Myanmar A Gov’t Under Scrutiny

I am having a BIG problem with this whole Myanmar cyclone recovery that is playing every night on the news. The first lady had the nerve to stand there and say “The response to the cyclone is just the most recent example of the junta’s failure to meet its people’s basic needs…” Wow, is she really going to chastise someone on the failure to meet its people’s basic needs when our own government which is run by her husband failed miserably to meet the basic needs of our own people in New Orleans.

Isn’t it quite interesting that her husband had the nerve to say that he didn’t know anything about a hurricane hitting the Louisiana area. Not only did our government not help the people after the hurricane, they didn’t do anything to fix the shoddy levees that they knew would fail in just such a storm. How is that for “meeting the needs of your people?” While the water was gushing over the levees in New Orleans Bush was sharing birthday cake with none other than Senator John McCain. Say Laura the people in New Orleans had no food, water or other basic necessities, “let’em eat cake, right?!”

The hypocrisy of these people is amazing. A CNN reporter said about the situation “The people can’t get clean water, decent food, a clean place to stay or medical care. They also can’t seem to get their military government to care…The governments attitude was more along the lines of don’t call us we’ll call you.” Now we have the gall to say this about Myanmar when our government said the same thing to the hordes of people who were washed out of their homes. All the while Bush is playing a guitar with country singer Mark Willis. He then went back to Crawford for another night of vacationing.

While people were sitting in the streets with no food or water our government officials were patting themselves on the back. Remember “you doing a heck of a job Brownie.” Bush congratulates Michael Brown for doing nothing during the catastrophe. In fact not only was he doing nothing after he was warned by FEMA staff that people were dying in the Superdome his press secretary wrote to colleagues complaining that he needed more time scheduled to eat at a restaurant. Michael Chertoff actually said that “he was extremely pleased with the response” or lack there of.

Now we are crying foul at the Myanmar government because they haven’t acted fast enough or in a fashion that pleases us, we still have people suffering from Katrina. Living in formaldehyde laden trailers, being asked to return thousands of dollars in aid they received and living on the street due to the lack of jobs and housing. And still to this day displaced because they (government/big business) decided that the land those poor people lived on is way too valuable to be given back to them and must be handed over to big time developers who can earn a pretty penny.

Our response to our own disasters has been so disastrous that I can’t believe that anyone in this country would have the nerve to point the finger anywhere except inward. But I guess our collective memory is so short or the propaganda that we are drinking is so strong that people actually look back at Katrina and see a quick and complete response. They will look back and see that people were treated with dignity and served completely by their government who acted with the utmost concern for the peoples basic and extended needs. No, we would never give a response such as the one from Myanmar’s military junta.

This is just one more opportunity for our government to force our “services” on a country that didn’t ask for it. Yet when thousands of people in our own country need our “services” all you hear are crickets chirping at least for the first five days. When will we decide that it would be in our best interest if our government actually pretended to care about us the way they pretend to care about the people in countries whose governments we don’t like?

Philly Cops Kicking Up Some Fun

As I watched that all too often tragedies play out in Philadelphia. I was wondering if those guys in blue who were bum rushing those three black guys pulling them out of the car and kicking, hitting and just wantonly beating them were the gang called the crips or that other gang in blue the cops. This is becoming more common than any of us in the black community should be comfortable with. We need to start fixing THIS gang violence which is permeating the black neighborhoods.

With this new beating of course come the stupid comments from those in the dominant community and those fools that love them. It never fails that as soon as a blatantly obvious and grievous wrong is committed on someone from the black race you get a plethora of fools out here who will agree upon one thought; that no matter how wild or out of control the cops that kill or maim that it is somehow the blacks fault.

As I watched the video a lot of people started commenting and here is a few of the things that I read. “this is why we should give our cops RPG’s, just blow the car up and do us all a favor and save us the money of putting them though a trial.. lol” “If they are being pursued by the police, they HOW ARE THEY INNOCENT?!?!?!” “good…fuck those ignorant ass black boys…who cares….they deserve it for what they did…and the others that got away deserve what is coming to them…always gotta ruin this country….” It is a simple matter of support, which was a big theme over at the Brotherpeacemaker recently.

Those ignorant freak’s know damn well that these cops are as guilty as sin. So if blacks can be beaten within inches of their lives then why is that we should care when someone takes that attitude and blows one of their members to the after life? They claim that they were under so much stress due to the fact that a cop had recently been shot. Well maybe the person who shot the cop was under so much stress due to the outrageous number of blacks being beaten, shot, killed and maimed by the cops.

Even if these were the guys who killed the cop, does that now mean that they do not deserve a fair trial to render a verdict as to whether they are guilty or innocent? Is it now up to the cops to not only arrest but then decide upon innocence and then render justice as he or she sees fit? Somehow I am supposed to care when a cop is killed or somehow maligned yet not care when a person of the black race is killed or maligned. I am sorry but that cops life is in no way worth any more or any less than the life of any black person that they decide to dole their brand of justice on.

This is NOT the wild, wild, west where you were able to pull out your “six shooter” and blast a person away if they wronged you or another person. It is interesting that people are fine with this behavior when it is aimed at blacks yet find it deplorable when it is aimed at whites. Just look at the comments when the cops were harassing (not abusing) Brett Darrow, 20 of Missouri. In case you don’t know the case a cop was threatening to arrest Darrow and invent charges in order to do so.

“This cop should spend years in prison for his systematic abuse of power.” “There should be studies done in regard to the sick minds of police.” “He should be fired AND prosecuted.” People had a lot of terrible things to say about the police in “this” situation. But when the situation involves a black person somehow now everyone has so much respect and adoration of the cops or they feel it necessary to talk of how the cops are under so much stress and how difficult their jobs are.

Well wasn’t this cop under so much stress as well, or are cops who deal with blacks the only ones under so much stress? These are the blatant disparities that I am constantly being told don’t exist. People in the black community need to wake up and start realizing that these cops are playing the same role as the lynch mobs of old.

What Makes Jeremiah Wright So Racist?

I watched Jeremiah Wright preach and answer questions at the Press Club and I am still waiting to hear all this hate speech that people are so offended by. I mean I didn’t once hear him call the girls on the Rutger’s University Soccer team a bunch of stringy haired hoes. While being questioned by the white moderator at the Press Club did he get indignant with her straightforward questions and call her a stupid ass cracker? I guess not but he did point out that the words spoken by him after 9/11 were not his own but the words of the Iraqi Ambassador who said them the day before. Yet, read any right wing or racist Blog out there and they seem to overlook that one and continue printing he is unpatriotic.

When has this man been a part of a dominant culture who consistently utilizes racial amnesia while disparities between the races runs amok. He isn’t a part of a dominant culture that has used a century of self perceived racial superiority to subjugate other races. He isn’t part of a dominant culture who consistently uses their racial preference to continue to mis-educate the black community specifically and the white community indirectly. He isn’t a part of a dominant culture who continue to use racial preference to keep the business sector a white dominated presence. He isn’t a part of the dominant culture who continuously uses racial divisiveness to keep pseudo-segregation alive and well in today’s world.

And he definitely isn’t a part of the dominant culture who consistently uses racial solidarity to rally behind racist who get caught spewing hate such as Don “Nappy headed ho” Imus, Michael “Nigger, nigger, nigger” Richardson, Dog Duane “Soulless niggers” Chapman, William “Abort all black babies” Bennett, Kelly “Tiger should be lynched in an alley” Tilgham, Wolf “They’re so black and so poor” Blitzer, Bill “Where’s my M-Fing ice tea” O’Reilley, Tony “Tar Baby” Snow, George “Macaca” Allen, Geraldine “Only because your a black man” Ferraro, Joe “He’s so articulate” Biden, Ron “95% of black men are criminals” Paul, John “White’s need a baby boom to combat browning of the homeland” Gibson, James “Blacks are unintelligent” Watson, Rush “Chocolate chip” Limbaugh, Lou “Cotton Picking” Dobbs, and Bill “Next Obama will say he never stole cars” Clinton.

All these people, mostly white, will sit and chew this man apart with words such as he is a “stone racist”, “bigoted, hateful, a buffoon, an ignorant fool, and last (but not least) a heretic. These were taken right off of the Blogs that seem to be so full of them selves. Yet these are the same people who will say to give Dog the bounty hunter the benefit of the doubt, or that Don Imus got his racist rant from the blacks he was slandering. So then how about we just all say give Jeremiah the benefit of the doubt and that he only got his so called racist rant from white people. Like Wright said, “You cannot do terrorism on other people and expect it never to come back on you.” So now look whose chickens are coming home to roost!

I have yet to read these people Blog about hmmm let’s say Pat Buchanan, or Pat Robertson or any of the bigoted racists who call the right wing home. In fact not only are these people not talked about or Blogged about much they are given a platform to spew their stupidity constantly. I can see Pat “dumb ass” Buchanan on CNN, MSNBC or Fox Crap oops I mean News. These so called Reverends are continuously talked about as if they don’t matter in the big scheme of things or that they somehow don’t speak for the majority of whites so lets just ignore them. I actually read a post where the Blogger asked “when are blacks going to denounce people like Jeremiah Wright.” Well when the hell are white people going to denounce the plethora of racist that are running roughshod over this country?

How many white people denounced Pat Buchanan for his outrageous paper where he slanders blacks. Yet, blacks should denounce Wright. I still have not seen any of these Blogs actually answer the question of what is so racist about his words. Is it the fact that he is putting the stinky crap that white people have done up to their noses like a puppy who did a no, no? Or, is it the way he is unashamedly straightforward without beating around the bush, like a lot of our so called racial speakers, and actually addresses white America without the “I don’t mean you good white folk” talk.

What makes this man such a big a racist in most white people’s eyes is he tells it like it is about all the crap you pretend that you don’t see, like white on black racism. He is an out of control Negro. Let’s think about some of the things he says, like blacks and whites see religion differently. Is this a lie? Hell no, blacks and whites see the WORLD differently. That is why white people will say that Dog the bounty hunter isn’t a racist after calling his sons black girlfriend a Nigger.

Yet, white people have brandished a man who has NOT uttered one derogatory name towards the white community as one. How about whites in the past wore church robes on Sunday and KKK robes on Monday. Is that a lie? I think you would be a fool if you said yes. White people (even those good church goers) were burning black folk’s houses to the ground in their white sheets constantly. I know that this is hurtful to think of your ancestors this way, but sometimes the truth hurts.

It isn’t that Jeremiah Wright is a bigot or a racist to white people. He is a threat. God forbid black people actually wake up and “listen” to that man. Then they would all want the inequality to stop and we can’t have that. Where would we be without white privilege? Oh, I forgot, white privilege doesn’t exist. At least that is what I am constantly told by some of my readers. Anyhow, what makes a person a racist or bigot? Actually doing something that inflicts harm on a person of another race? Like hanging nooses or calling names and doing your best to insult them just because they are from another race? How about advocating someone’s lynching. Or is it pointing out the fallacies, hypocrisies and inequalities in the lives of Americans? Yes, I think that last one hit the nail on the head.

McCain Bigots Of A Feather Flock Together

You know what they say that bigots of a feather flock together. As I see it one bigot garnering support from another is not a big surprise. What is a big surprise is that somehow Jeremiah Wright is the only pastor that people can see fit to talk about. Just like McCain said, he could look past Hagee’s bigoted comments because “when we were doing the No Surrender tour, he came and spoke on behalf of not surrendering in Iraq.” So it is OK to have bigots in your camp as long as you repudiate their statements and they agree that we should continue this sham of a war in Iraq.

It’s funny that as he tries to distance himself he gets pulled right back in by his own stupid comments. He just recently said that sure he repudiates what Hagee says but that doesn’t mean he shouldn’t keep the guys support. I can just see McCain saying – Oh, Hagee I wish I knew how to quit you!

Every time you turn around McCain is being forced to repudiate some bigot’s comments. Let’s see we have John “Gays caused Hurricane Katrina” Hagee, Jerry “the Teletubbies are gay” Falwell, Pat “Let’s assassinate Hugo Chavez” Robertson and Rod “America was founded to destroy Islam” Parsley (and to think that McCain calls this nut his spiritual advisor, it’s no wonder he wants to stay in Iraq for over 100 years). And surely more will pop up later.

Yet you have people saying that Jeremiah Wright is the worse racist, bigot or whatever. It doesn’t matter since we all know that it is far worse in this country to talk about race than it is to spout that the Catholic Church is a bastard religion or that America was founded for the sole purpose of destroying Islam. Teletubbies are polluting our children’s minds with gay images. How about that America should assassinate a president from another country because “hey, Pat doesn’t like him.” I mean how could you not see the logic in that?

McCain just recently went down to New Orleans to stump by telling the people that they deserved more than what they got. And exactly where were you when this was going on in the first place? What did you say about this travesty when it was happening at the time? Did he step up to say that the Bush administration was wrong or way off in their handling of the catastrophe?

Nope he did not say nor do a thing. He was too busy blindly supporting any and everything the president and his lackey cronies did. He did the same thing in Memphis where he admitted that he made a mistake opposing MLK Jr. Day. Really, was it a mistake? And so what have you done to fulfill Kings Dreams since you fought so hard to deny the people of Arizona that day? What has he ever done with regards to any type of civil rights, anti discrimination or ending any disparity? Not a damn thing.

He then wants to say that Obama is an elitist and out of touch with the people. This from a man who sat on 60 minutes and when asked about a war that the people did NOT want said “I don’t care what the people want” “really I know better what this country needs.” How elitist is that. He knows better what to do for the people than what they want. The last time I checked the president of the United States was working FOR the American people. Not for his own interests.

Yet I guess since he seems to be using the Bush guide to being the worse president, I guess he would think that what he said was appropriate. Not to mention he wants me to believe that he is in the minds of working class America when he has been a benefactor of nepotism all his life? Not to mention his wife is estimated to be worth over 100 million dollars. That kind of money puts you out of touch with most millionaires let alone the working class. Give me a break.

I am sure that this man will do nothing for this country besides continuing the downward slide that Bush has put us in. And to think that there are Hillary supporters who would rather see HIM in office than Obama. Now I know that must be a nasty case of racism. Because you would have to be the biggest bigot or just have a deep seated hate for America and the American people to want that nut in office. Yet it has always been obvious that people in this country have a penchant for voting against their own interests.

This man embraces bigots although he repudiates what they say. He has a never had an inkling of anything in the way of interest in blacks or any other minority especially not the Vietnamese whom he endearingly refers to as “gooks”. Has no idea how bad the economy is, thinking that giving us an 18 cent gas break is going to fix things. Does this strike anyone else as a call to let them eat cake? It seems to me that McCain is one bigot that seems to be flying under the media radar.

Naming Racism

Is it just me being angry right now or are people so freaking racist that they don’t even see the racist bull that they spew for themselves. I just had the displeasure of reading a Blog which was asking if the words listed were names of black women or names of diseases. Then when you call them on that blatant racist bull crap they will swear it was just a joke or how they were just poking fun at racism.

It isn’t funny to be racist in an attempt to show how funny racism is. Didn’t we have enough of the name game when our ancestors were dragged here in shackles and forced to take some jackass name thought up by some ignorant racist. I bet you none of the people in the picture above had a name that was reminiscent of the old country they hailed from.

This person and the stupid people commenting will undoubtedly say something such as this is why people are racist because those names just scream black girl. And whatever happened to people having the right to name their child whatever fit into THEIR racial background. Or is the only acceptable way to name a child is with the names provided by the white race? I personally will never name ANY of my children Charles or Amy. So now that I find those names unacceptable should my children be relegated to racism since white people such as that Blogger doesn’t like it?

This is just more proof that racism in the form of forced assimilation is being thrust down the throats of all non white people. We are not only now being subjected to racism we are being racially profiled based on our names. This is one more reason to believe that racism is alive and well just masquerading behind seemingly benign situations.

A recent study from the National Bureau of Economic Research concluded that a person with a distinctly African-American sounding name was almost 50% less likely to receive a job interview than a person with a more “traditional” name. This is the pathetic problems people have to deal with all the while people will explain that blacks are just not getting the job due to more qualified white people. So if by qualified they mean white sounding name then I guess they were right.

It seems to me that white people are getting racism down to a fine science. No longer are the days of getting a black person in the office to turn them down that is no only necessary when some uppity black actually gets smart and names their kid Justin Todd, then they will have to discount her during the interview. Of course this is OK since employers should have the right to hire whatever names sound good to them. At least this is the sentiment from a lot of the comments I get. That when a company is primarily white it is OK since the company should be able to hire whoever they feel like hiring.

Then you get the Uncle Cosby’s of the black world who feel that this is exactly what black people’s problems are. They would be getting jobs and educations if they would stop naming their kids Shaniqua and Kareem. This is just more line towing by blacks who feel that it is better to give in to the dominant culture than to maintain ones cultural heritage whether that encompasses names such as Shaniqua or Kareem.

Yet Bill says nothing about white people who name their kids crazy names such as Jet, Apple, Oceana, Kroy, Shaw, Riker, Lorelai, Brig, Kiana, Levi, Josta, Crispen, Cade, Lakelann, Tucker Zesa, Xchyler (skyler), Jayley, Keene, Shellbee, Daylen, Persaeus, Carson, Megli, Bravyck and Vida. All these stupid names were taken directly from a site called unique baby names. Except Apple and Jet who are well known celebrities kids names. Somehow white people naming their children something out of the ordinary for them has no drawbacks and doesn’t seem to affect ones ability to land that job interview and inevitably the job. So why do we tolerate being told that our names are just too silly not to be a joke?

Affirmative Action Hurts People

Many states right now are repealing their affirmative action laws under the interesting names on ballots such as the “civil rights initiative” in Michigan. People stated that they voted for these initiatives because they wanted to end preferential treatment laws. I agree with ending preferential treatment as much as the next guy but am wondering why there is no initiatives to end white affirmative action.

It is funny that when talking about preferential treatment we constantly look at affirmative action as if it is the quintessential poster child for preferential treatment. If affirmative action resulted in minorities getting so much preference then how is it that white people are disproportionately over represented in all aspects of life? Of course white people are the majority and will be the majority in almost all situations take employment as an example. According to the U.S. census unemployment for blacks is more than double that for whites.

Why are these blacks not in jobs since they have such great preferential treatment? Shouldn’t the majority of blacks be employed since with the preferential treatment they would have first pick of all jobs they applied for? Yet, of course blacks are the most unemployed group in the nation all the while being perceived as the beneficiary of some phantom preference which seems not to work very well. But one preferential treatment that seems to work every time and hasn’t ever been questioned nor had its own initiative on any ballot is white affirmative action.

Of course even approaching white affirmative action will net you an earful of insults as many white people as well as black will slither out of the woodwork to contest that this even exists. If it doesn’t exist then I guess they will be able to explain why whites are so prevalently over represented in most areas of life. I know that they will undoubtedly spew the same old rhetoric of “well blacks don’t have the education to compete”, “blacks don’t want to work” and “blacks just need to go to school.” Yet the people who ARE applying for these jobs ARE qualified, do have educations and experience.

It is funny that a lot of the people backing the repeal of affirmative action such as Ward Connerly who seems to have made it his mission to make sure the laws are repealed in every state. Connerly and others have said that affirmative action hurts minorities because it tells them that “we know you can’t make it so we will enact laws to do it for you.” Now the problem I see is that affirmative action doesn’t tell people they can’t make it, in fact it is the same old discrimination when they are the most qualified and still get passed over that tells them they can’t make it. How about we have a look at that practice?

According to the most recent reports, the states which have repealed affirmative action, have seen some of the lowest numbers of minorities getting a higher education and in professional employment since segregation. If affirmative action holds minorities back why then aren’t they succeeding at break neck speeds now that it has been repealed in those states. How come businesses in those states are becoming increasingly whiter? Is this an accident? Somehow the companies and colleges don’t understand that the repeal of affirmative action was because they (the schools and businesses) were going to bring blacks in without being told they had to? Well obviously they didn’t get that memo.

It seems that people are assuming that we need nothing in the realm of affirmative action at least for minorities anymore because people are NOT being discriminated against. And even if they are, that is not the reason for their lack of education or employment. Somehow the disparity that we have blazing brightly like a house burning out of control doesn’t matter.

Let’s pretend that everything is equal and that these disparities don’t exist because hey they aren’t burning down the house of the dominant culture so it doesn’t matter to America. When the burning house of the minorities who are being left out of the arenas of education and employment ignites the house of white America I guess we will see some change and probably not for the better. The affirmative action that hurts people have not been repealed, changed or looked at, instead they have ensured that it will continue unabated all the while repealing blacks from having any fighting chance in this race biased nation.

Hillary Thinks We’re Stupid

I can’t believe that I actually was considering voting for Hillary Clinton. I was a big supporter in the beginning. But now I see that she is a true elitist. She clings to this phony outrage that Obama is one. But the only one I see who actually has the audacity to think that I and anyone else in this country are too stupid to be able to think for his or her selves is her right now.

She is constantly “interpreting” what Obama says. He called you bitter. He thinks you’re typical. On and on she goes. I am so disgusted with her that I would be hard pressed to vote for her if she did win the nomination. I damn sure wouldn’t vote for McCain since I have always found him to be an idiot even back when he ran the first time. But back to Hillary, she is disgusting in her attempts to do any and everything to win. Even make an issue where one is nowhere to be found.

And Bill is just as bad. The black community actually looked at this man and called him the first black president. Why, I don’t know, but they did. He is saying some things that sound awfully racist. In fact both these Clintons are doing their best to keep the issue of race running throughout this campaign and it is horrible. If you can’t win on your own merit, then you shouldn’t bother to run at all.

Obama could have ridden that “we were under sniper fire” LIE all the way to the bank or at least to the nomination. But he didn’t and that speaks volumes for his character. But, what does this outright lying say about her? How about the fact that she smiles and talks lovingly about how her grandpa taught her to shoot a gun behind the old shed, she should have added that ever since then she has been lobbying against gun ownership?  But I guess the people don’t need to hear that little tidbit.

Obama isn’t the perfect candidate by no means.  Like I said I was all set to support Hillary.  But her nasty, snide, better than thou attitude sent me running. I don’t generally like to talk about politics unless it is race driven and this is turning out to be a race full of racists. She is, to me, turning this primary into something despicable and disturbing. How can we trust a candidate who insists on doing every underhanded thing possible to win? I personally don’t want a candidate that has this win at all costs attitude. I need to be able to respect you in the end and that is the bottom line for me.

The More Racism Changes The More It Stays The Same

The dominant community as well as a lot of self appointed voices of the black community is constantly accusing blacks who cry racism of living in the past. That black people have transcended racism and are now victims of their own deplorable culture as well as just plain old laziness. And somehow we are looking into the past and using this as an excuse as a reason for our lack of jobs, healthcare, wealth and our over representation in the prison system.

The fallacy that we hear constantly out of people such as Bill Cosby, John McWhorter, Shelby Steele and many in the dominant culture is that blacks are falling behind because blacks don’t want to do better. We just need to pick ourselves up by our bootstraps and we would be doing fine. Basically blacks lack jobs and wealth because they won’t embrace the values of the dominant culture.

Frederick L. Hoffman who was working for Prudential Insurance Company in 1896 compiled a bunch of information about why blacks couldn’t be insured in response to a wave of state legislation banning discrimination against blacks. According to Megan J Wolff, MPH who wrote a report for the government noted that “Hoffman, a German immigrant, was one of the leading statisticians of his time and also a strong proponent of racial hierarchy and white supremacy.”

He used data from the census to show that since being freed blacks were doing far worse than whites on all fronts. And that the problem was NOT due to racism, he argued strongly that it was all due to “race traits and tendencies.” Somehow blacks weren’t being adversely affected by racism, that as soon as they were freed from slavery somehow the playing field was even. And that black people were now able to compete with whites for any and everything that they needed in life.

Then soon after this report Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896 segregation was enacted. Supposedly blacks and whites would receive the same services of schools, hospitals and bathrooms, etc.  That each would use independent of the other. But what of course happened was that the services and the facilities reserved for blacks were always lower in quality or value than those reserved for whites. At the time schools for blacks received significantly less public funding per student than white schools.

And looking at “white flight” and the demographic of today’s society we have De facto segregation one that persists to varying levels without the endorsement of law to this present day. The present-day racial segregation seen in America in our residential neighborhoods has been formed by public policies such as housing, mortgage discrimination and redlining which is the practice of arbitrarily denying or limiting financial services to specific neighborhoods, generally because its residents are people of color or are poor.

G Stanley Hall described Africans, Indians, and Chinese as members of “adolescent races” in a stage of incomplete growth.” He also instructed black people to stop sympathizing “with their own criminals” and “accept without whining patheticism and corroding self-pity [their] present situation, prejudice and all.” I am sure that this sounds familiar as we hear this out of many mouths on a constant basis when anything racial ailing blacks finds its way to the mainstream media. In fact didn’t Pat Buchanan just write an article telling blacks that they need to thank god everyday for being in America? Stop our whining about how terrible racism is and look at how terrible white people have it just having to deal with us and our criminality, illegitimate children and bleak outlook for the future.

How about we do look at the past and while we are at it why don’t we look at the conditions of today in comparison. We see that the Cosby’s, McWhorter’s and Steele’s’ are telling us the same old Hoffman bull about blacks being the ONLY cause of their problems regardless if racism exists or not. Black inner city schools and neighborhoods failings aren’t due to the fact that they receive far less tax dollars than white communities just like segregation, but due to the laziness and stupidity of the black community.

Blacks not getting jobs or adequate healthcare are totally due to black inferiority in the job market not the fact that the dominant culture has been and is acquiescent in the discrimination that continues the disparity. Blacks’ over representation in the justice system is due to their ill culture and criminality not that they are being kept from resources given the white community that greatly diminishes the root cause of criminality.

Continuing to pretend that looking at the past is the root cause to all of our current racial woes has done nothing more than ensure the continuation of those racial woes. We are living the past continuously as in that movie Groundhog Day. Every day we wake up we are subjected to a barrage of racist propaganda used originally to ensure that blacks would NOT have access to the same resources afforded the white community. And no one can deny that we still don’t have access to the same resources afforded the white community today. We are still subjected to finger pointing, racist science, De facto segregation which is still separate and not even close to equal.

America’s Collective Amnesia

Our collective amnesia in this country is pathetic. People want to look at Dr. King and call him a hero or a prophet and any other number of great names. I agree that he was all that. But the problem I am having is that according to white America in the years up to his death he was considered public enemy number one. He was called an uppity Negro or other N word. Yet now everyone is on the bandwagon about how great he was. If this is the case then where were you people when he was alive? In fact what are you doing today to make his dream of freedom, equality and end of poverty true for all people in this country? The answer is not a damn thing.

You have idiots like John McCain who comes to Memphis and apologizes that he actually opposed an MLK holiday in Arizona and how he finally gets it. Yep, right, I believe that he gets it. A person who has done exactly what to realize not one of MLK’s dreams now wants me to believe that they somehow get it. His family fought on the side of the confederacy and I know that his family was probably big time racists as it was natural at the time and I am going to believe that his family didn’t hand down any of that racist venom to him. Not only are they all trying to tell me that Obama’s preacher has so much power over him and is obviously shaping his views to this day. So wouldn’t it then be fair to say that McCain’s racist family tree is shaping his views and thoughts as well. Let’s not be hypocritical.

They are chronicling the words and memories of people close to King at the time of his death such as Jesse Jackson, Clarence Jones . My question for these fellows is what have you been doing to further the movement MLK started? How much have they accomplished or did they sell a bunch of books or did they just sell out period. All these people claim that they are keeping the dream alive. What dream is this exactly? Because I have not seen very much movement in erasing racism, discrimination, equality or erasing poverty in not only the black community but ALL communities. Yet they are all working towards his dream when in fact I think that they are all just dreaming. They divided the black community and everyone is looking at their own agenda.

Bill Clinton says that we are making great strides. What the hell does that mean? MLK and the rest of civil rights movement people made great strides. Through the peaceful campaign starting in 1953 to 1968 they got not only black voting rights but desegregation and the promise of equality. So what great strides have we made since then that he is talking about? The fact that blacks were being disenfranchised in presidential votes even today, that blacks are still on the bottom of the socio-economic scale, that black communities are still poor, that blacks are still being denied jobs based on race, that the justice system is still biased and still having the short end of the stick when it comes to healthcare. These are just some of the problems that I guess Clinton overlooked when he said that we were doing OK with respect to MLK’s dreams.

The problem is that you can’t come from a position of privilege and status then turn around and tell a community of people affected whether or not they are getting closer to the goals their leader spoke of. We as black people need to stop getting so happy just to have the company of these privileged politicians who only come barreling into town when they want to make some good press. We need to get over the fact that they showed up. What counts is that they show up when it’s time to make changes to the status quo. And so far not one after LBJ showed up for that and he only did it out of serious necessity. We get so happy that someone, anyone in a position of power actually decides to bother to have anything to do with us we start to act like it means something when in fact it means just as much as the talk we have heard year after year, presidential campaign after presidential campaign.

“I am here to make sure that you in the black community get a fair shake….” These are the things that they say but the fact is what they show us once they have our vote is basically the back of their hands as they slap us back into our place while they continue to strengthen the status quo. We need to understand that the only ones who are serious about our equality, about the state of our black community and the state of our health care is no one other than ourselves.

The Teachings Of Dr. King

It seems that all the new posts today about Martin Luther King Jr. everyone is mentioning things such as he had a dream and what that dream was, that he preached non violence and that peaceful protest was the way to get the job done. But did any of these people know that he also said that “I”ve come to the realization that I think we may be integrating into a burning house.” MLK had more to say about race relations than turn the other cheek or black and white children holding hands in the future. Yet you never hear the topics of those sermons or discussions as people try to paint this one sided picture of that great man.

How about this passage “Despite new laws, little has changed…The Negro is still the poorest American — walled in by color and poverty. The law pronounces him equal — abstractly — but his conditions of life are still far from equal.” — “Negroes Are Not Moving Too Fast”, 1964 (p. 176-177).” Who will dare say that these words which are being said by many blacks today are words of a defeatist? Every time someone dares to say that blacks are still on the bottom in spite of laws claiming we are equal people automatically point their self righteous finger, whites and blacks, saying that these are the words of a victim mentality.

“Something positive must be done… In 1863 the Negro was told that he was free as a result of the Emancipation Proclamation. But he was not given any land to make that freedom meaningful. And the irony of it all is that at the same time the nation failed to do anything for the black man — through an act of Congress it was giving away millions of acres of land in the West and Midwest — which meant that it was willing to undergird its white peasants from Europe with an economic floor…Not only that, it provided agents to further their expertise in farming. Not only that, as the years unfolded it provided low interest rates so that they could mechanize their farms. And to this day thousands of these very persons are receiving millions of dollars in federal subsidies every year not to farm.”

“And these are so often the very people who tell Negroes that they must lift themselves by their own bootstraps...”

“We must come to see that the roots of racism are very deep in our country, and there must be something positive and massive in order to get rid of all the effects of racism and the tragedies of racial injustice.” — “Remaining Awake,” 1968 (271).”

Even Dr. King was disgusted with white people having the nerve to tell blacks to pull themselves up by their bootstraps all the while they are getting government and other types of handouts. The same type of handouts that they cry we are the sole beneficiaries of. And yet today you people such as Pat Buchanan who says that blacks have received all this reparation through programs such as welfare and food stamps when we know that whites are the majority beneficiary of all government programs even affirmative action is dominated by white women according to government census.

“White Americans must recognize that justice for black people cannot be achieved without radical changes in the structure of our society. The comfortable, entrenched, the privileged cannot continue to tremble at the prospect of change of the status quo…This is a multi-racial nation where all groups are dependent on each other…There is no separate white path to power and fulfillment, short of social disaster, that does not share power with black aspirations for freedom and human dignity.” — Where Do We go From Here, 1967 (58

“The problem of race remains America’s greatest moral dilemma. When one considers the impact it has upon the nation, its resolution might well determine our destiny. ..The price that America must pay for the continued oppression of the Negro is the price of its own destruction.” — “Ethical Demands of Integration,” 1963 (p.117).”

He talked about it then we are still talking about it today, White Privilege and the status quo which needs to be ended. Yet, let people today tell you, white privilege is a myth and there is no such thing as the status quo; those are the ramblings of a black racist who would like to see blacks in control. At least this is what I hear in comments that I receive.

Funny that he talks about the price that AMERICA must pay for its continued oppression of the black community. And to this day that oppression continues through the white privilege and status quo that he was talking about years ago. The only thing that people now have to offer up from Dr. King is fluffy words of love and acceptance. Yet these words of substance and confrontation are left to the wayside unless we all actually open our eyes to the impact that he and those of us who have our eyes open see that this blatant racist activity has on our society, destiny and lives.