Racism

Racism has never left this nation, the power it had before the signing of the Civil Rights Act slithered into the dark recesses of society waiting to once more profane society with its dogmatic perspective. It lurked in the darkness waiting for someone to infuse it back into the mainstream of our society.

During the presidential campaign, we sniffed in the air rhetoric that sounded familiar but many of us shook our collective heads saying no, this is the 21^st century; we are misconstruing what we hear. Upon the election of the first African-American president, the euphoria for many of us was mind-boggling, we assumed we had cleared a most negative reflection of our nation but we were wrong. The poisonous and insidious words started with an egregious remark by Rush Limbaugh “wishing that Obama fails” before Barack Obama took the oath of office. The president and the rest of us soon realized the stench we smelled in the air was indeed the foul stench of racism. Its purpose is dichotomy; to divide until its putrid stench is within every nook and cranny of society.

There are some among the citizenry who have valid misconceptions due to what they were taught as children and what permeates from the dark underbelly of hatred. The hatemongers within this nation have used the misconceptions to make generalized statements thus compounding the fears of those who are ignorant to the truth. Those who started the first established government within this nation realized that slaves were indeed human beings, not human chattels, this is why in the creation of The Constitution, Amendment XIII, “Abolition of slavery”, states, “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” In Amendment XV, it states, “The rights of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” Although these hatemongers love to cling to The Constitution, they refuse to acknowledge the fact that the heritage of slavery is just that, a heritage. It should not be assumed that the descendants of former slaves are less than another human being or another race. Thomas Jefferson recognized this when he wrote in The Declaration of Independence, “We hold these truths to be self evident that ALL men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights.”[1] What many may not be aware of is the fact that he got the idea of this from The Virginia Declaration of Rights written by George Mason that states in Section 1, “That all men are by nature equally free and independent and have certain inherent rights.”[2] One cannot hold against another the ugliness of their history without acknowledging their own.

As a nation of “alleged” Christians, racism should have no place among our midst. The duplicitous act of the person who shared the edited tape of Mrs. Sherrod, saying his name gives him more credibility than he deserves, should really be an invitation for each and every citizen to examine themselves before they dare scrutinize another. “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the same measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”[3] This incident, albeit unfortunate, has a silver lining if we are willing to look deep within and realize, as Mrs. Sherrod did, “if you do a good job for others, you heal yourself at the same time, because a dose of joy is a spiritual cure.”[4]

Let us consider on how much better, how much stronger we could be as a nation if we reflected on these four truths. The first, “So GOD created man in His own image”[5]; the second “GOD is spirit and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth”[6]; the third “In truth, I perceive that GOD shows no partiality”[7]; and the fourth “We ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of GOD.”[8]

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[1] http://archives.gov/exhibits/charters/declaration.html

[2] http://archives.gov/exhibits/charters/virginia_declaration_of_rights.html

[3] Matthew 7: 1&2; New King James Version

[4] Dietrich Bonhoeffer, http://www.quoteworld.org/quotes/1665

[5] Genesis 1:27, New King James Version

[6] John 4:24, New King James Version

[7] Acts 10:34, New King James Version

[8] Romans 3:23, New King James Version

Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Since the start of this administration, the hatemongers have been working hard to cast their racism upon and into it. Racism is not the only foul stench emanating from these people who seem to have lost their collective minds, the hate literally has them foaming at the mouth.

The current political atmosphere reminds one of those early years on the playground with the bullies picking on the kids who could not or would not fight for themselves. These bullies were usually the “popular” kids, who thought the world revolved around them. As much as the former administration was disliked, no liberal interrupted President Bush as he spoke from the senate floor. No liberal was blatant enough to voice their hopes of President Bush’s failure even though many thought it. Racism, in and of itself, is a powerful weapon as it is fear based on myths; it is fear based on the unknown; it is fear based on misconceptions. Hate is also a powerful weapon but the root of hate is a nameless, mindless and careless entity bent on destruction. Hate has no sanity to it, no rationale. Hate does not care about the truth or the right and wrong of a thing, it is blind beyond anything the human mind can comprehend. So, when one combines racism and hate it is tantamount to a nuclear weapon. Once unleashed, the damage is devastating, the pain is deep, and the fallout is far-reaching and deadly.

During the campaign this pitifully rancid group, used his acquaintance with two persons who spoke against some of the policies of this nation, albeit one served this country not only in one branch of the military, but two. Last year when a renowned Black college professor was arrested due to mis-communications and over-reaction from those involved, our president entered the foray and spoke from the aspect of being a man of color. Although he brought the parties together for a beer in the garden to do some healing; the rabid dogmatic rants became frenzied and flurried attacks of racism against Mr. Obama. In the arena of race-baiting, this administration is being controlled in a similar fashion to how Pavlov trained the dogs. Last year, Van Jones fell victim and resigned due to the shenanigans of this rancid group of citizens and they have done it again. President Obama is once again between a rock and a hard place. Andrew Breitbart, who assisted in the de-mantling of the group ACORN, has caused an older Black woman, Shirley Sherrod, to lose her job under the guise of “evening the charge of the NAACP that there is racism within the Tea Party movement”. Mr. Breitbart posted an edited clip of Mrs. Sherrod and by her own words it could lead one to assume that she practiced racism. The edited clip started the political and media firestorm that caused the Department of Agriculture to fire Mrs. Sherrod. The responsible thing would have and should have been to view the entire content of the clip, which addresses healing, before making any hasty decisions, but if there had been hesitation, this rancid group and their supporters would have felt smug in their vitriolic rants that President Obama is a racist. An interesting thing is during the Bush administration; Karl Rove kept his job despite the many calls from liberals for his removal. The only person to leave under pressure was former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, and that occurred after a few years.

The most pitiful thing in all of this is the fact that this rancid group claims a religion that advocates peace, loving one’s neighbors and enemies, and doing what is right for the least. To be angry with or even hate this group is a waste of emotion. They do not realize that they are doing more harm than good, re-opening the wounds of this country, that although not completely healed, the scab was forming. If they truly followed their religion, they would know that the religion is about unity not division. This rancid group’s behavior is visceral and they are unraveling the great strides this country has achieved for cohesiveness. With their conduct, what they fail to realize is that, “It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves”.[1]

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[1] Edmund Hillary ThinkExist.com Quotations Online 1 Jun. 2010. 21 Jul. 2010

Accountability

Accountability, a word that many within our society, across the board, no biases here, has lost grasp of and its definition. It is 19 July 2010 and it is a little after 10 a.m. as I am sitting here listening to Majic 102.3 FM. As I am not privy to the precise topic, I can only assume from the response of the callers as they were discussing how children are mis-behaving and babies having babies and not knowing how to be a parent. Okay, I understand that, but I also understand that there are adults in that child’s life. Where on earth are the parent(s) and grandparents? Where are the fathers, as we know that many of them run quickly the other way once that female becomes pregnant? Look at what K-Fed did to his babies’ mother, Shar Jackson. She was pregnant with his child, the second or third, he hooks up with Britney Spears. First of all, what kind of male was he to do that and what kind of female was Britney to accept him abandoning his first set of kids? (That’s another article). Where on earth are the churches? No one is doing what they are supposed to. Parents teach your children, it should not matter whether or not you are a single parent, it is doable. Church folks, get out of the cozy confines of your churches and do what you were called to do, to help the weakest of our society. Or are you forgetting, “We then who are strong ought to bear with the scruples of the weak and not to please ourselves”?[1] It never fails to boggle my brain when something devastating happens and family members are interviewed saying, “so and so was a good person, they just needed help”, okay, so as family where were any of you? Too busy living your lives to notice a problem until it is too late. Alleged Black leaders, stop hawking for the spotlight and start fighting for your communities as the fight is not over, or don’t you see that? Just because there are far more middle-class Black families does not negate the fact that in parts of the Deep South, they live in squalor. In the urban communities, the education is sorely lacking. Where is the accountability?

Earlier this morning, I listened to Don Lemon of CNN News question a Black male who runs some branch of the Tea Party Movement who stated, “the letter Mark Williams posted on his blog was offensive but not racist”. Are you kidding me? First of all, as a Black person, I have never and will never understand how any person of African heritage can align themselves with persons who clearly would prefer to be living way back when the Black race was subservient. No matter one’s political stance, unless one is racist, practicing reverse racism or just will not acknowledge it, the letter was beyond offensive. It was derogatory in every sense of the word especially as Williams cast himself as a person of color writing this letter to President Lincoln. Those within the GOP have been accommodating such behavior only to garner votes or are they acquiescing? Remember, GOP is the acronym for Grand Ole Party, which smacks of the deep, dark days of the South to me. Where is the accountability?

We live in a society where few want to be accountable but our current president does. How many times has he stated that he takes full responsibility for a problem that a cabinet member may have fumbled? He does not nor should he take responsibility for our current economic crisis which originated within the Bush administration, this woe is accountable to them and those who profited from the tax breaks, lack of regulations, and back room deals. Everyone has an excuse but enough is enough. We can run away from facing our issues or our actions but know that on Judgment Day, there is no running. No one can escape that day, so fool yourselves if you choose; you do so at your own peril.

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[1] Romans 15:1

Crystal Clear

By no means of any stretch of the imagination am I a fan of Glenn Beck. His words are vile and void of common sense but he made a statement that I would like to address. Watching Keith Olbermann last night, 7/15/2010, Keith informed the viewing audience that the “Beckster” had made one of his nauseating comments, but when it was shared, I felt this issue needed to be addressed. The comment was “that the Jews killed Jesus Christ”. It was not the Jewish nation of a whole but their equivalent to our current day GOP/Teabaggers and I have scripture to support my statements.

While the Romans carried out the actual execution, what did they have to gain from it? This Man was no threat to the Roman Empire, as He was not a warmonger, He was peaceful. It was the Jewish hierarchy of religious and political leaders who plotted how to take Him down, “then the chief priests, the scribes, and the elders of the people assembled and plotted to take Jesus by trickery and kill Him”.[1] It was this group of leaders, who at every possible moment questioned Jesus' authority, being envious of the knowledge He had and shared with the people. After all, they were learned men and He was a carpenter, what could He know more than they who went to school and were learned in the Law of Moses? Pontius Pilate even asked them, what had Jesus done to deserve death, “for he knew that the chief priests had handed Him over because of envy”.[2] It was these leaders who, according to the Roman custom where one person could be exonerated, encouraged the crowd to request the release of a known convict, Barabbas[3]. Okay, so where in any of this are they innocent? In our judicial system it would be seen as premeditated murder and the conspirator is just as guilty as the one who committed the actual act. These leaders and the people in the courtyard went so far to declare, “His blood be on us and on our children”.[4] I will reiterate that Jesus challenged the authority of the religious leaders in His knowledge of the Law and told them the truth about themselves, “I know that you are Abraham’s descendants, but you seek to kill Me because My word has no place in you”.[5] He was not having a discussion with the Romans when He made this comment as Romans are not descendants of Abraham. What was that He said to them? That they sought to kill Him and that was not the first time.[6]

Sometimes the truth can come from an unlikely source and one does not have to agree with the source, however, the truth can never be changed no matter how much one may desire to do so. Biblical truth cannot be modified nor adapted to appease anyone; left, right, liberals, conservatives, Teabaggers, Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, and so on. The truth of it is that Jesus had a mission, which was executed according to the will of GOD. It does not matter who is offended. As one reads the four Gospels, you will see that Jesus pissed off those in religious power quite often and rightly so, as they were smug individuals flexing both their political and religious muscles, not unlike the modern day GOP/Teabaggers. The truth can be quite ugly especially if it reminds us of a deed best forgotten. I am by no means anti-Semite, I observe and address from my perspective. I will close with a quote from Wolfgang Borchert, a German author and playwright and the quote states, “Truth is like the town whore. Everybody knows her, but nonetheless, it’s embarrassing to meet her on the street”.

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[1] Matt. 26:1-5

[2] Mark 15:10

[3] Matt. 27:17; Mark 15:6-15; Luke 23:13-25; John 18:39 -40

[4] Matt. 27:25

[5] John 8: 37-47

[6] John 11:45-57