WESLEY SNIPES- FILING TAXES WHILE BLACK

I guess I should have called this "NOT FILING TAXES WHILE BLACK." But you get my drift.

Back in the early 1990's Wesley Snipes was pulled over by the Los Angeles Police Department for "driving while black." I don't recall the whole story (I actually read the entire ACLU report on the incident) and I tried Google-ing it, but there are too many stories about his recent trial and sentencing, and the academic papers on "driving while black" only mention it briefly.

If my memory serves me, he was driving with a friend, another black man, in a relatives car. He was pulled over because the car fit the description of a car used in a robbery. Even after the officers recognised him, they detained him because the car wasn't registered in his name! This was before cell phones, and they couldn't reach the vehicle's owner.

Snipes was held in a detention cell. Of course, he was asked to sign many autographs at the station!!! I think he got a verbal apology when it was all straightened out. Something along the lines of "don't let the door hit your ass on the way out."

That was within a year of the filming of BOILING POINT. I was lucky enough to meet Mr. Snipes on the set of the Hollywood Roosevelt hotel. (He is one beautiful man, btw. There are some actors and models that the camera loves so much they are a disappointment to meet in real life. There are others, and Snipes is one of them, that the camera does not do full justice.)

Now, there are plenty of people discussing the legal ramifications of his suit. I am not qualified to do so. I do know several people personally that do not file taxes for the reasons Snipes asserted in his trial. But I do not fully understand it, despite several friends patiently explaining it to me. (One even gave me a DVD! It is just too complicated!)

Anyhow, I want to discuss the fact that Mr. Snipes is a black man. And there are too many people still in power who are racist. Period. I used to know this guy, a black man, who told me that in the South "a black man with his head bowed is a nigger, and a black man with his head up is a threat." (Sorry to use the "n" word, which I would like to see disappear from all lexicons, but I am quoting.)

Some years back Snipes was going to purchase some land near the Nuwaubian's. As a white person, and a very pale, blonde (well, when Our Lady of Loreal wishes me to be) with blue eyes, I do wince a little bit reading that I am "the devil" in the Nation's literature. But really, I think given the history of slavery and oppression in this country, it is understandable. More understandable than white people who are racist against black people. And as for the rest of the Nation's beliefs, they are no more out there than Scientology.

And let's not forget that Scientologists actively attacked the U.S. Government, specifically the treasury, and have had many on-going wars with the I.R.S. Regardless of the "Church's" propaganda, they didn't add the cross or claim to be a "real" church until they needed tax-exempt status. Tom Cruise and John Travolta need not fear persecution for being part of white man's "cult."

Black or white, like so many cults, the sexual appetite of its leader was the hidden monster. (This is a whole other post-- on why the clergy of so many religions, the Catholic Church being the biggest, the Mormon Fundamentalist Church being the most recent, have leaders that molest children, or engage in other types of sexual exploitation.) Malachi York was convicted of child molestation, and the compound near the land Snipes was thinking of acquiring, was shut down.

But Snipes, even though he never professed (as far as I could tell from Google search hits) to be a follower of Nuwaubianism, immediately it was assumed in the media that he was. Guilty of trying to buy land while black, I suppose. Snipes eventually purchased land in Florida (where he was convicted). Too bad. Jeb Bush doesn't seem that far from a white sheet and burning cross. (Although the Bush family seems to be pretty tight with Arabs. But I think that has to do with wealth. The Uber-rich seem to be a race unto themselves, regardless of colour or nationality.) And, I'm sorry, maybe it is a stereotype, but it sure seems like half of Jebby's white constituents still use the "n-word", and not because they are singing along to rap music.

And brother Bubba up in the White House seems to be making it clear that no one is allowed to mess with his war money. Look at what happened to that pesky Eliot Spitzer, and he's a white man! Make no mistake, those little "economic stimulus" checks don't even cover an-about-to-be-foreclosed homeowner's monthly mortgage payment. But they sure have everyone out there filing their taxes! Bubba has led the bankruptcy of our country, and he is going to make damn sure the IRS knows the coming and goings of all his peasants-- er, citizens.

I hope Snipes wins his appeal. If he goes to jail then I think every single lender and CEO involved in the Bear-Stearns bail out goes to jail, too.**

TOODLE ON!!!

**And let Spitzer off the hook, too.