fasted1's Blog

                                                                  What America Means To Me

When I think of America, I see black men hanging from trees.  Their beaten, battered broken, bullet riddled bodies, burned beyond recognition.  I see crowds of white men their faces covered in white hoods obfuscating identification as they yell and scream while celebrating a huge cross, aflame with the hatred they feel in their hearts.  I see mass graves full of Black people men, women and children including babies.  They were piled atop one another indiscriminately, unknown and abandoned as the dirt is thrown in their upturned faces. 

I am chagrined as names like Rosewood, Florida and Selma, Alabama, Biloxi, Mississippi, Macon Georgia ring in my mind like some form of demonic chant.  True killing fields as real as the Middle Passage where thousands if not millions of black folk gave their last full measure in contribution to these United States of America.  I see black men gunned down on the steps of their dwellings still clutching their cell phones or identification papers, as they tried to prevent the death riding on the bullets of more white men this time in blue uniforms.

I hear the screams of black women as their men and children are torn from their arms to be sold off or carted off to some interminable prison, never to be heard from again.  I see the truth in the words of the first black first lady as she is proud of this country for the first time in her adult life.  I feel the anguish of the people standing on the balcony of the Lorraine Motel as they cradle the lifeless body of a King in their arms.  I remember the sadness as the entire black nation mourned for Malcolm and Martin and Abraham and John.

I remember the shocks, the shock of my kindergarten teacher calling me ni#$%r,the shock of rejection as the first job I applied for was withheld because of the color of my skin, the shock of the first bus ride taken in the back of the bus.  I can still see the crowd of white teenagers armed with knives and bats and chains, interspersed with police officers whipped up into a frenzy by a lie of theft by a small black child.  Their bloodcurdling yells and obscene screams of promised murder vividly resonates through my brain as if thirty-six years had not passed and it is happening right now. I feel the adrenaline coursing rapidly through my bloodstream activating the fight or flight syndrome necessary to survive.

I remember the chilling words of the young police officer telling me that it only costs him seven cents(what the city charges him for his bullets) to kill me.  I remember the illegal search and seizure perpetrated upon my person although I had committed no crime.  I can still see the barrels of the guns pointed at me as I opened my front door, guns pointed at me because try as they might they still could not force their way into my home unless I let them in.  I remember the fear of death fluttering through my mind as I was routinely stopped in Queens, NY because it was at night and there were three other black men in the car with me.   These are the things that come to mind when I think of what America means to me.

A Vote For Racism?

The recent mid-term election results are a clear signal from mainstream America that they do not want a Black President. Regardless of his agenda. It seems that middle America is willing to forgo their own interests in favor of racial prerogatives. Lets examine the platforms that the newly elected representatives of the House of Representatives espoused. They were for smaller, less expensive government, reducing the national deficit and taking back their government. If the government is smaller then it can't provide much needed safety nets like unemployment compensation,social security,medicare/medicaid. Poor black and brown people for the most part are in desperate need of these nets,given the disastrous state of the present economy. During every republican administration they have ballooned up the national deficit and the previous administration was no exception. They took a five hundred million dollar surplus and turned it into a one trillion dollar plus deficit. All of these republican administrations were fully owned white subsidiaries of the large multinational corporations, which by the way pumped millions of dollars into this recent election in favor of those they knew would accede to their interests. The current crop of the newly elected electorate has just announced by way of Tea party leader Jim Demint that there is nothing they can do about the deficit. They have also vehemently and vociferously championed an extension of the Bush tax cuts for the top two percent or more commonly known as the wealthy. These tax cuts will add another seven hundred billion plus dollars to the one trillion plus dollars already in the deficit. These tax cuts have been in effect for the last ten years, so the wealthy have received at least seven hundred billion dollars ten times in a row. The titular head of the United States Government is President Barack Obama an obvious black man. Is he who they want to take the government back from? I believe that this is the case since no part of their platform has any basis in truth. This election was an out and out blatantly racial vote. A vote that is seriously against their interests and beliefs. His policies were beneficial to the vast majority of Americans and no part of any of his legislation was targeted at black people. His programs were to stabilize and solidify the infrastructure of this country as a whole not specifically to help any one minority. Yet he was a socialist that had to be made a one term president. Can anyone explain why? Using their undercover voters(Independents) the republicans once again spun their way into power with a page from Malcolm X's book, by any means necessary. With undisclosed donors pouring millions of dollars into negative attack ads, they hoodwinked the middle American voters into voting against their best interests. I wonder will they be sorry when they learn the real agenda of these usurpers of the delayed American dream, or will they even care? After all this is a country that condoned the abduction and involuntary unpaid servitude of millions of black people and their subsequent maltreatment for hundreds of years. Refusing to this day to even apologize or make restitution, content to live off their ill gotten wealth and privilege. Oblivious to the pain and suffering their ancestors gestated, spouting unfounded justifications and inaneries in response to calls for justice and decency. I am appalled at these people for even pretending to adhere to the Constitution, they have never nor have they ever meant even one word of it. If I am wrong then I challenge anyone to prove me so. The Fast One