Today Is The Beginning of Black History Month And The Question Must Be Asked What Are Black "Americans?" And Why Is Their "Americaness" So Different Than Others?
But if the truth of this nation's building were actually told, the entire house of cards that the white supremacist lie is built on in this country would collapse. Hence, why so many are working/ have worked so very hard to keep as many as possible ignorant of why the European Americans hold so much unwarranted power. It perpetuates the ludicrous myth that "they" built this nation, and in turn, can dole out specific months of praise. This teetering supremacist ideology looks to be on the verge of collapse, and when that happens, "they" will lose their collective minds.
Since it is Black History Month, BHM, Monkey Month (as it is known in many venues) and whatever other pathetic moniker, I will spend all 29 days writing and publishing articles that are, in some way, relevant (with few exceptions). Of course, as far as I am concerned, nothing that I write is ever as good as it should be; yet, it is always better than I think it is. A bit of a conundrum, perhaps.
Curse?
Gift?
I am both impressed and, simultaneously puzzled to the point of quasi-paranoia, by the collective intelligence of the LookingNWords cadre. This is not bovine feces. It is a subject far to deep to give short shrift in the manifestation of a "comment." In the next week, or so, pay close attention to an article that mentions Miles Davis and being "On the Dunes." That piece (which has been, literally, months in the making) will provide crystal clarity to the matter.
I will take a singular active intellect, to a thousand mediocre minds. No one could write the comment that you did, be a true European-American or any other type individual, and not be a heavy M.F. with intellectual integrity. I love it, as "hope springs eternal"...sometimes, and I thank you, and all of our subscribers, for providing me an iota of it.
And again you've pointed out something I knew, but I didn't KNOW until you said it. There is something uniquely awful about how easy it is to sweep the death of a Black person under the table with "Too bad, but____" (Fill in the blank) "I thought he was armed" (with Skittles?), "She was behaving in a threatening manner" (reaching for her registration?), "I was in terror for my life" (after you had him handcuffed and were sitting on top of him?).
You're right, Black History Month does need a remembrance of all the Black people killed by the cops, Neighborhood Watch, some guy open-carrying in a Stand Your Ground state, as well as Black people who died too young of "natural causes" like Andre Braugher or Lance Reddick. (That really hit me, learning they were both younger than I am!)
Yes, please use Black History Month to interrogate why Black people aren't citizens in the same way Whites and other minorities are.
It will always be such in the United States for the Black Person in the United States (unless memories are deleted/purged). The substantive conversations and executions for what is to follow HAVE to start from that premise and reality.
The rest of it is bullshit...and that's what concerns me.
What I fear is overt apartheid—and I would bet money that's just what Trump hopes to create. As Rohn pointed out above, we've already got COVERT apartheid, hidden behind the Glorious Banner of American Exceptionalism! Sure, any Black person can rise just as high as a White person—look at Barack Obama! Oprah Winfrey! Byron Allen! Michael Jordan! Kanye Wes - !
::Uhhh...on second thought? Let's wait until he stops wearing a black hood like a comic book supervillain and praising Hitler, m'Kay?::
But if you're not a One-in-a-Million Black person, it's a LOT harder than it is for a White person. Look at Obama and compare him to the Presidents on either side of him—Mediocre White Men with unearned confidence, every one. Well, except for Donald Trump who is, in his own crooked dictatorial quarter-smart snail-oil salesman fashion, pretty exceptional himself—in the way H.L. Mencken prophesied:
"As democracy is perfected, the office of the president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
I really thought that described George W. Bush to a T—which only shows that no matter how low White Trash gets, they can always get lower if somebody like Trump comes along. But I digress (again!)....
My point was that if Obama were Shrub Bush, Sleepy/Gropey Joe Biden, or Slick Willie Clinton, the only way he'd have gotten into the White House is if he'd taken a tour. In order to be President he had to be significantly smarter, much more eloquent, and with an almost superhuman ability to control his temper against the incessant barrage of insults flung his way by Mediocre White Men threatened by a Man committing the high crime of Leading While Black. There's a lot I dislike about Obama's policies and positions, but I have nothing but admiration for his leadership skills and abilities.
What happens once Whites are no longer the majority? I don't know, but I think it's time we found out....
Your "fears" have been my reality for half a millennium.
My fears are the polar opposite of yours. Which, I think, is the quintessential, quite obvious and open, irrefutable proof of apartheid. After all, the European invented it.
Like everyone in this cadre you are an exceptional mind, Susan. Thusly, you have my respect in that regard. That having been clearly stated, I tend to communicate with brutal precision. Therefore, there is little ambiguity in my statements. I meant what I said. What you, or someone like you, may interpret as covert, now, is, and has always been, o-v-e-r-t to me and mine. What you, in essence, are exercising with such a comment is "white privilege."
And that is YOUR privilege, not mine.
Further, the short answer to your question is: affirmative.
Um—I don't think I ever said my fear was inevitable, Susan, just a likely possible future if things carry on as they have.
Rohn makes the point that my fear is his reality—and while I know that's true, as a middle-aged White man I don't KNOW know it like he does. Have I mentioned the meaning of the term "grok" lately? Robert A. Heinlein came up with the term in his "big novel", STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND. It means, at least I think it does, "To understand at every level, right down to your cells, so completely that you don't even have to think about it."
Heinlein is a writer I'm not comfortable talking about here because the man was a bigot, no two ways about it, and moreover he was proud of that fact. But in the same way that a stopped clock is right twice a day, Heinlein's coming up with the work "grok" is transcendent in its ability to state the difference between what I said and what Rohn replied—I "understand" there's a problem, Rohn "groks" it.
I said I fear overt apartheid, and Rohn says "It's here! Where have you been?" We all know the answer to that—I've been being so immersed in White Privilege I don't see it unless I look VERY closely. One of the reasons I'm here is because I need to look more closely, and keep looking...because really do not want to wake up one morning and realize I've turned into a Trump MAGAt, or worse one of those Fine Liberal people who keep saying "Oh, Joe Biden is such a COMPASSIONATE and CARING person, not at all like Donald Trump!"
28,000 Palestinians might have a differing opinion on that subject.
But if the truth of this nation's building were actually told, the entire house of cards that the white supremacist lie is built on in this country would collapse. Hence, why so many are working/ have worked so very hard to keep as many as possible ignorant of why the European Americans hold so much unwarranted power. It perpetuates the ludicrous myth that "they" built this nation, and in turn, can dole out specific months of praise. This teetering supremacist ideology looks to be on the verge of collapse, and when that happens, "they" will lose their collective minds.
Congratulations Scott.
You have managed to outdo yourself with this comment.
No small feat.
Thank you! I was eagerly awaiting your first piece of February, and it is fantastic sir.
Since it is Black History Month, BHM, Monkey Month (as it is known in many venues) and whatever other pathetic moniker, I will spend all 29 days writing and publishing articles that are, in some way, relevant (with few exceptions). Of course, as far as I am concerned, nothing that I write is ever as good as it should be; yet, it is always better than I think it is. A bit of a conundrum, perhaps.
Curse?
Gift?
I am both impressed and, simultaneously puzzled to the point of quasi-paranoia, by the collective intelligence of the LookingNWords cadre. This is not bovine feces. It is a subject far to deep to give short shrift in the manifestation of a "comment." In the next week, or so, pay close attention to an article that mentions Miles Davis and being "On the Dunes." That piece (which has been, literally, months in the making) will provide crystal clarity to the matter.
I will take a singular active intellect, to a thousand mediocre minds. No one could write the comment that you did, be a true European-American or any other type individual, and not be a heavy M.F. with intellectual integrity. I love it, as "hope springs eternal"...sometimes, and I thank you, and all of our subscribers, for providing me an iota of it.
However temporal.
And again you've pointed out something I knew, but I didn't KNOW until you said it. There is something uniquely awful about how easy it is to sweep the death of a Black person under the table with "Too bad, but____" (Fill in the blank) "I thought he was armed" (with Skittles?), "She was behaving in a threatening manner" (reaching for her registration?), "I was in terror for my life" (after you had him handcuffed and were sitting on top of him?).
You're right, Black History Month does need a remembrance of all the Black people killed by the cops, Neighborhood Watch, some guy open-carrying in a Stand Your Ground state, as well as Black people who died too young of "natural causes" like Andre Braugher or Lance Reddick. (That really hit me, learning they were both younger than I am!)
Yes, please use Black History Month to interrogate why Black people aren't citizens in the same way Whites and other minorities are.
Correction: Citizenless Citizens.
It will always be such in the United States for the Black Person in the United States (unless memories are deleted/purged). The substantive conversations and executions for what is to follow HAVE to start from that premise and reality.
The rest of it is bullshit...and that's what concerns me.
What I fear is overt apartheid—and I would bet money that's just what Trump hopes to create. As Rohn pointed out above, we've already got COVERT apartheid, hidden behind the Glorious Banner of American Exceptionalism! Sure, any Black person can rise just as high as a White person—look at Barack Obama! Oprah Winfrey! Byron Allen! Michael Jordan! Kanye Wes - !
::Uhhh...on second thought? Let's wait until he stops wearing a black hood like a comic book supervillain and praising Hitler, m'Kay?::
But if you're not a One-in-a-Million Black person, it's a LOT harder than it is for a White person. Look at Obama and compare him to the Presidents on either side of him—Mediocre White Men with unearned confidence, every one. Well, except for Donald Trump who is, in his own crooked dictatorial quarter-smart snail-oil salesman fashion, pretty exceptional himself—in the way H.L. Mencken prophesied:
"As democracy is perfected, the office of the president represents, more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. We move toward a lofty ideal. On some great and glorious day, the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron."
I really thought that described George W. Bush to a T—which only shows that no matter how low White Trash gets, they can always get lower if somebody like Trump comes along. But I digress (again!)....
My point was that if Obama were Shrub Bush, Sleepy/Gropey Joe Biden, or Slick Willie Clinton, the only way he'd have gotten into the White House is if he'd taken a tour. In order to be President he had to be significantly smarter, much more eloquent, and with an almost superhuman ability to control his temper against the incessant barrage of insults flung his way by Mediocre White Men threatened by a Man committing the high crime of Leading While Black. There's a lot I dislike about Obama's policies and positions, but I have nothing but admiration for his leadership skills and abilities.
What happens once Whites are no longer the majority? I don't know, but I think it's time we found out....
"What I fear is overt apartheid."
Your fears, mate, are my reality.
Your "fears" are always my reality.
Your "fears" have been my reality for half a millennium.
My fears are the polar opposite of yours. Which, I think, is the quintessential, quite obvious and open, irrefutable proof of apartheid. After all, the European invented it.
Like everyone in this cadre you are an exceptional mind, Susan. Thusly, you have my respect in that regard. That having been clearly stated, I tend to communicate with brutal precision. Therefore, there is little ambiguity in my statements. I meant what I said. What you, or someone like you, may interpret as covert, now, is, and has always been, o-v-e-r-t to me and mine. What you, in essence, are exercising with such a comment is "white privilege."
And that is YOUR privilege, not mine.
Further, the short answer to your question is: affirmative.
Um—I don't think I ever said my fear was inevitable, Susan, just a likely possible future if things carry on as they have.
Rohn makes the point that my fear is his reality—and while I know that's true, as a middle-aged White man I don't KNOW know it like he does. Have I mentioned the meaning of the term "grok" lately? Robert A. Heinlein came up with the term in his "big novel", STRANGER IN A STRANGE LAND. It means, at least I think it does, "To understand at every level, right down to your cells, so completely that you don't even have to think about it."
Heinlein is a writer I'm not comfortable talking about here because the man was a bigot, no two ways about it, and moreover he was proud of that fact. But in the same way that a stopped clock is right twice a day, Heinlein's coming up with the work "grok" is transcendent in its ability to state the difference between what I said and what Rohn replied—I "understand" there's a problem, Rohn "groks" it.
I said I fear overt apartheid, and Rohn says "It's here! Where have you been?" We all know the answer to that—I've been being so immersed in White Privilege I don't see it unless I look VERY closely. One of the reasons I'm here is because I need to look more closely, and keep looking...because really do not want to wake up one morning and realize I've turned into a Trump MAGAt, or worse one of those Fine Liberal people who keep saying "Oh, Joe Biden is such a COMPASSIONATE and CARING person, not at all like Donald Trump!"
28,000 Palestinians might have a differing opinion on that subject.
Nothing.