When Barack Hussein Obama Jr. was elected and sworn in as the 44th President, the first of whom of African Descent, some of us thought that this was a impressive step forward and beyond the acrimonious and painful battles of Racial Influence in our nation and society.
Those people thought wrong!
The idea that it's justified to openly call the current President of the United State "A Racist" because he a) Dared to submit the Most Qualified and Experienced Candidate in 100 Years to the Supreme Court, even though that Candidate is a Latina and that he b) Showed the Audacity to criticize the Cambridge Police for arresting the one of the top African-American Scholars in the country even though He Committed NO Actual CRIME.
Is it really credible that a Globe Trotting Jet Setter like Prof. Gates couldn't even think of anything better to say than to throw out "Yo Mama" Lines?
They say Obama should "apologize" to Sgt Crowley, but I don't hear anyone saying that Crowley should apologize to Lucia Whalen for Lying about Her 9-11 Call in his Police Report.
If any of this is "Proof" of Racism, Bigotry or Bias on Obama's Part - how does this contrast with the claims made by Janeane Garofalo about the "Tea-Baggers"?
If she was so wrong then, how can Glenn Beck be right now?
Again, all Barack said was "The police acted Stupidly", it's not like he was walking around with a "Sgt Crowley is HITLER" Sign. Whereas the guy who really did that had hundreds of people stood by and said NOTHING about it. And many more after to fact to make excuses for it. I mean, really!
Clearly there's a double-standard at work. Criticizing and attacking Black people is perfectly Ok ("Cuz we all know they deserve it, and are just briming with Racial Grievances, Right?") while the mere suggestion that a White Person has failed or gained some unfair advantage is just Completely Beyond the Pale!
It's time we come to admit and realize this has always been the case, only now political opportunism has made it even more obvious.
I'm expecting quite soon that there will be an outcry and rally's reinstate the Officer who called Prof. Gates a "Jungle Monkey" - cuz y'know people have a "Right" to be a clueless dickhead don't they?
Little Spear-chucker shoulda known better than to mess with the C.P.D.!
I've been talking about his for long time, literally for years.Recently as part of an ongoing series I'm doing on the bias of the Music Industry, I happen to stumble on a wonderful example of just how afraid America (and it's media is) of a Black Man with Power.
In this particular example the symbol of that power - is often a Hand gun.
Want Visual Proof of how Deep and Casual this Fear and bias is even among the "Liberal" media?
See this picture from Tupac's first film "Juice"? notice the black spot next to his face? That's where he was holding a gun. Can you see the gun? Nope. It was removed (ht Comment for Link) because the studio thought it was too "frightening and scary", even though the Weapon Itself was a critical plot point which changes the power-balance between a group of of friends turning them into enemies - it was excised.
Years and Years of "Cops" and afternoon News with violent Black Suspects have made this image too Potent for Americans to endure rationally.
Think this is an isolated example from years ago? Ok, How about just a couple years when a billboard advertising 50 Cent's "Get Rich or Die Trying" had to be taken down for - you guessed it - being too "Violent"?
He's got a Gun in One Hand, and a Microphone in the other - shown as opposite choices, opposite directions. To Create or to Destroy. Clearly it's about choices and isn't specifically advocating either, although the film ultimately points toward the positive not the negative. The Billboard was pulled down in a few days.
Right - just a coincidence, let's take probably the most violent 90's Gangster/Ghetto movie - The Hughes Brothers "Menace II Society".
Looks like a movie about shooting dice, doesn't it? It wasn't.
Contrast that with this:
Or This.
Or This.
Or...
Notice which guy (who happens to be a rumored anti-Semite) has a weapon and who doesn't? (Yes, I know both of them had guns on LW1 - and that Danny Glover isn't a anti-semite, but who thinks old-ass Danny is really a credible threat? He played a Serial Killer co-staring with Jared Leto once, anybody take that movie seriously?)
And it's not like anyone expects some panty-waist Hollywood Star is ever going to shoot anyone for real except for y'know Robert Blake, who co-stared with Wesley Snipes and Woody Harrelson in "Money Train". Y'know ole' Woody whose father was sentenced to two life terms for Assassinating a Federal Judge as Mob Hitman.
A Life experience which made Woody a great choice this picture:
I honestly didn't realize this was as obvious as it was until I started semi-randomly looking up film posters extrapolating from what I already knew about "Juice" (And I actually didn't use all of what I found, the more you look the worse it gets)
Hardly anyone even blinks at these images. Nobody squawks, nobody complains, nobody considers "the Children" - everyone takes it in stride, everyone knows it's just "make believe", yet somehow when certain people are involved it becomes something far more dangerous and far more "sinister" - and I"m not saying it because I think the movie industry is "racist", I simply think they're reacting to (and anticipating) the reaction of the public (which in some cases has been driven largely by objections from the Black Community themselves!).
And the public's reaction to all all this - is not exactly without bias or fear.
This sampling of images we find "acceptable" and those we don't may in someways encapsulate how some Black People and White people may look at the same situation differenty, Black's based on past negative experience will sometimes dig deeper for potential evidence of hidden bias - even if none exists. On the other hand Whites will often take it personally and grow defensive whether such accusations are well founded or not - just as Beck and Limbaugh have done.
Obviously this isn't an absolute rule, but even the exceptions are rather telling like here in the Hughes Brother's next film "Dead Presidents"
Yes, this person has a gun - but are they Black or White, Male or Female - is Kabuki Theater or an inverse version of Al Jolsen required for a Black person to openly hold a firearm on a movie poster?
And I thought bearing arms was a constitutional right? Apparently not on a movie poster unless you're in white face.
Here's another exception kinda...
Can you even find Wesley Snipes weapon in this picture without a "Where's Waldo" map and GPS? HINT: He looks like he's about to shoot his own face off.
The casual way that this has gone on, where one image has to be hidden, erased and covered up (or the person covered up) while someone else who everyone hasn't been taught to automatically fear is treated entirely differently. Is it any wonder that some people are completely freaking out at the idea of Black Man with access to the Nuclear Football when the idea of Samuel L. Jackson with a 9mm probably gives them cold sweats?
One source of this fear comes from figures from the Bureau of Justice Statistics which indicate that a Black man is about 8 Times more likely than a White man to spend part of his life in the custody of a correctional facility.
# Lifetime chances of a person going to prison are higher for
-- men (11.3%) than for women (1.8%)
-- blacks (18.6%) and Hispanics (10%) than for whites (3.4%)
# Based on current rates of first incarceration, an estimated 32% of black males will enter State or Federal prison during their lifetime, compared to 17% of Hispanic males and 5.9% of white males.
Figures such as these are often used and cited (particularly by Pat Buchanan) as justification for what Dinesh D'Souza has called "Rational Discrimination".
I can't be "Unfair Bias" if you have a fact and figures reason for it, Right? Or to put it another way "Don't people like Prof. Gates know he's automatically a Jungle Monkey in his own house until proven innocent?"
Well, part of the problem is that just like I do, he's DOES know that very often this is exactly the case. But was it in the case with Sgt Crowley? Possibly not, but then again could Sgt Crowley have trumped up bogus charges simply because Being Unfairly Accused of Being a Racist PISSED HIM OFF!
(Sometimes) Irrational Fear of the Black Man has clearly contributed to increased police scrutiny, to increased jury skepticism, to increased and lengthened sentences (which helps skew the figures above) all of which has given rise to (sometimes) irrational Suspicion of the White Man.
What it takes to overcome all this is exactly the thing that Attorney General Holder said not that long ago... Courage
It takes Courage to face your fear. It takes courage to dismiss what the facts and figures tall you what might be true, but to instead look at what IS TRUE. Facts, figures and probabilities do not control the actions of a person standing in front of you.
Some Black Men are entirely law abiding. (In fact, Statistically speaking Most of them 68% are!)
Some White Guys might not like you, simply cause They Don't Like You, not that they don't like Black Guys, or Latina Women. Sometimes what you think is going on, isn't.
We have to be willing to RISK the worst case outcome, in order to find our better selves.
What we need to do is embrace this call to be courageous, and to rise above what "common wisdom" tells us and learn bit by bit the Uncommon Truth.
Hopefully some of that truth, once we've been forced to face it directly as I've tried to do here, will begin to make itself evident.
Vyan