Everyday Black Matters
You know, I’m just a quiet Black man trying to make it in this world. I’m especially trying to make it in this Obama-the-POTUS, post-racist country—or so some of the White people around me tell me. I have been told that I should be happy that America finally has a Black president and that I shouldn’t be so touchy about some of the things that I see around me. And you know, I want to be a good and happy Black man, so I try…
…but it’s just so hard, when in the past three months, that there is so much racist $#i+ going on. For example:
“Haven’t We Done Enough For You People?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eHKhB3-EmZM
The CSPAN commentator does a commendable job hearing out this woman, correcting her, and then not calling her a racist (w)itch for what she says. I guess one could attribute her perspective to her age(?) or to her Alzheimer’s(?) condition. And I’m sure she’s just an anomaly in our post-racial America…and I’m glad she’s not a racist.
“Why is this GOP House Candidate Dressed as a Nazi?”
Rich Iott, the Republican nominee for Congress from Ohio’s 9th District, likes to attend Nazi reenactment weekends for father-son bonding experiences. He doesn’t believe in the Nazi “message,” but believes that we(?) can learn some key lessons from them (like, about how to brutally take over a nation, and then the entire world, in the name of totalitarian ideology maybe?). In any case, you think he’d make a good house representative? I have a couple of questions about his judgment in our post-racial America.
“Racist Email Flap Blows Up Virginia Beach GOP”
http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/10/racist-email-flap-blows-up-virgina-beach-gop.php
Virginia Beach Republican Party chair Dave Bartholomew forwarded an email that he received to his good buddies, an email that seemed to compare Black people to dogs. I haven’t taken a class on poetry analysis since college, so I might be missing the point, but the interpretation seems sound to me. The good news here is that Bartholomew is new to the internet and isn’t racist, so he isn’t even an anomaly in our post-racist America: he fits right in.
“How Republicans Party” [I think this is an unfair title, but that’s what it is]
http://www.fitsnews.com/2010/09/14/how-republicans-party/
At this interesting party run by the National Federation of Republican Women, South Carolina Senate President Glenn McConnell dressed up as Confederate soldiers with his Republican friends for a down-home southern experience. Even the Black folks got into the mood, as you can tell by the photos on the link. Now maybe the Black folks were Gullah storytellers (one cannot tell by the article), but this whole experience looks really not post-racist, but just straight-up racist. I don’t think this is the post-racist America for which we are supposed to be striving…
…nor is this, but some people of the folks above might like it…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypIbTpnuNgg
Okay, that’s kind of rough; sorry.
[And I’m sorry that most of these links make the Southeast look a little backwards. I’ll keep my eye out for other interesting pictures of post-racist America.]
But really—help me!! I wanna believe in our country, our nation, and her people. But it seems that when a Black man took the top spot, that all hell broke loose, and that a small-but-powerful segment of Americans is just looking back (too far back) for how they want things to be. It also seems that those who were looking back there already are looking more ardently.
So, gabbers…what’s a Black man to do?
A guest post from a great friend of mine, Mystery Man from California
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