RACE RELATIONS – Blacks Know White Folks, Yet Reverse Is Not True!

Fear of the unknown plays heavy in social, political, and moral context in America. Black folk know White folk very intimately, whereas the reverse is not true. Blacks have cleaned White folks’ filthy toilets, bathtubs and floors. Midwifed, nurtured, bathed and reared White children and did similarly for elderly Whites when they became too old and sickly to do for themselves.

 

Black folk have cooked White folks’ food, cleaned their homes and clothes, organized and maintained their homes while being almost invisible. It has been this invisibility that has given Black folk the opportunity to observe the behavior, character, ethics, and social interaction of the members of White families giving intimate knowledge as to how they think, along with their ideas, dreams and methods of behavior.

 

This can be said as much about race relations during Slavery as we can regarding these contemporary times. Collectively, White folks don’t have that intimate knowledge of Black people. A good reason for White fear of Black folk and how it plays out politically this year.  It’s this fear that makes it difficult for too many Whites to differentiate between Barack Obama and his minister.  Not recognizing that to hear someone say something doesn’t mean it’s part of what you believe.  This, while, ironically, being able to distinguish between the Catholic faith and those within the religion that would aid and abet pedophilia.  This ignorance is out of fear of the unknown – not reason!

 

Black folk have voted for White candidates at every level: federal, state and local. For many Whites, who may vote for Barack Obama, this may be the first opportunity to vote for a Black candidate. Once again, fear of the unknown comes into play. We’re all American, but we experience American life from two separate perspectives. When Black folk vote, they vote looking for the man or woman who will be the most, fair. The Black American experience has led to being able to read the character and integrity of White folk. Historically, one’s life often depended on that reading. I call this group THE KNOWLEDGEABLE 90%. That vote went for Bill Clinton over Bush 41 and Bob Dole. Al Gore and John Kerry over Bush 43, all White men, I might add. The claim that the Black vote for Obama is racist ignores the history of how Black Americans have voted for White candidates in this country.

 

When one says someone is ignorant, what one is saying that YOU DON’T HAVE THE INFORMATION TO MAKE SOLID JUDGMENT. This is the case for some White folks – their fear of Black people stems from a lack of information about Black folk, often exacerbated by a sense of superiority. You have those White folks who believe if Obama gets in, he will change government to the point where Black folk will do to White folks what White folks did to them – fear of retribution. As ridiculous as that sounds, this is the belief of some White people. These folks are aware of the historical racial attitude of the majority but like to act as though it doesn’t exist. Also, the email is full of folks going nuts thinking Obama will be looking to give reparations to Black folk – talk about White fear!

 

One of the major reasons race is rarely discussed on a level where we can diminish the power of racism is due to the embarassment White folks feel about themselves and their ancestors regarding Slavery and the legacy of it. In keeping the issue in darkness, we’ve allowed it to fester into something very insidious and harmful to the nation on a whole.

 

Just as Barack Obama says there is strength in being able to talk to our enemies,  the same can be said about race with respect to talking to those who look, think, act, and speak differently from you. For this nation to avoid this issue weakens the basic fabric of this country. We need more understanding, not less – just a we do as citizens of the world.

 

Too often, when I talk truthfully about race, some folks become offended, not wanting to hear the truth. Believe me, it’s much worse to live the ugly side of racism (behavior of some White folk) than it is to have to take responsibility for one’s ugly actions.

 

Communication among fellow Americans is a good thing, leading to a United States we can all be proud of and love. From a Black American perspective, Michelle Obama wasn’t nuts for saying, FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE I’M REALLY PROUD OF MY COUNTRY, NOT BECAUSE OF BARACK, BUT BECAUSE PEOPLE ARE REALLY WANTING CHANGE! Black Americans have only had lawful equal rights in this nation for 43 years. And records show, federal, state and local, there is an institutional bias in education, jobs, healthcare, access to capital (homes & business), housing (steering), and in the criminal justice system. THIS AIN’T IMAGINARY! THIS IS REAL!   The only reparations needed is to LEVEL THE PLAYING FIELD FOR US ALL!

 

I commend the White folks who appreciate the differences among us, for you are the bridge from a Neanderthal way of thinking to what’s truly key to the future of this planet, no less this country. YOU are key to whether the United States continues to be a positive influence in the world, or continues to decend in an abyss of greed and self indulgence. How you vote this November will determine, WHICH WAY WE WILL GO!

 

QUESTION EVERYTHING!  THAT’S WHERE THE TRUTH RESIDES. 

BLACK MEN STILL GO TO JAIL FOR DOING THE SAME THINGS WHITE MEN DO, BUT GO HOME!

Even President Obama acknowledged, IF I LEFT MY KEYS AND TRIED TO BREAK INTO THE WHITE HOUSE, I’D BE SHOT!  He also stated, THE CAMBRIDGE POLICE FORCE ACTED STUPIDLY WHEN THEY ARRESTED SKIP GATES.

Skip Gates is the reknown Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr., who was returning from filming in China, only to find he couldn’t get into his home.  With the help of his cab driver, Gates pushed in the door, prompting a neighbor to call the police believing a break-in was taking place. 

A Cambridge Police Sargeant, allegedly, responded to the call, eventually arresting Gates for ‘tumultuous behavior’, even though he produced his Harvard ID and driver’s license proving he belonged on the premises.   Gates was, later, released and the charges were dropped, however Gates has demanded an apology from the sargeant who arrested him – hinting if one wasn’t received, a law suit may follow.  Cambridge does have a recent history of being a hotbed of racial tensions – to put this in a little more context.

If you watch ‘COPS’ and/or AMAZING POLICE VIDEOS, you’ve seen incidences when the police have been cursed out by someone they’ve issued a ticket for a moving violation.  The policeman often takes the abuse, and courteously goes about his business… if the perpetrator is White.

It’s like the Black pro football player who was pulled over by a police officer, while rushing his family to the hospital to be at the death bed of his mother-in-law.  He had driven his SUV with his ‘hazard lights’ on, but had passed some red lights and stop signs.  The cop stopped him at the hospital.  The Black man’s family ran into the hospital, but the cop acted disrespectfully to the football player, ignoring the personal emergency that was taking place.  To make a long story short, the police department found the cops behavior to be unconscionable and suspended him.  They dropped the charges on the football player, and the cop re-signed his position.  A little respect could have avoided all of this.

The history of police and the Black community is one rife with bigotry – especially the strong connection between the police and the KKK, racial profiling, and their knee jerk reaction to shooting and killing Black men.  This is all about respect.

BLACK MEN STILL GO TO JAIL FOR DOING THE SAME THINGS WHITE MEN DO, BUT GO HOME!  Now, if you think that’s a lie, HOW MANY WHITE MEN HAVE BEEN ARRESTED FOR THE RIP OFF OF AMERICA IN THE STOCK MARKET, BANKING, MORTGAGE, AND REAL ESTATE INDUSTRIES?  Nuff said!

QUESTION EVERYTHING!  THAT’S WHERE THE TRUTH RESIDES.

THE KKK SAYS RAPPERS AND THE HIP HOP MOVEMENT ARE DOING A BETTER JOB OF BRINGING DOWN BLACK FOLK THAN THEY ARE.

Freedom of creative expression is a wonderful thing. And who would have thought that the Klan and the Hip Hop Movement were unconscious comrades in arms. The history of the Klan has been to do everything possible to keep Black folk from living the American dream. Lynching, castrations, the incineration of Black people and their property and the killing of innocent people have been part of the KKK’s agenda in keeping Black folk in check. The idea was to keep us  from participating in getting an education, decent employment, livable housing, and from participating in the political process.

 

What’s interesting is how young Black folk within the Hip Hop Movement have picked up the mantle of KKK thinking of oppressing their own people. A list of the images of Black folk that many in the Hip Hop Movement hold are: 1) To get an education is trying to be White. The KKK thought the same way after Slavery, and with the help of Jim Crow Laws, often made it illegal for Black people to get an education. 2) Black people who make it to positions of success `aren’t really Black’. How is it Black folk can question whether Barack Obama is Black enough, when he would have as much trouble trying to catch a cab in New York as any other person of color. 3) No Black person deserves respect and Black life is devalued. These folks do drive-by shootings, with little to no concern for the innocent people they may strike with bullets. This comes from a lack of self respect. They don’t believe they have much value and treat other Blacks the same way. To kill other Black folks is somehow okay to these people.  These folks speak of respect without giving it.  Convoluted?  No doubt!

 

Now, this e-mail I recently received about the KKK and their disbanding because Black folk were doing the job so well, there was no longer a need for the KKK. Although this email was probably a hoax, a lot of truth was spoken here. Take a look!

 

The KKK Disbands: Leaves Their Job To Black Folks

The KKK leader stepped to the podium, his hood lowered around his shoulders and a look of disgust on his face. He said, “Sorry guys but this will be our last meeting; we’re going out of business.” A member stood up in back. “But why sir?” The leader sighed, “Well, reverend, the Blacks are doing a better job getting rid of themselves than we ever did, so we are no longer needed.”
There were rumblings and protest. The leader raised his hand to silence the Klan members, and said, “Their rap music says more vile things about Black women than we ever thought of.” The members grudgingly nodded in approval. The Imperial Dragon continued: “And their women write books and make songs that demean black men better than my two speech writers ever could, looking down at two men seated in front who lowered their heads. “They shoot each other constantly “, he continued;” And as a group, they spend a huge amounts of money on cars, liquor, that stuff they call bling bling, and the proliferation of rap music — as they talk about all that in their magazines — and nobody needs us to talk about how a lot of their sorry butts keep playing the race and victim cards while complaining that other groups are surpassing them in economic development and supposedly getting more attention in schools. Hell, they even support a so-called “Black Hair” DVD that a white man is making money on, in four sequels at $20.00 a pop. They talk about how Koreans have taken over the “black hair” industry, without acknowledging that Black entrepreneurs had 100 years to get a monopoly or entrenchment in the industry that Madam C.J Walker founded 100 years ago, but got out-hustled and out-strategize, while spending investment capital elsewhere. Let’s face it, they’re being hoisted by their own petards.”! Some members went looking for dictionaries, while most members nodded as it hit them that their job was finished; that Blacks had become their own worst enemy.
The leader shook his head. “It’s time to go back to our regular lives as policemen, judges and congressmen, and leave the business of getting rid of Blacks to Blacks. They are just better at it than us.” He then threw his hood on the ground and walked off the stage. Thus ended the last KKK meeting.
Now I don’t believe for a minute that this email is true. But the things in it has to make any Black person, with a sense of their own self worth, take notice.Sure racism exists, however Black people are as much responsible for the obstacles to our success as the racists at this stage due to our beliefs about ourselves. There are things happening in the Black community that are totally in our control for which we aren’t taking responsibility.

 

As long as we think knowledge is the property of White folks, we are doomed as a people. As Tabacco always says in his blog (quoting Kathleen Turner in the movie Body Heat), KNOWLEDGE IS POWER! And if I might add, it belongs to no one.

 

 

How many times do we have to see friends, relatives, and family have babies without men being there first hand with their families, and see these families struggle, before you say to yourself, THERE’S GOT TO BE A BETTER WAY. How many generations of children have to repeat these same errors before their parents teach them otherwise?

 

 

I get scholarship offers at least twice a week for minority Americans students who want to go to college but don’t have the money. Too many Black folk, especially Black men, are not taking advantage of what’s available. This is not the White man getting in the way – WE HAVE TO LOOK IN THE MIRROR. What has happened to the ethic that used to be in our community regarding the importance of going to school, and later college?

 

 

We have to work on learning who and what we are. Parenting is a crucial matter. Why is the Black community bereft of parental training services considering the number of our young men who go to prison and how little parenting seems to be happening in many communities? Why do we allow the criminal justice system, prisons (which are controlled by mainly Whites), and ex-cons to set the agenda for our neighborhoods and children?  A lack of self worth and self love?  Ignorance?

 

 

If you take the language of many young Black folk today, you’ll see it’s not that much different than any racist talking about Black folk. We demean our women with disrespectful language, demean our fellow Black brothers, and disrespect our own children by not being there as parents and guiding them to have a  better life than our own.

 

 

Aids is of epidemic proportions in many of our neighborhoods. Responsible behavior is not something we have to ask White folks for – it’s in our grasp, under our control.

 

In New York, my clients are virtually all White. White folks see the value in the service I offer, whereas when I enter many Black establishments to sell my services, I’m greeted with as much contempt as I would be with a racist. ‘A prophet is a prophet everywhere but in his own home town.’

 

The proportion of Black folk who believe other Black folk have nothing of value to offer is tremendous. It’s one of the problems that Barack Obama is having in drawing Black folk from Hillary Clinton. Black folk have historically believed White folks to have more value than us. This could be an albatross for Obama. Only the bling (jewelry), the cheddar (money), what you drive, what you drink, and what labels you wear are of any value in the Black community – at least according to the videos!  Why do we want to perpetuate these images?  The lionshare of the cash is still going to the White man.

 

 

Collectively, Black folk need to take a look within to come in line with their true identity which can free them from the chains still on the brain. Black folk are some of the most creative people in this country, with the White population getting more credit for our creations in money and power. This will only change when we start to believe in who and what we are. This will not come without taking the time to look within. Black folk tend to be some of the most religious people in this country, but as much as we love Jesus/Christ, we are being misled about His Message. Churches tend to teach us HOW TO BE A FAN OF CHRIST, but we are doing little with respect to His Message regarding our true identity (in Spirit) and the power we have because of it.

 

 

Racism in America will change when Black people begin to see ourselves the way the Spirit sees us. The current view is despicable!

 

QUESTION EVERYTHING!  THAT’S WHERE THE TRUTH RESIDES.  USE YOUR PERSONAL POWER