A Big Black Attack - Race-Baiting in America
An Editorial
It seems that so much more often than we field racial epithets hurled at us by White Supremacist groups such as the KKK and Neo-Nazis, we Blacks encounter the patronizing and pathetic attempts of White Liberals to safeguard our "delicate" sensibilities and repair our self-damaged reputations.
Several days ago Senator and former Vice President Joe Biden made a completely tactless statement in the effort to cement his support with Black voters. The Democratic nominee has been known (and mocked) for his awkwardness in both his physical interactions with others (especially with women) and in speechmaking. He has repeatedly made what are universally deemed to be off-base comments in answering the most simple and casual of inquiries, earning him the nickname of "Gaffey". In a 2009 article posted on the website of NBC 4, DC's broadcast affliate, the title reads "Biden Annoying Obama More Than Ever". An excerpt from said states, "... [he is] a man with a talent for saying exactly the wrong thing in any situation."
The aforementioned gaffe was expressed in an interview within an installment of a podcast called "The Breakfast Club" hosted by Charlemagne tha God. It was stunning. And again, though Mr. Biden is known for his lack of verbal finesse, he should have known better than to say this:
"Well I tell you what, If you have a problem figuring out whether you're for me or Trump, then you ain't black."
So, Joe Biden never having been black himself can determine what Blackness is for all the people of our color? Why should he have been like that sassy Black Know-It-All Sistah with her hand on her hip? And are Blacks supposed to mindlessly follow the others wherever they would go like lemmings heading toward the edge of a steep cliff? Or are we all just sheep in a heavily politicized pasture waiting for the wolf to gobble us up unless our Good White Shepard comes in to save us?
In addition, these forgotten remarks from previous years were made by Mr. Biden:
"I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy," Biden said in relation to Obama. "I mean, that's a storybook, man."
"We got a real clear picture of what they all value," Biden said. "Every Republican's voted for it. Look at what they value and look at their budget and what they're proposing. Romney wants to let the - he said in the first hundred days he's going to let the big banks once again write their own rules, 'unchain Wall Street.' They're going to put y'all back in chains."
Though the second quote in the passage just above would be taken out of context if assigned a racial connotation, it and the reaction to it still reflects both our insensitivity and our hypersensitivity to ethnic stereotypes.
The image imposed on us, partly by others and partly by ourselves, is so insulting and demeaning. Things Biden touted remind me of the time when many Whites said that we all looked alike. If memory serves correctly that cliche was referenced by Carroll O'Connor's Archie Bunker (or a corresponding character) in an episode of All in the Family. But contrary to the somehow lovable biggot's perception, we do not all look alike, think alike or vote alike.
But somehow in the meantime we as Blacks at-large have paid a false debt to The Left and its Progressive and often radical activists. Most of us have thought that we owe them loyalty and total solidarity - especially if we want to keep all of the goodies that the government has to offer. And several representatives of the Democratic party have come to collect their own assumed entitlement over the years through grandstanding for it in our churchs' pulpits.
Blacks are told that "The Man" is out to get us while we let him lead us by our collective hand. And many of us rail against the establishment, wanting to tear it down, without the vaguest idea of how to reform it.
As with Reverse Racism we are also guilty of Reverse Race-Baiting. We assert that any and all who do not agree with the objectionable actions of militant Black demonstrators, or, opinions of controversial Black public figures (especially elected officials) are by their nature racist. We will not acknowledge that not all of our concerns (and especially theirs) are race-based.
What we do not need in any civilzation is anarchy. Yet during the marches over George Floyd's death the streets were filled with violence and general lawlessness, overshadowing the efforts of legitimate protesters. It appears that only a few of us realize that a segment of our own community grossly distorted and permanently marred George's memory. Young Ultra-Leftists (and pure opportunists) saw theft, generalized destruction of property, arson (a capital crime) and physical assault as appropriate outlets for their frustrations and ambitions - and their enablers - politicians and the Hollywood Elite - foot the bill for their bail money. There is evidence to suggest that the most disruptive actioners were staged by paid agents hired by the likes of megamogul George Soros.
How will we ever overcome the notion that we're a bunch of heathen savages who need to be manhandled by the police (and otherwise minimized) if we keep rioting, burning and looting? How will Black Lives Matter if we continue to present ourselves as enemies of society and an outright nuisance?
Even the celebrated Black fashion designer Virgil Abloh (owner of the label Off-White and a creative director at Louis Vuitton) was chastised for criticizing merely the acts of looters who raided his stores. After receiving immense pressure from his "peers" he acquiesced to their demand to be excused for their behavior and granted $50 toward their release. As quoted from an article in The Business of Fashion, a trade magazine, "People responding to looting but not to black cries for change is irresponsible and dismissive."
What's irresponsible and dismissive is the failure to hold grown Black folks to account for their own choices. It's as though we're the strange Freaky Friday-like cross between the justified and righteously indignant victim and the cranky and bratty child who acts out because he was kept up past his bedtime. But as long as we misbehave there will be someone to spank us for it.
The protests of the 60s and 70s put on by our parents placed a distinct and strict emphasis on non-violence. And it's not that riots didn't occur; but they were condemned when they did. Our chief examples were Dr. Martin Luther King and college students seated at sit-ins; not arsonists and Antifa. We cannot expect constructive change in the midst of destroying respect for ourselves and others.
And displays like those of football player Colin Kaepernick (who kneels during The National Anthem) only serve to demonstrate a disregard for our patriotic traditions and to offend the majority of the Americans that grew up with them - White and Black. There were always better means to specifically and therefore more effectively address the problem of police brutality and racial inequality. Refusing to engage in a practice that has cultural significance but no direct or indirect correlation with law enforcement will not strike the targeted goal. Also, it must be understood that our nation and the police on the whole are not copeable for the misdeeds of rouge cops - only those officers and their departments are.
What we need now more than ever is what unifies; not what divides. Though we speak to being of different races, we are in fact only of one such group - The Human Race. Our ethnicities are only colorful varieties of the same species... But we are so much more than glorified animals - so let's act like it.
