Whining While Black - (excellent analysis by James Atticus Bowden)

DEFENDING TRUTH.ORG ^ | MAY 4, 2005 | JAMES ATTICUS BOWDEN

[Beth528]

AL SHARPTON GOES BACK TO HIS ROOTS AL ANNOUNCES THAT TWANA BRAWLEY WILL BE HIS QUEEN

[CHARLITE]

Hilarious photo, Beth!!

Thanks! Just the right time for a big laugh!

Char :)

[Mamzelle]

I remember the smirky little tour guide at that beautiful plantation along the James in Williamsburg when I visited... Carter?....he took us to the slave cabins and most shook their heads at the uncomfortable provision.

Except that I saw my own family's cabins left on family land, family who were subsistence farmers in Appalachia barely two generations ago. They looked about the same as the slave cabins. My mother saw the first electricity. My grandmother still had outdoor privies when I was a child. Not comfortable--but not the ghastly horror that people seem to think it was.

The thing is--if you go back far enough in our history, you're going to see some rude poverty. And, in those times, that poverty may well have represented a standard of comfort unavailable to the truly poor. I just don't have any way to turn the struggles of my own ancestors into gold.

[Tax-chick]

later

[B4Ranch]

Many farmers built the barn, lived with the animals for a year until the next spring when they made the final decision if the land was worth farming.

[bubbleb]

Your friends are of superb character--the best kind to have.

[Nam Vet]

I read a book in 6th or 7th grade about Booker T. Washington. That was about 1958 or 1959. We actually studied how the ex-slaves pulled themselves up by their own bootstraps earning respect on all fronts in the process. Just a little white kid in a small Christian school but I developed a great deal of respect for the real thing. That is probably why I simply loathe the race baiting idiots of any race or nathionality so deeply who constantly spout off nowadays. I really get a kick out of Walter Williams reference to the "Klan With a Tan". (Congressional Black Caucus)

Nam Vet

[CHARLITE]

" I really get a kick out of Walter Williams reference to the "Klan With a Tan".

Thanks for that contribution! I never heard Walter Williams say that. Too funny!

Char :)

[jatticus]

Great observation. One point I had to edit out to keep my 750 word limit was about the big secret that Southern Whites worked their way out of poverty over 2 - 3 generations and some still are. Same rules applied, but they didn't have to overcome legal barriers. The point is NOBODY GAVE THEM ANYTHING.

[Rabble]

"The thing is--if you go back far enough in our history, you're going to see some rude poverty. And, in those times, that poverty may well have represented a standard of comfort unavailable to the truly poor."

Very Thoughtful post, Thanks. Folks seem to lose sight of the fact that each generation's standards have improved. Looking back at the standards of previous generations, we tend to be shocked at their living conditions.

Many people make the great mistake of applying today's standards to events that occurred decades ago. For instance, my parents used a privy right up to the time I was born, and after (1947). This was in a town with a population of about 30,000. Since they didn't know the difference they didn't feel inconvenienced in the least. Peoples standards change as modern conveniences become the accepted norm.

Some historians make the great mistake of applying the accepted standards of today to history. There are so many variables that it's almost impossible to truly understand why people thought a certain way, or why certain actions were taken. Hence, for todays students of history it's often difficult to understand why certain events occurred.

[Mamzelle]

My own experience went well into the sixties--but mostly I remember the beautiful farm, the flower garden, the animals I could watch and play with. And biscuits cooked on an old wood stove--operating it was an art! Pine to burn hot, oak to heat slow. Hot to fry an egg, less so to bake a cake. She could bake an angel's food cake on that thing!

Corn bread cooked on a fireplace hearth in a covered skillet will scent the outdoor surroundings and call hungry people inside better than a dinner bell. Life wasn't so bad.

[Tax-chick]

Excellent article, very persuasive.

[joebuck]

"I'd love to see what Booker T. Washington would have to say about Jesse Jackson types."

Well, you are in luck because Booker T. Washington DID have something to say about the Jessie Jackson types:

"There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs. There is a certain class of race-problem solvers who don't want the patient to get well."
Booker T. Washington

[Carolinamom]

During a Black History Month one year, my BLACK HS students were astounded to learn (I told them) that there had been many Blacks who themselves OWNED Black slaves.

IMO libs and Jesse Jackson today are Black slave owners in that they continue to hold them captive.

[Tax-chick]

Good point.

[sandydipper]

"...... earning their piece of the American pie". I thought that most blacks were given their piece of the American pie.

[Mulch]

I think that quote is on the Rainbow/Push organization's letter head. <*/sarc>

[AnAmericanMother]

Did your gramma have an old teakettle that she moved around the top of the stove to gauge the temperature of the different "eyes"? Did you get to put your wet chilly feet in the "warming oven" after playing outside?

There WERE compensations doing things the old fashioned way.

Nowadays a lot of folks pay for the privilege and call it "camping". < g >

[AnAmericanMother]

Did your gramma have an old teakettle that she moved around the top of the stove to gauge the temperature of the different "eyes"? Did you get to put your wet chilly feet in the "warming oven" after playing outside?

There WERE compensations doing things the old fashioned way.

Nowadays a lot of folks pay for the privilege and call it "camping". < g >

[AnAmericanMother]

It is a pity that the black mainstream decided to follow the W.E.B. DuBois model rather than the Booker T. Washington model. Commanding respect is better in the long run than demanding respect.

And of course DuBois wound up becoming a Communist, renouncing his American citizenship, and dying in Africa somewhere (Ghana, I think.)