#677. Being the Real PeopleofWalmart.com

Admit it. You've ventured to the absolutely brilliant website peopleofwalmart.com and enjoyed a few hearty laughs (maybe a few belly laughs).

What exactly is peopleofwalmart.com?:

"We personally have nothing against Walmart. We, along with most of America, shop at Walmart for nearly everything we need. This site is simply a satirical social commentary of the extraordinary sights found at America’s favorite store. Walmart is Americana baby, Enjoy!"

What exactly are we about to discuss here at SBPDL? Wal-Mart is a much maligned company, and the store receives the type of envy and derision the New York Yankees find themselves constantly encountering. Why? Because Wal-Mart is the biggest company in the world (revenues of $378 billion in 2008):

"A facelift and even lower prices kept the world's largest retailer afloat in a troubled economy.

Staring down the barrel of brutal fourth-quarter retail forecasts, CEO Lee Scott dramatically cut prices on 15,000 items - including popular toys and electronics - by 20% more than usual to lure holiday shoppers. That rocked the industry, pressuring other retailers to squeeze already tight margins.

The tactic worked: Wal-Mart grossed $100 billion, breaking its fourth-quarter sales record, and soundly beat Target in same-store holiday sales for the first time in nearly a decade."

Interestingly, the customer base of Wal-Mart (if one decided the test samples at peopleofwalmart.com are an accurate portrayal of the cross-geographical pool of consumers for its low prices) represents the diversity of the United States perfectly:

"Wal-Mart Stores Inc. will retool its 3,256 U.S. stores over two years to give them a more customized mix of goods and layout for six key groups of customers, including Hispanics, African-Americans and affluent shoppers, the executive in charge of Wal-Mart’s U.S. operations said Thursday.

The move is the latest strategy twist for the world’s largest retailer as it struggles to revive growth rates that have fallen behind smaller rivals such as Target Corp. and after the company’s first quarterly drop in profits in a decade.

The approach, called segmentation, follows months of new initiatives from Wal-Mart to make sure each store is better tailored to its locale and to lure more affluent shoppers, who may come to Wal-Mart for groceries and basics but skip the company’s more profitable aisles like apparel and electronics.

Eduardo Castro-Wright, president and chief executive of Wal-Mart U.S., said stores will get a more specific mix of products and layout to appeal to one of the six target groups — based on what market research showed was the best approach for that location.

“Driving customer relevancy will drive growth,” Castro-Wright said in a Webcast of a presentation to financial analysts.

The target groups identified by Wal-Mart’s market researchers are Hispanics, African Americans, “empty-nesters/boomers,” affluent, suburban and rural shoppers, according to Castro-Wright’s slide presentation."

Everyone loves low prices and nearly 100 million Americans enter a Wal-Mart store each week searching for discounted goods and merchandise, all in an environment where the most garish and outlandish individual can shop without fear of persecution or ridicule.

You see, Wal-Mart is the ultimate manifestation of America, where the pursuit of happiness is a virtue and individual liberty to wear any accoutrement in public is encouraged and scorn is heaped upon those who point the prole takeover of the nation.

Newsflash: proles run this country. They are the life-blood of this nation. Visiting peopleofwalmart.com, one is shocked to see the incredible obesity represented within the pages of that website. Is this an anomaly? No. As we stated in passing on seconds, an unbelievable rate of Black people find themselves classified in the morbidly obese category. White people, always wishing to emulate Black people, work diligently to increase the turgid nature of the average American:

"The rates of adult obesity in the United States increased in 23 states during the past year and did not decrease in any state.

And the number of obese and overweight children has now climbed to 30 percent in 30 states, a troubling trend that could signal decades of weight-related health problems such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease as these children become adults."

For the fifth year in a row, Mississippi topped the list as the state with the highest rate of adult obesity, at 32.5 percent, according to the report, F as in Fat: How Obesity Policies Are Failing in America 2009.

Besides Mississippi, West Virginia, Alabama and Tennessee have obesity rates above 30 percent. Eight of the 10 states with the highest number of obese adults are in the South. The state with the lowest adult obesity rate is Colorado, at 18.9 percent, according to the report.

Remember, the least healthy geographic regions of the United States are in the south, which coincidentally has the highest percentage of Black people in the nation (click here to see how many Wal-Mart's your state has operating).

Interestingly, this map illustrates where Wal-Mart stores are most frequent and not surprisingly, the south finds itself inundated with Sam Walton's mad creation.

Again, no store more perfectly symbolizes the United States of America than Wal-Mart does and a quick look at the store will crystallize this metaphor for everyone:

Wal-Mart’s dedication to the African-American community is evident throughout our company.

• Wal-Mart is a leading employer of minorities in the U.S. and has more than 257,000 African-American associates.

• The company offers its Diversity Development Series seminars to assist our associates in their understanding of diversity trends and challenges. These sessions help to provide key information, tips and skills to empower associates to use their unique talents and ideas to contribute to their professional growth. As a result of these efforts and many others, more than 25 percent of all Wal-Mart managers and officials are minorities, including African-Americans.

• Wal-Mart actively recruits associates from minority-serving institutions, including historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs). In fact, more than 5,400 of our associates are graduates from 73 HBCUs across the country.

Uh-oh. Recruiting from Historically Black Colleges and Universities can be a risky proposition, considering how many of them are losing their accreditation.

Worse, Wal-Mart can't employ all Black people:

"Joblessness for 16-to-24-year-old black men has reached Great Depression proportions -- 34.5 percent in October, more than three times the rate for the general U.S. population. And last Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that unemployment in the District, home to many young black men, rose to 11.9 percent from 11.4 percent, even as it stayed relatively stable in Virginia and Maryland."

Wal-Mart can't employ all Black people in the country - that job is left to the Federal Government - but they can work to bring low-prices to Black people in the inner cities of America:

Beyond that local effort, Wal-Mart has taken its romance national, setting up scholarships for minorities, donating to the United Negro College Fund and writing checks for several black Congressmen. Patronage has its benefits. In May Black Enterprise, the venerable periodical of Afro-America's business class, announced that Wal-Mart would be a sponsor of its 10th Annual Entrepreneur's Conference. In its June issue, Black Enterprise listed its "30 Best Companies for Diversity." Guess who made the cut?

But Wal-Mart's move into the inner city has set off a debate in the black community about economic development. Traditional activists see the company as a corporate parasite. "Desperate people do desperate things. People would rather have a supermarket than not," says Jesse Jackson, whose Rainbow/PUSH Coalition is headquartered in Chicago. "But the point is that employment and development must go hand in hand. We need work where you can have a livable wage and health insurance, and retirement."

Wal-Mart bends over backwards to placate and pander to the minority community, which is a tactic as American as apple pie.

Not everyone is happy about this however:

As Jesse Jackson and other black leaders have pointed out in response to this boast, the slave plantation was once a "leading employer" of African-Americans as well...

Many black community activists were appalled that black leaders were so easily bought off. "I was ashamed to be black!" says Elce Redmond of the South Austin Coalition, a Chicago neighborhood organization, describing how the clergy and elites rolled over...

There are clearly profound racial tensions in the labor movement, and as Wal-Mart continues to move into cities it is likely to continue to exploit these tensions. Warren, a public policy scholar at the University of Chicago, says, "I've been at a loss to figure out why the labor movement can't have an honest conversation about race."

An honest discussion of labor and race in America? We can't even have an honest discussion of race by itself in this nation, let alone compounding the issue with labor issues.

Let's be honest for a moment. A trip to Wal-Mart is akin to watching Idiocracy, a movie that paints a dystopian portrait of the 25th century and the average IQ level of future inhabitants of this nation:

The film tells the story of two ordinary people who are taken into a top-secret military hibernation experiment that goes awry, and awaken 500 years in the future. They discover that the world has degenerated into a dystopia where advertising, commercialism, and cultural anti-intellectualism run rampant and dysgenic pressure has resulted in a uniformly stupid human society devoid of individual responsibility or consequences.

Watch the movie, then venture into a Wal-Mart. The similarities will startle you.

Black people make up a significant portion of Wal-Mart employees and a large portion of the patrons who help make that corporation the worlds biggest. And yet, the average Wal-Mart experience - as lampooned by peopleofwalmart.com - is laughable and unpleasant in a macabre sort of way.

Remember that Wal-Mart represents America beautifully in all its splendid grotesqueness and that the store - which we have discussed in our Black Friday and Waiting in Line entries - paints a clear picture of the blanket barbarism that exists within our borders:

"Family members of the fatally trampled Wal-Mart worker are suing the corporation for not protecting their employees from potential harm from their own customers. Is a lawsuit preferable?

There are Wal-Marts all over the country. There were Wal-Marts that offered the same discounts and had the same crowd issues. Out of all of those Wal-Marts nationally, how many had the doors pushed off the hinges by their customers, trampling employees and customers alike?

This was obviously an unfortunate anomaly.

BUT if Wal-Mart turned their parking lot into a police state that Thursday night/Friday morning, just what do you think people like Jesse Jackson would be saying? The majority of the people in the pictures rushing the Wal-Mart doors were black. A pre-assumption they would behave unruly would have been seized on by civil rights ambulance chasers as racism."

Or how about this one - already discussed at SBPDL - which tells the tale of an individual who couldn't wait her turn in line:

"This much isn't in dispute: Heather Ellis joined a line at a Wal-Mart nearly three years ago.

Whether she cut in line or merely switched checkout lanes to join her cousin is in dispute, and the accounts of what happened next vary greatly. The debate has divided this economically struggling town of 11,000 along racial lines.

Ellis, then a college student with no criminal history, said some white patrons shoved and hurled racial slurs at her when she switched checkout lines at Wal-Mart in January 2007.

Store employees refused to give her back her change and called police, she said.

And when she was taken outside to the parking lot, an officer allegedly told her to "Go back to the ghetto." Another roughed her up, she said."

We haven't discussed this story yet, because the implications of said event shock even us:

"An elderly Wal-Mart greeter was punched in the face and seriously hurt outside the store in North Versailles.Channel 11 News got surveillance video of the incident, which happened Tuesday night. The video shows a man walking up to Thomas Jenkins, 72, of McKeesport, and knocking him to ground. Police identified the suspect as Paul Washington, 55, of North Versailles.

Jenkins was taken to UPMC McKeesport Hospital and then to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital because of the severity of his injuries.Jenkins' twin sister, Betty Evans, said there was blood everywhere."There was blood everywhere. He suffered a stroke and was on blood thinnner (before the attack), so there was blood everywhere after the attack," said Evans. "Whoever did this was very cruel."Evans said her brother's mouth is so swollen that he can't talk. She said the bones in his face are swollen and surgery has been postponed."

Wal-Mart greeters happen to be one of the few enjoyable aspects of a trip to Wal-Mart, for they usually
a gregarious senior citizen that just want contact with the outside world. Being punched for "bumping"into a Black person is just another example of living in a Black world.

Or, if you fail to provide goods for a check that can't be certified and the individual offering that check is Black, you better be prepared to be fired:

"Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has fired the manager of a supercenter here for "poor judgment" after he called sheriff's deputies to apprehend a black manager of a business whose $13,600 company check could not be verified.

The decision came after a two-week internal investigation concluded the store manager violated Wal-Mart's procedures but found no evidence of racial discrimination.

The store manager, Mark Cornett, could not be reached for comment at his home. Company officials said another, unnamed member of the management team at the 11110 Causeway Blvd. store also will be disciplined, but declined to say more.

And all Wal-Mart store managers in the Tampa area will get racial sensitivity training next month, although it had been previously scheduled.

Reginald Pitts, a 34-year-old human resources manager for GAF Materials Corp., suspects he was singled out for extra scrutiny because he is an African-American who tried to buy 520 gift cards for employees on Nov. 23. But he is still waiting for Wal-Mart to fully explain why he was threatened with arrest after the store said it could not verify his employer's $13,600 check.

Pitts' case has generated a national firestorm of bad publicity for the retail giant at a time when there are some signs it is losing a high-stakes public relations war with its critics. The treatment Pitts encountered, meantime, was familiar to many minority customers who say they are too often treated like prospective thieves by retailers such as Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has a zero tolerance policy for racial discrimination and racial profiling, and it called the Brandon firing evidence of how seriously it takes complaints."

Crime in America is bad, and yet Wal-Mart - the ultimate corporate manifestation of America - is a haven for the criminally gifted:

Among the critical findings of the “Is Wal-Mart Safe?” study:

• Wal-Mart stores experience a significant number of police incidents. In 2004, police received 148, 331 calls for service for the 551 Wal-Mart stores analyzed;
  

• The average number of reported incidents per store for the 551 stores analyzed was 269;

• The Wal-Mart stores in our sample that reported the most incidents in 2004 experienced higher average rates of reported police incidents than nearby Target stores;
  

• Based on the average rate of reported incidents for the 551 Wal-Mart stores analyzed in this study, we estimate that in 2004 police may have received almost 1 million calls for service at Wal-Mart stores or parking lots – or 2 reported police incidents per minute in 2004;
  

• Nationally, Wal-Mart stores cost local taxpayers an estimated $77 million in increased policing costs in 2004

Yes, Wal-Mart is American as apple pie. And yes, crime committed by those who frequent Wal-Mart is a major problem, just like crime committed in any part of America.

Wal-Mart is a corporate giant, offering low prices to a broad range of consumers across the nation - nowhere more so than the obese south - and many people enjoy poking fun at the biggest company in the world by calling it a "redneck" gathering place.

Peopleofwalmart.com does a good job of showcasing the obese white people who frequent the store and the other unusual creatures that pass for bipeds who slither out of strange cracks in the small towns to showcase their cracks for the internet world, but the site misses the point.

The data points to something disturbing, the kind of information that is included in Stuff Black People Don't Like. If our future is Idiocracy, then a trip to Wal-Mart is like visiting days of future past, for SBPDL has to include being the real peopleofwalmart.com.

Whether it is stampeding fellow Black people on Black Friday; crying racism over cutting in line; punching elderly greeters; or working the check-out lanes, Black people find themselves constantly at the center of the Wal-Mart publicity world.

Worse, is this story out of flood-savaged Katrina:

The Wal-Mart store in uptown New Orleans, built within the last year, survived the storm but was destroyed by looters.

"They took everything, all the electronics, the food, the bikes," said John Stonaker, a Wal-Mart security officer. "People left their old clothes on the floor when they took new ones. The only thing left are the country-and-western CDs. You can still get a Shania Twain album."

Black people are the real peopleofwalmart.com, whether they will admit it or not.

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12 Days of Christmas at SBPDL

"You'll shoot your eye out."

This sentence has vastly different meanings to the white community in America and to the Black community of the USofA.

White people recall the Pre-Obama America Christmas classic, "A Christmas Story", with Ralph's hunger for a Red Ryder BB Gun being squashed by an overbearing parent, educator and even Santa (thankfully, father knows best in the end).

Black people, however, have a different interpretation of the sentence, as they use this phrase to implore fellow Black people to be careful when performing gun safety demonstrations or when walking down the street in Atlanta:

"A 19-year-old college student walking with friends was struck and killed by a stray bullet early Thursday on the campus of Clark Atlanta University, police said.

Jasmine Lynn, of Kansas City, Mo., was struck in the chest when shots were fired during a fight nearby. Another student whose name was not released was hit on the wrist and taken to a hospital.

Atlanta is one of the least safest cities in America and coincidentally, the Black Mecca of America.

Christmas is upon us again, as Black Friday has come and gone and the decorations are ubiquitous throughout neighborhoods in America.

Carolers are nearing and the smell of chestnuts roasting on opening fires dances upon with wind with its inviting aroma.

SBPDL will be celebrating the Christmas season in style - starting December 13.

Interestingly, Christmas is bifurcating into a predominately Pre-Obama America camp and into another group of people who view the holiday with a strong Black-face.

So, we ask you the reader to send us the best stories about Black people and Christmas you can find, for it is obvious that the term "white Christmas" is redundant. The creation of Kwanzaa shows the general public the truth about how Black people view Christmas and Pre-Obama America with crystal-clear simplicity.

Send us your stories or news reports to stuffblackpeople@gmail.com

Stuff Black People Don't Like is going to embrace the Christmas season completely and we need your help in compiling the ultimate list of SBPDL and the Yule season.

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Tiger Woods on Mein Obama

NOTE: A winter snow storm knocked out power and forced SBPDL to enjoy the snow yesterday. Delayed posts will be coming later today!

Tiger Woods, everyone's favorite Black PGA golfer, had this to say about the historic election of Mein Obama.

Tiger Woods is a Black guy. He is a great golfer, but he doesn't represent the true aspect of the game: being a sportsmen and a gentlemen (neither does John Daly).

Take a look at this interview with MSNBC where Tiger Woods has a virtual orgasm over the election of Mein Obama:

"I think it's absolutely incredible," Woods told CNBC. "He represents America. He's multiracial. I was hoping it would happen in my lifetime. My father was hoping it would happen in his lifetime, but he didn't get to see it. I'm lucky enough to have seen a person of color in the White House."

When asked by the cable news outlet how his father Earl would have reacted to Obama's election as the 44th President of the United States, Woods didn't hesitate.

"He would have cried. Absolutely. No doubt about it."

Tiger Woods is a Black guy. White people liked Tiger Woods because he didn't represent a physical threat to them in the clubhouse. He tried desperately to be a white guy, as he acted white and was the token Black at nearly every golf course he went to in America.

Stuff Black People Don't Like has no problem pointing this out, although many Black people our shocked by Tiger's indiscretions:

"Amid all the headlines generated by Tiger Woods' troubles — the puzzling car accident, the suggestions of marital turmoil and multiple mistresses — little attention has been given to the race of the women linked with the world's greatest golfer. Except in the black community.

When three white women were said to be romantically involved with Woods in addition to his blonde, Swedish wife, blogs, airwaves and barbershops started humming, and Woods' already tenuous standing among many blacks took a beating.

On the nationally syndicated Tom Joyner radio show, Woods was the butt of jokes all week.

"Thankfully, Tiger, you didn't marry a black woman. Because if a sister caught you running around with a bunch of white hoochie-mamas," one parody suggests in song, she would have castrated him.

"The Grinch's Theme Song" didn't stop there: "The question everyone in America wants to ask you is, how many white women does one brother waaant?"

As one blogger, Robert Paul Reyes, wrote: "If Tiger Woods had cheated on his gorgeous white wife with black women, the golfing great's accident would have been barely a blip in the blogosphere."

For all the love Tiger showered Mein Obama with when he elected president of failing nation, he sure doesn't have the same love for his "colored" women, as Tiger has the eye; the eye of the Tiger.

This quote is important for all to understand the monolithic view that Black people have of race (and an extremely healthy one at that):

"There is a call for loyalty that is stronger in some ways than in other racial communities," said the author of the study, George Yancey, a sociology professor at the University of North Texas and author of the book "Just Don't Marry One."

The color of one's companion has long been a major measure of "blackness" — which is a big reason why the biracial Barack Obama was able to fend off early questions about his black authenticity.

"Had Barack had a white wife, I would have thought twice about voting for him," Johnson Cooper said.

Remember, SBPDL continues to be on the cutting edge of nearly every major story in America, for when you look at any news story through the prism of race, truths appear that some call hateful. We just call them facts.

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TGIF at SBPDL

What a wild week of news to try and cover (remember, we told you about Tiger Woods)...
We'll be back tomorrow with new posts. In the meantime, we thought this story might be of interest:

Six people accused of helping the suspected gunman in the killing of four Lakewood police officers in a Parkland coffee shop evade police have been arrested.

Four were booked into the Pierce County Jail on Monday and early Tuesday for investigation of rendering criminal assistance on four counts of first-degree murder. They are Rickey Hinton, Eddie Lee Davis, Douglas Edward Davis and Darcus Allen.

Two women - Letricia Nelson and Quiana Wiliams - were arrested and booked on Tuesday night, also for investigation of rendering criminal assistance. Nelson is suspected gunman Maurice Clemmons' aunt, police said.

Enjoy your Friday.

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The Eye of the Tiger...

Tiger Woods has strange choices in women, for they seem to be monochromatic. Let's be honest for a moment. We told you the Tiger Woods situation would blow up, before anyone else.

A lot of people are beginning to come to SBPDL and pull material from it, without citation. Hey, that's fine. No big deal.

Just know that we will continue to be the ultimate trendsetters in identifying patterns as to Stuff Black People Don't Like, and Mr. Tiger Woods fall from grace is another shining example of just that type of work.

The "eye of the Tiger"... the new name of the curious decision by Black men to date exclusively white women. Thanks Eldrick!

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#754. Watches Left on Dying Men in the ER

"I might not be a doctor, but I play one one TV."

Who doesn't remember that famous commercial? Everyone loves doctors, yet few care to invest the time and effort into the proper education to be certified to take the Hippocratic Oath. In fact, doctors record some of the highest trust levels from the general public (amid a number of different vocations).

How many TV shows have centered around the hospital and the various eccentricities and nuisances of life in the ER?

Face it: we are a nation that loves watching life in the ER on television and also in trusting doctors to constantly give us the best advice for our health.

We love doctors, for they might give us unpleasant news occasionally, but it usually comes with a lollipop at the end of visit. Everyone loves lollipops.

However, SBPDL will be focusing on the ER and the entire medical profession the next few days, and we recently came across a most fascinating story concerning a member of the medical fraternity that tarnished the halo around the M.D. title a few degrees:

"Dr. Cleveland Enmon is an emergency room physician at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Stockton . Dr. Enmon is accused of abandoning attempts to resuscitate a patient from cardiac arrest to instead pocket the dead man’s valuable Rolex wristwatch. The suit, filed by the adult children of Jerry Keith Kubena, Sr., alleges that Dr. Cleveland James Enmon on June 1 “formed the intent” to swipe the Rolex from Kubena’s wrist while treating the man at St. Joseph’s Medical Center in Stockton."

The nursing staff assisting Enmon soon noticed that Kubena’s flashy timepiece was missing; “Where is the wristwatch?” the suit quotes one as uttering. Two more nurses allegedly noticed a wristwatch-shaped bulge in the doctor’s pocket. Security was called to investigate the disappearance. Defying security’s orders, the lawsuit notes Enmon walked out of the operating room and into the parking lot, a move caught on hospital security cameras. A nurse claims she saw Enmon toss a small object into the grass and she subsequently led security personnel to that exact area and recovered the watch."

This story is a shocking reminder that life in the ER isn't always glamorous and one can't be to careful with who they entrust their Rolex too guard, especially when they struggle to cling to each breath.

Enmon was the former chief resident of Emergency Medicine in King-Drew Emergency Medicine, one of the nations worst hospitals ( you won't see any TV shows glorifying this ER ):

"King-Harbor found itself under public criticism once again after different stories ran in both the Los Angeles Times and LA Weekly in late May 2007 citing serious lapses in care, one fatal, at the renamed hospital.

The case of patient Edith Isabel Rodriguez, who bled to death on the emergency room floor after being ignored for 45 minutes, in particular became a cause célèbre about the failures and bureaucratic indifference of both King-Harbor as well as political and health leaders in the Los Angeles area; creating or reinforcing fears that the health care system will not take care of people in a time of dire need."

Black people in the Los Angeles were horrified at the prospect of losing the hospital, especially one named after one of the patron saints of the new America, Martin Luther King Jr.:

"Let's be honest," said Dr. Dennis S. O'Leary, president of The Joint Commission, a hospital accrediting group, "if this were a hospital different from King/Drew, this would have been over a long time ago."

He and other experts interviewed by The Times said the government would have moved much faster and more aggressively if King-Harbor, formerly known as King/Drew, didn't have a unique history and special standing in the community.

The hospital was one of the few gains from the 1965 Watts riots and still is one of the few places poor people in South Los Angeles can turn to for acute care. African American politicians, in particular, have embraced its salvation.

...The most recent problems began in January 2004, when inspectors found that nurses lied in charts about patients' conditions, failed to give crucial medications prescribed by doctors and left seriously ill patients unattended for hours -- including three who died."

So Dr. Enmon was a product of this hospital, that was universal decried as perhaps the most ineffectively run ER in the country, where patients were routinely left to rot? Any Rolex watches reported stolen at that prestigious hospital, before its doors were shuttered?

Dr. Enmon was a by-product of Morehouse College, a school which recently adopted new rules in a move to try and deter negative stereotypes about Black people. Something tells us this recent display of petty larceny, coupled with systematic indifference to the patients well-being is a shining example of the caliber of graduates Morehouse educates, as Dr. Enmon represents the Morehouse man with gusto!

Worse, another event recently transpired - this time in Philadelphia - where homeless, cracked out bums (obviously encouraged by Dr. Enmon's example) robbed a dying man of his watch!:

"A school counselor suffering an apparent heart attack died in a Philadelphia emergency room after waiting nearly 80 minutes for help — and a trio of homeless drug addicts nearby stole his watch instead of seeking aid, police said.

Joaquin Rivera, 63, died before seeing a triage nurse at Atria Health's Frankford Campus over the weekend, police said.

Rivera, a musician and activist in the city's Latino community, had spent more than 30 years working as a bilingual counselor at an inner-city high school.

"We're all destroyed. A guy like that, for him to leave us the way that he did — and with what happened to him — everybody's destroyed," said Jesse Bermudez, a friend and fellow musician."

The problem with this case though, is the trio of homeless drug addicts were multi-racial, which means Dr. Enmon and his alleged crime of stealing a Rolex has become something of an urban legend within the drug-addicted community, for he has so much in common with petty criminals.

A Morehouse educated doctor, who was the FORMER CHIEF OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE at a hospital that was routinely blasted for being an embarrassment to the medical profession (but was allowed to stay open due to racial politics) has more in common with homeless drug addicts, then with these M.D.'s.

Stuff Black People Don't Like includes watches left on dying men in the Emergency Room/ ER, for Dr. Enmon seems to have more in common with drug addicts in Philadelphia then in being an upstanding representative of one of the finest medical schools for prospective Black M.D.'s ( or was ):

"While talking with four of his friends in Morehouse College’s Frederick Douglass Learning Resource Center, their conversation quickly turned to the September 2006 issue of Black Enterprise magazine, which included its biannual list of the “Top 50 Colleges for African Americans.” After four consecutive years of being the top ranked school, Morehouse’s placement on the most recent list dropped forty-four spots from number one to number forty-five."

If you are sick in a major city, it might be more conducive trying to find an actor who plays a doctor on TV then going to a hospital run by Morehouse graduates.

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#217. The Reality of Baltimore

The era that gave us Sherman McCoy and Patrick Bateman also gave us "Tarzan Boy," by Baltimora. This particular song encapsulates the fun and frivolity of the 1980s:

"Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh
(4 volte)

Jungle life
You're far away from nothing
It's all right
You won't miss home

Take a chance
Leave everything behind you
Come and join me
Won't be sorry
It's easy to survive"

Yes, the song from the Listerine commercials is the perfect segue into today's topic, the lovely city of Baltimore. The theme song of that particular city is henceforth Baltimora's "Tarzan Boy" for the lyrics encompass life in that fair city quite accurately:

"An increasing number of Baltimore residents and tourists have been victims of random, unprovoked attacks in the downtown area over the past month by roving groups of young people, even as police beef up their presence around the Inner Harbor.

Many of the assaults, which have been reported in areas within walking distance of the harbor, follow a similar pattern. The victims report being attacked from behind while they walk, punched and kicked in the head and upper body by groups of males and females. Items are rarely taken, and few, if any, words are spoken.

Not even police are immune from the attacks: An off-duty officer from New Jersey said he and his girlfriend were beaten in the downtown area last weekend by males and females who he believed were gang members.

"In the past, we have never felt unsafe in your city, but we most certainly do now," George Williams, a 35-year-old patrol officer from Brick Township, N.J., wrote in a letter to Mayor Sheila Dixon. "Your office, as well as your police command staff, has an obligation to keep all citizens living in and/or visiting the city safe and that is simply not happening."

Jungle-life and savagery are over taking the once fair city of Baltimore, which would no longer be recognizable to H. L. Mencken:

"As of the 2005-2007 American Community Survey conducted by the U.S. Census Bureau, White Americans made up 31.4% of Baltimore's population; of which 30.4% were non-Hispanic whites. Blacks or African Americans made up 63.8% of Baltimore's population; of which 63.6% were non-Hispanic blacks. American Indians made up 0.3% of the city's population; of which 0.2% were non-Hispanic. Asian Americans made up 1.9% of the city's population."

Baltimore is a city was the hometown of one of the first black-on-white bus beatings (two others happened in Oregon and St. Louis), as public transportation offers ample opportunity to attack defenseless people:

"A white woman beaten by a group of black students on a bus has prompted a hate-crime investigation, attempts by transit officials to reassure riders of the safety of the system, and radio talk-show chatter over comparisons with the Jena Six case."

Baltimore is a city that has a dramatically high crime rate and this outburst in criminality is seemingly prompted uniquely by Black people against either white or Black people:

"Police believe a long-running dispute between drug organizations contributed to an unprecedented eruption of violence on Baltimore's east side Sunday night that left at least 18 people shot, including two who died.

Twelve of the victims were struck at a backyard cookout that left a pregnant woman and a 2-year-old child injured, an incident that police say prompted a running gun battle between two vehicles three hours later.

Mayor Sheila Dixon called the shootings a "cowardly act" and implored the community to come forward with tips, as police directed dozens of additional officers into the eastern and southeastern districts."

Just how bad is crime in Baltimore (they have a blog dedicated to just covering crime, and a real-time map that shows crimes as they're reported) you might ask? Well, they rank 1st in homicide ( and remember, citizens of Baltimore worship an NFL football player - Ray Lewis - who has questionable past in Atlanta, where he was tried for murder):

"Baltimore saw fewer killings last year than any other in the past two decades, but data released this week show the city's homicide rate ranked the highest among the nation's cities with a population of more than 500,000.

Despite recording its lowest number of killings in 20 years, Baltimore experienced 37 homicides per 100,000 residents last year, ahead of Detroit, which had 34 per 100,000 residents, according to data compiled by the FBI.

While the District of Columbia was not included in FBI data, it appears to rank third, with about 31 killings per 100,000 residents. No other city with a population of more than 500,000 came close; Philadelphia had the next highest rate, with 22 homicides per 100,000 people."

Yes, Baltimore is the crime mecca of America, and they have a football team - the Baltimore Ravens - that strive to be a purer representative of the city, with Ray Lewis as the face of the franchise:

"Despite his accomplishments on the field, Lewis' public image was tarnished following a Super Bowl XXXIV party in Atlanta on January 31, 2000. Following the party, a fight broke out between him and rapper Chino Nino's entourage, in which Jacinth Baker, 21, and Richard Lollar, 24, died from stab wounds. Lewis and two companions, Reginald Oakley and Joseph Sweeting, were brought to an Atlanta police station for questioning. Eleven days later, along with Oakley and Sweeting, Lewis was indicted for murder and aggravated assault.

During the trial, several witnesses whose testimony would supposedly prove Lewis’ guilt had altered their stories initially given to investigators.^{[citation needed]} Their testimonies were supposed to show that Ray Lewis hit, kicked or stabbed someone, and that he even admitted as much afterwards. Instead, the vast majority of testimony had either been inconclusive, or else supported the defense’s contention that Lewis acted solely as a peacemaker, trying to prevent a tragedy that he would be tied to and potentially hurt his career. According to ESPN legal analyst, Alan J. Baverman, "as to Ray Lewis, there is no evidence that he assisted anybody in a stabbing or encouraged anybody to do a stabbing which would make him a party to felony murder, malice murder, or felony assault with a knife."

Lewis's attorney arranged with prosecutors to dismiss the murder charges if Lewis pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of obstruction of justice in exchange for him testifying against Oakley and Sweeting. Lewis accepted the plea bargain and was sentenced to one year of probation. He was not suspended by the NFL but was fined US$250,000, a league record at the time."

Lewis got off for his crime, which is exactly what another criminal did in a recent "conviction" in Baltimore for the murder of a white girl at a liquor store:

No jail time for a young woman's brutal killer--is this justice? By Richard E. Vatz August 4, 2009

Less than a year ago, a beautiful and wonderful citizen by all accounts, Aysha Ring, was viciously murdered by David Briggs--stabbed to death while standing in line at a convenience store. The perpetrator has been found not criminally responsible and is committed to the Clifton T. Perkins Hospital Center in Jessup. He will serve no jail time and will be re-evaluated in a year for possible release, although prosecutor S. Ann Brobst told this writer that her office will ensure that does not occur.

According to the Maryland Annotated Code, a defendant may be found "not criminally responsible" if, due to a mental disorder, a preponderance of the evidence indicates that he or she cannot "appreciate the criminality" of his or her conduct or "conform [his or her] conduct to the requirements of the law."

Even the current mayor of Baltimore, Shelia Dixon, has decided to get in on the action of crime in the city, this time in hording gift cards for the homeless for herself:

"Sheila Dixon faces 12 charges, including perjury, theft, fraudulent misappropriation by a fiduciary and misconduct in office, according to ABC2 News, our sister station in Baltimore.

According to Maryland state prosecutors, Dixon received gifts from a real estate developer that same year. The gifts included travel, hotels and a gift certificate. State prosecutors say she used that certificate to buy gift cards. Later that year, state prosecutors say Dixon received Best Buy gift cards, which she used to buy a Play Station 2, CDs and DVDs.

In December 2005, state prosecutors say real estate developers gave Dixon Target & Best Buy gift cards. According to the indictment, Dixon told a developer that the cards would be given to needy families. But according to the charges, Dixon used 19 of the 20 Best Buy cards to buy a Digital Camcorder, a Playstation 2 and other electronics for her personal use.

In December 2006, Old Navy, Best Buy & other gift cards were given to the Mayor to give to needy families. But prosecutors say she used them to buy an Xbox 360, PlayStation portable, clothes and other things. According to the indictment, some of the cards were given to her staff at an office Christmas party.

Mayor Dixon (today) escaped most of the charges, however it is unclear if she is expected to give back the gifts she purchased with the gift cards intended for homeless people:

"The jury convicted Mayor Sheila Dixon on one count of fraudulent misappropriation by a fiduciary.

Dixon was acquitted of felony theft charges.

The jury couldn't reach an unanimous decision on count six. The judge declared a mistrial. The state has until the end of the week to decide whether to refile the charges related to that count.

After the verdict was read, Dixon promised that the city will continue to run."

Life in Baltimore, beautifully crystallized in the form of a song by Baltimora, will undoubtedly "continue to run". Or you could just go watch The Wire on DVD to see the reality of Baltimore, for the is precisely the Stuff That Black People Don't Like. If you plan to visit Baltimore, prepare to enter the realm of a city known for criminality and ponder the last stanza of Poe's "The Raven",to consider the fate of that once proud city:

And the Raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door; And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadows on the floor; And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor Shall be lifted--nevermore!

Baltimore has elected a mayor that represents the town beautifully (and cheers on a football team with a questionable linebacker prowling the field), and somewhere, someway, H. L. Mencken is smiling, for the reality of Baltimore is yet another example of Stuff Black People Don't Like.

Unlike in "Tarzan Boy", Baltimore isn't the easiest place to survive.

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