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Title: Don't let yourselves be played like fools, brothers and sisters
Source:
Seattle Times
URL Source: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/ht ... pinion/2008172001_pitts11.html
Published: Sep 11, 2008
Author: Leonard Pitts
Post Date: 2008-09-11 22:52:48 by Tauzero
Ping List: *Race Realism* Subscribe to *Race Realism*
Keywords: None
Views: 211
Comments: 7
If Kwame Kilpatrick were white, don't you think he'd have been thrown out of office a long time ago? Heck, he'd be out of jail by now and shopping his memoirs. Instead, it was just last week, after a year of scandal and revelation that has paralyzed his city and made it the punch line to an international joke, that Detroit's mayor surrendered his office and copped a plea: 120 days in jail, five years probation, and a $1 million fine. Because, you see, Kilpatrick is not white, he is black in a city that is itself over 80 percent black. And that complicated things. For instance, it led to undeserved support from the local black paper. And to a massive rally for him at a black church. And to black people blaming the media for "bringing down" a gifted black man. And to a political consultant calling the case, "Jim Crow justice." And to Kilpatrick repeatedly portraying himself as a victim of racial politics and a "lynch mob mentality." All the claims of racial solidarity and victimization gave Kilpatrick what Eliot Spitzer could never have imagined: a base from which to dig in his heels and declare he would not be moved. If you didn't know better, you might have thought this was Birmingham in 1963 or Montgomery in '55, with strains of "We Shall Overcome" ringing in the air. You'd never know it was Detroit in 2008 where the issue wasn't desegregation or human dignity but, rather, a mayor who had an extramarital affair with his chief of staff, fired police who came too close to discovering it, lied about it under oath, agreed to an $8.4 million payoff to keep police from releasing explicit text messages proving the affair and, for good measure, shoved a sheriff's deputy trying to serve a subpoena to someone else in an unrelated matter. Racial victimization? Jim Crow justice? Give me a break. In an April column, I excoriated the mayor for playing upon African America's reflexive tendency to rally in defense of any one of us who gets in trouble. But that's only part of the problem here. It's not just that someone played black folks, but that black folks keep letting themselves be played. Truth is, we get played like checkers any time any high-profile one of us is caught in scandal or sin. From Michael Jackson to O.J. Simpson to Tawana Brawley to Mike Tyson to Marion Barry to Kilpatrick, lying his natural backside off in court, we keep proving pathetically susceptible to manipulation by any brother or sister who says white folks have done him or her wrong — especially if they invoke God a few times for good measure. There's an axiom that goes, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me. But what about fool me 87 times? What about, fool me like the nerdy kid with the "kick me" sign taped to his back? What happens when you get fooled like that? I'll tell you what should happen. You should say, Enough. You should evolve the social and political maturity, the common sense and the plain self-respect to stop letting yourself be used like a dishrag. African Americans — and, for that matter, all people of conscience — have a moral responsibility to stand up for those who truly are victims of racial injustice. In defending those people, we should be unstinting and unwavering. We should not, however, be unthinking. We should stop falling into the easy trap of believing every black man in trouble is a victim of racial malfeasance. Sometimes, a black man in trouble is a victim of his own malfeasance. If more black folks in Motown had understood this, the city might not have spent the last year embarrassing itself. For centuries, African Americans have struggled to teach white people that black does not mean guilt. Frankly, it's high time we ourselves learned a corresponding truth. It doesn't mean innocence, either.
Poster Comment: Pitts is almost not an n-word. Truth is, we get played like checkers any time any high-profile one of us is caught in scandal or sin. The point being to play whitey, through his reflexive aversion to charges of bigotry. Pitts doesn't care about that though -- not that he ought to. You should evolve the social and political maturity, the common sense and the plain self-respect to stop letting yourself be used like a dishrag. Ditto for whitey.
Don't let yourselves be played like fools, brothers and sisters
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#1. To: Tauzero (#0)
First time I've read anything Leonard Pitts wrote that wasn't complete garbage, his track record is pretty lousy. He's one of the reasons I quit reading the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: he's one of their pet editorialists (or was, I'm assuming he still gets space in that yellow rag).
From Michael Jackson to O.J. Simpson to Tawana Brawley to Mike Tyson to Marion Barry to Kilpatrick, lying his natural backside off in court, we keep proving pathetically susceptible to manipulation by any brother or sister who says white folks have done him or her wrong — especially if they invoke God a few times for good measure. How many brothuhs and sistuhs on Kuwamee's jury? Never mind. It's safe to conclude that jury nullification is alive and well in Detroit where the cry of the local primates is "Let my people go...on juries, and we'll let my people go." Bottom line: the Black underclass needs us; we do not need them; they must leave our habitat and shift for themselves. Whites will have their own homeland, their own breeding space, if the White gene pool is to be preserved. Fact!
It's Great to be White!
Oh yeah, hee hee. The one of many that the bumble headed Decider managed to fuck up.
Minus accident of birth .. GWB, Mgr. Hardees ... McBomb, Mgr. Burger King .. (both flunked out at Hamburger U.)
I'm freqently bemused as I drive past McMansions containing 4-5 bedrooms and 2 kids. The proud white Americans who have achieved economic success have long since abandoned "breeding" (read family) for the almighty dollar and conspicuous consumption. At any rate, I've never found lack of space to be a serious hindrance to breeding.
Minus accident of birth .. GWB, Mgr. Hardees ... McBomb, Mgr. Burger King .. (both flunked out at Hamburger U.)
Oh give me land lots of land under starry skies above... You're right that whites are not breeding not mostly because of space per se, though darkie is indeed more willing to breed under crowded conditions. But white reproductive rates are lower under conditions of "diversity"; Single whites without or not desiring of children are more willing to live in "diverse" areas. When they decide to have children, they sensibly avoid "diversity". Two effects, same cause almighty dollar and conspicuous consumption which is a poor substitute for a sense of place, tradition, and racial heritage.
You bought The Battle of New Orleans. I'm right with you on two out of three, but I'd substitute cultural heritage until the Hitler, Stalin, Bush, Cheney et.al's genes mysteriouly disappear from the planet.
Minus accident of birth .. GWB, Mgr. Hardees ... McBomb, Mgr. Burger King .. (both flunked out at Hamburger U.)
For centuries, African Americans have struggled to teach white people that black does not mean guilt. Frankly, it's high time we ourselves learned a corresponding truth. It doesn't mean innocence, either. That is some good commentary.
Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
-Schweizerische Schutzenseitunt (Swiss Shooting Federation) April, 1941
#2. To: Tauzero (#0)
The nigger commentator:
#3. To: Tauzero (#0)
There's an axiom that goes, fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me.
#4. To: Hypocrisy Cop, all other Klansmen (#2)
Whites will have their own homeland, their own breeding space
#5. To: iconoclast, Hypocrisy Cop (#4)
We recommend: Conway Twitty
#6. To: Tauzero (#5)
a poor substitute for a sense of place, tradition, and racial heritage.
#7. To: Tauzero (#0)
We should stop falling into the easy trap of believing every black man in trouble is a victim of racial malfeasance. Sometimes, a black man in trouble is a victim of his own malfeasance. If more black folks in Motown had understood this, the city might not have spent the last year embarrassing itself.
Lord Acton
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