The Conservative Fantasy History Of Civil Rights
Leslie Odom Jr.: We Are Not All Artists the Same
Our nation could make an entire industry out of the number of times someone has committed a crime and then told police that the perpetrator was African American. There was the case of Bonnie Sweeten, the woman in Philadelphia who said that a black man kidnapped her when the truth is that she was spending time in Disney World. There was the recent case of Bethany Storro, the woman who threw acid in her own face and said a black person did it. At least Storro was creative and accused a black woman instead of a man. The black man is everyone's favorite suspect, and with media continuing to typecast us as criminals and social deviants, it's not going to get any better.
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I have two guests on the show who are going to help us have more insights into this issue. The conversation is honest, open and quite compelling. Enjoy!
Dr. Boyce Watkins is the founder of the Your Black World Coalition and a Scholarship in Action resident of the Institute for Black Public Policy. To have Dr. Boyce's commentary delivered to your e-mail, please click here. 
Comments: (71)
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By: getreal on 11/08/2010 11:31AM
Maybe we should start blaming the Amish since they are the culprits of most of the crime in America.
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By: DON'TPlayYaself! on 11/10/2010 3:34PM
BECAUSE A LOT OF BLACK MEN THINK THAT IT IS COOL TO SIMPLY LOOOOOOK LIKE THEY ARE CAPABLE OF WREAKING HAVOC AND/OR CAUSING TERROR!!!
So why get mad when the finger is being pointed at you?????????????????????????????????
They can't have their cake, eat it too, and turn around and be mad about what it taste like.
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By: wb7ptr on 11/10/2010 4:28PM
This whole thing of "a Black guy did it" sickens me. I'm saddened by the idea that someone could be so low as to blame the nearest African American rather than actually seek out the REAL culprit. Now this may seem a restricted problem ... to the area of crime. But the attitude behind out, the White paranoia of Black folks, and the typecasting of African Americans as criminals runs far deeper than JUST crime. What of New Orleans and the neighborhoods that got ignored for weeks while people starved on rooftops or drowned in the waters? What if the sad history of poverty and underdevelopment in predominately African American neighborhoods while White neighborhoods florish. It's really something to think about, America!
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By: getreal on 11/08/2010 12:43PM
I dont know, Maybe you should ask the parents of the teen recently beaten to death by the 4 kids in Douglasville, Ga
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By: karen on 11/08/2010 6:09PM
Who should then turn around and ask the parents of Oscar Grant you lying racist demon!
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By: Deborah on 11/08/2010 9:12PM
>>>>>I dont know, Maybe you should ask the parents of the teen recently beaten to death by the 4 kids in Douglasville, Ga
Or better yet, maybe you should ask Danny Rolling while he lies in hell, why he murdered five students who attended the University of Florida in 1990 or better yet, maybe you can speak to Charles Manson and the members of his family who murdered Sharon Tate and several others in 1969, or Jeffrey Dahmer, or Dr. Charles Petit who resides in Connecticut. He was a victim of a home invasion and lost his wife and daughters to two white monsters!
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By: notallways on 11/08/2010 12:50PM
Tawana Brawley............
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By: lynda johnson on 11/08/2010 4:42PM
I don't know about you but I erased the word VICTIM off my face years ago much to the dismay of the so called "black leaders".Sharpton, Jackson...Just think if we decided not to be victims they would have to live like the rest of us.
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By: eeduj1001 on 11/12/2010 10:46PM
No one put "VICTIMS" on our faces. We were just slaves, them subjects of Jim Crow, lynching, high unemployment rates. Just because we ask for justice does not mean we are whining like "victims".
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By: catherine on 11/10/2010 6:32AM
I ask for this time to speak about the case at hand because I do not believe my son raped Heather Lynch. I have been around her for almost ten years and as a rape victim and the mother of daughters who have been raped as well as grand daughters who have been raped. I easily recognize the signs. Heather has shown no signs of rape.
The stories I have sit and listen to changed constantly. Heather has never shown any fear of Hozy. No matter where he goes she follows and got angry if she wasn't allowed to. I can only speculate of reasons these charges occurred and I have given those reasons on the wrongful convictions site as well as in letters to the lawyer.
I also recall when Heather told us after leaving the P. D office that she don't understand why they are forcing her to testify about something that didn't happen. Her words were I am 20 years old. I am a woman and these folks are making me come to court because they think they know what happened better then I do.
I also was standing there when she came out of the back room in court when she said that the state told her that if she recants she can be fined or serve time. I remember so well her crying and saying this isn't fair. Heather did not file rape on her step father. Her mother and her biological father did this. Melissa did not file rape on her step father her mother did. The court prosecutors are fighting to steal my son’s life just as so many of the cases I have taken time to read about posted under "false allegations of child abuse.
Hozy and Tracy have never had a great marriage. Most of the time Hozy had to quit a job to be home with the children because Tracy was off doing something that wives just don't do or she was no where too be found.
Tracy Whitehead is not a drunker she's a functioning alcoholic. She's not crazy her uncle in New York told her how to play her part and she's done a great job in playing the part. Her words to me was I can change faces at will and we all have watched her do so.. A drunk doesn't get healed in one week and a mental patient doesn't recover in two weeks. I am not a doctor but I know what I know. I was beaten and raped in 1970 and 1996. I was treated for ten years and to this day I still have the night mares. I have helped a few women to save their children in the past because of signs of rape on their children. One of those are that of a god daughter Kimberly Barrett Dennis. Her father was raping her I took her in at the age of 14. Later I warned her about her children father she didn't listen until a little white girl parent pressed charges on him. He's received 60 years. He was beating her and raping her children and his by another woman. Kim took two years to finally return to thank me for reaching out and confessing that she didn't know how to face me once the truth came out. Hozy helped to take care of Kim's children and many others in the day care. Not once was any allegations brought forward and since this mess I have gone to many of the parents and asked them. Not a one agrees with the court.
I collected 52 letters about my son's character and You Sir stated that Heather didn't decided upon a letter of character and you are right I asked everyone that knows Hozy for letters and that day as we pulled up to drop off one of the children at Patties house Heather ran out to the car and gave the letter to her mother the court did not ask me how the letter came about and I was not authorized to continuous to speak far on it. Now my son is headed towards prison. This is not justice it is a travesty of justice.
I received a DVD a few days ago from someone I do not know and it's about a man being accused of being raped by a young girl next door the man served three years before his innocent was proven no matter what he said the court found him guilty because the girl said he was. A man now serving life for the young girl and four other women. The DNA proved it. But there is no DNA here for either girls because it didn't happen. To take my son's life by locking him away is wrong. His life was taken when he married Tracy Lynch. She did not marry my son because she loved him she told me a long time ago that she married him because she wanted to get married. Then she took on two other children not hers and ran to the suburban with them who mother was denied them back. Without Hozy I wonder what would have happened to any of the children since Hozy's confinement none of the children will live with Tracy not only do they accuse her but two of them now beats her which Hozy would not allow. With out her in his life he said that he has no life. In closing I asked the lawyer now I ask the court why the medical records that could clear my son aren’t allow to be read in court. The medical records stays that there was no sexual activities found when examine after the request was made by Heather’s mother. 2007 we all were at the house because Tracy had invited us for a birthday dinner. Why was this request made because heather boyfriend was living with her and I asked was Heather using birth control and Tracy got angry and jumped up and said I know she’s a virgin because I had the doctor to test her this is how I know that the statement was in the records and it is. I read it after the state order a copy. The State continued the case in order to bring forward the nurse but later refuse the nurse because they knew what they had found. They knew then that they had no case if this information was present.
I realize my letter is long but so have this trial been. I have sat here for 23 months and listen to so many ugly things about my son. Whet I am yet to hear how is how the police, the confession supposedly given by my son and the statement Tracy made are all, all most identical when I know that when the State read the statement in the court that Tracy was suppose to have given in court, it was only then that Tracy was taken to Tinley park the doctor stated that because of her lack of memories she had forgotten what the man said to her that raped her. This tells me as well as Tracy that when her daughter came to her with this her being under the influence of alcohol she heard the man not Hozy and called the police. Misinformation has stolen my son time. Now I want to know why the courts are attempting to steal his life.
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