We have a black President and many black politicians and business people
in US today because we fought (white and blacks side by side) for Civil Rights
and Affirmative Action during the 50s, 60s and 70s, and the fight has been
continued on some level ever since then. Thousands of "whites" have worked to
support these causes. Many whites who grew up in a racist culture and have
discriminated against blacks have struggled to overcome their ingrained
attitudes, some more successfully than others.. Today, there are many
integrated marriages and mixed-race children. And there are many loving
relationships among people of all races! Today we need blacks and whites
together, lobbying for the whole of us, not just blacks.
However, there
are still elements of the black community and/or the power-elite that want to
reverse the accomplishments of the past 30 or so years, and make white people
hate black people. To do this, all they have to do is hold up "bad boys" as
their heroes instead of "good boys." Even worse, black people can assault
whites and yell "This is for Trayvon." And we can have marches and ceremonies
urging people to think Trayvon was a wonderful kid being persecuted in our
courts by "white" people. But those are not the facts of this matter.
Trayvon was not doing the same things that Barack Obama did in his youth,
so what happened to Trayvon could NOT have happened to Obama. But once a black
person becomes powerful, as Obama has, he also will support a political issue
that divides citizens into opposing groups by trying to identify by race.
Unlike Obama, Trayvon wore a hoodie late at night and walked around in a
gated community very slowly and deliberately made himself look suspicious. Many
blacks deliberately seek out some sort of persecution to get attention to
themselves, and seek other ways to enrich themselves personally or make
themselves famous using new laws or racial appeals and getting masses of
misguided people to honor them. But Trayvon was not a sweet little boy at home
at grandma's side, studying to become another black president of the U.S. or a
civil rights lawyer. In fact he had a history of being a trouble-maker, truant
and bully and using "skittles" to make some sort of high drug, (facts not
brought out in his trial). No one was successful inspiring Trayvon to work hard
and pull himself up with the help of education loans, affirmative action, and
all the good will in the white community, etc. as Obama did.
Zimmerman identified, in a way, as a defender of people who had already
achieved something in society - a medium-priced property in a gated community
that needed protection from would-be thieves, people of bad faith like
Trayvon. Zimmerman was not, however, a racist, but a conformist. In order to
avoid anarchy, most of us must become conformists at least to some extent.
Zimmerman was subjected to the same Justice system to which O. J. Simpson
was subjected. And we did not see the political activists making an issue of
that not-guilty verdict. We did not see the white community parading in the
streets to make heroes of the two white people he killed. Nor did anyone protest
the issue of someone's right of expression to use the N word as Detective Furman
did. Fact is, Freedom of speech does not exclude any particular word.. Many 4
letter words offend me, but I can't keep people from using them. And in certain
instances the N word or any other offensive word is appropriate. It is unfair to
ruin someone's whole life because they have used a certain word that was
offensive. Words do not always reflect the entire soul of any person or define
their worth as persons.
In times past we had to worry about white racists. Today we have more black
racists than white racists, in my humble opinion. And black racists, if they
keep it up, are going to turn back the clock to a time of real hatred between
white and black communities. Whites do not have a "white caucus" in Congress or
a National Association of White People. Such groups should be abolished as was
the KKK.
We must stand together to get and preserve a 3-branch government with a
balance of power. We need to acquire a Congress that passes just, effective laws
that protect all of us equally. To do that we need to overhaul our electoral
system. We need to de-privatize prisons that are accumulating more and more
poor people and profiting at taxpayer expense.. We poor people pay
excruciatingly high taxes for a military that is killing innocent civilians all
over the world. These matters deserve priority energy of a united community.
The whole point here is the need to shun community activists that urge us
to put our work and energies into issues of least importance to all of us as a
community. Community activists must be critical thinkers and analyze issues
carefully before becoming embroiled and misleading people who have good
intentions but are misguided. Single-issue people need to put their selfish
motives away and think of what is more important for the whole of us. If we
can't do that, how can we expect it from people we elect to office.
Palsimon, formally educated in journalism & law, is an independent progressive activist & writer, focusing on guarding integrity of media & government. (.)