The Power of Looking,
from Emmett Till
to Philando Castile
http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/the-power-of-looking-from-emmett-till-to-philando-castile?mbid=gnep&intcid=gnep&google_editors_picks=true
Mamie Till Bradley and Diamond Reynolds
both shared their sorrow with the world.
They asked onlookers to view the bodies of two black men
and see a son, a brother, a boyfriend, a loved one.
Looking is hard.
It shakes us and haunts us, and it comes with responsibilities and risks.
But, by allowing us all to look,
Bradley and Reynolds offered us real opportunities for empathy.
Bradley’s moral courage galvanized a generation of civil-rights activists.
We have yet to see how far Reynolds’s bravery will take us.
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President Obama addressed the deaths of two black men who were killed in police shootings this week — incidents that sparked outrage and demands for justice around the country — and said the incidents were “not isolated” but rather “symptomatic of a of a broader set of racial disparities.”
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“We have seen tragedies like this too many times,”
the PRESIDENT OBAMA said in Warsaw.
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“All of us as Americans should be troubled by these shootings,”
he continued.
“These are not isolated incidents,
they are symptomatic of a broader set of racial disparities
that exist in our criminal justice system.”
http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/president-obama-address-police-shootings/story?id=40419109
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My/OUR Minnesota Governor, Mark Dayton, addresses the killing of Philando Castile.
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At a press conference Thursday, Minnesota Gov. Dayton, called the shooting
“totally unacceptable.”
He said he found both the shooting and the aftermath
“absolutely appalling at all levels,
” noting in particular that no first aid was provided to Castile,
while other police officers did attend
to the officer who fired the shots”.
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Dayton also criticized the “stark treatment” of Reynolds by police.
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“Justice will be served,” Dayton said.
“Justice must be served.”
“Would this have happened if those passengers,
the driver and the passengers, were white?”
asked Dayton.
“I don’t think it would have.
So I’m forced to confront,
and I think all of us in Minnesota are forced to confront,
that this kind of racism exists.”
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http://video.startribune.com/girlfriend-who-recorded-video-describes-what-happened/385878211/
Diamond Reynolds describes St. Anthony officer who shot
DEAD her boyfriend as ‘very frantic’
Reynolds reconstructed Wednesday night’s shooting and what transpired after her viral video ends
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“CD MAN” of Baton Rouge aka Alton Sterling killed with MULTIPLE SHOTS
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WARNING VERY GRAPHIC
GRAPHIC EVIDENCE OF BATON ROUGE POLICE SHOOTING TO DEATH
A CITIZEN – WHO WAS A REGULAR STREET VENDOR OF CD
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MARVIN GAYE
WHAT’S GOING ON
PLEASE WATCH! HIS INTRODUCTION IS POIGNANT/DEVASTATING.
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James Baldwin Tells Us All How to Cool It This Summer
Is it too late, now, to put out the fire this time?
An interview, forty-seven years later.
http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/interviews/a23960/james-baldwin-cool-it/
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LIVING IN FEAR BECAUSE HOW GOD
SHAPED/COLORED YOUR SACRED BODY.
LIVING IN FEAR WHEN AN ACTION
MAY BE FATALLY MIS-INTERPRETED.
LIVING IN FEAR BECAUSE YOU ARE YOU.
AMERICA NAME THE WHY NOW!
ENOUGH WAS A LONG, LONG TIME AGO!
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FRESHDRIEDBLOODIAMHUMAN Catherine L. Johnson 2013
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CLICK TWICE ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE
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FOR FURTHER INFORMATION ON FRESHDRIEDBLOODIAMHUMAN 2013:
https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2015/05/02/depraved-heart-murder-marilyn-mosby-attorney-general-of-maryland-homicide-of-freddie-gray-freshdriedblood-humanity-portfolio-2013-catherine-l-johnson-artist/
https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2014/11/27/freshdriedbloodiamhuman-ferguson-usa-prevailing-narratives-moral-courage-creative-courage-why/
https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2013/09/08/no-woman-no-cry-no-shrieks-no-woman-no-cry-no-shrieks-i-cannot-bear-to-hear-people-crying-in-pain-if-you-know-and-were-told-you-are-complicit-to-the-psychic-damages-injuries-of-others/
https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2015/11/14/humanly-possible-the-empathy-exhibition-instinct-art-gallery-21-november-2015-16-january-2016-freshdriedbloodiamhuman-2013-catherine-l-johnson-the-humanity-port/
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Philando Castile and Alton Sterling were murdered by the police because (fill in the blank lines):
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Both were men who were loved/cherished and were irreplaceable sparkling jewels
to their friends, families and communities.
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They were feared by their own community’s police
because they were BLACK men.
They were not red, white or blue men.
They were AMERICAN men who were murdered by their own community police
– who are, allegedly, trained to protect ALL citizens.
They are being profoundly mourned by the people who loved them.
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And, our nation has revealed its true colors once again and once again
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O say can you see,
by the dawn’s early light,
what so proudly we hailed
at the twilight’s last gleaming,
whose broad stripes and bright stars,
through the perilous fight,
o’er the ramparts we watched,
were so gallantly streaming?
And the rocket’s red glare,
the bombs bursting in air,
gave proof through the night
that our flag was still there.
O say does that star-spangled banner yet wave
o’er the land of the free
and the home of the brave?
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O thus be it ever,
when freemen shall stand
between their loved homes
and the war’s desolation!
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Blest with victory and peace,
may the heaven-rescued land
praise the Power that hath made
and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must,
when our cause it is just,
and this be our motto,
“In God we trust.”
And the star-spangled banner
in triumph shall wave
o’er the land of the free
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These executions of American men are shockingly tragic
and
a sucker punch to our democracy,
yet, another disclosure of embedded bias and fear.
Police in America need to be trained in HOW to recognize
their own bias, bigotry and their reflexive FEARS.
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Snipers shoot 11 Dallas police officers during protest rally, killing four, police say
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2016/07/07/two-police-officers-reported-shot-in-downtown-dallas-near-scene-of-earlier-protests/
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Jesse Williams’ ACCEPTANCE SPEECH for the 2016 BET Humanitarian Award:
https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2016/06/27/jesse-williams-accepting-the-humanitarian-award-at-the-bet-awards-on-sunday26-june-in-la-gentrifying-our-genius-and-then-trying-us-on-like-costumes-before-discarding-our-bodies-like-rinds-of-s/
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Like a garden and a gardener:
what blooms/flourishes in a nation reveals what it
sows / tends / values and ultimately cherishes:
https://catherineljohnson.wordpress.com/2016/03/15/darkness-cannot-drive-out-darkness-hate-cannot-drive-out-hate-the-trump-brand-is-not-the-character-of-a-leader-in-the-worlds-theatre-what-is-calling-out-violen/
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I created an e-card for the birthday of my dear, since childhood, friend, Rob.
Today is his birthday: 8 July.
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My cherished friend is a PA for the Center of International Health.
CIH is the FIRST place where refugees come as they enter Minnesota
Rob commissioned an original of my Pine Tree: HOPE 2005 (42″ H x 28″W) for CIH.
(Pine Tree: HOPE 2005 was created as a PRAYER for the deafening despair
of the those who survived/died in the wake of Hurricane Katrina 2005.)
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Rob’s response/reply to my e-card HAPPY BIRTHDAY:
Oh thank you.
Except my heart is aching for our society.
Very scary times.
I take joy today in welcoming 2 newly arrived Bhutanese refugee families
who still see America as a land of equality, freedom, and opportunity.
RC
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CATHERINE L. JOHNSON 
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