Black Lives Matter and The Trump Reagan Similarities

So much to talk about.  So little time.  Item # 1.  Since 2004-spanning the Richard M. Daley and Rahm Emmanuel administrations-  the Chicago Tribune reports that the city of Chicago has paid out a half billion dollars for police misconduct!  Chicago is closing schools, laying off teachers, and  cutting back services, but has $500,000,000.00 to pay for police misconduct without anyone being fired or prosecuted or anything.  Emmanuel was simply following the long standing tradition of looking the other way, whether it was torture, as in the case of former police commander Jon Burge, who infamously ran a torture ring and whom Daley chose not to prosecute, or murder as in the Laquan McDonald case.  Just another example of how firmly entrenched the culture of racism and cover up has been in this city and country.

Item #2  I’ve been impressed by how comprehensive the demands for justice have been in the Black Lives Matter movement.   Thanks to the Laquan McDonald case, we know that the entire system, not just individuals,  has to change.  But the one area that has to be addressed is that of police screening.  All the training in the world is not going to transform a racist police thug like Jason Van Dyke (Laquan McDonalds’ killer)  into a professional police officer.   Van Dyke had already cost the city at least $350,000.00 for a brutality case, prior to the $5,000, 000.00 the city paid the family of McDonald without a lawsuit having been filed.  Applicants need to be screened for violent tendencies as well as racist tendencies.  Having studied under some of the most brilliant social psychologists at Northwestern University, I can assure you that a test can be devised that will screen out many of these defective individuals.   Is it possible for the justice department to establish national standards?  Worth looking into.

Item #3  The similarities between Ronald Reagan and Donald Trump are enough to scare the bejeezus out of any rational person.  Just as mainstream politicians and pundits declare that Donald Trump cannot win the presidency, so too did they declare that the American public had too much sense to elect a borderline senile former actor named Ronald Reagan.  Both Reagan and Trump exploit the fear, ignorance, anger and racism of their bases.  Reagan based all of America’s economic woes on the mythical black welfare cheats who stole thousands and thousands of dollars right out of the hands of hardworking honest white people.  He either created or exacerbated virtually every social ill, from homelessness to income inequality, but was known as the “Teflon president” because none of his bad deeds stuck to him.  The reason for the Teflon?  He made racism fashionable again.   Now Trump blames all of America’s problems first on illegal Mexican immigrants and now wants to ban the immigration of Muslims.  Like Reagan, he can do no wrong with his constituency. 

Item#4  The Texas Board of Education continues to push for a whitewashed history in which slavery , now Jim Crow, ever occurred.  The reason the racists are such virulent adversaries is that they never run out of energy.  Their very will to live is based on being better than someone else!  I don’t know if there is anything we can do about these people.

www.williamgriggs.net

MATT DAMON EXPOSES ARROGANCE ON THE LEFT

(Personal note: Got pulled away from the blog on an art project (a painting).  So much has transpired since my last blog that it’s difficult to know where to begin.  I was going to start with some anniversaries until Matt Damon intervened:

Kudos to Matt Damon for his remarks on diversity.  Damon interrupted Effie Brown , a black female Hollywood film producer, to lecture her on his perspective that diversity only counts in front of the camera, not behind it.  This is the kind of arrogant ignorance that we usually associate with the Right.  Damon went on to cement his hubris with his “apology.” He did not apologize or what he said, but rather that some people were offended by what he said.  He further went on to claim that his comments started a conversation on diversity!  Damon’s presumption that he knew more about diversity than this black woman, and his subsequent proof that he knew nothing, only served as well timed reminder that racism, white privilege and arrogance can always be found among liberals as well as conservatives!  Thanks to Damon for the reminder!

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Since I’ve been   on social media, I’ve seen some disturbing and frightening trends.  I’ve seen light and dark skinned African Americans going to war over skin color (something so obviously, stupid and compliant with white folks’ desire to divide and conquer that I’m speechless.)  I’ve e been rebuked when talking about black history by very arrogant young people who do not understand that understanding history does not stop us from going forward, it helps us go forward intelligently!  I just recently posed a question regarding the difference (if any) between Blacks and Negroes.   People who completely misunderstood the question and who have not done the serious intellectual inquiry required to understand the context of the question, have responded by lecturing me on putting black folks down.  This is disturbing on so many levels.  The trend is to blindly and reflexively condemn and criticize.   The arrogance to condemn and assume intellectual superiority is astonishing and sad.    Ignorance and arrogance are a powerful combination and I see far too much of it today.  Finally, there is a defensiveness borne out of a psyche that cannot stand to see any criticism, even if it is criticism that ultimately places blame on a system that destroys our folks.  This is a really sad trend and I hope to hear from those who do understand what I’m saying.  I know I’ll hear from those who don’t!

Some anniversaries:

Emmet Till:  August 28^th marked the sixtieth anniversary of the brutal and senseless murder of this beautiful child.  His death and the courage of his mother to insist on returning his body to Chicago, and then display his deformed and battered body shocked the nation and provided the spark that kicked off the Civil Rights Movement.  His murder, for which his killers went free, is being presented as the original case for the Black Lives Matter movement. 

The tie in with today’s movement is critical for a number of reasons, the most critical of which is that it will allow our young people to begin to understand that the struggle in which they find themselves today is the same struggle black folks have been in since we were kidnapped and enslaved.  Now they can understand that our history is not something out of the ancient past that has nothing to do with them.  This may be the first step in the comprehension that the history of black folks in America is not one of shame and the powerlessness of slavery, but a history of an extraordinarily brave, courageous and spiritual people who never stopped fighting to overcome unimaginable cruelty and savagery.

In the Good News Bad News department, there are as many as five films about the Till tragedy in preproduction.  I’m glad this incident is finally getting the attention it deserves.  But there are so many stories of black heroes whose stories really need to be told that it makes no sense to compete over this one.    As a public service I am offering a tiny list (in no particular order) of folks whose stories should be told:  (1) Ida B. Wells (2-3) Toussaint L’ouverture; Henry Christophe (Older folks may remember back in the seventies a film was considered with Anthony Quinn as Christophe.  Black folks balked and said we’d make our own movie but never did). (4)  Garret Morgan (5) Bass Reeves (6) Robert Smalls (7) Bessie Coleman (8) Queen N’zinga (9) Paul Robeson and (10) Frederic Douglass.

Hurricane Katrina & the 9/11 attack:  Incompetent government at its worst, in both cases.  Still, Jeb Bush has the NERVE to claim his brother George kept us safe.   We were attacked during his watch and he slept for almost a week after Katrina as people literally died right in front of us on television. Still one third of Louisiana Republicans blame the slow response on Obama!  I have never seen people work as hard as many of these Republicans at maintaining, developing and sharpening their ignorance!  They truly are astonishing!

www.williamgriggs.net

RESPONDING TO NY TIMES RACIST ATTACK ON SERENA WILLIAMS

Ever get the feeling that you are trapped in one of those never ending Greek myths?  You know, like the one where the Heracles (better known by the Roman rip-off name,”Hercules”) has to fight Anteas, the giant son of Mother Earth who derived his strength from contact with the earth.  Whenever Heracles threw the giant down, he arose with even greater strength.  Or the story of Hydra, the nine headed sea serpent who grew two heads every time our hero (Heracles again) smashed one of its heads.

You may be wondering why I’m starting this blog with references to a Greek mythology paradigm.  Just as we are trying to celebrate the Confederate flag coming down across the South, the New York Times publishes an article on Serena Williams that is so outrageously, blatantly racist that it would have been more appropriate had it been published by your local KKK, or Willie Lynch, for that matter, than what had at one time been considered America’s preeminent newspaper.  Smash one of racism’s gruesome heads and two grow back.   As you may know, Serena Williams just won her sixth Wimbledon title and her twenty eighth victory in a Grand Slam match.  She is easily the greatest female athlete of her generation, and arguably one of the greatest athletes, male or female of any generation.  Just how did the noble New York Times approach Serena’s magnificent accomplishment?  Did they analyze the magnitude of her achievement or draw comparisons record to Billy Jean King or Martina Navratilova?  No, instead they published a piece entitled “Tennis’s Top Women Balance Body Image With ambition,” an indictment of Williams’ body!

This piece is so incredibly wrong on so many levels; it is difficult to begin to even unravel them.  In the first place, just WHO THE HELL does Ben Rothenberg, the author of this drivel, think he is to even talk about Serena’s body like that?  In my community, we call that “Talking under her clothes,” an act of complete disrespect. I wouldn’t be surprised if he asked to inspect her teeth the next time she takes the court!  

The racist author, after describing Williams’ “mold breaking muscular frame,” goes on to report, “Her rivals could try to emulate her physique, but most of them choose not to.”  He goes onto quote the coach of one of Serena’s “rivals,” (like I rival Lebron James for best basketball player):  “It’s our decision to keep her as the smallest player in the top 10,” said Tomasz Wiktorowski, the coach of Agnieszka Radwanska, who is listed at 5 feet 8 and 123 pounds. “Because, first of all she’s a woman, and she wants to be a woman.”

They couldn’t bring Serena down based on her tennis so they attack her womanhood?  This piece was born in the nexus of racism and sexual dysfunction that has nurtured all that is evil in race relations in America.  The black man was painted either as a sexual brute (note that the deluded killer in the recent Charleston church slaughter claimed “you rape our women” despite the fact that the small crowd was mostly older black women); or as a non-sexual being as evidenced by the prepubescent appellation, “boy”.   Similarly, since the American ethos painted women as either whore (Eve) or virgin (as in Mary) and since ever virtuous white women, by definition had to play the “Mary” role, that left black women in the role of Eve.  When black women weren’t portrayed as the sluts whose sole purpose in life was to relieve the lecherousness on white men, they too were de-sexed in the role of “mammy.”   

Yet I’m afraid the author of this piece has been hoist by his own petard, or to paraphrase the African proverb, his one finger pointing at Serena leaves three fingers pointing back at him.     His assessment of Serena’s sexuality says a whole lot more about his, than hers, starting with why in the world would you go there in the first place?  Not to mention why you would attack her femininity through the words of a scrawny, little white girl and her coach?  The whole point of my blog is that Serena’s body type should be completely off limits.  But as a man, please forgive me, I cannot let this go.  He thinks she looks masculine? Are you kidding me??  Yes, Serena is buff.  But she is what I called, in my days of alliteration, a voluptuous vixen and a paragon of pulchritude.  She has grown woman curves.  Her curves have curves!  Mr. Rothenberg, as well as the editorial staff that gave the go-ahead for this racist nonsense, apparently didn’t notice because they were looking at the size of her arms??!! Really?

Mr. Rothenberg and his editors are cowards, intimidated by the athletic prowess and womanliness of Serena Williams.  If they want to know what an ideal feminine physique looks like, they should

survey some heterosexual African American men, like me.  Like the sugar-free chewing gum commercial, nine out of ten black men will tell you they love Serena’s physique.  And the tenth one?  He was accidentally knocked out when the survey was taken.

    

WHO HAS REALLY BEEN BAMBOOZLED ABOUT RACE?

                               

Just this past month I wrote about how the conservatives insist on ignoring the obvious- that white police killing of unarmed black folks is racially motivated.  One month later, conservatives are at it again, claiming they don’t know why a racist shot up an all black church.  This denial is more than just irksome.  It is a major impediment to achieving any kind of progress in race relations in this country.   It is also one of several reasons why we may never have a genuine discussion of race in this country.  It’s like trying to conduct peace talks with an invading warlord who insists there are no hostilities even as the battles take place right outside the window in plain sight and earshot.  A real discussion requires some sort of shared reality, honesty and a genuine desire to get at the truth.

Another key impediment to any discussion of race lies in the fact that any discussion has to be anchored in a certain amount of emotional detachment.  Name calling and insults do little to further any discussions.  Yet race is an inherently emotional subject, striking at the very core of people in general, and African Americans in particular.  Given the history of slavery, lynchings, and race riots perpetrated against blacks (just to name a few) it is difficult enough to talk about it even with clear headed and sympathetic whites.  It’s impossible to discuss it with people like Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly.  Now I’m wishing there was something that could come after “impossible” in the difficulty range, because if discourse with O’Reilly or Hannity is impossible, then how do we categorize discourse with the negroes at Fox News who deny that racism exists?    The irony here is that these negroes who are commenting on the slaughter at the Emmanuel AME church, founded by Denmark Vesey, are the spiritual/psychological descendants of the negroes who turned in Vesey in the first place!  I don’t believe a real conversation, with any real increased understanding is possible with these people participating.

The culture of racism that the Fox news folks have dedicated themselves to ignoring ( while helping to perpetuate it) is but one aspect of a fundamental, self perpetuating  culture of fear, anger, ignorance and denial that is based on absolutely nothing, yet precludes  learning from history or anything else that could lead to the growth and maturation of the species. I don’t know if they are angry because of their fear which comes from their ignorance which is fueled by their denial or if they are in denial because of their fear which is caused by their anger which is fueled by their ignorance. (Too many permutations to list them all).   But I do know that these people ran out and bought all kinds of guns when Obama was elected, because they were afraid he would take their guns.  No one came after their guns.  Still they failed to learn from the experience.  They were afraid of the Affordable Health Care Act (Obamacare) because people like Chuck Norris  and Ben Carson told them it would be the end of their freedom  (Does health insurance deprive one of the freedom from medical intervention when one becomes ill?)  Ronald Reagan scared them with warnings that Medicare would end their freedom.  It did not, but they failed to learn from that experience.  They were manipulated by the George W. Bush Administration’s terror alerts that kept going up as he neared reelection.  Once the election was over, the terror alarms went down and somehow they failed to notice.  They also failed to learn from the experience.   Back in the 1960’s unscrupulous realtors told them Hordes Of Negroes were coming to invade their neighborhoods and drive down the value of their property.  SCARED TO DEATH BY THE ADVENT OF THE Hordes Of Negroes, they sold their homes for quarters on the dollar and the Hordes Of Negroes never materialized. Once again, they failed to learn from the experience.   Now Donald Trump, of Birther fame, limited intellect and unlimited ego, says he wants to build a wall across the border with Mexico AND that he will make Mexico pay for it.  He recently polled in second in the primary in New Hampshire.  Still they have not learned from their experience.

This is the same culture that allows Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld to blame the mess they created in Iraq and the Middle East on Barak Obama, even when we have them on tape contradicting themselves!!!.  Indeed we may have found the true horsemen of the Apocalypse: Fear, Anger, Ignorance and Denial.   We may also have discovered that portion of society that has truly and willingly been Had. Hoodwinked.  Bamboozled.

IS AMERICA READY FOR REPARATIONS?

Whenever the world gets too crazy for me, I head down to the soul food restaurant and seek out my mentor, the great ghetto philosopher, Cleophus Leroy Brown. 

Cleo graciously waived me toward a seat at his usual corner booth.  “What’s on your mind, College Boy?”

“Everything,” I blurted out.  “”I’m on social media and practically every day someone posts another instance of black folks either being killed or brutally beaten by police just for being doing something, if it isn’t anything more than breathing , while black.  Everybody jumped up and down- and rightfully so, I might add, about Freddie Gray, while more than 180 days after he was murdered by police, Tamir Rice’s family has gotten no justice, no charges filed, no nothing!  They haven’t even been allowed to bury their child. We just had over 200 bikers involved in a shootout in WACO and the police didn’t kill anybody!  Bikers- almost all of them white- shooting up a storm and none of the police were “in fear for their lives” like they were when they killed 12 year old  Tamir Rice for playing with a toy gun, and all the other unarmed black folks.  And not once did I hear the word ‘thug,’ used!”  By now, I was on the verge of requiring oxygen.

“And you want to know what it all means.  Right, College Boy?”

“Well, yeah.  I mean, I thought things were supposed to have been getting better.  Especially with a black president and all  ...”

“And I thought I taught you that exceptions to the rule don’t negate the rule, they prove it!  Just ‘cause some people get a seat playing musical chairs, that doesn’t mean there’s a seat for everybody!  There are a lot of lessons that can be learned from what’s goin’ on.  But the main message I get out a all of this is that America aint ready for reparations!”

Wha?”

“You heard me.  But before I break it down for you, College Boy, I want you to tell me what you think reparations means.”

“It means we are finally going to be compensated for all those years of enslavement.”

“That’s the very least significant part of reparations.  There has to be a monetary component, but that is just to make a statement of the seriousness of the situation.  It should cost a lot, because a lot was taken.  But, more than anything else, reparations is an apology.  It says we are sorry.  And a true apology says something else.  Do you know what that something else is?”

“I’m really sorry?” I was truly grasping for straws.

“I means that I regret doing what I did to injure you; that if I had it to do over again, I wouldn’t do that.  It means that if my wrongful actions have defined our relationship, then I will do whatever it takes to redefine our relationship in a way that is right and just and proper.  This represents what is called ‘atonement’ or ‘at-one-ment’ in theological terms. “   Cleo’s look of self satisfaction was so strong it almost knocked the taste out of my mouth.  But in my heart, I knew he was right.

“Just look at the history.  Whenever we tie today’s issues back to slavery, we get the same tired response.  'That was a long time ago.  When are you going to stop using that as an excuse?' Now  If, when slavery was abolished, white America had said, ‘You know what?  We must a lost our damn minds.  We were so wrong.  Here’s your forty acres and a mule, and we are going to do everything, from real education- not just propaganda- to whatever you might need- to bring you into the fold as fellow American citizens’ - if that had happened then we would have had a clean break and slavery really would have been quite a while ago.  But instead we were lynched, segregated and denied the vote- even more than a hundred years after the so-called Emancipation Proclamation.  Today’s police departments grew out of the paddy rollers  whose sole purpose was to police and intimidate slaves.    

“To this day, there has never been that clear, clean break with slavery.  Never that admission of wrongdoing and renegotiating of relationship based on total equality.  When unarmed black folks are slaughtered by the police, it’s just a statement that we aint ready to renegotiate the relationship.  As long as Fox News scores more than twice the ratings of MSNBC AND CNN combined, we aint ready for reparations.  As long as Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh can make millions of dollars just by spreading stupid racism on the radio, we aint ready for reparations.   And as long as people have to wear Tee shirts to proclaim that “black lives matter,” we definitely aint ready for reparations.  As long as we aint ready for reparations, the stain of slavery will never be lightened (it could never be removed anyway) from the soul of America.  

A CONVERSATION ON RACE AND POLICE BRUTALITY

                        

I’m afraid a bit of the bloom has fallen off the rose regarding the Real Time With Bill Maher program.  The recent appearance of D.L.Hugley notwithstanding, the program has become a tad too comfortable in discussing race minus any black folks.   A few episodes ago, Maher confronted a conservative guest with a challenge as to why the conservatives are so comfortable with police brutality.  The conservative responded that they are not in favor of the police brutality.  They just get upset when race is interjected into the conversation.   No one challenged the conservative.

I was appalled.  I am sick and tired of conservatives claiming black folks are “playing the race card” just because all the folks getting beat up and killed are black.  I was on my way home to blog about it when I ran into one Rush Carlton Hannity, my philosophical nemesis and a white man who thinks he knows more about black folks than black folks.  After I responded to his question about why I was so upset, he hit me with the most astonishing argument I have ever heard.

“You guys really do need to get over the race thing,” he replied authoritatively.  “After all, you’ve been playing the race card ever since slavery.”

My eye twitched uncontrollably as bombs exploded in my head.  Rush sensed he had me on the ropes and bore in like a trained killer.  “That’s right.  The Triangular trade, which is its proper name –if you don’t believe me just ask the Texas board of education -- had one of its three points in Africa.  Since the slaves came from Africa, and the people there happened to be black, the slaves happened to be black.  Race had nothing to do with it. It was just a coincidence.

“What about the endless decades of bigotry, lynchings and oppression blacks have faced?  What about the riots where they tore down entire neighborhoods like in Tulsa, or when they killed blacks just because Jack Johnson won a fight?  How can you possibly say that race wasn’t the overriding factor?”  I screamed while trying to keep my eyes from bulging out of my head.

“You’re missing the point,” Rush Carlton calmly explained.  “All those incidents can be explained without using the race card.  When you use the race card, well-meaning whites feel left out of the conversation.   Making people feel guilty about something they didn’t do is no way to solve problems.  And besides, half the officers indicted in Baltimore were black, so race couldn’t have been an issue.”

“The fact that half those officers were black is precisely the reason this has to be framed for what it is: profound racism permeating society including, no, especially, the police!  As long as there has been oppression there have been members of the oppressed group who have identified more with the oppressors than with their own group.  Those black cops in Baltimore saw themselves as cops first and black second.  They don’t realize that there wouldn’t even be any blacks on the police force had it not been for black folks being fed up with police brutality and demanding blacks be hired as police.   They don’t realize that they can be brutalized if caught off duty.  Saying race isn’t the issue makes it easier for the negro police to join in terrorizing black folks.

“There have always been white folks who fought injustice, from the abolitionists, to the Civil Rights workers down the whites protesting today, and they didn’t need to have the truth sugar coated to do it.  These are people who aren’t paralyzed by guilt.  They don’t feel guilty because they don’t identify with the oppressor.  They identify with justice and that makes them angry.  Maybe you should try it.”   

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I couldn’t get to the blog for a while.  Many thanks to those of you who continue to support me.

www.williamgriggs.net

AMERICA HATES THE POOR WHILE REPUBLICANS HOLD UP OBAMA

Four years ago Rahm Emmanuel walked away with almost all the black votes in his successful bid to become mayor of Chicago, thanks primarily to support from Barak Obama who could do no wrong in the eyes of many, if not most, black folks.  Today Emmanuel has won reelection, but had to endure a runoff, despite having received similar support from Obama.  While Obama has done  a relatively decent job as president, only the intentionally blind and deaf within the African American community can deny that he has completely ignored his promise to the Black and poor of this nation.  Still, he enjoys considerable, if not absolute support from the community due, in large part, to the efforts of one group that has worked tirelessly since Obama’s initial election to ensure that he remain a beloved and sympathetic figure within the African American community.  Of course there is only one group that has the will, the where-withal, and the tenacity to uplift Obama in the black community this way:  the Right Wing Republicans.  By refusing to acknowledge his right to govern (and by extension the rights and citizenship of all African Americans) the Republicans continue to dilute whatever anger and/or disillusionment that might have accrued in the black community.  While currying favor from the establishment that will never grant it, Obama has ignored the plight of black folks and cut aide to the poor (whom I have never heard him mention since he’s been in office.)  Yet the Republicans continue to attack him for being the revolutionary that we all had hoped he might have been.

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 Speaking of the poor, one of the more remarkable aspects of American insanity is often expressed in the hostility toward poor people.  Ronald Reagan rode off into the sunset as one of America’s greatest heroes simply by equating all poor folks with black folks, then blaming all of America’s economic issues on imaginary black welfare cheats, even as bankers and financiers stole billions.   Whether it is drug testing for Aid recipients or legislation proposed by Missouri Republicans banning seafood and steak purchases with food stamps, this country continues to find ways to express its disdain for the economically disadvantaged.  

Could there be other reasons for this animosity beyond the racism?  I believe this hostility is yet another battle in the over arching war over control of reality.  Simply put, if one believes that America is the land of golden opportunity for all, then there is no excuse for being poor.  The blame has to fall upon the poor themselves or the American system.  Since the American system is perfect … 

This notion that America can do no wrong (because they say it can do no wrong) is older than America herself.  It was conceived in hubris, weaned on arrogance, bathed in privilege and clothed in entitlement. American mythology allowed a slave owner to write that “all men are created equal.” It is the reason President Nixon could say that if the president does it, it  is not illegal.  It is the groundwork for Dick Cheney being allowed to blame all of his Iraq War mess on Barak Obama.   It is the basis for Triple R (Rabid Racist Rush) Limbaugh declaring that white people are the only victims of racism in America.  This concept of defining reality is descended from the Manifest Destiny Doctrine, but can also trace its roots all the way back to the Old Testament concept of the Chosen People.  Yet, they have even transcended the Chosen People motif and moved into the god-like realm.   They believe they have only to speak for a thing to be or not to be.

This constructed reality has only one major weakness.  Like the Emperor’s New Clothes, it requires agreement to be maintained.  Poor people, Black people, Indians.  Anybody not included in the American Dream must be marginalized or destroyed, because, by their very existence they threaten the legitimacy of the constructed reality.   There is a precise technical term for this tendency to create reality that in no way correlates to what transpires in the material world: madness!

www.williamgriggs.net

IS COMMON A VICTIM OF THE NEW BLACK INQUISITION?

When John Stewart asked Common about how to deal with racism in America, Common answered by mumbling something about putting the past behind us and extending a hand in love and friendship. His answer was far from realistic or analytical.  But that was OK.  He is a poet, a songwriter, as such lives in the word of song writing sensibilities.  (What the world needs now, is love sweet love.  It’s the only thing that there’s just too little of.)  Furthermore, Common did not present himself as an authority.  He was merely doing the best he could to answer a question. 

I was a bit surprised to learn that Common had joined the sweltering ranks of those black folks who are pilloried and vilified on social media as coons and Uncle Toms for their comments on race.  Facebook has been turned into a courtroom for a new Black Inquisition; a place to denounce anyone who may not have all the answers we want to complex racial issues.  There are negroes who are detrimental to the African American community, and there are confused black folks who can become valuable assets.  How do we proceed?  For the purposes of this blog, I’ve devised some categories that may be useful as tools for achieving some clarity and avoiding some pitfalls that I will delineate a bit later. 

 HATERS:   Black people who hate black people.    Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, springs to mind.  Thomas has voted against the interests of the African American community since he’s been on the Supreme Court.  This beneficiary of affirmative action has not only voted against affirmative action, but also in favor of gutting the Voting Rights Act of 1965.  (The ink wasn’t dry on the Supreme Court ruling before several states made draconian moves to limit the ability of African Americans and other minorities to vote.)   Former University of California Regent, Ward Connerly, who grew up impoverished in segregated Louisiana,   has devoted his life to ending affirmative action.  There are certain negro preachers who have at least one, if not both, feet in this category.  They are mentioned here because they are supposed to be leaders These are people who cannot be helped through information or education.  They are educated and know better.  They have dedicated their lives to unraveling affirmative action and/or any remedy that might, in any way, make life a bit more just and fair for African Americans.  We recognize these people as enemies of the community.

EMBARRASERS/ BUFFOONS:  Unlike the haters, these people are not malevolent; they simply don’t know enough to know that they don’t know enough to speak intelligently on matters of race and politics.  Charles Barkley began a commentary on race by saying he didn’t know anything about slavery.  Steven A. Smith said he wanted all black people to vote Republican because of what the Republican party used to be before all the racist Democrats switched parties and before Barry Goldwater moved the party to the Right and before Richard Nixon alienated black folks with his Southern strategy, and before Ronald Reagan took the Republicans even further to the right by blaming all the economic ills of America on phantom black folks robbing us blind through welfare cheating.   We can also include the negro preachers who urged the Congressional Black Caucus to attend Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech to congress because they confused the extreme right wing and racist politics of Netanyahu with the Israel of the Old Testament.  These people mean well, but are often used by entities like Fox News. 

TURN THE OTHER CHEEK CLUB:  This is Common’s true category.  The problem is that once you start with Common, you are only a stone’s throw away from Marvin (War is not the answer, for only love can conquer hate) Gaye.  Eventually we will wind up at the Big One, M L King Jr.  If we aren’t careful about who we label, we can end up in a circular firing squad, not to mention being guilty of the same self loathing we are condemning others for practicing. 

I’m not against identifying negative elements in the community.  (I am particularly fatigued by these so-called community leaders who always flock to defend some racist when the racist has to apologize, not for being racist, but for being busted being racist.  The latest such incident surrounds the fraternity kid, Levi Pettit, busted leading the racist rant.)  This blog is not intended to shame anyone for what they may have put on social media.  The whole point is that we are in this thing together, and must hold each other up when we fall.   But there is a disturbing trend to quickly label, and it is that trend that bothers me.  There was a time when we had writers like Ralph Ellison, Zora Neal Hurston and Richard Wright who held up mirrors for us to examine ourselves and try to maintain a good course.  But artists don’t do that anymore, and I’ve seen there may not be much interest if they did.

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ROUNDUP: JOHN STEWART, MEDIA, AND YOUNG BLACK FOLKS

When John Stewart steps down from the Daily show, he will create a void that will be incredibly difficult, if not impossible, to fill.  He is a Jew who does not mind criticizing Jewish leaders (can you say Benjamin Netanyahu?) when they are in the wrong.  While most of his targets are right wingers (they tend to be in the wrong) he still has the integrity to go after those on the Left when they are inappropriate).   But of the many services he provides, I think the one I will miss the most is the lens he holds up for us to see the blatant inconsistencies, contradictions and utter hypocrisies of the ultimate propaganda factory, Fox News.  On the same program in which he announced he was leaving the show, he presented shots of all of the Fox personnel groaning that if only President Obama were more strong and decisive like King Abdullah of Jordan, America would be a much stronger and secure place.  These shots were followed by another set of the same people virulently criticizing Obama for acting a like a king.  I depend on people like Stewart to know what is happening with Fox News because I find looking directly at Fox News would be as mentally harmful to me as looking directly at the sun would be to my eyes. 

Yet, despite all the services he provides in that comedic format, there is one thing for which I will always remember John Stewart.  When white folks speak about race, there is always some subtle, yet salient nuance or aspect that desperately needs to be said, but never is.  Yet Stewart made, what was for me, the single most profound, perspicacious, statement about race ever made by a white person when he said, “White people, if you think you’re tired of hearing about race, can you just imagine what black people must feel like living it every day?” 

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The Republicans got stuck with a real dilemma.  They hate attorney general, Eric Holder’s guts, but they are stuck with him until his replacement, Loretta Lynch is confirmed. (The Senate Judiciary committee has approved her).   In order to get rid of Holder, they have to confirm an Obama appointment.  They had to figure out whether they are more committed to blocking any and all Obama appointments or getting rid of the first Black attorney general of the United States.  Their dilemma was inevitable.  If one is negative all the time, it is only a matter of time before a double negative is incurred.   Students of English know that the double negative results in a positive.  A block of Obama’s attorney general nominee is a vote to keep Holder.   If you don’t know nothing, then you must know something.  Unless, of course you’re a Republican!

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The Unsung Hollywood program featured, the television show, “A Different World,” and some interesting observations ensued.  A Different World was a sitcom set on the campus of a fictional HBCU, Hillman College.   Several of the cast member talked about how young black kids came up to them and told them that they wanted to go to college because of that show, and often that they were inspired to become a doctor or lawyer because that’s what the actor’s character was pursuing.  All of the cast members related that the show made it hip to be smart for a lot of black children.  I was struck, once again, by the power of the television medium.  I was also struck by the lack of such positive black role models on television now.

I was even more struck by this phenomenon when I glanced at a few minutes of “Blackish” the sitcom about “keeping it black.”   In this episode,  the father, played by Anthony Anderson,  encouraged his son to verbally attack his opponents, rather than engage in physical violence.  In the show, they called it “roasting.”  When I was coming up, we called it “capping.”  While I applauded this aspect of the show, the son eventually got caught up in the roasting and roasted his mother vociferously.  Rather than intercede and explain to his son that such tactics should never be used on parents, the father, continued to praise his son, even as the child disparaged his own mother!!!  And we wonder why and how our kids get messed up??

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WHAT DO CHRISTIANS HAVE TO DO WITH BOKO HARAM?

Former President Bill Clinton has said on a number of occasions that the single greatest failure of his administration- his personal greatest regret- was his failure to intervene in the massacre of three quarters of a million people in Rwanda back in 1994.  He is on record saying that with ten thousand troops, he could have saved three hundred thousand lives!  Imagine the weight of knowing that you could have prevented that many gruesome deaths and you did nothing!!

Fast forward to today.  The entire world has converged on France to support free journalism and freedom of speech in light of the horrific terrorist attacks on Charlie Hebdo, the French satirical magazine.  Fourteen people were killed in a gross attack on, not just journalism, but the very tenets upon which civilization is built.  Leaders from around the world came to show their support in defiance of the terrorist.  

Representatives from a myriad of governments spoke forcefully against the Islamic terrorist and all that they represent for this heinous attack.  Among such noble champions of freedom, civility and common sense, speaking out against the bad guys was the President of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan.   All of which would have been appropriate had it not been for one little teeny tiny issue.  Boko Haram massacred as many as two thousand Nigerians just days before the Paris attacks and Goodluck Jonathan never even mentioned them!  

It boggles that mind that dignitaries from around the globe can descend upon France in solidarity over seventeen people, while the massacre of two thousand goes virtually unnoticed.  The massacre in Nigeria came in the wake of the very same Boko Haram kidnapping   two hundred school girls last April, most of whom they have presumably sold into slavery.  We know they haven’t all been sold because the big brave men of Boko Haram have been using these little girls as involuntary suicide bombers.  The outrage over the kidnapping of the little girls that so quickly dissipated, never even materialized in the first place over this latest atrocity by these mad men. 

I’m no expert on foreign relations so I can’t say what the impediments are to some sort of international intervention in Nigeria.  But I do know this: the kind of evil represented by Boko Haram cannot go unchallenged.  Nor can we assume that it will somehow be contained on the continent of Africa.  Evil, like Ebola, spreads throughout the entire human community when it is not checked.   

We also know that Nigerian president Goodluck Jonathan has been less than enthusiastic in his fight against Boko Haram because Jonathan is a Christian and Boko Haram primarily attacks Muslims.  While the west has fallen allover itself to demand that reasonable Muslims condemn the radical knuckleheads, maybe it’s time the Christian community took a bit of its own medicine. 

Why hasn’t the Christian community acted more forcefully to pressure Jonathan to step up to the plate to protect these innocent people from Boko Haram?  If he cannot protect them, why hasn’t he asked for assistance in this fight?  Why has he not condemned and confronted this evil for what it really is?   It seems a bit hypocritical to me that the West can lambast all of Islam for not strongly denouncing terrorists enough, while the Christian community is silent as the Christian leader of Nigeria somehow fails to mention Boko Haram when speaking out against terrorism.

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SOME SOLUTIONS TO SOME BLACK FOLKS PROBLEMS

                                     

I’m not sure why Danny Glover has not been able to make his film about the Haitian Revolution leader, Toussaint L’ouverture.  It could be that the project has been underfunded.  Black folks have been trying to get films made in Hollywood ever since there has been a Hollywood.  Back in the seventies there was talk of making a movie about Toussaint’s compatriot, Henry Christophe in response to the efforts to make such a film with Anthony Quinn in the starring role.  Blair Underwood has been trying transform the work of novelist Tanannarive  Due into a movie.  There has even been talk of making my novel, The Megalight Connection, into a movie by people in Hollywood.  The list goes on.

The need for African Americans to tell our stories in film as well as in books and other media, cannot be overstated.   Oscar Micheaux, who stands as one of my great personal heroes, touched on a plethora of issues, not to mention employing hundreds of black actors and film crews people with his courageous and groundbreaking filmmaking, going all the way back to the silent film era.   His work entertained, enlightened, educated, and stood as a counter balance to the propaganda of D. W. Griffith.

Given the progress that’s been made by Blacks in Hollywood, one would think getting worthwhile projects realized would be doable.  Is there some reason why the top twenty or so money makers in Hollywood can’t pull resources- say anywhere from one to twenty million per- to finance such projects?  Certain egos, I’m sure, would be problematic, particularly among those with the greatest resources.  But structural safeguards could be put in place and worthwhile projects completed.  Just a thought.

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By now it’s obvious to anyone not named Guiliani that some white cops really do want to shoot somebody black as a perk of the job. (This became increasingly clear with the release of the rest of the Cleveland tape that further proved the cops were intent on murdering  Tamir Rice).   It is equally obvious that the law enforcement culture, including prosecutors, is set up to protect such individuals.  Clearly, while greater screening would represent a step in the right direction, there may be other things that can be done to help change the culture. 

Essence magazine, BET television, The NAACP and other organizations host huge award shows that honor entertainers.  Why not include cops as honorees?  Clearly, the criteria would not be how many people the police officer was able to shoot, but rather how does this officer positively impact the community.  The award should come with a substantial monetary reward as added weight in changing the culture.  Would this solve the problem?  Of course not!  But it would represent a tiny step in the right direction of changing the police culture.

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We lost a true giant with the retirement of Bill Moyers from broadcast television.  People often ask me how I get so much information.  I always tell them the Bill Moyers program. 

And finally here's hoping 2015 brings all my readers the fulfillment they desire.

www.william griggs.net