(ThyBlackMan.com) Bro. Dyson,
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You enjoy much respect in the Black community, and along with that respect comes responsibility. So please use your position in the community to help teach our people to think efficiently, and with precision. Here’s the position I recently took with one of your adherents:
Being a racist is a state of mind, so it doesn’t require control, all it requires is ignorance. According to your logic we also have to say that a Black person can’t be a sexist, a homophobe, a xenophobe, or an asshole either, because he doesn’t control the system.
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The point that you SEEM to be TRYING to make is that Black people don’t have the power to EXPRESS their racism as effectively as White people, because we
don’t have the power to employ INSTITUTIONAL racism. But to extend that to say that Black people can’t be racist AT ALL, is not only a gross corruption of common sense, but it defies the very definition of the word. It’s what’s called a “factoid” – a lie that’s been told so often that people began to accept it as fact.
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It’s one thing to express your views, but when you do that, you should make every effort to express them with precision. Don’t try to redefine the English language to mean what you want it to mean; the only thing you accomplish in that way is, instead of helping people to understand your point of view, you cause them to dismiss you as an idiot, so you’re defeating your own purpose.
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Now, I said that I was done with this discussion, but the only reason that I decided to make this final comment is because I love Black people, so I hate to see them make a damn fool of themselves. Personally, I don’t care what you believe, but I hate it when Black people make comments like the one under discussion and I have to look at the smirks of satisfaction on the faces of White bigots. Because whenever Black people make ridiculous statements like the one above, it tends to reinforce the position of White bigots that Black people are just a bunch of ignorant and undereducated fools.
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Have you ever noticed how when the news media wants to interview a Black person they often seem to look around for the most ignorant, inarticulate, uneducated Black person they can find? Well, they’re looking for people who will say EXACTLY the kind of thing that we’re discussing here. They’re looking around for someone who will validate their position that Black people are stupid.
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I don’t like seeing that, and I don’t like seeing Black people being used in that way. That’s the one and only reason that I’ve wasted even one brain cell on this silly-ass discussion. But now I’ve done my part, so the rest is up to you. I’m done with this.
“Eric, who is responsible for crafting the dictionary definition of racism? As you correctly state Eric, bullshit in, bullshit out. Dr. Neely Fuller’s stance regarding what constitutes a racist/racism closely mirrors that of Dr. Dyson and Dr. Anderson. Do you submit they too are full of lies?”
The handful of so-called “learned” individuals who are going around spewing the message that Black people can’t be racist is doing much more harm to the Black community than good. First, their position is a corruption of common sense and defies the very definition of the word, and secondly, it antagonizes potential allies by sowing division during a time when the poor and middle-class, of every stripe, are in dire need of unity to fight off the neo-fascist agenda of the corpo-Republican alliance.
The English language is what it is, and so is the definition of racism. As for who compiled the definitions in the dictionary, that’s irrelevant, because the dictionary doesn’t DETERMINE what the English language is, it merely INFORMS us of how the English language is used. So the fact is, the “learned” gentlemen that you cite are not only either lying, or grossly out of touch with reality, but again, they’re doing the Black community a horrible disservice.
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During WWII, even the United States and the Soviet Union had sense enough to put their differences aside long enough to fight off Nazi fascism, but these so-called learned individuals have obviously learned absolutely nothing from history. The current GOP represents nothing short of creeping fascism. They don’t care any more about poor and middle-class White people than they do Black people. So instead of people like Dyson stirring division among the poor and middle-class, they should be educating the public to the dire need for us to come together to fight off a common and insidious foe.
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So the bottom line is, by going around spewing the myth that Black people can’t be racist, they’re placing they’re desire to gain personal street creds above what’s in the best interest of the Black community. How do I know their motivation? Because the message they’re spreading has absolutely no remedial value to current conditions in the Black community. It goes a long way towards hurting us, while on the other side of the ledger, it serves no useful purpose. What benefit do we derive by saying that Black people can’t be racist? The only purpose it serves is to turn off potential, and badly needed, allies.