Picture of the Week

Inspiration!

Thoughts on Black America

The United States of America has a recent and long history of racial intolerance. It would be a surprise to some that it was barely 43 years ago that the US government outlawed discriminatory practices in that prevented many African-Americans from voting.
In fact when US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama was born in 1961, many public places particularly in the south were segregated. So Obama’s possibility of ascending into the highest office in the land is a testament to the racial progress that America has made in the last forty years.
The problem with the race question in America today is that many people equate racial progress with a complete solution of the racial problem. Many people think that because schools are de-segregated, and there have been many African-American mayors and public officials the entire effects of slavery and Jim Crow laws have been wiped out.
However, it hasn’t been fifty years since African-Americans were ‘legally’ recognized as citizens in all parts of America, people who walked with Martin Luther King are still alive today. In fact Martin Luther King is only eight years older than John McCain, the Republican presidential hopeful. This illustrates the short time that the dynamics of race have changed in America. However the question is can we expect the abject material poverty, and psychological impoverishment resulting from been viewed as less than human to be wiped away within a generation?
The reason for the disproportionate poverty of African-Americans is a discourse that has largely been avoided by the American people, they prefer to highlight instances where a black person has overcome poverty as proof that African-Americans are on an even playing field as whites.
I guess this discourse is politically incorrect, and I was not expecting Senator Obama to raise it in his campaign, it is the elephant in the room, the ongoing problem that no one wants to discuss, Why?, well maybe it stirs up white guilt, it reminds them of the not too distant past, it reminds them of segregation, of slavery. What America should ask itself is: “If the government had to legislate in order to grant civil rights to a certain group of people, as late as the 1960s, how does one expect these people, within forty-something years to catch up in every aspect of society with the others”
When you suppress a minority, practice segregation, and limit their rights, you allow poverty to fester, you allow hatred of the majority to fester, because the black man can see the affluence of the white man, he can see it, but he cannot get it. Now add this notion of the American dream, you tell blacks that they are American, you allow them to compete in Olympic games for America, you put them in your army, they fight and die for you, but you deny them human rights when they return. In many states they cannot vote, in some states they cannot marry a white person, some states they have to give up their bus seat for a white person if the situation permits; surely you can understand the anger and the hatred that would brew in the black community. You are being told that you are American; you are being told that this is the land of the free, but at the same time, you are being denied your basic human rights.
The suppression of a race would naturally lead to segregation, and thus ghettoization in terms of housing. We’ve seen this in areas such as New York, Chicago and Los Angeles. A people with limited rights are naturally a poor people, a people facing discrimination are naturally a poor people, for they cannot alleviate themselves to affluence, as discrimination prevents them from getting better jobs or receiving higher wages.
Poor people are angry people, angry people may become violent people.
America has continued to ignore the problems of poverty in the black community, and has instead chosen to focus its attention on the results of poverty- mainly drugs and crime. So it’s natural that when black people are disproportionately poor, they will therefore disproportionately fill the police cells and prisons.
And then what happens, we see just one side of it, we don’t remember the causative factors, we forget slavery and racism, and all we see are black felons. The black man becomes synonymous with criminal, violent, insolent and indolent.
This partial amnesia of America is worrying, this refusal to accept that black people are still suffering from the legacy of slavery is the reason why America would never see past race, America would never become a post-racial society, until it accepts wholeheartedly the evils it has practiced and how it plagues the African-American society today. It’s much too late for monetary reparations, but to use Martin Luther King’s analogy: America has given the Negro people a bad cheque which has come back marked 'insufficient funds', and it’s about time American society starts paying up.
One cannot be forgiven until they have first accepted wrongdoing, America has only partially accepted its crimes, and until it fully accepts responsibility and takes the right steps to mend these problems, racism would forever be as American as apple pie.

Picture of the Week

Such a cute picture. I love the look on the face of the baby.

Vinte

Yes, finally I have shed the prefix teen that has followed me for seven years. I have now officially moved on to a new category. I am now 20. It's not a big change, maybe a little more respect, actually, it doesn't make the slightest difference since most people think I'm in my mid-twenties anyway, someone has even gone as high as over thirty.
But yes, I am 20. No big celebrations like last year, partly due to bad timing (I was in Bradford over the weekend, celebrating someone else's birthday)
That's the problem William and I have always had, someone's birthday usually eclipses the other, growing up, it was usually mine overshadowing his, his being on the 20th, mine on the 21st, it was only logical to suspend the cake and chicken eating for a day to accommodate my graduation. So while he only had the birthday wishes and hugs, I got the whole nine yards- cake, chicken, jollof rice, presents, general festivities. Of course they were meant for both of us, but the celebrations falling on my birthday was of significance, if not to anyone else, it was for me a source of bragging, seeing that William had to wait 24 hours to actually 'celebrate' his birthday.
So, yesterday, he turned 22, and here I am, graduating to a modest 20 (there's no immodest age by the way)
My 'youth' if I can still use that word unsurprisingly comes as a surprise to many, and I guess that makes me happy- it means I'm unique in a way- my biological appearance and my age do not correspond- GREAT!

The Rise of American Fascism?

Last week, republican Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin said at a rally, that she liked to visit ‘pro-America’ areas in America, leading the media to ask if there are any ‘anti-America’ areas of the nation.
This suggestion by Mrs. Palin is not surprising, since she was brought into the race to the White House, Mrs. Palin has riled-up the so called ‘conservative base’ of the Republican Party. She has timelessly said that she is from a small town, and has duly positioned herself as a champion of small town values (which her husband Todd specified as Hunting and Fishing)
For those not familiar with American society, perhaps the explanation given by Saturday Night Live’s Tina Fey (who regularly parodies Mrs. Palin) would give an insight into the mythical small-town vs big city values gap. Fey listed New York, Delaware, Maine, Connecticut and California as amongst the ‘anti-American’ areas. This is not just a random list, these areas happen to be the most urbanized and cosmopolitan areas of the nation, also, these areas are traditionally Democratic.
Mrs Palin who has once said that there is a special place in hell for women who don’t support other women (misquoting former Secretary of State Madeline Albright) has once again courted controversy with her pro vs anti America parts of the nation.
This is not a new phenomenon, but it’s a very American one, and I find it bordering on fascism- and I don’t use that word lightly. By bordering on fascism, I mean that some Americans find any criticism of America’s actions by an American as unpatriotic- that is fascist. John McCain and Sarah Palin continuously calling out Barack Obama for refusing to use the word ‘victory’ in his speeches on Iraq- that is fascist. Republican supporters’ continuous attempts to portray Obama as unpatriotic and a secret terrorist-that is fascist. This notion that some parts of the country do not have America’s best interest at heart is fascism.
It’s going to start with ‘areas’ that are anti-American, then it will move on to individuals or groups of people that are anti-American. Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota has recently fanned the embers of fascism, by calling for a purge of the legislature for those holding anti-American views; this is reminiscent of McCarthyism where everyone was on the lookout for the mythical ‘communist’
There is a growing tendency by conservatives to equate liberalism with anti-Americanism. The real fear that Obama will somehow sell-out America explains the divide and the deep ignorance of the American electorate. I hope Senator Barack Obama wins, I do, because frankly, the alternative is fascism, not the bold face Mussolini or Hitler type, but a new brand, a new American Fascism- criticize or protest against the government? Good Luck to you.

Presenting: The Obubos

Alex, Julian & William

So Far

I have not been the best blogger this year, but I promise to change from now on. I'm in Bradford now, going to a dinner to celebrate William's (and my) birthday.
I'm just getting down to all the essays that need to be done this year, and of course the great dissertation that's got to be written.
So, I promise to blog a lot more fervently.

New Camera

Yes, Yes. Got my new camera yesterday, after the deal appeared to stall halfway, the camera arrived. An absolutely beautiful contraption, 11 megapixels 14.3X zoom, The Fujifilm Finepix S100fs. I haven't had the opportunity to go out and take pictures in Sunderland, I've been busy reading the manual (you have to, this is no common point & shoot camera). I want to master all the settings so I can graduate to being a proper photographer (the term proper is loosely defined here)
But yes, the only picture I have taken with it was of my celebratory dinner(Celebrating the camera's arrival) Enjoy!



My dinner!



Me, my camera, and Malcolm X