Free Republic

Glad I have your attention now. Because we do have issues we care about. I’m a 38 year old black man from South Carolina. But I don’t pretend that, as a Black man, I speak for everyone who looks like me. I’m just not that arrogant nor am I crazy as hell. On the other hand, I’m also not stupid. I travel a lot escaping my own personal echo chamber whenever I get the chance and I listen more than I talk. Whether I’m sitting in the barbershop, praying in church, waiting in the airport or walking down the street....

ix Mississippi deputy sheriffs have been fired or resigned after they were accused by two black men of beating and sexually assaulting them before shooting one in the mouth. Michael Corey Jenkins, 32, and his friend Eddie Terrell Parker, 35, said deputies from the Rankin County Sheriff's Department burst into a home in Rankin County, just east of the state capital of Jackson, without a warrant. The men said deputies beat them, assaulted them with a sex toy and shocked them repeatedly with Tasers in a roughly 90-minute period during the January 24 episode, Jenkins and Parker said. .....

In the wake of sex scandals that have rocked the British charity, an Oxfam staff training document says “privileged white women” are supporting the root causes of sexual violence by wanting “bad men” imprisoned. The Telegraph reports that the four-week ‘learning journey’ states that: “Mainstream feminism centres on privileged white women and demands that ‘bad men’ be fired or imprisoned”. Accompanied by a cartoon of a crying white woman, it adds that this “legitimises criminal punishment, harming black and other marginalised people”. The PowerPoint recommends staff read Me Not You: The Trouble with Mainstream Feminism, a book by Alison Phipps,...

Members access the space, located in Central Brooklyn, by having their fingers scanned and giving a passcode. Upon entering, they find a lounge, complete with couches, a barber chair and books on finance. The spiral staircase leads to an area with workstations. Inside on a recent day, a man who works as a consultant helped five others get businesses certified. Another launched a campaign to run for City Council, engaging members to assist in outreach. An author presented research in a forum. The Gentlemen’s Factory brought them all together. As one of the very few spaces in New York City...

The woman who has accused Virginia Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax of raping her while they were Duke students 20 years ago also says a Duke basketball player raped her. In response to Fairfax’s denials, Meredith Watson’s lawyer released a statement claiming she was also raped by a basketball player and, when she reported the attack to a school administrator, received no assistance. The player’s name was not released nor was the name of the school administrator. According to a report in The News & Observer in 1999, Duke went through a major reshuffling at its administrative level. Several administrators had...

In reality, a randomly selected black man is overwhelmingly unlikely to be victim of police violence — and though white men experience such violence even less often, the disparity is consistent with the racial gap in violent crime, suggesting that the role of racial bias is small. Last year, according to the Washington Post’s tally, just 16 unarmed black men, out of a population of more than 20 million, were killed by the police. The year before, the number was 36. These figures are likely close to the number of black men struck by lightning in a given year, considering...

Two Florida men wanted in connection with a rape told a woman they wanted to “teach her a lesson” about dating black men, officials said.Justin Akeen Fedrick, 27, and Keon Dellshai Gordon, 26, are accused of kidnapping and sexually battering a woman on June 22 at a Clermont home, according to the Orlando Sentinel.Police said the victim was “hanging out” when a third suspect, Rodney Cooper, 32, forced her into a room and locked the door. Cooper kept guard while Fedrick and Gordon allegedly attacked her. The woman said that they told her, “We’re going to teach you a lesson...

After the shocking results of the 2016 election, most analysts focused on the shift among working-class whites towards Donald Trump. However, there was another seismic transformation on election day that may have longer repercussions: young black men are leaving the Democratic Party like never before. Exit polls of the nationwide House races showed two important numbers, black men and millennials voted for the GOP in numbers that hadn’t been seen in decades. According to CNN exit polls, 18 percent voted of black men for a Republican candidate for the U.S. House, which is more than three times the number of...

Where's Waldo? The New York Times plays this game on a large scale with a disingenuous article talking about the "disappearance" of 1.5 million black men. In New York, almost 120,000 black men between the ages of 25 and 54 are missing from everyday life. In Chicago, 45,000 are, and more than 30,000 are missing in Philadelphia. Across the South — from North Charleston, S.C., through Georgia, Alabama and Mississippi and up into Ferguson, Mo. — hundreds of thousands more are missing.They are missing, largely because of early deaths or because they are behind bars. Remarkably, black women who are...

Not a video Elijah Woody circled Are black people who legally carry guns discriminated against?  There is anecdotal evidence to indicate that it happens, particularly in crime-ridden urban centers.  Students and retired police friends and acquaintances have told me that when guns were found in the possession of black men, in most urban centers, three or more decades ago, the guns were confiscated, legal or not. That was before the concealed carry revolution, when only a few states issued concealed carry permits, and they were often issued only at the discretion of the police chief.  Many of the gun...

WFTV in Orlando, Florida reported Friday about a callous, violent robbery of an elderly white woman by three young black men that left the woman hospitalized with a serious brain injury and a broken clavicle. The Publix surveillance videos released to the media show rare, clear before, during and after video of the victim, the perps and the robbery. There will be no protests, no candlelight vigils, no statement by President Barack Obama, no Justice Department investigation, no visits by Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson. The race ‘healers’ won’t descend on Ocoee like they are doing in Ferguson this week...

How a new report on HIV infection in the Big Apple scared a health reporter into getting tested and having a frank discussion with her "boo." By Tomika Anderson My longtime lover and I were driving through Harlem when we passed a billboard that made me want to slam on the brakes and pull the car over. On it were two women -- one black and one Latina -- their pretty, youthful faces in lights. But under their pictures was a statistic that sucker-punched me: 93.4 percent. As in, 93.4 of all new HIV cases among women in NYC occur...

No You Can't (Featuring John Boehner)

The police on Staten Island were searching for three assailants Sunday in connection with the robbery and beating of a Mexican teenager a day earlier — the latest in a series of attacks on Mexican immigrants in Port Richmond that has spurred a heightened police presence and discussions among community leaders and residents on how to curb the rising violence. The assault occurred about 2:30 a.m. on Saturday as the victim, a 17-year-old high school junior, whose name was not disclosed by the authorities, was returning home after working a late shift as a busboy at a restaurant in Manhattan,...

How the mass incarceration of black men hurts black women IMAGINE that the world consists of 20 men and 20 women, all of them heterosexual and in search of a mate. Since the numbers are even, everyone can find a partner. But what happens if you take away one man? You might not think this would make much difference. You would be wrong, argues Tim Harford, a British economist, in a book called “The Logic of Life”. With 20 women pursuing 19 men, one woman faces the prospect of spinsterhood. So she ups her game. Perhaps she dresses more seductively....

John Sowell left his job as a truck driver in Louisville, Ky., last fall to move to Charlotte. He has family here, he said, and he'd heard it was a booming city with plenty of jobs. Now, three months and about 100 applications later, Sowell is still searching. “It's the grace of God if you get hired,” said Sowell, 43, who's been working at a temp agency. “It's hard. I don't know what to do now. I just pray a lot.” Though he has more than a decade of experience, he's having a hard time finding work – just like...

When the timing is right, the two parades meet on North Rampart Street, one showcasing men in skimpy skirts and bouffant wigs, the other with high-steppers waving handmade umbrellas and beaded fans. Both parades -- one hosted by Southern Decadence, the other by Black Men of Labor -- strolled through the streets Sunday within several blocks of each other in downtown New Orleans. This year, Decadence, a three-day gay festival, lured nearly 125,000 visitors to the city, while the Black Men of Labor parade attracted thousands of local and displaced New Orleanians. Behind each parade's glitz and glamour, participants said,...

ALLAHASSEE — The council charged with studying and helping the plight of black men and boys throughout Florida — who have disproportionally high incarceration, drug use and murder rates — was borne out of the experiences of its creators. State Rep. Frank Peterman remembered the handful of his best friends who were gunned down in their early 20s, he told the first meeting of the Council on the Social Status of Black Men and Boys on Tuesday. [snip] The 20-member council, consisting of lawmakers, state agency representatives, a psychologist and community members, will meet quarterly to first determine the conditions...

The 800-pound gorilla is back, and as usual folks are pretending the critter ain't in the room. We'll call this particular 800-pound gorilla Joey, in tribute to that 1940s film about the giant ape called Mighty Joe Young. I think it's time Joey got his props. I think it's time we acknowledge Joey. Joey, meet the guys. Guys, shake hands with Joey. "The guys" in this case are those Baltimoreans who, for the past week, have expressed angst and dismay about the appalling way some young black men in this city, addicted to the thug life, dispatch each other with...

TALLAHASSEE - State Sen. Frederica Wilson knows what a little TLC can do for at-risk black boys. As the founder of the 5000 Role Models of Excellence Project, the Miami Democrat has seen troubled teens go from life on the streets to college graduation. For the past two years, Wilson, a former Miami-Dade School Board member, has made it her mission to pass legislation aimed at helping more black men and boys. She's just one vote away from success. A bill to create ''The Council on the Social Status of Men and Boys'' has cleared the House and will likely...