"The Shield" aka Thomas Sowell new phrase "Black Rednecks"

Thomas Sowell has a new book due to hit book stores this weekend; the book is entitled “Black Rednecks and White Liberals”. Thomas Sowell is described as a brilliant economist who apparently can not find work discussing economic issues in a country that is in dire need of the intellectual power of economists to help gain control of the growing debt and trade deficit the U.S. face in the new global economy. Thomas Sowell is loved by white folk, particularly the Conservative ones, based on his ability and willingness to use his blackness as a shield for their racism, meaning he say and write the things they dare not say or write less they be called out as the racist they are.

In his new book “Black Rednecks and White Liberal” Sowell continue his life work as “the shield” for white racism. I must say, I have not read the book as it is not available yet but I have read countless articles about the book and what it will offer, plus one of Sowell's most recent articles that covers what his book is about ; and this is what I am speaking to in this piece.

I would like to first deal with the term “Black Redneck”, in my assessment this phrase is equal to phrases like “White Nigger” and “Sand Nigger” which ascribes the behavior as described or represented by the ladder word to the group that the first word represents. Hence, a “White Nigger” would be a white person that engages in nigger behavior, but what is nigger behavior? We know the word Nigger does not have a history as being a word that describe a particular behavior; it was and still remains a disparaging word that describes Black people regardless of behavior or background. So what accounts for phrases like "Sand Nigger"? A word commonly used to describe Arabs. If we were to compare these two phrases; "Sand Nigger" and "White Nigger" what we will find is that the one thing those who are called these words have in common with those who were first referred to as plain old Niggers is that good ole white folk dislike them, thus a "Nigger" becomes a word ascribed to anything or anyone white folk find objectionable.

Such is the case with the word Redneck; Rednecks are considered to be “white trash” ignorant and backwards, in the past they were considered, lawless, lazy and sexually immoral. The most famous of all Rednecks is Jeff Foxworthy, who has made millions from describing what and who is a Redneck and if any of you have seen his show, you know most of the things he says that makes one a Redneck does not describe things that represent Black folk in thought or behavior which means the term Redneck as used in the term “Black Rednecks” is Thomas way of calling Black folk a disparaging name that will not easily offend us but ensures that white folk who love his work and find Rednecks objectionable understand that he share their resentment towards us and also think of Black folk as trash, ignorant, backwards, lazy, lawless and sexually immoral. I wonder how those white folk who are proud to be Rednecks will feel about him using a word they self identify as to describe Black people in a negative light.

Thomas Sowell is engaging in myth making, He is using his newly coined phrase “Black Rednecks” that describes a stereotypical Black person as a means of connecting with white folk and I am sure he hopes this word become part of the American Lexicon much like other mythical argument framing words like “Democratic Plantation” and “Welfare Queens”. Black men and women are not new to racial mythology that is perpetuated by the likes of Sowell and those he serve, how do we address such mythology is important. The Black Commentator answered this question by stating;

“The most important question to consider when debunking racial mythology is not whether it is true. If a myth is to stand the test of time it has to contain at least some truth, but just throwing inconsistent facts at it doesn’t make it go away, either. The most important questions to ask in order to debunk powerful racial myths are what values do they transmit and whose interests do they serve?”

Thus we come to the question whose interest does Thomas Sowell writings serve? Who values do they transmit? Who are the champions of his work? and what does the answer to these questions say to Black folk?

In his new book, Sowell will tackle race and racism to ensure that white folk are not thought of as racist and he will fight rigorously the idea that the present is the end result of actions of the past. Sowell will provide us with evidence;

“that black pioneers and leaders of the early twentieth century were not just "the cream of the crop" but emerged from a culture very different from that in which most blacks were raised and educated”

Which means our best and brightest were anomalies, more than likely he includes himself in this group.

He will tell us;

“How racial barriers erected by "black rednecks" prevented black cultural elites from separating themselves as much as they would have liked from lower-class blacks”

I guess here he will tell us how poor Blacks keep rich Blacks down.

And this one I love, he will provide us with;

“Proof: contrary to liberal myth, for most of history, slavery was not based on racism -- and most slaves did not differ racially from their masters”

Your guess is as good as mine how he will do this beyond repeating the white defensive argument that there were white slaves, none owned by Black folk of course and that slavery was about economics and this is proven because Black folk were enslaved all over the western hemisphere by whites who thought black folk were inferior to them, but hey it was not about race.

It is easy to see who values are being transmitted through Sowell work and it is as easy to see who interest his work serve, it is no wonder that white conservatives Champion his work, after all it is they who’s values is being transmitted and whom interest is being served. One irony about "Rednecks" is they are historically recognized as confederate flag waving racist which probably describe those whom Sowell serve which ultimately means he is the real "Black Redneck".

"Red Lining" Governmental racism rears its ugly head again!

In a throw back to the Jim Crowe era in America, the Government is once again found to have a policy of “Red Lining”. Red Lining is a term that first entered the American lexicon in the late 1930’s. It is no secret that after the Great Depression America was in turmoil and in an effort to revive America President Roosevelt instituted many Acts’ and set up new government agencies. One of the many Agencies he set up was the Federal Housing Administration (FHA). The goal of the FHA was;

**

“to encourage the building of new homes and, in the process, create jobs for thousands of unemployed construction workers and craftspeople. The FHA guaranteed mortgage program made possible, for the first time, the types of mortgage terms we take for granted today: only 10% down, up to 30 years to pay back the loan, and an interest rate of 5.5 percent.”

The government believed it could not make these loans available to everyone, thus the government initiated a nation wide inventory of residential areas. This inventory was carried out by the Home Owners Loan Corporation (HOLC).

**

“The HOLC set strict standards. First, the appraisers (real estate personnel, mostly) looked for any signs of decay or neglect that might indicate a neighborhood was in decline. Surveyors also looked for any sign of minorities. This included not only African Americans but also Jews and "foreign born whites" such as Poles and Italians. Even a single home occupied by a minority family in a distant corner of a neighborhood could cause the entire area to be downgraded for mortgage insurance.”

It took this agency about a year to finish their inventory and come up with maps covering every city and town in America. These maps were classified and very few people had access to them. All residential areas on the Map were graded using a scale from “A” to “D” and a color was assigned to each letter. The grading went like this:

**

“The "A" or "First Grade" areas were colored green and had the federal government's full blessing. These were usually new or recently built neighborhoods on the edge of town that were virtually free of African Americans or "foreign-born whites." Lenders were encouraged to offer the maximum amount available in the "A" areas”

“The "Second Grade" or "B" areas were colored blue. These were still good neighborhoods but beginning to fray around the edges. Here mortgage lenders were advised to make loans at 10 to 15 percent below the maximum available amount.”

"Third Grade" areas were colored yellow. These were older neighborhoods with housing styles that might now be "out of fashion." Often neighborhood covenants had expired. And, of course, these areas were subject to "infiltration of a lower grade population."

"D" neighborhoods were usually struggling for survival -- and the "Fourth Grade" designation guaranteed the struggle would be a losing one. Characterized by "undesirable population or an infiltration of it," mortgage lenders would often refuse to make any loans on properties in these neighborhoods.

Red was the color used to indicated these "Fourth Grade" areas on the map and, thus, a new term came into our vocabulary: "redlining."

Red Lining of course is not limited to the building of Homes and the manipulation of the net worth of a home. Red lining is also the illegal discrimination in regards to what financial services are made available and where businesses are set up, and this is where the Government is practicing Red Lining today.

The Prince George County (PGC) Black Chamber of Commerce noticed that no federal leasing was developing to the benefit of its 70% Black county. The Black Chamber of Commerce knows that the number one employer of the D.C. area is the federal government which means no federal leasing means no or less job opportunities for the men and women that reside in PGC. The National Black Chamber of Commerce (NBCC) investigated on behalf of the PGC Chamber and believe it or not they found that;

“The General Service Administration (GSA) has been carrying an official policy for the past decade or so to exclude Prince Georges County from the “marketing area” to be considered for government leasing. In essence, PG County has been redlined for future government relocations or development such as Home Land Security. This is having a devastating negative impact on the tax revenue and employment opportunities for the local government and people of this American community. Redlining is illegal – even if it is the federal government doing it.”

The NBCC has begun the fight and offered resolutions to end the governmental racist practice of Red lining PGC. PGC is not the first predominantly Black county to be red lined, the NBCC has laid out the examples of redlining as practice in the San Francisco area at the expense of the Oakland area and in Michigan with the development of the Oakland Michigan area at the expense of predominantly Black Detroit. One of the things that stand out in the PGC case is that because of the lack of development in the PGC area, PGC residents account for the majority of rush hour DC beltway traffic in the morning and in the evening traveling from their redlined living quarters to their jobs.

The question we must ask ourselves is are we surprised that the government continue to have racist policies on the books and continue to carry them out. I also wonder how will the negro who apoligize for white folk and the white folk they love justify this policy that is clearly racist and works against the uplift of predominatly Black PGC.

** Information Taken from Red Lining in the past.

Misguided and Uninformed criticisms of Black Leadership! Part 3. (the conclusion)

Whenever I make a charge, comment or respond to the actions of a particular individual or group, I try to make sure that I stick to the points in which I am in disagreement with them on, and not bounce from this point to that point in an effort to obfuscate. This is one of the many reasons why, when I respond to comments on this Blog that are not relevant to the op-ed under which they are left, I always remind the commentator to try and stick to the topic at hand. There is no mistaken what I have written, it is right here in plain English, if there is a need for clarity, I would do my best to help clarify anything I have written. I say that to say this, If one is going to spend nearly two hours addressing something I have written, the least you can do is quote me properly and not attribute things to me that I did not write.

In my op-ed's on "Misguided and Uninformed criticism of Black leadership" Part 1 and Part 2, I spoke to the continued criticism and demonizing of Black Leadership by Black folk who have not checked their facts and or are simply perpetuating the thinking of white folk in regards to Black leadership. These op-ed's were written in response to these very things being undertaken by the alleged "Black Think Tank" Afromerica.com whom owner and members claim to be Black Nationalist, but have the writing of a racist web site posted on their site that speak ill of the reparation movement which all "real" Black Nationalist support, States that Larry Summers was right about Cornell West, which any fair minded Black person would know is a lie and the facts surrounding this are laid out in Cornell West latest book "Democracy Matters," and continue spreading the already refuted madness surrounding the media driven phenomena of "acting white", the list goes on but it does not stop there.

In C.R. Hamilton two hour response to what I have written about him and the writings that are on his site, he misquoted me, attributed things to me that I did not write, and did not respond to most of the things I have pointed out about his writings and his site. In the entire two hour he spent so called addressing my writings amongst other things, he did not once address why he has that article from the white supremacist site Frontpagemagazine.com on his site, He inferred that I wrote that he is funded by Conservatives which is a lie and could have easily been checked being that all that I have written is available on this site. What I did say is his site "appear to me to be a front group for Conservative Ideology" especially in how they attack Black Leadership, but this says nothing about funding, one does not have to be funded by the makers of a particular ideology to help spread that ideology under false pretense.

One thing C.R. did address was my pointing out his usage of statistics from the white think tank, The Heritage Foundation whom has a vested interest in spreading lies and propaganda about Black men and women. C.R. in addressing this said boldly at the 1:15:40 point in the show;

"I don't care where the stats came from, they stats, most of the readers look for stats"

He then go on to say I guess talking about his readers who he post the stats for

"if you need stats, you don't got your head on right".

This is the kind of convoluted madness I am talking about, he uses stats from a white think tank and once the stats are challenged, he then says he do not care where the stats are from because they are not for him "they are for the readers", this is the same attitude I believe that led him to posting the frontpagemagazine.com piece. You see, C.R. like so many people simply look for something that compliments his position regardless of the source and he run with it.

Truthfully, I quietly hoped after reading that he would be addressing what I have written on his internet radio show, that he would prove me wrong and give valid arguments refuting what I have pointed out, being that if he did, it would mean he is not using his so-called "Black Nationalism" to spread anti-Black propaganda.. Such was not the case, in fact, after listening to his show; I now have a greater understanding of where he is coming from; it is a place that does not allow him to see past his own religious fundamentalism and dogmatism, thus he accept so-called religious arguments from those on the right who seek to use Black folk who love God and spirituality to spread their propaganda about Black leadership and Black people under the guise of taken a moral stand, I say again, Negro Please....

Misguided and Uninformed criticisms of Black Leadership! Part 2

Have you ever been suspicious of something or someone but you gave them the benefit of the doubt simply because someone, whom you trusted, trusted them or it? This has been the case for me in regards to what I think of a site called “Afromerica.com” A sister I have grown to know and respect for her passion about our people brought this site to my attention. The very first time I went to this site, on the front page of this site was an article criticizing our brother Michael Eric Dyson over his usage and observation of the “N” word. I had my suspicions after reading that piece but I thought my sister likes this site so maybe there is more to it.

A few weeks pass and my sister tells me that she will be interviewed by the owner of this site on his internet radio show, so of course I want to tune in and listen to my sister do her thing. While attempting to listen to the interview I clicked on the wrong link that was a recording of another show the owner of the site did. I listened to what was being said and much like the op-ed piece I had read on this site, what I heard seemed like misguided if not out right attacks on Black leadership and Black intelligentsia. Listening to that show is what sparked me to write the op-ed on “Misguided and Uninformed criticism of Black leadership.” I did not mention the site in that piece by name out of respect for my sister and the growing relationship she has with the site and its owner, but I can no longer do that being that I am convinced the brother who owned this site and go by the name C.R. Hamilton is using what the Honorable Elijah Muhammad called tricknology. This brother is mixing truth with falsehood and offering it to the people but it does not stop their, his tricknology reeks of white supremacy and he quotes sources in his pieces and on his site that is overtly racist and has a vested interest in demonizing Black men and women.

On Afromerica you will find a propaganda piece written by Lee Mc Grath for the anti-Black web magazine run by David Horowitz “Frontpagemagazine.com", entitled “The Ten Biggest Problems Facing African-Americans Today”. These ten things are all conservative talking points for the most part, that takes truth and mixes it with falsehood in an attempt to degrade and demonize Black leadership and the on going fight for Reparations. Also the mission statement of this site makes it known that the mission and purpose of this site is to attack Black Leadership, but what it does not say in the mission statement that is so obvious in the other propaganda on the site is that while they are attacking Black leadership they will be buttressing Conservative agenda and ideologies. This site much like other Negro-Con sites uses the word “liberal” like it is a bad word as witnessed in its mission statement.

“We intend on educating the masses of Black-America to the ways in which white America and the tokenized team of liberal Black leadership continues to undermine our efforts and accomplishments.”

I am not bothered by the pointing out that there are token Black folk that are Liberals, I am disturbed by the totality of the arguments presented on this site that explains what is meant in this part of their mission statement when they write about the so-called “tokenized team of liberal black leadership”. If there is any group of Black folk that deserve to be called tokens it would be those Negro men and women that are talking heads for the Conservative Agenda, but C.R Hamilton. and his site ignores that mainly because they appear to me to be a front group for Conservative ideology.

In a discussion with the owner (C.R. Hamilton) of AfroAmerica about a piece he wrote and posted on a message board I am a member of, Mr. Hamilton said in defense of his propaganda piece that used the Heritage foundation as its number one source of information about welfare that;

“Welfare and child support are liberal policies that seek to raise a socialist system”

This set off a red flag for me more so than his poorly researched piece he posted and could not defend when I challenged it. If this is not the ranting of a Negro-Con I don’t know what is, I am willing to bet that C.R. have no idea how socialism works and what benefits it provides to those who live under a socialist system. Of course Socialism like all forms of government has its drawbacks but I do not think he was referring to those drawbacks when he wrote the words as quoted above.

Under the “How will we Achieve” part of Afromerica mission statement it says;

“We will diligently stay attuned to all current issues that relate to our rights as citizens and human beings and will not hesitate to bring any injustices to the attention of those who would intentionally harm our growth.”

However, in their covering of the expiration of the voting rights act, their focus is not on the expiration itself, they are focusing on Black leadership and accusing them for all tense and purposes of letting it happen because they did not bring it to our attention years ago versus in the “midnight hour” as written on AfroAmerica but had he himself been in tuned with Black leadership he would have heard about this years ago, hell, there was even a spam styled e-mail sent all over about this a few years ago. C.R. and his site go on to say about Black Leadership in their piece covering the expiration of the voting rights act;

“They had their chance and where has it gotten us? Back to square one: possibly fighting for the right to vote.”

Oh, Black leadership did that? Negro Please……

National Urban League State of Black America Report

The Urban League has released their annual report "State of Black America;that addresses the issues central to Black America in the current year. The publication is a barometer of the conditions, experiences and opinions of Black America. It examines black progress in education, homeownership, entrepreneurship, health and other areas. The publication forecasts certain social and political trends and proposes solutions to the community's and America's most pressing challenges"

Report Information.

The "Classified" reaction to Peak Oil.

The crisis in oil is actually more threatening to America than terrorist ever could be. It does not take a rocket scientist to realize that those hurt the most by Energy peaking will be those gluttonous energy consuming nations.

If anyone still believes that America has the benevolent goal of spreading democracy and capitalism, then peak oil should change their mind. If, as the say, capitalism promotes wealth and prosperity, it also promotes increased energy consumption as wealthy people consume more energy than poor people. Energy cost money and most poor people do not have the money to afford much energy. Thus, the spreading of capitalism to spread wealth will only result in rising the demand for oil to a level greater than reserves can supply, leading to higher oil prices that would be depressing to the US economy.

The truth is that the bottom line for everything is economics. The US economy faces many external threats to its viability and standard of living that it affords residents. If economics fail, power and politics in America will be overthrown by disgruntled citizens who have been spoiled by the expectation of an extremely high standard of living. Consequently, the economic and political elites will, if human past history is any indicator, conspire to sabotage third world population growth and economies, in order to protect the American way of life and allow the elite to maintain their control.

If Noah and Faheem know of the threat posed by peak oil, then the powerful knew about it a long time before we did and have been conspiring and acting to protect their interest. The revelation of peak oil should allow the objective person to look at our recent military actions in a new light. Indeed, if one really understood the potential threat to America’s economy and way of life from Peak Oil, the 911 incident would be dwarfed in comparison. In fact, it would give a detective reason to see the 911 attack as an “Inside job” given the motive of Peak Oil, the means of a terrorist attack upon the USA, which gave the USA the opportunity to invade strategically vital oil regions. Not unlike a spouse who will sacrifice their mates life for the insurance policy to keep their lifestyle or business buoyant, insiders should definately be suspect.

If anyone believes that America will just stand still and allow the growth of the world’s population, combined with the growth of developing nations to ruin its standard of living, then they do not understand human history and nature. As the great Hannibal, the Carthaginian general, noted; “Its not that I must succeed….its that others must fail”. In the zero sum game of scarce resources, in order for the US to continue winning, the developing world must be promoted to fail in regards to population growth as well as economic growth, because the two combine to deplete and bid up the price of scarce resources, threatening the USA and developed worlds standard of living.

For a long time, capitalist sold capitalism as a “win-win” phenomenon. They propagated the idea that wealth is infinite and that the whole world can duplicate in the wealth and consumption of the USA, if they would just follow our dictates. They used adages such as “if you give a person a fish they can eat for a day, but if you teach them to fish, they can eat for a life time”. All these theories were based upon the assumption that economics was not or is not closer to being a zero sum game, than it actually is. Theoretically, if global economics was not a zero sum game, then the USA should not be negatively impacted by the growth and development of China, India or Africa. Yet, it seems that there gain is coming at our loss, not only in regards to Jobs, but in relation to the demand for finite supplies of fossil fuels used to energize economies. Indeed, if economies are fueled by finite fossil fuel resources, eventually economics will become an almost absolute zero sum game when these resources start to run out.

The West, in its infinite wisdom and God blessed superiority has concluded that the world is over populated, nearly 50 years ago. Most certainly the manifestation of peak oil will only exacerbate this belief. The traditional means of population control has been disease and wars. It would not take a great leap in logic, extrapolating from human history and nature, that some humans are playing God and orchestrating wars and disease in the third world in order to reduce the world’s population and reduce the demand on finite supplies of fossil fuels. The US government is the biggest arms dealer in the world and many of the CIA’s activities are classified, but economic and political destabilization is a known method of operation during the cold war era. Science has advanced to such level that diseases can be engineered and warfare can manifest via biologically engineered weapons.

In conclusion, Peak Oil poses a greater threat to the American economy, standard of living and way of life than the spread of communism ever did. Oil is the blood of America’s economic life. America will and has taken dramatic steps to protect its future and many of those steps will or have come at the expense of the lives of others. In order for us to win, others must lose, but it will never be sold like that. Rather, it will be sold as something that sounds as if we are doing others a favor, not unlike how slavery was rationalized by Christians are bringing civility and modernity to savages.

Peak Oil..

This actually was going to be a response to what Noah wrote but as I sat down to write it, I realized it would be best if I put it as its own op-ed being that it not only compliments what Brother Noah wrote, it adds to it and makes his point all the more important.

The manifestation of “Peak Oil” is not only a coming reality but we are living through the days that are leading up to it. We should all know that when it happen it will not happen over night, it is going to happen over a period of time and we are living in that time now.

Robert J. Samuelson wrote an article recently about the “The Dawn of a New Oil Era” wherein he makes the case about the coming oil crisis and provides information that supports what Noah has written.

“Americans consume almost 21 million barrels of oil a day, a quarter of the world total of 84 million barrels a day,…”

“But China is now second at 6.4 million barrels a day, and its demand could double by 2020,”

Herein lies the problem, as China’s demand for Oil increase along with India so does the demand on the Oil companies that produce the 84 million barrels a day with only 1.5 million barrels being left in the surplus a day, which means that 82.5 million barrels are used globally every day. China is the second largest consumer of Oil as noted above; they use 6.4 million barrels a day. As of right now China has 20 million cars and trucks on the road; that number is expected to increase to 120 million by the year 2020. That’s 15 years for those who have not done the math. This also means their demand for Oil will double to 14 million barrels of Oil a day minimum and this is just China, this does not account for increase demand around the world in other growing Nations like India. Thus with only 84 million barrels being pumped out a day with only 1.5 million being a surplus, the surplus is immediately whipped away within the next few years and it will get to the point where the world is possibly using upwards of 20 million barrels of Oil a day than can be produced thus the price of Oil will continue to rise and paying three dollars a gallon may be normal in America.

Goldman Sachs is saying that “Oil has entered the early stages of trading that could lead to a “super spike” in prices with the potential to move prices to $105 per barrel.” Other analysts are saying that Goldman is overestimating and that they originally said the spike price would be $80 a barrel. Be that as it may, $80 a barrel would be a disaster and have gas prices upwards of $4 a gallon at the pump not to mention how people who need gas for various things in their homes and businesses.

What ever the case is, we must prepare for what is to come, Oil does not come from a bottomless pit, and the Oil pits are emptying out and we are moving closer and closer to the reality of “Peak Oil”.