First Obama, Now This

"On Thursday [June 18], the United States Senate delivered a unanimous resolution on the eve of Juneteenth apologizing for slavery and segregation. The resolution, which had been introduced a few years back, is the first official statement on behalf of the U.S. Government to acknowledge responsibility for slavery, as well as segregation. " - HipHopDX

WTF? I'm glad they cleared that up. All these years I had been blaming Black people.

So, some gaggle of douches has decided that after centuries of genocide, suicide, & fratricide of a people by "their" hands that we deserve an apology. Wow. Should we send them a bouquet of flowers or just dance in the streets to exhibit our glee? I mean, I can't be the only man who views this as a great day in history. Hoorah for America's sympathetic heart that bleeds for our nation.

Nevermind the fact that we were kidnapped & taken from our identities & habitat(s), forever scarred & anonymous long before we had the displeasure of segregation & racial jugdgement being all we knew. A pleasant apology makes it all better. No need for a band-aid, Uncle Sam.

One has to wonder if Barak Obama's election had anything to do with this. Then, that thought makes me surmise just what percentage of his victory derived from a "sympathy vote". You have to figure that after all the struggle & injustice that we've gone through, its odd that this country just collectively decides that its okay for a (half) Black man to run it, unless they felt bad about something. Very suspect, in my opinion.

I can't begin to fathom the amount of damage that's been done since whoever decided, "yeah, let's just make them do all the shit we don't wanna...". Monumental, at the very least. How can you say sorry for generational rape, which quite possibly may have lead to a form of on-going psychological trauma that can never be recovered from.

Let me guess.....Without Slavery, we would have never gotten Malcolm X, MLK Jr, & the freedom fight for civil rights. But, without slavery, we wouldn't have ever needed any of those things. Another instance of "the chicken or the egg", no?

My grandmother was ravaged, my grandfather was broken, my sister was taken, my brother was sold, my children were brainwashed, but if you tell me that you really didn't mean for it to turn out this way, then all is forgotten. No Dice. Being able to eat at their table & piss in their urinals doesn't count as a reparation.

&, to announce such an atrocity in the wake of Juneteenth is even a bigger backhanded apology. Might as well have announced it in the midst of Black History month, during the Spike Lee movie marathon. Better yet, invited every "important" Black in America to a barbecue, to honor the event, & have it catered by Popeye's & Roscoe's Chicken & Waffles. Grape sodas & Newport cigarettes for everyone.

Its referred to as a "resolution". What's that supposed to mean? What, exactly, is to be resolved? Murder? Racism? Impoverishment? Really, "they" would've been better of just leaving things the way they've been all this time & letting "us" think that we're making steps towards social reconciliation on our own rather than acknowledge & remind us with this apology.

The Native Americans got the right to gamble legally, the Hispanics got all of Southern California, & we got Kwaanza, Juneteenth, rumors of reparations & a three-year old "resolve" which, most folks probably don't even know exists. Personally, I've never been a slave, so there's only so much hatred I can muster up against the powers that be, but the mere fact all this (& by all this, I mean the plight of the Black family in America) could have been avoided by a small dose of humanity & good will towards mankind, pisses me off. Now, we're the step-children that are forced to fend for ourselves, even though we've become our biggest opponents. Often times in the Black community, distrust of the police resonates deeply, but that's not who I'm worried about. I'm worried about niggas, standing on the corner, waiting, who can't get jobs, or attend school to better themselves &/or provide for their families. That causes a "survival of the fittest" mentality that can't be matched by a peace officer's blood lust. I know those dudes didn't choose to live a life of hardship & turmoil because it seemed like a good idea at birth. Oh, I just remembered, the senate said sorry.

Guess I'll walk down the street to my neighborhood church to pray about it, & after that go right next door to the liquor store & get drunk to forget about.

That's what we've been doing or centuries.

...our heroes.

"Let's hear it, one for the coons, on UPN 9 & WB. Who "yes massa" on TV.........Let's hear it, two for the spooks, who do cart wheels. 'Cuz they said they played their parts well."
- NaS, "These Are Our Heroes" from Street's Disciple, 2004

First of all, to hell with "Flavor of Love". If you've never witnessed Flav's show "Under One Roof" (a UPN show, btw), you are missing a lifetime's worth of coontrocity at it's most epic. The basis is as follows: Flav is a felon who, upon his release, moves in with his rich, white-washed, douche-nozzle brother. His brother, who is married to a pasty, money hungry, lazy broad, is the total opposite of Flav's character, Calvester.

Yeah, dude's name is Cal-Ves-Ter.

He's a 40-something year old nigga (sorry, it fits too well) with braids, tarnished gold teeth (not make-up; those are his), & a habit of still wearing those night gown t-shirts that went out of style with throwback basketball jerseys. Like 50 years ago. When people listened to CD players. & rappers sold millions of albums purely off skills. & only rich folk sent e-mails.

Now, the show is so richly based off of stereotypes (including the Asian housekeeper with that nail shop-n-day-hood attitude), that just watching it sets racial equility back about 40 years. Probably the same way our parents felt when they watched James Evans, Jr. & Arnold Jackson shuck & jive their way through lines like "Dy-no-miiiiiite" & "Whatchutawkinbout?", respectively. But, Flavor has no catchy one-liners. He just has him. & That's all he needs. I'm not sure how far removed the character is from Flavor's actual being, but I'm just waiting for some Redneck with a flashlight, a pack of dogs & a double-barrel shotgun to claim ownership to his ass. I try not to use the term "jigaboo", but, well, you get my point.

Don't get me wrong, I'm a pretty "average joe" type guy. I enjoy the subtle, racial humor & unspoken nuances on T.V. for entertainment purposes, just like any other American. But, at a time where they are no visible heroes, this kind of malarky shouldn't be tolerated. Its bad enough that Hip Hop, the proverbial bridge between "us" & "them"*, is rife with ignorance & self-hatred. Now, instead of 3 1/2 minute videos depicting such idiocy, we get 30 minute television programs who can afford to go even MORE in-depth with the stupidity. Heaven help us......

Let's do the math. 3/4 of kids nowadays (pick a social divide; any will do) don't have an immediate positive male role model. The lucky ones have mom's smart enough to end up with a decent guy who chooses to give a damn about them. The unlucky one's are forced to fend for themselves, seeking that greater influence that helps children become adults. That influence lurks, be it good or bad. But without the proper guidance, intentions are overpowered by availability. I can go out on my porch right now & throw three rocks. One will hit a crackhead, one will hit a criminal & the last one will just land quietly in the street. See where I'm going with this?

Al Sharpton's old, Jesse Jackson's bitter, Barack Obama's got better things to do. So where are our heroes? Even better, I'll tell you where they aren't.

They aren't making rap songs. They aren't starring in prime-time TV. shows. There's a pretty good chance that they aren't even living yet.

Regardless to the consensus, heroes aren't manufactured today like they were in our grandparents' heyday. Now, they're home grown wildflowers, like dandelions, all willy-nilly without a purpose. It's time for "us" to reclaim our nation, to right the wrongs & stop following the lead of every flash-in-the-pan noisemaker that thinks they have a point to prove. The blind have been leading the blind for going on two generations now. I can't speak for others, but Stevie Wonder can't keep telling me to trust him because he's pretty sure he knows where he's going.

Maybe I'm just getting older, but with age comes wisdom, so in that case, I should be even more convincing.

Think about it.
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*"us" vs. "them" is the moral vs. the immoral, the ignorant vs. the educated, the good vs. the bad, just to clarify. It's not a race issue, it's a Human Race problem.