[Dean's World] Dean: Message to Black America

[notify at powerblogs.com]

Posted by Dean:
Message to Black America
http://www.deanesmay.com/posts/1146546767.shtml


   I was born in 1966. I'll be 40 years old this year. I came up hard in
   a hard-scrabble life. I'll spare you the excruciating details; I'll
   just say when I was born I was my 16 year old mama's second child, and
   my daddy was 17 and working as a mail clerk. They split barely before
   I was out of diapers, and to make a long story short I left home at
   the age of 15 and have made my own way ever since, and have had to
   deal my whole life with people not respecting me. I got nothing but
   respect for those who come up from nothing and make something of
   themselves, and I have sympathy for those who are struggling but not
   quite making it. They don't deserve pity but they do deserve maybe a
   little sympathy and maybe occasionally a hand up--or a kick in the
   ass, depending. You know what I'm saying.

   Also, I grew up among working class people both in El Paso, Texas, and
   also on the south side of Chicago. I saw lots and lots of racism up
   close and personal. There were lots of people I knew as a kid who
   didn't like Mexicans in Texas, and lots of people I knew as a kid who
   didn't like blacks in Chicago. Hell the Neo-Nazi Party of Illinois had
   its headquarters about three blocks from my house in Chicago. There
   were race-riots, more than one, in Marquette Park where I lived. Dr.
   King staged at least one protest there before he died. Jesse Jackson
   was a local boy we all knew before he made it big nationally.

   I've also had the unfortunate experience of black and hispanic people
   not liking me because I was white. My [1]lovely wife, born in Detroit
   in 1968 as the daughter of Polish immigrants during the worst race
   riots of that city's history, saw even more. She went to a
   mostly-black High School, and got her ass beat at least once for being
   white and the "descendants of slave owners," never mind the fact that
   her family were from solid peasant stock and escaped Communist
   oppression and came to this country barely speaking the language and
   being the subject of countless Polish jokes and all kinds of contempt.
   Her dad at points was collecting tin cans off the streets of Detroit
   to find money to feed his wife and kids.

   Sometimes people wonder what my wife and I have in common. On the
   surface, we are very very different people. But at a fundamental
   level, we both understand certain things, and understand and respect
   each other. Would that all couples had that. Regardless, I can tell
   you one thing neither of us has a lot of respect for: whining and
   paranoia. (Mind you, maybe sometimes I whine more than she does. But
   that's a discussion for another day.)

   I recently was forwarded the following email from a good and dear
   friend. At first I was taken aback. Maybe you've even seen it. It
   looks like this:

     Voting Rights Act-Expires for blacks in 2007

     Below you will find a speech that Bill Cosby's wife gave at a
     function. Everyone please read this and pass it on to as many
     African Americans you come in contact with.

     Camille Cosby just made a reference about the Voting Rights Act in
     her most recent open letter on racism. This is extremely important.

     We are in the 21st Century and we were wondering, and when I say
     'we', I mean others of us out there who wonder if everyone else out
     there knows what the significance of the year 2007 is to Black
     America?

     Did you know that our right to VOTE will expire in the year 2007?
     Seriously! The Voters Rights Act signed in 1965 by Lyndon B.
     Johnson was just an ACT. It was not made a law.

     In 1982, Ronald Reagan amended the Voters Rights Act for another 25
     years. Which means that in the year 2007 we could lose the Right to
     vote!

     Does anyone realize that African Americans are the only group of
     people who require PERMISSION under the United States Constitution
     to vote! In the year 2007, Congress will once again convene to
     decide whether or not Blacks should retain the rights to vote
     (crazy but true).

     In order for this to be passed, 38 states will have to approve an
     extension. This is ludicrous! Not only should the extension be
     approved, but also the ACT must be made a law. Our right to vote
     should no longer be up for discussion, review and/or evaluation.

     We must contact our Congress-persons, Senators, Alderpersons, etc.,
     to put a stop to this! As bona fide Citizens of the United States,
     we cannot "drop the ball" on this one! We have come too far to let
     government make us take such a huge step backward. So please, let
     us push forward to continue to build the momentum towards gaining
     equality.

     Please pass this onto others, as we are sure that many more
     individuals are not aware of this. I urge all of you that are able,
     to contact those in government that have your vote and make them
     aware of our combined concern for this issue.

     One voice!...... One Vote! You cannot complain, if you do not
     participate.....local, State, & national.....

     When I received this one I had no choice but to pass it on. Please
     do the same.

   When I first got this I tried to be very rational about it. Especially
   because it came from a friend who I respect very much, who is nearing
   70 and who remembers the days of Bull Connor and George Wallace and
   Dr. King and my soul-brother Malcolm X. So I get it. I get why people
   are worried about this.

   But the truth is, from top to bottom, this email is a pack of lies.
   Vile, hurtful lies. Indeed, it is the worst sort of lie: half-truth
   that looks real because it's sort of based on some things that are
   almost true. One thing that's entirely true is that President Reagan
   did sign a 25 year extension of the Voting Rights Act, and that does
   expire in 2007 if it's not extended. That much is true. I'm not sure
   what the hell else to untangle from this racist pack of lies.

   You know, a couple of a years ago a prominent black blogger publicly
   labelled me a racist. I won't give his name or grace him with a link,
   just because I don't want to reward his bigoted filth with
   recognition. My crime was I posted something that said, "hey, don't
   black people annoy you sometimes?" The whole purpose of that, as I
   explained at the time, was to confront people with their own
   prejudices, and to note something sad: white people in America today
   are often afraid (some might even say cowardly) to speak frankly about
   race issues. Almost on cue, this spoiled little twenty-something black
   brat, who's never seen a segregated lunch counter in his life,
   labelled me a racist. I still await the day that I meet this pampered
   and privileged little suburbanite in person and dare him to say that
   sh*t to my face.

   Here's the blunt truth: the U.S. Constitution recognizes equal rights
   for all people, regardless of race, and has for some time. Indeed, the
   right of people to vote regardless of color has been part of the U.S.
   Constitution since 1870--for over 136 years, in other words. You can
   [2]read about it here. It's a lie to say that black people need some
   special dispensation to vote.

   What was true is that some states used to abuse that right by cloaking
   it in special requirements to vote. Some states used to have laws that
   made you recite parts of the Constitution by heart, or count the
   number of jellybeans in a jar, in order to be allowed to vote. And
   they would selectively make only blacks meet those requirements,
   rather than making them apply to everybody equally. And that's what
   the Voting Rights Act ended. Condi Rice's father went through that,
   because southern Democrats would pull that crap on him. That's why she
   and her father have been lifelong Republicans.

   But you know what? It's 2006, not 1965. In the 40-plus years since the
   Civil Rights Act and Voting Rights act were passed, there have been
   numerous court cases upholding the right of black people to vote and
   to have their full civil rights. Also numerous state laws have ended
   such practices. There are also numerous black elected officials all
   over the country.

   No sane person wants to deny this to any of them. Even if the Voting
   Rights Act of 1965 expires--which it probably won't, since it will
   almost certainly be renewed--there's no way in Hell anyone is going to
   try to deny black people the vote in 2006 or 2007. It's not gonna
   happen. No freaking way.

   [3]Snopes has more to say on it that you should read, but I gotta say
   more. As a 40 year old white dude, I have a message:

   Black people, I'm tired of apologizing to you, and I'm tired of being
   looked at by you with suspicion. Indeed, I'm gonna talk out of school
   and just say, I speak for the vast majority of White America here:

   The vast majority of us do not hate you. We do not want to put you
   back on the plantation. We don't want to stop you from dating our
   daughters or our sons. We don't want to scare you away form the
   polling booths. We don't want your businesses to fail. We don't want
   to put your young men in jail. We don't even begrudge you your own
   music and your own slightly different dress or language. We recognize
   that you are Americans. Indeed, we recognize that you have made all
   sorts of amazing contributions to America, including the blues and
   jazz and Motown and the Harlem Rennaissance, Jimi Hendrix and Ray
   Charles and Muddy Waters and Aretha Franklin and Diana Ross and Stevie
   Wonder and Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphie and Lena Horne and Muhammed
   Ali and Colin Powell and Condie Rice and Dr. King and Mahalia Jackson
   and and Oprah Winfrey and Malcom X and a whole bunch else besides I
   haven't even thought of.

   Plus you're the only Northerners who still know what grits and and
   cornbread and collards are.

   Enough God damn it. We don't hate you anymore. We love what you give
   America. I'm 40 years old and my sons don't even know what the Hell
   I'm talking about when I talk about racism.

   Not long ago, a friend we love who is over 60, who remembers the Civil
   Rights Era very well, asked my wife, "what would you do if your son
   came home with a black girl?" My wife didn't say what her answer was,
   but she asked me what I thought. I said, "Hrrm, well, is she smart? Is
   she funny?" My wife grinned and said, "yeah that's what I said."

   God damn it you guys, we love you. You're part of us, you're part of
   what makes us special. It's over, okay?

References

   1. http://www.qoae.net/
   2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
   3. http://www.snopes2.com/inboxer/pending/voting.htm