brotherpeacemaker

It's about our community and our spirituality!

House Party

House Party

WARNING: Although it is not my intent to just flat out and insult anyone, some people may find this article extremely offensive. If merely the suggestion of behavior that people with a white mindset may find disgusting is enough to offend you, then may I suggest you stop reading now and move on. However, if you are intelligent enough to keep the message of this article in its proper context and read it completely to its end, then welcome.

When Martin Lee Anderson was murdered by the seven guards and a nurse at the Panama City, Florida boot camp I was taken aback by the number of painfully insensitive comments coming from people in the white community. The cover up that ensued after his murder started with the county coroner attributing his death to a latent sickle cell trait despite the fact that the guards were seen on video standing around Mr. Anderson and beating him. The guards even confessed to shoving ammonia tablets up his nose and holding his mouth shut in order to suffocate the young man and gain his compliance.

But what was more troubling was the fact that so many people with a white mindset were actually celebrating because the juvenile judicial system had taken another one of our black children out of the picture before he had the opportunity to become another thug terrorizing America. So many good white people are so afraid of Mr. Anderson and the potential trouble from “his kind” that the emerging thought process can be summed up as any time a black child is killed society should rejoice. One good white Christian said that they prayed for Martin Anderson’s soul to be redeemed from his evil ways so that he can get into heaven, but they still considered his death a good start for something positive for our national community.

It’s no longer enough for white mindsets that our black youth are given a separate and less than equal sorry form of American public education. It is no longer enough that our black children have a greater chance to be impoverished and grow up in single family homes. It is no longer enough that black children receive less than adequate medical care. White people in America now party when black children are wrongfully killed by a system that refuses to have compassion for the black community.

In the early morning hours of Sunday, October 28th, seven college students were killed in a massive house fire in Ocean Isle Beach, North Carolina. Six of the students went to the University of South Carolina while the seventh is said to be a student form Clemson University. According to the news reports one of the students who lost their life was related to the owner of the home. Six other students were treated for burn injuries. Reportedly, the students were affiliated with the Delta Delta Delta sorority or the Sigma Alpha Epsilon fraternity. Ocean Isle Beach is a popular resort area along the Atlantic coast. The daily population of the island town is only four hundred, but it will swell to twenty five thousand at the peak of the tourist and vacation season. The area sounds very affluent and disassociated from the black community. In fact I’m willing to bet that this community is the type with people who are more likely to overlook people in the black community and to celebrate the death of our children.

What if people in the black community actually celebrated the death of these young white people? After all, these kids sound like the type of people who would graduate from college and go on to be managers and executives in corporate America. Chances are these students would have been the type of people that would have been more comfortable around their white mindset peers and would have little incentive for helping people in the black community. Sure it might be true that some of their best friends are black. But would they or their so called black friends lift their fingers to help the black community? If these students made it to their management positions would they compound the problems of the black community by excluding black people?

Or maybe these students would have gone into politics and helped pass the laws that would make the observance of racial conditions in a school or place of employment some form of hate crime. The law could be designed to say anybody who would dare mention the disparity in racial communities would be a criminal. Or these students would become the judges and law enforcement personnel that would work diligently to keep low life black people in their place. Or maybe they’ll just become boot camp guards and nurses and work to alleviate the social problems of America by activating black people’s latent sickle cell trait by suffocation.

With so much racist potential from these students and “their kind” the black community should be in fear just like white people were in fear from Martin Anderson and “his kind”. And just like white people whooped it up when Martin Anderson was killed and his murderers were exonerated maybe black people can celebrate the death of these white young adults. After all, we don’t know what kind of damage these people were going to do to the black community. There’s just too much at risk here. But if it is any consolation to the white community black people could pray for their potentially racist souls to be redeemed so they can go to heaven. And just like so many white people called for more boot camps and more guards so that more black kids can have their sickle cell activated with the business end of a baton maybe the black community can call for more fires in affluent houses full of rich drunk white kids.

There is little doubt that people would find the celebration of the loss of life in the Ocean Isle Beach house fire reprehensible. A lot of people can identify with the loss of a white American life. People will have compassion for the grieving families. There is no doubt somebody is going to be offended over my fictional suggestion even with my disclaimer. But day in and day out people in the black community have to deal with white mindset insensitivity from people who hate black people so much that they call for our murder and our exclusion from mainstream America and there is nothing fictitious about them. If someone is offended by just the suggestion of black people having a party at the expense of seven white young adults who lost their lives then hopefully this will give pause the next time someone feels the need to voice their gratification over the loss of another young black person.

Tuesday, October 30, 2007 - Posted by brotherpeacemaker | African Americans, Black Community, Black People, Justice, Life, Martin Lee Anderson, News, Philosophy, Racism, Thoughts | | 7 Comments

7 Comments »

  1. Please do not think that all white people think alike, just as all black people do not think alike. Although you might hear of people rejoicing in some God forsaken situation full of white idiots, they do not speak for the rest of their race! It’s all about ignorance, on both sides. There is no difference between us, other than years of prejudice and a denial that it continues. Try not to let the morons affect you to such an extent that you hate us all, although I understand why it can be difficult.

    Comment by Pam | Tuesday, October 30, 2007 | Reply

  2. Thanks for the feedback Pam!

    Please understand that I do not hate all white people. When I go out and meet people for the first time I respect them as my equal and treat them the way I would like to be treated despite skin pigmentation. Unfortunately, not everyone is willing to give me the same benefit of a doubt. And more unfortunate still, I’m not talking about just white people. There are a number of black people who celebrate the murder of other blacks at the hands of the system. This is a mentality that I refer to as a white mindset. Many black people suffer from the mentality that other black people are the problem.

    And I also know that as I struggle to get back into the job market and the racial makeup of corporate America, chances are it will be with the assistance of a white person who is able to look past my locks and give me an opportunity. Why would I hate such a person? It is the game that I hate and the people who play it too well. The majority are white. But some are black as well. Not all white people are the problem. Not every black person is innocent.

    Peace

    Comment by brotherpeacemaker | Tuesday, October 30, 2007 | Reply

  3. Strong thought-provoking post. I like.

    Comment by asabagna | Tuesday, October 30, 2007 | Reply

  4. This is probably your least offensive post that I have read so far. I hadn’t heard about anyone rejoicing that kid’s death but I can’t say I’m shocked; it’s pitiful.

    I don’t find issue with your fiction. I find issue with your insistence on a “white” mindset. You display a clear and consistent blindness to the “gray area” that has always existed between white and black people in America. Moreover, I find it hard to believe that you take issue with race-based generalizations that lead to racial oppression but are a strong proponent of broad and unapologetic race-based generalizations yourself. Racism is a product of culture, and I deplore that culture as much as anyone–rich, white, suburban, Christian, xenophobic, bourgeois, mainstream culture–but I wouldn’t classify people that belong to that culture as people with a “white” mindset. I’m white and I don’t think that way. Does that mean my mindset is “black?” I prefer to think of myself as “progressive,” because that is not only apt (it includes similar mindsets from both races) but addresses the plethora of negative aspects that attach themselves to the culture I described above. It is also informed by history–the black community has always had substantial support from progressives in the white community.

    Comment by Seidl | Tuesday, October 30, 2007 | Reply

  5. Seidl,

    I cannot say that I am surprised that you find my blog offensive and my various posts fictional. Exactly how much experience do you have with black people or living in the black community to determine what is fictional? You have no idea of what comments from white mindset people that I have seen as the writer of this blog and therefore you refuse to believe they exist. White mindset people are apt to see the subjugation of black people as a “gray area” when black people feel it as real pain.

    You may see yourself as a progressive. I know very little about you so I could not say one way or another. Quite honestly it matters very little. Racism crosses a number of thought patterns and categories. It really doesn’t matter. A progressive can be just as prejudice as any one else. You are not immune. A good white progressive may support the black community but it is a sure fire bet that such support will come with minimal risk to their status. As a progressive are you willing to give up all your materialism, privilege, and status in order to see minorities as your true equal? Are you willing to bring you and your family to the black community and live without retirement funds, employment, poor choices for adequate education, and no medical care? What exactly does a progressive such as yourself do to help even this field out?

    The white mindset is not a product of white skin or religion or financial resources or political affiliation. The white mindset is a product of living in a culture dominated by white people and that caters to white people. The white mindset comes from those people, regardless of whatever category we may wish to pigeon hole them, who work to protect or maintain this status quo.

    Peace

    Comment by brotherpeacemaker | Tuesday, October 30, 2007 | Reply

  6. I think you misunderstood me. Maybe you might want to read my comment again.

    I didn’t say I found your blog offensive; I said this post was the least offensive. I also didn’t call your blog or racism fictional (racism is real). When I said, “I don’t find issue with your fiction,” I was referring to what you called a “fictional suggestion” in your post. I actually found your fictional scenario apt and surprising, thought-provoking and well-executed.

    That said, I think that your reaction might have stemmed from this misunderstanding, that is, believing that I’d called racism “fictional,” which I did not. Nevertheless I want to respond to the ad hominem nature of your post in order to clarify where I’m coming from since it seems to be an issue. I’ll warn you that the next paragraph slips into the details of my life so if you’re not interested just skip to the next one.

    I live in Reynoldstown (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reynoldstown) in low-income apartments, I’m a student at Georgia State University (which has one of the strongest black populations in a major university, I believe, and is one of the most diverse schools in the nation), I make $12,000/year, I do not have medical insurance, I ride public transportation, I’m married without children to another white GSU student, my parents are educated and middle-class and most of my family is poor or uneducated middle-class. I’m an atheist (grew up Southern Baptist), I’m a third-year English lit major, I’ve never voted, I’m 20, I had a lot of black friends in high school but now I pretty much hang out with other English majors, most of whom are white, and I might be the Poetry Society President next semester. haha…

    I actually agree with nearly everything you say on your blog, which I find fascinating, informative and thought-provoking. I believe that all I disagree with is your insistence that racism is a white phenomenon and that white racists typify white people and white culture (implied by your term, “white mindset”). I think that if you haven’t already studied postcolonial theory, you would find it fascinating.

    Comment by Seidl | Tuesday, October 30, 2007 | Reply

  7. Seidl,

    I have to apologize! Way too many comments come my way that puts me on the defensive. That and too much coffee. I never considered the possibility that what I write could actually be the foundation of somebody else’s response. Please accept my most sincere and my humblest apology!

    Peace

    Comment by brotherpeacemaker | Tuesday, October 30, 2007 | Reply


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