Just how far have we really come as African Americans in this country when the most diabolical evidence of racism is still blatantly exploited right here in our own liberal backyard of New York?

Residents were recently sickened and outraged over huge posters that were found along Flatlands Avenue showing a white man holding a noose around the head of a Black man hanging on a tree – an image that depicts the worst injustice against a people in world history. Scenes like this were all too common in the South, reaching a fevered pitch at the start of the 1900s and sadly repeated right up until 1960.

However, this is the 21st century and it would appear that the country, with an African American in the White House, has moved beyond this – at least on the surface. There is no question that deep racial hatred still exists, evidenced in such posters mysteriously popping up in the country's most progressive, metropolitan city in 2010.

Community activist Kevin McCall, members of the NAACP, the Brooklyn East New York Crisis Team and concerned residents are rightfully outraged by the appearance of these posters, as all New Yorkers should be.

McCall received a call about the posters and immediately surveyed the scene. The posters appeared in several locations, six in total.

"We notified the police precinct and it was filed as a hate crime. As I was being interviewed by News 12, a white cyclist came by and ripped a poster down. We found another one at Ralph and Bergen in Bed-Stuy, one at Rockaway Parkway and Avenue L and at Flatland and East 86th Street. These were all taken down," McCall said

"The poster says 'Got Music? Presents D.A.M.D. Shaym' and depicts a white man holding a noose around a Black man's neck hanging from a tree. There was Facebook, MySpace and Twitter information on the poster.

"I sent a message to the contact at ICEM to take these down. I got a response from him. He said that I need to really understand before going to the media to see what D.A.M.D. really stands for, and if I really wanted to know what it's about, I needed to do an interview with him without it being edited.

"I replied back that this still does not explain the picture. I did not get a response," McCall said.

The posters quickly came down, but the question is, where did they come from and why? Was it racial hatred or a cheap grab for attention? Like most cowards, whoever put up these posters did their work quickly and anonymously.