I’ve tried for years to naturalize calla lilies. The lilies would never produce any flowers, even though they have spread quite nicely. This year…a bloom!
Why do I care? Obviously, there’s a subset of those who look like me and it might be quite large that doesn’t care.
A male who appears to be Black provided a platform for a white comic who was joking about Slavery and he was smirking/smiling/grinning. Haven’t we progressed enough to know that the whites in this country have an agenda? They denigrate, gaslight, lie about the Black experience. The white comic’s main joke seems to be based on his perception that a Slave could just walk away from slavery and live their life out somewhere. Okay, white comic has never seen Roots and, of course, never read a history that honestly talked about Slavery. Even, Gone With The Wind wasn’t that tone deaf. He didn’t know that one reason Blacks were prized as Slaves was because they could not meld into the indigenous population or with the whites. My ancestors were distinctive in color and phenotype. The white comic had never heard of the Slave Patrols. The white comic did not know that Slaves who tried to escape and were recaptured were often mutilated…limbs chopped off, beaten almost and to death, and brutally murdered as an example for others who might think about escaping. Male who appears to be Black…are you that clueless? There is nothing comedic about Slavery.
But, with all the talk about reparations, now Slavery must be trivialized into a voluntary institution that the whites had no control over. My Ancestors wanted to be Slaves is their false narrative. Therefore, this country owes them or us as their descendants nothing as they could have just walked at any time. Like, I said Gone With The Wind was tone deaf and what the whites are spinning now is a lying cacophony of aphonic noise.
Why do I care? Why do these folk who feature hairstyles in their videos inevitably perform what I call the “dog shake” with their hair.? You know how a dog shakes itself when wet or after rolling in the dust? That’s the image I get every time I see it and I do not look at many hair videos because of it. This is just me…but why are you subliminally saying…see my hair will do what white people’s hair does…look how straight, how flowy. They even do it with braided hair styles. Ugh!
Toxic individuality…this country is based in what I call toxic individuality. There is no “we” in this country, Toxic individuality is part and parcel of the greed that this country is mired in. Like any Ponzi scheme…at some point…there are no more dupes for the greed to feed upon. With no civilization as an underpinning, this country will devolve into nothingness, because greed leaves nothing for no one.
But, when one looks at the persons who settled this country…England sent its thieves, prostitutes, murderers (those that weren’t sent to the gallows), the poor, the diseased, etc. to its penal colony. Younger sons who were sent here because primogeniture ensured they would not inherit…were not known for being the smartest or the most motivated. They were usually a drag on the family’s finances. Get thee to the colonies to make your fortune by scam or theft…just don’t return to bother your brother.
Then, there are the immigrants who believe this is the land of milk and honey where hard work will make you rich. When they find out that hard work will give you a bad back, disease, and debt, some of them turn to grift, graft, crime to create their version of the land of milk and honey.
I don’t understand people who believe that the United States is a meritocracy. I’ve touched on this subject in a prior Post. But I keep seeing these quotes from Asians talking about merit. (Some deluded Blacks, also.) The bubble in which they exist must be made of some impermeable material that prevents the truth from penetrating. This country has lost so much creativity and inventiveness because it is not a meritocracy. This is a country based in greed as evidenced by the corporations and their pipeline to our tax dollars. What’s so difficult about understanding the corporate bailouts with our tax dollars, while the schools, roads, social safety net, clean water, clean air…the things that would make our lives better and healthier…are not prioritized or funded? And the bailouts somehow end up in the pockets of corporate executives who then regretfully inform us that the corporation will be filing for bankruptcy? Can’t we think past the propaganda?
The same Asians who admit the white community steered them to Black communities to start businesses. The same Asians who took our money and returned nothing to the Black community? But, why should they? Their goal is to build wealth on the backs of the groups approved by the whites. The Mid-Easterners, the Asians, and other white adjacent groups are steered to the Black community to rape it of its money, can’t say wealth…most of us are living less than paycheck to paycheck.
Think about it…it’s in their interest to keep the Black community poor and under-educated. More money for them to build their wealth.
Affirmative action–another blank check.
If there is the slightest impediment to a white or white adjacent person being hired, etc., it is deemed racist, unfair, etc. But all the time whites were impeding the hiring, etc. of the “other”, that was okay. That was just the times they lived in. Other…suck it up. We won’t impede openly anymore, we’ll use the courts, legacy, money, our racially motivated engineered legislative majority… We believe in merit and character for y’all. Ha, ha…some land suitable for vegetable farming available…cheap… Sorry, not available for viewing, but I guarantee you won’t be disappointed…hand over your hard earned money for this once in a life time opportunity! What hypocrites. This has been the unstated background since the 1960s. Whites have decided to become loud in the expression of their anger that their toxic individuality is not reaping undeserved benefits.
Individuals reap benefits from group behavior and actions. A group is composed of individuals. Therefore, the individuals that are a part of a group are culpable for that group’s behavior and actions.
I feel nothing for the ones who are so thick skulled as to believe the white propaganda about merit. Whenever I hear a Black person say now that there is no affirmative action, I will be judged on my merit and, if I am better, I will get the job, promotion; I will be admitted to the prestige university…doesn’t work like that, not here, not in the United States. Employers look for employees, first and foremost, someone who looks like them or someone they would go home to; secondly, for someone they can control. Appointers look for appointees they can control. There was once a Supreme Court Justice appointed because, in the past, he had upheld the status quo…he knew his place and what was expected of him. For some reason, he went against the status quo and the president who appointed him said something to the effect that if he had known what this justice would do, he would have never nominated him. So, if the highest levels are looking for control…not the best….not the brightest…do you really think a run of the mill employer is looking for the best and the brightest. They will hire the neighbor’s son who will then owe them a favor…they will not hire you. The neighbor’s son is, in their eyes, not only controllable, but the means to a gain in the future. You who spout merit and character have none of those attributes. And I repeat, merit and character only applies to you…not them.
I know a white male with a record…a very long record…mostly petty stuff…but a record. He walks into an establishment, fills out an application, and the next thing one hears is him bragging about his job.
A long, long time ago, there was this acquaintance who happened to be very, very pretty. She never had any problem getting a job and, as long as she could persuade a male colleague to actually do her job, she was fine. Usually, within six months, she was looking for another position which she never had a problem finding. She always had excellent references. And, I don’t think she was unintelligent. But someone had told her and she believed it with all her heart that her looks was all that was important.
So, white person when a potential employer tells you that they had to hire someone who didn’t look like you…affirmative action. That’s employer speak for I did not want to hire you and I hired a placeholder until I could hire the person I had promised the job to who happens to look like you. It may have changed at some point, but the numbers game for quite a while had to do with hiring and absolutely nothing to do with retention.
During the height of affirmative action, when so many of whites were complaining, an acquaintance who worked for a large corporation, said that she found a bunch of resumes in a trashcan. All of the resumes were from graduates of HBCUs and persons with names associated with Black people. She thought the corporation she worked for was different. It had hired her, but she had a generic name, went to majority white schools, and came from a solidly middle class background. She would not rock the boat.
I watched a show…English detective show… and one of its threads was based in toxic individualism. The perpetrators only cared about self gratification, had no moral consciousness, was abusive toward those they deemed “other” and inferior, had a posse that fully participated in the abuse and degradation of the inferior other, and believed their privileged position would protect them from societal or personal retribution. And this inferior other looked like them. There it is. They don’t hide who they are; we choose not to see it and/or we see it and do not hold them accountable.
Sometimes one has to walk a path where time has erased the footsteps of those who have gone before. That was the thought that I fell asleep to.
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