Not now...not in 2008!

I was recently sent a copy of a letter that was printed in the Ft Worth Star-Telegram this past weekend (30 March 2008). The letter angered me, confused me, and then left me feeling sorry for its author. A scan of the letter is posted here for your perusal, but you can also go to the newspaper's website to read it along with others on the same topic at: http://www.star-telegram.com/244/story/551415.html

As I read the letter that Richard sent in to the paper, I was taken aback by the level of ignorance that was displayed. I even fired off an email to several friends in expression of this ire. After sleeping on it, I've come to the conclusion that this man is a victim. He's a victim of his own stupidity and the media images that he's chosen to take as the gospel. We all know that the media can twist the truth, or share certain aspects of the truth in order to shape our view of what we see. Don't believe me? Try something as simple as watching the local news this evening. See how the FOX, NBC, CBS, and ABC affiliates report the same stories. Mostly the same information, but pay attention to the verbiage and the emphasis. They did it back in the day to Malcolm X, they did it a few years ago to John Kerry, and they're doing it right now in this presidential race.

As it pertains to the stereotypes about blacks [men particularly], I encourage you to seek out and watch Janks Morton's documentary "What Black Men Think". Once you sift through the negro conservative rhetoric and the Robert Townsend "Hollywood Shuffle" level production, there are some truths in there that can open your eyes. Overall, my personal feelings are that letter is an exhibition of the idiocy of some people, even today in 2008. How we still have that splinter of society that has been hoodwinked and bamboozled by the media's images of a sector of society. The author of this letter obviously doesn't know that the ratio of black men going to college (relative to population) is higher than that of white men of their legion. He obviously doesn't know that of the 40 million poor and underprivileged in this country, 26 million look like him. It's an unfortunate truth that when the news reports anything about the poor, those receiving public assistance, etc they inevitably show stock [or real] footage of people of color [black or brown]. The purpose of this is for the poor whites to feel as though they have more in common with the wealthy and give black and brown the mindset of identification with the poor. This is no more an accident than it is that every time they put out their lists of beautiful people there are less than 10% people pf color. Try this when you get the chance - go to Target or Wal-Mart and look in the toy section; count the ratio of white dolls to dolls of color [ANY color]. This is all by design. Give us the mindset that our woman aren't beautiful, our plight is to be poor and that we are disenfranchised in the country of our birth. They even have us, still today, separating ourselves from our country. No other group gives themselves a name that separates them from America. We have to be African American, while they are white, hispanic, or asian.

This letter, while it should raise the ire of many blacks, it should also open our eyes. Yes, he's an idiot of epic proportions, but I shan't leave us out of the fray. Why, you ask? Because in every lie, there is some level of truth; unfortunately, we still have that contingent of niggers that give black people a bad name. On that same token there is a contingent of white bread crackers (like this imbecile) that make all white people look bad. I could get angry and say, "You can’t expect too much from someone whose mother is also their sister and their father is also their grandfather." However, I won't stoop to that level…whether it is true or not.

Sadly there are too many who buy into this type of crap. Unfortunately, many of those that do are people of color. Therefore, the objective has been reached, the disillusionment of a generation, they won’t expect anything more of themselves because society expects nothing of them. They believe the lie that there are more black men in prison than college, that black men don’t graduate high school, that they can only aspire to be a pro ball player or a drug dealer. That any job that doesn’t afford them the luxury cars (Maybach, Bentley, Benz, etc.) isn’t success. They believe the hype that all black people have bad credit, go everywhere late, we're supposed to be po (not poor) and that our men don’t marry their baby mommas or pay child support. They believe this crap. Until we, as a people, stand up and prove this wrong, they’ll keep believing this crap.

You see, there are several tragedies that this letter to the Ft Worth Star-Telegram brings to light. Not only is it a tragedy that this idiot was stupid enough to audibalize this moronic attempt at profundity; it is also a tragedy that this 'supposedly' reputable media outlet was irresponsible enough to print it; but the biggest tragedy is that there is some modicum of what he said that is true. That’s what really angers me. If we, as a people, were in a place where we could indisputably say that none of what this idiot says is true, then I’d be happy. To a certain extent, everything he said is untrue, relative to the proportion of the blacks that are guilty of these transgressions. However, we can each readily name at least one person who is guilty of each of the line items he accused us of. This being the case, there are far too many of them out there that need to change. Yes, we need to be mad as hell about this letter and the lunacy of the assertions made in it. We also need to retrieve the perpetrators of the actions he’s accusing us of and collectively whip them into shape individually and corporately to make everything he said a lie. Then and only then, might we rid ourselves of this niggardly activity and thus, shed the auspicious title of always being the trifling, rabble-rousing, boisterous, ignorant fools that we’ve been called.

It’s just my opinion, but I’m not wrong!