TRENTON -- Words2Action host and Southern Burlington County NAACP President Dr. Ken Gordon and guest Ewaure Osayande said the black-white thing has gotten so much worse since Obama became president, which is why there is so much anger in the black community over the death of Trayvon Martin and the insanity that followed.
"We've elected the nation's first African-American president, believeing that by so doing we would have reached a point in our nation's development where these concerns would no longer be concerns that our community would have to be concerned with. Not only has that not been the case, but we've witnessed an escalation of attacks against African people," said Osayande, a poet, professor, author of 14 books and founder and president of POWER.
"I believe ... a lot of people woke up on the morning after (electing Obama) and wished they had a morning-after pill," Gordon said laughing, "... and it became a reality that we have seen the backlash from ever since. When in history have we had the kind of disrespect to a sitting president that we've had?"
I'm still not really sure how Obama ties into the hot mess in Florida, but quotes like the ones above pumped the beating heart of tonight's discussion over Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman and blacks and whites and racism and the Castle Doctrine. Later in the episode, groundbreaking attorney Patricia Darden joined Gordon to offer the kinds of insights that lead to her receiving invitations to speak about legal issues. And why not? She was the Jersey's first minority federal public defender, the first female city attorney for Camden, a professor at Rutgers Newark Law School, and she has gained recognition for her role in the Abbott case. Darden provided some pretty damn good advice for today's young black men and women who might find themselves face to face with cops.
Here are some photos, and below them is the 55-minute episode:
"We've elected the nation's first African-American president, believeing that by so doing we would have reached a point in our nation's development where these concerns would no longer be concerns that our community would have to be concerned with. Not only has that not been the case, but we've witnessed an escalation of attacks against African people," said Osayande, a poet, professor, author of 14 books and founder and president of POWER.
"I believe ... a lot of people woke up on the morning after (electing Obama) and wished they had a morning-after pill," Gordon said laughing, "... and it became a reality that we have seen the backlash from ever since. When in history have we had the kind of disrespect to a sitting president that we've had?"
I'm still not really sure how Obama ties into the hot mess in Florida, but quotes like the ones above pumped the beating heart of tonight's discussion over Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman and blacks and whites and racism and the Castle Doctrine. Later in the episode, groundbreaking attorney Patricia Darden joined Gordon to offer the kinds of insights that lead to her receiving invitations to speak about legal issues. And why not? She was the Jersey's first minority federal public defender, the first female city attorney for Camden, a professor at Rutgers Newark Law School, and she has gained recognition for her role in the Abbott case. Darden provided some pretty damn good advice for today's young black men and women who might find themselves face to face with cops.
Here are some photos, and below them is the 55-minute episode:
What do you think of this episode? Watch it then e-mail jkulkin@trentonian.com.
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