(because this is more important than cowboying – – promoted by pinche tejano)
I have been politically active since 2003. My political beliefs have been progressive since my undergraduate years and despite my frustration with the direction the country has taken over the past 27 years, I have believed that at heart there was something worth saving in this country.
Let me be clear, I believe and have experienced good people in this society. I have been blessed with fiends and opportunities in the context of this society. The racial/class logic of this nation had nothing to offer me but I have had some successes suggesting that African American striving in the United States is not a total waste.
Yet, there are moments when that belief is sorely tested. Those breaking points are as American as apple pie. If you were a survivor of Slavery, the Rise of White Supremacist violence and the end of Reconstruction were breaking points.
If you were an African American veteran returning from WWI, the avalanche of race riots in 1919, were breaking points.
In 1954, as an activist for African American inclusion in the social, economic and political body of this nation, than the murdrr and exoneration of the murderers of Emmett Till, was a breaking point.
And the flush of potential in early 1990s America for African American middle class youth, was stilled by the images of a young Black man savagely beaten in the streets of LA by police officers who were than exonerated by a jury of (not his) their peers.
And now the Jena 6.
A group of African American High School students in Jena, LA after a series of run ins with white classmates and local whites beginning in August 2006, has accumulated to disparate charges having been filed against Black youths involved charges filed against whites in involved.
Wikipedia provides a good summary of the evnts and the case.http://en.wikipedia….
For me the disparate charges, inconsistent procedural actions on the part of the defense and the narrow view of the circumstances of the case all lead me to believe that perhaps this society may not be worth the effort. There are numerous works which detail state sanctioned and state supported violence against African Americans and other marginal communities.
Ida B. Wells. On Lynching.http://www.amazon.co…
Herbert Shapiro. White Violence and Black Response.http://www.amazon.co…
Jennifer Ritterhouse. Growing Up Jim Crow: The Racial Socialization of Black and White Southern Children, 1890-1940.http://www.amazon.co…
Demico Boothe. Why Are So Many Black Men in Prison? A COmprehensive Accountof How and Why the Prison Industry Has Become A Predatory Entity in the Lives of African American Men.http://www.amazon.co…
The problems have been detailed, debated, discussed ad nauseum and yet a virulent segment of this society refuses to recognize the basic worth of Black life. Not all whites behave in this fashion, but I am concerned that the consistency of this behaviour within the educational system and the criminal justice system assures me of not only the inherent nature of virulent racism in this society but clearly the low grade desire to maintain it. The Amadou Diallo
case http://www.courttv.c… and the Abner Louima case http://en.wikipedia…. are but signs along the road to some seeming ghastly destination marked by
“Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.”
Why should one labor in such fields? The name of Genarlew Wilson quickly fades from (some of) our memories http://sports.espn.g…
But for others of us no amount of time from Jamestown, VA (1619) to Marcus Wilson of Rome, GA. (2004 sentence overturned) http://www.louisiana… can make us forget the fragility of African American freedom and the perceived disposability of Black life. Such thoughts challenge my ability to work for a society envisioned by the great advocates of freedom in this nation’s history. It’s not that I don’t think it’s possible, I am not sure such pearls are worthy of the citizenry.
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Check out this link from the Radio Personality Michael Baisden website http://www.michaelba…
thank you Sansouci
thank you for the careful documentation. i am white but spent nine years involved with an african american man and understand pretty well what you are saying. south africa had an open apartheid system; ours is more subtle.
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Not to troll for Obama but he has been the only Dem. candidate that I know of who has made a public statement regarding the case. An Obama spokesperson spoke for 45 minutes to the Thom Joyner show this morning about the case. When called, Clinton’s campaign had nothing to say.
<<"Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.”
Why should one labor in such fields?<<
My personal response to you, as an old white woman who has been a misfit most of my life is this: in my own opinion, there is no longer enough reason for you to continue to labor in these particular fields. The soil has been too long desecrated and soured, used as a landfill for the debris of rampant materialism. It has all been claimed by elite white slave owners who long ago discovered that whites as well as people of color make very good slaves, as long as they can be fooled into thinking they are free.
Anyone who is not one of them, has always been and will continue to be scapegoated and targeted and taken out, however they have to be, to maintain the status quo. And now, they own it ALL, including the government and the media.
These are hard words for me to write, having spent many of my years as fervent Patriot who loved my country more than my own life. I am too old to leave now, in body, but this is no longer my country, in my heart. And I have lost my own hope that it will ever truly be a level playing field for you. I’m so sorry.
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LEAD DEFENDANT IN JENA 6 CASE CHARGES REDUCED TO JUVENILE STATUS!
check out the link from dailykos.com for more details http://www.dailykos….