"Walk together Chulluns don't you get weary there's a great camp meeting in the promised land"

“We shall overcome.”

A spark of hope from my father. pic.twitter.com/YiEz5zG8dd

— Be A King (@BerniceKing) June 27, 2020

#BlackLivesMatter on the football field, off the field all bets are off #SweetHomeAlabama Edition

EYE report what You decide

“In this moment in history, we can’t be silent.” pic.twitter.com/YF4ndJSpa0

— Alabama Football (@AlabamaFTBL) June 25, 2020

So, it took Minneapolis, MN police officer Derek Chauvin literally taking a knee on George Floyd's neck, killing him live and in living color for  8 minutes and 46 seconds for some (not to be confused with all) #Colonizers to wake up and smell the coffee and realize why Colin Kaepernick and other NFL players took a knee during the National Anthem. Yes, EYE know that was a run-on sentence but EYE digress.  The realization racist/racism has the potential to hit them where it really hurts...in their wallets and pocketbooks.

EYE suspect someone in the school of business at the University of Alabama developed a marketing plan to try and plug the holes and stop the Rising Tide ship from sinking. Let's not pretend black male athletes don't make up a high percentage of collegiate student-athletes.  

A new report from the Center for American Progress concludes that colleges and universities are making a great deal of money on football and men’s basketball – sports where African American men make up a large percentage of all athletes – while the African American athletes are not adequately reaping the benefits of this money-making machine.
The report states that “Black male college athletes are getting a bad deal. Their work on the court and the field generates vast profits for the NCAA, member colleges, and TV networks, yet student-athletes receive no share of the profits they generate. Moreover, the majority of black student-athletes participate in sports with the highest risks of physical injury.”

Despite the popular opinion of some African Americans care about their student-athletes.  Sure they would like for them to play in the #NFL and become rich and famous but at what cost?  What self-respecting black parents want to send their student to play in a state still flying the Confederate Flag, hanging nooses, EYE mean garage door pulls, burning crosses, and protecting Confederate monuments?  It's not like they don't have options.

“The [recruiting] process started before the season,” former Howard coach Gary Harrell told The Undefeated. “Caylin’s father [Cecil Newton Sr.] wanted something different for him. He could have gone anywhere in the country, and they could have paid his tuition anywhere. But they wanted an HBCU [historically black college or university], and they figured if it’s going to be an HBCU, why not the school that is considered to be the highest of all HBCUs.”

Everybody knows the University of Alabama is Trump Country so EYE have to question the motivation behind the PSA. 

EYE just do. 

EYE am "shocked and appalled" someone left a noose at the first race in Alabama after NASCAR announced it had banned Confederate flags at races and on NASCAR property

Shocked EYE tell you!

“I am shocked and appalled to hear of yesterday’s vile act against Bubba Wallace in Talladega — there is no place for this disgusting display of hatred in our state,” Ivey said in a statement. “Racism and threats of this nature will not be condoned nor tolerated, and I commit to assisting in any way possible to ensure that the person responsible for this is caught and punished. While the important conversation of racial reconciliation is ongoing all over our country, it is clear there is much work to do. Bubba Wallace is one of us; he is a native of Mobile and on behalf of all Alabamians, I apologize to Bubba Wallace as well as to his family and friends for the hurt this has caused and regret the mark this leaves on our state. I ask the NASCAR family to rally around Bubba and his team as they compete today and I know that there are more people who are wishing him well today than ever before.”

Says the Governor who signed the Confederate Monument Protection Act but EYE digress.

EYE am so NOT shocked 

The Confederate flags that once flew openly around the infield and stands are still for sale across the street. NASCAR hasn't disclosed how it will handle fans flying flags.

Nor am EYE so NOT surprised 

This is why we can’t have nice things in Alabama. Because the redneck jokes write themselves when a bunch of hillbillies get all riled up over not being able to fly their traitor flag at their car racing/beer drinking event.

Fake shock and awe aside you can't have it both ways.  You are either for preserving Confederate monuments and symbols or you are not and this is who/what represents "the disgusting displays of hate" in #SweetHomeAlabama.  It all starts in the home.  Parents are the first teachers. 

“I will teach my grandkids to hate you all” pic.twitter.com/f2IO0awyjg

— chris evans (@notcapnamerica) June 22, 2020

There is more than a whiff of hypocrisy.

"Shame. Notice the police protecting them. No riot gear. No tear gas. No rubber bullets. He has his back to them scanning the crowd because he identifies with them."

#WeTriedToTellYa 

"The danger of Donald Trump is much more extent to my community," Reid said. "It's much more extent to both my immigrant relatives, to African-Americans, to Latinos, it's not about whether or not we can regain our public standing on the world stage and be seen as America, as America was, to people who look like me, it's about imminent danger."
"Donald Trump is dangerous to our families, he's dangerous to our lives," Reid warned. "The, you know, my son, my -- our youngest son goes to Syracuse University, where right now, you know, the manifesto of the Texas shooter is being sent around to immigrant students, to black students, to Asian-American students."

RedEye's Rundown

Here's a rundown of all the dirty work happening in #SweetHomeAlabama

COVID19 Voter Suppression by Mass Murder

The 17 counties that make up Alabama’s Black Belt region are home to just 11 percent of the state’s population, but as of Thursday, 27 percent of all confirmed coronavirus cases in the state could be found there. A quarter of all coronavirus deaths in Alabama have been Black Belt residents.

And don't tell me it's not by design.

Hours after the Birmingham City Council approved a mandate requiring that people wear face coverings while in public, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall issued a cautionary statement, reminding cities and towns that while they have power, there is a limit.

 #MissionAccomplished 

Some hard-hit areas, like Lowndes County, outside Montgomery, the state capital, don't have a single intensive care bed, according to the Johns Hopkins University Coronavirus Resource Center.

The battle for control of the Plantation, EYE mean Alabama Democratic Party is over and the Minority now officially rules the Majority.

Worley said lawyers advised her not to appeal. She said it doesn’t help that Republicans hold all the seats on Alabama’s appeal courts.

“They were certainly not about to do any favors for us, longtime Democratic stalwarts,” Worley said. "They were much more inclined to help the nouveau regime than they were us."

The past is prologue. 

The fight for control of the Alabama Democratic Party between Sen. Doug Jones (D) and Nancy Worley, the current head of the party, has revived painful allegations of racial discrimination, never far from the surface in a state at the heart of the battle for civil rights — even though both Jones and Worley are white and their chief allies are black.

But what makes matters complicated are the countercharges of generational discrimination and acrimony between the African American Democrats who were on the front lines of the fight for civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s and a younger group of rising leaders who say they are being shut out of the party they will soon control.

Influencers beware or you will be blamed for things you didn't do. 

Huntsville police had edited the photos to black out a portion of Shapiro’s face but that didn’t do enough to make him unidentifiable.

McMurray told AL.com that he included Shapiro’s images in the presentation in an attempt to “educate” the public about antifa and anarchists. He said some deny that antifa is in Huntsville and believe police overreacted to the protesters. He says he was trying to prove them wrong.


“I didn’t accuse him of anything,” McMurray said. “Sympathizers are here. If you’re posting sympathetic likes and finds on your website, you very likely could be (a sympathizer). They put that on their website, not me.”

What a difference a Mayor and Police Chief Make

The EXACT same rumors that turned Huntsville PD & Madison deputies into combat soldiers ran rampant a few days earlier in Montgomery. Mayor Steven Reed & Chief Earnest Finley weren't duped. They talked to people. Forbid cops from wearing military garb. Look at the difference.

— Josh Moon (@Josh_Moon) June 19, 2020

RedEye Over and Out for Now 

EYE am Celebrating #Juneteenth2020 by giving a #ShoutOut to Public Enemy's "Fight the Power"

Opening up with video from the 1963 March on Washington, which was 100 years after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, “Fight The Power” demonstrated a different type of march, one more aggressive and less polished and respectable. Instead of trying to show the white people that good black folks exist, Public Enemy took on the mantle of black nationalism and looking after our own, and taking what was owed. The imagery they conjure is nothing short of empowering and revolutionary. So on this Juneteenth 2020, the fight marches on in the streets of America in the aftermath of so many police shootings to the point where we have to say names of people we never met so frequently, that they’re all part of our beings. From George Floyd to Breonna Taylor, we must continue to fight the power.

It's been 5 years since the Mother Emmanual AME Church Massacre

#SayTheirNames

🕊 🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊🕊

Remembering the 9 people murdered at Mother Emanuel AME Church in Charleston 5 years ago today. Praying for their families, communities, and city.

Let there be Love. pic.twitter.com/4AYIG4g9NI

— Be A King (@BerniceKing) June 17, 2020

"We are fighting for the right to breathe"

#EnoughIsEnough #WeAreDoneDying #RaiseTheStakes #BlackLivesMatter #TakeAKnee #UnitlJusticeIsReal #ICantBreathe #GeorgeFloyd #EricGarner 

#AlabamaHomeGirl Dr. Angela Davis "for such a time as this"

"Freedom is a constant struggle"

"This is an extraordinary moment," says legendary scholar Angela Davis. "One never knows when conditions may give rise to a conjuncture such as the current one, that rapidly shifts popular consciousness and suddenly allows us to move in the direction of radical change." pic.twitter.com/BKukKuKdzT

— Democracy Now! (@democracynow) June 12, 2020

This is why we #TakeAKnee in "the land of the free"

"And the home of the brave"

With Liberty

And Justice For All

An armed black business owner mistaken for a robber was punched in the face by a white Alabama cop - after calling to report being robbed.

The situation happened nearly three months ago on March 15 but just became public due to this security clip... pic.twitter.com/zQQrfDSYHP

— Rex Chapman🏇🏼 (@RexChapman) June 9, 2020