NEVER BECOME SO BLACK THAT YOU FORGET YOU NEED WHITE ALLIES

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

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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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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“‘The students, all convicted of felonies, earned associate degrees by

PRISON SCHOLARS

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 . . .

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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

Every Black person in America (with the possible exception of Clarence Thomas and Ben Carson) know that White supremacy is real, but the good doctor took it a step further to profile and impugn the motives of  even the White folks who are TRYING to do the right thing. While that may make her look like a no-nonsense Black warrior, that only feathers her own nest among the non-thinkers among us, but it’s not in the Black community’s best interest.
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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.

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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.

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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.

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"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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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The most effective way of killing a bigot without having to go to jail is to be

ACTIVISTS PROJECT OBAMA VS. TRUMP APPROVAL RATINGS

ON TOWER OF LONDON DURING TRUMP VISIT

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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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.

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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

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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?

How can you speak of loving my soul, 

but not the hood rat that is me?

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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:
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Preacher, politician, potentate,
whatever their point of view,
God didn't bless them with any knowledge
that he failed to bestow on you.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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http://wattree.blogspot.com/2018/05/the-hood-rat.html

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. 

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BLACK PEOPLE - IS WHITE SUPREMACY REALLY OUR BIGGEST PROBLEM?

Beneath the Spin*Eric L. Wattree

BLACK PEOPLE - IS WHITE SUPREMACY REALLY OUR BIGGEST PROBLEM?

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One would have to be a fool to deny the fact that this White supremacist system doesn’t work overtime to keep Black people subjugated, but it gets a lot of help from Black people themselves. Somewhere along the line many Black people just gave up and accepted their plight as being at the bottom-rung of society. Thereafter, their idea of success was being just a little bit better off than other Black people. That’s what led to the crabs-in-a-barrel syndrome in the Black community. Since many of us contend that Black people can’t move forward because “the White man” is holding us down, we compete among ourselves, and then when anyone among us begins to move up to the next rung in society we put all of our efforts into pulling them back down to prevent them from invalidating our valuable excuse for failure. As a direct result, many ambitious and creative Black people can’t manage to get a foothold in society in order to help pull the rest of us up, and it’s a vicious circle.
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So as Black people we must learn to follow truth wherever it leads and regardless to whose ox it gores. Then when truth leads to a place or conclusion that we find troubling, we must address the issue honestly and in a forthright manner instead of trying to bend truth into a configuration that brings comfort to our delusions - “It’s not my fault; the White man is responsible for my condition.” That’s bullshit. If it that was true, ALL Black people would be dope fiends, criminals, failures and going in and out of jail - but they’re not.
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The vast majority of Black people have never seen the inside of a police station or jail in their lives, and they have the courage, determination, and intellectual discipline to move forward in spite of the obstacles placed in their path. So again, while it's undeniable that this White supremacist society works hard to stifle Black progress, so do Black people, and the following explains how and why:
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We’d rather undermine one another than stick together, we often lack focus, many of us are much more interested in merely LOOKING successful than actually becoming successful (flo-showin’), and far too many of us are more interested in becoming sports stars and entertainers than we are in being competent, learned, and enlightened individuals. And finally, many of us use all our energy and intellectual creativity doing exactly what I’m sure is going to be done in this thread - trying to prove that our failure is someone else’s fault instead of looking at ourselves objectively and addressing our shortcomings - and everyone has them, even Black people, believe it or not.
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But someone who doesn't want to accept these truths is bound to say, "Man, you sound like a White bigot."  Well, maybe, but there's a very good reason for that. I've learned over the years that bigots can be a very valuable resource.  They hate Black people so much that they dig a lot deeper, and much more thoroughly, trying to find our shortcomings. So I simply let them do the work, and then I address the issues that they come up with in an objective and forthright manner. In that way, I allow their idiocy to help me to grow, and to rid myself of my glaring shortcomings.  So the more they wolf, and the more they try to insult me, the more they extend my superiority over them.
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So, yes, White supremacy is without a doubt a big obstacle to Black progress, but it’s far from our only obstacle. The biggest obstacle to Black progress is Black people themselves, not because we're dumb, but because we continue to make thinking a hobby instead of a way of life.

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Eric L. Wattree
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.

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DEDICATED TO ELDER HAMPTON, A HUMBLE, BUT TRUE MAN OF GOD

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

"IF YE WERE ABRAHAM'S CHILDREN, YE WOULD DO THE WORKS OF ABRAHAM"

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Every since I wrote the column "Crabs in a Barrel," the gross hypocrisy of South Carolina State Senator, Rev. Darrell Jackson, has lingered with me. In that column I describe how the Black, South Carolina State Senator, who was also the pastor of the 10,000 member, "Family Way Bible Life Center Church," came out against Senator Barack Obama afer selling his support to Senator Hillary Clinton for $10,000 a month--a dollar amount that corresponded exactly with the number of members he had in his church.
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Now, as I drive through the Black community and see the magnificent "houses of God" towering over the community in the midst of poverty, social need, and in some cases, squalor all around them, I can't help but wonder how many of them are really doing God's work.
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When I look at those resplendent edifices, it takes me back to a little storefront church on a 108th and Juniper in Watts, where my grandmother first sent me for religious instruction--she was ill at the time, so she couldn't take me to "the big church" in which she was a member.
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I'll never forget that little storefront church. It stood down the street and in the shadow of a huge and elaborately appointed Catholic church, seemingly, almost as an afterthought. It was so small and had so few members that the thought of attracting a true "ordained man of God" was out of the question, so we had to settle for a little, unassuming man that we used to refer to as Elder Hampton. That little church was the closest thing to worshiping in someone's living room as you could get, but to this day, whenever I begin to lose faith in the basic goodness of my fellow man, or even remotely begin to contemplate God, I think of that little storefront church.
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If I'd remained at that church, I don't know what I would have been doing today. My young instincts led me to become so close to Elder Hampton that I might have even become a preacher. He used to take me with him to visit the old, the poor, and the sickly in the neighbor. Black, Mexican, young, old, Baptist or Catholic, he didn't care what a person was—if they were sick or in need, they were all a part of his flock.
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Looking back on it, I don't know where he found the resources. He certainly didn't get it from our little collection plate—we were so poor and so few in number he couldn't have gotten more than ten dollars a Sunday out of us, max. But in spite of that, he was no Sunday preacher. He was a full-time man of God--if you were sick or in need, you could count on him seven days a week. But after my grandmother had an operation and finally got over her illness, they took me to the "big church," and I never saw Elder Hampton again, but his influence has remained constant in my life to this day—in fact, though I must admit that I'm rarely found in church these days, it is his lingering influence that's led me to write this article, and everything else that I write.
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The first time I went to the big church I was completely overwhelmed with the opulence of it all. Shortly before I arrived, the church had just imported in a new fireball of an ordained minister direct from Dallas, Texas. He was nothing like the quiet and humble Elder Hampton. He had a big booming voice, wore shinny Florsheims, expensive suits, and a sense of importance just oozed from every pore of his body. When this man walked into a room it sucked all the oxygen out of the place--you just knew you were in the presence of someone significant.
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And God must have loved this magnificent church the minister headed--the choir alone in this ornate house of God was larger by a factor of three than the entire membership of the little church I'd grown accustomed to, and the choir pit was twice as large as the room where we held Sunday school. The parking lot of the church was filled with big, expensive cars, and a limousine was often parked next to the front entrance. In addition, City Councilmen and other politicians were counted among its membership, and a well known entertainer, Billy Preston, was the church organist. In a church like this you didn't have to wait to get to heaven--every Sunday you were right there. The only problem was, after services you had to return to reality, which was more often than not, a life of pure hell.
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I've often wondered what Elder Hampton would have done with all of those resources. But I couldn't imagine Elder Hampton heading a magnificent place like this. But since he wasn't "ordained," it wasn't even an issue. He never would have even been considered to head a place like this in the first place. I don't care how Godly you were, stature took precedence there–if Moses wanted to head the church, they'd want to inspect his credentials. But even if Elder Hampton would have been ordained, he was much too humble a man to be embraced by the high-powered people in this membership. With his quiet, unassuming demeanor, even as a member, he would have been a back-bencher—politely tolerated, but scarcely noticed.
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And further, Elder Hampton wouldn't begin to know how to manage the resources of a huge church like this. While he was definitely a man of God, he wasn't a practical man. He probably would have squander all the church's resources on the "no-account sinners" in the surrounding community.
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He was just too impractical. He probably would have setup a soup kitchen and built a dormitory to house the homeless at night, and hired unemployed mothers to start a low-cost daycare center on the church grounds during the day. Then it wouldn't be no time at all before he'd dig up the church's beautiful grounds, trying to put up basketball courts and a recreation building to draw young people off the streets after school. And of course, between the kids during the day, the teenagers in the early evening, and the homeless at night, it would cost the church a fortune just to keep up the grounds and repair damages to the building.
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Much of the congregation would have been in an uproar over the chaos he'd create. And it would go far beyond simply chaos. He would have long since lost most of the influential politicians. Every Sunday he'd be hounding them at church, and calling them at home during the week, trying to get them to create Empowerment Zones, and Special Need Zones to establish low-cost loans to help the surrounding neighbors to purchase and fix-up the houses they were living in. It's no wonder he'd drive the politicians out of the church. How could he expect these busy men and women to worship God in peace with him buzzing around like a gadfly trying to get them to help the poor?
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No, Elder Hampton's heart was in the right place, but he'd have been much too impractical to run a big church like this. He was a God loving man, but he lacked common sense. He thought when God said Love thy neighbor, he meant it. What a fool.
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Yeah, Elder Hampton would have been a back-bencher at that church. He would have been the fool sitting way in the back--with Jesus.

*****

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. When you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues 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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Elder Hampton, God knew of the good works that you did in secret . . . And unbeknownst to you, he sent a child to record your deeds, and to absorb your Godly essence. 

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DEDICATED TO ELDER HAMPTON - A MAN OF GOD

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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.

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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Where's Langston? Where's Baldwin? Where's Oscar Brown, Jr?
We need you stormin' this beach, because . . .
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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.
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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,
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And my heart bleeds.
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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.

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I Pay my Tithes to the Homeless

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

 

I Pay my Tithes to the Homeless

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Rev. E.V. Hill and Verlee Wattree (Mom)

I used to routinely challenge Rev. Hill. I didn’t want to seem impudent or like a rebel rouser (after all, I was a child), but there was something inside of me that just YEARNED to let him know that I had his number - and I did. I was only 14, but by that time I had already been highly political for 4 years. I’d become fixated on politics by watching the campaign between JFK and Nixon when I was 10 years old. So for me, it was just another political debate. But in order not to be disrespectful, I’d use the Socratic method of challenging his assertions with questions that he’d have to dig to try to answer. No, at the time, I didn't even know there was such a thing as the "Socratic Method," but being a respectful, though opinionated kid, the use of questions seemed to be a more appropriate way of respectfully challenging an  adult than direct confrontation. While I wanted to be heard, I didn't want to make myself look like a disrespectful brat. That not only would have reflected badly on my family, but my point would have been lost in the resulting furor, and I certainly didn't want that.
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But I wasn't fooling the reverend for a minute.  He knew exactly what was going on. On more than one Sunday morning I would recognize that his sermons were forged directly from a discussion that we'd had the previous Sunday.  And while he was preaching, and as his powerful voice would bellow into the churches sound system, he'd look directly into my eyes, but I wouldn't blink. Because even as he preached, I was fashioning questions in my mind to confront him with during our next encounter, and on one such occasion I got the good reverend to the side and asked him the following:
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Does God know all? And he said, "Of course he does." I then asked him, can God be wrong? And he told me, "No he can’t." I then reminded him that in his last sermon he said that all a person had to do to get into Heaven was to repent his sins and be Baptized. And he said, "That’s right." Then I dropped the bomb. I asked him, well, if God knows all, and he knows a billion years before Billy is even born that Billy is going to be born, live his life, and then end up in Hell, is there ANYTHING that Billy can do in life to make God wrong - and that includes, repenting and being Baptized?
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After considering the question for a moment he ran to the preacher’s refuge.  He said,  "There are some things that are so complex that it is only for God to know." I saw that as a cop-out, and I'm sure he knew it, because he later approached my grandfather and asked him, "Where is he getting this stuff?" If he would have asked me, I would have answered him very simply - "From God." Because God made birds to fly, fish to swim, and man to think, not to blindly follow the delusional contrivances of other men.
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And what I was thinking was not unique. I believe a lot of people have thought the exact same thoughts that I had, but they were afraid to voice them because they'd been threatened with going to Hell if they didn't have absolute faith in everything they were told. But I didn't sweat that, because common sense dictated to me that a loving father would never allow one of his children to agonize throughout eternity in "the burning pits of Hell" for simply refusing to blindly accept the assertions of another man. That, by definition, wouldn't be a loving God.  And besides that, it was God himself who made us critical thinkers in the first place, wasn’t it?  So, why would he create us to be critical thinkers if critical thinking was a damnable offense? 
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The confused logic in that smacked of man to me, even through the unpracticed eyes of a child. While many Christians would say, "Well, Jesus said . . . "  My response to that is, we have to take man's word on that as well, don't we?" So as I saw it, we had a choice - we could either trust in what man SAYS, or what God has DONE.  Personally, I've placed my money on what God has done, because if we choose to follow the "Gospel" of man over the mind that God specifically designed and bestowed upon us, we've decided to worship man over God - period.
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I also confronted (or questioned) the good reverend about his practice of publishing the names of everybody who tithed, and what they paid, in the church bulletin every month. I considered it extortion. It placed pressure on the members to not only tithe, but pay two and three times what they were "suppose" to pay so the rest of the church couldn’t calculate how little money they made.
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So no, I didn’t have any problem with confronting the good reverend at all, because I’ve never been impressed by stature. In fact, it’s the people "of stature" that I seek out to challenge, because I learned very early in life that they tend to be the biggest gasbags. In addition, I’d been exposed to Elder Hampton, a REAL man of God. 
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When my grandmother was ill, she used to send me to a little storefront church until she was back on her feet and could take me to join "THE BIG CHURCH." That entire little church wasn’t even as large as Mt. Zion’s choir section. It was presided over by a little un-ordained minister that we used to call Elder Hampton. But that little man had an impact on my life that has remained with me to this day, because he was humble, and he didn’t just preach his sermons - he lived them. If Jesus came back to Earth, I would expect him to come back in the guise of someone like Elder Hampton. No big cars, no social climbing, no expensive suits or pushing meaningless rituals for this little man. He had only one mission - living the SPIRIT of the Gospel. He knew the words of the Gospel, but what set him apart is he got past the text to the love and substance that lied BENEATH the words.
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Simply observing this man helped me to forge my sense of morality. As a result, my moral sensibilities don't involve a lot of words and meaningless rituals. So I 've never felt the need to get up on Sunday morning and get all dressed up to go pay somebody to scream at me for two hours; nor do I feel the need to buy some preacher a mansion in the suburbs. Because, it's always been clear to me that it doesn’t matter how rich you make your preacher, God is not impressed by such nonsense. In fact, he’s probably insulted by the fact that you’re trying to play him like a fool. What makes a person think that God would be pleased by them buying a rich gasbag a big house while there are people right next door to the church who are starving? For that reason, I've always thought the most interesting position in all the universe has to be assistant to St. Peter at the entrance of the Pearly Gate. Can you imagine some of the discussions that must be taking place there!!!?  They've got to be fascinating - especially when members of the GOP arrive seeking the "Corporate Entrance," or when Jerry Falwell pulled up in his Rolls to confront Jesus sitting on his throne dressed in rags.
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But I'm just indulging in a flight of fancy here. I don't even believe that Heaven and Hell are actual places. I think they are a condition. While I have no way of actually knowing this for sure, it seems to me that it is quite likely that life itself is Hell, and we continue to suffer through the cycle of birth, life, and the agony of death until we’ve been around enough times to obtain the wisdom to become one with God - that's why some people are so much more enlightened than others; they've been around more times. And what we define as "evil," is actually just ignorance.
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So, chances are, the only reason we’re here in the first place, instead of luxuriating in the embrace of God, is because we’re the people who were greedy, selfish, and the ones who thought we were slick enough to fool God the last time around. But of course, that's only speculation on my part.  God hasn’t given me any inside information like others claim, so I have no way of knowing whether or not what I believe is true. But if I’m going to believe in a myth, I’d much rather believe in my own than one that’s been prefabricated for me.
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But I do believe in my little scenario with quite a bit of passion, because I have carefully watched how God works by observing the patterns and what seems to be a motif within the universe. In my opinion, that’s the only way that one can understand God and know his will, by observing what he has DONE, and from what I've notice, everything in the universe seems to be based on cycles.
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Electrons orbit in cycles around the nucleus of the smallest atom, just as the planets orbit around the Sun, and the Sun orbits around the center of the galaxy, and our galaxy hurls through space in search of the center of the universe. So the universe itself is based on cycles. Likewise, we are born helpless, toothless, and lack meaningful mobility when we are babies, and we return to that state when we grow old. That reflects yet another cycle. Then every morning dawn bursts forth to create another day, only to play itself out and complete it’s cycle and pass away into darkness at the end of the day. The same is true of the seasons. Every year I watch in amazement how my seemingly lifeless peach tree begins to take on life in the spring, bear fruit, and then return to what SEEMS like a lifeless slumber at the end of the season. So when I observe this pattern of cycles throughout nature, and the universe, somehow the frivolous myths of man seems counterintuitive.
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I also find man's "Christian" convention of further enriching the rich counterintuitive.  So instead of using the church as an intermediary, I pay my tithes directly to the homeless. That way I'm sure they get it, and I don’t have to wait until I die to be rewarded. When I give money to the homeless I can instantly see God’s smile reflected in their eyes. Try it some time. The next time a homeless person asks you for some change, give them 10 or $20 and then look into their eyes. I guarantee you, the look in their eyes will make it the best $20 you’ll ever spend, and the feeling will stay with you all week. It’ll make you want to go broke doing it. If I were rich, I’d spend much of my life walking around making homeless people smile.
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And I don’t care how they spend the money I give them. It’s not my place to tell them what they need, or how they should live their lives.  All I’m interested in is giving them a little relief, and bringing a moment of happiness into their lives. In fact, sometimes when I go on my morning stroll, I’ll go by the liquor store and get us ALL a little hit. Then I'll stop by their little encampment and spend an hour or so getting a buzz on with ‘em.  We all need that release from time to time.
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These people don't want do-gooders coming around trying to use them to get into Heaven. The fact is, having to put up with such people - good intentions notwithstanding - is one of the heavy burdens that their way of life forces them to have to bear. What they need, and what they want, is someone to sit down and share their lives with - someone who's not looking upon them as pitiful aberrations of humanity.
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I’ve been doing this for years, so now when I get up and go on my little stroll in the morning, the neighbors - and the police - know what I’m up to. The police used to try to dissuade me by putting a little pressure on me - they even gave me a ticket once. But once the higher-ups found that I was just the eccentric dad of a fellow law enforcement officer, they kicked the ticket out. Now the police just sort of turn their head and give me a pass. They simply told me not to buy them enough liquor to get them drunk (which I would never do anyway), and to make sure that they're discrete and don’t brandish open containers of alcohol in public, which I do, and this little ritual has become a treasured part of my routine.
　

I’m sure there are many people who would say what I’m doing is not right, but I beg to differ. All these people want is a moment of joy every now and then, and to be able to indulge in some of the simple pleasures that my critics routinely enjoy in the privacy of their homes. And again, it is not my place to try to save these people from themselves. They are adults - and most are very intelligent adults who, for various reasons, have hit bumps in the road. So I’m simply treating them the way that I would want to be treated - isn't that a Christian tenet?
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The problem is, far too many "Christians" are much more interested in Christian doctrine than they are Christian love. They spend far too much time trying to push their ideology down people's throats, and far too little time simply trying to make the world a better place for their fellow human beings. They’ve turned Christianity into a political philosophy, and they've forgotten the very essence of what the spirit of Christianity is SUPPOSED to be all about.  This is why they're losing young people by the droves. Young people are not as comfortable with hypocrisy as many of the older people have become over the years.

About Elder Hampton

KNOW THE TRUTH AND THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE

 

Every since I wrote the column "Crabs in a Barrel," the gross hypocrisy of South Carolina State Senator, Rev. Darrell Jackson, has lingered with me. In that column I describe how the Black, South Carolina State Senator, who was also the pastor of the 10,000 member, "Family Way Bible Life Center Church," came out against Senator Barack Obama after selling his support to Senator Hillary Clinton for $10,000 a month--a dollar amount that corresponded exactly with the number of members he had in his church.
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Now, as I drive through the Black community and see the magnificent "houses of God" towering over the community in the midst of poverty, social need, and in some cases, squalor all around them, I can't help but wonder how many of them are really doing God's work.
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When I look at those resplendent edifices, it takes me back to a little storefront church on a 108th and Juniper in Watts, where my grandmother first sent me for religious instruction--she was ill at the time, so she couldn't take me to "the big church" in which she was a member.
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I'll never forget that little storefront church. It stood down the street and in the shadow of a huge and elaborately appointed Catholic church, seemingly, almost as an afterthought. It was so small and had so few members that the thought of attracting a true "ordained man of God" was out of the question, so we had to settle for a little, unassuming man that we used to refer to as Elder Hampton. That little church was the closest thing to worshiping in someone's living room as you could get, but to this day, whenever I begin to lose faith in the basic goodness of my fellow man, or even remotely begin to contemplate God, I think of that little storefront church.
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If I'd remained at that church, I don't know what I would have been doing today. My young instincts led me to become so close to Elder Hampton that I might have even become a preacher. He used to take me with him to visit the old, the poor, and the sickly in the neighbor. Black, Mexican, young, old, Baptist or Catholic, he didn't care what a person was—if they were sick or in need, they were all a part of his flock.
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Looking back on it, I don't know where he found the resources. He certainly didn't get it from our little collection plate—we were so poor and so few in number he couldn't have gotten more than ten dollars a Sunday out of us, max. But in spite of that, he was no Sunday preacher. He was a full-time man of God--if you were sick or in need, you could count on him seven days a week. But after my grandmother had an operation and finally got over her illness, they took me to the "big church," and I never saw Elder Hampton again, but his influence has remained constant in my life to this day—in fact, though I must admit that I'm rarely found in church these days, it is his lingering influence that's led me to write this article, and everything else that I write.
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The first time I went to the big church I was completely overwhelmed with the opulence of it all. Shortly before I arrived, the church had just imported in a new fireball of an ordained minister, direct from Dallas, Texas. He was nothing like the quiet and humble Elder Hampton. He had a big booming voice, wore shinny Florsheims, expensive suits, and a sense of importance just oozed from every pore of his body. When this man walked into a room it sucked all the oxygen out of the place--you just knew you were in the presence of someone significant.
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Every since I wrote the column "Crabs in a Barrel," the gross hypocrisy of South Carolina State Senator, Rev. Darrell Jackson, has lingered with me. In that column I describe how the Black, South Carolina State Senator, who was also the pastor of the 10,000 member,

And God must have loved this magnificent church the minister headed--the choir alone in this ornate house of God was larger by a factor of three than the entire membership of the little church I'd grown accustomed to, and the choir pit was twice as large as the room where we held Sunday school. The parking lot of the church was filled with big, expensive cars, and a limousine was often parked next to the front entrance. In addition, City Councilmen and other politicians were counted among its membership, and a well known entertainer was the church organist. In a church like this you didn't have to wait to get to heaven--every Sunday you were right there. The only problem was, after services you had to return to reality, which was more often than not, a life of pure hell.
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I've often wondered what Elder Hampton would have done with all of those resources. But I couldn't imagine Elder Hampton heading a magnificent place like this. Since he wasn't ordained, he never would have even been considered to head a place like this in the first place. I don't care how Godly you were, stature took precedence there–if Moses wanted to head the church, they'd want to inspect his credentials. But even if Elder Hampton would have been ordained, he was much too humble a man to be embraced by the high-powered people in this membership. With his quiet, unassuming demeanor, even as a member, he would have been a back-bencher—politely tolerated, but scarcely noticed.
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And further, Elder Hampton wouldn't begin to know how to manage the resources of a huge church like that. While he was definitely a man of God, he wasn't a practical man. He probably would have squander all the church's resources on the no-account sinners in the surrounding community.
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He was just too impractical. He probably would have setup a soup kitchen and built a dormitory to house the homeless at night, and hired unemployed mothers to start a low-cost daycare center on the church grounds during the day. Then it wouldn't be no time at all before he'd dig up the church's beautiful grounds, trying to put up basketball courts and a recreation building to draw young people off the streets after school. And of course, between the kids during the day, the teenagers in the early evening, and the homeless at night, it would cost the church a fortune just to keep up the grounds and repair damages to the building.
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Much of the congregation would have been in an uproar over the chaos he'd create. And it would go far beyond simply chaos. He would have long since lost most of the influential politicians. Every Sunday he'd be hounding them at church, and calling them at home during the week, trying to get them to create Empowerment Zones, and Special Need Zones to establish low-cost loans to help the surrounding neighbors to purchase and fix-up the houses they were living in. It's no wonder he'd drive the politicians out of the church. How could he expect these busy men to worship God in peace with him buzzing around like a gadfly trying to get them to help the poor?
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No, Elder Hampton's heart was in the right place, but he'd have been much too impractical to run a big church like that. He was a God loving man, but he lacked common sense. He thought when God said Love thy neighbor, he meant it. What a fool.
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Yeah, Elder Hampton would have been a back-bencher at that church. He would have been the fool sitting way in the back--with Jesus.

*****

“Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. When you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. “And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues 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

 

Elder Hampton, God knew of the good works that you did in secret . . . And unbeknownst to you, he sent a child to record them. 

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DEDICATED TO ELDER HAMPTON - A MAN OF GOD

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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.

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An Ugly Truth: Why Some Black People Are Still Waiting For Santa Claus

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree
 

An Ugly Truth:

Why Some Black People Are Still Waiting
For Santa Claus

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Whenever I hear the Name Belafonte the first word that comes to mind is "Class." That’s the only word appropriate for the way Harry Belafonte represented Black manhood in the fifties and early sixties. During a time when the few other Black celebrities with the crossover appeal of Belafonte were trying their best to make the White world forget that they were Black, Harry Belafonte flaunted his Blackness with dignity and pride. This soft-spoken, intelligent, and self-assured Black man with the undulating body drove White women crazy for just a taste of forbidden fruit, while at the very same time giving the White establishment a glimpse of things to come.
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During that period America still viewed Black men in the Steppin’ Fetchit tradition, so for the most part, the only Black men that we saw or heard in the media were people like Lightin’ and Amos n Andy. So brothers like Harry Belafonte were sorely needed to upgrade our image, but ironically, Belafonte was so self-assured, and moved about the White world so effortlessly that there were a few in the Black community who called him an Uncle Tom. Such people will always be around. No matter how impressive a person is, you can always depend on a handful of haters pointing out that one of his shoestrings is shorter than the other. 
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But, of course, calling Belafonte an Uncle Tom was ridiculous. Harry Belafonte was on the cutting edge when it came to defining the modern American Black man. Again, Belafonte was one of America’s first looks at what the modern Black man - at his best - was to become. While on the other hand, those who called him an Uncle Tom represented a throwback to the slave mentality of the Black man at his worse, with a mentality that dictates that any Black man who doesn’t walk around looking at his feet, or who is comfortable in casually dealing with White folks eyeball-to-eyeball, can’t be trusted.
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I’ve come to call that mentality the Smiley/West syndrome. You can always spot these people with just a glance. While they don’t act overtly subservient to White folks, and they’re even militant at times, their interactions with the White world always have a needy, self-conscious tinge to them, as though they’re seeking admiration, or recognition from the White world for being "brave" enough to speak up, and smart enough to speak to them in their own terms. Thus, while on the surface, they seem to be speaking on behalf of Black people, the message beneath the surface seems to be a desperate plea for acknowledgment, for the "Great White Father" to give them recognition for being "special."  Their actions and behavior seems to say, "See, I ain’t like those other niggas!"
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Notice the Body Language. 
There's No Doubt Who's the Dominant
Personality Here.


 

Such people are frauds. They’re trying to play both ends against the middle. On the one hand, they’re trying to gain the admiration of Black people for having the courage to speak up on their behalf, while on the other, they’re winking at the White man and desperately seeking his approval. That’s why such people were so hostile toward people like Harry Belafonte in the past, and those same sort of people are hostile toward Barack Obama today.
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People like Belafonte and Obama have attainted the stature and genuine respect of the White establishment that the frauds so desperately seek, so their response to people like Belafonte and Obama is like that of a child who resents his brother or sister because their daddy seems to like their sibling more.
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There’s clear evidence of this syndrome in the career of Cornel West. For a man who claims to love "his people" so desperately, it’s very curious that he’s never invested one smidgen of his oft-lauded skills as an educator into an effort to educate Black kids. Cornel West has never taught at a predominantly Black school in his entire career. He’s chosen to educate the kids of the White elite at Harvard, Princeton, and Yale instead.  And with respect to that, a good rule of thumb when attempting to assess the character of any individual - be they preacher, politician, or potentate - is to ignore what they say, and watch what they do.
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Any Black man who advocates "conserving"
 traditional American values is,
by definition, an idiot.

There are far too many Black people around who still suffer from this slave mentality. They’ve been convinced over the years that their own people are inferior, so unlike the people of most cultures, whose prime motivation is to come together and help move their people forward, the prime motivation of far too many Black people is to prove that they’re somehow superior to their own people. Then, when they come across other Black people who demonstrate the excellence, and even brilliance, that thrives throughout the Black community, instead of embracing these people, they feel challenged, and become hostile.
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As a direct result of that attitude by some, the very Black people with the knowledge, foresight, and character to help us move forward, are often severely scrutinized and brutally attacked, and that’s exactly what’s taking place with respect to President Obama. Instead of just letting the President do his job like any other president, people like Tavis Smiley and Cornel West are constantly demanding that he PROVE that he cares about Black people. It’s ridiculous - the man’s wife and children are Black, and he’s Black!
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But it’s more than just ridiculous; it hurts the Black community, and it hurts the nation. It makes the President’s job twice as hard, because in order for the President to be effective, he has to have the solid support of the people. So this constant insinuation by his Black critics that he’s somehow "not Black enough," not only dilutes his Black support, but their constant demands that he do something SPECIAL for the Black community to prove his Blackness, serves as grist for the mill of his political opponents. His opponents use such demands to both further dilute the Black community by claiming that he should be doing more for Black people, and then flipping the coin and telling the President’s White supporters that all he cares about is delivering special treatment for Black people. Thus, everything he does is scrutinize and evaluated in that light. As a result, everything he does that happens to benefit any group, is turned around and used against him as evidence that he doesn’t care about another.   
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BOYCE WATKINS

It also hurts the Black community because it prevents President Obama from using his bully pulpit to even suggest things that the Black community could do to improve its plight, and that’s something that’s needed very badly. A prime example of that was when, then, Senator Obama, was running for President, he gave a Father’s Day speech suggesting that Black fathers step up to the plate and take responsibility for their children. The next day all hell broke loose. Dr. Boyce Watkins in - who it now turns out is an undercover Black conservative in drag - wrote an article in "Your Black World" wanting to know why Obama singled out only Black deadbeat dads. It seemed to me, that should have been obvious - because he's Black, and he wants to see Black people thrive.  But, of course, Watkins was simply fishing for an issue.
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What makes this problem so tenacious, and so easily seized upon by Black demagogues, is that Black people have been on the receiving end of such groundlessly slanderous criticism over the centuries that we’ve become overly sensitive to ALL criticism - even when it’s constructive and warranted. We’ve got to get past that and learn to follow truth. We’ve got to train our minds to always give truth priority over ideology, and learn to follow truth wherever it leads and regardless to whose ox it gores. If we can simply teach ourselves to do just that one thing, it would put us "Miles Ahead" (pun intended) of every other group in America.
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Recklessly irresponsible parents should be
liable for the crimes their kids
commit - Period.

Truth is much like physical pain. While it can be severely uncomfortable, it can also alert us to serious problems that need to be addressed. So again, we should always follow truth wherever it leads, and then, if we don’t like where it leads us, instead of trying to deny truth, we should take the necessary action to modify what it reveals.
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If we can do that, we’ll see many of the problems in the Black community begin to melt away, because truth will tell us that we’re both the primary source of many of our problems, and should be the primary source of their solutions. Truth would tell us that more money passes through the Black community than through many countries, so if we would learn to work together and patronize our own businesses, we could become a nation within a nation. Truth would also tell us that we need to begin to teach our children the value of knowledge from the day they’re born, and we should also teach them about the stupidity of killing one another over a "territory" where they don’t own even one blade of grass.
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Truth would also tell us that our churches should be doing a lot more in the community than just preaching and collecting money every Sunday. It’s not enough to just recite the words of Jesus. Jesus’s words were designed to teach us how to actually live, not just TALK about how to live. 
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One of the things that Jesus said was, "If you claim to be the children of Abraham, you’d be doing the works of Abraham." Are our churches doing the works of Abraham? I don’t think so. If they were, there wouldn’t be a hungry child in America. So again, truth would tell us that our Churches, and the preachers who preside over our churches, spend far too much time TELLING us about Jesus, and far too little time LIVING like Jesus.
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Take the issue of poverty, for example. One of the biggest expenses for many working mothers is childcare. Why aren’t our churches helping to relieve that burden by keeping the churches open during the week and using some of their tithes to provide affordable childcare for working mothers? They could also hire unemployed mothers to staff the operation, and use retired teachers within their congregation to help educate the children. I think that’s what Jesus would have done. 
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So until we open our eyes to the truth, we cannot correct one of the most serious legacies of slavery - the belief by many that Black people have a moral obligation to remain ignorant. It doesn’t matter how sophisticated we think we’ve become, we are still the product of a racist environment, and as such, many of us are just as racist toward other Black people as any racist, sheet-wearing, barefoot, Hillbilly - and in many cases, even more so.  I refer to such people as "bligots" (Black-on-Black bigots) - and let there be no doubt about it, there are many of them out there. 
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So in order to neutralize that inbred legacy of slavery, it is incumbent upon us to expand our minds and seek to become independent thinkers. Each and every one of us should begin to educate ourselves, and thereafter, never give anyone else's ability to think priority over our own. Yes, we should continue to absorb knowledge from the knowledgeable, but we should evaluate that knowledge, and then ALWAYS connect the dots for ourselves.
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And remember, even though knowledge is the most valuable commodity on Earth, it's free, so no one can deprive you of it. There is just as much knowledge on Google or at the corner library as there is at Harvard, Princeton, and Yale Universities combined. So if you don't avail yourself of it, you're CHOOSING to remain ignorant. That's the one thing that we can't blame on the White man.
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And finally, the human mind was designed to hate ignorance, so true pride can only be had through the acquisition of knowledge. Thus, until such time that we obtain the true pride that comes with knowledge, we are doomed to continue to hate ourselves, which will make it impossible for us to ever come together to fight for the independence, equality, and justice necessary to sustain a viable culture. So the long and the short of it is, until we learn to respect the power of knowledge, we will remain enslaved - period.

 

RELATED MATERIAL

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A Sensible Response to White Supremacy

http://wattree.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-sensible-response-to-white-supremacy.html
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"IF YE WERE ABRAHAM'S CHILDREN, YE WOULD DO THE WORKS OF ABRAHAM"

http://wattree.blogspot.com/2011/07/know-truth-and-truth-shall-set-you-free.html

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Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
Ewattree@Gmail.comCitizens 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.

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