There is room for debate
in your post. I disagree on a couple of points. 1) I don't believe
the words of a racist simpleton are indicative of the failure of
Afri-US people to protect or honor our heritage. Foolish people will be
foolish regardless of what we may do to maintain and protect our
heritage. As you have noted this type of character is a regular in the
racial tragedy of US life. Paraphrasing H. Rap Brown, "Racism is as American as cherry pie." There are many white
americans that have an existential need to perpetuate, articulate or
bloviate these ideas. Their white supremacist consciousness makes it so.
And worse, now many function in such a shameless fashion that they deem
it "bravery" to be public about their beliefs. Whether for psychological
need, social aspirations or political manipulations, racists will be
racists. In spite of these troglodytes and the various formal and
informal systems that support (-ed) them, peoples of color have managed
to survive and even excel in this country. What gives me a weird
satisfaction is that, what is driving Rush and his hordes ass backward
crazy, is that the world they long for, can not and will not exist again.
As Bob Marley said
Update: I think the gods of race are listening to me!
We refuse to beMy 2nd concern is with the trope of "ours [Black people's] is the outrage". As I tell my students, race is a white person problem. I would bet a Mitt Romney $10,000 bill, that most people of color would probably prefer to move on from this country's racial hangups (and the attendant racist problems). Yet it remains that sectors of the white population continue to see the world in Black and White (see existential need above). My question is to progressive whites, where is your outrage? White supremacy isn't just f***ing up the lives of people of color. The money being pumped in to the prison industrial complex to keep young people of color in the new slavery could build a lot of schools for children of all colors and ethnicities. I have rarely seen a mainstream white Democrat call out Tea Partiers or any of the right wing ass hat wind bags on their racism or defend President Obama (or Michelle Obama and their daughters) from it. This is not a call for blind partisanship, but one for simple human dignity. I want to see more than Tim Wise dealing critically with white supremacy and white privilege. Y'all need to get your white people in check! It's not like Black people, with great allies from across the spectrum, have not (and are still doing it) fought the good fight. It's time for all sincere human minded people to take it seriously. Rush Limbaugh and his cadres are an obvious menace to us all. So let us all deal with it together.
What you wanted us to be
We are what we are
That's the way it's going to be, if you don't know
Update: I think the gods of race are listening to me!
Stokely Carmichael's 1966 speech makes some of these same points, highlighting the need for white folk to engage their own communities. This is especially important as people begin to make more direct connections between the malfeasance of the government and economic institutions.
ReplyDelete