When Home Ain’t So Sweet…

Summer, Chicago- 1993.

We sat on the steps of the neighborhood recreation center. Me, Jonathan (J-baby), and Eric, my twin brother. J-baby sat between my legs getting his hair braided and Eric sat next to me. At some point, another neighbor we called Lil’ Marcus, would briefly stop, talk to the guys, harass me (I think he liked me) and walk away with the basketball that appeared to be attached to his wrist. Recalling that scene is still very painful. Within a few years, in separate incidents, all three young Black boys would be shot to death. 

Sometimes, we went to funerals weeks apart. I attended the funeral of another neighborhood kid, who was shot just seconds after I walked away from him on the street, only 3 weeks before my brother was killed. We didn’t need studies to tell us how high the murder rate was–3 out of 6 of my close childhood friends lost a sibling to street violence. Teenage boys on Chicago’s Southside owned more “R.I.P.” t-shirts than any other article of clothing. Both my sons are named after loved ones lost to street violence.  Read more »

Obama ‘08

What must it be like...

I received this image in an email that pondered what it must feel like “to carry the hopes and dreams of an entire race of people on your shoulders?” It was a question I hadn’t previously asked myself and in that moment, I couldn’t have been more proud to be a Black woman supporting Barack Obama. I’ve made arguments on the validity of supporting candidates on the basis of race alone and I stand by those statements. Having recently felt the pressures of carrying the hopes and dreams of my family and the infinite stress of wanting to give up but realizing your dream is so much bigger than you, I can only applaud Senator Barack Obama for the unparalleled strength and class he has exhibited throughout his campaign. This election should focus on the issues, it should also focus on the character of the candidates. 45 years to the date,  after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. implored our nation to judge one another other “not by the colour of our skin but by the content of our character”, a great man of integrity forced many to do just that.  Read more »

Missing Black Children and Media Bias

If I showed the faces of JonBenet Ramsey, Natalee Holloway, Elizabeth Smart and Caylee Anthony to a group of people, a sizable majority of the group would have at least a basic knowledge of the history of these young women. Would that same group recall the story of Mya Lyons? Perhaps, but a considerably smaller number would be aware of the histories of Diamond and Tionda Bradley and almost no one would be able to identify the face of Yasmine Acree, whose missing case received no national news coverage.  All too often, the public’s awareness of missing and murdered children is determined by media coverage and more importantly, the lack of media coverage. Is race a factor? That’s the question addressed in a recent issue of the Chicago Defender. On a recent trip to the city of my birth, I came across the Chicago Defender, the faces of Yasmine, Tionda, Diamond and Mya arresting me as I went to purchase a soda. I wondered just how many people would have identified these young women by face or even recognized their names? 

What is the media and law enforcement’s focus when it comes to missing Black children? In Yasmine Acree’s case, the young girl was classified as a runaway despite no previous history of such behavior, that the eyeglasses of the visually impaired child were left behind, and evidence that the basement bedroom she slept in had been broken into (the lock was cut, officers who finally responded to the call failed to take this evidence with them until called back to the house by a relative. Some reports indicate that police have denied evidence of a break in). In Diamond and Tionda’s case, the police seemed more concerned with why the single working mother left the girls, ages 10 and 3 at the time, home alone while she worked from 6:30am until she came home to find them missing at 11am. Unfortunately, I know all too well how slow police are to respond to calls about missing Black children. Unable to locate my young daughter for hours, I called the police department and was advised that the police “had more important things to do”. It would be hours before they showed up to take a report (thankfully, my child was found safe and I have to say that the police officers who assisted me on the following day of my daughter’s case were very helpful).  Read more »