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The Politics Of Honoring Community Heroes: Sonny Carson’s 4 Blocks
By factoidjoe | April 23, 2007
Question: Who gets to decide how a community honors its heroes? The community? The city? The State?  The answer may depend on who you talk to within and without the communnity. Also, it may  depend on one’s personal view of that community. What do you think? Let’s see!
Facts-1:  There is an existing political practice within New York City of communities identifying individuals who were or even were not residents for the honor of having streets co-named or renamed after them.  It appears that first a local community board votes to have specific streets be the subject of the co-naming or renaming, and then a member of the City Council proposes such co-naming or renaming to become law. It is rare ” that any name submitted by a community board ever fails to win approval.”
Facts-2: On April 12, Zengine posted “Throop Avenue Wall Of Fame” which reflected on Bed-Stuy’s honoring of public figures through a full-sized mural on Throop between Van Buren and Greene. 
Those persons included Malcolm X (third from the left) and Sonny Carson (fourth from the left).
Facts-3: Malcolm X, has had streets co-named after him by the Bed Stuy community, covering 21 blocks (”Malcolm X Boulevard” runs from Broadway to the north to Fulton Street to the South), and by the Harlem community, covering 38 blocks (Malcom X Boulevard runs from 110th Street to the South to 147th Street to the North).  Malcom X was a “junkie,” a “pimp” and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment by a Massachusetts court for burglary, of which he served 6. He has been called a “racist” and has been credited with referring to”whites” as “blue-eyed devils” and making “controversial” public statements such as, “Stop sweet-talking [the white man]. Tell him how you feel…. [Let him know that] if he’s not ready to clean his house up, he shouldn’t have a house. It should catch on fire and burn down.”  He is also credited with saying “If we react to white racism with a violent reaction, to me that’s not Black racism. If you come to put a rope around my neck, and I hang you for it, to me that’s not racism. Yours is racism….My reaction is the reaction of a human being reacting to defend and protect himself.” Adam Pachter, “Any Means Necessary.” American Experience. Malcom X: Make It Plain. Any Means Necessary. PBS.
Facts-4: Brooklyn’s Community Board 3 voted to rename Gates Avenue, from Classon to Marcy, as “Sonny Abubadika Carson Ave.“ Councilman Al Vann proposed the renaming to the City Council and on April 10, 2007 a City Council committee included the Carson renaming as part of a proposed 53 honoree naming bill, Int. No. 556. (You can no longer find this proposed bill on the city Council web site as it has been removed. It can be viewed, however, as “cached” with a Google search).Â
Facts-5: Carson, a former gang member,  was convicted of and served 15 months for kidnapping in the 1970’s and is credited with saying that he was “anti-white.”  An army veteran, who fought in the Korean war with the 82nd Airborne division, it is said that “[a]fter an eye-opening encounter during the Korean War in which an enemy soldier asked him why he, as a black man, was fighting for a country that wouldn’t let him drink water in Mississippi, Carson returned home, spent a period of time with CORE, and sparked the debate over parental control of public education that still rages to this day [as of 2003] with the challenge of the school system in Ocean Hill-Brownsville. During the ’80s, Carson was instrumental in the Days of Outrage protests against police brutality and was a cornerstone of the city’s Black Solidarity Day demonstrations.” During that time, he also founded the Black Men’s Movement Against Crack. He wrote an autobiography of his life in 1950’s Brooklyn and was the subject of a movie entitled “The Education of Sonny Carson” — available from Turner Classic Movies and, of course, Amazon.com. He died in 2002.
Facts-6: The version of the renaming bill that came out of the City Council comittee excised any reference to the renaming of Gates Avenue in honor of Carson. The New York City government web site was also updated to delete any reference to the prior proposed bill.Â
Facts-7: The politics.  On April 12, 2007, the proposed bill of the 53 street-name honorees “was stalled … when City Council Speaker Christine Quinn said she would vote against it because of Carson’s inclusion. [Quinn] said Carson… left a “divisive history” and has a “clear history of statements saying he was anti-white.” She urged that Carson’s name be removed from the proposed bill with the other honorees and that the proposal to honor him with a street name be submitted separately.
Councilman Al Vann is credited with saying that he expects to get approval from the rest of his Council colleagues. “I understand her personal concern,” Vann said. “But I expect the Council to do what they normally do, to support the community’s preference.”
 Council member Charles Barron, identified as a former Black Panther, is credited with saying that if Ms. Quinn removes Carson from the list, he will demand to know the background of every person for which the council proposes to name a street. “We got street names of slave holders and racists all over Brooklyn,” he said. Carson is a hero and should be praised for his work in education and for helping former convicts find jobs.
In 2000, Mayor Bloomberg honored Carson by joining others at Bed-Stuy Restoration Hall on Sonny Carson Day and in 2002, it appears that after Carson’s death, Mayor Bloomberg signed a decreee in his honor. Also, Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz proclamed October 24 as Sonny Carson Day.
 The Question?: Should Carson’s street naming honor over 4 blocks in Brooklyn have been  marginalized and otherwise discredited?
 The Answer? Yea, Nay or Maybe? 4 blocks? 3? zero? Is it a question of community control of honoring its heroes? Is it racial politics versus combating racial divisiveness? Is it one from column “A” and one from Column “B”?
April 23rd, 2007 at 3:40 pm
Factoidjoe, What do you have to say about Marcus Garvey, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, Peter Stuyvesant and all the other men streets are named after? Malcolm X is an American hero for all the great things he said and did, as is Marcus Garvey. You should cease and desist with exposing your obvious bias. Jefferson was a slave owning anti black and anti native American murderer, and he has monuments in his name all over this country that he helped found; with all of its “legal” injustices and inhuman criminal laws - kidnapping millions and legal slavery being two of them. You sound like an idiot when you target Malcolm X and not the criminals using the police dogs and firehoses and prisons against the defenseless people he was trying to protect and gave his life for. You crossed a line in Bed Stuy when you insult Malcolm X and perhaps you should bring your message to the Community Board and to the streets.
April 23rd, 2007 at 4:52 pm
Leo, thank you for your vigorous comment. You misread the purpose of the post. I worked very hard to take away my personal view. Malcolm was selected because (1) on the wall of fame he was positioned right next to Sonny, and (2) he had more “uglies” in his background than did Sonny, but has multiple streets named after him in at least two boroughs. Yes, I targeted him, but not for the vilification that you accuse me of. It is to allow comparison and discussion of political policy and practice that the two are unified in the post and on the wall of fame.
I placed the good, bad and the ugly before you to allow you and others to comment based on an attempt at objective presentation. If I wanted to give you a polemic based on my personal views, the post would be far different.
It is unfortunate that to you the issue raised by the post is your view of my supposed slandering of Malcolm. But, if I might ask, do I conclude correctly that you would also argue in favor of community control of the co-naming or renaming process? Please share with us in more detail how you would resolve the political issue.
Thanks again for being stimulated by the post.
April 23rd, 2007 at 6:04 pm
I was insulted and angered by your post not in the least bit stimulated beyond that. Your bias is obvious because I saw nothing good about Malcolm in your post. Malcolm X as we know him and named streets after him is not the person you described. You would serve the world better by researching the blood on the hands of the elected leaders and large corporations in this country’s history to the present. Check out J. Edgar Hoover and George Wallace and a host of others with streets and buildings and towns named after them. You prefer, like the typical racist, to point at Al Sharpton twenty years ago when Imus says something today and try to make it seem like the same thing. The community has every right to recognize their heroes, even if it was slave owning Washington and Jefferson the rapist - whom I might add, was conveniently buried without a criminal record or an arrest.
April 23rd, 2007 at 7:09 pm
Leo, it is obvious to me that you are right in one regard–I did not state the value of Malcolm to this country. This error might cause the rhetorically inclined to take a simplistic view of the post and charge up polemical verbiage as you have. It was my error and your comments bring that error to light for me.
I chose not to write on Malcolm’s value because (1) such value was, I thought too obvious to be stated, but more importanly to the point of the post, (2) I did not emphasize Malcolm’s value becauase my issue was that if Malcolm had more anti-social baggage than Sonny Carson, which he did, how is it that he has streets named after him in at least two boroughs and, so far, Sonny can’t get 4 blocks. That was the question I tried to raise by the post.
Now Leo, enough with the name-calling and race baiting. You show too much of yourself with that. As well, you do not serve the memory and continued value of these two men by ignoring the realities of their early life decisions. When they were either junky, pimp, burglar or gang member, they contributed nothing to their communities and had no similarities to any of the leaders you referenced. In their early stages, they took much and gave little or nothing.
I welcome this exchange, as long as we can turn down the volume and share the good, bad and ugly of our ideas and political positions.
In fact, I welcome a future discussion of Imus’s statements with you.
But for now, since the issue for Bed-Stuy is whether it will decide who its heroes are, let’s add to that discussion.
Thanks, again.
April 24th, 2007 at 8:55 am
factoidjoe, I don’t think you realize that what you have written is slanted in one direction and not “factual”. You chose to focus on the early years of Malcolm X and not on all of the extremely important things that he did. It may not be the point of your article, but it’s hard to read this and not get caught up in how it’s written. Wikipedia doesn’t have a page for Sonny Carson and I hadn’t heard of him until I read your article. This is not to say that he didn’t do important things, but why would you put down Malcolm X in an effort to make a point about Carson getting streets. As mentioned above, there are many white people with streets named after them who are criminals, slave owners and rapists. Let’s not forget that!
April 24th, 2007 at 11:20 am
You stated in a response that your original post included the “good” are you now correcting yourself? I have never been afraid to show myself “Factoidjoe”. The British would call the writers of our Constitution gang members or insurgents; you know the rhetoric of the master/ruler. Don’t claim to have shown good when you expose yourself in your own writing. Your transparency is typical. I know what you are. Malcolm X was greater than all the leaders of this country combined, and Sonny was not Malcolm nor can they be compared; hence four blocks.
April 25th, 2007 at 3:07 pm
dh–you are right, it was “not the point of [the post]“. I don’t know how strong Wikipedia is or should be on New York City history, but Carson did have some national exposure at least to the extent of his book and the movie of his early life.
Lastly, rather than encouraging that people ignore the dicey past of either Malcolm or Sonny, I would imagine that the stronger lesson is that despite their anti-community early years, both of them changed and became strong advocates for their communities and their people. It is because of that change and its value,that,in Malcolm’s case he is extensively honored (59 blocks) by at least two NYC communities; and in Sonny’s case, one community is trying (so far unsuccesfully) to honor him to the extent of 4 blocks.
April 25th, 2007 at 3:10 pm
Leo, see my first comment.
April 25th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
Your first comment, is that the comment that included the good you claimed to have talked about in the later comment. Malcolm was a teen living in a system that murdered his father and offered limited access to even a restroom or lunch counter to black people. He wasn’t anti-community in his early years; do your research. How do you respond to a ruling class that use the police and fire department against you? How do you respond to a ruling class that make it a crime to allow you equal rights and opportunity? Who said “no taxation without representation” or “give me liberty or give me death”? It wasn’t Malcolm or Sonny, but it makes sense - that was anti community I suppose. Your first comment, as all of your comments are easily understood, and I thank my mother for having a degree in English for that. Anti-community is being lynched, and the lynching not be a crime because the police were participants. Do not ever dis-respect Malcolm X, you never heard him speak. Had Malcolm X lived the world would be a better place. Malcolm X was an advocate for people. You are out of your league. Malcolm X has streets named after him all over this country in spite of people like you.
April 25th, 2007 at 7:11 pm
leo, you pose the question: “How do you respond to a ruling class that use (sic) the police and fire department against you?” The answer comes from Malcolm himself, after his sister was able to get him transfered to a prison facility which had a library–read, self-educate, focus one’s energies not on taken from your community or on abusing women, but on making a life of change and value. Just a thought.
April 25th, 2007 at 7:43 pm
Spoken like a member of the group that didn’t have that type of brutality and genocide perpetuated against them; perhaps you would have offered the same advice to Patrick Henry and the militia. When it is time to fight it is time to fight and your one sided racist position is firmly established for all to read. Malcolm X said you have to speak to a man in language he understands, and he barrowed this one “an eye for an eye”. Your opinions are convenient and simplistic… ahhh what the hell, idiotic. You try reading while a dog is eating you; you damn fool.
April 25th, 2007 at 7:55 pm
p.s. Work much harder on taking away your personal view. Do some reading on Union Carbide and the United Fruit Company to learn more about “anti community” activity. Malcolm died without blood on his hands. Did you ever wonder what happened to the native people to the east coast of this country? How about the west coast? the mid west? the south? Your memory is conveniently current.
April 25th, 2007 at 8:00 pm
I apologize for calling you names and I am sorry you are, an always will be an idiot and an obvious racist.
April 26th, 2007 at 12:05 pm
I think Leo is too focused on Factoidjoe’s depiction of Malcolm Little. The Crux of it issue is people like Malcolm X and Martin Luther King Jr are held in high regard because that’s whose been marketed too us. My concern would be: Where are the Streets for Thurgood Marshal? . . .
April 27th, 2007 at 6:45 am
Malcolm is sacrosanct in this neck of the woods so the response is going to be emotional and somewhat illogical.
I was upset by your post until I read your explanation. Interestingly, your explanation only seemed to enrage Leo.
I do not think Gates should be named for Sonny Carson. He did not do more for black people than many other nameless and faceless
Freedom Movement or Civil Rights workers.
April 27th, 2007 at 3:21 pm
I discovered Malcolm X in the late 60’s as a young child, and Malcolm X was never marketed to me. Michael, perhaps you saw the good in the original text that was spoken of in the explanation,and you are satisfied, but I still can’t see it. Malcolm X made Thurgood Marshall a well deserved possibility. Sonny Carson was neither faceless nor nameless.
April 27th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Blis, he never depicted Malcolm Little he gave all those good, bad, and ugly attributes to the great Malcolm X. Perhaps you are all to young, or haven’t seen enough footage, or read enough on the subject to be coversant on it. Try to get the “Like it Is” transcripts on the subject from the people of his time.
April 27th, 2007 at 6:57 pm
My god, this is tedious! Leo: factoidjoe was not “insulting” Malcolm X. He was trying to make a point, to formulate a comparison to spur a discussion. Maybe I can lay it out so that you can understand it:
Some people are against Sonny Carson having a street named after him because of controversial things he said. Yet Malcolm X said many controversial things [no matter how much you admire him, you have to admit that he was controversial], and still he has miles of NY streets named after him. So why are people so anti-Carson, if there didn’t seem to be the same opposition to Malcolm X Blvd?
Anyway, to reply to the real point of the post: I find the politics of people like Malcolm X and Sonny Carson divisive and counterproductive [there's your cue to call me a racist, Leo]. But, that said, Carson is a hero to many people in this neighborhood, and I absolutely do think that it should be up to the people who live on the streets to decide who the streets are named for. Yes, Carson was controversial. But as has been said here, Jefferson and Washington et al. had their own issues. The city should honor everyone’s heroes.
April 28th, 2007 at 8:44 am
You guys have got to be putting me on. When has self defense been controversial? When have words ever done more harm than dogs or guns? They said some things that people of their time never heard, except in an edited version. When malcolm X was eulogized a question was asked, “did you ever hear him speak?”. Did you ever hear him speak? There was nothing controversial about what he said except as he said “to a wolf trying to make you his meal” or in other, words to people trying to kill you for trying to vote or shop or go to work or ride a bus or go to school or live. You will never help me “to understand” the fact that in your mind Malcolm and Sonny are controversial because of statements and Jefferson and washinghton had “issues” because of deeds. It all depends on what side of the hose or dog that you are on. But, to answer the obvious the community will and has always named their own streets even if the individuals were “controversial” or had “issues”.
April 28th, 2007 at 8:46 am
The comma in the above statement belongs after words not other. Thank you.
April 28th, 2007 at 3:12 pm
Let the first without sin cast the first stone. Your continous dialogue holds no bearing on the street renaming after Sonny Carson. The commnity board voted unanimously. All of your dialogue is just that, dialogue. You are entitled to your opinion, you have expressed it. You have no say in the final decison. You appear to be an outsider with no history of the street names here in Bedford stuyvesant. Whether Jefferson went to jail or not, doesn’t change he was a slave owner and a rapist. Neither did it change the divisiness of his white relatives denouncing his black relativse as presented some years ago on Oprah. Jefferson Avenue needs to be the next on the list to be changed. Many controversial people have buildings and/or streets named after them. Many continue to lead to lead this nation. Anyway, I don’t intend to go back anf forth with you concerning SC. There are more pressing things that need to be done than to waste time with someone whose opinion is just that, an opinion.
Peace
April 28th, 2007 at 3:32 pm
Excuse the typos.
April 28th, 2007 at 3:40 pm
I’m with Yvonne
May 18th, 2007 at 3:33 am
Leo,
If Sonny Carson gets a street named after him then I DEMAND that Abraham Lincoln gets his birthday reinstated as a national holiday! He shouldn’t have to share a day with anyone!
What I don’t understand is if the black community hates white people so much, then why don’t they go back to Africa? It was wrong to bring them here but NOBODY is keeping them here. The reason why streets are named after Washington, Jefferson, etc. is that they were the founders of this country.
Might it have something to do with the fact that the USA is the greatest nation in the world???? I mean there must be a country in the world where blacks would have a better life, right???
I find it amusing how the angry black activists (and the music “artists”) who are speaking for those who can’t speak, all seem to strut around with designer suits, nice cars (multiple) and live in gated communities. Wow, they are so repressed!
You know, we should be talking about each other as Americans. However the black community continually strives to be separate from whites, asians, hispanics and any other “non-black”.
Blacks hate white people so much that they don’t even acknowledge the fact that Barrack Obama is half caucasian. He is always referred to as “African-American”.
ALso, if a black person ever sides with a white person in power, they get labeled as “Uncle Toms”.
Yet whites are the racists?????
Last I checked, we are a nation where “majority rules”. I don’t like alot of the people that have been elected to political power but the “majority ruled” and I have to put up with it.
If the majority of the state of NY wants Sonny Carson to be honored then they should vote for it. Individual communities do not “trump” the state rule. It’s not like the difference between federal and state rule.
The USA bends over backwards to accommodate people of all races and religions. This country (liberals) has gone as far as diminishing the celebration of “Christmas” by either telling stores not to advertise Christmas (just say Holiday Season instead) or removing The Nativity Scene from all public land. All of this so we don’t offend anybody.
At this point, everyone reading this is thinking that I’m just another white supremacist or something like that. Fact is, I’m asian/caucasian american. However, I prefer to call myself an American.
I think slavery is among the greatest evils ever inflicted on humanity (and it still continues to this day in many other countries).
I also think Martin Luther King Jr. would be ashamed at most of the black activists/artists of today (i.e. Al Sharpton, Charles Barron, Dead Prez, and insert name of other black racists). He believed (correctly) that the future of blacks and whites (and by inference asians, hispanics, etc..) were forever linked (”we cannot walk alone”).
Charles Barron continually threatens violence if he doesn’t get what he wants. The fact that this country puts up with his filth, should tell all of us just how good we have it in the USA. Just ask Gary Kasparov (world famous chess champ) what happens if you flap your gums against “the man” in Russia.
It’s really too bad that blacks look up to radical activists like Sonny Carson and Malcolm X and turn their backs on the teachings of Dr. King.
May 18th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
Jim, you are mis-informed, or perhaps you are not able to look at the entire story or history. It is very complex and Abe and Sonny having days or streets is not a part of it my friend. Are you ready to learn?
May 30th, 2007 at 2:00 pm
To comment on your post Jim,
Firstly, I do not view you as a racist I view you as one-sided. To demand that Ab. Lincoln have his birthday become a national holiday because the community of Bedford Stuyvesant wants to honor Sonny Carson is ridiculous. One thing has nothing to do with another. Now on the point of Lincoln’s birthday I do think he should receive recognition because he is a U.S. President, however he was a bigot and ironically dealt with self-hatred (him being of African descent) People often feel that blacks should bend over backwards to honor Lincoln because during his presidency The Emancipation Proclamation was signed and slavery was abolished…THIS FACT DOES NOT PROVE THAT LINCOLN FREED THE SLAVES. His involvement in abolishment was solely to end the Civil War and prevent Southern states from leaving the union. To honor a man that publicly hated my race gives me added fuel to honor a man who elevated my race. Yes Carson’s views were strong and often abrasive, he was a man who fought for the empowerment of Blacks, just as Martin Luther King Jr. did. Because their tactics were different does not make one leader more predominate than the other. Martin Luther King Jr. held several boycotts and he actively promote separation until equally was met (i.e the Birmingham Bus Boycotts), similar to Malcolm X and Sonny Carson. It is wrong to bash leaders of today saying that King would be outraged, I am quite sure he would stand hand in hand with Al Sharpton and ask for police not to gun down an innocent black man because of the COLOR OF HIS SKIN…or for the use of the word NIGGER, NIGGA, NIGGAS to cease. You claim that we…meaning Blacks, African-American, Africans should return to Africa…as if to say AMERICA IS NOT OUR HOME…history will show you Jim that the first man to roam and CULTIVATE this earth was a direct lineage of Africa…to say get on the boat and go to Africa is a racist comment and that in itself makes you a racist. When Europeans pillared through Asia and enslaved and murdered your people…do you think your ancestors would have kindly got up and left…they fought as We are continuously FIGHTING…You mentioned one of the 2008 Presidential candidates Baraka Obama as being half white and blacks refusing to acknowledge that. (This will be the humorous part of my post) …Pay attention young man: During the years of Jim Crow if a person as fair as you or paler had .8 ounces of African blood in them they were consider BLACK, A NEGRO, COLORED, AND LESS THAN A WHITE MAN. To belittle my people’s struggles for equally by saying Obama is not a full black man pisses me off. Your post is filled with ignorance. I am sure Obama is a black man if say he tried to marry your sister, or he is pulled over on the New Jersey Turnpike, or dragged and decapitated in Texas, or Shot and killed by a police office in New York. This post was a response to yours, and now I will offer my response to the renaming of Bedford Stuyvesant streets. I feel that this project is important and imperative. I feel that a street name gives glorification to the person it is named after, and I feel that America has glorified SLAVE OWNERS for far too long.
Peace
Ayanna
May 30th, 2007 at 4:48 pm
Sonny Carson was a MJO. So is Al Vann. Racist morons trading on our nation’s disgrace; making a living off others’ pain.
May 31st, 2007 at 8:57 pm
Leo, Sonny did not have blood on his hands? Liar! There are those who know the things he did on the “strip”. Things that he wasn’t prosecuted for because of the FEAR he engendered. Talk to those “black” people who know the truth.
May 31st, 2007 at 9:10 pm
One last thing leo, you talk as if you KNOW.You know only what you were told. You are a fake. A person who mouths words that others have put into your head without finding out the truth. There was a fine Judge, Judge Booth, who sat in Brooklyn Criminal Court, a black man. A man to be admired. Unfortunately I believe he died. He could tell you things about Sonny Carson. Nobody honors him for accomplishment and reaching heights. You are the type of person who calls Judge Thomas, Colin Powell and other American heroes, “Uncle Tom’s” Instead, you honor the least of society because he and his like USE you. The benevolent con men. You will never admit to being conned because it is always easier to be ignorant
June 1st, 2007 at 12:53 pm
GW, surely you jest.
June 1st, 2007 at 12:57 pm
GW, surely you jest. Deal with what I said and stop being so imaginative. The blood on Sonny Carson’s hands could never compare to the people I mentioned. The question is who is using your fake ass! “Strip” that.
June 1st, 2007 at 10:38 pm
[...] See prior post on this topic. [...]
June 2nd, 2007 at 8:52 am
gw, leo, anyone? can you find out who the 7 + 4 are as referenced in the update to this post?
June 2nd, 2007 at 10:05 am
Al Jolson was awarded a street, he was the individual famous for doing “black face” - he never said he was “anti black” though. I am not aware of the 7 + 4, but I think streets all over the city are going to be renamed if the standard is going to be what the person said or did. I believe it is time to start from Albany ave. to Wyckoff st. and check the records of these individuals to see what their actions and words were. I am sure John Hancock was against slavery and was pro black and so was Thomas Jefferson.
June 4th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
Leo, You don’t even know, or choose not to address the subject of “The strip”. Just more cute retorts. You cannot get out of the past to justify the present. Sonny had ‘less’ blood on his hands? Those historical figures formed a nation and set in stone ideals, which weren’t lived up to but America is always going forward. Sonny formed nothing. When I was a boy, you couldn’t walk around Eastern Parkway because of the gang activity of: The Bishops, The Chaplains, The Hilltoppers etc. Sonny was part of the Bishops. His strength came from surrounding himself with thugs. He never changed. Right up until the time of his death you could not walk into his Brooklyn office without first having to pass by a number of “associates” surrounding him. Till the day he died, he never gave up the gang mentality which he was raised on and honed in prison. Those who deferred to him, received his favor. The Barron’s and the Vann’s and I am sure you. He never had a big following but as I stated before, FEAR and HATE can motivate. History has tales about these type of people. In the end, you do not honor them, you tear down their symbols whether they be Nazisms or communism, etc. And never, as you have done and the believers of above, answer a posed question. Make sure you answer the question with something which means nothing, like “your fake ass” and pretend that it makes you intelligent. And always remember that the best defense is an offense. Don’t answer the question, attack the questioneer. Way to go Leo. Keep it up. You will make a good politician with no honesty, integrity or guts.
June 4th, 2007 at 7:05 pm
I sent a response but apparently I am being blocked. Not surprising
June 4th, 2007 at 7:06 pm
I apologize, my response is posted
June 10th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Yes Michael, I remember that concept, love… Dr. King tried that out. Remember where it landed him? Assassinated. Pro change should be celebrated not vilified. Sure Sonny Carson was a radical, but we (Africans living in America) needed someone to wake us up after being sesile for so long. I may be to young to know about Mr. Carsons good and bad deeds, and so, unfortunately I have to go by what I read. However, Ive had to go by what I read when it came to many white politicians and leaders that are hailed as heroes as well. In my community, Sonny Carson is a hero. Less than 2 blocks away from my home a young black boy was hit by a car and left to die while the white man that hit him was whisked away in an ambulance to tend to his minor injuries. Some of you elders may remember that as the Crown Heights riots. That sounds like as good as a reason as any to be infuriated with the situation in your community and to do all that you can to make sure that youre PEOPLE let their anger be known. Sonny Carson did that for my community and if her were still alive I would thank him. In a previous post, a man by the name of Jim stated, if the blacks hate whites so much why dont they just go back to Africa? In 2007, for that statement to be made, its scary. Jim, if Africa hadnt been raped by your ancestors and plagued by the many diseases and filth that YOUR ancestors left there, maybe we would still be there. But then again, that wouldnt be any fun. How else would we take your jobs and education,”products and goods” take them and make them 10 times better and sell them back to you? Its just so much more rewarding to do it in your face. The point is should the street be named after a man like Sonny Carson? Visit the stuy and see the population first hand. Ask who the hell Kosciuzsko is and when all you get is blank stares, ask who Sonny Carson is and get your answer.
P.S
Leroy Comrie- you should be ashamed of yourself. Why abstain? You come up to my predominantly black school (York College CUNY) and try to convince us that you support us students and the issues important to us, but then when it comes to showing and proving it- you abstain. I guess we’re only allies when its convenient to you. By the way, missed you at graduation. Im telling!
June 16th, 2007 at 9:17 pm
Hi Bed Stuy…
I ALSO noticed no ‘wikipedia’ page for Sonny Carson.
Will there be one soon ?
PS - I’m a white dude, but there should be more public info on this controversial New Yorker.
June 26th, 2007 at 9:22 pm
So, no response from Leo. You cannot argue with the truth. But, as Henry Clay (who ran for president a number of times),”I would rather be right then be president.” One of his principles that he thought he was right was the principle that slavery was immoral. He didn’t become president. Truth, seemingly, never works. It is better to skirt around the truth as the CrownHeightsGraduate and Leo do so well. What has gone before is either right or wrong. If it is wrong, it does not justify wrong behavior today.
June 28th, 2007 at 2:58 pm
Dubya, you are so far from the truth you are floating.
May 15th, 2008 at 12:45 am
In honor of Sonny Abubadika Carson, There will be a program at Restoration Plaza, on Tuesday May 20,2008. Full info is available on youtube video; http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtUSHs5AWio
May 16th, 2008 at 8:23 am
Folks, slavery existed in every corner of the world in one form or another. As for Africa,when tribes went to war, the losing tribe became slaves of the winning tribe. The tribes that lived on the coast often went to the interior of Africa to capture and sell their captives to Europeans. So before you point the blame to others, please make sure you have the right facts. As for renaming the streets, it should reflect the choice of the people living there as one of the post says. Bed Stuy is not a black neighborhood anymore as there are lot of different people moving in. There were lot of people who were against slavery and were punished for their beliefs but you don’t seem to know or remember them. Sonny Carson was a gang member and he used fear and violence to enforce his beliefs. Dr. King was also a man who stood behind his belief but he didn’t use violence. As for going back to Africa - there is Liberia which was created for slaves who wanted to return to their ancestral lands. If you feel you are not treated fairly, you can always leave but you choose not to and you choose not to assimilate. Black communities do not encourage breaking the cycle of poverty and mistreatments. If one black person strives to do better, he or she is called white. How is that productive or helpful? How is living in a neighborhood that has no basic amenities ok? Its good to be proud of your family history and fight for all the wrongs that have been done to you. But the way you fight also has a major impact. When you use race as a default argument for everything, it becomes a stale argument after a while. Where is Al Sharpton when a black person kills another black person? Why isn’t he voicing his anger and frustration on Black on Black crime?
May 16th, 2008 at 2:12 pm
To the guest who is ignorant with facts and missing with content: Slavery never existed anywhere on the planet like it has under the hands of white racist like you. In fact in certain parts of Africa their is no word for slavery. Bed Sty is being re colonized ,genrafided and exploited by KKKackas who talk the same BS like what appears in your words. Al Sharpton does not rep the majority of Black folk.
“Black folk should retun to Liberia”, no maybe you should go back to Europ. You have killed countless Native Americans and Africans, and bring with you all over the world death and destruction of the land. Wake up and smell your own devilish Sh…t.