Showing posts with label Malcolm X. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Malcolm X. Show all posts

Thursday, January 05, 2017

The Geechie Band?

Image result for taLLADEGA marching band images"Back during slavery, when Black people like me talked to the slaves, they didn't kill 'em, they sent some old house Negro along behind him to undo what he said. You have to read the history of slavery to understand this. There were two kinds of Negroes. There was that old house Negro and the field Negro

And the house Negro always looked out for his master. When the field Negroes got too much out of line, he held them back in check. He put 'em back on the plantation. The house Negro could afford to do that because he lived better than the field Negro. He ate better, he dressed better, and he lived in a better house. He lived right up next to his master - in the attic or the basement. He ate the same food his master ate and wore his same clothes. And he could talk just like his master - good diction. And he loved his master more than his master loved himself. That's why he didn't want his master hurt. If the master got sick, he'd say, "What's the matter, boss, we sick?""


It's safe to say that--- to stay with the Malcolm X metaphor--- the trump inauguration is sick. They are struggling to find talent  to perform, and, as a result, they are looking everywhere to find someone (anyone) to perform for Herr trump.  

Enter the Talladega College president and his administration, who by ordering the school's marching band to play for master trump's inauguration, will be ensuring that the band plays the role of good House Negroes on inauguration day.

"The decision follows several days of controversy after the Talladega Marching Tornadoes initially accepted an invitation to perform on January 20, with critics saying the move amounts to support for President-elect Donald Trump. Trump made comments during the presidential campaign that were widely viewed as disparaging to people of color and immigrants.
    Talladega College President Billy C. Hawkins announced the final decision in a statement, noting that the "lessons students can learn from this experience cannot be taught in a classroom."
    "We respect and appreciate how our students and alumni feel about our participation in this parade," said Hawkins. "As many of those who chose to participate in the parade have said, we feel the inauguration of a new president is not a political event but a civil ceremony celebrating the transfer of power."

    Supporters of the trip argued that the experience would benefit the band -- and be a source of pride for the relatively unknown school."

    I am not sure how selling out to perform for the inauguration of a man who has disparaged African Americans, women, and immigrants, would be a "source of pride" to the young people who will be performing. Sadly, given the relationship between colleges and their bands, the students (who are more than likely all on scholarships) will have no say in whether they can go and play or not. 

    This is why I am ripping the college president and the powers that be, and not the students. They are educators; they should know better, and they certainly should know their history. 

    As Adolph Caesar's character, Sgt Waters, said in that classic scene from  A Soldier's Story, "The day of the geechie is gone."      

    *Pic from youtube.com






    Sunday, February 09, 2014

    His-Story.

    I happen to love Malcolm X. I loved his honesty and the way he called bull sh** when he saw it, no matter who he offended. I also loved the fact that he was not afraid to grow and evolve as a human being.


    He was a brilliant orator and observer of the human condition, and his words --and much of his teachings-- are still relevant today. His House Negro Field Negro speech is the inspiration for this blog. And no matter how you feel about him as a person, you have to admit that his life was an integral and constitutive part of American history.


    So why am I writing this? Well apparently not everyone shares my point of view about Brother Malcolm.


    "Queens parents are using any means necessary to stop their children’s teachers from besmirching Malcolm X’s name.


    Teachers at Public School 201 in Flushing told fourth-graders last week that the controversial activist was “violent” and “bad.” They also refused to let the kids write about the assassinated icon for Black History Month.


    Parent Cleatress Brown, 47, of Flushing complained to Principal Rebecca Lozada on Friday after a teacher forbade her fourth-grade son from writing a report on Malcolm X.


    “I’m outraged,” said Brown. “As a teacher, you’re imposing your opinion on a bunch of kids.” [Source]


    I am so glad that these parents want their children to learn all of America's history, and not just what certain folks feel that they should learn.


    There was a time when this would not even have made the news. The poor parents of that school in Queens would have just accepted the teacher's edict and kept it moving. Not anymore.


    “It was disrespectful to our history,” said Minor, 33, whose son is not in Brown’s class.


    She had her son write about him anyway — and then turn the paper in to her. “That’s called learning,” she said.


    Children were asked to pick from several prominent black leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks and Malcolm X for the project, Minor said.
    “I felt like when he grew up, he wanted to stop segregation so everyone could be equal,” said her son Tyrese Minor, 9."


    Yes Tyrese, towards the end of his life he did want to stop "segregation" and want us to "be equal". But unfortunately, even today, not everyone sees it that way. 




    Saturday, November 09, 2013

    We all live in that "twisted world".

    Man this Incognito Miami Dolphins story will not go away.  It seems that everyone has their two cents worth on this ever evolving story.

    Now here comes former coach, Bill Parcells, to defend Incognito's behavior.

    "Bill Parcells reportedly says Richie Incognito was "a model citizen" when the Hall of Famer brought him to Miami, questions whether Jonathan Martin really wanted to play football and cautions that outsiders can't understand the NFL locker room environment but "it works."

    Clearly this type of behavior doesn't work if Incognito was kicked off multiple teams because of his behavior in the locker room.

    Anyway, this is the type of reaction I would expect from Parcells who was somewhat of a bully himself.

    The best take on this story comes from a guy who I am not fan of, but who, from time to time, will make a good point.

    While I don't quite agree with the NFL locker room prison analogy, and as bad as Richie Incognito was he is no George Wallace, I think that Jason Whitlock's take on this sad episode is required reading for all.

    "Mass incarceration has turned segments of Black America so upside down that a tatted-up, N-word-tossing white goon is more respected and accepted than a soft-spoken, highly intelligent black Stanford graduate.

    According to a story in the Miami Herald, black Dolphins players granted Richie Incognito "honorary" status as a black man while feeling little connection to Jonathan Martin.

    Welcome to Incarceration Nation, where the mindset of the Miami Dolphins' locker room mirrors the mentality of a maximum-security prison yard and where a wide swath of America believes the nonviolent intellectual needs to adopt the tactics of the barbarian.

    I don't blame Jonathan Martin for walking away from the Dolphins and checking himself into a hospital seeking treatment for emotional distress. The cesspool of insanity that apparently is the Miami locker room would test the mental stability of any sane man. Martin, the offspring of Harvard grads, a 24-year-old trained at some of America's finest academic institutions, is a first-time offender callously thrown into an Attica prison cell with Incognito and Aaron Hernandez's BFF Mike Pouncey. Dolphins warden Jeff Ireland and deputy warden Joe Philbin put zero sophisticated thought into what they were doing when they drafted Martin in the second round in 2012.

    You don't put Jonathan Martin in a cell with Incognito and Pouncey. You draft someone else, and let another team take Martin. The Dolphins don't have the kind of environment to support someone with Martin's background. It takes intelligence and common sense to connect with and manage Martin. Those attributes appear to be in short supply in Miami.

    "Richie is honorary," a black former Dolphins player told Miami Herald reporter Armando Salguero. "I don't expect you to understand because you're not black. But being a black guy, being a brother is more than just about skin color. It's about how you carry yourself. How you play. Where you come from. What you've experienced. A lot of things."

    I'm black. And I totally understand the genesis of this particular brand of stupidity and self-hatred. Mass Incarceration, its bastard child, Hurricane Illegitimacy, and their marketing firm, commercial hip-hop music, have created a culture that perpetrates the idea that authentic blackness is criminal, savage, uneducated and irresponsible. The tenets of white supremacy and bigotry have been injected into popular youth culture. The blackest things a black man can do are loudly spew the N-word publicly and react violently to the slightest sign of disrespect or disagreement.

    Yeah, Richie Incognito is an honorary black. And Jonathan Martin is a sellout.
    "I don't have a problem with Richie," Dolphins receiver Mike Wallace was quoted in Salguero's story. "I love Richie."

    Yeah, the Dolphins are circling the wagons around Incognito. I get Ryan Tannehill's defense of his Pro Bowl left guard. He needs him. He doesn't believe the Dolphins can protect him or win games without Incognito. There's a popular belief you can't consistently win football games without a few "thugs" like Incognito in your locker room. Makes you wonder how Stanford competes with USC, Oregon, UCLA, etc., every year. You wonder how Nebraska and Oregon survived after booting Incognito. You wonder why three NFL teams let him go. Maybe he's not as essential as the myth-makers would have you believe.
    But what makes me want to check into a mental hospital is Miami's black players' unconditional love of Incognito and indifference to Martin.

    It points to our fundamental lack of knowledge of our own history in this country. We think the fake tough guy, the ex-con turned rhetoric spewer was more courageous than the educated pacifist who won our liberation standing in the streets, absorbing repeated ass-whippings, jail and a white assassin's bullet. We fell for the okeydoke.

    We think Malcolm X was blacker than Martin Luther King Jr.
    I'm as guilty as anybody. I've read X's autobiography a half-dozen times. I own Spike Lee's movie about X and watch it a couple of times a year. I love Malcolm X. But I'm not an idiot. MLK liberated me. MLK blazed the proper path to respect, progress and achievement. Barack Obama stands on MLK's shoulders. And so does Jonathan Martin."

    Richie Incognito is an "honorary" bigot, standing on the shoulders of Gov. George Wallace. The fact that a group of young black men in the Dolphins' locker room can't see that speaks to the level of ignorance unleashed by Mass Incarceration, Hurricane Illegitimacy and commercial hip-hop." [More]

    Well, MLK AND Malcolm X liberated you, but I get the point.

    The Dolphins players are not school teachers, they are football players, so I don't expect them to be as sophisticated about this issue as the author. But I do expect them to have a certain amount of knowledge about the culture and the society in which they live, and it's about time some of these brothers start learning to embrace that which is good and not being benighted and ignorant all of their lives.

    Mr. Whitlock, your article (this time) was spot on. It was written for ESPN, so hopefully some of these brothers in the NFL will log on to read instead of watching just for their highlights.







    Wednesday, October 03, 2012

    The politics of hatred.

    I am getting ready for this debate tonight, -twiter here I come- so I am going to get my post out of the way now.  

    Anyway, my wingnut friends have been deep in into their Obama derangement syndrome of late.

    First there was that "bombshell" tape that FOX News, and Matt Drudge Dud was to deliver that would change the shape of the elections and be Mitt's answer to the 47% hidden tape.

    Well, we saw it, and unfortunately for FOX and their friends, we have seen it all before. Next.

    One person who was quite intrigued with the tape was our friend Ann Coulter. Ann thinks that O was trying to garner black cred by going all Malcolm X. (BTW, I happen to like how Malcolm X gave his speeches.)

    "Ann Coulter: Obama is such a fraud. He grew up in Beverly Hills 90210 existence but is just desperate to have this angry black person persona. It's rather like reading about, you know, Hitler's musings on his Germanic identity. You know, he graduated from this fancy, fancy school in Hawaii, voted recently the greenest school in America. And yet when he wants to, he just turns it on and suddenly we got Malcolm X speaking to us.

    Mark Levin: Well, actually, he and his wife, I mean they really have had better than the quote, unquote middle class lives, haven't they? I mean they've gone to great Ivy League schools, as you point out. They live great lives, people have helped take care of them. Now they live like a king and queen.

    Coulter: Yes, and still angry. It's all an act. It's like his 70% of Twitter followers being fake. The whole thing is just smoke and mirrors. And at least for people of our generation, I mean this is a large part of why we have more child molesters than racists in America. It just isn't part of our existence. During our entire lifetimes, the only affect of being black is that you get benefits, doors open for you. You are more likely to get a position in the Harvard Law School. Anyone who grew up watching the Brady Bunch -- racism and discrimination, at least discrimination against black people, there is some discrimination against white people -- simply isn't a part of our conceptional apparatus. Which is why it is so strange, of all people, this half-black man born in Hawaii in 1961 walking around like he's Martin Luther King." [Source]

    *
    Ann, it's you and your friend Mark who seem "angry". But I guess white anger is cool. It's that black anger we have to watch out for. 

    Speaking of white anger, how about this guy?

    "A Facebook photo of a handgun posted on Friday by Brad Staats, the Republican nominee for Tennessee's 5th Congressional District, has stirred controversy over its accompanying caption, which concludes with the words "welcome to Tennessee Mr. Obama."

    "Many people in Tennessee keep asking me about my opinion on Second Amendment rights. Apparently Tennesseans are part of that crazy crowd that Obama says ‘cling to (their) religion and guns,'" Staats wrote, referencing remarks made by then-candidate Obama at a California fundraiser in 2008. "Well, then I must be part of that crazy crowd. Here is something that I usually have with me. Welcome to Tennessee Mr. Obama."

    The photo of a Colt 911 semi-automatic pistol raised concerns among some who thought Staats might be threatening the President. [Source]

    Oh my! Where does all this anger and hate for the beige one come from?
    They have even put out a warning to "white women" (from Mitt's camp no less) about voting for his Oness. 

    Gene Lyons, bless his soul, tried to understand it, and he wrote a wonderful essay about the phenomenon that is Obama hate. He rightfully concludes that by focusing on their hatred for Obama, they lose focus of what really matters and their party's brand will become tainted.

    "The temptation for Southern Republicans would be to double down on the crazy, because “conservatism,” so-called, can never fail, only be failed. Also because religious melodrama is really what an awful lot of them are really about. That, and Koch Brothers money. They’re not actually conservatives at all, in the classical sense, but sentimental fanatics seeking to purge the nation of sin; adepts of “limited government” with their noses buried in women’s panty drawers; apostles of a lost Utopia located in a non-existent past, most often in 60s sitcoms like “The Andy Griffith Show.”

    In that sense, fear and loathing of President Obama strikes me as a lot wider than deep; a fad, not an existential dread. They survived the Voting Rights Act; they’ll get over this. However, adapting to the new political reality may take some time.

    Too bad, because the nation needs a principled conservative party to check the follies of the anti-gravity left."

    Today, it hasn’t got one.[Source]

    Obama better hope that Mitt doesn't jump across the stage tonight. A man can only hold in his hatred for so long.

    Mitt, please chill; it's the man's wedding anniversary for crying out loud.

    *Pic from sodahead.com





          

    Sunday, September 27, 2009

    "Back To The Future"?

    *
    I have been doing a lot of reading lately. Primarily because I find the political and racial atmosphere in A-merry-ca to be so fascinating.

    Anyway, my man Matef from Socal shot me an e-mail today, which led me to the following article from Naomi Klein. It's a long article and it's creating a lot of buzz in certain circles. If you are a thinking person, or in anyway intellectually curious, you should read it. Here is a sampling:


    "Americans began the summer still celebrating the dawn of a "post-racial" era. They are ending it under no such illusion. The summer of 2009 was all about race, beginning with Republican claims that Sonia Sotomayor, Barack Obama's nominee to the US Supreme Court, was "racist" against whites. Then, just as that scandal was dying down, up popped "the Gates controversy", the furore over the president's response to the arrest of African American academic Henry Louis Gates Jr in his own home. Obama's remark that the police had acted "stupidly" was evidence, according to massively popular Fox News host Glenn Beck, that the president "has a deep-seated hatred for white people".

    Obama's supposed racism gave a jolt of energy to the fringe movement that claims he has been carrying out a lifelong conspiracy to cover up his (fictional) African birth. Then Fox News gleefully discovered Van Jones, White House special adviser on green jobs. After weeks of being denounced as "a black nationalist who is also an avowed communist", Jones resigned last Sunday.

    The undercurrent of all these attacks was that Obama, far from being the colour-blind moderate he posed as during the presidential campaign, is actually obsessed with race, in particular with redistributing white wealth into the hands of African Americans and undocumented Mexican workers. At town hall meetings across the US in August, these bizarre claims coalesced into something resembling an uprising to "take our country back". Henry D Rose, chair of Blacks For Social Justice, recently compared the overwhelmingly white, often armed, anti-Obama crowds to the campaign of "massive resistance" launched in the late 50s – a last-ditch attempt by white southerners to block the racial integration of their schools and protect other Jim Crow laws. Today's "new era of 'massive resistance'," writes Rose, "is also a white racial project."

    There is at least one significant difference, however. In the late 50s and early 60s, angry white mobs were reacting to life-changing victories won by the civil rights movement. Today's mobs, on the other hand, are reacting to the symbolic victory of an African American winning the presidency. Yet they are rising up at a time when non-elite blacks and Latinos are losing significant ground, with their homes and jobs slipping away from them at a much higher rate than from whites. So far, Obama has been unwilling to adopt policies specifically geared towards closing this ever-widening divide. The result may well leave minorities with the worst of all worlds: the pain of a full-scale racist backlash without the benefits of policies that alleviate daily hardships. Meanwhile, with Obama constantly painted by the radical right as a cross between Malcolm X and Karl Marx, most progressives feel it is their job to defend him – not to point out that, when it comes to tackling the economic crisis ravaging minority communities, the president is not doing nearly enough.

    For many antiracist campaigners, the realisation that Obama might not be the leader they had hoped for came when he announced his administration would be boycotting the UN Durban Review Conference on racism, widely known as "Durban II". Almost all of the public debate about the conference focused on its supposed anti-Israel bias. When it actually took place in April in Geneva, virtually all we heard about was Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's inflammatory speech, which was met with rowdy disruptions, from the EU delegates who walked out, to the French Jewish students who put on clown wigs and red noses, and tried to shout him down.

    Lost in the circus atmosphere was the enormous importance of the conference to people of African descent, and nowhere more so than among Obama's most loyal base. The US civil rights movement had embraced the first Durban conference, held in summer 2001, with great enthusiasm, viewing it as the start of the final stage of Martin Luther King's dream for full equality. Though most black leaders offered only timid public criticism of the president's Durban II boycott, the decision was discussed privately as his most explicit betrayal of the civil rights struggle since taking office.

    The original 2001 gathering was not all about Israelis v Palestinians, or antisemitism, as so many have claimed (though all certainly played a role). The conference was overwhelmingly about Africa, the ongoing legacy of slavery and the huge unpaid debts that the rich owe the poor.

    Holding the 2001 World Conference against Racism in what was still being called "the New South Africa" had seemed a terrific idea. World leaders would gather to congratulate themselves on having slain the scourge of apartheid, then pledge to defeat the world's few remaining vestiges of discrimination – things such as police violence, unequal access to certain jobs, lack of adequate healthcare for minorities and intolerance towards immigrants. Appropriate disapproval would be expressed for such failures of equality, and a well-meaning document pledging change would be signed to much fanfare. That, at least, is what western governments expected to happen.


    They were mistaken. When the conference arrived in Durban, many delegates were shocked by the angry mood in the streets: tens of thousands of South Africans joined protests outside the conference centre, holding signs that said "Landlessness = racism" and "New apartheid: rich and poor". Many denounced the conference as a sham, and demanded concrete reparations for the crimes of apartheid. South Africa's disillusionment, though particularly striking given its recent democratic victory, was part of a much broader global trend, one that would define the conference, in both the streets and the assembly halls. Around the world, developing countries were increasingly identifying the so-called Washington Consensus economic policies as little more than a clever rebranding effort, a way for former northern colonial powers to continue to drain the southern countries of their wealth without being inconvenienced by the heavy lifting of colonialism. Roughly two years before Durban, a coalition of developing countries had refused further to liberalise their economies, leading to the collapse of World Trade Organisation talks in Seattle. A few months later, a newly militant movement calling for a debt jubilee disrupted the annual meetings of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Durban was a continuation of this mounting southern rebellion, but it added something else to the mix: an invoice for past thefts.

    Although it was true that southern countries owed debts to foreign banks and lending institutions, it was also true that in the colonial period – the first wave of globalisation – the wealth of the north was built, in large part, on stolen indigenous land and free labour provided by the slave trade. Many in Durban argued that when these two debts were included in the calculus, it was actually the poorest regions of the world – especially Africa and the Caribbean – that turned out to be the creditors and the rich world that owed a debt. All big UN conferences tend to coalesce around a theme, and in Durban 2001 the clear theme was the call for reparations. The overriding message was that even though the most visible signs of racism had largely disappeared – colonial rule, apartheid, Jim Crow-style segregation – profound racial divides will persist and even widen until the states and corporations that profited from centuries of state-sanctioned racism pay back some of what they owe..."

    Sometimes we just "can't see the forest for the trees". Especially when we live in the forest.


    More here, and in September's Harper's Magazine.


    *Pic courtesy of Michael Reynolds and the Guardian.

    Sunday, April 19, 2009

    Field Negro 101 Redux.


    I was around some "bougie" black folks today, (a bunch of lawyers, a dentist, some guy who made a killing when the real estate market was hot and now he owns a bunch of strip malls, and a few other characters who thought they were more important than they really were) the usual mix of intellect and money. One of the people there who knew that I blogged asked me how my blog was going, and I told him it was cool. Then, of course, I got this: "Oh you have a blog, what do you call it?" "The field Negro"....(and here it comes) "Oh?" Why do you call it that? " Now since I was in the middle of watching my Fly guys push Sir Sidney and the Pens around, I really didn't want to be bothered with fam and participate in a long discussion about black folks in A-murder-ca. So I asked him if he had a computer at home. He said yes and I told him to google field Negro when he got home. He said he would, and I told him that just for him, I was going to leave an older post which explained why I use the field Negro handle. We exchanged some more pleasantries and he left me to the rest of the hockey game while he went to the other room to watch the Lakers with most of the other folks.

    So anyway, in order to keep my promise to my man, here is my field Negro 101 post from almost three years ago:

    I am always amused at how sensitive some blacks-particularly black conservatives-get when you talk about the house Negro field Negro dichotomy among black folks. Black conservatives are always quick to lash out at the house Negro moniker as if it's directed at them. They see it as a straw man and red herring, set up to distract from the real issues confronting black America. Well it's not. The moniker is one that was created by Malcolm X in one of his more famous speeches to make a point about certain blacks not giving their all to the movement because of their so called stake in America.

    That speech ,is so inspiring, and so on point, that it is from where I find the inspiration- not to mention the name- for this blog. I use it, because I think it's still relevant for today's discourse in matters of race, as well as the black political movement in this country.When I post on other blogs, I always use the handle field-Negro, and the vitriolic responses I get for my handle alone -from whites and blacks- is at times frightening. "Why must you use that handle, it's so degrading to blacks?" "Shame on you for such a despicable handle", "you embarrass yourself and all self respecting black people by using such a handle". And so it goes, and this is just from the black folks. You can imagine what I get from white bloggers on the web; or, for that matter, the fringes of the web. [You might have noticed the vermin and rats crawling out of various trailer parks to post on this blog]But once again, I would like to set the record straight about this house Negro field Negro metaphor-and yes it's just a metaphor-and where I stand on this issue. Think of this post as field Negro 101 for your self improvement. First, being a house Negro has nothing to do with how you look, how much money you have, where you live, or where you work. The same can be said about being a field-Negro. It's not about how radical you think you are or how militant or African you may appear in your features. It's why I explain my background in detail to all who come to my blog. It's important to understand, that in spite of my upbringing and background, I am firmly entrenched in the fields. It's not about my credentials, or how I grew up, or even what privileges were afforded me. No, it's about my state of mind at this point in time, and how I choose to engage in the struggle to uplift black people and the less fortunate in modern day America.


    For instance, I consider wealthy people such as Bill Cosby and Denzel Washington, field Negroes. But, on the other hand, I consider some not so wealthy people, such as Jessie Lee Peterson, and La Shawn Barber, house Negroes. I consider certain sports icons such as Jim Brown, Magic Johnson and Muhammad Ali, field Negroes, but I consider icons such as Michael Jordon, O.J. Simpson and George Foreman, house Negroes. Oprah Winfrey, in my book, is a house Negro, while her good friend, Maya Angelo, belongs in the fields. Jessie Jackson-yes Jessie Jackson-is a house Negro, but John Lewis, the congressman from Georgia, is a field Negro. In terms of appearance, the very dark Clarence Thomas should have his picture in the dictionary beside house Negro, while the fairer skinned Thurgood Marhsall was a big time field Negro. So it's certainly not about how you look. It's all about who I think is contributing to the cause of advancing black issues in the right way. Period.

    Now let's look at this phenomenon literally for a moment: I have no problem with someone living in the house, and wanting the things the house offers for his or her family. The better schools, the safer neighborhoods, and a better quality of life. Only a fool would think otherwise. I don't even have a problem with the house Negro running to put out the fire if massa's house catches on fire, or if he tries to save massa's life. After all, if massa and his house are gone, where is the house Negro going to live, and who is going to hire him to work? On the other hand, I do have a problem if the house Negro tries to save massa before his own. That type of house Negro is a problem, and he is the one I speak so disparagingly of when I make fun of the house Negro. Unfortunately, there are still a lot of house Negroes like the latter around today. They are the ones who write the books for massa's ears only, kicking black folks harder than massa would ever kick us by telling us how bad we are. They are the ones -insert Thomas Sowell here- who write about America and her problems as if the white man is blameless, and as if us black folks are responsible for all of America's problems; and as if we brought whatever problems we have on ourselves. They are the ones-insert Clarence Thomas here- who we all know just wish that they not only worked in the house for massa, but wish that they were a part of massa's family as well. That is the dangerous house Negro, the self hater, who will do anything to be more white than the very white person himself, because just working and living in the house is not enough for him. This house Negro wants a stake in massa's house, and he will sell the rest of us out to get it.
    I will give you an example: I have a black colleague who does very well for himself and his family. He recently purchased a home in a very affluent predominantly white neighborhood, and has from time to time bragged of being the only black in his development. Now this individual is a classic house Negro. And living in his all white subdivision didn't make him one, but being proud that he is the only black in said subdivision does. Like the "house nigger" in Malcolm X' s speech, he was proud to be the only Negro living among the whites. This is the inclination and fixed way of thinking of an individual who has fled from his people and would not mind if he never sees a black neighborhood or anything associated with black people again. This Negro didn't flee to white suburbia for better schools, safer neighborhoods, and cost effectiveness. No, this Negro fled to white suburbia because he wanted to be around massa and his house.

    This type of house Negro is the one I refer to when I make my lists, and speak of when I try to point out the Negroes that are holding us back by projecting to white folks-insert Oprah here- a false image of what black folks are going through. The field Negro, given the same circumstances, would find himself going back to the old neighborhood, volunteering his time, and helping when and where he can. He would not care about how many other Negroes lived in his development, as long as his family was receiving the benefits I outlined above. So for all of you who see the handle, and wonder why a field Negro. Think about that for a minute. Think about what makes a field Negro: Hard worker; cares about his family; cares about his race; cares about humanity; and always with the masses so he knows what it will take to improve our plight. He understands -because he works so hard in the fields- that it will take more than just talk but action to make things happen. And finally, that the house is not his, and ultimately, he will have to build his own. That, my friends, is the essence of the field-Negro, and that is what every Negro should strive to become.



    ***Note, since this post I have changed my opinion about Oprah. I think girlfriend is on the patio now and has at least one leg in the fields.

    Tuesday, November 25, 2008

    The revenge of the "House Negroes".



    And now the following from that esteemed author, Andrae Crouch....oh wait that's the singer. I meant Stanley Crouch:


    "Secretary of State James Baker once said that the free advice from a man who offered his


    opinions often was worth what the secretary had paid for it.

    This is how blacks in
    America need to take Ayman al-Zawahiri's recent tape praising Malcolm X and condemning Barack Obama.


    RELATED: AL-QAIDA NO. 2 CALLS OBAMA A "SLAVE" TO WHITE MASTERS
    As Osama Bin Laden's top deputy, Zawahiri knows a mark when he sees one and believes black Americans to be a collective chump gullible enough to be swayed by arguments against Obama that try to smack him with the dead horse of black nationalism.
    The threatening video issued last week was intended to whip up support for what is known as radical Islam by using a martyr to a lost cause, Malcolm X.


    Malcolm X was one of the naysayers to American possibility whose vision was permanently crushed beneath the heel of Obama's victory on Nov. 4. Though his ideas had nothing to do with the ultimate form of nonviolence - voting - those desperate to praise him will pretend now that he was actually a civil rights leader! This has been going on for an unforgivably long time, especially among black academics.


    Malcolm X had nothing to do with Obama's accomplishment as did none of the other militants who preached their own version of separatism and gleefully attacked the civil rights movement as offering no more than pie in the sky and misleading black people.


    So Malcolm X was no more than a charismatic heckler of the civil rights movement and a man whose career was soaked in racism, potted history and absurd ideas of one sort or another. He was a good rabble-rouser and he was a good saber rattler. On Feb. 21, 1965, he was murdered in public as one of the victims of the tribal wars that distinguished radical black nationalist cults and purported "revolutionary" leadership like the Black Panthers.


    If not for Spike Lee's film about him, Malcolm X would have been forgotten. His legacy did not add up to inspiring one important piece of legislation, leading one important march or actually getting anything done that had objective significance...."



    I knew this article was going to be fucked up when the brother started off by quoting James Baker.

    Okay Stanley (May I call you Stanley? You seemed to be one of those new Negroes who want to be addressed properly. Dr. Crouch, Mr. Crouch....) here is the deal: I agree with the first part of your hypothesis, that Al Qaida's number two totally misread the African American psyche. To believe that African Americans would fall for a collective okey doke, and call out a president that finally looked like the rest of us was just plain foolish. It was a sign that the man has been clearly living in a cave over these past years for sure.

    But Stanley, you haven't been living in cave (Well, you do live in New York.... never mind) so you should know better. Your conclusion about Malcolm X and the civil rights struggle is totally without merit. Yes he was a "good rabble-rouser" and guess what, at the time, that is exactly what the civil rights movement needed, a rabble-rouser. Revisionist history is always nice, but you need to understand that none of those leaders and folks who stepped out to the forefront of the civil rights movement did it in a vacuum. They all played a role in bringing about needed change in the white establishment. An establishment that was not going to relinquish power to your black ass no matter how many marches and sit ins you had. Everyone from H. Rap Brown; to John Lewis; to Rosa Parks; to the Panthers; to Cheney, Schwerner, Goodman, and the little girls who lost their lives in Birmingham (when those animals bombed their church), to.... yes Stanley, even Malcolm, contributed. His O ness can walk on all of their shoulders. The irony is, that unlike you, I bet he would tell us that. He, unlike you, seems to know his place in history and how he got there.

    How soon we forget. So now, thanks to Stanley, we know that A-merry-ca was the shining beacon on a hill all along. And it was just a matter of time before we all came around to our senses and realized that we are all equals in the greatest country on god's green earth. Poor Stanley.

    For you to write that Malcolm X had nothing to do with creating the environment to allow Obama to accomplish what he has, only proves how prescient and how much foresight Malcolm X really had. After all, didn't he talk about Negroes like you in one of his speeches?



    Hat tip to Tariq Nelson over at the Afrospear for hipping me to this story.

    Saturday, February 02, 2008

    They are out there.




    Here we go with another cut and paste job. You folks might notice that I have been doing a lot of that lately.

    Blame it on blogger and their spell check not working, because I am damn near dyslexic, adn I htae to psot without spell check. I am seriously thinking about dropping blogger even though they have promised to have this little problem fixed really soon.

    But I am thankful for my fam. who send me print worthy shit on a daily basis. Like Prince and his songs, I could fill a vault with this shit.

    The following story is from Reikki who e-mailed it to me.




    It's for you Obamaholics, just so you can see what some folks out there are saying about your boy.

    Riekki says it's from a site that links to David Duke, so take it for what it's worth.

    The author is some guy named H. Millard, and the title of his little hit piece is called "IS BARACK OBAMA AN UPDATE OF MALCOLM X?" (And he doesn't mean that in a good way, trust me)

    So here goes:

    "When I saw Barack Obama giving his victory speech Saturday night after winning the South Carolina Democrat primary, I was struck by how much he looks like and talks like Malcolm X.
    Put black framed glasses on Barack and this guy could play Malcolm X in a movie.
    Even though Obama appears to be trying to broaden his support to people of all races and ethnicities–a necessity if he is to win the presidency–it is clear that he is especially attractive to Blacks, just as was Malcolm X.


    I had to wonder to myself, if Malcolm X had come on the scene today and wanted political power, wouldn’t he also try to broaden his message in just such a way so he’d be electable?
    Now, maybe this doesn’t sound like a fair comparison to you. But, remember, I’m not suggesting that Malcolm X and Obama have the same message. I’m just saying that to me they seem to have a similar appearance and manner.


    After all, if a politician came on the scene who was a ringer for Stalin, no one would notice, right? People wouldn’t think that just because he looks like and talks like Stalin that in some sort of synchronous way that this person shares some of Stalin’s murderous ideas, would they?

    At any rate, like Malcolm, Obama seems to be able to motivate Blacks. And, that’s a good thing. Right? Anyone who could be against that must be a racist. Right again?


    In South Carolina, Obama won due to a massive turn out of Blacks. In fact, more than 81% of the Black voters in South Carolina voted for Obama. They apparently turned out in record numbers just to vote for their fellow Black, because of the color of his skin, and defeat pro-Black, liberal, White Hillary Clinton. Malcolm X probably would have received a similar total.
    Peculiarly, even as they repeated this 81% figure, some liberal White pundits were saying that Obama’s win indicates that we have moved beyond race. Even Ted Kennedy has said that Obama “transcends race.”
    Huh?


    I don’t get it. If most of the people of one race vote for a person of the same race because of his race, is that not voting for race? Is that what moving beyond race means in this nutty Dark Age in which we live?

    Even a large number of the 24% of Whites who voted for Obama in South Carolina may have done so not because they are color blind–as the pundits want you to believe–but precisely because they do see color and they, like Black, also voted for Obama because of the color of his skin.

    How can we come to this conclusion? Well, the demographic of White voters that gave the most votes to Obama was the group between 18-29 years old (49% of this demographic voted for him). Frankly, that looks to me to be a result of the blending propaganda that, like most propaganda, is most effective when it is started with young children when their minds are most vulnerable and before they can reason for themselves–say about 30 years ago in earnest.

    Propaganda–call it brainwashing–often has mixed results in adults, but when young children are subjected to it, it often becomes fixed for life and comes under the heading of conditioning. Shaking such conditioning is as difficult for humans as it is for rats in a Skinner box. The brain is simply hardwired to believe certain things and to reject anything that is counter to those implanted beliefs.

    My guess is that these days you’d find this same demographic would tell you that smoking is bad, but if you went back 60 years or so, they’d tell you it was a fine thing to do. It just depends on which ideas are planted in their brains. We’re all subject to conditioning, folks. Sometimes it’s for our good and sometimes it’s not. But in both cases we are being influenced by others who are trying to get us to have certain mind sets and behaviors.

    The smoking is bad, or good, type of propaganda, when given a blender twist, puts messages into the subconscious minds of easily suggestible people that Whites are evil and that they must overcome their evil by voting for Blacks and by treating them better than Whites.
    And, what about Obama’s wins in Iowa and New Hampshire where older Whites voted for him in large numbers? Does that show we’ve moved beyond race and counter what I wrote above? Not at all. Pundits are quick to point out that these two states are both overwhelmingly White. Then, based on this, the pundits leap to the conclusion that race had nothing to do with the fact that Obama won.


    Again, this is nonsense. The correct conclusion is that because there are so few Blacks in Iowa and New Hampshire, that most of the Whites there have little actual experience to counteract the conditioning. Yes, even older people are subject to conditioning. Generally, it’s not as strong as in those who received if from infancy, but it’s still a factor.

    The problem for Obama may be that the conditioning hasn’t taken in all people. Millions of Whites were born before the massive brainwashing began and others aren’t as susceptible to it. The implanted ideas didn’t take. These Whites across the U.S., who look at the statistics of South Carolina, may start believing en masse that Obama really is just a Black candidate for Blacks and other non-Whites and for brainwashed White self-haters. They might start wondering what will happen to them and their families if Obama gets the presidency.

    Perhaps, they may think, he is not going to really be a president for all the people after all.
    And, it probably has not been missed by many Whites who are against amnesty for illegal aliens that Obama’s supporters use the same chant used by illegal aliens when they march demanding amnesty and open borders: “Yes we can!”

    Could it be that the Obama movement is inherently anti-White? “Yes we can. Yes we can. Si se puede. Si se puede.” What are we to make of that chant?
    Would some folks be considered paranoid if, upon hearing that chant, they thought they were hearing an echo in their minds from the darkest lands, including Haiti, where Whites were slaughtered in genocidal blood baths because of the color of their skin? Might some not think they hear, in the darkest hours of the night, a drum beat sound, a cadence and a chant once heard from the Mau Maus: “Kill the Whites, Kill the Whites, Kill the Whites.”
    Of course “Kill the Whites” aren’t the words of the present chant. No one would suggest that. That does sound paranoid. But, when you hear people saying that Blacks and Hispanics need to join forces, just exactly who are they joining forces against? Even in the most paranoid fantasies, there is often a touch of reality.


    Maybe, the hidden meaning of the chant is somewhat less harsh and isn’t “Kill the Whites,” but: “Replace the Whites.”

    So, and we’re still speaking of appearances and subconscious cues, one wonders whether or not millions of Whites will also have noticed, as I have, that Obama looks like and talks like Malcolm X and whether or not they’ll subconsciously put that together, rightly or wrongly, with the fact that Blacks appear to be voting for Obama because he is Black. And, if they do think along these lines, will they then start wondering if an Obama presidency might be bad for them and their families?

    Will some also fear that Obama will fill all the top positions in the U.S. government with people similar to those on the O.J. jury who acquitted O.J. of murder? Will they recall that most Blacks believe O.J. was innocent while most Whites believe he was guilty? And, if they do recall this, will they wonder what this means for an Obama presidency, if anything?

    And, some may wonder about Obama’s ties to the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, the minister of Trinity United Church of Christ, whose church publication praised Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan, you may remember, has called Whites “blue-eyed devils.”
    Of course, Whites, who have been conditioned to be pro-anything-but-white, will offer various rationalizations for the anti-White connections. That’s how conditioning works in humans. It’s a little like schizophrenia. The schizophrenic will often offer plausible sounding reasons for, say, wearing a tin foil hat and believing that there are space aliens in toilets.


    Schizophrenics are often very intelligent and they can even convince many others that there really are space aliens in toilets and that tin foil hats will protect people. No doubt, our political schizophrenics will convince many that anti-White statements and Blacks voting for a Black because he is Black don’t mean what they appear to mean.

    As we move toward more primaries, one wonders (but, we really know the answer) if those supporting Obama will try to claim some noble high ground and try to brow beat Whites into voting for Obama with subtle cries that they are racist if they don’t; when the statistics clearly show that Blacks are voting for Obama precisely because he is of their same race and that this, by definition, is the real racism?

    One has to feel a little sympathy for the Clintons in all of this. They must feel a little like they’re caught in a real life version of that old joke about the Lone Ranger and Tonto when the two are surrounded by Indians. When the Lone Ranger says “We have to defeat the Indians,” Tonto replies, “What to you mean “we” pale face?”

    Many readers of my columns may recall that I once wrote a column in which I called Bill Clinton our first Black president, and that after that column was published, a Black writer called him the same thing and then there was massive publicity about her doing so.

    I bring this up because Hillary Clinton, by extension, was the first Black First Lady and her work for Blacks went way back before Obama was ever in politics. But, as she is learning this year, the content of her character doesn’t outweigh the color of her skin in the Black and other non-White communities or among many White liberals.

    Obama is taking the Black and the Hispanic vote and he has done nothing to get it except being born non-White. But, that’s not racism, right?"


    Take heart Obamaholics, this guy doesn't seem too bright to me. The problem is that a lot of not too bright people will be voting this year.

    Friday, January 18, 2008

    "The last angry black man"


    A friend of mine was introducing me to someone today, and for some reason he felt the need to tell her that I blog. "He has a blog called field Negro. I think he is the last angry black man left in America." Ha ha ha ha, laughs all around.



    Of course dude was right. At times it seems that there are no angry black men left in A-merry-ca. I think the angry black man has been ashamed into accepting his fate, and his place in the A-merry-can scheme of things. But there is nothing to be ashamed of. Not when your anger is driven by disappointment and not resentment. You see it's like this: most people think that the angry black man, like yours truly, is angry because he is somehow feeling left out and is disappointed with his station in life. While this might be true with some angry black men, it isn't the case here. (Although to be honest, I couldn't really blame any black man for being angry and pissed off for the state of his condition. The shit that some of us -and yes I say us because whatever that black man goes through effects me as well-go through, I wouldn't wish on my worst white enemy). I am quite happy with pretty much all aspects of my life, both socially and professionally, but I am still angry.

    Seeing untapped potential and squandered opportunities makes me angry. You can't live in a city like Philadelphia and see all the urban decay and hopelessness in the greatest country on earth and not be angry. You can't look into the face of some of the beautiful children here, knowing that they have no shot in life, and not be angry. You can't see all the money at our government's disposal being wasted on bullshit, while people are struggling to make ends meet and not get angry. All that shit makes me angry and will continue to until the people with real power in this country act like they give a damn.


    Of course there used to be lots of angry black men in A-merry-ca. The Black Panthers were angry. Hell they had to be, their survival depended on it. Some of our politicians from back in the day (Shirley Chisholm comes to mind) who really cared about our condition as a people were angry. There are no angry labor organizers like Cesar Chavez anymore. No angry social activist even. Why? Because A-merry-ca has moved forward, we have gotten past the little problems of race, and class, and poverty(did you hear Tim Russert). And everyone has a chance of achieving the American dream now...yeah right! Jim Brown was an angry athlete, that's why he ran like that; he ran with anger. Malcolm X was angry. He was angry at A-merry-ca, his own people, and even at his mentor.
    Boy it sure would be nice to have some high profile angry black men in A-merry-ca. But we know how that is, it will never happen now. Money and independent wealth does wonders for that ailment known as the angry black man's decease. Now, instead of real anger, we have been given Barack, and Tiger as our modern day black icons. And they ain't angry. In fact, Barack is trying to unify A-merry-ca, and Tiger is trying to pretend he is not black. People making lynching jokes about Tiger won't make him angry, and instead of getting angry at the political process in A-merry-ca, Barack praises the fake ass cowboy from California.


    People like Mrs. Field are always getting on me about my anger. I am called an ABM (her abbreviation for Angry Black Man) damn near every day I am maneuvering through Philly traffic. She wonders where it comes from. If she only had half of the things I did growing up, most people black and white could only wish they had it so good. Well....I hate to break it to Mrs. Field, but as I said before, this anger isn't about envy or victimology, it's about disappointment. And when your anger is fueled by things other than your physical condition or your station in life, what you have or don't have as an individual is irrelevant. It's about the collective, and what is being done to the people in the world that looks like you. It's about our apathy to it while we party and play our lives away. It's about turning our backs on an entire generation of our children, and not having the discipline to raise our families in the proper way. Yep, all this shit makes me angry, and if I ever stop being angry, I won't even know myself.