Who didn't see it coming? John McCain, a cagey twenty-six year veteran of Washington D.C. , is not afraid to go low. Last night he proved that, like an old school brawler who senses the end if he cannot catch his breath, he is a win at all cost kind of guy.

Short gasps audible through the microphone punctuated what Senator McCain had to say throughout the night, including when he tersely dismissed  Senator Obama as "that one". Mr. Obama's expression was a combination of offense, forgiveness, and a complete lack of surprise, exactly the way I imagine Jesus would look in the same situation.

Down talking to someone is a tricky business, but when an old white man is codescending toward a  bright, young black man, while being nationally televised on all three networks and the cable news channels, the going can prove especially perilous. A million years ago when McCain started his Washington career,  it may have been the norm to  polarize people along racial divides, but these days it does not fly in most places.

A girl that I knew back in California posted an video of some dudes who call themselves The Obama Youth on her facebook page, and declared that it was one of the most frightening things she had ever seen online.  In it some young black fellows, dressed in camoflage pants and matching navy blue tee shirts stomp/march into the room chanting "Alpha/Omega" before arranging themselves into an orderly line. One after another they declare that because of Obama they are inspired to be the next "doctor, lawyer, automotive technician,  chef, architect, engineer," etc., you get the jist. At the end they all do a little yes we can cheer, combined with some synchronized movement, then a little cheer about health care, then it's over.

Out on the campaign trail right now the GOP candidate and his running mate are whipping their conservative supporters up into a frenzy accusing Senator Obama of being a socialist who, "doesn't see America", as you and I do.  Over on Wall Street the market is sinking like a zeppelin made of lead and  Republican  champions of small government cannot print the money, to prop the economy up, fast enough.

Fear is a sublime motivator, but fear can also be misplaced and exploited, so that reality becomes less important than the preconceived notions that create our frame of reference. When we deny our fears it creates a mindset where hope can begin to take root and grow. Though fear has the ability to make people jump suddenly, hope can provide the motivation to endure the unspeakable.

Never in my lifetime has the choice been so clearly defined as we head into the polls. On the one hand I can vote because I am afraid of what will happen. On the other hand I can vote because of what I hope will happen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wy09UpI60F8

The controversy of the cover, which depicts the turban-wearing, presumptive democratic nominee with with his gun-toting wife, Michelle, dressed in a getup reminiscent of a 1960s Black Panther follower, got a response from the Obama camp stating:

“The New Yorker may think, as one of their staff explained to us, that their cover is a satirical lampoon of the caricature Senator Obama’s right-wing critics have tried to create,” Spokesman Bill Burton, said in a statement. “But most readers will see it as tasteless and offensive –- and we agree.”

Barry Blitt, the artist, released a statement saying the cover “satirizes the use of scare tactics and misinformation in the presidential election to derail Barack Obama’s campaign.”

Senator John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, agreed whole-heartedly with Obama's camp avoiding a racial divide. And, Obama would not speak publicly about the cover only to say that he had no comment about it.

Trying to get sales on momentum, another satirical cover, this time from Vanity Fair appeared this month poking fun at the McCains. The cover (right) depicts an elderly McCain and his wife, Cindy, fist bumping with the U.S. Constitution burning in the fireplace. Cindy McCain is holding a handful of prescription bottles making fun of her past addiction problems while her husband is standing up using a walker.

Since the "Satire Saga" occurred, the New Yorker has released two more issues since the Obama cover was on newstands. The July 28 cover by Peter de Seve has a less controversial tone depicting a summer getaway with three lobsters escaping out a kitchen window before becoming dinner (below left). The most recent Aug. 4

cover by Kim DeMarco shows a swimmer with a swimming cap on in what looks to be the middle of nowhere (below right).

It seems the politicking isn't over though.

Ryan Lizza, the journalist whose article prompted the satirical New Yorker cover, was excluded from the press team following Obama on his overseas trip last week. Rachel Sklar of the Huffington Post is damned mad about it calling it a deliberate "snub" from the Obama campaign.

So I leave you with some questions: Are some subjects off limits to

satire? Would you consider the New Yorker cover satire at all? Did the media go too far or are they entitled to poke fun of public figures because the First Amendment says so? Finally, did the New Yorker think it made a "boo-boo" and is trying to cool the tension down by easing down the tones of its follow-up editions? Leave a comment and tell me your thoughts.

~ADM

Today, it was widely reported in various media that Barack Obama is "having trouble" narrowing the "racial divide" in America. This "finding" is based on a poll conducted by the New York Times; see: Poll Finds Obama Isn't Closing Divide on Race. While it's true that only 31% of white respondents have a favorable opinion of Barack Obama, 35% of white respondents have a favorable opinion of John McCain--a stunning advantage for Sen. McCain.

The Times report on the poll also makes a number of highly dubious empirical linkages. Citing the fact that blacks' and whites' racial attitudes have not changed much in recent years, this is presented as evidence that Obama's candidacy has not done much to close the divide on race.

If I'm not mistaken, Sen. Obama became the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party on June 3. Next time you read the results of such a poll, ask yourself: Do I really expect such deep-seeded attitudes to change in less than two months?

"We the people, in order to form a more perfect union."

Two hundred and twenty one years ago, in a hall that still stands across the street, a group of men gathered and, with these simple words, launched America's improbable experiment in democracy. Farmers and scholars; statesmen and patriots who had traveled across an ocean to escape tyranny and persecution finally made real their declaration of independence at a Philadelphia convention that lasted through the spring of 1787.

The document they produced was eventually signed but ultimately unfinished. It was stained by this nation's original sin of slavery, a question that divided the colonies and brought the convention to a stalemate until the founders chose to allow the slave trade to continue for at least twenty more years, and to leave any final resolution to future generations.

Of course, the answer to the slavery question was already embedded within our Constitution - a Constitution that had at is very core the ideal of equal citizenship under the law; a Constitution that promised its people liberty, and justice, and a union that could be and should be perfected over time.

Yup, and we've taken care of that just as we have the fact that women didn't used to be able to vote and were more property of their husbands than people. I didn't hear that being mentioned. But hey, this is about race right? One needs a poor pity me card in order to get the people's attention.

And yet words on a parchment would not be enough to deliver slaves from bondage, or provide men and women of every color and creed their full rights and obligations as citizens of the United States. What would be needed were Americans in successive generations who were willing to do their part - through protests and struggle, on the streets and in the courts, through a civil war and civil disobedience and always at great risk - to narrow that gap between the promise of our ideals and the reality of their time.

Again, while I sympathize with Obama for the slavery card, women were next to slaves for a long time too being unable to vote, own property, even have a say in what happened to their children if their husbands died. So what's your point?

This was one of the tasks we set forth at the beginning of this campaign - to continue the long march of those who came before us, a march for a more just, more equal, more free, more caring and more prosperous America. I chose to run for the presidency at this moment in history because I believe deeply that we cannot solve the challenges of our time unless we solve them together - unless we perfect our union by understanding that we may have different stories, but we hold common hopes; that we may not look the same and we may not have come from the same place, but we all want to move in the same direction - towards a better future for of children and our grandchildren.

This belief comes from my unyielding faith in the decency and generosity of the American people. But it also comes from my own American story.

I really thought America was past all that. Am I out of touch with reality? I've always looked favorably on black men myself. So does my roommate for that matter. But then we are just two women out of the whole country.

I am the son of a black man from Kenya and a white woman from Kansas. I was raised with the help of a white grandfather who survived a Depression to serve in Patton's Army during World War II and a white grandmother who worked on a bomber assembly line at Fort Leavenworth while he was overseas. I've gone to some of the best schools in America and lived in one of the world's poorest nations. I am married to a black American who carries within her the blood of slaves and slaveowners - an inheritance we pass on to our two precious daughters. I have brothers, sisters, nieces, nephews, uncles and cousins, of every race and every hue, scattered across three continents, and for as long as I live, I will never forget that in no other country on Earth is my story even possible.

It's a story that hasn't made me the most conventional candidate. But it is a story that has seared into my genetic makeup the idea that this nation is more than the sum of its parts - that out of many, we are truly one.

Yes, your history is very controversial. Born Hawaii, attended both a Muslim school and Catholic school and went to Harvard. Father was Muslim, step father Radical Muslim. Obama is Christian Separatist Church for only African Americans. We won't even get into his Reverend here who for 20 years spoke out vehemently against white Americans and America in general AND who took his children to this church.

Throughout the first year of this campaign, against all predictions to the contrary, we saw how hungry the American people were for this message of unity. Despite the temptation to view my candidacy through a purely racial lens, we won commanding victories in states with some of the whitest populations in the country. In South Carolina, where the Confederate Flag still flies, we built a powerful coalition of African Americans and white Americans.

I think that is really wonderful. And I'm sorry that any of this had to go to the racial issue. But it wasn't my Reverend that spoke the way yours did. Controversy was bound to happen with someone like that.  Were you counting on it?

This is not to say that race has not been an issue in the campaign. At various stages in the campaign, some commentators have deemed me either "too black" or "not black enough." We saw racial tensions bubble to the surface during the week before the South Carolina primary. The press has scoured every exit poll for the latest evidence of racial polarization, not just in terms of white and black, but black and brown as well.

And yet, it has only been in the last couple of weeks that the discussion of race in this campaign has taken a particularly divisive turn.

On one end of the spectrum, we've heard the implication that my candidacy is somehow an exercise in affirmative action; that it's based solely on the desire of wide-eyed liberals to purchase racial reconciliation on the cheap. On the other end, we've heard my former pastor, Reverend Jeremiah Wright, use incendiary language to express views that have the potential not only to widen the racial divide, but views that denigrate both the greatness and the goodness of our nation; that rightly offend white and black alike.

In your Reverend's own words I might add just in case you were wanting to pass that off as some kind of mistake. And if the truth be told this whole campaign has gone on way too long for my liking. Can we pass a law that says we aren't subjected to this for more than 6 months? Please?

I have already condemned, in unequivocal terms, the statements of Reverend Wright that have caused such controversy. For some, nagging questions remain. Did I know him to be an occasionally fierce critic of American domestic and foreign policy? Of course. Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes. Did I strongly disagree with many of his political views? Absolutely - just as I'm sure many of you have heard remarks from your pastors, priests, or rabbis with which you strongly disagreed.

And I can point out times when you denied these very things too! I have also NOT heard you denounce Reverend White, only say that he is your friend and mentor and that you stand by him. It is also my belief that he, the Reverend White, only retired so that you, Obama, could save face. For example: Obama expert Andy Martin: "...Obama's claim that he has been a part of an institution for over twenty years, and yet had no awareness of the controversial claims being preached from the pulpit, is completely unbelievable, mendacious and probably a bald-faced lie. And this man wants to be president? He's running on judgment, intelligence and bringing us together?"

Obama wrote that he has looked to Wright for spiritual advice, not political guidance, and he's been pained and angered to learn of some of his pastor's comments for which he had not been present. Obama told MSNBC that Wright had stepped down from his campaign's African American Religious Leadership Committee.

In the Trib's article on Obama's speech in Philadelphia, Obama was quoted as saying, "Did I ever hear him (the Rev. Wright) make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church?"

Obama's answer was yes.

Strange as it may seem, he also said in an interview with Fox News correspondent Major Garrett last week that he never heard controversial or un-American remarks by the Rev. Wright.

There are more, but I think you get the point here.

But the remarks that have caused this recent firestorm weren't simply controversial. They weren't simply a religious leader's effort to speak out against perceived injustice. Instead, they expressed a profoundly distorted view of this country - a view that sees white racism as endemic, and that elevates what is wrong with America above all that we know is right with America; a view that sees the conflicts in the Middle East as rooted primarily in the actions of stalwart allies like Israel, instead of emanating from the perverse and hateful ideologies of radical Islam.

But you sat there for 20 years listening to that. How can you say these views didn't affect you? How can you say NOW that they are profoundly distorted if you sat there for 20 years listening to them?

As such, Reverend Wright's comments were not only wrong but divisive, divisive at a time when we need unity; racially charged at a time when we need to come together to solve a set of monumental problems - two wars, a terrorist threat, a falling economy, a chronic health care crisis and potentially devastating climate change; problems that are neither black or white or Latino or Asian, but rather problems that confront us all.

So what are your solutions? You keep saying this but offering nothing at all in the way of a solution. I can say a lot of things, go off on tangents of my own, but without concrete plans they do no-one any good. What are your solutions?

Given my background, my politics, and my professed values and ideals, there will no doubt be those for whom my statements of condemnation are not enough. Why associate myself with Reverend Wright in the first place, they may ask? Why not join another church? And I confess that if all that I knew of Reverend Wright were the snippets of those sermons that have run in an endless loop on the television and You Tube, or if Trinity United Church of Christ conformed to the caricatures being peddled by some commentators, there is no doubt that I would react in much the same way

But the truth is, that isn't all that I know of the man. The man I met more than twenty years ago is a man who helped introduce me to my Christian faith, a man who spoke to me about our obligations to love one another; to care for the sick and lift up the poor. He is a man who served his country as a U.S. Marine; who has studied and lectured at some of the finest universities and seminaries in the country, and who for over thirty years led a church that serves the community by doing God's work here on Earth - by housing the homeless, ministering to the needy, providing day care services and scholarships and prison ministries, and reaching out to those suffering from HIV/AIDS.

Yup, I'm getting a real sense of love from Reverend White every minute. And other black people I've heard from say the same thing, he is NOT typical of black America. And most Ministers, Reverends or Pastors do this type of work and they also TEACH their doctrine on the side. Call me born, but it wasn't yesterday! Can you tell me why there is no mention of this important man in your life in Wikipedia?

In my first book, Dreams From My Father, I described the experience of my first service at Trinity:

"People began to shout, to rise from their seats and clap and cry out, a forceful wind carrying the reverend's voice up into the rafters....And in that single note - hope! - I heard something else; at the foot of that cross, inside the thousands of churches across the city, I imagined the stories of ordinary black people merging with the stories of David and Goliath, Moses and Pharaoh, the Christians in the lion's den, Ezekiel's field of dry bones. Those stories - of survival, and freedom, and hope - became our story, my story; the blood that had spilled was our blood, the tears our tears; until this black church, on this bright day, seemed once more a vessel carrying the story of a people into future generations and into a larger world. Our trials and triumphs became at once unique and universal, black and more than black; in chronicling our journey, the stories and songs gave us a means to reclaim memories that we didn't need to feel shame about...memories that all people might study and cherish - and with which we could start to rebuild."

I'm sure we women felt that way the day we finally got to own our own land, our children, be able to vote, etc. black people aren't all that different. Women's blood spilled in childbirth and then wasted in war. A mother's pain is universal too.

That has been my experience at Trinity. Like other predominantly black churches across the country, Trinity embodies the black community in its entirety - the doctor and the welfare mom, the model student and the former gang-banger. Like other black churches, Trinity's services are full of raucous laughter and sometimes bawdy humor. They are full of dancing, clapping, screaming and shouting that may seem jarring to the untrained ear. The church contains in full the kindness and cruelty, the fierce intelligence and the shocking ignorance, the struggles and successes, the love and yes, the bitterness and bias that make up the black experience in America.

Not according to the black News casters I'm hearing from on Lou Dobbs and other shows. They are denouncing what has happened in your Trinity Church as an abberation. And I'm not talking about the jumping, clapping, shouting, screaming, etc. I'm talking about Reverend White.

DOBBS: I want to ask you, also, before I go to the next question, and that is Jeremiah Wright and his -- the bile that he was spewing, whatever the reason, whatever the context, whatever else he did say, whatever else his words, that kind of language, a number of people on this broadcast, in fact, have said that some of his comments, some of the more hateful comments, in fact, are typical of the traditional black church in this country.

And I've got black friends who are saying that is absolutely untrue. There's a contest over that. What role does a black church play in both resolving and perpetuating racial tension in this society of ours?

STEELE: Well, the black church has always been an extremely important institution in black America. Certainly, the civil rights movement evolved out of the black church. But that's a long way from Reverend Wright who it seems to me is rather demagogic and actually preaches hate almost as a kind of consolation for his flock. And that is not normal in a black American church today. That's not the norm.

And this helps explain, perhaps, my relationship with Reverend Wright. As imperfect as he may be, he has been like family to me. He strengthened my faith, officiated my wedding, and baptized my children. Not once in my conversations with him have I heard him talk about any ethnic group in derogatory terms, or treat whites with whom he interacted with anything but courtesy and respect. He contains within him the contradictions - the good and the bad - of the community that he has served diligently for so many years.

Nope, it doesn't but I think it helps you JUSTIFY your association with him. And as long as people don't think about what you say, everything will be fine. But I'm not one of those people. I do examine what you say and how you say it.

I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community. I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother - a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe.

Please, give me a break here. You can pick your friends and your Reverend but you are stuck with your relatives. That's a fact.

These people are a part of me. And they are a part of America, this country that I love.

Some will see this as an attempt to justify or excuse comments that are simply inexcusable. I can assure you it is not. I suppose the politically safe thing would be to move on from this episode and just hope that it fades into the woodwork. We can dismiss Reverend Wright as a crank or a demagogue, just as some have dismissed Geraldine Ferraro, in the aftermath of her recent statements, as harboring some deep-seated racial bias.

Geraldine Ferraro withdrew from Hillary's Campaign and apologized to boot. I haven't heard a word of apology from Reverend White concerning his comments about white Americans or America. I will assume he meant every word.

But race is an issue that I believe this nation cannot afford to ignore right now. We would be making the same mistake that Reverend Wright made in his offending sermons about America - to simplify and stereotype and amplify the negative to the point that it distorts reality.

The fact is that the comments that have been made and the issues that have surfaced over the last few weeks reflect the complexities of race in this country that we've never really worked through - a part of our union that we have yet to perfect. And if we walk away now, if we simply retreat into our respective corners, we will never be able to come together and solve challenges like health care, or education, or the need to find good jobs for every American.

You find it odd that we would be absolutely SHOCKED at his outburst? I find your attitude odd, you are the candidate running for PRESIDENT after all. You are to represent ALL AMERICANS, yet you persist in defending this racists honor? Please, give me a break here, the only one keeping racism alive is black Reverend White.

Understanding this reality requires a reminder of how we arrived at this point. As William Faulkner once wrote, "The past isn't dead and buried. In fact, it isn't even past." We do not need to recite here the history of racial injustice in this country. But we do need to remind ourselves that so many of the disparities that exist in the African-American community today can be directly traced to inequalities passed on from an earlier generation that suffered under the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow.

Again you bring up someone who was heavily influenced by race in his day. While that doesn't discount who and what he was, it also doesn't solve the problem. How about you look to S.B.Fuller? Now there was a black Man who knew how to make things happen!

Segregated schools were, and are, inferior schools; we still haven't fixed them, fifty years after Brown v. Board of Education, and the inferior education they provided, then and now, helps explain the pervasive achievement gap between today's black and white students.

Statistics have proven that Blacks do no better in desegregated schools than in segregated ones. This is a myth that everyone loves to harp on.

Black Students' Occupational Expectaltions
A National Study of the Impact of School Desegregation
Marvin P Dawkins

University of Wisconsin-Parkside

Attending desegrated schools does not change blacks' occupational expectations uniformly and substantially.

You are using myth and hype here to make a point that doesn't exist.

Legalized discrimination - where blacks were prevented, often through violence, from owning property, or loans were not granted to African-American business owners, or black homeowners could not access FHA mortgages, or blacks were excluded from unions, or the police force, or fire departments - meant that black families could not amass any meaningful wealth to bequeath to future generations. That history helps explain the wealth and income gap between black and white, and the concentrated pockets of poverty that persists in so many of today's urban and rural communities.

Show me hard facts or is this more like the bush administration WMD? The terrorists are out to get me! While I can imagine SOME may have met with resistance back in the day, this is not so today. Now if you had mentioned Katrina I would believe you. But you didn't mention that, you left this wide open like it is a dirty secret no-one talks about and is still going on today and it isn't. Not with the average citizen.

A lack of economic opportunity among black men, and the shame and frustration that came from not being able to provide for one's family, contributed to the erosion of black families - a problem that welfare policies for many years may have worsened. And the lack of basic services in so many urban black neighborhoods - parks for kids to play in, police walking the beat, regular garbage pick-up and building code enforcement - all helped create a cycle of violence, blight and neglect that continue to haunt us.

See, I don't believe this. If you can make it, so can they. No one tried to keep you down and you lived part of your life out of country. So, PLEASE tell me something I can believe. And they sat in the same public school classroom that I did. I'm not on welfare, my poor education hasn't contributed to any sense of frustration. I don't blame the rich people for my only making enough money to support myself, in fact I CAN and DO support myself, so I ask "why can't they"? We have the same background came from the same neighborhood.....yet they are somehow deprived and "held back"? So if so many white people from poor neighborhoods and poor public schools manage to live, no matter how tightly, why can't, or won't, they? Today, the only ones holding them back are themselves.

This is the reality in which Reverend Wright and other African-Americans of his generation grew up. They came of age in the late fifties and early sixties, a time when segregation was still the law of the land and opportunity was systematically constricted. What's remarkable is not how many failed in the face of discrimination, but rather how many men and women overcame the odds; how many were able to make a way out of no way for those like me who would come after them.

Are you saying "Oh poor pity me I'm black and I'll never amount to anything so why should I even try?" That is pig's swallow. This country allows for each and every person who WANTS to, to become what they desire. If black males decide to become criminals because the money is easy, who is to say that wasn't their choice? And if they bowed to peer pressure, who is to say that still wasn't their choice? We do have a choice in who our friends are. If this is true, explain to me people like Oprah, or Morgan Freeman, Cuba Gooding Jr., Halle Barry, Denzel Washington, Wesley Snipes, not to mention all the singers and comedians. Are you going to tell me those are token black People? These people had a PLAN and followed it. They weren't flukes. Anyone can follow a plan if they want to.

But for all those who scratched and clawed their way to get a piece of the American Dream, there were many who didn't make it - those who were ultimately defeated, in one way or another, by discrimination. That legacy of defeat was passed on to future generations - those young men and increasingly young women who we see standing on street corners or languishing in our prisons, without hope or prospects for the future. Even for those blacks who did make it, questions of race, and racism, continue to define their worldview in fundamental ways. For the men and women of Reverend Wright's generation, the memories of humiliation and doubt and fear have not gone away; nor has the anger and the bitterness of those years. That anger may not get expressed in public, in front of white co-workers or white friends. But it does find voice in the barbershop or around the kitchen table. At times, that anger is exploited by politicians, to gin up votes along racial lines, or to make up for a politician's own failings.

Well that goes without saying for white folks too. And make no mistake, white people DON'T blame black people for what happens to them. So how come it is ok for black people to do that???

And occasionally it finds voice in the church on Sunday morning, in the pulpit and in the pews. The fact that so many people are surprised to hear that anger in some of Reverend Wright's sermons simply reminds us of the old truism that the most segregated hour in American life occurs on Sunday morning. That anger is not always productive; indeed, all too often it distracts attention from solving real problems; it keeps us from squarely facing our own complicity in our condition, and prevents the African-American community from forging the alliances it needs to bring about real change. But the anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.

It seems to me this is one of the things that IS wrong with America. That is WHY there was a separation of Church and STATE, so that things like this DIDN'T happen. Hate breeds hate, no matter where you find it. I'm sorry for the Reverend White, but he wasn't in the generation that was a slave. He can't claim he was. So what is his problem? If you have to continue to justify something, you already know you are wrong!

In fact, a similar anger exists within segments of the white community. Most working- and middle-class white Americans don't feel that they have been particularly privileged by their race. Their experience is the immigrant experience - as far as they're concerned, no one's handed them anything, they've built it from scratch. They've worked hard all their lives, many times only to see their jobs shipped overseas or their pension dumped after a lifetime of labor. They are anxious about their futures, and feel their dreams slipping away; in an era of stagnant wages and global competition, opportunity comes to be seen as a zero sum game, in which your dreams come at my expense. So when they are told to bus their children to a school across town; when they hear that an African American is getting an advantage in landing a good job or a spot in a good college because of an injustice that they themselves never committed; when they're told that their fears about crime in urban neighborhoods are somehow prejudiced, resentment builds over time.

OK, I partially agree with you. I hate justifications of any kind. It isn't right. It perpetuates the white/black problems and doesn't solve anything. Let's not go there. Let's find solutions, not more problems.

Like the anger within the black community, these resentments aren't always expressed in polite company. But they have helped shape the political landscape for at least a generation. Anger over welfare and affirmative action helped forge the Reagan Coalition. Politicians routinely exploited fears of crime for their own electoral ends. Talk show hosts and conservative commentators built entire careers unmasking bogus claims of racism while dismissing legitimate discussions of racial injustice and inequality as mere political correctness or reverse racism.

And if you were paying attention to the VOTER you would know that we are against where the government is headed! We aren't WITH the Reagan Coalition or some such! Geese! Where did you get this stuff?

Just as black anger often proved counterproductive, so have these white resentments distracted attention from the real culprits of the middle class squeeze - a corporate culture rife with inside dealing, questionable accounting practices, and short-term greed; a Washington dominated by lobbyists and special interests; economic policies that favor the few over the many. And yet, to wish away the resentments of white Americans, to label them as misguided or even racist, without recognizing they are grounded in legitimate concerns - this too widens the racial divide, and blocks the path to understanding.

I totally agree with this paragraph. The first one out of all those I've read so far!

This is where we are right now. It's a racial stalemate we've been stuck in for years. Contrary to the claims of some of my critics, black and white, I have never been so naïve as to believe that we can get beyond our racial divisions in a single election cycle, or with a single candidacy - particularly a candidacy as imperfect as my own.

But I have asserted a firm conviction - a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people - that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice is we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.

I have always had Black lovers and friends, they were not those I looked down on, but those I looked to. We shared opinions, cried and laughed together, had fun together. There was nothing racial to our relationships. And it is people relating together that are going to express themselves. We didn't have wounds between us to heal. We had love and friendship. I fail to see where the racial wounds are unless they be perpetuated by others in other places and not the norm.

For the African-American community, that path means embracing the burdens of our past without becoming victims of our past. It means continuing to insist on a full measure of justice in every aspect of American life. But it also means binding our particular grievances - for better health care, and better schools, and better jobs - to the larger aspirations of all Americans -- the white woman struggling to break the glass ceiling, the white man whose been laid off, the immigrant trying to feed his family. And it means taking full responsibility for own lives - by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.

So if binding our grievances equate to better health care, better schools, and better jobs, doesn't that already relate to ALL Americans? I'm all for it. But I want to hear the PLAN. I want concrete stuff that I can point to and hold you to.

Ironically, this quintessentially American - and yes, conservative - notion of self-help found frequent expression in Reverend Wright's sermons. But what my former pastor too often failed to understand is that embarking on a program of self-help also requires a belief that society can change.

The profound mistake of Reverend Wright's sermons is not that he spoke about racism in our society. It's that he spoke as if our society was static; as if no progress has been made; as if this country - a country that has made it possible for one of his own members to run for the highest office in the land and build a coalition of white and black; Latino and Asian, rich and poor, young and old -- is still irrevocably bound to a tragic past. But what we know -- what we have seen - is that America can change. That is true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope - the audacity to hope - for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

No society is EVER static, not unless that society is dying and I certainly hope ours isn't. Not knowing the Reverend White I cannot say what his thoughts were, but from what I've seen, it seems simple and straight forward. And America has been changing since her conception. What bothers me is that Reverend White couldn't see this. How could he NOT see this?

In the white community, the path to a more perfect union means acknowledging that what ails the African-American community does not just exist in the minds of black people; that the legacy of discrimination - and current incidents of discrimination, while less overt than in the past - are real and must be addressed. Not just with words, but with deeds - by investing in our schools and our communities; by enforcing our civil rights laws and ensuring fairness in our criminal justice system; by providing this generation with ladders of opportunity that were unavailable for previous generations. It requires all Americans to realize that your dreams do not have to come at the expense of my dreams; that investing in the health, welfare, and education of black and brown and white children will ultimately help all of America prosper.

OK, and by the same token what of the discrimination against the whites by preferential treatment of blacks or Asians or Hispanics for that matter? And again I will point to studies done that say ALL schools need investing in and that this No Child Left Behind shit is the Problem, not the solution. The No Child Left Behind program was the worst thing ever done to our children. Truthfully this is sounding an awful lot like let's give the black American hand-outs. I'm not sure I agree with that at all. The rest of us are just as pressed right now. Affirmative Action has been in place for decades, and I don't believe it is needed any more. Affirmative Action has caused a backlash of reverse discrimination. We need to STOP focusing on color and ethnicity and focus on PEOPLE only. ALL People have the same chances and opportunities IF they choose to take them. You can lead a horse to water but you cannot force it to drink.

In the end, then, what is called for is nothing more, and nothing less, than what all the world's great religions demand - that we do unto others as we would have them do unto us. Let us be our brother's keeper, Scripture tells us. Let us be our sister's keeper. Let us find that common stake we all have in one another, and let our politics reflect that spirit as well.

NO! This should NOT be about religion, or God, or the Golden rule! This should be about a Government that is For the People, By the People! On a personal level YES, but NOT on a Government Level. You cannot do that!!!! Our Constitution strictly forbids it.

For we have a choice in this country. We can accept a politics that breeds division, and conflict, and cynicism. We can tackle race only as spectacle - as we did in the OJ trial - or in the wake of tragedy, as we did in the aftermath of Katrina - or as fodder for the nightly news. We can play Reverend Wright's sermons on every channel, every day and talk about them from now until the election, and make the only question in this campaign whether or not the American people think that I somehow believe or sympathize with his most offensive words. We can pounce on some gaffe by a Hillary supporter as evidence that she's playing the race card, or we can speculate on whether white men will all flock to John McCain in the general election regardless of his policies.

We can do that

And your solutions are???? Again I'm asking for something concrete here. I have yet to hear 1 solution. You are killing us with words here.

But if we do, I can tell you that in the next election, we'll be talking about some other distraction. And then another one. And then another one. And nothing will change.

That is one option. Or, at this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, "Not this time." This time we want to talk about the crumbling schools that are stealing the future of black children and white children and Asian children and Hispanic children and Native American children. This time we want to reject the cynicism that tells us that these kids can't learn; that those kids who don't look like us are somebody else's problem. The children of America are not those kids, they are our kids, and we will not let them fall behind in a 21st century economy. Not this time.

No one has EVER said kids can't learn. Whoever told you that must have been stoned because it certainly wasn't in MY vocabulary!!! This is nothing but rhetoric and platitudes and you people are sucking it up like Mana!

This time we want to talk about how the lines in the Emergency Room are filled with whites and blacks and Hispanics who do not have health care; who don't have the power on their own to overcome the special interests in Washington, but who can take them on if we do it together.

This time we want to talk about the shuttered mills that once provided a decent life for men and women of every race, and the homes for sale that once belonged to Americans from every religion, every region, every walk of life. This time we want to talk about the fact that the real problem is not that someone who doesn't look like you might take your job; it's that the corporation you work for will ship it overseas for nothing more than a profit.

This time we want to talk about the men and women of every color and creed who serve together, and fight together, and bleed together under the same proud flag. We want to talk about how to bring them home from a war that never should've been authorized and never should've been waged, and we want to talk about how we'll show our patriotism by caring for them, and their families, and giving them the benefits they have earned.

This I will agree with.

I would not be running for President if I didn't believe with all my heart that this is what the vast majority of Americans want for this country. This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected. And today, whenever I find myself feeling doubtful or cynical about this possibility, what gives me the most hope is the next generation - the young people whose attitudes and beliefs and openness to change have already made history in this election.

Like the ones you were starting to raise in Reverend White's Church? Makes me feel real confident in you I can assure you. Not! May I remind you that ALL Americans are open to change? It is Politicians who refuse!

There is one story in particularly that I'd like to leave you with today - a story I told when I had the great honor of speaking on Dr. King's birthday at his home church, Ebenezer Baptist, in Atlanta.

There is a young, twenty-three year old white woman named Ashley Baia who organized for our campaign in Florence, South Carolina. She had been working to organize a mostly African-American community since the beginning of this campaign, and one day she was at a roundtable discussion where everyone went around telling their story and why they were there.

And Ashley said that when she was nine years old, her mother got cancer. And because she had to miss days of work, she was let go and lost her health care. They had to file for bankruptcy, and that's when Ashley decided that she had to do something to help her mom.

She knew that food was one of their most expensive costs, and so Ashley convinced her mother that what she really liked and really wanted to eat more than anything else was mustard and relish sandwiches. Because that was the cheapest way to eat.

She did this for a year until her mom got better, and she told everyone at the roundtable that the reason she joined our campaign was so that she could help the millions of other children in the country who want and need to help their parents too.

Now Ashley might have made a different choice. Perhaps somebody told her along the way that the source of her mother's problems were blacks who were on welfare and too lazy to work, or Hispanics who were coming into the country illegally. But she didn't. She sought out allies in her fight against injustice.

Anyway, Ashley finishes her story and then goes around the room and asks everyone else why they're supporting the campaign. They all have different stories and reasons. Many bring up a specific issue. And finally they come to this elderly black man who's been sitting there quietly the entire time. And Ashley asks him why he's there. And he does not bring up a specific issue. He does not say health care or the economy. He does not say education or the war. He does not say that he was there because of Barack Obama. He simply says to everyone in the room, "I am here because of Ashley."

"I'm here because of Ashley." By itself, that single moment of recognition between that young white girl and that old black man is not enough. It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children.

But it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger. And as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.

Nice story. Way to go Ashley. But tell me why you said that Ashley's story might have gone a different way and then made all those suppositions? Those didn't make any sense to me. We all make choices every day. I think it would have been nicer to leave her story just as it really was. But that is just MY opinion. I realize it has nothing to do with anything.

Obama’s message of bi-partisan involvement, coming together as a unified nation, care for those less fortunate, and those who have hit set backs of life presented him as a multi-cultural leader for all the people. Suddenly, he stopped his train to explain some unusual behaviors of his pastor and his involvement with his pastor. While stopped, a different Obama began to emerge. We have begun to see a man as highly educated, as highly articulate, and as smart as Bill Clinton start to parse his words, just as Bill Clinton has done for oh so many years. We have heard a number of variations explaining away his association with a very questionable church leader. This alone is troubling, but what is even more troubling is we now must begin to question his soaring message.

Bill Clinton was a well packaged candidate while on the campaign trail. His explanations were smooth and believable. His delivery depended on using just the right phrase or word. His moniker of “Slick Willy”, while a moniker of disdain, was also a moniker of grudging respect for his talents to mask the truth. So too are we seeing a Barack Obama begin to use equivocation to explain his questionable judgment. If you listen carefully to each of his explanations, you will hear a message very different from the one that has captured so many hearts and minds. This man – not seen as a black man – supported by people from all walks – women, men, young, old, black, white and many of the other origins of people in this country was accepted as a legitimate Presidential candidate. Listen carefully, and you will hear him now begin to educate us on how we have to treat race, how we get past our prejudices, and heal the racial divide. This same man, who is preaching to us about dealing with race and who had already been accepted by millions who easily put race aside and only saw a man, not a black man, running for President. This man is now lecturing the typical white person how they think and should think.

For all his education and for all his rhetoric are we to believe that he did not notice that in the twenty first century we had gotten past the black / white thing in the most important way that this nation can. We were earnestly considering him for the most important leadership position of the free world without regard to his color. We were simultaneously considering a woman for the same position. How much has this nation grown? Yet his explanations smack of a man who is not what he claims to be. They smack of a man who might actually believe the message of his pastor. Now we move on and we still consider a woman and only now we consider a black man for President – not a man, but a black man because his explanations revealed him to be just that, a black man running for President - not simply as a man of the human race. Time will now tell, as the vetting continues on all candidates, who he really is. Is this another well packaged candidate? Do we need to call him “Slick Barack”? No wonder Bill Clinton was out in front of this story about Barack Obama. He was able to see himself in Barack Obama’s shoes well before anyone else could catch on.

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/3/12/81339/4516/40/474909

Cheers,
Charlie

*The motorist was black (insert surprise here).

*MLK Parkway is a relatively new street going through a rather good neighborhood.

 C'est sans surprise que Mike Huckabee, pour le camp républicain, et Barak Obama, chez les démocrates ont remporté la majorité des voix. Huckabee grâce en partie au vote des évangélistes, si nombreux dans cette partie de la bible belt mais également à "un message populiste qui aurait touché la corde sensible de la classe moyenne et de groupes socio-économiquement faibles", d'après l'analyse politique locale. Soit.

Obama, de son côté, a réussi à rassembler non seulement l'électorat noir mais également un large nombre d'électeurs blancs, ce qui a même surpris le directeur local de la campagne d'Obama. "This is really big" a-t-il commenté. Certains ont interprété sa victoire comme un signe de sa capacité à surmonter "the racial divide", la grande fracture raciale qui est encore tellement présente dans cette partie-ci des Etats Unis. De l'espoir donc. 

The position of quarterback has been a microcosm of the Black struggle in America - a door supposedly "open to all" - except for us of a darker hue who continuously knock, kick and scream until an answer comes.

For eighty years, the Black man has fought tooth and nail to be in a position to lead a professional football franchise to glory. Many came before Doug Williams some may have even been better skilled. But looking back on the life of Douglas Lee Williams -none were better prepared.

My mother says that "The Lord chooses whom he will." If you ask Williams about being the Chosen One, he places it at the feet of hard work, opportunity and determination more than anything.

Born the sixth of eight children in Zachary, La. to Robert and Laura Williams, Doug learned the lessons of hard work at an early age. His father was wounded in the Pearl Harbor attacks but was able to make a living as a construction worker and nightclub manager, his mother worked as a school cook. Money was hard to come by in the Williams household but it remained a close-knit home.

Williams was active in all sports - although it was football, playing quarterback, where he found his niche.

Coming out of high school Doug was only recruited by two schools; Southern University and Grambling State University, it was Williams' conversation with legendary coach Eddie Robinson that won Williams over.

It would be one of several conversations with Robinson that would carry Williams through the course of his life.

Williams' freshman season at Grambling was a forgettable one - he was redshirted which resulted in his grades and confidence dropping off. His father was so troubled that he considered removing Williams from school and finding him work. His sophomore season worked out better - he was penciled in as the team's third string quarterback. Once again not feeling satisfied with the results Williams considered leaving the team but coach Robinson talked him into staying on.

When it seemed darkest for Williams - opportunity presented itself. The Tigers starting quarterback was lost to injury allowing Williams to work his way into the starting role. From that day, Williams would not relinquish the position. He would finish out the remainder of the 1974 season and his remaining three seasons as Grambling's signal caller.

Williams enjoyed a magnificent career for the Tigers; he would win 35 of 40 games as a starter while winning 4 consecutive SWAC titles. In 1977 Williams was named a first team All-American by the Associated Press and finished fourth in the Heisman Trophy voting. He would leave Grambling with 8,411 passing yards and 93 touchdowns and a Bachelor of Science degree in Health and Physical Education.

In the 1978 NFL Draft, Williams would be the first quarterback taken with the 17th pick by the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, other notables selected; Earl Campbell, Art Still, Wes Chandler, James Lofton, Clay Matthews, Mike Kenn, John Jefferson and Ozzie Newsome... and that was just the first round.

Williams rookie season began with a contract dispute that would eventually end with him making $565,000 for 5 seasons. In spite of his late arrival he would win the starting job and lead the downtrodden Bucs to an 4-4 record through 8 games. In week 10, Williams would suffer a broken jaw he would recover in time to play in the season finale. Despite a shortened season Williams would be named to the NFL's All-Rookie Team.

The 1979 Tampa Bay Buccaneers seemed to be a team of destiny - they finished the season 10-6. They would go on to win the Central Division and face the Philadelphia Eagles in the divisional round of the NFC Playoffs.

I remember this game vividly because of the three names I heard all afternoon - Lee Roy Selmon, Ricky Bell (who the Eagles could not stop for anything) and Doug Williams. It was a long day for Jaws and the vaunted Philly O-line who had no answer for Selmon. Williams did just enough to win as the Bucs would go on to record one of the great upsets in NFL history. The following week the Bucs would host the NFC Championship game against the Los Angeles Rams, Williams tore his biceps muscle missing most of the third and all of the fourth quarter despite a youman defensive effort the Bucs would fall 9-0.

Williams would have to wait eight more years before his next shot at the Super Bowl.

For eight years - there was no gameplan or pre-game speech that could prepare Doug Williams for the all-out blitz he was going to encounter.

In 1982, things got off to a good start Williams married Janice Goss, he would once again lead the Bucs to the playoffs in a strike-shortened season. Again the Bucs would fall short to the Dallas Cowboys 30-17. Williams initial contract with the Bucs had expired and with contract negotiations looming Williams looked forward to a windfall payday.

But it was not to be.

Bucs management offered Williams $400,000 per season, as negotiations continued Williams wife began to experience severe headaches. In April of 1983, it was discovered that a brain tumor had developed, surgery was scheduled immediately to remove the tumor, but Janice died a week later. With his life shattered and career in limbo, Williams would head back to Zachary. His stay there would bring little comfort. His father Robert would develop health problems that would lead to the amputation of both legs. Williams' talks with the Bucs would ultimately break down, ending his association with the club.

During Williams' negotiations with the Bucs, the United States Football League (USFL) was formed - Bill Tatham, owner of the Oklahoma Outlaws reached out to Williams and offered him a substantial contract. Williams played three seasons in the USFL, unsure that he would receive and offer from the NFL he took a coaching job at Southern University.

When things seem the darkest...light is just over the horizon.

In 1986 the USFL officially folded. And Williams was just settling in at Southern U. When he received and unlikely call from Washington Redskins head coach Joe Gibbs who knew Williams from his years in Tampa Bay.

Williams would sign with the 'Skins as the backup to Jay Schroeder. But Gibbs saw bigger things for Williams. In a conversation with 'Skins owner Jack Kent Cooke Gibbs let his confidence in Williams be known, "'I'm not going to pay him $500,000 to be a backup' and I said, 'He may not be a backup, He may win a Super Bowl for us one day"'. Despite a new lease on his football career Williams' personal difficulties continued. He married Lisa Robinson in June of 1987, but the union only lasted about five months.

Jay Schroeder was the opening day starter - in the opener against the Eagles he was injured. Williams would become the starter, but a 24 day strike allowed Schroeder to heal. Again, as fate would allow, Williams would hurt his back and Schroeder would regain his starting job. Williams was reduced to tears his final shot seemed wasted as the playoffs loomed.

Weeping may endure for a night - but joy cometh in the morning.

In the season's final game the 'Skins need a win against the Vikings to get a higher seed and possibly home field in the playoffs. Schroeder plays a terrible first half and is pulled by Gibbs in the 3rd quarter. Williams is put in, leads the 'Skins to victory and is named the starter for the playoffs.

Williams would throw for 3 touchdowns in the Redskins two playoff victories against the Bears and Vikings

Although the Denver Broncos, a stupid question, a toothache, and a hyperextended knee stood in the way of history. It would take an embarassment from the previous season and the hopes of those that came before him to pull Williams through.

• The Denver Broncos were led by John Elway who had become a sympathetic figure in the eyes of many after leading his team through one of the greatest drives in NFL history to reach Super Bowl XXI. The Broncos would be trounced by the Giants in Super Bowl XXI. This was his second crack at the Lombardi Trophy.
• Media week at the Super Bowl brings out some of the best soundbytes that you'll probably get the entire week. The dumbest soundbyte was a question that came from a reporter who asked Williams, "How long have you been a Black quarterback?" Williams' reposnse was, "Well, I've been Black all my life." The reporter really wanted to know how long had Williams had the intelligence to be a quarterback disguised as a Black man.
• The morning before the Super Bowl Williams woke up with a sore tootha and a headache. The dentist could only do a root canal to promise Williams would be pain-free. Williams went through with the root canal. That night he even indulged in his pregame snack - a bag of Hershey's kisses.
• Denver jumps out to a 10-0 lead when the inexplicable happens. Williams drops back and the grass comes from under his feet hyperextending his knee - he miraculously returns but it's the motivation behind the return that is the true miracle.

In the 1986 NFC Championship Game against the Giants, Jay Schroeder was knocked silly by Lawrence Taylor - Gibbs sent Williams onto the field to sub for Schroeder but Schroeder furiously waved Williams off. As if to say - I'd rather fall on my own sword in defeat, before I allow you to lead us to victory.

Williams took that show of disrespect and filed it away, vowing that if the tables ever turned, Schroeder would never be under center as long as they wore the same uniform.

Williams would return and on his first play from scrimmage hit Ricky Sanders with an 80-yard strike to cut the lead to 10-7. After a Denver punt Williams found Gary Clark on a 27-yard touchdown pass. Unsung hero Timmy Smith (202 rushing yards) broke off a 58-yard scamper to make the score 21-10. Williams wasn't done yet, before halftime he would throw his third and fourth touchdowns of the quarter to Sanders and tight end Clint Didier, respectively.

Before you could blink Williams had thrown four touchdowns in the second quarter and the 'Skins put up and total of 35 points on the Broncos. Putting the game out of reach before halftime as the Broncos would not score again in a 42-10 defeat.

Williams had made history and in his contribution he carried the spirits of those before him; Fritz Pollard, Willie Thrower, George Taliaferro, Sandy Stephens, Marlin Briscoe, James"Shack" Harris, Joe Gilliam, John Walton and Vince Evans.

Doug Williams' life paralleled to that of Job, a biblical figure who was faithful to God in the face of losing all that he had.

Through all of his trials and tribulations he never cursed his Maker and for that he was given back what we had tenfold.

When a door seemed closed Williams kept coming back. Whether it was the death of his young wife or a root canal, Doug Williams just kept getting up. Williams may never get into the Hall of Fame and he may never become a head coach in the NFL, but for one day in January Doug Williams was the greatest football player on the planet.

Because God chose him to be.

We’re all making more money today says the CNN anchor, yet the gap between blacks and whites are getting wider. The report shows that white women’s pay is up more than five fold while white men stayed relatively stagnant. Black men on the other hand income has dropped yet they touted that income offsets by gains among black women. On CNN’s website the story goes on to say that the average black family was making only 58% of the average white family. They also said that most people think that the playing field for blacks and whites has been leveled.

Marc Morial, president and CEO of the National Urban League said that the disparities that we see between the two races is because of inadequate schools in black neighborhoods, workplace discrimination and too many black families with only one parent. It was also noted that middle income blacks were not passing wealth on to their children while white families in middle and poor classes were. This tells of the inherent wealth that comes with white privilege. Even though this factor seems to never get reported.

But ask any person with a white mindset and the playing field “IS” even. Explain that the disparity has existed since slavery ended, the excuses run from blacks don’t have the experience to blacks don’t make education a priority. We have black people such as John McWhorter, Shelby Steele, Bill Cosby and Stanley Crouch who love to say that blacks have the same opportunity as any white person and if we just work hard and pull on our bootstraps we will undoubtedly be just as well off as our white counterpart. Now how is that, when reports like this continue to come out? It is obvious that white business does not feel we are as valuable or worth the same pay as our white counterpart. Neither working hard nor a college education is a guarantee of anything which I spoke to in my article “College Degrees Don’t Ensure Employment For Blacks.”

So where are all these outraged people white and black to protest the fact that the obvious white privilege is getting worse when it comes to being able to support our families? It is interesting how so many people claim that they aren’t racist and they support equal rights, yet what about equal rights to have equaled pay? So now aren’t we in violation of the Universal Declaration where article 23 just happens to state: (2) everyone, without any discrimination, has the right to equal pay for equal work. I guess this doesn’t apply to blacks in America.

We will send our army out to other nations and force them to follow the Universal declaration yet we won’t bother to force ourselves to uphold it. You constantly hear people complaining about how there are so many inequities for people in different Middle Eastern countries, China or how about North Korea and we are still telling our black community to bend over, shut up and take it. If it wasn’t so pathetic I would laugh since we are a ludicrous nation of people who constantly look at our race problems and say “uh, uh, I don’t see nuthin’, there isn’t anything wrong with our system of living. The status quo is just fine for white folks so what’s the problem?"

Then as soon as blacks get unemployment, welfare or better yet affirmative action then we are the ones looking for a handout or special treatment. Yet, white people having higher wages that are still leaving blacks in the dust isn’t special treatment, white affirmative action or some sort of white only welfare. It seems to me that a serious shake up or shake down of corporate America needs to happen and soon in order for blacks to be able to just get a fair shake and a level playing field. But, if we continue to allow the same people who are putting us in this situation now to “continue” running things, we will never have a fair shake or a level playing field.

Yet like I have said before we as a black community continue to sit idle all the while letting the rapist who have been raping us for years tell us what is or isn’t rape. Letting them take the wheel to drive us to equality when this study shows they have no intention of driving us anywhere except right to the poor house. Let me and others talk of putting an end to this white supremacist run system and then I’m the racist. Talk of blacks getting together to take the catalyst out of our lives and I’m some sort of separatist who wants to ruin the black community by depriving them of white society. Please, you don’t see antelope on the plains of Africa looking to live closer to the lions which ravages their numbers. But somehow this is exactly what whites and blacks with a white mindset would have us do.

Unfortunately, I believe that it is far too late to run, so we must find a way to break free from this tyranny that the people with their white mindsets are placing on us. Level playing field, equality, these are misnomers that those benefiting from there opposites would like for us to believe will be coming one day soon, when in fact they have no intentions of allowing that. What would be gained for them to level the playing field, what benefit would be gotten from equality? Of course the answer is nothing since they are already benefiting from the way thing are now. Since we see they will gain nothing we should know that it is up to us to take it upon ourselves to level the playing field.