A Lot of Potential "Bang" behind the "Whimper": What the Dallas County Voucher Riot Tells us about BRA's Future

It's all going to end in tears

Traveling today. Trying to finish editing Captain American and Whiteness (cover will be up by Saturday), but can't help but look out the window of the airplane - while at a cruising altitude of 40,000 feet - and think about all that is going on down there in America.

Fitting that today is Bastille Day in France, because a story was e-mailed to me that caused me to chuckle when thinking about 'liberty, fraternity, equality' and where we as a nation are headed. It was nearly a year ago that 30,000 (predominately Black) people rioted in East Point over the opportunity to sign up for a waiting list for Section 8 vouchers -- many years in the future, mind you.

In Dallas County (Texas), conservative estimates of 15,000 people - more likely 25,000 - 30,000 -  turned out for the opportunity to apply for housing assistance vouchers, a process that will require a two-year waiting period. Oh, a riot broke out in process:

At least five people required medical attention, including one pregnant woman who was trampled, after hundreds of people began running to apply for housing assistance vouchers early Thursday morning.

Dallas County residents hoping to secure a Dallas County Health and Human Services housing voucher began lining up on Polk Street outside of the Jessie Owens Memorial Complex at 4:30 p.m. Wednesday. The vouchers provide up to $1,000 each month to put toward rent for low income families.

By 5 a.m. Thursday, that number had grown substantially and as many as 15,000 applications were expected, according to Dallas Fire-Rescue's Jason Evans.

When the gates were opened up at 5:30 a.m., the mass of people all began to run toward the building where the voucher pre-applications will be processed -- all were trying to be among the first of thousands to line up.  In the rush, some suffered minor cuts, bruises and heat exhaustion.  The pregnant woman who was trampled is said to be OK, but shaken up.

The rush prompted some officers in the Dallas County Sheriff's Department to don riot shields in order to keep the crowd orderly and safe.

Evans said that after the stampede, DFR sent six paramedics, two ATVs, one rescue unit and an EMS supervisor to the scene.  They will remain at the location throughout the day to offer assistance to anyone who may suffer from heat-related issues.

Zach Thompson, with the Dallas County Housing Authority, said there was no urgency for people to run for the vouchers. Thompson said the pre-application is a two-part process and that Thursday all people would be doing is giving their name, phone number and the number of people in their household.  They are then called back for an interview where it will be determined then if they are placed on the waiting list for the voucher.

If approved, it could take up to two years before people receive their vouchers for rental assistance.

Dallas County currently has about 3,800 vouchers in use at a cost of $18 million to $20 million per year. 

Officials said that about 500 people leave the system annually due to finding more gainful employment, moving or lack of compliance.

Most agencies that provide the vouchers have such long waiting lists that they have not accepted new applicants for years.  This was the case in Dallas County, who before today had not accepted any new applications in five years.

Pre-applications are being accepted at the Ellis Davis Field House at the Jessie Owens Memorial Complex on 9191 S. Polk Street between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. on Thursday only.

 In Dallas County (as of 2009), 11 percent of the county received EBT/Food Stamps. Breaking it down further, four percent of whites and 25 percent of Blacks received EBT/Snap cards in 2009, a 33 percent increase since 2007.

One can only imagine the racial breakdown of EBT card users today. Can anyone find TANF/welfare stats for the county? Or the crime statistics by race. If memory serves, isn't the Dallas Police Chief a Black guy whose son killed someone? Doesn't Dallas have city council members who were upset about the term 'Black hole'?

I didn't start SBPDL seeking fame or trying to start a movement; it was a spoof of Stuff White People Like and an outlet for some creativity. But in flying today I began to think about creating a 40,000 foot view for SBPDL, coming up with objectives and establishing overall goals for what is being created here (and the ideas that so may other fantastic blogs and Web sites are running with, rallying behind, and creating outstanding research and analysis) and thinking about a direction for the future.

I'm no one special, just a kid in his mid-20s who looked at a nation on the verge of falling apart and decided to start writing about it. Perhaps life would be easier had I taken the proverbial blue pill and just sat down last night and cheered the parade of Black athletes on the ESPY awards on ESPN, the majority of whom grew up in homes reliant on EBT/Food Stamps, welfare, free school lunches, Section 8 Housing, special admission to college (based on poor test scores), and an army of tutors to keep them eligible in college before finally making it pro. 

Few people want to confront what is coming, and when stories like the Dallas County Housing Assistance Riot of 2011 or Black Memorial Day 2011 Riots seep out, many close their eyes to the larger truth these events represent. 

The violence many predict will engulf Indianapolis this weekend during the Black Expo could have been avoided, had the bloody event just been canceled. But it wasn't and an army of police and brave volunteers are called upon to keep the peace because of lawless nature Black people provided during 2010's Black Expo.

There are a growing number of bloggers and Web sites that are doing their best to prepare an exponentially growing number of inquisitive minds about the coming - unavoidable - deluge. I doubt I'm alone when I write that the number of unique visitors to this site rises each day and that the number of returning visitors grows as well.

So hang with us over the next couple of weeks. For my sanity, I'll be slowly down posts: I'm working overtime to get Captain America and Whiteness ready for next Friday, and then will be working overtime to get SBPDL Year Two: 365 Days of Judging by Content of Character out by August 15.

During that time I'll be thinking about what that 40,000 feet view should represent.

View more videos at: http://nbcdfw.com.

Those Vancouver Riots: The Difference is Black and White

Has anyone read where alcohol had a hand in aiding the Mahogany Mobs in Chicago? Perhaps alcohol is the reason Baltimore is investing curfew centers this summer? Can alcohol explain why Atlanta is becoming a police state this summer, in hopes of containing potential Mahogany Mobs (what the media calls “youth” or “packs of teens” is actually a Black-only “Flash Mob)?

The Great White North: Social Media and white people do 'snitch' you Maple Leaf wearing thug

 

Major cities throughout the nation are bracing for the type of violence being perpetrated in Chicago right now, by a group of people the media persistently refuses to identify with any racial information as to who is engaging in non-alcoholic fueled attacks on the general public.
 

By now, people should know that a purported large contingent of Vancouver hockey fans rioted when their beloved hockey team lost game seven of the Stanley Cup finals to Boston. Knowing that anti-Olympic protesters rioted in 2010, you might get a different picture on whom the rioters were.
 

The Vancouver mayor blames anarchists, and he could be right. The likely disreputable ally in disabling proper judgment from many of the participants  in mob behavior is probably alcohol.
 

When you put on the “Black Goggles” for only a second, it all makes sense.
 

People need to know that I’m not excusing the behavior of these cretins; I’m a strong law and order type guy. But people who invest time, money and energy into following a sports team, only to see their team lose in game seven, after imbibing a plethora of alcohol, undoubtedly had their judgment impaired.
 

Can you excuse away Black criminality and those Black people who people who participate in Knockout King in St. Louis merely for the fun of it? Or those Black people who participate in Polar Bear Hunting? In police descriptions of the incidences of Mahogany Mobs in Chicago, alcohol consumption has never been mentioned as a probable cause for the attacks.
 

Recall that in Washington, that states supreme court recently overturned a murder conviction because the prosecution used racist language in describing the Black communities well-known aversion to ‘snitching’ out family, friends and racial confederates to the police. Better to have a killer running around then another brother in jail.
 

Here’s an article from The Atlantic that describes the problem:

In many Baltimore neighborhoods, talking to the law has become a mortal sin, a dishonorable act punishable by social banishment—or worse. Prosecutors in the city can rattle off a litany of brutal retaliations: houses firebombed, witnesses and their relatives shot, contract hits on 10-year-olds. Witness intimidation, they say, badly hampers their ability to fight crime, and it affects nearly every murder case they try.

Prosecutors in most major U.S. cities tell similar stories. Two years ago in Philadelphia, a drug kingpin was convicted of witness intimidation after he was taped threatening to kill those who testified against him. Five relatives of one witness in the case had already died, in a house fire that prosecutors believe was the drug lord’s doing. Last year in San Francisco, two gang members beat a murder rap after the state’s star witness turned up dead. Several years ago in Denver, a key homicide witness was sexually assaulted in what prosecutors believe was a “contract” attack designed to frighten him out of testifying.

Police and prosecutors have been contending with reluctant witnesses for decades. But according to law-enforcement experts, the problem is getting dramatically worse, and is reflected in falling arrest and conviction rates for violent crimes. In cities with populations between half a million (for example, Tucson) and a million (Detroit), the proportion of violent crimes cleared by an arrest dropped from about 45 percent in the late 1990s to less than 35 percent in 2005, according to the FBI. Conviction rates have similarly dropped. At the same time, crime has spiked. Murder rates have risen more or less steadily since 2000. Last December, the FBI voiced concern over a jump in violent crime, which in 2005 showed its biggest increase in more than a decade.

The reasons for witnesses’ reluctance appear to be changing and becoming more complex, with the police confronting a new cultural phenomenon: the spread of the gangland code of silence, or omerta, from organized crime to the population at large. Those who cooperate with the police are labeled “snitches” or “rats”—terms once applied only to jailhouse informants or criminals who turned state’s evidence, but now used for “civilian” witnesses as well. This is particularly true in the inner cities, where gangsta culture has been romanticized through rap music and other forms of entertainment, and where the motto “Stop snitching,” expounded in hip-hop lyrics and emblazoned on caps and T-shirts, has become a creed.

The metastasis of this culture of silence in minority communities has been facilitated by a gradual breakdown of trust in the police and the government. The erosion began during the civil-rights era, when informants were a favorite law-enforcement tool against groups like the Black Panthers. But it accelerated because of the war on drugs. David Kennedy, the director of the Center for Crime Prevention and Control at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, in New York, told me: “This is the reward we have reaped for 20 years of profligate drug enforcement in these communities.” When half the young black men in a neighborhood are locked up, on bail, or on parole, the police become the enemy. Add to this the spread of racialized myths—that crack was created by the CIA to keep blacks in their place, for example—and you get a toxic mix. Kennedy thinks the silence of many witnesses doesn’t come from fear, but from anger.

Now juxtapose this aversion to ‘snitching’ by Black people to the actions by Vancouver’s law-abiding population in the hours that followed the riot after the Stanley Cup game seven playoff loss:

Then, something happened which killed the buzz dead in its tracks: the Canucks lost to the Bruins 4-0. And, for the second time in franchise history, Canucks fans rioted after losing the 7^th game of a Stanley Cup playoff. The first riot was on June 14^th 1994 when the Canucks lost to the New York Rangers. Twenty years later, the scene was eerily similar. Angry and disappointed fans took to Vancouver streets, starting fires, looting from stores, and causing general havoc for hours after the game.

What’s worse? Vancouver was sure it had matured. Leading up to the game radio hosts, journalists, and fans all agreed: rioting wasn’t a risk this time. This morning, everyone is hanging their heads and wondering: is this Vancouver – a city with the emotional capacity of a toddler?

While news reports paint one picture of Vancouver, social media provides – if not a different image – a different perspective of the city. Within hours of the riots, pages popped up on Facebook to try and create a different kind of mob mentality: one to help. A campaign aimed to identify rioters attracted 20, 000 people in less than twelve hours. On it, users are encouraged to post pictures and video of rioters in hopes they can be identified. The wall reads:

“People need to be held accountable for their actions and face the consequences under any circumstances”

A similar Tumblr site titled the Vancouver Riot Criminals List is also trying to help police catch those involved.

Another Facebook page was created late Wednesday; it called for people to help with clean up.  It reads: “Invite all of your friends! Let’s see if we can get Vancouver looking like a new city by noon Thursday!” The site’s copy is positive, affirmative and respectful of the needs of police to keep parts of downtown closed.

On June 15^th, 2011 the online Vancouver and the offline Vancouver were vastly different. Which one was indicative of the city’s true identity? While the volume of followers on social media makes it tempting to vouch for the online community, Vancouver must acknowledge last night’s riots. Once is a blip. Twice is the beginning of a pattern. Perhaps, Vancouver’s biggest issue was that it refused to believe the riots could happen again. With ocean and mountains, Vancouver is a geographically stunning city. It is accepting and diverse. It’s easy to ignore the under belly. What is it that compels Vancouver residents to riot? To answer this, Vancouver needs to take a good look at itself.

But that look should include Facebook campaigns and Tumblr pages. What does a city do when its residents do the unthinkable? Well, it depends on the city. Some would get angry. Some would blame politicians. Others, however, would show strength in numbers – create Facebook groups and Tumblr pages whose 1000’s of followers vastly outnumber the few hundred troublemakers on the street.

All across the Western world, similar examples of Black people engaging in irrational behavior without alcohol to fuel their peculiar behavior are transpiring; in London, the majority of violent crime is perpetrated by the recent Black immigrants who comprise a growing percentage of the population though they were near zero percent only 70 years ago.
 
Civilization can only exist when those who commit crime are shunned – violently if they must be – and castigated to the fullest extent the law can provide. When police and government can no longer guarantee the safety of civilians, people must shame the laws inadequacies to ensure peace and stability.
 
Black people refuse to snitch; Vancouver citizens have utilized social media to find those responsible for the violence in their city:

Vancouver vigilantes have set up a website encouraging people to upload their photos of last night's riot, in the hopes that other people will identify the worst offenders and report them to the police.
The idea is to get people to tag the photos using Facebook, and the let the cops take it from there.

There's definitely no shortage of pictures, not just here, but on other websites and we imagine quite few people (like the setting a cop car on fire) will be getting visits from the Mounties in the next few weeks.

This summer, many American cities will see similar violence that Vancouver saw on June 15^th. Alcohol will not be an ingredient in the violence – it has not been discussed as the a culprit or aid in instigating the Mahogany Mobs that plague Chicago – but the failure to properly identify those Black people engaging in thuggery will be.
 
Whereas whites use social media in the aftermath of the Vancouver riot to identity those who would bring shame to their city, Black people use social media to organize Mahogany Mobs, Smash and Grab attack, Polar Bear Hunts, and Knockout King games. Not an ounce of shame is lost in the process.
 
Their parents – more than likely, their mom – will excuse away their behavior and Black people will refrain from ‘snitching’ to ensure that miscreants go free to engage in Black mobbery again unimpeded.

But Where's Blackwater (XE)? Japan 2011 vs. New Orleans 2005

Visiting Drudgereport.com the past few days has been emotionally difficult. The devastation in Japan from the 9.0 earthquake is horrific, a powerful reminder that the forces of nature can never be tamed by man.

Blackwater was needed after Katrina to make sure emergency workers would be safe

A 9.0 earthquake is the energy equivalent of 474 megatons of TNT explosive force. The earthquake in Haiti, a 7.0, was the equivalent of 474 kilotons of TNT. What was unleashed by this explosive force is captured vividly in this video.

Entire cities were destroyed in a moment, battered by powerful waves that rendered once happy homes, busy markets and businesses a painful memory of a past nature swiftly uprooted.

100,000 troops will be deployed to help the stranded.There is no need for order to be restored. The Japanese are resilient, and though hundreds of thousands lack electricity, water, food and shelter, looting and rioting is not occurring.

Blackwater (now called XE) is not required to restore order to a nation that just endured a disaster ripped from the pages of a Toho Company script.

New Orleans in 2005 during the aftermath of Katrina was a completely different story. The racial aspects of the Japanese earthquake survivors and those in New Orleans are a stark reminder that though man can not tame nature, the worst impulses of man's nature can be tamed. Or they can be indulged.

In Japan, family, community, honor and loyalty are ideals that hold that nation together, even as the waters recede into the ocean reveling a hellish terrain that once was home. The threat of a nuclear meltdown isn't enough to conjure excesses that would replicate the behaviors of a much different community outside the Superdome in 2005.

In New Orleans during Katrina, a distinct portion of that community showcased for the world to see that nature has the ability to wash away man's civil mask, revealing the fragile reality of disorder within our nation. It only takes the absence of order to render one segment of the American population into a bubbling vat of chaos.

It took Blackwater engaging the Black rioters of New Orleans to restore order in a city where only Shania Twain CDs remained at a looted and pillaged Wal-Mart store:

In an hour long conversation I had with four Blackwater men, they characterized their work in New Orleans as "securing neighborhoods" and "confronting criminals." They all carried automatic assault weapons and had guns strapped to their legs. Their flak jackets were covered with pouches for extra ammunition.



Blackwater is not alone. As business leaders and government officials talk openly of changing the demographics of what was one of the most culturally vibrant of America's cities, mercenaries from companies like DynCorp, Intercon, American Security Group, Blackhawk, Wackenhut and an Israeli company called Instinctive Shooting International (ISI) are fanning out to guard private businesses and homes, as well as government projects and institutions. Within two weeks of the hurricane, the number of private security companies registered in Louisiana jumped from 185 to 235. Some, like Blackwater, are under federal contract. Others have been hired by the wealthy elite, like F. Patrick Quinn III, who brought in private security to guard his $3 million private estate and his luxury hotels, which are under consideration for a lucrative federal contract to house FEMA workers.



A possibly deadly incident involving Quinn's hired guns underscores the dangers of private forces policing American streets. On his second night in New Orleans, Quinn's security chief, Michael Montgomery, who said he worked for an Alabama company called Bodyguard and Tactical Security (BATS), was with a heavily armed security detail en route to pick up one of Quinn's associates and escort him through the chaotic city. Montgomery told me they came under fire from "black gangbangers" on an overpass near the poor Ninth Ward neighborhood. "At the time, I was on the phone with my business partner," he recalls. "I dropped the phone and returned fire."


Montgomery says he and his men were armed with AR-15s and Glocks and that they unleashed a barrage of bullets in the general direction of the alleged shooters on the overpass. "After that, all I heard was moaning and screaming, and the shooting stopped. That was it. Enough said."

A 2010 flood in Nashville required no such intervention on the part of Blackwater (XE) to restore order.

Before emergency workers, food, water, and the US Army could get to New Orleans, Blackwater was sent in to restore order. They did their job.

They won't be needed in Japan.

There's not much else to say. Mother nature has the tendency to simultaneously bring out the best in man and the worst in man. Let Japan in 2011 vs. New Orleans in 2005 be a lesson for us all.

I'm not a geologist nor am I a seismologist. But I do know that an earthquake hit New Zealand two weeks ago and Japan on Friday. Both nations are part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. So is California.

If an earthquake of the magnitude of the one that hit Japan were to strike Los Angeles, what type of behavior would the inhabitants of the City of Angels exhibit? What we see now in Japan or what we saw in Katrina?

I imagine XE would be called in immediately.

Black Thanksgiving is upon Us: NBA All-Star Weekend

The NBA needs great white hopes, but that means Black players must pass them the ball

Editors Note: I am Number Four was exactly like we said it would be two weeks ago. An all-white cast in which white people are the heroes, American flags in virtually every scene, and not one non-white had a speaking part.American flags in virtually every scene and not one non-white had a speaking part. It was an homage to Pre-Obama America. Somebody get Michael Bay a script of Camp of the Saints.

NBA All-Star Weekend is upon us again (and one does hope it won't be a repeat of the 2007 All-Star Weekend in Las Vegas) and, finally, it has earned a worthy name - The Black Thanksgiving - that accurately nails the vibe surrounding the event:

So, you want to know about Black Thanksgiving?

That's what sports writer Mike Wilbon calls NBA All-Star Weekend.


First of all, what you need to know about Wilbon, whom I love, is that he has been known to exaggerate just a touch on occasion. But on this one, he's on point.


For those of us who cover the NBA for a living, like me and Wilbon -- now an ESPN yakker and writer, formerly a Washington Post yakker and writer, and my friend --All-Star Weekend is a long four days of work.


But for most of the people who descend into town -- this year it's Los Angeles, with its still sparkling Staples Center and the surrounding "L.A. Live" area -- it's an opportunity to go wild (sometimes a little too wild, as happened in Las Vegas a few years ago) and get together.


Other folks have Tweetups. Black people have All-Star Weekend, or ASW. It's a national holiday, sort of.


ASW is the only time of the year that people call me. I don't say that to be maudlin, 'cause most of the time, I don't want people to call me. (Dirty little secret: I don't really like talking on the phone.) But they come out of the woodwork this time of year, because NBA players are royalty in Black America, and everyone wants to be near them. The old saying is that ballers want to be rappers, and rappers want to be ballers. That's really, really true.


Basketball is a culture. It isn't for everyone, though the game is loved by people of all colors. There is a rhythm to it, just as if McCoy Tyner was dribbling a ball instead of playing piano.


"Considering that the culture of basketball in a predominantly black league like the NBA is so strongly connected to African American culture, the NBA All-Star weekend has turned into a celebration of African American culture by extension," says Todd Boyd, professor of critical studies at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts.

Bill Simmons in his Big Book of Basketball called the sport a "Black game" and wrote fawningly over the athletes who have played in a sport just a hair's breadth of legitimacy above professional wrestling. The NBA has become a "Black game" with the people charged with making the rules of the game deciding to favor an individual aspect over any team aspect of the sport (The same, by the way, in the NFL, with rule changes favoring speedier receivers and tiny corners).

Our friend Richard Lapchick - who always criticizes sports for a lack of the right kind (that's the Black kind) of diversity - loves the NBA and gives it an "A" rating for diversity, though the league is 80 percent Black. He does attack, however, NCAA basketball for having Black players that earn such anemic grades compared to the white players who earn their grades and degrees.

Since the majority of NBA players lack the intelligence to last more than, at most, two semesters of college, the moniker "Black Thanksgiving" makes perfect sense. It makes perfect sense because of the utter thugnicity surrounding the NBA has reached levels that only World Star Hip-Hop can rival (the same could be said for football).

College Basketball thrives while the NBA withers because "the great white hope" has an academic advantage over Black athletes as well as rule book that dictates a more defensive game. The NBA thought that offense and slam dunks would bring viewers, though that hasn't been the case. To understand why college basketball thrives, one would be wise to consult this fantastic data that shows the political inclinations of sports fans. Conservative, right-leaning people watch college basketball, while the NBA has incredibly left-leaning fans.

Look at Duke Basketball, Jimmer Fredette, the 2010 NCAA Tournament. All the evidence you need to understand that college basketball primarily utilizes the "white game" blueprint while the NBA has decided the "thugnicity" is the way to economic success and a wonderful way to celebrate a Black Thanksgiving. The problem is, however-- at least for the NBA -- is that white fans are heading for exists and leaving in droves:

No one wants to acknowledge why the NBA is losing popularity. Buzz Bissinger on why white fans have trouble getting excited about African-American athletes.


My editor thinks I should write something about professional basketball. The timing is certainly right—the National Basketball Association’s All-Star extravaganza starts today in Los Angeles, culminating in the All-Star game on Sunday night.


The problem is, I don’t really know what to say about the NBA other than I almost never watch it anymore.


I am not a basketball junkie and I have no desire to be one. There are maybe three players I would pay to watch. The first is LeBron James of the Miami Heat, because whatever you think, and I think a lot less after his free-agency melodrama despite writing a book with him, he is the best athlete in the world today. The second is Kobe Bryant of the Los Angeles Lakers, and the third is Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder.


The game is in trouble and I don’t think there is much dispute about that. Attendance was down last year and is slightly down so far this season. Although basketball is supposed to be a team game, it has become more one-on-one in the NBA than a boxing match. The style has changed and it is a definite turnoff.


But a major problem with the NBA, one that is virtually never spoken about honestly, is the issue of race. I have no hard-core evidence. But based on my past experience in writing about sports, I know that whites ascribe very different characteristics to black athletes than they do white ones. I also make a habit of asking every white sports fan I know whether they watch the NBA. In virtually every instance, they say they once watched the game but no longer do. When I ask them if it has anything to do with the racial composition, they do their best to look indignant. But my guess is they felt very differently about the game when Larry Bird and John Stockton were playing.


Based on various statistics, the percentage of African-American players in the NBA has remained relatively constant over the past decade, fluctuating between 72 and 75 percent. The number of foreign-born players has increased exponentially to about 18 percent. The number of white American players, meanwhile, has decreased from 24.3 percent in the 1980-81 season to roughly 10 percent now.


The one white American player today who comes the closest to being a star is Kevin Love of the Minnesota Timberwolves. He is averaging 21 points a game and 15 rebounds. He is on the West roster in the All-Star Game. Do you know anyone who would pay to see Love play?


It boils down to this: Are whites losing interest in a game in which the number of white American players not only continues to dwindle, but no longer features a superstar?


Yes.


My good friend and colleague Stephen Fried, who has had season tickets to the Philadelphia 76ers for a decade and has written about the NBA, says he thinks my argument is more than simply terrible. “While racism is a part of America and American sports and always will be, I really don't think the main problem with the NBA is racial, and I think it's kind of racist and certainly reductionist to say it is,” Stephen told me.


In a piece for Parade magazine last year, he wrote that the NBA game needed to be significantly modified to regain its former popularity. In talking with NBA watchers, he came up with six solutions to improve play, including shortening the 24-second clock, increasing the number of fouls for a player before fouling out, and shortening the season.


They are good ideas. But I still believe race is a key deterrent in getting more whites reengaged and increasing interest. It has to do with racial stereotyping. Those stereotypes are wrong. They are malicious. But to act is if they do not exist is disingenuous. When I wrote the book Friday Night Lights about high-school football in Texas, I saw the racial stereotypes of some whites up close—their firm belief that white athletes admirably succeeded because of hustle and hard work and brains, and black athletes succeeded solely on the basis of pure athletic skill. In other words, white athletes virtuously worked their tails off whereas black athletes simply coasted because they can.

White racism is always the evil problem behind any problem in America, even the lack of ratings for NBA games. Larry Bird tried to make the game whiter in Indianapolis but was attacked for being, well, a racist.

There is no shelter from the accusation of white racism, though the future of America continues to look more and more like the sad ending of the film Mars Attacks where a mariachi band plays the Star Spangled Banner. When whites are the minority, white racism will still be the trusty whipping boy for all of America's problems.

If Black people can complain about the lack of Black people in baseball, is it not reasonable that white people will boycott the paucity of white basketball players by sitting on their wallets and changing the channel when ESPN highlights a league that represents a Black Thanksgiving every day?

The NBA will continue to lose popularity. It is solvent now because ESPN had decided to keep it on life support by broadcasting games and acting like people still care about a sport that lacks a great white hope.

Another theory as to why great white hopes are few and far between is courtesy of Pistol Pete Maravich. When he was drafted by the Atlanta Hawks, people thought he would revolutionize the game but his predominately Black team wouldn't pass him the ball, deciding to practice reverse racism instead. He finally snapped, saying, "I hate you. I hate all of you niggers."

Just like Peyton Hillis in the NFL, the Black players in the NBA don't want to see a white guy succeed on their turf. If you have played any level of sports against Black players (high school, college or professional) you know this to be true.

Black Run America (BRA) stigmatizes white athletes; those that excel are still just pretty good... for a white guy.

Let the NBA have their Black Thanksgiving. The NCAA Tournament is a white man's  feast, where white players who have no shot in NBA captivate the nation.

Without ESPN, the NBA would be in serious jeopardy of having to fold many franchises that aren't producing financially. Enjoy your Thanksgiving, Black people.

At Stuff Black People Don't Like, we'll just remember that one Thanksgiving where Black people decided Las Vegas was just another major metropolitan city.

That white shadow that stalks the NBA will remain forever haunting a league that slides into financial ruin thanks to a bunch of overpaid thugs. All the while, Richard Lapchick will be courtside applauding a league the diversity of which he fanatically gives his seal of approval.

How a DWL views the world of crime: Moderating the truth away

Disingenuous White Liberals must close their eyes to escape reality

Remember school discipline? We’ve talked about it before, showcasing a study The New York Times found horrifying:

In many of the nation’s middle schools, black boys were nearly three times as likely to be suspended as white boys, according to a new study, which also found that black girls were suspended at four times the rate of white girls.  

School authorities also suspended Hispanic and American Indian middle school students at higher rates than white students, though not at such disproportionate rates as for black children, the study found. Asian students were less likely to be suspended than whites.  

The study analyzed four decades of federal Department of Education data on suspensions, with a special focus on figures from 2002 and 2006, that were drawn from 9,220 of the nation’s 16,000 public middle schools.  

The study, “Suspended Education: Urban Middle Schools in Crisis,” was published by the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit civil rights organization.

Black people get in trouble more because they fail to follow the accepted guidelines governing proper behavior. Disingenuous White Liberals (DWLs) – who live among only other DWLs – feign incredulity that such a reality could exist, always finding the trusty excuse of inherent racism within the system as a sound, valid reason behind the disproportionate expulsion rates among the races; and crime rates; and murder rates; and drop-out rates;  and the lack of diversity in “you name the vocational field” (save barber shops); and… pretty much anything, save the over-representation of Black people in sports – though the lack of Black people in baseball brings cries of “racism” out.

The proficiency of Black students is lacking as well, though few dare say why similar patterns emerge on every standardized test, LSAT, MCAT, SAT, ACT, military aptitude test or even the Wonderlic. Who knew No.2 pencils were capable of racism?

Problems with marauding Black youth require “no loitering” signs, dress codes and curfews, the latter normally designated for a nation under either national emergency, martial law or during a time of war. With Black people, the reasoning is just to stave off whatever might transpire when large numbers congregate together(Milwaukee's Mayfair Flower mall Parental Guidance Policy comes to mind).

Take this story from Miami where a fight broke out between Black kids in school over that vital form of communication, a cell phone:

Nearly a dozen students were led away in handcuffs Wednesday morning after a large fight broke out at Northeast High School in Oakland Park.

Broward Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Dani Moschella said deputies were sent to the school in the 700 block of NE 56th Street after they received a call from a school resource officer about a fight involving dozens of students in a hallway outside the cafeteria.

Arriving deputies were able to break up the fight and eleven students were arrested. Most of them were charged with disrupting a school function, but a few may be charged with battery. Moschella said it appears the fight, which broke out just after second period, centered around a cell phone.

CBS4’s Peter D’Oench spoke with one of the students who were arrested for the fight. NE High School sophomore Hunter Petitdiou described the fight as being more than the typical school skirmish.

“It was a riot; everyone was fighting and because they wanted to punish anyone who might have been involved or was near it, everyone went to jail,” Petitdiou said. “This is not the first time there was a fight. 

There was a much smaller fight on November 23, and I think they were looking to punish everyone involved in that fight as well.”
Other students said the fight was akin to the front few rows at a hard rock concert.

“It started with just two people and then someone jumped in and then other people (jumped in) and I guess it was like a big mosh pit,” said NE High senior Stephanie Baldwin.

“These students have to realize that fighting like this is a very serious matter and there are consequences,” Moschella said. “Today, as a result of this, nearly a dozen students were arrested and taken to Juvenile Assessment Center.”

Black kids enjoying a fun riot during lunch. This is quite similar to the riots in Kansas City, Philadelphia and Milwaukee. Nothing new, as Black people get in trouble quite frequently.
What is hilarious is the comment section, where people happened to notice the Black faces being hauled away to jail. The writer of the piece (or gatekeeper at CBS) said this:

cbs4game
The level of racist and hateful comments to this story is totally unacceptable. I have closed comments and will be contacting some of the worst offenders directly.
January 5, 2011 at 3:43 pm

A sample of the comments the DWL moderator found so intolerable cruel are below:

Patricia
I can’t believe all the racist comments on here. This is why I definitely don’t believe in evolution….cause if they above comments point to the “evolution of human thought”, heaven help us all.
And speaking of “racial” profiling. Why is it that the school shootings over the last 10-15 years have been perpetrated by white males? I think I’d rather have a group of kids fighting over a cell phone than deciding to shoot up a school.
Just saying…..
January 5, 2011 at 2:50 pm

Brad in Denver
@Julie
“stupid white people” do you not see the hypocrisy in your statement? Generalizing according to race is the problem but then again you’re a teenager so I wouldn’t expect you to understand life’s complexities. Hopefully you’ll mature one day. To the other commenters I agree usually such stupid fights and crimes end up being black on black crimes but to condemn them as a race is pretty narrow minded, by far the majority of blacks in this country are upstanding citizens. To say otherwise is very telling on your narrow minded views. And by the way I’m not a liberal, just an educated conservative “Tea Party type”
January 5, 2011 at 2:58 pm
 
B_Wooster
Brad, pointing out that most of these stupid crimes are committed by black people is not inconsistent with your statement that most black people are good citizens. I do not think that all black people are bad; however even before I saw the pictures I assumed that the people involved would be black. There is a problem here and if we can not be honest in identifying it, then how can we solve it?
January 5, 2011 at 3:37 pm

We have asked before if racism is a mental illness. DWLs sure think that any recognition of racial disparities in crime amounts to an unacceptable situation and must never be broached in polite conversation. Another thinks pointing out such a reality is a reason evolution couldn’t be true, since only an enlightened, progressive society of high IQ types would have the decency to not notice the disproportionate crime rates between the races.

They just simply move to cities without Black people and attack those whites who were left behind for noticing the truths that those morally superior DWLs deign unworthy of evolved minds to fret about.

The DWL mind is a fascinating thing. It’s a shame we know what they want from those who can see. They want us to die, so they can inherit a world where their morally superior smugness will reign supreme and their Black and Brown pets will forever worship them for being such beacons of evolved human thought.

DWLs can live in a fantasy world while we at SBPDL live in a world that Thug Report helps document daily.

It is exceedingly rare that newspapers publish the pictures of suspected murderers, rapists or other assorted criminals. Papers that dare show the face of criminality are greeted by mobs of angry Black parents threatening to burn down the building of the paper, reminiscent of some 1930s horror movie.

This happened in Buffalo at The Buffalo News and it will happen at any major paper that dares show the truth.

Youth Revolt in the Heartland: More than 100 Black people riot at Milwaukee Mall

"Youth" riot... Black youth riot

Mall envy. Dress codes. Curfews. Flash mobs terrorizing Philadelphia, Kansas City and other major cities.

Can you guess what racial group suffers from the symptoms of mall envy? How about the group that dress codes and curfews target most frequent? Perhaps you could take a stab at which group participated in flash mobs in many major American cities in 2010, based on the successful application of the answers procured from above.

Hint: the same group that decided vintage Air Jordan’s were worth rioting about in both Christmas of 2009 and 2010.

Though recognizing behavioral patterns frequently attributable to a certain demographic that develop from noticing events and crime rates at disparate locations across the country is immensely frowned upon in Black Run America (BRA), it is becoming increasingly noticeable that one particular racial group (we’ll call them “youths” as they do in France) have a propensity for displaying an inability of self-control.

Take for instance the actions of more than 100 “youth” in Milwaukee at the Mayfair Mall (nestled in a city of roughly 45,000 with a population that is just around two percent Black) that was forced to close due to disturbances by these precious “youth” that seem to be germane to one racial group that few dare name:

Police closed Mayfair Mall a half hour early Sunday evening after reports of gunfire somewhere near the mall.  The gunfire reports have not been verified.

The disturbance started when several teenagers started looting inside Boston Store, witnesses said.

A picture posted on JSOnline.com shows several clothing racks strewn across the floor.

Two hours after the mall closed, there were still crowds of teens in the area.

"Just trying to have fun," a teenage boy told TODAY'S TMJ4 reporter Lauren Leamanczyk. Witnesses said teenagers continued causing problems after leaving Mayfair.

"They were at the bus stop and then they were running across the street toward BW'3's," one woman recounted. "And then at that time, they were jumping on cars and then almost playing like ditch it in the middle of the street with the cars."

Wauwatosa police said they do not have anyone custody and that Chief Barry Weber would release more information Monday.

The newspaper in Buffalo was attacked by the parents and leaders of the “youth” community after the unflattering articles were published that brought to light the penchant for criminality that these “youth” seem incapable of straying from wherever they might reside.

Any media that dare point out who these “youth” are will be denounced vigorously by the community that spawned these “youth” and their Disingenuous White Liberals (DWL) enablers.

Another story on this “youth” riot can be found here:

“A crowd of like 50 to 60 kids just came barreling through the upstairs door at Boston Store, knocking down everything they could touch. They went running down the stairs. All that we heard was glass breaking. There was security yelling to every manager to lockdown the doors, lockdown the mall, lockdown the store,” the customer said.

That customer sent a few photos to 12 News that show mannequins and items knocked down inside Boston Store.

Images: Mess Inside Mayfair Mall

An employee at a different retailer inside the mall told 12 News that mall security was able to get shoppers out of the building within about 10 minutes, as retailers began to shut their storefront gates.

“With all the noise and bustle it definitely seemed like something was wrong. It felt like people were starting to panic. My employee said she heard glass breaking and so it did seem like it was getting out of control,” the employee said.

Mayfair Mall management released a statement late Sunday night:

“What occurred this afternoon appears to be a group of youth intent on disrupting the shopping experience at Mayfair. The safety and security of our visitors are always our top priority. This behavior is isolated and we will not condone it. To assist police earlier in identifying and apprehending suspects, we made the decision to close the mall shortly before our regular closing time. We anticipate there will be consequences as a result of what happened today.

We are thankful for the support of our public safety team and the Wauwatosa Police Department. We are even more thankful there were no injuries as a result of the youth’s careless actions.”

There are reasons why people hold stereotypes about the certain community that produced these “youth” and it is because of these stereotypes that the phenomenon known as Breathing while Black (BwB) exists. The actions of these “youth” help shape an image of an entire community on the brink of collapse, endangering the upper-class of the “youth” community in the process.

We’ll say what so many people instinctively understand, but because of zeitgeist of the day refrain from doing: the “youth” are Black people and any denouncing by city leaders of these Black people will bring about righteous indignation from the “youth” community leaders and parents.

After all, they are all great kids stuck in a highly segregated city where racism is the real culprit behind the Black kid’s inability to conform to society’s standards.

One prediction: 2011 will be the year that all online newspapers begin censoring comments on their Web sites. The Internet is the last bastion of freedom in America and soon that will gone.

Any criticism of “youth” and their community is not tolerated.

Video can be found here.

Update: the mall had a parental guidance rule (part of the Parental Guidance Program) that Black people protested back in 2009.

 

For all those who Referee/ Umpire sporting events...

Stop. Stop now. Don't umpire or referee anymore:

Above, you can view the most shocking video we’ve seen thus far today. It depicts a sequence from a recent high school basketball game in Florida between DeSoto County and Port Charlotte. For the first 1:20 of the video, absolutely nothing out of the ordinary happens. Then, things get nutty.

A DeSoto player and Port Charlotte player got into a minor scuffle after an inbound pass, which appeared to get the involved DeSoto player ejected from the game. He was, um, not happy about this. First, he pleaded with the official. Then, that didn’t work, so he shoved the official (very bad decision #1). Then, he felt his work wasn’t done, so he actually wrestled the official (and himself) to the ground (very bad decision #2).

Fort Myers News-Press sportswriter Carl Bleich (Mad Magazine parody name: Carl BLECCH) alerted The Big Lead to the video; they then posted it and unsuccessfully tried to learn the player’s name (he might still be a minor, so DeSoto wasn’t at liberty to divulge his identity, and the school’s MaxPreps page doesn’t list a roster, so that method won’t work, either).

SWFL Hoops, who uploaded the video to Youtube, had this to say about the incident on the video’s page:

The game ended in forfeit after the player from Desoto High School in Arcadia, FL attacked the referee. The player has been removed from the team and may be facing expulsion as well as legal ramifications.

We’d say that sounds about right. We also have to wonder if anything else happened early in the game that might have made tempers flare, just because of how insanely fast things spiral out of control in the video. Either way, the player has to be wishing he’d handled this whole situation a tad differently.

Riotless High School Basketball Games: Hoover - Spain Park Brawl

What was it we once said about Black people and riotless High School basketball games? Oh, that's right. They're included in the Stuff Black People Don't Like.

There is a reason that 88 percent of the white vote went to John McCain in the 2008 presidential election. White people in Alabama have seen the once magnificent city of Birmingham turned into the Detroit of the South.

Legion Field, the former home to college footballs premier rivalry the Iron Bowl game between Auburn-Alabama, might sell for even less than the Pontiac Silverdome did recently, as the surrounding area of the 80,000 + stadium is as unsafe as Haiti.

Alabama is the finest state in the union, and the state operates in a way that proves SBPDL's theory of sports and Black people's integration with society. Were it not for sports, Black people wouldn't have many positive images and worse, would hardly be represented at any major university in the south, let alone the rest of the country (indeed, Black enrollment at major university's across the nation is slipping dramatically).

The entire reason Black people are even at traditionally white university's is for their ability to run, jump and catch passes on the gridiron. Nothing more, nothing less. The University of Alabama is even said to have integrated so that the football team could remain competitive, after a shellacking they took in 1970 to the University of Southern California Trojans. That 41-21 win was enough to convince university officials that Black players were needed to win:

But the slowness of the South to accept integration started to hurt the Tide, culminating in that 1970 season opener against USC.

The legend of that night, which has become known as the Cunningham game, has been exaggerated, misremembered, misunderstood and mythologized. Books overstate Mr. Cunningham's yards and touchdowns. Mr. Cunningham is famously said to have done more to integrate Alabama in 60 minutes than Martin Luther King Jr. did in 20 years. Aside from whether he did or not, the quote is alternately attributed to Mr. Bryant and two former assistants. "I've been here 20 years," says Taylor Watson, curator of the Paul W. Bryant Museum in Tuscaloosa, "and I've never been able to figure it out."

According to myth, Mr. Bryant took Mr. Cunningham to the Tide locker room after the game to show his team what a football player looks like. Mr. Cunningham says Mr. Bryant did make the unusual gesture of speaking with him after the game but just to congratulate him. "It wasn't anything earth-shattering," he says.

But the game did have dramatic effects. Historians say Mr. Bryant—who already had a black player on Alabama's freshman team—would have added more black players sooner if it had been socially acceptable; after that game, fans recognized the need. Great black players soon started coming to Alabama, including future pro Hall of Fame tight end Ozzie Newsome. The Tide rebounded to win three more national championships under Mr. Bryant, who died in 1983.

Athletics (and by extension popular culture) is the only thing that keeps Black people in the good graces with the majority population of America. White people know the truth. They watch the nightly newscasts. The understand the reality of hate facts.

Sports offer a thin barrier between reality and the imaginary world that we currently inhabit. Occasionally, the truth sneaks out as it did with the Washington Bullet, ahem Wizard situation and Gilbert Arenas. Riotless High School Basketball showed us an image regrettable in its overwhelming sincerity. The Boise State-Oregon 2009 football game showed us something shocking, as do the continuous riots that occur at Miami football games.

Mein Obama's election was paved with the good intentions of white people buying into athletics and the impartiality of the playing fields creating a false sense of equality among the races.

States with a high concentration of Black people have an odd correlation of a near monolithic white vote in politics. Black people - in any state - always vote together, as exit polls of elections never fail to reveal.

Were it not for sports at the collegiate and professional level, it is hard to imagine where Black people would be in American life today. In South Africa, the appeal of international rugby competition was enough to convince the Afrikaners to abandon apartheid and give up the nation they built.

In the south, sports was enough to bring about integration and in turn the loss of every major southern city to a Black power structure incapable of running even the tiniest municipality (see Birmingham, Clayton County, Atlanta, New Orleans...).

Future historians from China interested in learning the day the United States officially collapsed are welcome to explore numerous events, but the simple date of September 12, 1970 will suffice. Upon this day, the hysteria of sports worship created an environment where the transfer of power to the Black Run America (BRA) was cemented.

Alabama gave up. Maintaining civilization wasn't as important as winning on the football field.

Thus, we turn our attention to an event that occurred on the hardwood of a recent High School Basketball game in Birmingham between Hoover and Spain Park. Both located in the suburban town of Hoover, Black people have found each school agreeable to the notion of sports triumphing civilization.

Hoover is a city of more 63,000 people, 87 percent being white. At the aforementioned basketball game, a Black player from Hoover found it incumbent upon himself to push a white player from Spain Park from behind and then sucker punch another white player:

Spain Park High School boys’ basketball coach Brian Moon envisioned a worst-case scenario in the final seconds of his team’s contest against rival Hoover in the Class 6A, Area 10 tournament at Oak Mountain High School.

Moon wasn’t worried about the outcome of the game. It had pretty much already been decided in the Jaguars’ favor, with Spain Park defeating its rival 57-35.

The veteran coach was concerned about what he was about to witness as he saw a Hoover player charging toward one of his players.

The actions by Hoover junior forward Roderick Booker following a loose ball situation stirred the Bucs’ bench, which created chaos on the neutral court and delayed the game for approximately 10 minutes.

In the end, six Hoover players and Bucs' head coach Charles Burkett were assessed technical fouls. Booker, who was restrained by the Bucs’ coaching staff, was ejected for his lack of control on the court and five others were sent to the locker room for leaving the team’s bench. Video replay, which showed Booker and teammate Jaron Davis each throwing an open-handed punch, shows five Hoover players leaving the bench area.

Booker initiated the incident by shoving Spain Park senior Bennett Snyder from behind. Booker then threw an open-handed punch in the direction Spain Park senior Reid Cunningham, who shoved Booker in response. Cunningham, who was also the target of an open-handed punch by Davis, was restrained by senior teammate Matthew Bowerman.

Burkett was also ejected due to a National Federation of State High School Associations rule that states a coach is automatically ejected after three technical fouls by his team.

Moon, who said administrators from both Hoover and Spain Park are scheduled to meet with Alabama High School Athletic Association officials Monday, was pleased cooler heads prevailed with the gym packed on both the top and bottom levels. Host Oak Mountain and Thompson fans were in the gym awaiting the start of their game.

“It could have been worse,” Moon said. “I think Hoover (police officers) and Shelby County (sheriff's deputies) did a great job. That situation could get ugly.”

Moon gave credit to his players for keeping their emotions in check.

“It was right in front of the (Hoover) bench,” Moon said. “Sometimes emotion gets the best of you. I would like to think our guys would have control if it was in front of our bench.” (Shelby County Report, Feb. 7, 2010)

For the Black players actions, Hoover High was put on one years probation:

Hoover High School has been penalized $4,800 in total fines by the Alabama High School Athletic Association as a result of a punch thrown by junior forward Roderick Booker on Feb. 5 in a Class 6A, Area 10 basketball tournament game against Spain Park at Oak Mountain High School.

Roderick Booker, the Black player who masquerades as a pugilist, was named one of the top players in the Birmingham area. Hoover's team is largely Black, Spain Park's is nearly all-white.

Without sports, positive images of Black people would be as difficult to find as Black people worthy of celebrating for Black History Month.

This is an indisputable fact. Sports are the reason integration occurred and why Black people are to be found in the classrooms of prestigious university's nationwide.

Yes, Myron Rolle is an intelligent dude, but for every Rolle you get tens of thousands of Willie Williams.

A recent CNN article by Peniel Johnson stated Haiti's Revolt Inspired U.S. Black Activists. To understand the world of BRA that we live, read this article. Think about sports and how they have lead to the strange world of 21st century America, where white people publicly cheer Black people in sports arenas, but not-so-privately live nowhere near them.

Watch the video of the Black basketball player from Hoover and then see how Black players come to his defense instantly, rushing the court with the speed of those in Mogadishu at the sight of a downed Blackhawk helicopter.

We pointed out in the 2010 Outback Bowl entry that one game should never be used to mandate sociological experiments, as the 1970 USC-Alabama football game did. However, Black people are beginning to participate in the This is a Black World - TBW - game in the sporting world now.

Yet, isn't one game always used to showcase the superiority of Black athletes over all-white teams? In 1966, all-white Kentucky lost to a Texas Western team in basketball that started five Black players. This game is remembered with the same perverse fervor as the 1970 USC-BAMA.

You see, sports is the one and only religion of BRA (Black Run America), and to be a heretic is to stray from the true teachings of our pious rulers. Worship those more capable on the playing fields and make sacrifices to these gods.

Stuff Black People Don't Like finds the situation brewing in Hoover a sorrowful reminder of the world we live in, for the imaginary world of the New Orleans Saints winning goes completely against nature.

Remember, without sports, positive images of Black people wouldn't exist (Civil Rights agitators don't count either). Somebody, please prove us wrong.