Monday, January 18, 2010

The "Dream Merchant"?

*
"Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths. " ~Joseph Campbell~

I sure hope that Dr. King's dream wasn't a myth. Apparently most black folks don't think so. All it took was the election of his O ness to turn their thinking around. In a poll taken last year right after that historic election, 69% of blacks thought that Dr. King's dream had been fulfilled. That was up from 34% just a year before. Dr. King would have been 81 years old today, and it has been 46 years since that historic speech. I wonder what he would have thought of A-merry-ca and our new "post racial" African American president if he were alive?

I see that Dr. Boyce Watkins, writing for The Grio ,took a shot at that question:

"Dr. King would love Obama for representing the essence of the American dream. He would be proud of Obama's considerable educational and personal achievements. On the other hand, I suspect that King would be disturbed by the fact that Obama has a sworn commitment to protect the machine of war and corruptive capitalism. But he would celebrate the many freedoms that are protected by that very machine.."

Interesting. Of course I think, to answer that question, where Dr. King would probably stand on Obama's commitment to corporate interest would depend on how close he believed that A-merry-ca had come to realizing his dream. If he thought, for instance, that we were close, I am guessing that he would trust big corporations and the machine that supports "corporate capitalism" to do right by the lesser among us. If not, I suspect that he would be very disappointed with his O ness.

I also think that because of the president's race, we have been forced to confront the subject of race more openly and in a more high profile way. It has given us some "teachable moments" which I hope will make us all better. I think Dr. King would have liked that as well.

But sadly, from where I sit, we are not quite there yet. Although I have been fortunate. Someone being a racist --whether it be the man in the street or someone in a position of power-won't affect my life one way or the other. To quote a very famous rapper: "I am going to get mine." But what about some poor kid in inner city_[pickl your city] or rural_[pick your state] who will never get a proper education because of _[pick your poison] ? The little day to day indignities I can live with. (Like when some asshole at an airport in a major A-merry-can city wanted to see my ID after I made a credit card purchase over the Christmas break. And missy, who was right in front of me, made a larger purchase and no "may I see some ID mam?" from the ignorant ass clerk.) Because I can always come home and blog about it to a few of my closest friends. Just to get the shit off my chest.

And, of course, there is the other side. -Carmen Dixon wrote about it recently.- White folks who feel that they can't have an honest conversation about race because they don't want to be labeled a racist. You Negroes can be so defensive about everything race related. Here is a white lady who is about to give birth to an interracial child in "post racial" A-merry-ca. She is expressing her fears and apprehensions of what lies ahead:

" Being called racist in today's society is almost as bad as being called a baby killer. Just look at Trent Lott and Imus. Yes, the comments they made were incredibly offensive: Imus (in)famously referred to the black members of a women's college basketball team as "nappy-headed hos," as recently as 2007. But instead of taking the opportunity to turn a negative into a positive -- discussing the comments and why they were offensive, we stamped "racist" on their foreheads and shipped them away so as not to blemish our politically correct landscape. In an effort not to be labeled racist, white people often walk on eggshells, uncomfortable and unsure of what to say to a black person. In fact, in a 2008 study on race, when a white person was interviewed by a black person on racial issues they reported higher levels of anxiety than when they were interviewed by a white person. This effectively kills real communication, and true understanding -- the cornerstones of what is needed for our country to truly become post-racial. Source: My Worst Fear as a Mother-to-Be? A Burning Cross on Our Front Lawn, Colleen Oakley, Lemondrop.com"

Of course Carmen was not pleased, and she tore Missy a new one. I won't go there. I will be kind. Hey, if that's how she feels, so be it. I would only say to Ms. Oakley, that in the spirit of MLK Day, let's talk about it. Let's have a teachable moment. I don't want you to have any level of "anxiety" when you talk to the field. I am not afraid of Kumbaya moments.

This is what Dr. King would have wanted. Talking about our fears and anxieties. So that, in the future, ignorant ass store clerks won't judge travelers by the color of their skin but by the content of their pocket books.

Before I go; shout out to all the volunteers who came out in Philly today and represented in the true spirit of what this day is all about. Your behavior had field written all over it.
*Pic courtesy of CSTSP.Org.

142 comments:

  1. Monday, January 18, 2010
    MLK & ME

    I love what folks like MLK and others have done for me...I love and worship the Black man I am today... My legend, My voice, My being, My presence all are the sum total of those Black folks in my orbit who have allowed me to be the icon I am today..

    I love MLK day I can ignore and avoid all the bullshit MLK events full of pretense and posturing by "drive by" liberals, religous pimps, phony racial cheerleaders both Black and White.

    Today I can soak in the orbit and freedom my Black ass has created with the contributions of Black living legends in my midst..I can lean on the footprints and dna of my ancestors and I can channel the flow from those in my future visions..

    Yeah I love My Blackness on MLK...My home is flowing with Black Jazz, The smells of Black food and the aura of My Black being right here..right now...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Aww Field, but I did it for the kid. ;)

    Thanks for the shout out and thanks for reminding folk that so much work is to be done.

    I gotta admit, that 69% response has my head spinning. Wherever those folks are living, in the inimitable words of Tina Fey, "I want to go to there."

    ReplyDelete
  3. autera7:28 PM

    Yo fuck man, yesterday's post is burning up with drama. Are you even man enough to head that way?

    ReplyDelete
  4. Field, as an older* white man, I truly appreciate what you are doing to inform and educate people, black and white.

    *sucks to admit to being old!

    ReplyDelete
  5. http://www.facebook.com/pages/PANTS-ON-THE-GROUND/249767001679?v=wall&ref=pymk

    Check dis out nigga

    ReplyDelete
  6. Anonymous7:45 PM

    This one is much better

    http://missxtreme.com/members/missxmoviesall.htm

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'd like to think that if Martin Luther King Jr. were alive today, he would condemn or politely critique some of the corporate driven interests of our gov't of which his O-ness has been branded to represent.

    The whole "Dream Speech" has been watered down and shredded as such that people miss the mark on what King was calling for. The Dream was about closing the gap - the Civil Rights Act, was the launching pad for that. However, I think the next phase be that of an economic empowerment nature has yet to be realized.

    Yes, the average minority is better off today than they were back in the day as far as wages go. But the truth is, well, I'm sure you folks know the numbers. We work harder and longer for less, and the income gaps have widened exponentially.

    "On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, "Is it safe?" Expediency asks the question, "Is it politic?" And Vanity comes along and asks the question, "Is it popular?" But Conscience asks the question "Is it right?" And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right." - Martin Luther King Jr.

    The above quote comes to mind when I think of what little by way of policy this administration for the people most affected by the Great Recession. I agree with you Field as I do Dr. Boyce Watkins on this one.

    ReplyDelete
  8. sorry sham, I don't answer to that name. Why don't you check it them and give us some crib notes on it.

    "Yo fuck man, yesterday's post is burning up with drama. Are you even man enough to head that way?

    Yep, I was just there. And?

    "Aww Field, but I did it for the kid. ;)"

    Carmen, you are funny. :) But great post nevertheless.

    ReplyDelete
  9. "The whole "Dream Speech" has been watered down and shredded as such that people miss the mark on what King was calling for. The Dream was about closing the gap - the Civil Rights Act, was the launching pad for that. However, I think the next phase be that of an economic empowerment nature has yet to be realized."

    Well said Rippa.

    ReplyDelete
  10. let us take this day to ponder
    and reflect upon what we see
    the status of M.L. King's vision
    the current state of inequality

    we can say without reservation
    that strides have certainly been made
    but his dream is far from perfected
    how long must this game be played

    Jim Crow may be dead and buried
    but his legacy still lives and is strong
    it's notions of division and injustice
    just keep right on rolling along

    they say with the election of Obama
    that we are now a Post-Racial Society
    if that ain't a crock of horse shit
    just another lie in the Land of the Free

    I wonder what King would be thinking
    is this the future for which he planned
    or by now would he be disillusioned
    and want to bury his head in the sand

    that is just a rhetorical question
    there was no giving up in this man
    wherever he witnessed injustice
    not away from but towards it he ran

    ReplyDelete
  11. I have no idea what MLK would say and do today..I hate it when folks put words and shit in his dead mouth....

    Be great now..make your footprints now

    ReplyDelete
  12. I also hate that tired quote of Howard Witt..The old is not being challenged by the young with regard to civil rights...I observe nothing a seemless thread..

    Enough alreay with that tired theme...FN can you get another banner???

    ReplyDelete
  13. I had seen that statistic several weeks ago, but I wasn't too surprised.

    This period of Obama is an identifying moment for a part of America that hasn't truly been able to call America "home". Now they can. I hope.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Anonymous9:15 PM

    I am really not that into MLK.I feel more philosophically aligned with Malcolm X. MLK was about The Dream ,while MX you could say was about the Road Map. Black people need a "road map", that dream stuff does not cut it in the real world.

    Unfortunately, although there were many voices and leaders in the Civil Rights movement the white media pushed MLKs point of view because it was, in my opinion, less threatening to the status quo. Although MX realized the importance of the ballot, he saw that black economic and social self- sufficiency was the only way to be "equal",not just the ballot.

    MLK in my opinion overemphasized the importance of the ballot to the extent when they got it it was more less a situation of : Ok,what now?

    The other problem is that blacks have no leadership or advocacy organization or representation in America.

    But crow what about the NAACP?

    Are you joking? I could have sworn this was MLK day not APRIL FOOLS.

    But ok i will humor you. Let us compare the NAACP with AIPAC. Now for those who don't know AIPAC is a Israel advocate group, this should be made clear.Although its is made up of American Jews it does not advocate on issues on behalf Jews in America, that is done by the Anti-Defamation League. Ok now AIPAC advocating for Israel has facilitated the "transfer" (because that is what it is) of over 114 billion dollars of American taxpayer money between 1960 to 2008.So that is 114b with no conditions or need to repay tranfered to a foreign country which has helped Israel to effectivelydevelop its infrastructure, social development program, and industries.

    How much has NAACP generated for the development of black infrastructure,social development programs, and industries?
    How effective have they been in "advancing" the "colored people" of America?


    *crickets chirping*

    ReplyDelete
  15. blackinalabama9:19 PM

    Thanks Israel (Israelis Field Hospital) Dr Nancy on MSNBC praised for how they hit the ground in Haiti with everything they needed and went into action.
    Thank you Dr Martin Luther King Jr a Great American Hero.

    ReplyDelete
  16. Anonymous9:25 PM

    Unfortunately, although there were many voices and leaders in the Civil Rights movement the white media pushed MLKs point of view because it was, in my opinion, less threatening to the status quo.


    Of course, Malcolm X was of the opinion that whites were a devil race. It's no surprise King's point of view won the day.


    "he saw that black economic and social self- sufficiency was the only way to be "equal",not just the ballot."

    Unfortunately economic self sufficency was possible only under segregation. A measure of economic acceptance saw class formations begin to shape relations in the African American community. Professional blacks could only find real advancment through access to the wider world of white institutions and centers of power. Malcolm's dream could only work through seperatism. Even he realized that, before he was killed by his own.

    ReplyDelete
  17. Anonymous9:39 PM

    It is not so much that speech is watered down as the speech is not read in its entirey, and that is the problem. There is a saying if you do not want people to know anything, put in a book. That is what we have here with King's I Have a Dream Speech, or Letter from Birmingham Jail. People have to to remember that King was not the civil rights movement. King more or less challenged the conscience of the society including middle and upper class African Americans. Remember the people who fought in the field were the working class black citizens and the result is that the middle and upper class group benefited from the movement while the working class group still lags beyond.

    That is an interesting quote you used by Joseph Campbell that myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths and there is a certain truth to that saying. We sometimes misused the myth because we dismiss it as a lie, but myths were never meant to be taken literally as we know that story is not true, but it does not mean that the message or meaning it is conveying is true. Dreams can become a reality, but the truth is that dreams are hard work. Dreams to do not materialized from nothing. In theory, we are to continue the dream and King laid the foundation. I do not expect human beings to change their behavior overnight, it does not happen and it is unrealistic. Truth be told we cannot change other people's behavior, but we can only control how we react. The dream will take a great deal of time, but the dream has been put out there. The question becomes when do go from turning that private myth into a public dream. We have the ability to be the change we want to see in the world as Ghandi said. The dream speech was meant as inspiration, so ask of you are still inspired. Can you tap into your creativity to solve problems within the black community? Can you continue to mentoring a child and encourage him or her in despite of any tough challenges they may face? Do you live your with compassion and purpose? Does being a dream merchant mean that King attempted to encourage, mentor, and making us see our potentil, then I would have to answer yes.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Anonymous9:54 PM

    FIELD NEGRO. this may be off subject but, why are WHITE AMERICAN'S allowed to Adopt HAITIAN Children? to be honest, I had no Idea this was going on, their is quite a bit of focus on this in the MEDIA,

    I saw a little HAITIAN BOY today on TV with his WHITE, want to be ADOPTIVE PARENT'S, he looked to be around the age of FOUR, they had him on a little white hat, and he resembled SAMMY DAVIS JR. he was smiling and dancing, as a matter of fact, he was doing the JIG and trying to TAP DANCE! this was NOT funny to me at all! but, it was funny to the WHITE MOTHER!

    I know certain thing's about HAITI but, this is new to me, HAITI fought to come out of SLAVERY, and yet, they will turn their CHILDREN over to WHITE PEOPLE! and I don't want to hear that I am RACIST! you mean to tell me, White people have to go to HAITI and take care of little BLACK HAITIAN BABY'S? what has been going on in HAITI? this has to STOP! and it should!

    I saw little ORPHAN BABY'S, on CABLE NEW'S all day long today, I didn't like what I saw, my children are ADULT'S, and it was not easy for me to raise them on my own, but, trust me, if I was able to ADOPT a HAITIAN BABY I would do so! their is too much RACIAL HATRED in AMERICA today, and I for one, don't agree with little BLACK BABY'S being put in the hand's of any WHITE PERSON!

    Sorry people, but, I don't TRUST FOLK'S, NOW! I kinda did, before we had a BLACK PRESIDENT, but, folk's have been showing their COLOR'S!

    iseeisee

    ReplyDelete
  19. mellaneous9:54 PM

    Hey Field good points as always ditto what you said earlier about the dream speech being watered down. In fact a very radical MLK has been made much more palatable than the one who was a threat to US imperialism.

    Anon and John Crow:
    Its really important to read what MLK and Malcolm X actually said. There are plenty of books now with their speeches and writings.

    It is important to note that MLK was not the reformer people try to make him out to be.John Crow you need to know that Kings dream was not about simply integration it was about a just society. It was about equal opportunity for all which would include an end to isms, fair wages, an end to poverty and US militarism. King once said that," structure that continues to produce beggars needs to be torn down."He said plainly on many occassions that the system was the problem.

    "We must recognize," he said, "that we can't solve our problems now until there is a radical redistribution of economic and political power." Among other things, this would require facing the truth that "the dominant ideology" of America was not "freedom and equality" with racism "just an occasional departure from the norm." Racism was woven into the fabric of the country, intimately linked to capitalism and militarism. What was required was "a radical restructuring of the architecture of American society."

    That phrase -- "a radical restructuring of the architecture of American society" -- was not uttered in the dream speech of 1963. The time was not right for it. But the phrase carries the essential message and embodies the enduring legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., and it is a message virtually air-brushed from history. His radical critique was drowned out from the beginning by angry White House rejections, white fear of the Black Power movement, escalating riots in Northern cities, and liberal integrationists' continuing loyalty to reformist principles of contained social change.

    NO Anon you have it wrong,King was a threat to US capitalism because he said that it --d not just segregation --was the source of the problem. You have to read Kings speech entitled "Beyond Vietnam" in which he came out against the war in Vietnam. Its the same speech in which he calls out US militarism, materialism and racism as enemies of human progress. Its the same speech in which he said that "the US was the greatest purveyor of violence in the world."

    He was murdered exactly a year after this speech.

    And "anon" Malcolm X changed his opinion about white people even breaking with the Nation of Islam. He became an internationalist and began to embrace whites who were fighting against racisma and injustice. YOU HAVE TO READ HIS ENTIRE LIFE NOT STOP AT 1963.

    Unfortunately it benefits those in power when folks misunderstand what these great radicals/revolutionaries said and thought.

    I'll leave you with this gem from Malcolm X. " believe there will be a clash but it will not be a clash between black and white it will be a clash between those who want to continue this system of oppression and exploitation versus those who want to end it."

    WE have to read and when you do you get an idea of how those great men would have viewed what is going on today.

    liberation then peace

    ReplyDelete
  20. Interesting, the typical Coon-fest, Black Planet, made the same point today here.


    To me the problem is that during King's day, the Black middle class had a vested interested in liberation. Now, beyond lefty-chest thumping, what vested interest does a college educated Black professional have in plight of trifling hood rats he or she only have to interact with at a family reunion.

    In deed, King's dream has come true in some ways -- we have a Black POTUS and captains of industry. The world's earning entertainers are African Americans. Hip-hop all but dominates pop culture.

    But, the rest of King's dream shared by Malcolm, Medgar and Marcus -- to see the poor amongst us thrive, has never been realized.

    ReplyDelete
  21. Anonymous10:10 PM

    "We must recognize," he said, "that we can't solve our problems now until there is a radical redistribution of economic and political power."

    You are right. Martin was a threat to the system. Yet, even his anti-capitalistic message and anti-racist image appealed to radicals over the color line; while Malcolm's message of racial separatism and bizarre NOI raciall occultism did not. I do understand Malcolm changed his mind at the end of his career, but it was just that-the end of his career.

    ReplyDelete
  22. @iseeisee: What I find suspicious about what they're doing is that it seems these White families are primarily adopting young (infant to pre-teen) Haitian males. There are no Haitian females up for adoption? No older children? I can't help but think of that Duke faculty member that adopted a young African American boy, used him for sex and then attempted to sell him to another pedophile.

    And another thing, how are these people able to adopt these children? When a friend of mine looked into adopting Haitian children, the cost was upwards of $25K. We're in a recession and a slow job market, and the Whites shown meeting their adoptive children don't look like they have a loaf of brad to their name. How are they pulling it off?

    ReplyDelete
  23. Nina Simone10:30 PM

    I love everything that MLK did for me and all of us. A true American Hero indeed. Really, a world hero, he sacrificed his life for others. BUT- I'm more of a Malcolm X pre trip to mecca girl myself and I would love for us to celebrate him the way we do MLK. But of course that will never happen. He was too real and honest. And personally, and I know I'll probably catch hell but I think black people were better off before integration. Black people didn't depend on white people for anything because we knew we weren't going to get it. Instead black people created their own businesses in their own neighborhoods. All of our money went back into our neighborhoods. Once we "integrated" we abandoned our businesses because they could now go to the white folks. And it all went down hill from there. We gave up on building up ourselves, instead we chose to try and depend on and assimilate into a culture that even today doesn't fully aceept us. Even Dr. King himself worried if he was doing the correct thing by integrating us. According to Harry Belafonte he said, "I fear that I am integrating my people into a burning house."

    ReplyDelete
  24. mellaneous10:45 PM

    Anon you must read Malcolm X's whole life he actually changed his position on politics. This is what made him so great he actually admitted that he had been wrong.

    Please read any book you can pick up and it will show this. He set up his own organization after breaking from the Nation of Islam. And he openly invited whites to help in his struggle against racism and US imperialism. He spent his last year speaking at leftist and revolutionary forums and on predominantly white college campuses. You have to stop this guessing. The historical record is there for you to read. In fact Pathfinder books has a few good titles you should read.

    We cannot debate suppositions you have to read and study the historical record and what folks actually said. It makes for much better discussion. I understand your feelings but they are not supported by the fact of Malcolm X to leave him as a narrow nationalist would be to do him a serious disservice.

    ReplyDelete
  25. I can appreciate King's dream on some levels, but from my perspective as a former teacher and tutor in inner city schools, intergration on the grade school level did far more harm than good to black children.

    ReplyDelete
  26. Anonymous10:53 PM

    DR.KING, was a BLACK MAN in a WHITE MAN'S world, he spoke and did, what was needed in that time, he had to tread lightly, he knew what TYPE of PEOPLE he was dealing with, he did not take anything for granted, ever heard the word LYNCHING?

    KING was a BRAVE MAN to challenge the WHITE MAN during the sixty's, he was dealing with HUMAN BEING'S that were CALLOUS, VICIOUS and MURDERER'S, these people BURNED down CHURCH'S, BOMBED CHURCH'S, where little BLACK CHILDREN were, these people would MURDER you without BLINKING a EYE, and they had the JUSTICE SYSTEM to back them up!

    MALCOLM was insightful, he did not give the WHITE MAN any leeway, and he should NOT have, Malcolm could say what KING could NOT say, in the beginning MALCOLM was totally committed to being a FIELD NEGRO, but, when he went to MECCA and came back, he THOUGHT his mission was to UNIFY the RACE'S, NO! he was to remain WATCHFUL! our people needed MALCOLM to continue to SPEAK against INJUSTICE with a LOUD BOLD VOICE! we did NOT need two DR. KING during that time, we needed MALCOLM to continue to PLACE a SPIRIT of CONVICTION on the WHITE RACIST AMERICAN'S, this was MALCOLM mission, BLACK AMERICAN'S needed as many voice's as possible to speak in our behalf, during the sixty's we needed BLACK MEN to stay the course and NOT waiver in their BELIEF!

    DR. KING was a GREAT MAN! as AFRICAN AMERICAN'S we should never forget, he put his life on the line, for our people, and for that, we should be GRATEFUL!

    ISEEISEE

    ReplyDelete
  27. Anonymous10:53 PM

    "I don't want you to have any level of "anxiety" when you talk to the field. I am not afraid of Kumbaya moments."

    You must be kidding, cause you appear to be skeptical as well as uneasy with Kumbaya moments. Metaphorically speaking, there is a trail of dead white bodies on FN blog. Those are the brave souls (fools?) who earnestly tried to honestly communicate--much like Colleen Oakley. They are all dead now, 'metaphorically' speaking. Except grinder, of course. The man is like a hard-nosed catus living in the middle of a hot desert- that can survive any kind of heat. He is one tough bad-ass white boy. He must be the white ELI of FN blog, without the book, of course.

    Anyway, it's the same old story: Both sides blame the other's insensitivity for the continued noncommunication. Whites claim they must walk on eggshells and Blacks attack Whites for not knowing how to deal with sensitive racial issues involving Blacks.

    Any 'intelligence' outside of the earth's atmosphere watching this shit can see that both sides are so self-centered and self-absorbed that they can't see or hear the other's point of view without a meltdown. BTW, there is proof that there are intelligent beings in the universe because they have not bothered to contact our dumb asses.

    There can be no oommunication between Whites and Blacks about race without anxiety and fear on both sides- esp. on THIS blog. So, forget it. You know from the Obama 'teachable moment' re: racial profiling by the poo-lice that the country is not ready...Never will be, imo.

    The country is full of racists, both Black and White- and FN blog is no different. Great post, Mr. Field... Happy MLK Day!

    ReplyDelete
  28. mellaneous10:54 PM

    Sister Nina you must think about what you said one more time. Some times things sound good to us but they are really not sound thinking.

    I am old enough to know folks who lived during segregation. Do you have any idea what life under Jim Crow was like, with the constant threat of violence against your person and being defined as a second class citizen and treated as one in every since of the word.

    Booker T Washington advanced a similar argument but you can't really advance economically without equality and social justice.

    I feel what you are thinking but its not quite the utopia you paint. What King meant about being afraid of being integrated into a burning house was that while he wanted black folks to advance he did want them to adopt the negative values of materialism and militarism and greed that mark this society. He was saying basically that he was hoping that once doors of opportunity opened we didn't lose our collective souls in the process.

    Oh and BTW some of these business folks you speak of were opposed to the end of segregation because it was not going to benefit them economically. And it was their businesses as in Mr.Jones or Mr.Smith's businesses not "ours"

    ReplyDelete
  29. I'm going to approach this differently. Despite our having a Martin Luther King Day celebration to honor his memory, Dr. King was not generally accepted by blacks during a large part of his life.

    Many saw him as a sellout: "How could Dr. King ask us to love whites before loving ourselves."

    Other Civil Rights activists believed his nonviolence stance to be unrealistic, and that blacks should meet white violence with equal, or greater, force.

    These views softened overtime--to some degree during his life, and certainly since his death, so much so that few blacks, today, even question Dr. King's non-violence legacy.

    Dr. King championed blacks as well as the poor. Were he alive today, he would support universal health care, and would chide blacks as well as whites, for not making greater strides toward closing the widening gap between the rich and the poor.

    ReplyDelete
  30. Anonymous11:03 PM

    Iseeisee, "FIELD NEGRO. this may be off subject but, why are WHITE AMERICAN'S allowed to Adopt HAITIAN Children? to be honest, I had no Idea this was going on, their is quite a bit of focus on this in the MEDIA,"

    I am glad to see it. With the recent tragedy today, I expect an increase in adoptions by Whites. What do you care? Hell, American black teens are killing each other in the streets. So why would you want to deprive Whites of adopting Haitians? Is that what your racially minded God is telling you?

    ReplyDelete
  31. Anonymous11:06 PM

    mellaneous laid out a more complete picture of MLK and Malcolm and dang if people didn't just brush it aside saying "don't bore me with the facts because I'm going to believe whatever I want to."

    As for the Haitian adoption discussion, not everyone is broke and some can afford the adoption fees. Too bad for you. Maybe it was the pricey car you could have done without. The suggestion that whites are adopting in order to molest these kids is evil. I am sick of hateful racist negroes who would deny a home to a child who needs one because of race. Furthermore, you are sick and ignorant if you don't think black people molest children. Racism has made you mentally unbalanced.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Anonymous11:37 PM

    BD, "I'm going to approach this differently. Despite our having a Martin Luther King Day celebration to honor his memory, Dr. King was not generally accepted by blacks during a large part of his life."

    I remember the 60's and you make a good point-a very truthful one. As I think about it, there was a lot of stuff going on simultaneously across the country with our race. MLK, The Panthers, Muslims, Malcolm X, all played a part in the fight for our human dignity and rights as American citizens.

    There were those against MLK's non-violent Christian way, including the House Negroes who were afraid to 'rock the boat'(these were the majority, imo). Nevertheless, King attracted and moved millions for civil rights.

    Like Gandhi, he was no ordinary man. Something in him was driving him that was very powerful. It was after his 'violent' death that King rose to his highest prominence, IMO.

    My guess is that MLK would have mixed emotions-toward the negative side- because of the great suffering of the poor, and homeless in America.

    ReplyDelete
  33. Anonymous11:42 PM

    He spent his last year speaking at leftist and revolutionary forums and on predominantly white college campuses. You have to stop this guessing. The historical record is there for you to read. In fact Pathfinder books has a few good titles you should read.


    That's just one year. He was in the Nation for much longer. Perhaps he could have been a force for radical change across racial lines, but we will never know.

    ReplyDelete
  34. iseeisee, I too have mix feelings about the Haitian adoptions - or whites adopting black children in general. In one hand I see innocent children in need of love, family and support regardless of their adaptors skin color. Yet on another hand, I fear racial exploitation, especially domestic servitude and various abuse.

    Regardless if there's not any direct or physical abuse present, I'm still concerned about the long term effects and mental brain-washing of these children. It angers me to think about black children being raised in racially ignorant environments which promotes racially sick white adults like grinder, or self-loathing black adults like CF.

    Also, for the male gender preference, I too have always noted that. I have a few speculations about that, including slight relief as well as anger for black females being scorned and rejected since their intentions are supposed to be "good". That's for another time though.

    ReplyDelete
  35. Nina Simone12:00 AM

    @ mellaneous

    I believe there is a way for people to be equal, have equal rights and be treated as equals without integration and assimilation. Taking on the ways, beliefs, and values of the majority. That's what happened and did not in anyway benefit black people.

    You asked: "Do you have any idea what life under Jim Crow was like, with the constant threat of violence against your person and being defined as a second class citizen and treated as one in every since of the word"

    My grandmother is 91yrs old. She'll be 92 in June. Born and raised in the south. As well as my parents and aunts and uncles as well. So yes, I too know people from that era. And a lot of them feel the same way as I do.

    Nothing much has changed today. Black men were targeted then and are still targeted today. Many still see us as second class citizens. The police still harass and even sometimes murder our men and get off. Look at Sean Bell. Look at the lady in Georgia I believe that got beat by a white man at a restaurant. We are no more safe now than we were then. They just have more creative ways of going about attacking us and getting away with it. Yes there are a hate crime laws but it's awfully hard to prove an attack was an act of racism.

    "...you can't really advance economically without equality and social justice."

    Is that the reason why many black people have remained stagnant even after segragation? There is still a lot inequality today. Blacks have always overcame adversity. They wouldn't let us in their schools, we created our own. We couldn't go into their stores. We created our own. We taught each other, we helped each other. We were way more dependent than we are now. The minute they allowed us to sit at the table with them we got happy and settled. We got complacent. There were plenty of successful black people before we tried so hard to fit in. Ever heard of Greenwood also known as Black Wall Street? Very successful and affluent neighborhood full of black owned grocery stores, clothing stores, etc. Full of black millionaire businessmen, doctors, & lawyers. Of course white people felt threatened and destoryed the entire neighborhood.

    As far as what Dr. King meant by his comment, it's subjective. Neither of us will truly understand or know what he meant; but it's open to interpretation. I believe he wanted eqaul rights but wasn't sure integration was the best way to go about it.

    ReplyDelete
  36. Anonymous12:15 AM

    FIRST, MALCOM was NOT WRONG, in his assessment of the WHITE RACIST during the sixty's! and what was he wrong about anyway, how many WHITE PEOPLE were fighting along side DR. KING in the SIXTY'S? a FEW! and I mean a FEW! some were too BUSY LYNCHING, and KILLING our people! MALCOLM had no need to WAIVER! he should have remained Diligent! he message was needed in such a time, what he brought to the table was TRUTH1 he was not WRONG! they were WRONG! and we are in the year 2010 and a HEALTH CARE BILL for the MASS'S is in jeopardy! so if MALCOLM was WRONG then, when he spoke about INJUSTICE, would he be WRONG today? NO!

    MALCOLM was suppose to continue to CRY OUT! WHITE FOLK'S didn't want to unite with our people, KING wanted UNITY, so our people could be treated as HUMAN BEING'S! but did it happen? NO! WHITE PEOPLE in the SOUTH were KILLING anything BLACK they could get their hand's on! when are we going to GET IT? the MAJORITY of WHITE'S do NOT want to have anything to do with us, and yet, it is us, that keep FORCING them to accept us! when is this going to STOP!

    Thank you 123, it is about time someone can SEE! they call me CRAZY, but, they need to GET CRAZY as well, for our people are too much for me at time's!

    YES, there is SOMETHING going on with these WHITE PEOPLE wanting to ADOPT all of these BLACK HAITIAN BABY'S! what about WHITE BABY'S in AMERICA? trust me, AMERICA has plenty of white baby's that are ORPHAN'S! but, the MEDIA hide's it!

    FIELD, why are you NOT posting on the subject of WHITE FOLK'S being able to ADOPT? all of these HAITIAN BABY'S! are you aware of this? are you concerned, I am, and as 123 said, these people don't look as if (THEY HAVE A LOAF of BREAD)!and I agree, something is WRONG with this PICTURE! as far as I am concerned!!!

    ISEEISEE

    ReplyDelete
  37. mellaneous12:21 AM

    Nina Simon; I am going to start by saying I feel what you are trying to say because if you read closely what you say it appears that you make broad generalizations that are simply not true. But I do understand what you are trying to say, its kind of what I heard Rev. Joe Lowery preach a sermon once in which he pointed out that, "while everything has changed nothing has changed."

    But what has changed sis is if someone does something wrong to you these days you have more recourse than you use too. And more importantly oppression is not legal as it was under Jim Crow, which indeed was legal. And we aren't being lynched anymore and folks are in positions of power in this society that just did not exist before.

    We have to admit that there has been some progress,otherwise you wind up having discussions in which we seem overly pessimistic and no one wants to listen.

    And as far as values are concerned the negative ones that suggest that we value ourselves over others and that we value profit over people are not "white folks" values they are the ruling class' values. This is an important distinction because if you don't distinguish white working folks from rich folks ideology we just confuse folks and alienate our allies.

    The ruling rich seeks to divide and rule and they do a good job of it as this blog too often attests.

    So sis we have to claim victories when we have them, no matter how small, lest we become hopeless and cynical.

    Again I feel your sentiments but you can't go throwing the baby out with the bath water or no one will take you seriously.

    ReplyDelete
  38. Anonymous12:26 AM

    OMG. InContinent would have adopting families pass her goofy litmus tests for "are you white and adopting black for the right reasons" or "are you black enough to adopt a black child.

    By the way Nina, blacks are more "targeted" today because of murderous black psychopaths who are protected by enabling buffoons who honestly believe in the myth of the endangered black man theory. Even a multi millionaire basketball player is compelled to thoroughly screw up his life by pulling a gun on a teammate. Then joking about it repeatedly. This isn't racism. This is bald faced stupidity.

    ReplyDelete
  39. Every year on Dr. King's birthday I lament the mainstream appropriation of his image & causes. We (white people) want him to stop preaching the tough love at us.

    I've said it again & again: The most dangerous thing you can do in America is try to form a political coalition of the economic underclasses. Which is what Dr. King was up to when he was murdered. All those years exposing himself in the deep South, & he gets killed in Memphis while supporting a labor union. It could have happened anywhere in 1968.

    Racism is The American Ruse. The poor white could not be permitted to make a peaceful alliance with the poor black for mutual advancement. Blacks had to be at least a little poorer, & oppressed by law rather than the cultural conventions that kept "white trash" down.

    Dr. King saw that Vietnam & the military draft were the tragic levelers; America's underclass young men, white, black, brown, all the colors, thrown together to blast a little nation on the other side of the world on behalf of ... who? what?

    At the end of their lives, Malcolm & Dr. King were closer to being on each other's page regarding economic justice than we want to admit. & I think that's why they were murdered. & Bobby Kennedy, too.

    ReplyDelete
  40. Anonymous12:59 AM

    iseeisee, "YES, there is SOMETHING going on with these WHITE PEOPLE wanting to ADOPT all of these BLACK HAITIAN BABY'S!"

    Yes, there is SOMETHING going on! It's compassionate loving people who want to adopt a child. Why don't you just let God handle the lives of these Haitian children and their white parents.

    I think HE knows a lot more than you could possibly even imagine. Stop trying to run the universe. that's God's job.

    If you want to help, stop the killing of black teens in our own streets and neighborhoods!

    ReplyDelete
  41. Nina Simone1:19 AM

    @ mellaneous

    I never said that there wasn't any progress. But it is a complex issue and maybe I'm not making myself clear enough. Integration is a double edged sword. It's great that discrimination and opression of any kind is outlawed. That we can go anywhere and do anything that we want to and not be turned away, or harased because of our skin color. All of that is great. In fact great is an understatement and I couldn't possibly find a word to show how important and wonderful all of that is. But-I feel black independence could have been stressed more. We got so elated that we were allowed into their world that we forgot about our own. All of those black owned grocery stores, banks, barber shops, clothing stores, etc all gone because we started putting our money elsewhere because we now could. Where was the pride or the loyalty? We have allowed other people to come into our neighborhoods and set up shop and make money off of us. And once the affluent blacks were able to leave the neighborhood they took with them the tax money and spending that would generate money for the public resources such as schools, hospitals, libraries, etc. that now suffer. These are not generalizations but facts. It obviously wasn't a utopia then but we were doing more for ourselves than we are now. And the irony of it all is that we have way more opportunities and resources now than we did then but we are not taking advantage of them.

    ReplyDelete
  42. mellaneous1:25 AM

    Okay Nina I feel what you are saying and you are right we still don't take advantage of the opportunities that we do have. We don't feel as nationalistic as we should so we don't come together like we should. Its been a problem for a while with black folks.

    ReplyDelete
  43. Nina:

    I understand what you are saying, but it wasn't exactly that we forgot about our businesses. Redevelopment and public domain destroyed a lot of our black businesses. Every time they got ready to build a mall or whatever, the streets our businesses were on became the targeted area.

    ReplyDelete
  44. Anonymous2:03 AM

    Granny, "Every time they got ready to build a mall or whatever, the streets our businesses were on became the targeted area."

    That's baloney. We just haven't been supportive of each other. That's the truth. There has not been loyalty but distrust. And the sooner we acknowledge the truth, the better off we will be. Because we can work with the truth and change our behaviors. We can't change a damn thing lying to ourselves and staying in denial.

    Nina is right, and we need more of our folks to acknowledge that fact. Otherwise, we will keep our heads in the sand with all kinds of excuses, and woe is me...it's their fault, bs.

    ReplyDelete
  45. @anon: "I remember the 60's and you make a good point-a very truthful one. As I think about it, there was a lot of stuff going on simultaneously across the country with our race. MLK, The Panthers, Muslims, Malcolm X, all played a part in the fight for our human dignity and rights as American citizens."

    Anonymous, I wasn't sure if I wanted to reveal that bit of history. I didn't want it to be taken the wrong way. I merely wanted to be as honest and as truthful about Dr. King's legacy as was humanly possible.

    Although I called them Civil Rights activist, many were black revolutionaries, and black nationalists, all vying for black folk's hearts and souls.

    In the end, blacks, for obvious, and not so obvious, reasons, elected to follow Dr. King's vision of how to achieve social parity with whites, and full equality.

    What many here may not understand, was the courage, the sheer guts, that was required to buck the system at that time.

    "There were those against MLK's non-violent Christian way, including the House Negroes who were afraid to 'rock the boat'(these were the majority, imo). Nevertheless, King attracted and moved millions for civil rights."

    Eventually, he did. But our black youth were restless. The violent approach resonated more with them, more than Dr. King's softer, more peaceful, but, relentless (with civil disobedience), approach, appealing to the white conscience to spur black progress.

    And it worked.

    Many prominent blacks, and whites, joined the cause, and broke the back of white resistance.

    I remember an Ebony magazine article, which asked (if my memory hasn't failed me): Which Way Black America?

    The article addressed the various movements that were extant in the black community at that time.

    Today, when we think of the Civil Rights movement, we see it as a one-dimensional, organic, movement, with Dr. King at the top--but there were other movements, and they weren't necessarily related.

    It's better to think of it as a "liberation movement," rather than a Civil Rights movement, as that captures the various directions that were competing one with the other at the time.

    "It was after his 'violent' death that King rose to his highest prominence, IMO.

    "My guess is that MLK would have mixed emotions-toward the negative side- because of the great suffering of the poor, and homeless in America."


    I concur. Thanks for helping me recover memories that are fast fading (all the painful details), but are still a part of my eternal soul.

    Would you mind signing off on your posts? Just so I might know you when we meet here again.

    There's so many anons, and they all look alike, even though, they're not all equal in what they leave here for our emotional and intellectual consumption

    ReplyDelete
  46. Oh yeah, I do remember "Black Wall Street" and have mentioned it many times on here. We had many black wall streets in different states. When blacks were set free they went about trying build their own businesses, tending to their own farms, etc. However, whites got jealous because we were thriving and successful, and felt they were uppidity. With the help of the law whites burned them down.

    Many of family members were landowners. Some of the land is still in our family today. But a couple of my people were forced off their land because of oil. In fact, right to this day you can pass by and see the oil drills. One of my uncles was hung for his land and oil drills sit on it today. The story passed down from generation to generation is that the whites sent a message, "Either leave or die, we want that land." They caught him off guard and came and dragged him out of his house one night and took him and hung him over the bayou.

    They were able to get a couple of my kinfolks land, but not all. My grandfathers stood and fought for theirs. "Happy is he has his quiver full in a time of war"!

    ReplyDelete
  47. BTW, what most folks forget is that the Pullman porters were the ones who came up with the idea to march on Washington D.C.

    ReplyDelete
  48. Tersi2:14 AM

    Anon. 10:53 PM "There can be no oommunication between Whites and Blacks about race without anxiety and fear on both sides- esp. on THIS blog."

    You sound white. You had your say, and I don't hear any "anxiety and fear" in what your wrote.

    You didn't scare me. Maybe, just a little. :)

    I think you are the greatest argument against your own premise.

    ReplyDelete
  49. Nina Simone2:20 AM

    "Every time they got ready to build a mall or whatever, the streets our businesses were on became the targeted area."

    I don't know Granny...that may have been thhe case in some situations but as a whole we have no unity or loyal amonst ourselves. And when we do seem to get a little going it is almost always destroyed. So many of us love and admire the white man so much that we cherish anything that is his and renounce anything that is ours. We have to really look at the Asians and Jews and how they stick together. Especially the Jews. They keep that money in-house. They know it's about education and ownership. We used to be like that for a short period of time. We need to get back to that if we ever want to survive.

    ReplyDelete
  50. Anonymous2:44 AM

    The future of America is blended in every conceivable way -- a new American creole for want of a better word in which all of us have contributed to what emerges as the new American gumbo/culture. People of all colors need to start coming to terms with that and everything that means. Your great great grandchildren may be 'white' and his great-great grandchildren may be 'black.' None of us will have any say generations from now and we might be damn surprised about what they look like.

    What we do know is that they will be human and that most of them but probably not all will be American.

    The best guarantees for their future are (1) Eliminating racism and all manner of -isms and social ills that deprive citizens of equal protection under the law. We are on the right track on this one as people at least understand and have heard that call that every citizen should be treated equally. AND (2) We must fight to establish and solidify the guarantee of ECONOMIC RIGHTS and opportunities for all citizens.

    Number 2 is of dire importance and it's what is typically left out of the equation today. Dr. King understood this point well and started to work for it. Most people still don't get it. However, the same thing that robs poor black children in the Delta of a future robs poor white children in Appalachia as well as poor Indian children on reservations and poor Latino children who migrate with their families to pick whatever harvest is in season.

    We desperately need to start working toward making what FDR talked about in his Second Bill of Rights a part of America's consciousnesses.

    This is what we should be agitating for if we want to secure a better future for ourselves and generations to come:

    We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence. “Necessitous men are not free men.” People who are hungry and out of a job are the stuff of which dictatorships are made.

    In our day these economic truths have become accepted as self-evident. We have accepted, so to speak, a second Bill of Rights under which a new basis of security and prosperity can be established for all—regardless of station, race, or creed.

    Among these are:

    The right to a useful and remunerative job in the industries or shops or farms or mines of the nation; The right to earn enough to provide adequate food and clothing and recreation;

    The right of every farmer to raise and sell his products at a return which will give him and his family a decent living;

    The right of every businessman, large and small, to trade in an atmosphere of freedom from unfair competition and domination by monopolies at home or abroad;

    The right of every family to a decent home;

    The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health;

    The right to adequate protection from the economic fears of old age, sickness, accident, and unemployment;

    The right to a good education.


    Link to FDR's Second Bill of Rights.


    --j

    ReplyDelete
  51. Nina:

    I am not disputing the fact that there is no unity between us. In fact, I agree with just about all of what you've said and feel that you made a lot of good points.

    ReplyDelete
  52. Anonymous:

    No, it's not balony. There were a lot of black businesses force to close down because of redevelopment using public domain and other means.

    ReplyDelete
  53. I lived through segregation, Civil Rights Movement, and the Black Power Movement, Affirmative Action, and the dismantle of Affirmative Action. And to me, it seems like when the way was made a little easier for the younger generation they dropped the ball and got too comfortable. It seemed that none of them cared what we went through and what it took for us to get as far we had gotten because they did not have to go through what we went through.

    Even right to this day, most of them don't really know. The ones that were at the front of the line and made it possible for them to enjoy some of the freedoms they enjoy today became someone of ridicule and scorn and in their book of no use to be discarded.

    ReplyDelete
  54. Not one of these young people have had to face a lynch mob, or courts that ruled in favor of whites no matter if they were wrong or not. Nor have they had to deal with Jim Crow laws that were so ridiculous until even to this day it is hard to believe some of the laws they had back then.

    The other day while watching the Haitians on television singing to uplift their spirit, I thought about back in the day when we sung songs too for the same exact reasons.

    ReplyDelete
  55. Anonymous3:46 AM

    Tersi, "You sound white. You had your say, and I don't hear any "anxiety and fear" in what your wrote.

    You didn't scare me. Maybe, just a little. :)"

    You missed the context of my comment, and I wasn't trying to scare anybody, esp. you, Tersi. I don't have that kind of heart/mind. And no, I am not White. Why would you think that? Don't we all sound a like? :)

    ReplyDelete
  56. While I was sitting here a song back in the day by Donnie Hathaway came to my mind. The words to it go like this.


    Hang onto the world as it spins, around.
    Just don't let the spin get you down.
    Things are moving fast.
    Hold on tight and you will last.

    Keep your self-respect your very bright.
    Get yourself in gear,
    Keep your stride.
    Never mind your fears.
    Brighter days will soon be here.

    Take it from me someday we'll all be free (Yeah)

    Keep on walking tall, hold you head up high.
    Lay your dreams right up to the sky.
    Sing your greatest song.
    And you'll keep, going, going on.

    (Hey) Just wait and see someday we'll all be free. (Yeah)
    Take it from me, Someday we'll all be free.
    (It won't be long) Take it from me someday we'll all be free.
    Take it from me, take it from me, take it from me

    ReplyDelete
  57. "We have come to a clear realization of the fact that true individual freedom cannot exist without economic security and independence."

    --j, we need FDR back. Hard to believe how far we have NOT come in the last few decades. Actually how far we have gone backwards.

    Maybe now that Rham Emanuel, Max Baucus and a few others have snatched defeat from the jaws of victory and allowed the Great Republican Party of Death to make a comeback, we will finish our plunge into a third world economic order, thus necessitating a real revolution, and not the "hoped for" kind.

    I'm talking Paris, 1789, here.

    ReplyDelete
  58. [quote]. On the other hand, I suspect that King would be disturbed by the fact that Obama has a sworn commitment to protect the machine of war and corruptive capitalism.[/quote]

    Filled Negro:

    As time moves forward in this nation and we see the unchecked condition of terror that our people suffer from in the streets of far too many of our cities the fanciful speeches said by Negro preachers on the annual "MLK Jr Day" will appear like "4th of July - Independence Day 1849" was to the Black people in America. This means that all the while people like Cornell West and Boyce Watkins talk about the OFFICIAL "machinery of death" executed by the American government, they fail to talk about the most frequent force of death and terror upon the American Negro to whom they are preaching to.

    How is the death rendered by an American GI any more superior than a Street Pirate on 51 and Wyalusing Avenue in Philadelphia with his own AK47?

    ReplyDelete
  59. Oh Lawd, here we go again.

    Well, CF, why don't you join the police force and work your way up to Police Chief or Commissioner or Mayor or something in that order.

    ReplyDelete
  60. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/18/wyclef-jean-press-confere_n_427287.html

    ReplyDelete
  61. This is a great thread with some great comments. Mel,BD,John Crow,Hennasplace,Nina, Anon.and others, we are all reading and learning.

    "You must be kidding, cause you appear to be skeptical as well as uneasy with Kumbaya moments. Metaphorically speaking, there is a trail of dead white bodies on FN blog."

    No I am not, I have them all the time. And I think there are still some thoughtful and strong white voices who post here. (See Jody as an example, who I consider a friend.)

    ReplyDelete
  62. mellaneous,

    I agree with Granny. There may have been pockets of success, but it was not everywhere and there were some places where Blacks still lived as if they were under slavery, except they now were paid wages.

    Many Black businesses struggled, because Black banks were not abundant. My father owned a business and struggled for over a decade with out the ability to raise capital, he also had to endure the stress of relocating and loosing business, because of Urban Renewal. Urban renewal and the building of the highway, spread Black people all over the county. A lot of businesses couldn't find other locations. Blacks could not move just anywhere. Urban renewal separated patrons from the businesses. In the 50's, having a car was a luxury and most small cities had been walkable.

    There is a myth also around segregated schools. Some were better than others, but they were dependent upon the white school board to get resources, that was very difficult to overcome. How does one learn science without the ability to do experiments?

    ReplyDelete
  63. When Dr. King started a non violent movement in the South, it was more than just a Christian approach, it was pragmatic.

    Pray tell me, how were Black people going to fight the National Guard in West Tennessee, Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia, some of the most virulent places in the South.

    ReplyDelete
  64. [quote]Well, CF, why don't you join the police force and work your way up to Police Chief or Commissioner or Mayor or something in that order.[/quote]

    Granny 2010

    [quote]Let them eat cake.........those hungry bastards that don't have any bread to eat[/quote]
    said by a French princess upon learning that the peasants had no bread. and slighly altered by Constructive Feedback


    Granny do you see the irony of your retort?

    Despite YOU and Filled Negro operating a political movement which TOOK OVER the key instititons to which our grievances were set upon and they STILL are failing.....you ask ME to become a cop if I am so concerned.

    Granny - I am gainfully employed. I have my skills and my profession locked in. Why do you reserve your question for ME?

    Why don't you draw upon "Dr King" and "President Obama" and make note of how the eco-system from where these LAW ENFORCEMENT AUTHORITIES are needed is the same environment that produces so many young people who could not qualified to enter the academy?

    You are prone to make the case that it is SOCIETY that seeks to both add a felony mark against some people AND tear down the score on their credit report in the name of HATRED.

    By having such a blemish, you surmise that they will be UNEMPLOYED or in line for a Subprime loan.

    Granny do you see that if we take away the "Magical Jesus" of what Pat Robertson said about what triggered the Earthquake YOU ARE NO DIFFERENT from him in your thoughts? BOTH of you see an envent that you can't explain and thus you BOTH resort to CONSPIRACY THEORIES as to how this end was crafted.

    I'll even go one point further - at least with Pat Robertson's "ignorance" most Americans don't know about the machinations of the movements of techtonic plates and how these forces shake the ground when two plates rub against the other. For some it is easier to say "God was angered and the Earth moved".

    In the case of the modern day CIVIL RIGHTS VIOLATORS that few MLK Day speakers talked about the plotting of the course from HONORABLE CITIZEN to COMMUNITY MENACE is pretty straight forward. On his "Civil Credibility Report" there were distinct steps that were taken to push him into subprime area:

    * When he was born he had a score of 100
    * When the adults who bore him split apart, leaving him with one struggling parent - he lost 10 points.
    * When his community failed to maintain the academic and CULTURAL standards of the school he lost another 10
    * As a teen when the adults in the extended community failed to implement a "Rites of Passage" to teach him what a MAN IN THE COMMUNITY is supposed to do to UPLIFT the community instead of being one who must be KEPT IN LINE by police who DON'T LIVE IN THE COMMUNITY yet who enforce the laws from city hall, state and the fed - HE LOST 25 POINTS!!!
    * At the age of 19, having suffered all that is listed above and IGNORANT to the productive options - he got CAUGHT by the system and incarcerated - from this point his life was SUBPRIME, with restting intrest rates constantly causing him to react in desparation.

    In as much as the original MLK talked about PRINCIPALITIES which suppress people today it is time for those of today who ATTEMPT TO grab his mantle yet are LACKEYS to look around and make note that THEY TOO are part of the machine that is turning out defective products and thus THEY TOO must CHANGE.

    Granny - sometimes the BOOGIE MAN looks just like you.

    ReplyDelete
  65. Anonymous8:54 AM

    It was extremely interesting for me to read this blog. Thank you for it. I like such topics and anything that is connected to this matter. I definitely want to read more on that blog soon.

    ReplyDelete
  66. dr king was allowed to live as long as he fought passively for integration...

    the moment mlk began to speak aggressively about the war in vietnam and fight for poor people, he was swiftly and brutally murdered

    MLK WOULD HATE OBAMA FOR HIS RUTHLESS ABUSES OF THE POOR PEOPLE AND LEGENDARILY RABID WARMONGERING/WAR BUDGET!!!

    UNDENIABLY!...MLK WOULD BE PROTESTING OBAMA NOW!!!

    MLK AND CORETTA WOULD ALSO DOG OBAMA FOR HIS BROMANCING OF HOMOHATERS AND BETRAYAL OF GAYS!!!


    http://aliciabanks.vox.com/library/post/obamas-wars-will-be-worse-than-vietnam.html

    http://aliciabanks.vox.com/library/post/obama-drama-the-poor-are-getting-poorer-the-middle-class-becomes-the-new-poor.html

    http://aliciabanks.vox.com/library/post/shaming-the-kings-again---bernice-king-pretender-to-their-throne.html

    ReplyDelete
  67. uptownsteve9:37 AM

    "Why do people like Oakley insinuate that the concern over being called a racist is more important to white folks than confronting and dismantling actual racism as it lives and breathes in our society?"

    BINGO!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  68. obama is the total antithesis of mlk!

    mlk hated war and adored poor people

    mlk spoke/penned timeless wisdom

    MANY prove he would NEVER excuse or coddle obama!

    mlk would protest and boycott obama endlessly!!!

    "Somehow this madness must cease. We must stop now. I speak as a child of God and brother to the suffering poor of Vietnam . I speak for those whose land is being laid waste, whose homes are being destroyed, whose culture is being subverted. I speak for the poor in America who are paying the double price of smashed hopes at home and death and corruption in Vietnam . I speak as a citizen of the world, for the world as it stands aghast at the path we have taken. I speak as an American to the leaders of my own nation. The great initiative in this war is ours. The initiative to stop it must be ours."

    -Martin Luther King, Jr. -The Trumpet of Conscience, 1967


    "The bombs in Vietnam explode at home; they destroy the hopes and possibilities for a decent America... A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."

    -Martin Luther King, Jr. - Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, 1967

    http://aliciabanks.vox.com/library/post/the-timeless-dr-martin-luther-king-jr---on-his-letter-from-a-birmingham-jail.html

    ReplyDelete
  69. uptownsteve9:44 AM

    "Well, CF, why don't you join the police force and work your way up to Police Chief or Commissioner or Mayor or something in that order."

    Nah, that would require effort, committment and real action.

    CF's mission is deflection and redirection in service of massa.

    You say "racism", CF says "street crime".

    You say "rightwing demagogues" CF says "gangsta rappers".

    You say "Council of Conservative Citizens" CF yelps "NAACP should be disbanned!".

    If it wasn't so pathetic, it would be funny.

    ReplyDelete
  70. AB, do you find no value at all in obama's work with ACORN and prior?

    ReplyDelete
  71. mellaneous10:53 AM

    Hey Field what up?

    Alicia Banks thanks for those quotes they lay out Kings feelings about this system very well. And you are 100 percent correct King would be protesting Obama.

    BTW isn't obvious that Constructive Feedback is lost in this thread. King had no problem identifying some of the internal problems holding black folks back, but he like other intelligent black leaders before and since knew that ultimately we could go no where no matter how much we cleaned up internally, if we didn't get the "systems" foot off our backs and enjoy real equal opportunity and real fairness and real equity.

    CF enjoys blaming the victim and lambasting others for supporting the Democrats when the Republicans haven't done anything for black folks since Lincoln and Emancipation. And its total crap to try to impress upon us the idea that conservatives would seek to "raise all ships". History does not prove him to be accurate. In other words they guy is a bit disengenious.

    CF is actually one of those people who King talked about, who can only and always see the fault of the poor and the oppressed, esp. black folks.For all his intelligence he seems to not know anything about oppressed pyschology or Frantz Fanon or Paulo Friere. Fanon pointed out how the oppressed see the enemy in themselves. They internalize their oppression and take it out on one another. Violence among their own is not unique to black folks. The Irish treated one another bad as well and historically all oppressed folks have had a high incidence of violence.

    But CF always wants to blame the victim. Its a knee jerk reaction on his part. He comes very close to playing the Uncle Tom on this blog. And he has no imagination. When I talk, I am coming from a revolutionary perspective but he can't fathom a world without his Uncle Sam running things or Sam's favorite tool Capitalism interfering in the affairs of others and unbalancing the world in its favor. He can't imagine a world without the (un) free market and (un)free enterprise and the resulting injustice.

    He was what Martin was talking about when King voiced concerns about integrating into an unjust and immoral American value system. CF has adopted well, he thinks just like the ruling elite.

    He was what Malcolm was referring to when he said, "I believe there ultimately will be a clash, but it won't be between black and white, but it will be between those who won't to continue this system of exploitation and oppression and those who want to end it."

    Y'all CF's problem is he wants to continue, "the system of exploitation and oppression."
    After all, "his belly full," as he like to brag.

    ReplyDelete
  72. mellaneous10:55 AM

    Uptown Steve:

    I think you are feeling me. You nailed CF

    ReplyDelete
  73. I think Carmen hit the nail on the head. I was embarrassed for "my people" to read what that woman wrote. Just goes to show how far apart we are sometimes--no, wait--nearly all the time. Sheesh.

    Damn, I wish I could sit here and engage with this discussion but I gotta go to work--

    ReplyDelete
  74. maria:

    acorn has a noble mission...but major errors in practice

    i am a native chicagoan
    it is my home base
    but
    i also live in ar
    and travel & teach all over the ar delta...

    in all 3 locales, acorn has a horrid rep for corruption/theft/admin abuse

    a better org that is far more legit as they execute the same mission is called "naca"


    i prefer that org to acorn
    always have

    obama is a transplanted and toxic chicago thug just like ALL of his politico peers in my beloved but legendary/al copone-ish city

    mlk would prefer naca too!

    see more:

    https://www.naca.com/index_main.jsp

    ReplyDelete
  75. coffee and cigarettes11:14 AM

    Too often people forget that Dr Kings message was not just about the ballot, but also about social justice..especially in the later years of his life. After the passage of the civil rights act, Dr King began to shift his focus on ecomonmic rights. He developed a strong class and anti-war perspective, and began to embrace more radical tactics . Yet there seems to be a conscious effort to ignore this side of him in mainstream effort.

    So in that regard I agree with Dr Watkins. Dr King would be proud of Obamas victory, and the importance of that victory both historically and symbolically. But I doubt he would approve of the O mans peculiar brand of corporate capitalism or the escalation of the aghan war.

    ReplyDelete
  76. m:

    thanks!

    mlk would also have BLASTED obama for his elitist shady failed olympic bid in the midst of the ONGOING horrid child murders/rabid violence in chicago


    http://www.eurweb.com/story/eur56669.cfm
    cornel west on that:

    "And so, for me, another thing is that peace is not the absence of conflict. That's what brother Martin used to say. Peace is the presence of justice," West said. "So if you can take a jet to Copenhagen and can't meet with sister Albert in Chicago to deal with peace in the hood, it doesn't look good. It doesn't look good at all."

    http://www.blackamericaweb.com/?q=articles/entertainment/gossip/14853

    http://aliciabanks.vox.com/library/post/obama-drama-the-poor-are-getting-poorer-the-middle-class-becomes-the-new-poor.html

    ReplyDelete
  77. mlk hated elitism and detached snobbishness!

    mlk was the OPPOSITE of obama in every way!

    obama/rezko/jarret et al are DEEPLY heavily connected to slums/slumlords in chi

    we in chi know that is what obama's olympic bid was really all about...obama pimped the tucc and chi to get to dc

    msm media ignored this post olymoc bid failure of a fellow obama cronies fatal financial demise...

    http://cbs2chicago.com/local/michael.scott.body.2.1314643.html
    ___

    contrast obama's global elitist profiteering bs to mlk's 1966 trip to chicago in similar crises re gangs

    mlk DID meet with those in the hood

    not evade them as obama did for photo ops by association via eric h etc!

    see mlk in 66:

    http://www.gangresearch.net/cvl/cvlhistoryfinal/mlk.html

    shady crooks all....shame!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  78. scott was fatally played out by obama et who all just slitherd back to dc...


    "Scott also drew controversy while sitting on the Chicago 2016 Olympic Committee. He had failed to disclose the involvement of his real estate firm, Michael Scott and Associates, in a real estate development near Douglas Park, where the Olympic cycling venue would have been located."

    http://cbs2chicago.com/local/michael.scott.body.2.1314643.html

    _____


    msm also censored obama's personal stock profits via
    the swine flu hoaxes

    http://www.dailypaul.com/node/115126

    ____

    obama/gwb 2.0 is a chi town thug/slicker than gwb!!!

    ReplyDelete
  79. mlk would have been a wonderful prez...unlike the horrid hoax obama!

    ie
    there is no arugula sold in the hood where mlk stayed...and no high-end italian restaurants etc

    see more on mlk in chi in 1966:

    http://chicagocrimescenes.blogspot.com/2009/11/martin-luther-king-jrs-apartment.html

    http://urbanhabitat.org/node/1808

    ReplyDelete
  80. Anonymous12:37 PM

    Field,

    I don’t think that those of us that have a cringe reflex to MSN trying to sensationalize, exploit, and seek out negative coverage about Haiti will have to worry much longer because our white natives are getting angry. I heard a question from one parent of a missing person that pointedly ask, if American resources are being used to look for us first before the Haitians?
    I think we can sit back for awhile and watch how the good benevolent white folks truly feel about the equality of lives. The coverage of looting, raping gangs of Haitians will disappear as they affected white folks don’t want to hear about anything but where their love ones are.

    ReplyDelete
  81. Anonymous12:41 PM

    I guess folks here who are against whites adopting black children are forgetting their own beloved Barack Obama was raised by his white grandparents. ISEEISEE, how do you feel about that?

    Some people are so bitter they'd rather orphans live in complete poverty than be raised by upwardly mobile white parents.

    Even the chick who "dates" white guys has problem with it.

    ReplyDelete
  82. Anonymous12:53 PM

    hy are WHITE AMERICAN'S allowed to Adopt HAITIAN Children

    cause black folk are doing such a fine job at raising their thugs...yawn....

    ReplyDelete
  83. Anonymous12:54 PM

    Granny, you are just plain ole dumb.

    ReplyDelete
  84. Nina Simone1:39 PM

    Hey Granny, I think you'll like this story if you haven't already seen it yourself. It's what you were talking about when you said our neighborhoods were targeted for redevelopment.

    http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100119/ap_on_bi_ge/us_michigan_housing_discrimination

    ReplyDelete
  85. Anonymous1:41 PM

    "Why do people like Oakley insinuate that the concern over being called a racist is more important to white folks than confronting and dismantling actual racism as it lives and breathes in our society?"

    Of course it is important to Whites. It hurts to be called a racist and it shuts down all communication. Like a turtle, they pull into their shell. Btw, Oakley did not say it was more important than dismantling racism...YOU said that.

    I know. I know. Blacks think the average white person should be a better human being in accordance with the mental image Blacks think Whites should be. Whites should be the kind of wonderful humans that Blacks are...insightful, kind, caring and all-knowing--like God. If Whites would just listen and let Blacks run the show in America, we would all be happy! Right.

    Anon10:53 said it all. Humans, Black or White will blame the other.

    ReplyDelete
  86. i have always adored harry belafonte as a vet activist/warrior

    hb has always been gifted and a real rebel

    he always checked the euro sidney
    poitier for selling out etc...

    hb helped my idol letta mbublu even as she had to check hb about
    betraying her friend miriam makeba
    poet

    and hb is eternal eye candy too

    yesterday hb blasted obama on tavis

    hb went harder on obama than even me!:

    he said mlk along with others who really see obama would rather see obama dead than see him TOTALLY betray mlk's legacy as he has


    i am hunting for the video/transcript to link asap

    danny glover has kept it real on obama too from day 1

    all i can find now:
    http://www.pbs.org/kcet/tavissmiley/archive/201001/20100118.html

    ReplyDelete
  87. Anonymous1:49 PM

    CF-"Granny do you see that if we take away the "Magical Jesus" of what Pat Robertson said about what triggered the Earthquake YOU ARE NO DIFFERENT from him in your thoughts? BOTH of you see an envent that you can't explain and thus you BOTH resort to CONSPIRACY THEORIES as to how this end was crafted."

    Brilliantly stated to folks who are lost and confused.

    ReplyDelete
  88. anon:

    ditto!!!

    all religious idiots who worship an evil hateful god who would EVER do what a randomly ruthless earthquake does are equally bigoted to me..irrespective or race/gender/denomination etc

    shame!!!

    aliciabanks.vox.com/library/videos/tags/pat+robertson+devil+haiti/

    http://aliciabanks.vox.com/library/post/sankofa-the-legacies-of-white-supremacy.html

    ReplyDelete
  89. typo

    letta MBULU

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7UrP9vHkY4

    ReplyDelete
  90. rushing as usual fn

    excuse all the typos

    i meant this in reverse!

    hb helped my idol miriam m even as she had to check hb about
    betraying her friend letta m...

    ReplyDelete
  91. i think MLK would give obama a lot of props and be more patient than perhaps we are.

    i just think so.

    about HB, his daughter is working on a documentary about him and there will be a CD coming out, too. it's being produced by joe henry. should be great.

    ReplyDelete
  92. Anonymous2:55 PM

    ANON:12:41, bitter you say, well of course you will say that, you are in defense, so you are are allowed to defend.

    You say BLACK YOUTH are THUG'S, I can expect that from you, for you come on this post to TEAR down BLACK'S! that is your mission, and you do it very well, I can tell you were taught well!

    I may question the action's of WHITE AMERICA, for you see I SHOULD! and I WILL! can't let your guard's down for HALF a second.

    Those young THUG'S are my people, and trust me, I am not pleased with their behavior, but, YOUR PEOPLE wrote the book on THUGGERY! and to this day, your THUGGERY behavior is an embarrassment to this country! you ROBBED from the INDIAN'S and you didn't blink an eye! MURDERER'S! RAPIST! LYNCHER'S of HUMAN BEING'S! KILLER'S of innocent BLACK CHILDREN in the SIXTY'S! took BLACK FOLK LAND that they owned RIGHTFULLY! I will stop for now, but, if you want to come back and TRY to insult BLACK FOLK, then I will continue! I DO NOT have a problem with reminding you, of what a REAL THUG really is! I think you should be reminded of your past!

    Sorry people, but, some time's people Need to be reminded, in case THEY FORGET!

    ISEEISEE

    ReplyDelete
  93. maria:

    yes!
    i love shari b too
    __

    re: mlk

    here is more from cornel west in atl at mlk's church monday!:

    "Even with your foot on the brake, there are too many precious brothers and sisters under the bus,” West said of Obama. “Where is the talk about poverty? We’ve got to protect him and respect him, but we’ve also got to correct him if the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. is going to stay alive.”

    http://newsone.com/nation/cornel-west-dont-sanitize-legacy-of-mlk/

    obama is a HORRID & LEGENDARY disgrace to mlk in every way...even worse that clarence t was to thrugood m!!!

    ReplyDelete
  94. please pray for mumia!!!

    obama will only help skip gates!
    he will do nothing for mumia!!!

    http://www.myfoxphilly.com/dpp/news/local_news/high-court-says-mumia-can-be-executed

    ReplyDelete
  95. [quote]CF's mission is deflection and redirection in service of massa.

    You say "racism", CF says "street crime".

    You say "rightwing demagogues" CF says "gangsta rappers".

    You say "Council of Conservative Citizens" CF yelps "NAACP should be disbanned!".
    [/quote]

    Steve - you should donate your body to science upon your death as a reference for a person who is infected with "Non-White White Supremacy"

    To YOU - a Black man's death is only worth when a WHITE RACIST or a Police man kills him. Thus the HIGHER THAN AVERAGE homicide rates among our people is a DIVERSION. However the "higher than average HIV" rate is a FAILURE OF THE GOVERNMENT to care for their people due to racism. (Right Ernesto?)

    There is not a month that goes by in which some "offense" from Rush Limbaugh that you read on "Media Matters" gets you riled up. YET on every Tuesday some "Hip Hop Voice Of Street Piracy" releases a new album that is laced with threats of shooting a Black man who steps to him with his "AK47 to the dome". Despite this "art imitating life" words of violence that result in the SAME DAMNED END as when the Klan was at its full strength - for some reason there is NO "Street Pirate Rapper" who can SAY ANYTHING that could ever match the words said by Rush Limbuagh. EVEN IF he went out and purchased the same $2,000 studio microphone that Limbaugh uses to record his sound waves that stream from his vocal chords.

    WhiteBowieSteve - your ONLY desperate hope is to PUT ME ON TRIAL. Despite all of the full frontal issues that we have within - you realize that your agenda if further advanced by focusing upon your favored enemies because the forces that are KILLING US in greater proportion would cause you to sound too much like me:

    EXAMPLE:

    On MLK Day In The ATL BLACK MAN PISTOL WHIPPED and then Robbed By Street Pirates:
    http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/atlanta-robbers-two-of-277970.html

    (Hint when you see "Ashby Street Transit Station you know that this was a Black victim and assailant)

    If Steve was alive 100 years ago we would be telling the Black community: Don't worry about that Lynching last night at least the owners of our land give us Sharecroppers credit at the general store. Don't cause no trouble or they might start denying it to us.

    ReplyDelete
  96. [quote]You say BLACK YOUTH are THUG'S, I can expect that from you, for you come on this post to TEAR down BLACK'S! that is your mission, and you do it very well, I can tell you were taught well![/quote]

    IseeIsee:

    The day that I see you as defensive about:

    * Clarence Thomas
    * Armstrong Williams
    * JC Watts
    * Michael Steele

    I will know that your VEIL OF PROTECTION is indeed for the BROWN SKIN COLOR of a person INSTEAD OF it being a political and ideological tool.


    ANYONE WHO "calls me BROTHER" is not going to be the one kicking in my front door, stealing my FLAT SCREEN TELEVISION.

    WHY don't you focus upon the obligation that we all have to remain UN-THUGS?

    ReplyDelete
  97. Mellaneous:

    With your most recent post you have EXPOSED YOURSELF for who you are. I had previously given you the benefit of the doubt in trying to understand you.

    [quote]BTW isn't obvious that Constructive Feedback is lost in this thread. King had no problem identifying some of the internal problems holding black folks back, but he like other intelligent black leaders before and since knew that ultimately we could go no where no matter how much we cleaned up internally, if we didn't get the "systems" foot off our backs and enjoy real equal opportunity and real fairness and real equity.[/quote]

    Mellenous:

    The most PERVERTED point about your polluted mind is that YOU ARE NOT ABLE to look BACKWARD upon the land that FAVORABLE PEOPLE to your ideology NOW CONTROL yet has trampled the vegetation.

    We are not allowed to note that the SCHOOLS, and CRIMINAL JUSTICE system in Baltimore, Philly, Atlanta, Detroit and Chicago are CONTROLLED BY PROGRESSIVES!!!! Just as YOU have struggled for.

    It is so important for you, Filled Negro and WhiteBowieSteve to MAKE ME A REPUBLICAN!!! In doing so I can be dismissed because the "Chum eaters" don't know ME but they do know REPUBLICANS.

    I have stated several times that the Democrats and Republicans reside in the "AMERICAN POLITICAL DOMAIN".

    We are LOSING within the "COMMUNITY CULTURAL CONSCIOUSNESS AND COMPETENCY DOMAIN"!!!!!!!! This area is left unattended because so many people like YOU are in fact POLITICAL OPERATIVES who seek POWER for their party more than you seek to MANAGE THE INSTITUTIONS that you now CONTROL so that our people actually receive BENEFIT now that you have customized them.

    The Republicans HAVE VACATED THE BLACK COMMUNITY and left you ALL ALONE TO DO AS YOU PLEASE. Isn't this what you wanted? NOW you say that it is RACIST that they left you. Your political agenda (and Ernesto's) is to get this nation to PROVE TO YOU that you are VALUED EQUALLY as evidenced by the RESOURCES THAT YOU HAVE DISTRIBUTED TO YOU and thus are SERVICED.

    All the while you can't get the talking point "Blaming the VICTIMS" out of your head and thus see that EQUALITY IS A TWO WAY STREET. The other side of EQUALITY that you are not predisposed to talk about is that which the SOCIETY should EXPECT from an EQUAL HUMAN BEING as evidence of his COMPETENCY and HUMANITY.

    You and WhiteBowieSteve use the amorphous claim of UBIQUITOUS WHITE SUPREMACY to an extent when the average WHITE PERSON is forced to say "Damn - I did not even realize that this SKIN that I have is so powerful as these Negroes THINK it is. What about my powers did I not know about?".

    ReplyDelete
  98. Dark Frosty3:32 PM

    "Many of family members were landowners. Some of the land is still in our family today. But a couple of my people were forced off their land because of oil. In fact, right to this day you can pass by and see the oil drills. One of my uncles was hung for his land and oil drills sit on it today. The story passed down from generation to generation is that the whites sent a message, "Either leave or die, we want that land." They caught him off guard and came and dragged him out of his house one night and took him and hung him over the bayou."

    Granny, that story rings true with my own family. There were no lynchings, but my family did own some land, we had documentation and everything. While we were not physically present on the property, a white-owned oil company started drilling on it, and the courthouse which held our title burned down under suspicious circumstances. Granny, when I hear stories like that I empathize completely.

    ReplyDelete
  99. Anonymous3:51 PM

    Thanks to AB for providing the link to NACA.
    I had not heard of them but was surprised they had been around for over 20 years.

    Thanks to Field for allowing everyone's voice to be heard.

    We can all learn from each other! Some times it is good to listen. Don't remember who said: That is why we have TWO ears and only one mouth. But it is true.

    Thanks again from Makaii

    ReplyDelete
  100. anon:

    you are welcome...please share!

    naca is a great national org that flies way under the radar of acorn...because good news always travels very slowly and quietly....

    ____

    ditto fn

    thanks!

    ReplyDelete
  101. Anonymous4:32 PM

    It is faster to adopt a boy, girls are in a higher demand. The wait for a boy is shorter.

    I once met a woman who went to adopt a baby from Haiti, but by the time she got there, the baby was already dead from either starvation or disease.

    It is probably unfair for a white person to adopt a black child and then raise the child in a white environment. Cruel, really.

    The cost of an adoption from Haiti used to be very inexpensive and there are big tax breaks for adoption as well. Hence, people who don't have that much money, still adopt.

    ReplyDelete
  102. Anonymous4:36 PM

    Alicia the PRESIDENT is NOT standing in the way of GAY FOLK'S, you people can live GAY until JESUS come's! you were living GAY before the PRESIDENT was elected? were you NOT? and what do you people want anyway? MEN are MARRYING MEN are they NOT? WOMEN are MARRYING WOMEN are they NOT? so what's the problem?

    The HEALTH BILL is at risk, and you think I care about GAY RIGHT'S? NO, what I care about is people in NEED! GAY FOLK'S need to go someplace and sit their BUTT'S down! but, NO, they want to give the President a hard time! their is NOT an Urgency in their MAN MADE Agenda, but, their is a need in AMERICA for people that are living in LACK! and yes, I said MAN MADE!

    Dr, king would have MERCY for the PRESIDENT, for it is by the GRACE of GOD, that he yet STAND'S! he has WHITE FOLK'S trying to bring him down at every hand! he can't trust his own people! they try to SABOTAGE him, that being the REP/CON!

    King had to deal with the same thing BARACK is dealing with, RACISM! and if King were alive today, he would take heed to the ALL the Issue's the President has to confront on a DAILY BASIS! and I PRAY, DR. KING would try his best to encourage the PRESIDENT! for KING did Not have the amount of RESPONSIBILITY that this President has! this PRESIDENT has to wear many many hat's!

    ISEEISEE

    ReplyDelete
  103. useenothing!

    you are a homohating holy fool!

    mlk was a far better multi-tasker than obama

    yet eve obama multi-tasks!
    as all prezes must do
    ie
    obama helped bankers & warmongers ...so he must also help the poor & gays...SIMULTANEOUSLY

    moronic selfish holy haters like you do not care that
    my "wife" has no legal rights to my assets/supreme employee benefits...

    we have less rights than brittany spears and her 8 hr las vegas hubby had...even after decades together!

    gay spouses have 0 rights to:

    free spousal perks at wk
    custody
    immigation
    genetic familial contested wills
    bank accts
    death bed visitations
    hospital/edical decisions
    insurances
    inheritances
    ETC.....

    every day gay couples build empires that gaybashing kin steal before one corpse is cold

    silly evil idiots like you have no clue!!!

    http://aliciabanks.vox.com/library/post/biblical-laws-for-gaybashing-cherry-pickers.html

    http://www.queerty.com/julian-bond-civil-unions-are-separate-but-equal-20091208/

    http://www.velvetparkmedia.com/blogs/gold-star-lesbian-suze-orman-wishes-gay-marriage

    ReplyDelete
  104. useenothing!

    we gays hate obama for MANY reasons!!!!!!!!

    starting with rick warren as his thank you for pimping us to dc!!!
    ...and gay gay hater donnie m on his campaign tour!!!

    only holy blind blaspheming buffoons like you see gays and our issues with obama as one sole marital issue!

    like all sane people, we have MANY issues with the hoax that is obama!
    ___

    Our honeymoon with Obama is officially over because he has failed to deliver a single political promise to us. Like millions of heterosexual voters who can legally marry, we are motivated by the same dejection regarding Obama’s generic ineptitude in achieving a single campaign promise. Like heterosexuals and blacks, homosexuals are NOT a monolith with any singular political agenda!

    We are enraged at Obama for his failure to deliver on any significant component of our diverse political agendas. Much like your political advisory skills within your grossly offensive missive to homosexuals, Obama has failed us miserably. His broken promises to date include: the eradication of the military’s bigoted “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” policy; enacting the “Matthew Shepard Hate-Crimes Bill”; and securing insurance benefits for gay spouses of Federal employees. Obama’s failure to repeal the hateful “Defense of Marriage Act” is literally the tip of the iceberg fashioned by a series of Obama’s iciest political betrayals.

    Initially, Obama cavalierly embraced the gaybashing homosexual Donnie McClurkin, as they wooed votes from ungodly homohating black church folks on his hypochristian campaign trails. Then, Obama legendarily honored rabid homohater Rick Warren by allowing him to deliver his inaugural prayer as a sacred slap in the faces of millions of homosexual voters. Next, Obama proceeded to begin a third passionate bromance with macho jock gaybasher Tony Dungy, who millions of gays believe may have driven his own homosexual son to suicide.

    http://aliciabanks.vox.com/library/post/an-open-letter-to-earl-ofari-hutchinson-obama-has-dogged-gays-and-blacks-1.html

    ReplyDelete
  105. useenothing!

    just like millions of happy unwed hets

    millions of gays have NO interest in gay marriage

    and they still despise obama
    as millions of sane wed hets do!
    ___

    I suggest that you speak to a homosexual before you evaluate what you presume to be our political issues. Millions of us could not care less about gay marriage. We have no desire to join you heterosexuals in the toxic frays of endless brutal divorces and miserable custody battles.

    ReplyDelete
  106. useenothing!!!

    mlk would despise everything about obama politically!!!!

    what is there about obama for anyone who loves peace and poor people to embrace/defend/excuse/accept??????????????????????????????????????????????????????

    nothing!!!!!!
    not a sole thing!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  107. useenothing!!!!!!!!!!

    more from mlk on war and poverty to prove he would NEVER back obama's brutally elitist and military industrial complex evils!!!

    “It is a tragic mix-up when the United States spends $500,000 for every enemy soldier killed, and only $53 annually on the victims of poverty.”

    "We have moved into an era where we are called upon to raise certain basic questions about the whole society. We are still called upon to give aid to the beggar who finds himself in misery and agony on life's highway. But one day, we must ask the question of whether an edifice which produces beggars must not be restructured and refurbished."


    "The curse of poverty has no justification in our age. It is socially as cruel and blind as the practice of cannibalism at the dawn of civilization, when men ate each other because they had not yet learned to take food from the soil or to consume the abundant animal life around them. The time has come for us to civilize ourselves by the total, direct and immediate abolition of poverty."

    Martin Luther King, Jr., Where Do We Go from Here: Chaos or Community?, 1967.


    http://aliciabanks.vox.com/library/post/shaming-the-kings-again---bernice-king-pretender-to-their-throne.html

    ReplyDelete
  108. useeamythical obama!!!!!

    obama is mlk's worst nightmare!!!!
    and a disgrace to ALL that mlk held dear!!!


    "I have condemned any organizer of war, regardless of his rank or nationality.


    We have guided missiles and misguided men.



    The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today is my own government.

    ~Martin Luther King, Jr."



    http://aliciabanks.vox.com/.../video/6a0123ddb39306860b0123dde05464860c.html - Cached

    ReplyDelete
  109. ublindublind-hearingshouldrock!!

    hear mlk speak for himself!

    http://aliciabanks.vox.com/.../video/6a0123ddb39306860b0123dde05464860c.html

    ReplyDelete
  110. CF:

    Smh! Your symptoms of paranoia are really escalating out of control. I just hope and pray that you don't get so far out there we can't pull you back. If you didn't live in Philly, I would swear that you were Jesse Lee Peterson in disguise. I'm praying for you. CF I am well aware that you are gainfully employed by "MASSA INCORPORATED." Boy, but you know I still love ya!

    Anonymous 12:54:

    Wow! I am so proud of you. You learned a new vocabulary word today. Did you learn the definition of it yet? Keep working at it and one day you'll be able to join in on our conversation and contribute something worthwhile. I love helping mentally deficit folks like you, so, check this out. Out of the goodness of my heart, tell you what I going to do. I am going to rush out and buy you a "Hooked On Phonics" and donate to the cause. In the meantime you keep plugging away it and you will overcome one day.

    Anonymous 1:49:

    Ahhhh, you po baby, you still mad about yesterday when I pointed out that you were wrong about the color of people in the Dominican Republican. Where is your forgiveness my helpful Christian brother?

    ReplyDelete
  111. Nina:

    Thanks for the link to that article. It is exactly what I was talking about. These things did and are still going on to this day. Minority areas are considered cheap land.

    My grandmother told me how a mule and thirty dollars was given for 160 acres to one black man who couldn't read or write during the oil boom. Yet, that black man paid more than that to buy it.

    ReplyDelete
  112. Anonymous7:46 PM

    CF-"We are LOSING within the "COMMUNITY CULTURAL CONSCIOUSNESS AND COMPETENCY DOMAIN"!!!!!!!! This area is left unattended because so many people like YOU are in fact POLITICAL OPERATIVES who seek POWER for their party more than you seek to MANAGE THE INSTITUTIONS that you now CONTROL so that our people actually receive BENEFIT now that you have customized them."

    You are so very right. It's too bad the people you are trying to talk sense into cannot hear nor comprehend what you are saying. They keep singing the same old tune of Democrats vs Republicans- and everyone must be one or the other. If you are Black and think differently, you must be Republicans. Face it...they just wannabe Democrats, and aceepted by Dems..that's all that matters to them. What is happening in the streets of our urban cities is nothing but politics to them.

    No matter how sorry the Dems are, the more they love them and the more they hate those Repubs. That's their limited world of imagined solutions.

    Yeah. That's the solution to the end of a lot of Blacks.

    ReplyDelete
  113. Anonymous7:50 PM

    Granny--"Anonymous 1:49:

    Ahhhh, you po baby, you still mad about yesterday when I pointed out that you were wrong about the color of people in the Dominican Republican. Where is your forgiveness my helpful Christian brother?"

    What are you talking about?

    ReplyDelete
  114. "gay spouses have 0 rights to:

    free spousal perks at wk
    custody
    immigation
    genetic familial contested wills
    bank accts
    death bed visitations
    hospital/edical decisions
    insurances
    inheritances
    ETC.....

    every day gay couples build empires that gaybashing kin steal before one corpse is cold"
    ______________
    Alicia, well put!

    ReplyDelete
  115. the federal govt. will hopefully soon be extending the same rights to same sex couples as heterosexual couples. the head of the office of personal management (the agency that oversees all federal employees, including health benefits and pay, is pushing for this. HRC took the first step as best she could w/a law change.

    i do think don't ask don't tell will fall. it's just a matter of time, and i am sorry it wasn't yesterday for all of thi.

    ReplyDelete
  116. Anonymous8:49 PM

    The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today is my own government.

    ~Martin Luther King, Jr."


    He was close. It was actually the Soviet Union.

    ReplyDelete
  117. Anonymous8:51 PM

    It is probably unfair for a white person to adopt a black child and then raise the child in a white environment. Cruel, really.


    You are right. It's probably much better for them to starve in Haiti or become institutionalized in the states by spending the formative years as a ward of the state.

    ReplyDelete
  118. Anonymous9:05 PM

    "We were two or three weeks away from going there to get her," Boston said Thursday. "We're so afraid. We expect rioting to happen soon. What little food they have is in jeopardy. ... We're trying to appeal for help in getting these children special status."

    _______________
    there are a lot of ways to die.

    ReplyDelete
  119. "He was close. It was actually the Soviet Union."

    Nice bit of revisionism. The Soviets were busy holding down Eastern Europe while we were running roughshod on the rest of the world.

    ReplyDelete
  120. Anonymous10:14 PM

    Nice bit of revisionism. The Soviets were busy holding down Eastern Europe while we were running roughshod on the rest of the world.

    The Soviets killed millions of their own people; they gave approval for North korea to start the Korean War, which killed millions. They supported revolutionary governments like the Derg (who starved a million people.) They also engaged in the support of a wide variety of international terrorist groups and they propped up countries (like Cuba) that supported even more. They invaded Afghanistan and sparked a war that killed over a million people.

    ReplyDelete
  121. Anonymous10:18 PM

    "It is probably unfair for a white person to adopt a black child and then raise the child in a white environment. Cruel, really."

    whoever said the above is cruel minded, ignorant and very unloving.

    ReplyDelete
  122. Anonymous10:25 PM

    You see this is the main reason why the black agenda has faltered over the years.I am going to be completely the honest "issues" affecting gays (especially white gays) are far less significant to me than those issue affecting blacks globally.

    The claim that being gay in America in the 21rst century is some sort of "handicap" is farcical. A white homosexual would probably have greater economic opportunities than a "straight" black male. Rachael Maddow, Barney Frank,Ellen Degenearas and some closet Repubs are just a few examples of many OPENLY (AND CLOSETED) SUCCESSFUL GAYS IN MEDIA AND POLITICS.

    You know what really grinds my gears is when I hear black "intellectuals" compare the gay rights movement to the civil rights movement suggesting both are similar. NO ITS IS NOT!!!!
    A BLACK INDIVIDUAL GAY OR STRAIGHT DID NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO VOTE;WHILE A WHITE INDIVIDUAL GAY OR STRAIGHT COULD VOTE.

    The civil rights struggle was a fight for the fundamental democratic right to chose the people you want represent you and have them advocate FOR YOUR ISSUES. The CIVIL RIGHT MOVEMENT was the first modern day "tea party movement" BECAUSE BLACKS WERE PAYING TAXES TO A GOVERNMENT THAT THEY COULD NOT EVEN VOTE IN OR OUT (hell they arrested Marcus Garvey for tax evasion).Essentially taxation without representation.

    Now back on topic. To those suggesting that MX became some house negro after he came back from Mecca or in some way "embraced" whites , need to listen to MXs Ballot or Bullet speech before you make such comments.The speech was made after his return from Mecca and his separation from The Nation.

    I will acknowledge the critique that many black movements overtime became "universal" kumbaya (had to jack you Field sorry brother) movements. For example, the Black Panthers of America, and the Rastafarian Movement of Jamaica. I believe you must save your own people and make them strong before you can save anyone else. This is why i do not particularly like Obama.He stated that he believes in the principle of a rising tide floats all boats. I often wonders if he realizes that a majority of the people have leaky (and sinking)boats; or no boats at all; and worst yet they can't swim.

    To the question of adoption.If the family who is doing the adopting of the Haitian children is black I have no problem. I do not support "interracial adoptions", for example, a black couple should not adopt a white child.

    My opinion on this is based on the experience of a Korean adoptee I met once. She was adopted by white Americans when she was a baby. For many years she said she thought she was white,has she got older she noticed the subtle differences between her "looks' and those of her "parents".It was not until she went to school when "other white" children started to call he slope, noodle, and chink essentially pointing out that SHE WAS NOT WHITE did it hit her. The teasing affected her deeply, and caused a strain between her and her "parents" because when she complained about the teasing they stated that she was being too sensitive. Too sensitive why does that sound so familiar?

    She later connected with other Korean adoptees and found that they had similar experiences.They formed a group trying to prevent any such types of adoptions. I believe they did a documentary a friend of mine mentioned some clips were on youtube. Honestly I never checked but you can check.

    ReplyDelete
  123. new column

    http://aliciabanks.vox.com/library/post/obama-is-nothing-like-king---an-open-letter-to-dr-melissa-harris-lacewell.html

    ReplyDelete
  124. jc

    you are a rabidly racist gaybashing fool!!!

    gays were lynched/slaves etc

    we still are daily!!!

    wake up!


    Comparisons are not synonymous with equations. No fool would ever dare to EQUATE homophobia with racism in America. But, glaring similarities abound!!! Everywhere, everyday, homosexuals are refused services in public places, stalked, beaten, arrested, murdered, raped, verbally harassed, fired, evicted, legally discriminated against, rejected, slandered, libeled, scapegoated, and generally tortured, simply because they are homosexual.



    Homosexuals were never enslaved in America. Yet, we are STILL lynched daily in America. Homosexuals were never legally denied the right to vote. Yet, we are STILL legally denied the right to marry. Homosexuals were never legally considered to be subhuman, as blacks were. Yet, we are STILL denied our divinity, and blasphemously told that God hates us, by preacher pimps and their “holy” sheeple each day…


    http://aliciabanks.vox.com/library/post/racism-v-homohatred---civil-rights-eddie-murphy-and-the-other-niers-4.html

    ReplyDelete
  125. Anonymous11:30 PM

    JohnCrow, "The claim that being gay in America in the 21rst century is some sort of "handicap" is farcical. A white homosexual would probably have greater economic opportunities than a "straight" black male."

    You are right IF you are comparing Whites and Blacks. But that is not what white gays and 'some' Americans are comparing. They see gays and lesbians as being discriminated against by the establishment. White gays will always fair better than Blacks whether Blacks are straight or not. And Black gays don't stand much of a chance in the gay or black community. Of course, no one talks about that because-well, because they are Black. Even Field and his posters have remained mute about that.

    In any case, white gays have always been more privileged than Blacks because, well, because they are White. Any white gay will tell you that.

    ReplyDelete
  126. Anonymous11:35 PM

    AB, you are up late tonight. JC thought you would be asleep when he posted. LOL

    ReplyDelete
  127. Anonymous12:06 AM

    Addressing AB:

    Homosexuals were never enslaved in America.

    You do know there are black homosexuals right?

    Yet, we are STILL lynched daily in America.

    Gross exaggeration

    Homosexuals were never legally denied the right to vote.

    Gay or straight BLACKS could not vote.

    Yet, we are STILL legally denied the right to marry.

    I believe a piece of metal on your finger should not define the extent of the love you have for someone. It does not matter if you are gay or straight.

    Homosexuals were never legally considered to be subhuman, as blacks were.

    Actually WHITE homosexuals were not considered to be subhuman as blacks.Blacks were subhuman gay or straight.

    Yet, we are STILL denied our divinity, and blasphemously told that God hates us, by preacher pimps and their “holy” sheeple each day…


    Your issues with the Church has to do with the attempt to reconcile the perceived sin of homosexuality and your moral guilt.

    ReplyDelete
  128. [quote] The Soviets were busy holding down Eastern Europe while we were running roughshod on the rest of the world.[/quote]

    Ernesto - you were one of the people I was thinking of when I crafted my picture of how the Anti-America Americans think:

    http://withintheblackcommunity.blogspot.com/2010/01/graphical-representation-of-america.html


    HEY FILLED NEGRO:
    How do I petition you to get a picture posted on your "Right-side frame of shame"?

    ReplyDelete
  129. JC said:

    To the question of adoption.If the family who is doing the adopting of the Haitian children is black I have no problem. I do not support "interracial adoptions", for example, a black couple should not adopt a white child.

    who are YOU to deny a child a family!!???? why isn't anyone calling this joker out on this?

    ReplyDelete
  130. Anonymous8:53 AM

    √do not support "interracial adoptions"

    maria, you all cannot even raise your own, get real. look at the thugs out there...yawn.

    ReplyDelete
  131. anon:

    ditto
    thanks

    warriors never sleep

    jc is a racist fool who actually believes he can divide and conquer blacks by sexuality even more than black gaybashers do????
    ...never!

    black gays are abused by racism and homohatred

    he can abuse us no more than we are already abused with his moronic lies herein

    jc probably owes child support to
    a black love child somewhere and has probably been some black thugs's nicole in prison!

    and he could care less about the complete financial abuses that unwed gay couples endure

    only religious idiots like jc think that all gays are sinners and all hets are saints

    he is proof of a brainless evil het even in his denial....

    shame!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  132. jc:

    your rabid ignorance is filled with more feces that your unstudied buybull!

    If heterosexual marriage was strictly or even primarily focused upon sanctity or vows before God, then there would be no pre-nuptial agreements, no child support, no marriages of financial/political convenience, no alimony, and no divorce attorneys. Marriage was actually created to secure legal and financial power. Every citizen has a right to the financial and medical security that legal marriage lends irrespective of sexuality.

    http://aliciabanks.vox.com/library/post/on-gay-marriage---reflections-on-a-pope-a-dope.html

    ReplyDelete
  133. js:

    repulsive fools like you mean nothing to me

    and your bogus religion/buybull/holy hatreds means even less to me than you do!!!!!!

    god creates homos in every living species with no marriage licenses!!!

    Here are a few excerpts from “Their Own Receive Them Not: African American Lesbians & Gays in Black Churches”:

    “There is a striking irony that African American Christians are so uncritical of Paul’s writing about homosexual activity but have maintained a critical attitude or simple rejection of Paul’s instructions on slavery.

    African American Christians, like other Christians, ‘treat so literally the references to homosexual practice in the Bible, while at the same time they interpret biblical texts on almost every other topic with considerable flexibility and non-literalness.’

    …what is perceived as natural does indeed change over time

    ‘love the sinner, hate the sin’. Many find this perspective illogical. They argue if same-sex attraction or expression is what makes the person gay, then what is being loved? With sexuality being an inextricable part of one’s being, the popular saying has as much success in reality as loving brown-eyed people while hating brown eyes.

    I regard sin as those behaviors that violate, destroy, and abuse our fellow human beings and our relationships with them. In this respect, homosexuality does not belong in the category of sin any more than heterosexuality does.

    Much of black heterosexuals’ antihomosexual sentiment exists as a means of countering the perception of black sexuality being perverse…

    …we know that lesbians and gays can and do reflect the same Christian moral character found in heterosexuals.

    …most gay men and lesbians were not raped and are not rapists.

    No reputable scientific study concludes that homosexuality is a choice and can be overcome.

    …black Christians will recognize that the mire of homosexuality debates threaten our measure to be faithful Christians for the poor, the infirm, the imprisoned, and those suffering from violence.”

    ReplyDelete
  134. jc:

    u married?

    u "guilty" about ALL those biblical married laws that YOU "sinfully" do not adhere to???

    keep your bogus religion and your rabid sexual ignorance to yourself!

    my bedroom and my life are NOT your domains!!!


    "it matters little
    that something is true
    or not
    til someone says you must live
    a certain way
    because THEY believe
    something is true
    or not"

    labi siffre

    http://aliciabanks.vox.com/library/post/biblical-laws-for-gaybashing-cherry-pickers.html

    ReplyDelete
  135. i am not raising thugs. i am raising three successful, smart, giving and mature youngsters. if i helped with YOUR kids, maybe i would be.

    AB, thanks for the clarification on JC. i hardly pay attention to his posts.

    ReplyDelete
  136. Anonymous5:18 PM

    AB, I agree, we cling to the gay bashing, but instructions concerning slavery, not so much.

    ReplyDelete
  137. maria and anon thanks!!

    i have never met an honest, sane, fair, biblically literate, realistic...gaybasher

    peace
    ab

    ReplyDelete
  138. Check Out SOme of the racist comments from Undercover Black Man on his site about the people of Haiti

    "having half your adult population illiterate can't be a good thing.

    Blows my mind that none of Haiti's many "leaders," over more than 200 years of independence, made universal education a priority"


    "A better-educated populace might've resulted in some better-constructed housing"

    My is reply to this fucked up borther

    "UBM it is never a bad time to tell a someone to get Fucked...

    A earthquake does not give a fuck about universal education and the quality of housing ...

    Here is a tip The more I keep making you post dumb ignorant depraved racist shit the more people are going to observe up close and personal the fucking piece of scum worthless fuck you are...

    ReplyDelete
  139. uptownsteve6:31 PM

    CF

    "To YOU - a Black man's death is only worth when a WHITE RACIST or a Police man kills him. Thus the HIGHER THAN AVERAGE homicide rates among our people is a DIVERSION. However the "higher than average HIV" rate is a FAILURE OF THE GOVERNMENT to care for their people due to racism."

    You pathetic Uncle Tom.

    Are you actually suggesting that homicide and HIV causative factors of RACE?

    Or are they more likely to be correlated with poverty and other socio-economic factors?

    CF, is a middle classed, educated black person more likely to be a murderer or HIV infected than their white counterpart?

    If so, why?

    ANSWER THE QUESTIONS.

    ReplyDelete
  140. uptownsteve6:33 PM

    Get 'em Thrasher.

    ReplyDelete
  141. Steve,

    I think UBM is a white guy which I find offensive not because he is white but he hiding it intentionally..

    Steve what drives these types of depraved postures from Rush to Pat to David Brooks, etc??

    Do people hate Black folks with that degree?? SOmetimes it scares me!!!

    ReplyDelete