Five summers ago (August 29, 2007), media worldwide, and I, wrote about an event that raised the level of inspection of racial dysfunction in the State of
It’s not quite the “Summer of ’12” yet, but things are already heating up. It’s time to re-visit the
As a PK (Preacher’s Kid), I spent a lot of time in church while growing up. Occasionally (I am sure an even rarer occurrence these days), a minister sensing the presence and working of the Spirit would discern that through the perfect dispensation of the Trinity (Father, Son, & Holy Spirit), his work for the day had been done in such completeness, there was neither a need for, nor a benefit to be derived from an actual sermon; not even from the Shepherd of the Flock. Sometimes, a power that is at once, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent, designs and executes just such a sublimely spiritual perfect storm.
In his own alternative universe kind of way, Mark Traina has told his own story via means I would prefer not to alter, in an effort not to detract from it, and certainly not to embellishment it.
So, are you actively navigating the Twitterverse?
It is true you do not have to lift-off into cyberspace orbit to get apprised of the issues of the day. However, if Twitter can be insinuated as an indirect catalyst for the Arab Spring, its significance has clearly risen to the level of “accepted broadly.”
In fact, for the first time in the roughly 57 months that I’ve posting this blog, I am going to put forth a story that gained its impetus and currency from Twitter. Before you ask, or wonder, no I don’t Follow (on Twitter) the principal character in this saga, but his Twitter feeds are the portal of entry for gaining a working perspective on the this tough talking Cajun’s acerbic claims.
Allow me to take a moment to define the phenomenon that is Twitter, just in case someone has missed that part of the social networking revolution. In short, Twitter is:
An online social networking service and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, known as "tweets.” It was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July. The service rapidly gained worldwide popularity, with over 140 million active users as of 2012[5], generating over 340 millions tweets daily[5] and handling over 1.6 billion search queries per day.[7][8] It has been described as "the SMS of the Internet."[9] Unregistered users can read the tweets, while registered users can post tweets through the website interface, SMS, or a range of apps for mobile devices.[10]
Twitter Inc. is based in San Francisco, with additional servers and offices in New York City. The Twitter website is one of the top ten most visited on the Internet.[4]
How, you may ask, has Mr. Traina so creatively, divisively,
and hatefully, used his Twitter
account?
First, it is essential to
know this story has a number of moving parts, including:
- Repeated
allegations resulting in a multi-charge complaint filed by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) against the Jefferson Parish School System
because it disproportionately funnels blacks and students with disabilities
into alternative schools, where they languish for months or even years
before returning to regular schools
- A review initiated by the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights
- School
Superintendent James Meza launching an internal investigation into the
charges in the SPLC’s complaint
Yes, if anything about this situation is apparent, it is that Mr. Traina likes expressing his opinion. The Times-Picayune, New Orleans’ flagship daily paper reported in Monday’s edition that Mr. Traina, was not only employed in the alternative schools where the affected students were receiving inferior education, but as a psychologist, he was actively involved in determining the students who were transferred into such schools.
The combination of Traina’s pivotal responsibilities and irrepressibly racialized opinions makes for fractious amalgam. When I consider the impending, perhaps totally unavoidable consequences of his actions, metaphors like “fox in the hen house,” and/or “wolf in sheep’s clothing” come to mind.
But enough of the preamble; I submitted Mr. Traina had in effect woven his own personal tapestry in such a way that nothing need to be added for you to fully and completely appreciate (or not) his stance and its efficacy, or lack thereof. Therefore, without further ado, consider the unabridged thoughts, or rather tweets, of Mr. Mark Traina:
- “Young
Black Thugs who don’t follow the law need to be put down not incarcerated.
Put down like the Dogs they are!“ and ”We need to declare a war on Thugism
in
- “Serpas should be warning people to STAY THE HELL OUT
OF
- In an April Tweet, he wrote that 17-year-old Trayvon
Martin's killer George Zimmerman was "the real victim and held his ground."
- (The fact that Traina, who works with troubled
students in the district, posted such racially provocative comments
provides further evidence of this discrimination, SPLC lawyer
- “This is just another way to harass the
- “Even one of the best known Civil Rights Activists
in
- “We are faced with a young Black Army of Thugs who
have declared War on the
- “Young Black Thugs have created an atmosphere of
Fear throughout
- “Protesters march in
- “Can President Obama win re-election if almost
two-thirds of whites are opposed to him?”
- “I grew
up in
- “If
White people were going around killing people the Blacks would be crying
“Fowl.” (I added the parentheses;
wasn’t sure whether he was calling black folks chicken, or just saluting
our affinity for yard bird).
- “ANOTHER
YOUNG BLACK MALE THUG-NEEDS TO DIE-I PRAY THAT THE VICTIMS FRIENDS GET TO
HIM 1ST. SO THE POLICE WON'T HAVE TO KILL HIM,"
- “Mark A.
Traina is an American Civil Rights Activist who unlike Jessie Jackson and
Al Sharpton represents all Americans."
- “Everything
I said is fact-based, backed up by data. I don't have a prejudiced bone in
my body. I'm not a racist. I'm a realist."
- “ON A PERSONAL NOTE: I live in
- All I
can say is, “Thank God for
While I am tempted to follow the hanging thread that Mr. Traina left regarding the unknown civil rights leader, since he didn’t actually call out the venerable Cos, I’m gonna let that slide. But just recall/know, I have previously provided my thoughts on that question in a post entitled, The Blame Game (October 24, 2007/ http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com/2007/10/blame-game.html). My current position; same thoughts, different day!
In the final analysis, as it relates to this current Tempest in aTeapot, I leave you to evaluate Mr. Traina’s bodacious claims. “ToughTalk in the Big Easy: A Real Civil Rights Activist?” You decide whether his vile rhetorical explosion rises to the level of civil rights activism or merely a round of malevolent social networking.
I’m done; holla back!
Read my blog anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.blogspot.com. A new post is published each Wednesday. For more detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post, consult the links below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twitter
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