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Action Speaks Louder Than Words
bet they wouldn’t put that junk on Davis Island. I bet the people on the island would not stand for it either.’ Or, ‘They put that stuff in our neighborhood because we are
Black.’
‘Sure, you’re right. They
figure they would get less fight, if any at all, out of Black people.’
Have you ever heard these statements before? Are they true? A lot of people believe they are true because in Black neighborhoods, this happens every day. They don’t do a lot of things in certain communi- ties as they do in Black com- munities.
Whites know that action speaks louder than words. Be- lieve me, they take action im- mediately once they learn their community is threat- ened.
Now, back to Black neigh- borhoods, it seems that Blacks are well aware of what the problems are in the neighbor- hoods. They know what they want and they don’t want in their communities. You can’t sneak anything by them.
They know everything that is planned for their commu- nity. What do they do with this information or about it? They talk about their concerns among each other.
Regardless to how con- cerning the issue may be, the conversation never leaves the neighborhoods. Every now and then, a resident steps for- ward and carries the neigh- bor’s problem to someone who can fix it. That may not solve the problem, but it is worth the try.
If you get what you want, get some concessions, or just
make it known, you got some- thing to say about whatever goes on in your community.
Furthermore, that is a clear illustration that action speaks louder than words. It is good for neighbors to talk about a community problem, but the talk should be what the prob- lem is and what needs to be done.
This tells the government, businesses, and anybody else that we will fight for our neighborhoods. We will have learned that action speaks louder than mere words. If there is a large pothole on one of your streets, ask yourselves when it will get fixed if you do more than just talk among neighbors.
You aren’t turning into rebel rousers just for letting action speak louder than words. You are just protecting the community where you live. All of the communities do this by any necessary means. The lone exception is VIOLENCE in any form.
Neighborhoods should know what they want and what they don’t want. They should always remember that action speaks louder than words.
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Malia Obama And Harvard University
queezed between articles about elephants performing for the last time and Donald Trump performing for the umpteenth time, what was most definitely news of note
was almost ignored. Malia Obama, President and First Lady Obama’s first born had finally made international news when she made up her mind as to where academically she wished to spend her next four years.
Was it Howard University, Morgan University, Spelman College, Tuskegee, or perhaps, Hampton, each a Black insti- tution? The answer was “no.” Instead, Malia chose Harvard University, the Brahmin epicenter of America’s academic universe. But Malia isn’t alone. Due to her choice, the Presi- dent’s daughter joins a litany of Black Americans who also earned academic note from Harvard University.
Take, for instance, educator-activist W. E. B. DuBois (first Black man to receive a Master’s Degree and later a Ph.D. from Harvard), Dr. Carter G. Woodson (founder of the Black History movement), actor Courtney B. Vance (B. A. in His- tory), poet Countee Cullen (member of the Harlem Renais- sance), United Nations diplomat Ralph Bunche, academic-activist Cornel West, and of course, Malia’s par- ents, Barack and Michelle Obama.
As one of the world’s best mentored freshman students. Malia will step into a still-predominantly male university en- vironment, and will follow a tradition of presidents’ daugh- ters (Chelsea Clinton as well as Jenna and Barbara Bush) who attended college (other than Harvard) while their pres- ident-fathers were in the Oval Office.
There, of course, will be whiners regarding Malia’s deci- sion not to attend a Black school, but her choice of Harvard is in keeping with her father’s choice of the White House. Therefore, we wish Malia well and look forward to her fu- ture, wherever it may lead.
Dude Ain’t No Lady
have a question. If a pig wore a wig, strapped a speaker to its stomach that played the song “Put a Ring On It,” and had a sign around its neck that read: "Call Me Beyonce," would you oblige
to its request?
I imagine the average per-
son's response to such a sce- nario would be an emphatic "Of course not!" That is be- cause, no matter how much lipstick the porker had on or how well it could dance, you would know that it wasn't re- ally Beyonce... it would be just a pig playing make be- lieve.
Right now there is a huge controversy swirling involving the State of North Carolina denying transgender individu- als protection under a new anti-discrimination law. The main source of contention ap- pears to be North Carolina's stance that transgenders don't have the right to use public bathrooms based on the gen- der they identify with as op- posed to the one in which they were born.
As long as he or she is still operating the same equipment down below, they belong to ei- ther the fraternity of men or the sorority of women. In this particular instance there's no such thing as a "grey area."
Contrary to popular belief, a transgender's plight is in no way comparable to that of a person born with disabilities or to a certain ethnicity. The
people who choose (and choice is a very key word here) to identify with something, that they are clearly not, made a conscious decision to alter their appearance. Nowhere in the book of mutual respect does it say anything about the rest of society having a duty to go along with the role-playing in an effort to accommodate the transformation.
A practicing nudist feels as though he or she was born with all of the covering the Creator intended for us to have. But we don't allow them to plop their naked bodies down next to us on buses and park benches so that they can live out their so-called truths either.
To me, this issue isn't so much about denying a person their right to free expression, as it is about what would come next after we have opened Pandora's box?
Once we begin down this path, constantly bending to appease everyone's little lifestyle quirks, where exactly do we stop? Will there soon come a time when we'll have to deal with men and women uri- nating and defecating on the streets because they identify themselves as "transspecies" and want to engage in the practice of marking their terri- tory like other animals?
For me, the most troubling thing about this topic is how the fight for transgender equality has been equated to
the fight Blacks endured for Civil Rights during the 1960s. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't ever recall seeing any old footage from that era showing a man in a dress being at- tacked by police dogs or being sprayed with fire hoses on the streets of Alabama, Georgia or Mississippi?
The fact that some individ- uals, like U. S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, at- tempts to compare what we're seeing now with transgenders to that struggle, comes off like a slap in the face to every per- son who shed blood, sweat and tears for the advancement of Black freedom. On top of that, it also appears quite hypocrit- ical on the part of the Attorney General considering I haven't heard her, or any other U. S. government official who claims to champion transgen- der equality, pushing for transgender males to be housed inside of female prison camps or vice versa.
At the end of the day I be- lieve it all comes down to how bad those, who wish to identify with the opposite sex, want to actually be a part of that oppo- site sex? I mean, if a man truly wants to become a woman, I suggest that he completes the entire transition by removing the male appendage holding him back from embracing that part of his inner self.
But if he's not willing to go that far, as far as I'm con- cerned, he shouldn't have a problem with continuing to lift his skirt while using the stand up urinals like the rest of the guys.
Reality On Ice is © by the Florida Sentinel Bul- letin Publishing Com- pany. Anyone wishing to contact Bar can text him at +18133080849.
National Police Week
egun with a proclamation which was signed in 1962 by President John F. Kennedy, May 15th was designated as Peace Officers Memorial Day and the week in which
that date falls as Police Week. That National Police Week be- gins on Sunday, this year, is an opportune day to lift all law enforcement officers (active, retired, and survivors), their families and supporters in prayer.
Next week should also be a time of reflection and appre- ciation for those instances in which you have used the assis- tance of law enforcement officers.
Just as having a Black man in the White House has not fostered the level of racial harmony many Americans had hoped for, integrating police departments has not fostered the level of police-community relations many of us had hoped for.
Overall, racial and ethnic minorities are still under-rep- resented in law enforcement agencies across the nation by a combined 24 percentage points on average, according to Cen- sus estimates.
American communities must strive to reach a point where a police officer’s ethnicity does not transcend the ability of that officer to see beyond color.
Law enforcement agencies must strive to ensure that their workforce mirrors the populations they serve and that their officers recognize their unconscious racial bias.
No one is perfect. We certainly appreciate the sacrifices officers make to protect the public.
FRIDAY, MAY 13, 2016 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 5-A
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