Paula Deen, Riley Cooper and the World of Reality: Apologize for What?

By: Matthew C. Stelly

       I am a black man, and in political circles I would be considered a nationalist, somebody who believes in his people but more importantly, in fighting for the progress of my people. We do so much that is counter productive, so calling out our so-called “leaders” is one way to launch us in a new direction – forward! But this racial slur crap is beginning to irk me, and I view the black reactions to it and the shallow white reactions to it, as being both naïve and non-productive.

       Paula Deen caught hell for stating what she thought about black people, plain and simple. She admitted using the word “nigger” (the concept of calling it the ‘n’ word is stupid – it’s like the Christian who thinks about a curse word or lusts in his mind over some large breasts but because he doesn’t say anything out loud in either case makes it less of a sin or no sin at all). The word is “nigger.” Say it and then study its history. When you do it will indict white people and it will show you what they think of us. Why are both sides trying to hide these facts?

       So what if she used it? That says more about the black people in the vicinity of the word than it does about her. If she said it and then survived an ass kicking, that is to her credit. The black people who heard it didn’t say anything so that’s all there is to it. Almost every cracker in this country has used that word, but they lie and claim they don’t. They say, “blacks call each other ‘nigger’ all the time.” Yeah right. Jews call each other “hymie’ all the time too, but look what they did at Jesse Jackson back in 1984 when he used the word ‘hymie town.’ There are some things that groups stick together on. Jews stick together and don’t allow it. Black people allow anything.

       What did Riley Cooper do? He was at a Kenny Chesney concert (a racial statement in and of itself since most people know Chesney can’t stand black people), pointed into the camera and said, “I will jump that fence and fight every nigger here.” Black people went bonkers. His white handlers, agents and teammates distanced themselves – in public. But how could they be upset at what Riley said when, for the past 400 years, white people have been “fighting niggers” to the point of policy formulation and acceptance?

First of all, Cooper would have gotten his ass kicked, but on the other hand, he also knew that there weren’t that many “niggers at a Kenny Chesney concert to begin with. So he picked his spots. 

       Secondly, so what if he said it? You’ve got white men on the record doing far worse: voting on anti-black policies, stripping down black rights when it comes to voting, pretending to be the black man’s pal the way Bill Clinton did while putting more black people in prison than any other president, and so on. And you all are upset because a peckerwood uses the word “nigger”?

       Here’s what you ought to be upset about: when white teachers at all levels tell students in their classrooms that our ancestors were “slaves.” That is what ought to piss you off. Slaves? If that were true we would have NEVER gotten out of “enslavement” where we were, for the most part, prisoners of war and captives. We fought and battled and the white man was scared shitless. They only promote the part where we’re saying “yes boss, no boss” because that is the image that they want our kids to memorize. They don’t talk about the 1,500 “unrecorded” rebellions, the glass in the milk, the work boycotts, the escape attempts and the outright murders of slavemasters. 

       Larue Nedd (2012) in his book, Why We Shouldn’t Call Our Foreparents Slaves documents the severity of the term, the harm its done and why we should be insulted by its use.

        What Deen and Cooper did was strip the front of the “liberal” mentality of all of its pomp and impious ceremony. Maulana Karenga (1967) wisely wrote a long time ago that, “A racist is like a dog. You can teach him to stand on his hind legs (be liberal) but eventually he falls back down to all fours.” That’s what you’re witnessing, but there’s one more warning I want to share to you neophytes who truly believe that “things is getting’ bettah, massah.”

        The term “racial slur” is a smokescreen. The real racial slurs are terms like these: Dean of Minority Affairs, Director of Black Studies, Vice-Provost for Diversity, Equal Opportunity Commission, Minority scholarship and so on. You know why? Because they are designed to make it appear as if white folks really care about these things when, in reality, they don’t. Were it not for us burning their buildings in the 1960s, none of this shit would exist! They didn’t do it based on any sense of morality or awareness: they did it so that they could do what they did by “accepting” the myth of integration: feed black folks air sandwiches about the same history and humanity that they stripped us of 200 years ago.

         The insult is how black people with some semblance of intelligence can be marched out to address “racial issues.” Just look at “Meet the Press,” “Fox Morning,” and other talk shows. That shows you that they only see you in racial terms. Watch “Jeopardy” when white geniuses know every thing about European culture no far how far back, but when the category is “African Americans” all they know is George Washington Carver, Denzel Washington and Halle Berry. That’s because their world is clouded with their view of racial reality. And to them, we’re expendable because all the shoes have been shined and all the cotton’s been picked. Their view of us is what they see on “Jerry Springer,” “Jeremy Kyle,” “Maury Povich” and “Steve Wilkos.” In brief, we are the sociopolitical version of “comic relief.”

       Can’t you see that?

       Malcolm X once asked, “Why should we be grateful when a man takes a knife HALFWAY out of our backs?” This so-called concern about “racial slurs” is bullshit. It’s not what people say it’s what they do. You’re still powerless in a nation where power is valued above all else. You’re still segregated and you still have the worst housing, streets and lights. You still have to beg for jobs. Your kids are still being mis-educated and pushed out of schools. And the biggest issue you can think of is being called a “nigger” by a race of people who know that their days are numbered?

        Finally, history repeats itself. In the 1960s when we were tearing down the country looking for liberation we never found (because we were expecting it from someone who didn’t have the moral capacity to deal with the issue), they would march our Jesse Jackson, Martin Luther King, James Brown, and others to tell us to “stop the violence”! The only time in American history when we announced our existence and it got any respect (albeit only for a few years) was when we used violence. Don’t take my word for it: cops would start it and we would finish it. 

        Now they march out Michael Vick to say, “I-ba believe-ba in-ba Riley-ba Cooper-ba and-ba I’be accept-ba his-ba apology-ba.”

       Why Mike, why? The same people that ordered him and paid him to take up for Cooper are the same ones that paid off King, Bayard Rustin, A. Philip Randolph, Joseph Lowery, Ralph Abernathy and the rest of "the Big Six" who "take over" the movement and take attention off the Black Power movement. Read a history book.

       Mike Vick should know better. They treated him like a “nigga” when they put his black ass in the pen, remember? Where was the white sympathy then? White folks did to him what Riley Cooper threatened to do to 'niggers' in the audience! Kicked his ass! 

       I wrote a major essay about 20 years ago called, “Who Loves Ya, Baby?” and in it, I showed where white folks love their pets more than they care about black people; how PetSmart had a larger budget than the Urban League; how when we were living in shacks, the dog and the cat were sitting next to the fireplace inside the big house; how they trained some of their dogs (known as “white dogs”) to hate our guts as well and that’s who they “sicced” on us during the civil rights marches (mostly German Shephards).

      In sum, poor Riley Cooper and Paula Deen did what they believed in, and then because money hung in the balance, they were forced to tell a lie and claim that they were sorry about having told the truth as they see it! IF somebody hates me, I want them to tell me and express it, not pretend to be my pal so that they can get closer to me and do real damage. Black folks: it’s all coming out in the wash and you now see what is real!

At this point all I can say in response to such collective stupidity is: nigga, please!!!