With the election of President Elect Barack Hussain Obama it's easy to be lulled into believing that Racism is dead! That somehow we are in this New Era of race relations and that equal opportunity is the status quo.
We have now realized Dr. King's Dream!
If you go for it you're being conned! It's a crock!
Oh, yeah here's another one of these cynical knukka's who ain't ready to let that old ish go!
Nothing could be further from the truth but I ain't blind and neither are you.
Just a couple of weeks back this lil ole White girl branded a backwards B on her face and concocted a story about how she was robbed at an ATM by a Black dude and for good measure the robber carved a B for Barack into her face!
Is Racism Dead?
How many Afrikan American Men would have been accosted and harassed by the police because of that lie?
She only got probation for this horrendous canard. Would that have occurred if Shaniquah Jackson would have said that a John Mccain supporter called her a Nigger, slapped her and pissed on her before taking her money?
Is Racism dead? Is this a new Era?
What do you think would have happened to poor ole Shaninqah Jackson? She more than likely would be vilified in the press day and night, John Mccain and his Republican staffers would have made her the new Willie Horton and she would not have gotten off with probation. It would have been much more severe.
John Mccain questioned Barack Obama's experience by asking him why he had not gone to Iraq or any of the other theatres? Good question but why didn't not the same media that picked up on that question not ask Mccain had he ever been to the South side of Chicago, or South Central Los Angeles?
The Republican party has brought up voter fraud as an issue several times in spite of the fact that they have never proven voter fraud anywhere and the issue of voter disenfranchisement is virtually ignored. Who's tracking down all the misinformation and misdirection aimed at minority voters?Is Racism dead? Are we in a New era?
In South Los Angeles (Watts) Martin Luther King Jr/ Charles Drew Medical Center is on the chopping block despite it being one of the only medical facilities in the area. Its trauma center which everyone agrees was world class has been closed down! It was closed down a few years ago. The closest trauma center now is County USC which is not close and who's Trauma center is also on the chopping block!
New era.....Racism is dead you say......
Last summer I traveled to an affluent, predominately White American but mixed area high school in Orange County in the city of Irvine. The high school had three gymnasiums, an actual theatre for it's drama group, state of the art science labs and classrooms. It has a snack bar, high tech vending machines in the food court and plenty of acreage. This high school was beautiful and served a large suburban enclave. About a quarter mile east was another nearly identical high school.
In Los Angeles Manual Arts, Dorsey, Fremont, Jefferson, Crenshaw, Locke and LA Jordan are old and falling apart. There are newer high schools that have been built such as Renaissance and Cabrillo. Both are large high schools but they resemble a correctional facility not a preparatory academy for college bound students! The Orange County kids wear their own clothing to schools and individuality is respected and encouraged. The minority kids in Los Angeles proper are forced to wear uniforms, have school id on them at the gates and the schools are fenced in just like a correctional facility. As far as green space and acreage the LA Kids have dead grass or in the case of the newer high schools have playgrounds on a fenced in roof just like prisons.
What's the message that we are giving these kids?
Is racism dead? Is this a new Era?
Dr. King spoke of equality and fairness that would not be denied on the basis of race. Character should be the basis that a person is judged on right?
There has been a constant assault on Affirmative action. Why? The math on it alone says that it could not have achieved anything close to it's intended goal. Think about it. We have the voting rights act of 1965. We have Brown vs the Board of Ed of Topeka Kansas in 1955, We have the desegregation of the Armed Forces in 1941. Think on it.
They were enacted but weren't enforced in those years. Black folks were still being killed, jailed, harassed whenever they tried to vote until almost the 1970's! Schools were still being desegregated in the 1970's and the armed forces still was fighting to desegregate in Korea. So you telling me that Affirmative action should be done away with. That's we are now so color neutral that it's no longer needed?
What about racial profiling? Sean Bell.....
Are we in a new era? Is Racism Dead?
If you believe the answer to be yes then I say that you're not being truthful.
Obama is a 1st! So in four hundred years we got a first! When just a year ago Rep Keith Ellison, Mich. Dem. Became the 1st Muslim American to serve in the house. He is also Afrikan American. You remember Keith. He was sworn in on Thomas Jefferson's Quran after Americans tried to make him swear in on the good ole American Bible and not his own Holy Book.
Carol Mosley Braun is also a first! Obama's presidency should not be diminished. Americans from all walks and races elected him but Obama is the best. Top of his class, his wife , also a lawyer and Harvard grad, were far ahead of academically than most of the candidates. They just didn't pick an average Black Politician, America picked the cream of the crop. And they did it at a time when the country is in dire straights! Our backs are against the wall. Funnie what you'll do when you feel you have nothing to lose.
So are we in a new Era? Is Racism dead?
Walk into work at your white collar job and count how many Non White faces you see then ask how many White faces think that you got your job not cause your overqualified and deserve to be there like you do but because of some quota they themselves (other White Folks) imposed.
You'd both be right! You're there cause they have to have a few so they picked the absolute best! When Time Warner and AOL were struggling who'd they pick to run the merger. The Absolute Best Gerald Parrsons. His resume reads like a CEO's Wet dream. He merged the two companies but when it eventually went south he was the one they blamed.
Fannie May and Freddie had issues long before the crisis. Franklyn Raines was CEO of Fannie, this dudes resume is incredible! He wasn't there just cause they needed the face, he was the best! He's suing the Gov right now because he alleges that the Bush admin tampered with Fannie and they were sound prior to his ouster and the eventual crisis!
American doesn't pick average when it comes to Black Folks! These dudes were the best of the best! The Best of Anyone and everyone not just Black Folks!
Racism is not dead! It just morphed and changed and adapted like all viruses.
BE Careful! BE Mindful! BE Prayerful!
Jaycee
10 comments:
Excellent rant! (We won, we won, we won!)
You're exactly right.
Living up here in a predominately white county I recall telling my oldest son that he needed to watch himself on the way to school because there will be some who would want to make an example of in their rage to try to continue to "keep us in our place".
If anything it has also brought front and center the undercurrents of the unspoken racism that has existed. When my oldest looked at the breakdown of states and noted that the south was still red I had to remind him of the fact that still remains.
It's the south and he is black.
Great blog Jay!
I think that we (blacks, whites, latinos, and everything in between) know racism is still alive, but now people are starting to believe that one day it will be a minor part of our American existence. Obama's election is a step in the right direction, but we still have a long way to go. Good expression of your view!
You are ON IT! Racism has not gone away and folk will use any excuse to avoid talking about it. Believe me, before Obama gets out of office it will have to be dealt with head-on.
I think that you will find this article interesting. I touch upon a lot of the items you mentioned using both direct talk and symbolism.
My Chicago Election Day Diary
Indeed, there is much work to be done.
No! I don't think it is dead..I don't know if one of my prof's is racist..but she said nigger in a lecture in reference to how the word queer has been taken back from the gay community. They see power in the word now. She asked have any other words been appropriated in such a way. I said the "n-word"! She wrote nigger and nigga' on the board..Number 1 where has there ever been a ' above the a in nigga? We all looked at each other. Everything is kind of a blur from this point but then I heard "People aren't supposed to say nigger!" I gasped really loud..I couldn't believe she said it..One black guy walked out of class..racist or not..I belive that word has no business in the class room..
This post reminded me of this..
I think it is very much alive..
oiy! jaycee, you give me a big bloody headache! but i like you all over again because i learn you are married. and you did an entire post/rant in response to my post which you abviously disagree with. haha!
these are isolated incidents, buddy. this is not the way of the world. release the crutch and get on with life. selah.
you give me a big bloody headache, jaycee. oiy! but i like you all over again because i learn that you are married. and that you so disagree with my post that you write your own in rebuttal. haha!
these incidents of which you speak are offensive no doubt, but they are not the american norm. release the crutch, friend. get on with life. selah.
Bookworm don't never get it twisted! I dig your blog I believe you have a great love for America but even more so for Black folks. I don't agree with your philosophy though. History has shown that Black folks must put aside philosophy for our own good and work together. How much further and better off would we be now if Dr. Dubois and Alain L. Locke had put aside thier gutter sniping and worked with Marcus Garvey? Garvey had the masses and a viable domestic economic plan. Dr. Dubois and Alain Locke could have helped to temper Garvey but alas they didn't and sadly we are not the better for it.
Now as far as that so called conservative nonsense, the Repubs got nothing on Black folks we are more conservative and far more compassionate and I don't get Black folks who hang out with em. If you the only Black Folks in the room or you can count how many there are then you need another room.
One Love for you
Jaycee
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