Posted on 03/26/2004 11:51:22 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
...............Sure, many black Americans continue to register as Democrats, but not as they used to. Today there is no more a monolithic "black vote" than there is a "white vote," and this is another reason we haven't heard anything about it lately - because it no longer truly exists, at least not the way we have understood it in the past.
The real issue is that black people are becoming more "American" by the hour, moving from a defined group identity to a more individualized sense of being. If anything, Sept. 11 prompted questions of national identity, and African Americans passed with flying colors. Blacks, in many ways, have become mainstream.
The mainstream seldom gets attention; its presence is assumed. The new African American mainstream must accept the fact that though membership has its privileges, one cannot be both marginal and mainstream at the same time.
Todd Boyd, a professor of critical studies at the USC School of Cinema-Television, is the author, most recently, of "Young Black Rich and Famous: The Rise of the NBA, the Hip Hop Invasion and the Transformation of American Culture" (Doubleday, 2003).
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
Also, with unrestrained illegal immigration, blacks are no longer the #1 minority. They are #2 on the list and heading downward due to several other reasons (high rates of abortion, little immigration, lowering birthrates and interracial marriage...
This, if true, is our country's salvation. Welcome home.
You mean, like 90%for the socialists (dems) - Tom
I'll believe it only when they stop referring to themselves as "African-Americans."
Conservatives make the appeal that all can achieve and prosper. They trust in the ability of people to succeed. However this hasn't been received well in the black community and so blacks as a voting block really don't have a lot of political clout. Freedom loving Americans vote Republican.
An interesting interview:
The End of Blackness - Frontpage Interview's guest today is Debra Dickerson, the author of the prize-winning memoir An American Story and of the new book The End of Blackness. Educated at the University of Maryland, St. Mary's University, and Harvard Law School, Ms. Dickerson has been both a senior editor and a contributing editor at U.S. News & World Report and a columnist at Beliefnet.
*** I'm just so tired of being black in that way, that way which can only understand itself as the people who are oppressed by white people. The people who condone murder as long as it annoys whites. The people whose morality is situation specific if there's a way to get back at whites by forgetting our home training.
.So, combining old fashioned virtue for its own sake with Post-Movement opportunity was my recipe for success. So many poor blacks are missing the first component, they can't make use of the second.
. Why keep reliving your worst nightmare over and over again? They're still focused on the obstacles, not the opportunities because they 're still focused on making white people 'fess up and apologize. They act as if its still 1954 instead of 2004. They're old dogs who can't learn new tricks, even the young ones who hew to old school racial discontent.
Also, we have to learn to believe in our own efforts again. We have to act as though we truly believe we don't need anyone to ride to our rescue.
. Reading the newspapers while trying to move beyond the tropes of a stultified racial discourse, was maddening. Even as I was trying to abandon my post in black America's war with white America, I was constantly being brought up short by thinly veiled racism and just plain bs all around me. ***
If you want on (or off) of my black conservative ping list, please let me know via FREEPmail. (And no, you don't have to be black to be on the list!)
Extra warning: this is a high-volume ping list.
An assertion contradicted by the 90%+ vote fer Gore in 2000...MUD
I Dont Want to be Black Anymore
By J.J. Johnson
It's not working, folks.
I have tried to do everything I can to be the African-American Im supposed to be, but I just cannot continue. I am hereby resigning myself from the Black Race. And before I get death threats from my Black brethren out there, hear me out.
I have almost made it through another Black history month, in which Im supposed to do all I can to insult White people for 28 days. I guess I should even say the Black History month is a racial conspiracy by White people since they only gave us 28 (or 29) days to rip their dignity to shreds, while the other months have 30 or 31 days. I guess its just another example of the Black man not getting his fair share.
Frankly, many of my Black brothas and sistas are starting to well... embarrass me. Can I turn on the television and not hear some Black liberal puke complaining about something?
Ill start there television. First we had the NAACP (Notorious African American Communist Pigs) lambasting Hollywood for not having enough Blacks in front of (or behind) the cameras. We dont see enough Black folk on TV. An economic boycott is threatened, the ugly R word is used, and Hollywood (you know, those rich White guys) capitulate. Did anyone ask were the accusations true? And if so, who really cares?
Whenever I turn my television to watch my favorite programs, I see plenty of very wealthy and successful Black men excelling in their trade/craft. But I guess the NFL, the NBA, and Major League baseball doesnt count. It must be just me. I guess the "quota kings and queens" dont count those folks. Then another study comes out. This one says, While Blacks are over-represented on television, they are still given only minor roles, or are on screen for less than 5 seconds at a time. And, of course, this too is unfair. The easy defense against this eternal whining was for anyone to just mention three letters: B.E.T
Thats right, Black Entertainment Television, where you can get all the Blackness you want, 24/7 with all those Black folks in front of (and behind) all those cameras. Gee, only about 60 million cable viewers can see that.
I guess its just me. Maybe Momma didnt raise me right. Now we have that flag issue in Dixie. Most folks thought if they just took down that flag, all this controversy would just go away. After all, its a horrible reminder of slavery.
Strange, I cant find a Black person in this country who can remember being a slave. I also cant find one White person in the country who will admit to owning slaves. In fact, most of the Whites in this country (according to my investigation) had ancestors who landed on these shores long after slavery ended in North America. And I cant repeat what some of those Irish folks told me. But, for one month Im supposed to hate the Confederate flag. Not just waving over the South Carolina Statehouse, but on police cars in Mississippi and in front of livestock shows in Houston. Im supposed to call for the changing of the names of bridges in Virginia, parks in Tennessee and the defacing of portraits of General Lee. Im even supposed to support Rep. Kings (R-NY) demonizing of every Southerner in the halls on Congress. Im supposed to support and endorse all of this because Im a Black man.
Yes, boycott South Carolina. Boycott the entire South until they get their minds right. This means, no Blacks (like me) should do any business with the South period. So, to that Black businessman in Memphis, sorry. Hope you can get some of those racist White folks to patronize your store. The NAACP says I cant go there.
About the family reunion this year in South Carolina forget it. Nope, not me. Our un-elected Black leadership says we gotta boycott. Dont worry, Ill explain to that Black soul food caterer in Columbia that the reason hes losing so much business this year is because of a piece of cloth hanging over the capitol building. Hell understand.
And Florida well have to leave you out, too. You see, Governor Jeb Bush enacted a program called One Florida in which anyone who finishes in the top 20% of his or her class gets a scholarship to a public University in Florida. I cant figure it out for the life of me, but according to my Black leaders, thats racist, too. The NAACP head (case) says well boycott Florida until thats changed. By the way, isnt it interesting that the same people who say we should boycott everything economically are the same people who say Blacks are economically deprived in this White dominated society? What theyre telling me is that Black people are too stupid to make it into the top 20% of the graduating class, and that most Black people are too stupid to see through their lies. And most of these self-appointed Black leaders probably NEVER made it into the top 20% of anything. But nevertheless, theyre my leaders. Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw, Peter Jennings, Bill Bradley and Al Gore say they are, and since all these self-appointed oracles are White, they must be right.
Even Secret Service is getting into the act. Some of these guys, even though they get to guard the President and the Vice President, say they havent got the promotions they deserve. Wheres the dignity? I guess those White Secret Service agents get to guard folks more important.
Heres a suggestion for the Black Secret Service agents who guard those important White folks (from the south): Wanna become heroes and restore your dignity? Quit. Thatll teach em.
As a Black man, Im told I should pin my hopes on making it rich when the NAACP gets their fair share from suing all those guns dealers. After all its those gun dealers fault for all those Black folks shooting all those Black folks. Perhaps next year, theyll be suing bed-sheet makers, rope manufactures, and the South American drug cartels.
I have asked my Black leaders to sue the ATF, since the only product in America that requires you to list your race before purchasing it is a firearm. They havent returned my call. But then again, the right to keep and bear arms isnt listed under civil rights anyway, is it?
Its okay. Well just sue the gun-makers instead. Thatll teach them to not sell guns to us Black folks (so we can get gunned down for reaching for a wallet.) Yes, if we just sue a few more White folks, harass and slander the rest, one day maybe one day--we wont have to put a prefix in front of the word American anymore.
Well, Im not waiting for that. I have done everything to try to advance the cause of personal freedom as a Black man, and to enjoy the liberty that my parents fought for, but it is just not working. These White people are just too smart for me. They made sure that I never had to wait at a Dennys restaurant longer than anyone else does. Some of them hired me for simply having the brains to do the job. Some of them (the real sneaky ones) had the gall to judge me by the content of my character, and not the color of my skin. Theyve paid me in dollars with White slave-owners' photos on them. And, damn them, they made me earn it first.
They have allowed me to own my own business. They even went so far as to steal tax dollars from other White people to make sure I got an education so I could like make it in this world.
What an evil plot. Since there is almost no reason to bitch about anything anymore, it must be institutional racism.
I am through being used. I am fed up with trying to conform. This year, when I fill out my Census form, I will let them know that I quit. I wish to no longer be a Black American. I want nothing to do with race baiting, whining, pandering for more tax dollars; family breakdowns, and the Al Sharptons of the world.
I dont want to be Black anymore.
I am somebody, and I dont need Jessie Jackson to tell me that. My father already did.
I dont want to be Black anymore.
I refuse to be used as a statistic to get more left-wing socialists into Congress.
I dont want to be Black anymore.
There is no need to make me part of a protected group as the California Governor recently stated. I can protect myself, thank you.
I dont want to be Black anymore.
Please do not feel sorry for me anymore, White folks. That liberal pity-party really insults me, anyway.
I dont want to be Black anymore.
You Democrats dont have to act like you like me. I know its an election year. I am tired of being the Black sheep of the party. Leave me alone.
I dont want to be Black anymore.
If it means disgracing my own heritage by insulting Southern history
I dont want to be Black anymore.
Since making the same statements Martin Luther King, Jr. made in 1963 are now considered racist and insensitive
I dont want to be Black anymore.
If it means more innocent White people are forced to go through sensitivity training
I dont want to be Black anymore. If it means that everyone loses their freedom of speech, freedom to peaceably assemble, and their right to keep and bear arms
I dont want to be Black anymore.
If it means being a ward of the State, rather than a Child of God
I dont want to be Black anymore.
Ill sign the papers, dammit. Ill file the lawsuit. Ill start the boycott this time. I have every right. I am sick of these media-selected Black prostitutes making a mockery out of my country, out of everything America stands for. Im sick of them giving everyone else a reason to hate me.
I quit.
I no longer want a prefix in from of my label. From this point forward, I, J.J. Johnson, DEMAND that I be simply called
American.
Good fer Mr. Johnson...let's hope more folks see the light and abandon the DemonRAT plantation!!
FReegards...MUD
Republicans would be smart to woo black voters and non-voters
Consider: There has been a measurable rightward shift in the black electorate. In 2002 the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, a liberal think tank, asked black respondents in its national survey to identify themselves as either Democrats, independents or Republicans. Although 63 percent claimed to be Democrats, the number was down from 74 percent in 2000. The decrease occurred in nearly every age group, including among respondents 65 and older (where the drop was from 82 percent to 75 percent). There was a significant increase in those calling themselves independents, especially between the ages of 26 and 35. Respondents identifying themselves as Republicans also increased: Between ages 26 and 35, the share tripled, going from 5 percent in 2000 to 15 percent in 2002.
None of this is coincidental. More African Americans now have college degrees, ushering them into the middle class, shifting their values and priorities while prompting them to abandon the "blacks-as-victims" theology. Many low-income blacks have gained an appreciation for the opportunities provided by the free enterprise system and are rejecting the notion of government as savior. Meanwhile, there has been an emergence of a new generation of African Americans that exists in a multiracial, crossover world.
There is one more reason for the changes in affiliations: Some African Americans have accused the Democratic Party of practicing "plantation politics." They say that although blacks repeatedly are depended on to keep the party in elected office, African Americans often are overlooked for key leadership posts.
This growing dissatisfaction, coupled with demographic and philosophical changes, has translated into black support for selected Republican candidates. In the California recall election, Arnold Schwarzenegger won 17 percent of the African American vote. Michael Bloomberg won 22 percent of the black vote in his successful New York mayoral bid.
***
That's good to hear...I know Dubyuh won a much larger percentage of the Black vote in his second run fer Governor than his first. I reckon it's harder fer RATS to make their scare tactics work once folks have seen Bush in power fer four years.
FReegards...MUD
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