The African American Jockey

Later today the 139th running of the Kentucky Derby will take place. Out of the 20 jockeys in the race there will be a woman and an African American, Kevin Krigger. He is the first black jockey to win the Santa Anita Derby in the 78 years of it's history and, on saturday, Mr. Krigger could be the first African American jockey to win the Kentucky Derby since 1902. That distinction is held by one Jimmy Winkfield (who will be featured in a Reverence post very soon).

Get this, the first Derby 13 of the 15 riders were African American, including Oliver Lewis who won the Derby. The fact that blew me away; African American jockeys won 8 of the first 16 and 15 of the first 28 Kentucky Derbys ran in the United States. Shortly after, the Jim Crow laws abruptly halted African American accomplishments across America and African American jockeys were driven from the track.

Today Terence Meyocks, national manager of the Jockey's Guild, estimates that out of 1,000 jockeys in the U.S. 50 are African American.

Mr. Krigger is the first African American jockey to run in the Derby since 2000, when Marlon St. Julien competed finishing seventh. Marlon St. Julien was the first African American in 79 years to compete.

Around 5 PM Saturday I'll be tuned in to watch the most exciting two minutes in sports. I'll be pulling for Kevin Krigger to make history and add to the extraordinary legacy of the African American jockeys before him.

Kevin Krigger will be riding Goldencents at 5-1. Place your bets!

A Rape Epidemic in India!

Manish Swarup/Associated Press

This post finds Pro Se deeply vexed, outraged and sickened! Rape in India is out of control!

On April 30th a 4 year old girl, who was raped and left for dead on April 17th, died from her injuries.

The NYTimes reported yet another rape of a young girl on April 20th, just 3 days later. This girl was just 5 years of age. The men lured her with chocolate, raped, assaulted (it is reported they put part of a bottle and a candle inside of her), tortured and left her for dead! WTF?

What would make someone commit an act like this? And, why is the rape of young girls happening at epic proportions in India?

When the parents of the young girl reported the crime to the police, the police offered the equivalent of $37 dollars to keep quite about the case. This case, as with other cases and, especially the horrific case in December, the police seem unwilling or uninterested in conducting investigations or enthusiastically pursuing the suspects that commit these crimes.

This brutal crime takes place on the heels of the brutal gang rape of a young medical student in December of 2012. She later died from injuries sustained by the brutality of her rape which caused global outrage!

Women and advocates against violence took the streets protesting the brutality of the crime and a call for sweeping reforms and, yet just 5 months later, another heinous act of brutality is committed against a young girl!

Read this NYTimes opt-ed piece by Sonia Faleiro about rape in India. The facts are staggering! 

• 48,338 cases of child rape have been committed in India from 2001 to 2011.
• The annual cases have tripled since, 2,113 in 2001 to 7,112 in 2011.
• The majority of child rape cases are rarely reported.

A human rights report states that Indian women report domestic violence and rape fewer than most other countries. Men outnumber women and women are sorely mistreated in India. Across India women are looked upon as subservient and girls are less valued, less cared for in general. These are just a few of the reasons why most women are reluctant to report crimes of domestic abuse and rape against them.  

These crimes have to cease, especially the raping of children! There is no excuse for someone to sexually assault and abuse women or sexually violate a young girl or boy! 

Reformation is urgently needed, now!

Reform starts with holding police accountable for their lackadaisical investigations and nefarious arrest efforts. Independent prosecutors should be assigned to an investigation and fastidiously prosecute not only suspects, but any police officials found of wrongdoing or impeding an investigation.

It's hopeful that human rights advocacy groups will continue to apply more global pressure to force the Indian government to implement comprehensive reform across India and regulate stringent punishment against these perverted perpetrators!