Miami Killing Fields
by BAR contributing editor Paul A. Moore
"What does slavery do to a people?"
The signal aspect of slavery
in the American colonies and then in the United States of America is this: only
African men and women were ever subject to it! In its searing flames. The
people we now call African-Americans were tempered. What the people of any
other racial background may have become had they been placed in bondage for
generations is a matter of conjecture, speculation, wild guess. It never happened
to any other people.
Our present day social
reality cannot be understood looking at a snapshot. What is now is a product of
what was before. So it is impossible to understand Black America without an
examination of their past. What does slavery do to a people? Certainly it
brutalizes them. Physically, there were the whippings and beatings, the
castrations, the maimings, the executions. Mentally, there was the forced
disconnect from African cultures and history, the rendering of family, the
prohibition against learning even to read.
There was no magical
transformation from the state of affairs on Jan. 1, 1863 when Lincoln made the
mid-Civil War strategic decision to issue the Emancipation Proclamation or in
1865 when the anti-slavery amendments were added to the U.S. Constitution. What
did follow were violent struggles against peonage and sharecropping, the
migration to the cities and a forced entry into the industrial workforce, the
civil rights and Black liberation movements. One idiot has written a book
called The End of Racism but scores
of youth of color lying dead in the streets of Philadelphia, Chicago, New
Orleans and Miami are today's proof of the lie.
Here is a snapshot
of the nightmare today from Miami:
Monday June 18, 2007. The
Miami Herald. On page 1B, readers were taken to a celebration. There's the
teacher from inner-city Booker T. Washington High School reaching out
proudly to a new young graduate. There's the same woman, a mother straining to
tell her daughter how precious and important she is. There are the other young
people sharing the joy and sense of accomplishment.
"Scores of youth of color lying dead in the streets of
Philadelphia, Chicago, New Orleans and Miami are today's proof of the lie."
Enter four uninvited guests,
all hope long ago extinguished in their hearts. Four of shattered self-esteem
slathered with the balm of the gang. They are four completely impotent
souls. But powerful men have given them easy access to assault weapons. The
four draw their matching white bandannas over their faces in unison. The four
draw their gifts from the NRA, President Bush and Congress from concealed
places and begin to fire.
The unlucky were six. Two
are now gone forever. Samuel Brown was Trina Kancey's "tall, handsome"
16-year-old son. Michael Bradshaw was Jermaine Lafon's "quiet, well-mannered"
20-year-old next-door neighbor. Apparently, Samuel Brown was a good enough
football player to dream of playing in college and beyond. In relation to
Michael Bradshaw's death, The Miami Herald
reported that someone by that name was arrested on drug dealing charges in May.
To put this snapshot in
some context, readers could turn to page 6B. The article was titled Funding for Upward Bound cut. To quote, "The
U.S. government cut funding at three major Florida universities for Upward
Bound, a program that encourages disadvantaged students to go to college."
Deeper into it, "President Bush proposed cutting the program in his 2007
budget."
The stories of Samuel Brown
and Michael Bradshaw will take their place alongside four other young
men .
They all lived longer
lives than Rod K. Williams. Rod's body was found in a dumpster eight
days after he died. The boy's family and friends say he wanted
to play football someday. But he was only 14-years-old when he was wrapped in
plastic bags and thrown in the garbage.
While his body decomposed in the shadow of Dolphins Stadium they played
Super Bowl XLI there. The game is described with Roman numerals due to its
gravitas. An estimated one billion people watched the game on CBS, part of
Viacom's media empire. Tony Dungy beat Lovie Smith to the Lombardi Trophy and
was lauded as the first African-American coach to win a Super Bowl. While
Peyton Manning was named the game's Most Valuable Player many Black athletes on
the field made spectacular plays that drew loud cheers from the crowd. The
Bears Devin Hester ran back the opening kick-off back 92 yards for a touchdown.
"Rod's body was found in a dumpster eight days after he
died."
It's likely that all four of
our subjects were watching Super Bowl XLI. They all played football well and
had the power to dream. They could let their minds go to that kind of fame and
adulation and money and respect for themselves someday. They focused on the praise of the young
African-American men like themselves. Where else had they ever seen that?
Darnarius Green
It was around the time of
Super Bowl XLI that Darnarius Green met football coach Damon Cogdell. Darnarius
lived in the north end of Miami-Dade County. He wanted to play across the
county line at Miramar High. He participated in their spring football drills.
When he left his home the other night Darnarius asked his little brother to
pray for him. He got into a van with his friends. Although he was only
16-years-old Darnarius had been arrested four times since 2004 on gun related
charges. At teenage parties Darnarius would do like the other young men and
break out weapons and pose for pictures. It's part of the routine nowadays.
President Bush and the Congress allowed the ban on the sale of assault weapons
to lapse in September 2004, so they're everywhere. The National Rifle
Association has boasted they have an office in the White House. Scores of
children and youth of color have died violently in the past three years in
South Florida. Twenty-eight school age children have been murdered this year in
Chicago. A shooter at Virginia Tech University killed 32 on the campus then
himself.
"Scores of children and youth of color have died violently
in the past three years in South Florida."
As Dr. Martin Luther King
looked out over the multitudes starring up at him and Abraham Lincoln on August
28, 1963, besides telling his dream, he noted, "for many of our white brothers,
as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their
destiny is inextricably tied up with our destiny." Most of the dead at Virginia
Tech were white.
Ironically, Coach Cogdell
was driving by Opa-Locka's Bunche Park moments after the body of Darnarius
Green was found. The Miami Herald reported that, "It was unclear if that
is where he had been shot or where his body was dumped."
Genarlow Wilson
If the inmates at Georgia's
Burruss Correctional Training Institute had television privileges then prisoner
#1187055 likely watched Super Bowl XLI. He had played football with some
distinction at Douglas County High School. He was the school's Homecoming King.
Then 17-year-old senior Genarlow Wilson was charged with sexual crimes. He was
offered a plea bargain by the state: register as a sex offender for life and a
move away from your eight-year-old sister. Genarlow refused the deal and went
to trial. At trial the judge and jury dismissed the most serious charges. The
jury forewoman wept as she read the guilty verdict for aggravated child abuse.
His "child" victim was a 15-years-old classmate. Of the 455 men ever executed
for the crime of rape in this country's history, 405 were Black men.
Draconian sentencing
guidelines since changed condemned Genarlow Wilson to ten years behind bars in
2005. The prison sentence dashed the hopes Ivy League football programs at
Columbia and Brown had for Genarlow Wilson. In this year's session the Georgia
State Legislature again refused to address the issue. Echoes of the Florida
Legislatures refusal to address the issue of compensation for Alan Crotzer,
falsely imprisoned for rape for 24-years in this state.
"Of the 455 men ever executed for the
crime of rape in this country's history, 405 were Black men."
A judge has thrown out the
sentence and opined that 27-months in jail has been sufficient punishment. The
judge's order was stayed immediately based on an appeal filed by Georgia
Attorney General Thurber E. Baker. Genarlow Wilson is now 21-years old.
Myron Rolle
As he watched Super Bowl
XLI, Myron Rolle was basking in the glow of a successful season at Florida
State University. It is rare for a first year player to start for Bobby
Bowden's football powerhouse. Myron Rolle had done it. So advanced academically
he enrolled at FSU as a sophmore. His success came as no surprise to the people
back home in Princeton, New Jersey. They had watched the teenager excel in
every facet of life from school and community leadership to the arts and from
the classroom to the playing fields. His two-sport athletic exploits earned him
"#1 Athlete in the Nation" designation from Rivals.com and his football
prowess saw him named "#1 Overall Prospect in the Nation" by Scout.com
and The Sporting News.
The recruiting battle over
Myron Rolle was intense. Football programs from Miami to Michigan to Oklahoma
to USC pulled out all the stops. Tens of thousands of dollars was spent around
the country to curry favor with him. After all young men like Myron Rolle could
mean TV time and a BCS Bowl birth and millions of dollars for the university. Institutions
of higher learning are under tremendous pressure to fund their educational
mission. The University of Florida alone must find $7 million each year now
just to pay Urban Meyer and Billy Donovan, two of their more renowned
professors of sports technology.
"Jeb Bush fashioned a standardized test
into a weapon."
One day when Myron Rolle was
a senior in high school he got a cell phone text message. Florida Governor Jeb
Bush wondered if he could hangout with the young man on his next visit to
Tallahassee. The text message might seem contradictory until the importance of
FSU football to the former governor is taken into account. After all, Jeb Bush
engineered the demise of all affirmative action programs in Florida's colleges
and universities and drove minority enrollment to modern record lows. Jeb
Bush fashioned a standardized test into a weapon. He dropped the FCAT
like a cluster bomb on tens of thousands of 9 and 10-year-old Black children,
nipping their self-confidence in the bud. He lobbed it like a grenade into
inner-city high schools and smashed the hopes of a thousand Myron Rolles. They
got a piece of toilet paper called a certificate of completion rather than a
text message. Then again, none of them was 6'2" and ran the 40-yard-dash in
4.53 seconds like the governor's young friend.
Antwain Easterling
Miami Northwestern High
School's won their state championship in the same stadium the Indianapolis
Colts won Super Bowl XLI. Three days before the game was played, Northwestern's
star running back, Antwain Easterling was arrested. It seems the night the team
returned from the second game of the season he had sex with a 14-year-old
classmate in the school. For several days intense debates raged over whether he
and Lakeland High's star running back Chris Rainey should play in their
respective teams' big games. Chris Rainey had received money and gifts from
Lakeland's boosters. Both players had influential supporters. Both players
played. Both teams won championships and finished the season undefeated and top
five in the nation.
Northwestern's championship
performance drew a record crowd of 24,368. Nothing about Miami Northwestern
gets near the attention of the football program. The program has sent 20
players to the NFL. Showtime aired a documentary, The Year of the Bull, devoted
exclusively to their 2001 season and star player Taurean Charles. USAToday
lists the Bulls somewhere in their national rankings from week to week. The
Antwain Easterling lead team finished at No. 5. ESPN will nationally
televise one of the Bulls games next season. The Miami Herald recently
honored Coach Roland Smith as Miami-Dade Coach of the Year. The Herald
wrote extensively on Northwestern's spring game victory over Belle Glades
Central High.
"The grand jury gave Jeb Bush a pass for text messaging
one African-American youth and destroying thousands of others."
A Miami-Dade grand jury has
just issued a report with a pithy title. It's called Justice Intercepted:
The All Consuming Power of Football. The first sentence of the report
reads, "Society has a way of demonstrating its true priorities when confronted
with a crisis." But the grand jury says only one man's priorities were
criminally skewed in this society. Former Northwestern first-year principal
Dwight Bernard is the only one indicted. He is going to be the fall guy.
He's the perfect scapegoat - African-American, male, and not on anyone's
football team.
The grand jury cleared the
White House and Congress for their servile relationship with the NRA in the
middle of an orgy of gun violence and death across the country. The grand jury
gave Jeb Bush a pass for text messaging one African-American youth and
destroying thousands of others. The
grand jury was silent on whether Rod K. Williams' seat for Super Bowl XLI was
an indictment of our society's true priorities.
Paul A. Moore is a Miami-Dade Public School
Teacher, at Miami Carol City High School. He can be contacted at WWWKings@aol.com.
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