Race- Privilege, Relations, Racism, etc.

Across the country, conservative politicians and police unions are voicing their outrage at Beyoncé, Black Panthers and the Black Lives Matter movement.

We hear rumblings that some police departments are going to refuse to provide security for her concerts. Other police chiefs are actually blaming her Super Bowl performance for police shootings.

So far in 2016, eight police officers have been tragically shot and killed in the United States. That's eight too many, but if we listened to police unions it would seem that black men with large afros or even black women dancers in afrocentric costumes are responsible for these eight deaths.

If we listened to conservative politicians, it would seem like impressionable black youth are watching Beyoncé's halftime performance on an endless loop then going out and killing "some pigs."

But facts. But reality. But truth.

The facts are seven of eight officers who've been killed this year in the United States have been killed by angry, armed white men.

The reality is while white men have been responsible for 88% of fatal police shootings, the conservative spin is that our nation should be angry with Beyoncé.

The truth is that conservatives don't care so much about the deaths of police, but like to use these tragedies as political footballs for unrelated issues.

Beyoncé, the Black Panthers and the Black Lives Matter movement have nothing to do with this.

On Jan. 17, Officer Thomas Cottrell was found shot to death in Danville, Ohio. His police cruiser and firearm were missing.

Hours earlier, police received a tip from a woman who said her ex-boyfriend, Herschel Jones, was armed and violent and wanted to kill a police officer.

He did just that.

Jones is a white man with a lengthy criminal history. His name didn't go viral. Nobody but him was blamed for this violence. That would be too inconvenient for the narrative that angry black men are out to kill white officers every chance they get.

Hours after Cottrell was shot and killed by a white man in Ohio, Officer Doug Barney was shot and killed by a white man in Utah.

Corey Lee Henderson shot and killed him after an apparent traffic stop. Henderson had a lengthy record for drugs and violence. Officer Barney was a father of three and had served with honor for more than 18 years.

Until now, had you heard of this shooting? Had you seen photos of Corey Lee Henderson, white, bald, tatted up and menacing anywhere? He doesn't really fit the mold of someone who was influenced by Beyoncé does he?

For nearly two weeks, no police officers were shot and killed in our country until 55-year-old Phillip Ferry, a white man in Seaside, Ore., shot and killed Sgt. Jason Goodding, a father of two young girls. Goodding was there to serve Ferry with an arrest warrant. He had a pending felony assault warrant for his arrest.

Determined not to go out like that, Ferry shot and killed Goodding right there in the street. Local officials said Ferry had a "vast record" and had been "in and out" jail for years.

Like you, I had never heard of this shooting. Ferry, though, had been jailed 41 times over 25 years. It does not appear that he was ever a Black Panther or a supporter of the Black Lives Matter movement. It is still possible that he liked Beyoncé though, I suppose.

Five days later, on Feb. 10 in Colorado, a decorated deputy and Navy veteran, Derek Geer was shot and killed in the line of duty. Responding to the calls that an armed man with a bandana around his face was on the loose, that man turned out to be 17-year-old Austin Patrick Holzer, a white teen who had already accumulated a violent criminal history — including a previous arrest for attempted murder. Geer left behind two young children.

It would seem that the murder of Geer would be an outrage to conservatives all over the country. A Navy veteran who served our country with honor then swore to protect and serve us in the streets is shot and killed by a violent young thug who should've been in jail. That narrative would have legs on Fox News. The only problem with it is that this is a white-on-white crime. Had Holzer been black or an immigrant or a Muslim, we'd all know this story.

That same day, the worst police shooting of 2016 took place in Abingdon, Md. Two beloved police officers, both fathers and decorated military veterans, were shot and killed inside a Panera Bread restaurant by a 68-year-old white man named David Evans.

Officers Patrick Dailey and Mark Logsdon had a combined 46 years of experience and never stood a chance against Evans — who shot Dailey in the head before he ever even unholstered his gun. Logsdon was the first officer to respond and was shot and killed soon thereafter. David Evans had warrants out for his arrest in multiple states.

Through Feb. 10, every officer shot and killed nationwide was killed by an armed white man with a criminal history.

In fact, it wasn't until Feb. 11, outside the predominantly black city of Atlanta, that the first and only black man of 2016 fatally shot a cop — himself a black man.

Maj. Greg Barney, a father of two, was a beloved officer in Riverdale, Ga. He was struck by bullets fired by Jerand Ross while serving a no-knock warrant. Typically not serving in the field, it happened to be one of the days where Barney wasn't wearing a bullet proof vest.

Later that day, in Fargo, N.D., Officer Jason Moszer became the first Fargo police officer shot and killed in the line of duty in 134 years. Investigating a domestic dispute, Officer Moszer was killed by a violent career criminal, Marcus Schumacher, a white man who had previously spent time in prison for another murder.

All of these fatal police shootings paint a terrible picture. Public servants, often military vets with young children, are indeed being shot and killed all over the country, but it has nothing to do with Super Bowl performances.

These shootings have nothing to do with Black Panthers or modern black activism. That, though, is the popular story in America right now and it is nothing more than a lie.

Nearly 90% of officers who have been shot and killed in 2016 have been shot and killed by white men — violent white thugs with violent criminal pasts, but this truth is deeply inconvenient for pundits like Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly, not to mention Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

Somehow, though, white men have taken the lives of good police officers all over this country, and Beyonce is taking the blame.

This is America. 2016.

Ben Carson defended his recent statement that President Barack Obama was "raised white," saying he meant to draw a sharp contrast between the President's middle-class upbringing and his own rough early life. Carson had suggested earlier on Tuesday that if elected president he might be the first African-American person to hold the position. And speaking to CNN's Poppy Harlow on "CNN Newsroom" later that afternoon, Carson suggested Obama's upbringing did not reflect the experiences of many other African-Americans.

"I grew up in Detroit, and I grew up in Boston. In Boston, we lived in the ghetto. There were a lot of violent episodes there. There were rats, there were roaches. It was dire poverty," Carson said, speaking of his mother who worked around-the-clock but refused to accept welfare. "Now, let me contrast that to the President, who went to private schools, grew up in a relatively affluent environment, had an opportunity to live in multiple cultures and different countries. I think that's a very different experience." Carson maintained that he was not "criticizing" Obama. But he had gone further in an interview with Politico's Glenn Thrush on his "Off Message" podcast that aired Tuesday.

"He's an 'African' American. He was, you know, raised white," the retired neurosurgeon said. "So, for him to, you know, claim that, you know, he identifies with the experience of black Americans, I think, is a bit of a stretch." Obama was born in Honolulu to a white American mother and a Kenyan father. Carson was born in Detroit to two black American parents.

"Like most Americans, I was proud that we broke the color barrier when he was elected, but I also recognize that his experience and my experience are night-and-day different. He didn't grow up like I grew up by any stretch of the imagination," Carson told Thrush. "Not even close."

California Rep. Darrell Issa, who has endorsed Sen. Marco Rubio for president, said Carson's "loose talk" proves that he is not ready for the White House. "This is the reason that political loose talk by people who are just beginning to do it is always a problem in real statesmanship," he said Tuesday on CNN's "New Day." "The fact is that Dr. Carson is not really ready to represent America around the world."

Carson also said that "very little" criticism of Obama has to do with the President's race. "You have to recognize that what President Obama represents is an ideology that is antithetical to the ideology of most people in the Republican Party. And I don't think it has anything to do with race," he said. "I mean, Hillary (Clinton) represents that kind of ideology also, and they'll say it's because she's a woman. I mean, any guy who represents that kind of ideology is going to evoke exactly the same types of criticism."

Most of the racism Carson experiences comes from progressives, he said. "I think the way that I'm treated, you know, by the left is racism," Carson said. "Because they assume because you're black, you have to think a certain way. And if you don't think that way, you're 'Uncle Tom,' you're worthy of every horrible epithet they can come up with; whereas, if I weren't black, then I would just be a Republican."

Carson, who placed sixth in South Carolina's Republican primary last Saturday, said he's never experienced racism from the Republican Party. "I don't find any particular problem being an African-American in the Republican Party. The people — I know that in the progressive side of things, they like to say that the Republicans are racist. I know that. I haven't experienced that," he said.

Three white students at California's San Jose State University skated by with only misdemeanor battery charges after putting a bike lock around a black student's neck, attempting to lock him in a closet and referring to him as "three-fifths" of a person, among other harassments that a jury ultimately concluded were not hate crimes.

On Monday, Joseph "Brett" Bomgardner, 21, was convicted of misdemeanor battery along with his accomplices, Logan Beaschler and Colin Warren, both 20, Mercury News reported. A jury of six men and six women were deadlocked on hate crime charges.

The crimes took place in 2013 when the three assailants forced Donald Williams Jr., a 17-year-old freshman at the time, to wear a U-shaped bike lock around his neck. In another incident, prosecutors said, the three men tried locking Williams in a closet, according to NBC Bay Area.

The bullying only came to light after Williams' parents visited him and noticed a Confederate flag hanging up in his shared dorm suite, along with racist phrases including "three-fifths" written on a white board there, according to the Associated Press.

The flag belonged to Beaschler, who testified in court that it was displayed as a symbol of states' rights, according to Mercury News. A swastika and other Nazi symbols written on a dry erase board were simply political satire, he argued.

Attorneys for the defendants said the abuse was nothing more than a "prank war" that was "immature" and went too far. But former Judge La Doris Cordell, head of San Jose University's task force on racial discrimination, disagreed.

"I am saddened that 12 jurors could not agree that calling a black male 'Three-fifths' or 'Fraction,' or forcing a lock around his neck, or creating an environment promoting racism with Confederate memorabilia, or hearing how this young man was humiliated, amounted to a hate crime," Cordell, who is black, told the publication. "This verdict demonstrates that we are a long way from living in a post-racist America."

Of the 12-person jury, not a single member was black.