We are all Uncle Toms Now
| Thu Oct. 4, 2007 10:11 AM PDT
It's ridiculous being black.
You have no idea how much time it takes and the stupifyingly asinine conversations one must have. Like whether or not Don Imus' "nappy headed 'hos" comments were, like, problematic. Or, I dunno, Isaiah Thomas saying its bad for white men to call black women bitches but a brother's gotta do what a brother's gotta do. And, oh lordy, the Uncle Tom libretto we're forced to sing every few months. At least this time, the lyrics have changed a tad but the basic storyline is every bit as improbable as an opera's and equally impervious to the ebb and flow of modernity. Now comes Dr. Boyce Watkins, our latest soloist.
On CNN recently, he called Juan Williams "a happy Negro" for defending Bill O'Reilly's infamous comments about his visit to Sylvia's restaurant. O'Reilly had confessed himself surprised, and reassured, that black people behaved well in public and exhibited proficiency with tableware. Williams is right that O'Reilly's comments were less racist than clumsy. He might also have added, 'a paternalistic pat on the head,' a problem from which O'Reilly could have saved himself had he the self-awareness to end his remarks by saying "and boy am I ashamed for having subconsciously believed that black people are so different from me." And, maybe, "Given the public stances I take on race, how could I have lived this long without spending quality time in the 'hood?" But whether or not O'Reilly is racist is irrelevant. The point is whether or not a black person may disagree with the party line without having his black card pulled and his ghetto pass revoked. Apparently not.
For Watkins, "Seeing Williams sitting there congratulating O'Reilly for his bigotry reminded me of the Negro in the white suit defending "massa" at all costs." Since when did slaves, even trusted house slaves, wear white suits? Methinks he's conflating Uncle Ben with Uncle Tom; even we can't tell each other apart. But I digress.
The notion that a 'real' black person holds a particular set of beliefs or applies a particular analytic framework to social issues—god! I am so over this—is pernicious, but even more importantly, stupid and intellectually paralyzing.
The hyper-analytic in me, though, just loves the deliciousness of the 'happy Negro' edifice. Let's take it apart, shall we?
A 'happy' Negro must a) have a false consciousness b) borne of internalized oppressed and self-hatred which c) leads him to crave the approval of white folks. Otherwise he couldn't be happy, seeing as how life is so hideously difficult for us modern Negroes. Ergo, a rational Negro must be a miserable, no wait!, an angry Negro. Like Dr. Watkins.
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"The notion that a 'real' black person holds a particular set of beliefs or applies a particular analytic framework to social issues?god! I am so over this?is pernicious, but even more importantly, stupid and intellectually paralyzing." I hear you sister. God knows that I have suffered from this mindset along with Ward Connerly and Condoleezza Rice.
"The notion that a 'real' black person holds a particular set of beliefs or applies a particular analytic framework to social issues?god! I am so over this?is pernicious, but even more importantly, stupid and intellectually paralyzing." I hear you sister. God knows that I have suffered from this mindset along with Ward Connerly and Condoleezza Rice.
"Isaiah Thomas saying its bad for white men to call black women bitches but a brother's gotta do what a brother's gotta do" which means sexual harassment of a sister which cost the white man $10million that he hast to pay the sister for me. This is how we take from the former slave masters. It is called self help reparations.
I don't always agree with everything Ms. Dickerson has to say, but I always appreciate her perspective. I like when people bring something different and fresh to the table, flip the script a little bit, and open up the analysis a little deeper. It's a complex world and her writings express that complexity. Thanks fo sharing.
First of all it is wrong for any man regardless of race to call a woman regardless of race a bitch.
Secondly- where are the slave masters ? None exist. Nor do slaves.
Had the Europeans known what we now know, we would have picked their own damn cotton
I agree with Mr Russell on this one. Orenthal, does this mean I am entitled to reparations from the Italians since the Romans enslaved my people-? Oh and also my father should get money from the Germans since they bombed his school and shortened his education- you are quite ridiculous in your thinking Orenthal !
Whats the opposite of "happy?" It is NOT angry--it is "unhappy." As in "not agreeing" with what is being addressed?
So, it seems reasonable to me to call Juan Williams "a happy Negro" if you think he doesn't understand the insult if one was there.
Can't we all just get along and allow others to disagree with us?
Orenthal--funny post there. There are lots of "set up" lawsuits out there==but usually only involving one party. Two party set ups are the stuff of Hollywood.
bobbo, the TAO states that it is better not to see an insult, like Juan. In the Tao,real people do not see insults. There is a great deal of truth to that saying. For one, it makes for more peaceful living and less fights. A real person who is at peace is truly rich.
"The notion that a 'real' black person holds a particular set of beliefs or applies a particular analytic framework to social issuesgod! I am so over thisis pernicious, but even more importantly, stupid and intellectually paralyzing." I hear you sister. God knows that I have suffered from this mindset along with Ward Connerly and Condoleezza Rice.
In a coffeehouse in Reading, Pa., the black, female barista was getting my order while keeping up a running conversation about Don Imus with a regular, who was also black. This was right after his firing. The barista was saying something like, "I discovered there are a lot of black people that think what I do: that man should never have been fired for saying that." The regular agreed, and they went back and forth a bit more about how Imus must have gotten it from some black friends, 'cause he never would have come up with anything like that on his own.
I am not making any of this up, and aside from money and coffee changing hands, they weren't paying the slightest bit of attention to me.
Anyway, your blog entry reminded me of that. It's an example of the rise of your kind of greater intellectual independence by black people.
life was so much simpler before i found this piece you wrote, debra...
i was so much happier with what others were telling me about clarence thomas, for example...
does this mean that i might have to view this man as, well, you know, a human being -- every bit as complex as the rest of us?
And this is why Republicans are so much more successful at hate than, well anyone else, because they stay on message, no matter how repulsive. Liberals, by the very nature of their beliefs, could never come to one agreement on anything.
Europeans didn't just need blacks to pick cotton, they needed their knowledge of how to cultivate it, as well. The same is true for rice, cane, sorgum,peanuts, and sesame. Crops that were historically cultivated in Africa, but not in Europe. They made fortunes for the master class.
The Haitians by the way, are still paying the French reparations for lost property. Ain't that a bitch?
The real "master class" in this country was small and exclusive. It still is. They called the shots, and still do.
Most lessor whites were transported here as convicted felons and indentured servants. They were not, and still are not, in a position to decide who picked what.
marymomgret, we still want our reparations. For the biracial, they will not have to pay, since it would only be coming from one pocket and going into another. Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan states that Jews were also involved in the slave trade and facilitated it with their money trade. Jews.
The book, by Charleston lawyer Robert Rosen, reveals what amounts to a de facto coverup of the 300-plus-year history of Jews in the South.Contrary to popular belief, "Jews had found themselves very much at home in the South, much more so than elsewhere," says the University of Georgia's Emory Thomas, a historian and author of many Civil War books. "They were accepted members of the community, and therefore they cast their loyalties with this new Confederacy, bought bonds and did everything patriotic Southerners would do." But few even know that Judah Benjamin, a famous Louisiana lawyer, not only served in the U.S. Senate, he was Jefferson Davis' attorney general, secretary of war and secretary of state. Well, that is all fine and good, but they have to pay up too, just like the rest.
Give it a rest, NO J.
That's one Christmas present you won't be getting, no matter how much you cry and scream "...but I WANT IT!!" at Mommy & Daddy & the Press & the Government.
Unless maybe you can prove you were born a Mississippi slave in about 1850 or so.
If you want us to vote and put a Democrat in office in '08, we better get a promise of Reparations. Reparations will not go away until we get our money according to "a powerful group of civil rights leaders led by Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakan which demand reparations for American blacks descended from slaves." As far as I am concerned, you can pay me on the installment plan. Better start saving now folks because the interest gets bigger every year. Remember, without our vote, you will get another Bush Republican. Do you want that? For all the money spent on the Iraq war, that money could have went to Reparations.
OJ
I suspect that you are either a malicious white person,trying to provoke a negative response, or one with a sick sense of humor.
Race baiting is mean, ugly and stupid, whatever your motivation.
Try to remember that you are a debt slave, like your fellow Americans, black and white.
Black people are not your problem.
First off, NO J, I think 'marymomgret' is exactly right about you.
Secondly, Why should I give a shit if there's a Democrat in the Whitehouse, or whether the Dems achieve a bigger majority in Congress?
Have you looked at what they've done with the majority they HAVE?
Take a look at the comments and link posted by 'Beltway Business As Usual' over on the 'Democratic Hack Gap' discussion, and obtain a clue.
Unless the Dems somehow manage to nominate Kucinich or maybe Gravel, the only thing that will change by putting a Dem in the Oval Office will be the name on the door.
What 'I' want 'us' to do is go out on PRIMARY day and vote for a candidate in either primary who represents some REAL change.
I think that narrows us down to Dennis Kucinich, maybe Gravel.., or Ron Paul on the Repub side. Then, for the first time since I started voting back in the 70's, I'd be all smiles about having such choices, instead of wearing that clothes-pin on my nose.
[The point is whether or not a black person may disagree with the party line without having his black card pulled and his ghetto pass revoked. Apparently not.]
i recall that Bill Cosby set off a firestorm with some blunt comments about blacks needing to assume personal responsibility not so long ago
his remarks had talking heads like Paula Zahn asking such questions as "is Bill Cosby a race traitor?"
Reparations should not be based on the work of slaves in one's ancestry. It should be about the disadvantage suffered in the present based on being the descendants of slaves. Then blacks would have a case that would be relevant. For example, a black should ask governments, agencies and employers (and what would have been employers, had jobs not been denied based on race) for reparations for personal monetary disadvantages suffered because he/she happened to be the descendent of American slaves.
Debra Dickerson is a joke. No real person of any race could be so inane as to state, "it's ridiculous being black." She is just a joke to get people ranting and raving on both sides of the question. For those who are black, it's not ridiculous being themselves. See! She is only a joke! Laugh it off!
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Submitted by Cobra (not verified) on Mon Oct. 8, 2007 4:33 PM PDT.
Come on folks. IMHO, the ONLY reason author and pundit Juan Williams even has a JOB on Fox News is because he is eager and willing to openly criticize members of the "Fox News Black Hit list."
I believe that the day he actually criticizes any facet of the White Male Power Structure or the REAL existance of institutional racism ON-AIR, his seat won't even be cold before John McWhorter, or God forbid, Jason Whitlock fills it.
--Cobra
Submitted by TATISHA JACKSON (not verified) on Thu Oct. 11, 2007 1:10 PM PDT.
Bertram, every Black person in America wishes you MFers did pick your own cotton, you lazy bastards. Oh and DickE, ya'll have been getting reparations, didn't you know? It's called the STATUS QUO!. White folks guilt at the past and current treatment of Blacks is alive and well. But can appreciate Debra Dickerson's argument.
