AN ENLIGHTENED BRAIN CAN'T BE WASHED

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

AN ENLIGHTENED BRAIN CAN'T BE WASHED

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While government has a role in improving conditions in the Black community, the ROOT of our problem is a lack of education and knowledge, and we can't wait for the government to address that issue, because the GOP has dedicated their very existence to dumbing America down, and with good reason - enlightened people don't vote Republican.
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But we could turn their malevolence into our advantage if we're smart. While they're hard at work dumbing the rest of America down, we should double-down on educating ourselves and making the pursuit of knowledge a way of life. That way we can level the playing field. We could make ourselves some of the most literate people in America, because our problem is not a lack of intelligence, it's an indifference toward knowledge. We need to become knowledge junkies.
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We must also educate one another in the wisdom of an enlightened way of life, just like we currently educate one another in our current toxic way of life. I've seen it done before, in the sixties - I'm a product of that environment. When I was in elementary school they were about to place me in "Special Training."  I like to had a fit, because Special Training students were separated in their own little bungalow at the very back of the school, and they marched in formation everywhere they went - the rest of the kids used to call them the Retard Brigade. I became so distraught over the idea of being placed in Special Training that my teacher, Ms. Lady Lee, convinced the principal, Mr. DeTonto, to give her the rest of the year to work with me.
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ONE GOOD TEACHER IS WORTH A BOATLOAD
OF POLITICIANS

But in the end, all she did was teach me that you ARE what you think (that's why it's so important not to think of ourselves as victims). And then she gave me a tip: She said the key to looking, and BEING, smart was to ALWAYS stay one chapter ahead of the class (that forced me to start studying and taking my homework more seriously). I was so determined to stay out of Special Training that I made studying a way of life.  I started outlining our textbooks, and giving each point they made its own place in the outline. Within a month I had outlined all of our textbooks and knew their content backwards and forward. I suspect that's why I'm a writer today, because without knowing it, I fell in love with compositional structure in the process.
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But thereafter, Ms. Lee started asking questions in class that she knew I was the only one who could answer, and I did.  At first, my classmates were amazed, and then finally, they started treating me with a new respect (and so did my mother), and that reinforced my understanding of the value of knowledge. So at the end of the semester, instead of going into Special Training, I went into an advanced class with students who were a year ahead of me, and I've been fooling people by using Ms. Lee's tip every since - because life is not about how brilliant you are, but how knowledgeable.
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Then during the sixties, the Black community went through a similar process. We spun on a dime (or maybe I should say "they spun on a dime," because I was a little late getting on board - I was "doing time" in the Marine Corps). But the community went from being filled with street gangs and crime, to being filled with dashiki-wearing street philosophers. Former gangsters became Black Panthers and joined other organizations to help enlighten and feed the poor. We recognized that we had to do these things ourselves in order to gain the political clout to FORCE the government to change its ways - and eventually it did, and the community began to rapidly move forward. Ford, General Motors, and other major corporations began to open their doors to Black workers, giving them access to the middle class, and the government began to PAY people to be educated and trained.
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We made it cool to be knowledgeable.  If a brother wasn't enlightened, he couldn't even get a girlfriend. It became so hip to be Black that White folks were trying to nap their hair up and wear naturals, and White girls were walking around in cornrows. That's how the Rock and hippie revolution got started. Before that, White musicians were going on stage in black suits and ties singing "Rock Around the Clock," and "Venus" - so we've already demonstrated that we can influence the world.
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ALL WE NEED TO SUCCEED IS
THE DESIRE

But we tend to always allow the White establishment to think 10 years ahead of us (that's why I'm so big on making education our number one priority). They introduced acid, speed, and other drugs into the mix, and the lure of these drugs began to drag us back down. Then in the eighties Ronald Reagan abolished the "Fairness Doctrine" - one of the nation's primary educational tools, which forced network and radio stations to give equal time to opposing voices every time they tried to spew conservative propaganda - and then Reagan flooded the inner cities with crack ("Just say no!!!!?"). That devastated two generations of Black people. As a result, that severed the connection of the third generation from their Black cultural heritage, because the parents who were supposed to be teaching them about their culture were crackheads. Then the establishment used the media, with things like MTV and BET to serve as a re-education tool, which brings us to where we are today.
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Thus, it is essential that the Black community come together and re-establish our connection with our cultural roots. It's no accident that we no longer see people like Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Aretha Franklin, Marvin Gaye, or Ray Charles coming out of the Black community anymore. The reason for that is we now have a generation of young Black people where many are just as remote from their Black roots as many White people. Yes, they have Black skin, but thanks to the machinations of the White establishment, they aren't anything like Black people once were. They're like cardboard, imitation Blacks who are reminiscent of real Black people.
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Think about it - isn't it ironic that, with the exception of people like Janet Jackson, Tyrese, Mariah, and a handful of others, one of the closest examples of old-school Black soul currently in the public domain is being put out by Robin Thick? - and I know, because I'm a lifelong jazz musician, so I'm listening . . . and Robin sounds good!  And the same is true in jazz.  If you go to a concert where they're playing REAL jazz, it looks like a Tea Party convention, because this generation of Black people don't support, or even KNOW, their own culture. (http://wattree.blogspot.com/2012/07/relections-on-stanley-crouch-mtume.html)
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So we'd better wake up, or 50 years from now the only people who are going to have the musical skills to play Black music are gonna be White, because they're devouring our music in music schools and conservatories all over the world as we speak, while we've been seduced by the dollar to spew vulgar nursery rhymes to the beat of electronic drum machines.
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That's what I mean by addressing our cultural infrastructure. We've got to stop thinking of ourselves as victims.  The word "victim" suggests weakness, and Black people are not weak. The adversity that we've endured has made us MORE, rather than less. We simply have to recognize that fact, and be PROACTIVE  in addressing our issues instead of simply reacting to cultural assaults. The bottom line is, we've got to stop telegraphing everything that's on our minds by screaming and grabbing microphones. No one is impressed by that; it just makes us look like reckless idiots. We've got to begin to use our minds to forge innovative and thoughtful approaches to resolving our issues, and we have the resources within our community to do that, right now.  And we must always keep in mind the words of Frederick Douglass - "Knowledge makes a man unfit to be a slave."
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"THE SAME BOILING WATER THAT SOFTENS THE POTATO, HARDENS THE EGG.  SO IT'S NOT ABOUT YOUR CIRCUMSTANCES, IT'S ABOUT WHAT YOU'RE MADE OF."

Eric L. Wattree 
Http://wattree.blogspot.com 
Ewattree@Gmail.com
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

THE BRAINWASHING OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

THE BRAINWASHING OF THE BLACK COMMUNITY

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DO BLACK LIVES REALLY MATTER . . .
OR IS 10 MINUTES OF FAME MORE IMPORTANT?

While I'm in complete agreement with the sentiment behind "Black Lives Matter," I was so put-off and disgusted by the organization's idiotic tactic of disrupting the rallies of Bernie Sanders and Al Sharpton (both, ALLIES!!!), that I decided to go fishing. It occurred to me that it would be instructive to throw out a lure and reel in an ideologue to demonstrate just how destructive these people can, and have been, to the Black community. Whether they're well-meaning or self-serving (and we have our share of both), such people help to perpetuate many of the problems that plague the community. So I baited my hook and posted the following message on Facebook:

REGARDING BLACK INFERIORITY 

A HOME IN THE BLACK NEIGHBORHOOD
OF BALDWIN HILLS, CA. 

"There are two Black communities. There is one that is made up of strivers.  Strivers use the adversity inherent in the Black experience as an educational tool to make them MORE rather than less. They understand that it is through the effort of overcoming adversity that we grow. They also recognize that the only reason we can walk is because we got tired of having to crawl. Thus, they have the insight to understand that having to deal with both overt and covert racism every day of their lives provides them with an opportunity to EVOLVE, and to develop an intellectual muscularity to become masters over their oppressors.
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"Then there's another community. This is a community that's made up of slackers, people who refuse to grow and invest in themselves. It's made up of people who find it more convenient to use adversity as an excuse for failure than to see it as the challenge that it represents. These are the people who claim that White supremacy is keeping them from moving forward. But the fact is, if these people are allowing the White man to hold them down, the racists are right - they are inferior, but it's wrong to attribute it to race. Just like in the case of a White, barefoot Hillbilly, yes, such people are inferior, but their inferiority is a matter of individual character, and has absolutely nothing to do with their race."
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In response Stewart Scott said:
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 "I don't think you'll find any race of people that can easily be split into two groups. I also don't think the author is in any position to relegate lower class blacks who do not have the same opportunities as more well to do blacks to "inferior" status. Stop the victim-blaming."
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STRIVERS

Stewart, show me where I even once mentioned either money or class. I was discussing attitude and mindset. I only attached the photo of the big home to demonstrate the fallacy of the argument that "the White man" can hold Black people back if we're determined to move forward. If that were a valid argument the White man would be able to prevent ALL Black people from moving forward. So what you've shown here is the knee-jerk response of many who are always trying to find excuses for any shortcoming in the Black community. We could develop cancer and people like yourself will insist that it's only a heat rash. The problem with that is, while we may gain temporary comfort in calling cancer a rash, our failure to address the reality of our situation is killing us.
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My initial post was a lure to pull out a person like yourself to make a point. It's attitudes like yours that's at the very root of many of our problems in the Black community, from crime and drug addiction, to a lack of education and the destruction of family values. Think about it - the fact is, EVERY culture is made up of strivers and slackers (and again, you don't have to be rich to be a striver), but we're not allowed to even HINT that ANYBODY in the Black community may not be taking care of business - it's considered "politically incorrect" - and therein lies the problem. We have far too many ideologues among us who see it as an ideological sin to look at the Black situation objectively. They keep telling us that we're the salt of the Earth and can do no wrong, even as we rob and kill each other in record numbers and refer to the very womb of our culture as "bitches" and "hoes."
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Now, ideologues don't mind seeing us demonize our entire culture in 10 minute commercials that's being disseminated all around the world in the form of videos (which makes it that much easier for police to kill our children and walk away), but to say we're being stupid is a definite no-no. We must NEVER say a Black person is being stupid. We must simply watch and applaud, regardless to how asinine the activity - as in the case of BLM antagonizing hundreds of thousands of potential allies to our cause. BLM's actions were so ridiculously counterproductive that if they had put any kind of forethought into it AT ALL they could have gotten the Republican National Committee to finance their atrocious behavior  They've managed to turn what WAS a brilliant slogan into something that now enrages hundreds of thousands of people every time they hear it.  But if we tell the truth, we're "Blaming the victim," and we insist on giving this ridiculous ideology priority over truth while our children die.  Well, I'm sorry,  that's stupid - and it's not helping Black people at all. Refusing to acknowledge reality is delusional, and it only gives Black youth a convenient excuse for failure.
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I also have a problem with the phrase, "Blaming the victim," because the term "victim" implies that we're powerless.  Black people are not powerless, we're merely failing to use our power.  Many of us simply prefer shaking our fists over using our minds.  And while demonstrations do have their place, we must be proactive in laying a foundation within the community where our demonstrations have teeth behind them, and are more than just a lot of noise, attention-seeking, and microphone- grabbing.
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The mindset that you've embraced came about after the death of Martin Luther King and Malcolm. Shortly after their deaths, poverty pimps came out of the woodwork to fill the void and enrich themselves They convinced the Black community that we were incapable of managing our own fate, so we needed to "HIRE" them to represent us before the" White man." They told us that, "Nothing is your fault; just pay us $30,000 a speech (Cornel West) and we'll handle it for you" - and we've been doing that for the past fifty years - waiting . . . waiting as our children die, and our lives crumble around us.
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I BEAR WITNESS
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I sit, I watch,
and I grow ever more obsolete
as I bear witness.
.
I bear witness
to a once vibrant people greedily gulping down society’s hemlock. Even as they claim to be “keeping it real,“ they continue to maim, kill, and despise their own in hot pursuit of the prime directive with the passion of a sheetless klan.
.
I bear witness
to Black fists in the air in false solidarity promoted by self-serving poverty pimps as the world looks on and giggle at crooked fingers pointed elsewhere.
.
I bear witness
to the superficial attempt to ban the “N-word” while the new "un-niggas" stand around watching children killing children and fathers drugging sons, as they celebrate, lionize, and enrich those who denigrate the very womb of their culture with impunity.
.
I bear witness
to a generation of lost knowledge, cut off from its roots by Ronnie’s “Just say no” generation of crack, greed, death, and political corruption; A generation where the new N-word is pronounced “Responsibility” and the keepers of the flame completely ignore the destructive power of bitch, slut, whore, and tramp.
.
I bear witness
to the reckless disregard of the words uneducated, irresponsible, and classless. Should we not ban these words as well, or should we ban banning words altogether as we celebrate their meaning?
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Yes, I do bear witness.
I bear witness to a new world -
a world where gross ignorance comes disguised as enlightenment, and funky sneakers look down with disdain upon the sweet smell of Florsheim; a world where saggin’ pants and gaudy glitter enable country bumpkins to masquerade as elegant, and the exquisite surrender of eloquence is the very essence of what it means to be hip.
.
Where's Langston? Where's Baldwin? Where's Oscar Brown, Jr?
We need you stormin' this beach, because . . .
.
I now bear witness
to a world where motherhood stands alone, to be “dope” renders a smile, and posterity is forced to embrace the wind for paternal sustenance; A world where the walking dead strut about rapping the wisdom of idiocy, and we praise the illiteracy of vulgar nursery rhymes as profound; a world where the mother of salvation's final gasp is compared to the pigmentation of brown paper bags.
.
Malcolm, Martin, where are you?
I once stood with a crowd.
Now seemingly alone, I'm forced to bear witness -
horrific witness . . .
to the imminent demise of our people,
.
And my heart bleeds.
.
Eric L. Wattree
http://wattree.blogspot.com/
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

This Is Gonna Sound Ugly, But Let's Keep It Real And Save Our Children, Black Folks

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

This Is Gonna Sound Ugly, But Let's Keep It Real And Save Our Children, Black Folks

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Let's keep it real. While the crimes being committed against Black people are unconscionable, in many cases we're allowing ourselves to be victimized. Of course, there are those who are going to accuse me of blaming the victim, but the fact is, sometimes the victim is partially to blame for his situation. The concept of placing oneself in harm's way is very real, and that's exactly what we're allowing to happen in the Black community.
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Let us take an extreme example of that concept at work to make my point.  If a person is told that the Klan is having a rally in an isolated location at midnight that night, the person getting that information would be perfectly within his rights if he decided to go home, comb out his Afro, put on his most colorful dashiki, and walk past the rally singing "I'm Black and I'm Proud." But if he ended up being shot or lynched and someone suggested that he had acted stupidly, it would be next to impossible for the man's family to claim that the critic was blaming the victim, because the critic would be right. Yes, the Klan definitely committed a heinous crime by killing the man, and the perpetrators should get exactly what the law prescribes for their murderous act. But we can't avoid the fact that the victim was, at the very least, partially responsible for his own demise, because he failed to utilize the common sense to ensure his own survival, and that's exactly what's happening in the Black community.
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In order to protect our interest we should be doing everything in our power to see to it that anyone who is abusive or takes any life is brought to  justice. We should consider abusive behavior and the taking of life as unacceptable - period. But we're not doing that. While we go absolutely berserk (and we should) when a cop kills an unarmed Black person, we literally step over the bodies without a whimper when a home-grown criminal kills another Black person. In many cases he's made a hero of the community for being so tough.  that's why so many youngsters try go for bad, and brag about their "Gats."
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That attitude not only makes our community less safe, but it lessens the chances that bad cops will be brought to justice - and there's a very clear-cut reason for that.  When we allow criminals to operate with relative impunity in our community, it contributes to an environment that is so violent that potential jurors tend to give bad cops the benefit of the doubt because they see them as operating in a war zone. In addition, when we single out cops - and not EVERYONE who murders another human being - it makes us look disingenuous. It makes it look like we don't care about Black lives at all; we're just using the death of a Black person as a pretext to go after cops. As a result, jurors tend to close ranks to protect cops - even bad cops. But don't become confused over my position, I want to make it absolutely clear that I have absolutely no sympathy for either an abusive, or a murderous cop whatsoever, but with that said, I also want to make it absolutely clear that I'm equally hostile toward a murderous criminal as I am a bad cop. To me they're one and the same - they're both criminals. While one might say, "But a cop should be held to a higher standard," I disagree. EVERYBODY should be held to the SAME standard - YOU DON'T KILL PEOPLE!!! 
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Thus, the Black community must mount a concerted effort to correct the conditions that tend to make the community vulnerable to injustice and abuse, because the very first thing that any society does before it commits genocide against a people is to denigrate and demonize them. That serves to dehumanize them to the point where the larger population becomes comfortable with the fact that it's okay to exterminate them - it was done to the Native Americans (savages); it was done during slavery and Jim Crow to African Americans (niggers); and it was recently done to Muslims (terrorists). But now they've added an ingenious new wrinkle to this technique.  Now they're paying Black people to demonize themselves, by producing and distributing ten minute commercials around the world portraying Black people as gangsters, drug dealers, and worthless human beings.
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Okay, now here comes the ugly part that I spoke of - If we placed as much energy into education, community affairs, voting, and supporting Black businesses as we do saggin', flo-showin', and making people like Dr. Dre billionaires by calling the very womb of our culture "bitches" and "hoes," we'd be the ones running the police dept. in the black community.  But many of us are much too busy trying to make it look like we've attained the "American dream" as individuals, to be bothered with trying to create a better, and more wholesome, community for our children. Our minds (including my own when I was raising my children) was more fixated on getting out of the area. African Americans are the only group of people in the world, that I can think of, who measure our self-worth by how far we can get away from our own culture. Instead of loving and supporting our culture, it's about "look at me; I ain't like the rest of y'all!" That's Willie Lynch, hard at work.
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I placed an early draft of this piece on Facebook and a well-meaning defender of the Black community by the name of Lynda said the following:
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"Who's we?  Maybe you don't or your associates don't. These kinds of statements don't not reflect 'all' Black people. Just speak for yourself! When you say stupid stuff like this, it reflects on everybody."
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In response, I pointed out the following facts to Lynda:
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"What I've said reflects on enough Black people where it keeps us at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder. It's also reflective enough where people can come here penniless from other countries and step right over us to become our bosses, landlords and the very people we're protesting to. So tell me one thing that I said above that's not true. The fact is, you can't. That's why you didn't do it in the first place. Instead, you just said my words were "stupid." But I beg to differ. What's stupid is SAYING my words are stupid without being able to show me HOW their stupid; and what's stupid is sticking your head in the sand because you don't like what you see on the surface. Another thing that's stupid is trying to be so supportive of your people that you support helping them commit cultural suicide instead of simply facing the truth and addressing it. Now THOSE are things that are stupid.
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"So I repeat - "If we placed as much energy into education, community affairs, voting, and supporting Black businesses as we do saggin', flo-showin' and making people like Dr. Dre billionaires, we'd be the ones running the police dept. in the black community. Now tell me, what's either stupid or untrue about that? Let me answer that for you - not a damn thing, so I won't take the time to wait around for your response.
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"Wake up lady and face reality. The Black community is hurting because there's a cancer growing in our midst and people like yourself keep insisting it's only a heat rash.  You seem to feel that all we have to do is demand that the White man come and bring us a little ointment and everything will be alright.  Well, let me tell you something, sister. The White establishment don't give a damn if our asses fall off - or, they has to blow 'em off. So what we need to recognize is, we can't out-scream him, because he controls the media, and we can't out fight him, because he controls the military and makes the guns; so all we can do is stop being "stupid," educate ourselves, and learn to out-think 'em.
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"But people like yourself aren't about that. You're too worried about our image. You want to just keep sittin' around saying, "We shouldn't air our dirty laundry in public?" Well, I've got one question in that regard.  Where the Hell ARE we suppose to air 'em, in secret!!!? If you'll pull your head out the sand you'll see that trying to hide our dirty laundry ain't been workin' for us. The only people in the world who don't seem to see right through us is ourselves, and all that hiding our dirty laundry philosophy has led to is our kids being shot down in the street like dogs while the rest of the community is walking around in dirty draws.
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"I know it's unpleasant to face our shortcomings, but we can't correct our problems if we refuse to acknowledge them. And believe me, failing to acknowledge what's killing us is as stupid as it gets."
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I BEAR WITNESS
.
I sit, I watch,
and I grow ever more obsolete
as I bear witness.
.
I bear witness
to a once vibrant people greedily gulping down society’s hemlock. Even as they claim to be "keeping it real," they continue to maim, kill, and despise their own in hot pursuit of the prime directive with the passion of a sheetless Klan.
.
I bear witness
to Black fists in the air in false solidarity promoted by self-serving poverty pimps as the world looks on and giggle at crooked fingers pointed elsewhere.
.
I bear witness
to the superficial attempt to ban the “N-word” while the new "un-niggas" stand around watching children killing children and fathers drugging sons, as they celebrate, lionize, and enrich those who denigrate the very womb of their culture with impunity.
.
I bear witness
to a generation of lost knowledge, cut off from its roots by Ronnie’s “Just say no” generation of crack, greed, death, and political corruption; A generation where the new N-word is pronounced “Responsibility” and the keepers of the flame completely ignore the destructive power of "bitch," "slut," "hoe," and "tramp."
.
I bear witness
to the reckless disregard of the words "uneducated," "irresponsible," and "classless." Should we not ban these words as well, or should we ban banning words altogether as we celebrate their meaning?
.
Yes, I do bear witness.
I bear witness to a new world -
a world where gross ignorance comes disguised as enlightenment, and funky sneakers look down with disdain upon the sweet smell of Florsheim; a world where saggin’ pants and gaudy glitter enable country bumpkins to masquerade as elegant, and the exquisite surrender of eloquence is the very essence of what it means to be hip.
.
Where's Langston? Where's Baldwin? Where's Oscar Brown, Jr.?
We need you stormin' this beach, because . . .
.
I now bear witness
to a world where motherhood stands alone, to be “dope” renders a smile, and posterity is forced to embrace the wind for paternal sustenance; A world where the walking dead strut about rapping the wisdom of idiocy, and we praise the illiteracy of vulgar nursery rhymes as profound; a world where the mother of salvation's final gasp is compared to the pigmentation of brown paper bags.
.
Malcolm, Martin, where are you?
I once stood with a crowd.
Now seemingly alone,
I'm forced to bear witness -
horrific witness . . .
to the imminent demise of our people,
.
And my heart bleeds.
.

Eric L. Wattree
http://wattree.blogspot.com/
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
.
Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.