Rubbernecking and the Thievery of Black Culture

A Word About Elvis Presley

Second to None? “Rubbernecking and the Thievery of Black Music

            There is a commercial that airs on the FX Channel that promotes an album by Elvis Presley called “Second to None.” Just the fact that white people believe this lie shows you that, once again, they place their racial arrogance above the truth. As we all know, Elvis was “invented” so that white women would stop drooling over Chuck Berry. And if you don’t think they drooled – even at the risk of social banishment – look at the old tapes of them in the front rows of concerts featuring Jackie Wilson, Little Richard, Fats Domino and the Platters – to name but a few.

            Back to the commercial.

            The first essential point is the name of the album. Of course, Elvis was “second to none.” That is because of racial segregation; at the same time that the Jews and their white cronies were battling to keep “race music” under wraps, they were stealing music from black people and searching high and low for white boys to sing the words. That’s how people like Pat Boone, the Big Bopper, Bobby Darin, and so many others got their start. Second to none? When the race is rigged, and you’re the only one allowed to compete, then of course you’ll come in first!

            Secondly, the commercial itself smacks with lies. It goes something like this: 

Before anyone did anything 

Elvis was the first to create fan hysteria

First to be censored

First with his own private jet

First with his own crib

Elvis did EVERYTHING!!!

            Can you believe this bullshit? I guess instead of Adam, it was Elvis and Eve in the garden of Eden, right? 

            Elvis was not the first to create fan hysteria; he was perhaps the first to do so in the white communities that banned blacks. But long before Elvis gyrated his hips, there were black men and women who were singing the most risqué dance songs and the most beautiful love songs ever crooned. And because of racial segregation, that means that Elvis was not the “first to be censored” – black musicians were! Those “no coloreds allowed” and the “colored bathrooms” and “for whites only” signs were the REAL forms of censorship, because it was based on race – not on one’s musical skill or lack thereof.

            Because of these facts, Elvis was the first to have his own private jet only because of black people and our existence. Had he not stolen our music and style, he would not have been wealthy enough to afford that jet! There is no way that Elvis and the hicks he surrounded himself with could have come up with the soul sound without hearing it first. You see who he had backing him up – three sisters known as “The Sweet Inspirations”! Elvis knew where soul came from and try as he might, the only people he could fool were his fellow no-rhythm-having white fans.

            And as for “the first with his own crib,” just the fact that the promoters use the word “crib” is testimony that even to this day, the white man cannot relate to the public unless he’s borrowing from black slang. To be hip and cool is to talk and act like those who ARE hip and cool: black men, women and children!

            Elvis did everything? Elvis couldn’t even push his own fat ass away from the dinner table; Elvis couldn’t even stop getting high and drunk every night after a concert. Elvis couldn’t even find a woman his own age to marry, he had to go find Priscilla, who was all of 14 years old when he first slept with her. But this is the kind of man that these white people want their children to see them looking up to.

            The commercial features the song “rubber necking.” The first verse alone represents an unconscious admission of how Elvis and his “handlers” stole from black people and pawned it off as their own.  The lyrics go like this: 

Stop, look and listen baby that's my philosophy

If your rubberneckin' baby well that's all right with me

Stop, look and listen baby that's my philosophy

It's called rubberneckin' baby but that's all right with me

Some people say I'm wasting time yeh, but they don't really know

I like what I see I see what I like yeh, it gives me such a glow

            Rubbernecking. Like the white fashion designer in his tinted-wheeled limo, cruising the ghetto and stealing ideas that they, in turn, can turn around and sell back to unsuspecting black kids? Rubbernecking. Like the white girls in their sports cars cruising through the neighborhood and watching bare backed young black men shootings hoops? Rubbernecking. Like the corporate vice president who stands by the water cooler and watches the young sister walk down the hallway as he thinks about what could be? 

            Rubbernecking is the white man’s philosophy because he can’t believe what he sees. It’s as if the world around him is in Technicolor and he’s still living a white and black existence! 

            Second to none? Elvis Presley is an invention of the white man, pure and simple. The white folks who worshipped that man know what time it is, and yet their cultural super-ego will not allow them to see how he stole the very thing that made him famous. Once stolen, he had to rely on his character to carry him and you can see what happened: statutory rape, alcoholism, gluttony, drug abuse, public humiliation and then death.

            They continue to steal since Elvis has croaked. The Average White Band, Rare Earth, Tom Jones, Michael Bolton, Britney Spears, Eminem, and so on.  No Elvis, it’s not called “rubbernecking.” 

          It’s called thievery.

Confusion By Any Other Name: We AIn't "All the Same"

·        REVIEW: ‘We Are All The Same: The Story of a Boy’s Courage and a Mother’s Love’

          The author of this book, Jim Wooten, appeared on a November 15, 2004 segment of “Good Morning America.” The book raises serious questions about AIDS in Africa, but as this review will show, goes much further: straight into the bowels of racism. The following response was written in 1998, I believe.

          After hearing what Wooten had to say, I ordered the book. What a waste of snaps.

          The book is about a South African boy, Nkosi, whose mother had AIDS and, before dying, passed it on to him. Born in 1989, Nkosi died at the tender age of 12 from the disease. Although the book makes positive and productive points about the African tendency to shun those who had AIDS, and how Thabo Mkebi hampered attempts to get anti-retroviral drugs to those suffering from AIDS (a debatable point), the book is actually a cover for white supremacy on a number of levels.

          First of all, the author himself, a correspondent for ABC News. He is covering the continent and watched all of this take place. But at no point in this book does he address the fact that it was the white man who bought AIDS to South Africa. At no point in the book does he address the mythological basis of the Green Monkey theory. Instead, focusing on this lovely young boy, the theme of Wooten’s book is to show how this child “died gracefully.”

          First of all, all children that age die gracefully because they have no real concept of what death is all about. That’s why some of these youngsters can point guns at each other and pull a trigger, because they’ve been programmed by TV that death is temporary. In Nkosi’s case, he understood what the disease was about, but he did something about it: he and his mother filed lawsuits to get him into a regular school and from those actions, other children stricken with the virus were able to attend school as well.

          Secondly, when it comes to blacks, “dying gracefully” seems to be a recurring theme. From referring to dying as “going home,” to Malcolm’s speech about how white folks teach us to “suffer peacefully,” this whole idea of death and dying has two prongs; one for blacks and one for whites. When it’s them, it’s programs, organizations, telethons and million dollar research projects. When it’s us, it’s “he was black, but he had a white heart” as they say or imply with Gunga Din, Booker T. Washington, Ray Charles, and others who tow the company line.

          Third, Wooten spends more time dealing with the fact that Nkosi’s foster mother was a white woman than he does the important issues I’ve pointed out. Why? Because in typical “missionary” fashion, Wooten wants to paint a picture of the white man as saviour. That is what he, in writing this book, is also doing for himself. The jacket of the book claims, “This powerful account puts a human face on a catastrophic epidemic …” Yeah – the face of the victims, but not the face of the culprits who manufactured the disease in the first place. Every white person in this book is an expert or a savior; most of the black people, other thank Nkosi, are silent bystanders.

          Fourth, guess who the mother is? There is of course, Daphne, his biological mother, a dying sister who, as Wooten writes, “moved heaven and earth” to make sure that Nkosi would be provided for after her death. But when you read the book, Daphne doesn’t get as much play as the foster mother – a white woman named Gail Johnson. To her credit, she adopted the child and started a hospice, Nkosi’s Haven, for women and children with AIDS in South Africa. What is NOT mentioned is that she gets grant funding for doing so. You do the math.

          A fifth point is this: the title. Why? Who is “we”? And if it is a truly collective and unified “we,” why must we all “be the same”? Why can’t we all be different, and yet have the same goal, that of freedom? No, that would be too much diversity for the white man to handle. So, in reality, this book has nothing to do with sameness. The African continent is the only one that is headed for extermination. Not Europe. Not Asia. So then, where is the sameness?

          If we are all the same, then why did white folks in Nkosi’s South Africa see fit to create a system of Apartheid while, in this country, their cousins had a situation called Jim Crow? If we are all the same, then why was there two music charts: one for “R&B” and one for “Pop”? If we are all the same, then why can brothers who are 6-feet tall dunk, and very few white dudes can?

          We are NOT all the same, that’s why. This is the white man talking. When he says he’s “color blind,” what he means is that he’s ignoring what race you are and judging you from the only perspective he has; a white one. When he says “we’re all the same,” he can’t prove it. Even his Bible wants to make you think that you’re the “cursed descendant of Ham”! And what was the curse: according to the white minister, it’s black skin!

          We are NOT all the same. This is not to say that this is not what he would prefer. He has the majority of our people thinking the way he does, smiling when ain’t nothing funny, currying favor and carrying water for him. That is about as far as the “sameness” goes. After working, you head back to the ghetto and barrio, and he’s on his way to suburbia, created so he could get away from the likes of you. If we were the “same,” would he be spending billions of dollars doing that?

          Nkosi’s spirit was strong, but no different than what we, as black people, have right here in our midst. Some of us have been broken, but many of us have not. While AIDS is a major concern that must be addressed, it won’t be conquered by alien missionaries who use it as an excuse to beg for grant money. It starts with us re-defining our relationships with one another and working on strategies to care for our own people.

          Using a dying black child in South Africa to promote mythology and a white supremacist agenda is wrong. Jim Wooten should be ashamed of himself.

Al Roker and His Daughter: What's Wrong Witchu?

The Word I Wish My Daughter Never Heard: A Response to Al Roker

            In 1995 I picked up a copy of Family Circle while sitting in the doctor's office (that was all there was to read. I perused it and came to a back page editorial written by none other than NBC weatherman, Al Roker. Following are my views on what he had to say.

            As a former Black Studies and Sociology professor,  I try to teach my students to not only understand reality, but to also understand that it is always changeable. But that in order to change it, you must understand the truth about it, not someone else’s version of it.

          The June 20^th issue of Family Circle carried a “Full Circle” piece by Al Roker titled, “The Word I Wish My Daughter Never Heard.”  I am a long time viewer of NBC’s “Today” show, and one reason why is Mr. Roker. He is honest, funny and professional. However, his disbelief that his daughter would hear the “n” word, the manner in which he phoned the parents of that white child to “find out where she heard it,” and his own profound ignorance of the context in which race relations function are points of concern to me.

          I have three daughters and I WANT them to not only hear the “n” word, but to understand that it has to be dealt with. To attempt to keep kids in a protective vacuum and naively stick our heads in the sand and conclude that by doing so we can “change the foundation of the future: our kids” as Mr. Roker concludes, is ludicrous.

          There is one word, however, that is used by Mr. Roker, his kids and most other “black celebrities” and leaders all over this country, a word far more degrading that the “n” word could ever be.  That word? 

          “Slave.”

          Those in power well understand how degrading this word is. It is describing a “non-being,” an entity with no self-respect and therefore not worthy of respect. The word describes a being not worthy of recognition. Carter G. Woodson recognized the negatives of the word when he suggested that a slave need not be told to go to the back door, but will do so on his own.  On the other hand, a n----- exists only in the mind of the white man. It is a word that is used to degrade and humiliate – but in order to use it, you at least have to recognize the humanity of the person you are seeking to dehumanize.  So I ask, which is worse?

          This is not an abstract argument to bring the “n” word into vogue or to suggest that it be used, by any means. I merely understand the human language and how it is used, and I realize that black people bought over here were human beings, and that once here, they were “captives” and “prisoners of war” – not “slaves.” I wonder how those in power would feel if the individuals in the Vietnam POWs were considered “slaves” because they didn’t appear to resist.

          Black people resisted, hence the need for the Fugitive Slave Laws, the Black Codes and, of course, the nightriders. The word “slave” is a form of blasphemy against our ancestors, as LaRue Nedd wrote in his book, “Black Laws.”  I can only pray that even as he takes time making phone calls to the parents of young white children, Mr. Roker will also take time to explain realities such as the one I have outlined to his own beautiful, black little girl.

Research Project: Political Socialization of African-American Teenagers

           RESEARCH PROJECT: POLITICAL SOCIALIZATION OF

AFRICAN-AMERICAN TEENAGERS

 

            One of my lesser works, though I'd share it with you from my days as a graduate student, somewhere around 2002.

            Most experts agree that people’s political opinions are shaped in early childhood. (Hare, 2001; Fishman, 2006). This paper takes a multi-faceted view of the predominant influences that tend to shape the political belief systems (ideology) of African-American teenagers. These factors are: family, school, religion and media.

            In this paper the concept of racial socialization is viewed in terms of community survival and resiliency. Of the latter variable, Miller (1999) writes,

The literature has pointed to the family as essential to the development of resiliency (Garmezy, 1985, 1991; Rutter, 1987). Families transmit the values, norms, and beliefs that are needed by successive generations to cope in an environment in which race plays a critical role (Demo & Hughes, 1990). In a study of 377 African American youths, Bowman and Howard (1985) found that resiliency was promoted among academically achieving adolescents as a result of proactive socialization by their parents. These parents conveyed to their children the importance of ethnic pride and self-development, and an awareness of racial barriers (p. 493).

            As part of the political socialization of African-American youth is the importance of it to survival and resiliency. The concept of “politics” is not therefore only limited to the electoral process or voting rights, but also to how politics impacts on individual and collective black lives.

FAMILY

            African-American children form their political opinions directly from those in their lives who are considered “significant others,” and in many cases this means revered family “elders.” This could range from those who live with their parents to those who are being reared by grandparents or some extended family member. As Pitt (1975) cogently contends,

 “Again, contrary to popular wisdom, African-Americans feel that the family unit is quite useful in shaping and transmitting political values.  Most scholars have noted only the “pathology” of the African-American family and have refused to note its many herculean feats to survive.”

Survival includes consideration of the future well-being of the race in general and the community, in particular. For a number of decades, Blacks have been voting Democrat, primarily due to the concerns and actions taken by President Franklin D. Roosevelt during his “New Deal.” Because of that concern, including housing and welfare assistance, African Americans switched from the Republican Party (the party of Abraham Lincoln) and became staunch Democrats; so much that one generation to the next rarely questions the political party that will be supported, but African-Americans to look at individual candidates, especially at the local level, in hopes of finding someone who reflects and reinforces their views and values.

Among considerations of black families and others who influence the views of African-American teens are considerations of civil rights struggles and voting rights. The hard-fought battle against segregation, spearheaded by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., is oftentimes highlighted by a painting that hangs in a great number of black households, of King standing in between the Kennedy brothers,  John and Robert. The fact that all three were assassinated forms a bond between the liberal Kennedy’s, the Democratic Party and black leadership that, in turn, young African-Americans are taught about even before they are old enough to vote.

But the influence is not only political in terms of the electoral process. Young African-Americans have always been tuned in to the “politics of race and class” and have adapted accordingly. As examples, the wearing of Malcolm X gear, the renewed interest in the Black Panther Party, the youth-oriented celebration of “Juneteenth, and even the youth awareness of Marcus Garvey in black communities all over America. But it is also a matter of taste and style to be politically conscious. Holly (2004) writes,

The zoot suit's influence was so great that it would have an effect on men's fashion in the future, and it would become one of the first articles of clothing to cause a spontaneous youth movement among African-American, Hispanic-American, and eventually European and Canadian whites. It would have a social and political effect on Fashion in the 1940s, and it was to be the first article of clothing to cause race rioting throughout the United States and Canada (p. 225-226).

In other words, young African-Americans are tuned in to politics on a number of levels. Add to this the fact that adolescent is a time of change in a young person’s life, and a time when the introduction to key decision making is made, and political consciousness is viewed here as a key component of life for the youth of the African-American community. The formation of political ideologies is common as in many case, learning about the political process is a family consideration.

SCHOOL/EDUCATION

On page 180 of Jonathan Kozol’s Savage Inequalities, he explains the kinds of comparisons that have been used to explain or describe the gaps between blacks and whites:

In seeking to find a metaphor for the unequal contest that takes place in public schools, advocates for equal education sometimes use the image of a tainted sports event.  We have seen, for instance, the familiar image of the playing field that isn't level. Unlike a tainted sports event, however, a childhood cannot be played again.  We are children only once; and after those few years are gone, there is no second chance to make amends.  In this respect, the consequences of unequal education have a terrible finality. (p. 180)

            Education then, is not necessarily the panacea that many black parents believe it to be, but there is a side of education that does provide major socialization for African-American youth: the presence of peers in the schools and the collective views by those peers that being politically active and aware is something positive. Young people tend to have an “us versus them” mentality when it comes to the system, a view that is based with their encounters with various institutions. Miller (1999) writes:

Character development. Chestang (1972) has stated that the covert and overt racism experienced by African Americans affects their character development. Development is thus predicated upon three interdependent conditions: social injustice, societal inconsistency, and personal impotence. The hardships caused by social injustice lead to frustration over the discrepancy between American ideals and reality, as well as feelings of impotence at being unable to influence one's environment (p. 499).

            Education is a major agent of political socialization, although it may not be responded to by African-American youth the way that it affects other youth. But that is because different experiences are at the root of the African-American youth and the development of his “political consciousness”; political socialization, therefore, impacts him/her differently and for different reasons.

RELIGION

           

            Traditionally, the church has been the mainstay of the African-American community; it is there that the people in attendance not only gained their religious education, but their political education as well.  The southern African-American church served as the catalyst for the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950’s and 1960’s, and assured that the congregants were keenly aware of the political process by which many of the Bills regarding voting and Civil Rights were concerned all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court (Karenga, 1990: pp. 311-312).

The African-American church has always been tied to the quest to increase voter registration and has in many cases gone to the forefront to make political freedom a reality. The non violent-marches of the 50’s and 60’s is so much of what was instrumental in the African-American American’s right to vote today and the college student participation  proved what young people had desire to get involved in a positive way. The African-American church is over 60% female and as such, the institution and impacts upon the female invariably impacts upon the children, since more than half of African-American families are headed by a single parent and that parent is the mother.

As a form of political socialization, religion in the black community no longer has to only rely on older pastors and preachers. Young people are not only being socialized by the church but are returning the favor. As Swedenburg (2007) notes,

First hiphop permeated American culture; now it’s dancing its way through religious culture. Hiphop churches, religious recordings, concerts, festivals and ministries are drawing a robust multicultural mix of youth and young adults. The hiphop religious movement is dominated by evangelicals but increasingly speaks the language of other faiths, including Islam and Judaism. It includes DJing, rapping, emceeing, dance, art and graffiti. The linking of faith with music known for misogyny, homophobia, materialism and violence has its critics, but rappers respond that not all hiphop music promotes these values. Advocates point to hiphop ministries’ success at engaging young people (p. 1).

            And,

Mostly, houses of worship give a nod to hiphop in services and programs as they try to reach out to youth. On the street, for example, phat means cool, but at New Hope Assembly of God Church in Lancaster, Ohio, it stands for Purposeful, Humble, Available, Teachable. Mainstream urban churches may include a hiphop song in worship or host a Christian rap concert. But around the country, more churches are using hiphop as a serious tool of ministry and outreach (Swedenburg, 2007: p. 1).

MEDIA

            The pervasiveness of the media is well known, and it is also a fact that black youth watch more television articles on a weekly basis than do white youth of similar age. Furthermore, what appears to be a contradictory position on the role of TV news is actually not. Take note:

“The television is the most massive programming and socializing instrument ever created, and cannot be expected to do anything more than deactivate our youth.  While it is true that television previously served to bring the news of marches, protests, rallies and so forth into the home and the American conscious, it appears that the lesson has been learned and that such events are intentionally being played down, if covered at all.  The management of news has become more sophisticated, and a shift from straight news to sensationalistic entertainment is evident.  The danger of television’s raising consciousness is declining” (Hare, 2001: 72) .

            While it is clear that television and its major programs may be attempting to manage the political views of young people and others, the previous passage may have overlooked cable channels that are geared toward controversial  and underground news for young people (e.g., BET, MTV, TV One, etc.). These are networks that socialize young people about more than just the latest music and dance steps; many of the programs are geared toward political protest, increasing political awareness and political history, with an emphasis on the importance of voting.

 CONCLUSION

            The politics of socialization is a form of political socialization in and of itself. When it comes to African-American youth, the family, the church, schools and the media are all having an impact. But the key is that as a growing market with a great deal of influence and spending power, young people are having their needs catered to by all of the institutions mentioned in this paper.

REFERENCES

Hare, B. (2001). African-American youth at risk. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press.

Holly, A. (2004, June 20. The zoot suit: Its history and influence. Fashion Theory, 8, (2). . pp. 225-236.

Karenga, M. (1990). Introduction to Black Studies. Los Angeles: Kawaida Publications.

Kozol, J. (1991), Savage inequalities. New York, New York: Harper Collins.

Miller, D.B. (1999, Fall). Racial socialization and racial identification: Can they promote resiliency for African-American adolescents. Adolescence, 34, (15). Pp. 493-501.

Pitt, J.P. (1975, June). Self-direction and the political socialization of African-American youth. Social Science Quarterly, 56. pp. 193-204.

Swedenburg, T. (2007, April 9). Hiphop meets religion and soars. Retrieved on December 2, 2009 from http://www.religionlink.com/tip_070409.php.

Critical Thinking and "The Wise Judgment Scenario"

          Here’s some food for thought  -- something I wrote for a term paper in 2001, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (of course another “A” for the class).

A man who has difficulty finding a job is nothing new in today’s society; so many jobs being outsourced and so many companies downsizing and closing down because of the economic situation. With that contextual information understood, I would deal with the scenario, using the following rationale.

          The man wants to support his family and has finally found a job. The pressure from the happiness that everyone feels after learning the news is the kind of pressure that makes people “do foolish things,” as the old song goes. In addition, he has been working for six months, has bought home 12 paychecks and the family’s standard of living has been upgraded, a visual reminder to him each day he comes home and sees the changes in the home, the car and the accouterments that the children are enjoying. As a result of the material and physical changes, attitudes and emotions are also on the upswing.

          The factual matters about life have just been expressed: it would be nice for life to just be about people and about the smelling of roses and the sunshine. But it also has a series of obstacles that could be called “opportunity costs.” The decisions we make to do one thing usually means that we have sacrificed not doing another. This is one of those instances.

          When considering factual matters, we must be as objective as possible in gathering those facts. We cannot fall prey to other people’s manipulated manifestations of reality. If we stay true to the facts, we will get the right results every time. If you are getting bad or poor results, it is because you are not doing the right thing. You can be alive and effective or dead and ineffective, but if you are alive an ineffective, you might as well be dead.

          The procedural knowledge involves strategies for dealing with this problems. The fact is, the man has found out that his manager is engaging in illegal activities on the job. By employing procedural knowledge, we look at weighing goals and the decision of whether we should blow the whistle or not. We also look at how this decision, in turn, going to impact upon the short- and long-range qualify of living that he has worked so hard to revitalize. How then, we ask at this stage, can this conflict be handled?

          Lifetime contextualization means the roles and contexts of life and how they will may change over the life span. With no job, the family bottoms out and the kids suffer. The wife may up and leave because, as the saying goes, “She can do bad all by herself.” The man is in a Catch-22 because so much of his life and livelihood is linked to the job (i.e., a check). The context of the lifespan places pressure on this man to do what is best for the long- and short-term, but also to do what is best in a pragmatic and practical sense, not necessary a moral or ethical one.

          A fourth component to wise judgment as it relate to this scenario is recognition and management of uncertainty. The future cannot be known in advance and life is, indeed, unpredictable. However, it is what you DO know that serves as the basis for the decision that has to be made. In recognizing and managing uncertainty, the first step is to understand that there is nothing that is unknowable, only that which is unknown, and solutions to not come to us from a goblin in the sky or some spook, but  from hard work, research and study here below.

          The core recognition, at this point, is that there may be no perfect solution.  More importantly in this case, there may be no RIGHT solution. A man is the sum of his functions, as the Bible teaches and, furthermore, a man is judged by his works. The family unit is the most important of all institutions, and it is the job of man and woman to hold it together. Remember: there may be no perfect solution.

          The last component is relativism regarding solutions, meaning “the acknowledgement of individual and cultural differences in values and life priorities.”

          If the man blows the whistle on his manager, he harms that man by getting him fired and possibly thrown in jail (depending on the infraction). But if he blows the whistle, he will be the subject and object of ridicule and scorn by fellow workers. He also puts his family at risk for retaliation. He also stands the risk of adverse publicity and,  in the hands of a competent attorney, could be made a scapegoat or fall guy for the actions of that manager.

          This is a challenging case, and the wise judgment scenario has been shared. My conclusion is that he place his family first, and teach them along the way that morality is important and that what he is doing is not something he is proud of. He should explain to his family that a man is doing something bad at work and that he should tell, but won’t because of the family’s situation. If the family says, “Go for it, dad” or “Honey, I think you should tell,” then maybe he should. But more likely than not, they will stand by him in his silence. At any rate, he would do well to still as yet seek other employment with another company. One way or the other, that manager has to be bought to justice. He just doesn’t have to be bought to justice by this particular man.

          What I have found in my analysis of situations where whistleblowers are concerned, is that there is very little room for error and also very little recognition for these brave people, Karen Silkwood, Erin Brockavich, Medgar Evers, Caesar Chavez, Martin Luther King, Jr., -- these are all whistleblowers, on various levels, who stood up against the system.

          This man has been unemployed once before. He has felt the pangs of disappointment from his family, and probably neighbors. He is aware of the job situation in America, and he knows that his chances dwindle as he grows older. He has to think about the future, his kids, college, his wife and any grandkids that might come along.

          As one of the components said, “there may be no perfect solution.” Indeed, this is one of those times.

Hooking Up: The "Browning" of America

HOOKING UP: The “Browning” of America

By: Matthew C. Stelly

            The status of the white race, so dependent upon future generationis of white women that were expected to be as racist as their foremothers, appears to be on shakey ground.  A recent study by the Institute for American Values (which translates to mean the Institute for Racism, in my book) showed that the white girls on college campuses all over the nation are as sick and frustrated as the white man used to be.  Maybe even moreso.

            But before we get to that, let’s look a minute at how white people continue to steal from black people and the impact that black culture and language have on a majority white culture that is hungry for creativity.

            The name of the study was, “Hooking Up, Hanging Out and Hoping for Mr. Right: College Women on Mating and Dating Today.” Check out how they freely use our terminology: “hooking up, ” “joined at the hip” and “hanging out.”  When you add to these the other terms their white collegians have ripped off – “from the get go,” “booty call,” “homey,” etc. Then, these white professors – I saw the author on the “Today” show – sit around and attempt to “operationally define” the words that they didn’t even create. Then, after they do that, they publish and sound “urbane” when, in reality, they are nothing more than talentless segregationists who wouldn’t last more than an hour in the REAL inner city.

            Now, according to the report, there are 100 women on campus for every 79 men. I interpret this to mean that they are analyzing raw numbers. That means that they included black men and black women. That means that white girls are going to be more likely than not to go after black males – especially the ones that they find “marketable.” I say this because, according to this study, 83% of the coeds considered marriage an important goal, and 63% hoped to find their future husband in college. But when we add the party scene and the general sluttishness of these white girls once they get away from mommy and daddy, it becomes clear that the black male – as well as Latino brothers – will be targets.

            The white family has been in trouble for some time, and this lends more credence to my theory. According to the study, if the women came from divorced families, they were not only more eager to marry, but also were more eager to marry sooner.

            This “next generation of social leaders,” as the report called them, are going to be a key in the gradual “browning” of American society. While white men are forming their own groups, engaging in homosexual activity at an unprecedented rate, and sitting around destroying their sperm counts with beer drinking contests, the white girl is looking for a mate. An excerpt from the report clearly demonstrates my point:

"On most campuses today there is a widely recognized practice, usually called "hooking up," that explicitly allows sexual interaction without commitment or even affection ... Hook ups can occur between two people on just one occasion, or they can occur more than once between the same two people over a period of weeks or months. The most common definition we heard was that a hook up is anything 'ranging from kissing to having sex," and that it takes place outside the context of commitment."

            White girls have been “hooking up” for a long time, but only it was being done behind closed doors with black athletes. Look at all the stars that end up with white girls, especially when the latter group finds out that these brothers have a shot at professional ball. If not that, a brother who is intelligent and “marketable” can also win them over, because the social myth continues to place emphasis on sexuality. And white girls, more than black girls, are more willing to fight that social interracial taboo and you need only look around to see that. Children of divorce, ignored by their family, sent off to college and lonely for the most part, a black man may be viewed as occupying the same “semi-oppressed” class as the white female – with the black female being the most oppressed, by far (this is Calvin Hernton’s theory, not mine).

            So now they’re behind closed doors on campuses where there are more white women than white men, and this black hunk is all by himself on the campus because of selective admissions policies. What’s gonna stop that blonde from “venturing” down the dormitory hallway at night and engaging in some “jungle fever.” The brother, for the most part, is gonna be “up for it” in more ways than one.

            The lack of “cool” on the part of most white researchers enable them to be duped and to arrive at “square” conclusions, ala John Howard Griffin in Black Like Me and Elloitt Lebow in Tally’s Corner. In this case, the concept of “dating” is defined in the following way:

"... probably few parents or older adults are aware of how extraordinarily different 'dating' is today. In our on-campus interviews we found that no term for interactions between college women and men holds more ambiguity, and reflects more confusion, than the word 'dating'. Indeed, there are at least four separate ways that the word is used ... A UC-Berkeley student observed, 'There really is not much ... dating it's like people either just start hanging out together and live together and they are boyfriend and girlfriend. Or, they just like do random hook ups and whatever and go into relationships.'"

            Look folks: black and white. When you hear a girl talk about “I used to ‘date’ this guy, she means she FUCKED him. Plain and simple. To this generation and a large number of the baby boomers, dating moved from the back seat of the ’57 Chevy to a dorm room and to a hotel room. Look at Condit and Clinton and Henry Cisneros and Ben Chavis – married men who still wanted to “Date” women. What do you think “date” means? Vernon Jordan got shot in the ass back in 1981, on his way to “have tea” with a white woman.

            Black people invented the term “joined at the hip.” We used to say it in the ‘70s to tease the guys who walked their girls to their lockers and that kind of thang. Now here they come with it, trying to define it in such a way that they hope to salvage some hope for the female and the pale.

            But it won’t work. White girls are calling the shots, and many of them are tired of listening while their men call us “niggers” and crack jokes about us – behind our backs. They are growing bored with childish kid games that more often than not lead to someone getting hurt or maimed. These are women, after all, who are the keys to the procreation of the white race – she is the only one who can lay down with the white male and produce a white child. Any other women produces a child of color.

            Could this then, be the reason for the selective admissions policies, which have led to campuses across America being whiter and whiter? Could this be why affirmative action was cut back on these campuses? Is this why there are so many “private” institutions? How else to explain how, in a culture that espouses diversity, finances multiculturalism and boasts to the world of racial equality, why their college campuses – which train future generations – are lily white, conservative and racist to the core?

            White folks were already a world-wide minority even before the 1970s started. Now, with a generation that is outright STEALING black culture because of their love for it, hanging out with black kids, wearing styles influenced by the ghetto and the barrio, and whose music stars get fame by stealing from blacks, the “browning” of America is well underway.  I say that the writing is on the wall. This study and its findings, in my view, simply CONFIRMED it.

Motivation and Work: "Every Sickness Ain't Death ..."

I have been writing essays since the 4th grade. Even then, they were 20-25 pages long and I was creating characters that others wanted to emulate. I would take home a reel-to-reel tape from school and voice out these characters - Matman being the primary one -. This stuff would be 40-50 minutes long. Then I would get an overhead projector and draw out the scenes. My instructors were so impressed they let me go from room to room and show what I had done. The positive vibes and responses that I got from that point on inspired me to continue to be interested in both art and writing.

Why am I writing this? Because there are those out there who are not getting the motivation they deserved. My younger brother Tim tells me that Mom always keep a bottom drawer in the kitchen filled with writing paper, drawing paper, pens and colors. He said that one of his friends told him, "Every time I come to y'alls house, you're the table drawing or writing." I guess when you're up under genius of this calibre you take it for granted. We are all incredible writers; my brother Tim has five published books. I've got more than 2,200 newspaper articles around this nation. Again, its about motivation.

Ego motivates me for the most part. I write grant proposals, terms papers, theses, dissertations, program proposals, legal briefs, essays on any subject and so on. I do this because, at some point, I was inspired or motivated. I write 200 page manuscripts like most people write memos or reminder notes for the grocery store. Yes, its prolific. But after some time you have to begin to motivate yourself. The way I do. The way Tim does.

Look at it this way: decades from now as someone (or something) is rummaging through the debris from the inevitable nuclear fallout. they'll come across our stuff and say, "Hey man, these guys had it going on." They'll read and learn that not everybody from the 21st century was an idiot.

Write about something of substance and be proud of it. Screw "art for art's sake." There is so little time left to muddle around. We have to do what needs to be done and let our words also motivate. As the old man told George Jackson who, in turn shared with us in his book, Soledad Brother: "Every sickness ain't death, every goodbye ain't gone, and every big man ain't strong."

Sifa ina ote watu weusi (All praise is due to black people)

Matthew
972-217-0825