The Epitome Of Racism Is Pat Buchanan

“Barack says we need to have a conversation about race in America. Fair enough. But this time, it has to be a two-way conversation. White America needs to be heard from, not just lectured to. This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:

First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known. Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.

Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the ’60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream.” – Pat Buchanan, as if white people don’t use welfare.

Pat Buchanan is a disgusting example of a sub human being. This man has the audacity to say that people in the black community should be on their knees thanking the white community for bringing our ancestors to America, subjecting them to slavery, denial of humanity, Jim Crow laws, segregation, denial of civil rights, and denial of opportunity. While the dominant community worked to keep black people within the strict confines of subjugation, the white community reaped the benefits of low cost black labor and the benefits of black people being artificially prevented from competing fairly in a capitalistic environment. The black American today should be thankful that although we live in the richest country in the world and earn wages that exceed many blacks elsewhere, we pay much more than many blacks around the world in order to exist without healthcare, equal wages, equal opportunities for education and employment, and the other social ills that run the gamut.

Black people need to be thankful that white people hanged our ancestors from the local tree. We should be thankful that our ancestors were used for government sponsored experiments on the effects of syphilis if left untreated. We should be down on our knees thanking god that white people sprayed our elders and ancestors with water hoses for having the audacity to demand to be recognized as an equal part of this society that works so hard to protect racial disparity. We should be thankful that prisons hold a disproportionately excessive number of our brothers and sisters while on the flip side the American corporation employs a disproportionately inadequate number of black people.

We should be thankful for all of this disparity that has become the norm of American society. According to Mr. Buchanan, this is a grievance that the white American community has against the ungrateful black people. White people paid good money to other white people to buy our ancestors. Why aren’t we more thankful?

Then again, why aren’t more people of Jewish ancestry more thankful to Nazi Germany for all the things the Nazis did for them? The German Nazi party spent a lot of energy building all of those concentration camps to house those Jewish people. Why aren’t more Jews more thankful for the sacrifice that Germany made for their ancestors and elders? How come there are no Jews thanking the Germans for all of those train rides that allowed them to see the countryside from the inside of a railcar? The Germans provided Jews with food, at least every now and then. The Germans actually set in motion a series of events that led to the establishment of Israel. It would not have happened without Adolph Hitler’s help. If we follow Mr. Buchanan’s racist logic, every person of Jewish descent should be on their knees thanking the Nazis for everything that happened to them.

But no one would seriously suggest that the Jewish people should be on their knees thanking Nazis for their sordid past. The German Nazi party abused and misused its Jewish population. Jews exist despite what the Nazis did to them. The same is true about the relationship between America’s black population and the dominant society. If racist white people had their way, the black community would continue to have no rights and to exist in nothing more than a subservient role to the white community. It is this blatant tolerance for racism against black people in this country that allows the white mindset of people like Mr. Buchanan to flourish and to publicly express some of the most asinine concepts with regards to the relationship between blacks and whites. Black people need to get down on our collective knees and thank white supremacist, kidnappers, enslavers, rapists, murderers, and many other white criminals simply because we continue to exist in an environment of racial disparity. How racist and self centered can you get?

However, in one respect, Mr. Buchanan is very correct. His assessment that America’s dominant community is directly responsible for the condition of the black community is very true. He is mistaken in his opinion that we should be thanking the white community for what they have done. A victim of rape wouldn’t roll over, get on his or her knees, and thank the rapist for a good fuck. A crime was committed. The dominant community needs to face the facts that it has abused the black community just like the Nazi Germany had to come to terms with the fact that it had abused its Jewish community. We would never tolerate anyone publicly saying that the Jews should drop to their knees and thank god for the Nazis and for all the abuses of the Jewish community simply because the Jews are thriving. What on Earth would drive a person to think that the black community would drop to its knees and thank America’s dominant community for all the abuses our ancestors, our elders, and we have suffered? The mere suggestion is intended as a slap in the black community’s face.

This is how people with the white mindset respond to a call for some kind of dialog to start the healing process to end America’s racial dysfunction. The white mindset doesn’t want to end it because these people are benefiting from the divide. The white mindset wants to keep this dysfunction going just like the plantation owner would do anything to keep slavery going. The white mindset wants to be thanked for what they have done that has caused the black community such despair. This is the face of compassionate conservatism. Mr. Buchanan has zero compassion for the black community or racial healing. It is because he is profoundly deep in his psychosis of white supremacy he maintains his delusion that black people need to be grateful for the crumbs America throws its way. No one is this much of a callous bastard by accident. Mr. Buchanan is making a conscious decision to never come to terms with America’s racism, the racist past, or the racial dysfunction that continues to support white privilege and black subjugation.

And unfortunately, Pat Buchanan is in no way operating individually or in a small club. Mr. Buchanan is part of a very large fraternity. He is the type of white man that would be more than happy to beat an enslaved African to within an inch of his life and then demand that the African lick his boot to show allegiance. He’s the type of white man that would turn a dog without a muzzle on black people conducting a peaceful protest. He is the type of white man that would turn to a group of black children and threaten to make their lives disappear if they don’t quit making trouble for white children who hang racially provocative nooses. He is the type of white man who would drag a black man behind his pickup truck with a chain around the neck and then get pissed when the black man doesn’t offer to pay for his gas. He is the type of white man that would turn loose a fire hose on blacks in a peaceful march and complain that the blacks didn’t thank him for not using bullets. He is the type of man who would deny black children an education. In fact, he’s more likely to suggest that we could reduce crime by aborting all black babies. He is the epitome of white privilege. He is a disgusting example of a sub human being.

“Pasteurized Black”

White folks are lactose intolerant when it comes to the truth!!

Black folks: you can’t be accepted unless you tone it down, scale it back. Nigga, filet yo’ self!!

You can’t be the “First Black President” unless you chew your words like a cow turning cud.

Don’t improvise, don’t be Jeremiah-ically real, correct, oh, hell, no.

The audacity of a delusion preferred.

White folks don’t want to know the truth and niggas who believe that this Titanic can be righted, saved, steered away from the icebergs are just as delusional as the outraged tongue cluckers on Fox, CNN and the heart-less heartland.

All they can see, the only thing they can think about is their pain, their suffering: “how dare that nigga mock OUR suffering on 9/11!!” White folks don’t know shit about real suffering, they’re too busy trimming their hangnails. They don’t dare look out from under their morally relative-intellectual blankets to see the global suffering that has been heaped on millions by their blue eyed government.

So, here comes Obama, the pretty, smiling black marionette, trying to appeal to an un-satisfiable beast, who will use tweezers and a fine toothed comb to ferret out any inconsistency, any faux paux, any racism (imagine that!) in this black man and magnify it, twist it, turn it into some kind of political pedophilia.

And he plays the game, because the prize seems desirable. But what we could really use is some of that community organizing that he constantly brags about. He talks that WE talk, while he seeks an “I” prize. We may get him elected, but I’d be surprised if WE – meaning black folks – benefit.

If you have to de-bone words in order to curry white favor – if you have to lose your black soul in order to gain the world – what’s it worth?! I’d rather be Obama’s “former” pastor and tell the unvarnished truth. I’d rather minister to the real soul’s of real black, white and green folks than engage in politically expedient, statesmen-like verbal masturbation.

How fulfilling it must be to cater to the white fantasies of a shining city on a hill, formed in a vacant land, by courageous, persecuted men who only wanted to breath free. That they could strangle the life out of and make extinct tribe after tribe of Red people, one dare not mention.  Or else.

For true: If these folks can’t step up at this late date and accept that Rev. Wright speaks nothing but the whole black truth – then we’re no different from those teachers who have low expectations of our students. If that’s the case, put these crackas in Remedial Ed and leave ’em the fuck alone.

When we talk dishonestly down to the white man, we demean ourselves because all black folks know Obama’s lying, by omission. Distancing himself from his pastor – while ostensibly embracing him – makes Obama a political gumby: flexible, but without backbone. If we can’t bring the entirety of our black selves to the table, if our complaints are dismissed as the politics or rhetoric of the past when the conditions those bitter words describe are happening in this day and time; if the truth of our experience is condemned as insane, in spite of the fact that we’ve lived it; and thus chastised, we begin to bend and contort our stories and ourselves to bring our reality into agreement with that of the dominant, dictating, racist culture for some jive ass short term gain……why we must have lost our good black minds.

I’d rather leave this country, secede from the Union, live off the grid than pretend that temporizing is a form of nobility.

Not Every American Is Ready For President Obama

After the dominant community found Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s comments about the racial relations between blacks and whites so inflammatory, many have proceeded to punish Barack Obama. As a member of Reverend White’s church Barack Obama must support everything that Reverend Wright said. People act like no one would ever be a member of a group and disagree with leadership. For example, the idea that everyone that is an American must agree with everything that President George Bush does and says is as wrong as they come. Barack Obama has publicly denounced what his former pastor has said. However, there are so many people using Mr. Wright’s inflammatory but true comments as a means to beat down the African American candidate. People wanted Mr. Obama to denounce his former pastor and his friend. Too many people say that because Mr. Obama didn’t knee jerk and kick Mr. Wright like an extra point that Mr. Obama is not fit to lead America.

Personally, I found Mr. Obama inspirational. I was prepared to see him do the typical politician shuffle where he simply kowtows to the whims of the dominant community with the white mindset. I expected Mr. Obama to make his speech in front of the podium and do an impression of Bill Cosby and say something to the affect that the black community isn’t doing enough to make the statements of people like Reverend White a thing of the past. I fully expected Barack Obama to come out and say, “God damn America? God damn America? God damn the black community!” to voracious applause from a national audience that wants to see this black man, like many black people who are successful, prove his devotion to the status quo and to prove his willingness to separate himself from his black audience.

But Mr. Obama didn’t kick his pastor out of his life. In fact, he respectfully disagreed with his friend and spiritual mentor and downplayed their difference of opinion. He could no more disassociate himself from Mr. Wright than he could disassociate himself from the black community. That’s nothing Bill Cosby would have said. That’s nothing Oprah Winfrey would have said. That is nothing Tiger “I’m an AnythingButBlackian” Woods would have said. That is nothing that a lot of high profile black people who have been embraced by the dominant culture would have said. Mr. Obama had the courage to stand before the world and say that the solution is not the expedient dismissal of the black people who share a bitter sentiment. The solution is to come together and put the dysfunctional racial relationship we have on the table so we can get through this once and for all.

Good god! Why in the world did he do that?

Suddenly the white mindset realizes that this isn’t some Jell-O pushing black man running for president. This guy admits to being part of the black community. The last time I checked, Mr. Obama was losing political ground to his rival Hillary Clinton. Ms. Clinton had opened up a seven point lead in approval ratings over Mr. Obama. The implication is that the national community isn’t ready for any real racial healing. Mr. Obama didn’t condemn his friend hard enough. He didn’t denounce his friend fast enough. He didn’t distance himself from the inflammatory remarks far enough. He didn’t appear non black enough. A black man in a black church with leadership that talks about black issues means that he is trying to assert a black agenda on America. Mr. Obama would destroy white privilege. White people would never belong to a white church. Never mind the fact that white people belong to spiritual organizations like the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Polish National Catholic Church, the Ukrainian Greek Church, or the German Orthodox Jews. No one would make the argument that these spiritual organizations are the strongholds of white only sensitivities although they are void of any sizable black population.

Many people in America don’t want a candidate that is ready to heal race relations. As far as the dominant community is concerned, race relations are fine the way they are. If they weren’t they would’ve been changed years ago. If the dominant community had a problem with black subjugation they would never had institutionalized slavery and condemned black people to a second class status. It is not a problem. As far as the white mindset is concerned everybody needs to quit acting like race is a problem in this country. It is because of this tolerance for racial disparity that the dominant community becomes surprised to see black people frustrated to the point displayed by Reverend Wright in the video clip that has so thoroughly captured America’s extremely short attention span.

As far as the white mindset is concerned the way to heal race relation is to get black people to quit bitching about disparity. Nobody is doing anything to hold black people down. All those things like keeping black people enslaved while white people accumulated wealth, keeping black people classified as only three fifths human, keeping black people away from the voting booth with various Jim Crow laws, keeping black people separated from the white community with various segregation laws, denying black people civil rights, incarcerating black people for crimes that barely get a slap on the wrist for white people, using black people for syphilis studies, etcetera, etcetera, and etcetera.

Black people just want special treatment. And every year the America Congress has to deal with trying to balance a budget wrought with earmarks worth hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars sourced from special interest. It looks like special treatment is the American way. It works for the oil companies, it works for defense contractors, it works for big manufacturers who export their jobs overseas, it works for communication companies, the rich people get the lion’s share of tax breaks that average well over two hundred fifty thousand dollars per billionaire and millionaire, and a lot of other entities are doing well because politicians are taking care to treat them special. Everybody wants special treatment. But black people need to feel ashamed for wanting to be treated fairly, the attitude is fairness for black people is in itself special treatment.

Now that Mr. Obama has proven that his commitment to the black community is just as strong as his commitment to the white community he no longer is the most appealing candidate many people thought he was. Suddenly, Hillary Clinton and even John McCain appear much more appealing as the president. I’m not surprised. Suddenly, I find Barack Obama a much more appealing presidential candidate for the very same reasons. Ms. Clinton and Mr. McCain are more than committed to keeping the status quo. Mr. Obama should have remembered that the only black people who do well are the black people who pretend not to be black or who are demonstrably not affiliated with the black community.

Mr. Obama has shown that he’s not going to automatically absolve white America of its collaboration in the overall condition of the black community. He is not going to say white people have done enough and the black community needs to do its part. I thank Mr. Obama for having the audacity to stand by the black community. Too bad there are so many people in America that aren’t ready to face the dysfunction of our nation’s race relations enough to want a candidate that appears genuinely ready to do something about them. And in all honesty I seriously doubt if some of us ever will.

I am surprised that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram decided to open the discussion on race relations…

Tags

2008 US Presidential race, Barack Obama, Racism

Confession of a Black Man

By Eddie Griffin

Thursday, March 20, 2008

I am surprised that the Fort Worth Star-Telegram decided to open the discussion on race relations, a subject dealt with in the newspaper, one-sidedly, for so long. Not to mention, the one black editorialist Bob Ray Sanders is constantly roasted in the newspaper as always “playing the race card”.

(See “We Need to Talk”, Thursday, March 20, 2008)

After much discussion in the national media about race, as it relates to the 2008 presidential campaigns, and recent controversies created by surrogates of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the Star-Telegram announced, “Let the conversation begin” about race and perceived racism.

My first thought was like that of Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men: “You can’t handle the truth!” The theme of most white America is “lie to me” and “make me feel good about myself”. And, if I don’t lie, they call me a “race hater”. I be damned if I do. I be damned if I don’t… speak as an African-American man.

Barack Obama could not have grown up with Eddie Griffin. I would have hounded him as being an Oreo, black on the outside and white on the inside. His thinking, to me, is more white than black. Therefore, he could have had no input in the discussion of black liberation in the 1960s, as black conservatives had no input then. Barack Obama is conservative in the eyes of more militant African-America, just as Bob Ray Sanders is on the right side of Dixie.

No, white America, you can’t handle the truth. You want me to tell you a lie? Here is a lie: I love you white America, unconditionally. My wife doesn’t even get that much commitment from me. And you want me to love you more than myself. Geesh!

Oh, you say I am an old angry black militant from the revolution days of the Civil Rights Movement, and that deep down inside I hate white people. Not so.

There are some things about white people’s practice of brotherly kindness that doesn’t sit well with me. For example: They like to have the last authoritative word on any and every subject, as if my intelligence is inferior. It makes me angry, not hateful. And, the Bible says, “Be angry, but sin not”. I can be angry without punching white people in the noose, a temptation I have suppressed for all of my life, and yet I am not non-violent, in the MLK sense.

Basically, I feel sorry for humanity, because a lot of white people just don’t get it… so sad, the human race. But my saying that I, a black man, feel sorry for them only angers them even more. Why?

ANSWER THE STAR-TELEGRAM’S CHALLENGE

Express yourself, openly and honestly. Write your opinions, observations, or other input about the issue of Race and Racism.

Send to:

“Bob Ray Sanders” <bobray@star-telegram.com>, “Jill Labbe” <jrlabbe@star-telegram.com>, “Paul Harral” <harral@star-telegram.com>, “Eddie Griffin” <eddiegriffin_basg@yahoo.com>, “Bud Kennedy” <bud@budkennedy.com>

God Doesn’t Have To Damn America

“Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you accursed, into the eternal fire that has been prepared for the devil and his angels! For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink. I was a stranger and you did not receive me as a guest, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they too will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not give you whatever you needed?’ Then he will answer them, ‘I tell you the truth, just as you did not do it for one of the least of these, you did not do it for me.’ And these will depart into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” – Matthew 25:41-46

Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s sermon where he damns America for its intolerance against the black community has been the source of a lot of conversation about race relations. Mr. Wright claims that Hillary Clinton has never been called a nigger. Ms. Clinton did not deny this charge so chances are extremely high that this is true. Mr. Wright said that Ms. Clinton didn’t know what it was like to be a struggling black person here in America. Ms. Clinton is as much a Caucasoid as they come so this is probably true as well. In fact, a lot of what Mr. Wright said was accurate and factual.

America has been built on the backs and with the blood of the children of Africa. Generally speaking, while black people toiled in fields of agriculture with no pay, no benefits, no rights, no education, no citizenship, and no acknowledgement of the fact that they were human, white people enjoyed the fruits of black people’s enslavement. While not all white people owned slaves, they benefited from the low price of many goods and services because the investment in labor cost was so minimal. While not all white people owned slaves, white people benefited from the fact that blacks remained uneducated and were less likely to compete in the job market for many positions that required an education, talents, or learned skills.

In this environment, some black people were able to overcome these conditions so overwhelmingly stacked against their success. The dominant community allowed some black people to go free if their owners gave them permission. Some black people were able to accumulate wealth as long as they were careful to stay within the strict confines that constituted acceptable black behavior. But black people could never forget that their success and their status were subject to tolerance from the dominant community. This may help to explain why many well to do blacks, who used to be aware of the inequity between the black community and the white community but now have accumulated their own materialism and wealth, do well to say nothing against the status quo of white privilege and black subjugation.

Any white person could jeopardize a black person’s position in the dominant community controlled so greatly by the members of the white community. For example, a white woman can accuse a black man of rape and unleash a mob of white retaliation on the entire black community regardless of the merits of the claim. And after the violence against the black community is done, white people are free to go back to their lives without any fear of justice for their transgressions against black people. This type of behavior was rampant in the days of slavery and continues today with such intolerance for black people who think they have the right to defend themselves from white people. John White made this error when he tried to defend his family and property from the drunken mob of white youths led by Daniel Cicciaro. The Jena Six made this mistake when they had the audacity to fight back against white students who instigated racial conflicts when they hanged nooses from trees and initiated fights with their pranks of racial intolerance.

Black people are constantly overlooked by the dominant community. The dominant community will pull out a series of excuses and reasons why it was impossible to help black people caught in the catastrophic flood of New Orleans after hurricane Katrina. People in the black community are constantly told to exercise personal responsibility and to show some initiative to lift themselves out of the perpetual condition of black subjugation. It is okay to let black people lose their houses to predatory lending practices that force black people with good credit into sub prime loans that make borrowing more expensive. But, when the ripple effect of so many black people losing their homes suddenly affects the banks and investment firms on Wall Street the government is quick to do what it can to save them.

A nationally syndicated radio talk show host calls black women nappy headed ho’s and the dominant community says its black people’s fault because black rappers who get paid by the corporate music industry controlled primarily by white people makes the subject so confusing. The main character from a nationally syndicated show about bounty hunters call his son’s black girlfriend a nigger and the dominant community says this is okay because it happened behind closed doors. A white comedian gets on stage and espouses the lynching of black hecklers repeatedly calling black people niggers and asking somebody to get him a rope and the dominant community gives him a break because he’s under so much stress. A former Secretary of Education makes the suggestion that crime can be reduced by aborting all black babies and people defend his words by saying that people are trying to take his words out of context. And through all this, people who bring attention to the disparity that has become the standard operating procedure in America are the problem.

With all this racial disparity under America’s collective belt, the dominant community expects black people to simply go along with the status quo of white privilege and black subjugation without complaint. For the most part, the broader community doesn’t care about what happens to the black community. We would prefer to sweep all of this racial discord under the proverbial rug and pretend that everything is okay when racial relations are anything but okay. The black community is constantly under distress from this racial status quo. And when black people have the audacity to say that there is something wrong here these black people are ridiculed and minimized as wanting a pity party or having a victim mentality or wanting a handout or whatever standard knee jerk reaction that minimizes this disparity.

Is Mr. Wright out of line? Did he say anything that wasn’t true? No. He says that while others may sing god bless America there are plenty of people who can say god damn America. That should be no surprise. I’m sure when the people were standing outside the Superdome in those days after Katrina a lot of them were saying god damn America. When black people were being hanged from trees and being dragged behind cars with nooses around their neck I’m pretty sure that were saying god damn America. When black men are trying to defend their home from drunken white mobs I’m sure they were thinking god damn America. When black people were losing their homes in the sub prime mortgage meltdown while the government handed various American corporations billions of dollars on a silver platter I’m sure these people were saying god damn America. When qualified black people are rejected as a candidate for a job or for a learning opportunity or as president because someone says they don’t know why they don’t trust them, then god damn America.

America celebrates the fact that black children are murdered in boot camps for taking their grandmother’s car without permission. Police punch teenaged black girls in the face for breaking curfew and America is horrified that black people complain. America defends the fact that black teenaged boys are getting ten year prison sentences for having sex with teenaged girls. Black teenagers are being tried for second degree attempted murder for getting in fights with white teenagers and the dominant American community feigns confusion when black people rally to come to their aid. A black celebrity stands in front of white people and rips the black community a new one while he absolves the dominant community of its culpability in the condition of the black community. Black celebrities distance themselves from the black community and elevate themselves above their racial identity into the racially generic ether that is overwhelmingly dominated by members of the white community or who are very sensitive to white standards of thoughts are hailed as an example of black opinion that is acceptable, and manageable, by the dominant community.

Regardless of what a lot of people think the established political and corporate leadership does not have the welfare of the black community at heart. People may go into the black community and give some noble sounding speeches full of racial equality rhetoric with suggestions of finally giving some desperately needed fairness to the black community. But when these people get elected the black community will suffer even larger pattern of disparity while the status quo remains safe and even more reinforced.

A politician will promise to rid drugs from the black community. More police will patrol drug infested areas. More arrests are made of individuals who indulge in illegal drugs. People found with fifty grams of crack cocaine, an illegal drug found mostly in the black community, will receive the same sentence as people who carry five kilos of powdered cocaine, an illegal drug more associated with the white community. But the arrest of more people in the black neighborhood who use and sell drugs is nothing more than a simple placebo designed to placate the fears of people. Why are there so many black people using drugs? Where are the drugs in the black community coming from? How are the drugs getting into the black community? Some black people may applaud this heavy handed approach to the drug problem, but the strategy of locking up the drug seller or the drug user does not get to the roots of the problem which is the despair in the black community and the lack of opportunity for improvement in our lives. The long term solution is not in the incarceration of more sellers and users. God damn America!

America likes to tell black people to lift ourselves out of our predicament. Essentially the American government says that the conditions in the black community are not a concern for the dominant culture. This country would rather spend a trillion dollars and four thousand American lives in Iraq on a war to liberate that country from the tyranny of Saddam Hussein who never threatened a single American life. This country would rather go halfway around the world and stick our national nose in another country’s affairs and create a Pandora’s box like the world has never seen then do anything to help alleviate the despair of the black community. God damn America!

There is a great deal of despondency and depression in the black community. There is an overwhelming sense of disconnect from the major community. Instead of trying to build bridges and trying to build communities we are content to let the despair fester like an open wound. A country that is so willing to let such a large part of its population suffer such disparity is nothing that calls for god’s blessing. Such a country should be cursed. It should be damned to the deepest pit of hell. In a nation of such wealth and prosperity we tolerate so much disparity along racial lines. In Matthew 25:41-56, Jesus said that we will be judged by how well we take care of the least of us and not by how well we tell others to get their own bootstrap. As Mr. Wright said, it is in the bible. The bible indicates this happened just two days before the Passover.

America is willing to spend as much time as it takes to understand what drives a white man to strap a fake bomb to their person and hold an entire office of presidential campaign workers hostage. The city will waste no resource in order to find a peaceful solution that will allow the troubled man to get some help for his mental condition that drives his lack of judgment. But let it be a black man who has a history of mental problems and threatening the community with a hairbrush. After five minutes of trying nothing the police will have no choice but to open fire in order to keep the black man from brushing somebody’s hair. God damn America!

But in all honesty we have damned ourselves. The drug problem that is festering in America got its foothold in the black community because people were willing to ignore the plight of the black people who indulged in drugs. The people who are willing to let the education of the black community lapse will pay with higher cost of a social welfare burden that will be a drain on local, state, and federal treasures. The lack of adequate medical care that permeates the black community will drive up medical cost for everyone without being an effective help to anyone. And as a country, we are more than willing to sit back and allow corporate America to rape black people with higher costs for credit, insurance, and housing until we get to a point where those chickens have come home to roost and we find ourselves facing a global financial crisis of epidemic proportions that has the dollar falling against currencies around the world. Our inability to provide a share in the prosperity of America to everyone will come back to damn us all.

The Delegate Road to Denver

Tags

2008 US Presidential election, Democrats Abroad EMEA

HAT TIP to Adrianne George

FROM: Eddie Griffin & The AfrospearHere is a story from the battlefield of courage from our own Princess Warrior Adrianne George.

“The Democrats Abroad EMEA caucus in Brussels this past weekend was exhausting and exhilarating. As an Obama delegate candidate and elector (I could vote for the delegates) it was an experience I will never forget.” So begins the amazing journey of Adrianne George, a black businesswoman living in Europe.

American expatriates came to Brussels from the far reaches of the globe, from the southern tip of Africa to the northern tip of the Netherlands.

Adrianne writes:

Saturday we voted for 4 Obama delegates to go to the Democratic National Convention in Denver in August. We ended the day without having decided on delegates with the task of having a final 3rd ballot on Sunday morning.

Now, to make a long story short: here is why it is better to give than receive.

On Sunday we are stunned to learn that a mistake in the vote calculations caused the result to be under reported by 50% (for example I received 26.2% instead of the 13.1% that was announced So after an initial pool of 30 or so female

candidates and after 2 rounds of voting I was #4 of 6 female candidates, along with a sister from Chicago named Monica French Stewart who lives in South Africa as #3.A vote was taken to go back to round 2 and revote… When the 6 remaining women candidates were bought to the front and asked if they wanted to stay on the ballot, I withdrew from the race and endorsed Monica. It was more important to me that a sister go rather then risk splitting the vote. That sister didn’t have to be me, and I’m proud that Monica will go and represent the interests of African American democrats in Africa.

I was stunned and what happened next. I got a standing ovation from everyone in the room! That’s a personal first. So many people came up to me and hugged me, and shook my hand and thanked me for showing leadership, and being gracious and selfless. I was told that I was the first winner up there. I was even encouraged to run for executive office of Dems Abroad. When the vote was calculated Monica received over 72% of the vote (50% is needed to win).

CONGRATULATIONS TO Monica French Stewart, the sister from Chicago living in South Africa.

HAT TIP TO ADRIANNE GEORGE FOR LEADERSHIP AND COURAGE

Visit Adrianne George at Black Women in Europe, a member of the Afrospear

Steering the Economy

The popular proverb from notable economist is that the president is limited in his ability to direct the national economy. There is no national economy steering wheel where the president can swerve the economy through the doldrums. But such sympathetic bullshit towards our president’s current problems is totally without merit. When George W. Bush was the Republican Party nominee and was trying to promote himself as the savior who will lead the nation away from the policies of then President Bill Clinton, his vision and ability to steer the economy was so clear that he could see the mild recession headed our way back in 2000. Mr. Bush took up residency in the White House with the economy as his main concern.

Our new president implemented a policy of tax breaks that could not be derailed by a costly war. This is the first time in American history that a president has supported tax breaks in a time of war. This is the first time in American history that corporate conglomerates are profiteering from their participation in the war effort. The estimate is that direct spending on the war has reached seven hundred fifty billion dollars. The indirect estimate is as high as three trillion dollars. The tax breaks, which have paid off handsomely for the average American billionaires and millionaires, is estimated to cost the country four trillion three hundred thousand dollars.

When Mr. Bush took office he had a secret panel help him shape his energy policy. The panel is rumored to consist of a who’s who in the oil industry. From the moment he took office the price of oil began to creep up like it has never crept before. I remember paying as little as ninety cents for gasoline during Bill Clinton’s presidency. When he left office the price of gasoline in my neighborhood was about a buck fifteen. The market price for oil was about twenty dollars a barrel. I could fill up a bone dry gas tank on my little Honda wagon for fourteen dollars. Now, not quite eight years later it is costing me forty five dollars to fill my gas tank. A gallon of gas around the corner from the house cost three dollars twenty cents and is projected to past four dollars by summer. A barrel of oil now cost well over a hundred ten dollars give or take a few cents. What did the president have to say when he was asked about the high cost of energy? Nobody told him that gas was going to go that high.

The war on terror and America’s Iraqi campaign has destabilized the region. The Bush administration is hell bent on keeping tension in the area as high as possible. Such anxiety only fuels the fires that help keep the price of oil going higher and higher. But this is okay because oil companies can make record profits. Forty three billion dollars in a single year is a hell of an income. Is there any wonder if there were any Exxon/Mobile executives in Mr. Bush’s secret energy policy panel?

With Americans spending four dollars a gallon for gas and losing our homes in a credit market considered chaotic is it really surprising to see people abandoning stores like never before? The president wants to tell people that times are tough and we need to give the economic stimulus package a chance. A minimum of three hundred dollars tax rebate for all the tax payers will put us back in track. If that’s all it takes why doesn’t the president rescind the tax cuts and give all of those billionaires and millionaires a three hundred dollar rebate check? If it will work wonders for the average American why not let it work for them? Because the president knows that three hundred dollar check or six hundred dollar check or twelve hundred dollar check is not going to do much in an economy that has people paying four dollars a gallon for gasoline. It’s not going to do jack for people who are about to lose their home. Just like a three hundred dollar check wouldn’t do much for Exxon/Mobile or for Halliburton or for Blackwater.

The president wants the public to wait for the results of his stimulus package so that he can buy time to pack his things and get out of the White House. He’s more than happy to leave this mess for the next president. And if we elect John McCain we can have another four years of failed economic, social, and defense policies. Mr. McCain has promised to keep the war going and has confessed he doesn’t know jack about the economy. If that doesn’t sound like George Bush then I don’t know what does. Why Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton or even Ralph Nader would want the responsibility of trying to clean up this mess is so beyond my ability to comprehend.

George Bush doesn’t have to tell me times are tough. I live here. I’ve experienced his economic and energy policies. I know that time’s are tough. But I also know that these times are not tough for Exxon/Mobile or Halliburton or Blackwater. Their businesses are more profitable now than they’ve ever been before.

I know that the price of gas is headed north of four dollars a gallon without anybody having to tell me. A president would have to be either the biggest idiot or the biggest liar to claim that he has no idea that gasoline was headed up again. And although he may be intellectually lazy, Mr. Bush is no run of the mill idiot. He took the economic steering wheel, downshifted to a passing gear, popped the clutch, and maneuver the United States economy over the nearest fiscal precipice. The claim that no president can direct the economy is not even remotely true. George Bush has proven that the president can be more influential than anyone would have ever thought possible on the most resilient economy human history has ever known. And his truly unique combination of actions and lack of action will have global repercussions.

The Obama Factor: The Politics of Race Baiting

“If Obama was a white man, he would not be in this position. And if he was a woman [of any color] he would not be in this position. He happens to be very lucky to be who he is. And the country is caught up in the concept.” Geraldine Ferraro.

Ms. Ferraro made this statement a week ago and it has caused a firestorm surrounding the Democratic Presidential primaries. Although there are obvious racial overtones to the statement, there has been mild vilification of Ferraro’s comments from Hillary Clinton and other leaders of the Democratic Party establishment. There is however more focus in the media on Barak Obama’s affiliation with his spiritual mentor and the retired pastor of his church, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, than on Ferraro’s comments. Why? 1… because deep down those in the Democratic Party leadership and the media knows what she said was true. 2… this whole affair was a strategic move by the Clinton team to introduce the issue of “race” into campaign in such a way, that it could be utilized for their own benefit.  

There is a lot of things that can be said in regards to what the Democratic Party Presidential primary process is all about, but one thing it’s not is democratic! The whole institution of the Super Delegates was created by the Party, to prevent those possible contenders who are populists (or who like Obama campaign on a populist platform), from obtain the nomination (see here for details). Ferraro intention was not to make a “racist” comment as such, but a calculated, strategic move (by the Clinton campaign) to explain (complain) why the populist sounding Obama was still in contention. The truth is if he was white, “he would not be in this position” to win the Democratic Presidential nomination because the Party establishment would have shut him down long ago! (I am not too sure about her view that if he was a Black “female” candidate who was doing just as well, that “he would not be in this position”. Hillary and the Democratic Party establishment would then have to contend with both race and gender, a much taller order to try to defeat. But I digress).

The fact is Hillary was promised the nomination. She was groomed to be the 2008 Democratic Presidential candidate. The Party and her campaign team felt that the nomination would be locked up by February 5th, “Super Tuesday”… and stated as much. Then came along this Black junior senator from Illinois. They thought he was going to be a novelty at most… but  good for the image of the Democratic Party. They saw him as no threat to the established order of things. However with superior strategy, an understanding of the mood of the people, electrifying charisma and inspirational oratory skills, this Black man became “a fly in their ointment!” The problem became… as he started winning more delegates, more states, and more of the popular vote than the “back room” ordained candidate… how could the Democratic Party establishment i.e., through the Super Delegates, do what they were created to do: prevent him from securing the Presidential nomination without seeming to be disenfranchising a Black man!