The global scourge of police killing Blacks

Police violence and racial profiling of young Black men in the United States have been highly publicised for decades. Urban rebellions in the United States are closely tied to or triggered by police violence. The high profiled and widely disseminated beating of Rodney King by officers of the Los Angeles Police Department in 1991 and the sexualised and physical violence against Abner Lumina in 1997 by a New York City police officer. Both cases of police brutality received expansive media coverage and have remained etched into the memories of many North Americans. And now with the prolific use of social media and access to global news channels the problem has been highlighted further.

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Ferguson: The Harvest Institute Perspective

For centuries, America has been a killing field for young Black men, especially, by White police officers. And in nearly every instance, courts and grand juries allow those who profile, beat, or kill young Black men to go unpunished. Why? Because Blacks’ unique historical experiences were codified in this nation’s revered founding documents. The Constitution of the United States and the Bill of Rights declare America a land of exceptionalism, the cradle of democracy and a nation that values immigrants. Blacks were exceptional too.

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The True Origin of Christmas

Where did Christmas originate? From the Bible or paganism? What is the real origin of Santa Claus—mistletoe—Christmas trees—holly wreaths—and the custom of exchanging gifts? Many are concerned about putting “Christ back into Christmas.” Was He ever there? Here are the stunning answers!
Every year after Thanksgiving, most people's thoughts turn to Christmas. It is the time when professing Christians are supposed to focus on Jesus Christ. After all, it is the “Christ-mass” season!

Christmas is thought by most to be a wonderful time, focusing the participants on giving, family togetherness, beautiful music and decorations, feasting on special foods and singing Christmas carols throughout the neighborhood (as my family did every year). All of this is supposedly centered around the worship of Christ. Surely the Bible instructs us to do all this—right?

The answers will shock you!

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'10 Days in Africa' Versus 3 Centuries in the Diaspora (Video)

I recently stumbled upon a documentary film, "10 Days In Africa," by filmmaker and S&A reader, Regi Allen, on the Black Public Media website. Since I've known the founder of this site, the subject of black identity and black depictions and representation in the media have often been topics of discussion, before, on and off this site. In touching on these topics, African-American cases are often cited, perhaps because we live in the West, and perhaps because the African-American image (whether in words or pictures) is probably the most widely disseminated and, more recently, commercially successful worldwide when it comes to the representation of blacks in the media.

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4 Bad Things I Did as a White Kid That Would Have Turned Out Differently If I Were Black

He was no angel." That’s the refrain, repeated for over two months on social media by defenders of Officer Darren Wilson, convinced that Michael Brown was little more than a violent and dangerous thug who deserved to die that August day in Ferguson.

From the beginning, Wilson’s supporters used Brown’s strong-arm theft of cigars from a local market as justification for what happened to him. “Thieves deserve their fate,” came the refrain from many a (mostly white) Facebook feed—this, from people who have never openly advocated death for, say, Wall Street bankers who stole a lot more than Swisher Sweets.

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The Big Takeaway from the Ferguson Ruling: White Supremacy Is Alive and Well

For days, large swaths of the U.S. and the globe waited to hear whether or not the grand jury would indict Office Darren Wilson. For a week, Missouri governor Jay Nixon had declared a state of emergency, calling out the National Guard to “maintain peace and protect those exercising their right to free speech.” Today, he repeated the same message. “Together we are all focused to make sure that the necessary resources are at hand to protect lives, to protect business and to protect free speech.”.>

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