“Shem Walker? Who the heck is Shem Walker?”

That was the response a friend had when I brought up the name of the recently murdered Brooklynite. I will admit that I would have LOVED to stand on my higher-than-thou step stool and wag my finger at him; I’d love to point out his blatant ignorance of such horrendous cases of police brutality in Black America. (We’re Black, we’re supposed to just feel police bruality, like a spider-sense, but with more drum and bass.) Truth be told, I had a similar reaction a mere twenty-four hours earlier. I was enlightened by the story of Shem Walker on a brunch outing with a group I affectionately refer to as the ”Black Justice League” (Batman/Wonder Woman-type justice, not MLK/Malcolm X-type justice). Little did I know that this innocent jovial outing would actually point out an injustice that I was sincerely unaware of.

I was struck when my friend was so dumbfounded by the name Shem Walker. Had I asked him about Dr. Henry Louis Gates he would have been quite familiar with HIM and all aspects of that incident, right down to the 911 call placed by a white woman, who did not mention race. Every known media outlet in America covered the allegedly biased arrest of the noted scholar and the following hailstorm of controversy that resulted. (Perhaps it was all a product of a little bit of Harvard lawyering, a little bit of presidential commentary, and a little bit of post-racial America’s slip showing.) The murder of a man on the stoop of his own home by a police officer seems to have had the same impact as Americans calling for health-care reform. Meaning none. No impact whatsoever. Congress will go on vacation and people will continue not knowing the name Shem Walker. Unlike the Gates case, it seems that the facts here are fairly clear.

An undercover police officer sat on Walker’s family stoop and so Walker requested the trespasser leave. The officer, who had headphones on, did not hear the request. Walker then went to remove the undercover officer from his stoop by force and a fight ensued. After yelling “freeze” Walker was then shot and killed.(A nearby police officer claims the undercover officer said “Police. Freeze.” Yes, there was a nearby officer and with this officer nearby the undercover officer still pulled a gun.)

End Scene.

Walker was described various ways: handyman, ex-con, dude on probation for drug charges, and an American veteran. In all honesty, it doesn’t matter if he was fresh out of jail for murder. Keeping somone off of your family’s stoop isn’t wrong. A man is now DEAD because of trying to keep his portion of the neighborhood clear of hoodlums and drug dealers.

Ironic really. The officer was posed as a drug dealer and he was treated like one.

Shem Walker, now dead due to excessive force (Yes, EXCESSIVE. Walker didn’t pull a gun or a knife), and yet the news preferred a “shot from the hip” comment from our president about Gates as opposed to a “shot dead on his front stoop” story, giving yet another example of a Black man’s life being thrown away in a heartbeat. We’re so past race that a comment about race saturated the media for days. An unnecessary loss of life on the streets of Brooklyn barely raised a blip on the radar.

Hey CNN? MSNBC? FOX News? (I apologize. Me mentioning Fox implies that they are an actual news source. That was a regretable implication.) Where’s my endless coverage of this? Why don’t I know every aspect of every detail? Why haven’t the neighbors who live seventeen doors down been on CNN to explain their minimal connection to this event? Why do I sound like a Jadakiss song? These are all questions that should be answered.

But they won’t be. If not for a few voices speaking up (shoutout to Ta-Nehisi Coates), I probably wouldn’t have heard about it. My hope is not to be a wall for this to bounce off of. I pass it to you. What will YOU do?

Perhaps it’s just us, because we’re constantly “Blacking It Up” we noticed an abnormal amount of Blackness on the NY Times website this morning. The Monday after what some thought would be the end of Gates Gate his name is all over the place. Check out these articles to start your week off covered in Post-Racial goodness.

A Presidential Pitfall: Speaking One’s Mind

Meet the New Elite, Not Like the Old

2 Cambridge Worlds Collide in an Unlikely Meeting

So in an attempt to gear up for CNN’s Latino In America in October, I decided to go out for a Mexican lunch (Yes, Soledad O’brien WAS narrating my waitress’s day. How’d you know?)  As I grabbed my second sangria my Blackberry exploded due to questions and commentary about the Presidents comments on his own comments regarding Henry Louis Gates. I came home, I watched it and I wasn’t sure what to think.

He never said “Sorry” but rather said “Calibrate“. I imagined in an alternate universe, where some white dude, with a love of hats is doing “This Week in Whiteness” this was probably the moment where he was getting really close to the camera and mocking Obama over his terminology. Damn you alternate universe me!

I don’t think Obama apologized. I don’t think he needed to. I also don’t believe Henry Louis Gates to be Rosa Parks (Sorry Michael Eric Dyson, seriously. That was a dumbass thing to say.) but I did a little poll with TWITTER asking what they thought of Obama’s response to everyone ELSE’s response to himself.  The poll numbers are like so.

I do want to mention a few things. First off, Re: “Black Cops speaking out against Obama.” The Cops speaking out have every right to but we all have to remind ourselves that they are COPS. COPS are close. Just because the Black Cops are sticking up for the officer involved, it DOES NOT mean he didn’t overreact. It means that these Cops play for their own team.

I have a terrible fear people. I’m scared that this is going to be the new example used anytime racial profiling is brought up. Anytime someone makes the claim, people are going to respond “Oh, yeah? Just like Skip Gates right? When they said a guy WHO TEACHES ABOUT RACIAL PROFILING right? Yeah Negroes, why don’t you fall back.”

I even found myself overstating the race aspect of the ACTUAL arrest. I appeared on CNN.COM and stated similarly that this was OBVIOUSLY a case of racial profiling. I need to clarify: It was obviously racial profiling that the White lady called the cops on the Black dudes trying to get in the house in the middle of the day. She could have said “Um, hey guys, whats up?” Its not like they were in the middle of the ‘hood, where speaking to your neighbors can get you shot.

But she didn’t.

She assumed it was a break in. I’m sorry, but I don’t believe that if 2 white guys, one of which was 5’7, graying hair with a cane, was trying to get into the house cops would have been called.

But I’ve listened to Gates. I’ve listened to the Cops. Read accounts from both sides. Gates was pissed. As I would have been. Freaked out. Cop didn’t like being freaked out on, and then responded with  ”Lets see you freak like this in Jail, bitch.” That’s what seems to happen from BOTH accounts. So is Henry Louis Gates the new Rosa? Hell no. Hell to the DOUBLE hell no.

But this incident doesn’t mean that Blacks aren’t racially profiled DAILY. It just means Gates wasn’t. The issue is just as important as ever. Obama should speak on it and I appreciate it. I also realize that he can’t fight these fights. Its up to folks like us to deal with this. Bogging Obama down with this just hurts everything. Healthcare is getting shot in the face as if it went hunting with Cheney.

I Love Post-Racial America. Don’t you?

Here at “This Week in Blackness” we get a lot of submissions which we should do way more with. This particular one we thought had such an interesting concept that we felt we’d like to share it with our readers. My (Elon’s) own take on this subject has been covered ad nauseum via Twitter & will be featured on the next TWiB! but Blackness has multiple lines of thought. Read &  please let us know what YOU think. - ejw

Note to the reader: Dr. Henry Louis Gates has reach and influence in the academy, and that reach can–and has–severely damage careers. A pseudonym, in this case, is essential.

Notes from a Phantom Negro.

The Ivy League is not real life. College in general is not real life, and the Ivy League is a more fantastic version of college. The amenities are better, the rules are flexible and everyone, student and faculty alike, is well aware that the realities of life as most people know it are merely a peculiar footnote to the day to day of campus life. I do not speak out of turn when I say this. I know because I am in and of that world.

As a Black Ivy Leaguer, something funny happens as you become ensconced in ivy. You’re smart enough to understand that race and racism is a reality, you deal with on a daily basis, but you also know that your university ID sets you apart. Does this mean you are kept from hurtful incidents? No, but it is to say that much of the outrage felt at a racial slight is replaced by outrage at a class slight. Sure; we get pissed, knowing we’re getting hassled because we’re Black, but the real indignation comes from being hassled as members of an elite group. How dare you hassle me? I go to school here. I got to work here. That second part of the thought is always present. I go to school here. I go to work here. When the Ivy League Effect is going full tilt, our Black compass gets confused;the realities we know to exist become other peoples’ problems.

True story: One night, years ago, many of the Black students at school were throwing a party in a dormitory common area when three police officers arrived, flashlights searching the crowd. Nobody moved, nobody left, nobody did anything but keep dancing as three police officers walked through the crowd, flashlights in faces. I didn’t run either. In fact, I wondered if they were chasing someone on foot and wondered if they’d run into the party.

That could only happen in the Ivy League. Three cops come into a party and nobody, surreptitiously or otherwise, made for an exit? It seems like the beginning of a joke. On one hand, you could argue that this is a sign of progress; a sign that we’ve moved past the days of fearing police presence. I say that quasi-luxury is brought on by the muscle backing these students (and, by extension, the faculty)–the school. All the lessons about dealing with police as a Black person seem to have no place in the Ivory Tower. We can forget those lessons because, more than we’re Black in America, we’re Ivy Leaguers.

Which brings me to Skip Gates. He isn’t outraged because he feels he was the victim of racial profiling by the police (that dubious honor goes to his foolish neighbor). He’s outraged because he was the victim of class profiling. He didn’t resent being identitified as Black; he resented being identified as that kind of Black, the kind of Black that can be hassled and pushed around by simpleton cops. How dare you hassle me? I’m Skip Gates: Harvard professor!

Skip has fallen victim to the Ivy League Effect. Check out his articles–you can definitely go to The Root–the website he is Editor-in-Chief of–if you want to see a repository for the whole masturbatory display. He all but says, “Do I look like that type of (Black) person? I was wearing a blazer and a polo shirt!” Gates is Ivy League pissed with a dash of Black anger. Not the other way around. Is this to say the police weren’t in the wrong? Hardly. As a person is familiar with the Cambridge/Boston PD, the prospect of some procedural malfeasance on their part is entirely believable if not an abject certainty.

But I’m also sure, the good doctor was talking some shit. The Ivy League Effect, when it’s potent, wouldn’t allow otherwise. It made Gates forget that, no matter what, even when you’re right, you don’t talk shit to the police. And that’s not a matter of manhood or pride; it’s a question of survival. Why? Because you’re Black before you’re a Harvard professor. Because, in an extreme case, you can’t tell your side of the story if you get shot reaching for your ID. As a Black man and a Harvard professor, Gates’ thought process should have been: “Wow. I am so thoroughly pissed right now. When this current situation is resolved and am out of harm’s way, I’m going down to the station and I’m going to use my considerable influence to make heads roll. But right now, I need to be the smart one, remember all the details and not give him any reason to escalate this situation.” That’s what any of my fellow colleagues have done, guns drawn on them at night in the middle of campus by the police. They didn’t get loud; they got smart. They diffused the situation, then got pissed and did something about it. And I assure you, they did so with much less juice than Dr. Gates.

I remember when I heard about the story, I couldn’t help but think: Wow, that Ivy League Effect has washed out his healthy fear of the police. Yikes.

Can he be outraged? ABSOLUTELY. The circumstance should outrage any person that happened to. But why is he outraged? Because he didn’t think the Black Tax applied to him anymore. In his mind, he was Skip Gates, well-regarded Harvard professor who was being treated poorly in his home by the police. Believe me, if this took place at North Carolina State his sense of indignation would be far different and his ability to garner attention would be much less. And if he was just a working-class stiff? Forget it.

But this didn’t happen anywhere else. It happened in Cambridge on Ivy turf and now, his story has taken on Paul Bunyon-esque qualities. If you didn’t know better, you’d think a lynch mob was waiting outside Gates’ door with the rope and the hitching wagon before Ving Rhames came along and saved the day.

Skip Gates thought that he’d worked hard enough, achieved enough, become Harvard enough that this sort of treatment did not apply to him. And now, rather than channel that outrage in a such a way that is subtle but effective, he’s very publicly suffering the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, having ‘joined the ranks of the million incarcerated Black men in America.’ That’s laughable. He does not see those million men as kin and he doesn’t, by and large, give a damn about those guys. He’s merely annoyed that such an annoyance as police misconduct found its way into his home. If he read about this story happening to a plumber in Roxbury, he’d shake his head in disappointment and then go on with his life.

So before we heed the call of racism, let’s be mindful of the tower from which that call came. This has something to do with race. But it as a lot more to do with messing with Skip Gates.

The Ivy League Effect, people. The Ivy League Effect.

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The Brooklyn Comedy Company Proudly Presents the 4th Episode of season 2 of This Week in Blackness. In the latest episode host Elon James White talks about the past few weeks in post-racial America.Elon has a lot of ‘Splainin to do.”

I started performing stand-up comedy around 2004. I had been working in corporate America for a few years and I hated everything about it. I didn’t hate it because it was soooo racist (I worked in what was affectionately referred to as the “I.T. Ghetto” at a primarily black company in Brooklyn, so race wasn’t a problem . . . well . . . depends on what you see as a problem), I hated it because I had always wanted a more creative outlet. When I first stepped onstage, I felt like I had come home.

Funny enough, when I stepped OFFstage, people would question me as if I just admitted to signing off on CIA kill squads that were never approved by Congress. I’d hear comments like:

“Where are you from?
“You said you’re from Brooklyn. You can’t be from Brooklyn.”
“I’ve never heard a Black guy sound like that.”
“Negro, you ain’t Black!”

I didn’t really talk about being Black onstage. I would tell amusing (or so I thought) anecdotes about my family and other vanilla (no pun intended) subjects. But my demeanor and speech pattern caused people to pause. They kept waiting for me to acknowledge that I was, IN FACT, Black and yet I wasn’t falling into the acceptable Black mold.

The first joke I ever wrote to acknowledge this was: “Greetings and salutations, one and all. My name is Elon James White and I know exactly what you’re thinking. You’re currently looking at a large Black man and yet you don’t ‘HEAR’ one. Some of you may be asking: ‘What type of sorcery IS this?’ “

And laughter ensued. The laughter wasn’t because that was SO funny. They laughed because I let the audience know, that I KNOW, that I’m not the “Right Type” of Black. That put them at ease.

Since then I’ve taken on the concept of Black head on. I joke, I make videos, I write, I tweet. I am constantly Blacking it up. And you know what? I have moments when I look at my body of work and wonder to myself: Should I really keep tackling this “Black” thing? Should I lay off it?

Then the past 2 weeks occurred.

It started with my *cough* White girlfriend’s parents acknowledging that I’m not what they want for their daughter. This was something they had decided upon hearing of my Negro coloring a long time ago, but felt the need to let it be known again Independence weekend.(Happy 4th!). Then I get 1000 tweets about the Valley Swim Club turning away a group of young Black kids because they might change the “complexion and atmosphere” of the club. Next, I sit through four days of Supreme Court judge confirmation hearings that may have been one of the most racist government-sanctioned events I’ve witnessed in my life. This was followed up by a segment on CNN on segregated proms, and then watching Pat Buchanan freak out about the rights of White males.

As a Black man/minority/not a White male, I find Pat Buchanan’s rant outrageous. Forget the ludicrous claim that “White people built America and deserve more” because thats so idiotic and laughable its not even worth my energy. To imply that affirmative action is somehow ridiculous is to suggest that the socioeconomic ripples of slavery and discrimination are absolutely moot. This breaks down to saying what America did to a people–My People, mind you–should be forgotten.That racism is now “fixed” and that any further discussion is simply bellyaching. Taking responsibility is one thing. Claiming that real issues are pure nonsense is another. [

I watched Sen. Lindsey Graham and Sen. Jeff Sessions pat America on the back because of the Supreme Court’s ruling on the Ricci vs. destefano case. White males are now getting promotions, so the American justice system should be applauded. How many minorities have been ignored? Currently there’s a young man, Eric Frimpong, from Ghana sitting in prison because a White girl, who was dangerously intoxicated and can’t remember what happened, claims he raped her. None of his DNA was found on her, but her White boyfriend’s was. Her boyfriend has not been considered a suspect. The Black guy OBVIOUSLY did it.

That seems really justice-y.

To praise America for the firefighter case is offensive. I’m not arguing whether it was right or wrong (although John Payton of the NAACP Legal Defense fund makes some clear arguments why the case isn’t so cut and dry), I’m arguing that there are more pressing issues that have gone through our system and have been ignored.

I understand that the confirmation hearings are not really confirmation hearings, but a showcase for the Republican party to clarify where they stand on the issues, but as a Black man, it struck a chord in my soul. It created an “Us vs. Them” environment. If that was the GOAL, then kudos, job well done.

So here I am. I’m Blacking it up even NOW. I have the appearance of a angry, fist-pumping, screaming, militant Negro. Please note: I am NOT an angry, fist-pumping, screaming, militant Negro. I’m not sitting here with my big afro thinking about how I’m going to take down the White man. I am an Average Black Person. I would much rather play my Xbox 360 and watch reruns of Scrubs (yes, I said it). I would much rather argue why Batman can, in fact, take down ANYBODY. I don’t want to rant and rail against the system and the perceptions of Blacks: I’m FORCED to. Why? Because I’m not deaf, dumb, and blind. If I had those three ailments perhaps I wouldn’t be able to tell how NOT post-racial America actually is.

That’s not true. I’d probably still feel it.

Listen to the interview HERE

H/T to Allison Kilkenny for letting us know about this.

Jan states that the pool was very crowded on the day of the incident. I’ve read a few places that the capacity of the pool was for about 45 people. This? Is a completely reasonable reason to have to renegotiate the terms of an agreement of using the pool. Perhaps the management didn’t understand that there as that many kids involved. Perhaps there was a miscommunication.

So can someone please explain to me the statement from Valley Swim Club President John Duesler?

According to the same interview the children were incredibly well behaved. There wasn’t any incident of crazy mccrazed crazy kids doing crazy things that would scare anyone. Why on earth if it was simply an overcrowding issue would you release a statement that the Clubs concern was “the children changing the complexion and atmosphere of the pool”?

People, of course, want to say that Black folk over react. We call racism first, ask questions later. This isn’t one of those times. Sometimes its simply reading words on a screen.

We covered it earlier but felt like we had no choice but to drop a video to make sure the word gets spread around.  Get the word out people!

I won’t lie to you folks. I’m sort of in shock.

“More than 60 campers from Northeast Philadelphia were turned away from a private swim club and left to wonder if their race was the reason.

“I heard this lady, she was like, ‘Uh, what are all these black kids doing here?’ She’s like, ‘I’m scared they might do something to my child,’” said camper Dymire Baylor

…”There was concern that a lot of kids would change the complexion … and the atmosphere of the club,” John Duesler, President of The Valley Swim Club said in a statement.”

Um, I’m sorry what?

I can’t possibly imagine this story is being reported accurately. Not because I believe that this type of thought can’t possibly exist or that this sort of racism has gone the way of the DoDo, but why would you think you could say this out loud? Lets say you HATED young Negroes in your pool being all, Negro-ey singing their Ship-Shop, Rock Flop, Blip Bop music – why would you think that it would be reasonable to possibly ever say it?

Could John Duesler have thought the best terminolgy for this situation would be “change the complexion?” I can’t believe I’m writing about this. I was born ’78. I’m not supposed to write about White’s only pools. I’m supposed to write about the subtle racsim one finds in corporate America or perhaps while being followed in a department store.

I’ve never wished someone peed in a pool more than right now. Please, oh PLEASE let one of those young Black kids have had the quick thought “Are you kicking me out of this pool because I’m black? R. KELLY TIME.”

Un-Eff’ing acceptable.

Source: NBC Philadelphia

Yes, we here at TWiB have been quiet concerning the death of Michael Jackson(besides our…ahem…very vocal take of BET’s coverage)  but an interesting article was written by  Princeton Professor, Ware Lecturer and Friend of the show Dr. Melissa Harris-Lacewell over at The Nation.

The death and remembrance of Michael Jackson has been an interesting window into American culture, its relentless cable news cycle, and the overwhelming but false sense of intimacy our celebrity culture engenders. But for me it was the peek into African American culture that was most intriguing.

Within a week of Jackson’s death I watched the avatars on my twitter feed turn from Iran-solidarity green to iconic photographs of Michael Jackson. But the photos were exclusively of “black” Michael Jackson: some from his childhood, some from the Off The Wall era, and many from the Thriller era. Few of my African American tweeps were visually remembering the Michael Jackson of the past decade with diminished features and whitened skin.

Read the rest here.

In Episode 3 of the 2nd Season of “This Week in Blackness” Brooklyn Comedy Company’s Elon James White discusses the Sarah Palin’s sudden departure from politics and a possible new Black charismatic GOP Presidential hopeful

If you were paying any attention to our Live Blog you realize that we here at “TWiB!” We’rent exactly in love with the 2009 BET Awards. Well, if anything can get Elon off his ass to shoot another episode it would HAVE to be this. The Brooklyn Comedy Company is proud to present episode 2 of season 2 of “This Week in Blackness.” Enjoy.