Working on an LTTE

[Brewman_Jax]

IRT this article in the latest issue of Black Commentator: http://www.blackcommentator.com/218/218_between_the_lines_uplifting_black_america_samad.html

On Samad's "Looking for Change…" his use of trite and untrue anecdotes, like the "only one" syndrome and "black people don't value education" puts him more in the same company as Rush Limbaugh and the tired angry white folks "why can't you people get your act together" crowd rather than the proponents for black people.

First, this is a racial caste society with people of color, black in particular, at the bottom. For the past nearly 400 years, a total demographic group has been dehumanized, demonized, stripped of dignity, wealth, and social access, and forty years of civil rights aren't going to magically change that. Even LBJ acknowledged that when he signed the Civil Rights legislation. Another little acknowledged fact, black people are about 12% of the total population and don't own or control the means of production or major corporations. Black can't do it alone. Mr. Samad may want to update his study of US history.

To say that "the various immigrant communities pulled themselves up, why can't we?" and "education is devalued in Black America" is the height of intellectual laziness. Let's see how those cultural sub-groups do in a racial caste society when they are at the bottom and kept there by social, legislative, and economic pressure for decades. To add, education has always been the key to uplifting the race. The continued presence and success of the HBCU's attest to that. There have always been the anti-intellectuals, school haters, and other ignorant people, but they are a loud minority. Rather than focusing on how dumb they are, why not highlight the lack of opportunity, both economic and educational they have.

Buying power is not the same as economic influence. I know of black people who would like to spend money where they live. Without any major corporations to serve as economic anchor for the area, there are only small businesses that can't totally sustain an area. I'm sure people would like to have more choices than fast food, dollar stores, liquor stores, and barber shops/salons. Also, where does that three-fifths per capita figure come from? Looks suspiciously like the three-fifths clause in Article 1 of the US Constitution.

What exactly are "afro-centric" values? How can anyone know when the knowledge of history, language, and culture were destroyed during the slave trade and slavery. Why not take what we know here and now and go from there rather than create some bogus african-ish "traditions" from who-knows-where? West Africa, the originating area of the enslaved ancestors of present-day US black people, is a huge area with hundreds of cultural groups. Where would you want to start?

The media portrayal of black people has nothing to with their behavior, because this is another side effect of the racial caste system. In addition to the negative portrayals, let's not forget the "magical negroes" that are still servant to the hapless white lead characters, like in "The Green Mile" and "The Legend of Bagger Vance", and white people coming to save black people from themselves, like in "Freedom Writers" and "Dangerous Minds". The strong and non-comic portrayals are overlooked, like "John Q", "Malcolm X", and "Introducing Dorothy Dandridge".

Rather than take history and society at large to task, Mr. Samad gets a case of "Cosby Syndrome" and blames black people for every problem and hurdle they face. Did not the sorry disaster response to the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina mean anything, or is that black peoples' fault, too?

Signed