Quiet Riot.

I read an interesting article from Harold Jackson, a man who is fast becoming one of my favorite newspaper writers. He wrote about a new kind of riot today in the Philadelphia Inquirer, and I liked his analysis. It's not the first time we have heard about this new type of rioting among black folks. Barack Obama talked about it while on the campaign trail to become president as well.

Mr. Jackson wrote about the riots of the sixties and what fueled them. The statistics he gave were revealing: 160 riots in 1967 alone, eighty people dead (mostly in cities like Newark and Detroit) and over 200 million in property damage. He argues, and rightfully so, that most of the black shopping areas destroyed by these riots never recovered. He also argues that conditions described by the the Kerner Commission Report which followed the riots, have not changed much in the forty years since.

Consider, in 2008, according to Jackson's article, the black unemployment rate is 9% while for white A-merry-cans it's 4 percent. 24 percent of blacks live in poverty compared with 8 percent of whites. Among black folks, 20 percent lack health insurance compared to 11 percent of whites. The median household income of blacks is $30,858, while for whites it is $50,784. And after giving us these grave statistics he poses this question: Why aren't blacks rioting now?

We agree on the reasons he gives for this as well. Blacks have been leaving the ghettos and poor inner city neighborhoods due to the growth of the black middle class. Because in a "less-depressing residential environment they see the possibility of a better future. Unfortunately, the ones left behind, have no such options. In the sixties the anger was aimed at "whitey" but it ended up hurting the people who were living in the neighborhoods the most.

Some of the people who are inhabiting these poorer neighborhoods today are still blaming whitey and the government structure that's in place. They are angry and disillusioned. But instead of taking to the streets and burning and looting stores, they resort to "vandalism, drug abuse, murder, and other crimes disproportionately occurring in low- income black neighborhoods." Mr. Jackson uses this quote from the Kerner Commission: "The frustrations of powerlessness have led some Negroes to the conviction that there is no effective alternative to violence as a means of achieving redress of grievances and of moving the system." I have news for the Kerner Commission, that frustration is still manifesting itself today. But the folks who would have been rioting back in the day, are now sticking up old ladies in the neighborhood, robbing neighborhood stores, and killing each other over perceived slights and and disses.

Neighborhoods are now in a crisis mode, and the situation is getting worse every day-- Just look at the Killadelphia Murder Count on my sidebar. There is also another aspect of this that Mr. Jackson forgot to mention in his article. White guilt. There was plenty of it in the sixties which probably led to LBJ's attempted war on poverty, as well as the "Great Society Efforts." That guilt is no longer there. Most white folks feel like the immigrants who dominate Northeastern and rust belt cities. "We don't owe you Negroes a damn thing, my forefathers never owned slaves. My great grandfather came to this country from Italy, Poland, [place any European country of your choice here] and wherever, and look at them, they made it. And they didn't have any government handouts like you Negroes do." So because of this white backlash it's even tougher on those who were left behind in the neighborhoods. Now the backlash has gone mainstream, and thanks to outlets like FIX NEWS, politicians who have made a career out of fear mongering and demagoguery; and an entire political movement which started with the fake ass cowboy from California, the riot has been forced to get even quieter. But make no mistake, the anger is still there, it's just on both sides now. And the folks on each side have no idea how angry the folks on the other side can be.

Mr. Jackson says a new "national conversation" is needed,and it will take a renewal of the one started by Bill Clinton to get A-merry-cans to recognize it. He also says that it will take a renewed effort by congress to try and erase poverty. I agree with him there too, but good luck. The people on K Street ain't lobbying for some poor schmuck in North Philly or South Central L.A. So I am afraid that poverty is going to be around with us for awhile. Because of that, I am afraid that those quiet riots will continue to rage through certain parts of A-merry-ca. And when that silence finally gets shattered, I think we all better look out.

"Can't We All Just Get Along?"

It seemed like only yesterday that the man with the bad jeri curl, and an ass whipping compliments of four L.A.P.D. officers was asking that question. You remember Rodney King don't you folks? Yep, he is the guy who made me reconsider whether Hyundai's were piece of crap cars. I mean any car that can drive at speeds over 100 mph for for well over eight miles can't be all bad in my book. But I digress. So Rodney was finally caught and given a lesson in what happens to a black man when he runs from the police. This happened in the form of PR 24 baton's raining down on his back side and just about any other body part that was exposed. Of course we all know what followed; the ass whopping was caught on film by a man named George Holiday, the cops were all acquitted-just doing their job-, and three days of rioting, along with the worst civil disturbance in L.A. history followed.

It was in the aftermath of this, that the man at the center of this American tragedy asked that now famous question. Of course, it was a little easier for Rodney, he was looking at a 3.8 million dollar payday. Hey, I hear you Rodney, I would ask too: "Can't we all just get along", at least until I cash my check? So Rodney had some motivation for wanting to get along, Rodney was about to get paid. Rodney was a celebrity now, and all of L.A. was hanging on Rodney's every word. Look at the camera and say cheese Rodney.

But what about those people who have no incentive to get along? What about folks, who for them, getting along means doing without or compromising core principles? For instance, If you ask a Palestinian why he can't get along with an Israeli, he will tell you that the mother f*&^%r is on his land that's why. And if you ask an Israeli the same question, he will tell you: Because the mother f%^&#r wants to drive me into the sea that's why. If you ask a radical Muslim, he will say it's because we are infidels, if you ask someone living in the West about the radical Muslim, we will say it's because the mother f%^&*r wants to fly planes into our buildings and kill innocent people. Get the picture? There are many reasons we can't get along, and getting along ain't easy. It's hard to get people to get along. Heck, if we could do that, there would be no North Korean crisis, no Russian, Chechnyan crisis, no crisis in Darfur, no crisis in the Congo, in Indonesia, and on and on. But folks, sadly, the nature of humans will always be such that we will never truly be able to get along. Because people will always have agendas and their own need for self preservation. The trick is to understand that, and to learn the art of compromise and dialogue. This, my friends, is the essence of diplomacy. Understanding that we can't get along, and learning how to make everyone satisfied and happy in that understanding.

Sadly, sometimes the people who want to force us to get along are the most dangerous.-I will now insert my proverbial frat boy reference here-they can't understand why we can't just get along, and in their Pollyanna world that is the way it should be. This is why-and I have said this many times before- I have no problem with the racist expressing himself, and letting it be known that he does not care for n*&&%#s. Why? Because then, at least, I know who he is, and I prefer that. Just don't f^% with me or my chance to make a living and we will be fine. Get it? So anyway, back to my Pollyanna ideologues. These folks end up trying to force their will and agendas on others; and my friends, look no further than Iraq for the result of this form of thinking.

I call it the Rodney King foreign policy, the "can't we just get along" school of diplomacy. Hey, it worked in our country, look what a wonderful democracy we have. You Iraqi's can achieve the same thing. In America, we coexist, we all live in harmony, we all just get along. Oh if the rest of the world could be just like American huh George. But it's not, and it never will be, because of those little differences and individual interests that I mentioned. The world is too complex, too nuanced; different interests for different regions. What works for America, won't work for China, what works for France, won't work for England, and so on.

So George, when your neocon friends tell you that all you have to do is create a democracy in Iraq and it-democracy- will spread throughout the region, they are wrong, it will never happen. Too much history, too much years of built up tribal and ethnic tensions, and revenge to be had for past wrongs. You see George, unlike Rodney King, those people can't be bought for $3.8 million dollars.-What's the reward for the NBA sized man with the beard now, 30 Million?- And you can't get to them with cheesy promises of some great democracy where they all can be free. That worked for black folks in this country, because we co-oped your value system. But they have not, and to create stability in that region, you and the bad perm lady will have to do more than just the Rodney King diplomacy you have been trotting out. You will have to work to understand just what the hell is going on in the world, and find a way to help every one to coexist peacefully, even if we all just can't get along.

Because at the end of the day, the ass whopping won't be coming from four L.A.P.D officers, it will be coming from a B-52 bomber, and will take the form of a mushroom cloud.

***Just a note, as the murder rate continue to rise in Philly, the death toll continues to mount in Bushdad, and the slaughter continues in Darfur. I would like to beg frat boy and the bad perm lady to change course in Iraq, and start focusing on Darfur. By entertaining a murdering lunatic like General Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who still refuses to allow U.N. Peacekeepers in Darfur. You, President Bush, have taken your Presidency down another notch-as if that's possible- Yeah you appointed a special envoy to Darfur, whoppeeee. How about some real action, before a million more people are slaughtered or displaced? I mention the murder rate in Philly; because I truly believe that if some of the billions of dollars we were spending in Bushdad, could be somehow used at home to help create jobs and activities for some of these kids, they wouldn't be killing each other over drug corners and pointless beefs. ****

The field is out.