Ask A Real Black Man - Heating It Up Edition

Anonymous said...
So wait, black people care deeply about their children? Is that all black people or just the ones that actually stick around?
I actually have a question of a black man (specifically you): Are you racist? Seriously. And don't give me any of that "black people can't be racist" crap.

Dearest Anon,

I will be happy, as I've stated, to answer any and all questions. I'm not sure if you were actually asking a question regarding Black folks and their children, but I'll answer it anyway. Yes, that is all Black people, however I do have to offer the caveat that there are insane Black people who are mentally incapable of caring for their children who nonetheless have children. This is tragically true for most groups of people.

"Sticking Around" doesn't really show much regarding how you feel about your children. Some people stick around to abuse their families, some people stick around because society has convinced them that that is the proper way to be. Far too many people simply should not have children, for any number of reasons that ultimately boil down to they aren't ready, but unfortunately there's no law against it.

Now as to your other, REAL QUESTION, I have to say I've been expecting this one.

By my definition of racism, I am not now, nor have I ever been racist. I will admit to having been biased on occasion, and even more rarely I have pre-judged a few people in my life. But I've never been racist.

Here's the thing though, you have to be a little interactive on this one. In order for me to answer that question fully for you, I would have to know exactly what is your definition of racist? I know how I define it, but I would have to understand how you define racist before I could even begin to respond specifically to you.

Especially since you have laid out parameters of how I CAN'T answer the question. Why exactly did you exclude that answer from the entire universe of possible answers? Are you perhaps acquainted with theories or definitions of racism that preclude a Black person from ever fitting the description? If so, what exactly do you find so "crappy" about those theories or definitions?

So Anonymous, How Do You Define Racism? Let me help you out a little. Perhaps you would like to choose one or more of the following definitions as our baseline.

A. discrimination based on racial group.
B. denoting race-based prejudice, violence, discrimination, or oppression,
C. any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, colour, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.
D. a system of group privilege
E. a highly organized system of 'race'-based group privilege that operates at every level of society and is held together by a sophisticated ideology of color/'race' supremacy.

Or you can provide your own

Ask A Real Black Man - Questionable Question Edition

I made a commitment to answer any and all questions posed in response to the Ask A Real Black Man proposition. I knew there would be some off the wall questions. Like this one from another Anonymous (and I must assume, White) person.

Anonymous said...
Are black people really afraid of their own shadows?

Anon, whoever you are, I am going to treat this as a serious question even though it probably doesn't deserve this courtesy.

The answer is simple. NO. Black people don't get scared of little things like shadows and concepts. We've been through too much for that. We aren't scared of terrorists, because we have been terrorized for so long that the very word terror has ceased to have much significance to us. Black folks aren't scared of hell, because we've been there and done that, and some days, hell seems a welcome change from a hellish day to day existence. And Black folks definitely aren't scared of white folks. I know it used to seem like we were, but looks can be deceiving. Even white folks in sheets don't carry weight with Black folks any more. Most brothers I know wish they could catch up with a few nightriders, so we can work out a little of that stress that's always on our chests.

So Anon, if you ever find yourself in a situation where you think a Black person is scared, don't bet your life on it. You will find yourself unpleasantly surprised when you realize it isn't fear at all.

And next time, find a better place for your nonsense, other than a post about my daughter. One other thing that you might not know about Black folks, we don't play about our children. Forget what you think you heard, mess around near my daughter, and you will quickly learn all new meanings of the words fear and terror. A word to the wise should be sufficient

Somebody Has Got To Say It

"If the truth hurts, then you'll be in pain,
and if the truth drives you crazy, you'll be insane.
You can ask Ted Koppel or even Dan Rather
Cameras and lights won't affect the matter. " - Sister Souljah

clipped from assaultonblacksanity.blogspot.com

Segregation - Meet Solidarity

Reprinted from FLH Blog in it's entirety so everyone can understand what the real issue here is. As much as I hate electoral politics (and these kinds of shenanigans are a big part of that), if we are going to continue to try to play this game to win, then this nonsense has got to end.

Jim Crow at DNC Blogger Corps MUCH Worse than Reported

Over the past week, Aaron Myers, Director of Online Communications for the 2008 Democratic National Convention Committee, contacted Pam Spaulding (of the AfroSpear's PamsHouseBlend blog) and me, seeking to "clarify" the details of the new Democratic National Convention floor blogging [apartheid] system. My response to Aaron is here. (I requested specific demographic information about the bloggers to be credentialed and, although Aaron at first expressed an urgent desire to talk with me, he did not respond to my request for information by e-mail and did not call as promised.) At least one other member of the AfroSpear had the same experience with Aaron Myers over the weekend.

However, on Saturday, Aaron called Pam Spaulding and provided more information verbally, indicating that the discrimination and that the DNC intends to institute and practice in Denver (and perhaps forever thereafter) is far more pernicious, intentional and significant than was previously known. Pam says,

I was contacted by Aaron Myers, the director of online communications for the 2008 Democratic National Convention Committee, and spoke with him a couple of days ago to ask him about the credentialing process, the details in level of access, and some logistics, in an effort to get some information on the record. Pam Spaulding, PamsHouseBlend, May 26, 2008.

First, the term "floor blog, the DNC admits, is almost synonymous with "white blog", since virtually all of the 55 DNC-selected "state blogs", save one or two, perhaps, will be white blogs.
The DNC does not deny, but instead confirms, that virtually all of the blogs credentialed for the floor are white blogs.

The DNC refuses to release exact demographic data, claiming that it does not know the skin colors of the blogs that will be required to submit to extensive background checks as a condition of their attendance, and with whom the DNC has held conference calls as well as other formal and informal contacts.

However, the DNC says it does somehow know the skin colors of the blogs to be accredited as pool blogs, at least sufficient to assure members of the AfroSpear and afrosphere that the pool blogs credentialed will be more integrated. It is not yet known how or why the DNC know does not know the skin colors of the blogs the DNC accredited first, but DOES know the skin colors of the blogs that have not been accredited yet.

Here are the known benefits and privileges that will be accorded to and enjoyed by the 55 virtually all-white blogs on the Convention floor, but that few if any Black blogs will enjoy:

Why is the system unfair and discriminatory?

• According to Pam Spaulding's conversation with Aaron Myers, "The major difference -- and the one that has caused much consternation to date -- is that the state blog credential allows one blogger to physically sit with the state delegation on the convention floor and liveblog.
• There will be hardwired Internet access [on the floor, but] there will be no wi-fi in the convention hall (because of signal conflicts with all of the MSM hardware)."
• "Number of people attending under a credential: State blogs will be able to send as many people as they want to Denver, but only one person at a time can be on the floor with the delegation.
• For general pool bloggers, it's a dicier matter. The general decision has been one credential means only one blogger per blog can attend. However, there are exceptions." Pam Spaulding, PamsHouseBlend, May 26, 2008.

White floor blogs will be authorized to brings as many bloggers to the Convention as they wish. Black pool credentials will be for ONE BLOGGER ONLY. This mean, for example, that if each white floor blog invites eight bloggers under its blog credential, then there may be as many as 424 white bloggers authorized to sit next to state delegates at special computer terminals on the Convention floor at one time or another during the course of the week.

How unfair is the proposed system numerically? If the two blogs that are not white credential eight bloggers each (unlikely because they are smaller), then those blogs (the Black and Latino blogs combined) will have a total of 16 bloggers authorized to sit among delegates on the Convention floor. If so, then the white blogs will have 26.5 times more bloggers than Black and Latino blogs combined, even though Black and Latino voters make up as much as thirty percent of Democratic Party voters.

Under this very likely scenario, Blacks and Latinos combined would constitute just 3.77% of the floor bloggers while whites would constitute 96.23% of the floor bloggers, in a Party where Blacks alone will constitute 21% of the elected delegates to the Convention. This is the institutionalization of Jim Crow apartheid.
If two Black and Latino floor blog only bring two bloggers each, then white floor bloggers will outnumber diverse ones by as much as 424:4, and there may not be any minority floor bloggers on the floor at all unless each of the that is credentialed stays on the floor throughout the Convention! If so, it's a white out!

White blogs have arrogated a significant benefit almost entirely unto themselves, designing and implementing a system that has the self-serving effect of excluding virtually all others while maintaining a new class status almost exclusively for themselves.

• Are there other benefits that floor blogs will enjoy? White floor blogs will have will have computer access on the floor, so that they can type their reports without leaving their floor posts. Black bloggers will have to compete for computer space elsewhere, losing valuable time in transit and waiting in lines. White blogs will enter the floor as of right, with their bloggers walking right past Blacks bloggers who are waiting in line.
  

Won't Black bloggers still have access to the floor? White blogs will have authorized seats on the floor, located for the entire week of the Convention directly beside and amongst the delegates elected by their states. Black bloggers will be able to enter the floor area for only "30-45 minutes blocks of time" at a time, and will have to wait in line at a table for passes, while white floor bloggers will not have to wait in line at all.


• What if white floor blogs invite some Black bloggers? That is a big "what if" considering that the largest white blogs, who designed and lobbied for this plan, are 96-98% white, accordinging to their own surveys, and they openly doubt the value and feasibility of attracting more Black bloggers. If they can't and won't invite more diversity at their own blogs, why should we believe that they will suddenly shower minority bloggers with credentials for the floor of the Democratic National Convention?
  Instead of inviting Black bloggers, they will offer the same excuses not having any that they offered with respect to their virtually all-white annual conference, YearlyKos. So, this represents the institutionalization of the KluKluxKlanosphere within the Democratic Party.
• The only bright spot that I can see in the information received from Aaron Myers is that,

"the DNCC has set aside hotel rooms for the media and bloggers, and the same housing information will be released at the same time to all credentialed entities at a convention-locked price. Will there be enough rooms? Given the size and scope of this event, I'm sure there will be a scramble for rooms regardless." Pam Spaulding, PamsHouseBlend, May 26, 2008.

White bloggers, who have been informally assured for months that they would be able to attend under the system developed by and for white bloggers, have had an opportunity to prepare that Black blogs have not had. Of course, regardless of when the room availability is announced, white bloggers will "discover" it first and most available rooms will go to white bloggers.

Pam Spaulding suggests that heated conversations between the afrosphere, white bloggers and the DNC make it harder to resolve issues like this one. I disagree. White blogs and the DNC designed the rules and criteria based on which the floor blogs will be virtually all white, so it is there responsibility to rectify this problem regardless of the nature of their communication with Black blogs and bloggers. So far, they have expressed no willingness whatsoever to acknowledge the unfairness of their plan or to offer any remedies. And that is infuriating Black bloggers.

Would white have negotiated a peaceful and amicable end to Jim Crow, if Blacks had only asked nicely? Can pigs play classical piano?

The AfroSpear is a national and international group of Black self-determination bloggers collectively using our blogs and our influence to improve the lives of Blacks politically, socially, economically, culturally, and even spiritually. AfroSpear bloggers use their blogs and their voices invarious different ways, depending upon their expertise and preferences, to promote the goals of the AfroSpear.

The AfroSpear maintains a highly credible and effective advocacy voice for Black people that is heard loudly, clearly and influentially throughout the Diaspora. The AfroSpear does not discriminate on the basis of national origin, religion, gender, sexual preference, native language, ethnicity or disability, but its members are Black bloggers who are prepared and determined to consistently use their AfroSpear blogs and their voices in a collaborative AfroSpear effort.

Obama in the Crosshair

Hat Tip My Urban Report for giving us the heads up on this. Again, I don't profess to participate in anything electoral politics related, but this...? I'm certainly not trying to see the brother killed.

Oh well, judge for yourself.

clipped from www.ajc.com A Roswell newspaper is defending a controversial cover illustration that placed Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama in a rifle's cross hairs. An influential liberal blog featured a post Tuesday on the provocative cover art, triggering a flood of complaints to the Roswell Beacon, a nascent free weekly distributed to about 65,000 north Fulton residents. The article was published May 15th. Illustration of Obama in rifle crosshairs draws fire A diarist named "sprialstairs" wrote on Daily Kos, "The article itself is not offensive, but the cover is beyond the pale. As indicated by the article, there are some serious racists in the area, and Obama's candidacy has brought out the worst in a lot of people. The last thing we need is a newspaper to suggest assassination with an incendiary cover such as this." By CHRISTIAN BOONE The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Published on: 05/21/08

Don't Be A Reactionary

At least read the whole thing before you go off half cocked.

clipped from www.latimes.com Gregory Rodriguez: The fear of white decline Hillary Clinton's outreach to working-class voters signals the group's declining economic security. May 19, 2008 Hillary Rodham Clinton is right. She has the broader and whiter political coalition, so she should, by all rights, be the Democratic presidential nominee. After all, in other realms of the political process, we routinely refer to "black districts" or "Latino districts" and speak of the necessity of those jurisdictions to be represented by black or Latino elected officials. Well, then, because the American population is 66% white, maybe the United States is a de facto white district that should be represented accordingly.

Y'ALL KNOW I'M NOT BIG ON ELECTORAL POLITICAL NONSENSE

but I got sucked into looking at the Huffington Post earlier today, and there is a post about a Republican Party campaign commercial that i just had to view. I'll leave it to you if you want to go over and read the post, but i had to put this commercial out there for. Many of you who visit here will find this as amusing as I do.

clipped from www.huffingtonpost.com

BECAUSE I KNOW I MUST ADMIT IT WHEN I'M WRONG

And in the spirit of extending an olive branch to the target of a large part of my blogging bad behavior, the quote below also appears courtesy of Denmark Vesey. I firmly endorse these sentiments

Myself, and others in the AfroSphere blogging and email list communities have been on our worst behavior for some time now. I suspect it comes from the anonymity inherent in the medium. That doesn't excuse it. I've looked back over some of the things I have posted and frankly, I should be ashamed. I should have been ashamed then. My children read some of what I post and can probably find much more. I've been setting a bad example.

I feel strongly about the things I on which choose to comment or blog. I have a direct and frank way of expressing myself. I used to pride myself on communication being one of my strongest attributes. I find myself sorely lacking in that regard on far too many occasions lately. I know how to temper my spirit and I have chosen not to do so.

To everyone that I may have offended, both directly and indirectly, I offer my sincere apology, and my word that I will conduct myself in a more suitable fashion in the future.

clipped from denmarkvesey.blogspot.com

CHECK YOUR TESTOSTERONE AT THE DOOR.

In the spirit of turning over a new leaf, and examining solutions rather than problems, the quote below is courtesy of the Denmark Vesey blog, where I spend copious amounts of time.

I thought this sentiment deserving of some discussion.

What, if anything, can be used or done to perfect human society?

clipped from denmarkvesey.blogspot.com

IS THE FAT LADY SINGING IN THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARIES?

If this is true, what's the next step for you fans of the Democratic process, the Democratic party, and the presumptive Democratic candidate Sen. Barak Obama?

clipped from www.huffingtonpost.com   Barack Obama's landslide victory in the North Carolina Primary, coupled with Hillary Clinton's microscopic win in Indiana settled the outcome of the battle for the Democratic Nomination. The results made it both mathematically and politically impossible for her to wrest the nomination from Obama. They also eliminated the underpinning rationale for her continued candidacy. Game, Set, Match: North Carolina and Indiana Settled the Democratic Nomination Posted May 7, 2008 | 09:12 AM (EST)

THE SAME MEDIA THAT CRUCIFIED MIKE VICK FOR DOG FIGHTING IS NOW GLORIFYING COCK FIGHTING

I thought that I was pretty much beyond being surprised by anything that comes out of this white supremacist system. I was wrong. I was yet again left incredulous as the unmitigated gall and hypocrisy of white folks, and the continuing obliviousness of Black folks to the ongoing attacks on Black men from this country. Here's just another glaring example.

Michael Vick, the talented, electrifying former quarterback and multi million dollar face of the Atlanta Falcons and too some extent the NFL, is now a prisoner of the federal government. The Department of Agriculture prosecuted (or persecuted depending on your perspective) him
for activities related to dog fighting and interstate commerce. The entirety of the government's case was the testimony of people who were actually caught engaging in illegal activities and who agreed to testify against Vick in exchange for lighter punishment. This persecution was accompanied by an all-out national media blitz that painted Mike Vick as an immoral thug with no redeeming social value because he mistreated, hurt, and possible even killed innocent animals. There were calls to boycott the entire NFL if this young black miscreant was not immediately tarred feathered and run out of town on a rail. O.K., I'm exaggerating about that, but it's not exaggeration to say that some people publicly called for Vick to be put to death and these people were given a voice in the media.

The long and short of it is this. The same media that gave PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of ANIMALS...not just dogs) a huge platform to protest and vilify Michael Vick as a degenerate thug who exploited and abused innocent animals is now glorifying the Georgoa connection to cock fighting. How exactly does strapping sharp blades to the feet of birds and then goading them into clawing at each other until one of them is dead constitute the ethical treatment of animals?

Near the end of the article there is a very bland mention of the fact that cockfighting is illegal in most of these United States (Louisiana being the sole exception). But the tone and tenor of the cockfighting story, from the noble description of the doomed birds, to the festive fair environment and the supposed good care given the birds, is a far cry from the nefarious and despicable images that were related to Michael Vick's dog fighting allegations.

It's ridiculous that we cannot see this obvious double standard for what it is.

clipped from www.ajc.com Georgia-bred birds dominate Mexican cockfighting ring By JEREMY SCHWARTZ Cox News Service Published on: 05/02/08 The gamecocks surge forward, their head feathers puffing out like a lion's mane. Razor-sharp gaffs are affixed to their legs. The combat is over in minutes, the local bird splayed out on the dirt floor, its feathers stained with blood. The progeny of the Georgia bird has triumphed, as most people figured it would. Here at San Marcos's annual fair, a 10-day folk bacchanalia of rodeos, dances and drinking, it is the big, bad fighting cocks from the United States - and Georgia in particular - that win the most matches. Cockfighting has an honored - and legal - tradition in Mexico, especially in rural areas, where no town fair is without its "palenque," or cockfighting ring. But roosters from the United States, not the local talent, are most prized.

More White People Think Like This Than You Care To Believe

This drivel deserves to be spread as far and as wide as we can spread it so there will be no confusion as to how even well meaning white folks talk when they think we can't hear. Pat Buchanan is very much like Rev. Wright in that he has no problem publicly stating his version of the truth, no matter who might not like it. Got to respect that, but still got to get ready cause people who think like this aren't going to give an inch when it comes to Black folks getting anything in tis country. Like he says, we've already been "given" so much.

A Brief for Whitey

by Patrick J. Buchanan

Posted: 03/21/2008

How would he pull it off? I wondered.

How would Barack explain to his press groupies why he sat silent in a pew for 20 years as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright delivered racist rants against white America for our maligning of Fidel and Gadhafi, and inventing AIDS to infect and kill black people?

How would he justify not walking out as Wright spewed his venom about "the U.S. of K.K.K. America," and howled, "God damn America!"

My hunch was right. Barack would turn the tables.

Yes, Barack agreed, Wright's statements were "controversial," and "divisive," and "racially charged," reflecting a "distorted view of America."

But we must understand the man in full and the black experience out of which the Rev. Wright came: 350 years of slavery and segregation.

Barack then listed black grievances and informed us what white America must do to close the racial divide and heal the country.

The "white community," said Barack, must start "acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination -- and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past -- are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds ... ."

And what deeds must we perform to heal ourselves and our country?

The "white community" must invest more money in black schools and communities, enforce civil rights laws, ensure fairness in the criminal justice system and provide this generation of blacks with "ladders of opportunity" that were "unavailable" to Barack's and the Rev. Wright's generations.

What is wrong with Barack's prognosis and Barack's cure?

Only this. It is the same old con, the same old shakedown that black hustlers have been running since the Kerner Commission blamed the riots in Harlem, Watts, Newark, Detroit and a hundred other cities on, as Nixon put it, "everybody but the rioters themselves."

Was "white racism" really responsible for those black men looting auto dealerships and liquor stories, and burning down their own communities, as Otto Kerner said -- that liberal icon until the feds put him away for bribery.

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.

Governments, businesses and colleges have engaged in discrimination against white folks -- with affirmative action, contract set-asides and quotas -- to advance black applicants over white applicants.

Churches, foundations, civic groups, schools and individuals all over America have donated time and money to support soup kitchens, adult education, day care, retirement and nursing homes for blacks.

We hear the grievances. Where is the gratitude?

Barack talks about new "ladders of opportunity" for blacks.

Let him go to Altoona and Johnstown, and ask the white kids in Catholic schools how many were visited lately by Ivy League recruiters handing out scholarships for "deserving" white kids.

Is white America really responsible for the fact that the crime and incarceration rates for African-Americans are seven times those of white America? Is it really white America's fault that illegitimacy in the African-American community has hit 70 percent and the black dropout rate from high schools in some cities has reached 50 percent?

Is that the fault of white America or, first and foremost, a failure of the black community itself?

As for racism, its ugliest manifestation is in interracial crime, and especially interracial crimes of violence. Is Barack Obama aware that while white criminals choose black victims 3 percent of the time, black criminals choose white victims 45 percent of the time?

Is Barack aware that black-on-white rapes are 100 times more common than the reverse, that black-on-white robberies were 139 times as common in the first three years of this decade as the reverse?

We have all heard ad nauseam from the Rev. Al about Tawana Brawley, the Duke rape case and Jena. And all turned out to be hoaxes. But about the epidemic of black assaults on whites that are real, we hear nothing.

Sorry, Barack, some of us have heard it all before, about 40 years and 40 trillion tax dollars ago.

Fear Of A Black Planet

H/T P6 for turning us on to this excellent analysis. Go on over and read the whole thing.

clipped from www.theroot.com If They Are So Scared, How Come We're The Dead Ones? By Kai Wright | TheRoot.com The cops in the Sean Bell case walked because the judge said it was reasonable for them to be scared of three black men in a car. This paranoia defense has been used to forgive the murders of black people for a long time. Ida B. Wells, at the turn of the 20th century, called it a "threadbare lie." She was talking about how lynch mobs masquerading as law enforcement justified their actions by claiming black men were raping white women.  But Wells was on to a larger delusion, one that not only inspired sexual hysteria 100 years ago, but that continues to legitimize all manner of brutality against black men today. The simple and sadly lasting truth is this: We scare the shit out of America. And that fear excuses just about any reaction it spawns.