TOJB2 CALENDAR JULY 29 – AUGUST 4, 2016

BY DR. GLENN ALTSCHULERSPECIAL TO THE FLORIDA COURIER

On Feb. 26, 2012, George Zimmerman, a neighbor-hood watch volunteer, re-ported to a 911 dispatch-er that a “real suspicious” youth in a hoodie was walking around slowly, “looking at all the hous-es. He’s got a hand in his waistband and he’s a Black male…. These assholes, they always get away.”

The dispatcher told Zim-merman not to follow “the suspect,” but Zimmer-man continued to tail him. Within minutes, 17 year-old Trayvon Martin, who had left his father’s apart-ment in Sanford to buy some Skittles for his young-er brother and a can of Ar-izona iced Tea for himself, during halftime of the NBA All Star Game, was dead.

Zimmerman claimed that Martin, who was un-armed, was banging his head on the sidewalk dur-ing a scuffle, and to save himself, he took out his semi-automatic pistol, and shot the teenager.

From Sanford to Ferguson

Zimmerman was ques-tioned by the police and then released. After six weeks of mass media cov-erage and mass protests, he was arrested. Follow-ing a trial in which the de-fense argued that Martin “had the opportunity to go home and didn’t” and was

the aggressor, not the vic-tim, Zimmerman was ac-quitted on all counts.

According to Marc Lamont Hill, a professor

of Ameri-can Studies at More-house Col-lege and a political c o m m e n -tator on CNN, the experienc-es of Tray-von Mar-

tin, Michael Brown (in Ferguson, Missouri), Eric Garner (in New York City), Freddie Gray (in Balti-more, Maryland), Sandra Bland (in Waller County, Texas) and many other Af-rican-American citizens is evidence of “a system en-gineered to target, exploit and oppress” poor, black and brown people.

Taking his title from a Ferguson resident who noted that the police left Michael Brown’s body on the ground “like he ain’t belong to nobody,” Hill presents a scathing indict-ment of excessively ag-gressive policing, flawed courts, mass incarceration, hollowed out and jobless inner cities, and the priva-

tization of public resourc-es. By highlighting the hu-manity of “nobodies,” he hopes to stimulate prin-cipled and progressive re-form.

Persuasive caseAs he hammers home

his thesis – that the trag-edies across the length and breadth of the United States are “signposts of a much deeper and more in-tractable set of problems,” of a dual set of twenty-first century realities: “for the powerful, justice is a right; for the powerless justice is an illusion” – Hill at times dismisses the importance of “the facts” in each of the cases he analyzes.

The forensic evidence and eyewitness testimo-ny demonstrating that Mi-chael Brown was not shot in the back and the like-lihood that “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” might have been “a fiction in the most narrow and literal terms,” he claims, must not ob-scure the larger truth that “a life was taken with dis-turbingly casual ease,” that Brown would almost certainly be alive if he were White. Critics will al-so surely challenge Hill’s characterization of Sandra Bland as “courageous.”

That said, Hill does make a powerful and per-suasive case that the deck is stacked against Ameri-ca’s “nobodies.” Prison, he demonstrates, is every bit as much a likely destina-tion for young, poor Black men as graduate school

is for affluent Whites in Chevy Chase, Maryland and Scarsdale, New York.

Closing the gapHill casts doubt on

whether stop and frisk and “broken windows” police practices, harsh drug laws, or mass incarceration are responsible for the steep decrease in violent crime. He insists that the powers that be in the United States would not have tolerat-

ed heighted levels of lead in the water supply had it been found in Santa Mon-ica, California or Evanston, Illinois, instead of Flint, Michigan.

And he challenges us to join a new generation of activists prepared to or-ganize, agitate and act (against the backdrop of state sanctioned violence, economic injustice, so-cial misery, and appeals to fragmentation and fear) on the eminently reasonable

proposition that our “no-bodies” will not have a fair shot at becoming “some-bodies” until we reduce the unconscionably high – and growing – gap between America’s “have-gots” and our “have-nots.”

Dr. Glenn C. Altschuler is the Thomas and Dor-othy Litwin Professor of American Studies at Cor-nell University. He wrote this review for the Flori-da Courier.

FLORIDA COMMUNITY CALENDAR

St. Petersburg: Dreamers of Tomorrow will present a Chris-tian comedy “Laughter without Profanity’’ starring Shirley Murdock on July 31 at The Pal-ladium. Others include Darrien “Hair-larious” Perkins, Leatric Lamar and Tony Tone.

Fort Lauderdale: K. Michelle takes the stage Aug. 2 at Revo-lution Live. Other performers will be PJ and Ro James.

St. Petersburg: An Aretha Franklin Tribute is July 30 at The Palladium. The 8 p.m. show will feature award-winning songstress. Cece Teneal.

Orlando: Dru Hll and Lyfe Jen-nings are scheduled Aug. 27 at the House of Blues Orlando.

Jacksonville: A-Train Live: The Experience with Rodney Perry makes a stop at the Ritz Theatre & Museum on Aug. 19.

Miami: Drake’s Summer Sixteen Tour, which features Future, makes an Aug. 30 stop at the AmericanAirlines Arena.

Orlando: The stars of Lifetime’s “Bring It!’’ will perform July 27 at Hard Rock Orlando, July 28 at

the Straz Center in Tampa, July 29 at Florida Theatre Jackson-ville, July 30 at Broward Center for the Performing Arts, and July 31 at the James L. Knight Center in Miami.

Miami Beach: Leon Bridges will perform Sept. 13 at the Fillmore Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater.

Jacksonville: Aaron Bing performs Aug. 14 at the Times Union Center for the Performing Arts.

Clearwater: Catch R&B crooner Maxwell Aug. 4 at Ruth Eckerd Hall.

Miami Beach: Jill Scott takes the stage on Aug. 30 at the Fill-more Miami Beach at the Jackie Gleason Theater.

Fort Lauderdale: The Keb’ Mo’ Band will perform Sept. 22 at the Parker Playhouse.

Jacksonville: Shirley Murdock is scheduled at the Salem Centre ion July 30.

Hollywood: Seal performs Aug. 18 at Hard Rock Live. The show starts at 8 p.m.

Miami: Kanye West’s The Saint Pablo Tour stops at America-nAirlines Arena on Sept. 16.

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CHECK LOCAL LISTINGS FOR THEATERS AND SHOWTIMES

DeAngelis Diamond Healthcare Group is cur-rently seeking bids from qualified minority and women-owned Subcontractors and Suppliers interested in bid/procurement opportunities as-sociated with the Hunter’s Creek Free Standing Emergency Room (FSER) addition located in Orlando, Florida.

The project will consist of a new 2,632 SF to the existing Hunter’s Creek FSER. This project involves ground up construction of a single story addition, beginning in mid-Oc-tober 2016 and finalizing mid-February 2017.

Bid packages associated with the project include the following: Sitework • Landscap-ing • Selective Demolition • Concrete • Masonry • Steel • Millwork • Roofing • Metal Wall Panels • Waterproofing/Caulking • Doors • Glass • Drywall • Acoustical • Flooring • Painting • Misc. Specialties • Mechanical • Fire Protection • Electrical • Low Voltage System Scopes (Mechanical and Electrical Subcontractors must be pre-qualified with HCA)

IMPORTANT NOTE:

Bids are due Thursday, August 11, 2016 @ 2:00 pm EST. Bid documents are available for your immediate use. Please submit your bids to Scott Johnson, Estimator. Phone: (205) 453-7449; Email: scottj@deangelisdiamond.com.

DeAngelis Diamond Healthcare Group is committed to building relationships for the future through honor, integrity and trust that achieve our clients’ goals while having a positive influence on our employees, subcontractors, community and industry.

DeAngelis Diamond Healthcare Group and HCA are strongly committed to the devel-opment and implementation of initiatives which promote the inclusion of minority and women-owned businesses.

ISRAEL HOUGHTONTickets are on sale for the Festival of Praise on Nov. 30 at the Pompano Beach Amphitheater. Performers include Fred Hammond, Pastor Hezekiah Walker, Israel Houghton, Karen Clark Sheard, Regina Belle and Casey J.

JEFFREY OSBORNEGerald Albright and Jeffrey Osborne will perform Oct. 22 at The Peabody in Daytona Beach.

‘Nobody’ puts focus on aggressive policing, flawed courts, mass incarcerationBOOK REVIEWReview of “Nobody: Casual-ties of America’s War on the Vulnerable, from Ferguson to Flint and Beyond’’ by Marc Lamont Hill. Atria Books. 320 pages. $26.

Marc Lamont Hill

LIL KIMThe Bad Boy Family Reunion is coming to AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami on Sept. 10 and Tampa’s Amalie Arena on Sept. 11. Performers will include Puff Daddy, Faith Evans, Lil Kim, Mase, 112, Total, Carl Thomas, The Lox and French Montana.