Are Black Voters Obama’s Political Mistress?

After remaining silent during the execution of Troy Davis, the president can hardly justify his decision to speak out on behalf of Harvard Professor Henry Louis Gates when he was arrested on his front porch. He also has a difficult time justifying military action in Libya, citing the fact that innocent civilians are being killed by incompetent leadership. The truth is that many of the things that we’ve said about Libya’s slaughter of innocent civilians can now be said about the White House. Fortunately, there’s no country out there powerful enough to invade the United States, for our hands can be just as dirty as our victims.

When the Troy Davis matter was brought up this week, someone reached out to me and said that it’s silly for African Americans to expect the president to have spoken up on behalf of Troy Davis. She said that we’d never expect such a thing from a white president. Others have also mentioned that African Americans are naïve and unrealistic by expecting preferential treatment (or nearly any acknowledgement outside of campaign season) from President Obama simply because he’s Black.

So, in light of the fact that African Americans should not expect any semblance of targeted political support from President Obama, shouldn’t that also imply that he should not expect preferential treatment from us? When my friend mentioned that we would never expect a white president to speak up for Troy Davis (Jimmy Carter is, actually, a white man), I simply asked her, “So, you would want us to respond to Barack Obama as if he were just another white guy?” She was silent after that.

If Barack Obama were a white man, that would mean that there would be collective outrage over speeches like the one he delivered at the Congressional Black Caucus Convention, where Black people were told to “stop complaining” about the highest unemployment in nearly 30 years. It would mean that we’d expect the same things from President Obama that we would have expected from Bill Clinton or anyone else during their time in the White House. I would dare to say that if Black unemployment had risen to 17% under Clinton, he would be hammered by the Black community for refusing to consider targeted economic policy.

This is not to say that President Obama is not deserving of the Black vote. But it does say that Black America must cease to make itself into the political mistress of the Obama Administration. For a man whose loyalties lie elsewhere, the mistress is often the woman from whom he expects preferential treatment, but only offers second-class status. The love is often one of secrecy because he may be ashamed of the relationship and fear the reputational consequences of those who may judge him harshly.

He only comes by with flowers when he wants something and in spite of his consistent disrespect and actions to the contrary, the mistress believes that deep down, he really loves her. When she expresses her concern about the love not being mutual, he tells her to stop complaining and support him in protecting his reputation. She accepts his stern admonishment because she’s simply grateful that he even stopped by to say hello and might even consider it to be tough love. After all, she shouldn’t put any additional pressure on him because his wife is giving him such a hard time already.

The political argument is simple: To whom much is given, much is required. President Obama received unprecedented support from Black America in large part, because of the color of his skin. Had he been white, millions of Black folks would not have rallied for him, organized on his behalf or took time off to go vote for him. Therefore, it is only logical that those who went the extra mile for their president expect and demand that he go the extra mile for them. Going the extra mile means not just showing up when he needs something (notice the special attention Black folks have received since election season began), but having the same degree of integrity, faith and commitment in us that we are expected to have toward the White House. Yes, the Republicans are giving President Obama a hard time, but millions of Black people are being hammered by racism and they didn’t use that as an excuse for not showing up on election day.

So, if the White House expects Black America to treat Obama differently from the way they would treat a white politician, it is only logical that we expect the same. One of the tenets of racial inequality is the idea that Black people should be complacent with being treated worse than others treat us: For example, whites are allowed to moan to President Obama all day about 8.1 percent unemployment, but Black people are told to “stop complaining” about nearly 17% unemployment. Do we realize how sick it is that we allow others to say and do things that we cannot do ourselves? So, when President Obama gives a speech before a group of white folks and says “stop complaining,” then I’ll be satisfied. But until then, we might want to reconsider accepting our role as President Obama’s political mistress.

Dr. Boyce Watkins is a Professor at Syracuse University and founder of the Your Black World Coalition.

Willie Lynch Letter Part 2

I am publishing this information in blocks. The "letter" itself is quite long. I am just hoping that you the reader (as I do) will consider these the more important parts.

I have rarely heard our esteemed professionals discuss our acceptance of the English language as our own. Nor have I heard them speak of the psychological ramifications of our ancestors voyage through the Middle Passage. One of which I have stated before was, "as a people and a race, we went bat shit crazy." Our psyche was wiped clean due to the trauma that we (our ancestors) endured, so that when we (our ancestors) were dragged up out of the ships hull and hauled to the auction block, the White man had a clean slate to work with.

And then again, maybe I am wrong. Maybe I am the one who is "bat shit crazy." What can I say? What do you expect from a FOOL?

Following is the part of the "letter" that deals with Language. Very interesting.

Part 2

For further severance from their original beginning, WE MUST COMPLETELY ANNIHILATE THE MOTHER TONGUE of both the new nigger and the new mule, and institute a new language that involves the new life’s work of both. You know language is a peculiar institution. It leads to the heart of a people. The more a foreigner knows about the language of another country the more he is able to move through all levels of that society. Therefore, if the foreigner is an enemy of the country, to the extent that he knows the body of the language, to that extent is the country vulnerable to attack or invasion of a foreign culture. For example, if you take a slave, if you teach him all about your language, he will know all your secrets, and he is then no more a slave, for you can’t fool him any longer, and BEING A FOOL IS ONE OF THE BASIC INGREDIENTS OF ANY INCIDENTS TO THE MAINTENANCE OF THE SLAVERY SYSTEM.

For example, if you told a slave that he must perform in getting out “our crops” and he knows the language well, he would know that “our crops” didn’t mean “our crops” and the slavery system would break down, for he would relate on the basis of what “our crops” really meant. So you have to be careful in setting up the new language; for the slaves would soon be in your house, talking to you as “man to man” and that is death to our economic system. In addition, the definitions of words or terms are only a minute part of the process. Values are created and transported by communication through the body of the language.

A total society has many interconnected value systems. All the values in the society have bridges of language to connect them for orderly working in the society. But for these language bridges, these many value systems would sharply clash and cause internal strife or civil war, the degree of the conflict being determined by the magnitude of the issues or relative opposing strength in whatever form.

For example, if you put a slave in a hog pen and train him to live there and incorporate in him to value it as a way of life completely, the biggest problem you would have out of him is that he would worry you about provisions to keep the hog pen clean, or the same hog pen and make a slip and incorporate something in his language whereby he comes to value a house more than he does his hog pen, you got a problem. He will soon be in your house.


Additional Note: “Henty Berry, speaking in the Virginia House of Delegates in 1832, described the situation as it existed in many parts of the South at this time: “We have, as far as possible, closed every avenue by which light may enter their (the slaves) minds. If we could extinguish the capacity to see the light, our work would be complete; they would then be on a level with the beasts of the field and we should be safe. I am not certain that we would not do it, if we could find out the process and that on the plea of necessity.”

From Brown America, The story of a New Race by Edwin R. Embree. 1931 The Viking Press.

CARDINAL PRINCIPLES FOR MAKING A NEGRO

For fear that our future generations may not understand the principles of breaking both of the beast together, the nigger and the horse.

We understand that short range planning economics results in periodic economic chaos; so that to avoid turmoil in the economy, it requires us to have breadth and depth in long range comprehensive planning, articulating both skill sharp perceptions.

We lay down the following principles for long range comprehensive economic planning. Both horse and niggers [are] no good to the economy in the wild or natural state. Both must be BROKEN and TIED together for orderly production.

For orderly future, special and particular attention must be paid to the FEMALE and the YOUNGEST offspring. Both must be CROSSBRED to produce a variety and division of labor. Both must be taught to respond to a peculiar new LANGUAGE.

Psychological and physical instruction of CONTAINMENT must be created for both. We hold the six cardinal principles as truth to be self-evident, based upon following the discourse concerning the economics of breaking and tying the horse and the nigger together, all inclusive of the six principles laid down above. NOTE: Neither principle alone will suffice for good economics.
All principles must be employed for orderly good of the nation.

Accordingly, both a wild horse and a wild or natur[al] nigger is dangerous even if captured, for they will have the tendency to seek their customary freedom and, in doing so, might kill you in your sleep. You cannot rest. They sleep while you are awake, and are awake while you are asleep. They are DANGEROUS near the family house and it requires too much labor to watch them away from the house. Above all, you cannot get them to work in this natural state. Hence, both the horse and the nigger must be broken; that is breaking them from one form of mental life to another. KEEP THE BODY, TAKE THE MIND! In other words, break the will to resist.

Now the breaking process is the same for both the horse and the nigger, only slightly varying in degrees. But, as we said before, there is an art in long range economic planning. YOU MUST KEEP YOUR EYE AND THOUGHTS ON THE FEMALE and the OFFSPRING of the horse and the nigger.

A brief discourse in offspring development will shed light on the key to sound economic principles. Pay little attention to the generation of original breaking, but CONCENTRATE ON FUTURE GENERATION. Therefore, if you break the FEMALE mother, she will BREAK the offspring in its early years of development; and when the offspring is old enough to work, she will deliver it up to you, for her normal female protective tendencies will have been lost in the original breaking process.


For example, take the case of the wild stud horse, a female horse and an already infant horse and compare the breaking process with two captured nigger males in their natural state, a pregnant nigger woman with her infant offspring. Take the stud horse, break him for limited containment. Completely break the female horse until she becomes very gentle, whereas you or anybody can ride her in her comfort. Breed the mare and the stud until you have the desired offspring. Then, you can turn the stud to freedom until you need him again.

Train the female horse whereby she will eat out of your hand, and she will in turn train the infant horse to eat out of your hand, also. When it comes to breaking the uncivilized nigger, use the same process, but vary the degree and step up the pressure, so as to do a complete reversal of the mind.

Take the meanest and most restless nigger, strip him of his clothes in front of the remaining male niggers, the female, and the nigger infant, tar and feather him, tie each leg to a different horse faced in opposite directions, set him afire and beat both horses to pull him apart in front of the remaining niggers. The next step is to take a bullwhip and beat the remaining nigger males to the point of death, in front of the female and the infant. Don’t kill him, but PUT THE FEAR OF GOD IN HIM, for he can be useful for future breeding.