TRUMP PRESIDENCY: GREATEST THREAT TO AMERICA; PUTIN'S GREATEST PROTEGE

We are witnessing the most outrageously preposterous presidential transition by Donald Trump, following the most outrageously preposterous campaign ever run.  During his campaign Trump committed a plethora of (normally) lethal sins from mocking a disabled reporter to drooling over his own daughter.  He was exposed as a con man for his fake university, a racist for his refusal to rent to African Americans as well as his very political birth as a Birther and a misogynist for his “pussy grabbing.”   He made claims so ridiculous, ludicrous and outrageous (Build a wall and have another government pay for it.  Really??!! ) that the village idiot was quoted as responding, “Oh no he di’in!”  He promised to create jobs while manufacturing everything he sold overseas.   Just completing this list would take up several blogs.  Despite Trump’s phenomenal dysfunction (and we haven’t even begun to address his intellectual deficiency.) he still received just under three million votes fewer than Hillary Clinton, and enough to carry the Electoral College.  They saw what they wanted to see and they heard what they wanted to hear.

The pundits have all been bewildered by Trump’s lack of an apparent ideology or any semblance of consistency that might suggest what his next move might be.   He claimed he would “drain the swamp.”  Instead he has quadrupled it and filled it with appointments who are every bit as inexperienced and unqualified as he is.  He is so uninterested in national security that he is refusing to receive the daily briefings, unless “something new” happens.   Apparently he has someone designated to determine what “something new” is.  The last time we had a president that uninterested, we wound up being attacked on 9/11.

This disinterest in security intelligence goes well beyond the day to day.  It extends specifically to the Russian hacking of the election.  I would ask those who are confounded by Trump’s refusal to accept the official report that Putin authorized the hacking of the election to help elect Trump why they would not expect that reaction from someone who has already stated, I know more about ISIS than the generals.”

Before we move on from the ego that not only lead to this preposterous statement, but also plays a major role in Trump’s denial of the facts in the Russian hacking issue, we have to examine just a bit more of the role it’s played in this denial.  First, Trump has to attack anything that suggests he didn’t win it, “all by myself” like the child who goes potty alone for the first time.  After that, the question we need to ask- the 800 lb. gorilla in the room - is why would Putin care who won an American election?  It’s one thing to say that he tried to sabotage the process, but quite another to say he preferred a particular candidate.  Unprecedented. 

Maybe Putin wants Trump because Trump is his Mini Me.  As the absolute ruler of Russia, Putin has become, reportedly the world’s wealthiest man with an estimated worth of $200 billion dollars. As America’s first full time business man and part time president, ( no way will he divest, I guarantee it)  there is little doubt Trump has similar ambitions.   Neither man will brook criticism of any kind.  Journalists who do criticize Putin somehow wind up dead.   Trump throws tantrums and will try to silence the media on anything he doesn’t like.  While right wing gun nuts cry about the Second Amendment, Trump may not kill the First Amendment (Free Press) but he will seriously hospitalize it!  Neither man serves his country, but rather both see their country serving them.  Trump will never admit his spiritual twin Putin (in much the same way J. Edgar Hoover and Dick Cheney were spiritual twins) hacked the American election.  Nor will he ever understand the enormous ramifications of that action.  Just like his followers, he sees what he wants to see and hears what he wants to hear.

The Donald Trump presidency represents the greatest threat America has ever faced.  With a Republican Congress and a Supreme Court that will be manned by Trump appointees, there will be no checks and balances.  (We haven’t even begun to discuss his absurd choices for Cabinet position!)  We are already in “post truth” America, where truth no longer matters.  The scary part, of course, is that these possibly fatal wounds are all self inflicted. The real threat to America lies in the people who get their “news” from Fox when they aren’t listening to people like Rush Limbaugh, and vote for someone like Donald Trump all because  they see what they want to see and hear what they want to hear.  It doesn’t bother me that Trump supporters (that includes any black folks who didn’t vote for Hillary) will have him as their president.  They deserve him.  But the rest of us don’t.

For info on my novel please visit www.williamgriggs.net

THE PSYCHOLOGY OF WHY DONALD TRUMP WAS ELECTED

Everyone who knows my works knows that for years now I have maintained that every dysfunctional relationship, whether it be between individuals or groups,  can be analyzed and understood by applying the concept of disconnection.  Without a lengthy introduction, it’s going to be difficult to apply this concept to the political ascendency of Donald Trump, but I have to try.  I have to beg the reader’s indulgence.  I’m going to have to go “round the barn” to fully explicate what I’m talking about.

Disconnection, in the case of individuals is both result AND cause of a dishonest relationship with self.  Disconnected people lie to themselves, cover up and/or ignore all their faults.  Disconnected people spend all their energy defending the lies they tell themselves.  The man who beats his wife blames his actions on her: she made me do it. The more egregious the transgression, the greater the rationale to justify it.  Fear is at the core of their being, because there is no truth there.   Disconnection creates total self absorption, once again whether we are discussing an individual or a society.  The self image must be maintained at all costs.  Both disconnected societies and individuals rewrite their histories to eliminate any transgressions they may have committed. 

This country was built on two of the most flagrant sins in the history of humanity:  enslavement of people of African descent and the genocide of Indians.  Poor working whites have been cruelly exploited as well, although not to the same extent.  How can America look itself in the mirror and admit to the evil it has committed?  From the unbelievably  deplorable  dungeons in which captured Africans were kept,  to the Middle Passage where up to 100 million Africans died due to conditions too horrendous to fathom, to the countless rapes of women, and men!  They justified their sexual barbarism by projecting all of their depravity onto the victims.  Black men were seen as either sexual brutes from whom all white women must be saved or asexual eunuchs, thus called “boy.”   With a world view that perceived women as either whores or virgins, the white women, clearly played the role of pristine virgin and the black woman was relegated to that role which would justify their rape.  They took away names and language; branded fellow human beings as less than human, animals. Dehumanized, degraded and humiliated beyond description.   The more egregious the transgression, the greater the rationale to justify it.

Every treaty with the Indians was broken.  George Armstrong Custer became a hero by massacring peaceful Indians, including women and children.  Andrew Jackson is honored on the twenty dollar bill despite, or perhaps because of, his Trail of Tears.

Many Americans, mostly white but not exclusively so, derive their sense of worth from being citizens of “the greatest country on Earth-The land of the Free and the home of the Brave.”  Every American institution, from the educational to the judicial, to the media has as its fundamental goal, the maintenance of the concept of America as a place of fairness and honor. 

Blacks never received their forty acres and a mule.  To this day there abound apologists for the institution of slavery (many of them on Fox News) who maintain that blacks were treated well and well fed.  We should thank them, they say, because they gave us Jesus.   Reparations remain a pipe dream because there has never been a clean break from the mentality that justified slavery.  As I write, Indians are protesting the construction of a pipeline that may poison their water and profane their sacred grounds.  

One of the best examples of a mind becoming warped from hatred and rationalizing that hatred   comes from the film “Mississippi Burning.”  The Gene Hackman character relates that his father killed a black man’s mule because, “If you can’t be better than a nigger, who can you be better than?”  The idea is ridiculous, yet central to much of American history and culture.  What if that character had been taught that his main goal in life was to be the best father, the best man, the best person, he could be?  How much misery could have been avoided if people like him had been taught that their only competition in life was with their own potential?   That you don’t need to feel that you are better than someone else to feel good about yourself. 

Had that character been competing against his on potential, he probably would have begun to develop his cerebral cortex, the higher functioning, thinking part of the brain.  He would have been thinking about how to become a better person.  Instead his entire being was caught up in a competition to feel better.  His cerebral activity- higher brain functions- thinking atrophied.     He got dumber.  His primary brain function came from his hypothalamus.  He acted purely out of emotion, which in his case, was primarily fear and anger, the roots of which he lacked the cerebral activity to understand.  This character represents, not only the extent to which disconnection stunts growth, but also how it induces regression.  People and societies go backward.

People like this character are easily manipulated and controlled.  They vote against their own best interest. They are angry because they have no safety net.  They have no safety net because they vote against any form of safety net, in the fear that a person of color will benefit.   Those in power have a vested interest in keeping these people ignorant and angry.  They help America stay in denial. 

Still, America had a chance for redemption in the late seventies.  We had just lost a war (Vietnam) to people of color.  The embassy in Iran had been taken over, and despite out phenomenal military might, we appeared to be helpless to do anything about it. Black folks had been challenging White supremacy.   The (white) American psyche had sunk low enough that redemption might have been possible.  Who could step forward and save white America from this threat to their psychological well being?

In rode Ronald Reagan on his mighty steed and he assured all (white folks) that all was really right with the world.  The politicians lost the war, not the military.  Good white people could keep the economy strong were it not for the lazy, shiftless, welfare cheating black folks.  Disconnected always look for someone to blame!   Reagan became known as the Teflon President because no matter how many gaffs he committed, (and there were many) nothing stuck to him.  At the time I wrote that that he “rescued America’s psyche at the cost of her soul.”

Some thirty years later, angry Americans have elected the most unqualified candidate in history:  Donald Trump.  True, he lost the popular vote, but any substantial vote given to a man who ran such an utterly preposterous campaign is a national embarrassment.   Trump, lacking a mighty steed, descended upon an escalator, to “take back (their) Country,” and “make America Great Again.”  Cerebral activity is completely suspended.   Fed up with a Washington that doesn’t work because of the obstructionist Republicans, they vote Republican!   They want to feel good again. They can feel good about voting stupidly because enough of them vote stupidly to justify it.  Hate feels good.  Blame everyone who doesn’t look like you.   Trump tells outrageous lies.  He wonders aloud as to why we should have nuclear weapons if we aren’t going to use them.   The very thought that, as master of the Universe, they can blow up the world is invigorating.   Testosterone flows- even in the “Trump can grab my pussy” women.  Change will come to this old house even if it means blowing it up; at least there will be change!  Ted Nugent has a platform!  Nasty details can be ignored.  Superlatives abound: “The BEST, BIGGEST, WINNINGEST” not unlike a Korean dictator.  If we blow up the world it’s only because we had every damn right to!

CAN STUPIDITY DEFEAT THE GREAT GHETTO PHILOSOPHER, CLEOPHUS LEROY JONES?

Panic was about to set in as I surveyed the soul food restaurant in search of my friend and mentor, the one man who could make sense when there was none, my rock, that greatest of ghetto philosophers, Cleophus Leroy Jones.  He wasn’t at his corner booth where he could always be found holding court.   Just as my head was about to explode, I spotted a pair of shoes, jutting out from beneath the table.  It was Cleo, slumped over.  I rushed to see if he had had a heart attack.  What I found was even more disturbing.    The man who never drank anything stronger than coffee was laid out drunk.  A few gallons of coffee later, he was finally able to speak.

                “What happened?” I shrieked after my fallen hero had finally regained coherency.

                “I just got overwhelmed,” he mumbled, frowning as he gulped the highly caffeinated beverage.  “I can deal with 85 or even 90% chaos, but 100% is more than even I can deal with all the time. 

                “What are you talking about?” I shrieked again, still trying to comprehend the incomprehensible.  Cleo getting drunk was like Clarence Thomas leading a Black Lives Matter rally. 

                “This election, for one thing,” he answered.  “Almost half this country is voting for a racist bigoted, misogynistic, homophobic, childish, petulant, simple minded, LYING, intellectually challenged, spoiled brat.  This is a man who had everything he sold manufactured overseas and these knuckleheads think he’s going to bring them jobs.  No plans, mind you, just going to create jobs because he said he would, even though almost every word out of his mouth is a lie.   He’s vulgar.  A vote for Trump is a vote for vulgarity and bad manners at the highest level.  The next Republican candidate will probably be Andrew Dice Clay.  With so many people are backing him Trump, I’d say this country is getting what it deserves if I didn’t have to live here.”

                “But if that many people believe in him don’t the sheer numbers make him respectable?”  I felt stupid as soon as I asked the question.

                “You got to remember that half this country fought a civil war to keep us in slavery.  Numbers don’t make anything right.  Trump has grown in popularity the same way Reagan did, back when Reagan was also considered a joke.  Reagan kicked off his campaign with a speech on State’s Rights, in a town, Philadelphia Mississippi, famous only for killing Civil Rights workers.  Reagan was endorsed by the KKK.  But everything on the internet is about how he was some kind of saint because he rejected that endorsement instead how he EARNED it in the first place! Reagan was a union buster, and out of work union members praise his name.  College grads who can’t pay back their loans because of what he did to the student loan program love his dirty drawers.  These people praise the people who revile them and revile the people who try to help them.  Do you know that almost one third of Louisiana Republicans blame the sorry government response to hurricane Katrina on Obama?

                I knew this was going to be good, so I kept my peace.

                “I am so sick and tired of hearing about angry white folks that I honestly do not know what to do.  These people vote against every single candidate who offers any kind of safety net, because they are so scared that some black folks might get something they  think we don’t  deserve, then they get angry “cause they don’t have a safety net!   They don’t let facts get in the way.  Donald Trump rode to political prominence on the back of the Birther movement.  They are just like the British folks who voted for Brexit one day, and then looked it up the next day!”

                “We got some truly dumb white folks,” I chimed in, thinking my comment would be safe.

                “They aint got no monopoly on dumb.”  We just bought a 27 million dollar plane for that pimp, Creflo Dollar.  You know how many community centers that money could have built?  Places where our kids could go for tutoring, art and music classes, chess tournaments.  We could have bought farms, hired folks to work on them, trucks to transport our produce and small stores to sell it.  ‘Where there is no vision the people perish.’

                And my last gripe for the day is about all the people who come in here now, wantin’ to challenge me on something.  They ain't read a newspaper or a magazine or watched any serious news programs and they have no idea what public radio is, but they think they know more than me.  I’m just sick and tired of stupid.”

                “So what are you going to do now?” I wondered.

                “I’m gone go home, get some rest and come out fighting for our people tomorrow like I do every day.”

                “But you made everything sound so hopeless five seconds ago.”

                “I may not win the war, or even the battle.  But sometimes a man must fight, just to keep defining himself as a man.”

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Anyone interested in a truly inspirational film about black love and respect as well as making it in corporate America while keeping it real should check out “Strictly Business,” a 1991 film starring Tommy Davidson,  Halle Berry, Samuel Jackson and Joseph C Phillips, directed by Kevin Hooks.

www.williamgriggs.net

BLACK LIVES MATTER AND WENDY WILLIAMS’ IGNORANCE

We all know that there are two sides in the Black Lives Matter Movement (BLMM), but do we know who or what those two sides are? Are they racial, political, or cultural?  Is the conflict centered on police vs.   Black folks?  Who are the two sides and why does it matter?   While the murders of unarmed black folks by police are clearly motivated by racism, the BLMM is hardly about black vs. white.  Decent white folks are deeply involved in this movement and there are a few right wing negroes, like former Congressman, Allen West, who are deeply opposed.  It appears to be about blacks vs. police for obvious reasons, not the least of which is the official position taken by all of the police union spokespersons that essentially says that there are no circumstances under which a police officer can be wrong for shooting an African American.  Still, that answer is not completely satisfying for two reasons:   Good cops hate murder as much if not more, than anyone, even though they have yet to speak out against their corrupt brethren .  Also, there is no community that needs and appreciates good officers more than the African American community that has been plagued by violence directly resulting from a long history of racist policies in this country.  I think we have to embrace and support good cops to help break the code of silence that they may feel helpless to break.  For those who condemn silent cops, they should consider what happens when they do speak out.

I can’t say that the conflict isn’t cultural.  It is.  On a recent Frontline program, Policing the Police, several officers threw an unarmed black man- a citizen- to the ground as he walked down the street, not bothering anyone.  They did not calmly approach him, they rushed him.  They rushed him because their erroneous “instincts” told them he might have had a gun.  They did this knowing that they were being filmed for a program on police brutality and said throwing the man to the ground was justified because he flinched  as they rushed him.  How could you NOT flinch if a bunch of large men rushed you?  It never even occurred to them that this was an innocent human being they were dehumanizing and degrading for no reason other than something in their heads told them it was a good idea!   We also know from the attempted cover-up of the Laquan McDonald murder by the killer’s fellow officers as well as the State’s Attorney and the city of Chicago, that the brutality against African Americans is clearly deeply ingrained in the culture.   We have seen guilty verdicts thrown out by racist judges.   

This culture is being further perpetuated by the racist media, led by the usual suspects, Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, et al.  It is difficult for anyone who isn’t black to begin to understand the pain and anger at having your people killed on film and having the killers go free while the likes of Sean Hannity compare people protesting against state sponsored murder to the Klan.

But what is behind the culture?  Is it politics?

We know that the opponents of the BLMM are almost exclusively Republicans.  Democrats are far more sympathetic.  This single aspect is, while completely expected, still deeply troubling because once the issues become drawn along partisan lines, then the matter ceases to be presented as right and wrong, but one of political persuasion.  Once one of the two major parties takes a stand, any attacks on their position are repackaged as politics, and nothing more than the ranting of the tree hugging, imaginary ultra left wing Commie Pinko press.   This phenomena  has enabled Donald Trump to wrap himself in the mantle of Richard Nixon as a “law and order” candidate. The movement is further politicized by its opponents, such as the aforementioned Allen West who calls the movement a “tool of the left” and describes the protestors as “useful idiots.”  Really?

We can analyze all the components, but the gist of the conflict, firmly rooted in a system of slavery that denied the humanity of black folks, comes down to whether or not one believes that black lives do indeed matter.  Those who do not, respond that “all lives matter.”  It’s like having a straight pride parade, or a National Association for the Advancement of White People, which brings me to my next topic.

Wendy Williams’ recent astonishingly ignorant comments on the NAACP and HBCUs (Historically Black Universities and Colleges) serve to further highlight the use of ignorant black folks as tools in the propaganda war against black folks.  Her comments strongly suggest a mentality that states that not only is there no racism now, but that there has never been any racism in America.  She is but the latest in a string of uninformed, vacuous individuals given a platform to spread ignorance and racial stupidity.  The list, from Stacy Dash, to Raven Symone, is quite extensive.  But the thing to remember is not that these individuals have so much access to the public forum of ideas in spite of their ignorance.  They have access because of it!  Having people of color say there are no racial issues even as these issues stare them in the face makes it a lot easier to blame all the issues that afflict black America, from mass incarceration to under employment and education, solely on black America.

                                                                                www.williamgriggs.net

WHAT YOUNG BLACK ACTIVISTS NEED TO KNOW ABOUT VOTING

I just read a truly disturbing article on why some young black activists have decided not to vote in any more presidential elections.  I cannot stress enough that these are not your garden variety social and political dropouts, these are activists declaring that they will not vote in presidential elections.   I don’t know how widespread this sentiment is, but if it was strong enough to prompt an article, it is strong enough to be cause for alarm.

One of those interviewed, Koya Graham said she wouldn’t vote because of disillusionment with Obama’s failure to do much for the black community.  She emphasized the unarmed black men who have been killed by police and pointed to the limitations of the presidency to do anything about it.  She is focusing on organizing and empowering on the grassroots level in lieu of voting.

Another interviewee, Kelton Latson, reported that he only votes in local elections, “mainly because that right-there, first-hand affects you the most."  Others reported similar disillusionment regarding presidential elections.

While I admire the fire and dedication these young people display in their fight for justice and equality, as an elder, it is my obligation to point out the flaws in their position.  I love these young people and hope this criticism is accepted in the spirit in which it is given.

Ms. Graham says she voted for Obama because he ran on a platform of change and she didn’t see any.  She believes the lack of change is the result of the limitations of the office of presidency.  To a certain extent, she is correct.  The president is limited in what he can do to promote change, justice and equality.  But Obama ran as a Progressive and turned out to be a moderate Republican.  True, he undid much of the damage done by his predecessor.  But black people have not fared well during his administration.  Although I defended Obama vociferously throughout his first term, as the campaign for a second term began, there were signs that he might not have been the shining prince we thought he was.  As the second term advanced, it became clear that he was not.  When I have suggested that perhaps Obama was not what we thought he was, I have been shouted down by hysterical black folks who assumed I was unaware of the racism he had encountered.  In their eyes, any criticism of Obama was blasphemous.   The lesson to be learned here is that abstinence from voting is not the answer.  The answer is that no politician should ever receive carte blanche.  They must be held accountable.  

Kelton Latson’s assertion that local elections are more important than presidential ones is absolutely correct.  But local vs. national elections is not an either or proposition.  An historical perspective is crucial to understanding how much presidential elections do matter.  African Americans don’t vote just to affect positive change.  We also vote to fight off the endless negative forces in this country.  The fact of the matter is that we have had more significant negative actions from presidents than positive.   Andrew Johnson, Woodrow Wilson, and Ronald Reagan are just a few of the racist presidents who have had profound effects on the state of Black America. 

We are faced with the very real possibility of another, racist, narcissistic, intellectually challenged demagogue becoming president.    Nobody would love to have a true two party system for electing officials than me.  Unfortunately, ever since the GOP welcomed the racist Democrats into their party in the 1960’s that has not been the case.   

Our young activists cannot be disenchanted because one election did not yield the results they wanted.  This isn’t a sprint, this is a marathon.  Young people need to be idealistic and feel that they can change the world.  But they also need to avail themselves of the wisdom of their elders (in itself an African concept) and understand that the struggle did not begin with them.  Elders like me weren’t born elders.  We had the same fire they have, when we fought against segregation, lynchings and apartheid in South Africa.   I can remember when I said there were no differences between Democrats and Republicans and was brought back to reality by one of my elders.  No president is going to undo the corrupt system that is the United States.  But there is a world of difference within the confines of challenging some of the status quo and making things worse.  The Black Lives Matter movement does not exist in a vacuum.  It is a political, cultural, historical and economic issue.   The battle in which our young activists are engaged is the same battle that has been going on since black folks have been in America and it will continue long after they are gone.   It is a battle that must be fought on every level.

While many members of my generation as confused as anyone else, I still hope that these young activists can find suitable mentors, or at least advisors, to help deepen their understanding of the war we are in.  It is as much a war of ideas as it is anything else.

www.williamgriggs.net

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WEST POINT GRADS: THE REAL MEANING OF THE BLACK CLENCHED FIST

I am an invisible man.  No, I am not a spook like those who haunted Edgar Allen Poe; nor am I one of your Hollywood-movie ectoplasms.  I am invisible, understand, simply because people refuse to see me.  Ralph Ellison, The Invisible Man

Thank Goodness, West Point officials have declined disciplining the African American female grads who clenched their fists in their graduation photograph.  The pose created a firestorm of backlash from the usual suspects (frightened white folks and those negroes who fear for them) who perceived the fists as an endorsement of the Black Lives Matter movement. (Any political activity is verboten while in military uniform). 

The same thing occurred almost fifty years ago when Black Olympians Tommie Smith and John Carlos raised their fists during the medal ceremony at the 1968 Olympics.  I was in the presence of one such negro at the time whose rage erupted at my youthful/ (truthful?)  inability to grasp the magnitude of the raised fists. (Is that all this hoopla is about? I asked incredulously).    

In both cases the clenched fists were misinterpreted.  According to an article by the Chicago Tribune’s Clarence Page, Tommie Smith explained that his fist was an endorsement of Human Rights, rather than the Black Power movement. And although the women in the photo could not speak up, prior West Point grad, Mary Tobin, wrote, regarding that experience, “…the only way to survive is to shrink your blackness or assimilate.”  Therein lies the crux of the matter.

While the black women may not have been endorsing the movement, Black Lives Matter, they were, in fact endorsing the message of that movement; black lives matter.  Specifically, their own.  For black folks the raised fist is an existential statement of Being.  It’s instructive that black expressions of self love or awareness are consistently interpreted as political activity.  That’s because, within the context of American racism, such actions ARE political activity.

African Americans are (with the possible exception of Native Americans) the only people in America whose very existence as human beings is a political issue.  Whether we would be defined as whole persons or three-fifths of a person was a political issue.  America fought a civil war based of whether we were human beings or chattel.

The bottom line is that for black folks, politics is not merely a discussion on the size of government.  It is, more often than not, the fight of good vs. evil.  The fight is over by whom we will be defined.  Our very existence is at stake!  The battle between good and evil, right and wrong, becomes obfuscated when evil and good get dressed up in the clothes of politics. Racism is quite acceptable when it is labeled as a political strategy, such as Nixon’s “Southern Strategy,” which targeted the Silent Majority”, code for white folks fed up with black folks.   Ronald Reagan achieved near sainthood among conservative white folks simply by affirming their right to be superior.

Journalistic “objectivity” dictates that once Good and Evil dress up as politics, they are now on equal footing.  Furthermore, the more people endorse “Evil,” the more respectability it has.   Donald Trump’s racism, sexism and xenophobia have gravitas now that he has become the presumptive Republican nominee. Those who follow him must now be given greater respect.     

The West Point Grad, Mary Tobin, had it right:”the only way to survive is to shrink your blackness or assimilate.”  Disappear.  Whatever the differences might be.  What the injustices you must endure.  Whatever the psychological trauma that is inflicted upon you or the weight of four hundred years of oppression, none of that matters.  All that is unique to the African American experience must evaporate, if you are to be one of us.

And Jesus said: Salt is good: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be seasoned?

The clenched black fist is an expression of the aforementioned salty taste.  It is Kunta Kinte refusing to accept the name Toby.  It is the black police officers who refuse to allow others to abuse black folks in the name of police solidarity.  It is the teacher who tells her students the truth about the African American experience. 

As a writer, I have had white editors try to drain all the blackness out of my work, even when the work was based on the black perspective!!!!  Salt without a salty taste has no value.  The young women on that photo said they understood that.  The true irony is that the promises of inclusion in exchange for denying one’s blackness, are as false as the treaties that were reneged upon with the Indians.  Those who make the greatest demands that black people deny their culture and heritage are the fiercest in using that culture and heritage to “prove” our inferiority.  Proof?  Can you imagine any one being born more assimilated than a moderate Republican (despite his Democratic affiliation) raised by his white family in an either all white or white and Asian community than Barak Obama?  Now, think quick.  Who is the most disrespected president in history? 

  

HOW RESPECTABLE CONSERVATIVES PRODUCED DONALD TRUMP

                I’m here to lend a helpful hand to all those wonderful members of the conservative establishment who may be wondering how they got into a position in which someone as obnoxious dishonest and unqualified as Donald Trump will probably become the standard bearer for their Grand Old Party.  Dear thoughtful conservative Americans, I can only tell you this:  The Donald is whiny, belligerent and selfish because that is how you raised him... He is your child.

                I came to this conclusion after reading an op-ed piece in the Chicago Tribune(3/16) titled “A letter to my liberal friends.”  While the author, Rosemary Warshawski, is clearly an intelligent person, her essay is founded upon several egregiously specious arguments that I’m here to correct. 

                At the core of Ms. Warschawski’s argument, as in the core of all conservative’s arguments, lies the so-called victimization of minorities.  She writes:  “I don’t want to make victims of minorities by telling them,’ That’s OK, you can have my help because you can’t make it on your own.”  That is soft bigotry.  … help minorities to achieve the prerequisites for their goals, but don’t lower the standards for them.” 

               Mrs. Warschaski writes of how hard she and her husband have worked and  complains of “leveling the playing field to the point of absurdity – where those who work and sacrifice according to the rules are asked to give more of the money and the fruit of their labor to strangers who haven’t worked as hard  …”   Therein lies the rub.

  

              Conservatives like Mrs. Warshawski ignore the most salient of facts: that this is a thoroughly racist society in which the rules are constantly being changed to keep minorities down.  When the perception was that African Americans were the primary consumers of heroin, the response was to lock them up.  Now that the consumers are Caucasians, the response is treatment.  The same NRA that opposes any form of regulation as to who can buy what guns and where, is the same NRA that helped draft legislation to take the guns out of the hands of the Black Panther Party!    Where are the conservatives when these rules are changed?  Their voices cannot be heard protesting such double standards because they are the ones implementing them. 

            The familiar cry from the right resonates here: If only those people would get up and work hard and apply themselves, we wouldn’t have these problems.  Does she not know that black folks have done just that?  Does she not know that white folks destroyed eight black neighborhoods or towns, including what was known as the Black Wall Street, specifically because they were so successful?   Does she not know that when the Nation of Islam tried to establish cattle ranches so we could pull ourselves up by our bootstraps the white folks poisoned their cattle?   Apparently it does not matter that blacks gave their lives in every war this country has been engaged in – beginning with being the very first casualty of the Revolutionary war, Crispus Attucks,  only to return to second class citizenship. 

  

              The plight of African Americans is the direct result of slavery.  Conservatives will argue that slavery was a long time ago and should not matter now.  And IF the country had made some sort clean break with slavery… IF black folks had received their forty acres and a mule (a proposal defeated by the conservatives of yesteryear) that argument might not be so thoroughly laughable.  But slavery was followed by mass incarceration, Jim Crow, lynchings, the worst domestic terrorism, and a plethora of policies and procedures implemented by every institution in the land, from the judicial to the educational, to ensure the supremacy of white folks and the continued subjugation of blacks. 

  

              Mrs. Warshawski, like all reasonable conservatives, decries the extremism of the left and advocates the “sensible middle.”  On the surface this makes sense.  But this country has moved so far the right since Barry Goldwater authored the current wave of conservatism, that the middle is on the right. 

               Whether it be the sophisticated essays of  conservative elites such as Charles Krauthammer or the guttural ramblings of the rabid Rush Limbaugh; from that great Republican god, RONALD REAGAN, who rode white America’s irrational fear of welfare cheating black folks all the way from the golden screen of Hollywood to the Olympus and Valhalla  of white America’s imagination where he combines the powers of Zeus, Odin and Thor; who blamed all of America’s economic woes on those lazy welfare cheating (he forgot to mention also mythological) negroes to current Republican frontrunner, Donald  (I’ll build a wall and make Mexico pay for it) Trump,   the philosophical underpinnings of the conservative element remain the same.  The echoes of racism and/or cognitive dissonance, whether a shout or a whisper, permeate everything.  Someone is always trying to take away their liberty, and the fruits of their labor. 

                To these people I reply, not from a philosophical intellectual argument, but from a very personal perspective.  There have been times when I have had popcorn for dinner, when I was in college, because white folks would not hire me, due to my race.  I had two jobs because of Affirmative Action.  Neither was very good and I was more than qualified for both.  But the employers would not have hired any blacks, regardless of credentials, had it not been for Affirmative Action.  I have stared down the barrels of police guns on more than one occasion simply for walking or riding in a car, while black.  I have been humiliated and degraded by police after having committed  no crime other than crossing the street.  I was cheated out of a pony by grown white men when I was only six years old because of my color.  I could go on, but just thinking of all the injustices I’ve encountered is tiring.  And there are those who have endured far more than I have. 

White folks aren’t the only Americans who work hard.  I shined white folks’ shoes for thirty seven hours a week, after school when I was fourteen.  I had mopped bloody floors in a hospital, dug ditches, washed dishes and hauled 70lb. mail sacks all before graduating high school.   Americans of color who have legitimate grievances are sick and tired of hearing about white anger from the most free and most privileged people on the planet.  We are tired of hearing about how health insurance will take your freedom from you.  You are not victims.  Your leaders tell you that you are so that you will vote against your own best interests and vote to add even more wealth to the obscenely wealthy like the Koch brothers at your own expense.   Grow up.  

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TED CRUZ, STACEY DASCH AND SLAVE MOVIES

A funny thing happened to me on my way to writing this blog. Two stories came out that were so unbelievably outrageous, ridiculous, and  absurd that I had to say something:  Now that  Republican Governor Rick Snyder has succeeded in poisoning the water supply for Flint MI., Republican presidential candidate, Ted Cruz  has come to the rescue by providing bottled water to the area.  BUT ONLY FOR ANTI ABORTION GROUPS!!!!!!!  Just to put a little cherry on top, Cruz is also comparing this Republican debacle to another Republican debacle (Hurricane Katrina under George W. Bush who stayed on vacation on his ranch as Americans died in the streets of New Orleans) and blaming both on the far left!  Slime, thy name is Cruz!   And yet there are thousands- no, millions of Americans who want this man to be their president??!!!!

In the midst of my valiant struggle to digest the indigestible story of Cruz, I learned white Chicago  police officer, Robert Rialmo, who, in response to a call from a father that his 19 year old son was wielding a baseball bat, killed the young man as well as a 55 year old black woman who opened the door to let him in (cops called it an “accident”) is now suing the estate of the kid he killed!  Apparently, killing this kid caused Rialmo such emotional distress that he is suing the kid’s estate for 10 million dollars!  (I can’t help wondering if Jeffrey Dahmer’s estate might sue the estates of the boys he ate, claiming they gave Jeffrey indigestion.)

Finally, at least until I get to my original story, Now that Stacey Dash has revealed herself as an idiot, and her name is all over social media, I have to wonder if people would be spending this much time talking about her if she had written a great novel, or discovered a new medical technique or cure that would save millions of lives.  Just wondering.  And now to my original article on slave movies:

The advent of the new film about Nat Turner, “Birth of a Nation,” has, inevitably brought with it a certain amount of backlash as Black folks are torn between wanting their history told, but tiring of seeing the debasement and degradation of their people repeated again and again in slave movies.  One argument that captures that tension beautifully is written by Kara Brown, titled, “I’m So Damn Tired of Slave Movies.”  Ms. Brown’s piece is both intelligent and thoughtful.  But there are a few salient points that are missing that I have to address.  

In her article Ms. Brown asserts that such films are intended to educate white audiences about slavery and that slavery should be taught in the schools.   The problem is that Black people do not know about slavery.  A large percentage (if not the majority) do not know who Nat Turner was.   Virtually all of the problems that beset black America (from within and from without) have their roots in slavery.  There has never been a clean break from slavery.  It morphed into plantation bondage based on debt owed the plantation owner for food and shelter, Jim Crow, mass incarceration, and the destruction of black neighborhoods and towns whenever they became too prosperous.   Unless we clearly understand the depths of the oppression that was (and continues to be) perpetrated against us, we will come to believe that the plethora of issues that confront us, from gang violence to mental illness to chronic substance abuse (the list goes on) are merely the result of the natural order of things.  I believe the single most important reason so many black folks (especially gang members) kill each other is that they simply do not know who they are. 

As for the schools teaching about slavery, The Texas textbook adoption committee has been working overtime to eliminate the word “slavery” from textbooks as well as any mention of any oppression as any time.   Moderate Presidential candidate, Jeb Bush has stated that this country “has a long history of racial tolerance.”  Every MLK day thousands. If not millions, of black kids recite the “I Have A Dream” speech, while having no clue as to what Jim Crow was.  Getting accurate black history into the schools is important, but clearly rarely achieved.  Furthermore, we learn from everything, especially movies and television. 

I completely understand Ms. Brown’s weariness with slave/oppression movies.  I often turn the channel when a film about black folks being abused is on.  I’m old enough to remember the water hoses and dogs of the sixties.  I thought “12 Years A Slave” was a great movie, but I will not watch it a second time.  Still, we can never forget that, weary though we may be of it, we are still in a war with the pro-slavery apologists of the 21^st century.  “Twelve Years A Slave” was actually criticized in a published article, as propaganda for not showing the good side of slavery!   Publishers were just forced to pull a children’s book  titled,  “A Birthday Cake For George Washington,” that is all about happy-go-luck smiling and grinning slaves baking this cake whose biggest problem was that they didn’t have enough flour!

Black folks have every right to be weary of representations of us in powerless positions, being abused and killed. But the story of slavery is not just one of degradation.  It is the story of an incredibly strong people who refused to accept their condition, particularly in the case of Nat Turner.    (Especially since we see white cops killing us every other day and getting away with it).  But I am really glad to see a film come out about one of our unsung heroes who fought back.  Weary though we may be, we have to keep fighting to tell the truth about our experience, no matter how painful, over and over and over again.  I guarantee you, the racists will never stop trying to justify slavery.   

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WHEATON COLLEGE EXPOSES INTOLERANCE BY FIRING PROFESSOR

Wheaton College is moving to fire a tenured professor, Larycia Hawkins

In educational circles becoming tenured is a really big deal.  It means that one must do something truly egregious to get fired.    So one might wonder what would sort of transgression would cause a college to fire a tenured professor.  Would the professor have to commit some sort of felony or gross malfeasance or perhaps get caught in some sort of devious sexual act with a student?  In the case of Wheaton College getting rid of tenured African American professor, Larycia Hawkins, the transgression is none of the above.  Prof Hawkins is being let go because she committed the unpardonable act of displaying religious tolerance!

Specifically, Professor Hawkins is being let go because  of her statement, in reference to Muslims, “As Pope Francis said last week, we worship the same God.”  To the uninitiated, it might seem ironic that only a religious institution would fire someone for displaying the noble attribute of tolerance.   But I’ve had some experience in this realm and have seen firsthand, not only the results of this mentality, but also some of the lessons to be gained from understanding it.

Several years ago I was called upon by a couple of African American students to give a guest lecture at their Christian college on the subject of spirituality.  I started the lecture by explaining that the two fundamental tenets of spirituality are that we are all more alike than we are different, and that most people’s religion is an accident of birth:  most Muslims are Muslims because they were born in a Muslim country and most Christians are Christians because they were born in a Christian land.  Both statements are pretty basic and readily agreed upon by reasonable individuals.  Yet as I continued, I could feel the classroom becoming increasingly angry and hostile.  During the question and answer period I was finally able to coax out the source of their hostility, and when I did it gushed forth in torrents.

It turned out that by proclaiming the oneness of all humanity, I was also unwittingly (or perhaps wittingly) attacking their core belief that they, as the Chosen People, were superior to everyone else.   I was somewhat taken aback that a class on spirituality would be so upset at the fundamentals of spirituality so I asked what they had been studying.  They all held up a book on fighting evil spirits.  It turned out that their idea of spirituality was to fight evil spirits!  As the discourse continued, I learned that these Caucasian children had a completely different Jesus than the one worshipped by the African American community.  The African American community has a soft sweet usually blond Jesus, brimming with love and forgiveness.  These people worshipped what I call the G. I. Jesus, one tough American Jesus who took no stuff from nobody and would destroy anyone who would not get with the program.  All of which brings me back to Prof. Hawkins. 

In echoing the pope’s affinity for the Muslim faith, Prof Hawkins was demonstrating that all too rare intersection of spirituality and religion.  In firing her, the administration demonstrated that all too common commodity: religion without spirituality.  Spirituality seeks oneness harmony and understanding.  It is based upon inclusion and empathy.  To be spiritual is to be connected: to oneself and the rest of humanity.  The great Howard Thurman, who often served as Martin Luther King’s spiritual advisor, once said, “I always look for my own scent when I meet another man.”   This is the kind of understanding that precludes wars and most conflicts.

Politics and morality are indivisible, just as religion and politics are.  Religious institutions not grounded in spirituality have, throughout history, been found to be on the wrong side of moral/political issues, from slavery to genocide.

Admittedly as a private religious educational institution, Wheaton College has the right to hire and fire whomever they wish.  And I certainly do not equate firing of a professor with the atrocities that have been committed throughout history in the name of the church.  I am saying that in a world of constant ongoing conflicts, the religion of exclusion as practiced and taught by places like Wheaton College are part of the problem and not the solution.  But I have to give them credit for one thing: in asserting that Prof Hawkins religion is somehow different theirs, they are absolutely correct.  Hers is grounded in spirituality.
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