Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree
BLACK PEOPLE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF BEING PLAYED, IN A VERY DANGEROUS GAME
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"IF YE WERE ABRAHAM'S CHILDREN, YE WOULD DO THE WORKS OF ABRAHAM"
John 8: 39
The Black churches in every community should come together to form a consortium. Thereafter, they should pool the tithes they're collecting every Sunday to purchase businesses to provide jobs for our young people that pay a living wage, and purchase property to provide affordable housing in the community. The entire community should also do it's part. If everyone in the community was encouraged to invest just $10 a month into the consortium, they could build a portfolio by indicating what businesses in the community they wanted their investment to go to. That could reap great dividends - the people would, literally, be investing in their own community. That would also encourage the community to patronize it's own businesses, and it would provide the consortium the revenue to invest in any venture that it chose to pursue. Eventually, Black consortiums across the country could join forces and, essentially, become, Black People, Inc.
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The churches should also be open 7 days a week to provide affordable childcare for working mothers. Then they could also hire unemployed mothers to help in the daycare centers. The churches should also utilize the knowledge and expertise of retired professionals in their congregations to help mentor and instruct the people in the community. And of course, there should be a citizens committee to oversee the operation of the various businesses (not the preachers), and it should require multiple signatures to withdraw any funds from the bank for any reason - and once again, to ensure that the funds are being used most efficiently, preachers should be placed on fixed salaries instead of being allowed to get rich at the expense of the community. Jesus was not a wealthy man, so why should any preacher be?
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That's how we reform our community. We educate the community to give excellence and knowledge priority over dysfunction, and give the young people within it a sense of pride, an opportunity to put money in their pockets, and to build credit and buy new cars. We've got to teach them how the game is played, and give them hope and confidence in their future.
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If we are proactive in doing these things, then when the world looks upon the Black community, they won't see a "thug culture" and budding terrorists, they'll see a community with the backbone and political clout to back up our demands, and a community filled with conscientious, intelligent, and knowledgeable people who are on the rise.
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Black people are in the process of being demonized and setup in a very dangerous way. Yes, we've always been demonized, demeaned, and disparaged, but this time it's different, and the accusations are much more dangerous and malevolent. This time we're being accused of being anti-American terrorists who are bent on bringing down America, so we shouldn't take it lightly. I've said this before, and I thought the potential danger in this situation would be both alarming and obvious to all, but I've noticed that a handful of very naive Black people are fluffing it off as meaningless, so I thought it was worth revisiting.
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At this point the focus is on Black Lives Matter (BLM). Due to the thoughtless antics of a few unthinking individuals in the name of the organization, they've made BLM an easy target. So BLM needs to restructure their organization to require authorization to speak on behalf of the organization, keep tight control over any activities that take place in their name, and remain vigilant in weeding out any individual(s) who engage in any kind of stupid activity in their name, because the conservative establishment is slowing beginning to put the subliminal message in America's mind that BLM is not a social justice organization, but a terrorist organization, and they have absolutely no hesitation in infiltrating the group with plants and Judas goats to help them make that jacket stick, and if it gains traction, Black people as a whole are in trouble.
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Black conservative sheriff, David Clarke, of Milwaukee says, "Black Lives Matter will join forces with Islamic State (ISIS) to bring down our republic." Now, Huffington Post reports that Fox News has suggested that BLM was responsible for the murder of Deputy Darren Goforth of Harris County, Texas. The article reads in part:
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"Fox News ran an onscreen banner during Monday night's episode of "Fox & Friends" referring to the Black Lives Matter movement as a "murder movement," and one Fox host wondered why the movement wasn't labeled a hate group.
"'Fox & Friends' co-host Brian Kilmeade was speaking with Milwaukee County Sheriff David Clarke about the death of Deputy Darren Goforth of Harris County, Texas, who was fatally shot while pumping gas in a Houston suburb on Friday night. Goforth was white, and the man who police believe killed him, Shannon Miles, is black.
"There is no evidence that Miles has any connection to the Black Lives Matter movement, but the "Fox & Friends" segment made a point to strongly imply that Black Lives Matter was at fault for Goforth’s death."
And conservatives are far from done. That same Black conservative sheriff, David Clarke, has already gone on to say, "Blacks Sell Drugs' Because They Are 'Lazy' And 'Morally Bankrupt." And now it turns out that we have a White sheriff in Florida, David Morgan, saying, “We have unfortunately, in America, embraced a thug culture. One that aggrandizes, again, foul language, shooting cops, abusing women and if you think those things do not have an effect on our children you need to get a grip!”
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They are gradually conflating the Black community with terrorism and anti-Americanism. So Black people need to wake up! But when I initially reported this, one Black person was so naive as to try to ridicule the position I'm putting forward here as paranoid. He laughed and said, "People aren't going to pay any attention to that discredited Black sheriff." But he's dead wrong, and history has repeatedly demonstrated that fact.
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The Republican Party has made repeating lies until they gain traction a way of life - Fox News has made that concept its primary business model, and the entire advertising industry is based on the premise that if you tell a lie often enough, people will begin to believe it. But it goes farther than that. As a simple rule of thumb, one should never make the foolish mistake of assuming what an adversary WON'T do. When you're dealing with an adversary, you should ALWAYS assume the very worst - and since the 2016 election is looming, with the change in the nation's demographics, and GOP's history of dirty politics, we should DEFINITELY expect the very worst.
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SO WHAT SHOULD WE DO ABOUT THIS?
The Black community must stop allowing itself to become such an easy target for demonization. In the short term we should firmly deny the allegation and demand concrete evidence of the sheriff's dangerous, malevolent. and unsubstantiated allegation. If clear evidence is not provided, we should demand the sheriff's recall, explore civil litigation against him, and declare him an enemy of the Black community. We Should also follow the exact same procedure against any media person or organization who suggests such a thing.
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In this political environment accusing ANYONE of being a terrorist without concrete evidence to substantiate the claim should be declared a hate crime, because the consequences of such an accusation can be so dire - including the suspension of all of Constitutional rights, arrest and imprisonment without any kind of due process or trial, or worse. That may seem to be a remote possibility now, but if one of the clown bus of right-wing Republican reactionaries should win the 2016 Presidential election, they will control all three branches of government, and these people have no sense of limits. So we should make it publicly clear to all Black people that anyone who does anything stupid to lend credibility to this allegation is placing the entire Black community in serious jeopardy. In short, the Black community needs to stop sitting on its hands, and be proactive in aggressively addressing this issue.
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And now that this charge has been floated, this is going to be an ongoing concern, so it's important for the Black community to start taking steps right now to address our cultural mores and the infrastructure within our community. We must insure that we can't be defined by the most dysfunctional people in our community, and we must also take steps to insure that dysfunction is not rewarded by, or in, the community.
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In this political environment accusing ANYONE of being a terrorist without concrete evidence to substantiate the claim should be declared a hate crime, because the consequences of such an accusation can be so dire - including the suspension of all of Constitutional rights, arrest and imprisonment without any kind of due process or trial, or worse. That may seem to be a remote possibility now, but if one of the clown bus of right-wing Republican reactionaries should win the 2016 Presidential election, they will control all three branches of government, and these people have no sense of limits. So we should make it publicly clear to all Black people that anyone who does anything stupid to lend credibility to this allegation is placing the entire Black community in serious jeopardy. In short, the Black community needs to stop sitting on its hands, and be proactive in aggressively addressing this issue.
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And now that this charge has been floated, this is going to be an ongoing concern, so it's important for the Black community to start taking steps right now to address our cultural mores and the infrastructure within our community. We must insure that we can't be defined by the most dysfunctional people in our community, and we must also take steps to insure that dysfunction is not rewarded by, or in, the community.
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IS HIP HOP BEING USED BY THE ESTABLISHMENT TO DEMONIZE THE BLACK COMMUNITY?
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While there's nothing intrinsically wrong with the hip hop genre as an art form, it's literally drenched in people who are getting rich by producing 10 minute commercials that's being beamed all over America - and throughout the world - referring to the very womb of the Black culture as bitches and hoes. Many also take macho and adolescent pride in declaring themselves gangsters and are routinely promoting the use of drugs and violence. The Black community has got to send a message to these people - ignorance and dysfunction are neither cool, nor manly; it only lends comfort and assistance to an enemy who's out to destroy the Black community. And the way to send that message is to boycott any artist who engages in such stupidity, and also boycott any record company, radio or television station, or magazine, and their sponsors, who promote this self-destructive idiocy. In addition, as Black parents, we must educate our children and be firm in forbidding such content from being played in our homes.
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MUSIC AWARD SHOWS
The community must also send a message to the producers, broadcasters, and sponsors of music award shows, and let them know in no unequivocal terms that we're tired of seeing the same entertainers swaggering across the stage and being rewarded for spewing a false image of Black people as just a group of dysfunctional idiots. We don't want to see such people at the Grammys, or any other award shows, and we must put our $1.1 trillion in Black spending power to work in backing up that demand.
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We should also use our dollars to encourage Black award shows, such as the Soul Train Awards, to convert their format from music awards, to giving out awards for Black excellence in the community. Instead of continually giving out awards to the same old swaggering entertainers, they should use entertainers to entertain, and to PRESENT the awards to young Black scholars, and people who have contributed to the community, and who have demonstrated Black excellence. Such programs would serve three purposes - first, it would send a message to Black youth that excellence is what is cool, not dysfunction; secondly, it would beam the message around the world that the Black community is focused on growth and excellence, not terrorism; and finally, it would educate the world on the kind of excellence to be found in the Black community.
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BLACK CHURCHES
The Black church has traditionally been a place where the Black community has organized to move itself forward. In the past the Black church recognized that its mission was much more complex than to simply have a preacher come in and do a spoken-word concert (for 10% of our earnings) every Sunday on how to get into Heaven. Jesus wasn't just giving spoken-word concerts about the joys of Heaven, he was also concerned with the plight of the people while they're here on Earth. When Jesus spoke, he expected his disciples to LIVE his words, not just preach and pray:
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"And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues [churches] and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward . . ." Matthew 6:1-34
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"And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues [churches] and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward . . ." Matthew 6:1-34
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"IF YE WERE ABRAHAM'S CHILDREN, YE WOULD DO THE WORKS OF ABRAHAM"
John 8: 39
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So we must re-organize our churches, and re-traditionalize their mission to focus on enhancing the people's lives, as oppose to making individual preachers rich. Thus, if your preacher is doing better than the people in the community that surrounds your church, you're either attending the wrong church, or the right church with the wrong preacher. So we must re-organize our churches and put preachers on a fixed salary, and then use the billions of dollars in tithes that flow into the various Black churches every Sunday to elevate the community.
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The Black churches in every community should come together to form a consortium. Thereafter, they should pool the tithes they're collecting every Sunday to purchase businesses to provide jobs for our young people that pay a living wage, and purchase property to provide affordable housing in the community. The entire community should also do it's part. If everyone in the community was encouraged to invest just $10 a month into the consortium, they could build a portfolio by indicating what businesses in the community they wanted their investment to go to. That could reap great dividends - the people would, literally, be investing in their own community. That would also encourage the community to patronize it's own businesses, and it would provide the consortium the revenue to invest in any venture that it chose to pursue. Eventually, Black consortiums across the country could join forces and, essentially, become, Black People, Inc. .
The churches should also be open 7 days a week to provide affordable childcare for working mothers. Then they could also hire unemployed mothers to help in the daycare centers. The churches should also utilize the knowledge and expertise of retired professionals in their congregations to help mentor and instruct the people in the community. And of course, there should be a citizens committee to oversee the operation of the various businesses (not the preachers), and it should require multiple signatures to withdraw any funds from the bank for any reason - and once again, to ensure that the funds are being used most efficiently, preachers should be placed on fixed salaries instead of being allowed to get rich at the expense of the community. Jesus was not a wealthy man, so why should any preacher be?
.
That's how we reform our community. We educate the community to give excellence and knowledge priority over dysfunction, and give the young people within it a sense of pride, an opportunity to put money in their pockets, and to build credit and buy new cars. We've got to teach them how the game is played, and give them hope and confidence in their future.
.
If we are proactive in doing these things, then when the world looks upon the Black community, they won't see a "thug culture" and budding terrorists, they'll see a community with the backbone and political clout to back up our demands, and a community filled with conscientious, intelligent, and knowledgeable people who are on the rise.
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Eric L. Wattree
wattree.blogspot.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.