Chrystul Blue Persuasion

Look over yonder
What do you see?
The sun is a-rising
Most definitely
A new day is coming (whoo-hoo!)
People are changing
Ain’t it beautiful? (whoo-hoo!)
Crystal Blue Persuasion

Better get ready
Gonna see the light
Love, love is the answer (whoo-hoo!)
And that’s alright
So don’t you give up now (whoo-hoo!)
So easy to find
Just look to your soul (look to your soul!)
And open your mind

Tommy James and the Shondells wrote and performed that song, which became a hit, rising to the Number 2 position on Billboard’s Hot 100 pop singles chart for 3 weeks in June 1969. And more recently, it enjoyed a resurgence in popularity as thematic music for the phenomenally popular multi-year teevee serial drama “Breaking Bad.”

Tommy explained the song this way:

“First of all, I was becoming a Christian at that time, and we never thought a thing about it. We never thought that doing something semi-religious was any big deal. We didn’t think of it as being politically incorrect or anything like that. We just did what felt right. I wrote ‘Crystal Blue Persuasion’ with Eddie Gray and Mike Vale. Eddie came up with the little guitar riff, and Mike and I did the lyrics. And it just felt very right as a sort of semi-religious poetic song, but it turned out to be one of the hardest records I’ve ever made.”

The past couple weeks, the nation’s eyes have been upon Kenosha, Wisconsin. Now, they’re turned to Brunswick, Georgia, a tiny town of 15,210 with a 55.1% Black population, and a 33.1% White population.

It was almost difficult — and perhaps still is — to go a day without seeing, hearing, or reading something about the Kyle Rittenhouse trial. The talking heads, pundits, prognosticators, and their ilk were all a twitter about whether this, that, or the other, would happen, and in the process whipped their followers — whichever side of the fence they sat upon — into a frenzy.

It’s good for their ratings and corporate earnings, you see. So, yeah… it’s all about the money, and the media ~does~ have a dog in that fight. I’ll spare you the details of the matter, because by now, if you’ve been paying attention, you know it all. The media made sure of that.

That’s what the mass media these days does to us all — force feeds us a steady stream of bad news like geese fed by gavage, then harvested for their artificially enlarged fatty liver. That French delicacy is called foie gras. However, the only thing that’s changed about us, is our hearts. They become artificially hardened, calloused and insensate to the suffering of others.

But maybe you’re not affected.

Kyle Rittenhouse draws numbers randomly to select jurors in his case (L), and Chrystul Kizer (R); both cases are in Kenosha, Wisconsin.

So let me tell you about another 17-year old child, also in Kenosha, Wisconsin, who’s charged with murder, arson, grand theft auto, and three other firearms-related felonies from 2018.

The audacity of some people… and kids these days, eh?

I mean, who in their proper mind would kill their rapist/pimp who also videotaped the multiple episodes of abuse — along with those of others similarly — then burn the house, and take his BMW to drive away to safety and security, right?

Cray-cray, right?

Throw the book at the bitch! Right?

Chrystul Kizer – note the misspelling of her first name on the document she’s holding

That’s exactly what the State of Wisconsin is doing to Chrystul Kizer.

Justice must be served… upon a silver platter, especially when it involves a fully-grown White man, and a little Black girl. Gotta’ keep the darkies in their place, don’t you know — and the best way to do that is to throw their sorry Black asses in prison. We must keep our streets safe!

At least that certainly seems to be the thoughts expressed by the State of Wisconsin in that matter.

What else could one say about prosecutors who had evidence of the White man’s numerous instances of crimes of sexual abuse against a dozen underage little Black girls, pimping them, and refusing to prosecute him — arresting him and releasing him without bail — until after he was killed by one of his victims, and then charge the victim with felony crimes?

Ain’t that justice?

Why shouldn’t the state charge someone with murder when they’re killed by the victim in the process of rape?

Ain’t that self defense?

It doesn’t just happen in quaint little towns like Kenosha, Wisconsin (the same size as Tuscaloosa, AL), either.

Cytoia Brown, Tennessee Department of Corrections booking shot

After serving 15 years of a life sentence put upon her when she was aged 16, Tennessee’s White billionaire Republican Governor Bill Haslam, in his last days of office in 2019, commuted Cyntoia Brown’s sentence to time served plus 10 years supervisory probation.

She was a child victim being sex trafficked by a drug dealer known on the streets as “Kut-Throat,” when she was convicted of the first-degree murder and aggravated robbery of Johnny Allen — a White 43-year-old Baptist youth pastor, Sunday school teacher, homeless ministry founder, and real estate agent — at his residence after he picked her up at 11PM for sex, took her to a nearby Sonic Drive-In eatery in Nashville he frequented, then to his residence where she killed him with a .40 caliber bullet to the back of the head.

While the SCOTUS has ruled that mandatory life sentences without parole for juvenile offenders are unconstitutional, Tennessee prosecutors successfully argued that Cyntoia would become eligible for parole… after 51 years, in 2055, so it wasn’t “technically” a life sentence.

Centoyia Brown today

Oh!

By the way… Cyntoia’s Black, and could still be returned to prison.

And, in the Volunteer State, there are over 180 inmates serving life sentences for crimes they committed as teenagers.

Perhaps you may recall that it was in Pulaski, TN on Christmas Eve 1865 that the Ku Klux Klan got their start. What an ignominy on such a day sacred to so many.

Of course, it certainly does give pause for thoughtful consideration when one begins to critically examine:

• Myriad laws written specifically targeting Blacks, dating from Emancipation;

• The more recent 1999 class action lawsuit Pigford v Glickman against the United States Government which specifically found abundant evidence of racial discrimination by the USDA;

• The stunning October 2020 report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics showing overwhelming disparity of incarceration rates nationally, with 1096 Black prisoners per 100,000; 525 Hispanics per 100,000; and only 214 Whites per 100,000 — despite the fact that Whites are 60.1% of the population, Hispanics 18.5%, and Blacks 13.4%.

If equality were truly equality, our nation’s prison population would similarly reflect its racial/ethnic composition.

But it doesn’t.

Not by a long shot.

Given those unmistakably damning findings, it does seem to give credence to claims about inherent systemic unjustness, and begins to make one wonder to what extent such claims are accurate and true.

And slavery?

It’s still legal.

The 13th Amendment reads verbatim:

Section 1
Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.

Section 2
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Did you catch that part, in the opening, the second clause stating the exception to the rule — “…except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted…”?

“Except as a punishment for crime.”

I guess that fits the bill.

So when some folks raise a ruckus about Critical Race Theory, just remember this:

That esoteric theoretical legal exercise simply asks two questions:

1.) Is discrimination based upon skin color, ethnicity, national origin, or any other factor, something that can be eliminated by law?

2.) Or, is it a flaw, a character defect permanently present in humanity?

Those two thoughts could be summarized thusly:

“Is it possible to eradicate discriminatory practices, and any associated damages, through legislation, and if not, to what extent are such discriminatory practices present, and how can they be rectified, or ameliorated, if at all?”

That broadly-encompassing theoretical legal academic pursuit, is a question which possibly, might never be answered. Yet, there is understanding to be gained by such pursuit, and it is just plain wrong to chastise those who pursue such high-level questions and thinking.