Lynching Part 1

Lynching Part 1

I am an African and naturalized American woman living in the predominantly white suburb of East Islip, New York and my divorce from a Caucasian man who physically and emotionally abused me for years and then abandoned me 2 years ago has become a virtual lynching of myself and my two small children.

My husband has used his personal connections within the community and the overwhelming racial bias that exists within the court system and police department here in Suffolk County against black people to successfully put himself in position to gain sole custody of our 3 year old son in spite of the fact that he has a history of abusive, neglectful behavior as a parent and in spite of the fact that all reason and common sense argues against this. Fighting for a fair settlement and a custody arrangement that will protect the health and well-being of my son has been an exercise in futility these past 2 years and it has practically destroyed me. It has cost me my entire life savings, it has cost me my good health and the good health of my children, it has cost me my position as a Senior Systems Analyst for a large Wall Street firm and it has cost me my good credit rating and financial reputation, I am in the process of losing my house and am nearly bankrupt.

I am a college-educated and highly accomplished professional black woman and an utterly doting and loving mother to my two young children. I have no history of parental neglect, behavior problems or unfavorable activity of any kind in my life. And yet…. my husband, an uneducated man , a man who I have repeatedly obtained orders of protection against because of his abuse and threats against me over the years, a man who was arrested just a few months ago for criminally assaulting me, a man who in spite of a court order against it continues to chain-smoke around our 3 year old son during his visitation and aggravate the boy’s asthma, and a man who in spite of a court order against it continues to allow his paramour, a woman with a criminal record involving violence and drug possession, to interact with and even discipline our 3 year old son…. this man has successfully used the racially biased system in Suffolk county to all but win custody of our son. He has convinced a Forensic and Legal Guardian, both Caucasian and both completely unfamiliar with and heavily biased against African and African-American culture and people, to advocate for him gaining sole custody of our mixed-race son. Because of the unchecked and near-absolute power and deference given to these so-called Forensic experts and Legal Guardians in the family court system by Judges and because of a bias that perhaps exists with my the Judge in my case…I am about to lose my son to a man who will not care for and love him and raise him in a healthy way. I have lost practically everything and turned to everyone I can think of within the legal system for help to no avail. I am in such pain and my children are suffering.

As an African I did not grow up familiar with and affected by the evil reality of racial bias and hatred and here in America, I had been very successful professionally and personally up until now in a very white dominated culture and society. So it has never been in my mind-set to see and recognize and acknowledge that such irrational bias and hatred could be behind things that happen to me or effect me. Even when some of my neighbors wrote “WHITE POWER” across the front of my house after my husband left and even when, time after time, a white policeman would show up at my house and refuse to effectively deal with, document or even acknowledge the incidents of abuse against me by my husband, I naively failed to recognize the gradual but inexorable lynching that was taking place against me and my children. I recognize it now, though I don’t understand it and am horrified by it, and I NEED HELP!!