Tag Archives: Race
We’ve Seen This Political Dance Before: Why The Shift from Biden to Bloomberg Says So Much About Inept Black Political Leaders
Maybe it is God’s fault for making Blacks the way that they seemingly are. Meaning the propensity to be so eager to forgive any non-Black person who issues half-hearted insincere requests for forgiveness. On second thought it could be Black parents who should be blamed for not developing a semblance of common sense in their offspring. Better yet, it may be the school system that shoulders the brunt for Black America’s on-going failure to recognize their collective interests, develop a plan, and then execute the plan. Regardless of where the blame should be placed, I am sure that we agree that there is something wrong in regards to how Blacks deal with what can only be termed the commonsense political matters.
Evidence of Black America’s penchant for forgiving political figures who dedicated significant portions of their public life rallying the White community to aid in their efforts to further oppress their darker brothers and sisters abound. The latest example of what can be best termed Black America’s political stupidity is found in their escalating support of former New York City Mayor Michael “Stop and Frisk” Bloomberg.
Black America’s affinity for White political leaders who led the charge to harm them may be the lynchpin that activates Black political support. Could it be that the reason Black political leaders have advised their constituents to shift their support from Joe “Crime Bill” Biden to Michael “stop and frisk” Bloomberg is a subconscious, yet omnipresent self-hatred referenced by Black psychologists Kenneth and Mamie Clark’s “Black and White baby doll test?” When one considers the illogical decision-making of Black political leaders, questions regarding pervasive self-hatred are rather reasonable. Put simply; does the self-hatred of Black America run that deep?
I honestly thought it a joke when I heard that Black political and civic leaders in Houston, Texas were orchestrating a political rally called “Mike for Blacks” in support of “Frisky” Michael Bloomberg. After a moment of incredulous laughter, I realized that the alluded to event is what I have come to expect from a Black political leadership cadre perched between the lack of wisdom and political strategy. If nothing else, the alluded to leaders have proven consistent in their ability to fumble political opportunities.
Nevertheless, here we are AGAIN, witnessing self-appointed and White endorsed Black political leaders shifting their political allegiance from Joe Biden, the architect of a draconian crime bill that disrupted Black America in untold ways, to Michael Bloomberg, a man whose policies reveals a segregationist heart that reminds one of Strom Thurmond and Bull Connor. Although unfashionable to state, Joe Biden’s Crime Bill and Michael Bloomberg’s rationale and execution of his “stop and frisk” policy would be applauded by ardent segregationists of yesteryear and even today. Let me be clear on this matter, Michael Bloomberg, Black leaders political darling of the moment, was a key cog in the building, maintaining, and executing of institutional racism throughout New York City.
It is time that Black America wakes up and realizes that the thoughts, viewpoints, and activities that Michael “stop and frisk” Bloomberg executed as Mayor New York City represent his true identity and only a fool will believe that his public affinity for Blacks is anything other than a ploy to secure the crucial Black vote in his pursuit of the Democratic Party nomination. In many ways, it is criminal for Black leaders to convince naïve trusting constituents that Michael Bloomberg has had a “come to Jesus” moment that turned his heart of stone into one of flesh when it comes to Blacks.
As mentioned earlier, I am unsure of who to blame for the continuing existence of an uninformed Black electorate whose political expectations are not met by the rewards they have historically received for their crucial support. There is no room to argue against the assertion that the tradition of Black elected officials being installed for decades to serve as modern-day members of the know nothing and do- nothing party serves as a prerequisite to Blacks pervasive pessimism regarding the political process.
I am sure that you understand my hesitation to term the current Black political economy as an occurrence of “plantation politics”; I have no choice considering the evidence. There is no doubt that an uninformed Black populace has placed their votes in the pockets of opportunistic leaders whose most meaningful actions are the trading of those precious votes for a personal favor.
Black America’s never-ending “have not” status leaves one to deduce that Black leaders are some combination of grossly inept in their dealings with powerful Whites and sly like foxes in their dealings with uninformed, yet very trusting Black voters. This wicked formula invariably results in a continuation of Black misery and suffering of Black men, women, children, and babies. And as you well know, when mired in such a terrible situation the question of whose fault it is, finds itself a distant second to how do we get out of this situation. One thing is for certain, the solution to Black America’s problems will not be provided by inept political leaders who seemingly have made the alluded to suffering secondary to their opening of increasing their personal situation.
What a shame!!!!!!
Dr. James Thomas Jones III
© Manhood, Race, and Culture 2020.
I thank you and appreciate you visiting Manhood, Race, and Culture.
If you enjoy the content that you find here at Manhood, Race, and Culture.
It would be greatly appreciated if you would consider purchasing my book, “Foolish” Floyd: The Life & Times of an African-American Contrarian.
The Offensiveness of Color-Blindness in America
It is difficult to argue against the fact that those among us who insist that they “do not see color” are balanced between being well-meaning and naïve. My familiarity with such types is best expressed by an unemotional reaction to their pleadings for me to join the ranks of the historically illiterate.
Despite what the “color-blind brigade” believes, I understand that their emotional state vacillates between moments of frustration and uncontrollable white-rage. This matter is at the forefront of my mind due to a recent Facebook posting from what appears to be a well-meaning White lady who insists that she “does not see color.”
As stated above, I understand that her passion flows from a desperate desire to see all of her countrymen living in harmony. However, she fails to comprehend a fact provided by a former student who posited that “America will never get past Race. It is who we are. So how can we ever get past it?”
Although I agreed with my student’s assertion that impressively echoes W.E.B. DuBois’ ominous warning that “the color line will be the problem of the twentieth century,” I realized that the source of this post vehemently disagrees with such sensibility.
Experience has taught me that the “color-blind brigade” wishes for a simpler time that never existed. A cursory examination of their beliefs reveals that “We never were what they thought we used to be.” Many of their numbers have foolishly advanced the assertion that “If we stopped talking about Race it would simply go away!!!!!”
I can only imagine that if my exchange with the lady who created the alluded to post were in-person and not via social media that she would scream that “I don’t see color!!!!! I only see human beings” to my face.
I’m convinced that the color-blind argument, albeit well-meaning, primarily results from what can only be termed a loose use of language. Put simply; these people do not realize what they are actually saying in their fits of rage. If provided the opportunity to meet with representatives of the “color-blind brigade”, I would ask them to provide a description of me. I am certain that they would avoid physical descriptors such as my status as an African-American male.
What members of the “color-blind brigade” fail to consider is that their steadfast denial of physical traits is not complementary to those they are seeking to aid in their color-blindness. It is extremely insulting. They are in effect saying that they must deny a portion of my being to accept me or you. If provided the opportunity, I would advise the “color-blind brigade” to abandon their standard phraseology in favor of the following.
“I recognize your racial identity; however, I do not ascribe any negative characteristics to you because of it.”
Trust me when I say that this slight verbal alteration will make a major difference to all and hopefully open a long-overdue dialogue about Race in America.
Dr. James Thomas Jones III
© Manhood, Race, and Culture, 2020.
I thank you and appreciate you visiting Manhood, Race, and Culture.
If you enjoy the content that you find here at Manhood, Race, and Culture.
It would be greatly appreciated if you would consider purchasing my book, “Foolish” Floyd: The Life & Times of an African-American Contrarian.https://www.amazon.com/Foolish-Floyd-Life-African-American-Contrarian/dp/0692661107
When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong: Why Someone Needs to Come and Get Susan “Ride or Die” Rice Immediately
Years ago, famed comedian Dave Chapelle blessed the world with a skit titled “When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong.” Those who remember the skit will tell you that it was various scenarios where some people decided that they would no longer stand for some injustice and decided to intercede as if provided superhero powers that allowed for them to prevent an injustice from occurring. These moments of intrusion never, and I do mean NEVER, turned out positively. I fear that we are on the verge of seeing an actual occurrence of “When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong” featuring former U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice. Yes, that Susan Rice.
Just in case you missed the ridiculous events that led us to Susan Rice’s debut as a “ride or die chick” for Gayle King, I will seek to quickly rehash how we have arrived at this moment.
- During an interview with WNBA Superstar Lisa Leslie, Gayle King engaged in a line of questioning that many supporters of the recently deceased Kobe Bryant found offensive.
- Segments of Black America have taken both Gayle King and Oprah Winfrey to task for their seeming penchant to lambaste Black men while not offering a humbling word regarding the actions of White males that they have dealings with.
- Snoop Dogg issued an angry video taking Gayle King to task for seeking to harm Kobe Bryant’s legacy.
- Susan Rice took to the internet to issue a warning shot at Snoop Dogg that he needs to immediately “back the FUCK off. You come for @GayleKing, you come against an army. You will lose, and it won’t be pretty.”
I am certain that the vast majority of Blacks are shocked that Susan Rice, Obama’s former National Security Advisor, is behaving as if she is a hood bred “ride or die chick” from either Compton (CA), South Park (TX), Oak Cliff (TX), Chicago (IL) or Brownsville (NY).
There is a portion of me that is unsurprised by Rice’s antics as her type, meaning economically privileged, formally educated, and well-connected politically, harbor an inner-thug that they are just waiting to release into the atmosphere. For the sake of clarity, I must state that the alluded to urge is no different than the one harbored by Irish men who “blackened up” before going on stage to mimic the dance and verse of Blacks they abhorred. Just as such performances were a release for noted performers minstrel Al Jolson and T.D. Rice, Susan Rice’s outburst allows for her to behave as if she has “hood credibility.” I pray for her safety and the safety of those she loves that someone comes and gets her and makes her sit down and shut the heck up.
The mere fact that Rice has stepped to Snoop Dogg in such a public manner is an obvious sign that she does not really comprehend the world of West Coast gang violence. A world where loyalty is routinely expressed via unspecified horrific violence. According to dear friend Tiffany Thompson, an L.A. native, “Y’all have no idea of the politics behind or the dangers inherent in the world of L.A. gangs. It is best to ignore such matters if you are not well-versed in them.”
I am certain that Susan Rice’s knee-jerk reaction to become that “ride or die chick” for Gayle King was purely emotional and encouraged by her belief that the “street people” which populate this world will never be able to touch her. Such thinking is the height of foolishness and unwise as it conveys the classic mistake of underestimating your enemy — an enemy that Rice unwisely created from a situation that had nothing to do with her.
Susan Rice and those around her have no comprehension that deep within the alluded to world are individuals whose primary aspiration is to “earn a rep” among those that they revere. If Susan Rice understood anything regarding this world, she would have understood what Snoop was implying with his warning to Gayle King of “before we come get you.” Snoop’s words are a harbinger of evil things that may emanate from some unknown person directed at either Rice or one of her loved ones. Susan Rice apparently does not understand that fame, fortune, or a security detail are effective deterrents to the implied violence.
It is for these reasons that I hope someone comes and gets Susan “Ride or Die” Rice and makes her shut-up and sit her narrow butt down. This fight is not hers and she should not be seeking to make it hers. Maybe someone should sit her down and force her to watch Dave Chappelle’s infamous skit of “When Keeping It Real Goes Wrong” and explains to her that if she continues to stick her nose in a world that she neither belongs nor knows anything about, she will reap a harvest that she did not even realize that she planted.
Trust me when I say that this comes from the best place that you could imagine, however, I must implore Susan Rice to Shut up, Susan. Please, shut up!!!!!! You know not what you are doing.
Dr. James Thomas Jones III
© Manhood, Race, and Culture 2020.
I thank you and appreciate you visiting Manhood, Race, and Culture.
If you enjoy the content that you find here at Manhood, Race, and Culture.
It would be greatly appreciated if you would consider purchasing my book, Foolish Floyd: The Life & Times of an African-American Contrarian.
MLK and Black Power
There is no sensible argument that can be made to counter W.E.B. Du Bois’ statement that “the problem of the 20th Century will be the color line.” If any criticism can be hurled at this Duboisian prophecy it is that it ends too soon and should have been extended far into the new millennium.
For many of our countrymen, it is Race that remains their rallying point. Even when aware of how variables such as class, gender, and sexual identity impact their lives, it is Race whose reign resembles that of King Cotton during this nation’s period of chattel slavery. Considering the centrality of Race in American lives, a reasonable argument could be made that there is no more frightening combination of words in the English language than “Black Power”. Above all other word combinations, Black Power and the philosophies flowing from it have proven to be reliable rallying points for those who support the concept as well as those that oppose even the mention of such matters. I am sure that you can imagine the polarization that occurred during the highly contentious identity politic driven 1960s when SNCC worker Willie (Mukasa) Ricks changed the ideological trajectory of the fight for racial equality in Greenwood, Mississippi when he taught sharecroppers “Black Power” slogans instead of the standard call for “Freedom Now”.
This moment was so impactful on the movement that not even movement patriarch Martin Luther King (MLK) Jr., was able to ignore its arrival.
The debut of “Black Power” slogans stoked increasingly paranoid Whites’ fears of roving revenge-minded attacks by young Blacks. This moment tells us far more about the psyche of Whites in this nation than it says about angry Blacks who have rarely responded to centuries of exploitation, denigration, and marginalization at the hands of an oppressor with organized counter-attacks. Most agree that when White America’s fears were heightened, it was MLK’s advocacy of non-violent civil disobedience that provided significant psychological comfort to White’s who were bracing for the arrival of vengeful blood-thirsty Black Powerites desirous of revenge for past transgressions.
It would not be a stretch to argue that in the paranoid mind of many Whites, MLK was needed to control “irrational blacks” who refused to accept their second-class citizenship status. King’s utility grew in the mind of White America every time a media outlet juxtaposed King against Malcolm X or some other expression of Black Power politics. Many Whites, and a few Blacks, naively considered MLK as a necessary evil capable of quelling Black Powerites.
Considering this nation’s penchant for displaying episodes of dementia regarding matters of Black liberation, I will take a moment to define what Black Powerites were seeking to convey during their calls for “Black Power.” The most accepted definition of “Black Power” during the volatile 1960s is provided by Charles V. Hamilton and Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) leader Stokely Carmichael (Kwame Ture). According to Hamilton and Carmichael,
Black power is concerned with organizing the rage of black people.…Black power (1) deals with the obviously growing alienation of black people and their distrust of the institutions of this society; (2) works to create new values and to build a new sense of community and of belonging; and (3) works to establish legitimate new institutions that make participants, not recipients, out of a people traditionally excluded from the fundamentally racist processes of this country.[i]
The concept of Black Power rests on a fundamental premise. Before a group can enter the open society, it must first close ranks. By this, we mean group solidarity is necessary before a group can operate effectively from a bargaining position of strength in a pluralistic society. Traditionally, each new ethnic group in this society has found the route to social and political viability through the organization of its own institutions with which to represent its needs within the larger society . . . the American melting pot has not melted. Italians vote for Rubino over O’Brien; Irish for Murphy over Goldberg, etc.[ii]
Over a half-century after its creation, this definition remains relevant as it still reflects the political realities facing a politically powerless and economically marginalized Black America.
The arrival of “Black Power” politics into the volatile 60s political economy was so significant that MLK realized that ignoring the matter was an incorrect action. Many would-be shocked to learn that the integrationist-minded “Prince of Peace” offered limited support for “Black Power” politics. According to Dr. King,
[t]here is nothing essentially wrong with power. The problem is that inAmerica power is unequally distributed. This has led Negro Americans in the past to seek their goals through love and moral suasion devoid of power and white Americans to seek their goals through power devoid of love and conscience…. [I]t is precisely this collision of immoral power with powerless morality which constitutes the major crisis of our times.[iii]
{Black Power activists} must use every constructive means to amass economic and political power. This is the kind of legitimated power we need. We must work to build racial pride and refute the notion black is evil and ugly. But this must come through a program, not merely through a slogan…The words ‘black’ and ‘power’ together give the impression that we are talking about black domination rather than black equality.[iv]
Black Power is a call for the pooling of black financial resources to achieve economic security.… Through the pooling of such resources and the development of habits of thrift and techniques of wise investment, the Negro will be doing his share to grapple with his problem of economic deprivation. If Black Power means the development of this kind of strength within the Negro community, then it is a quest for basic, necessary, legitimate power.[v]
Attempts to ignore MLK’s ideological maturation after the “March on Washington” dooms them to a limited understanding of both the Civil Rights patriarch and the larger struggle for “the liberation and salvation of the Black nation.”
Dr. King’s always evolving political priorities have created “blind spots” for supporters and critics of one of the most important figures of Black America’s twentieth-century struggle for first-class citizenship. If nothing else, this moment serves as definitive proof of our collective need to study, study, and study some more. Failure to do so guarantees our inability to understand a past that serves as the foundation for a present that has yet to correct the misunderstood past.
Dr. James Thomas Jones III
© Manhood, Race, and Culture 2020.
I thank you and appreciate you visiting Manhood, Race, and Culture.
If you enjoy the content that you find here at Manhood, Race, and Culture.
It would be greatly appreciated if you would consider purchasing one of the following books.
- “Foolish” Floyd: The Life & Times of an African-American Contrarian. https://www.amazon.com/Foolish-Floyd-Life-African-American-Contrarian/dp/0692661107