Keep the Party Going. . .

    Ok, so it’s been about a week. Election time has come and gone and here I am. I’m going to start by saying this. I did NOT want to write today! Not at all, things are NOT going smoothly have not been for sometime. I really would like to use the time I’m spending writing to sort out some personal things that are really burdening my spirit but I said I was going to do this and what’s the point in saying it when the first excuse I get to avoid makes me renege. So here it is.

 

What I think about Obama:

 

       I didn’t want to post anything about the election before it actually took place. I’m not suppositious but I didn’t want to jinx anything. I mean every little bit helps right. So I just kept my opinion to myself. However now that he is good and elected I can bust this metaphoric lexical nut! So, here’s the part where you all blow up. But, really, I was NOT excited when he won, I wasn’t crying, I didn’t have any real deep emotions about it to be honest, of course I’m going to tell you why.  I have been struggling with something since Obama became a legitimate candidate for president and it’s becoming more of an issue now that he IS going to be the next president. Basically, is he Black? Now I know that there are many people that are like “are you serious, of course he’s black.” The whole one-drop rule and all that right? Wrong! Obama is a person of color, undoubtedly. HOWEVER, his actual life experience, what makes him, him and gives him his sense of loyalty and character are NOT from the same “salad bowl” American experience that we all share as “average” Black Americans. He grew up in Hawaii with a white family and his father is AFRICAN so to visit that side of the family he went to Africa, not North Carolina, not Georgia, Not Alabama. Not the places where true African American culture was born, the place where EVERY Black person can trace their heritage. Where you learn about what a lynching is and what it means to have to fight for the right to even LOOK at somebody of a different color. I’m ranting. The point is that his “Black experience” is not traditional so by default what Black is to him is not going to be inline with what the greater part of Black Americans feel like black is. His ideas about what’s important to “Black America” aren’t going to be innate in the way that yours or mine would be. Black is more than just a brown layer of skin to me.

 

        Also, I have not fully come to terms with the fact that Barack, although a great guy is a watered down version of a Black man. Ok ok ok, don’t lynch me yet. What I’m saying is look at him, soft-spoken, lanky, slightly goofy looking, hairless (no beard, no mustache, or sideburns) Ultra light skinned, half African half white guy. He’s about as far away from a Black person you can get and still be called “African American” when 99.9% of people think of ANYONE Black, regardless if the person is Black or White, Obama is NOT what they picture. Is that good or bad? I don’t know, but that’s not the issue. The issue is does he really represent the “Black Community” in AMERICA? I for one am NOT so sure. People are calling this some major victory for Black people (well some people are others are trying to steal it like they do everything else and call it a victory for the nation. A Straight Black victory would be too much to handle. Again, even in asserting that his Blackness made this historical it cannot be TOO black so we have to water down the strength of the idea that a Black man can be president and look out for HIS people like the presidents have done who supported slavery, segregation, and other forms of oppression it was clear that as a “WHITE president I’m going to look out for WHITE interest”) so yea, even though people are calling this a victory for Black people I see this more as a compromise. We wanted a Black president and they said no. They told us that we are afraid of you, you are big and black and scary and we don’t want to give you any power. You might turn around and remember all those centuries of oppression and brutal mutilation to your family structures and psychological genocide that we have put you through. You might get upset and turn around and put US in the cotton fields. So what did WE do? We said ok, we are going to show you that we love you enough to let us be in charge. We shaved our face, we cut our course hair, we trimmed down our naturally more muscular builds, and we even went as far as to literally water it down a little with some white. Then we brought Barack to the table and said ok, so, he’s not going to steal your wallet, or rape your daughters. Hell, most of US don’t even think he’s black, how about now?! They took it and we got to have a “Black man” in the white house.

 

           So I say that to say this, the major issue is why do we as a people have to cater to White America? Obviously it’s because they hold all the keys to all the doors. But why do we have to be so happy about it though? When Lincoln wins and frees the slaves to benefit WHITE people because he wanted to urge them to fight and have southern slaves migrate north (NOT because he was just that gracious) that was ok. But for Obama to run and say hey, “I’m Black, things have been fucked up in this country for Black people since they GOT here and I would like to help make things better for my people WHILE I build a better country” would be political suicide.

 

In a conversations I recently had with a good friend of mine he said:

 

Standards are set by the majority in any country. Of course. Just like a white person in a Black neighborhood, the white person is expected to conform to the standards from which he is a minority. He will start to listen to the music, wear the clothes and take on the language.

 

And to assume that Barack Obama, George Bush, Bill Clinton, John McCain, etc. all live their day to day life under the conformity of the professional arena is GROSSLY inaccurate and unreasonable.

 

           I live in HARLEM NYC! The definition of White people moving into your shit. And let me tell you my brother that is NOT what happens. When an elitist majority that feels entitled to, well, everything, and has on some level superiority complexes moves into your area, even if there is just ONE. YOU become uncomfortable. They do not change because they see no need to. It’s like the “White man’s burden” they came in and saw something different and did NOT think “oh, lets learn this” they thought “This is different from how we do things and so it MUST be wrong and needs change because we have he ONLY way”

         And white people are the MINORITY here. They are the largest singular group but as a whole there are less of them than everyone else. So the standard is very much misrepresentative of the actually population of the country. Lastly all those presidents did what white people do, they got into the white house to push THEIR agendas and to CHANGE the standard. The exact opposite of conformity. They what they do, they just call it “reform” it’s one of those words you hear a MILLION times on CNN but never really get a real definition of, like “Insurgents.” So do they live their day-to-day lives, no. However they don’t conform they push the environment around them become as close to how THEY like as possible. Unlike what Obama has to do which is the opposite, he tries to conform to be accepted.

 

          The reason I say that is because to say that Barack or anybody the runs for president must conform is not wrong, but to say that it’s just the way things are naturally is. A Black man doesn’t just have to conform he has to concede parts of himself, parts of his soul (defined by Webster’s as “a sense of pride shared between African Americans). A white man doesn’t even know what would feel like because they ARE the standard.

 

          Lastly, I just want to say that I’m happy that Obama won. I may not know if I like Obama but I am SURE that McCain was the wrong choice. I just hope that Obama can live up to the standards he let be built about himself and that he gets a VEST!

Still Enraged. . . Shall I Explain.

Ok, so, now that we have that out of the way… let me write a little more articulately. For those who had a hard time reading through the curses and the acerbic nature of my last post the point that I was trying to really drive home is that white people are all apart of this global economic system of oppression, if not through direct prejudice and discrimination themselves, simply through using and enjoying that privilege. Because there is no way that a white person can totally avoid using their “white privilege” and because that white privilege always comes at a price of the disenfranchisement of another, that would make every white person apart of this oppressive system. Furthermore, no white person would forgo their white privilege (if they could, because that is not a choice that one white individual can make based on the nature of the interdependent system of which I speak) or even attempt to rectify the issues caused directly by their culture or moral (or immoral; depending on who you ask) values. And that is to be expected. Malcolm X said “Power is never given… it can only be taken....” So why should I expect a white man I have never met and will never know to sell his house because his grandfather lynched the man that out bid him for the property. I shouldn’t. His argument would be “It wasn’t me, it was my grandfather. Why should I have to pay for his crimes?” To that I would simply say “Because I do…”

It has been the record of white culture to oppress others, not indefinitely (well not overtly anyway), but just long enough to be able to turn to them when they are finally aware of what the ramifications of the white culture’s Genocide, Homicide, Gentrification, eradication of said groups culture, religion, civilization, value systems and pretty much everything about that culture, and say “That was so long ago. Just get over it.” Well, that’s just not good enough for me. That is most of the reason why I’m so livid at white culture, people, and values. A lot of white people want to pretend that things are long over and done with… but when we have PRESENT day (like a month ago) cases like the Jenah 6 and James Bird a few years ago… how can we “get over it.” Very often we hear terms like “isolated incident” and “Hate Crimes.” That lends a sense of rarity to these occurrences. But when something is happening in the hundreds or thousands every year. How “isolated” is the incident. When a particular kind of behavior is generally practiced at what point does it go from being a “hate crime” (when people are actually pursued) to just being “the way we treat those people?”

Lastly, I would like to address the point of:

“You would do the same thing.”

That is a point I really disagree with. The idea that given the same situation Black people, Latino people, Asian people… would all do the same things, take the same courses of action as our White counter parts. I find that people say that to make themselves feel better. Naturally if you think that somebody else would make the same bad choices you did, you feel less guilty about making them. But just as no two people would act the same in a given situation I don’t think any two groups would either. Sociology teaches us that just like people have values and morals and particular ethics that are constant in particular groups. Groups also have their own “personalities” so to speak. For example, ask any real black person (If you are confused about what I mean by “real” read W.E.B. DuBois’ – Talented Tenth Theory”) how do you treat your elders. I promise that the answer will generally be the same around the globe; Respect, Love, Care, Obedience, the lot. However, I can’t honestly say that is a trait I see in every culture. So if one group decides to kill off all the old people and that is wrong in the greater world. When another group pulls their card about it, it would not be fair to say “Oh, you would have done the same thing in my position” as justification for your actions. I DID! They are different groups with different values. Moreover, even if that were true, another group DID NOT take that action. You did, so YOU should be held accountable. If I kill a man, and every one in the world would have probably killed him too for whatever reason I did, the fact remains that they didn’t kill him…

If you value money, property, ownership, and capitalism, the way you act and treat people will reflect your values (i.e. Apartheid, Genocide, Holocaust, Slavery, Capitalism, Gentrification, WW1 and 2 (I know what everyone is going to say “they bombed pearl harbor first… but ask why!?). If you value, Nature, Community, Knowledge, Beauty, Family, and so on… your culture’s actions will reflect that also (i.e. the color blue (if your Haitian you know what I mean), Marijuana (originally used by native peoples at PEACE ceremonies), Math, What we now know as “Gun Powder.” (created in Asia originally for ceremonial use and was turned into a weapon by… you guessed it!), and lastly, most peaceful religions (and for ANYONE who is going to sit up here and spit some propaganda about how all Muslims want to do is blow stuff up I’ll say this… AS A CHRISTIAN I know that Islam doesn’t have nearly as much blood on it’s hands as Christianity. This is not a fact, but I’d bet that more people have died in the name of Jesus by the sword then any other religion.

In conclusion, I realize that my delivery in my last blog was harsh. But I do not apologize for what I said and I will not apologize for my delivery. Those are just words on a page. I have received no apology for my grandmother not being able to sit where she pleases or to patronize the places she’s worked, I have received no apology for my grandfather only being able to be a cook in the army when he can shoot a moving target from hundreds of yards, I have received NO apology from the U.S. for slavery although the Jews have received one for the holocaust (which DIDN’T EVEN HAPPEN HERE!), I have received no apology from the man that follows me and my best friend David around the store when somewhere along the lines of 65% of kleptomaniacs are NOT black, I have received no apology for a New Orleans and I probably never will… My people are dying every day. They are being consciously exterminated! And if you as a white person will do nothing but sit and let your people exterminate mine, benefiting all the while, then I will NOT apologize to you. I have not lied here at all, and I have been brought up to not apologize for the truth. If you think or know that anything I said here is untrue please tell me and I will talk with you and we can converse. ☺

I hope that this is clearer and helps many people understand the plight of the none-white world. Being in a world where you have to beg and scrape to get thrown a bone from the man whose only reason for his position is his skin color and his people’s history of theft and killing [your own people] is hard, frustrating and emotionally devastating. And for that, I think I have a right to vent and express the TRUTH.

I’ll leave on this note…

“A white, one-legged, bus boy, wouldn’t trade places with me. And I’m RICH!”
~Chris Rock~