Mark Anthony Barmore- Causing A Racial Divide in Rockford

SCOTT MORGAN(image Source)

The Rev. Jesse Jackson speaks Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009, during the burial of Mark Anthony Barmore at Greenwood Cemetery in Rockford.

The community of Rockford, Illionois is pissed off, and rightly so. On August 24, police officers Oda Poole and Stan Northy were involved in the fatal shooting of 23 year old Mark Anthony Barmore at Kingdom International Ministries Church. He was wanted for questioning regarding an incident the previous day.

Two witnesses say that Mark Anthony Barmore had ran into a boiler/storage room. The police shined a flashlight in the room and ordered Barmore to come out. Witnesses say that Barmore proceeded slowly to walk out with both hands up and his head down. But then, the police shot him and according to one eyewitness, after Barmore had been shot numerous times and was on the floor, one officer continued to shoot, with a final bullet to Barmore's head. It is reported that the police fired 8 rounds.

The police allege that Barmore fought with them trying to get an officers gun.

Barmore was killed in the daycare center within the hearing and sight of children.

The communty of Rockford, Illonois can't take anymore.
Barmore's death has become a symbol of unequal opportunities in this manufacturing town of about 160,000 where blacks lag far behind whites in jobs, education and income. The meandering Rock River divides the town largely along racial lines -- whites on the east and blacks on the west, where aging and shuttered buildings line streets. If we were to change the date to 1952, wouldn't it be the same. Racial divides still plague our country. It doesn't matter if we had a "BLUE," President, racism in American still prevails.







Source: CBS NEWS

Today Good Morning America recreated the 1940s experiment in which 63% of African-American children given identical white and black dolls said they'd rather play with the white doll and 44% identified more with the white doll.

Click Here for the VIDEO-----> (VIDEO)

In the 1940s, the nation was captivated by an electrifying experiment by legendary sociologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark. They asked black children about two dolls, one white and one black.

The majority -- 63 percent of them -- said they'd rather play with the white doll. Most said the white doll was nicer than the black doll and in the most poignant answer of all, 44 percent of the black children said the white doll looked most like them. The sad fact is that here we are years later and 44% still identified more with the White doll. I truly feel that the way society still portrays African Americans is playing an impact on how our kids view themselves.

While I applaud what GMA is doing by revisiting race in America I do hope that you will do a bit more than what I typically see on this topic. General, the "conversation" about race only involves African Americans. I think that it would be far more interesting to know what doll white kids would pick and why. For whatever reason, race conversations always seem to have African American folks doing all the talking. What about White Americans? What do they REALLY think. And, why is it that Native Americans, Asians and Hispanics are not included in the conversation?

The other thing that I will say is that racism is unconscious. Most people (of all races) do not know that they are racist. I once heard a white man on Bill Mahr say that to be called a racist is the worst thing you could be called in the world. So, to begin to pick at people's unconscious racism is challenging. Still, because President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama are in the White House, I think that the image of seeing them just about every day will go a long way to healing and addressing the unconsciousness of it all.

High school student Kiri Davis explores the self-image of black children in the US by repeating the historic "doll test" of Dr. Kenneth Clark that led to school desegregation.