Random Civil Rights Moments: James Leonard Farmer Jr.

James Leonard Farmer Jr. was born on January 12th, 1920 in Marshall Texas. He was a damn good student in school and became the first Black to get a doctorate in his state, and was even a college freshman at 14 years old. He earned a divinity degree (didn't know that was a thing) from Howard University, choosing to follow his fathers path. He began to learn about Mahatma Gandhi and his teachings regarding non-violence. 

Eventually Farmer ended up living in Chicago and become a TV screenwriter and writing for a magazine. In 1942 he and some other similar thinking people did a sit-in at a segregated restaurant. They ended up creating the Committee of Racial Equality (CORE) which then became the Congress Of Racial Equality which at the start consisted mostly of Northern Whites. Farmer then began working on the Freedom Rides which were trying to stop segregation while traveling on interstates. The first ride they made in May of 1961 ended with the bus being firebombed after it reached Alabama because 1960's. Members of the group were also beaten and attacked and thanks to television the nation was able to see this. The Interstate Commerce Commission, enforced by Robert Kennedy, an attorney general, made it so that segregation was no longer allowed on public transportation in the South. Farmer resigned after a few years and deaths of his colleagues. He began teaching at Lincoln University, ran for Congress, and eventually worked for the Richard Nixon administration but left that.

Click here for previous Random Civil Rights Moments.

Random Civil Rights Moments: William Edward Burghardt Du Bois

William Edward Burghardt Du Bois also known as W.E.B Du Bois was born in 1868 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. He was identified as mixed and grew up attending schools with White students in a mostly White town. By 1885 he moved to Nashville, Tennessee and was like “Oh. Black people have it rough.” Jim Crow Laws were in full effect and he was getting his first taste of it. After getting a bachelor degree he went to Harvard. After getting his master's degree he headed to Germany and while speaking with social scientists he learned different ways of looking at the world. 

By 1895 he became the first Black to earn a Ph. D. from Harvard. In 1899 he published The Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study that examined what he called “the talented tenth” which was a term regarding one in ten Black men becoming leaders of their race. While working at Atlanta University he opposed Booker T. Washington and his Atlanta Compromise. This got him a lot of attention as he felt that Blacks should be granted equality based on the 14th Amendment. He began fighting for the rights of women and the idea of White superiority and in 1909 he co-founded the NAACP. 

Click here for previous Random Civil Rights Moments. 

Random Civil Rights Moments: Jim Crow Laws

In my last post I mentioned the Jim Crow Laws. Now I never really quite learned what these were about in school so I decided to give a jackass version of it that hopefully I'll understand as well as you.In 1892 the phrase Jim Crow was attributed to the song and dance character “Jump Jim Crow.” In it a White actor by the name of Thomas D. Rice wore blackface and performed as well as a comic strip making fun of Andrew Jackson's views. These laws were used to enforce segregation in the South. During the Reconstruction period these laws started and kept on going until the mid 1960's. That's fucking nuts. In 1890 a separate but equal status was given to Blacks. This meant that schooling, housing, banking, and anything else that was given to Whites were scarce or unavailable for Blacks by law. Even though Blacks were being put into public offices more laws were being made to slow this down or flat out stop it.

All public transportation, schools, and public places were segregated. This is the whole Blacks in the back of the bus stuff. The all Black schools if any. Whites only water fountains. During the mid 1950's these laws were considered unconstitutional but that didn't stop Blacks from being attacked or killed if they tried to act as if they were equal. The rest of the Jim Crow laws were changed by the Civil Rights Act in 1964 and the Voting Rights Act in 1965. Still, that did not stop attacks and discrimination though committees were started to track the amount of Blacks that turned out to vote to ensure that they were not being kept away. There are some saying that the new anti-drug laws being used in the U.S are the new Jim Crow Laws as they specifically target Black men.

Click here for previous Random Civil Rights Moments.  

Underboob Pen Challenge

There was the Kylie Jenner Challenge. The Condom Challenge. The Don't Judge Me Challenge. The Fire Challenge. The Knife Game. The Salt And Ice Challenge. Now there is the Underboob Pen Challenge other wise known as #underboobpenchallenge or #PenChallenge. Now, I hate most of these challenges because they aren't challenges so much as ways to ruin your face and body for life or just look like an assclown online. But this? This is a “challenge” I can get behind!

Mountain Dew And Gasoline

This 16 year old named Logan Stephenson Tennessee died last week from drinking “racing fuel” and Mountain Dew. Read that over again. Now for most drinking one or the other is bad enough for you but the two together? I'm not quite sure what the desired effect is when you mix those two things. As I am writing this I just saw that one of his other two friends that did the same thing has died. Police Chief K.D Smith says that “ They (his friends) noticed the color of his skin had changed and he started having a seizure. His hands started drawing up.” Before the other friend died he had gone into a coma.

When I was a kid the things you heard kids drinking that they shouldn't have were laundry detergent or their parents alcohol. Why detergent? Because it was the 80's and weird shit happened. I never knew anyone to drink gasoline but I do remember seeing some movie where people would sniff it from rags to get fucked up. But come on. Mt. Dew and fuel? You know what's funny about that soda? Its that people that are normally healthy will one day go “I'm gonna have some soda!” and this is their choice the same way they will decide to eat McDonald's when they want fast food. 

Old School Cereals 2

I wouldn't trade in the amount of cereal I got to eat as a child for these kids today that have the internet. I wrote about some old ass cereals from my youth before (click here to read that) and while trolling the internets I saw one cereal I hadn't thought of since I was about 6 years old and that got me into a web of looking at delicious foods that no longer exist.

Spider-Man

This was one of those cereals that I think the company was like “We got all this damned Chex and don't know what to do with them!” They added some marshmallows and next thing you know you have this. They did the same thing with that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cereal. It wasn't bad but by the time you were done the marshmallows and “spiderwebs” tasted the same.

Random Civil Rights Moments: Ella Jo Baker

One thing I am noticing while looking through civil rights people for these posts is that there were a lot of women involved. This one is about Ella Jo Baker. She was born on December 13th 1903 in Norfolk, Virginia. Hearing stories about her grandmother that was a slave inspired her to fight for justice. While studying at Shaw University in Raleigh, North Carolina she fought against unfair school policies. She graduated as a valedictorian and continued fighting not just for Black rights but rights for women as well by joining Young Negroes Cooperative League. This was a battle that women like her had that sucked because she was dealing with two strong social issues at once. 

By 1940 she was involved with the NAACP as a field secretary and then as a director of branches for a few years. In 1955 she co-founded In Friendship which was an organization to fight Jim Crow Laws (I'll have to do a whole 'nother post about those). There is a quote of her that I really like and think people can take a lot from today. “You didn't see me on television, you didn't see news stories about me. The kind of role that I tried to play was to pick up pieces or put together pieces out of which I hoped organization might come. My theory is, strong people don't need strong leaders.”

Click here for previous Random Civil Rights Moments. 

Random Civil Rights Moments: Claudette Colvin

For the past few years for Black History month I have done posts like Famous Black Firsts as well as Cool Shit Black People Invented. This year I decided to look into some people and moments in civil rights history. Not sure of a title yet but by the time I finish this I'll have come up with something. Hopefully. This post is going to be about Claudette Colvin. I didn't know that this girl existed until watching an episode of Drunk History. Sows how well they were teaching this stuff in school. 

Claudette was 15 years old on March 2nd, 1955 when while riding the bus in Montgomery, Alabama she refused to leave her seat. Again. 1955. Doing something like that back then was extremely dangerous especially if you were some 15 year old Black girl in Alabama. In school she was learning about Black leaders and felt all kinds of inspired. Today kids learn about Drake and get inspired to...I don't know. Go to Canada?

Claudette was arrested and put in jail. She and a few other women had done this at the time but all we know about is Rosa Parks and her refusal to leave her seat when asked. Why? Politics, man! The NAACP, whom Parks was a secretary for at the time, thought that Parks would be a better representative for the fight against these laws. So there you have this 15 year old girl doing something because she felt she was fighting the good fight and getting hardly any recognition and then you have a 42 year old woman who is married to a member and working for this huge organization that planned out the whole thing. Didn't help she was pregnant by a married man at the time. She once said “Young people think Rosa Parks just sat down on a bus and ended segregation, but that wasn't the case at all.”  

Desert Vista Student Apology

Above is the image of a child drowning on dry land. She is Rachel Steigerwald, one of the students from Desert Vista High School of Arizona that I wrote about previously that for whatever reason thought it'd be cool to wear shirts that spelled out “Ni**er.” She stepped up during a rally regarding civil rights to apologize for her actions. It didn't turn out so well.

“I have come here to say that I am incredibly, incredibly sorry. I have love for everyone in my heart. I am not a racist and I'm asking everyone for forgiveness.” School officials are pissed about the photo as well as thousands of other people around the world. Change.org has set up a petition to get all the girls expelled and has over 40,000 signatures so far. I'm not angry so much as disappointed with all six girls and the person that took the photo. They also want the principal, Christine Barela, to resign for giving the girls just a five day suspension.

As of last year the school had 66% White students and 7% Black. The Black Student Union says that the picture does not represent what their school is about. Workshops have been started for students and the principal talked to them about what happened. And the last thing that girl should've said was that the picture was taken for the boyfriend of one of the girls.

Desert Vista High School's Finest

Yay! Senior picture day! This is one of those things that students get excited about. A chance to leave a mark in history...at school. Line up with fellow students and take a picture that will be around for years. Or you can be like these girls at Desert Vista High School in Arizona and use letters from “BEST *YOU'VE* EVER *SEEN* CLASS *OF* 2016” and take an extra picture with “Ni**er.” Yeah. You could do that. Not sure where the letter “I” came from unless its the “1.” Either way it happened.

The school had to release a statement after this image got online saying “The students will be disciplined in accordance with district policy and while we don’t discuss specific discipline I can tell you that will be addressing the obvious need for sensitivity training in this case.” The school and faculty approve what will appear in images for the yearbook and of course this nonsense was not approved. Eventually the students were suspended for five days.

Some people are asking if nigger even means the same thing to kids as it does to older people. Unless you are a toddler you know what the word means and when you say it are aware of what you are doing and hopefully who you're doing it around. Otherwise you could get hurt. These girls knew exactly what they were doing. They were trying to be funny. They weren't, but points for trying. Allow me to make an attempt to answer some questions regarding this word.

Thank You, Quentin Tarantino

“...as a writer, I am God. As a writer. And all these characters are mine and they're me and I'm telling the truth. And you know what? He (Spike Lee) might not like it, but there's a hell of a lot of black guys in Compton saying 'nigger' all the goddamn time. You know, in Carson, in Inglewood, that's where I'm from. Not everybody, but there’s a hell of a lot of guys.” - Quentin Tarantino 

Thank you, Quentin Tarantino. If not for your latest film The Hateful Eight I wouldn't know that as a Black man that I am supposed to not only use the word nigger every few words but that I am supposed to be okay with it being said by anyone. Thank you so much for teaching me what it means to be Black as well.

The thing people don't realize the way you do and have shown me through your movies is that being Black is about not trying to be better than your environment, but wallowing in it. Everyone around me saying nigger? Well, hell. I might as well too. And it feels so good when I'm sitting in a theater hearing it said to the only Black man in the film, Samuel L. Jackson. And as an actor his is fine with it so its fine with me because Black people all agree on everything! Jackson recently said “Once again, I'm sure there will be people who want to nitpick this whole nigger thing. But it ain't like that ain't the time.” Exactly. Historical accuracy is what Tarantino films are all about!

Starbucks Social Justice Shaming

There is this story that has been floating around online about this lady named Juana Martinez that discovered that a Starbucks employee in Lakewood, CA had stolen her credit card number and spent a little over $200 on it to buy some stuff at Ralph's. The cashier had disappeared with the card claiming she needed more paper for the receipt. Juana and her brother Brian Espinoza pulled into the drive through per usual and the same cashier was there. This was all recorded of course because that is the world we live in.

Juana told her “We got you on camera yesterday at Ralph's for $200, so just know that the cops are coming up here. You took a copy of my [expletive] card on New Year's Day. You know what you did, right?” The girl freaked out and immediately incriminated herself. You can tell that this is a not bright 19 year old and pretty much what I think is typical of someone around that age doing what she does and having done the crime she did. She said “I'm sorry that I took money from you and your kids. I'm sorry that you had to come up here. I'm sorry that this is inconvenient for you...I am a good child. I swear I am really good. I really do go to school. I'm 19. I play soccer.” Its futbol, bitch!

Sh!t I Wish They Taught In School

Being a grown up sucks and can be a bag of dicks if you do it wrong. But it rules sometimes. Like when I can sit up in bed eating a bowl of cereal at 1am without anyone talking shit. But for the most part its a terrible series of tragedies that come one after another. If you are an adult and don't know someone with cancer, has had a childhood friend die, or been in a car accident I wonder how you can read this blog post from your shack in the woods.

This post will have nothing to do with giving tips on how to be an adult. Its just a list of shit that I wish they had taught in school. I mean, you would think that a prison that they make you go to from the ages of 5 to 18 from 7am till 3pm would take at least one day out of the week to explain to you how the world actually operates. Trust me. All the shit I learned about Prohibition, The Civil War, and the periodic tables don't mean shit to me unless I'm watching Jeopardy.

Mind you, not everyone has the issue that I'm gonna write about. If that is the case you can just move along now. Seriously. I won't hate you. I'm sure Buzzfeed has a totally interesting article about cats or some show that social justice warriors love. I'll be here talking to the rest of the uncivilized world about a few things they never bothered to cover in school.

"Rehab: The Fake Tales of a Real Asshole" Season 2 Scene 6

Click here for previous Rehab.

I step outside and hiss. Saucy hands me some shades and I put them on. Beef is trying his best not to burst into tears. I feel oddly confident. Sure, we're about to play dodge ball with a bunch of Marines but things could be worse. I could be playing dodge ball with a bunch of Marines. Wait. That didn't come out right. Softy comes over and places her hand on my shoulder.

“How's the dick?” she asks. Saucy quickly walks away.

“Average I'd say, but surprisingly adequate” I tell her. “Don't believe me? Ask my stepmom.”

“Okay...” she says and walks away.

That big ass ant is over against a wall dodging side to side against an opponent I can't see. It sees me looking and waves. I don't wave back. It shrugs and continues. My hands begin shaking so I put them in my pocket.

“Beautiful day to die” Google says and begins doing what can only be described as those old school calisthenics. “But I've led a good life. I have very few regrets. That's all we can really ask for out of life when you think about it. What's with the sunglasses?”

Whites Only "Reunion"

Click here for the first story.

“It had a great, high wall with twelve gates, and with twelve angels at the gates. On the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel.” Revelation 21:12

Jim ran to the spot that Satan just occupied. Could he have been telling the truth? In all honesty Heaven had not been concerned with the planet Earth for quite a while. Time moved differently for them. In the amount of time it took for Red to ensure that his robe looked righteously tattered three humans will have been born, lived, and died of old age.

“Belial! Tsor! Wicked one! Little horn! Apollyon!” Red shouted as he shook his first to the ground.

“We do not have time for that right now” Jim said as he exited the room. “One hundred million angels and none knew this was going to happen?”

“How could they?” Red asked.

“Oh, shut up” Jim whispered. He grabbed a cherubim that was battling the loose souls and demons by flailing wildly at nothing by its small wings. “Where is the Lord?”

“Aah!” the human face shouted while the bull and lion remained silent.

“Those always creeped me out if I'm being honest” Red said as Jim released the cherubim. “I mean...why do they even look like that? Seems a bit excessive.”