The Black Informant | African American Commentary, News and Community Building

Continuing on this theme of “issues we keep on the DL” , I think that it is fitting that we take this time to ask the question “Can whites be trusted?”

Here are some instances where negative assumptions of white people are easily made (no particular order):

#An all white business

#You smile at a white person and they do not smile back

#A white motorist cuts you off on the highway

#You and a friend sit down at a table in a restaurant. The white people in the adjacent table get up to leave.

#You are stopped for speeding by a white cop.

#A white waiter gives you bad service

#Three of the final four contestants are white, one is black. Guess who gets eliminated?

I think you get the idea. There is a lot more that could added to this list.

White folks are not the only ones that are guilty of stereotyping. We do it too. From the times we dealt with an unfriendly white store clerk to the time we heard of a black employee getting fired from a predominately white company, many black Americans have a general distrust of whites on some level.

For those who feel the obligation to defend the black race from any form of criticism, let me say twofold:

#1. I think that we can all agree here that like blacks, whites have their “bad apples” as well. The focus of this piece is strictly dealing with OUR part in this issue. Therefore, there is no need to emphasize the point “whites do it to“.

#2. If you believe that this is yet another example of how people try to portray blacks as always being the “bad guys”, then please do yourself a favor and stop reading now. Like I said earlier, we do our share of stereotyping as well. Just watch most black comedies to see it in action. Better yet, think about your interactions with whites in the last few weeks.

Black America, for too long it has been the acceptable thing to do to talk about whites in a derogatory manner—just as long as we spoke it amongst ourselves (please let go of the “whites do it too” mantra). As I mentioned earlier, our comedians will spend great amounts of time cracking on white folks telling the crowd just how sorry they really are as a people. Have a group of white comedians joke about how blacks are rude, ignorant, and always have their hand out for something and you will see a tidal wave of lawsuits from all around the country. As soon as something goes awry in the office and whites are involved, we will automatically add racism as the culprit in the situation. For many of us, seeing a brotha romantically involved with a white woman is a signal to us that he has sold out his race to a white woman who is set on stealing our men from our brown-skinned ladies in waiting.

A while back on this site, I had mentioned that I really believe that when affirmative action was first implemented, it was something that had to be done given the racial climate in this country at that time. The affirmative action of today I feel serves as no more than to act as a choker leash to keep whites in line on racial issues. The message that we are conveying by keeping affirmative action active with no cut off date in sight: white folks cannot be trusted. Check out this excerpt:

Whitney Young, the founder of the Urban League, was one of the first blacks to push for an affirmative action plan. In Ending Affirmative Action, writer Terry Eastland says that Young called for a “compensatory, preferential Marshall Plan for black America.” In 1963, Young urged a “decade” of preferences to level the playing field. A decade! That would have ended affirmative action in 1973! Young’s board of directors, however, revolted. The president of the Urban League in Pittsburgh said the demand for affirmative action would cause the public to quite properly ask, ‘What the blazes are these guys up to? They tell us that for years that we must buy [non-discrimination] and then they say, ‘It isn’t what we want.’ A member of the Urban League in New York objected to what he called ‘the heart of it –the business of employing Negroes [because they are Negroes].’

From the book by Larry Elder The Ten Things you Can’t Say in America.

Let’s say a young white man starts a small company that employs about 100 people. Should we consider this man a racist because he did not employ people of color? On the other hand, if a black-owned company chose to hire only blacks for the high-paying jobs but chose to hire whites to fill only the low paying positions. Would this be considered discrimination based on race?

Is it racist if a group of white businessmen decided to create a magazine called White Enterprise? How about Ivory (instead of Ebony magazine). Sure, we can say “Well, white folks have plenty of magazines that feature them, so the examples you gave would not be needed.” This comment would only be partially true. I think that we all know that if a white magazine did not use people of color in their features or advertisements, that magazine would be accused of ignoring their black readers. There are whites and other ethnic groups that read magazines like Ebony, Jet, Black Enterprise, etc. Should they be made to make “accommodation” for those readers?

Is there a such thing as “justifiable” stereotyping?

Here are some current examples where we assume the worse:

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The University of Minnesota apologized for misspelling the name of a famous former black football player on a season ticket, but it came too late to avoid damaging the university’s delicate relationship with the local black community.

The problem was that Stephens was spelled “Stevens.” Stephens was the nation’s first All-American black quarterback and led Minnesota to its last national championship in 1960. He died five years ago. (more…)

So are we assume here that the university was so racist and angry at blacks that the only method they could choose to demonstrate this anger was to misspell someone’s name? Is that all they could come up with? If they are so racist, why not stick to something more effective like turning down all black applicants?

The recent 40th anniversary commemorative march for voting rights

Jesse and the gang have once again deployed their scare tactics to move a crowd of black Americans to plead to the American government not to go back on it promise regarding the Voting rights act that was signed decades ago. This whole event played on the general belief that we have as a people that whites simply cannot be trusted. If we are to believe these “self-appointed” leaders, whites are secretly making plans to activate Jim Crow laws at the stroke of midnight of the night this act is set to expire. Blacks will be once again forced to drink out of “colored only” water fountains (even though most people use water bottles), lunch counters will once again refuse to serve us (even though most restaurants have done away with actual lunch counters), and we as a people will once again take to the streets and march our way down to DC to hear Jesse and the gang preach to us for hours about freedoms he and his posse’ have enjoyed for years while the REAL POOR in our communities never see a dime of the millions he was able to broker from discrimination lawsuits (don’t get me started–its still too early out here)

The marchers Saturday also were protesting a new Georgia law that strictly limits which photo identification can be used by voters at the polls. (more…)

The main reason why photo IDs are being required to vote is to prevent folks who are either not registered to vote or not a citizen to participate in an election. Makes sense to me. I don’t want someone voting in our elections who is here illegally. Most Americans that are of driving age posses a driver’s license. So what is the issue? The only reason I can think of to fight against this provision is to give political parties (like Democrats) the right to push people to the polls who are not supposed to be there. Do you think I just make a swipe against the Democratic party? I am just simply going by the recent findings of an organization THEY sanctioned to investigate the whole voter irregularities claim:

While Democrats routinely accuse Republicans of voter intimidation and suppression, neither party has a clean record on the issue. Instead, the evidence shows that Democrats waged aggressive intimidation and suppression campaigns against Republican voters and volunteers in 2004. Republicans have not been exempt from similar criticism in this area, as alleged voter intimidation and suppression activity by GOP operatives led the Republican National Committee to sign a consent decree repudiating such tactics in 1982. However, a careful review of the facts shows that in 2004, paid Democrat operatives were far more involved in voter intimidation and suppression efforts than their Republican counterparts. (click link below for the full report)

Findings are from The American Center for Voting Rights.

Click here to go to the ACVR website for the full report

Don’t get me wrong here, but I do thank God Almighty for the sacrifices many of these individuals have made to ensure that people like me have the right to vote and to live free. But to buy into the emotionally-based and misguided ideology that this society is a hair-breath away from reverting back to Jim Crow is simply ridiculous. Even Harry Belafonte doesn’t believe that. This multi-millionaire who made his money right here in the ol’ racist United States of Amerikkka still finds time to stir up some “don’t trust whitey” commotion.

I have a lot more respect for those black entertainers back in the day who lived through REAL Jim Crow and left the US (I would have been right with them!). I dunno, I guess my whole thing is “If American is on the verge of going back to Jim Crow, then why is my black, rusty behind still living here?” It seems to me WE would all have left if we really believe that one.

Oh well….

Deh-o, Deh-o…

Quick rant

I have no problem with an American citizen having critical views of America. For the most part, we have freedom of speech in this country so Mr. Belafonte is well within his right to freely express himself in that fashion. What I do see as a problem is when Belafonte and others like him are critical of US while at the same time will hail dictators who hate America as heroes (specifically I am talking about Fidel Castro). Nevermind the fact that while Mr. Fidel is entertaining his rich American guests to the best that he has to offer, thousands of darker-skinned Cubans are discriminated against on a daily basis (previous posts).

Belafonte demands apology from whites for years of bigotry, but does he posseslicensed liberty to show bigotry against the Jews after his recent comments? (Read article)