Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattree
Contrary to
popular belief, Black people don’t have a moral obligation to be stupid.
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NEVER BECOME SO BLACK THAT YOU FORGET YOU NEED WHITE ALLIES
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| WHITE ALLIES |
I started writing when my children were toddlers for two reasons -
first, I decided that we should all contribute what we do best to the
community, and secondly, I began to notice that many of the people I
read were being self-serving. Instead of telling Black people what they NEEDED
to hear, they were so interested in their own notoriety and fame that they told
the people what they WANTED to hear in order to feather their own nests. So instead
of educating Black people and discussing the best way to move forward, the
favorite subject of many Black intellectuals was “Who could find the most creative
reasons to hate the White man?” – and that was even as they cozied up to that
very same White man for book deals, professorships, and television facetime.
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I decided that didn’t help Black people at all. But then, they weren't writing to help Black people. It’s was all about capitalism – the very same thing that was responsible for Black enslavement in the first place. I used to complain to my wife about it all the time, and she had a simple solution – “Well, you do it.” She was right, and I’ve been doing it ever since.
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If Black people are going to move forward, we can't continue to say that all of our problems are the White man’s fault. No, we shouldn’t ignore all of the atrocities that this White supremacist society has committed against Black people, but we shouldn’t dwell upon it either, because sitting in the corner with our lips poked out is not gonna get us anywhere. We must maintain the clarity of mind and objectivity to recognize that many of our problems are a result of our own dysfunction. If we fail to do that, even if every White man on the face of the Earth disappeared tomorrow, we’d still have problems.
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I decided that didn’t help Black people at all. But then, they weren't writing to help Black people. It’s was all about capitalism – the very same thing that was responsible for Black enslavement in the first place. I used to complain to my wife about it all the time, and she had a simple solution – “Well, you do it.” She was right, and I’ve been doing it ever since.
.
If Black people are going to move forward, we can't continue to say that all of our problems are the White man’s fault. No, we shouldn’t ignore all of the atrocities that this White supremacist society has committed against Black people, but we shouldn’t dwell upon it either, because sitting in the corner with our lips poked out is not gonna get us anywhere. We must maintain the clarity of mind and objectivity to recognize that many of our problems are a result of our own dysfunction. If we fail to do that, even if every White man on the face of the Earth disappeared tomorrow, we’d still have problems.
.
We’re
not so weak-minded that the White man controls our every thought and action.
It’s not the White man’s fault when we leave our sisters with a house full of
babies and then walk away to allow them to either sink or swim on their own; it’s not the White man’s fault that we choose to
abuse drugs instead of cultivating our minds, and it’s not the White man’s
fault that we think it’s manly to blow one another’s brains out on the street.
That’s our fault, because we refuse to make the pursuit of knowledge the new
“soul”.
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But I found a perfect example of this kind of flawed thinking while browsing the internet in a post written by a Black Ph.D. – in EDUCATION, no less! She writes the following:
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But I found a perfect example of this kind of flawed thinking while browsing the internet in a post written by a Black Ph.D. – in EDUCATION, no less! She writes the following:
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“‘The students, all convicted of felonies, earned associate degrees by
completing 60 credits in courses taught
by Washington U. professors. They take two to four classes each semester, all
for free. Course offerings this spring included Chinese Civilization,
Introduction to Macroeconomics and Greek Mythology. --Excerpt.' On
the surface, this looks like two institutions are working together for the greater good of those incarcerated men. They are. On the surface . . .
“‘The students, all convicted of felonies, earned associate degrees by
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| PRISON SCHOLARS |
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“At the very least, these listed course
offerings are a bit dubious when considering any ability to get a well paying
job upon release, or using this gained *knowledge* of Chinese Civilization or
Greek Mythology to open their own businesses. Of course one can hope the
student convicts also got Business Management and other usable courses. What do
you think?”
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The very first thing that jumped out at me was in the good doctor’s
attempt to make her point - which seems to be that the effort to educate these
inmates was nothing more than window-dressing that failed to give the inmates
the education needed to survive in the real world - in her restatement of the
courses provided, she conveniently left out the most important course in
that regard – Macroeconomics. That clearly betrayed her motive. She was much more interested in criticizing
the program than she was in relating truth and objectivity.
.
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| BERNIE SANDERS FIGHTING FOR CIVIL RIGHTS DURING THE 60S |
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Since Black people are only 14.6% of the population, we need allies, and the good doctor’s brand of rhetoric only serves to turn potential allies off in droves. In fact, it can be argued that Donald Trump became president the second that the sisters from Black Lives Matter went on stage and snatched the microphone from Bernie Sanders. Say what you will about their motives, but it was piss-poor judgment.
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No one’s more pro-Black than I am, but their actions even pissed me off, so I know it turned millions of White people off. We often tend to forget that when seeking allies, image counts - and our failure to recognize that fact is undoubtedly one of our huge problems. When some of us gain the spotlight, instead of focusing on the big picture we can't seem to resist the urge to put on a performance for the public, and we invariably go overboard.
.
The Black community must always remember that we can’t out-scream the White
establishment, because they control the media, and we can’t out-fight them because they control the military and police, so our only
option is to out-think them, and this “educator” is not doing that.
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We can not only gain leverage by force, we can gain leverage through knowledge. In order for the powers that be to maintain power and promote their agenda they must keep the population undereducated. That presents the Black community with an excellent opportunity to level the playing field. While everyone else is being dumbed-down, we should be gorging ourselves on knowledge. As usual, our sisters are ahead of the game in recognizing that fact, but now we’ve got to get the Black man’s attention. Many Black men are so busy either struggling to make a living, or trying to be cool, that we’re completely missing the point. But these inmates have had the time to think, and they’ve become immune to the poverty pimps playing on their misery to feather their own nests.
.
We can not only gain leverage by force, we can gain leverage through knowledge. In order for the powers that be to maintain power and promote their agenda they must keep the population undereducated. That presents the Black community with an excellent opportunity to level the playing field. While everyone else is being dumbed-down, we should be gorging ourselves on knowledge. As usual, our sisters are ahead of the game in recognizing that fact, but now we’ve got to get the Black man’s attention. Many Black men are so busy either struggling to make a living, or trying to be cool, that we’re completely missing the point. But these inmates have had the time to think, and they’ve become immune to the poverty pimps playing on their misery to feather their own nests.
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BLACK WOMEN HAVE BECOME THE MOST
EDUCATED GROUP IN THE UNITED STATES
"Black women are now the most educated group in US, according to the National
Center for Education Statistics. Between 2009 and 2010, black women earned 68 per cent of associate's degrees,
66 per cent of bachelor's degrees, 71 per cent of master's degrees and 65 per
cent of all doctorate degrees awarded to black students.
.
"By both race and gender, a higher percentage of black women (9.7 per cent) is enrolled in college than any other group, including Asian women (8.7 per cent), white women (7.1 per cent) and white men (6.1 per cent)."
"By both race and gender, a higher percentage of black women (9.7 per cent) is enrolled in college than any other group, including Asian women (8.7 per cent), white women (7.1 per cent) and white men (6.1 per cent)."
So articles like the one referenced here, where a Black Ph.D. takes the constructive
efforts of a prison and university system coming together to allow the
inmates to earn college degrees, and then turning that constructive and well-meaning act into an insidious White supremacist conspiracy is destructive to the Black community. It not only promotes division and dysfunction
within society as a whole, but it also represents a gross assault on simple
common sense. After all, how can educating
Black prisoners possibly promote White supremacy!!!? They could have done more in that regard by just allowing them to rot in their cells.
.
That’s why I went out of my way to address this issue. The Black
community must start looking forward and focusing on ways to improve our
condition instead wasting our time looking for every way in which the White establishment
has undermined us. We already know we’ve been undermined, so we should simply
take that overall knowledge and begin to address the issues that made it
possible – and the simple answer to that is a lack of knowledge.
.
The White man wasn’t able to enslave Black people because he could beat us
up, he was able to enslave us because he had a knowledge of gunpowder that we
didn’t possess. Thus, the source of our enslavement was a lack of knowledge, so
the key to our liberation is to embrace the pursuit of that same knowledge as a way of
life. Yet, the writer in question seems to have found a reason to criticize
that pursuit.
.
When
I was a kid and going in and out of jail, the bulls used to laugh at my budding
intellect. That was their favorite pastime, laughing at the ignorance of young
Black men. I didn’t like being laughed at, so that’s what set me on my journey
in pursuit of knowledge. As a result of that pursuit, I can now laugh at their
dumb asses, and I often do, and with great joy.
.
The most effective way of killing a bigot without having to go to
jail is to be
able to clearly demonstrate that he’s intellectually inferior to
you, because it’s kinda hard to call your superior a nigga. I know, because I’ve
made bigots choke on the word many times.
In fact, that’s become MY favorite
pastime. That’s why just the thought of Barack Obama drives Trump crazy. Every
time Trump thinks of Barack, he dies a thousand deaths. So the most effective
response to White supremacy is Black excellence, not sitting in the corner with
our lips poked out and talking about how mean the White man is. That doesn’t demonize the White man, that deifies
him. So we should teach our children, FROM
BIRTH, that adversity is our friend, because it’s a source of knowledge that
makes us MORE rather than less.
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ACTIVISTS PROJECT OBAMA VS. TRUMP APPROVAL RATINGS
ON TOWER OF LONDON DURING TRUMP VISIT
|
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For that very reason, one of the most important lessons we must learn in life is
to ALWAYS give truth and knowledge
priority over ideology. While it’s not always comfortable, and it may not
always make you popular, we should ALWAYS
follow truth wherever it leads, and regardless to whose ox it gores. Thereafter,
if truth makes you feel uncomfortable, that serves as an indication that you’re
confronting an issue that needs to be addressed.
.
And finally, the good doctor ended her article with a question. She asked, “Will
having a degree protect them [the inmates] from the ravages of racism and its
expressions?” In response, I have a question for her – does yours?
THE HOOD RAT
.
Baby,
I’m sure you know that I love you.
You’re everything I need.
You fit the bill of all my desires,
a perfect match for all of my dreams.
From the moment I first laid eyes on you,
You were everything I craved -
that luscious vision from across the tracks,
that delicate flower beyond my blade.
*
But what you ask is foreign to me.
You need something that I’m not.
You said, just tweak my nature a little bit,
and you’ll give everything you’ve got.
*
But that "tweak" you need is who I am -
it’s my essence, can’t you see?
While "hood rat" may seem trite to you,
it’s the essence of my being.
So forget about what all the other’s say,
here’s what it means to me:
*
I’ve been brutally dragged through the pits of hell,
yet, managed to survive,
well educated and fully functional,
when I came out the other side.
I scrounged the lessons taught at Harvard,
because knowledge, I found, was free.
But they’ll never obtain the lessons I’ve learned,
or the knowledge that makes me, me.
*
While the "elite" may have heard a mournful Trane,
or Miles muted in the night,
not in the context of hunger and pain,
or hopelessness, hatred, and blight.
*
So while I've lived the life of a hood rat,
I’ve reaped a knowledge that money can't buy;
a knowledge passed on to my son and daughter,
which has greatly enhanced their lives.
*
Thus, I wouldn't change a single thing in my life -
I’ve faced Hell and passed the test.
I have a PhD in adversity,
that's made me much more,
rather than less.
*
So unlike the people at Harvard and Yale, who
try to buy intellectual clout,
they only study the genius of Miles and Trane,
while I'm who they’re blowin' about.
*
So when snobs try to slur me as "just a hood rat,"
I say, "thank you," and don’t take offense.
I take great pride in surviving the travails in my life,
That’s what gives me my confidence.
*
The Ivy League degrees of those of means
are only paper compared to mine;
while they have a "receipt" for knowledge obtained,
my lessons are ETCHED within my mind.
*
I can teach philosophy to Aristotle
with the adversity that I’ve endured,
so any snob who tries to match my wit,
will come up short, and that’s for sure.
*
Snobs walk about quoting Socrates and such,
through their "education" they are prone;
but while they’re spewing the thoughts of various dead men,
I spend my time developing my own.
*
Never give the thoughts of ANY man
priority over our own;
You must collect the facts, and think for yourself,
that’s where Harvard and Yale has gone wrong.
*
Preacher, politician, potentate,
whatever their point of view,
God didn't bless them with any knowledge
that he failed to bestow on you.
*
So being seen as a hood rat has its advantages
against racists of limited wit;
I simply quietly wait for their condescension,
then show ‘em that they ain’t shit.
*
While God made birds to fly and fish to swim,
he gave man thought and that's the key.
So any man who thinks he's superior
will have to PROVE his wit to me.
*
Thus, knowledge is the key to set us free,
no matter what the people say,
and there’s nothing more formidable than
a knowledgeable hood rat, and
that’s what you’re looking upon today.
*
Yet, these are the things you want me to purge,
and spurn the life I’ve led,
but I’m sorry, my love,
as much as I love you,
the soul of a hood rat is my edge.
.
http://wattree.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-hood-rat.html
You’re everything I need.
You fit the bill of all my desires,
a perfect match for all of my dreams.
From the moment I first laid eyes on you,
You were everything I craved -
that luscious vision from across the tracks,
that delicate flower beyond my blade.
*
But what you ask is foreign to me.
You need something that I’m not.
You said, just tweak my nature a little bit,
and you’ll give everything you’ve got.
*
But that "tweak" you need is who I am -
it’s my essence, can’t you see?
How can you speak of loving my soul,
but not the hood rat that is me?
*While "hood rat" may seem trite to you,
it’s the essence of my being.
So forget about what all the other’s say,
here’s what it means to me:
*
I’ve been brutally dragged through the pits of hell,
yet, managed to survive,
well educated and fully functional,
when I came out the other side.
I scrounged the lessons taught at Harvard,
because knowledge, I found, was free.
But they’ll never obtain the lessons I’ve learned,
or the knowledge that makes me, me.
*
While the "elite" may have heard a mournful Trane,
or Miles muted in the night,
not in the context of hunger and pain,
or hopelessness, hatred, and blight.
*
So while I've lived the life of a hood rat,
I’ve reaped a knowledge that money can't buy;
a knowledge passed on to my son and daughter,
which has greatly enhanced their lives.
*
Thus, I wouldn't change a single thing in my life -
I’ve faced Hell and passed the test.
I have a PhD in adversity,
that's made me much more,
rather than less.
*
So unlike the people at Harvard and Yale, who
try to buy intellectual clout,
they only study the genius of Miles and Trane,
while I'm who they’re blowin' about.
*
So when snobs try to slur me as "just a hood rat,"
I say, "thank you," and don’t take offense.
I take great pride in surviving the travails in my life,
That’s what gives me my confidence.
*
The Ivy League degrees of those of means
are only paper compared to mine;
while they have a "receipt" for knowledge obtained,
my lessons are ETCHED within my mind.
*
I can teach philosophy to Aristotle
with the adversity that I’ve endured,
so any snob who tries to match my wit,
will come up short, and that’s for sure.
*
Snobs walk about quoting Socrates and such,
through their "education" they are prone;
but while they’re spewing the thoughts of various dead men,
I spend my time developing my own.
*
Never give the thoughts of ANY man
priority over our own;
You must collect the facts, and think for yourself,
that’s where Harvard and Yale has gone wrong.
*
Preacher, politician, potentate,
whatever their point of view,
God didn't bless them with any knowledge
that he failed to bestow on you.
*
So being seen as a hood rat has its advantages
against racists of limited wit;
I simply quietly wait for their condescension,
then show ‘em that they ain’t shit.
*
While God made birds to fly and fish to swim,
he gave man thought and that's the key.
So any man who thinks he's superior
will have to PROVE his wit to me.
*
Thus, knowledge is the key to set us free,
no matter what the people say,
and there’s nothing more formidable than
a knowledgeable hood rat, and
that’s what you’re looking upon today.
*
Yet, these are the things you want me to purge,
and spurn the life I’ve led,
but I’m sorry, my love,
as much as I love you,
the soul of a hood rat is my edge.
.
http://wattree.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-hood-rat.html
Eric
L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
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.
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.