Alive Soul

I read some of the most ignorant, racist comments about Jemele Hill & other black writers at ESPN—It’s beyond offensive.   For those of you not familar with Jemele Hill, she is a sports columnist and TV analyst for ESPN…here’s her bio.   Now before one of you folks accuse me of “race-baiting” or “playing the race card” let me say with a clear voice and a pure heart…kiss my ass.  I know what I’m seeing and it’s disgusting.  Ms. Hill is not a politician, her opinion is just that.  She has a pretty decent job at ESPN, which it seems she does pretty well.  I don’t expect that people are going to agree with all that she says…hell, I almost never agree with all ANYONE says.   However, what strikes me is the level of viciousness in some of the comments.  Some of the comments I read about her (and other black writers at ESPN) are just downright KKK, Segregation today, Segregation tomorrow…, No, you will not cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge racist.   

I chose 4 comments from a few the comment board on a few of her posts…let me say, I could have chosen hundreds, many of them worse, but most of them expressed the same sentiment as these. 

“They will just give anyone a job at ESPN….this $@%!$ is so dumb. (i’m going to assume he’s not calling her an angel here)” 

“Why do black writers question why the MLB only has 12 or 13% of African Americans? Who cares if there’s a low population of blacks in MLB. It’s fine the way it is. It’s one of the most diverse sports out there. We don’t need guys dancing after hitting homeruns or jiving after stealing a base. Some African Americans are already trying to wear their caps crooked. lol Ridiculous! Jemele is a joke. Affirmative Action at its best!” 

“She is working at ESPN to fill quotas, black and a woman, that is the only reason. It sucks, but I guess its better than having six kids to six dif. dads and living off welfare like all the other ghetto $@%!$@ $@%!$@%.”   

“Hilarious…….she relates EVERYTHING she does to race. Hardly ever writes a column or is on a show when she doesn’t speak of race or infer that race had to do with an issue……and then wonders why people question her about her racist attitude? Give me a freaking break.”  

There’s this Facebook page.  (Yes, there is an even a facebook page dedicated to getting rid of the dangerous, racist, sports writer Jamele Hill) 

Again, I could have chosen hundreds of these.

I’ve read many columns written by Ms. Hill, some I agreed with, others not so much, at no time have I thought she was racist.  Seems to me, the real racists, the real sexists, the real bigots, the real dangerous folks are threatened by her because she consistently questions the double standards in sports when it comes to race and gender.  They also can’t handle the fact that Jamele Hill knows more about sports than most men. 

You know…

For all the hubbub about Joe Paterno’s transgressions it’s amazing to me that no one is talking about Bill Colin.  This is a man who resigned after 40 years of writing for the Philadelphia Daily News because he was accused of sexually abusing 3 girls and 1 boy ages 7 to 12.  RIGHT NOW HIS PLAQUE GREETS THOUSANDS OF VISITORS IN THE NEWS MEDIA WING OF THE BASEBALL HALL OF FAME IN COOPERSTOWN, NY. EVERY DAY.

I’ve heard very little outrage about him.  I know what I’m seeing.  

In November, a terrified 13-year-old girl pounded on an apartment door in Brooklyn. When a surprised woman answered, the girl pleaded for a phone. She called her mother, and then dialed 911.

A violent pimp was selling her for sex. He had taken her to the building and ordered her to go to an apartment where a customer was waiting, she said, and now he was waiting downstairs to make sure she did not escape. She had followed the pimp’s directions and gone upstairs, but then had pounded randomly on this door in hopes of getting help.

Baby Face said she hurt too much to endure yet another rape by a john. She told prosecutors later that she was bleeding vaginally and that her pimp had recently kicked her down a stairwell for trying to flee.

That 911 call set in motion the arrest of Kendale Judge, then 21. Judge has pleaded not guilty to charges of sex trafficking, kidnapping, rape and compelling prostitution. He is in jail, and we haven’t heard his side of the events yet.

The episode also shines a spotlight on how the girl was marketed — in ads on Backpage.com, a major national Web site where people place ads to sell all kinds of things, including sex. It is a godsend to pimps, allowing customers to order a girl online as if she were a pizza.

Lauren Hersh, the ace prosecutor in Brooklyn who leads the sex-trafficking unit there, says that of the 32 people she and her team have prosecuted in the last year and a half — typically involving victims aged 12 to 25 — a vast majority of the cases included girls marketed through Backpage ads.

“Pimps are turning to the Internet,” said Hersh. “They’re not putting the girls on the street so much. Backpage is a great vehicle for pimps trying to sell girls.”

Craigslist backed out of this sector after public protests. Pimps then moved to Backpage.com, which is owned by Village Voice Media, owners of The Village Voice weekly newspaper.

Attorneys general from 48 states wrote a joint letter to Backpage, warning that it had become “a hub” for sex trafficking and calling on it to stop running adult services ads. The attorneys general said that they had identified cases in 22 different states in which pimps peddled underage girls through Backpage.

The attorneys general cited a 15-year-old girl who was being forced to have sex with men last year in Dorchester, Mass. The pimp marketed the girl through Backpage.

But Backpage isn’t budging. Indeed, it has fought back with personal attacks on those, such as Ashton Kutcher, who have linked it to human trafficking.

Steve Suskin, legal counsel to Village Voice Media, gave me a lengthy statement in which he argued that the company is already cooperating closely with law-enforcement authorities. He cited a 16-year-old girl in Seattle who was rescued as a result of a tip the company had made.

“Censorship will not rid the world of exploitation,” Suskin asserted.

It’s true that there’s some risk that pimps will migrate to new Web sites, possibly based overseas, that are less cooperative. But, on balance, that’s a risk worth taking. The present system is failing. Pimps aren’t the shrewdest marketers, and eliminating a hub for trafficking should at least chip away at the problem.

Backpage suggests that it is battling censors and prudes. In fact, what drives it seems to be greed. In their letter, the attorneys general said that Backpage earns more than $22 million annually from prostitution advertising.

On Backpage, the pimps claim adult ages for the girls they market, but Hersh scoffs. “I see 19,” she said, “and I immediately think 13.”

“I’m not seeing a lot of cases where there’s not coercion,” she added. “The average age where a girl is forced into prostitution is 12 to 14. And most of these 16- or 17 year-olds are being run by pretty vicious pimps.”  Read More…