I swallowed it whole on Roots. Wasn’t it nice? Wasn’t it nice? Slavery was so cool. And all you had to do was wear derbies and vests and train chickens And buy your way free if you had a mind to. Must be the devil. It wasn’t no whitefolks. - Amiri Baraka “Dope”
The Memorial Day debut of the refurbished version of Alex Haley’s Roots didn’t captivate a hundred million viewers like the 1977 rendition. Maybe the audience dwindled because OJ Simpson wasn’t re-cast? Regardless, the updated mini-series entertained millions and enjoyed widespread appreciation for providing a historical context for racial turbulence in the United States in the era of Black Lives Matter. The Miami Herald’s Leonard Pitts Jr. and a multitude of others insist that when it comes to slavery and the history of Racism, Whites and blacks alike are often ignorant; we’ve “never been given the tools to face the ugly truths America hides from itself, [have] never been taught how to have the conversation” about the American empire being founded on shackled black bodies. That bit of racial rhetoric is oft repeated, always false. Whites cannot flunk Racism. Smartphones and Hollywood are making it increasingly impossible for Whites to claim obliviousness about the ceaseless pillaging of black people. Eric Garner (a black male choked to death by New York police in 2014) and Sandra Bland (a black female found hanging dead in a Texas jail under suspicious circumstances in 2015) garnered more television time than many of the 2016 presidential candidates. While the box office and Netflix hemorrhage viewing options of chained, bludgeoned black people.
Before the Roots reboot and FOX’s Empire there was: The Book Of Negroes (2015), Belle (2013), 12 Years A Slave (2013), DJango Unchained (2012), Case départ (2011), Feasts of All Saints (2001), Sally Hemings: An American Scandal (2000), Beloved (1998), Amistad (1997). This is a stingy sample of the plantation genre and excludes oddities like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter (2012), documentaries like Katrina Browne’s insufferable Traces Of The Trade (2008), and exemplary projects like Halle Gerima’s Sankofa (1993). Whites haven’t ignored these flicks; they’ve directed, financed and doled out Emmy and Academy Award nominations to a sizable number of these projects. Authentic or dramatized, Whites maintain an insatiable appetite for depictions of black misery. Black suffering made America great.
Seeing Kunta Kinte lashed, mutilated and broken affirms White Power. White historian Amy Louise Wood authored Lynching And Spectacle: Witnessing Racial Violence in America, 1890-1940, which deconstructs the White thirst to visually consume blacks being castrated and brutalized. Her theory applies to the hundreds – often thousands – of Whites who attended lynchings, the dispersal of photographs and postcards of ceremonial White terrorism, and films like Birth of a Nation – and probably either version of Roots. She writes:
The rituals, the tortures, and their subsequent representations [impart] powerful messages to whites about their own supposed racial dominance and superiority. These spectacles [produce] and [disseminate] images of white power… white unity and… [serve] to instill and perpetuate a sense of racial supremacy in their white spectators. Lynching thus [succeeds] in enacting and maintaining white domination not only because African Americans [are] its targets but also because white southerners [are] its spectators.
The “re-imaging” of the routine rape of Kizzy - which was an everyday trauma for enslaved black females, males and children -and the YouTube postings of Oscar Grant’s life being snuffed out to christen 2009, are the necessary “terror porn” that solidifies the worthlessness of black life, verifies undisputed White might. Woods corroborates that Whites recognize “the ways in which entertainment [is] bound up with violence, as well as the ways in which violence itself [is] a source of visual amusement.” We commit a colossal error thinking White viewers digest Roots or any other portrayal of black agony with guilt for the barbarism their racial ancestors meted out to our black relatives. Watching Kunta lose a foot won’t compel presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders to recalibrate his stance on reparations. LeVar Burton, Anika Noni Rose and Forest Whitaker’s best dramatizations fail to convince Arizona rancher and federal lawbreaker Cliven Bundy to reconsider; the southwest outlaw believes negroes were “better off as slaves, picking cotton.” White jurists and former prosecuting attorneys like Staten Island, New York’s Dan Donovan (now a Congressman and a Trump supporter) and Ohio’s Timothy McGinty watched authentic footage of Eric Garner and Tamir Rice being killed and concluded it didn’t even warrant a trial – much less a conviction. A celluloid recounting of antebellum black lives undeserving of White respect does little to alter 21st century dedication to White Supremacy. If anything, a growing chorus of Whites openly wishes for a return, a reconstruction of earlier eras of White Supremacy when the only Obamas at the White House were butlers or mammies. White teenyboppers at Grosse Pointe South High School, a Detroit, Michigan suburb, summarized their presidential platform for a potential 2040 campaign: "Bringing back slavery, burning black people with brands and sending them back to Africa." After four decades, Roots returns to the airwaves when presidential front-runner Donald J. Trump’s political rallies have often rhetorically and literally echoed the flagrant White sadism of plantations where black people are mauled with impunity. The commercialized rape of black bodies made America great. Must we see it again?
The death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has simultaneously recalibrated talking points for the upcoming presidential election and intensified the importance of President Obama’s remaining months in the White House. Scalia reportedly died over the weekend while on a hunting trip in Texas. He occupied the highest bench for three decades since being nominated by President Ronald Reagan and unanimously confirmed in 1986. Like Bernie Sanders or Donald Trump, Justice Scalia is a Racist Suspect. Before his SCOTUS residency, Scalia commanded the United States Court Of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, where, according to the New York Times, he issued opinions “skeptical of claims of employment discrimination.” In 2013, he helped erode the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which he branded a “perpetuation of racial entitlement.” And during the courts re-reconsideration of Affirmative Action, Scalia echoed predictable “Bell Curve” dogma about the intellectual ineptitude of negroes. The late justice explained that, “Most of the black scientists in this country don't come from schools like the University of Texas. They come from lesser schools.” Scalia wasn't practicing White Supremacy. He was looking out for our best interest, so that aspiring black scholars don't strain our puny colored brains. Dr. Frances Cress Welsing, a third generation physician and author of The Isis Papers, discussed Scalia’s assessment of black aptitude during one of her final lectures before her 2016 death. “150 years since emancipation, and [Justice Scalia] is justifying why black people should not be admitted to the law school because they don’t have what it takes. Maybe there’s a little nursery school law school that they can attend. That’s kind of more suited to what we’re going to allow them to do anyway.” The American Slave Coast, co-authored by Ned and Constance Sublette in 2015, explains how the United States was founded and thrived on a slave system that required the perpetual rape of black people. The organized sexual exploitation of black bodies informs the genesis of the United States Constitution that Scalia was charged with decoding. The Sublettes write: “The story of the Constitution’s making in 1787 has been told any number of ways, typically suffused with a cue-the-kettledrums aura of religiosity and an assumption of American triumphalism. Constitutional historians have tended to portray their subject as the most important political document in world history, in the greatest nation in history. In extreme cases this has involved elevating the framers to a sort of secular sainthood, as in the post-Reagan years, when a school of constitutional interpretation called 'originalism' emerged in American jurisprudence. Most prominently associated with archconservative Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, originalism is a fundamentalist movement that seeks in effect to construe the Constitution as static and unchanging by mind-reading the intentions of the presumably divinely inspired Framers - a word Scalia writes with a capital F, the way they did it in the eighteenth century. His opinions are shot through with variations on phrases like: 'The Framers recognized …,' 'The Framers contemplated …,' 'The Framers viewed…,' and 'The Framers’ experience …' This is a peculiarly subjective lens through which to view a document created by so many people, at such sharp cross-purposes with each other. 'Aware that the South would not join a Union that prohibited slavery,' writes Scalia’s generally dissenting colleague, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, who does not capitalize 'framers,' 'the framers in effect postponed the question of slavery’s continued existence by writing into the Constitution a series of compromises.' But if we were to follow the notion of original intent from the point of view of the South Carolina Framers, we would see the Constitution as protecting the right to own and trade [and rape black people.]”
(GUEST POST) Tonight I took my son to see the new installment in the STAR WARS franchise. We arrived early and got prime seats, center screen near the back of the theater so that we could have a good view of things. I’ll leave out what I see as minutiae in the first 5-7 minutes of the film and focus on the non-white/black male star; John Boyega. In the film he portrays a “Stormtrooper” who is on his first raiding mission to retrieve a map that has in it’s contents, the location of Luke Skywalker (The last good Jedi). Boyega portrays Stormtrooper “FN-2187” who while on this mission, is ordered to kill the remaining villagers by the new “Darth Vader-like” character but can’t find the nerve or lacks the courage to do so in comparison to all the other Stormtrooper who blast away at the poor victims. He is immediately singled out by the “Darth Vader-like” character that feels something via the “FORCE” (weakness, betrayal…it’s not made clear but there’s something amiss) with FN-2187. FN-2187 returns to base and is exhausted, clearly troubled by the mass murder of the villagers he’d witnessed a few moments earlier. He takes off his helmet and is dripping with sweat, breathing heavily alone in a spacecraft when his superior walks in and asks, “Who told you to take your helmet off?” He puts the helmet on and reports as ordered to have his weapon inspected. Fast forward to FN-2187 rescuing a rebel fighter pilot who was kidnapped from the raid because he may know where the map is. FN-2187 clearly wants to leave his “captors” but needs a pilot…. a “SAVIOR” (in my eyes) so he and the pilot commandeer a spacecraft and escape. FN-2187 who has by all indications, been a Stormtrooper since childhood, behaves and acts nothing like a military trained fighter but more like a confused and afraid child, takes orders from the pilot who by his own words, knows nothing about flying the oppositions spacecraft. The pilot asks FN-2187 “What’s your name?” he replies “FN-2187” (Prisoner #, slave name? both are apt in this context), the pilot says “No, what’s your real name?” (I immediately thought about the scene in roots with Levar Burton; Kunta Kinte vs. Toby) – he says, “This is all I’ve ever been called” – The white pilot says, “I’ll call you Finn” (As in FN – Fucking Nigger came to mind for me) Boyega agrees and accepts his new name. My antennae went up when on the raid, Boyega’s character couldn’t pull the trigger which took me back to the Walking Dead analysis on The C.O.W.S.and how none of the non-white black male characters had the courage under fire, to pull the trigger – even in the face of life threatening danger. This theme is carried out multiple times with Boyega in this movie – even though at times he fights back but never over takes his opponent convincingly. To get back on track; Finn and the white pilot escape after a gunfight and crash on a nearby planet. Finn wakes up in a desert, totally disoriented but sees smoke over a sand dune and runs to it; the spacecraft has crashed and is on fire; the white pilot is no where to be found, only his jacket remains of which Finn takes as his own and uses as cover from the hot sun. He walks and walks until he comes upon a village. He runs there looking for water, but no one will give him any. He sees a large watering hole where a space creature akin to a large rhinoceros is drinking, and falls on his knees to get a drink – the water is clearly not sanitary but he is so thirsty, he drinks anyway (drinking from the same watering hole as an animal.) The story goes away from Finn and goes to the evil mother ship where they realize “FN-2187” has ESCAPED! And he’s the one who helped the rebel pilot escape as well. They make it clear that FN-2187 has been “programmed” since childhood and never illustrated any signs of psychological issues and was loyal to the “1ST ORDER”. They even had a picture of a young black boy – maybe 5 or 6 on the screen instead of FN-2187’s current picture as a young man. So in effect, Stormtroopers are “slaves” raised from childhood to fight for their oppressor and FN-2187 is a run-away slave (Note that he was asked “who told you to take your helmet off?” by his superior moments earlier…. in my estimation, all Stormtroopers are non-white black males who have been enslaved to work on the plantation). This paints a much clearer picture of his behavior once viewed through the lens of Racism/White Supremacy. His heavy breathing, sweating, anxiety, lack of confidence, lack of self-control – traits that none of the white characters illustrate, but are stereotypically associated with non-white black people – these are all wrapped up in the character portrayed by John Boyega. After he drinks from the “Doggy Dish”, he sees the female heroine being harassed because she now has in her possession, the little android that is carrying the map. Word has spread around the galaxy that the android has it/and FN-2187 has escaped so everybody is on the case…The VOLTRON EFFECT. Finn attempts to rescue her from her attackers but stops short after he sees her beat up two men handily. The android recognizes the jacket that Finn is wearing because it belonged to his master who happened to be the white pilot who flew Finn off the plantation. The android tells the heroine who chases Finn down…. a Stormtrooper who’s visibly afraid of a skinny white girl…a Stormtrooper…trained since childhood? She “outsmarts” Finn by basically doing a magic trick and appearing out of nowhere and kicks his butt! He once again appears weak and unable to defend himself even from a woman who is much smaller. They begin to run from more attackers…Finn grabs her hand of which she immediately asks, “Why are you touching me?” …. They end up on the Millennium Falcon (Han Solo’s ship), which was stolen and hidden on this desert planet. Once again, Finn is being ordered around in what could be termed a military environment by a civilian (The heroine) who was just earlier picking up scrap metal and selling it at the junkyard so that she could buy food. He is reduced to being her whipping boy for much of this scene as she orders him to shoot at the opposition’s ships on their tail. While she is proving to be adept at flying a spaceship – he is floundering and bumbling trying to shoot the guns. They end up being captured by Han Solo who wants his ship back and once again – Finn is in a subordinate role to the female who saves his butt from monsters and is being painted more and more as the movie goes on as being savvy, intelligent, brave and versed in the engineering of spaceships. They go to a planet for refuge and are plotting a plan to find Luke Skywalker of which Finn wants no part…he makes clear that “I can’t go back to that place…I can never go back!” Which sounds more like ex-con, prison-speak the more he says it. He walks out on the crew (Han Solo, Chewbacca, the android and the white female) who are all very composed while he is emotional and running away from the fight. (The Walking Dead) I’m going to stop here because this theme continues throughout the movie all the way up to the point where Finn fights the villain with Luke Skywalker’s light saber and loses. But in turn, the female heroine (who learns she is a Jedi as the movie goes along) picks up the light saber and defeats the evil antagonist and saves herself and Finn. Finn, who was knocked unconscious by the evil one, ends the movie laying on a hospital bed in a coma. In effect he’s dead, having served no real purpose at all. What looked to be a tender moment in the making with the female heroine kissing Finn’s lips (Cowbell) – ends up with her kissing his FOREHEAD (Like a mother kissing a child) but – he’s totally unaware and unresponsive to this affection. The movie was entertaining and not much different from other STAR WARS films. I was expecting more from the non-white black male’s character simply because of all the hype associated with his performance. His role was reduced to running…. always running and sweating and looking for guidance, never in control. Han Solo asked him what was his job while he was a Stormtrooper he replied, “I was a Janitor!”…. Even in this depiction of the future, we are running away from slavery. Slavery that has us in servile positions as janitors on the mother ship (plantation).
Today is the third day of deliberations at the Oklahoma County District Court. Eight White Men and four White Women have yet to reach a conclusion on the guilt of Racist Suspect and former Oklahoma City police officer Daniel Holtzclaw; this suspected predator is charged with 36 counts, including oral sodomy, sexual battery, and six counts of first-degree rape. All thirteen victims are black females. OKC Artists For Justice co-founder Candice Liger appraised the closing arguments articulated by White defense attorney Scott Adams. Holtzclaw’s lawyer assessed Oklahoma City’s east side, Holtzclaw’s alleged “hunting ground” and home to a high percentage of the city’s black citizens. Liger reports that Adams told the all white jury that they didn’t know this place. “It’s nothing to see somebody walking at 2:30 in the morning high on pcp, drunk… This is the beacon of criminal behavior.” According to Liger, Adams insisted “people don’t call police on the east side. Not because they fear the police, but because they hate the police.” Liger’s evaluation was corroborated by a Jezebel report, which affirms that Adams’ closing argument suggested these black victims are a treacherous syndicate with an “agenda” to railroad and shakedown one of the “finest” officers and the Oklahoma City police department. This represents the most recent confirmation of Syreeta McFadden’s premise: only under the System of White Supremacy are dead black boys and violated black females put on trial for their own exploitation. Holtzclaw never testified. Meanwhile, more than a dozen black females where subjected to a month of skepticism and defamation. The Interracial Con Game states, “A White male has never been executed for raping a black female in the history of the U. S. – because White males raping black females was not (and still isn’t) considered a crime.” The sexual plunder of black bodies is an essential component of White culture. It’s difficult to conceive of an all White jury convicting Holtzclaw (any White person) for partaking in the ritual rape of black females. A tradition that views black bodies, “the whole world as the White man’s brothel.” For the last thirty days, Holtzclaw’s attorney assailed the credibility and humanity of these black females by belaboring the criminal history and substance dependency of several of the victims. Holtzclaw may have used this same reasoning while searching for vulnerable prey. Senior ACLU attorney Sandra Park told RH Reality Check reporter Kanya D’Almeda that officers like Holtzclaw “can use stringent drug laws to help perpetuate or commit sexual assault.” A 2005 ACLU report charges “racially targeted law enforcement practices, prosecutorial decisions, and sentencing policies” have reduced black female bodies to what the African American Policy Forum describes as “vessels for drugs.” Easy pickings for police predators. Oklahoma’s KOCO describes why one of Holtzclaw’s alleged victims, a 44-year-old black female, declined to report her abduction to police: “‘[I] didn't think anyone would believe me. I'm a drug addict.’ She said she dealt with the trauma by using more drugs. ‘The only way I knew how to deal with it was to get high to block it out.’” The Oklahoman’s Kyle Schwab documented a similar response from a different victim during the trial. “The defense attorney pointed out during the woman's testimony that she has past felony drug convictions. The attorney also noted the woman's ‘tired’ demeanor, asking if she currently was under the influence of drugs. The woman said she used crack cocaine a few days before Tuesday's testimony. She said she relapsed because the trial has taken a toll on her.” It should be noted that while these black females have been stigmatized and discredited for their drug afflictions, there’s a swelling movement for a “gentler war on drugs.” Skyrocketing numbers of White heroin addicts and prescription pill abusers warrant compassion, unlike the decades of “pathologizing of black people” in the name of combating the scourge of narcotics. But run-ins with the law and drug usage obfuscate the primary reason why Holtzclaw purportedly terrorized these females and why many are justifiably reluctant to believe that a dozen Whites will deliver a conviction. The rape of black females – black people in general – is a sacred Racist tradition. Ned and Constance Sublette’s 2015 publication, The American Slave Coast: A History Of The Slave Breeding Industry, documents that one of the most lucrative institutions of colonial America was the exploitation and desecration of black procreation. Chapter two of the text is titled: “The Capitalized Womb.” Constance explains how “the weight of all this fell upon [black] wombs.” There is an explicit, unbroken pattern of commodification and defiling of black females from the antebellum plantation to the fictitious White House of ABC’s hit series, Scandal. “The sexual exploitation of black women by White Men had its roots in slavery and continued throughout the better part of the twentieth century,” writes Danielle McGuire in At The Dark End Of The Street: Black Women, Rape, and Resistance. “When African Americans tested their freedom during Reconstruction, former slaverholders and their sympathizers used rape as a ‘weapon of terror’ to dominate the bodies and minds of African–American men and women.” It’s en vogue for many scholars to name-drop Claudette Colvin as a courageous and ignored precursor to Rosa Parks and the 1955 Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott. Her commentary in Claudette Colvin: Twice Towards Justice was decades before the Holtzclaw trial, but remains depressingly applicable. “Black girls were extremely vulnerable. My mother and my grandmother told me never to go anywhere with a White Man no matter what. I grew up hearing horror story after horror story about black girls who were raped by White Men, and how they never got justice either. When A White Man raped a black girl – something that happened all the time – it was just his word against hers, and no one would ever believe her. The White Man always got off.” Holtzclaw has one White parent and one non-white parent. But a black victim testified under oath that he asked her: “Is this the first time you sucked a White cock?” Last week marked the 60-year anniversary of Parks’ refusal to forfeit her seat to a White passenger. Presidential hopeful and Racist Suspect Hillary Clinton along with legions of Whites professed their admiration and connection to the tired negro seamstress. But historian Jeanne Theoharis documents that Whites regularly served Parks the same sexualized contempt as Holtzclaw’s alleged victims. In the middle of the Montgomery boycott, a White reporter “peppered her with a series of aggressive questions accusing her of seeking publicity, impugning her morality, and referring to her as a prostitute,” writes Theoharis. Because the rape of black bodies is at the core of White culture, the projection and branding of black females as whores and sexual deviants is constant. This is why Kerry Washington’s hit series, Scandal, must depict a black female as the White president’s “sidepiece.” And this show is followed by Viola Davis’ How To Get Away With Murder. Whites honored Davis as the first black actress to receive an Emmy for a lead role in a drama; a role where her White husband describes her as a “disgusting slut” who’s only use is “dirty, rough sex I’m too ashamed to tell anyone about.”
These depictions of black females are predictable and necessary for a Racist culture founded on the molestation of black bodies. White Supremacy is engineered to produce Holtzclaws and all white juries to exonerate them. A conviction would contradict centuries of White rapist entitlement enjoyed by the likes of Thomas Jefferson, Strom Thurmond, Domonique Strauss-Kahn, and now Holtzclaw.
I’ve seen more episodes of Dukes of Hazzard than Empire.
One of these programs encourages antiblack violence in support of White Supremacy and will remain on the air for the foreseeable future.
The Dukes of Hazzard, which was canceled when Madiba was still in prison and before Dylann Storm Roof existed, has been expunged from the TV Land lineup. No reason was given, but it's suspected that the Confederate flag dispute prompted the removal.The show's featured getaway ride is named “General Lee” and brandishes a Confederate flag.
Much like Ferguson 2014, White Supremacists have done a masterful job framing our understanding of the most recent illustration of white pathology. We’re groomed to accept Roof as a “unique” White man. Told Racism will be stifled by removing a symbol of “turmoil for African Americans.” They were referencing the Confederate battle flag, but… black people are being EricGarnered with shrines to Racism and White killers.
The removal of Dukes creates space for an infinite number of viewing options that invariably sanctify identical concepts of white power that guarantee American Snipers like Roof. The manifesto attributed to the Charleston Terrorist quotes a
pivotal scene from the 1998 film, American History X:
I see all this stuff going on, and I don’t see anyone doing anything about it. And it pisses me off.
This is part of the Hitleresque tirade Derek Vineyard presents to a troop of White Supremacists before a Roof-like assault on a non-white business. Edward Norton earned an Academy Award nomination for his portrayal of Vineyard. Roof’s muse goes on to kill two black people, rejoices after stomping through a black male’s skull. This film – and Empire – will have more broadcast time now that Dukes has been banished. Many reports acknowledge that the former CBS series was "one of television’s highest rated shows" in the early 80’s. They do not suggest that flagrant appeals to white power were an integral aspect of the show’s charm. In edition to invoking the Confederate general's spirit and the flag of white defenders of black enslavement and treason, they made “Dixie” a hallmark element of the production. The song's opening verse tells all: I wish I was in the land of cotton. The theme song of the Confederacy, "Dixie" has become an exalted white power hymn that Whites defend and coalesce to sing on campuses and sporting events across the land. Campuses including the University of Mississippi and South Carolina's The Citadel.
"Norman Seabrooks, The Citadel's first African American
scholarship athlete, disliked hearing 'Dixie' as a fight song, and he would sit
down or walk away when he heard the tune. As captain of the football team, he
would leave the locker room early and step on the field before the band started
playing. Other black cadets exhibited similar protests, and Seabrooks'
classmate Larry Ferguson faced a severe backlash for refusing to play the song
as a member of the Regimental Band. Ferguson's academic scholarship was
threatened and one night, he and his roommate returned to the barracks to find
their room trashed, racial threats painted on the walls, their books shredded,
and a doll hung from the ceiling by a noose."
The stars of Dukes are white delinquents who habitually #CrimeWhileWhite. The show’s signature moment features “General Lee” and the Dukes evading authorities while the car horn blares the secessionist ditty that yearns for the "bondage, beatings and rape" of the plantation phase of White Supremacy. In 2015 Washington state, one of my White “neighbors” has the very same Dukes Of Hazzard, “Dixie” melody for his car horn. White Supremacy memorabilia transcends region and time because collective devotion to White Terrorism is unbounded. Irrespective of recent events, it’s unlikely my “neighbor's” car horn will be prohibited.
This entire government is geared up to fight a war against White people. I'm sorry to have to tell you that. I'm sorry to break the news. I realize it's shocking. I realize your heart is palpitating. I realize you're saying, "Wait a minute. You can't say that." Well, I just said it. I'll say it again. This entire federal government is geared up to fight a war against White people. There was just insurrection in Missouri. Rioting. Looting, etc. They been waiting for an insurrection by White people. That's what the Homeland Security is getting ready for. All you evil White crackers. Michael Savage Don't dismiss Mr. Savage's commentary as reckless "right-wing" ravings. Several Whites have publicly expressed paranoia about Pres. Obama or random black "kids" plotting their demise.
We're all prejudice in one way or the other. If I see a black kid in a hoodie and it's late at night, I'm walking to the other side of the street. Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban
Cuban didn't stand his ground hypothetically or literally; he apologized to Trayvon Martin's family a few days after these remarks. This is the context in which Bruce Levenson's allegedly controversial 2012 email should be evaluated. He's reportedly expressed remorse over his comments and agreed to sell his controlling share of the Atlanta Hawks franchise. NBA Commissioner Adam Silver condemned Levenson's musings and promised to re-double their anti-harassment and anti-discrimination policies with additional training. Sensitivity training. A squirt of fragrance to mask centuries of pungent fumes of Racist rot in summer heat. The stench of Donald Sterling lingering fresh in our nose. But Levenson isn't Sterling; the former does not have a public, irrefutable record of service as a White Race Soldier - terrorizing black citizens in many areas of people activity. Levenson's email presents frank business logistics and a matter-of-fact assessment of White convictions.
My theory is that the black crowd scared away the whites and there are simply not enough affluent black fans to build a significant season ticket base. Please don't get me wrong. There was nothing threatening going on in the arena back then. I never felt uncomfortable, but I think southern whites simply were not comfortable being in an arena or at a bar where they were in the minority. On fan sites I would read comments about how dangerous it is around Philips yet in our 9 years, I don’t know of a mugging or even a pick pocket incident. This was just racist garbage. When I hear some people saying the arena is in the wrong place I think it is code for there are too many blacks at the games.
A stadium filled with thousands of black people - some of them teens likely in hoodies. Cuban might be unwilling to accompany Dirk Nowitzki and company for their annual trip to ATL. Whitefolks generally have no interest being in close proximity to black people. If you're beyond middle school, this should be as shocking as the discovery that White "police" are often discourteous to black citizens or that Pres. Obama's election did not end Racism. Whites in Australia championed their "Whites Only" policy for decades. United States' citizenship was restricted solely to Whites until 1952. For several months, Whites have been downright unrelenting in promoting studies that conclude that a hefty portion of the White population has zero black friends; 75 percent of whites have "entirely white social networks without any [non-white] presence." If anything, there should be disbelief if Levenson is the first Hawks executive to comment on their critical mass of dark matter in the stands. Pale forces of Madison Avenue and NBA executives including former commissioner David Stern have shared Levenson's anxieties about peddling an increasingly melanin dominant league to a majority White fan base. The following is from Dr. John Hoberman'sDarwin's Athletes - published in 1996, nearly a decade before the infamous dress code and the ban on high school athletes joining the league.
“Charles Grantham, the black executive director of the NBA Players Association, offered this assessment in 1991: "A few years ago the NBA was perceived on Madison Avenue as being too black and too drug-infested. Once that was turned around, the league was able to promote its new personalities as exciting stars who were caring and concerned about their communities." In addition to creating the illusion of substantial player involvement in the black community, this theater of pseudo-reconciliation also serves to mitigate the pathos of American segregation, as Peter de Jonge has pointed out, by creating one-sided relationships between white fans and the black athletes they admire from afar: "In the last decade, the N.B.A., long considered too black to attract a mainstream audience, has prospered by giving middle-class whites, desperate for some semblance of a connection to black America, a series of unthreatening yet bigger-than-Iife cartoon superheroes called Magic, Michael, Charles and Shaquille." Far from concealing this manipulative campaign, the president of the NBA, David Stern, has boasted of the league's image-based strategy to gentrify its black giants and in the process create crossover market appeal in the manner of the Disney entertainment empire: "They have theme parks, and we have theme parks. Only we call them arenas. They have characters: Mickey and Goofy. Our characters are named Magic and Michael [Jordan]." (pg 150)
Black athletes converted to $40 million clowns to soothe White angst. A paternalistic imperative demands that White coaches and owners domesticate,season black savages for White consumption. William C. Rhoden declared that this "plantation mentality" is not isolated to Sterling - or Levenson.
Every time I walk into a press box, Michel [Martin], and see no African-American reporters, or every time I walk into a newsroom and see no African-American editors or, like, no reporters, you know, [Whites] are saying the same things without necessarily saying it. We don't respect you. We don't respect black people. We're not going to hire you. We don't want you around.
As a former resident of Atlanta, (Gone With The Wind) Georgia, personal experience amplifies that Mr. Levenson and Mr. Rhoden ain't just whistlin' Dixie. Robert Weintraub details how Atlanta's pro sports teams provide an accurate, pitiful appraisal of Racism:
The NFL’s Falcons offer another window into the city’s racial rift. The Falcons, too, are moving to a new stadium, one that’s still in downtown Atlanta. While the franchise, led by owner Arthur Blank, is staying inside the city’s perimeter (“ITP” to the locals), it’s relocating from an area considered by many to be “too black” to attract white fans. And in the name of snagging larger profits from a surrounding entertainment district, the team is razing a pair of historic black Baptist churches in the vicinity of the new stadium. The symbolism there isn’t pretty.
A White-owned franchise expelling black temples of worship for the sake of enticing greater numbers of Matt Ryan's White flock... talk about Dr. King's most segregated Sunday hour. And while we're on Atlanta, remember the 2014 snow storm that blasted ATL like the second coming of General Sherman? Tracy Thompson did a spectacular job illustrating how White revulsion of black people stifled MARTA and exacerbated hazardous, winter driving conditions.
I was a kid when then-Mayor Ivan Allen Jr. proposed a rapid rail system to link Atlanta to its surrounding suburbs, and I distinctly remember the joke circulating among white people back then, the one that said that MARTA (the Metropolitan Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority) actually stood for “Moving Africans Rapidly Through Atlanta.” Plain and simple, it was white folks’ fear of black folks that explained the failure of a sales-tax hike to fund rapid rail in three of the then five counties making up the metro Atlanta area.
Rich Benjamin documented Whites across the country yearning and/or working expeditiously to produce and maintain residential enclaves sans melanin - some of them in Forsyth, GA. Businesses incorporate this Racist predilection into their corporate strategy. Texas' Kung Fu Saloon has been repeatedly accused of mistreating potential non-white customers. A former White employee alleges that she was terminated for not adhering to their White Supremacist code:
Patrons or would-be patrons, have consistently complained that the dress code is selectively enforced against [non-whites]. Now an ex-event planner says she was trained to screen calls and deny customers who sounded "too ghetto" or "too Asian." The term "ghetto" she said, was code word for African American and added, "I never saw a white person turned away." When she did not she heard comments like, "Why is it so dark in here? Why is it so Asian in here? Did you not screen these phone calls?"
Whites are not ignorant about Racism. They codify their pathologies into concepts and strategies that consistently yield the best results for the Racist White collective - which translates into predictable, perpetual abuse of non-white people, especially black people. Levenson believed that White Atlantans were using coded language to suggest that Hawks' games were treacherous because of the large black presence. The Dallas tavern was alleged to have a wardrobe code that could be strategically employed to exclude non-white people. David Stern and other White league executives (Suspected Race Soldiers) were widely believed to have instituted a dress code and age restrictions in acquiescence to their Racist fan base. Context is crucial to grasp the Racist motivations that produced the 2005 age and wardrobe referendums. NBA icon "property" Michael Jordan retired in 2003. A year later USA Basketball suffered its first defeat with NBA players at the Athens Olympics. A few short months after this international humiliation, the Detroit suburbs became the site of a historic melee between the Pistons and Indiana Pacers; Ron Artest (black male) charged into the stands to confront a Suspected Racist spectator (John Green) whom assaulted him with a beverage. Hoards of Whites abandoned Detroit for bleached suburbs like Auburn Hills precisely to escape niggers like Artest. If many Whites thought of (think of) Richard Sherman as a thug for raising his voice in the presence of a White Woman, one can imagine the impact of cornrowed black males slugging ticket-buying Whites. White flight from the NBA was widespread and bruising league purses. As White Supremacists have no intention of going out of business, they refine practices to achieve more favorable results, more White derrières in seats. In 2005, retired Hall of Famer Charles Barkley succinctly summarized his view of the mandated wardrobe policy: "Of course it's Racist." Before anyone thinks of Barkley as the 21st century resurrection of Arthur Ashe, this is the same person who affirmed the acquittal of Trayvon Martin's murderer. Barkley elaborated on the logic buttressing the NBA garment regulations: "From the NBA perspective, they've got a product to sell. They've got to make it as attractive as possible to fans, viewers and corporate sponsors." That's White fans, White viewers and White corporate sponsors. Meaning Whites will package and adorn negro athletes in anyway they see fit to assuage Racist White consumers. Including putting Sir Charles in a dress... repeatedly.
2005 also marked the end of black athletes joining the NBA directly from high school. Barkley, Magic Johnson and a host of Whites professed that this was in everyone's best interest. Players would get time to mature and polish their skills at the collegiate level and the league would get older, better prepared (seasoned) products. These trite affirmations ignored that it was exclusively black players leaping from prom to the pros. They also didn't mention that few have expressed concern for Jennifer Capriati and other Whites as young as thirteen who've traveled the world playing White-dominated professional sports. NBA stars Tony Parker and Ricky Rubio began playing professional basketball in their respective countries (France, Spain) at 17. And these United States have no problem extending the ballot box or training you as a killer in any branch of the armed services at eighteen years of age. Only a bastion of hypocrisy would permit an 18-year-old to star in pornography but deny him NBA employment. Many of the league's best players of the last decade matriculated directly from high school. Kobe Bryant. Kevin Garnett. Dwight Howard. LeBron James. The NCAA plantation missed the chance to pimp these black athletes, and many Whites were less than enthused with the prospect of black males nabbing million dollar contracts before the ink dried on their high school diplomas. In many White circles, James (black people in general) remains unforgiven. Bruce Levenson, Adam Silver and White NBA executives in total have a substantially higher percentage of black players than any other professional sports league. In a global System of White Supremacy, marketing a predominantly black league to White audiences demands an obsession with optics - the projection of blackness. Part of the fallout from the 2004 "malice in the Palace" was three consecutive years of White league MVP's (Steve Nash 2005, 2006; Dirk Nowitzki 2007). Forget those dark savages! Focus on these masterful WhiteTarzans, overseers of the hard court jungle, plantation. From Serena Williams to President Obama, Whites have been reluctant if not repulsed with the prospect of cheering on a black person in any capacity - much less rooting alongside a mostly black congregation. It's a gargantuan fraud for any Whites to take umbrage with what Levenson admits to writing. If his email warrants punitive action, thousands of other Whitefolks should be updating their resumes and submitting a notice of resignation - including Danny Ferry.
Most of the players resented Jerry [Krause] for one reason or another. It started with Michael [Jordan]. During his second year with the Bulls, Michael broke his left foot and had to sit out most of the season recovering from the injury. At a certain point, Michael insisted that his foot was fully healed, but Jerry refused to let him play until the doctors gave him the final okay. When Michael pushed back, Jerry told him that management had made the decision because he was their property, an unfortunate gaffe that alienated Michael and tainted his relationship with Krause from that day forward. (pg. 113) Eleven Rings Phil Jackson
Which brings us back to (Racist Suspect) Mark Cuban's "slippery slope." When additional evidence of Donald Sterling's White Supremacist legacy was revealed during the 2014 playoffs, Cuban opposed Sterling being forced to sell his property. He found it un-American to persecute someone for repugnant, "backstage" comments. Tommy LaSorta, NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton and other Whites castigated V. Stiviano for reminding the public of Sterling's Racism. Bill Maher railed against "political correctness" and alleged breaches of privacy that ensnared role models and all around swell folks like Sterling, Paula Deen and Paul Ryan. There's a reason the likes of George Zimmerman, Darren Wilson and Suspected Rapist Daniel Holtzclaw aren't merely supported with White lip service. These killers and alleged molesters are upgraded to new tax brackets with obese donations from numerous members of the White Supremacist Army. Donald Sterling got a lifetime ban and $2 billion for the sale of the Clippers. (A few dozen folks have speculated that Levenson wanted to divest in the Hawks, and self-identifying as a Racist was his means of departure. Lump me in with the likes Donald Sterling, just make sure we're in the same tax bracket.) Racism is the cash cow. Whites make certain that other White people being penalized for terrorizing black people is as common as a black occupant of the White House. And that splash of melanin at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue still has many Whites disgruntled - even beyond the grave. To the point that Michael Savage, Cliven Bundy and Alabama Congressman Mo Brooks believe there's a war against Whites. Darkies like Attorney General Eric Holder are orchestrating a lynching of well meaning Whitefolks such as Officer Wilson. More than 100 - mostly White - Seattle "Police" Officers have named Holder among others as defendants in a lawsuit opposing federally mandated reforms to address allegations of Racism and police misconduct. Levenson's dismissal will likely bolster the persecution complex of melanin deficient Whites who fear their country, way of life and freedoms to hail the Redskins and swap nigger jokes are being curtailed. The deterioration has reached new lows where a blond White Woman can't call a black person a "Faggot Ass Nigger" without fear of being recorded and reprimanded. Where will it end? Samuel Sommers, PhD recently documented that a significant number of Whites now believe they are victims of Racism. Growing numbers of black people obtaining correct information on and accurately articulating what Racism is and how it works, is a monumental threat to Whites; some Whites have already stated that opposition to Racism equals opposition to Whites. Increasing numbers of non-white people are utilizing ever-evolving technology to document Whitefolks trifling, terroristic targeting of black people. Cellphones are now integral weapons in spotlighting Racism. Email and text messages are proving increasingly detrimental to the Racist enterprise - they have a stubborn shelf life and can easily get loose on the web. Levenson's discharge will likely amplify White unease - a defensive anxiety that the slightest verbal faux pas will wound the childish sensibilities of black people and cost a hard working White Soldier like Jimmy The Greek or Marge Schott their livelihood. And we still got two more years of that damn Obama. The Levenson saga is only a couple days old and largely unsettled. In fact, it seems Levenson's former colleague and Hawks' General Manager Danny Ferry will also be under scrutiny. He has admitted to reading the following remarks about African born player, Loul Deng:
Deng "has a little African in him. Not in a bad way, but he's like a guy who would have a nice store out front but sell you counterfeit stuff out of the back."
A White Duke graduate being reprimanded for deprecating an African (who happens to be a fellow Blue Devil alumnus)... what is the world coming to? Expecting anything other than eternal deception, hostility, warfare, and terrorism from Whites is like betting on a Hawks' championship parade down Peachtree. You're destined for years of disappointment.
