(ThyBlackMan.com) I’m afraid a bit of the bloom has fallen off the rose regarding the Real Time With Bill Maher program. The recent appearance of D.L.Hugley notwithstanding, the program has become a tad too comfortable in discussing race minus any black folks. A few episodes ago, Maher confronted a conservative guest with a challenge as to why the conservatives are so comfortable with police brutality. The conservative responded that they are not in favor of the police brutality. They just get upset when race is interjected into the conversation. No one challenged the conservative.
I was appalled. I am sick and tired of conservatives claiming black folks are “playing the race card” just because all the folks getting beat up and killed are black. I was on my way home to blog about it when I ran into one Rush Carlton Hannity, my philosophical nemesis and a white man who thinks he knows more about black folks than black folks. After I responded to his question about why I was so upset, he hit me with the most astonishing argument I have ever heard.
“You guys really do need to get over the race thing,” he replied authoritatively. “After all, you’ve been playing the race card ever since slavery.”
My eye twitched uncontrollably as bombs exploded in my head. Rush sensed he had me on the ropes and bore in like a trained killer. “That’s right. The Triangular trade, which is its proper name –if you don’t believe me just ask the Texas board of education — had one of its three points in Africa. Since the slaves came from Africa, and the people there happened to be black, the slaves happened to be black. Race had nothing to do with it. It was just a coincidence.
“What about the endless decades of bigotry, lynchings and oppression blacks have faced? What about the riots where they tore down entire neighborhoods like in Tulsa, or when they killed blacks just because Jack Johnson won a fight? How can you possibly say that race wasn’t the overriding factor?” I screamed while trying to keep my eyes from bulging out of my head.
“You’re missing the point,” Rush Carlton calmly explained. “All those incidents can be explained without using the race card. When you use the race card, well-meaning whites feel left out of the conversation. Making people feel guilty about something they didn’t do is no way to solve problems. And besides, half the officers indicted in Baltimore were black, so race couldn’t have been an issue.”
“The fact that half those officers were black is precisely the reason this has to be framed for what it is: profound racism permeating society including, no, especially, the police! As long as there has been oppression there have been members of the oppressed group who have identified more with the oppressors than with their own group. Those black cops in Baltimore saw themselves as cops first and black second. They don’t realize that there wouldn’t even be any blacks on the police force had it not been for black folks being fed up with police brutality and demanding blacks be hired as police. They don’t realize that they can be brutalized if caught off duty. Saying race isn’t the issue makes it easier for the negro police to join in terrorizing black folks.
“There have always been white folks who fought injustice, from the abolitionists, to the Civil Rights workers down the whites protesting today, and they didn’t need to have the truth sugar coated to do it. These are people who aren’t paralyzed by guilt. They don’t feel guilty because they don’t identify with the oppressor. They identify with justice and that makes them angry. Maybe you should try it.”
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I couldn’t get to the blog for a while. Many thanks to those of you who continue to support me.
Staff Writer; William Griggs