"ROLLING STONE" AND "TIME." Give us a freakin' break. Go troll somebody else. Please

I thought I was done commenting on the events of the last 3 -4 months but I guess not. The following images of the Black community, especially Black women are not flattering. They do us no favor. It unfortunately re-inforces the myth of "Black women not needin' no man." It also shows that the "mainstream" watches and listens closely to what goes on in the Black community. I knew this day would come when I saw many of us embrace that damaging mindset. We forget that the mainstream watches us to see how all the -isms have taken hold in our communities, and in some areas, have usurped the traditional family unit. We are the nation's petri dish. Mainstream news revels in the visual of the weary, crying, uncared-for, Black, single-mother on the 11 o clock news as a representative of ALL households in the Black community. Not to say the woman does not exist. She does. It is that her sad image is joyously telegraphed out in colorful, huge graphics as de rigueur in the Black community. A community seen as fatherless (due to death or choice), rudderless, dangerous, and one that is to be pitied. It is the graphic served to the general public.

TIME's George Floyd issue 2020


Typical. We only make the cover of major magazines when we are seen as confirming a negative narrative or are "misbehaving" or are dead. Otherwise, it is crickets from these publications. I do not find it flattering, not one bit, that corporations like these are donating money to Black causes, or are "examining" our issues more, or posting black squares on any given Tuesday. Same for the toppling of Confederate statues and the re-naming of this, that and a third.

WHO THE FRIG CARES? ACTION IS THE ANSWER. I'M NOT IMPRESSED BY SYMBOLISM!

TIME's July issue 2020


The felling of a rebel's statue or the removal of the name of a son of the South from a building means, as my venerated grandfather would have said, "diddly squat!" It does not remedy, or address the Black community's deeper problems. And NO! It's deeper problem is NOT Black-on-Black crime. The crime is a SYMPTOM of a much larger issue. but critics aren't able to grasp that. No. Critics love to toss out that old talking point and how nothing we say about police brutality can be taken seriously until the crime in our neighborhoods is fixed. WHY? Funny how that sentiment is NOT expressed when the issue of the huge amount of opioid addicts in White communities comes up. NO ONE is discussing withholding counseling, rehab or funds from them  if they FIRST don't confront their mess. Nope. Mr. and Ms. John Q. Municipal Center/Suburbs are allowed to fail again and again without conditions.

BUT US? NO WAY. WE MUST BE PERFECT!

So, no, ROLLING STONE. No, TIME. You do not have your finger on the pulse of Black people in America. Your finger is on the cash register and you do KNOW who your reader is, don't cha?

ROLLING STONE July 2020