THEY WILL COME FOR US SOON!

he problem with not knowing your history is that you are bound to repeat it, which is why the efforts by conservative Republicans (a redundancy in this day and age) to revise the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution makes those like me, who were raised during the Civil Rights era, nervous. When the Constitution was formed, Black people were made three-fifths of a person as a compromise between the North and South. When we fought for our freedom by fleeing to the North, the Fugitive Slave Act was passed by both Southern and Northern politicians. When the Civil War came to an end, we were given full status as citizens only to lose it 11 years later through the enactment of Jim Crow laws in the South and later by an act of the Supreme Court that declared “separate but equal” okay and by a more subtle form of de facto segregation in the North. When it came to Black America, historically, White America has demonstrated an amazing willingness to compromise Black rights through a variety of deceptive mechanisms, which is why conservative Republican efforts aimed at Hispanics to amend the 14th Amendment to deny American citizenship to people born of immigrants who are not permanent citizens is something all Americans of conscience should adamantly oppose. If we let those proposing it come for the Hispanics, history has shown us that they will come for us soon.  

 

 HE CAN’T WIN!

resident Barack Obama cannot win on the race issue. The New York Times Maureen Dowd chided him in an article published in The Republican (July 27, 2010) for not focusing enough on race out of fear of a White backlash while the very next day Patrick Caddell and Douglas Schoen, in a scathing opinion article in The Wall Street Journal (July 28, 2010), criticized him for deliberately dividing the nation by race. The President is discovering that walking the line on race doesn’t protect him from anybody. 

 

DON’T TAKE THE BAIT, MR. PRESIDENT!

nd Boston Sunday Globe writer Megan Tench took it to another level. She wants President Barack Obama to “show off a little (Black) swagger.” She wrote, “Maybe it is time that Americans do see you as an angry black man, who isn’t a bit afraid to flash his anger and attitude, deliver a plain, sharp tongue and show the world that America won’t take any more crap.” (The Boston Sunday Globe, July 25, 2010) Don’t take the bait, Mr. President; don’t take the bait!

 

IT’S THEIR MONEY!

unny how the Senate so willingly voted to deny $1.2 billion owed to the nation’s Black farmers who were cheated by their own government out of equal participation in loan programs that saved White farms and caused many Black farmers to lose theirs. Senators relied on the politically pious argument that the money wasn’t available and stripped the measure out of the budget even though all agree that it is money that should have been released to Black farmers years ago. It’s their money!

 

DIVERSITY AND THE MYTH OF WHITE PRIVILEGE

irginia Governor James Webb’s opinion column in The Wall Street Journal (July 22, 2010) is a must read by those interested in an enlightened view of affirmative action and diversity. I never thought I would be agreeing with a Southern, White governor’s analysis of and solution to a problem that has so divided America on racial lines, but he is saying what I have believed for awhile. I know my not saying what he said is a teaser but if you want the details, you’ll look up his article.

 

RANGEL’S WRANGLING FOR A DEAL

y the time this reaches our readers, the fate of New York Congressman Charlie Rangel, former chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, might be settled one way or the other, by trial or by deal. There is little doubt that Rangel did the many things the Ethics Commission accused him of doing. The only issue is if when he did them he knew that he was doing wrong, if it was a mistake or a deliberate violation of the ethics rules. Charlie Rangel is one of the smartest members of Congress. To conclude that he made so many unknowing mistakes is quite a stretch. 

 

YOU USE IT; YOU LOSE IT!

he White Republican mayor of Cobleskill, New York was forced to resign by his own White constituents after he was recorded using the “N” word in reference to President Barack Obama’s campaign slogan regarding change. The mayor was talking to another town official who was also recorded using the “N” word in reference to Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. The townspeoples’ intolerance of bigotry in their ranks is refreshing.

 

JUST A FEW REASONS FOR CONCERN!

hy are some African Americans suspicious of large, predominantly white, conservative populist movements? Well, let’s see. Perhaps because they have suffered provocations throughout American history that make the complaints of Boston’s original tea party movement seem trivial in comparison. Perhaps because the Constitutional Convention itself was a conspiracy against their rights. Perhaps because great historical wrongs are still comparatively recent.” (The Washington Post’s Michael Gerson explaining African American suspicion of the Tea Party movement, reprinted in The Republican, July 21, 2010)

KEEP YOUR EYE ON AFRICA!

he head of one of the world’s largest buyout firms (Carlyle Group) expects economic growth in Africa to outpace every other region over the next decade….The International Monetary Fund says sub-Saharan Africa will be the second-fastest-growing region from 2010 to 2015 with gross domestic product growth averaging 5.4% a year…”  (The Wall Street Journal, July 2, 2010)

 

NAACP ENDORSES POT!

he California NAACP has endorsed a November ballot question calling for the legalization of marijuana. The rational for the endorsement is that the measure is a civil rights issue because Black folks have a disproportionate number of arrests for marijuana possession that lead to the criminalization of young people.

 

ALMOST JUSTICE?

o, the government discovered that powder cocaine and crack cocaine are equally harmful and reduced the ratio between the quantities of crack cocaine that would trigger harsher penalties from 100 to one to 18 to one. If they are equally harmful, why the remaining disparity? The law goes from being unjust to almost just? It makes no sense.

 

RACE OR ARROGANCE OF POWER?

his writer is not shy about attributing race as a motive where evidence indicates. But, while the attacks on Maxine Waters and Charlie Rangel by their ethics committee may contain a racial element, even a rudimentary review of the charges against each reveals a type of arrogance of power that is common in politicians, who the more powerful they become, the less careful they become. And, if you happen to be a Black politician and you think you can get away with what White politicians have gotten away with since the beginning of the Republic, you are simply naïve or the victim of a type of hubris that will place you exactly where Waters and Rangel are.  n