Same Game, Different Players

There is nothing new under the sun.

You would think that in this day and age, supervisors wouldn't be running around calling their employees "one-eyed niggers." You would think that government employees wouldn't be brazen enough to brag about targeting black folks for mistreatment, or make up little ditties about sticking it to the Negroes.

But, if you thought that, you would be wrong.

Check out this story if you have the time and inclination. The story details extended discrimination by the New Jersey Transportation Department against black bus owners traveling to Atlantic City. Please read the link.

A homie of mine sent me that link. I read the story and a lot of things ran through my mind. I wondered why people are so hateful. I wondered why someone would think they could throw around racial slurs with impunity. Finally, I wondered what this tale of discrimination and cover-up means to my life. I realized something:

Same Game, Different Players.

As a famous one-eyed rapper once said "This type of thing happens every day..." Slick Rick might have just been spitting a lyric, but he was speaking truth in regards to black folks in America. Anybody who has spent any time investigating this country's history has learned one thing for sure: Colored folks get shafted every day.

Remember the big story about black farmers getting cheated out of government funds while the money was rolling in for white farmers. That disparity prevented many black people from keeping their land and improving their lives. How about the reports that black soldiers were discriminated against repeatedly when it came to the allocation of GI funds? Once again, that prevented black people from becoming homeowners like the their white counterparts, and again reduced their chances to improve their lots in life.

Over and over we see stories about systemic racism that has denied black folks, scratch that, colored folks, equal opportunity for generations. And it hasn't disappeared contrary to the pap that Fox News and black conservatives are pushing. Whether it be school funding, or health care facilities or just plain job interviews the inequity is obvious to anyone with eyes.

How many of these stories must revealed before we have a collective "Ah, ha" moment? Do people have no shame? Can they really rail against Affirmative Action, when stuff like this Atlantic City bus scandal is being revealed? How can they sleep at night knowing they've mis-informed so many white folks, and some blacks folks, so that these people actually blame those who have been mistreated? I couldn't live with being that kind of person.

But, apparently, it's not that hard. Hell, if you read the comments on the bus story you'll find folks falling all over themselves to deflect blame for the discrimination to the minority bus drivers despite all the evidence to the contrary. Like many folks they have mastered the art of ignoring information that would force them to recognize the game, and recognize the players. For them, life is a game of dodgeball, only instead of a big, rubber ball, they are dodging the truth.

Cute trick.

So, if life is a game, and some folks clearly have the fix in, how does a regular Joe play to win? Y'all know I'm an adovocate for the God approach, but that doesn't mean you sit on your butt and hope for manna from heaven. Yeah, God can still deliver manna, but he also allowed humans to create grocery stores. Push your own damn cart son.

Personally, I think that while we have to pick our battles, we can't stop fighting. We can't withdraw from forcing folks to consider reality when they start ranting about the plight of the poor white man, and how all the coloreds are taking over. That's not going to make you popular, but it's going to make you honest. And what's the value of popularity if comes at the expense of your integrity? Slap these suckers in the fact with truth, then box their ears if they refuse to listen.

Game on.




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