Sean Taylor Article

shogun323

Active Member
At first I was very suprised because Jason Whitlock (the author) is a black man. Very good article. It reminds me of Bill Cosby's rhetoric.
Taylor's death a grim reminder for us all
Jason Whitlock / FOXSports.com
Posted: 1 hour ago
There's a reason I call them the Black KKK. The pain, the fear and the destruction are all the same.
Someone who loved Sean Taylor is crying right now. The life they knew has been destroyed, an 18-month-old baby lost her father, and, if you're a black man living in America, you've been reminded once again that your life is in constant jeopardy of violent death.
The Black KKK claimed another victim, a high-profile professional football player with a checkered past this time.
No, we don't know for certain the circumstances surrounding Taylor's death. I could very well be proven wrong for engaging in this sort of aggressive speculation. But it's no different than if you saw a fat man fall to the ground clutching his chest. You'd assume a heart attack, and you'd know, no matter the cause, the man needed to lose weight.
Well, when shots are fired and a black man hits the pavement, there's every statistical reason to believe another black man pulled the trigger. That's not some negative, unfair stereotype. It's a reality we've been living with, tolerating and rationalizing for far too long.
When the traditional, white KKK lynched, terrorized and intimidated black folks at a slower rate than its modern-day dark-skinned replacement, at least we had the good sense to be outraged and in no mood to contemplate rationalizations or be fooled by distractions.
Our new millennium strategy is to pray the Black KKK goes away or ignores us. How's that working?
About as well as the attempt to shift attention away from this uniquely African-American crisis by focusing on an alleged injustice the white media allegedly perpetrated against Sean Taylor.
Within hours of his death, there was a story circulating that members of the black press were complaining that news outlets were disrespecting Taylor's victimhood by reporting on his troubled past
No disrespect to Taylor, but he controlled the way he would be remembered by the way he lived. His immature, undisciplined behavior with his employer, his run-ins with law enforcement, which included allegedly threatening a man with a loaded gun, and the fact a vehicle he owned was once sprayed with bullets are all pertinent details when you've been murdered.
Marcellus Wiley, a former NFL player, made the radio circuit Wednesday, singing the tune that athletes are targets. That was his explanation for the murders of Taylor and Broncos cornerback Darrent Williams and the armed robberies of NBA players Antoine Walker and Eddy Curry.
Really?
Let's cut through the bull(manure) and deal with reality. Black men are targets of black men. Period. Go check the coroner's office and talk with a police detective. These bullets aren't checking W-2s.
Rather than whine about white folks' insensitivity or reserve a special place of sorrow for rich athletes, we'd be better served mustering the kind of outrage and courage it took in the 1950s and 1960s to stop the white KKK from hanging black men from trees.
But we don't want to deal with ourselves. We take great joy in prescribing medicine to cure the hate in other people's hearts. Meanwhile, our self-hatred, on full display for the world to see, remains untreated, undiagnosed and unrepentant.
Our self-hatred has been set to music and reinforced by a pervasive culture that promotes a crab-in-barrel mentality.
You're damn straight I blame hip hop for playing a role in the genocide of American black men. When your leading causes of death and dysfunction are murder, ignorance and incarceration, there's no reason to give a free pass to a culture that celebrates murder, ignorance and incarceration.
Of course there are other catalysts, but until we recapture the minds of black youth, convince them that it's not OK to "super man dat ho" and end any and every dispute by "cocking on your pregnant dog," nothing will change.
Does a Soulja Boy want an education?
HBO did a fascinating documentary on Little Rock Central High School, the Arkansas school that required the National Guard so that nine black kids could attend in the 1950s. Fifty years later, the school is one of the nation's best in terms of funding and educational opportunities. It's 60 percent black and located in a poor black community.
Watch the documentary and ask yourself why nine poor kids in the '50s risked their lives to get a good education and a thousand poor black kids today ignore the opportunity that is served to them on a platter.
 

shogun323

Active Member
Blame drugs, blame Ronald Reagan, blame George Bush, blame it on the rain or whatever. There's only one group of people who can change the rotten, anti-education, pro-violence culture our kids have adopted. We have to do it.
According to reports, Sean Taylor had difficulty breaking free from the unsavory characters he associated with during his youth.
The "keepin' it real" mantra of hip hop is in direct defiance to evolution. There's always someone ready to tell you you're selling out if you move away from the immature and dangerous activities you used to do, you're selling out if you speak proper English, embrace education, dress like a grown man, do anything mainstream.
The Black KKK is enforcing the same crippling standards as its parent organization. It wants to keep black men in their place — uneducated, outside the mainstream and six feet deep.
In all likelihood, the Black Klan and its mentality buried Sean Taylor, and any black man or boy reading this could be next.
http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/7499442
 

rylan1

Active Member
Though I do agree with some of the things Jason Whitlock has to say, I generally disagree with his statements and the way he says them. I will say that some of the things in Sean Taylor's life may be relevant or a cause of his murder, but I think it is very premature and irresponsible to speculate as early as the media did. It may be different if he was in the streets or at a club or something when this occured; however, he was in his home with his family...sleeping at night. But back to Jason Whitlock, in my opinion he says things to get people stirred up and his point of view is very narrow.
I know that some of you will agree with this article... but in my opinion its more than a little off. By all accounts from those who knew Sean Taylor he had changed his life around and abandoned those negative people around him. Secondly, many professional athletes are targets from those looking to take advantage of them because essentially they just won the lottery. They are taken advantage by those white collar criminals that promise them more riches with bogus investment opportunites and by the other street crimminal element that is looking to rob and steal from them when they go back to their home communities or to places such as bars and clubs. They are usually easy targets because of their new wealth and their need to flaunt their wealth make them very visable.
 

rylan1

Active Member
those numbers are not that suprising to me. Most homicides are gang and drug related. Its clear that drugs and gangs are prevelant in lower income inner city communities, which happen to be largely black and hispanic. I am not sure in those statistics where hispanics were tabulated... I can't believe that all other races only compromised 2% of murders, when the largest gang in America is hispanic. But you'll notice that murders reached an all time high through the late 80's to mid 90's and have declined since. This was the era of crack cocaine and gangs were at this time becoming more violent. What happened is these drug kingpins were making millions per day and were either killed or locked up. These were the leaders and they maintained a less violent criminal culture that had defined rules. But after they were removed...it left everyone else fighting for power and money which resulted in a explosion in the murder rate.
Its simple... money and power lead to corruption and murder... it can be seen in all aspects of life, across all racial lines, and from the drug dealer to our government and internationally.
 

jtrzerocool

Active Member
Originally Posted by Rylan1
Most homicides are gang and drug related. Its clear that drugs and gangs are prevelant in lower income inner city communities, which happen to be largely black and hispanic..

Originally Posted by Rylan1

Its simple... money and power lead to corruption and murder...

these statements kind of contradict eachother...im not sure how lower income innercity communities can lead to power and money...
 

jerthunter

Active Member
Originally Posted by jtrzerocool
these statements kind of contradict eachother...im not sure how lower income innercity communities can lead to power and money...
Those statements make sense to me. People want money and those who have no money and have few 'legal' options of obtaining money based on their situation are more likely to commit violent crimes to obtain money.
 

rylan1

Active Member
New update in this case. Police have detained three individuals whom 2 are teenagers for questioning. It appears as if this was a targeted robbery that went bad. Still waiting for more updates. And as I was saying above, Jason Whitlock's comments were totally inappropriate in regards to this case, and definetely pre-mature.
And that fact that black men are usually killed by black men is the same as saying that white men or usually killed by white men. Which the data statistics say is true. These murders have nothing to with race so much as it does with proximity. White people normally live with other white people and vice versa, which explains why all people are killed most often by people of their own race. His comments may shed some light on things, but generally are half-truths that are based on his own personal/career agenda.
 

1journeyman

Active Member
It seems to me that the original article is not being read in context.
The original article addresses the high murder rate in the black community, and that "members of the black press were complaining that news outlets were disrespecting Taylor's victimhood by reporting on his troubled past..."
I didn't read anywhere that the author was blaming Taylor's death on his checkered past. Only that if you live a checkered past expect to be remembered for it.
Again, the original article doesn't blame the death on his past in any way that I can see.
 

aquaknight

Active Member
The way I see, Jason Whitlock's article was directed towards help changing the mentalities of black youths. Can we really blame him for that? The only half truth is assuming Sean Taylor was killed by black men. Yes the proximity thing is true, but did you look at the rates blacks kill blacks and whites kill whites?
 

ruaround

Active Member
Originally Posted by Rylan1
New update in this case. Police have detained three individuals whom 2 are teenagers for questioning. It appears as if this was a targeted robbery that went bad. Still waiting for more updates. And as I was saying above, Jason Whitlock's comments were totally inappropriate in regards to this case, and definetely pre-mature.
And that fact that black men are usually killed by black men is the same as saying that white men or usually killed by white men. Which the data statistics say is true. These murders have nothing to with race so much as it does with proximity. White people normally live with other white people and vice versa, which explains why all people are killed most often by people of their own race. His comments may shed some light on things, but generally are half-truths that are based on his own personal/career agenda.
they arrested 4 individuals... 20, 19, 18 and 17 years of age... was stated that they didnt expect him to be there one of em paniced when Taylor startled them and he was shot...
 

agent-x

Member
that's one of the first smart things to come out of Jason Whitlock's mouth. Usually this guy is just saying whatever he knows will put media attention on him. Maybe that was his goal this time too, but it actually made sense for once.
 

stdreb27

Active Member
Personally, I like Cosby and his current mantra that black people are doing this to themselves.
But I really don't think it would apply to this particular case. I think this is simply a case of a Rich guy who had close ties to not so good folks. Severed his ties, but since they still know hwere he lives. He probably had stuff with alot of value in his house. So they went after him. I don't know if this is the case in Florida, but alot of places have 1 million dollar houses and two streets over there is the ghetto.
But back to cosby, but first a little backround on myself so you can see my perspective, I'm half mexican, my grandparants as children came over from mexico as refugies during the revolutionary war. Their families lost everything. After it was safe they lived on the mexican side of the border. They got married and returned she was born in El Paso so she was american. He wasn't. Had kids, but the one thing they focused on was learning English, without an accent and getting good grades in school. He later would tell me Ruben, school is a privilege and an honor, and you speak english well. You can do ANYTHING. All his girls graduated from college. Some of his grandkids include, police officers, army, nurses, a Special Forces Marine Sniper, a graduate from the Airforce Academy what SHE flies is classified, engineers, I saw one cuz on CNN the other day guarding the Dali Lama. (sp?) They, we believe in the american dream. Because we have lived it.
The problem with people, I don't think it is just a black thing, they just flaunt it more fueling perception. Is that they don't, and have created a culture where if you do what it takes you are selling out to the white man or whatever. We still speak in spanish when we have family gatherings. And we still eat chile. They are slaves to the mentality handed down, well my parants lived in this run down dump, so I am. I have a white friend that is the same way. He doesn't see how it is possible from him to not work in a steel mill for the rest of his life at 8 bucks an hour. He has been offered scholarships full scholarships to school. But says no, because he can't do it.
Ok I'm rambling, I guess I say all this to say. I don't really agree with the application of this article, but I do think the premise isn't flawed.
 

rylan1

Active Member
Originally Posted by AquaKnight
The way I see, Jason Whitlock's article was directed towards help changing the mentalities of black youths. Can we really blame him for that? The only half truth is assuming Sean Taylor was killed by black men. Yes the proximity thing is true, but did you look at the rates blacks kill blacks and whites kill whites?
I looked at everything, and most of the murders 65% which is "black on black crime" is drug related, which is consistant with my orginal statement. When big money, drugs, organized crime are associated with each other... murder is usually the end result. I would say you could find similar patterns in Mafia or other organized crime, or gang entities. The problems are that these other crime organizations are more centralized with clear leadership, where as most of the drug dealers are basically independent and there are many of them... which leads to more competition and disputes.
 

rylan1

Active Member
Originally Posted by stdreb27
Personally, I like Cosby and his current mantra that black people are doing this to themselves.
But I really don't think it would apply to this particular case. I think this is simply a case of a Rich guy who had close ties to not so good folks. Severed his ties, but since they still know hwere he lives. He probably had stuff with alot of value in his house. So they went after him. I don't know if this is the case in Florida, but alot of places have 1 million dollar houses and two streets over there is the ghetto.
But back to cosby, but first a little backround on myself so you can see my perspective, I'm half mexican, my grandparants as children came over from mexico as refugies during the revolutionary war. Their families lost everything. After it was safe they lived on the mexican side of the border. They got married and returned she was born in El Paso so she was american. He wasn't. Had kids, but the one thing they focused on was learning English, without an accent and getting good grades in school. He later would tell me Ruben, school is a privilege and an honor, and you speak english well. You can do ANYTHING. All his girls graduated from college. Some of his grandkids include, police officers, army, nurses, a Special Forces Marine Sniper, a graduate from the Airforce Academy what SHE flies is classified, engineers, I saw one cuz on CNN the other day guarding the Dali Lama. (sp?) They, we believe in the american dream. Because we have lived it.
The problem with people, I don't think it is just a black thing, they just flaunt it more fueling perception. Is that they don't, and have created a culture where if you do what it takes you are selling out to the white man or whatever. We still speak in spanish when we have family gatherings. And we still eat chile. They are slaves to the mentality handed down, well my parants lived in this run down dump, so I am. I have a white friend that is the same way. He doesn't see how it is possible from him to not work in a steel mill for the rest of his life at 8 bucks an hour. He has been offered scholarships full scholarships to school. But says no, because he can't do it.
Ok I'm rambling, I guess I say all this to say. I don't really agree with the application of this article, but I do think the premise isn't flawed.
I'm kinda lost with your ramble... but I guess I can apply this way... Most people who have been disadvantage or poor in life have a "Poverty Mindset" This mindset for black people is usually generational...meaning that it has been passed down. The same can be applied to other poor people of all races.
 

rylan1

Active Member
You can take Whitlock's comments and apply them to white people as well, because most white people are killed by white people. He is stating a fact that I believe is based on proximity. Just like I can say if I see a young white woman killed... its most likely a white male that commited the crime. All Whitlock is doing is trying to do is bring attention to himself... His views always seem to center on hip hop music, which in my opinion... there is some negative rap music out there... but I don't think it is the main reason why we are seeing these problems. As I stated before there is a mindset...a poverty mindset... I have a book that I am going to start reading that covers these issues...but this mindset is the reason why poor people who win the lottery eventually go broke, why you see rappers flaunting their jewels, athletes who have a fleet of Lambo's... etc...etc. These people came from poverty and now they are insanly rich... yet they spend their money on things that display their wealth, instead of investing in things that will further build their wealth. As athletes and entainers get older... you can usually see a change in them as they mature.
One other comment, from the reports I've read some of the accused were in house for a birthday party a couple of weeks ago, and another cut his grass. It seems this was a robbery that just went bad by some young men. Regardless of what his past was.... it had nothing to do with what happened and just like most of the media, Whitlock's comments were assuming Taylor had something to do with his own murder, and the media did the family an injustuce by painting Sean Taylor as a bad person who was targeted by a hit squad, when none of the evidence showed that.
The fact he was shot in the leg was the only clue I needed to know that this was not a planned murder.
 

stdreb27

Active Member
Originally Posted by Rylan1
I'm kinda lost with your ramble... but I guess I can apply this way... Most people who have been disadvantage or poor in life have a "Poverty Mindset" This mindset for black people is usually generational...meaning that it has been passed down. The same can be applied to other poor people of all races.
I'm simply saying, that if my family can do it as "disadvantaged" as we were than anyone can.
 

rylan1

Active Member
Originally Posted by stdreb27
I'm simply saying, that if my family can do it as "disadvantaged" as we were than anyone can.
I agree with you, however; when it comes to black people in particular... there are many other factors that make it harder for them, particularly in previous generations to "do it" as you stated in your post. I am not making excuses or playing any sort of "card" here... I think that some accountablility needs to be taken as Bill Cosby would say... I also believe that other factors are also equally if not more significant in explaining this issue. But that would require another thread.... back to Sean Tayor and Jason Whitlock...
I hope something positive will come out of this loss.
And Jason Whitlock will continue to make a name for himself based on his rhetoricical theories. I so much want to agree with what he is saying, but to me he is wrong much more than he is right.
 
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