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 than 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.

Geraldine Ferraro’s Contempt For Black People

“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.” – Geraldine Ferraro, Daily Breeze, March 7, 2008.

One thing that I must say about the Republican Party is that their collective contempt for the black community is worn on their sleeve. Relatively speaking this contempt is held in the open for all to see. In the eyes of the typical Republican Party member the black community is not entitled to any special treatment from its government. A Republican President would rather spend a half trillion dollars and four thousand American lives in a battle of ideology to help the people in a country on the other side of the world than spend a dime building schools specifically for the black community. A Republican in the White House would rather give a corporate entity like Blackwater or Halliburton special treatment in the form of “no bid” federal contracts worth tens of billions of dollars and handsomely uplifting the profits of these companies during a time of war before they would help people in the black community during times of peace. A Republican controlled American government would rather give tax cuts worth more than four trillion dollars to billionaires and millionaires before they would give a black family the opportunity to apply for health insurance for their children. The Republican Party makes no attempt to appear to be a friend of the black community.

On the other hand the Democratic Party heavily depends on the black community for its political support. As far as I’ve been alive the Democratic Party has always made the appeal for black votes a priority in their political strategy. Ever since President John Fitzgerald Kennedy made the phone call to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. when he was jailed for the peaceful protest of separate but equal facilities for the members of the black community, the Democratic Party has given the black people an impression that it is sympathetic to the needs of the black community. Most assumed leaders of the black community affiliate themselves with the Democratic Party. Most black people will call themselves Democrats. It is a given. But although it is a given that Democrats are more likely to support institutions and policies that are more beneficial to the average Joe in the black community, this by no means should be interpreted to mean Democratic leaders see black people as equal social contemporaries.

Ask a white Democratic United States Senator what positive impression does he have of his black counterpart and one is likely to hear one line compliments that he is clean or articulate. Ask the same question about a white counterpart and you will be more likely to hear a much more in depth analysis of their character, ideas, values, beliefs, and policies. The implication is that the black politician has nothing to offer but their personality and their ability to pronounce words unlike the typical black person. Ask a former President of the United States about a black politician that is well on his way to becoming the Democratic nominee for President of the United States and the former President wants to dismiss the black man’s success as the prelude to the failure of the typical black candidate. Yes Jessie Jackson may have failed in his attempt to be President twenty years ago. But Barack Obama is no Jessie Jackson and vice versa.

The latest example of evidence for this much more subtle form of black community contempt can be found in the comment from Vice Presidential nominee Geraldine Ferraro. Like a lot of people, Ms. Ferraro contends that the only reason the public is infatuated with Barack Obama is because of the color of his skin. She explicitly says that if Mr. Obama was not black he would not be the leading contender in the Democratic nomination primaries. Her implication is that Mr. Obama is bereft of new ideas and unqualified to be considered the best person in the race to lead this country. Ms. Ferraro is actually trying to imply that the only reason Mr. Obama is in the position he is in, kicking Senator Clinton’s ass in the delegate race, is because of some public form of political affirmative action. Interestingly, Ms. Ferraro does not make the assumption that the only reason Ms. Clinton is in her position is that she is a woman. It is only the racial factor that catches her attention.

There is little doubt that Ms. Ferraro finds no pleasure in all the claims that she was Walter “Fritz” Mondale’s Vice Presidential running mate only because she was a female. Mr. Mondale needed a gender counter to the fact that President Ronald Reagan scored political points with women when he had appointed Sandra Day O’Connor as the first woman to sit on the Supreme Court. So there is plenty of circumstantial evidence to support this hypothesis. Ms. Ferraro probably bristled at every reference to the Mondale-Ferraro political ticket as “Fritz and Tits”. But now this leader of the Democratic Party wants to disparage the black candidate as nothing more than an unqualified black man taking advantage of his skin color. Actually, Ms. Ferraro has it backwards. Black people have not been the President of the United States because of the color of our skin. It is not an advantage. However, like a lot of white people when they see a black person as the best candidate for the job, Ms. Ferraro dismisses the black candidate’s accomplishments as nothing more than happenstance based on some popular myth that black people have it easier than white people. If it was so easy for black people to become President then Jessie Jackson, Barbara Jordan, Shirley Chisholm, and Alan Keyes would have done so a long time ago.

Ms. Ferraro’s comment should do nothing to diminish Mr. Obama’s accomplishments. It was a racist remark filled with racial resentment from a racist woman who is now out of the racist closet. The comment did nothing to help Senator Clinton in her campaign for the White House. The comment does nothing for the Democratic Party in its bid to look like a unified body in its bid for a return to the White House. The comment does nothing for anybody else for that matter. The only possible exception of people who would benefit from this comment would be the other racist people who gain credence and support in their effort to minimize the successes of Mr. Obama because of the color of his skin. The comment is just the latest reminder of the contempt some influential Democratic Party leaders have of their black supporters. Another white person who is not only playing the race card but a racial royal flush.