Tom Brokaw knows and admits it.....

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Every now and then a well known white person admit they have benefited from white skin privilege. It does not happen often but when it does happen, it gives us the opportunity to look at the peers of that person, knowing that they came up around the same time thus it is not far fetched to conclude that they to benefited from white skin privilege.

This past Friday night, NBC ran a special looking back over the career of Tom Brokaw. Tom Brokaw covered almost every major event in the last thirty plus years. Towards the end of his special he spoke about being on the ground after the Watts riots and then back in Los Angeles after the riots in response to the Rodney King verdict. Tom Brokaw stated “In 1966 I really did think we were gonna resolve racism in America in my lifetime, I no longer feel that way” and then he said this;

“When I was a young man, even when I stumbled as I did in the first couple of years of College, there were people that were willing to stand beside me and give me another chance, When I got a job with no real experience there was a boss, who was willing to say we think your going to make to the future, If my skin had been one shade darker, none of that would have happened, it just wouldn’t happened, I am so conscious of that.”

It is truly amazing that so few white men in power in this country attribute their success to white skin privilege but these same white men, try to marginalize the success of Black men and women that have gotten to positions of power because of affirmative action. Even after admitting that his success is due in part to his white skin Tom Brokaw reputations or accomplishments will not be blemished. It is not a secret that white skin privilege is the status quo thus no stigma is attached to those who benefit from it, on the other hand these same individuals has stigmatized those who have risen to power by way of Affirmative Action so much that many of them especially the Negro-Cons would have us believe they were not the beneficiaries or the fruits of Affirmative Action.

Tom Brokaw was born in 1940, which makes him sixty four years old. Take a look at the various CEO’s of Fortune Five Hundred Companies, take a look at the other top News Anchors, and take a look at your own boss who also may qualify as a peer of Brokaw. These are the men in power and these are the beneficiaries of white skin privilege and these are the men leading the fight against Affirmative Action. The irony in it all is suffocating.

Feigning corruption as the cause of Africa’s woes.

If you ask nine out to ten people what is the major factor causing Africa’s continued entrenched poverty, they will answer with corrupt and inept leadership. Surprisingly enough, even most Africans will tell you the same thing. But what is it, if African leaders are more corrupt than others, that makes this so? Is it the fact that African leaders come from a pool of corrupt and inept people, thus making such predictable? Or is it the situation, meaning history and outside influences, that has manifested an environment of corruption?


For anyone to accept the notion that Africans, and hence African leaders, are more corrupt and inept than leaders in other continents and races is simply racist. The core of that racism is the belief that blacks biggest problem is either themselves or other black people. It says that blacks, in a relative world and in juxtaposition with other groups of people, are more harmful to themselves than others are harmful to them or that others are harmful to themselves. This is pure and simply the doctrine of racial inferiority being propagated through the cowardly act of stealth and or ignorance.


I have yet to hear the logical repudiation of the proposition that the present is the creation and summation of the past. Everything that exist today has its origin in events of the past. Thus, in order to properly understand phenomenon or events of the present, one must seek the answer from actions and reactions that manifested over time in the past. Every action creates a reaction. Yet, popular sentiment and propaganda will have you ignore, if not dismiss both these natural laws of existence and would have you dismiss their influence on the African condition.


When one talks about outside influences and environmental factors upon Africa, you have over 4 centuries of documented history of European influence and manipulation. You had the Europeans demand for African prisoners of wars, to be converted to slaves in the West. You had the drawing of national borders which split up natural homogenous groupings and combined tribally dissimilar peoples, fermenting division. You had colonization and the imposing of European cultural, political, economic and religious imperialism upon Africa. Then you had the Cold war manipulation of Africa by Europeans trying to spread white capitalism or white communism upon black people, propping up ruthless dictators in the process if only they would fight against the rivals ideology. Then you have the peonage and manipulation of economies and resources by virtue of loans from the West that are spent of Western goods and services, as a precondition to the loans.


These 400 years of actions from Europeans is ignored and dismissed from having had a major influence on the problems of Africa today. Instead, the focus or suspect is black inferiority which is qualified in stealth by the claim that Africa’s problems today are the product of black leaders who are corrupt and inept and who squander or pocket millions of dollars for their personal benefit, hence, keeping or making the people poor. Even though there are many African rulers who pocket millions, those millions can make one man rich, but spread out among 20 or more million people…really amounts to very little. A million dollars do not go very far these days. To turn most African countries economics, you need many billions of dollars spent on infrastructure, public health, education, economic investments and other.


The reality of why so many African leaders are corrupt is born from learned behavior and the template left by their former colonial masters, as well as, the power of multination corporations. When the European and Western powers abdicated their direct political control over Africa, they left a template and structure that was exploitive, because that is how the Europeans created it to exploit the masses and their resources. The post colonial African political leaders inherited the construct and hence many fall for the temptations to do the same thing. Also, Western governments and corporations influence the politics of many nations by supporting leaders or candidates who will allow their Corporations to own and exploit the Africans nations natural resources. They do this by offering bribes in the form of Loans from the IMF and World Bank, with the understanding that some of these monies for projects can go into the rulers pocket as his reward for cooperation with Western interest.


In conclusion, Africa’s many problems, like every thing else in existence, is the product of its past. If Africa was a booming success story today, like America, that too would be the product of things that happened in the past and not simply the product of phenomenon of the present. Indeed, the decline and or stagnation of Africa is a direct correlation with the rise of the West. Every action creates reactions and the reaction to European and Western Activity upon the continent of Africa, worked to lift up the West as the profit that resulted from putting the Africans down. It is what I call “seesaw economics”, which is the phenomenon of lifting up one entity by placing the weight of exploitation or burden upon another entity. Today, after 400 years of this “seesaw” economics the resultant in plan to see for those who seek profound truth and not superficial ones.

Motives, Means and Opportunity

Motives, Means and Opportunity. These factors are the primary means that law enforcement employ to best determine truth, in regards to an act considered criminal. In this methodology of discovery, in the absence of the ability to bare witness, everyone connected is therefore suspect, or should be. This has been an accepted methodology for solving crimes for centuries.

This methodology of discovery, Motives, means and opportunity (MMO), should be employed by all Americans in the analysis of events connected with our government and nation. In events such as the 911 terrorist attacks, most Americans dismissed our nations and or agents of our nation, as potential suspects. This violates the rules of discovery, because it removes from the pool a suspect that has MMO, likely as great, if not greater, than other suspects.

The reason that the American people do not and will not consider its nation as suspects is because of to much emotional and personal investment into this nation. People in America like to see America, and hence themselves, as morally superior people who are above such acts, because this is a nation blessed by God, as evidenced of the abundance God has provided. Also, a nation of people who say that place God above country, do not want to deal with the implications and guilt associated with a nation that may be committing acts of evil that trickles down to the benefit of citizens.

As long as America provides a good living for the masses of its people, the masses of the people will in turn place its trust and loyalty in the nation. Thus, the inability to bare direct witness to truth means that what and who the masses believe is a simply matter of who they trust, which in turns is a matter of deeds done that have earned trust. It is not as if this nation has bribed it citizens, however, the benefits that this nation has provided its citizens prevents the citizens from looking at the nation as a suspect. The primary reason is that the citizens do not want to face the moral dilemma between wealth and righteousness, even though they claim that God is at the pinnacle of their hierarchy. In short, they do not want to bite the hand that feeds them.

If one is willing to take a honest look at all suspects with MMO, including the USA, it can be argued that the primary suspect in many incidents is the USA. For example, again look at the 911 incident and what will come out in favor and benefit of the USA. There is an oil pipe line from Central Asia oil fields that will run through Afghanistan. This oil pipeline is essential to a oil starved economy like ours. The Taleban government previously denied the building of this pipe line. Then there is Iraq, with the second largest known oil reserves with a nationalized ownership and a ruler who would and could use oil as a political/economic weapon against his enemies in the West.

People will argue that the majority of the US oil does not come from the Middle East and thus why would the US need to invade these nation for their oil. However, this ignores the future demand for world oil due to the rapid rise of the Chinese and Indian economies, that will drive up the cost of oil per barrel unless the world supply can be increased commiserate with increased demand. Thus, if more oil is not produced from existing and new sources, the price of oil for the US will shoot up due to OPEC collusion. Given that oil is the life blood of economies, especially the USA’s, the USA had plenty to benefit from creating the likely only pretext what would get the support of the American people, as well as the international community, for the invasion of two nations.

Now, I am not saying that America orchestrated the 911 attack or sit by and let it happened when they could have stopped it. However, what I am saying is that America had the Motive, Means and Opportunity to conspire such an event. Given that we will never be able to bare witness to the truth as citizens, Motives, Means and Opportunity is really the only way that citizens can embark upon the discovery of truth.

Most Americans are not willing to accept that America has imperialistic interest. It has desires and plans for the world and its resources to be used to the maximum benefit of America and its corporate gluttonous interest. This is nothing new in the history of humanity and the drunkenness of power. Every world power has desired, if not practiced imperialism all through history. The fact that Americans think that our nation has superior humanity is the problem. We refuse to see ourselves as normative humans. We believe that our laws and constitution separates our humanity from others. However, those laws simply constrain our humanity within the boundaries of our borders, but not outside our borders were those laws do not apply. This is where our humanity becomes unconstrained and normative with history.

The Asian Myth

The success of Asians in America is simply a smoke and mirror magician trick being played on the ignorant. This is not to say that the success of Asians in America, in regards to education and household incomes, is a fallacy. The fallacy of the Asian story comes from comparing their performance and success with the aggregate performance of Americans in general and other races in America in particular.

This week, a Hmong man from South East Asia killed six hunters in the woods of Wisconsin. This act certainly does not fit the image held of Asians by most Americans. In fact, the Hmong community in Minnesota is the largest outside their native country. This community has existed in Minnesota since the early seventies, the product of the war in Vietnam. The Hmong fought of the side of the USA against the communist in South East Asia. The communist won the war and the Hmong lives were threatened and hence many were brought to the USA as refugees.

The Hmong are an interesting case study. If one looks at their educational attainment and income levels, it falls far below the average and median performance of the Asian population in the USA. Thee is also a high level of violence, from street gang related violence, to domestic violence, in the Hmong community in Minnesota, along with their high levels of poverty. Many live in public housing projects and poor communities in St. Paul Minnesota inner city.

So what makes the Hmongs performance in America so much different from than the performance of the Asian community in general? The primary answer to that question is based upon how they arrived here. There is big difference between the performance of immigrants who come as refugees, as opposed to those who come legally through the office of immigration. Those Asians who come by virtue of visas represents a filtering processes that has resulted in selecting the best and the brightest or the most ambitious into this nation. On the other hand, refugees are not filtered into the country based upon education or financial means and hence selects a more representative reflection of the reality of their native peoples.

It is this filtering process, by the US immigration department, along with some other factors, which results in the filtering into this nation the best and brightest and the most motivated from other nations. This is true for all those groups who enter into this nation legally, including the Africans, the West Indies and other places. One simply has to ask the question “how did they manage to get here, when so many others from their nation would like to come also.” These immigrants, in most cases, represents the elites, in regards to education, income and motivation, of their native countries.

These filtered elites are then used to play on the credulous of ignorant people by juxtaposing their success against the totality of the African Americans in this nation. The goal of this juxtaposing is to make the claim that African Americans are simply lazy and irresponsible and hence the major source of their problems. The Asian is then used as a template of what is can be accomplished by a minority group in America…if they are willing to work hard.

Not to take anything away from Asians, but some of the statistics in regards to income is misleading. For example, it is often noted that the Income of Asians is higher than that of white Americans. Again, this ignores that the Asian population are filtered elites and should outperform the general population of any group, barring discrimination. However, the truth of the matter is that most Asians are concentrated in the states and metropolitan areas with the highest cost of living and hence with the highest rates of pay. Most educated people know that the typical professional in Mississippi earns less than the typical professional in California or New York. Most Asians are concentrated in those two states, where incomes are higher. Hence, their national incomes appear inflated relative to other groups whose populations are dispersed more evenly throughtout the nation.

In conclusions, people should not allow themselves to fall victims to the smoke and mirrors statistics in regards to the Asian population, especially when they are being juxtaposed against the general population of other groups.

Daddy, Why are we Brown?

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This is the question my 6year old son asked me Saturday morning. My son is never without a question and I enjoy answering any question he has. I answer every question my son has with real world answers, I do not give him answers that are meant to stop him from asking more questions, in fact most answers I give him leads to more questions. An example being; he asked me a few times; why does the sun go down? Or when the sun sets in the evening he would ask “where did the Sun go?” I would answer him by saying the earth rotates around the sun and that the sun was on the other side of the earth right now and we are currently in the shadow of the earth. This of course would lead to more questions and we would go back and forth. So when he asked me Daddy, why are we brown? I was more than prepared to answer that question, but I was not ready for what he would say after I answered his question.

In answering my son question and without going to deep, I said, we are brown because we are of African descent, and because we are Black. My son said to me in his six year old childish voice not knowing what he was saying or fully understanding what he was saying “I want to be white”. At this point I sit up, and I asked him what did you say? and my son is no fool, he knows when his dad is not happy, so he says it again in a softer voice. A hundred thoughts run through my head at this point and I know I must handle this properly and not traumatize my son any more than it now appear being Black in a white society is currently and now apparently traumatizing him. I explained to my son that being Black is a wonderful thing and that we are a strong people. I ended by saying to him, I never want hear you say that again and asked him the mandatory, “do you understand” he said yes.

As we went about our day, what my son said to me haunted me. I asked myself why my son would want to be white and what has led him to believe there is some inherent benefit to having white skin. As I wrestled with this question and thinking back to what my son said when I asked him why do he want to be white and him saying “white is cool” ; I wondered has he seen something that says to him being black or brown is not cool. Children are like sponges, they are absorbing everything their eyes and ears come in contact with, thus if my son think being white is cool, this means that something he has seen and heard has brought him to that conclusion.

As a parent one of the things you learn early on is that there are hundreds of things and people that try to undermine the parenting of your child. They will teach your child things that you do not particularly believe in and they instruct your child on things you do not want your child being a part of. An example of this is, my son lost a tooth a month or two ago and after it came out he said he was going to put it under his pillow so that he can get some money. I do not teach my son these fairytales or traditional lies; in fact I tell him the truth about these things when he ask thus if he believes he will get money by putting his tooth under his pillow, this mean he has learned this from somewhere else and it is up to me to tell him the truth and believe me I did.

Getting back to what would cause my son to say “he wants to be white”, I have concluded that my son has paid close attention to the children on television and in cartoons that has things he like and want. He has watched all the children on these various commercials with the new toys he want, that eat at the fast food restaurants and get the toys they have and seen that the one thing the majority of them have in common is their white skin thus linking access to those things with having white skin. I have concluded this because at three years old my son paid close attention to who was the manufacture of the cars friends and family members drove. He would then see a car Manufacture name and properly link it with the friend or family member that drove that brand of car.

What ever the reason is that my son stated he wanted to be white if I am wrong in my conclusion, we can conclude without a doubt that my son has seen some benefit in being white versus being brown, so much that he is willing to give up his beautiful brown skin for white skin. How does this happen, in a society where most white folk and a few Negroes will say race is not a problem today. My son is around more Black folk than anything, my house only have Black art on the walls, my son is not a television junkie but yet I have not been able to stop the white supremacist machine from affecting my son.

This is a warning of sorts to all Black parents in this society dominated by white folk and white supremacy, we must work hard at teaching our children to love their black selves at a young age because if you are not teaching them to love their black selves they will learn to love other than themselves. Some people believe six year olds are to young to understand and be taught anything about race; well I say to those that at six years old, my son has ascertained from everything he has seen and heard that there is a benefit in being white versus being brown and I may not know exactly how he came to that conclusion but the truth is he has and now I will spend my everyday teaching him otherwise as I have always planned to do.

Dont Forget...

This Blog can be reached by typing the url www.blackintrospection.com.

Using White Racist Attacks on Condi to Attack Black Leadership.

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If there is one thing those Negro-Cons that appear to be defending Condi Rice against racist attacks by various cartoonist have in common, it is their using these attacks on Condi Rice to attack Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton, the NAACP and the NOI. This tactic is not new, in fact it is a tactic Negro-Cons commonly use when they believe there is an issue being ignored by Black progressive men and women and Black Leadership. Instead of speaking directly to an issue they approach the issue by condemning Black leadership and Black progressive men and women for not speaking on the issue and giving it the attention they think it deserve but the interesting part is they had not given it any attention until they realized they could use it to their advantage. This can be witnessed in their stance on what is happening in the Sudan, what is happen in the Ivory Coast and now what is happening with these cartoonist caricaturizing Condoleezza Rice.

It works something like this; the Negro-Con will opine about an issue and how wrong it is or how racist it is and then they will spend the majority of their time asking where are those whom they have found themselves in opposition to on every issue not because they really want them to speak up but because they wanted to use this opportunity to attack them. White Conservatives do the same thing, so now we have Rush Limbaugh and his callers asking where is the NOI, where is the NAACP, where is Jessie Jackson; then there is the inherently racist Sean Hannity who has not found a police killing of a Black man he did not think was justified asking where is Black leadership and why are none of the Black people that usually get raked over the coal on his TV and radio show speaking up in defense of Condi. The answer is obvious in many ways but the answer also presents a conundrum in that the things the Negro-Cons are saying is racist that is being written and spoken about Condi by white folk are the same thing Black Folk say and write about Condi Rice and other Negro-Cons.

This conundrum is much like the use of the “N” word. Black folk refer to one another as “Nigga” all the time but do not want any white person referring to us as “Nigga”. Now we have the Negro-Cons saying a white person calling Condi Rice a Handkerchief head, Boot Licking Aunt Jemima that is a Parrot for the Bush administration is racist, but this is what Black folk say about her as well. There is some similarity in both situations with the difference being the originators of the terminology. We know that white folk used and continue to use the word “Nigger” to degrade and demoralize Black folk, and Black folk have used terms like Handkerchief Head, Boot Licker, Uncle Tom and Aunt Jemima to marginalize and categorize those Negro men and women that we believe have sold the interest of their people out for personal gain. The problem with a white person saying these things about a Black person is being able to differentiate between their racist beliefs about Black folk versus their specific beliefs about the politics of Negro-Cons like Condi Rice. It would be in white folks best interest to not use words like Uncle Tom, Handkerchief Head Aunt Jemima to refer to Black men and women based on thier own people racist past and there not being an easy way to differentiate between their racist beliefs about all Black people and their beliefs about the politics of a specific Black person.

It is interesting to see the Negro-Cons labeling white liberal cartoonist racist, which Black progressive men and women and those Black folk that label themselves politically liberal do not dispute, however no Negro-Con will admit that Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Bill O’Reily and the various other racist on the right are in fact racist.

With that said; are the cartoons that caricaturized Condi Rice racist? I have looked at all of them and believe some of them are in fact racist and demonstrate the racism that does exist on the left in America. In one of the cartoons there is a caption with Condi Rice using a double negative, this of course was simply the cartoonist allowing his own racist belief that all Black people speak the English language improperly spill over into his work when in fact we all know that Condi speaks the language well and she speaks Russian Fluently, thus the cartoonist depiction of Condi speaking the language improperly was not a shot at Condi or her politics but at her being Black and that racist Bastard should be fired and I am certain if we looked over his portfolio we will find depictions of other Black folk in a racist manner but those on the right are not concerned about that. I have seen outright racist caricatures of Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton and Minister Louis Farrakhan and not one Negro-Con spoke up in their defense but that is to be expected, so I will not waste time talking about it.

The other cartoons that depict Condi as a Parrot are dead on but the artist again allows his racism to slip into the cartoon when he makes her lips big, which racist has historically done in their caricatures of Black folk. When all is said and done, we will see that Negro-Cons are more interested in trying to destroy Jessie Jackson, Al Sharpton, Louis Farrakhan and the NAACP more than they are in defending Condi Rice and Black people against racist attacks by white folk. If Negro-Cons were truly interested in defending Black folk against white racist, there is no way they could align themselves with so many racist of the Conservative persuasion. I have not seen one Negro-Con including Condi Rice speak out against the racist investigation being undertaken by the IRS concerning the NAACP, but these same Negro-Cons believe the NAACP should defend Condi.

Being a Negro-Con has its finacial rewards

Being a Negro-Con has rewards.....Big time!

LANSING -- Ward Connerly, the California-based crusader who has launched a
petition drive to put a racial preference ban on the 2006 ballot in Michigan,
was paid more than $1 million by his two charities last year, documents filed
with the Internal Revenue Service show.......

My commentary is forthcoming....

Will the "Free Market" eventually become the nemisis of the US economy?

I am no economist; however I did spend the night at a Holiday Inn Express. People like to argue politics, but it is economics that is the real issue of life and well being.

The free market, which has been the friend of the USA for so long, is now becoming the biggest threat to our economic security and or status. The nature of freedom is that things are both free to work for you and free to work against you. For the last 50 years, it has been the former and that is why our nation pushed free markets. But in the coming years, it will likely be the latter and it will be interesting to see if we continue our zealous support of free markets or adopt more for intervention and regulation when the free market works to our competitive disadvantage.

The last major depression in this country was the product of the stock market crash and a run on banks that could not cover or honor deposits. If this is the threat that people are watching out for to bring forth the next economic depression, then they are ignoring the more likely threat, which is the crash of our economy due to the currency market and the green backs role there of. This is because the value of US currency has been “floated” or disconnected from a tangible asset, like Gold, and now has its value being created from the supply and demand forced of “speculation”. Speculation is the buying of currency in the hope of exchanging it with another currency for profit. The profit is earned from the volatility of fluctuations of currencies. Today, the vast majority of dollars circulating are due to currency speculation and trading, which means that the dollars value is linked to what investors speculate about the direction of the US economy and health will be, relative to other nations or communities.


Today, the trend is that the dollar is steadily declining in value relative to the Euro dollar and other major currencies, like the Yen, in the currency exchange market. Now, given that the USA is running trade deficit (nations current accounting) and would like to be able to increase its exports, it actually wants the dollar to continue to fall so that foreign goods will be more expensive and US made goods well be less expensive which should theoretically stimulate more demand for US goods and services by other nations. Thus, the USA is in no hurry to try to boost the value of the dollar, due to its imbalance of trade. However, the free market force of momentum cannot be easily controlled by government or central bank actions, thus, the momentum of the fall will likely fall below the targeted desirable drop to bring equilibrium between the values of exports relative to imports. The resultant of falling below the target level is inflation that will kill off economic growth and investment due to the cost of borrowing being too high.

This threat becomes more so do to politics. Again, the value of the dollar is linked to speculation and confidence of investors around the world in America Inc and the direction that it is heading. Many people ignorantly dismiss the negative sentiments around the world concerning George Bush, because they fail to understand the interdependence of a globalized economy and free market. All that they choose to see is those people do not have a political vote in regards to American political leaders. That is true, but all those people who are starting to resent American policy and arrogance can vote on our economic fate through the conduit of globalization and the free market. The can and likely will express their discontent for America in their demand for American goods and services, as well as their demand for US dollars.

In light of this, the threat of a global free market reduces nation’s hegemony over its ability to control its economic fate. Currently, the European Union is highly upset at the USA because the strong Euro dollar, relative to the green back is, is hurting their export driven economic recovery. They need their currency to fall, relative to the dollar, so that their goods will be price competitive in America. But their strong currency makes their goods cost more in the USA, the largest consumer market in the world. There is nothing, however, the Europeans can do about it in the free market construct. The same will be true when the USA starts to will need foreigners to come to the aid of its economy, but they will not do to their own interest. The world is becoming less and less dependant upon the US economy and the less dependent it becomes, via the growth of other economies, the more people will work against the interest of the USA due the decline of shared fate.


There is an important assumption in capitalistic economic theory that bases certain outcomes upon humans acting out of purely economic interest of value in a competitive free market. What debilitate capitalism and theoretical models are people who make market decision based not upon economics motives, but other motives. Capitalistic theory does take into considerations people forgoing the best “value” or deal due to political motives. If too many people around the world become upset with American policy and practices globally, they can make free market decisions against our goods and services, which can essentially amount to a boycott of America via boycotting its products and currency, since it cannot direct affect its politics. Given the last four years of George Bush and the changing of his cabinet, it only stands to reason that the worlds disdain for him will negatively effect the free market decisions of the rest of the world to some degree.

I have always said that wisdom is the understanding that every action creates reactions and that nothing is gained without something else being given up. People must have the foresight beyond the typical analysis of the benefits to the nation and to them, but to the cost and impact upon others…that in turn will at sometime in the future react in turn towards the entity negatively affecting them.

If it is true that the first terrorist attack against the USA was not an inside job, then there will be another terrorist attack that I am sure will be designed to have maximum impact aimed at toppling the USA economy. The USA economy is structural weak on all accounts, from savings rates, to trade deficits, to the loss of comparative advantage in the free market, to budget deficits and wars sucking up dollars. Another major attack and jolt within the USA borders, greater than the magnitude of 911, could be the free market trigger that sends our nation spiraling into a major depression. Unless politicians change global policy and arrogance that breeds the hatred of Americans….this things will not be “ifs”, but “when’s”.

The Essence of Politics on Display..

The essence of politics is on display in the matter of the Republicans changing their own rules to benefit one of their own. Black folk have been and continue to be suspicious of Politicians and their ability to make laws that benefit them or special interest. We are all aware of the power lobbyist have in Washington and how they literally bribe politicians to vote one way or another on various issues. In the case of Tom Delay, the “moral right” changed a law that stated leaders in the GOP had to relinquish their leadership position if indicted for a felonious crime. Tom Delay is probably going to get indicted for his role in illegal corporate contributions to a political associate of his and under normal circumstances he would have to step down once the indictment is handed down.

However, Tom Delay has won favor with his GOP buddies based on his successful gerrymandering down in Texas that led to three Democrats loosing their seats in the house and getting three or more republicans elected. It is obvious what the GOP did in Texas is gerrymandering but in a two party system where this kind of behavior is carried out by both parties the foul cry is not screamed as loud as it should because the Democrats know given the chance they would do the same thing, and yet they still believe we should believe in this system.

In cases like this where it is so clear that Delay colleagues are acting in his favor to protect him and willing to go as far as changing a rule they voted to have, the belief that politicians do not act in the interest of the people is confirmed. The GOP is saying the possible indictment of Delay is a partisan attack, you know like the impeachment of former President Clinton. This act by the GOP only bolsters Black men and women suspicion of politics and politicians in a two party system where no behavior is limited to one party and it further confirm that these two parties use their ten percent difference to keep the men and women in America divided.

No profit...no vaccine....The curse of Capitalism

I am rather surprised that there has not been more commentary about the reasons why so many people are now more vulnerable to the influenza virus, due to lack of vaccines. Most certainly thousands of more people will likely die this year in the nation, than needed to be, for one simple reason. That reason being the fact that producing the vaccine did not prove monetarily profitable for US companies, so many abdicated the production of the vaccine for more lucrative drugs.

The moral or lesson in this is that having a profit driven free market society has detriments that are part and parcel to the benefits. In the case of the flu vaccine, public health was put at risk because capitalism could not find a profit in helping protect its citizens against illness and death, so they did not...and people will die. The reason being is that capitalism is in the business of monetary profit, not moral, ethical or social profit and good. The bottom line is always dollars when we have a system that is and has become so dependant on the private sector in order to shrink the size of government and reduce tax burdens.

It is not only an issue of what the private sector will not do that can be dangerous, it is also an issue of what it does make profit from, which can also be dangerous. Whenever profit is earned and livings are made from social dilemmas and problems, it becomes a conflict of interest of those profiting to ever see the problem corrected or cured. The same thing is true in regards to the profiting that pharmaceuticals do for treating symptoms of illness to the degree that the drugs keep people alive or create dependence. There is less long term monetary benefit from researching cures than researching products to treat symptoms.

There was once a time when street cars were in every major city in the USA. Public transportation was widely available to the degree that it got poor people to where they needed to go. However, there was not profit in public transit systems and the birth of the automobile resulted in efforts by the powerful Auto Industry Barons to lobby the ripping up of the street car system so that people would be more dependent upon cars to get around. The result is that today transportation gridlock is a major problem, born from the automobile dependency, and the urban sprawl in most major cities. Now, poor people without jobs or transpiration have a hard time getting to areas where the job growth is.

There is also the phenomenon of privatizing of prisons and consumer goods being produced by low cost prison labor. With so many people in prisons in the USA, disproportionately black people, prisons, prison workers, courts, lawyers, judges, police officers have all become part of the prison industrial complex employing hundreds of thousands workers to deal with the social ramifications of poverty and crime born mostly from poverty. Not that it is a realistic hypothetical, but if they ever got rid of poverty and crime, so many people would be put out of work and lose their means of earnings that poverty and crime would return, but with new faces of the poor.

I do not think that it is health when a considerable portion or our GDP is money and profit exchanged from the treatment of the symptoms of social ills and problems. The nations well being is measured most profoundly by the metrics of GDP numbers. However, GDP numbers do not reflect what people are entering into monetary transactions for. I think that there is a profound difference between GDP generated from producing widgets for sale than GDP generated from building prisons or from paying for daycare, which was once a service performed for free.

In conclusion, I think having a society driven by the monetary profit motive can a does create a callous, morally eroded and problem enabling society that will spiral downward socially and morally, while spiraling upwards in profit and GDP growth.

The Christian Conservative Revolution of America?

Theocracies are repressive by their nature. I am not an opponent nor proponent of theocracy, however, if there is to be this Christian Orthodox revolution by conservatives here in America, one has to have the foresight to see the consequences of such a revolution.

People must realize that living life to the mandates of ones chosen religion is repressive. Religions all have a blueprint for life and living for its followers and adhering to those mandates in an orthodox fashion restricts freedom. Thus, how can the Christian revolutionaries who are embarking on saving America do so without eroding the greatest virtue of this nation, which is individual freedom?

It seems very hypocritical to me that some of the main proponents of this Christian revolution are some of the loudest critics against the repression taking place in many Middle Eastern Theocracies. They attack these nations because they restrict freedoms of its citizens, but that freedom is restricted from the joining of Religion and State and the imposing of religious doctrine into laws of governance, which is essentially the only way that Christians can reengineer the moral decay in America.

The fundamental Juxtaposition or conflict will be between individualism and collectivism. Again, individual freedom is likely one of the greatest virtues of America. The people who immigrate here from other types of governance do so partly due to the promise of individual freedom. However, what the Christian conservatives are advocating is controlling the collective direction of America by somehow changing the behavior of individuals for the common good. This maybe a worthy goal, but the pleasures and immediate gratification of sin and immorality that manifest from individual freedom is not going to be given up without force of laws.

The consequence of freedom is that one is free to be moral or immoral. One cannot be free to only be moral. Freedom is the absence of barriers to actions and behaviors. It is obvious that our nation does not practice absolute freedom as such would represent anarchy. However, to the degree that we do practice freedom within the frame work of laws, individuals are free to be moral or immoral by religious definition. Thus, one cannot force a religiously defined morality upon the people unless one further restricts the freedoms by imposing more religious based laws.

Collective interests and the common good cannot be added to without subtracting from individual freedom and individual good. There are many things that are pleasurable, if not good, for individuals, but bad for the collective. As parents, we have a collective family interest. However, if one of the spouses decides to pursue the pleasures of infidelity, that individual act comes at the direct threat to the collective family unit. As a nation, individuals and corporation pursuing the profit or monetary or fleshly pleasures from activities can and do work to erode the collective moral direction of the nation in the same way.

If the Christian revolution were to manifest seriously, it would have to come in direct conflict and battle for dominance over the worship of money and materialism in this nation. The reason being is that one cannot have an economic system fueled by greed and gluttony, 2 of the 7 deadly sins, and truly be a follower of orthodox Christianity, which preaches against such sins. This, I guarantee you, is a battle that so called Christian Conservatives are not willing to fight….because they religion will lose and they will be forced to recognize that their true God is not in heaven, but printed as the federal reserve system.

Christian conservatives will follow doctrine up to the point where it threatens Americas economic well being and hence their status, then they will reinterpret the scripture so that it allows them to have their cake and eat it to. One can call them Keynesian Christians, after economist John Maynard Keynes, as opposed to orthodox Christians. The reason being is that these are people believe in hyper human competition, as opposed to mutual human economic cooperation. Competition always produces winners and losers, where cooperation restricts those economic extremes.

Well, that is all I have to say about that for now. I just find it interesting that the media could suggest a thought, moral values being a key in the election, and now all that I hear about is this Christian Conservative revolution to change America. All I can say is do not hold your breath unless you expect them to cut off their nose to spite their face.

Knowlege, Belief and Trust.

How much do we actually know and what does it mean to “know”. Whatever the definition of knowing is, there is a distinction and difference between the concept and the concept of “belief”. In fact, most of our understanding are beliefs that we have accepted without independently being able to prove or bare witness to it as fact. Religion is a good example of that which we believe,but cannot bare witness to because the creator did not give us the knowledge directly, but through the conduit of other humans, which opens the door for human sinful nature to potentially alter God's intentions.

In light of this, most of what we think we know, we actually only believe. Beliefs being things that we accept as true but cannot independently prove as such. Most things that we believe are primarily dependant upon whom we trust. Therefore, the people and institutions that have proved the most loyal in protecting our well being and survival are the primary sources of our trust and hence, the primary instruments of shaping our beliefs. Of course, there are always exceptions to the rule.

Much of what we believe, therefore, is ingrained in us from an early age through the conduit of our parents, because we trust them so, and those who our parents say is ok for us to trust or from those who endear our trust through deeds. These teachings or information thus become ingrained beliefs in our subconscious, if not conscious, until we can bare witness to the invalidity of those beliefs, if our minds are open for revision…which they often are not. The thing about beliefs is that many are protected by investments of emotions, which compels people to hold onto them even against factual and logical contradictions of those beliefs.

Trust and faith is the root of all things that we believe and most things we think that we know, which cannot be independently proven or bared witness to. Information coming from individuals or institution that are not trusted, likely due to the history of their deeds impacting negatively upon a soul or people, will fail to inspire trust and faith and hence inspire disbelief and skepticism. Our beliefs, therefore, is simply linked to our survival biological directives through the conduit of trusting those have facilitated our survival.

One can obviously see, based upon what has been presented thus far, why the masses of black people often differ from whites. Take the proclamation from the President saying that Iraq has Weapons of mass destruction. The institution of the Presidency of the United States inspires much more trust to the white masses than to the black masses. The reason being is that the United States was the savior for white Europeans who fled other lands for a better life in America, which gave a premium and privilege to whites. Blacks on the other hand, have a quite different history, which includes their oppression by for at least 90% of the time their people have been in this land. Thus, there is a loss of trust and hence a loss of credulous.

If one understands that every action creates a reaction, then seeks to understand the various reactions to centuries of black oppression, the loss of trust of whites in general, should be an obvious one. Thus, when Southern whites, the most notorious white racist throughout this nations history, become republicans in the Dixicrats revolt to civil rights, the Republican party lost the trust of black people and hence, the belief in their platforms. They fact that some people have a problem understanding why the masses of black people vote democratic is a fact born from sheer ignorance of human nature and instincts for survival. Blacks fundamentally have a history of distrusting groups that have oppressed them. Yet, people expect blacks stick there hands in the same fire that burnt them in the past…which means that such critics have a low expectation of black pattern recognition skills and or intelligence.

Many people would like to pretend that history never manifested and that we can now all just move forward and forget the past. In fact, many white people actually adopt this as a strategy, so much so that that seem stunned when other people, mostly black, do not pretend along with them. They want for blacks to be able to trust whites and thus remove the stigma and stain upon white history. What they want is for white actions of the past to not have a negative reaction upon whites of the present, but mostly upon themselves personally. However, white of the past earned their distrust through their deeds, while whites of the present are not willing to offer deeds to earn black trust, as they are against all programs designed to undo the effects of white racism of the past.

Some white people are in such a state of make believe that they actually see blacks natural reaction to the history of white racism as being a cause of continued white racism. It is akin to stabbing someone then rationalize stabbing them again because they got blood on you or reacted with anger in return. They expect blacks to not only have no reaction, but to forgive and forget and when they find blacks who fail to do this, they become unsettled, angry and use these individual to rationalize why whites have problem with blacks.

In conclusion, most of what we think we know is actually only that which we believe. In turn, that which we believe is mainly the information that we have been given and have accepted by those whom we trust, by virtue of their positive contribution to our survival and needs. Given the history of America and the different histories and paths of the people in it, it will be a long time, if ever, before blacks will have the same beliefs as white people on a wide range of issues, due to a fundamental absence of the deeds of this nation to instill a trust equal to that which it has instilled in the white masses whom it have favored for centuries.

What will the reaction be if he is found not guilty...

Will white folk react with shock and horror if Scott Peterson is set free. We will know in a few short minutes. This will only be interesting if he is found not guilty. Will there be talk about the incompitence of the Jury, will there be talk about changing the whole legal system as in the O.J. case. I have not followed this case enough to really know one way or the other of his guilt or innocence but I know one thing, if he is found not guilty we should expect a white backlash, or does that only happen in cases involving a Black person?

Well read Vs. Well Thought

Is being well read more important than being a person who thinks a lot? There are some people who are veracious readers and spend most of their time reading the thoughts and thinking of others. However, every moment spent reading the thoughts of others is a moment taking away from forming ones own thoughts through philosophical examination of life and existence.

Reading is a necessity. Reading is the primary conduit to knowledge about things that we cannot observe or bare witness to directly. However, there is a difference from reading objective facts and data, as opposed to reading subjective analysis, opinions and conclusion. Hence, there is a difference between reading data, mathematical laws and theories, facts, events, and the like…versus reading another persons synthesis of these things presented as information.

I do think that reading and learning objective truths is very crucial to the success of modern thinking and philosophy. Thus, what I am juxtaposing is being well read in the non-objective truth categories and being a person who through their own pensive pondering, formulate their independent conclusions based upon and analysis of objective truths and facts and deductive reasoning.

I can recall something that a college professor told the class directly before passing out exams. He would always say “Remember…if all else fails….THINK”. In truth, thinking is like exercising and many people are simply mental couch potatoes. They do not want to do it unless they have to or can find profit in doing so. The path the least resistance does not traverse through thinking and pondering, because thinking can be frustrating and draining.

In light of this, many people seek the path of co-opting others thoughts and conclusions. It is akin to cheating or copying off another persons work, because they did not take the time to do their own work. This is what most people do in America in regards to social issues and world events. They do not take time out to think things through, but rather, simply co-opt the position of others who opinion maps to their preexisting emotional predisposition to the subject. In that way, they do not have to think but simply read or listen to the argument of someone who has thought and analyzed (correctly or incorrectly) it, and then co-opt that opinion and propagate it as their own.

This is the danger of reading and or listening to the synthesis of others as opposed to thinking on ones own. It’s a double edged sword because people and societies can control what you believe by controlling the information that you receive. It can be and is used as a form of brain washing. One can think that they have freedom of choice on what to input into their minds, but what one chooses is nearly always based upon some bias….and what formed the bias? One cannot have freedom without the absence of bias because bias prevents the exploration of other points of view and hence people become prisoners to their bias. For a good example of this one has to just examine the phenomenon of conservative isolation. They want to have their “own” space to share ideas because they are not open to the ideas of other that are counter to their own and they do not want to be forced to maintain the tenability of their beliefs against non-believers.

What we believe and how we see the world is mostly product of what this society has given us to read and this society has a vested interest in perpetuating itself via having its citizens conform to its ideologies. This is popularly referred to a propaganda and societies propaganda is designed for the entities self preservation of the status quo. By being a “thinker” one is therefore less subject to bad or good propaganda and is hence actually more free than those whose lives are shaped by what others input into their minds.

I can always tell a “reader” from a “thinker” on blogs and forums. The readers or co-opters of others thinking rely mostly on providing quotes and links to what someone else has said. The funny thing is, it is hard to trace back to the original source because so many people are in on the co-opt that it creates great savings from having to not think and use up ones own energy and time. They all simply just past the thoughts around to be shared by all and sometimes co-opters add something of their own too.

I think that humanity will be well served to start stressing the need for “thinkers” and philosophizers as opposed to those people who simply regurgitate the thoughts and conclusions of others. I do believe that reading the thought of others, to a degree, is healthy. However, I do think that there is a pandemic of lazy minds that would rather co-opt the thoughts of others as opposed to thinking on their own.

Arafat the Monster? To whom?

I had no intentions on commenting on the death of Yasser Arafat. I believe Noah did a great job in his op-ed and nothing more needed to be written about it on Black Introspection. However on the way home I tuned in to the Michael Savage show as I do everyday on the drive home and he was in the middle of a tirade about the “Monster” Arafat. He reference and quoted an article written by Jeff Jacoby for the Boston Globe today entitled “Arafat the Monster”.

As I listened to Savage speak about Arafat and how life goes on after his death, I could not help but think back to a few months ago when the gates of hell were swung opened to receive the late evil memory less Ronald Reagan and how there was no talk about how life will go on, even with him being dead, although it was as apparent after his death as it is after Arafat’s death that life goes on. Savage went on to criticize the Media for what he said was their attempt at making Arafat the monster into a good man. Unlike Savage many in the media recognize that regardless of the religious right and the supporters of Israel belief that Arafat is a monster there are those who love him.

When we consider the viewpoint of the Palestinian people versus that of the religious right in America and the Rogue State of Israel, we are again faced with a differing viewpoint much like the different view point held by Black folk concerning American history. Many of the white right wing nuts in the media that are saying it is a good thing that Arafat is dead and that history should reflect he is a terrorist are the very same white folk that take pride in the having terrorist in American history that enslaved Black men and women, raped and colonized Africa and wrote the history of those events as triumphant victories for them and this same garbage is taught to our children. When there is mention that the framers of the constitution were men who held Black men and women as slaves in their homes and many of them raped the Black women that were owned by them, this history is seen as irrelevant.

Arafat is a hero to his people in the same way George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin and all the other rapist and enslavers are American heroes. It is really strange how that beast Sharon is considered to be any different than Arafat. If history is to portray Arafat as a terrorist than I say it is about time we correct the revisionist view point taught to us as American history and write it as it should be written. However we all know in America only the heroes of those opposed to white supremacy and white imperialism are portrayed as monsters in history while the savage framers of this Nation are given a pass. Arafat is no more a monster than those who found this nation but many will face their own date with death before they realize it.

A humorous analysis of the Red and Blue States from A Northeasterner

I had to present this link....it is raw and to the point and pretty much sums of the hypocricy that won Bush the election. READ screw the south dot com.

A closer look at the motives of Black Conservatives

It has become evident, after this recent presidential election, that the black conservatives of America have some sort of complex or dilemma going on concerning their role and status in the black community. I say this because there is a heightened effort, on their part, to try and ramp up the percentage of the black votes that were cast for Bush. They are arguing that there has been some sort of conspiracy to propagate the exit polls which show Bush getting the least percentage of black votes. For example, the CNN poll, as opposed to the LA Times poll. They, hypocritically, are sounding like “Victims” of some left wing conspiracy that’s keeping them “down”. The “man”, or the “liberal white man”, if you will, has become their boogieman as they claim the black liberals cry victimhood and are haunted by the conservative white boogieman.

(NOTE: If there are liberal and white conservative boogiemen…then race, and not politics, is still our primary impediment)


The Black Conservative behavior is akin to arguing over whether or not you got 11 or 15 questions correct on a 100 question test. Folks…. Let me be the one to break the news to you….it just does not matter, because both scores are failures. However, it seems to be of great importance to the black conservative, AKA, the Negro-Con. The reason being is that the Negro-Con has a “sell out” complex and needs to have more blacks share their ideology and belief so that they are not seen as anomalies in the black community.


The Negro-Con is kind of like some Bi-racial people, in that; they do not feel that they really fit in anywhere. Most of them fully understand that racism is still alive and well in this nation and that they not seen in the same light as white conservatives. Plus, they have no leverage to influence the platform of White conservatives because they are not needed to win elections for them. They have estranged themselves from the masses of black people, by labeling themselves differently and by attacking the leadership of those black masses. Now, they fit in nowhere, but amongst each other.

Thus, the Negro-Con is actually in mode of “recruiting”. There goal is to convert as many black folks as possible to their way of thinking. They are attempting to do this by attempting to tell the black masses what to think and by attacking the traditional black leadership. This is why whether or not Bush got 11% or 15% of the black votes was so important to them. It represents a vindication of their “blackness”, if more black people think and behave the way they do. Thus, by Bush/republicans getting a larger percent of the black vote than before, means that they feel less like outcast, sell-outs, and uncle-toms…even if no one has labeled them as such…it’s a Freudian projection. The way they see themselves subconsciously, they project that other black folks see them that way…which may be true too.

What I believe…I believe based upon understanding nature, human nature, history and a desire to be righteous (not the same as religious). I do not care if one percent of the people think like me or 100%. All I care about is that I be principled, logical and truthful in coming to my conclusions and beliefs and not having the written in stone and not subject of logical altering. Thus, I have a hard time reconciling why the Negro-Con spends so much time “whining” about what percentage of the black vote Bush got. More than anything else…I believe that the Negro-Con simply wants to be “loved”, “accepted” and to fit in somewhere.

Some thoughts in regards to Yassar Arafats passing.

In light of Yassar Arafats recent demise, I think that it is time for Americans to do some introspection in regards to our perceptions about who is and who is not terrorist. Now that Arafat is dead, all I have heard is "good riddance to this terrorist", for the most part. The term terrorist has taken on immoral connotations that make those labeled such out to be evil fanatics. Without doubt there are evil fanatics that practice terrorism, but not all terrorist are motivated by evil and fanaticism.

It is said that one persons ceiling is often another person’s floor. It is also said that one should not judge a person unless they have walked a mile in the shoes of the person being judged. Here in our own country and in our own history, there are many people heralded as heroes and great men by some, but terrorist by others. Just ask the Native Americans how they view and interpret the actions of Europeans and white settlers upon their land. Just ask the African Americans how they view white heroes and founding fathers like George Washington and Thomas Jefferson’s, who terrorized their blacks to keep them as slaves.

The term terrorist is an emotionally laden term and not a very accurate term to describe what is happening between the Jewish and Palestinian people. I for one do not consider the actions of the Palestinians to be terrorism. They are not trying to "scare" or "terrify" the Isrealis as the end. I see their actions, along with the actions of the Jewish people, to be “Survivalism”. They are trying to ensure their survial on a plot of land that both call their own. The first law of nature is survival and self preservation and that is what is motivating both sides in that long standing conflict in the Middle East.

Terrorism is simply a strategy for survival. Nuclear war heads, advanced war planes, missiles, biological and conventional weapons….these things are also strategies for survival. Both the former and the latter bring death. There is no fundamental moral difference between the two means to that end, other than one is the strategy of the militarily weak and the other is the strategy of the militarily strong. They are simply asymmetrical and symmetrical means of survival whose main objective is killing and death of those perceived as a threat to the others survival.

Constantly I hear American people refer to terrorist as cowards for resorting to their tactics of survival. What they want, in essence, seems to be for the "terrorist" to fight their militarily superior opponents on the terms and conditions of their opponents, so that they can be crushed by the superior strength of their opponent. Their unwillingness to do so therefore makes them cowards, in the eyes of many. My suggestion to those who want a fair fight, instead of terrorism, is to provide the "terrorist" the same armaments that their opponents poses. In the past, when people had honor “duels”, both sides were equipped with the same armaments, whether they be swords or pistols. Today, it seems that people expect those who are fighting for what they consider to be their survival, engage in a duel of honor, but without the tools of honor, which would lead to their slaughter.

If China were to develop some super technology that neutralizes our nuclear strength and makes them the overwhelmingly superior military power over the USA and subsequently invading our nation for our land….what would Americans do? Who would then get do define the meaning of terrorism and asymmetric warfare? Would we now call the "floor" what we use to refer to as the "ceiling"? When the shoe fits...would we wear it? Would we engage them head on where they have the greatest advantage or would we resort to other tactics that give us a better chance at survival and winning? Nature will trump morality every time, because one can only be moral if they are living and surviving to make the decision. Thus, preserving ones survival is a higher order than morality, because survival is a biological directive of life, while morality is not. People will do anything and everything to ensure their survival, especially when faced against a foe with superior means. People should not confuse morality and "goodness" with power and military superiority. The test of true morality comes when one is weak and without power and under survival stresses.

I do not know what the solution is to the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. However, what I am clear about is that both entities are motivated by their right to survive in a disputed area of land. The Jewish people’s right to the land is Biblical. The Palestinian people have lived on the land long before the Jewish state of Israel was created artificially by Europeans. But are the Jewish people from Europe the same blood as the Jewish people in the days of Pharaohs? Is the Land biblically grated to a race of people or people of a certain religion? Are not the Palestinians actually closer in regards to their DNA, to the Hebrews, than are the European Jews who now occupy the land? I do not know the answer to these questions.

It seems to me that Christianity and Christians are trying to fulfill prophecy, instead of letting God and time fulfill prophecy. The Christians in the USA seem to be trying to set the stage for the second coming, by creating the state of Israel and supporting it right to exist. However, no one knows what timing God has for such events to take place and the actions of man to try to fulfill prophecy based upon our timing may prematurely bring about the destruction of the world.

WHAT IT TAKES TO GET IT IS WHAT IT TAKES TO KEEP IT!

What it takes to get something is what it takes to keep it. That was a popular adage that I heard while growing up. This adage kind of explains why people that win the lottery and become millionaires fail to maintain that status and level of wealth overtime. On the other hand, those who earn a million dollars through know how and connections can perpetuate the existence of that wealth. In short, one needs to be able to continually reproduce the factor that led to the success in order to maintain the level of success, as a general rule.

When one looks at the West today, it is subject to the laws of nature just like any other entity in existence. What I mean by this is that any entities presence is the creation and summation of that entities past, with a slight mutation that makes it unique. The West, as we know it today, is the creation of European exploration, imperialism, conquest and colonization. In other words, much of the global West, was wealth and resources in the hands and control of non-Europeans peoples. Then, through the actions previously mentioned, transfer of control to European peoples resulted in a net gain for them and a net loss for those peoples whose lives and land had been usurped. In essence, the European peoples of the world lifted themselves up by putting non-Europeans down. This was carried about by European elites, but through discrimination and trickle down economics, manifested to the benefit of millions of white European people.

America used to be characterized, through most of its history, by egregious forms of internal exploitation. This exploitation, such as the near extermination of the natives, the breaking of treaties with natives, the enslavement of Africans and the placing of Africans under an Apartheid system, were very visible. This history is what created this present that the American people now enjoy, some (whites) more than others. However, laws were changed, civil rights were granted and unions protected workers rights, which preventing these forms of egregious exploitation domestically and the profit that went with it. Thus, what they (the white elite) did to “get it” had now been constrained by laws and human right gains. Hence, the elites needed to replace the benefits of domestic exploitation with the benefits of foreign exploitation.... via globalization and transnational corporations.

One thing that is obvious to note about the USA is that its constitution, laws and system of democracy only applies within our borders. The things that we herald as making America great are enforced by laws and are not the natural moral inclination and principles of America people. Outside the USA, anything goes and we (our government and corporations) do not treat others based upon the laws and principles that govern our treatment of one and other. A good example of that is our disrespect of the United Nations as a world democratic institution. Instead of working in conjunction and under the constraint of UN democratic decisions, the USA would rather act like a dictator in regards to world geopolitics. It does not want its objectives and interest bound by the democratic decisions of nations it shares the planet with.

Now, the USA and the West have become like the wind. The wind is a phenomenon that cannot be observed directly, but only through its reaction upon other things that we can observe, like a leaf moving. The USA and Western activity in third world countries is invisible to most people, but the impact and effect is deep and its purpose is exploitation. Given that our activities are most invisible, the effects of our activities are erroneously blamed upon what is visible…because that is all that we are allowed to see. Hence, the problems of developing nations nations are ubiquitously blamed on corruption and poor governance, because the West is constantly highlighting corruption and poor governance in these places. It is not that such (exploitation) does not exist. Rather, it is that it gets blamed as the primary cause of African poverty and lack of economic growth.

What they never shin light on are there activities in these nations that are taking place behind the scenes. I have been informed of a book entitled “Confessions of an Economic Hit man”, by John Perkins. It is introspection into his own role working in behalf of the World Band and transnational corporations based in the West and how they are responsible for keeping many third world peoples in poverty.

Here is an overview of the book:

For years, John Perkins confesses, he was a loan shark at the highest political and economic levels, personally persuading governments to pawn their natural resources and citizens’ labor in the interests of corporate global empire. Once these countries were saddled with debt, the American government and international monetary aid agencies allied with it were able to control the countries’ economies.
Written with an eye toward solutions and redemption, Confessions of an Economic Hit Man is an insider’s expose of government and corporate policies that led to the impoverishment of millions of people across the planet. For the last ten years, Perkins has been countering those effects by working with indigenous peoples in the Amazon, and consulting through his non-profit Dream Change, Inc..

Taken from Democracy now interview:

AMY GOODMAN: John Perkins joins us now in our firehouse studio. Welcome to Democracy Now!

JOHN PERKINS: Thank you, Amy. It’s great to be here.

AMY GOODMAN: It’s good to have you with us. Okay, explain this term, “economic hit man,” e.h.m., as you call it.

John Perkins: Basically what we were trained to do and what our job is to do is to build up the American empire. To bring -- to create situations where as many resources as possible flow into this country, to our corporations, and our government, and in fact we’ve been very successful. We’ve built the largest empire in the history of the world. It's been done over the last 50 years since World War II with very little military might, actually. It's only in rare instances like Iraq where the military comes in as a last resort. This empire, unlike any other in the history of the world, has been built primarily through economic manipulation, through cheating, through fraud, through seducing people into our way of life, through the economic hit men. I was very much a part of that.

This sounds like a good read for anyone who wants to see the wind as it truly blows.

AMERICA INC PREPARES FOR BATTLE IN THE GLOBAL ECONOMY UNDER THE TRAINING OF THE REPUBLICAN PARTY

I listened to an interview on “Meet the Press” between Carl Rove, Bush campaign adviser and close friend, and Tim Russert. He was talking about the Bush agenda and mandate for the next 4 years. My interpretation of this agenda, is that Bush intends to "downsize" America in order to make it more competitive in a changing and more competitive global economy.

The use of the phrase “down size” is my own terminology and not Carl Rove’s. I used it because what he was talking about sounded a lot to me like corporate talk in regards to maintaining competitiveness and profitability, which usually manifest in some sort of downsizing of workers . Thus, America Inc, under the Bush Administration, is embarking on a strategy not unlike corporations and industries, that will have a profound effect upon the American worker and middle class.

How does America Inc become more competitive in the global market against China Inc, India Inc and the European Union Inc? Well, for one thing, the administration is looking to change the complicated tax system and structure and possibly do away with the Income tax in favor of sales tax. Aside from there effort likely resulting in a regressive tax system (meaning that the tax burden decreases as income rises), this will somehow suposedly save Billions of dollars each year in processing cost and make us more competitive with nations that have less complicated systems of taxation. Also, rove mentioned improving the educational system so that America can produce the brain power to fuel comparative advantage.

What was not mentioned is the fact that the biggest threat to America Inc comes from its loss of comparative advantage in regard to the wage and salary component of product cost. Now that intellectual capital and technical know how has grown in developing nations such as China and India, who together have nearly a third of the earths population, that comparative advantage for the US has waned significantly. That advantage used to give our products the advantage over the cheaper goods of developing nations on the bases of quality. Now that the quality gap has shrunk, the low wages of China and India are giving these nations the comparative advantage over the USA. The 20 year running trade deficit clearly shows that we are losing our comparative advantage.

So how will America Inc handle is biggest comparative disadvantage, which are labor and environmental cost components of products? Well we have all heard the political ads about Bush given tax breaks to companies that sends jobs oversees. I do not know how true that is, but I never heard the claim rejected as erroneous from the Bush spokes people. On top of that, most people are very aware of the “out sourcing” phenomenon that has received much attention in the media. Thus, the Republican Party, which have evolved to be seen as anti-worker and pro corporation, will become even more so.

The republicans have always been against Unions and increase in minimum wage legislation, even when America enjoyed a dominant comparative advantage in many industries and products and record profit of corporations. Now, they even have more incentives to be anti-worker, given that Americas wage success and high standard of pay relative to others like China, India, and even Russia, has put the nation in its current competitive disadvantage. Hence, one cannot fathom how the USA will be able to compete with nations with much less labor cost, while continuing to offer one of the highest rates of pay in the world, for the average citizen. Thus, one can expect to see the stagnation of real wages for the average worker….at best, which will be offset by increases in income and wealth of the owners of capital and businesses.

The future of America is dependent upon the future of its industries and corporations in the global marketplace. Nations like China and India have gained tremendous technical know how and intellectual capital, plus they have a glut of cheap labor to exploit among its billions of people. If and when these nations create their own home grown industries, their pricing advantage will given them the market advantage, to the detriment of similar industries in the USA who will lose revenue and profitability in the long run. Thus, these corporations have to go to the source to take advantage of the cheap labor resources to remain competitive….and that is what they are doing at increasing rates. This reduces the demand for the American worker in many industries which gave birth to America’s large middle class. They/we, America Inc, has no other option.

As China and India become more developed, the competition for energy resources will only become more intense as their increase demand will only bid up the price of Oil in the world market, eventually putting great inflationary pressure on the US economy. I believe that our actions in the Middle East are actions taken to secure our control over large reserves of Oil, before China becomes a Super Power to the degree of the Old Soviet Union and then partner up with Oil Rich nations of the Middle East and work as a check against US power and influence in that region. When the Soviet Union was still a power, the USA had to be very careful of its actions against certain nations who were allies of the USSR. They do not want that to happen again with China, so they are rushing in to change the politics and dynamics of the region so that government are pro Western and pro USA.

In summation, unless you find your self in the top quintile group in regards to wealth in this nation, you can remove those shades because the future will not be as bright as our recent past.

Vouchers... A cruel game being played on Black Parents..

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Vouchers under the No Child Left behind Act (NCLBA) have been offered to Black Parents as a solution to the structural problems with the Public School system. “No Child Left Behind rests on the basic premise that giving poor children access to better schools will translate into a better education” Poll after poll taking on the support for vouchers amongst Black parents have come back with results that say Black parents support vouchers in high numbers. Other polls have shown that depending on how the question is asked will determine the answer given. The support for vouchers by Black parents and the opposition to vouchers expressed by Black leadership has led those inside and outside the Black Community that supports vouchers to proclaim Black leadership is out of touch with the will of the people. I agree with the majority of Black Leadership; I am opposed to vouchers as a means to address the structural problems with the public school system. I believe vouchers are being offered in lieu of fixing the real problem.

To better articulate my opposition to vouchers I am going to use the story of Rayola Victoria Carwell, a young Black girl from Chicago, who mother hit the voucher lottery. Her children were selected to be amongst the 1,097 students (out of the 19,000 students that applied) to receive a voucher that would enable them to transfer to better schools under the NCLBA. Rayola story reads like the story of many Black children, she is from a single parent home, live in a section eight home with her mother, her siblings and her grandmother. Rayola mother works and struggles with parenting three children and definitely could use some support from the absent father of her children. Rayola attended several schools near her south side home prior to her mom hitting the voucher lottery. After being selected to be amongst the 1,097 children allowed to transfer to a better school, Rayola and her siblings are enrolled in a School on the other side of town.

Before I go any further I think we all should take note of the fact that only 1,097 children out of 19,000 were selected to receive a voucher to attend a better school. This leaves approximately 17, 900 students who also applied for vouchers stuck back in the broken down, under achieving schools with under qualified teachers running the schools and no plan in place to do anything about it. More than 270,000 children attend underachieving schools in the city of Chicago. “Only 38 of the system's 600 schools are open to transfers” This along should make those who support vouchers second guess their support of this program. Vouchers does not address the structural problems in the public school system, they do nothing more than pluck a thousand plus children out of their under achieving school and stick them in a school across town without addressing the problems the lucky children who hit the voucher lottery are escaping. This is happening all over the country and the vast majority of our children are stuck in these horrible schools.


When Rayola arrived at her new school on the other side of town, she was behind academically but after a few months of tutoring and one on one attention from the teacher Rayola had caught up to her classmates. Rayola and her siblings were absent or late to school many times for various reasons which led to Rayola falling behind in her class work. But the one thing that sticks out the most is Rayola was able to catch up to the other children in spite of all the problems at home and having failed a grade at her last school and this is the point I want to drive home.

Rayola story is the story of most economic disadvantaged Black children, she is very bright and if given the opportunity to attend good schools with good teachers there is no doubt she would succeed in school in spite of the problems at home. However, in order for Rayola to have a chance at success, her mother must first hit the voucher lottery, get her children in a better school with the voucher and then have the means to get her children to that school everyday regardless of where the school is located. There is no doubt in my mind that this could be done with no problem by hundreds of economic disadvantaged Black parents, however Rayola mom was not one of them. So Rayola ends up back in an under achieving school because her mom can not get her and her siblings to school everyday or on time. Some will read this three part story and say the mother is to blame for all that is going wrong and the father of the children need to be in jail.

What will be ignored is the fact that; if Rayola community schools were up to par, Rayola and the majority of those other 19,000 children that applied for vouchers would have a better chance at receiving a quality education and would not have to travel across town or vie for entrance into the very few schools accepting voucher lottery winners.

Black Leadership is correct to oppose vouchers; vouchers gives a false sense of hope to Black parents wherein the majority of their children will never benefit from vouchers. It is a cruel game being played on Black parents, when they are asked will they support a program that takes children out of poor performing schools and put them in a better school, when the reality is the vast majority of children in under achieving schools will never get a voucher. There are not enough good schools to absorb all the children from the poor performing schools. The only solution to the problem with the public school system is to fix it and not patronize Black men and women with vouchers. One of a few ways to start this process is by juxtaposing poor performing schools with the schools that are performing as they should from a financial standpoint, school structure standpoint and quality of teacher recruited to teach in these schools. Black men and women should reject vouchers as a substitute for fixing what is wrong with the public school system; vouchers do not qualify as a band-aid for the bleeding that is going in the public school system.

The Power of Suggestion

What is the power of suggestion and how much of our beliefs are shaped by it? The power of suggestion works through the conduit of ignorance and the absence of the ability to bare witness to truth by individuals. From our infancy, people who we love or trust makes suggestions to us about life, culture, religion and a host of other things that we are either ignorant of and or cannot bare witness to independently discern truth.

It is the absence of the ability to bare witness to the comprehensive truth that allows suggestion and beliefs to diverge from reality. Thus, in this state of ignorance, people tend to gravitate towards the beliefs or conclusions that offer them the most physical or psychological comfort, if not pleasure. For example if an attractive person of the opposite gender makes eye contact with you and smiles, that can be interpreted in many different ways. The person could just be friendly; the person could have mistaken you for someone else. The person could be attracted to you. The person could be smiling because there is something funny looking about you. Given that you cannot bare witness to the person motivation at that point, most people will choose to believe that which is in line with the personal self image. If the person is insecure, they will think the negative. If the person is secure, they will think the positives.

In America, there is inherent power in having the power of suggestion over millions of people, who cannot bare witness to certain truths. In this electronic age, that power of suggestion is held by the media. Thus, the media selects the opinions and truths to disseminate out to the people, for the primary motive of monetary profit. In this way, the media is biased because profit being its primary motive means that it has to suggest the truths or beliefs that are palatable to the demographic group who advertisers cater to and hence make the media profitable. For all intents and purposes, the demographic group in America is Caucasians. Therefore, the media often simply presents information that reinforces what Caucasians already believe. For if they did not, their ratings, advertisement and profit would fall because whites would not patronize what the media was suggesting. Consequently, the media is not an objective instrument for truth, but rather, the media simply panders to white beliefs in order to remain profitable.

Take a look at this recent presidential election and the power of suggestion. No one suggested that race or racism played a role in the GOP victory, but many people did suggest that values and morals played a role. Whites no longer want to talk about race and white racism because they invariable come out looking like the bad guys. Hence, even though race and racism is still a big factor in America, the media has stopped suggesting it because the white masses are suggesting that it is no longer a problem. Now, they are suggesting that morals and values are what is guiding their behavior and inspiring their choices. This is because white America wants to see itself as the morally and ethically superior group…so the suggest it. However, they do not want to see themselves as racist and immoral…so they ignore the issue of race, because they nearly always come out appearing as racist to blacks.

Black people lack the power of suggestion in America for a couple of reasons. The primary reason is that black people are not respected and or trusted by whites in America. All throughout our history here, suggestions coming from the black community are incredulously unless co-signed by white suggestion as well. A good example of this is when television showed picture of blacks being, beaten, hosed and attacked by dogs while demonstrating peacefully for their rights in the South. This ability to bare witness to what blacks had been saying created many Northern white co-signers to the Civil Rights Struggle, there by making it more legitimate. Even today, whites cannot respect the fact that blacks voting overwhelmingly democratic is done out of intelligence and the ability to discern the lesser of two white evils. The secondary reason blacks lack the power of suggestion is because we do not control any media of significance, which is born from our economic and numerical weakness as a demographic group in America.

In light of this, America is a nation out of sync with reality. There is too much profit linkage in the media and politics from pandering to the beliefs, ignorance and prejudice of white America for the nation to affectively move forward in a progressive mode. Politicians are afraid to tell the white masses the truth; for fear that they will not get reelected. The media is afraid to suggest the truth out of fear they will lose in the ratings and hence become less profitable. Consequently, structural and systematic problems in this nation, such as social security and race are not being addressed because white folks do not want to accept any responsibility or burdens to solve these problems.

THE SUCCESS OF CAPITALISM WILL BE THE DEATH OF CAPITALISM AS WE KNOW IT

Will the success of capitalism be the death of capitalism ultimately? The combination Capitalistic-Free Market- Individual freedom-democracy is spreading rapidly around the globe faster than any alternative system. Soon, such will come to dominate the earth monopolistically and monopolies represent absolute power and absolute power corrupts absolutely.

People are starting to become arrogant and demonstrate a sense of ultimate superiority, if not perfection. Here in America, people are ostracized and condemned for critiquing the problems and flaws born in our system. Rarely does the validity of the complaint or critique get addressed directly or taken seriously. Rather, defenders of the system simply lament that there exist no better system, despite its flaws. In other words, such a response implies that there is no need to improve when you are the best and that people should simply learn to live with the flaws of the system….or leave the nation and system.

Its akin to when the American Auto Industry had no competition and hence practiced a monopoly by colusion of the big 4 auto manufacturers and there was no incentive for improvement. With competition, the Industry made improvements and advances that it would not likely had ever made if not for foreign competition. Now that capitalism has become like the American Auto industry of the past, there is not incentive for it to improve upon itself and thus what the system produces will eventually deteriorate in quality.

What will happen is that eventually Capitalistic-Free Market- Individual freedom-democracy will become ubiquitous and hence without an evil competitor to keep them honest. The resultant of this is that nations will gradually adopt repressive and oppressive policies, laws and practices.

For example, the USA has been a capitalistic democracy for over 200 years, yet, it has been very oppressive to black people. However, during the “Cold War” against communism, the USA was forced to attempt to clean up its oppression of its black citizens, given that its main claim that Communism was evil was based upon the human rights violations taking place against there citizens. However, the communist nations simply pointed back at America as hypocrites because of the way it treated its black citizens.

In light of this, once there is no “evil” competitor to capitalism, Capitalistic democracies will gradually become more evil. Again, it is easy to see how this will happen because people will be under the mind set that capitalism is the only viable option and should not be critiqued by dissent. Therefore, the system will eventually regress backwards to be similar to the early 1900’s characterized by stark division of wealth and with many human rights violations. The Middle class will slowly be eroded globally and the world will become polarized and split more egregiously today between the rich and the poor.

The success of capitalism will be the death of capitalism in that capitalism has always been a “Trojan Horse” that has had a core of exploitation fueling its success. However, competition with “evil” systems meant that the evil of capitalism needed to be masked and cloaked in order to juxtapose it as the morally, as well as productively, superior system. The fall of the evil competitor thus will result in less of a need to present a moral façade, which will therefore be the death of capitalism as we know it today.

THE PLATFORM TO SABOTAGE THE BLACK AND THE POOR

When one takes a closer look at the platform or ideology of the plurality of white American, that manifest in the form and conduit of political conservatism, it has a Darwinian strategy for black people and the poor. The call for less government and personal responsibility is essentially a call and vision for Darwin’s “Survival of the Fittest” to be imposed upon the black and poor.

In nature, Darwin’s theory works via variation and mutations of human biological traits, which then promotes a superior ability to survive in a given environment. These “Alpha” entities are more successful at surviving and hence are more successful at mating. The non Alpha and weaker entities thus are less successful at surviving and less successful at extending their blood lines. In the long run, this works to makes species stronger.

The natural selection and survival of the fittest rules of nature I am not against. It is inherently an unfair system to life entities, which are not responsible for their inherited genes or environment that puts some at advantage and others at disadvantage. However, what is being promoted by whites is a system that is much more unfair and unfair not because of the way nature and God planned it, but unfair in the way they have planned and controlled it.

In the competition of life, advantage is the key. However, among animals other than humans, advantage is biological and genetics. In humans, advantage in the economic competition is mostly racial and financial. Racial is not the same as biological, however. It is racial in that those with financial dominance, whites, usually favor their own, resulting in a racial survival advantage. A human having the advantage of finances generally gives them the advantage of environment where there are less obstacles and impediments to survival and hence….requires less biological strength to survive or be successful, relative to those who are poor and non white.

In light of this, what you have is whites adopting an ideology and political platform which is essentially designed to preserve racial and class advantage. This is important because the most important factor in where one finishes in the competition is determined by where they start. This is the overwhelming rule, but not an absolute rule, however. Thus, most whites are against any government efforts that are designed to promote the equalization of chance and probabilities to success.

As the great Carthaginian general Hannibal astutely noted; “It is not that I must succeed....rather, it is that others must fail”. Thus, one can see that success and victory is a relative phenomenon that can only exist if the phenomenon of failure and loss exist in conjunction and as the equal and opposite reaction of competition. Therefore, whites are preserving their status and advantage by attempting to sabotage or promote the increased probability of failure of blacks and the lower class.

At the very least whites are saying that they do not want their tax dollars to help people compete against them and achieve the status that they enjoy. Status and rank is all about displacement and separation from others. If the poor suddenly all rose to the middle class, those that were once in the middle then become on the bottom, even though there was not an absolute change in their living standards, they will feel “poorer” and less successful. This is because for the most part, status is about having something that others do not have. The more people who have what you have, the less status, success and rank you have in this society.

Not surprisingly, the rise of the black middle class and millionaires has likely given the most profound motivation to whites to end social programs aimed at evening the playing field. Note, I did not say blacks becoming equal with whites in these strata’s, just blacks entering them at greater rates and percentages that every before. Now, given the believe in white intellectual and emotionally superiority, the idea of being on par with blacks, or blacks having more than whites, threatens this belief that has been second nature for the last 300 years in this nation.