http://www.freedomarchives.org/Documents/Finder/Black%20Liberation%20Disk/Black%20Power!/SugahData/Journals/Liberator.S.pdf
One sociologist, I believe Orlando Patterson, said that Blacks are extraordinarily economically challenged, and yet perhaps the most creative force in the popular culture of America, if not the world. Certainly, in music the cultural creativity of our people is virtually beyond debate. Moreover, it is from the MASSES of Black people in America that most of our creativity arises. Spirituals, gospel, blues, jazz, rhythm 'n blues, soul, neo-soul and hip hop are mainly the cultural creations of the Black masses--those "low class, ignorant ghetto Negroes" who so many whites (and some privileged Blacks) are so contemptuous of. It was also their spiritual strength which sustained the freedom Movement which won the rights so many of us now take for granted, and which a threatened by racist and reactionary forces in US society (including the Supine Court). Hats off to the creative Black masses. May you rise up, live and prosper, my beloved brothers and sisters.
-Savant
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Duh, Kip's point is so SIMPLE it's amazing that even you fail to see it. Of course, no one should do crimes. The point is that when a white does it, he or she alone are held liable. But a Black does it, the whole PEOPLE are held responsible. Moreover, the white racist perceptions are so deep that Blacks are even perceived to be guilty whether they are or not. I know that blacks of your sort, those utterly enamored of whiteness don't like to hear this. But the word for what Kip is talking about is called WHITE RACISM. It's deeply rooted it affects even the perceptions of many Black people themselves.
-Savant
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LOL! This is another example of Freddy's obtuseness. He says I'd be afraid to venture North St. Louis. Have anyone SEEN any episodes of THE WIRE? I GREW UP in those parts of Baltimore. I even KNOW some of the persons in the episode who actually are from parts of East Bmore where I grew up, and where most of my kindred in Bmore still live. And that fool thinks I'm afraid of St. Louis. I've "ventured " into southside Chicago. I've venture into Harlem more than once. I've lived in North and West Philly with relatives. And he thinks I'm afraid of St. Louis? What a stupid goose he is. Now he quotes some whites who say that their prejudices began to diminish when they met Blacks in their clubs, on their own grounds. That's commendable if true. A progressive transformation of society will be much more difficult if not impossible unless SOME whites are on board. Fortunately, some are. White racism has been perhaps the greatest obstacle not only to the achievement of racial justice, but for the achievement of economic justice. I'm even pleased that an old Fox News clown that Bill O'Reilly received a stunning discovery when he entered an Afro-American restaurant, when he saw the place was clean, that we use forks and spoons, and that we actually sit at tables rather swinging from chandeliers. Nonetheless, all the progress in white consciousness hasn't prevented fascist pig cops from slaying black men, women and children and being exonerated by reactionary courts. It has stopped cops in Baltimore from brutalizing and even killing Blacks (children included) be they Black Americans, West Indians or Africans. West Indians and Africans have been killed by fascist pig cops in NYC, Bmore, Philly, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, D.C and numerous other places. Abner Louima's Haitian background didn't stop NYC pig cops from violated him with a broomstick. Amadou Diallo's African background didn't stop pigs from shooting him and turning his body into swiss cheese with all those shots. If I remember correctly, the cops got off after committing those atrocities also. So, it is refreshing to know that some whites are re-appraising their attitudes towards Blacks. What they need to see is that anti-Black racism which sanction police violence against communities of color also helps to keep poor and working class whites in subjection as well. And it is especially those whites who move from a re-evaluation of their attitudes, or even sympathy for the Black struggle, to SOLIDARITY in our COMMON struggle against racism, police terror, poverty and exploitation, who most deserve to be honored. I would say of them, in the words of Tom Paine, they "deserve the love and thanks of man and woman."
-Savant
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Interestingly enough, I've come across a good number of Black and Hispanic officers have complained about the de facto and even UNDISGUISED racism within the official bureaucracy of many big city police. I know of some who've gotten in trouble for attempted to expose or file complaints about police racist misconduct--abuses that are a matter of POLICY---not merely the "attitudes" or misconduct of a bad or "rogue" cop here or there.
Of course, Black cops and Latin cops CAN and often do play a repressive role. We forget that even in South Africa during the late 80s, about 40% of the police in that monstrous regime were Black Africans--which didn't make the system less racist any more than Jewish capos made Nazi system less racist and anti-Semitic.
People have to reject the silly notions (like Freddy's) that racism is just a "state of mind", or that (as Nikki naively believes) police abuse is a matter of "good" cops as against "bad" cops. Things are not that simple. The police as an INSTITUTION is severely flawed (as are most other major institutions in our society), and what's needed is a STRUCTURAL analysis of the institution and measures informed by that re-appraisal and analysis. At least the beginnings of such a new approach is evident among young people in the new insurgencies and movements against police brutality and repression.
-Savant
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I wouldn't pay much attention to people like Mekushe. He may or may not even be an African, and the whole purpose of this thread is to start a quarrel between Africans and American Blacks. Also, I have worked with Blacks from Africa, and worked with some in advancing the struggle against Apartheid. Don't be so naïve as to believe that Africans as whole share his prejudices.
-Savant
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