Dunbar Village All Over Again

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I saw this post over at Black Women Vote blog! A 20 year old (just starting her life, okay?!) gets ambushed and dragged into her home. The man proceeded to rape her, despite her cries for help.

To make matters worse, the neighbors all hear her cries and don't lift a finger --not even to call the police. The rapist, realizing that nobody's coming to her aid, calls up his buddies to come join him in raping the poor girl!

To add to the injury AND the insult, these shameless neighbors BOLDLY admit to this to the reporters!

Where do I begin?

GUARDING THE EYES

One of the harshest thing about being sexually immoral, is that the world can basically leave you alone once you've gone down that rabbit hole. The person who succumbs to immoral sexual behavior -according to the sages- creates their own demon, their own problems, and no one needs to make matters worse for them. It just happens.

I think that may be one of the problems that the media is infusing in the BC. So much BET, so much MTV, so much imagery of over sexualized acts, behaviors, images. Its wreaking havock in the minds of the viewers. What are people who view these things -people who actually grow up on it- what do they become?

Can anyone tell the BC to turn off their TV? I mean unless it becomes BC friendly, or at least BW friendly, which most can attest to -IT IS NOT- why burden oneself with it? And for what? to get yet another survey or study of how bad things are? To see yet another sister, mother, cousin, daughter girating to some music? These only create lust in a person.

"Rabbi Elazar Hakapar said, Three things take a man out of the world: jealousy, lust and the desire for honor" "(Pirkei Avot 4:28).



When someone has any of these traits, they are seeing the world in a skewed way. Thus, they are not in reality.

Granted, when times are tough, its a great babysitter. But try a computer (if the kids are so little that they'll sit to watch the program you give them) try watch-movie.net, something other than BET, MTV, etc.

Guarding one's eyes also has another benefit that can get lost if not attended to -the loss of the imagination.

The ability to fantasize about a great BW heroine who can save the day...

The ability to fantasize about a BM who's an undercover agent

The ability to fantasize about another world entirely -perhaps made up of black folks with quirks or something.

The ability to just step out of reality, and stretch the mind for when one returns back to reality.

When I read stories about Black folks, its usually factual. I miss the old rap. The old funny, made up stories that used to be said in those music. I want the black imagination back.

VICTIM AVERSION

Nobody likes to be the victim. And sometimes it seems that when a BW is being gang raped and nobody heeds her cries, I wonder if its an attempt to distance oneself from the "mirror". That eerie realization that 'that could be me'ness. I wonder if the neighbors cutting themselves off from feeling anything for that poor girl is an attempt to not feel like a victim themselves?

But the reality is that that could have been anyone of them! This reality must be faced and fought. The only problem is it requires imagination to develop a solution to fight this -something that is slowly being taken away.

By infusing the black media with so much sexualized imagery, so, so much damage is being done.

THE SHAMELESS NEIGHBORS

Now for this, I really don't know what to think, what to say, nor what to do! That is simply a slipping away of humanity. Something very basic is missing there. God help those neighbors.

Open Letter

We sincerely hope that this post can be the last Open Letter that criticizes the involvement of the NAACP and Al Sharpton in the Dunbar Village case.

Although we are not satisfied with the official conduct of the NAACP in the past few weeks, we acknowledge that the finite goals that we originally set for this campaign have been completed.

We will continue to offer our support to the victims of this crime, and would like to thank the prosecutor in this case for exercising a high degree of discretion.


Synopsis

New readers: this post is the conclusion of a protest in which thousands of African Americans from various walks of life condemned the recent actions of both the NAACP and the National Action Network in a criminal case known as the Dunbar Village Atrocity. Read details of the crime here.


Statement


We are satisfied that the NAACP will cease to use it�s power of advocacy to demand that the suspects in the Dunbar Village Atrocity case be given the opportunity to be released on bail.

We are satisfied that a long overdue show of official support for the Dunbar Village victims has been made, or is under way.

We are somewhat satisfied with the apology that was given for the public declaration that the Dunbar Village Atrocity and the Boca Raton rape case are comparable; however, it is not lost on us that the apology was done privately, and not delivered by the National office with the same level of conviction in which the original statement was made.

We condemn the NAACP�s failed attempt to obfuscate the truth concerning their participation in the press conference dated 03/11/2008.

The absurdity of their attempt to deny such easily verifiable facts caused real damage to the credibility of their establishment. Our community needs to be able to trust the integrity and veracity of any organization that purports to advocate for it, therefore, we challenge the NAACP to be honest enough to admit their mistakes in the future, even the big ones.


Conclusion

We have done our very best to be people of integrity concerning this matter, by thoroughly researching the facts before mounting this campaign.

Our wish is to be to be able to work together with justice organizations to right the wrongs inflicted on people of color, by not only enforcing standards of prosecution, but also by raising the standard of ethical conduct of all people involved.

While our demands have been met in this case, we are not convinced that either agency has taken the appropriate steps to ensure that tragic decisions like the press conference in support of the torture suspects will not be made again in the future.

We urge the NAACP and the National Action Network to interpret this protest as a golden opportunity for critical self reflection, as a new line of dialogue, and as a chance to move into better alignment with the will of the very people that they exist to serve.


The Dunbar Village Victim Assistance Fund

Individuals who would like to donate money to the victims can go to any Wachovia Bank and donate to the St. Ann�s Victim�s Assistance Fund. Donations will go directly to the mother and her son.

St. Ann�s Catholic Church will also accept donations. Checks can be made payable to the "Dunbar Village Victim Assistance Fund - St. Ann�s".

Donations can be mailed to: St. Ann�s Catholic Church, 310 N. Olive Avenue, West Palm Beach, FL 33401



For more information about this Dunbar Village Campaign, you can visit any of the following blogs:

http://www.dunbarvillage.blogspot.com/
http://adifferentstory.wordpress.com/
http://anonymissblog.blogspot.com/
http://auntjemimasrevenge.blogspot.com/
http://blackfirewhitefire.blogspot.com/
http://blackwomenvote.blogspot.com/
http://charactercorner.blogspot.com/
http://electronicvillage.blogspot.com/
http://episcopalienne.blogspot.com/
http://essentialpresence.blogspot.com/
http://focusedpurpose.blogspot.com/
http://h-essays.blogspot.com/
http://lareinacobre.blogspot.com/
http://mynewblog-ravenelvenlady.blogspot.com/
http://politicalseason.blogspot.com/
http://privyconcepts.blogspot.com/
http://thesowingcircle.blogspot.com/
http://tributetoblackwomen.com/news
http://web.mac.com/roslynholcomb/iWeb/Site/Blog/Blog.html
http://whataboutourdaughters.com/
http://whattamisaid.blogspot.com/
http://www.blacksapience.blogspot.com/
http://yanmommasaid.blogspot.com/
http://www.somethingwithin.com/blog