Unfunny
Valentine
Despite
our best efforts, THE CRISIS, founded by W.E.B. Du Bois in 1910,
remains under the editorship of Victoria Valentine, a person who
cannot tell the difference between friends and foes of the magazine's
parent organization, the NAACP. Valentine gave both praise and space
to Cory Booker, the school vouchers advocate and board member of
the Right-funded Black Alliance for Educational Options, and Denise
Majette, the new Congresswoman from Georgia who rode to victory
on a sea of rightwing cash. Both are "liberals," says
editor Valentine, apparently oblivious to the NAACP's determined
opposition to vouchers for private schools, and unconcerned about
the financial backers of those who pose as "new Black leaders."
(See "Debate," November
14.)
Our
efforts peaked the attention of Niambi Bah, who wrote:
It
was so refreshing and uplifting to read your article regarding
the removal of Valentine. She absolutely, positively needs to
be removed immediately.
P.S.
Is there anything you have started (such as a petition to be submitted
to the NAACP) to further the process of her removal?
It
is not this publication's place to start petitions among NAACP members.
However, the board members of THE CRISIS are listed in our article.
Writer
Shannon Scott, of Savannah, GA appreciated D.H. Muhammad's November
14 Guest Commentary, The Sniper and The Nation of Islam. Mr.
Muhammad stripped intellectually naked those who have attempted
to associate the NOI with the crimes of a former member. However,
Mr. Scott has one problem with Mr. Muhammad's method.
I'd
like to begin by complimenting your email newsletter by saying
it's a truly enlightening and refreshing read. Especially in the
world where media defines truth by its sense of advertising dollar
and "readership/viewer" numbers. Little do they know
how they have become pawns for the Bush administration's every
whim.
I
enjoyed your most recent Guest Commentary article overall as it
brought some real levity to the nature of the shooter's personal
choices outside of the rules of their own faith. I too feel that
the Bush gang seeks to use this story as the beginning to further
dividing the races in our country and could become a desired catalyst
to further bamboozle the American people as regards his war on
terrorism.
However, on the author's phrasing, "homosexual
cannibal," I am left feeling stuck. Within the article itself
I found its use very off key to the overall feel of the writing
and what appeared to be the point of the article. I think its
excellent that the tone is seeking "justice for all"
if you will, but found the use of "homosexual" to be
derogatory to that point as any who might be [homosexual] would
feel instantly slanted. So what if Dahmer was homosexual? As for
the "cannibal" use - well, he was born a human being
first who fell prey to cannibalism on his deranged path. Dahmer
is still a man even so.
Needless to say the article carried itself objectively
well, but I also doubt that I'm alone in feeling that the author's
picking of "easy targets" sends a portion of those points
to the realm of questioning the author's own emotional agenda.
Keep
up the good work.
We
urge readers who missed D.H. Muhammad's commentary to revisit our
last issue. Although we anticipated that some readers would react
as Mr. Scott did, we believe that Mr. Muhammad's method did not
single out homosexuals. He also pointed to the Boy Scout, U.S. military,
Republican, Democrat and Christian backgrounds of various mass murderers.
Wende
Elizabeth Marshall is brilliant. We know this, not only because
of her work in the Department of Anthropology at the Carter G. Woodson
Institute, University of Virginia, but because she thinks well of
.
You
are doing a fabulous job! I am pretty much turned off by the mainstream
news and
keeps me posted. I am a professor and am always forwarding
articles to my classes. I am especially pleased with your coverage
of the labor struggle in the South. So, thanks for doing such
a great job.
We
thank Professor Marshall for giving the publication a greater reach
than we could achieve on our own.
Gripes
and Snipes
Two
writers have been very unkind to us, placing words in our mouths
and bad motives in our hearts so that we can hardly recognize ourselves.
Nevertheless, we will do our best to accept the writers' criticisms
with equanimity, and so forth, and so on.
Barry
Ringold recommends that we find God, before it is too late. Ringold
takes a long time getting there, as he itemizes our transgressions.
I
believe your article on Denise Majette was informative but untrue.
To believe that Cynthia McKinney should be elected by blacks because
she is black and should be supported by all black Democrats leaves
little to the imagination for the intelligent black voter.
First
of all if you check McKinney's record over her term in office
as compared to John Lewis' term, you can see that Congressman
Lewis has brought in more federal grants and aid to his District
than Mckinney. You need to question what has McKinney been doing
in D.C., socializing and partying. Dekalb County, GA needs financial
and service resources to accommodate its population growth. It
does not need a representative whose only claim to fame is playing
racial politics and hysteria even when it is not warranted. We
saw that during the last election. She tried her best to paint
a qualified, respected black person, Denise Majette, white in
effort to sway black voters and hide from her ineffectiveness
as a Congresswoman. This was a turn-off to many black voters in
the District. Many did not vote during the election.
Also
to assume that black politicians who receive a large amount of
white Democratic votes are not black, or that they are Republican,
is so immature and silly. Last time I looked I believe that Rev.
Martin Luther King said we should be "judged not by the color
of our skin but the content of our character." I believe
that Judge Majette's character was judged by blacks and whites
in Dekalb County and that is why she defeated Cynthia McKinney.
We are beginning to enter the American dream of Martin Luther
King. If we professed that we wanted it so much then, then we
as blacks must use wiser judgment in selecting our leaders without
regard to racial politics used by some to win elections, including
black elected officials.
I
know this may prove to be a challenge to someone who has used
race to establish their stature in politics and benefit socially
and financially, but not to the community they were elected to
serve. The only thing they should strive and learn to do is live
a Godly Christian life, without generating hate and division,
then they will be rewarded righteously by God: the one who has
gotten us this far. We do not need to imitate the ways of our
oppressors. If we do, we will suffer their consequences.
God
BlessYou!
We
thank Mr. Ringold for his blessing. Ringold assigns great powers
to the publishers of .
One truly has The Gift when one can be, as he says we are, "informative
but untrue" at the same time. And, since we apparently did
so much work for the McKinney campaign - without even knowing it
- we will send them a bill, immediately.
Ron
B got a load off his mind at our expense. We trust that he can spare
it.
Your web site wins the prize for the most politically
biased, left leaning and
slanderous web site designed to keep us Black people on the political
plantation. (You have replaced BlackPressUSA.com on my list).
Why
are "Conservative Black people" such a threat to you?
I thought liberals were for free speech and supported a diverse
set of ideas and philosophies.
Yet
you constantly slander Black people who think differently than
you do. What is their crime? That they dare to believe there is
an alternate route to Black Independence?
The
writers of your content do not possess a single cell in their
body that is more committed to the cause of Black Independence
than I do.
In
my view the true "sellouts" of Black people are not
the Black Republicans (I am a conservative independent Black man.)
It is the Black people like you who have conditioned Black people
to believe that the "health and well being" of Black
people is a function of the "health and well being"
of the Democratic Party. The problem is both parties are
dominated by the interests of the White masses. Both parties
have a longer history of straight up racism toward Black people
than they do of racial objectivity. Yet we are told by our so-called
"Black Leaders" to become genetically modified and support
Democrats.
Your
web site is nothing more than a mouthpiece for this same group
of people to keep us on the Democratic Political Plantation.
Instead
of looking at the results of the recent election and coming up
using your warped view that "America is now tilting to the
Right and thus becoming more racist" as evidenced by the
election losses of the Democrats, how about considering the flaws
in your strategy of herding Blacks into a single party in which,
when the Democrats lose, the Black race loses. Right now all you
can do is stare in the windows on the outside looking in at the
new political process, throwing rocks all the while.
You
all have too much talent as evidenced by your cartoonist to be
so extreme on the left. Please grow up. Please place the long-term
interests of Black people ahead of your obvious partisanship.
We
let Ron B run on and on because we believe he is sincere in his
beliefs, although why he gets all worked up about people who just
"stare in the windows" is beyond us. We assume BlackPressUSA.com
got a similar letter, doubtless with quotation marks surrounding
statements they never made, either.
"Conservative
Black people" are not a danger to anybody, Ron B. As we explain
in our analysis of the recent JCPES poll, in this issue, there are
very, very few Blacks who are "conservative" in white
American terms - including, it is clear to us, Ron B. It's the made-up
classes of conservative Blacks that we try to exorcise, the constituency
that really isn't there, but is used as a political weapon against
African Americans who actually do live and breathe.
Black
Republicans are also too few to cause alarm. We appreciate the fact
that they are considerate enough identify themselves. Now, Trojan
Horses are a different matter. Ron B isn't one of them either; he
lets everybody know he's in the house.
We
are also not sure what Ron B means by calling us "liberals."
Perhaps Ron B will vouch for that if John Ashcroft comes knocking
at our doors. ("They're OK, Mr. Attorney General. Just a bunch
of liberals, staring out the window.")
Finally,
if the publishers of BlackCommentator.com were truly such great
herdsmen as Ron B gives us credit for, we'd all be going in a very
different direction.
Slyly,
Ron B lavishes praise on our cartoonist, Khalil Bendib. This was
a cruel thing to do to Mr. Bendib, who now feels mistrusted by the
rest of the staff. Ron B has wreaked his revenge.
Keep
writing.
