Category Archives: Politics

Wake Up Everybody

Have you noticed that Race in America is prevalent in our daily discourse?

Like back pain that is temporarily masked by therapy or medication, the topic of race is always just beneath the surface, lurking.

A sudden movement, twist or turn can act as a catalyst thrusting it forward.

While I am fully aware of the recent remarks by Laura Schlessinger, I chose to not ‘weigh in’ because I felt that I had nothing ‘new’ to add to the conversation.

Inappropriate behavior is simply that, inappropriate.

It is neither a ‘pass’ for the offender or a justification for the offended to wear the badge of victim.

I attended a client meeting at an ‘old world’ resort in the Virginia Mountains not too long ago. By old world, I mean it first opened its doors a decade before the American Revolution.

Another guest, an elderly White gentleman, made the assumption that I was at the front desk, not to check in, but to assist with his luggage.
His assumption was based on what? Certainly not the clothing that I wore because the standard uniform for employees was topped off with a split pea green vest with a small gold-like name tag.

I’ve always found green a difficult color to pull off.

When the news of a horrific crime is reported, I hold my breath and wait for the description of the suspect.

My mind automatically shifts into ‘auto drive’ and think, “thank God it wasn’t someone Black” or “I hope it wasn’t someone Black.”

These circumstantial examples, along with a handful of other current events, caused Bob Herbert’s Op-Ed column in last Saturday’s New York Times, Too Long Ignored, to touch a nerve. He said,

Terrible injustices have been visited on black people in the United States, but there is never a good reason to collaborate in one’s own destruction. Blacks in America have a long and proud history of overcoming hardship and injustice. It’s time to do it again.

We are in need of an intervention and for all of the reasons outlined in Too Long Ignored, Black America is at a crucial point where the fix must come sooner rather than later.

This fix is one that we have to take responsibility for and implement. Our survival is dependent upon it.

I encourage you to read the full piece and join me in fueling the conversation.
This sentiment is not new, but one that requires igniting…again.

Like the lyrics from the Gamble-Huff song, Wake Up Everybody say:

The world won’t get no better if we just let it be
The world won’t get no better we gotta change it yeah, just you and me.

For the full Herbert column full text click here

"The Black Boogie Man Shot Me," said the cop

If one “happened” to be a Black male in West Philadelphia in the early morning hours on April 5th, there is a good chance that “they” were pulled over and questioned.

Police Sgt. Robert Ralston claimed to have been shot by “a Black man with corn rows.”

He later admitted that the gun shot wound was self-inflicted and that the story was a lie.

This brought to mind two separate cases, both from the early 1990’s with eerily similar circumstances…

In Boston, Charles Stuart murdered his seven-months-pregnant wife, but told authorities and the media that the culprit was “a raspy voiced Black man.”

What followed was a “Black manhunt,” producing an alleged suspect, Willie Bennett. Mr. Bennett was singled out by Stuart from a police lineup.

In an effort to give his story credibility, Stuart, too, had a self-inflicted gun shot wound.

Stuart ultimately killed himself, jumping off of a bridge.

The other case involved Susan Smith, the former University of South Carolina Union student who murdered her two sons.

She claimed that a Black man stole her car and kidnapped her kids.

Susan Smith later claimed that mental health issues impaired her judgement.
Smith is currently serving time and will be eligible for parole in the Fall of 2024.

Clearly, all three cases fuel negative and damaging assumptions about race.
The initiation of searches and hunts for the Black Boogie Men do nothing more than raise the bar on racial discord, mistrust and suspicion.

For the full Ralston article click – here

If You Don’t Stand for Something, You Will Fall for Anything

My reaction to last weekend’s news coverage regarding the attacks that Congressmen Lewis and Frank, among others, were subjected to, was not shock, but disappointment…quickly followed by confirmation.

Racism, discrimination and ignorance are very much alive and well in America.

The volatile and personal public attacks that erupted should offend and upset each and every single one of us.

Let’s be clear, this is not a Republican or Democratic issue.

For the record, it is also not a “Tea Party” issue.

Decency, respect and decorum have no specific party affiliation.

In his New York Times Op-Ed article, 3/23, An Absence of Class, the ever eloquent Bob Herbert stated:

“At some point, we have to decide as a country that we just can’t have this:
We cannot allow ourselves to remain silent as foaming-at-the mouth protesters scream the vilest of epithets at members of Congress – epithets that The Times will not allow me to repeat here.”

Since this is my blog, I will repeat the vile epithets…in the form of a question –

What do the words Nigger, Faggot, or for that matter, spitting on another human being have to do with health care?

Herbert went on to say,

“It is 2010, which means it is way past time for decent Americans to rise up against this kind of garbage, to fight it aggressively wherever it appears.”

Silence or turning a blind eye will not make the severity of this new “low” we’ve reached go away. This is something that we have a shared responsibility to address and correct.

In the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.:

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere”

click here for An Absence of Class by Bob Herbert

"Teaching Little Brown Babies"

There was an article in The New York Times on Saturday that I just have to talk about and perhaps get your comments and impressions.

“To Court Blacks, Foes of Abortion Make Racial Case.”click here

I was intrigued, not by the highly personal and morally difficult pro-choice/pro-life debate, but by the suggestion that Blacks are like lemmings – in need of a savior to “guide” and “rescue” them from the perils of an evil world…and their own ignorance.

As described in the article,”the largely white staff” of the anti-abortion group in Georgia had a light bulb moment.

The “idea” was to link a fact

(disproportionately high number of Black women have abortions)

with a theory

(there is a decades old conspiracy to kill off Blacks)

so that African-American women will know “the truth.”

Brilliant marketing – Yes?

Just pit Black against White and and throw the fear of racial genocide into the mix.

Of course, the fact that these new “outreach” saviors (oops, I meant anti-abortion leaders) had a few abortions themselves is irrelevant to these sisters of mercy.

I smirked and thought of a line from the film, Murder On the Orient Express.

Responding to Inspector Poirot’s wily interrogation, the seemingly meek Swedish missionary, Greta (played by Ingrid Bergman, who won an Oscar), said with deep humility:

“I work in Africa…as missionary – teaching little brown babies more backward than myself.”

Sticks and stones and a few words about the "N" word…

What image comes to mind when you hear the word “nigger?”

Think about it.

After all, it is 2010 and we are still having the conversation about its use and the inappropriateness associated with it.

Regardless of our background, we all know people who have used it.

So perhaps it is best to revisit the rules…

White people get no pass, “hood” or otherwise.
Pay attention John Mayer.
Permission is not granted to use the word – in gest, or otherwise.

Much was recently made of Senator Harry Reid’s use of the word with regard to then-potential Presidential candidate Barack Obama. I read the book “Game Change” and my impression is that Reid’s remarks were inappropriate, but in no way appeared grounded in malice.

I am not naive.
A racist is racist.
Like x-ray vision one can see “it” through a brick wall.

I once worked for an individual, who was, despite protestation and by all accounts, a racist.

In what the individual believed to be “confidential” circumstances, – no Black people present, or so they thought, – they flagrantly used the word.

This person knew and fully understood they were wrong…
Nigger was used in an almost whispered tone. Not only was there comprehension about the gravity of the word’s use, its inappropriateness was also understood.

Yesterday I was getting a haircut – at an African-American barber shop – and counted the number of times I heard the word used. In a 30 minute period, the count was eighteen. Eighteen times in a half hour! Employees and patrons alike peppered their conversation with it-

Salutation – “What’s up my nigger?”
Exaggeration – “Nigger please…”

The difference is that in these instances, there was no malicious intent or derision.

While I personally don’t approve the use of the word by Black people, culturally, it is allowed.

Permission is granted.

It is part the African-American vernacular and, in many cases, accepted as such.

This debate is not going away. Nor is the use (appropriate or not) of the word, by Black or White people.

I am intrigued and inspired by three quotes I unearthed by three different indviduals – two having to do specifically with the word nigger and one that was born out of much broader implications and circumstances.

In the forward to his book, “Nigger,” Dick Gregory wrote a special note to his mother –

“Whenever you hear the word ‘Nigger’,” he said, “you’ll know they’re advertising my book.”

Gregory masterfully turned what, on the surface, was a negative into a thought-provoking and challenging positive.

Whoopi Goldberg, commenting on the word nigger:

“I don’t know any and I’ve never been one.”

Goldberg’s refusal to accept a label, which neither fits or defines, suggests that anyone who uses it simply doesn’t understand “who” or “what” they are talking about.

Lastly, former First Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt:

“No one makes you feel inferior without your consent.”

When we refuse to succumb to demeaning labels, but accept the fact that we are individuals, unique and equal in our common humanity, we win. We defeat those who use words to define us.

Image:
Three Little Children, 1944
William H. Johnson (American, 1901 -1970)
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Smithsonian Institue

Editor’s Note:

I was hasty in my reference to Senator Reid’s remarks in the book Game Change. His quote did not use the word “nigger,” but language that was interpreted by some to have a similiar tone. Reid was wowed by Obama’s oratorical gifts and believed that the country was ready to embrace a black presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama:

“a ‘light-skinned’ African American with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one,” as he said privately.”

Reid was convinced, in fact, that Obama’s race would help him more than hurt him in a bid for the Democratic nomination.