This is a big subject that takes a lot of research to get the statistics right but I feel compelled to write about it as I finish the last chapters of the book by Isabel Wilkerson “The Great migration” if you haven’t had a look at it buy it and read it is a splendid journey. So I was thinking about how does one approach the subject of fairness and opportunity and the idea of what we interpret as a fair playing field without noticing that decade after decade since the first African set foot on these shores, that the opportunities have been almost nonexistent as far as the average everyday man and women looking for a peaceful safe place to live and good employment. How would others who were like the Jews but the far worse off African Americans have survived? Would they have ghetto’s like they did in Poland but still desperate and in full force today in every American city, would they resort to a life of crime to support a life addicted to drink and drugs because how much resistance and unfairness and debasing hatred can one man face? Honestly how would an average white American man survive say Jim Crow? How would the average white American man survive the unfairness and cronyism that exists keeping him out of any type of employment that would indeed lift him out of poverty? He would be in the exact ruin that the average African American man who is uneducated and possibly ghetto dwelling, post jail or worse a death curse, death before 30, this is what he faces today. So I say it is miraculous we have such a bright light in President Obama who is fighting the very system that has continued to keep us (who are blessed to be of color) down. What is the face of the billionaire? He is 50 plus white and entitled. How many Billionaires of color who are African American? I can think of two Oprah and Johnson from BET. There has to be a few more. This is out of hundreds and I think it is reflective of the unspoken cronyism, the racist radical, okay not all conservatives are racist maybe but I will say it; The racist radical conservative RIGHT. Yes Mr. Murdoch. Now as I think this I hear my friend Julie say nothing is viler then the smug liberal who fancies him or herself not racist but in fact is the worst kind. They are closeted in their racism…Okay so this lack of opportunity it bleeds over to woman and children this dominance but it is still so present and damaging and sadly difficult to see it changing either because it may be biological the survival of the fittest. Or so systemic it will take decades to shift. Go Occupiers! Finally in sports a sanctioned form of slavery where some athletes are compensated but not until they break free of the shackles of college football and ownership of NCAA where billions are made for a chosen few on the backs of talented majority African American athletes. Again another horrid imbalance of power sanctioned by institutions across America, when people hint that racism is dead, I laugh and say look to the street look into every corner of every American city and see the color of poverty, it is brown and it is female and it is children. Look at the faces of privilege, what color is it? It is White.
Tell me with a straight face that racism is dead…I think not. It is a gloomy message but the holidays bring it out of me because there is something systemically wrong about Victorian Christmas when so many are suffering. Peace.
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What's up, doll; long time, no visit (please forgive me). About some 15 years ago, I swore off the rather "capitalistic" (or better put, wholly materialistic) style of celebrating Christmas; asking that others not purchase and give me gifts and with my not offering nor giving gifts --- to anyone. I must say that it's been a tough position to take; particularly in the face of an increasingly selfish western culture. Folks just don't seem to grasp my position that "I (and my Love and loving actions) am your gift; all year long". However, with each passing year, the position that I some years ago adopted has grown stronger; and it's strengthened me to be able to give more of myself to life, on a daily basis.
As I'm currently based out of Copenhagen, having moved there around this time last year, I've had reason to study the "isms" of European culture; whilst gaining the opportunity to view the intrinsic racism of American culture from a vantage point of some remove. I've found so far that neither the answers to the issues you pose (nor the issues themselves) are at all clear-cut; at least not until one jumps a bit outside the "material" box.
Until we recognize that there is no distinction between "my pain" and "your pain", we shall each suffer. As the world continues to become "smaller and smaller", it's still not evident to most that the only thing that prevents "my problem" from being "your problem" is time itself --- countless wars, epidemics and the like bearing out such reasoning.
Perhaps one day, we'll become clued in; there remains Hope. May you be blessed to enter the coming year (2012) with renewed vigor; and a thirst to Love. :o)
Hello Mr. TB ohhhh it has been so long and thank you for that message!!! May 2012 be rich and full of adventures and love and joy!
It is a big subject and one I want to keep exploring not to weaken our resolve but to strengthen and create more awareness as we filter through the 2012 political landscape. This election is exposing the ugliness of America and where she needs some work and where we have all but calcified in our prejudices and I mean all of us. In the African American community we could resist the temptations and beware the traps that have lead to so much pain. Yes we are all interrelated isn't that what it means to be enlightened when we realize our connectedness?
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