Editor’s note: I had to bump this drop back up to the top after learning that Trayvon Martin was talking on his cellphone with his girlfriend before he was lynched. The police ain’t even use the phone to contact his folks. WTF?!?
This reminded me of the story of how Yusuf Hawkins was first encountered by the Bensonhurst mob while talking on a payphone with his girlfriend…
We’ve reminisced on a good number of stories about the New York City of my youth but I don’t think I’ve ever really talked about the tragic story of YUSUF HAWKINS. He was a Brooklyn teenager who was brutally murdered by a mob of boys in the neighborhood of Bensonhurst. The exo-skeleton of this story seeks to blame one youth from the mob for the murder when the reality is that Hawkins was bludgeoned mercilessly with baseball bats before he was finally shot to death.
JOSEPH FAMA is the boy who would serve the most time for the murder while his confederates would mostly remain nameless and ultimately blameless. The racism in this story isn’t really at the ground level. The mob that murdered Hawkins was predominantly white, not totally however. Some of the assailants were Latino. The racism contained in the YUSUF HAWKINS debacle belonged to the district attorneys and the police who shielded the children of fellow police officers and firemen from prosecution.
Remember that the mob that assaulted HAWKINS was reported to be thirty deep. The mob was all working class boys. HAWKINS was from a middle-class family and he visited the neighborhood with some frequency since he had classmates that lived in the area. HAWKINS was actually in the neighborhood that particular night to look at a used car he wanted his parents to help him buy as his graduation-going away to college present.
YUSUF HAWKINS was “one of the good ones” but his case was being handled as though he were a street kid who arguably deserved this horrible fate. In steps AL SHARPTON, C. VERNON MASON and ALTON MADDOX. These dudes were odd but effective at attracting attention. The only problem was that AL SHARPTON’s grandstanding only focused on the assailants when the real racism and injustice was being committed by the D.A.’S office. I’m not trying to say the lynch mob wasn’t culpable for the murder but it was the district attorney’s responsibility to bring them all to justice.
Poor people, irrespective of their so-called race will always mistreat each other. Limited resources and miseducation insures that better than AIG ever could. The real tragedy of YUSUF HAWKINS life was that even the negro with middle-class aspirations is denied the protection and equity of the law that his parent’s belief in the system had indoctrinated into him.
When HENRY LOUIS GATES received the nigger treatment this summer he was shocked and appalled. He didn’t realize that he wasn’t part of the equation of justice. He never was. God please rest YUSUF HAWKINS for reminding us.
dp, whaddup! (I’m telling you, that’s first for this site…)
Spot on.
It’s so much bigger than what the naked eye perceives. In this case, which I’m partially familiar with, they cut off the monster’s hand, but allowed his heart to beat.
Dr. Gates was disillisioned & delusional as to his “place” in society; something my father always warned me about.
“A nigga with a [fill-in the blank] is still a nigga.”
r.i.p t.o.w
poetry
I remind myself everyday!!! Good work, DP. Peace.
Guds what up?
I apologize for not really being around to stay in the dialog folks are having over here.
I am so into you good people today. Happy Sept. 11th. 911 is a joke.
i love it when u kick some knowledge man
ur a real old-school dude
Great post. I remember this case vividly and your commentary is spot on. rest in Peace to Yusef.
On point as usual, D.
The sad thing is that over a decade later, we still have realized that we are not only fighting RACISM in America , but CLASSISM as well. We already lost…..
shit….damn…sorry
EDIT:
The sad thing is that over a decade later, we still have NOT realized that we are not only fighting RACISM in America , but CLASSISM as well. We already lost…..
TGIF!!!
DP & all– there’s a good, detailed– and difficult, for anyone who wants to pretend there’s such a thing as ‘justice,’ in any sense of the word– book called “For The Color Of His Skin” by John Desantis. Here’s a decent blurb–
***
In August 1989, Yusuf Hawkins, a quiet black teenager, was murdered by a group of white youths in Bensonhurst, a mostly Italian neighborhood in Brooklyn, N.Y. Only three of the eight convicted youths are serving time for their crimes; all were acquitted of murder. In an evenhanded, meticulous reconstruction of the case, DeSantis suggests that the hubris of incoming DA Charles Hynes and his staff in failing to communicate with outgoing DA Elizabeth Holtzman may have fatally flawed the prosecution. He charges that Holtzman’s political ambitions and “reckless acquiescence to public sentiment” led her to target the largest number of individual suspects possible instead of focusing on the gunman and those who most immediately shared responsibility. Activist Al Sharpton, who held the entire group equally guilty of murder, is portrayed as “inherently manipulative.” No one comes off well in this account, which leaves the lingering impression that justice has not been served.
***
Bensonhurst today, of course, is turning into Brooklyn Chinatown 3 (or 4, depending on how you count) but it’s still a valuable, sincere work by a dude who was accidentally on the scene and stayed there.
Also, I can’t help but point out that, whatever the sincerity of Spike Lee’s dedication of “Jungle Fever” to the memory of Yusuf, I think it’s a terrible fucking movie, with Spike at his didactic, arftully deaf near-worst. He can be better but I mention in case any kids have seen the flick and get the wrong idea.
I remember when this happened, I lived around the corner from the scene of the crime. It was real intense in B Hurst in those days. My uncle & his crew ran the neighborhood. You couldn’t really be caught being black there in those days. Yet due to contrary beliefs, Yusef was killed because he was smashing one of the Italian dudes sisters. Real talk, that was a no-no back then. Regardless he didnt deserve that treatment.
To this day dont sleep on juice-head Joey cause he probably has a bat in his car.
#Serious
I can’t believe we’re looking at the same type of sh@t again, today, where we can’t depend on the justice system to even do the minimum of what they should do. You mentioned Prof. Gates in the original post, and I found it interesting that while the PotUS stepped into that situation, the White House has chosen to not have an official stance on this one. The whole matter is sad and shameful.
Great post two-and-a-half years ago, great post now. Unrelentingly relevant.
Wow!!??