I'm glad to include for your consideration the application of Ousman Ceesay and his blog, Home of the mandinmories. I received this email response from Ousman today:
I would like to request your immediate consideration and inclusion into the AfroSpear of Ousman Cessay. You may contact him via his site, or by email. Thank you and let me be the first to say WELCOME!
There is a blogger in Malawi, Africa who deserves our attention and support. His name is William KamKwamba and he is from Mastala Village in Kasungu. He has made international fame for his use of a homemade windmill, a bicycle, and a battery to power his entire home (4 lights, 2 radios, and a cell phone charger!).
I have invited William to share his experience with us in the Afrospear.
I've mentioned in the past that one of my main reasons for getting involved in blogging was that I saw it as a potentially powerful way to affect change in my life and my community. I am pleased to have found a group of similarly minded African and African-American bloggers who have formed a community.
The AfroSpear is looking to add new voices to our community!
Take a moment to visit our online newpapers here, and online forum here. If you'd like to learn more, post a comment below or send me an email.
Hat tip: FOJ
Remarkably insightful post from the folks over at Friends of Justice.
The New Jim Crow and the New Groupthink
Some of the most insightful commentary on the significance of the Jena story appears in a blog I came across this moring: http://blogher.org/node/19962. A few months ago, a local Jena pastor described his home town as a racist backwater. Recent events have forced the Rev. eddie Thompson to eat those words. Now he is defending his home town against Yankee “Carpetbaggers” (from Texas and New Orleans) who are distorting the story. The Rev. Eddie has fallen victim to the sort of groupthink that emerges when small towns circle the wagons. Fortunately, a contributor to Blogher knows the Rev. Eddie personally. Her response to his about-face show a tremendous depth of insight. I encourage you to scroll through the entire string of posts–you will learn something. At least, I did.
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I've been monitoring conversation about a trial beginning in Jena, Louisiana today. I think the reason why this has been bothering me so much is due to the question that is raised when I see these kinds of situations. (Take a look here, here, here, and also here to name just a few.) Thank you.
| Racism on trial again in America's Deep South |
  
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In the cool courtroom in Jena, Louisiana, three black schoolboys - Robert Bailey, Theodore Shaw and Mychal Bell - are about to go on trial for a playground fight that could see them jailed for between 30 and 50 years. Jena, about 220 miles north of New Orleans, is a small town of 3,000 people, 85 percent of whom are white. Tomorrow it will be the focus for a race trial which could put it on the map alongside the bad old names of the Mississippi Burning Sixties such as Selma or Montgomery, Alabama. Jena is gaining national notoriety as an example of the new 'stealth' racism, showing how lightly sleep the demons of racial prejudice in America's Deep South, even in the year that a black man, Barack Obama, is a serious candidate for the White House. |
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The eyes of the future are looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time.
-Terry Tempest Williams
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On April 21st I learned of the Fulton County police shooting of Ron and Roy III Petteway from Exodus Mentality. I did some research and posted an article along with plans to follow-up with the Board of Commisioners and Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue.
At long last, I received my first feedback. Posted below.
Will continue to update as I receive more. Let's all keep this one on the front burner.
 clipped from www.ajc.com
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One of the reasons I've become interested in blogging is the opportunity to add my voice to our collective American discourse. So I'm pleased now in 2 ways. First to have made the acquaintance of several fellow bloggers whose sites I admire and whose prose I've so far enjoyed. Francis L. Holland and Exodus Mentality led the way here. Mad shouts as well to Sonya at Make it Plain and to Bronze Trinity. There is a strong, afro-centric blogging community out there. Secondly, to have a meaningful cause to present to my readers for your consideration and immediate action.
Before I begin, a couple of observations.
That said, let's move on.
Family of brothers shot by police want Perdue's intervention
The Associated Press - ATLANTAThe family of two unarmed brothers shot by Fulton County police after a bar fight called on Gov. Sonny Perdue on Wednesday to declare a state of emergency for the numerous police-involved shootings that have happened recently in metro Atlanta.
"It is your responsibility...as governor of this state, to intervene," read the letter signed by the Rev. Markel Hutchins, spokesman for the Petteway family.
"We call on you to form a blue-ribbon panel to proffer substantive changes in public policy relative to how we train and regulate Georgia peace officers," Hutchins said.
Hutchins said issues needed to be examined within Georgia's police community include lack of training, the availability of non-lethal weaponry, and character assessments and background checks for prospective officers.
Fulton County police responded to a bar fight involving Ron and Roy Petteway III at a club in College Park on Saturday night. Both brothers were shot, and Ron Petteway died at the club. He was shot in the back of the head, according to family members and the Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office.
Family members say Roy Petteway III, 27, was shot in the back. He was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital and was released on Tuesday.
Several members of the Petteway family went to the Capitol on Wednesday to deliver a letter to Perdue, who was not there to meet with them.
"It is the responsibility of elected officials to respond to the crises of people they are elected to serve," Hutchins said outside the Capitol.
This article reflects an unacceptable standard for policing in our community. Any outcome of police interaction that results in unarmed individuals losing their life has to be viewed as the wrong outcome. Let's stop pretending. On the heels of the Imus situation and our successful mobilization there, I am hoping that the bright light of public expectation will lead the Georgia Bureau of Investigations to do a careful, open, and thorough investigation here.
Hutchins has represented the families of several people killed in police-involved shootings in metro Atlanta.
He cited as evidence of excessive police force the July 2003 shooting death of 18-year-old Corey Ward _ who was shot in the Buckhead neighborhood by an Atlanta police officer who thought Ward was driving a stolen SUV _ as well as the November shooting death of Kathryn Johnston, killed by Atlanta police officers who were serving a no-knock drug warrant on the elderly woman's northwest Atlanta home.
The Petteway family will bury Ron Petteway on Saturday, which would have been his 27th birthday. The family will also lead a march from the Frozen Palace nightclub, the scene of the shooting, to Live Oak Baptist Church for a funeral service for Ron Petteway.
Their father, Roy Petteway Jr., said outside the Capitol that he wanted justice not just for his family, but for all families who have been through a similar experience.
"This is the time for us to stand up as a family," he said. "I almost lost two sons in one night. They're good young men."
Fulton County police and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation are investigating the Petteway shootings. Fulton County Police Chief George Coleman said the two officers who shot the Petteway brothers have less than two years on the force.
Both men are on administrative leave pending the outcome of the probe. Their names have not been released.
Here are our action items:
1. Do your own, independent research
<<Sources:>>
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Family of brothers shot by police want Perdue intervention
2. Call local and state officials and request the status of the investigation.
- Important: Take down the name of your contact and quote them as accurately as possible.
- My own suggestion: Let them know that you are an amateur blogger and will be posting online whatever their response may be, including no comments.
3. Post online and continue to update, investigate, and then re-circulate (just a little alliteration there!)
Telephone Numbers for Fulton County Board of Commissioners.
Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue: (404) 656-1776
Exodus Mentality has done some outstanding work here and already has updates posted to his site. Francis L. Holland on top of things as well. He's got the Ron Petteway website linked:
I'll be publishing my conversation with the Board of Commissioners and the Governor on Monday.
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