#PoliceLivesMatter and #BlackLivesMatter

On March 21,2009 I was in Oakland getting my hair done. I would drive an hour from my home to a salon in Oakland twice a month. On this particular day I witnessed a tragedy that would change the way I viewed the dangers Police Officers face for the rest of my life. 4 police officers were killed in the city of Oakland on this day by a convicted felon who who was wanted on a no bail no warrant parole violation. He shot and killed all 4 Police Officers. 2 during a traffic stop and 2 on scene. This goes down in the history books as one of the worst attacks on the Police force in California.

The following days after the shooting did bring racial tensions between law enforcement and the African American community. The officers that were slain were of Asian and Caucasian descent whereas the shooter was African American. Many people from the neighborhood tried to help at the scene of the shooting but off to the side there were groups taunting and laughing at the situation, at the death of these officers. The officers were all under 45 years of age.

Police brutality and accountability for actions of that nature is a very real struggle in Minority  majority communities and equality for those communities in the arena of police affairs must be reached, but not at the expense of any lives, African American lives or Police lives. The only way to obtain a mutual understanding of the struggle both sides face is by open and honest communication. Protesters have the right to peaceful marches and rallies and the Police have the right to be safe. Violence on either side will solve nothing at all and only serve to further the struggle for both parties to find mutual and common understanding of the issues each group are faced with. The ultimate goal should be solutions.

Solutions do not look like both parties attacking one another on Social Media hashtags like #shootthecops #killthepolice or #Nypdlivesdontmatter, what message are you trying to convey? Is it a message of peace or an invitation to war with the police and invoke a police state? It does not serve the purpose of reconstructing laws that do not discriminate against minority communities, it places the Police in a defensive position to protect themselves. Likewise hashtags such as #blacklivesdontmatter are doing equally the amount of intolerable damage invoking rage and anger in the African American communities.The only real solution are leaders rising up who want and see good for both sides of the argument and find solutions birthed in a peaceful place. The protection of all human life should be the focus of real resolutions

There once was a time when Police Officers would go into schools speak about their jobs, teach children not to do drugs and made themselves available in advice and friendship to all kids.They made themselves safe. Going back to those days would be a step in the right direction. Textbooks in school teaching a transparent education of African American history as well as an accurate teaching of all minority communities history including the Muslim population would create a well balanced multi-cultural population of people that have tolerance through education. We must make changes that are long term solutions to the racial tension that we face in the United States, we must eradicate the roots of racism and believe what we say, that we are a free nation who respects all religion, races, creeds and sex. Are we really a tolerant people or are we liars?

Education reform along with racial profiling, mandatory data collections of races in certain states  as well as accountability for use of force needs an immediate overhaul. We must work together as a nation in peaceful and productive dialog to transform a broken system and promote unity with law enforcement and civilians of all races.  Resolutions must reflect the desire to preserve human life, that is and must remain the focus.

Darryl W. Green II aka Storm Green, “We just want Peace”

With two sides going head to head protesting anti-police brutality and pro-police protesters young rappers are taking a step back to say “We just want peace.” They are not  ignorant to the differences and challenges faced being African American and these  issues need to change but they will not change through violence, only by communication. Darryl Green II aka Storm Green a young 20 year old rapper from Las Vega as is taking that stand and calling for peace. 

Growing up in Las Vegas, presents many challenges with racial profiling and the police and this is not new for the people that live in Las Vegas. The Police department does a mandatory data collection of all it’s residents using the terminology that this will help the police better serve the community. When I looked into what that really translates to I found that in a calendar year African Americans were actually stopped the least in traffic violation but arrested and searched the most.                                                                 
I was thus not surprised that Storm had very few traffic issues with the police however he did avoid them if he saw them. Most people,color aside do not want to have problems with the police, but to have to live in fear that you could be the next victim of police brutality because you are African American is simply an injustice. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights all human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights and freedoms are to be without distinction of any kind. Police departments in the United States are not excused from following the guidelines of this declaration. 

Multiple murders of African American males at the hand of the police who are suppose to protect you leaves young men like Storm feeling less than human and wondering if it will someday be them. “There are young people out there who haven’t even had their first job, yet being shot and murdered by police because they are African American and look older”, Storm says. “These young people have no weapons, no arrest records, innocent and being killed.” Storm and young emerging rappers like him want equality, to be viewed as human beings not as a color, given dignity and respect.

Storm wants to see the entire African American community come together dropping all personal differences and uniting as one voice to overcome the diversities faced in the United States with police brutality, racial profiling and racism. One people with one voice united for peace.    

Link to Storm Green's latest Release: 
Put your Hands Up for Peace "OH NOO" Mos Def " Oh No" (TRIBUTE) 
Follow Storm Green:
Twitter @StormXGreen Instagram StormxGreen SoundCloud Storm_Green

Shame on you Ralph Lauren for marketing a Genocidal Era of the Native Americans

July 1524 was the first known kidnapping in America. Italian Explorers kidnapped a Native American and brought him to France. 1709 a slave market was erected at the foot of Wall Street in New York City African Americans, Native American men,women and children were declared property of the highest bidder.1850 California Legislature responded to starving Native Americans by turning them into slaves and the law permitted White people to indenture Native Children which led to  widespread kidnapping. 1879 the first students, a group of Lakota Children arrived at The United States Training and Industrial School, the goal was to remove young Natives from their culture and refashion them for mainstream American society. In other words Natives were to be brainwashed and forced fed a culture not their own, to become the white man.

The new Ralph Lauren campaign is full of all the humiliating reminders of an era of destruction to the Tribal Nations. Why would a company want to promote such racism and hatred toward the first Nations people and on top of which attempt to profit off of their genocidal history. Perhaps Ralph Lauren does not have a complete understanding of the era in which they are depicting as the educational system has never painted a transparent picture of the history in which torture, rape, abuse, slavery, kidnapping and murder were accepted forms of behavior for those of white privilege. To bring things home for Ralph Lauren this history is the manual Hitler used as a basis for his final solution for the Jewish people.

Native American people love to see their Nations promoted in the fashion industry but in a way that respects the culture and history of who they are as human beings the very same way anyone else would request to be represented. If you want and choose to utilize Native Americans in a promotional way perhaps taking the time to speak to Natives and ask how you can do so that honors their history instead of promoting genocide.

The First Nations People ask you to remove these photos from your current campaign and replace them with photos that do not promote a history that is painful and humiliating full of racism and hatred. Would you use  photos of the Holocaust in a clothing campaign? I do not believe that you would.

I once followed an African American Homeless Man with Mental Illness for 3 Years

The Stats

49% of all homeless people in the US are African American. Statistics say that African American families are 7 times more likely to become homeless than Caucasian families. Mental Illness brings another dynamic to the situation as 30% of homeless people suffer from a form of mental illness and 23% of homeless people are in the 18-30 years of age group and mainly male. I followed the life of one homeless man in Silicon Valley for 3 years. During my time with him I met others just like him.  All African American, all suffering from mental illness with conditions ranging from Severe Depression to Schizophrenia, all were completely alone.  Some were scared, angry and simply trying to survive on streets in San Jose.  

I am a Quiet Observer

Every morning for 2 years I would go out to a parking lot at 4 am and drop off food for a young African American man who slept in the same spot every night. He would never speak to me, generally he would just walk away from me and wander off talking to himself. He had been on the street so long the soles of his shoes were completely worn away, his pants had fallen apart and he used a shirt or a blanket to cover his bare butt so no one could tell he was practically naked. I did leave clothes and backpacks full of survival items, but he would never take them and he would throw them away.

He did not have a drug problem and he did not drink, he was sick and really needed help. Most homeless people find a way to a shelter or bathroom to wash up but this man would not go. He did not trust anyone and the few people you would catch him have a small conversation with never asked about clothes or a shower they only spoke of God to him or offered a cigarette.  He was deteriorating on the streets even his walk had changed, he limped and was slow and tired and only 20 years of age.

I began campaigning for this man, talking to the police and EMT workers in the area just trying to raise awareness and concern for his condition, but always walked away with the same response. He says that he is fine so we cannot help or he passed or evaluation we cannot do anything. A half-naked man who has not showered in what appears to be 2 years talking to himself was not OK and their evaluation system is broken.

Family, Mental Illness and the Law

Once a person turns 18 parents have little to no room of helping their kids when they become mentally ill. The catch to this as I learned from the Ritter House in San Rafael California is that for most families the signs and symptoms can be mild throughout childhood and one day generally between 18-23 years of age, a person becomes full blown with their mental illness leaving parents in a legal uphill battle to help. Due to the fact that these medical evaluations conducted by Police and EMT personal are so vague an adult can simply say I am fine and be left in an untreated state. If treatment is received it is up to the mentally ill patient to continue that treatment and for the people I met on the street none would have been able to do so, I mean they did not even realize they were sick.  The ones on the street that I did meet whom were medicated only remained medicated while in temporary hospital crisis situations and stopped their medication when they left the facility.

Due to the lack of understanding the illness and laws not in favor of family helping their loved one most of the families I met gave up and let their sons leave. Socioeconomic situations were not in their favor either, see if a parent has conservatorship or guardianship of an adult they then become financially liable for everything that adult requires and state funded medical does not cover live in care facilities. In other words parents that try and want to stay involved carry a hefty bill and the stress of figuring out how to fund the care needs of that person. Those facilities cost anywhere from $900-2500 a month. Yes you can bring them home and care for them there but what happens when you work full time or have personal issues requiring your attention. The system is just not set up to treat mentally ill people for a long term period of time. It really cheats them by not funding more programs designed to teach and educate them as to how to live on their own. Either they get so bad they get lock away in an institution by the court or social services or they get to a point that they appear fine and have absolutely no living skills behind them. It really is an injustice to them. I implore congress to change the laws to help mentally ills persons giving greater access to families by financially supporting them and providing education, by continuous funding of programs like NAMI and local care facilities to empower homeless mentally ill to learn how to live again.

My Police Encounter

It is year 2 and I am still checking on my homeless friend who sleeps in the parking lot. He is getting really sick but he now has shoes and a big Spider Man blanket to cover his almost naked body. Given the condition he was in I just had to approach a police office. I said can you please help him there has to be something you can do. He took one look at me and said if this were my son I would kidnap him and drop him at a crisis center, look if you do it I won’t say anything but there is nothing I can do. Not kidding, this was San Jose Police Department. So I just went on a campaign for this man highlighting him to local stores and shops on the street he liked to sleep in doing so I figured the police or EMT services could not ignore an entire neighborhood.

A few weeks later I could not find him anymore. I did put my phone number in his belongings that last time I saw him with the hope he would call if he needed help. I met another African American male with mental illness during this period whom I would go and have lunch with from time to time. Nice man he just really did not like his medication nor did he think that he needed it. He has been in and out of crisis quite a few times but the reality was the state was not going to help him as he was always deemed able to care for himself. He still walks the streets and I see him regularly, these men are sleeping on concrete in freezing cold temperatures and they are not in their right minds yet if he can say I am fine then he remains in those conditions. We live in a country that will execute an African American male before they will teach, educate and rehabilitate one. It is simply deplorable.

Facilities for the Mentally Ill

About 3 months from my last visit with the homeless man who disappeared, I was contacted by Valley Medical Center’s crisis unit in San Jose California. Apparently this man had been in and out of crisis a few times in the 3 month period, he would leave and sleep on a bench right outside their front door so the doctors finally decided they would keep him in the unit and that he was safer there. Through investigation I knew everything about this man so I was able to answer their questions. They labeled him as a catatonic among a few other things and medicated him as such. He was not catatonic to say the least I once followed him on a 6 hour walk, he was sick yes and needed treatment and rehabilitation.

I visited him often and one day he began to talk. This man is one of the most artistic creative people I have ever met with extreme patience, kind and considerate of your feelings and fully in tune to his surroundings. With a haircut and a shower this man looked like Will Smith’s long lost brother. He was doing well although he had a long way to go this was a huge victory, medicated and off of the hard cold concrete. As time passed he was assigned a social worker and conservatorship was awarded to the social worker through the court. He was moved to a lock down facility known as Crestwood in San Jose California, where he spent the next 6 months.

These facilities are supposed to help the people that enter them and on some levels it did but it was not and is not enough. These facilities are labeled as rehabilitation centers. Rehabilitation means to restore something to its original state. I would like to hear the way our government defines that because in order to accomplish a task such as this with mentally ill persons, it would require facility workers trained to rehabilitate not one’s trained to shove medication in you and leave you in a room alone. It would require facility workers to become mental health care providers teaching and encouraging these patients to rehabilitate not using statements like, well if he does not want to do something he does not have to and give him a bag of condoms just in case he wants to have sex in the facility. This is not health care this is caging people and giving them no future. This is health workers who have not a clue what providing health care is. I could account for a time when I visited that the staff member fell asleep in the visiting room while families were there to see their love one or another time when I arrived the man I came to visit had a rash all over his body that went totally unnoticed by staff and I had to demand he be allowed to see a medical doctor.

I deeply connected myself within the facility because this man needed an advocate and encouragement, something he was not finding within his surroundings. I attended his discharge meetings and eventually took conservatorship because he had no one else to turn to that would look out for his best interest. People that work in these facilities or for them tend to no longer see the person as you can visually see it when you are there, they become cattle at medication time and a file at others. I was completely set back by the things I observed. It is no wonder the doors of these facilities are constantly revolving with the same faces over and over again and until the law holds these facilities to a higher standard this will remain the story for mentally ill patients.

On to Crisis Housing we move

Discharge meetings are interesting given the fact that a person requires complete truth to make educated decisions regarding the future of another human being. I was sold a great story which turned out to be a pretty deceptive lie. I was told this man would go onto a new facility where he would learn livings skills and have constant supervision learning how to get around like taking a bus or going to a library and that this would be a transition house where he would live for 6 weeks. I was also told Medical covered the fees of the facility and that there was nothing for me to worry about. Well, they lied; the program was 2 weeks not 6, he could come and go as he pleased and if he did not follow the rules he would be asked to leave and the big one medical did not cover it I had to pay for it.

The facility itself was far better than the previous lock-down no future unit but the truth is no one can learn living skills in 2 weeks I mean even 6 weeks was pushing it. It takes longer than 2 weeks to break bad habits and to learn new ones. This entire situation was setting this man up for failure, from lying to get him there to the oddly strange idea 2 weeks would be just the right amount of time to rehabilitate a person. The fact is even as a conservator I had no choice in the matter choice is taken away by a board of people whom swear to know best however, I am sure that if I asked what this man’s favorite color was or favorite food the answer would have been I do not know. You cannot know best unless you know him and genuinely know the history of a person. He had lived in a home before, he had a family before and he preferred the streets to shelter and a shower, he did not understand his value as a human being. The treatment this man required would take longer than 2 weeks and more than let me show you the bus route. The financial side of that proposes far too many difficulties for most working people myself included.

A lot of truth

Mental Health Care needs to become a priority in this country. 42 million people nationwide suffer from some form of mental illness, which is 1 and 5 Americans. With numbers so high and increasing every year one would like to believe a higher priority would be placed on such a matter. Funding, Training, and the reconstruction of the system from intake to discharge should be placed in the highest of priorities. Families need and require more access in the decision making process of admitting their adult family member into a facility in a time of crisis. Transparency and honesty should take precedence over opening a bed for the next person, there should be enough beds to service all. Whole, healed and functioning people should be the ultimate goal for our society.

I am a White Mom and my Oldest Son is Black

 

When I sat down to write this I thought, wow, where do I begin as this story tells a tale of racism from every direction. I will say upfront it is one thing to have a child of the same ethnicity as the parents and have family support, while dealing with the outside world and social issues like racism then it is to have a mother whose ethnicity is different than the child’s without family support while dealing with those same world and social issues. There is a balancing act that takes place raising your child in both worlds while receiving verbal abuse from both sides.

From the day I told my family I was pregnant, that was it. I lost my relationship with all my family including my grandparents. My mother a minister in a church asked me a question you would never in a million years think a woman of the cloth would ask proceeded by a statement that completely contradicted every belief in the religious foundation she tried to impart to me, “Are you getting an abortion?” “You are not planning on having that nigger baby”. I will never forget that nauseated feeling in thepit of my stomach after hearing her say that. My grandmother did not say anything much different, “A Schvartze (Yiddish derogatory slang for Black person) will not be sitting at this table”. You think a survivor of genocide would have thought about the words coming out of her mouth, but no such luck. So I am separated from my family to this day and have no relationship with them.

Racism did not just come through my family, I had black people tell me I could not raise a black child properly because I was white. His biological father’s family wanted nothing to do with him, believing he would inevitably be too white to understand them. When my son was a teenager asking many questions about his father’s side of the family he went to see them, to meet them, but they stuck to that same belief that he was just too white and did not fit in. Sadly they do not speak to him nor do they want to be a part of his life in any way shape or form and I know this hurt him even though he never speaks of his short time there.

What was supposed to be a yearlong venture of self-discovery and development of family ties to a father my son was so eager to know turned into disappointment and rejection. My son’s biological father’s side of the family has deep Louisiana routes, they are a close family that go to church together and speak on the phone constantly. The boys also got into a lot of trouble and the trouble cannot be chalked up to racism because they were causing it. DUI’s, guns, and drugs, they invited the trouble. 

Now, my son did have his own challenges which he presented to a family that was very unfamiliar to him, he is on the autism spectrum he did not speak until he was 4 and does need to be reminded to do things like clean a room. He did have issues with social situations but he always had friends, it just took him longer to warm up to people. These things did not make sense to the family and all the social issues were turned into racial problems with the statement “he is just too white”. He lasted two and a half months there out of the 12 months planned. I drove up and took him back home, and I always took him everywhere with me from that point on.

Driving through the south brought unexpected racial issues for a person who was slightly naive. 20 years ago the attitude towards mixed children was still ignorant to say the least. I pushed my son’s head down through the towns we drove so people couldn’t see him as a rest stop interaction with the locals taught me we were not welcome. Needless to say I had to teach him from a little child that the world would see him different and that he needed to be careful with his behavior, dress and interaction with police. Had I not taught him those things he would have been ill equipped to be in a world not as accepting of the African American community and from my experience it did not matter whether we lived in a rich or poor community the behavior towards African Americans was still the same.

Oh the teenage years. Let’s be honest these are not easy times for any child. Bodies are changing, they are figuring themselves out, they are grumpy and in my son’s case depressed. Drugs, girls, parties and worries all come with these years and for my child the reminder, you are black and you need to remember that when you are late coming home, or out with your friends, or even in who you choose to date because some families will not allow you to date their daughter. Everything I am writing to you occurred in one way or another.

My son hated school and ditched a lot. One afternoon I came home from work early to a phone call from the Marin County Police Department telling me, “We have your son. He was reported as a burglar." Upon arriving at our home I ask him in front of the police, "what were you doing?” He said he was sitting on the curb. I said, "that’s it?" I looked at the officer and asked, "is that where you found him?" He said, “yes". So I asked how that was a burglar? Officer said, "ma’am the woman who made the call was older. You know how it is." I asked, “What do you mean know how it is? Oh you mean she was racist? She saw a black child and marked him as a burglar and you in turn picked him up to appease her idea?" Officer’s reply, "well ma’am now that I have seen you I know it is all ok and he was just having a hard morning.” My response, “So if I had been a black mother this would have ended different?" He had no reply. We had several incidents that ended the very same way during those teenage years.

To make a long story short because the reality is I could tell you story after story about racism be it through me, my son, or others I know, I did not raise my son to root his identity in a color. I raised my son to root his identity in humanity and being human, to respect those around him even if they could not dig deep enough into their souls to return that same dignity and respect. At the end of the day we are all human beings regardless of what is on the outside in each of us beats a heart needing and requiring human connection. 

Do you not find it odd that the biggest and greatest challenge for mankind to overcome is the differences in people whether they are from Ferguson, Palestine or Sudan? This is the global challenge, acceptance and freedom. Now, we can continue to be angry about racism, or we can come together as humans in a great campaign for humanity and meet each other through interactions of peace to iron out one of history’s greatest challenges, communication through words. This is the key, and can change the course of history for the next generation because your voice is the greatest weapon you possess.