Friday, February 23, 2007
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
My New Black History Month Agenda
I'm one of those people who wonder whether the idea of Black History Month is actually counter-productive. Like maybe it sends a message that it's O.K. to minimalize the positive historical contributions of black people to the development of this nation by relegating the contemplation of those contributions to the shortest month of the year. Black History Month is another target of those progressive Black and white folks who like to say look at how far we have gone. Why are we still complaining when we have our own month, a national holiday for the modern-day Moses of Black folks, and Affirmative Action? I won't even get on that horse.
Well The Nation has finally given me something positive and constructive to do during Black History Month. Something I can really sink my teeth into and get excited about. White History 101. Columnist Gary Younge hits the nail on the head with his analysis of history.
The very notion of black and white history is both a theoretical nonsense and a practical necessity. There is no scientific or biological basis for race. It is a construct to explain the gruesome reality that racism built. But, logic suggests, you cannot have black history without white history. Of course, the trouble is not that we do not hear enough about white history but that what masquerades as history is more akin to mythology. The contradictions of how a "free world" could be founded on genocide, or how the battle for democracy during the Second World War could coincide with Japanese internment and segregation, for example, are rarely addressed.
And,
The purpose here is not to explore individual guilt--there are therapists for that--but collective responsibility. When it comes to excelling at military conflict, everyone lays claim to their national identity; people will say, "We won World War II." By contrast, those who say "we" raped black slaves, massacred Indians or excluded Jews from higher education are hard to come by. You cannot, it appears, hold anyone responsible for what their ancestors did that was bad or the privileges they enjoy as a result. Whoever it was, it definitely wasn't "us." This is one more version of white flight--a dash from the inconveniences bequeathed by inequality.
So we do not need more white history, we need it better told.
Therefore I resolve to dedicate the remainder of this Black History Month and all subsequent Black History months to the promulgation and edification of White History 101. I think that's the best thing any of us could do to promote the ideals and goals that led to the creation of Black History month in the first place.
Well The Nation has finally given me something positive and constructive to do during Black History Month. Something I can really sink my teeth into and get excited about. White History 101. Columnist Gary Younge hits the nail on the head with his analysis of history.
The very notion of black and white history is both a theoretical nonsense and a practical necessity. There is no scientific or biological basis for race. It is a construct to explain the gruesome reality that racism built. But, logic suggests, you cannot have black history without white history. Of course, the trouble is not that we do not hear enough about white history but that what masquerades as history is more akin to mythology. The contradictions of how a "free world" could be founded on genocide, or how the battle for democracy during the Second World War could coincide with Japanese internment and segregation, for example, are rarely addressed.
And,
The purpose here is not to explore individual guilt--there are therapists for that--but collective responsibility. When it comes to excelling at military conflict, everyone lays claim to their national identity; people will say, "We won World War II." By contrast, those who say "we" raped black slaves, massacred Indians or excluded Jews from higher education are hard to come by. You cannot, it appears, hold anyone responsible for what their ancestors did that was bad or the privileges they enjoy as a result. Whoever it was, it definitely wasn't "us." This is one more version of white flight--a dash from the inconveniences bequeathed by inequality.
So we do not need more white history, we need it better told.
Therefore I resolve to dedicate the remainder of this Black History Month and all subsequent Black History months to the promulgation and edification of White History 101. I think that's the best thing any of us could do to promote the ideals and goals that led to the creation of Black History month in the first place.
This is Disturbing on Several Levels
An article in today's New York Times details some very disturbing information about "Mag Crews". For those of you who don't know (I was one of you until I read this article), Mag Crews are groups of teens and young adults who sell magazine subscriptions door to door. You have seen them. The often look so fresh and hopeful, and usually approach you with a very positive spiel. They say they are working for scholarship money, or to go on an educational trip, or some such noble end. They try to get you to sign up for cut rate magazine subscriptions.
And according to this article, they are often little more than sharecroppers or slaves.
This disturbs me greatly because I never knew this was going on right under my nose, I have seen so many of these kids that this must be a big problem, and most of all, because I am increasingly seeing more and more children between the ages of 7 and 14 selling candy and other items in parking lots. I am very concerned that there is some older person somewhere taking advantage of these kids.
Check out "A Grim Tour On Magazine Crews" in the NY Times. I'd like to know what you think about this.
And according to this article, they are often little more than sharecroppers or slaves.
This disturbs me greatly because I never knew this was going on right under my nose, I have seen so many of these kids that this must be a big problem, and most of all, because I am increasingly seeing more and more children between the ages of 7 and 14 selling candy and other items in parking lots. I am very concerned that there is some older person somewhere taking advantage of these kids.
Check out "A Grim Tour On Magazine Crews" in the NY Times. I'd like to know what you think about this.
Sunday, February 18, 2007
I Have No Problem Saying I Told You So
Really, I will say I told you so in a second. I will also admit to having been wrong just as quickly. I don't always say I told you so, because it's not always warranted. Often, people are able to recognize the error of their own ways. No need to rub their faces in it. However, sometimes, people are so self-righteous and adamant about their faulty logic and emotionally charged rhetoric, it really behooves me to give them the swift kick in the pants they seem to need to get their brains functioning properly. Often this takes the form of a well placed "I Told You So".
So now that you know what's coming, let's take a look at the famously celebrated Democratic Congressional Takeover of 2006. It amazes me how many so-called learned and sophisticated people proclaimed that the ascendancy of the Democratic party meant the end of the runaway Bush administration. Look back through the blog archives and just see all the things they said about how truly resounding this mid-term victory would be.
Well, here's something resounding for you from the AP. This Congress controlled by the Democratic Party is essentially powerless to curtail any of the activities Bush and Cheney are currently involved in, much less any of those they have planned for tomorrow. Explain to me again how getting out to vote has helped us.
So now that you know what's coming, let's take a look at the famously celebrated Democratic Congressional Takeover of 2006. It amazes me how many so-called learned and sophisticated people proclaimed that the ascendancy of the Democratic party meant the end of the runaway Bush administration. Look back through the blog archives and just see all the things they said about how truly resounding this mid-term victory would be.
Well, here's something resounding for you from the AP. This Congress controlled by the Democratic Party is essentially powerless to curtail any of the activities Bush and Cheney are currently involved in, much less any of those they have planned for tomorrow. Explain to me again how getting out to vote has helped us.
Blacks and Blogs
Anyone who has been paying attention knows that the blogosphere is becoming a powerful force in politics, media, and other areas. Of course, where there is power, there is usually a concerted effort to keep as much of it as possible out of the hands of Black people. So why should the blogosphere be any different. We need to understand how power is actually achieved and then go after it ourselves rather than expecting to be allotted our "fair share" of the platforms they conceive for themselves.
So in the air today is the story of a Black blogger who was booted from the Daily Kos (a fairly influential and renowned liberal/progressive blog), ostensibly because the members of the Kos community have the ability to boot people whose presence is deemed undesirable. The Black man in question, one Francis Holland, appeared quite perturbed about his booting, and the story has been picked up and debated on several Black blogs, Field Negro and Jack and Jill Politics among others.
Is there segregation in the blogosphere? Is it Separate but Equal all over again?
On the Field Negro, sam said "I wish you would address in a blog why blacks do not wish to interact with whites."
Sam thinks we will trust each other more if we interact with each other less?! The logic eludes me...
He also wonders how Blacks can assert that the majority of white people are at the root of the problem. The white majority is at the root of the problem because they knowingly benefit from the problem and have made little to no effort to actually address the problem, because to do so would eliminate their privilege. It's rather like if you are the wealthy child of a slave owner, whose wealth is directly derived
I had not read much of the brother on Kos, mostly because I have already rejected much of what comes out of Kos as the same old BS with a pseudo progressive democratic twist. That includes most of the Black bloggers that manage to make it to the mainstream. Occasionally educational, often entertaining, but BS nonetheless.
People like Field, and myself will never be mainstream, probably not even mainstream in the "Blackosphere". So keep on getting it off your chest!! I know I will.
So in the air today is the story of a Black blogger who was booted from the Daily Kos (a fairly influential and renowned liberal/progressive blog), ostensibly because the members of the Kos community have the ability to boot people whose presence is deemed undesirable. The Black man in question, one Francis Holland, appeared quite perturbed about his booting, and the story has been picked up and debated on several Black blogs, Field Negro and Jack and Jill Politics among others.
Is there segregation in the blogosphere? Is it Separate but Equal all over again?
On the Field Negro, sam said "I wish you would address in a blog why blacks do not wish to interact with whites."
Sam thinks we will trust each other more if we interact with each other less?! The logic eludes me...
He also wonders how Blacks can assert that the majority of white people are at the root of the problem. The white majority is at the root of the problem because they knowingly benefit from the problem and have made little to no effort to actually address the problem, because to do so would eliminate their privilege. It's rather like if you are the wealthy child of a slave owner, whose wealth is directly derived
I had not read much of the brother on Kos, mostly because I have already rejected much of what comes out of Kos as the same old BS with a pseudo progressive democratic twist. That includes most of the Black bloggers that manage to make it to the mainstream. Occasionally educational, often entertaining, but BS nonetheless.
People like Field, and myself will never be mainstream, probably not even mainstream in the "Blackosphere". So keep on getting it off your chest!! I know I will.
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Whether Or Not You Believe, There Has Got To Be A Better Way.
Caught this over on AlterNet
Ten Ways to Prepare for a Post-Oil Society
By James Howard Kunstler, Kunstler.com.
1. Expand your view beyond the question of how we will run all the cars by means other than gasoline.
2. We have to produce food differently.
3. We have to inhabit the terrain differently.
4. We have to move things and people differently.
5. We have to transform retail trade.
6. We will have to make things again in America.
7. The age of canned entertainment is coming to and end.
8. We'll have to reorganize the education system.
9. We have to reorganize the medical system.
10. Life in the USA will have to become much more local, and virtually all the activities of everyday life will have to be re-scaled.
Read the entire article as he expounds on each of these issues.
There are any number of scenarios for the impending collapse of the American Empire and the resultant world chaos which must necessarily follow.
Global Warming could cause more disastrous climate change much faster than scientists currently predict. Although the cataclysmic climate change depicted in the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" is admittedly far- fetched, there is one simple theme that is often overlooked. That is the depth of our ignorance of the world and universe we live in, despite seemingly huge strides in science. We seem to know so much that we neglect to consider all that we may not know.
World War III is not as far-fetched a scenario. The conditions are ripe for it. Our political leaders seem resigned to it, if not outright in favor of it. The rhetoric, not only of the current administration, but of what passes for political leadership across party lines, and internationally, is never that of peace as the first and only option. That's the only way to forever foreclose the idea of a third, and quite possibly final, nut busting contest. There is significant polarization and antagonism across economic, racial, religious, ethnic, and national lines. Even though the crux of most disagreement tends to follow the most asinine and irrelevant logic, we can't get along with each other, we don't seem to want to try, and that is a recipe for disaster. It's a 'THEM OR US" world and in that scenario somebody always loses. We have advanced to the point that we can now kill each other with such stunningly devastating lethality that we place ourselves on the brink of extinction. And astonishingly, that knowledge has only made us more belligerent towards each other.
And then there was natural resources. Those things we have discovered in our environment that we use primarily to power an ever more energy consuming technological society. It has been said, with at least some measure of factual basis, that we use the earth's resources as if they are inexhaustibly abundant. There will always be enough oil, or coal, or natural gas, or trees, or anything else that we humans use with impunity. Or maybe not. Mr Kunstler, and many others who back their claims with much scientifical and intellectual theorization, believe that it is inevitable that the oil resources we depend to maintain our current level of civilization will be depleted to critically low levels in the not too distant future, say 40 years. By that time, we can expect a complete societal collapse, unless alternative energy sources are developed now to substitute for oil we will no longer have.
Assume that these scenarios and any others like them are statistical impossibilities. Assume that science, technology, or simple human ingenuity will be sufficient to ward off any possible doomsday scenario. Even if you take it as a given that we could continue down the path we are on, can you honestly say that it's the best road to be on?
For myself, I tend to take a more Murphy's Law approach to contemplating these "doomsday" scenarios. In other words, anything bad that can happen, will most likely happen. Maybe it won't be an ELE (Extinction Level Event), but the world we live in, despite the creature comforts those of us in industrialized nations have come to take for granted, is a very precarious place. Many people are one paycheck away from poverty, and natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina have shown how woefully inadequate the government response will be if things hit the fan on any widespread scale. "Just In Time" delivery will be the death of us if the supply lines are disrupted for any significant length of time. In Metro Atlanta, there is a water system crisis every other week that demonstrates how difficult getting sufficient clean water will be in the event of a system wide dysfunction. It's a very short step to anarchy, despite the happy happy joy joy message from politicians, the media, and other institutions with agendas and ulterior motives.
Most of you will probably be somewhere in the middle. Look over the essay by Mr. Kunstler, then ask yourself, if he is right, has he gone far enough? And even if you reject the underlying premise of depleted oil resources, ask yourself, if there is a better way to do things, why aren't we trying to do things that way? Why do we continue to conduct our society in a less productive, more destructive fashion than many other reasonable alternatives?
For example, have you ever heard of Technocracy?
Ten Ways to Prepare for a Post-Oil Society
By James Howard Kunstler, Kunstler.com.
1. Expand your view beyond the question of how we will run all the cars by means other than gasoline.
2. We have to produce food differently.
3. We have to inhabit the terrain differently.
4. We have to move things and people differently.
5. We have to transform retail trade.
6. We will have to make things again in America.
7. The age of canned entertainment is coming to and end.
8. We'll have to reorganize the education system.
9. We have to reorganize the medical system.
10. Life in the USA will have to become much more local, and virtually all the activities of everyday life will have to be re-scaled.
Read the entire article as he expounds on each of these issues.
There are any number of scenarios for the impending collapse of the American Empire and the resultant world chaos which must necessarily follow.
Global Warming could cause more disastrous climate change much faster than scientists currently predict. Although the cataclysmic climate change depicted in the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" is admittedly far- fetched, there is one simple theme that is often overlooked. That is the depth of our ignorance of the world and universe we live in, despite seemingly huge strides in science. We seem to know so much that we neglect to consider all that we may not know.
World War III is not as far-fetched a scenario. The conditions are ripe for it. Our political leaders seem resigned to it, if not outright in favor of it. The rhetoric, not only of the current administration, but of what passes for political leadership across party lines, and internationally, is never that of peace as the first and only option. That's the only way to forever foreclose the idea of a third, and quite possibly final, nut busting contest. There is significant polarization and antagonism across economic, racial, religious, ethnic, and national lines. Even though the crux of most disagreement tends to follow the most asinine and irrelevant logic, we can't get along with each other, we don't seem to want to try, and that is a recipe for disaster. It's a 'THEM OR US" world and in that scenario somebody always loses. We have advanced to the point that we can now kill each other with such stunningly devastating lethality that we place ourselves on the brink of extinction. And astonishingly, that knowledge has only made us more belligerent towards each other.
And then there was natural resources. Those things we have discovered in our environment that we use primarily to power an ever more energy consuming technological society. It has been said, with at least some measure of factual basis, that we use the earth's resources as if they are inexhaustibly abundant. There will always be enough oil, or coal, or natural gas, or trees, or anything else that we humans use with impunity. Or maybe not. Mr Kunstler, and many others who back their claims with much scientifical and intellectual theorization, believe that it is inevitable that the oil resources we depend to maintain our current level of civilization will be depleted to critically low levels in the not too distant future, say 40 years. By that time, we can expect a complete societal collapse, unless alternative energy sources are developed now to substitute for oil we will no longer have.
Assume that these scenarios and any others like them are statistical impossibilities. Assume that science, technology, or simple human ingenuity will be sufficient to ward off any possible doomsday scenario. Even if you take it as a given that we could continue down the path we are on, can you honestly say that it's the best road to be on?
For myself, I tend to take a more Murphy's Law approach to contemplating these "doomsday" scenarios. In other words, anything bad that can happen, will most likely happen. Maybe it won't be an ELE (Extinction Level Event), but the world we live in, despite the creature comforts those of us in industrialized nations have come to take for granted, is a very precarious place. Many people are one paycheck away from poverty, and natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina have shown how woefully inadequate the government response will be if things hit the fan on any widespread scale. "Just In Time" delivery will be the death of us if the supply lines are disrupted for any significant length of time. In Metro Atlanta, there is a water system crisis every other week that demonstrates how difficult getting sufficient clean water will be in the event of a system wide dysfunction. It's a very short step to anarchy, despite the happy happy joy joy message from politicians, the media, and other institutions with agendas and ulterior motives.
Most of you will probably be somewhere in the middle. Look over the essay by Mr. Kunstler, then ask yourself, if he is right, has he gone far enough? And even if you reject the underlying premise of depleted oil resources, ask yourself, if there is a better way to do things, why aren't we trying to do things that way? Why do we continue to conduct our society in a less productive, more destructive fashion than many other reasonable alternatives?
For example, have you ever heard of Technocracy?
Thursday, February 15, 2007
Money Trumps Peace
Cindy Sheehan is too smart to really think that money won't ALWAYS trump peace.
Money Trumps Peace...Sometimes
by Cindy Sheehan
It is always painful to watch George stumble his way through press conferences. He can’t get through a sentence without at least two-three “uhs,” his eye lids flutter up and down in what my daughter, Carly, calls the “liar’s blink” and just because it is painful that a human like that is ostensibly the leader of the free world. There is always a plethora of things that he says, does, or screws up on to write about but this time what caught my attention happened during the Q & A. George was asked if he thought the economic sanctions on Iran would work because so many European nations trade with that country.
He stopped to collect his thoughts with what he thought must’ve looked like a studied and careful demeanor, but more like someone with a sour tummy, and said: “well, let’s put it this way…money trumps peace, sometimes. In other words, commercial interests are very powerful interests throughout the world (I added the italics). It is always interesting with people who frequently play fast and loose with the truth, such as the liars in BushCo, once in awhile, if they talk long enough they tell a truth.
“Money trumps peace” is the fundamental reason for the invasions and subsequent gory and violent occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. In Richard Behan’s excellent article: From Iraq to Afghanistan: Connecting the Dots with Oil, he brilliantly follows the history of the oil-money trail in these countries that are one, rich in oil, and two, well placed for the transportation and delivery of oil. Neither Iraq nor Afghanistan, or their leaders or governments had anything to do with 9-11, but they were in the way of oil and other industries that profit from oil, so they had to go. Money trumped peace in those countries and they are destroyed and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, Afghanis and Americans have been slaughtered because they were blocking American imperialistic profiteering.
“Money trumps peace” is the underlying reason for all wars as two time Congressional Medal of Honor winner and highly decorated Major General Smedley D. Butler wrote in his reflective, yet prophetic, work War is a Racket:
WAR is a racket. It always has been.
It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.
Money Trumps Peace...Sometimes
by Cindy Sheehan
It is always painful to watch George stumble his way through press conferences. He can’t get through a sentence without at least two-three “uhs,” his eye lids flutter up and down in what my daughter, Carly, calls the “liar’s blink” and just because it is painful that a human like that is ostensibly the leader of the free world. There is always a plethora of things that he says, does, or screws up on to write about but this time what caught my attention happened during the Q & A. George was asked if he thought the economic sanctions on Iran would work because so many European nations trade with that country.
He stopped to collect his thoughts with what he thought must’ve looked like a studied and careful demeanor, but more like someone with a sour tummy, and said: “well, let’s put it this way…money trumps peace, sometimes. In other words, commercial interests are very powerful interests throughout the world (I added the italics). It is always interesting with people who frequently play fast and loose with the truth, such as the liars in BushCo, once in awhile, if they talk long enough they tell a truth.
“Money trumps peace” is the fundamental reason for the invasions and subsequent gory and violent occupations of Iraq and Afghanistan. In Richard Behan’s excellent article: From Iraq to Afghanistan: Connecting the Dots with Oil, he brilliantly follows the history of the oil-money trail in these countries that are one, rich in oil, and two, well placed for the transportation and delivery of oil. Neither Iraq nor Afghanistan, or their leaders or governments had anything to do with 9-11, but they were in the way of oil and other industries that profit from oil, so they had to go. Money trumped peace in those countries and they are destroyed and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis, Afghanis and Americans have been slaughtered because they were blocking American imperialistic profiteering.
“Money trumps peace” is the underlying reason for all wars as two time Congressional Medal of Honor winner and highly decorated Major General Smedley D. Butler wrote in his reflective, yet prophetic, work War is a Racket:
WAR is a racket. It always has been.
It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives.
A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small "inside" group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes.
Friday, February 09, 2007
And Now, A Coherent Thought About Barak Obama
The AfroNetizan http://www.afro-netizen.com/ has an interesting question about Obama-mania. And notice how he uses the term "Obamamania" rather than the "Obamania" label tthat you will see on most regular (white) news coverage. I mentioned this earlier, and I know that afronetizen didn't get it from me and I didn't get it from him. Kindred minds and spirits perhaps?
The real question that should be posed to not only Biden, the mainstream media, to the growing hordes of overwhelmingly white Obamamaniacs (and to Senator Obama himself) is: why is this Black politician really so different and perceived to be so different? That is an underlying and essential question that must be answered to expose the nature and impact of this multi-faceted Obama phenomenon.
The real question that should be posed to not only Biden, the mainstream media, to the growing hordes of overwhelmingly white Obamamaniacs (and to Senator Obama himself) is: why is this Black politician really so different and perceived to be so different? That is an underlying and essential question that must be answered to expose the nature and impact of this multi-faceted Obama phenomenon.
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
It's Official - Africa Wants Us Back
West African Nation Lays Claim to Whoopi
By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI Associated Press Writer
BISSAU, Guinea-Bissau — When the government of one of the world's poorest nations learned that Whoopi Goldberg had taken a DNA test showing her ancestors hail from here, the news reverberated through the halls of parliament.
So they decided to write a letter on official stationery embossed with the country's star-shaped seal. It was hand-delivered to the U.S. Embassy, which passed it on to the State Department in Washington with instructions for delivery to the Oscar-winning actress.
It begins, with some uncertainty on the star's name: "Your Excellency Hoppy Goldberg, it is with great euphoria that the government of Guinea-Bissau ... learned of your ancestral origins. ... The news has awoken in each and every one of us a deep sense of fraternity. ... We simply cannot remain indifferent to the news of your Guinean heritage."
The two pages peppered with elaborate expressions of praise and respect end with a simple request: Please come visit our country.
I for one think this is big news. Black folks in America have been waiting several hundred years for some kinship overtures from the Motherland and it's finally come. On official stationary no less. I know they only asked for Whoopi, and I realize it's rather unrealistic to expect and personalized engraved letter for each of us, but perhaps they could just send over a blanket offer of dual citizenship for any Africans in Exile in America who wish to have DNA testing to determine our original homelands.
By RUKMINI CALLIMACHI Associated Press Writer
BISSAU, Guinea-Bissau — When the government of one of the world's poorest nations learned that Whoopi Goldberg had taken a DNA test showing her ancestors hail from here, the news reverberated through the halls of parliament.
So they decided to write a letter on official stationery embossed with the country's star-shaped seal. It was hand-delivered to the U.S. Embassy, which passed it on to the State Department in Washington with instructions for delivery to the Oscar-winning actress.
It begins, with some uncertainty on the star's name: "Your Excellency Hoppy Goldberg, it is with great euphoria that the government of Guinea-Bissau ... learned of your ancestral origins. ... The news has awoken in each and every one of us a deep sense of fraternity. ... We simply cannot remain indifferent to the news of your Guinean heritage."
The two pages peppered with elaborate expressions of praise and respect end with a simple request: Please come visit our country.
I for one think this is big news. Black folks in America have been waiting several hundred years for some kinship overtures from the Motherland and it's finally come. On official stationary no less. I know they only asked for Whoopi, and I realize it's rather unrealistic to expect and personalized engraved letter for each of us, but perhaps they could just send over a blanket offer of dual citizenship for any Africans in Exile in America who wish to have DNA testing to determine our original homelands.
Monday, February 05, 2007
I am Articulate
I am beginning to think I am one of the few people to realize that white folks are not the only ones who make a big deal out of it when they are confronted with an articulate, intelligent, Black person. My whole life I have had other black folk react to my proper diction and general erudition with lavish praise, or almost as often with derision for "talking white". We as Black folks are perpetrators on a much higher order than the fearful politically correct white folks who make such statements in misguided attempts to praise us. Those of us who consider ourselves progessive and educated still expect the worst when we see the next ghetto eyewitness being led in front of the camera. We all cringe because we expect that Black person to say something to embarass all of us and set us back fifty years.
The fervor reached the highest level of national debate last week when a white candidate for President made a clumsy attempt to speak highly of the black candidate for President. The white guys idea of a compliment was "articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy". The backlash was immediate and intense, as Black folks from all quarters took offense. It is easy to assume that this white person, and by extrapolation most other white folks, actually believes that what makes Barak Obama or any other intelligent, well spoken, and properly washed Black person special, is their ability to use the Kings English and spoken word to convey ideas and logic, with passion and precision.
It's not like this is a new story. It;s not like there aren't ay number of other covert and subtle reminders that white supremacy is still very much the mindset of many white Americans, even some who would protest such a charge vehemently. On one level, I almost sympathize with them, because I can understand their dilemma. They were born to this white privledge that, for the most part, they had no hand in creating. They surely recognize that, but they also see the reality that privilege has elevated them and left the majority of a deprived Black populace in a particularly unenviable position. I can see why they might feel the way they feel about a lot of things.
Of course then, I wake up and see the part they refuse to grasp. Black progress does not equal white demise. Except at one level, skin tone. And white people are the only ones who have any problem with that. The rest of us have long ago come to grips with the simple concept that varying degrees of skin color do not constitute any particular difference in human beings. By whatever measure you choose to believe that people came to have color differentiation, it should by now be crystal clear that in the not so distant future, there will be a homogenization of skin color among the entire world population. There will always be some indigenous population that maintain the phenotypical characteristics of a particular region, but one inevitable fact of continued globalization is intermingling, and the result will be some shade of brown.
The fervor reached the highest level of national debate last week when a white candidate for President made a clumsy attempt to speak highly of the black candidate for President. The white guys idea of a compliment was "articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy". The backlash was immediate and intense, as Black folks from all quarters took offense. It is easy to assume that this white person, and by extrapolation most other white folks, actually believes that what makes Barak Obama or any other intelligent, well spoken, and properly washed Black person special, is their ability to use the Kings English and spoken word to convey ideas and logic, with passion and precision.
It's not like this is a new story. It;s not like there aren't ay number of other covert and subtle reminders that white supremacy is still very much the mindset of many white Americans, even some who would protest such a charge vehemently. On one level, I almost sympathize with them, because I can understand their dilemma. They were born to this white privledge that, for the most part, they had no hand in creating. They surely recognize that, but they also see the reality that privilege has elevated them and left the majority of a deprived Black populace in a particularly unenviable position. I can see why they might feel the way they feel about a lot of things.
Of course then, I wake up and see the part they refuse to grasp. Black progress does not equal white demise. Except at one level, skin tone. And white people are the only ones who have any problem with that. The rest of us have long ago come to grips with the simple concept that varying degrees of skin color do not constitute any particular difference in human beings. By whatever measure you choose to believe that people came to have color differentiation, it should by now be crystal clear that in the not so distant future, there will be a homogenization of skin color among the entire world population. There will always be some indigenous population that maintain the phenotypical characteristics of a particular region, but one inevitable fact of continued globalization is intermingling, and the result will be some shade of brown.
Saturday, February 03, 2007
The Empire Strikes Out
Here's a list of things that might let you know that your empire is crumbling. Does any of this remind you of a country you know?
(List by David Michael Green Published on CommonDreams.org)
You know your empire’s crumbling when you’re spending your grandchildren’s money like a drunken sailor, and letting your soon-to-be rivals finance your little splurge (i.e., letting them own your country).
You know your empire’s crumbling when a member of the Axis of Evil can test missiles and explode nuclear warheads, and all you can do about it is mumble some pathetic warnings about how they better not do that again or there will be consequences.
You know your empire’s crumbling when you even think that there is an Axis of Evil.
You know your empire’s crumbling when you can’t even pull off the hanging of a tin-pot murderous former dictator without turning him into a hero.
You know your empire’s crumbling when you’re the richest country in the world, but nearly 50 million of your people don’t have basic health care coverage.
You know your empire’s crumbling when the World Health Organization ranks your healthcare system 37th ‘best’ in the world, just above Slovenia, and just below Costa Rica. (And far below Colombia, Cyprus, Saudi Arabia and Morocco.)
You know your empire’s crumbling when instead of making it easier for citizens to obtain a higher education, you’re making it harder and more expensive.
You know your empire’s crumbling when your middle class has been stagnant for three decades, while the wealth of the hyper-rich continues to climb through the roof.
You know your empire’s crumbling when one of your cities drowns and your government does next to nothing before, during and after.
There are a bunch more over on CommonDreams. Let's see how many more we can add to the list. Seems like there is a fresh clue provided every day.
Here's one, You know your empire's crumbling when the only real news is labeled "Faux News" and the propaganda that passes for real news all comes from a few major media outlets.
(List by David Michael Green Published on CommonDreams.org)
You know your empire’s crumbling when you’re spending your grandchildren’s money like a drunken sailor, and letting your soon-to-be rivals finance your little splurge (i.e., letting them own your country).
You know your empire’s crumbling when a member of the Axis of Evil can test missiles and explode nuclear warheads, and all you can do about it is mumble some pathetic warnings about how they better not do that again or there will be consequences.
You know your empire’s crumbling when you even think that there is an Axis of Evil.
You know your empire’s crumbling when you can’t even pull off the hanging of a tin-pot murderous former dictator without turning him into a hero.
You know your empire’s crumbling when you’re the richest country in the world, but nearly 50 million of your people don’t have basic health care coverage.
You know your empire’s crumbling when the World Health Organization ranks your healthcare system 37th ‘best’ in the world, just above Slovenia, and just below Costa Rica. (And far below Colombia, Cyprus, Saudi Arabia and Morocco.)
You know your empire’s crumbling when instead of making it easier for citizens to obtain a higher education, you’re making it harder and more expensive.
You know your empire’s crumbling when your middle class has been stagnant for three decades, while the wealth of the hyper-rich continues to climb through the roof.
You know your empire’s crumbling when one of your cities drowns and your government does next to nothing before, during and after.
There are a bunch more over on CommonDreams. Let's see how many more we can add to the list. Seems like there is a fresh clue provided every day.
Here's one, You know your empire's crumbling when the only real news is labeled "Faux News" and the propaganda that passes for real news all comes from a few major media outlets.
Friday, February 02, 2007
Why is this considered News?
On ajc.com, a front page headline tells us Macon Mayor Becomes Muslim. Mayor C. Jack Ellis is now Mayor Hakim Mansour Ellis
I don't recall ever seeing a news headline about some politician switching from Baptist to Methodist. Can't remember any about conversions to Hindu, Buddhism, Judaism, or any other Ism.
It's ridiculous how they try to control the public attitude and discourse with such transparent twaddle. And on top of that, the Ajc has a monopoly on news in Atlanta.
I don't recall ever seeing a news headline about some politician switching from Baptist to Methodist. Can't remember any about conversions to Hindu, Buddhism, Judaism, or any other Ism.
It's ridiculous how they try to control the public attitude and discourse with such transparent twaddle. And on top of that, the Ajc has a monopoly on news in Atlanta.
Thursday, February 01, 2007
Empire v. Democracy
Why Nemesis Is at Our Door
by Chalmers Johnson
An interesting perspective on the rise and eventual fall of the American Empire.
Why Nemesis Is at Our Door
by Chalmers Johnson
An interesting perspective on the rise and eventual fall of the American Empire.
Obama Steps Up on Iraq
I guess this qualifies as "stepping up" on Iraq. Barak Obama finally has a bill in the Senate, and he wnats the boys out of Iraq. Well mostly out of Iraq. For some reason we need to stay there to teach the Iraqis who are on our side today, more and better ways to militarily overcome people who forcefully disagree them. Much the same way that we trained the people who are our enemies today. I suppose this qualifies as enlightened leadership. It certainly doesn't represent my views on how U.S. foriegn policy should be handled. It's more like the best of a bunch of bad choices.
Isn't it all symbolic anyway? Everyone knows the President can veto any Gongressional legislation, and there are not enough votes to pass a law requring the troops to leave Iraq over a veto.
I must admit I cannot help but watch as Obama-mania unravels. (Notice the news sources call it "Obamania". They do that to butcher the man's name as thoroughly as possible.) For me it's like watching an impending train wreck. I would love to see him win, but I expect to fantastic story that ends up in "just wait until the next time".
Isn't it all symbolic anyway? Everyone knows the President can veto any Gongressional legislation, and there are not enough votes to pass a law requring the troops to leave Iraq over a veto.
I must admit I cannot help but watch as Obama-mania unravels. (Notice the news sources call it "Obamania". They do that to butcher the man's name as thoroughly as possible.) For me it's like watching an impending train wreck. I would love to see him win, but I expect to fantastic story that ends up in "just wait until the next time".
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
