I can't even finish a blog posting.
It's become impossible to spend more than one day on a single thought. There's so much stupid stuff happening each day that I don't have time to even react to it all...
After every note-to-self I've written, every paragraph or page I've attempted to draft...
...every point I've attempted to make clearly and precisely...
...every emotion from anger and frustration to amusement and befuddlement...
...and now I sit here... and I'm tired.
I'm tired of crafting.
I'm tired of precision.
...I've gotta do this one the right way.
Marcus Garvey, I would believe in reincarnation if it brought you back right now.
Malcolm X, I would take a loaded shotgun's fury for you to be standing here today.
Integration, if we had known you to be such a backstabbing, confoundedly evil, mistress-of-a-dream, we would've stayed back at home with our slave master, Segregation. At least he united us, called us what he thought we were, and let us decide who we were to ourselves.
And the frustrating thing is... I don't feel any animosity towards
any particular person! There's nothing more liberating than focused anger. Having a passionate angst against another person who you feel has done you wrong is almost a necessary portion of our carnal nature. But I don't even have the opportunity--the privilege--to feel that way.
And if you didn't figure it all out from the Marcus Garvey reference, and if you
still were left blind after the Malcolm X reference... then let me make my point clearly...
...I will never use the phrase "White America" again, because in my sight, "White" and "America" are founded on two directly opposing convictions.
This is not hate speech... no, my friend, this is
reality. I'm not saying that white people are evil. I'm saying that there are two opposing rules of thought WITHIN the white community. There are those who think "White," and there are those who think "American."
What do I think it means to think "American?" It is to have a global mindset. It is to know first, then to judge second, then to act last (you know, the opposite of our Administration's strategy in our occupation and infiltration of Iraq-- and soon Iran). It is to value people who think nothing like us and make progressive thought a group effort, not an activity exclusive to believers of one faith, race, or skin tone.
People who think "White" are those who are convinced that OJ Simpson should still be in the news, and that our goal should be to catch him and punish him for his alleged crime. They say that it's not about race or even about status, but about justice, that the news and the anger has followed this case longer than any not involving a murdered notary figure or president in this country's history.
This also tends to be the type of people who hate when race is brought up as a subtext of society, who say that black people are "playing the 'race card'" whenever they bring it up.
I'll address that lunacy later, but for now let me stay to the point. What is further ironic is that these are the
SAME people who seem to somehow have forgotten that good 'ol
Robert Blake, a former actor, like OJ, was also acquitted of murdering his wife even after a hit man testified that Blake attempted to pay HIM to kill her. After he got acquitted, just like OJ, he was wrung dry in a huge civil case in which
the jury found him liable for the wrongful death of his wife and ordered him to pay $30 million... LIKE OJ. Could this case be any more similar? Yeah, that is until you get to the ending... according to Wikipedia, "White" thinkers don't seem to be too worried about this guy anymore:
Following filing for bankruptcy, Blake has gotten a job as a ranch hand. He has moved into a small apartment and hopes to return to acting. His young daughter, Rosie, has been adopted by his older daughter.
Now that we're on ironic discrepancies of "White" thought... let's talk about that "RACE CARD."
"Playing the race card" was already a dumb phrase, and now it's become an overused and misused phrase to go along with it.
I was in the car today and I heard some "White" thinking ESPN radio guy saying that "Donovan McNabb played the race card today." What Donovan actually said was that black quarterbacks have to deal with more criticism than white quarterbacks. It was a matter of opinion, and was never meant to be a divisive point, or even an excuse for his past failures.
So why does the media see it as a "race card?"
Because "White"-thinking people, by their nature, are majority-thinkers. They never have had a reason to think of how other people see things, so they've never questioned their own process of thought.
If they ever
were to do that, they would discover that playing the race card has nothing to do with discussions of race. It has to do with using race as a pass, or as an escape from responsibility or threat.
I do feel that black people aren't always responsible in the way we handle issues of race. Because of our spotty history of race relations, no Americans should ever USE race for anything. Instead, race should only be DISCUSSED.
So when people say that Barry Bonds is only hated because he's black? I don't support them.
But when people say "Hey, Belichick's cheating... Bonds is cheating... why does America embrace one and loathe the other?" I sit down and I take part in that discussion. And MAYBE... just MAYBE... in taking part in that discussion we could reach an understanding of each other that could bring two divergent worlds of thought together.
The problem is, as long as "White" thinkers see the first point and the second point to be the same, race relations will be stunted and ready to boil over any time a situation arises involving persons from any other culture.
And for the record, African Americans are not all in line with this level of thought either. We tend to be as if not more judgmental and stereotyping than "White" thinkers when it comes to other races. We embrace that thought process in basically everything it believes--and then complain about how it portrays
us. It is not at all my hypothesis that we need to think "Black." If we all were as "American" as we say we are-- just as Christians should be as "Christ-like" as we say we are--then involuntary prosperity would occur.
I just don't know about this country. Have you ever wondered how Romeo & Juliet would've been if they had never killed themselves, but instead had run away together, forcing their families into a non-consensual truce? I imagine it would create the tense racial situation that is the 21st Century American reality. We talked about unity while we were divided, but once we got together it was nothing more than a truce. And every time a "White" thinker and a "Black" thinker share their thoughts about race, and directly or indirectly about the
other race, the so-called truce we are under is compromised.
Quite frankly, the Imuses can have THIS America. The Michael Richards can HAVE this America. The weekly persecutors of Jemele Hill's comments section can HAVE this America. The Barry Bonds haters who sympathize with the Patriot's Commander-in-Cheat can HAVE this America. And for the last time...ANYONE who still thinks OJ is newsworthy can not only HAVE this America...they can have it all to themselves.
'Cause whether I pull a Marcus or a Malcolm, my home won't be in walking distance from this embarrassment of a culture, where unity is partisan, the majority crushes the minority, and segregation can be looked back at as a hey-day for people of all races.
In this culture, I guess the only thing that's truly progressive... is ignorance.
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