Black Power!!!

My BFF and I have recently been discussing what appears to be an increasing racial divide in this country that is always mistakenly called a melting pot.

So many black professionals are being systematically laid off from their corporate jobs and no one has said anything about it. My personal opinion is that this specific targeting of the "black elite" is a direct fall out of the November 2008 presidential election in which Barack Hussein "I'm a ninja" Obama took over the White House.

So the most powerful man in the land is black and white people become threatened. People can lie all they want about fearing a socialist government, but we all know the real deal (no one wants a ninja as their President). Barack's presence must be a reminder of days as white trash struggling to find jobs as house cleaners, which Maria and Consuela happily took. A word of wisdom: if you want those jobs back, please lower your asking price. No one is going to pay you $8 an hour for a job that can be done for $1 an hour. Don't be mad at us. Be mad at your corporate big wigs who decided to take all those Ford motor jobs to the Philippines or whatever random third world country they sent that work to.

Such moments often remind me of slavery. Slavery was a terrible period in the past of African-Americans. However, slavery clearly showed the stronger race - black people. White people were visibly too weak to pick cotton as their translucent melanin was not enough to withstand days in the sunny fields of Virginia and South Carolina. Better yet, let's just say that Oladupe the Slave was strong with muscles ripping through his chest and back. I doubt that even the great Civil War general Stonewall Jackson had such an amazing physique. Long before LA Fitness and NY Sports Clubs, we were looking gwoood. Why do you think the little white mistresses of the house were creaming for Solomon and his fellow slaves? Now the black man was not the only idol back then. Black women also did their thing. I mean Thomas Jefferson did love him some Sally and clearly fathered a multitude of mulatto children....I know, the truth hurts!

This recognition of black strength and black power has always been the motivator for bringing down black people. Of course no one could be better than the pasty white men, so they decided to reduce black people to nothingness until they believed they were nothing. The remnants of this low self-esteem are found in the young boys and girls who would rather chill on the corner than read a book. Now, with the rise of a black President, we can see that time for being a down-trodden negro is expiring.

Let's just say that we are heading into a time where white validation will no longer be important. For so long we have wanted to work at this company and go to that school. We should remember a time when black people owned their own businesses, banks, schools, etc. Why can't we do that again? The campaign days leading up to Obama/November '08 were a reminder that we will always have a systemic racial divide in this country. Obama represents hope, but that hope probably goes as far as universal healthcare. We will not randomly come together in the next 10, 20, or even 50 years.

However, as we all lose our jobs and begin to reflect on our self worth, let us recognize that black is beautiful, intelligent, strong, and powerful. It is important to understand that people are threatened by confidence, especially the confidence of a negro. The veil of the white man must now be lifted so that we can see what lies within us. Integration was our downfall. The new segregation will be our rise.

I'm not usually ranting about black power, but the recent unfairness I see affecting me and those around me is hard to push to the side. I wonder what Reverend Al thinks...

The 300 Year Curse

So yesterday was my friend's 30th birthday. To celebrate in style (well we thought we were stylin') we started the night with dinner. Somehow everyone started talking about racism. Then that somehow led to me making a comment about slavery. I guess everyone thinks I'm extremely prissy and incapable of dealing with a hard life because they laughed at the thought of me being a slave. Well I told them. If I had ever had the opportunity to be a slave, I would have killed my master by seducing him and poisoning him with some cotton tea. Now, there is no such thing as cotton tea, but I was talking out of my ass. I digress, I digress.

On a more serious note, I attempted to start some dialogue on slavery and the holocaust. It was too heavy a topic for dinner, so I decided to save the comparison for my blog....

In college I took a graduate course on the politics of race and ethnicity. My final paper was a comparison of Jews to African-Americans. This was relevant to me because a lot of the course materials addressed concerns over why African-Americans are not like Jews even though they had a similar struggle.

Let me tell you why since none of these intellects and professors can seem to put their finger on it.

The top 5 reasons why African-Americans are not as "successful" as Jews:

1) Slavery lasted 300 freakin' years ---- I don't mean to deviate from the significance of the Holocaust, but imagine three hundred years of separating mothers from children and fathers from families. It is a pretty good explanation for the "breakdown" of the African-American family unit. They've been breaking for 300 years.

2) Slaves had no alliance to back them up ---- So after the rest of the world discovered the atrocities of the Nazis in Germany, they flocked to the rescue of the Jews. Ummmm no one was trying to rescue slaves. Of course we want to acknowledge all the abolitionists and thanks to Harriett Tubman and others, a lot made it to Canada. However, there was no army raised for Negro liberation. I never learned about France or England coming to save slaves from American atrocities.

3) Slaves did not have old money ----- African-Americans were dragged to the New World against their will. They had nothing. They were the property. To make matters worse, they didn't have any gold to melt into their teeth and therefore nothing of value to pass down to later generations. Furthermore, this lack of property was exacerbated with the emancipation of slavery when no one got 40 acres or a mule!

4) Jews are unified by religion ----- Judaism is such an ingrained part of the culture of Jews that it is a strong identifier for them. African-Americans are Christians for the most part, but there are sooooooo many denominations that no one can keep track of them....Greater Emmanuel of the Faith A.M.E. Baptist Church, the Church of God, Amelia E. Featherhoven Temple of God. I'm trippin' but you get the idea. The only unique identifier for African-Americans is skin color. That has proven to be a deal breaker more than anything else. Thanks to slave rapes and the other racist propaganda that were rampant during slavery, black people are not one shade of black. There are many variations and complexions. Just watch Spike Lee's "School Daze" and you will have a better idea of what I'm talking about.

5) Jews are basically white ---- I'm not saying that Jews have not faced any adversity, but it is easier to get by in America when you have white skin. You don't have to deal with that double taxation. Now I understand that our society has constructed its own stereotypes about Jews, but nothing is worse than that black skin. Think of it this way. If you are white or even brown (cuz y'all front like you aren't ninjas when you really are), would you like to trade in your skin color for some of that negro melanin?

I didn't think so!

There you have it folks! These are the differences. I personally think all African-Americans of slave descent deserve at least 150 years off work with pay for all those 300 years of cotton picking in the hot sun. Just thinking about that hard work makes me tired and what I do isn't even 0.1% of what they did.

Of course this is only my opinion, so feel free to hit me up with some comments. I wanna know what you think about the Jew/Black debate.

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*Photo 1: taken from http://www.sonofthesouth.net/slavery/photographs/slaves.htm
*Photo 2: taken from http://blueherald.com/2007/04/holocaust-remembrance-day-2007/