FollowWithin the African American community I would like to suggest that racial profiling by the local police authorities amounts to our domestic terrorism. When one of our and the world’s prominent and respected authorities was subjected to “Racial Profiling” as have been so many other “brothers” it became a public scandal, as it should have been. I, from love, trying to engender more or a better understanding of another perspective, my black one, wrote to the Chief of Police for Cambridge, Mass.
I Dared to Be Heard
POLICE RACIAL PROFILING
July 24, 2009
Chief of Police
Cambridge, Mass. Police Dept
Cambridge, Mass.
Dear Chief,
I am a 62 year old African American woman who would like to possibly assist you in better understanding the conflict you are currently responding to. I suggest that both your officer and Dr. Gates are correct in their assessment of the incident as seen through two totally different sets of eyes based on two totally different set of experiences. I suggest to you that every African American family living in the United States of America is personally familiar with the racial profiling of some family member. So we are hyper sensitive to it, by necessity. The fact that you teach classes on racial profiling suggests your awareness of its existence. With the recent racial incident in Pennsylvania that involved our kids most Black Americans are angry right now and have been re-sensitized to racism. Your officers need to realize that whenever there is a racial incident anywhere in this country we all get our defenses up, by necessity.
Your officer who encountered Dr. Gates who was routinely doing his job encountered a weary Black man returning from a 20 hour plane trip to China where he was representing this country and his institution, Harvard University. When he got home, exhausted, he couldn’t find his keys. ******* it! He is now angry as well as tired. He gets in and hears the doorbell ring. He answers and is confronted by a police officer who wants him to identify himself, tired and angry, as the homeowner. What else can go wrong? He gets belligerent but produces the ID. The officer still does not leave but challenges him further. Why? To the officer he is following procedure because the man is belligerent and the burglar might still be in the house. To Dr. Gates the now “white” police officer is challenging his credibility, his manhood, and his race, and does so incredulously in his own home that he has earned and is paying for (by pulling himself up by his bootstraps) with his years of study and hard work as a professor at Harvard University. He feels that he is being threatened as a Black man in his own home. What is safe and what is sacred in America for a Black man? He is arrested. Why, because to him he challenged “white” authority, “didn’t know his place.” The officer feels he is justified because Dr. Gates challenged, belligerently, “authority.” Dr. Gates may have well been even more sensitive than normal because he may have been deciding how he would respond, as a world renowned expert in racial relations, to the Philadelphia Pool incident and now here in his own home, in his mind, he has faced the same thing.
We are all sensitive and on high alert! That is something you all need to know in your responses. We once again expect to be racial zed and have to be prepared. Racial incidents are not local events for us it is a threat to all of us, anywhere and everywhere. I am not certain that that is something a white police officer can teach in a racial profiling class because he has never had to be “on Guard” at all times. We are always on high alert like a soldier in a war zone, looking over his shoulder and expecting the worse. Our history of abuse is still with us and there are too many incidents of its continuance for us to let our guard down. The racial attacks on President Obama remind us if we slip and forget. Perhaps Dr. Gates could co- teach such a class.
I am just trying to offer another set of eyes to a picture that white America cannot possibly be familiar with or naturally sensitive to. My own son at 17 was stopped two blocks from our home in Los Angeles, California, by a police officer. Our home was in the neighborhood where the ex-mayor Tom Bradley lived. The officer approached the car and apologized for stopping him. He explained that a car like ours was reported stolen but once he saw our plates he realized it wasn’t the car. Before he left the car another police car drove up to see what the problem was. The officer said there was none. The other, uninvolved, police officer told my son to get out of the car so they could search it. They made him sit on the curb handcuffed as they did so. They released him with no ticket as he had committed no crime. They also released him embarrassed, shamed, frightened, hating white police officers, and militant. That left me pissed, distrustful and resentful. I no longer contribute to any charitable police fund. Was that racial profiling?
Hoping to educate
Please leave comments as to what else we can do to prevent this from happening again.
Solutions?
Definition: The consistent occurrence of being presumed guilty and the justification of a presumed “guilty” verdict/designation followed closely by a public conviction and punishment, without trial, based solely upon being identified (racially profiled) as Black.
The Racial Profiling of African Americans begins with (negative) STEREOTYPING
Stereotype: an oversimplified standardized image of a person or group. A very firm and simple idea about what a particular type of person or thing is like.
To Stereotype: is to believe someone has characters of a particular group only because this is what many people believe that someone of their particular class, Nationality, etc. may be like and not because you know anything about their personality, etc.
Synonyms: typecast, label, pigeonhole, categorize, cast, fix.
Purpose: to use the Hollywood example of “typecasting” an actor is to define, classify, profile and ultimately “limit” their roles and opportunities based upon perceptions “they” want portrayed. Examples would include the Marilyn Monroe stereotype, the John Wayne stereotype and the Clark Gable stereotype that roles, characters and actors are judged, compared and limited to. For African Americans it has been the fat mammy, the pimp, the prostitute, the criminal, the gang member, the Super Fly character, and the Boys in the Hood role. The same is done equally and as successful outside of Hollywood as America has type casted its citizens to be “profiled” for their roles in its society.
For our purpose we are concerned about America’s opposing ethnic stereotypes and how they are used to define, classify, profile and ultimately “limit” roles and opportunities “in America.”
An African American stereotype might include characteristics such as: loud, immoral, rude, flamboyant, angry, violent, dumb, criminal, dangerous, lazy and dependent.
A white stereotype might include characteristics such as: normal/ average, good guy, independent, smart, hardworking, powerful, entitled and always right. (Google the article called “The White Knapsack.”)
The purpose of stereotyping is to define, classifies, and profile in order to LIMIT THE ROLES AND OPPORTUNITIES of those in its designation. For African Americans it has been to designate a victim/scapegoat for the ills of America that can no longer use their labor and talent without compensation.
A little poem I learned as a small child was and still is:
If you are white you are alright.
If you are brown, stick around.
If you are black, get back.
Racial Profiling through the use of racial stereotypes justifies the perceptions and treatment of its citizens in America.
Definition: The consistent occurrence of being presumed guilty as “the dissed” (usually Black), and the justification of a presumed “guilty” verdict/designation followed closely by a public conviction and punishment, without trial, based solely upon being identified as “the dissed” (usually Black.)
In other words, if he is Black, he is a suspect.
If he is Black he is most likely guilty.
If he is Black and he is not guilty this time he “probably” was another time, so . . . ?
And finally, if he is Black and it was not him but another “known” man, so . . . ?
Why?
Because : He is Black !!!
Racial Profiling:
What it is, Why it is and How it is Achieved
Racial Profiling is the systematic categorizing of a scapegoat.
Racial Profiling is the methodical labeling of a stooge.
Racial Profiling is the regular tagging of the target.
Racial Profiling identifies suspects.
Racial Profiling provides victims.
Racial Profiling justifies the discrimination, hate and abuse of the categorized, labeled and tagged scapegoat, stooge and target.
Racial Profiling is defined by stereotyping.
Racial Profiling is legislated by laws.
Racial Profiling is orchestrated by policies, programs and procedures.
Racial Profiling is enforced by institutions.
Racial Profiling is “celebrated” by those that and do.
Definition: The physical, emotional, social, financial and psychological effects that permeate all aspects of the “dissed,” the victim’s perceptions and responses to life, for life. In other words, what it feels, smells, taste and looks like to the victim of its insidious attacks.
This is posted out of – LOVE – for Michael.
Hmm, Speculation, Controversy, Admissions and Claims.
Who are the biological parents of Michael Jackson’s kids? Certainly he is not, well maybe Blanket is his but certainly not the others. Why, because they don’t look like him. They don’t look Black. They don’t even look mixed. Why is that important? Because we need to know how to address them. How do we treat them? Are they Black or are they white? Why? Because. . .
Fame, success, hard work, charity and fortune apparently are not enough, in America.
I am so sick of this discussion on what is “black enough” that I hope I am shining some light on it if not putting it to rest.
If Michael’s children are Black how should they look? What does looking Black look like? How Black do you have to look, to be Black? Should your skin be brown or black in color? Should your nose be large or wide or flat? Should your hair be dark, wavy, curly, kinky or nappy? Are your lips big enough? Is your butt wide or protruding and if so, how far? How tall, fat, short, or skinny should you be?
Damn it! Just what is Black??????????
Any.
All.
And none.
There are some features that may identify who are Black. Yet, one drop of Black blood is still enough to consider anyone Black, in America. So having none of the above features can also mean that you are also Black.
We, in the Black community can usually or at least often identify our own, even those who can pass for White. We can because we have them in our own families. And there are many. There are many who can pass and do pass and many who can pass and choose not to pass, unless it is convenient, that day, to do so. My grandmother did so in 1954 in order to buy us our first home that was located in an all-white community in Chicago. She had white skin, a small straight nose, no butt and straight red hair. She passed. She was however Black having two Black parents. She was educated and spoke “white.” What a surprise to the neighbors when WE moved in. Her grandparents were mixed thanks to the systematic rape of Enslaved African women on Plantations. Her bright red hair was from her “Irish” ancestry that years later a brown skinned cousin of mine possesses.
When are you Black and not white or for that matter Indian? Many Blacks have Indian blood (genetics). Runaway Enslaved Africans found refuge on Indian reservations. My grandfather is ½ Cherokee from a tribe in Kentucky. I don’t look Indian but my brother who is ½ white does. He is dark red skinned with black curly hair and a hooked nose like our grandfather. He doesn’t resemble his blond white mother at all. He doesn’t look mixed. I am what is considered light-skinned or high yellow in our community yet both of my parents are Black, Indian and White. I “look” whiter than he does although I am not (genetically).
I’ve read and seen pictures of paternal twins born to couples where one parent is white and the other is Black. One twin looks white and one twin looks Black. They don’t look mixed and they don’t resemble each other, but are genetically proven to be the biological children of the two parents.
So, speculators, commentators on controversy, and claimants with admissions, Prince, Paris and Blanket, by looks alone, could ALL be Michael’s biological children. Their parents could be Black, White, Indian and who knows what else. Their grandparents, the Jacksons are, and who knows what lies on their mothers’ side? Secrets are everywhere. One drop of Black blood is still enough. Ask my grandmother.
Out of –LOVE– please comment below on what I, you, and each of us can do to lessen the personal effects of racism on all of us. How can each one of us keep our Michael’s, our children, his children, ourselves, and each other from having to experience this pain? (Ignorance)
SOLUTIONS?
Definition: The Realities of Racism
The physical, emotional, social, financial and psychological effects that permeate all aspects of the “dissed,” the victim’s, perceptions and responses to life, for life. In other words, what it feels like, looks like, smells like, and is/does, daily to those who are victims of its insidious, unrelenting, and painful presence impacting every aspect of their lives.
I finally had the opportunity to see the film “The Help.” “WOW.” How appropriate it is that this weeks’ blog posting serves to gives us another example of the effects of racism from the perspective of the victimized and the insensitive and callous assumptions of the victimizer.
This is posted out of – LOVE – for Michael.
Ignorance of the Realities of Racism and Yet the Arrogant, Self Righteous
White Superiority to Criticize and Condemn
July 24, 2009
To: Nancy Grace and Jane Velez-Mitchell,
CC: Al Sharpton, Larry King, Roland Martin, Rick Sanchez, Soledad O’Brien, Joe Jackson, CNN Producers
(I NEED TO SEND A COPY OF THIS TO Joy Behar)
I have generally watched your shows and felt the compassion you have felt for victims and people in distress. I have followed your moral outrage and joined in with my own. I visited Aruba three weeks after the Natalie Holloway tragedy and met Beth Holloway standing at a card table in a parking lot with pictures of her daughter talking to anyone who would listen and accepting contributions towards the fund to find Natalie. I and my three friends contributed. When I followed your reports on the case I felt supportive and connected to your opinions as I felt they were well researched and factual. I have now however found your reporting on the Michael Jackson case uniformed and ignorant of reality/facts. As such it comes across as pompous and insensitive to those of us who know and have lived their circumstances. You weren’t Colored and poor in segregated 1950’s Gary, Indiana. So you haven’t walked in his or our shoes.
I have found your assessment, judgment and criticism of Joe Jackson naive. Joe Jackson was a “Colored” man singularly supporting 11 people on the wages of a steel worker without the benefit of food stamps or aid of any kind back in the 1950’s and 60’s. He supported his family in a home they owned, not the projects, that had only two bedrooms and one bath for 11 people. I suggest to you they all grew up sleeping with and sharing the bathroom with everyone and each other, a natural and comfortable lifestyle for Michael. Joe Jackson kept his large family together never abandoning them and gave them the dream of escaping their poverty by pulling themselves up “by their bootstraps” (something we were all preached to do by white America) using their god given talent they all eagerly expressed. In the 1950’s and 60’s there weren’t many colored stars as athletes in baseball, basketball or tennis much less anything else as role models. There were a few entertainers. Everything was still segregated with doors shut tightly, closed and locked for Coloreds. There was no affirmative action or financial aid to help us go to school or even simple encouragement to progress beyond “Trade School” for Coloreds. We were supposed to only be laborers. There were only the steel mills, the auto factories, the slaughter houses, cleaning houses and being porters or bell hops as career opportunities for his children and the rest of us. He saved them all from that dead end life in segregated Gary, Indiana in the 1950’s. None went to jail. None were killed. None are in poverty. And he is still with his family thinking of ways to keep them all together and living well.
Joe Jackson beat, whipped, and spanked all of his children. Almost all Colored children were disciplined this way in the 1950’s and 60’s. It was possibly a vestige of our parents’ and grand-parents parenting brought with them when they escaped from Jim Crow’ ism of the South back during the great migration North of the 1920’s and 30’s. They had been beaten, whipped and spanked by their parents as they had learned these discipline methods from old plantation policies. I was spanked and everyone I knew was then. My elderly 70 year old great aunts who babysat me so my parents could work sent me outside to get a switch when I deserved a beating. And we all hated them for it but all my friends from Chicago never went to jail and we made something of our lives because we were taught “limits.” “Spare the rod and spoil the child.” In the 1950’s there was no stigma much less legal terms for date rape, spousal abuse or child abuse. It was simply a part of life that you had no recourse for and it wasn’t judged as abnormal much less illegal in the way it is today. For that matter there was still capital punishment in the schools where we were paddled. Coloreds further were required to be very, very respectful, well-disciplined and to know “their place,” Yessa Sir and Yes Mam. Parents preferred to discipline their children at home rather than have the racist white cops and justice system of the 50’s “discipline” them like they did Henry Louis Gates in 2009. When they couldn’t arrest him for burglary, the original allegation that his identification proved false, they used “unruly conduct” because he was an “uppity nigga” (in his own home that he had paid for by lifting himself up by his own bootstraps to become a world renown professor from Harvard University.) The cop had to get him for something or be an embarrassed white cop trumped by an “uppity nigga”(he spoke up for himself challenging the “white authority figure”), a five foot six, 59 year old, polo shirt wearing, be speckled, graying Black man (who was obviously dressed classically “Burglar”). (A Black perspective on the incident based upon hundreds of years of history.)
It was also in the 50’s that not 30 miles away from Gary, Indiana in Chicago, that a 13 year old boy, Emmitt Till, was killed for allegedly whistling at a white woman while on vacation with family in the South. All colored people knew his story and fate and all parents sternly warned their children to be polite, look down when spoken to and to know “their place.” “Children were to be seen and not heard.” Henry Louis Gates forgot to do this. He forgot “his place.”
When you criticize Joe Jackson for putting his children on the road, beating them to perfection to become all that they did what would you rather they have become, porters, waiters, cooks and/or housekeepers? They were by god’s anointment, entertainers. If Michaels’s children have his talents then they too should follow the path of their god given talents. What’s wrong with that? What do you consider “good enough” for them and when? Have you investigated the Osmonds? Or other child stars like Brooke Shields to be so condemning of the Jacksons and their success?
Further, “signifying,” playing the dozens was a common practice between Colored people. We joked about each other’s physical size, color, wide noses, nappy hair, etc. There was even a popular song in our community called “Signifying Monkey” performed by a Chicago native, Oscar Brown Jr. You could talk about anybody or anything but somebody’s “momma” which was cause for a fight. My father signified on me calling me black/dark with nappy hair. He explained to me that I was so easily hurt and cried so easily that he had to “toughen” me up, make me strong so that when I went out into the general “white” public I could cope with being called black, ugly, darkie, nigger, spook, etc. without reacting verbally and/or physically, which I could not do. When Joe Jackson responds to questions about how the kids are or Katherine or the family, I suggest that when he says they are strong he is saying that they have been taught how to cope with the negative, abusive, demeaning attacks on their character by the general “white” public, the media. I am waiting for them to be depicted in a cartoon as monkeys. When Jermaine begs for people to leave Michael alone, now in death, I suggest that as he publically and painfully cries, he is TIRED of having to be strong in America. Unfortunately, the Black children in Pennsylvania that confronted racism at the club pool may not have been taught to be strong as it was mistakenly believed to be unnecessary now.
I suggest to you that you speak of and condemn an environment and culture you are clueless of, 1950’s and 1960’s Colored America and for that matter, 2009 African American society. For us Joe Jackson is a hero who against all overwhelming odds and without an education beyond high school directed his family to the Promised Land and beyond. If Michael had still been under his strict guidance he’d probably still be alive and still being told to be a man and to be strong– Be strong against the hate, obstacles, and jealousy of a culture not possessing your talents and spirit, who instituted all forms of barriers against making it possible for you to achieve, and had to witness you do so anyway, far above their expectations or permission.
Please in the future only speak of experiences that you have some knowledge of before commenting, criticizing and condemning. You are way out your element here. I suggest to you in 1950 Joe’s strong macho love is what saved his Colored family from what was our common fate, but instead gave them a future that most others weren’t blessed enough to have someone care enough to battle with them for, and against others for them. He epitomizes for many older Blacks a Black man who cared enough to fight the system rather than abandon his family. He will always take care of all of them as he always has, with the money they all earned as a family from his direction and guidance. He has taken care of Katherine since she was 18 years old, why wouldn’t and shouldn’t she trust him? You have no clue as to the “parenting” strategies my community has had to employ to raise and protect our children to cope with growing up and living in this “free Democracy of America.”
Disappointed with your insensitive and ignorant ranting on a topic that you have no knowledge of and the arrogant presumption that you do and can therefore spout your opinions for thousands to hear, consider and “respect?”
Tired, tired, tired of needing to BE STRONG in America,
Colored, Negro, Afro-American, Black, African American (All of my polite ethnic designations since I was born in 1946 America)
Out of –LOVE– please comment below on what I, you, and each of us can do to lessen the personal effects of racism on all of us. How can each one of us keep our Michael’s, our children, ourselves, and each other from having to experience this pain? (Media)
SOLUTIONS?
Definition: The physical, emotional, social, financial and psychological effects that permeate all aspects of the “dissed,” the victim’s perceptions and responses to life, for life.
This is posted out of – LOVE – for Michael.
Michael, the Militant
In 2001, Michael Jackson loudly and emphatically declared himself an advocate for racial equality and justice by calling out the racists’ practices and policies of record companies over the years towards Black artists. He spoke out at the Reverend Al Sharpton’s organization in Harlem, The National Action Network, on September 7, 2001. He addressed the inequalities in publicity, royalties and recognition afforded earlier Black artists from Sammy Davis Jr. and James Brown to his own current legal battles with Sony Music regarding his rights to his music/catalog. Some have accused him of trying to become “white” but on that day he stood tall for Black artists, reminding the crowd that he was a Black man defending all of their rights. He stood with them as another Black artist in the long line of those who had been wronged by the system, the music industry. He loudly and defiantly spoke out.
Michael realized that he and others had made millions but their “handlers” had made billions. The inequity of how Black artists were being “handled” versus the white artists is what he called racist. He accused the industry of conspiring against Black artists.
Michael further elaborated on how his treatment and the respect for his talent changed after he had surpassed the sales and fame of the established white icons in the business, including the Beatles and Elvis, when “Thriller” became the number one grossing album of all time and he was declared the world renowned King of Pop. He was suddenly seen in a different and frightening light; one that apparently threatened some long held beliefs and perceptions. The industry had to bring him down to size. They did so, he stated, by calling him names, accusing him of crimes and manipulating his business in order to create his fall from grace, fame and wealth in an orchestrated attempt to CONTROL him. He had simply gotten too BIG. This is what Michael Jackson boldly and unapologetically said in his address to the National Action Network organization in 2001.
As all of these charges were denied by Sony Music and disavowed by many artists. Michael won his own personal case against Sony Music based upon a fraudulent action, conflict of interest, taken by a music industry attorney and successfully secured his music/catalog. I am now struck by how Sony Music has manipulated a deal to profit off of Michael’s music with their purchase of the production of the “This is It” film based on his final days in rehearsal. Add to this their 250 million dollar deal with the estate for ten new album releases following his death. Were his allegations unfounded?
AS A FAN, I recommend that you read La Toya’s book, “Starting Over,” to learn more of how racism has impacted the Jackson family in the music industry.
Out of –LOVE– please comment below on what I, you, and each of us can do to lessen the personal effects of racism on all of us. How can each one of us keep our Michael’s, our children, ourselves, and each other from having to experience this pain? (Institutional)
SOLUTIONS?
Fame, success, hard work, charity and fortune apparently are not enough, in America.
Definition: The Realities of Racism
The physical, emotional, social, financial and psychological effects that permeate all aspects of the “dissed,” the victim’s, perceptions and responses to life, for life. In other words, what it feels like, looks like, smells like, and is/does, daily to those who are victims of its insidious, unrelenting, and painful presence impacting every aspect of their lives.
I am and have been a fan on the Jackson family since I was 18 years old and saw their early performances in the night clubs of Chicago when they were still very young children. I just completed reading LaToya’s book, “Starting Over,” and was struck by her sincerity, concern, determination and fear as she pursues her quest for the truth of her brother, Michael’s, death.
In honor of Michael’s birth month and mine I am devoting this month’s posting to writings about he and his family that profoundly support this blog’s perspective on American Racism.
This is posted out of – LOVE – for Michael.
Realities of Racism
A Case Study
MICHAEL JACKSON IS DEAD BUT RACISM LIVES ON
MICHAEL JACKSON died.
I feel like my childhood, my naivety, and my innocence died with him.
I remember how we Chicagoans proudly cheered and rejoiced when theJackson’s moved out ofGary,Indianato the promised land ofCalifornia.
They had hit the big time. They had escaped. They were successful. We just didn’t know then just how big and how successful they would become.
But we all had hopes for them and they gave us all hope for our own futures.
Joe Jackson was our hero. He had made it happen. He had taken his family away from poverty, racism and the hopelessness of being Black inAmerica.
MICHAEL JACKSON died.
I now feel that I must talk about the pain and shame of being Black inAmerica.
I too have not always been proud ofAmerica.
I must talk about racism. I must scream. I must cry. I must curse
Racism hurts.
It hurts very badly.
It is sharp and it is constant.
It‘s effect lingers long after its attack.
You learn to feel ugly. You learn to feel like “less.” You learn to feel ashamed.
You learn to be afraid,
And mostly you learn to be angry about it all.
I learned because I was taught. I was taught at home. I was taught at school.
And I was taught by America whenever I walked out of the front door of my house.
MICHAEL JACKSON died.
Michael, the wonderful, Michael, god’s gift, Michael, the generous, Michael, the talented, Michael, the humanitarian, Michael, the international Super Star,
and Michael, the damaged poor little Colored boy fromGary,Indianasuffered from racism. Michael, like me and most of us then in the 50’s and early 60’s, learned to feel ugly, learned to feel like “less,” learned to be ashamed, learned to be afraid, learned to be angry and mostly, to be deeply hurt.Americadid and does that still to us.America, with its singular measure of beauty looked at him and called him ugly so he changed himself. America looked at him and called him Wacko Jacko, said that he was “different,” that he was “strange” and made him seem somehow like “less.”Americalooked at him and called him “a pervert” and made him feel ashamed even after a full 100% acquittal on all charges.Americamade him so angry he leftAmerica.
Through it all MICHEAL JACKSON lived what looked like from the outside, to us, a glamorous life,
DEEPLY HURT.
Michael Jackson died
And RACISM HURTS.
It hurts the rich and the poor.
It hurts the famous and the unknown.
It hurts the light skinned and the dark skinned.
It hurts the children and the adults.
It hurts the straight haired and the nappy haired with straight and wide noses.
It hurts Coloreds, Negroes, Blacks and African Americans equally and deeply.
It emotionally, psychologically and physically hurts.
Michael Jackson died
MICHAEL JACKSON, of all people,
MICHAEL JACKSON WHO HAD EVERYTHING ANY OF US COULD EVER HOPE TO ACHIEVE BY OUR OWN INDIVIDUAL EFFORTS,
WHO WROTE AND SANG ABOUT LOVE FOR EACH OTHER, FREEDOM FOR ALL, A HEALTHY PLANET, AND JOY AND HOPE FOR ALL OF OUR FUTURES,
WHO GAVE GENEROUSLY IN LIFE AND NOW EVEN IN DEATH is dead.
And ME,
I am so tired of hurting for myself and for my Michaels.
MICHAEL JACKSON died
MICHAEL, dear Michael, doesn’t have to hurt anymore,
although the racist commentary on him continues.
Americamust want to hurt even his memory. “Just Leave Me (Him) Alone.”
MICHAEL JACKSON, even in death, must still control too much.
So much controversy about who CONTROLS MICHAEL’S estate, heaven forbid that the Black Family, the Jacksons, Katherine Jackson and Joe Jackson, could/would make decisions and CONTROL Billions like the (John) Lennon’s and the (Elvis) Presley’s do, much less without “white” advice/direction/CONTROL.
June 28, 2009
Out of –LOVE– please comment below on what I, you, and each of us can do to lessen the personal effects of racism on all of us. How can each one of us keep our Michael’s, our children, ourselves, and each other from having to experience this pain? (Psychological)
SOLUTIONS?
Fame, success, hard work, charity and fortune apparently are not enough, in America.
Definition: Recognizing racism is the ability to discern the presence of negative racial stereotyping and its effect and relevance to the current situation presenting itself.
Our final blog post on the subject of Recognizing Racism is a critical look at the Republican Party’s response to our first African American President . . . whoever he/she may be or could have been.
Just Say NO, “its Personal”
A critical lesson not only in politics but also in race relations is generously being presented to us through the lens of Washington lawmakers. There has always been dissension and discord between the two political parties because of their “ideological” differences but I suggest that this time it “is personal.” Typically, only the discovery of “inappropriate behavior,” personal and/or legal by a President, has the opposing party presenting dialogue to destroy his credibility and therefore legitimacy to remain in office. Not this time; this time “it’s personal.”
Our first African American President has committed no person indiscretion, has in fact, a lovely intact marriage and family. Our first African American President has committed no legal or political crime, is in fact a Harvard University educated Constitutional lawyer who has been a professor of Constitutional Law. Our first African American President nevertheless has been attacked over two irrefutable documented facts, his citizenship and his educational qualifications. The Republican Party has tried to cast doubt on these two irrefutable facts to challenge his eligibility, credibility and legitimacy to be President of the United States. This is a first and a real low point for this country and the Republican Party. This is personal.
The Republican Party has loftily announced that the single and most important focus and purpose of this Republican congress is to make certain that the Presidency of our first African American President is limited to only one term. They have not said why or elaborated on how his agenda, policies or practices had led them to this crusade. They, in fact, announced their intentions the first week of his Presidency before he could propose or enact anything.
The Republican Party is NOT focused on our economy. The Republican Party is NOT focused on our unemployment. The Republican Party is NOT focused on our foreign wars. The Republican Party is NOT focused on the needs and welfare of America or on us, the American people. The Republican Party IS FOCUSED only on removing the first African American President from office which they loftily stated during his first week in office as his family unpacked at the White House.
The Republican Party has proudly and loudly pronounced their PRIMARY strategy and focus. It is that they will just so No to anything and everything proposed in this Congress thereby obstructing everything. They will say No even to those things that they have proposed if “he” endorses them. They will say No because they want him to fail, country and citizens be damned.
They want “THEIR” America back.
He must fail.
It’s personal. It’s racist.
Please comment on this example with suggestions for Solutions in the Comments link below.
DARE TO BE HEARD
PREVIEW: August’s discussion is on The Realities of Racism, what it feels, smells, tastes and looks like to the victimized. We look at the physical, psychological, emotional, financial and social implications of is effects. All of the writings presented in August cite the Jackson family as an example of how American Racism is not limited to just those who can’t protest too loudly. These writings are presented as a tribute to the strength and grace of the Jackson family, against all obstacles.
Definition: Recognizing racism is the ability to discern the presence of negative racial stereotyping and its response/reaction and relevance to the current situation presenting itself.
Our fourth and final submission on Recognizing Racism is a commentary on the recent Marriage Vow that was presented by a pro-family group in Iowa for the Republican Presidential candidates to sign/endorse. I hope that you have picked up some clues/skills from our previous blog posts and have sharpened your “antennae” for racists’ intentions/innuendos and can now cite how this marriage pact reeks of racism.
This commentary will cite a combination of statements made in the vow that could/should have made your stomach turn from its historical incorrectness, insensitivity and blatant attack on President Barack Obama. It did mine. I will cite just a few possible racists’ red flags. Please feel free to respond in Comments with MORE examples that you may have read or heard about in this Marriage Vow that were racists in nature.
More Importantly: How do we counteract this???
Please leave suggestions in the Comments section below for us to Discuss on Wednesday.
The particular reference in the Marriage Vow signed by Michele Bachmann that we are addressing essentially is: black children were better off in 1860, under slavery in two parent families, than born today with an African American as President.
Historical incorrectness:
1.) “Enslaved Africans” in 1860 (Sidebar: “slave” is not a job title or career of choice) were not “permitted” to form families through marriage.
2.) The children of “Enslaved Africans” were often raised by “whomever” remained/survived on the plantation to care for them, i.e., mother, father, grandparent, friend, etc. as there was no residency stability on a plantation with “Enslaved Africans” being bought, sold and killed routinely. (Sidebar: That, I believe, is how we started the relationships of “play” mother and “play” sister etc. We created families with whomever remained/survived the plantation lifestyle.)
Insensitivity:
1.) Referencing the institution of enslaving African people (slavery) without any concern or need to be “accurate” in the portrayal of their lives and or history.
2.) The use of the social condition of “Enslaved Africans” simply as a “tool” to make a political/philosophical “point” dehumanizes and objectifies them.
Blatant attack on President Obama
1.) A reminder to their political base and interested others that President Obama is Black, a part of the “objectified” population and therefore permissible to be dehumanized.
2.) It suggests that: President Obama hasn’t/can’t even take care of and improve the condition of his “own,” (black people) perhaps in an attempt to alienate some of his own (black people) from him.
(Sidebar: I suggest that an attack on President Obama IS an attack on all of us who believe in, protest and vote for a free country that allows all its citizens to equally participate in their governance.)
QUESTION:
How do we, you and I, counteract this kind of MESS?
Please give us all some answers, some suggestions, some solutions below.
Definition: Recognizing racism is the ability to discern the presence of negative racial stereotyping and its response/reaction and relevance to the current situation presenting itself.
This third week’s post is example # 26, our final example, in my series of concrete ways in which to identify and recognize racism.
26.) If the Media supports, although may strongly disagree with, the mostly white jury’s’ verdict on the Casey Anthony trial, based upon circumstantial evidence, as an example of and confirmation/validation of our justice system’s worth/value without ever questioning and/or demeaning the individual jury members as ineffective, etc., and never questioning the process that resulted in the outcome, after having condemned, on a very personal level, the mostly black jury’s decision on the O.J. Simpson trial based upon circumstantial evidence, as stupid, ignorant, uninformed and biased, and further suggesting changing the entire procedure, to allow for a “majority only” vote instead of a unanimous one needed for a murder conviction, to correct the “travesty” of his acquittal. And if this Media support for the jury and our system of justice was offered during the Casey Anthony trial discussed along with the O.J. Simpson trial as “comparable” egregious offenses. That’s racism.
Please comment on this example with suggestions for Solutions in the Comments link below