Lately, I've been reading a lot more than I have in the past. I average on reading and completing four or five books a month. My latest book is Richard Wright's Uncle Tom's Children. I was reading the chapter called "Big Boy Leaves Home", which follows four young boys that skipped school to swim in a local lake. They took their clothes off for a quick dip, then all of a sudden, a White woman appears. They were startled, and wanted to get their clothes. They were debating on whether they should stay still and try to hide or grab their clothes and get out of there. The main character who goes by the nickname of "Big Boy" decides to grab his clothes, and he is spotted by the woman. Big Boy tries to calm her down by saying that he was just trying to get his clothes. She screams and a man appears (later mentioned to be her husband). The man has a gun, the boy and the man wrestle, which results in two out of four of the Black boys getting killed by the White man. The boy involved in the struggle manages to kill the White man with his own rifle. Panic ensues, and the two remaining boys run home. The boy involved in the scuffle ran home and explained the issue to his parents. The boy's father is initially upset because the boys were supposed to be in school. The parents enlist in the help of the preacher and a neighbor. They devise a plan to hide the boy so he doesn't get lynched later. The family gives the boy in distress some cornbread to take with him, and the boy hides. The sun sets, and he hears some noise. His friend is in the distance, however the boy in hiding hears voices. It's the White mob. The mob discusses their hatred for Blacks and how all of them in "this country" should be killed. A White man bragged about how they thought they found "one" and how they burned a shack and drove a "nigger woman" out of it, how they set it on fire, and that one particular mob member should have been there to hear her "holler". They discuss in detail about what they will contribute to the hunt. One person brought a pillow for feathers, another person offered gasoline, if needed. They start singing a song that starts with "We'll hang ever nigger t' a sour apple tree." They discover the hidden boy's friend who happened to be lurking in the darkness, and they proceed to tar, and feather him. Once that was complete, they cut up the body for souvenirs, and then burned the body.
I had to stop reading for a while.
I thought about what drives people to do these things. I began to get enraged, I made up my mind that some of these people are empathy-less monsters incapable of having human emotions, and a rational thought process. I also thought of Black on Black crime, and how every so often, I get the joy of hearing the following paraphrased mantra, "We no longer need the KKK to kill Blacks. They do all of the work for us."
Let that marinate for a bit.
I also hear people constantly holding up Black on Black crime in order to excuse killings of Blacks by Whites. I have asked people why it happens, and I always get this as an answer: Hate is taught in the homes of Blacks, and they are the most racist people in this country (North America).
I ask, Why is hate taught in the homes of Blacks, and why are they the most racist in the country? I either get no response, or I get something to the affect of, "They don't know any better." or "That's just how they are."
Think about that for a second.
Here you have a race of people who were treated like shit for many many years in various ways based on skin color, by another group of people who have their minds made up that they are the superior people out of all of the groups. They were denied jobs, spat on, fed scraps, paid close to nothing for their hard work while working for that so called superior group (and that's when it was no longer fashionable to not pay them at all), referred to as "beasts" at a certain point in time, they have been denied the opportunities to get loans with decent rates to start businesses, or buy houses, they have been told to die for a country that treats them like second class citizens, they have been killed or beaten to teach others who look like them to not "step out of bounds", which could mean looking at a "superior" person in the eye, not using Mr. or Ms when greeting them, not taking off their caps in elevators, and not kowtowing to them in general. They have been basically told that their life isn't nor will it ever be worth anything unless they kowtow well "enough", and "enough" is used subjectively. Needless to say, those people are going to have a major inferiority complex and will take it wherever they go, and they will pass it down from generation to generation regardless of where they choose to take up residence. In laymen's terms, "that shit will follow them wherever they go, no matter what they do." And folks have the nerve to be angry with them for that?! << GET THE FUCK OUTTA HERE?! ARE THEY REALLY THAT DENSE?!
Some Whites want to be mad, dismayed and hurt because they can't walk in the Black neighborhoods because they are White. They want to dismiss the feelings of Blacks because "That was a long time ago, and that you should get over it already, because we gave you jobs, and food stamps." They want to say that, "Some people just can't appreciate what they were given, and they don't want to thrive and grow because they are lazy."
They want to blame Black on Black crime because they fail to see where it came from. Where did the idea that a Black life wasn't worth anything come from? How did that idea get there? Blacks have made strides to do better, but people will commit crimes against each other no matter where they live. Add poverty in the mix and it's a recipe for disaster regardless of said ethnicity. Do a google search on "Appalachian hollers" or visit any trailer park in North America for instance. You'd find the same things, but no one is attacking these people in these areas. The media only attacks Black people. Why is that?
I suspect some pretty strong denial, cognitive dissonance, willful ignorance, and who knows what may be to blame. Now before you sit up and say that I hate White people, and call me racist, you have it all wrong. I hate what the hate produced. I am aware of where it came from and why it exists amongst Black people. I hate seeing Black people kill each other. I hate the fact that a person can't just come home from work without worrying about getting hit by a stray bullet from some kids who managed to get their hands on some guns because they were spoon fed by the media on glorifying guns based on good ol' American culture enjoying its God given right to bear arms again. I hate that some Black people treat those who look like them like crap (especially in majority White states) based on skin color as if they never saw a mirror or their own reflection in their lives. Stockholm syndrome is in full effect, y'all. I want to know what we are going to do about it and how we are going to help each other understand the who, what, when, where, why, how, and the which-es, regarding it.
I think that's my blog for the week. We'll see what happens next.
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