Why Blacks Support The Trayvon Martin Case?

What is it about the Trayvon Martin case that a lot of people just don’t get?  I was reading a news story about an old white man who was beaten by a group of 6 black boys after saying to them…Remember Trayvon Martin.  And the 6 black youths were arrested and are now in jail awaiting trial.

But, yet people continuously want to point out Al Sharpton’s involvement with the Tawana Brawley fiasco or the Duke LaCrosse case.  As if these two incidents are the quintessential equivalents of the Trayvon Martin case.  Or somehow because a black person made false claims in these two cases, the case against Zimmerman is either false or somehow irrelevant.

And people are also making other comments about the 6 black youths vs. white man such as “if this were the other way around, it would be seen as a hate crime”  or “Were is the FBI? Jesse? Sharpton? and every one else? Rally to take place at the Toledo Police station Monday april 9th at noon to demand justice in this case please be there. Please email me at mikeXXXX@yahoo.com if you plan to attend!”

OK.  Who reading this is wondering to themselves at this very moment “what lack of justice are they speaking of that needs to be had in this case?”  What exactly is it that is causing a problem for Mike shown above who is looking to go to a rally for justice in a case?  It can’t be the fact that the alleged perpetrators are in jail, it can’t be that the wheels of justice are turning and quite quickly I might add.  So is the only thing that would spell justice for Mike, would be for black people to rally around this white man and denounce the actions of the 6 black youths?  Something he obviously has yet to do for Trayvon.

OK, Mike, for what it is worth…I think that it was horrible for those black kids to beat up this white man for whatever reasons they have.  I hope that when all the evidence is revealed that it doesn’t show that they felt threatened when the man said to them to remember Trayvon Martin.  Which he claimed was his way to, as he said; to show them we are all on the same side.

Because, unfortunately, if some white man said that to me, I would be fearful he was planning to make ME the next Trayvon Martin.  And I would interpret him to mean DEAD.  And thus might feel the need to protect myself from this could/would be Zimmerman knockoff.  So, I guess that could be an excuse for them.  Maybe, but we see there is no lack of excuses for Zimmerman as well.

I guess he (Mike) wants to see hate crime charges brought.  That is fine “if” that is what he wants.  But, at least he has solace in seeing the wheels of justice moving, the alleged perpetrators in jail and an actual investigation being done.  And all this being done WITHOUT the victim’s family going to extreme measures of rallying a public outrage to get the same justice.  Somehow this white victim just has the luxury of this justice automatically.

I would love for Mike there to show me the one case where a white person be it man, woman or child who was killed by a black man and that black man was allowed to go home WITH the murder weapon the same night as the killing, and no further questions asked by the police of that case.  And the case closed after 7 hours of investigation that did NOT include any forensic, DNA, witness statements nor any other form of evidence outside of the perpetrators lone statement?  I would LOVE for someone to dig that case up.

For anyone who is confused as to WHY black people are on board this case, it is because the crime was just set aside and no one wanted to look into it any further.  This man whether white or Hispanic or as he classified himself white Hispanic, man killed an innocent unarmed person without any investigation to corroborate his story was allowed to go free.  And the police had attempted to force the parents into accepting that the man killed their unarmed son in self-defense without a shred of evidence to back that statement up.

I don’t think that anyone would sit idly by and allow that to go unchallenged if that were their child or if this was some white kid walking in a predominantly black area and the black man were the alleged perpetrator.  That is why this is so raw for the black community.  This is NOT the first case of an unarmed black person shot dead at the hands of a person who did not get arrested, charged or eventually ruled innocent of any wrong doing.

And it is frankly unbelievable to me that anyone even needs to spell this out to them.  I can’t believe that it is so hard to fathom why black people are calling for justice.  Why is it so hard for some to identify with an obvious injustice no matter the race of the people?  If the people heard this travesty without hearing the race of the people would they have a hard time understanding the outrage then?

Is this a case of willful ignorance in order to justify a group mentality that has always deemed the black man a threat no matter what situation we see them in?  We have to keep black people under control no matter what the cost, situation or outcome of that situation.  A lot of white people thought Rodney King was in control even though he was surrounded by 7 police officers who were beating him with batons as he lie on the ground.  And a jury still believed that he could have stopped them at any moment.

A woman named Tarika Wilson was shot to death THROUGH her one year old baby and the cops who did it were deemed to have acted appropriated because of course this black woman holding a baby was still a threat to the police even though again unarmed.  How many times do we need to see this very crime perpetrated upon members of the black community while those from the predominant white community make statements that it was understandable based on the so called fact that the white/non-black person pulling the trigger was in fear of an unarmed black who supposedly had all the control.

We allow the dominant predominantly white community to cry that blacks are so scary it is understandable that they pull the trigger when facing a black person in any type situation even if the story sound as outlandish as Zimmerman’s tall tales.  When does the opposite occur in that blacks become so fearful of white people that we jump the gun in defense of ourselves against them?

Would this new reversal of fear be acceptable and we can then justify doing nothing at all or hearing about nothing being done and have so many members of society agree that it was justifiable to do nothing.  Would we ever then see the members of predominantly white society see a case where Zimmerman is black and Trayvon is white and then tell the outraged people to just have a look at whatever case is out there at the moment which shows a white person killing or harming a black person and ask them why they aren’t outraged over that as well; even when the cases are ridiculously different.

It won’t happen because somehow we are again under a group mentality that white people are NOT a monolith.  If one commits a crime, doesn’t mean I must fear them ALL.  Yet, blacks do not, and have never gotten that same consideration.  And in fact we deem blacks as negative actors even when the perpetrators are white.  We have so many Susan Smith’s, Bonnie Sweeten’s, Ashley Todd’s, Bethany Storro’s, Michael Daragjati’s, Mary Turcotte’s, Charles Stuart’s and Brian Wells’ out there to feed this very stereotype for the masses like crack addicts scurrying for the last rock of crack.

How do we stop this?  How do we back away from the precipice that we see ourselves on at this very moment?  We all need to take a step back and understand that it is beyond time to start seeing things through the eyes of our black citizens as we already do those of our predominantly white majority.

Never Underestimate The Stupidity Of Idiots

After reading one of my comments I of course felt a post coming on.  This person I am about to respond to is just like all the others that made the very reason why I went on hiatus.  Too much stupidity in one place is a dangerous thing.  So, let’s just jump right in and get this party started, shall we?

My new friend Stephen Conklin asks: “First of all, what do black people not have in this country that white people do? You are showing your racism right there.”

Really, I am showing my racism by pointing out that there is disparity between races?  This is a real question?  Well I guess some people really are clueless.  OK Stephen I’ll bite.  How about we just list it out with reference so that you will be happy to have it backed up.  But then you can’t really complain.

•  Wealth – The median wealth of white households is 20 times that of black households according to a Pew Research Center analysis of newly available government data from 2009. (Boy, what is it now after this recession?  Do you think it grew or shrank?)

I guess you really can’t argue with that one unless you are going to tell me that black people just don’t want wealth, so they go about trying to ensure they have none.  Or there is a real system of inequality in this country.  Hmmm?

• Jobs – Blacks are unemployed right now at a rate of twice that of whites.  Black unemployment surged to 16.7% in August, its highest level since 1984, while the unemployment rate for whites fell slightly to 8%, the Labor Department reported.  Black unemployment has been roughly double that of whites since the government started tracking the figures in 1972

And I guess you are going to say that black people just don’t want to work.  But somehow they want to complain about unemployment for blacks.  Hmm, doesn’t make sense, because if we didn’t want to work, we would all be happy about the numbers of unemployed blacks versus whites and then ask why more aren’t unemployed.  Or can we look at the study by Devah Pager which showed that black men with NO criminal record and a 4 year college degree got far less job offers than white men with a felony record.  Stephen, how do we explain this?  Is it *GASP* disparity?  Is it something that white men have – the fallacy that they are somehow better than black men, even when they have a criminal record?  OH MY, what exactly could this study be showing us?  Who knows right?

But people such as you will deny that this has anything to do with racism, it is just a side effect of something else.  Why don’t you enlighten us as to why black unemployment is always double white unemployment?  Because if blacks have everything whites have and every opportunity whites have then we should have similar unemployment rates.  So what is the problem here?  Lazy blacks, illegal immigrants taking black jobs or maybe it is just another example of how blacks are the last hired and the first fired as most blacks in the workforce already know.

• Home ownership – Home ownership rates for African Americans is 48% (compared to 75% for Whites) according to newly released U.S. Census data from 2009. (Boy, I wonder what those rates are since this recession. Stephen, they sure as hell didn’t get better after 2009, you think?)

Now why is this?  It can’t be that blacks just decided, “Hey, we don’t want houses or a way to build wealth for our families.”  In fact we don’t want houses or jobs.  That’s it right Stephen?  Or maybe the redlining, racist lending practices and last hired, first fired is making a showing in the housing market as well.  But of course this doesn’t mean that white people have something black people don’t have.  This just means that blacks don’t have stuff white people DO have.  LOL.

• Education –  According to The Maynard Institute more than 25 years after Brown v. Board of Education integrated the public schools, schools remain segregated. Studies establish that segregation perpetuates racial inequality. Teachers assigned to minority schools are more likely to be inexperienced or teaching outside their fields of expertise. Schools serving minority communities receive less financing and fewer schools are constructed in minority communities. Black and brown children are disciplined more harshly and frequently for the same offenses as white children.

But of course this is because black children don’t want to learn right?  Everything showing disparity between the races proving that whites DO have things blacks don’t, can always be summed up as just a byproduct of blacks lack of desire for these things.  Not that the American system is inherently set up to create these disparities.  You see Stephen after slavery was abolished, Jim Crow reared its ugly head, then after Jim Crow we now have a supposed underground system even if highly blatant disparity that people like you pretend not to see.  Even though it is glaring in your face like the pretty lights blinking on any of the casinos littering the strip in Las Vegas.

But, please don’t let me open your eyes.  Just continue to sleep and pretend that its all equal and all black people have to do is pull themselves up by these non existent boot straps and just have what whites have.  Because we black people never contemplated doing that at all.  In fact we just never thought of just having these things.  Hey, I am going to go and tell all the blacks, “Just have exactly what whites have!”  Now, we can just do it.  Thanks Stephen, you really showed me and the rest of black America that it was in our hands the whole time and all we had to do was do it.  That college degree holding black man can now say, I’ll get that job no matter what felony wielding white man comes in for the position too.  I will just TAKE that job.  Thanks, Stephen you opened up all of our eyes!

But back to the REAL world, WHY is it that I have to consistently implore you to do a little research before coming to my blog and talking crap?  Second time you haven’t listened and again the second time you look like an idiot.  And yes, I called you a name.  It is how we label someone when they are behaving in a manner that calls for their behavior to be explained to many people.

If you feel that my calling you what you come here and showing me you must be, then by all means don’t come here.  I didn’t come to you and call you a name, you came here and acted in a fashion that warranted a name.  If it talks like a moron, writes like a moron and thinks like a moron, then the chances are overwhelming that it IS a moron.  Sorry.

Good luck next time.  But, again, do some research before bringing your tripe.  I don’t like stupidity for the sake of stupidity.  Oh, and I will answer the rest of your tripe in due time.

YOUR IT STEPHEN:  PROVE THAT BLACKS HAVE EVERYTHING WHITES DO?

When Will Those In The White Race Stop The Harrassment

I had titled this post “When will blacks get over slavery” which was a play on guywhite’s post called “Typical black arguments.” His complaint is that somehow blacks will never get over the history of slavery and give these supposed idiotic rote arguments as to why we constantly talk about slavery. As if slavery is the first thing out of a black person’s mouth in any type of conversation about anything. Now as I read his post and did my own research for this post I wondered why he doesn’t do a post on the white races obvious pathology.

It seems to me that the white race or at least a lot of those within the white race have some fond penchant for torturing people. White people have and are torturing Africans, Native Americans, Muslims, Indians, Inuit, Pacific Islanders, Mexicans and others of Latin descent and Jewish people. And when posed with a lack of other races to torture they resorted to torturing others from their own race such as the Russians, Polish, Irish, Scottish, homosexuals and others.

Why do a lot of those in the white race constantly have to cause so many problems in so many other races? He talks to no end about mostly the black races problems with the white race and yet, somehow fails to mention that pretty much every race on earth has had to complain about white people. Maybe instead of focusing on others he will focus on trying to help the white race to end this almost psychotic need to ruin the lives of other races.

Very few whites hate you and absolutely nobody hates you because of your skin color. But when undeniable evidence of black high crime and low IQ is presented (on average, not universally), you argue that we just hate you because of your skin color. You say that only because you have nothing else to say to respond to us.

guywhite

Most people with an IQ of over 50 understand that the criminal justice system is flawed. We all know that there is systemic racism in accordance with policing, arresting and sentencing of criminals. And according to a 2005 study by the Justice Department found that while Hispanic, black and white drivers were stopped by the police about as often, Hispanic drivers or their vehicles were searched 11.4 percent of the time and blacks 10.2 percent of the time, compared with 3.5 percent for white drivers. Data collected from state courts by the Justice Department also shows that a higher percentage of black felons than white felons receive prison sentences for nearly all offenses, and also that blacks receive longer maximum sentences for most offenses.

So it should be quite obvious to guywhite and any other person that given the current state of systemic racism in this country and the fact that the department of justice who admits that white people are less likely to even be stopped, charged or given a sentence in prison as to why blacks are over represented. But of course he will over look or blatantly deny that the department of justice even admits to this regardless of the facts. Or better yet he will claim that whites don’t do crime and that is why they don’t need to be stopped etc. When the facts show otherwise. We all see white crime in action day in and day out, yet being called white collar crime it doesn’t attach itself to the doj statistics.

He claims that blacks have this failing IQ yet, according to a Harvard study on IQ between blacks and whites they say “The constancy of the black/white IQ gap is a myth. Blacks have gained 5 or 6 IQ points on whites over the last 30 years. Neither changes in the ancestry of those classified as black nor changes in those who identify as black can explain more than a small fraction of this gain. Therefore, environment has been responsible. The last two decades have seen both positive and negative developments: gains in occupational status and school funding have been accompanied by more black preschoolers in single-parent homes and lower income in those homes (Neal, in press). We believe that further black environmental progress would engender further black IQ gains.” Not to mention if you read the report given a situation where the schools are equal there is absolutely NO difference in IQ. But, of course lets make sure that some schools have poor resources and a lack of teachers then point to them and say “they are not as smart as us.” When a just and equal person would place everyone at the same starting line before trying to start a race. But we all know that has never been the white race’s way, to actually allow things to be fair and let the best rise. They made that mistake once when letting sports become fair games and we see who has risen to the top of that arena.

So how do you explain the fact that dirt-poor white Polish immigrants who came to the US in 2000 are already wealthier than you guys are? How come whites who are penniless become wealthier than blacks within half a dozen years after coming to the US, even if they came here without speaking a word of English?

guywhite

According to Steven Steinberg, today, just as in the past, some immigrants are becoming “white” while others are becoming “black.” A changing but strong racial hierarchy in the United States continues to act as a sorting mechanism. In the past century, groups such as the Irish, Italians, and Jews in America started low on the socioeconomic and political ladder and ‘became white’ over time. According to the Aspen Institute “more recently, ‘model minority’ status has been given to some Asian groups, allowing group members to gain access to some of the privileges associated with whiteness.” Sadly, the enduring fact, as Steinberg rightly casts the spotlight on, is that African Americans have by and large been closed off from the pathways to opportunity. Only in times of mass social movements that give primacy to the conditions of African Americans that actions or inactions of progressive allies have been able to make strides forward, such as in the Civil Rights Movement.

So in simpler terms just coming to America with white skin gives immigrants a boost in social and economic status. So to pose such a question as to why white skin people coming to a country with privilege for those with white skin is asinine. I guess we can just look at the Polish people and visibly ascertain their skin color. And according to Poloniatoday the Polish newcomers integrated faster into a new life and new conditions, than their predecessors.

Most of them were young and middle-aged people, who tried to be active in their professional lives. They also had a difficult beginning, but solved their problems faster. Those people, who represented a more elevated socioeconomic status, avoided the Polish community and attempted to integrate with American society. But after a few years of “acclimatization” they began to be more Polish oriented. It has been expressed in their participation in the existing professional Polish organizations (such as physicians, engineers, etc.), or they established new ones (e.g., the Jagiellonian University Graduates Association.)

The most recent immigrants founded numerous new regional organizations, which attracted people arriving from the same part of Poland. It is a very interesting phenomenon, which can be interpreted as the sociological necessity to be “together” with compatriots in a “foreign world.” It is a sort of manifestation of the strong ties with the so-called “small homeland.” So it would seem from this Polish news source that the Polish people who have been integrating for a long time now have NO problems gaining wealth via white privilege in this country.

That was 150 years ago. Descendants of Russian serfs have plenty to pass to their kids. Holocaust victims came out of Auschwitz and became wealthy. Indians, Chinese and others came here penniless and also faced discrimination. They are wealthier than whites today. Yet, you can never get over slavery. 150 years. 150 years! When will you get over it? How many years will it take?

guywhite

In case anyone was unaware, there is a difference between serfdom and slavery. Especially that which was practiced in America as serfdom was legally a servile or “unfree” status that involved personal dependence on a lord, greatly restricted freedom of action in terms of livelihood and residence, and subjection to duties considered marks of servility. Although many serfs were the descendants of household slaves, serfdom was not identical with slavery; serfs had certain legal rights and protections, and they could not be sold. They could inherit, own, and bequeath property, and the lord’s rights over their labor were restricted by local custom and tradition, which could effectively limit innovations and demands that the peasant community considered excessive. Serfs could purchase legal freedom from their lords and thus free themselves of certain arbitrary “servile” services and dues.

Once the serfs became free what would distinguish them from the land owners after 150 years of freedom? Not one thing. The serfs are the same nationality as the landowners, which any person with half a brain can surmise that they would have NO way of distinguishing one person with serf ancestry than that of a person with landowner ancestry. Yet, in the case of slave and master from America we can see an obvious difference in which the descendants of both can easily discern with the naked eye who was descended from slave and who was not. So then now we have an obvious basis for why continued persecution exist for the black race. At least this fact should be obvious again to those with half a brain that actually functions.

The case with the Jewish victims of the holocaust is an even easier one to conquer. The Jews were persecuted yes and it was a horrible travesty which occurred in Germany. Why would the Jews be doing considerably better than African Americans? Maybe the well known fact that Jews have been paid the REPARATIONS which were denied to blacks when slavery ended. Perhaps they are doing so well due to the fact that the Jews were placed in their own land far away from their tormentors.

Could it be the fact that America sends the whopping amount of 2.2 Billion dollars each and every year to ensure that this nation of abused people continues to thrive. Now if we in America were to have paid reparations to the slaves directly after slavery ended, given them land far away from their tormentors and continued to support them to the tune of 2.2 billion dollars a year, perhaps the black nation would be thriving as well.

Blacks won’t get past slavery until they have FULL equality, not just small gains here and there. Not one other race in the history of the United States has faced such systemic racism as the blacks have from the white race. It is so endemic that it is still pervasive today. We see that blacks earn only 76% of their white counterparts. A black will lose 10% off that if he sounds black according to the book Freakonomics.

Blacks have an unemployment rate of twice that of white people. The department of justice has a study showing that the department is flawed and has discrepancies in how minorities are targeted vs. whites. But we will continue to be bombarded with idiotic assertions from omniscient white people who seem to think that they know everything there is to know about blacks, black behavior, racism, the lack of racism and how it does or does not affect the black person.

And what is guywhites answer for how blacks can overcome the legacy of slavery ? Get a job, that’s how! Never mind that blacks have to work twice as hard for half as much, guywhite feels that all is need is a job. Never mind that according to the census, African Americans’ median income is still substantially lower than Whites: In 2006, their median income was $32,132, as compared to $52,432 for Whites. One of these lower paying jobs that keeps blacks far behind whites due to their need to feel superior, is somehow going to placate us into forgetting that slavery happened. Which then brings us to the systemic racism that puts us in that lower paying job. You know what would help blacks end the thoughts of slavery is to have equality. When we are allowed to participate FULLY and be treated equally we will have NO reason to think on the method that has brought us to this continued sub-existence.

It doesn’t matter that things are OBVIOUSLY skewed towards white people. It doesn’t matter that blacks ARE employed. It doesn’t matter that society at large is set up against blacks in everyway possible. According to Yale “Reagan and to a lesser extent George H. W. Bush sought to perfect what Nixon had begun. Devoted to as fully as possible restoring the normality of white skin privilege and producing silence about it as a way of redoubling its hegemony, Reagan through the use of racial symbolism such as announcing his presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi (the site of the murder of three civil rights workers) and railing on and on about “welfare queens and pimps” on the campaign trail made whites comfortable with their prejudices (as former First Lady Rosalind Carter once remarked).

When Conversations About Race Go Bad

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?

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 (588-)

“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.

America Plays Blind

This whole Obama and pastor Wright thing is becoming absolutely ridiculous. Now online there are a gaggle of people who are now talking about Obama’s link to some other supposedly “racist” black pastor. Does it make any difference that these people continue to refer to Obama as “Hussein Obama” as if that is some sort of important noteworthy tidbit? Yet no one (maybe besides me) plays up the fact that McCain refers to Vietnamese people as Gooks or that he is connected to racist ministers of his own.

What I find funny is that Whoopi Goldberg who I can’t stand actually made a great point. She was saying that people acting like Obama should have left the church long ago because of Pastor White’s remarks etc. The problem as me and Whoopi see it is that how many Catholics ran from the Catholic Church after the scandal of child rape came to light? Not many so now what does that say about millions of Americans? Yet of course we would like to have this double standard. I heard so many white people crying that if this type of thing happened at their church they would have sped out of there post haste.

There are tons of people spewing racist jokes on a constant basis; I have even done an article about it called “Quiet Racism.” Yet now I am to believe that these people cut those people loose from their lives? Even if that person who made the joke was their boss, best friend, or god forbid preacher. Not to mention that the comments that were made were NOT racist and in fact not even inflammatory once I listened to the COMPLETE speech he made and in what context. Yet let people tell it he was being just totally racist and insensitive to whites. Yet how many of these same hypocrites came rushing to the defense of Dog the “soulless nigger” Bounty Hunter, Don “Nappy Headed Ho” Imus and George “Maccaca” Allen, Joe “Clean & Articulate Biden, Geraldine “He’s only there because he’s black” Ferraro, Bill “They want to end white Christian male dominance” O’reilly, Lou “Cotton picking” Dobbs and Kelly “Lynch him in a dark alley” Tilgham.

None of these people have been ostracized. They haven’t been abandoned by their friends, family, co-workers; bosses and certainly not by the public who seem to like these people even more after their racist spiels. This total abandonment that people expect out of Obama I guess is only slated for blacks who dare to make comments about white dominated America in which it is obvious that through white privilege and other discriminatory practices blacks are kept from equality. Yet this is obviously a no, no for blacks to point out racism as through my experiences on this Blog that makes “you” the racist.

These same people talk about how MLK would never talk like this and how respected and loved he was when in fact if you look at the pictures from that time white people were spitting in his face, yelling racial epithets and going so far as hitting and kicking him. This was a man who was saying pretty much the same things as pastor White was saying at the pulpit. Yet the only thing that most of these people know about MLK was that he asked for non violence. Not that he demanded equality or the fact that he criticized the white community for its unfair, unequal treatment of blacks. These facts seem to escape them when they demand that black pastors today NOT talk about racist practices in America or its blatantly obvious hypocrisy.

People ask what would MLK say or do during this controversy. He would probably say that it is good that someone raised the issues that seem to be getting swept under the rug by people who feel that everyone should just be happy to be in America. Not complaining about how they need equality which somehow they equate to special treatment or handouts. Until people in this country begin to acknowledge the fact that America is racist to its core we will never heal. America was founded on racism, practices racism still and now pretends to be blind to its presence.

Simple Racism

I do a lot of posts on racism and its affects on the black community. I usually try to keep them focused on racism which affects education, housing, health care and employment. But I have been doing some shopping lately and noticing that racism can be very simple. This simple racism is found in our very lives daily from commercials for products to the products themselves.

I am sure that people are doing the big sigh right now wondering why I and people like me just don’t let it go. I am wondering why when I go to the book store to buy books for my child ALL the books that look like fun, interesting or not revolved around race are about and featuring a white character. The books featuring black characters are about being accepted, Kwanzaa or something else that deals with racial, ethnic or religious issues. Where are all the children books like the book “Where the wild things are,” or any Dr. Seuss book that has actual people which features black characters?

I would just like to go to the store one time and buy some Band Aides that say flesh colored and they aren’t pink or close to it. These are the small things that you go through life putting up with yet nobody thinks how these small acts of racism can show you that you nor people like you are important enough for my company to take you into account when making products. How many times has a white person walked into a Toys R Us and looked at little people ride on fire engine that have firemen driving and ALL the firemen are black? Not a chance! The two I looked at only one of them had one black character and the other everyone on the fire engine was white.

I am sure this does not seem to be a big deal except that what if it were your child that you could not find any toys to reflect who they are. You wouldn’t feel that it was OK that you child only had another race of people to look at, imagining themselves as while playing or admiring. Everyone wants to be able to instill a sense of self love, respect and worth. Yet if the only thing my child has to play with all have white characters on it he will inevitably begin to see, think and believe that people that look like these people are the ones who matter in life. Not people like himself and thus he will see himself as less than.

No one thinks that maybe the lack of interest, self esteem and success in the black community could be from all these small but racist messages of you don’t count that is why nothing you see looks like you. I don’t know if you have seen the experiment they did with the black children and the dolls. They gave a bunch of black children the choice between a black or white doll and they all chose the white doll. Because through television commercials and store displays among other things, this shows children which of the two dolls is more desirable. And thus telling the children which people in the world are most desirable and worthy of being respected and loved.

This is a seriously underhanded Machiavellian type of sinister little deed when you look at it. If I can destroy your self esteem, self love and love of your community before you ever reach puberty then I pretty much have ruined your chances of a normal happy life. These children are now in a chase for assimilation and to become as generically non black as possible. Barbie and other dolls as well as movies, television and advertising are teaching our young black girls that they are not good enough. To be considered normal they need to have hair as straight hanging to her waste as a black Barbie. Only look to your Beyonce’s, Tyra Banks and any other popular black artist. Our black men are being sold on the fact that this is what they need to find attractive in a woman. Since this is all they see that their black role models in movies are paired up with, if the woman is black at all. In most instances these black male movie stars are paired with Hispanic or bi-racial women of some mixture or another.

I am sure that a lot of people will guffaw at this so called truth and say that it is coincidental at best. Yet it is never coincidental that you don’t accidentally have anything such as this happening in the opposite direction. I have never seen commercials for Barbie or some other doll that utilizes blacks in the forefront or shows a black doll that isn’t a clone of the white doll just chocolate brown. Yet somehow I should be content with shoveling all the white dominant propaganda into my child and somehow expect that they grow up with a sense of self. Shut up and be happy to be an American, when we are being told at every turn that American is white. So how can I be happy to be something I am not nor can ever be? And yet we still want to deny the damage done to black children and adults from this totally Machiavellian type of simple racism.

The Audacity Of Stupidity

All over the news, Blogs and just everywhere on the web you are seeing a bunch of talk about Pastor Jeremiah A Wright and Trinity United Church that Obama attends. It seems that a lot of the comments this Pastor Wright make are seen as inflammatory and racist to a lot of people. I have only heard a few of his comments in sermons and I find that the hubbub is a little bit over kill. Is what he is saying so offensive and inflammatory or is what he is saying hitting home for a lot of people?

One such comment was “Racism is how this country was founded and how this country is still run.” How is this statement not true that is the question? Now what is inflammatory about the statement? Was this country NOT founded on racism? Were the American Natives not racially subjected to terror and death at the hands of people who felt that they were less than human? Did these same people bring a race of people to this country for the purpose of exploitation through slavery based on the propaganda that they were of a race that these people felt were less than human? Is there not a discrepancy in how races are treated to this day in this country? Do black Americans earn only 78% or what white Americans earn? Even former U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher called for greater equality in health care to close the gaps between blacks and whites in death rates and life expectancy. There are discrepancies between whites and blacks in wealth, credit, housing, healthcare, employment, wages and life expectancy. And we are supposed to believe that this is a false and inflammatory statement, please someone explain how that is.

“Who cares about what a poor black man has to face everyday in a country in a culture controlled by rich white people.” I am pretty sure he is not talking about Obama he is talking about poor black men or people. Now I would love for someone to counter this statement. As I will have you take a look at each and every president this country has ever had and you name all those that were NOT rich or white. Not to mention how many of them actually cared about the poor black man to the point that they actually decided to end racial disparities in the lives of those poor black men. Not one president has made one effort to end racially motivated disparities of any sort. Which president decided that white privilege has over stayed its welcome and needs to end? Not one, you say? I guess next you will tell me that 5 days is an acceptable amount of time for people to sit around in stifling heat with no water, food, medicine or rescuing. And yes the majority of them were poor and BLACK.

“It just came to me in the past few weeks why so many folks are hating Barrack Obama. He doesn’t fit the model, he ain’t white he ain’t rich and he ain’t privileged. Hillary fits the mold.” I can’t speak to Obama’s wealth or lack there of as a child but I can say that he doesn’t fit the mold of our stereotypical president. Unless I am mistaken there has not been a president in the past that is black, not obviously rich and comes from a single parent family. But we do know that Hillary is wealthy at this time, she is white and she is privileged. But to give her credit she isn’t a man and that also breaks the model of our stereotypical president.

“Hillary was not a black boy raised in a single family home Barrack was. Barrack knows what it means to be a black man living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary can never know that, Hillary has never been called a nigger; Hillary has never had a people defined as a non-person.” How is this not true? She has never known what it feels like to be subjugated due to race. Neither she nor any of our other presidents knows what it is like to be of a people who were thought of as less than human called nigger and hung from trees for daring to be black in the wrong place and time. They don’t know how it feels to be in a country that has demonstrated a blatant hate for people who look like you. A country that is controlled by a race of people who still to this day will see discrepancies between the races and shrug their shoulders all the while saying hey that is just the way things are, what can I do about it. How about a country where we can make every excuse for why it was acceptable for police and guards to beat, punch, pepper spray and kill young black youths without any consequences.

And I am supposed to believe that in some way these statements are somehow “crazy”, “unacceptable” and “ludicrous”. Until someone can show me how these statement bear absolutely no truth then I and others will continue to say the exact same things. We can dismiss the hate speech of Bill O’Reilly, Michael Richards, Don Imus, Duane Dog Chapman, Kelly Tilgham and of course Geraldine Ferraro. Now this preacher who has not called anyone names (that I know of) but said some things (at least those I’ve heard) that no one so far can refute and people are on a campaign to burn Obama at the stake because he knows the man.

Well I know that this is a stupid thing to do. I didn’t advocate calling Hillary a racist because a couple of her supporters have said racist remarks. No one is advocating calling Hillary an adulterer because her husband whom is speaking on her behalf is one. This is pretty thoughtless. If Obama does attend that church isn’t it a far stretch to “assume” that this preacher who no longer heads that church said these types of sermons each and every Sunday? I am pretty sure he did not. So with all the calling of Obama a bigot etc. is just the audacity of stupidity.

That Was A Racist Comment Geraldine Ferraro

“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman (of any color) he would not be in this position.” This statement was written by Geraldine Ferraro in the Daily Breeze, Friday.

I may not be the big Obama supporter that many people are but YES, this damn statement is racist. This is the same racist rhetoric that blacks have to hear constantly no matter what type of professional position they are able to get. From a position as an architect to (now possibly) the President of the United States white people constantly say that if they weren’t black they wouldn’t be in this position, you can just add it up to affirmative action. I am constantly fielding comments from white people who will say that blacks only get jobs due to affirmative action as if there was no possible way they could get the job based on talent, skills and experience. The fact is there are too many White people in this country who believe that they are at a disadvantage due to their feeling that Blacks just get things such as jobs handed to them.

Basically what Ferraro is saying is that Obama has absolutely NO qualifying skills that would have lead to his possibly gaining the position to run for the president. By her claiming that the only think he has is his skin color is not only demeaning but racist. Would she be OK with the statement that George Bush wouldn’t be president right now if he were any other color or a woman? Because he not only had no experience he doesn’t have the sense god gave a donkey. Yet where was she to level this type of insult on him. What makes Hilary so qualified that she doesn’t have this type of insult leveled on her. Would it not be possible to say the Hilary wouldn’t be in the position she is in today if she were a man, especially a minority.

What Ferraro said is nothing new or surprising. The fact that it came from a person who is supposed to be on the same side as Obama and all other democrats isn’t even surprising. This just goes to show what Ferraro and other democrats actually feel about Obama and blacks in general. Then as Ferraro says this racist crap she turns around and says that everything bad that is said about Obama is chalked up to racism. But it is racist dumb ass it is. When it was found out that Farrakhan supported Obama, Clinton and everyone else came out saying that Obama needed to not only disagree with his position but to outright denounce the man. Now that Ferraro has shown her ugly side is Clinton denouncing her, of course not because she doesn’t have to and not one person is calling for her to do so. And as soon as the race for the Whitehouse is on with the republicans I am sure if Obama makes it we will see a lot more of the same.

When will we get past the fact that blacks CAN be just as qualified as white people? Everyone is talking about experience, well the problem is that none of these dolts has been president before and being a senator or a soldier boy doesn’t make you or anyone else qualified with any more or less experience as anyone else. Hillary had a husband that was president and that alone doesn’t give her any more experience than the other two candidates either. I don’t know one surgeons wife who claims she has all this surgical experience because her husband is a surgeon that would be ludicrous. I understand saying that you don’t like Obama’s policies because I have a problem with quite a few of his policies but to denounce him as a candidate just because he is black is beyond acceptable.

Then of course CNN did a pole on the issue of what Ferraro said and 55% of the people felt that she didn’t owe him an apology for her racist comments. Why, because most of the people voting feel that it is OK to question black peoples qualifications only based on race. When the fact is no one would dare to say the same about white people no matter what their background. No one would dare to question a white persons skin color as a means of saying that they are ill qualified for anything. The bottom line is Geraldine Ferraro felt that it was OK to judge Obama’s worthiness by the fact that he is black and that is the only qualification he has according to her. When blacks start using this same rhetoric maybe then people will see just how stupid, hurtful, racist and deceitful it really is. Ferraro and just about any other person should know that just because you have been the victim of sexism doesn’t mean you can now turn around and make someone else the victim of racism and vice versa.