Batman The Brave And The Bold

Believe it or not, there is a new animated version of Batman being aired on one of the cartoon channels.  Batman the Brave and the Bold features Batman teaming up with other characters from the DC Comics universe to battle evil doers.  So far, each episode stands alone without any continuation next week.  And the villains faced are not usually from the tried and true collection of Batman villains.

The creators have teamed Batman up with lesser known super heroes.  While the show has featured major heroes such as the Green Lantern and the Flash, it consistently focuses on more obscure heroes like B’wana Beast and the Blue Beetle.  Batman’s alter ego, billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne, has yet to make an appearance and we have yet to see Batman unmasked.

In one particular episode Batman was paired with Bronze Tiger to stop a reconstituted version of the Terrible Trio from stealing a magical ancient totem from the Wudang Temple in China.  It appears that in this version of Bruce Wayne’s pre-Batman history, Bruce Wayne, the Bronze Tiger, and the Terrible Trio were all students of the Wudang Temple at the same time back in the day.  Each of the men chose a different animal to represent their character.  I won’t say which animal anybody took.  I think you can figure that out.

The Trio had killed the master of the temple and Batman and Bronze Tiger were going back to restore order.  But the trio had possession of the totem and their strength and power was enhanced greatly.  Batman and the Bronze Tiger were not even close to being an even match.  Outgunned Bronze Tiger was willing to beg for his ancestor’s home back in Africa to be spared the wrath they were about to release on the planet.  The Trio agreed as long as Bronze Tiger kneeled before them.

You see, the Tiger had a reputation for being prideful.  The master of the temple couldn’t break his pride.  The fact that the Trio could break his spirit would be a significant achievement.  The Trio dropped their guard and let the Bronze Tiger within their space.  Tiger did a kick and knocked the totem into the waiting arms of Batman.  The Trio was caught off guard and the Bronze Tiger was able to run back to the Batman and the two used the totem to enhance their selves.  With the battle more evenly matched, Batman and the Tiger kicked ass and saved the day.  Blah, blah, blah.  Tune in next week for another exciting episode.

Pride goeth before the fall.  A moment of arrogance led to somebody else getting the upper hand and a serious ass kicking ensues.

I thought about the black community and its tendency to drop the ball after achieving a significant goal in the perpetual struggle for civil rights.  Historically, when people in the black community achieve, the dominant community adapts.  New laws make slavery illegal?  Don’t call it slavery.  Call it sharecropping, make vicious land control and rent contracts, and continue to condemn black people to the worst version of poverty with no visible way out.  Black people deserve schooling?  Put black people in second class schools and call them separate and equal when they are anything but.  The gig is up and the schools in the black community are truly inadequate compared to schools in the white community and now we want to bus in order to force true racial integration?  The white kids can go to totally separate school districts free from participating in any busing program.  Black people want to scream about generational discrimination that has led to a significant achievement gap?  Any focus to change the status quo is reverse discrimination and that should be the dominant community’s true focus.

The latest achievement for the black community is our first black President.  Intelligent and charismatic, Mr. Obama represents a significant change to the status quo by becoming the first person to be President who is not a white male.  But way too many people feel that the achievement of having a black President is that’s needed to prove that we are now post racism in America.  The black community can let down our guard because the man in charge at the White House is black and changes are about to be made.

But the real deal is that the status quo is only ready to capitulate enough to prove that this achievement will again lead to another black community setback.  The black community has yet to see any real difference to the status quo.  Mr. Obama will spend more time making his March Madness picks than he will spend on doing anything to significantly help the black community.  And when the black man in the White House stumbles and fails in his bid to do the status quo’s bidding, the black community will feel the repercussions.  We’re kind of damned if he does, damned if he don’t at this point.

Right now the black community should be as vigilant as anyone else to make sure our needs are being met from a black President.  We are ready to assume an arrogant swagger simply because somebody who shares more of our pigmentation sits in the oval office.  But the fact of the matter is that we should be more wary now than ever before lest this achievement turns out to be our greatest downfall.