Posted by
Cliff Brotherton on Thursday, July 30, 2009 10:10:13 AM
I’m trying to remember the last time I’ve seen or even heard of a situation where the color of a persons skin, granted them an exclusive privilege to break the law, or slander a Police Officer and be deemed, blameless, for their acts.
Of course, there was the time of the “bad ole days” when bigoted whites evaded the law while committing dreadful acts against blacks.
But then, there was the Black Civil Rights movement, that brought to the forefront, the hatred running rampant in our nation. There were the years before, during and those that followed the Civil Rights Movement, that where filled with bloodshed and tears. A battle, the likes of which have been waged only a handful of times in human history. Battles were unarmed resistance faced down overwhelming odds, many battles that, on the surface, appeared to have been lost, but when it was all said and done, was a strategy that won the war.
I remember when I was a young boy I felt such pride in my race, the struggles that I heard about and the stories I read about spoke of bravery like that of Super Hero’s I would read of in comic books.
The blacks who stood up for the rights that should be granted to all human beings were my hero’s. However, my take on the Civil Rights Movement for blacks went further than that, something I think most blacks have apparently forgotten.
We didn’t do it alone.
We had allies of the white race who help us escape from slave owners to freedom.
We had a whole generation of white allies die in the American Civil War, men who cared more about their country than they did about their indifference toward the black race and were willing to stand, fight and die knowing full well that the freedom of blacks hung in the balance.
We had white allies’ in-between the Civil War and the Civil Rights Movement that granted opportunities to blacks that opened doors for a future generation. My free-slaved great, great, great grandfather was granted such an opportunity. If I hear the stories correctly, my family have been land owners since shortly after the Civil War.
We had white allies’ who walked hand in hand with those who stood on the front lines of the Black Civil Rights Movement.
The years of bloodshed and tears have been long and hard, but even I realized that the Black Civil Rights Movement has been, long over, for quite some time.
Something happened to black Americans after Martin Luther King Jr. died, in spit of the enormous progress and future opportunity…
Black leadership turned from preaching hope to hopelessness.
If you witnessed our first black President turn back the clock, seeming to have a lack of understanding that ism’s will always be, in one fashion or another. However, how our leaders handle the isms when confronted them, speaks volumes about their mindset, and their character.
Our leaders should understand that racism is something that has to be fed in order to survive. Barack Obama shoved a big spoonful of racial hatred to the American people when he, without knowing the facts, said a man who was just doing his job, did so, “Stupidly” should be a revelation to the American public as to what they might expect from our first Black President in the upcoming years.
Not to mention that our first black Attorney General, no doubt from orders sent forth by Obama himself, dropped the charges against black panthers who committed crimes that were caught on tape, but served the purpose of our first black President.
White Americans, you have become second-class citizens by a first class racist agenda, disguised as hope and change.
How’s that hope and change working out for you?