The first saddest show has to be the Maury Povich, 'Baby Daddy' shows filled with sexually active ignorance, but with a purpose.

The girls are often poor and hurting, they have a lot of the accouterment of the damaged self esteem types of so many poor black women. What gets me is the relatioship that is often between them and the man they bring to the show. The way the man talks about the woman, the way the boy talks about the girl, often in the most disparaging terms they can dream up. That they would want this person to be the parent of their child is something I can not quite wrap my mind around. I can not say which is more sad, the guy who comes on with three woman, or the woman who comes on with three men. I do know which one is seen as the lesser, but that is mostly out of a fraudulent paternalistic view of the world, but that does not make them worse in the long view. It is painful, but important, not only to see, but to see through.


The other saddest show is The First 48, for those that do not know, it is a show on A&E about the first 48 hours after a homicide as the police try to solve the case. Many people see the show (especially white people) see the show as a case of justice and to further their dislike of black people, mostly black men. But that is not what I see when I see the show. It might be my own guilt. My best childhood friend murdered another friend of mine when I was in the navy. I will alway believe if I had been there, many lives would have turned out differently, but the reality is that I was not there and things are the way they are.

I see these young black men being arrested for murder, crying. I know that it was such a little thing, such a small moment that they would have begged someone to intervene and get them off the hook. Not off the hook for murder, but off the hook for having to kill someone. Off the hook for having to prove themselves, to defend their honor, off the hook to 'man up' in a situation that is patently absurd, but they can't extricate themselves from. People who could have stopped them were, out of their own fear, egging them on. Not anyone can stop them. But someone can.

Anyway, they are sad for me to watch, because they are us.

I too Wiz watch the First 48. What really caught me off guard was/is the absolute collaspe of the suspects when the weight is put on them. And I agree with you watching some of these men breakdown after admitting that they took someones life is heartbreaking sometimes, especially the younger ones. You can see it in their faces, they never imagined the actual outcome or the gravity of the situation. Sad is exactly the right word. Great Post!

I watch 48 hours when I can but I can't say I feel sorry for anyone who gets caught. They thought they had it figured out, talk a lot of about thug life, so now they get to live the life they worship and it all of a sudden hits them. Sin Loi

I feel very sorry for them. Because I know, but for the grace of God, there I am. I know how they get there, I know that is not the life they worship. If before they had done anything like that, if you had pulled them into a room and interrogated them like that, none of them would have wanted that life. Very few black males want that life, they often pretend to, but under the hammer, they do not want it. They just do not see a way out of it and we are not able to offer them one that is accessible and acceptable to both us and them.

I like watching 48 hours when I can and like ocatchings I don't feel any remorse for those who get caught. Alot of them display attitudes of not thinking that they would get caught after taking someone's life.

Earlier this year or late last year, there was a shooting on a bus in Chicago. A teenaged boy, 15/16 got on the bus and wanted to shoot a student he was having issues with. He shot five people, killing one. The person he wanted to shoot was unharmed. The young man he shot was a dude named Blair Holt. His parents were a policeman and a fireman(woman). He was their only child. For the most part, he was a good kid as kids go. He was the focus of the incident.

BUt I could not take my mind of the kid who killed him. I still can't. His life is over too, the difference is that unlike the child he killed, he is not dead. What the hell happened to him that he thought he could shoot someone on a bus? Where does such an idea become reasonable?

The thing is if we want to stop these kinds of incidents, we must pity the killer as much as the dead.

quote:

Originally posted by Wiz:
Earlier this year or late last year, there was a shooting on a bus in Chicago. A teenaged boy, 15/16 got on the bus and wanted to shoot a student he was having issues with. He shot five people, killing one. The person he wanted to shoot was unharmed. The young man he shot was a dude named Blair Holt. His parents were a policeman and a fireman(woman). He was their only child. For the most part, he was a good kid as kids go. He was the focus of the incident.

BUt I could not take my mind of the kid who killed him. I still can't. His life is over too, the difference is that unlike the child he killed, he is not dead. What the hell happened to him that he thought he could shoot someone on a bus? Where does such an idea become reasonable?

The thing is if we want to stop these kinds of incidents, we must pity the killer as much as the dead.

I don't feel 100% sympathy for the killer, nor do I feel 100% hatred. I think the victim should have the maximum pity from us, and perhaps we should muster up more understanding for the killer, that way we have a better idea of where he's cominig from and his reasoning (or lack thereof).

quote:

Originally posted by SistahSouljah:

quote:

Originally posted by Wiz:
Earlier this year or late last year, there was a shooting on a bus in Chicago. A teenaged boy, 15/16 got on the bus and wanted to shoot a student he was having issues with. He shot five people, killing one. The person he wanted to shoot was unharmed. The young man he shot was a dude named Blair Holt. His parents were a policeman and a fireman(woman). He was their only child. For the most part, he was a good kid as kids go. He was the focus of the incident.

BUt I could not take my mind of the kid who killed him. I still can't. His life is over too, the difference is that unlike the child he killed, he is not dead. What the hell happened to him that he thought he could shoot someone on a bus? Where does such an idea become reasonable?

The thing is if we want to stop these kinds of incidents, we must pity the killer as much as the dead.

I don't feel 100% sympathy for the killer, nor do I feel 100% hatred. I think the victim should have the maximum pity from us, and perhaps we should muster up more understanding for the killer, that way we have a better idea of where he's cominig from and his reasoning (or lack thereof).

The victim is dead. Our pity can not help him. The killer is another story.

quote:

Originally posted by HonestBrother:

quote:

Originally posted by SistahSouljah:

quote:

Originally posted by Wiz:
Earlier this year or late last year, there was a shooting on a bus in Chicago. A teenaged boy, 15/16 got on the bus and wanted to shoot a student he was having issues with. He shot five people, killing one. The person he wanted to shoot was unharmed. The young man he shot was a dude named Blair Holt. His parents were a policeman and a fireman(woman). He was their only child. For the most part, he was a good kid as kids go. He was the focus of the incident.

BUt I could not take my mind of the kid who killed him. I still can't. His life is over too, the difference is that unlike the child he killed, he is not dead. What the hell happened to him that he thought he could shoot someone on a bus? Where does such an idea become reasonable?

The thing is if we want to stop these kinds of incidents, we must pity the killer as much as the dead.

I don't feel 100% sympathy for the killer, nor do I feel 100% hatred. I think the victim should have the maximum pity from us, and perhaps we should muster up more understanding for the killer, that way we have a better idea of where he's cominig from and his reasoning (or lack thereof).

The victim is dead. Our pity can not help him. The killer is another story.

I'm all for rehabilitation and taking the time to listen to the killer's story, but the fact of the matter is that in a lot of cases, these people have no remorse for what they have done. And they will tell you so, too. I find it hard to feel sorry for those kind.

quote:

perhaps we should muster up more understanding for the killer, that way we have a better idea of where he's cominig from and his reasoning (or lack thereof).

I really could care less about his reasoning and I see no need to understand. If he wanted me to know he would write a blog or something.

quote:

Originally posted by ocatchings:

I really could care less about his reasoning and I see no need to understand. If he wanted me to know he would write a blog or something.

Begging your pardon, but not caring what a black child feels is, in the words of the Clint Eastwood character, "Dirty Harry" Callaghan in the 1976 movie, The Enforcer, "Thats mighty white of you."

How could you not care? Or how could you not be able to care less about young men in our communities? It is because so many people make no effort to care about them that they come to the conclusions that they do.

The saddest shows to me are those "feed the children" type shows where little bitty children are looking at us with big hungry expectant eyes...and we have the nerve to be eating a full course meal.

I can't eat after watching those shows.

quote:

Originally posted by Wiz:

quote:

Originally posted by ocatchings:

I really could care less about his reasoning and I see no need to understand. If he wanted me to know he would write a blog or something.

Begging your pardon, but not caring what a black child feels is, in the words of the Clint Eastwood character, "Dirty Harry" Callaghan in the 1976 movie, The Enforcer, "Thats mighty white of you."

How could you not care? Or how could you not be able to care less about young men in our communities? It is because so many people make no effort to care about them that they come to the conclusions that they do.

After he/she commits his alleged offense, my caring solves........?

the uncared for

quote:

Originally posted by Wiz:
Earlier this year or late last year, there was a shooting on a bus in Chicago. A teenaged boy, 15/16 got on the bus and wanted to shoot a student he was having issues with. He shot five people, killing one. The person he wanted to shoot was unharmed. The young man he shot was a dude named Blair Holt. His parents were a policeman and a fireman(woman). He was their only child. For the most part, he was a good kid as kids go. He was the focus of the incident.

BUt I could not take my mind of the kid who killed him. I still can't. His life is over too, the difference is that unlike the child he killed, he is not dead. What the hell happened to him that he thought he could shoot someone on a bus? Where does such an idea become reasonable?

The thing is if we want to stop these kinds of incidents, we must pity the killer as much as the dead.

I watched a CNN Special Report by Anderson Cooper on this story. It was heartbreaking. Even worse was that there had been something like 25 or 26 such killings in less than a year in Chicago. The family was trying to make the most out of that horrible situation by bringing awareness of the violence into the public consciousness.

While I probably do feel more sympathy for the victim and his loved ones, I also feel very sorry for the killers themselves. Especially the young ones. Their stupidity takes a bad life and makes it unimaginably worse. Locked down like animals - usually for the rest of their lives - is no way to live. And by the time they figure out they were stupid, it's waaaaayyy too late.

I don't watch the 48 Hours show, but I do sometimes watch the prison shows on MSNBC late at night. Regret comes late but it always comes. It's so sad.

And while I absolutely believe that those who murder another deserve what they get as punishment and don't have much sympathy for them while they're still in their ignorant arrogance stage after they do it, I still pity them. Because most of them are the result of what we, as a community, have done wrong. They are the failure of our village to protect them from themselves (and usually their parent(s). For those of us who don't reach out far enough to grab them before they go that far it makes us part of the problem, not the solution.

So, maybe it's my guilty conscious about that that makes me feel sorry for the murder as well as the murdered (especially the children). There are always at least 2 lives lost in those type situations. And more pain and suffering and regret by a lot more people than one even wants to measure.

especially when all the lives are black people's.

Not a television show, but definitely sad...


Suspect in teen slaying fled in victim's sneakers

Police say a Brooklyn teenager was arrested wearing the sneakers she ripped off her cousin's feet — after stabbing her 18 times and slashing her throat with a kitchen knife.

Sixteen-year-old Shannon Braithwaite was found by her mother — in a pool of blood, her body blocking the entrance to the family's Crown Heights apartment.

Police say that after stabbing her cousin in the face, neck and hands on Tuesday, the 15-year-old suspect fled in the victim's sneakers, also taking the slain honor student's cell phone, camera and MP3 player.

The suspect, Tiana Browne, faces a second-degree murder charge.

Shannon's mother, Marva Braithwaite, had taken in the troubled runaway just days earlier. She says she never imagined the teen had so much rage and jealousy in her that she was capable of killing.

After identifying her daughter's body at the medical examiner's office, the mother collapsed weeping on her hands and knees.

Later, at a sidewalk vigil, the mother urged friends and neighbors to do all they can to help their troubled kids. She said that when a child is "messed up, the whole community is messed up."

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Information from: Daily News, http://www.nydailynews.com