#103. Paying for Public Transportation

Public transportation. In theory, a wonderful idea. Clean, efficient, green and a way to keep unnecessary automobiles off the roads and severely cutting down on congestion for those commuting to work.

Riding in the front of the bus doesn't make it free

In theory, everything is a wonderful idea, though, but public transportation around the United States has been a colossal failure. When integration commenced in the big cities, white flight wasn't far behind. Commutes to work increased ten-fold as young families fled the hopeless notion that their children could be educated in the same rooms as Black children, a practice that lingers to this day.

Metro rail systems and bus lines were never going to travel into far flung suburbs, forcing refugees from these cities to drive long distances. Public transportation the nation over became exclusively Black, with cities like Atlanta, Memphis, Birmingham, St. Louis and others seeing the bus and light rail systems emerge as job programs for otherwise unemployable Black people.

The stigma of public transportation became so great that respectable commuters became increasingly disinclined from acquiescing to a time saving ride on a bus or train and exposed themselves instead to headache inducing commutes on the expressway, battling traffic and time away from their families. A voice to article the realization that something was dreadfully wrong never materialized.

Most public transportation systems in America are failing, because relying on a predominately Black clientele isn't conducive to a thriving business model. Atlanta's MARTA system  (aka Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta, or something like that) has become the model for which all future metro systems will strive not emulate.The riders are a wonderful representation of that city:

When the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority (MARTA) was conceived and created in the 1960s, many whites jokingly referred to it as "Moving African Rapidly Through Atlanta." The system was originally conceived to cover five counties (Fulton, DeKalb, Cobb, Clayton, and Gwinnett). Only Fulton and DeKalb residents voted to join MARTA and pay the one-cent sales tax. Atlanta city residents pay eight cents on a dollar in sales tax: four cents for the state, three cents for Fulton and Dekalb, and one cent for the City of Atlanta’s water treatment fund.


A 2006 rider survey revealed that 76 percent of MARTA’s rail and bus riders are African American and other people of color. More than 63 percent of users have a household income of less than $30,000. Only Fulton and DeKalb County residents pay for the up keep and expansion of MARTA with a one-cent sales tax. Today, the regular one-way fare on MARTA is $2.00, up from $1.00 in 1992. MARTA is projected to have a $588-$634 million shortfall over the next decade.

So if 3/4th of MARTA's passengers are Black, one can only infer that the vast majority of those failing to pay for the service are also Black:

The practice of riding MARTA without paying has got to stop, because these people hurt the system in multiple ways, MARTA CEO Beverly Scott said at a recent board meeting. 

The offenders prevent MARTA from collecting revenue. And when they fail to tap a Breeze card, even when leaving a station, they complicate MARTA’s planning for distance-based fares; passengers eventually will be charged when they tap out at the end of a trip rather than at the beginning, and people who take longer trips will be charged more.

One needs to infer absolutely nothing in Cleveland, a city crumbling apart thanks to a population incapable of innovation or sustaining businesses. A reason for this can be found in a lack of trust and accountability, most notable in Black people deciding not to pay for bus fare:

Blacks have received a disproportionately high number of citations for not paying Regional Transit Authority fares, a Plain Dealer analysis has found. 

More than 85 percent of the citations for the infraction were issued to them during the past two years, the analysis found. 

By contrast, fewer than 70 percent of the riders on the lines where the citations were handed out are black, RTA spokeswoman Mary McCahon said. 

She could not explain why blacks received a disproportionate number of the citations, but ruled out racism as the cause. 

"It's unfortunate that the statistics come out this way, but there is no profiling," McCahon said.

Civil rights groups are agitated that this crackdown is even taking place and that duplicitous Black passengers are even being targeted for their niggardly manner of failing to part with the correct amount of money for bus fare.

All it amounts to is a hate fact that the numbers align the way they do. Nothing more, nothing less. Earlier this year, the Cleveland city council was forced to table a measure that would have led to cracking down on fare jumpers sooner, but those same civil rights groups found such measures odious:

RTA's board has tabled, and effectively killed, a controversial proposal to crack down on youths who aren't paying fares on rapid-transit lines. 


George Dixon, chairman of the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority board, said Tuesday that he feared the policy would fall too heavily on young black males and minority communities served by the transit lines. 

Dixon said he and at least two other black male members of RTA's nine-member board had concerns about sending young fare-jumpers to the county's juvenile court. 

Minority leaders have long been concerned about the disproportionate number of blacks in the county's juvenile and adult court systems.

Birmingham's bus system is broke. New York's honor system bus service is failing.Memphis' MATA system is a complete joke and in financial trouble. Atlanta's MARTA is indeed, overwhelming Black. Seattle's bus system isn't safe. Detroit's bus system is exclusively the mode of transportation for Black people, a fitting tribute to Rosa Parks.

Every time a person fails to pay for their ride, the comptrollers in charge of the bus or metro system have to find ways to generate revenue, which normally requires fare increases. Call it the Black Tax, as fair jumpers require all those who actually pay and promote honesty are forced to pay more so others can enjoy a free ride.

Clayton County in Georgia saw its bus system shut down completely. St. Louis' system is in financial trouble. Charlotte's new light-rail has become a haven for Black crime.

Just like in Cleveland and Atlanta, Stuff Black People Don't Like includes paying for public transportation. Since Rosa Parks sat in the front of a bus in Montgomery, white people have looked upon public transportation as a trip into an exotic, foreign country.

In some places (San Diego, Portland, Salt Lake City and San Francisco) public transportation works. One element is missing in these cities that is found abundantly in Atlanta, Memphis, Detroit, Cleveland and other cities where public transportation is in trouble.

What could that be?







 

#440. Peyton Hillis Rushing for more than 1,000 yards

Peyton Hillis has exposed the Caste System in sports

An article on former Notre Dame safety and current Baltimore Raven defensive back Tom Zbikowski contained this nugget of wisdom that will come in handy as we discuss an achievement that transpired last Sunday:

"When you're a white athlete, you're never fast," Ed (Zbikowski, Tom's father) said without a hint of resentment or disrespect in his voice. "It's reality, and we dealt with it."

Recruiting analyst Tom Lemming of CSTV and the Prep Football Report, said Zbikowski's saga is hardly isolated.

"When it comes to football, white athletes have to prove themselves more than black athletes at certain positions -- cornerback, wide receiver and running back," Lemming said. "There's a prejudice amongst a lot of college coaches -- not all of them -- that white guys can't play those positions. So when they get to college, they get switched right away to other positions.

Lemming was quoted in The Blind Side saying something quite similar (page 37):

"And there were anti-types: lord help the white receiver or the white running back, or until the earlier 1990s, the black quarterback."

We have written about Peyton Hillis before and white running backs in general, from Toby Gerhart to Jacob Hester. Last Sunday, Hillis became the first white running back in 25 years to run for more than 1,000 yards in a season:

It has been a wild ride for Hillis who led the Denver Broncos in his rookie season but was sidelined due to an injury at the end of his inaugural season in the NFL. In his sophomore season, first year head coach Josh McDaniels made the big back the fourth stringer and he amassed only 13 carries the entire year. In the offseason, he was traded to the Browns with a draft pick for Brady Quinn. McDaniels was fired this week while Hillis continues to punish NFL defenses week in and week out.

Hillis is a talented running back, though he was lucky to even get a shot at that position. Even he is afraid to say why that opportunity only came through attrition:

When Hillis looks back on those days, he can't come up with an adequate explanation as to why nobody could see him in a feature role. Even in Cleveland, he started as a fullback until injuries led to a shot in a Week 3 game against Baltimore, a chance that Hillis turned into a 144-yard effort. 

"I think it was about not being in the right place at the right time," he said. "Or maybe it was about not being in the right scheme. But I'm not worried about that now. I'm just focused on being in the right situation here."

Since Hillis can't make sense of his past, I'll take a stab at it. His previous coaches likely spent so much time looking for runners with certain skill sets that they never envisioned that Hillis could be more than what he was. He got placed in a box, and that's not just because of his skin color. It's because this is what happens when people don't have the vision to see beyond the expectations they've already established in their own minds.

If you think this is flawed logic, just consider the plight of black quarterbacks in the past. Many were labeled as "athletes" or "scramblers" and rarely given a chance to show their abilities as passers because they didn't fit a certain NFL mold. The irony now is that mobility is a treasured asset in quarterbacks, but that's also beside the point. In those days, if you didn't look the part, you didn't get the part.

Caste Football is a Web site that documents the trend in professional sports for white players to be actively discriminated against, and the Peyton Hillis situation has been the story that finally shown the brightest veracity upon their position.

White players are discriminated against, starting at the high school level. In the past, Black players were "stacked" at certain positions, but today it is white players who are "stacked" at the quarterback, tight end, offensive line and thrown the occasional scrapes of defensive end, linebacker and safety on defense.

Hillis has aptly shown what happens when a white player gets an opportunity at forbidden positions (just as Gerhart and Hester did in college football). And remember, it took a number of injuries for him to finally have the chance to excel.

One Black writer at Atlantic magazine wrote:

I would not argue that no amount of stereotyping happens in pro athletics. But I'd like to see something more detailed and less based on vague impressions. I've linked to this before, but I think this Josh Levin piece establishes a pretty convincing pattern in the NBA.

Look, the evidence has been documented with exceptional detail at Caste Football. Stereotyping does exist and Hillis has helped show how pervasive this stereotyping has become. His 1,000+ rushing yards in 2010 has undeniably altered the debate about just where discrimination currently can be found.

Remember: sports offer the only positive views of Black people in contemporary America. Having All-American looking running backs dominating a league that is 70 percent Black (check out the racial breakdown of the NFL here) isn't good for sports, or at least for fueling positive images of Black people.

How many thousands of white athletes at the high school have been dissuaded from pursing collegiate athletics because a coach moved them from a certain position to a more racially appropriate one or a talent evaluator (like Lemming) saw no reason in promoting them at a position that is quickly becoming off-limits to white players (see running back, corner, safety or receiver)?

Peyton Hillis running for more than 1,000 yards despite attempts to pigeon-hole him as a fullback has finally vindicated Caste Football and proved the conspiracy exists as the Web site has always maintained.

Stuff Black People Don't Like includes Peyton Hillis rushing for more than 1,000 yards, for a white running back isn't supposed to be fast enough to elude the tackles of superior Black athletes on defense. Sports --basketball (which ESPN promotes tirelessly) and football-- are the play grounds for Black people to showcase their talents; and for a white boy to run around, over and through Black people is a blow to the entire rigged system that Caste Football has been declaring exists.

It should be stated that Hillis was not the feature (primary) running back in Cleveland until week three.

Paging Epic Beard Man: Five Black women attack pregnant woman on bus in Seattle

There is so much to write about right now (thanks to everyone sending in stories). So many stories are time sensitive and need to be addressed (there will be a lot of posts the next three days), but one story needs to be tackled first.

Don't ride the bus in Seattle

Seattle is no stranger to Black people attacking people on buses (or jaywalking). But a new video and story has surfaced that shows a danger that can no longer go unnoticed:

Newly released security video from a Seattle city bus shows an attack on a pregnant woman by five teenage girls, who were later arrested for assault.

A pregnant teen says she feared for her baby when she and her boyfriend were attacked by a group of four girls and a woman on a Seattle Metro bus last month.

It was all captured on the bus’ security camera.

Police say Jessica Redmon-Beckstead, 17, was riding on the packed bus in the city’s Belltown neighborhood during the evening rush hour Nov. 19 when a 19-year-old woman, three 16-year-old girls and a 14-year-old girl came on board.

Surveillance video shows that, just 34 seconds after the girls got on, one of them grabbed the MP3 player Jessica and her boyfriend, Jason Decoste, were listening to. When they resisted, they were beaten and kicked by the five suspects, police say.

Redmon-Beckstead says she turned around again and was struck in the eye and began bleeding profusely. It wound up requiring six stitches to close, authorities say.

Jessica mentioned twice that she was pregnant and said she didn’t want to fight them, but says one of them made the comment, “Well, nobody hit her in the stomach.”

Investigators add that, as the attack was occurring, three of the girls stole items from the boyfriend’s pockets.
The attack continued until the bus pulled over. The bus driver called police. The victims were able to escape, police say.

Metro Police say they tracked down three of the alleged attackers about a half-hour after the incident. They say they arrested the other two days later.

Investigators say the 19-year-old, Ayana Sharee Cain, was charged with assault and has since bailed out of jail. The other four girls were charged in juvenile court with second degree robbery. Three remain in custody while the fourth is on electronic home monitoring, police say.

All five suspects have prior arrests, authorities add.

Where is Epic Beard Man when you need him? Why is the entire bus participating in the same non-intervention mindset that was sadly present when Kitty Genovese was murdered? Will the day ever come when someone says what millions have thought and dreamed for someone to finally say (Enough…)?

We at SBPDL read virtually every story, study, and book possible on race and crime in the United States.

Our friends at Thugreport.com have vividly provided the finest aggregate of the face of criminality in America and yet still people are afraid of mentioning the unmentionable.

This unprovoked attack on a bus in Seattle will go down the memory (as so many other stories have been forced down) save for a select group of people who remember such horrors as Knoxville and Wichita. The full-onslaught of decade old stories of lynchings, draggings and other assorted behavior are constantly brought up and alluded to in an effort to make Disingenuous White Liberals (DWL) cry and flame the fires of white guilt are nothing --absolutely nothing -- compared to what is transpiring in major cities on a nightly basis.

The Crazies live among us, all around us. Where are you Epic Beard Man? A nation turns its lonely eyes to you.

Watch the video here.

Cam Newton, Black Run America and the state of Alabama

The state of Alabama – and the Southern states in general – is universally mocked by the rest of the nation. Inhabitants of more cultured, cosmopolitan regions of the nation are incredulous to learn that people actually wear shoes.

Cam Newton and his sea of white fans

Most people would believe that the only reason to even mention the state of Alabama in polite conversation is when the topic of college football comes up. Auburn University and the University of Alabama are both football powerhouses and represent the finest exports the state has to offer the rest of the union.

We have stated before that sports offer the best examples of Black people excelling in America and without the ability to entertain the masses, the entire apparatus known as Black Run America (BRA) crumbles to the ground.

If college football is the opiate of America, then the citizens of Alabama are the biggest drug abusers in the nation.

Sports fuel the dwindling power cells that keep BRA operational and removing the few remaining positive examples of Black people would be catastrophic, especially in the state of Alabama.

Jefferson County –home to Birmingham- sputters along under the stewardship of increasingly corrupt Black politicians. Huntsville, once the place where men dared dream of venturing further into space, is now the glorious home of Youtube’s greatest sensation -- Antoine Dodson.

The port city of Mobile is unsafe, even for Leprechauns.

Reasons for the degradation and decline of these cities shouldn’t be difficult to ascertain, though people assiduously avoid mentioning the unmentionable and instead move away from the problem. Inherent in this strategy is that the problem will eventually move to where you retreat to and perpetuate a vicious cycle that is repeated in every metropolitan area.

But in those areas of eternal suffering reside potential heroes, prized recruits whose ability on the football trumps all of the inability they have in the classroom. Auburn and Alabama rely prodigiously on Black athletes in football and basketball, though each school boasts tragically small enrollments of Black students working toward a degree.

It is the dexterity of Black athletes that dissuades normal white people from speaking to the never-ending horrors constantly being perpetrated by this group of people. Birmingham, Montgomery, Huntsville, Mobile and other cities are havens for criminality and hotbeds for potential star football recruits.

Because of the insatiable desire to field winning football teams, the citizens of Alabama have no problem conforming to the lifestyles, mores and manners of their prized recruits. One story paints a vivid picture on why this is:

Auburn school officials are standing by a policy prohibiting basketball players from wearing their hair in braids.

The provision prompted a racial discrimination lawsuit by the family of Auburn University assistant football coach Trooper Taylor on behalf of his son. The suit is expected to go to court Dec. 21 in Montgomery.

Taylor's son, Blaise Taylor, has been prevented from playing for the junior varsity basketball team because of his hairstyle.

The Taylors filed a federal lawsuit alleging basketball coach Frank Tolbert's policy is racially discriminatory since it singles out a hairstyle almost exclusively worn by black players.

Auburn University is enjoying unprecedented success in football this year, thanks in large part to the play of JUCO-transfer Cam Newton. Once enrolled at the University of Florida, Newton left after Tim Tebow announced he would be returning for his senior year. Tales of academic fraud and stolen laptops surround the Heisman Trophy winner, but his ability on the football field forgives all past transgressions.

His father-Cecil Newton- tried unsuccessfully to shop his son’s services around in a pay-for-play scheme, though Auburn is currently free of any potential wrongdoing. Demanding $180,000 for Newton’s presence, Mr. Newton (a pastor from College Park) has been disgraced, though Auburn alumni and fans have circled the wagons in support of his son.

Auburn is no stranger to probation, having been nailed a number of times in the past for paying players most notably one Eric Ramsey. The source of an interesting 60 minutes special in the early 90s, Ramsey said the Black players are treated like slaves and used for their athletic ability only:

Ramsey never set out to expose illegal payments to athletes. What prompted the tapings were years worth of complaints by several players about the condescending treatment of black football players at Auburn by the coaching staff, which at the time included one African-American. Ramsey brought his tape recorder on the field to capture conversations and statements. In the process of taping, Ramsey also captured the improper transactions. 

I didn't need Eric Ramsey to tell me about the paternalism and subtle racism in athletic programs, but his tapes provided the proof. These cracks in the system are repeatedly apparent: a smattering of black head coaches, one or two administrators. Too many players rolled up, spit out and never re-absorbed by the athletic system while their white counterparts become athletics directors, general managers, coaches or successful entrepreneurs within the athletic establishment.

Infamously, one coach in the tapes Ramsey recorded says the white alumni cheer for him but have no problem using pejorative terms behind his –and other Black players- back:

Ramsey said he was stunned when the booster told him white fans who cheered him so vociferously were referring to him with racial epithets behind his back. “Eric, that’s the real world.”

White alumni of every major college in America want to see their alma mater succeed, and the belief that only Black athletes are capable of achieving this goal has fueled schools to recruit primarily Black players (the University of Florida’s 2010 recruiting class had no white players). The conference that once refused to integrate – the Southeastern Conference (SEC) - now provides scores of athlete-students the opportunity to promote positive examples of Black people.

Indeed it was the perceived need of Black athletes in the late 1960s and early 1970s that brought about integration in the first place and slowly helped mature race relations. Legendary Alabama coach Bear Bryant even stated that a football game against USC (an integrated team) where the Trojans trounced the all-white Crimson Tide did more for integration than anything Martin Luther King ever did.

And who are these athletes that both schools rely heavily on? The same ones that are being targeted in Selma for failing to wear belts:

People who wear sagging pants in Selma could end up paying a fine and doing community service work.
The Selma City Council voted 5-2 to ban sagging pants that fall more than three inches below the hips. 

District Attorney Michael Jackson urged the council to approve the pants ordinance. He said it will make people feel freer to tell young people to pull up their pants.

Councilman Samuel Randolph said the new ordinance is close to racial profiling because it is geared toward minority teenagers.

The district attorney told the Selma Times-Journal that enforcement will require common sense, but someone showing underwear and skin is wearing their pants too low.

The ordinance provides fines of up to $100 for a juvenile and $200 for an adult.

Belts are infrequently worn accessories in the Black community and they help symbolize the inability of assimilation. The talents of potential Black athletes require a toleration of a myriad of unique cultural mores, and sagging is but one of them.

The burning down of a Christmas tree is another:

The Grinch may have stolen Christmas, but in Birmingham it was copper thieves who torched a Christmas tree in downtown's Linn Park.

Birmingham police are investigating the early morning incident where copper thieves took decorations off the holiday display and burned down the tree. Officials say the incident occurred around 4 a.m. Thieves took off the lights and used gasoline to separate the plastic from the copper, resulting in the apparent accidental tree torching. 

Public works crews this morning took down the charred remains of the holiday display.

The 35-foot tall Norwegian Spruce came from North Carolina and won't be replaced. 

Melvin Miller, city parks and recreation director, said this is the first time there has been any major damage to the display.


"It's not good. It kind of dampens the seasons, but we still know what this season is all about. It's not about a tree," Miller said. "This is the first time that has ever happened. We've had ornaments taken from the tree but nothing like this."

The race of the Christmas tree saboteurs is not disclosed (nor known), but like the Killing Fields of Birmingham, it’s safe to reasonably conclude the ethnicity of the arsonists.

Shoes are worn in the south, though most people around the country wouldn’t believe it. Though many people will refuse to believe it, the southern states also offer the most poignant example of why the nation is held hostage by the idea of BRA (think of the University of Mississippi being forced to accommodate Black recruits by abandoning all of the schools traditions).

Without sports, no positive examples of Black could be found; ESPN being unable blast highlight reels of dunks, long runs or other exploits of athletes on a continuous basis. Instead the local nightly news would provide an honest appraisal of the tragically pathetic state of Black America.

We once wrote the south should be left. The people are woefully hooked upon a therapeutic soma, a diversion from reality of which they can never escape. The state of Alabama provides the best example, with two white universities relying on Black athletes to succeed, thereby ensuring that all the problems pervasive in the state will go unaddressed.

1969 was the year white America gave up, capitulating to the demands of Black collegiate football players the nation over. We all reside in the aftermath of this decision, a world where imaginary Black farmers are awarded billions, the perpetrators of crimes are never mentioned in news stories because of the obvious patterns that would emerge and where a potential $48 billion will be distributed to the residents of inner-cities in a bid to stimulate the local economies (read reparations).

We know people don’t like to read the sports stories on this Web site, but they help explain the situation facing all Americans better than any story we can find.

And no story illustrates this situation better than the state of Alabama and the drug addicts found there.