Essay 293

Monotonous MultiCultClassics Minutes…

• Another aspiring rapper was shot and killed. Jason Jackson, a.k.a. Brooklyn Hooks, took two bullets in the head. The young rapper and his partner boasted they would “bring back that raw, creative and street essence to the game.” Game over.

• Although the brothers in the recent Murder Inc. trial were acquitted, company bookkeeper Cynthia Brent was sentenced to two years’ probation and six months under house arrest — Yo, Cynthia is in the house!

• Terminated Boeing employees are suing the company for age discrimination, seeking to get their jobs back with at least $1.5 billion in damages. “We believe age was a motivating factor in decisions made,” the ex-employees’ lawyer said. Or just good OLD-fashioned greed. Guess everyone doesn’t get a golden parachute at an aeronautics company.

• California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger continues to take heat for his refusal to spare Stanley Tookie Williams. His native country of Austria has been especially critical — mostly because capital punishment is illegal there. But Schwarzenegger fired back, instructing officials at his hometown of Graz to remove his name from its soccer stadium. “In the future, the use of my name to advertise or promote the city of Graz in any way is not allowed,” proclaimed Schwarzenegger. Gee, tourism is bound to suffer now.

• California is also ending its policies of segregating by race — at least in its prison system. For 25 years, the state has segregated inmates for at least their first 60 days. No other state has a similar way of operating. But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in February that things must change. A lawyer involved with the proceedings said, “We will start to create an environment where it will be less dangerous in prison for everyone because racism will start to dissipate … the power of racial classification and racism will start to die.” Wonder if the same can be applied to the law-abiding part of society.

• The creator of “Girls Gone Wild” faced a criminal gone wild — and there’s a videotape to prove it. In January 2004, Joe Francis encountered a gun-wielding fiend who forced the filmmaker to partially disrobe and make sexual comments while being videotaped. The violating videographer then threatened to distribute the recording unless Francis coughed up $300,000 to $500,000. It’s all being revealed in the court trial taking place now. Wonder if Snoop Dogg produced a version too.