"Why in the hell are 2 steel rims 18 inches in diameter, 10 feet off a wooden floor that is 94 feet long x 50 feet wide played with a rubber ball with a circumference of 75 centimeters got our black communities all tied literally in knots? I mean why? How is it that this one particular player has taken over as the conscious voice of black men? I am just asking because when he was playing with that rubber ball, his voice was null and void, about the pertinent black issues confronting black America. Hell, did he even attend the Million Man March? But now that his pockets are full and he isn't jeopardizing a damn dime. He's become the voice of black reason this season. I am just asking because as an educated black man I am trying to understand this situation."

#provokedthoughts

"A Baltimore City Murder Detective, Sgt. Robert F. Cherry, posted the graphic photograph on Twitter early Friday morning of victim of the horrendous murders that have been in the clutches of Baltimore City for as far as I can remember. The image showed a man’s body lying on a sidewalk in a pool with a large gash in the front of his forehead. As course in this currently culture this act caused a public outcry. Why? Especially since Mr. Cherry added: “This is but one of many incidents of violence in Baltimore city that our police officers deal with . . . and this young Black man was NOT shot by police.” Cherry wrote in his tweet. “Let’s STOP the violence and Save Lives. Because, who wants to see the end result of the criminal calamity that is currently Baltimore City right now. My feeling is simply maybe if we see the end results of the murder in all it's gruesomeness, maybe we will understand the absurdity of this acts of individual terror. Maybe, seeing the body covered in blood with the open bullet wounds will open the eyes of those who have the guns to lay those guns down. Or, just maybe seeing these sights will cause those who know who uses those guns of individual human destruction to make a call to end all this senseless killing. Maybe showing these graphic pictures will make it more real and a understanding that senseless killing of our brothers and sisters of color by other brothers and sisters of color incredulous. Maybe we will aspire to a time when these acts will disappear. I just want our communities to understand murder is murder and murder of our young black youth is unacceptable whomever is responsible. I don't want cops brutalizing or terrorizing our communities. I also don't want our young black community members to inflict brutality or terror either. Let's stop killing each other now."

#joesmokethoughts #provokedthoughts

"As America and Americans look back a century to the brutal attack of white mobbing of the Greenwood community of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The question is being asked what is owed to the descendants and those elders of this terrorized attack. Well, America you need to understand that attack on Greenwood wasn’t just an attack on Greenwood. It was an attack on every living breathing black person in America in 1921. It was meant to send a message to our ancestors nationwide to stay in there place and not become uppity negroes. That any moves that were considered to be moves to better themselves or to think that they were better then white Americans would be countered by white mobs with similar acts of terrorism. So what is owed to the descendants of Greenwood is also owed to the descendants of every black American who was living during this period of white oppressive domination. It is called reparations plain and simple. We cannot allow those in power to minimize the harm that was done to just the Greenwood descendants because the strategy was national in scope and truly deadly in intent."

#joesmokethoughts