Beneath the Spin * Eric L. Wattree
 

Any objective assessment of the Black community’s current predicament will clearly show that Black suffering is a direct result of two things: First, many of us in the Black community have a pronounced tendency to follow self-serving poverty pimps and fools instead of thinking for ourselves, following truth wherever it leads, and thereafter, addressing the issues that the truth reveals. Instead, we’d rather stick our heads in a comfortable patch of sand and pay a poverty pimp to tell us what we want to hear. Secondly, we’re more interested in appearances than reality. We’ll go absolutely broke to make it LOOK like we’re living high on the hog instead of living more modestly and investing our time, money, and resources into actually obtaining the lifestyle that we’re willing to go broke to pretend to already have. So the bottom line is, many of us are broke and suffering because we refuse to face up to, and address our shortcomings, and we also insist on living a lie (Of course, Black people aren't the only ones who suffer from these dysfunctions, but it is the Black community that's being addressed here).
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A perfect example of the first dysfunction is, many of us literally worship people like Cornel West. Then if you ask them what is it about West that they most admire, they’ll say something like, "He speaks the truth." But if you continue to question them it becomes abundantly clear that they not only don’t know the truth, but even worse, they can't recognize a glaring lie when they hear one (much like the Fox News crowd). In addition, they know absolutely nothing about Cornel West other than what they've HEARD.  So the fact is, they ACTUALLY admire West because he tells them what they want to hear, and what brings them comfort. But chasing emotional comfort rarely brings about an improvement in one’s life. In fact, more often than not, all it does provide is a convenient excuse for failure.  
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They're not getting the truth because the fact is, people like Cornel West can’t afford to tell them the truth. The reason for that is, if he spoke the unfettered truth West would have to admit that he himself is more than a little responsible for the Black community’s current suffering. He'd have to reveal that George W. Bush won the 2000 election by winning Florida by a mere 537 votes as a direct result of the Ralph Nader/Cornel West coalition taking away 97,488 Democratic-leaning votes. So in essence, Nader and West did more to elect George W. Bush President of the United States than the Republican Party. But of course, Cornel West defenders will claim, "No, the Supreme Court helped Bush STEAL the election." But the fact is, if it wasn’t for the 97,488 Democratic-leaning votes that the Nader/West coalition took away, the election wouldn’t have been close enough to even go before the Supreme Court. Thus, Nader and West were ESSENTIAL to Bush’s election.

Thus, Cornel West is much more than a little responsible for the Black community’s current plight, and contrary to West’s mantra-like contention that Obama’s not doing enough for the Black community, the fact is, if it were not for Barack Obama, the community would be in much worse shape, because America, and the world, would currently be in the midst of a second Great Depression. Obama critics rarely stop to think about that, nor do they consider the impact of GOP obstructionism. All they think about is times are tough, and Barack Obama is President.
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Yes, times are tough, but we're very lucky that Obama is President, because they could've been a lot tougher. When Barack Obama took office this country was hemorrhaging 500,000 jobs A MONTH, and due to the gross irresponsibility of GOP obstructionism, he had to save this nation nearly single handedly. That's why we watched a young man grow grey before our eyes. And the irony is, many of the rabid middle-class conservatives who are calling him a socialist and the worst president in the nation's history, would have neither their jobs, nor their homes today if it weren't for Barack Obama. 
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But history will set the record straight, just like it did for another young man when many Black critics of Cornel West's disposition used to call him "Martin Luther Coon." They'll never admit it today, and fortunately for them, they've been obscured by the fog of history.  But that won't be the case for people like Tavis Smiley and Cornel West. The flawless memory of the internet will allow posterity to pull up their stupidity in living color, and in all it's glory, four hundred years from now, with just the touch of a button.
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Posterity will clearly see that when Cornel West tried to blame President Obama for our current condition, it was the perfect equivalent of his walking into a restaurant, taking a crap in the middle of the floor, and then calling the Health Department because the owner didn’t get it up fast enough. And considering Cornel’s Association with Tavis Smiley - the biggest corporate shill in the Black community - posterity will also see that when Cornel complained about the condition of the poor, it was as disingenuous as a man running down the street ranting about fascism after just having lunch with Mussolini.  
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You see, unlike West, posterity will understand that it’s not the President’s job to go from house-to-house handing out gift baskets. His job is to create an environment where we can help ourselves, and that shouldn't be a serious problem in the Black community. African Americans have a documented buying power of $1.1 trillion. That’s equal to the Gross National Product of Germany, the third richest industrial nation in the world. So there is absolutely no reason why we have to wait around for the White man to come and give us a job. Our problem is, we need to start taking care of business, and our failure to do that is not Obama’s fault - it’s OUR fault. Our biggest problem is, many of us are doing more whining than we are thinking. And instead of acting like responsible adults, many in the community are acting like helpless children, waiting for their White daddy to come home and feed them.
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Think about this: "Currently, a dollar circulates in Asian communities for a month, in Jewish communities approximately 20 days, and White communities 17 days. How long does a dollar circulate in the black community? 6 hours!!! African American buying power is at $1.1 trillion, and yet, only 2 cents of every dollar an African American spends in this country goes to black owned businesses." That’s why we don’t have jobs. Is that Obama’s fault? I don’t think so. So the fact is, it’s not money that the Black community needs; it’s an education that we’re in most dire need of.

So contrary to popular belief, critics like Tavis Smiley and Cornel West do both the Black community, and America, a disservice. While they're taking bows for being willing to "speak truth to power," they're doing the complete opposite of what they should be doing. If they were REALLY concerned about the people, they wouldn't be calling the President names, and trying to play "The Dozens" with the President of the United States. They're only doing that to call attention to themselves and their self-serving agendas. If they REALLY cared about the people they would be trying to educate the people to how to best leverage their economic and political clout, and they would be supporting the President and offering CONSTRUCTIVE suggestions in order to help him maintain the political support necessary to get things done. But instead, they're trying to tear him down, which weakens him in his battle against GOP obstructionism. So their behavior suggests one of two things - either they're not very bright, or they're in collusion with the GOP. Whichever is the case, that's bad news for the people.
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One gentleman in the community told me the following:
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"All that you stated is all true, but how does it translate POLITICALLY? One can have a lot of consuming power, and that's what you are truly pointing out, but at the end of the day NO TRUE POWER EXIST because WE are dependent on policies created by others to help US. WE ARE NOT SITTING AT THE TABLE; I think that's what’s frustrating. The power of the POTUS becomes beneficial WHEN WE ARE AT THE TABLE. The only way to ensure that is to RAISE HELL, for he alone cannot bring us to the table. Our frustrations and dislikes must be shown and felt in order for any TRUE ADVANCEMENT. Seems that we are going backwards, when it comes to the Civil Rights struggle. Those gains in the past did not take place by having our people sitting on the sideline NOT CRITICIZING what needs to be criticized. OUR president NEEDS US to step up our game, [but] so far whatever it is we are doing IS NOT WORKING. Look at how they are slaughtering us in the streets, STATE SANCTION TERRORISM, with no regards on how upset we get...for we HAVE NO TRUE POLITICAL POWER."
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In response, I pointed out that the world doesn't set a place for you at the table. We have to set our OWN place at the table by getting our OWN affairs in order. The world only allows those at the table who it respects, and it doesn't respect us, because we don't respect ourselves. So we've got to change our cultural mores, begin to recognize who we are, and begin to understand that the adversity that we've endured over the years is a valuable source of unutilized knowledge that makes us MORE rather than less. In addition, we’ve got to learn how to leverage that $1.1 trillion that we have at our command, because the one thing that the White establishment is more enamored with than its passionate romance with racism, is money, and it’s not going to allow $1.1 trillion dollars - again, the gross national product of Germany - to slip through its fingers.
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That brings me to the second dysfunction that the Black community has to overcome, and that’s how we handle our money. Currently, the establishment doesn’t have to acknowledge the Black community, because we fall all over one another to take them every penny we have. But if we were more selective in how, and with whom we spent our money, they’d forget all about racism just to get their hands on it. If, for example, the community organized and decided that we weren’t going to put our money in Wells Fargo Bank, or Bank of America, you can bet that both of those institutions would open up branches in the Black community that would be run, and controlled, by Black people. As a result, when Black businesspeople needed a business loan, they’d be talking to another Black face, which would lead to more loans being approved, and more jobs in the community. And the very same thing would be true of many other national and international franchises coming into the community.

Then, as a direct result of the improved economic conditions in the community, our young people would see other young adults being hired and prospering in this new economic environment. That would cause them to begin to see the wisdom of staying in school so they too could take advantage of this new prosperity. That, in turn, would lead to the building of new homes in the community, the stabilization of family life, expanded political clout, and a reduction in crime.
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So while peaceful demonstrations do have their place in calling the establishment’s attention to community concerns, we’ll never be able to scream, whine, or beg our way to a better life - and nobody will ever be able to give it to us, because even if they did, we wouldn’t have sense enough to hang on to it. So the only way that we’ll ever acquire, and then hold on to, the kind of life that we aspire to, is through careful thought, planning, responsibility, and above all, education.
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But Cornel won’t ever tell you that, because at $30,000 a speech, he makes a great living on faking compassion over your misery. Oh, how do I know he's faking? That's easy. Has he ever felt enough "compassion," or "love" for the people to teach in a predominately Black school?  Not once in his entire career.
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Eric L. Wattree
Http://wattree.blogspot.com
[email protected]
Citizens Against Reckless Middle-Class Abuse (CARMA)
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Religious bigotry: It's not that I hate everyone who doesn't look, think, and act like me - it's just that God does.