Good Morning Everybody!
As always, we have a lot going on in our country and this morning I wanna give you important updates on a few stories, but first I wanna encourage to vote.
Today we have important elections in Connecticut, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Vermont. If you are in those states, or have friends or family in those states, today is not the day to sit out or to wonder if your vote matters. I am paying particular attention to the sheriff’s race in Milwaukee and a very important congressional race in Minnesota, and another one in Wisconsin, but we need you all to come out in big numbers and vote in these primaries as we gear up for the November elections in less than 3 months.
Switching gears some.
Every single day I receive several hundred personal emails and nearly half of them are from men and women who’ve personally experienced some type of hate, bigotry, discrimination, or police brutality. And each of these people generally hope that I will share their story. And it’s weird because it’s grown to where I feel guilty if I don’t share them, because people are grasping for help, but I feel guilty if I do share them, because I really have grown to believe that that all of the bad news and viral videos wears us down. As a consequence, I don’t share nearly as much as I used to, but make no mistake about it, the ugliness is still going on every single day. 2018 is on pace to be the deadliest year ever measured for police brutality and the worst year on record in generations for hate crimes in America.
So I have updates on three stories that we’ve talked about on air or you may have seen on my social media timeline.
This weekend a horrible video went viral of Baltimore Police Officer Arthur Williams brutally beating a young brother named Dashawn McGrier. McGrier, who was unarmed and non-violent, suffered a broken nose, two broken ribs, a fractured jaw, injuries to his eye socket, and more. The officer, in case you haven’t seen the video, was also a young Black man, and has resigned.
Two quick thoughts on that. First, he should’ve been fired immediately. The video was clear, By allowing him to resign, this officer will face no discipline and could pick up and get another job at another department immediately. It’s ridiculous. I am proposing a simple, one sentence reform that will prohibit this. In every city in the country, the following sentence needs to be inserted into police contracts – “If you attempt to resign while you are under official investigation you will be terminated immediately.” Secondly, we are asking local prosecutors to file assault charges against this officer. What he did was criminal.
You may have heard the story about the father in Florida who was shot and killed by a white man outside of a convenience store after the father confronted the man for harassing his family. The victim, Markeis McGlockton, was a wonderful man. The local police refused to arrest the shooter, claiming that he was protected under Florida’s racist “stand your ground” laws. Thankfully, yesterday morning local prosecutors decided that what happened there was indeed a crime and announced that they are prosecuting the shooter for manslaughter. As we know well, charges and convictions are two different things, but this was an important step. Our friends attorney Ben Crump and Rev. Al Sharpton had been fighting around the clock for this to happen and I’m glad for the family that it did.
Lastly, this weekend I shared a video from a donut shop in Flowood, Mississippi where a man wearing medical scrubs openly called one of the workers there the “n-word.” Before that, the man had been berating the employees so they decided to film him and he still thought he was bold enough to be a bigot on camera. Thankfully, the Mississippi Baptist Medical Center in Jackson decided to fire this man, Kyle Thomas, and hold him responsible for his actions.
What these white men like Kyle Thomas or white women like BBQ Becky seem to be confused by is the fact that their President, Donald Trump, appears to be able to say or do whatever he wants to say or do, without consequence, and they think those same rules apply to them. They don’t. You are not him.
And it’s why social media is so powerful for Black folk. On social media we get to tell our own stories, our own way, and we have influence. It doesn’t work every single time, but more times than not, when we catch a bigot being a bigot on video, they pay the price for it one way or another.
I’ve gotta run! Remember, if today is a voting day in your state, show up! We need you!
Take care y’all.
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Shaun King Has Updates On 3 Crucial Stories was originally published on blackamericaweb.com
