Paula Deen, Bill O’Reilly, Racism and Sagging Pants.

by Staff August 16, 2013 8 Comments News Opinion Politics Weekly Columns

Like Love Haha Wow Sad Angry

(ThyBlackMan.com) Who determines what racism is acceptable and what racism must be punished? What are the criteria? What has happened with Paula Deen and Fox “news analysts” (wink, wink) Bill O’Reilly has, for me, accentuated to whole question of racism is acceptability.

Paula Deen, as I’m sure you know, has been tarred and feathered for her use of the n word and other alleged really silly, racist remarks. If it weren’t for the fact that Deen’s language and views came to light within the context of racial and sexual discrimination in her business enterprises, I would have dismissed her comments as the musings of an old, relatively harmless, wannabe Scarlet O’Hara. I still wouldn’t buy any of her products, but it isn’t as if she was going to recruit anyone to follow her on the path to the glory days of the Confederacy. Deen’s comments were expressed in a conversation, not to millions of listeners on radio, like those of O’Reilly.

O’Reilly dropped any pretense of being anything but racist in his response to African American’s exhibiting the audacity of being upset that the unrepentant George Zimmerman was acquitted at killing an unarmed black teenager. Think the U.S. justice system treats African Americans unfairly? Then you “simply hate America” or suffer a “victim mentality,” according to Fox News host Bill O’Reilly.

The veil dropped further in his response to President Obama’s call for a dialogue on race. O’Reilly who knows absolutely nothing about Black folks or what we go through (he was SHOCKED to learn that we behave in restaurants the same way other human beings behave) lectured black folks on why we are the cause of all our problems. Bill O’Reilly’s response to Obama’s call for a conversation on race was to tell black folks to stop having babies out of wedlock. Does this mean that no out of wedlock babies would have prevented Trayvon Martin from being killed? This is the same misdirection tactic that was used during the Civil Rights era to cloud and confuse the issues. Back then it was, “you just want to integrate so you can marry my sister.”

The noise generated by Bill O’Reilly and the other propagandists at Fox News does serious damage to race relations. They deliberately misinterpret anything regarding black folks, and as a result, pretty much preclude any serious conversation about race. Yet because O’Reilly and Co. have avoided using the n-word, and the fact that their audience shares their willful ignorance and hatred, the only consequences these hate mongers will face will be increased ratings. After all, Bill O’Reilly and his cohorts at Fox can’t be condemned if they don’t use the n word.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

African American reporter/anchor Don Lemon touched off a firestorm when he joined O”Reilly’s call for an end to out of wedlock babies and added a couple more rules- notably pull up your pants, and stop using the n word- as a panacea for America’s racial woes. Lemon’s comments sparked a lively debate on the Melissa Harris Perry show that focused primarily on the sagging pants. My own feelings are that we go too far in extremes when dealing with the sagging pants issues.

On the one hand, we know that the right wingers will use anything, including sagging pants as a justification for all ill that befalls the African American community; including their proclivity for shooting us. (We probably wouldn’t have been enslaved in the first place, if it hadn’t been for those sagging loin cloths we wore back in the day). Those of us who feed into these arguments, like Lemon, become pawns in the propaganda war against African America.

On the other hand, sagging pants ARE offensive, and no one is offended more- no one has to look at them more- than the African American community. Almost every time I see these young men wearing the drooping pants, I have an internal conversation with myself. First I acknowledge how thoroughly disgusting it is to have to see these folks’ underwear. Then I tell myself, that the man/child is just a product of his environment, doing what everybody else does- like most folks- and that he might be a very decent honorable young man, despite his sagging pants. (I really shouldn’t have to work that hard).

For me, sagging pants are not the disease, they are the symptoms. They are not the cause, they are the effect. American society, (black and white) has been deteriorating for quite some time. The reasons are myriad, but among the biggest are deteriorating and, in the Black community, declining hope. These young people are not the source of the problem. They are the result. When we understand this, and can block out the noise from racists and their Negro subordinates, we may be able to move forward along with waistlines moving upward.

Staff Writer; William Griggs

To view more of this talented brother work, head over to; http://www.WlliamGriggs.net.

0 Shares

Flip

Anne says:
August 21, 2013 at 1:25 am
Hazan-aziz, my point stands, and yes, what he said was extremely ignorant. Any time someone uses words like “heathen” and “feral,” as others have done, in describing an entire race, they have no credibility. As for your remark that we are worse off than under Jim Crow, ARE YOU SERIOUS? We could not vote, we were subjected to lynchings, and any white person, criminal or otherwise, would be believed over any of us. We do have problems in some black communities, which are not monolithic, and they do need to be addressed. What many critics never acknowledge, either because they simply don’t know or choose to overlook this fact, is that people are trying to make a difference for the better. Most of the problems we face are a direct result of the far right in this country which is not only trying to completely disenfranchise black folks but everyone else who is not super-rich.
Reply
William Griggs says:
August 20, 2013 at 6:30 pm
A friend of mine left the following comment at another location which I felt might be instructional, so I’m copying it here:
You are absolutely right Bill to say that sagging pants are a symptom and not the disease. The disease is the lingering imbalance and misperception among large masses of white people that they have a certain superiority and the lingering imbalance among large masses of black people that we are inferior and constantly victimized. American slavery and the legal system that followed for more than a century ensured that this artificial imbalance persisted through the 20th Century on into the 21st Century, and truthfully white society has little motivation to change it. It will have to be up to those who are aware among black people to stop focusing on sagging pants and focus on sagging mentalities in our communities, especially among our youth who see no real future where they will be viewed as equals. Being beacons in our communities where we can be seen making upward bound changes will be what it takes to instill hope and create a shift in consciousness. Without it we will forever be treating symptoms, which is as putting masking tape on a sinking cruise liner.
Reply
Papacool says:
August 20, 2013 at 1:15 am
In the words of MLK, a man can not walk on your back unless it is bent, so let us straighten up and hold our heads up high. We have the power to determine our own destiny and really need to go back to our roots from the beginning of time. Life itself started in Africa, and that is a scientific fact that no one can question. The power of engineering using math and the stars to build pyramids and palaces is of a nature that remains a mystery to this very moment. We are direct descendants of the cream of the crop and although we are classified here as minorities, we rule the world on a global scale. Throughout our time here in America, we have been separated and brainwashed to deny our true place in the world. It is time to take it all back. We as a people have experienced a version of genocide that was of a nature that the souls of our ancestors are still calling out for justice. The ability to remain in victim mode is something that will not ever change and if you are waiting for the world to correct the wrong that has been done I suggest that you prepare your own funeral arrangements. We do not have to simply turn the other cheek, but rather we are obligated to learn what the lives of those that came before us led. There really should be no shame in our game, as we will built not only this place, but we have been responsible for a never ending amount of goodness in striving to do what is right. However, society owes a debt to us and we do not have to be the HELP or the BUTLER to know what we deserve. Life is not a joke and it is now coming to the point where we need to deal with issues and quit waiting on our leadership figures to do so. When you see someone with those pants hanging, do you offer them a belt or advice to slow their roll? Hell no, because just trying of offer some insight will get you killed. When a man values showing his ass off in public more than being presentable we can not violate that individual’s right of self expression. All I know is that I am not going to join the drive some pole in my rear end look of fashion just because everybody else is doing so. The challenge of living is simply having the courage to do what is right without having anyone telling you to do so. Those of us with a brain need to use it and quit offering opinions without being willing to walk the walk that the talk initiates. All of the people like the O’Reilly and Lemon modes are always going to get their fifteen minutes of fame whenever the opportunity to do so arises. A cooking guru and a pro football have been featured using the proverbial N word, which we have freely utilized ourselves, only to be judged unfairly and without bias. Just because someone says the word, that action does not apply to you unless you let it. In the end we are all going to get what we deserved based on what we did in our lifetimes. I do not want to focus my energy on things that will not change. We are accountable to ourselves and to God to be the best that we can be and what others think or do simply does not matter. When the birth statistics are used to show black women having more kids out of wedlock, where is the applause to the fact that they chose to have the kid versus aborting it? Our women have always had the backbone and courage to weather the most difficult situations with a can do attitude. So to you SISTA’s I give you your props. Meanwhile back at the ranch when are we going to make the first move of showing the world that not only can we do our own thing, but we do not need anyone from the outside telling how to do. Just treating us as normal human beings would be a great start. We can have both the spiritual and material and show ourselves worthy of having it by doing what is right. I am willing to help someone who is trying to help themselves without the need of running a background check but based on trusting them only. What ever I have given, I have never looked for anything in return, but simply required the receiver to pass the power of goodness to the next people that they meet. It does not always work, but what I like about the process is that I did what I had to do with whatever means I had at the time. The morale of this story is that I can truly sleep well knowing that I tried to make things better. Peace out, Papacool.
Reply
hassan_aziz says:
August 19, 2013 at 10:54 pm
keepin it real is right. and anne, he’s ignorant because you say so?? he lacks credibility because you say so??? why? because he dont agree with you and deals in facts, which usually ends up to the truth hurting.
care to tell me what we have done with our civil rights, our equal rights? education, family, community? we are worse off now than we were under jim crow. you may not like the source of the truth and the facts, but if anything is truly going to change for us in this country, we need to accept them as much, practice some self accountability and self determination, and stop being racists.
Reply
Anne says:
August 18, 2013 at 1:12 am
@Keepnitreal:
Your comment only proves my point. Any time anyone makes such an ignorant statement, he or she forfeits any credibility. You just did the same thing that O’Reilly, Limbaugh, and other anti-black racists do. They do a lot of name-calling and finger-pointing but have nothing to offer as a solution. Besides, no self-respecting black man or black woman is going to allow the likes of O’Reilly to tell him or her what to do, especially since we realize that he couldn’t care less about us. People like him want to be judged as individuals, but they do not extend the same courtesy to black folks. Therefore, they do not deserve to be respected by people they disrespect.
Reply
keepn it real says:
August 18, 2013 at 12:38 am
Stop acting like heathens and you won’t have to be tolld what to do!
Reply
Anne says:
August 18, 2013 at 12:01 am
Bill O’Reilly and his ilk are the very last people who should be telling us what to do. All they are doing is pointing fingers from their high horses and feeling unjustifiably superior. As much as I detest sagging pants, it does nothing to alter the fact that dyed-in-the-wool anti-black racists do not make a distinction between professionally dressed black folks and those who dress in sagging pants. Just like O’Reilly, they make sweeping, negative generalizations about all of us. People like Lemon are doing themselves and the rest of us a disservice by aligning themselves with known bigots like O’Reilly who couldn’t care less about us. The fact that this fool would tell us we don’t have the right to be furious about the injustice of George Zimmerman’s acquittal for killing an innocent black kid tells me all I need to know about him. I also agree that addressing causes, not simply criticizing effects, is of the utmost importance.
Reply
sha says:
August 16, 2013 at 7:50 pm
Who wants to see young men with these sagging pants, to them it is a style,fad, they should know the history of where it comes from. As for unwed mothers, there are unwed mothers all over the world, (white people birth rate is at -0-) and that dont account for black men to becoming thugs, look at the mass incarceration of black men for 1 thing, Lacks of jobs for them to sufficiently take care of a family, why dont they look at the causes, not the effects. all these factors in this society which is devastating, so why listen to O’reilly, he have no solutions for us, that is going to benefit black people at all, Black people have to find there own solutions
Reply