Photos for today...

Even amidst extreme wealth and beauty, you can always view people down on their luck.
--- streets of Madrid, Spain 

Thought for today...

"I speak Spanish to God, Italian to women, French to men and German to my horse." ---Charles V of Spain

Rooftop view of Madrid by Tomi Johnson

Inspiration for today...

Fly like an eagle! (Photo taken en-route to Hawaii by Tomi Johnson)

"The American Negro Academy believes that upon those of the race who have had the advantages of higher education and culture, rests the responsibility of taking concerted steps for the employment of these agencies to uplift the race to higher planes of thought and action.

"Two great obstacles to this consummation are apparent: (a) The lack of unity, want of harmony, absence of a self-sacrificing spirit, and no well-defined line of policy seeking definite aims; and (b) The persistent, relentless, at times covert opposition employed to thwart the Negro at every step of his upward struggles to establish the justness of his claim to the highest physical, intellectual and moral possibilities.

"...the history of the world is the history, not of individuals, but of groups, not of nations, but of races, and he who ignores or seeks to override the race idea in human history ignores and overrides the central thought of all history."

--- from The Conservation of Races by W. E.B. DuBois, 1897
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/31254/31254-h/31254-h.htm

LeBron's statement on race and my comment...

LeBron (l) said he thought about Emmett Till (r) when his home was vandalized. Afterwards, his team lost the first game in the 2017 NBA finals.
(Photos by Keith Allison from Hanover, MD, USA and Mamie Till)

RACISM CONTINUES BECAUSE IT IS ALLOWED TO EXIST and "promoted" in every institution around the globe.

Recently I was asked to comment on LeBron James' remarks about a hate crime perpetrated on his Los Angeles home.
https://sports.yahoo.com/news/reports-lebron-james-los-angeles-area-home-vandalized-racial-slur-163737147.html

Here are my first thoughts:
Some things remain the same. They will cheer us on at the game because we're their best entertainers, and they get a kick out of seeing us throw balls through hoops! No matter what we achieve, we still don't get the respect we deserve, even from our own people sometimes. If we exchanged the slave, rapist, uncivilized, thief image for an image of entrepreneur, scientist, moralist, etc, it still doesn't "trump" the image of us being low, stupid, lazy, and hated. 

One thing we have to be careful of is speaking in absolutes. When James said, "Racism will always be a part of the world," that tends to make one feel hopeless against injustice. What we CAN do is try everything possible to live our lives as good people who realize that all of us, regardless of race, are headed for the same death call when we will all be judged.

I was recently castigated by a white priest who said that I look at everything through a racial lens. It reminded me of the ministerial response to MLK's activism in Birmingham, Ala. which prompted him to write his famous letter from jail. (https://www.africa.upenn.edu/Articles_Gen/Letter_Birmingham.html) This priest seems to pay no attention to the fact that only three Blacks attend his church and that some whites in his church have REDNECK tattoos on their necks! There's a reason why Blacks don't attend HIS church! I must admit, though, that many religions hint at racism in the United States,  and possibly the most segregated places in America are churches and synagogues!

Now, we have LeBron saying, "Being Black in America is tough, and we have a long way to go for us as a society and us as African Americans, until we feel equal in America." My glasses are not rose colored, and I know the reality of race and power in America and the world. They need to release the video of them defacing LeBron's crib!

LeBron went on to say that he thought about Emmett Till first when his home was vandalized, and that the  most important thing to him is the safety of his family. That is the dread we live with everyday - that our loved ones will be harmed just because they are Black.

Neither WE nor LeBron can end racism; only the racist can end racism. Trump needs to tweet that! Those folks who vandalized LeBron's home (who were probably young and unemployed with nothing better to do) need to be caught and made to take a de-racism class! 

It appears hate crimes are increasing, and Attorney Gen. Sessions is too busy trying to save himself instead of prosecuting hate crimes. Political and religious leaders must ACT against injustice before it can ever be solved, or it will be resolved that they want racism to continue.

I was told by a lawyer last week that they don't take on cases where they know they can't make money... when ending racism becomes profitable, maybe we will get some movement towards justice.