So as we celebrate Martin Luther King Day, let's ponder a few things.
President Bush came to Atlanta last Thursday to lay a wreath on Dr. King's tomb. What happened? The RWPPs (Race Warlord Poverty Pimps) denounced him for being there. What would they have said if he hadn't shown up? Just asking.
I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character - Martin Luther King
How can that statement be reconciled with affirmative action where people are being judged by the color of their skin rather than their abilities?
Is Jesse Jackson, the most prominent RWPP, the successor to Martin Luther King? How would he feel about Jesse becoming an incredibly rich man while doing very little for black people?
How would Martin Luther King feel about the anti-Semitism in the black community? There were many Jews who marched with Dr. King during the civil rights movement.
What would he say about the porcine reverend Al Sharpton in regards to the Tawana Brawley hoax and the Crown Heights riots?
What would he have to say about Louis Farrakhan?
What would he think about having a black man as Secretary of State while the so called successors of his legacy of civil rights call the man who appointed Colin Powell to that post a racist?
What about that same man having a black female as the National Security Advisor? And there are many in the Republican Party who would like to see her run for president in 2008.
Would he call Powell and Rice "house slaves" like Harry Belafonte or would he praise them for their achievements?
Would he believe that diversity (All Hail Diversity) not only applied to race, sex and religion but also to ideas?
Would he brand conservative blacks like Colin Powell, Condi Rice, and Clarence Thomas Uncle Toms like so many of the RWPPs and their followers do?
How would he feel about this column written by Cynthia Tucker in Sunday's Atlanta Urinal and Constipation?
In 1954, black inmates accounted for 30 percent of the nation's prison population, according to The Sentencing Project, a Washington-based group that advocates alternative sentencing. By the time King died, in 1968, the figure had edged up to between 35 percent and 40 percent.Currently, black offenders account for almost half of all prison admissions. An estimated 12 percent of black men between the ages of 20 and 34 are behind bars, according to Allen Beck, chief prison demographer for the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
Beck estimates that 30 percent of black men will be incarcerated at some point in their lives.
Yet the NAACP and many of the RWPPs are worried about the Georgia flag.
The result is that black youths are terrified by the very idea of incarceration, right? Sadly, popular culture reveals the startling influence that prison --- seen as a rite of passage in some poor black neighborhoods --- has already had on music and fashion. The baggy pants that fall down from the waist, favored first by rappers and later by many adolescent boys, are an adaptation from jail culture: When a man is arrested, jailers confiscate his belt, so his pants tend to slide down. This is the style that many youngsters have chosen to emulate.
Yet the Confederate battle flag is still at a Confederate Memorial on the South Carolina Statehouse grounds and that's the nuber one thing on the agenda of the NAACP. I wonder which would be the highest priority of Dr. King if he were still alive?
Given that this is the most pressing issue facing black America, you'd think that those who would take up King's mantle would devote all of their time to reducing the incarceration rate for black men. Yet, the Jesse Jacksons, Joseph Lowerys and Kweisi Mfumes flit from theme to theme --- from corporate race relations to Rebel flags --- preferring to dwell on incarceration only when a glaring case of injustice promises headlines and air time.
And what about the anti-achievement mentality in the schools that if a black child tries to learn that child is "acting white"?
And here is sumpin' that the bigots at the KKK just gotta love.
But the problem is not simply one of bigotry. The worst-kept secret in black America is the murder rate among black men.In 2002, black men were likely perpetrators in more than 40 percent of the homicides in which a suspect was identified. They also accounted for nearly 40 percent of the nation's homicide victims (proving that black men represent the greatest threat to each other). That's a staggering statistic for a group that represents less than 6 percent of the population.
The people most hurt by black criminals are black! Where are Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton? Howza 'bout John Lewis? Kweisi? Anyone?
What could be more important to continuing King's legacy than turning black men away from fratricide and steering black youths away from prison?
The flag Cynthia! The flag! Haven't you been paying attention?
What would Martin Luther King think?
Alas, we'll never know.
Posted by denny at January 18, 2004 10:23 PM