The Bridge: The Black Top Ten: Evidence of Racism
By
Darryl James
It's been a while since I've done a top ten list and I have a few
of them rolling around in my head.
This one stands out because racists have placed their program on remote
control after convincing many of us that racism no longer exists.
Many of the myths perpetuated about Black people are now being perpetuated
by us, and many of the ills plaguing us, are now blamed on us by us.
Some
of us who are comfortable and who do not see racism on a regular basis
have acquired the habit of denying that racism exists. When one of
us talks about racism, another soul, deluded, may sling accusations
of "whining."
We
don't know what God looks like and yet, we believe. We believe because
we know that the flowers grow from the rain, we know that the rain
comes from the clouds and babies smile for no reason apparent to us.
We know that there is something bigger than us and we can find evidence
of things unseen.
Racism
is also easy to trace, because we can feel its effects. There may
not be a gang of crazy racists chasing you down or preventing you
from using the lunch counter, but racism is still alive and well--just
wearing some new clothing. Sometimes, the clothing is Black skin.
In another Black Top Ten list, here are ten pieces of evidence that
racism still exists.
1.Drugs and guns
in the Black community.
Brothers and Sisters, if we take a look at the dropping of drugs and
automatic weaponry in the Black community, which began at the same
time that jobs began to dry up, we can see racism. Why not? There
were no drugs and guns dropped in Beverly Hills, California or in
Skokie, Illinois, or in any other affluent neighborhood with very
few Blacks.
2. AIDS
in the global Black community.
How did this disease come of nowhere and metamorphose from a gay white
male disease to a Black disease, disproportionately affecting Africa
and female African Americans? If it were a Black disease, we would
have been dying from it before the 1980's.
3. Evaporation
of after school programs.
If
we take a close look at the after school programs that began to evaporate
in the early 90's under Bill Clinton's watch, while Affirmative Action,
scholarship programs and other educational financial aid programs
for poor Blacks were under attack, we see racism because the direct
result is fewer Black men in college.
4. More prisons/Less gang prevention.
We
can see racism in the building of more prisons and less gang prevention
over the past ten plus years, because the direct result is more Black
men and women in prison.
5. Military, financial aid to the middle east/pittance to Africa.
The
recent tsunami affected Asia as well as portions of Africa, yet a
disproportionate amount of the assistance went to Asia.
I know many of you love Bill Clinton, some even calling him a Black
president, but he's a good old boy, too and we see it now as he rolls
around with George Bush helping the Tsunami victims with an overwhelming
focus on Asia. We see the same program when it comes to providing
assistance for the poor and downtrodden in Africa as well as the poor
and downtrodden in the south parts of nearly every major city in America.
This nation shows it's racist stance when it directs billions to the
Middle East, billions to nations with "strategic alliance,"
and billions in corporate bailout programs, while snubbing the poor
of color right here in the good old U.S. of A.
6.
Paucity of Black leadership.
Black
leaders have been chosen for us over the past three decades. Generally,
they are harmless Negroes who bark loud, but are toothless. The real
leaders, found in thinkers like Cornell West and Michael Eric Dyson,
or Black men and women who CHOOSE to become teachers to make a difference
in our children, or single parents who place their children first
are seldom recognized, but the NAACP can give an "Image"
award to many of today's modern House Niggers.
We have been programmed to reject any of us who are maligned in the
media and to embrace any of us who are celebrated.
7. Diminishing of slavery's modern impact/Embellishment of other peoples'
oppression.
Even
the Armenians have an annual commemoration of past horrors visited
upon their culture. At every turn, we are urged to remember the oppression
of other cultures-remember the Holocaust, remember the Armenians,
etc. We even remember the Alamo, but we are always urged to forget
about slavery.
8. Ghetto
is now a Black word.
Go to any major city and you will see Chinatown, Little Italy, Koreatown,
etc, but when it comes to where Blacks live and congregate, it's the
Ghetto or the 'Hood.
Ghetto, a German word originally depicting Jewish areas in Germany,
has become so deeply ensconced in the Black culture, that we have
converted it to an adjective-now that's just Ghetto.
9. Black wealth/White wealth.
Ignorant well-off Negroes can talk about the "growing Black middle
class" all day, but miss me with the propaganda because we have
nothing to show or prove that lie. What we do have is perpetual poverty,
aided and abetted by poverty pimps such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton;
mega-churches with millions in the coffer, but no real outreach in
the community; the NAACP and other chicken dinner eating, hundred
dollar a plate banquet throwing, media opportunists who do no real
good, yet claim to represent "us."
Here's the true story of Black wealth in America: In 1897, 98% of
African Americans were working for white people--In 1997, 98% of African
Americans were working for white people.
10. The effectiveness of Black self-blame.
We have some serious problems and while we are perpetuating much of
it, the real shame comes in refusing to understand the root of many
difficulties for African descendants in America, who never had it
very good, but now claim that we are to blame for everything that
is currently affecting us.
