For years it’s been an enigma to me the 10 percent or so of black people that vote republican vs. the 90 percent or so of us that vote democratic, independent or abstain from the process all together. I always wondered what it was about the Republican Party that would warrant their staunch support. In this age of Obama and a multicultural America one would think that 10 percent would dwindle but the opposite seems to be happening. I’m coming across more and more black people that strongly identify with today’s conservative philosophies. I’m not really talking about the black republican that votes so because he makes In excess of 300k a year and is voting that way to get the best tax rate for the tax bracket he’s in. I’m talking about the bougie Negro, the ones that think because they change their party affiliation they have arrived and are automatically better than the 90 percent that pay too much attention to the racial insensitivities of their party leadership or generally disagree with their policies. They will argue that by becoming a republican they are morally correct and the 90% of black people that don’t listen to AM talk radio all day are morally corrupt. By no means do I suggest to say that black people in this country should vote or think on monolithic terms. What I am saying is I expect any self aware self respecting black man or woman to be cognizant of if not of the historical bigotry within their voting click the contemporary post Obama bigotry that has gotten so blatant that even white Americans are beginning to question the mental capitulation of today’ black republican. The black republican is as oxymoronic as a white Black Panther in 1970 or equivalent to 10 percent of the Nation of Islam being Irish-American. Can you imagine 10 percent of MS-13 being Hindu? Being a black republican today defies that much logic.
Black republicans are a confused group of people. You will confuse yourself trying to understand the politics of the black republican before understanding the psyche of the black republican and understanding it from a historical perspective. The Black republican is older than the Republican Party itself and what I mean by that is the 10 percent of black people that identify themselves as republican today have a mentality and world view consistent with the 10 percent or so of who have historically sided with the power structure no matter how detrimental they were to the other 90 percent. In fact many in that 10 percent have at times been more detrimental to their people than the powers that were.
When the transatlantic slave trade began there were Africans that actually sold other Africans in to bondage. It was not a lot of Africans doing this just about 10 percent or so; During chattel slavery there were black overseers that would whip a nigga’s ass quicker and more brutally than the white slave master. There were not a lot of black overseer; Just about 10 percent or so. Then there’s the 10 percent of proper speaking light skin slaves that worked in the house and enjoyed all of the accoutrements that came with being a house slave vs the 90 percent of the dark skinned slaves speaking negro dialect in the field. I say all of that to say that the 90 10 dichotomy as it relates to left right politics in black America has nothing to do with issues of the day and everything to do with the way some of us are wired or programmed. Some of these black republicans were born this way and the black republican in them was evident as early as the sand box when they failed to learn how to share their toys and then some of them were nurtured that way either by their parents, media imagery or from years of hating the black skin that they were born in. Either way they are afflicted with what’s called plantation psychosis. Plantation psychosis is what you would diagnose black folks that exert a slave like mentality. Plantation psychosis is certainly not exclusive to the 10 percent because there are many in the 90 percent that still retain some of the engrained traits from chattel slavery. We’ll talk about field Negroes when I opine on the BET awards, pig feet or some other field Negro related phenomenon. For now we’re going to focus on the 10 percent that thinks by virtue of them joining the grand ole party they are the cream of the African-American crop.
Now that we understand the mindset of the black republican we can more easily understand their political philosophy. In a nut shell their political philosophy is whatever it is that their former slave master philosophy is at the given moment. Now I know that sounds harsh and I’m sure all republicans whether black, white or Bobby Jindal will have a problem with what I am saying but they’d be hard pressed to prove me wrong because the examples of their TomCoonery and tonkenship are plenteous. It would be far too easy to point to the ironic appointment of the first black head of the GOP on the heels of the democrats electing the first black president, or the fact that Rush Limbaugh has all but emasculated him to the base for thinking his appointment came with freedom of thought. I’m not going talk about how he made him come on air to apologize and reword his opinion of the de facto party boss for the listening pleasure of his 20 million rabid followers.. .… I will instead recall an episode from the Glenn Beck sitcom.
I was flipping thru the channels and happened to catch his symposium on black America with an all black GOP audience and panel. As I watched this modern day minstrel show I did not know whether to laugh at these fools or to feel sorry for the dearth of critical thinking and intelligence displayed by Glenn’s guest. Topic after topic they allowed Glen Beck to frame every question or comment in a manner that pigeon holed all non conservative black people as immoral, illiterate or naive. According to them you are either a responsible black republican or an irresponsible black liberal depending of the likes of Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton for direction. They went on to cosign each and every reasonless conclusion he arrived at. They even offered a few of their own. From him questioning why we call ourselves African-Americans to, (as if he has a right) to him inferring that 90 percent of black America depends on government assistance, they nodded their head in agreement. At one point he asks a young black conservative what were some of the root causes of the crime and poverty and high unemployment in the black community and this clown goes in to a diatribe about abortion. Now everyone is entitled to their opinion on abortion, I don’t begrudge him for being against it but what the hell did it have to do with the topic of discussion?
His keen less observation summarized the entire Glenn Beck comedy hour, in fact his retort to Glenn’s query is a synopsis of how all black republicans process and interpret data . If you know a black republican I implore you to take them to task and ask them why they are republicans and I assure you the answer you get from them will be a half truth, or a fallacious argument whether it is a fallacy of division or fallacy of composition each and every opinion they arrive at will be devoid of the empirical evidence to support their claims and unless you suffer from plantation psychosis you will be leave the conversation scratching and shaking your head.
They will say Abe Lincoln was a republican and they ended slavery Blah blah blah. What they won’t say is the political disunion some 145 years ago was north south and not left right. Emancipation came as result of the south being reactionaries with antiquated ideas on governance, sort of how they are today. They will then say Martin Luther King was a republican blah blah blah.. and again they will fail to mention the fact that the democrats south of the mason Dixon line were called dixi-crats and the dixicrat party platform was Jim Crow law, so King being a democrat in 1954 would sort of put him in the same category of a black republican today. Furthermore once LBJ signed the Civil Rights Bill all of the dixiecrats defected to the Republican Party making the GOP the anti- Martin Luther king party. So in addition to these moon bats relying on ancient history and men that have been deceased for generations to make the case for why black people should vote republican today, their points miss the mark . The same is true for their contemporary justifications for being a house slaves. They don’t make sense and they don’t have to because it’s the color of their skin that makes them a commodity not the contents or lack thereof between their ears. Just proclaim themselves black republicans, take a shot or two at the president and they automatically qualify as subject matter experts on any subject. Whether it be healthcare or constitutional law if you have a black face and you’re indifferent to Obama in the minds of conservatives you’re a genius and deserve a pat on the head for changing your names to Toby.
In closing I want to reiterate that the fact that it’s not about black people being monoliths so the question has nothing to do with any kind of perceived loyalties. It’s their realness and authenticity in question along with the consistent rhetoric to reality deficit.
To the black republicans who might be watching I mean this out of love. Keep it real. And by that I don’t mean the way you walk, talk or pull the lever while in the voting booth. Say that you are card carrying members of the GOP because black face is the flavor of the moment and it is a personal and not collective benefit to being a black republican today. If some of you could come to grips with this reality you would find it a lot easier to explain your choice in politics. …I mean no offense; it’s just what I was thinking
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Monday, February 22, 2010
Y2k to 2010
I wanted to take some time early in this New Year, new decade and still fairly new century to reflect on where we are, where we’ve come since Y2k, and where I think we are headed as a nation and a global community. The 21st century no doubt will be marked by innovative, technological, political and social change not only on the local and national level but across the globe. As we venture further into this decade we will notice an increased level of interconnectedness with all of the Earth’s inhabitants to the point that the price of tea in China will most certainly be relevant to what the price of sugar is in Iowa. We’re barley 10 years in to the 21st century and we’ve had numerous first time occurrences, we’ve reached myriad millstones and witnessed scores of unexpected twists and turns that at varying times during the past decade held captive the collective attention span of the entire globe on a single phenomenon or phenomenal event. We witnessed at the turn of the century a president literally steal an election, the very next year we got attacked on our own soil and the World Trade Center disappeared before our lying eyes. The president that stole the election within two years started two wars none of which were against a Government that ordered the attack. We saw our economy spiral into recession and we narrowly averted a repeat of the 1930’s great depression. People were not only losing their homes in record numbers they were losing their banks as record banks and financial institutions went under along with all the underwater homes.
We witnessed in the Nation’s capitol and her surrounding suburbs a two man murder spree with long range rifles. Can you imagine ducking and hiding under your car while pumping gas because you’re afraid of random sniper fire? I can because I saw it done. I even did it myself a few times. The last decade also saw death and destruction not brought on by man. We witnessed an American city drown during Hurricane Katrina. While the incident itself was a natural disaster the response to it OR lack thereof a response was a manmade disaster and it typified the level of leadership we had at the time. We witnessed on a global scale disasters of biblical proportion with the Tsunami in south East Asia and an earth quake in China. All told almost half a million people perished in those two incidents alone. This is in a decade replete with natural disasters. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti as we as they struggle with the greatest natural disaster of that country’s history and easily the greatest natural disaster of this new decade and we are only 2 months in.
Don’t get me wrong the decade was far from all doom and gloom and my overall belief and understanding is that we as a people are headed for a kinder more peaceful union and global community but I’d be lying if I said we will get there devoid of struggle. The last decade also saw us for the first time elect a black man as president and the first such progressive since JFK. While his politics are a stark departure from the last guy that manipulated his way into office there is growing resentment of him by some in this country for not continuing the John Wayne style of governance. Even though it’s a relatively small group of people myopically opposed to progression it’s a very loud and well financed group that in all honesty would rather the country to go back 60 years to 1950 than fully emerge itself into the 21st century. Money and repetition have a strange affect on how history is perceived.
It’s for that very reason that we as American people need to remain vigilant about what’s going on today as well as know the truth about what happened yesterday. If you don’t know the past you don’t know the present and if you’re unconscious of the present tense there is no way that you can accurately predict what’s in store for the future. Case and point Ronald Reagan. I was 7 when he took office and about 15 when he left. Had not the 1980’s been indelibly inscribed in my memory I would have thought that Ronald Reagan was the greatest man since Ghandi based on how people today recall him. His presidency by all accounts was a failure and widely acknowledged as such by even the folks in his party. The last decade saw his death and I swear along with burying that old bastard folks seemed to have buried their memory of the 80’s and all concepts of cumulative effects. You’d never think that he came in office with there being a 700billion deficit and left office with it at 3 trillion. Or the fact that he held the receipts for the weapons of mass destruction that quote unquote made Iraq such a grave national security threat. Or that his administration was responsible for initially arming and emboldening Osama Bin Laden to thwart the Soviet influence in Afghanistan during the cold war. Now think about that for a minute. He had the CIA arm and train Osama Bin Laden on how to be a terrorist. And he sold WMD’s to Iraq. How’s that for America’s favorite president and How do those facts about Ronald Wilson Reagan comport with the image of him today.
They are already trying to re-make the Bush/Cheney 8 year disaster and we have not even recovered from it yet. How’s that for gall? They will tell you that he kept them safe for 8 years. REALLY?? How ambiguous of an answer can that be? Think about that for a second. HE kept US safe. How many people lost their homes, thier jobs and life savings under him? How many people fell into poverty from 2000 to 2008? George Bush is not what I would call a safety net. As it relates to terrorism saying that he kept us safe for 8 year is sort of like saying because you took Flintstones vitamins since you were six you did not get cancer. Really it is, and anyone that uses that argument do please tell them that they are a douche bag
Speaking of doucehbags our new president being the progressive that he is precipitated another movement that’s gained a lot of steam called the Tea Bag Party. Now these geniuses are what you call the quintessential douche bags. They will call Obama a socialist and facist in the same breath even though the two ideologies are on the opposite end of the geo political spectrum. That’s like telling someone to go right and left at the same time. They have mastered the art of repetitious drivel. It’s what I call when you hear and say something enough times no matter how illogical or ridiculous it sounds it becomes truth, to the idiot parroting the false statements and any one unfortunate enough to share their menial IQ. An example would be your typical FOX News analyst
They have no concept of cause and effect. They will totally ignore the cause and blame the affect on anyone and anything that strengthens their already struggling argument. Depending on who it is you could tell them the sky is green and sure as hell they would pull out their guns and tell you they will fight and die for their green sky. Seriously, If Sarah Palin told them that we did not start paying income Tax until January 20 2009 I swear to you these folks will all but erase the memory of ever filling out a W2 prior to Obama becoming president. And recognize him as the author of income tax legislation
Speaking of Sarah Palin boy did she take us all by storm just before the turn of the decade. While I agree with most normal Americans that she’s an idiot and unqualified to be the president’s press secretary let alone the president, I will say this, her meteoric rise to political prominence is an overall good thing and a great American story. She gives slackers and regular Joes around the world hope that it’s never too late to get your act together and be something when they finally decide to grow up. I would say a person that took 7 years and 5 schools to get a 4 year degree in journalism no less qualifies as slacker at least as far as a presidential hopeful go. Even becoming the leader of a major political party is a pretty great feat from someone out of slacker nation (regardless of the fact the party is full of Neanderthals). So while I laugh at her and poke fun at her silly antics I secretly admire how far she’s come. I watched her debut as a FOX News analyst and there’s never been a job more qualified for her skill set. What she lacks in journalistic integrity she more than compensates with comic relief. She’s even better after Rachel Maddow and Jon Stewart opine her footage.
All in all the next ten years will prove to be as aw-inspiring as the last ten were. We will see more change, monumental achievement, more pain, more struggle, more class war fare and more of the political pendulum swinging right and left but so long as the majority of us remain conscious, vigilant and spiritually grounded the best of our yesterdays will continue to be the worst of our tomorrow’s. There is a Buddhist term called Kosen Rufu in a nutshell it’s defined as the overarching goal of achieving world peace and human happiness. Whether your Christian, Muslim, Jewish or atheist, whether you live in Nashville Tennessee or Soweto S. Africa. World peace and human happiness is a common goal of all people from all walks of life and for the most part if enough of us make it a priority to at least think on such humanistic goals world peace and the absence of war will come that much closer to fruition.
Lets make it a good one!
We witnessed in the Nation’s capitol and her surrounding suburbs a two man murder spree with long range rifles. Can you imagine ducking and hiding under your car while pumping gas because you’re afraid of random sniper fire? I can because I saw it done. I even did it myself a few times. The last decade also saw death and destruction not brought on by man. We witnessed an American city drown during Hurricane Katrina. While the incident itself was a natural disaster the response to it OR lack thereof a response was a manmade disaster and it typified the level of leadership we had at the time. We witnessed on a global scale disasters of biblical proportion with the Tsunami in south East Asia and an earth quake in China. All told almost half a million people perished in those two incidents alone. This is in a decade replete with natural disasters. Our thoughts and prayers are with the people of Haiti as we as they struggle with the greatest natural disaster of that country’s history and easily the greatest natural disaster of this new decade and we are only 2 months in.
Don’t get me wrong the decade was far from all doom and gloom and my overall belief and understanding is that we as a people are headed for a kinder more peaceful union and global community but I’d be lying if I said we will get there devoid of struggle. The last decade also saw us for the first time elect a black man as president and the first such progressive since JFK. While his politics are a stark departure from the last guy that manipulated his way into office there is growing resentment of him by some in this country for not continuing the John Wayne style of governance. Even though it’s a relatively small group of people myopically opposed to progression it’s a very loud and well financed group that in all honesty would rather the country to go back 60 years to 1950 than fully emerge itself into the 21st century. Money and repetition have a strange affect on how history is perceived.
It’s for that very reason that we as American people need to remain vigilant about what’s going on today as well as know the truth about what happened yesterday. If you don’t know the past you don’t know the present and if you’re unconscious of the present tense there is no way that you can accurately predict what’s in store for the future. Case and point Ronald Reagan. I was 7 when he took office and about 15 when he left. Had not the 1980’s been indelibly inscribed in my memory I would have thought that Ronald Reagan was the greatest man since Ghandi based on how people today recall him. His presidency by all accounts was a failure and widely acknowledged as such by even the folks in his party. The last decade saw his death and I swear along with burying that old bastard folks seemed to have buried their memory of the 80’s and all concepts of cumulative effects. You’d never think that he came in office with there being a 700billion deficit and left office with it at 3 trillion. Or the fact that he held the receipts for the weapons of mass destruction that quote unquote made Iraq such a grave national security threat. Or that his administration was responsible for initially arming and emboldening Osama Bin Laden to thwart the Soviet influence in Afghanistan during the cold war. Now think about that for a minute. He had the CIA arm and train Osama Bin Laden on how to be a terrorist. And he sold WMD’s to Iraq. How’s that for America’s favorite president and How do those facts about Ronald Wilson Reagan comport with the image of him today.
They are already trying to re-make the Bush/Cheney 8 year disaster and we have not even recovered from it yet. How’s that for gall? They will tell you that he kept them safe for 8 years. REALLY?? How ambiguous of an answer can that be? Think about that for a second. HE kept US safe. How many people lost their homes, thier jobs and life savings under him? How many people fell into poverty from 2000 to 2008? George Bush is not what I would call a safety net. As it relates to terrorism saying that he kept us safe for 8 year is sort of like saying because you took Flintstones vitamins since you were six you did not get cancer. Really it is, and anyone that uses that argument do please tell them that they are a douche bag
Speaking of doucehbags our new president being the progressive that he is precipitated another movement that’s gained a lot of steam called the Tea Bag Party. Now these geniuses are what you call the quintessential douche bags. They will call Obama a socialist and facist in the same breath even though the two ideologies are on the opposite end of the geo political spectrum. That’s like telling someone to go right and left at the same time. They have mastered the art of repetitious drivel. It’s what I call when you hear and say something enough times no matter how illogical or ridiculous it sounds it becomes truth, to the idiot parroting the false statements and any one unfortunate enough to share their menial IQ. An example would be your typical FOX News analyst
They have no concept of cause and effect. They will totally ignore the cause and blame the affect on anyone and anything that strengthens their already struggling argument. Depending on who it is you could tell them the sky is green and sure as hell they would pull out their guns and tell you they will fight and die for their green sky. Seriously, If Sarah Palin told them that we did not start paying income Tax until January 20 2009 I swear to you these folks will all but erase the memory of ever filling out a W2 prior to Obama becoming president. And recognize him as the author of income tax legislation
Speaking of Sarah Palin boy did she take us all by storm just before the turn of the decade. While I agree with most normal Americans that she’s an idiot and unqualified to be the president’s press secretary let alone the president, I will say this, her meteoric rise to political prominence is an overall good thing and a great American story. She gives slackers and regular Joes around the world hope that it’s never too late to get your act together and be something when they finally decide to grow up. I would say a person that took 7 years and 5 schools to get a 4 year degree in journalism no less qualifies as slacker at least as far as a presidential hopeful go. Even becoming the leader of a major political party is a pretty great feat from someone out of slacker nation (regardless of the fact the party is full of Neanderthals). So while I laugh at her and poke fun at her silly antics I secretly admire how far she’s come. I watched her debut as a FOX News analyst and there’s never been a job more qualified for her skill set. What she lacks in journalistic integrity she more than compensates with comic relief. She’s even better after Rachel Maddow and Jon Stewart opine her footage.
All in all the next ten years will prove to be as aw-inspiring as the last ten were. We will see more change, monumental achievement, more pain, more struggle, more class war fare and more of the political pendulum swinging right and left but so long as the majority of us remain conscious, vigilant and spiritually grounded the best of our yesterdays will continue to be the worst of our tomorrow’s. There is a Buddhist term called Kosen Rufu in a nutshell it’s defined as the overarching goal of achieving world peace and human happiness. Whether your Christian, Muslim, Jewish or atheist, whether you live in Nashville Tennessee or Soweto S. Africa. World peace and human happiness is a common goal of all people from all walks of life and for the most part if enough of us make it a priority to at least think on such humanistic goals world peace and the absence of war will come that much closer to fruition.
Lets make it a good one!
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