The Axiom Amnesia Theory
Episode 147: The World Is A Ghetto
The world is a ghetto, but the hood is where the “authorities” spend most of their time plotting to systematically criminalize its inhabitants. Wanna know what life is like in the hood? On this episode of The Axiom Amnesia Theory, Heit & Cheri give you a glimpse into hood experiences from day-to-day experiences like shopping and gun violence to being systematically criminalized and ushered through the criminal punishment system.
Topics discussed include Malcolm X murdered on this date in 1965, Minister Louis Farrakhan’s PR campaign on Chicago gun violence, Obama’s invitation-only speech on gun violence in Chicago, Heit & Cheri encountering ridiculously long lines at Wal-Mart, the difference between urban hoods around the country, police presence in the hood, police guarding town borders to harass and keep out “undesirables”, Heit & Cheri share personal stories of police harassment, Florida Atlantic University renaming its football stadium after a private prison corporation, Georgia execution of Warren Lee Hill halted because officials now believe him to be mentally retarded, the idiocracy of using majorities to establish “fact”, and more!
Listen To The Axiom Amnesia Theory Now!
Click here for more episodes of The Axiom Amnesia Theory
Help to spread independent thinking and donate $5 now!
Segment 1
On this day, February 21, in 1965, Malcolm X was murdered in front of his wife and two of his daughters as he spoke in the Audubon Ballroom.
Discussion about the negative slant against Minister Louis Farrakhan in the recent movie “Betty & Coretta”. The insinuation in the movie is that Farrakhan had something to do with the murder of Malxolm X–he’s denied this publicly multiple times for years.
In New York City, Malcolm X, an African American nationalist and religious leader, is assassinated by rival Black Muslims while addressing his Organization of Afro-American Unity at the Audubon Ballroom in Washington Heights. [...]
On February 21, 1965, one week after his home was firebombed, Malcolm X was shot to death by Nation of Islam members while speaking at a rally of his organization in New York City.
Source: History Channel
Discussion about Farrakhan’s recent activities of taking it to Chicago streets to supposedly help quell Chicago gun violence. His camp believes that the reason people tried to remind people about his alleged connection to Malcolm X’s murder is because he is speaking out on Chicago violence. Of course, he stepped up his campaign in the past few months, which just happened to be right before the Obamas finally decided to show up in Chicago and speak up on the gun violence after the high-profile murder of honor student Hadiya Pendleton.
Cheri explains how the NOI was difficult and unresponsive when her mother asked them to canvas the area where her brother was shot and killed in August. It seems that the NOI are more concerned with their PR campaign than with actually helping the victims and families of the gun violence.
Discussion about how Obama’s recent trip to Chicago to speak on gun violence was invitation-only. As the mother of a son who was recently killed in Chicago’s gun violence, Cheri’s mom tried desperately to obtain tickets to the event–to no avail, as it was an invitation-only event. Only the high-profile victims of Chicago’s gun violence are privileged with an invitation to discussions that affect us all…
All any of these politicians and community leaders care about is the PR campaign, and what it looks like.
Discussion about classism within the Black community.
Michelle Obama transcended her working class Chicago background once she went to an Ivy League college. Why should someone have to pressure her and her husband to care about the community from whence she came and where they STILL have a home.
Discussion about Heit & Cheri’s trip to Wal-Mart in the hood, where the lines were backed up into the apparel department. They spoke with the assistant manager of the store, who said that Wal-Mart has cut hours on both part-time and full-time employees, despite excessive profits.
Why don’t Wal-Marts in the hood have any self-checkout lanes. The assistant manager was quick to point out that the nice areas have those self-checkouts.
Discussion about the hood in some places not looking like the hood. In Chicago, when you go into the hood, it’s obvious in the way that things look that you are in the hood. In Dallas, the hood is somewhat camouflaged, and the typical indicators of being in the hood. Much of this is because Chicago is an older city, but in newer cities, the hood is not as obvious.
Cheri thinks that Dallas looks like one big suburb.
Discussion about debates between people from New York and L.A. arguing over whose neighborhood was more “hood”.
Discussion about police containment in the hood.
Discussion about Chicago police heightened presence in affluent areas to keep the “undesirables” out.
Cheri talks about police in affluent Chicago suburbs pulling her over and telling her not to come back to the area as she was driving through looking at Christmas lights. She also discusses the Chicago Police telling her not to come back to certain neighborhoods within the city.
This is just like the way governments guard their borders. Passage across the border is not allowed unless you are deemed acceptable by the “authority” there. Basically, they’re trying to guard their America so that it remains the way they envision it.
Heit discusses the police stopping him while in college at LSU (Baton Rouge, LA) for wearing an afro. They said that they thought his big afro was a costume. He recounts another time when campus police stopped him as he walked through a parking lot on campus.
Discussion about Florida Atlantic University renaming its football stadium after a private prison corporation.
In recent years, where stadium naming rights could be sold, universities and professional sports teams have sold them — to airlines and banks and companies that sell beer, soda, doughnuts, cars, telecommunications, razors and baseball bats. This led to memorable examples like Enron Field, the KFC Yum! Center and the University of Phoenix Stadium. [...]
“This is an example of great donor intent, terrible execution,†said Paul Swangard, the managing director at the University of Oregon Warsaw Sports Marketing Center. “Here’s a guy with strong ties to the university, who wants to make a difference, and is mixing his philanthropic interest with a marketing strategy that doesn’t make any sense.â€
The GEO Group, which is based in Boca Raton, secured the naming rights with a $6 million gift, paid out over 12 years through its charitable arm, the largest such donation in Florida Atlantic’s athletic history. In a news release, the university said the money would finance athletic operations, the stadium, scholarships and “academic priorities.â€
Source: New York Times
They are basically making money by locking up Black people (and other societal “undesirables”) while at the same time keeping them from being able to attend games at their institution.
The deal is a win-win for the university and the prison company. They are getting plenty of publicity.
The marketing strategy makes perfect sense. The company is publicly traded, and their goal is to maximize profits for shareholders–specifically getting more people locked up!
They are using people who are mostly not doing anything wrong (based on B.S. laws) to make money. It’s all a numbers game–the more bodies in prison, the more money the corporation makes.
These corporations are basically “occupying the hood” by criminalizing an entire people.
Discussion about Georgia execution of Warren Lee Hill being halted because officials now believe him to be mentally retarded.
The execution of a Georgia man who killed a fellow prisoner in 1990 was halted Tuesday at the last minute so courts could consider claims that he’s mentally disabled and other issues.
The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals granted its stay of execution as 52-year-old Warren Lee Hill was being prepared for lethal injection. In a 2-1 decision, a panel of the appeals court said further review is needed of recent affidavits by doctors who changed their minds about Hill’s mental capacity.
“In other words, all of the experts — both the State’s and the petitioner’s — now appear to be in agreement that Hill is in fact mentally retarded,” judges in the majority wrote in their order.
The state court of appeals also issued a stay to allow more time to consider a challenge related to the state’s lethal injection procedure.
Earlier in the day, the state parole board, the Supreme Court of Georgia and the U.S. Supreme Court had all declined to stop the execution.
Source: Yahoo! News
We spoke about addiction as a mental illness that should be treated as a health issue in Episode 142: Love Attention. The same thing applies in cases of mental retardation.
Discussion about snitching. It’s funny how they say criminals are unreliable witnesses, yet the snitches are often criminals. They are happy to take their word to convict another person.
Why couldn’t they figure out that the man was mentally ill before the eleventh hour before his planned execution? They’re not trying to!
Discussion about how the onus is on this mentally ill man to both pay an attorney to lobby for his life and have the mental capacity to do so.
Discussion about how a conviction is used to establish “fact”–the notion that 12 people agree on something makes it true.
Discussion about the fact that we know majorities are wrong all the time, yet we accept fact based on what a group of arguable idiots who are generally inept at logic to determine what is true or not.
If you like what we do on Axiom Amnesia, please consider making a donation to us directly or by purchasing Heit & Cheri’s album “Improper Conduct.”
Make a one-time donation
Make a one-time donation of as little as $1 below:
Improper Conduct by Heit & Cheri
Related Articles:
Visit Podcast Website
RSS Podcast Feed
Subscribe
Share
Add to MyCast