Posted on 06/24/2014 1:16:12 PM PDT by dignitasnews
Growing up in a black neighborhood in Oakland, California pretty much guaranteed that I was destined to be a Democrat. As a child whatever exposure I was given to politics had a simple message, Democrats are good and Republicans are bad. When I became a teenager I accept this as gospel and when Barack Obama was elected President this confirmed all I had been taught and was excited to become old enough to one day follow in his footsteps and be a strong Democrat to fight the good fight and bring social justice to black folks all over. However, in my junior year of high school I was given an assignment to write a term paper and this changed my entire outlook on life and America. I chose to write my report on Malcolm X and by the time I was finished it was obvious to me that I was a Republican.
I'm not suggesting that Malcolm X was a Republican, in fact to my knowledge he never did align himself with either party, but it clear to me that his philosophy for black empowerment was without doubt a conservative one and had he not been murdered his message of self-reliance and the importance of a black-owned business base would have led to a stronger black community today and less dependence on the Democratic Party and its desire to spread the growth of the welfare state.
To a lot of my friends and family, my becoming a young Republican was met with laughs and good-natured joking. My sister's first reaction was "that makes sense, you've always been kinda white," something she often made fun of me for, because of the way I talked and that I was a bookworm growing up. I love my sister very much and I know she did that just to get under my skin, but it is something that I've experienced with other black folks that has made me both sad and upset and is a huge part of the problem our community faces. Is it somehow "being white" to want to better yourself and make your mark in the world? For many in the black community, that is the feeling. And the anger that it brings up in me is because we have been conditioned to believe that, and that belief comes from our so-called political leaders and from the hip-hop community.
When I began my research on Malcolm X, I was a young "militant" filled with the same feelings of many of my generation. I sincerely believed that the black community suffered from effects of racism and that the history of slavery and Jim Crow still lingered and presented challenges to us that were responsible the state of black America. I bought into all the notions that "we deserved" welfare as a sort of "reparations" for all that we had suffered. Even at the time, my plan was to go on to college, get involved in the Democratic Party and one day run for office and set about to make things right by "getting even" at the America that had done so much wrong to my people. I had a poster of Barack Obama on my bedroom wall that I would look at often, giving me inspiration that "yes we can" but in the span of a few short weeks all of this began to change for me.
As I started to pour through various speeches and writings of Malcolm X, there was one I highlighted early on and decided to base my report on. More than any other of his statements, this stayed with me, but also made me challenge everything I believed in. It honestly changed my life.
When I first read this, I looked at the "oppressor" as so many of my brothers and sisters do. Large corporations, the business world that wouldn't hire us, racists in the KKK, the Tea Party I read about, Christian conservatives and of course the biggest oppressor, that evil Republican Party, who I've heard since I was a little kid were out to get black folks. I looked forward to the day I was an adult and could be part of that "clash" to bring down our oppressors."I believe that there will ultimately be a clash between the oppressed and those that do the oppressing. I believe that there will be a clash between those who want freedom, justice and equality for everyone and those who want to continue the systems of exploitation."
But as a began to contemplate this statement, which I kept hearing in my mind more and more, I looked around and wanted to find the evidence of this oppression in my people, I wanted to find it so badly. But a funny thing happened, I didn't see it. I did see oppression, but it wasn't from these forces. The folks in my neighborhood who were "making it" were the ones who were part of this so-called oppression. They worked for the "evil corporations" or had their own business, participating in "unfair capitalism" and the one's that were suffering were the people being "taken care of" by the people who said they understood our plight, who cared about the black community....the liberals.
I remember this time so clearly because I was in a bad mood all weekend. It was as if my entire world was being turned upside down. I even considered changing my topic because it was becoming so upsetting to me. This couldn't be, I told myself. The liberals are the "good guys," or at least that's what everyone says. But this made me question even more, who says that. They say that, of course.
I decided to stick with he report and then researched further. I then came across a speech he did in 1963, titled "God's Judgement of White America" in which Malcolm got into the differences between white liberals and white conservatives. One piece from this speech really struck me, but unlike the first, didn't disturb me as much as started to make everything seem clear to me:
Crumbs and token gains. The crumbs of welfare, the token gains, like black folks who could barely pay their bills but were supposed to be happy that Barack Obama was President.I was lucky, I felt, because I lived in a pretty decent neighborhood, but just a couple blocks down we could hear nightly shooting and I've personally had two cousins killed in drug and gang violence. I realized that there was no "football game" going on in our neighborhoods anymore. That game had been won a long time ago, by the liberals and the Democratic Party that they control.The white liberal differs from the white conservative only in one way: the liberal is more deceitful than the conservative. The liberal is more hypocritical than the conservative.
Both want power, but the white liberal is the one who has perfected the art of posing as the Negro’s friend and benefactor; and by winning the friendship, allegiance, and support of the Negro, the white liberal is able to use the Negro as a pawn or tool in this political “football game” that is constantly raging between the white liberals and white conservatives.
Politically the American Negro is nothing but a football and the white liberals control this mentally dead ball through tricks of tokenism: false promises of integration and civil rights. In this profitable game of deceiving and exploiting the politics of the American Negro, those white liberals have the willing cooperation of the Negro civil rights leaders. These “leaders” sell out our people for just a few crumbs of token recognition and token gains. These “leaders” are satisfied with token victories and token progress because they themselves are nothing but token leaders….
The white liberals hate The Honorable Elijah Muhammad because they know their present position in the power structure stems form their ability to deceive and to exploit the Negro, politically as well as economically.
I also started to think about the title itself, God's judgement. I noticed that a lot of white liberals weren't very religious, and often made fun of people who believe din God. They were forever making comments on Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere about how stupid people who bought into the "fantasy" of God and Jesus were. Yet, when they would come to our churches and neighborhoods, they wouldn't talk all that mess. They would talk the talk of the church, proclaim their Christianity, which made me think of the first part of that speech...the liberal is more hypocritical than the conservative. As I looked back at our history, it was religious conservatives who first started the abolitionist movement and Republicans who helped us gain our freedom. What happened in all that time between that brought us to the reality of today where there are more of who grow up without a father than with? Why are so many of our people on welfare or in prison? Why do we have more drug dealers than business owners? The more I searched for these answers, the more I saw the hand of the white and black liberal, telling us "the man" was responsible. They may be right about that, but "the man" isn't who they say it is. They are that man.
As much as I'd been taught to "fear" conservatives, I always had to admit, Republicans were always consistent. They stood for what they stood for and didn't seem to play the same game Democrats did. Even as the "young militant" some of what they said resonated with me, but I would fight it off like an instinct. I began to understand that even though I didn't like hearing some of the things they said, like welfare makes people lazy and rewards poor choices, it was absolutely true.
All of this took place right around the time of the Trayvon Martin situation. As all of these words from Malcolm X were swirling in my head, I began to see the case in a different light. I saw how Al Sharpton and Jessee Jackson were whipping us into a frenzy over this. While I didn't think Trayvon deserved to be shot over this, their message wasn't about that. It was designed to tell me that my biggest fear should be getting shot by a white man, when all the people I've in known in my life who have been killed were killed by another black man. While they were telling me to be fearful of walking in a white neighborhood, it wasn't there I felt nervous, it was in my own area that I had to be on alert and look over my shoulder.
I was almost done with my report when I came across a speech Malcolm X gave that sent chills up my spine. In it he spoke directly to the Democrat Party and our allegiance to it. Nancy Pelosi was Speaker of the House, Harry Reid was leader of the Senate and Obama was President. Every one of the elected officials in our neighborhoods are Democrats. Yet what were they doing for black folks? Like Malcolm said, we put them first but they put us last. We were, just like he said we were, "political chumps." The full speech is long, but this section says it all:
I am not a Muslim and I don't agree with everything Malcolm X stood for or believed, but from the time I finished my high school report on him, I've turned into a die-hard black Republican. But I believe strongly that if he were alive today, he would continue to speak out against the way the Democrat Party and liberals use black Americans for political gain. Today, the black community still does not have the place in our society that we by right deserve. This is our largely own fault, because we have been led to believe that by following a certain mindset, we will be "given" our due justice. Nobody will give us anything, nor should they. We are a people that are talented, gifted and have proven our ability to rise from the lowest circumstances to gain a place at the table of America. But none of the gains we made are because of charity, they came from hard work and good folks that helped us find a path where we could find our own place in the American society. A society that I believe with all my heart, and with all our problems, is the greatest on earth.
By Gary Youngston Dignitas News Service Guest Columnist
Sources:
MalcolmX AFieldNegro FaithInActionOnline BlackAndRight (via YouTube)
Where do you think wisdom comes from?
I don't know about you, but I wasn't born perfect. I am evolving and growing.
I hope you are too.
I know Obama evolves.
I know Hillary evolves.
They tell me apes evolve, but I’m not convinced of that.
“Evolving” nowadays seems to be a pleasant way of describing one’s betrayal of a principle, or a set of principles, because it all got just too damn hard to uphold.
At any rate you’re in some lofty company.
You are playing semantics with me. I don't have time and neither do you.
Go find the enemy and fight with him.
Good article, thanks for posting.
He hit the nail on the head....it is evil. No better word to describe it. 73% single parent births in the black community and more black babies aborted than born in NYC. Both are keys to Progressive power.
Is there an FAQ on blogs/personal like the HTML sandbox?
- - -
A Suggestion for Bloggers Who Post at FR
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2776537/posts
FR does not exist for the purpose of driving traffic... to your, or anybody elses, blog.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2548666/posts?page=38#38
It’s not my responsibility to make a blogger’s material acceptable and presentable to our readers.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2711802/posts?page=139#139
no complaint... blogger posts ...to FR, not as an excerpt ..
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2636843/posts?page=552#552
The Pimp and The Poster (Mod Lecture Series)
http://freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2722423/posts
Thank you. I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who’s sick of Johnny-One-Note.
Thank you. Very helpful.
Malcom X, as the article/essay of this very post points out, discriminated between white liberals and white conservatives, properly labelling the former as devils. Malcom X was all about discriminating away from exactly the generalities you keep spouting about him. He was killed because he wouldn't go along with this plantation mentality, and because he refused to agree to the wall-talking of the likes you are doing.
He - rare among a virtual sea of black political activists - came to understand that all of the so-called government help blacks were getting, were actually keeping them socially and economically enslaved, and corroding their self-respect. He called the white Democrat liberals who were deliberately enacting this program on the black people "devils," which I see as an extremely accurate term in this context. Because these are the people who ran the programs that rewarded other blacks to stay on the plantation and turn Detroit, Chicago, Oakland and other urban areas into hells on Earth.
That's why the most important aspect of who and what Malcom X was is exactly his rejection of the enormously destructive socialist manipulation of the black community. You know this - it's why you generalize the problems with this person who fought them. Your words represent those very "white devils" by absolutely and stubbornly refusing to acknowledge this extremely simple and well-known fundamental difference of Malcom X from other black leaders.
So really, the "facts that should not be ignored" here, are the very facts you are refusing to acknowledge. They are not all equal fact, and those facts that discriminate malcom X from the herd, and identify the reasons he stood out against plantation mentality, are the most important ones concerning his life. And your refusal to acknowledge this simple truth, and your work to hide its existence, is the fact that makes you stand out on this thread, literally against the facts of history itself.
Just because he sang a different tune late in life, is no reason to parrot his thoughts. Like Obama he played the game of preaching to a crowd, and we would all be his victims if we took his words at face value, rather than considering their source.
To put it another way: The words of Malcolm X should be no more welcomed in your house as a philosophy, than the actual personage of a gay prostitute should be. Regardless of whether he at one time said something to elicit your agreement, that's the type of game that people who have no honor often play.
Which is exactly how we as a nation acquired many of the problems we have now, as the populace at large was manipulated to fall for the rhetoric of Obama without didn't sufficiently examining their source. Only in places such as FR were critical views explored, and these now are prescient of political developments we all are now the victims of.
Let's not make that same mistake again, regarding the mere words of Malcolm X.
Best of luck on your new endeavor.
Like I said, we are identified by our interests.
You are obsessed with your unattributed accusations of gay prostitution. And because of your fetish, you are imploring FReepers not to think, not to read, not to learn, of what Malcolm X taught black people, but instead join you in your frothing hatred.
I, on the other hand, like virtually everyone who studies what Malcom X taught, admire the fact that he repeatedly countered Leftists in the black communities. That he told black people to finish their educations, to start small businesses, to become economically self-sufficient and to stay off of government handouts. That he taught them to respect themselves.
That's how we differ, you and I - by what we focus on. What Malcom X taught the black community was more precious than gold, and would have saved millions of lives had he not been murdered by those same Leftists he was exposing.
All I have to go on for your slander is your slander - you give no sources. But you are obviously shilling, for there is zero justification to tell FReepers not to read and study what someone stood for, and merely dismiss a life because your vile claims. Being a Leftist, you cannot conceive of Christian thinking. It never occurs to you that it might just be someone who has fallen low, who God would choose to teach the value of his own life. That just such a person would be the one to standup among his people, after falling so hard, and teach them to repsect themselves. That the path they were on is wrong, and should be changed.
Unlike the vile group condemnation and complete ignorance you are teaching people to pursue in the name of morality, Christianity is full of fallen people whom God has lifted up to speak the truth, and to repent. Malcom X was Muslim, but Malcom X was religious and taught the political religion of self-respect. Your hatred and condemnation and calls for blacklisting and shunning identify you very easily as a collectivist.
Far more evil that your most frothing imaginings of what a gay prostitute does, is your call for people to stop learning. To stop reading, to stop thinking for themselves. What you are calling for is what is practiced under Sharia law, and in Chinese communism, where the group decides who is so filthy that they must be shunned and hated and never listened to. And now you push your hateful, ignorant, blind obedience to shun to conservatives, using what you believe to be Christian morality as a weapon against what you see as ignorant religious fools.
But conservative Christians aren't the same as your complacent liberal sheep. They do not demand perfection or death, like your familiar communist environment. They demand repentence and correction. They seek Grace and forgiveness. They revere learning and understanding.
Those are the people you are telling to shut up, stop learning, not to read, not to understand, not to decide for themselves and not to disagree with what youve decided their moral judgment should be.
And that's why I'm laughing at you.
The description of Malcolm X as a gay prostitute is not mine. Just google the terms, and you can find it in many places.
Understand where the words you defend come from, and you may instead discover that the philosophies that you defend are derived from overt hustling practices common to gay prostitutes. And typical of a person who has no honor, Malcolm X turned his back on the support group that helped him the most, the Nation of Islam.
The oldest confidence trick in the world is telling you just what you want to hear to gain your allegiance, same as we’ve all heard from Obama. All I’m asking you is to just recognize it when you see it (Matthew 10:16 “Be wary as snakes..”)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/irene-monroe/malcolm-x-was-gayforpay_b_845979.html
Thank you very much.
Gary can be found on Twitter @ @GaryY_dignitas
The words I defend are Malcom X's teaching of conservative principles.
So has it come down to that? Are you saying that conservative principles are derived from the morality of gay prostitutes?
Well?
We’ve seen a generation of hustlers talking conservative principles, in order to lure voters to elect or re-elect them, only to turn tail once they are in office again.
Consider “build the dang fence” John McCain, compared to his current pro-illegal-immigrant amnesty efforts. Other examples include RINO’s of that sort.
It’s the morality of the person espousing what you want to hear, that needs to be examined rather than taking words at face value alone. And when a person has engaged in gay prostitution, their words alone are not enough to convince me, regardless of how much they say what I may want to hear.
And what is your morality, so that I may properly judge your words?
Because what you are really saying is that if a person has not lived a perfect life, they can never speak the truth.
That if someone who has ever sinned speaks the truth, that the fact that they are speaking the truth is irrelevent. Even more that it should not even be listened to, or heard, or evaluated.
Like I asked, who are you to apply such a standard? Personally, I mean - since according to you, unless you can show you have lived a perfect life, your words are garbage, even if they are the truth. Which would in turn mean that this standard of moral perfection of yours is garbage, without proof of your perfection. So - where is it?
You argue like a child. The only power you have is to keep hitting the post button.
That Bible you use as a prop also has Jesus telling those who are without sin to cast the first stone. You might want to look it up, because it basically destroys your entire premise.
Oh, and you still did state that conservative principles are derived from the moral standards of the hustling of a gay prostitute. And you still haven't clarified how, exactly, you can justify such a statement. Or does it come from a moral perfection only you have, so that no one else can see it?
Answer.
You must consider the source when evaluating any words as the basis of a philosophy you would defend.
There are gradations of sins, from a “white lie” told to another intended for their protection, to intentional genocide based on some identifiable aspect of a group.
What Malcolm X did was more of the latter than the former,
particularly when he characterized persons he never conversed with as “white devils” for the purpose of recruiting and retaining power from individuals associated with the Nation of Islam.
Before Malcolm X was in a position to make those statements publicly, he was a criminal and a gay prostitute, both of which are professions that are contrary to the Christian morality you write of. However, they are consistent with prison-based recruitment by the Nation of Islam.
Knowing that, is this the sort of person whose words are to be defended here? I argue: Absolutely not!
What is your definition of a News Service? The professional pimps at MSNBC, CNN, or even Fox (pimping for Murdoch)? While you pine for the glory days of the dinosaur media, many of us praise the independent spirit of the new media.
Good job, Gary! Glad to have you in the trenches. Welcome back to the dark side where morals and principles and plain hard work rule. Lol
Not some dude's blog, that's for sure.
While you pine for the glory days of the dinosaur media
I do? How do you figure that?
many of us praise the independent spirit of the new media
Yes, stealing MSM stories - re-wording them - and posting them on a blog is an awesome talent.
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