More Information from Savant

_______









I seem to recall reading that while visiting Africa Malcolm X was given the name "Omawale "--the son who has returned home. And, of course, you've always have had American Blacks with a Pan-African spirit. Or at least pride in the African past.

-Savant

_________

The black guy killed in Miami which sparked the Miami riot of 1980 was an entrepreneur. Cornel West was jacked up by police precisely because they believed he couldn't be so well dressed unless he was selling dope. Wesley Snipes, Skip Gates (Harvard U) and Denzel Washington all had their run ins with the fascistic cops. I know at least one Maryland state senator who was detained by the police because a HOMELESS white woman said he stole her purse. As an academician around the neighborhood of the age of Barack Obama, I can assure I don't dress in baggy pants. I find them distasteful. But I've had my encounters with police who wanted to know if I'm selling drugs or have weapons in my car. Also, I would deem it racist and also classist if the cops pick on someone because of how he or she dresses. And contrary to the stupid racist and bourgeois negro assumption that "ghetto" people are mainly thugs and dope dealers, I can assure from having grown up in the ghettoes of east Baltimore that the vast majority are not. And at any rate, more whites both use and sell drugs without being put upon by the cops.....poor whites sometimes excepted. But if some Negroes want to be apologists for fascist police tactics which are being denounced by the UN and Amnesty International; if these silly Negroes want to be butt kissers of the white capitalist establishment, then that's their business. Real Black men and women, and HONEST people of all races, creeds and colors will oppose the injustice, and determine the next phase of history.

-Savant

______________

LOL! This is another example of Freddy's obtuseness. He says I'd be afraid to venture North St. Louis. Have anyone SEEN any episodes of THE WIRE? I GREW UP in those parts of Baltimore. I even KNOW some of the persons in the episode who actually are from parts of East Bmore where I grew up, and where most of my kindred in Bmore still live. And that fool thinks I'm afraid of St. Louis. I've "ventured " into southside Chicago. I've venture into Harlem more than once. I've lived in North and West Philly with relatives. And he thinks I'm afraid of St. Louis? What a stupid goose he is. Now he quotes some whites who say that their prejudices began to diminish when they met Blacks in their clubs, on their own grounds. That's commendable if true. A progressive transformation of society will be much more difficult if not impossible unless SOME whites are on board. Fortunately, some are. White racism has been perhaps the greatest obstacle not only to the achievement of racial justice, but for the achievement of economic justice. I'm even pleased that an old Fox News clown that Bill O'Reilly received a stunning discovery when he entered an Afro-American restaurant, when he saw the place was clean, that we use forks and spoons, and that we actually sit at tables rather swinging from chandeliers. Nonetheless, all the progress in white consciousness hasn't prevented fascist pig cops from slaying black men, women and children and being exonerated by reactionary courts. It has stopped cops in Baltimore from brutalizing and even killing Blacks (children included) be they Black Americans, West Indians or Africans. West Indians and Africans have been killed by fascist pig cops in NYC, Bmore, Philly, Chicago, Atlanta, Washington, D.C and numerous other places. Abner Louima's Haitian background didn't stop NYC pig cops from violated him with a broomstick. Amadou Diallo's African background didn't stop pigs from shooting him and turning his body into swiss cheese with all those shots. If I remember correctly, the cops got off after committing those atrocities also. So, it is refreshing to know that some whites are re-appraising their attitudes towards Blacks. What they need to see is that anti-Black racism which sanction police violence against communities of color also helps to keep poor and working class whites in subjection as well. And it is especially those whites who move from a re-evaluation of their attitudes, or even sympathy for the Black struggle, to SOLIDARITY in our COMMON struggle against racism, police terror, poverty and exploitation, who most deserve to be honored. I would say of them, in the words of Tom Paine, they "deserve the love and thanks of man and woman."

-Savant

____________

One sociologist, I believe Orlando Patterson, said that Blacks are extraordinarily economically challenged, and yet perhaps the most creative force in the popular culture of America, if not the world. Certainly, in music the cultural creativity of our people is virtually beyond debate. Moreover, it is from the MASSES of Black people in America that most of our creativity arises. Spirituals, gospel, blues, jazz, rhythm 'n blues, soul, neo-soul and hip hop are mainly the cultural creations of the Black masses--those "low class, ignorant ghetto Negroes" who so many whites (and some privileged Blacks) are so contemptuous of. It was also their spiritual strength which sustained the freedom Movement which won the rights so many of us now take for granted, and which a threatened by racist and reactionary forces in US society (including the Supine Court). Hats off to the creative Black masses. May you rise up, live and prosper, my beloved brothers and sisters.

-Savant

_______________

90% or more of Blacks in America were slaves before the civil war. And they were mainly descendants of West Africans. Most of the "free" Blacks before the civil war were descendants of West AFricans. But it is known that SOME East Africans, and even Black North Africans were sometimes caught up in the slave trade. Also, there were persons capture from central Africa as well.
Still Black Americans are mostly descendants of West Africans. In short, I am more likely to be a descendant of a Yoruba or Ashant than of a Luo or Kikuyu

-Savant



__________

Duh, Kip's point is so SIMPLE it's amazing that even you fail to see it. Of course, no one should do crimes. The point is that when a white does it, he or she alone are held liable. But a Black does it, the whole PEOPLE are held responsible. Moreover, the white racist perceptions are so deep that Blacks are even perceived to be guilty whether they are or not. I know that blacks of your sort, those utterly enamored of whiteness don't like to hear this. But the word for what Kip is talking about is called WHITE RACISM. It's deeply rooted it affects even the perceptions of many Black people themselves.

-Savant


_____________


However that doesn't stop people from being racially stigmatized WITHIN the USA; and people from other countries seem to know that as well, though still regarding Americans as Americans. By the way, I'm found once (and trying to find it again) a study which indicated that while IR relations and marriages between American Blacks and whites have increased, the INTRARACIAL marriages and relations between American born Blacks and Blacks from other countries have actually increased even more. Very interesting if true. I wonder why it's not talked about as much.

-Savant___