The Skin Game: Torch of Freedom And The Moral Fiber Of The Black Community

18 February 2010

By Keith Johnson

February is “Black History Month”, a time to celebrate and reflect upon significant people and experiences unique to the African Diaspora. And, as expected, the race pimps and hate merchants have wasted no time using that as an opportunity to further drive a wedge between Blacks and Whites struggling to find common ground.

The orchestrated cacophony of ugly slurs and defamation, targeted against any White American who dares to speak out in defiance of Obama’s abominable policies, has been a predominant topic of discussion on television, the press and even within the pages of a popular children’s comic book.

But this should come as no surprise to those of us familiar with the tactics of the radical left. Rule #5 of Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals” states Ridicule is man's most potent weapon. It is almost impossible to counteract ridicule. Also it infuriates the opposition, which then reacts to your advantage."

And if you doubt for one moment that the Obama propaganda machine is not deploying these tactics, then I implore you to consider this statement by Alinsky’s son, David:

“Obama learned his lesson well. I am proud to see my father’s model for organizing is being applied successfully beyond local community organizing to affect the Democratic campaign in 2008. It is a fine tribute to Saul Alinsky as we approach his 100th birthday”

Just this past week, the usual suspects in the MSM set this rule in motion. On Monday’s ‘The Dylan Ratigan Show’ on MSNBC, host Dylan Ratigan began the program by ranting: “The tea party has a bit of an integrity problem, as everybody from birthers, to open racists, to outright Nazis are actually on the team”. On Tuesday’s “Countdown” Keith Olberman dubbed the Tea Party Movement the “Tea Klux Klan” while Hard Ball’s Chris Matthews compared Gubernatorial hopeful Debra Medina with “Southern Racists”. That same day, Newsweek’s Jonathan Kay posted an article entitled “Black Helicopters Over Nashville” which characterized the movement as “dominated by people whose vision of the government is conspiratorial and dangerously detached from reality.” And on Thursday, Huffington Post blogger Molly Secours took the defamation one step further by stating that “racism resides within all white people. No exception. Sorry. Whether you are a hip, young liberal white guy who has played music with famous black musicians or a guy working at a factory in a rural Kentucky. One cannot be raised in these United States with the history of racial oppression and hatred and not be racist”.

None of these limousine liberals have any more concern for the Black community than their “so-called” conservative counter-parts. If they did they would be questioning why several thousand more of our Black men and women are being sent off to fight in needless wars that Obama promised would end. If they cared they would ask why Obama took time off from his Presidential campaign to urge fellow Democrats to support a Wall Street bailout that gave billions to his biggest campaign contributors. If they gave a rat’s ass about Black causes they would ask why millions of our children are starving right here in America while billions of dollars are annually sent overseas to the State of Israel. But asking these tough questions would make them real journalists, wouldn’t it? And there is no room for real journalists on a network like MSNBC or in the pages of Newsweek, two wholly owned and operated subsidiaries of the military-industrial- complex.

Reactions to certain things that transpired during the Nashville Tea Party event, featuring Sarah Palin and Tom Tancredo, has been the primary source of these recent aspersions. While the “Tea Party Movement” in its current form is certainly worthy of ridicule, it has become a catalyst for reinforcing stereotypes by characterizing all Caucasian Americans with divergent views as vicious, hateful racists. The objective here is self-evident: stifle dissent, terminate the exchange of free and open debate and alienate your opponent from those whom you wish to exploit.

The ruling elite, a cartel of foreign bankers, owns both political parties in the United States. The party they have chosen, to control and manipulate various groups of ethnic minorities, is the Democratic Party. By deploying a military tactic of “Divide and Conquer”, both parties (Republican and Democrat) are tasked with the responsibility of insuring that no bi-partisanship exists beyond brief concerted efforts to advance the draconian wishes of their shared masters. Throughout the world, where there exists little or no significant ethnic diversity, the same tactic is deployed. However, instead of dividing the people up along racial lines, intelligence agencies are sent in to stir up trouble according to ideological or tribal differences. They may create or fund opposition parties, arm one or both neighboring tribes and then foment hostilities where none previously existed. The more fractured a society becomes, the easier they are to control. And although we’ve yet to see things come to blows here at home, those on the left certainly are taking us in that direction and an all out race war would definitely work to their advantage.

While we are certainly justified in passing judgment upon the despicable behavior we see on the left, it should not be used as an excuse to lend any kind of sympathy to those on the right, whose behavior is just as deplorable. After all, had it not been for the likes of Sarah Palin being allowed to identify herself as a Tea Party leader, the left would have very little in way of ammunition to attack the movement as a whole. Ever since the current leadership and their swarms of reactionary, war-mongering FOX NEWS Zombies came in to poison the well; it has been open season on anyone who even remotely refuses to fall in lock step, blind allegiance to the Obama doctrine. You no longer have to be a cross burning Klan member to qualify as a racist. All that is required is white skin and the audacity to suggest that our current President may be taking this country in the wrong direction.

It would be easy to make light of such things and dismiss our critics as petty and juvenile. But unfortunately there is a significant portion of our society who has been duped into believing this tripe and I am confident that they would not hesitate in utilizing the most drastic of measures to keep us silent and out of the way.

It should be clear to anyone that things have taken a turn for the worst. No longer will an issue or cause be allowed to be the focus of any debate or protest. Racism will be said to be at the root cause of all disagreements. But this should not dissuade anyone from his or her march towards freedom. There are end runs around all the obstacles our enemy laid before us, and this latest obstacle is no exception. Within every crisis lie new opportunities.

Playing the race card is one of the lowest blows you can deliver to your opponent and usually comes into play only as a last ditch effort when all else fails and you are short on options. But once that card is dealt, and you have been accused of being a racist, it’s a hard stain to remove and the only way to redeem yourself is to prove them all wrong. This cannot be achieved by simply denying the accusation or by exposing the malicious tactics of your accuser. It requires a concerted effort to align the perception with the truth.

To assume that your integrity should be self-evident and that your positions can stand on the weight of its own merits is wishful thinking. Truth is one thing but perception is everything, especially in the context of getting your message across. If the negative perception one has of you is never challenged it will exist as if it is reality.

Perhaps we should be grateful that the enemy has identified a major weakness in our struggle to achieve a more broad appeal. That major weakness lies in the fact that the demographic of the “Freedom/Patriot Movement” is not reflective of the demographic of the nation as a whole. While there certainly have been Blacks who have stood with us in solidarity at Town Hall Meetings and Tea Party events, they are still too few in number to dispel the allegations of wide spread racism by the radical left. It is still hard to shout down claims that the “Teabaggers” are a bunch of right-wing rednecks that hate black people when you pan the audience and struggle to find evidence of even one black attendee among a sea of white faces. While there are those who would offer this up as evidence that Blacks are being excluded, I would argue that it is the very propagation of this myth that has discouraged Blacks from joining our cause. Some are even strong-armed and beaten by other Blacks that consider taking part in Town Hall protests as some form of race betrayal; which brings to mind a black youth, Kenneth Gladney, who was beaten by a group SEIU members for selling Gadsden flags at an event in St. Louis last summer. Blacks have certainly not been excluded and I would argue that there has actually been an effort to encourage Blacks into the movement…maybe just not enough encouragement.

Many of us would prefer not to even have to be forced to address the racial question, hoping that our noble ideals would be enough to attract likeminded people of all colors. But it is often difficult to convey these ideals over the persistent, shrieking lies and disinformation being propagated by a very powerful and well-funded media. Perhaps we have reached the point where we should distance ourselves from the corrupted Tea Party Movement. It would be sad to be forced to do so considering that it began as a grass-roots, non-partisan movement that was against high government taxation and wasteful spending on wars. But now it has become something ugly. It has been hi-jacked by the GOP to advance the Republican agenda and to be used as a campaign platform for main line 2012 Presidential hopefuls. When you look out among the crowd of people now attending these functions, you can understand why some people are turned off. Most of them are mainstream Republicans who hang on every word Glen Beck or Sean Hannity utters. They will scream about government spending on health care yet have no problem spending billions of dollars more on war and Israel. They will complain about being taxed into poverty but show no concern for the poverty that already exists.

Glen Ford of “Black Agenda Report” characterizes these people as “White Nationalists, who yearn for “a time when the United States was a self-proclaimed White Man's Country.” While I disagree with that statement, I do not disagree with the racist over-tones that statement conveys. I do believe these people are racist. But not the “let’s lynch ‘em” kind of white sheet Klansman that Ford’s statement invokes but more of a uncareing, “let them eat cake” kind of racism. I’ve no doubt that many of these “Tea Party” attendees couldn’t care less about the challenges facing the Black community. Many of these people are self-centered and concerned only in matters that effect them directly. This must change if we ever expect to open dialogue with our Black allies. Their concerns should be our concerns. When blacks march in opposition to police brutality in their community, we should be there too. When blacks demonstrate against needless wars in Africa and abroad, we should ask permission to join with them. These opportunities open the door for an exchange of ideas and brings us that much closer to uniting as one people against our common enemy- the foreign offshore banks that not only controls the Office of the Presidency but almost every other politician in the House and Senate.

And when we do criticize Obama, we should not make the mistake of calling him a socialist. When Nancy Pelosi’s daughter, Alexandra, made her documentary film “Right America: Feeling Wronged” she focused on right-wing Republican voters who were obsessed with characterizing Obama as being a socialist. She did this because she knew that there was a significant segment of society who have no problem with socialism. These people equate socialism with taking from the rich and giving to the poor. And when you are poor and have trouble putting food on the table, socialism sounds pretty good. The appropriate way to describe Obama is within the context of fascism. Fascism socializes the debts among the population while the profits stay at the top among the rich. This is one way to make inroads with people who have been hoodwinked by the corporate media. Another way is to point out that there are alternatives to funding health care. Rather than forcing people to buy pricey insurance policies that only enrich the Health care industry, we can repair the shortcomings in our current system with a Tobin Tax on Wall Street, that currently pays no taxes on their speculative transactions. Or how about Tariffs on goods coming into the United States. There is no reason why any American should have to pay a penny more in taxes. How many people know that not one red cent of income tax money goes towards infra-structure or social services but rather is paid towards the interest on the debt owed to the Federal Reserve? Pointing this out could help to dispel the myth that greedy middle class Americans who oppose increases in their income tax are hoarding money that could be used to help those in need.

Of course this education goes both ways. There are dynamics within the Black community that none of us can relate to. Black youths are a constant target of police profiling which places a disproportionate number of males into a crowded “for profit” prison system. The Anti-Defamation League and Southern Poverty Law Center, who trains our police, never address the real racial conflict that exists between gangs of Blacks and Hispanics and instead focuses on small cells of institutionalized White Supremacists who have neither the political clout nor the resources to effectively carry out any of their objectives. They do this to create a riff between races by overstating the significance of these threats and creating a climate of fear. These same two organizations (ADL and SPLC) are also responsible for waging war on the two religions most common to blacks: Christianity and Islam, and regularly awards pornographers like Hugh Hefner with their annual “Torch of Freedom” award while turning a blind eye to the pornographic exploitation of Black women that further deteriorates the moral fiber of the Black Community and contributes to the erosion of the family unit.

Taking an interest in these issues can go a long way in bridging the gap between our two communities. If we ever hope to come together, adding theses concerns to our dialectic is essential. In the end, we just might manage to lay the foundation necessary to build an alliance upon. And this alliance may very well be just what is needed to save this country.

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