Focus on Hate Crime is Far Too Narrow

Villagers, we shared information about the onsite conversation that Shane Johnson organized in conjunction with the Al Sharpton rally in Washington DC yesterday. In another example of the mainstream media picking up on stories reported first in the afrosphere we see that nationally-syndicated columnist Clarence Page picked up on the story:

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Here's one from the "Taste of His Own Medicine" department: When the Rev. Al Sharpton led a recent Washington rally to protest what he called lax federal prosecution of hate crimes, at least one local black resident was waiting with a protest of his own.

Amid recent reports of noose hangings and other racial incidents, Sharpton, Martin Luther King III and other activists rallied outside the Department of Justice Friday to call for tougher federal prosecutions of hate crimes.

Shane Johnson, 32, a social worker by day and Weblogger on the side, staged a nearby dissent with a few sympathizers. He supported the prosecution of hate crimes, he said, but thinks Sharpton's definition of "hate" is too narrow. Johnson didn't draw much attention and he wasn't surprised. "Most people view me as taking on the black establishment," he told me in a telephone interview. "They think I am going to embarrass our leaders. My view is that they should be embarrassed."


Click here for the rest of Clarence's column

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Any thoughts on the two events held at the Justice Department in Washington DC yesterday?

Dunbar Village Protest Against Al Sharpton Hits USA Today

The counter-protest to Al Sharpton's march on the Justice Department made national headlines in the mainstream media today. Villagers, we told you about this counter-protest called by Shane Johnson (shown in the photo to the left) and Gina McCauley in an earlier post. This is an example of the evolving influence of the afrosphere.

The USA Today article provides a quote from Al Sharpton acknowledging the Dunbar Village victim. However, I found two other things to be most interesting. First, I was surprised to learn that the leader of the National Urban League was unaware of the Dunbar Village rape of a Black woman and her young son. Second, I was disappointed that the focus of the headline was "Black-on-Black crime". I simply don't like that overt racial slant on crime in our country. We never called the IRA conflict with England "white-on-white crime". We never talk about the fact that over 90% of crime committed against white people in our country occurs from other white perps/criminals.

In my view, the issue is crime against Black women that appears to be accepted ... regardless of whether the perps are Black, white or purple. Anyhow, the key point is that the counter-protest reached a national audience by being published in the USA Today.

Dunbar Village Supporters Question Al Sharpton and Other Silent Black Leaders

I attended the Million Man March in October 1997. I recall that there were a number of other marches scheduled in the following weeks and months. It is impossible to put lightning in a bottle twice. I didn't attend the Jena Six march in September 2007, however, I'm proud to be part of the process in the afrosphere that led to that successful march. There have been a number of marches called since September ... the latest is one called by Al Sharpton to protest the inaction of the Department of Justice on hate crimes.

The story that you may not have heard is that Al Sharpton will be greeted by counter protesters on November 16. The counter protesters want to know why he and other African American leaders have refused to publicly comment on a horrific crime against humanity committed against a Black woman and her child in a housing project called Dunbar Village located in West Palm Beach, FL.

The Dunbar Village tragedy is the horrific story of the brutal gang rape, sodomy, and torture of a 35 year old black Haitian immigrant and her 12 year old son. 10 black teens forced their way into the victim's home at a public housing complex in West Palm Beach, Florida. The mother was forced to perform fellatio on her own son at gunpoint. The teens then cut and stabbed the mother and her son, poured cleaning solvent on their skin and in their eyes, and would have set them both on fire, but as one teen suspect reported, no one in the gang had matches. Currently, only four suspects are in custody. During the 3 hour rape and torture, not a single neighbor called 911.

The counter protest was organized by Shane Johnson. "How is it that practically every social justice organization from the ACLU to the NAACP to the SCLC knows something about Dunbar Village but refuses to speak out about it?", asks Shane Johnson who is a blogger and the author of Black Sapience...My .02. Johnson adds, "This protest is not to request that Sharpton and his allies march in West Palm Beach, but simply an inquiry regarding Rev. Sharpton's peculiar silence on this issue."

For over three months, Gina McCauley, who created the blog, What About Our Daughters? has been asking why prominent African Americans have failed to make any public comment about the Dunbar Village crime. "This type of crime happened on our watch and our "leaders" are still silent. They are silent because they are indifferent. Their indifference is immoral." McCauley says. She posted the names and contact information of prominent African Americans and organizations on her blog and despite numerous calls, emails and letters from readers, not a single person on the list has issued a public comment on the crime. She describes their refusal to publicly comment 'Immoral Indifference'.

"It is the height of hypocrisy that Black leaders have remained silent for so long about the Dunbar Village Rape tragedy. Black leaders remain silent about victims of Black on Black crime." McCauley noted on her blog that several prominent African American issued statements on the humane treatment of animals during the controversy surrounding Michael Vick. "We can get a statement about dogs, but not about two human beings."

Tanisha Mathis, who operates the Essential Presence blog adds, "African Americans are falsely led to believe the mainstream is not sensitive to their issues but its proven repeatedly that it is, in fact, Black leaders and Black news entities that are the most silent in regards to crimes against Blacks like the Dunbar Village gang rape."

I am unable to attend either protest march in person, however, I wish the counter protesters well as they gather in Washington, DC at the Justice Department on Friday, November 16, 2007. It should make for an interesting afternoon.