EXCELLENCE IS THE KEY TO BLACK EQUALITY . ABOUT
NEW JACK CITY AND WHITE SUPREMACY
I'd like to see them start making movies reflecting Black manhood as being brilliant instead of swaggerin' and murderous for a change. Not only do we seem to only be swaggerin' and murderous enough to kill one another, but in the end, we never seem to be bad enough to avoid getting our brains out by rogue cops.
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While we claim to be “woke”, how many other groups consider buying popcorn and watching their people getting their brains blown out as entertainment? Not many, I assure you. So, it seems to me that it’s about time we start teaching our kids something new. What do you think?
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In response to one brother’s contention that Blaxploitation movies are just
movies, what many less than thoughtful Black people don’t seem to get is these are not just movies, they're 2-hour commercials that are designed to drive home an image of who and what Black people represent. Contrary to what many believe, such movies are not designed strictly for entertainment, but are actually on a dead serious mission of indoctrinating you, your children, and the world’s vision of “your place” in society. They not only make it easier for the police to blow your brains out on the street, but easier for jurors to find them “not guilt” after they do so, because all many people know about Black people is what they see in on television and in the movies. So when they think about us, they don't think of innocent Black people minding their own business, they think of gangsters, dope dealers and murders.
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If White people were portrayed in the same way as Black people in the media, we’d think that all White folks were barefoot Hillbillies. That’s why whenever you look at a movie – ANY MOVIE - it will ALWAYS show the White man on top, or the leader, and the Black man is portrayed as either a sidekick, a fool, or an idiot of some sort. There’s a very simple reason for that - because movies are designed to ram the White man’s view of reality down society’s throat. It’s the glue that holds society together. It’s called sublimation, and it’s one of the strongest and most effective weapons of White supremacy. . Such movies make it "our place" to get our brains blown out, so society is
inured to it. Thus, when a Black man is choked to death by the police on the street in broad daylight for selling cigarettes to help support his family, or a Black woman ends up dead after a traffic stop for smoking a cigarette in her own car, or a Black man is intruded upon in his own apartment and shot dead by a cop while enjoying a bowl of ice cream - and then the cop's only defense is, "Oops, I thought it was my apartment. Sorry 'bout that - society's attitude is, "Yeah, that's a ridiculous reason to die, but it was only a Black person, so that's no reason to completely destroy a normally law abiding White person's life. It's a Black person's place to die tragic deaths. It's not like they're actually human. Just watch any video or television show. Their family won't even miss 'em." That's why when former Dallas police officer, Amber Guyger, barged into Botham Jean's apartment's and shot him dead, even the judge and Botham's family treated her like she was the victim after a jury composed of 10 nonwhites sentenced her to 10 years. If it had been a White jury she would have been celebrating on the beach like George Zimmerman.
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So, situations such as this should alert the Black community of the need to think, and not simply go along with what many perceive as just harmless fun, because that "harmless fun" is profiling Black people - all Black people - and it's being done with our able and enthusiastic assistance. They're using the Black man's need to be seen as bad to destroy us. They don't call such movies "Blaxploitation movies" for nothing. They're exploiting us. Again, they're not only using our need to go for bad to make money, but it also makes it that much easier to kill us with impunity. So what motivates this White supremacists society to allow us to portray ourselves in the way we do is far from harmless. Watching Black people dying in the street - and in their own apartments - is far from harmless fun. And going out of our way to portray ourselves as swaggerin' and cool is not manly at all - it's foolish. Being a responsible parent and helping to develop the minds of your children is manly. . So it's time for Black people to wakeup and make knowledge, political clout, and achievement the new soul. Struttin' around and swaggerin' is just a childish show. A real man is one who has the power and common sense to prevent his people from being victimized and exploited.
Ewattree@Gmail.com BLACK WRITERS, INTELLECTUALS, AND INDEPENDENT THINKERS
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Religion: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does. Sphere: Related Content
It’s one thing to discuss the pros and cons of the
various Democratic candidates, but yet another to engage in slander. We must stop
the political slander of fellow Democrats. I’ve seen posts in liberal groups that
could have been posted by "United Fascists For Trump", and you can be
assured that such groups will be posting tons of such material as imposters as
the election grows closer. But if progressives follow a simple rule of thumb – never
slander another progressive – we’ll be able to recognize such posts immediately,
because they’ll stick out as divisive and exactly the kind of thing that we
would expect Trump supporters - and Russia – to post online.
So, let’s not help the fascists by slandering our own.
Stop posting material that divides the progressive coalition and focus on
getting Republican fascists out of office. We should allow progressives to make
up their own minds about which Democrat they want to support. That way when we come
to a consensus, a third of us won’t be so upset that we’ll refuse to vote.
There's absolutely nothing wrong with Joe Biden, or
any of the other Democratic candidates, when you compare them to Trump.Yes, every politician has shortcomings, but stop
hanging on to their every word or gaffe to try to find fault. That's the way
they started doing Obama. Then when they found that he was too articulate for
them to attack him using gaffes, they started claiming he was a Muslim, or
wasn't born in America. So when you hear such nonsense – and you will - your
first thought should be, "Who has the most to gain from spreading such
slander?"
Now, I don’t intend to imply that being accused of
being a Muslim is slanderous, but in the current political environment that’s
the intent of the allegation, and we’ve got to learn to live above such bigotry,
it’s un-American. True Americans believe in freedom of speech, thought, and religion.
The failure to understand that fact is the province of the current GOP, because
they can’t survive without hatred and division to prop them up, and that’s
exactly why it’s so important to get them out of office.
We have over a year before the next election. So, listen
to the candidates and make up your own minds on who you want to support, and base
your decision on common sense, not nonsense. In the 2008 election I didn’t
agree with everything Obama said, and as President I was livid over his failure
to prosecute Bush and Cheney for war crimes, but Obama turned out to be one of
the greatest presidents in American history in spite of those shortcomings.
On the other hand, during the 2016 election many
Democrats (including myself) were fighting one another more fiercely than we
were fighting the Republicans over who was going to be the Democratic nominee,
and look at what we ended up with, and what ended up happening in the end. So, let's not make that mistake again. We
should take great pains not to get caught up in personality cults, because that
causes us to dig-in and fight with one another over our respective choices.That's division, and division
leads to defeat.
So, let us be smart this time. We should remain calm
and united, come to a general consensus, and then all come together and support the
nominee of choice. We claim that Trump supporters are idiots. Let's prove it.
Ewattree@Gmail.com BLACK WRITERS, INTELLECTUALS, AND
INDEPENDENT THINKERS
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Religion: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like
me - it's just that God does.
. A MESSAGE TO C.J. GOODE III ABOUT BLACK CONSERVATIVES
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CJ, in response to the above video you said the following:
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“ROFLMAO, ANTI-AMERICAN-MARXIST-BITCH, must be great rubbing-elbows with the
party of JIM-CROW, DEMON-CRATS.”
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I've pointed out that you're a mindlessly ignorant, and brainwashed idiot
before. But now you’ve presented clear evidence to substantiate my claim by
betraying your idiotic tendency to denigrate Black womanhood, the very womb of
the Black culture. So, tell me, CJ, do you consider calling a Black woman a
bitch illustrative of the proud American way that you so desperately crave getting back to? Is the right to
do so what you consider “MAKING AMERICA GREAT AGAIN?” Undoubtedly you do, because
you're obviously a world-class idiot. So, let me take a moment to educate your
dumb ass:
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BLACK CONSERVATIVES
Black conservatives are not just ignorant, but they aren't even bright enough
to understand the English language. The very word "Conservative" is
defined as dedicated to "Conserving" the traditions of the past. In
the case of Black people, that means conserving the tradition of racism,
bigoty, and lynching Black people at will. What the hell do you think they mean
when they say, "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN?" They mean take America
back to the “good ole days” when they could lynch any Black person who pissed them
off. If you doubt that, tell me when America “was great” the first time.Give me a year. . So, ANY Black person who aligns themselves with conservatism is an idiot by
definition. A true conservative doesn’t even like poor White people, so you
know damn well they don’t give a damn about you. So, if you’re a Black
conservative, you’re actually much more than just that – you’re also a goddamn
fool. . Your passionate embrace of conservatism reveals two
things about your character and lack of intellect. First, you have so little
character and knowledge of self that you’ve allowed yourself to be drenched in
self-hatred; and secondly, you’re so lacking in simple intellect that you have
absolutely no understanding of American history, and so dumb you think
you’re going to be allowed to become an “honorary White boy”.
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Bill Cosby also suffered from that malady. After making a few dollars and
beginning to think he was an honorary White boy he began to criticize his own
people just like you. In his notorious ‘Pound Cake’ rant he said the following:
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"Looking
at the incarcerated, these are not political criminals. These are people going
around stealing Coca-Cola. People getting shot in the back of the head over a
piece of pound cake! And then we all run out and are outraged, 'The cops
shouldn't have shot him!' What the hell was he doing with the pound cake in his
hand?"
. Much like a bigoted White man, Bill had absolutely no empathy for the plight of many Black people. But look at him now. I guess White folks didn’t love him as much as he thought
they did, and eventually you’re going to find that the same is true of you.
There’s no such thing as an honorary White person – ask Omarosa. She's also been discarded like a soiled Tampon, and where are all of the other Black conservatives of days past? I'll tell you where they are - they've all been discarded after outliving their usefulness. .
Once again,
conservatives don’t even care about REAL White folks who are poor. They only put up with them because they need their vote and their ability to stir-up turmoil, so you know damn well they don't give a damn about you. That's why an RNC convention looks like a Klan meeting. But of course, you're too dumb to see that. But maybe you'll be able to understand American history.
CONSERVATIVES HAVE ALWAYS BEEN THE ENEMY OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY
Conservatives have always been known for walking around with flag pins in their lapels and spewing their "bone-spur" brand of patriotism. Going all the way back to the very founding of this nation they’ve always used false patriotism and deception as weapons to promote a self-serving agenda to undermine the interests of the average American.As a result of that attitude, they have always been the most insidious enemies of American democracy. That’s why when our founding documents speak of American enemies it uses the phrase, “Both foreign anddomestic.”
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When conservatives first arrived on these shores, they brought with them the European notion of class distinction. They have always suffered from the distinctly undemocratic attitude that the only inherent value of the average American is as servants to cater to the whims of the upper class.
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Alexander Hamilton, one of this nation’s conservative founding fathers, believed that the rich and "wellborn" should be given a permanent share in government. He said:
. “All communities divide themselves into the few and the many. The first are the rich and wellborn, the other the mass of the people…. The people are turbulent and changing; they seldom judge or determine right. Give therefore to the first class a distinct, permanent share in government. They will check the unsteadiness of the second, and as they cannot receive any advantage by a change, they therefore will ever maintain good government.”
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Hamilton supported a lifetime appointment of the President (after being selected by congress, instead of the people). Can you just imagine that, Donald Trump FOR LIFE!!!? But America dodged that bullet during the Federalist Convention that took place between May 14 and September 17, 1787.
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Since most of the founding fathers came to America to escape the aristocratic class system in Europe, Hamilton’s desire to preserve the class system was resoundingly defeated in favor of an unfettered democracy, but that didn’t mean that people of Hamilton’s point of view would quietly go away. Instead, they became the conservative coalition. They lowered their profile as blatant aristocrats, and continued to pursue their agenda by using their wealth, power, and various other strategies to divide the people to achieve their agenda, and that’s what we see today. That accounts for why conservatives tend to be specialists in obstructionism and division, and why the American people ALWAYS suffer under conservative governance.
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The Great Depression
In 1921 -- eight years before the great depression -- Republicans took over the helm of this nation for 12 years. During that time there were three Republican administrations, the first of which was the administration of Warren G. Harding. History remembers Harding's administration for one thing more than any other -- scandal. It was during Harding's presidency that the Teapot Dome Scandal erupted. His administration was considered the most corrupt administration in the history of the United States -- until Nixon's (Watergate), then Reagan's (Iran\Contra), and finally Bush's (Iraqi War).
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Next, in 1923, came Calvin Coolidge, the president that Ronald Reagan is said to have most admired. Coolidge's policies of large tax cuts, allowing business a free-rein, and his encouragement of stock speculation contributed greatly to the impending stock market crash and the great depression that was to follow.
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In 1929 during Republican, Herbert Hoover’s administration, the stock market crashed - much like under the Bush Administration - starting the Great Depression, but back then there was no Barack Obama to come to the rescue or mitigate the damage early on. So in spite of the fact that by 1933 the unemployment rate was at 33.3% with 16 million people out of work, the Republican, Herbert Hoover, just sat, thinking that the economy would eventually rejuvenate itself. Much like Republicans of today, Hoover and his Republican Party had absolutely no compassion for either the plight of the American people, or America’s veterans who had put their lives on the line for this country.
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During Hoover's administration, 15,000 WWI veterans marched on Washington demanding that they be paid what they were owed by the government. Hoover responded by calling in federal troops to throw these ex-servicemen off government property. .
The conditions were horrific. During the Great Depression there was no such thing as Social Security, so when a person became too old or weak to work they had no income, so they had to depend on their children for support. That meant instead of a husband and wife only having to support themselves and their children, which was tough enough during those times, they also had to support their parents. So three generations of a family could be living in one household - and in many cases, the parents of both the husband and the wife lived with the family.
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In addition, there was no such thing as Medicare or Medicaid, so when one of grandparents became ill the medical costs would devastate the entire family. These conditions kept lower and middle-class families in such dire need of funds that they had to accept whatever crumbs the business community chose to throw at them - and remember, at that time there was no Fair Labor Standards Act or unions to protect a worker’s rights, or a minimum wage, so businesses could treat the worker anyway they wanted, and pay them whatever they wanted.
. They could work you 16 hours a day, 7 days a week, with no overtime, and
They could work you 16 hours a day, 7 and no paid vacation. In addition, since there were no child labor laws, if your boss didn’t think you were being productive enough, he could insist that you bring your children in (as young as 9 years old) to assist you if you wanted to keep your job. Then if you protested, he could fire you on the spot, in which case, your entire family - sick grandparents and all - would be thrown out on the street, because there was no such thing as unemployment insurance. . As a result, in many cases the entire family, including the children, had to work long, hard hours under sweatshop-like conditions in coal minds and the like, which in many cases led to the death and/or maiming of young children. So, in a very real sense, Great Depression era workers lived under a form of slavery - the one difference was, they had to go out and find their own housing. .
Think back to the "Little Rascals" we use to watch as kids, ragged
they were, or the cartoons we use to watch, where a landlord would come to the door (always portrayed in a black suit) and tell a begging and crying mother that she had one more day to come up with the rent or she and her family would be thrown out in the snow. That was an accurate portrayal of the way people lived in those days, and those are the conditions that the conservative Republican agenda would restore in America today. At this very moment the Republican Party is attacking Social Security, Medicare, Education and many other programs to force the poor and middle class to pay for the huge deficit created by their $1.5 trillion tax cut for the rich.
THE NEW DEAL
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But finally in 1933 Franklin Delano Roosevelt, a liberal democrat, was elected overwhelmingly. He immediately surrounded himself with a group of the finest minds in the country, including Columbia professors Adolph A. Berle, Jr., Rexford G. Tugwell, and Raymond Moley, known at the time as the "Brain Trust." After assembling these men and others he went about the business of developing a" New Deal" for the working- class people of this country.
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The New Deal had two components -- one, to help the economy to recover from the effects of the great depression, and a second component to give relief to the American people, and to ensure that they would never be placed in a position of total destitution again. To help heal the economy Roosevelt created programs that regulated business, controlled inflation, and brought about price stabilization; to bring relief to the people he signed The National Labor Relations Act which guaranteed workers the right to collective bargaining, and he created the Social Security Administration to guarantee workers some sort of income once they became too old to work. He also signed the Fair Labor Standards Act which protected worker’s rights and set a minimum wage for workers, and all of these programs are under brutal attack by the Republican Party as we speak.
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With his New Deal in place, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, this "bleeding heart liberal", not only led this country out of the worst, Republican generated crisis that this country has ever faced, but went on to lead the free world in victory over Hitler in WWII. He then ushered in the most sustained era of prosperity that the world has ever known.
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One would think that conservatives would have seen the light, but their passion to further enrich the wealthy at the expense of the lower and middle classes seems to supersede all logic. Thus, from the moment the New Deal went into place, conservatives have been determined to dismantle it. The closest they've come to succeeding started during the Reagan administration with Supply-Side Economics, or, "Reaganomics" -- and the battle is currently raging in Washington D.C. as we speak. . Our grandparent’s generation, the generation that experienced the Great
Depression, fought WWII, and who we refer to as "The Greatest Generation", wouldn't let a Republican anywhere near the White House.
During their era, Democrat, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected to office four times, and finally died in office on April 12, 1945. The Republicans had to promote the Twenty-Second Amendment to the Constitution limiting the president to two terms in office just to have even a remote chance of getting into office. But finally in 1953 they managed to elect the hero of WWII, Republican, Ike Eisenhower to office, but even he was a Republican in name only - in 1957 he sent troops into Little Rock, Arkansas to integrate a segregated school after Gov. Orval Faubus tried to prevent Black students from entering, and as his final act in office he warned America about the Military-Industrial Complex, the very people that Donald Trump and the Republican Party represent today.
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So here we are 243 years later and the conservatives are still at it - attacking our educational system, trying their best to destabilize or destroy any program that prevent the average American from being totally reliant on them, and stirring up hatred, fear, and animosity among the people to keep us divided and from thinking clearly.
Strive To Become Your Own Hero... Then Let No One Remove Your Cape.
BIO
Eric L. Wattree is a writer, poet, and musician, born in Los Angeles. He’s been a columnist for The Los Angeles Sentinel, Black Star News, The Atlanta Post, and is a member of the Sigma Delta Chi Society of Professional Journalists (http://www.spj.org/). He’s also the author of "A Message From the Hood."
Some of the greatest minds I’ve ever known held court while sitting on empty milk crates in the parking lots of ghetto liquor stores, while some of the weakest minds I’ve ever known roamed the halls of academia in pursuit of credentials over knowledge.
Am I a hater, you ask? You're damn right I'm a hater. I hate injustice. I hate hypocrisy. I also hate demagoguery, apathy, and the stupidity that allows it to exist. Hater? Absolutely. I'm a big time hater. I hate what I see happening to this country, and I hate watching the development of a culture that embraces ignorance with a stupid sense of pride. So yes, I am indeed a hater, but not only that - I'm a hater with a very low threshold for bullshit, so step off.
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