each other, must learn, somehow, in this one big world, to live with each other."

"Let me close by saying that I have the personal faith that mankind will somehow rise up to the occasion and give new directions to an age drifting rapidly to its doom. In spite of the tensions and uncertainties of this period something profoundly meaningful is taking place. Old systems of exploitation and oppression are passing away, and out of the womb of a frail world new systems of justice and equality are being born. Doors of opportunity are gradually being opened to those at the bottom of society. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are developing a new sense of “some-bodiness” and carving a tunnel of hope through the dark mountain of despair. “The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.”21 Here and there an individual or group dares to love, and rises to the majestic heights of moral maturity. So in a real sense this is a great time to be alive. Therefore, I am not yet discouraged about the future. Granted that the easygoing optimism of yesterday is impossible. Granted that those who pioneer in the struggle for peace and freedom will still face uncomfortable jail terms, painful threats of death; they will still be battered by the storms of persecution, leading them to the nagging feeling that they can no longer bear such a heavy burden, and the temptation of wanting to retreat to a more quiet and serene life. Granted that we face a world crisis which leaves us standing so often amid the surging murmur of life’s restless sea. But every crisis has both its dangers and its opportunities. It can spell either salvation or doom. In a dark confused world the kingdom of God may yet reign in the hearts of men."

[primeetime]

As Americans, we face a peculiar irony. On the one hand, we love to romanticize the past, but, on the other hand, the vast majority of us live our day to day lives in profound ignorance of what the past actually entails. Inevitably, we end up with large swaths of people succumbing to a superficial sense of nostalgia. They desire to turn back the clock to a time when things were “better,” yet they are woefully ignorant about the past.

Ken Burns has devoted his life to fighting this ignorance. From a mountain of superficial ideas and murky notions about our collective past Mr. Burns and his staff has chiseled away and created a tunnel of truth and certainty. Story after story, documentary after documentary, Mr. Burns provides us with an easily accessible option to discover who we truly are.

The stories that you will hear WILL change you. From Black Jazz Musicians who secretly buy, learn and memorize sheet music and then play without it so they won’t offend their white patrons, to the story of Little Roundtop and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain’s brigade, to the tragic story of a bootlegger who murders his wife in cold blood only to have the jury let him off scot-free, to the harrowing story of a Vietnam War soldier coming back and then be told to go and patrol his own community because of riots after Dr. King’s death. This is American history. All of these separate stories intertwining and weaving together create our collective legacy.

If you choose to remain in ignorance, not only are you giving up your ability to truly decide for yourself what to believe, but you are also leaving yourself susceptible to mal-intentioned individuals who may come along and lead you down a troublesome path. “Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.”

“The very character of the life of a man demands freedom…What is freedom? It is, first, the capacity to deliberate or weigh alternatives. ‘Shall I be a teacher or a lawyer?’ ‘Shall I vote for this candidate or the other candidate?’ ‘Shall I be a Democrat, Republican or Socialist?’ Second, freedom expresses itself in decision. The word decision like the word incision involves the image of cutting. Incision means to cut in, decision means to cut off. The existentialist says we must choose, that we are choosing animals’ and if we do not choose we sink into thinghood and the mass mind. A third expression of freedom is responsibility. This is the obligation of the person to respond if he is questioned about his decisions. No one else can respond for him. He alone must respond, for his acts are determined by the centered totality of his being.

The absence of freedom is the imposition of restraint on my deliberation as to what I shall do, where I shall live, how much I shall earn, the kind of tasks I shall pursue. I am robbed of the basic quality of man-ness. When I cannot choose what I shall do or where I shall live or how I shall survive, it means in fact that someone or some system has already made these a priori decisions for me, and I am reduced to an animal. I do not live, I merely exist. The only resemblances are the motor responses and functions that are akin to humankind. I cannot adequately assume responsibility as a person because I have been made a party to a decision which I played no part in making.”

[primeetime]

In these kinds of vicious and tragic attacks, it is important to not lose sight of the humanity of the people who were murdered. Put yourself in the shoes of the Muslim Worshipper who said, “Hello, brother” seconds before he was murdered.

When he saw his fellow New Zealander approaching the Mosque he was probably filled with a mixture of excitement and honor at the opportunity to fight against the stereotypes and propaganda that fear-mongering right-wing politicians have used to describe his community. More than anything else, he probably wanted his fellow New Zealander to see first hand and truly understand that they were alike.

It is this deep-seated hope that Robert Kennedy eloquently described in his speech, “The Mindless Menace of Violence” the day after Dr. King’s assassination. “But we can perhaps remember — even if only for a time — that those who live with us are our brothers, that they share with us the same short movement of life, that they seek — as we do — nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.”

Any human being’s death is a sorrowful experience for individuals who loved the person who died. And death of a loved one at the hands of another human being is an even worse experience because now there is another human being to whom to focus your despairing feelings. But death caused by a human being who espouses a view of supremacy on any basis is the worst of all because the ultimate goal of this philosophy is the genocide of an entire group of people.

It is why in the same “Mindless Menace of Violence” speech RFK also said, “We must admit the vanity of our false distinctions among men and learn to find our own advancement in the search for the advancement of all. We must admit in ourselves that our children’s future cannot be built on the misfortunes of others. We must recognize that this short life can neither be ennobled or enriched by hatred or revenge.”

The history of our world is a history of groups building their lives on the misfortune of others. But, throughout our troubled and harrowing history, there has also been a vein of humanity that has fought has combatted that aspect of our nature at every turn. These were individuals who believed as the Muslim man in the mosque who said, “Hello, brother” did, that there is more connecting us than separating us. Who believed as RFK did that, ultimately, we all want the same thing. If you want to honor the people who died at Christchurch commit yourself to building a future where we recognized, first and foremost, our collective and shared humanity.

“No man is an island, entire of itself; every man is a piece of the continent, a part of the main…any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind, and therefore never send to know for whom the bells tolls; it tolls for thee.”

[primeetime]

Respect to the Brother for standing up. Every Black Male has their own personal way of dealing with the challenge of looking like someone who our society has deemed “dangerous.” Personally, I make friends with all the security guards on campus. But even that solution has limits. My apartment is about 1.5 blocks away from the CUMC library and on that short walk back from the library, I’ve been stopped by NYPD and asked to justify why I was there late at night.

I’m not going to get into the details of what was running through my brain at the time, but I will say that even before that event happened, my Dad and I had a long talk about where I should store my ID just in case a security guard or police officer demanded that I showed it. All that to say, that this event isn’t a one-off or a surprise. It’s a ubiquitous part of the Black Male experience. After that night I started calling CUMC safety escorts to drive me the block and a half to my building.

James Baldwin writing in Stranger in the Village states that history is a nightmare that “No one can awaken. People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them.” It’d be easy to believe that the 2 cops that stopped me that night, or the Barnard Public Safety officers that accosted Mr. McNabb are bad people. But life isn’t a movie with good and evil characters. Far from it, it’s filled simply with people trying to do the best they can given the cards they were dealt with.

Mr. McNabb is a senior who’s about to graduate. He had lived through the indignity of having to show his ID every time he walked through those gates while people of other races did not. To put it another, way Mr. McNabb was forced to justify his presence there like he didn’t belong. And, after almost 4 years of it, he got tired and fed-up. Perhaps the most sobering part of this entire story is the fact that I don’t see any reason why anything will change going forward. Barnard College has already released an apology, but Barnard College and Columbia University are enmeshed in New York City.

A City that, on the one hand, prides its-self on its liberal principles, but on the other hand, maintains isolated islands of deep and intransigent poverty. Where those conditions exist, crime will follow. The problem, however, isn’t even the crime, per se, but where and to whom the crime happens. As long as the “criminal element” stays away from the pristine parts of NYC all is well, but as soon as some of it spills over major problems arise. Security guards at Columbia/Barnard and the Police that patrol near these to prevent the crime from spilling over. The modern-day version of the Night’s Watch if you will. And they target the people who commit the crime — Black Men.

For anyone who’s Black and reading this I’d love to know how you plan on raising a family given these situations. Personally, my plan is to move to a community that has a strong and vibrant Black Middle class so that when Police officers see African-Americans they don’t immediately think of crime. But I’d love to hear other potential solutions also.