You don’t know that to be the case. Again, that’s truly iggnant on your part.

You are completely missing the point here. All I can say is re-read (if you care to do so) everything I have said regarding this case. It does not matter what color these children are. As you pointed out the fact that these teacher are having sex with their students should be enough for any concerned person to get angry. My point here is that in cases like this 2+2 does not always equal 4. To conclude that racism was a factor in both the actions of these teachers and the type of sentence they recieved is just plain wrong-headed. I’m not ruling it out simply because the story is still somewhat new to the rest of the world, but the trend is not. I’ll give you another example: about a year or so ago in my area, a Black cop shot and killed a White/Hispanic motorist. When I first heard of this, racism was not the first thing that came to mind. As more of the facts came to the surface, it boiled down to bad training and execution on his part. I am the same way when I hear of stories when a Black person is the victim and a White cop has pulled the trigger. Much of it has more to do with bad training than someone who is out to get Black people. And thank God we live in a country where cops like that do get hammered by the law.

So if you want to march, please do (because this is just wrong–period and folks should get mad about it)! All I am saying here is look at all of the facts before automatically concluding that racism is the main contributor here. I assure you that this judge is just one of many who has given out light sentences to teachers like this for this type of crime.

Maybe these teachers assumed the same thing with these Black students. The fact is that regardless of the reasons, these children’s community should be outraged and they should picket and they should do whatever they can to protect and support the children within that community.

I remember a case where the local police were targeting Mexicans because they knew they had lots of cash on them. So when they got pulled over, because some were illegal immigrants, they would offer cash instead of being arrested. In this case, the Hispanic community stood up and was outraged and supported the victims. And they had every right. They were being racially profiled by Black police officers. My point is that their “community” stod up and was outraged. Their “community” was there for the victims and brought attention to the fact that they were wronged. That is what they were supposed to do. I don’t think anyone would say that this “community” was wrong for touting racism regardless of the facts. That is what your community should do. They should support their victims. Not to mention the fact that this case hasn’t gotten that much media attention and it is too new to know all the details. I wonder why did these two women target six Black children to violate? And also, regarding bail, they never should have received bail at all. They are SERIAL-RAPISTS AND CHILD MOLESTERS in positions of authority!!! This nationwide issue is not only racist, but also gender-biased. And sadly, it also shows a legal system that is lenient on those who violate children.

The fact is that if I am in that community and I feel that someone in my community has been wronged, then I should be outraged and do whatever I can to bring attention to the injustice.

……….I think I must say that I don’t agree with shading facts and making up lies, but if I feel that the issue was racist, then so be it, irregardless, I’m marching.

Back up for a minute. Witt was the only columnist (other than the the ones mentioned in the Paris news) that followed this case with detail. All other sources simply repeated what Whit had to say or reinforced the case you were already building. Also, when I did a Technorati search MOST of the Black blogs mentioned simply repeated Whitt’s article as I stated in this post.

Issue 2: ??? Perhaps this is being directed to someone else.

Issue 3: How do you square your assertion that you love your people with calling an effort to protect innocent black children from unjust imprisonment and abuse “a waste of energy”?

Never called it a waste of energy. This is where your bias and emotions on this case are clouding up the waters here.

Issue 4: Exactly who are these “iggnat negroes” who ignore everything but racism? If you’ve even briefly examined the websites of even the handful of folks I mentioned above, you’ll immediately see that they examine issues like “investing, international happenings, science, technology, literature” and more. If you take a moment to peruse their blogrolls, you’ll find even more black folks of like-mind.

If this is something I have to explain to you, then there is no need to waste either your time or mine. I brought up a case in one of these posts about a bunch of Black teens in Long Beach, CA who were found guilty of beating up 3 White girls for no other reason because they were White. All 3 girls were sent to the hospital and at least one had to get reconstructive surgery. These 9 kids were charged with a hate crime but were given a 60 day at home probation where they were still allowed to attend track practice. If you want more cases like this I will be more than glad to provide them for you. The fact of the matter is why you and yours want to raise total hell about INJUSTICE in America, I doubt very seriously that you even took the time to analysize cases like this when it is the other way around. I am all for gathering folks together when Black folks are the victims, but it makes you into a total hypocrite when you do not go the extreme when other AMERICANS are victimized.

Now the way I see it is twofold–Either you can completely avoid FULLY addressing and explaing why cases like this often get ignored by much of the blogosphere and our e-mail networks or you can put away the partisan crap and use your online resource to do things like raise up money for the homeless, develop ideas to help Black busineses where we can all contribute, organize folks to search for our missing kids, SHOW men how to be better fathers, etc. Wasting your time whining about Bush, Iraq, whatever does not do a thing for people like Shaquanda (who btw I am willing to bet that 1 year for now the black blogosphere will completely forget about her just like the woman who claimed she was raped by the Duke Lacrosse team).

The point behind this post was to bring out the fact that despite all of our whining and spittn’ fire about the “White establishment”, all it took was ONE of them to get Black folks organized, at attention and united for a purpose–NATIONWIDE. A Black man who needs volunteers to help tackle a problem in the hood, most of the Black blogosphere is blogging about how much they hate Bush. Whites only have power over us because we give it to them.

Post my response on your site and have P6 do the same (since he has somehow lost his ability to research). If y’all want to put something together to help kids like Shaquanda–let’s do it!

If you want to argue, go somwhere else. If you want to team up with a man who has a long history of helping folks like Shaquanda, I’m all ears…brotha!

UPDATE: Here is a start–Let’s find some of these single mothers out there who are having trouble to pay their bills this month. Here is a tool I found online that can be used to raise up some money for her and her kids. If you, P6 and other Black bloggers want to do something like this, I’m ready.

http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/

P.S. I like you “library page” btw.

MIB,

But in your viewpoint, they’re “iggnat” without 1 shred of evidence demonstrating their inferences as contrived, reactionary or unreasonable.

No, they are “iggnant” because these folks have concluded that this is a race issue without considering all the other factors that you mentioned—and you still defend it.

It’s a plausible explanation. Another is the courts may be biased in favor of women versus men charged with the same crime. The point being a rational person could arrive at the conclusion racial and/or gender bias affected the outcomes in question — which most people believe were unjust.

But in your viewpoint, they’re “iggnat” without 1 shred of evidence demonstrating their inferences as contrived, reactionary or unreasonable.

“You and your ilk will make this into an offense against Black America only because it was done by two White women.”

‘Me and my ilk’ see these cases as miscarriages of justice. Nothing more and nothing less. As such, they are offenses against all Americans that undermine our society.

“I don’t need a crystal ball to figure out that this would not have set off your intellectual radar if the teachers were Black.”

It’s obvious you don’t know my thinking or possess an ability to understand it.

“… funny how you are willing to accept the straw man of racism (as you described) without showing a willingness to look at the other factors.”

If you’d care to scroll back up through this thread and read for comprehension, I never wrote racism was the factor behind these decisions, nor implied as much. It’s one of several possible explanations of courts’ behavior. Whatever the explanations, they’re collateral to the issue these decisions are examples of judicial impropriety.

I’m not sure what you mean by my acceptance of the straw man of racism. In fact, I’m not sure you know what a straw man is. That may explain why you erect them so often.

Issue 2: You fail to explain why “building a house for a single mom with three kids”, while certainly worthwhile and important, is more important than releasing innocent black children from prisons staffed with sexual predators.

Issue 3: How do you square your assertion that you love your people with calling an effort to protect innocent black children from unjust imprisonment and abuse “a waste of energy”?

Issue 4: Exactly who are these “iggnat negroes” who ignore everything but racism? If you’ve even briefly examined the websites of even the handful of folks I mentioned above, you’ll immediately see that they examine issues like “investing, international happenings, science, technology, literature” and more. If you take a moment to peruse their blogrolls, you’ll find even more black folks of like-mind.

All of which leads me to my basic question: Exactly, who, and what, in the hell are you talking about?

Articles like this just play to people’s emotions. In this case it was written for black folk to get upset at the system and white folk. We as black folk are suppose to ask for the book to be throw at these ladies because they had sex with black boys. We are supposed to ask for a slap on the wrist for Cotton because she committed a felony. It doesn’t matter that the lady that she pushed was black but it does matter that a white girl was give probation for arson. Also remember that it doesn’t matter that the white girl took the same deal that was offer to Cotton and rejected.

It doesn’t take race for me to get upset at the fact that a teacher has been arrested for having sex with an 11 year old student. As a matter of fact I don’t even take into account the sex of the teacher or the student. In my mind it’s just as wrong and unlawful for a female to have sex with a student as a male teacher to have sex with a female student.

This article wants up to look at this case from a race angle rather than a right or wrong angle. You can take a look at the long list of female teachers that have has sex with male students and see that this is happening in our school systems across the nation. It’s not a race problem it’s a pervert problem. If a teacher is having sex with my daughter I don’t give a damn if it’s a Black, White or Hispanic teacher. I want the guy’s head on a stick regardless.

The sad thing is that in a lot of the other cases the women didn’t get real harsh sentences. So should these ladies get the slaps on the wrist like in the other case or should they get long sentences because the kids were black.

I would also be interested to know if there have been any other cases in that area in which male students have gotten caught having sex with female students or if there are cases in which female students have gotten caught with male students. I would like to see the sentences that were handed down in those cases. I would like to know if the “black community” was all up in arms about those cases even though they may not have involved black students!

Duane, the funny thing is that if it was two black teachers that were caught having sex with white female students, people would be writing letters and articles about how they are being mistreated and persecuted because they had sex with some white boys. They would be saying that we need to protest and write letters asking that the guys just get some “mental help” for the problem that they have.

I am not saying that cases lie there aren’t important because they are. I am saying that there is a bigger picture and it is that teachers are having sex with underage students. In my opinion there is no race angle to that crime. Throw the criminals (women and men) under the jails. It’s almost as cut and dry as that to me. I am also saying that we need to also concentrate on the black on black crime that is infecting mostly black neighborhoods across the nation.

My hometown is over 2/3 black. The police chief, mayor, judges, police officers, politicians, etc are all black. Most of the real crime that is plaguing the city is black on black crime. It’s black folk stealing from fellow black folk. It’s black kids killing black kids. It’s black students pushing black school officials. (I had to throw that one in there.)

When I was younger there was a park that wasn’t too far from my grandmother’s house. We couldn’t go to that park because they knew that it was where the neighborhood gang had their gang meeting. They knew that kids had gotten hurt and killed in that park before. They knew that it could not be safe. I cold remember my friends on the block going to the park to shoot hoops and I not being able to go. Now that I am older I appreciate all the things that my parents did for me as a child.

Sorry about the long rant Duane!

Racists do come in all colors.

Look at it this way, this post was the bait for a certain type and you took it. Now THAT’S entertaining!