"THE IMPACT OF RACISM ON THE AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY, PEOPLE OF COLOR
By LAURENCE LEGALL
Racism in the United States has had a profound impact on the Black African American community since the first generation of Black Africans was brought to the shores of America. Racism has been woven into the very essence of American society - the nation's dirty laundry not to be seen by the rest of the world. It has been - and is being - used as a determining factor in the policies of the American economy, government (legal and legislative), and social arenas which egregiously affects all areas of people activity in the United States.
The U.S. government has vehemently denied that racism has been one of the pillars of its policies. The U.S. has been, through its United Nations representatives, extremely evasive when confronted by the issue of racism and its impacts on people of color and Black African American citizens. The use of platitudes, "it's in the past," "let's move on" have been the agents of obfuscation put to use by the U.S. to avoid addressing the profound impact of racism on the Black Africn American community and people of color. Without the input of the general masses of the United States, and to rely on the United Nations representatives for the United States, would leave the United Nations with the illusion that comes with the internationally-propagated "American Dream:" that for a casual observer with an outside perspective, the American house is in good order.
We in the Black African American community, people of color, and others living in the house, see it differently when it comes to racism/colorism and its effects on all areas of people activity.
Some of us from progressive organizations that have been fighting domestically in the U.S. against those who believe that men should be judged by skin color and not by the content of their character, have been asked by the December 12th Movement International Secretariat to become a voice for the Black African American community and people of color at the World Conference Against Racism in 2001.
Some leaders in the Black African Ameican community have made similar attempts to have the impact of racism on human rights addressed before an international body such as the United Nations, but to no avail. The exclusion and the non-consideration of our experience in formulating and defining the impact of racism in the international arena - thereby seeking redress for the relentless denial of and assault on human rights and self-determination for the Black African American community and people of color worldwide - are a result of us in the community not being able to organize under the stifling hand of white racist oppression. This hand of opperssion has silenced, lamed, maimed, killed and discombobulated the leaders and organizations who have attempted to seek redress in the international arena for this relentless denial of human rights and self-determination.
Racism is a pathological response to skin color. Part of the concept found behind the word "racism," has its origins in the theory proffered by Blumenbach in 1775 that there are different races of human beings which are recognized by physical characteristics, such as bone structure, texture of hair, and, the most prominent and obvious, skin color. The theory, developed by Blumenbach, has since been proven useless and given the fact that we are here today extremely problematic to say the least.
However, the theory's residue that we recognize here today as racism/colorism still impacts on the minds of all of us in this society. Essentially the theory was used as an element to construct a sort of pecking order that was institutionalized by the political, social and economic systems that we live with today. The theory was used by those with observable white skin color to begin to entrench themselves behind a protective barrier of misconceptions. Those misconceptions began to be developed into extremely pejorative labels given to the then deemed dark "inferior race."
The misconceptions were then stabilized and elements were used to justify the western world's domination of the world's majority of people of color under the guise that the natives needed to be civilized.
The pejorative labels began to be built upon and published by social, religious, economic, political and educational institutions to the point where if an individual is observed with different bone structure, hair texture and/or skin color there is an automatic prejudgement which often is inaccurate at best and pejorative at worst. The prejudgement is based on the misconceptions to which the observer has been exposed by the institutions that still rely on Blumenbach's theory and similar theories of race and the pejorative stereotypes derived therefrom.
It is these misconceptions and stereotypes and the resulting pathological response and behavior that are recognized as racism/colorism.
Blumenbach's theory, used to support this system's political, religious, social and economic divisive construct called "racism" is the root from which the stereotypes spring; it is the problem that must be addressed by establishing a means to re-educate the masses. Blumenbach's race theory and its uses by the western world as a standard to delineate and categorize individuals by their observable characteristics set the stage for unprecedented institutionalization of pejorative misconceptions of the world's people of color.
This thought pattern and conditioning by all means available - especially in education - have permeated throughout all areas of people activity. The misconceptions have been relied upon and publicized so heavily they have affected our thought patterns on a dangerous and profound level. It has come to a critical point in the U.S. and the rest of the world where, if an individual who has been exposed to the conditioning observes another with different skin color (or other characteristics), the pejorative and inaccurate prejudgement is the automatic response. The response begins with a pathological disassociation from self based on the observation or consideration of what is falsely accepted as a different "type" of human being.
(to be continued)"
Sunday, August 3, 2008
PROMOTING COLOR EQUALITY
PROMOTING COLOR EQUALITY
(Part of Reparations: No Sales Taxes for Blacks)
Just kidding; but wouldn't it be wonderful if the U.S.A. ever lived up to its claims of Constitutional equal rights?
Of course, part of that 'living up' would entail a forthright public acknowledgement that that very Constitution was written for people with white skins only, not for Red, Black, Yellow or Brown people.
So, if current political leaders and wannabe White House occupiers are to be considered credible in their calls for equal treatment for everyone they need to enact an Amendment to the Constitution stating that it applies to Red, Black, Yellow and Brown-skinned individuals. Without this action, people of color will continue to try to survive under the whimsical control of mal-educated whites - mal-educated as to who it is that all huemanity sprang from - Black Africans in Black Africa (all huemans, even white-skinned folk, are 'of Black African ancestry').
I would like to see the issue of the untreated racism/colorism firmly and continuously raised in the current campaigning for the presidency of the U.S.A. by all of the campaign contestants. (This of course would mean that Barack Obama would call for equity of all Blacks in this country, not just 'African Americans, that's if he doesn't wish to continue to exclude the thousands of Blacks who don't call themselves 'African Americans.' (See my Blog article titled "The Exclusivity of the Phrase African American") Moreover, he would speak in terms of 'color and culture' and not 'race and culture.')
It is way past time for this country, in its pretense of being 'the world's leader,' to come clean about its debilitating primary infectious disease - rampant untreated racism/colorism, the mis-jusdging and mal-treating of huemans who wear skins of observable melanin, in every arena of people activity - economics, education, entertainment, law, labor, politics, religion, sex and war (invasions).
It is also way past time for the U.S.A. to publicly acknowledge its regrettable history of institutional racism/colorism and to deal with that heritage which continues to pervade every facet of today's society.
How many people are aware that we actually export this racist/colorist thinking and behavior in our 'foreign' policy, to other parts of this majority-people-of-color world? (People of color comprise three-quarters of the world's population)
Blatant, institutional, negative color discrimination by the U.S.A. government is starkly evident in its Census Board's recent division of the one hueman race into 117 - one hundred seventeen'races!' The U.S.A. Immigration Department continues to play the dangerous 'Color Roulette' game with individuals wishing to enter the country, i.e. allwing white or light-skinned Cubans and similar others easily entering while darker-skinned 'others' are discouraged from entering.
The U.S.A. police departments still today, with wisespread impunity, murder Black and other 'people of color males' - as Brother Activist Fige Bornu puts it - "assemblyline murders of Black men by police."
And I have yet to see a white 5 year old child handcuffed by the racist/colorist cops. And on and on - so many horrific examples of untreated racism/colorism it's impossible to find space to list here.
It is obvious, considering all of the above, that this entire society, if its credibility as a 'progressive country' is not mired in primitive counterproductivity, must adopt methods of extirpating racist/colorist thinking and behavior, like the whoesale implementation of racismtest.org -ing along with follow-up continuous Ethnotherapy where dysfunction in responses to differences in color and culture are uncovered.
We would all benefit too from a major restructure of the language use - especially when it come to designating certain folk only as being 'of African ancestry,' - if you're hueman, you're 'of African ancestry,' whether you're Black, Red, Yellow, Brown or white.
This is absolutely necessary if the 'police state,' (busy beating, jailing and killing Blackfolk) which was predicted by the eminent Attorney William Kunstler, is not further embedded in the every day lives of U.S.A. inhabitants.
Actually, this country should follow the prescient brillaint lead of Brazil by setting up a similar entity such as its SEPIR - Special Secretariat for the Promotion of Racial Equality - although it should be titled 'color' equality instead of 'racial' equality. This entity should have time limits, plenty of enforcement teeth
and subpoena power. Anything is just 'whistling Dixie.'
As the next presidential election nears, with a Black contester nearing front-runner position, we can expect to see more and more racist/colorist behavior rearing its ugly head. It is incumbent upon all of us to do all we can to resolve the colorism we've all inherited through no fault of our own by taking the racismtest.org, and registering for follow-up ethnotherapy where its indicated, until we can think straight.
Dr. Martin Luther King said: "Racism is a sin unto death."
(Part of Reparations: No Sales Taxes for Blacks)
Just kidding; but wouldn't it be wonderful if the U.S.A. ever lived up to its claims of Constitutional equal rights?
Of course, part of that 'living up' would entail a forthright public acknowledgement that that very Constitution was written for people with white skins only, not for Red, Black, Yellow or Brown people.
So, if current political leaders and wannabe White House occupiers are to be considered credible in their calls for equal treatment for everyone they need to enact an Amendment to the Constitution stating that it applies to Red, Black, Yellow and Brown-skinned individuals. Without this action, people of color will continue to try to survive under the whimsical control of mal-educated whites - mal-educated as to who it is that all huemanity sprang from - Black Africans in Black Africa (all huemans, even white-skinned folk, are 'of Black African ancestry').
I would like to see the issue of the untreated racism/colorism firmly and continuously raised in the current campaigning for the presidency of the U.S.A. by all of the campaign contestants. (This of course would mean that Barack Obama would call for equity of all Blacks in this country, not just 'African Americans, that's if he doesn't wish to continue to exclude the thousands of Blacks who don't call themselves 'African Americans.' (See my Blog article titled "The Exclusivity of the Phrase African American") Moreover, he would speak in terms of 'color and culture' and not 'race and culture.')
It is way past time for this country, in its pretense of being 'the world's leader,' to come clean about its debilitating primary infectious disease - rampant untreated racism/colorism, the mis-jusdging and mal-treating of huemans who wear skins of observable melanin, in every arena of people activity - economics, education, entertainment, law, labor, politics, religion, sex and war (invasions).
It is also way past time for the U.S.A. to publicly acknowledge its regrettable history of institutional racism/colorism and to deal with that heritage which continues to pervade every facet of today's society.
How many people are aware that we actually export this racist/colorist thinking and behavior in our 'foreign' policy, to other parts of this majority-people-of-color world? (People of color comprise three-quarters of the world's population)
Blatant, institutional, negative color discrimination by the U.S.A. government is starkly evident in its Census Board's recent division of the one hueman race into 117 - one hundred seventeen'races!' The U.S.A. Immigration Department continues to play the dangerous 'Color Roulette' game with individuals wishing to enter the country, i.e. allwing white or light-skinned Cubans and similar others easily entering while darker-skinned 'others' are discouraged from entering.
The U.S.A. police departments still today, with wisespread impunity, murder Black and other 'people of color males' - as Brother Activist Fige Bornu puts it - "assemblyline murders of Black men by police."
And I have yet to see a white 5 year old child handcuffed by the racist/colorist cops. And on and on - so many horrific examples of untreated racism/colorism it's impossible to find space to list here.
It is obvious, considering all of the above, that this entire society, if its credibility as a 'progressive country' is not mired in primitive counterproductivity, must adopt methods of extirpating racist/colorist thinking and behavior, like the whoesale implementation of racismtest.org -ing along with follow-up continuous Ethnotherapy where dysfunction in responses to differences in color and culture are uncovered.
We would all benefit too from a major restructure of the language use - especially when it come to designating certain folk only as being 'of African ancestry,' - if you're hueman, you're 'of African ancestry,' whether you're Black, Red, Yellow, Brown or white.
This is absolutely necessary if the 'police state,' (busy beating, jailing and killing Blackfolk) which was predicted by the eminent Attorney William Kunstler, is not further embedded in the every day lives of U.S.A. inhabitants.
Actually, this country should follow the prescient brillaint lead of Brazil by setting up a similar entity such as its SEPIR - Special Secretariat for the Promotion of Racial Equality - although it should be titled 'color' equality instead of 'racial' equality. This entity should have time limits, plenty of enforcement teeth
and subpoena power. Anything is just 'whistling Dixie.'
As the next presidential election nears, with a Black contester nearing front-runner position, we can expect to see more and more racist/colorist behavior rearing its ugly head. It is incumbent upon all of us to do all we can to resolve the colorism we've all inherited through no fault of our own by taking the racismtest.org, and registering for follow-up ethnotherapy where its indicated, until we can think straight.
Dr. Martin Luther King said: "Racism is a sin unto death."
Thursday, July 3, 2008
REQUIEM FOR A DEFUNCT 'CRIMINAL JUSTICE' SYSTEM:
REQUIEM FOR A DEFUNCT 'CRIMINAL JUSTICE' SYSTEM:
OPEN LETTER TO BROOKLYN DISTRICT ATTORNEY CHARLES HYNES
[July 2, 2008 BKLYN Court's Dismissal of Case Against the Warrens]
OH! So you finally realized that the vengeful case you allowed to be brought against our Black Warrior Attorneys Evelyn & Michael Warren was bogus! Heh! We awareFolk in the Black communities damn well knew that from the get-go. http://www.justiceforwarrens.org
We also knew that those trumped-up charges were just that: trumped up and racist/colorist to the core.
New York's District Attorneys and their staffs, Sgt. Talvy, Police Commissioner Kelly, his entire staff and the rest of the NYPD police force are unquestionably products of our mal-educating Education System - racist/colorist to the core (in many instances entirely inadvertently, but in some cases also advertently). You all need urgently to take the www.racimtest.org and where indicated by low scores, be referred to our Ethnotherapist for counseling until you all can think straight.
Whether folk know/are aware that they are infected with the disease of racism/colorism - to the primary victims of their sickness makes no never mind ('primary' because unknown to most people, the perpetrators of color prejudice and other negative discriminations, are also victims).
Ans so now, because you, in your colorist sickness allowed the egregious travesty called a 'case' to be brought against two Officers of the Court, the Warrens, we, the already overburdened tax payers, will surely have to ante up MILLIONS of DOLLARS when the Warrens, justifiably, sue the a-- off your rotten colorist perpetrators of violent criminal assault against two people doing what they were supposed to do when observing crimes.
You boldfaced hypocrite! You have my unalloyed opprobrium: ever since the Michael Griffith scandal, you haven't deserved to be the District Attorney of the beautiful Borough of Brooklyn! (Don Imus has nothing on you)
In Utter Contempt,
Carol Taylor R.N.
First Black U.S.A. Flight Attendant
Author: The Little Black Book: Black Male Survival in America: Staying Alive & Well in an Institutionally RACIST Society
OPEN LETTER TO BROOKLYN DISTRICT ATTORNEY CHARLES HYNES
[July 2, 2008 BKLYN Court's Dismissal of Case Against the Warrens]
OH! So you finally realized that the vengeful case you allowed to be brought against our Black Warrior Attorneys Evelyn & Michael Warren was bogus! Heh! We awareFolk in the Black communities damn well knew that from the get-go. http://www.justiceforwarrens.org
We also knew that those trumped-up charges were just that: trumped up and racist/colorist to the core.
New York's District Attorneys and their staffs, Sgt. Talvy, Police Commissioner Kelly, his entire staff and the rest of the NYPD police force are unquestionably products of our mal-educating Education System - racist/colorist to the core (in many instances entirely inadvertently, but in some cases also advertently). You all need urgently to take the www.racimtest.org and where indicated by low scores, be referred to our Ethnotherapist for counseling until you all can think straight.
Whether folk know/are aware that they are infected with the disease of racism/colorism - to the primary victims of their sickness makes no never mind ('primary' because unknown to most people, the perpetrators of color prejudice and other negative discriminations, are also victims).
Ans so now, because you, in your colorist sickness allowed the egregious travesty called a 'case' to be brought against two Officers of the Court, the Warrens, we, the already overburdened tax payers, will surely have to ante up MILLIONS of DOLLARS when the Warrens, justifiably, sue the a-- off your rotten colorist perpetrators of violent criminal assault against two people doing what they were supposed to do when observing crimes.
You boldfaced hypocrite! You have my unalloyed opprobrium: ever since the Michael Griffith scandal, you haven't deserved to be the District Attorney of the beautiful Borough of Brooklyn! (Don Imus has nothing on you)
In Utter Contempt,
Carol Taylor R.N.
First Black U.S.A. Flight Attendant
Author: The Little Black Book: Black Male Survival in America: Staying Alive & Well in an Institutionally RACIST Society
Monday, June 30, 2008
Prejudice Is Learned - It Can Be Unlearned
Many Colors - One race
http://caroltaylorword.blogspot.com
www.racismtest.org
Prejudice Is Learned - It Can Be Unlearned
Thank you, thank you, WarriorActivist John, for the below 'Heads-up!'
If ourfolk really were aware of what an invasive tool BKLYN D.A. has concocted with this outrageous persecution (testing our Black levels of insult) the courthouse would be filled, surrounded and near-buried on Wednesday!
Your Sister-in-THE-Struggle,
Carol T.
From smithjohn@earthlink.net :
This month (June, 2008) I learned that a
Website exists covering the plight of attorneys
Michael Tarif Warren and Evelyn Warren, as a
result of their beating and arrest by members
of the New York Police Department (NYPD) when,
on June 21, 2007, they observed while at a
a traffic stop in Brooklyn a young, Black,
HANDCUFFED, male being beaten by members of the
NYPD, and attorney Michael Tarif Warren inquired
on behalf of the handcuffed, young man.
The Website gives an accounting of that horrendous
event that impacted the warrens' lives, and the lives
of the Black community, a bio on Michael Tarif Warren
and Evelyn Warren; an update of their ongoing court
appearances and struggles to remove their names from
the New York criminal records; information on their
next court appearance - July 2, 2008; and recommend
actions you can take on behalf on the Warrens,
in addition to attending the Warrens' Wednesday,
July 2nd, court appearance.
The Website is: http://www.justiceforwarrens.org
If you are not currently subscribed to receive updated
information on the Warrens, in addition to making their
Website one of your FAVORITES, I urge you to do so.
Go to the Website listed above. Their subscriptions
should be ten times greater than currently, and
supporters at the July 2nd court date should be
DOUBLE the number in attendance at their last court
appearance this month. This is a critical moment
in the court proceedings. Your attendance is needed.
These critical times require each of us to expend
our greatest energy and resources in this struggle
for justice, democracy, and first-class citizenship.
THIS IS THE MOMENT! Please pass on this message.
John D. Smith
http://caroltaylorword.blogspot.com
www.racismtest.org
Prejudice Is Learned - It Can Be Unlearned
Thank you, thank you, WarriorActivist John, for the below 'Heads-up!'
If ourfolk really were aware of what an invasive tool BKLYN D.A. has concocted with this outrageous persecution (testing our Black levels of insult) the courthouse would be filled, surrounded and near-buried on Wednesday!
Your Sister-in-THE-Struggle,
Carol T.
From smithjohn@earthlink.net :
This month (June, 2008) I learned that a
Website exists covering the plight of attorneys
Michael Tarif Warren and Evelyn Warren, as a
result of their beating and arrest by members
of the New York Police Department (NYPD) when,
on June 21, 2007, they observed while at a
a traffic stop in Brooklyn a young, Black,
HANDCUFFED, male being beaten by members of the
NYPD, and attorney Michael Tarif Warren inquired
on behalf of the handcuffed, young man.
The Website gives an accounting of that horrendous
event that impacted the warrens' lives, and the lives
of the Black community, a bio on Michael Tarif Warren
and Evelyn Warren; an update of their ongoing court
appearances and struggles to remove their names from
the New York criminal records; information on their
next court appearance - July 2, 2008; and recommend
actions you can take on behalf on the Warrens,
in addition to attending the Warrens' Wednesday,
July 2nd, court appearance.
The Website is: http://www.justiceforwarrens.org
If you are not currently subscribed to receive updated
information on the Warrens, in addition to making their
Website one of your FAVORITES, I urge you to do so.
Go to the Website listed above. Their subscriptions
should be ten times greater than currently, and
supporters at the July 2nd court date should be
DOUBLE the number in attendance at their last court
appearance this month. This is a critical moment
in the court proceedings. Your attendance is needed.
These critical times require each of us to expend
our greatest energy and resources in this struggle
for justice, democracy, and first-class citizenship.
THIS IS THE MOMENT! Please pass on this message.
John D. Smith
Sunday, June 29, 2008
TRUTHCENTRICITY
TRUTHCENTRICITY
Any-Black-one who believes that they are 'truthcentric,' (thanks to Professor Ivan Van Serima for the term) and who has not read Dr. Tony Martin's writings doesn't know why the term "African" is no longer synonymous with the term "Black."* The frightening reason is neo/re-colonization by europeans.
Read this and weep - and then get up off your intellectually-castrated butt and do something about it!
The first step is discovering (uncovering) who you really are: descended from the original hueman beings: Black, Black, Black Africans (Alkebulans) in Africa - the cradle of civilization.
Learn/live "truthcentricity!" (I call myself "Black African")
For Liberation - Required Reading - 1998 Dr. Martin's "The Progress of the African Race Since Emancipation and Prospects for the Future," and "The Jewish Onslaught." (Reviewed by me below)
*Actually since the first huemans on theis planet were Black and in Africa - it should be obvious to anyone thinking straight that all huemans are 'of Black African ancestry.' DUH!
MAKES YOU WANNA' HOLLER!
The Jewish Onslaught:
Despatches from the Wellesley Battlefront
by Tony Martin
145 pp
ISBN 0-912469-30-7 (paper) $9.95
Copyright 1993 by Tony Martin
Aha! In the midst of all of the obscenities going on in the Middle-East-of-Africa against the Palestinians - you thought this book review was about that hegemony! You're wrong. This brilliant, exceptionally timeless book, The Jewish Onslaught, meticulously and quite deliciously details the unfair, nasty, underhanded, feral, protracted and unrelenting campaign waged against Professor Tony Martin, B.Sc., Economics, M.A. and Ph.D. History, a Black, Trinidadian/Tobagonian, world-renowned and respected Historian at Wellesly College in Masachussetts. (Professor Martin also qualified as a Barrister-at-Law at London's presitigous Gray's Inn in 1965)
Professor Martin's erudition shines through information-laden prose as his witty use of The King's English thrusts into and parries against vulpine enemies on and off the Wellesley campus. Every mother's child should have to read this book at least four times: once, for the sheer story content, twice to learn how to most effectively utilize the english language, thrice for becoming acutely aware of the art of sustaining urban survival guerilla warfare and fourth for whetting the readers' literary appetite for as many of Professor Martin's other publications as they can feast their eyes and brains on. (So, am I looking forward to reading his newest work? - Amy Ashwood Garvey: Pan Africanist, Feminist and Mrs. Marcus Garvey No.1 or, (A Tale of Two Amies) Well yes!)
In other words, if you'd like your (children especially) relatives and friends to be fully equipped for surviving in a color-hostile society which purports to be a democracy, then make them a present of The Jewish Onslaught (to begin with) as soon as possible. It's a classic: and Oh! - the volatile, vorticose vocabulary! Word UP!
Professor Martin, a longtime, tenured-at-Wellesley-for-29+ years scholar, who, by 1993 had, incredibly, authored, compiled and edited eleven books, not only describes Black African history, but amply and skillfully melds the 'then and now' of what's going on, with critical allusions to well-known prominent players in the perilous survival struggles for Black liberation.
Wait just a moment! I apologize for ending this book review right now - I've got to go re-read Dr. Martin's thought-and-action-inspiring book. Sorry - as I was just reading through - his handwritten dedication (he signed my copy - "To My Sister"), the riveting Preface "Major Media," "Massa, We Sick?" - "Jewish Racism," "Black Solidarity," etc. etc.etc., and Documents of the Onslaught, (Letters and his 'quasi-lynching' Speech) and Broadside #1, - I had to drop everything, run to the 'phone and try to track down the other Broadsides! (I did find #'s 3 and 4! Whew!)
P.S. someone else (more talented than I) will have to finish this review: I'm too busy re-reading The Jewish Onslaught and Dr. Martin's other publications!
Reach Dr. Martin by e-mail at tmppromo@yahoo.com or Majority Press (and we are 'the majority!') email orders: ORDERS@pssc.com, Credit card orders: www.themajoritypress.com In Trinidad: Afrikan World Books, Independence Square & Chacon Street, Port of Spain
Any-Black-one who believes that they are 'truthcentric,' (thanks to Professor Ivan Van Serima for the term) and who has not read Dr. Tony Martin's writings doesn't know why the term "African" is no longer synonymous with the term "Black."* The frightening reason is neo/re-colonization by europeans.
Read this and weep - and then get up off your intellectually-castrated butt and do something about it!
The first step is discovering (uncovering) who you really are: descended from the original hueman beings: Black, Black, Black Africans (Alkebulans) in Africa - the cradle of civilization.
Learn/live "truthcentricity!" (I call myself "Black African")
For Liberation - Required Reading - 1998 Dr. Martin's "The Progress of the African Race Since Emancipation and Prospects for the Future," and "The Jewish Onslaught." (Reviewed by me below)
*Actually since the first huemans on theis planet were Black and in Africa - it should be obvious to anyone thinking straight that all huemans are 'of Black African ancestry.' DUH!
MAKES YOU WANNA' HOLLER!
The Jewish Onslaught:
Despatches from the Wellesley Battlefront
by Tony Martin
145 pp
ISBN 0-912469-30-7 (paper) $9.95
Copyright 1993 by Tony Martin
Aha! In the midst of all of the obscenities going on in the Middle-East-of-Africa against the Palestinians - you thought this book review was about that hegemony! You're wrong. This brilliant, exceptionally timeless book, The Jewish Onslaught, meticulously and quite deliciously details the unfair, nasty, underhanded, feral, protracted and unrelenting campaign waged against Professor Tony Martin, B.Sc., Economics, M.A. and Ph.D. History, a Black, Trinidadian/Tobagonian, world-renowned and respected Historian at Wellesly College in Masachussetts. (Professor Martin also qualified as a Barrister-at-Law at London's presitigous Gray's Inn in 1965)
Professor Martin's erudition shines through information-laden prose as his witty use of The King's English thrusts into and parries against vulpine enemies on and off the Wellesley campus. Every mother's child should have to read this book at least four times: once, for the sheer story content, twice to learn how to most effectively utilize the english language, thrice for becoming acutely aware of the art of sustaining urban survival guerilla warfare and fourth for whetting the readers' literary appetite for as many of Professor Martin's other publications as they can feast their eyes and brains on. (So, am I looking forward to reading his newest work? - Amy Ashwood Garvey: Pan Africanist, Feminist and Mrs. Marcus Garvey No.1 or, (A Tale of Two Amies) Well yes!)
In other words, if you'd like your (children especially) relatives and friends to be fully equipped for surviving in a color-hostile society which purports to be a democracy, then make them a present of The Jewish Onslaught (to begin with) as soon as possible. It's a classic: and Oh! - the volatile, vorticose vocabulary! Word UP!
Professor Martin, a longtime, tenured-at-Wellesley-for-29+ years scholar, who, by 1993 had, incredibly, authored, compiled and edited eleven books, not only describes Black African history, but amply and skillfully melds the 'then and now' of what's going on, with critical allusions to well-known prominent players in the perilous survival struggles for Black liberation.
Wait just a moment! I apologize for ending this book review right now - I've got to go re-read Dr. Martin's thought-and-action-inspiring book. Sorry - as I was just reading through - his handwritten dedication (he signed my copy - "To My Sister"), the riveting Preface "Major Media," "Massa, We Sick?" - "Jewish Racism," "Black Solidarity," etc. etc.etc., and Documents of the Onslaught, (Letters and his 'quasi-lynching' Speech) and Broadside #1, - I had to drop everything, run to the 'phone and try to track down the other Broadsides! (I did find #'s 3 and 4! Whew!)
P.S. someone else (more talented than I) will have to finish this review: I'm too busy re-reading The Jewish Onslaught and Dr. Martin's other publications!
Reach Dr. Martin by e-mail at tmppromo@yahoo.com or Majority Press (and we are 'the majority!') email orders: ORDERS@pssc.com, Credit card orders: www.themajoritypress.com In Trinidad: Afrikan World Books, Independence Square & Chacon Street, Port of Spain
Thursday, June 26, 2008
The Global Hierarchy of Race
(This article is so evocative, although it's not written by me - I had to reproduce it because of its clarity and relevance):
"The Global Hierarchy of Race
[Martin Jacques is a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics. The death of his wife, Harinder Veriah, in 2000 in a Hong Kong hospital triggered an outcry, which culminated in an announcement by the Hong Kong government that it would introduce anti-racist legislation for the first time. He can be reached at: martinjacques1@aol.com]
As the only racial group that never suffers systemic racism, whites are in denial about its impact. I always found race difficult to understand. It was never intuitive. And the reason was simple. Like every other white person, I had never experienced it myself: the meaning of colour was something I had to learn. The turning point was falling in love with my wife, an Indian-Maylasian and her coming to live in England. Then, over time, I came to see my own country in a completely different way, through her eyes, her background. Colour is something white people never have to think about because for them it is never a handicap, never a source of prejudice or discrimination but rather the opposite, a source of privilege. However liberal and enlightened I try to be, I still had a white outlook on the world. My wife was the beginning of my education.
But it was not until we went to live in Hong Kong that my view of the world and the place that race occupies within it, was to be utterly transformed. Rather than seeing race through the prism of my own society, I learned to see it globally.
When we left these shores, it felt as if we were moving closer to my wife's world: this was East Asia and she was Malaysian. And she, unlike me, had the benefit of speaking Cantonese. So my expectation was that she would feel more comfortable in this environment than I would. I was wrong.
As a white, I found myself treated with respect and deference; my wife notwithstanding her knowledge of the language and her intimacy with Chinese culture was the object of an in-your-face racism. In our 14 months in Hong Kong, I learned some brutal lessons about racism. First, it is not the preserve of whites. Every race displays racial prejucice, is capable of racism, carries assumptions about its own virtue and superiority. Racism, therefore, is subtly different, reflecting the specificity of its own culture and history. Second, there is a global racial hierarchy that helps to shape the power and prejudices of each race. At the top of this hierarchy are whites. The reasons are deep-rooted and profound. White societies have been the global top dogs for half a millenium, ever since the Chines civilization went into decline. With global hegemony, first with Europe and then the U.S., whites have long commanded respect, as well as arousing fear and resenment, among other races. Being white confers a privilege, a special kind of deference, throughout the world, be it Kingston, Hong Kong, Delhi, Lagos - or even despite the way it is portrayed in Britain, Harare.
Whites are the only race that never suffers any kind of systemic racism anywhere in the world. And the impact of white racism has been far more profound and baneful than any other: it remains the only racism with global reach.
Being top of the pile means that whites are peculiarly and uniquely insensitive to race and racism and the power relations this involves. We are invariably the beneficiaries, never the victims. Even when well meaning, we remain strangely ignorant. The clout enjoyed by whites does not reside simply in an abstraction - western societies - but in the skin of each and every one of us. Whether we like it or not, in every corner of the planet we enjoy an extraordinary personal power bestowed by our colour. It is something we are largely oblivious of and consequently take for granted, irrespective of whether we are liberal or reactionary, back-packers, tourists or expatriate businessmen.
The existence of a de facto global racial hierarchy helps to shape the nature of racial prejudice exhibited by other races. Whites are universally respected, even when that respect is combined with strong resentment. A race generally defers to those above it in the hierarchy and is contemptuous of those below it.
The Chinese - like the Japanese - widely consider themselves to be number two in the pecking order and look down upon all other races as inferior. Their respect for whites is also grudging - many Chinese believe that western hegemony is, in effect, held on no more than prolonged leasehold. Those below the Chinese and the Japanese in the hierarchy are invariably people of colour (both Chinese and Japanese often like to see themselves as white or nearly white).
At the bottom of the pile, virtually everywhere it would seem, are those of African descent, the only exception in certain cases being the indigenous peoples.
The highlights are centrality of colour to the global hierarchy. Other factors serve to define and reinforce a race's position in the hierarchy - levels of development, civilisational values, history, religion, physical characteristics and dress - but the most insistent and widespread is colour. The reason is that colour is instantly recognizable, it defines difference at the glance of an eye. It also happens to have anoher effect. It makes the gobal hierarchy seem like the natural order of things: you are born with your colour, it is something nobody can do anything about, it is neither cultural nor social but physical in origin.
In the era of globalization, with the mass migration and globalized cultural industries, colour has become the universal calling card of difference. In interwar Europe, the dominant forms of racism were anti-Semitism and racialised nationalism, today it is color: at a football match, it is blacks not Jews that get jeered even in Eastern Europe.
Liberals like to think that racism is a product of ignorance, a lack of contact and that as human mobility increases, so racism will decline. This might be described as the Bennetton view of the world. And it does contain a modicum of truth. Intermixing can foster greater understanding but not necessarily as Burnley, Sri Lanka and Israel, in their very different ways, all testify.
Hong Kong, compared with China, is an open society and has long been so, yet it has had little or no effect in mollifying Chinese prejudice towards people of darker skin. It is not that racism is immovable and intractable but that its roots are deep, its prejudices as old as humanity itself.
The origins of Chinese racism lie in the Middle Kingdom.: the belief that the Chinese are superior to other races - with the exception of whites - is centuries, if not thousands of years old.
The disparaging attitude among American whites towards blacks has its roots in slavery. Wishing it wasn't true, denying it's true, will never change the reality. We can only understnd - and tackle racism - if we are honest about it. And when it comes to race - more than any other issue - honesty is in desperately short supply. Race remains the great taboo. Take the case of Hong Kong. A conspiracy of silence surrounded race. As the British departed in 1997, amid much self-congratulation, they breathed not a word about racism. Yet the latter was integral to colonial rule, its leitmotif: colonialism, after all, is institutionalized racism at its crudest and most base.
The majority of Chinese, the object of it, meanwhile, harbored an equally racist mentality towards people of darker skin. Masters of their own home, they too are in denial of their own racism. But that, in varying degrees, is true of racism not only in Hong Kong but also in every country in the world.
You may remember that, after the riots in Burnley in the summer of 2001, Tony Blair declared that they were not a true reflection of the state of race relations in Britain: of course, they were, even if the picture is less discouraging in other aspects.
Racism everywhere remains largely invisible and hugely under-estimated, the issue that barely speaks its name. How can the Economist produce a 15,000-word survey on migration, as it did last year, and hardly mention the word racism? Why does virtually no one talk about the racism suffered by the Williams sisters on the tennis circuit even though the evidence is legion? Why are the deeply racist western attitudes towards Arabs barely mentioned in the context of the occupation of Iraq, carefully hidden behind talk of religion and civilizational values?
The dominant race in a society, whether white or otherwise, rarely admits to its own racism. Denial is near universal. The reasons are manifold. It has a huge vested interest in its own privilege. It will often be oblivious to its own prejudices. It will regard its racist attitudes as nothing more than common sense, having the force and justification of nature. Only when challenged by those on the receiving end is racism ousted and attitudes begin to change.
The reason why British sociey is less nakedly racist than it used to be is that whites have been forced by people of color to question age-old racist assumptions. Nations are never honest about themselves: they are all in varying degrees of denial.
This is clearly fundamental to understanding the way in which racism in underplayed as a national and global issue. But there is another reason, which is a specifically white problem. Because whites remain the overwhelmingly dominant race, perched in splendid isolation on top of the pile even though they only represent 17% of the world's population, they are overwhelmingly responsible for setting the global agenda, for determining what is discussed and what is not. And the fact that whites have no experience of racism except as perpetrators means that racism is constantly underplayed by western institutions - by governments, by the media, by corporations. Moreover, because whites have reigned globally supreme for half a millenium, they, more than any other race, have left their mark on the rest of humanity: they have a vested interest in denying the extent and baneful effects of racism.
It was only two years ago, you may remember, that the first-ever United Nations conference on racism was held - against the fierce resistance of the U.S. (and that in the Clinton era). Nothing more eloquently testifies to the unwillingness of western governments to engage in a global dialogue abou the problem of racism.
If racism isnow more widely recognized than it used to be, the situation is likely to be transformed over the next few decades. As migration increase, as the regime of denial is challenged, as subordinate races find the will and confidence to challenge the dominant race. As understanding of racism develops, as we become more aware of other racisms like that of the Han Chinese, then the global prominence of racism is surely set to increase dramatically.
It is rare to hear a political leader speaking the discourse of colour. Robert Mugabe is one but he is tainted and discredited. The Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamed, is articulate on the subject of white privilege and the global hierarchy. The most striking example by a huge margin, though, is Nelson Mandela. When it comes to colour, his sacrifice is beyond compare and his authority unimpeachable. And his message is always universal - not confined to the interests of one race. It is he who has suggested that western support for Israel has somethin to do with race. It is he who has hinted that it is no accident that the authority of the UN is under threat at a time when its secretary general is black. And yet his voice is almost alone in a world where race oozes from every pore of humanity.
In a world where racism is becoming increasingly important, we will need more such leaders. And invariably they will be people of colour: on this subject whites lack moral authority. I could only understand the racism suffered by my wife through her words and experience. I never felt it myself. The difference is utterly fundamental
"The Global Hierarchy of Race
[Martin Jacques is a Visiting Fellow at the London School of Economics. The death of his wife, Harinder Veriah, in 2000 in a Hong Kong hospital triggered an outcry, which culminated in an announcement by the Hong Kong government that it would introduce anti-racist legislation for the first time. He can be reached at: martinjacques1@aol.com]
As the only racial group that never suffers systemic racism, whites are in denial about its impact. I always found race difficult to understand. It was never intuitive. And the reason was simple. Like every other white person, I had never experienced it myself: the meaning of colour was something I had to learn. The turning point was falling in love with my wife, an Indian-Maylasian and her coming to live in England. Then, over time, I came to see my own country in a completely different way, through her eyes, her background. Colour is something white people never have to think about because for them it is never a handicap, never a source of prejudice or discrimination but rather the opposite, a source of privilege. However liberal and enlightened I try to be, I still had a white outlook on the world. My wife was the beginning of my education.
But it was not until we went to live in Hong Kong that my view of the world and the place that race occupies within it, was to be utterly transformed. Rather than seeing race through the prism of my own society, I learned to see it globally.
When we left these shores, it felt as if we were moving closer to my wife's world: this was East Asia and she was Malaysian. And she, unlike me, had the benefit of speaking Cantonese. So my expectation was that she would feel more comfortable in this environment than I would. I was wrong.
As a white, I found myself treated with respect and deference; my wife notwithstanding her knowledge of the language and her intimacy with Chinese culture was the object of an in-your-face racism. In our 14 months in Hong Kong, I learned some brutal lessons about racism. First, it is not the preserve of whites. Every race displays racial prejucice, is capable of racism, carries assumptions about its own virtue and superiority. Racism, therefore, is subtly different, reflecting the specificity of its own culture and history. Second, there is a global racial hierarchy that helps to shape the power and prejudices of each race. At the top of this hierarchy are whites. The reasons are deep-rooted and profound. White societies have been the global top dogs for half a millenium, ever since the Chines civilization went into decline. With global hegemony, first with Europe and then the U.S., whites have long commanded respect, as well as arousing fear and resenment, among other races. Being white confers a privilege, a special kind of deference, throughout the world, be it Kingston, Hong Kong, Delhi, Lagos - or even despite the way it is portrayed in Britain, Harare.
Whites are the only race that never suffers any kind of systemic racism anywhere in the world. And the impact of white racism has been far more profound and baneful than any other: it remains the only racism with global reach.
Being top of the pile means that whites are peculiarly and uniquely insensitive to race and racism and the power relations this involves. We are invariably the beneficiaries, never the victims. Even when well meaning, we remain strangely ignorant. The clout enjoyed by whites does not reside simply in an abstraction - western societies - but in the skin of each and every one of us. Whether we like it or not, in every corner of the planet we enjoy an extraordinary personal power bestowed by our colour. It is something we are largely oblivious of and consequently take for granted, irrespective of whether we are liberal or reactionary, back-packers, tourists or expatriate businessmen.
The existence of a de facto global racial hierarchy helps to shape the nature of racial prejudice exhibited by other races. Whites are universally respected, even when that respect is combined with strong resentment. A race generally defers to those above it in the hierarchy and is contemptuous of those below it.
The Chinese - like the Japanese - widely consider themselves to be number two in the pecking order and look down upon all other races as inferior. Their respect for whites is also grudging - many Chinese believe that western hegemony is, in effect, held on no more than prolonged leasehold. Those below the Chinese and the Japanese in the hierarchy are invariably people of colour (both Chinese and Japanese often like to see themselves as white or nearly white).
At the bottom of the pile, virtually everywhere it would seem, are those of African descent, the only exception in certain cases being the indigenous peoples.
The highlights are centrality of colour to the global hierarchy. Other factors serve to define and reinforce a race's position in the hierarchy - levels of development, civilisational values, history, religion, physical characteristics and dress - but the most insistent and widespread is colour. The reason is that colour is instantly recognizable, it defines difference at the glance of an eye. It also happens to have anoher effect. It makes the gobal hierarchy seem like the natural order of things: you are born with your colour, it is something nobody can do anything about, it is neither cultural nor social but physical in origin.
In the era of globalization, with the mass migration and globalized cultural industries, colour has become the universal calling card of difference. In interwar Europe, the dominant forms of racism were anti-Semitism and racialised nationalism, today it is color: at a football match, it is blacks not Jews that get jeered even in Eastern Europe.
Liberals like to think that racism is a product of ignorance, a lack of contact and that as human mobility increases, so racism will decline. This might be described as the Bennetton view of the world. And it does contain a modicum of truth. Intermixing can foster greater understanding but not necessarily as Burnley, Sri Lanka and Israel, in their very different ways, all testify.
Hong Kong, compared with China, is an open society and has long been so, yet it has had little or no effect in mollifying Chinese prejudice towards people of darker skin. It is not that racism is immovable and intractable but that its roots are deep, its prejudices as old as humanity itself.
The origins of Chinese racism lie in the Middle Kingdom.: the belief that the Chinese are superior to other races - with the exception of whites - is centuries, if not thousands of years old.
The disparaging attitude among American whites towards blacks has its roots in slavery. Wishing it wasn't true, denying it's true, will never change the reality. We can only understnd - and tackle racism - if we are honest about it. And when it comes to race - more than any other issue - honesty is in desperately short supply. Race remains the great taboo. Take the case of Hong Kong. A conspiracy of silence surrounded race. As the British departed in 1997, amid much self-congratulation, they breathed not a word about racism. Yet the latter was integral to colonial rule, its leitmotif: colonialism, after all, is institutionalized racism at its crudest and most base.
The majority of Chinese, the object of it, meanwhile, harbored an equally racist mentality towards people of darker skin. Masters of their own home, they too are in denial of their own racism. But that, in varying degrees, is true of racism not only in Hong Kong but also in every country in the world.
You may remember that, after the riots in Burnley in the summer of 2001, Tony Blair declared that they were not a true reflection of the state of race relations in Britain: of course, they were, even if the picture is less discouraging in other aspects.
Racism everywhere remains largely invisible and hugely under-estimated, the issue that barely speaks its name. How can the Economist produce a 15,000-word survey on migration, as it did last year, and hardly mention the word racism? Why does virtually no one talk about the racism suffered by the Williams sisters on the tennis circuit even though the evidence is legion? Why are the deeply racist western attitudes towards Arabs barely mentioned in the context of the occupation of Iraq, carefully hidden behind talk of religion and civilizational values?
The dominant race in a society, whether white or otherwise, rarely admits to its own racism. Denial is near universal. The reasons are manifold. It has a huge vested interest in its own privilege. It will often be oblivious to its own prejudices. It will regard its racist attitudes as nothing more than common sense, having the force and justification of nature. Only when challenged by those on the receiving end is racism ousted and attitudes begin to change.
The reason why British sociey is less nakedly racist than it used to be is that whites have been forced by people of color to question age-old racist assumptions. Nations are never honest about themselves: they are all in varying degrees of denial.
This is clearly fundamental to understanding the way in which racism in underplayed as a national and global issue. But there is another reason, which is a specifically white problem. Because whites remain the overwhelmingly dominant race, perched in splendid isolation on top of the pile even though they only represent 17% of the world's population, they are overwhelmingly responsible for setting the global agenda, for determining what is discussed and what is not. And the fact that whites have no experience of racism except as perpetrators means that racism is constantly underplayed by western institutions - by governments, by the media, by corporations. Moreover, because whites have reigned globally supreme for half a millenium, they, more than any other race, have left their mark on the rest of humanity: they have a vested interest in denying the extent and baneful effects of racism.
It was only two years ago, you may remember, that the first-ever United Nations conference on racism was held - against the fierce resistance of the U.S. (and that in the Clinton era). Nothing more eloquently testifies to the unwillingness of western governments to engage in a global dialogue abou the problem of racism.
If racism isnow more widely recognized than it used to be, the situation is likely to be transformed over the next few decades. As migration increase, as the regime of denial is challenged, as subordinate races find the will and confidence to challenge the dominant race. As understanding of racism develops, as we become more aware of other racisms like that of the Han Chinese, then the global prominence of racism is surely set to increase dramatically.
It is rare to hear a political leader speaking the discourse of colour. Robert Mugabe is one but he is tainted and discredited. The Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamed, is articulate on the subject of white privilege and the global hierarchy. The most striking example by a huge margin, though, is Nelson Mandela. When it comes to colour, his sacrifice is beyond compare and his authority unimpeachable. And his message is always universal - not confined to the interests of one race. It is he who has suggested that western support for Israel has somethin to do with race. It is he who has hinted that it is no accident that the authority of the UN is under threat at a time when its secretary general is black. And yet his voice is almost alone in a world where race oozes from every pore of humanity.
In a world where racism is becoming increasingly important, we will need more such leaders. And invariably they will be people of colour: on this subject whites lack moral authority. I could only understand the racism suffered by my wife through her words and experience. I never felt it myself. The difference is utterly fundamental
Saturday, June 14, 2008
FEAR OF DYING:
FEAR OF DYING:
Breathing While Black and Male in America
[Carol Taylor is a well-traveled international journalist who has been published in magazines and newspapers in various countries. She, also the first Black U.S.A. Flight Attendant, writes mainly about social issues specifically targetting racism/colorism]
On a list answering the question: "Who would you rather be?" - Black males would be on the very bottom because - when forced to face stark reality in the U.S.A., most people, irrespective of gender or hue, would have to acknowldege what the late Judge Bruce McMarion Wright called 'Black male jeopardy,' and choose to be anyone but a Black male.
Professor Andrew Hacker, author of "Two Nations: Black and White: Separate, Hostile and Unequal," after conducting a study with his students some years ago where he asked if they would choose to be Black for a million dollars, found that even for a million dollars, not one student 'chose' to be Black (male or female). Where/when did these multi-colored young people arrive at this aversion?
One only need become aware of the viciously-stereotyping mass media in this country to find an alarming answer to this question. Broadcast media, especially the audio-visual outlets, harbor, in a negatively-classic fashion, racist/colorist individuals who routinely - albeit some of them inadvertently - 'put down,' invalidate, mock, belittle, ignore, undercount, stigmatize, disregard, denigrate, sideline, stereotype and insult Black males. It's almost a bloody art form!
Do we really have to name, as examples of the abject public villification/pillorying, by some of the more recognizable - but by no means the only - victimizers: Bob Grant, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Tilghman, Ted Koppel (who asked Jesse Jackson if he was a Black man or an American - as did a NYC Channel 7 wanna-be-big-anchorman ask Senator Barack Obama if he were Black first or an American first), Don Imus, Andy Rooney, Mike Taibi, Ann Coulter, Patrick J. Buchanan (of the "Zulu" name calling) - among too many other sickos tolerated by the unwashed masses and paid by mostly colorist capitalist white males. These 'media giants' must eventually be held responsible for perpetuating - for their own capital gains - the false notion of the Black male as one of the major threats to 'national security.'
Let anyone who remains obdurately ignorant of the unenvious plight of Black males in the United States of America look at "Stolen Lives," a project of the "October 22nd Coalition" - go to any page and see (in the Spanish-speaking ones - who were killed by the police. Doubters can also try to envision themselves as Black males; 'walk a mile in a Black male's shoes,' as it were - understanding what it means to know that they put themselves in dire danger if they forget who they are for a moment and run down a street; to have to endure being followed everywhere in retail stores; to see the disproportionate number of people looking like themselves in this nation's courts, jails and Death Rows; in the military, and the paucity of them in the colleges and in the country's jobs (50+% Black male unemployment in New York City)
What does it mean to the millions of Black males in the U.S.A. who, at one stage of their development or another, sooner or later begin to realize that they are targets for not only death-dealing cops of any color - (mostly racist/colorist white male Catholic ones, by the way) and other 'law enforcement' individuals, but also of other societally mal-educated, victimized, low self-esteemed Black males who (as they call each other "nigger") beat, rob and kill others looking like themselves - not realizing that they are carrying out the colorist hegemonic programming of dominant white males they'll never even meet? Heavy.
Involving the names of martyred Black males in this colorist society, because there are so many of them, unfortunately tends to irritate pople who can't seem to identify with oppressed Black people: names like Amadou Diallo, Brian Fillmore, Ed Perry, Anthony Baez, Timothy Thomas,Ernest Sayon, Hilton Vega, Malcom Ferguson, Sean Bell, Anthony Rosario, Nicholas Heyward, Jr., Patrick Dorismond, Randy Evans, Clifford Glover, Timothy Stansbury, Jr., Earl Faison, Idriss Stelley, Michael Stewart, Michael Phillips, Michael Donald, Michael Newkirk, Michael Carpernter, Michael Knight (Mother: don't name your Black son 'Michael' I guess!) - just to list a few of the cop-killed Black males.
Ask any Black male how many times he's been stopped and frisked ("He resembled a suspect we were looking for"); how many times he's been stopped while driving (espcecially in his new expensive car); ticketed, accused of something he didn't do; how many times (if he's lucky enough to even have a job) he's been required to train a lower echelon white who then is promoted above him; how many times he's tried to get a cab and failed; how many people either won't take the same elevator or clutch their purses as he enters one - and on and on - ad infinitum and nauseam.
SOLUTION?
An ongoing www.racismtest.org for the entire U.S.A. population -
(given the mal-education system which up to the currrent time stubornly refuses to teach
that all huemans are 'of Black African ancestry') and where individual responses
to differences in color and culture are dysfunctional, refer these people to Ethnotherapy
until they can think straight.
Then it won't be such a scary thing to be Black and male in America and those males can walk around breathing a little bit easier in their skins of observable melanin.
HEAL America: with the racismtest.org !!!
Breathing While Black and Male in America
[Carol Taylor is a well-traveled international journalist who has been published in magazines and newspapers in various countries. She, also the first Black U.S.A. Flight Attendant, writes mainly about social issues specifically targetting racism/colorism]
On a list answering the question: "Who would you rather be?" - Black males would be on the very bottom because - when forced to face stark reality in the U.S.A., most people, irrespective of gender or hue, would have to acknowldege what the late Judge Bruce McMarion Wright called 'Black male jeopardy,' and choose to be anyone but a Black male.
Professor Andrew Hacker, author of "Two Nations: Black and White: Separate, Hostile and Unequal," after conducting a study with his students some years ago where he asked if they would choose to be Black for a million dollars, found that even for a million dollars, not one student 'chose' to be Black (male or female). Where/when did these multi-colored young people arrive at this aversion?
One only need become aware of the viciously-stereotyping mass media in this country to find an alarming answer to this question. Broadcast media, especially the audio-visual outlets, harbor, in a negatively-classic fashion, racist/colorist individuals who routinely - albeit some of them inadvertently - 'put down,' invalidate, mock, belittle, ignore, undercount, stigmatize, disregard, denigrate, sideline, stereotype and insult Black males. It's almost a bloody art form!
Do we really have to name, as examples of the abject public villification/pillorying, by some of the more recognizable - but by no means the only - victimizers: Bob Grant, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Ann Tilghman, Ted Koppel (who asked Jesse Jackson if he was a Black man or an American - as did a NYC Channel 7 wanna-be-big-anchorman ask Senator Barack Obama if he were Black first or an American first), Don Imus, Andy Rooney, Mike Taibi, Ann Coulter, Patrick J. Buchanan (of the "Zulu" name calling) - among too many other sickos tolerated by the unwashed masses and paid by mostly colorist capitalist white males. These 'media giants' must eventually be held responsible for perpetuating - for their own capital gains - the false notion of the Black male as one of the major threats to 'national security.'
Let anyone who remains obdurately ignorant of the unenvious plight of Black males in the United States of America look at "Stolen Lives," a project of the "October 22nd Coalition" - go to any page and see (in the Spanish-speaking ones - who were killed by the police. Doubters can also try to envision themselves as Black males; 'walk a mile in a Black male's shoes,' as it were - understanding what it means to know that they put themselves in dire danger if they forget who they are for a moment and run down a street; to have to endure being followed everywhere in retail stores; to see the disproportionate number of people looking like themselves in this nation's courts, jails and Death Rows; in the military, and the paucity of them in the colleges and in the country's jobs (50+% Black male unemployment in New York City)
What does it mean to the millions of Black males in the U.S.A. who, at one stage of their development or another, sooner or later begin to realize that they are targets for not only death-dealing cops of any color - (mostly racist/colorist white male Catholic ones, by the way) and other 'law enforcement' individuals, but also of other societally mal-educated, victimized, low self-esteemed Black males who (as they call each other "nigger") beat, rob and kill others looking like themselves - not realizing that they are carrying out the colorist hegemonic programming of dominant white males they'll never even meet? Heavy.
Involving the names of martyred Black males in this colorist society, because there are so many of them, unfortunately tends to irritate pople who can't seem to identify with oppressed Black people: names like Amadou Diallo, Brian Fillmore, Ed Perry, Anthony Baez, Timothy Thomas,Ernest Sayon, Hilton Vega, Malcom Ferguson, Sean Bell, Anthony Rosario, Nicholas Heyward, Jr., Patrick Dorismond, Randy Evans, Clifford Glover, Timothy Stansbury, Jr., Earl Faison, Idriss Stelley, Michael Stewart, Michael Phillips, Michael Donald, Michael Newkirk, Michael Carpernter, Michael Knight (Mother: don't name your Black son 'Michael' I guess!) - just to list a few of the cop-killed Black males.
Ask any Black male how many times he's been stopped and frisked ("He resembled a suspect we were looking for"); how many times he's been stopped while driving (espcecially in his new expensive car); ticketed, accused of something he didn't do; how many times (if he's lucky enough to even have a job) he's been required to train a lower echelon white who then is promoted above him; how many times he's tried to get a cab and failed; how many people either won't take the same elevator or clutch their purses as he enters one - and on and on - ad infinitum and nauseam.
SOLUTION?
An ongoing www.racismtest.org for the entire U.S.A. population -
(given the mal-education system which up to the currrent time stubornly refuses to teach
that all huemans are 'of Black African ancestry') and where individual responses
to differences in color and culture are dysfunctional, refer these people to Ethnotherapy
until they can think straight.
Then it won't be such a scary thing to be Black and male in America and those males can walk around breathing a little bit easier in their skins of observable melanin.
HEAL America: with the racismtest.org !!!
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