it's when the champagne is gone, and the music ends,
that true friendship begins.
It's when times are gloomy and the party is over, when one truly needs a friend, and at times like those you can always depend on my friendship kickin' in. Friendship represents the meeting of two souls, entwined in a comfortable embrace; Not merely sensual, but warm like family, in this cruel and unfriendly place. Friends validate their own existence, lending independence to the soul; They slay their dragons from a warm cocoon, with a kindred spirit to console. Friendship, like a poem, is the sweet breath of God, as he sings to a loved one's ear; A love song scored by a master, but not always for the masses to hear. So, sincere of heart I sing my song to one so warm and dear; Your smile is a treasured work of art, and its essence
will always keep me near.
Eric L. Watttree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.
America’s Biggest Problem - A Greedy, Self-Serving, and Unpatriotic Congress
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People used to run for congress in order to serve the nation. But that no longer seems to be the case. Today, far too many people run for congress in order to gain influence and seek personal fortune. While many may be willing to throw a bone to the American people on occasion, they’ll only do so if they can do it without hurting themselves, and always with an eye towards how the gesture will benefit them in the next election.
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Due to our apathy and ever increasing ignorance of the political process, the American people have presided over the birth of a monster - an entrenched political class whose interests are more aligned with those who seek to exploit us than they are the people they’re elected to represent. In addition, we’ve allowed them to solidify their control over the system through gerrymandering, or realigning, their districts in such a way that it’s next to impossible to vote them out of office. As a result, the people we elect to office as our representatives - or, employees, as it were - have become our rulers. That’s not how this nation was designed to function.
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For the past thirty years, since the Reagan administration, this nation has been in the midst of a bloodless coup. The Republican Party’s intent is to reestablish a European-like caste system here in the United States, a social order that most of this nation’s founding fathers sought to avoid, and left Europe to escape.
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Alexander Hamilton, one of the premier founding fathers of the conservative movement, said the following:
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"All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and wellborn, the other the mass of the people.... The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right. Give therefore to the first class a distinct, permanent share in government. They will check the unsteadiness of the second, and as they cannot receive an advantage by a change, they therefore will ever maintain good government." Debates of the Federalist Convention (May 14-September 17, 1787).
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So there has always been a strain of thought in this country incline toward subjugating the poor and middle class. During the federalist convention there were many who advocated that only those with property should be allowed to vote. But the majority of the founding fathers opted for equal political, economic, social, and civil rights for all - with the notable exception of Black people and women, of course. That only came later, in theory.
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So why 226 years later do we find ourselves back to square one, and once again engaged in a class war? It’s simple - greed.
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As we’ve pointed out many times before, in the new global economy, American corporations are now forced to compete with countries that pay their workers less per week than many American workers spend on lunch per day. Thus, in order to maximize their profits, U.S. corporations now have a vested interest in lowering the standard of living of the American middle class.
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That is the corporate agenda, and therefore, the Republican agenda. It’s also what accounts for the brutal attack on both unions, and our educational system - they’re attacking unions to take away the voice of the middle-class worker, and they’re attacking our educational system so we’ll be too ill-informed to see through their convoluted pretext for cutting our throats.
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A prime example of that is how we’ve allowed the corporatists and their congressional henchmen to convince us to subsidize corporations and enrich the top 1% of the population through the destruction of unions, accepting lower wages, and supporting a trillion dollar tax cut under the pretext that the rich create jobs. That’s total and utter nonsense.
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No matter how big a tax break we give Schwinn, we’ll never be able to convince him to hire people to make bicycles that he can’t sell. While we commonly refer to “supply and demand,” in actuality, “demand” precedes “supply.” Thus, the only way that we can get Schwinn to hire employees is to create a demand for bicycles by putting enough money in the pockets of the poor and middle class where they can afford to buy bicycles for their kids.
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Therefore, jobs are actually created by the poor and middle class through the purchase of goods and services. And with every job created, it creates other supporting jobs. When Schwinn starts hiring people to make bicycles, others have to hire people to provide the steel and rubber used to make the bike, people have to be hired to produce, prepare, and serve the employees lunch, mechanics have to be hired to repair their vehicles so they can get to work, etc.
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So again, it’s the poor and middle class who create jobs. Clear evidence of that can be found in the fact that in spite of his huge tax cuts for the rich under George W. Bush, the country was hemorrhaging jobs at a rate of 800,000 jobs a month.
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The American people are supposed to have a built-in defense against this sort of deception through their elected representatives. But due to our apathy, naivete, the distractions of ESPN, BET, MTV, and the demagoguery and collusion of our non-elected “leaders,” we continue to re-elect self-serving demagogues that we’ve allowed to become so rich and spoiled that they’ve become a class in themselves - the political class.
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While the American people have been distracted by the hot pursuit of the American dream, the political class has been busy stealing that dream from right under our nose. According to a report by ABC News, “47% of Congress Members [are] Millionaires — a Status Shared by Only 1% of Americans.” And that’s with good reason.
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The median income of the average American is $32,140 a year. On the other hand, congress has raised its own salary from $98,400 a year in 1990, to currently, $174,000. That’s a $75,600 increase, or 57%. A rank-and-file member of congress makes $1596.33 a day, and it takes him or her only 20 days to make what the average American makes a year. In addition, over and above that, In January of 2009 - during the height of the Great Recession, and while many Americans were losing their jobs and homes - congress voted each member a $93,000 raise in “petty cash.”
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Now let’s take a look at their work schedule. In January of this year they worked 6 days in January, 14 days in February, and 13 days in March. The most days they’ve worked in any month this year was in February, in which they worked 14 days. So it’s no wonder that congress can’t identify with the American people - They’ve become a subset of the very class of people that we’ve elected them to protect us from. So in essence, we’ve elected the Mafia to defend us from crime.
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So it’s time for the American people to wake up, stop whining, and retake control of our government. The way we must go about that is to review the voting records of our elected officials and vote anyone out of office who’s giving the top 1% priority over the American people. In addition, we must pressure congress to bring their salary into conformity with that of the median income of the American people, and cap it at a given percentage above the minimum wage.
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We should also require congress to be in session, at least, 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, for 33 weeks a year, and 8 hours a day, 4 days a week for 12 weeks a year. And the salary of any legislator that’s not present should be docked. That will keep them in touch with the way the rest of America has to live.
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We should also force congress to pass a "Workers' Bill of Rights." If a corporation wants to do business in the United States, there should be a base set of rules that force them to act responsibly. One of those rules should be that the corporation must maintain a certain level of employment based on the profits they're drawing out of the U.S. Market.
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And finally, we must insist that congress adhere to the principles of democracy by getting rid of all internal rules, like the filibuster, that allows one, or a handful of individual legislators, to obstruct the majority.
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So, in spite of the heated rhetoric from Obama-haters on both ends of the political spectrum, congress, not the president, is without question the source of most of America's problems. Congress controls the money, and they can vote to overrule anything that the president does. On the other hand, congress can initiate and pass laws without the president, and if he vetoes the law, they can override his veto. So while congress is free to act unilaterally, the president is limited to the consent of congress.
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Thus, while everyone seems to want to point a finger at the president, we must always keep one thing in mind - the president can’t do a thing without congress' blessing. Most people are fully aware of that fundamental fact, but during these challenging times, we can't afford to make any assumptions.
Black Critics Need to Recognize That There Are Some Things That Obama Just Can’t Do - or is That Really the Problem?
. I'm not here to defend President Obama, because I don’t agree with everything he does, or fails to do, myself. But there are those in the Black community who need to come to terms with the fact that there are some things that even the president can’t do - and signing a bill abolishing ignorance is at the very top of that list. That's what it would take to accomplish some of the objectives that they're trying to force upon him. That’s also what lets me know that much of the ranting and raving of some of these so-called Black intellectuals are disingenuous at best, and blatant intraracial bigotry at worst.
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The president can’t just wave a magic wand and instantly make everyone upwardly mobile. It doesn’t work that way. There’s an educational process that goes along with upward mobility, and that goes for whether the person is Black, or White. While there are many in the Black community who have the skills to hit the ground running, there are others who need to be trained, motivated, and refocused in order to simply maintain a job that pays wages high enough to lift them out of poverty, even if it was given to them.
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So if these educators, intellectuals, and pundits were serious about their concern for the poor, instead of holding televised seminars and book signings, they’d be in the community with their sleeves up, helping to upgrade the skill sets of those who need it. That’s what Barack Obama did. As the first Black president of the Harvard Law Review, when Obama graduated from law school he could have gone to work as a law clerk for the Supreme Court, or pursued wealth by going into any one of the top law firms in the country. He could have also tried to make a name for himself by running all over the country selling books, doing lectures, and trying to sound profound. But he didn't do that. Instead, he quietly went back into the community and went to work helping people to get their heaters fixed. That's the way to show that you care. Words are meaningless. It's deeds that count.
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So for that reason - and yes, because he's a lone Black man struggling to carve out a new chapter in our history - I'll always give him the benefit of the doubt over lesser men who criticize him. No, he's not perfect, but neither am I - and neither was Washington, Jefferson, or Lincoln - but why does a Black man have to be perfect to be accepted as a man worthy of respect?
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Many of the very same Black "intellectuals" who can barely contain themselves today, just sat back and allowed Ronald Reagan, both Bushs, and the GOP in general, to cut our throats for the past 30 years with nothing more than a whimper in most cases, and a profound silence in others.
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So why do they now try to hold Barack Obama to a different standard than they hold other men? The sad truth is, America has conditioned them to view this Black man with a jaundiced eye. Their attitudes and motivations are exactly the same as with White racists - whenever a Black man demonstrates exceptional excellence, they see it as diminishing their own accomplishments. So the fact is, the very existence of Barack Obama represents an assault on their self-esteem, and it's killing them. He represents a pie in the face of their delusions of grandeur. I suspect President Obama knows this, but he's precluded from saying it, so I am.
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These critics didn’t lift a finger in the 2000 election when the Black community, and others, were literally disenfranchised to elect George W. Bush, and they were all but mute in the last election while, once again, the GOP passed laws all over the country in an attempt to obstruct the Black vote. Yet, after enduring all of that, just like their White racist counterparts, the mere idea of having a Black man living in the White House seems to be just more than they can stomach. From the way some of these people are screaming, you’d think someone appointed the Grand Dragon of the Klan to head the NAACP. No other group of people in the world suffers from that kind of stupidity, and that’s a much more serious problem in the Black community than anything that President Obama can possibly address.
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Surely these "intellectuals" have enough education to know that the United States Constitution states that the House of Representatives controls ALL spending, and they also know that the House of Representatives is controlled by the Republican Party. So exactly what do they expect President Obama to do other than what he is - trying to hold together a fragile coalition of Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, gays, women, the young, the old, etc., and design policies that are broad enough to help ALL of these groups in order to put enough pressure on congress to loosen the purse strings? These “public intellectuals” know that. Nevertheless, they continue to rant, rave, and insist that Obama attempt to play poker at a blackjack table.
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They should also know enough about history to remember what brought down the Civil Rights Movement. Many people don’t realize it, but Republican, Richard Nixon, helped to promote and signed important parts of Affirmation Action into effect - but he had his tongue firmly implanted in cheek as he was signing the memorandum. You see, he knew that many of the White folks who supported the civil rights movement and marched with Martin Luther King would have a change of heart once Black people started taking their jobs and replacing their children in college admissions across the country - and that’s exactly what happened.
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We made a huge mistake while formulating affirmative action legislation. We should have insisted that it be based on need rather than race. That way, Black people would have still been at the head of the line, but we wouldn’t have given the GOP the leverage to convince poor and middle-class White people that it was an assault on their rights.
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So shortly after it went into effect, White people started to protest, and hordes of formerly moderate White people raced over to the Republican Party. That ushered in the Ronald Reagan era, with his “trickle-down economics,” the assault on Fair Labor Standards Act, and the abolishment of the Fairness Doctrine. That , in turn, led directly to the rise of Rush Limbaugh, Fox News, the policies that led to the Wall Street collapse, and directly to the dire straits that we find ourselves in today.
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Yet, once again, many of these Black “intellectuals” are criticizing President Obama for having the good sense not to repeat history by refusing to throw his fist in the air. While they say it’s all about advocating against poverty, just like with White demagogues, they’re conflating the term “poverty” with race, in spite of the fact that they know full well that even the scent of racial politics is grist for the Republican mill. That's exactly why Obama has to avoid the issue, because the Republicans can use it to drum up support to block anything he tries to do for the people at all.
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So if these "intellectuals" were actually concerned about the best interest of the Black community, while President Obama is trying to navigate the Republican minefield they’d be in the community organizing, educating, and discussing what we can do to improve our own condition in the meantime. But of course, that's too much like real work.
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These people should be educating Black people to understand that more money passes through the Black community than through most countries, so we could create our own jobs. But we don't, and I’ll tell you why - because Black people are the product of the very same racist environment as White people, so we’re just as reluctant to patronize Black businesses as any Hillbilly. Unlike any other community in the world, we’d rather take our money and patronize other people - ANY other people - as long as they aren’t Black. That’s a hard pill to swallow, but it is, what it is.
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So our bigoted attitude towards other Black people is the primary reason why we’re lingering at the very bottom of the social and economic ladder - and it’s that very same bigotry that’s being reflected in the attitudes of Tavis Smiley, Cornel West, and others of their ilk, towards President Obama. Essentially, all they’re saying is, “Obama ain’t nobody - he’s just another nigga, just like you.”
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Think about it. Think about the kind of respect that these people afforded Bush and Cheney, and those two were trying to cut our throats - in fact, they did! But in spite of that, many of these Black critics limited their criticism to mumbling under their breath. But now, with Obama, they've pulled out their bullhorns. And Cornel West, in his typically attention-seeking fashion, has even resorted to playing the dozens - with THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES!!! That's not only highly disrespectful of the president, but in my opinion, speaks volumes regarding his lack of respect, and his arrogant disdain, for the Black community as a whole. But doesn't West love his people? Sure he does, just like a pimp loves his whoes.
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So it’s time for Black people to come to terms with our racist attitudes toward one another. If we’re going to hold a seminar on poverty, the major topic of discussion shouldn’t be Barack Obama, but why we’re so willing to pass by hundreds of Black businesses in the community to take our money to Walmart. Now, I’d be a hypocrite to say never shop at Walmart. I realize that sometimes our finances force us to deal with the Devil, but we should, at the very least, balance our spending. Because, until we come to terms with what is essentially a boycott of Black businesses, whining about high unemployment is silly.
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So, again, one of the many things that President Obama can’t do, is to sign a bill bestowing common sense upon the people. Learning to love and respect other Black people, and acting with common sense, are two things that no one else can give us.
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Your explanation for your comment that President Obama is a "Rockefeller Republican in blackface" is as lame and disingenuous a cop out as I've ever heard. You claimed that your critics are trivializing your comment by not getting to the core of your assertion, which was President Obama is a "Rockefeller Republican." Then YOU tried to trivialize the significance of the addendum, "in blackface," as though it was meaningless, by saying, "I have a black face, you have a black face, my mother has a black face," etc.
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Well, if you know that the phrase "in blackface" is going to distract from the core issue, why don't you stick to the core issue and stop adding such racially offensive language? Could it be for the publicity? I think it is, and your cavalier attitude in this matter speaks volumes. Obviously, your passionate craving for publicity and need to promote the Smiley/West Corporation takes precedence over whether or not you offend the Black community. So it seems that your infamous "love for your people" stops at your pocketbook.
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You’re not a complete idiot, so you knew full well that the addendum to your comment was drenched in racial innuendo, and you've become a serial offender in that regard. You know very well that the phrase, "in blackface," conjures up images of White minstrels portraying Black people by painting their faces jet black, with huge oversized white lips, and then running across the stage shouting, "mammy!" So the subtext of your comment was clear - you think President Obama is a White clown beneath a painted blackface. That’s a grossly racist and disrespectful statement to be directed at anyone, and particularly the President of the United States. Who do you think you are!!?
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Then just as bad, and just as disrespectful - this time, however, directed at the entire Black community - you have the unmitigated gall to now come on this show, and in your most self-righteous and condescending tone, try to tell Black people who took issue with your comment that they’re just being silly for objecting to your blatantly racist statement. In other words, we’re too stupid to know a racist comment when we hear one.
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Cornel, you’re indulging in the exact same kind of racist act of conflation as any vicious, petty, and unrepentant bigot. You know the kind - the ones who go on Fox News and talk about "Welfare Queens," when everybody in the world knows they’re actually talking about black women in general; or say, "We’ve got to do something about crime," when they actually mean, it’s time to start brutalizing and killing more Black men. Then when they’re confronted with it, just like you, they say, "Ooooh, where did you find that race card? That wasn’t what I meant at all!"
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So "brother," you ain’t foolin’ nobody. The depth of your self-serving racist behavior would make Jesse Helms blush.
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And regarding this so-called "Poverty Summit" at the White House that you and Tavis are calling for - I assume you and Smiley expect to attend to advocate on behalf of "the people." Well, I have one question - what people? No one elected you and Tavis to represent the Black community, and we don't need you to speak for us.
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The Black community is communicating with the White House on a daily basis through thousands of letters, emails, phone calls, and our ELECTED officials. In addition, we just touched base with the president through the polls in the last election. So the president undoubtedly knows more about what's on the mind of the Black community than you do - that's how he knows you're irrevelant.
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So is this so-call summit that you two are calling for designed to help the poor and Black community - after all, you've never done anything for us before - or is it actually about shining a national spotlight on a group of nonproductive, loudmouth, egomaniacs who crave national attention? If your history is any indication, I'd say the latter. So here's a news flash. Your time has passed, and the Black community is sick to death of you. So, please, go away and let us handle our business.
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FOLLOWUP COMMUNICATION
Cornel,
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Once again you’re trying to defend the indefensible. And once again, you’re trying to blame your critics for your failure to communicate effectively. When you make a comment, it is up to YOU to keep your message focused and uncluttered enough to communicate your ideas effectively, not the listener.
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In addition, when a listener listens to a speaker, he or she is not simply listening to the content of the speaker’s message, he’s also assessing the messenger himself for any subtleties or nuances that might suggest a hidden agenda, reckless and inefficient thinking, or any other shortcomings that might mitigate the weight that he should assign to the speaker’s message. Thus, when you added “in blackface” to your comment, considering it’s racist connotation, you should have known that it would overwhelm what you insist was the “core” of your statement. So the mere fact that you now, in my opinion, feign that the uproar caught you by complete surprise, speaks volumes about either your judgment, or your veracity.
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West, I used to be a huge fan of both you and Smiley’s. But your tendency to engage in reckless, irresponsible, and unsubstantiated statements like the one currently under discussion led me to start researching who you really are nearly five years ago, and what I’ve found is literally embarrassing. Now, with this latest controversy, you’re merely reinforcing what I already know - if you were even close to the “powerful intellectual” that your 35 years of hype has suggested, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion. And brother, that’s comin’ from a common hood rat.
. http://smileyandwest.ning.com/forum/topics/take-em-to-task-blackface-comments
Dr. Cornel West seems to have gone on a shameless mission to disparage anyone in the Black community who tends to overshadow him. Now he’s after music mogul and entrepreneur, Jay-Z, regarding his business holdings. West seems to be bound and determined to demonstrate to the world that Jay-Z's business holdings aren't as impressive as he's increasingly being given credit.
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But what Jay-Z owns or doesn't own is not the point of this piece. The bigger issue is the pettiness of a mind that can become so fixated on such a trivial issue. Considering West's, fading, yet substantial influence in the Black community, the possible impact of such a petty mind during a time when we are fighting for our very existence is indeed frightening.
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During a time in this nation's history when powerful forces in this country are hell-bent on establishing an era of corporate feudalism, how does Cornel West's attack on Jay-Z show "love" for the Black community? How does it help to reinforce the Black community and abolish poverty, as West insists to any and everyone who will listen, is his primary goal? In short, it doesn't - and that, is the point of this piece.
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Cornel West's petty fixation on such issues as the extent and source of Jay-Z's wealth, why a baggage handler could get inauguration tickets over his own illustrious personage, and why the President of the United States failed to return his personal phone call, clearly demonstrates that poverty and suffering within the Black community, and America as a whole, is not only less than his primary concern, but is, in fact, merely being used as a tool to gain personal attention and to promote his own self-aggrandizing agenda.
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In addition, West's all consuming penchant for attacking high-profile Black people - and in racially drenched terms - suggests far more than what many attribute to West's exaggerated sense of self-importance. It more clearly suggests a form of black-on-Black racism - an intense disdain and condescending attitude toward his own people. Black people tend not to look closely enough at this syndrome, but we should, because it's one of the most toxic maladies in the Black community. It's been killing us for over 400 years, and it's past time to bring it to an end.
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I was discussing this issue with a friend the other day, and she insisted, "No, it's not racism; it's a form of self-hatred." But I beg to differ. People like Cornel West, Tavis Smiley, Larry Elder (who Smiley just recently had on his show), Clarence Thomas, and Herman Cain, don't hate themselves at all - it's not themselves, but the Black community that they look down their noses at. During the Republican primaries Herman Cain said that Black people weren't supporting him because we were brainwashed. That's politispeak for stupid. But as things turned out, stupidity notwithstanding, with respect to Cain, it seems that the Black community was way ahead of the Republican Party. We saw right through Herman Cain from day one, so who's stupid?
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But we're not quite as practiced at seeing through people like Tavis Smiley and Cornel West, because Tavis and West have put a different spin on their game through the use of reverse psychology. Herman Cain tried to use the direct approach - using our ignorance to bamboozle us into supporting Republicans. Tavis and West, on the other hand, knew that wouldn't work, so they tried to accomplish the same goal, but through the back door - using our anger to hornswoggle us into NOT supporting the president. But in the end, it amounts to the same thing - our being flimflammed into cutting our own throats.
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The Black community needs to start wrapping it's head around the fact that you don't have to be White to have racist attitudes towards Black people. Clear evidence of that fact can be had by simply asking yourself when was the last time you heard of a drive-by being perpetrated by a shooter wearing a sheet?
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One Black man responded to the above assertion with the following comment:
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"I don’t hate myself. I'm dark and a handsome man, but niggas I can’t stand. I love my lineage enough to not put it with a group I see going downhill real fast. Black people have become a scab that will not heal as a collective. I’m doing like my Moorish/Kemetic ancestors and exploring the world. Blacks have shown to me that they can’t/won’t defend themselves because they don’t love each other. Blacks just have lost the luster they once had."
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You see, I know a little something about Black racism. It's not a new concept to me. I've been observing Black racists plying their trade for most of my adult life. I worked for the United States Postal Service for 28 years, and for 12 of those years I was a union representative who specialized in EEO claims. And during that time I witnessed Black managers and supervisors engage in some of the most vicious forms of racism against other Black employees that I've ever seen - in fact, a White manager wouldn't have been able to get away with it.
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Personally, I believe the postal service incorporates that fact into its business model. You see, it's next to impossible for a Black employee to file a successful claim of discrimination against another Black person, so part of the postal service's business model is to elevate Black people to rob, steal, intimidate, harass, and fire other Black people. As a direct result, I have a friend who's an Asian woman with a Master's degree who's been passed over for promotion for over 10 years in lieu of an endless parade of Black racists who barely made it through high school. The reason for that is the primary qualification for promotion is their willingness to abuse other Black people. That's a huge part of the postal service's rapid downhill slide in both competence, and customer service.
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The following is an eye witness account of a Black bigot at work:
Customer Statement
"Atten: Miss
Stanley, Station Manager To Whom It May Concern:
“My
name is Elizabeth Crawford. I along with my wife Michelle Lo, own [address withheld]. On August 13, 2011 we were landscaping
our front yard and witnessed an altercation between our mail carrier, Sylvester
Burton and a woman whom I later learned was Juanita, his
supervisor.
“At first I only heard a woman (Juanita) shouting and
cursing. Since my back was to them I did not see who was yelling. Then I saw our
letter carrier Mr. Burton drive by in his mail truck and pull over to the curb
just past our driveway. A black woman raced over to the now parked mail truck
cursing and shouting at Mr. Burton saying “you tried to run me over” and that
she was going to “call the police”. As I watched I became very very alarmed
because I could not tell at first from the casual attire she was clothed in that
she was a postal employee. All I could see was an extremely unhinged woman going
ballistic and attacking our mailman. I watched Juanita as she reached inside the
mail truck and shook her hand in Mr. Burton’s face as she shouted ‘I don’t give
a fuck about you and by the way I think your ass is GAY!’ Then she shouted ‘you
take your ass back to the station right now…this is MY ROUTE, MY ROUTE…and you
take your ass back to the station right now...’ She then shouted ‘I’m calling
the postal police on your ass you take your ass back to the station right
now.’
“Mr. Burton drove away in the mail truck. I don’t know what
Mr. Burton was saying in response to all this as he NEVER raised his voice or
shouted back during the entire episode.
“My entire family
including my seven year-old niece had to witness this entirely unprofessional
vulgar outburst. The cursing and swearing peppered with the f-word and the
homophobic remarks was nothing less than shocking and completely inappropriate.
I was extremely offended by her homophobic remarks and I am myself gay, not to
mention the cursing and swearing in front of our child.
“Don’t
know and I really don’t care what prompted Juanita’s tirade. I was shocked to
see someone in a so-called “supervisory position” treating someone who works for
her so brutally. Needless to say law in the state of California the law
prohibits the attack on Mr. Burton based on his sexual identification in the
workplace! You should take note of this.
“You need to DO SOMETHING
ABOUT THIS WOMAN. While representing the USPS no one should be able to behave
that badly and make that big of a scene in public plus publicly attacking a
subordinates sexual orientation and be allowed to keep their job. “If Mr. Burton sues for harassment I will gladly
be a witness on his behalf.
Signed,
M. Elizabeth J. Crawford"
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The postal service lost the case and gave the supervisor involved a tap on the wrist (sensitivity training). Now it's back to business as usual. All of the above took place because the carrier was rushed out of the office, and as a result inadvertently left some of the mail at the station. And by the way, once the supervisor found out there was a witness, she never again mentioned her allegation that the carrier tried to run over her.
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So with respect to Cornel West, just take a minute to ask yourself the following questions. First, with everything the Republican Party is trying to do to Black people - obstructing our right to vote, trying to destroy our educational system, attempting to take away our parents' and grandparents' access to Medicare and Social Security, and trying to destroy our future by making higher education beyond our children's reach - why is West focused on something as unimportant to our welfare as what Jay-Z is doing? In addition, West is as quiet as a church mouse regarding the role that his buddy, Tavis Smiley, played in helping Wells Fargo Bank swindle Black homeowners - at least, former Black homeowners. All of a sudden, "accountability" doesn't apply in that case. http://washingtonindependent.com/59633/suit-alleges-trusted-black-figures-drew-minorities-to-high-rate-loans
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And secondly, since the most direct road out of poverty is to ensure that our young people obtain a quality education, why is it that Dr. Cornel West has failed to teach at any school that more than 1% of Black students can even afford to get into in his entire career? Wouldn't you think that one who is renowned as an educator, and who claims to "love" his people so passionately that he was "forced" to publicly attack the first Black President of the United States, would at the very least, apply his skills to educating Black youth? Come on, people. Connect the dots.
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What we have to begin to understand regarding people like Cornel West and others of his ilk is, Black people are the product of the very same racist environment as White people. And as a result, many of us are just as racist and condescending towards other Black people as any racist Hillbilly. So what West is clearly demonstrating is, in spite of everything that's coming together to destroy the Black community, it all has to take a backseat to America's favorite pastime - dragging a successful Black man through the mud. And West’s attack on Jay-Z is not just an aberration - he’s done the exact same thing to President Obama, Dr. Melissa Harris-Perry, Dr. Michael Eric Dyson, and Rev. Al Sharpton. Yet, he seems to be fine with Walmart, and the others who are trying to cut the Black community's throat.
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No other group of people in the world think that way about their own, and for that reason, Black people are at the very bottom of the social and economic ladder. New arrivals to this country all but stumble over us as they move forward and leave us behind. So we need to wake up, and stop tolerating this sort of thing, regardless to how we might feel about Jay-Z's wealth. We shouldn't be doggin' Jay-Z. We should take pride in what he's accomplished, because whether you're a hip hop fan or not, the brother has demonstrated the intellect to rise to the top - and without Walmart.
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Finally, it's easy to understand why West is so popular among many - he's the most prolific champion of intellectual masturbation in the Black community - bar none. He's an entertainer. But don't be bamboozled by a wooly head and hardcore rhetoric. While Cornel West has been hyped by the establishment as one of the Black community’s premier intellectuals, he’s been repeatedly demonstrating the very worst in Black behavior for over twelve years now. So while it’s both understandable, and appropriate, for the Black community to despair over this public embarrassment, we should use it as a teaching moment: Always look beneath the hype, and never allow others to define our heroes.
