Monday, October 20, 2008

The "Redistribution of Wealth" and the New Sound of Racism

There are new sounds to racism and elitism these days. You can hear it when you turn on CNN, Faux News, or MSNBC. John McCain and Sarah Palin are accusing Barack Obama of being a socialist -rowsing up the crowds who sometimes use the word, "Arab" instead of the one they want to use: nigger. They boo Obama's name, and have even yelled out death threats. John McCain keeps claiming that Barack Obama wants to raise taxes on those who work, and give their money to those who don't -welfare recipients (code words for single mother, black, urban, and lazy). I hear Republican senators and pundits blame the global financial crisis on the subprime game that were good enough to give home loans to uncredit-worthy recipients (Black people trying to become middle class). And the Congress of 1977 made it possible (the affirmative action laws that clamped down on discriminatory lending practices in government banks).

You know, at this point, I'm kind of burned out on the election. Let me tell you why: many European nations feel that Americans are the most violent and the most unintelligent people in the world. And I'm sad to admit this, but we are proving them right. Now, more than ever, I see that racism is a form of psychosis. I wouldn't go so far as to call it a psychological ailment, because that would imply that there is some kind of treatment for a disease that is manageable. Racism is not a disease. Racism is not a performance. Racism is not a trope. Racism is not a card. Racism is not an excuse. Racism is....I can't define it any other way but irrational. Let me point out some irrational things about this year's election headlines....

1. People keep saying that Obama is a Muslim. That he's an Arab. Then why did people make such a big miration over Jeremiah Wright, who is a Christian preacher? The last time I checked, you can't be a secret Muslim and an outted Christian at the same time. Muslims do not go to church.
2. What if Obama were a Muslim? There are many Muslims in this country who are peaceful, and who even serve their country proudly in war and by paying taxes. What would be wrong with a little Muslim boy or girl aspiring to hold political office one day? Isn't this country based on the separation of church and state? What has one's political affiliation to do with one's religion if you live in America?
3. There has already been a redistribution of wealth. The rich have gotten even richer. The middle class has all but disappeared, and the poor have gotten poorer. Point blank. Wealth has gone from lower and middle class families, and into the pockets of Wall Street Fat Cats. Now, at this point in time, they need a bail out. Talk about a case of welfare...840 billion dollars worth of welfare. Why is it that when we talk about giving the rich tax breaks, it's only fair, but when we talk about helping the poor, it is welfare and socialism?
4. Isn't Bush's and McCain's economic policies extensions of the Reagan trickle down policy? If it didn't work then, who in the Hell thought it would work now? We have a repeat of 1987 on our hands, and all the Republican Party can talk about is an education professor and what he did 40 years ago?
5. African Americans make up only 10% of the U.S. population...Yet, we are serving as the scapegoats for a GLOBAL financial crisis. The numbers, if you do the math, just doesn't make any damn sense. I know that as an African American, we are scape goats for everything that is wrong in America, from low test scores to high crime, but damn. A global crisis? Besides, many African Americans did not benefit from the real estate boom any way. At the end of the day, it was still difficult for many African Americans to get a loan from the person -not the computer- sitting at the other end of the desk.
6. Even if every African American family in the country received a subprime mortgage loan, should not the racism and GREED in that system be addressed? Just this summer, CNN did an expose on the fact that many "creditworthy" African Americans received subprime loands when they could have received regular loans. Some of the language in those lending contracts was very opaque, and some of these people had no idea that they were being bamboozled by the lending companies and banks. Now these very same banks need bail outs.
7. Many people accuse Black people of only voting for Obama because he is black. Let me ask a question (and this is Steve Harvey's question) Is the only reason you are not voting for him because he is Black? You'd rather vote for the white man that is going to freeze spending and tax health benefits that you are probably already paying too much for, than the Black one who will help you?
8. You know, I have no problem with Republican lip service. Oh yeah...They talk about abortion rights, welfare reform, small government, and better education for students. Well, we are currently paying taxes to the biggest government in recent history, and McCain's plan seems to make it bigger. In recent history, only president to even try and address welfare reform with a welfare-to-work program was the Democrat, Bill Clinton. Whatever happened to that program anyway? It seems as if welfare and medicare fraud has grown ten-fold under this administration's watch, and nobody has done a thing about it. Last, McCain said in the third presidential debate that he would leave abortion rights to the states (thereby, alleviating himself and the federal government of the burden). Under Bush's watch, education has become more expensive than ever. We've seen tuition increase in many areas by at least 10% every year, some universities have cut programs and laid off employees, and the No Child Left Behind Act is too much of a failure for me to even discuss here. That program should be called No Child's Behind Left. What is McCain's answer? Competition...I'm sorry, but it has been proven that competition, when embedded in this country's history of white flight, just is not going to solve our problems.
I know that there are many African American conservatives out there who are angry because they feel alienated. Some of them choose to become conservatives because they feel that we have been taken for granted by the Democratic Party. They ask, "What has that party done for us lately?"
My brothers and sisters, I ask you the same thing. What has the Republican Party done for us lately? They can throw out a bunch of divisive phrases and code words, and the rhetoric is very eloquent. But at the end of the day, that's all they seem to be doing on the issues...throwing out eloquent catch-phrases. They don't seem to be doing anything. As a matter of fact, if they do anything at all, it has been in opposition to their election platforms and party principles.

There you have it folks. The irrational nature of racism. Is it stupid? I won't say that. Naw. This goes beyond stupidity. You think I'm joking? Go to youtube and look up Michelle Bachman. This woman actually scares me. She and the Republican Party are taking us back to the Red Scare...only this time it has a Black face.