Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Why I'll never be a racist...


So this is the second time in a 3 week period that a white person (that I’ve never met) has called me a racist based on something on my facebook page. Normally, this is something that I would ignore in keeping with my life’s mission of deflecting negative energy, but in lieu of being seriously annoyed at the audaciousness of the claim given the accusers, I’ll address this in hopes of never having to do so again. I will not address the individuals, as I do not know them and I try not to pass judgment on those that I don’t know even when I’m not extended the same courtesy.

Anyone that knows me, my background, my upbringing understands that my view of the world is far more vast than the block that I grew up on. Throughout a large portion of my youth, my mother was a flight attendant and being a single mom with virtually no family in our city, I inadvertently had to travel with her on many occasions. This allotted me opportunities of traveling across the US and around the world on a rather consistent basis. My father lived in jet black Flint MI, where I spent most of my summers when I wasn’t traveling with my mom. I attended elementary and middle school at St. Andrews which was, until it’s closing in 2010, touted as one of the most racially diverse elementary schools in the city of Grand Rapids, then went to East Kentwood HS which is known as the same. After EK was lily white Calvin College. I gave this background to provide the readers who don’t know me as personally as some others a glimpse of my point of vantage.

Black Racism

As stated by Merriam-Websters New English Dictionary, racism is defined as follows:

1.

a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race is superior and has the right to rule others.

2.

a policy, system of government, etc., based upon or fostering such a doctrine; discrimination.

3.

hatred or intolerance of another race or other races.

Before I continue, I ask how can the aforementioned logically apply to people of African decent on this planet?

The entire system that we call America was built on was off the red man’s demise and on the black man’s back. This is a fact that no scholar can refute. This having been said, equality is the least of what people of African descent deserve seeing how many resources both human and natural were depleted from Africa for America to exist as it does today. What architect builds for free? African people in this country have been fighting for equality in a land that they’ve built. To many whites, steps in this direction are seen as reasons why black people should be pacified, but given what’s been taken this is insulting and downplays both history and current conditions.

Again from Marriam-Webster’s New English Dictionary, “angst” is defined as a feeling of dread, anxiety, or anguish.

Angst is what many white people confuse for racism. When people of African decent make statements such as “I don’t trust white people”, or “White people aren’t this or that”, it’s not from a place of hatred based on color of skin, it’s from a place of apprehension for being torn down for years and being cautious that the offspring of that same mob that once called African’s 3/5th’s of a man, now all of the sudden want to kiss and make up.

This isn’t just about slavery (as so many whites like to say), this isn’t about Jim Crow, this isn’t just about Apartheid in South Africa, this isn’t just about so called “blood diamonds”, or COINTELPRO, or the crack epidemic, or the welfare system, or the richest (natural resources) continent on the planet having the poorest people in the world on it, or the worlds super power being built on the back of people with no power to show for it, nor is it just about the lack of understanding between African people and African Americans and the stereotypes that we feel about each other (perhaps the most insulting repercussion), nor is this just about police brutality, under funded inner-city schools, the creation and perpetuation of the ghetto, Steve Biko, Sean Bell, police profiling etc. This is about the common denominator being the same. Black people would be fools to act as if the aforementioned didn’t exists.

The rape victim will always give a man that resembles her attacker the side eye, no matter what his intentions may be. Is this fair??? Probably not, but it’s no way near as unfair as the original act that put the victim in this position in the first place. To say that the victim is wrong for her heightened level of judgment, is to say that God is wrong for creating memory.

African people have the right to be apprehensive of white people. I’ll go a step further and say that it’s the responsible thing to do, just as it’s responsible of the rape victim to be apprehensive of those that resemble her attacker. It’s simply common sense.

I honestly don’t know any black people that feel as though they are inherently better than white people. I DO however know black people that feel as though they are innately equal to white people which makes their societal standing a bit perplexing to them. Through this confusion, you may get statements like, “Fuck whitey” or “white devil”, and so on… I assert that as wrong as these statements may be, they come from a place of disgruntlement as to how to get ahead in a world that was built by a people that seemingly have no control over the system in which they’ve been placed.

“But angry black man, we have a black president!!!”

So what? Given that blacks built the WHITE house, we should! Even so, Obama has done more to appease whites than any president since Reagan. What’s cleverly disguised as bi-partisanship, is Obama literally trying to please every white person in which he comes in contact with to the point that not even his own party is pleased in large part. Despite these efforts to organize with the republican party and to join forces, a radical offshoot that AFTER 8 years of Bush (arguably the worst president for EVERYONE), NOW all the sudden is fed up with government. (No coincidence there)

“But angry black man, I didn’t own slaves, neither did my parents!?!”

Slavery is only a small part of black angst, because just as very few white American’s parents owned slaves, very few living African American’s were slaves. Slavery is often the first thing that comes out when one talks about the white power structure because that’s what black people are taught about in white schools. The fact of the matter is, if blacks don’t teach their children at home, the only thing that black kids will ever know about their own situation is slavery, Harriet Tubman, MLK, Rosa Parks, and Obama. The black experience is far more broad than what our children are taught in school (Be it in an under-funded black school or a suburban white school that a few black kids attend) As far as slavery goes however, that doesn’t mean that the effects don’t still exists. It’s akin to buying a car that was in an accident prior to you owning it. The fact of the matter is, it was in an accident so despite who did it, or when it happened the issues are still there. The constitution is old as well; it however doesn’t make it any less relevant to our American existence than slavery is. Slavery is no more of a scapegoat for black anger, than a constitutional right is for American pride.

“But angry black man, you have quotes from Farrakhan and other black nationalists in your poetry and writings!?!”

Of course I do. The only reason that white people have a problem with the Hon. Minister Farrakhan and not Malcolm X is because Farrakhan isn’t dead so they are still threatened by he and those that follow him. He and the few other black leaders that don’t pander to the white establishment are seen as threatening because frankly, the white establishment is used to African’s coming through them to acquire their power. The few that haven’t are always defiled and misconstrued as corrupt or extreme. Far be it for me to break the tradition of quoting extreme blacks, Honorable Min. Farrakhan said it best, “America will always side with those whom she can direct, give orders to, and have those orders obeyed."

“But angry black man, you don’t date white woman aren’t we all humans?”

Yes we are all humans, and just because I desire my own woman over yours isn’t me saying otherwise. I’m interested however, in building the black family and the black power structure just as the Dutch did in GR. You build the family, the business (Amway, Alticore etc), the educational institutions (Calvin, Aquinas, etc), the neighborhood (E. GR, Ada, etc) with people of the same cultural background and understanding, NOT UNTIL that foundation is firm you invite others in. Black people have yet to establish that foundation. When’s the last time that you’ve gotten a loan from a black bank? When’s the last time that you went to a black owned hospital? When’s the last time that you got pulled over in a predominantly black owned area by a black police officer, or got your fruit from a black owned grocer? I say that to say this, people of African descent have yet to control our own existence in this country for dealing with a power structure that was created for us to fail. What can we control? Family. How is power garnered? By keeping certain things in the family. At the root of the downfall of every mob flick from Carlito’s Way, to The Godfather, to Goodfella’s, even Scarface was marrying a woman outside of the culture. The mob understands this, the Dutch understand this, it would be ignorant for blacks to not understand this as well, seeing as thought we are in fact all humans. (Not to mention that black women are the most beautiful creatures on the planet J)

“But angry black man, can’t we just move past all of this… I’m colorblind!!!”

This makes as much sense as saying, I’m gonna walk through this wall because I can’t see it. Whether one sees it or not, it’s still there. Ignoring a broken leg and trying to walk doesn’t erase the fact that the break is still there. Color is there for a reason, it’s not to be ignored but embraced. Be proud of who you are, black, white, Asian, Hispanic, Arabic, of mixed descent etc. It’s not to be ignored, nor shunned… Nothing on this planet of ours has ever co-existed by ignoring differences. The problem comes when those differences are exploited for political, social, and economic gain. Perhaps Africa is being stripped of her resources today by color blind people, perhaps that white person that just got hired into that fourtune 500 company was colorblind as well, perhaps that white kid from Lowell that just got hired into the police department to police the innercity is color blind as well. You can never judge a person’s position or viewpoint until you know where said person stands. What we can judge, however is the system that that person is a part of.

Fortunately for whites, a black person can NEVER be racist because African’s simply don’t have the power system in place to pull it off.

Unfortunately for blacks we are still at a disproportionate disadvantage in the US and around the world based on the president of white supremacy that has been set.

Unfortunately for both whites and blacks, lingering dismay may make some blacks disagreeable causing a rift between two otherwise genuinely good human beings.

Fortunately for blacks and whites, there is a creator that has domain over all His creations and after awhile of seeing the debauchery that His creations are capable of seems to make a way where there otherwise wouldn’t be one.

No black person should be ignorant enough to hate all white people, nor should said individual be naive enough to love all blacks. However in the global system that has essentially been set up by whites and for whites, we have a right to rebuke the status quo and be angstful all the while. Me personally, I’m not a racist… I’m a realest

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