NORTH CAROLINA (BASN)—by Eric D.GrahamThe more things change; the more they stay the same.
Because, it seems as if the water has been contaminated with the devil’s racist elixir, especially after the re-election of President Obama and the “Bush-bucket of chicken comment ” by Fox’s sports Terry Bradshaw.(Read my previous article entitled Bradshaw, Bush and a bucket on BASN to learn more).
Yes, the sins of America’s racist past continue to haunt us and spit in the face of history.
And despite all of this post-racial bull*&#* being promoted by the media, racism is alive and kicking!!!
Besides, in some people’s perspective, one Black president should have eliminated over 420 years of white supremacy.
This, of course, is all an illusion.
Because, America’s ugliness is still being splatter on the wall of history like the famous Norman Rockwell’s iconic painting “The Problem We All Live With,” which was inspired by Ruby Bridges, a 6-year-old little Black girl, who integrated New Orleans public school in November of 1960.
And it possibly will continue in the future, especially with the help of the Internet via YouTube, Face book and twitter.
Therefore, let me re-freshen your memory a little, especially for the young people, who are too young or too dumb to see the subliminal racism placed in front of their faces.
Monkey See; Monkey Do
Remember, when editor Anna Wintour of Vogue and photographer Annie Leibovitz’s left their racist fingerprints all over their magazine in April 2008 when they decided to place then- Cleveland Cavaliers Lebron James a.k.a KING JAMES, who was the first Black man in the magazine’s 116 year history to appear on the cover, clutching super model Gisele Bundchen in his hands as if he was some type of King-Kong gorilla figure.
Ironically, the April 2008 Vogue cover was almost an identical replica of illustrator H.R Hopp’s notorious 1917 Destroy This Mad Brute—Enlist poster of a drooling ape clutching a topless-white-woman.
But I don’t think we as Black people should have been shocked by this subliminal attempt to portray us as some type of sub-human, or ape-like figure, especially Black athletes.
Why? Because, it’s “monkey see, monkey do,” whether it’s print media or television.
For instance, have we already forgotten about the incident that surrounded two-time gold medalist Gabby Douglas during the 2012 Olympics, which occurred on NBC?
Here is the scenario, right after NBC sports commentator Bob Costas finished praising Gabby for her nearly flawless gymnastic routine, NBC, as a television network, decided to run a commercial for a new television show called Animal Practice with a monkey dressed in a red, white and blue sweat suit while hanging on some Olympic gymnastic rings.
You gotta to be kidding me?
Was this an accident, a coincident, or simply a well-planned racist attempt to devalue us as Black people?
I’ll let you be the judge of that…..
More Monkey Business
Because, truthfully, this type of blatant in your face racism, especially coming from England, where the 2012 Olympic games were held, is almost the norm.
Just consider the racist history of how Black athletes are mocked, especially Black soccer players during soccer matches in England,Italy and Spain, when they are insulted by fans, who make monkey chants while they play.
Matter of fact, just last year, the Brazilian legend Roberto Carlos walked off the field when a banana was thrown toward him at a league match in Russia.
This is racism in its purest and rawest form.
Unfortunately, however, this evil practice and behavior of throwing bananas at Black athletes has even occurred during a NHL (National Hockey League)game as well.
For instance, a spectator threw a banana at Philadelphia Flyers forward Wayne Simmonds during an overtime shootout attempt during a the Flyers’ preseason game against the Detroit Red Wings in London, Ontario.
This, unfortunately, is not an isolated incident.
Why? Because former Carolina Hurricanes goaltender Kevin Weekes had a banana thrown at him during a 2002 playoff series with the Montreal Canadians in Montreal as well.
Yeah, the more things change; the more they stay the same.
Because, unbelievably, just this year, during the Republican National Convention in Tampa, it showed up again, when Patricia Carroll, a Black camerawoman who works for CNN had peanuts thrown at her by two Caucasian males, who shouted at her “this is what we feed animals.”
“ A lot of Black people are upset.” Carroll, a 34-year-old Alabama native, told Maynard Institute blogger Richard Prince.
“This should be a wake-up call to Black people. … People were living in euphoria for a while. People think we’ve gone further than we have…”
Carroll was absolutely correct.
DRUNK OFF OBAMA
And by doing so, they have let their guards down and started relaxing and celebrating too much.
It was if, they felt the election of Barack Obama sealed the deal.
But, unfortunately, the struggle still continues.
Therefore, they must never let our story be forgotten.
Please understand, by no means I am inditing all white people.
For I understand, Obama’s re-election couldn’t have happened if it wasn’t for an army of young, white college students, who volunteered and dedicated their time and effort to his campaign. This was obvious during his historical victory in 2008 as well as at his acceptance speech in Chicago in 2012.
NATURE VS. NUTURE
But with so much disrespect and malice taking place all over the world, one has to ask themselves where does this type of hatred come from? And why does it still exist even today?
Some say it is simply their nature.
Other say it’s nurture.
While psychologist Dr.Cress Welsing, author of The Isis Papers and creator of the Cress-Welsing theory analyzing the nature of white supremacy, suggests it’s the “fear of genetic annihilation” which is causing all of this chaos amongst some Caucasians.
Obama’s defeat against Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, in fact, even had the head of the American Conservative Union and longtime GOP leader, Al Cardenas to say, ”Our party needs to realize that it’s too old and too white and too male and it needs to figure out how to catch up with the demographics of the country before it’s too late.
In other words, they are having a difficult time coming to grip with the fact that Black and Brown people are quickly becoming the majority in America and will soon begin to dominate all endeavors of public life, whether it’s sports, politics, education, business, religion, military, science and technology.
Some even have suggested that this is the main reason behind the Minnesota Timberwolves recent attempt to create an all-white NBA team. (To learn more about this topic read my previous article entitled I am Dreaming of White Christmas and an all-white team on BASN.)
I, personally, don’t believe that, even though the NBA is 78% Black.
But in some people’s eyes, it was just another small example of how the world is changing.
But whatever the cause or reason, we can’t deny that there is a certain darkness and hatred that seems to be surrounding the heart of America, who thought and prayed for Romney to be president.
Matter of fact, it can be heard in the social commentary coming from Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck as they continue to throw gasoline on an open fire with their racist rhetoric on radio and on television.
It also can been seen in the immigration policies in Arizona, talks about building electrified walls and self-deportation, the privation of public education, mass incarceration, the criminalization of Black youth, gentrification of Black neighborhoods, the paranoid purchase of guns and ammunition and in the apocalyptic Armageddon sermons being preached in the the pulpits all across America.
Believe me, we should all be a little leery of all of these events as well as all of this New World Order talk coming from conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones, especially with this new Abraham Lincoln movie coming out in December, which was produced by Steven Spielberg.
Why? Because, many people believe that America is more divided now then it has ever been, due to the election of President Obama, of course. Plus, many people feel that there is another civil war brewing and we know how the last one ended.
WHITE AMERICA IS DYING
Psychologically, with the thoughts of President Lincoln’s political legacy in the back of our mind, we have to be aware that when some Caucasians appear on television and at these Tea Party rallies screaming that “they want their country back”, they actually mean it, in the worst possible way.
With that said, consider Conservative political pundit and former President Nixon advisor Pat Buchanan‘s bold claim that Barack Obama’s reelection ‘killed White America on the G. Gordon Liddy Show.
“White America died last night. Obama’s reelection killed it. Our 200 plus year history as a Western nation is over. We’re a Socialist Latin American country now. Venezuela without the oil.”said Buchanan, who is the author of the controversy book The Death of the West.
“And don’t give me all this nonsense about Martin Luther King and civil rights and all that. Who do you think freed the slaves? Abraham Lincoln. A white guy!”
“But we’re not led by Lincoln anymore, we’re led by an affirmative-action mulatto who can’t physically understand how great America once was.”
“I cried last night G. I cried for hours. It’s over for all of us. The great White nation will never survive another 4 years of Obama’s leadership”
PLANET OF THE APES
Matter of fact, they feel as if they have one foot in the grave and the other foot on a “banana peel.”
Plus, psychologically, they feel their version of the world, as Pat Buchanan suggested, is slipping away into the abyss as if it was a version of the 1968 American science fiction slash -horror movie called “The Planet of the Apes directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, which was based on the 1963 French novel La Planète des singes by Pierre Boulle.
Why? Because, this movie can be used as a racial allegory.
In effect, it could give us an inside look into the mind of some Caucasians.
In 1999, Eric Greene, in fact, published a study of the initial five-film “Apes” series called Planet of the Apes an American Myth: Race, Politics, and Popular Culture, in which he said, ” The Apes films confronted some of the most controversial issues of the time, including Vietnam and the Black Power movement…..
Therefore, we shouldn’t be surprised that the Planet of the Apes movie series was re-introduced to movie goers in 2001 and rebooted in 2011.
Ed Gonzalez, in fact, wrote this excellent review for the 2011 prequel,”Rise of the Planet of the Apes in Slant Magazine
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes’” only provocation is that it would appear to buy into the myth of a post-racial America. Rather than hold a mirror up to a country’s racial hostilities, it capitulates to Hollywood formula and political correctness; save for a tacky scene during which a scrawny white goon at an animal compound turns a fire hose on the uppity Caesar, it only has the best interests of PETA, not the NAACP, in mind.
The story is about an all white astronaut crew, who crash-lands on a strange planet in the distant future, where apes have human-like intelligence and speech, while the humans are mutes and slaves.
This synopsis, in fact, explain a lot of this “monkey business” surrounding Black people and white paranoid surrounding the election of President Obama.
Because, according to a paper conducted co-author Jennifer Eberhardt, a Stanford associate professor of psychology who is Black, along with Pennsylvania State University psychologist Phillip Atiba Goff (the lead author and a former student of Eberhardt’s) entitled “Not Yet Human: Implicit Knowledge, Historical Dehumanization and Contemporary Consequences, Americans still subconsciously associate Blacks with apes.
“Despite widespread opposition to racism, bias remains with us,” Eberhardt said. “African Americans are still dehumanized; we’re still associated with apes in this country. That association can lead people to endorse the beating of black suspects by police officers, and I think it has lots of other consequences that we have yet to uncover.”
After learning about professor Eberhardt’s research, it’s quite interesting, especially with the Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney being a member of the Mormon Church.
Because, up until 1978, the Church of Latter Day Saints believed that Black people were considered sub-human or cursed. (Read my previous article entitled in Jabari Parker: Being Black and Mormon on BASN)
OBAMA FACTOR
But despite all of this, the real source of this fear of the Planet of Apes, is Barack Hussein Obama, who has had to experience the same type of racist name-calling that Black athletes like Jackie Robinson had to endured when he integrated Major League in April 15, 1947.
Plus, he was portrayed as a gorilla by NY Post cartoonist Sean Delonas who depicted two policemen, one with smoking gun, standing over a dead chimpanzee with the words, “They’ll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill.”
Leader of the Nation of Islam, Minister Farrakhan addressed this issue during the annual Saviour’s Day event on February 26 in Chicago, when he listed several disturbing e-mails and comments coming from government officials.
Here are just a few of them:
- South Carolina GOP activist Rusty DePass in June responded to a Facebook post about an escaped gorilla at the Riverbanks Zoo in Columbia by writing, “I’m sure it’s just one of Michelle’s ancestors – probably harmless.”
- According to the Merced Sun-Star newspaper, Atwater, Calif. Councilman Gary Frago sent several racist e-mails, including one which compared Barack Obama to O.J. Simpson and another one jokingly suggesting that First Lady Michelle Obama should pose for National Geographic.
- Marilyn Davenport, member of the Orange County California Republican central committee’s Tea Party resigned after she forwarded an email in which Pres. Obama’s face was superimposed on a chimpanzee’s.
- Dean Grose, the mayor of Los Alamitos, California sent an e-mail showing a watermelon patch growing on the White House lawn, and the caption, “No Easter egg hunt this year.”
- Chaffey Community Republican Women, Federated (California) put out a newsletter with an image of “Obama Bucks” – food stamps with Obama’s head on a donkey surrounded by fried chicken, watermelon, Kool-aid, and ribs.
KING-KONG AIN’T GOT NUTHIN’ ON ME
After reading all of these ugly and racially insensitive e-mails, it is obvious racism is still alive. And while America experiences another case of whiplash with the re-election of President Obama, we should prepare ourselves for more racism, whether we are athletes, teachers, students, doctors, or simply the average everyday Joe or Jane in the street.
And sadly, the more xenophobic and paranoid they become, the more they prove how inhumane they really are and how human we are….
Why? Because, KING-KONG AIN’T GOT NUTHIN ON ME!!!!
