November 5th...The Day after

Its 1:30 am EST and after a night of uncertainty, CNN, FOX News, MSNBC, ABC, CBS and every other major news outlet has called the election winner as John McCain. Somehow he pulled a miracle and not only won the swing states but won Pennsylvania as well. John McCain has 282 Electoral votes to Barack Obama’s 266. The country is shocked, anger is rising. Polls stated that Obama would win, without a doubt. The validity of polling doesn’t come into question, instead the validity of people’s true feelings about race and power have come into light. Tensions that have been boiling since Obama’s announcement of his running for President and the FIRST assassination plot against him are beginning to rise. For 20 months, voters, particularly of color, have had to witness the attempt of a political assassination of Obama’s character, family and intentions. The first brick is thrown through a window. The first innocent white bystander is attacked. Tears flow and fired begins to burn down buildings. Silently, whites celebrate and breathe a sigh of relief that Obama has not won the presidency. Now…how to contain the beast that was been let loose? This is the exact reason why we can’t have him in office, his people are unstable. John McCain is President…what next??

OR

Its 10:30pm and every major news outlet has called the election winner as Barack Obama. He has won the election 349 electoral votes to John McCain’s 189. History has been made. Barack Obama is the first Black President of the United States. Gun shots are being fired in celebration. People drink and a few excited folk go out at vandalize in celebration. This is a riot of victory. Some blacks feel victory over white people. It is OJ all over again…”We’ve won!!” Fast forward to 6:00am the next morning. The news reports that several burning crosses have been placed on the lawns of black residents and churches. The south is outraged and a race war ensues. Nationwide, people of color are defending the new president and his motives. 5 more attempted assassination plots are foiled. Tensions continue to build as the monster created at past political rallies takes to the streets and neighbors become enemies. One lone soul, out on a mission, makes a daring attempt on Obama’s life. The gun goes off……
I can hear you while you read this….”How Assumptive”, “What a play on stereotypes”, or “Those are exaggerated hypotheses”. However these are the only two hypotheses that I have heard and both infuriate me. Call me an optimist; call me unrealistic, it’s just that I am tired of people placing this whole thing in a box. Placing themselves, their race, and their futures in these boxes based on stereotypes and assumptions. If this race has taught us anything, it is that everything is possible. By believing in the stereotypes, by staying within the box, we as a people will never move forward. Why do you think that racism still exists?? Because people refuse to believe outside of their perceptions, regardless of what truths may be right in front of them. Also, people allow certain stereotypes to exist about them. We take offense when we hear that black people will riot whether Obama wins or loses, but we say it too!! Saying it just helps keep the stereotype alive and creates situations where it does come true because it is expected. “Well they knew something was going to happen, you know how WE do!” I guess my point is that people need to stop with the negative assumptions. “He’s going to be assassinated” , “The blacks will riot regardless” “White people will attack blacks” “Blacks will attack whites”, “I think the Bradley effect will cause Obama not to win”, etc etc. Now I am not naïve enough to believe that none of these probabilities are not possible. Just this morning the AFT foiled another assassination plot against Barack Obama and Emmitt Till’s murder site has been vandalized. I am very aware of the ignorance in this country. However, why accept that as the norm and why is no one outrage that is considered the norm?? Why is underlined racism ok?? And with that said, Why let these few ruin the moment for many?? We are living in history and we are so focused on what ifs?? Whatever that is going to happen will happen. We as a country will have to deal with it because on November 5th, one of these men will be named President. But it is up to us to control our thoughts, assumptions, and intuitions, and also attempt to influence those that may be stuck in that box. Once you free yourself you are able to see the entire picture, 360 degrees. Free yourself….wake up!

“What has also been lost is the idea that in this American story, each of us has a role to play. Each of us has a responsibility to work hard and look after ourselves and our families, and each of us has a responsibility to our fellow citizens. That's what's been lost these last eight years – our sense of common purpose; of higher purpose. And that's what we need to restore right now.”
----Barack Obama

The Big Black Elephant in the room

Last week the McCain Campaign decided to switch its focus. After trailing in the polls, the candidate decided to go negative. Attack Obama’s character…that should work. He and his vice-presidential candidate tied Obama to terrorist and began an aggressive fear campaign designed to scare Americans from voting for Barack. They incited anger in their supporters by lying about Obama and his connections to terrorist organizations. Even though our country is progressive enough to elect a Black man as a presidential candidate, there is still and undertone of racism. When polled, some white people have admitted that they would not vote for Obama just because he was black. There is even a group of Blacks called “Blacks against Barack”, who are campaigning against him. So even though it is being sweep under the rug, the elephant is still in the living room staring us all in the face. Race is a HUGE issue. The only difference between the past racism and today’s racism is that words like “nigger” have been replaced by “terrorist” or “un-fit” or “that one”. Racism is not as obvious as it once was, which actually makes it worse. If a percentage of white voters actually admitted to not wanting to vote for Obama for being black, imagine those who have chosen to stay quiet. Now at McCain rallies, jeers of “Terrorist”, “Liar”, “Criminal”, “Kill him”, and “Off with his head” have been shouted when McCain mentions Barack Obama. This is very reminiscent to a lynch mob. All that is missing are torches, burning crosses, and white sheets. Racist epithets have even been screamed at black news crew workers who were covering McCain’s rallies. When deciding to go negative, McCain and Palin failed to realize that there is already an underline, unspoken fear of the Black Man. Barack Obama is running for, and is very close to obtaining the most powerful position in America. That is scary to some, whether they admit it or not. Now McCain and Palin have added fuel to a fire and they cannot put out so easily. recently, McCain was booed at his own rally for calling Obama a “decent man”. Decent!!! Now he cannot control his own supporters and now even his words fall flat. There is not enough damage control that can be done to control this mob, at least not by election time. McCain needs to humble himself and apologize for his words and actions. At least then he can concede with dignity. I commend Obama for (a) not playing the race card, and (b) acting with class. This man receives numerous death threats everyday and manages to walk out fearless and still go for the prize regardless of what he may face. It is almost a good thing that this box has been open because it shows to American that unsupported racism still exists and that it will take a Black President to help the country move one step forward.

Update: Congressman John Lewis called McCain and Palin out on their fear antics by saying "What I am seeing reminds me too much of another destructive period in American history. Sen. McCain and Gov. [Sarah] Palin are sowing the seeds of hatred and division, and there is no need for this hostility in our political discourse…George Wallace never threw a bomb. He never fired a gun, but he created the climate and the conditions that encouraged vicious attacks against innocent Americans who were simply trying to exercise their constitutional rights. Because of this atmosphere of hate, four little girls were killed on Sunday morning when a church was bombed in Birmingham, Alabama,". After hearing these comments, McCain had the nerve to say that he and Palin’s characters were being attacked and demanded that Obama repudiate Lewis’ comments. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?? Am I the only one who feels like they are in The Matrix or the Twilight Zone?? McCain even has his conservative backers endorsing Obama due to his erratic behavior. Lewis couldn’t be any more correct and McCain must fess up to being the cause of this. And this is only the beginning of the foolishness. They are already attacking Acorn and while I cannot say that Acorn did some dishonest deeds, you better believe that voter fraud claims will be flying around. What is funny is that that would be the first time in the history of America, that anything had been rigged to favor the black guy!!! Anyhow…THANK YOU Congressman Lewis for stating the obvious. Maybe the majority will wake up and get it!


"Racism's still alive...they just be concealing it"
-Kanye West


Did you know??? A crowd of nearly 2,000 people gathered in Georgia in 1899 to witness the lynching of Sam Holt, an African American farm laborer charged with killing his white employer. A newspaper described the scene:

Sam Holt...was burned at the stake in a public road.... Before the torch was applied to the pyre, the Negro was deprived of his ears, fingers, and other portions of his body.... Before the body was cool, it was cut to pieces, the bones were crushed into small bits, and even the tree upon which the wretch met his fate were torn up and disposed of as souvenirs. The Negro's heart was cut in small pieces, as was also his liver. Those unable to obtain the ghastly relics directly paid more fortunate possessors extravagant sums for them. Small pieces of bone went for 25 cents and a bit of liver, crisply cooked, for 10 cents.

In the Land of Gobbility Gook.....

I had a conversation today with a 50+ year old black woman, a woman from my mother’s generation. The conversation turned to politics which I was hesitant to discuss because friends can turn into enemies based on political views. I assumed, which was my fault, that being black, being raised in the Civil Rights era that this woman would emphatically stand behind the Obama-Biden ticket, but yet I heard her trying to justify to me the wonders of “Superwoman” aka. Mrs. Sarah Palin. After watching the debates last night, we discussed the outcome and to my conclusion, found out we were not watching the same debate. Sarah Palin is a ball of smoke, thrown in a corner to distract the viewer from what’s REALLY going on. And this woman, these women, is mesmerized by this distraction called a candidate. I asked her, would you rather have a Vice-President who looked good and has funny quirks rather than have someone that was knowledgeable and experienced especially given the state our country is in right now? Her response was that Palin was experience because of “all those things she did in Alaska and how she went up against her party and ended corruption.” That is when the conversation ended because she refused to believe outside of what she had been told and not what she knew. I can smell Fox News propaganda a mile away and it was obvious that this woman had been brain washed by that channel and I called her on it, not knowing she really did watch the channel. She went on to tell me how un-biased Fox News is and how hard the media has been on Palin…so I after I jumped back in my skin, I told her she needs to broaden her horizon on where she gets her political information. It amazes me that just because they call themselves “Fair and Balanced “that it is suppose to be true. Fox News is biased. But so is MSNBC. I don’t know if I am stating the obvious, but they are subliminally biased based off their color schemes. Fox News is red and MSNBC is blue. It’s that simple. But it doesn’t stop there because many media outlets are giving biased views on this election. The reason I mentioned the initial story was because it showed me that there are people easily persuaded by smoke and mirrors and will believe whatever they are told. It goes back to the Milgram Experiement which was an experiment proving obedience to authority. A Yale professor conducted an experiment to see if people would perform acts that go against their personal conscience and beliefs. Look it up: http://www.cnr.berkeley.edu/ucce50/ag-labor/7article/article35.htm . What the experiment discovered was that people are willing to take orders or will believe what you say when the order comes from someone of authority. They will do so because the responsibility is not on them, it is on the “authority figure” that gave them the order. This is why politics, businesses, and the media are so corrupt. It is up to YOU, YOU, to find out the truth. If you believe what you are being told, you are a lemming. I have never 100% trust what is told to me by these people because of their track records i.e.: Tuskegee Experiment, Weapons of Mass Destruction, COINTELPRO. But it was up to me to inform myself from various sides on what the true story is. I am a Fox News viewer, as well as a viewer of many other news outlets, but that is because (a) I know how to read between Fox News’ lines, and (b) You always need to know what your opponent is talking about. And this goes deeper than this election, which is one of the most historic things I have experience. No, we must find out the truths. Go and find out if YOUR state is one of those states that will not allow you to wear campaign propaganda to the polls. Stop sending the emails and mis-information or else you are just as much a part of the problem as they are. You want to do something?? You want to change people views, then get the facts and spread the word. That is my motive right now. And on November 4th, I will be volunteering to take the elderly and disabled and whoever needs a ride to the polls. NO EXCUSES!!! This is my one step toward making change. What are you going to do?? Stop talking about…be about!! This is our time. Acknowledge this moment for what it is. These days, theses years, this decade starting with “Y2K”, has been one for the books. What story will you tell?? How will your history be remembered?? Remember the last one standing decides how history will be written. WAKE UP!!!!!

“The good teacher discovers the natural gifts of his pupils and liberates them by the stimulating influence of the inspiration that he can impart. The true leader makes his followers twice the men they were before.”
-Stephen Neill

Did You Know??? Ralph J. Bunche was the first African-American to win the Nobel Peace prize in 1950 for mediating the Arab-Israeli truce.