FADE TO BLACK

We need to have the complete, total annihilation white supremacy in America. We should not vote for one more white candidate! After decades of growth in our communities, we are now being moved like pawns on a worn out chess board. We are being controlled daily by forces that do not have our best interests at heart. I do not see it any other way now. I know that by writing this document I will probably loose friends and readers but this has to be said. We have to become mean again. We have to fight our oppression with force. By manipulation of statistics, the government reports Black unemployment at 16.9%, but we in the trenches know it to be around 30%.The reason Black people are not getting jobs is pure, unadulterated racism. With the election of Obama, this sparked the pure racists to jump right out of their business suits, and black robes led by the Tea Party crazies. This very out in the open racism is keeping us enslaved and entrenched in our communities. It is the bases for our high unemployment. This new out-in the open racism was the founding principle of the Tea Party. As I see it now; singing, marching, praying, speaking in tongues, protesting, and check this out; voting will not get us out of our dark ghettos of destruction. We are going to have to become just as vile with this monster, just as savage, if not more. We have to go to war with these racist. The new right wingers are always quoting, carrying, and displaying the Constitution. Hell, the Constitution wasn’t written with us in mind. In reality, the Constitution is actually a slave document. We should have retained our tribal instincts from our African ancestors over all other factors and in the face of all other logic. We have to get back to being Black! If we don’t, we will keep on being controlled, and he who controls the way you think, controls the way you act. That’s’ exactly where we are right now. There is, and always will be, a consistent internal thread of neglect that runs through most of our community. Even though a high percentage of our people receive government assistance, there is still a fundamental skepticism of the government’s ability to protect us, and provide for us, and that comes from the new right wing who don’t believe in government, or radical Black folk like myself who have witnessed history and have seen where we’ve been. I’m playing a game of high stakes poker by writing this piece, and this is the kind of revolutionary, grassroots caring that will certainly cost me some my so called material advantages. But it can also restore our moral force that will be the heart of our new civil rights movement, and ensure that we finally listen, and truly advocate for our future.

LIFE AFTER TROY DAVIS

The Egyptians’ effective use of Facebook should give us added energy in our new consciousness movement spurred by the State sponsored murder of Troy Davis. This makes sense: Facebook, when combined with our collective message, the right environment, and our dedicated brothers and sisters, can indeed help to spark the awareness, energy, and the massive crowds we will need. Unfortunately, the quicker we mobilize, the less time there is for us to plan. It’s more important than ever for us to prepare for the day after. While it’s essential to reach our goals of full employment, renewed investment in our communities, more educational opportunities, and inclusiveness, it’s even more important to build on Troy Davis’ legacy and regroup. We need to act fast, capitalizing on increased visibility and heightened awareness to get more resources to our campaign. We need to solicit strategic advice from outsiders with more experience at civil protest, and bring in more foot soldiers and thousands of volunteers. We will need massive funding, so now is our time to get it. Troy’s state sponsored murder agitated lots of folks that were not really agitated about anything, but that doesn’t mean they’re organized. It’s up to us to organize them. We should start getting in touch with everybody we can. Whenever possible, we should collect emails, mobile phone numbers, Twitter handles, and Facebook URLs, and save them in documents that are stored in a few different places only known to us. We have to remember; why’d this thing start anyway? We should reconcile our original goals of full employment, renewed investment in our communities, more educational opportunities, and inclusiveness with Troy’s murder and identify a new long-term vision for the change we want. Our new campaign will succeed only if we involve all of the people. That’s why it’s so important to ask the people who got involved with Troy’s protests, what the next step should be. We should take a cue from Wael Ghonim, one of the administrators of the We Are All Khaled Said Facebook Page, who, when asked what was next for a post-Mubarak Egypt, said: “Ask Facebook.” This is easier said than done, but the attitude is right on. As the Egyptian demonstrators have shown us, it’s a lot easier to complete the first day of a revolution than the second. Holding together a large coalition is simpler when everyone is on board and our goals are obvious. If we build support with a strong strategy, and long-term thinking, then the chances are a lot higher that all of our demands will be met — and will stay met.

Fed up with Section 8 and you should be Too!

Section 8 is supposed to decentralize poverty, but it actually centralizes it, in struggling Black neighborhoods. At best, all section 8 does is destabilize Black communities. At worst, it drives hard working and responsible middle-class neighbors out and turns entire areas into slums. Once a Black neighborhood starts having problems, Section 8 accelerates those problems. In some cities where public housing is in transition, residents with vouchers have clustered in working-class Black neighborhoods. Section 8 will always seeks out the worst housing markets, and it will often be in transitional or poor Black neighborhoods. With the vouchers, thousands of poor Black families each year do exactly what the program should not: They move out of poor neighborhoods and into poorer neighborhoods with failing schools, and no job opportunities. And this is where the patterns of concentration come together. I know and you know there are thousands of Black folks that abuse the program. Some on Section 8 think they are being victimized. They think they have been intensely wronged by the system for not wanting to do better, or having baby after baby. Some have become what I call, Section 8 crazies, playing the victim of ever changing government housing policies. I know a friend of a friend who has spent 57 or her 58 years dedicated to Section 8 and Section 8 only, and has nothing to show for her dedicated years of service to this humble program. She has lived in Section 8 housing all but 1 of her 58 years. It is an honored legacy passed down from her parents who moved into Section 8 housing when she was six months old. She has passed the honored legacy down to her children, but now fears they may have to get up off of their asses and get jobs to pay for their own utilities and deposits. She actually mourns about her one year away from the comfort of her Section 8 wonderland. She told me, “I tried it for a year, you know, working and all. It's not anything I would want to go through again, or wish on anyone in my family.” If you read my writings, you should know that I fight for our people on a day to day basis, but I’m damn sick of our people demanding free handouts, and refusing to make something of their lives. As long as they keep receiving free stuff, why not be lazy? They're probably all happy as can be. I'm sure between Section 8 and their assistance check; it buys em enough liquor and dope to keep em feeling pretty good. Too bad they don't
use some of that money to buy a large supply of condoms, because the majority of Section 8 families seem to have 4, 5, even 6 and 7 kids running around. Have you ever seen who and what hangs out on the streets where Section 8 vouchers dominate? The people look like hell! The most undesirable people follow Section 8. Drive through a housing complex or neighborhood with a high percentage of Section 8 renters in the early evening, and at night; take a look at the cars parked there. If there are a lot of older cars, or if there are average looking cars with a few expensive/tricked out cars, beware! You will also see young thugs loitering non stop. Housing and Urban Development also affords landlords to treat Section 8 renters better than renters who pay their own bills. Housing and Urban Development states that landlords can require only a $50 security deposit from Section 8 renters — instead of the usual full month's rent deposit required for unsubsidized renters. Section 8 tenants usually don't have anything to lose. If you have a little more to lose, then you are more likely to make it clean when you move out or to take a little better care of it when there. Some Section 8 renters live in homes owned by absentee landlords who won’t even evict tenants, even for the most flagrant lease violations. For landlords, the guaranteed subsidy payment is a strong ass incentive. I think that we Black folks are expected to put up with this dysfunctional way of life because of the idea that all Black people are tied together in our struggle. This concept was absolutely cool when we battled just to be recognized as humans and citizens worthy of treatment equal to that of white people. But while our country still fights with racial equality, gains have been made, so much that a self-identified Black man became leader of the free world. In other words, (some Black people don't like to hear this, but) personal responsibility is now the determination of our progress. Once it’s ingrained in a person that they can’t get out of the hood and they’re just like Shameequa and them, then they start to believe it. Should they want more? Yes. Will they get more? Only if they move past the negative, (institutionalized racism, classism, sexism, and other isms), will they ever reach the positive (a life that isn’t dependent upon governmental handouts). I, like many other like-minded Black people, do not like to be broke. That’s why I write my ass off to get where I need to be. However, some Black people don’t have shame and instead, look for a damn handout

CHARTER SCHOOLS ARE NOT FOR ME, HERE IS WHY

I just don’t agree with the premise that charter schools are the savior of the Black community. Why do charter schools have curriculums not available in our ordinary public schools? If such demanding curriculums are needed for our children’s future, why not offer it to everybody? When you allow parents to enroll their children into charter schools, while leaving most other students to a less-challenging curriculum, only proves that the system of unequal educational will live on. Go and visit the home of a Black parent who is hell bent on getting their kid into a certain charter school! They may or may not have had a formal education, but they sure as hell know the value of an education. Where is this insane passion for public schools? Why didn’t you join the PTO then? Why didn’t you participate at the public school? If they only they had that same passion when their child was in public school. On the other hand, there are some Black parents who never had a formal education, and they just don’t understand the value of an education, so in essence they really don’t give a damn. Way too many of our children come from these families. Nowadays, in the United States, the re-structuring of education is really racialized. Ground zero is centered right smack dab in the middle of Black communities, where public schools are being closed, taken over, privatized, and driven by a cut-rate curriculum of preparing lil Black kids for standardized tests. Public and private are racialized code-words. Private is equal to being good and white, and public with being bad and Black. Marginalized low investment in our public schools, closing them, and opening privately operated charter schools in our Black communities is made easier by racist attitudes towards our communities and our public institutions. But you know what? Our failing schools are the product of a history of educational, economic, lack of parental involvement, discipline, and social injustices experienced by us Black folk. Schools serving Black communities continually face deeply unfair opportunities to learn, including unequal funding, curriculum, educational resources, facilities, and teacher experience. The new school and teacher accountability rules has often created these injustices by limiting the curriculum to only test preparation—producing an exit of some of the strongest teachers from schools in Black communities. We need to change the heart and soul of our children’s education, redefining the purpose of education and what it means to teach, learn, and participate in school in Black communities. The education that our youth are now receiving leaves them capable of performing a function within the system, but they will be ignorant of how the system they will eventually work for is structured or operated. This ignorance is a direct result of our mis-education. We should start measuring the quality of our children’s education not by what they learn, but by what was excluded from the educational process. Also, teachers are being driven by standardized tests and performance outcome measures; principals are managers, and school superintendents are now CEOs; and learning now equals the students performance on the tests, with teachers, the student, and parents held responsible for failure. Education, which should be seen as a public good, is being converted into a private good, which is an investment you make in your child or yourself to add value in order to better compete in the labor market. Schools in the inner-cities are no longer seen as part of the bigger picture of advancing individual and social development, but are merely the means to rise above others. Neighborhood schools are being replaced with charter schools or selective enrollment schools that most neighborhood children are unable to attend. School closings have spawned increased mobility, a rise in violence, and neighborhood instability as children are transferred to schools out of Black neighborhoods. This coded policy erases schools that are anchors in our Black communities, contributing to an ongoing economic boycott. In gentrifying areas, closing neighborhood schools and replacing them with schools branded for the middle class makes it easier for the displacement of Black working-class families. I just don’t like the charter concept. I believe in community neighborhood schools. I just remember walking with my childhood friends to Locke Elementary, Tolleston, and West Side High, laughing all the way, knowing that the homework better had been done!!

BLACK PANTHERS VS. The TEA PARTY

I was fourteen years old in the summer of 1969. We sat in the playground at Patcher Park in Gary, Indiana and watched Chicago Panther leader Fred Hampton talk about community involvement, guns, drugs, and parental control. All we wanted to do was play ball, but Brother Fred’s message kind of put me in a trance. I knew right then, that this dude was the real deal. I cannot help but remember, and relive, the joy and pride of that day. I also became frustrated and angry because I now knew who the real enemy was. Wow, strong angry Black men going to war against the oppressive and racist U.S. government. But, do not get confused. Tea Partiers, carrying and waving guns, screaming nigger this, and nigger that, threatening violence against our Black elected officials, and holding anti-tax rallies is not the same as the Black Panthers response to overt police brutality, which involved developing community-based programs that promoted self defense, Black political power, and freedom from economic exploitation. When white people say that all they know about the Black Panther Party is that they were a crazy group of niggers led by angry, gun-toting radical’s, shows their (white people’s) lack of understanding of the Black Panther Party’s grassroots political philosophy and commitment to community organizing. The truth of the matter is that the Black Panther Party and the Tea Party are nothing alike. To begin with, the Tea Party does not offer anything close to the in-depth sophisticated analysis of the political and economic condition of oppressed people. The Black Panther Party developed a 10-point platform of demands and reform proposals intended to improve the lives of ordinary people in Black communities. The Tea Party, meanwhile, has a terrible understanding of the way current political and economic systems operate. They spend their time protesting stimulus programs, social programs, healthcare reforms, the deficit, repealing civil rights legislation, and re-segregating private businesses, but that’s not the same as building a movement that enacts change through projects like the free breakfast program for children, as the Black Panther Party did. Whether you agreed with the Black Panther Party politics or not, they at least had an agenda that was full of action! The difference is as clear as being assassinated in the middle of the night by the FBI’s counterintelligence campaign (COINTELPRO) that claimed the life of several Black Panther Party members including Fred Hampton, and Mark Clark. Their murders were probably the worst act of violence against the Black Panther Party by the racist police, who in Chicago and anywhere Black folk lived, partnered with the FBI to target civil rights groups and our people. My serious analysis of the Tea Party’s values, members, goals, and racist rhetoric led me to believe that this group is not a modern white version of the Black Panther Party, but is instead the very opposite of the Black Panther Party. While our history is being blurred by these racists, you need only look at Texas and Arizona, where their resident racist lawmakers are attempting to erase some of our most important moments in the nation’s history from public school textbooks. But for me, and for so many others like me, when those who represent these systems come looking for us, they don’t come to our front doors politely, knocking first, they bust through, shooting first. The Tea Party's biggest drawing card is its racism, just as white racism is central to the success of the Republican Party. Forget about the Tea Party's other supposed issues, like the budget and the bank bailout. That's not what puts fire in their asses. This is America, remember? Race is all some white people understand.

FAILURE AT THE TOP

FAILURE AT THE TOP
OBAMA’S LACK OF LEADERSHIP
By Phillip Norton
After House Speaker John Boehner knocked the President down on Tuesday, Obama picked himself up, dusted himself off again and pretty much fell in step with the right again. This was an amazingly incompetent failure of leadership that has further demeaned, embarrassed, and diminished the Obama Presidency. Whoever allowed it to happen should be fired. Whoever failed to tell Obama that the idea of a pre-emptive strike (Jobs speech) while the Republicans were having their Saturday Night Live debate, was dangerous and foolish and should be fired? But they won't be. They (the failed advisors in the White House) are trying to win the respect and appreciation of moderate and independent voters. Obama doesn’t understand that all voters, not just Black voters, want to see strength and strong leadership and competence. The American people have seen nothing but failure, incompetence and lack of strong leadership from the White House. The reporters, writers, journalists, and bloggers like me see that the wildly left progressives are disgusted with Obama for his failure to be progressive. I never expected him to function as a progressive, or to pursue progressive issues or values. But I did expect him to keep his promises. I did expect him to be better than, not worse than Bush. I did expect him to be a strong leader. I did expect him to have some level of competence as a negotiator. He is an abject failure at both. He is a first down punter- a failure at negotiation. It is tempting to blame Obama's chronic, consistent pattern of leadership failures on some advisor. But I think we must face the reality that Barack Obama is a wimp, a smart man, even a nice guy, who just doesn't have the spine to be as tough as the people of the United States and the rest of the world need.
This screw-up should lead to the firing of whoever orchestrated it for Obama, and whoever failed to nix it, and that includes the withdrawal of Barack Obama as a candidate for the 2012 Presidency!! And the leaders of the Democratic party have to wake up to the reality that their leader is not a leader, that he is being seen more and more every day as a wimp who can be pushed around. We need a President who can be tough- on crime, on polluters, on corrupt banksters, on trans-national corporations, even on party members who go rogue. I think it's time for a tough-as-nails, take no prisoners woman President. Folk on the street say there's no candidate in sight. I say that once Obama steps down, a rush of candidates will come out of the woodwork- good ones. The scary Obama lackeys say that if Obama doesn't run, the Dems will lose. I don't believe that unsupported claim. I think it's a lie. When LBJ stepped down, Robert Kennedy would have won if he had not been assassinated. Obama had his chance. He is not a leader. Registered Democrats, independents and the people of America deserve better. He should step down or face primary challengers, preferably step down. America needs a strong willed woman President who will really lead. It is time.

BLACK ELECTED LEADERHIP NOW MEANS NOTHING

The fact that Black elected leadership now means nothing in the face of a system whose choice has been made regarding us Black people. These officials are really powerless, but the fault is not with them, but the system itself. Even they know that their elections are a false hope that will inspire ill-informed Black folk to continue to have false confidence in the political system. In spite of all of the yahooing and the love-fest about "public service" there is only one reason to hold elected office and that is to exercise power. Our miss-elected officials in the Black community are really happy with nothing more than the perception that they are serious players at the table of power, yet cannot actually exercise any power. Every interest group, lobbyist, and other ethnic groups knows this, with the exception of us Black Americans. My perception of President Obama is what it has always been and always will be; a mediocre politician, and “centrist" creation of the moneyed elite and the useless Democratic Leadership Council. The DLC has never recognized or even believed in our legitimate Black interests. In reality, it sees the Democrats "ties" to us Blacks as being one of the main obstacles to getting Democrats elected, and re-elected. Its only goal is to collect enough votes from its traditional base (middle class white’s) to get its hand-picked people into office where they can join the Republicans in getting rich by being in cahoots with Wall street and the military and prison industrial complexes. You Black folk should not be surprised that our Mr. Obama has consistently exercised power for the benefit of everyone in the traditional power structure with the blinding exception of the Black community. In fact, his main "interactions" with us Blacks have either been in the form of waving, radio interviews, sneaking away, or taking evasive action when Blacks may be around, or using attacks on Black people to help him score points with his real friends on the mostly White right, and on Wall Street. There is no such thing as the lesser of two evils in the American political system. As Black people, neither the Democrats nor the Republicans, nor the so-called Tea Party is our friend. It is time to be daring and vocal, immediately start voting for the third, fourth, and fifth party candidates. It is also time to stop looking for some imaginary superhero to save us and to begin taking control of our own destiny. It is time to start looking outside of the red, white, and blue box which restricts our thoughts, and blinds many of us to the fact that the world outside of the United States is rapidly changing. We cannot continue to remain the powerless lawn jockeys of a fading system and hope for the best. That is not a good plan. As I now see, and you should too, the nation has made a choice, and it is one that threatens the long-term survival of Black people. The country’s public policies are now becoming the equivalent of weekly, random selections of Black people who would be taken to a secret place and shot. Black suffering and our permanent, worsening conditions we face are not an accident of fate or the result of outrageous patterns of Black behavior. No, they are intentional. They have become national policy. The nation has made its choice. We, however, seem to have also made ours. Our willingness to not break with our old tired ass ways, to not assume our own agenda, and to strongly advocate and implement our own alternatives, theoretically, practically and with an urgent degree of unison has resulted in our choice of going along and hoping for a brighter day.

Black Man to Black Woman..Your Questions are Answered

We Black men have unending sexual staying power. We Black men will let you down in a crunch. We Black men are selfish. We Black men don't know how to treat a woman. All the good Black men are taken. These are a few of the lies that have become the bedrock of our national consciousness. Inaccurate, they still continue to be the gospel on the Black man in America. With no hard facts, it's no wonder Black women are desperate to separate fact from fiction and are more than a little curious to discover the real secrets of the Black male. They feel they don’t have the nerve to ask. Well, I asked myself the questions. And here, in this piece, I open up about my fears, needs, and secrets about life, dating, love and sex. I share the things - sometimes startling, sometimes controversial, but always insightful - I say every Black woman who loves a Black man should know. In everything from employment to education, Black men are constantly being told we can't measure up. We are very sensitive to rejection because so many of us started off with a sense of inferiority. The world made us feel that we couldn’t measure up. So when it comes to our love life we can be hypersensitive. Given this reality, Black women need to be aware of the power of their words. We remember the negative comments a woman makes to us, as if they'd been branded on our brain. We are, in general, possessive about our women: No one's talking about the kind of man who goes crazy when another man speaks to his girlfriend at a party. When I’m being possessive, I’m saying: Don't touch my woman. She's mine and no one else's. And that's a from-the-gut expression most Black men feel about their woman. The bottom line; when it comes to romance, I want to be the only one in my woman's life. The reasons for my attitude, so many things have been taken away from us Black men; we feel this lady is the one thing we can hold on to and should be able to hold on to. Right or wrong, when I am in love with a woman, I am very territorial about her. It comes down to the fact that I want - and expect - her to be mine exclusively. For me, love and sex are separate issues: I can make love without loving, sometimes purely for the sake of physical release. Love does improve sex for me; I just wish women would understand that, for most Black men, sex can be purely physical. They shouldn't assume because a man wants to sleep with her, he wants to be with her all of the time or marry her. That single understanding would save a lot of misunderstandings, arguments and hurt feelings. To me, women who come on strong are usually a turn-off to me. A come-on takes the control from me. I don’t like women to display their romantic interest aggressively. When a woman comes on to me, I feel off balance, out of control. I know it shouldn't make me uncomfortable but it does, especially when she comes on strong. The funny thing is, if she's interested, I definitely want her to let me know it. But it's all in the way she does it. A glance and a smile are worth a thousand come-and-get-it come-ons. I want honesty and intelligence in a woman, but I also want a pretty face and a nice body. I ain’t talkin about fair; I’m talkin reality here, not justice. A fine Black woman will hit you like a sledgehammer. Let's face it. A fine Black woman is an ego trip and a turn-on. This ain’t about the length of her hair. It is to say that if I don’t find a woman physically appealing first, I won’t be interested enough to spend time discovering her inner qualities. A lot of brothers constantly tell me they want it all - beauty and brains. I love Black women who just love being ultra-feminine: It makes me feel totally masculine. It allows me to demonstrate my masculinity. And I don’t think Black women relish their femininity as much as they'd like. Sometimes, for me, I feel that the Black woman is not feminine enough. By feminine, I don't mean women who act fragile, weak and helpless every time they're around a man. The women I find so appealing to me are those who highlight or celebrate the differences between the Black man and Black woman; Black women who aren't embarrassed or defiant about being a women but instead love it intensely, that can mean anything from wearing a certain perfume and silk camisoles to making it clear they enjoy having their bags carried and their car doors opened. Wow, the way we Black men think!!

THE ACCEPTANCE OF OUR NEW BLACK REALITY

It is must be understood that package and presentation are paramount in this county. Style, image, and symbolism mean a lot. The Wall-Streeter’s and the moneyed interests know this fact. The political circus we call campaigning and elections are rooted in package and presentation. That is why the media talking heads are always commenting on how Presidential a candidate looks. When you place the Obama package next to the Michelle Bachman and Herman Cain package for example, it is a no brainer who wins that contest. The problem is that we get so wrapped around style, image, and symbolism, and completely miss the dynamics that drive the imagery that we see all the time. Black folks have a real bad case of the Stockholm syndrome (you are in love with your oppressor). Now that there is a Black man in the White House we have gotten so full of ourselves, and started using the twisted logic to think and believe that him being there means that we somehow have arrived, (The question I want to ask is arrived from where to where)? The reality that surrounds us says everything but that; we are still looked at with disgust, disrespect, still despised, displaced, and disowned. How in the hell can you conclude anything other than that is beyond me! It is a clear sign that we are tap dancing in the twilight zone and or skipping down the yellow brick road to the land of delusion. Last time I checked the prison industrial complex is still rolling along culling Black males/females like there is no tomorrow. Last time I looked, Black unemployment is still through the roof and moving to outer-space. Since the housing bubble burst, the damage is still being felt from sea to shining sea. And lest we not forget that Black home owners (who by the way were the primary targets of all those subprime loans, you know the ones that blew up the housing bubble), have been smashed with no help in sight. Yes, it is nice to see Black folks in the high places of power and influence, but if their being in those positions doesn’t manifest into actions that improve the lives of our people, then that admiration is greatly misunderstood and misplaced. We need to break out of this abusive relationship with the current Black elected officials and stop trippin on all the symbolism that it represents. Package and presentation is like eye candy, it’s good to look at, but is it good for you, much less good to you? Symbolism is like virtual-reality, it recreates mental imagery that looks good and titillates the senses but in the end it is only a distraction/diversion from the real world that you live in. The few of us fighters/activist who have gotten the message are now ready for a new message of what to do with what we have now accepted as the truth; our new reality. I for one am tired of being told that Obama is a nice person. I already know that, and am waiting for any creative ideas that Him or you may have as to how we can save ourselves. Secondly, it ain't that Obama is or is not a nice person. What we have here is a systemic and institutional problem, which in the end can only be solved by replacing those people, systems, and institutions with something more humane and human. This brings me to the third thing; solutions, what we can do. The answer is, carve out some time from your family and survival obligations to help organize your neighbors, friends, co-workers, fellow students, or whoever you circulate among to demand and work for a better deal for all of us. Pick an area of concern to struggle over, pick some friends and associates, and pick a damn fight, become vocal! This is almost becoming too depressing for me, because it seems like there's no way out. And that's exactly what they want. If we join together, we can do anything (sadly said quite a bit in our circles). And I don't mean join together in voting, I mean doing something that actually works. The joining together I’m mentioning is right in front of us. We have to create some form of a instant hyper- connection to all Black people, people like myself who are not wealthy, all the working class, all of the working poor, and desperately poor Black people of this country. In 2008, we saw an African American run for the Presidency as a viable contender, and at the same time also witnessed a truly remarkable silence. While there were millions of words written about the political ascent of one Black man, there was virtually nothing about the descent of Black leadership into ineffectiveness. Barack Obama’s personal itinerary was mapped to the minutest detail. The larger itinerary of African Americans was mostly ignored, and is still being ignored. Let us now create our Itinerary.

THE CBC NOW HAS DEMANDS ?

By Phil Norton

One of my closest friends regularly reminds me of the need to widen my perspective, and she, of course is correct. But now my laser-like focus right now is the do-nothing Congressional Black Caucus. The Jennie is out of the bottle. They have steadily narrowed the scope of Black possibilities in our communities, while getting paid. Their weapons of choice have been the bullshit smile, sarcasm and ridicule, the forgetting of facts, and their ever present love affair with the President. They are our supposed Black leaders and they have tried to empty Black politics of its truths. Their thought for the last three years is that there is no Black America, no Black agenda and no need for either. Their message to the masses of Black people in our downtrodden inner-cities is “get it together.” Theirs is the political theory of the dominated, the weak, and the clueless. The racial justice struggle among Black folk in America is at an all time low, as evidenced in their loss of memory, a lack of vision, a lack of program, and a lack of nerve. The descent is rooted in the politics of collaboration with our enemies about the tone, tenor, and scope of the struggle for racial justice. White power is playing the musical tune and far too many of the Congressional Black Caucus members are doing the dancing. The mind-blowing rise of Obama blinded, deluded, and distracted the Congressional Black Caucus and they in turn bamboozled the whole Black community. It is a song from a poet and songwriter titled “Send in the Clowns.” In one phrase he concludes, “Don’t bother. They are already here.” We now have the laughable Congressional Black Caucus “Job Fair/Town Hall” tour. “We want Obama to know that from this day forward. . . we’ve had it,” said the Dean of the Caucus, Michigan Rep. John Conyers. Note to Conyers: Negro, please. You and the Congressional Black Caucus scare nobody, especially Obama. The Congressional Black Caucus has kept its mouth shut, all but for a lil bit of quiet grumbling sprinkled in for show. You've shown over the decades that your bark is worst than your bite. All these years, and you guys don't have a third of the scare/influence factor of the Zionist. If you've had it, your asses would have went off big time during the budget political show. Obama spent his time meeting with the Teapublicans about the phony deficit crises. Where was the Congressional Black Caucus in raising hell to demand to be players in these meetings? Did you call press conferences; rally your constituents to demand hands off of Social Security, Medicare, and other social programs? Will you call out Obama on your jobs tour and provide your mainstream media retarded constituents with the real 411, or will you spend all your time blaming the right wingers for all that's wrong in DC? Shelia Jackson Lee, she never met a microphone she didn't like: Another waste of space in DC. Even those Congressional Black Caucus members who voted against Obama’s hateful bills don't deserve too many shout outs. Mr. Muslim, Keith Ellison was cheerleading for the Libyan war, er, "non-war." Did they call for protests in front of White House a la Egypt and Wisconsin? No! Some of these jokers like Conyers and Waters have been in DC longer than God and don't even have the clout to get a street light fixed, much less make the President give them the time of day. While Obama meets with Republicans to figure out a jobs program, the so-called liberal/progressive Democrats will be nowhere to be found. Just watch these punk asses next year as they join Shelia Jackson Lee in circling the wagons in support of Obama’s re-election. And what's up with Bobby Rush? I thought he used to be a Black Panther. I guess that militant shit went out of style. Like those former hippies, turned corporatist yuppies, Rush found out the grass was greener kissing "the man's" ass. I think we should just sit out this election. Don't vote for any of these losers. I'm five minutes away from suggesting a voter DE-registration campaign. I bet we could get more accomplished by letting these maggots know that they can't get shit from us without addressing our needs. We should spend the bulk of our time campaigning and create an agenda. Run it at whoever wins good cop or bad cop. I’m Phillip Norton, and I’m mad as hell

Crazy Ass Republican Marriage Pledge

I took a long look at the GOP-Tea Party-Republican Marriage Vow and here it is in short form: The document implies that children born to slaves during the pre-civil war era were a lot better off since they had two parents? It seems to me and a lot of other Black folk that these racist red necks need a history lesson again or they are attempting to re-write history once more! Children born to slaves were not recognized as legitimate, since marriages between slaves were not recognized as valid marriages. Slaves had no rights, no legal marriages and certainly their children all grew up illegitimate in the eyes of their masters. Women slaves who were RAPED by their slave owners and bore children were not with their fathers, because they were abandoned by their rapists. Children born of slavery were raised by one parent in dirty, dingy, nasty huts and out buildings, and none were actually “married”, so this marriage pledge is absolutely incorrect historically but morally corrupt as well. You probably wonder what slave children have to do with a marriage vow in 2011? In all reality, the Tea Party, and especially Michelle Bachman want a return to slavery! She utters something almost daily about slavery! Under no circumstances can ANY white person or any other person state that children born in this era were better off. How ignorant is the writer of this pledge, that no one but two ignorant and dumb suckers will sign it (Michelle Bachman, Rick Santorum). After this silly ass document came out, a day or so later the references to slave children was removed entirely, but the total sum of this pact is intolerance of others. The Republican establishment does not have the control of the party it once did and the radical right appears have taken over the asylum. In short, this Republican Marriage Pledge represents the repression of minorities, and incites intolerance of anyone who is not white. This party is now running on social issues in the midst of the greatest recession (Black Depression), since the First Great Depression. The whole Republican Marriage Pledge concept makes me depressed just reading it; you feel like you’re being indoctrinated by some religious cult. Seriously, the Republican Party is now the party of the delusional right. It has become a religion, not a political party. The GOP still ain’t got nothin on Obama. Basically the document is a Pledge to do away with: 1. Social programs that bolster Blacks, 2. Gays, 3. Pro-Choice, 4.Pornography, and, 5) Muslims. Do you finally believe now? I’m Phillip Norton and I’m out!