Boy I tell ya’, the formula to get my people riled up enough to organize has been in full effect mode this week. The formula is quite simple: look for stories that highlight a crime committed by Whites towards Blacks and “presto”! You have a story that practically regenerates itself (psssst! And you can even leave out key facts–but that is just between you and me 
). Such is the case with the Shaquanda Cotton issue where many of my fellow Black bloggers all over the net are in the midst of high fivin’ themselves believing that they have made Internet history by replicating a very fragmented story written by one White man (Howard Whit). What was especially disappointing to me was that when you do a Technorati search under this issue, a large percentage of the blog postings simply replicated Whit’s article without providing any critical analysis. The posting is typically followed with a “Free Shaquanda Cotton” line followed by a series of exclamation points.
In the back of my mind, I keep having this image of an ecstatic Whit who must feel like he is on the top of the world because he has been able to create online buzz off of shoddy reporting with very few people willing to grill him on the facts. Our willing ignorance and over-extended emotionalism has once again profited mainstream media. We do all the marching and protesting while they just count money from their advertisers.
While I love my people dearly, sometimes I just sigh and say to myself “We can do better than this, y’all”. When the happenings on Wall Street is discussed on a daily basis, very few (if any) folks within the Black blogosphere will discuss it. Same goes for issues like investing, international happenings, science, technology or literature (again, I encourage you to do a Technorati search to see how often Black blogs are listed under any of these subjects). However, when it comes to anything about racism, all of a sudden online petitions are formed, meetings are organized, mass e-mails are composed and protests are arranged. When WE get angry, newspapers, magazines and websites not owned by us profit.
What if we could channel all of this wasted energy that doesn’t profit us one bit to better use? Imagine getting a chain e-mail where the goal is to raise money to build a house for a single mom with 3 kids? What if all the people that took part in the Cotton blogfest contributed $1 to get one homeless person permanently off the street? Naaaah! Let’s just continue to exert our energy, creativity and time to benefit the career of one columnist who apparently doesn’t think much of his readers to include all the facts.
Once again, mainstream media is hooking its bait and dropping it in the pool of Black emotionalism with this following story:
CLINTON, S.C. (AP) — The arrest of two women teachers on charges of having sex with their male students has brought cries of lingering racism in one of South Carolina’s most conservative counties and evoked some of the South’s oldest and deepest-seated racial taboos.
Both women are white. The boys  six in all  are black.
Some of the blacks who make up more than a quarter of Laurens County’s 70,000 residents are upset over the handling of the two cases, particularly the release of the teachers on bail.
They say the cases reflect the way crimes by whites against blacks in the segregated South were treated less seriously than other offenses, and blacks who leveled accusations against whites were less likely to be believed.
“If this had been black teachers, they would not be out of jail right now,” said Corinnie Young, a 49-year-old bookstore employee who is black. (more…)
The last statement shows an ignorance to the White teacher/White student trend that shows in most cases the teacher is given only light sentences regardless. Here is a huge list that proves that point. What made this story juicy enough to be replicated all throughout the country was its racial angle and the fact that it took place in the south. Don’t be surprised if a mini “No justice, No Peace” protest is formulated as a result of this issue. Within a matter of minutes I was able to produce this list of White teachers who have committed similar acts while getting light sentences. You would think that AP would include that information in the article to dispel the racism myth in this story. Naaaah! They just want to see how many Negroes that can rile up for yet another story.
Cha-ching!
(just added)
This whole thing reminds me how a matador (in this case, a columnist) gets all the praise for his ability to provoke a bull while this bull exerts all of his energy to his own demise.
I still love my people 
.
Related:
More on the Shaquanda Cotton issue
Shaquanda Cotton – Side one/Side two
Sphere: Related Content
March 29th, 2007 at 7:15 am
Duane,
You are right on point about this SC story. Over the past several years there have been several stories concerning female teachers that have had sex with male students. They have been carried by all of the major news media and I have seen people speak up for both the teachers and the students. I found it disturbing regardless of what the race of the teacher or student was. I don’t care if it’s a Hispanic teacher and a student from New Zealand It’s wrong, but now all of a sudden “black folk†are suppose to care. I cared when I saw that white female teachers were having sex with white male students. I cared when in my local hometown a male teacher was fired for having sex with a female student.
One when the race angle can be applied to stories do major black media outlets start to carry the story. How many “black leaders†spoke out about Debra LaFave? How many spoke out about Mary Kay Letourneau when she eventually married and had kids by the guy she was having sex with.
If men are getting several years behind prison for having sex with female students then the same should go for women. Women’s rights organizations are always talking about equality so if a man gets 10 years, then a woman should get 10 years. There is a huge double standard when men are “raped†by female teachers and I think that this case will bring a lot of attention to this double standard.
March 29th, 2007 at 7:25 pm
Within a matter of minutes I was able to produce this list of White teachers who have committed similar acts while getting light sentences.
I think you missed the question being asked: would the same light sentence have been given a Black teacher if they were caught having sex with a white student.
Answer: man abusing girl? Harsh sentence.
Pretty woman abusing boy? Light sentence.
Ugly woman abusing boy? Harder sentence.
March 29th, 2007 at 9:45 pm
Well Darkstar there hasn’t been a sentence yet, but there has been bail. I don’t think that $125K and $110K is a light at all. Then they have to wear tracking devices.
This case is getting plenty of media attention so I don’t think that these ladies will get off with a slap on the wrist. Well I thought that same thing in some of those other teacher student sex cases but I was wrong there too.
I wonder if this will bring more attention to the bigger problem of teachers (male and female) having sex with students?
March 30th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
LLR, the defendants in the South Carolina case were offered an extremely lenient bail given the seriousness of the felonies with which they’ve been charged. I find it difficult to explain away the defendants’ race and gender as non-factors in the courts’ decision. In fact, I think to dismiss the reaction of Laurens County’s Af-Am community as neurotic is intellectually dishonest.
Neither do I believe the cases in Laurens County, SC or Paris, TX to be examples of race baiting by the media. What I do find… er… disappointing is an attitude as reflected by you and Duane that minimizes racism as a boogeyman and denies its form and pervasiveness. If either of you are that determined to fish for “iggnat negroes”, the best catch is looking you in the mirror.
March 30th, 2007 at 1:59 pm
MIB,
In the SC case I want the women to get harsh sentences. Not because of the race angle but because of the fact that teachers have no business having sex with minor students. It’s that cut and dry to me. There is no need to say that the teachers or the students were black or white. I am saying that the bigger picture is female teachers having sex with male students.
I don’t care what the race of the teacher is I don’t like the idea of a teacher having sex with a minor. I am sure this kind of stuff is going on all over the nation. The 37 year old MARRIED woman has some serious problems if she is even attracted to an 11 year old kid. She may even have children this kid’s age and she is having sex with them. The 24 year old lady is just a teacher ho. Both of the women should be thrown under the jail.
As far as the Paris Texas case goes I think that the up to 7 years sentence is too harsh. The girl admits to the crime so she needs to be punished. I think that she should have gotten probation. She was offered probation but they turned it down. Wasn’t she offered the same plea that the other 14 year old they reference took? Wouldn’t she have gotten the same 2 years of probation if she had pleaded guilty to the misdemeanor (like the white girl they reference)?
Who failed her? Did her mother and/or lawyer fail her because they didn’t take the deal? Should she have just gotten nothing? What is the proper punishment for pushing a school official?
I am saying that a lot of cases like these two happen all for the time. Some get the media attention and some don’t. As far as I am concerned race doesn’t change the case. When all of those other white teachers were having sex with students I knew that it could happen to black students and it didn’t change my opinion of the crime.
March 30th, 2007 at 8:42 pm
I find it difficult to explain away the defendants’ race and gender as non-factors in the courts’ decision. In fact, I think to dismiss the reaction of Laurens County’s Af-Am community as neurotic is intellectually dishonest.
You only find it difficult because you refuse to. I provided a list of White teachers all over the country who have recieved similiar sentences for the same crime with White students and as expected you ignored it. Racism is a very serious charge and unlike you, I am not willing to toss my common sense out of the window in order to circle the wagons for my people.
What I also find …er…VERY interesting is that while you falsely accuse me of “minimizing racism as a boogeyman” you faithfully read and comment on this site knowing full well my views on racism today as compared to yesteryear. For someone who claims to take every accusation of racism as the gospel truth, I find that to be a huge contradiction on your part. Either that or you just enjoy wasting time. Either way, no complaints from this side.
March 31st, 2007 at 2:00 pm
“You only find it difficult because you refuse to.”
As circular as your reasoning is, you’re actually correct. I consider all plausible explanations for what are certainly examples of injustice. It’s what intelligent, informed folks do.
The list you provided has no meaning because you didn’t provide a comparison against Af-Ams and/or males charged with and/or convicted on some variation of felony child molestation. I suspect if you did, you’d find both males and Af-Ams arrested on similar charges are prosecuted and punished much more aggressively than White females, in general. I’d also submit that most people, regardless of race or gender, understand this discrepancy instinctively but react only when events affect their immediate environments. Therefore, your indictment of the Af-Am communities in the SC and TX cases as “iggnat” is intellectually and socially bankrupt. To the contrary, their reaction is not only normative, but well-reasoned and plausible once placed in proper context.
You’re entitled to maintain the straw man racism is not the barrier to Af-Am socioeconomic mobility it once was, and its attendant rhetoric about victimhood. But that’s an indication of willful ignorance on your part. I admit it’s entertaining in a perverse way. That’s why I read and post here occasionally.
March 31st, 2007 at 6:28 pm
Once again, the charge here was that these white women were given a lighter sentence BECAUSE they were White. You and your ilk will make this into an offense against Black America only because it was done by two White women. 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. As “informed” as you claim to be, 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. Mind you, this is the same person who was willing to go to the nth degree in detail about the oil industry (LOL). In this case, knowing that they are White is all you needed.
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!
March 31st, 2007 at 8:26 pm
I’ll add this.
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!
April 1st, 2007 at 11:56 am
Issue 1: You criticize black bloggers reliance on “one article” by a credentialed journalist (a factual error in itself; you clearly didn’t do any research: Vox, Sylvia, Prometheus6 and myself, just to name a few, all provided detailed analysis and relied on multiple sources), while you yourself asserted that Shaquanda “defecated on a desk” without citing sources or providing supporting evidence. In any case, what evidence do you have that Whit’s reporting was shoddy and inaccurate?
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?
April 1st, 2007 at 1:20 pm
“… the charge here was that these white women were given a lighter sentence BECAUSE they were White.”
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.
April 1st, 2007 at 2:48 pm
Issue 1: You criticize black bloggers reliance on “one article†by a credentialed journalist (a factual error in itself; you clearly didn’t do any research: Vox, Sylvia, Prometheus6 and myself, just to name a few, all provided detailed analysis and relied on multiple sources)
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.
April 1st, 2007 at 3:44 pm
What if the children were Mexican? If the Hispanic community stood up and “believed” that the children were targeted because of their limited English or whatever, would that be wrong? If the Hispanic community began having marches and were holding picket signs, would that be wrong? Would we be calling them iggnat and regard them differently only because of their common spoken language? Regardless of the reasons, would we not assume that these children were targeted because of their race and what the teachers may have assumed about the children and their family background or inability/fear of communicating with authorities.
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.
April 1st, 2007 at 4:04 pm
Solacio,
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.
April 1st, 2007 at 4:34 pm
I think the problem here is that this is a highly emotional situation. And as a parent, if I was in the shoes of these childrens’ parents, I have to admit that my reasonings on why this occurred would be…. why? Why these children? What made these people choose these children? One of my many questions would be if race, class and socioeconomic status is involved in not only the judgements, but also the reason for why these predators chose their victims and like me, I think that those in SC feel the same way. In the end the truth and answers to the why will come out!
April 2nd, 2007 at 6:06 am
“… because these folks have concluded that this is a race issue without considering all the other factors that you mentioned…”
You don’t know that to be the case. Again, that’s truly iggnant on your part.
April 2nd, 2007 at 7:19 am
Read the article….geeez!