The White Boogeyman
Someone accused me of blaming all the black community’s problem on the “white boogeyman”. Instead of immediately responding I had to think about the definition of boogeyman, an irrational fear of a spiritual aberration or anomaly usually from a child’s perspective. I had to take a moment and realize the disservice I had done to my black brothers and sisters. You see, I had no idea all the brothers and sisters who languish in jail were there because of my childish, irrational fear of a white spiritual aberration. I didn’t realize all the brothers who had been shot and beaten by police were the victim of my childhood nightmares. I didn’t realize all the black people who suffer from a lack of medical care, educational opportunities, employment opportunities, and all the other stuff I rant about on a regular basis suffered from these situations and conditions because none of it is based on reality.
I’m mistaken about the “white boogeyman” because white people are just dying to give black people the equality they deserve as fellow human beings. When black people were in Africa and ran across the white merchant who just so happened to have dealt in human cargo it wasn’t real. He was probably there just to offer them a free lifetime vacation in the new world free of worries and subjugation. I guess the Africans were so grateful for the ride that they just volunteered to be enslaved and work in the fields for the rest of their lives until they dropped dead.
And when people decided they had enough of volunteering for slavery white people were bending over backwards and recognized the freedom of black people without a single complaint or anything else that may have triggered a civil war. All the abolitionist had to do at the time was ask all those black people to stop volunteering.
And when the white people had to force black people to stop volunteering to work in the fields it was the white people who had to force the black people to vote because black people wouldn’t hear of it. On voting day black people by the hundreds were heading north to Canada to get away from the voting booth. The history books had it wrong, Harriet Tubman wasn’t trying to free black people from slavery. She was taking black people to the north to get them away those voting booths. Why Jim Crow was a program to get the black vote.
And white people were begging black people to integrate into white American society back in the 1950s. That Montgomery Bus thing was just more evidence of how black people just refused to get on the bus and support the poor white bus company that treated every passenger equally. The bus company had to sue the black community to prevent black people from sitting at the back of the bus and force them to sit side-by-side with the white riders.
And that whole civil rights struggle was just another big misunderstanding. Didn’t those black people realize that those friendly white people were just trying to cool them off as they were trying to make their march to Selma? And all those police dogs without muzzles were there so they could throw Frisbees and play along the way. The Birmingham Four were the victims of a mistaken address and the white people were actually trying to catch up on a demolition job by working a little overtime that Sunday morning. And all those white people weren’t harassing the Little Rock Nine but cheering them on as they made their way to the high school. Dr. King was shot in a hunting accident Dick Chaney style. And Medgar Evars was shot by a man who was trying to clean his loaded rifle while squatting in the bushes in the middle of the night. And that syphilis experiment down in Tuskegee? I’m sure the nice white people would’ve stopped those black men from secretly and willfully infecting themselves. The Alabama Governor that stood in the doorway was simply welcoming Alabama State’s first black student.
When someone proposed the Civil Rights Act back in 1964 it was passed the very next day without a single protest from the white community. White people everywhere celebrated while black people had to suffer the indignity of a law forcing them to be more equal in housing, employment, and etcetera. And black people were protesting against all that affirmative action so they wouldn’t have access to jobs and such. Yeah, that’s the ticket.
White people everywhere want black people as their neighbor or coworker or fellow student. Cops are so happy to see black people walking through white neighborhoods that they’re always offering them a free ride and a tour of their police station with guess accommodations.
Black people are never passed over for employment or promotion. And black actors and actresses simply refuse to work in television and that’s why there’s only one black character, if any, on television shows. The roles slated for black characters are always deep and meaningful without any cooning or other ghetto, stereotypical, or “colorful” behavior. Black films are embraced by the white community and that’s why black films are such a staple in Hollywood. Urban black communities are thriving with black businesses that rate in the billions of dollars and the black community has equal representation throughout corporate America, the entertainment industry, government, and every other sector of society.
White people never subjugated black people. The black community has wrongfully identified white people for problems that were far beyond their control. There’s no such thing as a racist white person in a position of authority that can negatively impact the black community. Therefore, I must apologize profusely to the white community for my irrational fear of white people who, if history is any indication, has nothing but the best intentions for the black community. And I apologize profusely to the black community for our perpetual state of subjugation that must be the result of my irrational fear of the white boogeyman.
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Just a Quick Note
Pictures don’t lie! But the Trump administration will! Ain’t no way the attendance of the the Trump inauguration comes close to the attendance of the Obama inaugeration!
Peace
brotherpeacemaker 
[quote]You see, I had no idea all the brothers and sisters who languish in jail were there because of my childish, irrational fear of a white spiritual aberration.
[/quote]
Hummmmm.
I would like to introduce the concept of PROPORTIONALITY into the discussion.
In 2007 as we scan the nation and consider the high rates of Black Homicide, the fact that the latest stats of 2006 where (rounding off) out of 14,000 homicides in the USA roughly 7,000 were of Black people who make up about 13% of the population. Now get this brotherpeacmaker….out of all the cases where the killer was identified…91% of them were Black.
So I must ask you – as you introduce YOUR statistics of “all the Black people who sit in jail” (no mention of guilt or innocence in your quote above) what is your thought as to the PROPORTIONAL IMPACT upon the Black community with respect to your WHITE Boogieman story?
In the Blackest part of Atlanta – Vine City which was rated as the “Most Violent Zipcode in Atlanta” there is a 32% closure rate for killers of BLACK PEOPLE. (http://www.cbs46.com/investigates/13528113/detail.html)
Now I don’t know about the reports that YOU have heard BPM but I don’t recall hearing about Klansmen putting on blackface, driving in from the surrounding suburbs and gunning down Black people. Why is it that this NON-JUSTICE where some NEGRO who IS now walking the streets with IMPUNITY for what he has done in killing a Black man (just like the Klans men back in the day) does not appear on your LIST OF OUTRAGES?
For some strange reason it seems that the assaults of a BLACK MAN upon another BLACK MAN does not quite register as strongly as some people as the actions of a WHITE MAN against us. Is there some assumed inferiority in the actions of a Black man who might hurt us? Could you identify the numerical portion in which ONE WHITE KILLING of a Black is equal to Black killing of another Black person?
The Color of the VICTIM:
Blacks experience the highest rates of serious violent crime.
The Color of the HOMICIDE VICTIM
The Color of the ASSAILANT (where 91% of the people killing a Black IS A BLACK)
You see BPM – I am a Black man, a proud Black man. I am no longer willing to allow Black people to be SELECTIVE over what we choose to focus on when it comes to “the poisons” that are killing us. The tendency to focus on the EXTERNAL while looking past the INTERNAL has to do with the differences between the ACTIVIST versus the MANAGER. The bulk of the expertise of our so-called leaders has been focused on EXTERNAL FORCES. Get them to change their evil ways against us and the benefit rains down upon our community.
When we deal with areas with a large Black population and strong political base (DC, Baltimore, Philly, Atlanta, Detroit, etc) there is a need to shift inward and focus on MANAGEMENT. Getting BLACK PEOPLE to change so that the benefit will be PROJECTED OUTWARD for our benefit.
While black on black crime is indeed outrageous it is not the primary focus of this particular blog. The relationship between the black community and the white community is not the primary focus of this blog. This blog is intended to address the variety of topics that inspire me to write when they speak to my conscious. The primary purpose of my writing is to express how I feel about issues that grab my attention.
To me, Oprah Winfrey, DL Hughley, Russell Simmons, Clarence Thomas, and their like are guilty of committing black on black crimes. While their pandering to white people may not strike a cord with you or anyone else, they have inspired me to write articles about their behavior. I think people in the upper, middle, and lower class that see what is happening to the black community each and every day but choose not to recognize what’s going on or choose to deny the white community’s culpability in the condition of the black community is black on black crime.
If I were to write about every injustice I see I’d spend so much time writing that I’d never get anything done. So at the most I choose to write an article a day about one particular topic. Yes I could write more, do more and I would love to do so. But there’s more to a brother’s life than just sitting and writing.
As far as numbers go, what I write about is much more than just a numbers and statistics game. It’s more than just a score on the racial score board. If police only stop black people when patrolling the highways and writing tickets than statistics and numbers will show only black people break speeding laws. Therefore, the police are justified by focusing their attention only on vehicles with black drivers while white speeders would go free. To anyone standing on the side of the road and watching what was happening the reality of the issue would be so different from what the accurate statistics may convey.
The problem goes all the way back to the earliest examples of racial relationships within this country. To think the individual black on black crime developed without the influence of white on the entire black people crimes is truly small sighted and naive.
[quote]While black on black crime is indeed outrageous it is not the primary focus of this particular blog. [/quote]
Hold on brother……..you adopt the notions ofIle Emi Ifa
which say:
[quote]Ile Emi Ifa is a collective whose primary purpose is the development of specific spiritual and moral thought processes that will directly lead to certain kinds of ethical and principled choices intended to motivate us as a group and as individuals to bring integrity back into the belief system of Ifa. Orisas and ancestors are no longer willing to simply sit back and tolerate the monstrous, the scandalous, and the traumatic behaviors that are too often contemptuously committed and yet poorly concealed too many of the priest, priestesses, the initiated, and the elders of the Orisa worshipping community.[/quote]
From this I got:
COLLECTIVE
MORAL
SPIRITUAL
PRINCIPLED CHOICES
INTEGRITY
NOT TOLERATE MONSTROUS, SCANDALOUS & TRAUMATIC BEHAVIORS
With all due respect…..don’t you think that the subject that I brought about, more than most others that you could bring to my attention, AFFORDS YOU THE OPPORTUNITY TO TAKE YOUR THEORIES OFF OF THE SHELF AND APPLY THEM FOR THE BEST INTERESTS OF OUR OWN PEOPLE?
What better example that a people is operative counter to their own interests than to point to how the blade from on brother’s knife is used to slit the throat of another who has come from the same womb? Wouldn’t the pinnacle of cultural and moral correction be showcased by having this brother REFUSING to put to death another who is battling in the same struggle as the one who he might kill?
My goal is not to run counter to you at all fronts. My goal is to challenge you in areas where I see too much ABSTRACTION from the REAL PROBLEMS that the Black Community has, conflating them with the problems that AMERICA HAS – in her hypocrisies, dishonor, what ever. Some battles that America has are not those of the Black Man yet as I read your posts I see you pursuing an ideological side track rather than staying true to what is presented in your “About Me” page.
If your blog is NOT ABOUT detailing how we as Black people are not trustworthy to be “our brother’s keeper” for fear of assault then please, please tell me what greater purpose do you have?
Constructive Feedback
I appreciate your passion for black on black crime but there’s a bigger picture here. Yes black on black crime is awful and traumatic, but in what form? As I said before the black on black crime committed by people such as Oprah Winfrey and Clarence Thomas is a far greater threat to the black community than the individualistic crimes of opportunities that may occur in the black community. If that’s your focus then more power to you. There are so many different fronts in the struggle for the black community that many of us can carve out a niche for ourselves. While I am grateful for your faith in my ability to attack all of our issues, I have to focus on what I feel is most pertinent to our struggle.
However, when it comes to the issue of black on black crime, my focus is much broader than pointing to individuals within our community and saying look at what’s happening here. My scope of the problem is much larger. What conditions have led to the black on black crime? Is it possible that the pressures of the white community influence the conditions that have led to the black on black crime? Is it not likely that if we focus our attention on eliminating these pressures that many instances of black on black crime will dissipate? That’s why I consider any black person in a position of influence that contributes to the continued manipulation, neglect, and subjugation of the black community is a far greater issue. In my opinion, the first step is to eliminate the pressures influencing the black community to turn against each other.
You quoted my about statement. But may I suggest you really study it a bit more. The very first sentence in your reference, “Ile Emi Ifa is a collective whose primary purpose is the development of specific spiritual and moral thought processes that will directly lead to certain kinds of ethical and principled choices intended to motivate us as a group and as individuals to bring integrity back into the belief system of Ifa.” To summarize, the primary focus of Ile Emi Ifa (the house of the children of Ifa) is the integrity of our belief system of Ifa. Because Ifa is an African spiritual practice, many of the issues confronting the belief system run parallel to the black community. By bringing integrity back to the black community we can bring integrity back to Ifa. While you may feel that the focus on the psychological impacts of pressures from the white community on the black community is too abstract, I feel it is at the very core of our struggle. The black on black crime is just a symptom of a far more devious disease.
I really doubt that you honestly feel like I’m trying to say black people are not trustworthy. I’d like to think that, although we may have a difference of opinion, we have a mutual interest in the preservation of the black community. I think it’s important that we maintain a respect for each others opinion and ideas even if we don’t agree on the details. Please don’t resort to accusations that have no foundation.
Peace
If all you got out of my last post is “Black On Black Crime” rather than the notion that WE MUST FIRST ORDER OUR OWN SELVES BEFORE ATTEMPTING TO EXCLUSIVELY FIGHT AGAINST AN OUTSIDE FORCE…..then I am not sure if there is any convincing of you in preparation for VICTORY in the long term struggle.
(I just re-read your entire post above.)
With all due respect….I believe you to be a “Non-White White Supremacist”. By your very definition you believe that the White man’s actions are more traumatic and ultimately in line with some SYSTEM…..while violence had from the average “Negro on the street” is provoked by some SCHEME THAT THE WHITE MAN HATH ORCHESTRATED. Do you not see that in both of your cases…….THE WHITE MAN is the central source?
One day I hope that you and others who use this “Black folks are just reacting to conditions that they were placed in” theory to describe Black on Black violence to offer this same explanation in defense of the “Little Klan boy” who shot his first “Nigra”. You see this “Little Klan boy” of the past TOO was just a pawn in the game. He was Poor, White Trash. He had never met with any corporatist power who controlled the cotton, tobacco, any other agricultural products that the South Produced. Nor did he own the steel mills, manufacturing plants nor unions that he felt the threat from Blacks as our ancestors vied with him for the same jobs.
You see brotherpeackmaker – if you would argue that the Black man on the street who is “dope dealing’ just to survive in this SYSTEM that the White man hath made for him, cutting off any other route to him to make a living besides killing another Black man either at gun point or the slow death of drugs peddled into our community then CERTAINLY my contexualization of the POOR WHITE TRASH as doing the same and attempting to protect their “street corners” in the same way that a dope dealer does is not so far fetched EITHER.
If you could show me where the various White economic and cultural classes ever got together to conspire about how they would keep the Black man down I would appreciate it.
Just as the urban thug that currently terrorizes our communities and keeps Black mothers fearful of allowing her kids play outside for fear of a stray bullet with her kid’s name on it or recruitment into a gang first as a look out and then as an operative to the gangs goals…….the street level operation of the Klan among Poor White Trash with no power was done to insure that the Black man stayed at the bottom rung of the economic ladder. Where as the “educated Nigra” who “got beside himself” by holding his head too high, showing off the new car that was the fruits of his education as a doctor or independent store owner in front of a White man who had nothing was grounds for an attack…..the same is the case for a Black 16 year old who declines the gang’s invitation for service within their ranks and for protection. If he, based on his mother’s guidance declines the gang’s invitation then HE is the subject of their assault. (I just heard this scenario on NPR a few weeks ago and would be more than happy to provide this link to you.)
The frustration that I have with your SELECTIVENESS of CONSPIRATORS is that it allows you to base your entire theory on the “systematic” nature of the White man’s actions while avoiding having the BLACK MAN WHO CUTS YOUR THROAT being provided with the same assignment of complicity.
Above you sarcastically told about the “White Merchants who came to Africa and convinced the Africans to take a voyage”. I have little doubt that you would FORGIVE the Black Africans (or Americanized Blacks) who ACTUALLY WENT INTO THE INTERIOR OF THE LANDS to fetch out Blacks……..while the lowest Shipmate on the voyage who was equally without power as these retrieval Blacks are KEY PARTS OF THE SYSTEMATIC CONSPIRACY in your mind…….the WHITE SKIN being the great distinguishing feature rather than THE OBJECTIVE VIEW OF THEIR ACTIONS.
Tell me this brotherpeacemaker – Why didn’t these Black Retrieval workers use their FREEDOM TO RUN DEEPER INTO THE AFRICAN LANDSCAPE to avoid the clutches of the SYSTEM? (Just as the WHITE SKIN of the White shipmate who stayed at the coast would allow him special privileges both on the boat and on the Western side of their voyage……the Black skin of the Black Retrieval agents would have allowed them special privileges ON THE AFRICAN CONTINENT had they chosen to DECOUPLE THEIR LOYALTIES from the Slave Catching operations.
Your plan is flawed at the MACRO LEVEL until you are able to view the BLACK CO-CONSPIRATOR AGAINST YOU by his ACTIONS and not by the color of his skin. You are a “Non-White White Supremacist” until you are able to judge the END RESULTS of your adversaries without reference to his color instead of adding for value to THE WHITE MAN’S actions over others.
Constructive Feedback…
With all due respect I find nothing constructive about you at this particular moment. For some reason you have a very narrow focus of the problems the black community faces. You are concentrating so hard on condemning black people at each and every step when they don’t conform to your understanding of things. There’s more than one way to skin cats and yet only your way is acceptable in the grand scheme of things. It’s no wonder that you’ve been banned from certain web communities. You constantly want others to provide proof and statistics to justify their thought process to you when statistics and numbers are just another way to discredit what you don’t understand or what you choose not to understand. You make so many assumptions about me without even getting to know me. You read my postings then select what you want to focus on and discard the rest, which isn’t very surprising considering your narrow focus on the black community. You want me to give you proof. But if you choose not to see it then all the proof in the world wouldn’t help. I could snap a photo of Oliver North shaking hands and exchanging briefcases with the neighborhood Superfly while standing outside the presidential limo and you would simply say it means nothing if you would even have the courage to acknowledge seeing it at all.
You must think the black dealer distributing his drugs in the black community is also the manufacturer and transporter of the drugs. Never mind people like Ronald Reagan, Oliver North, and the rest of the conspirators in the Iran Contra Affair have been identified in official United States State Department documents as “knowingly received financial and material assistance from drug traffickers”. No wonder Mr. Reagan decided that Noriega had to go. But instead of seeing the bigger picture, your focus is the drug dealer on the corner. Well Mr. Feedback, you’re more than welcome to take the drug dealer out as your earliest opportunity. But keep in mind that a number of people are just waiting to replace him at their earliest opportunity. So keep your attention on the small individual elements in your community. I’m sure it will open a lot of opportunities for other opportunistic entrepreneurs in your community.
In your single minded drive to find quotations from me that you think support your view that my plan is flawed you missed this one, “My articles are not intended to claim that all black people in jail are innocent or that there is no such thing as a black criminal.” But that wouldn’t support your contention that I think black people are totally innocent in this social arrangement.
So let’s just say you’re right! Black on black crime is the problem and if we kill, destroy, and remove every drug dealer, gun slinger, knife wielder, and every other malfeasant in the black community. Then what? Other drug dealers, gun slingers, knife wielders, and other malfeasants will move into the void you left behind. Great plan! Trying to make an impression on people who live in the black community so that they would freely choose to give up the drugs and the life of crime just isn’t feasible. Mr. Feedback knows best and Mr. Feedback knows that any abstract concepts are just too far over the heads of black people. Let’s just focus on the black on black crime that is the only ravenous component of the black community. Truly a wonderful plan! And for future reference it may be helpful to remember that CAPITALIZING PHRASES DOES NOTHING TO SUPPORT YOUR ARGUMENTS.
Peace
I wish that this White Racist man were LYING.
You just don’t know how much I wish he were.
Okay let’s agree that this public service announcement is true. We have to assume that Tom Metzger is telling the truth and that black men are killing black men more than anybody else is. It’s pretty amazing that you’re so willing to believe what he said even though he didn’t quote any statistics and numbers for you. But I’m willing to go along with things for the sake of argument if nothing else. Also, Tom Metzger loving black men is a farfetched proposition as well but hey anything for the sake of an argument.
Now let’s ask the question why black men are killing black men. What conditions make this a black community phenomenon and who controls those conditions? If we are able to remove the black drug dealer off the corner in the black community how quickly will there be someone else to take his place? Maybe a day? Maybe a few hours? Who knows how quickly it will happen? If all the killers and rapist are removed today, how long will it be before someone takes their place?
To me, it is more important to go to the root of the problem instead of simply attacking the symptoms. If you want to focus on the individuals committing the crimes then by all means that’s your prerogative. My attention is focused on a larger issue to try and convince more people to make the moral and ethical choices for the welfare of their community as a whole.
In the movie Pulp Fiction, Samuel L Jackson’s character was a notorious hit man who’d smoke a brother without thinking twice. Yet in an instant he gets an epiphany that changes his perspective on the world. When confronted with a situation that would have easily provoked him into killing a young couple who wanted to rob him he instead took his new philosophy to heart, spared their lives, and tried to educate them on his new philosophy. The hit man became a teacher.
If more people in the black community experienced their own epiphany then we can get more black people to help turn the community around. The black men and women who spent their time ravaging the black community can become key to our struggle to reverse our course. If more black people took the time to retake control of our people’s minds then we would have a far better chance of success. That’s why it’s important for black people to take control of our schools and other aspects of our community if we want to stop this racist struggle.
And for the record, white on white crime is a phenomenon of the white community. White men kill more white men than anyone else. But no one pays this phenomenon much attention. It wouldn’t be conducive to the propaganda.
Peace
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/homicide/intimates.htm
[quote]Now let’s ask the question why black men are killing black men. What conditions make this a black community phenomenon and who controls those conditions? If we are able to remove the black drug dealer off the corner in the black community how quickly will there be someone else to take his place?[/quote]
Once again – why are you open to considering the GREATER SOCIETAL FORCES that have a Black man killing another Black man……but you would NEVER, NEVER, NEVER do the same with regards to why the teen aged Klan Boy who did the same thing to a Black male in the 1930’s? Did he operate totally on his own volition?
I have no problem interdicting young Black males BEFORE they run astray. In fact I am doing this with my participation in a reading program. After they violate the standing law which is in place to PROTECT THE INNOCENT PEOPLE IN THIS SAME COMMUNITY I am not willing to look toward greater conspiratorial forces for their actions.
Think about what you are willing to do to keep these young Black males alive:
1) Have a community force that enforces a “no gun” policy? (This force stands between the police and the community and is made up of community members that are from the community thus avoiding the claims of bias attributed to the police)
2) A community based program which has those young people who are currently UNEMPLOYED and not otherwise contributing productively to work without pay to – clean up THEIR OWN COMMUNITY, rebuild houses in THEIR OWN COMMUNITIES, and live in dormitory style housing where discipline and academic nutrition is provided.
As much as you for one talk about this “racist to the core country” it seems that you are also confined to the standard ways of doing things WITHIN THIS COUNTRY.
Incredibly, Destructive Feedback wrote…”[Y]ou would NEVER, NEVER, NEVER do the same with regards to why the teen aged Klan Boy who did the same thing to a Black male in the 1930’s”
Wow! You obviously have some sympathy for the white teenage klan boy back in the 1930s that would have been more than happy to kill black people. And you are very correct, I wouldn’t give him the time of day. You probably have sympathy for the good ol’ white boys who tied a chain around James Byrd, Jr.’s neck and dragged his body around the county down in Jasper, Texas. You probably think those poor white boys were just a victim of society as much as any black man. You probably look at George Bush commuting Scooter Libby’s sentence and think nothing of it because that poor ol’ white boy was only doing what he thought was best for his president. You are a serious piece of work!
As I said before I have no love for criminals. I’ll be happy to expand upon my meaning of that statement by saying if someone is guilty of crimes against the community then he or she should pay for those crimes. Okay now, can we put that one to rest? However, I would never think to classify the crimes of a card carrying member of the klan, who openly spews their wish of negativity and harm on the black community, with a black man unless the conditions of his crime prove him to be the same type of monster to society. The crimes of the DC snipers, John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, are a good example of brothers who deserved the death penalty and then some for their crimes.
But honestly, I laugh just thinking about your argument. I really can’t believe you would propose such a thing. You must have some serious hate for brothers or absolutely no idea what the pressures of the black community are in this 21st century to even think they can equate to the pressures of some little white boy who joins the klan back in 1930. What happened to the “What better example that a people is operative counter to their own interests than to point to how the blade from on brother’s knife is used to slit the throat of another who has come from the same womb” talk you were spewing just a few days ago? Did any of that mean anything to you? Or maybe you feel a relationship or bond to the 1930 white klan boy that you have difficulty applying to yourself and the black community? Maybe you feel you share the klan’s womb?
You talk about my standards. Again you have no idea who you are talking to. I have invited homeless people to share my house. I have given I don’t know how much of my salary to help others. I have worked on houses to help others. I have given away food and clothing. I was there in Houston trying to help the people who came from Louisiana after Katrina. I did all this because at one time I was the homeless man, I needed money to keep going, and I needed someone to help me with food and clothing. I have no problem helping my community because one day I may well be the one needing help again after a medical crisis or after trying to pay the legal fees to stay out of jail or some other misfortune that comes my way. You are more than welcome to keep your community based reading programs and whatever else you do to help your community, especially the one you share with the klan boy. I prefer to focus specifically and whole heartedly on the black community.
Peace
BPM, I sympathize with injustice directed towards the racist history of the U.S., and I appreciate some of your insights, such as your mention of white-on-white crime. However, I feel more skeptical about your own breed of racism. You deride the (present) white community for actions of the (past) white community because you assume that conditions are more or less the same now as they were 30 years ago. That is, according to the implications of your post, the conditions are such that a white establishment continues to actively oppress the black community.
But I don’t see racial oppression. Racism itself doesn’t even equate to oppression, although in the past it led to oppression. The people and culture of the black community have enjoyed such a proliferation in the past thirty years and I feel this is often ignored. To quote my own blog at Verbhut.com:
“Black culture is everywhere: on television (children’s cable programming is one area of significant recent growth), thumping by from car windows that offer views to stylish young white kids, in clothing styles and manners of speech, even associated with the act of subversion itself. Racial consciousness derives from the efforts of black culture. Black politicians govern black districts and cities (such as Atlanta). Blackness enjoys moral superiority. Black business owners and white-collar employees enjoy wealth, while black middle-class workers enjoy the same socioeconomic mobility as the white bourgeoisie.”
The ills of the black community today derive from, as previous commenters have noted, both internal and external forces. External forces, I believe, stem from material circumstances and capitalist ideologies. That is, I find a Marxist approach more apt in interpreting the black community’s problems. If you replace the terms “white” and “black” with “rich” and “poor,” respectively, I feel that you will find a more accurate assessment of today’s black community, and also less controversy.
Poor people suffer from the same basic ills and the same bigotry in nearly every country. In the U.S., they suffer from the self-perpetuating cycle formed by crime, poverty and ignorance: a person needs money to go to college as well as a safe and stable home life that produces healthy individuals who want to go to school, but money (in the form of local taxes) pays for safe communities and good schools and a person needs college to make money in the first place. Very little is done to help the poor communities of the U.S. Those who “fail” in the capitalist system are seen as lazy and inadequate; social Darwinism reinforces this negative perception. Moreover, those who stand trial are more likely to receive lighter sentences if they have a good lawyer, but a good lawyer takes money that poor people don’t have, so they get stuck with more convictions and more jail time than the rich.
I believe there is a much stronger correlation between income and levels of crime and ignorance than between ethnicity and levels of crime and ignorance. A correlation between the black community (vs. non-black communities) and levels of crime and ignorance results from the fact that the black community is disproportionately affected by poverty, and this of course certainly stems from racism’s long and overbearing history in the U.S. That wealthier black people escape the ailments of poor black people, and that poor white people share the ailments of poor black people reinforces the idea that poverty produces the black community’s problems, and not skin color. I agree, though, that racism reinforces economic oppression, mostly in the form of the vote.
Seidl,
I appreciate the feedback. But I’m obviously a bit more cynical than you. The black culture I see on television and all the other medias is the black culture seen from a white perspective. Black people are either the token black who happen to be just another character with darker skin or the urban black with stereotypically black character manifestations. It is rare to see the black character that is somewhere in between.
The correlation between income and crime is very real and noteworthy. It is also noteworthy that most of the people at the high end of the income scale are white with a few blacks while the low end of the scale is well represented by the black community. And when wealthy blacks make it big all too often they turn around and separate themselves from their black brothers and sisters.
Black people can make it in America. But the majority of the black people who do make it are the type of black people who embrace a white mindset that black people have no one to blame for their predicament but themselves. Bill Cosby makes speeches to white people addressing issues pulled out his ass about how poor blacks buy two hundred dollar tennis shoes. I have yet to see this phenomenon. I’m not saying it doesn’t happen. All I’m saying is that it is so rare that I don’t see it and I am smack dab in the poor black community. Mr. Cosby takes one example of poor choices in the black community and applies it to all blacks. Yet we see white people taking guns to work and school, shooting up the place and committing suicide, and yet no one says that white people need to stop being the serial murderers that they are.
These simple character definitions are only applied to the black community. White people enjoy role models in the media that run the gamut of the human experience. When will black people enjoy the same luxury? The media empires that are focused on the black community are controlled by white people and reinforce black stereotypes of entertainment and immediate gratification. The black people who do have their own media empires, Oprah, Montell, Tyra, and others, focus on generic issues that appeal to the white community.
All of this may be just coincidental. But if it was just a random roll of the dice I would expect to see at least one Fortune 100 company that is run by blacks, has a predominantly black corporate work force, and is focused on the black community. Since one doesn’t exist and all the Fortune 500 companies exist for the benefit of the white owners, investors, and the white community, I think I might be entitled to my cynicism.
Peace
There are just as many people from other races struggling with life as there are African Americans. Racism won’t ever go away because you refuse to let it go away.
Thanks for the feedback Anthony,
But your comment is pretty typical of people who have a high tolerance for and condone racism. Racism isn’t the problem. People who deny jobs, housing, equal opportunities, justice, legal representation, and ecetera based on race are not the problem. It is people who have something to say about American’s willingness to indulge disparity are the problem.
Yet, when people commit murder, seldom to you hear anybody say something stupid like murder won’t go away because people who look at murder won’t let it go away.
Peace
I think it is unfair of you to blame the white community for black on black crimes.
How is it my fault that drug addicts kill each other?
Thanks for the feedback Sarah,
But if I was saying that black on black crime was your fault, I think I would say something like “black on black crime is Sarah’s fault”. But I never made such a claim so I think it’s pretty idiotic for you to make such a leap to a totally false conclusion. Maybe you’re just trying to blame black people for white on white people’s crime.
Peace
Please read the above article.
Also go to You tube look up Benton Harbor…interesting fights among the youth, with ADULTS cheering them on. No white people around…hhmmm. What in the hell is with these people? Teach your kids sports, not fighting. Also look at Money Ave.Benton harbor, this is how to show black pride? Put your fighting on You Tube???
Sarah,
Why are you blaming black people for white on white people crime? Why is it my fault that white deranged gunmen in Arizona use loopholes in the laws white people pass to kill or attempt to kill other white people black people’s fault? How is it that white people on meth killing themselves and their family black people’s fault? How is white teachers sexually assaulting their students black people’s fault? Hmmm…
Maybe if you’d watch the news, you’d see stories about white gunmen trying to kill their congresspeople and actually killed six other people. Or the story of Robert Hawkins killing all the white people in the mall with a rifle. Or how about the story of Petit Murders where two white men killed the wife and daughters. Who needs YouTube when you can see white on white crime on the news?
Peace