Politics: Negro, Please
Source: NY Times
Richard Pryor had a hilarious bit on one of his old comedy albums from the 70s, maybe Craps, where he talks about going back home after becoming famous.
“Hey Richard!”
“Hey, what’s happening, man?”
“Nothing, nigga. You know, you ain’t that funny. You just doing that same old shit you was doing in high school.”
“OK, man.”
Beat.
“Let me hold $5 dollars? You OWE me that.”
That’s how Black leaders sound to me whenever I hear them criticizing President Obama with the argument that he should be doing more specifically for the plight of Black people. Not that Black people have abandoned Obama, he still has absurdly high job approval ratings among us. 97% or something like that. The same percentage of protection a spermicidal condom gives against conception. That’s teflon, that’s supernatural.
So where do these unemployed Civil Rights workers get off taking shots at the first Black president for not doing enough for Black people? I mean, seriously, if Obama does nothing else except sit in the chair and play solitaire for the next 3 years, he will have accomplished more for Black youth than decades of Black History month. He will have set the ultimate example for achievement. What else do you want?
I know, they thought as soon as one of us got in the Big House, things sho’ was gon’ be different, all the pig’s feet you can eat, fried chicken at the post office, welfare bonuses! I mean, seriously, what were they thinking he was going to do? And with what money? With the entire country spasming from recession, he was going to somehow make the public case that Black people, poor, helpless long-suffering Black people were going to be at the front of the line for relief? Do you want pitchforks at our door? Do you want lynchings? I mean, Black folks are like 1-degree of separation from being a terrorist demographic after this whole Nigerian bomber nonsense! You also want to put us in the political crosshairs for being a “protected” demographic?
Here’s the dumbest part. Elinor Tatus, editor of the black-owned Amsterdam News
“Every time someone brings up an issue that affects blacks, he says that’s an issue that affects all of America,” Ms. Tatum said. “But at the same time, if he were of a different race or ethnicity, he would be playing to the black community. So there’s a double standard there. Should we be the victims in that?” - Elinor Tatus, editor of the black-owned Amsterdam News
Where do I start? With the easy and simplistic dismissal of the insanely smart strategy of equating issues that affect Black America with White America? I mean, for 400 years they played the same game on us. It was so effective that when the Master’s house caught fire, the loyal slave would run and try to put it out. Now Obama is flipping it on white people and saying, “Black America is in the shitter and why wouldn’t it be? The rest of the country is too. Let’s fix it together.”
Next, her just plain stupid comment that if he were a different race, he would be playing to the Black community as a matter of course. I mean, c’mon son. We’re talking about the POTUS. There have only been two ethnic groups to hold that office. White Presidents in the past have not only acted for the benefit of the country, but also for Black people in particular (hello, who signed the Civil Rights act?). They have also completely snubbed Black people and gone about their presidential business with zero repercussions (hey, George, miss you). There has been no standard except that Presidents, like all politicians, have always had to juggle their political interests with the interests of their constituents which, unlike a Senator or congressman, includes the whole nation.
Finally, the assertion that we are “victims” of negligence. If anything, we are victims of our own complacency and die-hard reliance on the federal government to provide police protection and job opportunities. We had a choice back in the 60s when Elijah Muhammad offered us a vision of non-integrated Garvey-ian self-sufficiency while MLK offered you a parking spot at the federal building. We chose the desk job and left our aunts and cousins in the hood to fight it out, so let’s not act like it was America that abandoned the Black ghetto. The fact is, the poorest Blacks and whites have been sucking at the federal tit for generations now, summoned only now and again as soldier ants to fight our silly and pointless wars. Obama takes over the dairy and all of a sudden the Black babies want more milk. Well, nigga, where is your cow?
Crying is not how you get more milk. You want more milk, you need to collectivize our voices and present a unified agenda, hand that shit off to a never-say-die, well-connected Washington lobbyist and make it happen. But what is the Black agenda? What do Black people want? Who are our leaders?
Certainly not speaking for the 97%, that’s all I’m saying.
