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May 19, 2003
Morose is Right
That Negro makes a sterling point.
The problem is, the old battle wasn't really won. I don't get the feeling that the civil rights movement was about racially integrating an otherwise-unchanged society, and I think I lifted that phrase or that entire sentence from a much better author, so please don't quote me, and if you can find an attribution, let me know.
Attribution is for professional journalists. Fuck 'em if they can't write a joke. I take it from you, Aaron and take it from there.
The civil rights movement was successful because it didn't have the ambition of the black power movement. I'm not going to put either of them in caps because, as anthropologists will tell you 100 years from now, they my not rank high on the historical scale. That's a cynical view, but you've got to wonder how deeply this country has been struck by the import of those movements if republicans can still dominate electoral politics without bothering to chase the black vote and democrats can manage to be so lifeless and limp (like whitegirl hair without Breck) despite being chockablock with the black bloc.
The battle was elsewhere. Do I have to quote Puff Daddy here?
America is a soft place to live, and we are going to have to admit it. Domestic terror is way down, and the psy-ops don't work on blackfolks any longer. There is no more such thing as wreckless eyeballing, and those of the darker persuasion can get lapdances with any blonde they want down deep in the Scary South. Miscegenation is de riguer. Who even cares?
You want to? Then go right ahead and buy an assault weapon black man. Millions do. Why not you? You say you want a revolution? Who's stopping you? Nobody. Factoid please (Courtesy George)
Between 1975 and 1995, the number of black professionals, technicians, administrators and managers nearly tripled, and the number of black college graduates doubled, according to census figures. By 2000, more than 15 percent of black households earned more than $50,000 annually. The top one-fifth of black families earned nearly half of all black income.Be careful what you wish for black man, you may end up being more like The Man than you think. Which leaves us all in a state approaching confusion. What do you do with a moral solar system whose bright and morning star has collapsed into a singularity? You reconsider the galaxy and aim for other stars before you get sucked into the black hole.
Engage.
Engagement in America means gird your loins. You need a tax attorney, an accountant, a lawyer, a butcher and a bodyguard. You need to understand ruthlessness because that's what kind of ass-kicking built this nation in case you forget. Don't let your kids watch the Brady Bunch. It ain't real. So why do we have Brady Bunch politics? Why do we think of the civil rights movement as a second marriage between blacks and America where all the kids get along in the new happy family?
Forget Public Enemy. Instead of 'fight the powers that be' you've got to be the powers that fight.
Posted by mbowen at May 19, 2003 10:17 PM
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