'Tommy'

The Situation

For those that know me, it's no secret that I loathe conservatives . . . but I’m fast getting FED UP with Liberals that are so damned pious about everything, anemic when it comes to perspective, allergic to nuance, and are proud/willful amnesiacs when it comes to history, political and otherwise . . . seriously.  We claim on the Left to be grounded in reality.  We claim to be so ‘smart’.  We 'laugh' at the Tea Baggers for their supposed ignorance and idiocy.

Dear Cornell: Raise Your Paradigm . . .

Cornell West: "Al Sharpton Is "Still On The Obama Plantation"

CORNELL WEST: "Yeah I wish and pray that it were forthcoming, but I don't think it's forthcoming either though brother. I think they just its just smoke and mirrors at this point and it's going to be on to the next issue as soon as they think this thing settles down. Now the good thing is it won't settle down and I think it's going to create some kind of division within our black political class because it's just too humiliating it's too embarrassing, you see it with Brother Sharpton; Sharpton probably deep down wants to be critical of the President, but he can't because he's still on the Obama plantation. Ah so he can't say a mumbling word no matter how radical he wants to act and act as it were and deep down in his soul I think he really does feel a fire, but he cannot allow that fire in any way to spill over toward the White House. Why? Because he's still too tied he's too uncritical he's too deferential he's too subservient as it were and as long as that's in place we're going to find ourselves unable to tell the fundamental truth. (July 21, 2013)"

Tonight I wear My Hoodie . . . Again: The Verdict.

The Verdict is in . . .

I wrote about a year ago about my feelings regarding this Trayvon case and I was aghast then and I’m horrified now about this travesty called a 'verdict' . . . I need to preface the following ‘unloading’ by declaring loud and clear:

I DO NOT THINK THAT ALL WHITES ARE RACIST.

A Prescription

Listen: I know that the discussions of Race that have exploded since Barrack Obama's election(s) have made some Whites feel 'uncomfortable'. This is simply a reckoning, a, frankly, long overdue one, that has thrust You into a ‘front seat’ with the rest of the non-whites, after a blissfully-oblivious few centuries of sometimes 'designed blindness' to the sometimes desperate 'contest', that has been 'headlined' by some everyday, lifelong 'miseries' birthed by Racism and it's 'child' Colorism. Please recognize that a significant portion of the country has had no relief and/or escape from these scourges.  Those of us, White and of Color, who have been ‘facing’ this ‘cloud’, knew that on 11/4/2008 especially, but not only because of it, the time for this would inevitably come.

If you will, allow me to humbly-offer a Prescription . . .

The Horse has Long Left . . . That Stable

This is a post on my Facebook Wall:

"What this whole Snowdenn/Greenwald 'storm' shows is that:

The government has 'the capability' to spy 'on all of us!!! Aauugh!!!'

Duh.

Opportunity . . .?

According to a conservative I was in a sort of 'E-Debate' with, the relative 'pittances' that the Poor receive deserve further scrutiny and vetting for deserving of benefit. This person used people of color as 'examples' of those 'who need to be watched'. They, however, ignore the huge amount in terms 'giveaways' to the already or obscenely wealthy individuals and/or corporations that happen daily. Here was my response:

Opportunity knocks . . . but She has been a picky 'deity' to say the least.

On Racism: Part 2 - The Semi-Conductor Effect

After Barrack Obama won in 2008 many pundits and columnists declared that 'racism was dead' and we're now 'post racial'.  One has only to look at the subsequent, insipid sort of subliminal 'shading' of our politics since then . . . to see that they were blatantly wrong.  People's minds don't change that easily.  When it comes to Barrack Obama, I've found that for almost all the political battles that have been fought during his Presidency, the facts don't justify the caustic, over-the-top, fulminating opposition to and towards the President, from the Left or Right.  That is not to say Obama doesn't deserve some criticism . . . but myself and other folks of color have a sense that it is a bit overdone.  To tell the truth, us so-called minorities have felt that 'something' has been broken, overwhelmed; an inaudible 'pop' was heard in the attitudes of both parties towards Race since that November night in 2008.