What an interesting day it is today. The weather is starting to become mild (only in the high 90's instead of the 100's - yippee skippee, My wife, La Femme is being particularly affectionate today (why wouldn't she be? I'm a stud) and the Proto-clones appear to be singing in tune (for a change)
And now I open up Facebook and lo and behold, Zimmer has posted some splash art of Nadra Enzi's blog... some intense stuff:
Now, Zimmer is a very outspoken opponent of the New York Initiative and all affiliates. He had a falling out with Zero over the way things are being run and some nonsense and parted ways. There has been continuous back and forth between them ever since.
Then enters the (in)famous Captain Black, aka Nadra Enzi, who has presented Zimmer with the perfect platform from which to decry and discredit the initiative and its branches with extreme prejudice.
You see, Capt. Black is an activist. An extreme activist. He's done a lot of good for his community, actually. This is an exerpt from his PUBLICLY DISPLAYED profile:
a Black Life Superhero ( BLSH ) who gives til it hurts to help others and promotes PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY to power creative crime prevention- especially thawing Cold War between Black males and police; and persuading " chocolate Klansmen " to stop genocidal violent crime and hate tactics. An economic lifetime ago I donated $10,000 to Savannah State University's Model United Nations team so they could go to Scotland. Hope to top that ASAP! lol. Also a member of what the media calls the " real life superhero " ( RLSH ) movement & Louisiana Initiative Organizer. LA Initiative is the New Orleans affiliate of the New York Initiative creative crime prevention group. BE YOUR OWN SUPERHERO!
Sounds like some pretty good stuff, right? Yeppers. Well, then, when you delve deeper, you see things like this: Enzi's post from which the above screengrab was taken
Now on the surface this sounds pretty racist, and it is. I have absolutely no qualms about saying that Enzi has expressed racist type behavior and intolerance. There is also much more going on beneath the surface of this, however.
Enzi is striving for peace at all costs. He's trying to not only end the seemingly never ending cycles of injustice toward inner city youths, specifically young black males, he is also trying to educate those same young black inner city males to not perpetuate the behaviors that contribute to these never ending cycles. In all honesty, it's a very enlightened standpoint that calls for responsibility on all sides and I admire that greatly. He has clearly seen a lot in his life and has learned much from it, unfortunately, as a side effect, he has become jaded and intolerant and extremely prejudicial. I have seen this happen more than once.
It falls upon us to acknowledge where it is that he is coming from and to temper our own judgments with understanding, as much as it falls upon him to recognize his own prejudices and address them.
The approach Enzi is taking on his blog is wrong. He is promoting intolerance and profiling against one race in an effort to call attention to intolerance and profiling against another race. I don't think I have any need to point out the many levels of flawed thinking that went in to this point of view, but I can certainly understand where he is coming from.
The approach Zimmer is taking on his facebook post is... wrong. He is exploiting one person's misplaced views to further his crusade against the group that has shunned him. Again, I don't think I have any need to point out the many levels of flawed thinking that went in to this point of view, but again, I can certainly understand where he's coming from.
There is certainly a very much needed dialog here that just isn't being had. On both sides there is some deep rooted anger that needs to be addressed, and until it is, there will be no resolution.
Speaking directly to the individuals involved, Mr. Enzi. I do sympathize with your feelings. I do understand them more than you know, and I applaud your efforts to educate and end the many many years of senseless racial violence that has plagued this country from it's inception. However, you continue to post points of view that are every bit as intolerant as those that you have fought to overcome in your many years of activism.
And Zimmer. While your concerns over Mr. Enzi's views are valid and I completely acknowledge them, it has become quite clear that your continuing fight with Mr. Enzi is but the surface of a much deeper grudge against the initiative itself. It is past time that you begin to address these issues directly, rather than the never ending redirection that will ultimately lead nowhere.
Indeed, it has been a very interesting day. In this situation no one is right, and everyone is wrong. Let's acknowledge this and regroup, shall we?
In the end, I think we can all agree that this is RazorHawk's fault. :P
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