The Tragedy of Phylicia Barnes: Cupcakes and Colored Girls

The Sad Tragedy of Phylicia Barnes versus Natalee Holloway


Phylicia Barnes disappeared without a trace on December 28, 2010 in Baltimore, Maryland last seen around 3:00 am presumably to buy some food. She had everything going for her, a straight A student, a young lady with a bright future from Union Academy in Monroe, NC, an outer Charlotte suburb. To all who knew her, she had it all, a winner among winners. She vanished when visiting her sisters in Baltimore. News coverage on both the Baltimore and national level are scant, but in the initial article in the Baltimore Sun, there is a curious passage that perhaps tips off a disturbing attitude implicit handling this case, “Barnes is an A student who does not have a history of running away or of criminal behavior, according to Anthony Guglielmi, a Baltimore police spokesman.” Why does it even merit mentioning that this young lady has no criminal history unless one would be inclined to predispose she does, and on what basis would the question arise when examining an A student?

While Baltimore is no Aruba, the tropical “paradise” where conspicuous hedonism is the national identity, these two cases appear so similar. Natalee Holloway came from Mountain Brook, Alabama, a high income community just outside Birmingham. She had just graduated from Mountain Brook, High School, an honor’s student who was an enthusiast participant in school activities including the drill team in the school marching band. She was destined to head to undergrad school at University of Alabama with a full scholarship where she intended to prepare for medical school. This young lady was on the fast track to be a fine doctor.

So why is it that Phylicia Barnes receives relatively little attention in the news media even cable news and the localities involved where viewers could not escape the Natalee Holloway tragedy from her disappearance on May 31, 2005 until Hurricane Katrina took all the attention though Holloway coverage would return getting far more attention on a regular basis than Miss Barnes? Is it because the chances of murder seemed so obvious in the Holloway chase? After all quickly villains emerged, a young man who’d quickly become a world renowned punk, Joran van der Sloot with his shady looking sidekicks, brothers Deepak and Satish Kalpoe . Is it because such an occurrence is so unthinkable in tiny Aruba the island where fantasies of pleasure come true? People getting killed and disappearing in Baltimore aren’t that rare. Last year 222 people were murdered. More disappeared. However, most of those were involved in urban street violence. For a very impressive young lady like Phylicia Barnes such a fate is quite rare. Natalee Holloway’s saga would occupy the lead slot on at least one Fox News program every night interviewing detectives, lawyers, forensic experts, friends, family, and classmates of Ms. Holloway, Aruban officials, and people from Natalee’s home town. Her plight would find Greta Van Susteren travelling the globe searching for answers and Geraldo Rivera would make her a cause de célèbre for tabloid journalism. Phylicia Barnes received almost no primetime coverage relegated to the day time and weekend morning shows with relatively few viewers. More than two weeks after her disappearance, Fox News interviewed her father on “Fox and Friends Weekend.” While some might accuse the networks of going overboard on Natalee Holloway, what could be employed as a greater power that could call attention to her disappearance than the national and even world media? While her story does not live up to the urgency of national issues including conflict in Iraq and Iran (gee, don’t you think those military families of deceased service men would like at least a nod of appreciation telling their loved one’s tale), perhaps bumping up the priority of her case would be justified if it helped to bring the tragedy to conclusion? Still, the irony remains – two promising young ladies who were brilliant and popular students – one received saturation coverage, the other almost escapes notice?

Did we tell you Phylicia Barnes is African American? Natalee Holloway was pin-up girl gorgeous, blonde, blue-eyed, makeup verging on the trashy side – in other words, white and sexy.

There in lines the difference between the two cases. Young white woman and girls are our culture’s dream of human perfection as long as they’re pretty. Somehow they seem to be the embodiment of every American dream. Think of the iconic all-American images we bestow on the girl next door (of course we know what kind of neighborhood that would be as right out of Norman Rockwell Americana). We ascribe and associate titles of royalty which just aren’t associated with black girls – homecoming queen, prom queen, and all kinds of princesses, or Miss State Fair, Miss Alabama, or Miss America regardless of the small handful of minorities who have been so honored. If it’s any consolation to African Americans, white men, not particularly attractive fully grown white women, Asians, Latinos, and white boys the same age as Natalee or Phylicia don’t get much press either. Only babies and grandparents get more attention than the vast spectrum of our sea of humanity, but nubile white females get the highest degree of attention when they are victims. Conversely, black males of that age don’t even get mentioned unless they’re valedictorians or stars on their school’s sports teams which would at least earn them mention in the news – but after a day or two, they’re gone too.

Clearly, not all men and especially women even more so women are created equal where the ratings driven mainstream media is concerned. The public gets very worked up when seemingly innocent white girls’ fate meets evil. Fear and horror grip the population. Demands for resolution become deafening, the young lady’s biography becomes a tale of human virtue. Families blessed with a lovely girl of that age reassure themselves nothing happened to their little cupcake but oh how gripping is the fear that she might meet a horrible end even though the chances of being a victim of violence remains incredibly low.

Racism is not always in your face hatred. When it’s as obvious as to where white folk call black folk “niggers,” it’s easy to recognize and fight. There is a tendency for some to say, “racism, what racism, we elected Obama after all!” None of this recognizes that more insidious and less obvious forms of racism. How do we account for not developing the resolve and simply allow things like the total failure of urban school systems to function in productive and supportive ways to effectively educate the next generation of those kids who have every right to escape the grips of the squalor. How can we tolerate and not intervene with full-force to end the kind of street corner genocide where in many communities such as Baltimore where on any given night the odds are better than not that at least one young black man will be killed in the streets. We deprive the personal tragedy and that each of these deaths is some mother’s son by associating the killings as gang warfare or drug violence. Such labels strip the victims of their humanity making them disposable human beings. That we mention failing schools and urban violence side-by-side helps us understand in many ways, one leads to the next. Where kids challenged, encouraged to see goals and ideals for themselves, taught effectively so they could achieve it would be unthinkable to think such kids would waste away and ooze out on to the mean streets of the big cities. Nevertheless, the master culture feels that it attempts to address these issues through a myriad of social programs continuing to believe that these problems could be solved if only more money were spent as if not taxing those selfish rich people to death is the answer. Plenty of money is being appropriated. The money is being spent, but HOW is it being spent and WHERE does the money go? Look at the largesse of urban school bureaucracies often incredibly bigger than suburban schools but look how those additional offices provide nothing that help kids on the classroom level. Nevertheless, millions and millions are spent on studies and blue ribbon panels that invariably reach the same conclusion – spend more money, create more programs, but where does it become someone’s responsibility to get results?

Fast forward back to the Phylicia Barnes case, both North Carolina and Maryland are states with large populations of black middle class citizens and a significant number of people who reach high positions in corporate and government settings. They almost seem to be stealth accomplishments because so little is made of their success and held up as goals for achievement when it seems like the only place blacks truly excel in our society is entertainment, especially sports. Ghetto kids start to believe their ticket out of the ghetto rests in the NFL and NBA. The odds that any particular kid will realize such glory is probably far less likely than being gun downed in the street or struck by lightening.

A wonderful young lady has vanished without a clue. Would anyone recognize the face of Phylicia Barnes? Would we have recognized the face of Natalee Holloway? Five years later her graduation picture and several others we identify almost instantaneously with Alabama’s up and coming angel who disappeared in the tropical paradise of Aruba. About the only consolation one can find is that Aruban law enforcement is more inept, corrupt, and ineffective than even the worst police departments in big city America.

We pretty much know what happened to Natalee Holloway; Joran van der Sloot killed her. Any doubt he didn’t was erased when he killed another young lady in Peru That he might spend the rest of his life in one of the world’s nastiest prisons is just rewards for his treachery even if it weren’t specifically for Natalee, but the Holloway family deserves better closure than that.

We have no idea about Phylicia Barnes or even to what extent she is a priority in Baltimore. Just add one more to the body count of black people in a city where there’s not a huge difference between 222 and 223 murders for 2010 as if to say what’s the value of one particular human being compared to the rest, just one more report to file. This kind of dehumanization helps show why society is so tolerant of such high murder rates to begin with. Some human beings aren’t as human as others.

Phylicia Barnes disappearance should challenge all of us to challenge these assumptions and demand justice. The similarities of these two cases parallel in so many ways, but when a lovely white girl vanishes, it is such a real life case of the damsel-in-distress motif it somehow appeals to every sense of chivalry. Chivalry is an ancient concept borne in European and British aristocracy. As much as American society eschews notions of royalty and privilege based on class, those ancient rituals lurk just beneath our subconscious, and we see the dreadful contradictions they breed.

Despite the many resources employed, millions spent, and saturation media coverage, Natalee Holloway remains missing though Joran van der Sloot surely looks like a guilty murderer. There is still hope, albeit getting slimmer by the day, Phylicia Barnes, might turn up okay.

Keep Phylicia Barnes in your prayers. A tragedy like hers demands to be told.




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Elvis Statue Stolen from Diner Roof: Eastern Baltimore County Scandal!!!!

Elvis Statue Stolen

We can’t help but note the theft of a seven foot Elvis statue from the roof of the Happy Day Diner in Rosedale, Maryland, a blue collar neighborhood on Baltimore’s east side. We shall leave it to our readers to draw their own conclusions what this says of the state of our culture or how it fits in to the lore of Elvis-mania, but it leaves us feeling sad and angry folks can’t allow good old American tackiness to flourish or are so greedy they must attempt to have it all to themselves.

In the past year, the #8 statue honoring Cal Ripken in the Eutaw Street courtyard outside Orioles Park at Camden Yards was stolen only to be found in the bed of the crooks’ pickup truck. Somehow, the Elvis theft creates more for one to ponder. Just what, who knows?

Of course for years, folks joked that Elvis was alive and well working in a donut shop or gas station in Dundalk, Maryland, another east side suburb of Baltimore. Alas, the King would be 75 years old with the anniversary of his death coming up next month marking 33 years since his death – we feel sadly stuck in the Heartbreak Hotel for the moment.

Inexcusable Insanity in College Park After Terps' Magnificent Win Over Duke

The University of Maryland and Chesapeake area sports fans had much to be proud of Wednesday night. The University of Maryland’s Men’s’ Basketball team dealt the archrival Duke Blue Devils a convincing 79-22 defeat giving the team a share of 1st place with one game left to play in the regular season.

The vast majority of Terp fans were jubilant, joyful, and proud, but sadly once again, the conduct of some total losers tarnished the victory and gave the University’s reputation a most unneeded black eye.

After the victory, crowds took to the streets of College Park, Maryland and quickly some turned violent. 27 were arrested, many of whom were students for charges including rioting, assault, theft, vandalism, arson, and various other forms of misconduct.

Surely, some will blame this episode on alcohol, but there are thousands of pubs where sports fans gather. It’s very rare that riots break out on the occasion of the home team winning short of the all-to-familiar burn the city to the ground idiocy that accompanies some city’s winning national championships.

Were most of these jerks drunk, probably, but what the media will tap dance around saying assertively, that anyone engaged in this kind of moronic behavior is little more than a world class loser.

No excuses! Let’s not hear the usual, oh they’re just college kids and they got a little carried away with themselves. There is no excuse for destroying property, damaging automobiles, confronting police officers and getting into fights. There is no, absolutely no justifiable reason for this behavior.

There is no need to analyze the offenders, no need to psychologize their motives, and no need to attempt to put these actions in a greater “societal” context. If society is to blame, it does not absolve any of these morons from their actions. If there is a societal context, it would be that we live in the “me” world, a permissive society that is far too tolerant of behavior without consequences, do your own thing hedonism, and the “if it feels good, do it” ethos.

We encourage anyone who might have interaction with these lowlifes involved in the Victory riot, to shun them aggressively. Make them social outcasts. Do not welcome them into any social circles. Make it clear to them their behavior has brought shame on their community and the University.

We likewise encourage the authorities to “throw the book” at this culprits. The University should expel the students as quickly as due-process permits. All sanctions the school can apply should be strictly enforced. The local law enforcement community should prosecute all criminal acts and if they just so happened to have other chargeable issues such as possession of open alcohol containers or possession of alcohol by a minor, nail them, nail them hard.

Finally, as these cases are adjudicated, every effort should be made to make their deeds public with photos in appropriate media outlets in the College Park area.

For thousands of students and fans who were treated to a great sports spectacle who behaved properly and those in the community not involved, they deserve to have their joy or privacy honored and those who violated their world must be dealt with harshly.

The university issued the following statement:

In the aftermath of last night’s exciting win for the men’s basketball team, there were several incidents representing poor judgment on the part of those participating in the postgame celebration. The postgame behavior of some students is inconsistent with the high standards – in academics, attitudes, and in behaviors – that we have set at the University of Maryland College Park.

The University of Maryland has policies that provide the authority, with police documentation and following due process, to suspend or expel a student for riot-related behavior whether or not he or she has been convicted in a criminal court.
To that end, the University of Maryland is taking steps to assure that those incidences are fully investigated, documented and, where appropriate, fully addressed by the university’s judicial process.

Millree Williams, University of Maryland Spokesperson

Phil Spector: Da Doo Gone Gone

Phil Spector was sentenced to serve 19 years to life for his second degree murder of struggling actress, Lana Clarkson. The murder conviction carries 15 years to life. Four years are for a weapons charge. Additionally, Spector will pay restitution for funeral and other expenses. At 69 years old, the sentence all but should guarantee life in prison for the fallen mad genius of pop music trading in his famous wall of sound for the walls of California state prison.

In an earlier posting, we chronicled Spector's gigantic influence on pop music, also aspects of his bizarre personality. While the press will no doubt publish this as the personal tragedy of a fallen genius, and all the "how could this happen" grief, our true feelings should be directed to the tragic loss of life and its impact on the Clarkson family.

The loss isn't of Spector's freedom or any possible creative contributions he had left, but the loss of a human life. Somehow, in the celebrity obsessed world of mass media, something that basic, a real moral truth gets lost in the glitter.

Cyber Insanity Out of Control

Cyberspace Creates a New Breed of Criminal: A Convenient Tool For the Radical Left

Last week the news broke that Sarah Palin’s personal email had been hacked apparently as investigators are turning up by the son of a prominent democrat. Now, talk show host Bill O’Reilly who was most outspoken on that those responsible for this crime must be prosecuted has had his site hacked with personal information about his subscribers published.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/security/?p=1958

Just how low does it go and what does this reflect of the mentality of those who would commit such crimes against decent American people especially given it goes beyond public figures like Ms. Palin and Mr. O’Reilly to everyday people who enjoy Bill O’Reilly’s material?

Computer hacking is an extremely serious crime that all citizens must treat as such. How does it differ from “grand theft” or “breaking and entering” for instance? There is no difference between stealing electronic data from a person as ones’ physical property. Likewise, given how much of a person’s financial records are on line, the cases of identity theft, charging up a huge balance on a person’s credit, or obtaining confidential information in a person’s or company’s procession it theft, pure and simple. Why should it be seen any different because a new medium is involved.

What is so disturbing about the Sarah Palin email hacking is how casually the news media treated the case and how much more interest there seemed to be that the chance existed their might be instances where she used her personal account to do state’s business. Hardly a news report went by without dropping the hint that perhaps that was going on and when Democratic surrogates for the Obama campaign were asked to comment, they couldn’t wait to make some comment about, “Well, we’ll just have to see what’s in those emails before we pass judgment on this!”

In other words, are they suggesting that if we assumed she did use her email for state’s business to keep it out of the state record, that would justify someone taking it upon himself to hack into her account to find out? Given that the radical left has become a culture where the ends justify the means surely some notion of cyber vigilantism would be just fine with them.

Email and the Internet have afforded our culture with a wealth of new possibilities, ways to share information and communicate in ways we never could have imagined the last time baseball’s post season came around without the New York Yankees present. The problem is we have the technology before all the ethical, moral, and legal issues have been fully conceptualized.

Meanwhile, there are plenty of left-wing extremists and anarchists who have no problem with using their knowledge of technology to destroy others, their reputations, and their financial security. There are also common criminals with technology skills and the psychologically impaired cyber thrill seeker who engages in this kind of treachery as well. They are all criminals. Their crimes are VERY serious. Their punishments must be severe including time in jail, monitoring of their on-line usage, and possible probation terms that would forbid them from using technological equipment from which they could inflict their chaos as well.

Our culture has gone through an incredible technology revolution in the past decade plus. What email and internet has provided us could be every bit as revolutionary as when Guttenberg invented the printing press. Just as the printed word made reading materials available to the masses and helped create the need for universal literacy which helped transform society to where the middle class prevailed, we’re only a few years into the cyber age where the possibilities are both fascinating and horrifying.

In a world where so few seem to have firm moral grounding and adhere to a rational and moral system of values, in this world of the “Me” generation and instant gratification, the task of making sure our technology advances serve the higher purposes and we don’t continue to see what’s happened with Sarah Palin’s email or Bill O’Reilly’s website will be assured.

There is one more aspect to this subject that should have every American concerned, cyber terrorism. If just a bunch of idiotic kids can do what they did to these two public figures, imagine what the Islamic extremists could do on a much grander scale.

Death Marches on in Baltimore City

On any given night, most likely someone will be murdered in the City of Baltimore. Each year, surveys are posted listing the most deadly cities in the United States. Each year, Baltimore is near the top of the list. This problem is nothing new. It goes back several decades now. How easy it is to call it "urban violence" like it's something that happens in a far distant place. However, when we think of the national landmarks of Baltimore, some of the most famous are just footsteps away from the most deadly street corners in the city. Pimlico race track is known for the Preakness Stakes each May, yet a short distance from the race track's southwestern corner is one of the most troubled areas in all of Baltimore. Johns Hopkins Hospital is known around the world as an innovator in healing, yet just blocks away from this magnificent giver of life are some of the most morbid street corners in town.

Right Minded Fellow has heard it all before. There are plenty of explanations of the problem. Some point to the failure of Baltimore City Schools turning lose an unskilled, unemployable population of young black men ill-equipped to face society. Many would argue it's the drug gangs. Bands of criminals run the streets savagely murdering anyone who stands in their way. Some slick reporter from channel 13 will almost surely stick a microphone in the typical person on the street's face to a a response of something like, "Oh, hon, we have all these guns going around killing people." Sadly many are aware of the breakdown of the black family and that boys are being raised in fatherless homes. Of course, others blame it on white racism. Somehow those white fat cats living out in the county are responsible. What's interesting about all these explanations is that it's always someone else who is to blame. Nobody is stepping forward and taking responsibility. Law enforcement is seldom effective in bad neighborhoods. There's only so much a civilian police force can do in a polite society. Still, the problem persists. The blame game can be played forever without saving a single life. Each murder is first and foremost the responsibility of the person who takes another person's life. There are so many enablers, apologists, incompentents, and ineffective city officials, it's difficult to know where to turn next, but every factor must be dealt with assetively immediately. No one will have solutions for the overall homicide epidemic in the city right away, but one by one, each explosive situation can be identified and diffused.

The 2007 murder stats break down as follows: Black females - 15; Black males - 251 ; Hispanic females - 2; Hispanic males - 2; Asian females and other - 0; Asian males and other - 2; White females - 4; White males - 8; Unknown or undisclosed females - 0; Unknown or undisclosed males - 7; In other words, a black male is six times more likely to get murdered than the entire population of other categories combined!

As of 7/19/08, 114 people have been murdered in Baltimore. At the current pace, Baltimore could see perhaps as many as 80 fewer homicides mindful that the city is just getting into the peak of the long hot summer nights when the number of murders typically rises. Though any reduction in the loss of life is a blessing, Baltimore will still see well over two hundred murders. More days than not, someone will die on Baltimore city streets. Most of them young black men. One murder is one too many. Every year there are more speeches, more blue ribbon committees, more task forces, and more money being spent. Who wouldn't love to attribute the notable lower tally to some specific actions that have been effective? Obviously, it's way to soon to tell. Only if improvement continues for a span of several years can we determine what efforts were successful in turning this horrendous problem around. For right now, there is only one cause that can be given with assurance, LUCK.

Is our city content to just write off one segment of the population. On any given night, chances are better than not a black man will be murdered. Why?

If were not part of the solution, we're part of the problem. If you live in Maryland and pay taxes, it's your responsibility as a taxpayer to oversee where and on what our lawmakers are spending our money. Plenty of money goes to Baltimore City for many purposes including law enforcement and community support. The Thornton commission helped provide Baltimore City Schools a measure of parity in finances to the wealthier suburban county.

Every citizen of Maryland has some roll to play in solving this problem. Awareness and concern are a start, but nothing short of action on all levels will succeed. That we keep hearing the same old causes and see the same old solutions constantly failing show clearly the real conversation hasn't started yet.

May this humble submission by one voice to say let's get started NOW!