The Difference Between Wright And Wrong

A few years back I got into my brother’s car and when the radio came on I was more than a bit surprised to hear the Rush Limbaugh Radio Show on the speakers.  My brother said he didn’t particularly care for the uber conservative views but liked to listen to the show for its entertainment value.  That was just before the Bush versus Kerry general election back in 2004.  My brother didn’t like incumbent President George Bush.  But he couldn’t see himself voting for John Kerry because John Kerry had such a strong reputation as a flip flopper.  He may have voted for Ralph Nader.  It’s no wonder where my brother formed his opinion of the Democratic presidential hopeful.

It’s true that Mr. Limbaugh is an entertainer.  But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t have enough political muscle to impact the making and breaking of politicians.  A lot of people, even the ones who see him as little more than political entertainment, are persuaded by his opinion.  Indeed, there is a reason why high profile celebrities get paid top dollar to make commercial endorsements for certain products, services, and political views.  Mr. Limbaugh is a special case because his form of entertainment is designed to be a close association of conservative political rhetoric.

Mr. Limbaugh has ruffled political feathers lately with his statement that he hopes President Barack Obama fails in his effort to straighten out the mess he inherited from his predecessor.  If Mr. Obama believes that the best way to reverse the damage done to our global economic system is by implementing social, economic and political changes that are anathema to the conservative philosophy of pull yourself up by your bootstrap, then Mr. Limbaugh hopes those efforts are unsuccessful.  Although he never directly made the point, the implication is that in order to spare Mr. Limbaugh’s belief in his philosophies, it is better for him if the country and the global community continue to suffer through economic hard times.

A lot of people say that Mr. Limbaugh is unpatriotic for wishing such hardship on his fellow American.  A lot of people say that he is being the epitome of patriotism by hoping that the President fails to heal the country.  My question is what’s the difference between Rush Limbaugh today and Reverend Jeremiah Wright of last year?

The controversy surrounding Reverend Jeremiah Wright gained national attention when a few minutes of Mr. Wrights sermons were was subjected to intense public scrutiny.  Mr. Obama denounced the statements in a speech in which he sought to place Mr. Wright’s comments in a historical, post racial, context.  When the controversy continued to fester, possibly derailing Mr. Obama’s bid for the White House, Mr. Wright made more inflammatory remarks offending people’s sense of sensibilities and Mr. Obama, doing his best to feign his greatest sense of outrage while remaining presidential, severed his relationship with his spiritual mentor.  Some excerpts from Mr. Wright:

“[The] government lied about their belief that all men were created equal.  The truth is they believed that all white men were created equal.  The truth is they did not even believe that white women were created equal in creation nor civilization.  The government had to pass an amendment to the Constitution to get white women the vote.  Then the government had to pass an equal rights amendment to get equal protection under the law for women.  The government still thinks a woman has no rights over her own body, and between Uncle Clarence who sexually harassed Anita Hill, and a closeted Klan court, that is a throwback to the 19th century, handpicked by Daddy Bush, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, between Clarence and that stacked court, they are about to undo Roe vs. Wade, just like they are about to un-do affirmative action.  The government lied in its founding documents and the government is still lying today.”

“The government lied about the Tuskegee experiment.  They purposely infected African American men with syphilis.  Governments lie.  The government lied about bombing Cambodia and Richard Nixon stood in front of the camera, ‘Let me make myself perfectly clear.’  Governments lie.  The government lied about the drugs for arms Contra scheme orchestrated by Oliver North, and then the government pardoned all the perpetrators so they could get better jobs in the government.  Governments lie.  The government lied about inventing the HIV virus as a means of genocide against people of color.  Governments lie.  The government lied about a connection between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein and a connection between 9.11.01 and Operation Iraqi Freedom.  Governments lie.”

“And the United States of America government, when it came to treating her citizens of Indian descent fairly, she failed.  She put them on reservations.  When it came to treating her citizens of Japanese descent fairly, she failed.  She put them in internment prison camps.  When it came to treating her citizens of African descent fairly, America failed.  She put them in chains, the government put them on slave quarters, put them on auction blocks, put them in cotton field, put them in inferior schools, put them in substandard housing, put them in scientific experiments, put them in the lowest paying jobs, put them outside the equal protection of the law, kept them out of their racist bastions of higher education and locked them into positions of hopelessness and helplessness.  The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’  No, no, no, not God Bless America.  God damn America, that’s in the bible, for killing innocent people.  God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human.  God damn America as long as she tries to act like she is god, and she is supreme.  The United States government has failed the vast majority of her citizens of African descent.”

So now if dissension is so patriotic, how come the people who are rallying to Mr. Limbaugh’s defense today did not come out and call Mr. Wright the ultimate patriot when he was going through his controversy?  In fact, many people who are calling Mr. Limbaugh a patriot were suggesting that Mr. Wright was virtually a terrorist who needed to leave America if he was so unhappy with the conditions here.  Why isn’t anyone suggesting Mr. Limbaugh leave?  Is there a difference here?

The question is rhetorical because of course there is a stark difference between the two.  While Mr. Wright was hounded into obscurity and abandoned by everyone including the man who would be President, Mr. Limbaugh gets to become the de-facto leader of the Republican Party while his ratings soar through the roof as he becomes more popular than ever.

Forgiveness In The New Age Of Political Bipartisanship

A lot of attention is being paid to President-elect Barack Obama’s cabinet choices and his willingness to pull people from the other side of the political aisle as well as his old political opponents.  There is talk that Mr. Obama has offered the post of Secretary of State to his Democratic nominee competitor New York Senator Hillary Clinton with all of her foreign policy experience and tarmac ducking experience.  Mr. Obama is entertaining this even after Ms. Clinton planted the idea during the campaign that while Ms. Clinton and Arizona Senator John McCain have years and years of experience, Mr. Obama has little more than a speech to his credit and is little more than a warmed over version of Jesse Jackson.

More talk has Mr. Obama extending an olive branch to his Republican rival Mr. McCain even though Mr. McCain went off the deep end and called the new President-elect a dangerous choice for America and made the suggestion that Mr. Obama isn’t one of us, the patriotic Americans who love America.  Mr. McCain couldn’t even look at his rival for the presidency during their first debate.  And now, the man Mr. McCain blatantly disrespected is willing to bury the hatchet and talk about some political collaborative efforts that he could use Mr. McCain’s help on.

Mr. Obama has even forgiven the political turncoat Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman, who deliberately and unabashedly worked hard to get Mr. McCain elected.  In December of 2007, Mr. Lieberman endorsed Senator John McCain for the presidency.  Mr. Lieberman even went so far as to denounce the entire Democratic Party in a speech to the Republican faithful when he made an appearance on stage during the Republican National Convention.  Mr. Lieberman faced serious retribution for his betrayal of his party.  Many of Mr. Obama’s supporters wanted Mr. Lieberman stripped of his chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs.

However, Mr. Obama had urged Senate majority Leader Harry Reid not to remove Lieberman from his position.  Mr. Reid has made public his anger over Mr. Lieberman’s criticism of Obama during the election.  The Senate Democratic Caucus voted 42 to 13 to allow Mr. Lieberman to keep his chairmanships, although he did lose his membership in the Environment and Public Works Committee.  Mr. Lieberman credited Mr. Obama for helping him keep his chairmanship and for his favorable treatment.

Without a doubt, there is a serious amount of forgiveness and clemency and hatchet burying going on in Washington these days.  People compare Mr. Obama’s overwhelming impression of political exculpation to the behavior of President Abraham Lincoln who pondered had to literally reconstruct the country after the civil war as Mr. Lincoln and his cabinet deliberated over how to reintegrate the states that tried to secede from the nation and what to do with Confederate leaders and the freed slaves, determined to find a course that would not alienate anyone.  People in Mr. Lincoln’s day thought that his policies were too lenient.  But nevertheless, Mr. Lincoln will go down in history as a President that worked to heal a nation and mend fences.

Mr. Obama is willing to forgive any and everyone except his former pastor Reverend Jeremiah Wright.  Mr. Wright gained national attention when excerpted parts of his sermons were subjected to intense media scrutiny in an attempt to paint the new President-elect as little more than an undercover, typically angry black man who wants to make America pay for its so called abuses of the black community that happened so long ago because racism no longer exists.  Mr. Obama took extraordinary steps to calm the issue.  He denounced his pastor’s statements in a speech titled A More Perfect Union in which he sought to place the pastor’s comments in a historical and sociological context.  Many people thought the speech was historic.

But the scrutiny of critics continued to press the issue of his relationship with Mr. Wright.  The controversy came to a head when after trying to just fade away to oblivion Mr. Wright made a series of high profile media appearances in which he claimed amongst other things that Mr. Obama was simply a politician fighting for a political office.  He had to distance himself to look more acceptable to the American public.  Mr. Obama had enough.  Mr. Obama called a press conference and spoke more forcefully against his former pastor, saying that he was outraged and saddened by his spiritual mentor’s behavior and resigned his family’s membership in the church Mr. Wright help to make.

It’s interesting to note that right after Mr. Obama made his forceful condemnation of his former pastor, the interviews by Mr. Wright ceased.  Mr. Wright never retorted.  Mr. Wright, who many accused of trying to bring attention to him self and injure his spiritual protege, quickly returned to his path of obscurity, as if he had accomplished whatever he had set out to do.  Whether it was intentional or not, scripted or not, real or not, planned or not, the public action of severing his relationship with Mr. Wright was enough to bring closure to that particular issue for the vast majority.

Still, it is interesting that people who called Mr. Obama naïve, dangerous, a Muslim, unpatriotic, a terrorist, irresponsible, and wrong for America, are being welcomed back into the fold with open arms.  People who accused Mr. Obama of trying to teach children porn, of trying to turn the United States into a socialist country by taking away rich people’s money and giving it all to the poor, of palling around with terrorist, and of being the antichrist amongst many other accusations.  People who did their best to destroy Mr. Obama’s character are being forgiven.

But the one man that says Mr. Obama is who he is, a politician trying to win a political office, is just too offensive for even Mr. Obama to forgive in this new age of political enlightenment where even the greatest political devil can be made an ally.

Is This Thing On?

Jesse Jackson should have known better. He whispered over to his co-guest, Doctor Reed Tuckson, making a few choice words about Barack Obama. Mr. Jackson knows better than most how some people would love nothing more than to catch him in an unguarded moment. His voice was low. He knew what he was saying could be very embarrassing if it was ever made public. He knew his words would come back to haunt him if the cat was let out the bag. But Mr. Jackson could not help himself. After going on record to give his politically correct assessment of Mr. Obama’s comments about the black community and about black men in particular, when he thought the camera and microphone were off line, Mr. Jackson made a rather base comment about Mr. Obama talking down to black people and how Mr. Jackson wanted to castrate the presumptive Democratic nominee.

Now, everybody who’s anybody is coming down on Mr. Jackson and his hate of Mr. Obama. One black pundit made the comment that Mr. Obama’s sermon on black fathers must have hit a little close to Mr. Jackson’s home since he has his own child born out of wedlock. Somebody else made the comment that Mr. Jackson is simply jealous of Mr. Obama’s popularity or his ability to actually become the nation’s first black president when Jesse Jackson’s campaign fell insignificantly short. Other people made the comment that this is just more evidence of the dysfunctional nature of the black community and/or the Democratic Party. Even Mr. Jackson’s son has distanced himself from his father’s comments. But is anybody thinking that this is just the latest off the cuff opinion of a black man who happened to have been offended by another black man who made disparaging remarks about the black community?

Mr. Obama and his wife Michelle have two beautiful girls, Sasha and Malia. I can imagine the Obamas throwing a birthday party for one of their daughters and asking some high profile person that their girls admire to make an appearance and say something to commemorate the occasion. I can also imagine that high profile person going to the birthday party and saying something about how little black girls need to learn responsibility and quit getting pregnant without getting married. Any little girl can be a fool and become a mother. But getting knocked up doesn’t make a black girl a black woman. All it will do is ruin her life and the lives of her family members. We don’t need to contribute to the statistics that say black girls are known for their whorish behavior. Black girls need to be focused on their future and the future of the black community.

Chances are pretty good that Mr. and Ms. Obama wouldn’t appreciate someone making such statements at his daughter’s birthday party. Although there is a popular belief that black girls are more likely to get pregnant and be somebody’s baby mama, why in the world would someone make such accusations of the Obama girls? Mr. Obama would be offended and would probably make a statement expressing his outrage and disappointment with such a topic at what should have been a happy occasion. And Mr. Jackson, a black man who does not work hard to distance himself from the black community, probably took offense that Mr. Obama reinforces such assumptions about black men and their irresponsibility to their children.

Ever since Mr. Obama made his infamous statements about the irresponsibility of black men and their lack of a commitment to their children, I have made it a point to notice all the black men in my black neighborhood who have taken responsibility for children in their lives. There was the black man who was walking through the alley holding a toddler’s hand. There was the black man carrying a bag of groceries in his left hand, holding a little girl’s hand with his right hand, while another slightly older girl skipped along behind them. There was the brother sitting at the bus stop with a baby in a stroller. In all these examples, it was a black man with a child or with children. But instead of these men being used to define the black experience, instead of the role of the black father being acknowledged, we prefer to focus our attention on the malfeasant.

It angers me to see the malfeasant that is the definition of black fathers on Father’s Day. It angers me that a former community organizer who happens to be black and should have an idea of the diversity of the black experience, is focused on the politically popular negative stereotypes of the black community while he panders to the wholesome image of the white community. And if it angers me, a black man who takes his responsibility to his black children, family, neighborhood, community, etcetera, it should not be too hard to imagine that it angers other black people as well. It should not be hard to imagine that it angers other black men such as Mr. Jackson.

Personally, I’m glad to see Mr. Jackson react strongly enough to make a suggestion, when he thought he was off camera, that he wanted to castrate Mr. Obama. Honestly, sometimes I feel like I would like to castrate him as well. But whether or not we agree with Mr. Jackson or not, instead of the black community supporting another black man caught on tape reacting to the negative image of black people promoted by the dominant community, we again turn away and utterly condemn another man who demonstrates a sincere concern of the black community. Mr. Jackson may have been vulgar and the vast majority of us would like to take him out back to the political tool shed.  A lot of people are disappointed and are saying that the Reverend Jesse Jackson, like the Reverend Jeremiah Wright, is just a bitter old man unable to let go of a bygone era. But personally, I understand Mr. Jackson’s frustration with Mr. Obama enough to say, at least off camera, that I’d like to buy him a set of heavy duty scissors.

The Crucifixion Analogy

Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you, Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Christ?” (For he knew that they had handed him over because of envy.) As he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent a message to him: “Have nothing to do with that innocent man; I have suffered greatly as a result of a dream about him today.” But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus killed. The Governor asked them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas!” Pilate said to them, “Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Christ?” They all said, “Crucify him!” He asked, “Why? What wrong has he done?” But they shouted more insistently, “Crucify him!” – Matthew 27:17-26

The populace of Pilate’s district had a choice to make, to take Barabbas back into their community or to take Jesus the Christ. Guided by people with political status and power to protect, the people made the choice to take Barabbas and Jesus, the man we learned had developed a reputation for teaching and helping all who came to him to develop their own personal spirituality and not be swayed by the materialism and wickedness of the world, was abandoned by the community. More black people should see the similarities between this bible story and the modern political happenings between Barack Obama and Reverend Jeremiah Wright.

Before people get their panties in a wad let me say the intent of this essay is not to say in any way, shape, or form that Mr. Wright is a modern version of Jesus or Mr. Obama is a sinner on par with the notorious Barabbas or that this is to say that Mr. Wright is being crucified. Please refrain from the comments that refuse to accept the following analogy as it is intended, nothing more than an analogy.

For years, Reverend Wright has been using his church as a force for change in the black community. It is my understanding that Mr. Wright has developed a series of programs designed to help alleviate poverty in the black community. Trinity United Christian Church has grown into a very successful force of change for black people. But it is just one church against a national policy of black community neglect and institutionalized despair. Like the Christian messiah, there is only so much a single entity can do when the established culture promotes an environment of disparity and separation that creates a distinct difference between the people who have and the people who have not.

Reverend Wright has years of experience working for the betterment of the black community in the racially charged environment of the American culture. While many people insist that there is absolutely nothing to keep the black population in its perpetual state of subjugation, it is hard to deny the reality of the black community’s condition that manifest itself with each and every social measure. Black people have to suffer with higher rates of incarceration while simultaneously dealing with higher rates of crime. Black people have to deal with a lack of opportunities for employment as well as a lack of educational opportunities. The black community is usually neglected at all levels of government while white communities are supported and impeccably maintained.

After generations of such abandonment, the hopelessness of the traditionally urban black community manifest itself with black people who are programmed to become the very caricatures of black behavior that are constantly being pumped into the black community through various media sources. What’s the point? The national government of this country would rather twiddle its thumbs and sit on its ass then do anything to pick black people out of the water after a hurricane. If that’s not enough to drive home the point that the black community is not a priority for this country then what is? God damn a country that does not protect its own people.

But we sit on the edge of history where a black man will become the leader of a country that has such a strong history of neglecting and abusing its own black population. Barack Obama had an affiliation with Reverend Wright who has a history of calling attention to America’s disparity. People in search of status and with power to protect will manipulate the public and stoke the fears of people who have a vested interest of keeping the white privilege status quo. Look at who Mr. Obama associates with! Look at what Mr. Obama’s pastor has to say about us, the good people who have done nothing against the black community! Anything that was done to create the disparity that has the black community in its current condition was done so long ago that no one alive is responsible so therefore no one has any social responsibility to undo the disparity and black people need to lift themselves by their boot strap!

With the writing on the wall Mr. Obama finds it more advantageous to kick his affiliation with the black community crusader to the curb. Mr. Obama dismisses his former pastor as a bitter old man who grew up in a bygone era. Mr. Obama is intent to embrace the rather naïve notion that all we need is a dialogue in order to heal racial the racial conflict that continues to plague America. All we need to do is talk and we can stop police beating and killing unarmed black people because the police, in a rather imperfect and deadly impersonation of Don Knots as Deputy Barney Fife, are in fear of their lives.

To add insult to injury, Mr. Obama feels that it is more important to keep certain components of the black community at arms length as well. Mr. Obama cannot find the time in his hectic campaign schedule to visit the State of the Black Union program in New Orleans, Louisiana given annually by Tavis Smily and Tom Joyner. Mr. Obama could not make it to the annual remembrance of Doctor King’s murder at the Lorraine Motel in Memphis, Tennessee. It is interesting to see that Hillary Clinton made time to appear at both events. It should be noted that even John McCain, the Republican nominee, made an appearance to appease black voters and make an appearance in Memphis. But Barack Obama can respond to a last minute call to give the commencement address at Wesleyan University for his good friend Ted Kennedy who was struck with a seizure that was later diagnosed as a malignant brain tumor.

And to add further insult to injury, many people in the black community have chomped onto the bitter bit given to us by the dominant community and have joined the bandwagon to express our anger and resentment at Mr. Wright for his attempt to hijack Mr. Obama’s campaign for the White House as some kind of narcissistic opportunity for personal attention. Reverend Wright has worked unselfishly for years to help the black community. Mr. Wright has been trying to educate people for years to the disparity of the black community. But now that Mr. Obama’s opponents can use Mr. Wright’s sermons as a weapon against Mr. Obama, black people now want to condemn the black man that has always manifested an interest for the welfare of the black community.

To many black people, if Reverend Wright is banished to the furthest corner of the Earth to live the rest of his life in obscurity then all the better. Mr. Wright should have stopped being the man he is and doing what he does in order to make it easier for Mr. Obama win the presidency. It is far more important that the black community have a black man in the White House that is more than happy to minimize the problems of the black community with the standard rhetoric that black people need to help themselves as some kind of sign that we have arrived rather than stand with the black advocate who truly has the welfare of the black community at heart.

In all honestly, it does not have to be an either or proposition. It just happened to have developed that way. As someone who is of the opinion that Barack Obama was wrong for not being more supportive of the man that was obviously supportive of Mr. Obama and the black community, I am often described as having little understanding of what it takes to win the office of the presidency.

But the office of the presidency is not the end all, be all for the black community. I have said before and I will repeat, like many black people, I look forward to the day that the oval office belongs to a black person. However, in all honesty any black man will not simply do. The black community should look forward to the day that there is a black man in the oval office that has the welfare of the black community truly at heart. For example, having a black Supreme Court justice that is truly disconnected from the black community is a serious detriment to black people. The generic idea of having a black man on the Supreme Court is truly attractive. The reality of having someone like Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court is a black community nightmare.

This is not to say that Barack Obama in the office of the President of the United States is the equivalent of having Clarence Thomas on the Supreme Court. Heaven forbid that thought. This is not to say that Mr. Obama is not the best presidential candidate of whoever remains in the running. The point is that the black community should not be so gung ho to help a black man gain the presidential office without having that black man clearly express his devotion, connection, and affiliation to the black community that we will join the bandwagon to condemn an advocate of the black community, a man that truly demonstrates his love of the black community, to oblivion.

If we continue to believe that the black community is better off having a black President so much so that we don’t need advocates of the black community then we choose to trust government with the black community’s welfare, the very same government that supported institutionalized slavery, syphilis experimentation, and other manifestations of black subjugation and racial disparity. In all honesty, we choose Barabbas and we stand complacent as the true salvation of the black community is hung out in the open to die.

Reckless Foot Soldiers

Brother Peacemaker,

Point well taken. I have to agree that a black man in the white house is not the answer to all of our concerns. i feel the same about mayors and members of congress. but we’re not talking about the abstract here. we have a real live example that presents you with a choice – perhaps not the one that is ideal but i dont recall ever going to the voting booth and voting for an ideal candidate.

It really doesn’t matter that halperin is a white man. He adeptly describes the political system in this country — like it or not that is the reality. If we are going to change things, you have to DEAL with that reality or at a minimum have a strategy to change that reality. Whites, Jews and now hispanics have figured out how to work this ugly system to benefit themselves. We used to know how to do this when we had folks who were leaders and our people knew what sacrifice and organizational discipline meant…(can you imagine a year long bus boycott now?).

The reason you need to read [Mark]Halperin is that if you care to shape/change the presidential politics, you need to learn how to beat the system currently in operation. Its easy to talk about it and criticize it — there’s a lot to criticize.

But I dont really hear you saying much about changing things. I hear more of the complaint about the system and the current actors on stage. Yep. I’m with you. So what are you doing to change the game? I hear your passion but i dont hear your plan. Lets talk action. Im a foot soldier. – philly

Really? Is that all it takes is a plan? You mean like the type of plan for action that Reverend Wright was doing for the black community? Are you referring to the type of action that isn’t an abstract of how change can affect the black community but an actual demonstration of action in progress? Are you talking about the type of organization that Reverend Wright actually performed when he took over Trinity United Church of Christ, a church that had less than one hundred active members back in March of 1972 and turned it around to become the largest black church in the United Church of Christ denomination? I’m sure you would like to see the type of leadership in the black community that Reverend Wright demonstrated for over thirty six years as the pastor of his church.

We have a real life example of a black man demonstrating strong, positive leadership in the black community for decades and instead of the black community learning from his example, instead of giving him the accolades for a job very well done, we allow him to be dismissed as a caricature of a bygone era of institutionalized racism and prejudices. A lot of people say they want to hear a plan before they can take the betterment of the black community seriously. But until that plan manifest itself people are content to follow the lead of the dominant community. Why would we abandon the black man who has demonstrated a love for the black community, a plan of action for the black community, a strategy to uplift the black community, for a man who has demonstrated a need to keep the black community distant while he embraces the white community and talks of change?

Reverend Wright does not speak of abstract concepts of change. His record is concrete and proven and speaks for itself. What is abstract is a man who promotes feel good concepts such as the audacity of hope that have little substance. And yet, which one gets the majority of the black community’s support?

You don’t hear me changing things? That may be true. It is easy to dismiss the exchange of ideas and communications on the internet as little more than a computer screen separate from the real world. The computer screen is nothing that compares to reading the real world black and white pages in books from people like Mark Halperin. It is easy to dismiss this as nothing more than hot air. But on the other hand, I happen to feel that books about strategies for winning the presidency are full of abstract concepts that have little to do with the black community. I don’t see Mark Halperin changing things for the black community. I don’t see Barack Obama changing anything for the black community other than a historic occasion of a black man becoming President.

The accountability issues will remain the same. But when people try to hold Mr. Obama accountable for his various slights of the black community, too many people are quick to downplay them with a wink and a not and an acknowledgment that Mr. Obama is too busy looking at the bigger picture to consider his relationship with the black community. Mr. Obama must appeal to white people’s consciousness in order to win the big prize. It is all a matter of political necessity. It will change once he’s in office.

But politics never change. Once a politician works to win an office, a politician must then work to keep an office. The very strategies used to win a public office will the very strategies to keep a public office. And if a politician runs for office with a strategy that keeps black people on the down low, a politician will keep his office with a strategy that keeps black people on the down low. To risk changing anything will anger the generically dominant culture and the anger will manifest in a shift of power in other political offices in the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The idea that things will change once a politician wins a political office is a convenient hypothesis of pure fantasy. It has no foundation in the real world, especially with respect to the black community. If black people want real change, it would be prudent to give our support to people who have demonstrated a commitment to real change for black people. To expect the man that dodges black affiliations on a regular basis, a man that has a history of ignoring issues crucial to the black community to suddenly change his ways is reckless. A foot soldier looking for a plan should recognize a bad plan when he or she sees one.

For What Shall It Profit Us

“For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the world, and lose his soul?” – Mark 8:36

American politics is a system that breeds cynicism, corruption, cronyism, and mediocrity. The most successful political candidates are usually the ones that offer quick and easy solutions to problems that can have deep social implications. Can’t afford to rebuild the roads? Issue a bond, borrow the money, and let future generations figure out how to pay for it. Need to balance the federal budget? Tap the social security money reserves intended to help pay for people’s retirement and let the politicians in office when it’s time for people to retire figure out how to get the money. People are complaining about the racial disparity in the public school system? Instead of spending money to support the schools that are lacking, usually in the black neighborhoods, we can spend money on bussing so we can shuffle students around to various schools so everyone can be mediocre. Are the gasoline prices getting too high? We can suspend federal taxes for a time period so that the eighteen cents that the government collects to repair roads and other services stops. Instead of paying four dollars a gallon gasoline with eighteen cents going to taxes we can pay four dollars a gallon and someone just pockets that extra eighteen cents. In the world of politics, immediate, simple solutions are key to winning over a public with little interest for the details of public social issues.

To compound this problem, there are powerful entities that want to make sure that their interest are well represented whatever the political environment. Wealthy corporate and private entities will use whatever vast resources at their disposal to wield influence on just about any serious political candidate from the local level all the way to the federal. These people have the resources to influence even the most powerful politicians to their disposal. It is a foregone conclusion that this influence involves money. But the ultimate goal is the power to bend others, even the most committed type A personality, to act against their own self interest no matter what. Often, it is a system of quid pro quo where I scratch your back and you’ll scratch mine. It is a prime condition for secrets that betray not the public’s trust or sense of faith, but the public’s sense of comfort that the politician will do whatever so the public doesn’t have to care about it. A politician’s penchant for secret deals and under the table partnerships and is a prime environment for fostering the corruption and cronyism.

It is truly difficult for me as a member of the black community to develop a comfortable trust in someone who has become so adept at thriving in such an environment. With rare exception, the political environment of the manipulators and the manipulated rarely has the black community’s welfare at heart. Indeed, a politician that makes the choice to reveal his or her self as a proponent of the black community is a politician that will be quickly guided to the exit door signaling an end to their political career. Therefore, a politician, whether black or white, will do well to keep any affiliation with the black community as distant as possible.

Black politicians have been able to achieve public office at all levels of government. Blacks have been city councilmen, Mayors, state representatives, Governors, and federal representatives. The only office black people have yet to hold is the President. But just because a black person holds a certain political office means nothing to black people. Black people are just as likely to be lynched by the police in cities with black Mayors or black police chiefs as we are in cities with all white public officials. The black community is ignored in states with black Governors just as we are in any other state. Poverty in the black community is just as rampant. Black unemployment is just as pervasive. Education for black people will be just as lacking. Medical care for black people will be just as disappointing.

With all of that said, there is an inherent flaw in the black community’s proclivity to put its collective faith in any politician. A cursory glance at American history will show that some politicians have appeared as champions of social change and an enormous boon to the black community. People in the black community have been programmed to accept America’s most famous politicians as people who have done well for the black community. The black community is supposed to appreciate George Washington because he freed his slaves in his will. But the fact is that George Washington condoned and supported the institution of slavery just like every land owner in his day. The black community is supposed to be thankful to Abraham Lincoln because he freed the slaves. But little is mentioned of the fact that Mr. Lincoln was a stout segregationist he never wanted to end slavery, who believed in the superiority of the white race, and would never condone black people achieving equality to white people. John Kennedy may have made the phone call to Doctor Martin Luther King when he was in prison for his civil disobedience. But Mr. Kennedy had a history of selecting some of the most conservative judges to fill the openings in the American south. And while the black community may thank Lyndon Johnson for passing the Civil Rights Act of 1964, Mr. Johnson condoned the public harassment of all civil rights icons throughout his presidency. And these are the Presidents we are supposed to admire.

Richard Nixon hired Donald Rumsfeld to head the office charged with the responsibility of eliminating poverty in America. Hiring the uber neoconservative to manage one of the most socially oriented offices in the presidency is akin to hiring a fox to guard a chicken coop. Ronald Reagan initiated his war on welfare with his story of the black welfare queen who sits at home and robs the federal government blind as justification to cut the social welfare programs that helped the black community to the bone. And no President could have manifested more disinterest in the welfare of the black community than George Bush during the Katrina disaster. President Bush declared a state of emergency for parts of Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana, but his declaration didn’t include New Orleans or the parishes with a heavy black population.

So it is with a great deal of suspicion and low expectations that a black politician becoming President will do anything with the black community in mind. Indeed, it is interesting that a black politician that has to defend himself against white people who regularly make everything from highly suggestive racial innuendoes all the way through to outright blatant claims of African American inferiority will dismiss such language as something that must be ignored, but will become visibly outraged and angry when his former pastor says that the black politician is required to make politically advantageous moves in order to win the highest political office in the land.

It is understandable after all. A lot of black people say that the pastor should keep quiet in order to help the black man win the presidency. But what will the black community gain other than bragging rights that a black man has finally reached the final political frontier? If the experience with the black Governor and the black Mayor is any indication, we won’t gain anything that will achieve anything for us. It will be business as usual.

Most of the social changes that have benefited the black community did not come from public office. The social changes that we have craved came through activism. It came through people who have been front and center in the church. Most of our changes have come from the black community that works hard and made sacrifices of dignity, sacrifices of physical pain, sacrifices of time and money, and the ultimate sacrifices of life. No politician is willing to make these kinds of sacrifices to help the black community. The black politician has an image that white people can trust him or her to uphold. Social changes, the type of changes many white people protest in order to keep their white privilege, will damage that image of trust. It is the black church that has gotten us this far. If black people are to ever come back together again to continue our long, arduous fight for some kind of racial equality in America, it will be through the black church and not through any political office.

The way things look it is a fairly safe bet that soon a black man will wear the title of President of the United States. In order to help the black man gain that title, a lot of people are ready to turn their back on the liberal theology of the black church. Many of us are willing to sell our soul in order to gain what we think is the greatest political office in the world. And black people want those bragging rights so badly that we are ready to allow the only institution that has ever truly worked in our favor, the black church, to be labeled as some relic of a segregationist past fueled by black people’s victim mentality. The black community stands ready to abandon our collective soul.

Make Like A Tree…

I was listening to one of the programs on National Public Radio that was discussing the condition of the presidential race and taking questions and input from callers. Like most discussions on this topic these days, the conversation rather quickly turned to the feud between Barack Obama and his former pastor, and one might consider former friend if they heard Mr. Obama’s latest comments on their relationship, Reverend Jeremiah Wright. It didn’t take long for a question to come from the listening audience, why doesn’t Jeremiah Wright leave this country if he’s so unhappy with what’s happening here? The guest on the show, I apologize because I cannot recall his name, hesitated for a brief second and replied, maybe he’s just trying to make this country a better place.

What a novel concept. A lot of people have the impression that patriotism means never uttering a critical word. Or when we hear someone criticizing our country we need to escort them to the south side of the Mexican border. We are supposed to believe that everything is perfect in all of our personal space of America and the person who has something negative to say is an American aberration. Although the conservative approach is to keep things status quo in order to prevent things from getting any worse, or any better for that matter, one of the first step in making things better is to acknowledge that there is a problem.

Last year, when the altercation in Jena, Louisiana had reached a crescendo and had garnered the collective attention of the nation, CNN went to the town to interview the people who lived there. When the reporter interviewed the white residents of Jena, each and every one of them said that there was no racial problem in Jena and the media was just blowing things out of proportion. Every white resident thought black people and white people got along fine and nothing needed changing. However, the black residents were full of criticism about the racial disparity in the town. The black residents wanted and needed change. According to many people, the black people who were criticizing the town of Jena were just making trouble and should have been asked to leave. Yet, if someone had said something sooner then maybe the whole flap over nooses could have been avoided?

Not really! I’m not so naïve to think that the white residents would have listened and addressed the concerns of the black residents. If black people were to say something white people would have just dismissed them as uppity ungrateful negroes. Kind of like what they did and are doing to Reverend Jeremiah Wright. Kind of like what Pat Buchanan says about the black community in general (click here to hear what Pat Buchanan has to say to the black community).

Relative to the national population numbers, not too many people were familiar with Reverend Wright prior to the release of the sixty seconds of video that has become the national rage. And yet, virtually overnight, he has become one of the most vilified and racist persons in America. In the past couple of years we have had white politician stand on stage and call a black person in his audience maccaca, a white comedian goes into a racist rant asking somebody to get him a rope so he can hang some niggers, a white television personality is recorded telling his son to dump his nigger girlfriend if he wants to participate in the family business. Barack Obama can ask for racial healing and Mr. Buchanan complains that the black community needs to shut up and get on our collective knees. Why isn’t somebody telling him to get his racist ass out of the country? Probably because most white people think black people on their knees before white people would make America a better place.

White people are free to say whatever they want to say about the black community and nobody thinks anything of it. It’s just a rant behind closed doors or a frustration expressed after a bad day or whatever. But let a black man saying something about the dominant community and people stand in line to buy him a ticket to hell. Jeremiah Wright isn’t alone. Mr. Obama can say his grandmother was typical of many white people and white people want to grab their pitch forks and two by fours with protruding nails. Mr. Obama can say that small town America is bitter about the condition of the country and looking to their religion and guns for comfort and you’d think he had thrown a rock at a hive of killer bees with NRA memberships. The dominant class is outraged at the audacity of a black man who would say that small town America is bitter. They will grab their bibles and pray that Mr. Obama drops dead. They would grab their guns but they know that the chances of getting past the Secret Service detail would be slim to none.

There is a disconnect the size of the deepest chasm on Earth between the black community and the white community. The white community is America. The black community is dirty leftovers that is swept under the national rug. A criticism of the black community is not a criticism against America. It’s just a joke or some manifestation of white people’s frustration. But a criticism against the white community by someone outside the white community, for example a black person, is an unpatriotic rant against all things wholesome that America, that is white people, hold dear.

The criticism that people from the black community make against America shouldn’t be considered automatic permission to invite any of us to leave. Even the constitution guarantees our right to stay here and voice our concerns. Some of the most patriotic Americans were the ones who spoke up and openly criticized the way things are. In fact, to deny black people our right to criticize the nation is downright unpatriotic. So to people who are so intent to tell black people to quit bad mouthing America and grab a flag and start waving like our lives depend on it, I say shut up and listen.

Right Or Wrong We Need Support

Fifteen police officers in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania were captured on video beating the shit out of three black men pulled out of a car after a traffic stop on Monday night. The fifteen police officers have been removed from street duty. The beating looked similar to some kind of gang activity where the victim is overwhelmed by multiple gang members waylaying in on his or her ass. The three black men have been charged with criminal conspiracy, aggravated assault, simple assault and reckless endangerment, according to court officials. But that really doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if the police officers are right or wrong. People throughout the community will come from far and wide to defend the actions of a little street justice from this badge wearing posse.

On Wednesday, Doug Oliver, a spokesman for Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter made the statement, “At a glance it does appear to be a bit beyond the pale…Officers are not allowed to operate outside of the law…We are not going to prejudge the situation based on the video…We all saw the video, but none of us was there.”

No doubt there will be some claim of some kind of investigation. These police will simply say that they were in fear of their life and were trying to defend themselves. The police will claim that these suspects were trying to break the officer’s feet when the officers were kicking the suspects in the head as they were lying face down on the ground. The police will claim that they had to beat the suspects because the suspects didn’t respond to police commands fast enough. They will say that they were suffering from some derivative of contagious shooting called contagious beating the shit out of somebody or contagious smack down. They will go before a judge and the esteemed Honor will say something totally unbelievable but perfectly legal like there isn’t enough evidence here to prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the suspects’ civil rights were violated while cops were kicking their ass. The dominant community will support their police far beyond any shadow of a reasonable doubt whether they were right or wrong.

In the individual dealings with the black community the support the dominant community gives its representatives is overwhelming. Had this beating not been caught by the WTXF-TV helicopter that just so happened to be in the vicinity, the suspects would have showed up at the police station bloodied and battered and in need of immediate medical attention, the police would have simply said that the suspects fell as they were getting out of the squad car. The infamous police code of silence and blind support for fellow officers would not require any investigation to the contrary.

But now that there is a video made public, reluctantly, an investigation must ensue. Witnesses will be collected and if their testimony will be damaging to the police officers it will be dismissed because the police will be assumed to have more integrity than the black suspects. Few people from the dominant community will contest such an assumption. Most people will support that assumption even though they would never tolerate it being applied to themselves. If these people don’t stand behind each other, the dominant community would have a great deal to lose.

The dominant community will support their own. A radio host, fired for demeaning and humiliating black women, will be supported to the point that, not only does he get his job back, he will get a ten million dollar settlement for his troubles. Boot camp guards caught on camera murdering a black teenager too exhausted to continue his calisthenics are acquitted of murder. Police who kill a black man on his way to his wedding are acquitted of any wrong doing. Senators running for reelection will point to a black man in the audience and tell the crowd to say hello to macaca, a racially derogatory term, and people still voted for him. A local district attorney charge black high school students of second degree attempted murder for fighting with white high school students who aren’t charged with anything. When the district attorney is investigated by federal agents, there isn’t enough evidence to warrant charges. A comedian stands on stage and uses numerous racial epithets against black people in the audience and video sales of the television show he appeared in skyrocket over the following week. And the number of racist who consistently make blatant derogatory remarks against the black community reads like a who’s who in network news.

If only the black community could garner such support from our own. When the radio host made his remarks about black women, half the black community was pointing the finger at the other half of the black community. Somehow, we had brought this upon ourselves by allowing gangsta rap music thrive in the black community. The fact that gangsta rap is a product of a music industry ultimately controlled by the dominant community and the fact that the white community is responsible for seventy percent of gangsta rap purchases never registers to half of the black community. If black people would not tolerate our women being degraded through gangsta rap music maybe white radio hosts wouldn’t think it was acceptable to degrade black women.

Black comedians stand in front of white people and deride poor blacks for the condition of the black community. Black celebrities advocate the abandonment of the black community in order to truly feel free. Black celebrities will do their best to market themselves as a single person rainbow coalition with every ethnicity in the spectrum in their family lineage with their African ancestry pulling up the rear. Famous black men advertise the fact that they don’t date black women. Famous black women return the favor and eschew dating black men. Black entrepreneurs want to hire white people as their sales force and keep their black employees in supporting roles.

When a black preacher has the audacity to say that the dominant community has played a significant role in keeping the black community in a condition of perpetual substandard existence, the black community will question his motives and accuse him of trying to sabotage another black man’s bid for the White House. We want to hush the man with the courage to be vocal in his call for the recognition of our condition. White people won’t want to hear that shit. If that fool doesn’t keep quiet the black community will lose any hope of putting one of our own in the White House.

And? A single black man in the White House isn’t going to change the conditions of the black community if we have to get him there under some subterfuge that everything is hunky dory. Equality and fairness isn’t going to trickle down through the public simply because we have a black President. Illinois had its first black Senator in forever and has conditions in Illinois change for its black population? It may be true that there have been some improvements but the racial status quo remains squarely intact.

The black community has produced our share of judges, police, doctors, legislators, lawyers, philosophers, historians, explorers, engineers, actors, singers, athletes, scientist, teachers, entrepreneurs, dreamers, bureaucrats, inventors, poets, entertainers, authors, administrators, astronomers, astrologers, astronauts, mathematicians, metallurgist, farmers, marketers, and any and every profession you can think of. What will be one more? What will change for the black community if one of our own was to become President? If the only black man that sits on the Supreme Court is any indication, it won’t mean a thing if that black person does not have a full appreciation of what it means to support the black community.

Like many people, I believe it will be a significant achievement when a black person becomes President of the United States. But I’m not ready to sacrifice black people who speak the truth about racial disparity in order to achieve that goal. I support the black man or woman who wants to be President. I support them with all of my heart. But more importantly, I will support the black community. And that includes the black person who has the courage to stand up and says that there is something wrong with this country that tolerates so much racial inequality.

God Damn The Black Community

“God helps those who help themselves!” – Benjamin Franklin

Reverend Jeremiah Wright is in the news again and is said to be a distraction to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama, by far his most famous former parishioner. Reverend Wright has spent the last week or so giving his side of the story. Mr. Wright feels that he has been personally attacked and also feels that the institution of the black church has been attacked by the dominant American culture. He’s been referred to as a kook and described as trying to knee cap Mr. Obama’s presidential bid. Mr. Obama tried to minimize his relationship with his former pastor. But when that didn’t put the issue to rest, Mr. Wright conveniently comes back on the scene to give Mr. Obama a second chance to sever the relationship cleanly in the public’s eye.

The overwhelming majority of America never knew Mr. Wright prior to the networks airing of the infamous recording of Mr. Wright saying that god should be damning America instead of blessing America. People refer to Mr. Wright as a blatant racist although he never once said white people were the problem. Mr. Wright said black and white people are different with neither one being better than the other. But this is too racist a concept for most. White and black people are actually saying that Jeremiah Wright is the problem. No one of any prominence has given Mr. Wright any understanding or support, with the possible exception of Bill Moyers when he hosted Mr. Wright on his PBS show Bill Moyers Journal and allowed the former pastor of Trinity United Church of Christ to defend himself without adding fuel to the fire of controversy. Mr. Moyers doesn’t have a political agenda to push so it is no surprise that he isn’t condemning Mr. Wright the way that the typical network pundit would.

But nevertheless, for the most part, when it comes to the black community, Mr. Wright is standing alone. Other than Mr. Moyers, I have yet to see any high profile support. Where are the leaders of the black community? Where are the people who claim to the welfare of the black community a top priority? It is a given that white people would want take the five or ten minutes of Mr. Wright’s sermons that have captured America’s attention as gospel. When Mr. Wright says god should damn America white people take this personally for America is white America. America is baseball, hot dogs, apple pie, and Chevrolet. America is the corporate environment where white people rule the upper management, white people make up the vast majority of middle workers, and black people make up the bottom rung of the corporate ladder in janitorial services and the mailroom. To say America is messing up is to say that white people are messing up since they are the ones in control of 98% of America’s institutions. And these corporate institutions are using their resources to pick Mr. Wright apart and make him an example of what happens when you bad mouth America’s managment team.

And with an election coming, and with the chance that a black man could actually obtain the highest office in America’s land, America will push with all of its corrupt corporate capitalist might to find anything and emphasize anything to keep Mr. Obama from obtaining the title of President of the United States. It is truly understandable why the dominant community would work so hard to keep the status quo of white only from being broken. Black man might become President and try do something positive for the black community. White America just can’t take that chance. So I can understand why the Tucker Carlsons and Sean Hanitys and Pat Buchanans of the world to persecute Mr. Wright, and therefore Mr. Obama by association. These are the type of people who would be content to see the despair of the black community continue without end. But where are the people who say that they have a vested interest in the uplift of the black community?

Where are the people who are more likely to defend Mr. Wright? Barack Obama tried to distance himself from Mr. Wright without outright rejecting him and it nearly cost him his lead in the presidential nomination race. There is too much to lose. So regardless of what Mr. Obama says to the contrary it is relatively easy to see how his highly visible divorce from Mr. Wright can be considered politically advantageous. So it doesn’t take much of a brain to see that there will be no comfort there. Where are the other high profile blacks who sit in black churches on a weekly basis and can relate to what Mr. Wright says about being black in America? Are we in the black community are supposed to believe that Jeremiah Wright is a lone exception with a totally unique perspective of the relationship between America and what she has done for and what she has done to the black community? Are we to believe that no other black high profile black celebrity has any idea what he is referring to?

Certainly there must be a gangster rap artist who is aware of what Mr. Wright is saying. Rap artist are constantly depicting the despair of the black community. Certainly these artists must know about the disparity that Mr. Wright is talking about. How about the black actors who must appear in works of fiction without any, or a severely limited number, of black actors appearing as characters that provide positive role models for the black community? Certainly these artists know a little something about being black in America and how black people have to work harder and longer just to get their foot in the door. Where are the black people who work in the corporate environment that sees black people at the bottom and white people at the top? Where are the black police officers, lawyers, judges, bureaucrats, lawyers, doctors, and other black professionals who see the inequality between the black community and its white counterpart?

No one else has a clue as to what is happening. No one is willing to come forward and add their voice to the outrage of inequality in the social conditions of this country. We are supposed to believe that so many black people are too afraid, too complacent, too oblivious, or black people want to assimilate so badly that they support, even encourage, the unfairness under some pretense such as the black community is not being subjugated and simply needs to lift itself out of its predicament by making the choice not to be in a disparaging predicament. Granted many black people fit into one of these categories. But I refuse to believe there isn’t a single high profile black professional or celebrity who doesn’t feel the same way Mr. Wright feels enough to say something about it.

Change doesn’t happen when a single person is the only dissenting voice. It is far too easy to dismiss a single voice as little more than a crackpot or a trouble maker. Change happens when a single voice is joined by another voice and those voices are joined by more voices until there are so many voices that they cannot be dismissed as an exception to the rule. Those voices become a force that must be reckoned with.

If America’s black community allows Jeremiah Wright to be relegated to crackpot status until humanity becomes just another part of oblivion then we truly deserve to be subjugated. We think it is so much more important to keep the hope alive that Barack Obama will be the first black person to gain the White House that we are willing to let the truths that Mr. Wright spoke of be labeled as little more than a single black man’s slander against our beloved country. We are willing to let a man who has the audacity to boldly speak on our behalf, to boldly speak on Mr. Obama’s behalf, to be publicly crucified by the dominant community. We choose to become complacent in the rejection of the man who says something troubling is afoot in the black community in order not to stoke the fears of the dominant community.

If the black community does not stand firmly behind Jeremiah Wright, if we do not stand up and say he is correct and he speaks on behalf of us, then everything the dominant community says about us is true. Even if we disagree with everything he said he believes he is speaking on behalf of the black community.  We should not be so quick to abandon a black person simply because the white community finds him or her offensive.  The white community rarely abandons its own simply because black people find him or her offensive.  If we allow ourselves to submit to the establishment without so much as a peep then we choose to be victims. We make the collective choice to be subjugated. We choose not to use whatever means necessary to get ourselves out of our plight. We choose to turn our backs at the chance for a movement. We choose not to be unified for our own self interest. And if all of that is true, then we owe the dominant community a huge apology, for obviously the only power they have over us is the power we let them have. And we can forget all that smack about god damn America. What everybody should be saying from this point on is god damn the black community!

No Justice For Sean Bell

Is it really a surprise to people in the black community that the three police officers on trial for the murder of Sean Bell were acquitted? In New York, New York of all places? Is this not the same city where police sodomized Abner Louima, a black man in their custody, and then tried to deny it? Is this not the same town where Amidou Diallo, a black man walking home with a bag of groceries in his arms, was gunned down for pulling out his wallet to identify himself? Was it not too far from here where John White was found guilty for shooting a drunk white teen while trying to defend his family and his home from a mob of white kids? Do we really need another example of the contempt the dominant community has against people from the black community?

Did anyone really think that the family of Sean Bell would be able to attain some kind of justice when there was no justice for Martin Lee Anderson, the fourteen year old black boy, who was murdered on camera by seven boot camp guards while the boot camp nurse looked on and approved everything they did? Did anybody think there would be justice for a black man when we watched the tape of several New Orleans, Louisiana’s finest beating sixty four year old Robert Davis to the ground for the crime of asking a police officer for information and making the comment about the police department’s unprofessional conduct?

We all watched with horror and with sick fascination the tape of a boot camp guard holding a baton against Martin Anderson’s throat, keeping him up as his body surrendered its last bit of strength and tried to slump to the ground, while the other guards beat him. We watched the police in New Orleans initiate the attack against Mr. Davis, wrestle him to the ground as they yelled for him to put his arms behind his back as the law enforcers held his arms in front of him, we could hear Mr. Davis saying that he would if they would just let him. And yet, the judges and juries will say that they watched these videos and concluded that the black victim was actually a perpetrator who could have prevented the entire ordeal simply by doing what they were told. Why would we expect anything different here?

Why do we act surprised to hear about this latest acquittal? Did anyone really expect anything different to happen? A police officer can expect to lose his or her job for inconveniencing the mother of the Mayor’s wife by giving the woman a speeding ticket, but a police officer that kills an innocent black man in a case of mistaken identity is untouchable. One of the police officers shot at the car Mr. Bell and his friends were in thirty one times. He had to reload his gun in order to keep shooting. It didn’t mean a thing in the judge’s eyes. It was all understandable.

The dominant community continues to hound Barack Obama for the divisive but true comments of his former pastor Jeremiah Wright. But are Mr. Wright’s comments more divisive than the actions of police officers that will shoot a black man, taking the time to stop and reload, thirty one times? Are Mr. Wright’s comments somehow more divisive than a judge who will say that the testimonies from black witnesses are not credible because they have convictions? These are the same judges that wouldn’t hesitate to come down on a black defendant with a prior conviction that confesses to a crime. And then people have to wonder why people in the black community don’t bother to help the authorities solve crimes.

Many people in the black community continue to think that the best bet for our survival is to do our best to try and integrate, to live among the dominant society where people on a regular basis are acquitted of the crime of killing and abusing black people at any time for any reason. In today’s socially charged atmosphere of racial disparity and discrimination it is a feat of the highest legal skill, experience, and knowledge to get a court to recognize discrimination in the business environment. Now, the courts are making it just as difficult for a black person to get some kind of justice when we are gunned down when minding our own business. We are convicted for trying to defend our homes from angry white drunks. Our word means nothing in the court room. But let one of us say goddamn America and black people are the ones being divisive.

People in the black community need to rethink our relationship with the dominant community. The disparity between the two communities is getting wider and wider. Police murder us in the streets and suffer no repercussions while black pastors are demonized for preaching about racial disparity in our communities. Even when the most extreme forms of this discrimination is caught on tape it is dismissed as our fault because we didn’t prostrate ourselves in front of the cop fast enough or the police officer was having a bad day and had to release his frustrations on the black citizen or whatever. We are in danger every time we come out in public from the very people sworn to protect the public. The police and the courts are doing their best to protect the public from black people.