BOBBEE BEE: ANTI-BULLYING CURRICULUM

According to www.findapsychologist.com,
When people think about bullying many imagine something like this: one child yelling at another to give up their lunch money.

But the reality of bullying is very different and unfortunately much more severe.

Did you know that over 70% of students report that bullying is a problem at their school?

And that about one out of ten middle school kids drop out of or change schools due to bullying?

Broadly speaking bullying can be defined as unwanted, aggressive behavior that involves some kind of power imbalance.

Bullying isn’t limited to physical abuse – verbal, emotional, and cyberbullying are also common in many schools.

Although bullying is commonly associated with kids and adolescents it also impacts adults.

Helping a child through a bullying situation can be complicated and often requires collaboration between parents, kids, teachers, and school counselors. If you are concerned that your child is being bullied it is especially important to ask your child how their day at school went.

Because some children feel embarrassed about being bullied, asking about this topic directly may not help you find an answer.

Bullying can contribute to students feeling socially isolated, worthless or depressed. In addition, the psychological effects of bullying can last well into adulthood and increase a person’s chance of experiencing things like anxiety disorders.

As a result, Terrence Graham, owner of 5 Foot Productions, created the  Bobbee Bee the HATER, which is a clever acronym that stands for H. is A.nger T.eaches E.verybody R.eality Anti-Bullying Curriculum, which is an academic program, designed to meet the academic, developmental, emotional, and social needs of students K-12, which in completion, will answer the following difficult questions like:

Are you a bully? Are you being bullied? And What do you do if you are being bullied.

 

 For more information contact Terrence W.Graham at gmccounseling@yahoo.com

BOBBEE BEE: DOPE BOY FRESH!!!

With claims of bringing Hip-Hop back and resurrecting it from the dead, Carolina’s own Black poetry writer, Eric D. Graham, aka Steel Magnolia, shows why he has the potential to do just that with the recent release of his latest two songs Breathe & Let It Go and Dope Boy Fresh from his up-and coming debut mixtape/album Pocket Full of Ghetto Poems, which many consider to be a Hip-Hop classic already.

Especially, with lyrics like these, banging in your headphones:


 

“Bow Ties and Brown Liquor

I rhyme sicker than a 96’ drug dealer

Rimmed out, Chains out,

Guns showin’

My mail is open

My phone is tapped

I killed rap

I brought Hip-Hop back

It’s the Return of the Hip-Hop fiend

High off Coffee and Creatine

Tell them boys to ‘Kill that Noise’

This is Hip-Hop on Steroids

To all the non-believer

I was baptized at St.Peter

I gotta 9mm

It’s deeper

Than the Grim Reaper

Three can keep a secret

If two of them are dead

Somebody is working for the FEDS

Remember, what I said

From the song Dope Boy Fresh

For more information on this album contact Eric D.Graham at lbiass34@yahoo.com

BOBBEE BEE: TRIGGER WARNING!!

Trigger Warning: Discussions of violence

White people believed that whatever the manners, under every dark skin was a jungle. Swift unnavigable waters, swinging screaming baboons, sleeping snakes, red gums ready for their sweet white blood. In a way, he thought, they were right. The more colored people spent their strength trying to convince them how gentle they were, how clever and loving, how human, the more they used themselves up to persuade whites of something Negroes believed could not be questioned, the deeper and more tangled the jungle grew inside. But it wasn’t the jungle blacks brought with them to this place from the other (livable) place. It was the jungle white folks planted in them. And it grew. It spread. In, through and after life, it spread, until it invaded the whites who had made it. Touched them every one. Changed and altered them. Made them bloody, silly, worse than even they wanted to be, so scared were they of the jungle they had made. The screaming baboon lived under their own white skin; the red gums were their own.

Toni Morrison, Beloved

We hold these truths to be self evident,
That Black and Brown people in America,
No matter our country of origin,
Are under surveillance by the police state,
Under attack by white supremacy, homophobia, and misogynoir,
And suffer under the threat of annihilation everyday.
Respectability hasn’t saved us.  
You can get killed holding a sandwich,
Walking home from the corner store,
for Playing your music “too loud,” or even while
Looking for help after crashing your car.
You can see your children swept away in the storm,
You can be gunned down in aisle of a big box store.
Respectability can’t save us.
You can be assaulted at a traffic stop,
Be attacked while walking home with your friends,
Get shot 41 times for reaching for your wallet,
Or be left to an ignoble death after second-rate health care.
It doesn’t matter if you are heading to college
Or headed to the corner to slang rock
Our pursuit of Life, Liberty, and Happiness is a pipe Dream.

Respectability won’t save us.
Don’t think just showing your ID,

Speaking the King’s English,
Letting go of saggy pants and gold fronts,
Is enough to stem the tide of all our spilled blood,

Is enough to prove that our lives matter.

Respectability was never meant to save us.

Only we can stem the tide
By showing up for one another,
Showing out for another,
Loving on ourselves and each other,

Marching, agitating, organizing, and supporting each other.

We’ve always been here and
We are the ones we’ve been waiting for.

Original piece from writers at Crunk Feminist Collective

BOBBEE BEE: BLACK LIVES MATTER!!!

"It doesn’t take many words to tell the truth."

— Sitting Bull

BOBBEE BEE: I CAN'T BREATHE!!!

NORTH CAROLINA-(BASN)-

I Can’t Breathe!!!

Yes.
 

The entire world has been put in a chokehold, as we slowly grasp for air, after there were no indictments in the murder of Eric Garner, who died in a July confrontation with the NYPD and Michael Brown, an unarmed teenager, who was fatally shot and killed by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson, allegedly with his “Hands Up.”

Yes, it’s a difficult to breathe during times like these.

Matter of fact, it feels like Chicago Bears WR Brandon Marshall trying to breathe after running a Fly pattern with two cracked ribs and a collapsed lung.

 

Oh, yes!!

 

 

It is difficult to breathe like trying to run a 2-minute offense with a bad case of asthma in Denver, Colorado at Mile High Stadium in December.

And so, while we desperately try to find some oxygen, we, all, become faint and light headed, as the sports world and the political world meet face-to-face, as the smoke from the burning buildings and tear gas from the “Riot police” linger in the atmosphere, which causes all of us to choke.




“I Can’t Breathe!!!”

Someone, anyone, please, offer me mouth to mouth resuscitation. (CPR)
 

It’s like a scene from Do The Right Thing-Radio Raheem!!!
 

I Can’t Breathe!!!

Yes, art imitates life!!!

But, for Christ sake….

“I Can’t Breathe!!!”

And, shockingly, as the world watched an innocence man die at the hands of injustice, through a different lens, they viewed the same tragic event with different eyes.

He is guilty.
He shouldn’t have resisted.
He was a huge man.
I saw a “demon..a hulk..”

Oh, what a tangled web we weave when we try to deceive…

“I Can’t Breathe!!!”

After all of this, as an athlete, what do you do, what do you say?

Especially, after “white” commentators continue to describe you as a “BEAST,” “A MONSTER,” and a “HORSE” after a touchdown, a Slam-Dunk, or a vicious tackle.
Do you play or protest?

Or, do you simply remain silent, pretending that the killing of an innocence Black man at the hands of the cops doesn’t affect you and your children because you have a million dollar contract and some colorful Nike shoes.

“I Can’t Breathe!!!”

Seriously, what are you going to do?
Play or Protest?

I mean, the chants are getting louder outside the arena.

“Shut it down; shut it down, Eric Garner, Michael Brown!!”

Are you going to pretend not to hear the cries of the people?



Are you embarrassed? Do you really think you can drown out the voices of the people with your Beats by Dre headphones?

“I Can’t Breathe!!!”

Feel the pressure around your chest….

“I Can’t Breathe!!!”

With over 17, 732 people at the Barclay Center, along with NBA Commissioner Adam Silver and the duke and duchess of Cambridge, Will and Kate-in the audience, what do you do?

I know you are nervous?
 

Are you afraid you’re going to be fired? Or lose your endorsements?

 

“I Can’t Breathe!!!”
 

The chants are getting louder, eating at your conscience.
 

“No Justice, No Peace!!!”
 

Chicago Bulls Derrick Rose was bold enough to do it along with the Detroit Lions RB Reggie Bush.

Plus, the St.Louis Rams, whose Rams Park is about 8 miles from Ferguson, showed their solidarity to the family of Michael Brown, when Kenny Britt and four other wide receivers posed with their Hands Up during the pre-game intro.

Even some players from the dysfunctional football team in Washington, DC showed that they were down for the “cause” despite not boycotting their own team’s racist nickname.
 

Time is ticking.


You Can’t Ignore It.

And without hesitation, Cleveland Cavs stars Lebron James and Kyrie Irving and several Brooklyn Nets players, including Kevin Garnett, Deron Williams,  Jarrett Jack, and Alan Anderson, bravely displayed their T-shirts with the phrase “I Can’t Breathe” during the pre-game warm-ups, which were the last words spoken by Eric Garner before his unfortunately demise.
 

And, to be honest, when I saw Lebron James sporting his “I Can’t Breathe” tee-shirt, I felt a “little” “choked-up” as well.
 

Why? Because, the King has spoken.
 

Now, the ball is in our court.

Eric D.Graham, a graduate of Winston-Salem State University, where he received a B.A. in Mass Communication with a concentration in Radio and Television, with a minor in History, with an emphasis in African-American Studies, is currently the Managing Editor of Black Athlete Sports Network, where his articles appear daily along with his controversial cartoon character Bobbee Bee “The Hater.” Graham can be reached at lbiass34@yahoo.com or go to www.bobbeethehater.blogspot.com

BOBBEE BEE: 14 Teens Killed by Cops Since Michael Brown

Since Ferguson, police have killed more than a dozen teenagers, half of them black. Some did nothing more than carry a BB gun.

 

Michael Brown’s death on August 9 was a nationwide wake-up call to the death-by-cop of young minority men at the hands of law enforcement.

According to data stretching from 1999 to 2011, African Americans have comprised 26 percent of all police-shooting victims. Overall, young African Americans are killed by cops 4.5 times more often than people of other races and ages.

Since Brown’s death, at least 14 other teenagers—at least six of them African-American—have been killed by law enforcement in a variety of circumstances.

Tamir Rice

Tamir Rice wasn’t yet a teenager when he was killed on November 22 in a Cleveland, Ohio park. The 12-year-old boy was shot by a police officer after brandishing what turned out to be a BB gun. A call made to police beforehand described Rice as “a guy with a pistol” on a swing set, but said it was “probably fake.”

When officers arrived at the scene, they say Rice reached for his toy, though did not point it at them, prompting a first-year policeman to fire two shots at Rice from a short distance.
On Monday night, as the Brown indictment verdict was announced, a local councilor summed these up without getting tangled in blame and legalities:

"Perhaps, after our analysis, we learn that the police officer really did fear for his life and did everything right under the circumstances,” City Councilman Jeffrey Johnson said at a meeting. “But there is something fundamentally broken in our system when a young man can have a legal BB gun, and by the end of that day be killed by a Cleveland police officer.”

Cameron Tillman

On the evening of September 21, police were called to check on reports of trespassers with weapons going into an abandoned home in Terrebonne, Louisiana. Cameron Tillman, a 14-year-old boy was shot dead on the scene by a sheriff’s deputy. His brother, who was there, said he was shot opening the door and was unarmed, but the police said he was armed and that a gun was recovered near his body. It was later reported that the weapon was a BB gun that appeared to be a .45-caliber pistol. The cop was not named, but was identified as an African-American veteran of the division with no prior infractions.

VonDerrit Myers Jr.

VonDerrit Myers Jr. was shot in the head in early October not far from where Michael Brown died two months earlier. The 18-year-old was shot six or seven times in the Shaw neighborhood of St. Louis after an off-duty police officer fired at him 17 times.

Police say Myers charged at the identified as Jason Flanery, a 32-year-old white patrolman.
policeman, they wrestled, and then he shot at least three bullets before his gun jammed.

Myers had been out on bail in a gun case, but his family claimed he was unarmed and holding only a sandwich in his hand.

That night, a crowd of 300 gathered at the scene, and violence broke out: gunshots echoed and police vehicles were damaged.

Laquan McDonald

After a tire-puncturing spree in late October, 17-year-old Laquan McDonald wasshot dead by a police officer in Chicago. Officers reported to a call about someone breaking into cars in the Archer Heights neighborhood. The teen refused to drop his knife, according to officers, fixed them with “a 100-yard stare,” and walked toward them. That’s when a cop fired at McDonald, killing him.

Carey Smith-Viramontes

Few details have been revealed about the shooting of an 18-year-old girl in Long Beach, California last week. Officers were responding to a report of a missing juvenile girl, and found her in the house of Carey Smith-Viramontes.

According to police, Smith-Viramontes was armed with a knife and was shot dead by an officer on the scene.

Jeffrey Holden

An 18-year-old was killed by police officers after opening fire on a cop with two guns in Kansas City in late October. Jeffrey Holden had reportedly been shooting at houses and passersby before the authorities arrived at the scene. he was listed as a missing person and had two outstanding warrants.

Qusean Whitten

Two armed robbers were killed after holding up a Dollar General Store in Columbus, Ohio in October. Eighteen-year-old Qusean Whitten had jumped from the car he was using to flee the scene and started running when police opened fire.

Miguel Benton

In early October, 19-year-old Miguel Benton managed to steal an officer’s gun and shoot him twice.

Two cops were transporting Benton and another inmate to jail on drug and robbery charges in Georgia when the incident occurred.

Another officer shot and killed Benton.

Dillon McGee

Eighteen-year-old Dillon McGee of Jackson, Tennessee, died after being shot by police officers who claim he was attempting to run them over in a car.

On September 26, officers were targeted after approaching a car, driven by McGee, and fired at the driver. McGee was the father of a one-month-old son.

Levi Weaver

A man welding a baseball bat and a kitchen knife lunged at police officers in his home in Georgia, and was fatally shot in late September.

According to the sheriff, 18-year-old Levi Weaver begged the officer to shoot him, and then leapt at him. The officer shot Weaver twice.

Karen Cifuentes

A 19-year-old woman was killed in September after an undercover police watched a drug deal go down in Oklahoma City.

One of the suspects got in a car driven by Karen Cifuentes and took off, apparently hitting one of the officers who fired then opened fire and killed her.

Sergio Ramos

In August, an 18-year-old was shot and killed by a Dallas police officer after a car crash in a parking lot near a Walmart store.

According to police, Sergio Ramos had just robbed a killed an associate when he was confronted by an off-duty cop, reached for the gun in his shorts, and was shot multiple times.

Roshad McIntosh

Some 500 anti-police protesters took to Chicago’s streets after a 19-year-old man’s death at the hands of police.

On August 24, Roshad McIntosh was being questioned by cops when he began running. Police say he pulled a gun on them, but his family claimed that McIntosh was kneeling on the ground with his hands in the air.

Nearly a month later, his mother brought another protest to city hall, demanding answers in her son’s killing.

Diana Showman

A mentally ill woman brandishing a power drill was shot dead by an officer after she called 911 and told San Jose dispatchers she had an Uzi. Diana Showman, 19, had come out of her house, ignored demands to put down the weapon, and was shot once. Showman’s parents criticized the officer’s response, saying that the police needed to be better equip to handle mental health issues.

BOBBEE BEE: HANDS-UP COALITION!!!

“It's time for the President or the Attorney General to declare a state of emergency.”

In reaction to the white supremacist grand jury decision that exonerated slave patroller cum police officer Darren Wilson for his shooting and killing of unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown, on December 1st, the Hands-Up Coalition DC will commence sustained demonstrations in front of the Department of Justice.

The entire grand jury process was abused from day one in this case. The system is anti-black, the policies are anti-black, shooting first and asking questions later is anti-black and slandering slain black men and women in choreographed leaks to the press after these people are dead and can no longer speak for themselves is anti-black.

The Hands Up Coalition DC calls on Attorney General Eric Holder to stand with the people of
Ferguson—and every other community in the United States where a communique white police routinely slaughter black citizens—and intervene in this case. The local DA in Missouri hid behind the grand jury so he wouldn't have to face political consequences. It's time for the President or the Attorney General to declare a state of emergency: not because of what the citizens of Ferguson may do, but rather, based on the demonstrated assault the police department has waged against Ferguson citizens for decades.

A communique released earlier this week by the young people of Ferguson made clear that they are not asking for Officer Wilson to be killed, or to be shot and left in the street, or to be lynched. Rather, they are asking that a white police officer, who shot an unarmed black teen in front of witnesses be brought to trial in a system that was created and is maintained daily to provide justice. They want Officer Wilson brought into that system—not shielded from it by the grand jury.
The Coalition, standing in solidarity with #FergusonAction, has adopted the following demands:

1. The demilitarization of local law enforcement across the country.

 Strict limits on the transfer and use of military equipment to local law enforcement and the adoption of the Stop Militarizing Law Enforcement Act of 2014. The federal government should discontinue the supply of military weaponry and equipment to and immediately demilitarize local law enforcement, including eliminating the use of military technology and equipment.
2. A comprehensive review of systemic abuses by local police departments, including publication of data on racially biased policing and the development of best practices.
 A comprehensive review by the Department of Justice into systematic abuses by police departments and the development of specific use of force standards and accompanying recommendations for police training, community involvement and oversight strategies and standards for independent investigatory/disciplinary mechanisms when excessive force is used.

These standards must include a Department of Justice review trigger when continued excessive use of force occurs. A comprehensive federal review of police departments' data collection practices and the development of a new comprehensive data collection system that allows for annual reporting of data on the rates of stops, frisks, searches, summonses and arrests by race, age, and gender. These standards must also include a DOJ review trigger when departments continue discriminatory policing practices.

1. Repurposing of law enforcement funds to support community based alternatives to incarceration and the conditioning of DOJ funding on the ending of discriminatory policing and the adoption of DOJ Best Practices.
   
   
    The repurposing of DOJ funds to create grants that the support and implementation community oversight mechanisms and community based alternatives to law enforcement and incarceration—including community boards/commissions, restorative justice practices, amnesty programs to clear open warrants, and know-your-rights-education conducted by community members.  The development of a DOJ policy to withhold funds from local police departments who engage in discriminatory policing practices and conditioning of federal grant funds on the adoption of recommended DOJ trainings, community involvement and oversight strategies, standards for use of force and for independent investigatory/disciplinary mechanisms.
2. Congressional hearings to investigating the criminalization of communities of color, racial profiling, police abuses and torture by law enforcement.
    Congressional hearings to investigate the criminalization of communities of color and systemic law enforcement discriminatory profiling and other abuses, especially at the local level—including an examination of the systemic structures and institutional practices. The hearings will explore how to elevate the experiences and voices of those most impacted. Congressional hearings will allow for a continuation of the national discussion about police abuse and its underlying causes.
3. Support the passage of the End Racial Profiling Act.
     Support for the passage of the End Racial Profiling Act (ERPA) codifying the prohibition of the use of profiling on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin or religion by law enforcement agencies.

4. The Obama Administration develops, legislates and enacts a National Plan of Action for Racial Justice.
    The development and enactment of a Plan of Action for Racial Justice by the Obama Administration. The 'Plan' should be a comprehensive in addressing persistent and ongoing forms of racial discrimination and disparities that exist in nearly every sphere of life, including: criminal justice, employment, housing, education, health, land/property, voting, poverty and immigration. The Plan would set concrete targets for achieving racial equality and reducing racial disparities and create new tools for holding government accountable to meeting targets.

 The Hands Up Coalition DC encourages everyone concerned about police brutality, mass incarceration and justice denied to black communities terrorized by modern day Slave Patrols disguised as police officers to join the national text network. Text "HANDSUP" to 90975. This will enroll people in a nationwide database to be engaged in future mobilizations.
#DCFerguson Movement led a march and rally “the day after” the grand jury verdict in response to the unjust verdict at Mt. Vernon Square Park in Washington, DC.
We need for everyone to participate in the demonstrations in front of the Department of Justice starting December 1st or find a demonstration or rally in your area.

Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo is the author of No FEAR: A Whistleblowers Triumph over Corruption and Retaliation at the EPA, that is available through amazon.com. Dr. Coleman-Adebayo worked at the EPA for 18 years and blew the whistle on a US multinational corporation that endangered vanadium mine workers. Marsha's successful lawsuit led to the introduction and passage of the first civil rights and whistleblower law of the 21st century: the Notification of Federal Employees Anti-discrimination and Retaliation Act of 2002 (No FEAR Act). She is Director of Transparency and Accountability for the Green Shadow Cabinet, serves on the Advisory Board of ExposeFacts.com., and coordinates the DC-based Hands-Up Coalition. www.marshacoleman-adebayo.com.