Barackface: African American

Showing posts with label African American. Show all posts

Friday, January 08, 2016

Fear Of Gun Violence Is Black Slavery Today

Mars is the new Moon. Now we want to go to Mars. Shift happens. Similarly, I think it is fair to say gun violence is the black slavery today. The black neighborhoods of this country have been infested with both drugs and violence. I don't know how much of this is random and how much of this is planned, but the impact is devastating. If there were a racist conspiracy to keep black people down, you would push drugs and guns into The Hood. It works like magic. The black community stands knee-capped. It's a tragedy, because it is such a waste. Black potential is human potential. We would all be better off if black folks had a shot in life.

Mars is the new Moon. And gun violence is the black slavery today. You can not take America into the 21st century without a constitutional amendment that settles the gun debate once and for all. I thought that might happen before gay marriage went national. I am glad gay marriage has gone national, but gun violence also needs to stop. I am glad poor white folks now have health care, but black folks deserve a life without a permanent threat of guns.

I can't think of a better way for the first black president to end his eight years than by steering a constitutional amendment on this topic. This country owes this president this little thing. He has done right by everybody. He saved you from a Great Depression. He gave you health care. The least you can give him back is some gun sanity. You owe him one. It is payback time.

Monday, December 15, 2014

One More Immigration Court Date

Official photographic portrait of US President Barack Obama (born 4 August 1961; assumed office 20 January 2009) (Photo credit: (Wikipedia)

(statement for court date on December 19)

In case you have not noticed, my trial now has lasted longer than Nelson Mandela's! I am amused. In the first few years I felt frustrated. How long can you feel that way? Now I feel amused.

There are things I know and things I don't know. And I am fairly humble about things I don't know. Honest to God, I don't understand your legal process. I don't have the slightest clue how this works. It is not about logic, and it is not about justice. It is strange, it is bizarre, it is weird.

It is not logical because when I first appeared in front of you people from Nepal were being granted political asylum in the thousands per year, maybe even tens of thousands, and that rate is still intact. So it is not possible this judicial process is not aware of the ground situation in Nepal. And I was the only among the 300,000 plus Nepalis in America to have worked full time for the democracy movement in the 2005-06 period. And I again did full time work for the Madhesi Movement a year later, and my comrades from the democracy movement from Nepal to NYC now had become bitter opponents. On top of all that, I became Barack Obama's first full time volunteer in NYC for which I paid the price I paid: the worst experience of my life. In this city. In this oldest of democracies. But I have no major begrudges. I am of Bihari origin. Democracy gets really rough and tumble in Bihar.

Logic would say that when you put all this together my case was a no brainer. But it has been anything but. It has been a major headache. I have missed wave after wave in the tech startup world, thanks to you. Your process has many of the worst aspects of a Third World bureaucracy. Reminds me of the Nepal I left: you would have to wait in line for years to get a landline. And to think it is lack of immigration that Japan and Europe are in the sorry shape they are in.

Half a decade later I am being made to realize this process has been trying to figure out if I am a good guy or a bad guy. This blows my mind. I am a gift to this country. I am a really, really good guy.

You mention Texas and 2002. Those brain dead cops, when I first talked about them in this court it was not a hot political issue in this country. How times have changed! They started firing after they saw my face. The truck was safely parked on the shoulder of a side road by someone about to call it a night. About a dozen brain dead cops emptied their guns into my truck. The closest bullets hit maybe five feet from my body. I was not scared in real time, because I am like, who is thumping so hard on my trailer! I am scared now! Your process is not about justice, because those brain dead dozen are the clear bad guys. Why is there even a debate! From where does the confusion come?

Talking about 18 wheelers --- just one minor observation --- I have seen more of America than anyone who ever ran for President Of The United States. That is just a fact.

There are things that I know, and there are things that I don't know. Let me tell you what I know. I beat Bill Clinton before Barack Obama beat Hillary Clinton. John Kerry is the only presidential candidate in history not to have received a bounce from his convention. I did what I did, and then Bill Clinton did what he did. But he should not feel bad, because he did achieve his goal. He meant to clear the 2008 deck for Hillary, and he was able to do that.

In case anyone might think it was a fluke, I did a repeat performance a few years into this judicial process. I walked all over Williamsburg for a few hours taking pictures left and right, up and down. And, lo and behold, I was being followed around like crazy. I noted a special police van, fully peopled. A cop with a sniff dog had the dog sniff me. I said hello to the dog. As I walked down a street, as I neared a corner, I gave a fast right jerk to my head and spotted a cop quickly pull away, only moments before having had the gun at the ready. And I remember thinking, am I having a Jason Bourne moment here?

Look, I don't do physical. Free hand exercise is as far as it goes for me. What I do is political. But sometimes the conceptual gets so intense, you kind of spill a little into the physical realm. I am someone who is never going to run for public office. I don't have a country. It is not Nepal, it is not India, it is not America. At least I feel I am on the right planet, thank God. I would like to do all I can possibly do to help cure poverty, that is all. And I have determined digital tools are my best bet. They suit my style, and they are amazingly effective tools. I am going to use and build, build and use even more powerful tools. And to that end the rest of my life will be dedicated. That is the reason I need to be a successful tech entrepreneur.

But out of respect for this court, I have done what I have been asked to do. On Monday, December 15, I got legal insurance through Legal Shield (www.legalshield.com). But then I proceeded to do all the work myself.

I called a bunch of numbers in Texas. And I was able to locate someone who said she will fax Rudra the traffic ticket from May 27, 2002 to his fax number (212) 290-2303. I believe that is what you wanted.

I called the Gray County District Attorney, 205 North Russell Street, Pampa, TX 79065, Phone:(806) 669-8003 who led me to the Pampa TX DA's Office at 806 669 8015 who led me back to the Gray County number who then led me to one of the three judges' office, Judge Curfman's at 806 669 8015 who gave me the numbers for the other two judges Martinez (806 669 8032) and Carpenter (806 779 2721). I was told it was probably Judge Carpenter who received my 60 dollar payment since he deals with the Interstate 40 part. And that was correct information. Someone at Judge Carpenter's office was able to pull up information related to the number you gave me (TX 06911603). The wonderful lady at the other end of the phone said she will fax that document to Rudra at his fax number that I gave her.

I explained to them that the immigration court wants an attorney representing me to contact the DA's Office in Pampa Texas to get some kind of a form for a May 27, 2002 incident involving the 18 wheeler I was driving. The words on the ticket were "failure to control speed." The speed limit was 70 miles per hour. My truck was programmed to not go faster than 68 mph. So I could not have been speeding. How often does this country give speeding tickets to a standing truck! But since I was not native to TX I thought it best to just pay the 60 bucks and be done with it, probably an unwise decision.

Now if we can please proceed to let me get going with my tech entrepreneurship, I would be most grateful. I want to do good. I have always wanted to do good, political demonizations here and there aside.

Saturday, December 06, 2014

Europe, Japan And Immigration

Relative proportions of immigrants from Northwestern Europe (red) and Southern and Eastern Europe (blue) in the decades before and after the immigration restriction legislation. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I think one big reason Japan has been in the doldrums for decades now, and why Europe continues to be in a funk is that both are kind of hostile to immigration. And so you end up with skewed demographics, and you hurt the economy.

For its entire history, immigration has been America's number one strength. The president's recent positive step aside, Washington DC's hostility towards immigrants is a resolve to take America down the Japanese/European path.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

How Black Is Black?

Barack Obama and Michelle Obama (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I never did have patience for those who in 2007 sought to know if Barack Obama was black enough. And I am no apologist. My passionate feelings against racism are matched perhaps only by my passionate feelings for democracy for those who suffer under dictators.

I was in New York City and it felt like every black politician in town was outside the Barack Obama camp for, let's face it, he was not going to win.

For Barack Obama to win the top political office in the world with his skin color and to do the best job he can - which he has - is what is best for black America. This dude is not your pastor, he is not your civil rights leader. He is an executive. He has a job. He is on salary. He answers to an electorate.

Doing right by his job is the best thing he can do for black America, as for white America. One of the things I noticed about his stimulus bill in 2009 was that he was pumping billions into inner city schools. Those are Martin Luther King level steps in my book. Education is the way out for the young blacks in America. And Barack Obama knows. Because that was the path for him and Michelle.

He has emphasized education, he brought about health care reform, a long progressive fantasy. And if you talk about the Great Recession, where was FDR in 1936? Nowhere. It was finally the huge stimulus of World War II that dug America out of the Great Depression.

I am for a second stimulus bill, this time for a trillion dollars. And so the blacks in America just like progressives across the board should be thinking in terms of retaking the House, not if it is worth keeping the White House.

Barack Obama showed up after five centuries of non whites getting the shaft. His rise to the top is a tectonic shift. It speaks of the man but also the times. Perhaps this is to be a new century.

Barack Obama should do his job, but that should not stop black civil rights leaders from stepping forth to help take race relations in America to the next level. Where are they? Who are they?

I'd want Barack Obama to stay focused on public policy rather than get sidetracked by vague deliberations on race.

The Price of a Black President

the modern Republican Party’s utter disregard for economic justice, civil rights and the social safety net. ...... Whether it ends in 2013 or 2017, the Obama presidency has already marked the decline, rather than the pinnacle, of a political vision centered on challenging racial inequality. The tragedy is that black elites — from intellectuals and civil rights leaders to politicians and clergy members — have acquiesced to this decline, seeing it as the necessary price for the pride and satisfaction of having a black family in the White House. ...... 28 percent of African-Americans, and 37 percent of black children, are poor (compared with 10 percent of whites and 13 percent of white children); 13 percent of blacks are unemployed (compared with 7 percent of whites); more than 900,000 black men are in prison; blacks experienced a sharper drop in income since 2007 than any other racial group; black household wealth, which had been disproportionately concentrated in housing, has hit its lowest level in decades; blacks accounted, in 2009, for 44 percent of new H.I.V. infections. ....... The political scientist Daniel Q. Gillion found that Mr. Obama, in his first two years in office, talked about race less than any Democratic president had since 1961. From racial profiling to mass incarceration to affirmative action, his comments have been sparse and halting. ..... It wasn’t until earlier this year that Mr. Obama spoke as forcefully on a civil rights matter — the fatal shooting of an unarmed black teenager, Trayvon Martin, in Florida — saying, “If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.” ..... “puzzling the idea that a president who happens to be black has to focus on black issues.” ....... the new cadre of black politicians who serve largely black constituencies, like Mayor Cory A. Booker of Newark, Mayor Michael A. Nutter of Philadelphia and Representative Terri Sewell of Alabama — all of whom, like Mr. Obama, have Ivy League degrees and rarely discuss the impact of racism on contemporary black life. ...... “Power concedes nothing without a demand.” The political scientist E. E. Schattschneider noted that conflict was essential to agenda-setting. Other interest groups — Tea Party activists, environmentalists, advocates for gay and lesbian rights, supporters of Israel and, most of all, rich and large corporations — grasp this insight. Have African-Americans forgotten it?