It is the 4^th of July and considered the birth of our nation. So does this then mean that this is also the death of the Native American nation? I always wonder what exactly about this day do I or other blacks have to celebrate. We weren’t even considered full human beings on this day in 1776. In fact most of the celebrations that take place on this day are referred to as freedom festivals. While white people were celebrating their freedom they were hell bent on denying this same right to not only the blacks but the Native Americans from which this land was taken to begin with.

I must admit that my family use to celebrate with Bar B Q and a picnic and a ton of fireworks. But, the problem I have with this now is that my parents just like many other black Americans today, don’t think one bit about the holiday. What this holiday means or what it is all about. Now of course I will get the tired old comments about us all being American and that this is a celebration of our great country etc. Yet, how many of you can tell me what is so great about a time in history where my ancestors were undoubtedly considered non human beasts of burden by a bunch of racists. These racists gobbled up a nation from a once great people and wrote a declaration of independence speaking of freedoms that they wholeheartedly denied my people in no uncertain terms.

I am sure that this offends people, it should and it offends me that I am looked at as being unpatriotic because I dare to question the validity of this holiday for me and people like me. When in fact this holiday is not for me or other blacks and was never meant to be for us. At the time of our forefathers they would have guffawed and snorted had they been told that blacks would be participating in the festivities and not as servants. Frederick Douglass said about this day “This, for the purpose of this celebration, is the Fourth of July. It is the birth day of your National Independence, and of your political freedom. This, to you, as what the Passover was to the emancipated people of God. It carries your minds back to the day, and to the act of your great deliverance; and to the signs, and to the wonders, associated with that act, and that day.”

And I will leave you with Douglass’s words on what the 4^th of July is to a nation of slaves. “What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July? I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sounds of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants, brass fronted impudence; your shouts of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanksgivings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are, to Him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy-a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.”

Hopefully you will all think on these words and ask yourself what does this day mean to the descendants of slaves.

As I watch a bunch of Hillary supporters on CNN talk about how they are definitely going to vote for McCain over Obama I start to wonder how much of their attitude is due to racism vs. the feminism that they were claiming. I can understand being a feminist and wanting Hillary over Obama. And I can even understand the thinking that Obama in some way used sexism in his campaign which would upset us all. The thing I can’t understand is how you make a leap from Hillary to McCain.

See here is my thinking. Hillary and Obama are pretty dead on in their policies they both are pro-choice the feminists stance on abortion. Now we look at McCain and Hillary and we see that they are at dead opposites on almost everything. Not to mention McCain doesn’t think that women are smart enough to be able to make decisions regarding their bodies. So how does one make the leap to McCain if Hillary was their choice? I keep hearing that it is based on experience. And that in itself is laughable and a bit contrived.

Is someone going to tell me that they are going hire someone who has experience yet brings nothing that we agree with to the table over someone who has less experience but has all the qualities we need in an employee? Now if someone is saying yes then they are a person who will cut off their nose to spite their face, because that makes no sense whatsoever. Which brings me to the only other thing that McCain has in common with Hillary and that is being white.

I already know that one of the biggest Hillary supporters who happen to now be trying to stump for McCain is a lady who worked her hardest to keep the black descendants of Thomas Jefferson out of the family tree club. And if that isn’t based on race then I don’t know what it is. So it isn’t a big jump to see that she is definitely basing her support on whoever is the white candidate. Yet, so many people are trying to make every excuse in the world for these people. I have heard news and pundits chalk this up to nothing more than anger and payback for Hillary not making the cut.

So these people couldn’t be that incensed with the Bush policies since they seem to be asking for more. Not to mention that as soon as McCain were to get into office and screw us for four more years with his Bush quality policies these will be the same complainers who will act as if they don’t know why this is happening. This is nothing more than blatant racism. We should stop trying to beat around the bush and sugar coat what these bigots are doing. They say that there is nothing that he can do to win their vote. How can that be, since even their former candidate is supporting the man. I guess she wasn’t all that influential with them after all.

So, my question to all of you is, are these people bigots or bitter?

I am getting so sick of the self centered comments that come with talking about race. The first thing that happens when you talk about race is that a lot of white people will inevitably come back with a “but if it happened to a white person…” These comments are just moot since the disparities that I am speaking of don’t happen to whites at least not at the proportion that it happens to blacks. I am sure that problems exist on both sides of the fence. Whites are passed over for jobs, get bad service, hear derogatory names, get pulled over by police and even get shot by the police.

The problem is that blacks are unemployed at twice the rate of whites, businesses are underrepresented with blacks, bad service usually comes with a racial tag, the derogatory names that blacks have to endure were used to subjugate blacks plus injure to a degree that most names a white person is called could ever do, blacks are pulled over continuously for being seen with those black faces, sure whites get shot but blacks get shot far more and in numbers that would put a blush on the face of any self respecting hit man. With the number of bullets put into blacks the cops could shoot up a whole city of white people.

I see that Oregon has decided to add a book about their racist past to the school curriculum. And of course there are white people already up in arms to ask why we have to hear about this. Why don’t we get to hear about all the whites who lost their lives to help civil rights move forward. See this is my point. You can’t have a discussion about anything that shows white people in a bad light without those insecure folks who just HAVE to have some mention of how great white people are. Is it that hard to hear about the terrible things that your race has done? Is it that hard to acknowledge a wrong without throwing in all the good that has been done?

Blacks have to constantly sit and endure the pointing fingers of imputation from not only whites but other blacks as well. The constant barrage of how we need to take responsibility for whatever ails the black community that week. Yet those pointing the finger the hardest are those who have the worst time taking responsibility for the actions of their forefathers and their own community at large. The minute you start looking into how the other half lives it is reverse discrimination and you are a racist. I don’t see one reason why Oregon shouldn’t explore its racist past, present and future. From what I am reading from these people writing about it, it sounds like there is no racism in Oregon. And I know for a fact that this is a blatant lie. No matter how progressive a community feels that they are, racism rears its ugly head here and there with those progressives leading the way.

Maybe if we stop pretending that racism is dead and buried and begin to pt it out in the open it can be dealt with. But of course the dominant course of action seems to be the three d’s, disregard, divert and dilute. Which is what I keep hearing from those that feel to acknowledge anything is race baiting. This is also what I hear a lot. First they disregard and comment on how blacks aren’t the only race to be wronged in the past. Then they want to divert your attention from the wrong doing by accusing the informer of some phony ill such as reverse racism or asking if blacks ever participated in whatever wrong you are discussing. Then of course they dilute the atrocity by throwing out some asinine statement about how many people died in correlation to the ill being spoken of.

You can hear these comments anytime you start speaking about any type of racial situation. I feel that calling them out on these facts will probably go nowhere. What can you do? How do we have a conversation about race when the conversation will undoubtedly always need to be had from a place where no blame should ever be placed on anyone? You can not have a conversation about racist behavior in this country if you constantly have to coddle those benefiting from the racist behavior?

Gloucester High School is now dealing with a slew of baby mama drama. People are asking how these seventeen girls under seventeen could have made some idiotic pact to get pregnant together and raise their babies together. When anything in the black community happens such as teen pregnancy or drug usage or how about violence the first question that is asked is where the parents are. What kinds of parents are in Gloucester that they have NO idea that their children are out very well sleeping with 24 year old transients? I have yet to hear from Bill Cosby asking those parents to take responsibility or better yet for the whole white community to take responsibility for this group of blatantly idiotic white girls thinking that a baby will somehow make them happy.

They were saying stupid things such as they wanted the baby so they could feel loved. Well then I think any mother can safely say that those girls have not been around too many newborns or toddlers. Because you don’t really feel the love or at least you don’t have time to stop and feel the love. There are just too many dirty diapers, screaming tantrums, sleepless nights and many, many other issues to deal with. Regardless of all these facts a baby is one of the wonderful joys that life has to offer. Yet I don’t think that a bunch of unprepared young single mothers who don’t have a clue as to what they are getting into will be able to grasp this. Hell they couldn’t even grasp the idea of birth control or the fact that maybe those baby daddies didn’t want to hold that title.

Maybe these girls are idolizing Jaime Lynn Spears or maybe they just want to show solidarity with her. The idea of under age girls getting pregnant or even having unprotected sex should not be that far fetched. I mean don’t the people in that town watch television or movies where underage sex is all too common and in fact glorified. Don’t blame these girls, blame their parents. Why would these girls need to a baby to feel loved if they were getting what they needed from their parents? I mean these are the same parents who obviously didn’t pay enough attention to these girls that they were able to make a pact to get pregnant then complete their plan which probably didn’t happen all in one night.

I guess if there weren’t about twenty five or so girls at my sons school that were pregnant at this time I would think this news was extremely interesting. But I guess the fact that these girls are black and the school is in the inner city it is to be expected. In fact not only is it to be expected but it is just not interesting or a problem because that is what “those people” do, right? I guess it isn’t just what “those people” do anymore. I suppose it is now what all those kids do now. I wonder if this will prompt some sort of outcry and if it does will that same outcry for better education trickle down to the inner cities as well. My guess will be that it will be isolated to that one spot and the epidemic of teen pregnancies among the inner city youth will continue unabated.

]]> http://theblacksentinel.wordpress.com/2008/06/20/gloucesters-teen-baby-mama-drama/feed/ theblacksentinel http://theblacksentinel.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/media-white-wash/ http://theblacksentinel.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/media-white-wash/#comments Wed, 18 Jun 2008 20:10:41 +0000 theblacksentinel http://theblacksentinel.wordpress.com/?p=334

After a long and extremely painful back and forth conversation with a person named Rob on my post “White Bigots A Plenty”, I have learned a lot about this TVone not to mention how the term “black shows” is actually thought about. For one thing I found that the conversation strayed from the original discourse enough to make it irrelevant to my original post. We began our banter talking about the lack of diversity on the Discovery channel, where I asked for examples of the programming that was NOT white oriented. This meant that I wanted this person Rob to name the programs that are on this particular channel that have a majority black staff, writing content that is intended for black people without stereotypes and starring a black cast. We all know that went absolutely nowhere. In fact I did get a toss of an Asian who may or may not be a regular on Myth Busters.

So somehow instead of showing me what I asked for he most predictably started throwing out the usual well known “supposedly” black shows such as Everybody Hates Chris and others. Now unfortunately just because the show stars a jigaboo throwback who acts the likes of Rochester complete with bug eyes and surprise, surprise looks. We all know that this show has predominantly white writers regardless if it is a concoction from Chris Rock who we KNOW would never slight black people for a laugh. So I am seeing that it seems people feel black programming is just anything with a black person in it. So basically if a show has a black person no matter how stereotypical or benign the characters actions are. Which is really not very surprising, hell he even threw out BET as an example of black programming, much to the disgust of me and many other aware black people.

Now back to this TVone that I had to do some research on since I tried over and over to explain to this person that I do not receive that programming so can not consider it when looking at black programming. It doesn’t matter how black it is if it isn’t something that is able to be viewed. Anyway, this channel is supposedly something for blacks to take pride in and is touting itself as an alternative to BET. Unfortunately where BET caters to shows showing ghetto fabulous losers in all their glory this channel hearkens back to the plethora of pseudo black shows with white writers dealing with a stereotypical black doing something either funny or stupid. Some of the lineup includes shows such as Martin, Good Times, Amen and City of Angels. Now I am sure that to the sleepwalking black person or other typical people of any race this looks like it would be something great for blacks.

But really, I asked for black programming, not black reruns from the 70’s, 80’s and 90’s not to mention crap that is not even in production anymore. They have a couple of shows that has newer content that is written by blacks behind the scenes which he named personally. But they are talk, church and makeover shows. These hardly qualify as quality not to mention that the makeover show is hosted by a loud mouthed fat black lady hearkening back to Mo’Nique and any other stereotypical black chick with an attitude and loud mouth. It was the ladies of the movie B.A.P.S. given a platform for ultra stupidity. And yet this is pushed my way like so much hot rotten garbage that I guess someone thinks is just fine for me and my family to consume. While white people are being entertained by channels full of current programming that doesn’t play up or down to any particular stereotype that might be present in their community.

Where in the hell is our black version of Shark, Boston Legal, and Hannah Montana, Two and a half men, One tree hill or Heroes? I may not be in love with any of these shows, but at least the white population is inundated with an abundance of opportunities to see people who look like themselves acting in a myriad of roles from funny to ultra serious. They are given the chance to turn channels and watch the show Two and a half men which has not one minority in any type of recurrent role. How nice for them to be able to avoid any contact with a person of color. Yet Rob would have me and all of you believe that change is a coming because the ineffectual NAACP claims they are on the case. Sure, they said they were on the case of wage disparity and we see where that has gone. And it hasn’t gotten better, but has gotten even worse as of late. So I guess I won’t be holding my breath waiting for them to do whatever they did for wages in the entertainment industry. I guess I and others will have to be content with the white washing of the media.

This is in response to an idiotic reply to the post “Resistance Is Futile” by an idiot named S.C. Amos.

It is funny that you are so obviously in over your head that you have to resort to silly name calling and silly scenarios. It is interesting that you call attention to the Jewish holocaust and WWII. No one said that the Black slavery holocaust was the only time in history when someone was maligned or enslaved. That was not the intent of the Blog. It seems to be talking about something specific. Do you go to Jewish Blogs on the holocaust and then tout how they shouldn’t speak of it since there were blacks in slavery and others maligned? Of course you don’t!

You obviously seem to think that Brotherpeacemaker is failing in life and doing poorly, but why? Is it because he chooses to speak freely and openly about the maligning of the black community TODAY! Or is this because it is in yours and everyone else’s experience that when blacks start doing well, they no longer talk of the disparity between blacks and whites. But start singing the praises of “whitey”.

The problem is that you suffer from the same bigotry that is being employed that keeps blacks from having a piece of the American dream. You feel that blacks are whining and doing poorly not because there are people who see them as inferior but because they ARE inferior. That is the thinking that makes white privilege even more Machiavellian than slavery. Subjugation of blacks didn’t just up and end after the passing of the civil rights initiative. Just as racism didn’t end because according to you “Lincoln must’ve been hung over that morning” he freed the slaves.

Why don’t you address what is happening to blacks today, not yesterday? Blacks are doing soooo well that we can see corporate America is sorely lacking in black representation. But then I guess according to you they are too happy living in their run down shacks entertaining little white boys or girls to care about making a better life. No blacks are too busy waiting for a hand out not applying for jobs only to be turned away by “whitey” or whatever you deem to call your race of people.

Isn’t it interesting that you have NO job, NO health care, are sick practically to the point of disability but you still hire a lawyer to beg for that handout that obviously you DON’T deserve. Where are you getting the money for that lawyer? Anyway, is the reason why you are leveling all the nappy headed insults and comments towards blacks because YOU are the one who is a failure. With all that white privilege you were to lame to make something of yourself. You flubbed to many of those free handouts that were no doubt thrown your way in the form of employment opportunities when you were probably NOT the best candidate.

I guess white people who run this country and others never went into black inhabited and Middle Eastern countries and played their own form of monopoly. Carving up the country in ways that it was never meant to be. Making countries where none existed before. They were ruling over these places subjugating the people all the while sucking out the natural resources then leaving them in a shambles. And now you want to point the finger at generations of people who were damaged and say “why don’t you run your country better?” As if all it takes is to one day say, go free! And BAM! Those people are able to catch up and do right the moment they are in charge. Give me a break.

Maybe you should rethink NO, JUST THINK, period!! How come they didn’t go into these countries and rebuild, where is their rebuilding like what happened in Europe after WWII? You are a serious joke! No one cared enough to even ensure that those people had a fighting chance. You and people like you are so quick to point the finger but hate to have that same waiving appendage pointing at you. You my friend belong to a race of people that has fucked over almost each and every nation on earth. And now you want to sit and say things such as “why doesn’t the Native American stop crying foul and get a job, why don’t blacks stop whining and get an education, why doesn’t the African stop acting foolish and learn to run their countries.”

Yet, the Native American was practically decimated by who, the black man is discriminated against TO THIS DAY by who, the African learned their methods of ruling and were placed in power by who? Who are these phantoms that run amok and then act like the innocent bystander with their hands in the air crying “hey stop blaming whitey?” Why don’t YOU stop telling us blacks that we need to take responsibility for our culture, which we ARE and start taking responsibility for YOUR OWN! Which from what I can see you never have! Someone says slavery and white people like you say, “Hey look at the holocaust or African’s had slaves too.” What happened to “yes what white people did was a horrible thing and there is NO excuse for it.”

Someone says discrimination, white people like you say, “discrimination is over, hey look over there isn’t that Oprah and her millions? See there is no discrimination because there are some black millionaires.” In fact the disparity between blacks and whites monetarily has not been greater since slavery. Discrimination isn’t waning it seems to be growing and people are trying to delude themselves into believing that it isn’t. Maybe we should look at idiots like you S.C. and say, “look over there, white people have jobs and health care. So you S.C. Amos couldn’t be suffering without health care or employment.

Get a clue!

]]> http://theblacksentinel.wordpress.com/2008/06/15/how-stupid-can-one-person-be/feed/ theblacksentinel http://theblacksentinel.wordpress.com/2008/05/30/how-is-pfleger-connected-to-obama/ http://theblacksentinel.wordpress.com/2008/05/30/how-is-pfleger-connected-to-obama/#comments Fri, 30 May 2008 14:52:57 +0000 theblacksentinel http://theblacksentinel.wordpress.com/?p=329

I know that everyone has already seen and heard the statements from Father Pfleger. Now my question is to all the people who feel that somehow Obama is responsible to answer to this mans speech. Is he Obama’s Pastor – NO! Has he or Obama stated that this man now somehow represents Obama – NO! Is this man somehow connected to Obama in any way – NO! Wow, so then why is it that everyone is coming out to say that Obama has another skeleton in HIS closet? Should McCain have to answer to every guest speaker that Rod Parsley, who he said was HIS SPIRITUAL LEADER, has at his church that then says something people don’t like? And isn’t this Father, Priest or Reverend entitled to his opinion and his own view? Or are we showing the world exactly what America is all about?

He said that Hillary felt that she was entitled to the candidacy because she was white. Well I don’t have to necessarily agree with this statement but she does raise my eyebrows when she boasts that Obama can’t win the racist working class white vote. You know those HARD WORKING AMERICAN’S not those shiftless blacks. The same Hillary camp that came out with the Obama is only where he is because he is BLACK. And now I have to sit and read these ignorant people link a person who has NEVER had any relationship with Obama act as if they are brothers. Give me a break. Everyone was so quick to cast aside McCain’s pastor when he made his racist statements by saying that they weren’t very close even though he said that this man was his spiritual leader.

When do we start looking at these slanderous Bloggers as the racists that they are? It is obvious that this has gone far past “I don’t like his views” and has entered into “I just don’t like his black ass.” Because I don’t see any of these people whether they are Hillary or McCain supporters go to these lengths on each other, only on Obama. That is interesting. I wonder what excuse they will have. Will they say that they must attack Obama because he is the greatest threat to getting their prospective candidate into office? Is Obama going to have to now answer for each and every white or black person who ever says anything about either candidate or about the white race in any way? Isn’t that a bit extreme?

And as far as I can see this whole thing has been nothing more than a name calling race on those who are telling it like it is. They want to tell us that this is some sort of “theology of victim hood”. I guess the same can be said of all the complaints of racism from the white community on this. Isn’t it always being said to blacks that they should stop crying and whining about racism, well white people now it is your turn, SHUT UP! Pull yourselves up by your boot straps and go get an education, then those preachers won’t be racist against you. Just work twice as hard as the parishioner and you will be just as welcome as the black people at that church. Of course this is parody of the stupidity blacks have to hear when they say something is racist, I guess things that go around come around.

I even read a few Bloggers say that “of course there is white privilege” but this isn’t the way to address it. Then what IS the way to address it? It is interesting that whenever blacks do something such as a bus boycott or any type of boycott we are told that this isn’t the way to make change. Should we just sit and wait for white people to get tired of all the white privilege and end it on their own. That’s funny since we have been doing that from day one and I don’t think that white people will ever get tired of white privilege. So I guess it IS high time that we actually DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT. And unfortunately for the white community there are more and more of them jumping ranks and telling it like it is and they are doing it and getting media coverage. UH OH!

It is increasingly hard not to just wipe my hands and throw them in the air when reading the plethora of racist statements that some white people have no problem posting when they are well hidden behind an IP address. It is no doubt that these same bigots are out mingling with their black coworkers, neighbors or even (so called) friends. I was reading the comments from a site called AJC. I guess it wouldn’t matter since I write posts with the hopes of opening the eyes of the black community. Nothing I write is directly aimed at the white population, but if they read it and can take something from what I say then I feel that I have served a purpose.

Now this site was talking about the fact that there is a new black news channel in the works. The people who came to comment about the channel were indignant that blacks would even have the gall to think that they needed something other than the news that is already being shown. Yet the comments were nothing more than racist attacks cloaked in “hey, I’m just being real” type of talk. With statements such as: By Moesha

May 28, 2008 8:52 AM |

I can see an evening’s lead headlines now:

“DA MAN is STILL Keeping Us Down, Yo!!!!!!!”

“A Beautiful Black Queen is Missing, and They Ain’t Nobody Looking for Her Because She Ain’t Some Pretty WHITE GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!”

“Mike Vick, Football Hero and Innocent Man, is Still Behind Bars Tonight for No Reason”

“BOO GOT SHOT! BOO GOT SHOT!”

And we wonder why people like myself work to expose this type of hypocrisy. There are 299 comments and the majority of them follow this vain of logic. Yet people such as Tom a 55 year old white guy (that is how he describes himself) will come to my Blog and say: “Since then all of White America has done a remarkable turn around in our beliefs and values and have accepted African Americans, Women, Latinos, American Indians and others as equals.” Just like I keep saying that we are NOT considered equal nor are we accepted by whites. The constant stereotyping that we have to endure and someone is going to tell me that we are valued as equal, please.

We have to endure this same stereotyping on the news, television programming and from these idiots hiding on the internet. They want to pigeon hole all blacks as being a certain poor, not interested in school, ghetto thug, saggy pants wearing, gun toting, gang joining, welfare accepting, unemployed individual that sure probably exists. Yet is that indicative of ALL blacks? Yet if I were to sit here and say that ALL whites were racist bigots, living in some low class trailer park, married to a sibling, picking a banjo, all the while pilfering the welfare system dry; I would be pounced upon by a ton of white and blacks who know this to be a falsehood.

So why is it that these stereotypes seem to be so prevalent in a lot of white minds? I have white people who comment on my Blog continuously and a lot of them will talk of how they don’t harbor any stereotypes of blacks and how non prejudiced they are, then turn around and say some crap such as blacks wouldn’t be where they are if they would just get an education and use proper English. Am I really supposed to believe that they are NOT bigots? It is getting harder and harder to just look at a white person and not think this could be one of those bigots hiding behind their IP address.

The stupid neither forgive nor forget; the naïve forgive and forget; the wise forgive but do not forget.

By Thomas Szasz.

This quote was shown on the show 20/20 which aired an episode on people who forgave those that wronged them in some of the most heinous ways. I think that forgiveness is necessary in order to move on and heal. But the problem I was having with this show and others is that they portray these black men who have been imprisoned for years and years for crimes they did not commit as the epitome of upstanding, selfless, and courageous individuals with character qualities that other blacks should emulate.

I personally believe that those innocent men who were kept in the hell that is prison for all those years and the ones who went to their death in that place are indeed courageous individuals but not for forgiving and forgetting. But, for enduring that type of torture and not giving in to the pressure to “just admit you did it” and they would be viewed leniently and might make parole. It takes courage to stand up in the face of severe adversity like that and not break.

Anyway, the problem with these guys is that they come out and immediately start to say things like “I don’t blame anyone; it was no ones fault that I was wrongly imprisoned.” Really, no ones fault!  How about the not really blind justice system? How about the lying prosecutors who in most of these cases failed to turn over key evidence that would have exonerated these individuals? How about the (normally all white) jury who on little or no evidence except loose flimsy circumstantial evidence like “the fellow who did this was black, we think”? How about the judge who seeing that the prosecution having had no evidence allowed the farce to take place? Yet according to these people there is no one to blame.

One problem I have with this need to constantly show blacks forgiving and forgetting the system for this racist atrocity is that they never show the other side. What about those blacks who sure forgive but never forget and have a lot to say about the railroading process that put them away. How about the people, who don’t forgive them, don’t their stories matter? I guess not since we never see them. It is funny that not only will they forgive them for their transgression but they forgive them even after in one case a judge said to the wrongly imprisoned man that his lawsuit was being thrown out because why should he be paid, he should just be thankful that he was let go.

I think that black people have been more than forgiving for all the atrocities that we have had to suffer. We are constantly forgiving and that is the problem. I can understand forgiving but like the doctor on 20/20 said forgetting doesn’t mean getting a lobotomy. And the black community sometimes makes me think that a lot of them are lobotomized. How many times and how long do we need to continue forgiving a country that continues its never ending parade of transgressions upon us? We forgave slavery, the loss of our history, ancestry, language, religion and peace of mind. We then forgave Jim Crow, segregation, racism, discrimination, and the Klan.

How much forgiving do we have to do before we say enough is enough? Right now our race looks like a door mat and I frankly don’t like the sound of that. I am sure that people will of course say that things are getting better. Maybe they are and maybe they aren’t, but to me it looks like things are getting worse. But like I keep saying how LONG must we continue to turn the other cheek, take the high road, look the other way and play the ever forgiving role of the enabling co-dependent before we decide that we need equality NOW?

“I feel from browsing you and Sentinel posts that what Black Americans like me have worked hard to achieve is an ultimate sellout because we choose to move out of deteriorating neighborhoods and that we have completely bought into the White hype.” I am taking it that you feel that neither I nor BrotherP have worked hard “made it” and have never moved out of a deteriorating neighborhood or ever bought into the white hype.”

Jazzy

This is in reply to a comment on Brotherpeacemaker’s post titled “Keep Moving Forward“.

I have worked extremely hard and have made plenty of accomplishments. I have succeeded in a college environment twice having two career choices to advance myself at any point. I have lived in ALL white neighborhoods and in fact grew up in a neighborhood that was predominantly white at the time.

And I know that BrotherP is in a professional career with a college degree, graduating as one of the top of his class. None of this is the point. It does not make one a sell out or buying into the white hype, it just makes it more likely. But selling out is based on a lot of factors which still isn’t the point.

The problem is when you say that Black Wall Street or Tulsa, OK was a success despite white racism; we can’t duplicate these successes if we abandon the area as soon as we have achieved a level of success. People think that just by blacks being successful from afar will somehow rub off on the less successful blacks they left behind. That is ridiculous. You can’t very well teach your children success if you don’t live near them.

So it stands to reason that we can’t build a successful black area if all the successful people abandon it. Even if not everyone in the successful area IS successful they will have a better standard of living and their children will benefit from the perks that will come from having the successful folks around. These perks can be things such as better quality schools, cleaner well maintained neighborhoods, which will enable them to succeed themselves.

Personal responsibility is an interesting topic and probably warrants its own post. I have a few problems with the use of personal responsibility as it is used in conjunction with the black community. It seems widely assumed that blacks in failing black communities have no personal responsibility or they wouldn’t be there in that failing community.

What about the personal responsibility of the dominant community towards failing communities? What about the personal responsibility of blacks who have left black communities for more successful white ones, thus continuing the deterioration? Personal responsibility is lacking everywhere. Personal responsibility is a learned behavior, not one that is just inherent in everyone. If that was the case then we wouldn’t have much to teach our young. As we all know children have no sense of personal responsibility until taught.

Does it ever dawn on people that it may not be a lack of personal responsibility that plagues the inner city? That things don’t happen in a vacuum? We can go down a long line of causes for the condition of these areas. I don’t believe that I have ever heard personal responsibility used in conjunction with poor white people.

Somehow the poor whites are looked at with sympathy and understanding, not with disdain and disgust. The problems that plague the black community did not come in one day because a group of irresponsible black people just got together and decided to ruined an area. The lack of tax dollars, businesses and people with the ability to lead by example has plagued and doomed the black community.