The issue is not racism, but the denial of it.

There is a lot of discussion right now on statements made by former President Carter on race. As usually, the right is doing their song and dance on why race is not the issue, and I agree, it's not racism, but the denial of it. Over at Sage Publications, you can find some very interesting electronic journals. One in particular is from Teun A. van Dijk.

One in particular is called "Discourse and the Denial of Racism". This article is from 1993, but the statements mirror many of the statements and political spin we hear and see today in the news. He makes the argument that because of racism's strong connotation for negativity, it is often deflected or redirected as or as he calls it, positive self-presentation.

Not only do most white speakers individually resent being perceived as racists, also, and even more importantly, such strategies may at the same time aim at defending the ingroup as a whole: 'We are not racists', 'We are not a racist society'.

Go to Fox News or listen to any conservative pundit or radio host and you will see a flat out denial of racism. Because of the media's involvement, social media and other forms of technology, the issue of the public discourse for this conversation is more powerful, more effective and more dangerous.

Political, media, academic, corporate and other elites play an important role in the reproduction of racism. They are the ones who control or have access to many types of public discourse, have the largest stake in maintaining white group dominance, and are usually also most proficient in persuasively formulating their ethnic opinions (van Dijk, 1993) .

We see that the denial of racism is not only part of a strategy of personal, institutional or social impression management and ideological self-defense, it also is a form of sociopolitical management. It helps control resistance, and at the same time makes political problems of an ethnically or racially pluralist society more manageable. In sum, denial is a major management strategy (van Dijk, 1993).

President Carter said that many whites do not believe that a black man is capable for leading this great nation. The issue of Joe Wilson 's outburst was also discussed and many believe that his action and many others who oppose the health care bill is seated in racism. The opposition professes only to be concerned about the welfare of the country and debt left the children, but what is driving a lot of this is race. Two critical distinctions about racial denial are justification and reversal. Both are subtle means to deflect the negative connotations away from them and redirect them elsewhere or back at the subjects who accused them. Here is how Van Dijk describes 'justification'.

Besides denial proper, there are also a number of cognitive and social strategies that are more or less closely related to denials. The first is justification, as we already saw in the case of the newspaper justifying special attention for minority crime by referring to the 'truth' or the 'right to know' of its readers. Similarly, in everyday conversations, people may justify a negative act or discourse relative to a minority group member by justifying it as an act of legitimate defense, or by detailing that the other person was indeed guilty and, therefore, deserved a negative reaction. In other words, in this case, the act is not denied, but it is denied that it was negative, and explicitly asserted that it was justified(van Dijk, 1993).

Beck and Limbaugh push the envelope with statements that stir fear and anxiety in many. Van Dijk describes 'reversal' as one of the strongest tools used to deny the existence of racism.

The strongest form of denial is reversal: 'We are not guilty of negative action, they are' and 'We are not the racists, they are the real racists.' This kind of reversal is the stock-in-trade of the radical Right(van Dijk, 1993).

Many whites are influenced by the Right's ramblings due to a term described by Donald Kinder and David O Sears in an article in 1981 titled, "Prejudice and Politics: Symbolic Racism Versus Racial Threats to the Good Life". In the Kinder and Sears journal,

Symbolic racism represents a form of resistance to change in the racial status quo based on moral feelings that blacks violate such traditional American values as individualism and self-reliance, the work ethic, obedience, and discipline. Whites may feel that people should be rewarded on their merits, which in turn should be based on hard work and diligent service (Kinder, 1981).

It goes on to say.

If symbolic racism is rooted in deep-seated feelings of social morality and propriety and in early-learned racial fears and stereotypes, it may well have little to do with any tangible and direct impact of racial issues on the white person's private life. The stereotypical symbols of blacks' violation of traditional values, which are in the media and informal communication all the time, may be more important than the realities of the more occasional actual damage blacks do to whites' own lives. So, symbolic racism may be, politically, the most potent vehicle for racial prejudice today, whereas racial threat to whites' personal lives may have little political effect and little role in the origins of symbolic racism(Kinder, 1981).

What the section points out is that the mere idea of blacks or minorities taking something away from white America that they have not earned, weighs more heavily than it actually happening. You have members of the white community who have no dealings whatsoever with blacks, but yet they fear that some day blacks will come and take what they have worked for. Now that there is a black president in office, the threat seems more real. If you add the delusional ramblings of talk show host and media pundits, you get a recipe for disaster. Does this make all whites prejudice or racist? No, of course not, we are not having a conversation about race, but many are reacting because someone says they should.

There is nothing wrong with feeling fear or being apprehensive about the future, but when the race pimps and hustlers only present one side of the issue for their personal gain, there is a problem. The worst thing that you can do is deny it. Even those of us on the receiving end of this issue are starting to "drink the kool-aid". We are naive if we think that if we get the legislation passed the way we want it on health care that everything gon' be alright. We elected the nation's first black president, and we have seen such a increase in overt racial messages, and it seems to be okay.

We are at a critical point right now in this country and rabid dog of racism that we are ignoring may eventually bite us. We will survive but at what cost?

Attention Black Folks! Barack messed it up. Eveybody out of the pool!

Senate leader: Merge historically black colleges | ajc.com

Legislators in Georgia want to merge some HBCU's in with the predominately white colleges. Surely, you are not surprised. Every since election night, the real agenda has become more and more evident. First, as President-elect Obama was about to win, Bill Bennett on CNN kept commenting that he guessed that blacks could stop making excuses about educational disparities and how whites are holding them back. After all, Barack had to get student loans, go to some of the most prestigious universities, graduate the top of his class and spend almost a billion dollars to do it. The next morning Meredith on the Today Show said that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s dream had finally been realized although I did not know he dreamed of becoming President. Recently in the state of Arkansas, the Governor stated that it is time to end payments ordered by the courts from a 1989 desegregation lawsuit, not assess if the payments have solved the problem, or to what extent was the real problem or if it could be addressed in other ways, the sentiment is that its time to end it.

In all of these instances the prevalent thought is, enough is enough, not have we solved any problems that we won't have to revisit years down the line. We need to make it equal for everybody and spread the wealth. Simply put, black folks, now that Barack has been elected any and all social services, issues and agendas are being re-evaluated and folks you thought were on your side are not. Many that supported social issues that affected blacks and minorities basically did it out of guilt. America, for the most part, had pity on blacks and never saw black as being equal or even the need to be. This has been a long standing attitude in American history. Many of the abolitionist were for the slaves being free from slavery, but not a part of society as equal members. Barack ups the ante; not only are you equal enough, but I am gettin' some of my stuff back in the process. Black folks are going to have to make a conscious decision to determine their destiny for their future like never before. Folks that you thought were your friends are no longer your friends.

What ticked me off the most was the question that the talking heads kept asking black folks, "Do you think that we will see a decrease in racial issues?" This is a question that can not be answered by black folks. You have to ask the folks that are doing the racial discrimination. We didn't sit at the back of the bus because it was cooler, nor was the march in Georgia a block party that got out of hand, and the hoses just cooled us off from the summer heat.

So tell Rev. Al to turn out the lights over at The National Action Network, vacate the NAACP, rename all the HBCU's as satellite campuses for the "mainstream" colleges, or just call them The College formerly know as... Hooray, we're equal! The clan is having a membership drive and has invited all available negroes. Call your state officials and see where you can get the voucher for your 40 and a mule!

This game is serious.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Skinheads 'planned to kill Obama':

"US government agents say they have foiled a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama."

Traces of the Trade

Traces of the Trade:
"In this feature documentary, filmmaker Katrina Browne discovers that her New England ancestors were the largest slave-trading family in U.S. history. She and nine cousins retrace the Triangle Trade and gain a powerful new perspective on the black/white divide."

In light of Father Pfleger's new found fame in the political arena. I came across a very interesting documentary that will air on PBS on June 24th called Traces of the Trade. What does this have to do with Father Pfleger? Well, if you listen to his sermon. He talks about white entitlement and the receiving the benefits of something your ancestor's have done. Everyone should read "Complicity: How the North Promoted, Prolonged, and Profited from Slavery." The Dewolfs are mentioned in the text because tiny Rhode Island was the largest trafficker of African slaves. Rhode Island and much of the eastern seaboard amassed great wealth from the slave trade not only by selling them, but ships, shipping, the shipping of food to the slaves, textiles from the cotton, rum from the sugar cane, and much more. Many of our greatest financial institution got their seed money from slavery. It's ironic that most black are less likely to get capital to start a business, but these companies started because of free, cheap labor, and many have the nerve to complain about immigration.

FOXNews.com - Obama-Wright rift reveals divided loyalties in black church - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum

FOXNews.com - Obama-Wright rift reveals divided loyalties in black church - Politics | Republican Party | Democratic Party | Political Spectrum

One of the targets in the November election will be the black church. Religious conservatives are mounting up for an attack on the IRS's restriction on non-profits and political endorsements and campaigning. The recent issue of prosperity and Word of Faith ministries coming under attack about their spending has given them fuel and ammo for their campaign. They have already starting trying to link Black Liberation Theology with Marxism and other anti-American ideologies. They challenge the black church to take a side on either America and their version of righteousness and the systems that have affected black Americans because of these versions of American righteousness. Many in the black church do not even understand or know the history of BLT. This makes them very vulnerable to the conservative viewpoint. This is the abortion/gay issues evolved to a another level. BLT is not a threat to anyone except to the idea that all people are not equal. This is my initial warning. You will hear more later as this issue develops.

Barack, JFK and the construct of race

Watching "The View" this morning with Sen. Obama, the question came up about Rev. Wright and JFK. Whoopi brought up the subject and made the statement that JFK said, "I am my own man. I will be making the decisions based upon what the country needs." Babs Walters disagreed. Somehow spiritual leader, mentor, pastor, head of the church is not the same thing. Why the differentiation? Especially, when it seems so obvious?

To understand it, we must understand that this construct, or the product of ideology based on race and class, if you would, is not merely about white restrooms and lynching, but an ideology the encompasses a system that uses these tactics and others whether economic, social, or political that determines the place of individuals on the map of human geography.* What has to be noted about this construct is that success and achievement are possible, but not to be used as tools of empowerment, but rather as propaganda to maintain the construct. If fact, Obama's achievements have been used to say that blacks have overcome racism by having attended Harvard. WEB Dubois was the first black to graduate from Harvard with a Ph.D. in 1896, but we didn't get a black going into the fall primary as a major presidential candidate until 2008.

The construct uses ignorance, fear and complacency channeled through the free market system and media to maintain its dominance and this construct is passed down from generation to generation. Since discrimination can be defined in multiple ways, it is then conceivable that one can not have participated in lynching or any of the Jim Crow era, and still subscribe to this construct because it is not about violence of or overt segregation, but a belief of another's place in society.
Here is a shining example. Pat Buchanan recent statements on why blacks should love America.

"This time, the Silent Majority needs to have its convictions, grievances and demands heard. And among them are these:

First, America has been the best country on earth for black folks. It was here that 600,000 black people, brought from Africa in slave ships, grew into a community of 40 million, were introduced to Christian salvation, and reached the greatest levels of freedom and prosperity blacks have ever known.

Wright ought to go down on his knees and thank God he is an American.

Second, no people anywhere has done more to lift up blacks than white Americans. Untold trillions have been spent since the ’60s on welfare, food stamps, rent supplements, Section 8 housing, Pell grants, student loans, legal services, Medicaid, Earned Income Tax Credits and poverty programs designed to bring the African-American community into the mainstream."

This is the old "you Negroes should be grateful" speech. I wonder if this will the mainstream media put this in heavy rotation. Again, Jim Crow, lynching and other forms of racial terrorism were tools used at a particular time to maintain the construct for that era. In this hour, the covert action has a far more sinister and far reaching effect. The architects of this construct have managed to make the system more efficient so that it runs on automation. We are co-participants in the keeping of the construct, we reinforce it , and maintain it which is the reason for this blog. Pharaoh doesn't have us, we have pharaoh, and we won't let go.

Back to Barack. The reason that Babs sees a difference between Barack and JFK is that JFK being a white male has the mental capacity to differentiate between the needs of the country and the wants of the Church. Barack can't. According to the construct, black men do not have the mental capacity for such work because the black man must me guided and controlled by some higher earthly authority. When it is not massa' then it falls to the role of the priest, pastor of the black church, and that scares the keepers of the construct because all churches can not be controlled and Rev. Wright has been become Nat Turner incarnate. The construct's worse nightmare.

*-2007 Digital Equity Summit, NECC Conference, Atlanta, Georgia, Sylvia Rousseau
Professor of Clinical Education; Rossier School of Education
Ed.D., Pepperdine University, California

Where was Jeremiah Wright Coming From?

Bill Moyers Journal . Watch & Listen | PBS

This past week, we have seen a barrage of video clips and audio clips from Sen. Obama's pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright. In commentary, the press referred to his message as black separatism or some form of hate speech coming from "an angry black man". Fox news and most of the press did a very good job of scaring white folks, but to understand his message, you must understand the foundation of the message. Black Liberation Theology, as it is called, is not new to Amercia, especially the black church. James Cone the progenitor of this theology explains it and why it such a unpopular message to mainstream America and some Black churches. Rev. Wright was not some cook on a racist rage, but rather delivering a message based on a theology that is very poignant for the times. Check out this clip from PBS and Cone's speech at Harvard Divinity on "The Cross and The Lynching Tree." It's a shame that with all of this access to knowledge, we are as ignorant as we are.