FJM Blog

By Armstrong Williams

I can’t get over the media circus surrounding Senator Barack Obama’s current trip to the Middle East . Never mind that Senator John McCain’s recent trip overseas hardly made the nightly news (we will just chalk that up to another instance of media bias), but the fact that the world went crazy as soon as Obama stepped on the plane means something deeper is being established here. Apparently, Obama’s handlers and the national media have deluded themselves into believing the hip presidential candidate can transform himself into some sort of super-diplomat simply by spending a few hours in some war-torn countries. Need to burnish some foreign policy credentials for your presidential campaign? No problem, just hit the road to the remotest regions of the world and voilà – instant international policy expert. 

I’m not saying that McCain is completely innocent of such tactics, heck no politician is.  Many in Washington were scratching their heads while he was traipsing through the jungles of Colombia last month – burning precious time reserved for the campaign trail.  But then came the freeing of hostages held by the FARC Colombian rebels, and McCain looked, well, presidential. And really, that’s the whole point of these “fact-finding” missions – looking good for the cameras. 

Perhaps these work vacations by politicians are more sophisticated than they first appear. Maybe Americans appreciate the fact that their presidential candidates are traveling beyond the confines of America and seeing the world firsthand. Perhaps, but do not be deceived.   These are trips staged to the finest detail, with little left to chance and happenstance. Obama and McCain know this, and they have treated it as such – an extension of their political campaigns. Why do you think the network anchors are along for the ride?  It is surely not because of the news quotient that the “surge” is working. What they gain can be debated, but what they “earn” the right to say during and after these trips seems quite baseless.

For example, as the Senator from Illinois walked the Middle East battlefields under heavy protection, it became obvious that he was using the experience to try and ride both sides of the troop withdrawal issue. For as long a s I can remember, he and the Democrats have chided, goaded and even threatened the government of Iraq into a timetable in order to get them to “take more responsibility” for their security situation. For months, these individuals were practically insulting Prime Minister Maliki and his ability to lead, implying they knew what the prime minister needed to turn the ship of state around. And now, when Maliki hints a timetable that is in his country’s best interests, Obama is all too eager to sit down and praise the Iraqi leader’s prescience and wisdom on the matter. However, when someone back home presses Obama on leaving the Iraq unprotected and isolated from American troops, he balks just a bit and focuses his answer on the “phased withdrawal” baloney and the importance of moving troops to Afghanistan .

Maybe the reason American anchors love the Obama Overseas story is because citizens around the world are treating this man like a God. His idol status in just about every country not named Israel is showing just how much this man is attracting the people. And we all know that when that happens, the news trucks follow.

Germans, for example, are already calling him “President Obama” while the king of Jordan is driving him around in his Mercedes. Even the senator’s own staff is swallowing the Kool-Aid as fast as they can stir it by invoking “White House protocol” on what are clearly campaign stops. A 24-nation poll conducted by the Pew Research Center showed that Obama is hot in Europe . The recent Pew Global Attitudes survey found that, among Europeans paying attention to the presidential contest, large majorities voice confidence in Obama, while relatively few have a positive opinion of McCain.

I realize it’s difficult to not savor the limelight on the other side of the Atlantic, particularly when the current Oval Office occupant is so despised by the Middle East and Europe . At some point, however, Obama needs to honor the office he seeks to hold by respecting the man who currently serves as America ’s chief diplomat, and the policies this administration has established. David Gergen – adviser to four presidents, mind you – said it best when he stated, “I cannot remember a campaign in which a rival seeking the presidency has been in a position negotiating a war that’s under way with another party outside the country.” That’s dangerous, on so many levels.

Yet Obama continues to enjoy this sense of empowerment; and he feeds off the media more than any candidate I’ve seen in the past decade. The American people see this for what it is. A Rasmussen poll out today found that 49% of Americans think the media is totally biased toward Obama. Just 14% feel that way toward McCain and the coverage he’s garnering. 

It’s time to get serious in this campaign season and re-calibrate all of our attentions – the attention of the media, the public and the candidates themselves. 

www.armstrongwilliams.com

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THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

For Immediate Release                                          July 23, 2008

 

60th Anniversary of the Integration of the United States Armed Forces

 - - - - - - -

By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

     The United States is founded upon the belief that every person has unalienable rights and matchless value.  Throughout our Nation’s history, brave patriots have made great sacrifices to protect this ideal and to advance the cause of freedom around the world.  On the 60^th anniversary of the integration of the United States Armed Forces, we pay tribute to all our service members and veterans, and we underscore our Nation’s commitment to equality.

     On July 26, 1948, President Harry Truman signed Executive Order 9981, declaring “that there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race, color, religion or national origin.”  Today, members of our Armed Forces come from many different backgrounds and cultures and are answering the call to service with bravery, decency, and resolve.

     Our Nation has long drawn strength from the diversity of its citizens.  Groups such as the Buffalo Soldiers, the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, the Tuskegee Airmen, and the “Borinqueneers” risked their lives while proudly wearing the uniform of the United States. By performing their missions with integrity and honor, they highlighted the power of liberty, helped open the door of opportunity, and earned the respect and admiration of a grateful Nation.

     On this anniversary, we celebrate the legacy of those who refused to allow adversity to diminish their spirit or extinguish their drive to help America live up to its promise of equality for all people.  We also commemorate our veterans and service members whose noble and selfless actions have inspired generations of men and women to follow in their footsteps and made our country a more hopeful place.

     NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim July 26, 2008, as the 60th Anniversary of the Integration of the United States Armed Forces and urge all Americans to observe this day with appropriate programs, ceremonies, and activities.

     IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-third day of July, in the year of our Lord two thousand eight, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-third.

 

GEORGE W. BUSH

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by Harry R. Jackson, Jr.

Last Tuesday (July 15) I stood with Niger Innis of CORE and just under 100 people from around the country at a press conference in Washington, DC. The group was comprised of congressmen, senators, grassroots organizers, and clergy. We descended on Washington to announce a bold cry for affordable energy for the poor. Our campaign is simply called “Stop the War On The Poor.” Although some leftist groups have already called our efforts partisan, nothing could be further from the truth.

Many of us have realized that most legislators on the Hill are advocating ideologically-based approaches to our energy problems. While Washington plays politics with American energy supplies, people are hurting – and the poor are hurting the most. The only hope the average poor person has is that gas prices won’t rise to $6.00/gallon. The poor cannot afford to hire advocates or lobbyists. Energy reform will be a major civil rights frontier of the next decade because the poor do not have a voice.

We call this a war on the poor because high-energy prices disproportionately impact America’s poor and low-income families. These prices are actually a highly regressive tax on America’s most vulnerable citizens. Although both McCain and Obama are making bold declarations about their plans for our future, many more specific recommendations and plans of action will be needed to address the needs of the poor. The poor in America do not comprise one homogenous group. Included in this “poverty” label are urban minorities, some rural farming communities, and many elderly of all races.

The following data convinced me that I had to speak out. First of all, our poorest citizens spend up to 50 percent of their limited income on energy, while the average American spends only 5-10 percent of their income. In comparison to their rich suburban counterparts, poor families are sometimes forced to make serious choices between food, medicine, or fuel. As a result of this dilemma, eight percent of households with incomes between $33,500 and $55,000 have had their electricity shut off this year due to non-payment.

Secondly, those in rural areas of the country are being squeezed even harder. They tend to have older vehicles that are less fuel-efficient. Pickup trucks are common because they work part or full time in agricultural jobs. It takes a larger percentage of a person’s income for transportation in rural areas because of longer commutes.

Rising gas prices force many farmers and rural residents to make tradeoffs in their production practices and their daily lives. In fact, a survey by the Maryland based Oil Price Information Service shows that after gas hit $4 a gallon, rural counties in the South and West were hit hardest. Specifically, families in many southern counties are spending 10 to 15 percent of their income on fuels.

Thirdly, escalating energy prices disproportionately impact the elderly. A June 25 Los Angeles Time/Bloomberg poll found that, among those 65 and over, more than two-thirds (67%) said the recent rise in gas prices has caused them or their family financial hardship.

It seems to me that these three categories of poor people are just the tip of the iceberg. There are many middle class people that will be affected by energy shortages in future - not to mention national security problems concerning the use of Middle Eastern oil. The nation deserves an immediate “start” to solving our energy problems. Any school kid knows that trading up to cleaner fuels and developing alternatives sources of power will be important first steps. Yet we can hardly afford to take the opening of domestic oil reservoirs and the development of more nuclear power off the table. We need a comprehensive energy plan that addresses the short term, intermediate, and long term problems of the nation’s energy. We continue to be ignored by the energy ideologues, who are fighting for airspace and their version of the “perfect solution.”

Well-meaning elitist, environmental groups want Americans to dramatically change how we live our lives. They believe that the nation needs to go through a wholesale transformation both economically and socially. In their view, the best way to bring about this change is to lock up our energy resources in “protected” areas. The resulting energy shortages will create higher prices. Their hope is that the nation will be forced to use alternative energy sources because of radical changes in the economic equation. In their view, rising energy prices will nudge the middle class toward energy efficient cars and appliances, which are good for the environment.

It is my sincere desire that the American people will see energy as the creator of economic opportunities. I also hope that we will recognize that pushing energy prices up will make everyone suffer. Unfortunately, the poor and disadvantaged will get hurt first.

It doesn’t have to be this way. The Americans for American Energy Act and other legislation that takes all Americans into account will increase the US energy supply and bring price relief to consumers.

I believe that Congress should act immediately to help lower gas prices for all Americans. If you share my sentiments contact your Congressman and Senator and visit www.stopwaronpoor.org.

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By Ceasar I. LeFlore III

 

Today we are beginning a unique national conversation here at Freedom’s Journal Blog on the topic of race, religion, and politics in America that we’ve entitled “More Christian Than African-American, or Vice Versa.” 

 

The concept is taken from a book of the same title written by Ms. Kimberly Cash Tate (who will be a leading voice in this national discussion), and seeks to deal with a very challenging question that must be addressed, especially within the black evangelical community.  “What is our most important identity, our blackness or our Christianity?”   To which of these do we owe our most faithful allegiance, and how will we demonstrate that in the coming election?  

 

The present political landscape is presenting a complex challenge to the black faith community.  The astounding success of Senator Barack Obama’s presidential campaign is a source of great pride for African – Americans, as he now stands on the precipice of attaining the greatest seat of power in our nation by becoming its first black president. 

 

Without exception, blacks see this as a historic development of unprecedented importance.  If elected, Barack Obama will take a special place of honor in the pantheon of “barrier breaking black heroes”; being named with the likes of Jackie Robinson, Hattie McDaniel, and Thurgood Marshall.   Win or lose, what he’s done is amazing and this nation will never be the same because of it.

 

But as the potential leader of the free world and the man who will set both the political and moral course for this nation for perhaps the next eight years; there is so much more about him that must be considered than his blackness and our racial pride.    

 

Who is Barack Hussein Obama?  What does he stand for?  How does his worldview line up with that of black evangelicals; and how would his political agenda affect that which Christians would view as a “kingdom agenda?”  Would he be for them (evangelical Christians) or against them?  

 

Seen by many as one who would be a great champion of the social justice issues, Barack Obama’s image has taken on a “messiah like” quality to millions of adoring black supporters.  Many of them see him as the one who will finally bring deliverance (change) from the political, economic, and social oppression that America inflicts on blacks and minorities in this nation, as well as the innocent people around the world who have been victimized by “American imperialism and greed.”  

 

But other African - Americans are concerned about the righteousness issues (the moral and ethical challenges), and how an Obama presidency would affect them. 

 

Believing that there can be no social justice in any nation that lacks the moral foundation to support it, many would contend that the continued erosion of the faith and values traditions that an Obama presidency represents to them is of paramount importance in deciding who to support.

 

They would point to Bible proverbs like the one that says, “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” to justify their contention that righteousness in a leader is more important than blackness.  Another proverbs says, “When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan.” 

 

Can Barack Obama bring together the social justice and righteousness issues in a way that would appeal to both the racial and religious sides of black evangelicals?  And if he can’t, how will they vote?  Will they vote their race, or will they vote their values?

Tomorrow we’ll go back a few months and revisit the way that Barack Obama exploded onto the national scene with his historic victory in the Iowa Caucuses and the subsequent controversy surrounding his 20 year affiliation with Dr. Jeremiah Wright and the Trinity United Church of Christ.

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by Rev. Wayne Perryman

It is evident in Obama’s book: Dreams from My Father, that his feelings toward whites preceded his association with Rev. Wright.  Although the book clearly depicts the evolution of Obama’s feelings toward whites, what is not clear is when or why (this man of change), changed these feelings.  From the Senator’s own book, it appears that he joined Rev. Wright’s church because the church reflected his own feelings and convictions about race, rather than the other way around.  The revelation regarding Obama feelings on race; may be the secret weapon the Republicans plan to use against him.    

The following are a few excerpts from Dreams From My Father.  I apologize in advance for some of the fowl language and profanity, but keep in mind, these are all direct quotes in context from Obama’ book, which was #1 on the New York Times Best Seller’s List. Obama starts off defending whites (as a teenager) but ends up condemning them as a college student.  I strongly recommend that everyone purchase the book and reach your own conclusions.  This edition of the book was revised in 2004.

Obama defends the Hawaiian White and Asian girls who refuse to date black students.

 Page 73 [Obama’s Friend] “These girls are A-1, USDA certified racist.  All of ‘em.  White girls, Asain girls… Think we got a disease or something.”  [Obama]  Maybe they’re looking at that big butt of yours… [Obama’ friend’s response].  “You ain’t my bitch, nigger… [Obama] “Just cause a girl don’t go out with you doesn’t make her a racist.” [Friend] “I ask Monica out, she says no.  I say okay, …your shit’s not so hot anyway….  It ain’t just me, by the way.  I don’t see you doing any better in the booty department.”

Page 74 [Obama’s Friend continues] “Tell me we wouldn’t be treated different if we was white.  Or Japanese.  Or Hawaiian.  Or fucking Eskimo. [Obama] “I’m saying, yeah, it’s harder to get dates because there aren’t any black girls around here.  But that don’t make the girls that are here all racist.  [Friend] …”You’re a smart-assed black man….Let’s get out of here.  Your shit’s getting way too complicated for me.  [Obama]  Ray was right; things had gotten complicated.

Obama struggles with Black Identity

Page 76 [Obama] I was trying to raise myself to be a black man in America, and beyond the given of my appearance, no one around me seem to know exactly what that meant.

Page 78 [Obama as being part white] I could learn to dance all the Soul Train steps…  I could sure curse like Richard Pryor.  I could play basketball with a consuming passion…. Page 79 …Of which you might make a move or a pass that surprised even you, so that even the guy guarding you had to smile, as if to say, ‘damn.  …I was living out a caricature of black male adolescence. Page 80 It was there [the basketball court] that I would make my closest white friends, on turf where blackness couldn’t be a disadvantage. Page 81 Sometimes I would find myself talking to [my black friend] Ray about white folk this or that.  It was obvious that certain whites could be exempted from the general category of our distrust…  There are white folks, and then there are ignorant mother-fuckers…” [referring to white his basketball coach who made some racist comments about “niggers”].  Page 81 “We weren’t living in Jim Crow South I would remind him [referring to his friend Ray]. We weren’t consigned to some heatless housing project in Harlem or the Bronx. We were in goddamned Hawaii. Page 82 None of our white friends…treated us differently… Shit, seem like half of them wanted to be black themselves.  Maybe we could afford to give the bad-assed nigger pose a rest.  Save it for when we really needed it….  As it was, I learned to slip back and forth between my black and white worlds.’

Barack expresses anger with Whites Who try to be - or talk black

Page 83   [Obama]  “Man, those folks are just making fun of us, All that, ‘Yo baby, give me five bullshit.” [Obama’s friends response] So who’s mister sensitive all of sudden, Kurt [their white friend] don’t mean nothing by it.” [Obama] ”If that’s what you think, then hey –“ [Obama friend interrupts him and says]” Just like I see you [Obama] getting along talking your game with teacher when you need them to do you a favor.  All that stuff about ‘Yes, Miss Snooty Bitch…  If I can just have one more day for that paper, I’ll kiss your white ass.  It’s their world, All right? They own it, and we in it.  So just get the fuck outta my face.” [Obama] By the following day, the heat of our argument had dissipated… 

Barack Wrestles with having White blood

Page 86  [Obama] “…Even as I imagined myself following Malcolm’s [X] call, one line in the book stayed with me.  He spoke of a wish he’d once had, the wish that the white blood that ran through him, there by an act of violence, might somehow be expunged.  I knew as well, that traveling down the road to self-respect my own white blood would never recede into mere abstraction.  …I was left to wonder what else I would be severing if and when I left my [white] mother and grandparents at some uncharted border.”

Obama’s black friend challenges Obama’s support of  Malcolm X’s  pro-black philosophy

Page 87 [Obama’s Friend] “But I tell you what – you won’t see me moving to no African Jungle anytime soon.  Or some goddamned desert somewhere, sitting on a carpet with a bunch of Arabs.  No sir, and you won’t see me stop eating ribs.  And pussy, too.  Don’t Malcolm talk about pussy?   Now you know that ain’t going to work.”  [Obama’s response when his friends started laughing]  “What are you laughing at?  You never read Malcolm.”  [Obama’s friend’s response]  “I don’t need no books to tell me how to be black….”

Obama’s grandfather’s hired black nanny

Page 90 [Frank, Obama’s grandfather’s black friend tells Obama] “Stan [Obama’s grandfather’s name] doesn’t like to talk about that part of Kansas [where Obama’s mother was raised].  He [Stan] told me once about a black girl they hired to look after your mother.  A preacher’s daughter, I think it was.”

Falsehoods Whites Spoke About Blacks

Page 110 [Obama] “…So eager was I to escape the imagined traps that white authority had set for me.  To that white world, I had been willing to cede the values of my childhood, as if those values were somehow irreversibly soiled by the endless falsehoods that white spoke about black.”

Crippling fear that I didn’t belong

Page 111 [Obama] “The constant, crippling fear that I didn’t belong somehow, that unless I dodged and hid and pretended to be something I wasn’t I would forever remain an outsider, with the rest of the world, black and white, always standing in judgment.”

Obama’s Response When Black Principal Wanted Obama to Hire His Wife & Daughter

Page 268 [As a community organizer in Chicago, Obama said the following when the black principal who helped him develop the program, asked Obama to consider his wife and daughter for positions.]  “He don’t just want one job! He gotta have two! Go in to talk about some kids, he gonna hand you his whole goddamn family’s resume…

On page 81 and on page 269 Obama uses the same inflammatory word (God—-) long before Rev. Wright used it in that flaming hot sermon that received national attention.  So who influenced who?

Has Obama changed his position and attitude about race?  If so, when and why?  Based on what he has said in the past, can Obama bring the races together?

I still feel that Democratic Congressman, Harold Ford of Tennessee should be the first black president of the United States.

www.wayneperryman.com

Doublebro@aol.com  

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by Star Parker

For the first time since the “don’t ask, don’t tell” law was enacted in 1993 by President Clinton, the House Armed Services Committee has scheduled hearings to review it. The law disqualifies gays from serving in the military.

Individuals are deemed gay, according to this ruling, if they publicly state so. However, the military is prohibited from asking. Thus, “don’t ask, don’t tell.”

Activists are now pushing for change to allow gays to serve openly.

We can anticipate a technical discussion. Does the presence of openly gay soldiers undermine cohesiveness of units, morale, and discipline? How would retention rates of troops or enlistments be affected?

We can be sure, though, that a discussion about the general moral implications of such a policy will not take place.

Early last year, then-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Peter Pace called homosexuality “immoral.” More fire and brimstone rained down on him than fell on the residents of Sodom and Gomorra for engaging in this behavior.

Rebukes came from Democrats and Republicans alike. GOP Sen. John Warner, a former chairman of the Senate Armed Services committee, writing his own scripture, challenged Pace’s view that homosexuality is immoral.

Although a recent Zobgy poll of military personnel shows more opposed to allowing gays to serve openly than favoring (37 percent to 26 percent), the direction of polling of the general public favors the pro-gay forces.

When “don’t ask, don’t tell” was enacted in 1993, an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll showed 52 percent opposed to homosexuals serving openly and 43 percent in favor. By 2004, Gallup polling indicated 63 percent in favor of allowing homosexuals to serve against 32 percent opposed.

The culture war is like the recipe for boiling a frog. If you drop it in hot water, it jumps out. But if you drop it in cold water and slowly turn up the heat, you get frog soup.

Concession by concession, traditional values are being pushed, inexorably, to the margins of America.

It’s a sign of this moral war of attrition that each battle is fought with less and less attention to what it means to the overall war.

Acceptance of openly gay people in the military means the next discussion will be qualification of gay couples for the same benefits received by traditional military families.

In all likelihood, we’ll see claims of discrimination if a gay person gets passed over for promotion and intimidated review committees will become increasingly politically correct.

But, hey, in the morally relative world, a glass half empty for one is half full for the other.

Increasing acceptance of homosexuality is viewed by many as social progress. The Seattle Times, for example, calls for a “modernized” military that accepts the openly gay.

But for this traditionalist, it’s no accident that building public acceptance of homosexuality is coincident with a general moral unraveling of our society, with all its destructive consequences.

According to Kevin Hassett of the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank located in Washington, D.C., 32 percent of American households today are nontraditional compared to only 28 percent that are traditional, with a mother, father, and children. The remaining 40 percent are households without children. He points out that children in nontraditional households have considerably higher incidences of emotional and educational problems.

I would argue that most of the major costs dragging down our society today — whether its poverty, entitlements, health care, or housing — trace to our diminishing sense of personal responsibility and the erosion of traditional values.

Our first great general, George Washington, would be considered politically incorrect today cautioning against believing “that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle” and admonishing, “virtue or morality is a necessary spring of popular government.”

“Gays in the military” is more than a question of military morale. It’s about the character of this country that we have a military to defend.

Who would question what George Washington would say about this important issue?

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By Robert Oliver

 

The July 11, 2008 edition of the Los Angeles Times wrote:  “The news that the Rev. Jesse Jackson took a crude swipe at Sen. Barack Obama this week put renewed scrutiny on the relationship between the veteran civil rights activist and Democratic presidential contender.”

But Jackson’s vulgar criticism of Obama came close to going unreported.

Jackson made the comments to a guest before an interview on “Fox & Friends,” whispering that Obama was “talking down to black people” and that Jackson wanted to cut his [nuts] off.

 

Senator Obama, to avoid a trip to the emergency room, keep Rev. Jackson away from your dinner table, especially if you’re using steak knives.

 

This is very interesting.   An overwhelming number of black Americans intend to vote for Senator Obama for President of the United States and I have heard none of them complain about being talked down to.  It seems to only bother Rev. Jackson.

 

Why does Barack Obama bother Jesse Jackson, Sr.? 

 

For years, white Democratic candidates counted on Jesse to deliver the black vote to them.  They, especially Bill Clinton, had to kiss his ring.  Senator Obama is a black candidate and blacks support him in huge numbers despite Jesse’s endorsement, or lack thereof.  Jesse is out of the picture and has absolutely no political leverage in the Obama campaign.  In this election he is absolutely irrelevant.

 

Could it be that Rev. Jackson revealed the frustration of his irrelevance with his crude remarks?  Why does he feel this visceral need to castrate Senator Obama, and why is he catching so much flack for expressing it? 

 

The July 11th edition of the New York Times said : “Even Mr. Jackson’s 43-year-old son, Representative Jesse Jackson Jr. of Illinois, went beyond repudiation to excoriate him” a poignant reminder that a real generational shift in power and leadership is under way in African-American politics.  Even his own beloved son has publicly parted company with him on this issue

 

It is clear to me that Rev. Jackson had gotten absolutely no political capital from the Obama campaign and had none to give.  He might as well declare political bankruptcy.

 

I remember in Chicago when then-Alderman Tim Evans was running for mayor, a campaign worker bragged that “Rev. Jackson was not needed for that campaign.”  It is exactly the same here with Senator Obama’s campaign.  Rev. Jackson cannot take any credit at all for his success and that just burns his grits.

 

I understand that Rev. Jackson apologized for his comments; but he probably should have just called a press conference and launched a “Down With Me” protest against himself.  That would have gotten him the most media coverage and would have made him a happy man again.

 

But as for talking down to black people, Rev. Jackson, have you heard of Nannie Helen Burroughs? 

 

She was a black activist in the early 1900’s and wrote an awful booklet called “The Twelve Things the Negro Must Do for Himself.” 

She really talked down to blacks and makes Barack Obama and Bill Cosby seem like Bush League players in the talk down game. (Did I say Bush?)  You really want to hear talking down?  Check out what she had the nerve to say:

 

1.  The Negro Must Learn To Put First Things First.  The First Things Are:  Education; Development of Character Traits; A Trade and Home Ownership. 

 

· The Negro puts too much of his earning in clothes, in food, in show and in having what he calls “a good time.”  Dr. Kelly Miller said, “The Negro buys what he WANTS and begs for what he Needs.”

 

2.  The Negro Must Stop Expecting God and White Folk To Do For Him What He Can Do For Himself. 

 

·  It is the “Divine Plan” that the strong shall help the weak, but even God does not do for man what man can do for himself.  The Negro will have to do exactly what Jesus told the man (in John 5:8) to do–Carry his own load–”Take up your bed and walk.”

 

3.  The Negro Must Keep Himself, His Children And His Home Clean And Make The Surroundings In Which He Lives Comfortable and Attractive. 

 

· He must learn to “run his community up”–not down.  We can segregate by law, we integrate only by living.  Civilization is not a matter of race; it is a matter of standards.  Believe it or not–some day, some race is going to outdo the Anglo-Saxon, completely.  It can be the Negro race, if the Negro gets sense enough.  Civilization goes up and down that way.

 

4.  The Negro Must Learn To Dress More Appropriately For Work And For Leisure.

 

· Knowing what to wear–how to wear it–when to wear it and where to wear it, are earmarks of common sense, culture, and also an index to character.

 

5.  The Negro Must Make His Religion An Everyday Practice And Not Just A Sunday-Go-To-Meeting Emotional Affair.

 

6.  The Negro Must Highly Resolve To Wipe Out Mass Ignorance.  

 

·  The leaders of the race must teach and inspire the masses to become eager and determined to improve mentally, morally and spiritually, and to meet the basic requirements of good citizenship.

 

· We should initiate an intensive literacy campaign in America, as well as in Africa.  Ignorance–satisfied ignorance–is a millstone about the neck of the race.  It is democracy’s greatest burden.

 

7.  The Negro Must Stop Charging His Failures Up To His “Color” And To White People’s Attitude.

 

· The truth of the matter is that good service and conduct will make senseless race prejudice fade like mist before the rising sun.

 

·  God never intended that a man’s color shall be anything other than a badge of distinction.  It is high time that all races were learning that fact.  The Negro must first QUALIFY for whatever position he wants.  Purpose, initiative, ingenuity and industry are the keys that all men use to get what they want.  The Negro will have to do the same.  He must make himself a workman who is too skilled not to be wanted, and too DEPENDABLE not to be on the job, according to promise or plan.  He will never become a vital factor in industry until he learns to put into his work the vitalizing force of initiative, skill and dependability.  He has gone “RIGHTS” mad and “DUTY” dumb.

 

 

 

8.  The Negro Must Overcome His Bad Job Habits.

 

·  He must make a brand new reputation for himself in the world of labor.  His bad job habits are absenteeism, funerals to attend, or a little business to look after.  The Negro runs an ‘off and on’ business.  He also has a bad reputation for conduct on the job–such as petty quarrelling with other help, incessant loud talking about nothing; loafing, carelessness, due to lack of job pride; insolence, gum chewing and–too often–liquor drinking.  Just plain bad job habits!

 

9.  He Must Improve His Conduct In Public Places.

 

·   Taken as a whole, he is entirely too loud and too ill-mannered.

 

·   It is definitely up to the Negro to wipe out the apparent justification or excuse for segregation.

 

·  The only effective way to do it is to clean up and keep clean.  By practice, cleanliness will become a habit and habit becomes character.

 

10.  The Negro Must Learn How To Operate Business For People–Not For Negro People, Only.

 

·  To do business, he will have to remove all typical “earmarks,” business principles; measure up to accepted standards and meet stimulating competition, graciously–in fact, he must learn to welcome competition.

 

11.  The Average So-Called Educated Negro Will Have To Come Down Out Of The Air.  He Is Too Inflated Over Nothing. 

 

· Otherwise, through indifference, as to the plight of the masses, the Negro, who thinks that he has escaped, will lose his own soul.  It will do all leaders good to read Hebrew 13:3, and the first Thirty-seven Chapters of Ezekiel.

 

·  A race transformation itself through its own leaders and its sensible “common people.”  A race rises on its own wings, or is held down by its own weight.  True leaders are never “things apart from the people.”  They are the masses.  They simply got to the front ahead of them.  Their only business at the front is to inspire to masses by hard work and noble example and challenge them to “Come on!”  Dante stated a fact when he said, “Show the people the light and they will find the way!”

 

12.  The Negro Must Stop Forgetting His Friends.  “Remember.”

 

·  The American Negro has had and still has friends–in the North and in the South.  These friends not only pray, speak, write, influence others, but make unbelievable, unpublished sacrifices and contributions for the advancement of the race–for their brothers in bonds.

 

·  The noblest thing that the Negro can do is to so live and labor that these benefactors will not have given in vain.  The Negro must make his heart warm with gratitude, his lips sweet with thanks and his heart and mind resolute with purpose to justify the sacrifices and stand on his feet and go forward–”God is no respecter of persons.  In every nation, he that fears him and works righteousness is” sure to win out.  Get to work!  That’s the answer to everything that hurts us.  We talk too much about nothing instead of redeeming the time by working.

 

·   In spite of race prejudice, America is brim full of opportunities.  Go after them!

 

Wow!  How dare this woman to talk down to black people like that!    Why did she not have the good sense to blame white people and the government for all our problems?  I found those quotes on the race traitor website www.blackmeninamerica.com  and in the book Stupid Black Men by Larry Elder. What Uncle Toms they are to actually expect black people to take responsibility for their lives.

 

Rev. Jackson, retirement is a wonderful thing, think about it.

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There is always a danger when we place symbolism over substance.

 

Last year in Detroit, the NAACP conducted a ceremony where the word nigger was supposedly buried and no longer acceptable to be used by anyone, white or black. 

 

“Die N-word, and we don’t want to see you round here no more” declared Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick in front of hundreds of cheering NAACP convention attendees who gathered to symbolically do away with a despicable word that had come to  typify white racism in America.

Apparently, in his effort to resuscitate his dead and decaying political influence among African – Americans, Jesse Jackson has resurrected the ridiculous old controversy about exactly who in America is allowed to say the word “nigger” and has potentially thrown kerosene on the smoldering debate concerning race and racial politics and how it affects Barack Obama’s run for president.

 

Caught on a “hot microphone” making disparaging remarks about Barack Obama for supposedly talking down to black people, Jackson was clearly exposed as the hypocrite he’s always been when he salted up his remarks by saying that Obama had been “talking down to niggers.”    Brother Jackson, you are so inconsistent.  (Hello Comedian Michael Richards)

 

I’m wondering if Jackson used the N word in an effort to be more specific about exactly which black people he was referring to, and was he including himself and all of us in that number.  Just how angry should I be about all of this?

 

For years now, blacks have been saying that the “N word” (how childish) is offensive and degrading and should never be used by anyone when referring to black people, unless you are a black person yourself.  Huh? 

 

Some contend that when white people use the word towards blacks that it’s always racist and hateful; but not so when it’s used by blacks referring to other blacks.  Apparently that’s the opinion of the two knuckle headed black women on ABC’s The View as they come charging to Jesse’s defense.

 

O.K. Ms Shepherd and Ms Goldberg - let me get this straight.  Are you saying that a person is allowed to use the word nigger, in any context, if he or she is black, has grown up hearing it used by their own family members, or are award winning hip hop artist and civil rights leaders?  Is that now the official position of The View and ABC, or have you two lost your minds?

 

Come on, people, let’s tell the truth.  Most of the time when we (blacks) use the N word, our heart attitudes are only barely different than those of whites when they use it.  Nigger is not a word that blacks use as a term of endearment, and we do ourselves and our cause a great disservice when we contend that it is.  We all hate the word and what it has come to mean about the lifestyles of those we attempt to define by it.

 

In one of his most popular stand up routines, comedian Chris Rock said that he believed that blacks were just as racist as whites “because we hate niggers too.” 

 

It’s not the word that gives offense, it’s the attitude towards people behind its use that is damaging and needs to go away, period.

 

At one time in this country the word nigger was broadly used by whites to define blacks as an inferior class of people.  It was an identifier intended to relegate blacks to a lower class of citizenship and to explain away why it was acceptable to treat them harshly and deny them certain basic human rights. 

 

Political correctness makes it unseemly to use the term these days, so now we childishly refer to it as the “N Word”.  (Does changing how we say it make it less offensive?  I think not.)

 

Etymologically, the word’s root was the Latin word for black.  It was influenced during the slave trade by the French translation of a word to describe black people, and at one time was not considered a pejorative term.  At one time even blacks referred to themselves as niggers with no apparent intention of being self deprecating or self hating.  That would soon change.

 

The word later became associated with a racist assumption of black inherent inferiority, making it extremely pejorative, and is now almost universally considered to be vulgar.   Now, no self respecting African – American would ever call themselves a nigger or be identified as such without taking great offense.

 

That’s because the attitude behind the use of the word is searing.  In the minds of people who use it, those identified by the term are lazy, shiftless, valueless, dumb, criminal, and not worthy to be neighbors.    N’s are lewd, overly sexual, drunkards, and raise ignorant children.

 

It was bad enough when you had a segment of the America citizenship believe that all of those negative representations were true about black people, even though we, like them had been created in the image of the same God.  But it was worse when the people to whom the term was being applied started believing themselves that the definitions were true and began living lives based on the stereotypes.  You simply cannot continue to identify yourselves as something without eventually manifesting the characteristics of it.

 

Who in their right minds would want to contend for the right of exclusive use of a term that represents such negativity?  Do we really want to arrogate to ourselves the right to exclusively demean ourselves in this fashion and only get angry when someone violates our self claimed copyright of the word?  How ridiculous!  How sad!

 

I believe that African – Americans have no clue what we want to be angry about anymore.  I believe the reason for that is that we no longer have a firm grasp on who we are, what we believe, where we’re going, or how we going to get there.  There is no consistency in our message and we are no longer credible when we feign outrage about some perceived slight from outside of our community while at the same time perpetuating those slights ourselves. 

 

We are sending so many mixed signals that we are confusing ourselves. 

 

On one hand we hate the word nigger; but on the other we want the right to continue calling each other niggers.  We say we want discrimination to go away; but we want the government to continue practicing it in set asides through affirmative action.  We say that we want equality in education but fight against vouchers that would open up educational opportunities for our children.

 

Can we please stop digging up dead issues and finally move ahead!  Jesse, put your shovel down!

 

 

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