WAS I RIGHT ABOUT OBAMA?

So that’s my first Angry Black Man question, and I know it’s a lot of ground to cover, but how do you feel things have worked out since then, both with the economy and with this President? That was a huge turning point, that moment in 2008, and my own feeling is that we didn’t turn. Hum? No, the thing is he posed as a progressive and turned out to be a counterfeit brother. We ended up with a Wall Street President, a drone President, a national security President. The torturers go free. The Wall Street executives go free. The war crimes in the Middle East, especially in Gaza, the war criminals go free.

And yet, you know, he acted as if he was both a progressive and as if he was concerned about the issues of serious injustice and inequality and it turned out that he’s just another neoliberal centrist with a slick smile, a tan suit, and nice rhetorical flair. Damn!!

And that’s a very sad moment in the history of the country because we are—we’re an empire in decline. Our Black culture is in increasing decay. Our inner-city school systems are in deep trouble. Our political system is dysfunctional. Our leaders are more and more bought off with legalized bribery and normalized corruption in Congress and too much of our personal life. You would think that we needed somebody……. A transformational President who could revive some democratic spirit and democratic possibility…That’s exactly what everyone was saying at the time, especially us Black folk. That’s right. That’s true. It was like, “We finally got somebody who can help us poor folk.” And he posed as if he was a kind of an Abe Lincoln. Hum? Yeah. That’s what everyone was saying, especially us Black folk.

And we ended up with a motherfuckin brown-faced Bill Clinton. Another opportunist…. Another neoliberal opportunist! It’s like, “Oh, no, don’t tell me that!” I tell you this, because I got hit hard years ago, but everywhere I go now, it’s “Brother Norton, I see what you were saying. Brother Norton, you were right. Angry Black Man, your language was harsh and it was difficult to take, but you turned out to be absolutely right.” And, of course with Ferguson, you get it reconfirmed even among the people within his own circle now, you see. It’s a sad thing. It’s like you’re looking for John Coltrane and you get Kenny G in brown skin.

My persistent, consistent, constant and piercing criticism of President Obama is, for the most part, painfully true. Even Obama’s most loyal and devoted supporters know that my analysis is factual and true.

I was really wrong about one thing. Obama never campaigned as a true progressive. Ending poverty was not a top priority during his campaigns. He never campaigned as a Black activist. He never promised to be a strong advocate for us Black folk. In fact, his rise to national prominence was based on his out-of-touch post-racial rhetoric about one America during the 2004 Democratic National Convention.

No one should be surprised when the Obama Administration and its silly parrots constantly repeat the silly motto that “he is not just the President of Black America.” You will never ever hear any other group of people embracing and repeating such a self-defeating and pathetic slogan. Imagine the Jews saying Obama is not just the President of Jewish America. Imagine the LGBT community saying that Obama is not just the President of gay America. Imagine the Hispanic community saying that Obama is not just the President of immigrant America. Imagine white feminists saying Obama is not just the President of women. Those groups would never spout such bullshit.

Unlike our Black community, those groups do not surrender. They do not accept symbols over silly ass substance. They vigorously push their agenda. Unfortunately, we Black folks are pacified by symbols and gestures. We are so drunk with Obama-aide and infatuated with the concept of a Black President that many of us have lost our complete motherfuckin minds and our principles. Besides, no one should be surprised by Obama’s stance on the recent crisis in Israel and Gaza. Obama never campaigned as a friend of the Palestinian people. Like all of the clowns before him, Obama bowed down before the altars of AIPAC and Israel. During his first and second campaigns, Obama laced up his shoes and tap danced for em like Bojangles. Damn!!

A majority of Black folks avoid that truth by contrasting Obama and his past election opponents Mitt Romney and John McCain. Clearly, I think Obama was the better choice in those elections. That is why I voted for him. Unfortunately, both parties are owned by Wall Street and AIPAC. In this two party corporate dictatorship we call America, true progressive candidates and parties are not viable alternatives. Too often, they just can't get elected. They don’t have the money and resources to compete with the Democrats and the Republicans on a national level. They don’t receive the same level of media attention as the corporate parties. Until those changes, we are forced to settle for people like Barack Obama. Do not be mad at me, its just a painful truth, and to tell you the truth..........shit ain’t getting any better!!!!!!!

LEAVE MY BLACK WOMEN ALONE!!!!

Listen…those of you in the Black community who love to play respectability politics, particularly when Black women are at the receiving end of the disrespect, can complain about how repulsive a specific segment of Black women are all you want, but what does the act of shaming a Black woman accomplish, exactly? Who are you brothers trying to impress, when you loudly declare how immeasurable you've made the divide between yourselves and those very women, in a sorry ass bid to prove how respectable and ‘unlike them’ you really are?

As for the stereotypes about the frightening Angry Black Woman, I’ve concluded a long time ago, that no matter what any Black woman does, she’ll always continue to come under harsh scrutiny; whether it’s from the white folks gaze, us Black men, other people of color, or other Black women. Whether they’re docile, educated, upwardly mobile, successful, or have a recurring date to have a drink with Michelle Obama, society will always stigmatize Black female behavior. Black women aren't saints. None of them are infallible….they’re subject to stumble, hurt, make stupid choices, and experience the range of circumstances and emotions just like everyone else gets to work through. But because they’re expected to continue playing mule alongside our Black male ego and remain unflappable but silent, they’re humanity goes unrecognized. Yes it does, I know! Anti-Black woman sentiment and castigation doesn’t have a genuine or vested interest in what it is exactly, that’s making young Black women tick and lash out, because it’s much easier to gaslight, grind and ax, and to continue marginalizing them. Even Michelle Obama isn't above the hurtful critiques, or having stereotypes attributed to her…….hum?

Black women needing to have valid critiques and conversations about the public displays of destructive and at-risk behavior young Black women are caught exhibiting, goes without saying. But they need to be productive and broken down accordingly, because it’s definitely a lot deeper than 5-6 minute viral videos.

They need to ask legitimate questions; like why many of them support websites like World Star Hip Hop, who thrive on seeing Black women under pressure? And why they continue to feed into the inflammatory commentary it stimulates? And while it makes them retreat, dismissing a poor Black woman as a hood-rat because of her lower socioeconomic lot in life, or to say she isn’t worthy of her humanity, mental health or rehabilitation, and deserves to have violent acts perpetrated against her for shits and giggles, is troubling; regardless of how far away Black women distance themselves from it. For those Black women, like Michelle Obama, Toni Morrison, and others, who have the mental capacity and wherewithal to remove themselves from the critical gaze of people who don’t deem them as worthy of protection and who’d rather write them off as angry and bitter, and who rejoice at seeing them at their lowest point, do so immediately… for your own growth, self-preservation and peace of mind; and if you feel inclined or have the resources to do so, mentor those young women and girls who haven’t mastered the art of navigating their circumstances. Because continuing to pander to folks who talk over you and are adamant about telling you who they think you are, it’s a destructive dance.

SUPPORT PALESTINE…..and here’s why!!

As the bloodshed continues in the Middle East, the search for a reasonable solution must come to grips with the real cause of the conflict. Most Americans believe that even if both sides are at fault, the Palestinians are unreasonable terrorists who have no point of view worth listening to. Really!

My position, however, is that the Palestinians have a real live grievance: their homeland for over a thousand years was taken, without their consent and by force, during the creation of the state of Israel. And all future crimes, by both sides are birthed from this original injustice.

This post outlines the history of Palestine to show how this process occurred and what a moral solution to the region’s problems should consist of. If you care about the people of the Middle East, Jewish and Arab, you owe it to yourself to read this account of the other side of the historical record.

The bullshit Zionist position is that they showed up in Palestine late in the19th century to repossess their ancestral homeland. Jews bought land and started building up the Jewish community there. They were met with violent opposition from the Palestinian Arabs; I assume stemming from the Arabs’ hate of Jews. The Zionists were then forced to defend themselves, and in one form or another, this same situation continues up to right now!!

The problem with this sorry ass explanation is that it’s simply not true.

What really happened was that the Zionist, from the beginning, looked forward to a practically complete removal of the native Arab population so that Israel could be a wholly Jewish state or as much as was possible. Land bought by the Jewish National Fund was held in the name of the Jewish people and could never be sold or even leased back to Arabs (this same shit continues today).

The Arab community, as it became more and more aware of the Zionists’ intentions, persistently opposed further Jewish immigration and land buying because it posed a clear and present danger to the very existence of Arab society in Palestine. Because of this opposition, the entire Zionist project never could have been realized without the military backing of the British.

A huge majority of the population of Palestine, by the way, had been Arabic since the seventh century A.D. (Over 1300 years) Hum?

In short, Zionism was based on a flawed, colonialist world view, that the rights of the native inhabitants didn’t matter one bit. The Arabs’ opposition to Zionism wasn’t really based on anti-Semitism, but on a totally reasonable fear of the removal of their people.

One further point: my Jewish friends say that my position is very critical of Zionism but is in no way anti-Semitic. Hum again? I don’t believe that the Jews acted worse than any other group might have acted in their situation. The Zionists had an understandable desire to establish a place where Jews could be masters of their own destiny, given the history of Jewish oppression. Especially as the danger to European Jewry crystallized in 1937 and after, the actions of the Zionists featured real desperation.

But so were the actions of the Arabs. The mythic land without people for a people without land was already home to 700,000 Palestinians in 1919. This is the root of the problem, as we are witnessing right now!!

DON’T FORGET……THE REAL TRUTH ABOUT AFFIRMATIVE ACTION, NO LIES PLEASE…..

After the decision by the United States Supreme Court a while back regarding Affirmative Action, a gazillion articles have been written for or against it. This post/article will do neither. It’s about time for the Black community to get off the merry-go-round of lies that have been peddled to us for way too many years and start working on our own rules for success and full access to the supposed American Dream!

The right-wing’s quiet debate about affirmative action is nothing but a thick smoke screen of false sounds bites and dazzling silence that has ignored the truth in order to paint a false picture for us. Affirmative Action has been the favorite whipping post of white folks for decades. It’s the beauty that continues to be defined as a damn beast. Most of the debate around affirmative action has been centered on the diversion of racial preferences.

White America is being very hypocritical to blame us when we use the racial preference card when it comes to college admissions and/or government contracts, but has vast resources directed their way every day based on race and their historical advantages.

These advantages based on race happen every day, but have roots in years past. The white folks have access to a strong network that is based on family and neighborhood ties that were built over generations where us Black folk were intentionally barred from competing in those areas is a preference based on race. Their wealth that was/is passed on from generation to generation that was gained because of slavery, segregation, and/or discrimination of Black people is a preference based on race. It does not matter one bit, that today that same discrimination is illegal as long as the fruits from the past discrimination are still ripe to help give white people an advantage. Understand?

Affirmative Action ain’t about reparations for us Black folks for past discrimination. It’s not about handing out preferences based on race (although America already does a good job against Black folks). It’s about doing away with the racial, gender, and ethnic preferences that really are the biggest part of our society today.

It’s actually about merit. Merit ain’t what your momma or what your daddy or your granddaddy did. It’s not how well a silver or bronze or gold or platinum spoon fits into your damn mouth. It is about you. What have you done on your own?  Very few people stand on their own.  Most of us stand on the shoulders of the people that came before us, so if your father’s or grandfather’s or mother’s or grandmother’s shoulders were bent outta shape due to the weight of the discrimination of their time, then you may not be able to reach as many stars as someone without that disadvantage. Understand?

When a white kid that grew up in a good to elite school system with an abundance of good food to eat, no fear at all going to and from school, has enough money to pay tutors to get ready for the SAT and ACT, has good grades and great test scores, is it nature or nurture? Hum?? The same can be asked about the Black kid that has average grades and scores but grew up in a screwed up public school system where failure is not only expected it is embraced, and yet this proud student is able to exceed all expectations. Is that nature or nurture?  Who is really more impressive? Understand?

There is a tremendous wealth and opportunity gap in America and there always will be. While the wealth gap is real and proven, the opportunity gap may not be completely proven; and the real problem is that both gaps are based on racial preferences.

The wealth gap numbers speak for themselves don’t they, and are appalling. The opportunity gap may be a lot smaller than it was during Jim Crow, but it’s still there, and it’s still there because of the lack of opportunity for Black people. Those gaps continue for a helluva lotta reasons, the least of which is the institutional racism that still exist today. But, those gaps are based on very real racial preferences, really hidden by the lies of omission (we never discuss these truths), and the false excuses given to distract us from the height of inequity built upon a discriminatory system that is essentially pure racist.

White folk believe that affirmative action is used to give undeserving and unqualified Black students admission to so-called elite universities solely based on their race, gender, or ethnicity.  Bullshit!! The funny thing is I can’t find anybody to define what is qualified or who is the most qualified. You tell me….who most deserves to get into a highly competitive, highly selective, and highly ranked state university?  Does the student with access to the most money and resources deserve to be admitted first?  Understand?

Should the admission pecking order be based on the student’s past achievements, even if those same achievements may be because of being born into a family with vast resources as it is the student’s inner drive?  Should it be based on a student’s established track record of overcoming obstacles and barriers to their success?  Should it be based on the student’s likeliness of success in college?  Should it be based on being able to provide a unique perspective of life in the pursuit of higher learning than most of the other student body?  Should it be based on all of the above? Hum?

 I just can’t find anyone willing to step up and answer those questions. Instead we’re left with white folk, elitist fiction, that only the students that have the best grades, test scores, and activities have earned the right to admission in the small number of so-called elite schools that they believe are the only warehouse of knowledge. The definition of who is qualified will always favor white people, while evading the reality that a big part of who is most qualified is flawed and biased, giving them a huge advantage. A big part of the current system of grading students for admission to college is really screwed up. It’s screwed up in large part due to the white belief in standardized tests that can’t predict success in college, but the same tests are very good at giving an advantage to white kids with resources and disadvantaging Black kids.

Surprise!  Surprise!  Surprise!

The bottom line is this. Our community has to stop accepting the lies of the past and start thinking for ourselves. We have to be clear about our own paths to success. We have to build, maintain, and reinforce our own networks to build our own wealth and power, which includes more funding and attending HBCUs.  We can no longer be slaves to the white folk’s definition of what a relevant school is or what qualified means.

Texas, Florida, Kentucky, and Michigan just love their college football and basketball teams, which are over represented by Black kids. I wonder if the coaches from those schools found as much mistrust and animosity from Black high school star athletes during the recruitment process as affirmative action has faced over the years if all of a sudden the value of diversity in the student body at these universities would start to be discussed.  Crazy idea?  Most first steps towards revolutions are. I’m out!!

OUR OBAMA DILEMA………..where the hell do we go from here!?!?

Angry Note: I apologize, because I realize the nature of what you're about to read is sure to irritate and piss some of yawl off, and confuse other Black folk. No, I'm not saying I would have voted for anyone else. I'm simply saying that I'm not altogether pleased with the dude I did vote for. Just trying to keep it real for the masses…

Six and a half years into this whole "Black President" thing and I'm willing to admit a whole lotta of us might have gotten it wrong. No, I'm not talking about whether voting for Obama over McCain in 2008 was the right call, nor whether voting for Obama over 47% Mitt was the right call in 2012.

What the hell I’m talkin about is the insistence of some folk in Black America that electing a Black President would make the lives of everyday Black folks better. Many of yawl thought this would magically raise achievement of Black students, magically get more Black folks to tie the knot, magically transport Black men from the trap house to Morehouse, and magically get the sistas off the pole, and turned into a new generation of Claire Huxtables. Personally, I always thought this shit was some pie in the sky, "Success by Osmosis" bullshit talk. I've expressed doubt about this repeatedly here and in my blog over the years, and many of you have expressed your mean disagreement with me. Shit still happens don’t it?

Still, I thought the election of a Black President would finally bring some real concrete benefits to my beloved Black community, but what we got was a few thousand streets named after him, and some schools renamed after him. I know yawl gettin madder by the word, but just follow me down my yellow brick road of truth……..

I believed in his promise to start "Urban Empowerment Zones" to help drive economic development in the hood, his promise to copy the "Harlem Children's Zone" model and take it to the hood to fix fucked up public schools, and his promise to make a change in crack/powder cocaine sentencing, well, he did address that. I mean, this shit was actually on his campaign website back in 2007, putting each and every dream and aspiration of our entire race onto this one man. So yeah, I expected that much, at least with that much, we would have gained some benefits explicitly for us Black folk. Was it fair of us to expect more?

 Remember when folks like Tavis Smiley and Cornell West were tryin their best to get folks to ask questions and get more involved in Obama's supposed "Black Platform" during the election?  Next thing you know, they start gettin treated like traitors to the Black race. Obama would be "America's President", not "Black America's President" after all. Everybody started callin these dudes haters for just asking the President to take us seriously, the same Black folks that went harder for him than any other. Sure, the timing and them both sometimes hatin damaged their points, but hell, in retrospect, those points were very valid.

Fast forward six and one half years, and well, what they warned us about has come true. Obama has paid very little attention to the Black community beyond the usual lip service and lecturing, then after 6 ½ long years along comes the………..‘Promise Keepers’ initiative. Yea, paradin Jay Z and Beyoncé’s ass in and out of the White House makes him seem cooler than W, but I've always been more concerned about the lack of Black folk in White House making decisions and pushing our policy. 

With just one exception of flyin into Chicago to lecture Black folks about personal responsibility (and to use them as props for gun control), O has been about as visible in the hood as Rush Limbaugh.  Sure, him, Michelle, and the kids will drop into a Black church or show up at a Black commencement speech every now and then to keep his street cred, but the topic of his speeches are always the same:

"Ya'll niggas need to stop fuckin' up so much and get like me." Hell yea, he’d help more people "get like him" if he pushed some actual laws that helped "us", but what's a fuckin minor detail like policy in the grand scheme of things?    

I just don’t understand the lack of intense concern for our Black communities….last week on the 4^th of July, some outlandishly ignorant negroes opened fire all around Chicago, killin folk (including kids), the White House didn’t do shit but issue the typical "yeah, we're sorry that happened to you" press release. There was no press conference, nothin! No call to examine gun laws again. No promise to ensure children in Chi-town could go and light sparklers in the future without worrying about getting sprayed with an AK-47. No nothing, really. Seriously!

Now I know the right-wing has used all the racist tactics in the world to derail any meaningful legislation, and my disappointment in the President is not….let me repeat, not personal. But, at this point, I just feel let down. Am I wrong?

WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

I was watching old footage from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in his last speech to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), “Where Do We Go from Here?” This was probably King’s most militant speech during the last year of his life and…the title of his posthumously published book. Ok, aside from it being a speech and a book title, I believe it’s something that our present-day Black society needs to consider strongly. No, this ain’t 1967, but in 2014, I think Dr. King is still pushin our asses to ask ourselves the difficult questions of not just how our society is being defined, but how we live in it, our future, and how we connect with each other. What do we value?

A dude I kinda like, Yasiin Bey (used to be Mos Def), best captures my point. In his creative come-back to Jay-Z and Kanye West’s cut, “Niggas in Paris” called, “Niggas in Poorest” he ends the song by begging us listeners, “Don’t get caught up in no throne,” and he says this shit nine times…hell, he shoulda said it nine more. Besides that bein a fine piece of artistic shit, Bey is doin more than just flippin Mr. Carter and Mr. West’s hit album on its head for the sake of what a lot of folks think is a ‘diss record.’ Bey is getting at the fact that many of us Black folk seek and are defined by the very trinkets and shiny things that are mentioned and celebrated in “Niggas in Paris.” Understand?

 Might as well keep goin…..what’s really fucked up and really damaging to us are the ones who have the ability to help, even on a small scale, but won’t because they want to protect their “alleged” class status like a goddamn government secret. I’ll give you an example. Remember back when it was a whole lot of folks signin petitions or writing letters in support of Trayvon Martin as a show of solidarity. I know of one group of Black men, who belong to an organization founded to help provide positive engagement within the Black community, who said they weren’t interested in writing any letters or signin no petitions because the Martin case had nothing to do with them.  Damn hypocrites!

 These types of Black folk are more dangerous than any racist. They suffer from the Pharisee Complex. They’re defined by their nearness to white power and perceived privilege, and to hell with us regular niggas who dare to compromise their happy little bullshit world. This is just one example of how time and time again; we turn our back to the voiceless, while watering down the integrity of our communities and any movement for justice. A lot of them fools want to be seen as “down for the cause” and “real,” but when you need just a lil bit of help, they start acting real white…….but one step better than that of their oppressors. In the Book of Luke, when Christ chastises the Pharisees he unequivocally mentions their love for the “uppermost seats and the synagogues and greetings in the markets,” which ain’t no different than them fake brothers and sisters who want to be recognized as “important” in church, in their communities, etc., but just ain’t willing to do the work required for the respect. The thought of servant leadership is lost on em.

 I now return to Dr. King’s question, “Where do we go from here?” We must first determine where we are. Hum? Then we need to beware of the ones who try to offer the new fangled illusion of hope, change, and empowerment, but only want to associate in the abstract. Yea, rhetoric is good for inspirin folks, but after the rallies are over, and the shit that’s important to our community are no longer part of the 24-hour news cycle, we need the brilliance, creativity, passion, and imagination of those brothers and sisters willing to do the work required to pick up where our ancestors left off. We need those who are ready to fight for justice for our people and our communities…but remember as Yasiin Bey says, “Don’t get caught up in no throne. I’m out!

My Appeal to Black America . . .

The media constantly bombards us with negative stereotypes of us Black folks….meanwhile….there are many Black folks doing and saying things to advance our race everyday, yet you hardly hear about that at all. Hum? We live in a culture that is transfixed and mesmerized with material gain and celebrity bullshit. Instead of striving to be citizens who can change the climate of these turbulent times, we seek to be idols of worship. We’ve been ignored for so long; we’re satisfied with just being heard—regardless of the message. Hum?

 It has become popular for Blacks to glorify this much distorted idea mainstream America sells back to the Black community.

Pre-Civil Rights Black entertainment had a very different vibe back then. The idea of the loveable Coon is what was celebrated. Black men were consigned to buffoonery and women were reduced to mammies if they were to be successful in the industry. Post-Blaxploitation led to a different type of Negro…the gangsta or the Black bitch!! This type of menacing depiction of us Black folk was not tolerated before integration. We Black men were often emasculated because the imagery of a strong Black man was way too threatening for the mainstream. Even our Black children had to subscribe to this bullshit.

The first two kids to play “Buckwheat” in Our Gang (The Little Rascals) were cast as female pickaninnies (Carlena Beard and Willie Mae Taylor). Even though the most popular Buckwheat (Willie “Billie” Thomas) was a boy, they initially still made him dress as a girl. Hum? At one time pop culture would only accept us Blacks happily finding thrills on Blueberry Hill; now Universal is releasing CD’s with that monkey Lil Wayne talking about beating pussy like Emmett Till.  Emmett Till is the 14-year-old child who was beaten to death in 1955 by a couple of rednecks for allegedly whistling at a white woman. How soon we forget our plight that now it’s commercially and socially acceptable for us to tarnish our legacy for a few pieces of fuckin silver. The gangsta or the Black bitch is allowed to channel their rage….at will…as a spectacle for the entire world to see. Damn!

Yesterday’s tommin is today’s blingin. We too busy ballin’ and poppin’ bottles to elevate mindsets.

The desire to be a star took the place of any moral responsibility this ugly asshole showed towards a violently murdered child and his remaining family. While I know there is good to be found in almost any circumstance, I’m afraid this won’t inspire any youth not knowledgeable about Emmett Till or why making his beating similar to having sex with a woman is offensive to do anything but repeat or try to top this bullshit.

While the non-minority (the new white) corporate structure is behind funding such garbage, at this point, Black America is primarily to blame. We Black Americans have far more opportunities now than we used to, but for the most part, use them for entirely the wrong reasons. When we do have our own TV shows, record labels and radio stations, we tend to only enable the violence and ignorance.

The shackles of slavery have long come off, but we have yet to shake the vestiges of servitude.

Today, select members of the Black American community have enough money, power, influence and intelligence to really change the pattern, but most are too caught up in the system and their own personal fame to reflect on where they came from. This is what post-racial America looks like. Not only is it OK to pretend not to be Black in a country which never lets you forget, but you can actually desensitize yourself to the point that you no longer have a historical conscience. Hum?

The river of blood that washes the streets of our nation flows mostly from the bodies of our Black children. 

Black America doesn’t want its own houses. We want to be up in massa’s house. We only see ourselves through the lens of colonialism. We collectively have yet to figure out who we are outside of white supremacy. Black America only feels valid or successful if massa pats us on the head and tells us we done good. We measure our success by the same system that was designed to oppress and divide us.

Black America has been kept away from a piece of the pie for so long that all it takes is a corner of the crust to catapult us into a state of oppressive amnesia.

So, now that we have a lot more free time on our hands in an era where we stay attached to electronic devices that allow us to fetishize our fame on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram, please take a few moments to think about what it is to be a Black American!!

Dear Mr. President, We Black Folks Want the Last Two Years!!!!

Dear President Obama:

I feel compelled to write you this letter because of various developments in your Presidency. A Presidency, which for the record, has been declared officially "over" by most folks on the right, and from the majority of white people. I know that you officially have almost two years left to go, but fuck it, most of those folks in America have already made up their minds about you, and, for whatever reason, they just ain’t feelin you anymore. Hope and changey…they ain’t. Shit, your approval rating stands at 41% and your disapproval ratings stand at 52%. Then there’s this number: 54%. That's the amount of people here in America who don’t believe you can do the job you were elected to do.

But enough of that shit!  I’m sure that you’re well aware of these numbers and the mood of the country. Personally, I don't think that you’ve been any worse than all of the other Presidents that led this country. The Dow is at record levels; unemployment is down; Osama is dead, home values are going up; you brought back an economy that was fucked up; we’re finally closer to having a better health care system; and you pulled the troops out of Iraq as promised. (Please don't go back.) But all of this means nothing to the typical American, the narrative has already been painted by the right-wingers, and most (not all) of the masses are buying into it.

But here’s the good news: Your approval rating is not below 13%. Why is this good news? Because that’s approximately the percentage of Black folks in this country, and I’m pretty goddamn sure that if you were to poll Blacks folks, your approval ratings would still be in the nineties. This is in spite of the fact that you’ve pretty much ignored us Black folks and tried to be the President for all of them other Americans. That was probably an honorable and well-meaning pursuit, but as I’m sure as hell that you should’ve learned by now, some people are just never satisfied, especially the right! Sadly, you’ve surrounded yourself with Ivy League bootlickers and Washington politicians, whose lives are lived in that crazy political fishbowl in and around Washington. These people don't care about the things that you should be caring about. They’re there to enhance their careers and move on to the next cushy ass job, so they would never tell you what I’m going to tell you now.

Again, the good news: You have almost two years left to work on issues that primarily concern us Black folks. This is the time to do the shit! Fuck the rest of America, they’ve already moved on from you. Time to serve the people who are pushing your approval ratings to 41%! And as bad as that seems, trust me when I tell you, it could be worse.  Mr. President, I need you to start using the White House to talk about things like an unfair justice system as it relates to Black folks in this country. Hell, Red Neck Rand Paul of all people is talking about it; it's time you do the same. I need you to start talking about the high unemployment rate for us Black folks, and the need to focus on job training in Black communities as well as investment dollars to start small businesses that can hire some of these folks once they get the proper training. You can't just give lip service to helping Black folks and have token meetings with the outta touch Congressional Black Caucus to address these issues.

I need you to go on “inner city hood” tours and spend time in places like Gary, Indianapolis, Detroit, Cleveland, Houston, Kansas City, New Orleans, and Memphis. Walk the streets of these cities (Trust me; you’ll be safe as hell! Gangbangers will assist the Secret Service if they need them to.) And let the main stream media follow you every step of the way. They need to see that there are parts of this country that could be mistaken for Baghdad or Damascus. (I’ve seen NBC’s Richard Engel in every war torn country in the Middle East, but I ain’t ever seen him in Chicago's Englewood neighborhood on a Saturday night.) It's time to start talking about gun violence and the killing of young Black men by other young Black men. It's not enough to get on television every time there’s a school shooting in the white population and wag your finger at the NRA and remain quiet at the bloodshed in the streets of our cities on any given weekend. I have a lot more, but I’ll stop now, because I know that you don't have the time to read everything that I want to say. Let's face it; you’ve been a little busy these days. Just think about what I said. These folks can't hate you anymore, and no matter what you do for them they won't be satisfied. Besides, what the hell are they going to do if you go Black? Impeach you?

Sincerely,

The Angry Black Man

Winning the Lottery & Reparations??

I’m still working through my thoughts on brother Ta-Nehisi Coates' piece on slavery reparations. If you haven’t seen the video, it’s on this blog.

As I wrote previously, I’m blown away by the comments that ‘The Case for Reparations’ has caused over at the Atlantic magazine and other sites across the Internet.

If you need any more verification that white supremacy remains a real force in American life, all you have to do is read the comments regarding ‘The Case for Reparations.’ The Internet is one part of what I call "the backstage" of modern American racism. It’s a space where people act out publicly what their (semi)private thoughts actually are.

Now, take the next giant step. Those racists are your neighbors, friends, colleagues, and possibly even your family members. Meditate on that motherfuckin fact for a hot second!  

For white folks, the above is a thought experiment. For us Black folks, it’s a matter of life and death. Most of the reaction to Coates’ essay is the old standard, white racist, "color blind" talking-points. As a result, they’re uninteresting, just an expose’ of what white folks really think in post civil rights America. Damn!

 But, and I said but…. There’s one up-and-coming thread in the comments against Coates' essay that deserves our attention. The racists are suggesting….be they active or passive, intentional or accidental, or just drunk on white privilege and the white racial frame….slavery reparations (or for the countless of other state sponsored crimes against Black people in America) are not a fuckin "lottery".

Reparations, in any form, really means acknowledging that a crime has taken place, and said victim (us Black folks) should be made whole, both materially and financially, as well as through the moral gesture of an apology. That ain’t gonna happen!

The lottery is a random win. The lottery is fun. The crimes against humanity that was hundreds of years of white on Black slavery across the Atlantic, more than one hundred years of Racial Apartheid in the United States under Jim and Jane Crow, and then decades more, into the present, of continued institutional white supremacy, is not fun for us Black folks. It’s more than slick. Using the word "lottery" to describe slavery reparations is really an act of violence through language against Black folk’s humanity.

When the justice claims of us Black Americans are compared to a damn game, and the money that can come with winning it, white racists and their allies are disrespectfully dancing on the graves of our recently dead, the long gone dead, and those of us in the present whose life chances continue to be depressingly impacted by white supremacy. I know white people don’t feel empathy towards Black people. And maybe that’s the point? If you don’t feel any sense of empathy or humanity with Black people then why would a person not spit in the face of their lived experiences by reducing their justice claims to a "lottery"?

WHITE DUDE KILLER…no hoodie for him

So if white folks are looking for the boogie-man, seems they need to stop looking at 'Home-boy' from the 'Hood', and first start looking across town in areas where this little rich kid Rodgers comes from, or even in their own homes! Think about it?

This Rodgers case is yet another example of how white male privilege allows white dudes like him to literally commit and get away with murder! Turns out this young Rodgers joker sent emails to his folks and posted You-Tube videos ranting and raving about his deadly intent. His folks were so concerned that they actually called the cops on his ass. Well…they went to his crib and interviewed him for a moment, but found him to be polite, clean-cut, and well-mannered…..meaning good white boy. So apparently, these same cops never got around to asking him if he had or owned any guns, and what were all of those crazy, ranting videos about! 

This sounds just like Jeffery Dahmer, who two Black women called the cops on, explaining that a young, very injured Asian kid, just 16, was running butt naked down the street trying to escape. So what did the white cops do when they stumble upon Dahmer? They let him tell some bullshit story about some imaginary lovers quarrel. Damn! But, we know what those cops would have done, if Dahmer been Black and the running kid was white! 

And they let child-killer Zimmerman buy guns even after he kicked his ex-girlfriends ass and even assaulted a lady cop. Damn! And then let him keep the same gun he murdered Trayvon with, which he used just a couple of months later to threaten his ex-wife. 

The powers that be apparently got a heads-up about Virginia Tech killer Cho, even from well known Black Prof Nikky Giovanni. But he was still able to just walk across the street from campus and buy (2) two hi-capacity Glocks, and a shit-load of ammo! Damn, again!

And then there's the KKK racist dude that just shot and killed (3) white Christians thinking they were Jews. Hum? This dude was convicted in connection of an infamous murder beef in which some of the victims were white. How in the fuck can a dude who is effectively a damn convicted murderer of white people even, able to buy guns & ammo??! Hum again?

 Yet too often time and again, our young Black boys can't even walk out the damn house and down their own street to school or the grocery store without the cops throwing them up against the wall to be stopped and frisked. I've got my own stories of being stopped by the cops…both as a teenager and a grown ass man, with their hands on their guns. A few times they even pulled their guns and made me get down on my knees. Yet not once was I committing, or even about to commit a crime. (Not that time)

WE BLACK MEN ARE GOOD!

A couple of weeks ago I ran into I ran into an old retired professor friend of mine who I’ve always loved and respected. Whenever we see each other, we always talk about how students nowadays are not as engaged in politics, and how they have a different level of respect for their professors, and also how they have higher expectations of themselves. As usual I agreed and probably threw some random statistic that was swirling around in my big head at her to explain, possibly, how we found ourselves in this situation. I recently mentioned a murder in my building (something I’m still trying to figure out two weeks later) and how it really didn’t surprise me that this happened within the confines of my “nice” building.  And then she made the jump to talk about Black-on Black crime and “why it’s always the Blacks against Blacks.”

Lately, I’ve grown weary have to explain my hyper-Blackness to people. Dammit, can I just be?

Meanwhile…………the main story line for Black males in this country is you are under a certain age is that you are guilty until proven innocent and that you are automatically presumed less than and are required to defend your humanity and your citizenship at all times.  Remember the conversation regarding the Seattle Seahawks Richard Sherman as it relates to race? Throw in him being a brown skinned dude, with dreadlocks, and he was loud as hell.... that made him a threat?  Richard Sherman’s loud mouth to the wrong white dude could have easily gotten him killed just as Jordan Davis’ loud music got him killed….literally!

This has also to do with the problem white society has with historically Black colleges and universities.  Nobody has a problem or even cares about historically Black public schools…the Thurgood Marshall’s, the Martin Luther Kings, the Adam Clayton Powell’s,  and Frederick Douglass elementary and high schools that occupy our dark inner cities. Wonder why there have never been questions about the need for their existence?  Likewise, nobody questioned the need for the Mormons to create Brigham Young University or why Jews send their children to Brandeis. But let somebody talk up for historically Black colleges and universities, then suddenly all hell breaks loose in this supposedly post-racial society and you’re accused of being a reverse racist.

BUT PLEASE NOTE THE PATTERN HERE……
Now, all of a sudden, there’s a problem with Black colleges: historically Black colleges and universities; why do you need Black only television networks: Black Entertainment Television; Black power movement; Black liberation theology….it’s the fact that it says Black. Tell the truth, it makes some white people uncomfortable, no matter how liberal they say they are, to see us Black people self-identify as Black. I’m Black.  Deal with it.

It’s bothersome as hell to me because no one person raises an eyebrow on St. Patrick’s Day when everybody of Irish heritage comes out of the woodwork. Even still beyond nationalities, no one raises a funk about folk of Latin descent celebrating their own, but as soon as the actual word “Black” has to be attached to a name, a title, or anything then suddenly society shifts the narrative placing a negative association to it, and if it is a Black male, criminalizing it. This shit is illustrated by my old professor friend when I disproved just that because you see Blacks on the news committing crime doesn’t mean whites aren’t.  She didn’t even want to accept that as even a possibility, only wanting to focus on the fact that these were violent crimes, murders and drug related crimes. She even said to me, “well hasn’t it been long enough” when I attempted to trace some of these problems back to Reconstruction.  Really, I didn’t even know where to start.

I don’t feel the need to defend my gender, my race, my ethnicity, or my Blackness.  I shouldn’t have to hear victims family members automatically go into defense mode when a Black boy gets killed.  It’s something fundamentally wrong when young Black boys have to get two “The Talks” when being raised in this country.  While white boys are being told about the birds and the bees by their parents, Black parents are telling their Black sons about how to act when pulled over by the police, or how to be unassuming when you walk into the store so that you don’t get accused of shoplifting just because you “look” suspicious.  My black skin alone makes me a suspect.

Let that sink in for a moment: my black skin automatically qualifies me as suspicious when I walk into a store.

When I started riding the bus by myself for the first time, one of the first things my mother told me was that I need to be careful how I carry myself because I was big enough that people might think I’m older than what I really am.  That was my mother’s code word for saying “You’re a black kid who’s 11, but you could pass for 15 and people may automatically criminalize you for no reason just because you’re a Black boy”, in 1968!  This is a reality for many Black folks in this country. This is a second America that white privilege has wondrously insulated many from having to ever visit or live. Hum?

I am Black and beautiful–at the same time.  To be Black in this country is being seen as “other” at best, and “less than” at worse, but ultimately such a self-identification automatically marginalizes our existence. But I ask the question, why do we live in a country where being pro-Black is seen as being anti-anything else?  Why does one’s self-determination, self-identification and self-definition as Black become something negative and even criminal at times?

This is what racism has produced.  Systems were in place for so long that there is no author of racism.  None! There is no wizard behind the curtain operating the levers on some of this de facto racism. While I do honestly believe there are members of the 1% that make these power play moves that directly affect us Blacks when it comes to for-profit management of the education system as well as the prison industrial complex, and the likes of the Koch Brothers and Rupert Murdoch’s owning large news media, they are merely responding to the sentiments that many white people hold. They feed on those fears to generate large profits from the fear-mongering.(FOX NEWS)

The parallel with the character Radio Raheem and Jordan Davis are almost scary!  Radio Raheem, the character from Spike Lee’s “Do the Right Thing,” through a series a  unfortunate events ended up killed by the police in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood on a hot summer day because he didn’t turn down his music.