September 29, 2005

William Bennett Bares witness to Noah's Letter to White America

In Noah’s Letter to White America, he wrote;

Many White People rationalize that they are not being Racist, but rather are simply being truthful. In other words, they see a rational, non-emotional reason to see a certain group in a negative light, that’s usually backed up by some statistic. Therefore, they deny Racism as a motivation and instead see themselves the victims of others who are out on a witch hunt to unjustly slander their image so they become defensive. What they don’t realize is that their use and conclusions born from the statistics promotes the concept of black inferiority (BI) and or white superiority (WS). The idea or belief in BI or WS is thus a rational conclusion, as they see it, totally void of any emotions, negative or positive. Indeed, most non emotion based Racism is simply White Supremacy, but do not realize it because they have the historical, hate filled, ignorant prototype as the template.

Some might have a hard time understanding the truth of these words but as God would have it, when truth is spoken something comes along and bares witness to that truth. We can thank William Bennett for fulfilling the duty of one who will be used as the means by which this truth is bared witness too. William Bennett with his infinite wisdom made available via his radio show during a discussion about abortion wherein a caller was making the argument that the abortions stemming from the roe v. wade decision is one of the reasons Social Security is under funded, stated that making the case for a pro-life position should not rest on arguments like that because such arguments cuts both ways. To make his point he referred to the Freakonomics book wherein the author’s of that Book makes the case that abortions contributed to the decline in crime. William Bennett disagrees with the authors because as he put it “there is just too much you don’t know." Which I agree with, however William went on to say;


Now we must understand that the authors of the book are guilty of the very things William Bennett is guilty of except they do not live with the hypocrisy of saying one minute their conclusion is false and then not a whole twenty seconds after it saying the conclusion is true. When William Bennett said there is just too much you do not know to make an argument like this he was correct, and the only way once can make an argument like killing Black babies reduce crime is to have knowledge of what causes Black men and women to grow up and commit crime which means our crime is socially, politically and economically engineered and or we have a predisposition to committing crime while others don’t which would makes us predisposed to bad behavior thus inferior to the people predispose to doing good.

Every argument by white folk in regards to what creates the Black condition as noted by Noah is that we create it and it is not born from our past experiences and our contemporary experiences in America, which again says clearly to us that our condition is not socially, politically or economically engineered which leaves only one thing, we are predisposed to creating such condition and thus we are inferior to white folk. William Bennett did just as Noah said white people do and you better believe when William is questioned on these comments he will reach for this statistic and that statistic to RATIONALIZE his racist belief. You see William did not say he knows that if you kill every white baby crime would go down, which would have been a better argument and complimentary to his disagreement with the authors of Freakonomics, he stated killing Black babies will reduce crime albeit morally wrong. The question now is do he believe such is true concerning white babies; if we killed all white babies would crime go down? The answer is yes, we can kill all left handed people and crime would drop, we can kill every baby born in the month of July and crime would drop, so why did William first disagree with the authors of Freakonomics and a few seconds later state the very point they made in their book as being true? Mainly I believe to demonstrate that he do not believe abortions itself reduce crime because Black and white women can get an abortion, but only killing Black babies reduce crime because of our inferiority and our predisposition to crime, while killing white babies is preventing another good white person from entering the world. William Bennett racist beliefs are not emotionally driven, it is rational and a truisms in his eyes and he has the data to back it up thus barring witness to the truth in Noah’s letter to white people.

One house cleaning note....

As you many of you know, as technology grows so does the means by which people can use it as an annoyance or in the case of the internet to transmit spam. One of the things that have surfaced in the Blogsphere is automatic systems that leave comments on Blogs that have absolutely nothing to do with the subject at hand; you can read such a comment in the comment field of the op-ed written by Noah below. To curtail this growing problem Blogger has made available “word verification” for the comment fields on Blogs hosted on their server. What this does is force those who wish to leave a comment to type a word that is being displayed to them in the box below the word. Most of you probably have seen this kind of verification tool used on other websites. It is easy to write a batch file that will automatically register, log-in and leave a comment but there are no batch files or automated programs that can read a word being displayed and type it in. I will be adding word verification to this Blog to avoid the spam, it may be an inconvenience but you will get over it.

Don't call it a come back!!

In preparation for returning to Blogging on a constant basis I went back and looked over much of what Noah and I have shared on this Blog and I have concluded, if we were to stop Blogging today, the content on this Blog would be relevant for years to come. It is quite interesting watching the evolution of various Blogs and Bloggers. I have witnessed some Blogs go from being about the content provided to being about the Blogger him or herself, and this made me ask the question why do I Blog. I do not think the reason I Blog is far different than why most Bloggers do, or started to Blog except that many Bloggers have gone off course and it is now about how many hits they get, winning various Blog awards, earning a particular ranking in the Blogsphere, having sponsors and advertisements on their Blog. I am aware that some have taking Blogging up as their full time job, such is not the case for myself or Noah which explains part of why we Blog as we do, meaning sporadically, with you the reader not knowing when you will get new content.

When I am not Blogging you can find me on various forums and message boards basically taking my arguments to the people, which is far more engaging than Blogging and serves as a sharpening mechanism for my many beliefs and positions. Participating in discussions on message boards and forums are far more stimulating than writing an op-ed or two for this Blog. If you want to see what I mean come on over to one of my favorite forums run and owned by Brother MBM and one filled with thinking Black men and women whom I agree with and disagree with on many things. Once you are done there, browse over to the Cocoa Lounge which is run and operated by our Sista Shawna and have many forums for almost any and every thought that enters your mind

This will be the beginning of many Blogs to come but don’t call it a come back.

September 23, 2005

Letter to White America

Dear White America

If ones perception is ones reality and that perception is different from how others perceive reality, then whose reality is correct? How does one convince another that their perceived reality is wrong and that they are racist, even though they believe they are not? Emotions, primarily fear, play a large role in shaping peoples perception as many people have fear and aversion to epiphany when the epiphany cast them in a negative light and goes against their paradigm of beliefs they felt secure with. Therefore, people can and do often see what they want to see in order to protect their image, thereby creating the separation from reality as perceived by most others. There are plenty examples, mostly born from some sort of substance addiction and denial of addiction or problem, or disorder like anorexia. So we know that denial or distorted reality is a common human disorder.

In order for people to accept reality, they need to first accept some objective metrics or baseline which is not subject to their distorted perception. This does not mean that once they recognize a deviation from the baseline that they will change their perception and or behavior, however. They may simply accept that most others see reality differently from the way they see it and value their self perception more than the external perceptions coming from others. The bottom line, however, is that change in behavior or belief cannot manifest until the self realizes that it has a problem and wants to change, which is hard to do when the belief or behavior manifest in psychological and or physical reward.

What is the psychological or physical reward of racism (R) ? For years, in fact centuries, the reward to white people (WP) has been economical and psychological. The effect of years of R is that it created a caste like economic system based upon R. Slavery and its labor was forced upon black people (BP), which eliminated the burden of such oppression from WP, as was the case in Europe. Post slavery, years of Jim Crow apartheid allocated good opportunities and accommodations to WP allowing them to rise and prosper while BP were held down. The socioeconomic inequality of today is the legacy of that past. Psychologically, WP receives reward to their egos from the perception of being members of a superior R. It kind of like the reward and recognition a player gets from being on a championship team; even if the player rides the bench he or she gets the transference benefit from being part of the group. Many poor WP are always focusing on thee team they are on because their individual states leave much to be desired so they live off the accomplishments of the group to make themselves appear better than others outside the group.

Part of the problem is that often WP are working from a self serving and self created definition of R and hence deny that they are R because their self perception does not meet their personal working definition. Most R erroneously believes that to be R one must harbor negative emotions against a particular group or groups. That was the template set by overt R of the past who contemporary whites use to judge themselves by. They juxtapose their motivations and actions with the motivations and actions of those of the past and conclude that they are different and that difference leads them to conclude that they are not R, because they may or do not harbor hate. What they fail to recognize is that R has always had an emotional and rational component and in the past the emotional component simply stood out more, masking the rational component.

Many WP rationalize that they are not being R, but rather are simply being truthful. In other words, they see a rational, non-emotional reason to see a certain group in a negative light, that’s usually backed up by some statistic. Therefore, they deny R as a motivation and instead see themselves the victims of others who are out on a witch hunt to unjustly slander their image so they become defensive. What they don’t realize is that their use and conclusions born from the statistics promotes the concept of black inferiority (BI) and or white superiority (WS). The idea or belief in BI or WS is thus a rational conclusion, as they see it, totally void of any emotions, negative or positive. Indeed, most non emotion based R is simply WS, but do not realize it because they have the historical, hate filled, ignorant prototype as the template (i.e. skin heads) for their working definition of a WS. Although they share the same rationalizations of BI and or WS, they see a distinction and hence difference born from not sharing the same emotions.

R’s ubiquitously employ a snap shot form of reasoning that allows their prejudgments or social conditioning to fill in the blanks that the snapshot does not provide. They take moments of time, as if they existed void the influence of the action reaction continuum of time, and use those moments in time to conclude Black inferiority (BI) and or white supremacy (WS). For example, they will take the unemployment rate and use it to rationalize their preexisting conditioning or belief that B’s are lazy. They will take the rate of births out of wedlock and use it to enforce their preexisting conditioning that B’s are irresponsible. They will take the crime and incarcerations rates and use it to rationalize that blacks indeed are a violent people. They will take low test score of B and use it to rationalize a lack of capacity for intelligence. The implied juxtaposition is always with W and if the statistics were the same as W or better, they would not even bring them up because such information does not support the belief of BI and or WS.

The big fallacy is the belief by some that in order to be an R one has to be a bad person or a person with malicious intent. I know plenty of W people who seem like great people and for the most part they are. They have come to my home for dinner. They have kids who play with my kids. They offer help if they think I am in the need and are generally likable positive people. However, then race somehow becomes a topic and I find that these same people have WS and or BI rationalizations. Those rationalizations are always uncovered when WP seek to explain the B condition. If I had a dollar for every time a WP lamented that if “they” just worked hard and became responsible, then discrepancies would go away, I would be a millionaire, to use a tired cliché. Of course, what is implied in such statements is that blacks are not working hard and that blacks are irresponsible, at least relative to WP. They have never bared direct witness to the lives of the masses of people they are passing judgment upon, yet, they have concluded that they are not working as hard as WP and are less responsible to. That’s R.

Of course, there is a reason and explanation for everything and statistics don’t lie assuming they are valid. However, statistics don’t explain the “why”. Rather, they simply state what is and those who use statistics generally do so to support their rationalizations of why. Some may have the belief that B’s are lazy and then bring out statistics showing that B’s unemployment rate is 2 1/2 the rate of WP and see and present that as proof that B’s don’t want to work. Most WP tends to believe that if you were not a slave then you have no one to blame for your condition but yourself. Of course, there are no former slaves living today and hence the B condition, in their mind, is internally created from B and not the product or reaction to a 300 year history of R discrimination. They cannot deny that such a history occurred, because it is recorded. However, they can deny its effect upon the present. They see the history of R against B as true, but incidental and not causation of the contemporary B condition.

Ignoring divine metaphysical manipulation, the human condition is the resultant of internal and or external causation. The options are binary, but not mutually exclusive. The differential socioeconomic condition of B in this nation, relative to W, is the product of internal, external or a combination there of, causation. To dismiss the external is to promote the internal as the cause. Notwithstanding 300 years of negative treatment, oppression and repression and the present being the creation of the past, WP dismiss the external or R influence upon the B condition. This leaves only the internal as the causation of the socioeconomic gaps and discrepancies. But what exactly does the internal allude to? It can only allude to genetics and or culture, meaning that the B condition is the resultant of inferior genetics and or inferior culture. In other words, genetic and or cultural inferiority, to WP, is the cause of social and economic differential, in their beliefs.

Most WP recognize that when they start talking genetic links to performance differences between R that such thoughts are symptomatic of R. In our contemporary society a taboo has been placed upon being R and the label denigrates the righteousness of those who harbor the beliefs. Consequently, culture has replaced genetics like being “anti-liberal” has replaced being “anti-B” for many closet and or in denial R. Thus, instead of stating that B’s are genetically inferior, when pressed to the root of their argument, they will link the root to an inferior culture. However, this begs the question of what is the root of culture. If culture is born from people do superior people create inferior culture? Do inferior people create superior culture? Is W culture superior because its people are superior or superior, while equal or inferior to others? The root of culture is people and to suggest a culture is inferior is to suggest its root people are inferior as well.

When all else fails and it becomes pretty clear that a WP is R, then the final character saving strategy is the attempt to normalize the behavior as human. This becomes apparent when WP starts calling BP racist too. The goal here is to characterize R as a normal human tendency, which it is to a degree, but not to the degree in which WP have manifested it against BP. They way they tell it, BP R negate WP R and everything balances out economically and morally, which is a falsehood. Certainly BP resentment, mistrust and reservations about WP, which is the reaction to 300 years of mistreatment from WP, can be termed R. However, there is certainly a huge moral difference from resenting being mistreated and seen as inferior than R born from no apparent reason other than to preserve the state of W Privilege and superiority. Memory is an evolved survival mechanism and history is a form of memory. Hence, BP would be putting their survival at risk by not being suspect of WP based upon memory and history. When a BP simply talks about this nations R history and our mistreatment, we meet WP working definition of B R, which is an absurd working definition, nearly as absurd as their working definition of what constitutes a W R.

It would not really matter so much what WP think if they did not have so much power. WP’s are the ethnic majority and represent the majority in both viable political options in the two party construct. They are disproportionately the business elites as well. Hence, they control the politics and economics of an interdependent political economic construct which is America. The fate of BP in such a construct is highly dependant upon the beliefs and behavior of WP, as it has always been, much more so than their fate is dependant upon our beliefs and behavior. In this interdependent construct in which WP have the disproportionate power politically and economically, we are extremely vulnerable to W biases regardless of how subtle and indirect. It’s the tyranny of majority rule over its historically despised B population. Hurricane Katrina was an unfortunate event, but it did allow the world to see the America that BP perceives as reality instead of the fantasy world of cognitive dissonance and denial that W America project to the world about itself. As long as BP are perceived to have it better than Africans in Africa, they see our mistreatment in America as a net gain and that we have nothing to complain about, lest we would rather be living today in Africa.

Like the wind, racism cannot be bared witness to directly but rather indirectly through its effect upon things that we can see. Hence, the evidence of the wind is its effect as the evidence of racism is its effect.

Yours truly

Noah The African
Indentured Servant of America Inc.

September 04, 2005

Looting...... a deeper look....

During a normal week my day begin at 5am and end at 11:30 pm with me crawling into my bed around 12 to 12:30 am and doing the same thing five hours later. During the past week when most of what was happening in NO, I did not have a lot of time to speak on what I was reading about and seeing on television for the few minutes during the day where I may have been near a television. The one thing that I continue to think about is the looting which I spoke briefly about on this Blog concerning the infamous pictures that described the actions of those seeking food during this crisis as looting and finding. I immediately thought back on how the looting that took place in Iraq after the downfall of Saddam Hussein and how the media covered that looting. Those who were opposed to the war described the looting as a failure of the U.S. to secure those artifacts that have historical value. The defenders of the war were indifferent in regards to the looting and focused more on the fact that the media was trying to play up the looting for more than what it was. Now let’s juxtaposed looting in Iraq, the responses to it and how it was covered and looting in New Orleans (NO), its response and how it was covered.

Looking back on looting in Iraq we first get the reaction of the Bush administration specifically that of Donald Rumsfield; Donald Rumsfield said of the looting in Iraq that “STUFF HAPPENS” a nice way of saying “SHIT HAPPENS”. Donald Rumsfield went on to say:

"Freedom's untidy and free people are free to make mistakes and commit crimes and do bad things," Rumsfield said. "They're also free to live their lives and do wonderful things. And that's what's going to happen here."

The Don of the Pentagon stated;

Looting, was not uncommon for countries that experience significant social upheaval. "Stuff happens,"

We all have been bombarded with images of Black men and women taking things from stores down in NO. There is one image of a guy with a TV that we all have seen and much like the one woman on welfare with a Cadillac, he has become the example of all that is happening when the truth is he is far from an example of all that is happening, especially when we consider the reports of looters taking their booty to the evacuation centers and sharing it with those in need, but back to my point... In defense of Iraqi looting and the images being broadcast all over the world Donald Rumsfield said the images represented;

"a fundamental misunderstanding" of what was happening in Iraq.”

Much like the image of the one guy with the TV during the looting in Iraq the media replayed the same images over and over again and to that Rumsfield said;

"The images you are seeing on television you are seeing over, and over, and over, and it's the same picture of some person walking out of some building with a vase, and you see it 20 times, and you think, 'My goodness, were there that many vases? Is it possible that there were that many vases in the whole country?' "

We could easily say this about the images we have seen coming out of New Orleans but no government officials have said this.

He went on to say this and this is most telling when we consider the reaction to looting in New Orleans; Donald said;

“While no one condones looting, on the other hand one can understand the pent-up feelings that may result from decades of repression”

We know the looting in NO did not stem only from pent up feelings of repression it was a culmination of pent up feelings and the will and need to survive after a natural disaster. Some of what made the Iraqi’s loot when their local government collapsed is the same thing that made looting a reality in NO but a few Negroes and a great many white folk would have us believe otherwise.

What has really pissed me off was the calling for the shooting and murder of men and women looting. These same bloggers and columnist who were and are apologist for Bush and his administration never called for the killing of Iraqi looters, but when they see a few images of Black people looting a Wal-Mart Supercenter they call for the killing of those men and women. The losses Wal-Mart sustained pales in comparison to the losses suffered by those who FOUND items they were in need of in that store. Wal-Mart makes more in a year than five or more American fortune five hundred companies does all together and now we have people calling for the shooting of poor people who have just lost everything?

There are now reports of armed men in New Orleans, Hmmm… there has been a call for the shooting of looters and now we questioned why these men are armed? Surely some were armed before the call to shoot them but that has now turned out to be a good thing in case some fool takes it upon himself or herself to shoot those trying to get clothes and food for their families.

There are hundreds if not thousands of contradiction in the response, reaction and explaining of what happened in NO when juxtaposed with what happened in Iraq and the subsequent response, reactions and explanations that followed. The biggest of those contradictions is the humanity applied to the Iraqi’s who were not looting while “wading through chest deep water” it was a hot and sunny day in Iraq and yet the repression they experienced over the years caused them to act in the same way repressed Black men and women in America did after loosing their homes and lively hood and the breakdown in local law enforcement.

September 02, 2005

There is so much to say......but for now...

There is so much to say...but for now read what the world press is saying.

Colombia's El Pais

Today, in important areas of the Gulf of Mexico and, in particular, New Orleans there is a terrifying panorama of desolation and millions of human beings who live in the most powerful country in the world are suffering the tragedy of a catastrophe that is difficult to imagine.

Taipei's Taiwan News

New Orleans may go down in history as the first major city in an advanced country to be lost to the process of global warming... We sincerely hope that the Bush administration will take the call from Hurricane Katrina and reconsider its energy and environmental policies and replace ostrich-like escapism with leadership in the global effort to deal with the crisis of global climatic change.

Hong Kong's Ta Kung Pao

This Katrina hurricane is a 'warning' by God over President Bush's reactionary behaviour on the Kyoto Protocol. The US government should wake up from this big disaster, truly take up its responsibilities as a great nation, and become the forerunner in protecting the global climate.

Australia's The Daily Telegraph

Katrina has wrecked not only the physical corporality of civilization. Now there are unmistakable signs in the hurricane's aftermath of the collapse of ordered society. Communication has become virtually impossible. There is no power, no fuel, no food. And looters are at work. This in the United States, the most powerful nation that has ever been.

Israel's Ma'ariv

The American meteorological service provided real-time precise information but the leadership failed in preparing for the anger of the weather...What is scary after Katrina is to see the biggest superpower in the world helpless, even if temporarily.

China's Renmin Wang

This hurricane disaster, while bringing huge harm to human resources and property for the residents of New Orleans, has also provided a rare opportunity for the White House to regain extensive popular support... the losses are far greater than in the 9/11 terrorist attack, therefore 'Katrina' has brought a most arduous test for Bush.

Sweden's Dagens Nyheter

The disaster is obviously a challenge for Bush... like every predecessor, he is thinking of his lasting reputation. And, if you will excuse the expression, he does not want to see that reputation blown apart.

Denmark's Kristeligt Dagblad

Every natural disaster comes in two waves. First the wind and rain arrives, then the political storm.

France's Le Monde

The disaster could become a trump card for the White House if it allows the Iraq war and its opponents to fade into the background.

Germany's Sueddeutsche Zeitung

But if he [Bush] fails to get a grip on the chaos within a few days, his words could become his undoing.

Germany's Die Tageszeitung

The fast and safe evacuation was white, leaving behind poor black people, as if time had stood still between the racial unrest of the sixties and today.

Prague's Hospodarske Noviny

Not even the monstrous Katrina will drag the USA into recession.

Romania's Gardianul

Bush's desperate efforts to redress the situation did not stop the virulent criticism aimed at his 'indifference'... on the first day of the hurricane [he] was still on holiday.

Spain's ABC

What is certain is that the tragedy has that has razed to the ground the states of Louisiana and Mississippi has shown up the weak flanks of a country which, taken up in the last few years with its imperial adventures, has ignored matters that are much more important for the well-being of its citizens.

Israel's Yediot Aharonot

Scores of 'mini' blunders in the giant American blunder that included loss of control, lack of a chain of command, heavy fog with all that has to do with the distribution of powers and the chatter-stricken elected public figures.

Palestinian Al-Hayat al-Jadidah

We sympathize with the American people in their predicament after Hurricane Katrina. But the real hurricane is the Iraqi resistance that does not target innocent [Americans].

Brazil's O Globo

One of the pillars of the Bush era has been his ability to connect with middle America. Will Bush be thrown a lifeline, thanks to the hurricane? Or, disconnected from his popular support base, will he limp on as a governor that does not govern - the lame duck of American political jargon - until the end of his term?

Australia's The Sydney Morning Herald

Though its death toll is much lower [than the Asian tsunami], in one respect Katrina may be more shocking: the possibility that human activity contributed to the hurricane's strength... Even small changes in temperature can produce disproportionately large weather events.

South Africa's Mercury

There must be truth to the adage that when the United States of America sneezes, the whole world will catch its cold.

El Salvador El Diario de Hoy

It is difficult to make light of one fact: that climate changes are at play, which are causing increasingly violent events... Katrina was just a warning.

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