The Emperor's New Cloths
In Hans Christian Andersen fairly tell “The Emperors new cloths”, nefarious con men posing as garment manufacturers decided to con the Emperor, who had a fancy for the finest and rarest of clothing. This was accomplished by preying on the credulous of the Emperor and his appointees and office holders (actually his entire empire), that a garment could be created that would be visible only on those who were competent in their office and invisible to those who were incompetent in their office or position.
The nefarious con men were successful by understanding the probabilities of human nature. They understood that no one wanted to see themselves as being incompetent and therefore no one would admit that they could not see the material of the garment supposedly being fashioned and created by the two crooks. The emperor sent several of his underlings to see the garment being fashioned, all of whom could not see anything when shown the material by the crooks, yet, returned to the emperor to profess that they had witnessed a beautiful garment, but more importantly, that they were not incompetent.
This fairly tale has a real life parallels. The abstract phenomenon in the story is born from the human propensity to put self interest and status above the interest of truth. No one wanted to admit the truth that the emperor was actually naked, because no one wanted to be seen in a negative light, incompetent, in the fairy tales instance. Today, in a rather inverse analogy, white people have a vested interest in not seeing racism or talking about the effects of racism. To admit that the economic and social discrepancies between blacks and whites are the product of racism is akin to the admission that the emperor was naked all along.
When whites, and their black promotion seekers, look at the problems of the black community, they have a vested interest in not seeing or admitting to seeing the reality of how such manifested. To make such an admission would create a moral dilemma and force an ideological/political epiphany, lest hypocrisy and or being seen rightfully as bigots. More importantly, it would threaten the fallacy about how they (whites) arrived at a superior economic and social condition. It, the admission of reality, would also mean responsibility and accountability (by the larger society and government), which whites see as a threat to their status, through the erosion of white privilege and economic superiority. Such a revelation of truth represents incompetents of superiority, for whites, and reflects superiority of condition by virtue of immoral superiority, which manifested in unequal treatment and hence unequal outcome and the current black condition.
In the fairly tell, the fallacy that everyone was living with was broken when an innocent child shouted, as everyone was marveling a the emperors new clothes, “But he’s Naked”. The emperor then became embarrassed and ashamed. In real life, the emperors have a propaganda machine that is designed to attack and discredit anyone who attempts to burst the bubble of the fallacy. The emperor in the fairy tale did not exercise the full incumbency of power and mind control to prevent the bubble from being burst. There is too much at stake here to have the bubble burst. There are too many vested interests in deceit and denial for the issue of race and racism to be seen or credited as a cause of the discrepancies between blacks and whites.
On this blog, we are not scared to death Negroes who fear demotion or non promotion by white America if we admit that the emperor is buck naked. We are not the credulous who fall for the psychological manipulation of nefarious con men, Pharisees and Scribes. We do not believe or care that our admission of the emperor’s lack of clothing means that we are, in the context of a nation in denial, incompetent. We do not live in fear of the lies and mischaracterizations, due to our admissions, that we are somehow incompetent by virtue of not practicing and or promoting personal responsibility, a solid work ethic, strong families, intelligence. We do not accept the propaganda that says we are dividers, hate mongers or filled with animosity and revenge, just because we, like the child, have the innocents of truth to say that the emperor is indeed naked.
Starting from the truth is the only valid starting point. The truth only divides the wicked from the righteous and those who are upset or seek to suppress truth are the wicked, assuming a correlation between truth and righteousness. The truth only angers or upsets those who earn dividend from the untruth. The truth is not a crutch or a fabricated psychosis of “victimology”. The truth is not the absence of responsibility or accountability. The truth is not an enabler of immoral behavior. The truth is not the absence of a planning and action to move forward. The truth is guilty of none of the criticism and charges held against it by dissenters, detractors, obfuscators and prevaricators. Attack on the truth is simply the work of the wicked.
posted by Noah TA @ 5/31/2005 09:28:00 AM
12 comments
12 Comments:
Yes, this is the psychology of projecting what is true of oneself as to be true of another that one cannot bare witness to their motives or intent. These dissenters see a mutual exclusivity in the concepts of holding the system responsible and accountable and holding individuals to responsibility and account. It is an either or proposition in their mind.
Many of these people seek promotion by the “system”. They know the ideology that the system will demote and what ideology the system will promote. Such does not require a rocket scientist to figure out. The “system” does not want to be accountable and responsible those who are part and parcel to the system or seeks promotion by the “system” must conform to system ideology.
The “system” never really believed that those social and economic gaps were caused by racism. The system naked emperor syndrome is not in the admittance of the history, but the linkage of the history to the effect of black inequality. They system has always believed that blacks were/are inferior in capacity. Ergo, this belief serves as the foundation of the intransigence to link 300 years of past and present racism with contemporary racial gaps.
The scared to death Negroes, in there desire for acceptance and promotion seek assimilation and emulation of the collective mindset of the “system”, lest they seek to speak the truth and be stagnated, if not demoted, by the system.
Whites whites whites, you give them to much power.
75% of blacks don't live in poverty today. And we have to the power to make that number even smaller.
But waiting for the white man to make is better is like wait for it to mana from the sky.
On this site where is the positive. I remember one article about how beautiful your children are. Besides that, everything this is I am helpless... I can't I can't. We can't well guess what we can.
Here is one possible path.
http://www.blackenterprise.com/WBK.asp
If they are erroneously credited with too much power, then how does one explain our enslavement for over 2 centuries, Jim Crow and all the other acts that happened to us?
Scott have you ever considered that it is not us that give them too much power but that you lack appreciation for what it is they have accomplished by way of their systemic and structural practice of racism? And the fallout from our enslavement and all the other ungodly acts that followed it?
Also, let’s put your 75% of Black folk don’t live in poverty to test. What benchmark are you using to determine who lives in poverty and who does not? What constitutes one not living in poverty? Is the working poor living in poverty? Or because they make a certain amount of money that does not necessarily support their family means they do not live in poverty?
Lastly, I can assure you that the readers of Black Introspection do not come here for some feel good positive rhetoric, they can get that anywhere, they come here for our analysis and critique of modern day realities and our condition that they can not get anywhere else in the Blogsphere. The majority of you Negroes in the Blogsphere have fell into that whole Liberal versus Conservative B.S. that white folk love to perpetuate and Black folk know coming here they are not going to get that.
It's not so much that we can't, but that others can too. We can all fight against the realities of racism, even if we benefit from the system(I think whites benefit most).
Noah:
I simply don't understand why you keep "chasing the Windmill" of the Black Social Critic.
He holds no power within the Black Community. Black Elected official and their spokesmen DO. They are on the same page as you are with regard to their philosophy.
I wonder why you choose to see these critics as having a vested interests in the failure of Black people but you can't see those folks such as Michael Eric Dyson DEFENDING the status quo in Black America just the same. Anyone who dares to note how certain BEHAVIOR has the group walking away from our shared goals rather than gravitating toward them IS BLASTED for commenting on what their eyes show them to be the case.
At the end of the day what we see is DEFENSE and not SOLUTION.
You and others choose to continue to be EXTERNALLY YOKED in that you don't operate off of your long held beliefs of right or wrong but instead you are driven on what THE CRITICS say.
If you can live with yourself upon asking yourself the question "are these masses of my people living up to MY STANDARDS, regardless of the stadards and comments of these critics?"
How Not to be Poor in America
1). Graduate from high school.
2). Get married BEFORE you have children, and stay married.
3). Work at any kind of job, even one that starts out paying the minimum wage.
4). Don't engage in criminal behavior
This is all you need to do to not be poor. Will this make up for 400 years of oganized racism and weaking political power, of course not. But would it reduce the number of black children in poverty. Of course it would. And this is in our hands. Not that of the white man.
Fuck racism, teach the young how to get theirs. Despite racism. Thats what my parents taught me, and that is why I am personally succesful today, and why I have the resources to help others.
Noah,
I’m sorry, but you sound like a garden variety Fascist, or like an evangelical Christian – or any fundamentalist nut job that take themselves too seriously. I feel sorry for the poor women that are mixed up with you.
Everyone has his or her own truth. Truth is subjective, and there is no one truth that trumps all others (accept by the barrel of a gun). Modern civilization would not have progressed if one group had not challenged the oppressive "truth" of another group. The only ultimate “truth” (if there is such a thing) is the belief system of the winner; that he in turn, is able to impose upon the weak. We would still be in chains if brave individuals of all races had not challenged an abusive truth that American racists had written into law. Remember, truth is written by the winners, and then imposed on the losers. Such is the case with history, which is just one man’s truth. Whites have their truths about us, and we have our truths about them. The search should not be for truth, it should be for understanding, compassion, and love.
Why should anyone respect your narrow view of the world? You don’t have any power, or any credentials to speak of. You probably work at Kinko’s. All you do is just blather away with no apparent objective, but to add more bitterness and hatred to the world. What do you know about anything? You’re just some douchebag living in some Ghetto shit hole, who’s sitting in his underwear pounding angrily away on his PC. So what?
“Attack on the truth is simply the work of the wicked.” Do you think you’re Jesus or something? Don’t make me laugh! You sound like a half-assed Bin Laden, or Bush with bad credit. You don’t have any truth to impart to anyone, and you certainly have no right to call anyone wicked! Why do you have to be such an asshole about everything?
Nobody that comes here has to respect your narrow view of the world. I’m sure you’ve never even traveled abroad. You’ve been totally defeated and broken by racism – it owns you. You’re the “scared-to-death-Negro” because you can’t envision that you can control your own destiny. Victim!
I came from nothing (foster homes), went to college, got an MBA, and now I’m successful. Sure, I encountered some bigoted people, but they couldn’t stop me. All you need is a Social Security Number (which is given out at birth) and you can get the student loans to attend college. Enough said! Just get off your lazy ass and go. It’s that simple. I’ve been all over the world, speak five languages, and have people of all races as friends. Like Scott said, FUCK RACISM!
A wise man once told me to watch out for the “borefucks.” A “borefuck” is someone whose parents were bored (while fucking) when they were conceived. You, my friend, are a “borefuck.”
You don’t have to worry about me coming back, because it would only be a waste of my time. I love the Internet, though, because you can find all these bizarre creeps and weirdoes. There’s no end to it.
Ali Shaheed
How to be rich in America, like Bill Gates.
Come from an upper-middle income family.
Drop out of college before you graduate.
Start your own software company.
Monopolize the industry.
Then you’re Rich. Just follow these four easy steps. What’s your excuse Scott?
The upper class can make a list of steps that the middle class are not following to be rich like them, just as the middle class can create a list of the lower class to follow to become middle class.
I am continuously amused at the little snakes that show there head on this Blog. Here we have Ali Shaheed who wants to know what Noah credetials are and have mistaken what Noah writes and more than likely what ever is written on Black Introspection as the ranting of a couple of poor uneducated negras but Ali Shaheed MBA having response alone proves he is not dealing with a few uneducated individuals, if so he would have never come down from his high horse to say a word. How did you find this shit hole any way Shaheed?
Everyone should take note that Shaheed did not address what was written, he only through out a few insults and told us his life story which if true is a great story and should be shared but Shaheed do not mistake your ability to ignore the racism that you encountered as proof that the system works. How many others were side tracked by the same racism you overcame. Understand Shaheed, you overcoming the racism you encountered do not prove anything other than you manage to overcome realities that should not be in the first place. But like so many who think so much of themselves you have mistaken your ability to negotiate the racist structure in America as things are ok. Get real Negro! If you had a damn backbone you would admit the racism that did not trip you up, continue to trip our people up and this is what we speak to.
Ali, if you believe that truth is subjective, then you have disqualified your pontification as having any objective validity. Subjective could be subjective by virtue of ignorance and or prejudice. Subjective truth is the product of the scope of reality that a person wants to integrate into their conclusion. The scope is often the product of once prejudice and ignorance, which filters or limits the macrocosm. For example, the people once thought that the earth was flat because they were ignorant, despite their ability to observe a flat earth which they resided upon. When the scope was increased and ignorance decreased, the macro truth becomes clear. Thus, what is true of a part cannot be assumed true for the whole and what is true for the whole cannot be assumed true of the parts. This is why scope is so important.
If you are a person who grew up in foster homes and reached success, what is true for you as a part of humanity cannot be assumed true for the whole of humanity. This is why individual examples of success or failure cannot be used as evidence against the general rule for the whole. We not talking absolutism here, we are talking about the general rule. The big picture. The collective macro impact of white racism upon black peoples.
Yes, please do not come back, because you no constructive anti-thesis.
I don't know how this will sound, but the US has one declaration of independence, why can't it have another? For the black population to make a black state in the land to which it was dragged?
You could have a country for black guys run by black guys without interference at all from whites.
That's not to say you might not let whites in, you could just provide in a consitution that they hold no governmental or administrative roles - or service occupation at the very best. I'd be honoured to call myself a countryman there.
D. Belby,
DanielBelby@hotmail.co.uk
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