In which I wish that Obama and Cosby and several other black leaders would get ahold of some actual

history.

But then our public schools and media suck like whoa,adn teh truth is sooo inconvenient for us as a nation, so...


I find that when I listen to Sen. Obama's speeches that are addressed to a black audience, (fuck, from progressive point iof view, he says stuff that irritates me every week, nowadays) he says a couple of things that irritate me. He's not the only one. Bill Cosby does it from time to time. And a fuckload of panelists on CNN tonight on some show or other focused on Black Americans did it again tonight. And I know that the reason that they do this is because of lack of knowledge and possibly internalized racism plus the political and social realities of today, but it still pisses me the hell off. See, I'm talking about "The Accountability Speech". You know that speech. Its the one in which all of the troubles of black people are laid firmly at their feet, cause they are too lazy/stupid/pathological/criminally-minded/ignorant/stupid you-name-a-negative-characteristic-and-it-applies-to-them. It's the speech where the actions of a subset of Black America are laid collectively across the entire Black America as a whole. Its another one of the ways in which Obama breathes life into those right-wing tropes, instead of dismantling them. And yes, I am fucking tired of it. bradhicks suggests an alternative to what he actually said:

"But even after we do all of those things, I can not promise you that the American Dream will work for all black Americans. Still, I am here to tell you that if it doesn't work, neither will anything else. Everybody in this room knows, even if too few people in America know, that every 10 to 20 years, another batch of swindlers comes along with a new lie, steals everything that black Americans have saved, and gets away with it clean because so far, no court has ever convicted, no legislature has ever been outraged; as long as when any scam collapses, if it's black America that disproportionately gets the shaft, justice has never been served. And like everybody in this room, I know that that, not some dysfunction of our families, is why generation after generation of young black men, after watching their fathers and uncles and grandfathers get humiliated over and over again, want to think that they should try some alternative to the American Dream, like professional sports, or professional music, or organized crime. And we have got to make it clearer to them than we have ever done that the odds there are even worse. Not one black man in 100,000 who tries will ever make even a middle class living off being a celebrity or a gang banger; it just doesn't work.

"Nothing works reliably in America but the good old fashioned 17th-century American Dream, and we have got to keep reminding them, and each other, and every new immigrant, and every American of this amazing engine of personal and national wealth. Stay in school as long as you can. Get the best grades you can, and stay out of trouble. Get married and stay married. Take any job you can get, work hard and reliably at it, and go the extra mile. Spend as little as you can, save every penny you can, and invest it in only two things: not jewelry, or fancy cars, or expensive shoes and clothing, but your neighborhood, and your own kids' education. And if you do these things, you will get ahead, and your kids will get farther ahead than that. No other way of life you can try can offers you anything like the odds of the American dream.

...

"And that's why, as your President, I will make absolutely sure that the Justice Department investigates those who peddled the last worthless dregs of the 'teaser rate' home loans on massively overvalued, essentially worthless homes, who sold you loans that they knew you'd never be able to refinance or pay off, because they didn't want your loan payments, or even your house after the 'gotcha' in that paperwork sucks all the savings you have out of the bank; they wrecked your life for one more loan origination fee. They were willing to destroy two million Americans' lives for a relative pittance, because they were that sure that the country would let them get away with it as long as so many of the victims were black. That has got to end. I can not promise you that I can get you back your money, although I promise you I will try. I don't even know if I can promise that I can save the houses you invested in, although with the help of Democrats in Congress, I will move heaven and earth to try. But while I'm trying to do those things, what I ask from you in return is that you learn to recognize a pyramid scheme, and you teach your children not to fall for them either, so that the American Dream can work as well for black Americans as it has always worked for all other Americans.

More

That every ten to twenty years your money evaporates that he is referring to? See this...The Disconnect between Andrew and Katrina (for Black History Month)

numenweb links to these articles

Subprime mortgages are nearly double for Hispanics and African Americans

Race, Ethnicity and teh Sub-prime mortgage crisis


I really, really, really wish that people would pay attention to the history and teh structural set-up of this society as a result of this history, instead of trying to staunch a torn femoral artery with a bandaid.