VIOLENCE IN AMERICA: WHERE WILL IT END?

In the wake of the unspeakable evil that has befallen not just our nation, but the entire planet, our president has vowed to take action to ensure that this senseless mass murder of children does not happen again.  Any fool to the left of the NRA can see that we need to do something about the proliferation of guns in our nation.  Not surprisingly, we are way ahead of the rest of the world in per capita gun ownership.  Yet gun control is not the entire answer.  I hope President Obama gets that.  In his initial address to the families of the slain, he stated that he wants to call together psychiatrists and educators to address the issue.  He has since convened his panel, led by Vice President Joe Biden.  According to CNN, the task force panel includes Homeland Security chief, Janet Napolitano, and Attorney General Eric Holder among others.  The only educator named was Secretary of Education, Arne Duncan.  No psychiatrists.  No sociologists.  No communications specialists.  Perhaps people from these professions will be consulted.  But as the council appears to be constituted, it looks like the task force may come up light in the “why” department. 

This ongoing homegrown terrorism bespeaks a profound malaise that is destroying our nation from within. In the white community, it is manifest by mass shootings in malls, high schools, and now, finally and unthinkably, an elementary school.  In the African American community it is manifest as the ongoing slaughter, day after day, weekend after weekend, of mostly innocent black children by gang members who shoot first and aim later.  Living in Chicago, I avoid the local news because the steady stream of black mothers mourning their slain children has become unbearable.  The scope of Americans slaughtering other Americans has reached a point that it is more than abundantly clear to any rational person that there is a profound illness debilitating this country.   It is also equally clear that our tolerance for black children killing black children represents a different level of illness in this country.

I can’t begin to say why so many young white males snap and just start shooting up schools and malls.  I can say that the ongoing slaughter in the African American community is a large part of the legacy of slavery.  It is  the result of (1) the deterioration of the black family (2) intense economic pressures within the community (3) intentional social engineering by the powers that be (4) hopelessness (5) an exaggeration of the deterioration of American society in general and (6) self hatred/ignorance. 

Based upon how this task force has been constructed and the history of how things are done in this country, I can’t help feeling that the answers to our violence problem emphasis will be rooted in law enforcement.  For Black folks, lawlessness and law enforcement represent the rock and hard place between which we constantly find ourselves.  Criminals shoot up our neighborhoods and leave us in such trauma and fear that we freely allow for the abrogation of our rights in the name of safety. Considering that Chicago homicides continue to outpace Afghan war casualties there can be little wonder that we clamor for the National Guard to patrol our streets.       

President Obama was  right when he said that this issue must remain above politics.  That statement was a preemptive strike at the onslaught of political backlash that he knows will accompany any serious attempt at a resolution.   Many people may wonder how dealing with such a profound issue could possibly be deemed political.  The truth is that it already is very much a political issue.

What Mr. Obama implied, but could not come right out and say, is that the culture of the right wing in this country is one of denial; denial that American has ever done anything wrong, ever will do anything wrong, or could possibly have anything wrong with itself.  The right wing, led by people like Sean Hannity has lambasted the president for saying anything that remotely resembles an understanding that this county is first among equal partners in the world and NOT the Lord and Master of the entire planet.  This denial is the very bedrock of the right wing; the foundation upon which all of its tenets are based.  It is a denial so colossal and profound in scope that people like Rush Limbaugh have had to create an alternative universe in which white people have been oppressed by everyone else. 

Do not be surprised if the right wing dismisses any attempts at diagnosing and treating our illness as un-American and possibly Communist inspired.  It’s what we expect from them. The question is whether or not the Obama task force will take this opportunity to address the chronic violence of African America as well as the mass shootings in Norman Rockwell’s America.  My optimism and hope tell me that it’s possible.  My experience and age tell me not to bet on it.

Coming next: violence against women

William M. Griggs, author, The Megalight Connection

THE REPUBLICAN PARTY AND THE CULTURE OF DUMB

                “Every time I try to get out, they pull me back in!”

                                Al Pacino in “The Godfather II”

                I now know how brother Al felt.  I was trying desperately not to write about the incredulous ineptitude of the Republican Party, its propaganda outlet a.k.a. Fox News, and its standard bearer, Mitt Romney.  In the span of one week, Romney has injected himself clumsily and without benefit of any facts, into a serious, sensitive international crisis, then turned around and insulted half of all Americans.  This is from the rich guy whose answer to struggling college students is to get a loan from their parents, who won’t release his tax forms, and who wants deep tax cuts for himself, while cutting services and benefits for average working people.  Astonishing.

                I have now seen two things I never thought I would see in my lifetime: a Black president; and a presidential candidate who, if elected, would be worse- dare I say it? - than George W. Bush.  What I find most intriguing is not Romney’s incompetence-although it really is a wonder to behold- but the process by which we are faced with watching a man so spectacularly flawed carry the mantle of his party.   What has happened to the party of Lincoln that they would follow George W. Bush with Sarah (I can see Russia) Palin as a Vice presidential candidate and now Mitt Romney and Paul (it’s true if I say it is) Ryan as his running mate?  I think I know. 

                Ever since the Republicans became the party of conservatism, it has consisted of two distinct elements.  There was the conservative intellectual elite as represented by the late William F, Buckley Jr., George Will, and William Krystol, who provided the theoretical structure of the party.  Then there were the followers who voted their emotions, rather than their interests, and who follow people like the aforementioned Sarah Palin, Triple R (Rabid, Racist, Rush) Limbaugh, and Michelle Bachman.  It is from this latter group that the Tea Party was born and the inmates took over the asylum.  Thus began the empowerment of the COD (Culture Of Dumb).

                The Republican primary race was the most astonishing display of the politics of COD that I have ever witnessed.  Former Governor, John Huntsman, was run out of the race almost immediately for the unpardonable sin of making sense and speaking rationally.  The remaining candidates almost fell over themselves trying to make the most outrageous, nonsensical statements.  Any candidate who had, at any time in the past, said anything that made sense was forced to retract the offending statement.  Newt Gingrich, who became a master of the nonsensical, was forced to denounce a joint public service announcement he had made with Nancy Pelosi about global warming.  He actually said that acknowledging global warming was the dumbest thing he had ever done, and couldn’t explain why he did it. Rick Santorum came out against education and declared that smart people would not vote for him!  And who could forget that on the issue of a hypothetical uninsured young man with a fatal condition, and the audience’s responseas to what to do for him was to let him die!  The major media maintained a straight face while treating Republican mythology as if it were reality. 

                The Republicans are faced with an apparently unsolvable conundrum.   On the one hand, so much of their success has been derived from the smoke and mirror tactics employed by the diabolical   Karl Rove, that truly enlightened people will rarely vote for many of them.   Tax breaks for the wealthiest and deregulation of the banking industry-not to mention oil companies and the incalculable environmental damage they do when not watched closely- are positions that clearly do not favor most Americans.  So, to a certain extent, it is in their best interest for their constituents to remain uninformed by getting their “information” from Fox News. 

                On the other hand, the COD is unmanageable, uncontainable and uncontrollable.  Hence we were provided the spectacle of Congressman Todd Akin explaining that in cases of “legitimate” rape (Don’t you just hate it when the parents of rape aren’t married?) a woman’s body will terminate the pregnancy on its own.

                Given their hostility toward the African American community (their greatest hero, Ronald Reagan, categorized Black folks as a “special interest”) it would be tempting for the Black community to become downright giddy at this onslaught of COD.   Yet COD has strong roots in our community as well.  We see it when our best and brightest are castigated for “tying to talk white” merely because they used proper English.  There is, however, one salient distinction in the COD of the Black community and that of the rabid right.  Much of the African American COD has been imposed from without, by those who have defined us negatively.  We can’t say that about the working class right. 

ONLY IN AMERICA

I’m adding a new feature to the blog:

ONLY IN AMERICA

Could a controversy arise over the hair of a sixteen year old who, not only became the first African American to achieve a feat, but in the process, became the very best IN THE ENTIRE WORLD at what she does.  Obviously I’m talking about the brilliant gymnast, Gabby Douglass.  The bad news is that the old jealousy that comes from self hatred has, as always, reared its ugly head at a time that should have been reserved for joy and pride.  The good news is that the absurdity of the incident is so spectacularly profound, that we are forced to acknowledge the single greatest issue confronting Black America as the hallmark of the legacy of slavery: Black self hatred. 

Racism/ White supremacy was developed to justify slavery- not just for the slave owners, but for the slaves themselves.  The slaves knew that their lives were a living hell for one reason and one reason only: their blackness.  Then as now, they prayed to a God who could have passed for Egyptian, yet was represented as blond and blue eyed.  Then as now, all things black were defined as evil (including the President of the United States) while whiteness was/ is equated with purity.  We were told our dark skin was ugly, as tanning salons blossomed; our thick lips hideous, as Botox became the rage.    The racism even extended to food: chocolate devil food cake and white angel food cake.  The methods by which African Americans were/are taught self hatred could fill a thousand blogs. 

Back in the sixties we talked about combating the self hatred by understanding our own glorious history, so that we might understand that our current condition is not the result of the natural order of things; to know that we have been great and can be so again.  Yet things have deteriorated so precipitously that I now recommend that we reconsider our very recent history: the late 1960’s and early 1970’s.  Old folks like me need to tell our youngsters how we referred to our women as Queens, instead of the degrading names rappers and others use today.  We could talk about how afros and dashikis were political symbols of racial pride.  We could talk about a lot of stuff I can’t go into here.  But that’s why we start dialogues.

                                                                
                                                        ONLY IN AMERICA

Could a gazillonaire who  advocates keeping an unpaid for tax cut for his economic class while cutting fundamental services to working class people and who could not visit America’s greatest ally  (England) without stirring up trouble, be almost in a dead heat for the presidency of the United States while receiving votes from the working class.

Could Sarah Palin have been a candidate for the vice presidency of the United States, and still maintain a considerable following.

Could drug addiction be regarded as a criminal, rather than medical issue.

Could George W. Bush have been elected president.  TWICE

Could large portions of the population believe Bush when he said that people like the Iranians, “hate us for our freedom.”  Did any of them know that the United States nullified Iranian elections in 1953 because the U.S. didn’t like the outcome and instead installed a petty dictator, the Shah?  Do any Americans know that there is a direct correlation between American actions and how other countries feel about America?

Could a government official (Mitch McConnell)  openly wish for the failure of the PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, without having his (McConnell’s) patriotism called into question.  (The president cannot fail unless the country fails)!!!!

Could a nation that has less than five percent of the worlds’ population and almost one fourth of the world’s prison population call itself a free nation.

Hopefully, I’ve stimulated you to think of your own “only in America” scenarios.  If so, please log them in the comment section.

POLITICAL SCAMS AND WILLFUL IGNORANCE

                Back In the hood, when somebody ran a game or a scam, we called it the ole Oki-Finoki.   There were all kinds of Oki- Finoki, like the guy who runs the three card Monte scheme, or the guy who finds an envelope full of cash who wants to share it with you if you’ll just put up a good faith amount of cash.  Magicians use misdirection to entertain their audiences while scam artists use the victim’s greed and naiveté to fleece them.  We referred to being victimized by a scam as being put in a trick bag.

                As I’ve studied and grown I’ve come to understand that our entire society is based in way or another, on the good ole Oki Finoki.  The Oki Finoki has poor and working class White folks voting against their own best interests.   Variations of the Oki Finoki have placed more Black men in the penal system  than were enslaved.  It has millions of inner city kids thinking they can be NBA stars or rappers without a single backup plan for when those dreams dissipate.   From drug and gang warfare to disintegrating families, the omnipresent Oki Finoki has been there; the straw that stirs the drink.

                This all came back to me as group of chess buddies and I were interviewed to share our thoughts on the state of politics in America today for an upcoming program on BET television.  I gave an individual interview in which I lambasted Republican obstructionism as well as the complicity of the media in giving equal weight to falsehoods as truths in the name of objectivity.  The television crew eventually asked to others to join in, and that is when my education began.

                The good news was that the brothers were angry.  The bad news was that all the anger was directed toward President Obama.  They blamed Obama for not dealing forcefully enough with OPEC to bring down gas prices.  Some were upset that Obama had endorsed same sex marriage.  

                I explained that the gas prices were the result of speculation on Wall Street and that the way to end that kind of speculation was to regulate Wall Street.  I also pointed out that whenever Obama has tried to bring up regulations, the Republicans refer to them as “job killers” as well as further proof that Obama is a socialist.  The complaints over what Obama had not accomplished continued to flow, and I continued to explain things like how the Republicans had made unprecedented use of the filibuster to thwart Obama’s efforts to correct many egregious situations.  But I seriously doubt if anyone knew what a filibuster was.  Still, I waited to hear the anger that I knew would be forthcoming over the Republicans’ unpatriotic tactics of putting party above country.  I waited in vain, for those criticisms never came.  Slowly an epiphany began to unfurl revealing the method to the Republican’s madness.

                As I’ve observed the Republicans’ shenanigans, I’ve been astounded by the bold audacity with which they have operated.  On Issue after issue, they have refused any compromise whatsoever, while blaming Obama for failing to “reach across the aisle.”  Don’t they know that people can see what they are doing? I have wondered aloud.

Yet now I understand what the Republicans knew all along.  They can tie up government so nothing gets done, and blame the lack of progress on the president because people don’t pay attention to the process, they just see the result.  African Americans pinned hopes and dreams on Obama, not the Republicans, so he gets held accountable when those hopes and dreams aren’t realized.  The issue is not that Obama has been perfect ( he hasn’t) but that we continue to be locked in a race/class war that we don’t even know we are in.

This is the Oki-Finoki   at its finest.  I don’t know if large numbers of people will ever pay attention to what is going on in this country.  But I do know that as long as we’re too busy to pay attention we will remain where we’ve always been:  in a trick bag.

ANOTHER CHAPTER IN THE “THINGS I WISH OBAMA WOULD SAY” SAGA

Once again President Obama (aka the most disrespected president in history, who coincidentally just happens to be Black) has been dissed by a “reporter” interrupting him during a speech.  Just once I would love to hear our president say,”  Whether you respect me personally or not is irrelevant.  But you will respect the office of the President of the United States of America.  If you cannot respect this office, the Secret Service will remove you.”

Trayvon Martin: Another Victim Of Black Male Demonization

                I’d been reticent to write on one of the salient issues of the Trayvon Martin case- African American males as “boogeymen” – because D.L. Hughley had already written an excellent commentary on this issue.  But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this issue is profound, broad and multifaceted enough to require a great deal more reflection and analysis.

                My first reaction to the lack of indictment in a case that cried out for legal action, took me back to Hurricane Katrina.  Reports on the aftermath of the disaster were heavily filtered through the media’s racism.   Newspapers ran two almost identical photographs of a Black couple and a White couple wading through water, carrying bags of items, presumably groceries, etc.  The caption under the White couple read that they were carrying items they had found.  The caption under the Black couple read that they were carrying items they had looted. 

                Negative stereotypical images exploded from the media so profusely that when the National guardsman finally arrived, and the throngs of desperate Black Hurricane victims ran to them for assistance, the guardsmen wanted to shoot them!    Had it not been for the presence of an African American commander, they would have shot these fellow Americans they were sent to help.  Fox News would have been obligated to provide context for the tragic, though completely understandable, shooting of the “rioting” African Americans:  What would YOU (White audience) do if a horde of wild eyed Negros charged at You??

                The pervasiveness of the demonization of black males throughout the American “justice” system cannot be overstated.  This demonization provided the rationale for the brutal beating of Rodney King, as well as the subsequent acquittal of the policemen involved.  We witnessed it at work during the police “investigation” of the Stuart murder case in Boston in which Charles Stuart killed his pregnant wife and blamed it on a Black man.  You may recall that the Boston PD more closely resembled a Southern lynch mob than a professional police department in that case.  The reaction of the police in cases in which Blacks have been falsely accused by Whites  has been virtually Pavlovian, thanks to the demonization of Black males.

                The implications of this demonization reach far beyond the criminalization of Black males, all the way the White House itself.  The single greatest criticism of President Obama from people who otherwise support him (like me) has been his apparent obsequiousness to his Republican adversaries.   There is no need to document here the fact that Obama has been disrespected repeatedly like no other president before him.  Yet, time and time again, he has extended the olive branch to his adversaries, only to be beaten with it.  While there are a number of factors involved in this scenario (including his personality) one cannot ignore the fact that Obama is under enormous pressure to avoid the “angry Negro” label.  The same American mythology that created all the reasons African Americans have to be angry, also dictated that under no circumstances should Blacks show any anger.

                This demonization of African American males originated as a justification for slavery.  Not only was the Black man inferior, but he was bestial as well.  The more horribly African Americans were treated, the greater the rationale.  This demonization was hardly limited to the Black male.  The sexually repressed slave masters, whose wives were only to be touched for procreation, found relief in the rape of African American women.  That rape was justified, of course, by projecting a definition of sex-craved heathens onto the victims.  (This dynamic was touched on ever so briefly in the otherwise absolutely brilliant tome, Embodiment: Toward a Christian Sexual Ethic, by James B. Nelson.)

                Perhaps the greatest tragedy flowing from this demonization is not the treatment of African Americans by the media or the judicial system, but rather the fact that so many of our people have been conditioned to believe it about themselves.   Our communities are more dangerous than most war zones because so many of our young people act in accordance with this demonized definition of themselves.  W.E.B. Dubois once wrote that “To be a Negro is to see oneself through the eyes of those who despise you.”

                Something positive could be gained from the Trayvon Martin tragedy if our leaders were to push for some sort of symposium on this demonization of Black males.  The conversation within Black America, as well as with the larger community must change.  Despite the incredible resources of those who continue to demonize us, we must somehow, some way fight back.  We owe it, not just to the family of Trayvon, but to all of the grieving mothers who have lost their children to this nonsense.           

               

               

A NEW BLACK CONSERVATIVE RUNS FOR PRESIDENT

“THE EARTH IS FLAT” the placard read.  I gulped trying to digest my host’s meaning.  I’d come to the soul food restaurant to visit with my personal mentor and guru, the great ghetto philosopher, Cleophus Leroy Jones.  As usual, I’d come to visit Cleo during a time of great confusion.  I simply could not get my head around the platforms being put forth in the Republican primary.  The candidates reminded me of an old Superman comic series on Bizarro world that was based on the exact opposite of reality on Earth.  On Bizarro World, for example, people said goodbye when they approached and hello when they departed.

I knew Cleo liked to hit me with ambiguity the way arduous men ply women with booze when the joint is about to close.  Unfortunately, that knowledge did little to steel me against Cleo’s sign.  Cleo read the confusion in my eyes.

“I’m running for president,” he answered my unspoken question. 

“Scuse me?  “

“I’m runnin’ for President.  I got my platform all mapped out.  When I’m finished, y’all gone find some space on Mount Rushmore for me.  Check out the rest of my platform.”  He began flashing the placards of his political platform.   The first sign boasted several cartoon characters wearing bow ties and apparently screaming, though nothing came out of their mouths.  The caption:  THERE WOULDN’T BE NO GLOBAL WARMING IF THE POLITICIANS WOULD JUST SHUT UP.    CLEO REALLY CARES ABOUT ME read a placard with a stringy haired, pregnant, barefoot woman, balancing a baby on one hip, and holding the hand of another toddler.  JOB KILLING REGULATIONS IS AGAINST THE WILL OF GOD, read another sign featuring a man riding a monster truck with a giant straw sucking oil directly out of the ground.  The next two signs had no images, just words.  The first one said, A VOTE FOR CLEO IS A VOTE FOR FREEDOM AND JESUS AND GUNS. The next one read, YOU CAN TRUST A MAN NAMED CLEOPHUS JONES.    The next placard featured a figure who closely resembled Boris Badenov, except for his attire.  The character sported a gigantic sombrero, six shooters, and spurs that reached a third of his height.  That sign read, AMERICA IS FOR AMERICANS.    The last sign showed a young black, male cartoon character with huge thick lips wearing a massive wide brimmed hat, sunglasses, a fur coat, gold teeth, gigantic diamond rings on all of his fingers, dollar bills sticking out between his fingers, and driving a Cadillac the size of a small ocean liner.  The caption read,” PLEASE DON’T VOTE FOR CLEO.  HE’S GONNA MAKE ME WORK FOR A LIVING.  I NEED YOUR TAX DOLLARS TO STAY ON WELFARE.

I gasped at the last sign.  “How … how.. how could you?!”  My beans and rice flew out of my mouth as I sputtered. 

“Calm down, College Boy,” Cleo responded with more than his usual derision.  “It’s all part of my plan.  I’m runnin’ for office on a platform that’s to the right of Rick Santorum.  It’s more flip flop than Mitt Romney, more irresponsible than Ron Paul and slimier than Newt Gingrich.  I’m coming out against all government regulations and agencies ‘cause government, no, excuse me, gummint is evil.  I’ma abolish the EPA-pollution aint nothing but a left wing hoax- and most of the other government agencies.  Won’t be no health care, no unemployment insurance, no Social Security, Medicare, public education teaching evolution and fancy ideas, no government getting on the people’s backs.  All my government is gone do is buy guns for defense.  Everything else, you’re on your own.” 

I was too shocked to keep my head from spinning.  “Number one, you’re going against everything you believe in.  And number two, that platform is way too extreme to win a general election.  And number three, the kind of folks you’re going after are hardly going to want an African American president.  So, what could you possibly hope to accomplish?”

“As usual, the subtleties and complexities of my mind continue to escape you.  In the first place, for my purposes, what I believe in got nothin’ to do with this.  I said was going to out flop Mitt Romney, and out-slime Newt Gingrich.  Number two, I don’t need to win the whole election, just a few key states that believe in my platform.  And number three, these folks love voting for people like Herman Cain and Congressman Allen West who is just to the right of Genghis Khan.”

“Why do you only need a few states?” I trembled as what his answer might be.

“Look, places like Mississippi, Texas and South Carolina will love my platform.  Once I win those states, I’m going to propose that the only way we can get gummint of our backs is to secede.  These folks will go for it.  We can start a campaign to get like minded people to move to the states I won.   Unlike what happened before, there really is no reason for the country to fight a civil war to keep these folks.  They’ll  be glad to let them go.  I’ll make Racist Rush Limbaugh my Communications Minister and Sean Hannity will be the Vice President.

“So, what happens after you secede?”

“I’ll defect to the old United States for asylum.”

“So, all the people who are against government, knowledge, the environment, science, separation of church and state and a lot of other things the union is supposed to represent will be gone.  Then you’ll be expecting your place on Rushmore?”

“You don’t agree?”

“I’ll start digging right away.”