AN ENLIGHTENED BRAIN CAN'T BE WASHED

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

AN ENLIGHTENED BRAIN CAN'T BE WASHED

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

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

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

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

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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
.

I sit, I watch,
and I grow ever more obsolete
as I bear witness.
.
I bear witness
to a once vibrant people greedily gulping down society’s hemlock. Even as they claim to be “keeping it real,“ they continue to maim, kill, and despise their own in hot pursuit of the prime directive with the passion of a sheetless klan.
.
I bear witness
to Black fists in the air in false solidarity promoted by self-serving poverty pimps as the world looks on and giggle at crooked fingers pointed elsewhere.
.
I bear witness
to the superficial attempt to ban the “N-word” while the new "un-niggas" stand around watching children killing children and fathers drugging sons, as they celebrate, lionize, and enrich those who denigrate the very womb of their culture with impunity.
.
I bear witness
to a generation of lost knowledge, cut off from its roots by Ronnie’s “Just say no” generation of crack, greed, death, and political corruption; A generation where the new N-word is pronounced “Responsibility” and the keepers of the flame completely ignore the destructive power of bitch, slut, whore, and tramp.
.
I bear witness
to the reckless disregard of the words uneducated, irresponsible, and classless. Should we not ban these words as well, or should we ban banning words altogether as we celebrate their meaning?
.
Yes, I do bear witness.
I bear witness to a new world -
a world where gross ignorance comes disguised as enlightenment, and funky sneakers look down with disdain upon the sweet smell of Florsheim; a world where saggin’ pants and gaudy glitter enable country bumpkins to masquerade as elegant, and the exquisite surrender of eloquence is the very essence of what it means to be hip.
.
Where's Langston? Where's Baldwin? Where's Oscar Brown, Jr?
We need you stormin' this beach, because . . .
.
I now bear witness
to a world where motherhood stands alone, to be “dope” renders a smile, and posterity is forced to embrace the wind for paternal sustenance; A world where the walking dead strut about rapping the wisdom of idiocy, and we praise the illiteracy of vulgar nursery rhymes as profound; a world where the mother of salvation's final gasp is compared to the pigmentation of brown paper bags.
.
Malcolm, Martin, where are you?
I once stood with a crowd.
Now seemingly alone, I'm forced to bear witness -
horrific witness . . .
to the imminent demise of our people,
.
And my heart bleeds.
.
Eric L. Wattree
http://wattree.blogspot.com/
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
.
Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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

BENEATH THE SPIN • ERIC L. WATTREE

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

.

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

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

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KNOW WHAT IT MEANS TO BE BLACK: FREDERICK DOUGLASS - ONE OF THE GREATEST MEN WHO EVER LIVED

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

KNOW WHAT IT MEANS TO BE BLACK: 

FREDERICK DOUGLASS - ONE OF THE GREATEST MEN WHO EVER LIVED

.

HE LIVED TO LOOK DOWN UPON THOSE WHO ENSLAVED HIM

.

America's Independence Day:
"A thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace
a nation of savages!"

You think Malcolm was militant in the 1960s? in 1852 - nine years BEFORE the Civil War - back when even "nice" White folks would lynch a brother if given sufficient cause, Douglass told America that he considered their Fourth of July celebration a "mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy - a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages!"
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Born in February of 1818, escaped from slavery, and self-educated, he became one of the most prolific and sought after orators and writers of his time. Douglass was what many brothers of today pretend to be. He epitomized what it meant to be cool, but with one big difference - it wasn't contrived, and he had a powerful, focused, and very serious mind to go along with his suave demeanor. He, this former slave, had the kind of powerful intellect that would allow him to sit with presidents as a peer. He wasn't just against slavery, he did something about it. If you're Black, this man spoke up on your behalf, and he was also a fierce defender of women's rights.
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"Mr. Douglass was a regularly-enrolled member of the National Women's Suffrage Association, and had always attended its conventions. It was probably with a view to consistency in this respect that he appeared at Metzerott Hall. Although it was a secret business session of the Council, Mr. Douglass was allowed to remain, and when the meeting had been called to order by Mrs. May Wright Sewall, the President of the Council, she appointed Miss Susan B. Anthony and the Rev. Anna H. Shaw a committee to escort him to the platform, where most of the delegates, not more than fifty in number, were sitting. Mrs. Sewall presented Mr. Douglass to the Council, and contenting himself with a bow in response to the applause that greeted the announcement, he took a seat beside Miss Anthony, his lifelong friend."

.
Douglass was way ahead of his time, a 21st century man living in the 19th century. If you're Black, or a woman, he was fighting for your interest long before you were born - and he wasn't just respectfully whining for a little justice; he was out for a pound of flesh  He convinced Abraham Lincoln to enlist Black troops into the union army, and he helped to organize the famed 54th Massachusetts Regiment for a little pay-back over the brutality or slavery.
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THE 54TH MASSACHUSETTS REGIMENT
MEMORIAL

". . . the 54th was widely acclaimed for its valor during the battle, and the event helped encourage the further enlistment and mobilization of African-American troops, a key development that President Abraham Lincoln once noted as helping to secure the final victory. Decades later, Sergeant William Harvey Carney was awarded the Medal of Honor for grabbing the U.S. flag as the flag bearer fell, carrying the flag to the enemy ramparts and back, and singing 'Boys, the old flag never touched the ground!' While other African Americans had since been granted the award by the time it was presented to Carney, Carney's is the earliest action for which the Medal of Honor was awarded to an African American."
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Douglass was both a musician, and a ladies man, and he was sought after with affection by many of the sophisticated and highly placed White women of the time. Historian and scholar Playthell Benjamin describes Douglass in his, Commentaries On The Times, as "six foot four and over two hundred pounds, with a the well muscled body of a blacksmith and the handsome countenance of a leading man of the theater, a gift for language – historian and biographer Benjamin Quarles says Douglass seemed incapable of writing a bad line – and blessed with a marvelous vocal instrument which, when wedded to his mastery of rhetoric, had the power to move masses to action in behalf of his cause, a cause that included the emancipation of women, Frederick Douglass was a sexual magnet to the ladies, especially educated white ladies."
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He told racist America, "This Fourth [of] July is yours, not mine." Indeed, he says, to ask a black person to celebrate the white man's freedom from oppression and tyranny is "inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony."
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And he had a little something to say to the jackleg preachers of the time as well. ". . . the church of this country is not only indifferent to the . . . [bad treatment of] the slave, it actually takes sides with the oppressors. It has made itself the . . . [defender] of American slavery, and the shield of American slave-hunters. Many of its most eloquent . . . [preachers], who stand as the very lights of the church, have shamelessly given the sanction of religion and the Bible to the whole slave system. They have taught that man may, properly, be a slave; that the relation of master and slave is ordained of God; that to send back an escaped bondman to his master is clearly the duty of all the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ; and this horrible blasphemy is palmed off upon the world . . . [as] Christianity."
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THESE ARE THE EYES OF A FREE BLACK MAN.
ARE THEY YOUR EYES?  WILL THEY BE THE EYES OF YOUR SON(S)?

So what we have in Douglass is a handsome, suave, and debonair Black man, living in pre-Civil War America, yet, had the knowledge and intellect to command enough respect to live life the way he saw fit. He counseled the President of the United States, he 'dated' who he felt like 'dating' (Black or White), and he had the courage to tell White America that their celebration of the Fourth of July was "a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages!" But in spite of Douglass' in-your-face outspokenness, which certainly would have gotten a lesser Black man lynched, he received several presidential appointments.
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So Douglass was one hell of a guy, and young Black men of today could learn a lot about what it means to be a true Black man by studying his legacy. In order to command the kind of respect that Douglass enjoyed during a time when other Black men were looked upon as scarcely more than animals, he had to be a unique man among men and have some serious 'street creds.' Because he lived life the way he wanted to live, and he said exactly what he wanted to say - and without looking down at his feet. He dealt with every man eyeball-to-eyeball, and he didn't care who they were. Yet, he had no 'posse,' no 'crew,' and absolutely no backup. It was just Fred, and his manhood, against the world. But obviously, that was enough.
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So one of the important lesson that today's young Black men can learn from Douglass is what it MEANS to be a Black man. Today, many of our young men are all swagger and no substance, while Douglass was all substance and no swagger. That's what it means to be a man. Swaggerin' is a device designed to hide a LACK of manhood, so you'll find a wimp behind most swagger. Douglass didn't have to swagger. He had knowledge, resolve, and a serious sense of purpose that the world could see in his eyes, and again, that was enough.
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Douglass's first autobiography, "Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave," published in 1845 (When he was 27 years old). At the time, some skeptics questioned whether a black man could have produced such an eloquent piece of literature. Within three years, it had been reprinted nine times, with 11,000 copies circulating in the United States. It was also translated into French and Dutch and published in Europe.
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Frederick Dougalss died at 78 years old on February 20, 1895. He was living in a sumptuous manor on Cedar Hill, looking down upon those who had enslaved him.

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OBITUARY

Death Of Fred Douglass

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

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WASHINGTON, Feb. 20--Frederick Douglass dropped dead in the hallway of his residence on Anacostia Heights this evening at 7 o'clock. He had been in the highest spirits, and apparently in the best of health, despite his seventy-eight years, when death overtook him . . . (MORE)
http://www.nytimes.com/learning/general/onthisday/bday/0207.html
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Eric L. Wattree
http://wattree.blogspot.com/
Ewattree@Gmail.com
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
.
Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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BLACK LIVES MATTER - DON'T LET YOURSELVES BE PLAYED AND MISS THE BIG PICTURE

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

BLACK LIVES MATTER - DON'T LET YOURSELVES BE PLAYED AND MISS THE BIG PICTURE

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RM,
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I know you're a big supporter of the "Black Lives Matter" movement, and as a Black man myself, it's easy to understand why. They reflect our frustration at repeatedly seeing Black people shot down, beaten, choked to death, and possibly even lynched while in police custody. And then if that's not bad enough, we're being forced to endure juries and agencies across this country treating these heinous crimes as though the alleged perpetrators are performing a public service. It's unconscionable and almost more than one can stand. So I'm definitely in full support of BLM's "professed" agenda.
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But I'm also quite concerned about how BLM is going about trying to achieve their objectives, and whether or not they've been infiltrated by right-wing operatives who are instigating a level of stupidity that's not only sabotaging BLM's professed agenda, but is allowing the organization to be used to undermine other progressive activists - So far, Bernie Sanders, Al Sharpton, and Mike Malloy - activists who should be considered allies. They settled for a quiet little chat, behind the scenes, with Hillary Clinton. Hmmmmm . . .
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Writer and political commentator, Brian K. Pinaire, Ph.D. , describes the the BLM takerover of Bernie Sanders' Seattle event as follows:
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"We'd been waiting for nearly two hours by the time he finally took the stage. We'd been approached by a few dozen petition-circulators, button-sellers, pamphlet-distributors and sign-holders. We'd heard a few songs by a group called the "Raging Grannies." And we'd listened to the usual array of warm-up speakers, local candidates and activists gathered for this event at Westlake Center in Seattle. Now, it was finally time for the man of the hour--or the two hours, actually. Until all of a sudden it wasn't.
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"Just as Senator Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., was beginning his speech, protestors representing "Black Lives Matter" took the stage, screamed at Sanders and commandeered the podium at what was supposed to be a celebration of the birthdays of Social Security and Medicare. I watched all this occur in real-time, but I was also capturing it on video. And I am glad I did, because not enough has been said of the insulting manner by which these individuals addressed everyone within earshot.
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"Demanding to speak, and to do so before Senator Sanders, Marissa Janae Johnson, a self-described co-founder of the Seattle group, began by telling us all "You guys are full of bullshit with your black lives matter!" Even though the crowd had cheered earlier speakers who'd mentioned the movement, Ms. Johnson seemed distraught that some people were chanting "Bernie!, Bernie!" after she'd taken over the stage.
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"Why was the crowd chanting "Bernie! Bernie!"? you might ask. Because they came to see Bernie Sanders speak about Social Security and Medicare.
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"This was when Ms. Johnson reprimanded the crowd even more--a crowd whose average age was easily more than twice that of her own--by announcing "You're never going to hear Bernie speak unless I get silence here now." Yes, she was scolding people of her parents' and grandparents' generations who had come to hear about how we might make lives better for the poor and elderly. And now she was also holding Senator Bernie Sanders for ransom." (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-k-pinaire-phd/feel-the-bern_b_7963688.html)
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So again, RM, while I share your frustration, I'm greatly concerned over BLM's behavior, because nobody can be as stupid as they've been by accident, and  as a child of the sixties, I learned very early in life to never allow myself to be blinded by circumstances. No matter how frustrating and unconscionable the situation, we must always remain vigilant for hyper-ideologues engaged in reckless and unnecessary stupidity.  CointelPro 101.
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The minute I witnessed what BLM did to Al Sharpton and Bernie Sanders I cringed, because it was like "deja vu all over again." It was immediately clear to me that behavior such as that is the primary reason we're still fighting the very same battle 50 years later.
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Both Sharpton and Sanders were on the right page and using the perfect tactic - educating the people and gaining their empathy and support. Then hot-heads professing to be from BLM jumped on stage using exactly the wrong tactic - snatching the mic and shaking their fist at the very people who they should be trying to recruit as allies. They weren't scaring nobody; they just pissed people off - including me, and I'm an old-school revolutionary.
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People are tired of publicity-seeking fist-shakers creating public distractions and wasting our time. Fist-shakers are generally just looking for applause, so they should go somewhere and learn to tap dance and get it legitimately. We're looking for thinkers who can seriously, and effectively, address our problems, not overbearing and obnoxious, "look-at-what-I'm-doing" type entertainers. This situation is much too serious for such self-serving and childish behavior. All they've done is become a distraction. Instead of talking about how Black lives truly do matter, all we're discussing is BLM's childishly disgusting behavior; and instead of promoting the perfect declaration - again, that Black lives matter - whenever thousands of people hear the phrase, the first thing they'll experience is their anger over BLM's silly antics. Our enemies are dead serious, so this is no time to jump on stage auditioning for fame.
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In response you said, "Since the NYPD is using COINTELPRO against BLM, doesn't that make BLM legit? If BLM is COINTELPRO,  did Obama authorize the operation?"
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You're missing the point. When CointelPro is mentioned, that doesn't necessarily mean that it is the exact same government-initiated program that it was during the Civil Rights Movement; what I'm suggesting is BLM's attack on Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rev. Sharpton (both allies) struck me as CointelPro-LIKE.  During the sixties Howard Hughes was world famous for being considered one of the riches men on Earth as a result of his $2.5 billion fortune. But today's billionaires could leave that kind of chump-change as a tip. So today the Koch Bros., ALEC, and their billionaire friends can finance programs that not only rival CointelPro, but much more - and they often do.
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In today's world there is no such thing as a group being "legit" or "illegit".  I'm sure that the 99% of the people involved in BLM are perfectly legitimate and their primary concern is protecting Black lives, but how can we prevent the Corporate/GOP Alliance, with all of their vast wealth and resources, from sprinkling illegitimate infiltrators among BLM's ranks to instigate ill-advised - in fact, stupid - behavior that not only sabotages BLM's agenda, but also undermines other progressive activists and/or candidates?  The fact is, we can't. So again, all we can do is remain vigilant for inappropriate behavior and be discrete, but thorough, in monitoring and looking into the background of people who are over-the-top and who suggest such behavior. People like that are either Judas goats, or not level-headed enough to be in positions of responsibility.
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That's why it's so important for the the working class to come together and pool our political resources instead of going our separate ways as single-issue, fanatic-prone, factions. We cannot win this CLASS WAR by trying to fight it as single-issue factions. Black people, at 13% of the population, are going to be crushed trying to fight injustice by themselves. The same is true of union workers, women, gays, or undocumented immigrants, because the Corporate/GOP Alliance is going to use their vast wealth to manipulate us and turn us against one another. They're going to turn Blacks against immigrants, union workers against non-union workers, and Christians against anybody who doesn't look, think, and act like their particular denomination.  In short, we're going to continue to see repeat performances of the way BLM turn on Bernie Sanders while he was TRYING to tell us what we were up against: "Aw man, Get off the stage! We don't want to hear all of that. We want to know what you're going to do about Black injustice!!!" The fact was, he was trying to tell 'em, but the hot-heads among them weren't listening - or thinking. They didn't understand what any mildly competent chess player knows - sometimes you have to address an issue through a circuitous route.
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You see, many people tend to be so blinded by anger over their single issue that they fail to see the big picture. So the Corporate/GOP Alliance will stirrup anger among Black people, and then do the same thing with other factions - women, gays, workers, immigrants, etc - to keep us so focused on, and fighting over, whose single issue is going to be given priority that we're completely oblivious to the fact that they're hard at work cutting ALL of our throats.
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Factional injustice is merely a distraction to keep us angry, frustrated, and divided. The end-game is actually about abolishing Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, Unemployment Insurance, The Fair Labor Standards Act, etc.  In short, they're trying to lower the standard of living of the American middle class to a level that coincides with third world countries of the new global economy, where many workers make less a week than many middle-class Americans spend on lunch per day.
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Thus, it is absolutely essential that we wake up and stop being so blind and single-issue oriented. Yes, absolutely, we should continue to be aggressive in addressing issues of injustice, but we must organize and address all  matters of  injustice AS A CLASS, and not as a multitude of fractious and undisciplined factions. Currently we're trying to fight a class war against the most insidious domestic enemy in the history of the United States as a multitude of clueless platoons, each headed up by a corporal, and without sufficient resources. The Corporate/GOP Alliance, on the other hand, is a well funded and organized army headed by a four star general - and he has a bird's eye-view of the entire field of battle. That's unacceptable, and it's political suicide.
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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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RACISTS DON'T REALLY HATE BLACK PEOPLE - THEY FEAR WHAT WE REPRESENT

Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree

RACISTS DON'T REALLY HATE BLACK PEOPLE - THEY FEAR WHAT WE REPRESENT

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A Discussion On Race Between Interracial Peers  

DURING SLAVERY THE ONLY BLACK PEOPLE WE KNEW WHO SPOKE
"PROPER" ENGLISH WERE HOUSE SLAVES, AND MANY OF THEM
LOOKED DOWN ON FIELD SLAVES. AS A RESULT, MANY OF US
EQUATE INTELLECT WITH "TRYING TO BE WHITE," SO WE HAVE AN
AVERSION TO, OR REJECT, OUR OWN NATURAL INTELLIGENCE.  

Let's keep it real and stop trying to emulate our oppressors. The BLM movement needs to tone down their militant rhetoric because they don't have the resources to back it up. Black people are only 13.2% of the population, so if they turn off the rest of the public and find themselves without allies, they can't win one battle alone.  In addition, the modern Black man doesn't have a heart for laying his life on the line. That's why we've been abused for the past 250 years. 
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But there's a reason why we're no longer warriors.  It's because the adversity that we've endured over the centuries have made us MORE rather than less, and we've evolved into the people of the future. The murder and mayhem of battle is an animalistic, brain STEM activity that lower animals used prior to developing a cerebral cortex, or higher intellectual brain function. They all had the instincts of a snake. They didn't have the ability to think, so their first response to any problem was to attack.
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But again, due to the adversity that Black people have endured over the centuries, we've evolved and adapted to overcome that adversity. As a result of having to deal with both overt and covert racists every day of our lives, we've developed an intellectual muscularity that has made it possible for us to out-think our enemies. 
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What we refer to as "Soul" is Black creativity straining to burst forth and be utilized. The very same creativity that goes into the making of a Ray Charles, an Areatha Frankiln, or John Coltrane, can easily be redirected toward math, science, politics, and engineering. That's why racists hate Barack Obama so passionately, because he's using the knowledge that he's gained from the Black experience to make them look like idiots. You see, he's utilizing a source of knowledge that they can't obtain at Harvard, Princeton, or Yale, and Black people as a whole have got to learn to draw on that unique source of creativity as well. We've got to get away from the brain stem mentality and limitations of our oppressors, because racists are the people of the past, while we're the people of the future. Our history lies before us.
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BLM  IS MAKING THEMSELVES LOOK LIKE
THE BLACK COUNTERPART TO THIS GUY.  DOES HE LOOK
LIKE SOMEONE YOU'D WANT TO TAKE SERIOUSLY?

Racists tend to be the mediocrity of White society, so they try to use the fact that they were born White to define themselves and to compensate for their lack of personal value. Their entire sense of self-esteem is based more upon group association than individual value and accomplishment, and their entire claim to personal significance is, "Well, at least I'm better than them." 
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That's what's driving radical conservatives so crazy about President Obama - he's walking, breathing, evidence that they cannot claim superiority by virtue of the color T-shirt they were born in, and that simple fact alone is causing them to suffer a severe attack of cognitive dissonance before the eyes of the entire world. That's also why they're so determined not to allow President Obama to be successful, even if it means destroying the country - and international corporatists are using the social division inherent in those sentiments to lower the standard of living of the American middle class. 
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Thus, this entire nation, and the future of our children, is being threatened by the desperate attempt of a handful of insecure bigots to maintain their delusions of superiority, and as far as they’re concerned, if the country has to be sacrificed for that cause, so be it.
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FELLOW AMERICANS, DON’T LET OUR IGNORANCE DESTROY US

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The racist animosities that are running rampant among ALL segments of the American people are playing right into the hands of the those who are our most insidious enemy – the global corporatists. These people are intent upon enslaving us all. The only difference between literal slavery and what they have in mind for us is we'll have to provide our own housing.
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These people are no longer Americans; they are now globalists, and America is just a virtual cotton field to them. And as long as they keep the poor and middle class fighting and hating one another, we’ll be powerless against their social and political manipulation. So "illegal aliens" and others are far from the biggest threat to the American way of life – the global corporatists are. 
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If Al Qaeda represents a rattlesnake in America's garden, the corporate/GOP alliance represents a python under our bed. Al Qaeda can only destroy buildings, but the corporate/GOP alliance wants to destroy our entire way of life and replace American democracy with a system of corporate feudalism, where corporations, literally, control the nation. So it is essential that every man, woman, and child who is a part of the poor and middle class begin to recognize that fact, put our petty hatreds aside, and come together to fight our most insidious enemy - the global corporatist.
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Suzette Sommer

AMEN. Damn, Eric, you covered so much TRUTH!
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I grew up in a tiny racist town with Sunset Laws... I grew up with people who hated non-whites and gays and anybody "different."
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I escaped at 18 - ended up in LA, and finally began to know the real world - a multi-racial multi-cultural world.
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I am almost 65 so I have watched our society go through a lot.
We are making progress though not nearly enough. The younger people give me hope!
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But more and more what I notice is the brilliance of our Black citizens... and I have been thinking the same thing: the reason some whites hate blacks so much is they do not want to compete with them because they know they will lose.
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Not only in sports and feats of coordination and strength, not only in musical or performing talent, but also in feats of mental brilliance - look around and see how many are outstanding despite every obstacle society puts up - given even a tiny opening, so many black Americans reach and achieve. Just read that black women are the most educated segment of our society now.... and we now see leaders - black leaders and achievers everywhere.
EVERYWHERE.  Science, medicine, business, space, media, ballet, arts, engineering, on and on and on. It is no longer "rare." All from 13% of the population and despite how many in poverty? And I agree, the strength comes from deep in the heart and soul.

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Wattree

Thank you so much for this, Suzette.
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With you're permission I would love to use your comment to compliment this piece. You present a powerful and inspirational message that I think many young people need to hear. They need to understand that "God" made birds to fly, fish to swim, and man to think. Thus, the essence of our being is what we THINK not what we look like. So our true brothers and sisters are those who THINK like we do, not those who merely LOOK like we do. In short, you're much more my sister than Clarence Thomas is my brother. Clarence Thomas, Ben Carson, and Sarah Palin are of a different breed than we are, and it goes much deeper than just racial attitudes. You, myself, and Donna, who commented above, are the same kind of people. The color of our skin is superficial.
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Absolutely fine with me. I mean every damn word.
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I adore President Obama and only wish he COULD have a third term. I also consider Michelle our first truly modern First Lady - and I remember Mamie Eisenhower.
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I have almost always lived on the Left Coast... it has only been these last several years of being on FB - making friends all over the place, that I have made friends in the South and TX and slowly begun to get insights into how horrible life in those areas really is for anybody who is not well-off and white.
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The debacle in Ferguson MO was a huge eye opener. The shake down of a whole town by white people.
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Due to social media, I have learned to see what privatized prisons are all about, what our "war on drugs" is really all about, how we will never have "equality" in this country until every damn neighborhood has equally GOOD schools, how there truly is a war on black people, non-white people and homeless and poor people of any color by our police... And how many people are beaten down by all of that.
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Yet how many black Americans are rising up to great success and raising beautiful families despite it all. Things are changing. And the haters are being left behind. They are being exposed, outed, shown. They are raising hell right now.
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But we are at a tipping point. Injustice is being seen. Really seen. And yes... BLM has pissed off some white people. But some of us listen to the rage in it and understand.  Because some of us have been feeling the same way about the police violence in particular: How can this go on!
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I am still in shock about so many events - and they do just keep coming... and it has to stop. We will stop it. Just as in Nazi Germany... "First, they came for the Jews." Corruption touches and endangers us all.  I really do think a lot of white Americans get that.

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David Snyder

One of the earliest white people to get it [regarding Black intelligence] was Mark Twain, regardless of his use of the word "nigger." He realized that once in a while, if he or she trusted you enough, he could get wisdom and insight from black people that didn't exist in whites. A former slave once said to him "You tell me where a man gits his corn pone [cornbread] from, I'll tell you what his '[o]pinions is." After thinking about it, he realized it was one of the most insightful things anybody ever said to him about the human condition.
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Over the years, I've gotten myself into trouble and it's been non whites that have always had the best advice and explanations for me of what made my adversaries tick.

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Wattree:
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When I was a child my grandfather, Samuel Wattree, Sr., gave me some of the most insightful advice that any person could ever get, and it was especially designed to address adversarial situations just like the Black community is facing today. 
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My grandfather was run out of Louisiana after a rich White family, essentially, tried to enslave my grandmother. She was working for the family as a domestic and the people's kids bonded with her, so the family wanted her to live there on the premises. They weren't brutal, or threatening, or anything - at first. In fact they were all syrupy grins, and spewing words of love, and "family" - at first. But the bottom line was, they wouldn't allow my grandmother to come home, and they insisted that my grandfather come live in a shack there on the premises.

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So my grandfather pretended to cave in, and packed up all their belongings (including his gun). Thereafter, he pulled up on the property brandishing his weapon, told my grandmother to get the baby and get into the truck, and they drove off and kept going until they reach Los Angeles.  That was in 1931. They moved into a house a block or so away from the Dunbar Hotel. At that time my mother, their first child, was one year old, so I was born in Los Angeles. 
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But by the time I was a little boy, my grandparents were doing pretty well and they could afford to go back to Louisiana once a year to visit (my grandfather was a master mechanic). I was attached to my grandparents at the hip because while my mother was in college they essentially raised me (My mother and I were more like sister and brother). So every year when my grandparents started packing to leave for Louisiana, it was all the way on. I raised hell from the moment I caught wind of the fact that they were leaving, until an hour after they walked out the door and the car was out of sight.  We went through the same ritual every year.
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On one of such occasion, however, when I was about nine years old, my grandfather decided to use the occasion as a teaching moment and drop a little wisdom on me. He said, "You're right, you're not a baby anymore, but there's another reason we can't take you to Louisiana with us now - you talk too much and you could get us killed. You've got to learn to listen to what's on everybody else's mind, and never let anyone know what's on yours, because if you tell the next man everything that's on your mind, he'll then know everything you know, plus what he already knew, and that'll make him smarter than you are. So that's why you have to stay home - because we can't afford to let those White folks down South know more about us, than we know about them."

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And that's the primary problem that I have with BLM.  They talk too much, and too recklessly. They don't seem to think things through, and they tend to shoot from the hip. They also seem to have far too many people among them who are so anxious to gain their ten minutes of fame that they're falling all over each other to jump in front of the cameras.
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They're missing the point. The point is to gain America's support, and thereby, enough political allies to give us the clout to obtain our objective, not to shake our fist at the American people. That's a losing battle. So all they're doing is flapping their lips and giving the White establishment the ammunition to demonize the entire Black community by portraying us as a raging and reckless beast, a threat to America, and potential terrorists. 
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Some may say that's ridiculous, but the more thoughtful among us recognize that the White establishment are experts at demonization - ask any American Muslim, or ask the parents of Trayvon Martin, who's son the White establishment converted from a child who simply went to the store to get some candy, into a violent gangster with a ravaging case of the munchies. By the time they were done they had demonized Trayvon so thoroughly that they convinced the jury that George Zimmerman had performed a public service to America by stalking, and then killing, a perfectly innocent child. They claimed that Zimmerman simply acted in self-defense, but how could he be acting in self-defense when HE was the stalker?  Trayvon was being stalked on a rainy night by a strange man who had a hundred lbs. on him. What about Trayvon's right to stand his ground?
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George Zimmerman should be in prison today, but the simple facts above are the kind of things that get lost in the shuffle when everybody is screaming and hollering and nobody's thinking. So BLM needs to learn a lesson from that, a lesson that informs them of when and how to speak, about considering what they're going to say - BEFORE they say it - and when to keep their mouths shut and simply listen. And just as important, they need to learn to NEVER attack an ally. If the USSR and the United States hadn't learned that lesson during WWII we would be goose stepping today.
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So as I've said many times before, while I agree with the overall objective of protecting Black lives - in fact, protecting ALL lives - the BLM is going at it like a raging beast without a brain, and by letting emotion trump serious and logical thought, they're going to end up causing even MORE Black lives to be lost.

*

WHY I LOVE BEING BLACK

http://wattree.blogspot.com/2013/01/why-i-love-being-black.html

Eric L. Wattree 
http://wattree.blogspot.com/ 
Ewattree@Gmail.com 
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA) 
.

Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.

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