Fridays Rant

Aside from having been very busy, I have been suffering from writers block and apathy. Thus, I have not written my normal one or two essays a week, over the last several weeks.

However, inspired by the PBS series entitled “Slavery and the Making of America”, I presented an essay, from this blog, as a topic on a popular forum patronized mostly by Caucasians. I must say that I was not surprised by their reaction, but I was still disappointed. Only one person, out of likely hundreds who read the essay, accepted the idea that there needs to be a target effort on the part of this nation to undo the present negative effects of nearly 4 centuries of the oppression of black people. As a tribute to this person, let me present his quote:

Black Americans are a diverse group, with many able to function on a level totally removed from a long history of oppression, which lasted until late in the 20th Century, and lingers still in pockets all over the country. Still, to characterize the total population of ex-slaves as free to pursue the American dream from 1865 on is ridiculous. When I was a child, black Americans were portrayed in the media as simple and stupid. They had to go to the back of a restaurant to get served, eating outside the building. They rode in the back of the bus. They were murdered for being 'uppity.' In Houston they were considered too dumb to operate a city bus. Even after I grew up the places I worked were not hiring when blacks applied, but they were hiring whites.
What I'm leading up to is, when it is beat into your head for three hundred years that you are little more than a high grade animal, made to live in miserable poverty, not even allowed to look up from the sidewalk when passing a white person, there is a cultural mindset ingrained that high platitudes cannot penetrate. You can call the man who started this thread all the names you wish; you can preach the white man's version of self reliance, but you will be whistling in the wind. The mindset perpetrates itself, while the disgusted whites write them off as unworthy because they don't help themselves. Mental handicap is as debilitating as being a paraplegic. These people still are in need of a hand up. There goes the alarm bells in your rock hard mentalities. "Edgar wants us to put them on generational welfare." Wrong. I just want a real effort to be made to incorporate these folks into the human race rather than preaching platitudes at them. So here begins the circle again. "Why don't they get off their asses and help themselves", which is turning a blind eye to every word I've said.

This individual is a beacon of honesty and truth, although somewhat condescending sounding at some points. Soon after he presented that thread, the forum moderators closed the topic from further postings. They could not tolerate a white man agreeing with these ideas of reparation. Subsquently, when I tried to post a new topic they were all deleted. When I tried to post comments on others topics, my comments were also deleted. When whites have the power and no laws constraining their behavior....they snuff out all dissenters and threats like brutal dictators are known to do. The principles of freedom and democracy do not live within them; Rather, they are bound by the laws of freedom and democracy.

This is not a new experience for any of the writers on this blog, as we have a long history of being banned from forums and blogs, nearly all of them being patronized mainly by whites and or conservatives. However, I have been banned by Lashawn Barbers Blog. She is the first black site that I have ever been banned from; however, calling her site a black site is like calling the white house the black house because it was built by black slaves. Just because blacks do the construction and serving does not mean it represents black interest. Her site wines and dines white conservatives, who then gives her patronage and promotion for talking down about her people...so that they don't have to. Her site is simply the proxy for white conservaives to attack blacks and black leadership.

That having been said, I like forums that are patronized mainly by whites, because it gives me the comfort of knowing that I have given them the opportunity to logically demonstrate that my beliefs are wrong. Contrary to them, I seek out dissent, I do not ban it. In all honesty, my goal is the seeking of and acceptance of the objective truth or the most dominate truth in a composition of truths that make up the whole. Therefore, knowing that I am skewed towards bias, as everyone is, I seek out the opposition as a check and balance to my own bias. You see, logic and validity has no bias. It is not subjective and thus I present whites with the opportunity to rationalize their opposition to things such as AA, reparations or other targeted methods of addressing collective racial inequality. They fail miserably every time. There objection is rooted solidly in emotions and or willful ignorance. They then use erroneous reasoning to sell it as not being racist.

Everything happens for a reason. There was a reason or goal that allowed whites to rationalize the acceptance of our oppression for over 3 centuries. The reason was not hate, as most erroneously assume, the reason was economics and status. Wealth and relative stature was the aim and black oppression was a means to this end. Today, that end has been achieved. White wealth is 14 times that of black wealth in America and whites are by far, the wealthiest so called-race on this planet. They have the wealth, they have the stature and they have the power. Hence, there is no longer the incentive or temptation to be oppressive towards black people in America, because past oppression has allowed them to meet their objective. Consequently, today’s racism is not as much about creating the racial gaps, but rather, maintaining them.

Whites want to be judged by their self proclaimed intentions, as opposed to the effect of the practical manifestation of their ideology and beliefs. They mainly want you to believe that their intentions are not racist, even though their opposition to programs, policy and dollars designed to “even the playing field” for blacks, preserves the state of white privilege and superiority of conditions. Again, modern racism is not about creating the racial gaps; it’s about preserving them, via opposition to such programs. Indeed much of the ulterior motive behind social conservatism is the denial of attempts at policies and monies that are perceived to benefit African Americans disproportionately. They can attack liberalism, without being seen as racist by directly attacking governments attempt to right wrongs against blacks, thus maintaining white status relative to blacks.

We all know that there are syndromes that prevent an addict from accepting the fact that they are indeed addicts. We all know that there are people who will starve themselves because they think they are too fat, when they are skeletal like. We know that when the mind can and does often distort reality when reality is not something peopled are willing to accept. It’s called denial. How can one convince a person in denial of a reality they do not want to accept? The answer is that you cannot. When it is substance abuse, the people must hit bottom and become a threat to them selves, before reality kicks in. However, there is no “hitting the bottom” when one is a racist in denial. There is no phenomenon that I am aware of that will force an epiphany, because the racist in denial hurts others and not themselves. The only racist who might hit bottom is the racist motivated by extreme hate, which becomes damaging to their health and ability to function in an increasingly diverse America. The “rational” non hating racist only hurts others, because they actually think that they are good descent people, any many are, except when dealing with the legacy of oppression and black America.

Some people will ask why we are always concerned with what white people think. Such ignores the reality of power. If you want to really understand how we can invade Iraq on false pretenses and threaten to do the same to other nations, you have to understand that most whites are racist. It does not matter to them that no weapons of mass destruction were found. It does not matter to them that no ties to 911 were found. It does not matter to them that nearly 1500 Americans soldiers lost their life. It does not matter to them that an estimated 100,000 Iraqis have been killed by our invasion. The only thing that matters to them is the concept of protecting white safety, stature and wealth in this world after 911. They want to demonstrate to the world their power and want others to bow down to it in fear, so that whites can continue their gluttony in America. Besides, the people being killed are not white and they are not Christians; “God blessed America….and nobody else”. If God did not think we were right he would not have blessed us with so much and others with so little, many rationalize. Hence, our blessing means that we have Gods blessing to go around the world and spread our way of life. They never stop to think that the devil also exchanges earthly material rewards for souls.