RACE CARD
Is the United States of America a society in regression? With each rationalized and exonerated killing of young black men by cop and vigilante, are other regressive malcontents emboldened? Rather than ushering in a new era of racial harmony, the election of a black man to the highest office in the land has brought out the worst sort of hatred imaginable. Vile and treasonous epithets never before uttered publicly against a sitting president are posted daily on social media. The loony fringe has oozed out of the woodwork and taken up residence in main stream US society. Law makers and TV pundits have incrementally introduced racism as legitimate political dialogue. Code words that are palatable but are still racially derisive are used liberally in that dialogue. Civility and self control are non-existent. Who could forget South Carolina’s Rep. Joe Wilson’s infamous outburst, “You lie!” directed at president Obama at his 2009 State of the Union Address?
Corporate sponsored media relishes reporting on the juicy details of the lynching du jour and the protest/outrage that follows to boost car and drug advertising revenues, but ignores their culpability in perpetuating the culture of hate. The fact that young black men are being gunned down with alarming frequency by officers of the law and stand-your-ground thugs seems to be of no editorial concern to what passes these days for the fourth estate.
The daily struggle to make ends meet, pay the bills and put food on the table is a difficult enough prospect for most Americans. For the white reader; imagine, on top of everything else, getting up every day and fearing for your life and the lives of your children and loved ones, fearing death at the hands of the very people sworn to protect you. Really think about it. If you are African American you can lose your life for simply being black. Driving while black, walking while black, shopping while black, even sitting in your living room while black can be fatal. If you are an angry white person reading this, listen up. To hate someone for something that is one hundred percent completely out of that someone’s control is just plain lunacy.
The bill-of-goods that is racism in this country was sold to us back in the early eighteenth century by the then ruling class who feared that indentured white servants and black slaves might join forces and threaten the status quo. The commonality of those poor whites and slaves coupled with the fact they vastly outnumbered the wealthy land holders and slave owners was a terrifying prospect. To prevent such a natural union between blacks and poor whites, the power elite contrived to pass laws of artificial divisiveness that would pit the two groups against each other; a very old and effective tactic, indeed.
Yale Historian Professor Edmund Morgan said this, “There are hints that the two despised groups initially saw each other as sharing the same predicament. It was common, for example, for servants and slaves to run away together, steal hogs together, get drunk together. It was not uncommon for them to make love together. In Bacon’s Rebellion, one of the last groups to surrender was a mixed band of eighty negroes and twenty English servants.” Morgan further states, “Virginia’s ruling class, having proclaimed that all white men were superior to black, went on to offer their social (but white) inferiors a number of benefits previously denied them. In 1705 a law was passed requiring masters to provide white servants whose indenture time was up with ten bushels of corn, thirty shillings, and a gun, while women servants were to get 15 bushels of corn and forty shillings. Also, the newly freed servants were to get 50 acres of land.”
(In the interest of full disclosure I must add that Professor Morgan’s mention of Bacon’s Rebellion was to illustrate the cooperative union between black slave and indentured white servant. Bacon, in actuality, was a self-serving opportunist and a murderer.)
So, with the stroke of a pen, it was advantageous to be white. Abracadabra, poor white was superior to poor black. Let the race hate begin. White supremacy is not only fallacy, but an insidious anachronism that serves the sole purpose of maintaining the status quo of the power elite. I am an old white guy, but except for the color of my skin I have zero in common with, let’s say, old white parasite David Koch or slightly younger white parasite Jim Walton of WalMart infamy. I don’t think they even breathe the same air I do, but I can definitely identify with and relate to the ninety-nine percent of us that are working and contributing to our society, be they black, brown, red, yellow or white.
We are at a crossroads similar to that time three centuries ago when the ruling class recognized their vulnerability and manipulated the law to maintain their supremacy. Our present one percent oligarchy, fearing the inevitable, is corrupting our once representative government. In their panic to maintain control they are methodically spying on US citizens, building up military firepower in civilian police forces, creating laws allowing the military to arrest civilians and detain them indefinitely for the first time in our history (NDAA), dismantling our Bill of Rights making peaceful change impossible and once again, fanning the flames of racial divisiveness.
The one-two punch of divide and conquer in conjunction with Orwellian perversion of law is proof of the desperation of these sociopaths. I would hope all thinking citizens of this country would recognize these transparent tools of propaganda for what they are. Writer and political philosopher John Ralston Saul accurately sums it up, “we have undergone a corporate coup d’état and now live under a species of corporate dictatorship.” The hijacking is complete, the frog is boiled and all we are left with is civil disobedience…
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Alex Symington
Alex lives with his wife, Anna in Key West, Florida. He enjoys writing poetry and prose and making the complacent uncomfortable.
More from other sources:
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/no_justice_for_michael_brown_20141014
http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2013/07/questlove-trayvon-martin-and-i-aint-shit.html
http://www.historyisaweapon.com/zinnapeopleshistory.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three-Fifths_Compromise
https://www.aclu.org/blog/tag/ndaa
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/09/joe.wilson/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bacon’s_Rebellion
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_imperative_of_revolt_20141019
Very provocative, as always, Alex. Yes, how perverse that the remarkable election of a black man as President leads to an excresence of the vilest racism I’ve experienced in my life. I am not sure how that relates to the power of the 1%, however. The elevation of whites was the elevation of a majority. Blacks were not complicit in their enslavement. Currently the 99% help create the political situation that elevates the 1%.
Second question: if the 1% are a dictatorship, how can they also feel “vulnerable” and in a “panic”? I don’t see the slaveowners or the Koch brothers feeling at all threatened.
And if the only way to fight against them is “civil disobedience,” I think it’s over. A class that won’t take the time to use their hard-won rights to vote I cannot see storming the barricades.
Do you? I appreciate your writing and research.
American is a house divided and rational explanations are not accepted by either side.
It looks like the “eyewitnesses” at Ferguson were either mistaken or lieing. Two autopsy reports agreed that that the perputrator was shot at least once in the police car during the struggle and the perputrator did not have his hands raised in surrender.
People in the community have threatened the community with destruction if they do not get their way. So on it goes and what they get is no future – just a deserted burned out town.
Consider all the killings in Chicago – it is clear that the children are being raised by single family situations where their is no discipline. So they get guns and shoot each other and no one comments on how to fix that!
Blacks were not complicit in their enslavement? What about the African Chiefs who are said to have collaborated with Arab and European slave traders. And what about the role of the House Slaves?…Black people who kept their “inferiors” in check in return for a few more scraps from the table. The house slaves were probably the most complicit in perpetuating the enslavement of their brothers and sisters. Think about it…Please.
And don’t worry, whites all across the western world are targeted for extinction as well with all the “cultural diversity” through forced immigration. We’ll all end up being one cafe au lait colored species, with no distinct cultural attributes, buying plastic-fantastic Walmart junk and dining on Mickey Dees.
My own theory is that the rulers of this world plan to hijack the blond hair and blue eye genes for their own and have the rest of us be a totally brainwashed, obedient homogenized brown.
How does an autopsy report prove that he did not have his hands raised in surrender?
Dear Rick,
Back when those laws were passed poor whites and black slaves did out number the masters, hence the divide and conquer laws.
Been hating ever since, Consider what else would cause the one percent to behave the way they do, but fear of loss of power.
Fear is the cause of mental illness that manifests itself in greed, self will overload and contempt for all living things including
our Mother Earth. The sociopath and unfettered capitalism are made for each other. Whether their fear of revolution is justified
or not is irrelevant. They are behaving as if….
Your point that the many of 99 percent are complicit in their own enslavement is well founded, but does not absolve assholes like the Kochs that engineer said enslavement. I really enjoyed reading your introspective piece today.
I’m guessing your a white woman, sister. However, I would think a woman would be more sensitive to the pathology of blaming the victim for the crime.
I’ve known many black people in my time. The ones I admire most are those that don’t view themselves as victims. The ones I admire least, do. Same for women.
do you consider George Soros and asshole also? :b
I was referring to your implication that the Africans were responsible for African slavery. You failed to grasp the metaphor of a rape victim responsible for the rape. The house vs. field slave was a direct result of more white division of black. Please give me a break with the rationalization and dismissal of the horror of slavery. It happened, it was sanctioned by the state and the repercussions haunt us to this day. Making excuses for it and saying you “know black people” is just lame.
Turn off the FOX..it rots your brain 🙂
I think you failed to grasp the premise of your own thought process… that the psychopathic rich oligarchs are the ones who have created the divide and conquer strategy of white vs black.
Psychopaths come in many colors… black African leaders who are still selling out their people and resources to this day to the oligarchs, are psychopaths. Military men and women of all colors and nations who follow orders to hunt down and kill anyone who may oppose the psychopathic oligarchs, are psychopaths. Police men and women of all colors and nations who hunt down and kill or imprison anyone who may oppose the psychopathic oligarchs, are psychopaths.
Why don’t you get over your white guilt and realize that the psychopaths are in a race of their own. It is psychopath vs anyone with a conscience.
Perhaps your ancestors ran with the psychopath crowd but mine didn’t and don’t…No guilt here.
We are in fact all slaves of the oligarchs.
Oh, and didn’t your beloved Obama sign the NDAA giving himself permission to arrest, detain and murder anyone on the planet for any reason he deems fit. Isn’t his skin color described as black? But I guess that’s whitey’s fault too.
Have a nice day.
WOW My brother. I have known for many years. I did not know you had this in you. THANK YOU, THANK YOU. I have long believed we will end racial inequality when decent human such as you SPEAK UP!
Thank you.
You’re right, it’s pointless. I’ll try to refrain in the future.
Mr. Symington:
while I agree with the basic premise of your article, I do not agree with some of your retorts to Sister. Africans were indeed responsible for slavery; they both practiced it among themselves for millennia prior to the European incursion, and it was they who captured and sold the vast majority of those unfortunate souls bound for the New World. Slavery/racism has always been about power; it has been practiced by many cultures, and all races. It is a human condition not reserved for any one race or culture. It is a sad and horrendous legacy we share for having participated in it, but we are in the company of world history. to say we are haunted by it, while ignoring that history is a rationalization as well. did you know that only some 4-6% of all Africans brought to the New world were sent to the States? that’s right, the over whelming majority of people were sent to South America and the West Indies, with the majority of those going to Brazil and Hispaniola respectively. did you know that free blacks, in all the states that permitted slavery, owned black slaves? did you know that free blacks owned white indentured servants? this is not a black/white issue, nor should it be an American/European racism issue. nor should any undue responsibility or “guilt” be laid at the feet of any one race, or culture. Human Beings are responsible. Period.
Yes, when the rulers of the planet target, enslave and kill as many white people as black, racial inequality will have ended. It’s almost here…have you checked out Ukraine lately?
“It was awful to be Negro and have no control over my life. It was brutal to be young and already trained to sit quietly and listen to charges brought against my color with no chance of defense. We should all be dead. I thought I should like to see us all dead, one on top of the other. A pyramid of flesh with the white folks on the bottom, as the broad base, then the Indians with their silly tomahawks and teepees and wigwams and treaties, the Negroes with their mops and recipes and cotton sacks and spirituals sticking out of their mouths. The Dutch children should all stumble in their wooden shoes and break their necks. The French should choke to death on the Louisiana Purchase (1803) while silkworms ate all the Chinese with their stupid pigtails. As a species, we were an abomination. All of us.”
― Maya Angelou, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
just as good as the libtard excuse ‘the dog ate my homework’ but nevertheless does not answer the question! or perhaps it does in this instance? shall I insert al gore instead? or maybe the rothschilds or rockefellers but no that may be way to ‘conspiratorial’ for ‘progressive’ thought.
fox is no different then cbs or abc or nbc or any msm. must be its because of the kochs brothers too? 😉 :-p
My pleasure, Warren. It’s gratifying to see some people get it.
Wankajm, Do you know the name you use here, in England, is very close to the meaning for … oh never mind. In any event, it is hard for me to take you seriously because you seem to be no more than a human parrot mimicking the talking points of the conservative voice machine, most personified by one of America’s foremost intellectual quacks, Bill O’Reilly. You seem to talk for no other reason than to validate your narrow little, self constructed world view. Give me something original, something I haven’t heard before, and I’ll listen. You can agree or disagree with what I say in my essays, but I’d like to think I’ve presented something original, something that could change someone’s mind. Go ahead, change my mind, but it’ll have to be better than the usual right wing-libertarian cliches.
Thanks for weighing in, Jerome. The ooze I referred to in the essay is well represented on the Blue Paper FaceBook page…Wow!
It seems to me that underlying all of the refusal to accept that black people did and do indeed play a role in the enslavement and maltreatment of their brothers and sisters, is a true white racist mindset which believes that the white race is inherently more intelligent and therefore better…Alex.
What you are basically saying when you deny their responsibility is that they were and are too stupid to understand the consequences of their actions. That they are like little children who need their adult white parents to take care of them.
When humanity as a whole…every man and woman of every race, nationality and color starts taking responsibility for their actions and stops believing the lies of authority, religion, money, feminism…we might have a chance. When everyone understands who and what our true enemy is and thwarts it at every turn…we might have a chance. Denying responsibility isn’t going solve diddly.
I would appreciate your thoughts on this Alex or anyone…let me know if my thoughts don’t add up please.
Sucks to have to beg for dialog…oh well.
Sister, It is not a question of being “stupid”, it is a question of not having access to a proper intellectual formation, something most people suffer from in the lower stratas of any society. Other than to say you should read my next entry in this publication, coming out this Friday, I’ll stop right there.
jg its really surprising what a letter or two can do to the definition/meaning of a word but it does not alter the reality of a spelling just as your barb of so called ‘talking points of the conservative voice’ alters not reality also.
my occasional response is made with no intent in changing anyone’s mind since I am not my brother’s keeper unless slavery is again in vogue and I opted to overlook the memo!
the choice in this life is always individualism vs collectivism and I choose to be an individual always.
as for ‘agree or disagree with your essays’ I thought I was commenting on another authors essay unless its also your pen name?
if so my original question still has not been answered. 🙂
To be clear, I don’t believe black people are inherently stupid. I’m not buying your premise that black people in this country have less access to “intellectual formation”. I would think that “intellectual formation” begins at home at a very early age. Thus once again you make an excuse for them by calling them stupid. You are a true white racist.
Sister, Think of what you are saying … if you don’t accept some form of environmental factor in the formation of a human being, and certain communities in our social fabric have wallowed in inferior positions for generations, then you must be saying that they are PHYSIOLOGICALLY inferior. There is no other explanation.
I don’t believe they are inferior at all.
I believe their communities have been systematically targeted by the elite oligarchs by way of the cia/drug war, cia/feminism and de-segregation to keep them from uniting and working together to grow and prosper within their own communities. They need to wake up and take back their power as we all do.
What makes you feel so superior Jerome?