Web-Disappointment of the Decade: Blackprof.com
The last ten years have seen profound changes in the laws of our republic, many, in my opinion, for the worst. But whether or not you like the changes that have happened, most observers would agree that the behavior of the government at all levels and across all branches has been unprecedented in the modern era.
Almost weekly we hear about supreme court rulings, law enforcement incidents, and the blatant law breaking of our elected officials, so much so that it is becoming hard to be enraged anymore.
Last month, we found that
- The top officials in the Bush administration discussed and approved torture techniques.
- Another seemingly cut-and-dry police murder of an unarmed civilian was sanctioned by a judge.
- The presumptive republican nominee was found to violate his own campaign laws.
- The people of Zimbabwe have been wrestling with fundamental democratic issues.
- We have a right-wing talk show host that is inciting riots and illegally encouraging election law violations from his soapbox.
- A jury has for a second time given a mistrial for the case of a group of so-called terrorists in Miami, and the feds have elected to try these railroaded black men for a third time.
The commonality of all of these events is that they are about legal issues. And these issues are of particular importance to African Americans. These nuanced issues could best be addressed by, say, a blog of black law professors.
Yes, it would really be nice to have a group of proud African American law experts weigh in on these important issues. Luckily such a blog exists! Blackprof.com even has a banner with the faces of 11 black law professors to testify to the integrity of the blog posts. Oh Joy.
So, with the above legal issues in mind, what did Blackprof.com find worthy of discussion last month?
THE NATIONAL BLACK POLICE ASSOCIATION: THE SEAN BELL VERDICT EMBOLDENS LACK OF CONFIDENCE IN JUDGES
Juanita Bynum: Do Blinged Out Pastors go to Heaven
Dog the Bounty Hunter and Neo-Nazi Relative
Vogue Seems to Think Black Men Make Good Monkeys
Judgmental Judges and The Art of Fear: Come On People, Let’s Stop Being So Damn Scared
Why the World Hates Kwame Kilpatrick
Why I Won’t Be Watching March Madness
Granted, these were by a guest blogger (a finance professor!, no less).
So, what did members of the core group talk about over the last month? Two entries on Obama. One MLK memorial. And "The Gangsta Lifestyle on Trial".
This is par for the course for Blackprof.com. Par for the course.
Over the last few years of astounding, frightening and important legal events and stories, Blackprof has amazingly been silent on many of these issues, let alone distilling any black view of them. They have chosen instead to produce a blog that competes more with the tabloid genre than one that could hold its own with the legal or political space. They have forgone hardhitting analysis for trite and cheap pop commentary.
I used to read them regularly, until I figured out that the authors did not want to rise above tabloid blogging, and that aside from the rare gem in the rough, I could expect to be disappointed month after month.
Shizi
4 Comments
Reader Comments (4)
I found it extremely interested Blackprof.com would let Boyce Watkins carry the site with those tabloid style entries also.
Maybe it is near final exams and I hope that is the reason. But you are right, that site is an extreme disappointment. I took it off my blog roll last week.
It astounds me that a finance professor would publish such articles in the face of a variety of alarming financial/economic stories:
-the plummeting dollar
-skyrocking food prices/rice riots
-Fuel prices/transportation industry woes
-the mortgage meltdown
..some of which have had unique impacts on african americans.
I wonder what comprises his academic body of work; did dude wake up one morning and say "screw it all"?
the plight of the afrodemic - for as long back as I can remember...,
I find it sad that you spend your time hating on other black scholars rather than working to become a serious scholar yourself. I noticed that blackprof has hundreds of comments, while your blog has about 4 or 5 (with some of them written by you, I'm sure). Jealousy perhaps?