Post-racial America? Three police shootings of black suspects shatters that

It has been interesting to watch so many people talk about how America has moved from a nation fixated on race to one where we are now living in a post-racial world, courtesy of the election of President-elect Barack Obama.

There is no doubt that we crossed a huge hurdle with the election of Obama to the highest office in the land.

But that doesn't mean that the realities of race are not being played out in our communities each day.

In Oakland, a semi-riot took place last night after the funeral of Oscar Juliuss Grant III, who was gunned down during a scuffle with Bay Area Rapid Transit officers. Click here to read the Oakland Tribune story on the semi-riot.

Grant, who is black, wasn't carrying a gun, and the whole incident was caught on tape. Click here to watch shooting.

The officer involved has quit the force, and civic leaders are demanding answers to why it happened.

In the Houston suburb of Bellaire, the family of former Major League Baseball player Robert Dolan are also demanding answers to why their son was shot.

In wee hours of Dec. 31, police followed Robert Tolan Jr., home, and accused him and a friend of driving a stolen car. When Tolan, 23, and his family made it clear to officers that the car in their driveway was his, the situation grew heated.

Tolan Jr., a standout baseball player at Bellaire High School who played ball at Prairie View A&M University, who was lying in the driveway with a friend, saw an officer grab his mother and toss her up against a wall. The family says he rose up slightly to see what happened and to tell the cop not to treat his mom that way, and suddenly three shots were fired. One hit Tolan in the chest and traveled to his liver. He is now in a Houston hospital.

Roland talks with Geoffrey Berg, an attorney for the family of Robert Tolan, Thursday on The Tom Joyner Morning Show.

And in Mississippi, the NAACP and the family of a high school football star are also searching answers after a cop there says the young man blew himself away with a shotgun after a routine traffic stop.

In early December, 17-year-old Billie Joe Johnson, was pulled over by a county sheriff as he headed to an awards banquet. The officer says he was in his car running the driver's license when he all of a sudden heard a gunshot and saw the young man fall out of the driver's side with the gun on top of him.

He claims Johnson shot himself. The star football player had run for 4,000 yards in his career and was being recruiting my football powerhouses such as LSU, Alabama and Tennessee.

All of the suspects are black. All of the cops are white.

What these cases illustrate is that whether we want to admit it or not, racial profiling still exists, and we are more likely to hear about a black man being gunned down by police than someone white.

There are investigations involving all three shootings, and the desire is for the truth to come out. But all too often, cops are no-billed in shootings, rarely prosecuted.

Let this be a reminder that while we all celebrate Obama and his impending inauguration as president, America's race problem is ever present.

If you want to listen to other podcasts of Roland S. Martin, visit this website: http://odeo.com/channels/605973.

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Comments

[alicia banks]

amen roland!

state sanctioned executions by racist gangs in blue are still in full effect nationwide...

and i have not heard obama utter a single word about any of these incidents...
shame!

i pray for all of these families as diligently as i pray that obama's nazis wake up and realize that obama is one lone human, and that change is an individual task for each of us fellow humans...not a mere collective campaign slogan

"yes we can... keep it real!"

peace
ab
OUTLOOK
http://aliciabanks.blogspot.com

[iawill]

The saying goes - "the more things change, the more they stay the same!" These are very tragic incidents that should be investigated thoroughly and those responsible should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. All of these cases ring with the ugly stench of racism. In Oakland, the young man was shot in the back! In Texas, the young men were accused of driving a stolen car! Who reported the car stolen if the man was standing next to his car in his drive way? If the policeman was not guilty, why did he resign the force?
In the latter incident, why would the young man shoot himself when he had so much going for him and he had not been in trouble before? The truth needs to be told.

Thanks Roland for keeping us in the loop!

[Kim]

Racial profiling is still a huge problem. It's a shame that this is still happening in America.

[Red]

I'm sick of hearing it's because their black, maybe it's because they are crooks..........

[Quel]

The fact that some folks are even willing to say that 'Barack is in, now we're even' as if it were that simple is an indication that there is still a lack of understanding of what the real race issues are in this country.

[touch]

That's JIM CROW Remnants - Jim Crow doctrine - which spread across the nation and the globe, the ignorance of "pushing the propoganda - that being black mean being a criminal".

but we have to see reality - white people created the ignorance and no matter how much many claim intelligent, they can't rid themselves of pushing their agenda of ignorance, white people created racism, white people created the inhumane brutality that marks this nation and how this nation came to be, "it's been a trail of slaughter and mayhem, in every generation of white American, and truly when you span the globe. but they try and cover it up any time it's mention, by saying let go of the past - which is a difficult basically the root lies within the white community that holds on to the past, trying by every means to re-create it.
white people are the people who fought against, honoring it's own constitution, and by acts of violence, to avoid respecting other human beings as being equal.

go look at the picture on U-tube of the young high schools girls that acted like barbarians, the way they went mad in their attacks on the junior students, and then video taped it, as if they thrive on mob violence. We saw it in the attack by the white girls in Florida the way they became savage in beating the one girl, ganging up on her. You don't hear white people trying to disband the KKK, they have nothing to say about it.. They talk in public about how they detest Hitler, but do you seem them organizing any groups to put out public messages against the Neo Nazi - when you hear of a school massacare, what is it, it's 98% white kids, gone mad, and go shoot up the school, when we hear of abductions of women, and dismembering them, it's white, people doing it, when we hear of serial killers it's white people, when we hear of corporate crime that destroys and robs corporations, it's white people, it is white people who orchestrated the demise of the real estate markets in this country, selling the security until there was no value left to sell, and when he could not sell it anymore, he declared the property worthless, and crashed the real estate market. Go to many public places, (SOME)white people will walk past you and not say a word, ( some ) will ride an elevator with you, and rather look at the floor than to say hello. We don't see any other race of people group together and take Flotilla's across the ocean to go and continue try and take over others. Look at history, the people of India had to run the British out of their country, and what is the result, British rule divide it drawing line, and now they have chaos still they have to try to clean up, Africa has been destabilized by Nordica, British and American for a few hundred years, China before Mao, the county was flooded with Opium, and nearly devastated them, and when they tried to Stop the British nearly went to internal war with them, because it was making money from Opium trade, it did not care about the Chinese, The world rushed to China, not because it cared about the Chinese, it was because they were the new slave labor pool in their eyes, ripe for the picking, and they only want reforms, for the sake of getting into the poor provinces,so they can get cheaper labor - they don't care that with over a billion people, democracy is not something they can switch to overnight, because they have too many clans with too many different ideologies, that has a history as their manner of religion of worshiping their ancestors, and their ancestors came from different tribal ideologies.

NOW WHERE IN THIS PICTURE DOES A ORGANIZED CONCEPT OF WHITES HAVE ANY ROOM TO LABEL ANYONE AS BEING CRIMINAL AND VIOLENT, IF HE DOES NOT PUT HIMSELF AT THE TOP OF THE LIST.

IT'S SIMPLE PEOPLE HAVE TO SEE REALITY.

If black people stop and think about it, there is psychological damage that must be over come in the black community, of being mentally abused and then actually beat and persecuted for hundred of years, and up until 45 years ago, denied every pathway of opportunity, talked about in public and denied entry into public establishment.. all this acts of violence upon a race of people for so long, to keep them from speak out about the true nature of inhumanity the whites invoked in a whole society. and the first thing out of (SOME) white peoples mouth is " oh' he's playing the race card"... they say that, only to try and shut people up from telling the truth about what they actually do, in thought, mindset and actions... and they hate like hell for anyone to point out the truth.

that was part of Jim Crow -- where it claimed that no black person at any time was suppose to ever tell a white person they were wrong about anything.

but a SENATE full of OLD white men, denied and lied, and lied and denied the truth about this economy until it collapsed in on them.. then they turned and rushed to pay their other "white corporate heads, to bail them out" with no questions asked.. and they gave them the money, and the same ones still rip and rob the public with this sub prime rate hikes..it has not slowed down one bit, they are so arrogant about it, that mortgage companies won't honor anything other than a bleed and rob the people mindset. and the SENATE SITS THERE AND DO ABSOLUTELY NOTHING.

NOW TELLING THE TRUTH,.. SOME WOULD JUMP OUT OF THE WOODWORK AND WANT TO CALL ME RACIST.. ONLY BECAUSE THEY DON'T WANT THE TRUTH TOLD. BUT REALITY IS, it does not make me racist to tell the truth..

hell, everyone can see it any time they turn on the TV, turn to any crime drama, be it a movie or a real life case situation...and consider what you see.

now how many Billion did Madoff rip off, how many billion did Keating rip off, and how many billion has the last 8 years ripped off, they ripped so much it crashed the whole country. what is it, maybe 8 or less Black CEO's out of the Fortune 500... and guess what .. not one of them has been accused of looting their company.

[touch]

Black movie Stars need to get their investment together and build studio's that show movies of the life, beyond, just playing the buck and shuffle, 30 minute make a fool of yourself laugh a minute TV shows, and make films about the real nature that is values taught in a big part of the black community, as life values.

Black people need to stop trying emulate soap opera greed pursuits, any soap opera that exist in daytime tv, is nothing but a bunch of people who don't work, and walk around the house in 500 dollar outfits, trying to figure out how to bang each other mate, and rib and rob the other, and bicker fest, and drama cycles - and they have been doing it for 50-60-or more years on TV, and people try and emulate this stuff. They worship the play writer Shakespeare, when the man wrote mostly about people with severe cases of obsessive neurosis, If Romeo and Juliet existed in real life, they be sent to see a psychiatrist, because of their obsessively compulsive disorder and their consumption with co dependency, that was neurotic.

People hailed "Sienfield", who were a bunch of nut cases playing games, and Cheers, who were people who spent more time in a bar, than to have a home life.,
And "Friends", was a bunch of people who did not want to grow up, and was caught in a cycle of dato-rama, chalk up a conquest circle of encroachments.

now there are how many version of CSI showing the extent of collusion people engage to conduct crimes..

and that is what people mold themselves behind, Black people need to pay attention, these shows are not about you, and if you step back and see what it really is pushing as to imagery, you'd not try to emulate it.

you got great singers, like SADA, and Alicia Keys, they sing, they don't need to get on stage and get naked as they can.. and then you get various black singers who think they got to get naked, when they already have a voice and can sing.

you don't loose your dignity trying to be like something, which goes against every value you were ever taught. When it comes to many blacks, they won't put a black woman on the Television unless she is as close to being unable to tell is she is white or black or of a heavy bi-racial near to white image as they can get. and when they do show a black women, that is not mixed race, they make sure she is as fat as they can find. but people don't pay attention to how they are being programmed...

[T Freeman]

Red,in which story was it that indicated anyone was a crook? That's a very dismissive attitude and part of the problem that continues to make these types of incidents "OK."

[touch]

The truly intelligent white people, have learned how to work with, and respect others, they hae learned how to communicate with others, and they don't walk around expecting everyone to act like them, nor think like they, they have learned to respect individuals.. and thank goods, today we have more white people who are learning how to live civil..and respect others, and these are the white people who honor the constitution, but they have come beyond the ignorance to embrace the sense of humanity, to respect equality... Even back in history, those who were intelligent, had to nearly hide their quality of dignity, to keep from being attacked by other beast minded whites, who would have attacked them like a bunch of wild wolves.. and today, the intelligent white people are able to breath a sigh of relief to know they can be humane and not have to fear so much the animal instinct of the unintelligent will assualt them.

they socialize with any people, they date and mate with any people, they work and play together with any people - sadly some of them had to run away from their parents and family, just to be free from the persecution, because they want to live a civil and humane life of treating people as equal as they want to be treated, and still today.. some have to hide their friends from their family, because they know that ignorance is woven into their family history.

I've met many white people who are very good people, and they don't play that ignorance game.. they relate about social reality, life challenges and they share with open equality.. in thought, mindset and action.. and some of them detest the ignorant segment of whites who have prejudice and racism in them like it an infection that has taken over their whole self.

let's hope our future exposes more of the truth so those of such ingrained ignorance can learn how to live in a society of human being, and that goes for blacks as well as whites. He who is wise, will come to know, we are all people, and God created the variety to give man the diversity to bring out the greatest beauty of the human being, to be interactively shared.

[D.L.M.]

Hello Roland, two more American tragedies. I think there should be more parents that chaperone their children to and from events. It is not safe for young people to be on the streets. Any gathering of our young people is a time to be concerned for their safety. The age of innocence is over. Americans need to be aware that it is not safe on the streets of this country. The young citizens of America should go to their destinations as quickly and as quietly as possible.

[Bonita]

Everyone that is gunned down is not a criminal contrary to Red's inconsiderate, empty remarks. This is alarming and we should be paying attention. What alarms me is how many times this happens and the ones that commit these murders get away with it. This looks like this sistuation is headed backwards instead of going forward and finding common ground.

[Bonita]

Oh yeah, keep up the good work, Roland. Repor the real news and don't be deterred by those that don't care.

[aj]

There was also a shooting in New Orleans of a 22 year old Adolph Grimes: http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/01/09/new.orleans.shooting

[touch]

Obama has to not let his guard down, for one minute... because the right wing CIA, are probably pissed that he has put someone in that will not let them continue their "arrogance and disregard of others"... so he needs to stay alert, and not allow anything to lull him to think these levels of people are not within the CIA..

[will]

It shatters nothing. What other country comprised predominantlty of whites or even non-whites has been open enough to accomplish what we have done. The answer, of course, is no one. Racism will thrive as long as their is evil in this world, the components you obviously seek to create your "post-racial" can only exist in Utopia. Which, if you hadn't yet heard, had never been reached ANYWHERE in this world. Kinda like the theory of Communism.

[will]

Touch have the names Franklin Raines and Stan O'Neal no meaning to you. Why does the list of Democrats embroiled in scandal and disgrace include at least 5 Africans American's for 08. Do keep in mind we are talking about fairly disproportionate number considering their minority status in politics.

[Martin Altizer]

Sadly, evil doesn't really have a favorite color. Neither does cruelty, or injustice, venality or theft. Everything foul and despicable, the slimy things that haunt our dreams, and that we hope, regardless of our race or color, will never manifest in our waking life...can happen to any of us, and statisticly WILL happen to an increasing number of us as time passes.
Well over 50 years ago, social experiments showed that regardless of species, the higher the population density, the greater the likelihood of deviant behavior. Our species- humanity- has exceeded the limits of population in a lot of places.
As to the history of slavery, go back a few thousand years, the white folks in Europe were practicing slavery with mad abandon- against white folks, with all the savagery to be expected of any enslaving/slave populations. Africans didn't come on the Euro(white) slave trade until the time of the Romans, who modernized transport and conquest far more efficiently than any previous nations. Prior to that, African slaving was across tribal limits, for land, women, and other simpler possessions- herd animals being prevalent. Out-of-Africa slavery ona mass scale finally happened when the pan-Arabic desperados introduced more complex currency, and set tribes to delivering their neighbors for various metals,jewelries, and cloth. By the time the first Yankee captain/trader bartered for his first black cargo, the intra-tribal and Arabic slave trails from the interior to shipping ports were trambled hard and wider than many of our superhighways.
I beg your pardon for being long winded. If you are Afro-American, one of your ancesters two to three hundred years ago got here to the now USA by the start of that trade. Arabs and the Slavic nations continue the practice even in our modern times. Wanna call yourself a "Black Muslim"? Think about that a bit.
We all probably have some knowledge of the events of the 1860's that ended formalized "legalized slavery". What came next was probably worse- control of the former slaves by violence, ignorance and exploitation from the leaders of our land down to the most -nuts-ignorant sharecropping white trash. When technology and education finally compacted the borders of our nation, black people started to wriggle out from under the thumb (or is it the claws?) of Jim Crow.
The journey ain't over yet. When those who are designated to "Protect and Serve" increasingly start to "Pistol and Shoot", we obviously aren't where we need to be.
Getting as loud and vocal as possible with every legislative AND judicial and journalistic entity you can is the first step, even if you live half the country away from from California, Missippi, or Texas. Insist that the cops be identified, and stand TRIAL, not some piss-ant internal hearing. If you or I shot someone while supposedly doing the job we were trained for- let's see, maybe a bartender, or a busdriver, of a convenience store clerk, you can bet Barack's new annual salary the WE would be ID'd in the local paper's crime report, and at a minimum show up in court in front of a judge and/or a jury, even if we were found to be justified in our use of force.
Next, man or woman, red/yellow/black/or white- JOIN the National Rifle Association...the Second Amendment, and the constitutional right for honest citizens to own AND bear arms, is the backbone and foundation for all the other Constitional issues. Politicians (rulers) consider those able to defend themselve against tyranny as CITIZENS- those who can't are subjects. Also, criminals see the unarmed as VICTIMS, but they think carefully before attacking you or yours.
The young men in Texas and Nissippi were "alleged" to be armed. The Houston incident has the police alleging the victim opened fire on them first. No one else on the block heard anything other than cop shots. The cop involved with the youn Missippi football player swears that he shot himself with a shotgun while sitting behind the wheel of his car! Sound like a lie to me. My next question would be, were both his shoes on? Every long-gun suicide I've seen , and yes, I used to be a cop in 3 differan jurisdictions, as well as operated an ambulance service-the victims had to use a toe to engage the trigger, unless the weapon has been sawed off.
The Texas shooting looks like nothing but rogue cops, and real stupid ones at that. They stopped? him in his own family driveway driveway. I have heard no report that they had their cruiser lit up, and his cousin reports they saw nothing but a pistol and a flashlight, and that apparently the cops did not identify themselves. Sounds like the majority of car-jacks, doesn't it? Then they assault his mother!!!
These guys aren't righteous cops- they're crap-eating tapeworms living in the foul guts of our struggling society.
The fatal shooting in Oakland is the only one that might have some explanation - the videos show the cop to apparent act with out thought, and to be totally confused when what he did sank into his brain.
To close this- these are 3 tragic happenstances, but they also happen to white kids, native American kids, Orienals, etc. The media will place priority on cross-racial incidents, so you're gonna hear about these on a national basis. The least sensational, the more local the coverage. Think about it- if Harvey Milk had been straight, Sean Penn wouldn't have a new historical HAH! movie.
Last comment,for our descendants of slavery- my first ancester in this country was also a slave. He was white, 6 years old, kidnapped from the banks of the Rhine river. He served a 26 year "apprenticeship" that was only ended by legak action.
Put me down for my share of potential pay-outs, please.
May God ease the pain and give solace to these three affected families.

[Ashley]

Roland, I agree whole-heartedly. Racism in America has been present even when whites have praised one particular African American. In fact, I just sent this email to CNN:

I am very disappointed that Kyra Phillips would tell Maxine Waters of the Congressional Black Caucus that we should move past the "race card," and personally question the necessity of the Congressional Black Caucus. The mainstream community would like to view Obama's election to the position of President of the United States as evidence of a post-racial America. First of all, there is evidence that most in the white community didn't vote for the President-elect. In addition, racism in America, has never meant demonization of every African-American, and has more to do with stereotypical views of inferiority being placed upon UNFAMILIAR African Americans. I would ask Ms. Phillips if this society has moved past sexism. I don't remember her or others saying that Gov. Palin was playing the "sex" card. It's a shame that Ms. Phillips finds it more acceptable to hear the "class" prejudice and "gender" prejudice promoted by Gov. Palin, but not the racial prejudice that is prevalent in our criminal justice system, law enforcement, health care treatment, entertainment, and other positions of authority. The term "playing the race" card is a covert way of saying that the mainstream community does not want to hear of the plight of African Americans. I would have expected her narrow view of race relations on Fox News--not CNN.

[Anthony]

Roland Martin you are such a racist troll. I think all of your racist opinions about white people come from your hatred of yourself. I mean come on!!! If I woke up in the morning and looked in the mirror and saw you I would be pissed off at something to. It is guys like you and OReilly that divide the races. Take more time bringing races together instead of pushing races apart.You are no better the Hannity or Jesse Jackson though you do look like a black umpa loompa from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory lol

[Jerry Steiner]

Hey Roland; Let's skip what we already know and work on finding solutions to these age old problems. I've heard alot about how President Obama has for a brief period in his political career proved to everyone that their is a God. From the very start of the Democratic Primary's Obama was blessed, and yes Black men where still the victims of trigger-happy and closet-style racist, undercover KKK. If President Obama can inspire hope and unity across all racial lines then maybe,hopefully,prayerfully. Damn, I just wish we could all just get along! Fat chance of that.

[Gwendolyn]

Get real we all realize that there are racists in America! All Roland is doing is reporting it! I am proud that we have our First African American President but, some white people still hate us and do practice evil because of our skin color. Murder is murder and these Black men were murdered. The responsible person(s) need to be held to the full extend of the law. The police officers broke all human right laws. Just because their skin color is white does not give them a pass.

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