The Black Commentator - e-Mailbox: Too Black, Too Proud Brit Poet and more

November 15 was a bad day for the Republicans' phony minority outreach strategy, a super-cynical ploy to convince white “moderate” or “swing” voters that the Party isn’t racist at its core. Wunderkind Bobby Jindal, a 32-year-old Christian convert of East Indian ancestry whose career was carefully nurtured by the state and national Party, lost the Governor’s race to Cajun Democrat Kathleen Blanco. As we wrote in our November 20 Cover Story, “Black Voters and White Racists Frustrate Louisiana GOP,” Jindal’s cross-over dreams were dashed when rural and small town whites rejected his credentials to lead The White Man’s Party.

Blanco’s undeserved victory was equally beholden to a 90 percent-plus Black bloc vote, despite her refusal to make any substantial appeal to African Americans until the last week of the campaign. We offered our analysis:

There are two lessons that emerge from the Louisiana Governor’s race. First, the GOP’s historic “transformation” from the White Man’s Party to something more cosmetically cosmopolitan is a doomed farce. Bubba ain’t havin’ it. The scheme was designed for “swing” voters, and only they believe the fiction that race is not the engine that drives the large majority of white southern voters. Republicans in Louisiana will likely revert to type next time around….

That means southern Democrats will not get another break, which brings us to the second lesson: domination of the party in the South by minorities of whites is no longer tenable. In Louisiana, Blacks make up a majority of the Democratic vote, while comprising 30 percent of the electorate. Yet white Democratic leadership retards the vitality of the Black bloc, preferring to act in its perceived racial interests until impending disaster dictates otherwise. Southern Black Democratic leaders cannot continue to defend Black interests on two fronts and shoulder general responsibility for the party, too – the strains are clearly becoming unbearable.

A straw man arrived at our e-Mailbox, knocking like a fool, and when we discovered he was an Associate Professor of Professional Practice at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, we just had to give our new foil top billing. Steven S. Ross personifies the arrogant, clueless, incompetent class that populates the corporate media and tends the nurseries where mass marketed nonsense is cultivated. The man thinks he’s a “liberal,” but he’s actually just useless.

Look, I'm white and a liberal Democrat, so maybe my comments shouldn't count. But I'm shocked at the over-the-top comments on the Louisiana race. Here's why:

1. Both candidates are quite conservative, socially and fiscally. In fact, their policies seem indistinguishible [sic] – and reprehensible.

2. This isn't a vote for US House or Senate where party REALLY matters.

3. I would not apply IQ as a litmus test, but there are limits. I'm less impressed by the fact that the Republican in this case is damn smart. In contrast, I've interviewed the Democrat [Blanco] (for an insurance story; she was the state's insurance commissioner). REALLY dumb. Really, really, really. How does her election help the state?

4. She won on a last-minute negative ad that the Republican saw as unfit to answer; he didn't want to get into the gutter with Blanco.

In short, Louisiana Blacks and Democrats had a tough choice because the Republicans were smarter. Except for a little patronage that certainly is not going to filter down to the street, I don't see any short-term advantages for Blacks in the outcome. Long-term, how can the state be better off being run by big-business interests hiding behind the facade of perhaps the dumbest person in politics?

Since white people comment in all the time, we’ll ignore the racial reference in Ross’s opening disclaimer. Ross then pretentiously numbers his “points,” as if to somehow make them weightier. He believes he has said something heavy by describing the GOP’s brown Jindal and white Democrat Blanco as “indistinguishable.” In fact, what distinguishes them is that Blanco was the standard bearer for what is numerically a Black party in Louisiana, while Jindal was a brown experiment by the White Man’s Party. Ross sees no story because the candidates appear so similar. We at say that is the story, since the voter bases of the parties are so fundamentally different. As we wrote:

Blanco got little African American support in the October primary, as Blacks lined up behind two other candidates. After securing the runoff position, Blanco stressed the similarities between herself and Republican Jindal, declaring that their differences were matters of “style.” Anywhere outside the Deep South, Blanco would be a Republican; she is anti-abortion and anti-affirmative action. By the last week in the campaign, her defeat appeared certain. Resisting the frantic appeals of her professional handlers, Blanco had said virtually nothing that Black Democrats or labor wanted to hear. A Market Research Poll showed Blanco ten points behind with five days left in the campaign.

Finally, in the middle of the last week of the contest Blanco allowed the release of TV ads critical of Jindal’s performance as Health and Hospitals chief. Although Republicans and TV newsreaders instantly dubbed the spots “attack ads,” the commercials, which noted cuts in staff and services during Jindal’s tenure, were mild by current political ad standards. Nevertheless, an incredible “surge” materialized in the polls, attributed to sudden interest among “low income voters.” It put Blanco over the top on Saturday by 50,000 votes.

Ross deludes himself into thinking he can understand an election process by simply looking at the two final candidates. The Louisiana runoff was the last act of an election cycle in which Blacks struggled to exert influence over the party in which they are a majority. During that same cycle, Bobby Jindal and the national GOP’s phony minority outreach strategy came face-to-face with the realities of the Deep South White Man’s Party – that’s why he lost. Ross is blind to the dynamics of both electoral politics and race. That makes him unfit to teach political journalism.

Regarding point four of Ross’s shallow little letter, the Columbia professor apparently did not actually see the Blanco ads, which cited a few basic facts and asked the question, Who do the Republicans “think they’re fooling?” There was no “gutter” for Jindal to jump into; his campaign simply failed to respond in time to counter the pent-up “surge” among traditional – mostly Black – Democrats. Ross is parroting Louisiana corporate media, who in turn parroted panicked Republican reactions to the last-minute Democratic ads. (GOP strategists appear to have been caught unprepared, so confident were they that Blanco would accept defeat rather than issue an appeal to Blacks.) Ross’s letter is a window on how “conventional wisdom” is manufactured in the United States – the kind of journalistic “practice” that hacks like Ross feed students for $54,995 per 10-month degree. (This figure is an estimate that includes books, fees and living expenses.)

It is true that Blanco appears to be intellectually challenged, but Blanco vs. Columbia’s Prof. Ross equals Dumb and Dumber.

Ross’s point two, that it doesn’t matter which party holds executive power in the State of Louisiana, shows the purest contempt for and ignorance of government as it actually impacts people’s lives through patronage, contracts, services, educational quality and funding – precisely the things that do matter to citizens. (The fourth-place Democratic finisher in the October primary spent $8 million seeking this “unimportant” position.) Ross simply doesn’t give a damn about the people of Louisiana, Black or white. His insight goes no further than the head count on Capitol Hill, in Washington – and he has no idea how those heads actually get there.

Ross sums up by stating, “Louisiana Blacks and Democrats had a tough choice because the Republicans were smarter.” This professor could not possibly be pointy headed, since he views the world from upside-down. Far from being “smarter,” the Republicans misjudged the reflexive racism at the very heart of their White Man’s Party. Their brown-skinned candidate was an elixir for suburban, upscale white “swing” voters, but in “previously GOP strongholds outside the suburbs of New Orleans, Jindal’s white vote shriveled in comparison to past elections. Bubba and the Party leaders weren’t sharing the same dream.”

The Black, progressive dream in Louisiana has yet to materialize, but people like Ross are irrelevant to that discussion. The general task is clear:

Blacks must become [even more] zealous in pursuit of social and economic justice, and run over the weak white Democrats that get in the way. Who knows? Strong Black leadership may even produce significant numbers of sane white southern voters that we can actually count on. What is certain is that the status quo in the Democratic Party cannot hold.

And now, the smart readers:

Jonathan Smith is an astute observer of Louisiana politics, from Shreveport:

Just read the article, and damn if you didn't hit the nail on the head. Forget that, you put the thing through the floor! This is why I love your site so much. Not just because the article was about where I live but because you explained how it relates to a larger whole. Racial politics is never an easy topic to analyze completely, as America prefers the current hypocrisy of talking equality without living it. Though for all racial politics’ structural complexity there's still the underlying functional simplicity: whites remain a privileged ruling class, blacks stay a disadvantaged underclass. You've written an article that not only brilliantly codifies why the South is falling wholesale to the GOP, you also state precisely why that is and why Blanco nearly lost: the Democrats (like Mary Landrieu a year ago) have forgotten who brought them to the dance. But more than that you point out that it's time for blacks to admit what we've all been thinking for some time. That in truth, when it comes down to the wire, there's really not a hair's difference between the GOP and the Democrats – they're both racing for the middle, though the middle seems to be way right of center. White voters constitute the majority of votes and it's clear the Democrats intend to cater to that vote even if they slit their own throats with black voters. The current Democrat strategy of trying to rebuild a white voter base is foolish on its face even to the casual observer, and it displays Democrat naiveté (or stupidity) as they lose more ground every day while trying to ignore the ugly realities that blacks have elucidated all along – that race truly does define socio-political discourse down here.

White Democrat voters in the South are going Republican and they're not coming back. As the number of black Southerners grows terms like "white Republicans" or "white Democrats" become increasingly irrelevant because they all believe the same things: power cannot be shared with "them." Clearly the Democrats aren't comfortable with black political authority (regardless of how they deny this) and it's a fool’s errand to sit and wait, wondering when they'll make good on their promises of opening doors for us. All they can think of is, "But if we do that, how will it LOOK to our white voters?" It's political myopia like this that cost them Mississippi, which has an even larger black population than Louisiana.

It's a shame that everyone can see what the Democrats’ problem is except the white Democrat leadership. I'm reminded of the final days of apartheid. The US government had a choice. Either they could back the white guys who were in power today, or back the black government that would be in power tomorrow. And like the US the Democrats seem to be fumbling the ball on this one too, fully ready to break faith with the black electorate who has saved their bacon more times than I can count and throw away a better tomorrow rather than risk a brief (and ultimately ineffective) white voter backlash today.

Your article makes it clear to us Negroes in northern Louisiana that we have to follow New Orleans’ example and organize ourselves. We need to mount a major political offensive aimed at putting US in the driver's seat and we need to do it now! Considering that I'm from Louisiana and I follow (or rather like to think I follow) politics here I have to admit you have a better (MUCH better!) grasp of Louisiana politics than I do. I find myself actually learning from your site and that's something that I never experience with TV or print media. Your article was absolutely perfect from top to bottom. Take notes FoxNews, this is what journalism is supposed to be!

I'm glad to say Caddo parish put some new faces in the legislature, on the commission and in the judgeships and at least five of those faces were black women. With blacks making up over 50-percent of Shreveport and 45-percent of Caddo parish, I'd say we're on our way to having what New Orleans has already got. And with proper planning we can turn this parish into a bulwark of black political and economic security.

Joseph Hampton is an activist and newsletter publisher from Lake Charles, Louisiana, which he describes as "one of the largest active plantations" in the state:

I am a 71 year-old activist associated with the Black Panther Party (Chicago), and the Lawndale Organization (Chicago). Participated in the Nashville sit-in, voter registration (McComb County, Mississippi), marched with King in Skokie, Ill. and sent a bus to the March on Washington from Evanston, Ill. I just try to inform the community of "color" as to the lack of equal education, healthcare and the economic apartheid being practiced against them. But I am in a part of America where people of "color" have been oppressed so long that the plantation mentality is woven into the fabric of their very being and "Willie Lynch" is alive and well in Lake Charles, La. Your article was right on and I preached the results prior to the final results of the elections.

African Americans in New Orleans seem to accept as a matter of course that their Black businessman Mayor, Ray Nagin, is “a Republican with non-matching voter registration.” His endorsement of Jindal boosted the city’s Black GOP vote to nine percent – just four points over the usual. Oakland California’s Leutisha Stills seemed to have both Nagin and brown Republican Jindal in mind, when she wrote:

My concern is for those of us who prefer to be "misguided" about their place and status with the GOP and the DLC, in thinking they are actually accepted on their own merits, as opposed to waking up to truth, which would translate to being pimped by those entities for their own greedy quest for global dominance. What do we do about those of the ethnic races that continue to ride the "I'm gonna blend-in" Trojan Horse sent back to infiltrate, steal, kill and destroy the very fabric of our ethnicity, not to mention our communities? What do we do about them?

Personally, I think the juggernaut known as the Republican Party, is due for a period of self-destruction, because they are greedy, and you know where greed gets you. Ask Bobby Jindal, because he sure overreached, and, lo and behold, neither Dubya or Bubba was there to catch him when he fell.

Shirley Smith writes from Longview, Texas.

If this continues and the Democratic Leadership refuses to go back to the basics of the Democratic Party and refuses to have a platform that is recognized by those who have given up by not voting because they see no difference in the candidates, then the Democratic Party as we know it, will be dead. We will have a One Party system, even though it looks as if it is two parties.

I know what a Democrat is and this Party has swung so far to the Right that I hardly recognize it myself. And, it is an insult to think that our leaders want to depend on the swing voters – the ones who really stand for nothing definitely – to win, instead of bringing back those who are despondent because they are sick in the heart at what this party has become.

This is my humble opinion and I am sick at heart because of our Democratic Leadership in Congress. I am sick at heart because they pay agencies to consult them because they don't have the faintest idea of what this party has been and could be, and will not return to the core values of the Democratic Party until we seek new leadership in Congress.

I always enjoy your paper and I agree with Dean, but as a true Democrat, I support Kucinich. If we are to bring this country back where it belongs, then it is a fight that has to be fought by all of us. We cannot allow the Republicans to continue to be the Party that separates Americans. Whether they are Black, White, Gay, Ethic Backgrounds, etc., it doesn't matter. The Republican Party has become the Party of Separatists and Prejudices and I see no cure in sight. The Democrats must be the Party that brings people together. I have often wondered why people fall for the same old, tired rhetoric of the Republican Party. Why?

No Black intellectual circle in Lafayette, Louisiana is complete, absent the presence of Anthony Kennerson.

As always, , an excellent job of reporting and analysis. Speaking as one who was in the line of fire, so to speak, I knew that if the Black masses would rise up like they did and Mrs. Blanco had given them a reason to rise up, "Brother" Jindal would be exposed for the right-wing, pseudo-Christian slash-and-burner that he truly is. What really amazed me, though – although after the likes of Edwin Edwards and David Duke, I should be beyond surprises by now – was the fact that many rural whites who usually would go for a fundamentalist "conservative" campaign gave Jindal such a cold shoulder. I guess that he got caught between his Repugnant....errrrrr, Republican policies and his skin color – and not even his sugar daddy [GOP Governor] Mike Foster could save him.

And as for the Democrats here in what we call "Looze-sana"...well, maybe we may finally see them get some backbone and some spine and finally pay attention to the real issues of education and poverty. More than likely, however, we will see more business as usual, although our Gov. Elect did say that she would accept only a Democrat as State Senate president, and she has made the usual noises of being a bit more progressive than Iron Mike was. I won't hold my breath for that, however. I still have that fear that either Howard Dean will assume the Dem's nomination and promptly follow the conventional "wisdom" and tack hard to the "center" (read, to the right) to get at those prime "swing voters"; or that Joe Lieberman will find some way to gerrymander the presidential nomination – which means for me another "wasted" vote for Ralph Nader or Cynthia McKinney or whatever principled leftist progressive is out there. But, since I'm not a Democrat, their myopia's the least of my concerns, anyway.

A side note on the Janice Brown/Clarence Thomas caricature fracas with the Repugs on the Senate Judiciary Committee: Gee, what else can we expect out of Orrin Hatch and his band of merry neo-cons? [See “Testi-Lying to the Senate and the People,” October 30] Of course, if Ms. Brown happened to be of a slightly lighter complexion than she was, they'd still attempt to bully the nomination through, but it was still quite a show to see ultra-cons who really couldn't give a flying leap about average Black folk tearfully expressing their shock in defense of their quota of one. Yep, a very nice open tent, indeed – provided that you can stand the putrid smell of rotting elephants. Khalil Bendib needs a big raise for his efforts, and thanks for defending Aaron McGruder and Boondocks, too.

Keep it real, keep it going, and just plain keep bringing it.

Our Deep South commentary kindled memories in Alan Barbour, of Fresno, California.

Middle-aged white guy in California here, old enough to have the photo of the burned-out Freedom Rider bus in Life Magazine seared into my memory, among other things. Somehow or other I stumbled across your web site a few weeks ago, and have it book-marked both at work and at home. Great stuff. The Internet gives us such great opportunities to communicate with one another; the mass media usually don't amount to two cents. Your column on the Louisiana Governor's race was by far the most informative I have read. I'm damned tired of having my vote taken for granted, too. I was going to cast a protest vote for the Peace and Freedom candidate in the recent California Governor's race, but because Howard Dean asked me to, I held my nose, marked my absentee ballot quickly for Cruz Bustamante, and put it into the mailbox before I could change my mind. Don't expect I'll do that again.

Thanks again, and hello to your other letter writers.

Kim Jones, of Louisiana’s Grambling State University, doesn’t like our language. We would normally consider that a serious issue, since Ms. Jones works in Grambling’s Department of Speech and Theater. However, as will become apparent to the reader, Ms. Jones actually has a political problem with that goes much deeper than our choice of words. (We decided not to edit Ms. Jones’ letter, so as not to give her further cause for complaint.)

Considering the name of your organization, I was very disappointed to read childish name-calling such as "Bubba" and "Sand-N****". Would you howl about racism if other credible news websites referred to Black male voters as "Tyrone" and African-Americans voters in general as "n****" in their articles and then sent the articles via mass email to college and university faculty and staff? Or do you feel that racism happens only when Whites offend Blacks and not vice-versa? Further, to even use the "N****" word, shows that your mentality is not any higher than that of rap artists who make large incomes from spewing "N**** this, and n**** that". Actually, I'd rather read a political commentation from Source Magazine than read The Black Commentator. At least with Source, they let the reader know upfront that it is all about hiphop source for news and entertainment. It appears The Black Commentator seems to be big on cheapshot name-calling, whining about racism (what else is new?), and making cartoon caricatures (latest was Clarence Thomas). Mr. Thomas is not the first Negro who doesn't make decisions according to how you (or we) feel he should nor will he be the last. So let it go. Life is too precious and too short to waste on unforgiveness and bitterness; especially over the past. We cannot change one thing that has happened in the past. We can only learn from it and go forward. Take the immaturity out of your articles and then you will have something substantial to send to educators all over the world.

Here’s the sentence that Ms. Jones finds most objectionable:

The ballot numbers testify that an American-born, converted Catholic scion of an upper caste Hindu family is still just a “sand nigger” to Bubba, who takes the creed of the White Man’s Party seriously.

"Sand nigger" is a term widely applied by white racists to Middle Eastern people (or people they think are from the Middle East), and reveals the homegrown nature of their hatred. We employed the term in the context of a political analysis of American racists as they actually exist and behave, and are absolutely unapologetic about that. (Ms. Jones wrote back later and confirmed that she is “very familiar with the term.”)

"Bubba?" "Tyrone?" Too offensive for Black educators? Hardly – and that includes the good faculty at Grambling.

In search of…

When Mississippi State Representative Erik R. Fleming writes a commentary, it travels. Fleming’s November 6 Think Piece, “Southern White Male Democrats, Where Ya At?” was displayed everywhere but the Post Office, so the next week he encored with “Southern White Male Democrats Part II: Dean’s Folly.”

Dean may be on to something that was brought out last issue: Democrats must find a way to reach out and relate to Southern whites or they will continue to be obliterated every election. He is right that Southerners are not voting with their wallets, for many poor whites are denied quality health care, adequate housing and premium education. Southern whites, whether they drive pickups or not, are among some of the poorest individuals in America as it relates to income and quality of life.

But if Dean thinks he can overwhelm these poor souls with intelligent arguments, he is on a folly that will lead to defeat in November 2004. That Confederate flag he alluded to is the reason why Southern whites gravitate to the GOP. The Republicans in the South have wrapped themselves in that flag, very subtly suggesting that poor whites are in the condition they are in because of government dollars that are being directed to black folks.

Leon Brandon thinks of himself as a kind of Lone Ranger.

It's me, the The Southern White Male "Liberal" Democrat. I read your article on Alternet.org. I hope you hear from more than just myself, but I feel the prospects are not good. How many others like myself could I put you in contact with? I'm sorry to say I don't know any. Please let me know of any you hear from as it would be nice to have someone to vent my frustrations with that was closer than California. It's lonely being a hippie fag anti-American commie traitor. Perhaps I'll meet others after I'm arrested by Homeland Security because of my Kucinich bumper sticker. Who knows, I may even get to meet you at the detention center. I hear that Fox News is going to televise the round-up. I may get to shake hands with two or three other white guys as I think they are going to do a three state round-up, Arkansas, Tennessee, and Mississippi. I'm in great hopes the Canadians will try to save us.

The Kleptocrats control our nation. The corporate media gives blanket support to the regime. The attacks being made on our civil liberties, environment, free speech, and on and on are all made to appear as if they are for our benefit. Did you see the NAACP victory in their lawsuit over the illegal removal of black voters in Florida in the 2000 election? That's right it, wasn't reported by major media. Our selected president and the Kleptocrats intend to keep the power they have to deceive the American public. Touch screen voting machines with secret code and no paper trail? Internet surveillance, phone taps, secret searches, and more. Eric, most people don't even realize what's going on. How do we reach them with no media outlet? Our country is facing a radical departure from all it stood for. I for one will continue to speak out to those around me as I know you do also. Many can't endure the labels placed upon them and have given up the fight. It appears this is happening in congress. It ain't over ‘til it's over.

I wish you well in your fight for us. Stand your ground and never back down. We can win our country back.

Rep. Fleming’s piece in the current issue is titled, “DC Feels the Pimphand,” featuring the five Sweet Daddy Democratic presidential candidates who backed out of the District of Columbia’s January 13 primary under pressure from the Democratic National Committee. DC voters will now choose between Al Sharpton, Dennis Kucinich, Carol Moseley-Braun, and Howard Dean.

Janice, Al, Dennis, and Howard

There are relatively few Confederate flags on pickup trucks parked on residential streets of Washington, where Dean first made mention of the items, back in February:

"White folks in the South who drive pickup trucks with Confederate flag decals in the back ought to be voting with us and not them, because their kids don't have health insurance, either, and their kids need better schools, too."

Patricia Bentrup, is from New Hampshire, which she is quick to point out is the first-in-the-nation primary state (as sanctioned by the DNC). Ms. Bentrup read our assessment of the flag-related attacks on Dean.

Good to hear a common-sense response to the Dean flag flap, instead of the other Presidential campaigners' hysterical, "How dare he say that?" I'll pass this message on.

Dean got thunderous applause when he first spoke of flags and trucks before a national meeting of Democrats. Rev. Al Sharpton waited nine months to denounce Dean’s line, just after Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. endorsed the former Vermont Governor. Then, on November 5, Sharpton reached the bottom of his depression, describing virtually all of Black leadership as an “assumed club” for urging Democrats to filibuster Janice Brown’s nomination to the federal bench. In our November 13 issue, we described the episode as Al Sharpton’s Political-Emotional Breakdown.”

Sharpton’s job was to be available for the voters in the primaries, thus allowing them to make a political statement that would be heard clearly throughout the Democratic Party. His primary task is not to win the nomination or trigger some flood of endorsements. Sharpton is an intelligent man, who began his campaign journey well aware of the possibilities and limitations of his candidacy. In cautioning Sharpton that “Black voters are your only hope of wielding clout as a leader of an effective Party bloc,” [see “What the Black Presidential Candidate Must Do,” April 24] we purposely did not give weight to endorsements from Black elected officials, who must play the game on an already existing field. Sharpton’s mission was to alter that field by the weight of his Black tallies on primary days, especially the February 3 ballot in South Carolina, where Blacks should comprise a majority of Democratic voters.

We hope Sharpton can still do well in South Carolina, although no one can predict the immediate or long term fallout of his bizarre behavior during his week of deep, dysfunctional funk, when he lost all semblance of “clear vision and personal discipline.”

A number of letter writers wished we had not called attention to Sharpton’s acute dysfunction. We answered them in the November 20 e-Mailbox column.

Our obligation to our audience of "influencers" is to deliver an honest analysis, not to please folks. We are not cheerleaders. Sharpton has gotten a great deal of "good ink" in these pages. He brought the bad ink on himself.

We received an overflow of mail on the Sharpton affair. Janice Layne wrote:

The article on Rev. Al Sharpton was informative, entertaining and well
written. I truly appreciated it. Thanks.

However, Jean Mcmahon, of Fort Gibson, Oklahoma, was not pleased.

The article “Al Sharpton's Breakdown” made me feel like crying. It was a very cruel article. Mercy...

Kerry Wells, a white reader from Monroe, North Carolina, stands by Sharpton and suspects the worst of Dean.

I did not get all the references in the piece on Sharpton. I, too, heard about this only from , otherwise I would not have known about it. Sharpton truly is the only candidate with a voice, there is no one else with his wit and pinpoint accuracy when it comes to distilling the sentiments of the citizens of this country into one or two stinging comments. I was surprised to see endorsing Dean; only a very removed person would bring the Confederate flag into any political speech, he obviously has no understanding of the still festering wound in the South that that flag represents and perpetuates. An even less encouraging guess is that he made the comment anticipating the controversy, and therefore publicity, that it would generate. I suspect the latter, and therefore I have more doubt about him now than before he made this ignorant comment.

Thanks for your great publication!

Sharpton’s outburst against the Black leadership “club” was widely reported in the major press, and with special glee among rightwing media.

Regarding Dean: We suspect that many of our readers have come to the same conclusion as Ms. Wells. However, when we "endorse" someone, we will do so in plain language. What we actually said, on the occasion of the SIEU and AFSCME endorsement of Dean, was:

" is pleased that both these large (numbers one and four, respectively) and heavily Black unions are backing the former Governor, the only top-tier candidate who credibly opposed the Iraq war. We were equally impressed with his remarks on pickup trucks and Confederate flags, which we understood as a rare statement by a white politician on the idiocy of delusional white men.”

SEIU and AFSCME proclaimed from the beginning of the primary season that their main concern was "electability."

We got a kick out of a follow-up letter from Ms. Wells:

I think Dean needs to take more care; he probably managed to piss off people on both sides of the flag issue, which was stupid, plus his comment about talking race in front of white voters...wank, wank. The whole thing brings to my mind, for some unknown reason, that old Saturday Night Live "white rap": "He's white, he's extremely white, he walks with his buttocks extremely tight." I just don't think Dean has handled himself well in these two instances, and like Sharpton, he doesn't need to screw up now.

Meanwhile, D.A. Williams is pleased that Janice Brown will have to wait awhile before polluting the District of Columbia appellate bench with her Hard Right version of the law.

I am glad she is being filibustered. If the Republicans got 165 judges through the door and the four that are left are being filibustered they all must be really nut jobs.

Never far from Neverland

Margaret Kimberley spoke for millions in her November 27 Freedom Rider column, “No Michael, No Peace.”

In my latest fantasy Jesse Jackson is asked about the new charges against Michael Jackson and replies, “I always hope that justice is done, but most people facing our legal system are at greater risk than Michael Jackson. There are hundreds of death row inmates who do not have effective counsel. I hope that you in the media will give equal attention to the larger issues of our criminal justice system.” I know. It will never happen. Perhaps I should start looking forward to seeing Michael Jackson wearing African robes in a black church.

Karen Simpson shares the same fantasy.

I am so tired of these celebrities who more or less disassociated themselves from the "black-folk" only to come running "home" when they are in trouble, quoting Martin Luther King, wearing Afrocentric garb and crying on black shoulders. When are we as black people going to call them on this?

I understand that black people feel that we must stick together when times are bad especially because when one of us does something "bad" we are made to feel that it reflects on all of us. When are we going to face the fact that they are using us and if they get the opportunity to fall back into the good graces of "the man" they will run, skip and jump faster than you can say Brothe.…

Keep your voice out there.

Sherletta McCaskill says Ms. Kimberley “squarely bangs the peg on it's head.”

I too was appalled when Jermaine Jackson issued forth the "L" word in regard to his "disturbed" and infamous sibling’s latest travails. Unfortunately as you so pointedly note, our collective worship of those of our race who have "made it" has detracted from the core issue of justice for less fortunate people of color daily victimized by our "just-us" system.

The first order of mass media is entertainment, then information accidentally. National and dare I say international figures such as Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton squander capital they enjoy in this arena and miss an opportunity to teach and build collective character in this venue. Thank the heavens Black Commentator has provided a platform for your succinct, witty and poignant read of an ongoing tragedy for our community.

I am no less saddened by Michael's plight for the pall that prevails but having witnessed his fall from grace ten years ago must charge Mr. Jackson with the responsibility of his own actions and the terrible consequences that await him. The unfortunate by product will be the vicarious fallout for the black community at large.

I look forward to continued reading of your analysis of issues regarding our community and have enjoyed your web page as well. Finding you is indeed priceless.

Margaret Kimberley’s response:

I enjoy reading the opinions of Black Commentator readers. The feedback is appreciated.

Some of you believe that Michael Jackson has been treated unfairly by the media and by law enforcement. You have mentioned the timing of his arrest to coincide with a CD release and the inappropriate comments made by the prosecutor, Tom Sneddon. Sneddon made a joke about wanting reporters to spend a lot of money in Santa Barbara county to help support the DA's office. The bizarre remark did not go unnoticed and Sneddon was forced to apologize. I think that black people are well served by skepticism, even a little paranoia. Anyone who is moved to read Black Commentator is familiar with our history and is aware of constant efforts to denigrate and demonize us as individuals and as a group.

Having said that, I have to confess that my concerns are a little different when Jackson and other celebrities are an issue. News outlets dropped everything to give us the latest over sensationalized and titillating detail of Michael Jackson's sad life. Of course we are still in the midst of a disastrous invasion into Iraq. Congress passed a Medicare bill that is a bonanza for drug companies and the right wing but not for the elderly poor. Millions die because they are too poor to afford medicines for AIDS or malaria. But if you followed mainstream media coverage you wouldn't know any of these things. You would think that nothing was happening outside of Neverland.

If it were up to me Michael Jackson would not be in the news beyond the entertainment pages. Neither would J. Lo, Paris Hilton or Britney. They are all famous but none are important. Many of you have experienced police brutality, racism in the workplace and the burden of being despised regardless of your character or accomplishments. And yet you have made great contributions to your families and to your communities, against great odds. I think some of you would be better served if you thought of those things as often as the media inspires you to think of Michael Jackson.

There is a media feeding frenzy in this case, but unfortunately there was none when the Iraq war was being planned. It is awful that reporters bugged Jackson's private jet and in one case tried to sneak on board. But we should be more upset that the New York Times perpetuated Bush administration lies about weapons of mass destruction. I wish reporters had bugged Air Force One when war plans were in the works.

It is true that Michael is innocent until proven guilty. Assuming he is innocent, it was extremely unwise of him to go on television and proclaim that he slept with young boys. When I saw the footage I felt sorry for this deluded man. On the other hand, it also made me think of an old saying. "Life is tough when you're stupid."

Black Indians’ Trail of Tears

According to Saeed Shabazz’s November 27 article, “The Trail of Tears Continues for Black Indians,” Blacks comprised “at least 18 percent of the Indians that survived” the 1830s forced removal from northern Georgia to present-day Oklahoma. Originally published in FinalCall.com, the piece was an eye opener for Stephen Ewen, of Palm Beach County, Florida.

Regarding the Black Commentator's recent article, "The Trail of Tears Continues for Black Indians," it very importantly informs readers of groups of "out of the way" African descendents on the U.S. continent. I was unaware of these people's current experiences prior reading the article.

There are also modern 'Trails of Tears" that I have seen African-Americans forced along. I am speaking of the wholesale concreting over of black communities under the misuse of "eminent domain," and in the name of "progress" and increased revenues for municipalities.

I live in Palm Beach County. The town of Jupiter in the county long ago forced African-Americans down a Trail of Tears, to a now "out of the way" place of the town where they no longer "mar the landscape." True, African-Americans were paid to march their trail, but nowhere near in proportion to what the town has made from the many high-income bracket residences and persons the town has successfully attracted to replace
them.

More recently, African-Americans in the City of West Palm Beach were displaced to an "out of the way" spot to make room for an elite shopping center, "City Place," to cater to Palm Beach and other high-income residents. I suspect that the African-American community of Lake Worth (still called "the Black Edition of Lake Worth" on some City of Lake Worth books), where I work, is slated for the next "Trail of Tears." Their community is just too close to some intra-coastal waterways that stand to be a goldmine for those with the power to benefit themselves thereby.

We were undecided whether Mr. Ewen’s letter should appear with the Trail of Tears article or our series on urban America, “Wanted: A Plan for the Cities to Save Themselves.” In the Palm Beach case, the city seems intent on “saving” itself – from Black people.

Prison Nation

It is difficult to comprehend the destruction that mass incarceration wreaks on Black society. In his November 20 article, “Starve the Racist Prison Beast,” Paul Street illuminated the great gashes of misery and disempowerment that prison inflicts on every aspect of African American life. For example:

Possession of a felony record is the single worst barrier to employer acceptance. This is no small societal problem when 13 million possess such records in a capitalist society, where most adults must purchase commodified life necessities through an exchange medium that is obtained primarily by renting out their labor power on a sustained basis. Employer and other forms of societal bias against "ex-offenders" help explain why roughly two-thirds of released prisoners are rearrested within three years. A considerable and growing segment of the population has become part of a permanently stigmatized "underclass" that recycles in and out of jails and prisons. It forms an everlasting "criminal element" that is pushed yet further into the lower class and functions as the key raw material for a bloated, super-expensive hyper-carceral criminal justice state.

Paul Street’s November piece was reprinted from Znet. Our December 11 issue features his analysis of mass incarceration’s impact on Black electoral power: “The Political Consequences of Racist Felony Disenfranchisement.”

Gregory McDonald is an American living and teaching in Guadalajara, Mexico.

I'm writing to applaud the re-print of Paul Street's article in issue 65. I particularly want to point to something that is no doubt not lost on you our your many readers, but is not really addressed in the article.

One of the trends that is closely connected to the broader issue of (clearly racist) sentencing in the US over the last 20 years or so is the (re)emergence of the Prison Industrial Complex. Basically, prisons (both "public" and "private") are used increasingly as post-industrial plantations for light manufacturing, data entry, telemarketing, and other business ventures. There is an ever-increasing chance, for example, that the person interrupting your dinner trying to sell something or collect on a debt is an inmate somewhere (I try to be extra polite, just in case).

I said "(re)emergence" above because this is, of course, not new at all. State prison officials began renting/selling the labor of inmates as long ago as the 1820s. After the Civil War, this was all the rage in one particular part of the country (no prize for guessing the South!). Parchman in Mississippi and Angola in Louisiana are just two of the more famous results of this bit of "penology."

Young (mostly minority) men (and a growing number of women) are taken out of society, locked away and used as super-cheap labor, and are then released to a life of low-wage, low-skill work (their prison term being only part of their life sentence) as disfranchised pariahs. The prisons, meanwhile, are run as profit-making ventures (with people as the raw material, investors actually want more crime, or at least more convictions), and politicians feed off the culture of fear among the non-inmate voting class.

This is a huge issue and it is one of those things that reaches into almost every shadowy corner of American life (racism, the drug war, politics, fear, corporate America, class, violence, etc). Thanks for talking about it! (As if you didn't already have enough to talk about!)

Thanksgiving for what, and whom?

Last week we served up some holiday fare for the non-deluded folks: “The End of American Thanksgivings: A Cause for Universal Rejoicing.”

White America embraced Thanksgiving because a majority of that population glories in the fruits, if not the unpleasant details, of genocide and slavery and feels, on the whole, good about their heritage: a cornucopia of privilege and national power. Children are taught to identify with the good fortune of the Pilgrims. It does not much matter that the Native American and African holocausts that flowed from the feast at Plymouth are hidden from the children’s version of the story – kids learn soon enough that Indians were made scarce and Africans became enslaved. But they will also never forget the core message of the holiday: that the Pilgrims were good people, who could not have purposely set such evil in motion. Just as the first Thanksgivings marked the consolidation of the English toehold in what became the United States, the core ideological content of the holiday serves to validate all that has since occurred on these shores – a national consecration of the unspeakable, a balm and benediction for the victors, a blessing of the fruits of murder and kidnapping, and an implicit obligation to continue the seamless historical project in the present day.

The Thanksgiving story is an absolution of the Pilgrims, whose brutal quest for absolute power in the New World is made to seem both religiously motivated and eminently human. Most importantly, the Pilgrims are depicted as victims – of harsh weather and their own naïve yet wholesome visions of a new beginning. In light of this carefully nurtured fable, whatever happened to the Indians, from Plymouth to California and beyond, in the aftermath of the 1621 dinner must be considered a mistake, the result of misunderstandings – at worst, a series of lamentable tragedies. The story provides the essential first frame of the American saga. It is unalloyed racist propaganda, a tale that endures because it served the purposes of a succession of the Pilgrims’ political heirs, in much the same way that Nazi-enhanced mythology of a glorious Aryan/German past advanced another murderous, expansionist mission.

Lots of folks appreciated our historical perspective on the celebration of racist Manifest Destiny. Charma Hawk-James, from Tumacaori, Arizona, writes:

I have just finished reading this amazing, horrific and heartbreaking article. Over the years, I've managed to pick up bits and pieces of the horrors and the "white"wash that was done, but never all together, like this! I'd like to send this out to every name on my email list.

David Elliott is a serious and interesting guy, with a literary reference for every occasion.

Your article on the actual origins of the so-called 'Thanksgiving' holiday was simply brilliant. It’s the best exposition I've seen on the subject since becoming aware of the true history through Rev. Ishakamusa Barashango's Afrikan People and European Holidays: A Mental Genocide.

Please keep up the vital work.

John Eden sees things clearly from his roost in Jesup, Georgia.

You certainly served up a tasty dish for Turkey day! I think the bird was crow, however! Thank you for the details of that history lesson that America has yet to learn. The more I learn of that story, the worse it gets. And then to read of George Warmonger Bush speaking to "the troops" of Thanksgiving as "our great holiday"... just makes your point hit home all the more. Especially thank you for the bright spot at the end. We all need your clear-eyed optimism.

We’re thankful that Joan Edwards doesn’t hold the bad news against us.

Though the truth you expose is depressing, I'm eternally grateful for your ability, your willingness, and your courage. The Thanksgiving story is truly one of the most powerful pieces I've read in a long time. I'm forwarding it to everyone I know.

Darlene Ehinger thinks a name-change is in order.

We became aware of the dreadful origin of Thanksgiving only this year. Searching for someway to salvage our time together as a family, my daughter suggested that from now on we call the annual event "The Forgiving." Until America acknowledges its sins and asks for forgiveness, I truly believe it is doomed. We shall start with our family.

Buffalo, New York activist Loretta Renford understands that Thanksgiving is more about graves than gravy.

Such intensity! What a brute history America sings. No wonder "these colors don't run." She's too heavy with blood and bitterness.

Ray Vogelpohl has dis-invited himself from the “gruesome” party.

I just finished reading "The End of American Thanksgivings" and felt compelled to write and tell you of the incredible closeness I feel to you for telling that story. Despite the gruesomeness of most of the article and despite the fact that I am white thereby possibly getting you thinking that I might be offended by what you wrote, I am not only not offended but rather feel damn good about it. The statement "You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free” now means more to me now than it ever did. Although through my own studies of history and thinking about life in general I was already aware of much of what you said, it was your article that completely obliterated any false illusions I may have been harboring and I will never celebrate another Thanksgiving Day again and especially so living under this present corrupt and murderous administration. I wrote you a while back and thanked you for your "Dennis Kucinich, Al Sharpton" article [Two Civilized Men Among the Barbarians, October 2] and now I am thanking you for this one and want you to know that I share the optimism you expressed at the end of this current piece.

We’re familiar with Joseph Osorio; he likes to tell good jokes – but not on this occasion.

I just finished reading "The End of American Thanksgivings". There is nothing for me to add. A truly magnificent piece. You effectively demonstrate how the fates of our two people have intertwined . I wish to extend my thanks to , for the respect your publication shows to Indian people. We are a proud race, and I feel honored that reflects that in such fine writing.

Marla Crites extracted some good cheer from our personal expressions of “thankfulness” at the end of the piece – once she got through the historical gore.

I appreciate so much your writing this article. Even though I am a product of a so-called liberal education and a social activist and I kind of knew those awful facts about colonists' treatment of the Indians, I was stunned to realize that the whole unvarnished truth is so appalling. Thank you, too, for making the connections between the earliest grisly moments of this country's history and the current madness.

It feels as if we are living through a nightmare. If Dean wins the nomination will he morph into a progressive? I think not, being a Kucinich supporter. You're right – Dennis is the real thing! Will the fascist neocons succeed in suspending the Constitution and the 2004 election (if we threaten their continuation sufficiently)? How long before Ashcroft shuts down all the progressive voices on the Internet?

Really scary times. But, as the chief of the Wampanoags knew, there is safety in numbers. Thanks again for giving us truth and hope.

Chief Massasoit brought 90 of his people with him to the Pilgrim’s feast, in all probability for his own protection.

Oh, Canada!

We began our Thanksgiving Issue Cover Story with the statement, “Nobody but Americans celebrates Thanksgiving” – and then wrote over 5,000 words explaining what was really being celebrated: genocide, slavery, and white Manifest Destiny.

We certainly didn’t mean that no other nation or culture has a day of thanksgiving; such celebrations have been around at least since the beginning of agriculture. However, the literal statement did not sit well with Canadians, who celebrate their Thanksgiving, based on a 1578 event, on the second Monday of October. One writer said he read only the first line before he “had to stop” – and then spent several lines heaping insults upon us. (We were unlucky enough to have been discovered by the rude Canadian, himself.)

Linda Sabourin is from Nova Scotia, the site of the 16^th Century French-English-Indigenous feast. She acknowledges that the Canadian holiday carries “probably a slightly different connotation than the American one.”

We give thanks for a bountiful harvest, for all the good things living in Canada bestows on us, for our family and friends, good health ...etc, etc, etc.

Just wanted to point out, that the USA is not the only nation who celebrates this day.

Paul Kincaid Jamieson, of Vancouver, Canada seems to harbor an innate skepticism about Americans, including .

If what you say is true then, wow. That's quite the turn around on accepted anecdotal history. I've been reading the Oxford History of the America's and I had formed my own opinion that the USA was formed by companies for the benefit of stockholders, and nothing in three hundred years has changed.

Reading your article only reinforced that notion.

We found Mr. Jamieson’s "stockholders" theme/analogy quite useful overall, and literally true with regard to the founding settlements, which were business ventures of trading companies (much like the Hudson’s Bay Company that “settled” and “developed” much of Canada).

Canadian Lani Hudelson contributed her “minor correction to your story about the American Thanksgiving.”

Canada also celebrates Thanksgiving, but it happens in October, on the same Monday as America celebrates Columbus Day (another myth). It's a National Statutory Holiday and at least in my own family, it was NOT a commemoration of the Pilgrims meal but more of a thanks for the harvest.

Finally, this Thanksgiving letter from Maria Luisa Etchart, an Argentinian living in Costa Rica:

Dear friends, thank you so much for your thorough article on Thanksgiving and its celebration. I know very little about American history or about history in general, I am more of an observer and always interested in knowing as much as I can about what is going on. There's a song in Argentina, my country, which starts "If history is written by the winners, that means there is another history"…and I think that has been my motto for some years. So, I stuck to reading philosophy, or the kind of books that give you information about different fields of human activity, authors who give you food for thought and I left the rest to my instincts, which have been healthy enough to help me detect cruelty, lies, deceit, greed, arrogance and spiritual ignorance.

I have kept pretty busy, trying with all my might, in my humble measure, to change things . Do I need to tell you I have felt lonely and distressed most of the time? As I was growing old, I decided I should read the Bible, which has been highly promoted through so many years as the book which guided and inspired the so-called western world. Well, I did and I must admit I couldn't believe my tired eyes: Adding up the ages of its main characters according to Genesis, Adam and Eve would have been created millions of years after the appearance of man on earth, as science has proved.

The description of God in the Old Testament is that of a cruel and sadistic guy who destroys anyone he dislikes and rules only a certain group of people, referring to the rest of us who can't find an ancestor in that branch of humanity, as the "strangers" to whom the chosen people (Deuteronomy) can give the impure food to, or charge higher interest rates, and so forth. That sounds more like the Statute of IMF than a loving God's words.

The first question that came to my mind was: Who created us, strangers and why were that group of people awarded the only "divine title deed"? So, you see if I feel that way about the Bible which has been in the hands of all the oppressors, killers and greedy merchants of white extraction, it wasn't much use to try and read history books which would be a continuation of that view.

But, returning to your article, I believe every word of it and it helps me understand better the outside perception I have of the USA and the maniacs that rule it. I found it hard to understand that the American people accepted to be fed constant lies and feel proud of themselves while their actions are far from any ethical pattern. Your account puts everything in a right perspective which makes it more plausible.

I can't help feeling they are absolutely sick, and the culture they have produced is worthless and despicable. But I agree with you that their supremacy is coming to an end, they have simply gone too far. Everything under their sphere of influence has a touch of madness, greed and disregard for others which makes one shudder.

It will surely take a lot of effort on our part to change things but I have the feeling that many people around the world are beginning to share our views and the Internet has played in our favor. We were there all the time but we had no way of communicating or learning from others. So, we could start a new celebration: Thanksgiving for the net. I wish you all the best and keep on producing such an excellent material.

The best readership on the Net

Pat Gowens is a hard working activist for poor mothers and children, and editor of Mother Warriors Voice.

Such great writing. I sure wish we could get news and cartoons in a paper version for the people. A radical perspective is missing from the streets.

’s readership is growing like a life form – intelligent life, that is. Lita Berry found us while on a mission.

First time visitor to your web page. I sought out information on Ward Connerly because Aaron McGruder’s comic strip The Boondocks lampooned him as a possible date for Condeleezza Rice. A Google search led me to the commentary. I'm always curious how people like Ward and Clarence arrive at the conclusions they do and sleep at night. It seems their comfort is money and they have no conscious mind as to the consequences of their actions. Thank you for you clear and informative material, with several links to additional sources.

Looking forward to next Thursday

Jeffrey Shoji has this tendency to write down his feelings as they…emerge.

Wow. That was one of the best articles I have read this year (or maybe any year). The balance of factual information, ideological commentary, and blunt humor – excellent.

Forgive me, this is the first I have heard about The Black Commentator. I really enjoyed it and look forward to exploring it further.

In Cape Town, South Africa, Eric Goodwin fears that we are indifferent to the consequences of our actions.

I would like to alert you to the fact that the cartoons published on your site could lead to claims against you for injuries sustained due to massive attacks of laughter.

For example: after viewing the cartoon about Condi, I fell off my chair laughing. When I saw the Clarence Thomas cartoon, I nearly bust a gut.

You have been warned.

Finally, V. N. Muthukumar brought his own offering to the table.

I wanted to bring this piece in the Guardian to fellow readers. Thanks for a thought-provoking article on Thanksgiving Day.

We also heartily recommend Ian Burrell’s November 29 piece:

Benjamin Zephaniah: Too black, too strong - and still too radical for many

Whoever put forward the name of Benjamin Obadiah Iqbal Zephaniah to receive the Order of the British Empire in the New Year's honours list made a serious error of judgement.

The dreadlocked poet, who last week angrily turned down his proposed OBE, had more than two years ago publicly rejected any notion of his being awarded such an honour. In the poem "Bought and Sold" published in 2001, Zephaniah rounded angrily on those among his peers who had agreed to be decorated at Buckingham Palace. The poet's sentiments were unequivocal:

Smart big awards and prize money
Is killing off black poetry
It's not censors or dictators that are cutting up our art.
The lure of meeting royalty
And touching high society
Is damping creativity and eating at our heart.
The ancestors would turn in graves
Those poor black folk that once were slaves would wonder
How our souls were sold
And check our strategies,
The empire strikes back and waves
Tamed warriors bow on parades
When they have done what they've been told
They get their OBEs.