The charcoal Forest of African American Public Though

I am taken back by the level of conformity and tolerance in my community for mediocrity, acceptance of the status quo and the derisory fatuity we display with respect to everything from our comprehension of politics and economics to our limited understanding of history and learning from past and present experiences. Conformity in the sense that all information seems or must be presented in the form of “one approved perspective” as Juan Williams described in his latest book Muzzled. Tolerance in the form of people seemingly being afraid to speak out or complain about anything which if viewed objectively, may have a negative impact on others, particularly African Americans just because it originates from within the African American community

My beliefs and opinions, both written and oral have been vilified and called rude, condescending, wrong and even unreasonable just because I state them with sincere vehemence and temerity and because the acceptance of hypocrisy is more haute couture than dealing with the facts and truth. Sadly is that most of such individuals do not or cannot read a simple 300 page book in a night or two days nor do they read any newspaper daily, but rather regurgitate what they hear from television or some singular web site that likely supports their views. Growing up when I did, nearly everyone I saw always kept a book or newspaper and read one daily.

Now, many with such dispositions may have never lived outside of the US for more than a few months or worse, have never been outside of the country except in the capacity of a tourist – yet they contend to be worldly in thought and disposition.

Often, if I express a position, even if objective with fact, one risks being ignored, shunned, blocked (in social media) or ridiculed for the sin of free thinking based on diverse information just because they disagree with what I may say. Whether it is pointing out the impact of unproductive and gratuitous violent misogynistic lyrics in most hip hop music, the media messages that mainly spoon feeds garbage to the masses that are void of utilitarian value or asserting Obama’s problematic and misguided preoccupation with Keynesian economic philosophy; they disagree simply because the subject matter deals with or originates within the African American community, and as such are off limits to critical discourse and seen as an attack and results in a muted discussion - for the defensive posture people tend to take. It is a sadly funny predicament to say the least.

For example, if I say George Bush and Obama’s use of economic stimulus served as a short term fix and only made America’s economy worse in front of republicans they get defensive and complain and say I am attacking Bush and he is not even in office. If I say George Bush and Obama’s use of economic stimulus served as a short term fix and only made America’s economy worse in front of democrats, especially black folk, they get defensive and complain that he inherited it from Bush ,that he needs more time and that I am either a hater or an uncle Tom. Although both do not deal with the objective reality that the stimulus, regardless of who supported and implemented it that it was short term and resulted in a worse economic standing for America objectively, they equally attack the messenger and the message that it did not work just to support their position albeit fact states otherwise (economic growth continues to fall, value of dollar continues to fall, jobs continue not to be produced). Ironic and funny, since both condemn the other for the same action.

This gets even worse with so-called talking heads. Al Sharpton will get on stage with George W. Bush and applauded his No Child Left behind Educational imitative as he did during the Bush years but did not speak out against schools being punished and loosing funding if they did not meet the rigorous program education standards. Today, ex post facto the Atlanta Public Schools Cheating scandal, he blames it on that very program he proffered support for implemented by George W. Bush. Lesson being – say what is popular with your supporters void of critical foresight and thought and don’t think for yourself.

Thus, we black folks are lost and have lost our way in the world. Our world view is a ghetto fabulous one in which we don’t snitch and keep it real while we ride or die – for nonsense. Sad fact is keeping it real is equal with keeping it ignorant and promoting behavior that destroys all around us including ourselves. Since this merely means be leery and suspicious of anyone that thinks for themselves if they do not support all that is black, even the negative aspects of our culture or do not think like us. That we should only say and think things that will be accepted by the people such statements are being presented to.

The free thinker in me would tell all folk as the aforementioned to suck my dick. But since I am trying to be politically correct I will refrain. Keeping it real means that we need to recognize the burned down and charcoal forest of ideas that exist around us and either move beyond them or stay in a dead zone mentally and wait to pass into extinction.

The Help Protects the Legacy of Institutional Racism and Historical Inaccuracy in Hollywood

Over the summer I have been spending an inordinate amount of time in the library and state archives with my daughter. This past week I was there to find out if a book I had requested, Muzzled: The Assault on Honest Debate by Juan Williams had arrived. Upon finding out it had not come yet, I passed a little blue Book called the Help – the 2009 Novel by Kathryn Stockett.

After reading the book I could not see what was all the fuss. The two words I would use to describe it are quick and unimpressed. So unimpressed that I wanted to see why folks were marketing the Movie as if it were the Ten Commandments. And thankful to all that is available on the internet, I did not have to pay to see it. I hope people do not take this as a history lesson, but I am afraid many, who do not remember their being only four television channels or when there was no such thing as a self-service gas station probably will. Both the book and the movie gave me the same feeling I got as a child watching Tarzan, running Africa like a king over all the black folk there as a single white man. Or like I did when I first saw Mississippi Burning, and was so vehemently upset because the portrayed the FBI as helping the civil Rights movement when history and fact states FBI under J. Edgar Hoover regarded the movement as public enemy number one: The book although supposedly written during civil rights struggle, barely mentions Edgar Evers assignation, the 16^th street bombing or other issues that were daily occurrences in Mississippi. The help needs major help. It the kind of book and movie that make white folk feel good about themselves and black folk mad at the fabrications being presented. In the book, all the attention is on Skeeter as the narrator but in the movie it is one of the maids (Aibileen). *In fact, given the time period, there was only one mention of violence in the story and that involved domestic black on black crime between one of the maids and her man. Although lynching’s were as frequent as the post man delivered mail. Hollywood as usual has sugar-coated the daily impact of racial discrimination and prejudice in America as if the truth is too painful. As a most movies about race (the legend of Baggar Vance comes to mind) white Hollywood need to create white super heroes who are made to be more involved in the struggle against racial oppression than whites. Nelson George described this as “the magic negro” phenomena, where the black character is simple a mirror for the white man character to see themselves. The films of Hollywood especially that deal with race reflect the institutional racism common place to movie industry itself. To shine a real light on racism would be too show the real Hollywood. The Help is another in this tradition of having white folk tell the story of discrimination and racial hatred as if they lived it, while playing down the experiences of those who actually did.