Friday, December 17, 2010

Slavery? What Slavery?

Pop quiz readers.

Why, in the simplest terms, did we fight the Civil War?

If you answered "Because white folks wanted to keep being allowed to own colored folks as property" then you're a liberal, race-baiter hellbent on ruining the good name and reputation of brave Southern soldiers.

No really, I'm serious.

Well, I would be serious if I was one of those folks who used phrases like "The War of Northern Aggression."  You know, the folks who like buzzwords like "states' rights" and "legacy" and "heritage" instead of words like "genocide" and "evil."

I grew up in the South, I know how white folks feel about the days of mint juleps, swinging parasols, and darkies in the fields. They swallow that garbage like a black man in the RNC swallows his pride. Gulp.

Some folks really believe the Confederacy was just trying to protect its way of life, and fight off the brazen advances of an unfair federal government. They actually have convinced themselves that slavery was an isolated and often times benign institution. They ignore maps from antebellum times that show that the enslaved population in many Southern states was at 40 to 60 percent of the total population, according to the 1860 census. Yep, they ignore that reality and instead cling to a fantasy that says that Confederate troops were really just good boys caught on the wrong side.

If that's the case, I wonder how they see Iraqi insurgents?

Actually, I don't wonder. I know that white folks are only able to see racial nuances when they want to. I know that certain white folks will twist and corrupt anything to protect themselves from dealing with the true reality of their ancestors' actions. I know that many white folks don't want to know what life was like for black folks in this country 160, 100, or even 50 years ago, and they damn sure don't care how the facts of the past impact our present.

Nah, they want to live in their fantasy world, and hand out their little awards and think about a time when lynching a nigger was just the way you dealt with insolence. They want to remember when it was impossible to rape a nigger wench because everybody knows a nigger wench always wants it. They want to celebrate evil because that evil made life a lot easier for folks who look like them.

I get the message loud and clear, and I understand exactly what it means. When you want to have your wedding at a plantation, and you want to have little marches to celebrate the exploits of Confederate troops, I know exactly what's going on.

I don't have any questions.


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Thursday, December 16, 2010

Who Are You Fooling?

Man, I just stumbled across this story about a youth football coach in Georgia who apparently likes to spread racist insults wider than Keri Hilson's legs.

This cat insulted Latinos (He actually said "Mexicans" but he used it in the way racists use it for all brown, Spanish speakers), Asians and South Asians. I haven't seen anything about black folks, but I'd wager we got hit at some time in the past.

Anyway, what had me tripping was the dude's apology, as well as the tone of the article I linked to above. This AJC article gives far more information and has a far tougher slant on the obvious racism. And the AJC is anything but a "liberal rag."

First, I'm shocked that people believe that stuff posted on a public Internet profile is somehow protected speech, and that they believe that private correspondence shouldn't have public repercussions. Really people, who the hell have you all been talking to?

Your private thoughts impact your public life. If my private thoughts included the idea that I want to murder all white people just for breathing, I'm sure that if the white people at my job found out, that would impact my life. (For the record, I do not want white people dead. Really.) You can't spew ignorance and bile in private and then expect people to give you a pass just because you didn't mean for them to learn what you really thought. Basically, this guy and his supporters want some sort of hypocrite pass. As long as they pretend to non-racists in public, the private reality of their Klan memberships shouldn't matter. Yeah, OK.

Even sadder are the people seeking to paint this whole incident as a smear tactic of disgruntled parents. I'm sure that the people who posted this information weren't fans of the coach, after all his fans just ignored the racism and continued to yuck it up with him. That said, just because they don't love the coach does not mean he didn't write what he wrote. He wrote these words. Nobody spliced them together, or made them up. He actually wrote the comments that parents printed out and passed out, and he's never denied it. His only excuse has been that he has "diverse" friends with a similar sense of humor to his own.

The excuses offered by this coach and his supporters are hilarious to me. It reinforces my belief that racism actually kills brain cells, and for some people they don't even need the racism, breathing is enough to make them stupider. These people are so unwilling to admit to racism, or call someone a racist, that they are willing to make the most asinine excuses for plainly disgusting behavior.

Who do they think they're fooling? Do they think minorities are so stupid, so ignorant that we'll believe these weren't racist rants, that this guy doesn't despise non-whites, and that his protectors don't agree with him? On a larger note, when these type of incidents occur, do people really think they are fooling anyone with their defiance and rationalizations? But, when I think about it, maybe they are.

When I think about how quickly and easily people discount clearly racist behavior, when I think about how they refuse to see how racism is still alive and kicking today, I realize that maybe these people are fooling folks. And if they aren't fooling them, they are giving them just enough of a rationalization that they don't have to step outside of their comfort zones and confront reality.

Maybe I'm the fool for not noticing this earlier.


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Monday, December 13, 2010

What Can You Say

I read this story recently about this black area in my town that has struggled to rebound from Katrina, not because residents haven't returned, but because businessess haven't followed them.

The area is composed of a wide spectrum of black folks, is quite large, and compared to other areas, fairly prosperous. Yet, it has a dearth of retail shopping and basic amenities like grocery stores and hospitals.

Anyway, the story, done by the local newspaper, spawned a host of racist and insensitive comments as many news stories do these days. Basically, white folks felt these Negroes couldn't get nice things because Negroes always tear stuff up. Sure, none of them actually used those words, but I can understand code words like shoplifting, thugs and welfare.

On a certain level I understand why it's important to combat these prevalent stereotypes among white people. On another level, I simply don't care anymore.

Seriously, I don't care. I've come to realize in my three decades on Earth, that white folks gon' believe what makes them happy. And, believing that black people don't have nice things because they don't deserve them is what makes white folks happy.

That lie absolves them of any blame, of any responsibility, and, most importantly, of any cost. If it's all black folks' fault, then white folks can continue to congratulate themselves on being wonderful, exceptional people. There is no need for a mental reckoning, no need for any personal examination. The world is the way it is because it's a "just world" and black folks have pretty much brought their suffering upon themselves with little outside interference. Any version of history that contradicts that view of the world is the pitiful mewling of soft liberals hell bent on establishing a socialist society.

And honestly, when people think like that, what can you really say? 



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Wednesday, December 8, 2010

Soul Brother Number 1

Now that President Obama has pissed off much of the Left with his compromise on the tax cuts, it's been interesting to watch how people respond.

I've noticed for quite some time that a certain segment of the population views Obama as a big softie. That segment includes black folks, white folks, liberals, conservatives and everything in between. People peep his demeanor and the way he handles the disrespect constantly lobbed at him, and immediately he becomes a "wimp."

I guess that's normal. As much as people decried President Bush's "cowboy" ways, deep down they want a leader who breathes fire and gives the finger to critics and opponents. They just want that leader to agree with them. Hell, even if they don't agree with said leader, they will still respect him to a certain degree because people respect force and threats of force. They don't respect quiet appeals to unity and compromise.

Classic wimp behavior.

The thing is, what's happened recently is that folks of all shades and political views have used Obama's perceived "wimpiness" as a way to once again critique his "blackness." Honestly, I'd hoped that we'd moved past discussing Obama's black card, but it seems that his education, his appearance and his demeanor are so far removed from the stereotypes that all Americans have subconsciously accepted that his "blackness" will always be questioned. He will never fit the ideal of "true blackness" that has subtly and directly forced down our throats, and whenever he fails to meet that ideal he will be roundly criticized for what is actually our own collective failing.

Just recently, Courtland Milloy, a Washington Post columnist, blasted Obama for not being a true black man because he didn't go hard on his critics and didn't do enough to protect other black folks. Then Bill Maher noted that he thought he was getting a "gangsta" when he voted for the former president of the Harvard Law Review. I've seen many columns lambaste Obama for being a wimp, and at the same time complain that they feel like they received a false bill of goods when they voted for him. After all, given his skin color wasn't there supposed to be a certain level of toughness? If a black man doesn't know how to embrace his angry roots, what good is he?

Stereotypes are powerful, and how no matter how much we fight against them, we still believe them. That's clear from the vast array of women in African nations who adopt European hairstyles as a sign of refinement, and it's evident in the fact that most Americans think an unflappable, compromising, black man can't really be black. Sure black guys can be suave players, but Spock-like calmness isn't supposed to be in our wheelhouse. Our blood is supposed to be hot, and our emotions far too powerful.

What's sad is that most folks don't see the pure idiocy and racism in their comments. They refuse to accept that they could have fallen under the sway of white supremacy and they can't believe they have ingested and digested ridiculous stereotypes and are now regurgitating them for public consumption. We can't see how messed up we all are. We don't truly understand how fully our minds have been corrupted, and how we've been steered to view the world in a particular way. We truly believe in our free will and free thinking, when in reality we're all slaves to our conditioning.

That's what's real.






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Wednesday, December 1, 2010

Just Say It Homie!

Urban?

URBAN!

Come on son, just grow a pair and call President Obama black. Better yet, call him a nigger.

You know you want to, just do it.

These cowardly loudmouths get on my nerves. Nut up, say your piece, and take the heat. Don't play these semantics games so you can pretend that the people rightfully calling you a racist are crazy. That's a straight up punk move you paragons of courage. Stand up, be a man, and speak your mind.

Otherwise, you're just another cracker in a hood prowling around at night.

Peckerwood.

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Raving Black Lunatic