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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.

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.

Poly Tricks

So, John McCain has chosen Mrs Sarah Palin as his running mate.
I'm not the kind of person shouting "Experience?" regarding presidential and vice presidential hopefuls, I'm more concerned with the policies, comprehensive knowledge and ability to analyse current affairs and stands on key issues, after all no president makes decisions all by himself, so what really is this experience question all about. In many countries folks with 'no experience' have won elections and ruled nations brilliantly, take Corazon Aquino of the Philippines as an example, so for me experience is a non issue, if a chicken farmer has a great plan for the nation then he is just as ready as a senator to lead. Look where George W Bush's experience as a Governor in Texas has got America in, a quagmire of war with no end in sight, a dislike and distrust of America all over the world.
Anyway, enter Palin, who by her ABC interview has very little knowledge of current affairs, she was bigging-up Alaska's proximity with Russia as foreign affairs experience, the fact that you can see Russia from Alaska does not give one the right to be vice president. I guess now future candidates would claim standing on an island in Alaska and seeing Russia in the horizon as valuable foreign affairs experience, enabling them with the tools to face Moscow in a nuclear arms debate.
I mean what other stupid claims can be made out to be experience, does having an altercation with an Afghan mean you have foreign affairs experience, did scoring an A+ in Economics in high school equip you with the tools to solve the economies problems, does a stopover in Damascus airport, or regularly visiting a Persian restaurant mean that you are an expert on the Middle East, hell, soon being able to name a city in Russia other than Moscow and St.Petersburg would be claimed as valuable foreign affairs experience. I mean, Cuba is only 90 miles south of Florida, I guess that makes the Governor of Florida an expert on negotiations with hostile Communist nations.
America Oh America, a funny big ol'country. This presidential race has had me hooked to TV screen and computer monitor reading about the latest soundbite and irrelevant gesture, when would Americans focus on the issues at hand instead of lipstick on pigs, looking at Russia from Alaska or stuck in Vietnam for 5 years (tragic experience yes, but in no way a qualification for presidency)
I can't wait for the Presidential and Vice Presidential debates, where as one Obama supporter put it "Obama would verbally slap the sh*t out of McCain" and judging from Palin's interview, looks like Biden would also be doing some "sh*t slapping"

Change We Can Believe In

Consummatum Est- at least for now. The fight against Senator John McCain begins. Barack Obama has clinched the Democratic Party Presidential Nomination after a long and hard fought struggle with Hillary Clinton. I believe a new chapter is opening in American history, in terms of the way it's percieved across the world, and also domestically, in terms of racial bigotry that has plagued the country since the first Africans set foot on American soil in 1619.
By God's grace, Barack Obama will defeat John McCain in the November elections, and usher in a new era in American History.

YES WE CAN

Click Here to read Obama's Victory Speech delivered at St. Paul, Minnesota