Monday, October 26, 2015

No More Black/White Friendships In Irvine?

It was about a month ago and, according to an eyewitness account, around the corner from our new home in Irvine, five policemen were in front of a neighbor’s home, with guns drawn, yelling for those inside to come out with their hands up.  Now I’ve been confronted by police several times, in pretty much the same manner, and have also witnessed quite a few similar incidents.  But this is Irvine, California, the place where I told my neighbor that I felt safer in, than anywhere I’d ever lived.  What a timely reminder that black folks, abeit protected by the police form a criminal element, must be continually cognizant of the fact that we are never fully protected from the police in racially related situations.

According to the person who witnessed the encounter, a young man had come out of the house with his hands up, gave his name, and informed the officers that he lived there.  The witness happened to recognize the young man, and sensing his apprehension and fear, yelled out that he was present and that he was watching.  After the young man responded with a thank you, one of the officers crossed the street, and asked the witness about he and the young man’s affiliation.  As he responded that they were not only neighbors, but that both of their families were friends, the officer called out a code 4, at which time the other officers holstered their weapons and stood down.  Soon after, two more young men, one black, the other of Arab descent, came out of the house voluntarily.

As the story goes, the police had received a report that mail had been taken from a nearby mailbox, and that the affiliated family was on vacation. When the police arrived however, the garage was open, there was a car in the driveway, and someone in the house, who didn’t immediately answer the door when the police announced their presence.  Reportedly, the guns were drawn in response to the situation.

Now I’ve looked down the barrels of police weapons pointed directly at me, and have experienced the helplessness that ensues. I’ve also approached an area down the street from my own home, surrounded by officers with pistols and assault rifles drawn. But that was Chicago ya’ll, and that’s the nature of stuff that occurs there every day.  What happened last Tuesday in Irvine is not a normal occurrence, and I’m not convinced that what happened had nothing to do with the fact that two of the young men, coming out of that house with their hands up, were black.

My heartfelt intent is to inform others about what’s going on, and to ask that we at least consider the ramifications that may occur.  Our civil authorities claim to be working on the issues that accompany the matter of diversity, yet the manifestations of these very issues are hushed up, and hidden, as if they never happened.  The incident of which we speak, points to the possibility of white parents, informing their white children, of the potential danger that may accompany their affiliation with black youth. Is that particular aspect of diversity going to be addressed here in Irvine? 

Can’t tell you what you should do, just reminding you that this kind of stuff ain’t gon stop until something is done.  As for me and mine, we’ll be here in irvine, hoping not to forget what time it really is, and seeing things as they really are, and not how we wish they would be.


I’ll holla 

To comment or respond please click on the word comments at the bottom of this page, or email me at grace.calvin187@gmail.com

Wednesday, October 21, 2015

We're Still Here

I’m not going to say that acts of oppression have not been perpetrated on people of other persuasions, but being black I tend to focus on what’s happening from the black perspective.  The world we live in is seemingly controlled by the small minority of people who possess the majority of the wealth, and who we mistakenly believe have more power than ourselves.  Why?  Because they have the wherewithal and the capability, to use the tolls of divide and conquer, to keep us feeling that we have less power than they do.

Let’s check out a piece entitled, “1.5 Million Missing Black Men,” written by Justin Wolfers, David Leonhardt and Kevin Quealy, and found in the April 20, 2015 issue of the New York Times.  Here’s how it goes….

“For every 100 black women not in jail, there are only 83 black men. The remaining men — 1.5 million of them — are, in a sense, missing.  Among cities with sizable black populations, the largest single gap is in Ferguson, Mo. 40 missing black men for every 100 black women.  North Charleston, S.C., has a gap larger than 75 percent of cities, 25 missing black men for every 100 black women.  This gap — driven mostly by incarceration and early deaths — barely exists among whites.  1 missing white man for every 100 white women.

This is just one example of the stuff that I’ve been made aware of, and its validity is based solely on the knowledge and integrity of it’s authors.  However, I’m positive that if anybody, of any race, does a bit of research about their own people, they’ll find that circumstances such as this, stemming from the concept of divide and conquer, are still prevalent.

From black men being infected with syphilis, to black female students being sterilized as a means of population control, atrocities are being committed by the few, to control the many.  Experimentation, at the risk of life, was not invented by Adolph Hitler, not did it stop with his demise.  It ain’t just Jews and Black folks that have been targeted, it’s all of us. The alleged ‘powers that be,’ already know that it’s not the among of power that they have that enables them to control us, it’s the amount of power that we think they have that does. 

Crack cocaine, syphilis, sterilization, incarceration and other means are employed by the so-called elite, to gain more insight on how to maintain the status quo, while, at the same time, impressing upon the rest of us how powerless we are, and how important it is for us to support them.

Ironically however, we’re still here and standing stronger than we know. Why, because everything that exists is beyond the jurisdiction of those trying to control it.  It’s the Creator who has the real power, and each of us can access it by recognizing who we are, what we’ve been given to work with, and then using it collectively to do what needs to be done for the sake of righteousness.  That’s why were still here.


I’ll holla.


To comment or respond please click on the word comments at the bottom of this page, or email me at grace.calvin187@gmail.com

Sunday, October 4, 2015

Ain't It Wonderful

Woke up this morning feeling congested, exhausted, and immersed in a continuum of 66 year old pain. Nothing to be alarmed about per se, but this is the fourth time in a row I’ve gotten up feeling like a bunch of people beat my ass while I was sleep. What concerned me was that if I’d gone through drug withdrawal symptoms countless times, and they always subsided within 72 hours, why is this flu-like condition, still in full effect after more than 96 hours? 

Then I reflected on my recent bout with cancer and hepatitis. I thought about the fact that I had worked at least 14 hours a day for the past two weeks, moving into that new house and making it look like Nicole and Calvin’s house. Life is always going to do what it do, and these and other factors have definitely played a role in my temporary setback. However, I’ve decided that on this day, no matter what, I’m gonna get out of this bed and experience Louis Armstrong’s song… ‘What A Wonderful World’.

I sincerely believe that nothing takes place in anyone’s life, including dialogue, that is not related to something happening right then or that will be taking place sometime later on. My intent thereby, is to listen and to learn. When I got up this morning, remembering Louis Armstrong’s song, I became determined to live it, by sharing this blog with you. Not because I got so much to say, but because we have all been put here to share what we have experienced, in order that others might benefit.

It’s a definite delight to get up feeling wonderfully alive just because you can, and what a joy to be excited about the opportunity to say to, and/or do something for, somebody else. We can all create beauty through conversations, music and the arts, and then participate in the love that comes from doing so. But what about t he days we get up feeling like I did, and really don’t want anybody to know that, right now, the world, as we see it, ain’t all that wonderful.

So glad I got up this morning with wonderful on my mind cause it don’t happen all the time. There are quite a few times I ask myself…Why am I feeling this way?” Or
What I’m gon do about this, that or the other?” Well, It’s a new day, another opportunity to make it wonderful for you and for me. So Im gonna finish this blog, and look forward to what lies ahead.

Let me close by sharing my rendition of those Louis Armstrong lyrics, so that perhaps they will enhance your day as they have done mine. 

I see skies of blue, clouds of white,
Bright blessed days, dark sacred nights,
And I think to myself…What a wonderful world.

The colors of the rainbow, so pretty in the sky,
Are also on the faces, of people passing by,
I see friends shaking hands, saying how do you do,
What they’re really saying is …I love you.

I hear babies cryin, as I watch em grow,
They’ll learn more, than I’ll ever know,
And I think to myself, What a wonderful world.

I think to myself, what a wonderful world.  Oh, Yea.


I’ll holla… 

To comment or respond please click on the word comments at the bottom of this page, or email me at grace.calvin187@gmail.com