Celebrating the Life and Spiritual Transition of Dr Yosef ben-Jochannan (Dr Ben) – w/ Official Video Tribute
Celebrating the Life and Transition of...
Dr. Yosef ben-Jochannan
December 31, 1918 - March 19, 2015
African Writer, Historian, Thinker, Teacher
Dr. Ben lecturing (left); with several of his many books (middle); and with his friends and our great teachers Dr. John Henrik Clarke (to Dr. Ben's left in picture) and Dr. Chancellor Williams (to Dr. Ben's right in picture)
Every day is a sacred day. We become more clear about this on some days more than on others, however, because of the circumstances and reminders we have of our place in the larger and longer scheme of space and time. Today is one of those days, as the world African community paused in recognition and celebration of Dr. Yosef ben-Yochannan's transition into the community of Ancestors. A celebratory ceremony and African funeral rites were held today at the historic Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, New York.
During his lifetime, Dr. Ben, as he has long been affectionately called, reminded the world of the greatness of African people and African civilizations, but more importantly, he modeled the importance of impeccable scholarship, integrity, consistency and commitment in truth-telling about history and its impact on world affairs - past and present. He did so in direct partnership with many of his generation's notable scholars and historians and activists, including Dr. John Henrik Clarke, Drs. Rosalind and Leonard Jeffries, Edward Scobie, James Smalls, Dr. Marimba Ani, Dr. Charshee McIntyre, George G.M. James, Dr. John G. Jackson, Dr. Chancellor Williams among others.
There are many places to get detailed information about Dr. Ben's life and contribution, including writings, lectures and other events documented in print or on video. We should all take more time to further investigate Dr. Ben's scholarship and legacy, and most importantly reflect on the larger questions raised by Dr. Ben's work... namely why it was necessary for Europe and her descendants to: a) delete the truth about African people and African civilization from the systematic and positive commentary about world history and the evolution of human civilizations, and b) resist at every turn every attempt to set the historical record straight. This reflection, and the understandings that it brings forth, will continue to prepare us and future generations as we continue the journey.
We must worry not, however, as the intergenerational transfer of knowledge and wisdom about Africa and her gifts to world civilization continues.
Read additional bios and tributes...
Get and Read the Books...
Be sure and review, purchase and read some of the books written by Dr. Ben. Click here to review many of these titles, beginning with those immediately available through Black Classic Press.
We remember the lives taken away
Every name below belongs to a real person, someone whose life was taken by a police officer between 1999 and 2014. Every one of these individuals belonged to a family, with parents, with children in many cases, and other close relatives who loved them dearly. Each one of these individuals is still loved and missed. Read brief statements about each person here.
Last Saturday, the nation and world listened and watched as the loved ones of several Black men killed in recent years spoke about the need for justice and police accountability. For any of you who are inclined, take a few minutes to say each one of the names below - both women and men who have been killed in recent years. And when you feel like it's getting to be a long and drawn out exercise, think about the family members of each one, and how the idea of "long and drawn out" now takes on a different kind of meaning for them. The process of seeking justice. The realization that their loved ones won't be coming back home for birthdays, for graduations, for marriages. They won't be coming back to offer a smile, to tell one more joke, to offer guidance and wisdom to the young people coming behind them, to console their husbands or wives, to tuck their children into bed at night, or to care for their mothers and fathers as they age. They won't be around to tell stories and reminisce during this coming holiday season, or the next. I hurt for their loss of life, and for the many grieving family members who will never see their loved ones again.
For anyone who so flippantly dismisses any of this loss of life as being 'justified' and somehow not the huge tragedy that it is, I can't help but assume a complete lack of humanity and compassion in that person's heart and spirit. Every one of these losses is a huge tragedy, and one that we should all be outraged about.
The underlying concept of policing and law enforcement, and how the officers in these institutions have come to view specific racial and ethnic communities in this country, appears to be a key part of the problem. Everything from the underlying mission of law enforcement to the face-to-face contact between officers and citizens has to be addressed.
To reiterate that not all police officers are bad is a distraction. The problem is that there are some - however many there are - who are, and that there are few to no accountability mechanisms in place to discourage the corrupt and brutal acts of violence too many officers inflict upon other people.
I agree with the folks I've heard call for felony criminal prosecution of officers who observe or otherwise know about the misconduct and brutality of officers and fail to intervene and/or report it. Some sort of drastic intervention will be needed to turn this historical pattern around.
And until this happens, let us continue to remember each one of these lives that have been taken away from us - and also those many whose names don't appear here.
Let us simultaneously continue to protect the lives of all our loved ones still here...
Gone too soon...
Rumain Brisbon, 34, Phoenix, Ariz.—Dec. 2, 2014
Tamir Rice, 12, Cleveland, Ohio—Nov. 22, 2014
Akai Gurley, 28, Brooklyn, NY—Nov. 20, 2014
Kajieme Powell, 25, St. Louis, Mo.—August 19, 2014
Ezell Ford, 25, Los Angeles, Calif.—August 12, 2014
Dante Parker, 36, San Bernardino County, Calif.—August 12, 2014
Michael Brown, 18, Ferguson, Mo.—August 9, 2014
John Crawford III, 22, Beavercreek, Ohio—August 5, 2014
Tyree Woodson, 38, Baltimore, Md.—August 2, 2014
Eric Garner, 43, New York, N.Y.—July 17, 2014
Victor White III, 22, Iberia Parish, La.—March 22, 2014
Yvette Smith, 47, Bastrop, Texas—February 16, 2014
McKenzie Cochran, 25, Southfield, Mich.—January 28, 2014
Jordan Baker, 26, Houston, Texas—January 16, 2014
Andy Lopez, 13, Santa Rosa, Calif.—October 22, 2013
Miriam Carey, 34, Washington, D.C.—October 3, 2013
Jonathan Ferrell, 24, Bradfield Farms, N.C.—September 14, 2013
Carlos Alcis, 43, New York, N.Y.—August 15, 2013
Larry Eugene Jackson, Jr., 32, Austin, Texas—July 26, 2013
Deion Fludd, 17, New York, N.Y.—May 5, 2013
Kimani Gray, 16, New York, N.Y.—March 9, 2013
Johnnie Kamahi Warren, 43, Dotham, Ala.—December 10, 2012
Malissa Williams, 30, Cleveland, Ohio—November 29, 2012
Timothy Russell, 43, Cleveland, Ohio—November 29, 2012
Reynaldo Cuevas, 20, New York, N.Y.—September 7, 2012
Chavis Carter, 21, Jonesboro, Ark.—July 29, 2012
Shantel Davis, 23, New York, N.Y.—June 14, 2012
Sharmel Edwards, 49, Las Vegas, Nev.—April 21, 2012
Tamon Robinson, 27, New York, N.Y.—April 18, 2012
Ervin Jefferson, 18, Atlanta, Ga.—March 24, 2012
Kendrec McDade, 19, Pasadena, Calif.—March 24, 2012
Rekia Boyd, 22, Chicago, Ill.—March 21, 2012
Shereese Francis, 30, New York, N.Y.—March 15, 2012
Wendell Allen, 20, New Orleans, La.—March 7, 2012
Nehemiah Dillard, 29, Gainesville, Fla.—March 5, 2012
Dante Price, 25, Dayton, Ohio—March 1, 2012
Raymond Allen, 34, Galveston, Texas—February 27, 2012
Sgt. Manuel Loggins, Jr., 31, Orange County, Calif.—February 7, 2012
Ramarley Graham, 18, New York, N.Y.—February 2, 2012
Kenneth Chamberlain, 68, White Plains, N.Y.—November 19, 2011
Alonzo Ashley, 29, Denver, Colo.—July 18, 2011
Kenneth Harding, 19, San Francisco, Calif.—July 16, 2011
Raheim Brown, 20, Oakland, Calif.—January 22, 2011
Reginald Doucet, 25, Los Angeles, Calif.—January 14, 2011
Derrick Jones, 37, Oakland, Calif.—November 8, 2010
Danroy Henry, 20, Thornwood, N.Y.—October 17, 2010
Aiyana Jones, 7, Detroit, Mich.—May 16, 2010
Steven Eugene Washington, 27, Los Angeles, CA—March 20, 2010
Aaron Campbell, 25, Portland, Ore.—January 29, 2010
Kiwane Carrington, 15, Champaign, Ill.—October 9, 2009
Victor Steen, 17, Pensacola, Fla.—October 3, 2009
Shem Walker, 49, New York, N.Y.—July 11, 2009
Oscar Grant, 22, Oakland, Calif.—January 1, 2009
Tarika Wilson, 26, Lima, Ohio—January 4, 2008
DeAunta Terrel Farrow, 12, West Memphis, Ark.—July 22, 2007
Sean Bell, 23, New York, N.Y.—November 25, 2006
Henry Glover, 31, New Orleans, La.—September 2, 2005
Ronald Madison, 40, New Orleans, La.—Sept. 4, 2005
James Brisette, 17, New Orleans, La.—Sept. 4, 2005
Timothy Stansbury, 19, New York, N.Y.—January 24, 2004
Alberta Spruill, 57, New York, N.Y.—May 16, 2003
Ousmane Zongo, 43, New York, N.Y.—May 22, 2003
Orlando Barlow, 28, Las Vegas, Nev.—February 28, 2003
Timothy Thomas, 19, Cincinnati, Ohio—April 7, 2001
Prince Jones, 25, Fairfax County, Va.—Sept. 1, 2000
Ronald Beasley, 36, Dellwood, Mo.—June 12, 2000
Earl Murray, 36, Dellwood, Mo.—June 12, 2000
Patrick Dorismond, 26, New York, NY—March 16, 2000
Malcolm Ferguson, 23, New York, N.Y.—March 1, 2000
Amadou Diallo, 23, New York, N.Y.—Feb. 4, 1999
John Jay College Presents Findings on Misdemeanor Arrests in New York
A report was released last month by the John Jay College of Criminal Justice looking at low level policing practices in the State of New York. Not to our surprise, there was a finding that the most pronounced increase in policing activity was with "minority" men, particularly African American and Hispanic.
You can find the report here, with the specific race data breakdown beginning on page 39 of the report, and the conclusion and implications described beginning on page 76.
I hope everyone is clear that the kinds of findings presented in this report, and more specifically the powder keg dynamic that is created by these policing practices, are very consistent with what we're seeing in Ferguson, Missouri.
Listening to NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton talk about these dynamics with Connie Rice of the Advancement Project, it's clear that the leadership in New York City are far more comfortable reflecting on this especially huge injustice, particularly when compared to their counterparts in Ferguson, St. Louis, and the State of Missouri more generally.
From the conclusion:
We hope that this report will prompt wide-ranging policy discussions about the role
of arrests in our response to misdemeanor crimes. Each of the arrests presented
here reflects a decision by a police officer to exercise an important power granted
under the law – the discretionary power to hold someone that is believed to have
committed a crime for court processing. This report raises a host of questions about
significant, sometimes dramatic, shifts in the exercise of that power. Why has it
happened? How much was driven by policy choices? How much of the change in
arrest patterns is responsible for changes in victim calls for service? How much of
this phenomenon can be attributed to the availability of police resources freed up by
declining felony arrest rates? How much does this heightened use of misdemeanor
arrests reflect strategies designed to respond to community concerns about “quality
of life” offenses? These important issues can be better understood and debated with
the data provided in this report. We plan to hold a national conference at John Jay
College of Criminal Justice in Spring, 2015, funded by the Arnold Foundation, to
provide a platform for these discussions.This report also powerfully illustrates the reality that increases in enforcement
activity have not been evenly distributed across or within these cities. On the
contrary, the increase has been concentrated among young minority men. This
reality raises questions about fairness, perceptions of legitimacy within an important
demographic, and changes in patterns of crime. It further highlights the need to
consistently document race/ethnic and age-related trends in criminal justice
processes to better understand how social burdens disproportionately impact young
minority men. The report also underscores the importance of better understanding
the role of prosecutors and judges in processing and adjudicating these arrests. Each
of these arrests is subjected to legal and judicial review and consumes significant
resources of a system facing daunting resource constraints. Finally, we hope that
these analyses will lead to an examination of the role of government in responding to
low level criminal behavior and problematic community conditions. In some cases, a
misdemeanor arrest should be viewed as only one option in our response to
misdemeanor crime. Other options that may be far more effective should be
explored.
From the report overview from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice:
The purpose of the study was to explore and compare trends in misdemeanor arrests from 1980 to 2013 by analyzing data from the New York Police Department, the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services and the United States Census. This marks the first time that a comprehensive and comparative data set has been created to analyze these trends. This analysis will help frame the ongoing discussions about law enforcement and criminal justice practices regarding appropriate responses to low-level crimes.
There were four key findings from these rigorous data analyses. First, New York City – as well as other cities in New York State – experienced significant increases in the number and rate of misdemeanor arrests from 1980 to 2013. Second, young minority men have experienced the greatest increases in misdemeanor arrests in New York City. Third, there is significant variation in New York City in the kinds of charges for these arrests, their disposition and subsequent sentence, and how they are initially processed. Fourth, the increases in misdemeanor arrests are not uniform across New York City. Indeed, there is significant variation by precincts.
NYPD Policing Issues & African American Communities – Brutality, Fear, Distrust, Conscious Biases, etc.
Below is the recording of a discussion that took place with NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton, talking with Connie Rice of the Advancement Project. What's most interesting in this discussion (the first 20-25 minutes or so) is to hear the very clear and conscious acknowledgment by the commissioner of the tension between African American communities and the police department, as well as an acknowledgment by the commissioner that officers are very aware of the fear and terror felt by African American community members in their relationship with the police department.
While not the explicit focus of this discussion, I think that subtext is extremely important because many of us have long been clear that police departments have deliberately created that fear and that sense of terror, and rely on that fear and terror as a primary policing strategy. It's not an innocent misunderstanding between, or a set of misperceptions between, community and police; it's the deliberate tactic used by the police.
There are a range of additional important issues addressed in this discussion, including poor law enforcement responses with respect to immigration enforcement, human / sex trafficking and its disproportionate impact on Black and brown communities, gender dynamics in law enforcement and the honest reflections of police officers who acknowledge their conscious racial and cultural biases.
Connie Rice and Bill Bratton Discuss Police-Community Partnerships
Last month, Connie Rice of Advancement Project and NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton sat down at the Bridging the Great Divide workshop, hosted by John Jay College of Criminal Justice and Open Society Foundations, to discuss issues between police and communities.
Program held in September 2014
Approximately 1 hour
Background
- About Oronde Miller
- Book Table of Contents
- Oronde’s Book: Facing The Rising Sun
- a black love music celebration
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