Willard And The Culture Remark

For those who read and follow my writings, you know that my passion is to bring into remembrance the “Greatest Story Ever Told”, which is that of the African American Diaspora. However, in this extreme, and dare I say bazaar, political season where those on the right are desperately trying to turn back the hands of time in ways such as the 21^st Century Poll Tax and voter disenfranchisement. I find myself expressing the reality that I see. Meaning I've seen this before!

In my lifetime I can recall the Jim Crow America, the Whites Only facilities existed, and the reality of segregation; once people like today’s Republicans were the Dixiecrats and the Tea Party folks where the terrorists who wore hooded robes, and coward under the cover of night. Now they wear suits!

I believe it was Solomon who said, “There is nothing new under the sun”. I will agree and add that it is just repackaged to fit the times, and these are dangerous times. Today, we are in a virtual police state. We have the system practicing “Retro-active Abortion” via the prison system and the Robber Barons of Wall Street are doing to the America people things unmatched by the thugs and drug dealers in the streets. Yet, these and other atrocities go unchecked by the system of justice and in some cases rewarded.

All of this brings me to the man who wants to be king. I believe “Willard” will make George W, the last Republican president, look like a cub scout. The reason I fear this guy is not because he flip-flops and lies as some say. Rather, because of his faith! Let me be clear, one can believe in or chose whatever faith they wish but Willard’s faith has a documented history of being anti-black. It was not until somewhere around 1968 that African American’s were allowed to join his church.

This speaks to the teaching and the mind of a man that might become the leader of the free world and would he bring this to the office. This dawned on me after Mitt’s recent trip abroad where he professed this notion of “culture” which in my opinion spoke volumes. What he said about the Palestinians during that trip could be interrupted in a way that would apply to black and white culture in America.     

In Romney’s world the Darwinian influence of American culture fueled suburban manifest destiny for whites, enabling them safe passage and escape from urban ghettoes. People of color who were able to assimilate to Anglo American values took advantage of equal opportunity and prospered; those that weren’t were simply mired in backward ancestral traditions.

 “White U.S. southerners also insisted, during slavery and Jim Crow, that “their” Negroes were the best off in the world because of their exposure to white folks’ religion and way of life. Left to their own devices, however, Black folks’ innate cultural inferiority – i.e., depravity – would do them in…White liberals also believed in the Culture Demon. In the 1950s and early 60s, it was considered politically correct to describe African Americans as “culturally deprived” – meaning, Blacks are disadvantaged by lack of exposure to white culture. Power has nothing to do with it.” 

Comparing African American wealth to that of the Palestinians one could argue: “The 20 to 1 disparity between Israeli and Palestinian per capita income matches the wealth gap between American Blacks and whites (app. $5,000 vs. $100,000 for median Black and white households). The fact that such numbers do not provoke general shock and calls for reparations is proof enough that most whites view the disparity as more a natural phenomenon than evidence of cumulative injustice.

After hearing the culture remark I wondered could this be view as Daniel Patrick Moynihan, the liberal Senator from Massachusetts, who  spoke for white folks of the past, present and future when he posited, in 1965, that a Black ‘culture of poverty’ is what keeps Black people poor – not pervasive white racism.” And that is my Thought Provoking Perspective…

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