There’s No Justice In The Law

by Lord Serious

Justice cannot be arrested by law. Justice cannot be confined to any statute. Whenever lawmakers attempt to codify justice, justice ceases to exist. The framers thought they captured it in the constitution, but that is no justice. That is only the imitation of justice. The narrow scope of the law is only a cheap replica of what lawmakers think justice should be. Do these man made laws truly serve the greater good? If so, then why do these public safety policies result in disparate treatment that makes disadvantage groups feel unsafe? When the law being implemented in the interest of justice serves only special interest; these laws aren’t just, they’re just the law.

Justice is an art, the law is a science. One is abstract and infinite while the other concrete and finite. It is justice that established the four seasons and equally divided time between day and night. It is the law that caused global warming and decides daylight savings time. The law’s limitation is that it can only impose penalties. But justice is boundless in its ability to grant rewards. The nature of law is to discriminate. But justice will befriend an enemy, because it’s nature is to be indiscriminate. The law can be used to condemn and incriminate the innocent. Justice has fulfilled its purpose when it redeems and liberates the guilty.

The criminal justice system is a system of laws governing institutions to punish those who have violated the law. This system is so structured that it has an inherent bias towards the social conditions of the impoverished. Those who are being marginalized and excluded from mainstream society are disproportionately underemployed. They disproportionately suffer from mental health issues. Furthermore, their environmental conditions disproportionately exposes them to traumatic experiences within their homes and in their community.

As a direct result of these conditions, a major disparity exists between which socioeconomic class receives heavy scrutiny under the law and which receives a slap on the wrist. There are disparities in how the law penalizes the white collar and corporate crimes predominantly committed by the upper class. Versus how the law punishes the property crime, substance abuse, and violent crimes that are caused by poverty. Justice will always correct imbalance wherever it may exist. But the laws inhibit justice, because they are what cause the imbalances within this society to increase: the wage gap, the shrinking middle class, the opioid crisis. All of these social conditions are symptoms of the larger class conflict. These are the effects caused by laws that reflect the predatory behavior of the capitalist elite.

It is the law that permits the capitalist elite to cause an economic crisis that disproportionately harms middle class and lower class Americans. Increasing layoffs and unemployment nationwide. It is the law that provides government bailouts to the wealthy, but provides no relief to the member of the middle class facing foreclosure. It is the law that allows the institutional investor to buy these single family homes for pennies on the dollar and gentrify impoverished neighborhoods. Then put these properties back on the rental market and raise rent on the underprivileged. It is the law that permits the increase of evictions and then passes new laws to ban homeless encampments.

For this system to be just, it must stop punishing its citizens for being victimized by the very social conditions the laws create. Until lawmakers see those of us on the bottom of the social hierarchy, the laws will continue to protect the capital interest of their donors and special interest groups. Until legislators open their eyes to the social disorder being caused by the predatory behavior of the upper class, the law will continue to be wielded as a weapon to criminalize every member of the American underclass who accepts defeat. The law imposes retribution and it demands deterrence, but justice repairs harm and it restores balance. Laws penalizing those responsible for structuring this society in a way that causes the conditions influencing criminal behavior do not exist and they never will. These conditions are only allowed to exist, because there is no justice in the law.

P.E.A.C.E
Proper Education Always Corrects Error

Lord Serious Hakim Allah

(aka James Boughton # 1404741)

Lawrenceville Correctional Center

A WORLD WITH NO SUPER HEROES

by Lord Serious

As election season approaches, this society takes its cue from the pages of its favorite comic books. Superheroes suddenly appear on the scene in crime infested neighborhoods to begin their campaigns to be elected as the next savior of the world. While all of this is happening, a Boogyman is being manufactured to sway public opinion. Mainstream media, the trusted sidekick of the hero, uses explosive headlines and catchy catch phrases to highlight the obvious need for new legislation to save the world. With every pow, boom, and blam, the audience is drawn in more.

The super power of these heroes is neither super human strength, hyper speed, or even enhanced mental abilities. The American politician and his mass media sidekick have only one super power. They control the narrative on crime here in America through the manipulation of graphs and statistics from crime reports.

Many gun control proponents blame the increase in violent crime on the criminal reform policies enacted by many Democrats following the George Floyd protests. However, the facts do not support the narrative that an uptick in violent crime is the result of the knee jerk reactions from Democratic lawmakers, or the de-fund the police movement organized by grassroots leadership.

The troubling thing about the super villains in most comic books is that in their origin story you learn that they used to be a good guy in their past. But when they take a political position in opposition to the zero tolerance policy of the hero. Their uncompromising will places a target on their back and they get labeled the bad guy. But if it were not for the hero and certain choices the hero made, the conditions would not have existed to allow the emergence of the super villain. But this fact gets ignored.

Likewise, our political leaders would rather ignore how their decisions to militarize the police force in impoverish communities, privatize prisons, and the economic shutdown the endorsed during the pandemic influenced the spike in crime and public distrust for police.

The data shows that violent crime such as murder was increasing all throughout the country not just in Democratic localities.The number of homicides spiked almost 30% during the first year of the pandemic in both cities and rural areas, and in both red and blue states. Also, of significance is the fact that, with this increase of violent crime during the pandemic its effects were not evenly spread across all socioeconomic demographics. There weren’t any increase in affluent elderly people being attacked. The risk of being a victim of violent crime still disproportionately affected Black men and those living in impoverished communities.

Pew Research Center found that FBI data on the cause of the increase in violent crime during the pandemic was still unclear. Some of the variety of potential causes included the economic and social changes brought on by the pandemic, as well as policing policy changes in the wake of George Floyd’s death. Significantly, while murder rose 30% and Aggravated Assault rose 12%, rape and robbery declined. And despite this spike in murders, the murder rate during the pandemic was still lower than the levels seen during the early 90’s during the Crack era and Cocaine Wars. Lastly, Americans are more likely to die from suicide or drug overdose than they are to die by murder. The 2020 homicide rate was 7.8 per 100,000 people. That same year Suicide rate was 13.5 deaths per 100,000 people; overdose deaths accounted for 27.1 deaths per 100,000 people.

The heroes sidekick pointed out crime sprees and mob retail theft and blamed it on police reform and policy changes regarding bail and granting parole to violent offenders. But there was no hard proof to support this theory. Yet, Glenn Youngkin successfully won his campaign for the Governor’s house using this narrative.

You see when you are reading comic books or watching movies about comic book heroes. You tend to become so invested into the epic struggle between the forces of good and evil that you fail to think about the perspective of the average citizens living in Metropolis or Gotham City. Not everyone likes Batman, and, not everyone hates the Joker.

Many of them understand that the Bat signal is just a dog whistle informing the world that it has now become politically fashionable to fight crime. The Batman only fights low level and organized crime as a vigilante, because he is a criminal himself involved in all sorts of corporate crime. The same way America’s politicians offer pay to play and federal appointments to their corporate donors. Bruce Wayne uses the image of the Batman to protect the corporate interests of all the Wayne Enterprises of the world.

There are no super heroes or super villains in this world, there are only people. But the people we elect can make good or bad policy decisions that can influence everyday law abiding citizens into making a split second decision to violate the law. Should the crime be a violent offense, the current policies in Virginia do not grant that average citizen a second chance to gain early release through good behavior, whereby they can earn additional good time or even get paroled.

This November, I think it’s time that we elect people who will make good policies that will serve the public interest more than the corporate interests of their donors.

Lord Serious is the author of four published books. He is a hip hop artist who recently dropped a political protest mix tape against the prison industrial complex called Work Release, Vol. 2 (The Mixtape) which is now available on Apple Music, iTunes, Spotify, Pandora, YouTube, and other streaming platforms.

It Would Forever Unfit Him To Be a Slave

“….A nigger should know nothing but to obey his master – to do as he is told. Learning would spoil the best nigger in the world. Now,” he said, “if you teach that nigger (speaking of myself) how to read, there would be no keeping him. It would forever unfit him to be a slave. He would at once become unmanageable, and of no value to his master. As to himself, it could do him no good, but a great deal of harm. It would make him discontent and unhappy.” – (The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas)

Within the above quote, Frederick Douglas recounts the moment his slave master admonished his wife for teaching him (Frederick Douglas) the alphabet. According to Frederick Douglas, his enslaver was fearful that an education would make him unfit to be a slave. After witnessing this exchange Douglas was certain that the words his master spoke were true. He now understood that Whites greatest power over Blacks was their ability to keep them blinded through their ignorance. From this moment on, Douglas became obsessed with learning to read and write. But since his mistress now forbade him to learn, Douglas had to devise clever ways to get around the social barriers that made it unlawful for him to learn.

This quote is relevant today, because we now live in an era where the White power structure once again has erected new barriers that prohibit Black children from learning. Groups like Moms For Liberty have lobbied for, and Republican leaders like Florida’s Governor Desantis, have passed laws outlawing Critical Race Theory and banning books by Black authors that address race issues in America. The deprivation of a quality education for Black children remains a prominent agenda of White supremacy in America.

If Blacks living in America today hope to overcome the education barriers of our era, then we must adopt the resolve of Frederick Douglas. We must adopt the mentality that any where we are at can be transformed into a classroom and we must use every conceivable opportunity and resource at our disposal to educate ourselves and our children. As a race, we cannot allow our ability to learn to be limited by our group’s inability to receive a quality education inside of the White power structures public schoolhouse.

I once heard a story about this ancient philosopher. It is said one day one of his students came to him requesting additional education. The philosopher looked as his pupil and said, “You want to know what else I have to teach you?” The pupil replied, “Yes!” The philosopher told his pupil, “Follow me.” The two men walked to the coastline and the philosopher enter the water where it was waste deep and gestured for his pupil to follow. When they both were submerged waste deep in the water the philosopher said, “Now I will show you what else I have to teach you.” The philosopher grabs his pupil’s head and pushes it down into the water. The two struggle as the philosopher continues to hold the pupil’s head beneath the water. Finally, the philosopher relents and the pupil comes up from the water gasping for breath. The philosopher looks at him and says, “This is what I have to teach you. You should want knowledge the same way you wanted air.”

Ensuring that Black children in America are receiving a quality education is something that we have taken for granted. But when we are deprived of it, or it under threat to be taken away. We quickly realize just how important it is to our overall survival as a race of people. This should naturally produce resistance within us and create a power struggle where we fight now begin the fight for power, we now understand why it important for us alone to control our own education the same way the drowning man understands why he needs to fight for control over his right to breathe independently.

Lord Serious Hakim Allah
#1404741

Lord Serious is an author, artist, activist, blogger, and representative of the Nation of Gods and Earths and the Director of Umoja Nation. His latest children book “Squirrels, Beavers, And Everyone Else” is scheduled to be released in March as an eBook on LuLu, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and most major distributors where ebooks are sold. Work Release (The Mixtape), Vol. 1 is available on his social media pages @ Lord Serious Speaks. Lord Serious is the co-author of the “10 TOES DOWN” drug rehabilitation program and interactive facilitator of this program and the “My Next Step” program at Lawrenceville Correctional Center.

Rehabilitation = Financial Literacy

You should not be fearful of Virginia offenders receiving a program that teaches financial literacy and skills in tech. This is form of education addresses the root of our criminal behavior and this is the only way to fully rehabilitate us. Justice should not only punish, and deter. Justice should also be restorative. Restoration is an important component, but it has to go beyond fines and court cost. If we never make the money that restitution will never get paid. But if part of my rehabilitation was geared toward teaching me the difference between assets and liabilities, and it showed me how my financial illiteracy made me a liability to my community but if I became an entrepreneur I could become an asset to it. This is the type of education that rehabilitates and increases public safety. You are not just sending me home with pocket money to spend. This education will teach me how to be self sufficient. Now I no longer need to rob or sell drugs when unemployment deprives my community of jobs.

Lord Serious is the author of three published books “The Powerless Pinky” (2017), “Apotheosis – Lord Serious Hakim Allah’s Habeas Corpus Appeal” (2019), and “Umoja Means Unity” (2022) all available on Amazon. You can follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube @lordseriousspeaks. Visit my website www.Lordseriousspeaks.com.

WHAT DOES CRIMINAL JUSTICE REFORM LOOK LIKE?

by Lord Serious

On September 26, 2022 Senator Jennifer Boysko and Delegate Irene Shin paid a visit to a group of prisoners at Lawrenceville Correctional Center. After introducing myself and thanking the distinguished guest for visiting us at the prison, I asked them what were their visions for prison reform and criminal justice reform. They each spoke of their record and the various bills they have sponsored and fought to get passed. I’d like to thank Q. Patterson and Sistas In Prison Reform (S.I.P) for giving me the opportunity to be a part of the group who were chosen to attend this meeting. Below is a draft of some of the speaking points I wrote to prepare for the meeting:

First, we offenders request that you amend Code 15.2-1636.7 to prohibit the Compensation Board from continuing to use the formula suggested by Virginia Association of Commonwealth’s Attorneys. This prosecutorial interest group has suggested a formula that incentives Commonwealths Attorneys offices to seek felony convictions for funding, and it deters prosecutors from using alternative methods to secure just and fair results.

This formula contributes to the mass incarceration of Black and Brown people. It encourages prosecutors to seek felony charges over misdemeanors, and it deters them from recommending diversion programs, even in cases where a misdemeanor or diversion program will result in a more just result without jeopardizing public safety. Furthermore, the formula fails to factor in the socioeconomic factors that also influence crime. All of this results in a biased criminal justice system that encourages its prosecutors to over charge and excessively sentence minorities so that their office will receive more funding.

Once this formula has been replaced with a method that will eradicate the bias and exploitative nature of the Criminal justice system. Many of your funding issues will be solved when it comes to the Department of Corrections, because prosecutors will be less inclined to charge every criminal defendant they possibly can with a felony and sentence them to prison. Those who can remain in the community without jeopardizing public safety will receive an adequate punishment without ever having to step foot in a prison, thus they will be less of a burden on the Virginia tax payer.

Next, we request that you amend Code 9.1-601 Citizen Review Panels. We ask that you expand their oversight abilities beyond the police department. We request that their oversight authority be amended to include the Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Offices and the Probation and Parole Office.

It is our position that a lot of the socioeconomic bias that infects the criminal justice system goes beyond just police brutality. The entire system neither values nor does it respect the Black and Brown life, especially when they are from impoverished communities. Therefore, we ask that municipalities be given the authority to establish Community Review Panels that will maintain the checks and balances and make these two critical departments accountable to the communities they serve.

The Community Review Panel should be allowed to play a role in determining whether Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Offices are dealing too harshly with the citizens in their community. It’s easy for an office of predominantly White people to send young Black and Brown men to prison for multiple decades for their first felony offense. But the very communities that we’re committing our crimes in do not always agree that a lengthy prison sentence is an appropriate punishment, and the voice of the community should have some influence in these matters before trial. Community Review Panels should be granted the authority to recommend eligible cases for diversion programs when appropriate.

The Community Review Panel should also be granted authority to review the practices of the probation and parole offices for biases and abuses of power. Ex-offenders on probation and parole have no right to an attorney for a revocation hearing and neither can they appeal the decision if their parole has been revoked. This leaves ex-offenders at the mercy of the probation and parole office and they are powerless to prevent abuses of power. Therefore, Community Review Panels should also be granted oversight authority to protect returning citizens from bias probation or parole officers.

And lastly, we would like you to pass a law to make financial literacy a requirement for our rehabilitation. The Uniform Crime Report data shows that poverty is a major contributor to crime. In fact, that report list economic conditions and employment availability as the #3 influencer to crime in the Commonwealth, eclipsed only by population density and population stability which were #1 and #2 respectively.

Legislators in Virginia recognize that having access to more financial resources can help prevent recidivism. This is why the law was passed that now requires us to save $1,000 in our hold account. Obviously, legislators realized that Virginia offenders were not doing a good enough job with saving their money and many were being released with only the $25 they gave you for the bus ticket and the lack of financial stability is what was leading many to re-offend. Unfortunately, with inflation steadily increasing that $1,000 will have less impact by the time many of us are released.

So that $1,000 is not enough. If you distinguished guest are serious about prison reform and preventing recidivism then the nature of the Department of Corrections will have to change course, it must turn away from it’s past when it was a system that used mass incarceration as a profitable economic model. This economic model has failed and your budget issues and the statistics all show that mass incarceration is an unnecessary burden on the tax payer and it has never increased public safety.

-Lord Serious, September 2022

What’s Free, Part 2

by Lord Serious

What does freedom mean to you? Freedom is commonly defined as being free from restraint or bondage. There will be some who will read this, who think to be free simply means “you are not in jail or prison.” Then there are others who are currently in prison, or who’ve spent time in confinement, who view it a little differently. After serving time as a prisoner under physical restraint and bondage, you may tend to look at what it means to be ‘free’ from totally different perspective.

When you no longer have the freedom to come and go as you please, you quickly realize that the worst thing about being incarcerated is not the physical bondage; it’s the mental chains that weigh you down the most. Being trapped in your own head, reliving past traumatic events, imaging endless scenarios about how your life would’ve turned out differently if you had only made different decisions. The stress and tortured inflicted by the what ifs, the I should’ve – could’ve – would’ves, and the unbearable pain of heartache you feel after losing a loved one who you never got to say goodbye to, or a love interest to another man who can fulfill her physical needs. All of the above cause pain that teach the physical prisoner that it is the mental chains that he must first liberate himself from in order to endure and survive prison.

But you see the problem with these two perspectives is that they are too narrow. What freedom is, or isn’t in the above-mentioned context can only be explained through its relation to prison.

What about the restraints society imposes upon the public? Do these encroach upon our freedom? Do the laws and social norms impede our ability to fully express ourselves? Are we somehow less free in a society with man made laws that place restrictions on our behavior? What about the laws of nature? Can you be truly free if you are unwillingly bound to obey the physical laws of the universe?

What about financial freedom? Why must we borrow and accrue debt just to live a lifestyle beyond our means? Why must I pay back what I borrow, especially when the creditor adds interest? In a truly free society, wouldn’t food, clothing, and shelter be free?

What is sexual freedom and should society place limitations on it? Should people have the sexual freedom to explore all our their urges whenever they choose? Should same sex marriages be lawful in a free society? Should the society determine gender roles, or are we free from making a choice because these roles have already been predetermined by nature? Are we bound to the gender of our genitals or do we have the freedom to change it whenever we please? Now, do not think I am advocating any of the above-mentioned behavior. This is simply an impartial analysis of the broader implications for what is, or what isn’t freedom?

These are some complicated and controversial personal and societal issues. But the central theme to them all is what’s freedom? These are controversial issues because they put individual freedoms into direct conflict with societal norms. It is the duty of society to act in the best interest of the majority? But many times these societal norms oppose our freedom to pursue our own individual self interest. So how do you find a balance between individual freedoms and group freedoms? How do you reconcile their differences when they take opposing sides? And who decides who’s right and who’s wrong when everyone has their own opinion?

So when you ask me what’s free? My answer is simply I don’t know. I haven’t the slightest clue what freedom is, because I have never fully experienced freedom on an individual level, nor have I experienced it on a group level. Freedom has eluded me my whole life. In fact, I spent my entire life living in a society that had laws and social norms that I played no role in deciding, yet, I had to conform to them. Sometimes I did, but a lot of times I didn’t. But these social norms are used to control the behavior of those who live within the society. Certain social deviances are frowned upon but they are accepted, but there are also categories of social deviances that this society has criminalized. As a result of my social deviance from societal norms, I was sent to prison. So as an individual, I have never been free. I have always had to live by someone else’s rules.

However, on a group level, the native Black person living in America is the most over-regulated and controlled group in this country. The societal norms of this society has literally passed laws that explicitly stated that it is illegal to be Black in America. As societal norms changed, these laws were rewritten in a race neutral language that permitted the racist spirit of the law to still be enforced. So is it really any surprise that in less than 200 years after the abolition of slavery, my group would suffer from the mass incarceration of our people all over again? Or that we would still be fighting for the freedom to cast Black ballots in free and fair elections?

What’s free? What will it take for my people to be free from racism? What will it take for the world to be free from White supremacy? I think it takes a virtuous freedom. A freedom where Black people willingly sacrifice some of their individual freedoms for the greater good of our race. Only once we achieve this unified freedom will our group gain the freedom to exercise self determination as a people. Only then will our group gain the freedom to compete against White supremacy, and only then will it be destroyed. Only after White supremacy has been destroyed, will we as individuals have the freedom to enjoy and express our melanin without fear of repercussions.

To learn more about me visit my website http://www.lordseriousspeaks.com.

The Black History Made This Black History Month

by Lord Serious

Judge Regina Chu sentenced former officer Kim Potter to serve two-thirds of a 2 year sentenced in the custody of the Department of Corrections for the manslaughter of Daunte Wright. Mr. Wright was pulled over for expired tags and having an air freshener hanging from his windshield mirror. Typically a minor traffic violation would result in nothing more than a fine. But after running his name, it was revealed that Mr. Wright had a bench warrant out for his arrest. Upon learning that he was being placed under arrest, Mr. Wright jumped back into his car and tried to drive off. At this point officer Potter, a 26-year vet claims that she mistook her firearm for her taser and Mr. Wright was fatally shot.

A jury of her peers found Mrs. Potter guilty and the guidlines called for her to receive a sentence that ranged from 6 years to 15 years in prison.

Usually, in police involved shootings of unarmed Black men our ability to prosecute the offending officer has been impeded by Grand Juries that have refused to indict. But in this case, not only did the Grand Jury determine that enough evidence existed to prosecute Kim Potter for manslaughter, but at the conclusion of Kim Potter’s trial 12 jurors were convinced beyond a reasonable doubt that she was guilty of all charges.

What makes this case stand out from all others in my mind is that, this time it was the judge and not the Grand Jury who undermined our ability to impose a sentence that would deter other officers from displaying this same predatory behavior towards unarmed Blacks. Even after a verdict has been reached, the criminal justice system still fails to dispense justice equally.

While making her ruling Judge Chu became emotional at times and made judicial comments to stave off criticism of her extremely light sentence. Judge Chu’s perspective can be summed up as this: 1) The officer should have never been indicted and charged for carrying out her lawful duties, and 2) Black people need to get over their feelings of distrust and anger toward the criminal justice system because we have the duty to keep peace. Judge Chu also quoted former President Obama out of context, suggesting that Blacks stop identifying with the pain felt by Mr. Wright’s family, and instead identify with Mrs. Potter by placing ourselves in her shoes. Kim Potter would receive a 16 month sentence, which is a substantial deviation from the 6 year to 15 year sentence recommended by the sentencing guidelines.

Minnesota police have a long history of killing unarmed Black people and I have been highlighting their corrupt police practice for years. In Apotheosis, Lord Serious Hakim Allah’s Habeas Corpus Appeal I predicted that if Blacks didn’t find new ways to fight back against this system the problem of mass incarceration and police brutality would persist:

“Before I get into what we must do to change course, I will first tell you what you can expect to happen in the next 12 months in the aftermath of the Alton Sterling and Philando Castile “murders”:

1) There will be protest with people of all races;
2) There will be a host of political debates composed of multiracial panels;
3) There will be Black leadership who calls for calm;
4) There will be Black attorneys who swear up and down a Civil Rights violation has occurred, and they will sound so convincing you will have little doubt that these police officers will finally be held accountable;
5) The state or Feds will investigate;
6) A Grand Jury will be held, and most likely, no indictments will be brought against the police officers who both were practically caught on camera;
7) You probably won’t believe me until it actually happens;

When things do go exactly as I predicted this will prove:

1) Protesting and marching alone will never be enough to change the White power structure’s perception on why #BlackLivesMatter;

2) That, the debates and panels are shams. Those panels are not all inclusive and until they begin routinely inviting grassroots leaders and allow these community leaders to express their views, the conversations are purely intellectual. Negotiations cannot occur until they start inviting the real leadership to the table;

3) That, the White power structure has always appointed Black leadership for the sole purpose of maintaining their control over our people;

4) That, just like those leaders (above) these attorneys have an invested interest in maintaining the current system; if these attorneys really wanted to bring these atrocities to a stop they would aid us in bringing the U.S. before the International Courts for their human rights violations;

5) Both state and Federal law enforcement agencies know that a conviction for police misconduct is easier to get in the state, because state legislation gives prosecutors more variety in the amount of charges they can bring against the police. However, many states’ penal codes are ambiguous (unclear) on what extent deadly force is authorized, and unless the police department has a policy to clarify these ambiguities it becomes even more difficult to secure a Grand Jury indictment against an offending officer. But if the Feds do pick up the case the wording of the Civil Rights Act basically makes it unenforceable. It must be shown beyond a reasonable doubt that the officer had a “specific intent” to violate the deceased person’s constitutional rights;

6) …When this happens in the case of Mr. Sterling and Mr. Castile, it will prove that the political analyst, Black political leaders, and the Black attorneys LIED to you when they told you that placing body cameras on White rogue police officers would deter them from continuing to shoot unarmed or cooperating Black people;
7) By the time we reach this point more innocent Black lives will be lost due to this same problem.” (pp. 20-22)

To purchase this book and learn more about Lord Serious visit his website www.Lordseriousspeaks.com.

America’s Contradictory Support for Reparations

by Lord Serious

Did you know that the United States has openly supported and even provided reparations to numerous groups who have suffered racial or ethnic oppression at the hands of a White majority? America has supported the Jewish Holocaust survivors fight for reparations from the Germans after World War II. America has provided Native Americans with reparations for its past transgressions, and it has also given reparations to Japanese victims who were confined to American concentration camps during World War II. Contrary to popular belief, reparations are not a free hand out. Reparations are usually given to a racial or ethnic group only after it has suffered an injury so severe that the party which caused the injury cannot reverse the harm, therefore, monetary compensation is given to the descendants and survivors for the purpose of making amends for the injustice that was inflicted. Most recently, President Joe Biden has approved a $460,000 payment to be given to both the parents and the Hispanic children who were separated from their parents and held in cages at the border during the Trump presidency.

Now, the uncomfortable truth is that each of these groups were entitled to receive reparations. But there is no group who has endured more inhumane treatment from the American government than Blacks living in America. No other group is more deserving of receiving reparations from the American government than the descendants of America’s former Black slaves. Yet, as I will show and prove it is our group (native Blacks living in America) who have been historically denied monetary compensation for the damage inflicted upon us by the White majority. America cannot deny its role in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, and until native Blacks receive fair compensation in the form of monetary restitution, we should never allow America to forget the injustice our group has suffered.

Why has no other group been subjected to the level of hostility and opposition whenever the topic of whether America should pay reparations is being discussed? In fact, when the topic of whether this nation should’ve supported the Jewish claim to extract reparations out of Germany for its role in the Jewish Holocaust, there was very little opposition to this cause. Most Americans overwhelmingly supported this and regarded it as their moral obligation as Anglo Saxon Christians. And the German government was forced to pay $55 billion to approximately 50,000 Jewish survivors of the Nazi death camps. That amounts to $1 million per survivor!

Likewise, in 1991, the United States government passed the Japanese Recovery Act which authorized payments to Japanese Americans who were relocated to American internment camps (concentration camps) during World War II. These Japanese Americans were not stripped of their culture and enslaved for multiple generations. Neither were they subjected to public lynchings, beatings, castrated, raped, or prohibited from learning how to read.

Yet, the American government paid each Japanese claimant $20,000 for the four years they spent in confinement. It only took the American government 42 years to apologize and provide Japanese Americans with reparations for their 4 years of suffering. Now contrast that to the 400 plus years native Blacks living in America have been forced to endure due to the post-traumatic effects of slavery, and not only are Blacks denied an apology or reparations from the federal government – but Blacks are also insulted and told to get over it. They tell us slavery is in the past. But how can we be expected to get over a severe injury such as 400 years of slavery when we are being systematically denied restitution to remedy the injury suffered? Why are all other groups entitled to reparations except for native Blacks in America?

Of all of the groups to receive reparations the native American’s claim may have been one of the most substantial. They had their homeland stolen by an invading force, and after fighting numerous wars against the White settlers, the native American was relocated to Indian territories which eventually were dwindled down to reservations. The native American, similar to America’s Black slave, was subjected to not only social degradation, but they also suffered physical abuse and death at the hands of these White settlers. The difference between the native American’s claim to reparations and the native Black’s claim to reparations, is significant in many ways too. Although our mistreatment at the hands of the American government share many similarities, there are also many stark differences that cannot be ignored. For instance, native Americans have been permitted to live tax-free, they have been provided parcels of land where they may live separately from the White majority, and are allowed to self-govern. Historically, native American children have been provide a tuition-free education from this government, and their children have been encouraged to learn. Furthermore, unlike Black slaves, native Americans were always free to carry firearms, they could marry members of any race, and they were free to come and go as they pleased. And most importantly, the five so-called civilized tribes of native Americans benefitted from the enslavement of Blacks. These five native American tribes not only owned slaves, but they fought on the side of the Confederacy to preserve the institution and inhumame practice of enslaving Blacks. Therefore, not only were native Americans permitted to keep their own culture, they were also permitted to fully assimilate into the White American culture. Which is a privilege Blacks are still being denied to this very day.

Yet, despite all of this assistance from the federal government, native Americans have still received far more in reparations from the United States government than the native Black who has received nothing as it concerns the harm we suffered as a result of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. To add insult to injury, President Biden has managed pay Hispanics over $400,000 for each child and parent directly affected by Trump’s immigration policy which separated Hispanic children from their parents at the border and then locked those children in cages. So after Hispanic children suffered about four years of confinement, their group is now being rewarded with almost half a million dollars for each person affected.

Coincidentally, President Biden can’t get the George Bill passed, he won’t get the Voting Rights Bill passed to protect Blacks from voter suppression, and he refuses to even discuss the topic of providing reparations to the native Black! Yet, he had no problem getting the Anti-Asian hate crime bill passed. President Biden lost no time giving Israel $1 billion for its under the dome missile defense system. And Biden made Hispanic reparations for what occured at the border during Trump’s presidency a top priority. When viewing all of these facts in totality, there can be no doubt that America’s INACTIONS regarding its native Black’s claim to reparations have been contradictory when compared to the relative ACTIONS America has taken to provide reparations to other groups. A precedent has been set and America’s refusal to give its native Black population reparations is only compounding the injury we have suffered from this government’s discriminatory practices towards our group. Think about that. Peace!

Lord Serious is an author, blogger, podcaster, and activist. You can learn more about him by visiting his website www.Lordseriousspeaks.com. To view his other pieces on BrillianceBehindBars, click here.

THE MILLENNIAL’S UNVACCINATED BLUES (A Poem by Lord Serious)

When it comes to aborting babies,
or should a man become lady,
The progressive opinion voiced
is personal choice.

But when Kaepernick took a knee,
because Eric Garner couldn’t breathe,
The mainstream retort
was ‘athletes should stick to sports.’

The pandemic brought the economy to a stop
and finally,
Kyrie Irving refused to take a shot
But the Sambos who tap dance,
all for corporate greed,
now encourage the White man
to kick him out the league.

Today, we agree with the words of Ali,
fighting in Vietnam went against his beliefs
We condemn the decision
and the way it was dealt,
How dare they threaten him with prison
and then take his belt?

But you hypocrite, you snake,
you’re two faced and fake.
You prisoner of the moment,
you see injustice and condone it.

The media is silent when it comes to the NHL,
are there unvaccinated hockey players –
they will never tell.
How many were unvaccinated at NASCAR’s sprint cup?
These are topics they never take up.

Whether I do or don’t take the vaccine,
why do you complain?
What right have you to discriminate against me,
or subject me to public shame?
Why do you terminate my employment
and keep me out of school?
Or bar me from entering the store
when I need to purchase food.

In the Book of Revelations,
a personal decision would be made,
And those who refused the mark
could not buy, sell, or trade.

Social pressure to take the shot
is being applied through the news.
If you chose to stay unvaccinated,
you violate the rules.
The stakes have never been higher
a career, scholarship, quality of life,
social status, our soul
are just some
of what we stand to lose.

It’s becoming difficult to choose
My anxiety is through the roof
These are the millennial’s
unvaccinated blues…

Lord Serious is a blogger, a podcaster, and the author of two books “Apotheosis Lord Serious Hakim Allah’s Habeas Corpus Appeal” and “The Powerless Pinky”. You can learn more about Lord Serious by visiting his website www.LordSeriousSpeaks.com.

HOW TO THINK CRITICALLY ABOUT CRITICAL RACE THEORY

by Lord Serious

Before you make the decision to accept Critical Race Theory as the lastest progressive tool to help Blacks achieve racial equality in America, let us exercise prudence and CRITICALLY THINK about the potentail pros and cons of Critical Race Theory. We do not have to accept this theory on face value. We should test this theory, challenge it, and force it to prove its accuracy. There are many acedemic and scientific theories from cosmology to social science which initially appeared to be accurate but upon closer examination they fell flat on their face after getting debunked and discarded like yesterday’s trash. For instance, Karl Marx held the theory that every capitalist nation would collapse and transition into a socialist society. But, this theory was proven wrong. Then there was the theory that giving criminal offenders lengthy mandatory sentences would lower the crime rate when actually it did the exact opposite; it has only acted as a catalyst for corporations to privative the prison industrial complex and lobby politicians for tougher crime policies. Then there’s the criminal justice theory that justice is blind and that we are all innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. But the history of American jurisprudence tells quite a different story. From the era of the Black codes and Jim Crow laws, to the era of mass incarceration due to racially biased laws like the disparity in the treatment drug offenders received for possessing/distributing powder cocaine – compared to the the sentences drug offenders received for possessing/distributing the same amount in crack cocaine, to the public policy of stop and frisk, which permitted law enforcement to racially profile “suspicious looking people” (meaning Black and Brown people). These laws and their enforcement all disproved these theories and reveal that historically Whites have weaponized the laws in this nation to target and control Blacks. Now that we all agree that just because a theory is receiving a lot of media attention, or it is being endorsed by experts or scholars in academia, this does not mean we should automatically agree. Remember, it was these same prestigious institutions of higher learning who supported all of the racist anthropologists and social experts in the 19th Century who theorized that Blacks were an inferior race to Whites. Therefore we must proceed with caution and THINK CRITICALLY about Critical Race Theory.

Next, let us analyze how this society has used race to advantage Whites and disadvantage Blacks. And while doing so, we must ask ourselves… since America has used race as a means to implement social control, does this mean we should write race off as being a purely a social construct? Since the Transatlantic Slave Trade and the Berlin Conference, Whites have used race as the gatekeeper to determine who in the society is entitled to receive benefits and access to resources and who is not. Typically, in societies where Whites make up the majority, the policy has been to remain as exclusive as possible. Citizenship and naturalization is usually reserved for members of their own group. This is why early America adopted the “one drop rule”. Having one drop of Black blood in your genealogy made you a Negro in America who had no rights the White man was bound to respect. However, in areas where Whites are in the minority, yet the society is under White domination, these societies usually are far more inclusive. The trend has been whenever Whites are in the minority, they are more willing to allow fairer skinned others to pass as White. Asians, Arabs, Hispanics, and mulattoes, who are typically barred and discriminated against in majority White societies, will be classified as White or Colored when Whites are a minority in that society. A few examples of this can be found in South Africa, North Africa, Central America, and South America. This is clear and convincing evidence proving that the White race has historically used race classifications to establish White domination over any society, and it doesn’t matter if Whites make up the majority or the minority of the population. Whites have never failed to find a way to manipulate the way societies in Africa, North America, Central America, and South America determine race classifications to keep power in White hands. But using race as a tool to keep and maintain social control does not meet the scientific threshhold of proving racial classifications themselves have no biological basis.

In fact, there is an entire scientific discipline dedicated to the study of such matters and it’s called ANTHROPOLOGY. However, it’s true that during antebellum (slavery), most White anthropologists selectively interpreted the data to support their biased views on the inferiority of Blacks as a race. But does this mean we should dismiss this entire science and all of its findings as being more speculative than scientific?

Here are some undisputed facts we must consider before throwing the baby out with the bathwater. The science of anthropology has provided sufficient evidence to support the necessity of at least two racial classifications, if not three. There is a significant difference between the bone structure, bone density, and level of calcification of the pineal gland to justify acknowledging Black people and White people as two separate and distinctly different races of people. There is no evidence to support any claim that our biological differences rise to the level of requiring a separate species classification, as is the case when you compare the biological differences between our species Homo Sapien Sapiens to the Neantherthals who are now all extinct. I would also like to highlight that one contributing factor to the biological differences between Black people and White people is the fact that most White people have at least 3% of Neantherthal DNA found in their genetic make up, while Blacks have none.

For all of the above stated reasons we have enough evidence to conclude that the provision within Critical Race Theory that proposes race is merely a social construct having no biological basis is inaccurate. Therefore, the entire theory is false and it should be rejected and discarded.

However, I will now like for us to further dissect Critical Race Theory, because I’m of the opinion that it’s fundamentally important that we learn how to THINK CRITICALLY about things like Critical Race Theory. Historically, Blacks have indiscriminately accepted progressive policies, BELIEVING that these policies would perform just as advertised. We have taken your experts at their word BELIEVING that their latest social measures would finally deliver the long awaited promise of racial equality for Blacks in America. And as a result Blacks have historically found themselves victims of White subversion instead. Blacks were told that ending segregation would improve our quality of life and our children’s education. But the only thing integration did for Black people is it destroyed the Black community. Today, there are less Black home owners, less Black-owned business in our neighborhoods, and our children are still disproportionately receiving a substandard education. Blacks were also told by progressives that Affirmative Action would level the economic playing field. Instead, it has done the exact opposite. Affirmative Action has only fortified White privilege by granting White women the progress America promised to Black people. Furthermore, the unemployment rate for Blacks in this nation has typically remained around 14%.

So, the Black race in America must ask itself could Critical Race Theory be the latest Trojan Horse? Every progressive measure their experts promised would help with America’s race problem always benefitted the White race more than the Black race. Every progressive measure implemented to render support for Blacks who have been disadvantaged by the racism of Whites has always served the interest of Whites more than Blacks. This is why we must THINK CRITICALLY about Critical Race Theory. It is time for the Black race to learn how to use foresight so that we may predict how these so-called progressive measures could potentially harm Blacks more than help them. It is highly probable that though Critical Race Theory appears to be promoting what’s best for all of humanity, it is actually designed to impede the Black race’s ability to advance.

I’m sure there are some Blacks who saw the controversy surrounding Critical Race Theory and they thought to themselves: “Since racisist Whites are opposed to it and seem to hate the idea of Critical Race Theory being taught in schools, then I should be all for it because it’s teaching that racism is wrong.” But what these Blacks fail to realize is that as dangerous as overt racism is, covert racism can be just as dangerous. The White Liberal has to be a lot more cunning to conceal his racisist intent. So he designs these progressive measures and policies that are intended to incite and inflame Conservative Whites today so that he can disadvantage the unsuspecting Black race tomorrow.

Therefore when analyzing the potential long term ramifications of allowing Critical Race Theory to be taught in schools we need to look out for the following:

1. Black children once were encouraged by James Brown to “Say it loud – I’m Black and I’m proud!” But future generations will no longer understand the significance of how racial identity relates to their self identity, and as a result Blacks will be even less likely to successfully unite around their common racial group identity.

2.Black children who are taught to believe that race is a social construct having no biological basis will have no desire to learn Black history.

3. Critical Race Theory miseducates children to believe that it’s race and not White supremacy that is the social construct having no biological basis.

4. After a couple of generations of Blacks have been taught Critical Race Theory what is the likelihood that Black people will value our RACE’S unique experience enough to still hold White America accountable for the sins committed against their Black ancestors? Will Blacks still demand reparations? And by allowing Black children to be taught race doesn’t exist what grounds will future Blacks have to stand on when they need to be protected as a disadvantaged group?

5. What guarantees can these experts give us that none of these things will occur?

In conclusion, I hope that you find my take on Critical Race Theory educational and thought provoking. I even encourage you to fact check me, maybe you’ll believe Google if you don’t believe me. I know some of you are closed minded and you already had your minds made up. But my goal wasn’t to convince you of anything. I did not write this to tell anyone what they should think about Critical Race Theory, remember I wrote this to teach you HOW TO THINK CRITICALLY ABOUT CRITICAL RACE THEORY. Peace!