Gatesgate – Part III

Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired!

These are my last comments on the Gates incident and the title above expresses my most heart felt sentiments. Unlike my president who thinks that bringing the principals into a face to face discussion of what happened in Cambridge, MA, I no longer believe that there will be positive results from that conversation. The after incident brouhaha has illustrated even more divisions in our society than I would have wanted to believe. The racial split is too obvious, the class split is a little more sheltered from site and the cops versus "them" (whoever "them" may be), is the most disturbing and infuriating.

Some time ago, shortly after my husband and I had bought our first home, a neighborhood kid (a 13 year old with an extensive juvenile record) broke into the house with three other youngsters. When they were unable to steal the stereo system that my husband had so carefully put together over a period of years, the kids grabbed newspaper, placed it in the middle of the bed and started a fire. Unfortunately for the juvies, a veteran Toledo detective had spotted the kids breaking in the house. As he sat in his car, he checked out home ownership and figured out what was going on. He watched the juveniles come out of the house (carrying nothing because they couldn’t untangle the stereo system wires which were carefully taped together) and spotted smoke coming from the second floor. He radioed the fire department (which luckily was two blocks away) and because of his vigilance, the house was saved from total destruction. His professionalism saved our first house from total destruction. The next day, he and one other officer presented picture of several young men and simply asked if we knew any of them. I identified all four quite easily…they were neighborhood kids….who saw me almost every day. In spite of the fact that a detective had caught them in the act, not a single one of those kids ever came to trial because someone in the legal system identified them as "poor misguided, misunderstood miscreants." That officer did his job, the legal system did not. Do I identify hims as a bad cop or a racist? No, I do not. We thanked him for doing his job (much to his embarassment) but we had no complaints.

I was young and naive in those days. I actually believed police were supposed to "protect and serve" and that they were present to protect the boundaries of common decency in our neighborhoods. Of course, I knew about Bull Connors and his water hoses. What young adult of the civil rights era did now know about racist, bad cops? The turmoil of the 60’s in a sence led to a quieter time in the 70’s when we were trying to sort out the lessons we had learned from those teachable moments.It was ten years later when I ran into a cop that not only lied but was willing to write the lie in his report and go to court and swear to his lie. That time I was pulled over in a speed trap on US 52 in southern Ohio. When I went to court, I managed to proved my innocence. For appearing in court, I was fined seven dollars in court cost and the so-called speeding ticket was torn up. (I have always figured that the court costs were charged because I argued with the judge which had nothing to do with the cop.) That particular cop may or may not have been a racist but…he was definitely a liar. The speed trap incident bothered me for a long time because one of my best friends from childhood was the daughter of the police chief in the small West Virginia town where I grew up. I did not want to believe that a cop could be so unethical…it wasn’t supposed to happen.

Before my daughter was born, her father and I went to a friend’s house for dinner. He and his wife lived in an apartment near the University of Toledo and we had been friends for quite some time…in fact, we had gone to their wedding. As we putt-putted to our home inthe Old West End in our 70 VW beetle, two Toledo cops pulled us over. I am sure they both caught my schoolteacher glare as I asked why we had been stopped. They asked if we had come from the university area and when we answered yes, they indicated that there had been a robbery in that area a few minutes before and the thieves had absconded in a VW beetle. They then (politley) asked if they could search the car. I shrugged my shoulders and told them to go ahead. Our trunk was filled with miscellaneous stuff from my old apartment. I sat there and watched them pull everything out piece by piece. Let’s face it, thieves do not bother with area rugs and assorted books and dishes. After they were satisfied that we were not the thieves, they apologized and started to leave until I folded my arms and suggested that since they had taken everything out of my trunk, they should put everything back! They looked kind of sheepish but they did as I asked. Because they were white and I was black, should I call them racists? No…there was no reason to go that route…they were simply doing their job.

I relate these incidents to simply say…every contact a black person has with a police officer is not negative. After all our neighbor, who was then our local police chief, shared our grief when our son died. He could have cared less that he was white and we were black. He was simply our neighbor (and no this is not a small town, it is a small city). Would I call him a racist? NO, not unless I want to sound like a fool and that is what I would be.

However, on Martin Luther King day nearly six years ago, I ran into a cop who was not only a racist, he was definitely profiling and he was a liar. Without going into any details, his lies tripped him up. The more he tried to explain himself (after the fact) the more his inconsistencies tripped him up. (Does this sound familiar?)
I will not go into details except to say that when a person puts on that badge and picks up that gun, that person needs to understand not only himself/herself but the people he (or she) comes into contact with on a daily basis. The officer that truly understands his/her community and the people in that community, the better a police person he or she will be. That officer is to be respected. The officer who is ego-involved, who misrepresents the truth on a police report, who is on a power trip, who does not respect the cultures within the community, who lets his contempt for people of different (religion, race, culture, life-experience) show does not need to wear the badge…ever. I really don’t care if the cop is male, female, black, white, pink, purple or polkadotted, gay or straight. Defending the mistakes of a fellow cop when you know that a mistake was made..contributes to a negative view of all who wear the badge (and the black female cop with her vitriolic defense of an error in judgment as well as the black male cop who did the same needs to examine her/his relationship with the greater community of minorities). Do me and the rest of us old black folk…STAY OUT OF OUR NEIGHBORHOODS….you don’t have the life experience to understand what we see amd have seen in the last forty plus years of our adult lives.

Hillbilly Views

Comments here.

Michael Jackson: Some Gave All

This took a little long, and maybe everyone’s tired of reading these MJ think pieces, but I actually wanted to think before I wrote.  I’ve listed favorite songs, etc, elsewhere on my site.  I’d like to talk about what Michael represented to popular culture. 

When I think about Michael, I think about Sammy Davis Jr. When I first came to Los Angeles, I noticed portraits of Sammy Davis Jr in the homes of new jack black superstars.  Since these mansions needed way more art on their walls than what actually made it up, I was struck that Sammy made the cut.  Why would these irreverent young men hold Sammy in such high regard?  After all, in my household, that picture of Sammy hugging Nixon kinda killed him in our eyes.  His whole persona was too eager to please in our hardcore eyes.  But if comics and actors I respected held him in such high regard, I knew I needed to reassess Sammy. 

Sammy Davis Jr.  was a genius all-around performer, just like Michael.  Great dancer, fine singer, solid acting career…just an all-around showman from childhood.  But most importantly, he lived to please people.  He would do whatever it took to entertain anyone.  That willpower drove him to be a great tap dancer, to be success in so many artistic endeavors, and it also drove him to endure and overcome the racial hostility.  His suffering built a bridge for all black entertainers to cross. 

I see Michael the same way.  He truly wanted the entire world to love him. Think about actually trying to make EVERYONE like you.  Can you imagine just trying to get everyone at work to like you?   To achieve this impossible goal, Michael blurred his gender, his race…whatever it took to make everyone love him.  While always grounded in soul music, he stretched musical genres to connect the same way.  That’s why he was obsessed with breaking records.  It wasn’t just about creating good art – he wanted his art to affect the most people. 

I’m saying this to condone what he did, or to rationalize the psychology that led to those decision, but simply acknowledging that Michael Jackson gave his all, and everyone – every artist, every fan – is better off for what he did.  He integrated MTV, and really the entire music industry by dominating it.  He married Elvis’ daughter.  He became the King of Pop. 

Whenever a black man achieves that kind of success, it drives some white people crazy.  You see it in certain reactions to Barack Obama, and you see it when some commentators disrespect Michael Jackson and his body isn’t even in the ground yet.  I don’t know what happened in his personal life.  And while I’m as fascinated as anyone else, I know enough to know I don’t know a damn thing.  Over the weeks and months, maybe a fuller image that approximates the truth will assemble as people talk about the man, his process and his lifestyle.  But I know enough not to talk about what I don’t know first hand.

I was fortunate enough to meet Michael up close and personal on several occasions.  I’ve had music producers play me original mixes of his music and unreleased tracks.  Some of them would have changed the game and it’s a shame Michael didn’t believe in them.
I don’t care how cool you think you are and how many jokes you may have cracked about him – when you meet Michael Jackson you are hyped.  In person, he’s taller than you would imagine, and of course shy as everyone says.  But you know there’s a lot going on that he’s not saying. 

Mike was a few years older than me.  I grew up with the girls in our elementary school debating on which of the Jackson Five was the cutest. In one our first family trips to New York, my brothers and I were sitting in a hotel lobby, and a black mother asked us if we were the Jackson Five.  It was a thrill to be mistaken for them!  In college we debated the relative merits of OFF THE WALL and THRILLER.  I lamented his post-Thriller career, even though he continued to make great music until the end.    Like the rest of America I am fascinated as the mysteries of his life continue to unfold and compound.  His grip on popular culture continues to hold.  Long live the king.

Reginald Hudlin

Comments here.