I usually don't read Ebony Magazine. However, on one particular day, I was at a relatives house and it had Michael Jackson's digitally re-mastered face on it so, as a fan of his in the 80's I decided to check it out.

I then read an article written by Michael Eric Dyson titled "Its Not Only The Jena 6, You Could Be Next!". I was then reminded why I don't read Ebony Magazine.

The article started out well enough talking about how black youth get targeted and how stereotypes help this out. But then, the article disintegrated into foolishness and ignorance. Let me fire some bullets.

• "The much ballyhooed war on drugs in the 1980s was a war on black and brown youth."
  
  I came of age during the 80's and even though due to court-ordered bussing I went to a school that had no less than three gangs in it, I was not arrested during this war. Because of the fact that I and many of my friends did not do or sell drugs, nothing happened. Common sense would tell you, that if you are being targeted for arrest for illegal activity its not a good idea to engage in it. That statement in its entirety is stupid.
  
  
• "Jena 6 should teach young Black males and the rest of us to be vigilant in the fight for justice"
  
  Anyone with half a brain, who would do 5 minutes of research on the whole Jena 6 mess would know it was a string of mostly unrelated incidents cobbled together by the news media and spun out of control by black leaders. Those young men were already on the path to prison. Good Lord.
  
  
• "Never mind the alleged complicity of the Regan Administration in the flooding of poor Black urban communities with crack cocaine to fund an illegal war in Nicaragua"
  
  WTF? Now I give Michael Eric Dyson some credit here, he did use the word alleged. He is not as dumb as that statement would suggest he is. The fact is there is not one shred of evidence that there was any effort by Ronald Regan, or anyone close to him to ensure crack arrived in Black communities. However, I am sure Michael Eric Dyson understands that all he has to do is associate something bad happening in the black communities and use the name of any Republican to get ignorant black people started. Its this kind of rhetoric that perpetuates the tendency of Black people to blame everything on everyone else and especially Republicans.

There is something common between the Jena 6 incident and The Clearlake Three. They were both started by young black men engaging in either assault, attempted murder or some combination of the two. Now ask yourself, if they did not engage in this behavior, would they have gone to jail?

There are times I wish I was old enough or perhaps ignorant enough to understand where all of this kind of crackpot conspiracy foolishness comes from. Perhaps I am out of touch because I did not grow up during the 60's so I can be jaded enough to believe anything that is told to me. Really I don't think so. There are a lot of people in the black community who have a vested interest in making sure foolishness like these rumors, the Jena 6 myth, The Clearlake 3 continue to swirl in the minds of an uninformed populace.

It funds the Civil Rights Industrial Complex, sells magazines, funds churches and pays speakers.

Perhaps, I am in the wrong business. I need some FU money. I think I am going to start a rumor that George W. Bush allegedly had Kanye West's mother killed. Even though theres no evidence and at best circumstantial, its good enough for Black people. Where's Ebony's number? I got something ignorant to say! Im gonna start booking some speeches!