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Sharp n’ Blunt

This 4th-of-July President Obama Should Evoke The “Truth-To-Power” Words Of Fredrick Douglass

By Desi Cortez Columnist

Seize the time . . . with the Confederate Battle flag under attack, gay people out-of-the bedroom closet and today standing in our houses of worship, now able to legally marry - the time is now.

July 2, 2015 8 min read Free to read

President Obama had an “amazing” homecoming . . . down in the Land-of-Dixie, Charleston that is.

(BC has archived a copy of the video of the Obama eulogy in Charleston click here to download the video file if you want to keep it in your library.)

While delivering a blunt, rather poignant, yet razor-sharp eulogy of the fallen Reverend, Congressman Climenta Pinckney and his hallowed flock of 8 – it became obvious to many that this President has at-last realized “ah-hah” – regardless what “high-road” he takes, regardless of any compromises and concessions he’s made, no-matter how well his clean, house-negro diction and appearance – and no-matter how much “grace” under Republican TEA Party fire he’s displayed . . . in the eyes of his Conservative/Confederate opposition . . . he’s unequivocally the #1 enemy of “real” Americans, i.e., White folks.

Obama’s Presidency is the crazed Confederate’s example of “his country” being taken over . . .

I came to this point, a Black person’s “ah-hah” moment decades ago. It’s taken Obama somewhat longer . . . as I believe it’s taken most of his/my – “our” peers longer, well into our 40’s before we’ve come-to realize what our forefathers did as children; despite the degrees and certificates, regardless of the impeccable academic/military credentials . . . there’s little respect for one’s abilities, qualities or achievements – you’re just a Nigger.

Ask Colin Powell.

Ask the Lawyer/Constitutional Professor/ US President they refer to as a “Community Organizer.”

Here, let’s get-down-with-the get-down; I know some high-life folks who know some upper-tier well-heeled negroes who’ve fund-raised for this President in both San Francisco and Denver. . . now here me out – a number of these are Black folks who’re convinced the day Black folks are put back in our rightful 1922 place, once they open their mouths and begin speaking the Queen’s English in perfect Negro diction, and explain-away they’re not Black “riff-raff, but instead they’re “Booker T. Washington” Conservatives . . . who don’t watch “Empire,” “Scandal” nor “Power.” They don’t dwell in da’ hood, their son doesn’t “sag.” While they do eat a gluten-free diet, leave a minimal carbon footprint, recycle trash and of-course winter vacation in Utah. . . once this is revealed it’s their calculation the Conservative Citizens of America will give them a pass, designate them “honorary” White folks and permit them to stay as exemplary “tokens.”

See, my generation, those Afro-Americans born from roughly 1960 thru say 1970 . . . we’re those kids who were told by our segregation-escaping, suburban-seeking parents that “color didn’t matter.” Our race was damn-near irrelevant to White folks. We’d overcome! We were, in 1980 being judged by our enunciation, articulation and pronunciation. Evaluated by the content of our resume . . . and no longer being weighed n’ measured by the color-of our skin.

It was living in state-of-denial. Our asses were, and remain, to a degree, clinically delusional.

And if you grew-up back-then in the boondocks, the “only” Black kid in your class, on the team, at the party . . . you actually really believed this nonsensical gibberish.

Thank the Gods my folks didn’t tell me that.

I was told, despite the church-going, the degrees, stripes and bars on your uniform, didn’t beat your wife and’ loved your kids – it was all meaningless to millions.

I was advised If you’d been to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, the top of the majestic Rockies, golfed, skied, surfed and didn’t drink malt-liquor . . . , sounded like one of the Huxtables, dressed GQ – like you’d walked out of a Brooks Brother’s brochure . . . it was immaterial in the eyes of millions of so-called color-blind White folks – you were just a “Nigger.”

And this “valuation” mattered because these White folks were your doctors and teachers. They were cops, bankers, bosses . . . they made life-altering decisions on the course of your life, duh!

From what I’ve seen in this life . . . my folks were burning-bush prophets.

It’s been, might I say “interesting” observing friends and acquaintances tossel with that back-handed rejection and the realization that, like Obama – being lettered, married family man or woman, Blah, blah-blah-blah . . . you were still but a “Nigger” to, not some, but yes, millions.

Understand this – I’m not so-much concerned with White folks “liking,” “accepting” or “embracing” me. I’m not obsessed with being their neighbor, or our kids being classmates. All I seek is the respect I’m due. You treat me with the humanity, fairness and dignity I’m willing to treat you with.

For whatever the reasons, and I believe it to be essentially my Black peers, our generational rejection of knowledge. Our collective disinterest in basic “intellectual curiosity” and instead our fascination with “all that glitters,” and our preoccupation with having a corporate-pawn cubical . . . that agenda has produced generations who don’t know where we’ve been, so we don’t know where we are, or where we’re going.

Friends Of Distinction sing! ”You got me going in circles . . . “ Black middle-class Americans have been obsessed with accommodation, assimilation, material accumulation and approval by the “White Establishment” since the 1960’s . . . and you see how that’s’ gone. We own more Cadillacs than homes.

Good or bad – all societies have social standings, and there’s a lower/middle and upper-class structure to virtually all human civilizations – however here in the US-of-A, when dealing with Black folks, White folks seem to make no distinction between the Girl Scouts and prostitutes, Boy Scouts and thugs, the ”learned” and the “unlearned,” the well-traveled and those who’ve never crossed the river, valley or peak . . . the “lost” compared-to the “Enlightened.”

We’re all just “Niggers.” Except of-course Uncle Clarence Thomas and their Boy Ben Carson.

Once Black folks grasp the inhumane monolithic designation, we can make more intelligent and informed decisions.

As far as most “Right-Wingers” see it; the Black man or woman is “guilty“ of whatever it may be charged, and solely “lacking” in character and intelligence . . . until we ‘prove” otherwise.

Whereas it seems White folks are “innocent” and “competent” until proven otherwise.

Or, as we saw with the Charleston killer, Dylan Root – the devil made him do it.

President Obama’s come-to-realize regardless of what he does there’s a noteworthy if not remarkable percentage of the WASP mainstream and the Confederate rank n’ file which hate him . . . it’s not personal, they simply hate all “Niggers.”

Accept it; behind closed Republican TEA Party doors – we’re not African-Americans . . . we’re not the “N” word, no, we are simply “Niggers.”

If this derogatory term stings so-badly . . turn-off BET.

Considering this new insight and wisdom; Obama can now “be Black,” and with the Fourth-of-July days away – I implore of our President to, on Independence Day read to the nation, in “prime-time” the powerful, powerful and still horrifically relevant words of the most notable and prominent Black Republican ever, Sir Frederick Douglass and his “What, to the American slave, is your 4th of July?” . . . I answer; a day that reveals to him, more than all other days in the year, the gross injustice and cruelty to which he is the constant victim. To him, your celebration is a sham; your boasted liberty, an unholy license; your national greatness, swelling vanity; your sound of rejoicing are empty and heartless; your denunciation of tyrants brass fronted impudence; your shout of liberty and equality, hollow mockery; your prayers and hymns, your sermons and thanks-givings, with all your religious parade and solemnity, are to him, mere bombast, fraud, deception, impiety, and hypocrisy – a thin veil to cover up crimes which would disgrace a nation of savages. There is not a nation on the earth guilty of practices more shocking and bloody than are the people of the United States, at this very hour.” – Yep Obama, read that in prime-time to America.

President Obama, what to the American slave, is your 4th of July?

I think it’d “spark” constructive debates, create concrete dialog and advance an critical conversation WASP Americans refuse to engage-in, but must-be had, and not a debate necessarily on the White man’s clock. If we’re waiting for that “OK, now Boss” moment, don’t hold your breath bra’ . . . .

Seize the time . . . with the Confederate Battle flag under attack, gay people out-of-the bedroom closet and today standing in our houses of worship, now able to legally marry – the time is now.

With millions of the “little people” benefiting from “affordable” healthcare, with “Johnny Reb’ cops being rightfully scrutinized all across the land – the time is right. And, according to the Great White Rich Hope, Donald Trump – with the dirty, drug infested rapist Latinos “at the wall” . . . and the Chinese at our shores – it’s the Good Ol’ boys whose backs are against the wall.

And tomorrow brings a “uppity” Hillary Rodham Clinton, who’s most-likely tactically paired with a Latino VP – who’ll be ready to take the hand-off in 2020/24 . . . . With this being the “sky is fallin’” plot as far as Conservative/Confederate are concerned, they’ll not concede power, they’ll not share nor give it away without incidents like Charleston becoming commonplace, Black churches ablaze, we Black folks and other Americans-Of-Color had better understand that harsh-ass reality.

I just dropped the keyboard . . . and I’m walking away . . . got to check the ribeyes on the grill.

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